I decided to carry the extra missiles myself. Gavin threw away his nearly spent belt and grabbed a fresh one on his own, but without a reminder the others failed to grab replacement magazines for their rifles. I did take the time to go back and grab Corporal Hall's tags, miraculously still twisted around what remained of his neck, and give them to the platoon medic.
Cricket was a brave young man despite his inexperience, but as we left the safety of the trench and began our march up the hill, it became clear that Oates lived up to the stereotype of the fresh-faced rookie out on his first patrol. I could judge just from his body language that he was surely a coward, I think he would have abandoned us if there were anywhere to run, I was forced to make Beem responsible for him to keep him from falling behind. If anyone else aside from the specialist AT gunners had been trained with the new guided launchers I would have had him replaced in a second, but we had to make do.
I put Artoka and Cricket in the lead, with Beem, Toric and Oates in front of me, as I was stood in the rear where I was safest (I made sure Artoka understood that he was next in command if I were hit) and could see and track everyone at once without having to turn my head. Only now that I had a quiet moment to think did I notice that there was a distant but ever present sound of gunfire coming from the direction we were headed. The sound filled me with a sense of dread, but in spite of myself I couldn't wait to see what was on the far side of that wide, relatively squat dune. We reached the sandy hill without incident and I felt my excitement near a climax as we grew closer to our goal. We stopped our fast march and began to traverse the steep grade, stopping partway up to scan the territory to the north. We could see clear over and past the dropship seated in the red sand behind us and after scanning the terrain for enemy forces with our rifle scopes I reported in on the chalk's net.
"Recce to Marble 1-Actual." M1-A would be Sgt. Esquire, who had taken charge of the chalk.
"Marble 1-Actual, send it."
"Clear north. Guess they've only partially encircled us. Shitty terrain might be forcing them to feel it out, they mightn't have been as prepared as first assumed. No other drops visible, they're all to our south, looks like the fliers landed us in formation. Going to finish the climb, over."
"Roger that. We've got your back. Out."
As we neared the peak of the hill the slope's degree became less severe. I ordered everyone down on the squad net and I watched them drop prone. Oates, who wasn't in bad shape, was nonetheless red in the face due to the 40 pound launcher on his back, and he took the opportunity to bite the water straw that led to the hydration pack on the back of his combat vest. I didn't blame him, for the missiles on my back (10 pounds each) were causing the straps of my vest to wear into my shoulders, so when we stopped I took a knee myself and removed them temporarily before toggling my throat mic. "Listen up, squad. Cricket, take point and go to the top of the hill quietly." He muttered an affirmative and began crawling up. I heard Artoka come over the net.
"I haven't heard any engines, Gav. Whatever it is, it's not close or it must've left, don't you think?"
I considered it briefly, but my thoughts were interrupted as Cricket came rolling down the hill. He arrested his descent and I held up a hand in defense as he nearly slid into me. His face was pale and his eyes were scared. He spoke urgently, pausing now and then to gulp air.
"There's a GEV IFV at the opposite side of the hill, down near the base of it! I don't think it spotted me but I backed off anyways. I can see some smoke starting to trail up at about 500 meters out and there's a wrecked dropship between me and that." His sentence was punctuated by a distant explosion that made us all flinch in spite of our active noise-cancelling headphones.
[Cover:None] [Frags:10 Smoke:9 HE:5]
Gavin | Assistant Leader | MC:Stable EXP:Line PS:Healthy STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [125] AM-00 Missiles [2]
Toric | Squad Gunner | MC:Stable EXP:Line PS:Healthy STA:Rested | PP.3 Squad Automatic Rifle [500]
Beem | Rifleman | MC:Stable EXP:Line PS:Wounded STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [125]
Artoka | Rifleman | MC:Stable EXP:Line PS:Wounded STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle [125]
Cricket | Grenadier | MC:Stable EXP:Recruit PS:Healthy STA:Rested | HK.1 Assault Rifle w/GL [120/4 Rifle Frags]
Oates | AT Gunner | MC:Stable EXP:Recruit PS:Healthy STA:Winded | HK.1-B Carbine [150] Avenger AM-00 [1]