Nance stood up and stalked from the tent.
“Go with him,” Hammonds ordered Angel and Cashman. “This entire plan hinges on the ability of each group being able to redirect the Swarm, but I think we all see the inherent danger in it as well.”
“That the Swarm might turn and overrun the small group,” Cash said.
“That’s right,” Captain Byron said. “Your ARC platoon has the mobility to outrun the Swarm, but without vehicles, the rest of us do not.”
“We have to ensure that we surround the Swarm before we spring the trap,” Hammonds said. “You’re platoon is the key. Without sensing the danger the ARC suits present, the Swarm will escape again.”
Angel nodded. “We’ll be ready sir. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Very good, Lieutenant. You are dismissed.”
38
Battle site B, Belaire District,
Neo Terra, Tau Ceti system
“Well that was interesting,” Cash said as they walked through the darkened camp.
All around them Marines were gathering around battery-powered lanterns. Some were eating, others just talking or playing cards. The camp seemed busy, but they were essentially waiting for the next assignment. Angel could feel their restlessness. The fear of battle had been high, and yet they had been robbed of the chance to take the fight to the enemy. She could image how frustrating it was for them. Angel feared battle with the Swarm less than trying to reason with Nance. Yet, she knew she had to do it. They needed time to train, and without his encouragement the Air Force officers who outranked her would refuse.
“Why does everything have to be so difficult,” Angel asked.
“Welcome to the CSF,” Cash said. “There’s a reason I’ve refused to accept a commission.”
“You turned down a chance to be an officer?” Angel asked, unable to hide her surprise.
“It’s not unusual,” Cash said. “A lot of good NCO are given the chance to rise up through the ranks. Major Hammonds is a perfect example.”
“I had no idea,” Angel said.
“Well, there are plenty of us who turn it down,” Cash said. “Planning strategy is great and all, but dealing with people like Captain Nance and Byron is more than I can stomach. I don’t have the self-discipline to keep from punching climbers who don’t know the first thing about combat right in the face.”
“You were the picture of calm this evening,” Angel said.
“I was determined to stay out of it,” he said. “The strategy is good, and as likely to work as anything I could come up with. The last thing I wanted was to get into a tug-of-war over ideas.”
“What do you think about the rest of the platoon? Can you learn to do what I do?”
“No,” Cash said. “I don’t think anyone can do what you do in an ARC suit. Some people are born with natural instincts and abilities that allow them to do things beyond what even their most talented peers can achieve. You have more than just the skill set, Lieutenant. You have a fearlessness in battle that very few people possess, and the intelligence that allows you to improvise on the fly. Not even Nance can match that.”
“I’m flattered,” Angel said.
“I’m not trying to flatter you. I’m trying to help you see that we can’t do what you do, so we need a different training strategy. You’re going to have to lower your expectations.”
He spoke softly, but she felt the rebuke in his words that stung her deeply. She realized that she was making a mistake that was just as arrogant and stupid as Nance. Why hadn’t she seen it before, she wondered. Of course the rest of her platoon couldn’t do what she did, that was obvious. So why had she been trying to so hard to get them mimic her? Perhaps it was pride. Maybe she just wanted to be the best at something, she wasn’t sure.
“You’re right,” Angel said. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not trying to scold you,” Cash said. “But coming from someone who knows that I can’t do what you do in the ARC suit, I’m desperate to discover a way to be effective before I get myself or others killed.”
“We’ll find a way,” Angel said, “together.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Cash replied.
When they reached their small area of the camp, Angel wasn’t surprised to find Nance and his squad sequestered in their tent. Cashman’s fire team was lounging with the technicians around a couple of lanterns just outside the drop ship’s open ramp.
“Look who’s back,” Hays said. “Care to join us in game of chance, Lieutenant?”
“She’s too smart to get taken in by the likes of you,” Vancini said.
“We’ve got work to do,” Cash said.
“Gather as many spare lanterns as you can,” Angel told them. “We’ll need the technicians too.”
“What gives Staff Sergeant?” Bolton asked. “We going on patrol or something?”
“Training exercises,” Cash said. “Once the Swarm is spotted we’re going to be called up. We need everyone ready.”
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Angel said.
“We’ll be ready,” Cash said. “Good luck.”
Angel felt more than mere trepidation as she approached the officer’s tent. She knew she would be ridiculed and most likely outright dismissed, but she had to try. She knew that lives were at stake and not just those of the pilots she would be speaking to.
“May I enter?” she asked, pulling back the flap that served as a door.
“What have the great strategic minds decided?” Nance said. He stood at the far side of the tent, his back to her and the rest of his pilots. “Have you been promoted to Marshall General?”
“Captain, I’m not here to fight,” Angel said.
“Why are you here, Lieutenant?” Zilla said. “This tent is for senior officers only.”
Angel knew that two of the pilots were equal in rank with her, but she didn’t argue.
“Major Hammonds is convinced that Colonel Goldman will put our plan into action. We should use this time to prepare.”
“For what, Angel,” Nance snapped as he spun around. “We’re all experienced pilots. We know what to do. We’ve had extensive training and we’ve faced the enemy. What more do you think you can show us?”
“It isn’t about me teaching you anything,” Angel said. “It’s about each of us being as prepared as we can be. I value your experience. Your squad can help mine be better.”
“I doubt that,” Raven said.
“They’re trigger-pullers,” Zilla said.
“They’re veterans and incredibly brave operators. We could all learn a lot from them.”
“I’ll pass,” Nance said.
Angel looked to where Thriller, Princess, and Fozzy sat together listening to the exchange. “We’re getting split up and each of us assigned to a special forces platoon,” she explained. “Many of us will face the Swarm with the goal of turning the horde and herding it into an ambush. If we fail, the men and women with us will be killed. I’m taking the rest of the platoon out to train. Will you join us?”
“I’ll pass,” Raven said.
“Don’t waste our time,” Zilla added.
Nance just glared at her, but to everyone’s surprise Princess stood up.
“Enough,” she said. “We’re on the same team. It’s time we started acting like it. I’ll go with Angel.”
“Me too,” Thriller said, ignoring Nance’s baleful stare.
“Count me in,” Fozzy said. “It beats sitting around with nothing to do.”
“We’ll be on the east side of camp if you change your minds,” Angel said.
Nance, Zilla, and Raven ignored her. When Angel stepped out of the tent, she found Cash and the rest of the platoon waiting.
“Lead the way, LT,” Bolton said.
When the trio of Air Force pilots stepped out behind Angel, Cash’s eyes opened wide in surprise. Angel saw the expression and felt a thrill of accomplishment. She hadn’t won them all over, but she was making progress. Taking a lant
ern from Daniels, Angel led the way out of camp into the darkness beyond, hoping that she could find a way to make every member of the ARC platoon a danger to the Swarm. It was the only hope they had of not being wiped out.
39
Battle site B, Belaire District,
Neo Terra, Tau Ceti system
They spent three hours training in the darkness. Angel didn’t have to teach the Air Force pilots how to do the moves. All they really needed was confidence. Angel encouraged them to practice a set routine of moves they could do easily and maintain their balance, so that if they had to charge into the Swarm, they could perform without thinking about each move.
The Marines were a different matter. They also knew how to do the gymnastics moves, but other than Cashman, the Marines got dizzy and couldn’t keep their balance. So, Angel devised different tactics for the Special Forces fire team. They would carry heavier weapons, and remain up right while charging into the swarm. Each man had favorite weapons, and Angel encouraged them to use them.
Hays was an expert with pistols. He had a matched set of Winfield Executors he normally carried as back-up weapons. Because he would be closing in on the Swarm he could use the deadly pistols as his primary weapons. The pistols had twenty-round clips, and could be loaded with one round in the pipe. They were a throwback to the handguns popular in the twenty-first century, but with depleted uranium penetrator rounds, the pistols were absolutely deadly.
Vancini carried a Haggan’s dual-action assault rifle. The primary barrel fired plasma injectors with tungsten needle points which pumped ionized gas into their targets and ignited into super hot plasma. The secondary barrel fired concussion grenades and could be modified to fire a full magazine of twenty-four rounds at full auto.
Bolton was happy with the Trasker 51, but would also carry a Ziegler Eviscerator. It was mounted onto his forearm and fired dozens of small flechettes. The weapon was only effective at close quarters, ten meters or less, much like the defensive system of the ARC suit, but it had tremendous stopping power. It also had the added benefit of adding almost no weight to the ARC suit. Sergeant Bolton was easily the fastest Marine in the squad; and as long he didn’t flip, he could handle the sudden changes of direction better than the others.
Cash could do the flips and tumbles Angel had taught the squad, but he was built like a bull and preferred to stay low to the ground. His weapon of choice was a fully automatic Cray 88, often called a war cannon. The gun was heavy and thick, using a piston-striking mechanism to fire heavy lead slugs from dual side-by-side barrels. Traditionally a belt-fed weapon, Cash had modified the barrel and created a bandolier that wrapped around his torso and would feed over three-hundred rounds into the cannon.
The additional weapons the Marines carried made it impractical to flip and dive, but they could sprint, jump, boost, and use their thrusters to change direction very rapidly. Angel stopped pushing them to do the moves she excelled at. She was skilled at rapid, multidirectional movement and could adapt as needed. The Swarm had discovered her ability and wanted nothing to do with it. Angel hoped the other members of the ARC platoon would be afforded the same caution.
The next day the swarm was spotted again, and the senior officers stayed busy trying to determine the best place for an ambush to take place. But in the mean time, Goldman decided to test Angel’s theories about the swarm.
“I’m sending you here,” Goldman pointed to a spot on the map he had brought up on the command table’s surface monitor.
“All of us?” Nance asked.
“That’s right, but only one of you should approach the Swarm. The rest are to stay back with weapons ready.”
“I’ll do it,” Angel volunteered.
“Actually,” Goldman argued, “I think someone else should take the lead. The Swarm knows what you’re capable of, Lieutenant. Let’s send in someone else. Captain Nance, I’ll let you make the call. Engage the Swarm but don’t stick around to fight an all out battle. I want you in and out. If they don’t alter course, you pull back. Understood?”
“Yes sir, Colonel,” Nance said.
“This is a test. Let them see you coming. Don’t do anything stupid. We’ll have eyes on you at all times, but we won’t be able to mount a rescue.”
“We can handle it, sir.”
“Good,” Goldman replied. “We’re lucky the bastards aren’t headed straight for a populated area, so we have a little time to test things out. If the strategy works, we’ll mobilize the special forces platoons to herd the Swarm here,” he stabbed his finger onto the map again. “Nero’s Temple.”
Angel looked as the map zoomed in the location. It was on the fringe of a range of rugged mountains. Nero’s Temple was a natural amphitheater with five large hills in a ring. There was room for the Swarm to move between the hills, but the rugged geological features were close enough that Marine units hidden on each could rain down fire simultaneously.
“I’m prepping special camouflage for the hill tops. We should be able to get half the battalion into ambush positions,” Goldman continued. “The rest will be ferried in and deployed to mop up any of the aliens that escape. But make no mistake, the entire strategy hinges on the ability of small, fast-moving units to herd the swarm into the trap. I won’t risk our Spec Ops teams if the Swarm isn’t moved by your demonstration today.”
“We won’t let you down, sir,” Angel said. Her response earned her a withering glare from Nance.
“Very good. I want your team en route in fifteen, Captain. Good luck and God speed.”
“Fortune favors the bold, sir,” Nance said, snapping off a stiff salute. “See you on the flip side.”
Angel followed Nance away from the command tent. He walked fast, forcing her to almost jog to keep up. At their drop ship, Nance began barking unnecessary orders. The technicians already had their gear loaded in the Battle ARC. Cashman’s team was just finishing securing the weapons in the armory compartment between the cargo hold and the cockpit. The regular-duty Marines would break down the tents if the battalion was mobilized before they returned, so Nance’s orders were mostly ignored.
“Willy, we’re wheels up in ten minutes,” Nance said.
“Wheels? What century you living in hoss. This bird ain’t got no wheels,” the talkative pilot said.
“Just get your preflight check done,” Nance said. “ARC pilots, let’s do the same. Run diagnostics checks on your suit. This isn’t a drill people. We’re going into the lion’s den. Let’s make sure we’re ready.”
“Is the captain for real?” Bolton asked Angel in a quiet voice once they were seated in the Battle ARC.
“We’ve been ordered to test the theory that the Swarm will veer out of our path,” Angel said.
“Holy shit,” Hays said. “What about the battalion? Aren’t they coming?”
“Negative,” Nance said in a loud voice. He still held his helmet under one arm and had to shout over the sound of the drop ship’s atmospheric engines spooling up. “This is our task and we’re on our own. That means my word is law and I expect everyone to follow orders without hesitation. Is that clear?”
“Yes sir,” the fire team said in unison.
Angel noticed that the technicians looked nervous, while Raven and Zilla looked bored. Her own squad had their game faces on. They looked unconcerned, but there was a seriousness in their eyes that showed they weren’t fooling around. Lives were at stake and play time was over.
“It’s about damn time we got a chance to show what we can really do,” Raven said, as the drop ship lifted off.
“What are our orders?” Zilla asked.
“We’re being dropped in the path of the Swarm,” Nance said. “ARC pilots will hold a defensive position. Technicians will stay on the Battle ARC in overwatch. One pilot is going in.”
“Just one, sir?” Cash asked.
“That’s right, staff sergeant. My pick. One pilot approaches while the rest take a defensive posture,” Nance said. “If the Swarm veers away, we loa
d up and come home. If they don’t...”
He let the thought hang in the air, a wicked grin on his face. Angel couldn’t believe the look of glee on his face. She knew in that moment what he intended to do. He would order one of her people to move against the Swarm and hope that they were killed. He cared more about his own ego than about the lives of the people serving under him. Angel looked at Cash and knew in that instant that he too understood what was at stake. His mouth pressed into a straight line as his jaw flexed. Angel saw his hands clenching hard. Cashman radiated a sense of danger that was almost tangible.
“Who’s going?” Cash asked Nance.
“I guess I’ll decide when we get there,” Nance said.
40
Battle ARC, August District,
Neo Terra, Tau Ceti system
Cash opened his hands. The simple act took a force of will many times stronger than it should have. Despite what he knew about the ARC suit and the penalties for striking a superior officer, it was taking all his discipline to keep from leaping out of his seat and attacking Captain Nance.
Over his decade-long career in the CSF Marine Corps, Cash had seen plenty of officers who considered enlisted men and women to be expendable. Fortunately, for most of his time in service the CSF had been at peace. The political fighting and clamoring for advancement was a necessary evil Cash had come to terms with. It seemed that very few officers had joined the CSF because they were warriors, or even cared about humanity’s colonies. Most saw it as a career; either a stepping stone to a coveted job in civilian life, or as a ladder to climb. Cash did his best to ignore the lunatics running the asylum, but occasionally he was forced to deal with the consequences of someone in a position of authority that had absolutely no business making decisions that impacted anyone’s life but their own.
It was no surprise that Captain Alex “Trigger” Nance saw himself as a hero and god’s gift to the galaxy. A lot of pilots had big egos. There was nothing odd about that. How Nance had been tasked with running the ARC platoon was a complete mystery to Cash. The man had no moral compass, just an insatiable appetite for praise and sexual conquests. He also had no aptitude for leading others. He was an elitist, unwilling to associate with those outside his branch of service or beneath his station as an officer. Sometimes Angel’s inexperience irked Cash, but her humility and self-sacrifice more than made up for what she didn’t know. Better still, she listened and didn’t take criticism personally. Cash wasn’t sure if he could handle being told he was wrong half as well as his lieutenant seemed to.
Battle ARC: ARC Angel Series Book 2 Page 19
