“QUICKLY NOW!” The Lieuten…. Ensign on deck shouted to his sailors as they started to winch up the torpedo boat. Evans moved down to go back to Major Kestel. He bent down and put her over his shoulders to prepare to get off the boat. There was a jerk when the boat started to raise up, but Evans managed to keep his balance.
Evans shouted to Major Kestel, “SO MAJOR! GUESS YOU WON’T BE LANDING WITH US?”
“I WILL GET TO GO SEE DADDY! MAYBE HAVE WOOO,” She attempted to point towards a burning ship, “THAT IS PRETTY! DO YOU WANT TO DANCE WITH ME JAMES?”
“I GUESS YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN SOME PAIN MEDICINE?”
“I AM FINE JAMES HOW DARE YOU… YOU… I FORGET!”
The Torpedo Boat reached the unloading level. Boatswain’s Mates on deck started to cleat it off for unloading. The… Ensign pointed to Evans, “ARMY! WITH THE OFFICER! YOU FIRST!”
Evans walked across the deck of the Torpedo Boat onto the deck of the Indefatigable. The Ensign pointed to a Sailor who was waiting by, “BAKER! TAKE ARMY AND THE OFFICER TO THE OFFICER’S SICKBAY!”
The Sailor waved for Evans to follow her through the ship. It was a bit of trouble for Evans to stand with the ship pitching like this, let alone jog behind someone with Major Kestel on his shoulders. She was rubbing her hands in his hair, still a bit out of it.
It thankfully didn’t take long to get to the Officer’s Sickbay, which was below decks and towards the center of the ship, so it wasn’t rolling as bad. Baker held open the hatchway, then scurried back out. A nurse came up to Evans and pointed towards an empty bed. Evans knelt down and laid the Major down onto the cot. He turned and saluted to the nurse, “Sir, Major Kestel is suffering from a broken leg Sir. We’re from the Steven’s Point Sir. I’m the Major’s Assistant sir.”
“Is that Lady Demetria?” The Nurse bent down and started to look at the Major’s leg and the splint on it. When Evans nodded, the Nurse turned to the Doctor, “Hey, Janice! We’ve got ourselves a special guest. Lady Demetria!”
The Doctor came over with her clipboard and started doing a quick survey of Major Kestel, “My kids are going to be so excited when I tell them this.” She looked at Evans, “You can go to the runner outside, he’ll direct you to the rescue area.
“NO!” Major Kestel grabbed out at Evans’ leg and gripped tightly, “Mine.
“They gave her some pain medication Ma’am, she’s a bit off. The Major is normally a lot more dignified Ma’am.”
“Well who am I to argue with my betters?” She knelt next to the Major, “Your assistant can stay with us Ma’am.” She looked back to Evans, “Step back would you kindly and wait for me to properly set her leg. You can set up a chair next to her once we’re done. Shouldn’t be that long, alright… Assistant?”
“I’m Corporal James Evans.”
“I never really paid attention to army ranks,” the Doctor laughed, “Hell, I can’t recognize like half of these Navy ranks even. I’m Lieutenant Commander Bain. My Nurse here is Lieutenant Monroe.”
“Alright, thank you for letting me stay here. Ma’am.”
Evans sat on one of the empty cots for a few moments before a sailor came through the hatchway, looked at Lieutenant Commander Bain and saluted, “Ma’am! Commander Lions from General is wondering if your sickbay can be opened up to Enlisted. General Sickbay is running out of bedspace.
“Yes sailor!” the Lieutenant Commander shouted back without looking, “So far we’ve only got a few cases, relatively minor. We may need to call in more assistance. All my Nurses except for Lieutenant Monroe and all my orderlies have been called to General. That’s all for you.” She pitched her voice to talk to Evans, “Corporal, once I’ve finished patching up the Lady, She will be classified as walking wounded. We will need the bed, so have the runner outside guide you to the rescue area. Keep her off the leg. And whoever put the splint on gave her way to much pain medication, so watch out for her… Monroe? I have this pretty well. Would you get the Corporal an Officer Chit?”
“Yes.”
“The Officer Chit will basically say that you are acting as an officer’s representative because, well, she’s a bit incapacitated right now. You can’t order people around, but you’ll be allowed to come take her to the officer’s mess if she gets hungry. And you get to eat that food, so I really recommend it. I’ve had enlisted food and I hated it.”

The torpedo boats zipped ahead of the fleet in a “V” formation. After a few minutes, one of the torpedo boats came back with a “enemy sighted” flag.

Captain Campbell looked to the signalman, “Davies, order the minesweepers forward.”

“Minesweeps forward Aye.”

“CAPTAIN!” A Boatswain’s Mate lowered his binoculars and turned around, “ENEMY OBSERVATION BALLOON! JUST OVER THE HORIZON. 33 DEGREES.”

“XO! FORE STARBOARD ANTI BALLOON ROCKETS GET ME A FIRING SOLUTION!”

“Firing Solution Aye!” Commander Blair picked up her handset, shouted some orders. Moments later, she looked up at Captain Campbell, “Rocket batteries have solution, Awaiting your command”

“Fore Starboard Rocket Launchers fire five rocket spreads.

“Five Rocket Spreads, Aye.” Commander Blair picked up the handset, “Rocket Batteries S1 through S5, Five Rocket Spread on target.”

Moments later the twenty five rockets streaked towards the balloon. This was quickly followed by a few of the rocket equipped cruisers. The idea was that while they may not be able to shoot down the balloon, they could force it to land and discourage anyone else from trying to take off in a balloon. Not that it would matter once the two fleets collided.

A klaxon went off, Commander Blair shouted, “ENEMY FLEET COMING INTO VIEW! FLAGSHIP AT 5 DEGREES.”

“HELM! TURN FIVE DEGREES STARBOARD,” Captain Campbell turned to Blair, “XO! ORDER NUMBER ONE THROUGH THREE GUNS TO FIRE ON TARGET!,” He flipped his handset to public address, “Multiple Contacts on Horizon, All Defense Guns weapons free.”

The first shells started walking in towards the Indefatigable.

“TORPEDO BOATS SPOTTED 245 DEGREES! THEY’RE SWEEPING AROUND THE FORMATION!”

“THEY’RE HEADED FOR THE CONVOY!”

“THE STEVEN’S POINT IS GOING DOWN!”

Captain Campbell cursed under his breath, “XO! YOU HAVE THE DECK AND CONN! “ This was the first operation where Captain Campbell had to control a fleet. If only they hadn’t decided to give this operation an admiral to take command so he could just focus on the Indefatigable. He yelled to Davies, “SEND THE ANTELOPE AND THE NIGHTINGALE TO INTERCEPT THE ENEMY TORPEDO BOATS!”

“GREEN BAY, ELLEN CARTER, AND PHILLIP MITCHELL ALL GOING DOWN! FITZGERALD, ROGER, AND EDMUN…” The Boatswain’s Mate was interrupted by an explosion on deck that rocked the ship, “NEAR MISS ON TURRET TWO!” He listened to his handset, “DAMAGE CONTROL TEAMS ARE MOVING IN TO… FIRES IN TURRET TWO!”

Commander Blair was shouting into her handset, “DAMCON CONCENTRATE ON THE FIRES! WE CAN’T LET IT REACH THE MAGAZINE!”

“FISH IN THE WATER OFF THE PORT BOW! COMING IT AT A 30 DEGREE ANGLE!”

“DAMCON ON READY FOR TORPEDOES OFF THE PORT BOW,” Commander Blair slammed down her handset and looked to the Helmsman, “HELM! HARD PORT!”

Captain Campbell focused back to the fleet. They had closed to about half a kilometer of the enemy fleet.

Captain Campbell walked onto the bridge towards the Captain’s chair. A Petty Officer shouted out, “Captain on the Bridge!”
Returning their salutes, Captain Campbell looked to Lieutenant Smith, “Mister Smith, I have the deck and conn.”
Lieutenant Smith turned to Ensign Arthur, “Ensign Arthur, pass me the conn.”
Ensign Arthur saluted, “Lieutenant Smith, you have the conn”
Returning the salute, Lieutenant Smith wheeled around to Captain Campbell, “Captain, you have the deck and conn.”
“Thank you Mister Smith and Miss Arthur, you are relieved. You might want to get to your battlestations now,” Captain Campbell sighed slowly. He looked around the bridge and nodded, “Now I’m not one for speeches, so I’ll just get to the point. We’re going into battle. Contact is expected to be thirty minutes out. We’re the lead ship for this, so let’s show those bastards why the Indie is the best goddamn ship in world.” He clicked the switch for the public address and picked up the handset, “This is Captain Andrew Campbell. ACTION STATIONS. ACTION STATIONS. ALL HANDS TO ACTION STATIONS. SET REDCON ONE. ACTION STATIONS. ACTION STATIONS. ALL HANDS TO ACTION STATIONS. SET REDCON ONE. ACTION STATIONS. ACTION STATIONS. ALL HANDS TO ACTION STATIONS. SET REDCON ONE. ACTION STATIONS. ACTION STATIONS. ALL HANDS TO ACTION STATIONS. SET REDCON ONE.”
Captain Campbell pointed at a Petty Officer, “Signalman Davies, raise the flag of war.”
“Raising the flag of war, Aye.”
“Quartermaster Scott, all ahead flank.”
“All ahead flank, aye.”
He turned to Commander Blair, “XO, launch the torpedo boats. Rescue Priority”
“Launch torpedo boats, aye,” Commander Blair switched her comm station to the torpedo boat circuit, “This is Commander Blair. All Torpedo Boats launch. Rescue Priority, I say again, all Torpedo Boats launch. Rescue Priority.”
Captain Campbell picked up his handset and switched to public address, “All Priority One stations report in sequence.”
“Engine Room One ready.”
“Engine Room Two ready.”
“Number One Turret ready.”
“Number Two Turret ready.”
“Number Three Turret ready.”
“Number Four Turret ready.”
“Number Five Turret ready.”
“Fore Torpedoes ready.”
“Aft Torpedoes ready.”
“Starboard Defense ready.”
“Port Defense ready.”
“DamCon command All stations ready.”
“Communications ready.”
He switched to the communications address, “Communications, give me the report on the fleet.”
“All warships ready for combat”
Captain Campbell put down his handset and looked back to Commander Blair, “XO, how are the Boats?”
“All Torpedo Boats launched sir.”
Taking a deep breath, Captain Campbell switched back to Public Address one more time, “Let’s do this.”

Evans scrambled out of the gunpit. He turned back around and helped Rosetta out. The Captain pointed back, “RESCUE STATION! QUICK, THEN BACK TO THE INDIE!”

The boat pitched and Evans rolled to the side. Rosetta grabbed Evans’ shoulder with one hand and with the other grabbed a cleat. She swore something under her breath and helped him up. Keeping a firm grip on his shoulder, she walked him the rest of the way, “I THROW! YOU GRAB!”

She gestured up to the front, the torpedo boat slammed into reverse. The boat slowed and pulled alongside a few soldiers in the water. Rosetta tossed a life ring to one. The soldiers all linked arms and Evans started hauling the line. Rosetta grabbed on behind and helped haul. The first soldier reached up, and Evans knelt down.

The soldier grabbed Evans’ hand. Evans leaned back and dragged the soldier partway out the water until he could make his way out. Evans then switched to the next soldier waiting to be hauled up while Rosetta helped up the third. She waved forward once the soldier got hold. The torpedo boat then slammed forward again. Rosetta led the way to the hatch, helping one of the soldiers while Evans helped along the other two.

There was a whizz that swept past Evans and the soldier on Evans’ left slumped down. He pushed the soldier on his right forward and knelt to the one who was bleeding out on the deck. The puddle of blood on his uniform kept growing. Stomach wound probably. Shit. Evans yanked the knife out of his belt, slipped it under his uniform and cut upwards. There was a large piece of metal sticking out of the soldiers belly. Fuck.

The torpedo boat shook violently as it hit the side of the Indefatigable.

The Indefatigable was the pride of the Ethslin navy. It was the first of Ethslin’s new line of dreadnaughts, commissioned four years before the war began. It had ten thirty centimeter guns, six torpedo tubes, and thirty of eight centimeter guns, like the one on the torpedo boat. It was also bristling with machine guns, capable of sweeping every centimeter of water surrounding the ship. The eight hundred officers and sailors assigned to the ship were the very best and most well connected in the Navy.

For these reasons, it was selected to lead the assault on the Vledscan Coast.

Evans ran forward to the sunken gun pit in the front of the boat. One sailor was attempting to lift the body of another out of the pit. Figuring that it was the right thing to do, Evans knelt down, dragged the body out of the pit, and slid in.

The Sailor in the pit with him stepped behind the gun and leaned towards him so her mouth was over his ear, “Gràçie! I am Rosetta!” She pointed to a small niche in the wall, “Boxes of Bullets! When I need to reload, throw old box on deck and attach new box. You also help me pick targets.”

Evans nodded. He knelt down and grabbed a box. He then picked it up and latched it on. Pulling off the top and tossing it to the side, Evans began the loading the gun itself. He took the end of the belt and put it into the chamber. Rosetta closed it and racked the bolt.

Evans finally looked up and away from the deck of the Torpedo Boat.

The sea was well… a sea of chaos. God that sounds stupid. Evans shook his head to snap out of it. He couldn’t tell what the hell was Vledscan and what was Ethslin. He could barely even see anything with the speed the torpedo boat was twisting and turning and the walls of water being thrown up. Rosetta wheeled the gun to the left and started firing. Evans followed the tracers with his gaze. They were flying towards the deck of a somewhat smaller ship. Though smaller didn’t really mean much. The ship still dwarfed the Torpedo Boat. The tracers collided with an area of the deck that held a small 20 millimeter gun emplacement that was trying to keep up with the Torpedo Boat. There was a puff of smoke from the gun emplacement and the Torpedo Boat rolled to the side. Evans puked into an empty ammo tin.

Rosetta tapped Evans on the shoulder, “JAM!”

Evans helped pop open the top of the machine gun and tried to clear it. Rosetta yanked Evans down right before an explosion hit and shrapnel ripped overhead. A sailor shouted into the pit, “SURVIVORS COMING UP. YOU TWO ON DECK!”

Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuuuuuucccckkkkkkk….

Evans attempted to keep a grip on the Major while flailing around. After all he’d been through he was going to drown. All the goddamn ways he could die and it’s because he doesn’t know how to fucking swim. And it was probably going to be his fault that the the future fucking Duchess of Medway drowned. Not the glorious death befitting someone of her fucking stature. That is if she was still alive. Evans tried to remember what Anna had told him about swimming. Or just trying to float. Why the fuck did people start swimming anyways? Evans flapped with his right arm and legs to try and get towards a floating plank,near the ship, keeping his left arm gripped tightly around the Major’s waist.

“THE SUCTION!” Major Kestel shouted, “SWIM AWAY FROM THE SHIP!”

“I CAN’T FUCKING SWIM!”

“HOW CAN YOU NO…” Major Kestel coughed out some water, “NOT SWIM?”

“THERE ISN’T MUCH!”

“SOLDATI!” Someone shouted at him over the cacophony of gunfire and explosions. A circular ring hit Evans. Major Kestel grabbed it. A rope attached to the ring started to be tugged. A hand reached down to Evans and yanked him onboard a boat. The sailor the bent down and yanked up Major Kestel.

The Major then yelped in pain. The sailor looked at her shoulder boards, “Un ufficiale?” The boat shook violently.

Someone yelled, “Diego! Il Cannone!” The sailor ran to the front of the boat towards a deck gun. Another sailor ran over from the cockpit of the boat. She saluted, “OFFICER!? I AM SIGNALMAN TWO ELENA CASTIGLIONE! BENVENUTI A BORDO TORPEDINIERA SEI!”

“WE’RE FROM THE STEVEN’S POINT! SHE HAS A BROKEN LEG!”

“BELIN!” Castiglione knelt down next to the Major, “LET’S GET HER BELOW DECK! WE RESCUE A HOSPITALMAN!” Evans helped Castiglione carry the Major to the cockpit. Castiglione used her boot to knock on the hatch cover. The ring started to turn. Castiglione stepped back and the hatch flung open.

The boat rumbled again. Major Kestel and Evans tumbled down the stairs. Castiglione shut the hatch. Evans yelled to the huddled soldiers and sailors below decks, “MEDIC! I NEED A MEDIC!”

A soldier crawl ran over towards Evans and Major Kestel. Evans pointed to the Major’s leg, “MAJOR KESTEL BROKE HER LEG!”

The hospitalman started to work on splinting Major Kestel’s leg. He had to move to work on a few more seriously wounded soldiers that were rescued and brought down below decks.

Evans just tried to keep from puking. The boat was bouncing back and forth normally, and when the deck gun went off, the whole boat shook. The constant roar of gunfire and explosions wasn’t helping much.

After what seemed like an eternity, Castiglione came down, quickly looked around, and pointed at Evans, “CAN YOU LOAD A MACHINE GUN?”

Evans nodded and followed Castiglione up the stairs. She pointed to a sunken gun position towards the front of the boat before she ran back to help with the loading of the deck gun.

The ship pitched and rolled, which made it very hard for Evans to aim. He missed his first, but the second hit home. He looked up at Major Kestel, “I’m sorry Demi. I will mop that up.”

Attempting to stand up, Evans slipped on the slick vomit. Major Kestel started to laugh, “Come on Corp, puking in my office. You have got to be better with ships.”

“Well this is the first time I’ve been on a boat,” Evans vomited into the bucket again.

“It is a ship lad, not a boat. A boat is…”

Major Kestel was interrupted by an announcement over the loudspeaker, “ACTION STATIONS. ACTION STATIONS. ALL HANDS TO ACTION STATIONS. SET REDCON ONE.” It repeated four times before it was shut off.

“Well Jim, I guess we have reached the blockade. Reports say that, if all goes well, two ho…”

Major Kestel was interrupted again. This time by loud whump. The two were thrown against a bulkhead. There was a loud groaning noise and the ship started to list.

There was another crash moments later and the ship rolled the other way. Evans grabbed onto the loudspeaker as the world shifted the other way. The loudspeaker blared into his face, “ALL HANDS ABANDON SHIP. ALL HANDS ABANDON SHIP. Fucking Hell.”

There was a tug on his leg. Evans looked down. Major Kestel was clinging to his leg. She shouted up, “SORRY JAMES! HOW ABOUT WE ABANDON SHIP?”

“SOUNDS GOOD MA’AM!”

The Major let go. Another explosion knocked Evans down from the loudspeaker. There was a snap. The Major yelped in pain. Evans rolled over off of her. She attempted to stand and collapsed, “Darn it!” She looked over to Evans, “You broke my leg you oaf.”

Evans laughed, “Fuck and bastard.” Evans knelt next to her and lifted her onto his shoulders, He turned to her head, dangling next to his face, “Now let’s leave Demi.”

He stood up and stumbled to the door. He used his boot to kick open the loose hatchway. Luckily, officers quarters were near the top of the boat… ship, so he wouldn’t have to carry her that far. He took a left. He ran up the stairs. The hatchway to the deck was already open when Evans reached it. He stumbled upward in time for the deck to start listing the… right… starboard. There were explosions all around. The fleet was taking heavy fire and machine guns strafed the deck.

Evans looked for a lifeboat. Lieutenant Commander Barrett was standing near one, waving to the Evans. He shouted something that Evans couldn’t hear over the roar of fire. An artillery piece had come loose. It slipped across the deck and smashed him into a bulkhead. The barrel was in just the right position that it smashed Barrett’s skull like an egg.

Another sudden blast to the ship sent Evans and Major Kestel slipping down towards the ocean. The deck was almost perpendicular to the water.

At this point, with the turbulent water rushing towards him, the world exploding around him, Evans decided that ships were not for him. Major Kestel was probably wishing she could hit something with her sword. He should probably tell the Major that joke.

The two slammed into the water.

The Battalion stood at attention at the docks. Major Kestel walked forward onto the podium in front of the ship. The Steven’s Point. The press was gathered nearby to take pictures. Which is why Evans had to spend what seemed like a hours making sure that Major Kestel’s uniform was perfect. He had even sewed weights into the bottom of her skirt so it wasn’t ‘to flappy’ as she had put it.

“And Now, we embark upon the journey we have been training for. Lieutenant Commander Stanley Barrett has agreed to give us a lift in the Steven’s Point. The rest of our regiment is going to be in the Elm Grove, while we share the ship with the ammunition and heavy weapons. We should be landing in about six days. We will be hugging as close as we can to the coast of Liguria without violating their neutrality. Our spies have been reporting on the Vledscan ship movements. According to them, there are two main points of enemy resistance. The first will be about halfway through our journey, when rounding the Ligurian Cape. There is a small amount of Vledscan Frigates that, if the intelligence is correct, are acting as a picket, and will fire a few shots and then flee.

“The second will be the dangerous one. It seems that a large portion of the Vledscan fleet will be about two hours from the landing beaches. There might be some mines around there as well. So when we hit the blockade, everyone should be ready to abandon ship just in case.

“Now, without further ado, let us embark,” Major Kestel pulled to attention, “BATTALION! ATTEN-TION!”

“RIGHT FACE!”

“BATTALION MOVE OUT BY FILES! FORWARD MARCH!”

The Battalion turned started to move out. Squad by Squad, Platoon by Platoon, and Company by Company. Eventually, Evans and Major Kestel were the last two members of the battalion remaining on the dock. She smiled, “Let’s go Jim.”

The two walked, Major Kestel leading, until they reached the middle of the brow. The two came to attention. Major Kestel did a left face and saluted the Ethslin flag. She did a right face and the two walked the back to the end of the brow. Major Kestel saluted the Petty Officer, “Request Permission For Myself And My Orderly To Come Aboard.”

The Petty Officer returned the salute, “Permission Granted.”

The two then walked aboard. Lieutenant Commander Barrett was standing around the corner. Major Kestel saluted, “Captain, The Battalion Is Aboard.”

Lieutenant Commander Barrett returned the salute, “Very Well Major.” He shrugged, “God damn I hate military protocol.”

“You new then?”

“Sort of. Me and my crew are technically Naval Reserve. It’s an exchange. We get special government contracts, but the Navy can requisition our ship and crew at any time for something like this. It really sucks because Navy regs say no booze while underway. God damn them all.”

“Sir!” Evans saluted the Captain.

Captain Stoddart stood up and saluted, “It seems I cannot escape you Corporal.”

“Well Major Kestel wants us to learn from the best Sir.”

“Well I am hardly the best, I just know the area rather well.”

Evans looked at his watch, “Well Captain, you’re almost on Sir.” He then led the Captain to the side door, where he would make his entrance as soon as Major Kestel stopped talking.

“Hello… I am Captain Stoddart. Of the Ethslin Mining Corps. Major Kestel asked me here today to, uh, describe the terrain features that you will encounter during your operation. I, uh, studied that area during my time at university, so I am… I guess an expert. And I agreed to come because my lovely wife Polly is attached to your unit. So, I guess I should introduce what I am going to talk about specifically. The terrain you will be fighting in. You will be landing in an area with about 100 meters of open beach followed by sedimentary cliffs.There a some trails cut into the cliffs, and then mostly flat ground. The soil is about two meters deep before it gets into the bedrock. The top formation is very friable sandstone, so you should be able to just use your shovels to hack through it pretty easy. Ooh,” Captain Stoddart snapped then pointed at Polly in the back corner, “Polly, I just remembered, the formation at the base of the cliff has some ooids if I remember correctly, can you break off a chunk for me?”

Polly stood up and saluted, “Yes Sir.”

Captain Stoddart reached for his hip and yanked a funny looking hammer out. He held it out towards Evans, “Corporal, take this to Polly for me,” After Evans took the hammer, the Captain looked forward again, “Right then.”

Evans stopped paying attention to the lecture. He slowly walked to the back of the meeting hall and looked at the hammer. It had a square head and a pick in the back. The pick seemed hardly big enough to do anything that useful. He flipped the hammer in his hand a few times before he got to the back. He looked at Polly, shrugged and held it out. She didn’t notice for a few seconds because she was enamoured with Captain Stoddart, who was off track again and talking about grain size or something.

She looked at him, grabbed the hammer, and went back to watching. And she was probably the only one in the room who was paying attention. Evans walked back to the front of the room and took out his notebook. For sake of appearances. He was really writing a letter to Anna, but writing looked like writing, so he was good.

It took about half an hour, but the Captain did eventually get to some useful information about the cliffs the battalion would be climbing. He then had Polly come up and demonstrate how to fit proper climbing gear. Which was less useful because the Battalion had only been issued ropes and ladders, not harnesses.

The morning after, the Battalion was trucked out to an area with some cliffs to climb. Of course, the cliffs already had the ropes and ladders set up. The training basically consisted of constant climbing and lowering. Soldiers had to practice climbing up to the top in full kit, then hauling up heavy equipment, and then lowering people down in stretchers.

First Company was in the trench, ready for the “defense.” Magazines were loaded with blanks, shovels tucked into belts, and, at the insistence of Chief Jackson, Wooden bayonets fixed. Evans could see Second and Third Company waiting for the order. In addition to the blanks and wooden bayonets, each soldier had a practice grenade, and every third soldier had a haversack to carry three more of them.

The practice grenade was new, When Evans was in basic training, the practice grenades were really just potatoes that an officer had requisitioned, and most soldiers had just saved them to eat. The practice grenades all had five second timers that, when depleted, would use a spring to launch a streamer, to signify that the nearest people were now dead. Politics probably also played into this though, the Naval Infantry were the cool new thing and the landings were supposed to be the decisive action of the war.

What the attackers and defenders didn’t know, was that Polly and Evans had stayed up most of the night into the stand-to wiring the entire field with explosives. They wouldn’t cause much damage, just make some craters and throw some dirt into the air. It should shock everyone though, and help the soldiers get used to the sound of explosions.

Major Kestel looked at her watch. One minute to go. She nodded to Polly, who was standing at the  blasting machine. Polly raised the plunger and pushed it down again. There were a few silent seconds before all the explosions went off. The field between the trench and the attacking troops was filled with newly created holes. The attacking officers started to blow into their whistles. The somewhat stunned soldiers started to advance. They walked, in a single line, trying to keep spacing. The soldiers in the trench started firing on their Lieutenenat’s orders. Evans looked at the Major, who was furiously taking down notes. Polly was laughing. Warrant Officer Wright walked over to Evans, “What’s going on?”

“It looks like the troops are trying to fight like they have muskets,” Evans pointed to the attackers, “They are moving way too slow, are way too close together, and are attacking in a line.” He then pointed to the trench, “And over there, we have the soldiers depending on Lieutenant Bridges to shoot. What if he gets killed? Will Chief… Ah…” Evans snapped his fingers, “Lorenzo take over? And when Lorenzo gets hit? And what if someone sees a higher priority target? Do they wait to shoot them and hope the officer doesn’t take cover? The soldiers are also standing up to high above the parapet. I mean, in this case, the attackers would definitely lose in this case, a machine gun could easily sweep the entire line. Then everyone will be dead. The attackers should be dashing from hole to hole and keeping in cover, trying to make sure that they are seen for the shortest amount of time possible. Of course, in a real attack they should be under the cover of artillery fire.”

“Ah,” the Warrant Officer shrugged, “So our basic training is a bit shit?”

“Yep,” Evans looked back at the attack, “But hopefully we can fix this up and not all get killed in the first five minutes.”