Chapter 11: Loading the Forge
"We cannot afford to have a valuable pilot routinely sacrificing his own Endlave. It's reckless, it's wasteful, it's..."
"It earned his team a win, general. It was only an exercise, but had the condition of this battle been real, Panther Squad would have succeeded in their mission."
"It was only an exercise, colonel. Actual combat will be even more chaotic, and he's the pilot for the Spectre. He can't afford to break that thing short of accomplishing his mission, and even then the Spectre would be harder to replace than a regular Endlave. We only have so many resources we can devote to the production prototypes."
"He will begin training in the Spectre simulator once I'm sure he's comfortable with the standard Jumeau. I won't allow him in a live prototype until I'm confident he can handle it."
"Can you ensure he understands that his behavior this exercise is unacceptable going forward? We do not want this to become a habit."
"It won't, sir."
-GC-
After being discharged from medical, Daryl was given crutches to use for the next couple of days, just as a precaution, though he was otherwise allowed to return to class and join his squad in the simulator.
The atmosphere between them had changed. Though most of the squad started calling him "kid" like Tomas, it was no longer with condescension. He was part of the squad, and "kid" was simply his nickname.
Over the coming weeks, with Ellen as the squad captain, Panther Squad gained a reputation for ferocity. The other teams did not like fighting them in the simulator, and rumor had it that Orca Squad was not looking forward to facing them in the third live exercise. Panther Squad ran with fangs and claws bared. Their tactics were aggressive, with Ellen calling for fast strikes before opposing teams could even get into position. She made her decisions quickly, often without consultation, and simply expected everyone to be where she told them to be.
They were.
Considering she had been on the quiet side when not in command, it had taken some adjustment following her direction, but Daryl did not mind. Ellen kept the other teams off balance. Though she was the most offensive oriented captain yet out of their squad, their losses were not as high as under Conner and Oscar. She favored guerrilla tactics, with a lot of strikes and retreats, and maneuvers their opponents did not expect. By the time their next live exercise came, they did not lose a single Endlave, nor were any heavily damaged, which Daryl knew Colonel Brandt would be happy about.
She had impressed upon him that his tactics against Bear Squad were not sustainable, but something in her manner told him that she personally did not care. Brandt was only relaying what she had been asked, which in Daryl's mind meant that she would not object too heavily if he did it again, if the reward justified it.
Someone on the academy board was probably upset over the repair costs, and Daryl understood that, but his objective was to graduate in two years, and he needed to do whatever necessary to make sure that happened.
His father had actually e-mailed him back following his announcement of Panther Squad's flawless win. It hadn't been more than a simple "Good work," but it was praise, wasn't it? He was being useful, he wasn't going to get himself kicked out. His father didn't need to feel embarrassed having him for a son.
"Bunch of psychos," said Orca Squad, when Daryl and his squadmates next saw them in the mess.
Ellen just smiled and waved, without saying a word. The win/loss ratio of the ten squads that comprised their class were always available for cadets to look up. Panther was in the top half, running 2-1. Their pilot rankings could still use work due to the losses they had taken in the first two matches, but they were efficient at eliminating their opponents.
"One of the cows will have to take notice of us for semester finals now," said Oscar, as they sat down at their table, plates laden with dinner. "We're the first squad to earn a win without a single loss."
"Wolf Squad is still undefeated," said Ellen. "They'll get picked before us, but I think our last match was an eye opener for some people. We might get picked ahead of the lower ranked yearlings. Good job, everyone."
"It's Paul's turn in the captain's seat now, right?" said Heather.
He nodded. "Yeah, but I can't help feeling cheated a bit. Since it's finals, it'll be the cow in charge of us giving out most of the orders."
"Tough luck," said Tomas.
"I like that everyone else thinks we're nuts," said Conner. "It made things easier to be honest. Did you see how paranoid Orca was when we jumped them?"
"Whoever blinks first loses, simple as that," said Oscar.
Heather laughed. "And you complained so much about Ellen bum rushing us everywhere."
"But it turned out we weren't actually bum rushing! I just didn't realize it at the time."
"It's okay," said Daryl. "I think we all were surprised."
"Says the craziest of all of us."
Last live exercise Ellen had launched Daryl into the air to send him over a wall of Orca Endlaves. Their machines were not intended for flight, not in the least, but their legs were well reinforced compared to the rest of the body. Ellen had lowered a fallen section of wall on her shoulders and knelt beneath it to serve as a ramp, allowing Daryl to skate over her back and, with enough momentum, clear the Orca defense.
No one had expected that. They'd never tried it in the simulator against another team, but under Ellen the squad tried a lot of unconventional tactics; jumping from buildings, through buildings, using each other's momentum to throw one Endlave faster in another direction.
Daryl was willing to try everything, even the ramp. Even though he fell a lot. He nearly twisted his ankle, or rather his Endlave's ankle, landing on the other side of Orca at the end of that last stunt.
Though the rest of Panther had grown more aggressive beneath Ellen, none of them took quite the risks that Daryl did. But he was fine with that. It gave him a place on the team. He told them Brandt's words about being ready for pain, so that when it happened, there would be no hesitation, and Panther was ready, none of them more than Daryl.
"Hey, Panther, I just wanted to stop by and say that was a good match."
Daryl turned to look at the newcomer. Her shoulder insignia said she was a fourth rank cadet like them, a plebe, but he hadn't spoken to her before, though he remembered seeing her in class. She was sharp, with good questions and equally good answers.
"You didn't fight us," said James. "You're not in Orca. We saw all seven of them just a minute ago."
Orca had unfortunately lost a cadet during CBT, and unlike Panther, they had not received a replacement. It was probably maddening for them to be running perpetually short-handed, though they were a tight knit group despite, or perhaps because of, it.
"Not recently," she said, "but I did a couple months ago. I'm in Wolf."
Daryl could swear he saw hackles rise on half his squad.
"Stopping by to remind us that you're still ahead?" said Tomas. He pretended to hide his irritation behind his cup under the pretense of taking a drink of water, but he didn't fool anyone.
Still, she laughed. "No, not at all. It was a good match. I wish we had a chance to fight head to head against you guys again this year, but it looks like we won't be able to have a rematch until next. That's too bad. If you guys had fought your first match like your third, we wouldn't have had a chance."
"I guess we did hold even to you guys as it was," said Paul, musing. "And you're our only loss, so our squads are probably well matched."
"It just was that stupid shot in the back..." said Tomas.
"It was a good strategy," said their visitor.
"Was that you?" asked Daryl.
She nodded. "Yes. It's not really any different from what Panther does, right? Catch the enemy unprepared."
"Right," said Ellen.
Tomas said nothing, though he probably wanted to.
"I'm Kelly Rush," she said. "I'm going to be Wolf Squad's captain during the semester finals, so I wanted to say hi. Depending on how the cows divvy us up, we might be on the same side this time."
"It could just as easily go the other way," said Oscar. "The cows aren't going to let the two best plebe squads end up on the same team."
"No, it could happen," said Daryl. When Oscar gave him a look, he added, "Think about it from the cows' perspective. They need to pick a squad, and it's going to be either a plebe or a yearling. If the two best plebe squads are equivalent to a lesser yearling, it won't matter to them which year we're in."
"Exactly," said Kelly. "The only thing a yearling squad has over us is experience, and if the cows aren't happy with the lower end yearlings, they may want to pick a plebe squad, which will be us."
"Or us," said Paul.
She nodded gamely, as if no slight had been intended. Her expression was still friendly, leaving Daryl to wonder what she really thought of Panther Squad. With the experience they had now, he suspected that Panther could beat Wolf, but Wolf had not slipped in their subsequent matches either. Everyone improved. Underestimating an opponent was bad.
"Are you the captain this round?" She looked at Daryl.
He blinked, uncomfortable with the attention. "Um, no. I'm not."
"I am," said Paul.
"And who was the captain last time?"
"I was," said Ellen.
"So you were the one who called out the ramp tactic?"
Ellen shrugged. "Does it matter? We won't be doing that one again. Now that people have seen it, there's no surprise anymore."
"Well, technically that's your new captain's call isn't it?"
"We won't be," said Paul, his voice flat, "unless the cow we're under asks for it, but we'd argue for something else. If we end up on the same team for finals, we can discuss then."
"All right, all right." Kelly held up her hands. "I'm not here to milk you for tactics. So good luck. Hopefully we'll both end up on the same team."
She waved and walked away from their table. Paul watched her go and then glanced at the rest of the squad. "Do you guys think the cows have already made their decisions?"
"I don't think they have, but there's a good chance that they have an idea of who they want," said Oscar, leaning back in his chair. "It's just a matter of whether of not they get their first pick, second pick, third pick, and so on. I know I go on about us showing off, but even I know we're not going to be anyone's first pick. It'll be the best of the yearlings."
"We should have probed her too," said Heather. "If she's Wolf Squad, maybe she could have let something drop. All we know about them is that they favor pack tactics."
Wolf Squad preferred to keep the entire group in roughly the same area of the field, but divided into teams of two or three. If their opponents found one group, they knew the rest were nearby, but never exactly where. They were not as flashy as Panther had been last exercise, but they were efficient.
"We do know something else," said Daryl, after some thought. "They want to win. I hadn't thought about it before, but if she was the Wolf Endlave that we thought was disabled and shot Tomas in the back, then that means she's also ready for pain. She rejected the bail out to stay in the match, and Wolf Squad won specifically because she did that."
"So we can't underestimate what they're willing to do," said Paul.
"If we face them," said Ellen. "Semester finals are large enough that we might not face a squad we've fought before. It could even be a yearling squad, or a squad of leftover cows that didn't rank high enough to get their own squad. It'll all be up to where the firsties playing strategoi want to put us."
Daryl stood and picked up his tray. "I'm going to go talk to her."
"Hm?" Tomas looked at him, incredulous. "Do you really think you're going to get anything out of her?"
"Maybe not voluntarily, but she's probably worth knowing. I mean, we're not going to be rivals forever. Eventually we're going to graduate and we may end up serving together."
And at least for him, Daryl knew that next year he was going to be considered a cow or even a firstie rather than a yearling. He would have the class credits to be a cow, and would be graduating by the end of the year. It would be good to know people who could potentially be beneath him, people he might want to recruit for his own run in the semester finals.
He put his tray on the collection racks and then jogged the way he had seen Kelly leave the mess. She hadn't been in a hurry, and was alone rather than with her squad. It would be a good time to speak with her.
Daryl spotted her in the courtyard outside the building. Though the sun had set, the walkways were brightly lit by pairs of lamps that lined the concrete, and most of the cadets were still indoors eating.
"Kelly!" he shouted.
She turned around. "Something up?" she asked.
He jogged up to her, a little surprised by how effortless it was. All that training had put him in better shape than he thought. And now that he had her attention, he wasn't sure what to ask, but he was positive that he should befriend her. She had kept a level head in their very first live exercise, she knew and was willing to take risks, and unlike him, she hadn't the benefit of a colonel in her back pocket.
Kelly Rush. He remembered that name now, from the pilot rankings. They didn't matter so much for semester final preparation, because the cows had to choose by squad rather than building their own teams, but for individuals... Kelly was the only cadet in their class who had made it through all three matches without ever being completely disabled.
"I didn't want you to think we were driving you off," he said. "It's just we're nervous. Our third match was our first solid one and we don't want to slide back during finals. We're finally getting our legs under us."
"None taken," she said easily. She tilted her head as she regarded him. "You're the high school kid, right?"
"Yeah." No point in denying it. It would be easy for her to find out if she really wanted to be sure.
"What's your name?"
"Oh, sorry. I'm Daryl Yan."
"Yan? That doesn't sound Japanese. I'd heard the kid who arrived late came from Japan."
"That's just where my dad's stationed. I was born here, in the US."
She seemed to think about something, then shrugged. "Well, nice to meet you, Daryl. See you on the battlefield!"
"Do you need to go somewhere? Dinner's not even over yet."
Kelly shook her head and waved good-bye to him. "I don't, but I think someone wants to talk to you."
Daryl turned, and striding down the campus towards him was Lieutenant Gene Harada. The lieutenant shouldn't be out looking for him already. He still had at least forty minutes before he needed to report in for his tutoring and they never met outside of their evening sessions, which probably meant that it wasn't really the lieutenant who wanted him.
Brandt.
A/N: I don't really consider myself a mecha fan, so I find it a little strange that I keep writing mecha combat sequences in this story. But these days I'm watching and Fafner: Exodus despite being mecha shows. I don't think it's because of any new love for the genre so much as both of them focus more on the characters than the mecha, but some of their battles are smart enough that I find I want to write something like them.
We're probably about 30-40% of the way through the story now, assuming it stops growing on me. I'm not expecting Daryl's second year to take as many chapters as his first.
