When the Cavalry Comes.

XLVIII

"Hey you think I could convince one of the techs to build a vibroblade into my arm?" Whiteout asked as he flopped onto his bunk. Viper chuckled dryly above him.

"You could ask." He stated blandly.

"If you're going to ask for anything, ask for a built in blaster." Bait put in, cleaning his 16 across from them. Lure scoffed.

"Nah, not enough room."

Whiteout looked him dead in the eye. "I guess you could say I don't have the... guns... for that?"

Viper groaned and Bait threw a boot at him. White yelped. "Hey! I thought we agreed socks only!" He got another boot thrown at him. This turned into an all out shoe war, even viper getting dragged into the match as they wrestled and threw boots.

"Ahem."

Nobody heard the new voice at first, continuing to throw shoes and wrestle.

"A-hem"

Bait glanced up to see Cav standing against one of the bunks, watching them with tired amusement. After a second of elbowing and pointing, they stood at attention. Cavalry waved a hand.

"At ease." They collectively slouched, White sliding to sit on the floor while Bait and Lure returned to their bunks.

"New orders?" Viper asked, an edge in his raspy voice. Cav gave him a grim smile.

"I'm sure you've all heard the rumors." She stated blandly.

Lure snickered. "Which ones? That the captain and commander are illegally dating? Or maybe that Lieutenant Fives has an addiction to chewstims and caf? Or that we're going on another long term campaign..." he trailed off at Viper's warning glare. "Just asking..." he grumbled.

"No comment on the first, the second is definitely true, and I'm here to brief you on the third." Cav gave him a soft smile. "We'll be stepping up on squad training starting at 0700 hours tomorrow after morning duties are finished. We'll be focusing on urban combat and urban search and rescue sims." She looked around for confirmation.

"Where are we going that we need to brush up on UC-USAR tactics?" Whiteout asked.

"Duros."

There was a collective intake of breath at the word. Cavalry continued, pulling out a datapad and scrolling through it.

"Since I technically don't know where exactly we're serving, I can't tell you the exact location. We'll be reporting to Second Lieutenant Dogma for the duration of the three weeks we're set to spend planetside."

"Only three weeks? Isn't that a little short?" Lure asked, peeking around from where Bait dangled his feet off the top bunk above him. Bait kicked him in the shoulder.

"Umbara was only two and a half, Di'kut." He chided his twin.

Viper rolled his eyes at the younger clones. "Yes, it is short. Umbara was cut short due to... improper conduct of a superior officer." Cav snorted.

"You mean out right betrayal from one? Yeah. It was Whiteout and I's first campaign." Viper looked a little taken aback for a second, but Cav continued anyways. "The stationing for this campaign is more than a little confusing, because the 212th is supposed to be there for the full three months while the 501st is only going to be there for a couple weeks until one of the High Generals arrive to help manage the 212th." She explained.

Lure seemed appeased at that.

"Do you know what's happening to the 212th? I mean, they've been with us for some time now, and we work together pretty well." White pointed out. Cav shrugged tiredly.