Intuitions of War
Chapter 16: Joining the squad
*10:12 AM, LONDON*
After walking for so long, Harper was beginning to believe that they were about to leave the city of London itself, and walk all the way back to Newgate. However, right before they actually left the city, the man in front of him took a right, and at the end of the road was a big building.
The building was huge, but it looked real ugly. Harper was wondering as to how they took care of this building.
"That right there is our temporary base of operations, the pinnacle as we like to call it." The man in front of Harper said, and Harper stared at the building in awe. It looked terrible, rundown, and it looked like there was a fire inside one of the windows of the building.
"... Yes, sir" However, Harper knew he was in no position to complain or something, as he was the one who was enlisting in the army, not the man who was taking him here. He straightened his body up, so much that it looked like a noble rapier, shining with the sunlight hitting him.
"Alright, let's head right in." The man in front of Harper chuckled a bit at the sight of Harper's face, and began walking towards the entrance of the building. Harper followed suit, and tailed him inside.
Once passing the door that lead into the inside, Harper was witness to the devastation within the building. It seemed to be a huge lobby type of room, and at the center were two people wrestling and beating the blood out of each other.
"Ronny, Kimmy, stop that!" The man who lead Harper into this building screamed at the two who were seemingly wrestling, and both of them removed their arms and legs entangled within each other away from the other, and backed up.
"Now, both of you go out and jump into one of the rivers outside, now!" The man screamed once again, and both of them dashed past the man and burst out of the door through which they had just entered.
"Good grief…" The man in front of Harper seemed to deal with this everyday, or at least Harper was thinking it was something along those lines guessing from his face of disappointment.
'Poor guy…' Harper was somewhat sorry for the man, though he knew he didn't have the privilege to really say anything about the situation.
"Anyway, I'll introduce myself now. I'm the leader of recon itself, or as the people of Britain like to call it, the Weasels. Our job is to inspect the battlefield beforehand, and prepare the military for battle." The man seemed to be getting into what seemed to be a long explanation, so Harper sighed and slumped, his back against the wall.
However, the man just stared at him, without continuing the explanation.
"... You trying to act snotty with me, brat?"
Harpers instincts kicked into place, and he immediately distanced himself by moving to the left a little. After moving back, Harper inspected the man a bit closer.
Well, he tried to. However, before he could, his eyes locked onto the man's eyes, and all hope that he had was lost. He seemed to be falling deep into despair at the look of this man.
'His eyes…' He had the eyes of a hunter, no, an apex predator. Not even a hunter could compare with him. Now that Harper had laid his eyes on the eyes of this man, he realized he couldn't look away, scared for his life.
'Crap…' Harper began to tear up a bit, the instincts within his body kicking in even more, the instinct to know when he should fear for his life.
"Get up" These were the only words that the man muttered, and it was even below his breath, but Harper was focusing on this man so much that he could make out what he said, and immediately stood up.
"...You and me aren't gonna get along until you prove yourself to me." The man finally let go of that tense look within his eyes, and looked at Harper with a scalding heat in his eyes instead. It was almost as if he was getting competitive with Harper.
"I'm one of the squad leaders in the Weasels, squad number four. The names Charlie, though you'll just refer to me as squad leader of number four. Thankfully for you, you're not in my squad, so you're not going to have to deal with me, and I won't deal with you."
"You're a part of the rogues right now, and you'll likely be like that for a bit. So calm yourself down and train and exercise in the lobby, and have the others explain everything to you." Charlie of the fourth began walking away, and Harper began wiping away his tears.
'This… isn't going to be easy.'
--- sequence 2 ---
*11:00 AM, LONDON*
'I need Lucy back, now…' Caecca was constantly pacing back and forth within his office, sweat sliding down his head, and dropping onto the ground.
They had recently received confirmation that the soldiers that they placed to protect the North Sea were almost fully eliminated. One of the last few people alive of that army radioed in yesterday, and explained the situation. They fought with what seemed to be the Italians, and almost all of them died.
The last few soldiers were either lucky or deserters. According to the guy who radioed in, more than half of the survivors were deserters who had ran from the battle when they noticed they were going to die. The soldier said that he knew they survived the battle, but he didn't know if they had been caught or not by the Italians.
Now that there was also the option of being invaded from the North Sea, their plan of putting two armies on the outside to flank would probably have to change. However, he needed Lucy's thoughts on the situation, as he knew she was the most strategic out of him and her.
'Where the hell is she…' Caecca moaned in annoyance, and burst out of his office. He walked down the hallway until he reached the stairs, and went to the bottom of them. He then reached the entrance of the building, but before he could leave, he signaled at one of the soldiers posted here to come to him.
"Yes sir!" The soldier was very ecstatic, not something that is very common in such a depressing war. Caecca liked that about him.
"If Lucy comes back while I'm gone, tell her I've gone to meet the other commanders to plan out what we're going to do." Caecca waved the soldier away after he told him this, and walked out of the entrance.
"Crap, depending on how long ago the Italians won the invasion, they could be marching on us right now from that direction." Caecca knew he had to hurry up and let the other generals know about the situation, so he busted out into a dash.
'This time, I'll gain their support…!'
--- sequence 3 ---
*10:30 AM, LONDON*
"... and that's about it!" One of the other rogues called Sellars explained what being rogue meant to Harper, who was essentially just nodding during the whole explanation.
"So basically, rogues are just people who haven't been deemed worthy of joining a squad yet, so they either work together or alone until some squad says they want them?" Harper was just trying to make sure that he understood all this knowledge correctly. To that question, Sellars nodded.
'Huh'
"So, to be deemed worthy of joining a squad, the military will assign us missions, which have deadlines to be completed. Complete enough of those reconnaissance missions, and you'll be in a squad in no time. Once you're in a squad, you can pull off more advanced tactics when it comes to recon!" Sellars seemed pretty happy with the system as of right now, though Harper wondered if it would change anytime soon.
'This system seems to have many flaws… the squads can't have unlimited space for people to join, so once they're all full, where do people go…?' Harper knew that he probably wouldn't have to worry about this issue for a while, so he just shook it off his mind.
"As a newbie, you're always guaranteed a mission. If you head to the office at the end of the hallway and tell the person sitting behind the desk your name, I guarantee that you'll have a mission ready for you." Sellars seemed like a sly bastard in Harpers eyes, though he knew he didn't have the power to piss anyone off right now, especially not a big beefy man such as Sellars.
"Alright, thanks for the tips I guess. I'll head on down to this office and grab my first mission, I guess." Harper waved goodbye to Sellars, and began walking down the hallway to pursue his interest in this world.
'Now, with me in the military, I can begin pulling off ludicrous crap.' Harper formed a devious smile on his face, and walked into the office. As Sellars said, there was a lady behind a desk in this room, who seemed to be looking at some papers.
'This is where it begins!'