Jinx, however, was not one of those soldiers. He was known for a wild streak and had gotten his nickname from his luck that bordered on the supernatural with how many times he’d escaped death in the field. He was itching to get off of this damn boat and dive headfirst into action.
He reached the briefing room, and it was already beginning to get crowded. About forty soldiers had squeezed into a room where twenty would have normally fit comfortably. Jinx looked behind him and spotted a handful of soldiers still working their way down the hallway.
“Yo man, let me slip by you real quick,” he murmured, and when one of the men in the back turned towards him, he used the opening to slide in and work his way to the front of the room. He found a corner on the front row and knelt down beside the side door.
A few moments later, the door opened and Captain Odom entered the room. He was an older man, easily in his late forties, with rapidly graying hair. The men all stood at attention in his presence, but he waved them off.
“Everybody get settled, there’s a lot to go over,” he declared.
Another soldier entered through the door, carrying a large printed satellite image tacked to a cork board. He set it up beside the Captain so that the room could see. It was focused on a bay just off the ocean.
“Some of you have no doubt heard the rumors that our assault on Seattle began yesterday,” Odom began, “and I can confirm those rumors are true. Multiple strike forces attacking numerous points on the north and eastern parts of the target launched operations just before dawn yesterday. They have been fighting throughout the day and have been making some progress against the enemy. Now, while the rest of our ships have been moving to the north to assist in the assault on downtown, we have been held back for a special mission.”
He looked around at the cork board and found a thin pointer nestled in the bottom tray. He held it up and began pointing to different spots on the map as he spoke.
“This is North Bay, roughly fifty miles west of Olympia,” he continued, “which is our ultimate target. For those of you unfamiliar with the layout of the Seattle Metro area, Olympia is to the southwest, and is the last pocket of major civilization. Our mission is to land and push forward towards Olympia to create another front for the enemy to fight us on. It’s our job to distract as many as we can so that the ground forces can march in from the east.”
He snapped the pointer against the area just to the north and east of the bay. “Before we can do that, however,” he continued, “we have to pacify the town of Aberdeen. As you can see, the bulk of the town is situated between three rivers, the main one running along the southern border, and two smaller ones to the east and west. Our landing point is going to be to the harbor on the northwest of town, less than a quarter mile from a non-insignificant population area to the west of the river.”
A hand shot up in the middle of the room, and the Captain sighed, reluctantly pointing to it.
“Sir, we have no landing craft on board,” the soldier called. “How are we going to get ashore?”
Odom clucked his tongue. “I’m getting to that soldier,” he said impatiently. “We have orders from the top of the food chain to beach the ship on shore so we can rappel down the side.”
The stunned silence in the room was so pregnant, it was as if the soldiers weren’t even breathing.
“Believe me when I say that I share every thought currently running through your heads,” the Captain said firmly. “I even went so far as to share some of them with the General, who politely informed me that the enemy didn’t have a Navy, so the mission is more important than the survival of our ship.”
Murmurs broke out amongst the soldiers, some of them nodding, few still wide-eyed.
“Moving on,” Odom said loudly, commanding attention once again. “Upon landing, we will be forced to rappel down the side of the ship. Thanks to the great resource purge, we will only have four lines coming down from the deck, so it’s going to be a long process to get people to the shore. And with the noise we’re going to be making, we’re going to have quite the crowd before we’re ready. This area had around twenty thousand people, so we are expecting a stiff resistance. To protect us from being overrun, I need three teams to volunteer for diversion duty.” He paused, raising his chin. “I’m asking for volunteers because the likelihood of survival is… low.”
Jinx’s hand shot up into the air before anybody else, and Odom raised an eyebrow at him.
“Oh hell, is that Jinx?” somebody called from the back. “Gonna be a wild ride if it is!”
Laughter rippled through the men, but Odom didn’t react, simply scanned the room for more volunteers. A few moments later, two more hands reluctantly went up, and the Captain nodded.
“Okay, that’s our three,” he declared. “Need you to stay behind, the rest of you get your teams together and see my assistant on the way out for your landing assignments.”
The soldiers began to filter out, varying noise levels of chatter as they went. Corporal Spence and Sergeant Dickerson approached the front of the room.
“Yeah, I thought that was you,” Dickerson said with a lopsided grin as he stepped up next to Jinx.
Odom cocked his head. “You two know each other, Sergeant?”
“Oh yes sir,” Dickerson replied. “Corporal Jinx and I go back a ways. Had a few misadventures in the sandbox.”
The Captain raised
