“Here! Here! Here!” shouted Joe Steel.
All enemy auto-rifles turned in Joe’s direction and fired. Joe counted six of them as he ducked behind cover. The enemy’s fire slammed repeatedly into the metal barrier Joe crouched behind, but it sounded like it would hold. He’d been in scenarios like this many times since joining the military and arriving at Lear Academy No. 52 a couple of years ago.
As he crouched, Joe activated his eye to see the enemy clearly. Sure enough, six enemy soldiers were shooting at him, all standing above or around their cover. Joe then looked beyond the enemy to see Major Montes and four other soldiers slowly moving toward the target. The plan was for Joe’s team to distract the enemy as Major Montes led the rest of the group to the objective’s target, so Joe needed to ensure the enemy didn’t turn away.
“Cover!” cried Hoàng before opening fire.
Three other soldiers joined him in firing several bursts before all four dove for cover around Joe’s position. The enemy spread their fire away from Joe toward the new threats.
“I thought I’d have to do it all myself,” shouted Joe over the enemy fire.
“You took off too damn fast, corporal,” said Beck after she finished shooting a volley at the enemy.
“Beck! You can’t talk to a superior officer like that,” yelled back Darabi, who’d just gotten her head back down to avoid being hit by enemy fire that now streamed overhead.
“Now what?” said Otieno before he stood up and started firing at the enemy’s position.
“Keep shooting,” ordered Joe.
Joe saw one enemy soldier exposing too much of themselves as they fired in Beck’s direction. After leaning forward, Joe fired a short burst at the enemy soldier and knocked them down. Joe quickly fell back as another enemy soldier turned and fired at Joe. That allowed Hoàng to take out that enemy soldier.
“That’s two,” mumbled Joe.
“I got one to the left and three to the right,” said Otieno as he shot a series of bursts from behind a tree.
“Two to the right,” cried Beck as she ducked down again to avoid enemy fire after hitting her target.
“Keep it up,” said Joe as he turned around to face the other way behind the metal barrier. “I’ll finish it.”
“What?” shouted Beck and Otieno together.
Joe took off. He ran through the trees, ducking behind bushes to conceal his movement. Behind him, Joe heard the others keep firing at the enemy. Joe stayed low as he closed in on his targets.
A twitch of his right eye soon showed Joe the enemy’s exact location through the tree he hid behind. The two enemy soldiers ahead were ducked behind two barriers close to several trees. One had their back to Joe as they faced the second enemy soldier. From their gestures, they were planning something.
Once Otieno and the others took a break and swept their fire to the third enemy soldier, the two enemies ahead of Joe got up, went separate ways, and advanced on Joe’s allies to resume their auto-rifle barrage.
Now was his chance. Joe had his eye show him the heat signatures of the two enemy soldiers as he moved quickly and quietly to get to them.
The first enemy soldier had no idea Joe was on them. As Joe got close, he pointed his auto-rifle at the enemy’s back and fired a short burst. The soldier flinched, ceased firing, and fell over. Joe kept running by them and started toward the second one.
This soldier saw their ally go down and turned their attention to Joe. When the enemy fire started, Joe ducked to his left to run between the trees. The enemy continued firing, but Joe saw he was well ahead of the enemy’s fire and that the soldier was firing blindly into the trees in hope of hitting Joe.
Joe soon dove out of the trees to the enemy’s left. Joe rolled on the ground with his auto-rifle tucked in close. After getting back to his feet, Joe saw the enemy finally locate him, but it was too late. Joe fired another short burst to hit the enemy soldier in the chest before they could get their auto-rifle turned in time. With the two enemy soldiers down, Joe dusted the dirt off his corporal insignia of a solid horizontal bar on his sleeve and started for the final enemy soldier.
The final enemy soldier knew Joe was close. Joe could see the enemy firing random bursts towards Beck and the others, but the enemy kept looking in Joe’s direction. Joe stayed low behind the trees whenever the enemy’s gaze came close to Joe’s location. The enemy hadn’t found him yet, but they were desperately trying.
When Joe was close enough and ready to jump out, the enemy soldier ceased firing, slung their auto-rifle over their shoulder, and pulled out a grenade.
“Blast,” mumbled Joe.
The enemy soldier threw it close to Joe’s location, so Joe had to sprint to get clear, regardless of how much noise he made. As Joe jumped clear and dove for cover, the enemy soldier saw him and started to bring their auto-rifle back around in Joe’s direction.
The grenade went off. A sphere of light exploded in all directions, breaking through the trees. The explosion caused the enemy soldier to flinch, and Joe knew this was his best chance. Joe was on his stomach with his auto-rifle in front of him behind a tree. Using the toes of his boots, Joe pushed himself up slightly and pushed forward to get clear of the tree. His auto-rifle found the enemy soldier who wasn’t fast enough in recovering and locating Joe again. One short burst from Joe eliminated the last of the enemy soldiers.
Before Joe got up, he scanned all around him. With his eye, he saw the heat signatures of his team and nothing else. After verifying they were the only ones left, Joe got up and dusted himself off again.
Joe turned on his helmet light with his hand covering the beam. Joe moved his hand across the beam a few times at varying speeds. The others saw and understood the message as they cautiously started making their way toward Joe.
“Well done, corporal,” said Darabi when she arrived and saw the three down enemies amongst the trees.
“It’s like you always know where they’re at,” said Otieno.
“It’s just instinct,” said Joe with a shrug. “I’ve been wrong before.”
“Not when it matters,” chimed in Hoàng.
“Keep an eye out,” said Joe. “That can’t be all of them.”
“The major and the others should be closing in on the target,” added Hoàng.
Joe turned in the direction of the target behind him and scanned the area. A simple sweep didn’t show anything, so Joe expanded his range. Even after two years and doing it many, many times now, the demand Joe put on his eye also put a lot of strain on him. But like he said, there had to be something more. He had to find it.
He could see Major Montes and the other four of their squad moving well through the trees and around scattered barriers. Joe followed their path and could see the target ahead. It was a small building with two guards stationed outside. It puzzled Joe to see only a couple guards, so he looked around some more.
When Joe’s eye refocused, he suddenly saw several heat signatures. They belonged to several enemy soldiers, and they were all kneeled down in hiding. They were in two locations, both composed of a full enemy squad.
Joe felt his stomach drop in panic, but he fought to keep it off his face and out of his voice.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” said Joe as he raised his auto-rifle in the direction of the newly identified enemies and started moving. “Let’s go back up the major.”
“Sir?” said Beck, still raising her weapon and following Joe with the others.
“I know, but we need to go,” added Joe.
Joe knew the others exchanged a quiet look of concern with each other, but they followed his orders.
For this mission, Joe’s orders were to stay off personal devices as much as possible. So far, it had worked, but Joe spotting the hidden enemy soldiers lying in wait for the major and the others made him question it. The intel for this mission hadn’t mentioned so many enemy squads stationed here, which is why Joe’s squad was the only one assigned to it.
Joe and his team were making good progress as they weaved through the trees, and they’d arrive close to the same time the major did. A little earlier would be best.
“This way,” whispered Joe as he swerved to his left. The others followed without hesitation.
Joe could see one enemy squad starting to stir as they detected the major’s approach. Joe raised his auto-rifle, counting the seconds for when he’d clear the tree line and be free to open fire. So far, the enemy didn’t see Joe’s team.
The enemy were in enclosed spaces surrounded by barriers with small breaks for easy access. A branch snapped under someone’s foot behind Joe, and Joe’s eyes went wide. The rear guard of the enemy squad spun around and raised their weapons. Joe opened fire and dropped two enemy soldiers immediately. That got the rest of the enemy to turn away from their trap and toward Joe’s team.
The confusion helped Joe’s team. They spread out without a word and opened fire into the openings between the barriers. A few more enemy soldiers fell as all of the others blindly fired in Joe’s direction as they tried to clear out of the enclosure and get to other defensive positions. Joe knew which soldiers were going to exit where first, and Joe easily eliminated a few more, which left four.
With his team keeping the pressure on the enemy with their auto-rifle fire, Joe boldly started for the enclosure and stopped near an opening. One enemy soldier pointed their weapon toward Darabi and the others to fire back, the barrel of their auto-rifle a foot from Joe’s barrel.
Knowing where the enemy was, Joe quietly turned around to face another opening. As he produced a grenade from his belt, Joe used his all-seeing eye to see the enemy through the wall. All four were close to one opening of the enclosure. Joe triggered the timer on the grenade, rolled it inside toward the enemy, and then Joe ducked down and sprinted away.
“Wha–? Grenade!” shouted one enemy soldier, but it was too late.
Joe dove behind a barrier at the edge of the tree line right when the grenade went off. The light swept through the enclosure and shot out of the openings before silence fell over the area. From behind the tree, Joe looked back at the enclosure and saw no movement from the enemy soldiers.
“Go! Go! Go!” shouted someone in the distance.
Of course, Joe’s attack had alerted the other enemy squad and Major Montes’s team. As Joe stood up, he could hear auto-rifle fire being exchanged. Straining his eye for a moment, Joe saw the major and the others pinned behind a few barriers as the remaining ten enemy soldiers advanced toward them.
“Come on!” cried Joe as he ran toward the major’s location with Beck and the others falling into line behind him.
Soon, Joe and his team broke a tree line to see the firefight. Three enemy soldiers saw Joe break the treeline and turned their weapons on him quickly. They immediately opened fire, forcing Joe and the others emerging behind him to dive back behind the trees.
The enemy fired for a few moments, but it opened the door for the major and the others to hit one of the enemy. The enemy soldiers still slowed their attacks as they sought cover. Joe and the others got some bursts off, and Joe took out a second enemy soldier.
With fire coming from multiple sides, the enemy was confused, flipping between all sides and firing blindly. A few more enemy soldiers were knocked down by the major’s team, and Joe saw now as the time to take out the others.
“Advance,” ordered Joe.
He started out of the trees again, staying behind a barrier so the third enemy soldier didn’t see him approach. When Joe had a shot, he knocked down the enemy, who didn’t even have a chance to react. More enemy fire came his way next, but Joe had closed the gap and now ducked behind a barrier the enemy recently held.
Joe stayed behind the barrier and watched the enemy through it fire in his direction and then duck down behind their cover. When one of the enemy soldier’s came back up, Joe rose too, aiming right at the soldier. Joe fired a short burst and took out the enemy before quickly ducking down again as he saw another enemy soldier take aim at him. Beck, however, saw the enemy soldier and opened fire to take them out.
Only a few left, thought Joe.
Joe looked around the barrier and aimed low where he’d seen one enemy soldier’s leg sticking out a short distance away. However, another soldier charged at Joe and was nearly on him. Joe’s eyes grew wide with shock as he couldn’t believe he’d missed one.
The enemy soldier tackled Joe, pinning him to the ground. Joe tried to bring his auto-rifle around, but the enemy soldier used their own weapon to knock them both away. The soldier then started bashing at Joe’s helmet. Joe raised one hand to protect his face and reached to his belt with the other to pull out a small blade.
With his eye, Joe saw the enemy going for a knife too, but Joe got to his first. Joe turned the blade and jammed it up with all of his might. The enemy soldier’s armor turned red as Joe’s knife hit, the tip bending to the side and flashing red for a moment. The enemy stopped when they saw their armor light up.
“Dammit!” sneered the enemy soldier as they went limp and fell to the side.
“Next time, pal,” said Joe.
Everything was quiet. Joe sat up and saw the major and the rest of the squad sweeping the area. Otieno and the others came up to Joe, and Darabi held out her hand to help him up.
“All clear, corporal,” she said.
“Thanks,” said Joe as he reached down to retrieve his auto-rifle after getting back to his feet.
“The major’s just ahead,” said Hoàng. “They’re heading for the target.”
“Let’s give them cover,” said Joe, and he motioned toward the others. The other four nodded their acknowledgement and followed Joe.
By the time Joe and the others got to the target, Major Montes and his team had already secured the building. The target was a small hut without a door. Inside was nothing more than a light that hung from the ceiling. Montes had just flipped the switch to turn the light on and set off a buzzer.
“Congratulations, Major Montes,” said a voice over everyone’s personal devices. “You’ve passed the exercise.”