RMB Chivenor, Devon
Day 7.5
Royal Marine Emerson Fisher had worked damn hard to get where she was today.
She never pretended she could keep up with the best Commando in the Regiment. Her aim had always been for the average.
The average quality of a Royal Marines Soldier being far higher than most other armed forces branches by a significant margin.
She was always going to be different, being a woman.
Now she was different because she was physically superior to almost any man in the Regiment.
Her Strategic abilities were something else however, because Tactical planning was a whole other ballgame.
That however was an technically Officer orientated problem.
Marine Fisher was only recently qualified, she wouldn't even be a Contender if she hadn't been in Braunton Village when all this shit had kicked off.
Carrying her Commando Dagger she had worked so hard to qualify for was what saved her that day. When old people suddenly turned bat-shit crazy, biting and tearing into their nearest targets, being armed and trained made all the difference.
She still couldn't understand why she accepted the situation and what she needed to do to survive.
No amount of military training can prepare a soldier for completely unlikely scenarios.
No training manual for zombie apocalypse.
But accept it she did. And returning to base and reporting was her best chance of stopping this chaos from spreading.
Getting back to base unharmed was the first task. Right now she was in the middle of a Homicidal Riot of elderly people.
Example a) the old lady that came staggering towards her, blood covering her lower face and clothing. She was caught and held by the throat by Marine Fisher, her Dagger punching into the side of the elders head, dropping her on the spot.
Example b) An old man lunged out of a nearby car idling at the side of the village Street. Side-stepping the elderly man, the Dagger stabbing him in the back of the neck, she calmly got in the car and headed back to base.
Only when she entered the base proper did the "message from the God's of the Multiverse " appear.
Now she was teamed up with a Recruit, who she had come to admit to herself was a decent enough bloke.
He had given as good as he got, snapped back at her contempt of him, while letting her know she had valuable knowledge and skills he didn't.
Most guys can't pull off telling someone to shut the fuck up and please teach me at the same time.
And this "Title" bonus was nuts! Like a full-body upgrade. Weapons and equipment included.
She shouldn't forget that just because her firearms did count towards the cull-count, it didn't mean they were useless.
If fact, she'd best express this fact to Braithwaite, who had zero firearms training at the moment.
She found Colin in his room, going through the Manuals.
"Brai....uh Colin. You need training on the guns. Melee weapons can't be your only option. And comprehensive training includes firearms and demo.
We'll start with firearms. So you up for some time at the range?
Colin jumped up straight away, clearly sick of the Manuals. " fuck yes am I up for that! "
Fish held up her hands in warning, " this will still be heavy on the theory of firearms use mind you. But you'll get to shoot the primary Weapons your likely to be using."
Colin copied her hands up movement in surrender, " I get it. And I'll apologise in advance for all the stupid questions I'll be asking. I'm nowhere near your level of qualification. Guess I'm saying thanks for anything I can learn from you."
At the indoor range, Marine Fisher introduced him to his first firearm.
"This is the L131A1 Glock 17 Gen 4. It takes a 9mm round in a 17 round magazine. It has a range of 50 metres, though its most effective range is 10 -25 metres."
Fish, walking Colin through the actions, removed the magazine, pulled back the slide to ensure no round was chambered and handed him the pistol.
From then on was walking speed instructions on how to hold the gun, body position for maximum stability, aiming techniques to improve accuracy.
That was before he fired the weapon.
"Everything has a reason for being taught a certain way."
Colin shook his head " oh I'm not complaining at all. You lead, I follow"
After that they went through simple firing drills. Slow aimed shots at the paper targets.
Then two shots quickly, showing Colin how the barrel rose on the second shot and basic techniques to counter it.
Then slow aimed shots while walking sideways.
At the end of the session, he was rewarded with another Manual. This one for the disassembly, reassembly, cleaning and care of a Glock 17 pistol.
And the pistol and belt. He was not issued a loaded magazine, but he accepted the reasoning behind that. It was hardly his primary weapon anyway.
RMB Chivenor , Devon
Day 7.75
Returning to barracks, Sergeant Connelly summoned them to his office.
"Higher has issued orders to reclaim Wrafton and Braunton. You two will likely be the tip of the spear. We need an Operation Order. Before that we need a BAMCIS, which stands for?" The Sergeant pointed at Marine Fisher.
"Begin the Planning,
Arrange Recon,
Make Recon,
Complete Planning,
Issue Order,
Supervise. "
"Very good Fisher. A Fire Team will be going out, to include Combat Engineers, to Recon strong points that they will anchor defensive barricades off of"
That meeting preceded another Operation Orders meeting with the Fire Team that would be going out, including the Royal Engineers Team.
Infil and Exfil routes.
Placement of Fire Teams for Recon of Anchor Points.
Fall-back routes.
The list went on. Not at all what Colin expected. Certainly not just rolling into the Village and chopping up anything that staggers and can't form a coherent sentence.
He was learning what all military personnel have learned. Long stretches of boredom followed by intense action.
Except the definition of "Intense" for Colin and Fish was wildly different to the rest of the Fire Team.
After all that they were all dismissed, for Colin that just meant back to his training Manuals.
RMB Chivenor, Devon
Day 8
The troop carrier truck exited the main gate of the base and made its way up the highway towards Wrafton. Most of the troops were relaxed. Talking and laughing.
Perhaps because they had two superhuman with them who could deal with far greater threats than the soldiers were armed for.
Pulling off the A361, the truck wove around the Corpses of the previous day's expedition.
"Honestly, I think we may have to flatten Wrafton and use the building debris as barricade material. And we'll likely still need to level all the buildings on the edge of Braunton for the same."
This is shop-talk for Commando Royal Engineers I guess thought Colin, listening to their conversation.
"Only after we go house to house clearing them. That doesn't count any that are on the roads already. Between Braunton and Wrafton there must be close to 10,000 Dead round here."
"Which is why it would be easier to just level Wrafton. No Dead creeping in and popping up after we clear it. We'll need the land for farming anyway."
Sergeant Connelly called back from the cab " First Anchor Point coming up, get ready to deploy. You know your jobs"
The truck came to a stop and the truck emptied its troops, who fanned out, each watching a sector.
"Mind if we have a look around Sarge? Culling The Cursed is what Fish and I are here for."
"Don't go too far then." Sarge answered, then addressed the soldiers "Contenders heading out for Recon. Check your targets while they are out. You'll with a zombie got you if you don't, I'll make sure of that!"
Moving out of the perimeter, Braithwaite and Fisher started clearing the street in the area here on the north-east corner of wrafton.
They were a few streets away when the System message popped up for them both.
[Contender Area Quest Available]
Cull The Alpha - 0/1
Fish was on the radio instantly " Sergeant, possible Alpha Cursed in the area. Suggest you Exfil while Contenders perform search"
Her radio crackled with the Sergeants response " understood Marine, pulling back to highway off-ramp. DO NOT over-extend yourselves."
With that the hunt was on.