(Sigma Mercenaries, Story 0002: To Train The Trainers)
(Chapter 5: Hot LZ)
(29 March, Magi Year 14408 / Year SL 8838, 0550 Hours Local Time)
(METARgraphic Training room, Administration Building basement level, Base Boarhound, Terra 232)
(Day 12 of Campaign)
"We are gathered here at this ungodly hour to do a simulated forced entry hostage rescue," Clint announced to the gathered persons — nine in total, including Nereus who decided to watch the action since he was already awake and didn't have anything else planned for this time slot.
"Oh, this will be fun," Victoria said in a tone that clearly stated she was not looking forward to this session.
"Here's the scoop. Two hostages, husband and wife missionaries captured by generic non-ethnically-typed tangos, demanding 1 million in ransom for their safe return. Assumption is that the hostages are dead if they pay and dead if they don't pay, so the family has hired us on to bring them the hotels back alive or the tangos back dead. This is not a sanctioned mission by the local landlords, so assume that any person under arms in our AO is hostile."
"That will be fairly standard fare going forward, not all countries will accept the activity of mercs in their territory, and any nation that has not signed the Mercenary Accords can treat us as hostile enemy combatants," Hess cautioned the rest of the operators.
"Anyway, we're running this scenario under the ruleset that ComStar has been kind enough to provide schematics of the AO, so this is where we get nasty," Clint waved at the briefing board Virtue had been kind enough to set up for this simulation. "Our operations assume we are raiding one building with positive knowledge of the presence of the hostages, but this building is part of a terrorist complex and we need to plan to combat them at length. Normally we would go in with attack helos and raze any building where the hostages specifically are not but the enemy is, consider that a doctrine point going forward."
"Approved, assuming we have hard intel on the hostages' locations," Hess said. "Psionic verification is ample."
"Works for me, boss-man," Clint acknowledged the point. "Anyway, the building in question is a contiguous room building, effectively three quadrahedral buildings mashed together with makeshift doors between them. Hostages will be somewhere in here, along with an assortment of tangos armed with non-specific arms and likely third-world jerkwater or second-world cannon-fodder gearsets. Shouldn't have to get too creative to put them down, follow?"
"Got it," Clarence said.
"Once we start the party, we will have multiple recurrent lateral engagement zones to deal with. Exact method and madness on that issue is to be determined. We need to get the hostages out and cleared before we determine exactly how we want to stiff the locals, follow?"
"Good copy," Sigma One acknowledged the point. Toni simply nodded to the point.
"Any questions?" There were none. "Teams will be Commander and SSO for the day, four elements. Experimental weapons are in play, the boss has a MDBS-07D, I will be carrying in a Glock 18 as a sidearm. If you hear unusual fire, verify your targets before you shoot, clear?"
"Yes sir!" the entire team answered by rote.
"Break down and get ready for it, people."
-x-
(Elsewhere in Existence…)
(Town of Two Hawks, Northern Reaches (Janoshire), Kingdom of Havon)
Lady Neinke Honoratia silently cursed her stubbornness for not having taken this trip by horse, instead she had taken passage to the town of Two Hawks, which was still a not-insignificant overland distance from her objective. On the other hand, the guide she would need for the last leg of the trip was in town, so her arrival here even without horse was prescient.
Apparently, it was also untoward enough that she had drawn attention at the outskirts of town. "Are you one of the Knights?" a guy sitting outside the saloon asked.
"I am. Lady Neinke Honoratia. You are?"
"Ralvan of the Western Winds," the guy stood up. "My letter," he offered the Knight the documentation she expected from the guide.
"Excellent," Neinke read over the document and found everything in order. "Do we begin immediately?"
"The travel is not far," Ralvan said. "I have a cart waiting. I will take you to the end of the access road you will need to follow, but I am not a trained combatant. The rest is on you, milady."
Neinke nodded. "I expected as much. Lead the way, if you will?" she asked. Technically she was speaking to a plebian, not a noble, and thus there was no need for deference, but Neinke found that a little civility went a long way, even with commoners.
"Here," Ralvan headed around back to a waiting team of draft horses and a cart, then came around the corner at the reins of the team. "Please," he indicated the teamster's seat.
Neinke had no trouble climbing up to the bench, even in her 65 pounds of armor and arms. Some older, magicked armor sets weighed less and afforded vastly improved protection, but being a Knight Eloquence Journeywoman, she was highly unlikely to lay hands on such magicked equipment for many years. Such was the test of the Knights Eloquence: those that survived their recruiting and Journeywoman postings occasionally made it to the Master's ranks, and with it the right to use the best and most ancient gear from the Kingdom's history. Occasionally, even some of the Masters could fit into that ancient gear, which appeared to be made for less stout persons.
Ralvan was quiet as they made the short journey through town and onward to the north. He broke the silence after they passed the last house and were out of earshot. "You can see the results of her actions to the larboard," the teamster said.
Neinke had seen several fields completely barren, despite being turned and planted in what appeared to be good order. "Deliberate?"
"Very much so. Those that refuse her extortions do not profit in their labors. Those failed souls either leave the area or they pay properly and in full in the next year." Ralvan changed courses onto a second set of carter's trails, now headed more northeast. "We are approaching where I stop," he noted after a short period on this new trail.
"What can you tell me about the witch?" Neinke asked.
"Physically she is unimpressive," Ralvan said. "I do not know what manner of combat witchcraft she knows, and if you'll excuse my flippancy, I have tried my best to avoid provoking her."
Neinke snickered briefly. "One cannot fault you for trying to avoid such wrath, teamster."
He brought the cart to a halt next to a stand of trees. "I will wait here until sundown. The footpath ahead of us on the right is the trail that leads to her front door. Be cautious, Lady Honoratia."
"The Knights Eloquence thank you for your assistance in this matter." Neinke dropped down and settled her cuirass, then adjusted her riding cloak. "We will meet again."
-x-
Clint slapped a breaching frame on the door, switched it on, and turned away from the door. "BREACHING!" He shouted a bare moment before the breaching charge detonated and disintegrated the door into sound and splinters.
Hess took a moment to shake off the blast from the breaching frame, then turned toward as Clarence and Asuka made their entry after the pointman and his guard. The first wave of shooting was done before Hess entered, so he simply held aim downrange into the next building section to prevent any unseen enemies from getting the drop on the entry team.
"Clear! Ready to go?" Clint asked after the teams reformed into their respective elements.
"Go!" Hess ordered, aiming left with Clarence on his right and aiming forward.
"Hotels identified! Two marks dead ahead!" Clarence reported after they crossed the divider into the next room.
"Tango left!" Toni shouted before she drilled the semi-concealed opposition fighter with two pairs of 5.56 M855. He tried to remain standing, tried to bring his weapon up, but his resistance to the coring out of his heart and left lung was only a half-second before he collapsed to the ground, unmoving.
The entry into the third room area was handled on both sides of the entryway, given the wide gap in the entryway, and Hess had the point on the left side. On his side, he had only one threat party in the area, so he fired on the hostage-taker from seven yards with the double-barreled combat shotgun MDBS-07D. The two barrels of buckshot put some 35 of the 36 pellets from the two shells into his torso and right arm, an off-center pattern due to Sigma One firing while the shotgun was still in motion and aimed at his right ribs.
"Clear right!" Clint announced.
"Clear left!" Hess completed the traditional verification.
"Two hostages!" Clarence approached the two bound subjects and used a pair of wire cutters to clear their zip-tie handcuffs.
"Thank you, thank you mister!" the man said. Hess considered it a bit disconcerting how realistic they were, but he also figured that a nanomachine and holography simulation being driven by an artificial intelligence entity would be able to get it close to, if not entirely realistic.
"Worry about thanks after we get you out, mister," Clarence responded while he was clipping the zip-ties on the wife's restraints.
"Victoria, Sidonia, evacuate hotels to the vehicles and man the fifty-cal. Clint, Clarence, emplace and arm motion-sensor claymores at the windows. We have maybe a full minute before we're up to our asses in tangos!"
-x-
The feeling of voluntarily walking up to the abode of a witch was highly unsettling to Neinke, but as these things happened it was equal parts Knightly duty and public service. Still, it did not reduce the hazard of the task, and this was not exactly a safe job to begin with, so…
Without much in the way of an operational angle or other hook to do the job, Neinke figured she would just ruck up to the door and knock. Such a plan had precisely zero subtlety to it, but she figured a knight stomping around this area was likely to have neither stealth nor plausible deniability to begin with.
One knock, then two knocks, and Neinke waited a few moments as would be civil before she cracked the door to see if the structure was occupied. "Is anyone home?" Neinke asked after a moment of nothing major being visible except the glow of a fire.
"Come in," a lady's voice answered. "Come in, come in," she said more invitingly.
"If you'll excuse the intrusion, I was looking for someone," Neinke said, playing a hunch. "Maybe you could assist?" Lady Honoratia asked as she caught sight of at least some of what she expected to see. Oddly, there was less of the prototypical witch equipment and resources, but the main cauldron was present and — rather frighteningly — there were a large amount of sealed jars with blood in them, by the labels taken from animals and even some humans?
"Something I can help with, lady Knight?" the occupant of the residence asked. Neinke was not hugely surprised that the occupant was female, but was very much surprised that she was roughly of the same age as herself and rather stunning of looks. At the minimum, she could have passed for nobility in all but dress.
"Aye, am trying to source and quell a cause of crop blight and tree blight in the area. Can you assist with such a hunt?"
"Already have an idea where it is coming from," the witch said. "Harald the Blackrobe, he lives in a tower that is magically sealed a couple miles north of here. Practices an absolutely invidious art of Dark Geomancy. I can get you into the tower, but I cannot help you against him."
"You would turn on another practitioner so readily?" Neinke asked, instantly suspicious.
The witch snorted. "He has given me no cause to be loyal to him. His desire to create monoliths is, as you have seen, poisoning the lands in this area. It is hard to be a Blood Teller without a fresh stock of blood, and blood is hard to come by when the game animals go elsewhere for food," she explained at length. "Your quest to end the blight goes through him, and as it happens, makes things easier for me."
The witch sounded sincere enough, Neinke figured, and if she was being truthful, this was a golden opportunity to take down an even nastier foe than just a witch. "Very well, to what fee may I offer for your assistance in tracking him down?"
"Just your hand, Knight, kindly hold it out over the cauldron and we will begin." Neinke pulled her mailed glove and held it out in the requested position. "This will sting briefly, but here shortly you will feel nothing untoward." The witch took Neinke's left wrist in her hand, and produced a blue needle with which she lightly stabbed the meaty part of her palm at the base of the thumb. After a moment, the witch inverted Neinke's hand and worked the strike point to cause blood to drip down into the cauldron. The blood drip frothed the cauldron until the waters within turned from a murky black-brown to a green hue, then to a rose color.
Neinke noticed quickly that her body was beginning to become unresponsive, and at an accelerating pace she lost first her ability to stand, then her ability to move her arms, and lastly any control over her body except for sight and breathing.
"Perfect, the paralysis formula I used leaves a person conscious, breathing, and aware. You will get to experience your fate in its entirety, Knight." The witch used a dipper to ladle out a portion of the contents of the cauldron, then simply upended the brew onto the floor. "And, better still, your own blood will lead the way into unknown lands, likely where the denizens therein shall shred you apart, leaving no evidence that you were ever here."
Neinke heard a knock at the door, then the sound of the hinges groaning. "I take it she is immobilized?" Neinke recognized the voice of her contact from town, Ralvan.
"She is, and the Dimension Door will be open momentarily. Give me a hand casting her through into this new world."
Neinke could not protest their ministrations in any fashion, nor could she resist. All she could see was a hole in time and space that the witch and the turncoat had elevated her to parallel to, and she was unceremoniously shoved through the portal.
-x-
"Two, break right!" Hess ordered.
"Go go!" Clint shouted at Moira as he fired right-forward on a moving tango with an AK product in hand. Part of Sigma Two's first burst missed, the second burst was all on target and he went down screaming.
"Team 3, suppressing fire up the middle!" Hess flipped a flashbang into the next room to stun the enemy as the teams shifted around.
"Warning warning! Anomaly detected on the range — " Virtue began, but was cut off by the sound of a person-on-person impact sound that immediately drew all attention to Clint. Someone had landed on Clint, and whoever it was definitely was not dressed as part of the simulation. From what Sigma One could see, it was a lady, wearing some kind of a heavy tunic, likely a padded / scaled tunic given the way she rattled on impact, and a sword.
"Augh! Compromised! Compromised!" Clint shouted after he recovered from the momentary stun of being landed on. In staying true to what was going on, he pulled his sidearm and aimed over the interloper's hip to loose suppressing fire from his Glock 18.
"Person unidentified! Recommend abort simulation!" Virtue said.
"Negative!" Clint answered. "Shit happens in battle! This may be weird shit — " he paused to unload a burst into a guy approaching him — "but shit can happen! Train to fight through any of it!"
"Confirmed, we continue the exercise," Hess ordered. "Team 2, extract the mystery arrival, drag her out if needed. Team 4, enter and sweep to point to provide assistance for extraction," Sigma One concluded. "Team 3, suppressing fire right!" Hess ordered at the same time he peeked around his corner and laid down a hail of shotgun rounds toward the left-hand entrance into the other part of the combined three rooms.
Clarence and Asuka moved forward, Clarence dropped to prone with the M249 to provide a base of fire, Asuka took a knee next to him to provide secondary fire and security for the LMG. As Clarence began his fire run, he caught sight of one of the simulated enemies trying to get in close on Sigma One, and smiled at the categoric mistake the 'gang-banger' had made in so doing: never get close to the Militiamen in CQB.
-x-
Neinke had no earthly clue where she had landed, where the witch had dropped her, and she was less than thrilled about the paralysis she was now suffering, but she had quickly found out it was a very noisy environment. The few exposures she had to arquebus were pale echoes of the raw noise being generated by this handful of troops engaged in some very-fast-paced gunplay, even despite her presence.
Neinke had nearly no control over her voluntary musculature, but her eyes were still functional and she could barely breathe, so she could see, hear, and think clearly. She could feel each round detonated and sent on its way, some of those rounds even glowed in the dark as they passed downrange. The sheer aural abuse of it wrecked her hearing quickly, the echoes of the shots were just too much for someone whose loudest experience in days prior was a shout, and months prior was a single cannon shot at a testing range.
The speed was the most frightening part to her. From what she could tell, in the few moments she had been in this new locale, hundreds of rounds had been fired both by those nearby her and by the opposing force on the far side of the rooms. The fire continued, without the need to reload as would a common Arquebus, and though she knew of weapons that could be fired two or three times in succession, the sight of dozens of glowing streaks headed in both directions, each streak likely a bullet, was both curious to her and very unsettling.
As the man she landed on clamored out from under her, her head involuntarily lolled to the left and had a good look at a very large guy with a lady in close proximity, both with some very unusual long arms. The lady was firing diagonally across the room, the guy more forward until some kind of opposition fighter approached him close. A mere twitch of his large gun, a single shot at very close range, and most of the enemy's head was sheared off as a red mist and paste from the lower jaw upwards. The muzzle blast from that gun was rather frightening, the recoil even more so as the brutish double-barreled gun drove him backwards noticeably in the semi-dark environment. The disintegration of most of the opposition fighter's head was simply a sickening exclamation point on something that was already very worrisome to her, so...
The next few moments were even more shocking to Neinke, having been party to multiple campaigns over the years she thought she had seen the best of the nastiest conduct in close, but this engagement was a lesson. The big guy on the opposite side of the room twisted the large double-barrel gun around to his left with one hand, resting it on some manner of sling, while the other hand went down to something on his hip — maybe a pistol? It looked like no manner of pistol she had seen in the past, but he handled it in the same fashion. His timing was prescient: as he stepped back from the corner cover position he was in, another foe circled around the corner and right into the big guy. They both appeared momentarily unprepared for the encounter, but the big guy won the speed race and simply threw the foe into the wall to his left by sheer strength, where he crumpled into a heap at the soldier's feet. A second enemy tried coming around the corner, but the lady behind and to the right of the big soldier shot this newcomer in the chest, which caused him to collapse forward. A third enemy came up behind the recently deceased, and this time was slightly ready but not fast enough to outdo the massive soldier, who fired a single shot from the (confirmed) pistol into his face and caused that interloper to drop straight down into a heap directly behind the deceased enemy's comrade. With the immediate threat resolved, the soldier turned back to the foe on the ground to his left and shot four times, two in the chest, one in the arm, and once in the head, likely to ensure a kill.
As Neinke watched the large soldier and the smaller lady fire laterally across the area toward an unseen threat, something or someone began dragging her away from the direction of the enemy advance. Or was it the oncoming foes to the soldiers she was near were the good persons and those she had landed on were enemies? Given the sheer chaos of the battle, she was unsure who was who. After a few moments, she could tell (barely) that it was two persons, each with a hand hooked in her cuirass and backplate, their other hand freed to continue the battle with their strange pistols and rapid-fire arquebus. The shooting continued as she was dragged past a guy in the prone position and a lady, both with rapid-fire weapons that were spitting an inordinate amount of the self-glowing bullets in the general direction of the advance, but more curiously were also flinging aside some kind of copper or brass byproduct of the use of the firearm?
"BOSS! WE'RE CLEAR!" One of the two persons dragging Neinke shouted.
The lady by the big guy flipped an object into the far room. "FRAG OUT!" A short breath later, the entire area rattled to an explosion louder than a cannon shot.
After the blast, the big guy flipped another similar object toward the enemy line of advance. "WILLY PETE OUT!" He shouted, then turned to jog away from the enemy. As he passed the lady in attendance to his position, he clapped her on the shoulder, which appeared to be a signal for her to join him? The two soldiers continued past where she was being dragged until they reached the next logical point of coverage and took up new fighting positions.
-x-
"CLARENCE! LEAPFROG!" Hess shouted before he did a fast reload on the MDBS-07 shotgun. The method was the same process as that of a fast-load for a G3, FAL, or AK product, where the latch was at the base of the receiver and could be unlocked by sweeping a fresh magazine against the lock, then he used the fresh mag to dislodge the spent magazine. Once the double-column drum-feed replacement was in place, he slapped the bolt release to chamber new rounds.
"MOVING!" Clarence clamored to his feet and bounded backwards, to where his wife was waiting with her AR-15 HBAR, then braced against the doorframe of the exterior building exit to provide covering fire as Clint and Moira continued bringing out the impromptu hostage. Victoria, not being a primary combatant among the unit, had not yet decided on a more permanent weapons platform for her use going forward, but was leaning toward something of a DMR in the 5.56 category.
Sigma One braced the MDBS-07 shotgun against the doorframe headed into the structure for the entry chamber, tucked in close, and cut loose with the semiautomatic monstrosity. Fifteen shots later (30 shells downrange), the gun locked open on two empty chambers. "I'M OUT! RELOADING!" he shouted after he turned away from the corner for Toni to take up the suppression into the prior room.
Clarence held his fire, given there were allies in the area and Toni was putting down a solid base of fire with her ACR, so he was off the trigger for the time being. Clint and Moira dragged the mystery arrival past him, Clint still covering backwards with the absurdly noisy and not very effective Glock 18, Moira covering with her XD Tactical .40, and the rather unsettling sight of the lady that landed on Clint being able to look around but apparently had no muscle control other than eyes and shallow breathing? Sigma Three easily saw the eyes moving around, trying to understand what was going on, but apparently she had no further control of herself?
The sound of a door breaking in the entry chamber changed the name of the game again. "CONTACT LEFT!" Clarence shouted before he brought his Light Machine Gun around on target. The new tango only fired one round at Toni (a miss) before Clarence hammered him with eight or nine rounds of 5.56mm. With the first one down, Clarence kept his sights on the left-hand doorway to suppress any further tangos coming from that direction, and so they did: inside of twenty seconds, Clarence had a respectable pile of bodies just inside the doorframe.
"CONTACT RIGHT!" Victoria shouted, firing just past her husband's shoulder at a second entryway that had been made dynamically by the OpFor to circumvent the WP grenade Hess had laid down. "HESS! LEAPFROG!"
This time, Hess yanked a frag grenade and flipped it around the corner into the second main room area. "FRAG OUT!" he shouted a moment before it detonated. After that was done, Hess pulled another WP grenade, armed it and flipped it through the doorway to burn anyone still alive in the room and smoke anyone else. "WILLY PETE OUT! MOVING!" Again, as the big guy moved past Toni, he gave her a clap on the shoulder to inform her it was clear to move.
-x-
Neinke watched the lady with the lighter, long-barrel arquebus rotated her weapon to a strange angle, canted inward at the top, and sighted through a small piece of glass toward the unseen enemies on the right. Each shot of the rifle, so close to where she was being dragged clear of the battlefield, rattled her chest and bones in a way that not even the pounding of the Kingdom's 12-pounder cannons could make her feel. A moment before the big guy would have crossed the path of the weapon, the lady aimed her rifle down to the ground as he passed through the door and presumably outside the structure (but still in another structure?)
"Clint, Moira, move to rearguard, I'll finish up extraction," the big guy ordered, which was barely audible courtesy of their communication relays over the sheer aural abuse of the prior minutes. The lady of the two who were dragging her clear of the structure handed Neinke's cuirass off to the big guy, who proceeded to continue dragging her clear of the engagement zone alone as the guy and two ladies resumed fire on the enemy line of advance through the structure. The guy in the new rearguard cut loose with some kind of pistol that showered the brass hulls all over the place, but the result cut down two enemies and wounded a third, the last of which was eliminated by the second lady (Moira?) who shot him twice in the head when on the ground from a range of mere feet.
The guy at the door flipped a new device into the door. "NAIL GRENADE OUT!"
The lady assigned to work with him tossed in her own device, similar to the ones that the big guy had used. "WILLY PETE OUT!"
Neinke noticed that she had crossed some kind of warning line on the ground courtesy of being dragged out of the area, and with it the room lit up artificially from some kind of objects on the roof of the building that the building is within?
"Simulation terminated, all mission objectives completed and all personnel theoretically extracted," an unrecognized lady's voice declared.
Fighting of that nature, of that brutality, that was a simulacrum to them? I can not imagine what real battle would be as played out in these lands, Neinke thought behind a face that was otherwise passive because she had no control over it.
"HOLY SHIT boss man!" The small guy that had been prior dragging her out shouted. "That was way the hell more intense than I expected!"
"Nereus, spare a moment to lay hands upon our new arrival?" The big guy asked. "I don't think she was paralyzed as part of the exercise."
"Can do, bring her over to one of these benches," someone prior unheard said through their communication relay system.
"Stand by," and Neinke was set down on the smooth stone ground to rest, until someone picked her up in a cradling carry that she did not expect.
Has to be the big guy, she thought, and with the first couple steps her head shifted enough to see it was indeed the big guy carrying her. She quickly noticed that he had an unusual walking gait, as if he had trouble with one of his legs? Every second or fourth step was uneven, almost stilted, but he certainly had no problem carrying a lady knight in medium armor and with a sword! Such was rendered even more interesting when she realized that he had not doffed any of his combat gear, which she suspected weighed more than hers.
"Man alive! A couple of those encounters were crap-your-drawers scary!" the lady that was in attendance with the big guy said. " 'Specially that one where the three got in close against us! How did you do that so fast?"
"We will need to review the exercise in detail. Virtue, begin parsing the recordings for lesson material," the big guy said.
"Working on visuals and modeling at this time, should be ready in 90 seconds," 'Virtue' answered. So far as Neinke could guess, the voice was omnipresent around the room?
Neinke jolted a bit roughly when the big guy set her down on some form of table, and momentarily she was overcome with a wave of panic when she realized that she was in a room of strangers and had no way to defend her virtue if things happened. On the other hand, magical paralysis made for a good extenuating circumstance…
"Your turn, High Executor," the big guy said.
A different man stepped up to the table and took a knee next to her. In stark contrast to the tan-color clothing and green armor of the soldiers that had extracted her from the simulacrum battle, this man was dressed in white vestments with a simple broadsword that had a light blue blade. He placed a hand over her forehead for a moment, then pulled it back. "You called it, Hess. Paralysis, in this case grossly incompetent paralysis that only prevents most musculature control. Her eyes are still mobile, even if the rest of her is not."
"That has got to be frustrating, to see what is around you but be unable to move against it," the lady with the slender firearm said.
"Any one of us skilled in the magic arts can clear it, it is so low-level," the 'High Executor' commented.
"And here I was initially thinking this was some manner of actual combat trauma," the big guy said.
"I will see to this," Nereus said. He rested both hands on her right arm. "Holy order of the Ocean Sword, channel unseen light and remove the magicks thus laid hands upon," he chanted, which brought to Neinke's mind that he might be a paladin? Confirmation: "Variation on my old Paladin skills, I can also annul most magicks on an object or person, including paralysis spells."
"Kinda useful skills, but I know I am nowhere near virtuous enough to cut it for the ranks of the Paladin," the smaller guy amongst the combatants said.
-x-
"Speaking of cutting it, how did that Glock 18 handle?" Hess asked, pretty well convinced he already knew what the answer would be.
"Twenty minutes ago, I walked in that door a Glock Fanboy. Right now, as much as I hate having to admit it, you win," Clint half-whined. "It's perfect for spitting distance, throws up a hell of a lot of lead very quickly, but after about six rounds of one-handed fire you're firing an ADA piece."
"Pay up, sucker," Clarence waved at Clint, who handed off a $50 American bill to Sigma Three.
"I believe one gun critic called small, fast-firing pieces like that 'telephone booth guns' in practice, mainly because you'd have to be in telephone booth distances to reliably put rounds on target," Hess said. "Same story with the Mac-10 and Tec-9 sub-gun pistols, and to a larger degree with the IMI mini-uzi and micro-uzi. Maybe we could have the engineering group tone down the cyclic rate and rebalance the weight to make it more controllable?"
"Yeah, good luck with that," Clint held up the unloaded and locked open Glock 18. The Glock 18/L model was only slightly longer than a standard Glock 17, which meant it was physically smaller than most other pistols and only a short hint larger than the XD Tactical pistols in common issue to Sigma. "Not much there to rebalance."
"Some units of Negaverse Armored Infantry issue the Glock 18 or the Mini-Uzi for backup weapons," Nereus pointed out.
Clint shrugged. "Might revisit it after I qualify for powered armor? I think I've learned my lesson for now."
The door opened up to the training hall. "Ah, this," Hess groused after he had a good look at the entrants. "Allowing myself to completely forget about that fracas was not good."
"Need a hand?" Clarence asked.
"Backup, if nothing else, would be welcomed. I don't particularly trust this bunch," which was fairly strong condemnation from Hess.
As Sigma One and Sigma Three walked away from their mystery guest, they failed to notice that she was slowly regaining the ability to control her major muscle groups…
-x-
It took Neinke another minute or so to regain enough of her movement control to do anything, but once she had it back, she was quick to sit up. And then promptly overbalanced on an unsteady sense of motion, which caused her to flop over the other direction and toward the lady with the slender rifle. The soldier was fast enough to catch Neinke before she fell off the side of the bench, which was welcomed for the assistance but not for the embarrassment of the matter.
"Whoa, hold up, you're moving too fast," the man in the white vestments declared. "Paralysis magicks can distort your sense of balance, don't move fast until it clears."
"How did — " she bit her sentence off, not knowing if such a question would be rude in this company.
"In close-quarters wizardry combat, paralysis attacks are a favored tactic for direct combat: get in close, paralyze an enemy, then either eliminate them or capture and secure," the guy in white and blue said.
"If I may ask, sir, where am I?" Neinke asked the wizard (?), partially to sate her own curiosity, partially to understand her environs, and partially as reflexive reaction to the rather bizarre turn of the day's events.
"You are in a military fortress on a different world from where you were yesterday," he answered simply, though Neinke easily recognized the shift in demeanor toward the end of his sentence.
The change in demeanor and posture for the lady and the small guy told an even worse tale. "This could get nasty," the lady said, looking in the direction of the big guy.
"Oh yeah, these punks have no clue," the smaller guy in armor (the one with the bizarre pistol) said.
"Be ready for it," the guy in white said.
Neinke knew this was not her conflict, but found herself tensed up just the same. She also focused in on what she could hear, which wasn't much from the moving picture past the big guy, but hearing him was simple in these confines.
-x-
Hess waited for the video record of their malfeasance to cut out before he said anything. Once the picture was off, he turned to their lead and pinned him under his gaze. "Explain yourself," Sigma one ordered bluntly.
"I was executing the edicts of the Church in trying to remove heretics, degenerates, homosexuals, and fornicators from our ranks to prevent damnation," Montgomery answered immediately. Hess considered it a perfectly worthwhile canned response, except for one minor detail:
"And you do so in a nation that does not recognize the temporal authority of the Church, is my assessment correct?"
"Whether or not you recognize it, that authority exists. Bow to the will of the Church, or be broken by it," Montgomery said.
"Cute," Hess said. "The problem with your justification is twofold. Primarily, legally I am not allowed to care what authority the Church may or may not have, as the Protectorate does not recognize it as legally justified to do any of the shit you intended, nor does the Protectorate recognize the crimes you listed as actual crimes."
"A morally depraved dodge with a hint of vulgarity thrown in for good measure," Montgomery tried to deflect by way of ad hominem attack.
"Charlie, you have not heard me get salty yet," Hess adroitly crammed the attempt to deflect. "Secondarily, from a personal standpoint I could not care less about the policy or edicts of the Church to which you subscribe, with the possible exception of expending effort on caring less. The reason for that is historical, and I am going to throw out a guess right now and say that you are probably from the area of the 15th or 16th centuries Anno Domini, likely related to clergy in that time?" Montgomery flinched at the question, which told Hess he had the right of it.
"My relations are of no concern to you, but you need be aware that those relations are high up in the Church."
"A proper answer, and good nonetheless; if I am to remind a Church of the limitations of its power outside its sphere of influence, best it be a worthy target for Protectorate steel. But that is a theoretical problem for a future that may or may not happen, solely dependent on how much butthurt echoes from today forward. No, today's problem is you five," Hess waved a finger across the five. "You five have done yourselves a very good run at a Darwin Award, given your performance last night in attempt to 'purify by pain' three persons who had otherwise committed no crimes. At least five of your actions are offenses for which I can have you deported from this world and the last two are fairly significant stockade time. This creates a problem, however: as one of the major tenets of the Inquisition was the expulsion, suppression, subsumation or elimination of undesirables and nonconformists, any action I take simply echoes those failed policies."
"Go ahead, punish me for being righteous," Montgomery dared him.
"I do not punish a man for being righteous, but I will punish a man for conspiring torture or death over a difference of belief," Hess shut down his personal excuse for the conduct. "I will give you all five days in the stockade to ruminate on the value of your beliefs as compared to the value of the beliefs of others. At the end of those five days, if you can understand the lesson inherent to the laws of the Protectorate, you will know why I have chosen to venerate no religion above others. If you cannot grasp the true forms of freedom, we will discuss finding you an appropriate world to live upon where you may not threaten Protectorate interests or citizens again."
"I will not need five days to understand that you are a sanctimonious jackal, utterly unfit to shepherd yourself, much less this nation and planet," Montgomery said sharply.
"I strongly expected you would say that," Hess said. "Five days, kid. Think long and hard, decide if you wish to quit the world or if you can handle other people being free of your stringent biases and controls. I ask no further of you, just that decision point. You five are remanded to the stockade forthwith, to reconvene at my office five days hence at this hour to conclude the matter. Dismissed."
-x-
The big guy and the gunner from the ground stood and watched as the group was escorted out of the room. After the door closed behind them, the two turned to return.
"I will admit, I expected that to end badly," the lady soldier said. "Good thing the kid was smart and didn't start any further conflict."
"For the record, I am betting right now that punk will not learn the error of his ways," the smaller soldier said.
"No take," the big guy answered the wager as he approached. "It is hard to realize an error in thinking when you have already convinced yourself of the absolute righteousness of your intention to torture someone on a mere difference of opinion. Thus, in five days I will be forced to deport him, maybe one or two others in his posse, if they are unwilling to accept the natural rights of others."
"Feh," the man in the white vestments said. "A classic case of 'do what my book says or I kill you'. Inquisition pukes, unyielding to a fault."
"10-4 to that, High Executor," the big guy answered. Neinke considered that their English was very good, very understandable to her ear, but the content was filled with idiom and some words that made no sense to her. English was a mostly-dead language in her homeland, but still practiced in a few forms at the academic level. And to now stand in a land that practiced it as primary language! She considered that her enjoyment of the language in an academic setting was now vindicated in use.
"So, this leaves one interesting thread, and the review of the training exercise," the lady with the slender weapon said.
"Indeed," the big guy said. "Beforehand, though, one thing." he pressed a object on his equipment hauberk until it made a faint click, and something on his gear made a 'beep' noise. "Virtue, Sigma One, please relay to Star Colonel Storme that I need to discuss with her the near-inevitability of deporting one or more of those attempted Inquisitors, should take ten to twenty for the discussion of procedure."
Something on his gear beeped after a moment of silence. "Sigma One, Storme, I copy your last. I have an open at 1600, I expected this problem, just not this soon," a lady's voice answered from his gear. Neinke figured it possibly some form of communications device? Magic, perhaps? For certain, they had wizards on hand, remote communications were entirely possible.
Again, the big guy pressed some manner of activation sigil on his hauberk. "Storme, Sigma One, copy all. Murphy's Law strikes again: problems occur when they are ready, and we are not."
"The Gods' honest truth in one sentence, Sigma One. Storme is out."
"And thus, the great mystery of the morning: the lady in armor that dropped in on Clint during our shoot exercise. So, where to begin?" the big guy asked.
For all that the environment was rather frightening, and the company she now found herself in easily more lethal than anything she ever expected to see in her lifetime, her intuition was not waving a flag of warning about them. Her intuition of emotion was not sensing anything untoward from their ranks, which she found surprising. Even, after a few moments in close proximity to them, she could sense much about them: the small guy was tired and sore, the lady with the slender rifle was alternating between curiosity toward the new arrival and anticipation of reviewing the exercise? The gunner from the floor with the large weapon was partially curious and partially bored, similar to the four ladies with the matched short arquebus (the ladies that had stood by the four varied combatants and supported their primary effort?), though theirs was wariness of the new arrival and curiosity.
The big guy, oddly enough, was feeling something she did not expect: serenity. Curiosity toward the new arrival, a given, some lingering annoyance pertaining to the administrative punishment he just meted out, even a bit of fatigue, but serenity most of all. Especially given his exertions in battle, she did not expect calmness from any of them, save the guy in the white vestments who did not appear to be an actual participant in the matter.
Thus, given that she did not sense anything inherently hazardous from them, and they stood at an effective impasse, Neinke decided to make the first overture.
-x-
"If I may, sir, I am Lady Neinke Honoratia, 91st of the Knights Eloquence of the Kingdom of Havon," the lady declared herself.
"Thank you for the introduction, Lady Honoratia. I am Command Administrator Erich Hess of the Protectorate of Sigma. I have theoretical reign over this world, though not actual reign in practice."
"A king building a new kingdom from a collapsed nation, in short," High Executor Nereus explained when it became obvious that his introduction had confused her.
"That would make you an ascended Prince?" she asked.
Hess grimaced. "Not really. I am commissioned by higher powers to take control of this world and bring order to chaos. The method is, as the High Executor explained, building a nation from the ashes of the failed state that used to control this world. In terms of noble peerage, I have no rank, social or title."
Such a declaration obviously confused the lady Knight. "Why would…" she cut her sentence short. "Excuse me, sir — Highness — it is not my place to question such matters."
"Somebody that explicitly doesn't question the Technical Analyst? That is a first," Clarence said.
"Ah, that was a failure of decorum on my part, I believe further introductions are in order for the Lady Knight in our presence," Hess said, working through what he knew of civil practice. "Pointman forward," Hess said, which caused Clint to step forward. "Administrator Clint Jamieson, military training and doctrine is his area of command. He is the reason why you landed on a person, not a hard floor."
"Greetings," Clint said with a nod. "No worries on landing on me, I am mostly uninjured and you didn't have any control over it."
Hess pointed to Neinke's left. "Administrator Clarence Williams, Business Operations and Protectorate Finance are his spheres of control."
"A pleasure, Lady Neinke," Clarence said with a nod.
Hess again pointed, this time to his immediate right. "Administrator Victoria Williams, Personnel Management, Housing and Urban Development are her duties."
"Welcome to the Protectorate," Victoria said.
"And, this one is a snag, I'm not completely assured how to introduce an Executor," Hess said.
"I'll take this," Nereus said, much to Hess' relief on the subject.
-x-
"Milady, I am High Executor Nereus, Ambassador and Guardian to the Protectorate from the Order of the Executors. With the exception of yourself, I am the only person in the room of noble peerage, formerly a ranking Warlord of the Dynasty Star Empire, what would be analogous to a Viscount in normal peerage. You do have such a title in common esteem in your lands?" the wizard asked.
"Yes, sir, there are some 36 Viscounts in the Kingdom," Neinke replied. "You said formerly, though, sir?"
"Yes, formerly," Nereus answered. "To join the Order of the Executors, I was required to recuse all title, possessions, rank, and status amongst my home Empire. Through training and duty, an Executor is ranked above the Emperors, for our word is law, and our judgment above all national consideration."
"And even I, if under orders, am obligated to the judgment of the Executors," Hess explained. "I'll spare you the complexities of the political situation in the here and now. Time enough for that at a later date. The short version is that High Executor Nereus is here as a guarantee against interference from certain parties, and to assist in the building of the Protectorate."
"Boss, movement on your six," the lady that was in constant attendance to Hess said. "Front door of the shoot house."
The big guy simply twisted his head a slight bit, nowhere near enough to actually directly examine the threat, but maybe he was using a trick of visual acuteness to see the new arrival? Some sailors said that the easiest way to sense motion was to use the outer edge of your vision, not the center. "Lady Neinke, do you know her?" Hess pointed past his left shoulder.
Neinke had to stretch a bit to see around the massive soldier-administrator. "Oh yes, that is the witch that paralyzed me and cast me out of my world and into yours."
"I gander she is a hostile party?" Hess asked.
"She was under pain of death for causing a crop blight that threatened the northern half of the Kingdom," Neinke found herself quickly explaining, as the witch was approaching. "I should deal with — " An outstretched hand from Hess stopped her.
"Concern not about it. You are in Sigma territory, and subject to Sigma protections. Just to confirm, she is a hostile intent on harming or killing you?"
"Yes, she has tried so once already, I doubt she seeks to make amends," Neinke said.
"She's approaching," the same lady-in-attendance said quietly in a directed whisper.
"Clarence, give me a ten-yard call-out," Hess said.
Clarence snorted, then smiled a devilish smile. Apparently this was some manner of jest or joke amongst them? Or was something else at play? "Aye aye. Thirty, now."
"I did not expect you to find fast allies where I disposed of you, Knight. I do believe it appropriate to finish you, and deal with your new-found cohorts," the witch declared as she continued the slow approach, self-assured of her superiority.
Surprisingly, Hess sighed and closed his eyes, his right hand resting on one of the pouches attached to his armor tunic. " 'Crosses grow on Anzio,' " he said, which made no sense to Neinke as a phrase, but she could tell that whatever it meant, it was something that helped bring him to another state of calmness.
" 'Where no soldier sleeps and where Hell's six feet deep,' " Clint said, apparently in continuation of what Hess said.
" 'That death does wait, there's no debate,' " Victoria continued the less-than-sensical chant, but from her Neinke could sense some serious anticipation.
" 'So charge and attack,' " Clarence said, most anticipative of all amongst the cohort.
Immediately, Hess snapped his eyes open and Neinke could sense the instant rush of mind and spirit as he acted. She only barely caught his right hand move to his holster and draw the pistol, as he twisted his body around to fire a single, rapid shot at the oncoming witch. The witch clutched her chest and fell to her knees, and momentarily Neinke saw the crimson telltale of blood escaping from her fingers. After a moment more, the witch collapsed to her left and rested there, her hands dislodged from what was now a gaping, bloodied hole in her chest almost exactly where the heart would be.
" 'Going to Hell and Back,' " Hess finished the saying that had initiated the effective ambush. After she did her best to recall what she had just witnessed, Neinke had to admit that she had just seen a single strike — an ambush, in all reality — that was literally so fast there was no hope of a mortal man overcoming it and escaping the line of fire unharmed. "Tango down," he reported after the enemy slumped unconscious from blood loss.
"Damn good shot, boss, that was an X-ring hit," Victoria said.
Neinke noticed in her lap one of the brass objects, this one still smoking from the shot that Hess had delivered to rightly end the witch. "Curious, is this a byproduct of your firearms' functioning?" she asked.
"Yes, it is," Clarence said.
"She is clinically dead at this point," High Executor Nereus announced.
Hess holstered his pistol with one hand and reached up to the communication device on his chest with the other. "Militia from Sigma One, requesting gurney to the training room in Admin for removal of deceased tango to be transported to the morgue, how copy?"
"Sigma One, Militia One, copy all. Begging the Boss' pardon, how did we end up with a tango in the training room? Over," the box on the back left shoulder of Hess' tunic squawked.
"Militia, Executor Nereus, tango gated herself into the room in search of someone else, declared direct threat to the command level, was gunned down by Sigma One in one shot. Clean shoot, repeat, clean shoot."
"Copy all, is there video sir?"
"Confirmed, Militia, video of the incident is available," the lady's voice from before reported. "Wait — warning! Activity at the body!"
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Clint asked after he caught sight of her hand twitch. Neinke blanched at the raw profanity from such a ranking person, but held her silence.
"Death comes to us all, but it looks like this one will need a revisit," Victoria said.
"If at first you do not succeed, apply more firepower. Toni," Hess said.
"Portable Ion Cannon sound good?" the lady-in-attendance to Hess asked.
"I hope so, we're running out of underground-usable options here," Clint said.
The lady-in-attendance turned to the rear of the room and engaged some sort of machine. A light on the panel went from amber to red, then from red to green, and a mechanical ratcheting sound presaged the lady opening the front of the machine. From it she extracted four objects, two large mottled gray units and two much smaller objects of indeterminate purpose? She was quick to bring the objects forward, to which she gave one of the large ones to Hess and a small one thereafter. Both attached a coiled part of the small machine to the backend of the larger one, and both shouldered the large machine.
"Five shots on these power packs," Toni reported.
"At this range, should only need one," Hess answered.
Neinke saw a faint glow from under the lady's chest, and realized what had happened. The big guy had not failed in his shot, but the witch was protected by a charm that apparently resurrected her? "A charm of some kind," the lady Knight said. After the witch sat up and braced to stand up, Neinke caught sight of a minor glow around the pendant she had been wearing. "There! The pendant!"
"I see it," Toni said as the witch stood up to full standing.
"I do not remember how you struck me down so quickly and efficiently, soldier," the witch said calmly. "You will live long enough to show me what you did." Neinke considered that the mirror concept of her threat was that the rest of the group would not live.
"My apologies in advance, but I am not interested in waiting. Clint, give her a Golf-18 repeat of the lesson, if you would?" Hess requested.
"Right, boss," Clint said in a bored fashion, but his peevish answer was an auditory concealment of him doing something to his pistol that Neinke guessed was loading it? The weapon made a metallic clanging sound just before he passed behind the lady-in-attendance to Hess, then when he was clear he raised it to present. The weapon made a loud, sustained tearing sound that rang Neinke's ears to an almost-painful degree, though she was mostly entranced by the shower of brass leftovers spewed from the side of the weapon.
The result on the witch's end was far more horrifying than Neinke imagined possible. Instead of one good, clean wound in the center of her chest, this weapon had peppered her with dozens of hits from her thighs to her bust. Again, the enemy was likely dead, this time faster than the first time, but it was only after she dropped that Hess raised his weapon to aim at her. He fired one shot, which turned out to be some kind of bright blue streak from the weapon to her chest, and with it her neck, shoulders, and most of her breasts were obliterated and spread around the area as a pink puff of mist and assorted chunks of bone and tissue.
"Virtue, confirm pendant destruction," Hess requested after he lowered his weapon.
"Affirmative, I have no trace of it," a voice rang out from the walls of the room.
"I think you got 'er, butch," Clarence clapped Hess on the shoulder.
"I don't trust that she's dead, can we pyro the body?" Clint asked.
"If she comes back for a third round, she can have the damned base. We're truckin' out of here," Hess said.
"I say we pull off planet, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure," Victoria said, which caused Clarence and Clint a short giggling fit. To Neinke, her suggestion made no sense, given that she did not understand what was meant by 'nuke' or 'orbit', and the idiom 'pull off planet' made no sense even in context.
"She is dead, leave her be," Hess ordered before he stepped down the massive blue-beam weapon and disassembled the two components.
"Not moving yet, so that's a good sign," High Executor Nereus said.
"I think we're done here," the lady-in-attendance to Hess said.
Neinke heard the door to the facility open again, and this time could turn to look at the entrants. Two men, almost exactly looking the same excepting varied gear, came in with some manner of wheeled cart that looked fit for only a body? The two came over to the group and stopped. The Lady Knight was mildly surprised that the two came to attention and saluted. "Sir! Here for recovery of a dead wench."
-x-
"Wench? At a guess, probably not, I have no reason to suspect her of prostitution," Hess said after a quick glance at the deceased. "Definitely a witch, though, in the literal use of the word. Listen up, and these are going to be strange instructions so brace for it. Recover the body and secure in the morgue at the base medical facility. You are then to stand post on the body for two hours. If she stays dead, more is the better and you may resume normal operations. If she revives again, call immediately on the command channel with an alert and evacuate the area."
"Revives again, sir? Party animal came back for a second round?" one of the two asked.
"Aye, she had a second go at it. We think we cooked her method of auto-revival, so this should be the end of it. Should," Sigma One admitted the possibility of a third go-around. "Also, padlock the morgue cell once she is secured. Possible that if she revives again, she may not be able to get loose if she can't get out of her cold storage."
"And if she does come back for a third round, sir?" Barrett asked.
"I will deal with her," Nereus said coldly.
"Clear her out, militiamen," Hess ordered. "Dismissed."
Nereus flinched partway through that simple sentence, then looked toward the shoot house in the METARgraphic field (or, to Hess' way of thinking, through it). "The gate hole they came through just closed up."
Neinke gasped. "Am I now condemned to remain here?"
Hess looked to the Executor. "Can it be reopened, sir?" he asked.
"Oh Hell yes, easily," Nereus said. "Trivial exercise. I could have it reopened in 90 seconds if need be."
Hess shrugged. "You are not condemned to remain, but by the same consideration you are not under obligation to depart. Sigma does not turn away persons except those who intend us harm."
-x-
Neinke was surprised by the answer, to the point of blushing about it. She thoroughly expected to be ordered back to her homeworld, maybe even punished for her role in the happenings of today? But, much to her initial surprise, she was not ordered off world to return to hers, and apparently was now under an implicit offer to remain? On the face of it, it seemed a nonsensical offer, as Neinke really had nothing to offer to the nation, and had no readily apparent cause to remain. Granted, she did want to learn about these methods of war that they practiced, and to be outfitted with such arms!
On some sober reflection, though, she considered that these persons around her were soldiers of an art of war, an art that she had just witnessed ripped up one of the most fearsome foes of her homeworld — a witch — and killed her not once, but twice. Nearly effortlessly. Just being in their presence was a bit hair-raising to her, despite her time on the battlefield she was still scared stiff by the prospect of having to face even someone 'greenhorn' of these ranks. For certain, the soldiers in front of her were veterans? It was hard to tell, they were certainly at ease with the use of arms and flow of battle, even when something untoward happened on the battlefield they continued the mission without fault.
And Neinke also had to consider that she had a duty to the Kingdom, which raised the question: would simply returning home be the appropriate decision, and forget about this marvelous place, or would it be prudent to remain and learn of their arts of war? Such a decision was no manner of simple, especially playing out in her mind with just the glimpses she saw, she wanted to understand what manner of arts were at play, how they were employed, and the industry that was certainly necessary in constructing such marvelous equipment and munitions. For certain, that five of the soldiers in the room possessed the same arquebus, and all but one possessed the same pistol, bespoke some manner of repeatable manufacturing processes? Certainly, such standardization could greatly help with affairs around the Kingdom, and if they could create standardized weapons for the troops, they would have eminent advantage over anyone else on the continent — maybe the world itself?
More to the point, she also wanted to understand the troops involved. While the Kingdom of Havon had some of the cleanest and most honorable forces on the continent, they were pale shadows and dirty mongrels in comparison to the troops here. Where the amount of vulgar epithets she had heard in this training hall could be counted on one hand, such fouled wordplay could be heard in a single sentence in certain regiments of the Kingdom's troops. And the complete lack of lewdness in their conduct was just as surprising, the closest thing she had heard and understood was a potential wordplay between the terms 'witch' (purveyor of fouled magicks) and 'wench' (a prostitute), which could just as easily be an innocent misspeak on the part of the Militiaman. For certain, she sensed no lewd or lascivious conduct or even thoughts from the men in the room, a far cry from what she had to endure in the Kingdom's regiments. There were some formations she would not walk through in full battle gear without at least one of the other Knights Eloquence at her side for backup and virtue purposes.
"Fun's over, boss," Clint said before he clapped the big guy on the shoulder.
"Indeed, time for the review and the start of the day. I gather you do not have a solid answer, Lady Honoratia?" the big guy asked her directly.
"I, er, find myself torn between the two decisions," she admitted readily, then after the fact wondered why she considered herself at such ease as to give such a frank answer on the question.
"It is a bit much to ask for a fast answer on that one," Nereus pointed out.
"Quite true, High Executor. I'd say maybe a day test?" Nereus nodded, which led to a question:
"A day test, Highness?" Neinke asked, unsure what was specifically intended.
"Yes. In a day, you should have an idea whether or not you truly wish to remain or return. A day's delay should not affect reopening the Gate?" Hess asked Nereus.
"Not at all," the Executor said. "I could reopen it in a week without issue."
"So where to drop you for total immersion… " Hess mused. "I will need to think about this. For now, we will review the battle. Command Center on the third floor is where we will conduct the review."
-x-
"How much does one of those Ion Cannons weigh?" Clarence asked on the way up the stairs from the training room / shooting range.
"Not bad, fifteen pounds or so," Hess declared. "The ammo is the challenge. Every five rounds is 2 pounds and unlike munition weapons, that weight doesn't go away." Hess was referring to the satchel batteries he had clipped onto his already-heavily-loaded armor tunic, which did not lose weight as they were drained.
"Or the heavier Military Power Pack units," Clarence pointed out.
Hess sighed after he reached the top of the stairs to the ground floor. "If I was carrying a laser rifle or such, a good Military Power Pack and some sub-packs would be optimal. Or maybe two?"
"Two would be good, the high-cap units can hold roughly 100 shots apiece for a good solid laser rifle or the L50 ISL," Clarence said. "Of course, the superbeast you're carrying, one high cap is only fifteen rounds."
"Probably want to leave the superheavy energy weapons to the Armored Infantry, where they can carry in a Support PPC power pack or similar," Hess judged.
"Catered breakfast or MRE?" Clint asked after he reached the landing at the top of the stairs.
"Catered, we have the morning staff meeting immediately after the review. And then we have a meeting with the Century Commander."
"Ten-four, I'll get it set up," Clint said before he turned off into the mess hall.
"If I may ask, Highness, what brought you to the art of war in this fashion?" Neinke asked as they passed by the cafeteria staff entrance.
"For I, it started as a bit of a hobby, a way to make some extra coin with an interesting skill. After I met a few local patriots, though, it slowly became more of a skill for use in defending my home nation, and less of a trade or business venture. Now, I use those skills to save lives and build a better world here."
His answer seemed to confuse Neinke. "You were not a professional soldier?"
"No, I was a tradesman, my skill with arms was secondary," Hess admitted on his way up the next set of stairs.
"Second floor, administrative offices and conference areas. Going up!" Clint said as he continued up the staircase to the next floor.
"If I decided to remain, would there be a place for me in these unusual lands?" Neinke asked, mostly to Hess, but she didn't expect an answer from the lady-in-attendance:
"There is always a place, you just have to be willing to make it your own," Toni answered in lieu of one of the command personnel.
Both were silent for a few moments, then the question Hess expected: "If I may ask, what would be needed to make such a place?" Neinke asked.
"Flexibility," Toni answered just before they arrived at the third floor.
"Things change from minute to minute in this world," Victoria picked up from Toni's rather spartan answer. "If you are willing to adjust to those changes, you'd be a perfect fit… with a little training, that is."
-x-
Neinke was a mild bit hesitant as to what was meant by 'adjust to those changes', but she did not expect anything grossly untoward in such conduct. Adjusting her mindset and skillset was a necessity for being a Knight Eloquence, she expected a degree of that anywhere she went. Excepting, of course, this strange land would require a huge amount of adjusting; from what she saw, they did a lot of things differently. Idly, she wondered exactly how flexible she was willing to be, but realized she didn't have such an answer yet.
"We'll use the main command center room for this," Hess ordered. "Grab some seats, everyone. This review will take a few minutes."
Neinke took a seat at one of the desks, and surprisingly enough the lady-in-attendance to Hess took a seat next to her. "This is the best and worst part of the day's drills, we get a full read on what we did right and what we did wrong."
"All right, settle down," Hess said from the front of the room. "Virtue, fire up monitors at everyone's station for interactive control, main view and facility maps on primary screen."
Neinke held silent as a panel on the desk in front of her lit up and displayed a map of the training facility. A second panel lit up, this time with a message 'not available yet'.
"Okay, Virtue, advance to stack and breach."
Neinke watched the main screen as it showed the troops — four pairs, each of the Administrators and their lady-in-attendance — approach the front door. Neinke first noticed how the team was effectively aiming in all directions, so as to prevent being struck from a non-forward direction? It was an ingenious tactic, she realized, as a team could advance forward into a hostile territory while supporting themselves, and in the case of these future warriors, their firepower and munitions quantities could keep them in the fight for a while.
Clint stopped to the side of the door, which briefly confused Neinke — proper form was to square up to a door, was it not? He slapped some form of white square object onto the portal, pressed a button on it, and ducked back to the wall with his head turned away from the door. A bare moment after Clint turned away, the white square disappeared in a puff of smoke and the door disintegrated into splinters.
"Pause," Hess said. "First lesson of the day, ladies and gentlemen. We need more practice with demo, all eight of us took a bit too long to recover from the blast, initiative is a valuable thing and not wise to squander. From now on, every training session we do will include at least one, preferably more demo, until we are less affected by it. Virtue, resume please."
As Hess went into the specifics of the room entry, Lady Honoratia would not remember much of this first lesson, but the overarching points — preparation, training, handle the unexpected, and always save lives — would remain with her for a lifetime.
-x-x-x-
(20 minutes later)
"Clint, Clarence, be advised that Dagger has already signed up her team for three contracts for today, so we may have to backstop her team in case something gets messy."
"Aye aye," Clarence answered. The lady in attendance to him sighed.
"With pleasure, boss-man," Clint responded.
"Other than that, usual ration, usual fashion. Clarence, I want a report on medium and heavy industry within 30 flying minutes of the base, so we have an idea what manufacturing we can potentially restart for extra income. Won't be this week, but sooner rather than later, follow?"
"Oh, I follow. I take it you want preference to metal processing if I can find one?" Clarence asked.
"Definitely, the scrapping project downstairs would be perfect feed for a foundry," Hess said.
"I'll see what I can gin up," Clarence nodded with a smile.
"Victoria, Sidonia, Neinke, please remain, remainder is dismissed. Good work, team. We'll do it again in a few days."
"Hai!" the security detail for Clint and Clarence both responded, which was a word unrecognizable to Neinke but sounded positive as an answer.
Sigma One waited for the door to close to the command room. "And then there was one," he said pensively, but gave no room for a rejoinder. "Herein, I may have an optimal solution for you for a day of understanding, Lady Honoratia."
"Pay up," Victoria said to her escort.
"How did you predict that, ma'am?" Sidonia asked bluntly even as she presented a coin to the officer.
"Because Erich is nothing if not thorough, and a dreadful worry-wart in most circumstances." Victoria explained her logic on the matter. (Twisted logic? Incoherent? Nonsensical? One could pick an adjective in Neinke's estimate and be perfectly accurate without being completely accurate.) "The goal here is to give Lady Honoratia an idea what manner of world she is on, and what could become of her if she chooses to remain."
"Way I see it, since you are doing a lot of work out and about for housing and urban development in addition to your Human Resources work, Neinke would have the best opportunity to see most of it by shadowing you for the day," Hess explained.
"And you, big guy?" Victoria asked.
"I strongly suspect I will be assisting with the rescue contracts that Dagger has planned. This is both unduly hazardous and not a proper example of the duties and environs here," Sigma One said bluntly.
"Ah, got it," Victoria said. "So, Neinke, you don't mind if I call you that?"
"Not at all, ma'am," Lady Honoratia replied.
"You're with me for the day. I have a full day ahead of me, so you will want to keep pace and ask questions as you see necessary. There should be no further combat, practice or real, but always be aware of your surroundings. Come on, time to get to it," Victoria waved Neinke and Sidonia toward the door.
"Another day, another interesting entrant," Hess said with some humor to voice.
"Think she will stay?" Toni asked.
"Better than fifty-fifty, she is entranced with our arts of war, but here she has no rank and is going to have to earn her place." Hess sighed mightily. "Well, nothing new in that story, we are all earning our place."
Author's Chapter Afterword:
This strikes one as not necessarily a chapter that fits in with the Story 2 series — it doesn't involve any manner of plotting for or against Sigma One, or any kind of unusual tasking or training, but believe me on this if nothing else, this chapter will definitely return to haunt Sigma One and SSO Lead in very short order.
Neinke is not really a romantic in the old-school knight / chivalry sense. As such, she's not really in the running for the contest to come, one way or the other, but being an outsider watching a conspiracy unfold around her, she will definitely have a few choice words for both sides of this equation. More to the point, her position and upbringing outside most modern context will also give her a very sharp opinion on the de-facto hazing ritual they are planning, and things will get a little bit spiky on that note — briefly. The results of the 'conspiracy' will determine more of what is to come than the intent, and her correct guesses on the nature of the events and the outcomes will result in some interesting paths forward for her.
In coming chapters, Neinke's background and the world from which she hails will be explored to a degree, but the real meat in her backstory will come to light in a story in the future — her desire to learn the local arts of war is for a rather specific purpose, which was partially covered in her own internal musings on the subject. More to the point, her own natural inquisitiveness draws her to this new world and new society readily, in that she has stumbled into something so bizarre and alien, yet unusually comfortable and welcoming, that she can't force herself away from it. It becomes the dichotomy of curiosity versus dangerous environs: she knows she's headed for hazardous times, she just can't force herself away from it.
As to the actual training battle, this one was a success for the entry team because the enemy was simulated as a mostly-disorganized but rather vicious clusterfuck. This gave Sigma a critical advantage in dealing with the enemy forces, but not enough to ensure victory; the real nature of the success was in a combination of technique, flexibility, and accuracy of the Sigma troops under pressure. The years of drilling, interfacing with the Sheriffs and SWAT, has paid off for the team, and now they begin the process of imparting those lessons to the Secret Service Operators and thereafter into the general Sigma troops. The Magi will have their own equivalent lesson plans to pass down to Sigma on the subject, with much the same results. This simulation will be shown as the beginning of an era for the merc unit, and it will continue to show for many stories to come.
That's it for this chapter. NEXT UP: Neinke settles in with the rest of the Secret Service troops, not yet sure of her place, but willing to give it a shot. She's not sold on joining the SSO, but in her willingness to learn, she may be discovering paths to come…
Review Replies:
No reviews for Chapter 4. To a degree I expect this, as this story is a side story of a side story of one of my lesser-popular works. If you have anything to say, criticism or reinforcement, I want to hear it!
The Gripe Sheet:
No complaints for the last chapter (for the same reason as above). Much thanks to Necroblade, Sieben Nightwing, and Takeshi Yamato for cleaning up my writing!
Included Works:
—Personal Works: Neinke's homeworld is a derivation of natural history that has some changes thrown in for good measure. More of this will be explored in depth going forward.