The scout squads bolted ahead and started electronically mapping the battlefield. I opened the display mounted on the side of the transport and watched as buildings, streets, and debris appeared in a three dimensional grid.

“No hostiles yet.” I said as I loaded grenades and a high powered laser on my harness and grabbed a tech maintenance package. I watched the display as the mapping scouts arrived at the predetermined checkpoint, deployed their surveillance gear, and retreated. I used my thumb on my communication pad and picked platoon leaders. “Move out, Delta pattern.” I said. “Keep your heavy weapons back until they're needed.”

I watched the display as all the green dots flickered once to acknowledge the order, then I hit the release on the display, passed it to Crush, and he slid it into his backpack.

“Okay, let's go.” I said.

“Wh-what?” Alyssa was surprised at my order. “I thought you were the overall commander.”

“I am.” I said and started to run after the other three squads that had already run ahead.

“Then shouldn't you stay with the command group?” Alyssa asked and kept pace with me easily.

“I'd be less than useless sitting in the command center.” I said and took cover behind the corner of a building, and the rest of my new security squad stayed with me. “Battle plans need to change once skirmishes start. If all I wanted to do was run the battle, I could have stayed at home and linked in remotely.”

“Why didn't you do that?” Alyssa asked. “Then my squad and I could be out front!”

“Who told you that you wouldn't be out front?” I asked with a smile and darted across the street to the next bit of cover. She and the rest of the squad stayed with me, and I peeked out and checked ahead.

“Crush.” I said, and he handed me the display. I tapped a few things on it, changed where some of the squads had set their way points, and made sure there were no hostiles ahead of us. “I'll be stopping at the first set of surveillance gear and then I'll reassess where I want my temporary command and repair center.”

Alyssa and her squad nodded their heads as I gave the display back to Crush, and we progressed through the city streets until we reached the surveillance gear. I checked the display again and saw everyone was in the right positions. I hit my communication pad and chose all troops, then whispered.

“Okay, people. This is it. Skirmish rules apply. If a teammate goes down, defend them and get them to cover, then call for med-evac. Do not abandon anyone, even if they're dead.” I said, waited for a moment, then spoke again. “I'm right here with you.”

I double-tapped my communication pad and my green dot on the display flickered, and all their cybernetic brains picked up the same pulse.

“Keep to cover, advance when you can, and kill as many of these a-holes as you can before they do the same to us.”

I watched the display and all the little green dots flickered acknowledgement.

“Let's get this done.” I said and smiled. “Initiate Rolling Tide.”

There were over 5,000 troops in this skirmish battle, and what I had set as a deployment was just like a rolling tide. Not a lot of people still knew what that meant, but it didn't matter. The first line of squads advanced a hundred feet, hunkered down into a defensive position, and then the next line of squads did the same thing past the first squad, hunkered down and waited for the next and the next.

“That's a beautiful sight.” I said as the squads in behind cleared the buildings and advanced to the next position.

“Is that why you needed so many troops?” Alyssa asked.

“I didn't set the number of troops.” I said. “But, once I saw how many I had...”

“Enemy sighted!” My AI Amanda said from my front pocket. I saw a squad of red dots appear on the display, and the tide of our troops stopped moving forward. The encountered ones moved back, took care of the red dots, then the whole front row of squads hunkered down and the next squads in line moved forward.

“I've got my command spot picked.” I said and pointed on the display to a spot halfway to the objective.

“I've got the map coordinates.” Alyssa said and sent them ahead to the scout squad.

“On it.” Cali's voice whispered and the spot was mapped out. “Clear.”

“Let's move.” I said, and we left the relative safety of the rear lines and sprinted past the Rolling Tide. It was dangerous and exhilarating, and I couldn't help but smile as I caught the smiles on the members of my security squad. Alyssa, the commander of the squad; Evilin the other female cyborg; Crush, the joker of the group and heavy weapons specialist; and two male cyborgs that I didn't know the names of; all had happy expressions. We arrived at the spot I had chosen and quickly set up a defensive perimeter. When we were done, the Rolling Tide reached us.

I tapped my communication pad and chose squad leaders. “Squads halt.” I said. “10 minute break.”

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“Thank god.” One of the cyborgs in a squad nearby said as he slumped to the ground. “My damn knee is acting up again.”

I was tempted to wave him over, but instead I tapped Alyssa on the shoulder and ran over to the guy. “Let me take a look at it.” I said, and the guy tried to stand up and salute at the same time. “At ease.”

I pulled out the tech maintenance package and attached the leads to the guy's knee, and it sent a short electrical surge through the part.

“Agh!” The guy said, and I looked at the readings. “When was your last overhaul?”

“I've never had an overhaul.” The guy said. “It hasn't been checked since I got it.”

I shook my head and wondered why people with extensive modifications always just ignored their new body parts and never had regular maintenance. I popped his knee apart right there and looked at the gears with broken teeth. Those teeth had gotten in the other gears and were causing all the problems. I quickly dug out what I could see and cleaned the parts up as much as I could. I put the knee back together and sighed.

“I'm tempted to pull you off active duty until you get that gear replaced, but I'm calling for the repair teams to advance to this position instead. Your squad is on defense here until they get you fixed.”

“Thank you, sir.” The guy said, and I ran back to the command center and Alyssa stayed with me. I called in the medical and tech teams, and I ordered a squad of cyborgs to clear out the lobby of a nearby building to make a spot for them to set up.

I tapped my communication pad and chose squad commanders. “Ten minutes are up. Continue Rolling Tide.”

I watched both with my eyes and on the digital display as the entire formation rolled forward again and over my temporary command position. The first medical and repair team transport arrived and I directed them to the nearby building. They started to set up maintenance bays and gurneys for the incoming wounded, and the retrieval squads with their augmented legs prepared themselves for the loads they were about to carry.

The display caught my eye as more and more red dots appeared, and were quickly swallowed up by the green dots. One of the dots flickered and the first retrieval team ran down the street and around the corner to recover the first casualty.

In an operation this big, there was going to be a lot more.

The scout squads did their job well, and snuck in and out of very tight places to map the terrain for the advancing squads of the formation. I kept a close watch as one squad went out just a little too far and red dots populated the map around them. I tapped the display on their squad and the squads in the nearby formation swarmed to the spot.

“Oh, no.” I said as one green dot in the scout squad flickered and went out, then another. More friendly squads arrived around them and took out a good number of red dots, and then the red dots retreated when they were outnumbered. The Rolling Tide kept moving as the next squads in line overtook the scout squad's position; but, the damage had been done. Two more retrieval squads were sent to recover the wounded.

I waited patiently as the entire scout squad was brought in, and to my surprise it wasn't Cali's squad. Two of the squad were dead, and one was severely wounded. The last two only had light wounds and would be ready to deploy again in less than an hour.

I saw a similar pattern happen further up on the map and had to make the call. “Scout squads, halt.” I said, and their dots stopped where they were on the map. “You can try the micro-drones, but I doubt they'll get much farther than you did.”

I watched the map as hundreds of little green dots left the scout squads and flew out. They mapped another 30 feet, and then nearly all of them were shot down with laser fire.

“Okay, people.” I said on the all troop channel. “Battle Mode from here on out. Heavy gunners get priority, so take care of them.” I smiled. “I just want to give you a friendly reminder. Grenades are cheap.”

All the green dots flickered acknowledgement, and the entire formation darted forward and the fight began in earnest.

“Command, we're pinned down.” A voice said from my communication pad. I checked the display, and it was a scout squad partially to the side of the front line of squads and it had several red dots around it... right underneath another green squad.

“How did you get that far afield?” I asked as I looked for non-engaged squads nearby to send to their position, and the voice laughed.

“It was supposed to be a shortcut through a Tube tunnel.” The voice said. “Most of the Tube has collapsed, but this one section looked intact. We sent a micro-drone in and nothing was there, then when we tried passing through ourselves to make sure nothing was trying to get behind us...”

“Something was there.” I said and looked at Alyssa. “Prep for immediate deployment.”

Alyssa nodded and gave her squad the orders it needed.

“Yeah.” The voice said. “Three squads prepping for an assault.” He said and laughed. “We caught one of them flat-footed and wiped them out, but the two squads behind them reacted before we could unload on them.”

“I'm sending an assault squad in right now.” I said and nodded to Alyssa, and she and her squad took off at full speed. Boy, I really slowed them down, didn't I? I thought. “They'll be there in two minutes.”

“Thank god.” The voice said. “We're down to our last grenade.”

“Tell me it's an EMP.” I said, and the guy laughed.

“Damn right it is.” He said. “These things are gold!”

The communication channel went dead, and I assumed one of them threw the grenade and didn't give themselves enough clearance. I pointed to the next recovery team and they ran after Alyssa's squad. If anyone was caught in the EMP and they had life-sustaining cybernetics, then they were in immediate danger.

For the next 20 minutes I directed the flow of the battle, and my Rolling Tide formation made short work of the measly defense that the enemy had in their secured positions. I'd never seen such a one-sided battle before. I commended the troops over the troop channel for doing such a great job, and then the recovery team came back to the maintenance and medical bay. They had all 5 members of the scout squad with them, and Cali was one of them.

“Hey, boss man!” Cali said as I walked over to her gurney to check on her. “The EMP had a short in the timer and it went off early; but, that's okay.” She said and chuckled. “My arm and my ear mod don't work, but I still have feeling in my chest.”

I smiled and cupped the side of her face. “I'm sorry that happened.”

“You really do care about us, don't you?” Cali asked, surprised.

“No, I hate your guts.” I said, and she laughed.

“I wish you were one of my squad mates.” Cali said and sighed. “It would make putting my life on the line worth it, if I got to hold you every night.”

“Hey, now... you can't be greedy.” I said and grinned. “There's lots-”

“INCOMING!” Someone yelled, and I looked up to see some kind of projectile as it flew through the air. It was coming towards us, and I immediately tipped Cali's gurney over. She tried to grab a hold of me to pull me behind it with her, but her arm wasn't working on that side and all she could do was yell and stop herself from smashing her face on the concrete with her good arm.

I, on the other hand, had a front row seat as the projectile opened up. It didn't explode like I thought it would, though. What it actually did was make a whirring sound and shot out bright blue particle beams as it rotated in the air. The last thing I saw was a beam as it cut a 6 inch deep trench through the concrete in front of me, and then it hit me.

I felt a sharp pain in my leg and chest, and then nothing.