Gunny shakes me awake, and I see it was night now.
The sky didn't match it however. The black night sky was there, but it was illuminated by dog fights above the city, explosions, and infernos burning in other parts of the city, smoking clouding the sky.
"We're going back to the building line," Gunny says.
"So we failed?" I ask.
"Yea, we failed," Gunny admits. "Now our goal is to survive."
"So how do we get back?" I ask.
"You crawl on your stomach, until you get there," Gunny says, crawling out of the crater, and crawling back for the building line.
I follow his lead, and crawl with him through the bombed out landscape.
I embrace Tanner and Bork as we enter the abandoned building line, as it was called.
"We thought you were dead," Tanner says.
"By the looks of it," Bork comments, looking at my bloody uniform.
"Yea…I came close," I tell them.
"We wanted to go out and help, but we were pinned down by a sniper. Luckily, we got ourselves a pretty kick ass sniper," Tanner tells me.
"Who is he?" I ask.
"She's standing behind you," I hear a female voice say.
I turn around and see who our resident sniper was. She had short brown hair, her face covered in mud, brown eyes, and was maybe 5'4". Her rifle was a long and high powered looking weapon, but it had to carry some kickback. Her armor was also surprisingly bear. I did notice she had extra pads on her elbows, knees, legs, and arms, but beyond that, her armor did not look very heavy.
"Nice to meet you," I tell her, extending my hand. "Thanks for getting us back safely."
She looks down at my hand, then turns and walks away.
I lower my hand, then turn back to Tanner and Bork. "Rude."
"She's lost friends," Bork tells me.
"Yea, and she hates getting confused for a man," Tanner comments. "Probably why she corrected you."
"How good is she?" I ask.
"She killed a Mando sniper that was going to get into position to pick you guys off. So pretty good," Tanner tells me.
The three of us stop and turn when we hear "Everyone! I want all corporals and sergeants with me. Everyone else take positions!"
I notice that was Gunny giving the order, then turn back to Bork and Tanner.
"You better go see him," Tanner says. "We'll talk back at camp."
I nod at them, then run over to Gunny, to see only a small circle of people around him.
Two other corporals, and two sergeants. One had three stripes on his arm, while another had three stripes and a single underscore strip to it. I deduced therefore that Gunny was the highest ranking sergeant here, and since he was the one calling the meeting, I assumed lieutenant Lua was dead.
"All right, lieutenant is dead. Our objective is likely gone. We need to get back to base so we can resupply, and figure out what to do next," Gunny says.
"Mandalorians set up some scrambler. We can't get any messages to the base, only short-range comm's work," one of the sergeants says.
Gunny curses, then asks "Well, how did the squad hold up?"
"Lost an entire mortar and heavy weapons team to a damn Mandalorian flank attack," a corporal says.
"Overall losses?" Gunny asks.
"Well, 30% of us are dead, and another 10 are injured," the other corporal says.
"Tell everyone to gather their stuff up then. We leave in 15," Gunny tells them. "Fire team will lead, followed by me. Corporals, you are now taking command of you teams since I assume your sergeants are dead."
"And what about the others?"
"Divide them up among us. Cis, you're taking lead, you can have the pick," Gunny tells them.
They all nod, then walk off to their respective teams.
Gunny stands there, doing nothing, and I walk over to him. I wait till we are away, and ask "How do you know our objective is no longer there?"
"We've been here 36 hours," Gunny says. "If they needed us, they would've been attacked within that 36 hour time span, and destroyed, or pulled back."
I turn and look out at the massive, barren, wasteland of a field we had been crouching in earlier. "So…30% losses. Are those normal?" I ask.
"Not 30%," Gunny corrects me.
"What?" I ask.
"Not 30%. We aren't at base. We count those that get back to the base and can fight, when we get there. Not before."
"You think we'll be attacked again as we retreat?" I ask.
Gunny doesn't answer for several seconds, then tells me "Better look for some ammo. And get ready yourself. We leave in 10."
Gunny looks around, noticing no one was around him and Kell. He decides this would be a good time to try and get to know Kell better.
The area they were in seemed to be abandoned. Excellent place to carry on a conversation. A plaza was ahead though, so he would need to think of something fast. Gunny to think of things to say but comes up short. He wanted to ask if Kell had in fact crashed on this planet, or at least had undergone some training, but asking that now would not help. It would likely embarrass Kell. He had asked about Kell's family, but saw that was not a good conversation.
Gunny is torn from his thought when several rounds shoot out, and the two soldiers in front of him and Kell are ripped apart by the rounds. The rounds come from the left of the soldiers they hit.
Gunny grabs Kell and pushes him into the wall next to the edge of the building, and pulls out his rifle. He looks across the plaza and sees Sergeant Skik has taken cover behind something that must have been a fountain or statue, but has since toppled over, and provides minimal cover. Skik had with him only one other soldier.
I stare at the two soldiers that had just been hit, trying to not throw up again.
They had been walking side by side. The one on the left had several rounds hit him in the torso, and another in the head. He was lying on the ground, lifeless, and the burn and wounds from the blasters were still smoking a black smoke. I could smell the burning flesh in the air. The other soldier had been hit in the torso once, and the shoulder. His wounds, likely containing 2nd or 3rd degree burns, were also smoking, and he was screaming in agony. I notice blood begins seeping from the wound in his shoulder, and I look down at his side, and see fresh blood stains staining his uniform.
I look away, shutting my eyes.
It only took him 15 seconds to stop screaming. Those 15 seconds to him must have been an eternity of hell.
"Skik! You see where the shots came from?!" Gunny yells.
"Besides basic direction, no!" I hear in response.
I open my eyes, and take deep breathes. The rest of the soldiers were forming up behind me, and I try to gather my composure. I couldn't be seen vomiting.
Gunny looks behind him, then back to the front. "Ok, here is the plan. You three," Gunny commands, pointing to three soldiers, "Get over here. Fire and maneuver situation until we find that damn Mandalorian. Scouts didn't see him, so he must be using a stealth belt."
I look back at them, and they all nod their heads understanding. "You fire, Kell and I lead. Understand?" Gunny asks.
WE all nod our heads, and Gunny takes a deep breath. They pass by me and take positions just outside the area of sight near the wall, ready to jump out.
"Let's get this bastard," Gunny says. "GO!"
Gunny watches as the soldiers all spring from cover and begin firing.
Gunny stands up and runs forward, looking for something to take cover behind. He should've looked for something before doing this. This was an amateur mistake.
Gunny notices a building that slightly jets out compared to the others, and runs for it. It was a good 15 meters away.
He comes to a sliding halt at the buildings wall, and sees Kell come to a stop right beside him.
Gunny looks back at where the rest of the soldiers were, noticing two more dead bodies.
He curses under his breath, trying to come up with a plan. He couldn't see the Mandalorians. So he had no idea how many there were, where they were, what they had…this was a nightmare situation.
Gunny pull out his comm and turns it on. "Anyone got an idea where these bastards are?"
All that returns is static.
"So what do we do?" I ask him.
"We can't do anything until we find out where the hell they are," Gunny says, leaning close to me.
I take a deep breath, trying to calm myself. Each of these battles seemed to be terrifying. And no matter the situation, it didn't seem like I was on the winning side. Outnumbering the Mandalorians meant nothing. All the traditional ideas of war, or at least, what I assumed were traditional ideas for war, failed here.
If we outnumbered the Mandalorians, that was to be expected. But it was also expected it took three of us to kill one of them. We could never plan on having better weaponry or armor. The MAndaloriands always had that; that is why it was a 3-to-1 kill ratio. We might have mortars or some other fire power, but again…didn't account for much.
"So…we're just going to sit here until they show themselves?" I ask.
"No," Gunny tells me. He looks out at the field, then begins yelling into the comm.
"I want a specialist to go down the street, backtrack if they need to, and get a field of fire on this damn plaza. When they are in position, I want a fire team to move forward and take position at that destroyed statue in the plaza," Gunny says calmly into the comm.
"We wait until that happens, and get ready."
I grab my canteen, and slide down to my ass on the ground, and take a drink. If I died, I didn't want to be thirsty. The water was still cool and refreshing. It filled and cooled my hot and dry mouth, and moistened my dry hot throat.
I finish my drinking, then tap Gunny's leg, and hold out the canteen.
He looks at me, then takes it, and lifts it up, taking a long drink.
"How did you keep it cool?" he asks.
"Magic," I tell him.
He laughs at that, then says "Well, better get comfortable. IT might take a while for our sniper to get into position."
I had no idea how long it had been, but it felt like an eternity before the sniper reported in.
"Specialist in position Gunny," I hear a female voice say.
"All right, fire team, get ready to move up," Gunny says.
We both stand up, and check our rifles.
This was it.
I take a deep breath, and try to psych myself up.
"Fire team, move up!" Gunny yells.
Gunny then grabs me, and pulls me with him as we advance.
We both run forward through the plaza, until the sounds of the repeater from earlier ring out.
Gunny and I both drop to the ground.
I slowly crawl forward next to Gunny, while he also crawls forward, to what looked like the wall of an old fountain. Long since destroyed.
Then I hear the sounds of a rifle ring out four times.
By the time I catch up to Gunny, we are both under cover, and I hear the female specialist say "Target down."
I let out a breath, and say "Damn glad we have her."
"Don't ever discount any female warrior. They can kill you the same as any male," Gunny tells me.
I commit his words to memory, but push them out of my mind. I needed to focus.
I turn to Gunny and ask "Is it safe to move?"
"I don't know," he says. "Mando scouts work in groups anywhere from one to four."
"So what do we do?" I ask him.
Gunny looks around, then grabs his comm. "Specialist, get ready to look for fuzziness. We're popping sonics."
I was confused, and it must have shown to Gunny. "Grab a sonic grenade, second pouch on your right in the belt." He commands.
"Why the sonic?" I ask.
"They use stealth field generators. Frags and detonators, well, shot in the dark whether you hit them or not. But sonic will mess with their distortion, and make them appear fuzzy at a longer distance. Easier to catch, and more likely to catch," Gunny explains.
I nod my head, and grab the pin.
He nods at me, and we both pull the pins, and lob them out. I lob mine to the right, he lobs his to the left.
A few seconds later, the grenade goes off.
We wait several seconds before our specialist tells us "All clear gentlemen."
I let out a deep breath, then ask Gunny "So…is that normal?"
"A single Mando scout killing, oh….seven guys? In terms of ratio, yea. In terms of working alone, no, that is not very common," Gunny tells me. "But I don't understand the MAndalorians."
Gunny stands up, and looks around, then says "Come on, let's get back to the base."
I stand up, and look around.
This day had started with 200 of us. Over 200 for this particular unit.
Now, over 100 of us were dead. Of the number that survived, that didn't count wounded.
We get back to the base, and are ushered to the landing pads to be sent back to the fleet, and Gunny told me, likely redeployed to another front.
The ending of my first deployment with the Resistance was uneventful. No more fights, no shots fired, nothing. I was simply given a shuttle number, went to it, and given a seat.
On the shuttle, I was given a seat next to Gunny.
I would have preferred to sit near Tanner and Bork, but Gunny didn't like to let me out of his sight.
I look back at the planet we had been fighting on, and realize, I didn't even know its name.
Yet I had seen so many killed on it.
Gunny leans over and asks "You never told me your last name."
I look at him and say "You never told me your real name."
Gunny sits back in his chair, and says "Well played Kell. Well played."
I sit back, and close my eyes. "So…what happens now?" I ask.
"You crash landed on a planet halfway through a battle. So you know how they end," Gunny tells me.
"Yea, and?" I ask.
"Now you'll see how they begin," Gunny tells me.
Sanity walks out of the shuttle, Mark behind him.
Sanity was surprised to see Lieutenant Commander Issot greeting them. She was one the best tactical minds in the Resistance, and was the person his boss's boss answered to.
Sanity was of two minds with Issot. Sanity believed an officer, of any rank, if they are of fighting age, should be on the front line, leading their soldiers, and inspiring them. Sanity never let the formality of rank get in the way of leading his soldiers. If he was going to lead his entire regiment to its death, he wanted to die with them.
But he also understood why Issot didn't lead from the front. She was the best tactical genius he knew, and if he was her boss, he wouldn't let her risk her life on the front line. She is of more use devising tactics than trying to inspire soldiers.
Several other soldiers had walked out and past him and Mark. None of them paid Lt. Comm. Issot any attention. They were tired, and military discipline be damned at this point. Sanity couldn't blame them.
Sanity walks down, and salutes the Lt. Commander, with Mark following suite.
"Lieutenant Commander Issot," Sanity answers.
Issot returns the salute, and steps forward patting him on the shoulder. "We can dispense with the pleasantries boys, I am here to give you both some good news."
Sanity stares at Issot, and asks "What kind of good news?"
"Well, as you both likely know already, Brigadier Commander Kolsk was killed during the deployment. And we discussed it, and we believe that you, Sanity, should take his position."
Sanity stares at Issot.
Brigadier Commander at the age of 24, almost 25.
"Are you serious?" He asks.
"And you are allowed to choose your XO," Issot says slyly, and looks at Mark.
Mark bows his head, and answers "I am not looking for a promotion." His voice was just as broken and raspy as it was when he first spoke.
Issot looks at Mark, then at Sanity, cocking an eyebrow, showing she was clearly confused.
Sanity turns and asks Mark "So what is it you are looking for Mark?"
Mark steps away and turns to look out at the planet they had been fighting on.
Its cities were still on fire, burning infernos blackened by ash and smoke in the atmosphere.
"I want to kill," Mark answers.
AUTHORS NOTE: I do have material for Sanity and Mark written, but their full stories are not included in this story. Their stories are written elsewhere, but I can't publish them without giving away massive spoilers.