Platoon

Hanrahan dragged the man by both arms through the gate. Today almost everyone had made their now routine morning jog. The man had left a long trail in the snow, a few spots of throw up marked particularly rough patches. As Hanrahan got the man into the square, he looked bewildered at the men. They were all wearing strange new uniforms. They were white, but with wild black and blue patterns across them. Hanrahan looked at Carrizo, the man stood in front of him holding out a uniform. “I’ll take care of the man, go change.” Hanrahan nodded, “Sir, he’s my man; I’ll take care of him.” Carrizo nodded and stepped back. Hanrahan continued dragging the man over towards the lineup. He propped the man up against another man. Then he took the uniform from Carrizo and went back to change. After one minute he was back out on the parade field. Hoi walked forward, “PLATOON, STAND BY FOR AWARDS!” Hoi looked down at his clipboard quickly then back up. “JACQUES, CALLAHAN, PETRENKO STEP FORWARD!” The three men marched crisply forward, then turned to face Hoi. “You three are promoted to the rank of Staff Sergeant, and the position of Squad Leader. You will receive your Squad Assignments shortly.” Hoi shook each man’s hand and handed them their rank insignia. “Hanrahan! Step forward.” Hanrahan looked around for a moment, then walked forward. “Sir!” Hoi looked at him, “Hanrahan, you are promoted to the rank of 1^st Sergeant, and the position of Platoon Leader, congratulations.” Hanrahan smiled curtly, took his rank badges, and marched back to position. “Hanrahan, Platoon is yours.” Hanrahan nodded, “Sir, Platoon is mine sir!” Hanrahan turned to face his new platoon. “Men! Ten-Hut!” The men snapped to attention, “Disperse.” The platoon of men quickly broke apart and went off to their barracks. Hanrahan marched over to Carrizo. “Sir, squad assignments sir.” Carrizo chuckled, “Didn’t you hear Hoi, the Platoon is yours, literally.” Hanrahan nodded slowly, “Yes sir.” A thoughtful look on his face he turned back and marched to the barracks.

The room filled with applause when Hanrahan marched back into the barracks. “Nice man.” “Good job!” Every man had words of praise for him, Hanrahan grinned and walked to the back of the room, where the staff quarters were. “Squad Leaders, in here.” The three men quickly jogged into the room, Jacques shut the door behind him. “Alright boys, Carrizo says that this platoon is mine to teach, and lead. I’m not sure-” He stopped talking as a screen nearby popped to life, “Hanrahan, Hoi here. I’ve got some training schedules written up for your platoon, they’ll be on the computer in front of you by now,” Hanrahan looked and saw that the files were there, “Read them over Top, you can make any changes you like.” The screen went blank. Hanrahan looked back up at the squad leaders, “Well, I guess that answers one question I had. We’ll start training tomorrow; meet up at the armory at 0600 tomorrow. I’ll be working on squad assignments tonight as well as getting this training schedule ready.”

The Russian government had been kind enough to loan some staff to run the base. The armory had a specialist who quickly handed out the training weapons to all of the soldiers. “They will not hurt you comrade, only sting.”  Hanrahan walked out to the Squad Leaders. “We have a treat today men,” His English accent had become thicker since he was tired, “Carrizo is going to lead one of the squads, Jacques, Tyrants are his today.” Jacques nodded and gripped his rifle. “Bravehearts, Warriors, you two will be combined and trying to take down the Tyrants, this is a learning exercise only. Everyone, move out, I’ll take the Bravehearts and Warriors to their positions and be leading them from there. Carrizo, if you would take your squad to the area I designated.” Carrizo nodded and turned to the squad, “Move.”

Carrizo quickly separated his squad into two fire teams. “Alpha, make sure you have optical zoom scopes, then get up on the designated ridge, Jacques, your Alpha’s leader. Bravo, make sure your suppressed then come with me.” Carrizo moved Bravo out into the snowy fields. The squad fanned out, moving slowly forward, combing the area. Carrizo looked up, and saw snowfall, “Perfect.” He said quietly. 

Hanrahan had both his squads fanned out, they moved forward in a long line. “Warriors, push up a little farther.” He said into the platoon channel, “Bravehearts, make sure you watch that left side.” He peered through his visor as the snow began to fall.

Carrizo switched his optics off of thermal, “They’re about 100 meters out, and they haven’t spotted us. Alpha, move about 50 meters to your right and forward. Bravo, come with me.” Carrizo took the fireteam to a nearby ridge, then had them all go prone. Waiting.

Hanrahan heard a chorus of the sizzle crack noises that the rifles made when fired. Callahan came on the comms, “Under fire, I’ve lost everyone except Bernard.” The thunder intensified, when Petrenko came on, “Bravehearts here, sniper fire just took out half the squad, losing men fast.” Petrenko then felt a stinging sensation in his chest. His gun switched off, and the map showed him as dead. “Damn.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry about this post. I literally wrote this while sitting in the Admin cabin for ten minutes. Got a lot to do tonight, not sure if I'm going to be able to make a post tomorrow I'll try though.