I was so glad I did not have to give the report by myself. Sergeant Major Bishop listened with great interest to Kemi, Marcus, and myself as we reported the near-total failure of our first mission.

“So, as I am to understand it,” Bishop began, “Your ops only avoids being a disaster by dint of luck and happenstance?” It was so unusual, seeing him out of his genial persona. Maybe us fucking up this bad had really pissed him off.

“Yes sir,” Kemi shouted, not actually looking him in the face.

“This doesn’t look good at all. It’s a damn good thing no one was killed because of this fuck up.”

My cheeks burned and I was struggling hard not to give him my opinion on this whole setup. Before I could open my mouth, Marcus beat me to it.

“Sir, can I add some details that may have been glossed over.”

Bishop turned his baleful gaze on Marcus. “Go ahead, Dean.”

“Sir, we were unprepared for this mission. We had no proper chain of command and we had no medical support. I don’t understand why we were even put in that situation like that, but failure was honestly the most likely outcome.”

Damn, Marcus, I didn’t know you had it in you!

Bishop eyed Marcus for a moment. “That’s been noted.”

“Can I ask why we were left hanging, sir?”

Veins throbbed on the side of Bishop’s face. Gritting my teeth was the only way I could stop myself from laughing.

“You weren’t ‘left hanging’ soldier. The mission spec had you as glorified babysitters. This shouldn’t have happened. You shouldn’t have needed any of those things.”

“But we did.” I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. He spun on me. “Sir,” I added.

I could count his heartbeats on his forehead. He chewed several responses down, before abruptly turning away and stalking to his desk. Sitting with a weary sigh, he looked down at the meticulously ordered desktop, as though he could divine some response.

It was him. This fuck up was his fault. Our screw-up was going to make him look really bad, and the only ones he could give any shit over it was us.

“It was you that sent us out there like this, wasn’t it? Sir.”

He looked slowly up from his desk. The anger had drained from his face, leaving something of the old Bishop there. “Yes.”

Kemi’s hand caught my arm. Looking down at her hand and back at her as she shook her head. I realized I’d started towards his desk. I had no memory of stepping out of line.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Bishop’s eyes were wide. I don’t know if it was more from surprise or disbelief that I might get angry enough to step out of line. Realizing my mistake, I stepped back, but my heart raced and my hands clenched.

Regaining his composure, his fire came back. “You got a problem, Delaney?”

“Yes, sir. I feel like we were sent out there to fail. I feel like we had our hands tied behind us so we’d fuck up.”

His mouth gaped, fish-like. Finally, he shut it and shook his head while he massaged his temples. “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

That froze me in place. I didn’t know how to respond to that. After a moment, Marcus asked, “Wait, does that make you the stup-”

“What it means, soldier, is that mistakes were made. Don’t go looking for enemies where there aren’t any. I’ve got enough. I’ll write this up. Dismissed.” He looked down at his folders, opened one, and started reading.

We saluted and withdrew.

Before the door finished shutting behind me, Kemi spun on me. “What the fuck, Delaney?”

“Guys, not here please,” Marcus said, tugging Kemi’s wrist. She looked at him and then rolled her eyes, but she followed. Casting a glance my way, she asked, “You coming?”

Coming along to get my ass chewed out? Sure, why not.

We walked down the corridor and into an empty office. Marcus shut the door behind me.

“Are you fucking nuts?” Kemi asked, crossing her arms over her chest. “What would you have done if I hadn’t stopped you?”

I opened my mouth to shoot something back but stopped. What would I have done? I didn’t know.

Marcus leaned against a desk and watched the pair of us.

“I...I don’t really know.”

“Fuck.” Kemi shook her head. “What do you think would have happened if you had hit a superior? What if you had killed him? He’s just a normal. They already treat us with such kid gloves, do you have any idea how bad it might get for us if you went off half-cocked and beat a Sergeant-Major half to death?”

I shook my head, shame creeping into my cheeks. “Nothing. I’m sure I’d just go to jail.”

Kemi rolled her neck and looked up at the ceiling. “God save me from clueless white girls.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

She lowered her head and locked eyes with me. “You have no idea what it’s like. You think because we work for the army, they wouldn’t lock us all up and throw away the key the second it became more difficult to keep us than it was to use us?”

“Come on, Kem, that seems a bit far-fetched, don’t you think?” Marcus said.

She whirled around and he flinched back from her gaze. “Don’t ‘Kem’ me right now, Marcus.”

Oh, that was interesting. I didn’t know they were that close.

Continuing, she said, “You don’t get it either. We are a tiny minority. They will absolutely crush us if they think we are a threat or aren’t useful to them. They will kill us or lock us up. You two don’t see it, but I do. I know what they did to my granddad and his family back in World War 2. We are just an experiment. If we don’t deliver, if we don’t play nice, they will. End. Us.”

She took a deep breath and let it go. “So do me a favor, Delaney, next time you let your temper get the best of you, make sure you don’t drag us all down with you.”

With that, she pushed past me, threw open the door, and stormed off.

Marcus gave me a little shrug, grimaced, and then followed after.

The anger from Bishop began to drain away and my body shook. She was right. I was going to beat the absolute shit out of him for sending us there like that.

And honestly, I don’t know when I would have stopped.