[Tactical Sighted! Main Cannon! FIRE!]
[It’s down! Jimmy, Load’em up!]
[Got it!] Hefting a shell from the tank’s interior storage, Jimmy slammed it home into the port and pulled the locking lever into position, giving it a tug for good measure. [You’re good! Go for it!]
[Gunner! More at 2 o’clock! Fire!]
[This shit never ends!]
Clicking his tongue, the gunner of CDU Training Battalion 067’s tank was bemoaning how bad today was going. Everything in his view scope showed him only rows upon rows of stalking puppets, their faceless visages giving him not only the creeps, but intense fear in the pit of his stomach.
For the sake of this training exercise, these things were classified as drone class creatures, simulating behavioral patterns found in other drone classes from the star depths. As behaviors went, the drone class could be characterized with one phrase.
[WHY THE HELL ARE THEY SO MANY!]
They looked like stalking creatures from some haunted puppet play gone horribly wrong. The kind of wrong where the play becomes a serial killer flick and it turns out that everything inanimate is trying to kill you.
A heart stopper, possibly a literal one with how the puppets seemed ready to skewer him. If not, the crumbling tactical class rock golems would instead stop him to bits, a fate he rather not fall under.
If not for the fact he knew this was a training exercise, then he’d think his life was in danger. Keeping him safe, a small comfort for his heightened terror, his tank's 122 millimeter gun thunderously roared, the black and gray metal armor plates of the vehicle shuddered through the soles of his boots.
[Captain! What’s our next move? I don’t see us taking much longer, we’re on the clock and we’re presently only a short distance away from the goal.] He spoke into the radio as he aligned his sights on another target as Jimmy loaded another shell.
He scrutinized the target, a clear view of its features. Like the one before, a hulking mass of solid earth, or what the fantasy books he read would call a golem, stomped in step, a sparse herd of them bearing down the slopes ahead.
Like the puppets, they stalked across the land, the rolling hills letting them dip in and out of view at times.
Currently, he and his battalion, along with a group of freshly dropped in explorer students from Andromeda were advancing due southeast of point Alpha. Earlier, they were passing by, making their way to the front to support another group of explorer’s who seemed adamant to reach point Bravo as soon as fucking possible.
Suddenly, friendlies popped up on radar and after pulling their asses out of the fire, the captain chose to stick with them, supposedly liking the fire in these young chaps. The blue haired beauty seemed to be the leader, she was talkative and a good judge of character to so quickly understand who they were.
Still, the tank’s young gunner was skeptical to trust this girl. She only had 1 gold bar on her uniform, a rookie first year. Not an all too confident wrap in his opinion. Nevertheless, he followed his orders.
[Hold on.] The captain turned from his collar clip radio and hollered. [Ma’am! What’s our next move! Are we to keep advancing or should we change course?]
Just as he called out, an earth golem that closed in from the tank’s left flank, was bisected with an icy slash, leaving its diagonally cut halves falling to the ground with a thud. These things were tough, and heavy to boot. Totaling 3 meters tall upright, they had stone arms and legs as big as old pirate ship cannons.
If they could run, that’d be a nightmare for anyone here.
[Phew! We’re going to keep advancing.] Amanda said, heaving another sigh as she readied a follow up attack. This time, using her conjured ice arrows, she retreated behind a group of gun-toting CDU trainees and pelted the vanguard of the advancing groups of puppets who were coming up from a slope directly ahead.
She’d nip this in the bud before they could get close or fire off any attacks. There were hundreds of them, so her single attack was a drop in the proverbial bucket. Only after firing so many off that she couldn’t count them all, was the enemy destroyed.
Being prudent, she didn’t hold back and learned her lesson about letting them transform their arms into crossbows. Stella also took their past lumps to heart and followed up with a fiery slash. It traveled in a horizontal arc through the crowds of puppets rushing up on the left flank.
Amanda continued firing her arrows and machine gun fire supported the two girls’ suppression efforts. A nearby jeep was gunning down any that tried to approach them, holding the group's middle guard.
The jeep’s machine gunner was adamant on not letting anything slip past him. He wouldn’t expose their own mystics and only tank to danger. As vigorous as he was firing, the gun’s barrel heated to a red pitch. He had to let it cool from time to time.
He switched to his own rifle and laid down the best sweeping fire he could.
It wasn’t enough, just not enough. A single rifle with a limited ammo capacity of a magazine, barely made up for a rapid and voluminous fire of a mounted machine gun.
[Watch out!] Ikki shouted and dashed over, noticing Stella’s plight before she knew it herself. [Iken Style: First Sword – Falcon!]
Unleashing one of his original techniques, boasting the highest draw and slash speed he could muster, Ikki’s attack instantly chopped the straggling puppets who got past the gunner.
[Sorry about that!] The gunner said and returned to his firing. Ikki chimed him on the comms, he was using it more often. The gunfire was too heavy, it was like those operations he did in the Eastern Bloc. So loud, yet as long as he had the earpiece, he could hear everyone.
[You’re good, just do your best.]
[You know it.] Cheered the gunner, and that seemed to cheer him up. He got back onto his mounted machine gun, its barrel somewhat cooled and he let loose.
[Stella! You alright?] Ikki asked.
[Yeah, I’m fine, thanks. How are you holding up? Not out of core energy, are you?]
Ikki smiled widely, brandishing his swords as puppets assailed him. [No, I’m doing fine. I bet that isn’t an issue for you though.]
[You got that right!] Stella cheered, conjuring a fireball from a swing of her switch-axe. Crashing in, creating a crater in the puppet’s ranks. [Better keep up or I’ll snatch all the glory, and take your spot on the Tournament’s roster.]
[Then I better get serious.] Smirked Ikki. [I’ll give it my all!]
Crossing his two blades together, his short, white tachi and long, black katana, shined their respective colors. Activating his manifested power, Ikki gritted his teeth. Pain wracked every point on his skin. He pushed through the twisting sensations, his first step sending him dashing forward at speeds he’d usually never be able to attain without his manifested power.
His control over himself showed its insanely small margin of error. Every muscle was pushed to their efficient limit, not too much, not too little. Only enough so that he wouldn’t crash and burn from his own wax made wings as he flew closer to the sun, its radiance powering him to his limits.
Puppets moved in bunches to intercept, flanking him on all sides.
[Iken Style: Third Sword – Swallow]
Changing his footwork, Ikki stepped in, dancing around like a swift fencer. The puppet’s sweeping blades didn’t glance him, instead, he was like an elusive leaf in the wind. This was a style of swordsmanship Ikki learned on his own.
Watching, imitating, recreating, he made it his own. Blades glinting, a flurry of slashes ran wild, his enhanced agility and strength on full display. Ikki flew, slew, and spread his wings out with every swing. Diced, minced, the puppets became a fine mesh of white porcelain colored splinters.
What was once 10 puppets became a singular pile of scrap, a result that Ikki saw as something he could improve upon. If not for how durable they were, Ikki thought he could’ve used less slashes on each one.
It was an expected result though. As constructs created by the headmaster, he lived up to his legend. A befuddling realization to Ikki as he asked himself, how powerful was Headmaster Joel?
To be able to control hundreds of hundreds of puppets from a distance. On top of that, to have such power to give them this much trouble was boggling. He was an A rank for a reason and his rank in the top 10 World Ranking board was undoubtedly justified.
In theory, Joel could perhaps storm numerous battlefields all at once, a trait that other top explorers shared, like Professor Cyno. They were in for a hard fight and Ikki knew it was only going to get harder.
The number of rock golems became more prevalent the more they advanced to the objective. Whoever made these had the right idea. Tougher to beat down, each one delayed them and were threats too large, and growing in number, to leave alone.
Deep in thought, Ikki found himself diving at the enemy, forgetting that he needed to prioritize the closer targets.
His adrenaline was to blame.
[Brother! On your right!] Shisuki leapt from the jeep. She had been throwing her water daggers to subdue and keep the vehicle and rear line safe, but her beloved brother was in danger and she’d never let him be hurt, never again.
[2nd Form: Serene Rain!] Her hands becoming a blur mid jump, an uncountable number of aqua colored projectiles shot like a scattering of buckshot, piercing and shattering puppet after puppet.
Each projectile looked like a blue droplet of rain and as serene as the name of her technique was, it was nothing like how she had named it. Torrent was how Richard would logically describe it, though perhaps the serene part of the technique came from the expression Shisuki had.
She didn’t belie any stress or exertion. Her lips were shut tight, a state of calm and unfaltering focus in all this chaos. Perhaps like his own grandfather. Really, Richard would’ve known if he was still alive.
No! This isn’t the time to think about that! Focus!
Richard pushed the distracting thoughts away. He couldn’t let emotions drive him, he needed to think out his next move.
He thought Amanda, following her lead after becoming de facto leader of the group and coming to have control over a battalion of CDU trainees, had suggested moving to the south east to support the flank of the vanguard of their allies in this war game.
From the sporadic and chaotic comms from the front, progress was being made, but only for now unless something caught them off guard.
By his own deduction, Richard guessed it was their upperclassmen who were pushing the line forward. Chisuke’s battle crazed grin as he dove in first from the dropship came to mind.
Going by his attitude, he’s probably tearing through puppets like scrap paper. Dang it! I’m getting off topic again! Focus Richard! You have to focus on the fight, just think logically and you’ll pass.
Slashing with his long and thin sword, he pierced and parried a puppet’s swing at him. He wasn’t as fast as Shisuki or Ikki, or as powerful as Stella, but he knew how to fight. The logic and basic fundamentals were easy enough for his intellectual mind to understand.
[Dang! Not again!]
Or so he thought. The chaos of the battle found him getting blindsided, too caught up in his head rather than keeping his eyes open in a wider view.
Swinging in with their bladed arms, two puppets closed in from his right and left. Just as they came inches from striking him, two figures dashed from behind Richard. The flat metallic face of bayonets shunted and two young CDU trainees came barreling in, tackling the puppets with their rifles forward as if this was an age where bayonet charges were still a thing.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
As outdated as the tactic was, having a pointy and sharp implement on the front of your gun made it quite versatile. Squeezing their gun’s triggers, the trainees finished the puppets off, pumping rounds into their impaled and cracked porcelain looking flanks.
[Thanks! I thought I was a goner.] Richard finished off the puppet he was wrangling with, and then moved forward, engaging another group of puppets who looked as if they were getting ready to fire and trying to flank them at the group’s 2 o’clock.
[No problem. We got your back!] His comms crackled with the voice of a kid probably younger than him, Richard clenched his teeth. As grateful as he was for their aid, getting helped by someone you knew was young and was more experienced on top of that was.. He sighed. It hurt him.
The two kids only looked no older than 10 years old, and still, they were keeping up. They weren’t battle hardened or looked strong, but their eyes had such a fire that Richard thought he’d get burned if he got too close.
What kind of training did these kids go through? Richard asked himself, occupying his brief moments of pause to understand. He always did this, as calm as he looked outwardly, he tried to logic his way through his thoughts whenever something popped up.
He couldn’t stop thinking, or maybe he was just so attentive to his surroundings, and as concerning as it could sound, he didn’t mind, but wished he could have turned off this recurring part of his psyche.
I truly have a lot to learn, and to grow.
As the battleline held with the staccato fire of automatic rifles, the booms and pops of tank shells, and high caliber rounds of guns Amanda had no knowledge of, she moved to join the captain. Climbing up onto the tank and getting next to the capped teenager, she pulled up the tactical map in her HUD.
No one else could see it since the images were wirelessly transmitted to her brain’s visual cortex. It was a surreal experience and she was still getting used to the interface.
Heck, she was getting used to being in command. 10 minutes ago, she and her friends were on the brink of collapse on their first encounter. Embarrassing was how she’d describe how it went down, and terrifying was how she’d felt as it happened.
Seeing things go wrong in front of her had shaken her up, both mentally and physically, and it felt as if her guts were getting twisted around at only the slightest thought. If not for the CDU captain’s timely intervention, they’d be failing this part of the class, a part that was optional, a fact that served to add salt to the wound if they were defeated only moments ago.
Taking stock of the situation, her original group had gone from a team of 5 to a small battalion of about 60 individuals.
They still only had 5 in training explorers in their group. The rest were trainees from the CDU, so firepower wise, they didn’t get much. In her opinion, 50 grunts with a tank and jeep were outclassed by a person like Shisuki or herself.
Amanda wasn’t being vain in her thoughts here, this was a tactical deduction she made on her own. The classes she went through told her enough, Cyno had said it, and the video simulations told her the unvarnished truth.
Grunts were expendable. Mystics and corebinders could do more. And grunts were meant to support them.
That truth was on display. With a single swing, Stella downed 2 rock golems in seconds. On the other hand, the grunt manned tank they had on their side downed one every minute, needing time to reload, aim, reposition the turret, and fire. Bullets did jack against the golems and only served to slow it down.
Seconds opened up when a concentrated effort was made and a golem’s leg was shot out. Ikki and Shisuki came in to finish the job. Grunts were truly as their names had described, the grunts, the meaningless fodder who did little alone and needed many to overcome adversity.
This was why she had ordered the disposable grunts to take a rear position with her and Stella. She and her other mystic would take turns unleashing devastating attacks, and would have the grunts take over as they bought time for them to ready and coordinate the next attack.
They couldn’t be reckless like before, they had to plan, to think before they attacked to get the maximum effect. If not, being overwhelmed was inevitable.
Their strategy was a repeated cycle of attack, defend, think, and repeat. Every time though, whenever one of them, the mystics or corebinders, found themselves in trouble, a grunt would be there to throw themselves at the problem. Sacrificing himself and getting dragged away after being knocked out cold.
It was.. Horrible. To see such defeat.
“Jeez, this is too much to handle.” She didn’t like it, and Amanda grumbled. She was only 16 years old, and she was already giving orders like some military commanding officer. She didn’t know if she was doing this right, there wasn’t any training for this, so she was falling back on her instinctual knowledge.
It wasn’t much for a young girl who had only a limited amount of exposure to such violence and warfare. If not for how professional these young CDU trainees were, she and her friends would have been chopped liver earlier.
In the face of this challenge, Amanda hunkered down with what little she could do and knew to do. She’d passed off uncertain order after order. Move that group here, fire over there, support so and so there. It was exhausting, so very exhausting.
Amanda heaved, breathing for every pint of air she could drink in between firing off attacks, or when giving out orders.
25 minutes remained. Her HUD was reminding her as it blinked a light in the corner of her view. The red enemy blips were decreasing over at the front. Her little suggestion of supporting the flank was serving its purpose, and victory seemed assured.
[We’re almost there. Keep firing and don’t stop! Stella! Push the Line! Let’s get through these last minutes!]
[Yeah, we got this.] Ikki said, determination welling in his spirit. [I’m going to be an explorer.]
[Same here.] Stella added, jumping several meters forward and slashing with unparalleled crashes, her switch axe wreathed in radiant flame.
Kicking up dust, it got in Shisuki’s eyes. She rubbed it out, shooting Stella an annoyed eye.
[Can you rampage elsewhere? You’re going to hit one of us if you don’t control yourself.]
[I am! You’re just sticking too close to Ikki.]
[I am not! This is an appropriate distance for siblings.]
It really wasn’t. Stella thought. She kept her mouth shut. She knew when to quip back and now wasn’t the time.
[Shisuki! Over there!]
[Huh? Oh my. How silly of me.] Swiping her wrist, Shisuki shattered another 5 stalking puppets, their posture low to the ground, using some nearby brush as cover. Cunning, likely trying to get the drop on her.
[My thanks Miss Stella. Perhaps you are more than just your pair of breasts.]
[You! Ugh!]
Stella ignored that and Ikki smiled wryly, then turned to glance over the map in his HUD.
[Richard! How are you holding up?]
[Doing great! I wish we had more training though. Maybe we should have more intense sparring sessions like this to prepare for the future?]
[Are you serious?] Amanda said incredulously, beside herself on that idea. [I don’t know if we want to go anymore intense in our regular sessions. With Itsuki around, it's already like a war.]
[Indeed.] Shisuki said, reminiscent of her own traumatic training and harsh tutelage under her childhood teacher. [Even still, perhaps fighting in conditions like this in our off time will make us all stronger and more prepared.]
[We’d need 5 Itsuki’s to get something this intense.] Amanda laughed and then recoiled all at once from the thought of that coming true. If one was bad, 5 was just asking for trouble, or more like hell.
[Could we ask the CDU or CAU to help us?] Richard suggested.
[Maybe? I don’t know much about them yet. Do they even loan out their people for training?]
Amanda wasn’t sure. It was a good idea though. Training with people who had such military bearing would be a novel experience and maybe they could learn something from them. Learn how they fought in an in depth manner, instead of being shot at compared to Itsuki’s approach on the matter.
Also, learning how they operated normally would boost her confidence in her own ways of taking charge.
[No wait! Dang it! Grah!]
[Huh?]
Amanda gaped when a cry of pain reached her ear. She rushed over to see what she could do and found a few CDU trainees on their knees. Their hands were up and puppets surrounded them. Since this was an exercise, the constructs were instructed to subdue, not kill.
Instead of following through with their slashes, the puppets disarmed the grunts of their firearms and knocked them out cold. Too late to do anything, Amanda had no choice but to watch as a few trainees were hauled off. It shook her to her core to see young teenagers be beaten into submission. They should’ve been able to defend themselves with how well they were performing earlier, so what had changed?
[What happened?] She asked over comms, picking up where the defeated trainees had left off. She made sure to defeat the enemy the trainees had weakened, not letting their efforts go to waste. The CDU Captain chimed into comms.
[We’re running out of ammo. Some of my guys have been having to switch to close combat, but we’re not strong enough to last for that long in that situation.]
[What? Don’t you have storage rings?]
[Missy, we might have a lot of gear on us, but we’re not full explorers yet or even fully enlisted. This is training, and I don’t think any one of us can afford one.]
[Shoot, this is bad.]
If the CDU trainees ran out of ammo, their support would be limited. But if they pulled back now, the flank would be exposed and it would endanger the upperclassmen who were at the front. Checking the number of red dots on the screen, Amanda was glad to find that only a few patches were left.
[Captain, how long can we last with what you have?]
The captain tipped his cap, his eyes darting around to look through his own HUD. He then moved his lips wordlessly as if doing the math.
[10 minutes.] He said. [In 5, we’ll run out of tank shells. By 10, we’ll only have bayonets and our sidearms.]
[Then we’ll have to crush the enemy before that. Did you all hear me?]
[Yeah, we heard you.] Richard replied to Amanda, and motioned to Ikki and the others. [We’ll get started, I see two remaining groups of enemies, one to our 3 and another at our 1 o’clock. Ikki and I will take the jeep and neutralize the one at 3. Stella, Shisuki. Take the other?]
[Understood.] Shisuki answered, and waved over at Stella. [Come Miss Stella, I am in need of your gorilla-like strength.]
[Can you not call it that! I’m not a gorilla! Hey! Are you listening! Don’t just dart off without me! Get back here!]
[Hah,.. I guess we won’t have to worry about them.]
Amanda could already sense the battle fury rising in both of those girls. The same was for Ikki and Richard, they jumped onto the jeep and revved off. A small group of trainees also tailed Stella and Shisuki.
Tapping her hand against the tank’s armored flank, she climbed on with the captain and others who remained in the rear.
[Move in to support Ikki. Stella’s power can handle the situation over there.]
[Yes Ma’am! Bearing set, aligning sights. Firing!]
Amanda held her ears closed, trying to adapt to the cracking sound barrier. A 122 millimeter cannon was nothing to sneeze at. If not for how their core energy enhanced their physiology and their earpiece’s noise reducer, Amanda and the trainees might have already lost their hearing by now.
[Enemy down!]
With a quick swipe, Richard’s feather hilted blade made a rock golem shatter into pebbles.
[Good job Richard!]
Amanda was grateful for his abilities, not only was he an adequate substitute front line fighter when needed, he could also be a rear-guard support and great sub leader. Richard was intelligent and his decision making, while inflexible at times, was efficient.
His choice in separating Stella and Shisuki from Ikki was also a good course of action. If he had stuck either of them to Ikki, then in either situation, the other girl that wasn’t with Ikki would be too distracted about what Ikki was doing.
They’d now be too occupied bickering with each other, and Amanda grimaced to think how the puppets felt as they were crushed between their little spat. Funny how Richard used their catfighting to the group's advantage.
It made logical sense and Richard picked up on her plan before even needing to say it. He could read between the lines and likely had a better tell on the situation. Ammo was becoming an issue, so ending the fight before they did was the clear course of action that Richard found without even being told.
[Ma’am!] The captain chimed. [Enemy numbers are decreasing rapidly on our allies' side. They’re asking what to do after they mop up. Should we have them join us over here, or have them watch our backs?]
[It’s good to hear that Stella and Shisuki are kicking some butt. Have them regroup with us. We’ll move to join the front lines and push through to Point Bravo.]
The captain nodded to Amanda, and returned to managing his squads of trainees. Tank fire had stopped by now since the number of shells they had were all used up. All that the tank could do now was be their slow moving transport.
It had a mounted machine gun and the gunner was laying down suppression for Ikki and Richard. His gunshots were getting more sparse, another clear sign to her that this group's resources were soon to be drained.
On the other hand, Amanda herself and her friends could possibly fight endlessly if they alternated, letting a group of them rest while the other covered them.
When Stella and Shisuki arrived minutes later with their contingent of CDU trainees, they charged in, one last hurrah to quickly end the fight. The situation settling, Amanda surveyed the area, keeping her ice arrows and bolts going, picking off any stray puppets that tried to hide away.
A final group of enemies remained and had a large number of rock golems, so taking them out took longer than expected. But, Amanda was glad she had Stella.
[DO IT!] Amanda told her and Stella’s conjured flames flared her hair, shimmering crimson.
[Oh Dragon of My Homeland, Heed me!] Stella began to chant, gathering core energy as she raised her switch axe. Metallic clicks sounded, and her weapon straightened and folded into a single sided broadsword, its face gleaming with sun colored flames.
[CRIMSON! DRAGON!]
Following through her vertical slash, a column of rising and twisting fire that reached the heavens, as if a dragon was attempting to burn the sky, descended. Ducking out of the way, Ikki and Richard got clear as Stella’s draconic fury hurtled down like the crashing tower of babel.
The CDU trainees gawked in awe of her power, likely some wishing to have strength on par with this beautiful and noble princess. All that remained seconds after, were ashes of the enemy, no splinter of porcelain wood or speck of rock was left behind.
[Let’s move!] Amanda ordered, happy with the resulting devastation. The corner of her HUD blinked, and a warning blared.
[To All CDU, CAU, and Andromeda students who do not make it to Point Bravo will fail this portion of the class. In the event you fail, you are excused for today.]
Time was ticking, and this reminder couldn’t have come at a better time. They booked it, trainees climbed onto the tank and others piled into the cramped jeep.
[M1C4 Shummel - Heavy Battle Tank]
Description: A mother of a beast whose 100 ton frame isn’t actually all that fat. The damn beauties a fine piece of technological ass that would slam you before you’d even know it. 122 millimeters of pure good stuff, rushing straight out like the magic bullet that probably took our Jesus, ..God rest his soul.., Now the kicker, its got enough munitions to level whole highrises, communications, a heavy machine gun, and enough armor and speed that you’d think it was a light tank rather than a heavy one.
image [https://i.postimg.cc/tCNGcQ1C/1700451183941.jpg]