by Aidan Colyer
Fractured Desert
Call of Reality, Volume 2
Aidan Colyer
Published by Aidan Colyer, 2019.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
FRACTURED DESERT
First edition. February 2, 2019.
Copyright © 2019 Aidan Colyer.
Written by Aidan Colyer.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter 1.
Chapter 2.
Chapter 3.
Chapter 4.
Chapter 5.
Chapter 6.
Chapter 7.
Chapter 8.
Chapter 9.
Chapter 10.
Chapter 11.
Chapter 12.
Chapter 13.
Chapter 14
Chapter 15.
Chapter 16.
Chapter 17
Chapter 18.
Chapter 19
Chapter 20.
Chapter 21.
Chapter 22.
Chapter 23.
Chapter 24.
Chapter 25.
Chapter 26.
Chapter 27.
Chapter 28.
Chapter 29.
Chapter 30.
Thank you for reading!
Also By Aidan Colyer
Chapter 1.
Roland rolled out of his bed and put his feet down on the cold tile floor. The others in the squad were also waking as the group alarm was going off. Thankfully, this alarm was just a wake-up alert and not a drill like the horrendous claxons last week. He stretched feeling the scars on his chest and arm tighten. The stretches had helped a little but not as much as he wanted. He got up and dressed in his barracks uniform before running his hand through his hair. They all had preprogrammed haircuts that didn’t need any maintenance. It was an odd sensation but he couldn’t stop the habit of checking its length though.
He turned to see the rest of the squad gathering in the seats at the far end of their barrack room. They hadn’t been there originally but sergeant Murden had them brought in so they could do squad briefings without having to book time in the main briefing room.
“We have finally received our new deployment orders,” Murden started as she walked to the front of the group.
“Our new orders state we will be part of the advance units in the first stages of a battle. Now, most of you have only ever fought in the second and third stages of battles. This deployment will be a bit different for you. Essentially, the whole idea of the first stage is to capture objectives.”
“Isn’t that like the other stages?” Lawry said.
“In one sense, yes but in this stage of the battle, no-one controls any objectives. It is a free for all and they have limited the number of troops command can deploy. As a scout unit, they have chosen us to capture this objective. Usually, airborne or mounted troops are employed for this task but they want us to go along and see if we can be useful too.”
“Is there anything specific they want, or need, from us?” Roland asked as Murden turned to a projector.
“I’m just going to get to that.”
Murden tapped a sequence of buttons on top of the machine and a projection appeared on the whitewashed wall at the end of the barrack room. It wasn’t as technologically advanced as they were used to but it was rugged and worked.
“Now you can probably tell this is a map. Webb, an interactive version of the map will be downloaded onto your system after the briefing. You need to study the layout in detail before we go into battle. The rest of you pay careful attention. We are not there to take any specific objectives. These three,” Murden pointed to three objectives scattered across the top of the image in and around small villages, “are going to be taken by airborne troops. These three will be attacked, and presumably taken, by the armoured units.” She pointed to three scattered across the middle of the image. They were next to river crossings with the third being next to a small escarpment.
“The final three at the bottom here will be assaulted by marines in an amphibious landing. Now, this is the tricky bit. We do not deploy with the initial units. They have assigned our platoon to support one of the armoured units. Once they reach the objective, they will call us in using portable deployment platforms. From there we move around and harass the enemy, we are also to retake any of the objectives that fall. The idea behind this is that our main units can fall back and draw the enemy away from the objectives. We then go in behind them and retake the objective forcing the enemy into a choice and also flanking them. Any questions?”
Everyone looked at each other but no-one asked a question.
“Good, we deploy tomorrow so get your final training and upgrades locked in today. Make sure you have everything you can think of sorted here. We will be deployed for a week this time.”
The squad stood and started to move the chairs out of the way. Watts approached Roland as they stacked the chairs.
“Fancy hitting the range and seeing if we can get to tier four today?” She asked.
“Yeah sure. I’m at 50% already so should be able to do that in a day,” Roland replied
They fell in with the rest of the squad as they exited the barracks. It still seemed odd to Roland that they didn’t need to wash or eat. They could eat and drink if they wanted to, but it wasn’t essential which made the barrack routine odd. Food on battlefields was needed though. So was water. That was programmed in more to make the logistics an issue than for any other reason though. Roland was first out of the door. The day was a pleasantly warm summer day with a clear sky and a slight breeze. Every day was like this at the barracks unless they wanted to change it. The lack of variation made it easier to plan everything. Roland understood why it would be stupid to program in storms that would cause damage and mess up training programs for no reason. He did want another storm though. It had rained every day of his life before he joined the army and felt like something that made him truly him.
The range was to the side of the barracks behind the equipment building. Each platoon had their own range, the space provided by the AI construct base made luxuries like this available.
They entered the equipment rooms and walked up to the desk. The assigned Quartermaster was shifting bits of paper around the desk putting some into a box where they disappeared into the ether. Others materialised in an in-tray on the other side of the desk. He looked up when they walked in.
“We are here for some range practice.”
“Sure thing. Just scan your ID chips at the door and take the weapons and ammo you need. All weapons and ammo go into the recycling bin at the end of your session. You will only have access to the tier levels you have locked in up to this point. Although points can be awarded as you shoot,” the specialist droned. They had heard the speech many times now, but the specialist always insisted on repeating it every single time they came down. Something to do with protocol Bywaters had told him when they were in the battalion bar.
They entered the room to the side and accessed the equipment tables. Roland chose the rifle setup from his save screen. It was the same as the one he carried at the end of the battle they were last in with a few minor modifications. It was fitted with a silencer modified to act as a flash suppressor. The scope setup was based on the one that Watts had explained to him and he was getting used to it now. The only thing he had added was a flip down bipod that nestled behind the silencer. If they were going to fight on uneven ground outside of a city, he wanted access to something he could use to steady his rifle
. He didn’t want to end up relying on the environment the battle umpires had programmed for them.
Once they were happy with their chosen weapons, they entered the range. The room seemed a lot bigger than the external dimensions suggested due to the programming. The length they could see was set by the reach of their weaponry rather than the apparent length of the building. It had made Roland queasy the first time he encountered the phenomenon, but he was used to it now. They were the only ones in the range so took positions near the centre.
“What do you want to go for today?” Watts asked as she set up her firing position and laid out her magazines.
“Let’s try extreme range targeting. I need to be able to do that if I’m ever going to get those early kills in.” Roland replied as he flipped down his bipod.
“Sounds good to me.”
They settled in and Roland pulled up the menu screens. He skimmed through them until he got to the challenges section. Challenges meant points he could use to lock in his skills. On the first day, he had made the mistake of choosing a basic shooting drill which gave him no points to lock in his skills. Raiding his banked stash was a last resort but there was no other choice which cut into his pot for a promotion. As Roland hit the go button, the screen faded. He concentrated on his breathing and squinted down his scope.
[First target appearing now. You will have five targets in total for this challenge. There is no timer on this level of the challenge.]
Roland dismissed the notification and looked down his scope again. As he panned across the range, he noticed movement but couldn’t make out the target. He adjusted the scope until the enemy was in focus. They were still small, and he had no hope of a headshot unless he was fine missing a few times first. He went for it anyway lining up a shot and before raising the angle to counter the drop of the bullet. His first shot flew completely wild. Apparently, they had programmed in the wind too as his bullet swerved off to the left and took out a branch near the top of a tree. Roland judged the wind and pulled to the right. He fired again. This time the round hit the ground near the target who stopped moving and sank into a crouch. ‘Great’ Roland thought. A smaller target that’s just what I need. He lined up a third time hoping that with a stationary target he would have more luck. He fired and watched the target slump to the floor.
[50 points gained. Second target now in view.]
Roland searched the area where the first target had fallen but it was devoid of activity. He moved his search wider and caught sight of the second target. They were standing behind a rock formation. Roland decided on an experimental shot again. He lined up on the target's head and fired. The bullet cracked off of a rock closer to him than the other shot had. There was a change in the lateral deviation compared to the first shot though. Roland smiled at the change in circumstance; they are changing the wind each time he thought. He scoped upwards the amount he judged for the bullet to fall on target and fired. The bullet hit the rocks to the left of the target and they ducked down. Crap. The wind was variable. Cursing again Roland tried to sight the target once more but could only see their head. Headshot or nothing this time then. He switched his aim to cope with the wind and distance and then adjusted his scope again. The extra range had taken some crispness away from the current scope settings. Roland took in a slow breath to calm his breathing he slowly squeezed the trigger. He kept his eyes on the target and was rewarded with a red spray across the rocks.
[100 points awarded. third target now in view.]
Roland searched and found the target. He lined up the shot and fired some experimental shots to get the range. This time it only took him two shots to hit the target. He managed to take down the last two in similar shots. Roland wondered if there was some kind of telemetry upgrade he could get so he wasn’t forced to use ranging shots, or a spotter come to think of it. Normal soldiers would dive for cover after the first shot if they were advancing. Once he had completed the challenged he sat up and stretched to loosen his shoulders. He wished that they had modded out cramp at some point so he didn’t need to stretch but that wouldn’t help when they were on a battlefield. As he turned to look at Watts, he realised that she was already sat back checking her scope.
“How’d you do?” he asked standing up and walking over.
“Better than I expected after the first one. Seems I’m a natural at this longer range lark.”
“Better than me then,” Roland said.
“Well, I have to beat your score somehow.”
They agreed to try the next few challenges and both get to the higher tier before leaving. Roland lay down again and loaded up the challenges. He worked out he needed to complete at least five more to get enough points to get to tier four and lock it in. The total meant he would probably need to pull points from his stash to confirm the level upgrade. It would mean a better rifle in the next battle so evened out in Roland’s estimation.
Chapter 2.
By the time they had finished their practice and reached tier 4, it was late afternoon. A new specialist sat in the office to the range and made them scan out despite greeting them by name. They did so and left into the cooling air.
“Well, what do we do now?”
“The bar?” Roland suggested as they made their way across the front of their barrack building.
“Not going to say no to that,” Watts replied as she followed him.
The bar nestled into the end of the row of platoon blocks. It was usually busy but wasn’t as rowdy as some places that Roland had been into. Especially when he compared it to the bars for the factory workers back in the city.
When they walked in, they saw that Lawry and Clark were already there. After getting drinks, they walked up to the table. There were cards and chips on the table. Lawry furrowed his brow in concentration while Clark puffed on a cigar.
“Where did you get that from?” Roland said sitting down.
“I met a guy in the quartermaster’s office and he let me on to a couple of hidden menus.”
“Smoking is bad for you. You know.” A voice from behind Roland said. He turned to see Bywaters stood behind him with a beer in hand. Roland shifted over so she could pull up a seat.
“It’s only bad if you have a physical body. This digital body can smoke all it likes,” Clark replied puffing out smoke rings. Bywaters shook her head and pulled up a seat.
“I fold,” Lawry said throwing his cards on the table.
“Thank you very much,” Clark said using both of her hands to drag the chips towards her.
“Does anyone else want to lose?” She asked as she stacked up her winnings.
Roland declined. The chips weren’t linked to the pay. They were linked to the battle points. It made no sense to Roland. It was like rewarding gamblers with ranks if they won enough. Then again, it all depended on whether the military thought taking risks and outsmarting others had merit. Roland didn’t want to take the chance so sat back as the others pulled chips out of their own stashes.
Watt’s shuffled the cards and turned to Clark.
“Any chance you could show me where you get those cigars?” she said splitting the deck.
“I’ll show you later. Have one on me for now.” Clark pulled out a cigar from her top pocket and handed to Watts. She then produced a pack of matches and dropped them on the table between them.
Roland leant sideways and looked at Bywaters’ cards as she lifted each one in turn.
“Hey. No helping other people, you are in or out,” Lawry said putting his hand over Bywaters’ cards.
“As if I need help to beat you,” Bywaters returned blowing him a kiss. Watts chuckled and Roland held up his hands moving back from the table slightly.
Lawry picked up his own cards and swore slamming them back down on the table. “I’m getting another drink anyone else want one?”
Everyone said yes at once and Lawry rolled his eyes as he walked off.
“I bet he wishes luck was an actual skill,” Watts said draining the rest of her bot
tle.
Clark picked up a few chips and threw them into the middle.
“The way he has played this evening I think there might be a bad luck skill though.”
They managed to control their laughter as Lawry returned passing around the drinks.
“So what do you guys think of the mission?” Lawry asked.
“Should be okay. Watts and I can pick off targets at long range so we shouldn’t have too much close in fighting,” Roland replied
“That’s good for you guys. Not for us close range guys,” Lawry replied.
“It’s good for me too,” Bywaters replied as she swapped a pair of cards.
Roland subconsciously rubbed his shoulder.
“Do you think we will see action through the whole conflict or be moved on once we have done the first stage of the battle?” Clark asked raising the pot.
“Considering our last few actions then we are probably going to go through the whole thing. It doesn’t matter much either way, really. We fight where we are told and we get points doing it.” Roland replied draining his second bottle.
“Mr happy over there just wants to get promoted,” Watts said puffing on her cigar.
Clark turned to Roland. “Promoted in your first battle not enough for you?” She said with a wink.
“Nope, I’m going to the top if I can. Or at least far enough to get a suit.” The others chuckled. Roland stood and got another round in. The conversation fell to more mundane topics as the night wore on. They called it a night before they were too drunk. It wouldn’t do to be hungover at the start of a mission even if they could convince Bywaters to do some medical magic on them. By the time they got back to the barracks, they had all started yawning. Roland presumed there might be some sort of AI involvement but didn’t care enough to look it up in the menus. He slid into bed half-dressed and fell asleep almost instantly.
They were woken by the alarm the next morning. Murden was already up and dressed. She was wearing her combat uniform and was looking through a dossier of papers as she perched on a set of stacked chairs. Roland got up and straightened himself out before walking over.
