One way op: Kitted Out...

Chapter Three

I strolled out of mobile and grinned from ear to ear at Dinger across the road cursing at the RSM's dog that goes out and takes a dump first thing in the morning. And it looks like he'd been welcomed with one of his presents as he scraped his shoes across the grass.

"Fucking animal, I'm gonna lift that thing one day and give it to a dog pound as a stray" he cursed not realising I was there. He looked up at me.

"Maaaaaaaaaaaate." "How's things mate?"

"Not too bad mate, not too bad." "I just got the brief of the RSM do ya wanna take a walk grab a brew whilst we wait for everyone to get here?"

"Sounds like a good idea." "Although ive been trying to cut down on the tea I wont refuse that offer." He stated with a grin. I asked why he was trying to cut down on the tea.

"I drink too much"

"I can see that; your head is beginning to look like a tea bag itself!" I commented with a pat on his back. He gave me a look as if to say 'don't be so cheesy' as I laughed off my own joke.

We stepped into the café and a sigh of returning home again, I walked across to the regimental post notice board, only for my attention to be immediately drawn to the picture of me in France, dwarfed by the covey' pod the plasma at my feet and my dick hanging out taking a piss.

"Man I thought this was gonna be our little joke, not the whole fucking regiments"

"Sorry mate, too funny not to share!"

I made a mental note to get him back for that one, there would be plenty of opportunities on the bogie. I grinned at the opportunities and realised he was looking at me, at which point I quickly changed my expression, trying to hide what I was planning. I asked for two extra large wets (brew) and 12 sachets of sugar. I divided the sachets between me and Dinger and grabbed all my six in a bunch and pulled the top off at once and poured them into the lovely brown tea.

"So how's the misses and the kids?" I asked

"They're fine mate, misses is a bit wound up about this detachment though, its right in the middle of all our holiday plans ya see."

"I can understand that." "The kids school work going ok?"

"Really good mate, Josh is getting sixes all the way through his work and Cathy is getting sevens!" "So I'm chuffed to fuck mate."

"Sorted eh, man when are the rest gonna get…" I was interrupted by the rest of our squadbursting through the doors, giggling like school girls. Austin had a shirt saying on the front 'He failed the regiment selection' with a large arrow underneath it pointing at Andy.

"I was just asking myself when you sledgers would get here" with a laugh I got up to greet them. After greeting the rest of the squadron, I asked the woman behined the till if we could take the mugs of tea out and bring them back in an hour or so. She answered yes as if to say, ive heard it so many times, I don't expect them back. We all trotted off to stores talking about what we'd been doing with our recreational time. Due to being pissed with the lot of them last night it was like meeting all over again after 2 weeks. We spent a few minutes trying to find the map of the bogie that was apparently just new in due to our operation. In the end we asked the shelf stacker and he pulled it out of a draw under his desk.

"Well that's fucking helpful isn't it" Austin muttered under his breath looking around the dusty warehouse.

We made our way to delta ware house and laid the map out on the old table which desperately needed to be replaced due to the gaffa tape on one of the legs due to a wrestling match we'd had earlier in the year. We spent a good three hours planning what we were gonna do. In the end we decided to take two warthogs: one armed with the Gautlin Gun and the other with the rocket launcher, although we wouldn't use the mounted weapons unless the shit really hit the fan. We would drive 30 mile and settle down about 10 mile from the targeted Weapons and Munitions dump and set up an OP (observation post) in the AO (area of operations). We would wait till night settled in and wait for the Go code. We would then plant satchel charges around the weapons and munitions dump and make our way to the comms centre two miles north of the munitions dump. There we would sweep the area, place charges and get to FRV (Final Rendezvous point) and call for extraction. That was the plan. On the way out we put all the maps with markings and notes ext. ext. and put them in a plastic bag and burned it for security reasons. We had all the info we needed in the four GPS we had between us.

We went to armoury and picked up a range of weapons between us. Me, Dinger, Austin and Andy took the MA5B Assault Rifle Along with the M6D Pistol, and packed a few M9 HE grenades for each man. Gary, Mike, and kiwi took the new battle Rifle. They were always harping on about how much better it was than the MA5B I didn't agree with them, it had saved my life many occasions. Finally Lee took the S2 AM Sniper Rifle, he treated it like it was violin.

"I fucking love this weapon, Id like to see someone rip this from my grasp"

Gary picked up the satchel charges, two M19 SSM Rocket launchers and Four cases of ammunition for them. We signed for the weapons we had and went to the tailor. He wasn't the tailor you'd think of when you hear that. He was the one that sorted out or Spartan DPM Armour. These days the suit had sensors dotted here and there to pick up the colour of the environment it was in, then it would change to the same colour as the environment. I liked it. I thought it was quite nifty, although I had to get my dads helmet rigged to the suit so the helmet did the same. We walked into the Dark room, and approached the desk for the tailor. We gave him our names and numbers and he pointed out where to go to get our suits, he was quite tall for his age he must have been about seventy, because he was here when I joined up and I was 25. We put our suits on and got the feel for them again. It was a little tight around the arms but it wasn't anything that was gonna cut off the circulation to the rest of the arm. We were all excited about being the first on the bogie, and we were all chatting like Christmas was the next day, giggling like school girls. We thanked the tailor for his time and left to get all the kit together e.g. Rat packs, NVAA (Night Viewing Aid Attachment) Ammunition, Radios and bits and bobs we'd need on our operation. We grabbed all the weaponry together and hauled it all onto the pelican, and sent Gary off to get the warthogs. He came back in one, the other towing behind. We lowered the ramp and drove it in carefully and secured it. We then attached the other to the rear tail and hauled our kit into the seats of the vehicle. I was just about to get on the pelican when a familiar voice called my name. It was Rob a previous member ofEcho Sierra sqn, looking like a tourist in his shorts and sandals and his Hawaiian shirt.

"How's it going mate" he asked.

"Not too bad, I'm doing ok, what about you?"

"I'm great, I just came to get a picture of you boys before you get well fucked up on the bogie"

"I love your encouragement, its just what we need" I Replied sarcastically with a grin.

"Ah Shut up and sit down so I can take this photo and wish you good luck"

We sat there and had our photo taken. There was a moment of silence as we were all in our own little world.

Rob wished us good luck and claimed he was gonna put the photo in the sun I laughed and told him to fuck off. We all took a look at the camp before we got on the pelican. It may be the last time we'd see it all together like this. I pushed the thought out of my head as the impatient driver stuck his head out the back and shouted,

"Oi, are you getting in today or what!"

Dinger told him to shut his mouth and we all climbed into what seemed like the sinister belly of the best and watched the door close.