Staff sergeant Mira found herself cursing some more as she stormed out of the headquarters. Why was command pushing promotions on her? She'd just scrapped together her platoon of misfits and gotten them to stop fighting each other. Now they were trying to make her become an officer and take on a different platoon in the newly arrived 4th motor rifle division…
She just wanted to scream at the sky. What had she done to deserve this? Surely crashing that truck wasn't the cause of all this? She was sure her battalion and company commanders were steaming right now, the verbal dressing down she'd given them had been on par with some of the most vicious verbal attacks a person could make on another's character.
She made her way back to the company motor pool, the vehicles idling since this morning as they waited for the final orders to come down from on high. I looked around at my platoon, an odd assortment of rejects and voluntold soldiers from rear line units sent forward to fill the ranks. Technically I was just a squad leader… but the former platoon sergeant had done some stuff with some Hispanic girl, talk was he'd been stripped of rank and dismissed.
So I'd been appointed acting platoon sergeant by the company commander, not because I had more seniority, but that I had been awarded the medal of Valour for my actions during the siege of Wilmington.
"Mom! Come look at this! Mike got a date!" A couple soldiers called her over. She shook her head but walked over, she'd discipline them later.
Mira walked up to see Mike, their translator tied to a chair next to a corpse of a zombie, the buff Hispanic guy flashed a winning smile. "Ah Senora, these guys are joking? Joking around… no actual date."
"If you say so Mike, get him untied, we don't restrain our translators." She directed a few soldiers. The soldiers complained but compiled, untying their translator.
Sergeant Mira! Get over here!" The company commander shouted, stepping out of their vehicle.
"Platoon, Fall in!" The soldiers raced to her, falling into formation. The captain stormed over, practically dragging their Lieutenant behind him.
"The fuck was that Mira?" He roared as the whole platoon saluted. He pointedly ignored them and continued bereting Mira.
"You were given a direct order Sergeant! The fuck makes you think you can refuse?"
"Any soldier can refuse promotion for any reason, by either written or verbal protest. Section 37, subsection 3." Mira quoted from the regulations.
"It was a commission, not a promotion Sergeant!" Captain Voli roared.
"Lieutenant is a higher rank than staff sergeant sir, as such I am able to refuse promotion under the regulation." Mira replied bluntly, her blood boiling again.
Another pair of uaz that had been driving by stopped. Mira briefly caught sight of the rank as she shifted and saluted. "Good afternoon sir!"
"Are you staff sergeant Mira?" The colonel asked.
"I am." Mira replied.
"Your platoon is being transferred, is this your commander?" When I confirmed that he smacked a folder against the captain's chest.
"Mount up and follow me. Enough time is being wasted on this shit already." Mira stared at the colonel as he stormed back to his truck.
"You heard the colonel, mount up!" Mira shouted, causing her soldier to break and rush around the small staging area, grabbing their supplies and belongings and tossing them into their BTRs.
The platoon quickly drove off, leaving behind trash and smoldering cooking fires. They drove for nearly half an hour, weaving amidst the dozens of convoys driving all over the city. They came to a stop near a regimental headquarters outside fob Dominguez.
"Sergeant Mira, with me." The colonel called before striding over to a gaggle of officers fiercely in debate.
Several colonels and generals stood around, surging with each other. They turned their gazes on her as herself and the colonel walked up.
"Colonel Ivanov, Staff sergeant Mira, as requested…" The colonel introduced Mira to the officer everyone was treating with deference. Mira felt her unease grow. Ivanov was the aide de camp of General Reichenbacher, his words held nearly the same weight.
"Sergeant, since you refused the promotion, I'll assume you have a recommendation for someone to take the spot?" He asked pointedly.
"No sir, I do not." Mira answered quickly as she snapped to attention.
Mira felt a hand in her shoulder and a reassuring voice. "Relax sergeant… Ivanov's just grumpy that his manning rosters are getting thrown astray."
General Reichenbacher smiled at Mira then looked to his officers. "She refused promotion, as is her right. As such we are obligated to not offer another promotion for thirty days…"
"General, we can't just…" the commander held up a hand, silencing the major…
"I know Ivan, but we have our rules and regulations for a reason. Staff sergeant, I'm assigning Staff sergeant Kaiden to your platoon, you will take over as acting platoon leader until a proper Lieutenant can be sourced." General Reichenbacher turned to her with a small smile.
"Ah, yes sir…" Mira replied with confusion.
"We need someone in the slot sergeant, I know it's not what you want, and when we find someone to take it over we'll put you where you want." The general promised, patting my shoulder.
Colonel Ivanov looked at me distastefully and handed me a folded paper. "Your platoon has been reassigned to Bravo company, 4th battalion tactical group, 2nd regiment, 3rd division."
Mira nodded, taking the paper and heading back to her platoon. She climbed up into the vehicle, slamming the hatch closed above her as she sat quietly. The driver gave her a look. "Where to sergeant?"
Mira slowly unfolded the paper, a radio frequency was listed, as well as her new commander, captain Julian. She flipped to the frequency listed and keyed the mic.
"Any station on this net, radio check over." She said quietly then waited, half praying she'd put it in wrong.
The radio beside her crackled. "Last calling station this is Brave 6, you're coming in quiet but readable, over."
Mira cursed quietly then picked up the mic again and spoke. "Brave 6 this is 1 6. We were traded to your command over, where do you need us? Over."
"1 6, proceed to rally point echo, I'll meet you there." Mira quietly put the radio down and grabbed the map, scanning the map and the dozens of written markers all over it.
"Forward, take the second left." Mira directed her platoon along several roads, coming to a stop north of fob Dominqez next to the on ramps onto 105. She clambered out of the BTR, as did most of the squad leaders. Two other platoons were staged on the sides of the road, soldiers were double checking their gear and getting ready.
Mira walked through the area, quickly finding Captain Julian. She stopped and saluted but the captain just waved.
"Is your platoon ready to go?" He asked.
"Always ready sir." Mira replied. The captain snorted.
"Good, take point. We are punching through to phase line indigo. If 1st division makes good progress we'll push as far as objective Victor, highway 210…" Julian explained briefly.
"Any questions Sergeant?" He asked.
"Are we top of the spear sir?" Mira asked.
"Considering your platoon isn't green… yes, I figured I'd put you right behind the single tank clearing a path through the road. The whole regiment will be behind you. Do not stop until phase line indigo."
So Mira and her platoon found themselves twenty minutes later, the whole regiment behind them roaring up the highway while the T-72 in front of them rammed every car, van, and truck out of the way.
Contrary to everyone's hopes the advance was not quick, already helplessly behind schedule due in no small part to the massive number of cars that were being shoved out of the way. The platoon slowly moved forward at a blistering seven miles an hour, the lone tank was a few hundred yards ahead, bashing a tractor trailer out of the way.
Occasional zombies came spilling into the highway, but by now Mora didn't even have to call it out before the hundreds of vehicles around her started spewing tracers at them.
She had soldiers with RPGs sitting on the roofs of the BTRs, just waiting for something larger than a berserker to show its ugly face. They'd probably could not have timed this much better, 1st and 2nd divisions further west were reportedly bearing the brunt of the undead hordes. Likely drawn in by the massive artillery barrages around Vermont square.
Mira had to hand it to the artillery though. There was a large plume of smoke rising to her west, and even over the roar of engines she could just make out the reports of those distant explosions.
This whole operation had put thousands of soldiers into motion. Thousands of rockets and artillery rounds and likely millions of rifle and machine gun rounds were being expended… the carnage and destruction being wrought on the city to purge it of the undead…
She hoped the cost was worth it. That these survivors would join the Union. Make something out of the hell they were currently in.