“We’ve been through this before, Team Scarlet,” Nic said as he ran. “We got through it then. We’ll get through it again!”
He offered these encouragements over his shoulder while running to keep pace with the rest of the line. Lieutenant Reeve summoned everyone in their section of the dormitory, with Lieutenant Welch herding another group. Other lieutenants assigned to the mission appeared and joined the procession. Over ten dozen soldiers bolted in two orderly, parallel lines toward the toward the Red Base Armory. It housed the Gen-Three Achilles powered armorsuits as well as weapons, ammunition, and other equipment that would be needed momentarily.
Everyone moved with practiced precision, marching to their assigned stations, jumping into their armor, jamming their helmets on. Nic’s HUD came alive with biometrics and ammo counters. Their commanding officers donned their own armorsuits and were unusually silent. He soon realized it was because they weren’t the ones issuing the orders now.
“Red Battalion, this is Lieutenant Colonel Goss,” said an unfamiliar voice in their comms. “Hexadian incursion is imminent. Execute FTX Plan Niner. You’ve run it twice this week. Remember your training. Squad assignments! Vermilion, Rufous, Cinnabar, Maroon, and Burgundy, you’re on the roof with Lieutenant Jeffries. Carmine, Barn, Crimson, Tomato, and Garnet, you’re the welcome wagon at the choke point with Lieutenant Plachta. I’m tagging interior squads now. RTIFIS, astrosteel seals on every door except the main entrance!”
“Everyone else who did not receive orders or a tag from me, you’re with Lieutenants Reeve and Bayer. Your job is to establish a perimeter around these buildings,” Goss went on. “Turrets. Launchers. Sentries. 100 meters out, 360 degrees, nice and tidy. I want this perimeter airtight before their bugged-out eyes even catch a glimpse of this planet! Is that understood?”
“Sir, yes, sir!” came the collective reply.
“Make it happen, Red Battalion! Practice is over! Get to work!”
“Perimeter team, follow me!” Lieutenant Reeve barked into a local comms channel. “Haul these crates two at a time and we’ll be done soon. Let’s hustle!” He distributed waist-height astrosteel crates that looked like they’d break Nic’s arm if he tried to lift one. That was the beauty of a powered suit—and the Gen-Three model made it smooth as butter. Nic grabbed two of the heavy crates like they were little more than dumbbells and ran out the main entrance toward the perimeter. RTIFIS tagged helpful waypoints for Nic to erect the turrets, each spaced equidistantly from its neighbors, exactly 100 meters away from the base. Then he sprinted back to the armory to do it all over again.
Live fire, Nic reminded himself. Live fire mission. With the amount of FTX drills they’d done using AR overlays displayed on the HUD, sometimes the line between real and simulated combat got hazy, and he needed to ground himself in the moment.
The soldiers’ armored boots kicked up Telum’s powdery white dust as they worked. The naked yellow sun shone bright in the black sky, shadows long in the local afternoon.
“Good hustle, team,” Nic said. “Only a couple more trips and we’re done!”
“Five each,” said Maqsud, “but who’s counting?”
“You, apparently.” They shared a brief chuckle. Keep it short and sweet—Welch will probably chew someone out the second someone gives him an excuse, Nic thought. I’m glad we got Reeve for the actual operation.
“RTIFIS,” said Jarek, “you know how far out they are? How many?”
“One’s not bad,” said Nic. “We had three on Damocles.”
“Yeah, but the facility on Damocles was practically its own little city-state,” Perri answered. “And we had, like, most of Red Battalion instead of just twenty-eight squads.”
“Plus, we were part of the last line of defense,” Jarek agreed, “so, end of the day, wasn’t much action for us to see.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Positives, guys,” said Nic. “Think of the positives. One Seed. High probability of success. Low probability of casualties. Sure, we’re on perimeter instead of indoor duty, but that’s fine. It’s not like this means we’re gonna be stri—”
“Scarlet, Venetian, Brick, Ruby, Alizarin, and Cardinal,” said Lieutenant Reeve. “Perimeter needs to be secure in fifteen. When that’s done, you’re going to be our strike team. Rendezvous in the hangar in twenty minutes sharp, not a second later. Understood?”
“Sir, yes, sir!” the tapped squads answered in unison.
When everyone had resumed their perimeter-setting duties, Nic sighed internally, I just had to open my mouth.
The perimeter was secure not long after that. Every squad was where it needed to be. Twenty-five soldiers patrolled the facility’s roof with Sniper Rifles. Another twenty-five stood guard in around the Proxima Manufacturing main entrance, creating a choke point for invading Hexadians; any of the aliens that wanted to break in and set their acid bombs to destroy the facility would need to go through another thirty Red Battalion soldiers armed to the teeth.
And this was all assuming the invasion force penetrated the perimeter, which consisted of yet another thirty soldiers manning swiveling machine guns, rocket launchers, and sentries with standard loadouts staggered behind and between them. This perimeter encircled the entire facility as well as Red Base. There was little chance that the invaders would even set foot on the doormat of the critical weapons factory.
Ideally, they wouldn’t even approach the perimeter. This was the purpose of a strike team—one of the most action-heavy parts of an operation like this.
And Team Scarlet had been voluntold to participate.
“Best defense is a good offense,” Lieutenant Reeve told them when they assembled in the hangar. “Confuse, stymie, and overwhelm the enemy with mobile defense before the enemy can even approach static defenses. This is not a new tactic when utilizing defensive ops against Hexadians. It works. It worked on Damocles, it worked at Magellan Station, and it’ll work on Telum!”
“Permission to speak, Lieutenant Reeve?” Kincaid interjected.
“Go, Brick One.”
Right. She’s their Squad Leader, Nic remembered.
“Well,” said Kincaid, “frankly, this is my squad’s first combat mission. We’ve never run strike team during FTX, either.”
“That’s probably why you were assigned strike team—learn by doing. It’s not much different from standard ground combat, minus the entry. Main difference is we’re taking the fight to them. Rather than let them advance across Telum to their point of interest, we mow down as many as possible a few klicks out. Make sense?”
“It just means we’re the front lines,” Nic added.
“That’s right, Scarlet One,” Reeve agreed. “We’ll be taking Gryphons to their estimated landing site once the Hexadians are inbound.”
“Why Gryphons, sir?” asked Theodore. He was one of the squad members of Team Venetian. “If it’s a ground op, I mean. Why not Centaurs?”
“Ideally, Gryphons will be further out of reach for enemy ground forces,” the officer answered. “Jetpacking down will also give you an altitude advantage for dropping grenades and so forth.” This explanation seemed to suffice for Theodore. “Now, Team Brick, you’ll be going with Team Scarlet when the time comes. They’re veterans by this point. They’ll show you the ropes.”
Nic nodded. “The jump is the toughest part. But it’s not too bad. I’ll make sure to look out for you guys.” Four members of Team Brick nodded gratefully; Danny stood frozen in place.
“Much obliged, Nic,” said Kincaid. “I know you’re a capable Squad Leader. You do what needs to get done.” There was a pause. Nic cringed at the memory of his outburst against Danny. The punch out of the blue, the kid hitting the floor like a bag of meat. Nic's knuckles had finally stopped hurting only a couple days ago.
Not sure if she’s making a dig at me or if she actually thought Danny deserved to get hit like that, Nic wondered. He was too ashamed to risk an apology in the moment—especially with a superior present. All he said was, “I try.”
Lieutenant Reeve led the way deeper into the hangar. There were a few Harpies parked—Nic took notice of Perri's lingering looks at the single-passenger aerial vehicles, her favorite—but most of the hangar was occupied by Gryphons. Rows and rows of the ten-seater tandem-rotor aircraft, easily ten times as many as would be needed for an invasion of this scale. “Okay, platoon. Three Gryphons. I’ll be piloting one with Teams Ruby and Alizarin. Venetian and Cardinal, you’re together. Scarlet and Brick, of course, you’ll take the third one. I want Cardinal Two and Scarlet Three on pilot duty. Let’s get to it!”
“Well, teams,” said Nic, eyeing their strike vehicle. “Let’s board now. We’ll set out when Lieutenant Reeve gives the order.”
After days of waiting followed by a flurry of activity, Nic and his squadmates were back to playing the waiting game. These next minutes would drag on longer than the days had before them.
He eyed the starry, thin sky of Planet Telum, waiting for the invaders to arrive. Another fight was coming for him. The sour feeling in the pit of his stomach was replaced by a jumpy, light excitement, and his heartbeat quickened for a different reason this time.
There was a hole in his heart that had existed since Nereus. Deep down, some part of him knew it was even older than that.
Trying to fill that hole with Hexadian blood hadn't worked so far.
Nic was always eager to try again.