Pack Drill

Phalsbourg-Bourscheid Air Base - AEGIS Joint Base

Moselle, France

4 OCT 2028

0913 Hours

The weeks went by. Allison found herself pulling a lot of menial work from other departments. KP, police calls, working parties, and even special duties at the motor pool. She didn’t mind the last one. She liked to advise and assist on the ARES maintenance, as well as learn how to do it herself. Though there were always tools and special equipment to worry about, some small time repairs could be made on the fly if it came to it. Not that she would ever dare to try to do so without good reason. If she was having to disconnect from the ARES to perform solo maintenance, then something had gone seriously wrong somewhere, and that meant she’d have bigger problems to worry about.

Allison would watch as the team went off on missions without her, and saw them as they came back. Hideo would keep her informed of the team’s progress and performance and she would report to him about her duties for the day. All things considered, she was getting off pretty easy. But she stuck to her guns about her motivations during the mission. She couldn’t show weakness, but she did need to show respect. It was a bit paradoxical but nothing in this life was ever simple when people were involved. Teams were always different. The Team Leaders made the call on everything, so you had to get lucky on what kind of ”lead” you ended up getting. That, in itself, was a lottery in its own right. Which was to say nothing about the kind of teammates you had with them, missions you were assigned to, and the base you were posted at.

But as soon as the maintenance was finished, Allison was put back into the active slot. She was even given a new neural integration suit that was adorned with the insignia of her new unit, the 12th ARES Assault Team “Bushmasters.” She had requested that her patch from her old coveralls would be retrieved when she turned it in to receive a matching unit patch to be sewn in place. She looked down at it. The 28th ARES Assault Team “Copperheads” patch sported a coiled copperhead snake in the middle of striking. She liked it. It was a group effort to design the team’s unit patch, and she wouldn’t let anyone take it away from her. The “Bushmasters” patch had their snake coiled through a skull. It wasn’t very original, but there was nothing new under the sun, as they said. Hideo came into the barracks before Allison could reminisce any further.

“We’re being deployed. Meet us at the briefing room.” He ordered.

“Yes sir.”

Allison stood from her bunk and put the patch in her chest pocket. She and the others filed in behind Hideo into the briefing room where Colonel Duchamp was waiting.

“We’re short on time so I’ll make this fast.” He said, dimming the lights before the team was even fully seated. “One of our ARES teams was sent in this morning to assist in a recon mission with NATO mechanized units into Czechoslovakia. Local intel says that Prague, like many other large European cities, has become a hive for infected creatures. In the years since, they have grown bolder in their ways at acquiring new food sources. Many survivor camps steer clear of large cities, as you know, but sometimes it seems that it is not enough. So we send units in hunting parties to locate and destroy packs of infected as they move through the countryside. On the return trip, the unit was attacked and one of their ARES units was damaged and left abandoned. They are still en route back to this base, but we need to send a fresh team in to secure the area as we make efforts to recover the unit. You will be flown in and hit the DZ here, just north of Heldburg. The ARES was last seen to the east of Coburg. We do not want this to go noticed, lest the local bandit gangs make efforts to overwhelm you and capture the ARES unit for themselves.”

“Like we’d let that happen,” Charlotte boasted.

Colonel Duchamp shot her a glance, but it did nothing to dissuade her.

“You’re to be wheels up ASAP. The demi-machina may be the only ones able to pilot the ARES units, but the capture of them can prove disastrous with our own weapons being turned against us. Make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“We’ll get it done, sir.” Hideo said in confidence.

“I know you will. The recovery team is moving in as we speak through corridors we know to be clear, but they will be at least a couple of hours behind you. That’s all. Dismissed.”

The team went about their standard routine. Weapons were swapped out. Neural integration suits were donned. The ARES units were up and moving within fifteen minutes, as was drilled. The Liftmasters were on the runway with their engines spooled up and running. The best part about the Liftmasters was that they doubled as a drop plane for the ARES units. The cargo hold bottoms and doors could be removed to facilitate a full ARES being mounted underneath it without having it being broken down into pieces. As the team came up on the ramp where the hangars were, the control tower contacted them.

“Control tower to ARES team.”

“This is ARES team Bushmaster, go ahead, over.”

“Bushmaster 1, your team cannot drop all at once. Two of our aircraft are having engine problems. We’ll have to stagger your deployment. Standby at the ramp for your loading procedure. Send your units in two’s, copy?”

“Copy that. Allison, Charlotte, you two will be first to deploy. Franziska and Carwyn will be next. Don’t go anywhere until we’re all deployed.”

The team gave a unanimous affirmative as Allison stepped up next to Charlotte. A large truck came by with a trailer, to which Allison laid down along it on her front side. Charlotte followed suit and they were both pulled under the open bays of the Liftmasters. The crew hooked them in with the mounting braces and gave the thumbs up. Within five minutes, the Liftmasters had moved down the runway and were airborne.

“You ready for this?” Charlotte asked.

“I recall telling you that this isn’t my first drop.” Allison retorted.

“Oh yeah? How many then?”

“I’ll tell you when we get down.”

“I’ve been around quite a bit so my count is probably higher.”

“Oh yeah?” Allison took a sudden interest but tried not to make it seem obvious. “How many years have you been around?”

“Twenty-eight. Last ten years were in active duty. Lots of time for drops. Lots of rotations. I served in the American and Far East theaters. You?”

“I told you I spent most of my time in Switzerland.”

“How was it? Lose many teams there?”

Allison didn’t answer.

“Aside from yours, I meant.”

“It was rough. Every month took out at least one full team in the numbers. We barely felt like we were making headway. Just a slog since day one.”

“Count yourself lucky. Far East it’s all clearing operations. Gets pretty hectic sometimes when you get newbies who stumble on a new nest.”

“That was one thing we didn’t have to contend with too much in the Balkans. Most of it was trying to keep them from killing each other, which they were all too happy to get back to doing. It was so common to them that they weren’t fazed when the infected came and rampaged across the countryside. I think a lot of them were happy because it meant they could let go of all the niceties and really open up with how they felt about each other.”

“Christ, girl.”

“I learned about it in my classes. If there ever was a geographical “powder keg,” that was it. And they lit it off the first chance they got when everything broke down. Worst part is that no matter what, they never like NATO coming around. Me even less. Not a lot of love for the stars and bars over in that particular area.”

“Must’ve been a really shitty time having to deal with people like that.”

“It was an uphill battle in every way. Sometimes you’d help them out and they still wouldn’t give you the time of day. All we could do was hope to get something later on.”

“Must be nice to be over here then, right?”

“I don’t know. It’s different, but I wouldn’t exactly call it an improvement. At least in the Balkans, they were so concerned with killing each other that you weren’t as big a target unless you started stepping on toes.”

“Did you step on toes?”

“Hard not to with feet this big.”

Charlotte laughed. Another one earned. She was going to build a rapport with her new team, slowly but surely. It was just about timing.

“Well let’s hope that your experience will show through.” She told Allison.

“Wait and see.”

“Alright, drop in ten. Get ready!”

Allison had been watching the terrain below move past her for a good while. Now it was time to get focused. The plane came in low. The mounting had a parachute on it, designed to slow the descent at low altitude and allow them to skid to a stop. High altitude drops were also facilitated but only in more difficult terrain. This would be a low drop. Allison hated the low drops compared to the high drops. More of a chance to make a mistake and less room to fix it. Charlotte gave the count. 3…2… At ”one” the mounting brackets released and the chute was pulled open. Allison hit the ground feet first as the chute dragged her back and upright. She crouched down to keep herself as centered as possible until she stopped. She disengaged the chute and turned around, pulling out her weapon as she watched Charlotte skid right up behind her.

Charlotte took the 50mm chaingun this time while Allison opted for a “shot cannon” instead. It was basically a large, overbuilt shotgun. It had been half-loaded with canister rounds at a 105mm bore with the other half being High-Explosive Plastic (HEP). Being 105mm also meant it was compatible with many other shell types. The canister round was basically an oversized shotgun shell while the HEP was meant to smooth out against the target surface before detonation to better transfer the explosive energy. Allison made sure to pack a good amount of both ammo types, but there was nothing stopping her from using the same ammunition that Charlotte used in her cannon previously. For that purpose, Allison had packed an APFSDS magazine as well. She never liked being caught off guard by a sudden mission change.

The two of them secured the Drop Zone (DZ) and took up a position. After Charlotte had checked and rechecked herself, she headed eastward. Allison looked over, then back where they had come from, then back to Charlotte as she marched off towards Coburg.

“Charlotte-” Allison started.

“We got an ARES to secure, Corporal.”

“But the Ell Tee said-”

“The Ell Tee isn’t here right now, so you listen to me. Let’s go.”

Allison was about to protest, but just sighed to herself instead. Something about this stunk. She wondered if Hideo stuck her with Charlotte to see if she could reign her in. Or this was maybe a test. So many things went flying around in her head about it, but she quieted them and stepped off after the Sergeant First Class.

“The others are going to be waiting for us at the DZ. We should go back.” Allison told her when she finally caught up.

“I’m not letting no two-bit thugs get their hands on our tech. The more time we spend sitting on our asses, the higher the chances of that ARES getting stolen.”

Allison found it hard to argue with her logic but did not approve of the disobeying of orders. She thought about her own position in the unit and the warning she was given by Hideo. But if she explained, maybe he would be easy on her. After all, she couldn’t exactly stop Charlotte from walking off without damaging the ARES, and that would only make the mission all the more difficult. Still, this wasn’t how things were supposed to be going, and she didn’t like how Charlotte set off on her own so readily. She sidled up on her left side.

“Three fifty-eight.”

“What?”

“That was my 358th drop.”

“Right on. Let’s move.”

“Yeah.”

The two of them made tracks for Coburg, all by their lonesomes.