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The Arctic War

Redeployed to the Front

My one month leave was over now; I know I'm going to miss everyone, especially Linda. Her loving and comforting hold somehow made me feel like I was a pup. When I had nightmares my mother used to come into my room and hold me until I fell asleep, Linda somehow managed to recreate this, not that I had any objection to it.

Now I am going back out to the front. A hell of a way to get back into the swing of things, a live or die situation is basically what it is. We have pushed them back past the mountains and we are currently pushing them back into the Durret forest, a large expanse of coniferous trees that cause 15 or so people to go missing inside it each year. The trees have to be at least two thousand years old if not older.

The airlift we are taking to the forward base is at least fifteen years old. The crew aren't so great, most of them are greenhorns that were just drafted, most just got out of high school and didn't get into college. Poor guys, most will probably be getting injured within the first few hours. I hope they all have the best of luck, they will all need it.

"Thirty minutes till we reach the LZ. Want to start addressing the soldiers Gunny Sergeant Ricker," the voice of the pilot came over the com system; she was a veteran of this war, 150 flights and never lost a single soldier.

"Yes, Thank you Sergeant Pile. Alright, well as you know we will be landing in a hot zone. The enemy is unwilling to leave beyond the edge of the forest, they are aggressive and willing to die to protect what they have come so far to achieve. It's our goal to beg to convince them that this land is not worth fighting for. What do you say," I asked hoping I raised their spirits just a bit. A chorus of hoorahs came from the rest of the soldiers. Well at least they seem willing.

I got up, and went from each and every one of the fifty recruits making sure that if we came across any sort of resistance we'd be ready for it. If they had a problem with their equipment I adjusted it and told them why. Not too bad of a group, the new guys always seem unprepared. I remember my drill instructor and his six P's "Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance", not that it helps tremendously when you are getting shot at in the dark and you have just woken up, best you can do to avoid that situation is to keep your gun close.

I occupied myself for the next ten minutes going around and asking how they were feeling and gave them a pep talk should the need have arisen. They shared most of the same concerns, landing in the trees and losing equipment in the trees, what should they do if their parachute doesn't deploy (honestly not much, just pray to god to make it quick and painless), and what to do if your gun jams (pull the bolt back and re-cock it), and everything else under the sun that could possibly go wrong. I told them not to worry and everything would be just fine.

"Five minutes until we are directly above the LZ," squawked the pilots voice in our compartment. After that she started announcing every minute. By two minutes left the first jumper was already in the doorway, waiting for the green light. I was standing right behind him, I would be the last one to jump, standard protocol of the People's Army. I could tell he was scared stiff, like my first time I just told him to take a deep breath after he jumped and count to four thousand (one thousand, two thousand and so on). Then the light flashed green, he stepped up to the end of the ramp and jumped, flawlessly. They went by one by one and after a few seconds the area was clear and I jumped myself chin to chest, elbows locked tightly to my sides, my hands over the ends of the reserve parachute my fingers spread, and I bent slightly at the waist, and my feet and knees locked together. After the initial chute opened I reached up for the toggles and pulled them to eye level, while checking the canopy. I then looked around for the other jumpers, I followed all protocols to the letter.

The descent went over like a glove. Nothing happened, just correcting out flight path so we would land on the ground. About 100 feet from the ground I started to make minor adjustments. Then I landed, making contact with the balls of my feet, upper thigh, buttocks, and the pull-up muscle. I had some difficulty with the chute, the wind caught it and dragged me along with it, straining against the release I finally got out of it. I then met up with the crew I had recently been assigned to.

They all looked like the jump had taken something out of them, something that had been present in the plane, security. They would be brothers for the time being and even after this bloody war is over. They had been together since boot camp, they needed each other and I need to know they can watch out for all of us. I maintained noise discipline and motioned for them to form up and follow me. The forest had a thick layer of snow, and made the loud crunching noise it usually does when combat boots tread across it, giving away any one of our positions. I wished it was summer at least then the snow wouldn't have the fresh crunch. I checked our heading while also watching for trip wires and pit fall traps. They couldn't use artillery anymore with such chance of hitting their own, so they went for the next best thing to do in a forest, guerilla warfare. I found a patch of disturbed snow, marked it, and went around the other way. The progression was slow but we didn't have any casualties, we arrived at the CP unscathed.

The company dispersed while I went to the command tent. The base wasn't anything to look at mostly because of the fact that it wasn't a real command center, just some place to eat, sleep, get commands, and get bitched out by the chain of command. The command tent was the biggest and most heavily defended on this "base". Sand bags put up around all of the walls and two heavily armed guards that looked like they could wage this war all by themselves. They stopped me as I approached the tent, asked me my name and called it out to the CO. who almost immediately told them to send me on in.

I walked in and saw the CO with a foot up on a wooden chair, brought up here for some reason, looking over a topographic map. I stood at attention and said, "Sir, reporting for duty as ordered, sir!"

He barely looked up from the map, "At ease, what took you so long getting here Gunny?

Handing him a map that I had the man directly on my six mark up as we travelled, "Sir, we ran across a few traps here and there, sir."

"Holy shit son, next time radio in ahead of time instead of making me wait all goddamned night," he said, clearly wanting a piece of my ass at this point.

"Sir, sorry sir it won't happen again, sir" I apologized.

"Go meet the other ranking officer, she's off duty. Oh, and don't stare she doesn't appreciate it," Col. Peterson dismissed me. He looked like the kind of snow leopard you didn't want to come across in a hand to hand fight. A thin long patch of fur was black from what was likely a combat knife wound. On his lower arm were three 22 caliber sized black patches in a triangle.

I was told by the meat heads out in front that she usually hung out around the trucks when she wasn't on duty. Apparently at the age of four she hotwired a car, and liked working on them and could fix a truck that is at least twenty years old. They even flinched at the mention of her name, how much worse is she? Well any way I found a set of miss matched legs, one with fur one with scales, I thought this was some sort of joke then I heard voices coming from underneath the thing, mostly curses.

"Excuse me, sir" I said.

Then I saw what I'd never expected to see a vertical half and half, pulling herself out from under the truck she said "Who the hell are you, I just sent PVT Johnson to get me a replacement wrench."

I had forgotten how to speak at first because usually the furs never mixed with the reptiles especially around here considering it is too cold for most of the ones that I know of, "I was sent here by Colonel Peterson, sir."

She hopped up on the white camouflaged hood of the truck and said, "What the hell for, he's in command."

"Maybe to get acquainted with the chain of command, sir," I suggested.

I started to hear a far off rumble not audible to people who weren't listening for it. I know we don't have any planes flying over our base. I waited till I could actually see them I figured maybe they could have been ours. Then once they got close enough I realized it was the enemy air corp. I reached for the whistle that was issued to me after I got out of boot camp. I put it up to my lips, breathed in and then blew into the whistle. "Air Strike," I yelled as I pulled Felierta down to the ground covering her as best I could.

The planes came by and were dropping bomb pretty poorly, most of them were landing outside of the perimeter. There was however one close call, the truck she was just working on took a presumably dud bomb to the hood. I thanked God that it was over there and not here. I'd be dead by now if that had been the case. Then as quickly as it started it was over. I picked up my service rifle and fired at the planes pointlessly.

She stood up and rounded on me, "If you decide to play hero like that again I will have you court-martialed!"

"Well, Sir, no offence but good luck getting me court-marshaled after I just saved your life," I said with respect while pointing at the truck that just got a beat down.

"I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about that," she said pointing at my crotch, I have never been so embarrassed in my life. I took my helmet off and covered it up as best I could.

"I am sorry, Sir, I don't think with my dick like most of these so called grown men I actually use my brain. Another thing is I have a girlfriend back home waiting for me," I took both hands off of my helmet forgetting it was there. I put one hand on the back of my head the other reaching for the picture. I then showed her the picture.

Looking at it she raised her eyebrow and said, "I suggest next time you go to argue this point you don't forget things like that."

Not getting her drift I put the picture back in my pocket. A private came up from the right side and handed her a wrench, and looked down and the snow leopards jaw dropped. I then gave a little ahem and waited a minute then said "Aren't you going to salute the chain of command, private?"

"Excuse me," he said shamed.

"Well guess what we are going to be getting to know each other real well while you peel a sack of potatoes, I replied hotly.

Glaring at him Felierta growled out "Gunny, you need to learn that sometimes things don't have to follow the regulations. I sent him to get me that wrench earlier, I won't go over your head and say he doesn't have to peel those, but sometimes the regulations don't cover the situations we find ourselves in."

"Well sorry, Sir, I am used to respecting the chain of command and saluting an officer on duty is proper edict. My mother was a Lieutenant Colonel so we always had to respect her and everyone that was older than us," I explained; just as I finished my sentence my helmet hit my foot.

"The chain of command is a tool that can be used or abused, just as I could use the wrench I had him retrieve for me as a tool to fix my now destroyed truck or hit you over the head with." Turning away from me she asked the private "Did any of the bombs hit in the western area?"

"Barely, the western area is ok. Your tent however had another dud land on it," he said.

"Of course, that's the way my luck seems to be today, I'll submit an order form for new clothes, in the mean time we need to see about what they're going to do next that they decided to destroy this temporary base first." Pocketing the wrench she headed to the command tent. I noticed that despite her legs' differences she had an even stride.

Then I walked around checking up on soldiers. Telling medics who needs to leave first, out of the inured, and who is fine here. The medics stated calling me "Doc" then everyone else started calling me that. I didn't mind, I didn't want to be "Magnet Ass", a corporal that had been hit in the ass fourteen times. I then finally got some rest after the long hours spent walking around the camp all day. Well once you had a nickname it was stuck...