Far From Home - Chapter One

[Cdnwolf]

Once more the REMF screwed us over.

We were standing on the wooded hill overlooking the Danube river and in the distance still standing proudly was the bridge we were ordered to destroy.

The problem was that they gave us a case of pre-war surplus C-4 and a dozen old 155 mm shells and told to work our magic. Work our magic we did... and I could just make out the 10 m crater and two broken support columns that now littered the main part of the bridge.

What I also could see was the hundreds of Russian soldiers scrambling to repair the damage in record time.

"Ummm Lt!"

"Yes.. the what heck is it now?"

"Lt, don't look now but that looks like a tractor full of troops heading our way!!"

Damnit... we were Far from Home and had a long way to go.

"Get your gear and lets get out of here!!"

[theDevil]

in a flash we where Oscar Mike, humping a small animal trail far within the woods. The sound of machines repairing the bridge seemed to crossfade into lively birdcallings, and for a second we felt good. For a second that where, jackson our radio guy, or jay-jay as we all called him, heared our callsign ten minutes before scheduel, never a good sign... ..."...you got to be shitting me sir, what are we going to do? use bad language?!.. yes sir, immediatly", he turned to the LT with a doomed look, and just shook his head as he handed the receiver to the LT.
Mouse came, as mice do when they smell something fresh, or rotten in this case. Dirk whit his eye for detail, soon followed
"What?" Mouse mumbled to jay-jay, jay-jay just stared empty at him, as trying to tell a story telepathicly, uneccessary as the LT almost yelled into the radio "we have no explosives sir, what about that cant you understand?"
"they want us to go back?!" Mouse continued as Jay-Jay just started to stare at the ground. "fucking christ in a fruitbasket... ...dont they know we dont have the resources for this? or dont they even care?" Jay jay just shrugged his shoulder, he knew the answer, they all 'knew' the answer.
"yes sir!!! see ya all in hell sir!" LT gave jay the radio, as he crouched to the ground "here is the new drill boys, we need to get back to the bridge and hold it"
"seriously sir, do they now that we are a sabotage team, coz this sure sounds like a an assault"
LT smiled "we dont need an assault team, we have mighty Mouse, he is as good as ten assault teams" "i am good, i aint that good" mouse replied worried.
Dirk was about to say something but closed his mouth before the end of the first word, LT looked at him for a split second "yeah i know Dirk, it is a fucking anthill by now, i am not suggesting a frontal attack" "well" said Dirk "what are you saying?" LT looked at him, mouse and jay jay putting up the biggest smile he could muster "have i ever failed you guys, i figure something out. Now tell the boys 'dinners canceled' we're going back to clean this fubar mission, and this time i will do it my own way, that is WE WILL DO IT THE RIGHT WAY!! OK"
they all nooded and scattered towards their men, unassured about the result awaiting, all smiling as to beef up whats surely is going to be a morale-drop any second.

"dusk commin" Muhaman remarked as he was lightning up a cigarette, well in this day and age they called it a cigarette anyway, filling his lungs with toxic smoke. No need for saving this one for the enemy he thought sucking so hard at it, that it almost looked, and sounded like a fuse burning.
"take five, change socks" LT almost whispered. He felt he could hear the wehicles pushing over the bridge like blood trough a wein, none of the other men seemed to notice.
And how he knew that there was surely going to be three enemy squads guarding both end of the bridge, he didnt knew, it had to be combat experience that made him aware of this, though other of his men called it 'angel-vision', he just smiled at the mear meaning while signaling Mouse to get over.
"How many squads you recon we have to deal with LT?" LT would be suprised if this was the first time Mouse asked questions that perfectly fitted his thought pattern, but it wasnt. Quickly he lay his suspisions infront of him, Mouse looked the way Mouse looked like, worried.
"first things first, mouse. i'd say we have half an hour of light left, we hump while light, then pucker down and catch some Z's while two men scouting team gives us a overview of the bridge..." "I voulentare sir" "...I knew you would, i'll come with. Dirk can keep the men safe, he surely know how its done anyway" they both chuckled as a image flashed them of Dirk hiding inside an enemies weapons crade. "last place they wanted to shoot up sir..." LT looked at him "..LT I mean" "no worries Mouse, i just dont like sir, and soon you better be calling me by my christian name" Mouse smiled a little "hmmm, i am not sure if i want to run into a firefight with Danny, you know...oh danny boy the pipes the pipes are callin..." LT chuckled real bad now, calling the attention of the other men, he saw them in the corner of his eye "it's okay mouse, you may call me whatever you like, as long as you keep saving our collected asses" LT gave him a friendly slap on the check and pointed him back at his sector.
As soon as mouse headed back, LT looked over at dirk squatting over a log, dirk smiled a smile of relief.
"that is more disgusting then the war Dirk" Jim, the new guy, laughed.
"dont laugh NEWBIE" Jay-Jay said seriously, jim stopped quick, with a unsure look over his face "You see jim, what we have here is the latest in post motherfucking warfare, it is namely a biological, psycological and as u surely fucking smell a chemical attack aimed towards the enemy..." he smiled more and more "... I mean jesus christ Dirk, atleast give US a gas warning before you even THINK of dropping your pants and showing us your sorry excuse for a dick...Dirk" they all laughed quietly, jim especially.
"theire is no substitute for dropping a log in the forrest" dirk laughed
"jay, watch your motherfucking crackerass language, you dont know if those new asshole here is religious or shit, and dirk... ...god damn it man i have'nt seen you sweat that much since the night at RedLight, i know what you ate that night but what the fuck have you been eating now", dirk dragged on his pants looked quickly over the group and smiled widely. "nothing other then the Meals ready to 'exit' MuhaMYman, give me a container of it, and i give you a brick house made of shit and sweat"
The sound of laughs became increasingly louder, LT had to break it up, he didnt want to, as the laugh of his men where like sweets to his ears, but he had to.
"sound controll" he remarked and abruptly ended the whole friendly bantering, they still smiled at eachother, but where once again whitin enemy lines where rules of conduct could save the whole squad.
"Dirk get over here" LT signaled.
"what ya want from me LT?" he sat himselves down and dragged his shoes of. LT smellt the decaying sence of old, wet and uncleaned feet, it smelled like dirty chlorine, almost overpowering his train of thought.
"nothing special dirk, I just want you and the rest of the guys to find a good hiding place, i know your skills whit that, and they are good" Dirk almost stopped draging his sock of for a second "cheeze man, if it wherent that dark, ive would never have placed myselves that close to the crate, you got to know that LT?" "shut up dirk, it aint a hidden digg at you, i`m actually giving you a complimant, and the responsibility for keeping my men safe, until mouse and me scouts out the place, it should go quick as we already know the lay of the land" Dirk looked at him as he picked up a pair of dry, though dirty, socks from his pack. "youre going alone?" "its better that way Dirk, less chance to get spotted, less noise..." "less support" Dirk interrupted, as he was concentrating on drying and scrubbing his feet. LT was quietly thinking, he noticed a big bolding blister on the side of Dirks big toe. "the thing is dirk, i trust you will keep the green horns alive and get them some Z's before we go in. we need them shooting tomorrow not covering behind a rock somewhere, and you are the one that can get that to happen, and you should pinprick a couple of places arround that blister, before it pops or it will hurt like hell" Dirk looked up at LT nodding.
Lt started walking away from him when he suddenly turned arround "And for god sakes Dirk, keep 'comedy Jay central' to a minimum. A good laugh and we could be heard, no strike that, we WILL be heard. this aint the place for fuck ups" LT stared at Dirk looking to see if it registered, their eyes meet eachother and Dirk understood "roger that", dirk understood too good "I dont like this LT, i dont like it at all" LT just smiled as he turned arround "worst scenario: the war is over for us".
Lt went his round, checking his men, Dirk looked over at him as stood with the rookies pointing towards him, he smiled and nodded. Fuck this was going to be a long night he thought, and an even longer tomorrow. He had a bad feeling, and he was`nt the only one, LT had it too, the greenhorns didnt see it put the rest of the guys could see LT calculating strategies, usually they where over pretty quick, this had been going on since the comunicay. "this isnt good at all" Dirk mumbled to himselves tighting up his boots.
"on your feet ladies" LT commanded, and they quietly started walking forward.

[theDevil]

The nighfall had come and still Dirk wasnt happy with any spots he had seen, but he had a feeling that a good spot soon would... ...and there it was. He stopped in his track and heared all the boots behind stop as he helt his tightly locked fist up. he gave it a once more look over, well covered, two escape routes, easy to keep an eye out for enemy arround. It wasnt a house, still it was just a collection of twigs and branches and an unatural curve in the ground. A curve easy to hide, and big enough for four people Sleeping down in, he turned arround using only seconds to find the LT in the known familiar darkness.
LT went over to Dirk "i see you found something" he whispered, looking arround himselfe to find the spot "it is there LT" Dirk said looking directly at the spot, LT nodded. "it will take a couple of hours getting it tip top, but i got it, you and mouse should just get some rest" "wake us in 2 hours" LT replied as he took off his pack and felt like air for a second, he dragged out a woll blanket and barely noticed mouse beside him. "two hours, that would make this my four over sleep in 36 hours" "to much?" LT smiled at Mouse as he satt down leaning to his backpack "funny man... ...real funny" LT looked at Dirk which where hard at work teaching the greenhorns making the 'perfect' shelter, Dirk looked back at him as LT put a shhss finger over his lips, the point couldn`t been made clearer even if he had a sign over his head saying 'silence mode, please' Dirk just smiled as he helped the men to continue silently building theire 'home away from home'. LT felt mouse at his side breathing deeply and knew he where a sleep. 'two hours, that is really torture' he thought closing his eyes.
"wake up LT" muhaman whispered as he shoked him lightly. "whats wrong?" LT immeaditly grapped his rifle "your 2 hours are up"
could it be? it only felt like he had shut them, he blinked repeatedly, trying to blink the sleep out of his eye as he felt the smell of coffe "i made it strong for you" Muhaman held a cup close to him "drink it while its hot" LT mumbled a thanks sipping the extremly hot coffe trying not to fall asleep again. Mouse grunted something about beeing to old for this, just a part of mouses morning routine, somethings never changed. Though the landscape had changed, as the curve seemed magically gone, LT smiled 'Dirk you're a fucking magician'.

[theDevil]

'fuck, jesus, christ almighty... ...too close' LT held tightly on to his sidearm, he where pinned down under a logg and looked directly up a russians ass as the guy where pinching one off directly over his rifle. flashes of things to do if spotted, where reordening in LT's brain to become a long single actionsequence. LT breaths where as shallow as they where undetectable, suddenly the smell of bad russian diett hit his nose, at the same time a unbodied voice called from within the woods "приходить теперь!!" LT froze in position, the russian stood up a bit. and a dirty napkin landed right on the dung of russian crap. LT could see his legs go out of sight, he breathed in deeply, only to get reminded of how close he had been. He grapped his rifle and shook it as quitly as he could, a piece of russian crapp got on his sleve and he felt sick to his stomach immeadtly, whatever they ate it wasn't normal. 'This iss the worst mission ever, strike that, this mission is pure crap' He thought whit a little smirk as he looked arround. It seemed clear, as it did a moment ago. He crawled out from this makeshift latrine, eagerly breathing the fresh air. he needed to get closer, he needed to lay a plan, a perfect plan, something big, unexpected and hopefully something that goes boom, 'only good thing about this fucking mess is the things that goes boom' he thought and smirked, he really liked those big bangs. He walked stealthy from tree to tree knowing that the bouldring sound of wheels where masking those breaking twigs he could feel under the boots. He could soon see a clearing, twenty meters infront of him, the headlights gave life to the otherwise dark and cold forest.