He pulled up images of people in civilian clothing doing what appeared to be forced labor.
“The people you see here have been kidnapped from the local areas. At first, it was small numbers and isolated instances. The volume increased recently. As you can see, they’re being used as a forced source of labor and likely human shields. If we send in our aircraft or a missile strike, they will indeed wipe out this base. They will also wipe out every single innocent person there. By going in on foot, we hope to limit the number of innocent deaths. There will be casualties, of that I have no doubt. We have to keep that number to a minimum,” General Morrison told them.
“Well, that makes more sense under these circumstances. Do we have any idea on numbers?” asked Vice Marshal Sebastian.
“Unfortunately, nothing solid. We can see possibly a thousand civilians, but we can’t see inside those buildings. Some of them are quite large, especially the maintenance bays, and could have large numbers inside. They could also have more combat personnel so we’re going strong,” General Morrison replied.
“Lastly, Elam is in there somewhere. We’ve got numerous videos and images of him and he seems to be in charge,” the General told them and illustrated the point by showing them several images and video clips of the traitor and it appeared he was giving orders. "I want him alive if possible. Not surprisingly, he’s mostly seen around the C&C.”
“One more thing, General,” said the Lord Marshal. "We’ve danced around this and for those not familiar with Tokyo base they need to know about the underground armaments. My own knowledge is several years out of date and this is your backyard, not mine. What’s the status of the warheads?”
“A couple of years ago, what little of our nuclear arsenal was left was decommissioned and disposed of in controlled reactions. There is no weapons-grade material left. Nukes are a relic of the past and we have far more efficient ways of handling warfare without the danger of fallout. We learned our lesson in the Unification War. It was after your tenure, Lord Marshal, so I’m not surprised you didn’t know about it. The only nuclear fuel on the surface of this planet now is in the power grid reactors and that’s not weapons grade,” the General told him. "If those missiles had been in the terrestrial silos during the catastrophe…”
“Well, some good news is better than no good news. How do you want to play this, General?” asked Vice Marshal Chelsea.
“High Lord, you’ve been quiet so far. Do you have any questions or anything to bring up before we begin a review of the attack plan?” General Morrison asked her.
“Nothing from the Wardens. The Masters had the fey knowledge we needed. The Wardens are ready,” High Lord Alicia told him.
“We have several objectives. Secure the base and eliminate all ALF troops and fey. Breach the C&C and secure our data center. Save as many of the hostages as possible. Capture Elam,” said the General.
“We’ll go in phases. The first phase will be our infantry. Our intel indicates they have rebuilt much of the scanning systems, but they can’t see everything. We’ll send in frogs in the middle of the night. There’s a new moon over Tokyo tomorrow night so between our stealth amphibious craft, the volcanic ash still blocking out some of the starlight and the lowered visibility of a new moon, we think this will give us our best option at a foothold,” he told the groups.
“Once the frogs breach the walls, then hydrocraft will come in and start shelling the defense towers. We can’t use air support as long as those towers are up,” he continued.
Field Marshall Boudicca interrupted again. “I’m sorry to stop you General but as with RATS, I assume by frogs you don’t mean actual frogs.”
The General laughed. “My apologies. I am used to briefing military personnel. Frogs are our term for a type of amphibious vehicle designed for coastal assaults. They were developed as a means of breaching a coastal fortification, punching a hole in it and offloading troops.”
“Thank you for the clarification. Your nomenclature takes some time to get accustomed to,” she replied.
“From here it gets chaotic. Once the battle is underway, we’ll bring in the Vanguard and Wardens. I want everyone working together. The Vanguard Field Marshals and Masters are in command of the surgical teams. Are you going to be okay with that High Lord?” he asked her.
“We’ll do our part. My people can take orders from them,” she replied.
“There will be three strike teams. With Morgana's departure, we have nine Vanguard Marshals so let’s put three per team. The Wardens and remaining Vanguard will be distributed evenly among those teams along with a full squadron of our elite forces per team. Lord Marshal Sebastian, distribution and assignment to the three strike teams will be at your discretion,” said General Morrison.
“The three strike teams will be on hybrid troop transports with a wing of Dragonflies for an escort. Depending on how successful the hydrofoils are at taking out the towers, the transports will either come in airborne or go to sea to the breach points. They tell me all Vanguard and Wardens are trained in PEMES,” General Morrison said.
“Two exceptions to that General. Field Marshals Boudica and Nefertiti have not undergone formal training. They’ll need a crash course. How long do we have?” said the Lord Marshal.
“About twenty-four hours. That’s hardly enough time to field train two people in PEMES,” said the General.
“Those two people are Masters. Don’t underestimate what they can accomplish. I’ll have them ready,” High Lord Sebastian replied.
“There’s a lot riding on this but we need them so once we’re done here, I’ll make my training facilities available to you,” the General told him.
“Thank you, General. They’ll be ready,” he replied.
“Each strike team will have a different objective: motor pool, armory or C&C. Once you deploy, you’ll be on your own. If we can, we’ll try to provide you backup, but our troops are going to have their hands full. We lost a lot of people during the cataclysm, so our resources are limited. We expect heavy resistance and we’re going to lose people. Let’s keep those numbers to a minimum. Who is your team breakdown Lord Marshal?” asked the General.
Field Marshal Bruce will command one team along with Field Marshals Trish and Boudicca. Field Marshal Anna will command a team along with Field Marshals Nefertiti and William and I will command the third unit with Vice Marshal Chelsea and Field Marshal Xavier. Field Marshal Bruce’s unit will take the armory. Field Marshal Anna’s will take the motor pool and my group will take C&C,” Lord Marshal Sebastian told the General.
“You’re not placing the Masters in charge?” asked High Lord Alicia.
“With all due to respect to them, they are not qualified to lead a strike team. Field Marshals Anna and Bruce are both well qualified and are the two most senior agents at this table, yourself included High Lord. I don’t have their experience in Warden field ops, but I have two tours in GloCom. Field Marshals Nefertiti and Boudicca have both proven themselves capable, but they don’t know how modern warfare works. We need people leading these strike teams who understand not just combat but the technology and tactics we’ll be using,” Lord Marshal Sebastian told her.
“That settles that. Maps, personnel briefings, and tactical data will be downloaded to your comms. We roll out in twenty-four hours,” the General told them. "Dismissed.”
#
A short while later, Chelsea, Trish, Boudicca, and Nefertiti were in a training area with a large pool. "First, you’re going to learn the fish suits. The actual name for that outfit is a personal environmental mobility and elevation suit or PEMES. Its label of love is a fish suit when deployed in an aquatic environment. It will provide oxygen, vision assistance in normal, night vision and infrared spectrums with a heads-up display, protection from heat and cold and pressure down to about a thousand feet. You have about three hours before the power supply runs out. It will slowly recharge but if we need more than one charge we’ll already be in trouble. It’s the easier of the t
wo so we’ll get it out of the way and devote as much time as we can to the squirrel suits,” Chelsea told them.
“This is a rebreather. With it you can breathe underwater for several hours,” she said demonstrating how to put it on to cover the mouth and nose. "The face and head covering include the multimode vision goggles. Tap the buttons on the sides of them to switch from normal vision to other spectrums. You can toggle each lens independently, but it can be disorienting. This way ladies.”
They walked over to the pool following Chelsea. As they stood at the edge of the pool Chelsea said, “Now!” and Trish pushed Boudicca and Nefertiti in. The two women shouted reflexively at the sudden dip into the cold water and swam towards the deck yelling obscenities in several languages at Trish and Chelsea.
“You bitch! That water is cold!” yelled Boudicca.
“Oh, suck it up. You would think someone as tough as you could handle a refreshing swim in some cool water,” Chelsea said laughing at her.
"Relax and sink. Breathe as you would normally. You’ll find the device works just fine even if the air tastes a little stale. You’ll be able to hear us and each other through the built-in comm units,” Chelsea told them.
The two Masters went below the surface and gagged a bit at first getting used to the breathing device but were fine after a moment. They came back up and swam over to the side Chelsea and Trish were on.
“Now, that unusual outfit we asked you to wear is more than just fashion. On your left arm is a device. Tap the console and press this sequence,” she said illustrating the activation commands. "Now to turn it off, tap this sequence,” she said demonstrating the second sequence. "Up to this point, your suits have been deactivated except for the rebreathers. I’ll change that in a moment. On your hands are throttle and brake controls. On your boots are turbines. If for any reason you need to drop the suit, press this sequence but try to avoid that. We might need them later if things go bad,” she told them showing them another sequence.
She tapped a few buttons on her own console and the suits on the women buzzed as they powered up. Fins popped out from the arms and legs and the canon-shaped propellers unfolded and deployed on the backs of their legs and feet. The boots expanded into fins.
“Have at it. Learn to swim like a member of GloCom,” she told them.
The two women spent an hour or so learning the nuances of controlling the fish suit then came out of the water.
“The marvels of your technology never cease to amaze me,” said Nefertiti.
“The suit is a marvel, I will grant you that, but I had a question about this console. I think it was malfunctioning,” Boudicca said.
Trish and Chelsea walked over to her and she started asking about some of the buttons and then, without warning, a strong telekinetic force emanated from Nefertiti, grabbed both Trish and Chelsea and threw them into the pool.
The two women gasped as they hit the frigid water.
“You're going to pay for that!” Chelsea yelled at them.
“Oh, suck it up. You would think someone as tough as you could handle a refreshing swim in some cool water,” Boudicca said laughing at them.
After they climbed out, the four women stood talking a good distance from the pool.
“Now comes the hard part. You’re going to learn to fly or at least glide fast. Squirrel suits are next. You’ll use the same rebreather, so you can breathe easily at the altitude in the thinner air and high speed at which you’ll be moving. Now that you have had a moment to rest, let’s get to it,” she said. "This is the aerial deployment mode or as well call it, squirrel suit. It has some similar functions to the fish suit but important variations. First, the command sequences are different,” she said while showing them how to activate and deactivate the modes. "This time we start slow. I’m not going to throw you out of a shuttle on your first try.”
“Do you mean we will actually be jumping out of a shuttle with this suit on possibly hundreds of feet in the air?” asked Boudicca.
“Don’t be silly,” said Chelsea. "It will be a few thousand and it won’t be a shuttle. It will be a military transport going hundreds of miles an hour.”
“Surely you jest,” said Nefertiti.
Trish and Chelsea looked at each other.
“I don’t believe they do,” said Boudicca.
They spent the next few hours teaching them how to use the suits. They were built on the concept of a flying squirrel. Ultralight membranes stretched between the legs and down from the arms to the ankle creating a human glider. The same unit that served as the propeller on the aquatic setting doubled as a thruster of sorts. The landing was tricky. It involved reversing the thrust on the turbines to rapidly slow the ascent then hitting the ground running or rolling. The suits were fast and dangerous for the untrained, but the Masters were quick studies and soon were making passable drops from the training platforms a few hundred feet in the air.
“I don’t want to unnecessarily risk anyone, but we don’t have the luxury of time. We need to do a real jump. You’ve got the basics down and are passably handling the training jumps. We’ll have backup chutes in case you run into a problem on the training jumps. When we go to Tokyo, they’ll be no backup. They’ll get in the way. Just pull the handle on your chest to deploy the chute if you get in trouble and you’ll float down. A flashing light on your heads up will let you know the last safe point to deploy the chute. If it turns yellow and you're not in control, pull the handle,” said Chelsea.
The four women loaded into a military training shuttle and launched. They climbed to about five thousand feet then Field Marshal Chelsea ordered the pilot to start doing wide circles around the drop zone.
“Should we start a little lower?” Trish asked.
“I wish we had the luxury of time, but we don't. I think they'll be okay, or I wouldn't make the call,” Chelsea replied.
“I think you're right,” Trish told her.
"Trish will lead and I will follow you down so if you run into trouble we can get to you,” Chelsea told them.
“You’ve done this many times?” asked Boudicca.
“Not since training but it’s like riding a bicycle,” replied Trish.
“I have a bit more experience. My status as a senior agent often got me assigned some of the more difficult fey targets and that sometimes meant inaccessible locations. That’s why I’m the one training you,” Chelsea replied.
“What’s a bicycle?” asked Nefertiti as the shuttle bay opened.
The two Masters stood staring at the open air down to the ground.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of you. You know how to use your suits, you’ll be just fine,” yelled Chelsea over the rush of the air.
“Let’s do it!” yelled Trish as she put on her rebreather mask and jumped.
The two Masters followed suit, both yelling half in adulation half in panic as they jumped. Chelsea followed them out.
The four women propelled downward. The wings on the suits allowed them to steer their fall towards the big target area. The first drop for the Masters was sloppy and both hit hard and fell when trying to do a running stop, fortunately without injury.
“Good first try. Let’s do it again,” ordered Chelsea.
“Again? How many times will we do this?” asked Boudicca.
“Until you get it right or we run out of time,” Chelsea replied as the shuttle landed and they got back onboard.
They spent several hours repeatedly jumping and by the time Chelsea cleared them they were far from perfect, but she was confident they could make the jump on target and survive, and they only had one phase left to their training.
“Now, one last thing to learn,” Chelsea said.
“They're not going to like this,” Trish replied.
“No, but they have to learn. It's how we'll be making the actual jump,” Chelsea replied then tapped a few buttons on her own suit.
“What the hell!” Boudicca exclaimed.
“What did you do to my eye
s?” Nefertiti asked.
“You're going to be jumping in the dark using a heads-up display to give you a virtual image of the target drop. I've blacked out your lenses to simulate the darkness. You'll see a virtual wireframe display appear in a few seconds,” Chelsea told them.
They jumped a few more times using the darkness simulations and they had difficulty at first but adapted quickly.
“You’ve both done phenomenally well. This training usually lasts weeks and you’ve crashed it in a day. Literally, considering your first few jumps. Let’s get some food, rest up and prepare. We have about six hours before we launch,” Chelsea said.
“You’ve really come into your own,” said Boudicca.
“What do you mean?” asked Chelsea.
“In the past, before the Seal, Nefertiti and I talked on numerous occasions and recognized your potential. The time and place hindered you. Even though a few like myself and Nefertiti rose above it, we were from different cultures, different times, where women were able to achieve more. You had the unfortunate occurrence, at least in that life, of being born into a culture and time when you would never be allowed to achieve all you could as a woman. Regardless of who you were and what you could do, you always lived in the shadow of the knights. Arthur was the only one from Camelot who really supported you. Now though, that is not the case. You are a leader and a warrior. You would have been revered in my clan,” said Boudicca.
“You have heard me refer to you and your husband as kittens. In Africa, as I’m sure you know, the lion is the most feared predator on the plains. The lion is indeed the fiercest predator, but the lioness is the greatest hunter. They must both be at their peak to ensure their pride flourishes. You and Sebastian are that lion and lioness now. You have taken the world as your pride. Now you are no longer kittens. I am pleased to see this,” said Nefertiti.
“Thank you both for the words of encouragement. Even the fiercest predator must eat and rest. We should do that now because soon we hunt,” she told them as they went towards the mess hall. "Your Vanguard uniform should also be here now. I had it shipped here right after you arrived,” she told Nefertiti
The Vanguard Page 8