“There is an old saying that there are some defeats more triumphant than victories. The reverse is also true.”
-Lieutenant Andrea Saunders
The smoke plumes and fires only seemed to get worse the closer they got to Warlock. The prevalence of air support and the rumbling of armor treads were much more pronounced as well. As they moved from the highway into the open field outside of the southernmost borough, the noise of boots hitting the earth also picked up.
Braun’s heart kept rhythm with all the noise, feeding off its intensity and its severity. Between the screams coming from overhead and the rumbling, pounding noise coming from below, he was witnessing the sights and sounds of an army retaking lost ground.
Loud, terrible, and grim in its necessity. There simply was no other way.
He could only feel thankful that the Captain had allowed him to ride up top, sitting next to the other grunts who were out to witness other squads welcoming them in. He could tell which ones had been pulled from the front and which had pushed up from the south. It was the look in their eyes. The ones that had been in Espanola when the attack came looked lost and distant, their uniforms rumbled, dirty and even bloody.
The rest looked clean and chipper by comparison, but also had a forlorn look of people who had wandered into a fight, expecting a glorious spectacle, but getting only horror. There was also that sense of guilt, the pervasive feeling on their faces that spoke of coming to the aide of their comrades too late to save people they knew and rubbed shoulders with in the past.
Such was the fate of being a conquering hero though. The glory faded and the stark reality set in. As for the survivors, the elation of being alive was quickly drowned in a sea of anger and torment. After seeing death close up and nearly succumbing to it, there was very little joy to be had once it was all over.
Given all that, it was a wonder anyone ever expected it to be any different. Had they not been doing this long enough to know it never turned out well?
The Bradley pulled in to a series of tents and came to a complete stop. The others pulled around and continued on to an open spot where dozens of other Bradleys and Abrams tanks were assembled.
The crew began to disembark, the rear hatch opening to let the Captain out. Braun was sure to dismount too, slipping over the edge of their Bradley and setting his boots to the ground. He looked around to get some sense of where the Command tent could be. That was his destination, after all. No sense in avoiding it.
“Nothing like the smell of victory, huh?” said Garcia, coming to his side.
Braun drew in a deep breath and tried to appreciate the aroma. Hot sand, dust, blood, sweat and tears. He wasn’t sure he detected anything specific or special in that mix, but that was the nature of victory. To a soldier arriving on the scene of a won battle, it smelt like whatever was on hand. Even if it was just a pile of rotting corpses and burning buildings…
“Where can I find the Colonel?” Braun asked.
“I need to debrief with the Colonel as well. Follow me.”
They walked together through a sea of temporary structures, barracks, medical tents, and supply shelters. As they moved, countless bodies moved about them. Medics hauled the wounded to surgical stations, enlisted men hauled crates to covered areas, and soldiers moved to and from their bunks. No one seemed idle at the moment, and that too was to be expected.
Finally, they came to a tent in the middle of the sea, an open flap admitting them to an interior filled with tables, pin-up boards, and several members of the Command staff standing about. At one table, looking down at a map, was the Colonel himself.
By Braun’s estimation, he looked somewhere in between as far as his general disposition was concerned. At once clean in terms of his appearance, he had a haggard look that spoke of having been engaged the entire time the battle was taking place. From the way he stood, it also looked like he hadn’t slept through the entire thing.
He and Garcia stepped into the tent gingerly and waited to be acknowledged. Braun noticed who was standing next to him as soon as his eyes resolved to the lower light. For a moment, he forgot about his impending fleecing and brightened when she noticed him too. Haynes looked up shortly thereafter, noticing the path of her gaze.
“Lieutenant, Captain… welcome back. Colonel Stanislawski and I were just going over the latest news from the front which, as you can tell, is right on our doorstep.”
Braun stepped behind Garcia and let him do the talking. Under this roof, he was currently the lowest ranking officer, and needed to act accordingly. As they came to the table, he put his hands behind his back and waited to be acknowledged, which Colonel Stanislawski was sure to do.
“Good to see you again, Lieutenant.”
“You too, Colonel,” he replied.
“Sir,” Garcia began, saluting as he did. “You’ll be pleased to know that we have recovered the remains of Mance Harmonn intact. Thanks to the Lieutenant and First Platoon, Bravo Company, the enemy never took the hospital.”
Haynes nodded and looked at Braun in that characteristic way of his. It was something that came natural to the man, how he always seemed to gaze upon subordinates as if he had just wiped them off the bottom of his boot.
“I suppose then this army owes you a great debt of thanks,” he said. “Too bad it came with such a high cost.”
“Yes, sir,” Braun replied. He would not deny that much. Stanislawski jumped in next, no doubt determined to say something kind.
“There were many who didn’t think you’d make it out in one piece. But I had a feeling. Between you and Sergeant Saunders, I somehow suspected First Platoon would survive.”
“Thank you, ma’am…” Braun said with some hesitation. He wasn’t sure, but he somehow felt that he had just been paid the biggest compliment of his life. Haynes was quick to dertail that train though and get to the heart of things.
“Naturally, we suspect that recovering Pappa Zulu’s remains was the main purpose of this mission. Killing Major General Thur was no doubt a primary objective as well. In that respect, the enemy failed on both counts.”
“He’s… he’s alive, sir?”
“Yes,” Haynes replied with some annoyance, as if the question itself was immensely obvious. “He was wounded in the first assault on Warlock by the enemy planes. However, they were able to get him below before the enemy ground forces hit and overran the base. The commanding officer was apparently kind enough to extend medical treatment to him, and we were able to recover him just as soon as the Colonel’s soldiers retook Warlock.”
He looked over to Stanislawski, no doubt inviting her to take over since it was her op.
“That’s right,” she confirmed. “Working on the assumption that there might still be our personnel alive and inside the base, my team infiltrated the grounds and took down all their air defenses. Once that was done, all of their defenders began surrendering to avoid the inevitable air strike. The base fell to us shortly thereafter, and we recovered the Mage and several of our top people in the basement, where they were being kept prisoner.”
“What about Vasquez,” Braun found himself asking. Haynes looked more than a little perturbed to be answering that, and leaned forward on the table to emphasize his reply.
“The Colonel was among those who died, Lieutenant. As were several other brave soldiers who fell defending the base.”
“In addition, we will be mourning the losses of every member of the research team that brought us the vaccine,” Stanislawski added. “Save the doctor, of course.”
“He’s alive?”
Haynes and Stanislawski exchanged a look and then became downcast in their glances. He knew that couldn’t be good. But if he wasn’t dead, what did that mean?
“Right now, Lieutenant, you should be more concerned with how your performance in the field affected your platoon. I understand you took sixty percent losses out there.”
Braun stiffened. They had come to it at last. The inevitable fleecing. If he knew what to expect, he might answer honestly. But anything short of the loss of his command made him think tact was the appropriate course. And since he had no idea, he opted for the latter at this point.
“We did, sir. It was a terrible tragedy.”
“A tragedy which could have been avoided, had you followed your orders.”
Braun looked to Garcia, who did not look back. There wasn’t much chance of him being able to sell the tale that they didn’t know where the orders were coming from. But at the moment, he had no other cards to play.
“Sir, Warlock was compromised. My platoon could not confirm whether or not the order to retreat came from one our sources or -”
“The order,” Haynes interrupted firmly. “Came from me. Once Warlock was hit and the Mage and Vasquez compromised, I officially took over command of the Rattlesnakes, son. You had an order, which you disobeyed. The fact that you turned that to our advantage seems irrelevant, as far as the articles of military justice are concerned.”
Braun could see the path this was taking. In one fell swoop, Haynes had charged him with insubordination, possibly worse, and had ruled out his only other card to play. He was hoping he might use the fact that his act of “independent thinking” might have prevented the enemy from achieving their ultimate objective. But Haynes had expressed his opinion of that quite succinctly.
“Sir…” he replied. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t have known. And at the time, we were motivated by the best of the intentions, I can assure you. We needed to know the Mage was still intact…”
“Lucky for us all he is,” Haynes interrupted again. “But as this is now my command, it falls to me to decide what to do with you.”
Braun felt the sword looming above his head. Whether it would work or not, he had to play his only other card. “Sir, had we not put assets into the city at the time we did, the enemy would have overrun the hospital and taken Pappa Zulu for sure.”
“Is that so?” Haynes said with a smirk. He nodded over at Garcia briefly. “The Captain informed me that by your own estimation, the enemy didn’t even know it was there. He says you told him that the enemy was simply looking to secure the place because it had some of our grunts defending it. Mind telling me how they could recover something inside when they were planning on leveling it all along?”
Braun looked at Garcia angrily, in spite of his better judgement. Once again, Garcia could not return his stare. Little wonder why he insisted Braun ride out front. He needed some private time on the comm with the Colonel so he could provide him with just enough rope to hang him with.
“Be that as it may, sir -”
“Did you not wonder how it is our forces managed to retake control of the skies in the time we did, Lieutenant? Did you think our little coordinated counter-attack was something we just pulled out of our asses?”
Braun shook his head. “I don’t understand, sir.”
Stanislawski jumped in. “When the attack began, we received intel from our sources in the field that the enemy was using the airfields at Angel Fire and Taos to land and refuel. We suspected they were gearing up for another assault on Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Using the forests for cover, we managed to push some elements of 1st Battalion to the airfield at Angel Fire undetected. Our newfound allies in Toas helped a great deal on their end, and we were able to cripple their fuel supplies at both fields and prevent most of them from getting airborne again.”
“That’s right,” Haynes continued. “We knew that once we had their birds grounded, we would have the advantage again. Then all we needed was to send our forces, which were still outside town in all directions, to move back in. You’re platoon, Lieutenant,” he jabbed his finger forward, “was supposed to move in from the north and provide a key feint. But since your people were engaged in the city and already half-dead, we had to rework the plan. As a result, a hell of a lot of bombs were dropped to make sure our forces could roll in without significant casualties. So I guess we have you to thank for the fact that a whole lot of townspeople are homeless right now as well.”
Braun could say nothing. Any argument he could make had been steamrolled into mush. Though he could tell Stanislawski didn’t share the Colonel’s appraisal of the situation, it didn’t matter. Haynes seemed destined to have his way and there was nothing she or he could do about it. He couldn’t even feel angry towards Garcia anymore. In the end, it was he who had provided the rope, and now Haynes was going to hang him from the highest tree he could find.
“Under the circumstances, Lieutenant, I think you’ll agree that First Platoon could benefit from a change in command. We’re at a crucial juncture in this war and we cannot afford any more screw-ups, yes?”
Braun cleared his throat before uttering the only reply he could think of. “Is there going to be a full tribunal, sir? A court martial to determine whether or not I’m fit for command?”
“Not unless you care to contest the facts of the situation. But of course, if you were to do that, you would be wasting precious time we don’t have. I think you’ll agree, our priorities must lie with cleaning up this mess and not sorting through the details of how various strategies got fucked.”
Braun drew a deep breath. If he had nothing to lose, then now was the time to be honest. “Sir, respectfully, if I’m to be relieved of command, I would like there to be an investigation. Considering my record and history of service to this outfit, I don’t think an arbitrary decision like this should stand.”
Haynes’ face turned slightly more red. The frown disappeared for a moment and was replaced by something indeterminate. He feared Haynes might suddenly lose control. Instead, he lowered his head and spoke gently to Garcia and Stanislawski.
“Captain, Colonel, can you give us a moment?”
Garcia nodded and quickly left. Stanislawksi took slightly longer, sure to issue Braun a salute before she left.
“Let us speak frankly, Lieutenant,” Hayne’s said once they were gone. “You’re platoon has lost a significant number of lives and that starts and ends with you. Sad as it is that you would not take responsibility for that, that is hardly the only thing you are on the hook for.”
“Sir, I am not avoiding responsibility for-”
“I HAVEN’T FINSIHED!” he bellowed. Braun shut up and he quickly continued. “There is also the matter of the fraternization that has apparently been taking place between you and one of your NCOs for some time now. If you were to insist on a full-scale investigation, I would be forced to drag that into this as well. Yours wouldn’t be the only career on the line here.” It was Braun’s turn to red. Haynes saw this and responded quite favorably. “That’s right, Lieutenant. Bet you thought you and your little friend there were being real discreet. Well the army has eyes and ears, and it doesn’t forgive or forget such defiance lightly.”
Braun suppressed a terrible frown. Again, he had no words. The desire to scream “bullshit!”, to renounce everything that was being pronounced and put Hayne’s head through a wall was swimming upstream against a far more powerful torrents of emotions. Shame and stupidity being foremost amongst them. And of course, Hayne’s wasn’t finished with him yet.
“As far as I’m concerned, you’re a loose cannon who’s been skating by on the goodwill of the Mage for far too long. It’s high time your chickens came home to roost and you can consider this the only warning you’re going to get. Stand down as CO of First Platoon, or I will drag you and that precious hunny of yours through the shit and dump you in the stockade until this war is over. DO YOU GET ME?!’
Braun stifled another urge, this time to reach over and stab Haynes in the eye. Any talk of Saunders right now as sure to piss him off so. But he had bigger things to worry about, like keeping her out of the stockade as well. He nodded and summoned up enough mettle to issue a curt “yes, sir.”
“Good,” said Haynes finally. “Now get the hell out of my tent. An escort will be waiting to take you to Santa Fe with the rest of the civies. Dismissed.”
Braun issued a formal salute, which Haynes returned. If there was one thing the man could be counted on, it was to keep up with formalities until they were no longer necessary. But once he left, he was sure Haynes would quickly forget about him. He hoped the same was true of Saunders. One thing he couldn’t stand the thought of was her being on the sonofabitches radar! Once there, you never got off…
