by Marcus Sloss
“Of course, I will even go with you. I want to ride the train before Eric gets to,” Jevon said with an evil grin at my pout. With a wave over his shoulder, he and Nilvia vanished through the portal.
I sighed.
“Your armor is delicious, hunky husband-of-mine.” She wrinkled up her nose, “Not these army fatigues, though. Will you wear something more appropriately royal on the regular, over these acrium?” Perci asked.
“When not expecting combat, sure,” I said and Perci rolled her eyes. Who was I kidding? We always expected combat. “Thank you for all of this.”
“She is the real hero.” Perci nodded at Everly in her form-fitting jungle armor. Two Goliaths walked past us without a single impact. Huh, that was odd. I figured they would shake the ground. Inside the storage bay was real, at least I thought it was. There was no energy drain like in the market. “Turns out the storage master didn’t like all the damage they caused so it adjusted the Goliaths. Well,” she frowned, “if you’ve got battle games, armies, and such to prepare, I’ve got the promotions and personnel to sort out.”
I watched the end of the line of Crixxi approach Everly, kiss her cheek, and then walk out the portal. Three hundred plus Crixxi that had been standing in a corner disappeared. Everly skipped over to me and Willow, her green acrium armor keeping her busty bits firmly locked down.
“You look dashing. Why the teeth around your head?” Everly said, pointing to my crown.
“On our world, it symbolizes leadership. My queens and I are the only ones who will wear such an adornment. Add some, next time, my lovely Crixxi.”
She grinned and nuzzled up against my side.
“Everly,” I asked, “Do you want to war” and pointed at Willow, “or to manage?” and pointed at Perci. “Willow is going to be a company commander under Slister, while Perci will oversee personnel replacement, pay, and promotions.”
“I am trained in combat with a spear that shoots arrowheads and stuns with electricity. I have been a warrior for only four years. I know so little. My combat experience is limited to fighting amongst massive trees; mainly fighting Crixxi. Daphne, on the other hand, has fought for nearly four hundred years and I just—”
“Four years combat experience is not insignificant in human terms. What would you like to do?”
“I’d like to try each position out, first, if that is all right? I can pull an eight hour war shift the first day, followed by an eight hour administration shift the next. Then I can decide which I am better suited for. Of course, only if you are okay with it,” Everly said, wrapping her tail around my wrist. I yanked her in for an embrace.
“You are to report to Mclain. We’ll be scaling our formation from teams to battalions. Tell Mclain you’re his new Executive Officer, his XO. That makes you his second in command. I expect you to follow his lead, Everly, and learn all you can.”
She beamed.
“Dismissed,” I ordered, and she gave me one last squeeze before running out the portal. “You too, Willow, report to Slister, please.”
She smiled and gave me a peck on the cheek and a slap on the ass before walking out the portal. Perci laughed and added her own slap to my butt cheek before jogging to catch up to Willow. I was the last one in the room.
I stood in the storage bay, looking at the massive trees. Those would be impossible to fight through, unless something massive like a Divine-ape knocked them down. I’m glad they were on our side.
I looked forward to improving our defenses, training our army, and preparing for the next wave of enemies. In twelve hours’ time, who knew what these next blue portals would bring. I hoped all this planning and frantic shopping helped us survive this next season.
CHAPTER 11
Mitchell stood at my side while Elithen piloted my command vehicle, which for today was AH1. Each side was prepared for the mock battle and the sun cresting the horizon with its opening rays signaled go time. I had Slister on my left flank in her TP63s. The core of my brigade was exiting Marble Heights in a cluster that my company commanders and their sergeants fought to sort out. Making the task more difficult, though, was the fact that Mclain and his octosuit teams were catching a ride to the fight on gravity sleds towed behind Eddy’s TG99s. The eight-legged platforms were attached to the sleds and to the tanks themselves. At some point, we’d have to get the octosuits their own transportation, enabling them to keep up with the tanks enroute. When they got to the fight, they could dismount and dig in. Or something. Shit. This was a mess.
“Slister, initiate reconnaissance, minimize contact and avoid engagements,” I ordered.
“Yes, Sir,” Slister barked over the command net, and then switched to her own battalion net to relay commands.
I turned to review my units. The back wall of AH1 displayed my battalion commanders in the top frame. Under Mclain, Slister, and Eddy, were their company commanders. The org chart continued breaking units down by platoon, and finally squads and smaller teams. This was how I planned to track unit reactions and losses. The lower half of the giant screen was covered in over two thousand tiny individual mug shots of my force.
“Thoughts on what you want to use next rotation?” I asked Mitchell.
A glance out the front window showed Slister sending the light tanks out to find Jevon’s forces. Adapting to technology was tough. I still found the small tank’s agility and speed incredible.
“Our electric dirt bikes were slim, fast, and low profile. After seeing what tech is available in the market, I want something similarly mobile that hovers and can fly. Something like an open-topped gravity sled, with a quick attach point for my scouts to slip on a jetpack, if needed. I think I remember the squibbles having a platform like that. I want something with enough firepower to hit hard and retreat, but primarily focused on mobility rather than the armor needed to slug it out in extended engagements.”
I nodded at his assessment; these were all good points.
Mitchell grunted and popped his neck. “I understand why you benched us, we can't take a single shot safely from the tanks, even on low power, and jetpacks are going to need more testing—we had three broken limbs already,” Mitchell grumped, folding his arms. He shifted to glance at the drone operators. “Elifer, what are you seeing?”
“They are not hard to find,” the Crixxi woman replied, looking at us from behind her drone-operator’s goggles.
A portion of the forward view screen showed the Aspen army on the move. An ambush nailed one of our scouts, one of Jevon’s TG99s unloaded just enough firepower for the machine calculator to register a death. The first point went to Aspen. I glanced at the back wall, unable to identify the blacked-out screen.
“Right here,” Sammie said from her station next to Elithen, flicking the image to the port sidewall. She was geared for battle in a black and white acrium suit with no helmet—my personal squire, of sorts. “Crixxi Yemminex, young, and inexperienced.”
Mitchell and I smirked. This training was meant to give them experience.
“Thank you, Sammie,” I said, returning to view the developing battlefield.
“You want to take and defend the control point or slug it out?” Mitchell asked, intently watching Jevon’s actions.
We had set up three control points for each force to hold and defend. Marble Heights, which was closer to Mansion, was labeled Objective Marble. Leafwind Frontier, a similar housing community closer to Aspen was labeled Leaf. The big prize, it was worth triple the points of the other two, was the corner store plaza which we had labeled Objective Rubble. A point for each kill counted, as did holding a control point at the end of the battle. We decided to cap our small points, so that this exercise didn’t devolve into a kill-fest. We had an hour-long battle planned for round one, but I expected us to culminate much earlier than that.
“What’s the plan?” Mitchell asked.
“We need no grand strategy right now,” I told Mitchell, “Everyone knows how to operate their machines. It's time to let the commanders mak
e mistakes and have their boundaries pushed.”
I opened the command channel. “All Mansion forces, proceed to Objective Leaf. Eliminate the foe, seize the control point, establish a defense, and await further orders.”
Mitchell chuckled. “Eddy is going to be pissed. You have his force weighed down with your octo heavy infantry.”
“Kind of the point,” I snorted, “If they don’t figure out the best way to work together and maintain combined arms teams, I want you to bark at them to fix their dysfunction. I need the infantry in their octosuits and Eddy’s tanks to operate together without my micro-managing every decision,” I said to Mitchell. I stepped up beside Elithen. “Fall back over Marble Heights.”
“Yes, your grace,” Elithen replied. The male Fairy was a gifted pilot who had volunteered to drive AH1.
“Starboard wall, display the overview map please, Sammie,” I ordered and she raced to the station on Elithen’s right to populate the map. “Give me friendlies in blue, the enemy in red, and control points a pulsing purple. Where is the enemy commander? I want him in pink. Muahahaha!”
The right-side wall of the captain’s cabin pixelated to display a vibrant overview map. I stepped around my drone operators at the back of the compartment to reach the detailed image. I selected a pen marker icon and starting drawing arrows depicting the avenues of approach I wanted my forces to use for their movement.
“Three more scouts downed, your grace,” Sammie said. I didn’t turn from the map as the battle began to unfold. “All Crixxi,” she noted, “though, this time, neither young nor inexperienced. It appears Duke Jevon’s scouts placed Fairy traps and retreated. They flew next to one of these mock generator bombs and the device triggered inside their shields.”
“Elithen, I am disappointed we didn’t think of that.” I frowned. I had asked him earlier for ideas on how a Fairy could sway the battle. He started to turn towards me, but I waved him off. “Focus on flying. Apparently, even I still need lessons. Were they landmines or camouflaged to blend in with the area?”
“Rock mirages, Sir,” Sammie said, bringing up an image of a rock. The rock shimmered to reveal a decoy generator when the scouts got close. I guessed the reveal had served as the pretend trigger point. This was a smart move by Jevon and his Faeries.
“We have extra generators we are stockpiling as we swap carbon and oxygen models over to nitrogen,” Mitchell noted, “this could be a viable defensive strategy.”
The enemy forces appeared to be pushing for Objective Rubble. “Hmm…” I said watching my forces try to weave their way to Objective Leaf. They were bunched up at natural chokepoints, waiting to bound past overwatch positions established on the far side of the constricting terrain. The TP63s were outpacing the TG99s, rapidly leaving them behind. Slister’s units were about to engage the defending Leaf forces.
“Who is leading this charge?” I asked.
“A Queen Willow, my lord,” Sammie said from behind me. Before the opposing groups clashed, Sammie reported, “Two TG99s have collided and an octosuit received actual damage to a leg unit. It can still walk but has drastically compromised its combat effectiveness.”
“Tell the operator to walk his machine home on the seven legs. Sensor the octosuit as out of combat and have a support team pick it up for RTB,” I said folding my arms. Another two points were added to Jevon’s tally. The suit and its driver were out of the fight.
I watched Willow try to draw out the enemy, who were embedded between the homes. They refused to take the bait and she faded back to the flank of Eddy’s attacking force. Smart, let the TG99s slug it out with infantry. She continued prodding the defenses on the flank with little success when Mitchell stepped up at my side.
“Eddy has asked to be allowed to clear trees for a path, arguing that it is what he would do in real combat,” Mitchell said; I shook my head no.
We had set our Rules of Engagement (ROE) for this exercise. I’m sure Eddy would raise the issue of clearing paths to improve maneuverability in our After-Action Review (AAR). Eddy would not always get to fight on terrain to his liking.
“Cap, this is Mclain over,” Mclain called out on the command net.
“Go for Cap,” I replied.
“Requesting permission to dismount to use a trail in order to move the infantry octosuits into an ambush position. We will not intentionally deforest the area, but there—”
“Approved,” I interrupted.
Two full companies dismounted quickly, skittering into the woods. I sighed seeing more than a few pines crash to the ground as the new operators stumbled through the brush. Well, they weren’t intentionally clearing new lanes, at least. The moment the mecha suits had dismounted, Eddy’s TG99s dropped their towed sleds and sprinted towards Object Leaf.
The defenders retreated when they knew the fight would be lost. That proved to be a fatal decision. Willow’s TP63s darted in, slashing into Jevon's fleeing light tanks from the flank. Though mostly a one-sided affair, the fight produced a few casualties on our side—seven of my TP63s for twenty-five of Jevon’s.
The mock destroyed tanks powered down for the rest of the fight. I twisted the side of my face in a grimace—Willow was one of the casualties. She would need to learn to not always lead from the front.
“Thoughts?” Mitchell asked.
I grunted. “The fight is too static. We have equal forces, with no third surprise element, no QRF to save the day.” I shrugged, “But we need this experience. Jevon will hold the middle objective and we will lose, assaulting his defenses. We’ll take an hour to conduct our AARs, reset, and then we do it again,” I said, pacing before the map projection.
“Three enemy infantry have been eliminated; screening forces revealed,” Sammie reported.
“We need to find a way to ‘shoot down’ drones without actually shooting at them. Maybe we can add sensors or something,” I said, trying to scratch the back of my neck in frustration. My fingers scraped at my unyielding armor. Right, I had acrium on.
“I agree,” Mitchell said, “Denying the enemy their eyes is key. I can go down and be a third-party disruptor, you know, to mimic the Xgate-portal craziness. My recon unit is literally watching the fight from inside tanks.”
“They need to be, you’re going to rotate next battle with Mclain on infantry and recon. Stay put, best just to sit tight for now. Plus, we’re a team, I want to keep us together,” I said, watching Jevon capture Objective Rubble. “That does the trick.” I keyed the command net, “Full assault, objective Rubble. Commander’s discretion. Acknowledge, over.” I turned to my crew. “Elithen get this ship behind the rear of the heavy tank formation.”
My orders were acknowledge and my units reconsolidated on Leaf before turning around and attacking Objective Rubble. I bet the troops were grumbling about having to turn around already. Jevon held the fortified ground. Now it was up to my commanders, to realize that targeting priority would win the day. Focused fire was paramount in overwhelming shields.
I paced the map wall, watching the opening salvos of the fight. Slister ordered her fast TP63s to draw fire as Eddy entered the fray. Blue balls of energy brightened the area when the fight devolved into a slugfest. I turned to the back wall to watch the effect of this battle of attrition.
Squares swapped from images to black much quicker than I expected or wanted. Not that I didn’t expect casualties in such an attack—assaulting an entrenched enemy was always costly. When Eddy fell, I raised an eyebrow at Sammie.
“Suicide enemy TP63,” she reported, “They dropped from above and destroyed the command tank. Everly commands your heavy tanks now, your grace,” Sammie said.
That was when the battle turned. Jevon had teams of three launch forward: two guards, one set in overwatch behind their screen. It looked like my forces were going to lose, until Everly ordered a counter-wave of suicide bombers. The fake explosions of five TG99 reactors were devastating. Jevon backed his units off the objective in a retrograde maneuver. Everly achieved her pyrr
hic victory and we gained points from holding all three objectives.
I think he seceded the objective to prevent collisions. I flagged an end to the exercise. Nice, we still had a half hour left to continue the battle, if we needed. This would give us time to do a proper AAR.
“Take us to the AAR meeting point outside of Objective Rubble,” I ordered Elithen.
The airship glided for a location not far from Jevon’s forces. His airship landed at our meeting spot. The troops were given a break, while their officers waited for leadership debriefings. I would hold mine in my airship, Jevon in his, and then we would combine. After that, we would reset the battle with three new random points or maybe use the actual Xgate as an objective. A few more hours of this and we would stop for a nice feast before instituting rest plans and maybe some more training, while we waited for the blue portal.
When the airship settled onto the ground, I exited the crew compartment. Sammie rushed around me to set a projector on the ground. The port side wall flickered to life, displaying the battle’s statistics. My officers walked up the ramp, arriving in ones and twos. I let them have their side chatter while we gathered. Willow was the last one to enter, her black armor matching her scowl. I avoided making eye contact with her, for now.
I nodded to Sammie, who belted out a loud whistle. When everyone turned to me, I walked to the board. ‘Winner’ was written in bold blue text overtop the stats.
“We won, but we did not win.” I frowned at my officers, “Mass suicide is not a viable option. I would rather pull back and use other tactics than to have our troops blow themselves up over an inconsequential objective. If we were defending our home, then we can debate the justification for such tactics, not a random point on a map.” I shrugged and paced around. “I get it, you wanted to win, I won’t harp on it … I am not here to judge. The commanders on the ground made command decisions. Those tough choices led to a simulated win,” I said pacing back and forth in front of the board. I made sure to catch Eddy’s, Slister’s, Mclain’s, Mitchell’s and finally Everly’s eye. “No more suicide tactics. If you ever order it on the field there better be a freaking amazing reason for such a drastic decision. That said,” I grinned, “generator bombs are super on the table. I like the idea of buying assorted elemental generators for specific environments and using them to help the enemy go boom.”