A sense of dread crept over Rayth as the words of his commander sank in. An incident in Washington, which caused this kind of chaos, likely meant an attack of some kind. But by who? They were fighting both the Russians and the Chinese, but that was contained to Europe and Australia, for now at least. The chances of either country getting enough soldiers close enough to Washington to do any kind of substantial damage was limited. Terrorists then? Possibly. Rayth thought to himself. But the Squadron S2 – the officer in charge of Military Intelligence for the Squadron – Major Valorie Richards, was a solid Intel officer from what he knew of her. He hadn’t interacted with her much, but she had a reputation around the Squadron for being a no-nonsense person when it came to her job and an incredibly talented analyst. Which played well into her civilian career, he had heard that she was a Chief Technology Officer at a tech start up in Minneapolis. Rayth shook his head to refocus his mind back on the issue at hand. Bottom line was that if the S2 passed along word that an incident of some kind occurred, then he was willing to believe that something had in fact happened.
“What are we going to do about it Sir?” Woods asked after a moment of silence.
“Nothing for now. We haven’t received any orders yet from Squadron. And we cannot continue with the gunnery today because no one can get radios or any form of wireless communication working. Safety regulations won’t allow that. Squadron also does not have any wireless comms working either. Apparently no one in Camp Ripley has a working radio.” Johnson stated, with a hint of irritation creeping into his otherwise professional voice when he spoke about the communications issue.
“So what do we do then? Sit and wait?” asked Hunts.
“For now, yes. If comms come back, we will proceed with our gunnery training today. Otherwise we sit tight. Have your platoons conduct hip pocket training until we either begin training or get new orders from headquarters. Once I know more info, I will pass it along. You’re dismissed.” With that Johnson turned and grabbed the Troop First Sergeant for a private discussion, leaving the eight Platoon Leaders and Sergeants behind. A moment later, they dispersed, talking quietly among themselves.
“What do you think of this?” Rayth asked Hunts as they walked back towards their line of vehicles.
“I don’t know Sir. This is strange news to say the least. I’m not surprised that this potential rumor has popped up the same day an entire base loses its radios. There could be a freak environmental event going on that’s screwing with wireless signals.” Hunts offered to his younger counterpart.
“I agree it’s odd this comes the same day as wide spread comm issues. And it is possible some kind of rumor came up because of it. I guess we will have to sit tight and see what comes up. I hate sitting and waiting.” Rayth responded, and he could see Hunt’s expression mirroring his own feelings, and likely his own expression. They both hated having idle time and the dreaded Army tradition way of killing down time – “hip pocket training”. Which meant that, in order to keep up the appearance of staying busy, one of the NCO’s would give a half hearted class on some mundane military topic to the rest of the platoon. who would be struggling to stay awake. Soldiers loved to train – but not in this way.
When they returned to the vehicles, Rayth briefed his soldiers on the new developments. The news of potential incidents was met with both an air of concern, and one of skepticism. Concern that something very, very bad had potentially happed. But skepticism because there was no details and no confirmation about the news. Afterwards, Hunts tasked Staff Sergeant Brian White with leading the hip pocket training.
The rest of the morning seemed to drag on to Rayth as he half listened to the class on camouflaging tanks that Sergeant White was giving the platoon. It had been nearly three hours since the commander had dropped the news on him and Hunts, and nothing new had come through yet. It was beginning to look like it actually was just a rumor sparked by the loss of the radios and phones. Stifling a yawn, Rayth quietly reached into the hip pocket on his uniform pants and pulled out a bag of ranch flavored sunflower seeds, and poured a himself a small handful. He popped the batch of seeds into his mouth and slowly cracked each seed one at a time, then spit out the shell. The salt and the motion of something to do helped keep him awake.
After he had cracked several seeds, he heard the pounding of boots on the ground behind him coming at a run. Curious, he turned around to see one of the Specialists from the headquarters platoon come running from the direction of the tower. When she pulled up next to Rayth, she was nearly out of breath, and he gave her a moment to breath before asking, “What’s the hurry for?” Hunts, standing nearby had also noticed the running trooper and walked up to the pair.
“Captain Johnson needs you, Sergeant Hunts and the other officers up at the tower right now!” She said in between deep breathes. Looking up to the range control tower, Rayth could see the leaders of two other platoons jogging up to the tower entrance.
“Understood. We are on our way.”
“Do you know where Lieutenant Woods is Sir? He is the only one I haven’t found yet.”
“I do – he is right over there…” Rayth pointed down the line of vehicles.
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“Thank you sir!” She said as she took off running. Hunts was already starting to jog up to the tower and Rayth hurried to catch up with him. Moving with a purpose, the pair covered the ground to the tower in moments and entered the range control tower. Captain Johnson and First Sergeant Carlson were standing in the same corner that Rayth had spoken with them earlier in the morning. Without a word, Rayth and Hunts stood next to their peers and waited for Woods to show up. It didn’t take long for Woods and his platoon sergeant to stand with the rest. As they waited, Johnson stood quietly, studying the map of Camp Ripley that hung on the wall. Johnson turned and faced his assembled officers and senior NCO’s, and taking a breath began his briefing.
“Gentlemen, I just got a call from Squadron with new orders and more information. There has indeed been an attack on Washington D.C., the Navy Base in San Francisco, Andrews Air Force Base, Fort Hood, Fort Benning and Fort Drum.” The words hit Rayth in the gut like a punch from a professional boxer. Not only Washington was hit, but also some of the most key American military installations in the country. How in the hell did the Chinese or Russians manage to launch this kind of attack? Did they actually start working together?
“Who attacked us?” asked Lieutenant Ward, the Platoon Leader for Second Platoon.
“That is unclear at the moment. All we know is that it seems to be coordinated attack as the attacks started within minutes of each other. Our orders are to abandon gunnery training, pack up our vehicles and return to the base proper and link up with the rest of the Squadron and prepare for potential redeployment orders. We have two hours to get everything packed – including the HEAT and SABOT rounds that we have for gunnery. They need to be loaded on the flatbeds and hauled with us. They will be turned back into the ammo dump later.
“The 135th and 136th Infantry Battalions are also pulling out of their training sites and regrouping on the base proper with their respective commands. This order comes straight from Colonel Takama herself,” As Johnson spoke he turned his head and looked into the eyes of his leaders as if to drill his words directly into their minds “which means we are not screwing around here. This news seems to be accurate and the Intel folks in the S2 shop claim to have confirmed this with their own contacts. The fighting has come home, and we need to be ready.
Get your platoons ready to move. We are leaving the range the moment the flatbeds have been loaded, which will take another hour. You have until then to collect you gear and have your vehicles staged and ready to move. Any questions? None? Very well. Dismissed.” Turning on their heels, the officers and NCO’s took off out of the command room at a fast jog – trying to project an air on control, and not letting the panic they were feeling fuel their legs into a sprint.
“First Platoon, fall in!” Hunts bellowed as he and Rayth came into the area their soldiers had made their camp for the day. The fourteen soldiers that made up the rest of First Platoon gathered around their leadership and waited for the news. After seeing Rayth and Hunts take off like that had fueled a lot of speculation in the platoon. Afterall, an officer and an NCO running after being summoned by the commander was never a good sign of things to come, and no one is better at coming up with wild theories than a United States Army Soldier.
“Here’s the situation gentlemen,” Rayth started, trying to look each of his soldiers in the eye as he spoke. “There have been several attacks on cities and bases throughout the U.S. – including Washington, San Francisco, Fort Bragg, For Drum and Fort Benning. And those are just the ones we know about. Our orders…” Rayth could hear a few of the soldiers start to murmur amongst themselves. “Quiet and let me finish!” he snapped at them, and the murmurs stopped. Harsher than he intended it to be, but now was not the time for anyone to lose discipline. “Our orders are to pack up all of our gear and be ready to move as soon as possible. Supply is loading up the flatbeds now with the remainder of our gunnery ammo, and we will leave as soon as the supply trucks give the green light to the commander. They are saying an hour, but I do not want to keep the Troop waiting on us. When we leave, we will be heading straight to the barracks to re group with the rest of the Brigade and prepare for likely deployment orders. We are likely going to war sooner than we expected. Any questions?”
“Who the hell is attacking us?” asked one of the privates from the back row who had been murmuring earlier.
“I don’t know Anderson. I have told you everything that Caption Johnson told me and Sergeant Hunts. We don’t know either when we will know more. Any questions about what needs to happen in the next few minutes?” Hearing none, Rayth dismissed his tank crews to prepare their vehicles to depart. Rayth followed his own orders and moved to his own vehicle and did a quick scan to make sure all of the gear that he had brought out to the range. That taken care of, he stood back and watched his soldiers getting their gear and vehicles packed up and ready to move. They moved with a nervous and excited energy to them. Which wasn’t surprising to Rayth – he felt the same mix of emotions. Excitement about what was likely the coming fight, nervousness about the same fight, and some fear about not knowing what will happen next. But the hardest feeling to handle was the anxiety born of waiting, and having too much time to think about what might, or might not, happen. Waiting for the order to leave the range only magnified his anxiety.
Once everything was packed and vehicles ready, the soldiers of First Platoon sat in their vehicles and waited for the order to move. No one spoke, but there was a lot of foot and finger tapping going on. Rayth felt relief when Captain Johnson walked up to him and gave the order to head back to motor pool. “Lieutenant, lead us back to the motor pool. Once we get there, everyone needs to start packing their gear from the barracks. You and the other officers will pack your gear, then meet me in the ready room.”
“Yes Sir! See you back at the barracks.” Johnson turned on his heels without a word and headed back to his own tank that parked down the line. It would have been his crews turn to do their gunnery tables today. That was a random thought, and at an odd time Rayth chided himself. Turning to his waiting vehicles, he made a circle motion with his hand and arm, and nearly at once all four of his trucks started their engines. Getting into the lead vehicle, he looked at his driver, who looked back at him, and Rayth noticed a look of fear in his eyes. “O’Hare, lets move. Take us back to the motor pool.” Acknowledging the order with a nod, he put the truck into gear and pulled out onto the path leading back to the road with nearly two dozen more trucks and tanks following behind.