Illya and his fellow squad leaders had kept pushing their men forward all morning. Despite the heat and the slow going navigating through the maze of buildings north of the highway they had covered a good distance. They were nowhere near the open countryside, but they all knew they'd likely set up defensive positions in the outskirts of town instead of pushing forward anyway.
“Not as cold as home eh Illya?” teased one of his fellow squad leaders.
They had paused and the squad leaders had done what small unit commanders through history have done. They assembled for a smoke break.
Another joined the fun, “it's hotter than Igor's piss that time he had the clap!”
While they all laughed at their friends expense Illya knew what was coming. Word had already filtered down that one of the scout units that ventured far ahead of the group had engaged an American unit. The news took everybody by surprise as it was the first report of an organized ground response. Men at the large Seabee base, a group of Naval construction soldiers, had attempted to respond to the invasion in the early hours but they taken so off guard the base had simply been overrun.
But this was different. The NCO's debated amongst themselves whether the unit had been Army or US Marines, but there was one thing they all agreed on: it was an organized force and larger than a small unit. That was if the scuttlebutt going around had any truth to it. It also meant combat was likely.
The friendly session was interrupted by the senior commander as he made clear the smoke break was over.
They'd be in the outskirts of town in the next few hours and then they could begin constructing an impromptu defensive line.
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