14 hours later

Duke stood off to one side as Flint debriefed the group. "You achieved your objective and rescued the captive with efficiency and speed. You should have been better though." The squad waited for him to continue.

"Orange Five! If that wire had delivered any harder of a jolt, it might have taken you out of commission. Had that happened, you would not have been on hand to coordinate the evacuation of the civilians, and you would have been a casualty when Black Eight blew up the hot zone."

Orange Five looked pained at the assessment. "Yes, sir!" he answered. Green Six smirked at him from behind.

"Green Six! You turned your back on a man with a gun! If Purple Four hadn't had your back, you'd have been dead before you got in the door, and you would not have been on hand to help with the initial firefight in the atrium. Had that happened, we may have lost Blue Two as well."

"Yes, sir!" she answered promptly.

"Blue Two! The mechanics said you got that bike running in record time when you decided to use it for the op. Nice job, soldier."

Two beamed. "Thank you, sir! It's what I do!"

"Plan on doing it again! You left it behind in the atrium, and now the squad needs a new bike!"

"Yes, sir!" answered Blue Two.

"Purple Four! Near flawless performance. You saved Green Six twice."

Green Six winced.

"And nearly lost your life twice to two different gunmen once you had the captive. Your objective isn't achieved until you're out."

Purple Four nodded slightly and answered, "Understood, sir!"

"Red Three! You were lucky the rosary worked as a distraction! You should have been taking your shot instead."

"Yes, sir!" acknowledged Red Three.

"And had you lost it, how would you explain it to your son?" Flint winked. The group laughed.

"Yellow One! What is with the talking in rhyme, soldier?"

Yellow One answered quickly, "Yo Joe, I don't know! I didn't mean for it to rhyme, but it happens all the time!" Realizing he'd done it again, One answered, "It just comes out under stress, sir. I also lisp when I'm tired."

Flint raised an eyebrow. "It's a potential distraction, and it comes off cocky. Eighty-six it. You sound like Roadblock."

"Yes, sir!" answered One.

"But good driving," added Flint.

"Thank you, sir!"

"Black Eight, that goes double for you! You ever sing on an op again instead of acknowledging your CO, you're going to the brig! I don't care what kind of code you worked out beforehand!"

"Yes, sir!" answered Black Eight.

"All of you need to cut down the radio chatter - this isn't Ocean's 11!"

"Yes sir!" answered the group.

"Brown Seven! Considering your service record, and the number of times you've been busted back to private, I can. not. believe. that you are the only one who did his job to the letter, without any screw ups!" Flint added, "I couldn't understand why the Admiral recommended you for this, son, but now I'm beginning to see! We can only pick one of this group as a Joe, and I'm recommending you."

"Belay that!" barked a captain as he came through the door.

"Attention!" called Duke, saluting as he did so.

The group jumped to their feet quickly, and snapped stiff salutes. They were surprised to see that it was the man they had rescued the previous night. He still sported a black eye and split lips, but was otherwise cleaned up and in full officer's dress. "At ease. We were only looking for one new Joe, but I'm taking all of you. Your performances were flawed, and they will get better, but you worked well as a team. You will retain the codenames given for this mission. You've got liberty for the next twelve hours, and when you come back, you're working for me. I'm Captain Hawk. Codename: White Zero. Our squad is Codename: The Breakers. Dismissed!"

Story, original characters and content are owned by Chris Bishop. Copyright Chris Bishop 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.