Fighting at dawn tomorrow of course meant getting up well before the break of dawn to get ready. As he showered, Shaun pondered the possible advantage or disadvantage of one of the opponents facing into the rising sun. They would probably compensate by having the field set up with opponents to the north and south, but if he circled to the east he might be able to gain an advantage. Then again, Jug canopies might be polarized enough to negate that, he considered ruefully. But it was worth a try.
Once at the hangar he looked out on the predawn horizon, feeling the sense of calm and beauty such a time always seemed to have, before everything awoke. His reverie was interrupted, though, when Kenny approached him on the gantry. Kenny reached out and patted him on the shoulder.
“I don’t know how to thank you. I’m pretty sure that guy was gonna whale on me, and thanks to you, maybe he won’t get that chance. That means a lot.”
Shaun nodded. “I can’t promise he won’t break through. He’s a veteran in that Tiger, and I would be amazed if he didn’t know some tricks we don’t. But if I can buy you a little time, I will. I had a thought earlier: if you can, circle to the east. Then the sun will be in his eyes. It might help.”
Kenny gripped his shoulder. “That’s a terrific thought! Thanks for sharing!”
“If I can I’ll lead him to the West to make it easier for you, make your movement look more natural. Let’s see if we can bracket him, do some damage. Time to saddle up: let’s do it to it.”
Together they marched out to the field, where they could see the Zhan-shi and the Tiger both waiting for them. Apparently Theresa was willing to get out of bed as early as anyone in her command. In the background Shaun could see the Eagle's Claw, meaning that Alissa had showed up, and another Jug he couldn’t identify. He was a little surprised: the way things had been going between Alissa and Kenny, he wasn’t expecting her to show this kind of support. Of course, it was also possible she was there to support _him_ instead. As to the other Jug, it looked to be bristling with lasers. He wondered if that was Li Min’s Jaguar. The lady certainly seemed dedicated to Kenny.
“Welcome, gentlemen,” Theresa’s voice came through the radio. “Please deploy to your appointed locations.”
The field today was basically sand dunes and rock cliffs topped with a little scrub greenery. From his briefing on the planet, he understood that this was what most of the land masses looked like for mile upon mile.
On the map, two flashing green boxes and one red box appeared. As Shaun had predicted, they were set to the south while Michael was set to the north. Fortunately Shaun was set on the western side: thus his progress could naturally take the Tiger west and leave Kenny to the east.
Shaun strode through the sand to his position, a bit forward of Kenny’s as would be appropriate in combat. Kenny’s voice came on. “Now, don’t move too far and get out of range. If you do I won’t be able to support you and it’s all for nothing.”
“Affirmative. I’ll try to give you the best shots I can at him, stay out of your way. Of course he knows that, and will probably try to close quick. So do what you can as early and often as you can.”
They reached their respective boxed locations and the flashing on the screen ceased. Theresa fired off a single missile high in the air. Once it blew, they began moving forward.
As Shaun had expected and more or less hoped, Michael moved his Tiger to the west, trying to set the Duo-shi squarely between himself and the Undertaker, to make Shaun block Kenny’s line of sight. Shaun moved to the west as well, not advancing towards the Tiger. Kenny moved east and forward, trying to acquire the Tiger in his sights. The triangle of which they were each a point grew smaller as they closed distances. Soon the Tiger would be in range for Shaun’s long range missiles. And then the Tiger turned and charged at the Undertaker.
Shaun cursed as he realized he had been led down the garden path. Trying to leave the Tiger open to Kenny, he had left Kenny open to the tiger. But good news: the charge kept the Tiger within his missile range. He led his target and fired his missiles. But the moment he fired, the Tiger shifted direction and turned towards Shaun. The turn was fast enough to fool the missiles and send them sailing harmlessly into the dunes.
Two thunderous cracks came from the Undertaker, but both missed the Tiger. Now the Tiger was in range for mid range missiles both from Shaun, and from the Tiger towards Shaun. Shaun twiddled the reticles onto the Tiger and opened fire. He was greeted in kind.
He belatedly tried to step aside, but the mid range missiles were too quick for that. As he took the blows from the missiles, his only consolation was that the Tiger must be taking blows too. But he was positive the Tiger would be moving in his direction as quickly as possible, so the instant he could he jumped towards Kenny to get back between the two.
Mid-jump, he could hear the thunder of the rail guns firing again. This time he heard a very satisfying bang as well from the other end of the field: the shot had connected with the Tiger. He whooped as he landed, immediately looking to line up for another missile shot.
But this time he was too late. Michael had judged his trajectory accurately and charged. Shaun barely had time to grab his sword and swing as the Tiger reached him. The Tiger ducked, and suddenly Shaun felt the repercussions of two savage blows to the Duo-shi’s midsection. Damage control alerted him that he had just lost both lasers, and thus had no close-range weapons besides his sword. He spun around, sword out, trying desperately to score a strike on the Tiger.
Then he felt the slam of two huge fists directly on his cockpit, and damage control shut him down. Michael had scored fatal blows, and Shaun was out of the fight.
But the moment the Tiger disengaged, Shaun heard the railguns fire once more and two distinct bangs from the shots hitting the Tiger. Shaun had accomplished his goal: he had given Kenny time and opportunity to score a few hits on Michael before getting rushed.
With damage control locking him out, all Shaun could do now was observe the progress of the battle on the map. Kenny was backing up to the east as the Tiger charged, firing missiles as it went. Shaun didn’t have a way to evaluate how much damage the missiles caused, but he figured it was mostly a smoke screen to make it harder to hit with the railguns.
Still, Kenny was in the east with the sun shining over his shoulders and giving him an excellent view of the Tiger. He fired again, and this time the Tiger stopped. Apparently Kenny had scored a leg shot, because the Tiger continued shortly but at a much reduced pace. It was still faster than Kenny’s ability to back up.
The Tiger launched midrange missiles now as it closed in, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Kenny from scoring another hit. Somehow Michael kept trudging through the sand, like some inexorable force out of nightmares. Finally the Tiger was in range for Kenny’s lasers, which he fired along with the railguns in a total strike. At last the Tiger stopped, dead in its tracks.
“Congratulations, me boyo. Yer CO saved yas from a fine arse-whippin’, this time. Consider it postponed.” Michael growled.
Shaun felt his temper rising critically. “Now, that’s enough! Lieutenant Arnold: you were given permission to engage in this one grudge match in spite of having received a sincere apology for your wounded feelings. But you two are squadmates, and you will _not_ pursue this grudge into a vendetta. Any further incidents of threats or harassments, and I will put you on report.”
It took a moment for the Lieutenant to reply, but when he did it was with energy and conviction. “Sir, yes, sir! I assure you there will be no further incidents, sir!”
Shaun felt somewhat surprised at himself for having taken such a hardline approach with the veteran, but if Michael was sincere, which he did not doubt, he couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. “Very well. At ease.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Theresa broke in. “Alright: chow time, everyone! Get your Jugs inside and get to the mess hall for breakfast!”
The damage control screens corrected themselves, and everyone returned to the hangars. Once Shaun was out of his cockpit, he saw Kenny approaching again. Kenny grabbed his hand and shook it firmly.
“Man, thanks are not enough! Without you there, I’m thinking he would have pulverized me! And way to go, putting him back on his heels by pulling rank!”
Shaun accepted the handshake. “Not something I hope to do on any kind of regular basis, but given the circumstances, I thought it appropriate.”
“Absolutely!” Kenny beamed at him. “Even if it wasn’t me, I’d say you can’t have one guy in the group bullying another. It just doesn’t work for -- well, anything!”
Shaun smiled and nodded as Kenny kept talking, but began walking to the elevator. He was hungry, and in spite of having helped Kenny out of a bad scrape he felt guilty about how his presence was affecting Kenny’s relationship with Alissa.
At the elevator they met Alissa, who looked half asleep still. She gave Kenny a brief hug.
“Good work, both of you. Now maybe he’ll leave you alone.”
Kenny shrugged. “He said he would. We’ll just have to see. He did give Shaun a beating: maybe he’ll settle for that.”
“Yeah, rub it in,” Shaun smirked. “But if that’s the worst it gets, I’ll count our lucky stars.”
Alissa turned and hugged Shaun. “Thank you for protecting him. Sometimes he needs it.”
Shaun put his arms around her awkwardly, not wanting to make too much of the hug especially in front of Kenny. But after a brief, tight squeeze, Alissa let him go and stepped back.
“Well, we don’t want to miss out on breakfast. Let’s go!” She stepped onto the elevator and they followed.
In the months that followed, Shaun and his friends did learn a lot about maneuvering their Jugs, about strategy and taking cover and other approaches to the battlefield. Michael was true to his word; he never approached Kenny directly, and when occasions arose where Kenny needed to speak to him he was civil and polite. The rest of the squad were friendly, though Li Min remained distant, generally choosing to sit as far from Kenny as possible. Shaun had been impressed with her ferocity on the field in the Jaguar. Though her weapons were all mid-range lasers she was fast and deadly, blasting Jugs to bits as fast as she could pounce on them.
Rotating out with the different pilots in the other half of the squad proved to be very informative. There was such a difference in strategy between when they had an extra heavy hitter like Leonard and his Lion as opposed to a fast predator like Lorenzo, Li Min or Michael. Shaun had to say he really appreciated the speedier approach. Most gamers loved the heavy hitters, but he had always found smaller, fast Jugs to be more versatile and interesting to run.
Then came the day that he was summoned to the Captain’s office. Theresa was sitting at her desk, obviously contemplating a file. Shaun entered and snapped to attention.
“Reporting for duty, Captain.”
She smiled. “At ease. And yes, you are. A real duty this time. We need you and the squad for a patrol run.”
She laid out a star chart with half a dozen star systems highlighted.
“This is one of our standard border patrols. All these systems are occupied by our allies, and all of them come under occasional attack by border bandits. I need you and the squad to make a run through these systems, set down and make your presence known, and to say hello to the local governors. You should be greeted and treated well: you give them confidence that they will be defended against attacks. Of course there is no chance of us getting from here to there in the minutes’ notice we would have before an attack occurred, but the enemy will see us and know we would avenge any incursion and attempt to recover any stolen properties.
“We make these patrols as frequently as we can afford to. The governors rely on us to give their citizens confidence in their own security. This is as much a diplomatic mission as it is a scouting expedition, but you have shown yourself to be adept at diplomacy. Do you have any questions or concerns about this mission as I have explained it to you?”
Shaun shook his head. “Sounds simple enough. I’m a little surprised you don’t have someone a bit more experienced at the wheel, but I am guessing they’re occupied with more important tasks. From what you’ve said, odds are almost nil that we will come into any kind of combat.”
Theresa nodded. “It’s not like Will or I can hop out on a patrol whenever, and leave Hokliss to run itself. You and Alissa are great as the squeaky-clean faces of our newest squad. The rest of the squad may not have your ingratiating qualities, but they can smile and wave with the best of them. And that’s all we really need.”
“Consider it done. How do we get there?”
Theresa picked up a pad and spun the view to show him a vessel more or less resembling the space shuttle he knew from the 20th century.
“This is the Falcon class orbital cruiser named ‘Close Quarters,’ which will carry you. Each of the systems you are going to have their own HyperJump gate, so the fact that the Falcon is not equipped for independent HJ is not a factor. She will carry you to and from orbit, and through the gates. The ‘Close Quarters’ is equipped for combat drops, but there would be no reason to do that for just a friendly visit.”
Shaun grinned. “Combat jump. Now, that would be an experience. Haven’t trained for that yet, even in the simulators. But as you are saying, we’ll save that for another time.”
Theresa chuckled. “Yes, indeed. Most pilots don’t care for an actual combat drop at all: you get pretty shook up on those.”
Shaun considered. “It sounds like you are expecting me and Alissa to spearhead the social relations side of things. What about Kenny?”
Theresa gave him a sidelong glance. “Would you say that Kenny has ever shown any tendency towards being diplomatic?”
Shaun sighed. “No, I guess not. But this kinda shoves me and his girlfriend into an arrangement that he may not like. It seems kinda cozy.”
“I am trusting that you and Alissa will do whatever you need to to put Kenny at ease, and also accomplish the mission.”
Shaun nodded. “So, it’s on us. Okay, I get it. Anything else?”
“Not at the moment. Have a good trip.”
As he walked back to his quarters, Shaun considered how he should put this to Alissa and Kenny. He was being trusted with a diplomatic mission; he figured he should be able to find a diplomatic way of phrasing this, too. He sent a message to the squad, asking them to meet in half an hour at one of the meeting rooms.
When everyone had arrived, he addressed them from the front of the room.
“Well, looks like we get to go on a road trip, folks. They want us to do a tour to show some force at a few of our friends’ planets, let ‘em know we’re still standing with them. Sounds like we will be honored guests, so probably some state dinners and speeches, that sort of thing. Theresa was hoping you could all back up Alissa and me with just your presences, while we make nice with the natives. I hope getting a few nice dinners and chances to wear your dress unis won’t be a problem for anyone. Any questions?”
All the experienced squad members seemed to take this in stride. Alissa also looked calm and composed, but Kenny was shifting about in his seat, looking back and forth between Alissa and Shaun with a frown on his face. Nonetheless, he did not raise a hand or speak up, so Shaun merely nodded to the group.
“Alright. Full mission profiles will be forwarded to everyone. I’d start packing. Dismissed.”
As he expected, everyone but Kenny rose and headed for the exit, but Kenny stayed behind and approached him.
“So, what is this about you and Alissa ‘making nice with the natives?’ What are the rest of us, chopped liver?”
Shaun shook his head. “As commanding officer, they want me to speak. And I guess they figure Alissa makes an agreeable presence as well. Too many cooks spoil the soup, so they stopped at us two. Besides, did you really want to do a bunch of speechifying?”
Kenny scowled. “Of course not! It just seems -- I dunno. I feel like there’s always something driving a wedge between me and her, and often you’re on the end of it. I don’t like it, and here it is, again.”
Shaun sighed. “I wish I knew what to tell you. I see your point, but I swear it’s nothing deliberate that I’m doing. People around here tend to lump her and me together, I don’t know why.”
“I do. You two look good together: really good. Me, I just look like the hairy ape from the jungle who doesn’t fit in. I don’t know what I was ever doing introducing you two to each other. But there’s nothing can be done about it now. You two have a fun speaking tour. Maybe I’ll get some face time with her when we get back.”
Kenny turned and slouched from the room. Shaun tried to think of something to say, but finally thought it best to just hold his tongue. Outside the door Shaun could see Li Min waiting for Kenny. Maybe she would have something comforting to say to him. Shaun hoped so.