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Weapons Training

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“Hello, I’m Boarder First Class Alex Greer. My lovely assistant is Boarder Third Class Emily Moran. In case you don’t know much about the Navy, Boarders are the security detail on Navy ships. The First Class comes from my rank, Petty Officer First Class,” Petty Officer Greer was standing at a podium in front of 2nd Battalion. Petty Officer Moran was sitting on a stool next to a rack that held two unfamiliar firearms.

“So, I’m here today to teach your Battalion about two weapons that the Navy has been using for a few years. Due to the evolving nature of warfare, and your units upcoming deployment to the city of Urbs, close quarters combat is be becoming more and more of a reality. The first weapon is the Frost Gun. Em, could you hand me one and walk the aisle with the other,” Petty Officer Greer walked over to Moran, who handed him one of the firearms. She then picked up another one and started walking the aisles.

“This is probably going to be more well known to some of you who grew up in the country. The Frost Gun is a pump action shotgun. That means in order to fire a round, you have to pump this back,” Petty Officer Greer pumped the shotgun, “It takes a round from the tubular magazine and pushes it into the chamber. It holds six rounds plus one in the pipe. When you get range time I’ll show you how to load it. Now if you’ll all turn to Petty Officer Moran.”

Petty Officer Moran was standing in the middle of the room. She held up her Frost Gun in one hand and put her other hand on her belt, “Hi, as Bee One said, I’m Em. The Frost Gun also has an attachment for when you run out of the seven rounds. It has a bayonet lug on the front that can fit the same bayonet that you’ve used on the Standard Ethslin Rifle you all are issued.”

Moran drew the bayonet from the frog on her belt and held it out, “I don’t necessarily recommend this sword bayonet though, you can cut it down to about half the length, which still gives some reach, but you can actually take corners well if your moving through corridors,” She then sheathed the bayonet and reached around for the frog on her opposite hip and drew a shorter bayonet and fixed it to the shotgun, “I was on the Effingham last year when it was boarded, and one thing my party noticed was that we couldn’t aim our Frost Guns when we were rounding the corners, so we went the the Machinist’s shop and had our bayonets cut down.”

“Em makes some good points,” Petty Officer Greer moved to put the Frost Gun back on its rack while Moran made her way back, “The Frost Gun has an accurate range of 30 meters. Next, Em, could you grab my favorite toy?”

“Yes Bee One,” Moran grabbed the two odd looking firearms next to the Frost Guns, she handed one to Petty Officer Greer and walked out into the aisle with the other one.

“Now this little thing is beautiful, This is the Blaire Auto Gun. It has a thirty round magazine that fires the same rounds as the Benett Pistol. It is a new kind of firearm, called a ‘submachine gun.’ It fires fast like a machine gun, but it weighs the same as a rifle. It has a range of about one hundred meters,” Petty Officer Greer demonstrated the action on the Blaire Auto Gun, “There is also a safety near the trigger, point up for safe, point forward for fire.”

Aiming the Auto Gun, Petty Officer Greer pulled the bolt back and clicked the trigger, “In my experience it’s best if you fire in short one to three second bursts. Any more and you just waste ammo. That seems it for right now. See y’all on the range.”

Petty Officers Greer and Moran started clearing out while the silhouette of a woman appeared in the doorway. Evans could see that she was wearing the skirt of an officer, but that was it. After about a minute, when the two Petty Officer’s left out the back door, the officer entered the room and stepped up to the podium.

Her shoulder boards had the insignia of a Major. The major didn’t have the tie color of the 202nd. She opened up a folder she had been carrying and opened it on the podium, “Hello, I’m Major Allison Strummer, just transfered from the 194th. I guess Petty Officer Greer let the cat out of the bag. The Navy has cut off the Vledscan supply ships at White Beach. Their General in charge is going to officially surrender within the week. So we are being transfered to the Dry Forest region.”

The Major looked out over the battalion, “I’ve got some even worse news. We’re going into Urbs. Newacre says we can’t bypass the city, and can’t just blast the place to Hell with artillery, so we’ll be going in to try and secure the place for Armored Car support. Those chaps will then roll in and claim credit for winning the battle and the infantry will once again be ignored.”

She shuffled the papers on the podium, “Alright, We are going to do a slight reorganization of the platoons to deal with city fighting. Each Rifle Team will have two soldiers operating a Frost Gun with a Benett Pistol as a sidearm. Each rifle team will also be assigned a Blaire Auto Gun. Officers are now to be assigned Blaire Auto Guns to supplement their sidearms. Each platoon will be assigned specific roles as well. First Platoon of each company will have a Machine Gun team attached to their unit. Second Platoon will have two Marksmen attached to their unit, one with a Charles Rifle and one with a scoped Standard Ethslin Rifle. Third Platoon will have a Frost Flame Projector team attached. Machine Gun Platoons will be reassigned to Regimental HQ and will be replaced with an addition Mortar team for each Company.

“While Company Commanders are given discretion, it is recommended that Second Platoon acts as recon, First Platoon acts as support, and Third Platoon will take out hard points. Mortar Teams will be assigned mostly smoke rounds, to screen infantry movement. I know that sounds BS, and I’ll try and get more explosive rounds.”

The Major nodded, “That’s it for today, Schedule for Company weapons training is posted. Company Commanders have been given orders on the new teams assigned to their companies. And, I don’t really care for pageantry, so, Lieutenant Simmons, you’re a Captain now. Dismissed to company meetings.”

The battalion got up and split up into companies. The Company Sergeant lead Fox Company to a room on the right, where they all reseated themselves by platoons. Captain Simmons walked to the front of the room and opened a folder. He nodded to Lance Corporal Chambers, who skittered out the door and down the hall. After a few minutes, four Corporals and four Lance Corporals entered the room. Captain Simmons looked over at the new soldiers, “Corporal Holman.”

One of the Corporals stepped forward, “I’m Corporal Myra Holman, I’m the Gun Commander for the Machine Gun team. The two soldiers under my command are Lance Corporals Wesley Olivier and Toby Lockwood. We were with the 351st at Dry Forest during the thick of it.”

“Next we have Corporal Calepino… Am I saying that right?”

Two Corporals stepped forward, “Yes sir, I’m Corporal Silvio Calepino. This is Corporal Eva Blake. We are the Marksman team. Fought through Tsiv River, then were moved as staff to the Marksman training school.”

“And finally Corporal Irvine.”

The last three stepped forward, “I’m Corporal Rory Irvine, the Mortarman. This is Lance Corporal Emma Sutcliffe, my spotter and Lance Corporal Edwin Purcell, my Loader. We were all in more traditional mortar units up at the Northern Gate.”

“Alright, now that we have met our new friends, let’s start the rest of this meeting. First off, Range times…”

Geology

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“Now that you’re all settled in Lieutenant, you should pick your runner. I suggest Private Evans here, he’s been my runner for about a month now,” Lieutenants Simmons and Stoddart were seated at a table, while Evans was packing up the last of Lieutenant Simmons’ things.

“Can I select anyone for my runner?” Lieutenant Stoddart flipped through his notebook.

“Yeah, you can pick anyone really. Since you’re at full strength they’ll be sharing a room with you.”

“Private Clark. I happened to talk to her the other day and she apparently was a secretary before the war.”

Lieutenant Simmons nodded and looked at Evans, “Alright then, can you hand me my bag. And you’ll want to teach Clark everything she needs to now.”

Evans held up his bag and handed it to Lieutenant Simmons, “Nice serving under you sir.”

“I’ll see you around the Company Evans,” Lieutenant Simmons slung his bag, put his garrison cap on and exited the room.

Evans turned to Lieutenant Stoddart, “Sir, do you want me to get Private Clark?”

“Yes…” Lieutenant Stoddart paused a moment, “Wait a moment.”

“Yes Sir,” Evans paused by the door.

The Lieutenant sighed, “Look, I’m sure you’re a great runner and all…”

“Honestly I don’t care sir. I’m sure Clark will be a fine choice sir,” Evans started opening the door.

“It’s just, I figure, hey, if I’m going to have someone with me all the time,” Lieutenant Stoddart started writing down some notes, “I might as well have someone I could have a little… you know with. Never mind, Dismissed Private.”

Evans exited the room and moved back to the platoons barracks. He entered the common room and looked around. He saw the young blond women and waved, “Hey, Private Clark, Lieutenant Stoddart wants you in his tent. Bring your gear.”

Clark smiled, “OK Jimmy… Evans… I feel special, being called into the Lieutenant’s office. Hope I’m not in trouble.” She grabbed her bag and left the barracks.

Lance Corporal Newey turned to Evans, “So what’s that about.”

“She is the new runner for the new Lieutenant, So I’m back in your team Sergeant Campbell,” Evans walked over and patted Sergeant Campbell on the back.

Laughing, Newey looked over, “She does have certain qualities that you lack mister Evans.”

“Yeah, I like how he didn’t go with subtlety with this decision. First, he picks the cute spunky blond. Second, he pretty much told me he wanted to sleep with her,” Evans sat down and put his feet up on a table, “I am glad I don’t have to do any more paperwork.”

Laughing, Lance Corporal Newey threw a ball of paper at Evans, “Oh come on, if there’s anyone who shouldn’t be allowed to talk about this is would be you. Replace blond with brunette and we have you and Zwev.”

Before Evans could respond, Clark’s voice called from the entrance, “Attention!”

Lieutenant Stoddart walked into the room, “As you were soldiers.” The Lieutenant looked around, “Um, is everyone here?”

The Sergeant’s quickly looked around. Sergeant Campbell nodded, “All present and accounted for Sir.”

“Thank you Sergeant,” The Lieutenant nodded and pulled a notebook out of his breast pocket. “So I think I should introduce myself. My name is Winston Stoddart the Third. I studied Geology at the University of Newacre. I’d like to use the knowledge I’ve gained from my years at University to teach you how to improve the trenches.”

Lieutenant Stoddart walked over to the map of White Beach on the wall, “So this is where you lot were about a month ago. Did you notice anything about the soil there?” The platoon sat in silence, “Well then… So the soil at the White Beach cliffs, where our trench line is set up is a Sandy Clay Loam for the first meter. Underneath that, it transitions into a Clay.”

Evans leaned over to Newey and whispered to him, “Hey, Anna’s train is leaving in about twenty minutes. Could you distract him so I can slip out? I feel like this will go on for a while.”

Newey nodded. He stood up and walked to the map and pointed to it, “So you’re saying that there is clay on top, followed by sand underneath?”

With the Lieutenant distracted, Evans slunk out of the common room and made his way through the base to the train depot. He looked around at the soldiers standing at the train. In the sea of green-dyed uniforms Evans noticed a strangely blue-red dress. He moved towards it. “Anna!”

Anna turned around and smiled, “James! Shouldn’t you be with the platoon?”

“I uh, came to see you off,” Evans hugged her and took a step back, “I’ve never seen anything like this color before. I can’t decide if it’s blue or red.”

“It’s called Mauve, which is a kind of purple. Some chemist invented it and it’s been all the rage in the cities,” Anna swished her dress back and forth, “It’s the dress I showed up to basic training in. I’ve had it in the bottom of my kit ever since.”

Making a move to pick up her bag, Evans smiled at her, “Well it looks beautiful on you.”

Anna grabbed Evans’ hand, “The trains been delayed for an hour and a half because of shelling down the line, you don’t need to grab that yet.”

“So, um,” Evans put his arm over Anna, “I bet that dress would also look beautiful off of you.”

Snickering, Anna kissed Evans on the cheek, “I obviously didn’t marry you for your smooth talking. And um, where would we go?”

Grabbing her bag in one hand and her arm in the other, Evans gestured with his head, “The new Lieutenant is giving a long and boring talk in second platoons barracks. So his office should be free.”

“Wow, I feel scandalous,” Anna walked over and sat on the bed, “On the new Lieutenant’s bed? The sheets seem to be messy already. I thought you usually did that first thing?”

“Lieutenant Stoddart picked a new runner,” Evans looked around the room, “Finally won’t have to deal with any of this anymore.”

 

Straightening out his uniform, Evans smiled over at Anna as she put on her dress, “Well I should probably get going, and your train will be coming soon. I’ll see you before the 202nd goes back to White Beach.” Evans walked to the door.

Anna threw a sock at him, “Aren’t you going to kiss me goodbye?”

Evans shrugged sheepishly, “Well I figure we already did a bit more than that.”

“Get over here right now James,” Anna smoothed down her dress, “If you die I’d prefer my last memory of you to be fully clothed.”

Evans kissed Anna, “Well I think you look great without that dress.” He turned around and went through the door, “Bye Anna.”

When he got to door of the Platoon Barracks, he waved and got Newey’s attention. He nodded and walked over to the Lieutenant, who was struggling to hold several rocks, “Sir, which one is Conglomerate sir? That’s a metamorphic rock right? Because it’s from a volcano.”

“No… That’s completely… Ooh, I think I saw a good one over by the tracks.” The Lieutenant paused, put the rocks in his haversack and sprinted out of the room.

Evans ducked against the side of the barracks while the Lieutenant sprinted away. He then walked through the door and took a seat far in the back. Everyone was silent for a moment before they started bursting into laughter.

Tiscornia looked at him, “I can’t believe he didn’t notice. This guy is going to be beautiful in combat.”

“More importantly Evans,” Private Hunt leaned closer to Evans and smiled, “How was your visit with Mrs. Evans?”

“She was wearing the most beautiful looking dress. She said it was ‘Mauve’,” Evans smiled and leaned back, “Apparently Mauve is a type of purple.”

Lance Corporal Turner smiled, “I used to have a nice mauve dress. I bet it was real pretty.”

“And you ripped it off her?”

Evans kicked Newey’s chair, “That’s a very personal question. Now let’s quiet down before the Lieutenant finds out what I did in his bed.”

Just as Private Clark was about to protest, Lieutenant Stoddart came in, with a heavy haversack, “So, guys, I mean soldiers, I managed to quickly get some. I found some really good basalt… Which is weird because there isn’t much volcanic activity in this region.”

Reinforcements

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“Evans. Evans.” Anna was kicking Evans’ bed with excitement. She tried to stay quiet so the rest of the Rifle Team wouldn’t wake up.

“Yeagh,” Evans rolled out of his bunk. He slid his feet into his boots and started to lace them up, “What brings you to Rifle Team One? Is Team Three that boring at,” he looked at his wristwatch, “Five AM?”

“Come outside Evans, I need to talk to you,” Zwev smiled and played with her kepi. After Evans got up, she exited with a bit of spring in her step. When she and Evans got outside, she grabbed him and kissed him, “It worked!”

Evans stepped back, “Whoa now, what happens if someone sees us?”

“That doesn’t matter anymore!” Anna smiled and spun around, pretending to play with an imaginary skirt. She bent over double and puked. She stood back up, “That’s what I’m talking about James! I’m pregnant!”

“You’re sure?” Evans smiled and hugged Anna.

Anna nodded, “I woke up about an hour ago vomiting, I missed my period, and I even did the old wheat and barley thing,” She smiled and gestured to Lieutenant Simmons tent, “And the Lieutenant seems to be awake.”

The two walked over to the Lieutenant’s tent. Evans knocked on the sign on the tent. Lieutenant Simmons yelled from inside, “Just a minute! Evans isn’t on duty for an hour, so I don’t have a runner right now.”

“It is Private Evans sir. And I’m with Private Zakrzewska sir,” Evans waited by the door of the tent.

“Oh, come on in Private Evans.”

“Yes sir,” Evans opened the door gestured for Anna to come in. He moved to the portable stove to start it up, “Do you want some coffee Lieutenant? And um… Private Zakrzewska and I have something to talk to you about Sir.”

“Yes, coffee Evans, and make some for yourself,” The Lieutenant was seated at his desk, going through some paperwork, “And what is it Privates? Is it quick, I need to finish this up in an hour.”

Anna saluted the Lieutenant, “Sir, One month ago, during leave, Private Evans and I got married in secret. Over the course of said month, Private Evans has impregnated me, and as such, I am no longer fit for service in the army sir.”

Lieutenant Simmons nodded, “Well you picked a good time to tell me Miss Zakrzewska. Or I guess its Miss Evans now isn’t it?” He pulled another form out of his desk, “I need to ask you a few questions. First off, do you have the marriage certificate?”

Anna reached into her pocket and fished out the paper, “Here it is, the Pastor was Daniel Blair.”

Lieutenant Simmons grabbed the paper and started copying down information, “Any in unit witnesses to the wedding?”

“Yes sir, Lance Corporals Tiscornia and Chilcott sir.”

Evans walked over to Lieutenant Simmons with a mug of coffee, “Here sir, any sugar today?”

“No thank you Private,” Lieutenant Simmons grabbed the mug and sipped, “Why don’t you get your wife some Private, and since your here, can you start filling out these forms,” The Lieutenant gestured to the paperwork he had been working on earlier. He turned back to Anna, “And when did you first realize your were pregnant?”

“This morning all but confirmed it sir,” Anna smiled, “I haven’t had my period in over a month, and this morning I woke up nauseous. I also have done the wheat and barley test, and that worked.”

The Lieutenant nodded, “Alright Miss Evans, that is about everything, I’ll put this up the chain, but you’ll need to see the Regimental Doctor to have your status confirmed, and then we can return you to… Ah, where are you expecting to go?”

Private Evans handed Anna her cup of coffee, “Thanks James, And um, we actually bought an apartment in Seahaven. So I’ll be going there sir.”

“Very Well,” The Lieutenant signed at the bottom and held out the paper, “Can both of you sign at the bottom of this form, and Miss Evans, take it to the Regimental Doctor.”

Evans grabbed the paper and a pen. He quickly signed it and offered it to Anna, who did the same. She kissed Evans then ran out of the tent, and out of the war.

Evans turned turned back to the Lieutenant, expecting to be berated. Instead, the Lieutenant gestured back to the paperwork that Evans had barely started, “You should get back to work Private, this needs to be over to Colonel Darling by six. And I’ll need you to run it, I have a general scheduled with the platoon at that time.”

“Company sir,” Evans handed an envelope he had just opened to the Lieutenant, “You’re now Fox Company commander sir. Congratulations on the promotion. We’re apparently receiving a new officer, Lieutenant Winston Stoddart the Third to take over Second Platoon.”

“Huh,” Lieutenant Simmons grabbed the paper from Evans, “So it goes Private. I’ll be sure to recommend you as runner for the new Lieutenant. And the platoon will be brought back up to full strength again, so you can drop your duties as a rifleman.”

“Thank you sir,” Evans looked through the forms, “Um sir, should I change this to fourteen enlisted soldiers needed as replacements? Since Private Zakrzewska is leaving the unit.”

“Yes, and you can just say ‘Anna’ Private Evans, I’ll know who you are talking about,” the Lieutenant took a sip of coffee and flipped through some papers, “And congratulations on your marriage Private.”

“You’re not angry Lieutenant?”

Laughing, the Lieutenant responded, “Some folks just aren’t fit for a war. Best that they leave before they break during combat. And Hey, aren’t I allowed to enjoy a good love story?”

About ten minutes before six, the two had finished all the paperwork. The Lieutenant gathered it all in a folder and handed it to Evans. Evans nodded and left the tent. It didn’t take him long to snake his way through the camp to Regimental Headquarters. He knocked on the door and waited for a response.

After a few seconds, a Corporal opened the door, paused for a moment, then said, “You’re the runner from Fox Company Second Platoon right?”

Evans nodded and held out the folder. The Corporal gestured towards an office near the back, “Colonel Darling is expecting you, in there.”

Evans nodded and walked through regimental headquarters to the Colonel’s office. He stopped at the open door and saluted, “Sir, I’m here to deliver the reinforcement request form from Fox Company Second Platoon.”

Returning the salute, Colonel Darling waved Evans in and grabbed the folder, “You’re the Platoon with that slut who got herself pregnant. Did you include her disgrace in your totals?”

“Yes, I included my wife in the totals sir,” Evans tried to restrain himself.

“If it were up to me both of you would be shot,” The Colonel quickly added a few signatures to the forms in the folder. He looked on a roster and wrote down fourteen names from it on the folder. He handed it back to Evans with a disgusted look, “The replacements are getting inspected by the regimental doctor. And if you run fast, your whore might still be there.”

Evans grabbed the folder, saluted, did an about face, left the room, and immediately punched a wall. After he had regained his composure he walked through the halls of the building, following the signs that pointed to the doctor’s office. When he entered, he saw Anna, sitting on a bench, wearing a hospital gown. She smiled at him and waved.

He sat down next to her, put his arm around her, and kissed her on the cheek, “Met with the doctor yet?”

“No, Colonel Darling yelled at me for a while,” Anna laughed and hugged Evans, “But I don’t care, I won’t have to see him again.”

“Well I will, and he does not like me,” Evans gestured to his folder, “I have to go turn this in and grab the reinforcements. Stop by Fox before you get the train home.”

“I will, and did the Colonel give you that ‘I should have you both shot’ line?”

Evans laughed, “Yes dear, now I really have to go.” He kissed her one more time then walked into the doctors office. An orderly was sitting on the examination table, smoking.

“Hi, I’m here to collect fifteen reinforcements,” Evans showed the folder to the orderly.

Without taking the cigarette out of his mouth, the orderly responded, “Take that door right there. They’re all waiting in a staging area out back. Doc Laurie is finishing up with them.”

Evans thanked the orderly and exited out the door the orderly had gestured to. A few hundred soldiers were lounging on the parade grounds. There was a stage and a podium in front of the group. The doctor was in front of the podium doing quick medical checks on a few soldiers.

Running through the crowd of people, Evans saluted the doctor, “Sir, I’m here to collect fourteen soldiers and one officer.”

The doctor nodded to the podium, “Theres one of those sound amplifying cones under the podium. Yell in that, it will be louder.”

Evans nodded and stepped up next to he podium. He grabbed the cone and opened the folder, “Privates Kristin Clark, Wilfred Hoste, Vivien Kempe, Marianne Cayley, Thomas Penney, Robert Huntley, Feliks Macczek, Victor Delage, Hugo Ordon, Joseph Wood, Adrian Hawke, Rebecca Ullman. Lance Corporal… Iosif Ustinov! Sergeant Christopher Gabriel. And Lieutenant Winston Stoddart the Third. Come over to me. You’ll be in Second Platoon of Fox Company, Second Battalion.”

Fifteen soldiers got up and started making their way over. One of them jogged over, when they got closer, Evans realized it was Ustinov, “Hey Ustinov, they gave you Lance Corporal just for getting shot? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal.”

“Yeah, I’m tempted to get shot a few more times so I can be an officer,” Ustinov laughed before adopting a more serious face, “So I take it Green was killed.”

“Yeah, attack came the day after you left. Shell killed her and Renoir. Also ripped off Frankland’s arm,” Evans wiped his face, “We also lost Griffith, Davis—”

“Haven’t you been taught to salute officers?” Evans and Ustinov looked up to see a young Lieutenant looking at the two with disdain. They both sighed and saluted the officer. The officer returned the salute, “And you Private, take my pack.” The officer unbuckled his webbing and handed it to Evans.

“Yes sir,” Evans slung the gear onto his back and turned back to Ustinov, “We lost a lot of people, we can talk later. But on a more positive note, Private Zakrzewska is no more, She’s Anna Evans now, and is being discharged from the Army as we speak.”

Evans looked around and counted the soldiers, fifteen, “Alright everyone, lets get you to Fox Company.”

Evans and Ustinov led the group through the camp. The Sergeant jogged up next to them, “Hey, I’m Sergeant Gabriel. I take it you two have already seen a show?”

“Yeah, I’m about two months green, but I was at White Beach,” Evans shook Sergeant Gabriel’s hand, “Had a heavy attack though, why we need fifteen replacements. Private James Evans by the way.”

Ustinov offered his hand, “I’m Lance Ustinov, wounded the day before his show at White, but I caught the tail end of Tsiv River. How about you Sergeant?”

“Fought at the Saints River, very beginning of the war. Got captured in an attack. Spent a few months in a prison camp, decided it wasn’t for me and left.”

Sandcastles

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“Um… Anna, I should probably have told you this before, but I actually don’t know how to swim,” Evans was up to his waist in water, a bit nervous about the rising tide.

Anna laughed and splashed some water at him, “Really? I thought you were from the country, don’t you have lakes in the middle of nowhere?”

Evans started to take a few steps closer to the shore. He gestured back to Turner and Head, who were relaxing on the beach, “I can just go hang out with them while the rest of you swim.”

“Come on, just try!” Anna swam towards him and grabbed his arm. She flipped around and kicked at his legs, “Try floating on your back.”

Evans flailed wildly and grabbed onto Anna. He slowly lowered his feet and gripped the ground with his toes, “Are you trying to kill me?” He leaned in closer and whispered, “Was I that bad last night that you want to get out of this whole marriage?”

“Don’t say that,” Anna pushed him a little deeper, “I had a good time. Now come on, just try and float.”

Evans leaned back, closed his eyes, and exhaled slowly. After he started to sink, he started flailing again. He stood up and started wading toward shore. Anna swam after him and kept splashing at him with water. He quickly took off his undershirt, rung it out, and put it back on. Anna stood up and tried to shake the excess water off her swimsuit. She looked at Evans, “How about a sandcastle? Want to build a sandcastle?”

“Anything but swimming alright Anna?” Evans laughed and kicked some water at Anna. He looked over at Head and Turner, “Hey Eddy, Turner! I bet Anna and I can build a better sandcastle than you two!”

Turner looked up, somewhat annoyed. She shouted back, “I’m Lance Corporal in the Army. That means I had to study field works and entrenching, you two are going down.” She looked to Head, “Come on Head, Let’s do this.”

Anna ran forward and dived onto the beach, gouging out a small dent in the sparkling white sand. Evans knelt next to her and whispered, “OK, so how do we build a sandcastle?”

Anna sat up and flattened out the sand. She used her finger to draw a square in the sand, “So we’ll want the wall here and a moat on the outside of that. We’ll dig a trench from the moat to ocean, so when the time comes, it will fill the moat. We’ll also want to get all the sand wet so it sticks together.” Anna stood and shook a bit, “I don’t like this wool swimsuit.”

Evans started digging down around the line in the sand, “I like it, the dress is all fancy-like and pretty. Unlike your uniform.”

Laughing, Anna put on a pretend angry face, “Are you saying you don’t like my poorly fitting jacket and trousers? And the stupid steel bucket on my head. If only they could make a nice sun hat that could stop shrapnel.” Anna splashed some water up at the spot of sand, “And think about it, the helmet would have more coverage, along with looking stylish.”

“You should write into Newacre with your plan. I’m sure the General Staff would take you up right away,” Evans tossed a mud ball at Anna, “Might even make you an officer.”

“Lieutenant Zakrzewska, I like the sound of that,” Anna knelt down and started molding the wall, “And you’d have to salute me and call me Ma’am.”

Evans tried cupping his hand in a different way to dig the moat. He felt something rubbery. Evans stumbled backwards and puked onto the sand, “No, No!” Running forward, he kicked down the sandcastle and started screaming. He tried to grab his bayonet, but it was missing. Fuck Fuck Fuck.

Turner ran forward, and waved back Anna, who was frozen in confusion, “Evans, It’s alright. We’re all friends here man.”

Evans swung his fist at Turner, who ducked under and knocked him to the ground. Head dived onto Evans and held him down. Evans started crying. Looking at him, Head talked in a slow demeanor, “Jimmy, why don’t we head back to the lean-to. I’ve got a bottle of whiskey there, we can just chill and forget this whole sandcastle thing, Righto?”

Evans nodded as Head slowly got off him. Head gestured back to the tent. He saw a somewhat scared looking Anna talking with Tiscornia. Taking a step towards the two, he felt Turner’s hand on his shoulder, “Why don’t you wait a bit to talk to her, alright?”

“Yeah, sure,” Evans nodded and followed Head. He walked into the lean-to and sat down, back leaned up against the side of the truck. Head rooted through his bag and pulled out a whiskey bottle and a metal cup. Pouring out a little, he offered it to Evans.

Evans grabbed it and took a drink. Turner walked in and grabbed the cup. She took a drink and passed it to Head, “Something trigger you Evans?”

“What, I uh… I’m fine, just tired is all,” Evans started tapping his foot. He wiped some of the tears from his eyes.

“Hey, I’ve been in this shit for a year and a half, I know when something is wrong Evans.”

Evans grabbed the cup and took a drink, “When I was digging the moat, I felt something that… Head, remember when I found that arm? Like that. And I just felt I don’t know, like we were under attack again. I beat a man to death in a shell hole during the attack.”

The three sat in silence for a while. At first they passed around the cup until it settled on Head, and he kept it with him. After a long while, Turner pulled out a pack of cigarettes. She offered some to the two of them, and after they politely declined, she pulled one out for herself and lit it, “So Evans, how about you and Zwev?”

“Um… Er…” Evans looked away nervously and laughed, “You know, she’s a good friend. Why?”

She took a puff, “You are the world’s worst liar, aren’t you Evans? I mean, if we ignore the fact that you two do fucking everything together, there’s the fact that you two we’re clearly fucking last night.”

Evans blushed and yanked the whiskey bottle from Head and drunk some, “Please don’t tell anyone. Anna and I got married. She wants to leave the army.”

Turner grabbed the bottle, “Everyone deals with it in different ways,” She shook it and looked at the level, “Like how we’ve gone through half this bottle and you and I have only had a few drinks. You seem to have the poor attempt at a stoic thing going. Tiscornia’s got his affable thing going. And more famously among the men in company, and some of the women, there’s that Private Lucy Chambers.”

Head stumbled over and yanked the bottle from Turner, “So who’s this Private Chambers? She sounds nice.”

“Head,” Turner sighed, “Don’t fuck Chambers.”

Evans laughed softly, “Yeah, I met her a few times. The one with the scar. I managed to stoically resit her advances as you suggested my way of ‘dealing with it’ is.” He grabbed the nearly empty bottle from a passed out Head and took a little drink, “So what do you do Turner?” He held the bottle out to her.

She accepted the bottle and drank the last bit, “You’re seeing it. I used to be the best fucking example of feminine virtue you’ve ever seen. I always wore long nice patterned skirts. I had long flowing hair and always doing up my nails, even though I grew up on a fucking farm. I thought I was a princess or something. My goal was to marry some handsome man who would whisk me away to his fucking palace, so I practiced etiquette, and always set the table right.”

“And now you’re the automatic rifleman for an infantry company?”

“Funny how things work out? I joined up, expecting to be the assistant to some staff officer who I would fall madly in love with. And now I’m here.”

 

Marching Out

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Opening eyes, Evans noticed something strange… He could see the light of a lantern seeping in. Rolling out of the bed, he looked for Zwev. It wouldn’t really take long, there were only two places she could be, a few meters to the right, or a few meters to the left. He decided to walk left.

Crouching down, he made his way over. He quickly glances at his watch and made out the time, still half an hour until Stand-To. He looked up from his watch and saw Zwev lying on the duckboards, with her rifle leaned up next to her, staring at the sky, “Zwev… Anna? Are you alright?”

She closed her eyes, “I just want to get out of here Jim.”

Evans nodded and squeezed past her. He then slid down next to her head and looked at her, “Only a few more hours and we get to leave. And Sergeant Campbell said we have at least a month off the line.”

The two sat there in silence until Sergeant Parker ran down the line waking everyone up for the Stand-To. Zwev and Evans stood up and aimed down the line. There was some weak harassing from the Vledscan side that was quickly countered with three mortar rounds. When the Stand-To was finally over, the platoon got to work rebuilding the trench. A few minutes before noon, Evans started to hear singing from down behind the line. The replacements were coming.

Lieutenant Simmons called out to the platoon, “Alright everyone, let’s get ready to move out, sounds like the 327th is almost here.”

Evans sheathed his shovel and grabbed his rifle and waited to move out. It had been a rough six days. He lined up behind the rest of the platoon, waiting for their replacements to come in. They were silent as they marched out past the replacements. When they finally exited the trench system, they passed by the camp where they had been before. The officer that had been momentarily put in charge of the battalion pulled them to a stop next to several large tents, “Alright, Kit bags are in tents by company. First Platoon in front, Third Platoon in back. You have twenty minutes to get your gear and get back out here. Leave the bags of the dead and wounded, those will be retrieved later. Dismissed.”

Evans moved with the platoon towards the tent marked with a large ‘F’. Zwev seemed a little happier now. Apparently Tiscornia had cheered her up a little while they were working on the trench. She still wasn’t talking though.

He grabbed his bag, hoisted it onto his back, and moved to Zwev. She gave him a slight smile as she grabbed her bag. The two moved their way to the exit of the tent and stood and moved to the muster spot. They waited for the rest of the battalion to muster.

When they had all arrived, the officer called them to attention and announced that the train should be arriving in ten minutes. After fifteen minutes, the officer put them at ease. Twenty minutes after that, the officer called them to attention again, “I guess the train is running behind, fall out and wait by the tracks.”

Evans shrugged and fell out of formation. The platoon moved to the slope near the tracks. Evans set his kit bag down, dropped his rifle, and laid down, with his head on the bag. Zwev popped down next to him. They stared at the sky for a few minutes when a towering figure loomed over them, silhouetted against the sky.

The figure bent down, and Tiscornia’s voice spoke out, “Hey, bagarìlli, what are you two doing for leave?”

Zwev spoke up, “Um, Leave Dom?”

“Yeah, four days leave as soon as we get behind the line. We’re being pulled back to Seahaven, so Chilly and I figured we’d get a group together and head down to the beach. I know a good one about half a days travel from Seahaven. Chilly, Giuliano, and Hunt are in so far.”

Evans sat up, “How much for transportation, sleeping, and food?”

“Not much, we’ll be setting up our own shelters on the beach. And we can just borrow a truck. I think Giuliano said that she knows how to drive,” Tiscornia twiddled a pen in his hand.

“I know how to drive,” Evans raised his hand a bit, as if he was still in school, “And I guess I can go.”

“Alright,” Tiscornia made a note on a pad of paper he produced from his pocket, “Giuliano can drive half, then you can.”

Zwev responded, “Yeah, sure I’ll go too. And can I talk to you about something later? It’s important.”

Tiscornia nodded and walked down the line. Zwev looked at Evans, “So, did you think about what I said?”

Evans nodded, “If you still want to, I’ll do it.”

Giving him a soft smile, Zwev nodded, “Thanks, maybe we can do it on leave.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes and watched artillery begin to fall on the Ethslin lines. The patter of artillery slowly rolled into a heavy barrage over the course of the next hour. Twardowski piped up, “Glad we’re not in that.”

The platoon stayed mostly silent until the train rolled in, three hours late.

“Alright, let’s move out,” The officer in charge started assigning platoon’s to different boxcars.

Crawling Back

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Evans woke up. He looked around him. The son was bright over him. There was a constant ringing in his ear. He looked down at his body, surprised to find that he was uninjured by the blast.

He crawled up the edge of the shell hole and looked around him. He saw the Vledscan soldiers across the line start sprinting back. The attack had been broken. Evans crawled back down into the hole and watched the retreating men jump over him while being raked with machine gun fire.

One soldier fell into the same shell hole. Panicking, Evans quickly drew his bayonet, which was still attached to his hip. The soldier say this and reached for his rifle. Evans quickly dived forward and drove the bayonet into the soldiers chest and pinned the man into the ground. Ripping the rifle out of the Vledscan soldier’s hands and started beating his head in with the rifle.

After the soldier was thoroughly killed, Evans planted his boot next to his bayonet. Gripping it with both hands, he yanked it out, knocking himself back onto the other end of the shell hole. He wiped the bayonet off on his trouser leg. In one quick motion, he sheathed it and crawled up towards the edge of the shell hole. Evans started making his way back to the Ethslin lines.

About halfway back to the trench, Evans heard a great rushing sound overhead. He looked back just in time to see the first shell burst on the Vledscan line. Figuring that the Vledscans would have their heads down, Evans got up and started sprinting. Two shots whizzed past him as he ran. He then dived into the trench.

Evans turned around to see a rifle pointed in his face, “Holy Shit, Evans.” A hand reached down. Grabbing the hand, Evans was yanked up, and he was staring eye to eye with Corporal Hardin, “How the fuck did you survive that? We all thought you were fucking dead.” Hardin smiled, “Oh, you should go see that pretty Silesian chick you are always talking with. She was bawling after the attack ended.”

Evans jogged down the trench line until he saw Zwev digging the trench line down. He walked over and tapped her on the shoulder. She responded without looking, “Look Lance Corporal, if this isn’t an order, I don’t want to fucking talk right now.”

“Wow, thanks for the promotion Zwev. I’ll be sure to write my parents.”

With a clatter, Zwev dropped her shovel. She turned around wide eyed. For a moment, she just stared at Evans. Lurching forward, she embraced Evans, “I thought you were dead.” She then kissed him momentarily, before realizing what she was doing.

Blushing, she stepped back and picked up her shovel. Tiscornia walked over, “Evans, how the Fuck… I mean… You should probably get back to your rifle team.”

Nodding, Evans walked through the destroyed trench back to Corporal Hardin. He tried to find the dugouts, but they seemed to have been destroyed by artillery fire. He tried not to look at the bodies littered all over the trench. He walked up to Hardin, “I said hello to Zwev… I uh, lost my rifle and shovel during the attack.”

“No shit, you were hit by a fucking artillery shell. I don’t know how the fuck you are even alive. I’m sure we can find some,” Corporal Hardin’s face suddenly turned somber, “We lost a lot of people. From our Rifle team… Stanhope bought it, bayonet. Cain caught some shrapnel in the chest early on, got pulled back. We were lucky, only two. Second Team only has Chilly and two Privates left… Let’s go, see about that shovel. Trench is blown to hell and we need all hands for this.”

Evans nodded and looked for the closest body. He saw Renoir’s lifeless face staring up at the sky. It was strange that he didn’t seem to feel anything. He bent over and unclipped the shovel from the Renoir’s belt. He turned and started to help repair the trench.

It took all day, but by the evening stand to, the platoon had managed to cobble together a defensive position and clear the bodies away. The stand to was quiet, there was only some feeble machine guns firing from the Vledscan side. At about the end, of the stand to, great whooshing noises started overhead, followed by flashes appearing on the Vledscan front line. The barrage intensified as the hours dragged on. Zwev and Evans were exhausted from the days work, but neither could get to sleep, so they stood up next to the soldiers on watch to stare at the shells bursting.

“You know, It’s almost peaceful,” Evans stared out. He noticed something strange. Every few shell bursts he saw a silhouette leaning up against a tree. The man he had killed two days before. It didn’t really bother him anymore. Another flash, and the tree and soldier disappeared.

“Kind of like a fireworks show eh?” Zwev grabbed Evans hand. Evans shrunk away momentarily, then relaxed and squeezed Zwev’s hand.

“You know… I’ve never seen fireworks.”

Zwev giggled a bit, “I knew you came from a small town, but no fireworks?”

“Nope,” Evans watched a few shell bursts, the barrage seemed to be intensifying. He turned and looked at Zwev’s face, intermittently illuminated by the shell bursts, “What happened during the attack?”

Sighing a sad sigh, Zwev stared silently for about a minute, “We held the line. They broke in at one point. But we drove them back. We saw you get hit right before they sent there second wave. Evans… Jim. When that shell hit you… I’ve never been more terrified in my life. I though you’d been ripped apart.”

Evans didn’t respond. He let go of Zwev’s hand and stepped down from the fire step and started hacking at one end of the trench with his shovel. After a minute, Zwev stepped down to join him. They eventually managed to scrape out a small shelter, barely large enough for the two of them. Evans wedged himself in the back corner, and Zwev huddled in in front of him.

The Wiring Party

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Evans felt something bump against his side. A second later and another bump. He slightly opened one eye and looked at dirt ceiling. He heard a mumbling noise. Another bump. Evans mumbled and rolled over onto something. Water splashed onto his face. Evans opened his eyes, he was lying on a boot. His eyes slowly worked their way up the boot and the pant leg until he was making eye contact with its owner.

“Come on, it’s almost midnight,” Zwev was already up and looking down on Evans, “And can you get off my boot?”

Evans pushed himself up and walked out. He and Zwev made their way down the trench lines to First Platoon, where the rest of the wiring party had gathered. The Lieutenant noted them and looked at his watch. He whispered to the party, “Everyone ready? Alright, Team One, Y’all need to grab the wire. Team Two, grab the screws. Team Two move out first. Let’s get this over with.”

Evans moved over to the pile of 2 meter long screws and picked up a bundle. He stood with Zwev and Alden behind Chilcott at the edge of the sap. Chilcott looked back at Lieutenant Simmons and then rolled over the top. Evans followed, making sure to stay low. Chilcott moved a few meters forward and waved Evans to him.

Evans followed and put down his bundle of screws. He pulled out his bayonet and cut the twine holding the bundle together. He picked up the first screw and pushed it into the wet mud. He slowly started to screw it into the ground while Chilcott stood waved Zwev to a position a few meters away. After 30 seconds, Evans had pushed the screw completely into the ground. He moved over to Chilcott as Ustinov moved in behind him to set up the wire.

It continued this way for a half an hour. Silently moving forward until, suddenly Evans could see clearly. Clear as day. Simmons half shouted, “Flare, get down!”

The party dived to the ground. Evans stifled a scream as the piece of barbed wire he had landed on drove into his torso. He closed his eyes and waited for the signal.

A shot rang out.

Evans heard a muffled curse.

Lieutenant Simmons whispered back, “Chilcott, have one of your soldiers leave their screws and bring whoever the fuck just got hit back to the trench.”

“Evans.” Chilcott slowly crawled over and elbowed Evans, “Drop your screws, I think the shot hit over there.”

Pushing his screws to the side, he painfully crawled towards the wounded soldier, moving as slowly as possible, to avoid the wrath of the enemy rifles.

After a slow and painful minute, he reached the body, “Hey, are you alright?”

“Yes, just fine and fucking dandy.”

Evans tried to make out who the voice was in the flickering light provided by the flare, “Ustinov?”

The man nodded while cringing. Evans patted him down to try and find the bullet wound. He noticed a dampness around Ustinov’s thigh. Reaching into his back pocket, Evans fished out a bandage and wrapped Ustinov’s leg. He then grabbed him under the shoulders and began the slow crawl back to the Ethslin lines. He had at least managed to pull the strip of barbed wire out his chest.

After the flare went down, Evans felt bold enough to stand a little higher and dragged him back quickly to Second Platoon’s trench. He dragged Ustinov up until the parapet then dropped in. He walked over and tapped one of the soldiers on watch, “Hey, can you help me drag Ustinov into the trench?”

Cain took a step down and nodded. Evans led her down the trench back to where Ustinov was lying. She pulled down his legs while Evans put him over his shoulder stood up. He grunted at Cain and then turned to head down the trench line to the casualty collection point in company headquarters.

He stumbled through the dark deserted trenches for a few minutes until he stumbled upon the company headquarters. A startled young woman aimed a rifle at him, “Halt! Password!”

Evans drew a blank, “Um… Shit… I don’t know.”

The woman lowered her left hand while keeping the rifle trained on Evans. She reached into her pocket and flicked her fingers, a flame shot out of what Evan’s guessed was a lighter. She held it up to his face and then quickly slung her rifle, “Shit! That guys wounded. Um… Fuck it, keep moving. Password is Goldfish by the way.”

Evans moved on down the line, confused at his interaction with the guard. After a few minutes, he managed to stumble into the casualty collection point and he put Ustinov on a cot. He looked to his right and saw a dimly lit bell that read, ‘Ring for Service’. Shrugging, he rung the bell.

A voice called out from a nearby dugout, “Just a minute!” Half a minute later, a glow came from the dugout. A tall, handsome man lit by a lantern exited the dugout. The captains pips on his shoulders glowed orange under the light.

“Captain Jackson!?” Evans snapped to attention and saluted.

Captain Jackson nodded and returned the salute, “Medics needed sleep, and I was up to wait for the wiring party. I was halfway through medical school when I joined the army.” Captain Jackson knelt down next to the cot and scanned Ustinov, “He was hit on the party?”

“Yes sir.”

Captain Jackson gestured at the bandage, “You put this on Private?”

“Yes sir.”

“Well, next time you might want to put the bandage on the wound next time,” Captain Jackson undid the bandage and started wrapping Ustinov’s torso, “Don’t worry, it’s not that bad of a hit, I’ve seen men survive longer on worse.”

“Alright Sir.”

“Was this your first wiring party son?”

Evans was taken aback slightly by the sudden familiarity, “Yes sir, I joined the company last week sir.”

The Captain paused for a few seconds as he took Ustinov’s pulse. He then walked into the dugout, waving Evans to follow him, “Yesterday was your first show then? We sure gave the Boxers a right licking eh?”

Evans wasn’t quite sure what the Captain meant, so he nodded, hoping for that it was the right answer.

“Good chap,” Captain Jackson looked through a few drawers before finally coming across some pills, “That private you brought in is already out, but I’m going to give him a little kick to bring him well good.”

Evans nodded again, pretending that he knew what the Captain was talking about. As the Captain left the dugout, Evans quickly looked around. Strangely enough, the dugout had curtains installed on the side, as if they were covering up a window, even though he was a few feet underground. Shrugging, Evans followed Captain Jackson out to casualty area.

Captain Jackson had woken Ustinov and was offering him a flask. Ustinov feebly grabbed the flask and took a drink. Captain Jackson turned to Evans, “You can head back to your platoon.”

Evans nodded and turned back to the trench. He was stopped again by the woman he had seen earlier, pointing her rifle again, “Password!”

“Goldfish.”

“Wait, you were the guy from earlier,” She slung her rifle pulled out her lighter again and held it closer to herself, revealing her face. She had a small, dainty face, interrupted by a sharp scar from her ear to her nose. She smiled at him, “Is that guy alright?”

“Um… The Captain thinks he will be,” Evans looked back over his shoulder then looked forward again, “I’m Evans by the way.”

“Lucy,” she got a funny look on her face, shook her head then talked again, “Um… Could you do me a favor?”

“Yeah…” Evans half shrugged, “Sure?”

“Thank Joshua!” She unslung her rifle and handed it to Evans, “I’ve been, um… ‘holding it’ for about an hour now.” Lucy scampered over to a bucket and started to pull down her pants. Evans turned away and distracted himself with the rifle. He pulled back the bolt slightly and looked at the bullet he had been threatened with twice tonight. It was sort of shiny.

Ramming the bolt back forward, he tried to listen to what was happening in No-Mans Land. It was silent, which he figured was a good thing. He felt a tap on his shoulder, “I’m done, you need to use it before I toss it out?”

Lucy held up the bucket, half filled with liquid, with a few solid bits floating within. It amazed Evans that he didn’t really smell anything. Had he really been acclimatized to the constant stench of it already? He waved his hand to signal that he didn’t. Shrugging, Lucy threw the liquid in the bucket over the side of the trench. She put the bucket down in the corner again.

Evans held the rifle back out to her, and she smiled, “So, you want to…” She made an obscene gesture with hands.

Momentarily flustered, Evans panicked, “Um, sorry, I should be going back to my platoon…” Evans put the rifle in her hands, “Your, um, a very attractive lady, but um… I just met you, and I feel like this really isn’t the place. Sorry.”

Lucy shrugged as she checked the rifle over, “No worries, I’m just looking for a way to pass the time. Be seeing you!”

Evans nodded and slunk off, confused about the whole situation, hoping to see Zwev when he got back.

When he arrived back at the trench, he walked up to Cain, “Hey, Cain, the party arrive back yet?”

“No,” She pointed down towards Third Platoon, “They’re about halfway past third.”

Evans squinted and looked towards the party. He could somewhat make them out under the faint light, “Any more action since I came through?”

“Nope. Been quiet.”

Evans nodded and sat down on the fire step next to Cain. He pulled a pad of paper out of his breast pocket and started to write another letter to Jack.

Assault on the Trenches

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“ARTILLERY! GET DOWN!” Sergeant Griffith shouted to the platoon as they stood along the wall for Stand To. A split second later, Evans heard the telltale whistle of inbound shells. He sprinted into the dugout. A few seconds after he dived in, the first shell hit. It was the loudest sound Evans had ever heard.

As the dirt clumps fell around him, Evans crawled towards Zwev, who was huddled in the corner. He tried to yell something towards her. She shook her head while yelling something back. So the two of them decided to sit and make gestures at each other for about half an hour while the shells rained down above.

When the shellfire began to die down Evans and Zwev stopped their mute conversation and looked around the dugout. Sergeant Griffith was standing near the dugout exit looking at her watch and counting on her fingers. Three. Two. One. “MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! GET ON THE LINE!” She unshouldered her rifle and ran out the dugout.

Evans got up and grabbed his rifle from the dugout floor. He reached to Zwev and helped her up. She grabbed her rifle and they moved out onto the line. The trench was mostly intact, though a few shells had torn up the wire in front of the trench. Evans and Zwev took up positions next to each other and aimed down over No-Man’s Land.

Simmons yelled to the platoon, “STAND READY!” He turned and talked to Lance Corporal Green, “Run down to the Captain and tell him Second Platoon is at full strength.”

Evans looked over the Vledscn line. It had been almost a full minute since the artillery had stopped firing. He could see the Machine Gunners almost ready to fight and their was nothing from the Vledscan line. Could this be a false barrage? To shake them up? He whispered, “Hey, Zwev, shouldn’t they be attacking, Corp Hardin said that heavy barrages are usually followed by an attack.”

“Yeah, it’s really fuckin’ weird,” Lance Corporal Bailey whispered from Evans’ other side, “Usually Vleddy doesn’t use shells on fake outs.”

Evans shrugged and continued watching the line. He heard a faint whistle. A roar. Men started to appear over the tops of the Vledscan trenches. Lieutenant Simmons yelled out to the Platoon, “HOLD UNTIL MACHINE GUNS!”

Evans checked the bolt and safety on his rifle. A few seconds later, he heard a burp of fire from one of the Machine Guns, the other guns followed suit. Evans aimed at the nearest silhouette and pulled the trigger. Without even looking to see if his shot had hit, he bolted and fired another round.

In a few seconds, the attack had stopped, and a few dozen Vledscan soldiers lay dead.

Green ran back into the trench and looked to Simmons, “Captain Jackson says same across the board. Hold the line at all costs.”

Evans watched a man he think he shot. He had collapsed in an odd way, and he was still propped up in the middle of No-Man’s land. He had a red bandanna around his neck.

A whistle. Another wave started to rise. Lance Corporal Turner got excited and opened fire with her automatic rifle early. Evans opened fire at the formation. The machine guns quickly opened up from the wings and the Vledscan troops. They quickly fell dead.

Evans stood their shocked. Why had the second wave charged, why hadn’t they even fired one or two mortars. Evans was distracted by a commotion further down the trench line, he turned to see Tiscornia mounting the parapet.

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING! YOU ARE THROWING YOUR LIVES AWAY!” a bullet whizzed past Tiscornia as Lance Corporal Giuliano and Private Renoir attempted to pull him back into the trench. “GODDAMMIT ARE YOUR ORDERS REALLY WORTH IT?” Tiscornia turned around and jumped back into the trench as the whistle blew. Evans turned and opened fire once more.

The rest of the stand to was eerily silent. Their wasn’t even a mortar round from the Vledscan side. Evans took the time to look around No-Man’s land once again. The wire in front of the trench had been almost completely destroyed, it was just a tangled mess, the p

ieces large enough to see. It seemed like all the Vledscan shells had fallen in front of the trench.

The Vledscan lines were mostly unchanged, with the exception of the piles of bodies a few meters from the from the front of their trench. He wondered about this for the rest of the stand to. Once it was over, he walked to Corporal Hardin to receive his breakfast.

“Here you go, first meal after combat. Now your a soldier.”

Evans walked on and found Zwev, who was eating with Renoir and Head in the dugout. They all sat mostly in silence, until Head mentioned the topic on everyones mind.

“What the fuck…”

Renoir leaned back, “Decimation.”

Zwev threw her knife point first into the dirt floor, “What? That’s not an explanation…”

Renoir shook his head, “No, it’s an old leadership strategy. I heard a rumor going around about a Vledscan colonel doing it… You see, He lined up his regiment after a failed attack. The third wave hadn’t gone over the top after the other two had been destroyed…” Renoir looked Head in the eyes and counted on his fingers, “One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, BANG! Every tenth man in his regiment he killed. Personally, walked down the entire line.”

Zwev shuddered, “Why didn’t they run? Surely it was clear after the first few soldiers what was happening.”

“He had machine gun teams aimed at the regiment. When one platoon ran, they were cut down before they had gone ten paces,” Renoir pulled a cigarette out of his breast pocket and lit it with a match, he offered it to the other three, who all declined.

“Fuck…” Evans shook his head and took a bite from his jerky.

“How do you know so much about the Vledscan’s Renoir?” Head cocked his head and looked at Renoir.

“Ustinov. We were chatting, He manned a listening sap on our last tour.”

Evans replied in a confused voice, “Ustinov, isn’t that a Vledscan name?”

Zwev perked up, “Yeah, his family immigrated when he was young, he’s on watch now.”

“You should really get to know him,” Renoir laughed a little, “He’s probably the funniest guy in Fox.”

Lance Corporal Green walked into the dugout, “Sergeant Parker, Corporal Davis, Lance Corporal Chilcott, Lance Corporal Tiscornia, Privates Ustinov, Cook, Alden, Evans, Anna Zak something, and Geary, you are needed in the Lieutenant’s dugout now.”

Renoir called out as Evans and Zwev got up, “Ustinov is on watch!”

“Well then congratulations, your replacing him, Move.”

Renoir grumbled as he got up, “Merde. Should have known better than speak up.”

Evans ducked down a little while walking through the trench. He followed the line in front of him into the Lieutenant’s dugout. The dugout was more furnished than the enlisted dugout, and Lieutenant Simmons was sitting at a desk, looking at a map. After a seconds, he looked up at the gathered soldiers, He then looked to Lance Corporal Green, “Is this everyone Jenny?”

Lance Corporal Green nodded as Private Ustinov entered the room and shouldered his rifle. Lieutenant Simmons nodded and looked to the soldiers again, “Tonight, y’all have the luxury of going on a mission over the top. The Captain decided that we need to strengthen our wire and wants me to lead the party. I’m dividing our party into two teams, Team One lead by Sergeant Parker and Lance Corporal Tiscornia, and Team Two will be led by Corporal Davis and Lance Corporal Chilcott. Team One will be Privates Ustinov, Geary, and Cook. Team Two will by Privates Alden, Evans, and Zakrzewska.

“Team One will be in charge of setting up the wire. Team Two will screw in the stakes. We are starting out at First Platoon and move down to Third. We should work fast, and if all goes well, we should be done within an hour. We kick off at midnight, so you should get some rest after stand to tonight.

“When midnight comes however, make sure you are at First Platoon’s trench, our exit sap is there. Privates, you should leave your rifles behind, if the fire gets to heavy, we have two machine guns ready to respond. Lance Corporal’s and above will have rifles as well. Don’t bring canteens, bombs, or anything else that will rattle.

“Lastly, if we start getting shelled, dive into the nearest shell hole and pray you don’t get hit. Dismissed.” Lieutenant Simmons went back to his map.

The wiring party left the Lieutenant’s dugout into the trench, where the rest of the platoon was working on fixing parts of the trench destroyed in the barrage. The wiring party joined in and helped with the improvements until the time came for stand to. The stand to was unusually quiet, with only a few machine gun bursts. Evans and Zwev went to their blanket and laid down with their heads against the dug out wall for a few hours rest.

Meeting the Team

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It had been a long day. After the shooting, most of the day had been spent doing paperwork. Evans, Zwev, and Cain were all sitting on their beds, waiting for their Corporals to come in to introduce them to their rifle teams. Cain and Zwev were talking while Evans was writing a letter, dodging Zwev’s legs as she kicked back and forth.

Cain gestured at Evans, “Who are you writing to?”

Zwev swung herself around and poked her head down at him, “Yeah, who are you writing to Evans?”

Dropping the pencil, Evans replied, “My friend Jack from back home. He’s deployed up at Dry Forest.”

Zwev laughed a little, “Writing about our exciting day writing our names and serial numbers on form after form. I feel like I will remember Two Nine One Five One Five Six for the rest of my life.”

“I’m writing about all the exciting new people I’ve met, like that… very interesting Lance Corporal.”

Turning back around, Zwev slid off the bed and dropped down next to Evans, “Did you write anything about me?”

Evans folded the paper and pulled it away from Zwev, “That’s for me, Jack, and the censors to know.”

Zwev laughed and got up. She walked to the far corner of the room and started stretching her arms. Evans leaned back, “So you were pretty handy with the rifle.”

“Practice. My dziadziu took me hunting a lot when I was a little girl.”

A Corporal entered the room and tapped on the wall to get everyones attention, “Hi friends, I’m Corporal Hardin. I need Cain, Evans, and Head… I’m guessing Head or Evans isn’t here yet.”

Evans nodded, “Yeah Private Head isn’t, he’s with the other Lance Corporal. Chilcott I think. I’m Evans.”

Cain stood up, “I’m Private Cain.”

“I’m Private Zakrzewska!” Zwev turned around, “You probably didn’t need to know that, but I felt left out of the introductions.”

An excited look appeared on Corporal Hardin’s face. He smiled and pointed at Zwev, “Kurwa masz!”

The smile on Zwev’s face turned to a look of disgust. She took a step forward and slapped him in the face.

Corporal Hardin’s smile turned to a look of horror, “Oh shit, that didn’t mean ‘You’re pretty’ in Silesian did it?”

“No, it meant ‘You whore’ which is a very rude thing to say to someone you just met.”

“Sorry, Twardowski told me it meant ‘You’re pretty,’ and since you are Silesian I thought…” Corporal Hardin shook his head, “Just come with me Cain and Evans. And I’m really sorry Miss Zakrzewska.” Corporal Hardin turned around and started to leave the room. Evans put his letter and pencil into his bag and left with Cain.

“I’m taking you two to Sergeant Campbell’s office, it’s cramped, but it is where we have Team meetings, and it is right here,” Corporal Hardin knocked on the door and opened it, “Hey guys, this is Privates Evans and Cain, two of the new kids, Chilly still has Head apparently.”

Evans and Cain walked in the room. Four soldiers were seated around the room, the Sergeant sitting at the desk with his feet up, “I’m Sergeant Campbell. Team leader.”

A Lance Corporal stood up and extended his hand to Cain, “I’m Lance Corporal Morgan, I’ll be your fireteam leader.” Cain shook his hand and nodded.

The Private next to Morgan stood up and waved at Cain, “I’m Dan Newey, the other Private on the fireteam.”

The last Lance Corporal stood up, she shook Evans’ hand, “I’m Lance Corporal Stanhope. I’ll be the fireteam lead for you and Head when he gets here.”

After a few silent moments, there was a knock on the side of the open door, “Hi! I’m Eddy Head, is this Rifle Team 1?”

Sergeant Campbell nodded, and everyone introduced themselves again. Campbell then leaned back to reach at one of his desk drawers and pulled out three paper backed field manuals, “This has all the information you should know if you expect to be promoted to Lance Corporal. It’s also useful information for general living and fighting in the trenches. Corporal Hardin will go over the rest of the information you three need, and Morgan, Stanhope, and Newey, you three can leave, I don’t need you anymore.”

The three nodded and filed out. Hardin took a seat on Sergeant Campbell’s desk and passed the field manuals to Evans, Cain, and Head, “OK, I have three main things to go over with you. One, the chain of command. Two, mail. And Three, what the fuck you’ll actually be doing day to day.

“Chain of command for our unit is easy. First your Lance Corporal. Then Me. Then Sergeant Campbell here. Then Lieutenant Simmons. A note about the LT, you should usually just talk to Green. She’s his runner. She’ll set up an appointment with the LT. You usually shouldn’t interact with anyone above the LT, but you never know, so next you have Captain Jackson. Battalion XO is Major Parker. Battalion CO is Lieutenant Colonel Wood. Regimental is Colonel Darling. Division is General Richardson… That’s about that…

“Next mail, you can drop it off in the box outside the Lieutenant’s office. For each duty station we will have a specified mail area. Mail will usually be collected daily, except for on the front, where it will be collected as often as the Vledscans permit. If it’s quiet, every two days two lucky soldiers will get to run the mail back to the Company collection point, then the Battalion collection, and finally to the Regimental point behind the lines. Censoring will be done by the Lieutenant. He does not censor all letters, but is able to read any letter you are sending, so don’t insult the LT, and don’t seal your envelopes.

“Finally, the most important part. Duties. Yay. Behind the lines is mostly training and watch. Occasionally we’ll play some sport for exercise. In the trenches is the more exciting bit. Wake up is about 5:00 in the morning. We get ready for the stand to, clean weapons, and other shit. Then stand to starting about 30 minutes before dawn, ending about an hour later. We will also have a stand to an hour before dusk and lasting half an hour afterward. Daily duties are generally either shoring up the defenses or standing watch. Watch is two soldiers below the rank of corporal for three hours. On days when an attack is expected, watch will behave differently based on Regimental decision.

“And shoring up defenses mostly consists of fixing bits destroyed by artillery barrages. The really painful part is ‘Nighttime Fun’. Nighttime Fun is the general term for the shit done in No-Man’s Land at night. Occasionally, word may get passed down that a wiring, scouting, or raiding party is needed. These can last a variable amount of time, and you still have to attend stand to in the morning. So try and avoid being assigned to one if you can. For example, I used to volunteer for night-time watch, which exempts you from going on Nighttime Fun,” Corporal Hardin looked at Sergeant Campbell, “That’s it right?”

Sergeant Campbell nodded, “You can go back to your barracks room now. Wake up call is 6:45. Meet in here at 7:15, Corporal Hardin will then give you the plan of the day. Dismissed.”

Evans, Head, and Cain turned around and left the room, field manual’s in hand. Head turned to Evans, “We’re in the same fireteam Jim! Exciting isn’t it?”

Evans walked down the hall to the barracks room, trying to out pace Head, “Yeah, really exciting Head.” Evans opened the door, revealing two of the privates he had met earlier in the day who had gone with Lance Corporal Chilcott. He ignored them and sat down on his bed, trying to tune Head’s talking out. He took off his jacket and helmet and hung them on the bedpost. Sitting back down again and started rooting through his kit bag for his letter and pencil.

Zwev entered the room, Evans waved, and she got a funny look on her face. She quickly scaled the bedside and hid from Evans. Evans shrugged and opened up the letter. He immediately noticed that the section about Zwev had been crossed out and replaced with, “I met the pwettiest girl in all the world named Anna Zakrzewska. She is so pwetty and wonderful.”

His laughter got Zwev’s attention, who poked her head down to explain herself, “I couldn’t let my description be, ‘Next, Zwev, a nice Silesian girl.”

Evans sighed, “Just don’t mess up any of my other letters.”

“Does that mean you are going to keep it in?” Zwev slid down next from her bed next to Evans, “Does that mean you think it’s true? You’re so sweet Evans.” She patted him on the head, stood up, and put her jacket and helmet on the other bedpost, “Night!” Zwev climbed back up to her bed.

Shrugging, Evans went back to his letter. He added a note telling Jack to ignore Zwev’s addition. Evans heard a tapping on the wall near the door. He looked over to see Head, who was yelling over everyone, “Hey guys! Why don’t we introduce ourselves? I’m Eddy Head!”

Evans shrugged, “I’m Evans.”

A voice called down from above, “Anna Zakrzewska, you can call me Zwev!”

A lanky man cleaning his rifle in the corner replied, “Geary.”

“Rachel Hunt,” the blond woman sitting on the bed above Cain replied.

“And I’m Hannah Cain, now I’m tired, so can you shut the fuck up,” Cain pulled her sheets over her and tried to fall asleep.

Evans shrugged and finished up his letter. He finished just before Geary blew the lantern lighting the room out.