Goddamn sun…
If it wouldn't have been for the throbbing pain in his head, SunTzu would probably not have moved but the sunlight falling through the window shutters directly onto his face forced him to move.
Eyes crossed to small slits he looked around, every movement sending another sting of pain through his skull.
Wait… this is not my apartment!
Shit, please don't let me have done something wrong yesterday night!
His eyes flew open, but the shock of the cognation was stronger than the feeling of pain that followed and his hand immediately reached next to him only to drop into nothing. So, he was on a sofa and, thank god, alone. Or was he?
He looked down, a wool blanket was draped over him and he was wearing a tank top and shorts. Not being naked was a good sign that he didn't do something wrong yesterday.
Closing his eyes again, and one palm against his temple to ease the pain SunTzu sat up.
He groaned as the pain decupled because he was not in the horizontal anymore.
After a moment he opened the eye that was not covered by his hand.
Hey… that's Michiru's and Haruka's place! How the fuck did I end up here?
While he still struggled to open his eyes, someone came closer.
"Looks like at least one of you two is still alive. Bonjour, mon petite boche."
SunTzu was glad that Michiru's voice was so soft and pleasant. Haruka's dirty, loud british gibberish probably would had made his head explode and scatter it's content all over the living room. He turned his head towards her voice, slowly, it would be a shame to mess up Michiru's art and the nice flooring with his brains exploding out of his head.
A silk robe the color of her hair on she stood there with a cup of coffee and watched him. Of course she was looking perfect, even thought she probably she just had gotten up as well. Her hair was a bit more wavy as usual and a fresh hickey on her neck was visible but other than that she just could have changed clothes and went out for a high-society brunch. Okay, to be honest, it was Michiru, she could walk out with her night gown, or a potato bag, on and still would look more grace and beauty than anybody else.
Deciding to intentionally ignore Haruka's marking on her neck, and the bruise which outline was visible on her left chest, SunTzu finally fully opened his eyes, while in the meantime she had crossed the distance to him. Standing in front of the sitting SunTzu she slung her empty hand around his neck and pulled his head onto her stomach before she began to gently stroke the back of his head.
SunTzu slung his arms around her and reciprocated the embrace before he closed his eyes again and groaned.
"Ohayou." Inhaling her scent and enjoying her warmth his lips curled up a bit and while she took another sip of her Café Crème he asked. "How did I end up here?"
"Although I think it was partly to keep me in suspense to tease me further as I was more than ready, and willing, to ravage her, Haruka decided to take you with us, as you were sitting totally drunk at the bar."
Hand still around her, SunTzu put his head in his neck and looked up to her.
"Was I alone?"
"Oh, it were you and a very high amount of self-pity and case of the broken heart."
She shook her head, whirling her teal locks around.
"You were singing something like "She got me up all night, all I'm singing is love songs" in the car."
A tired smile rushed over SunTzu's face, that song pretty much was autobiographical. Thank goodness he was here and had Haruka and Michiru around to ease the psychological hangover.
"What you're voice was lacking your embodiment of the song made up." A smile appeared on her face as well. "She really turned your head, hm?"
SunTzu laid his forehead back onto her stomach and nodded. He couldn't see the small motion of her head but as she shook it in amusement and joy but he heard her overly dramatic sigh.
"Take a sip, it will be good for you." She handed him her coffee. "I'll see after Miss Rockstar in the meantime."
Michiru noticed how he furrowed his brows, so she explained it.
"After our performance yesterday, and one too many drinks, Kumada-San and Haruka talked about music. And since my worse half is also a drummer and Kumada-San plays the guitar, they decided to hang out soon and jam with each other." She sighed again. "And then our daughter appeared and chimed in. As she plays bass, they now have decided to form a band. And before you ask, after hearing you sing yesterday, no, please, do not apply as their lead vocalist."
In that moment something which could have been Haruka under it's layer of eye rings appeared in the room. And it began to broadly grin when it saw SunTzu was awake.
"Hey Fritz, did you already heard it?" Her voice was strained but Haruka didn't care. "I'm in a band now."
Michiru sighed, she really had hoped Haruka had dismissed the drunk idea.
"Fabeuleux, she still remembers."
Of course Michiru wouldn't have sent her frère home without having an extensive hangover breakfast/ brunch. And of course it wouldn't have been Michiru's way if she wouldn't had taken both her lover and her best male friend out for a sophisticated rooftop terrace place.
To SunTzu's surprise Minako, extending her walk of shame, and Hotaru, who casually flew AICA over and let the AI drop here at the spot, joined in as well. Minako, being a professional at what she was doing was wearing a simple summer dress she had wisely stored in the tote bag that she had taken with her yesterday to the hotel of a certain acting couple.
"There's other.. uhm... stuff in that bag as well, so don't let Hotaru take a glance in it." She had told SunTzu after she sat down next to him and put the large bag beside her, which gave SunTzu another thrust of headache as he thought about what could that be, as one never could knew with Minako. After the actual food, with Michiru being happy that although her daughter and her lover only had talked about their new band pipe dream, Hotaru at least hadn't brought her bass guitar along, they sat there for coffee, or Mimosa in Minako's case. The blonde had her mobile phone in her hand and was apparently busy with social media and chatting before she suddenly took a furtive look around and then let her mobile phone secretly disappear under the table while she thought nobody was watching. Nevertheless SunTzu heard the click when she took a picture of under her dress and he shot her a rather shocked look.
"Hoeing with the stars." She told him with a shiteating grin and he slowly nodded one time before turning his still dumbfounded look away.
A few moments later Minako, texting with five people at the same time, leaned over to SunTzu again.
"Hey SunTzu. Catmiral Whitefur wants to see you at the base this afternoon. He told me he has something important to talk with you about."
SunTzu, clinging on to the glass of fresh cherry juice in his hands, shot her a questioning look. What could Artemis want from him?
"With all due respect, Admiral, but I have to object. We all know that I can make more of a difference in AICA's cockpit. And apart from that, who will take care of First Lieutenant Meiou?"
"Captain, with your… aggressive ways you will be the perfect leader for an infantry unit. And may I remind you that you were not only a firm supporter but also more or less the one who brought the idea to Senator Hino. So I do think it's only alright that you lead and teach a platoon of rookie soldiers."
And with that SunTzu knew it was futile to try to get out of this.
And so it was ruled, SunTzu would, at least temporarily, switch roles from pilot to leader of an infantry unit, more specifically a platoon, with him 43 soldiers. With the newly acquired founding through the Volunteer-Forces-Bill and hundreds of volunteers from all over Earth, Third Battalion had been enlarged with a fourth company. Unfortunately officers, especially the ones with field experience were missing, and so, still sticking with Rei's and SunTzu's idea to let experienced soldiers lead and teach the new inexperienced troops, alternatives had been searched for. And, since he was an officer and had combat experience on the ground as well as training to lead small units, SunTzu had been chosen to become a platoon leader. Usually a Captain would lead a company of soldiers but for this SunTzu didn't have the experience either and so it would be a learning experience for him as well.
The military would not have been the military if apart from the ridiculous amount of paperwork, at least the war sped some things up, otherwise SunTzu probably would have had to wait eight months for his platoon without being a pilot. Nonetheless he also had to undergo a medical check.
Since Setsuna still was in the United States and Cilghal on Coruscant, this meant that SunTzu was scheduled to do a basic infantry health and fitness test with the other commanding officer of the medical service, Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Urs Schneider. Of course SunTzu had met the doctor several times but never had he been examined by him. The swiss man in his mid-forties was one hell of an emergency surgeon and also a luminary when it came to rebuilding. He was the man you wanted to have around when you got shot into the face. And although he hadn't much of a military background, except mandatory draft service, Dr. Schneider had seen it's fair share of battlefields before as he used to travel war zones when he was younger for Médecins Sans Frontières and treat the people affected by combat. If Schneider wouldn't have been gay, SunTzu would definitely been jealous as the man worked so closely together with Setsuna. A thought that only got enforced when SunTzu did his checkup with the doctor. Apart from being a handsome man, SunTzu had to give him that without objection, the man also had humor and charisma and so, when SunTzu left the medical wing he mentally crossed himself not to have compete against that man on top of his own inability to win Setsuna over.
Setsuna…
SunTzu wondered how she was in that small moment in between his checkup and rushing on to a meeting with the Bataillon Leader of Fourth Bataillon.
It even hadn't been days since he had seen her the last time and she maybe was out of sorts with him, but he missed her. He missed just looking at this flawless goddess with her unbelievable long dark-green hair, hearing her deep, intelligent voice, seeing the knowledge behind her ruby eyes. And those legs he could stare at for… forever.
Damn… I miss her...
Unfortunately he was too busy to daydream more about her, although that for sure would have been better than all this stupid organization of his change of roles.
A few days, and tons of paper work and meetings, later the day of truth finally came, where SunTzu would meet his new platoon.
He arrived at the barracks, a non-commissioned-officer, a gunnery sergeant, a Latin-American with native roots, his weathered face making him look older than he actually was, waited there for him.
SunTzu had arrived in one of the Humvees of the motor pool, the driver, a young soldier with thick accent, had wished him good luck and lots of fun in the infantry. Of course without any hint of sarcasm.
But how bad a bit of marching with 30 kg in every climate with a bunch of hyper aggressive adolescents could be compared to loving a demigoddess that despised you or your track record of fucking everything you care for up and additionally destroying a solar system as well.
The last days had been long and enduring and the stress and heartbreak were catching up, SunTzu sensed. Nonetheless he hoped to at least give some advice to the young soldiers under him now. One of the few things he had done right was making a starfighter pilot out of Hotaru. Of course she was a natural talent but he fancied himself that he at least had done a part there as well. Yesterday after the end of their duty, he had met Makoto for a beer and asked what made the difference between a good infantry leader, because if someone knew, then the mother of Crystal Tokyo's Special Forces.
Show them you care and let them know you're one of them, were her leads.
Let's see how he could play that out, if everything was shitty than SunTzu was at least willing to be a good platoon leader.
But right now, as far as he could read the look on the Gunny's face, his oldest platoon member and number two in command wasn't exactly happy to see him. Yeah no, that was obvious, no need to tap in the Force to see that.
Of course, the Gunny, thirty-three years old and from Colombia, veteran of all combat operations of the light infantry component of Taskforce Sol as well as the war in the jungles of his home country, probably had wanted a real infantry officer and not a pilot. And SunTzu couldn't resent the Gunnery Sergeant for this, especially since he was the only one of the platoon, except SunTzu, who had seen combat with Taskforce Sol.
SunTzu got out of the vehicle and the NCO took a step forwards to salute.
"Gunnery Sergeant Ortiz, Sir. I'll be your second-in-command and platoon sergeant."
SunTzu reciprocated the salute.
"At ease, Gunnery Sergeant." He said and ended the greeting before he extended his hand to Ortiz. Ortiz looked SunTzu in the eye, face full of skepticism but then took the hand and shook it.
"Captain SunTzu, nice to meet you Gunny."
The Gunny had a a very firm handshake and he spoke up after they both had withdrawn their hands.
"Captain, permission to speak freely."
"Go on."
"You might be a hero up in the sky and the stars and with an occasional visit to those pipe hitters of the Wolves, but we are the infantry. No offense but I wish they would have given me a soldier and not a pilot."
The man's mood was visibly abysmal but again SunTzu couldn't take that amiss.
"First of all, thank you for your honest frankness. I can understand you very well but you know how the military works. Please trust me when I say I will give my best to be a worthy platoon leader."
"I'm afraid your best might not be enough to lead this warriors into battle. Sir."
This begins wonderful… If my second-in-command is already like that, I just can't wait to see the rest of the platoon then…
SunTzu fell quiet for a moment, he had expected the first meeting to be bad but not so bad. But he had to keep a straight face and even if they might have been all against him, he still was their superior and leader, popular or not. His mind switched in auto pilot, if he would go through his inner list of things to take care of, the Gunny maybe at least saw that SunTzu did have knowledge of what he was doing.
"Acknowledged. Anyways, how about you show me the localities and fill me in."
"Affirmative. Captain."
While SunTzu inspected the training grounds, the row of barracks of the company and the drill ground, Ortiz let him know about his biggest concern. The platoon was not bad, although mostly inexperienced, only a few Corporals and two of the sergeants who were squad leaders had combat experience at all. At least they all had their training behind them and knew in theory what they were doing. Ortiz let SunTzu knew that it now was time to prepare the platoon for deployment or rather combat.
What SunTzu didn't see was that a group of soldiers from his platoon were observing him from their position near the barracks where they were supposed to be unloading supplies from a military truck. Scattered behind the truck, some standing, some sitting on the crates they were loading off they began to talk about the man that was with Ortiz. Of course they knew who that was with their platoon sergeant.
"That's him with the Gunny, right?"
"SunTzu. That's his name."
"Doesn't look Asian tho."
"It's an Alias."
"An Alias? Da fuck!? What's his real name?"
"Spent one hour googling and researching that guy, found next to nothing of his background. Distinguished Starfighter Pilot tho." A young caucasian soldier wearing military issued glasses said with a shrug.
"A pilot? Fuck that!"
"Yeah no wonder a Captain just gets one platoon. Probably has zero experience on a battlefield. Just circling in safety above it."
"Heard he's one of those who often fly over the bay and do these crazy stunts."
"A show off? We're fucked. Better get some life insurance and write a letter home then."
The guy with the glasses shrugged again.
"Had something with our Galactic Senator tho." This of course made heads turn.
"That hot Hino Chick? Dayumn."
"Yeah, fucking pilots. Getting all the chicks. It's use who marches around in the dirt and gets lit up. Pilots are POGs."
"Now that you say it, I remember their pics. They were quite the thing online."
"Oh yeah. Lowkey I shipped them."
"Didn't he also do PR-Ops with Minako Aino? Just a few weeks ago."
"Probably fucked her as well. Lucky Motherfucker. Like I said, fucking pilots."
"I heard he's with the Jedi."
"And I heard, that he's quite the war hero."
"War hero? Funny how you say career soldier. We're so fucked."
"Heard he was involved with that mysterious destruction of that one system in the mid rim a few weeks ago."
"Oh shit, that's that guy that went to trial, right?"
"C'mon you guys, he's really a fucking war hero."
"Oh, someone got the hots for our PL. Want me to introduce you, Davies?"
"Fuck you, mate. My brother told me he's one of the good guys. Not afraid to get out the cockpit. Even helped him to evac some WIA with UXO around."
"That guy? Ain't no way a fly boy, especially one with a starfighter would do that kind of suicidal shit."
"I think he's a handsome man." A Latin American woman, a few years older than the others said.
"Yo, that's some Barrack's Bunny shit. I never thought to hear that from you Ramirez."
"Oh, I sure wouldn't mind getting my locker searched by him." A younger blonde woman chimed in now.
"You tell me girl." A very kempt, young obviously Iberian man said.
"As if you got a fucking chance, Lopez. Get back to try your luck with Blanchet."
"Oh, if he does both ways let me know. That French dialect is a major turn on." The blonde woman replied to that.
"Nika, you're such a fucking bang stick. Probably would fuck your way up to Sergeant." A broad, muscular young man said, it was the one who had been talking the worst about their new platoon leader.
"You're just jealous Animal, because contrary to Captain Handsome here you'll never get the deepthroat-and-prostata-massage-at-the-same-time-treatment. Should have become an officer."
"Animal an officer? Since when they let primates study?"
"Fuck y'all."
"Ey Nika, 'bout that double treatment you mentioned." A Māori told the blonde in a very flirty tone.
"Liži mi pičku, Tohu."
"Anytime, Ataahua. Anytime."
While parts of his new platoon bad-, or good-mouthed, him, SunTzu pretty quickly came to get to know one of the Gunnery Sergeant Ortiz's biggest concerns. Apparently it was a bureaucratic merry-go-round to properly get the platoon equipped and armed with more than the most basic stuff as the procurement of more experienced platoons, and companies, had priority and the world's, and Galaxy's, arms companies couldn't deliver fast enough.
But for SunTzu that meant a chance to prove himself to Ortiz.
"Give me one hour, Gunny. I'll be back. You might want to tell the platoon to form up at the drill ground in 65 minutes."
He told the skeptically looking non-commissioned officer after hearing in detail what was going on. And then SunTzu raised his communicator, the old one, not the Rolex, no need to flex on the first day, to his mouth.
"AICA, Darling. Sent someone to pick me up at the barracks of Delta Company."
"On it, Boss."
Fifty six minutes later the Humvee that had brought and picked SunTzu up before, with the same private as driver, dropped him in front of the barracks again. The driver couldn't help but smile when it had only took the quarter of an hour until SunTzu had requested pick up again as he thought, the pilot and officer wouldn't stand his new assignment.
Gunny Ortiz was already waiting for SunTzu and hadn't expected that SunTzu would be back that fast. Or at all, as he was partly expecting SunTzu to get back to the HQ and file in for his transfer.
But he was wrong, a smiling SunTzu handed him a list and when Ortiz briefly browsed that piece of paper his eyes widened and he looked at the smiling SunTzu dumbfounded.
"We get them tomorrow. I hope you're okay with that list."
"I… Sir, how did you manage to do that? Even Alpha Company couldn't manage to get their hands on such brandnew stuff that fast."
"I have to be honest with you Gunny. It was mostly luck as the new delivery just came in. Other than that, me and the head of the armory are buddies and he owed me one because I sometimes call the German manufacturers up for him."
Ortiz stared at the grinning SunTzu for another moment, maybe just maybe, the man was worthy of his reputation in parts of the Taskforce.
Ten minutes later the platoon had been marshaled, three rows of thirteen soldiers each, the squad leaders in front, and another row with two soldiers, Sergeant Sam Jones, the platoon's medic and Lance Corporal Rhian Davies, the platoon's radio and communications operator.
Curious eyes were directed at SunTzu, while Gunnery Sergeant Ortiz announced that the platoon was fully assembled.
"Thank you, Gunnery Sergeant Ortiz." The German Pilot, dressed in his olive service uniform, said and took a step forwards. For a moment he let his gaze wander of his platoon before he began to speak.
"Good Morning, Second Platoon. I am Captain SunTzu and I am your new platoon leader. I'm looking forward to make you fit for deployment and going to battle with you. Tomorrow we begin our training activities. Until then I am sure you have orders you have to carry out, but I would like the squad leaders to stay. So, without taking further away from your time, dismissed."
Some soldiers exchanged surprised glances with each other, everybody had expected more. More information about the Captain, more motivational talk. But after a moment the soldiers returned to their duties.
The three Squad Leaders, Staff Sergeant Singer, Canadian, Squadleader of the first squad, Sergeant Kruger, twenty-six year old, south-african, Squadleader of second squad and Sergeant Sato, third squad's leader and native of Osaka, walked over to SunTzu.
The Guardian of Guardians greeted everyone of them with a handshake and asked them a few questions about their background and military record.
After that the three men left and SunTzu was alone with Ortiz again, while his platoon pursued their assigned work.
"Gunny, if you don't mind, I wouldn't mind to get to know your background or at least your service record. And I could need a coffee. Or are you more of a tea guy?"
"Sir. To your information, I'm not your friend you're doing a coffee party with." The Colombian said bluntly.
"I'm fully aware of that, Gunnery Sergeant. Nonetheless I'd like to know at least where the man who has to help me making this bunch of kids survive the next few months was fighting at on Rago and on Bestine."
Ortiz fixed his gaze at SunTzu's face for a moment.
"Coffee. As Colombian it's of course coffee for me."
"That was weird. I mean, it's cool he didn't tell us his life story. But not even some M-O."
"Or any plans. Just, tomorrow we beginn training."
"I like a mysterious man."
"You like every man, Lopez. Insatiable fag that you are."
"It's because I see beauty in all of the lord's creation, Animal. Plus that sounded like you wanna come out of your closet and get some of this insatiable hunk."
"Fuck you, Lopez."
"Think we can get some info out of the SLs when they get back."
"I'll ask Sarge Sato."
"Then do so."
"You guys good here without me?"
"Get going Thai. Hurry up to get some Intel about the Captain and we carry those damn crates without ya."
And the next day it began.
SunTzu was at the drill ground at dawn and lead his platoon to a morning run. Maybe not the best way to say hello but at least he got an update on the fitness of his platoon. And fit they were, good thing he had been training with Haruka lately and was back in his prime.
In the afternoon the arms of the platoon arrived via a truck and the men and women of second platoon were very happy with their new tools of the trade.
The next three weeks were filled with training and exercise, from running over the base, marching and rucking exercises to visits at the shooting range, SunTzu, Gunnery Sergeant Ortiz and the squad and fireteam leaders shaped the platoon in the best condition that was possible.
The soldiers of the platoon bonded more and more and especially the harder exercises like the various obstacle courses or exercises in the exercise area of Crystal Tokyo. SunTzu doing his best, helping the ones with deficits to overcome them, while also closely listening to Ortiz and the other veterans not only made him a better infantry leader but also gained him the respect of his men and women.
Soon SunTzu could give orders to his squad leaders and they would pass it down to the soldiers and fulfill the orders.
It was something new for SunTzu to stay back with Ortiz, Lance Corporal Davies, his Radio Telephone Operator and the platoon's medic, Sergeant Jones, but soon he adjusted to it. The platoon was made up with soldier from all over the world, such as Private Choi, a Southern Korean or Private Elrod, called Animal, the gunner wielding the medium machine gun of the platoon, or Corporal Ramirez, one of the three females of the platoon and a fireteam leader.
At one of these days SunTzu was adjusting and checking the platoon's radios with Lance Corporal Davies.
The twenty-two year old Rhian Davies, a young brunette, came from Wales. She was a wizard with the radios and communication devices and so good that SunTzu even taught her some JTAC processes.
While SunTzu and her worked, the rest of the platoon was cleaning and checking their equipment as well under the wakeful eyes of the Gunny, the pilot temporarily turned infantry officer asked his subordinate a question that he had kept asking himself for a long time.
"Say Lance Corporal, are you aware that there is another Davies in the Taskforce? Is that a common name in the UK?"
"You mean Sergeant Owen Davies?"
"Yes, I think that's his name. He's with EOD."
The young woman with her freckled face smiled at SunTzu.
"It's so so common in Wales. But that's not why there's two Davies in the Taskforce. Owen is my brother."
SunTzu's gaze showed surprise as he looked at her.
"It's actually why I joined the Forces of Crystal Tokyo. Owen is our hero and I want to follow into his footprints."
It was enthusiasm like this, the gung-ho mentally from a lot of the soldiers and their characters, from always talking shit like Privates Tohu and Elrod to the quiet but always helpful Sergeants Jones and Satos, and it sure made for some moments. One time for example Lance Corporal Nika Marić, a twenty-year old from Croatia, straight up asked him if there was someone he was seeing lately. And then, after SunTzu politely told her that his private life was not a subject they should talk about in their professional relationship. Which she than used as possibility to ask him out to talk about things outside of their professional relationship. SunTzu declined politely which than lead her to ask him if the rumors about him and Minako Aino were true and that they had something going on. Rumors that definitely were wrong. It took a while but SunTzu made it clear that neither the rumors were true nor that he was interested in the slightest to have something with a subordinate and in the end Marić left. What SunTzu didn't know was that when she left, the Lance Corporal was pretty sure that there was someone. Too bad for her but a very good point for gossip within the platoon.
After three long weeks of training and growing together a last three day long maneuver was hold. SunTzu, who had even spent his free time with making himself a better platoon leader, be it with learning, physical exercising or at the range, was absolutely sure that his platoon would crush the exercise. Third Battalion was competing against First Battalion, each side with some support from other assets. Between the light and the airborne infantry units of the Taskforce there always had been competition so the exercise was very important for both units to show the other, who really was the better of both.
The thought-of-scenario began on even ground as both battalions were inserted onto the fictional battlefield. Both forces had to fight for a couple of points around the 30 square kilometers of training ground, among them a fake village and a hill, that made for a landmark. To distinguish them, Third Batallion had been marked with yellow tape on their arms, while First Battalion had blue tape around
The Platoon and it's leader weren't the first on their side to enter the fictional battlefield and their insertion was pretty unspectacular in three trucks and not as fast and combat ready as the first units of the battalion who had rushed into the combat zone in armored humvees and MRAPs and air support above them.
The platoon disembarked at a makeshift battalion command post at a storage facility on the training grounds.
First simulated firefights, the soldiers carried blank ammunition and had training lasers on the front of their barrels as well as detectors on their gear, had been reported over the battalion's radio net when SunTzu and Gunny Ortiz walked up to their company commander, a Japanese Captain named Watanabe. The Captain had their orders, setting up a position five kilometers away and then waiting for more orders and five minutes later the whole company, packed with their whole gear was on it's way, Second Platoon in the middle of it.
The first 40 hours of the field exercise were rather unspectacular for the platoon as they were either taking over security or moving, mostly marching of course, to other positions. The first two battalions on the other side were pretty heavily involved in fighting, at least that was what they heard over radio, with Davies becoming their de-facto news anchor. Of course after the first day it began to rain, heavily and soon a great lot of positions they took over from other units to turn security had turned into mud and puddles of water.
At least the Sergeant and SunTzu could often procure some hot beverages and food for the platoon as both veterans knew people, and were known as veterans, in the supplies unit. As it was standard, SunTzu was the one who handed out meals for his troops first and then had his own share.
And then, SunTzu and the other Platoon Leaders had been ordered to Captain Watanabe. Alpha and Bravo Companies had been roughed up pretty much and two of three platoons of Charlie Company , who had overtaken the combat patrols so far, had been sent out to enforce them, which meant Delta Company, or rather First and Second Platoon as the Third one, still not at authorized strength, would be kept in reserve and stay with the battle-hardened Captain, would overtake the combat patrols.
SunTzu, accompanied by Ramirez's fireteam returned to his platoon, which had set up an overwatch position on a patch of forest.
Gunny Ortiz immediately moved up to SunTzu.
"What's the sitch, Captain?"
"Alpha and Bravo are getting fucked pretty bad, Charlie is enforcing them now. We're overtaking combat patrols along First Platoon now." SunTzu broke the new orders approximately down for his second-in-command and then walked into the middle of his in position lying platoon, straightened himself up and yelled.
"Second Platoon, on your feet! We finally get to do some real work!"
Lead in the front by their Platoon Sergeant, who had learned tracking in his time in the Colombian jungles and was one hell of a scout, the platoon headed out. Two hours later they had their first contact and took out a squad sent out to scout from the Bravo Company of First Battalion. The guys from First Battalion looked pretty salty as they hadn't seen the ambush coming and although carefully moving, they had right walked into an ambush, with two of them even taken out by simulated melee kills.
After that Second Platoon was ordered to hold and fortify their position as the Air Assault Battalion sure knew what it meant, that their scouts couldn't be reached anymore.
The rest of the scout's platoon plus their sister platoon fell soon after running into a wall of blank fire. SunTzu had been right to let the three squads differ with two being lighter and equipped with light machine guns, brand new FN Minimi Mk 3 in 5.56, straight from the factory in Belgium, and a more or less weapons squad with a German MG3 Medium Machine Gun, manned by Animal, and of course modified by him to fire faster. Third Squad also had the main anti-tank and anti-air weapons of the platoon.
The mixture of heavier firepower that nailed the enemy down into one position and two groups flanking him proofed lethal in the maneuver. Second Platoon had zero casualties while taking out an enemy formation twice it's size.
Alone that made SunTzu proud of his three girls and his boys.
One of the men stood out in his aggressiveness and speed, nineteen year old Private Choi from South Korea and he earned a new nickname that afternoon as Private Dunn told that Choi's rushing into the enemy's flank was pretty fucking gangster. It took two hours and the Private Choi had a new nickname with in the unit and was called Pac now.
Soon after the successful defense of their position, the rest of the Company joined with Second Platoon and together they headed out for a counter attack.
At night and after supporting the assault of first platoon on the mockup of a farmhouse, one of the control points of the maneuver, and the rest of the enemy's company they had engaged, the company, tired, cold and dirty, but still high in spirits because of their achievements settled down around the farm.
A large barn made for a nice cover to get a few hours of sleep in and in the morning a more or less rested Delta Company warded off a light attack, it even had stopped to rain for a bit.
News from battalion came in, Alpha and the parts of Charlie augmenting it and the enemy formations they were facing had fought themselves to a stand still and now both sides tried to conflict casualties on each other with fire support, meaning simulated artillery and air strikes.
Which meant it was up to Delta Company to make for an attack.
Leapfrogging with each other, two platoons headed out and made their way. Securing each other meant it took it's sweet time but at least they arrived at whole, although apart from some skirmishes they hadn't found much opposition. It seemed that the First Battalion concentrated it's forces rather for a breakthrough on the main front then trying to attack but although they had more air support from their gunships the main front held.
A few kilometers away from the left flank of the main front, the company got into a defensive positions and patrols were sent out.
One hour later, around four hours before the end of the exercise, Sergeant Ramirez's fireteam, augmented with Lance Corporal Evans, the platoon's best marksman, and Gunnery Sergeant Ortiz found an enemy headquarter and resupply point, positioned in a few huts. At least sixty persons were there and even two gunships who were getting rearmed there.
The company, or what was left of it, as the third platoon had been left back to guard the control point at the farm, was split in two, with Second Platoon leading the attack augmented by a a squad from First Platoon and the company commander and his staff.
The village had one side close by to a forest and it became apparent again that while First Battalion owned the open fields, Third Battalion owned the forests.
It took a few hours for everyone to sneak in but with the expertise of the Gunny and the skills of the soldiers they could come into a good position for an attack.
At least until the gunships left the FARP and we're replaced by four others, two of them even flying patrol around the base. Apparently the enemy had noticed that a whole company of the Third was missing from the main front.
It was very unfortunate and the gunships could very much obliterate the light infantry in the open in a matter of seconds, but SunTzu still had an ace up his sleeve.
A few hundred meters away from the enemy base he told Lance Corporal Davies to switch radio channels to a specific frequency, to one of the assigned air assets of the Battalion. Due reasons SunTzu had priority access to this one but hadn't used it yet as it usually had been busy keeping the skies open for the whole battalion. Of course he could have used his chronometer as well but things had been going to well to start cheating now.
"Whatever you hear now, don't be surprised." He told the young woman as he picked up the radio speaker.
"Charlie 2 Actual to Firefly, how copy?"
"Firefly, reading you loud and clear, Su…Delta-2-Actual." Hotaru's voice came out of the speaker, her voice not completely keeping it's neutral tone.
"Copy, I need status and availability."
"Up in the sky where we belong, doing CAP over our headquarters. We've been blowing out over a dozen gunships from the sky the last sixty hours." AICA now came in.
"You need us over your position? Danger Close CAS?" Hotaru took on.
"I got a pair of pesky gunships denying us an attack. Can you guys ping my position?"
It took a few seconds but AICA came back in.
"Gotcha, it will mean drawing a lot of enemy fire but we could make it. Oh and be advised that we're officially Callsign Lunar-Three."
SunTzu eyebrows shot up.
"Repeat that."
"I say again, the future heiress of our beloved kingdom is sitting on the backseat, getting a first hand glance of the abilities of her troops. It's an officially authorized approval of the troops."
Yeah sure… Chibiusa just wanted to fly around with Hotaru and probably nagged her mother and father so long until they agreed to let her do so…
At least it was safer than being in the cockpit in actual combat though, SunTzu then thought. Everyone loved flying in AICA, after all.
He shook his head with a smile and then grabbed the speaker again.
"How long do you guys take to get here?"
"Uhm… with evading enemy fire, five minutes and the sky is clear." Hotaru answered after a moment.
SunTzu always had loved the unique sound of AICA's totally overpowered engines but today was one of they days were they sounded like the angels singing.
Four minutes after their conversation the two IDTs flying over the enemy base had to leave the exercise area, marked as downed. And Hotaru and AICA, although evading sporadic fire and the occasional lock from manpads weren't done yet. Knowing that SunTzu was down there, his unit opening fire on the enemy right now as well, they flew turned in again for a bit of close air support.
That was until the simulated enemy's biggest aerial threat appeared.
SunTzu was on the line with AICA and the girls when the AI suddenly announced something.
"Taru-Chan, your parents are here."
"Uh-oh... Guess, we better take care of them then."
Haruka and Michiru were the reason, the bulk of Sol's Third Battalion had to march most of the time near the front now, as they had so often pounced down on their vehicles and also simulated-destroyed a great lot of their air assets. Over the almost three days Hotaru and the two of her three foster parents had played a cat-and-mouse-game with each other, and both still tried to get the other.
And SunTzu would of course support his Firefly against his two best friends in this exercise.
He turned to his own radio to reach the squad and called his anti-air-team, addressing the soldier with the Stinger Manpad directly.
"Jansen, if you score a kill on that TIE-Oppressor that will appear any second now, I'll get you a case of beer… no wait. If you take it out, I'm buying a case of scotch. And a barrel of beer for the whole platoon."
Heads, from the Gunnery Sergeant, over the RTO to machine gunners in position turned briefly to SunTzu and everybody who head heard their Captain was hoping that the Dutch Anti-Aircraft-Specialist would take the TIE out. SunTzu waited until everyone had their eyes back on their vectors before he spoke again.
"And for the others, commence the assault on the target, you're cleared to engage!"
A second later the cacophony of combat began it's loud play, above all Animal's MG3 KWS. Because the attack from AICA and Hotaru, the enemy was still in a state of disarray and was just getting back to their regular positions when the Third's Charlie Company opened up on them.
The battle was fought viciously and this time not everyone from Second Platoon made it through.
In the end the surprise attack overwhelmed the enemy though and the attacking parts of Charly Company could defeat the defenders of First Battalion's Bravo Company's Headquarters. Because of SunTzu's Force Powers and sensing people they even could manage to capture the second-in-command of their adversary.
Watanabe and SunTzu just had organized defensive positions when a high-ranking staff officer, one of the marshals, drove up and announced the end of the maneuver. A result would be told soon.
Heaven had its own way to celebrate the end of the maneuver and it began to rain again, as strong as before, making some of the soldiers and their Platoon Commander ask themselves if Crystal Tokyo actually had a monsoon phase.
But that didn't stop the platoon in their cheering when it got announced that with their last attack they had squashed a victory by points for First Battalion because of the losses of the Third at the main front line. Full of dirt and mud, overnighted and with their last pairs of dry socks just put on the platoon high-fived and fist bumped before being served a warm meal. The usual amount of shit-talking was done and especially the ones that hadn't survived the final assault got their share when they joined back ranks for the late afternoon meal.
Eating as last together with Ortiz, and after hearing from Watanabe that his platoon did a good job, even Ortiz told SunTzu that he had done a quite well job out here.
They might not had won but saving the Battalion's honor was enough to motivate the platoon as it marched back to it's barracks from a staging area at the vehicle yard.
It was still pouring but the platoon and SunTzu didn't care anymore, at least their rain gear did it's job. Walking in front of the battalion, with Ortiz and Davies right behind him, he lead his procession of woodland-camouflage- and mud-colored figures to their sleeping place.
They crossed one of the landing spots where a shuttle just had landed. SunTzu immediately felt who was there, waiting for her ride to the palace.
The completely filled days these last three weeks had one pro and that was that it had taken his mind off of her a bit as he simply had been to busy, or too tired, to think and, or daydream about her. But too be fair, when he had crashed exhausted into his bed at night these last weeks, she had visited him in his dreams, at least sometimes. How powerful the subconscious was, not that he would have complained though, dreams about Setsuna were the direct opposite of the nightmares that haunted him.
She observed the incoming row of dirty, drenched soldiers, standing there in front of the shuttle, a large trolley next to her, dressed in her uniform and an officer's coat, holding an umbrella over herself. The last three weeks had been busy for her as well and she was looking forward to home, Hotaru and her friends.
SunTzu had a grin in his face when her and his eyes met and raised his hand for a salute.
"Eyes right, Second Platoon, greet the Lieutenant Colonel!" He commanded his platoon to do the proper military procedure. After the platoon saw that not only their PL, who had done quite the good job at the maneuver, at least for a POG, but also their Gunny, of course knowing how many soldiers, some of them even in his own former units, Lieutenant Colonel Meiou had treated and saved, he followed his officer.
Setsuna, not really amused by the cold and wet welcome Crystal Tokyo's weather had arranged for her, couldn't help but smile as well, something of this scene gave her a warm feeling. And… and nostalgia.
SunTzu, tired looking, dirty, gritty, mud-caked but smiling in front of his troops. Looking just like the man she once had loved so much. It suddenly stung in her chest how similar SunTzu was to him.
SunTzu sensed that her aura suddenly went blank again, as if she had shielded herself against him and that her smile vanished before she raised her hand and reciprocated the salute.
He swallowed hard after passing her and lowered his right hand again, smile vanishing as well and gaze back forward, picking speed up to finally bring his platoon back to a place where they could catch some real rest. And that dreaded rain really began to feel cold now.
Goddamn Rain…