It was barely two months since Elias had first experienced standing in front of a ziggurat in command of a platoon of soldiers. He stood with Mouse to his right and Slim to his left each deep in thought about a different aspect of the planning that had brought them here. Less than a week from landing on Carus by the end of the day they would know whether the dream of forming a settlement of their own would be a success or a failure. Poor sleep due to a mixture of excitement and anxiety meant that Elias had the platoon start breaking camp before dawn. They were out on the Crust as the first rays of sunlight were creeping over the horizon.

The ziggurat was level one so it snuck up on them, not being visible one minute and then quickly growing from a dot in the distance. Only a hundred metres away now the recruits were looking up at the structure in awe. They would have seen the simulations but to be there in reality watching Swarm appear in the dark orifices that led to its interior was a different experience.

"Stop gawking like tourists." Elias voiced over the comms, not wanting to shout now they were close enough to be heard. "You know the plan, utility crews, build the fallback position."

It was one thing to be confident that they would succeed but better to plan for the unexpected. This was something he had never tried in all those sim scenarios which were not limited in resources the way he was in real life. There he would have formed small defence bunkers out of metal sheets or added pre-formed defences to the scenario. Here they used what they had learnt making camp each evening. One third of the recruits were cutting Crust; one third passing it back while the rest watched over, rifles drawn. Mouse, Slim and the spare man, Tony, were cutting and stacking into a defensive wall forming three sides of a rectangle with the troop carrier the fourth wall.

"Ty, you cut. We'll stack." Said Mouse.

He had given most of the recruits a nickname by now. Tony had become Tiger due to an old advert for cereal that Mouse had watched as a kid. This was too long so he had then shortened it to Ty. While some of Mouse's nicknames were shocking; he persevered until they stuck.

"Yes Sir." Said Ty, cutting grooves into the blocks of Crust that he then passed to Slim who helped Mouse form a barrier.

Elias watched over, flicking his attention between the wall, the recruits and the dots on his overview that represented the Swarm.

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"Cutters, switch to shield." Elias said, noticing a group of Swarm had stopped observing and were accelerating towards their position.

"Shifters, switch to rifle. Join the shooters in a loose line. Hold fire until thirty metres." He watched on the overview, not wanting the recruits to start firing early and draw more Swarm than they were ready for.

Eight in total surged towards their position. Six drones had joined two of the larger Swarm who were positioned to defend the ziggurat. As they crossed the thirty metre line Elias had marked on the display the recruits opened fire. Two men to a target they all fixed on the Swarm they had been allocated by Elias. He watched and waited as the approaching threat was easily cut down like they had an experienced team.

"Don't get cocky." Elias said. "I won't have time to allocate targets moving forward. That was as easy as it will get. Now stop patting each other on the back and get on with the wall."

The recruits switched back to their previous roles and finished the wall and ditch. Since they were only forming a single ring of a smaller size the sun was high in the sky as they finished. They broke for rations and water, squad one on guard as Elias mapped out the plan of attack.

"So far you have only faced Swarm in small numbers and mainly on the defensive. Today we are the aggressors and they won't like it the same way we don't when they come for us. Roughly there will be a hundred Swarm in that structure and we need to kill those outside, go in, kill the rest and then take down their defensive dome by removing the Crystal. Step one we will form an offensive line with rifles, if their numbers grow then be ready for the call for Odd to switch to melee so we don't get overwhelmed. Squads one, five be ready for command to protect the flanks." Elias stopped and looked at the whole group. "Any of you fuckers think it's time to leave the line before I do and I will yank you back there regardless if it is the last thing you do." He tapped his temple near his neural link.

The recruits had all experienced the use of his command override by now. Mainly for subtle, small changes as they needed reminding of the orders rather than the sledgehammer approach of taking over the control of their body. It was odd that their response seemed to be accepting of this instead of the feeling of fear and loathing that it had always evoked in Elias. He had used the full override on a couple though and knew they had spread word of how unnerving it was. It wasn't an empty threat either, Elias knew if one recruit ran then others might follow. He had steeled himself in preparation that he might have to force one back in line without leaving them the ability to protect themselves fully in order to save others.

"Once we have reached the edge of the Crust we will switch to a shorter front. We do not have the manpower to encircle the Zig. So we will flush it out instead. Two squads front, two squads left and one to watch the rear we will take a three-sixty tour of the structure clockwise and clear as we go." He stopped there.

They had been over the plan before and knew their roles following a mission brief as Elias drove the nods reassuring him that he was covering old ground. This was a learning point from the sim, even the simulated soldiers worked better when they had been given instructions in advance and then they were being repeated. Simple, but effective. He turned to Mouse and Slim. Their role was to stay safe in the troop carrier cab. In an emergency Mouse could drive the carrier towards the recruits, save any that had the ability to get up the ramp and then head back to Southwatch. Save to say, that was plan E or F, well down the list of things they hoped would happen. Once they were safely in the cab itwas time to see whether they could put the plan into action.