Harbinger

Kotai ignored the tickling from the tree branch as he watched the valley carefully. His painted face and camoflague fatigues were accented by the rays of light scattered through the branches in his cover. The desert valley was covered in scrub and long grasses. Even through his binoculars, Koltai saw nothing but a wall of various textures and shapes. A sea of unique features that masked the unique.

He pressed on the black strip covering the throat microphone attached to his neck and spoke quietly.

"Nomad. No contact."

A male voice returned on the speaker lodged carefully in his ear.

"Foxbat. No contact."

A female voice sounded after a few seconds of silence.

"Banzai. Nothing."

Koltai grimaced. They probably couldn't find their target if it was painted bright orange. There was just too much foilage to see anything. Koltai carefully unfolded a crisp map from his breast pocket and looked over the various marks and symbols scribbled on its surface. His index finger hovered over a cross symbol on the map with the numerical designation "57-63." The precise grid on the map identified by the numbers was marked with a crosshatch pattern.

"Affirmative...Foxbat, overwatch, five-seven-six-three."

Brief radio codes were tantamount. The enemy had radio direction detectors. Too much speech and their precise location would be as plain as if they had walked down a road wearing bright orange and shouting at the top of their lungs.

"Wilco, Nomad."

Koltai scanned to the other side of the map.

"Banzai, overwatch, four-six-six-two."

Koltai frowned as white silence remained unbroken. Koltai brought his binoculars down from his eyes and glanced to the map. Banzai had been in the north long enough. They needed to watch the south end of the valley.

"Banzai, talkback."

The request for a response went unanswered. An inkling of fear began to trickle down his spine as he pressed the throat microphone again.

"Banzai...talkback."

Koltai exhaled slowly.

"Banzai, respond."

Nearly a minute of static silence passed in the appearance of an hour. Koltai rubbed his face as his eyes flew to Banzai's last position in the distance.

"Foxbat, eyes on Bonzai?"

Foxbat responded with the slightest of vocal breaks, "No joy, Nomad."

Koltai bit the inside of his lip. He had to assume Banzai was dead. He looked at the map. All the contingency plans scribbled on the paper seemed useless. He needed three people. No one was supposed to be dead. Koltai scrambled mentally to adjust his plan.

"Nomad, orders?"

Koltai opened his mouth to answer, but no sound came. Each time he began to say something, a doubt erupted, tearing through what confidence remained in his head.

"Nomad, talkback?"

"A...Affirmative, Foxbat. Overwatch, five-seven-five-four...uh..."

Koltai kept his microphone pressed even as his mouth closed slowly. The world around him was closing. The bushes gripped the sky and tangled together around him. He couldn't move. He couldn't breath.

"...no....uh...five-seven-four...three..."

Koltai released his grip on the microphone and Foxbat's voice immediately screamed over the radio.

"RED DOG! RED DOG!...gahhh!"

Koltai's blood froze and he felt a ripple through his skin. They had been compromised. Positions, radio frequencies...the whole damn shindig.

He stood quickly, the branches scratching against his face and shirt loudly as he struggled to dive out of his cover. He landed on his stomach and grunted as he began to pick himself up.

"...too slow, Nomad."

Before Koltai could face the voice, his ribs exploded in pain. He tried to shout, but the pain riveted through his lungs and he merely collapsed back to the ground. He reached over to the site of the pain and felt thick liquid in his finger tips. Koltai brought his hand to eyes to look over the red liquid. Two more flashes of pain struck his back and he felt the wind knocked out of him.

Finally, Koltai inhaled deeply and shouted a response.

"Gorram it, Tazami, I'm out! Fuuuck..."

He heard Tazami chuckle slightly and Koltai rubbed the red paint off of his fingers onto the baked desert ground. Tazami turned the safety on the paint gun to "SAFE" and strode to Koltai, who had managed to get to one knee. Koltai's back had two bright red paint blots and his skin would have two very distinct bruises. From what Tazami understood, Koltai had been lucky to walk away with just *three* bruises.

They waited for nearly half an hour before the other recruits and soldiers in the training exercise arrived. Two soldiers were dressed like Tazami. They wore combat fatigues and load-bearing vests. Both were carrying paint guns like Tazami's. The other soldier was dressed in a ghillie suit and carried a large optical scope.

The recruits followed the soldiers and had a variety of red paint splotches covering their fatigues. Sergeant Miranda Drake, or "Banzai," had been shot along her entire left side. She was limping slightly from the thigh bruises. Corporal Jonathan Gethman, or "Foxbat," fared no better. His back was covered int he same blotches as Lieutenant Koltai's, but at a much greater volume.

The three recruits sat together, but did not speak as Tazami gathered the other soldiers for debriefing. Tazami could tell that each one blamed themselves and each other for their failure.

"Charlie Team, how do you think you fared?"

There was no response from the recruits.

"Sergeant Drake, what do you think of Lieutenant Koltai's leadership?"

Drake hesitated to answer. Tazami could tell she wanted to say something almost immediately as he had finished the question.

"Sergeant Drake, is there a problem?"

"No sir. I...Lieutenant Koltai did not have a good contingency plan."

"And...?"

"...we...he spread us out...we couldn't watch our flanks. We were sitting ducks."

Koltai did not respond. He listened to Drake's assessment, but his eyes bored a hole into the dirt at his feet. Tazami's face did not fluctuate as he watched Koltai. He needed to learn this lesson, even if it was a painful one. They all did.

"And you, First Sergeant?"

Gethman shook his head, "No sir, I got nothin' to add."

Tazami nodded slowly and rubbed his chin.

"Lieutenant Koltai, are you aware of how long the other teams were able to stay alive?"

Koltai did not respond, but Tazami did not pursue the question. Instead, he looked to the soldier in the ghillie suit.

"Master Sergeant Xian, how long did Alpha Team last?"

"About forty-five minutes."

The three recruits looked up almost simultaneously. Koltai's face twitched slightly in disbelief. They had been in the field for almost two and a half hours.

"And Bravo?"

"About an hour...maybe a little more."

The recruits began to absorb the information. Drake and Gethman seemed to shrink slightly in stature.

"Lieutenant, why did you split your team?"

Koltai struggled to keep the sudden rush of self-confidence from overriding his judgment. He answered quietly.

"I...we could keep more eyes on the area if we were on a triangle..."

Tazami nodded. He could tell that Koltai did not realize that their plan was nearly the perfect response to the situation.

"Private Xian, why did you have trouble finding the recruits?"

The instructor nodded and stepped forward to explain.

"They were spread too far for me to spot in one hide. When I did find one, the others weren't compromised. The other teams clustered, so they were easy to spot. And when one was taken down, the other recruits would look to the remaining recruits instinctively, betraying their positions as well."

Tazami nodded and began to speak again.

"Lieutenant Koltai, it is true that you did not properly plan for the worst case scenario, I believe that you have learned your lesson concerning this..." Tazami motioned to the sergeant and the corporal but did not wait for Koltai to respond before continuing.

"The Xi Detachment cannot use traditional military tactics, as you are no doubt aware. Basic special forces doctrine dictates that each individual soldier must often act as their own contained unit, especially against overwhelming odds. Leaders must utilize this knowledge when planning combat."

Drake and Gethman nodded slowly as the information sunk in.

"Now, concerning snipers, we will be convening at the end of this debriefing to discuss counter-sniper tactics, but you should know that you were expected to fail this exercise.

The recruits frowned at this knowledge, but stayd silent as Tazami continued.

"The recruit teams were ordered not only to spot the sniper within the kill zone, but the sniper had prior knowledge of your approach. In truth, the only way to beat a sniper, without being a sniper yourself, is to break their ability to use information against you. If they know where you are supposed to be, they can plan an appropriate ambush."

The recruits nodded, their spirits noticeably better than before though no one was in the mode to celebrate. Tazami extended his hand to the recruits in a rare gesture of satisfaction, "Congratulations, recruits."

All three stood and shook Tazami's hand, each with something of disbelief on their faces.

"Now, Sergeant Drake and Corporal Gethman, you are dismissed. Lieutenant Koltai, I want to continue this debriefing."

Gethman and Drake both shook Koltai's hand firmly. Tazami could tell from their looks that they were trying to communicate something of an apology to the lieutenant. Koltai smiled weakly to both of them before turning to face Tazami. The captain nodded to the soldiers who followed the recruits back to their camp. Tazami turned away from the lieutenant to look over the valley.

"Lieutenant, I've been watching your progress in the Xi Detachment. You are an excellent soldier, Koltai..."

It took nearly every ounce of Koltai's mental capacity to keep his jaw from falling to the ground, but the lieutenant waited for Tazami to continue.

"..you are, however, a lackluster officer. You don't inspire confidence in your soldiers, lieutenant. We need that in officers to keep people alive and missions on course. Do you understand?"

Koltai nodded slowly. He knew the next step in the process. He would be sent back to the main camp where he would be discharged from the Xi Detachment and sent back to Personnel Command for reassignment. He extended hs hand as a courteous gesture to the captain, but Tazami did not take his hand. The captain crossed his arms and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Lieutenant, you really should learn to wait until I've finished my statements before assuming things. You are the type of soldier who doesn't belong in the regular enlisted corps. You are too intelligent, but you doubt yourself entirely too much. Nor are you particularly political either, making you highly unsuitable to our officer corps."

Koltai grimaced, but let the captain continue unabated.

"Koltai, I want you to look into the Surveillance, Observation, and Urban Operations Section. I think you will find it uniquely suited to people like you."

Koltai nodded slowly, "...am I dismissed, sir?"

Tazami nodded. Arex turned to walk away and began to stride as Tazami spoke a final time, "Some advice, Koltai...have those bruises looked at before you return to the camp. They're going to hurt like a son-of-a-bitch in the morning."

Koltai chuckled as he walked off to the camp, Captain Tazami in close tow behind him.