Daedalus

by Skully

  Picard walked nervously towards her father, sword and shield in hand.

  ◆◆◆

  He sighed. There was still two minutes remaining. Wolf-soldier hero, aka Picard's father, uncrossed his arms, took a step forward and readied a side-on combat stance. Even in the military exo, he looked ready to fight unhindered by its bulk.

  Before Picard could block their line of sight of the while wolf-soldier hero, Myrmidon popped ‘FIRE!’ onto the squad’s HUD. They had not drawn the railguns as this would have tipped him off before the fire command. They dropped their swords and shields and reached for their railguns in a sweeping action with all the speed they could muster.

  Picard saw the command and braced waiting for the inevitable assault. She planted one foot behind, turned side on and bent her knees slightly as she held her shield out front.

  As soon as the cadets' first finger moved to drop their swords, the wolf-soldier hero knew their intent. It was a smart tactical move because if they shot him three times, he would go down.

  He immediately spun and kicked Odette’s shield in the centre, but the angle was calculated to fling her at the cadet on the right. It would at least ruin their view, and if it worked to plan, Odette would barrel into the cadet incapacitating them both for a short period. It was the only few moments he needed.

  Wolf-soldier hero hit his daughter ten times harder than he ever had before, as she was in a well-made exo, she would be fine. She flew towards the greatest threat, the squad leader. He didn’t look like much, but he had won wolf-soldier hero fifty creds with his smarts. No one expected the cadets to avoid the envelope. No one ever did on their first attempt. The regs would hate these brats even more now that they had shamed them. ('regs' was short for the regular exo soldiers, whose designation was simply Soldier.)

  He laughed, as his daughter flew and he leapt high continuing his momentum while pumping his jumpjets, more thrust on the right to continue his turn and to bring his right leg around for the small cadet on the left. Much to wolf-soldier's surprise she fumbled her railgun and dropped it. He missed his kick on purpose and gave her two quick slashes to the torso. The cadet named Kang was out with a whimper. The odds were now in his favour, one of the remaining cadets would have to shoot him twice.

  Just as he had that thought, the middle cadet, Mace, shot him in the shoulder. Wolf-soldier hero was moving quickly, changing direction, it was a good shot under pressure. He now had three seconds to take her out before her weapon reloaded based on the previous experience from the well-executed ambush. The ambush probably would have been successful if he hadn’t wormed his way into this exercise with the regs. But now he was here he could not lay down. That would be disrespectful to his opponent if not against his character.

  Wolf-soldier hero continued with the momentum of his missed kick and brought himself around to face Cadet Mace. His head dipping down before firing jumpjets. He flew the few metres, almost parallel to the ground, she had skipped back as soon as her round of goo hit him. Smart. This cadet could think on her feet. He planted one foot on the ground and pushed himself forward at a greater velocity in order to catch her. He reached his long arm out and grabbed her railgun moments before she could fire and ripped it from her grasp. The power cord came free, from her exo, with a burst as he flung the railgun behind him.

  The wily cadet stuck out her back leg and pushed off a tree. Her spatial awareness in the heat of battle was commendable. But it was in vain, as he twisted and kicked off the same tree with twice the strength and speed of movement.

  She was using all her jumpjets making him work to catch her, he knew the time she had gained would be invaluable to Odette and the squad leader. If he thought she would evade him any longer, he would have switched targets, but she was now within his reach.

  Wolf-soldier hero grabbed onto Cadet Mace’s leg and slammed her into the earth. Within moments he had slashed her torso twice before she could move.

  Immediately, he sensed Odette’s approach, the pair had recovered, but it was too late. He turned, as she picked up speed, she was attempting to shield barge him, a rather crude tactic for her. He thought he had taught her better.

  As she closed to the last ten metres, she jumped, using her jumpjets to gain extra height. Her legs moved in a running motion, and too late the wolf-soldier hero saw a goo pellet pass between them as they moved. He had seen tonnes of excellent combat partnerships in his day but threading a pellet through your partner's legs as they moved at high speed was a first.

  Wolf-soldier hero leapt to meet his daughter head on as the goo caught him in the leg, he could not sustain another hit. Perhaps he would win the hundred bitcreds. As Odette arced her sword down towards his head, he grabbed the base of her shield. He worried for a moment that Odette’s squad may develop an aversion to shields after he had used them so effectively against the cadets.

  By pulling the shield down, he pulled Odette down and himself upwards, the arc of her swing was ruined as she fell beneath him. Wolf-soldier hero continued and sped his forward somersault by angling his jumpjets. While his daughter fought to stabilise herself before landing on her back, he was flying feet first at the squad leader who was jumping backwards, trying to buy more time for his railgun to reload.

  Wolf-soldier hero immediately saw similarities with Cadet Mace movements. Although the squad leader was too slow to escape as well.

  After placing one foot on the ground, the wolf-soldier pushed forward closing on his prey. He knocked the railgun aside easily with one hand and swept with the other slashing the squad leaders chest with his claw. Before he could slash a second time, the wolf-soldier hero was caught by surprise. A goo pellet hit him in the back. His daughter had switched to her railgun and fired on his unsuspecting back. He stopped his blow easily and smiled. He had outmatched them severely in skill and experience. They beat him with excellent tactics.

  ◆◆◆

  Daedo wasted precious moments on his fellow cadets who were downed. There was no distinction in this exercise between incapacitated or dead. And it would be impossible to try and carry someone eleven kilometres through enemy lines.

  Daedo: Let’s move!

  He and Picard were the lone survivors. Which meant they were severely outnumbered if they met any more roaming bands of wolf-soldiers, but it also meant they could run at his maximum speed.

  Myrmidon calculated the maximum jumpjet consumption whilst maintaining ninety percent energy storage in the lithium plasma reserves. Even if Picard used seventy percent as much energy on jumpjets as Daedo, she could keep up with her superior natural speed.

  Picard: You're going fast. What’s your jumpjet time ratio?

  Daedo: Myrmidon is using the max while maintaining storage. Use enough to keep up.

  Picard: Your AI is a cheat.

  Even if Picard’s AI could calculate the consumption ratios, Alice would not be able to run her jumpjets in perfect sync with her movements without throwing her off. What she could do was alert Picard when she fell below eighty-five percent reserves so she would hold off using her jumpjets until the lithium plasma storage recharged.

  Daedo still had four drones left. One was far to the north and had done its jobs sending forty wolf-soldiers on a goose chase. They were now wise to it and were headed south at a rapid speed. He kept two on watch ahead and behind and sent the last drone to the east and then up high. He wanted to know how many roaming bands of wolf-soldiers there were.

  The probability that there was one roaming band, that they lucked upon was extremely low. It was more likely that at least ten existed roaming ten kilometres out from the objective.

  Picard: How are you holding up?

  Daedo: Good, but our lead is dwindling. The group of forty will catch us if we are delayed again. And there is a chance they could catch us even if we aren’t delayed.

  Picard: Do you know their pace?

  Daedo: Two forty-five per kay on open ground. Almost four through mountains.

  Picard: Shit!<
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  Daedo: My thoughts exactly.

  The two focused on running, eating up kilometre after kilometre. Daedo kept the direction south, they would have to swing east in order to make the objective, but Daedo knew that a direct heading to the objective was too predictable. There was no reason they could not run past the objective and come at it from the north. That was assuming the objective location did not change with each exercise; he made a mental note to ask that next time.

  Daedo: Seven kilometres!

  Before they reached the seven km marker, the sky-high drone had picked up four squads, and each passing minute it picked up another as it flew in a zigzag fashion checking the southern area in a grid-like fashion. Daedo even had it check their grid location in case someone was tracking it visually. If it skipped an area, it could lead a group of roamers to ask why.

  After the drone covered most of the area between them and the objective Daedo calculated there were twenty groups of roamers ranging between six and eight wolf-soldiers.

  Picard: Seriously, they sent almost 200 soldiers after us! Don’t they have anything better to do?

  Daedo would have laughed if it was volunteer only and almost two hundred exo soldiers volunteered to beat the crap out of them.

  Daedo: From what your father said, they didn’t think we would last this long.

  Picard laughed.

  Picard: I just had a thought. We should hide and waste their entire afternoon.

  Daedo: I don’t see how that’s funny. You would be wasting our time too.

  Picard: The others are probably picked up by now. She said changing the subject.

  A VTOL carrier would have come down and picked up the rest of the squad and returned them to the base wherever Col. Martin and the other military personnel were watching the exercise.

  Myrmidon displayed halt across their HUDs and Daedo immediately looked for cover. There was a small ditch behind them, and he ran back to it, while Myrmidon updated the minimap on the HUD with orange dots.

  This group was not hunting them, it was moving at a sedate pace from east to west.

  Daedo: Unless we give our position away it looks like the roamers are to keep to a specific pattern.

  Picard: Lucky they don’t have recon drones, or we’d be dead.

  Daedo: As soon as we are found it’s over. I am certain the advantage lies with them even without drones.

  The spread of roaming groups became thicker the closer they got to the objective. Daedo could only see one way to win, and that was to head south-west before circling back east and last of all north. If they didn’t come at the objective from behind, there was no way they would be able to sneak past the seven groups of roaming wolf-soldiers near the objective.

  There was also the group of forty who operated under different rules. They were hunting him and Picard. Daedo did not know if the rules would change for the roaming groups once they came into contact with the larger pursuit group. He suspected they might, if they were roleplaying a certain type of clawed alien creature, then news of prey would logically spread once contact was made.

  Picard: How are we going?

  Daedo: We are able to keep a minimum distance of two kilometres from the nearest roamer group. Here! Myrmidon will share the minimap and sensor data with your AI.

  Picard: I’m going to need it if you go down. But, all this info, I don’t know how you manage it and stay focused on your surroundings.

  Daedo: Like anything it's practice. You of all people know this.

  Picard laughed; it did not sound outside her helmet but went through their comms.

  Picard: I think it's practice and talent. Neither excluded. You're just humble.

  Daedo: I hate to say this, but we need to pick up the pace, or the pursuit group of forty will end us, before we head north for the objective.

  They were down to the last ten minutes of running, and Daedo pushed as hard as he could. They had to stay ahead of their pursuers and the only way to do it was with speed. If it was only the roamers that they had to deal with, they could have taken a break or waited patiently for patrols to pass. But the forty wolf-soldiers in pursuit were like a countdown timer, and this was probably one of the design aspects of the exercise.

  Daedo took a risk and sent all four recon drones north of the objective and spread them in a grid covering five by two kilometres. His hope was the wolf-soldiers would interpret this as a detailed scan of this area with the view they were sneaking to avoid discovery. If the enemy made this conclusion, they would search the area thoroughly, and it would keep them occupied while he and Picard closed on the objective from the opposite direction.

  He explained his strategy to Picard as they ran.

  Picard: That’s a big gamble; we are now blind.

  Daedo: It is. But they would know that as well. They’re probably aware we only had eight drones, if that is a consistent number with this exercise.

  Picard: It’s amazing how many questions we think of after the exercise starts.

  Daedo: Hindsight! One kilometre to go. Let’s fly!

  The pair ran for the objective as fast as their little legs could carry them. They were blind now, gambling everything on tricking the wolf-soldiers. They breached a small ridge which was going to give them a view of the mission objective.

  Looking down they could see a carrier with eight mechs guarding it. That was the evac zone, and beyond that their recon drones reported almost two hundred wolf-soldiers out of the mech's range. A noise alerted the pair, and Daedo looked to the left, there were four wolf-soldiers. He looked right, and there were another four. They had already been spotted, and these eight wolf-soldiers were charging them down.

  The Mechs were useless, they did not engage, which must have been part of the scenario that they delivered the safe evac zone only. The edge of this zone was still five hundred metres away.

  Picard ran behind Daedo.

  Myrmidon: Three, two, one, PUSH!

  And she pushed him with all her might before sprinting and leaping herself. The pair engaged jumpjets full throttle and flew.

  The wolf-soldiers leapt and engaged jumpjets as well. Because they were at an angle, they had more distance to cover. The ones in the lead began to close on Picard, they had a faster sprint speed than her which resulted in a faster flying speed. The jumpjets were superior on the Military exos, that was evident. Despite their extra weight, they were flying faster.

  Picard had a forty-metre head start while Daedo had fifty, with his better launch speed due to Picard's exo enhanced push timed with Myrmidon's control of jumpjets.

  The pair were two hundred metres from the safe zone when the two hundred wolf-soldiers to the north finally reacted to their presence. But they were too far, and it was too little too late. They ran towards the cadets and safe zone in vain.

  There was, however, the eight who were in hot pursuit, and they had closed the gap on Picard to fifteen metres.

  Daedo turned and lost speed. He had enough momentum and height to carry himself to the line, Myrmidon was angling the jumpjets with ten seconds of runtime left to ensure he made it. The only problem now was sustaining claw strikes before he did.

  Daedo fired his railgun at a wolf-soldier who was about to catch Picard.

  Daedo: Turn and fire. We can make it!

  Picard attempted the same, she turned to her left and fired at the closest wolf-soldier which Daedo hit. After one more second, a third goo hit the wolf-soldier who was about to grab her.

  Picard turned to her right as she drifted down towards the safe zone. The next closest wolf-soldier was only five metres from her and closing fast.

  After another second, she fired, and then Daedo did again as well. But before she could get another goo pellet into the wolf-soldier, he grabbed her leg and began to pull. He had no purchase other than halting his jumpjets and as soon as he tried Picard hit his arm with the butt of her railgun as hard as she could. She then used her jumpjets to rise up, trying to escape him.

  T
he wolf-soldier barely hung on to Picard, his plan to pull her down delayed by her action. And a third goo pellet struck him. This one also from Daedo who was safely in the evac zone and drifting down, the last of his power reserves dwindling.

  Daedo: I can't fire again and use the jumpjets.

  Picard pushed her legs out, slamming both her feet into the dead wolf-soldier, thrusting herself towards the safe zone.

  She made it and wondered how much her father won if they made the mission objective.

  Chapter 9

  Attendance at Fortescue Military Academy M1 Y:2142

  House Thoth, Squad Leader, Squad Zero

  M1 Rank: 1/1275, Tier 3 M-Rank: Null

  Term: 2, Round: 3

  Daedalus Financial Position 140,000 bitcreds

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  Stanley was impressed, but not entirely surprised by the cadet's performance. Few ever made it to the evac zone. But, in his opinion, the soldier’s underestimation of their foe was the main reason Daedo and Picard were successful. The cadets enabled him to teach a valuable lesson which he would ram home after they left the base.

  The seven cadets from M1 Thoth Squad Zero stood before him, with specialist Picard and ten First Class Soldiers were also in attendance. The First Class Soldiers were squad leaders during the exercise.

  They gathered at the fictional evac zone after the exercise for a debriefing. He wanted to address the cadets now while the soldier’s evaluation would come later.

  “Well done cadets, you continue to surprise with your exceptional tactics,” Stanley stated. He was well aware that his soldiers would not have fallen for the scout drone ploy if they were up against their own. They played into Daedo’s hands perfectly. The wily squad leader even controlled the scout drone in a fashion to enhance his chance of success. He flew it erratically as if it was controlled by a panicked cadet squad leader.

  “I want to thank you for teaching us a valuable lesson today,” Colonel Martin continued with a stern look towards the FCs who took part in the exercise.