Chereads / Full Metal Online / Chapter 2 - More Bark than Bite

Chapter 2 - More Bark than Bite

May 24th, 2322. FMO version 3.2.5. Beta Final

It's 20:15 hours on one of the most damned foggy nights I've ever seen. Looking straight at the dockhouses I can only make out some of the direct surroundings of the dim lighting. At a half click the light bulbs are like failing candles, floating under the dirty, molding, straw overhangs.

Movement can only barely be seen to and from the dockhouses. An arm moving around there, a weapon barrel sitting out of a window over there.

"Not much to go on really". I quietly say to myself.

My radio on my chest beeps twice almost too low to hear, but I can't answer yet. I'm still moving, stalking the prey in front of me. My legs start eating the distance to the shoreline. My eyes are roaming restlessly. From roots, to tree tops, and back again to the houses.

I don't mind the dense jungles much. Hell, I even enjoy it at times. The feeling of slipping from shadow to shadow. A hunter in the night whose footfall is muffled by the damp, rotting undergrowth. You can always move faster after the rain. Tree to tree. Orchids to trumpets. Soft land to warm water and back again.

"But this fucking fog is gonna trip me up one way or another." I think. I grudgingly grit my teeth and try moving faster anyway. I need to hurry and line up the perimeter with the others.

As I slowly step into the water to not make waves I come up to wide, sprawling, cluster of tree roots. "Fair enough for cover" I say to myself.

As I crouch to rest behind it only my chest and arms are still above the water. Nasty, dirty, and dangerous.

"Sure as hell hope they haven't put any crocs in the water yet."

Now I'm not really a picky guy for circumstances. But hot damn if I had known Vietnam was this humid and nasty, I'd have went back to Africa. At least I can see what I'm walking through half the time. Vietnam is so fucking thick with humidity it's like walking through a gym full of crop sprayers. Thankfully it's not hard to breathe in like the real climate would be.

A small saving grace. Then again, I'm thanking the number generators for a humid setting anyway. I'd be breaking every twig around if not for it.

I tilt my head down to rest on my rifle and rest on a nearby root to take aim. Grabbing my radio after hearing the low tones again, I report. "Delta 5 to Delta Lead, in position, eyes on 2 one confirmed weapon, awaiting commands."

Several seconds go by as I sit for a response. During that time my eyes roam the decks of the dockhouses. Still only a single gun barrel sitting on the western window sill, and the body wearing a hat has moved on.

"Delta Lead to Delta 5, your fucking late. That's a GOFO for eyes on. Keep it minimal and don't update unless it's today's news, and next time unless you're fucking KIA you better answer the damn commo when tagged, copy?"

Well shit. "Wilco" I dropped my radio back to my chest after finishing up. While waiting on the next update call I start to think about today's matchmaking.

I barely know these guys better than Joe Schmoe at the Green Bean Cafe. They hopped into the loadout room nearly together. A room that not much more than what you would expect a gym locker room to look like. Only darker with slate gray lockers, black metal benches. Diamond plate walkways and two security windows on either side of the exit door for buying and selling market upgrades and gear. Delta Lead, who I only slightly assume might be pre-military, is a guy called Barker. He's at rank E5 sergeant. Definitely skeptical about him. Delta 1 and 2 are his friends. Ajaxet and MachoWild, who are both at E4 corporal rank score. They all are similarly higher than my E2 private rank so I assume they're better than me anyway. The last person to arrive seems the quiet type. NXTExiT, another E2 private rank like myself.

During our loadout time the 3 friends were pretty much ready to go. Goofing around and talking shit to each other during the countdown. At least until they noticed mine and NXTExiT's gear. Which was still the standard black, basic issue gear. With the exception of my rifle.

"Holy shit guys. We gotta couple noobs on the fireteam." said Ajaxet. "Looks like we're gonna have to pull slack and carry, cause they ain't gonna do nothing worthwhile. Bet 20 credits they KIA before we breach."

Ajaxet had the look of a rough, mid- twenties, early balding kinda man with a mild beard, and a previously broken nose. The dirty blonde hair doesn't do well for his look either. Like actual dirt instead of stylish dirty. Almost as if he doesn't care about washing it. Nasty. I kinda imagine the guy sitting in a 24hr show bar snoozing over a few pitchers and whiskey glasses till noon.

The other guy though. Now he was straight, flatout, ugly. Like, hit in the face with a man hole cover from the sewage drains of downtown Chicago. Checkered pattern and all. Big forehead, flat nose, missing tooth in the front of the top row. The best he had going for him was that he was clean shaven. But then i looked closer and saw the light brown mullet. Yes. A mullet. The entire business up front, party in the back,hillbilly deluxe hair. My eyes are drying out just looking at the two of them.

"Na, I'll bet 30 creds that they make breach. But they'll drop as soon as they're inside, and without a single kill. Ha!" said MachoWild.

I was a little irritated at the look-down they gave us, but I tried to keep a lid on. I don't like to just casually confront public randoms anyway. So instead I decided to correct them. Hypocrisy right?

"This isn't a breach mission guys. The mission header says it is but it's more like search and clear. Vietnam doesn't have many enclosed houses, almost everything has large windows and open walls. We'll be fighting before we're even 10 yards away, depending on the location anyway."

Ajaxet laughs in a cringey fake villain kinda way, it actually matches the drunken deadbeat look he's got going. "So we gotta smart guy here? Well ill be damned. You know what Macho? We should let the noob here take point. Since he knows the mission already. Watcha think huh?"

I narrowed my eyes at the both of them. Secretly nicknaming them the Doom Hair Duo in my mind.

"Yeah let's get the new kids to take the lead boss. Might save us a bullet or two, and keep our armor in good shape for the next deployment."

I looked over at the smaller man, who was checking out the briefing details. Standing about four inches shorter than the other two, around five feet 2, give or take. He is a higher rank sure. But I didn't actually think him to be the lead man of the group. Standing to the left by the lockers he was just turning around as I noticed the short Frohawk he seemed to have just started. He has a more tanned, almost hispanic dark skin compared to the pasty white of the other two. Barker actually had an air of confidence about him as he looked over to me and the other private to my right. With Dark Brown eyes he has an almost too serious look on his face. He said, "The kid is right, looking at the details the target residence is a cluster of floating dockhouses. The typical layout is at least 1 open wall and large windows on nearly all other sides. We'll have to be cautious on approach. With that being said we will approach from west, go through the swamp and start fanning out once we're within a click from the River. This way we can have a wide view when we have eyes on."

Turning on a projected map he starts pointing at 2 points closest together between the buildings and bank of the river.

"Here is where you 2 new guns will head toward and over watch the dockhouses until go time. During which myself, Ajaxet, and Macho will cross the river on the north and south to scan for roaming patrols. Then take position opposite of you 2 on the Eastern banks. Simple and to the point. Once I give the word approach and eliminate all hostiles upon contact and recover any intel you find inside. Any questions?"

I ask with a hand out to catch his eye, "And our callsigns?"

He looks to me with an eyebrow raised. "Well if we must have one then let's keep it simple. Delta team. I'm Delta Lead, Ajaxet is 2 , Macho 3 , NXTExiT 4 , and you will be 5. Anything else? or do I need to draw a map labeled with checkpoints Lima through Whiskey just so you can play pretend at knowing where to go?"

I didn't say anything to the entirely Assholish answer. I just started at him for near 10 seconds straight. With my irritation riding I was beginning to think this guy has a stick the size of a wagon stuck in his ass or something.

Once again Barker raised an eyebrow and spoke down to me even though our eyes were level with me sitting and him still standing. "Is there a problem Private?"

Immediately after he finished speaking we all received an open room message from NXTExiT.

NXTExiT says: "I don't have a mic. Faulty head gear. I will follow Norden and use hand signals or txt."

I looked over at Barker to see his neck and cheeks flushing crimson, even though his face was still seemingly calm. In an all too quiet angry tone he asked, "What in the fucking hell do you mean you don't have a microphone? Do you expect everyone to just rollover and support your candy ass through the mission? Do you expect everyone here to keep an extra eye on you just because your too cheap to fix your gear before riding a mission? What the..."

"Now hold on right there bigshot." I said as I stood to my full six foot three. "You've already said that NXT is going to be on my side of the river. I'll take the responsibility for the communication. You guys just do you, since it seems you'll be on the other side anyway. No need to get hot and bothered over it."

Barker had to look up quite a few more degrees than before and I got the feeling he was even more heated at just that small fact. With teeth grinding he hissed out "Fine, but you'll need to check in for the both of you. Keep comm discipline and don't fuck anything up. Or else this mission will be on your head. You don't play ball and ill submit one hell of an insubordination ticket that'll make you look like a crayon munching lunatic that needs to be banned from pvp teams. You got me?" he was nearly growling the words by the time he finished.

I smiled as I looked down at him. "I've got no problem with that Sarge. I just hope you guys can hold up your side of the river during the mission. Else I can submit an after action report about the mission Lead who's bark was bigger than his bite. After all your buddies there said you could carry us through. Even made a bet about how far we would make it."

Barker's face was near the color of a full day tan now.

"Get your god damn gear ready. We leave out in 2 minutes. " He said while pushing the 'start mission' button on his hud. A two minute countdown started on my own HUD while a private message showed up in the middle left.

NXTExiT says: to NordenFiV3, "You didn't needed to do that. Ignoring guys like that cause less problems. He may screw up the mission on purpose now. "

I look at NXT as I finished reading the message. Wondering why they haven't showed their avatar, I asked, "How come you haven't changed gear? And don't worry about them. If anything happens I've got us covered. This L1A1 rifle I got last week is a pretty good upgrade to get through the easier beginner missions with. Watch my back and I'll watch yours, Yeah?"

As I watched NXT for a reaction of some kind she replied a few seconds later.

NXTExiT says: to NordenFiv3, "I just started 2 days ago. I don't have any other gear or perks yet. And that's cool about the rifle. Is it easy to get? Is it an achievement reward?"

Again I read the message and faced her to talk while I bought more 7.62x51mm for my rifle through the restock list in my HUD. "It's a rare rifle type. I played during the Christmas event last year and this was what I got for completing a challenge for a random prize present. It's more or less just a variant of the FN-FAL. Nearly identical except for some different internal parts. It's like a marksman rifle when compared to your M16A1. If you want to try something similar than you can try renting the M14. If your lucky you can pick one up during the mission since M14s were produced during this mission's time period."

I looked back at her after I finished loading magazines and saw her give me a thumbs up.

"I wonder if NXT will be able to keep up. Although they are the same rank as me, so obviously they have the same experience at least." I thought to myself as I watched the last 20 seconds in the countdown.

I looked over to the Doom Hair Duo to see them watching me a variant of some type of stink eye. I decided to get under their skin a little more.

"A hundred credits says I not only survive, but I get more kills than you two butt-buddies put together." I smiled as I watched Ajaxet get up and walk my way, Macho mullet right behind him.

"THATS ENOUGH!" Barker shouted over the 10 second countdown. "Leave them alone for now, show them up during the match if you wanna prove something. When we arrive we go our seperate ways. Stay in contact over the commo and we'll start the operation when everyone is in position. You got me?"

The Bad Hair Bears sounded in agreement as did I sound a "Yessir" just to end round one.

I think this is going to be an interesting mission.

3.

2.

1.

Mission stage ready.

Embark.