by Aidan Colyer
“Anything interesting sarge?”
“Just the particulars of our deployment. Apparently, the guys we are going in to support are veterans. They won’t have time for any shenanigans so we better make an impression. Apparently, we are going to be pulled in overlooking the objective now too. They say it’s to keep us as hidden as possible but I think it might have more to do with the vets not wanting us stealing their thunder.” She snapped the dossier shut and jumped down from the stack.
“You better get yourself ready. We need to be down on the parade ground in 5.”
Roland threw a quick salute and returned to his locker. He fished out his combat uniform and his cloak. He threw them on and adjusted the cloak as they exited. The mixed in with the rest of the platoon as they walked out. The first squad weren’t in their suits yet, which seemed odd to Roland. He formed up and waited.
“Listen up. We are being deployed to the staging area first and we are to get ready there and wait for our call. I’m sure you all remember the last staging area. Our billet is in the same place as that time. As soon as you get in go to the billet and equip. We need to be ready at a moment’s notice. We will be fading in by squad. They still haven’t worked out what happened to the fourth squad but the glitch should be sorted. They are still being careful though. First squad up to the platform.”
The lieutenant joined the squad as they made their way to the concrete platform set into the parade ground. It was large enough for the whole platoon and made the single squad look very small. Roland watched as they faded and then watched as the second squad went through. He moved up with the others in his squad and stood waiting for the fade. Everything went black and then came back in revealing the familiar sight of the base camp they had used in the previous conflict.
They were amongst the first troops to arrive at the camp and managed to make their way to their billet without having to stop and let anyone past. The rest of the platoon already sat around the billet. Most of them sat with their weapons waiting for the others to be armed. The third squad proceeded straight to the equipment tent while Roland hung back. He couldn’t work out if he wanted to try to upgrade his gun or scope. There was a possibility he could add on infra-red or some form of night vision to his scope. He watched the others acquire their standard weapons. When Roland’s turn came around, he scanned his chip and checked the menu. His last equipment save was for the setup he had used in training. He swiped to select it. As it materialised, he was pleasantly surprised that it cost him nothing. Perhaps he should have set the upgrades before entering the combat zone he thought. He settled on the basic night vision upgrade and checked through the menus to find it. It was the basic version that was available and only because he had reached tier four. He smiled glad that the time in the range had paid off. Moving the options around, he selected the upgrade and the scope on the rifle morphed to accommodate the new upgrade. He almost clicked on the exit icon before realising that he needed to add the bipod to his setup. The bipod was cheaper than expected as it came under tier two upgrades. He added it on and then exited when the system had saved the options. The others had already left the equipment tent, so he gathered the kit he acquired from the box and made his way to the tent assigned to their squad. Everything was exactly the same as they had left it after their last mission down to the folded back sheets. The rest of the squad moved their equipment around checking their webbing and attaching grenades and pistols. Various holsters and scabbards snapped into place filling the tent with small clicks. He dumped his kit on his bed and sorted through it picking out the pieces he needed to attach to his webbing. When he was done, he went through his mental checklist. Rifle, scope, bipod, anti-tank rocket launcher, pistol bayonet copious amounts of ammunition and of course the cloak.
He checked the bayonet and the way that it fitted to the new setup with the bipod. Thankfully, it slid nicely between the legs when they folded back against the barrel. It wasn’t the greatest setup, but it was better than not having a bayonet. He considered upgrading it or adding more close combat weapons for a moment and then dismissed the idea. He was supposed to hit the enemy from range. Close combat was for the others. Not that Roland couldn’t fight in a pinch but he hoped they wouldn’t get into another situation like that anytime soon, or ever again for that matter.
Once he was settled, he approached Watts.
“Did you get any extra upgrades?”
“Yeah, I got the night vision add on that we had been talking about. I’m also trying out the bipod setup you suggested. All in all, pretty much the same as you have. I also upgraded my pistol.” She unholstered the weapon. It was the same as Roland’s at first glance and then she slid the magazine in. it was twice the length. She leant it sideways and showed him the side of it.
“I have an automatic pistol now if things get a bit crazy.” She handed it to Roland who checked it out. He wasn’t sure about the weight of it and the extra-long magazine felt awkward. He handed it back.
“Not for me I don’t think. I’ll stick with the basic one for now.”
“Each to their own,” She replied removing the magazine and checking the breach was clear.
Murden approached them as they checked out their weapons. She had upgraded her submachine gun. It was more like a small rifle now. Roland suspected she ploughed all of her points into a carbine to get a similar effect while having the ability to do long range for this mission.
“We are going to have to sit here for a while. The teams that are taking part in the assault should be heading in later tonight using darkness to cover the landings. I think the lieutenant is setting something up in the main tent. We should do half on half off to try to stay fresh. Do you guys want to take the first watch?”
Roland looked to Watts and raised an eyebrow. She shrugged.
“Sure thing, can I take Webb, Clark and Lawry too?”
“Yeah. I’ll spend some time getting to know the new guys.”
“What are their names, anyway?” Watts said.
“Um, I can’t remember I’ll get back to you on that when we switch over.”
Roland nodded to Murden and went to grab the others. Watts waited at the tent flap until they were all sorted and they walked over to the main tent.
Chapter 3.
When they entered the main tent they were hit with darkness which faded to a faint blue light. The light shone from a hard light projector that had been set up on top of the lieutenant’s desk. It had several projecting attachments that popped up several smaller screens around the first. They moved up and took seats in the middle of the tent. There were a few members of the first squad in the tent. They had their armour on now but didn’t have their helmets on. The armour seemed sleeker than it was before as well. Roland wondered if they could tweak the specifics of the armour instead of purchasing upgrades for it. He would ask them some other time though.
A flash of light filled the room moments before the screens flickered and then came to life. The centre screen displayed a map of the battlefield. All other screens gave information about the three units they were supposed to be shadowing into the centre of the battlefield.
Relevant unit titles scrolled up on each screen and stopped at the top. The information about each unit scrolled up afterwards until it reached the end and then reset to the basic information.
Each unit had 500 men. They were all short battalions of the 467th track mobile units. The totals for the units included two platoons of light armour each and the rest of the units were made up of infantry in tracked APC’s. Roland leant over to Webb.
“Do you know about the other units on the mission?”
“Give me a second,” Webb replied his eyes going milky white.
They cleared up a few moments later.
“They coastal objectives are being hit by two different units. This central objective is the target for the 12th advanced assault battalion. The other two objectives are the purview of marines from the 68th Regiment. The top three objectives are t
he 34th 58th and 23rd parachute regiments, respectively.”
“Whole regiments?” Roland asked incredulously.
“Well, the whole regiment that is left. Apparently, the glitches hit them hard on their last deployment. Each unit lost 75% of its strength to a mix of non-arrival and non-arrival of the actual parachutes for others.”
Roland gulped. Glitching was bad enough a full height glitch like that would be painful. Then he thought for a second.
“Wait but they respawned right?”
“Yeah on a loop into the theatre. With no parachutes. The amount at once upped the glitch and their last deaths were seemingly permanent.”
“That’s just; well I hope we don’t run into those troubles with our deployment.”
“We should be good. Last I heard on the comms net we had no glitches in our unit this time. The deployments seem to be going fine. That and the local deployments haven’t had an issue yet.”
“Yet,” Roland echoed.
He thought the extra information might calm his nerves somewhat, but it had done the opposite.
Icons blinked into life across the main screen. The unit symbols appeared on the screen coming up from the bottom as the units entered the combat area. They were a jumbled mess at the moment but started to split.
“The airborne troops are using drone copters for deployment on this one. The sight on that beach must be awesome,” Webb whispered.
Roland nodded. That did cheer him up a bit. The marine and armoured units hit the beaches together. Presumably, they were in different types of craft. As soon as they hit the beach Roland watched a line of red dots appear across the ridge above the sand. The screens to the sides that listed the units started to display a feed. It was a casualty feed with a marker at the top for unit strength. The bar dropped by 10% within the first few seconds. A swathe of the smaller elements winked out on the main screen. The central assault started to make headway though. He could see the points tally of the armoured units climbing steadily as they returned fire. The marine units spread out across the screen and were relying on the armoured units to break through so they could support them by the look of the maps. Roland and the rest of the unit watched with rapt attention as the numbers scrolled and the units moved. The airborne troops started to hit their targets. The surrounding areas lit up in a cascade of dots. First with AA units firing at the drone copters and then with the ground units as the airborne troops made landfall.
They managed to wipe out the nearby units quickly and Roland saw all three objectives turn to green within the next 30 minutes. He smiled. If the main bulk of the enemy forces were on the front lines of the beach, then they should have it quite easy for the central objectives.
By the time Murden came in with the rest of the squad, the armoured units had broken through. Only one of the beach objectives had been taken. That was the furthest one to the right, which had been taken by one of the marine units. Roland checked the status of the armoured unit as he stood. They were in the best shape out of the units displayed. When he exited the tent, the cool night air hit him. The tent was hot and stuffy but he had been staring at the screens of so long he hadn’t caught the temperature rise.
He pulled his cloak around him and walked back to his bunk in silence. The others filed in past him making their way to their own bunks.
Roland heard an attempt at conversation by Clark and Lawry but he didn’t catch the end of it as he fell asleep.
He awoke with a jolt. Watts had pinched him awake and was standing in full gear waiting for him.
“Come on it’s our turn at the screens,” she said.
“What time is it?” Roland asked rolling out of bed.
“Not sure. Didn’t bother to look before I just set a timed alarm in my menu system.”
Roland nodded and stuck the idea in the back of his mind for later as he retrieved his rifle. They made their way to the main tent and relieved Murden and the rest of the squad. She still hadn’t told him their names. They were all out of the tent before Roland realised he hadn’t asked. He would have to ask when they came back to relieve his part of the unit. It would be odd going into combat not properly knowing half the squad.
Roland took stock of the screens. The top three objectives flickered back to red once again. Markers that represented the airborne troops had been pushed away from their objectives by a series of counter-attacks. Counter-attacks trying to funnel them all to the same spot near one of the small villages marked on the map. The armoured units made good progress and the beach objectives now blinked a solid green. He checked the status of the armoured units on the side screens. They had taken an absolute hammering. The central one their unit was supposed to support to was sitting at 58% strength. The one to the left of the screen sat at 60% but the one on the right stayed in the worst position. Their marker was almost at their objective of the bridge but fresh enemy units flickered into life around them. Five red dots blinked into view around them once the screens caught up with the battle information. He fixed his gaze on the screens as they lost another 1% of their totals. They were already down to 47% strength. He wondered if they had called in their scout platoon as well. The central unit was advancing with little opposition. Roland watched the unit come across two small red dots that they wiped out within 20 minutes total. The next hour saw every single unit bog down though. The central unit managed to reach a point nearly as far forward as the right-hand unit. The left-hand unit was stuck in place much further back. Far too far to deploy the pads. Roland focused on the central unit more closely but couldn’t get the information he really wanted.
“Webb any chance you could zoom in on the central unit and let me know what is happening in more detail?”
“Certainly.” Webb’s eyes clouded over and he sat that way for a good five minutes. Roland started to get impatient when he didn’t focus again immediately. He leant forward to get a closer look at the screens in front of him until Webb snapped out of it. They were losing troops but not at a rapid rate. He watched as the unit split into two and one of the sections fell back. They carried on moving towards the coast before switching direction to the east of the map. They then swept around and hit the red dot on the right. It evaporated in seconds. They moved forward and another of the red dots disappeared. The main part of the unit was moving forward again pushing into the enemy formation. The other part of the unit re-joined the main body, and they added to the force pushing into the enemy. Casualties started to mount.
“I think I know what they are doing,” Webb said.
Roland sat back to listen to him.
“That unit that flanked the enemy pushed the end of the line around. They are now moving forward and holding according to the smaller display I managed to find. There is also a small unit that has broken off and is continuing to sweep around the right flank.”
As Webb finished explaining, a comm call came through. Webb picked up his set and twisted a dial. He held the headset between them and tweaked the volume.
“All troops in 4th platoon get ready for deployment. I repeat, get ready for deployment.” Webb put the headset back and looked at Roland.
“Go time,” Roland said and stood up trying to keep the smile from his face. He saw the others in the unit move as word got around. The lieutenant looked at the screens one last time before turning them off and pocketing the device in a pouch strapped to his suit.
They filed out before rushing into their tent. Roland went straight to Murden and woke her. She opened her eyes.
“Deployment?”
“Yup sergeant it’s a go.”
“Get everyone up and ready and then get to the platform.” Roland backed off to let her get up and started to shake the other bunks as he walked through the tent. The unit was up and out in seconds. Their weapons had been in their beds with them. Roland suddenly remembered he still didn’t know the names of the others in the squad yet. He didn’t have time for that now though and grabbed his rifle. They made their way to the battalion centra
l platform and formed up. The rest of the platoon was ready as quickly as they were. Roland stared forward as they faded to black and then faded into the combat zone.
A warm wind full of dust hit him as they materialised. They were atop a small mesa overlooking a road littered with destroyed vehicles and emplacements. Off to the left of the platform was a half-track. Its front wheels were replaced with grav pads like the ones from the autocabs. There was a squad surrounding it waiting. One of their number ran up as they all began to move noticing the arrival of fourth platoon.
“We need you to start a flanking manoeuvre as soon as you can. The main units got bogged down because the road was mined, and we were hit hard coming in. Our captain sent me up here to get you guys.” The sergeant removed his helmet and brushed back his sweat-slicked hair.
The lieutenant nodded and then turned back to the platoon.
“First squad with me. Second squad stay with these guys and get them to ferry you round to our right. Third squad find a vantage point and lay down cover fire.” As he finished, he snapped his helmet shut and turned picking up speed as he ran down the side of the slope. The rest of the suits followed him speeding up to a punishing pace. The second squad ran to the half-track and scrambled on board with the armoured squad’s help. Murden turned to the squad and checked them all.
“We split. Watts and Mellors. You take the high ground. Find a position and hit every important target you can identify. Webb, Clark and Lawry. You stay back with them and go in at any place they point out needs your attention. The rest of you with me.”
She didn’t bother to see if they followed trusting them to know what they were doing. They all moved out at double time. The grav track sped off down the slope lurching across the dusty sand that covered the area. Roland watched the others go with Watts.
