08-11-2016, 04:36 AM
A brief foray into the military aspect, anyone who has gone through Basic or Boot Camp could probably relate to a degree.
1st Tactical Bivouac: This was not our first time away from the barracks, having performed several garrison bivouacs at the end of the 6th cycle and all through the 7th, where we learned marksmanship and several skills necessary for the upcoming Tactical Bivouac. For the first TB we operated as a full Sorority and were pitted against a regular Infantry force from the planetary garrison. The training Cadre provided the leadership for our notional Convent as well as the Sorority command.
However trainees led each Circle and Party. In our case the darling of the Sorority, Trainee Lower Sarjenette Heather Killbride, led 1st Circle. And my party was this time designated 2nd party and Trainee Lower Class Arlene Saunders led us. By this time most of the girls were Trainee Lower Class or had one broken stripe. A few, the less gifted, were still Trainee Lower Level, and of course Miss perfecto had one solid and one broken stripe on her uniform.
For this exercise Angel Sorority was manning a field defense in conjunction with Bambi Sorority; however they were at a different training area so we never interacted. Upon being driven to the training area we were assembled and shown the area for our defense.
We were given a four hundred meter long perimeter to defend with each Circle given one 200-meter section. Now covering 200 meters with only 12 souls is rather daunting, we decided, or rather Miss Perfect decided that 2nd Party would cover the right flank, 3rd party the left, and the one that happened to be a joining 2nd Circle, and 1st Party would cover the middle. Well Arlene then conferred with her counterparts and decided that we should use two girl fighting positions.
Miss Perfect opted for one 4 person one for 1st Party, as it turns out she wasn’t perfect after all, but more on that later. Since we were the extreme flank for the defense, Arlene decided that our party would have one position on line with the rest of the Circle but the other, the flank one done at an oblique.
We were told to assume a hasty defense and begin construction on the positions. For this task each girl had a small folding shovel. Along with the shovel we had a full set of field gear, including a baggy olive drab overall that went over a light green tee shirt, over that was a loose fitting long sleeved blouse and for the first time since being at Sally Ride we had undergarments, the practical needs of field hygiene superseding fashion.
During the garrison bivouacs we wore the work uniforms issued to us the first day. Over the bulky uniform we had a webbed suspender belt, that held two vaporteens, two pouches for energy cells, a small low light illumination wand, gyro compass, small first aid pouch, and a small pouch to hold a few items including a ration pack and note pad and pencil (no data pads and styluses for this exercise). Rounding out the rest of our gear were our helmet with short range communicator, a monstrous pack that contained a week’s worth of rations, several energy cells, sleeping bag, half a pressure tent, hygiene kit, two spare uniforms with six tee shirts socks and underwear, poncho, heavy field jacket and then either one of the following, a small stove, large energy cell, or portable sensor kit.
The last item was our weapon, for eight of the twelve girls in the Circle had the standard AM 12 Scimitar Infantry Laser Rifle, Three of those had an AM 60 Bloop Gun Grenade Launcher mounted under it. One had a huge scope mounted on it. Three girls had the pleasure of lugging around an AM 14 Claymore Light Pulse Laser Cannon and the most unfortunate had an AM 13 Epee Assault Laser Carbine and an AM 121 Flyswatter ADLAM Training Missile system. Due to some odd quirk of fate that was I.
Barbara had rifle with a grenade launcher, the Party Hostesses and the Circle Leader each had a regular weapon. The scoped weapon went to TLC Diana Calderwood, the best sharpshooter in the entire Sorority. Based on the five fighting positions our weapons were like this: 2nd Party Right Flank, LPLC, ILR; ILR/GL, ADLAM / ALC; 1st Party, ILR/GL, ILR, LPLC, ILR; 3rd Party, ILR, ILR/GL; ILR/Scope; LPLC. 2nd Circle was the exact mirror image except they had their missile launcher on the furthest left position and had six positions rather than our five.
My first task after getting the assignment for our position was to pick out good landmarks for reference points for the missile launcher. In the mean time Barbara and our LPLC gunner TJS Angela Brooks were maintaining security. This left Arlene to work on digging their position. After getting the range card and targeting information set into the missile, I set it up in my hasty position, placed two ready rounds near it and powered down the targeting computer, so I could begin digging our position.
Even after all of the training we have had up to this point, I was still very sore by the time my 30 minutes of digging were up. Switching positions with Barbara, but using her rifle rather than my puny carbine, I let her first get her range data figured out, this took a while because she had to pin point any dead ground. I saw her and Angela talking things over, while Arlene covered her sector. Once all of their range data and fields of fire were computed, they likewise went to work digging the positions. We continued like this for two hours, rotating every 30 minutes. After the end of the 2nd hour, Arlene was called away to meet with Heather and the other Party Hostess Elizabeth Luchens. The three of us decided that we could get things done if both girls worked on one position while the third pulled security. The girl on security always used the LPLC with the other two weapons resting on our packs.
About midway through the 4th hour, Arlene was still away, Sarjenette Wallace came by to see how things were progressing, Barbara was pulling security at the time. “Trainee Sarjentette Parker, what do you think you are doing?”
1st Tactical Bivouac: This was not our first time away from the barracks, having performed several garrison bivouacs at the end of the 6th cycle and all through the 7th, where we learned marksmanship and several skills necessary for the upcoming Tactical Bivouac. For the first TB we operated as a full Sorority and were pitted against a regular Infantry force from the planetary garrison. The training Cadre provided the leadership for our notional Convent as well as the Sorority command.
However trainees led each Circle and Party. In our case the darling of the Sorority, Trainee Lower Sarjenette Heather Killbride, led 1st Circle. And my party was this time designated 2nd party and Trainee Lower Class Arlene Saunders led us. By this time most of the girls were Trainee Lower Class or had one broken stripe. A few, the less gifted, were still Trainee Lower Level, and of course Miss perfecto had one solid and one broken stripe on her uniform.
For this exercise Angel Sorority was manning a field defense in conjunction with Bambi Sorority; however they were at a different training area so we never interacted. Upon being driven to the training area we were assembled and shown the area for our defense.
We were given a four hundred meter long perimeter to defend with each Circle given one 200-meter section. Now covering 200 meters with only 12 souls is rather daunting, we decided, or rather Miss Perfect decided that 2nd Party would cover the right flank, 3rd party the left, and the one that happened to be a joining 2nd Circle, and 1st Party would cover the middle. Well Arlene then conferred with her counterparts and decided that we should use two girl fighting positions.
Miss Perfect opted for one 4 person one for 1st Party, as it turns out she wasn’t perfect after all, but more on that later. Since we were the extreme flank for the defense, Arlene decided that our party would have one position on line with the rest of the Circle but the other, the flank one done at an oblique.
We were told to assume a hasty defense and begin construction on the positions. For this task each girl had a small folding shovel. Along with the shovel we had a full set of field gear, including a baggy olive drab overall that went over a light green tee shirt, over that was a loose fitting long sleeved blouse and for the first time since being at Sally Ride we had undergarments, the practical needs of field hygiene superseding fashion.
During the garrison bivouacs we wore the work uniforms issued to us the first day. Over the bulky uniform we had a webbed suspender belt, that held two vaporteens, two pouches for energy cells, a small low light illumination wand, gyro compass, small first aid pouch, and a small pouch to hold a few items including a ration pack and note pad and pencil (no data pads and styluses for this exercise). Rounding out the rest of our gear were our helmet with short range communicator, a monstrous pack that contained a week’s worth of rations, several energy cells, sleeping bag, half a pressure tent, hygiene kit, two spare uniforms with six tee shirts socks and underwear, poncho, heavy field jacket and then either one of the following, a small stove, large energy cell, or portable sensor kit.
The last item was our weapon, for eight of the twelve girls in the Circle had the standard AM 12 Scimitar Infantry Laser Rifle, Three of those had an AM 60 Bloop Gun Grenade Launcher mounted under it. One had a huge scope mounted on it. Three girls had the pleasure of lugging around an AM 14 Claymore Light Pulse Laser Cannon and the most unfortunate had an AM 13 Epee Assault Laser Carbine and an AM 121 Flyswatter ADLAM Training Missile system. Due to some odd quirk of fate that was I.
Barbara had rifle with a grenade launcher, the Party Hostesses and the Circle Leader each had a regular weapon. The scoped weapon went to TLC Diana Calderwood, the best sharpshooter in the entire Sorority. Based on the five fighting positions our weapons were like this: 2nd Party Right Flank, LPLC, ILR; ILR/GL, ADLAM / ALC; 1st Party, ILR/GL, ILR, LPLC, ILR; 3rd Party, ILR, ILR/GL; ILR/Scope; LPLC. 2nd Circle was the exact mirror image except they had their missile launcher on the furthest left position and had six positions rather than our five.
My first task after getting the assignment for our position was to pick out good landmarks for reference points for the missile launcher. In the mean time Barbara and our LPLC gunner TJS Angela Brooks were maintaining security. This left Arlene to work on digging their position. After getting the range card and targeting information set into the missile, I set it up in my hasty position, placed two ready rounds near it and powered down the targeting computer, so I could begin digging our position.
Even after all of the training we have had up to this point, I was still very sore by the time my 30 minutes of digging were up. Switching positions with Barbara, but using her rifle rather than my puny carbine, I let her first get her range data figured out, this took a while because she had to pin point any dead ground. I saw her and Angela talking things over, while Arlene covered her sector. Once all of their range data and fields of fire were computed, they likewise went to work digging the positions. We continued like this for two hours, rotating every 30 minutes. After the end of the 2nd hour, Arlene was called away to meet with Heather and the other Party Hostess Elizabeth Luchens. The three of us decided that we could get things done if both girls worked on one position while the third pulled security. The girl on security always used the LPLC with the other two weapons resting on our packs.
About midway through the 4th hour, Arlene was still away, Sarjenette Wallace came by to see how things were progressing, Barbara was pulling security at the time. “Trainee Sarjentette Parker, what do you think you are doing?”