Chase slumped his shoulders. “I’m beat. Think I’m gonna log off and get some open-eye.”
Lin stretched languorously. “I need to go for a jog or something. Sleeping fifteen hours a night is brutal. This is the only sport where Ambien is a performance-enhancing drug.”
“Don’t you even…” June warned with a wagging finger. “That stuff only keeps you asleep. Your brain isn’t up for complex combat operations.”
Chase muttered something too low to make out.
“What was that?” Reggie asked.
Chase held up his hands. “Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”
Reggie had an idea, but without Chase willing to admit it openly, he wasn’t going to press the issue. Still, there was one point he was intent on making before allowing them to log out to their respective lives. “No one goes anywhere until they take their medicine. And I don’t mean Ambien.”
“Um…” Lin said.
Chase cringed. “You’re not really going to make us…”
“Yup,” Reggie confirmed. “Down to the officer’s club. No hiding from the rank and file after getting our asses kicked.
“But Saddest Donkey won both their Group F matches,” Chase whined. “They’re not gonna let us live it down that they’ve got the better record.”
Reggie shrugged. “Never said it was going to be fun. But we lost. I’m not going to slink off and pretend we didn’t. We swallow up the cheers when we’re winning; we’ve gotta choke down the jeers when we lose.”
“I liked it better when you used to make up catchy little rhymes,” Lin said halfheartedly, resigned to facing the music down at the bar.
“Enjoy the cheers; endure the jeers,” Reggie said obligingly. “Part of being officers is maintaining respect.”
“I’m not an officer anymore,” Lin pointed out.
Frank spat on the floor. “Only cuz you’re off playing acrobat shootin’ gallery like it was Coney Island or something. You belong in a juggernaut.”
“Only so long as the ratings hold up,” Lin said. “And if we crash and burn, I’m out of here.”
That was the end of the debate. A long, uncomfortable elevator ride followed, ending in a walk into a mixed bag of commiseration and taunting from the various sub-faction supporters gathered around the bar’s televisions.
“Nice job, Ghosties!”
“Oh no, not smoke! How did they know my only weakness?”
“One and one and done!”
“Those lucky bastards will make it through. You guys can handle the rest of the field.”
“Way to represent out there, Reg!”
Reggie shook hands and slapped backs. Restraining himself from punching a couple of his own officers was a testament to his self-control. All he needed was to show up, take his lumps, and then he’d feel good slinking away with the rest of Ghost Platoon.
On the televisions, the rest of the day’s group play matches were chugging along. There were only a few remaining to be played before Valhalla West closed the curtain on the first day of the round robin.
“It’s flex scheduling,” Chase pointed out when he caught Reggie staring at the updated listing of tomorrow’s matches. “By day three, you’ll be seeing contenders playing contenders. Day 4 is a break for the teams advancing. By then it’ll be the eliminated teams filling out the brackets for form’s sake.”
“Filling programming hours, you mean,” Lin said.
The quiet moment didn’t last long as MrRipley came over to brag. Reggie had sniffed this encounter out a star system away. “Hey, General. How’s the round robin treating you?”
Reggie shrugged. “You can see the standings. 1-1. We didn’t do ourselves any favors out there, but we’re not out of it yet.”
MrRipley leaned on the nearby bar and shook his head. “A shame. One creampuff win and a loss. Not looking good. I hear Spiffy Exterminators are going to clean your keesters out of the tourney.”
“They’re 1-1, same as us,” Reggie pointed out. “Lost to the same guys too.”
“Spiffy gave the Outlaws as much as they could handle. You schmucks got rolled.”
Reggie didn’t need to take this crap from one of his own officers. It was time to pull rank. “I’m sorry. Did you plan to go full-time on tournaments? Because I think once Valhalla West hands out those Valkyries, things go back to normal. If I recall, you were stationed on… Pentar IX, was it?”
MrRipley’s face went white. “You wouldn’t.”
Pentar IX was a shithole. It was little more than a glorified asteroid with less of a claim to planethood than Pluto, though the climate was similar. Wounded Legion used it as a listening post, and the deep-space scanners needed a player present to get a bonus that made the station worth running. It mattered little who was out there or what they did while there—and there was nothing to do there—so long as there was someone present. Reggie assigned it as shit duty, usually to people sucking up for promotion or who had attitude problems in need of correction. Usually, they were deployed in pairs because being out there alone was enough to make someone quit Armored Souls.
Reggie merely shrugged at MrRipley’s discomfort.
“Didn’t pick you for taking it out on a guy for winning,” MrRipley said coldly.
“Didn’t figure you for a ball-buster,” Reggie countered. “But don’t worry. I won’t ship you off to Pentar for doing better than Ghost Platoon. The Saddest Donkeys will have to live with having you around Nibelheim, win or lose.”
While it got MrRipley off his back, Reggie didn’t feel good about the encounter. Plenty of the rank and file overheard the conversation, and Reggie hadn’t won so much as he’d flipped the checkerboard like a sore loser. This wasn’t what he’d had in mind by taking their lumps.
“We stuck this out long enough?” Chase asked after threading through the crowd with his head hung low over a pint glass he’d acquired.
“Yeah,” Reggie grumbled. “Let’s leave the partying to the victors. We’ve been reduced to hanging on by a thread.”
With two teams advancing, Ghost Platoon could still control their fate by winning out the rest of the way.
Chapter Thirty
On Day 2 of the Valhalla West Ragnarok Showdown, Ghost Platoon found themselves paired against Pale Veterans. In some ways, Reggie felt, it seemed like the choice of opponents was meant to vex him. But he supposed that his adversary’s all-white paint jobs were a liability camouflage-wise in any venue except for a glacier.
On the other hand, that was the one place that the Valhalla West tournament organizers had pitted Ghost Platoon against Pale Veterans.
“And the battle commences!” the announcer shouted.
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 0/5]
Luckily, as the match started, Reggie discovered that all the normal sensors were in working order. Let the Pale Veterans be all white. The tactical map and targeting computers didn’t care.
“Move out!” Reggie ordered. Everyone had their assignments. They’re going to play this straight. No tricks. No gambits. Pale Veterans was a good matchup for Ghost Platoon. They were a squad of five Chi-Ris all armed with missile builds. By Reggie’s calculations—well, technically Chase’s—they were packing enough missiles to actually take out Ghost Platoon. It was a miracle they’d gotten this far.
TARGET DATA ACQUIRED.
June had already spotted them, and the match wasn’t even a minute old. The tactical map lit with the five Chi-Ris of Pale Veterans. They were spread out in trapping formation, ready to launch a massive volley at the first juggernaut to approach hex Bravo-Five-One. Reggie had to admit that it was a good spot for an ambush. They just weren’t counting on how good June’s sensors were.
“Be as pale as you want…” Reggie muttered. The tactical computers didn’t care. June’s sensors didn’t care.
As the battle commenced, Ghost Platoon circled around and came upon the leftmost Chi-Ri in the formation.
[Chi-Ri[3] – 77% To Hit]
As Reggie aimed in,
he realized that the enemy juggernaut was losing hit points rapidly. On his tactical display, the wireframe flashed again and again. Before the targeting reticle had reached 85 percent—the point at which Reggie plans to fire—it was already pointless.
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 1/5]
“Keep it moving,” Reggie ordered. “Don’t let them regroup.”
Vortex tried to lead the charge, but Artemis was too quick. June remained at the head of the pack as if desperate to prove herself. The Phoenix-class juggernaut took a pounding as the remaining Pale Veterans scrambled to return fire. Reggie watched helplessly as they hammered at her armor.
“Taking one for the team?” Chase asked merrily. “Or, like, fifty?”
“Doesn’t matter if they get me,” June radioed back. “We just have to have the last juggernaut standing. Rather take an early trip to the green room than let them get their bearings.”
Whatever. Reggie wasn’t buying it. But she was right in that Pale Veterans were off-balance. Ghost Platoon pressed the advantage. The Chi-Ri was a relatively mobile platform. As medium juggernauts went, it was middle-of-the-road. In the grand scheme of things, that still made it more maneuverable than most of the juggernauts in the Ragnarok Showdown. But they had allowed Ghost Platoon to get too close to them. Long-range missiles were only an advantage when the other team couldn’t fire back.
Yulong pounded them with Anti-Matter Projector fire. Diablo carved them up with Beam Canon-Ls. Frank added his own laser fire, even though that wasn’t his specialty. June was too preoccupied dodging and attempting to shoot down missiles to fire back, and Reggie hadn’t gotten into range with his Plasma Launchers before the carnage outpaced Vortex’s legs.
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 2/5]
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 3/5]
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 4/5]
[Sole Objective Complete: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 5/5]
Fireworks lit the cold tundra sky.
WINNER: GHOST PLATOON.
“That’s more like it,” Reggie said just before they were whisked away to the green room.
“I guess that’s what it looks like when we fight a regular team,” Chase commented as he headed for the snack table. “I mean, really, all some of these teams needed was to come up with the sign-up fee and win one battle against someone else with that kind of cash.”
“We had to fight two,” Frank grumbled as he twisted the top off a bottle of Valhalla West brand beer.
“Oh yeah,” Lin said with a tilt of her head. “That reminds me. Thanks, fuckers.” She flipped off the video monitor displaying the next battle, some Group B match that likely didn’t matter to Ghost Platoon in the grand scheme.
“Keep your head in the game,” Reggie warned. “We’ve got another battle today.”
After hanging out in the green room until they were getting on each other’s nerves, Ghost Platoon was summoned to the arena once more. This time, they were matched up against Eminent Deadly. The battlefield was a desert of rolling sand dunes too tall for the heavies to see over. Fifty-kph winds whipped by the waiting juggernauts as the countdown commenced.
:30
:29
“OK,” Chase said quickly. “Just a reminder. Two Wolverines, three Lions for these guys.”
“Don’t see many of them Lions,” Frank radioed.
“Treat it like a Dragon,” Lin advised. “5 klicks faster. A little less armor. Shoulder joint articulation slightly more restrictive. It’s another Gottpanzer design like the Tiger, so you should be familiar with—”
“Got it,” Frank cut in. “Save them extra words. Might need ‘em later.”
:20
:19
:18
“Stick to the game plan,” Reggie said. “June scouts. We spot them first. We make the first strike.”
“Someone’s going to catch on,” Lin radioed. “What if someone equips a crazy scanner package to counter-scout us?”
Reggie closed his mic for a second to let loose a beleaguered sigh. Sooner or later, someone was bound to do exactly that. All he could hope was that even if Eminent Deadly was the first to try it, either June could out-scout them, or Ghost Platoon could take the enemy squad on equal footing. “Can’t worry about that for now. Work with the intel we’ve got. Chase?”
:10
:09
:08
Chase sputtered as if he’d been caught snacking. “What? I got nothing. We’re good. Let’s kick some ass.”
:02
:01
The countdown ended.
“And the battle commences!” the announcer bellowed.
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 0/5]
Artemis shot forward like a sprinter out of the blocks. Reggie and the rest of Ghost Platoon fanned out and kept to the shadows of the dunes until they had locations on the enemy juggernauts.
“Did I ever mention I hate hot battle zones?” Chase asked.
Reggie glanced at his head indicator. Managing the thermal load from his Plasma Launchers had become so second nature that he hardly worried about it anymore. But with the ambient temperature reading 54°C outside the cockpit, the heat sinks would be working overtime for this match. Stepping outside the cockpit of Vortex would be like standing under a hot water tap with nowhere to shut off the flow.
“Everyone watch your heat,” Reggie advised. “Last thing we need is a heat shutdown. In fact, everyone turn off your over-temp safeties.”
“Roger that,” Lin replied. The others responded in kind. They knew the deal. This wasn’t galactic battle mode where losing a juggernaut meant a mandatory log out, and battles lasted long enough that allies could hold out while an overheated juggernaut cooled down. If a few internal systems fried, so be it.
TARGET DATA ACQUIRED.
“Got ‘em,” June reported. “Shit. They’re keeping together. They’ve made a good guess at our location, and they’re marching this way in formation for the Lions to shield the Wolverines.”
“It’s like a Penn State / Michigan game,” Frank muttered into his radio.
Reggie let the chatter pass, distracted by the problem of confronting a foe who had accepted that they were going to get out-scouted and had deployed to counter-punch against an expected ambush.
“June, fall back,” Reggie ordered. “Everyone, shut down weapons and double-time to the northwest. If we can reach the dune at Bravo-Seven-Seven before these guys crest the nearby dunes, we can circle around behind them.”
“Ain’t made for speed,” Frank pointed out.
“Then get moving now,” Reggie barked. He knew damn well that Gremlin was the weak link in this plan. It didn’t matter. They had to tip the scales of this battle or risk getting caught in a fair fight. It was time to remind the rest of them. “Fair fights are for suckers.”
“Trading shots, they’re favored,” Chase added. “Those Lions are armed better than anyone but Lin.”
One hand on the controls of Vortex, Reggie wiped the other over his face. Was it his imagination, or was the heat from the desert seeping through and overwhelming the environmental stabilizers in the cockpit? He needed to think of something.
Ghost Platoon reached Bravo-Seven-Seven before Eminent Deadly spotted them. Expecting to be ambushed, they’d advanced cautiously, unprepared for the normally aggressive Ghost Platoon to start a game of hide-and-seek.
“What now?” June asked. “Want me to head down to Foxtrot-Niner-Two and reacquire?”
For all her shitty shooting and clumsy recon of late, June still had a head for the tactical side of battlefield deployment. “Do it,” Reggie ordered.
With June’s help, Reggie guided Ghost Platoon on a merry chase around the desert arena. Having listened to a number of other battles over the past days, Reggie could only imagine that the announcer was going apoplectic over the lack of action.
But a good battle wasn’t like that Close Quarters Combat game. Some of the other pl
atoons in the tournament could use to read a copy of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Picking a battlefield where you held the advantage was always the way to fight.
When Reggie finally sprang the ambush Eminent Deadly had been expecting, it came from an area they’d just vacated. All the enemy juggernauts took Ghost Platoon’s initial assault on their rear armor. June’s advanced sensor package relayed a multitude of critical hits that damaged internal systems.
In short order, Eminent Deadly gathered their wits and turned their juggernauts to face the onslaught. But by then, it was too late. One by one, Ghost Platoon focused fire.
“Wolverine 1,” Reggie radioed out, tapping the target on the tactical map to mark it for everyone. It had taken heavy internal damage but still had all its weapons systems online. Working in concert, Ghost Platoon obliterated it.
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 1/5]
Diablo started taking heavy damage as the remaining enemy juggernauts combined their fire on it. Chase radioed in a panic. “They’re all on me!”
“Fall back, Chase,” Reggie ordered. “Get in cover behind the dune.”
“Roger.” Diablo retreated with unseemly haste. But it was better to have him in reserve for an emergency if the latter stages of the battle ended up close than dead early in a hail of focused fire.
The precaution was unneeded.
The other Wolverine perished quickly.
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 2/5]
Then one of the Lions…
[Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Juggernauts 3/5]
June caught a critical hit to the cockpit and was sent to the green room early.
“Charge in,” Reggie ordered. “Finish this.”
“Gladly!” Frank radioed back.
Ghost Platoon Page 14