Before June 20th, the tasks assigned to Augustus' unit, the 1st Platoon of Warfield, were quite monotonous. For two days, they remained at the camp to train, while the rest of the time was spent escorting supplies from the Polk's Pride Starport.
For an entire week, Augustus' squad was tasked with escorting the convoy of container trucks, driving around the city's ring highway.
By now, more than a week had passed since Augustus had been promoted to Corporal and temporarily assigned as the squad leader of the 3rd Squad, but the military still hadn't assigned a proper sergeant to replace him. He was still just the acting squad leader. From what Augustus knew, all the other new squad leaders in the platoon had already been replaced by seasoned soldiers of the 1st Platoon.
Augustus quickly realized that, unless he was promoted to a full-fledged squad leader, the replacement might never come.
During their mission of escorting supplies, despite the lack of attacks from the Kel-Morian forces, Augustus always remained alert, prepared for a sudden enemy raid.
The routine of Augustus and his squad was always the same. From the moment they woke up in the morning, they would put on their power armor and board the armored personnel carriers. The rest of the day would be spent inside these vehicles, which were the soldiers' home for most of their time.
Over the past period, Polk's Pride had been relatively calm. The Kel-Morian and Terran Federation forces continued to face off at the Paddick River in the city center, but no shots were fired by the frontline troops. The artillery on both sides took turns shelling the enemy's positions, while the buildings and fortifications within range had long since been reduced to rubble.
For the past year, no large-scale battles involving more than 10,000 soldiers had taken place on the planet Turaxis II. The two sides had each occupied half of the planet's landmass, and it seemed that they were content with this balance.
However, Augustus knew that this fragile peace was like thin ice hovering over a candle's flame—it would inevitably be broken by one side or the other.
What Augustus feared most now was that if both sides viewed Polk's Pride as a breakthrough point, the 33rd Ground Assault Division would soon face a brutal war.
Perhaps the young recruits of the 1st Platoon were getting bored with the monotony of escorting supply convoys. Therefore, on the morning of June 20th, when Lieutenant Reagan informed them that they were going to a small town called Loon to carry out a combat mission, all of them—except for Augustus and Omer—began cheering.
At this, Lieutenant Reagan could only sigh. Augustus had led the young recruits in their first battle, which they had won so easily that they still didn't take the war seriously.
Perhaps only after witnessing the deaths of comrades and losing loved ones and friends forever would they begin to mature.
By noon that day, Augustus led the 1st Squad into the barracks marked with the emblem of the Great Wolf.
It was their first time using the power armor of the 33rd Ground Assault Division. This unit had been serving in the icy, snowy world of Sigma, and their armor was painted in a silver-gray color to blend with the environment.
Like the others, Augustus' armor bore the image of a prowling gray wolf on the chest plate.
This power armor was still the old-fashioned CMC-200 model, showing signs of use, but overall, it was far better than the training gear from the new recruit camp.
Under the newly issued 'Supplementary Regulations for the 33rd Ground Assault Division's Level 1 Weapon Management', Augustus' squad was also issued a Gauss rifle with an under-barrel grenade launcher.
Additionally, the armory sergeant had handed them a Hellfire flamethrower with a paired dual-cylinder liquid fuel tank, a brand-new CMC-230-XF heavy power armor, a seven-foot-long individual rocket launcher, and two large bundles of rockets. Some members of the squad even received a Whisperer heavy machine gun and four boxes of linked ammunition.
Augustus noticed that every squad in the Warfield's platoon, including the medics, had received new equipment. It was clear that the upper command of the 33rd Ground Assault Division intended to reconfigure the entire 1st Platoon into an elite assault unit.
Warfield's company has always been known as the Iron Company, always charging at the forefront, and often losing more than half of its troops after several fierce battles.
It was only natural for the 1st Platoon to be honored with such a reputation. Even other brother platoons believed they deserved better equipment, for this meant the company commander had more reasons to deploy them in the most dangerous locations, rather than others.
Although these weapons were supposed to be handled only by professionally trained soldiers, it was clearly unrealistic to break down a full combat squad and send them for training during wartime.
After consulting with Raynor, Augustus decided to give the rocket launcher to Ward, the heavy machine gun to the tall Benjamin, and the ammunition box to Omer, who would act as Benjamin's assistant.
The flamethrower was handed to Hank, simply because, according to Hank himself, he had always enjoyed playing with fire as a child, and coincidentally, no one else wanted to use this dangerous and difficult-to-operate weapon.
Augustus then divided the squad into three fire teams, each centered around the newly equipped members, including Hank. Augustus led the first team, which consisted of machine gunner Benjamin Crandall, assistant Tom Omer, rifleman Kurt Josephine, and sniper Ryk Kydd.
The second team was led by Raynor, with flamethrower specialist Hank Harnack, rifleman Ilya Kulovsky, and Amy Brandon.
The third team was led by Aland Lundstein, consisting of rocket specialist Connor Ward, grenadier Max Zander, and Lee Dong-nyoung.
"Augustus, I think we still need a medic," Raynor said after the weapon distribution was finished.
"Our personnel and equipment are already very close to that of a standard 'Special Tactics and Missions Squad'. Be satisfied," Augustus said, his face flushed with excitement. "Usually, we refer to these special squads as the elite of the elite, and in any case, these kinds of goodies are out of reach for new recruits who have only been enlisted for a few months."
"We'll eventually become the elite of the elite," Raynor said.
When the first squad of Marines boarded an APOD-46 transport aircraft, wearing their new equipment, Augustus believed they had all been completely transformed.
Hank's transformation was the most drastic. He was now wearing the CMC-230-XF powered armor, the renowned Firebat Armor, developed and released by Proxion Industries.
Compared to other models like the CMC-200 and CMC-300, the Firebat powered armor featured thicker, stronger steel plating, with a special heat-resistant coating on the surface to withstand the hellfire heat ion streams emitted by the flamethrower.
Additional steel plates and insulation made the Firebat armor heavier and bulkier than standard powered armor. Its crimson paint job gave it a more dangerous look, with the Proxion Industries and 33rd Ground Assault Division emblems painted on the chest and groin armor.
The Firebat armor of the 33rd Ground Assault Division had been repainted silver-gray, making it look like a giant silver colossus.
Ward's powered armor had undergone some additional modifications, with larger, flatter shoulder armor plates installed to hold the fixed cylindrical rocket launcher.
His helmet visor was equipped with a more accurate HUD missile targeting sight, and a strap carrying twelve self-guided rockets, along with a jagged military bayonet, was strapped to his waist.
As the transport aircraft headed toward its destination, Augustus used the HUD screen on his powered armor to browse the mission briefing.
The latest briefing showed that their destination, the town of Loon, was fifteen miles from the center of Polk's Pride. Before the war, the town had a population of about five thousand, but now it had shrunk to two thousand.
The town was still under the control of the Terran Federation Army, but it was located downstream of the Paddick River, which ran through Polk's Pride, and only a single army battalion was stationed there.
The army battalion was incapable of monitoring the defense depth of the area, which spanned over several miles, and Kel-Morian reconnaissance teams frequently crossed the Paddick River into the Federation-controlled zone.
The briefing described the mission briefly—based on reliable intelligence, the town of Loon had already fallen to the Kel-Morians. The task of Warfield's platoon was to retake control of the town and execute all its inhabitants.
Upon reading this, Augustus couldn't help but widen his eyes.
Yes, execute, not arrest.
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