Sergeant Harald, Gallian Militia
Harald found himself somewhat embarrassed when Stichler mentioned the wounded; he had checked on Durandal before preparing breakfast, but had blithely assumed that the other two were in good care with the others.
'Not yet. Could you check on them for me? Give me a shout if they don't look any better. I'd hate to have to send them home too, but If they need proper medical care, we may not have a choice.' Surely they would recover, right? Durandal took a heavy blow to the head, possibly Sykora too, but those kinds of injuries just needed to be slept off, right..? On second though, maybe not.
'... Scratch that Corporal, I'll check on them in a sec.' He turned back to the new squad members with a worried smile, wondering if any of them would be on a stretcher soon. The first didn't seem much bothered by introductions, something which in any other circumstances Harald would not have been bothered by. But naturally he couldn't just go around calling his squad mates 'Oi, you'. At least she had a rank chevron.
'I'm gonna need a name, PFC. Same with everyone.' Hunt pre-empted his order, but it was a good idea anyway. Harald had been mildly surprised (and relieved) that the Imps hadn't counter-attacked in the night.
'Sounds good, Hunt. Look mainly northward; other teams are sweeping our flanks anyway.'Turning his attention back to the others, Harald took proper stock of them for the first time. Another lancer would be handy for morale, especially with last night's surprise tank so fresh in everyone's minds. And more shocktroopers could only be a good thing; Harald was starting to worry that he had been put in charge of a rifle section in an age of machine-guns... And last but not least, a trained sniper. A Valk's-send, especially with the open terrain perfectly suited to Imp MG nests. One of the shock troopers stepped forward to introduce herself and Harald was pleasantly surprised to find himself shaking hands with another of his folk.
'Pleased to meet you Skye. I was starting to feel like the only darkhair in the village.' His wide grin faded away as he turned to the sniper and recognised the tell-tale scowl of a typical darcsen hater.
'Not yet Private, I-' Before he could give a cold rebuke, Hunt jumped in with typical hot-headedness. The two exchanged jabs as the Sergeant held his face in one hand, suppressing a deep sigh. It wasn't like Hunt was
wrong per se, but his delivery needed work. Also circumventing the chain of command could have gotten him busted to Private with a less easy-going NCO.
'Calm down now, Hunt. And welcome to the squad, Louque. You'll settle in soon enough. It's all just long periods of boredom with the odd flash of terror. Like training, only worse.' He shook her hand, wondering rather cynically if she would feel the need to rub it clean afterwards. A sadistic thought occurred to him, a way to kill two birds with one stone.
'Now then. You two are gonna be my marksmen, or markspeople if you'd prefer. Spotter and shooter.' He privately suspected that Hunt was angling for a promotion and while the lad had the potential and additional training, he lacked perspective. Working alongside someone with superior training would do him good. As for Louque, she would need a spotter and the benefit of a buddy with field experience.
'First order of business, perimeter. 90 degree arc to the north please and inform me of any movement. Don't worry about the other angles, I'll detail someone for that. Jump to, people.'Silences reigned for a few awkward moments until another one of the recruits piped up. He wasn't quite what Harald expected of a shocktrooper, but given his background that made sense. A multi-skilled SMG user could be handy though...
'I'm not going to ask how Carn managed that. Leave the man his mysteries.' He paused for a moment, wondering what task he could give the man. There was plenty to do, especially since they hadn't properly swept the area last night.
'Well, a few things. First off, hey Glaive. Did you manage to police the bodies last night?' Carn and Bons had already left, but Glaive had hung back; luckily for her, that meant he could give her less backbreaking duties after all the work she had done the night before. Valk knew how she had summoned the energy to to it, but she
had asked for permission. One person digging a mass grave was pretty ridiculous, so he suspected she burnt the corpses.
'Take Ashart here and finish it up. Collect any working weapons or equipment and load them onto the APC. No rush though, we've got a few hours until the engineers are done; just stay on alert.' And that left only a few more bodies spare to keep watch.
'And... Stichler, organise a patrol group with the leftovers. Focus on the flanks and rear, just be ready to move north in case the the sniper sees something.' There was still one more recruit who hadn't introduced herself, so Harald gave her a chance to speak before leaving. He really wanted to go check on the wounded, maybe wake them up and get them some food. Might be worth taking the lancer, since she offered to help.
Private Bons, Gallian Militia
Meanwhile, as the sergeant got to know his new lackeys, Alonso was hauling what felt like a metric ton of landmines across from the APC to the road. There should have been no reason for a simple mine to be that damn big, but for some reason the Gallian Army issue anti-tank mines held enough explosives to level a house. Digging deep enough holes for all thirty was gonna be a chore...
