Promotion to Company Commander?

Behind a concrete pillar inside the room, Octopus caught his breath and called back, "We can handle this! Go support the brothers in the north corridor!" "All right. Call me if you need help." Chen Ge took Tire and sprinted ahead. Just as they reached the stairwell, Manhole Cover emerged from the second room on the right side of the corridor, supporting Tanker. Thick smoke hung in the hallway, obscuring the red tape wound around Chen Ge's and Tire's helmets and arms. On edge, both men raised their rifles on reflex. "Damn it, are you two blind?" Hearing Chen Ge's voice, their taut nerves snapped slack. Like deflated balls, they collapsed limply onto the floor. Looking like a respectable woman who had just been ravished for days and nights on end by a gang of brutes, Manhole Cover asked in a trembling voice, "Hammer Brother... there aren't any breathing Ukrainians left on our side. What about yours?" "A few left breathing for now! Are you hit?" Chen Ge stepped forward and gave him a gentle nudge with his boot, then glanced into the room on the left. Lightbulb and Night Cat were sitting on the floor drinking high-energy liquid nutrient paste, having tossed two packets to a pair of mercenaries from Detachment 9. Good. His four brothers possessed the vitality of cockroaches; every one of them had made it. "I guess I'm not really wounded... just aching all over from the grenade concussion... I need a painkiller..." Manhole Cover struggled into a sitting position, opened the first-aid pouch on the right side of his belt, popped a painkiller into his mouth, tossed one to Tanker, and unhooked his small, rigid canteen, unscrewing the cap to take two deep swigs. Gulping the pill down, he regained a fraction of his strength, only to suddenly realize Big Bear was missing. His face drained of color, and he asked in a panic, "Hammer Brother, where's Big Bear? Why isn't Big Bear with you?" Inside the room, Lightbulb and Night Cat jerked their heads around at the words. Chen Ge waved a hand dismissively. "The blast wave from Rock's demo threw the kid against a wall and snapped several ribs. I already had Piano and the brothers from Detachment 9 take them to the rear." Only then did Manhole Cover, Lightbulb, and Night Cat breathe a sigh of relief and resume slurping their nutrient paste. Chen Ge sat down against the wall and said in a heavy voice, "Between Rock's team, Volcano's team, and Night Hawk's team, only seven men are left. Volcano's entire team was wiped out in the tunnel. Rock and Night Hawk are critically wounded. The only ones still able to move are Piano, Mason, Windmill, and two of the new brothers!" Silence fell over the hallway. The Falcon Hunting Team had only just been reinforced with fresh blood, and now they were crippled all over again! "Sledgehammer, this is Trench. You still alive? If you are, report your progress." Trench's voice came through the earpiece. Chen Ge, who had just reached up to take off his helmet for a smoke, paused and keyed the PTT switch. "Still kicking. Enemy in the laboratory building has been cleared out, and the tunnel's successfully collapsed. Volcano is KIA. Rock, Night Hawk, Hacksaw, and four other brothers are critically wounded. I asked the brothers from Detachment 9 sent by Crimea to evacuate them out of the Asphalt Plant. Right now, our First Company has only eight combat-effective men left. Detachment 9 has about fifteen. Over!" Hearing Chen Ge's robust voice, Trench felt his suspended heart settle, but learning that one of First Company's five squad leaders was dead, three were wounded, and only eight men remained sent his mood plunging straight to rock bottom. After a few seconds of silence, he let out a long sigh and rasped, "You've done damn fine work. I'll immediately dispatch a company of K-soldiers with ammunition to help you hold the laboratory building. You're in command!" Chen Ge froze, caught completely off guard. How had he drifted from ordinary grunt into a field commander? "Copy that. How goes the clearance at the mixing plant?" Trench replied gravely, "With you collapsing the main underground utility tunnel, the Ukrainians can't reinforce the mixing plant or the silos through the tunnels. We can take the mixing plant in two hours at most—provided you can hold the laboratory building, because the Ukrainians will come aboveground to reinforce it." Chen Ge looked toward the southwest, his expression hardening. The laboratory building sat to the rear right of the mixing plant. Any Ukrainian troops advancing from the southwest wishing to reinforce the mixing plant had to retake the laboratory building first, or they would just be offering up free kills. "Understood. I'll use the laboratory building to stall the Ukrainians with everything we've got." Just as he finished, Hailstone's voice came over the comms, giving Trench a brief rundown of how the battle inside the laboratory building had played out, as reported to Hailstone by Hacksaw. Trench listened in silence for a moment, as though settling his resolve, before his tone turned deep and solemn. "Sledgehammer, I trust your ability implicitly. The Falcon Hunting Team cannot fall apart. If you can hold the laboratory building this time, I will petition Ratibor to appoint you commander of First Company." First Company was the Falcon Hunting Team, also known as the Peregrine Special Assault Company—the very soul of the Peregrine Special Assault Battalion. Chen Ge never dreamed Trench would put him in command of the company! That wouldn't do. What qualification did he have to command dozens of men in real combat? Before transmigrating, he had only served two years as a regular private. He had commanded battalion-sized formations and larger in video games—titles like *Wargame: Red Dragon*, *Steel Division 2*, *World in Conflict*, and *Stellaris*—and he had played them exceptionally well. After transmigrating, he had absorbed plenty of practical tactical command theory in Syria, occasionally even applying his unconventional ideas to real combat. Yet games were virtual, and strong theory was a far cry from practical execution. Moreover, the psychological pressure on a commander was immense. When making decisions, you were the sole person held accountable for the outcome. Subordinates offered suggestions, but if your judgment proved flawed, the responsibility was yours alone to bear; on the battlefield, no one could shoulder the weight of command for you. Lose a game, and you could start over. Make a single mistake in reality, and every marker on the map represented a family. That was the truest, most fundamental difficulty of commanding troops. He tactfully declined, "No, no, that won't do at all. There's really no need..." "Starting on the first of next month, the company is raising salaries for platoon leaders and above. Company commanders get a base pay increase of two thousand dollars, and mission bonuses are doubled!" At those words, Chen Ge's spirits instantly soared. He switched faces faster than a dog wagged its tail, his loyalty to Wagner maxing out on the spot. Loyalty! Pure loyalty! "Thank you for the promotion, Brother Trench! I swear to God I won't let you or the company down! In life, I am Wagner's man; in death, I am Wagner's ghost!" On the ground floor of the mixing plant, black lines creased Trench's forehead as he scoffed at Chen Ge's money-grubbing, hypocritical face. Did he not know what kind of man Chen Ge was? Chen Ge was a true mercenary, a mercenary of the purest breed, one who fought strictly for cash. Nothing bought Chen Ge's loyalty except cold, hard money. "Get lost. You believe in God? The only thing in your eyes is money! How does that Chinese saying of yours go again? 'When the money stops, loyalty drops to zero.' Cut the crap and hold that laboratory building!" Chen Ge pulled back his grin, his expression turning cold and stern. In a resolute, powerful voice, he declared, "Mission guaranteed! As long as I live, the building stands!" Take the money, do the job—that was professional ethics. As for not really knowing how to command a battle? Where was he? Bakhmut! Which faction did he belong to? Russia's Wagner Group! Were the Russian military and Wagner particularly brilliant at warfare? They were so crude it boggled the mind! Ever since the war broke out in February, the Russian military had continuously upended the world's perception of modern warfare with all sorts of surreal blunders, dropping one colossal turd after another.