Battle ARC

by Toby Neighbors

  Angel checked the messages on her data pad and saw that Captain Nance had requested her presence in auditorium C as soon as she was settled on board. Alex Nance was a couple of years older than Angel, although she wasn’t certain of his age. She knew his reputation, which wasn’t good. He was a gifted gymnast who never really lived up to his potential. She knew the rumors about him too — that he was more interested in girls than gymnastics, that he missed more than one event because he was fooling around with some of his female teammates, and that he was arrogant due to his family’s wealth. She had seen him a few times at various competitions. He was handsome, with a chiseled body, thick hair, and icy blue eyes; but he had never so much as spoken to her. Angel hadn’t cared at the time; her mind was focused on winning. She wasn’t interested in distractions.

  As she walked through the narrow corridors of the ship, she felt worry creeping up on her. Logically she knew she had nothing to be concerned about. She had proven herself on Neo Terra. Nance might disregard her as a junior officer, but he couldn’t question her abilities. Still, she felt like she was being summoned to the principle’s office. Her experience with senior officers wasn’t all that great. Major Dixon had belittled her, and Colonel Hale had dismissed her as irrelevant. She had no reason to believe that Captain Nance would make those same mistakes, but she still worried that he might.

  Auditorium C was a small room with elevated rows of comfortable looking chairs. Angel recognized it as one of the rooms usually reserved for flight wings to lay out orders, identify targets, and discuss their missions. The room was empty except for a tall man in a flight suit. Angel recognized him. Nance was still handsome, even with his hair buzzed and the baggy fatigues hiding his impressive physique.

  “Lieutenant Murphy,” he said as she stepped into the room. “It’s a pleasure. May I call you Angel?”

  10

  C.S.F. Minerva, Mars Orbit, Sol System

  Angel saluted, and Nance returned the salute then waved her toward one of the chairs.

  “Please, let’s drop the formalities,” he said. “I heard you had joined CSF. Welcome to the service.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” Angel said.

  “Gosh, how long has it been — two years, three? It’s good to see another gym rat again. I’ve been out of competition for a while now, but I like to keep up my routines. I wasn’t a floor competitor like you. Pommel horse, and spring board, those were my wheelhouse. What made you join the service?”

  “I was recruited,” Angel said.

  “No kidding? That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that. I was tapped for flight school as soon as I decided the gymnast thing wasn’t really for me. It’s a little too elitist for my taste.”

  Angel wanted to respond that she had heard he always considered himself above most of his fellow competitors, but she was determined not to let the past influence her relationship with the new platoon leader, so she just nodded. Nance didn’t need any encouragement to keep talking.

  “I’ve been flying Raptor class fast attack atmospheric craft. You ever been in one?”

  Angel shook her head.

  “They’re pretty wicked. They don’t leave orbit, but zero-g is overrated in my opinion. You might as be riding a simulator, you know? You can’t feel the bird, and I like to feel every inch of her. Plus, the limits on hard vacuum birds are completely different. It’s like driving one of those antique cars that’s as long as a bus. Give me an atmo flyer anytime. Even a cargo plane is more fun than flying in space. But now we’re in the ARC suits. Seems a bit odd to pull experienced flyers for a program barely out of beta. I mean, they’re suits, not aircraft, right? Why is this even an Air Force program?”

  Angel wanted to correct Captain Nance, but she held her tongue. She wasn’t surprised by his objections. And if she hadn’t been in the Command Staff debrief she might not have understood the political implications of the ARC program any more than Nance.

  “Have you seen the footage of the suits in action?” Angel decided to ask.

  For a second Nance looked like he’d been caught without his homework. Angel had never considered herself a good judge of character, but she had always been able to tell when her father lied to her. And Nance, probably trusting that he was a superior officer and wouldn’t be called to task for stretching the truth, lied through his teeth.

  “Of course, but they don’t fly. We haven’t had a chance to test the full suit capabilities, we’ve just been fitted. I’m sure they’re quite amazing, but an entire squad of veteran pilots is a waste of resources if you ask me. Pilots are already being pushed out by the console jockeys. I’m sorry, but remote flying isn’t the same as sitting in a cockpit. I mean, when I go up, I’m literally putting my ass on the line every time I fly. The drone fliers are basically playing video games. Am I right? I feel like I’m in bizzaro world or something.”

  “I think you’ll be surprised at what the ARC suits can do,” Angel said. “Your gymnast background will give you a real advantage. That’s why they recruited me. Watch the footage from Neo Terra.”

  “Haven’t you heard? It’s all been classified. Top Secret, highest security clearance only. We’re flying blind on this one, Lieutenant.”

  “Well, you’ll see soon enough. There’s not much a person can’t do in an ARC suit. Even without the thrusters I did a floor routine on a flight line, no spring floor, for nearly four hours without a break.”

  “That’s impossible,” Nance declared.

  “Not in an ARC suit.”

  “Okay, you break it down for us. We’ll meet immediately following the officers’ meeting once the ship gets underway. It won’t be long now. The alpha team of the ARC platoon are all officers. You can meet them then. We’ll have to borrow your petty officer to help us finish outfitting the ARC suits. The brass was hell bent on getting us on this flight out, so the research team didn’t get a chance to finish putting the suits all together.”

  “I’ll speak to Daniels. It might be better to hold off on the thrusters until we’re out of the Minerva anyway.”

  “Hey, you’re dealing with experienced pilots, Angel. If anyone can control the ARC suits on board a ship we can.”

  “I’m sure that’s true, Captain. I didn’t mean to imply any deficiency on your part. But the ARC suits take some getting used to.”

  “Well, I love a challenge.”

  By the time Angel managed to break free of Captain Alex Nance, her worry had changed from personal concern, to fear for the entire platoon. She had been warned that pilots were arrogant, but she feared that Nance was so full of himself that he would get the entire platoon killed. He was still trying to make it on natural talent, which perhaps worked in the cockpit of a plane; but he was the senior officer in charge of a platoon and it wasn’t simply, as he said, his ass on the line.

  She hurried back to her quarters and searched her data pad for access to the ARC footage, only to find that it had all been classified. She cursed her bad luck. How was she supposed to train the new officers without demonstrating what the ARC suit was capable of? She hadn’t been exaggerating when she said that testing the suit’s capabilities in the confines of a starship was dangerous. She was confident she could do some moves, but there simply wasn’t room to really show off what the suit could do.

  Her data pad dinged with a message alerting her to the officer’s meeting just as someone knocked on her door.

  “Enter,” Angel said.

  The door swooshed up and she saw a very irate looking Petty Officer Melody Daniels.

  “Did you know they were assigning six Air Force shock jocks to our platoon?” Daniels stated loudly. “They’ve barely been fitted for new ARC suits and everyone is expecting me to get them ready for combat.”

  “Yes, I know,” Angel said, standing up and gesturing in an effort to calm the Petty Officer down. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “They didn’t assign any more techs. That means we’re all on double duty. What happens if we come out hyper
space and land in the shit? Pardon my language, Lieutenant, but holy hell, I’m just one person. And we can’t even test the thrusters or weapons systems on those new suits. Not in this little bird, not unless you’re okay with someone getting knocked around like a ping pong ball in a hurricane.”

  “Just take it easy,” Angel said. “We’ll do what we can. And there’s nothing else for us to do on this trip. I’ll help.”

  “Oh, I didn’t mean to imply—“

  “Give me a break, Daniels. I’m not the queen of Sheeba. Being a second lieutenant hardly even outranks you. All the newbies outrank me, and I’m supposed to train them.”

  “Who is charge of this crazy outfit?”

  “That’s a good question,” Angel said, knowing the answer, but not sharing that information. “I have to head to an officer’s meeting and then go to meet the rest of our new officers. Why don’t you meet me. We’ll be in Auditorium C.”

  “Anything I can do to help?”

  “Unfortunately no. I would have you set up the footage of our training back on earth, but all video of the ARC suits has been classified.”

  “No one told me,” Daniels said, pulling a memory chip from the dog tag chain around her neck. “When I was in technician’s school we were taught to back up everything. I still have footage from the obstacle course.”

  “Oh, Daniels, you’re a life saver.”

  “Just doing my job, lieutenant.”

  “And making my life easier. I owe you one.”

  “Buy me a drink and we’ll call it even,” Daniels said with a smile.

  11

  C.S.F. Minerva, Mars Orbit, Sol System

  The officers meeting was standard for the beginning of a hyperspace journey. The officers were informed of the Minerva’s timeline and reminded to ensure safety procedures were reviewed in every division. Angel sat through the meeting feeling as if she were having a recurring dream. Lieutenant Commander Natalie Ebson stood to the side of the podium looking like a ventriloquist’s puppet. Her strange smile almost made her look like she knew a secret that the crew would be shocked to learn. Meanwhile, Commander Lucas Gray read from his prepared notes and did his best not to sound as bored as the rest of the officers felt.

  When the meeting ended, Angel joined the group of Air Force officers walking to Auditorium C. She felt like an outsider. The pilots all seemed to know each other. It took a little time for Angel to remember the Air Force insignias. She saw two other junior officers, with silver crosses on the collar of their flight suits. Angel wasn’t sure why the group all wore flight suits, but she didn’t want to embarrass herself by asking. The junior officers were known as pilots and were equal in rank to Angel who was a Marine second lieutenant. There were three officers with gold crosses which she remembered to be lieutenants. And Nance wore a silver circle target insignia as the only captain.

  They filed into the auditorium and Angel saw that Petty Officer Daniels was waiting in the A/V booth. She gave Angel a quick wave, then focused on the control board in front of her. The other officers dropped into their seats and Angel took the nearest chair to the door, while Nance leaned against the podium.

  “Welcome to the new ARC Platoon,” he said. “We are officially on mission.”

  “Shouldn’t we have gotten the suits fitted out before we were called into action?” The speaker was a lieutenant with narrow shoulders and a hooked nose. He had dark eyes. The name patch on the chest of his flight suit said Raven.

  “Perhaps, in a perfect world,” Nance said. “What can I say? We’re in high demand.”

  “What kind of ships will be flying?” This time the speaker was a woman. She had longer hair which she kept pinned up in a tight bun on the back of her head. Her flight suit name said Princess.

  “We’re not flying conventional craft,” Nance said. “The ships will actually be the suit.”

  “Like a jet pack situation?” Raven looked skeptical.

  “Well, we have a charter member of the platoon to help us dial in the actual details of the ARC suit. If you haven’t met Marine Second Lieutenant Angela Murphy, she’ll be leading the Bravo team of our platoon and will give us some training in the ARC suits.

  He waved for Angel to join him. “I’ve taken the liberty of giving her callsign Angel.”

  She saw a few of the Air Force officers smirk, but she had been called Angel throughout her gymnastic career and didn’t mind. She knew there was nothing funny about being an ARC Angel.

  “Hello,” she said, “it’s good to have you all in the ARC program.”

  Moving behind the podium as Nance took a seat she looked at the group of Air Force pilots. Each one gazed at her as if she were a child giving a show-and-tell presentation. Angel didn’t know if that was because of her junior rank, or because she was a Marine. Each branch of the CSF felt theirs was superior to the other two, but Angel had served with members of the Navy and Air Force. In her mind, they were all members of the same team.

  “I know this may be a little different for you. The ARC suit is built for rapid combat. The idea is to move in an unpredictable manner to disrupt the Swarm.”

  A hand went up. This time from an Asian woman with delicate features and hair even shorter than Angel’s. The name on her flight suit was Zilla.

  “What’s the Swarm, Lieutenant?”

  “Ah, yes,” Nance said, rising to his feet.

  Angel thought her experience with the Swarm gave her plenty of expertise to answer the question, but Nance was eager to be the center of attention.

  “You’ve all heard rumors about an alien threat on Cannis One and Neo Terra. I’m afraid the rumors are true, at least to an extent. The Swarm appear to be animalistic creatures, moving in a horde. They’ve adapted to traditional tactics, hence the new tech. Carry on, Lieutenant.”

  Angel thought Nance’s description of the Swarm fell grossly short of reality, but she didn’t want to correct him in front of the other pilots. She was junior in rank and seniority, even if she was the only officer in the room who had engaged the Swarm in combat.

  “Thank you, Captain,” Angel said. “The Swarm operate via a hive mind. Our job is to infiltrate the Swarm and disrupt their coordinated evasive measures. We do that through rapid movement, including change of direction. The ARC suit facilitates that movement.”

  “Facilitates how?” Raven asked.

  Angel nodded to Daniels, who lowered the lights and activated two large video screens on either side of the podium where Angel stood. Video of Angel bounding, flipping, and almost flying through the obstacle course at Camp Oppenheimer where the ARC suits were developed and tested played silently. Angel didn’t speak. Instead she watched the faces of the Air Force officers. Their smirks disappeared and several leaned forward in their seats as they watched the video of Angel flipping, jumping, soaring, and diving on the screen. When the video ended, hands went up around the room.

  “Raven?” Angel said.

  “Who was that on the video? I’m not sure I believe what I just saw. It looked more like a special effects job from a movie than reality.”

  “It’s real,” Angel said. “The video was of me testing the suit at the CSF Research & Development Center at Camp Oppenheimer.”

  “That was you?” Zilla asked. “Seriously?”

  “Yes ma’am. I was recruited specifically to help with the ARC program. We were called into action earlier than expected, but the suits work.”

  “That’s great,” said a pilot named Thriller. “But we aren’t combat soldiers. We’re pilots. Jumps and flips are impressive, I guess, but I’d rather be in a Fast Attack craft personally.”

  “Here, here,” Raven said.

  “I can’t speak to that,” Angel said. “What I’m here to do is help you get up to speed on the ARC suits.”

  “Do they fly?” The speaker was a woman with the callsign Fozzy stitched to her flight suit.

  “No,” Angel said. “The ARC suits are powered, but not constructed for extended flight. They hav
e thrusters that will allow you to move through the air, but sustained flight isn’t necessary or effective when engaging the Swarm.”

  “Excuse me, but the suit I was fitted for was more like a body suit or a wet suit,” Raven said. “There were no thrusters.”

  “That’s correct, Lieutenant. Your suits weren’t fully functional. Petty Officer Daniels and I will be working on that. I’ll also be doing some basic gymnastics training with all of you to prepare for combat in the ARC suits.”

  “Combat? I don’t get it?” Zilla spoke up. “We’re going to fight the aliens?”

  “Our job,” Nance said, getting up once again, “is to disrupt the Swarm.”

  “But we’ll have weapons, right?” Princess asked.

  “Isn’t this more of a grunt task,” Zilla said with a severe frown. “No offense, Lieutenant Angel. But charging into the enemy wearing a fancy suit and toting guns? That’s not what we were trained for.”

  “And it isn’t what the ARC suit was made for,” Angel said, trying to get control of the situation. “You were brought in to pilot the suits because the Command Staff believes you will have an easier time adapting to them.”

  “What does that mean, Lieutenant?” Nance asked.

  “The movements you see on the screens are easy enough in an ARC suit,” Angel went on. “The difficulty is dealing with the vertigo that can come from the rapid changes in direction. The initial team, and your counter point in the platoon, is made up of a Marine Special Forces Fire Team. Physically they are well suited to operate the ARC suits, but they have had trouble changing directions rapidly without getting dizzy and losing control.”

  “No surprise there,” Raven said with a smirk.