Don't Call Me Sir

[Cassie Granger 0]

Communications Outpost

2255 - Just Outside the RNZ

 

"Medic!" A loud crack in her helmet com interrupted the call as a weapons fire duck-and-tumble slid her down the steep incline. "Perry! Ducon! What's your twenty?"

 

"Two thirty your location, Staff Sergeant! Below the ridge."

 

"Take two and three. Circle behind the ridge and take out that emplacement! Zap!" She skid to a halt, flipped over the writhing lieutenant and pressed a hand onto his belly.

 

"Here, Staff Sergeant!"

 

"Hightail it out of this canyon and put in a call to command. 'Opposition hot. Lieutenant's down.'"

 

Another round drowned out Zap's reply, but Cass saw her scrambling down the gully towards the shuttle. "Kato!"

 

"Yo, Staff!"

 

"Get over here and give me a hand. Medic!"

 

"Doc's down too, Staff," Sergeant Kato slid in behind. Cass grabbed his hand and thrust it under hers as she reached for the limited medical supplies in her combat vest.

 

"Press hard and don't let up," she said, slapping a wad of septic cloth into the wound. Lieutenant I'm in charge here and you'll obey my command screamed in agony. She saw it coming, should have said something to the Major, but Lt Hotshot made his decision and dashed towards the bunker. Ben tyen shung! "Press! Hard!"

 

Kato nearly buckled as Hotshot's scream cut through the comm, but he leaned into the wound as the blood oozed between his fingers. Cass reached into the lieutenant's helmet and tripped the switch. No sense in demoralizing the squad any more than it was already.

 

It should have been a routine extraction. Two teams on a small planet just outside the RNZ setting up communications equipment, bushwhacked by unknowns, had sent out the call. The USS Kearsarge was supposed to be covert intel and wasn't really set up for heavy extraction, but routine Marine MO was combat gear, thank the higher power, so at least the squad was semi-prepared. The perps used modified projectile weapons rigged to do the most damage and didn't operate like military. They sure as shin-Li weren't Romulans. Pirates? Small time smugglers? Who cared. They just needed off this rock, and it wasn't going to happen any time soon.

 

=/\= =/\= =/\=

 

 

 

Bridge, USS Comanche Creek

Present Time

 

Cass stood easy, her expression neutral, as Captain Calestorm ticked off the call signs, then pointed to Ensign Shalin. "You are now Death Wish. And don't ever mute me during an Insecticon invasion again. We clear Ensign?"

 

"We are clear, Sir."

 

"Other than the muting, you held your own and didn't put my ship into an asteroid. Keep yer nose clean."

 

The captain's tone was gruff, but mildly so. Cass hoped the ensign would take it in stride, but his expression bordered on shot down. Balking in a command position was just as deadly as charging blindly forward, so shot down wasn't far from hot shot. It looked to Cassie like Ensign Don't call me sir might need a little intervention, but she'd have to bide her time on that one. For now all she could do was wait for an opening.

Edited September 5, 2011 by Cassie Granger