The Colonel looked at Tiger Troop seriously.
"This next exercise is a patrol. The whole troop will take part. Enemy forces will be like you have encountered before. Advance to the objective and then retreat in good order. That is all. I hope it will not be a fiasco like the last exercise, because after this, you will be going through The Curtain and then everything will be real."
Pan cursed inwardly at the reference to how badly the last exercise had gone. She had got overconfident and had almost all her troops KOd. She would make sure it was different this time around. With that thought in mind, she deployed A Team on the right flank and B Team on the left. She took up her position in between then and then gave the order to advance, wondering with one part of her mind what kind of objective the large wooden objective was. She could see what appeared to be wigs and metal rings attached to it, like an ancient totem or something. Both teams moved out.
"Contact on my 1 o'clock," Lance-Corporal Bonolo called, "Sofi, engage the enemy and cover us."
Vesela Sofi acknowledged the order and dropped prone, flicking the bipod of her Gladcorp T33 TSW into place as she did so. A hail of copper-jacketed lead streaked towards the orc archers behind their barricade. The tracer rounds in her magazine showed that it was striking the cover rather than the orcs though. She settled in and took aim again.
As Private Sofi prepared to fire again, the rest of B Team advanced towards the objective, heading for the cover of a large rocky mound ahead of them. Meanwhile Pan and A team were moving through the thick undergrowth to close with the enemy archers. The archers themselves had realised that they were outranged so they moved out from cover and sought to close on B Team, unaware of A Team moving towards them.
"Ha!" thought Sofi, "I got you now."
She sprayed the archers with fire and grunted in satisfaction as one fell.
By now, Pan and A Team were in position at the edge of the undergrowth with a clear line of sight to the archers. However, they suddenly realised that there was another problem.
"Enemy incoming on my 10 o'clock," Pan called to both teams. To make her point, she opened fire with her Gladcorp M23 Assault Rifle. An enemy warrior fell.
The archers fired. Pan cursed as Bonolo fell, hit twice. Fortunately, the other arrows missed.
Sofi's TSW was chattering out a rain of death and orc archers fell. A Team joined in, their Gladcorp M23s pushing out a stream of 5.56mm hurt that saw all the archers KOd in the space of just a few seconds.
With the archers out of the fight, Tiger Troop turned their attention to the remaining warriors, who were getting uncomfortably close. Seeing the approaching lizardfolk, Private Selcuk Immaculada chambered a round in her TAC17 Grenade Launcher. The 40mm round landed exactly where she had aimed and two warriors were immediately taken out of the fight. Not to be outdone, Private Smith opened up with her TSW and showered the remaining warriors with lead, and the rest of A Team also opened fire with their M23s. There was so much lead in the air that it was impossible to determine who had taken out which enemy, but it only took a few seconds before Tiger Troop held the field.
They advanced to the objective and then withdrew in good order. The mission debrief was much less traumatic than the previous one. The Colonel was waiting for them as they filed in for the debrief. It was a short one.
"You have seen some of what you will face when you go through The Curtain. We cannot even begin to prepare you for certain aspects of what you might face. Needless to say, the future of humanity lies in your hands. The 53rd Bwendi Rangers will go through The Curtain in two days. Make the most of tonight. It may be your last night out here in Ztum City for a long time."
That night, Tiger Troop gathered in Munden's Bar, their favourite watering hole and discussed what might be ahead of them. Needless to say, all of their speculations were aeons from the truth of their future.
Final Briefing
The 53rd Bwendi Rangers were gathered in a huge underground bunker. The Colonel was on a large podium addressing the entire unit.
"I hope you have said your goodbyes to your families. We have no idea how long you will be in the field for this mission."
Worry showed on a few otherwise stoic faces.
"There is a nano-plague threatening humanity and it is spreading fast. We have kept this under wraps as much as possible, but it is serious. Your mission is to travel through The Curtain and to establish a safe haven for humanity. We have developed The Curtain, a short-range time-travel device that will land you some years in the future, when our probes suggest that the plague will have subsided. The Rangers will secure key areas and objectives where civilisation can be rebuilt. We shall monitor with our probes and send through engineering battalions, whose role will be to construct safe havens for humanity, once those areas have been pacified. I regret that there is no return from this mission, but we shall prioritise mission team family members, among others, for transport to the newly established settlements once it is safe to send them. I can only wish you good luck and advise you to remember your training. You are the best of the best and I am certain that you will do humanity proud."
Almost no one present managed to keep the shock from their faces at this news. They still responded with the required "SIR!" though.
An hour later, it was Tiger Troop's turn to march through The Curtain. Loaded down with kit and dragging barrows piled high with even more supplies, they formed up in single file and followed their platoon leader and the rest of Felid Company through the shimmering light-field that was The Curtain.
The training mission went better than I feared this time, although there is nothing you can do about the enemy rolling lots of 6s in a row while shooting at your troops. Fortunately, there are Story Points to deal with that sort of thing. I had better make sure that I earn lots of those during the actual campaign. It is going to be interesting seeing how the Rangers stack up against hordes of melee troops, and how quickly they can arm themselves in a way that lets them fight on an equal footing against those troops.
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