VALLEY / (-37.68964, 147.820953) – 2125 – NIGHT.
“Unknown…visitor, this is Rothform Colony’s Anda Hu speaking. Our scout general is within your immediate vicinity, ready to initiate rescue operations.”
Hal grit his teeth as feedback and static buzzed through his head. Melinde and Melissa’s skimmers had broken off from the formation, and each hovered in a separate grid square. They’d already gone weapons free, as the distance was too far away to cover the three skimmers in audio distortion as it was. Around them, the infested were shifting, apparently torn between facing them and facing the source of the grid.
“ANDA HU, THIS IS THE AI, NAMED ‘RESOLVE’. MY USER IS CURRENTLY SUPPRESSSED BY TWENTY-TWO SIGNATURES. IF YOUR SQUAD IS WILLING TO FIGHT THEIR WAY THROUGH, MY USER WILL GREET THEM FAVORABLY.”
“Scoutmaster Hal?”
A buzz of static resolved into understandable words.
Commander of Others side, your visor is compatible. Do you permit receiving an overlay?
“Yes, we are willing,” Hal responded to Anda.
The unknown voice took that as answer, as well, and Hal rocked his head backward in shock as a graphical overlay took over his field of vision. An overhead view resolved itself into a visible grid of 20 x 20 squares, with gray infested taking up a number of the squares. A white square cross-hair blinked over a gray figure, differently shaped and parked at the bottom left of the grid. Three of those figures, differently shaped to each other and to the infested, in a vertical line.
Taking tactical information and sharing with all sides.
“What?” Hal said, out loud.
On his overlay, three figures immediately shifted into blue colours, while all the infested took on red outlines. In the center of the grid, a figure he half-recognized from overlooking the valley took on a green colouring. Faced with familiarized information, Hal immediately grasped what he was looking at.
“This is…accurate information?”
Yes.
Hal adjusted his visor to 50% transparency, and started comparing the infested in the grid squares around him to the information on the overlay. They matched perfectly. Clenching his jaw, he decided to make use of it, even if he didn’t entirely trust the intel.
“RESOLVE SPEAKING. I AM TO UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR SQUAD IS IN A LINE FORMATION AT THE FAR EDGE OF OUR TACTICAL GRID. IS THAT CORRECT?”
“Scoutmaster Malcolm “Hal” Arnold speaking,” Hal said into his comm. “That is correct.”
“PLEASE RENDEZVOUS WITH MY USER AT THE CENTER OF THE GRID. WE WILL HOLD ON UNTIL YOU ARRIVE. BUT PLEASE MOVE QUICKLY.”
“Roger,” Hal said. “Assistants. Weapons free. We’re moving.”
“SENDING TACTICAL INFORMATION.”
“Received,” Anda said. “Transferring information to my squad.”
Hal received a transcript of a set of rules. While his mind processed them, he plotted out a route.
“Received,” Melissa said. Her sister echoed her a moment after. “We’ll leave the tactics up to you, Boss.”
Hal freed a hand to rub his forehead. “Follow me.”
Empty grid squares began to glow a rich neon blue, while infested-filled squares glowed a crimson red. Some infested began to stab at the ground beneath them.
“Stay within one grid square of each other,” he said, then sent his skimmer forward. The iridescent walls fell away as he eased over a grid line, passing through five empty squares easily, moving in a Z-shape to avoid infested-filled squares. Melissa and Melinde followed track, each traveling six squares to end up in a L-shape with him at the corner of their formation. There were two infested, one adjacent only to him, and diagonally opposite him, adjacent to both twins.
The blue glow faded from the grid squares they had traversed. As Hal pulled his grav-lance out of its mag-locked holster, the light under his skimmer shifted from rich blue to a deep crimson red, washing his whole vision in neon red light. His squad, too, was washed with neon red - the red squares covered a pattern of two squares in four directions around him, Melissa, and Melinde, which he clearly saw on his overlay.
“We kill this infested,” Hal said. He spared a glance at the overlay. As he’d travelled, the overlay intel had remained accurate – he’d been moving slowly enough to check with every square he passed through.
“As you say, Boss,” Melissa said, lifting her disruptor.
“One at a time,” Hal said, and aimed his grav-lance at the infested diagonal to him.
“Targeting,” he said tersely, and let the gravitons dance.
The infested was slammed into the ground, twitching slightly. After a period of time, the infested stood up, the grav-lance seemingly not having any more effect, and roared. Without any means of disrupting those frequencies, Hal took them, gritting his teeth as his skimmer was pushed backward into an iridescent wall opposite from the infested. The infested’s attempt to lunge at him, however, was blocked by an iridescent wall in between the two of them.
“Melissa. Frequency disruptor. Same target.”
Melissa nodded. She raised her disruptor as the iridescent wall between her and the infested flickered out of existence and blasted the infested. The infested staggered to the side until it crashed into the iridescent wall between it and Melinde. Melissa held the disruptor on it for a few seconds, before the infested seemed to recover and launched itself at Melissa. Melissa sent her skimmer rocketing backward, and the claw barely caught the nose of her skimmer. The claw still dug a deep gouge out of the alloy armor, and Melissa winced.
Stolen story; please report.
“Melinde, stab same target, now!”
As the infested lunged yet again, and again was blocked by a sudden iridescent wall, Melinde swooped in from behind, leaping off her skimmer and stabbing her vibroblade into the infested. The infested shuddered, and fell limp. A cage of iridescent light captured Melinde and her vibroblade, dragging her back to the grid square where her skimmer floated. She let it do so, and climbed back onto her skimmer when the cage disappeared.
The red light under all of their skimmers faded.
“Melissa,” Hal said. “You okay?”
She winced. “Bit too close for comfort, Boss, but I’m okay.”
“Prepare for incoming attack from the other infested,” Hal said, pointing at the infested snarling at the grid square to his side.
“Roger, Boss,” Melissa said. “Who do you think it’ll attack?”
“Probably me,” Hal said with a shrug. “But it could be you, too.”
“Yes,” Melissa said. “They do like damaged technology and wounded people.”
Hal sighed. “Ready?” He waited for affirmatives from his assistants, before taking a deep breath.
“Our Side ends turn,” Hal said,
The iridescent wall between himself and the infested fell. Immediately, the infested lunged.
----------------------------------------
VALLEY / (-37.68964, 147.820953) – 2205 – NIGHT.
Hal waited, his gut practically boiling itchy with anxiety as he watched the woman highlighted in green on his overlay bonk another infested in the face. Behind him, he and his assistants had left a trail of stabbed infested as they made their way, square by square, toward the unknown woman.
The AI, Resolve, had kept up a steady stream of narration to Anda over the course of their slow trip, and he was within three squares of the woman in green’s grid square. There was an infested within disruptor range between Melissa and the woman…and that was all.
Hal pulled out his vibroblade, checking the charges. Max, as he hadn’t used it at all since they left on this scouting trip. He considered his options.
“USER HAS ENDED OUR SIDE’S TURN,” Resolve said over the comm, and Hal let his anxiety boil over into a moment of crystallized decision.
“Melissa, Melinde, one at a time, kill the infested directly in front of me. Standard procedure on the target. I’m going for the Resolve’s user, so I won’t be providing fire-support.”
Melinde nodded as she drifted her skimmer one square closer. Simultaneously, Melissa raised her disruptor and waited for the iridescent wall to fall before blasting the infested with a high-pitched burst of frequencies. The infested shook it off, and spikes flared up on the infested hide, launching a spray of sharp darts. The spray that went in other directions apart from at Melissa pinged off iridescent walls, but the ones that did hit buried themselves into the skimmer’s armor and into Melissa herself. Melissa let out a gasping sob as spikes sank into her arms and torso.
“Fuck,” Hal said, and instinctively urged his skimmer forward. Its nose bumped into an iridescent wall, which formed as Melinde swooped into the infested’s grid square, leapt off her skimmer, and stabbed the infested once – twice, until it fell limp.
“Go, Hal,” Melinde said. “I’ve got her.” She watched desperately, hands tight on the handlebars of her skimmer.
Tearing his gaze from where Melissa was sobbing in pain, curled up over her skimmer, Hal went, his skimmer passing over the limp bodies of infested, including a large pile of bodies on a grid square adjacent to the woman in green.
Staying within that grid square, Hal hopped off his skimmer, pushing past the bodies of infested to finally come visor-to-helmet with the woman he had come to rescue.
USER.
Resolve’s voice came from the pod behind the woman, made louder from its voice echoing out from his skimmer’s comm.
The woman dropped her ichor-stained weapon. It landed with a thud on the ground, and offered her hand to his. Hal clasped it, noting the minute trembling in her hand.
“I am Ophiuchus,” she said solemnly.
“Hal,” he offered back. “Ophi…Ophew…is it alright if I call you Ophis?”
“That’ll do,” she said.
“Well, Ophis,” Hal said, “We’ve come to get you out of here.”
Ophis looked over his shoulder at where Melissa had clenched her jaw and was pulling out spikes from herself, one by one. Where Melinde was staring out at the infested, and the infested were staring back at her.
“Hell of a rescue,” Ophis said, “Who am I riding with?”
“Me,” Hal said.
“It’s still your turn,” Ophis said. “I pass command of Allies to Hal.”
So noted.
On his overlay, Ophis’ figure went blue.
“Let me grab a few things – Resolve, grab the turrets and take your core out of the pod. Since I’ve dissolved my side, your people can move again.”
Hal considered matters for a moment, then called out loudly.
“Melissa, slave your engines to Melinde’s skimmer, then get onto Melinde’s skimmer with her. Melinde, after Melissa gets on, move Melissa’s skimmer one grid square over to me, right up to the edge of the grid square. Apply a nanite package to her after that.”
“Roger,” Melinde said, and the twins moved to do what he said.
“Ophis, have Resolve pile whatever it can on my skimmer for now. I’m going to move my skimmer as close to Melissa’s as possible. When that happens, get everything onto her skimmer and climb on.”
“Okay,” Ophis said. “We’ll have to come back, though. I’m sure your – Anda, was it? – would like to get ahold of the blueprints and parts on my pod.”
“Oh, she will,” Hal said, and moved his skimmer to the edge of his grid square. Resolve flitted past, carrying the giant hunk of metal Ophis had been using throughout the night.
Ophis climbed on his skimmer, then climbed off, helping Resolve to transfer the turret from skimmer to skimmer. She settled Resolve’s core on the turret and other parts, including her ichor-stained plate metal.
USER, TAKE THIS. HIBERNATING.
Resolve’s core opened and an unlit plasma torch dropped out, which Ophis grabbed before it could roll into the recess created by the turret’s ungainly legs. She patted the core fondly. “Rest well, Resolve.”
She hopped back on Hal’s skimmer, standing between Hal and his stasis and storage compartments.
“End turn,” Hal said, and the nearby prowling, lurking, infested lunged.
----------------------------------------
VALLEY – 2230 – NIGHT.
“One question, Ophis,” Hal said, as they approached the edge of the grid. The lurking infested outside roared again, a giant mass of them, and multiple iridescent forcefields shimmered and rippled as they absorbed the frequencies.
“Yes?”
“Can you carry this grid thing with us back to the colony?”
“She can,” Anda said over the line. Anda had been silent all the way through their pickup of Ophis, although Hal had heard a stasis chamber humming into life over the comm when Melissa had been hit.
Ophis was silent.
TACTICIAN: OPHIUCHUS modifying. Ability gained.
“I can,” Ophis said, sounding tentative. “But take it slow, in case anything happens.” Lines of iridescent light shot out in front of them, forming another row of grid squares. A row of grid squares vanished from the top of his overlay and a row below the figures representing his three-person squad emerged.
“Hal, we will be having a talk when you return, about taking half of the command team out without any of the actual militia itself.”
“Later,” Hal said.
“Later,” Anda promised. Hal winced.
“Oh, got you on a leash, does she?” Ophis said, behind him.
“Not now,” Hal said, eyeing the infested swallowed up by the new row of squares. “We’ll talk after we get back to the colony – this looks like it’s going to take an awfully long time. Hop off the skimmer for a sec.”
Ophis jumped down to the ground, while Hal fished out his vibroblade from his storage compartment.
“Alright, back on.” He handed the vibroblade to her. “Sharp end goes in the infested.”
“They’re called ‘infested’, huh,” Ophis said, holding the handle of the half-meter blade and swinging it to get a feel of the balance. She looked up at him. “I think I’m good for a bit of fighting, if you need more coverage.”
“The infested, yeah. They’ve been a problem for us since we landed on this world,” Hal said. “Hop into the next grid square now, and get ready.”
“Oh, I’m ready,” Ophis said. “Your squad?”
“Melissa? Melinde?” Affirmations sounded over the comm. “They’re ready. Fuck, this is going to be a long night.” He waited until Ophis had walked into the next square over. “End turn.”
The nearest infested lunged for them.