The lieutenant inclined his head in consideration, letting the sarcasm slide.
“The Moca’s operating system is a bit simple.” he conceded, “That’s to be expected, seeing as it was meant to be supported by an equally simple CPU. Has something to do with the price-tag, I guess. But the map is there and it is accurate. Trust me on that. As for where the enemy is, is it really that important to you?”
Miura nodded silently.
“All right,” he sighed, “We are currently forty clicks closer to the Unmil than any UAVs have come before and less than four hours march from the mine plantation. We have some reports there was a heavy disturbance around these parts a few months ago, heavy enough to cause a brand new dawn-wave to propagate over the continent. The Research Hubs compiled all the data pertaining to the event and processed it. The point is they figured the dawn’s cerne to be about three hundred clicks to our east, give or take a hundred.
“My guess is, if the enemy’s around these parts, he’s going to notice our presence here. Which is why from now on Main Force will be moving in battle line instead of column. That is also why LOGIS will be marching half a click behind the ASC. Today’s grove was a good catch, it was what we were needing. From now on there’ll be no grove-hunting, we’ll be operating on what we have. Feel any better?”
“Actually, yes sir. I was beginning to feel like this could go on forever.”
The lieutenant grinned.
“Rest assured that if our Commander had decided to not jaunt to Lograin, it would have. But that’s not the reason why I wanted to talk to you. Who are you paired up with?”
“Grimm. Unit Four, sir.”
“Not anymore. You’ll pair up with Fourteen while Four assists Brother One. Understood?”
Miura’s disappointment was hard to miss.
“I ... Yes sir. Why?”
The lieutenant sighed heavily.
“Listen, Miura. I’m sure you’ve noticed already that Hirum’s having it hard out here. He’s going to need someone he knows and respects beside him to keep him in line. You realize that, don’t you?”
“Yes sir. It’s just that ... well, I –” Miura began.
“You just want to be a hero. Right, I get that, except for the fact that you’re not authorized to be a hero. That’s the true nature of military service. Shitty assignments. I hate them as much as you and I do everything I can to stay away from them. But they’re still assignments and they need to be done, otherwise I foresee Hirum will screw up so bad he’ll either get himself killed, get everyone else killed, get himself court-martialed, or a combination of the above. You’re his mate, right?”
“Yes ...”
“I’ll arrange to open a private channel so you can talk only between the two. That should make it easier for you. But you’ve got to keep him engaged. Are we clear?”
“Yes sir, I’ll get it done.” His subordinate finally answered, apparently resigned to his fate.
“Excellent. Now get a meal in your belly. And wash. You smell like you’ve spent the last three weeks living in a latrine.”
*****
Toni gave Unit Seven a cold, hard look. It stared back at him as placidly as ever, its expression a study in neutrality. Toni remembered how at first he had thought it looked somewhat wrathful in appearance. Now it appeared almost fearful, although perhaps he was simply seeing his own emotions reflected there. The Suit was currently lightly armored, and it was certainly armed about as well as he could have hoped for, but the array of weaponry still looked woefully inadequate when he considered what he’d been seeing over the net. Leiben had been solidly creamed from afar and drones had fallen like confetti from the sky. Yet they were expected to get up close and personal with the attackers, a military force whose exact location, strength and number of bodily appendages was entirely unknown. And just how exactly were they supposed to engineer a victory?
He took out a thick pen he’d commandeered in Lograin and hopped up onto the unit’s right knee. Approaching its forearm, he began to write on it, trying hard to make the lettering square and legible.
“Finally found a name for it?” He heard from below as he finished up. It was Ray.
“Not quite ...”
“I’m calling mine MAY REVENGE. What do you think?”
“Sounds appropriate, I guess ...”
Toni hadn’t even considered naming his Suit. Somehow he didn’t feel connected to it enough to do so. He had always thought it would be a Hammerhead he’d eventually be naming, anyway. Ray turned his head, reading the print out loud.
“I AM NOT AUTHORIZED TO BE A HERO. What?” He asked, puzzled.
“It’s just something the ell-tee told me. It’s to remind me of what I have to do.”
“And what’s that?”
“I’m a baby-sitter, I guess ...” Toni sighed, and he explained what had happened only an hour before.
“Jeeesh ... Hirum?” Ray exclaimed once he’d finished.
“Yup.”
“That’s bad luck for you, Tones. Escort detail on your own mate. But you still drew resupply, so don’t bitch about it too much. I’m gonna be in the rear-end digging emplacements and stretching wires while you’re having a ball, so it’s not all bad. Maybe you’ll even get lucky and see some action ...”
“Yeah. Lucky ...” Toni mused.
“You all right?”
“Yes. Listen, how’re things going in sec-three? Your sarge putting up for you?”
“Jorren? Every time he sees us, he gets this expression like he’s disgusted or something and looks away. It’s beginning to piss me off. I might just have words with him about that ...”
Toni grinned. Had he known Ray for only a day, he might have taken him seriously, but he had since learned that if his mate had a straight face, it was probably because he was screwing around. No cadet would dare “have words” with their section commanders; that was a conversation that would never happen. They all knew the ex-ASC drivers were ticked off for having been pulled from their company in the eve of Capicua’s first battle.
“Yeah, you do that. They’re full of themselves, they are. Need to be put in their places. And what of the special one?”
“Hell, forget about him, Tones, he’s not messing up. Sueli’s the one pissing me off. Sickness is her natural state now, though every once in a while she goes into remission. Right now Hannah, Ian and I are sec-three’s only operational units, except for the sarge, of course. And we’re all that’s needed, you know. That Hannah’s a real trooper. She’s the best looking femme as well, now that Sueli’s gone three shades of green. I –”
Ray cut off whatever he had been about to say. As Hannah approached she tripped over a shrub, letting off a girlish squeal quickly followed by an embarrassed smile. Toni realized what Ray had meant; having lost only a kilo or two, she didn’t have the almost emaciated look of Rakaia and especially Sueli, and as such her complexion wasn’t much the worse for wear. Her eyes, pale as always and a little tired, nevertheless expressed some enjoyment at her predicament. And she seemed as yet completely untouched by fear.
“Hi, Toni. Can we talk?” She asked.
Toni’s brow twitched at the question.
“Arright, I’m gonna get some sleep. See ya later, Tones. You too, Khaki ...” Ray declared with a twisted smile on his face, giving Hannah a brotherly clap on the shoulder she seemed not to notice. They waited silently until he was out of earshot.
“Khaki?” Toni remarked with a smile.
“Arakaki. Khaki. It’s his way.” She answered distractedly, refusing to meet Toni’s eyes for a moment.
“Ahuh. He likes you.”
“Shut up, ok? I’m here about Rakaia.”
“Oh.”
“Are you angry with her?” She asked bluntly.
Now that he thought about it, he had never had a one-to-one conversation with Hannah before.
“No, far from it. I think it was me who screwed up, actually, though I don’t want to get into details ...”
he answered carefully.
“Good, I don’t wanna hear about it.” She said evenly, before pushed on.
“Point is, Rakaia’s got some issues to deal with so she can be a little ... uh, brittle, sometimes. I know that and she knows it too. And I’ll admit whatever happened in med bay is none of my business. So I guess I’ll just be direct. Do you like her?”
“No. I mean I like her, but not that way. I mean, hell, she’s as well equipped as any I’ve seen so maybe I was checking her out a bit, but ... can I shut up now?” He finished, hating himself to the core.
Hannah’s slender eyebrows had perked up just a little at his reference to equipment, but she hadn’t said anything. She considered his reply for a while.
“OK, it’s simple then. You’ve apologized, from what I heard. She accepts your apology but says for you to keep your distance, you fucking pervert. Not my words.” She added with a smile.
“I’m sorry ...” was all Toni could say.
“Keep your head down out there, OK?” She warned, flashing a bright smile at him before she walked away.
Not to worry, dear Hannah, he thought as defeat overtook him, I’ll never raise it again.
Turning away, he slipped the Suit’s access-key into its slot.
CHAPTER TWELVE
945 kilometers south-east of Lograin, 03H43, 14th of June, 2771
Enveloped in darkness, Toni awoke to a persistent beeping sound. Groggy with sleep, he decided to ignore the sound in the hope that it would eventually go away. Instead it was replaced by a compelling whoop suspiciously similar to the alert one would hear inside an armored Suit.
And then he remembered.
Opening his eyes to find yet more darkness, he ordered his unit to activate. Eyelids still sticky with sleep, Toni finally gained audio and visual, and he blinked furiously at the written warning on his virtual foreground.
ALARM MODE ACTIVATED. SIGNAL SOURCE ASC P1 S4
Feeling a chill reach into his bones, Toni inquired over the comm.
“Brother One, here Unit Seven, over.”
There was no delay in the answer.
“Shut your ass, Seven, I’ll get to you in a mike.”
A particularly loud report suddenly made itself heard, jolting him fully awake more quickly than anything else could have. Moving his helm around, he tried to lay eyeballs on the source of the explosion, finding only that the remainder of his platoon, still facing inwards into their circle, were trying to do the exact same thing.
“Here LOGIS Prime. All units about-face and hunker down where you are.” It was the lieutenant, and he sounded pissed off.
Toni hurried to comply, whirling fast around his center of gravity and putting his kneepad to the ground a full half-second before the others. He gripped his rifle firmly and strained his ears, trying to pick up any sound.
All remained silent, except for the occasional nervous chirp of birds woken by the report. He wondered if perhaps they were hearing something he could not.
He increased audio sensitivity, gradually becoming aware of far-off popping sounds, followed by a second-long roar.
Somewhere far off, a unit of the ASC was firing a 30 millimeter cannon.
Toni tried to keep his breathing slow and steady as the seconds passed by, his effort sabotaged by a particularly loud concussion from the south-east. The unit to Toni’s left flinched at the sound, the Suit producing a shudder in the act. It was Hirum, and he had probably augmented his audio sensitivity as well. Toni dragged his ocular mouse to the communications panel on his virtual display and looked at his options there, finding that the lieutenant had kept his word. He activated a private comm. link between Units Seven and Fourteen.
“Yo, Fourteen, you believe this?”
“Toni?” A disbelieving voice sounded over the comm.
“Yours truly. No worries mate, Grimm’s with the secleader now. You’re with me from now on.”
“Really?” There was an almost childish note in Hirum’s voice.
“You OK with that?”
“Hell yeah, Toni, ‘course I am. Are we on an encrypted channel?”
“Encrypted, yeah. I, uh, took a look at the communications panel and realized your unit is on it. Maybe the pairs can parley privately now.”
“Oh, that’s great. That’s more than great, ‘cause I’m freaking out here ...”
“Listen, Fourteen. Don’t do that, OK? All we need to do is what we’re told. It’ll all work out, alright?”
A monotonous voice cut off their conversation.
“LOGIS, here LOGIS Prime, standby to receive operational updates from Wild Rose. This is the only time I’ll be saying this. From now on these messages will be keeping you posted on current events.”
There was general silence for a few moments.
“Uh, Fourteen, maybe we’d better keep the comms to the minimum, before we miss something like that ...”
“Roger that.”
A few moments later the Op-update appeared before Toni’s eyes.
» ASC 1ST PLATOON, 4TH SECTION, ON PERIMETER PATROL 5 KM EAST-SOUTH-EAST OF MAIN FORCE ENCOUNTERED UNKNOWN NUMBER OF LAND VEHICLES. FOUR SUCH VEHICLES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED, REMAINDER HAVE RETREATED DUE EAST. MAIN FORCE WILL ASSEMBLE PREDETERMINED BATTLE-LINE WITH VANGUARD 500 METERS DUE EAST FOR IMINENT CONTACT PROGRESSION.
He read the message twice over before banishing it to his mission log. Then it finally began to sink in that an ASC section had contacted and wasted four enemy vehicles, and the blood in his veins began to flow faster and hotter. The silence on the comm. was broken once again.
“LOGIS, here LOGIS Prime. Form up at the treeline facing east. Sec One in the center, Secs Two and Three on left and right flank respectively, over.”
All units immediately obeyed, their drivers somewhat less hesitant than they had been previously. Toni’s augmented hearing began to pick up a multitude of APUs coming to life all around the forest. The entire ASC was prepping for locomotion, their turbines working furiously to increase the gas pressure in their pressure vessels, their drivers anxious to join the comrades who had just blooded themselves.
The Mocas moved towards their starting points, their motions those of an undersea diver walking on the seabed. The Hammerheads, however, were fast and fluid as they occupied their positions, the members of LOGIS reaching their line about twenty seconds afterwards.
That was one of the very few things Toni knew about the Hammerhead; its closed system forewent air in favor of germane, mostly because the gas was far more fluid than ordinary air, thus making PAM inflation and deflation much quicker, thus improving pseudo-muscular performance, and thus increasing Suit agility and reflexes. He put the thought out of his mind since it depressed him, thinking instead on the opposite side of that particular coin. If the Hammerhead’s exterior pressure vessel were to be breached, it would only be a matter of time before complete locomotive failure took place, since the system wasn’t designed to work with ordinary air.
The wait went on and Toni was once again forced to consider Dunn’s advice at the shuttle platform. Trying to relax, he found himself unable to do so, and began to compulsively check out his operational status instead.
Discreetly he confirmed that his main weapon was safed and checked its serviceability. The sleek rifle’s slender, fluted barrel was mostly hidden inside its ample hand-guard. The hand-guard also concealed an automatic antipersonnel shotgun, the 15 millimeter cartridges it used having been designed to release 24 flechettes upon firing. The shotgun’s two hundred round helical magazine was presently empty, that particular caliber no longer being in production.
As ordered by Main Force Ops his sentry guns were at the moment deactivated, their employment dependant on his voicing a key-word while eyeing the appropriate icon on his display. Knowing his own tendency for forgetfulness, Toni recorded the key-word on a semi-transparent sticky note and dragged it below the icon. When activated, those guns would fire upon any nearby hostile forces and even upon incoming projectiles
with 20 millimeter fragmentation grenades, supposedly creating a safe-zone around his unit.
The only problem was that sometimes the Moca’s CPU got a little confused about exactly who the enemy was, hence the Main Force order.
The SABERO rocket pods were preset in the same fashion, but he set them instead to launch by rifle trigger for faster engagement. There were two rockets per pod, allowing him to engage only four targets at best. He had been surprised to discover, however, that both pods together cost about as much as his Suit’s production cost, quite the thing to boost his confidence in their effectiveness.
“LOGIS, here LOGIS Prime, increase unit spacing to forty paces and standby for lomo.” The lieutenant sounded over the comm.
Toni didn’t budge an inch. Belatedly he realized he was at the square center of the progression line. The more rational part of his mind remembered that enemy contact could take place along any part of its extension, but still he would have much preferred to be in the flanks. Everything that he had ever learned regarding conventional combat tactics made clear that it was the center that usually took the most punishment, their traditional role being to fix the enemy while the flanks became mobile to do the greater part of the actual killing.
He consoled himself with the fact that there was an armored company half a kilometer ahead shielding their movement.
He had barely begun to calm down when the the electrifying order finally came through.
“Attention to all LOGIS units. Locomotion. I repeat, locomotion.”
Toni’s footpads began to move without being having told to, his ears catching the sound of gigantic footfalls as nineteen armored Suits crossed the tree line into the forest beyond.
*****
“All units pause and observe ...” Toni heard over the comm.
He halted his progression at once, the remainder of LOGIS doing the same. Toni suspected the ASC units ahead were also pausing to listen, and to release micro-UAVs into their surroundings for a quick look-see. He had already lost count of the number of times the order had been given, although by now the procedure had gained a familiar feel, like pausing beside the living room door to judge whether his father was inside before crossing its threshold.
Descent into Mayhem (Capicua Chronicles Book 1) Page 23