Chapter 6 Part 3 of 3 (Patreon)

***

Acosta turned from the window that looked over the training square, from the wall where names had been carved into it. She stretched her neck.

Damn scar tissue.

She rubbed her hand on her side and stretched.

She grunted as she felt it loosening, giving it a few more seconds before she walked to her desk and sat down heavily.

Stuck in an office. Neumann would have made some smart joke about growing my ass.

She snorted, a glimmer of a smile as she thought about her old Staff Sergeant.

There was a knock at her door.

“Come in,” she said.

Master Sergeant Sirel, now Master Gunnery Sergeant Sirel, opened the door and saluted. “Ma’am, I found him,” Sirel said as the man following him closed the door behind him.

“Gunnery Sergeant Bai Ping,” Acosta said.

“Ma’am,” Bai Ping saluted.

“At ease.” Acosta saluted him back and Sirel came around to the other side of the table. She looked to Sirel. “What do you think?”

Sirel looked at Bai Ping with a hard stare. It seemed to pass right over the other man. Sirel grinned. “I think we’d be stupid to not have the help; two tours with the guild, leading the charge, training roster for three different groups. He knows his shit and he was leading reservists in the fight for Vuzgal.”

“Gunnery Sergeant Bai,” Acosta said.

“Ma’am!”

“You got ice in your veins?”

Bai Ping raised an eyebrow. “Not the last time I checked, ma’am.”

Acosta pushed her chair away from the table and took measured steps towards the window. She held her hands behind her back, looking at the names on the wall again. “Alva’s way of fighting is undergoing an evolution. We have all learned large unit tactics, platoons, companies, battalions. There is a place for this, but in the coming days small teams will be leading the charge. Train like demons in Alva, and spread through the realms, gathering information, resources and whatever we can to increase the power of Alva and assure our stability.” She took a breath that raised her shoulders.

“The Close Protection Details were the worst hit in the attack. Holding down the rearguard, they bled for all of us. They upheld an honor for their designation that none will be able to erase. The Commander and Colonels need replacements. They want to triple the number of Close Protection Details. I was an artillery platoon commander, but I have the same rank as a close protection team leader and I have completed most of the training, same goes for the Master Gunnery Sergeant here.”

She turned. “I have a place in my squad for you, Master Gunnery Sergeant.”

Bai Ping straightened. He was not particularly tall, or handsome, but there was a hardness, a grittiness, to his features. A look of someone that had been ground against the stone for so long that they broke the stone. “Ma’am, where do I sign?”

***

Erik and Rugrat checked one another. They wore combat fatigues, pressed and cleaned; their hair was freshly cut and a fresh razor had cleaned away any scruff.

They checked their rank tabs, their special team and Alva patches.

Erik adjusted the blousing of his pants. “Good.”

Rugrat nodded. They were in their special team office. They walked out and into the command center; the staff was away. Along the left wall there were maps of the First to the Sixth Realm, with decreasing accuracy. There was a map table in the middle of the room. At the front of the room there were command desks along with mounts where projection screens would be located.

They left the command center through a hatch, entering a hallway lined with doors marked 1, 2, 3, and 4. Behind each door were the locker rooms and armories of the special teams. Erik and Rugrat went through an unmarked door, a corridor between 2 and 3.

They exited the door, leaving the building and exiting into a training square, training equipment was stored around its perimeter.

The door opened from room two. Tully walked out and nodded to them.

“They nearly ready?” Erik asked.

“Yeah, just been a long time since we had to get all cleaned up,” Tully responded quietly.

Rugrat went to doors three and four, knocking on them.

Erik went to door one and knocked on it too. Erik and Rugrat met up as people started to come out of the team rooms.

We lost so many.

The teams stepped out in an extended line.

Team Three was only six people, nearly half their number.

A lot of our wounded are still out of action. Their bodies are strong so it takes a lot to hurt them, but what does hurt them takes a lot to heal.

“Get into formation, two abreast,” Erik said.

Some had come off from medical and were stiff as they moved into it and got organized.

Erik and Rugrat moved to the front of the unit, checking on them as they passed.

“By the left, for-ward, march!”

They stepped off as one, marching forward. They headed out of the training square, Rugrat’s mana opened the gates as they exited the Special Team’s training square.

The first training square had been cleaned, families of the Special Teams, people that had served with them or the fallen and the families of the fallen were waiting there. Wounded team members forced themselves up to standing, ignoring their families complaints as they helped one another and medics stood behind them as support.

“Teams, halt!”

Their boots smacked the rock with a crack.

Erik and Rugrat marched out and wheeled around to face the teams.

“Leftward face, left turn.”

They turned to face Erik and Rugrat, the families and the wall between them.

Erik saw the movement of jaws and flares of nostrils.

Erik surveyed them and gave an imperceptible nod.

He looked at Rugrat.

They turned as one, facing the wall standing side by side.

“Sergeant Major Rodriguez, roll call!” Erik ordered.

“Yes sir, roll call! Master Gunnery Sergeant Xi,” a muffled cry came from within the spectators. “Master Gunnery Sergeant Linda Xi!”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Imani.”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Elle Imani!”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Simms.”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant David Simms!”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Tyrone.”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Zedong Tyrone!”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Qiu.”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Jacqueline Qiu!”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Asaka.”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Asaka Tsuka!”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Kachal.”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Yuli Kachal!”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Ryan.”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Jamie Ryan!”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Sang.”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Sang So-Hyon!”

The military members all came to attention, focusing on the wall. Some of the families stared at the names of their loved ones.

Rugrat turned to face Erik.

Erik turned to face him.

“Roll call complete, sir!” Rugrat saluted, not blinking, holding back the pain as his jaw flexed.

“Thank you Sergeant Major!” Erik returned the salute.

They turned to face the wall.

“To the fallen, salute!”

The teams, the military members all snapped up a salute, holding it before Erik started to slowly lower his hand, the others following suit. Erik looked to Rugrat and they turned as one.

“Teams, to your duties, dis-missed!”

The teams turned as one and marched off to the side and then broke, moving towards the families and others.

Erik patted Rugrat on the back, working his lips as he took a deep breath, causing his nose to flare.

He saw Simms’ kids and his wife as she touched his name, falling apart as her relations hugged and supported her, her kids not knowing what was happening.

Setsuko Ket’s father Fehim, the leader of Alva’s alchemists, supported her as she talked to Yuli’s mother and father.

He saw Delilah and the Ryan family in tears as Yao Meng took off his headdress to talk to them.

Sang So-Hyon didn’t have a family, but soldiers that had served with him, some friends from the academy, they supported one another, they had lost a brother.

Erik and Rugrat walked towards it, moving to the families.

The hardest part isn’t fighting, we’re trained for that, the hardest part is putting to rest the ones that didn’t make it back.

“Mister Imani, I can’t understand what you’re going through right now. But, I wanted to tell you that Imani was one hell of a woman, one hell of a team member,”

The man’s features broke as his eyes pinched together, tears leaked out as another relation supported him.

“She, she was an amazing person and it was incredible to have the honor to know her.”

The man nodded, unable to say anything.

Erik looked at the man supporting the other and nodded to him. Erik turned and nearly walked over two boys and a girl.

“Woah you three, what are you up to?”

“Mommy is crying over there and there are so many adults here,” The oldest, one of the boys said, the younger boy was holding the youngest, his sister’s hand. Erik looked at the oldest.

He can’t be older than seven. Simms will never see them go to school, never see them graduate, date people, go through heartbreak, marry or have kids of their own.

“Mommy just needs some time, she’s sad. Where were you headed off to?”

“I heard there’s a room of sweats!” the younger boy said.

“Always thinking with that belly.” Erik smiled and poked his belly and tickled a bit.

The boy’s shy laugh as he batted Erik’s finger made others look over with smiles.

“I saw that there are three troublemakers over here,” Momma Rodriguez said, she was wearing a black dress and an elegant black pin to keep her greying hair in check.

“They were looking for treats,” Erik supplied.

“Treats was it, and maybe something to play with?” Momma asked, conspiratorially as she pulled out toasted sandwiches from her bag.

She made a head gesture to Erik.

“Come on, let’s go sit down, it’s no good eating while standing!” She took them over to some chairs as Erik turned back to the grieving families.

He squared his jaw and stepped forward into it.