Sacred Lineage

You lucky peeps...yet another chappie written by Dan...

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Marcus worked on assembling his weapons while he went through the files Deirdre had given him. Of the twenty-five, he had already ruled out fifteen of them. He hadn’t had any reason to rule them out really. He had only glanced through them so far. But at a quick look, he had simply gotten a bad feeling about them. That didn’t mean that any of them were spies, or dangerous, or even not good enough for his unit.

There had just been something about each of them that had felt wrong. Marcus assumed that his subconscious had noticed something about them that pointed to them not being right for his unit. He didn’t see anything wrong with any of them, his instincts just said that they weren’t right for him. And Marcus had learned to trust his instincts. His instincts had kept him live, and his unit alive, too many times to not trust them.

After another hour he had managed to make his selections for the unit; tentative selections anyway. He would still have a few things to work out with them before he would be sure. He had special requirements for his unit, he had selected a male sniper and a female medic, both of who were also experienced climbers. A female demotions expert, and male heavy weapons specialist. All four of these people had received advanced training in hand to hand and knife combat.

The fifth member of his squad was very well trained in stealth operations and excelled in close combat fighting. He seemed to prefer using an USAS-12 assault shotgun, or occasionally a FN-P90. According to his report, he always carried a machete with him as well. In short, he was an ideal pointman.

With his selection taken care of, he finished assembling his weapons and placing them where they belonged. His clothes and other personal items could wait until later. Getting his squad set up and starting their training was more important at the moment. Once he had finished with his weapons, he put on his clothes and his combat harness. He harness had two handguns with six spare magazines and both of his Wakazashis. Once it was in place properly, he grabbed his C.A.W.S. and left his room to start looking for the equipment he would need.

Finding the training equipment he wanted took about an hour. He had been expecting to have to improvise a ball launcher to use, but had managed to get lucky. The tennis balls he had found weren’t in the best of shape, but they didn’t need to be, not for what he had in mind anyway. He set up the equipment then went looking for the members of his new squad.

Finding them ended up being an easier job then he had expected, although he did find them one at a time. When he found each of them he told them to go and get all of their gear and meet his down at the shooting range as soon as possible. Once he had found all five, he went down to the shooting range and waited.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait very long before all five member of his new squad appeared. He looked at all of them then raised his voice some and addressed them. “I’m sure you have all heard rumors about a Yank coming to work for Hellsing for a while. That Yank would be me. I am Captain Marcus Tourville, and I have been asked to set up a squad to work with me. You five seem to be the lucky victims.”

“First things first though. I have a question for all of you. Is anyone here currently married to, in love with, or simply screwing one of the other people in the squad?” All of them seemed somewhat taken aback by the question. “Well, is anyone here involved with someone else in the squad? This is very important.”

Marcus waited about thirty seconds before continuing. “I will take the silence as a no. And it will stay that way. There will be NO sleeping around in this squad, and that will include me. There will be no exceptions! If any of you start developing such interests, let me know and I will transfer you out and find a replacement.”

“Screwing around in a unit this small will only lead to problems and injuries, if not deaths. In my three years hunting undead, I have NEVER had someone under my command die in the field, or from injured caused in the field. And I am not going to have that record broken just because someone here can’t keep his or her pants on! If you need a piece of ass, get it from someone outside of this squad! Is that understood?”

All five of them responded with a simple “Yes, Sir!” Marcus was about to correct them about the ‘sir’ part but caught himself. He was an officer now. That part of Hellsing would take some getting used to.

“Now some rules about chain of command. As of now, you answer only to myself, Sir Integra Hellsing and to Deirdre Hellsing. Whomever commanded you before now will be informed of the change in command within the day, if they haven’t been informed, or just figured it out for themselves. I am your commander now. You will do what I say, when I say it! Even if the orders I give sound insane.”

“You are probably wondering if I am simply full of shit, but my record says otherwise. Most commanders in our line of work usually have one simple job to do. Destroy vampires and other undead or supernatural creatures. I have two. The first is to destroy the targets. The second is to make sure all of the people under my command live long enough to see their grandchildren born. I am not a normal commander. Unlike many of the others you have probably had. I don’t sit in the back and simply give orders.”

“I will be walking into the shit right next to you so I can see what is happening and give the orders I need to without any delays. In fact, at least half of the time I will be the Pointman, so I will be the first one in the shit, not the last.”

“Because I will be in the shit with you, I will be counting on all of you to keep me alive as much as you will be counting on me to do the same. This unit will be specializing in close combat as a rule. Against normal humans, accuracy will be less of an issue at such close range. After all, it is hard to miss with a shotgun at three meters or less, but the targets we will be going against will be much harder, much faster, and much tougher targets. You will likely only get one shot to kill a vampire, so you have to make that one shot count.”

“With that in mind, I have decided to start your new training right away. We are going to see how well you can shoot at moving targets. Follow me.” Marcus turns and leads them all over to an area of the range that had been set apart for skeet shooting.

“I’m sure most of you have done some skeet shooting before. But this will be a little bit different. You will be expected to be able to hit the clay pigeons out of the air with whatever weapon you are expecting to carry with you in the field. If you will be bringing an MP-5 as your primary weapon when we hunt, you will be expected to be able to shoot the clay pigeons with the MP-5 as well.”

Marcus heard a few sighs come from his new squad. He had been expecting it. This wasn’t the first time he had had to start with a new squad and train them into the unit he really wanted them and needed them to be if they were al to survive in the field.

He looked at them all. “I can see that at least some of you think what I am asking is next to impossible. It isn’t the first time I have heard sighs about this. I lead by example. I will be fighting side by side with you when we go after vampires. Likewise, I will be proving that what I want can be done.” He takes a few sets forward so he is face to face with the medic. “You have an MP-5. I will use your weapon and show you how it is done.”

The medic hands over her weapon, then Marcus goes up to firing area. He checks the magazine to make sure it is full, then loads the first round into the chamber. He looks at the man operating the pigeon thrower and hold up one finger. Marcus turns back to the target area and waits.

Within a few seconds he hears the noise of the thrower in action. He pulls the MP-5 to his shoulder and instinctively pulls the barrel up and fires at the movement that he sees: in this case a clay pigeon. The clay pigeon broke into pieces as the slug from the round hit it. He takes his left hand away from the MP-5 and raises two fingers for a second, then puts his hand back on the MP-5 and waits. When he heard the thrower in motion, he tracked and fired at the two clay pigeons in the air. Both of them broke into pieces.

He stepped away and walked back to the medic and handed her back her MP-5. “It can be done. It just takes a lot of practice. Any of you that are not used to shooting skeet, I would advise you to start off by using shotguns until you get used to it, then switch over to your normal weapons. I had two USAS-12 shotguns brought down in case you need them.”

“As of right now, you are all off of active duty until you can prove that you meet my standards. When you can hit at least half of the clay pigeons consistently, you will be move back to active duty and be able to go out on missions with the rest of the squad. You will be expected to be out here on the range for at least two hours a day. You will keep coming out here each day until you can consistently hit at least three out of four of the clay pigeons. Just because you are back on missions doesn’t mean you are up to my standard, just that you are at least at the minimum for me to be willing to take the risk.”

“Why don’t you all take some turns and practice for a little while. Once you have all taken a few turns, we will move on to the other half of your testing. Don’t worry too much. The other half should be a little bit easier.”

Marcus took a few steps away from the group and took a seat on the ground. He simple sat there and watched how the five of them interacted. They seemed to be able to get along well enough at least. He also used the time to analyze how each of them moved so he could better decide on what positions each of them should take and what tactics and maneuvers would be best suited to the squad.

He had learned in the Corps that it worked better to plan tactics and combat style around both the unit and the target. The officers in the Corps had done it differently. They would decide on a plan of attach and choose the best person in the unit for each position or action in the plan. As a sergeant, Marcus did things differently. He would find out what each soldier was the very best at and make up his battle plans with those skills in mind. By playing to each person’s strengths, he could greatly reduce the risk of any part of the operation failed.

Also, unlike many officers Marcus had dealt with, Marcus didn’t have any problem completely changing the battle plan, either at the last minute, or once things started. Marcus had a very flexible mind, and as such he could improvise very quickly when he had to. It was a big part of how he was able to survive as a Hunter. When his plans went south, which happens to everyone sooner or later, he would simply make new plans, even in the middle of a firefight.

His ability to do things like that had been part of the reason the Corps had done everything they could think of to try to get Marcus to stay in. They had even offered to send him to Officers Training School, but Marcus hadn’t wanted to be an officer. He didn’t want to have to be responsible for that many men. The only reason he had accepted the officer rank with Hellsing was because he wouldn’t have to be in command of that many soldiers, just a squad. He would be able to stay a Sergeant in every way except in name.

He gave them about an hour to practice, then stopped them and brought them down into a room he had set up in the basement of the training area. Everything in the room had been removed except for a machine. It had been set up against the north wall of the room.

“Some of you might recognize this machine. It launches tennis balls so that people can practice better when they are alone. Today though, and probably for the next month or so, we are going to be using it for training. I demonstrate.” He indicates the medic. “Corporal, if you would be so kind as to turn it on for me. And the rest of you may want to stand back a bit.”

While the corporal moves over to the machine, Marcus changed his stands to a fighting position and dropped his left hand and placed it on the handle of his wakasashi and waited. When the corporal hit the switch, the machine launched the first tennis ball at Marcus. He drew his sword and slashed up with it. He connected with the tennis ball and deflected it.

He was also sure that his blade had put a cut in the tennis ball. But with as flexible as tennis balls were, he could cut it in half with a single stoke in mid air. The blade wold cut into it, yes, but the ball would simply bounce away from the impact without doing too much damage to it.

After the hit, he altered his grip on the sword and moved it into a guard position while also changing his position. When the next ball came, he slashed again with the same results. He removed four more balls from the air before having the corporal turn it back off, then he turned back to his new squad.

“Now, many of you may be wondering what good practicing this type of thing would do. That is easy to answer: once you have the training and skill to take a tennis ball out of the air, you shouldn\'t have any problem with taking off an arm, leg, or even head of a ghoul or vampire that reaches out to grab or attack you with its hands. If the blade you happen to be using is blessed in some way, you can even easily kill ghouls, and at least hit a vampire, if not kill it as well.”

“It is why I have my combat harness set up the way I do.” He slipped his C.A.W.S. off of his shoulder and held it in the standard firing position with the butt against his shoulder. “I can easily fire this weapon in close quarters. If a need to go into a more hand-to-hand style of fighting, I can drop the butt of the weapon down so it rests in the crook of my elbow.” Here, he demonstrated it. “Because of the bull-pup design of this weapon, most of the weight if behind the wrist, not in front of it. The weight is then supported by the hand and the base of the upper arm instead of all by the wrist like the MP-5 or most other firearms.”

“Because of that, I can effectively use this weapon with just one hand, leaving the other hand free to use a sword or a knife. Aiming really isn’t a problem one handed either. How much do you really need to aim if you can put the barrel of the shotgun up against the chest or the head of the target before you pull the trigger?”

“Reloading with still take two hands though. If I have not been able to free myself from close attackers before I need to reload, I simple slip the weapon onto my back, or if need be drop it. Then I will draw the second sword I keep with me or one of my pistols and use that. Either way, I will be capable of keeping two weapons in action against my enemy until the close enemies are eliminated.”

He hands his sword out to the medic. “Now the rest of you can give it a try for a little while. You can go first. You are already in your combat gear, but I would put on your helmet and face shield. Those tennis balls can do some damage at the speed they fly at you. I know, I have had enough bruises myself to attest to it.”

Once again he slipped away from the rest. This time to sit in a corner. He simply sat there and observed them while each of them took a few turns. What he learned from this was that the man he had chosen that specialized in close combat used his own machete and picked up on this training exercise very quickly. The rest of them would simply take time and practice.

Once they had practiced for about an hour, he gave the order to stop. He collected his sword, wiped the blade off, then placed it back in it’s scabbard on his back. “That will be enough for today. It’s time to get some dinner. After that, I think I am going to get some sleep. I have been up for about forty hours now, and even I think that\'s enough for me for one day.”

“Tomorrow, I will be expecting you all to spend time out on the range and down here practicing. I will have a small table and a suitable sword placed in here for your practice sessions. Once you have practiced some, you can decide on what type of sword you wish to have added to your standard combat equipment. I recommend a short sword of some kind. Good evening to you all.”

\"Good evening, Sir!\" Was the response he recieved. No one had much else to say, at least that he heard. Fine, that, it was the only response he was expecting today, anyway.

Marcus headed back to his room, which happened to be only be a few doors down. When he entered he noticed that someone had brought food down for him. He sat down and ate and continued to make plans for his squad. Everything pointed to them making a very effective squad. They already showed the signs of being able to work well together. They also seemed very eager to learn what he wanted them to. he knew that their motivation right now was probably be because of his record. He also was sure that all of them had already seen at least one of their friends die in the field. Their desire to not have to see that happen again would be a very good motivator.

Once he finished eating, he made a quick list of which people he had chosen. He also added the five people he had considered. He took that list and all of the files and headed back upstairs. He knocked on the door to Deirdre’s office and was lucky enough to find her still there. When he was given permission, he entered and approached her desk.

“Sir, here is a list of the people I have selected for my squad. The top five names are of the ones in the squad. The other five are people that I feel would make adequate replacements should they be needed. I have already informed the five in my squad of the change in their chain of command, and I have also already started them on their new training.”

“There was a mostly empty storage room three doors down from my quarters that I have converted into a training room. I will need a small table and a short sword of some kind or a machete moved into that room for training purposes. If possible, a few different styles of short sword would be nice. That way they can get a better idea of what style of sword each of them would be best suited to use. I hope that can be arranged by tomorrow. If not, I can figure out a different way to make it work.”

“If you will excuse me sir, I need to get some rest. It has been a long day for me. And I am expecting to have several more long days ahead of me over the night few weeks. Good evening sir.” With a nod from Deirdre, Marcus turns and leaves the room. From there he goes back down to his quarters, takes a quick shower then climbs into bed and goes to sleep, with one of his wakasashis on his left hand.