As he walked into the room, Royce felt comfortable, like he belonged on the GW. Even if it was a short stay on board, he really enjoyed how new and clean the ship looked. Most of the walls in the corridor were an off-white color with a gray floor, which created the impression that the space was much larger. It was also exceptionally well lit, which helped with stabilizing a person’s moods when they were stuck on a long cruise.
Colonel Hackworth was already inside, waiting at the front of the classroom. When Royce walked in, Hackworth motioned for him to come to the front of the room. The two talked for a few minutes, and then Royce took a seat with the rest of his platoon.
The group sat in the briefing room for close to an hour as one of the Fleet scientists gave them a rundown of the moon and what they were likely to encounter on its surface. The moon did have an atmosphere; it just wasn’t breathable for humans. Apparently, the gas composition posed no problems for the Zodarks, however.
The scientist showed them several different videos of the surface on Pishon so they wouldn’t be caught off guard. It wasn’t quite like New Eden, but it was close. Parts of the moon had thick tree cover, while other parts were flat, wide-open plains. The moon also had two large bodies of water, mini oceans.
Once the scientist finished telling them about the moon, another fleeter came up and showed them drone surveillance footage of the area where the Zodarks had landed. Unlike New Eden, they weren’t having any problems seeing through the trees or any other underbrush, so they could clearly see where most of the Zodarks were.
The Zodarks had already gone to work on setting up defensive positions. They had wisely dispersed so they wouldn’t make an easy target for an orbital strike, and they appeared to be digging in for a protracted fight.
Royce wondered if these Zodark soldiers realized their fleet had been destroyed. They had to know they were alone, that no help was on the way. Then again, maybe all they had to do was hold out for a few months until reinforcements arrived from their home systems.
Once the death by PowerPoint and briefings were done, the old colonel walked back up to the front of the room. Hackworth cleared his throat to make sure he had everyone’s attention. “We’re done with the boring stuff,” he announced gruffly. “Now it’s time to earn our pay and properly babysit our military’s newest toy. Everyone grab your gear and load up in the transports. Remember, each squad is being assigned to monitor a company of these new toys. Stay on top of them, observe them, but allow them to do the brunt of the killing. We’re here to make sure they’re working properly.
“If you run into any issues, send a message and let us know. We’ve got a few dozen programmers from Walburg Industries on board. They’ll analyze any problems and make whatever corrections need to be made. Got it?” It wasn’t a question so much as a statement. The colonel was waiting to hear the obligatory “Hooah,” which he did.
Twenty minutes later, the operators had boarded the Ospreys that would transport them down to the surface. Each Osprey had a squad of Deltas and a platoon of terminators. It would take thirty minutes to get them to the surface. The fleet wasn’t going to drop them on top of the Zodarks, but they would land them within about ten kilometers. The ground pounders would hoof it the rest of the distance, hunting the Zodarks until they found them.
Once the Osprey had dropped out of orbit and entered the atmosphere of the moon, the pilots continued their downward descent until they were a few thousand meters above the ground. One of the crew chiefs opened the rear ramp of the bird, allowing everyone inside to catch their first glimpse of the place. Like New Eden, the moon had its own flying birds or creatures, a large canopy of trees covering the ground and all sorts of new underbrush, flowers, and critters they’d never seen.
Royce had to keep reminding himself he was here on a mission, not a sightseeing tour. It was just so new and exotic. He sent a quick message to his guys using the NL: Don’t get distracted by your surroundings. We have a job to do.
Returning his gaze to the ramp, Royce noticed the pilot had just leveled them out around thirty meters above the ground. The terminators, which were plugged into the navigation computer of the Osprey, recognized they were nearing the drop zone. They all stood up at the same time and turned to face the ramp.
The pilots turned the jump light on, signaling to everyone to get ready. A few minutes later, the jump light changed from red to green. In that instant, the terminators moved forward, jumping out the rear of the Osprey without a second thought. Royce signaled for his guys to hurry up and follow them out the craft. They needed to keep up with their charges.
It was a relatively short free fall, but for that few seconds that he raced toward the ground, Royce felt acutely alive. The exoskeleton combat suit absorbed most of the shock of the jump. Once on the ground, Royce and his squad got their weapons ready. They set out after the terminators, which were already moving at a good clip toward the last known location of the Zodarks.
Damn, those toasters move quick, Royce thought. Instead of Terminator, the pop culture reference that came to his mind was Battlestar Galactica. He hoped that Adam and these other machines wouldn’t turn on them like they had in that series.
Royce used the neurolink to send a message to the coms/drone operator, the nerdy guy who had asked a lot of questions back on the GW: Make sure we have our surveillance drones deployed. I want to keep an eye on our terminators at all times.
The squad of Deltas hauled butt through some pretty tough terrain as they tried to keep up with the mechanical killing machines. Those things apparently never got tired and also never got distracted by the new and exotic terrain of a foreign planet or moon like a human soldier did. Keeping an eye on these toasters was proving to be tougher than Royce had thought.
“Lieutenant, my drone feed says the terminators are nearly on top of a cluster of Zodarks,” called out Royce’s drone operator. “They should make contact with them in a few minutes.”
Royce patched himself into the C100’s com network. “Adam, this is Lieutenant Royce. Have your platoon hold up and wait a few minutes for my squad to get in position before you launch your attack. How copy?”
A split second later, Adam called back, acknowledging the order.
“Corporal, are the C100s holding their position?” asked Royce, wanting to double-check that Adam was in control of his platoon.
On top of keeping up with the toasters, his drone operator had the additional task of monitoring what the drones were seeing. To be honest, without their own cybernetic enhancements or physical augmentations, Royce didn’t think they’d be able to accomplish half of the missions they were asked to do.
“They are, Lieutenant,” the corporal replied. “They’ve formed up a firing line and appear to be waiting for an order to attack.”
“Thanks, Corporal. Make sure the drones have a good angle to record the attack when it starts. Oh, and make sure they’re synced with the command element back on the GW,” Royce ordered as he scrambled over a pile of fallen logs.
Checking his HUD as he continued to move, Royce saw he was a kilometer and a half behind the toasters. Picking up the pace, he was practically in an all-out sprint, hurtling over fallen trees or other obstacles.
The rest of his squad was doing the same, moving swiftly through the woods. In a way, with the toasters out front, they could run and make a lot more noise than they otherwise would because the C100s were clearing a path for them.
“Lieutenant Royce, your squad appears to be approaching our position,” said Adam over the coms. “Requesting permission to have my platoon attack the enemy.”
“Adam, your platoon is cleared to attack the Zodark position. If you require assistance, ask,” Royce replied. He could see the C100s. It was time to get them going.
“Attacking now!” replied Adam over the squad net.
“Was that one of the terminators?” asked Royce’s platoon sergeant.
Before Royce could respond, he heard the familiar sound of human bla
ster rifles, followed quickly by the ruckus of magrails. A couple of fragmentation grenades also entered the mix.
The battle’s on. Time to earn our pay, Royce thought as his squad charged forward.
Remember, we’re here to observe the battle, not join in, Royce barked over the NL to his squadmates. Keep your distance and observe how the toasters do, OK? It was difficult not to charge right in there. After all the Zodarks had done to them over the last few months, Royce wanted some serious payback.
Rushing forward, Royce stopped against the side of a tree a few hundred meters from the Zodarks. He then used the enhanced optics on his HUD to zoom in and watch the toasters assault a fixed Zodark position.
At first, several of the machines charged forward, disregarding their own safety. The Zodarks fired their blasters right into the toasters and took out three of them before they had a chance to react. It was brutal to watch.
A couple of the C100s tossed some fragmentation grenades at the enemy positions and then charged forward. They used the cover and confusion caused by the grenades to cover half the distance to the enemy position. This group of toasters appeared to be using standard infantry tactics. When their first couple of comrades went down, they adjusted to the enemy. One group would lay down covering fire while the other group would toss some grenades and charge.
As the C100s got in close to the Zodarks, Royce saw something unlike anything he’d ever seen before. A group of five Zodarks tossed a couple of objects in the direction of the toasters and charged. When the devices blew up, there was a bright flash, and then some electrical sparks emanated from a couple of the combat Synths. Royce zoomed in on the three toasters near the explosion—two of them were down, inoperable or something. The single remaining toaster fired away at the charging enemy. However, it looked like its system wasn’t working correctly as it was firing wildly and inaccurately.
When the Zodarks got within a few meters of the C100s’ position, they used two of their four hands to draw a shortsword or blade of some kind. Whatever it was, it looked nasty.
Two of the Zodarks jumped right on top of the disabled toasters and attempted to drive their swords into them. Another Zodark dove on top of the remaining toaster that was still fighting. The machine aptly deflected the Zodark’s forward momentum and was able to toss it several meters in the air and over its shoulder.
Seeing that it was now in a hand-to-hand combat situation, the C100 let its blaster hang by its single-point sling and withdrew two eight-inch knives—one in each hand. Then it attacked the next charging Zodark. One of the enemy’s blades slashed the toaster’s chest area, but its chest rig absorbed most of the brute force of the hit. The C100 deflected the second blade the Zodark tried to stab it with and thrust its own knife into the chest of the beast. It then used its mechanical power to pull the knife up several inches through the Zodark’s chest, causing the alien creature to let out a horrible howl of pain.
Another Zodark attacked the toaster from the rear, driving both of its blades right through the back of the machine. Then Royce observed something terrifying—the shortsword the Zodarks were using suddenly changed color, turning a bright red. When the Zodark ripped both its blades in opposite directions, it sliced the toaster into pieces. The fragments of the torn-apart terminator collapsed haphazardly to the ground.
The three Zodarks that had survived the encounter so far then turned to find the next toaster to attack and ran toward them.
Royce and his squad watched the battle rage on for another ten minutes as the platoon of forty-six terminators fought probably four times that number of Zodarks. For a few minutes, Royce thought the C100s were done for. Then the Zodarks started falling back rather than pressing home their attack. At that point, the terminators shouted out orders to each other to pursue the enemy.
Not wanting his force of terminators to be wiped out in their first battle, Royce overrode their orders and told them to stand down. Less than a minute later, the remaining toasters took up defensive positions and continued to snipe at the remaining Zodarks with their magrails.
Once the Zodarks fled the area, Lieutenant Royce walked toward the terminator that was designated to be the platoon leader, essentially Royce’s equivalent.
“Adam, acknowledge me,” Royce said aloud in a commanding voice.
Adam turned and looked down at Royce with his eye band of moving lights. “Lieutenant Brian Royce, how may I be of assistance?”
“Adam, how would you assess the results of this battle?” Royce asked the C100 in a harsh tone.
The toaster didn’t say anything right away, like it was trying to figure that out itself. Finally, Adam spoke. “It did not go according to plan. My platoon sustained unacceptable losses.”
Royce nodded in agreement. “That’s correct, Adam. What caught you by surprise during the battle?” Royce wanted to see how adept the terminators were at assessing their own performance and then correcting the deficiencies in it.
“The Zodarks fought more ferociously than I thought they would,” Adam explained. “The video archive files I have of past battles appeared to show a different type of Zodark soldier and weapons used. These enemy soldiers appeared to have better training and equipment, and they were fearless in their attack against us.”
“Adam, what would you do differently in your next attack?” Royce asked.
“Lieutenant Royce, I would have had my platoon approach the enemy more cautiously. Instead of charging right into their positions, I would make use of our superior rifles and do our best to engage them from a great distance. Once we had sufficiently thinned their ranks, then I would order my platoon to advance under better cover and maneuvering fire,” Adam explained.
The machine paused for a moment and then tilted his head to one side. “Lieutenant Royce, I have seen extensive videos of your battles with the Zodarks. How would you have attacked this group of enemy soldiers?”
Royce smiled. These little bastards really can think for themselves, can’t they?
Lieutenant Royce spent the next twenty minutes going over the battle with Adam in detail. He showed him video footage of the fight and went over what they did right, what they did wrong, and what they could have done better. Royce was impressed with whoever had programmed these machines. They knew how to ask good questions, and they appeared to understand the data given to them. The question Royce was asking himself now was if they could they implement the new information he’d just provided them.
*******
That evening, Royce had his squad settle in for the night. They’d go Zodark hunting again when the sun was up. In the meantime, he wanted to go over individual and group tactics with Adam. Royce knew that everything he taught Adam was passed on to the rest of the toasters—it was like a hive.
Shortly before dawn, Royce got an alert from the GW; they had spotted a cluster of enemy soldiers moving toward their position. Sitting up, Royce shook off the sleepiness and woke the rest of his team up. He also passed the information over to Adam, who immediately requested permission to attack the enemy.
“Stand down,” Royce ordered. He wanted to get more information on their attackers first before releasing the terminators on them.
The drone footage showed they had five or six hundred enemy soldiers heading toward them. That was a good-sized force. Royce placed a call to the GW to see if they could lend some help by hitting them with a few orbital strikes before they got too close.
Unfortunately, an orbital strike was out of the question. The enemy was too close to them for the GW to risk something like that. The magrail projectiles flying down from orbit would slam into the enemy force with power equivalent to or greater than that of a one-hundred-kiloton warhead—they needed some distance between friendly forces and that impact to avoid casualties.
Royce sighed at the realization that he and his men would have to handle the Zodarks on their own and called his team over. “OK, guys. Here’s what we’re going to do. Adam, you’re going to break your force dow
n into two segments. They’re going to move to these points here and here,” he said, using the NL to highlight locations on their shared map. “Once they’re in position, wait for the order to attack. Keep four of your C100s here with my men, two of them on each flank, ready to assist and defend my squad. Is that understood?”
The machine looked at Royce. “It will be done.”
“Adam, when the enemy attacks, have your two groups attack their flanks along these positions here and here. You need to let the enemy commit their force to attack the front of our positions first. We need their focus to be on us, not your units attacking their flanks. Once your groups do attack, you need to hit them hard and fast. We have a few hundred of them heading towards us. This is going to be a tough fight. I’m going to work on getting us some air support from the fleet to help us out as well.”
Royce paused for a moment as he used his PA function to check the time, then examined the map of the enemy soldiers heading toward them one more time. He figured they had around fifty minutes until the Zodarks would be in a position to attack them.
Royce talked to his other squads to find out what they were facing and get some air support from the fleet organized. One of his teams hadn’t made contact with the enemy yet. Royce found that almost hard to believe. When he looked at the squad’s map, he could see the Zodarks that were in their vicinity had shifted to attack the fourth squad. Knowing he could use the added firepower, Royce got a couple of Ospreys from the GW to come down, pick that squad up and reposition them with his force.
The added platoon of toasters and a Delta squad would seriously beef up his position. Air support also began to arrive. The higher-ups on the GW had maneuvered two more platoons of toasters that hadn’t seen combat yet over to help Royce out.
As the minutes ticked down, the Zodarks moved closer and closer to their position. When they were within a couple of kilometers, the Deltas could hear the hooting and howling of those nasty beasts. They were whipping themselves up into a fighting frenzy. For the life of him, Royce couldn’t understand why the enemy liked to give away their positions like this—they’d be more effective if they stayed silent and tried to sneak up on them.
Into the Battle Page 23