Obey and die.

[Xing]

The first part of our training, which lasted a total of 3 weeks, ended without any more drama. Weve been taught how to use the basic weapons issued by the Liberty Army; E-33 efile, E-37 machine gun and of course, handheld grenades. Weve also been taught some basic medical knowledge, enough to take care of minor injuries, and a few other useful tricks, such as the thousand of diverse ways to light up a fire. Child play (according to Elwin of course).

Hence, as our sergeant announced, came the second part of our training. And that was about it, he didnt told us much more about it, but it certainly looked even more exhausting than our first 3 weeks of hell. We woke up at about the same hour as usual, strapped on our backpack which was suddenly filled with equipment (no one short of Elwin knew what they contained as we werent allowed to open them yet), which made them feel like a thousand time heavier. We also had to wear our whole combat set meaning, our combat helm, our E-33 rifle (or, for those slightly unlucky, the even heavier E-37), a handful of grenades, our whole survival kit (that ranged from a small medpac to a set of knifes) and of course, the light armour plates which accomplished nothing really up to now but slow us down and make our every move clumsy and exhausting under the added weight. Especially after 5 hours of marching in the mountain toward an unknown destination.

Since we were going at such a slow rhythm (for us, used to run our 5km every morning), Aurelia and I marched close to the lead, though not close enough for Elwin to hear us and scowl at us for lack of discipline.
Idea idea as to where we are headed? she asked to me, nearly whispering just to be careful, and certainly in a tired, bored voice. I smiled slightly; despite Aurelias gap of physical endurance between her and myself, she actually held quite good, even compared to some of the other male recruits of our section. I often wondered if she was just acting.
Nope. But for sure, we are headed upward. Id guess we are near the 1000 m altitude by now.
Yeah, it sure is getting cold by every step we go by Im glad we arent forced to run through, that would definitively kill me!
Well, Aurelia probably wasnt that far from the truth, I reflected. We were climbing a rather immense mountain, and were we going in too fast, our body might not be able to adapt at the sudden change of atmospheric pressure or the diminished oxygen level in the air.
Did you hear that? She asked, as I was distracted in my mental calculation of just how much oxygen percentage we were breathing at the moment.
Pardon me, what?
If you heard anything. It sounded like a rumble or something.
I focused a bit on the background noises of the mountain, trying to ignore our marching sounds, a rather easy task since we all were marching in synchronised formation pace. Wind howling through the branches of the trees, branches cracking, some animals
And, there was indeed some kind of rumble, in the very far away, distant and barely audible. And, definitively coming from above. I looked up, toward the top of the mountain where the snows never melt, even in summer time.
Snow avalanche? I said.
Probably that.

Soon, the trail we were walking on was indeed covered by snows. It was noon as well, so Elwin ordered us to halt, which we did gladly.
Alright. Open your backpack everyone, you will find your winter clothing, time to put them on. Well only have snow ahead of us.
The snow cammo uniform was actually an immense cloak, ending with steel clamps so they could be attached over our armour platings with ease. They were excellent to isolate us from the biting cold as well, which would be useful if we were indeed to progress upward.
528, 716, 844, you three will notice you are carrying our kitchen with us. All of you will notice that you have boxes of food ration as well. Do I need to explain further? He smiled, one of those rare times when he did so while keeping his role of sergeant. enjoy dinner time, kids.

We grinned in hunger as our lunches were prepared by the three ovens, each taking less then 30 seconds to heat up and ready for consumption. We stood in this little clearing with the beginning of the mountain eternal snow, enjoying our steaming hot food and the impressive vista of our pristine planet. All of us in our life did climbed on any of these mountain with perhaps even more beautiful view, yet, there, it was with our comrades in arm, with whom weve been already been through so much that added a strong sense of pride as we rested. I dont know who started it, but we began congratulating each other for surviving these three first weeks. The atmosphere was nearly festive as sergeant Elwin asked us to pack up and continue ahead. Weve meanwhile painted our helmets in white as to have a more efficient camouflage (the paint was in the backpack of 756. It sounds like everyone carried something part of the expedition)
Well, we now knew the contents of 4 of us I did myself peaked up a bit at mine during our pause, but wasnt able to determine what the pieces of black steel in my bag meant. And it certainly was heavy.

After another few hours of walking in our now high moral mood and clad in white combat suit, it became clear that we werent going down to base tonight for sure. I turned toward Aurelia to inform her of my guess, and she nodded in agreement.
You are probably right. I checked my own pack and those of a few others, they looked like parts of a tent or a large habitation module hey did you hear that?
Yes, we all heard it very well, from the puzzled gaze of everyone. It was a loud rumble and certainly not that of an avalanche. It was that of a loud explosion that we heard enough to remember for the rest of our life, the same kind of explosion produced by one of our hand grenade. Yet, Elwin didnt seemed to notice as he said nothing and continued marching as if nothing happened, and we followed his confident lead.

As we walked ahead, the sound of each explosion became clearer and happened at a regular rhythm. Was there a military base so high in the mountain we werent aware of? An extension of L-15?
Elwin ordered for another halt before I could finish my thoughts, this time to brief of us on situation.
Soldiers, welcome to the live training ground of L-15.
What you hear ahead are 3 different sections under practice, using training round of ammunitions just like what you are carrying. The whole thing is a life-size war game. We will be coupled with section Gamma to fight against Epsilon and Ceta. Our own designation is Lambda.
He took off his helm, identical to ours save for the rank marking it as sergeant, and showed off the dark blue emblem of the section.
To identify each other, we are the dark blue, Gamma are black while Epsilon is orange and Ceta, red.
Our primary objective for now will be joining up with Gamma headquarter and establish camp. From the explosions going on, we can guess without much imagination that the kids are already in the heat of the actions, and so will we be. From now on, combat formation, be stealthy and keep your rifle ready at all time!

He tucked the helm back on his head and loaded his FS-77 rifle (an advanced E-37, much lighter and accurate). No words needed, we did the same with our weapons with amazing synchronism already.
No questions? Move in!
Yes sir! We all replied with strength and confidence.

--

Guided by a GPS datapad, we headed toward Gamma camp and entered our first engagement or so, against a dozen of Epsilon soldiers, probably there on recon duty and certainly not expecting our section to suddenly appears out of the woods, apparently coming out of thin air. They barely fired any round before depositing their weapons in surrender.

Okay, 928 and 950, secure me these boys, sounds like we are going to HQ with some prize among other thing! He grinned slightly despite his austere look.
I acknowledged, and with recruit 950, we manacled the captured soldiers after doing a probe as protocol specifies Probably did I hasted a bit, under my embarrassment at doing such a task, because one of the prisoner smirked for a second or two at me with amusement as I fastened the shackles.
Ooh Lone Wolf embarrassed? Thatd be a first!... Aurelia whispered to me and our comrades when I went back in the formation.
Shuup Aurelia! I growled mockingly, but feeling myself blush despite my apparent nonchalant tone.

We reached Gamma under a few minutes, exchanging blind shot with an equally blind enemy, both of us using the thick wood and rocky environment of the mountain as efficient covert. Our allies camp was an interesting system of trench and tents built down within. A number of heavy machine gun turrets were erected at some strategic defence positions, and I instantly recognised the content of my own package with a little childish smile of pride since I now knew I was carrying the big gun of the group.

The prisoners were quickly put in Gamma prison (an underground cave which already contained a number of individuals) while we hastened to build up our own trenches, extensions of Gamma with the help of the allied soldiers which werent immediately needed for the base defence. A few hours of hard work later, it was the machine gun posts and tents that were deployed as we sweated hard despite the cold air up in the heights. When we finished, the rattle of blaster fire and explosion of grenades was still being heard, making us all a bit tense, but we smiled with pride nonetheless at the finished work.

Sergeant Elwin came in, immediately distributing new orders. Teams were made to assure guard shifts, and already some of us were opening fire on the enemy with the newly installed machine gun. I was to go in sentry position next morning, hence I could rest for the time being

Except, as my team soon discovered, it wasnt exactly rest; we had basically to make full maintenance check of the weapons and equipment of all our comrades who were doing guard duty.

Meanwhile, we were finally officially introduced to our allies; section Gamma, as we made point on our situation in the relative safety of our tent. Having been on a 1 vs 2 for a day already, they had lost 14 men already, a serious loss for a section. Hopefully, theyve held their ground very well and now with a fresh new section coming as reinforcement, Gamma sergeant hoped to inverse the situation. While his section was the better trained of the four, having started a whole month earlier than our own, Epsilon and Ceta begun their training a week before us as well, making us the least experienced even though we were in full number.
Well, it sounded rather even.

After what, we were left alone in our tent do continue maintenance under a enthusiastic atmosphere.
Ah, cant wait to use this thing on real, moving things of the recruit said jokingly as I checked the recoil suppressor of my rifle. It couldnt possibly have many fatigue, but consistence was something you learned as a soldier. We laughed at his comment,
My, already showing your virile spirit to our the replying soldier turned his head toward me and Aurelia, charming female neighbour?
Hey! Now, I wasnt the one with perverted intention to begin with! The first one said in a complaining tone, his face showing amusement. Though, I certainly would never refuse such an invitation from either of you!

I smiled for myself as I opened the ammunition clip, Aurelia replying something, apparently boiling in embarrassment. The usually crystal-clear like liquid held in each cartridge were now of a bright orange, marking them as inoffensive. All they would merely do would be paint a big fluorescent marking of the same vivid orange where you shot, and a minor pain to inform the hit target he was down. Although not that dangerous, we were ordered to never aim at the head of anyone, as it might accidentally blind whoever would get hit.

The chatter went on a joking and good mood tone as we finished our inspection and went to check on the more delicate electronic equipment; comm.link, GPS, datapad, etc. Deploying for combat wasnt an easy thing as we learned. The task was tedious since we had yet to do it for our comrades on guard duty

The discussion turned now on our training, and how we were going to fare out there.
Bah. Well lose for sure, they know the terrain much better than we possibly could anyway.
Aw dont say that. Otherwise Ill wonder what they do to the prisoners and dead. Someone said. Which was indeed a good question.
I silently opened up my comm. unit, checking if electricity was passing on every wire.
Well, if the guards are female, very dirty stuffs! the first soldier said, which made all of us laugh, and I felt myself blush a bit in embarrassment, recalling what happened earlier. It was embarrassing to make a search on someone, touching about everywhere to check his weapon, after all!

hey, wait a sec, Lone Wolf did like

I cutted the man with an amused smirk as I suddenly turned toward him,
Sorry to disappoint you, but Im not in age for such dirty things! I said, causing everyone to go in laughter once more.

Oh well, we might lose this skirmish practice, but it certainly was going to be a load of fun.

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