Chapter 1
Pushing Destrier ahead at a slow walk, Wayne scanned the road in front of him.
He was looking for anything that wouldn’t show up to his onboard AIs.
“Cavalier, all squads report no contact with hostiles,” Natalie put in over the Company frequency. “All drones are out and scouting. The scouts report nothing as well. It’s all silent.”
Shaking his head, Wayne didn’t like that.
If it was silent, it was because whatever forces had been here had moved on, or were laying in wait. Their systems completely at idle and off.
Lately house Hawke wasn’t even running passive systems unless they were dumb-systems.
In the three months after his wedding to Josephine, and a very brief honeymoon, he’d been on deployment constantly.
Working his way through a great deal of Mirkil space and Hawke space both. Though most of it was spent on this border Hawke planet or a moon under Mirkil control.
During that time, Hawke had been learning how to handle Mirkil to a degree.
House Hawke didn’t know why they kept getting caught out, they were evolving their own methods and protocols. Changes that made it infinitely harder for Wayne to completely rely on his AI to give him neat red and white boxes of anything with a IFF, active comm system, or just the capability of being connected to.
Turning Destrier partially to the left he slowed down as he approached the next intersection. It was a wide four lane by four lane cross that would give anyone a beauty of a shot on him once he crossed.
“Excuse me, Cavalier,” rumbled Sal as he trundled ahead of Wayne.
The Walker he’d been piloting previously had been retired during Wayne’s honeymoon and Sal had been granted a Dreadnought sized Walker in it’s place.
A Darkened Templar model that Tink had laid her genius hands to and upped it’s mobility, agility, and load weight.
Mostly by overhauling the engine with something from a different model entirely.
Princess Josephine had immediately made a ‘T-model’ variant out of it. One that House Mirkil had then added to it’s foundry library.
The massive shield it carried now took even more punishment than the old one did.
Not waiting, Wayne stepped out into the intersection and looked to the right even as Sal did the same by looking to the left. Having Sal at his rear with his shield gave Wayne more than enough confidence to take the street.
“Shield, clear,” Sal rumbled.
“Cavalier, clear,” replied Wayne. “Warrior, take the next street ahead. No risks.
“Squire, shift the dick. Big stupid building ahead of us that’s screaming for us to check in for thirsty single-moms in our area.
“Lance, Longbow, patrol upward after Warrior.”
Wayne got a series of responses and then shifted his comms to his Commpany command channel.
“Squad two, squad three, move up to the street, holding corridor for approach,” ordered Wayne. “Keep drones out. Keep alert.”
He got two affirmatives, then went to the leadership channel.
“Herald, this city is frelking dead,” Wayne grumbled. “So either I’m walking into a shit-storm, or they just wanted me somewhere else than a front line.”
“Yes,” murmured Wendy. Her voice had a tone that sounded like she was going through intelligence information and the reports available to her.
She sounded perfectly healthy now after her recovery, though.
She’d been medically discharged from the Confed for neuropathy of the feet. To which Wayne hit her with a contract that’d be impossible to refuse as his personal HQ-Comms officer.
Miriam was almost always working with MDF Command or MDF Intelligence. Working to make sure that Wayne always had up to date information as well as keeping Josephine apprised of things.
Which meant Wayne needed an intermediary at this point and that’d become Wendy.
She’d taken on the actual duties this week and he was just glad she was well.
Wendy had almost lost her life in the ambush over the skies of Colus by the House of Hawke. Surviving by luck more than anything.
Or as a Miriam had joked once.
Spite.
“I missed your voice,” Wayne blurted out before she could continue.
Causing Wendy to laugh, sigh, then groan.
“I took you to dinner last night and the night before you needy man,” Wendy complained. “I suppose I’ll have to take you to dinner again tonight, though I did promise Lance and Warrior I’d take them out. So this’ll end up being a four person dinner.
“Now… about the situation, you distracting man.
“It genuinely is starting to seem like you’re right. They wanted you here, away from something else, and put just enough meat on this one to get us to deploy you.
“That is, unless it’s an ambush. So I suppose in either situation you’re right.”
“I want dinner with you, not all four of us,” Wayne put in and firmly. After having almost lost Wendy, he had decided to put pressure on her instead of the way it had been. “Cancel your plans with Lance and Warrior. You’re my personal officer, not theirs. Tell them I’m pulling rank.”
“I… ah… well, I… alright,” Wendy stammered, sounding somewhat confused. “I’ll let them know then.
“Any-anyways. Focus. Mission first. Ambush or bait.”
As squad two and three slid into place one street away in either direction Wayne moved into the street ahead and began following along behind Lance and Longbow.
“Before we got sent here, what was our likely mission?” Wayne asked. He was wondering if there was a leak.
Again.
House Hawke spent a lot of money to know where Wayne was. Either to attack him directly or to make sure he wasn’t where they wanted to make certain operations.
Sending him to large concentrations of enemies wasn’t the best use of the House of Hesh, unless it had a pinpoint need.
Running as the vanguard, breaking into a particular area, or out, force multiplier, those were all things that House Hesh excelled at.
With that in mind, he was curious as to where they were planning on sending him before this sweep and clear had been picked.
“Flanking weapons support for an attack on a hardpoint,” Wendy answered. “And no, before you ask, I’m not getting any traffic from them that would make me think something’s happening.”
Frowning, Wayne shook his head and looked to Natalie.
She’d attached the large radio antenna she was in charge of to four drones which were now carrying it to the top of the building he’d asked her to utilize.
It was the largest structure in the city by a good margin.
This would be the best placement for a communications relay.
Natalie moved over to a building on the other side of the street, a long wire in Squire’s hand. She slammed an anchor into the building.
Looking upward to the drones, Wayne saw that the line from the radio antenna would be nearly forty-five degrees downward from it.
Personally, he didn’t understand it.
He just knew Natalie did.
“Squire, you’re never being promoted to a squad leaders position,” Wayne told her after opening the comms to his squad. “None of you are, in fact. You’re all my squad.”
“Thats fine by me, boss,” Mick murmured, followed by a chuckle.
“Already been promoted twice,” added Sal. “Pay is almost too high. Wife is happy. Couldn’t get me to leave the squad.”
There was a laugh that was distinctly Cara’s that piped through the comm channel.
Followed by something in rapid fire Dashi.
To which Arsenic provided a translated box in Confed fo rhim.
Cara: “As your Handfast, my perfect Lord, I would kill you before you could send me away.
“I am already deeply bothered that you have not come to my bedroom. I respected your marriage, it is time to honor me in turn.”
“Cara, really?” Natalie asked with a laugh. She’d been able to pick up Dashi quickly and become deeply fluent in it. Everyone else had picked up words and phrases, but not much.
“She just tell him she’s his war-wife and she’ll kill him first?” Mick asked.
“War-wife! I love this word,” Cara gushed into the channel. “Longbow. Yes. I am his war-wife.”
“Obviously,” replied the sniper turned Walker pilot.
Which made Cara laugh again.
“Longbow, you’re unmarried, yes? There are two Dashi women who ask about you who work with the Armorer. I will make sure you notice them when we go home,” Cara declared.
Before anyone could respond there was a sudden and startling crackling noise that cut through everything. As if a sudden jammer had been turned on.
“Arsenic, find me the target,” Wayne demanded and then moved to a building.
Longbow, Lance, Squire, and Shield all had already turned around and started moving back to Wayne at a jog.
Even without the ability to check in by radio, he knew the rest of his squads, the scouts, and Cara, would all be turning around and falling back into form a main group.
Wayne gestured at Shield and Lance to take the east direction of the street they were on. He moved to take the west with Longbow and Squire whom he motioned into position with his hands.
“I have a possible location,” Arsenic got out. “Two of them. Can’t route drones. They’re jammed and following protocol for that.”
Which meant they’d either land somewhere and power down or attempt to return to the pilot that launched them.
Two red question marks appeared in his view. He couldn’t tell were being projected by his cybernetic left-eye, or one of the AI’s that put things on his Glass-Steel as a projection.
“I can’t feed the info to the others. Everything’s jammed,” Arsenic complained.
Leaning backward in Destrier Wayne lined up his ballistic weapon, angled it, checked it against his AI, fired once, and then twice. Letting the artificial horizon fall back to zero and level him out.
There was going to be a long pause of standing there just waiting.
“Let’s hope they’re stationary,” Wayne groused. Firing at the angle he did, those rounds would be airborne for a minute and a half at the minimum, but he wasn’t sure of the actual numbers.
Squad two and squad three approached from the intersection they’d come from, which was east. Squad four was the scout squad and would attempt to reconnect, but if it wasn’t simple, they’d just go to the fallback point, or the seondary fallback.
“I think they’re stationary. I think they’re on top of buildings,” hissed Arsenic. “I bet they look like HVAC units or something similar. Disguising electronics as electronics.”
Wayne turned on his external speakers.
“Clearly we’re jammed,” Wayne declared. “We won’t be playing their game. They want us somewhere, so we’re not going anywhere.
“Everyone get out of the center of the street and start lining up against buildings. If you’re feeling engineer like, start ripping down buildings and making barricades and defensive positions.
“I’ve put two rounds in the air already on what Dagger thinks are locations. She’s actively looking for more,” Wayne announced.
Arsenic had been introduced as a house operative by the name of ‘Dagger’. No real name given. That she was external only and was operationally connected through Wayne’s Walker.
Given that she’d talked with more than a few people in the House, as well as Diane, people simply believed it and went with it.
“That was your long-ball going upward?” asked what sounded like Squad Leader Smith.
“Yeah, Dagger picked out two, I put two in the air. It just takes a while with my stupid artillery piece,” Wayne answered and shook his head. “Always kinda wild how long it takes to land when you just park it in the air. Just—”
There were two booms, one after the other, and then there was a hissing noise from his comms followed a pop.
“Communications restored,” Arsenic reported, sounding rather prideful. “No other targets, ramping drones up.”
“Dagger’s running drones up,” Wayne put into the Company channel frequency. “Spread out, dig in, defend. We’re not running into anything.”
Not waiting for responses, Wayne turned off his microphone for that channel but kept listening even as he dialed into his line with Wendy.
“Just had a jammer attack, Herald. We’re clear again,” Wayne declared. “Digging in for a moment while drones scout.”
“Got it,” Wendy answered, then huffed. “The timing is almost awkward. That flank you were going to hold? Needs help. Things kicked off almost at the same time you went dark.”
The same time?
They’ve got me mapped out.
They expected me to consolidate, hunker down, and defend.
Then I would’ve slowly moved outward cautiously, assuming it was an ambush.
“Disregard previous orders,” Wayne declared after hitting the company channel. “New route, new protocol. Gonna be fire support for a flank. We’re moving now.
“Scouts, Warrior, sending you updated navpoints. Get in there, get me info, get out. No risks.”
I need to get off the line.
There’s leaks and they’re not even hiding it.
***
“Longbow, Squire, how’s your position look,” Wayne asked as he, Sal, Cara, and Barbie kept moving to the touch point.
Which was a flat plain that they’d lead into a military encampment. It had a fully hardened set of bunkers that the enemy had taken shelter in and was using as a garrison house.
There hadn’t been an ability to drop bunker-busting munitions onto the location without the assets that dropped it getting gunned down out of the air.
Missiles launched from behind the lines had been intercepted.
The last resort was ground forces moving on the location which what was happening now. That hard point needed to be taken so that Mirkil forces could move beyond it while using it as a hardened position for themselves.
“Empty. Flat. Nothing,” Mick offered.
“Lots of comms chatter,” included Squire. “It’s mostly information relay but… there’s an ugly snarl of combat up ahead of you. It’s the left flank of the Mirkil forces and they’re getting hit by a tank column with infantry and Walkers.
“I can’t get much in the way of numbers but that’s where it is.”
Wayne nodded his head and looked toward the plain that ended and became some rolling hills. It was from those hills and forward to the west, that the Mirkil forces would be attacking to the fort.
A long line of forces in the shape of an arrow head that’d run into the hardened position while attacking all the forces around it as well.
Turning his focus in that direction, Wayne tried to sort through the sea of white boxes that were over there. At this distance, he wasn’t able to get much other than they existed. As he got closer, IFF, and other information, would be available.
Mick wouldn’t be able to get much in the way of firing from where he was laid out, but he’d be able to watch the company’s flank.
“Warrior, move it in around the Mirkil side,” Wayne stated. “Get me those pretty eyes of yours on target and tell me what they see.”
“Yes!” Cara called out and took off at a high-end sprint.
She was in Patchwork-Warrior, the upgraded version of Patchwork.
In the end, despite her wishes, Cara had been moved out of Patchwork and into the new Walker. Patchwork had been semi-retired and now sat in the center of the garage on station Steeple.
Like some art-deco statue.
Wayne watched Cara run flat out away from his group at a rate of speed that was far too high for the class of Walker it was. The power sword Josephine had bought for her was in hand and at the moment deactivated.
It was her most prized possession and she had thanked Josie repeatedly for it. To the point that Josephine disallowed it going forward and told her to take her for a meal whenever she wanted to thank her instead.
Cara ended up taking Josephine to a meal whenever she had the chance since then.
Somehow, surprisingly, the princess of Mirkil, a people who had been invaded by the Blood of Dashi not long ago, was now quite friendly with a Dashi Warrior.
“Company, shift to the hill to the right. We’ll put it to our left then fire ahead,” stated Wayne. It was part of the original orders that’d been drawn up. The emplacement he was heading to would let them fire partially into the battle lines being drawn up without being exposed.
“Squad two, squad three, up on the right of me and extend. I’ll be the far left. Squad one will lead be the pivot and the lead if we end up charging,” Wayne , then closed out his comms. “Are you or Cara gonna get whiney if I don’t announce our attack?”
“No! No. The fight has already been joined. There’s no reason to announce,” Arsenic replied. Then laughed. “Are you that concerned over your Dashi women? Do you fret over what your Handfast will think?”
“Wear you like a latex suit,” Wayne grumbled and mentally reached out for Arsenic.
“Please. Please yes. Perfect Lord,” Arsenic replied in a breathy tone.
Wayne hadn’t gotten a chance to test out what happened with Arsenic with Diane yet, but even she didn’t fight anymore that what he did was abnormal. That what she felt was actual emotions.
He’d pegged it as sexual and joy and she’d agreed to it.
Grasping hold of Arsenic, he sunk himself into her and flexed his mind through her. Into the Walker and the AI on board.
Wayne could feel Arsenic keenly and that she was a true extension of him.
A tool he could grasp and use to do more than he could, or she could, on their own.
Not for the first time, he’d considered absorbing a high-end combat AI just to see how much further he could push himself.
Not pushing his thoughts ahead, Wayne let Arsenic exist in this space as part of him and herself. He needed to wait for information from Cara.
The drones hadn’t been able to push through the electronic warfare being blasted out on both sides over the battle area. Drones and guided weapons went stupid and dumb within a mile around the whole battlefield.
In only three months of war, a lot of the tried and true things had been radically altered.
Drones with payloads, electronic warfare, and cyber attacks had diminished significantly due to AI being deployed in large numbers.
Most of the cyber war was gridlocked with both sides just jamming everything.
Communication was also destroyed in combat more often than not.
Arsenic had gotten quite good at boosting their Company signals and finessing the equipment so that it often came through.
It wasn’t perfect, and was often staticky and annoying to make out, but it was more than almost everyone else had. When everyone else was deaf and mute, being able to make out even two-thirds of what was said was miraculous.
“Cavalier, Warrior, twenty walkers. Many infantry. Few tanks,” came Cara’s response. It wasn’t too bad, but Arsenic had clearly cleaned it up. “Drop a relay?”
“Confirmed, drop a relay,” Wayne confirmed.
Cara would now drop a small relay that’d help boost their signals but for most people wouldn’t do a damn thing.
Thankfully they had Arsenic.
Seconds later a large number of the boxes that’d been white flashed red for Wayne.
Lashing the Walker and AIs to his will, and squeezing firmly on Arsenic, Wayne began propagating the information to his company.
Then he lifted his artillery piece of a ballistic weapon, dialed in the range, and fired no sooner than his firing coordinates were dialed in.
It reminded him of when he’d asked for Britha for assistance once upon a time.
The rest of his company began firing utilizing his AI assisted weapons plots.
Rolling booms and thunderous detonations from distant and up close didn’t phase Wayne. The fact that his sensors were registering constant adjustments to the gyroscope didn’t cause him much thought.
Or even the fact that he hadn’t lost anyone in this patrol wasn’t much more than a ‘good’ type of thought. That everything felt somewhat dimmed despite the fact that everything was going his way.
“I need off the line,” Wayne whispered to himself as his brain caught up to the situation.
“You’ve been ‘in combat’ for the better part of a year or year and a half?” offered Arsenic in a low throaty voice. She’d been able to respond because he wasn’t grasping at her very tightly right now.
She was semi-loose and able to function on her own.
“I need off the line,” repeated Wayne but with more conviction. His therapist had told him several times that he should really consider taking a leave.
It was clearly time.
I should visit Dashi.
That’d be a PR boost.
I’m supposed to move to a main base near that city we captured for a basic repair and refit directly after this.
I’ll make the calls then.