by Chris Hechtl
“This is Ogre Three. That's the last of our mortars, sir,” Cocoa warned from her location. “I'm out of this.”
“Damn. Okay, Cocoa, we'll be back for you,” the major said as he pointed to the objective. “Let's go capture the flag,” he growled.
<)>^<)>/
Sylvia saw the incoming fire and beat a hasty retreat, putting a rock between her and the incoming fire just as the small simulated charges went off. Her entire squad went down.
She swore softly to herself. She'd wanted to build overhead cover, bunkers for the robots, but they'd run out of time. The robots were also too slow to respond to her commands.
“This is Ogre. My squad is down. I'm resetting,” she stated as she went around to each of the robots to reactivate them. That was the part that sucked; they had to reset each robot manually. They were allowed two resets per robot and that had just wasted one of them.
<)>^<)>/
“He's certainly not making it easy for them, is he?” Admiral Irons observed cheerfully as he watched the exercise play out. He'd been looking forward to it for the past two weeks almost as much as the troops.
The first opening moves had been an eye-opening experience for them as well as him. It had taught him a valuable lesson that even with all their toys they too were mortal. That they could go down with an aircraft or get torn apart by heavy fire before they'd even laid eyes on the objective.
That for all the investment in training, materials, engineering, and people they could still loose.
It was a sobering lesson, both for him and the troops involved.
“Warrant McClintock doesn't believe in half measures, sir. And even though he was limited with his hardware, he's gone to great lengths to use it to the utmost,” Protector stated.
“Is this exercise being recorded?” the admiral asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. For future training purposes of course, but I think Jersey and others need to see it too. I think learning that they can get torn up is important too,” the admiral said just as activity started up around the innermost perimeter of the objective.
<)>^<)>/
Tungulria got to the outer edge of the objective's perimeter just as his shields reset to 100 percent. He didn't need them. In fact, they were off, and his cloak was back up. They were a comfort though. He growled softly to himself as he took cover. He checked the area for a fallback and designated it on his HUD, then went back to studying the sensor feeds as the drones moved in.
Shiku and the others of his fire team took up spots around him. They all had good cover locations he knew. That was something to worry about since undoubtedly Jethro had anticipated it. Fortunately, no traps had been found or sprung.
The building was an old trapper's cabin. It was pretty run down, but he could see robots around the outer perimeter as well as inside. He could see claymores on stakes, a trench dug as a moat around it, plus lasers and other electronic fences.
He cursed under his breath as a dome-shaped PDL spat invisible fire at the butterfly drones. One by one they were flamed out of the sky until none remained.
He turned and oriented on a radio relay he'd set up and locked a laser on it. “This is Romeo One; objective has a PDL. No eyes in. Guess we do this the hard way,” he growled just as smoke began to billow from smoke pots around the perimeter.
“So much for sneaking in,” he muttered.
<)>^<)>/
The rest of the Cadre survivors met up behind Tungulria's fire team just as the sun set. They looked around warily. “Romeo Four here. We've got some electronic sensor ghosts, but we can't pin them down,” Lobo reported warily.
“I know,” Major Lyon said as he examined the objective. The building had cleared fire lanes all around it. There were layers to its defenses he could see. The moat, for instance, would have to be jumped. What they landed on when they hit dirt on the other side was questionable. If Jethro was sneaky enough, and after this he wouldn't put anything past the cat, he would have stuck a minefield there.
Which meant the only safe way in was up the road and over the one bridge leading into the compound. Which was a choke point and undoubtedly covered six ways to Sunday he thought.
“Okay, this is not going to be fun,” he growled as he thought of a plan. Damn it, he was RECON, he was supposed to be sneaky, get in, out, snipe, that sort of thing. Frontal assaults weren't his normal cup of tea.
“I think there are mines out there. So, we're going to set them off. Romeo One, you and Romeo Three are going to hang back and give us an unconventional form of cover fire,” he said as he jotted out his battle plan on his HUD. Mars looked on with approval. “The rest of you, okay, this is how we're going to play it …”
<)>^<)>/
Jethro noted the concentration of sensor drones around the Cadre. If they were sticking to normal doctrine, they would be at the center of that circle he knew. Unfortunately, he'd used up his mortars and plasma weapons in the landing ambush. So, he had to rely on the defenses he'd set up.
Based on the seismic sensors, he noted the suits were on the move. From what he could tell, they were moving slowly into the objective along two columns—one on the road, the other off to the east. Most likely there were RECON suits coming in from the north but out of the line of fire of the first two groups.
He was a bit disappointed that the group that looked ready to charge the moat would do so. That ended as rocks began to fly from the tree line to impact along the path of the two columns.
They rained down on the field on either side of the moat and set off the bouncing Betties.
The bouncing Betties popped up dutifully and went off … spraying virtual pellets all over the area. He'd never intended for them to make a kill; they were there to shock and do shield damage while his people sniped them.
Now that part of the plan was over. But there still remained a few aces to play.
<)>^<)>/
Tunisia grinned as she saw the rocks land and pop the bouncing Betties off ahead of them but out of range. They were perfect. Pamplona might not be happy about being left behind to lob rocks, but her suit allowed her to do the job well.
She charged forward, moving faster then dropped to all fours and made the leap over the moat and something reached out to grab her by the ankle as she flew over. She crashed to the ground in shock, feeling her jaw and teeth cut into her gums and lip. She spat blood and then twisted and turned as a cable around her ankle pulled her into the moat kicking, cursing, and firing.
<)>^<)>/
“Frack! Robots in the moat! Winchester Two is down!” Lobo snarled as he saw Tunisia go down and then into the water. “Watch it!”
<)>^<)>/
Jethro grinned as he saw the troops swerve wide suddenly … right into areas that hadn't been set off by the rocks. More rocks flew, but he ordered Sylvia to send her squad after the shooters. That would keep them busy.
Tikaani was almost in position. He sent a signal to a repeater box near her to take control of her side of the defenses. Two clicks answered him.
He then sent the activation signal to his second line of defense. Bast sent the wake-up call through the whisker-thin ODN cable buried in the dirt to each of the troops. The robots powered up upon the activation signal, then dug themselves out of their shallow graves. They oriented on the data Bast was transmitting over their ODN network and began to fire.
<)>^<)>/
Major Lyon swore as robots popped up on his HUD. First a few, then more and more. Jethro wasn't going to make it easy he thought as he swiveled and fired, cutting them down. Or at least knocking them out. He noted a suit moving around on all fours to tap and wake the robots up again so he targeted and took it out.
<)>^<)>/
Sylvia moved in on where the rocks were coming from just as more rocks started to rain her way. She swore and stepped under cover just as one of the rocks took down a robot. “Well, that one ain't getting up again,” she said as one poor pathetic hand twitched and tried to move before the
robot shut down for good.
“Charge!” she ordered, following behind at a safer distance.
<)>^<)>/
Tungulria saw the charge coming his way and knew the real target would be in the rear. He spotted Sylvia's suit and snipped it, ignoring the incoming fire he was taking.
<)>^<)>/
Sylvia felt her suit jolt, then her HUD flashed red and indicated a bearing from the incoming fire. A countdown appeared of the number of shots her armor could handle before lockup. She ducked behind a rock as she took additional fire, this time on her left shoulder. “Ogre Two taking fire here; they are going for us specifically,” she called out in warning. A second shot caught her left arm. Anjaneya locked her arm up.
“Hey! Whose side are you on?” Sylvia grumped.
“Sorry, just following the rules,” the ape A.I. replied sorrowfully.
“Never mind,” Sylvia muttered.
<)>^<)>/
Jethro knew he was in trouble, too many of the Cadre suits were still active. And the targeting of his team meant they couldn't reactivate the robots even if they had extra lives left on their clocks.
Which meant he had to switch to Plan B just as the lead Cadre unit got to the door. He grinned as they disdained the door and hopped up on the roof and then made their own entrance. Smart he thought as he saw the flashes of muzzle fire within.
<)>^<)>/
“We're in. Romeo One and Three cover us, then scoot to the backup position,” Major Lyon said as he had his people sweep the building once more. He even had Mars scan below the floorboards and then the chimney for good measure. They disabled the remotes left behind, then began to fort up. “Charlie One to all units, objective secure,” he said over the radio. “Time for the end game,” he growled.
“Bring ‘em on,” Shic growled as he took a place by a window.
<)>^<)>/
The robot squad in the building had been on its own. He'd set a few up to be laying prone or kneeling, but they hadn't done spit against the Cadre. They'd taken the objective. He triggered his last ace, a series of robotic air drones set to fire into the objective as the remaining robots charged in under their covering fire.
It was a massacre though. He took down one more suit but the major had forted up in the cabin and his people were too heavily armored to pick off without concentrated fire.
<)>^<)>/
“That was so bullshit! We never got a chance to fight at all!” Jasper complained when it was over and the team had been airlifted out of the exercise area. Engineers had been sent in to clean up their mess and safe the remaining weapons left there.
“I know! We got to sit it out and scratch our ass,” Shiku grumbled in agreement.
“Welcome to the club,” Nia said in disgust. “I still think the plasma fire was a bit much,” she grumbled, eying Sylvia sourly. Sylvia for her part grinned sunnily at her in reply.
“How likely is it for the enemy to have those sorts of weapons?” Jasper grumped, eying Jethro. “And don't even start in with the cheating and trying crap. Seriously,” he said.
“Never underestimate what an enemy has. That's a good way of going in fat, dumb, and happy and getting your heads handed to you,” Major Lyon said. “Which is essentially what happened,” he said as they began to unass from their armor in the Morgue.
“It's still bull that we got taken out before we even hit the ground,” Jasper growled.
“Hey, I got my leg shot off then I got to sit it out too,” Cocoa said.
“But at least you got some action,” Jasper complained.
“Sometimes that's how it happens,” Jethro said with a shrug. Jasper turned a glower on him. Jethro just flicked his ears at him.
“That was a most humbling of experiences,” Major Lyon said. “You definitely made us work for it,” he said.
“I knew that you were at your most vulnerable when you were bottled up,” Jethro said. “I did what I could to take advantage of that.”
“But we won in the end,” Tungulria said. “It's the mission that matters,” he growled. He wasn't being smug about it; he'd survived the engagement but had taken damage along the way. It had driven home the point that RECON armor was an offensive weapon of limited use in a frontal assault or defensive action. It had definitely made him reassess the gods of war crack a few people had mentioned.
“Yes, but we took what, two-thirds casualties on the way in?” Cocoa said with a shake of her head. “Let's be honest, is it going to be that hard?”
“It may get harder. This is what we can simulate with what we know the enemy has now,” Jethro said. “You lot got cocky. I keep warning you not to do so. Gods can die just as easily on the battlefield as a soldier without a suit under the right circumstances,” he said.
Major Lyon nodded thoughtfully. “He's right. Cadre goes into the furnace. The hottest of furnaces,” he warned. “So we need to be prepared for that.”
“But overall you did good,” Admiral Irons said, interrupting them.
They turned in surprise at the voice, then popped to attention as they realized it wasn't over a speaker. “Admiral on the deck!” Cocoa intoned.
Admiral strode into their ranks and then nodded to Major Lyon and Jethro. “Good work all of you,” he said as he turned. “I wanted Jethro to teach you a lesson that you too are mortal. I think he made his point,” the admiral stated. “This was something of your graduation exercise however. The mission objectives were met. We all learned something from this simulation; at least, I hope we did,” he said, eying Cocoa. She grimaced but then nodded once. “Good,” the admiral said as he turned back to the group.
“As of now, you are fully recognized as an active Cadre unit. We're not going to have any sort of ceremony, no parade or notice to anyone. But you've all earned a week off to celebrate.”
That earned a muted cheer from the group, then applause.
“Once you are back, some of you will be working on Phase II. You will be working on overseeing the cave while also integrating the ACTS, Armored Cadre Training School, for the next class that is currently on its way to us here. But you may also be tapped for a combat op at any time so be prepared for that as well,” the admiral stated.
“But, for tonight, celebrate. You've earned it,” the admiral stated with a smile of approval. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go see a cyber lady about a very well-earned and long overdue promotion,” he said with a nod to them.
“I think Sprite will appreciate it, sir,” Lieutenant Protector said in the admiral's ear as the Cadre team applauded.
Act III
Chapter 36
Lieutenant Colonel Dana Harley looked out from her office to the virtual window to the outside. With a mental flick, she sent a command to the window to highlight ships and label them. She smiled as she recognized a few of them.
She liked the General Murtough. The Marine command and support ship she was on was one of the best, designed for her people and for what they were trained to do, invade and subdue planets. She just wished there were more like her.
Riding out on the command ship's flank was the Chester Puller, the first Marine transport that had been built. She'd instantly picked up the name Chesty. There had been some double entendre there for some who didn't know who the general had been. Beyond and behind her was one of the captured Horathian transports that the Navy had refitted and repurposed, along with two Liberty class tenders with alpha numeric names, and beyond them but trailing them was a tiny Dora class carrying an ansible core.
She knew that ahead of them was the Arboth class destroyer Duty and Honor. Out of sight on General Murtough's port side was the Iwo Jima, sister ship to Chester Puller. Behind and slightly above her would be the Liberty class naval hospital ship the Colonel Harper Collins. Below Iwo Jima and slightly behind was another of the captured Horathian transports, this one carrying government aid workers, along with another two Liberty class tenders, along with a small Dora class carrying supplies for the government aid workers to
help them help the population rebuild once the planet was secure.
And behind them all, playing stern sheep dog was the Arboth class Throat Slasher. The Naga-named ship evoked some wary emotions from those not on board her. Hopefully, she wouldn't be needed beyond the occasional orbital suppression mission.
She wasn't certain about the mix, but she was glad that the troops were all Marines. The three purpose-built Marine transports carried her division of troops and most of their equipment. Each of the transports carried a brigade of troops. The ships were built for the load; they had the facilities to keep the Marines up to shape and content even though they had to hot bunk.
One of the captured transport ships, the one along her starboard side, had been refitted to act as a carrier barge for a small air cav company. The air cav was a mix of assault shuttles, drones, and marine attack craft. They'd come in handy on Destria though she knew the parasite craft was light on ordinance and maintenance teams. Not to mention parts, though she had some of the key codes to rectify that.
Ten thousand troops of various species spread out in the three ships. Ten thousand, the largest deployment of Marines of the reborn Federation. All of them ready and eager to fight. But worryingly to her, not many had yet been blooded. Hopefully, Destria wouldn't be too much of a baptism of fire, she mused darkly.
What really bugged her was that she was extremely light on powered armor. Destria was supposed to be defended by a brigade or two of mixed infantry and support, along with any scratch local militias, so hopefully, it wouldn't be a problem she mused. Hopefully, she thought again, briefly looking away from the view.
General Murtough had an extensive sensor and communication suite. She was looking forward to taking full advantage of them. The ship also carried a selection of kinetic weapons as well. Again, hopefully they wouldn't be needed, but if they were, they would be used she vowed. And she could call on fire from the two destroyers when needed as well.
She had a small number of satellites in the command ship's hold as well. They would be the first to be deployed and would help with the command ship's eyes and ears. More satellites would be deployed once they were dug out of the holds of the Liberty ships.