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His comrades-in-arms, Lieutenant Harrison and Captain Wychin, stood over him, gazing down at the shattered man. Both silently calculated the odds of the officer surviving in the freezing cold of Alaska. Neither found comfort in the results. Finally, Harrison sighed and spoke.
'Is Bob really in a fit state to lead men?' he asked, despondently.
'Not right now... obviously,' replied Wychin, with a hint of ice. 'Maybe he'll recover physically... but emotionally? He'll have been hurt badly by the loss of a hand. Plus, he can't shoot a rifle any more, unless we figure out a way to.. do... something...' his voice trailed off, the flow lost.
Harrison shrugged. 'You're probably right.'
Both stood silently for a few minutes longer, as Clark's whimpers steadily died and he stopped the slow writhing. Wychin gestured sharply and Harrison fetched one of their previous spare blankets, laying it over the man's immobile form. Then the two turned and left, nodding at the sentry on the way out. Private Mendelev grinned at them sadly as they left, sharing their pain over their comrade's incapacitation - although in Mendelev's case, it was most likely he was grieving over the loss of an extra pair of hands to fire a weapon.
Outside the cave, Wychin and Harrison were greeted by a brief respite in the blustering snowstorm that had plagued them the last few days. A weak sun pierced the clouds, spears of light stretching from the heavens.
'Okay, Kevin,' began Wychin. 'It's obvious that Clark cannot fill in his post as executive officer at this time. We'll have to remove him from that position in the roster right now. For now, drop him back with the grunts. It doesn't make any difference to the wreck in there, not right now.'
Harrison winced slightly at the harsh words, but nodded - the captain was under a lot of pressure at this time.
'We'll have to start looking amongst our troops for those with leadership potential. Soon, we'll be heading into a nearby settlement. We may encounter resistance... so keep an eye on the privates, see how they respond.'
Another nod.
'And remember, lieutenant,' continued Wychin. 'I know you never fought with X-Com, although you knew of them. You're not familiar with the bugs. I wasn't a Commer either, but I was Delta Force. We sometimes had to support X-ops. It's not pleasant, and one thing that was hammered into my mind was that this is kill-or-be-killed. They will show us no quarter. Show them none.'
'Make me proud, lieutenant. Get the troops saddled up. We're moving out.'
Written on October 5th by Shaun Green aka. Kevin Harrison