“They killed themselves,” Dahl got out in a voice that could truly only be described as ‘frothing with rage’. If the man’s teeth weren’t fused together due to the strength of the gritting of his teeth, then they’d likely break in a few seconds. “They think it was a poison, but they’re not sure. Not sure of anything, actually.
“I take that back. They’re sure they’re Blood of Dashi. But… no known family, no genetic markers that stand out, no IDs, no fingerprints, no face match, no identifiable anything, might as well been a damn orphan for all the good my intelligence service is.”
Standing at the window and shaking his head, Dahl looked a lot like a man who wanted very much to break something at the moment.
Wayne nodded his head, he’d only entered a few seconds ago on request of the Pureblood. Except the expectation had been to get information on what’d been revealed of the enemy pilot, rather than telling him they’d died.
“And the Walker?” Wayne asked.
“Custom built,” got out the Pureblood as he stared out the window. “The data was flashed. No one can tell me how that happened, or why it happened, either. For all I know my intelligence service is compromised.
“I know… nothing. Nothing at all about the pilot, Walker, or anything.”
“I mean, there’s a lot you can figure out based on the parts,” offered Wayne. “Where are the parts from? Who’s the distributor? We could try to get an idea of where all of it came from and trace it back to a company.”
“The parts are all custom built,” hissed Dahl. “The entirety of the Walker was machined, milled, and manufactured at the guidance of someone doing work without… without… any paperwork. No tool numbers. No serial numbers. No identification marks.
“Nothing. It’s a damn ghost Walker without anything to tie it back anywhere. Even the damn pilot suit lacks anything identifiable.”
“They were sent in to be caught then,” mused Wayne then shook his head. “I figured that was it considering they stepped into the arena. I didn’t think they’d be able to leave after this. One way mission with only one goal.”
“Yes,” ground out Dahl. “It would appear it was indeed a one-way trip expectation. We’re fortunate that it wasn’t loaded with explosives or something else; yet it’s deeply aggravating that they clearly targeted you directly.
“That… these people broke through the security, multiple breaches in defenses, and was able to go right into the arena. This has never happened before.
“Not once in the entirety of Dashi history. Now I have to have my name stamped to it.”
The last words were said with a growl and Pureblood slammed his hand into the window-frame he stood in front of.
Though the thump sounded solid and was in no danger of being damaged.
On top of that, the glass was Steel-Glass. It certainly wouldn’t be moving around at all just in case someone decided to try their hand at a long distance rifle shot.
Outwardly, Dahl had the appearance of a man who very much wanted to be visible as a man for his people.
Inwardly, the weights of his leadership were most certainly bearing down on him.
“I’m not sure where to go from here,” confessed Wayne. He genuinely wasn’t quite sure on what would be the best course of action.
From all the chatter Arsenic and Wendy went through, it seemed as if there were bad actors pushing the story out as it had happened.
Amusingly they’d had to change their headlines and statements when Wayne hadn’t turned out dead and the Walker itself was captured whole.
A prize for House Hesh, no less, since it was captured by Warrior Hesh on his own.
The bad articles quickly became glowing praise for Wayne and a growing concern about the Pureblood.
Or more accurately, at the fact that this happened at all. Happened at all and that if Warrior Hesh hadn’t been as good as he was, this would’ve been worse.
“A sensor technician repaired a buoy that’d gone down,” Dahl began, shifting the conversation oddly. “It went down and he was already on site due to a random inspection. Selected at random by the program and he was sent there. A one in a ten-thousand chance that he’d be there, but he was there.
“The buoy went down, he brought it right back up, and stayed with it to make sure it was working appropriately.
“Which, out of a series of forty that went down, it was the only one up.”
Oh?
Did they get a trajectory trail for that Walker? I was wondering if it had come from a space drop.
If they blacked out a bunch of sensors to make it happen, that’d make a lot of sense.
“It recorded a large quadruped Walker sailing through space to Dashi,” Dahl continued with a slow nod of his head. Then shook it with a disgusted look on his face when he turned to look at Wayne. “If not for a single man doing his job, I wouldn’t even have this much. I’m afraid my intelligence network isn’t as grand as I thought it was.
“Be that as it may, I have a lead. A small one. One that I’m probably betting too much on, if I didn’t take into account the circumstantial evidence I’ve been gathering for months.”
Looking out the window again Dahl seemed to be contemplating what to say.
“I’m giving you an army to take to Mirkil,” declared Dahl. “The price is to lead that army to a planet and wipe out an enemy force I very much want gone.
“This planet hosts seventy percent of the individuals I’d been wary of for at least a year. People with communications I don’t trust and genuinely feel as if I would’ve been better off having eliminated already.
“I’ll give you the army to eradicate them. That same army is yours to take to Mirkil. I’ll technically be leading it, you’ll be my vice-commander, but in reality… I won’t be leading this at all.
“You will. It’ll be your orders that are sent down and if anyone asks me, I claim ‘I’m looking into it’, wait an hour, send them ‘this is correct, obey’ and then end it there.
“As to numbers… I can promise you twenty-million in soldiery. Most are infantry, mechanized infantry, or armored units. We have very little in the way of airpower, almost no scouting forces, and no artillery.
“I’m sure you can offset with Mirkil stockpiles though. You may even have a great deal of Dashi arms that you’re holding onto that could be redistributed.
“Oh, and that number doesn’t include logistics personnel, but I will of course include them. An army doesn’t exist without infrastructure.”
Well.
I got what I wanted I guess.
Just have to earn it with a planet-campaign. That likely won’t be quick or easy.
“Fine,” Wayne answered, thinking on all the things he wanted to ask. “Any Blood of Dashi laws or limitations I should ascribe to?”
“Just listen to your Handfast. They’ll keep you on the correct path,” replied Dahl. “Oh, I’ve formally approved your Handfast contract to Cara. She is your woman by law now. Do be sure to make sure her Warrior line, and your Warrior line, both get heirs to carry on.”
She never really did explain Handfast.
I guess it’s just a formalized common-law spouse contract thing.
Or something similar.
“Alright. I’ll start trying to prepare,” concluded Wayne. “Send all the intelligence you can spare to myself or Wendy so we can begin planning the attack. I assume you’ll want to pretend this is you just giving me the army until it’s time to invade?
“As well as seeing what your intelligence can turn up I imagine.”
“More or less,” whispered Dahl. He didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk anymore.
Taking the hint, Wayne turned, and left.
***
Looking out the cockpit to the plane below, Wayne really couldn’t feel good about this plan. Couldn’t feel good about what they were about to attempt.
An assault so reckless and with so little in the way of support or utility that Wayne genuinely felt like he’d be naked.
I got way too used to having support from multiple angles, weapons platforms, and having the ability to call in help.
This is anything but that.
The Dashi way of fighting is why they broke in so hard through the Mirkil defenses but ended up losing it all. Unexpected attacks it’ll work just fine.
“And you really think this is the right move?” Wayne asked through the strange quadruped Walker. It’d been torn down to it’s bolts, then rebuilt, with arms, opposable hands with fingers, and the cannons ended up strapped to the wrists and forearms.
Two heavy missile pods had been added to the shoulders and the chest mounted laser weapons had all been reconfigured.
It was a Dreadnought that was classified as light due to it’s engine capability.
The whole of the thing had been rebuilt to what Dashi considered correct and Wayne had been more or less forced into piloting it.
Because apparently driving a Walker sent to kill you back to go kill your enemy was peak Dashi energy.
“No,” Wendy answered with a laugh, then a huff. “But it’s the best move with what we’re trying to do with the Dashi. You, Cara, and Barbie dropping in with the army in those Walkers, is essential to this.
“It wouldn’t work for Confed, but it’ll be just right for the Dashi. Doesn’t hurt that Arsenic can run all those drones once they’re up and publish a live feed of the combat.
“It really did a number for those hero reels of you with the Mirkil. Let’s hope you can repeat it again for the Dashi.”
“I’m rather excited,” Barbie put in on the command channel. “They put me in this big bastard of a Walker. I’ve only seen a few pictures of this thing.”
Barbie had performed incredibly well in the tournament.
Enough so that there were many Dashi admirers of her ability in combat to the point that Dahl’s oldest daughter had donated a Dreadnought to her.
A Dashi Faoladh, which was not something that could be gotten even with money. The Walker was deeply restricted and only a handful had ever been photographed, and only one had escaped the Dashi.
That had been as a wreck and missing more than eighty-percent of it’s self.
It was a heavy Walker with a hunch like shape similar to the Typhoonwolf. It had several missile pods on it’s back, as well as extra armor over it’s bulbous shaped cockpit. Both arms were weapon platforms that could hold a variety of very heavy weapons.
It had a heavy bulk to it that would grant it a great deal of durability.
“I can’t wait to show it to Tink and let her go at it,” Barbie added then laughed. “She’ll make those squirrel noises she does when she’s excited at new Walkers.”
“Yes! Yes, I will make sure to pick up a rare Walker to bring back for her,” Cara confirmed. “It will be a reward for her in many ways.”
Looking down at the rapidly approaching ground below, Wayne could feel his guts coming up to meet him even faster. His shore-leave had been rife with a great deal of combat.
Now though, he’d be putting himself back into the front lines and fighting an enemy force that wanted him dead.
Because if he wanted to prove himself capable of commanding a Dashi army, he had to survive leading it into combat first. Leading it not from the rear, not from the middle, but from the front.
Wayne wasn’t a fan and he was deeply suspicious of this being one of the reasons that the Dashi had leaders that weren’t exactly the best. When you had to go into the maelstrom and come out the other side, it wouldn’t always work out very well even with a great plan.
“After fighting with Confed, and seeing how things are different, this is a waste,” said Cara in the silence as they continued to fall toward the planet. “This makes good warriors, good fighters. Not good leaders.”
Yeah.
At least I’m not alone in my thoughts.
“Impact in ten,” Sidra warned.
She’d been the one to coordinate almost everything for Wayne, Barbie, and Cara. From launch, approach, secondary approach, and landing.
Her work had also been spread out to the command team that was dropping with Wayne. An entire group of people that were landing with him to set up an HQ and become the center point for the offensive point and eventual fall back.
“Impact,” Sidra alerted him.
There was a heavy boom and he felt the quadruped Walker squat down with the landing, then spring back upward.
It’d take him a little bit to figure out how to move it well with his mind and the physical controls. If he wasn’t who he was, he likely would’ve needed to rely on the physical controls to handle most of everything.
Now he felt like he could move this strange Walker better than the original pilot.
Once he’d begun looking around, he saw the whole of the landing zone around him.
Sidra cross checked all of the planned landings against current trajectories and Wayne had a near perfect layout of where all his forces would be touching ground at.
Especially the ones landing out of position and would conflict with other units.
“Notify the command team to swap the…” Wayne’s voice paused as he mentally hunted for the term. As well as the fact that he’d need to order Command himself. “Command, this is Warrior Hesh. Battalion four and seven ended up reversed. They’re landing in each other’s zones. Swap them and provide them with each other’s mission parameters.
“Their force composition should be similar enough that it won’t cause an issue. If there is, let me know, and we’ll see about shifting resources.”
Arsenic was in charge of relaying his orders in Dashi so he didn’t have to worry about command delay.
Though she was apparently shifting the modulation so it sounded like him speaking in Dashi, rather than her own voice.
“Squire get… ah… I want communications up first,” Wayne ordered into the Command. “Once it’s up, I want drones up and moving forward. Get all the scouts out and throw positional reports into the command.”
Wayne finally turned his attention to the distance in front of him.
Dahl had sent Wayne with a large chunk of the army as a vanguard.
Planetfall had been achieved without too much losses on the way in.
Station defenses and orbital defenses weren’t very common in Blood space. They also required approval from the Pureblood.
Laid out far in front of Wayne was a large open space and a city.
A large city.
One without walls and a lot of buildings spread throughout. It reminded him a great deal of the capital of Mirkil. Not as large, but very similar.
Having grown up near a hive-city, and seeing what happened with an invasion, it was weird to see another large city without a wall. Walls seemed to be something he was starting to expect around every city.
Distant booms began sounding off from the city, followed by either rockets or missiles shooting up into the air. Their smoke trails visible and obvious as they started heading toward Wayne’s vanguard.
“Dagger, how’s that tie in?” Wayne asked, knowing that the salvo that’d been launched would cause a great deal of problems for his forces. “It’d be nice if we could show all these Dashi where those damn things are going or landing. Cause I’m sure we can plunk them out of the sky for ourselves but… more Dashi alive now, more soldiers later.”
“Propagating firing patterns now!” Arsenic called out.
“I want to take this. I want to practice,” Barbie demanded and moved out in front of the group. She lifted the bulky arms of her Walker and began firing.
Laser beams flicked out into the night sky and began taking the munitions right out of the night sky. Sending explosive debris to the ground and scattering it.
Dashi soldiers picked up on what was happening quickly.
They were essentially the point defense system for the entirety of the army.
Because there were no anti-air defenses. There were no defensive emplacements. Not a single navy vessel was in orbit to help knock any high altitude projectiles moving through the sky.
Nothing to combat any enemy fast movers, jets, or drones that might come their way.
It was an entirely naked charge that would come down to their own defenses and their speed.
“Command, once we clear this incoming wave, full ahead with the mission parameters,” concluded Wayne, and waited.
Once there was a break in the attack, three-hundred thousand strong vanguard would push into the city and begin the capture and siege.
This was only the first city meant to fall but it would become a logistics and communications hub.
“We’ve received confirmations and I’m monitoring the push of comms outward,” Arsenic advised Wayne. “Things are moving in the right direction. Most of the incoming volley was destroyed. Minimal losses.”
Wayne had noticed that there were indeed some people on the far left with some very weak aim. Despite having projections of where to put shots, they’d managed to cock it up.
Missiles, or perhaps rockets, landed amongst their numbers and there’d been a number of explosions.
“I’m holding the over-view,” Wendy advised. “Drones are all deployed, Dagger is pushing them outward. No contact so far. It’s exactly per the intelligence PB gave us.
“If everything holds clear to the city, we’ll have a manageable fight ahead of us. Ugly, but manageable.”
Nodding his head, Wayne couldn’t argue that point.
In the next moment he dispassionately noted that the break he was waiting for, occurred. There was a gap in the incoming attacks and if they moved now it’d force them to reconfigure and buy them time.
To that end, as was expected of a commander earning their right to lead, Wayne began forward to the city. Moving his Walker at the maximum speed that Barbie could handle.
Cara’s Walker had long ago vanished ahead to scout what she could. She’d taken the same Walker she’d been using in the tournament.
Now his force was heading straight into urban Walker combat.
The worst kind of combat.
“I hate urban Walker combat,” growled Wayne. “It reminds me of running video games and trying to fight corridor to corridor. If someone is there before you, or has the angle, you’re done.”
“As someone who did a lot of street to street and corridor to corridor fighting, yeah,” Barbie confirmed. “That’s the right of it and this is going to suck. But hey… I get to stomp around in this amazing Dashi Walker.”
Thinking on that, Wayne could only smile a bit.
Barbie wasn’t wrong.
Miriam would’ve told him something similar.
We chose this shit sandwhich, so at least appreciate the bread is soft.
“This is a pretty cool Walker,” Wayne offered up, making peace with his situation. “Never done a quadruped thing. Took a minute to figure out with the implant. It was weird with the—”