Over the next twenty minutes, Thea reported the appearance of another two scouts.
It seemed to her as if the Stellar Republic had a near infinite supply of human decoys to throw at the UHF encampment. She couldn’t imagine the UHF resorting to, what was essentially, human sacrifices in order to get a bead on an enemy.
While creating and being a decoy was standard military doctrine, such as when creating ambushes or trying to gauge enemy strength and positions, it was generally assumed that the decoys would at least try to survive.
The Stellar Republic’s decoys however, had made no indication of valuing their own lives. They simply walked out into the open, waiting for a sniper to end their lives, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Thea had started getting irritated at their behaviour, as she spotted more and more scouts, before the coms in her armour pinged to life and freed her from those thoughts.
“Private, Kellerman here. Figured you’d wanna know this intel: The brass has confirmed your theory over at the eastern front. They set up a counter-decoy and it worked. Had a sniper move away from their squad, take the shot and book it. Lo-and-behold: Explosion followed right after, where the shot came from. Command is elated at the progress.” sounded the happy voice of her new squad leader friend.
She pinged her coms once to acknowledge that she had received the message. She was thankful for this update, as it had come at a good time.
Being stuck in her own head in the middle of an active war zone was not something she should let become a habit. If Old Man James had been there, he’d have made her run until she puked for such foolish behaviour.
As she was about to aim down her scope again to continue her lonely vigil, her coms surprisingly pinged again.
It was SL Kellerman relaying another message for her:
“Actually… just got a request from the local command staff. They want you to do something for ‘em. We’re going to set up a counter-decoy as well, near the east side of our front. One of our snipers is gonna take out a scout.
Captain Greysmith, the one we met earlier in the bunker, wants you to keep an eye out for that black shadow you described. Since you were right about the whole decoy thing, he hopes you’ll be right about this one too. Op should go in about 5.”
Taken aback by the sudden increase in responsibility and trust, Thea froze for a second.
‘They’re gonna risk the life of a sniper and his squad just to allow me to catch a shadow that I’m not even sure I saw in the first place?! This is absolutely ludicrous…!’ she exasperatedly thought to herself.
But… was it really that preposterous?
After all, they had already tested the theory and confirmed that it was possible for the sniper to survive, if they ran immediately after taking the shot. The eastern front had done all the dirty-work for them, so was there really any large risk involved…?
Having quickly overturned her own hesitation, she pinged an acknowledgement to Kellerman.
‘Guess it’s time to really hunker down and use those eyes of mine… I might not be as fast as Kellerman, but by the Emperor, I will at least be better at seeing things!’
Determined to finally do something other than look at enemies she could not shoot, she settled into a comfortable position that allowed for the raising of the weapon at a moments’ notice. If the shadow did in fact appear again, she would try to follow it with her scope as much as she could.
Time ticked by slowly as she waited with growing anticipation for the start of the operation. Just around twenty seconds before the five minute timer that Kellerman had mentioned was up, her coms pinged with a short message from the Squad Leader.
“Op is a go. Good luck.”
Thea focused her attention into a needlepoint, channelling it all into the scope of her weapon. She had reduced the zoom to around 10x from her previous 16x, in order to have a wider field of view to spot the shadow with.
She heard the crack of the sniper’s gunshot echo over the fortifications, but she paid it no mind. She was fully focused on her mission.
Since she had no idea where the black shadow would come from, she had to scan the entire hill-side for it, which took a huge toll on her overall concentration. Fifteen seconds after the shot had sounded over the hills, her eyes were already starting to water, but she simply willed herself to continue looking through the scope.
Each second seemed to pass infinitely slowly to Thea, as she was continuously scanning the horizon with bated breath. Any second now there’d be an explosion that could cost her platoon members' lives. She needed to find something or this entire risk would be for naught.
Just as the dread of the possibility of being wrong started rising up in her chest, she saw it!
Quicker than she had ever moved in her entire life, she raised her weapon to track the shadow with her scope…!
But it was too late. As suddenly as it had appeared, it had already vanished from sight.
Nevertheless, she did not despair, for she had once again gotten confirmation on a theory. Now all she had to do was wait for the explosion…
A short while later, another massive explosion ripped through the east-side of the fortified hill.
With a satisfied expression on her face, she opened her coms and connected to Kellerman:
“SL, I can confirm the visual sighting of the shadow. It was there. I tried tracking it but the thing was too damn fast, there was no shot.”
With a ping of acknowledgement, she was left waiting.
Around a minute later, she got a reply: “Command wants to know a few things, Private. This shadow, was it the same size as before?”
“Yes, Sir. Roughly the same size.”
“Any idea where it came from?” came the follow-up question of the SL another minute later.
“Somewhat, Sir. It came from… bearing 131 from where we’re at. Can’t tell the distance, however, as I don’t know its true size. Somewhere behind the hill is all I can say.” she replied with a bit of irritation building inside her, wondering why Command didn’t simply ask her directly instead of relaying everything through the SL.
Once again, she was left waiting. This time, for more than three minutes.
“Private. Command is going to set up another counter-decoy, they want you to count the time it takes from the shadow to appear, until the explosion occurs. Op is a go in 10.”
‘Wha… What? Why wouldn’t they just ask me? For the love of everything…’
Her irritation had reached a boiling point and she jumped out of her foxhole, sprinting towards the nearest trenches that harboured Kellerman’s Squad. Before the Squad Leader could ask her what was going on, she interjected:
“I already have the information that command is looking for. There’s no need to risk more people’s lives. Could I please talk to command directly? This game of telephone is really slowing down the whole process.” Realising her lack of decorum and respect, she quickly added “Ehh.. Sir!”
Slightly taken aback by the sudden appearance of the Private and her straight-forward attitude, Kellerman frowned. After a couple seconds of deliberation however, he picked up his squad’s com unit and pinged command, handing the com to Thea.
“Alright, Private. You’ve done good work, so I’ll trust you again. Please don’t get me court martial’ed.” he added with a self deprecating smile.
She gave him a reassuring nod and a thankful smile, before picking up the coms.
“Command, this is Private Thea over SL Kellerman’s com. I already have the data you were looking for: From the appearance of the shadow until the explosion, exactly 9.4 seconds passed. I was checking the time using my primary mission timer, as I figured it would help us get to the bottom of this.” she reported to the command staff.
A heavy silence followed, which made Thea’s anxiety spike. Doubts started to rapidly arise in her mind, questioning her decisions.
Did she mess up by asking to speak directly to command..?
Was the fact that she had a primary mission timer something she should have kept for herself..?
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Before they could spiral out of control however, the com pinged with a well-timed reply.
“Private Thea, it is good to hear from you again, despite the.. Unorthodox method of communication. Captain Greysmith here. Excellent work on the reports so far, we’ll throw a few more questions your way, so listen up: SL Kellerman mentioned you were not able to track the shadow once it left your vision, but roughly how far did it travel before it did so?” the captain inquired with a friendly, but stern voice.
Judging by the inflections in his voice, it was clear to Thea she was on thin ice for breaking informational security by using the comms unit of another squad, if she could not satisfy the local command staff with enough information to make it worth their time.
Trying her best to judge the rough distance of travel, employing some of the mathematical equations that Old Man James had taught her for exactly these purposes, specifically calculating projectile travel distances, she replied:
“I’d say it was around 700-800m straight into the air, Sir. It’s hard to be exact without any more information to go by. If we had any idea on how far away the shadow was, it would be easier to give a more detailed analysis. I’m sorry, Sir.”
A couple seconds later, another voice came over the comms. “Private, roughly how long did it take for the shadow to travel that distance? This is important, please try to be precise, but if you have no exact idea, a close estimate will do.”
She was surprised as she recognized the voice as Lieutenant Ormir’s. She had not expected him to personally ask her for intel, after their previous interaction. Mentally adjusting her opinion of him a notch towards the positive, she reported the information.
“I am sorry to say, Sir, but I can’t be precise at all on this. The shadow travelled faster than I could blink. If I had to get a close estimate, I’d say it took around 1/10th-1/20th of a second at most. I’m aware that it’s a huge range, but I really can’t be too sure about the specifics, Sir.” She hated to be so wishy-washy about the specifics, especially with Lieutenant Ormir’s request, in fear of once again getting reprimanded by him, but she simply had no way to be more accurate with the data, no matter how much she wanted it.
Silence followed for a few minutes, in which Kellerman and Thea shared a couple of uncertain glances between them. Finally, their silent torment found an end as the comms pinged to life once again.
“Private, we’re doing another test run. Keep an eye out for that shadow and get us as much data as you can. Distance, speed, size, whatever you can get. With any luck we won’t need the data, however. We’ve adjusted our counter-measures, so we might end up not getting blown up again. Op is a go in 10, get in position.” Captain Greysmith’s voice commanded over the comm device.
Surprised by the sudden additional test, Thea looked perplexed at the comms unit in her hand.
“Well… guess that’s it then. I’ll see you after the next test, I assume?” Kellerman nonchalantly accepted the reality of their orders.
“Eh… Ye. Sure…” she replied absent-mindedly, still whip-lashed from the rapid pace of the conversation. As she slowly gathered herself from the stupor, she quickly added “Ehh, Sir!”, causing Kellerman’s squad to burst into laughter.
“I fucking love this Private. She got more balls than most marines were born with, hahaha” one of them commented while bending over from laughter. “Please, Keller, let us keep her.”
Shaking his head in amusement, Kellerman took the comms unit from Thea’s hands before returning it to his squad.
“She’s directly under Captain Sable, can’t snatch her up that easily. Sorry, lads. Now get yourselves in order, we got an op to observe.” he ordered his men and gave Thea a grinning nod, dismissing her to return to her post.
Still slightly red from embarrassment, she quickly darted off towards her foxhole.
‘I really need to reign in my mental state, if I hope to do anything worthwhile in the UHF…’ she chided herself, feeling stupid for constantly losing focus due to the most minor of things.
She considered herself lucky to have run into Kellerman, as he was a very friendly and forthcoming squad leader. He hadn’t chided her even once for forgetting about decorum and had decided to help her out twice already, with big risks to his own career. If she had run into any other SL, she might not have been able to help out the command staff as much, or at all.
She decided then and there that if it someday became an option, she’d gladly join his squad.
----------------------------------------
Around ten minutes later, the head of another scout exploded into a mist of red and viscera, as the echo of a gunshot rolled over the UHF hillside.
Thea was standing inside of her foxhole once again, deep in concentration, looking for the appearance of the shadow at the horizon behind the enemy hill.
Shortly after, she saw it rise straight into the sky at incredible speed once again. She figured that her speed estimates had been fairly accurate and sighed a breath of relief at this revelation. There was no need for her to admit any wrongdoing to Lieutenant Ormir after all.
As she was waiting for the inevitable explosion to occur, she stared intently at the mission timer in the top-right corner of her vision. It was precise down to a tenth of a second, so it ended up being a great tool for the job at hand.
When the timer had passed 9 seconds after the shadow’s appearance, she waited for the explosion and braced herself against the side of her foxhole, tired of constantly being thrown on the ground by the shockwaves.
A little under half a second later however, she heard the sound of a massive explosion in the middle of the sky, hundreds of metres above the UHF fortifications.
Looking up, she saw the remnants of a massive fireball.
The counter-measures of the command staff had apparently done their job!
They managed to intercept whatever explosive device the shadow represented!
Elated, she jumped out of her foxhole and sprinted towards Kellerman’s squad once again, to report her findings. The squad leader was already waiting for her, with a big grin on his face.
“Good shit, Private. Looks like we’re safe from those explosions now, thanks to you.” he lightly punched her shoulder in a show of solidarity and respect, before handing her the squads’ comms unit.
“Thank you, SL. Without you this would not have been possible. It’s thanks to your judgement and trust in me that we managed to get this fixed so fast!” she replied with a similarly large smile on her face, before accepting the comms unit and ringing up command.
“Private Thea here, happy to report that the explosion was intercepted around 800 metres above our fortifications! Whatever changes you’ve made have worked!” she enthusiastically reported. “I’ve gathered the requested data and am ready to report, if they’re still required.”
This time around, the answer came immediately, delivered by the voice of a vastly more relaxed and cheerful Captain Greysmith:
“The UHF thanks you for your exemplary service, Private Thea!
“Without your vital intel we would’ve had a lot of trouble getting to the bottom of this. I’ll be sure to mention you and Squad Leader Kellerman favourably in the after-battle report.
The additionally requested data is no longer necessary, however.
“The shadow you saw was the shell of a GOG launcher.
“Our countermeasures had not originally been configured against such attacks, as the Stellar Republic had never displayed this kind of technology before.
“While the appearance of this technology is very worrisome, we should be safe of further retaliatory strikes for the time being. All of the countermeasures at Theta Outpost have already been calibrated for the new threat and the brass is currently in the process of transmitting this information to the rest of the UHF’s forces.
“We have saved countless UHF lives here today, folks.
“You’re allowed to clap yourself on the back for a bit, but don’t forget, you are still in an active warzone. Return to your posts and continue to render the same exemplary service to the UHF that you have shown so far.”
The comms unit stopped transmitting, leaving Thea, Kellerman and his squad in shocked silence. The nature of the silence was different for each of them, however.
Thea was shocked into silence by having been mentioned by name as an exemplary marine of the UHF as well as the promise for this evaluation to be part of the after-battle report from the western front of Theta Outpost.
Kellerman’s Squad, instead, was shocked at something else entirely.
“A void-fucking GOG launcher…? How in the Emperor’s name did these freaks get their hands on this stuff…?” one of the squad members blurted out in a daze.
“I thought the Stellar Republic didn’t even get close to this level of technology…?! Where the fuck did they get this shit from? Do they have more surprises up their freaky rags or what?!” another chimed in.
Listening to their shocked outbursts, Thea reigned in her own excitement. Apparently the news she had just received was not actually all-positive, as she had assumed.
“Excuse my utter lack of knowledge, but what exactly IS a GOG-launcher? What’s the significance of that? Didn’t we manage to get a countermeasure for it?” she carefully interjected her question as diplomatically as she could.
The entire squad, including Kellerman, turned towards her with a surprised expression on their faces. Kellerman frowned slightly, but spoke up nonetheless:
“This should have been covered in basic, Private…? But I’ll humour you nonetheless, as you’ve been nothing but helpful so far.
“The GOG is short for ‘ground to orbit to ground’. It essentially fires a shell in a parabolic arc that crosses the boundaries of the planet’s outer atmosphere on its way up, only to pass right through it again on its way down towards its target.
“Not only does this grant the shell an enormous amount of kinetic energy from the raw speed at which it comes back down, which is hard to defend against, but it also allows you to circumvent a lot of common countermeasures against artillery, mortars and the like.
“The GOG launcher being a big deal here, specifically, is mostly because of what it means as a whole. The Stellar Republic has never shown this level of sophisticated combat technology before. Their sudden appearance at our frontline here today indicates a larger problem as a whole.
“Either they have made an extremely impressive breakthrough in technology, which is unlikely but the preferred option.
“Or… they have found a weapons supplier or ally that is willing to not only supply them, but also teach them how to use the stuff or even operate it themselves.
“This second option is why my squad and I are not as elated about this news as you might think. We just went from knowing our enemy inside and out, to dealing with a completely new foe, whose capabilities we simply do not understand yet.”
Throughout his entire explanation, Theas demeanour had continuously worsened. At first she had been elated at the high praise, but after listening to Kellerman paint the grim picture of reality for her, she realised how much trouble they actually were in.
“...fuck…” she muttered under her breath.
“Exactly… But don’t be discouraged! We’re the UHF marines! Fighting unknown enemies is what we do! Just stay vigilant, trust your fellow marines and rely on your training.
“We’ll beat these freaks back to the void that they crawled from in no time, regardless of what technology they managed to scrounge up!” Kellerman announced with a voice of authority, determination and pride that only a UHF squad leader could muster.
It was hard not to get swept up in it, so Thea joined his squad’s “Oorraaahh!”, regaining a large portion of her lost vigour in an instant.
Kellerman really was a fantastic squad leader, in her eyes.
Swallowing the words “But I’ve never had any training…”, she simply smiled at the rest of the squad, nodded an acknowledgement and left for her lonely foxhole once again…