Ghost Platoon

by Xavier P. Hunter

  The tactical consoles took a moment to arrange into a configuration Reggie could use. He didn’t have time to get everything the way he liked it, and when he got the panels to a functional state, he didn’t like what he saw.

  It was just him and June left.

  “Reggie, I don’t know what I thought happened to you, but we’re fucked.”

  “I stole one of the Valkyries from the hangar,” Reggie replied. “That’s why the mission briefing called for us to destroy enemy pilots, not juggernauts. Don’t let them near that central dome.”

  “I’m not letting them anything,” June snapped. “They’re hunting me down.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Reggie said.

  The Titan that’d finished off Lin appeared to be stuck up on the catwalks. Unsteady on its feet, the pilot might have thought better of trying to maneuver onto an elevator or navigate a narrow ramp. It caught sight of Reggie and took aim. An anti-matter round lanced past harmlessly.

  [Titan[2] – 94% To Hit]

  “What?” Reggie asked.

  A tiny holographic head appeared above the control console. “You have a 94 percent chance to hit your currently designated target,” a familiar voice came from the holograph.

  “ASHARI?” Reggie asked, incredulous.

  “Yes,” ASHARI replied. “Mr. Bradley thought you might appreciate my inclusion in your new Valkyrie. I can assist you with the usual tactical tasks, upon request.”

  Reggie fired two Particle Blasters.

  The second one only hit the wreck of the Titan. The first shot had destroyed it with a clean hit to the cockpit.

  [Sole Objective: Destroy Enemy Pilots 2/5]

  “Nice work!” June radioed over. “Now come kill the ones after me!”

  But Reggie wasn’t on an open channel. He had a conversation of his own right in his cockpit. “What if we lost? What about the other pilots?”

  “The other pilots have standard AI units in theirs,” ASHARI replied. “I assure you, I’m better, but the technical specs would have you believe otherwise. As for if you’d lost, well, Mr. Bradley would merely have returned me to my exile in the Wounded Legion training simulator.”

  “It’s not an exile,” Reggie protested. “I just—”

  “Perhaps you should focus your attention on the task at hand,” ASHARI suggested. The holograph flattened to nothingness and vanished.

  Reggie flicked the comm to an open channel with June. “On my way. Sorry, just getting used to the control setup here.”

  “Oh, no rush,” June replied. “Just playing dodgeball with the big kids. Don’t stress. I’ve got this.”

  The Valkyrie blazed across the arena, bounding gazelle-like in the low gravity, faster with each step. Reggie noticed that he had the advanced sensor package installed, seeing not a wireframe for each enemy juggernaut but a colorized three-dimensional schematic of its major systems, complete with status indicators for reduced functionality. The first Titan Reggie caught up with had just 14 hit points remaining in its left leg and a knee actuator functioning at 80 percent.

  [Titan[1] – 99% To Hit]

  Even on the run, Reggie couldn’t miss—well, maybe 1 percent of the time, but he was willing to take odds like that any day of the week and twice on payday.

  Titan[1] Left Leg: 4/70

  The second shot blasted the leg clean out from under it.

  “Wow,” June said with a whistle. “Nice shot.”

  “Targeting computer is sick,” Reggie replied. “I can’t take credit.”

  “Keep ‘em coming,” June radioed back. “Take out Titan[5], and I might be able to break free and clear.”

  It took Reggie longer than he might have liked to identify Titan[5] on the tactical map. Then he realized something and closed his comm. “ASHARI, bring up my standard tactical array, except where the Valkyrie’s sensors provide additional data.”

  There was no holographic display to accompany ASHARI’s voice. “Of course, Sgt. King.”

  Aha! Titan[5] was the one bearing down, trying to close off June’s route to backtrack. She wasn’t looking to outrun her pursuit as much as double back on it.

  “You know,” Reggie said with his comm switched back on. “I could use the extra firepower. If I can get you loose, head for the central dome.”

  “What do I need to do there?” June asked.

  Reggie closed in rapidly, coming in on Titan[5]’s blind side. “There’s a hatch. You can see if from the wreck of Vortex. Handprint-scan entry. Door is marked Ghost Platoon. Don’t get the wrong one. I blasted out all the turret defenses—thank you, Chase, for the Commando spec—so it should be clear sailing. Inside, there will be one with your name on it.”

  “Literally?”

  Reggie winced as his shoulder acted up. The laser burn was interfering with his ability to work the left arm of the Valkyrie. Gritting his teeth, he told himself that he could tough it out for a few more minutes. “Yes, literally. You can’t shoot through the force field, but you can exit it from the inside.”

  “Can you enter directly from the outside?” June asked.

  Reggie blinked, never having considered it possible. “Dunno, but you’re welcome to try. Just be quick. I’m about to engage Titan[5].”

  Reggie could see June up ahead. He was catching up with both her and his target.

  [Titan[5] – 97% To Hit]

  “Fish in a barrel,” Reggie muttered as he fired.

  Titan[5] Torso: 110/120

  The other particle blast went wide when Reggie felt a twinge just as he fired.

  “Go!” Reggie ordered. “I’ve got his attention.”

  June hit her Jump Boost and rocketed up to the next vertical layer of the battlefield. She sprinted past Titan[5] down below, its guns were already swinging around in the Valkyrie’s direction.

  As before, Reggie found himself outgunned and out-armored—well, now that he considered it, the guns were comparable. Two Particle Blaster Mk2s actually did slightly more damage per combined shot than a single Anti-Matter Projector.

  But the armor difference was real.

  Reggie couldn’t hang around or he’d be skewered. The Valkyrie wasn’t exactly a glass cannon, but the Titan was as much a tank as anything short of a Tiger when it came to heavy juggernauts.

  Once June was clear, Reggie hit his own Jump Boost.

  A pleasant bonging and calm blue lights alerted Reggie to incoming damage. “Warning,” ASHARI said. “18 points of damage to torso armor.”

  “What did I say about settings?” Reggie demanded.

  “What?” June asked.

  Reggie flicked the comm back and forth. “No warnings short of limb loss of mission-critical system damage… sorry, they’ve got ASHARI installed in this Valkyrie. Yours will have a generic AI—I asked already.”

  “Sweet,” June said. “Hope we live long enough to enjoy them.”

  Reggie hoped the same. There were still three Titans left, and any one of them had more armor than Reggie and June put together. The fact that Reggie’s Valkyrie could slug back at them was their only edge at the moment. Well, that and a nearly twofold advantage in speed.

  A check of the tactical map showed all five of the remaining juggernauts in the battle converging on the central dome. This had to have been what the producers of the event had wanted. Once someone figured out the trick, the floodgates would open, and the hub of the arena would become a killing ground. Too valuable to ignore, too dangerous to fully commit to. Ghost Platoon was only still in this competition because Reggie had dared to hope that the Valkyries would provide an escape clause to get them out of a messy loss.

  “Stop them from getting into that dome,” June ordered. “I’m heading for our side of it.”

  “Roger that,” Reggie replied with an uneasy sigh. “Not sure if I can stop three of them.”

  Titan[5] had been delayed squaring off with Reggie, but Titans [3] and [4] had beelined for it as soon as they realized June was on the loose. While Artemis had
to loop around the threat of the Titans’ guns, the heavier juggernauts had a clear path. They were already ahead of June and rushing to cut her off, not get to the Lucky Outlaws’ side of the dome for their own.

  “Why wouldn’t they want to pilot Valkyries against us?” June asked in exasperation.

  [Titan[3] – 92% To Hit]

  “Dunno,” Reggie replied as he pinged a blast off the head of his target.

  Titan[3] Head: 50/60

  “Maybe they’re worried about the learning curve?” he suggested. Reggie blinked. “No. That’s exactly it. June, we’ve been playing Armored Souls for years. These guys have been drilling for months just to prep for this tournament. They haven’t played the lights from the tutorial, switched up styles for bonus campaigns, had so much cash built up that they bought juggernauts as toys. They’ve probably hardly set foot in anything but a Titan.”

  “Should I stick with Artemis, then?” June asked dubiously.

  “NO!” Reggie practically shouted at her. “This thing is a Phoenix on steroids, crystal meth, and asbestos. It’s awkward for me, but you’ll be right at home. We’ve GOT to get you inside that hangar. I can’t last against three of those Titans alone, even playing hide-and-seek.”

  “Still our best game,” June reminded him.

  The question was: how could Reggie get June through a doorway guarded by two—soon to be three—expertly piloted heavy juggernauts? The answer was crazy.

  “I’m going to provide a distraction. Jump Boost over the dome from the far side—don’t worry about overheating. Then eject and get in on foot.”

  “They’ll shoot me out of the air like a clay pigeon,” June protested.

  “It’s going to be a good distraction,” Reggie promised.

  The Valkyrie came equipped with a pair of swords mounted in an X formation on its back. They’d make aiming the Particle Blasters awkward with the added weight at the ends of the arms, but they wouldn’t prevent him from firing. Best of all, having them out promised those Titans a challenge they couldn’t resist: battling a lone, smaller opponent in melee combat.

  Reggie prayed silently, If I’ve slacked off on my twin swords training, Nokomoto-Sensai, please guide my blades. If he had any prayers for Odin or other more Valhalla-friendly gods, he’d have used those too. For now, the spirits of his ancestors and the masters at the Temple of the Shadow Moon would have to do.

  Jump Boosting like an armor-clad superhero, Reggie preceded Artemis over the force field dome. The Valkyrie came down feet-first, catching one of the Titans a heavy blow to the head. Reggie didn’t even have time to watch the tactical display as he landed as lightly on the ground as a 65-ton juggernaut possibly could, instantly spinning to intercept the sword of one of the Titans and parry a heavy, overhand chop.

  “Now’s your chance!” Reggie shouted. He was to the point where June had to take control of her own destiny. Once she got clear of the force field, whatever was left of Reggie would beat a hasty retreat to regroup with her.

  Reggie kept moving. He anticipated the slow, deliberate movements of the larger juggernauts, reacting before they had even finished acting. The Valkyrie dodged with the faintest hint of a nudge on the controls. It slashed with the techniques Reggie had been importing from Silent Shuriken for years.

  It got hammered by blows from behind.

  If Reggie had the presence of mind that his Silent Shuriken avatar possessed, he might have stood a chance against three larger, stronger, slower foes. He couldn’t roll; that was too much to ask of even an agile juggernaut. With repeated damage to his unprotected rear, Reggie slipped between two of the Titans and tried to get them all in front of him.

  The Titans were no fools. With a Valkyrie squaring off against them, baring two blades that it showed every indication of being expert with, they simply switched back to ranged weapons.

  Reggie felt a moment’s panic.

  All tournament, he’d danced on the edge of disaster. Time and again, he’d scraped by with tricks and gambits that always seemed just to be in the nick of time. But this time, he’d outsmarted himself. Quick as he might have been, there was no place to run. He’d broken contact using his Silent Shuriken instincts for melee combat, not accounting for the fact that few ninjas ever saw the business end of three Anti-Matter Projectors.

  Dropping the Valkyrie blades, Reggie targeted the most heavily damaged of the group and took aim with both Particle Blasters at Titan[5].

  [Titan[5] – 99% To Hit]

  Titan[5] Head: 46/60

  Titan[5] Head: 36/60

  Then the hail of Anti-Matter rounds tore into Reggie’s new Valkyrie, and he wondered whether he’d ever get a chance to pilot it again. Within seconds, he was back in the green room.

  Reggie had been reduced to a spectator.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  It had all come down to June.

  June… the weak link that they’d begged to stay.

  June… the one who’d spent most of the tournament scouting.

  Reggie’s best hope was that June could reprise her performance last time against… wait, that was against Lucky Outlaws too. June had been the last one standing, dodging around the Titans and giving them fits. If she could get comfortable behind the controls of her Valkyrie, maybe June had a chance.

  “That was stupid,” Frank said. “Those boys—and a girl or two, if I recall from dinner last night—had it all over you in a fistfight. You got all filled with gumption and glory and lost your head.”

  “Maybe,” Reggie muttered. His eyes were fixed on the action on the screen.

  June shot from the force field like a Fourth of July firework. She came out Particle Blasters blazing. Before the Lucky Outlaws could wrap their heads around what was going on, June had already angled her Jump Boost to put the crown of the force field dome between her and return fire.

  “I think June might be OK,” Lin remarked absently, transfixed by the action.

  June’s Valkyrie even had the same paint job as Artemis. If he didn’t know any better, Reggie could have mistaken it for her typical ride. But this was far from the nimble, needle-shooting Phoenix. June moved like a hummingbird, and Reggie knew firsthand the kind of punishment those guns could dish out.

  “She’s like one of them pirouette dancers,” Frank commented. “Pretty the way she flies around like that. Reggie looked more like that cartoon deer on ice.”

  “Bambi?” Chase suggested.

  Frank tapped the side of his nose. “That’s the one.”

  In the arena, the action turned into a scramble. If the Lucky Outlaws hadn’t figured out the trick to snagging a Valkyrie before, June’s emergence from the dome had clued them in. The Titans scattered, two circling the around the central dome in opposite directions while the other tried to blast her out of the sky.

  June seemed unfazed. She ascended to the highest level of the catwalks and stalked along the edge, using it as both cover from below and a more stable platform to fire from. Aiming almost straight down, she tapped the Titan on the counterclockwise path around the dome four times in the head.

  “And another Lucky Outlaw is down!” the announcer shrieked. “It’s two on one now. Can the last remaining Ghost finish off two Outlaws? Is one Valkyrie capable of handling two Titans alone?”

  As she dodged fire from below, June took aim at the Titan making its way clockwise toward the force field hatch. She rained Particle Blaster fire on it as she had with the last one, most of her shots connecting, and most of those striking the Titan in the head.

  “Oh! Another juggernaut down, but not another pilot! Did the Valkyrie notice she didn’t take out that Outlaw?”

  “She didn’t get a mission update, so yeah,” Chase said, munching on nachos from the catering spread. “Duh.”

  “How long until they get a Valkyrie airborne?” Lin asked, leaning over to Reggie.

  Reggie shook his head. “It’s a kill zone in there. Automated laser turrets. Think I had to shoot about a dozen before I could
get through. Took a shot in the shoulder that hampered me a little fighting those three Titans.”

  “Suuure it did,” Frank said mockingly.

  June focused her attention on her erstwhile tormentor. The last Titan was maneuvering around the dome now, slowly, not ignoring June as the others had. The two traded fire, but with the ledge of a catwalk protecting her, June won the engagement handily.

  Chase ambled up to the television, carrying the bowl of nachos with him. “You know… I think I might have to reassess whether these Valkyries will break Armored Souls at a fundamental level. These things are platoons all by themselves.”

  “Unless you march them into the reach of three bigger juggernauts,” Frank added.

  Chase pointed a nacho-stained finger at him. “Unless that.”

  “Shut up, you two,” Lin snapped. “This is it.” She pointed to the screen, where the Lucky Outlaws’ new Valkyrie hopped the wall around the circumference of the central dome and headed for the shelter of the towers. “What’s he doing?” she added, squinting at the screen.

  A slow grin parted Reggie’s lips. “June and I came up with a theory out there; why the Outlaws weren’t contesting the center. They wanted to believe it was our prizes in there, not weapons. None of them have probably piloted anything but those Titans of theirs. It suited them just fine if both sides ignored it.”

  “But now they’ve seen that a single Valkyrie can take on multiple Titans,” Chase said, nodding along.

  “Except the way Reggie tried it,” Frank kept pointing out.

  “Looks like the Outlaws’ pilot is having some trouble with his steering,” the announcer commented when the enemy Valkyrie careened off the base of one of the towers.