by Peter Rhodan
Gizel had been required to do an essay on the whole thing earlier in the year. Unfortunately, she wasn’t allowed to use the secret records held in the vault of the Palace, which explained the whole matter very clearly. The records had been stored away for so long that if they were brought out now too many people would be genuinely upset that the information contained in them hadn’t been made available centuries ago.
They arrived in the Klarian system without problems and discovered it was much as described, which was unexciting, to say the least. Lacking any large body in the habitable zone limited the utility of it as a base of operations for any of the main galactic mining operations. The gas giant, Klaria II, had a dozen moons of not very exciting composition. There was a mining operation on a frozen gas moon looking for rare volatiles and another on a rocky moon looking for rare earths. And that was it. There was so little traffic through the system that there was not even a station nor a dedicated communications relay near any of the jump points. Which would help account for its popularity with the pirates.
The fourth moon of the gas giant was a barren, frozen, but rocky body of no particular recommendation other than its size, which meant it was ideal for Gizel to learn about using powered armor for real. They parked the ship, whose real name was the Kormorant she had leaned earlier, in an orbit that was on the other side of the moon from the mining camps for no particular reason other than habitual sneakiness. The ship’s regular shuttle, a Brython model, took Gizel, Karvon, Lothar, and Andreas to the surface. Andreas claimed that he was there to keep an eye on the Princess, as he was the only Kimerian for light-years. Gizel was not so sure his interest in her security was the real reason he had accompanied them, as he didn’t seem any less enthusiastic to see her use the armor than the others.
They carefully fitted her into the same suit of armor she had tried on in the ship as that was the closest they had to her approximate size, and she waited calmly while the others also suited up. The inside of the suit was designed to self-adjust to your actual shape and size, after a moment she felt it squeeze her in interesting places as it writhed into shape. Karvon’s suit was marked with several burn patches and a long groove in the left front of his breastplate. With a start, Gizel realized that he must have been hit with a rail gun round to cause such a groove. Oh! Lothar’s armor was fresh, almost new looking while Andreas’ was sort of in-between. It was newish looking, or at least it didn’t have the worn look of Karvon’s but it did sport a burn mark on one shoulder.
Eventually, they were all set.
“Comms check.” came Karvon’s voice over the suit’s speakers.
“Roger.” Came the voice of Lothar and then Andreas also replied.
Gizel realized she had no idea of how to turn her comms on. Presumably, Lothar had done it for her when she had tested the suit on the ship. She looked at Karvon and tapped her helmet then raised her hands in the universal query motion to show she had no idea.
“Say Comms channel one live,” Karvon said slowly and clearly, obviously understanding her mimed question.
“Comms channel one live.” she intoned slowly, then said questioningly “Can you hear me?”
“All clear. Good. One of those little differences between real life and a game.”
He paused and gestured towards the shuttle ramp.
“Put the ramp down Lothar. Gizel, you will find it easy to move in here but as you walk down the ramp you’ll become subject to the moon’s gravity which is barely two percent so be careful you don’t step too hard and bounce up into the sky.”
She nodded at this having experienced such effects in the game, although as he said she was finding doing this in real-life was somewhat different from the game. It was with some trepidation she began to slowly walk forward. As she neared the end of the ramp her weight dropped away and she felt like she was walking on air, a totally different feeling to being in freefall. That was just an aimless floating whereas this was more like she was walking on very soft cushions. She stepped onto the rocky non-descript surface of the moon carefully, noticing how easy it was to bounce herself upward. She did not want to embarrass herself in front of the men by bouncing along awkwardly, particularly as they appeared to have adjusted to the very low gravity quite readily.
Karvon appeared on her left.
“How is it?” his voice sounded serious rather than amused.
“I seem to have got the hang of it to some extent,” she answered, deliberately trying to not sound too confident.
“Good. We’re going to give you a weapon now. A plasma rifle. It’s locked in safe mode for the moment because we want to see how you move in armor while also carrying a weapon.”
Gizel nodded and Lothar appeared carrying two of the large, bulky plasma rifles. They were the preferred weapons for non-atmospheric combat, according to the trivid games she excelled at. There were a couple of different versions, a long-range narrow field weapon used by marksman and a lot of special forces troops, and the normal broad fire model used by most ground forces. And of course, every national grouping had its own version, all with slight idiosyncratic differences. The long-range weapon used more energy for range and was slower to recycle than the regular version which could fire faster and that mattered more in a large number of situations. Gizel’s preferred weapon when game playing had been the marksman rifle. The weapon Lothar had given her was a Brython-made Palmer Mk 61 Marksman rifle capable of reaching over ten kilometers with effective armor penetration in a partial vacuum. Long-range was pretty much line of sight in any sort of terrain, especially on a moon like this with its short horizon and rugged surface. On a normal planet in clear terrain, the charge tended to be ineffective, except against soft targets beyond ten kilometers.
“Ah. I know these,” she said.
She hefted the weapon getting a feel for the weight and practiced sighting it. She was careful not to point it at anyone or at the shuttle.
Lothar grinned.
“Krevis checked out your record in Starmaster. He seemed impressed. Anyway, he showed me zat your record said you preferred zee marksman plasma rifle over normal model. Most guys prefer standard rifle because of rate of fire and wider damage zone.”
“I know, but I prefer to kill them before they see me.”
She wondered if the grin on her face was visible to the others through the suit interface.
“Hah. I like zis one Karvon!” Lothar laughed.
“She does have a certain style about her.” Karvon agreed having listened in, and Gizel could hear the warmth in his voice. “You ready to do some training?”
“Sure,” she answered, a certain cockiness entering her voice.
She was finding herself feeling more comfortable now, in many ways it was just like the game.
“Good,” commented Lothar. “Now we can see how you move on low grav surface. Follow me.”
And he took off running across the broken and rocky ground.
Gizel found herself flying up into the air or tripping over outcrops as she flailed along trying to follow the Iskander. Karvon was keeping pace right behind her offering a bemused critique of all her mistakes. She gritted her teeth, her cheeks flushing as she fell on her face once more, thankful that no one could see her face. She stumbled to a halt four or five hundred meters from the shuttle where Lothar casually waited for her, apparently not even breathing hard.
“Not good crossing broken ground,” he grumbled.
“I will do better with practice. You surprised me taking off like that.”
“Well follow me then.” Karvon snickered and took off to her right.
This time she had to endure Lothar’s short, accented verbal barbs coming from behind her, but she did better on this cross-country run. Her body and mind were adjusting to the difference between real armor on real ground and the fake trivid simulations she was so used to. After another six or seven hundred scrambling meters Karvon halted and waited for her to reach him, Lothar right behind her.
“Zat
was better Karvon. Actually, it is very impressive how quickly she pick up how to move.”
“Hmm. Think she is ready to go after Andreas?”
He certainly sounded like he was grinning inside his armor!
Lothar appeared to be pondering this question so Gizel asked Karvon.
“Go after Andreas?”
“Yeah. While the safety is on we can set the sights to react to the trigger being pressed and if you are on target it will record a hit. Just like it was a video game.”
“I see. So, I have to find and shoot Andreas?”
“That’s the idea. He has moved off from the shuttle while we were doing our little jog. Whenever you decide you are ready say go and may the best soldier win.”
“Hmm. Can Andreas hear me?” Gizel enquired sweetly.
“Sure can, Princess,” came Andreas’ voice, sounding rather cocky.
She figured he was on the far side of the shuttle but whether he was to the left or the right was the question.
Gizel strolled over to a rather larger outcropping and jumped behind it in case he had a line of sight on her.
“Go!” she said.
Gizel had sized up the terrain quickly, trying to bring all her gaming experience into play. This outcropping was a rambling pile that offered several covered access routes both in and out. Moving quickly as far as she was able while still keeping under the cover it provided, she quickly reached the other end of the pile and assessed the possibilities. Ahead was a ravine and more broken ground. To her left was a slope with several large boulders and patches of broken ground and to her right a more open although still broken area. She quickly went up the slope rushing from boulder to boulder, not stopping to look as she hustled to the top of the slope.
Once over the crest she hunkered down and finding a suitable patch of broken rock eased back to the crest on her stomach and found a covered position to do a quick visual search. She could not spot Andreas but decided that if he were advancing on her he would be doing so to the right of the shuttle, as the ground on the left was fairly open. Karvon and Lothar were down below carefully not looking in her direction which was sporting of them. She studied the open area for longer than the rough area but saw no hint of movement. Right.
Lesson one of Starmaster was to keep moving. Lesson two was to do unto others. There was no lesson three. Given the terrain he had to be coming from the right, so she dropped down below the crest and sprinted as far as she could before the raised ground she was on folded back down. At this point she started moving from cover to cover, always angling to the right, several times she crawled backward keeping herself covered but still moving, moving.
Far to the right was another rise that looked like it was the edge of an impact crater. She worked towards this as fast she could manage. She scrambled up the slope of a ravine that lined the sidewall of the impact crater on all fours, with the gun slung over her back. Then carefully climbed over the crest where she relaxed for a moment before finding a spot she could use to get a look across the ground to the now distant shuttle. Slowly building a sort of blind with carefully positioned rocks she settled in to watch for a sign of her countryman.
Sure enough, after a long nine minutes or so she caught a brief flicker of movement maybe seven or eight hundred meters in front of her position. She held motionless waiting and was rewarded by the sight of a figure she assumed was Andreas crossing between a large boulder and a patch of rough ground that shielded him from her view. She patiently held her position and he briefly reappeared sometime later beyond the rough ground that had hidden him. Deciding to show off she dodged around the rim of the crater a little until she found a spot where she could descend through a gap that was lower than the rest of the crest. Reaching a more level stretch of the surface she quickly dodged from boulder to boulder working her way in behind where Andreas was cautiously advancing.
As she gained on him she caught the occasional glimpse of his armored form but fortunately, he never noticed her whenever he swung his gaze in a full circle. His general trend was towards angling up the slope she had crossed behind earlier, but he was moving slowly and carefully and being very sure not to expose himself to her if she had been where he was assuming she was holed up. A few minutes more and Gizel was less than two hundred meters from him. As he moved to his left behind a large rock outcropping she settled into a firing position behind a small boulder and anticipating where he would reappear waited until she had him clearly sighted in and opened up with a rapid volley, which was not the normal way of using her marksman rifle.
He swung around but realized he was done and raised his hands in defeat.
“How the hell did you do that?” he asked, clearly puzzled by how she could have got into a position behind him.
“With a lot of hard work,” she answered coolly, marching forward.
“Ha.” Came Lothar’s snort over her suit’s comms.
“How bad was it?” asked Karvon.
“She snuck up behind me and blew the crap out of me from spitting range. That’s how bad it was.”
“Spitting range. Ha. Zat funny.” said Lothar amused. “Come back to ze shuttle.” he ordered and soon all four were assembled at the shuttle.
“So Andreas, how would you analyze what just happened?” he inquired.
Andreas leaned against the side of the shuttle and crossed his arms.
“The truth? She reasoned out which direction I was likely to take. Somehow she moved faster than me without giving her position away and flanked my line of advance so that she could close in behind me once I’d passed. Fast and then patient. She probably could have taken me out five minutes or more earlier than she did.”
Karvon turned to her and although she could not see his expression in the suit helmet she could hear the query in his tone.
“Why did you take so long to shoot him?”
“I wanted to make sure.”
She hesitated and then continued. “And I wanted to do it as impressively as possible.”
“Ah. Well, Miss Princess. Never, ever, let me catch you showboating again. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Karvon,” she answered.
She felt rather annoyed that he was upset with her instead of being impressed as she had hoped. Damn.
“Good. Just so you understand. There is no room for showing off in real combat. Just remember that. It is the quick or the dead.”
He paused, but before Gizel could decide whether she should say anything he turned to Lothar.
“What do you think?”
“She is quick and confident. Zis is not real combat situation. But she zinks quick. You want to fire gun for real Gizel?”
Gizel nodded, and Lothar showed her how to take the safety off. She very carefully kept the weapon pointed away from everyone and turned away from the shuttle.
“It is just like Starmaster. Aim at zat rock outcrop over zere.”
She raised the weapon to her shoulder and pointed it at the outcrop he indicated. He stood at her shoulder, watching her carefully.
“Good, now when you are ready, breathe in and squeeze ze trigger.”
She took a couple of breathes to settle herself and then did as commanded. The weapon hummed and bucked in her hands as it fired, the plasma pulse traveling downrange and striking the outcrop pretty much where she had intended. The rock flared and melted at the impact point in a most satisfactory manner. The sound of the shattering surrounding rock was surprising and she realized the game did not translate that effect very well.
“Have a couple more shots, Princess,” Karvon instructed and she blasted several more defenseless rocks to molten slag.
Interestingly, she found it rather more satisfying slagging rocks in real life than she had shooting enemies in virtual reality. After a few minutes, Karvon waved his arm.
“Okay, no point in overheating it. Very nice. Now put the safety back on. Lothar, check it please.”
Gizel was upset momentarily by Karvon ordering Lothar to ch
eck her work but quickly forgot as they entered the shuttle and after sealing the craft began doffing their armor. She was hoping for more compliments on her performance but Karvon simply moved to the flight deck and prepped the shuttle to return to the Kormorant. The others stowed their armor and weapons by using clips built into the shuttle walls so there was nothing loose lying around, something she had not really noted in her excitement on the flight down. Andreas showed her how to stow her armor and gun while Lothar put away Karvon’s.
Once everything was locked down they got underway almost immediately. None of the crew left aboard the Kormorant seemed all that interested in how she had performed on the moon, causing her to feel a trifle miffed. It was not that she had expected Corinne to be that interested given the woman had apparently given up doing combat missions, but still, it would have been nice to have somebody to gloat to! The ship quickly made for the jump point heading towards the outer reaches. The next system was named Jex and had a small independent colony on the fourth planet. As they lined up to jump Gizel asked if they were going to call on the colony.
“Nah,” Krevis said. “They’re all religious nutters down there. Been there three hundred years but barely have thirty thousand people. All on the one continent. Very prickly and they don’t like outsiders one little bit. Don’t ever go down there without an army at your back. Sure as anything they’ll come up with something you’ve done or said that transgresses their damn religious rules and then they will want to incarcerate you or burn you at the stake!”
Gizel thought he must be joking but looking around the flight deck she could see none of the others appeared to be amused.
“Seriously?” she queried still sure they were having her on.
Lothar glanced over at her then looked back to his instruments as he spoke.
“My cousin was on cargo ship zat called zere. The captain and the mate went down to ze surface. The mate zey lashed for blasphemy, to ze point he could not even stand up and ze captain they burnt.”
“Didn’t anyone do anything about it?”