Relief and debrief

“Well, I am satisfied.” Kylie said with a smirk.

“You’re satisfied?” I asked with the emphasis on you.

“Yes. It seems very clear you accepted my thank you.”

“I did indeed, so much so, I feel like being in debt. Your methods of eh... relieving stress to others are exquisite.”

“In my debt?”

“Yes, but however I wish to return the favor, I will never reach the height of your expertise I sadly have to admit.”

“Hmm. Perhaps with enough practice?”

“Oh, and, whom, do I pray, do you know who would like to be the test subject for that?”

“Well, with the right stimulation, under the right circumstances, I might find one for that.” She answered, slightly blushing.

“Ah excellent. Well, consider me very much thanked by you.” I continued while pulling up my pants. Hearing footsteps I continued: “To my greatest disappointment, we will have to delay this very interesting conversation for another time.”

“Alex?” I heard asking above me, as I fastened my belt.

“Yes?” I replied and looked up. I saw Kate standing looking down upon me, seeing me buttoning up and zipping my pants closed. She blushed fiercely. Oh, fuck, anyone could figure out what has been transpired. Hope this won’t ruin my reputation. Then again, what reputation?

Seemingly trying to regain her composure, she briefly looked elsewhere, and mentioned that the embedded lieutenant wanted to talk to all the platoon leaders at his command tent.

“Okay, thank you Kate.”

I crawled out of the foxhole, paused for a moment and addressed Kylie one more time, serious now: “Kylie, I really, really thank you for the conversation before and the eh... therapy session. Don’t be afraid to talk to me or ask me to listen to your suggestions, or eh... other stuff.”

“I will. Thank you.” She replied smiling.

I then started walking to the command tent, barely hearing Kate jumping into the foxhole I just shared with Kylie.

All fifty platoon leaders were gathering at the heavily camouflaged tent. Something was up. Or just more orders, I couldn’t tell.

The lieutenant had set up a drawing board and a map of the region was hanging beside it.

“I’ll go straight to it. The Russians are almost overrunning the Czechs at their south border, but luckily not without having some decent number of losses. The Czechs are giving them hell, supported by leftovers of Hungary and Slovakia, and the US air wings. Considerable losses on our side too. Lots of civilians dead. The Czechs are also amassing conscripted men in Prague, ready to fight street by street when the Russians arrive.”

I furrowed my brows upon hearing that. Surely they wouldn’t be stupid enough to keep their troops in their capital? What if the Russians circumvented Prague and bombed it instead?

“An integrated air defense system has been installed in the capital and lots of platoons are in the area with SAM-like equipment. They are betting a lot on their anti-aircraft warfare and have destroyed quite a few of Russian fighters and bombers.”

Ah, good, that will **** the Russians to engage in cities too. Unless... Surely they wouldn’t... use tactical atomic weapons against entire cities, right?

“It has been agreed that not all the retreating soldiers will converge into Prague. Some divisions will split beforehand and go east to help Poland, others will go west to help Austria in their sabotage operations and others will also end up here. The rest will travel through Prague and help Germany at the Spree front.”

“For now, they are delaying the inevitable, and they know it too. There is mass panic among the civilians and every able hand is now holding a gun.”

“Which means, if their troops end up here we need to be able to restock their supplies, without attracting too much attention to ourselves. In the forests behind us, the engineering corps have started to dig and build more temporary fortifications. The exhausted former east-block soldiers will be in reserve there, until we have to retreat too, to the next line of defense behind that one.”

I see, we will leapfrog lines of prepared defenses.

“The Americans will stay with us for a while, bless them, they are exhausted but still the best we have. They will coordinate the first tactical operations we will have against the Russian tanks, while providing air cover at the same time.”

“Now then, you have no doubt realized that our platoons have been clustered in a few areas. So a few among you will be blessed with the promotion to lead the clustered platoons.”

Blessed, my ass. Leading more men to slaughter, I pity the men chosen for that job.

“Jim, George, Burt, Leo, Wim, Pedro, Geert, Pascal, David and Alex will stay here, the rest may go.”

Oh, fuck...