Twenty-Nine Palms. Located close to Palm Springs California one would think the training center to be a small oasis in the Mojave Desert but to the Marines training or stationed aboard the installation it is anything but. Outside of the main camp the training areas of Two-Nine are nothing but metal combat towns surrounded on all sides by large mountains or empty desert, the only sign of civilization being the training camp of Camp Wilson, which is where Alex and his team have been dropped off after flying back across the country.
"Welcome to Tatooine… I mean Twenty-Nine palms! Or should I say the ass end of the Marine Corps. This is Camp Wilson, you're home for the next sixty days." Alex, now dressed in desert MARPAT fatigues, informed Barbara, Harley, and Ivy, also dressed in the same uniform as Alex, as they dropped their bags outside of one of Camp Wilsons metal huts.
"This place sucks…" Complained Harley, wiping sweat off her brow as the desert sun beat down on them from above.
"Yeah I know that…a little piece of me dies every time I come here. Like you're in the suck but not actually deployed… Anyways, you are now a part of Special Tasks Group Echo, go find a rack inside and drop your shit. Training starts tomorrow…"
...
The first day of training consisted of the three-trainee's introduction and issue of the M16 rifle. They sat on their racks as Alex stood in front of them holding one of the rifles.
"This is the M16A4 Service Rifle. It is a light weight, magazine fed, gas-operated, air-cooled, shoulder-fired weapon firing a 5.56mm ball projectile. Now I know what you're thinking, you've made it this far in your varied careers without utilizing a rifle before but while conducting training on this installation you will become familiar it's use. For the next sixty days, you will be with this rifle twenty-four seven, you will become intimately familiar with its components, and you will treat this weapon better than you would your own mother. Understood?"
"Yes Sergeant." They answered in unison. Part of the training included proper utilization of rank structure and as such Alex was to be addressed as Sergeant while the others by their last names.
"Outstanding, now take your weapons and repeat after me. This is my rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine..." Alex ordered, reciting the riflemen's creed.
"This is my rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life."
"My rifle, without me, is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will…"
"My rifle and I know that what counts in war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our bursts, nor the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit…"
"My rifle is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn it's weaknesses, it's strength, it's parts, it's accessories, it's sights and it's barrel. I will keep my rifle clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will…"
"Before God I swear this creed. My rifle and I are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life."
"So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy, but peace!"
...
"Reveille! Reveille! Rise and shine, it's devil dog time!" Alex shouted as he walked down the row of cots to wake the others up. Barbara groaned as she checked her phone to see that it was barely five in the morning. "Get outside, form up for PT."
Barbara followed the other two as they shuffled outside into the cool morning air and found Alex waiting for them, holding an ammo can with three additional ammo cans sitting in front of him, one for each of them she assumed. Alex didn't even have to say anything, she just reached down and picked one up, finding that it was heavier than it looked, most likely filled completely with sand. Harley and Ivy followed suit, holding the can over their shoulder with their right hand as Alex took off in a jog down the row of metal huts.
His pace wasn't too fast at first but Barbara noticed that he was slowly picking it up as he went, transitioning from a slow jog to a run by the time they passed the chow hall. She looked to her right to see that Harley was keeping up with them but Ivy was a few feet back, head low and breathing labored as she began to struggle. Barbara wasn't the only one to notice as Alex shouted back at her.
"Let's go Isley, get the fuck up here!" He yelled. To her credit, Ivy did put energy into a short sprint to catch up but once she did she puked from exhaustion and began to fall out again. Alex let her linger behind for a moment before deciding that enough was enough. "Don't want to keep up? Fine your dead Isley, lay on the fucking ground!" He ordered. Ivy swore to herself before complying, sitting the can on the ground and lying next to it. But Alex wasn't done there.
"Quinzel, Gordon, pick her the fuck up! Don't worry Isley they'll carry you're fucking weight!" Thing about that was all the ammo cans still needed to get to where they were going. Harley set her can down and picked up Ivy in a fireman's carry over her shoulders, keeping her secure with her right hand and reclaiming her ammo can with her left, leaving Barbara to pick up Ivy's abandoned ammo can. The rest of the run was way more tiring than it should have been, Harley and Barbara traded carrying Ivy a handful of times before finally arriving back outside their hut, Harley setting the ammo cans down and Barbara slowly easing Ivy off her shoulders.
"Isley, what was that back there?" Alex questioned as Ivy sat against the side of the hut drinking water from a canteen.
"I'm obviously not the most physically fit Sergeant. I didn't need to be, not when I have control over plants to do things for me." She explained before taking another sip from her canteen.
"Well guess what motherfucker, that shit stops right now. While conducting training here you will not make use of your abilities. I need you to be in shape, not just for yourself but for them as well." He told her, pointing over to where Barbara and Harley stood panting. "Next time it might not be you that goes down and one of them might have to rely on you to carry them out, understand?"
"Yes Sergeant."
"And you two, fix your fucking peer." He said, jabbing a finger in they're direction. "Now go shit, shower, shave whatever…get some food and be back here by zero eight for class."
...
"Shooters standby…CONTACT!"
Short bursts of gunfire rang out as Barbara, Ivy, and Harley fired their weapons from the firing line. They had finished all their classes the day before and had been driven out in a Humvee to one of 29 Palms many ranges to practice their marksmanship fundamentals. Alex already knew that Harley was a decent shot and that Barbara would need some work to overcome her current mindset of not utilizing weapons, that was proving to be a challenge in itself. What he hadn't expected was for Ivy to be one of the best shots he'd ever seen, her shot groups being even tighter than Harley's.
"Damn Isley, finally found something you're good at." He complemented as Ivy cleared her weapon.
"I'm good at a lot of things Sergeant." She replied smugly.
"Except PTing, you suck at that…"
"Yes, well nobody's perfect."
"That's very humble of you Isley, you're really turning around ya know?"
"You think?"
"Yeah, you're not as much of an asshole as your file says you are. Look Isley, I see a lot of potential in you to do a lot of good for the world and that's not just me stroking your ego. You do suck at PT but that can be fixed, other than that you've shown initiative, cunning, and have the makings to be a strong leader and I wanna help you get there. Not to mention you're way more mature than the others, maybe even me."
"You…you really think so?"
"Absolutely. I'm making you my assistant squad leader, you'll still take orders from me but you'll also be responsible for Gordon and Quinzel. Think you can handle it Isley?"
"Yes! I mean of course, I won't let you down Sergeant and…thank you, I don't know if I'm the hero type but thank you for believing in me."
"Isley, no one asks to be a hero…it just sometimes turns out that way." He replied solemnly, looking off into the distance as events in Afghanistan came to the front of his memory. Ivy wanted to ask what he'd meant but then thought better of it, somethings were best left alone.
...
Harley low crawled her way through mud, careful not to catch her rifle or helmet on the barbed wire strung a mere inch above her when a simulated mortar exploded just in front of her with a bright flash and explosion of mud. The sound of a machine gun firing urged her to continue forwards as more mortars went off around her. To her left she saw Ivy trying to untangle her uniform from where the barbed wire had snagged it, eventually deciding to just rip a hole out of the clothing before another mortar landed near her.
"The sounds you are hearing are live rounds…" Alex shouted over the chaos. He was sitting behind a mounted machine gun and was controlling when the mortars would detonate in-between firing bursts from his machine gun just over their heads. "If you stand up, you will get fucked up!"
Harley knew he had to be kidding, that he had to be firing blanks. They wouldn't let him fire live ammo at them during training, would they? A quick glance over revealed that the machine gun lacked a blank fire adaptor and the rounds feeding into the gun were very much real.
"POP, POP, POP, POP!" Another burst brought her back to reality and she continued forward, dragging herself through the mud to get out of the weapons line of sight.
"Keep moving! This will get the bitch out of you!"
Up ahead Harley spotted Barbara crawling forward at a snail's pace when a mortar exploded in front of her. Barbara curled herself into a ball and began to sob, blocking Harley and Ivy from going and allowing the mortars and machine gun fire to close in on them.
"Come on man let's go!" Harley shouted, urging the girl to keep moving. The only way she was getting out was to keep pushing or risk taking a round to the dome.
"I can't!" She screamed back terrified. In the years that Harley and Ivy had known her as Batgirl they had never seen Barbara look so terrified, but at the same time she had never been exposed to the level of chaos one could only find on a battlefield.
"We gotta go Babs!" Harley tried again to no avail.
"No!" The girl sobbed back. Harley thought about calling out to Alex and having him cease training but he was too far away to hear her.
"Fuck it!" Ivy shouted, slinging her rifle onto her back and grabbing Barbara by the handle on her flak. Harley, realizing what she was trying to do, slung her rifle as well and grabbed hold of Barbara by her belt and together she and Ivy drug her forward.
The rest of the obstacle was grueling to navigate, the explosions and gunfire making it all the more stressful, but the two somehow managed to drag their friend fifty yards through mud and barbed wire obstacles, coming out on the other side exhausted, sore, and covered in mud, but with a small sense of accomplishment and Harley couldn't help but laugh at the impossible task she had accomplished.
...
"Any of you recognize what this is?" Alex asked, holding up a spherical object.
"Oh, I know! That's a grenade!" Harley answered excitedly.
"Correct, this is the M67 fragmentation grenade, with an omni-directional kill radius of five meters this is the perfect tool for taking down light armored infantry. Now, see that post out there?" Alex asked, directing their attention towards a single metal pole out in the desert. "You're gonna be throwing these little guys at it. Now I cannot stress enough to be careful with these, they may look harmless but these are explosives and if mishandled you will die in a manner most unpleasant."
Alex then showed them all the safeties on the grenade and how to throw it, demonstrating by tossing a live grenade at the post which exploded in a small blast of dust and shrapnel.
"So, who wants to go first…"
...
Alex was quite pleased with how well his team was coming along. Ivy was getting more physically fit by the day, much to the relief of her peers. It had taken some time for her to get used to all the responsibility Alex was giving her but with the proper guidance she began to excel in the role. Barbara was slowly but surely getting over her hesitance to use firearms, it had taken a while and a lot of patience on Alex's part but she was turning into a decent shot. Harley was well… she was still her usual cheerful self, cracking jokes and making smart remarks about the whatever they were doing. Her antics helped to boost the other's morale as they endured the harsh training thrown at them by the Marine Corps, but Harley's behavior was a double-edged sword and could at times result in making life difficult.
"You think that's funny huh? Well guess what, this is my boot and it will fit up your ass with the right amount of force, you understand?" Harley joked as she imitated kicking someone with her boot. She stood between Barbara and Ivy who laughed at her imitation as they were lounging on one of the racks while she cracked jokes at Alex's expense. Of course, he wasn't around to see them as he was out inventorying gear for the next evolution of their training cycle.
They had just come back from conducting fireteam sized maneuvers and Alex had been harping on them about every little detail of their performance. Harley knew he did so because he cared but at the same time she didn't like being treated like a child, she was a doctor after all. So, sensing that the others needed their spirits lifted she had waited for Alex to leave before putting on her little performance.
"Y'all got ten seconds to unfuck yourselves, one…two…ten." She joked, referring to when Alex had made them run around a combat town in full gear after messing up a room clearance. Harley was about to continue when she noticed the others had stopped laughing and were looking past her. She turned around to see Alex standing behind her, arms crossed and brow raised.
"Pretty funny, huh? That's a good impression, I recognize myself."
"Uh, I didn't mean nothing by it Sergeant. Just having some fun is all" Harley explained lamely. Alex and Harley may have something between them but he made a point of not giving her any special treatment because of that.
"Ain't nothing wrong with a bit of fun now and then. In fact, I just got an idea for some fun y'all can have as a team." He said with a grin. The girls looked at each other and sighed, knowing that they were about to hate their lives.
Sometime later the three of them stood atop a several foot-high sandbag wall they were constructing around the perimeter of their hut as Alex's team building exercise. Of course, it would be the one day that it decides to piss rain in the desert, soaking and covering them in mud, while Alex watched from inside the Humvee.
"I don't hear you laughing now Quinzel!"
"HAHAHAHA!" She mocked as she tossed another sandbag up to Barbara.
"Detail, Attention!" Alex called, causing the girls to drop what they were doing and look at Alex. "Y'all built a pretty nice wall, President Trump would be proud of what you've built here, but I've got more important things to do, like finish watching my movie, but the rest of you can continue to have fun by tearing this all down. Isley make it happen." He ordered as they all groaned before walking back into the comfort of the hut, leaving them to tear down the wall they had spent hours building.
...
"Alright listen up, Private Isley will be leading you on patrol through the town today." The four were gathered around the Humvee just outside the combat town, dressed in full gear and weapons slung.
"Where will you be Sergeant?" Barbara asked. Alex had always been the one leading them, not that she didn't have trust in Ivy to lead them, but still it was unusual and gave her a bad feeling.
"I'll be playing OpFor for you guys, hiding somewhere in the town and waiting to engage you. Isley all you gotta do is patrol to that building…" He said, pointing towards a three story building. "…and clear it out."
"Will do Sergeant."
"Alright, for this evolution we'll be using simunition, five point five-six millimeter wax rounds, to see who actually gets shot. It'll be the three of you against me so hopefully you make use of the training and beat me. Here, you'll need these." He said, passing out protective masks and adaptors for their rifles. Harley quickly donned her mask and turned to Barbara.
"Luke I am your father!" She quoted, adding in the heavy breathing for effect. Barbara grinned and shoved her away before donning her own gear.
The three waited for Alex to make his way into the town before Ivy gathered them all up.
"Alright listen, I think he's going to try and ambush us before we reach that building so keep your eyes open. If you see him shoot him, got it?" Ivy asked, directing the question more towards Barbara than Harley.
"Hey this'll be fun, like playing paintball!" Harley replied happily.
"Come on let's go."
The three moved out in formation, entering the town five minutes after Alex giving him plenty of time to hole up somewhere. The building they had to reach was on the other side of the town, creating a lot of danger areas for them to cross but Ivy was confident in her abilities to lead the others safely. It wasn't hard to move through the town, it was eerily empty but that didn't stop them from feeling like they were being watched. They had made it a block away from the target building when Ivy suddenly halted the patrol and motioned for them to take a knee behind cover. Once she was sure they were concealed she brought her rifle up and looked through her scope, having seen movement from a building across from the one she needed to clear. She kept looking for a minute before deciding it had just been something fluttering in the breeze when suddenly.
"SNAP!" A paint round whizzed past her head and exploded on the wall behind her.
"MOVE!" She shouted, returning fire from the direction the shot had come from.
Barbara and Harley jumped from cover and ran across the street to cover Ivy. Harley stuck her head out to fire a few shots but was rewarded for her efforts with a paint round exploding across her mask.
"AH SHIT! I CAN'T SEE!" She yelled, frantically wiping at her mask with her off hand while firing blindly with the other.
"SUCK IT NERD!" They heard Alex shout from across the street.
Knowing that Harley was now notionally dead Barbara waited for her to run out of ammo before draging her behind cover before firing some rounds off and allowing Ivy to join her.
"Quinzel's dead!" She reported once Ivy reached her.
"Fuck, any ideas?" Ivy asked as she heard Alex's IAR fire on automatic, paint rounds exploding on the ground and wall behind them while he laughed manically. They still hadn't managed to spot him; just knew the general direction his shots were coming from.
"Yeah, just make it count." Barbara said before running out into the middle of the road. Adrenaline coursed through her as she lifted her rifle, setting it to burst and emptying her magazine into the building she thought Alex was hiding in. Ivy understood what she was doing, providing a distraction to allow her to get away and attempt to flank Alex. Not wanting to waste her sacrifice Ivy broke cover running past Barbara just as she got lit up with paint rounds and into the next block over. Ivy looked back to see Barbara laid out in the road, red paint splattered all over her body. She knew it was just training, that Barbara was fine, but she couldn't escape the feeling of remorse coming over her, had it been real... well there wasn't point in dwelling on that.
"Isley, come out and play!" Alex taunted from somewhere in the town, breaking Ivy from her thoughts and reminding her that she still had a job to do.
Ivy carefully made her way around the block, weapon pointed into every door and window she passed incase Alex was lying in wait. She rounded another corner and there it was, the target building. The alley to get to it looked clear, but looks were always deceiving. Alex had warned them multiple times that IED's were always a threat and that a one of the nasty devices could be lying in wait anywhere they went. Scanning the route she wanted to take with her scope revealed indicators of one such device to Ivy. A wire, covered lightly in dirt, running across the road and into a nearby car off to the right. Inside the truck resided a mock 155mm artillery round, that if activated in a real-life situation, would have decimated her team.
Now knowing that the threat was there Ivy continued to press forward, carefully stepping over the trip wire and past the rigged car. What she hadn't realized was that the 155mm round had just been a hoax device to draw her attention away from the real IED, a smaller explosive activated by a pressure plate commonly referred to as a toe-popper, a device she had just triggered by placing her foot onto a soft patch of dirt.
"POOF!" A white cloud of dust erupted in front of Ivy as the device activated, caking her in a layer of white powder. She grumbled in annoyance and smacked her forehead.
"Stupid! Should've known it wouldn't be that easy." She remarked while dusting herself off.
"INDEX!" Alex called from the road, signaling her and the others to cease training and rally on him for a debrief. Ivy was less than thrilled with the result of her first time in command and she made a promise to do better, not for herself but for her friends… Friends? Is that what they had become? She'd been solitary for the longest time, until Harley had barged into her life. Now here she was with Harley and her best friend alongside Barbara, a girl who had been her enemy for years, all here suffering together. Ivy had initially joined up for Harley's sake but now, she was discovering that she enjoyed being here, with her friends…A formerly deranged psychiatrist with bad taste in men, a librarian that dressed up as a bat at night, and a disgruntled Marine Sergeant. Was this who she was calling her friends now? Yes…yes it was.
...
Today had gone smoothly. Since the fiasco in the combat town Ivy had thrown herself into her billet, constantly asking Alex for advice on how to succeed before requesting a retry of her failed operation. The second go around had gone much better, turning the tables on Alex and ambushing him before he had time to place any IEDs and completing their objective. As a reward for their success Alex had given them a few hours of liberty once they got back to Camp Wilson. The four of them sat around on their racks bullshitting with each other.
"…And that's how Harley's brother ended up in the hospital." Alex finished explaining as the others listened intently to the story.
"So, let me get this straight, you two caused her brother to go to the hospital with a nail in his ass?" Barbara asked, recapping the end of the story.
"It was his fault, I mean sure I pushed him but he should've paid more attention to his surroundings." Alex replied.
"And you were ok with this?" She asked Harley, who just shrugged indifferently.
"He had it coming, always was a douche…"
"Ok, knowing you two that actually makes a lot of sense."
"It's not like I was trying to pick a fight with the guy, he started it when he shoved Harleen. I was just preforming my gentlemanly duties and defending her honor."
"Ha, a gentleman he says! Please we both you your nothing of the sort." Harley joked at his expense.
"Yeah, keep it up and I'm about to have you build that fucking wall again."
"I think I've already made America great again for one life time thank you."
"So, Sergeant, I gotta ask. If you hadn't enlisted what would you be doing?" Barbara asked, switching the conversation before Alex followed through with his threat. Joking or not she had no desire to rebuild that sandbag wall.
"Oh boy, if I hadn't enlisted huh? Well before I decided on enlisting I did want to be an artist, but that probably wouldn't have gone anywhere. Most likely would have stayed in Gotham and tried my luck with this one earlier." He answered, pulling Harley into a quick hug. "Man, a lot of shit would've been different. Wouldn't have this back pain so early, like every time I wake up I wonder what part of me is gonna pop today."
"That's not weird, you're old remember?" Harley said, getting a chuckle out of the others.
"Yeah and your older, grandma." He shot back. "Who even is the oldest here? It's obviously not Barbara, fucking child."
"Probably Ivy, even I don't know how old she is."
"Yeah how old are you Isley? That part of your file was redacted."
"Uh, Just under three decades short of a century…" Ivy answered after she finished chewing the vegetarian MRE she'd been eating, causing Alex to laugh in disbelief.
"Ha, right. And I can grow wings and fly!" He replied sarcastically.
"I'm serious! The experiments that made me…me, they halted my ageing process. I haven't aged in several decades." Ivy answered somewhat sadly and from the look in her eyes Alex saw that she truly wasn't lying.
He wanted to ask more about what exactly happened to alter her, but there was something about her expression, how her eyes wandered off as she spoke that made him think better of it. He often did the same thing when talking about Afghanistan and figured that whatever had happened to her must have been as, if not more, traumatizing.
Sure he'd seen people be killed in front of him, killed a lot more people, but he'd become impartial to death over the years, it was out of his control, but to have your entire being torn apart and reconstructed into something...else? Voluntarily or not no one was coming out of that unscarred.
It made Alex pity Ivy, if his assumptions were correct than she was little more than a victim of some ungodly experiment. No wonder she preferred plants to people, for as intelligent as they are humans could do some pretty fucked up shit when left unchecked and she had been unfortunate enough to wind up on the receiving end of said shit.
"Wow... that's some crazy shit Isley." He replied knowingly. "I take it back Harley, Isley's the new team grandma…er…great great grandma? Know what, we'll just settle for mom, I just hope I don't live to be as old as you." He joked, hoping to lighten Ivy's mood.
"Really? You don't wanna to be old Alex?"
"Well maybe at one point in time I did, but I want to go out in a blaze of fucking glory. That'd be a good way to go. I mean who wants to die of old age, or in some hospital? Not me, I'm dying in a pile of brass surrounded by the corpses of dead terrorists!" He replied enthusiastically. Harley shook her head and sighed.
"Alex, your motivation is showing…" Harley warned. She'd support Alex through most anything, but that was one thought she was shutting down right now, she'd kill Alex herself if he died in such a reckless manner.
"Aw shit! Hate it when it sneaks up on me like that…ugh, I suppose living a full life wouldn't be so bad, you know if I had the right person to spend it with." Alex replied, casting his gaze to Harley and making her blush.
"Ugh, you two make me want to vomit sometimes." Ivy huffed before continuing to eat her MRE.
...
The time had come to test if Ivy's serum would work. The team stood inside the concrete walls of the gas chamber, gas masks on save for Ivy as she was biologically immune to any form of toxin as is. Alex stood over the burner in the center of the room, holding a container of CS gas capsules in his hand. All U.S. service members are exposed to CS gas during training, but Alex didn't relish being exposed to it yearly. The gas wasn't fatal, just an irritant used in riot control operations but a lot of people panicked when exposed, believing the gas was doing more harm than it could. It also gave Alex some hilarious memories of his friends.
"Standby. GAS, GAS, GAS!" Alex shouted, dropping several pellets into the burner and filling the room with gas.
They stood in the gas, breathing through their gas masks as Ivy just stood there unfazed by the gas, hands on her hips as she breathed it in. The other three took in deep breathes before Alex ordered the masks to come off. They held their breath for as long as they could before eventually having to gasp for air, but instead of choking on the gas as he had so many times before Alex found that he was able to breath just fine, his eyes weren't even watering.
"Told you it would work." Ivy said as they took more experimental breaths.
"Well, I'm impressed. We'll have to see about circulating this through the military, you'll be a rich woman Isley."
"Please, if I did the things I do for money I'd have retired long ago. You can thank me by actually listening to what I'm saying about the environment."
"That's above my pay grade, but I'm sure the General can make things happen."
"See that he does." She replied before unlocking the gas chamber doors and walking out into the desert.
...
They were coming close to the end of their training cycle, three more days of training and the final exercise would begin. Today Alex had brought his charges out to one of the machine gun ranges along with the weapon Ivy recognized Alex using to threaten Frost with way back when, the M2 .50 CAL machine gun. At the time, Ivy hadn't understood why Frost looked so frightened of the weapon, to her all guns were the same, but having since heard its deafening report and seen the destruction left in its wake her opinion of the weapon soon changed and she understood why Frost had nearly shit himself being face to face with its muzzle. He would've been reduced to bloody chunks had Alex decided to fire the weapon.
Ivy now found herself sitting behind the large gun after Alex had instructed her on how to load and operate the weapon. Checking that the large rounds were seated properly on the feedway and that the cover was properly closed she gripped the charging handle in an underhand grip as Alex had instructed and pulled back, or at least she'd tried, pulling it back half way before it slammed back.
"What the fuck was that Isley? You might wanna dig deep and pull that thing like a man, otherwise that weapons gonna make you it's bitch." Alex ordered her.
"What does pulling it like a man have anything to do with it?"
"God damn it Isley you know what I fucking mean, use your muscles!"
Ivy huffed in annoyance and yanked back again, racking the handle fully to the rear and letting it go home.
"There you go! Once more and your good to go!"
She repeated the process, fully loading the weapon and waiting for Alex's instruction.
"Alright, technical one o'clock, fifteen-hundred meters! At the sustained rate fire on my command!" He ordered. Ivy spotted the target, a silhouette of a pickup truck, out in the desert and manipulated the weapons traversing and elevation tool to orient the weapon towards it. "Engage!"
Ivy flicked the safety off and pressed down on the trigger causing the weapon to boom in response. Pockets of dust kicked up mere feet in front of the truck and Ivy quickly adjusted the TnE to compensate, walking the rounds on target. She fired another burst, the rounds impacting and sparking off the metal target.
"Good effect on target, standby. Infantry ten o'clock, nine-hundred meters! Smoke those motherfuckers!"
Ivy transitioned the weapon to a group of pop-up targets and began to fire, repeating the process of walking the rounds on target until they all went down.
"Nice! More infantry at the eleven, come up five clicks!"
Again, the targets went down as Ivy fired away until her ammunition ran out, a large pile of spent brass collected beneath the weapons tripod. Ivy cleared and safed the weapon before standing from her position to admire her handiwork. She hadn't thought it would be but that had been rather enjoyable.
"Fuck yeah Isley, that's what I'm talking about!" Alex praised, pating her on the back cheerfully. "Alright, who thinks they can do better?" Alex asked the other two. Not one of them did…
...
Today marked the beginning of the culmination and final evaluation of everything the team had learned over the past forty-nine days. Alex had taught his charges everything he knew and was confident that they would exceed his every expectation during the FX. They'd be staying out in one of the larger combat towns until training day 59, fighting OpFor provided by the units stationed on base. If things went well they'd complete their assigned missions and graduate.
To start the Op, they were dropped off two clicks away to patrol through the desert into the town with full gear to include flak with SAPI (Small Arms Protective Insert) plates, Kevlar, rifle with 180 rounds of 5.56 blanks each, assault pack with three days' rations and sleeping system, and a water source. On top of that they were also given an M240B medium machine gun and 500 rounds of 7.62 linked blanks to carry around as well. Ivy had volunteered to carry the machine gun, strapping her M16 to the side of her pack and carrying the machine gun over her shoulders.
To add to the realism the training command had also emplaced several IED's along their patrol route, giving Alex a chance to show off his Combat Engineer skills by leading the patrol while sweeping the route with a compact metal detector.
As Alex was sweeping his detector started beeping over a patch of overturned dirt. He'd spotted the indicator several feet away but needed a second confirmation before calling it in.
"Hey, back up and set security. Got a possible up here." He ordered. Ivy took charge from there, directing Harley and Barbara on where to go as Alex called in the threat over the radio. "Roger, blowing in place." He said before digging the training device out to notionally BIP it. Alex held up a metal anti-tank mine and tossed it off the road. "Alright, let's keep moving…"
Alex found three more IEDs along the route before they finally neared the entrance to the town. Alex collapsed the CMD and stuffed it into his pack, unslinging his M27 and stacking up against the perimeter wall. Barbara and Harley backed him up with their rifles while Ivy switched from carrying the 240 to slinging it and carrying it by her hip.
"Alright, we're gonna set up in that building over there." Alex whispered, pointing out a large building in the center of town. "Should provide us with good three-sixty over watch, Isley I need that machine gun up on the roof asap."
"Understood."
"Let's go."
They patrolled into the town, passing multiple Marines dressed as civilians milling about the market. While patrolling they kept an eye out for anyone that looked suspicious or was carrying a weapon but a threat was never presented and they reached their destination without any complications. Alex, Barbara, and Harley cleared out the building as Ivy went up to the roof, setting the machine gun up on the roof and watching the people down below. She remained up there until it was dark before Harley came up to relieve her, the Marines acting as role players having left hours ago. But the first day had gone off without a hitch and that was good enough.
...
While the first day had been uneventful the next two had not been as easy. On one of their patrols through the market an IED had gone off, scattering everyone in the area and during the confusion they had been ambushed by OpFor. They had managed to fight them off but not before Harley was notionally shot through the leg. A tourniquet had been applied and Harley carried back to safety by Alex as Ivy and Barbara covered him.
While Harley had become a casualty, it was all part of their assessment to see how they'd react in a complex ambush and she had been reset to full health by the end of the day. They were doing good so far, just six more days…
...
"Hey, Gordon wake up…" It was late in the evening as Harley shook Barbara awake for her turn on post.
"Ugh, I'm up… I'll be up in a sec." Barbara whispered, not wanting to wake the others.
Harley nodded and walked back up to the roof. Barbara yawned and climbed out of her sleeping bag before putting her gear on and grabbing her weapon. When she arrived on the roof she found Harley huddled up in her blanket as she sat behind the machine gun, canteen in hand and staring out into the distance.
"Hey, you can go get some sleep now." Barbara told her as she set her rifle down and sat next to Harley.
"Yeah, want some?" Harley asked, offering her canteen to her. "It's got coffee, or well whatever that stuff that comes in the MRE's is…should wake you up though."
Barbara looked down at the canteen before accepting it, taking a swig of its contents and handing it back. The liquid was lukewarm and tasted bitter as all hell but still served its purpose in waking her up more.
"Thanks, you should go get some sleep though."
"What, can't I just hangout for a second?"
"I mean yeah, but sleep is more important and I need to stay focused up here."
"Pfft, like there's anyone to attack us. All the role players go home at night remember?" This was true, they usually left before the sun went down, but Barbara didn't want to leave anything to chance. Harley was about to say something else when pops of gunfire echoed through the town.
"Shit! Where'd that come from!?"
"There, that direction!" Harley answered, pointing down to the market place behind them. Sure enough the Marines playing OpFor were running around firing at their building.
Barbara grabbed the machine gun and rushed to the other side of the roof, laying it down on its bipod before firing a short burst into the market to suppress the actors. While she still didn't like the idea of using guns, or killing for that matter, she knew that this was only training and had put up with using weapons to appease Alex and show that she could use them if the situation absolutely required it. Bruce would have a fit if he saw her now, lying prone behind a machine gun and firing at people, sure they were blanks, but the concept was still there. But Bruce wasn't here and she hoped that he would understand the compromise she'd made with herself.
"What's going on!" Alex asked as he stormed onto the roof, Ivy close behind him with weapon in hand.
"Got a group of insurgents in the market!" Harley answered after firing another shot from her rifle.
"Gordon stay here and keep them pinned down! Isley, Quinzel on me!" Alex ordered, intending to go outside and flank their attackers. Barbara kept firing away until she saw the others move down an alley adjacent to the market. She watched as they ambushed the OpFor and forced them to retreat. They lingered in the market for a minute to be sure they weren't coming back before returning to the safety of the building. This time Harley decided to head straight for her sleeping bag. Barbara checked her watch and saw that it was only two thirty in the morning, giving her another hour and a half before she'd go down and wake Ivy to relieve her.
...
"Keep up the pressure, let's go!" Alex ordered, firing a burst from his IAR. It was the final day of their evaluation and they were tasked with assaulting the OpFor's compound. The compound had been located on a reconnaissance patrol the day before, giving Alex the night to prepare a plan of assault for today.
The OpFor were putting up a good fight but Alex and his team were better, fighting hard to gain every inch of ground they could until they reached the compound. Stacking up by the entrance to the compound Alex motioned for Harley to come up and breach the door. She slung her rifle and unslung a sledge hammer from her pack, swinging the heavy head into the door and busting it open allowing the others to enter with her following behind after unslinging her rifle again.
Fighting inside the building was even more chaotic than outside had been, the close quarters restricting their movements but they somehow managed to keep their momentum up, pushing further into the compound and closer to their objective.
By the time they finished clearing out the compound everyone was exhausted, sweating, panting for air, and nearly out of ammunition. But they had done it, completed their final task and finished their training cycle. Alex removed his helmet and looked at his team with a smile, he beyond proud of them and knew that these were the best teammates he would ever serve with.
"Good work guys, you've exceeded my every expectation, blown them out of the water! Your all more than worthy of this." He told them as he reached into his pocket to retrieve something. Alex walked over to both Harley and Ivy, placing an object in their hands.
Harley opened her palm to see a black Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, the insignia of the Marine Corps, resting in her palm. She felt something, a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time…the feeling of pride, in herself and in those around her. They had achieved this accomplishment together and Harley knew she wouldn't have made it without their support. She looked over to see Ivy had the faintest of smiles on her face as she stared down at the small piece of metal in her hand.
"Congratulations. No matter what you were before, from now until the day you die, you are Marines. I'm proud to call each of you my sister in arms and I look forward to fighting by your side."
"Thank you, Sergeant. We won't let you down."
...
"Marine to be promoted, center! March!" Alex ordered. They stood back in Camp Wilson, Alex next to General Anderson, Harley and Barbara at attention across from them. Ivy marched out from behind and around them, coming to a halt in front of the General and saluting.
"To all who shall see these presents, greeting: Know ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the fidelity and abilities of Pamela L. Isley, I do appoint this Marine a Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps to rank as such from the first day of July two thousand and seventeen. This appointee will therefore carefully and diligently discharge the duties of the grade to which appointed by doing and preforming all manner of things thereunto pertaining. And I do strictly charge and require all personnel of lesser grade to render obedience to appropriate orders. And this appointee is to observe and follow such orders and directions as may be given from time to time by superiors acting according to the rules and articles governing the discipline of the Armed Forces of the United States of America. Given under my hand at Special Tasks Group Echo this first day of July, in the year of our lord two thousand and seventeen. Sighed Robert E. Anderson, General, USMC, Commanding." Alex read from the promotion warrant before passing it off to the General and pinning Ivy's new rank to her collar.
"Congratulations Miss, or should I say Lance Corporal Isley. You've come a long way since we first accepted you into are ranks, all of you have really, but Sergeant Westbrook told me of your accomplishments during this training I began to see the same potential in you that he does. This promotion was not given lightly, you've shown your capable of taking charge of your peers and filling in for the Sergeant when needed and I fully expect you to live up to your appointed rank. Continue to do great things Isley, we'll be watching with great interest…"
…Mission Complete…