“Oh My God! Adrian! I am finally going to get to play for real!” Iris said. Her comment as idiotic as it was sent him into a bout of laughter. He felt fear slip away, and he relaxed.
“Iris, you do know that we could die?” He asked out loud.
“So?” She asked. Again Adrian couldn’t help but laugh. His Ai best friend had a very different view on life.
“Nothing Iris, you are right.”
“Of course I am right. I am always right, you should know that by now.” Iris said cheerfully. Adrian shook his head and called Paul. Tomas Klein said to wait for Laura’s call before telling the other commanders in his fleet, he said nothing about his second in command.
Chapter Twenty Three
February 2170 – Sanctuary
Platoon Leader Sahib Adin was kneeling behind a rock cover on a small hill, overlooking the terrain. His Platoon, Platoon Wolf, was waiting for his instructions. Looking over the forest spreading before him, he came to a decision and sent the instructions to his Squad Leaders over his imp. A moment later the three of the four squads started moving, their movements showed on Sahib’s faceplate HUD. His helmet was entirely see-through from the inside. The outside of his helmet was armored, and had millions of nano cameras that captured the images from all around the helmet and transferred them to the inside. The rest of his suit was armored as well. It was a completely closed battle suit. The nanites carbon mesh gave the wearer a great deal of movement while also giving him protection. It was an upgraded version of the suit developed on Earth, before Olympus left Sol. The suit was dark gray in color, there were no emblems or rank insignia anywhere. There was no need for them, the HUD of each suit would show the rank and name of anyone the wearer looked at. Each suit had its own small range beacon. Though it could be turned off. Finally, as the three squads moved sufficiently away Sahib ordered his squad forward. They were involved in a live exercise against another Platoon. There were four squads in Sahib’s Platoon, with each squad having 7 people, that put each Platoon at 28. All their weapons were loaded with stun discharges, a hit from these charges would freeze the area hit on the suit, while the soldiers imp simulated pain in the affected area. Fifteen minutes later, he got a contact signal from Claw squad, one of their scouts had spotted an enemy scout, without the enemy spotting him. Immediately Sahib formulated a plan, he instructed the scout to reveal his position to the enemy scout, without revealing that he is aware of the enemy scout’s position. He quickly sent instructions to the Claw squad to fall back to a small clearing some 200 meters behind their current position. Then he instructed the other two squads, Fang and Paw to get into positions around Claw squad. He then brought his own squad, Alpha, into position behind Claw squad, they hid in the undergrowth around trees, and Sahib instructed two of his platoon’s snipers to move up into the trees. The trees on Sanctuary were taller on average than those on Earth, the lowest branch was at least 7 meters from the ground. Both snipers moved towards their chosen trees, some 10 meters apart from where they can easily look over the clearing and started climbing, short “claws” extended from their armors fingertips which they used to grab onto the bark and climb. Once they were in position Sahib opened a comm link to the other squads.
“Fang, Paw are you in positions?” Sahib asked.
“Fang is in position Alpha.” Squad Leader Tucker ‘Cheat’ Meyers responded, using Sahibs call sign, which was the same as the designation of his squad.
“Paw is in position Alpha.” Squad Leader Lola ‘NGD’ Petrov said.
Sahib could see where they were on the small map on his HUD, but he needed to verify that they were in fact in position.
He then commed Claw squad. “Alright cub, did the enemy spot you?” Sahib asked the Claw’s scout, every new member of the Platoon got the nickname Cub, until they proved themselves, or did something stupid, and earned a call sign.
“Think so, if whoever it is isn’t blind. I stood up from my cover two times already.” ST2 Marko ‘Cub’ Tijic answered.
“Good, lead them back to Claw squad position. Try not to make it too obvious. You are new, not incompetent.” Sahib said. The opposing Platoon, the Orphans was led by Platoon Leader Eric ‘Jacks’ Regis, and Sahib knew him well. They went through training together, and while he was a good commander, he had his faults. One being a tendency to jump at any opportunity to get an upper hand or capitalize on the mistakes of others. Sometimes that was a good thing, but when faced with someone who knew him well, it could be used against him.
“Noose are you up for a bit of role-play?” Sahib asked Claw’s Squad Leader over the comm channel.
“What do you have in mind?” Noose asked.
“Perhaps we should have a bit of a misunderstanding, a conflict of interests.” Sahib said cheerfully. “Perhaps Rock and you could have a bit of a confrontation.”
“Ah… that could be arranged.” Noose answered understanding Sahib’s words, then he closed the channel. A minute later, Cub entered the clearing, and rejoined the rest of his squad. And a few minutes later both Fang and Paw squads reported movement, closing in on the Claw’s position. Noose and Rock had gotten into a bit of a spat, gesturing widely with Rock pointing in one direction and Noose in the other. Sahib hoped that his opponents would think they are fighting and try to take advantage of the situation. It was known that Noose and Rock don’t really get along much, actually they didn’t stand each other. But Sahib knew that they were soldiers at heart, and would never jeopardize the lives of their squad mates by fighting over command. Rock understood that Noose was in charge, and Noose knew that Rock would follow his commands without any hesitation. Then Fang, and Paw started feeding the locations of the enemy troops to the Claw and Alpha squads. Counting the dots on the minimap Sahib saw that Regis decided to send three squads. He gave the instructions to let them close the distance a bit more. His snipers designated their targets, with the rest placing themselves in the position to cover Claw squad, Sahib’s own team was ready to offer covering fire when Claw started their dash towards cover. Then just as he was about to order his teams to engage his comm went off. He got an urgent message alert on his HUD, saying that he had an incoming call from the Army Headquarters. He noticed his teammates all getting out of cover, and his opponents stepping into the clearing.
“What the fuck Wolf!” One of the men that just entered the clearing yelled over his speakers. They must have gotten some kind of message as well.
“Don’t know!” Sahib responded over his speakers, and then he accepted the call.
“Go for Adin.” Sahib said.
“Adin, Commander Gin here, gather your men the exercise is over, we need you back at the base as soon as possible. The Orphans are being recalled as well.” Commander Jack Gin said.
“May I know why sir?” Sahib asked.
“There has been a development, that is all I can say for now.” Commander Gin said.
“Yes, sir. We will be there in an hour.”
“Good.” With that Commander closed the link.
Sahib looked around at his men, most a have gathered in the clearing, including some of the Orphans. Sahib joined them.
“What’s going on Wolf, Jacks is saying the exercise is canceled.” The man leading one squad of Orphans said over the open link, now when the exercise was over the beacons were again turned on. His HUD showed the name above the man’s head, but even without it Sahib recognized the voice, it was Pyro. He got his nickname when he almost set fire to the changing room, he accidentally fired his rifle filled with incendiary rounds. But he was just a noob then, he got off lightly. Three months of cleaning duties, and double shifts.