Warning Order

Disclaimer: Same as before. I don't own the lyrics to Lili Marlene either.

Eternity – Thanks for being so patient and reviewing and all. I promise the action will come soon? Do you think Hiram should tell Kate how he feels about her?

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2143: LRRPs, the bread and butter operations of the South American campaign. Between us, the 3rd Pathfinder Battalion attached to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and the 112th Argentinean Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, the Fourth Army had more than enough intelligence to conduct the South American campaign.

The big strategic picture didn't matter much to us grunts on the ground. What mattered was transmitting intel, getting some sleep, carrying enough food, water and ammo and getting through each day in the brush alive.

Once again I'm lead scout, leading my seven man patrol through the jungle. We're crossing a fairly fast moving part of the Amazon River. Me and Arnot are across first, because as the scouts, that's our job. Arnot is covering my back as I cover the other five men crossing the stream by a rope bridge. Each man carries enough rope to pool resources to construct such a structure.

Both of us have electric guns to cover our mates crossing the jungle. We cross without incident. It's when we move back into the tree line that we run back into Ol' Gollum. Again, we establish fire superiority. Both Arnot and I open up with bursts of electricity and we peel back, reloading as we run. The other guys are putting down fire as well, every pair peeling back when his magazine is empty.

I trip as I run and find myself staring into the face of a zombie that was lying face down by the streambed. I barely get my weapon into its face before zapping it with about six amps of electricity to put it down for good. The stench of burned, rotted flesh is overpowering.........

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2146: I know for a fact I'm not gonna sleep at all tonight. South America just left way too many nightmares. I walk downstairs and start to brew a pot of coffee. As I do so, I hear a key being turned and I whirl to face the front door to see Aunt Velma come in.

"Aunt Velma, what are you doing up at this hour?" I ask.

"Jet lag, I've still got Philippine time on my head." Aunt Velma replies. She was in Manila, with 7th Civil Engineers, Florida National Guard, helping with the reconstruction project.

In the entire Pacific Rim, Manila suffered the worst under the Biohazard, losing nearly eighty percent of its civilian population to the infection. Spearheaded by the 6th Rangers in 2144 the 91st and 112th Philippine Infantry Divisions retook their state capital. Aunt Velma's unit, the Civil Engineers, are an outfit that works normally on the home front and rear areas, concentrating on building bases, rebuilding destroyed cities, and rescue efforts. They had been working in Manila since the Biohazard was defeated in the Philippines in early 2145.

"Are you brewing more than one?" Aunt Velma asks.

"There's enough for at least six cups. But Uncle Shaggy hates the way I brew coffee, he says it's too strong." I reply.

There's a knock at the door and Aunt Velma goes over to answer it. "Hi Kate, I see you're up early."

"California time, I'm still trying to get it out of my head." Kate says, as she walks in, wearing jeans and a short sleeved shirt.

"Well, I'm off to go rent a few movies Shaggy wanted to watch. We're gonna go catch up on some old times." Velma says, "I'll leave you two alone."

Kate looks astonished for a bit and then says, "I really came to help you pack."

"You know I can't say where I'm going." I reply.

"Black or green?" Kate asks.

"Both." I reply, "I might be needing both."

What Kate referred to were the two types of kit a Special Forces operator uses. Black kit refers to our Counter-Terrorist gear where one dresses in black from head to toe. Green kit is anything for 'normal' military operations, stuff we wore in South America for example.

The radio in the living room is on as I offer Kate a coffee cup. She accepts and we both catch the first notes to the song. Despite myself I smile. The song's name is Lili Marlene, though it's over two hundred years old, a bunch of young female singers have brought it to life again. It's a classic soldier's song from World War II, a favorite of both German and Allied soldiers and has been translated into forty languages. Back in South America, Radio Havana used to broadcast it through its own transmitters and relay stations all over South America. This song was played promptly at 21:30 (nine thirty at night to you civilians) before the broadcasters signed off. All the years in South America, every night I could I'd listen to this song. It reminded me of the woman in front of me now, the woman I love.

The voice of Annette Chavez, one of Latin America and more recently the world's more popular singers echoes through the living room, "Underneath the lantern, by the barrack gate. Darling I remember the way you used to wait. T'was there that you whispered tenderly, that you loved me. You'd always be, my Lilli of the Lamplight, my own Lilli Marlene."

Kate looks at me and says, "I love this song. I used to listen to it every day when I tuned in to the Armed Forces stations back in LA."

"You actually got Radio Havana over there?" I ask.

"No," Kate says, "But Radio San Diego used to broadcast it all the time to the Navy folks on the coast. I always used to hear it at five o'clock, just as I would be driving home from work.

"Time would come for roll call, time for us to part, darling I'd caress you. And press you to my heart, and there 'neath that far-off lantern light, I'd hold you tight, We'd kiss good night, my Lilli of the Lamplight, my own Lilli Marlene." Annette continues to sing.

Even in the Andes I'd used to get this from Radio Lima at the same time. This was their signature song. I remember there was damn near a riot when it didn't play in time. No matter where I was in South America, when I'd hear this song, I'd instantly think of Kate. For the duration of the song, her engagement to Scott didn't exist, I'd just have my special memories of her. My own Lili Marlene, she'll always be.

"Orders came for sailing, somewhere over there. All confined to barracks was more than I could bear. I knew you were waiting in the street. I heard your feet, but could not meet, my Lili of the Lamplight, my own Lili Marlene." Annette's singing continues in the background.

"That verse is so sad too. I remember feeling that way when Scott would go on his Peace Corps trips back in college." Kate says.

It always hurts to hear about the fact that she happily has Scott. But even so, the song Lili Marlene always makes me realize just how much I love this woman. It must show too, because Kate's eyes soften as they meet mine.

"Hiram, are you alright? What's the matter?" Kate says, as she puts an arm around my shoulder. As much as want to pull away, I don't.

"Nothing, just a memory or two from South America I don't really want to remember." I reply.

"Resting in our billets, just behind the lines. Even tho' we're parted, your lips are close to mine. You wait where that lantern softly gleams, your sweet face seems. To haunt my dreams. My Lili of the Lamplight. My own Lili Marlene."

This verse always has a tendency to get me real emotional inside. I remember one night in South America where it made the words to a letter Kate wrote me practically come to life.

"That last verse always gets me like this." I reply, "I've known guys who died before they ever saw their sweethearts again."

Memories of South America have been long overstaying their welcome. I know I'm going to the Sinai Peninsula. Kate figures I'm going to some desert location when I quietly indicate her to pull my desert fatigues as I take down my black kit. Unlike members of the 23rd Territorial Special Forces and the active 22nd Special Forces Regiments I've not served any tours in North Africa. All my tours were in South America, so other than the odd desert warfare training mockups before the war I rarely used them until the Atacama Desert campaign of 2145.

South America was a theater that will never leave my mind as long as I shall live. Almost five years of creeping through the jungle, tiptoeing through the enemy's backyard, knowing that the next patrol may just have been my last, the last step that I would take would be the next one that I made, it had its effect on me.

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As soon as we're in Kate's truck on the way to the airport I look over the manifest of the unit I'm supposed to lead. All seven of the men under my command for this op I've served with before in South America. The most junior of them has six months of combat time, but six months in South Am is six months too many.

The first one I read about is our ex-legionnaire, Arnot. Easily one of the most purposeful, practical men in the regiment, and a fellow member of Mountain Troop, I spent most of my years in South America serving alongside him. A jaded, toughened fighter, he'd be a great fellow to have on a patrol.

The second is Sergeant Jack Falstaff, a guy that was crusty even when Jesus Christ finished jump school. He's from Boat Troop, the guys that specialize in riverine and waterborne operations in the Regiment. He was with me on my first tour in South Am as a newly assigned trooper.

The third soldier is Linkovich "Link" Chumovsky, the Estonian from Air Troop. He only had one word in his vocabulary, and it started with 'f' and usually had the word outrageous tacked onto the end of it. I remember one training exercise where we just got back from a ten mile forced march only to have Gunny, the Marine gunnery sergeant in charge of Mountain Troop, turn us around for another eight mile march. The first thing Link said was, "Fucking outrageous."

Stoney Brown is the fourth member of the patrol. He'd spent two years in South Am as well, with Air Troop. He was always the fruit, some say it was caused by breathing bad air in a HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) parachute jump. Off duty he was the biggest '60s/'70s guy anyone ever knew.

Dave Morgan, the fifth member of our patrol, is a precise, high strung fellow from the Army Corps of Engineers. He, Stoney and Link joined the unit in '43, after the old hands like me and Falstaff. He, Stoney and Link are inseparable, meaning if one of them makes trouble the other two aren't far behind.

"Shorty" is the sixth guy in the patrol and he's the only Marine and the second guy from Boat Troop. All 5'2" of him is as strong as an ox. If his body matched the strength of his heart he'd be 6'6" and muscled like Adonis. He's been with us since '43 as well. He's different from the two new guys we've got in. They were two college buddies who joined the army on a dare and wound up going though Selection on another dare. Amazingly they made it through the program, so their good guys, but I don't know either of them as well, since they came in at the tail end of South Am in 2145. Their names are Bobby Budnick and Eddie Bull, better called Donkey Lips in the squadron.

"What are you thinking?" Kate asks me.

"Just about the fact that I'm team leader." I reply. Kate knows better than to ask, I told her about my first op as team leader and seeing lead scout get blown up by a land mine back in 2143.

"Jesus Hiram! What happened to you out there? It's like South America did something to your head." Kate asks, she seems hurt as she says this, "Why did you push us away?"

"I never did that." I reply, in protest, "I had a job to do, and I had to do it. Kate, I saw so much down there, stuff I'd rather forget..."

My voice must sound shakier than anything else, because Kate looks a bit taken aback. "I saw a lot of action in South Am, Kate, I saw a lot of people get hurt. I saw a lot of people die. I lived day by day not knowing when my number might be up, not knowing when it'd be my second dog tag they'd collect, not knowing whether it'd be me they'd be carting away in a body bag."

"Hiram, I'm sorry..." Kate says as we walk through the parking lot.

"Don't be." I reply.

Kate throws her arms around me, in a friendly way, "Hiram, take care of yourself out there."

"I promise I'll be back." I reply, not really sure if I can hold it.

Trying to be brave, Kate blinks back a tear. "I'll hold you to that, soldier." Kate replies.

I turn away and walk, knowing she will likely shed more of them. Kate, my greatest strength and my greatest weakness, will I ever see you again?

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TBC