Vanguard Word Update

2k words. Things were pretty crazy over here, had my first cyclone ever (yay?) pass over, and I was a little busier than usual with some other stuff, so I apologise for the delay.

***

Its shape was not unlike an armband, and Cadell was proven right as Kazlu slipped her arm through the cylinder. There was a groove in the metal that made it so her wing didn’t chafe against it, the device almost as long a shirt sleeve.

“I think I’d better just show you once we’re in the sim,” Kazlu replied, putting another brace on her other arm. Samiha also had her own set of braces. “But I’ll give you a hint – for all your technology, I don’t think you’ve seen anything like this before.”

Cadell blinked, was he finally about to discover what the aliens had up their sleeves? Were these devices the technology that Samiha had hinted at earlier in the program?

Once the Balokarids were fixed with their gear, Marek’s voice crackled through on their helmets.

“Listen up, elevens. You’ve done your drills and your classes, now it’s time to put those skills into practice. This simulation is your chance to prove to me you can work together, but more than that, it’s proof to the Senator that this program isn’t a waste of resources. You’re in a unique position here, you’ve got access to alien hardware that the other teams don’t, so I’m expecting good results here today. As you already know these sims are timed, so keep that in mind as you carry out your objectives. The time to beat is six minutes and forty seconds.”

“And what is our objective here?” Samiha asked, fiddling with her helmet as she glanced at the ceiling.

“All parameters will be sent to your squad leader. You have thirty seconds to brief each other, then we’re starting. Don’t let me down, elevens. Good luck.”

Like a generator humming to life, a strange noise began to permeate the room with no obvious source, fluorescent light strips on the overhead cage bars flicking on one by one. At the same moment, a glass visor slid down from the tops of all their helmets, the words Prepare for Scenario 4-B2 floating before Cadell’s eyes in bright green letters.

The display on his wrist beeped, Cadell looking down to see their orders flickering onto the screen. A sound like a giant light switch filled the room. It was a lot of sensations at once – it was sort of foreboding in a way, as though they were about to drop into a proper combat deployment.

“What’s our orders, boss?” Kurtis prompted, Cadell clearing his throat. This was it, his first chance to really stick to his role as leader. He had to nail it on the head, both for their sake, and for his image.

“Okay, this looks pretty straightforward,” Cadell said, skimming the list briefly. “There’s gonna be a white line on the ground, all we have to do is follow it to the end, and there’ll be a button that stops the clock. The environment is a fifty-fifty split of close quarters and open spaces.”

“How many targets will there be?” Samiha asked.

“Not sure, it doesn’t say.”

“Just assume that there’s a bad guy around every corner,” Hunter advised. “Better safe than dead, as the saying goes.”

A count down appeared on Cadell’s new display, starting from ten. He slid back the bolt on his coilgun, the rest of the team following suit. This was it. It might not be real action, but it was the next best thing. He’d coordinated his teams well back on Manildra, and now was his shot to prove he didn’t need front-line experience to be good at his job.

When the number reached 1, the countdown wiped away, and Cadell was looking at a completely new environment, as though he’d just been teleported away. Instead of the small, boxy room they’d walked inside, he was now stood at one end of a warehouse, with the roof open to reveal a starless night sky.

The four walls towered impossibly high into the air, completely smooth and featureless save for a replica of the scoreboard back out in the hallway, the lettering large enough to be read at this distance. Their current timer was directly below it, having just reached the ten-second mark and counting.

Something flickered in his peripheral, and Cadell saw an ammo counter appear on his HUD. It must be synced up to his pretend gun wirelessly. Was there an actual software for that, or was it just part of the sim?

The rest of the team looked normal through the slightly grainy visor, but the same could not be said for the rest. Directly before them stood a wall which looked like it was made of plastic, with only a single doorway leading through it. There were knee-high barricades all around it.

“Feels like I’m in a laser tag arena,” Hunter chuckled, spinning on the spot as he took in the view.

“I thought humans didn’t use lasers,” Kazlu asked.

“He’s probably talking about another of his games,” Samiha muttered. “This isn’t a pastime, Hunter. Take this seriously for once.”

“Who’s the sim expert here, me or you?”

Cadell stepped between the group so they were all looking at them. He may have befriended the squad – most of them anyway – but they were bickering, losing time, and that was the last thing they needed right now.

“Focus, everyone,” he began. “We’re on a timer, remember? Real or not, we’ve got a job to do, so let’s fall out and show the Lieutenant what we’re made of.”

There was a slight pause between them all, but it was broken by Kurtis, who nudged Hunter with the butt of his machine gun.

“You heard the man. Stack up on that door.”

“What formation should we use?” Kazlu asked. “Sir?” she added, differing to Cadell.

“Same as what we’ve been studying. Humans one side, Balokarids the other.”

They did as he said, Cadell taking his spot closest to the door, Samiha doing the same on her side of the arch. There was a white line wending through the arch, animated in a way that provided a sense of direction. Cadell thought he could hear footsteps inside.

“Alright, we’ll do this by the book,” Cadell said. I’ll go first, Hutner Kurtis you follow after. Samiha, Kazlu, you come in last. You’re taller than us, so you can shoot over our heads without risk of friendly fire.”

“We should go first,” Samiha argued. “Our reflexes are better than yours. We-”

Cadell cut her off, unable to quell his rising anger. “For fuck’s sake, Samiha, we’re not even through the first room. I’m gettin’ real sick of your constant disobedience.”

Rather than hit back with some cutting remark, Samiha brandished her arm, and pressed a hidden mechanism in the middle of her brace. There was an explosion of blue light, Cadell backing into Kurtis as afterimages burned into his retinas. When his eyes adjusted, he was looking at an expanding oval of energy, blooming away from the metal device on Samiha’s brace, the previously dull metal now glowing with heat.

The barrier moved with Samiha’s arm, its surface composed of small polygons about the size of a fist. The shapes flattened out towards the edges, where they gave way to pointed triangles that looked eerily similar to the tips of feathers. It was taller than it was wider, like a tower shield from the medieval era, and that was exactly how the alien was holding it.

“Hardlight shields can withstand extreme amounts of kinetic energy,” Samiha explained. “Human bullets notwithstanding.”

Kazlu brandished her own shield, though hers only covered her arms and her wings, allowing her to use her weapon with both hands. Perhaps they could be programmed to be a certain size.

“On second thought, I’m glad you questioned me,” Cadell said. “How come no one ever mentioned you got shields?”

“I told you he’d be surprised,” Kazlu chuckled, and Samiha let slip a rare grin, though it was hard to see given the wavering energy field covering most of her body.

“Let’s see what they can do,’ Cadell said, pointing at the arch. “Clear the room.”

The Balokarids filed in, Kazlu deploying her shield to its full size. They braced their coilguns against the sides of the barriers, holding them one-handed as they moved inside. That explained why they’d built their guns to be as light as possible.

After they were through, Cadell waited two seconds, then he and the others followed. Cadell dragged his sights from left to right, but the small room beyond was clear of targets. There were a few crates scatted about, a simple test with his arm confirmed they weren’t real, they were just there to break up the sightlines.

Just as Cadell was beginning to think this starting room was just for them to test the waters, something appeared in one of the adjacent doorways. The room led off through two arches, and in the one on the left, their first target marched through. It looked like a human, clad in thick combat armour and a matching helmet, making no other sounds except for its footsteps. It was wielding a coilgun of its own, and it shouldered the weapon with uncanny speed, too quick for Cadell to brace his own weapon.

There was a crack as the hologram fired off a shot, Samiha hunching beneath her shield. The killshot instead turned into a puff of sparks, the barrier rippling like the surface of a disturbed pond. Samiha responded with a burst from her coilgun, sweeping her shots across its chest.

The target lurched, and then flickered away like a light bulb going out. Samiha looked Cadell in the eye, shrugging her shoulder in a told you so kind of way.

“Not bad,” he relented. “How much damage can that thing take?”

“More than enough,” she replied dismissively.

“That’s a little too vague for my taste.”

“Then it’s a good thing you don’t have one, isn’t it?”

“Stop it, you two,” Kazlu said. “We’re already approaching two minutes, and we’ve barely begun.”

Cadell glanced at the clock. Damn it, she was right. They needed to get moving. The white guideline led out through the arch the hologram had come from, so Cadell hurried over to it, taking up his spot on one side of it.

“Are just going to leave that way unchecked?” Samiha asked, gesturing to the unexplored arch.

“There’s no time to clear every room,” Cadell said. “Our objective is to reach the end of the course, not to explore.”

“We won’t make it if we leave our flanks unsecured,” Samiha argued. “If you won’t do it, then I will.”

“Samiha!” he growled, but the alien wasn’t listening. She rushed over to the door, and proceeded through with her shield held out in front. “I’m really starting to hate that bird.”

“Should we wait for her?” Hunter asked.

“No, we keep going. Kazlu, you’re first. We’re right behind you.”

The Balokarid looed to her companion, but didn’t argue. She deployed her shield to its maximum size, then led the way through, the humans hurrying after.

The next room was the same size as the last, but there were two holograms blocking their path, eerily silent as they shouldered their weapons. Cadell and Hunter were faster, however, bursts from their coilguns bringing the two targets down. There was only one doorway leading out of this room, and another pair of holograms stalked inside, weapons at the ready.

There was cover in the form of two crates centering the room, Cadell ducking behind one as bullets screamed overhead. He knew they weren’t real, but he swore on his soul afterwards, that he had felt wind on his face in their passing.

Kurtis drew a bead with his oversized weapon, the coilgun bellowing fire from its muzzle. He hosed the archway with a pair of swerves, and the two holograms crumpled to the ground before fading away.

“Targets down,” Kurtis announced. The four of them took to the next doorframe in the same formation, with Kazlu and her shield at the front. He could see a lot of benefits to having a barrier like that in a real fight. If only they had two…

The next room was longer than the last, and it curved at a right angle, with columns and crates scattered about, placed in a very deliberate manner. Cadell and the others were forced to use Kazlu as walking cover as several holograms appeared throughout the room, two even poking their heads up from over the walls, firing down on them from higher ground.

Cadell fired upon these holograms, directing Hutner and Kurtis to clear the hallway. The holograms fell from the walls like stunt men, thinning into air the instant their mock bodies touched the ground. Cadell saw his ammo counter was in the single digits and reloaded, the clack as he fisted home a fresh mag audible even over the shooting.

They cleared this arm of the room in less then ten seconds, and Cadell raised his arm and made a fist, signaling the others to stop.

“Check the corner, Kaz,” he said, tapping the alien on the thigh, as it was the only place he could reach. “How many?”

Since she had a shield, Kazlu didn’t expose herself as she turned out to look. Bullets slammed into her shield, but the alien didn’t so much as twitch. “Six,” she said. “And they’re dug in behind some barricades. There’s a lot of open ground between them and us.”

“Okay, Kaz, keep that shield up,” Cadell said. “Kurtis stay on her left, Hunter, you’re on the right. Keep moving up, I’ll stay here and cover you.”

“Got it,” Kazlu said. “Stay close, little guys.”