A Grey-Haired Boy

Search and Recover P2:The Officer Cadre

Some units of measurement of time earlier...

The thundering gunfire of T64s welcomed them. Shouts in Mandarin roused the dozen or so Marines from the back of their transport, forcing them to pile out just as a shell screamed overhead and struck the maw of one of their own tanks, the Explosive-Reactive Armor brick stopping the warhead's penetrating jet from hitting any crew, ammo or important part within the tank itself.

All it took was a second shell coming her way for her to realize she wasn't going to make it out of this, though. At least she bodyblocked the HEAT round from hitting the tank behind her, would've been the excuse of the Command unit, minus a certain member. She awoke, screaming, in the midst of a forest, grabbing onto her chest and breathing heavily, eyes wide.

She swore to herself and scrambled to her feet, feeling the weight of her equipment pulling her down, keeping her with her feet firmly planted onto the floor. She did a quick check, grabbing onto every ounce of her body she could find. Legs, present and accounted for. Arms, all there, chest, whole surprisingly, head, still present and attached, funnily enough. She also had her rifle, a heavily modified QBZ-95, attached to her by the weapon strap.

Rubbing her eyes and dry-heaving now, she felt her chest for her glasses. Upon finding the rimmed visual aides, she slid them onto her face, her emerald eyes peering through the specially-made glass lenses for her to finally see she was in the midst of a forest. As she calmed down and the sweat draping her from head to toe began to cool, she took her helmet off and shook her head, pushing strands of her short black hair out from in front of her eyes.

She swallowed empty, murmuring, "Fuck me..." with her heavy Chinese accent kicking in. She wiped the sweat off her brow and looked at herself, then murmured another something to herself as she put her helmet back on and started scanning the place. Gripping her rifle with both hands, she quickly did a press-check to ensure the weapon was loaded, slammed the bolt of the bullpup home and cracked her neck, before shouldering the weapon.

She also made sure her new uniform fit right, noting that the camouflage pattern would probably blend just fine in the forest around her. After taking count of everything from ammo, to MREs, to her canteen and camelback, as well as the normal backpack... She hunched over, throwing her rifle behind her, then retched and emptied her stomach completely, feeling the burning sensation of a HEAT round somehow managing to fuse on her in her gut.

When she was done throwing up the nasty, bitter bile she had felt rise up in her throat, she doused her face and mouth with water, then whispered to herself, "Fuck this... How am I alive? I got vaporized by a HEAT Round...?" only to cap the canteen and slide it back into the pouch. She sighed and shook her head, hefting her rifle back up and thumbing the safety to off, before scanning the place. She powered on her radio and spoke in Mandarin, "This is Battlemaster 2-1 Actual to Battlemaster Actual, requesting... I don't know. I'm alive. Are you there, sister?"

Static was her reply. She tried again, "Battlemaster 2-1-Actual to any allied asset in the AO, requesting report on the status of the counterattack against the Neo-Soviet tank corps in Sector 2. Does anybody copy?" only to hear Static again. She tried a third time, "Battlemaster 2-1-Actual to Command... Please, someone, answer me over there, or else I'm gonna get angry..." and... Static.

She scoffed, pinched the bow of her nose and murmured "Tā mā de wǒ!" before hefting her pack onto her back. She pulled out her compass and decided, to hell with it, might as well start heading South, because if she was still in China, that would lead her at least to a nearby village, if not back home. She'd try calling again when she was farther away from here. Maybe the radios were being jammed by whatever leftovers of the Russian Air Force the Neo-Soviets had managed to acquire from airbases in Eastern Siberia.