The Warfighter, the Storm, and the Moon

Chapter 27: Conglomeration

'Conglomeration'

14-Sep-2030, 1330T

LCDR Percy Jackson, US Navy, Son of Neptune

Legion XII

Yuma, Arizona, USA

"So, how're y'all handlin' the classes?" I asked, sliding into the booth beside Hazel and Reyna. Kyung and Nai were taking a break for lunch, so my friends decided to do the same, walking to a local Tex-Mex restaurant to sample the local flavors. And I, in all my impromptu glory, joined them.

"Bro, this has been a very taxing week," Frank muttered across from us as he took a sip of water. "It's like the information's being crammed into my head like the ten pounds of poop the Mythbusters tried to stuff in a five pound sack. Not that they're bad teachers, but geez! How much is there to learn?"

"Well, if the four of you wanna be gunfighters, you gotta know as much as possible. You can have a good weapon and other fancy shit, but training is the bedrock. Best piece of equipment is the one between your ears, Grizzly."

"Huh, you sound like Annabeth now," Leo remarked as he swallowed a bite of taco. "Remind me again why we didn't loop her and the rest of the Little Three in on this?"

"For all intents and purposes, this 'fireteam,' as Percy called it, is an experiment," Reyna said. "The monsters undoubtedly know about Percy and Tyson, so I don't think we need them to know that there are more shooters in development."

"Well said, Ramirez," I replied with a grin. "By the way, Kyung told me about your run with the MPX. And that goes for all y'all. You're learning fast. Hell, a lot faster than I did."

"That reminds me, how did you meet Mr. Kyung?" Hazel asked curiously. "I know you said his wife was new to you, but you mentioned a... jay-set?"

"Ah-ha... the JCET. Well... in late 2021, my unit and I went to South Korea to train with a detachment from their Special Warfare Flotilla... the UDT/SEALs, who are effectively the Korean version of US Navy SEALs."

"But if they're a combat unit, what were you doing there as a weapons tester?"

"Same reason I've done just about everything else in my life past the age of twelve: I got voluntold into doing it. Anyways, I was assigned to work with Kyung's team. He was the... point-man, I think. The guy at the front of the stack—who is generally not the team leader, despite what Hollywood thinks. I got slotted right behind him, so I ended up covering his six—and his nine and three, to an extent—quite a bit. Plus, our OICs—officers-in-charge, that is—decided that each Korean would be paired up with an American for the duration of the JCET. And Kyung, of course, ended up as my battle buddy, and personally saved my dumbass from getting killed."

"Say, we do something like that in the Legion too! No formal name for it, but there are pairs within each contubernium," Frank noted. "I mean, technically the contubernium is the smallest unit in the legion, but in modern times, legionaries move in pairs in the camp or even for special tasks on the battlefield."

"Huh, guess the Romans have battle buddies too. So Kyung and I were stuck together for several weeks. As it turned out, he really enjoys American films—hell, it's how his English ended up better than my Korean—so we ended up bonding over that... and guns, of course. We spent a lot of time at the range, trading weapons. Gotta say, the Korean-made ones weren't half bad. Hell, we accidentally gave our OICs the idea of having everyone swap weapons—American machine gunners with Korean machine guns, American snipers with Korean sniper rifles, and so on. It was all fun and games until shit hit the fan."