Chapter 24:
The Fewer, the Prouder
January 29th 2018, Castle Albion.
The Recon Marines of 1st Lieutenant Colbert were gathered in the war room for a briefing mission several hours after interrogating the mercenaries known as Prairiemon and Drimogemon.
All 26 Marines were present for the briefing, including Renamon and her spotter/friend Gary 'Roach' Sanderson. Like her human counterparts, Renamon had a notepad to write down some details about their mission.
"Once we've dealt with the base, we will rendez-vous to the extraction here by the riverside," He said while pointing at the projector displayed map, "From there Special Boat Team 22 will extract us in 5 mikes." He then turns to his platoon, "If everything goes according to plan, JASDF will bomb the area to the ground and hopefully it will be enough of a message to the mercs. Any questions?" The Marines sat in silence, "Very well, we will depart at 0200 hours tomorrow, Oorah?"
"Oorah!"
After the mission brief, Renamon and Roach decided to pass some time at the target practice range. With the battles frequently fought from close to mid ranges, Renamon decided to dedicate more time to practice with her secondary weapon, a M4A1 rifle loaded with NATO 5.56mm FMJ rounds, since her skills with a DMR and Sniper rifle has proven to her fellow Marines that she was the best sniper in the platoon, maybe even the whole company.
"So, uh, I've been wondering about something." Started Roach while they fired a couple of shots.
"Go on." Renamon responded.
"Did you and Guilmon ever, you know, did the 'thing'?"Roach asked with embarrasement.
"You mean 'sex'." She bluntly guessed.
"Y-yeah..."
"Digimon don't have any genitals to reproduce with their mates." Renamon answered neutrally.
"Then what about that box of condoms the Captain gave you guys at Christmas?" Roach asked confusely as he sets down his rifle on the table behind him.
"Either Stephen was joking or he didn't know that Digimon don't mate like the way you do." She shrugged to emphasize her guess.
"Then what do you do when you are alone with him?" Roach asked, now curious about his friend's private life.
"What made you so curious about my life?" Renamon teased with an amused smile as she too sets her rifle on the table to continue their conversation.
"I'm just curious about Digimon. My nephew plays the card game and the video games, and he also watches the anime. So that got me curious since he knows so much about you guys." He explained before rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly as he added. "And I also think Digimon are cooler than Pokemon, so this is kinda living the dream, you know."
"That is sweet of you. But I understand." She replied with a small smile before she inserts bullets in her empty magazines.
"So you're not weirded out or something like that."
"Why should I? We're partners and you're my closest friend I've got here."
Gary felt his cheeks heat up from embarrasement but was relieved and felt proud and happy that she considers him as a friend and not just a spotter.
"And to answer your previous question: we simply like to kiss or cuddle, just like any ordinary couples." She added with a chuckle. "However..."
January 30th 2018, Harmony Forest, 11 000 meters above objective "Mama Charlie".
Inside the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, Colbert and his Recon Marines were sitting in silence with their parachutes and combat gear on, waiting patiently for the signal to jump. Renamon inspected her M4A1 rifle before Roach tapped her left shoulder and spoke up.
"Do you have any Tic-Tac left?"
She searched through her back pocket and handed to him the small packet of mints.
"Thanks, Renamon!" He said gratefully before gobling some hard mints in his mouth.
Renamon giggled at the childish display, reminding her some of Guilmon's immature personality. She reminiscent of all the moments Guilmon and her spent their time together, from being best of friends to a couple. They changed a lot during those two years of friendship before the Battle of Tokyo. Her thoughts then snapped back to reality as the bright lights turned a dark shade of red, signaling the Marines to prepare for the jump.
With hand signals, Colbert gestured his Marines to stand up and ready themselves for the jump. They waited silently for several long seconds before the lights finally turned green. Colbert signaled them to jump out. The Marines ran towards the dark sky and jumped out of the aircraft. Through her goggles, Renamon looked around her as she was free falling at high altitude. Her calm breathing could be heard through the rebreather designed to fit her muzzle. Though she didn't go in many airdrop missions compared to her squadmates, she doesn't feel the adrenaline rush, rather she felt relaxed, the breeze of the wind soothing her fur. She then pulled out her parachute. The cloth canopy puller her tightly upward into the air before slowly descending her into the forest.
After hitting the ground softly, Renamon quickly took the parachute and shoved it in the deployment bag gently. She took off her rebreather and goggles and puts on her special headset radio, built and designed to fit her ears comfortably. She picked her M4A1 rifle after taking her sniper rifle bag on her back. She used her enhanced hearing senses to detect and locate her other squadmates and fellow Recon Marines.
Colbert managed to link up with five Marines at the rendez-vous point and they waited patiently for the others to join up. Colbert and the others got startled once Renamon appeared behind them silently, unlike Renamon's tamer and Captain Raymond, they didn't get used to her special abilities. A few seconds later and the platoon was completed. Setting a map down and using a low intensity red light, Colbert instructed his Marines where they should position themselves.
Harmony Forest, Objective "Mama Charlie", 0330 hours.
Under the dark sky and the thick foliage of the trees, the Recon Marines were pratically invisible to the eyes of their enemy, which stood only a hundred meters away from them, unaware that they're going to be under attack soon.
Positioned at a higher ground overwatching the camp, Renamon and her squad were in position, their DMRs and sniper rifles ready to fire at a moment's targets were mostly Champion or lower level Digimon so a shot to the head with a 7.62x51mm round is enough to kill them.
"The crow's nest is set, over." Informed Renamon with a whisper to Colbert over the radio. "Roger, stalkers are moving now, watch our backs." He replied shortly after.
On cue, the lights around the mercenary camp along with the power turned off, destroyed by Colbert's assault team. Renamon and her squad fired simultaneously, taking out the guards at the watchtowers and some on the ground. Thanks to their suppressors, the mercenaries were clueless that they had already lost half a dozen of their own in a matter of seconds.
As the sniper team takes out several more mercs, causing chaos amongst their ranks, Colbert led the assault team and infiltrated the camp, cutting down barbed wires and metal fences along the way and setting up explosives on some key infrastructures of the camp without ever being detected.
Once the explosives were set and primed, they entered in one of the entry points to the underground tunnel system of the camp, where the headquarters were located. They detonated the explosives as soon as they entered the entry point and closed the metal door behind them. With nightvision goggles on, the Marines silently stormed the headquarters, taking out all resistance with swift and deadly precision and coordination. Once the flashbangs were thrown in the rooms and popped, the Marines would storm in and quickly neutralized any threat.
Meanwhile on the surface, as the explosives detonated causing further more chaos, Renamon ordered her squad to relocate. Moving from South to East side of the camp, the sniper team repositioned themselves and resumed to take out their targets silently.
Minutes felt like hours until Colbert called Renamon and informed her to proceed to phase 2 of their operation. She puts her sniper rifle back in its bag and picked up her assault rifle. With a satifying click from the inserted magazine, she, along some of her squadmates, threw smoke grenades at the mercenary camp to cover their run to the riverside to the North, where they will provide cover fire for the assualt team until Navy Seal evac team comes. They have 15 minutes before JASDF starts to bombard the camp to the ground.
"Kurtis! AT on that Tankmon!" She ordered to her heavy weapons specialist.
Cpl. Paul Kurtis took out his AT-4 rocket launcher and aimed at his target after clearing backblast. He fired the launcher, the warhead flew pass the trees and hits its mark on the head.
Renamon dodged an attack from a mercenary and returned fire, three shots to the chest. She replaced the empty magazine with a fresh one and took out two other mercenaries before she spotted Colbert and the assault team sprinting towards them in the middle of the battlefield. The mercenaries were at a disbelief that humans suddenly appeared behind and running pass them.
"Covering fire!" She ordered.
Suddenly a WereGarurumon jumped down from a tree above her and kicked the rifle out of her hands. Expecting the mercenary, she blocked a punch, grabbed the other arm and broke it in half with a powerful elbow strike. She then did a roundhouse kick, sending the commando wolf back against the tree, destroying it in half. She jumped on her opponent and sent a powerful punch to his snout, breaking his muzzle and knocking him unconscious.
As soon as she turned around, Roach tossed her assault rifle which she caught with ease.
Once the assault team linked up with the sniper team, they formed a defensive perimeter and held their grounds. From their spot, Renamon and Roach were switching turns to fire while the other was reloading and vice versa.
The firefight intensifies by the minute, Renamon was starting to worry about her squadmates as the enemy was closing in on their perimeter.
"Genocide attack!" A Megadramon shouted as it launches a barrage of missiles at them.
"Incoming!" Renamon shouted before a missile hit the tree behind her.
She was sent to the ground violently but she didn't receive any dangerous damage, unfortunately, her Marines were not as naturally resilient as her. PFC. Jamie "Pyro" was on the ground just a few meters next to her, wincing and grunting in pain after receiving the full blast. Covered in ash and peppered with shrapnels, he was bleeding out profusely. Renamon went to him and inspected his wounds.
"Corpsman! 'Holiday'! I have a man down here!" She shouted as she starts to worry about Jamie.
Sgt. William "Holiday", 3rd squad's combat corpsman, slides next to Jamie and instructed Renamon to apply a morphine shot. He gently took his helmet off and checked if he had received any serious damage to the head, fortunately no but that doesn't mean that the rest of his wounds weren't serious. The plate carrier managed to stop most sharpnels to hit any vital organs at a price to have the ceramic kevlar plate being destroyed. Renamon and the corpsman carefully applied bandages on the wounds and carried the wounded Marine to a safer spot; closer to the riverbed. More Marines were then carried over there after the initial barrage.
What felt like an eternity was soon washed over as the Recon Marines heard the engines of Mark V SpecOps crafts and SOC-Rs. It was soon followed by the high pitched whir of the GAU 17/A minigun and thundering fire of M2HB .50 cal machine gun and M240B LMGs.
The mercenaries were decimated and pinned by the sudden appearance of the sheer volume of fire, immediately turning the tides of battle.
Under friendly suppression fire, the Recon Marines carried their wounded to the river combat boats before they jumped in, welcomed by the SWCC operators, who were manning the heavy weapons.
Once the Recon Marines were loaded, the evacuation team quickly sailed away, the crew members continued to open fire until they were out of enemy sight. As they got away of hostile contact, Renamon sat on the deck of the SOC-R and let a breath of relief, the stress of combat was becoming more frequent eversince she joined Force Recon. Usually known to be cool and collective no matter the situation, Renamon felt a bit ashamed at herself to display such reaction to combat stress, considered a weakness by her species.
The JASDF started their strategic bombardment minutes later, the sound of heavy explosions was heard from far away as they reached a lake and the SWCC extraction team waited for the Chinooks to arrive. During the wait, Renamon sat cross-legged, eyes closed, meditating to calm herself down, her hands were still visibly shaking.
Castle Albion, 0600 hours.
Back to friendly lines and after a long needed sleep after the mission de-brief, which was deemed another victory for the IDDF with minimal casualties. Renamon, who slept with her combat gear on, took them off lazily and headed her way to the Castle's mess hall.
Marines were the first ones to fill the mess hall early in the morning. Renamon took a canteen tray, grabbed some food and drinks before sitting at a table alone. Yawning loudly, she then stirred her coffee while eating the freshly made croissant, made by the best chef in the whole region, Rhodoknightmon. Half an hour later, more Marines and some digimon of the Royal Knights' forces came in. Meanwhile, Renamon was reading one of the letters Rika wrote for her, sent before Christmas. Guilmon finally arrived and sat in front of her with a warm smile, a smile that Renamon loves to stare at everytime it showed up. They gave each other a light kiss on the cheeks before eating breakfast silently.
"How was the op?" He asked out of curiosity.
Renamon raised an eyebrow by the sudden serious question before replying non-chalantly. "The usual. Taking out a base full of bad guys and blow that base to the ground while looking cool." She answered with a sly smile.
"You guys always have the fun missions." He responded with sarcasm.
Their conversation went on, chatting happily. It was something Renamon needed after each stressful mission and luckily for her, her boyfriend was always there for her, to bring a smile and make her day better.
After their breakfast, they went on their separate ways due to the tasks given to them by their superiors. Guilmon had to prepare himself for another patrol with his squad while Renamon was called over by Colbert for a training mission.
Donning her plate carrier and picking up her assault rifle, along with Gary, she headed to the makeshift roofless house training course, built by the Royal Knights. Named simply "The House", it was a relatively large house made of plywood and cobblestone, consisting of many small rooms for CQB simulations. It was initially used by the Defense force for training in search and destroy missions but it was soon taken by the Marines due to their small size and ease to maneuver in small spaces while carrying lethal weapons. The Marines used the training prop building for hostage rescue, breach and clear tactic and CQB mock battle. The Marines, and to an extension the IDDF, praised the Royal Knights for their training grounds, equipped with high tech training equipment, automated target dummy systems, training courses and a large indoor and an outdoor facility for mock battles at any scale.
For the Recons' case, it was a hostage rescue mission. The hostages were being portrayed by other Marines while the 'enemy' where simple slabs of steel in the shape of a humanoid silhouette.
Without telling too much detail on the training course, it went well for the reconnaissance Marines. Thanks to their repeated training and to Renamon's abilities, they managed to create a new tactic to take out the enemies while saving the hostages; silently, swiftly and deadly. And like any training mission, the recon Marines always cheered and applauded Renamon, a feeling of pride and trust that she felt since she was happily welcomed to Force Recon.
As the mundane tasks kept on going until the end of day, after eating lunch with some of her squadmates and diner with Guilmon, she finally slumped down to bed. Gary was still hanging out with the others at the range, playing bets and challenges at eachother. She propped one knee up, rested her other leg on that knee while swinging it lazily. She placed her hands behind her head as she simply stares at the wooden ceiling, reminiscing her current life as a Recon Marine, from boot camp until now.
Colbert was reciting his after action report of the previous operation to Raymond and the Royal Knights in the war room.
The report was deemed a satisfaction for the Royal Knights, now that Kowloon company doesn't have any influence to harass them.
"Thank you, Lieutenant Colbert." Alphamon thanked him sincerely.
Colbert gave a firm salute in response before Alphamon spoke up to bring in the next subject of their meeting.
"I'd like to announce that Shoutmon and his forces has managed to free the Cherry Blossom Zone, which means that the White Blossom Order is ready to fight back."
"I imagine their leader of this order wants to join in the alliance." Colbert stated mildy.
"Exactly. Sakuyamon wants to formaly meet you and sign an alliance treaty." Alphamon informed.
"Uh... what is the White Blossom Order?" Raymond asked sheepishly, feeling a bit left out despite his position as an officer.
"They are the most powerful clan of the Renamon species. They are experts in stealth, oftenly operating in small but highly effective 'hit-and-run' tactics, assassinations, night raids, rescue operations," Omegamon explained formaly, "They are highly respected by the other clans since they are responsible for the Reunification campaign in the Eastern Region."
"Ah yes, I remember it like it was yesterday." Dynasmon said in a relaxed tone. "Fun times, right Dukemon?" He turns his head to the Hazard knight.
"Uh... yeah I guess..." The white knight replied uncomfortably.
"Am I missing something here?" Raymond asked to no one in particular.
"Should I?" Alphamon asked to Dukemon, who responded with a slow nod, "Sakuyamon and Dukemon had a 'special' relationship before a particular event turned things sour between them."
"Shit, sorry dude." The human said with empathy.
"Can we get this over with?" Duftmon pleaded irritatingly, "Dukemon's relationship isn't our business."
"Cold but I have to agree here." Colbert chimed in bluntly.
"When is she coming?" Asked Dukeman.
"In two days. She'll be staying here for a week because she stated that she have crucial information on the Imperials that she would like to share with the humans." Answered Omegamon.
"Now then, with all of this said, I want to once again thank Colbert and his Recon Marines for their effort at disrupting Kowloon company's influence in the continent but also for the information they've gathered during that skirmish." Alphamon faced Duftmon once again. "These intels were useful, right Duftmon?"
"More than I could've asked for." He admitted reluctantly.
"Alright, I declare this meeting over." Alphamon announced before everyone stood up from their seat.
Just as Colbert was about to leave the room, Raymond stopped him and gave him a small black box.
"I have decided to name Renamon to be your 2IC and I think you'll agree with me. She'll be honored to receive it from you personally." He explained before the two saluted.
As per usual, Gary was cleaning his weapon while Renamon was reading a book, in silence, when suddenly they heard a knock on the door. Gary went over to open it and immediately stood staightly once Colbert entered their sleeping quarters. Renamon stood up from her bed and they both saluted at their commander. Colbert casually saluted back before walking up to Renamon, presenting the black box.
"The captain and I have decided, as a reward and appreciation for your outstanding service in combat as a squad leader, to promote you to Staff Sergeant and so becoming my second-in-command." He stated proudly as he replaces the chevrons on the shoulder straps of Renamon's uniform with the new ones, signifying her new rank and role. "To be honest with you, you're one of the best Marine I've ever had the pleasure and honour to fight alongside with. Your display as an effective squad leader and sniper has inspired our Marines and we admire you for your combat skills and courage. It has been the proudest months of my life since you came in our platoon. Congratulations." He saluted her firmly with a fatherly-like smile.
Behind the lieutenant, Gary was getting giddy about his friend's promotion, extremely happy for her. As for Renamon, she was speechless, surprised and honored that her superior officer was giving her the promotion. She saluted back proudly, feeling admiration and respect to Colbert.
"I will do my best to fulfil my new role, sir." She stated.
"Of course you will, and you will not disappoint us, I am sure about it." He replied before leaving the room.
"Congrats, Staff Sergeant Renamon." Gary said before going back to cleaning his weapon.
Dukemon was leaning against one of the castle's balcony, gazing the moon absent-minded as his thoughts were flooded with doubt and guilt, something that lingered in his mind and heart since the incident with Sakuyamon. He ruffled his hair with his hands in frustration, trying to clear his mind. After long minutes of silence, Dukemon got startled as Omegamon walked up to him, joining him in his moon gazing.
"Still thinking about her?" Omegamon inquired while staring at his friend.
Dukemon let out a sigh. "Yeah, still thinking about her..."
"You should tell her." Omegamon advised calmly.
"I don't think right now is the best moment to talk about it, especially when we're basically at the height of the war now." Dukemon protested with reason.
"Meanwhile you will be clouded with more doubts and it might affect your skills." Responded the white knight. "Dukemon, I'm not asking you to win her heart back but to patch things up with her, get the guilt off of your chest. Trust me, she'll understand if you just tell her the truth."
"I know, I know..." Dukemon said after a groan. "I'll try to talk to her while she is here." He promised to Omegamon, though it was more for himself.
"You better because this might be your last chance."
"Gee, thanks for putting even more pressure on my back!" Scolded playfully the Hazard knight.
Omegamon simply shrugged. "That's what friends are for, right?" He replied sarcastically.
"Ugh, your terrible sarcasm hurts me!" Dukemon said dramatically.
The two white knights bickered jokingly for awhile before they decided to go on their separate ways.