Page 26 of Metal & Mud

"So the 183rd put in a call to Colonel Remsburg. Since we're available, Colonel Remsburg therefore was kind enough to give me a call," Major Kirk said. "It's not an order, but Remsburg asked if we were interested. Well, you tell me, Cranked. Which would you rather do next week? Normal training, or getting out there to play the bad guy and shoot a bunch of National Guard bubbas?"

The large, unified guttural roar that came from each throat answered the question easily, and Kirk grinned. "I figured as much. We don't have a lot of time on this, so as you wrap up I'll get details out through the chain of command. We'll start full prep after lunch, and it's going to be all hands on deck getting ready. Just a word from Colonel Remsburg, in addition to being the bad guys, we're going to be outnumbered in each scenario. He said he wanted us to get some training effect ourselves out of it, especially when we're on the attack. So expect us to be really outnumbered then. Add that up, and that would mean a loss... by most units. But we're not most units, are we?"

"Hell no!"

"Who are we?"

"Cranked!"

"Damn right," Major Kirk said. "I expect to be getting phone calls from a pissed off National Guard battalion commander that my teams are going off on their asses and making his boys cry. And yes, before anyone asks, it is an all-stag infantry unit. So I'd say we've got a few lessons to teach, don't you?"

"Hooah!" Lieutenant Starr called, earning some appreciative laughs.

Logan glanced at Sergeant Adams, and he could see the same look in her eyes. They'd both fought hard for acceptance in the infantry... and now they had a chance to teach an all-boys unit that they could fight with the best of them. For a moment, Logan felt a strange kinship with Adams. They were both outsiders in their own ways, and maybe that's why she'd been so hard on him. She knew what it took to survive when others wanted you to fail.

The company broke down to go back to work, Carter and Logan working quickly to get the CONEX box as put back together as possible before lunchtime. All the while, Logan's mind kept drifting back to Sabby, wondering if this training exercise would make it harder or easier to resolve their situation. At least it might distract everyone from his troubles.

They'd hardly gotten started though when Sergeant Adams came over with the rest of the fireteam.

"Pop a squat in the shade." Adams wiped her brow. "We'll go into details after lunch, but I already got our primary scenario from the LT. We get to be, as he put it, Charlie in the trees."

Logan lifted an eyebrow at the Vietnam era reference, but he was in the non-PC world of the Army. And they were Charlie company, after all. So if Lieutenant Parker wanted to use an old Vietnam joke, he wasn't in a position to complain.

"So what's that mean, Sergeant?" he asked instead, focusing on his job and the needs of the moment.

"It means we're going to be ambushing platoon sized patrols," Adams replied. "Different positions, slightly different scenarios each day, but one platoon versus us. Like the Major said, we're going to be hugely outnumbered, eight or nine to one. Before you ask, even I'm not crazy enough to think we're going to win those fights."

"I sense a big ol' stanky 'but' coming," Bron Davis said, and Sergeant Adams grinned. "Yup, here it comes."

"I do expect at least a three to one casualty ratio," Adams challenged them. "With the big goal being fifty percent casualty rate on the people we ambush."

"That's a lot of pew-pew," Carter noted, and Adams grinned back. "Sounds fun."

"It's going to be a ton of fun," Adams assured them. "It's going to be busy, too. Four ambushes a day at multiple locations along a mapped out patrol route. I'm going to have a limited ability to pick out the ambush sites too. So we're going to be able to get nasty. And good news for you, Hollywood. Since we're going to be playing opposite force, we get to break out the old school woodland camo battle dress uniforms the company's got in storage to wear instead of our combat uniforms. So you won't need to worry about washing everyone's shit."

Logan chuckled. "You're too nice, Sergeant."

"Damn right I am," she said with a laugh, and for Logan it felt good. It was the most human he'd seen Adams in days. "Now we've got exactly one afternoon and tomorrow morning to get ourselves prepped, the first patrols start tomorrow afternoon. Yeah, that means the weekend's going to be a working weekend, but that's why we get our nice, big paycheck each month from Uncle Sugar Daddy. So eat a good lunch."

"Because tomorrow they're gonna dine in hell?" Logan offered, and for the first time all week, everyone in the fireteam laughed. It felt even better, and Logan could almost imagine those eggshells he'd been walking on all week slowly thinning out and retreating away from him.

Even Sergeant Adams gave him a smirk.

* * *

14

SABBY

Sabby was surprised when she'd gotten home from the alley and Jess hadn't gotten back yet, especially since she had an early shift and not a closing one. Usually when that happened, Sabby was able to time dinner perfectly so that Jess would come in from her Friday night lift just as the food got on the table. It was important, because Friday was Jess's most intense gym day of the week, and she knew her sister needed to refeed as quickly as possible.

That day though, Sabby was just wrapping up her second episode of Chainsaw Man of the night and wondering if she needed to call her sister when the door opened and Jess came in, soaked in sweat even more than usual. She looked like she'd jumped in a pool fully clothed.

"What the hell happened to you?" Sabby asked as she rushed over, wondering if she'd have to carry her sister to the couch before nixing the idea. Instead she took Jess's workout bag from her shoulder and carried it to the washing machine in the corner of the kitchen. She knew that there'd be things inside the huge bag that would require a run in the washer.

It was one of the ways Sabby had put her foot down with Jess. Sabby could keep her room clean, she could keep the music down, she could live by military housing rules. And she was more than happy to handle a lot of the 'domestic' duties like going shopping, stopping by the PX, and even taking out the garbage on Tuesday mornings.

But in return, Jess had to change too. First up was no matter how much 'good luck' it might have, she had to wash her nasty ass workout gear. Sabby didn't care if Jess's knee sleeves or wrist wraps needed super-gentle cold cycles, baking soda only as a detergent, and could only be dried on an indoor line to protect the delicate yet strong natural rubbers inside.

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