Mettle of Honor (gxg)

Chapter 5

               They'd spent just over a week out in remote Lithuania guarding the bridge, and every night Justice and Sara were stuck in the observation post. Nobody said anything, they didn't need to, it was total bullshit getting an assignment over and over that should be rotated among all the troops. But it was also an awesome observation post, completely hidden from the road, but with a great line of sight through the trees. Much of the area was wooded, being so close to the Dieveniškės Regional Park, and the women had built their site well. They had a little sound powered phone that had buried wires heading through the ground, then down under the water in the river and over to Sergeant Williams' bunker back on the other side in case of emergency so they could communicate without having radio communications picked up. Even the other troops had to grudgingly admit that the fortifications that they'd made were well done, not that they'd get much more than a few nods of appreciation about it.

For a while, it seemed like everyone was getting complacent, as it was like a major drill, but then after five days, they'd been told to rig the bridge for demolition, and that sobered everyone right up. Justice and Sara got busy on that, making sure that it was done well without being obvious, and that it would be sure to take the bridge down. But in the few days since then, the sense of being at ease started to set in once more.

On the far side of the river, Sara and Justice sat in their darkened bunker, trying not to shiver in the cool night air. They were quiet, since they had to be to make sure they heard anyone approaching, but they would occasionally whisper to one another, just to make sure they stayed awake throughout their watch. The night was quiet, with the trees muffling sounds, and so it was that they felt the ground shaking before they heard anything.

Justice quickly lifted up the sound powered phone to alert the rest of the squad. She turned the little crank on the phone, which should make a noise on the far side of the river on the other phone. "Bravo One, this is Bravo Two, come in!"

Nothing but silence came in return. She cranked it again, and then once more ten seconds later when nobody answered. There were supposed to be two people over there awake and listening for the phone to ring too, and they must be asleep at their post! Sara stuck her head out, looking back towards the river, but they didn't have much of a view with their men in the disguised emplacements. Justice quickly pulled her back in case there were enemy troops nearby. Sara nodded and then took out the night vison goggles and slipped them down over her face. "I'll keep an eye out, you keep trying."

On the sixth attempt, someone finally answered the phone. "Whadya want?" came the voice she recognized as Private Simmons, one of the nastier assholes in the company.

"Bravo One, we have possible armor approaching from the northeast. Suggest you wake everyone up, this could get ugly!" Justice blurted.

"What the fuck?" the soldier on the other end replied. "Are you fucking with me?"

"Simmons! Wake the fuck up!" Justice snarled. "Whatever is coming down that trail is almost on top of us so you're out of time!"

There was a grunt on the other end and then some shuffling. "Wait, I hear something!"

"No shit! That is what I'm telling you! Wake everyone up!"

Sara smacked Justice in the arm and pointed out of their little port. "Two BMPs, foot soldiers too. I estimate a couple dozen." BMPs were the rough equivalent of the US Bradley Fighting Vehicle that had a smaller 30mm autocannon and carried up to seven troops into battle, though it was not nearly as capable as the American vehicle. Luckily these looked to be older models, and not newer ones with anti tank missiles on them. But they were still pretty nasty when their opponents were asleep, so they hoped Simmons was waking up fast. It looked like they had over double the troops in their little squad accompanying them too.