“Copy that, Barbas,” Talbot said. “Get back here and cross only when we’ve made it safely to the other side.”
“Let’s strip the palisades and return to camp,” Talbot suggested.
It wasn’t exactly pleasant lugging the heavy sheets over rugged terrain back to camp, but there was nothing else for it. Not when Terran resources were now so scarce. Talbot put out a general call on the way for stragglers to return to camp. Luckily for them, everyone was prepared when Talbot arrived.
Without a team of his own, Wilkes was hitting his stride, cajoling, organizing, ensuring the highest of discipline. At least that decision was proving to be an inspired one. By this stage Alpha Centauri was rising steadily - the second of three days was already slipping away.
“We’re crossing the strait,” Talbot barked. “Without an amphibious vehicle we’ll need to swim. The strait isn’t particularly wide, but conserve your energy and relax. We don’t know about the currents yet. All the gear and resources we’ve found will be taken with us. Quantum and Wilkes will organize the transfer. Good luck and see you on the other side.”
Talbot had a strange sense of foreboding as his army began their preparations. Insisting on being part of the vanguard, he made his way down to Arcadia’s eastern beach with Fielding and her scouts. On the the foreshore he found a case of plasma cells half-buried in the sand. Perhaps the Terran commandos had passed through here and found trouble?
The ammo was compatible with his assault rifle. With a broad smile he slotted them into his utility belt.
“Hurry up the fuck up, John,” Fielding said cheekily, out of earshot from the others, who were already wading through the surf.
“I love it when you’re insubordinate,” Talbot said, winking at her. “I’ll make sure you’re punished tonight.”
It might have been nothing, but Laura looked away without replying in her usual inappropriate fashion. Perhaps she was just nervous about the long swim.
The pair eased themselves into the water, diving under the breakers with little difficultly. The cool, fresh water was a relief after covering so much ground in the warm morning sun. Talbot calmly made his way through the wave zone, easing into an efficient rhythm. The scouts seem to make good time through the water, which was blessedly free of rips and eddies.
For several minutes the only sound was the occasional splash. Talbot was overcome with a feeling of profound serenity and wished the swim could last forever. It was a feeling he recognized as the trauma of war. It affected everyone differently - some men panicked, some men crumbled. Talbot seemed to kill everything inside, a man retreating from his mind. On the outside, he seemed supremely relaxed. But there was danger in such remoteness. Talbot needed to stay in the moment or risk losing his humanity altogether.
“Still with us?” Fielding called.
“I’m here,” Talbot said, glad that his resolve was stronger than ever. “Not going anywhere.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Talbot was still grinning at his lover when the distant shore flashed with crimson.
“Incoming!” Talbot shouted, and every Terran ducked under the water.
8
Talbot could hear the sizzle of plasma on the surface as he powered himself forward. When he rose to the surface and peered through the glare he could see the source of the plasma fire - Ashby himself was standing in the thick vegetation behind the sand dunes. The bulk of his force may have moved on, but he’d obviously camouflaged himself there so he could continue tormenting his opposite number.
Talbot was filled with white anger as he stroked toward the shore. There was no question of going back - they needed to face this bastard now or raise the white fucking flag. Besides, Ashby couldn’t hope to be accurate at this range. He wasn’t even likely to hit the Terrans as they rode the crash zone to the beach.
“Sprint east when you make the beach!” he shouted. “We’ll regroup at the rocks!”
The first scouts reached the wave zone and Talbot spurred himself on to catch up to them. The swells were raised by an off-shore wind and he was able to ride through in under a minute. He was sprinting through the shallows in no time, eyes glued on the tangled undergrowth to the north. The trees were silent. Ashby, ever the elusive ghost, had withdrawn.
Though the immediate danger had subsided, Talbot knew his troops couldn’t take the direct route into the hinterland. That path was a choke point where Ashby’s dragoons, possibly even a sentinel or two, could be waiting.
Cursing all the way, Talbot sprinted down the beach. He felt like a rat in a trap, toyed with by a cruel scientist. If he couldn’t break this pattern soon, all three planetary battles for Alpha Centauri were lost. Troop losses were carried over from battle to battle. If his commandos were dead, as he feared, they wouldn’t be coming back. The thought made him want to keel over and vomit on the sand.
He waited at a finger of jagged rocks, watching in quiet fury as the Terran engineers made their way toward his position.
“How do we proceed, sir?” Wilkes asked on arrival, lugging a heavy sheet slab all on his own.
“No choice but to go over the rocks,” Talbot said through gritted teeth. “Ashby’s dictating where we go.”
Wilkes nodded. Sweating profusely, Talbot threw his back into helping the engineers shift the raw materials over the rocks. Together they moved south down an unbroken beach, sticking to the hard sand of the water line. At length the thopter crossed the strait and cruised two hundred yards inland on Talbot’s instruction. The vegetation was difficult to scan but there was no obvious sign of Irian activity.
Toiling in the sun, the Terran host pushed south for the next hour and a half. At length a curious structure could be seen on the hazy horizon.
“We’re near the southern perimeter of the battle zone,” Fielding reported, eyes glued to her wrist pad. “There’s a beacon down here.”
Talbot could see strange engravings on the stone ahead. It appeared to be some kind of temple.
“Careful,” he warned. “We haven’t been able to confirm if there’s any local tribes.”
The host moved into a crumbling, dome-shaped building. A thick layer of dust covered what had once been a glorious mosaic.
“Quite an advanced people,” Quantum commented. “I think we can safely conclude they won’t be bothering us.”
“Agreed,” Talbot said. “Let’s see about locating that beacon.”
The Terran host spread out to explore the ancient temple. There were a number of stone passages snaking away from the central dome. Talbot saw that Barbas had a safe place on the beach to land the thopter, then had Fielding dispatch three of her scouts to run a perimeter patrol. Glad for the shade, he chewed on a strip of roasted pig skin he’d saved from the night before. It certainly made for spectacular energy food.
One of Quantum’s engineers gave an excited shout from a mezzanine level. Talbot rushed up a curved ramp, past a series of abstract sculptures. A silvery beacon shone at the end of a decrepit hallway. The engineer, whose name was Peters, allowed Talbot the honor of approaching close enough for it to change color. Perhaps things weren’t so bad after all - this was their third beacon capture.
“Should be set up a perimeter before moving on, sir?” Peters asked.
“I think so,” Talbot said, regarding the crumbling hallway. Pierced by sunlight at irregular intervals, it had seen better days, but it still represented a choke point and was thus easily defended.
“Bring the sheets and palisades up here.”
The work was done within half an hour. The Terrans had more than enough plating to completely block the hallway in front of the navy blue beacon. Quantum had managed to salvage a drill, which he used to secure the plates further. Once Talbot was satisfied, it was time to move on.
First he dispatched Burdon to run
reconnaissance over the island. It wouldn’t surprise him in the slightest if Ashby had already re-taken the two beacons there.
The rest of the Terran host headed east from the temple, hugging the southern perimeter of the battle zone. The Irians’ strategy had probably been to push them as far out of the way as possible. Aside from the temple beacon, there weren’t many others on this half of the zone. All Talbot could do was work his troops into a central position and hope to strike at the remaining beacons when the time was right. After all, the winner was the army with the most beacons at the close of battle, not that which had held them the longest.
The party marched up a steep incline that soon had Talbot sweating profusely. He was content to let Wilkes marshal the troops, hanging back at the rear to collect his thoughts. Fielding seemed more interested in talking to Wilkes than anyone else, which Talbot found mildly interesting. Probably because he was jealous. Shoving his emotions aside, he focused on the task at hand.
Despite the delicious bounty those pigs had offered the previous day, his army was running low on rations. More worryingly, water supplies were very low. There had been multiple streams on the island, but here on the mainland the terrain was a little drier. Each soldier carried a standard issue canteen, but the larger cannisters of water had been lost to the Irians when they hijacked the quad. Finding clean water wasn’t always as easy as it sounded, especially on an alien world.
As the host cleared a high ridge and descended into a forested valley, Talbot sensed it was a good time to let the engineers roam free for a while and interact with the environment. If his understanding of the central game mechanic was correct, curiosity was invariably rewarded with XP. It may not help in the short term, but if the engineers could develop a nice blend of specializations, they would surely come into their own on the next two planets.
Unfortunately, the valley did not support a stream. What water nourished the tall hardwoods must’ve come from underground. Spotting a suitable location in the shade of several towering conifers, Talbot gave the order to make camp. The troops automatically assumed roles Wilkes had set out the previous day. Once a serviceable military camp had been assembled, it was time to explore.
“The valley is your boundary,” Talbot said to his troops. “Any sign of the enemy is a direct com back to me. Is that understood?”
The soldiers responded in the affirmative.
“Before you go, report to Major Wilkes for your specializations. Your allocated skill tree is what you will spend all your points on. Dismissed.”
Talbot stepped back as the soldiers reported to Wilkes. It made sense to spread their skills evenly, at least until he could work out what was useful and what wasn’t. Talbot spotted a goat track that wound its way through the bracken and decided to take a wander along the eastern ridge line.
At the top he was afforded a commanding view of the valley. A carpet of soft forest canopy undulated beneath him, but not a drop of water was to be seen. By this stage the troops were investigating the flora and fauna with decidedly varied results. Talbot watched a young engineer find a nest of aggressive mammals that proceeded to chase him almost all the way back to the camp. A second engineer tried to shoot a bird with his pistol, but only succeeded in bringing a branch down on his head. A third soldier was inspecting the tree trunks with great interest.
“You,” Talbot barked from his raised position. “Corbin, isn’t it? What can you see that I can’t?”
“I just leveled up, sir,” Corbin said in wonder. “Level two ecology. Now I can see all kinds of harvestable resources in these trees.”
“You mean they’re highlighted to you?” Talbot asked, joining the young man and looking over his shoulder. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary in the upper storey of vegetation.
The engineer produced a small capsule and scooped a clear, viscous substance from the bark.
“There’s a tag on this stuff,” the engineer said. “It’s called endorin resin and it can be processed into a potent battle stimulant.”
“What are the other ingredients?” Talbot asked. This was exactly the kind of thing he’d been hoping for.
“Bastos leaf,” came the confident reply. “I can see everything, sir. A whole new world. With your permission I’d like to come back with a sack and begin harvesting.”
“Go ahead, Corbin,” Talbot said with a grin. “I’m just glad to see a breakthrough.”
And it was. Talbot had been wondering if he’d missed a trick somehow, if there was a critical element to the game that continued to elude him.
There were more exciting breakthroughs further down the valley. Talbot came across Gipps, an engineer busily scooping mud into a low wall so that a shallow pool of water formed on one side.
“Ground water,” Talbot marveled, feeling a weight lift from his shoulders. “We can fill our canteens from here.”
“I wouldn’t advise that, sir,” came a voice from behind him. It was a engineer, yet another young private. “I’ve leveled into hydrology and can read high levels of mineralization in that water. We should boil canteens over the fire first.”
“Good idea,” Talbot agreed, dropping to his knees to help the first engineer shift the soft, silky mud. “Go find a few helpers and bring back thirty canteens. The name’s Sanger, right?”
The engineer saluted and made off through the trees.
“You leveled up too?” Talbot asked Gipps. The man nodded.
“Construction, sir,” he said. “My work here has dual purpose. We can access water, sure, but with the right timber resources I can craft a workbench.”
Talbot looked sharply at him. “Automatically?”
Gipps nodded excitedly. It made sense. With only three days to do battle, both armies needed to expedite how they crafted tools, materials, enhancements and weapons. The key was leveling up and earning skill points.
“Can you make anything?”
Gipps grinned from ear to ear. “Mud brick.”
Talbot’s mind raced with the possibilities. Being able to crank out mud bricks was a definite advantage, particularly for an outnumbered, outgunned force. An extra layer of defense around captured beacons was definitely worth it.
Covered in mud but with an extra bounce in his step, Talbot made his way back to camp. It was a hive of activity, filled with engineers swapping stories of the skills they’d just learned.
“Come and look at this, Major,” Quantum said.
Talbot went to look over his Head Engineer’s shoulder and shook his head with delight. Quantum had crafted a rudimentary coal-fire forge.
“Major Shaw found a coal seam at the south end of the valley,” he said. “We began blasting rocks free with our damn pistols.”
Quantum laughed, tickled by the unorthodox procedure.
“Next thing you know, I reach level 3 in construction and I can build a forge.”
“A sight for sore eyes, I tell you,” Talbot said. “What can you build?”
Quantum’s eyes glittered. “I have a schematic for a blunderbuss. The kind used by those weird aliens with braids on the other side of the galaxy.”
“It’s a good thing we have a few engineers specializing in unique weapons,” Talbot said, thinking out loud. “If we can craft those weird weapons we can start replacing the commandos we’ve lost.”
“You said it, sir,” Quantum said.
“Do we have the required materials?”
Quantum’s expression clouded over. “I need to level up again, but we can access and smelt the metals. We also need circuitry. We lost a lot of it with the quad. We may need to steal some back from the Irians.”
“We’ll see about that,” Talbot said. “Carry on, Gary. And good work.”
9
The thopter approached from the west. Talbot guided Burdon in to a small clearing. The thopter was maneuverable enough to land on a dime.
“Here, help me cover it,” Talbot said as the pilot leaped from the cockpit. The pair smothered it with branches an
d foliage so it couldn’t be seen from above.
On the way back to camp, Talbot spotted Fielding talking to Corbin about the endorin resin he found earlier.
“What can you do with that, Lieutenant?” he asked with a sly grin.
“A great battlefield salve, for starters,” Laura said, ignoring Talbot’s hidden meaning. “With Corbin’s help I think we can come up with something useful.”
She gave Talbot an excited grin as Corbin headed off for more harvesting.
“I’ve reached level three Medic,” she said. “I have three of my scouts following suit.”
“One medic is probably enough,” Talbot said. “I need the rest of you developing sniper rifle skills. And Porter can concentrate on pathfinding.”
Fielding looked at Talbot incredulously. “With respect, John, we’re gonna receive injuries and I think -”
“Laura, we don’t have time to argue. Trust me on this.”
Fielding had no choice but to obey, but a barrier had risen between them. Her manner became brusque and businesslike. Once upon a time Talbot might’ve been able to make it up to her using a combination of charm and smarm. But now his hands were tied. She walked away, leaving Talbot alone with his burden of command.
Vaguely angry, Talbot went and found Porter. He let the tall scout know in no uncertain terms that his duty was to develop his pathfinding skills to the max. Feeling a little more in control, Talbot was about to gather his troops ahead of the gathering dusk when a shout rang out from the northern end of the valley.
Dread began consuming Talbot as he picked his way through the hardwoods. A ring of soldiers were standing around a muddy pit. Talbot arrived as if in slow motion, knowing something horrible would present itself down there.
Ten heads, each shoved on a wooden stake and “planted” in the mud. The commandos Carter had convinced to go with him yesterday. Strangely enough, Carter and one other were absent from the grisly array.
Virtual War: Alpha Centauri (A LitRPG Novel) Page 5