“Found ‘em last night. The HUD projection is super clear.”
“Better than your suit?” he asked.
“A lot. I’ll take you over there if Marny ever gives us a break.”
“Really? We haven’t even started and you’re already whining?” Marny shook her head and laughed at us.
It wasn’t long before the cab slowed over the top of an area filled with large nondescript buildings. We dropped down between two of them and landed next to a gray steel door.
“Anyone carrying any weapons?” Marny asked.
Oddly I wasn’t. I hadn’t even remembered to wear my flechette when we’d gone to Puskar Stellar. We all shook our heads in the negative.
“Good. Follow me.” Marny climbed out of the cab and walked up to the door labeled TAC-10A. We followed her into a room with a rack of blaster rifles and a shelf with wrap-around goggles.
“Here’s the mission. Everybody grab a rifle and a pair of goggles. There are twelve bogies spread throughout the building. There are also friendlies. We get scored on kills and time - negative scores for friendlies and getting hit by a baddie. The good news is if you get hit, your weapon just stops working for thirty seconds. The bad news is you can get hit again during that period of time. Cap, first run through is yours. Each of you will get a shot at this so let the leader set the strategy. Okay?”
“Are there real people in there?” Nick asked.
“Nope. All holographic. Believe me though, you’ll think they’re real, but I don’t think we’ll get to the point where we want real.”
“Why’s that?” Tabby asked. I was glad that she was engaged.
“It’s a testosterone factory. You have to get one of the other teams to play the baddies and most of the teams here are either private security companies or S.W.A.T. teams. They like to play hard. Anything else?”
“Why aren’t you leading?”
“I need to see what you do under pressure so we can fix what’s broken and enhance what you naturally do well.”
“Last question. What’s a good score?” I asked.
“Try to keep everyone up. That’s what we’ll focus on. Ready?”
We all nodded.
“Team is yours, Cap. From this point forward we’ll follow your lead.”
“Roger that, Marny. Since we don’t have a map of the area we’ll have to build it on the way. I want Tabby in the lead, Nick on her left shoulder, Marny you have the rear, facing backward as much as possible. This will be our base formation. I’ll change that depending on what we run into.” I sounded a whole lot more confident than I felt. I also knew, from playing sports, that your team picked up on a lack of confidence and it affected their play.
Create channel one: Tabby, Nick, Marny and me. Build a tactical map as we discover terrain. Highlight positions of team members using blue dots, red dots for baddies and green dots for those I identify as friendly non-combatants.
“Tabby, when we approach a blind corner I want you to take a knee and do a quick peek before we go around. If you start fatiguing let me know, so I can switch Nick in.”
“Check,” Tabby said.
“We have no idea what’s on the other side of this door. Tabby, take a knee and keep your body behind the door frame. Nick, cover left through the door and stay real close to Tabby. I’ve got right and I’ll slide around to the right, looking left. Marny, if it’s open straight ahead I need you to cover that. Say 'hold' if you don’t know what to do, otherwise, Tabby, open the door.”
I pulled the blaster rifle tightly in to my shoulder and snugged up to Nick. Tabby swung the door open to expose a narrow hallway leading to the left.
“Nick, we’re going to look down this together. You’re going to slide out until you can see the middle of the hallway as far as it goes. You get everything to the right. If you see something, say 'contact.' I’ll stay on your right and focus on the hallway to the left. GO.”
Nick slid around Tabby and the doorframe and I moved with him. The tactical map on my HUD started to fill in as I gained more visibility on the twenty meter hallway.
“Contact left,” I said. My peripheral vision caught a figure disappearing through a door about five meters down on the left side. It was the only door in the hallway which ended in an L-shaped turn going to the right.
“Tabby, go ahead on point, I saw someone enter the door on the left. Marny, follow on my six.” My heart was hammering in my chest enough that I could hear it in my voice.
“Tabby, when you get to the doorway I want you to kneel and cover right through the doorway without entering it. Nick, stay right of Tabby. Once she gets to the doorway, swivel past with your gun pointed in. You'll use the opposite side as cover. I’m going to cover down the hallway. GO.”
We followed Tabby down the left side. It was hard not to try to get a view through the opening and keep my eyes down the hall. She stopped at the doorframe. Nick peeked and then attempted to cross to the other side.
“Contact!” he said. His gun flashed as he fired into the room. My tactical display filled in with the rectangular layout of the room, including two red dots, both on the right. Nick slid to the other side of the door. I could see his blue dot on the tactical display, he hadn’t been hit.
“Tabby, they’re in front of you. Engage.” Tabby poked her gun in and must have gained visual as she started firing. One red dot blinked out and the second moved quickly to the left, running across Nick’s field of view. He fired and the other dot blinked out.
“Marny, cover forward down the hallway.” I slid up on Tabby’s right shoulder, looking into the room, sweeping from right to left. There was a small amount of furniture in the room and I didn’t initially see anyone.
“Nick, I’m going in. Cross behind me once I do. Tabby, follow on my right shoulder. Marny, use the door frame as cover for down the hallway.” I was exhausted just spitting out all the instructions - there had to be a better way. It occurred to me that combat on the ship was easier, mostly because we all knew our roles.
We worked our way into the room. I wanted to make sure we didn’t have any hidden baddies. We moved around the desks, taking time to look beneath them when …
“Cap. Contact in the hallway.” Marny said. I looked to my tactical display in the HUD. A gray dot appeared at the end and disappeared. Crap, it wasn’t clear if that was a baddie or friendly.
“Clear,” Tabby said.
“Clear,” Nick agreed.
“Marny, stay on the doorframe and cover down the hallway. Tabby, take a knee next to Marny and aim down. I’m on point. Nick, on my six, next to the right wall. GO.”
We fast-walked down the hallway. Seeing Nick’s rifle between me and the wall didn’t seem right but I knew that stopping wasn't a good idea. I hoped he wouldn’t have to fire it. My face was awfully close to the end of the barrel and he had no freedom of movement. That said, he was protected by my body. Ugh, not ideal.
When we reached the corner, I knelt down and crept up. I peeked around quickly and came face to face with a person. “Contact.” I had no idea if it was a baddie or friendly and I popped back. “Might be a friendly.” I spun my rifle around, peeked again and jammed the stock of the rifle into the person’s stomach, grabbing at their shirt to pull them around. My hands passed through their clothing and they disappeared.
The advantage of my two peeks around the corner was that I now had a tactical perspective of where the hallway led. I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing to have slugged the person who disappeared, but I put it out of my mind as something we'd cover later. There were two doors, five meters down, one on each side. So much for being able to deal with them one at a time. Ten meters beyond that the hallway ended in a ‘T’ with a railing that obviously overlooked a lower level.
“Marny, Tabby, advance to our position. There are doors on both sides across from each other. We’re going to clear these rooms simultaneously. I want Marny and Tabby on the right side. Nick and me on the left. If the doors are open, we will
aim across the hallway into the opposite doorway until we control the room. If we contact before getting to the door frames, front people will take a knee and concentrate fire on the contact. Back people will cover and help if possible, but we are in the open. Take your room as quickly as possible. First person in, sweeps the room from opposite side to close, second person crosses behind to the opposite side of room. Questions?”
It seemed a lot to communicate and I was proud that no one had any questions and moved out like I’d directed. I was in front of Nick so I slid over to the left side of the hallway, I could see his rifle pointed down the hallway. Nick and I would be able to see the doorway on the opposite side of the hallway before we got to the one on our side. The door was open so I aimed into the room. I saw the end of a blaster sticking out.
“Contact, right side.” As soon as I could see further into the room, a second figure appeared. “Second contact, right side.” I took a knee and fired off three rounds. I missed but the figure didn’t move quickly enough and I finished him off. Tabby was in front on the right side and took a knee, Marny looked over her shoulder down the hallway.
“There’s one more on the right side hiding behind the doorframe. Let’s move forward. Nick, you cover right when I reach our doorway. I’ll have to clear our side. Tabby, Marny move forward with us, your baddie isn’t moving yet.” The blaster rifle still hadn't moved. Before I made it to the doorway, a third contact appeared on the right, inside the room.
“Contact.” I fired at the figure and it blipped out. Four down, eight to go. I was sweating profusely.
“Contact,” Tabby said. She fired across my line of sight.
“Tabby, you clear?” My tactical display showed that she had dropped the baddie.
“Roger.”
“Let me clear my opening. You have a baddie right behind your doorframe.”
I moved up to my doorframe and peeked around. There wasn’t anyone directly across. I swept from right to left, stepping into the doorway. There was another baddie, but I brought him down, barely feeling the small lance of fire in my back. I spotted a third baddie in my room and tried to fire. My gun did nothing.
“Frak!” I jumped at the baddie, I would tackle her. She fired at me again, clearly hitting me. My arms passed right through her and I fell to the ground sort of at her feet, sort of behind her.
Nick entered the room and brought her down. I picked myself up and scanned the room. There wasn’t enough furniture in here to hide anyone. “Clear,” I said.
“We’re clear,” Tabby replied. I looked at the count. We had cleared a total of seven. There should be five remaining. I was dead, although I would be active again in twenty seconds.
“Nick, Tabby, position on the doors, aim diagonally to the end of the hallway. I have fifteen seconds to reset.”
“Contact left,” Tabby said. “Friendly.”
“Let him go." I marked the target as friendly on the tactical display. “Marny, you and I are going to stick to the walls on opposite sides and go down the hallway. If we have contact we both drop prone. Roger?”
“Aye, aye.”
“GO.” My timer was complete and my gun was active again. We didn’t make it five meters before three figures popped around the corner at the end of the hallway.
“Contact!” Three red dots appeared in my tactical display. I tossed myself forward onto the ground. It was impossible to fire, but at least I didn’t get hit by the initial salvo. Tabby and Nick returned fire and Marny dialed in a target on the way to her stomach. All three figures dropped.
“Marny, we’ll crawl to the end of the hallway,” I said.
“Aye, aye Cap.”
We made it to the end of the hallway without incident. My tactical display agreed with my assessment that the T was a balcony.
“Nick, Tabby, advance on our position. Stay clear of the balcony railing, might be baddies below.”
“Roger.”
“Check.”
I peeked around the corner to the left. I was able to see all but the far right corner of the balcony from my position. I was still on the ground, not wanting to give my position away to anyone below. The balcony ended in an open stairwell. I thought I could stay hidden if I crawled over there, but if I did that I wouldn’t be able to deal with the stairwell. We had three baddies left.
I pushed myself backward - back the way we’d come. I didn’t have to tell Marny to do the same, she followed suit and we stood up.
“Two left. I believe this level is clear. There’s a stairwell on the left. I’ll take point with Tabby on my right shoulder and Marny stacked up behind her until we get to the stairwell. We need to stay away from the balcony. Nick, you stack up on Marny. I’ll hug right as much as possible in the stairwell to give everyone a clear firing lane. GO.”
We moved to the stairwell without being detected. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. We started down the stairs and a figure appeared. I fired and Nick fired. The figure disappeared but I had a sinking sense it might have been a friendly. Whatever it was, two more peeked in and popped back.
“Fire short bursts at the stairwell door and follow me. GO.”
We started firing and didn’t see any more baddies. We had to get through this bottom door. “Tabby and I are left, Marny and Nick right. They know we’re here, so short bursts to keep ‘em suppressed. GO.”
We moved through the doorway and caught one of the baddies in the open. Tabby and I moved around left and I was sure Marny and Nick had moved to the right. The tactical display showed two more baddies pop up on the right and they dropped just as quickly.
“That’s twelve. Clear the room,” I said.
Tabby and I moved around the room and met up with Marny and Nick on the other side. There was a door at the end with a sign that read ‘End.’
I pushed the door open and walked through. I was exhausted. It had taken us a total of …
Two men spun around from behind a wall and opened fire on us.
“Contact!” I said. My gun wasn’t operational. Tabby’s obviously wasn’t either, as she’d followed directly behind me. Marny and Nick returned fire and tagged the two remaining baddies.
“What the frak?”
“Clear,” Marny announced.
SO WHEN DOES VACATION START?
“That’s fourteen by my count,” I looked at Marny suspiciously.
“Oh, did I say twelve?” She tossed an innocent look back at me.
“What about that sign? It said ‘End,’” Tabby declared. “Let me guess, that was an object lesson.”
“Guilty,” Marny said sheepishly.
I was annoyed at the result, but the message was well-delivered.
“Okay. Nick, you’re next,” Marny announced.
“Can we have a couple of minutes?” I asked.
“Paying by the hour, Cap.”
I sighed. We exited the room and saw the sign, TAC-10B on an adjacent door. The second run went much the same as the first, except we didn’t get surprised at the end. It was quite a bit easier for me since I wasn’t the one having to think my way through the entire exercise. Finally, it was Tabby’s turn. I’d like to say she did a lot better, that her weeks at the academy had instilled in her some inherent squad leadership capabilities neither Nick nor I had. However, in the end, we didn’t do so well. It wasn’t her fault. The fact was, we were tired and just started getting sloppy.
The trip back to the hotel was quiet. Nick, Tabby and I were frazzled. Marny, as expected, looked as fresh as she had first thing in the morning. Thankfully, she wasn’t gloating.
“How’d we do?” I didn't hold out much hope for a glowing report.
“Perfect. It’s not the sort of thing you can be good at right out of the box. Overall, I’d say you did better than most on their first time out. Mostly I wanted to introduce you to the struggles of running a squad, especially if that squad hasn’t trained together. The three of you work well together. I can tell you did team sports. Wish you were part of the c
rew, Tabby.”
“Wish I wasn’t missing the part where you teach us how to do it right,” Tabby shot back.
“You’ll be running your own squad soon enough.”
Tabby nodded, lost in thought.
“Anyone else up for hot springs?” I asked. The night before, Tabby and I had discovered the resort’s giant hot springs.
“Oh heck, yah!” Tabby said.
The afternoon passed quickly and before I was ready, it was time to take Tabby back to the Academy. The two of us sat in the cab, just outside the visitor center.
“I didn’t know if we’d ever see each other again after the attack on Colony 40,” Tabby was looking at me intently. I felt like she had something she needed to say.
“I’m glad you could break free for the weekend.”
“So, are you okay with this?” Tabby asked.
“This? As in us?” I asked, gesturing between us with my hand.
“Yeah. Not knowing when we’ll see each other again?”
“Are you? It seems kind of unfair to you,” I hated saying it, but I had to give her a way out if she wanted it.
“Is that how you feel?”
“You know better than that.”
“Do I?” she asked.
“Tabby, I’ve always believed you’re too good for me, that I’ve no right to expect you’d want to be with me. I felt lucky just being your friend. I guess I still kind of feel that way.”
She just looked at me for a couple of moments. “So what? You just want to be friends? Frak, Hoffen. Sack up and just come out with it.”
I didn’t know how she always got me so twisted up and how we could go from awesome to completely off the rails. Worse, I never seemed to say what I intended and now we were headed down the worst possible path.
“That’s not what I meant at all,” I finally said.
“So what did you mean?”
“I meant …” I put my hands on the sides of her head and pulled her toward me. She resisted, but I didn’t relent and met her half way. I kissed her the way I’d been wanting to since I’d picked her up the day before.
Privateer Tales 3: Parley Page 9