II. Into the Fire
It was around 0700 and my men and I were making our way towards the "enemy" encampment. By walking, I mean, we were trying our hardest to be quiet and stalk. It wasn't going to well, it seems that god had cursed me by giving me the most incompetent personnel on God's green Earth. Baxter was taking up point and failing miserably at it, falling all over the place hardly keeping his composure under the false pressure to perform; Johansson was making so much noise in the rear I was sure that we would be made before even seeing the other squad; Costello and Simmons were in-front of Johansson while myself and Ridder were on the either side of the main line.
The forest was mostly bland, with drab green colors and the sunshine bearly peaking through the canopy. It was damn hot for this early in the morning, if only the pencil pushers in Washington could see the affects of Global Warming first hand, they would think differently about things.
We continued on, moving slowly looking for signs of the enemy. We hadn't seen anything particularly out of the ordinary all morning, which was especially strange, since these SF boys were more than up to the task of kicking our asses and having an early breakfast. It wasn't until around 0730 we saw smoke rising.
Baxter looked back at me as I gave the signal to crouch low and huddle. As everyone came into the tight group, I thought about our next move.
"Everyone, stay sharp. I am sure this is some kind of trap set-up for us to fall into. I have never seen a tactic like this, but just to make sure I want everyone ready. We are going to inspect the source of this fire, but very carefully," I said.
I pressed the send button on my radio as I called back to HQ. "HQ, this is Dirty Dog, do you read?"
"This is HQ, go ahead Dirty Dog," came the reply.
"There is smoke rising from the general direction of the enemies HQ. Is everything alright and shall we proceed with the mission?" I questioned.
"That is affirmative Dirty Dog. Communications have been severed for the duration of this war-game. Proceed with caution, Over and Out," came the staticy voice over my comms set.
"Great, more bullshit to deal with. Alright, we are going to approach the base. I want a staggered formation with a 5 meter spread. Keep your eyes and ears open gentlemen and good hunting."
Everyone spread out and slowly started to approach the smoke. Our field of vision was limited as the smoke was filling up the trees, a perfect place to ambush us. Those damn SF guys were going to start a Forest fire if they weren't careful, what the hell was their deal anyway. They didn't need to go to all this trouble to get us; we are not much compared with their strategies and dedication to the unit.
As we closed in on the source of the fire, I knew something was terribly wrong. We stepped out into the clearing where the fire was raging and all we saw was a tattered and destroyed base camp. The faces of my comrades were priceless. They couldn't believe the scene that was displayed in front of them. The tents were in tatters with blood sprayed on the ground.
"HQ, this is Dirty Dog, come in over?" I spoke into my comms set. There was nothing but static, great this is all that I needed.
"Fucking $10,000 hammers and wrenches but they can't afford a decent fucking communication system," I spoke aloud sounding nervous.
Quickly I ordered everyone to, "Spread out among the tents and look for wounded / dead / survivors. I want a sitrep ASAP."
I moved towards the nearest tent and glanced inside. There was nothing out of the ordinary except for the obvious holes in the tent. I moved towards one of the crates and opened it. The crate contained live ammunition, which was quite strange considering this was a training exercise. I returned to my previous spot were my squad was already waiting.
"Nothing sir, not a goddamned thing. All we found were weapons and more bloodstains. What makes this even more strange is the fact that their weapons are loaded with live ammunition. What do we do now?" Johansson asked.
"What the fuck is going on here? Alright this is what we are going to do. Dump all your exercise equipment; we have officially crossed the line between exercise and hostile actions. Get geared up with live ammunition and leave anything that isn't absoleutely essential. I want us to be light just incase we have to move in a hurry," I spoke to my men.
Ridder looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face, "Uhhh Sarge, should I drop our medical supplies?"
I stared at him with the, are you a retard of course you shouldn't! look. He quickly scampered away and began collecting ammunition. Whomever did this couldn't be far off and they weren't going to get away.