The debriefing was detailed, thorough and precise. They were interviewed separately, apparently to make sure their stories didn’t influence each other’s perceptions. After the exhaustive session, they were dismissed. A lieutenant Terrence found them and directed them to the training bunker. Checking their watches, they saw they had plenty of time to get there. Shaun slowed down to walk next to the other two instead of out in front.
“So, what do you two think so far? Everything is pretty much the way Drake described it, just maybe a little early on the timeline?”
Alissa nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, too, about Calvert. But maybe this is an alternate timeline where his ‘accident’ never happened at all?”
Kenny mused on that, then shook his head. “I don’t know. Everything else is the same: I don’t see how there could be that many parallels and then diverge so sharply as to leave one major element out.”
Shaun nodded. “That makes a lot of sense. Makes me wonder, if we get into a situation where we think we know what’s going to happen, do we try to prevent it or just let it go?”
Alissa spoke up. “I say we try to make it better. Otherwise, what’s the point of being here at all?”
Shaun agreed. “Of course! We are here to make a difference; maybe that’s it, or part of it.”
They had arrived at the training bunker, and went inside. Each was directed to a separate room. Shaun’s was small, with a comfortable seat but crowded by panels and instruments. The first thing they did was pass him a helmet with a headset and various leads running off it, then strapped his arms to the armrests in the seat. Fortunately the armrests were free floating, not fastened down. As soon as he moved his arms, the screens wrapped around the front three quarters of the room came to life. They showed a hilly wooded region, and he could see robotic versions of his arms hanging in front of him. Sure enough, when he raised his arms he could see the ones on the screen aping his movements.
“Oh, man, if Drake could see us now!” he breathed quietly. As he leaned forward, the seat tilted and let his feet click into place on a foothold down below. He was now standing up, and as he raised his foot he could feel the shift in the whole room. He put his foot back down, and felt the renewed stability in the platform he seemed to be standing on.
“Wow! Now, _this_ is a simulator!”
He laughed, then carefully raised a foot and stepped forward. The platform shifted under him, giving the feeling of forward movement, and the screens shifted their view to reflect the Jug having taken a step. He took another step, then another and another.
The motion of the platform beneath him was fluid and smooth. Hillsides and now trees loomed in front, then passed away on either side of him. He raised his arms and quickly checked for the sword that was supposed to be there. He found it, and flexed his hand back to where the grip appeared. On the screen, the robotic hand grasped the grip of the sword and drew it forward.
Shaun slashed the air with the sword a few times, then approached the nearest tree. He slashed at one of the largest branches, feeling the shock of contact in his hand as the blade struck wood. The sword scored deeply into the branch, which then collapsed under its own weight, falling off the tree.
“Yes, yes! Awesome!” he chortled. “Now: what else?”
A voice broke in over his headphones. “I see you have adapted quickly to the piloting portion of your training. The combat portion is a little less intuitive, but it’s not bad.
“First, return your sword to its place. Then flex your hands back hard, and grip the joysticks that pop out. As long as you are gripping the joysticks, your Jug’s hands will be locked into fists. Each finger of each hand has a trigger under it. Press on the front of the joystick with each finger to reveal the targeting HUD for that fingers’ weapons. Curl your fingers and press with your fingertips to actually fire the weapon.
“Weapons with the longest range or/and highest damage will be at the top of the stick: shorter range ones and less damage are towards the bottom. It takes a little coordination, but you’ll catch on quick.
“One approach that also works: press the front with your fingertips, and the firing pins one at a time with your thumb. More control.”
Shaun positioned his fingers on the joysticks, test pressing the fronts of each and seeing HUDs of different colors pop up on the screens. Each color identified which weapon it was, a small graph demonstrated relative ranges, and targeting reticles appeared in each color, aimed at objects in the weapons’ furthest range.
“How do I change what’s being targeted?” Shaun asked.
“It’s a subtle manipulation of the fingers on the targeting buttons. Shift to left or right, up or down to redirect the reticle. Try it: using fingertips is easiest. See if you can set up for a total strike on one object in your view.”
Shaun twiddled his fingers on the front of the joystick. Each reticle popped up or down or sideways as he moved, and he was pretty quick to match the colors to the fingers. All reticles focused on one target, an ancient spreading tree. He realized that this was not the time to thumb each tigger individually, and instead wrapped his fingers all the way around and squeezed. He heard the howl of the missiles and the higher-pitched whine and crackle of the medium electro lasers as they fried the very air between himself and the target. The tree on the screen blew apart into smithereens, chunks flying everywhere.
“Well, not a great environmental statement, but it makes the point,” he wise-cracked. “So, what’s next?”
Part of the screen blanked out for a moment, quickly coming back up as a map of the local terrain. As in the Viper, green boxes represented friendlies, red boxes were the enemy, and stars were bases. There were eight red boxes, not counting the star, and counting himself, green boxes numbered three.
“So, let me guess. That’s Alissa and Kenny out there, and together we have to pound their base before they pound ours. Outnumbered almost three to one, there’s no way to protect the base and launch an assault on the enemy at the same time. They’ll overwhelm us one way or another.”
The voice from the headphones had a cheery sound to it. “Aren’t you glad this one’s just a game? Besides, life doesn’t always play fair, and you know the rep you have to live up to. We don’t expect you to win, but we’d like to see how many of them you can take down before you fall. Believe it or not, we are rooting for you.”
Shaun made up his mind. They would indeed make as good a show of it as they could, but if they fell, they fell. Maybe that would bring things down to Earth, revise their expectations, whatever.
“Kenny, Alissa! You two set on what we’re supposed to do?”
Kenny’s voice came back first. He didn’t sound happy. “Basic ‘capture the flag’ just got not so basic. What the hell!”
Alissa piped up. “This is our first round of training, for cryin’ out loud! Should we boycott?”
“No. It’s all a learning experience, no loss even if/when we fail: it’s our Kobayashi Maru. We do our best. Kenny, that makes you the goalkeeper, me and Alissa on defense until we whittle them down, then if it gets that far I’ll make a run for their goal with Alissa watching my six. Agreed?”
“Sounds like a plan, Stan,” quipped Kenny. “Works by me,” added Alissa: “Let’s see if this Jug really is fast enough to get the drop on the slow turds.”
One look at the map showed red units all moving in the direction of the green star. Green units identified themselves as Kenny and Alissa and their unit designations, also headed towards the base.
“Better book it, Kenny,” warned Shaun: “We need you there asap.”
“Givin her all we got, Captain,” Kenny replied in a Scottish brogue. Shaun grinned, pushing his own Jug as fast as it would go through the undergrowth. But this was slowing him down, especially going uphill.
“Hey, Control? How do I activate jump jets?”
“Understand that jets are risky. They can knock you over as bad as a missile volley. But if you want to try your jets, raise up on your tiptoes. When you go back on your heels, jets will power down slowly to give you a safe landing.”
“Thanks.” Shaun took a deep breath and rocked forward onto his toes. As the jets came on the platform shuddered, and he instinctively put out his arms to steady himself. It seemed to work. He rose up above the trees, and aimed forward towards a clear patch approximately 300 yards ahead. He found his feet moving back, and instinctively guiding the jets to push him forward. Heart pounding, he relaxed his feet back onto his heels once the clear patch was beneath him. He could hear the roar of the jets diminish as he came in for a landing. He came down planted solidly on both feet.
“Yee haw! It worked!” Shaun exclaimed. Alissa popped up on the radio. “Great! I guess it’s my turn!”
Ahead and to his right, Shaun suddenly saw the Eagle's Claw rising above the trees, vectoring towards the base. Alissa sounded a bit panicked as she flew. “Yiiiiiiiii! This is - yeow!”
Shaun broke into a run, determined to get to the base as quickly as possible. But there were a couple of red boxes just ahead, in the treeline. While running he couldn’t aim his weapons effectively, but at least he was closing distance. He gripped the joystick with his index finger, and the extended range missiles display popped up. Almost there…
Suddenly he heard laser fire, and realized it was not the enemy, but Alissa who had slipped up behind them. “Wooo-eee!” she cried out as she blasted one Jug in the back, then jumped away as the other turned to fire. The targeted Jug flared up with a bang, pieces flying everywhere.
In the process of turning to fire on Alissa, the second Jug exposed his back to Shaun, who had reached range for his missiles. He slowed for a moment, allowing the reticles to line up, and thumbed the firing buttons for both sets of missiles. The missiles howled through the air towards the target, which tried to turn back, but too late. Missiles smashed into the Jug from behind, first toppling it, then exploding it with a sound like a thunderclap. It was Shaun’s turn to whoop in victory.
“Two down, six to go!”
“See you at base, Shaun!” Shaun heard Alissa call out, and he set out once more on a run. On the map ahead he could see that Kenny was approaching both the base and two red boxes. “Give ‘em hell, Kenny!” he called out.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
A double thunderclap sound from Kenny’s position, and one of the red boxes disappeared. “Yeah!” hollered Kenny: “Double hit! Score another one down!”
The howl of missiles came from the same direction. This time Shaun noticed a yellow streak coming from the remaining red box in front of Kenny towards Kenny’s Jug. The streak collided with the green box and disappeared. Over the mike, he could hear a series of explosions.
“Kenny?” He called out, worried now. But Kenny’s voice came back on at once.
“Don’t these guys pay attention to the ‘No Smoking’ signs? Got slightly singed, but I’m fine.”
Once again the double crackle sounded, and the red box that had just fired disappeared. Shaun sighed lightly in relief.
Elsewhere on the map he saw Alissa dashing for cover behind a hill as two red boxes approached. He could hear lasers firing, then Alissa giggling. “Missed me, missed me!”
Kenny broke in. “Hey, there! No kissing unless I’m in on it!”
Shaun laughed, but kept on running towards the red box he saw approaching on the screen. How many were left? Just four?
Suddenly he heard a deep-throated “boom!” and saw a puff of smoke from directly ahead. Apparently when his opponent had reached the tree line, they had fired a cannon.
The shell caught him in the shoulder, and a new damage display screen popped up as he stumbled but did not fall. He focused quickly on the reticles, drawing them into position and firing. “Try that, ya bastiges!”
The missiles flew towards the spot from which the cannon fire had come. Tree branches flew, but he could see the red box had vacated the space just ahead of the blast.
“See if you can try that with lasers at the speed of light,” he muttered, charging across the open field towards the tree line. He could see where the red box showed on his map, and clicked the controls for his four lasers to show on the screen. They still flashed “OOR:” out of range, but he kept closing distance.
Then he was surprised as the two boxes that had been beyond the treeline suddenly resolved themselves in front of him. His system identified them as a Warlock and a Rasputin, both loaded with lasers and short-range missiles. They opened fire before he could adjust and fire from his end.
Lasers struck and carved off armor, then were followed by the swarms of missiles. While the lasers had no impact force, the missiles were enough to knock him on his back.
The seat he was in suddenly flipped backwards and down, actually knocking him over and landing him hard. For a moment he saw stars, but he recovered quickly.
He shifted his shoulders up, and the seat slid under him. He could tell that trying to get up was going to be akin to rising from an overfilled featherbed, so he tried just sitting up. That worked.
He could see the two Jugs approaching him and opened fire at once on the smaller Rasputin, figuring he would have a better chance of taking out a smaller Jug first. Luck was with him: three of his lasers carved up the left leg of the Rasputin and it collapsed to the ground.
Just as the Warlock was about to fire, it was struck squarely in the back by two boosted electrolasers from the Eagle's Claw. Shaun sighed in relief as the Warlock blew into pieces and he heard Alissa’s war whoop over the air.
But as he watched for just a second, the Rasputin rolled on its side and fired off another volley of short-range missiles at the Eagle's Claw. Alissa yelped on the air as the missiles struck, too close for her to duck or dodge out of the way. Shaun felt his heart jump in his throat, and practically jumped to his feet. His missiles would be no good at this range, but his lasers fired almost immediately at the Rasputin. He must have hit an ammo pod, because the explosion that followed took off an arm, a shoulder, and most of the left side of the Jug.
After that shot, the Rasputin didn’t move. Shaun suspected the blast had knocked out the pilot, but given this was all a simulation, he couldn’t be sure. He turned to Alissa. “You okay? Those missiles didn’t fry you?”
She giggled. “You’re forgetting this is a sim, Shaun. Yes, I’m fine. Now, where do we stand?”
He glanced at the map and grinned. “Two to go. We made mishmash of the rest.”
“Then let’s take’em!” Alissa jumped her Jug, not for any apparent strategy reason, but just the pleasure of knowing she could.
Two red boxes were approaching the green base from opposite sides. Kenny was in the middle, probably not moving because he didn’t know which way to turn.
“South, Kenny! We’ll take the one to the north!” Shaun made up his mind quickly and ran to the treeline. Scanning the map he could see some open space about 300 yards ahead, and he activated the jets to soar past the woodland below. The Eagle's Claw was already there, Alissa running through the field. Yes, the Claw was definitely faster and had longer jump capabilities than he did. It was such an advantage for her, which made having her such an advantage for them.
“On my way,” replied Kenny, and Shaun could see the green box for Kenny moving to interpose between the base and the enemy. But even as Kenny moved Shaun saw a flash of yellow moving from the enemy towards Kenny.
“Missiles headed your way, Kenny!” He called out.
“I see them!” Kenny replied, just before the line reached him and the sound of the explosions came through the speaker. Then there was silence. Kenny’s box still showed on the screen, still moving, but there was no more sound coming from him.
“Radio must be out,” Shaun thought as he continued north. Up ahead he could see Alissa jumping once more, then heard a thunderclap and saw her literally knocked from the skies. Someone else had rail guns, he realized. He ran towards her location, training his missile reticles in the direction of the red box that must have fired at her. On the display, he suddenly saw a blue circle centered on the enemy, with the notation: “est. Rail Gun range.” He slowed his approach to avoid coming into the circle, then realized his missiles had greater range. Besides, they could go over the trees, not through them like the rail gun shell would have to go.
“Alissa? You okay this time?” His heart pounded, remembering the beating he had taken when he fell. His reticles for the missiles flashed green, and he fired. 48 missiles howled through the air as he anxiously awaited her answer.
“Woah. That was a ride and a half,” Alissa groaned. Shaun drew a breath in relief.
“Can you stand, or at least sit up? The enemy is headed our way, slow but sure. I’m gonna try to evade and bombard him: you stay put if you can’t move.”
“Let me try. My leg was hit: I don’t think I can run right now.”
The enemy was moving closer, and as it did, the circle came closer as well. Shaun backed up just ahead of the circle, locking on and firing missiles again.
He could see that Alissa was down in a wooded zone, but then her box began moving on the map again, approaching the cleared space between her and the enemy mech. She was well inside the circle, just concealed from the enemy’s view.
Shaun keyed his missiles again for lockon, and heard the thunderclap of the rail gun again. Alissa exclaimed, “Wow! That was close!”
Shaun fired again. “You know what they say: ’close only counts…’”
“‘...in horseshoes and hand grenades,’” finished Alissa. “And they’re right!”
Shaun heard the whine of lasers next, and Alissa cheering. “Wow! You’ve really chewed up their armor! Let’s see if my bad boys can punch through!”
Shaun’s missiles were reloading, and he impatiently waited for a chance to fire again. Alissa came back on the air. “I think I got’em!” she exclaimed. “The Jug is stopped, and its arms are down at its sides. I think it had a total power loss.”
Shaun considered. “Do you want to do a quick headshot just to be safe?”
“Well, I guess since it’s just a sim,” she replied, and he could hear her firing. “Popped like popcorn! They’re dead!”
“Then it’s one to go, and we don’t know where Kenny stands. I think his radio got broken, I haven’t heard from him since he was hit.”
Alissa was lumbering past him before he finished. “He could be in trouble. Let’s get there quick!”
Shaun turned and lumbered towards the base and the two fighting Jugs beyond it. Alissa was not running, but she was limping along fast enough to make him run to keep up.
In the distance ahead of them, he could hear both the sounds of rail guns and missiles at intervals. It sounded like a hell of a fight was on. On the map he could see the two squares circling about each other, Kenny occasionally moving in closer to fire. But Kenny had rail guns and the enemy had missiles, so Kenny was blocked more often and was taking greater damage. They couldn’t tell from where they were how much armor the enemy might have started out with, or what they had left, but in all likelihood this fight would not end well.
Then Kenny took refuge beneath a cliff, blocking any chance of missiles hitting him for the moment. But rather than close with him, the enemy made a beeline for the base.
“You see that, Alissa? We’ve got to stop him!”
Alissa jumped once more over a couple of hundred yards of trees, coming down between the base and the enemy. She quickly moved into the treeline.
“Watch out!” called Shaun, “Those missiles can still pound you!”
Just then a flight of missiles rose into the air, coming her way. She fired her jets and rose above the trees just as the missiles struck the woods all around her. The rise must have given her a great view of the attacker, because she fired all lasers at the zenith of her arc. The total strike apparently hit home as Shaun heard an explosion, what could be ammo blowing up.
But Alissa had not kept track of the charge available from her capacitors. Firing all weapons and the jump jets had completely drained the charged banks, and now her jets sputtered, no longer supporting her. The Eagle's Claw came down fast, and Shaun pressed forward as quickly as possible to make it to the landing site. He came out of the trees just in time to see the Claw make a three-point landing, shock absorbers in the legs taking up most of the strain.
Shaun’s breath exploded out of him in relief. “Girl, you are going to give me a heart attack pulling that crap,” he said.
“Better keep your nitroglycerin on hand, then,” she smirked. “Come on: let’s see if Kenny is okay.”
The screen now showed no red boxes remaining, and Kenny’s Undertaker moving out from behind the cliff in their direction. But then the screens went dark, and regular lighting came down from the ceiling of the simulator.
“Huge congratulations to all of you!” The voice that had assisted them earlier came on again.
“You just made a few people fairly rich,” the voice said: “We had a betting pool going. Not too many folks thought you’d all survive, three against eight, first run. But you came through bigtime!”
The back door to the simulation room opened up, and friendly hands reached through to help Shaun get unstrapped from the arms, and to climb out of the simulator. Once again he, Kenny and Alissa were greeted with clapping and cheering and many congratulatory slaps on the back.
“You made fools of a lot of us, but that’s all for the good. You three are indomitable!”
Shaun’s mind was a whirlwind. How had they managed this, really? Just the luck of only meeting their enemy two by two, actual skill on their part, effective strategy or what?
Alissa was high-fiving all around the room, and Kenny was nodding and waving. Shaun found himself shaking hands right and left. It was an amazing feeling, being so accepted and appreciated, and actually feeling he had earned it.
“Thanks, everyone! All I can say is, we went for it. I don’t think any of us thought we’d be climbing out winners; we just did what we have learned to do on the tabletop game. Knowing it was all a game made a big difference. I guess we knew that win or lose, we would step out of the trainers no worse for wear. I don’t know if we can translate that into victory on the real battlefield, but we’ll give it a try.”
Again there was a round of applause, and the group headed off for lunch. Shaun did his best to step up to Kenny and Alissa’s spot in line, to speak with them.
“Hey guys: I just want to apologize if I got a bit bossy in there. I didn’t mean to; it just kind of came out.”
Kenny slapped him on the back. “Bud, you’ve been our GM plenty of times, you play our CO on the tabletop, you’re a natural leader, and it’s all good. Besides, your strategy worked, didn’t it?”
Shaun had to admit it had. Alissa gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. “You done good. A take-charge man is kinda sexy, okay?”
Shaun blushed, and Kenny jokingly elbowed her. “Hey: right here, ya know?”
She took his arm and gave his hand a squeeze. “A girl can give a compliment, can’t she?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. As long as there’s no french kissing involved.” Both sounded light-hearted, but there was just something about the way Alissa held Shaun’s gaze that put a lump in his throat.
“Well, thanks for understanding, both of you. I am so glad we work so well together.”
They continued on towards the mess hall, Shaun wondering what awaited them in the days ahead.