Big Things Come in Small Packages

Captain Jonathan Daniels leaned back against the husk of the destroyed vehicle and took a quick swing of water from his canteen. The twisted metal seemed as a skeleton of some monstrous beast that had been gutted long ago and left to sit alone in the wooded hills. The massive vehicle had been an equipment transport during the Unification War where it met its end in some distant battlefield. It had since been moved to the Alliance's Advanced Warfare Training Grounds to be used as an objective for training missions. It was an unnerving presence if one had too much time to think about it.

Something Captain Daniels had in gross quantities.

If there was an example of an officer who ran things by the book, Daniels would've been a prime candidate. Captain Daniels was dressed in a pristine battle uniform. The folds of the fabric were perfectly crisp and his combat boots even had an unnatural shine in the soft dawn glow. His load-bearing harness had every item in its place as suggested by the Alliance training manuals.

Captain Daniels sighed as he surveyed the small command post he and his company had established near the vehicle husk serving as the target objective in the training exercise. The company radio station was camouflaged near the front of the massive vehicle husk. The company's first sergeant and Daniels' executive officer, First Lieutenant Drayer, issued various orders to the patrolling platoons. A gun crew had dug in nearby, barely visible in their fighting position.

Lieutenant Drayer nodded to the master sergeant and turned to report to Captain Daniels. He saluted smartly and waited for he Captain to return the salute before responding. Captain Daniels demanded a strict code of conduct in his unit, on and off the field.

"Lieutenant, proceed."

Lieutenant Drayer responded as he continued to stand at attention, "Sir, no word from second and third platoons concerning the entrance trail of the bogey. First Platoon has not yet responded to our radio requests."

Captain Daniels ran his tongue along the bottom of his teeth and voiced his displeasure through an audible sigh. He could never get soldiers who knew their ass from their helmet, much less who understood proper communications procedures.

"...and where was first platoon's last reported position?"

"...ummm...approximately three klicks from our position, sir."

Daniels' face fell into a something of quiet annoyance. No matter the circumstances his NCOs never failed to prove their uselessness when it was most important that they perform. Daniels stood from his position and looked sternly at the lieutenant.

"Where is Second Platoon?"

The lieutenant's face tightened and he spoke hesitantly, "Sir...I...it's on the company map."

Daniels' eyes rolled visibly and he motioned for the lieutenant to show him to the map. The lieutenant snapped a nervous salute and strode quickly to the map laid out near the company radio. Three soldiers carefully monitored the radio equipment while the lieutenant looked over the map carefully.

Drayer pointed out the three platoon symbols on the map as Daniels observed.

"First Platoon's last position was reported here."

Drayer motioned to the farthest platoon symbol from their present position.

"Second and Third Platoons have been patrolling through here and here."

The lieutenant motioned to two wide ovals surrounding the platoon symbols. Daniels nodded as he observed the map. All three platoons were placed strategically on the points of a triangle with the company headquarters in the center. The silence of First Platoon meant that the northern point had been potentially compromised.

"Lieutenant, instruct Second Platoon to move to and build a defensive cover in this area."

Daniels motion to a point halfway between their position, the company headquarters, and the last known position of First Platoon.

"...and move Third Platoon to our position to take defensive measures."

The lieutenant nodded and walked to the radio equipment. The soldiers began to transmit and received the new information and Daniels smiled tiredly. He shouldn't have to think of everything for his command. For once he wished that a batch of soldiers would come under his command that would actually read the ruttin' training manuals.

Daniels took the opportunity to inspect the camp in great depth. They were situated in a small opening in the forested hills. The twenty men and women that composed the company headquarters were carefully situated in a defensive line around the entire vehicle husk. Three machine gun crews were dug in, and rifle fireteams were positioned to eliminate threats fixed by the gun crews. It was a very fine defensive line, if Daniels had anything to say about it.

As he made his way to the other side of the vehicle husk, he began to mull over the day's events. His company had been tapped as part of a series of brigade-wide training sessions. He wasn't entirely sure what he was defending the objective, the vehicle husk, from but initial orders from the battalion headquarters indicated "Small Unit Defensive Capabilities Assessment"

Daniels knew the upper echelons of the Alliance military had been getting more and more anxious about the size of the armed forces since the end of the Unification War. Too much emphasis on divisions and corps or some nonsense like that. They'd been running "small unit" assessments nearly constantly for the entire last year. Daniels knew enough about military-speak to know that the truth of the matter was some politician had decided to go on a crusade to "streamline" the military, and Parliament had ordered the four-stars to start looking into the possibilities.

It was all go se if you asked Daniels. Since the end of the Unification War, the Parliament had nearly bent over backwards trying to convince the Rim that everything was going to be better now. That they should trust the very government that nearly bankrupted itself bombing their planets to hell and back.

As far as Daniels was concerned, the Rim was always going to be a backwater hellhole where terrorists and anarchists set up camp. Big armies meant big defeats to those who threatened the Alliance and a firm demonstration for those unpatriotic enough to be sitting on the fence about the Alliance. And Daniels had every intention of being one of those officers leading the charge.

Until then, mused Daniels, it was a matter of putting up with the terms of service. It wouldn't be until he was in command of his own brigade that he would make those political connections to put his ideas into motion.

It came down to making good impressions, and thus far, Daniels' company was not performing. One platoon was unaccounted for, and the company had yet to identify the opposing force in the training exercise. There had been no established time limit for the completion of the exercise and Daniels was beginning to seriously wonder if the entire thing was simply a test of his patience.

The sound of gunfire racketed through the air, inducing Daniels to turn towards the north. Commotion from the radios snapped Daniels from his musing and he returned to the radio apparatus quickly. Lieutenant Drayer and the was frantically issuing orders and looking over the map as Daniels stepped behind him.

"Lieutenant, SITREP."

Lieutenant Drayer answered without lifting his head from the map, irritating Daniels to no end as he struggled to answer the captain's request for a situation report and issue orders simultaneously.

"Sir! Second platoon reported engagement with OPFOR."

Daniels raised his eyebrows in interest, overriding his desire to chastise the lieutenant for not following proper etiquette in the field. Engagement with the opposing force was the first interesting news he had heard since they had begun the operation.

"And? What have they reported?"

"Sir, they are reporting significant casualties already inflicted, OPFOR appears to have less than one squad's total manpower."

Daniels hair began to stand on end. According to the Lieutenant's map, the enemy force was less than a kilometer from their current location. His voice had an uncharacteristic tremble as he struggled to keep his frustration under control.

"Lieutenant, would you like to explain to me why my platoon is having trouble engaging a single enemy force less than six people deep?"

The lieutenant struggled to answer appropriately.

"They say they were ambushed. Land mines and grenades.."

The echos of gunfire began to die off and Daniels felt himself relax slightly. At the very least he could chalk up this blunder to poor platoon management. He would have to make sure that improper training was not listed as a contributing factor.

"Second Platoon? Do you copy? I repeat, do you copy?"

Daniels frowned as he heard the radio operator's voice repeat the same line twice. A strange silence descended over the soldiers gathered around the radio and their eyes fell on Daniels as the radio operator continued to try raising the now silent platoon.

"Lieutenant, where is third platoon."

There was a hesitancy in Drayer's voice, and Daniels felt his pulse leap in rate even before the man answered him.

"Third platoon did not check in..."

"And requests for check in?"

The lieutenant shook his head. Daniels struggled to keep himself from shouting his frustration into the lieutenant's face. How did two platoons disappear from the radio without a single gunshot being fired and another fail to win an engagement they were larger than by nearly five times?

The soldiers around Daniels were beginning to stare as they waited for his orders. Daniels didn't know what to tell them. Something was very wrong. Second platoon must have reported incorrectly...

"Fighting positions, everyone!"

Daniels crouched behind one of the sandbag walls established by the company for defensive purposes and drew his pistol. Like the other soldiers, he was issued a standard assault rifle, but Daniels honestly had trouble remembering when he last put a round through the weapon. Commanders didn't fight. Or at least they weren't supposed to.

The lieutenant and radio crew abandoned the electronic equipment and spread along the defensive lines. The gun crews racked their bolts and scanned their fire lines for enemy contacts. A deathly silence fell over the headquarters, broken only by a soft white silence from the radio.

Minutes passed like hours. The only sound Daniels could hear was the heartbeat pounding in his ears along with his shallow breathing. Wind rustled softly through the trees and one of the machine gun crews finally had enough of the silence. Daniels jolted as the crew began to spray through the tree line. The riflemen around them began to follow, blasting into the green wall with little regard to where the simulated bullets landed. Daniels reached over his cover and began firing round after round from his pistol.

The drone of gun fire was deafening as imaginary bullets flew tore through the forest around them. Daniels heaved for air as the shockwaves began to die away slowly. His ears rung in the approaching silence as he continued to huddle behind his cover. He instinctively rubbed his ears in a failed attempt to stop the ringing. He could swear there were multiple ringing sounds in his ear.

In fact, they sounded a great deal like the "kill" sound the sensors would give off...

Daniels scrambled to his feet and looked at his base in horror. Every soldier was sitting down, having removed their helmets to signify they had been "hit." Before he could speak he heard a soft foot fall behind him. He whipped around to attack the unknown source of sound, but the soft pffft of four shots from a silenced pistol ended his attack before it began. Daniels threw his helmet to the ground in disgust and sat down as his attacker came into full view.

The soldier was a tall man, covered in black fabric. No inch of skin was showing on his person, and he had no identifying marks on his uniform. No name. No Alliance emblems. No rank insignia. He moved carefully into the camp, crouching low and moving fluidly from one area of cover to the next as he surveyed the base camp. Daniels could hear the heavy footsteps of other soldiers moving through the camp as it became obvious there were no dangers present. Two more black-clad soldiers emerged into Daniels' field of view. He was stunned but listened quietly as they began to speak in muffled, but audiable voices. He could not, however, distinguish which voice belonged to which soldier.

A male voice sounded first, "Nomad, area clear."

A female voice spoke in quick succession, "Objective is clean."

Daniels could see the man that shot him nod and respond quietly, apparently to an unseen soldier, "Haze, objective achieved."

Several minutes passed and the soldiers did not move. Wind rustled through tree branches as soldiers around them began to whisper quietly out of boredom. Suddenly all three soldiers turned away from Daniels and began to walk back into the forest. Daniels frowned as he watched them leave as quietly as they had come but quickly turned his attention to the crackling of the company radio.

"Simulation ended. Simulation ended."

The groans and grunts of the soldiers around the area filled the air in a strange chorus as the disappointment of the day's activity began to flow freely from the soldiers' lips. Lieutenant Drayer made his way back to the radio and began to speak into the microphone as Daniels continued to go over the events in his head.

"Captain? Captain!"

Drayer's voice snapped Daniels out of his trance and Daniels frowned as he turned and walked to the company radio.

"What is it, lieutenant?"

"Colonel Crozier is on the line sir..."

Daniels could feel his heart freeze as he took the radio from Drayer's hand. Silence passed through the ranks in a shockwave, only to be replaced with murmurs from the soldiers around Daniels. Daniels inhaled deeply and brought the microphone to his lips and placed the earpiece carefully in the ear canal.

"Captain Daniels to Headquarters, over. Yes Colonel, I...No, it did not happen that way, sir. No sir, we were absolutely prepared for an attack..."