Chapter 7: LRRP (Corporal)

I got two weeks off to recover and wrote up award recommendations for Sanders, Dunn, Billings and Conner. I recommended Sanders for promotion to lance corporal. Sergeant Albert would be out for a month and so would the two privates that had been wounded. I also got to repeat my debriefing to a couple of generals and a duke.

For the two whole weeks I followed the girls into town and back to their little shop. Since I had trouble sleeping on my back Anh bought several pillows so I could recline and still breath. The day I went back to work was when staff sergeant Shane, now sergeant major arrived. The company sergeant major called me into his office.

They asked if I would be willing to do long range patrols. I was ready to get back to work and agreed. Shane had two private first classes and wanted me for the forth member of the team. They called the teams LRRPs, the LRRP stood for long range recon patrols. We were not supposed to engage or even let the enemy know we were there.

Before I left the company commander read orders promoting me to corporal and gave me another Wounded Lion. I should explain about military pay, a new private earns five hundred silvers a month. A sergeant major makes around fifteen hundred a month. Now officers were another story, a second lieutenant made a thousand and a general five thousand.

My extra pay for the title of knight companion started at five hundred or should have. As a knight lieutenant I made a thousand and as a knight commander it was twenty five hundred. If I ever made knight general it would match a general in the army. Anyway Anh and Cam were using the extra money to buy more things for their trading shop.

The girls did not like the idea of me being gone for days at a time. But they did like the many extra days I would get to spend with them when I was back. Before I started Shane helped me hunt down a shop in the port city and buy a hand carved crib and cradle. One look and the girls eyes brightened and they pulled me back to the shop.

We looked at maps with the strike force commander, colonel Philips. There were several places to the northwest he wanted checked. The enemy was conducting raids with vertical lifts birds so there had to be a landing field. Also he suspected at least one place where there might be a submerged bridge across a river.

That was going to be our first target area so we began to plot bench marks. I wore my silenced pistol and carried the enemy silenced rifle. I wore one jungle knife on my left thigh and a second on the left shoulder of my vest. The two privates had carbines with long silencers and regular nine millimeter long pistols.

Shane carried a stubby rifle with an integrated silencer and a silenced pistol like mine. Unlike me they did not have or wear body armor, I still wore my scale shirt. In our packs we only carried what we needed, rations, water and dry socks. Our first mission would last a week and cover a dozen locations along a one hundred kilometer route.

We took a lift bird out to a clearing a dozen kilometers from our first bench mark. We did not waste time getting off and running into the jungle. The bird lifted and turned to head away and we knelt to listen. We did not move as slowly the normal jungle noise returned. Finally Shane gestured and I stood and started moving north.

I took my time and kept my rifle at my shoulder. There were only four of us so I did not want to walk into anything. When I reached the bench mark I knelt and glanced around. We drank water and then we each took a direction. We slipped into the jungle and went a kilometer before returning.

I went north and found the bank of the river right before I was ready to turn back. That told me we were in the right place. I looked both ways and then turned to walk back. Once everyone returned we shared what we saw and then started moving. Each bench mark was ten kilometers apart and it was a day before I found the temple.

It was beside the river and covered in vines and bushes that had grown up between the large stones that made up the whole thing. There was a fifteen meter square made of large stone blocks with waist high stones around the outer edge. Of course dirt and debris covered the floor now. Along the west edge were four pillars that held up thin stone slabs like they were a roof.

Under the slabs and in the middle was a large statue of a man sitting. His legs were crossed and his arms were on his knees. In each hand was a stone bowl maybe fifty centimeters across. When I went closer I saw thumb sized cut gems in the one on the left and tiny jade figurines about half the size of my thumb in the right.

The gems were diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds. Each tiny jade figurine was different than the others. There were people, animals, birds and even fish and plants. They were also several different types of jade. I removed my pack and scooped everything out of the large bowls and filled my extra socks. My pack was ten kilos heavier when I put it back on.

I looked at the river and then headed back to the others. After we left for the next benchmark it was only about six kilometers before we heard the enemy. Shane gestured and we moved to the north and closer to the voices we heard. Just before the river we found the narrow trail and followed it.

Two enemy soldiers were on the northwest side of the trail and the trail dipped and seemed to run into the river. We moved back and around to peek out at the river. From the way the surface rippled all the way across the river we knew we had found the submerged bridge. We pulled back and moved closer to the trail and set up a listening and observation post.

The river and bridge was a hundred meters to our right. I slipped away and scouted to the south and the trail turned southwest after another hundred meters. I returned and Shane set up the watch list. Since it was almost dark I did not like the idea of sleeping on the wet ground. We had seen more than a few vipers and I gestured to a large tree with vines we could use to climb up.

Five minutes we were ten meters up in the tree relaxing on large limbs. The vines and leaves hid us from sight as we ate a ration and drank water. I leaned back and used my pack as a back rest. I closed my eyes and listened as the jungle went dark. The noise died for several minutes before it returned a lot quieter.

My eyes snapped open to the sound of a vehicle and I shifted and turned to look towards the bridge. The vehicle did not use white lights but I could see a red glow from the front. It crossed the bridge and entered the jungle and followed the trail. Behind it a second vehicle had started across the river.

Fifteen crossed and followed the trail and then we heard the loud engine noise to the southwest. It sounded far away but was different than the vehicles. I was tempted to climb down and go look when I heard something below us. The ten man patrol was not quiet as they walked through the jungle and talked or cursed.

They went right under us and stopped on the trail to yell at the guards by the bridge. They went into the jungle on the other side of the trail. After they left Shane whispered, "we wait for morning and then scout to the southwest."

It was a long night and in the middle a second convoy crossed the river. As the sun began to come up we climbed down. We moved south and away before we turned and followed the trail. The hidden airfield was a kilometer from the bridge. From behind bushes we saw huge camouflage nets held up by stripped tree trunks.

It had to be a kilometer wide and maybe four or five long. Shane called it in and I took Clark and went around to the south while Shane and Morse went north and around. We counted thirty vertical lift birds and at least fifty hover trucks. From the huge tents and the number of men we could only guess at the total number but there had to be at a full regiment.

We met Shane and Morse but continued around to where we started. Shane used the radio and called in the information as we headed east. We were several kilometers away when the warbirds and bombers arrived. They did not bother with explosives and dropped large plasma bombs.

The whole jungle behind us was nothing but flames and every animal that was close fled. The planes just seemed to keep coming and we knew nothing and no one at the base had survived. There were even warbirds firing missiles where the bridge should be. That was when we were hit by the enemy.

With the sound behind us we did not hear them until it was to late. Shane was leading and I was behind Clark and Morse. The automatic fire jarred me and I brought my rifle up and moved forward. I heard the coughing sound from Clark and Morse firing and then enemy soldiers charged out of the jungle to the right.

I reacted and fired into each as they tried to point their weapons. I kept moving towards Shane and found Clark down. He was curled up and I saw the blood on his side and right hip. Several enemy soldiers were dead and I shot another in the chest when he stood up. I grabbed the back of Clark's vest and continued to move forward and drag him.

I flipped the selector on my rifle to auto and sprayed into two soldiers as they rushed through the bushes. They tumbled and went down and did not rise. A few more steps and I found Shane down with Morse firing into the bushes to the south. I fired past him and put a burst into a soldier charging out from the east.

I let Clark go and knelt as I changed magazines, "we are going north."

Morse reloaded and nodded as I pulled Shane up and over my right shoulder and then caught the back of Clark's vest again. I let my rifle hang and juggled Shane before I pulled my pistol and then struggled to stand. I held Shane with the hand that held the pistol and started walking and shot a enemy soldier in the chest as he stepped out.