Vanguard Word Update

2k words

***

Kazlu copied her movements on the flank, Cadell finding himself surrounded by hard light energy. The shields weren’t quite big enough to meet at the sides and form a complete circle, small gaps of exposure leaving their east and west faces open, but it was the best they could do.

“Timing’s gonna be everthin’,” Cadell warned. “I’ll count down from two, when I saw one, Samiha step forward, Kazlu you step back. Ready?”

“Ready!” Kazlu said.

“Ready,” Samiha echoed.

Cadell started his countdown, and in near perfect harmony, the two aliens shuffled forward one pace and the circle of light moved around them. Cadell found himself pressing shoulders with Hunter and Kurtis as they juggled the limited space afforded to them. Another count, and another step was taken, Samiha choosing the only path that was feasible – right down the middle.

“Watch it!” Hunter warned, Kazlu stepping on his foot on the next pace. He almost tumbled over, but Cadell hauled him up by the shoulder at the last moment.

“Mind your spacin’ everyone,” Cadell shouted over the gunfire. “Tumbling to our deaths like a bunch of first-time dancers is not how we’re goin’ out.”

Coordinating five people to move as one was hard in of itself, but the holograms were still pressuring them, and now their exotic manoeuvre was placing them square in the middle of the simulation grounds, tracer rounds flying over their heads from all directions. He directed Hunter to the bunkers, while he and Kurtis focused on clearing a path for Samiha, poising the muzzles of their rifles over the shield barriers, which sat at about neck-height.

Cadell wondered how much punishment the alien shields were allowed to take. If even one of them broke, they’d be finished. Calling out targets, focusing his shots, keeping in sync with the powerful strides of the aliens as their mobile cover carried them onward, there were so many things to consider that he didn’t have the option of checking their time before, but he doubted they had a minute left to spare, probably less than that.

Storms of bullets assailed the squad from all directions, the holograms having enveloped them as they pushed down their frontline, the cracks of gunshots not quite like those of actual weapons, but close enough that every bullet that disintegrated into the shields make Cadell flinch on reflex. Something about seeing no physical barrier between you and a bullet was just off. He wondered how Samiha and Kazlu handled that pressure.

“I see the button!” Hunter exclaimed. “Keep going, ladies, we’re almost there!”

Cadell chanced a peak ahead, noting that the button was maybe twenty meters out. The sight fuelled him on, and this attitude stretched to the others as well, Kazlu and Samiha keeping up as he increased his count by an octave.

Cadell loosed off a few shots, his rifle dangerously close to Samiha’s crest, her feathers roiling in surprise. A hologram had stayed rooted to the spot, intent on blocking their path, perhaps, the target shattering apart before disappearing into thin air like a wisp. This was roughly the place he had ‘died’ the last time, and every step from now was pure, sweet progress.

The rest of the holograms seemed perplexed, abandoning their prior tactical awareness and just standing out in the open, taking potshots at their shield wall, not bothering to reposition as the Balokarids left few angles of attack. It was like they’d glitched the system, found a loophole that the makers of this test hadn’t considered. It was working!

The button was getting close, Cadell able to see there was writing on top of it, probably the word end or something to that effect. They weaved between the barriers towards their objective like a repulsor beam, the holograms having no choice but to clear their path or be shot.

A couple feet from the podium, the barrier on Samiha’s right arm began to diminish, the flickering polygons turning a dim shade of grey. The holograms were concentrating their fire on her, Samiha flicking her gaze to the power meter on her sleeve.

“It won’t last much longer,” she warned, her voice unusually calm given the circumstances.

“Get us to that button before that happens,” Cadell shouted between gunshots.

Samiha didn’t need to be told twice, hastening towards their goal. Her pace fell out of step with Kazlu’s a little, but any holograms that could get an angle, Kurtis dealt with swiftly.

They reached the far wall of the simulation, the button standing proudly to their right. They were in the heart of the enemy forces now, and Cadell could have sworn there had not been this many holograms a few moments ago. The people surveying the sim must have decided to go all or nothing.

“Samiha,” he said. “As soon as your shield breaks, you hit that button hard and fast. Now it’s our turn to cover you.”

“Understood,” Samiha replied.

When the moment came, it happened in as much time as it took to blink an eye. Samiha’s weaker shield shattered, the distracting shapes projected into the air losing their opacity until they were utterly gone, one last burst of rounds from a target on the right destroying the barrier. Samiha had launched herself at the same instant, her long legs carrying her across the small space that separated her from the button.

The three humans ceased their bunching up, fanning out to form a rough perimeter around her and the podium, covering one cardinal direction each at Cadell’s instructions. Kazlu dropped to a knee to allow Kurtis to fire over her barriers, her protection saving them from a barrage aimed at their rear.

From the corner of his eye, Cadell watched as Samiha raised a fist, and brought it down on the button. The click it made was very loud, like it was being projected through a surround sound system turned to max. The dozens of holograms firing on them suddenly stood up straight, like they were green recruits who’d just seen a general walk by, letting their guns hang by their sides.

After near-constant gunfire, the silence left a ringing in his ears, Cadell turning to glance at his companions. They were leaning on their knees, struggling to get their breathing under control, adrenaline bleeding away to leave them heavy with fatigue.

“Holy shit,” Hunter stammered, sitting down heavily on the floor. “I can’t believe the Balokarid sandwich actually worked.”

“We,” Samiha grumbled. “are not calling it that.”

The four of them turned to stare at Samiha, and then with no words spoken or any obvious reason, they all started laughing. Kurtis came up and tapped Samiha on the side with a friendly punch, the alien’s surprise fading as a smile broke through and she grinned down at the human. Seeing her smile was a rare treat that always made Cadell smile himself.

Hunter and Kazlu high-fived, the alien chirping in what must have been her version of a laugh. Cadell joined in their celebrations, pulling off his headset and glasses and letting the sim vanish in the face of reality. Sharing pats on the back with his friends. To his surprise, Samiha came up and took his hand into hers, Cadell reminded of their first day here, in which the alien had refused to shake his hand.

Relief, excitement, tiredness, these were emotions they were all feeling at the moment, but there was one other thing that troubled this otherwise proud moment for Cadell.

“Did anyone get a look at our time?” he asked them. “Anyone see our score?”

“I was a little preoccupied,” Kazlu answered. She placed her augmented reality glasses on, trying to steal one last look in the sim again, but she shook her head. “I saw it in the corner of my eye, but I think it said five minutes.”

“So much for Balokarid super vision,” Hunter muttered. She made to grab him and he danced away. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!”

Cadell’s energy died down as the tension he’d felt before the sim started returned, this time with twice as much strength. He didn’t have to live with this feeling for long, however. The door slid open, and in walked Lieutenant Marek in his signature officer’s uniform. His body language was stiff and trained, conveying nothing as to what he may be thinking.

“Front and centre, elevens,” he ordered, and the five of them lined up, breaking eye-contact to give each other strained looks. Any notion of excitement had died in that instant.

“You’ve completed the simulation, and for that you deserve congratulations,” Marek began. “Of course, comparing something to the absolute travesty of your first attempt isn’t worth one pat on your back. As for your time, that is another matter entirely.”

Cadell glanced up at Samiha, the alien remaining stoic, save for the twitching feathers on her headdress. He knew those twitches weren’t ones born from a calm mind.

“Squad four has the best time, at four minutes and forty-two seconds,” Marek said. “Squad eight has the worst, at six minutes and fifty-five seconds. From the way you’re all staring at me like sheep, my guess is you don’t know your time yet, so I’ll tell you myself. You completed the simulation in… four minutes…”

Marek left the word hang in the air, Cadell and the squad feeling elated as they waited with bated breath.

“… and nineteen seconds,” Marek finished. “Which puts you firmly at the top of the board.”

The squad’s enthusiasm returned tenfold, Hunter and Kurtis exchanging excited fist bumps with the aliens, the birds chirping in amusement as they quickly caught on to the meaning of the gesture. Cadell found himself in the centre of it all, blushing hard when Kazlu wrapped one of her wings around him and pulled him into a tight, one-armed hug.

Even Marek wasn’t spared from the celebrations, a grin breaking out on his gruff face as he shook hands with all five of them, congratulating them on a task well done.

“I’m not sure how you did it,” Marek continued. “breaking out from dead last to first, but you’ve set an example I cannot deny. Don’t let it get to your heads,” he added. “You can break as many records as you want here in the Hub facilities, but when the real shooting starts, don’t think for a moment it will be as easy as this, or that moment will be your last. All the tech in the Galaxy can’t simulate a real gunfight down to a tee, remember that.”

“We will, Sir,” Cadell answered.

“I can’t say I’ve ever seen tactics like that employed in my sims before,” Marek added. “but that’s the point of the program, seeing what results from your team composition. I’ll relay the news to the Kith’sla and the Senator, I’m sure they’ll be eager to hear how you did.”

“Any chance of a nice reward waiting for us, Sir?” Hunter asked. “Something like, oh I don’t know, some time off base? For a job well done, of course?”

“One thing at a time, Private,” Marek said. “Was going to get you down to the airlocks for another space-walk, but that can wait. Consider yourselves relieved for the rest of the evening.”

It wasn’t clearance to get out on the Hub, but it was the next best thing, the elation felt from the squad palpable. Cadell could sure use the rest, he felt like he’d run a marathon, despite the simulation room being just that, a room. How those projectors made it seem to much bigger once he was inside it, he had no idea.

They were dismissed, and they returned to the lobby after depositing their gear. Nobody was outside, as all the squads had likely been assigned off to their training duties, so nobody but them saw squad eleven rise to the top of the leaderboard outside. The news would spread quickly, however, Cadell knew that Hunter would make sure of that, judging by the way he talked on and on about how prime a marksman he’d been.

“Check us out,” Kurtis said, gesturing at the board. “Squad numero uno, that’ll teach the platoon to mess with us.”

“A fitting place, considering we have two ones in our name,” Samiha noted.

“We should celebrate!” Kazlu suggested. “Going from killed in action to top of the platoon is no small feat. We have to treat ourselves.”

“Nobody’ll be in the rec centre at this time off day,” Cadell said. “We’ll have the whole place to ourselves.”

“Then lead on, mister Kith’sla Sir,” Hunter said. “I never asked what that means, by the by. Someone fill me in?”

“It roughly to one who possesses the qualities of a leader,” Samiha explained, locking eyes with Cadell for a moment before he broke eye-contact, which seemed to amuse the alien.

“But that sheila, what was her name? Shaliyya? She’s called a Kith’sla as well.”

“And?”

“So you give the same title to every big wig? Doesn’t that get confusing?”

“Are there not multiple Lieutenants and Captains and Commanders in your military?”

“Ah… Touche, Sammy, Touche. Let’s go get something to eat, all that precision shooting I did has made me hungry as hell.”