“Anyone else got the jitters?” Frank asked.
“Me,” Chase admitted. “Loads of ‘em. We’re about to make fools of ourselves on an international broadcast.”
“Well, I ain’t accustomed to ‘em,” Frank growled. “Wouldn’t mind a little advice. What’s the best place to hawk up a lung in one of these cockpits?”
“Down by the eject lever,” Lin deadpanned without missing a beat.
Frank grunted in reply.
“No puking,” Reggie ordered. “With or without June, we’re still Ghost Platoon.”
“Debatable,” Chase grumbled.
“We’re Wounded Legion!” Reggie barked. “We don’t give up. When the going gets tough, we dig in and weather the storm.”
“Or call in a hundred reinforcements,” Frank added. “I’ve been paying attention the last few years. That’s our S.O.P. when seeing the cow flop heading for the fan.”
“Well, there’s no reinforcements today,” Reggie said. “We’re on our own, and whatever we’re up against, we take it head on.”
All the while, the clock continued its steady advance. Their match was slated for 20:00 server time. It was 19:59:25 now.
19:59:26
19:59:27
“Here goes nothing,” Reggie muttered into the radio.
19:59:28
19:59:29
When the clock reached 19:59:30, the hangar vanished. Reggie and the remaining three members of Ghost Platoon appeared in their juggernauts on a rocky outcropping in the middle of a river. The terrain all around them was a mountainous forest. The countdown continued in giant red numbers on the front windows of the juggernauts and up in the sky above. There was no avoiding seeing it. The only difference was that rather than counting upward to 20:00, it was counting down from 30.
“Prognosis?” Chase asked instantly.
Reggie sized up the battlefield. Plenty of cover. Water for heat dissipation—depending on how deep the river ran, anyway. Waterfall might make a spot for an ambush, assuming that no one in Tough Occupation was spending valuable space in their tournament build on advanced sensor packages.
The way June did.
:25
:24
“We can work with this,” Reggie said quickly. “Lin, Chase, I want you two finding the deepest part of the river you can. Frank, maneuver into that waterfall at Bravo-Zero-Niner.”
:17
:16
“Roger.”
“On it.”
“Yessir.”
:12
:11
:10
“Where you heading, Reg?” Chase asked.
“Scouting,” Reggie replied. “Someone’s got to—”
:05
“You idiots!” June scolded the instant Artemis appeared on the tactical map.
:04
“…do it,” Reggie finished as a grin parted his lips. “Welcome back. Head to the tree line at Juliet-One-Five, and don’t ever scare us like that again.”
:00
“And the battle commences!” the announcer screamed.
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 0/5]
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ghost Platoon sprang into action. Despite the late start, June didn’t hesitate to obey her order to get out on the perimeter and locate the juggernauts of Tough Occupation. There was no time to even debate it. Artemis took off with a blast from its Jump Boost that cushioned a fall to the forest floor at the edge of the valley. Reggie took a moment to make sure Frank, Chase, and Lin were well on their way before reevaluating the battlefield and deciding where Vortex best fit if he wasn’t needed for scouting duty.
The relief that sank bone deep into Reggie was palpable. Without June, they felt like a platoon aiming to pull a lucky rabbit out of a hat—or at least a lucky victory. Now that she was here, not only were the numbers evened up but there was someone who could do a proper job scouting.
At least as long as June had gotten her head cleared.
“What changed your mind?” Chase radioed.
Reggie gritted his teeth but didn’t chastise Diablo’s pilot for the chatter. He was just as curious.
“I saw you on the live feed. I couldn’t not watch, even if there was a sub for me. When I realized you hadn’t replaced me at all, I knew I had to log in,” June explained. “I figured I had to be better than an empty roster spot.”
Frank grunted. “You’re selling yourself short. You’re better than any two empty roster spots.”
That was the point at which Reggie’s curiosity gave way to the practicalities of running a battle. “All right. Cut the chatter. Get in position, and await instructions once—”
TARGET DATA ACQUIRED
“Alrighty, then,” Reggie said, glancing down to check where Tough Occupation had been sighted. June had caught them with their pants down, trying to make a full-platoon flanking maneuver using the forest as cover. They hadn’t counted on June venturing out far enough to spot them all filing past Mike-Two-Two. “June, you get spotted?”
“Negative,” June replied. “Passive sensors only. No sign of active ping from Tough Occupation. Monitoring.”
“Good job,” Reggie radioed back, including the whole platoon. “Silent running. Let them circle past you.”
“Yeah, nice work,” Chase echoed. “About time you got your head out—”
Reggie had been ready, and he cut Chase’s mic the instant he ventured off operational topics. The last thing they needed was drama in the middle of this battle.
“Lin, Chase, reposition downstream 200 meters.”
He continued watching the advance. Tough Occupation had their own Phoenix running point, with the Wolverines sandwiching the Chi-Ris in a line behind it. They were shielding the more lightly armored missile-based juggernauts, indicating that the missile barrage would be the key to Tough Occupation’s assault.
Tapping Chi-Ri[1] on the tactical map, Reggie marked it for the rest of Ghost Platoon to target. “That’s our stray sheep. Yeah, I know it’s dead center of the formation, but fire past the Phoenix and the lead Wolverine if you have to. I want to blunt their first attack before they can even make it. Disable or destroy the target before it launches.”
Reggie retreated from the edge of the starting rock outcropping, which he’d never left. If this played out without June blowing her cover, she’d come at Tough Occupation from the north and Reggie from the south once Lin and Chase engaged.
“What about me?” Frank asked from under the waterfall. “Gremlin didn’t need a shower, and I can’t see jack shit from in here.”
“June,” Reggie radioed. “How’s Frank looking on your sensors?”
“I can barely make him out,” June reported. “He’s good.”
“Stay put,” Reggie ordered Frank. “I’ll give the signal when Tough Occupation tries to engage at close range. Five to two, they can’t help trying to rush Yulong to take that Anti-Matter Projector out of the action.”
“Especially now that I took Telescope Snipe,” Lin agreed.
Reggie watched on the map view without either visual or sensor contact of his own.
1200m until they reached Lin and Chase.
900m…
Lin opened fire. It was a long way through dense forest, but Reggie trusted her judgment on when she could take a shot.
Relayed from June’s sensors, he saw Chi-Ri[1] take 12 points of damage to its torso armor. Lin’s shot must have lost some penetration tearing through stray trees that got in the way. Still, it was the opening salvo that signaled the beginning of the shooting war.
Tough Occupation reacted like seasoned veterans. With their initial hopes of a stealthy approach dashed, the five juggernauts scattered in a textbook react-to-combat drill. Each of them sheltered behind the nearest cover and returned fire in the general direction of Yulong’s shot.
The Chi-Ris didn’t launch their missiles.
The trees!
“Keep them pinned down,” Reggie ordered. “June, hit t
hem from your side. Frank, continue to hold position.” So long as the Chi-Ris were in the forest, they didn’t dare launch mass missile barrages. Half of them wouldn’t clear the canopy. If they were hoping to reach a clearing to make their planned assault, Ghost Platoon couldn’t let them.
Vortex bounded down the side of the craggy mountainside, each landing testing Reggie’s piloting skill—and not merely the 13 points he’d put into Piloting on his recent respec. He’d be exposed but only briefly. Let them worry more about Lin and Chase carving them up than the reinforcements encircling them.
When he reached the forest, Reggie engaged.
[Chi-Ri[1] – To Hit 65%]
Reggie didn’t care. Trees were going to be a nuisance to both sides until this battle slipped free into open ground. Only Ghost Platoon knew that as bad as things looked for Tough Occupation, revealing themselves to Frank and Gremlin, hidden in the waterfall, would only make things worse.
Reggie fired both Plasma Launchers.
Chi-Ri[1] Left Arm: 13/20
Chi-Ri[1] Torso: 51/70
Tough Occupation let loose with everything they had—short of wasting heat on an ineffective missile volley. Chase and Lin were peppered with damage across their upper halves. The river not only gave them added heat dissipation, but it also hid Yulong from the thighs down and Diablo from midway down its torso. The damage only registered as low as yellow anywhere.
Then they reacted like soldiers.
Faced with an ambush from all sides, the trapped platoon took the bold option—the one with a chance of escape. The two Chi-Ris launched their missile volleys and charged in behind them, seeking to break through Lin and Chase’s position.
Checkmate!
“Frank, now!”
Gremlin emerged from the waterfall like a mummy lurching from its sarcophagus beneath a pharaoh’s tomb. Its footing was questionable. It visibility nil until it cleared the cascade of water. But nevertheless, the Tiger-class juggernaut plodded forward just as the MRMs were slamming home, pelting Yulong’s armor into the red and taking out the right arm of Diablo despite Chase’s best efforts to shoot down what he could.
“Take them out!”
Frank charged out of cover beneath the waterfall with rivers dripping from every joint. Windshield wipers kicked as the giant weapon barreled down on the enemy juggernauts.
Tough Occupation was caught out. None of them was a match for Yulong in single combat, but en masse they would have been easy favorites. However, they found themselves facing down Gremlin in the open with Reggie and June able to take easy shots at their rear armor from covered positions.
Ghost Platoon made short work of Tough Occupation.
Focused fire ripped Chi-Ri[1] apart.
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 1/5]
Tough Occupation’s remaining forces focused in on Chase. The surviving Chi-Ri opened up with Beam Cannon-Ms on Diablo along with the Phoenix, and one of the two Wolverines bowled into him, submerging the Jackal class in the water below its superior bulk.
The other Tough Occupation Wolverine took a suicide mission to meet Frank head on and delay him.
Diablo was destroyed in short order, but Gremlin took care of the Wolverine handily.
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 2/5]
Yulong drew its katana and hacked mercilessly at the Wolverine that’d stopped Diablo.
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 3/5]
Reggie and June continued firing into the unprotected rears of Chi-Ri[2] and the lone Phoenix as they fired ineffectively, praying for an improbable series of critical hits to save them.
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 4/5]
[Sole Objective Complete: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 5/5]
The sky flashed with fireworks, just visible over the treetops and mountains.
WINNER: GHOST PLATOON.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When Reggie reappeared, he was once more in the Valhalla West green room along with the rest of Ghost Platoon. Chase was waiting for them, cradling a bowl of nachos against his chest, drizzled with cheese and dusted with bacon bits. He inclined his head in greeting to the rest of the platoon.
“Nice work, guys,” Chase said through a mouthful of nacho chips. “Dig in. We’ve earned it. Plus, no calories!”
Lin rolled her eyes. “Spoken like a pig,” she muttered on her way to the ceramic cups filled with mac ‘n’ cheese.
Reggie ignored the sniping between the two of them outside of combat. Friction was to be expected after they’d given the whole real-life relationship thing a try and ditched it. Just getting them to work together in the tournament was enough.
Chase tugged the sleeve of one of the NPC caterers. “Can we take any of this with us?”
The NPC looked down at chase where he sat in a plush armchair. “The complimentary snacks are not permitted to leave this virtual setting.”
“Aww…”
“However,” the caterer continued, “these selections are available via the search function in the Armored Souls culinary selector.”
“Yes!” Chase pumped a fist. Still juggling the bowl of nachos, he dug out his tablet and began tapping.
Reggie watched as Frank helped himself to a bratwurst and Lin twisted the top of a Valhalla West brand diet soda. Then his gaze drifted to the leaderboard, posted on a screen beside the live feed from the next battle about to start.
[Ghost Platoon 1-0]
[Lucky Outlaws 0-0]
[Pale Veterans 0-0]
[Eminent Deadly 0-0]
[Acceptable Devils 0-0]
[Diligent Squad 0-0]
[Spiffy Exterminators 0-0]
[Tough Occupation 0-1]
For the time being, brief as it might be, Ghost Platoon was alone in first place. He stared at the numbers for a while, even though there wasn’t much to look at and they weren’t changing. On the in-room television, battles carried on as the tournament continued without them for the time being.
Eventually, Reggie drifted over to the catering spread. He downed a handful of mini-burgers and a beer. Then he began taking an interest in the other battles in Group C. When they’d arrived, it was a couple platoons from Group D in the arena. Much as the action might have been entertaining, the odds that the outcome would be relevant to Ghost Platoon were low. Now, though, Pale Veterans was taking on Diligent Squad, and Reggie knew that he’d be facing both teams soon enough.
Chase thumped a hand on the chair beside him, mouth too stuffed to form the words of an invitation. The others had made their excuses already. Lin had to coordinate with her production team and review highlight clips. Frank needed to blow off some steam and headed back to headquarters and the boxing gym therein. June merely drifted off with a promise that she’d be back in time for their next bout.
Reggie joined Chase as the only other one intent on staying. It was just the two of them and the NPC waitstaff.
Gulping down a huge swallow of buffalo wings, Chase struck up a conversation. “Hey, now that I’ve got you alone, I wanted to tell you something.”
Reggie raised an eyebrow. “I don’t swing that way.”
“Haha. Very funny. Here,” Chase said, tossing Reggie his tablet.
Reggie turned the device over and around until he was looking at a graph of some sort—two actually, side by side. They showed a pair of splotches set against numbered grids. “What am I looking at?”
“Dispersion maps. Specifically, June’s Gunnery charts. The one on the left is her past two years’ data. The one on the right comes from a data set I scraped together from the past thirty-five days.”
“Why thirty-five days?” Reggie asked, unsure where this was going. Well, maybe he had a tiny idea. The heat map on the right wasn’t nearly as tight as the one on the left. But now that he knew what he was looking at, Reggie could see that the leftmost graph included a much larger number of data points. The right-side graph he could make out individual dots around the edges of the spl
otch, some nearly separate from the main blob.
“I’m a data guy,” Chase explained as if Reggie hadn’t figured that out years ago. “Thirty-five days ago, I found a shift in June’s performance. That left graph shows a pilot who’s either played this game for years or has gone through Army Ranger School.”
“Or in this case, both,” Reggie added.
“Exactly!” Chase exclaimed after just shoving a fistful of nachos into his mouth. He held up a hand until he chewed enough to swallow. “That June on the left is a pro. The one on the right is what a weekend paintballer would manage or a counterstrike kiddie. Nothing to be ashamed of, but it’s not what you bring someone to a top tier tournament for.”
“But June was fine this last battle,” Reggie argued. “Whatever her deal’s been lately, she pulled it together.”
“She didn’t get spotted like a noob,” Chase said. “But her shooting was nothing special. What you saw was that despite not making it to group play, Dark Ocean Pirates was a better squad than Tough Occupation. Whatever’s eating her, she’s still not playing at her best.”
That didn’t bode well.
Reggie and Chase watched the afternoon’s action, making sure their attention was fully focused when the matches involved Group C.
Lucky Outlaws had already defeated Spiffy Exterminators in an epic brawl. They watched together as Diligent Squad took it to Pale Veterans for a victory with just two juggernauts left standing. Over the course of the afternoon, interspersed among battles from all the other groups, they also caught the Eminent Deadly versus Acceptable Devils matchup that nearly ended in a draw when a Chi-Ri from Acceptable Devils fired a desperation volley of short-range missiles at point-blank range. But the last remaining Wolverine from Eminent Deadly crawled to its feet after the Chi-Ri perished by its own hand. Merely having the last operational engine on the battlefield was enough to win, even though the Wolverine was on fire from secondary explosions and would have gone down soon after.
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