Intuitions of War
Chapter 17: First mission
"Um, excuse me ma'am?" Harper looked at the lady in front of him and questioned her. She looked up, just a bit, with her big brown eyes that were hidden behind her glasses. Her brown hair jiggled a little when she looked up, though it was as smooth and stable as a pond now.
"Do you need some assistance, young man?" Clearly over exaggerating the smile on her face, she stared right at Harper, who stood in front of her desk. He coughed a little, and looked at her right back.
"M-My name is Harper, and I'm a new recruit to the Recon unit, I believe you have a mission for me?" Harper seemed like a lost puppy on the street, not knowing about its future, and just roaming around. However, the lady's smile didn't falter at all, which made Harper feel a little better.
The lady begin scrolling through her papers for a bit, and though it took a while to find it, she seemed to have found the paper that was sent out for him.
"Here it is, Mr. Harper. Take your time to read through this paper, as it entails your first mission. It tells you where you need to go, when you need to report it by, and what exactly you're trying to obtain." The lady finally lowered her guard, and her smile dissipated. She looked down at her desk full of papers again, and began scribbling crap that Harper couldn't understand.
"Thank you very much ma'am." Harper walked out of the office after thanking the lady, and began walking down the hallway. Meanwhile, he kept staring at the paper, which he could not translate.
'Though I can't read it, I know somebody who can!' At this point, Harper was beginning to see that Sellars was someone that would be a utility for him, a comrade that he would be relying on a lot.
Harper looked up from the paper, and saw that Sellars was still lazing around in the lobby, doing whatever he was doing.
Harper began walking towards Sellars, excitement flowing throughout his body.
"Sellars!" Harper finally called out the name of Sellars, who immediately swirled around to see who was calling out to him. However, it seemed that when he noticed that it was Harper, he calmed down.
"You need something Harper?" Sellars looked at Harper in a curious way, the way that a kid would look at an adult at work.
"I don't know how to read, so if you don't mind reading this to me…" Harper was a bit embarrassed, considering that he was a part of the military, or more specifically, the Recon unit, yet he didn't know how to read.
"Ah, your first mission! Hand it over, let me see…" Sellars snatched the paper right out of Harpers hands, and began skimming the paper. However, as more and more time passed, Sellars's face seemed to be getting darker.
Harper picked up on that and his anxiety began kicking in.
"Harper, do you mind if I come with you on this mission?" Sellars seemed to be serious all of a sudden, that child-like smile gone from his face. Harper's heart kicked in even harder, and the beating seemed to get louder somehow.
"S-sure" Harper agreed to Sellars's offer, who immediately smiled, but only for a bit. He returned to his frown right after. Sellars threw the paper on the ground, and walked out of the building, while Harper chased him out of the building.
"Are we not going to gear up Sellars?" Harper was confused as to what in the world Sellars was doing. Right after asking this, Sellars stopped moving, making Harper run right into his back and drop onto the road they were on.
"We don't have time. If my assumption is correct, we need to hurry up and get over there." Sellars paid no mind to Harpers worries.
"Where is it that we are going?" Harper tried one last time to get an answer out of him, and Sellars simply stared at him.
After being quiet for a bit, Sellars seemed to be moving his mouth a little.
"We're heading out to a town somewhere outside of this country." Harper immediately perked his ears up after hearing this statement, and sweat started to drop.
"W-which nation?" Harpers instincts began kicking in.
His human instincts to live.
"France, a town called Honfleur. It's right on the coast of it, and is one of the key points of the nation in this war." Sellars finally said where they were going, and Harpers heart picked up the pace even more right after the statement, leading to some pain and disappointment within him.
"How far away is the town, or France itself?" Harper, being the ignorant child that he was, didn't know much knowledge at all.
"A long way, that's all I can say that you'd understand." Sellars, being the understanding guy that he seemed to be, knew that Harper wasn't that knowledgeable about the world.
"Let's hurry up, we need to get going." Sellars began jogging, Harper following right after him. Harper, as un-knowledgeable as he may be, at the very least knew when he had to be urgent. Sellars and Harper jogged out of London itself, leaving through the South side.
'So, this is my first mission huh…'
--- sequence 2 ---
*TWO DAYS LATER*
*DING*
It had been a while since they left London, or at least Harper thought so. At the very least, two nights had passed since he left. Since those two nights had passed, they went past many hills and plains, and Sellars was slowly becoming more and more active.
*DING*
Another thing that had began since they went out was gun training. Harper was currently being taught how to use a gun, or more specifically, a Maxim 9. It was a type of pistol that came with an integrated suppressor, which was extremely efficient.
However, as more and more time passed, Harper realized the fault to this gun. While the gun shooting out the bullet was silent, it wasn't silent when it hit stuff. For example, he was currently testing out his skills on a tree, and the gun was silent. However, when the bullet hit the tree, it made a bit of a ding like sound.
"As a Recon unit, we aren't tried for full on guerilla warfare, but to instead play smart and silently. This gun should not be used on anything but people, as it will probably make a sound if you shoot something besides a person, which might alert people to your presence." Meanwhile, Sellars seemed to be having the time of his life teaching Harper. Harper just assumed that he was Sellars's first ever 'student', though he didn't know for sure.
'Just on people, huh…' Harper knew what he had to do. Harper knew he would either get a bullet in himself, or a bullet in his opponent in battle.
'Yet…' However, his still somewhat innocent self didn't want to do it. He knew what it felt like to be lonely. Though he wanted to be lazy in life, he didn't want to genuinely ruin other people's lives.
'The more people I shoot, the more families that are lost…' Harper wanted to voice his opinion, but he knew he was being naive. If he didn't shoot, the enemy would, resulting in him losing his own life.
"Whatever, forget that crap for now." Harper muttered to himself this sentence, and put the gun away. Sellars didn't leave completely empty-handed, he brought two Maxim 9's, one for him and Harper, and a pair of night vision goggles, though only one.
So, they did have something on them.
GUUURRRGHHH
Harper's stomach growled like a beast about to jump on its prey. While Harper turned his face down and red, Sellars burst out laughing a bit.
"That's right, everything that I brought to eat with us has run out! Harper, time to learn how to hunt!" Sellars seemed to get really giddy now, and Harper just felt a bit nauseous.
"H-hunting…?" Harper was pretty scared. Not only did he not want to take a human life, but he also didn't want to hurt innocent animals.
"Don't worry, I'll teach you the ropes!" Sellars grabbed Harper by the arm, and yanked him along with him, as they both ran right into the forest.
--- sequence 3 ---
*SAME DAY, 10:00 AM, SCOTLAND*
"Halt!" One of the guards of the castle halted Lucy at the door, who simply stared at him.
"Explain yourself woman! Why are you here?" The other guard standing watch began questioning her. Lucy, who was still pretty calm, pulled out a letter and shoved it into one of the guards hands.
"Huh…?" The guards looked at each other for a bit, until the one that was holding the letter began opening it. He looked at it for a bit after he opened it.
"A-A-Apologies, my lady!" The guard immediately kneeled, the other guard reciprocating his actions. Though he didn't know what was going on, he knew that there was something important within the letter.
"A-Ah, you may pass!" The guard immediately pulled his partner away from the gate and allowed Lucy to walk through the large entrance to the castle. The guard who got pulled immediately slapped away the other guards hands.
"What was that about?!" He was pretty pissed that he was in the dark about this. He liked to know about everything, so he had somewhat of a personality right to be pissed that he didn't know.
"Fool, the letter had the seal of the Queen of Britain herself on it! And judging by the quality and looks of it, it was no fake! If it was, I would know!" The guard began yelling at the one that was being ignorant.
"Besides, I finally realized who that lady was. It was Lucy, the one who visits every year to converse with the Scottish king!" The guard who was hearing all this for the first time began to pale a bit, realizing just who they were in the presence of.
"If she so wanted to, she could have probably killed both of us!" The guard finally understood what had happened, and walked back to his post across the gate.
'...Let's not have that happen again next year if I'm still working here.'
--- sequence 4 ---
*MEANWHILE*
"That fox right there? That's what we're going to kill for food."