They finally reached the western side of the outpost after around fifteen minutes of brisk walking and they emerged from the underground tunnel system.
Thea’s visor immediately darkened itself as the stark lighting difference threatened to hurt her eyesight. Looking around, Thea found herself standing on top of a fortified hill-top.
Dozens of trenches had been dug and fortified already, while half a dozen more were in the process of being finished. Multiple layers of sandbags were lined up in pillboxes and she counted a total of six heavier-fortified heavy machine gun emplacements.
There were also four distinct outlook towers dotted evenly throughout the space. They were around 20 metres high and likely provided an exceptional vantage point over the nearby area.
Thea quickly drowned the thoughts of setting up inside one of them out of her mind, however, as she knew that once the fighting really started, she’d be stuck up there.
At first glance she could easily see over a thousand UHF marines going about their business. They were either digging trenches, carrying sandbags, ammunition crates or taking a break. Either way, they were absolutely everywhere, no matter where she looked.
She had never seen such a large mass of humans in one place before. The undercity simply did not have any spaces that could hold more than a couple hundred people at a time. Even the marketplace, the largest square in her local undercity, only fit about 600 people at a time.
“How many marines are there at Theta Outpost, Sir?” she curiously inquired upon seeing the mass of people below her.
“How many..? Ehh…? I think we got about 13k? 14k? Somewhere around that. I’d have to ask a logistics guy to know for sure. The western outpost here should have around 2 or 3.” Captain Sable replied with a voice that distinctly lacked awe.
Thea quickly realised that she had been underestimating the numbers-game, when it came to the UHF and war as a whole, based on the Captains’ nonchalant expression and demeanour while quoting such ludicrous numbers. She also stopped herself from doing the math on how many marines there’d likely be on the planet, if an outpost like Theta was able to field 13-14 thousand.
A small chill ran down her spine. She was not afraid, but rather, excited.
The UHF was even more impressive than she had always assumed!
Hearing Captain Sables’ voice once again, she was ripped from her thoughts:
“Alright, we’re here. I just sent my coms information to your helmet, so you should be able to ping me when shit hits the fan. Don’t let me down, Private. I’m counting on you, here.”
“Yes, Sir! I will not disappoint!”, she replied with a salute that she held until the captain had returned into the underground tunnels, leaving her standing alone at the top of the fortified hill.
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She spent the next couple of minutes finding her bearings and scouting for places to set up at, as well as potential fallback points.
Walking through the trenches, she once again was astounded by the amount of people that she passed by. Every single place she went there were already dozens upon dozens of marines, either at the ready, working on the fortifications or taking a break.
She often found herself accidentally stumbling in the path of other marines. There was a certain flow of movement that she had not been able to quite figure out yet. Nobody else that she was able to observe seemed to have this issue.
In order to stop bumbling around like a complete beginner, she fully concentrated on her movement, rather than trying to also do half a dozen other things at the same time.
Doing that, she finally managed to slowly get the hang of the flow of movement inside the trenches and she stopped being a hindrance to other marines around her. With that victory under her belt, she continued her examination on the quest to find the perfect place to set up at.
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Another twenty minutes passed before Thea had managed to return to the hilltop she started at. Checking the primary mission objective timer, she noted that there were still over 9 hours left before reinforcements would arrive at Theta Outpost.
“Hmm… The fortifications seem really impressive. I can’t imagine the freaks from the Stellar Republic will have an easy time breaking through all the way to the top…” she muttered to herself absentmindedly, as she mentally sorted through all the different locations she had marked as potential set up spots.
Thea sat down for a minute to gather her thoughts. ‘I should probably set up at either the western or eastern edges, in order to cover the most ground… Most fortifications were built facing frontal attacks, so I should be an extra eye to guard from flanking attacks. Since we are the western outpost, I guess going west makes the most sense. We should have more outposts towards our right, keeping us somewhat safe from surprises, hopefully.’
With a decision made, she headed towards her chosen spot on the western edge.
Having finally arrived at her spot, she sat down her backpack and pulled out the trench-shovel and a stack of synth-fabric bags. She started digging herself a small foxhole and reinforced the insides facing the west and north with the filled synth-fabric bags.
Her little foxhole was located around 20 metres to the west of the nearest trenches, allowing her to make a quick escape in case her position was overrun. It was around 400 metres up the hill, near the 7th row of trenches that permeated the hillside.
She had found this spot to be perfect for her purposes, as it featured a slight elevation from the surrounding area, allowing her to get a slightly better angle on anyone trying to push up the hill from either the western or northern directions.
It was also fairly out-of-the-way, as the main bulk of the UHF’s outpost was mostly centred on the hill, so all the strategic objectives were also located there. She hoped that this would deter the combatants of the Stellar Republic from focusing on her position at all.
As she worked on her foxhole, she once again went over her escape plan. ‘In case I get overrun, I’ll head for the trenches to my right. Just a 20 metre sprint should be safe, that’ll take around 2-3 seconds. While that’s quite a lot mid-combat, I got a couple grenades with me to hopefully cover my escape…’
She took another look into her backpack, which she had filled with energy cells and grenades on the way to the western outpost, at Captain Sable’s behest.
He had specifically told her, “We have more ammo and nades than people could possibly use, so just chuck the whole backpack at the freaks if you have to,” so she had filled the entire thing to the brim.
She had 22 energy cells for her Mjollnir, each capable of lasting for around 33 shots at standard settings, 12 shrapnel cluster grenades, 6 sonic burst grenades and 2 EMP grenades.
She doubted that the EMP grenades were going to come in useful, based on Captain Sabel’s descriptions of the Stellar Republic’s technology level, but she had packed them just in case.
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Finishing up her foxhole after another fifteen minutes of work, she finally got to sit down for the first time since entering the crystal cylinder back in the undercity of Lumiosia.
“Man, this has been an absolute ride already. It doesn’t even feel like I’m in a simulation or whatever. I hope I can do this challenge multiple times… I’d hate for this to be a one-and-done deal. Actually… Now that I think about it, I’m kind of worried that other games in the arcade will simply feel hollow and empty now. Wouldn’t be the first time a great game ruins stuff for me… shit…” Thea muttered to herself with a frown.
She had always liked to vocalise her thoughts whenever she was alone. It helped her organise them, as her mind was a chaotic mess of randomly sprouting up thoughts otherwise. Regardless of where she was, she always tried to find a quiet place for herself, in order to get her thoughts in a line like this.
“Ahhh, maaaan…. Now my whole excitement’s gone…! Really hope this stuff sticks around. I’ll grind this simulation until I know all about it.” she declared dejectedly, trying to pump herself up again.
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Around an hour had passed since Thea had completed her foxhole and set up on overwatch towards the hill-side to the north-west.
She was scanning the horizon through the scope of her Mjollnir, which she had placed on top of a couple of sandbags for stabilisation. She had also already engaged the grav-tech of her bipod, to make sure her shots wouldn’t go awry from random vibrations during combat.
The area around Theta Outpost might have once been a beautiful and idyllic plot of land for all she knew, but of that potential, there was nothing left.
Blackened craters from artillery and mortar explosions, left-over husks of burnt down trees and the ever-present red-brown dirt were the only things that Thea could make out, no matter where she looked.
Towards the west-hand side of the hill, a small valley could be seen below. The way up towards her was fairly steep, compared to the northern-slope, which made her feel exceedingly happy with her choice.
She barely even had to check the westside at all, as there was little chance that the Stellar Republic would stage a main assault against such incredibly unfavourable conditions, regardless of how much of a lunatic they generally were. Regardless, she still kept a close eye on the westside in regular intervals, just to make sure.
To the north, the landscape dove into a valley around 500m out from her current position, which stretched on for another roughly 400m before rising up into a steep hill.
This was the Stellar Republic’s current base of operations, as far as the western flank was concerned. All the attacks had come from this northern side, as was evidenced by the myriad of bodies that had accumulated at the bottom of the hill.
The hill itself had taken quite a beating from the UHF’s artillery and mortar strikes, as entire sections of the hill had crumpled in on itself already, creating an even more treacherous terrain for the Stellar Republic to traverse on their way to the UHF’s frontlines.
One thing that struck Thea as odd, however, was that at the roughly 90% mark, up the enemy’s hill, all signs of artillery and mortar explosions stopped abruptly.
While they weren’t uniform across the hill as a whole, there were at least one or two craters every couple of metres, no matter how far east or west one looked on the hill. But the top 10% of the hill was entirely pristine, as if the shells had simply decided to avoid that area altogether.
She figured that there was some kind of shield or anti-measure in place, to protect the enemy from long-range attacks. She’d have to ask Old Man James about that when she got back.
As a matter of fact, a lot of questions had arisen during her time in the simulation, that she could not find a satisfying answer to.
For example, why were they fighting in trenches? Didn’t they have some kind of long-range weapon technology that could evaporate their enemies from dozens of kilometres away?
Why was the intel on the enemy’s location and strength so vague? Wouldn’t satellites and drones be able to easily and accurately determine this stuff?
While she guessed that counter-measures existed, simply stating that as an answer was not enough for her. She wanted to know exactly what kind of measures existed, how they came to be and how they could be avoided. Having all the data was a requirement to crunch the numbers and find an optimal strategy, after all.
The lack of information frustrated her to no end, but she didn’t feel comfortable asking any of the local squad leaders, lest she detract them from their duty. She’d just have to ask her teacher when she got out of this simulation.
Suddenly, she spotted a shadow that was out of place on the opposite hill.
Adjusting her scope to zoom in further, changing from her casual 5x zoom to the full 16x her scope could provide, she could make out her enemy for the first time.
On top of the hill was a man in a crouched position, holding some kind of device in front of eyes, that reminded Thea of a pair of long-range binoculars she had seen in the undercity antiquities shops.
The man seemed to be wearing some kind of composite armour and was covered in dozens and dozens of cloth rags. His skin had a slightly red-tint to it, that she could make out. It was likely a side-effect of living on this red-brown dirt planet, she figured.
She could not see any weapon on him, so she instead decided to carefully observe his actions and movements, in order to figure out what the man was up to.
He seemed to try to stay hidden, only peeking over the hill around 1.5km out with his head and old-tech binoculars, but to Thea he simply looked like a child trying to play hide and seek.
Confused at the sight, she pinged the nearest squad commander via her armour.
“Sir, I have spotted an enemy scout on the opposite hill. Bearing 114 moving eastwards. He’s holding what seems to be an old-tech binocular. Any idea what we should be doing with that guy?”
Her com crackled for a split second. This was the UHFs sign of “message received”, when nothing more had to be sent. Silence followed for a couple seconds afterwards, likely for the squad leader to confirm her sightings.
“Private Thea, right? Listen, my scout doesn’t see shit over there, you got a clear shot?” came the answer from the squad leader.
“Yes, Sir. On both accounts. I should be about 40 metres on your left, I’m not quite sure why your scout can’t see the target. Could I ask for a re-check on that?” she coms’ed back, slightly worried that she was losing it, after staring out at the red-brown sea of nothing below her for over an hour on end.
Silence followed once more, before her coms lit up again.
“Private, my scout still does not see the target. Might be behind a rock or something, who the void knows. If you got a shot and you think you can make it, take it. We can’t afford to give the freaks any intel on our positions.” the SL answered with a slight hint of frustration in his voice.
“Roger that, Sir. Taking the shot.” she replied before slowing her breathing.
She slowly aimed at the upper part of the jaw of the man on the other hill, who was currently scanning the horizon with his old-tech binoculars.
Her target was over 1.5km away, but Thea was not worried about missing the shot. She was using a laser-type weapon, after all. Her shots travelled at nearly the speed of light, so there was little outside of her own skill that would affect it.
As she slowed her breathing she focused her entire being on the weapon in her hands, her body and the man on the other hill. Slowly, she started gently squeezing the trigger of her rifle. Just before the shot went off, however, she abruptly stopped.
‘Why the fuck did I just do that? The shot was perfect!’
Confused at her own actions, she re-centered herself. Taking aim at the perfect spot once again, she slowed down her breathing and squeezed the trigger.
The entire head of the man exploded into a mist of red, as viscera sprayed out in all directions, the old-tech binoculars shattered into a million pieces.
“WHO?!” Thea shouted before she could stop herself from raising her voice. “Who the fuck just stole my kill?!” she added to herself with frustration straining her voice.
Her weapon was still cold. Before she had been able to pull the trigger all the way, somebody else had taken out her target. This was supposed to be her warm-up kill!
“Great work, Private Thea. My scout saw the mist, still no body tho, but that was one hell of a shot. Didn’t actually think you’d get that one, not gonna lie. Keep up the great work.” came the SL over the coms.
In that moment, a massive explosion ripped through the fortifications of the UHF hill, throwing Thea to the ground in her foxhole.
“What the FUCK was that?!” she muttered as she got herself back up on her feet and looked over the top of her foxhole. Towards the eastern side of the fortifications was a newly created crater, roughly 50 metres in diameter.
Tons of commands were being yelled from the nearby squad leaders and command staff, trying to figure out what had happened. An explosion of that size required some serious firepower. One that the Stellar Republic should not have been able to bring to bear against their position on the hill.
With a growing feeling of anxiety, she looked towards the opposing hill with her scope again.
To her surprise, no enemies could be seen.
If this explosion had been concocted by the Stellar Republic, they did not intend on using the confusion to their advantage…