“Elton, tell me about your team,” Sergeant Lane asked the B Team Leader. “When we were crossing that road under fire, it appeared your SAW gunner hesitated.”

“It appeared to me she was looking for an opening before displacing. She didn’t slow down the squad any. Jack Knife is a good soldier. I would trust her with my life. If there was an issue, I’ll go to bat for her,” Corporal Ward responded to the squad leader.

“Ok, Ok,” the squad leader accepted the team leader’s response. Then he turned to Corporal Moss, the A Team Leader. He eventually addressed issues with the C Team as well before breaking up their meeting and heading to their Cryo pods.

As Elton walked into the room, Lance Corporal Webb greeted him with his daily question, [i]"How's the lady, Ward?"[/i] 

“She is superb, Duncan, thanks for asking,” Elton smiled answering his Designated Marksman.

As the technicians helped Duncan climb into his pod, Elton pulled himself up and over the edge with his arms and dragged his body into the plush interior of his cryo pod, which connected him to his RI-1 unit. The technology was amazing to be able to interface with this massive combat fighting machine on the other side of the planet; ten time zones ahead. Even though they were occupying their RI-1s at Midnight, it was already 1000 hours where their tin men stood.

Elton drifted off as his mental awareness occupied “Wombat” in a debris strewn neighborhood in the Middle East. He knew from his briefing from Corporal Ray Mallory of Athens, GA that the unit was somewhere in Damascus, Syria.

As Elton woke up as Wombat, he took inventory of his HUD displays and his surroundings. He put up the ACE report on the right side of his screen. This gave an inventory of the fire team’s Ammunition, Casualties and Equipment. Ammunition was in the green meaning the team had at least 90% of their basic load of ammunition (BLA). Casualties was a term used when humans went on combat operations personally. The term remained the same for the tin men, only this time, it referred to units that required some maintenance. Private First Class Dave Lambert of Houston, TX, the team’s grenadier had a slight leak in a hydraulic line under the left arm. It was taped up but would require maintenance as soon as the unit pulled back to a secure zone. The injury was not enough to request a maintenance contact team to come forward to take care of the issue. Equipment for the team was at 100%. B Team was in the green.

Corporal Ward could see the squad frequency listed in the lower left corner and his unit’s vital statistics in the upper left corner. The center of the screen was clear with a small red dot laser point available for targeting.

[i]"Squad, report in."[/i] Elton could hear his squad leader’s voice in his ears, but knew no one in the building could hear him. Only those monitoring the squad frequency could hear Sergeant Lane.

“Corporal Ward, ready to Rock. B Team is Green,” Elton responded to the commo check from the squad leader.

Once he completed his HUD and check-ins with his superior, Elton then turned his attention to checking the equipment Wombat carried. He pulled the magazine out of his carbine and checked the underbarrel grenade launcher. He preferred not to carry a round in the chamber for the grenade launcher, instead inserting one when he needed it. He would allow the situation to dictate the type of round he used.

Once the squad was acclimated to their units and surroundings, the team moved forward to take the 4th squad’s position in the platoon perimeter. This allowed the fourth squad units to move into the middle of the perimeter in order to prepare for their transition.

The platoon consisted of fifty-five RI-1 units. The Platoon Commander, Lieutenant Pasternack stands 5’ 1” in real life, but her 6’4” Tin Man more than made up for her diminutive size. The Platoon Sergeant was a [i]by the books[/i] Staff Sergeant and the platoon guide, another Sergeant fresh out of the NCO Leadership Academy. Each of the squads were made up of experienced veteran soldiers from either the US Marine Corps or the US Army with at least one tour of duty with a TO&E unit. A human USMC platoon has a Radio Telephone Operator, two Machine Gun teams and two anti-armor gunners. The RIC platoon did not need an RTO and the units in the squad carried their own machine guns and AT weapons. Therefore, the platoon had only a three-man headquarters section and four 13-man squads.

Corporal Ward was locked and loaded. His team scanned their portion of the perimeter for possible threats, taking cover while waiting for orders from the LT.