Special Divisions

The war had been going on for so long no one was quite sure who had started it and why; they still fought though. Young men and all too recently women were being sent to their deaths in droves, fighting battles for no more reason than for the fact each side feared what would happen if they lost.
The story that is about to be told does not start at the beginning, which is generally considered unusual. This starts in the middle of everything; the middle is the best place to enter a war when all things are considered, the first initial shock of the massive loss of life has stopped and the people who got it all wrong in the beginning have started to realise just how big a mess up they’ve made and have started to fix it.

The middle we will start with shall be centre of the bombed out city of Nautik; recently taken for the third time by the allied army. Grey clad soldiers littered the streets like stray dogs, for once their guns lay relaxed by their sides; the moods were mixed along the streets as some wept for fallen friends and some celebrated the victory. For all it was a time for drink however and half standing houses were raided in search of anything alcoholic; after all these years of main cities being taken repeatedly when the old soldiers were being forced out of the houses they left any alcohol behind for the winners.

One soldier that wasn’t joining in with the heavy drinking and resulting scuffles was Simon Moon, or Sammy as his buddies called him. The reason he wasn’t drinking with the others was the fact he had fewer buddies to call him Sammy, he always wanted at least a day of remembrance before attempting to blot out the memories with the rest of the platoon. It was going to take a lot of drink to erase that image of Hot Rhod’s temple exploding in a shower of claret as a bullet cut threw his helmet as if it was made of jelly.
Sammy’s search for solitude was interrupted as an already slightly tipsy friend slumping down on the pulverised pedestal beside him; the men were both as uniform as the clothes they wore, hovering a half a dozen inches below the six foot mark with the fit physique you only get after hauling all your belongings on your back for miles. Both men were so coated with various stains that it was amazing the soldiers could tell each other apart.

“’Ere, Sammy” the soldier mumbled as the stench of beer almost burnt the air, Sammy tried to crack the disguise of slurred speech and slime until the shock of red hair that still shone through told him it was Henry, or rather Ape.
“What do ya want Ape?” Sammy asked as he tried to lean back against the remains of the statue that once regaled the city square with some forgotten Lord.
“You ‘eared the news?” Ape said as he took his helmet off and scooped the mud from his bright orange hair “With all t’ese guys gettin’ their brains splattered across the floor, our brave boys at the back ‘ave decided it’s time we got our own member of dem ‘special divisions’.”
Sammy groaned; just what they needed, some wet behind the ears trickster who’d act like a king among men until he wet himself in terror at the first shell barrage.

It was well known that the Special Forces were both armies ace in the hole, they could turn the tables of any battles but they were so rare the Generals didn’t dare endanger them. If they were willing to put this member on the front lines he must be bloody terrible at their job.
Special Forces were a branch of the military which dealt in paranormal activities, or as the everyday soldier put it the “Super Squad”. Once in a while a person was born with the ability to do things far beyond the realm of normal humans, as soon as this talent was recognised the lucky bugger was swept off to some sort of secret training facility.
Compared to these high powered killers, normal soldiers were just cannon fodder to block up the enemy sights before the day was saved by this single powered person. This obviously caused some dispute between the normal troops, who hardly got any recognition for their sacrifices.

“When is he arriving?” Sammy asked, standing up and finding this a nice distraction compared to thinking about his fallen comrades.
“Tha’s the kicker!” Ape laughed out, pulling a bottle of beer from somewhere on his person and taking a quick swig “They should be ‘ere by now. C’mon, since you’re the only sober one ‘ere you’re meeting ‘im.”
Sighing exasperatedly as if to show just how much he didn’t want to do this, Sammy hauled the drunken Ape to his unsteady feet and followed the tottering waltz of a walk towards the edge of the captured city. It wasn’t a very scenic route; not that there wasn’t a lot to see in the city, it’s just many people would prefer to witness nothing and wonder the streets as oblivious as they could to the broken bodies littering the debris strewn floor. It was commonplace for soldiers to trip over, and in some horrible cases step in, dead soldiers who showed the recent fighting in the streets; people just didn’t want to notice them so soon. The further out Sammy and Ape got the thinner the crowds of people were, soon there were only people skittering among the small alleys in search of buddies or souvenirs.
“Damn vultures” Ape grumbled as he tottered on his drunken pins, leering at every fleeing figure as if he’d never mailed home that enemy pistol.

Soon Ape and Sammy stood ankle deep in sucking black mud, overlooking the single road into Nautik and the once green fields that was just as mangled now as the city. You could see for miles out here, but that wasn’t good for anything but fighting now that the land was so pock marked by mortars.
Sammy was quiet as Ape tried as quietly as he could to vomit behind a broken wall, best to get it all out before the new arrival got there. To graduate from the special training facility you usually had to be a Sergeant or better, but since Sammy had seen his own Lieutenant face down in a bottle of whisky these two were better than none.
The truck bounced along the road like a child’s toy, hitting sink holes and rocks until the passenger’s teeth rattled and they’d bitten their tongue four times since the start of the trip. They’d thought it mad to go to the front so soon after graduating but a desire to prove them wrong drove the desperation harder.
The small approaching convoy looked almost comical as the suspension fought against the battering it received, it almost flipped over three times just cresting the first mound towards the solitary standing figures of Ape and Sammy. It screeched to a halt with accommodating thuds and yelps as the single person inside lost their footing and Ape almost lost his lunch again.

Sammy straightened Ape up, standing slightly away so it didn’t look like he was holding up the ginger haired drunk. Snapping his hand up in an automatic salute it took Ape only a second to sober up slightly and follow Sammy’s actions, you had to show these guys respect straight away or who knows what’ll happen to you. The two could hear a rhythmic padding of feet from within the canvassed vehicle, then a large splash followed by less timed squelch of boot claiming slurry.
“Welcome to Nautik sir, nice to-“ but Sammy’s one-size-fits-all greeting halted in its tracks as the new recruit turned the corner from the truck. Ape straightened up more from his drunken slump, then collapsed backwards into the almost quicksand like soil.
It was a woman.
It was a woman member of the Special Forces.
“Oh bugger” Sammy’s face said as he reached down and stopped Ape from drowning in the muck “We’re really up the spout now.”