Soon done…

Yeah, sorry for the delays, if there’s anyone actually reading this. I’ve been busy with my fantasy novel, as well as another short story, so I haven’t gotten much time left for Dark Haze. I’m nearly done with the revising, though I’m going to edit the ending a lot before I can post it. I also have to figure out the best way to post it so that it ends up in chronological order, which is difficult to figure out how to do here in WordPress. I’m thinking I’ll add it, not as posts, but as new pages instead. Or something like that.

Ayways, sorry for the delay as I said. It’ll be up soon…some day.

Update

Well, another update. I’ve got about five or six pages left to revise before I’m finished. After that I’ll tweak a bit with the blog so it’ll be easier to read, then start posting the story in chapters or pieces. Gimmie five days or so, and I’ll start doing that.

‘Til then, take care.

Toodles//
Henrik

Character Profile: Cpl. Chris Reich

Thought I’d throw up another character profile for you, the last one I have in store for now, as an appetizer and an apology. The apology is because lately I’ve been focused on writing on the fantasy story rather than revising Dark Haze. Today, however, I got a good chunk of it done, so now I can focus on the fantasy story with good conscience. I’d say Dark Haze will be delayed at tops a couple of more weeks.

Anyways, here’s Chris Reich’s character profile for y’all’s enjoyment. I haven’t had time to do the last look-through before posting, so sorry if it’s a bit rough, though I don’t think so.

Corporal Chris Reich (Team Bravo Sniper)

Chris Reich grew up on an orphanage in Johannesburg. During his childhood he spent it in the orphanage, where bullies were many and active. Whenever they tried to bully him, however, they found that his muscles and big body weren’t just for show, and many only escaped the attempt with a few knocked out teeth. Despite his troubles as a boy, however, Reich never, unlike some other boys on the orphanage, got pulled into the world of crime after leaving.

Instead, when he turned eighteen, Reich joined the South African Army, and was assigned to the 9th South African Infantry battalion. In 2007 he was deployed to the South African border to Angola, where the Border War was raging with renewed fire, and through battlefield promotion, he rose quickly through the ranks to become a sergeant, as his unit took heavy casualties during their initial combat operations in the region, during which Reich showed great courage and even earned himself a Bronze Leopard medal for valor. Because of this he was a suitable candidate for battlefield promotion.

As the 9th Battalion was converted into an amphibious battalion due to rearrangements in the South African Union Defence Forces, Reich and the squad he led was deployed deeper into Angola to carry out fireforce operations similar to those carried out by the legendary 32 Battalion. As they gained experience in fighting in marine- and marsh terrain, the unit gained reputation as being highly reliable, dangerous, and skilled, and they were nicknamed the Swamp Devils. At the same time their regiment, due to its convertion into an amphibious regiment, changed name to the 4th Seaborne Special Forces regiment, and their focus became on fighting the enemy on their home ground in marsh and jungle regions where regular Army units, and even the 32 Battalion, had trouble reaching.

During a temporary stationing at the Buffalo base where the legendary South African 32 Battalion headquarters were stationed, around 2009, Reich met with Derrick Cole for the first time, a young staff sergeant of a recon unit of the 32 Battalion. The soldier caught Reich’s attention by his exceptionally young age of only eighteen (Reich himself at this time was in his early twenties), an unusually low age for a 32 Battalion soldier. Though they only spoke for a short while, the two would later meet again in Vektor, where Cole would become Reich’s squad leader.

Though Reich officially served as a sniper only for a few weeks during his initial tour of duty in the Border War before being appointed squad leader, he was known to be one of the deadliest marksmen of the South African Army at his time, even going so far as to openly favor the Dragunov SVR in front of the locally made R4 assault rifle. For another year he served with the South African Army in Angola, before the racism of the current Apartheid regime of the Union began to get to him, and disgusted, he resigned from the military in 2010.

At this time, he heard from other former Servicemen of the Union about a South African, Dubai-based mercenary company, namely Vektor Security Group, a PMC that allegedly placed a lot of effort into maintaining a high code of ethics. Other ex-Servicemen that had joined Vektor told him of their working there, and convinced, Reich, now without a job and only having one choice for future career – mercenary – decided to give it a try. He used his last money to buy an airplane ticket to Dubai, where he applied for the Vektor Special Forces selection course.

Reich passed the course on his first attempt, and was accepted into the North Africa Section’s 9th Amphibious Special Combat Unit, where he was placed as the team’s designated marksman. Barely a year later, he was recruited to the Sabre divisions, but failed his first attempt at the selection course. On his second attempt, however, he completed the course easily, having prepared himself physically for it, and was made a corporal and official member of the Sabre divisions.

As a person, Reich is a professional soldier like Cole, but allows himself a little more leisure than his squad leader does. He is very close with the other team mates, and is a man who even Cole turns to for advise and his opinion sometimes. Reich, though a sniper, is also a skilled hand-to-hand combat instructor, having trained Krav Maga with the South African Army during his time in the 4th Seaborne, and served as an instructor in Krav Maga for the UNITA guerilla for a short while.

Weapons:
MGS90 sniper rifle
SP-1 pistol
FN 57 pistol

Update

Well, more like news brief.

I’m working my way through the rewrite of the story. Going slowly, much to be done. Still trying to deal with how to insert some more paranormal stuff into it.

Also, I’m working on a more serious project right now, a fantasy story that may or may not turn into a book. Only time will tell.

Cya!

Character Profile: MSgt. Derrick Cole

Master Sergeant Derrick Cole
SABRE-division squad leader
Special Projects Division squad leader

Derrick was born the son of a South-African Army officer. His father was a member of the legendary 32 Battalion, and served in the South-African Border War, on the border between South Africa and Angola. When Cole was just six years old, however, both his parents were killed by black communist terrorists, attacking their ranch in the Northern Cape province. His father was crucified and his mother raped, in front of him. Cole was then left to die in the middle of the Kalahari desert, with a broken leg, and no hope of surviving. Refusing to die, however, the young boy crawled for three days straight, before he was found by a group of UNITA guerillas.

The guerillas took him in, and provided food and shelter for him. In exchange he became a child soldier, at six years of age. He was taught how to fight and kill, taught in the art of guerilla warfare, tracking and hunting, putting out traps, every set of skills that could and would be of use to a guerilla fighter. For twelve years, until he turned eighteen, he fought alongside UNITA in the Border War, rising through their ranks and becoming one of their best young squad leaders.

At that time he was recruited into the same outfit his father had once served with, the legendary Buffalo Soldiers of the South African 32 Battalion, which worked tightly with the UNITA guerillas. There he served, first as a sniper, and later as a squad leader of a recon squad, for the next four years, until one day one of his soldiers, a local tracker and point man, betrayed his trust, leading him and his men into an ambush that saw his squad wiped out to the last member.

Cole, as the only survivor, managed to survive and escape the ambush. He deserted from the Army, after having stolen intelligence on the whereabouts of the traitor, tracked the man down deep within the Angolan swamps, and assassinated him. After that Derrick Cole disappeared without a trace.

Three weeks later however, he resurfaced in Dubai, where he applied for and was accepted into Vektor’s 24th Light Assault Infantry battalion, though later, he was reasigned to Vektor’s elite Sabre divisions.

Cole was sent on an operation in northern Afghanistan with the objective of intercepting a PMC convoy and assassinating its leader, a known PMC member, and terrorist that had become a high-priority target for Vektor for his many war crimes that had included killing innocent civilians, and Vektor operatives in the country. Cole, as an elite sniper, was sent in to assassinate him, and was temporarily assigned to a Sabre squad of the Vektor Middle-East Section.

But after walking into an ambush, the entire squad was wiped out due to a security leak in the operational command, and Cole, as the only survivor of the original team, completed his mission alone. After returning to North Africa, he was promoted to master sergeant, and put in charge of his own Sabre squad, which was part of the platoon under command of Sergeant Major Ren Luo.

Though one of the best NCO’s in Vektor, Cole is a loner, and is incapable of trusting anyone, even his own soldiers, because he has been betrayed twice by his own people, resulting in grivieous losses on his side in combat. Even when on base, he doesn’t seem to relax, a result of his life as a child soldier. Officers also often take note of his complete lack of social skills, again a result of the childhood that was stolen from him.

Despite it having been many years since his 32 Battalion squad was wiped out, Cole still blames himself for their deaths, as well as for the deaths of his fellow soldiers during the failed operation in Afghanistan, something he carries with him every day of his life. Because of this he often suffers from horrible nightmares.

Something that is practically unknown in Vektor is that Cole’s right eye was shot out by an enemy sniper during sniper warfare, during his last, failed, mission with the 32 Battalion and as such it is replaced by a fake eye made of glass. The only hint that it is not real is a small scar in the outer corner of the eye socket.

Cole is a soldier. Be it a mercenary or government-employed, he does what he is ordered to without questioning those orders. He does not, however, endanger the lives of his men unless he feel it is warranted. Since his transfer to Sabre, Cole’s men have learnt to trust him, and has gained a great deal of respect for him after witnessing his considerable skills in the art of war first-hand. His excellent head for military tactics has also earned him the respect of his superior officers as well.

After the combat operations in Zafra, Cole begins to trust his men more and more, and when they are reassigned as the first platoon of the Special Projects Divisions of Vektor, they have become an extremely tight outfit.

Weapons:
Ares Shrike 5,56 mm w. optical scope, M203 underslung grenade launcher.
Socom Mk.23 pistol