“Seaborne mobile fortress RF-09, designation ‘the Mothership’,” Fenix Duodecim addressed the group even as he turned to the whiteboard. Unlike Colonel Zhao and other leaders who usually gave these briefings, the General never used prepared slides on overhead projectors, preferring instead to write as he talked. “As you should all be well aware, the Mothership is a big fuck-off thing that roams the Intercontinental Sea, dividing its time between Sectors Pisces, Aries, Sagittarius, and Scorpio depending on… well, who the fuck knows how these Syntropy think. Time of the month? Which way the wind blows? The point is, it’s a big enemy ship, and we don’t like it.”
Fenix briefly turned back to the group, as if to gauge their reaction. The man himself still wore a wide smile, but it was difficult to parse exactly what reaction he’d expected. Terror? Laughter? The former he’d certainly generated in spades. As for the latter, it—assuming anyone had been so inclined—would’ve been suppressed by the former.
“New unit synthesis,” Fenix continued as he faced the whiteboard and started a list, “coordination and transportation of said units, reconnaissance, area denial. You name something that could annoy us, chances are the Mothership has her grubby hand in it. To speak nothing of her own defensive and offensive capabilities, which are immense, to say the least.
“For 140 years, the war has turned on our ability to disable whatever version of the Mothership happened to be active at the time. I won’t mince words. This iteration of the Mothership is the Syntropy at their meanest, smartest, and biggest. It’ll be a dogfight, ladies and gents, and don’t you fool yourselves into thinking otherwise.
“But on the same token, we humans haven’t been playing with our dicks—not all of us anyway—this whole time. Our Eidolons are also faster, deadlier, and certainly sexier than they’ve ever been. Our Reiters and Spiegels know more and can kill more than at any point in our history. Between you and me, I believe this to be the decisive battle we’ve all been waiting for. We dismantle this Mothership right now, and it gives us a window to lay siege on whatever scattered Syntropy forces are left over, until the whole lot of them fuck off the face of the earth. Until the War is won.”
The General took a longer pause this time, slowly eyeing every corner of the room as he did. Whatever he saw must have satisfied him, as he turned his attention to one of the men sitting in the front row.
“With that in mind, I give the floor to Major Ghata Vakta for the next portion of this briefing. You Corpsmen in the back will have to bear with us Reiters, as we try to teach one of our own to string together a few coherent sentences. Believe it or not, I want to be able to retire someday.”
Dead silence, save for the creak and rustle of Major Vakta getting to his feet. This time, Zelen was sure, the expected reaction was laughter. The General, however, might well have underestimated the totality of the terror he inspired.
Fenix Duodecim stepped aside, and Major Vakta took his place at the podium.
The man who bore a striking resemblance to Megha presently looked to be a nervous wreck: a far cry from the confident womanizer who announced himself with loud jokes everywhere he went. He even stole an anxious glance at the General before he switched on the overhead projector, as though worried he might be admonished for his choice of visual aids. The General said nothing, and smiled his impenetrable smile.
The slide on the projector showed an overview map of the Intercontinental Sea, with dotted lines that represented the borders of the aforementioned Sectors. Upon this sat a prominent red arrow that nearly touched the cross-shaped intersection of these borders. Major Vakta cleared his throat.
“Based—ahem—based on the latest intel, the Mothership is currently located within Sector Aries, just on the edge of its demarcation from Sector Scorpio. We will—erm—we’ll make our initial approach with no less than seven teams, and the mission itself will—”
“Speak up, son.”
“Sir?”
“I said speak up. We’re not one of your whores you pour out your soul to after a hard day. We’re soldiers, ready to be briefed. Now brief us.”
Dead silence, save for Major Vakta’s horrified sputtering. Zelen’s eyes instinctively shot toward the back of Megha’s head. His face wasn’t visible, but his ears did turn a darker shade.
It seemed to take some doing, but the major eventually recovered. When he resumed, he did so with higher decibels and a smoother cadence, though it was unclear whether the improved performance was the result of fear or newfound confidence.
“The mission itself will progress through two distinct phases, namely pre-infiltration and infiltration. The pre-infiltration phase will be conducted with seven teams, six of which will make the initial approach while one remains on standby.”
With a change of slides, a list of names went up on the projector.
Alpha | Leader/IC: Maj Ghata Vakta (Tripod), Support: Lt Lui Wong (Jockey)
Stolen novel; please report.
Bravo | Leader: Maj Makiri Shiranui (Spindrift), Support: Lt Aron Anwar (Lionheart)
Charlie | Leader: Maj Connor Granger (Bearclaw), Support: Lt Roddy Nascimento (Patron)
Delta | Leader: Capt Maxwell Lee (Blizzard), Support: Capt Blessing Aliyu (Wolfeye)
Echo | Leader: Capt Jan Sikora (Uppercut), Support: Lt Nico Belanger (Timberland)
Foxtrot | Leader: Capt Megha Vakta (Glasswing), Support: Lt Sebastian Zhao (Violin)
Golf | Leader: Capt Eero Leino (Handles), Support: Lt Damian Duodecim (Coltsfoot), Special: Lt Zelen Athelstan (Kingfisher)
Zelen found his own name, saw the label ‘special’ next to it, and couldn’t help but glance at Megha again. As he did, he was also aware of Wong side-eyeing him, with an expression that seemed to say: this is exactly what I mean.
No doubt there would be some tactical explanation behind whatever was meant by ‘special’. Zelen could only hope that it might help to win his friends back to his side.
Major Vakta left the list on the projector for some time, allowing the whole room to take ample note of it. The only comment, however, came from the General.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Sir?”
“I still remember a time when most of that list would be filled with the same four names. But look at it now! Biggest mission in the history of this War, and of the fifteen brave boys we’re sending in, only five are Tetrarch! Just goes to show the resilience of our civilization. The strength of Akropolis, and of the Nexus that flows through all of us. Go on, son, don’t let me stop you.”
This time, Zelen’s eyes stayed on the General throughout his spiel. The older man’s expansive—inclusive—smile never appeared to waver, and yet—
“Thank you, General, for those inspiring words. Now, as I was saying”—the slide changed again, this time to a diagram with a rectangle in the centre surrounded by several dots and labels—“we’ll initiate the pre-infiltration phase with seven teams. Of these, Teams Alpha to Foxtrot will each be responsible for disabling one of the six generators that power the Mothership’s external shields. These are well-defended positions, so expect heavy enemy resistance, along with reinforcements pouring out from the ship itself. Now, at least one of these generators is located underseas, directly beneath the hull of the Mothership, so… Team Foxtrot”—Major Vakta eyed his younger brother, who nodded emphatically in return—“will need special preparations, in conjunction with Panzer support, to modify one of your armament slots into submersible armour. We’ll coordinate that after the briefing.”
Zelen’s annoyance with Megha quickly turned to anxious concern. The submersion protocol would leave Megha and his teammate with effectively three armaments each to fight with, not to mention the handicap that came with unfamiliar underwater combat.
This is War. Zelen tried to remind himself. If not Megha, it’ll be someone else. All we can do is trust in each other.
“That leaves Team Golf,” Major Vakta continued, “who will remain on standby throughout the pre-infiltration phase. I need to stress that you are not to engage, unless necessitated by enemy contact. Alright, moving onto the second—yes, Athelstan?”
Zelen’s hand had shot up without his realizing, and now it was too late to take it back. He forced the tremor out of his voice as he asked, “Sorry, sir, it’s just… I didn’t quite understand my team’s role during the pre-infiltration phase. Six teams are attacking the generators in pairs, while I—while the three of us just wait on the sidelines? Why is there a need for…”
Zelen did trail off then, not just because of the stress of an entire room-ful of watchful eyes and discerning ears, but also because he finally heard his own question—and realized he didn’t want to ask it in front of his fellow Reiters.
Major Vakta too seemed reluctant to answer, and he threw an uncertain gaze toward his boss. And that was when, for the first time during the meeting, General Duodecim turned the fullness of his expansive—all-knowing—smile onto Zelen himself.
“They’re your bodyguards.”
Dead silence, save for Zelen’s thudding heartbeats.
“Is that clear enough, Lieutenant? If not, I can repeat myself. Captain Leino and Lieutenant Duodecim will serve as your bodyguards, to make sure you don’t have to move a muscle during the pre-infiltration phase. So you can conserve your Energy Reserves entirely for the second phase. Now, with that cleared up, I suggest you sit up and listen to the rest of the briefing. This is where it gets good.”
All the eyes that had been on Zelen moments ago had fled… and who could blame them? If only Zelen’s own consciousness could flee his body right now and fly somewhere—anywhere—far away from this room…
Major Vakta cleared his throat again as he flipped to a new slide: a schematic representation of the Mothership’s interior.
“As soon as the shields come down, we move into the infiltration phase. The first thing that will happen is a re-shuffling of the… remaining members into three new teams. Team Alpha will consist of Lieutenant Zelen Athelstan—on his own—who will immediately assault the bow of the ship and destroy its main communications relay. This manoeuvre should simultaneously create a short window during which a small group can infiltrate the ship proper.
“Team Alpha will be one of the infiltrators, who will advance through the portside of the ship. Team Bravo, made up of myself as team leader and Major Makiri Shiranui as support, will do the same on the starboardside. The rest of you will form Team Charlie and continue the assault from the exterior, thereby dividing enemy forces and thinning out the interior defenses for our infiltrators.
“The main objective of Operation Leviathan is to disable the Mothership’s Engine Core. Our intel tells us this is located near the stern of the ship, on the portside. Team Alpha—Lieutenant Athelstan—will take this on. There’s also a secondary objective, namely disabling the Synthesis Hub, also located near the stern but on the starboardside. This will be for Team Bravo—myself and Major Shiranui. Once both objectives are complete, there should be nothing standing in the way of us destroying the Mothership once and for all. Any questions?”
Dead silence again—but no longer uniform in its source or character. Every attendee was no doubt lost in their own thoughts, each in their own way confronting the enormity of the task ahead.
Zelen too was lost in his own thoughts, though in his case, he had a bit more than just the Mothership to contend with…
When the silence stretched long enough to his satisfaction, General Fenix Duodecim clapped his hand once: a loud and crisp sound to match his smile. Here, as with anywhere, the General had the last word.
“In that case, ladies and gentlemen, let us now zero our watches.”