Chapter 5: "A Thousand Cuts"
April 2nd' 3066
MAF Forward Operating Base "Alvarez"
Fanardir, Magistracy of Canopus
Alanza sat in the office of the commanding officer of the small FOB she and her team had been assigned to at the start of the week. It had been a pleasant change, outside of the fact they were now further up in the mountains meaning the temperatures had plummeted. Luckily, it had also come with the benefit of a friendlier, at least in Alanza's opinion.
"Alright, Kitten, let's get started." Commander Felicia Graves said, setting her glass of whiskey on the rocks on her desk as she took a seat across from Alanza. Alanza's eyes flicked to the glass briefly and then back to Felicia, who clearly caught the motion. "Suppose that's as good a place as any to start for this eval. You staying dry, Altamirano?"
"Yes, ma'am. Haven't had a drink since we rotated back from Clan space." Alanza said, noticing absently that her tail was twitching. The cybernetic "enhancement" had been part of her life for so long, Alanza tended to forget it was there until someone asked her about it or she was in a tense situation like this. Alanza wasn't sure why she was nervous, it was just a standard psych evaluation, and she and Felicia had served in the infantry together during Operation BULLDOG and had a good rapport.
"Glad to hear that. I have noticed that you file had at least a few reports of insubordination and a note that you have a, and I'm quoting here, 'quick temper'. This was within the past year. What happened?" Felicia asked, taking a sip of her drink as she looked at Alanza. Alanza knew this was a test the other woman had set for her and was determined to pass, even as she did her best to will her tail to quit twitching.
"No excuse ma'am, just disagreements over how to best utilize my time and my teams skill set." Alanza said and Felicia smiled at her wryly.
"Good. Well, seems like you got your team up here in good order, minus the wounded member from the Op awhile back. Any call on if Hayley will be able to rejoin us before we cycle off?" Felicia asked and Alanza shrugged.
"Hopefully, but haven't heard much in way of progress. Round could've blown her shoulder out on exit." Alanza said and Felicia nodded again, taking another sip of the whiskey.
"Hope you don't mind. I run a bit of a looser ship up here, since all the fighting seems to happen down in the valley. No one wants to climb up the mountain to try and shoot over the walls I guess." Felicia said, making a point of setting the drink out of sight of Alanza. "I also do think we could use your team better. We both went through that lovely 'Clan Buster' training before BULLDOG."
"You think we're getting hit by the Clans all the way out here?" Alanza asked and Felicia laughed.
"No, not at all. But I do know that means you've been trained, retrained and trained again. Dropping you into standard patrols with armor columns and trying to run black bag ops seems a little silly." Felicia said and she clicked the recorder off on her desktop computer, folding her hands on top of the desk. "I think your fine, psychologically anyway. Keep up the habit of staying dry and I see no problems. Same old authority problems but I doubt we'll break those out of you even given 100 years. So let me be frank about the second part of why I wanted to meet with you."
Felicia picked up a remote, dropping some shutters over the windows and darkening the room as she clicked on a holographic projector. It displayed a 3D projected image of a topographic map in the room behind Alanza, who turned to look at it. A number of red dots appeared in the map and Alanza noted a few of the names where areas that had been attacked in the past few months.
"Notice anything?" Felicia asked and Alanza studied the map carefully, smiling at her after a moment.
"They're in a line?" Alanza asked, rhetorically.
"Don't be a smart ass, Alanza." Felicia said as she moved around the desk to look at the image more closely.
"They're all coming in from the same direction." Alanza said and Felicia nodded.
"What's that make you think?" Felicia asked as Alanza also stood and looked at the projection as well.
"The MAF doesn't pay me to think, ma'am." Alanza said and Felicia nodded.
"Fair enough, but I'm asking you." Felicia said and Alanza thought for a moment.
"Makes me think that they have a staging area somewhere to the North of where all these attacks are happening." Alanza said, getting a nod from Felicia. "That's wild country though, Fel. No one goes out there."
"No one went out there. I'm changing that. Starting today, I'm going to send out small teams to do some recon by fire. They want to try and pull this hit and run guerilla fighting, fine. Then we'll hit them with the same."
A number of blue dots appeared as the map expanded outwards, showing more of the planetary map. Alanza felt her tail twitching again, but this time she was smiling.
"You're cutting me off the leash?" Alanza asked and Felicia shook her head.
"Not cutting it, but you'll have a much longer leash to work with. Have to keep up appearances." Felicia said.
"What about backup? If something goes wrong are we going to have fire support?" Alanza asked.
"We'll be able to scramble some fast mover VTOLs to you. Maybe get some artillery fire if you're within range. Hell if you really get in it, I'll lead a QRF to you personally. Battlemech support is unlikely, so hope you don't miss the heavy metal." Felicia said,
"No worries there. Won't miss dodging in between feet while trying not to catch rounds." Alanza said and Felicia laughed.
"Yea, 'mech jocks sure are inconsiderate up in their golden cockpits." Felicia said. "Still, wouldn't discount dodging feet. Seems like whoever these people are came packing serious firepower."
"No kidding. Hard to imagine this being some populace uprising. At least completely." Alanza said.
"You don't buy that 'populace uprising' line of shit, do you?" Felicia asked.
"Not a chance. I'm betting mercenaries." Alanza said
"Funny, I'm betting pirates." Felicia said as she returned to her seat at the desk and raised the shutters. "While you're out there, try and dig up some intel on who we're fighting."
"Can do." Alanza said.
"Good. Now get out of my office and get your team geared up. Talk to the officer runnin' motor pool and they'll hook you up with a vehicle." Felicia said, receiving a crisp salute which she returned before Alanza exited the office.
Alanza felt like she was skipping as she went and found Momiji and Raina. They were seated in the common room and Alanza motioned for them to follow her to the lockers.
"You look happy." Momiji said and Alanza nodded.
"We're going out on assignment." Alanza said as she explained what Commander Graves had told her. Momiji nodded and began packing his kit while Raina let out a low whistle.
"Sounds like we're going pretty far out there." Raina said and Alanza nodded.
"I'll be sure to pack extra then. Knowing you two, we'll probably need it." Momiji said with a smile as he began packing his kit and made a show of stashing a full set of trauma kits. Alanza gave him the finger as she and Raina began to pack their own gear before all three headed to the motor pool. A woman with broad shoulders and grease stains pulled herself out from under a vehicle and wiped her hands on a shop rag.
"Heard you might be stoppin' by to take one of my rides. Here." The woman said, tossing a set of keys to Alanza and patting a recon vehicle. "She'll get you out there in one piece. Just make sure you bring her back in one piece."
"I'll do my best. Thanks." Alanza said, opening the rear of the vehicle and setting her rucksack inside before climbing up and into the compartment. Alanza hung her rifle on the weapon mount and locked her rucksack in place, taking Raina and Momiji's gear and doing the same with it. Momiji climbed into the drivers seat and Alanza handed him the keys while Raina got into the passenger seat.
"Raina, you pick the music. We let Momiji do it, we'll be stuck listening to Drac-pop for the next three hours." Alanza said mockingly as Momiji started the vehicles engine and drove towards the gate.
"You can't tell me you don't love it Alanza." Momiji said back and Alanza snorted a laugh.
The drive North was dull at best, the vague hints of civilization giving way to open country and rolling hills covered in snow. Alanza had studied planetary maps when they had first been assigned to Fanardir so she knew what to expect leaving the FOB.
The inhabited parts of Fanardir were cold at the best of times, and the further North you went the colder it got. Alanza was glad for the recon vehicle, the heated compartment would be a god send whenever they would come back in from scouting, even if the BDUs they had were climate controlled.
The heavy drumbeats from Raina's choice of music seemed to make each bump the vehicle went over more dramatic, but it also made the time go by quicker as Alanza rechecked the GPS display on her HUD.
"So, what's the plan when we get out there?" Momiji asked, shouting over the music and the dull thrum of the engine.
"Have to guess if they're in our area, they'll need a decent sized staging area. They'll be far out, but it'll be bright. Probably hidden over a ridgeline, using peaks to disguise the light pollution." Alanza replied
"Do you think they actually have a base out here?" Raina asked, keeping her eyes focused out the windshield.
"Makes sense. And if Felicia says we need to go check it out, then we go and check it out. Even if its nothing, it beats sitting around in the base for weeks." Alanza replied and Raina laughed.
"As a note, next time we get sent on a wild goose chase, I'd prefer somewhere with temperatures that aren't in the freezing range almost all the time." Raina said, getting a laugh from everyone in the vehicle. "I wish Hayley was here. Squad feels incomplete."
A heavy silence fell over them then. They knew they could do whatever job they needed to do as they were, but the lack of their fourth was felt, even just in the banter. Alanza was glad Hayley would be getting the best medical care Canopus had to offer, and would make sure that whoever the people that kept attacking were paid for injuring her in the first place, but Alanza wished that her teammate was still here.
The trio held sporadic conversations as they continued to drive, mostly things of little consequence and wondering how things were back home. Momiji talked at length about how he had met some mercenary last time he was on leave and they had stayed in contact afterwards. Alanza rolled her eyes, but smiled. Momiji had the reputation of a ladies man, tending to meet someone every time they got "shore leave". She wouldn't be surprised if this latest girl was forgotten the next time they rotated out. Still, the way he talked about this girl was endearing.
"You ever think of moving to the private sector?" Raina asked Momiji, catching Alanza off guard. Momiji shrugged in response.
"Sure. No offense to either of you, but I'd probably get paid more as a merc than I do with the MAF. Plus get to see more exotic locations than the lovely frost world of Fanardir." Momiji said.
"How much time do you have left?" Raina asked and Momiji paused to think.
"After this deployment, a little less than a year if I remember right." Momiji said and Raina nodded.
"Maybe you'll follow this new girl." Alanza said, giving Momiji a light punch on the arm. He chuckled in response.
"Yea, maybe. I will admit, I have been feeling a bit stir crazy. I don't think being assigned down in the valley was helping things. Getting saddled with convoy escorts and standard patrols, sitting around barracks. I dunno…" Momiji said and both Alanza and Raina nodded.
"Anyway, no sense worrying about that now. Hey Alanza, how long do we have until we rotate off planet?" Raina asked.
"Figured you'd have learned to keep track of that by now." Alanza responded with a smirk.
"I have, but I wanna make sure I'm right." Raina said.
"We've got about two months, unless we get extended." Alanza said.
"That's what I figured. Also figured we're probably going to get extended." Raina said and Alanza didn't respond.
"Even more reason to find where they're hiding out here so we can hit 'em hard and fast and make it so command doesn't need to keep us here longer." Momiji said with a smile. Raina nodded and Alanza still remained silent, focusing on the topography of the GPS image. "Almost wish they'd just take us in VTOLs, drop us and then come pick us up later."
"Don't wanna spend a few nights camped in the wildlands?" Alanza asked with a chuckle.
"Can't say I'm looking forward to it, no. Especially since we know they're coming from this direction but not where they're coming from. Don't favor getting stomped on by a battlemech in my sleep." Momiji said.
"Only you could sleep through a battlemech walking up on you, Rabbit." Alanza said and Momiji shrugged.
Alanza moved forward, reaching up and switching off the communications gear. No one said anything, knowing they would be radio silent until they found something or absolutely needed help. Since the enemy could be monitoring their communications or even using the frequency to track them, it was safer this way even it meant they were completely on their own. It was one of the things Alanza made sure to reinforce in her squad; the ability to operate alone and only putting their trust in each other.
They drove silently on, the sky roiling above them and growing darker as it threatened to snow. Alanza was also wishing they had been given a VTOL drop off, the large wheels of the recon vehicle would manage if the weather turned, but it would slow them down significantly. Not to mention it would make any scouting they wanted to do on foot nearly impossible.
Finally, after hours of driving and only a few stops to answer the call of nature, stretch and give themselves a break from the rather uncomfortable seats of the vehicle, the squad parked their vehicle and began setting up the vehicle to hide it as best they could. They checked their weapons, ensuring they were good to go before Alanza ordered the sleep rotation to start. They napped for a few hours each, not necessarily feeling the most rested but good enough to get to work.
"Alright, we're going to start by checking this area here." Alanza said, placing a marker on the shared HUD display between them. "I marked the car so we know were to get to when we need to come back, but I want to get to the top of that ridge and see if we can see any lights that aren't supposed to be there."
Alanza pointed to a ridgeline some distance away, getting nods from Momiji and Raina. Alanza nodded back and shouldered her rifle.
"Alright, lets get humpin'. Keep it quiet, hand signs as much as possible. For all we know there's no one out here, but I'd rather find them first if they are. If the weather turns, we'll double time it back to the car and wait it out." Alanza said, taking point as they marched further into the wilderness.
The squad searched the area thoroughly, spending hours covering as much of the search grid as they could and turning up nothing. Alanza felt herself getting frustrated but tempered it as they began ascending the ridgeline. They moved carefully, making sure where they stepped was secure and they wouldn't slip down the rather steep incline. By the time they had reached the top of the ridge and set up the BIVOUAC, it was well past sundown and darkness had set in.
Looking out over the landscape beyond the ridgeline, it became obvious that there was something far off in the distance. The glow of manmade lighting was somewhere on the horizon and Alanza took a few still images with her helmet mounted camera to bring back.
"Looks like someone is out there." Raina said quietly and Momiji nodded.
"Question is, is it the people attacking us?" Momiji asked and Raina turned to look at him.
"Who else would it be?" Raina asked.
"This is the Periphery. Everyone who came out here came out here to get away from government. Could be people who even found the loose hand of Fanardir's government too much for them." Momiji said and Raina nodded, more to herself than anyone else.
"Well, only one way to find out. Don't think we're gonna get there tonight. Might as well get some sleep and hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to take the car closer and see what we can see." Alanza said, getting nods from her squad mates. "Get some sleep, I'll take first watch."
Momiji and Raina crawled into their tents, zipping them closed and Alanza could hear the barely perceptible hum of small heaters kick on inside the canvas. She kept her eyes on the lights in the distance, watching to see if they ever blinked out or if, by some miracle, she could make out shapes moving in front of them. She knew it was a hopeless venture, the distance between her and what she presumed was her prey was too much even with the enhanced zoom of her rifle scope and the helmet. Alanza sighed heavily and focused on the area closer to her, shifting from hunting to guard duty. Once more, Alanza thanked whoever had made these BDUs and settled in for what was sure to be a long, cold night.