Chapter 46
In Speculative Resolve
"Coburg, if you intentionally throw this match, I will be very, very angry with you."
The man in question was gearing up for the first scenario after lunch alongside the rest of the gendarmes, so he spared only a sideways glance as he responded.
"Would I really do such a thing?"
"Yes, absolutely," the sergeant answered without hesitation. "If you thought you could get away with it, you absolutely would."
Arguably the master sergeant should have taken offense at that, regardless of the veracity of the accusation. Which was incidentally completely true.
"So the thing of it is," Coburg instead said, "it's not really throwing a match if we never stood a chance in the first place. You heard that Eden Vital sister, the two fireteams we're going up against have the highest proficiency scores of their entire regiment."
Not that such scores had meant much when the soldiers went up against Eden Vital in the second match of the morning. The two fireteams from the 597th had fought bravely and tenaciously, but there had been something downright uncanny about the movements of the Eden Vital side. As with the previous match, both team's radio chatter had been routed into the monitor rooms, and while the army regulars conveyed information and idle banter amongst themselves as expected, the Eden Vital channel was completely silent. Not one word, not one breath, not even the wash of static could be heard over their radio, just complete silence. Even so, the Eden Vital battle sisters had acted as if they were in constant communication, coordinating and maneuvering as a single cohesive whole without any friction. And it was not just a seemingly perfect awareness of each other that the sisters displayed, but they also showed a frightening, almost preternatural awareness of where their opponents were too. That was the only way to explain how the sisters were able to launch ambushes by literally shooting through the walls to hit their enemies on the other side, thereby simultaneously also demonstrating the AR system's ability to simulate even such attacks.
The army regulars really had put in a valiant effort, refusing to back down even as their numbers were whittled down without them managing a single hit on their adversaries. Eventually their last survivor made a desperate final effort, charging straight at the sisters in what was clearly a futile effort to bring down at least one of them. While the sisters could have easily just gunned her down, they instead accepted the implicit challenge, with the redhaired sister stepping forth to engage the Japanese woman in hand-to-hand. The end result was a spectacular exchange, the two women absolutely whaling on each other in close quarters. While the Japanese soldier had managed to get in a few good hits and even put on quite a bit of pressure on her opponent, the Eden Vital sister somehow always kept pace, landing plenty of solid punches herself that ultimately overwhelmed the former. Either way, the bout made for some spectacular viewing for the audience, at least as far as the gendarmes were concerned. The princess' guardsmen, at least those watching in the observation room instead of the control room with their liege, seemed a bit too invested in the whole stiff upper lip thing.
"We on the other hand only won against the Princess Cornelia's guardsmen because the hostage we were supposed to save ended up carrying us," Coburg continued. "What possible chance do we stand, especially when the ladies on the other side are almost certainly hankering to redeem their honor?"
The other sergeant stared at Coburg for a few moments before delivering his retort.
"See, this is why you're still single. You don't show women the proper respect they deserve."
"What? How am I disrespecting women?"
"Because you're not planning on giving it your all when we go in there. You think the ladies of the 597th are going to appreciate you just letting them win when they put all this effort in being the best of the best? I mean c'mon, bad enough they got curb stomped by the Eden Vital sisters, but that doesn't mean they want a pity victory."
"God, I wish that made less sense than it does," Coburg said as they walked out of the lockers. "I feel like a part of me dies every time you make a point that isn't complete nonsense."
"You're just jealous that I'm so smooth when it comes to the ladies," the other sergeant said, just in time for the other participant in the exercise on their side to arrive.
If there was any doubt as to whether Lieutenant Marika Soresi had overheard the banter, the less than impressed look she cast the gendarmes' way put it to rest.
"Ah, don't worry about him, ma'am," Coburg said as he and the others saluted. "None of us take anything he says seriously either."
"If you say so," Marika said, returning the motion. "Well Sergeant, seeing as you are the ones officially participating as the defense force for this scenario, I will leave all of the tactical decisions in your hands."
"We are so screwed," came a very hushed whisper behind Coburg.
Fortunately this time around Marika seemed to have genuinely not overheard anything so it was with a slightly quizzical look that she regarded Coburg clearing his throat.
"Right, then let's get about tactigizing."
"That's not a word."
"And yet you still knew what I meant," Coburg said as he began pointing at the map mounted before them. "So our objective for this scenario is to keep our VIP, Lieutenant Soresi, safe until we reach the exfil point here. Considering how the army handled the last scenario, I think we can expect them to come at us full force, so if we want any chance of winning, which we of course do, we'll need to do likewise. That being said…"
A groan sounded.
"We're probably not going to win a straight-up firefight against army regulars using conventional tactics, which is why I have a genius plan."
More groans, which Coburg duly ignored as he held up his sidearm controller.
"Notice what this comes with?"
And pointed it at the map. It took a moment or so but quickly everyone noticed the red dot dancing back and forth.
"What about the laser sight?"
"Well, it's just that, under the right conditions, these things are pretty obvious," Coburg said. "And if you saw the dot the sight produced, your assumption would be that there be someone pointing a weapon in that direction, right?" The dot now circled a particular location on the map. "The layout of the scenario environment is such that this stairwell is a junction that both teams have to converge on. Now if we can trick them into thinking we're on this side here." The dot jumped to one place. "While we're actually lying in wait on the other side." And now to another. "We'd be able to catch them completely unawares."
A few moments passed as the other gendarmes, plus Marika, simply stared at the map and/or Coburg.
"I can see no way in which this probably won't blow up on us," the other sergeant finally said.
"Well do you have a better idea?" Coburg retorted.
"Yeah." The sergeant raised one of the pseudo-grenades. "We're going against soldiers, with no civvies around, so no worry about collateral damage. Let's just go all-in on the explosives and blow the army ladies away the first chance we get."
"And you think my plan'll blow up on us," Coburg said, "yours promises to do so literally."
"Technically my plan is to blow the other side up."
"And probably take us with it."
"Only if we end up with the pin instead of the grenade."
"Better to not bring big grenades into small rooms to begin with."
The very audible sound of a throat clearing interrupted the debate as all eyes fell on a noticeably irritated Marika.
"Gentlemen, perhaps there is no need to choose one plan over the other," she said. "You could use the laser point to lure the opposing fireteams in and use explosives in the ambush itself."
The two sergeants stared at Marika for a few seconds, and then back at each her.
"What she said."
Coburg shrugged. "Yeah, why not. That way if things go pear-shaped, the blame gets spread evenly." He glanced over at the others. "Any further objections?"
Lots of shaking heads, though it was hard to tell whether that meant they had no objections or they were simply resigned to their fates.
"Right, now that we've got a plan, let's put it into motion," Coburg said with remarkable cheer.
"You know that no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, right?" the other sergeant pointed out.
"What, as if me saying we should wing it would make you any happier."
As Marika followed after, the lieutenant looked very put upon. Rare was the occasion when the junior officer seemed like the voice of reason when amidst senior NCOs, but somehow the leaders of fireteams Zulu and Foxtrot managed.
"What do you make out, Mikasa?"
The Japanese woman was peering down the stairwell with great caution, serving as the point woman for her team.
"I see, a red dot shining on the wall through the door below us," Mikasa answered. "No sign of anyone else though. And the dot isn't moving, at all."
A grunt sounded over the radio. "Gotta give the MPs some credit for creativity at least. What's your call, Corporal?"
"The gendarmes are almost certainly lying in wait in the opposite angle from where the laser pointer is located," Mikasa immediately surmised. "Recommend we lob a smoke grenade towards the pointer to make it seem like we fell for it, and then a few grenades in the other direction to flush them out."
"Sounds good to me. You toss the smoke when you're ready."
"Roger."
After waiting for a few moments to let the rest of her team position themselves, Mikasa popped the pin and tossed the smoke grenade down. The trail it left behind further confirmed the unnatural stillness of the laser beam, meaning it was almost certainly not being held by anyone. The other soldiers threw their grenades a moment later, bouncing them artfully against the wall. They were rewarded with cries of surprise that were quickly overtaken by the simulated explosions.
"Go!"
As befitted her position, Mikasa was the first to slide down the stairs. She opened up without hesitation, though that proved needless for the first two targets, both already downed by the grenades. Two more gendarmes were further back and so survived the initial blasts, but did not get their shoots off quickly enough as Mikasa rolled back behind the meager cover of the walls. With both sides using armor piercing rounds, it was pure luck that she managed to get low enough to avoid the bullets punching through.
"Fire in the hole!"
Her teammates having made their way down, they were now in position to offer some more support. That support was another round of grenades, fired from their underslung launchers. The added range this provided saw the explosives easily reach the surviving gendarmes, culminating in a satisfying bang. When Mikasa peered out, the only motion she saw was that of bodies twitching from the residual shock the armor provided to simulate hits. With no other enemy contacts visible, Mikasa walked over.
"Ow," one of the gendarmes moaned. "I knew that trick wasn't going to work."
"It was a bit obvious, what with the dot not moving at all," Mikasa said. "If you were so certain it would fail, does that mean you didn't come up with it?"
"Nope, my good buddy Coburg did," the gendarmerie sergeant said. "Who is presently yelling in my ear asking what's going on, apparently not realizing that I'm dead."
"Coburg?" Mikasa said, recognizing the name. "I would speak to him."
"Knock yourself out," the sergeant said, pulling off his earpiece and radio pickup and holding them up for Mikasa to take.
The woman did so and spoke into the pickup. "Sergeant Coburg, this is Corporal Ackermann. I regret to inform you that your other fireteam is now all deceased. I hope you understand this isn't personal, but we will be coming for the rest of you now." She then handed the items back. "My thanks."
"Thank me by kicking his ass," the sergeant said. "That'll almost make it worth losing the bet."
Some distance away, and a few minutes back in time, Coburg was having another exchange with his fellow sergeant.
"I don't think they're buying it," the voice crackled over the radio.
"Why? How can you tell?" Coburg asked.
"We heard some noises, so there's definitely someone up there, but they're not coming down. I think they know something's up, what with the dot not moving any."
"Well shouldn't you have had someone holding it instead, to make it look more real?" Coburg said.
"A bit late for that-whoa, incoming!"
Coburg resisted the urge to ask what was happening, the other fireteam leader did not need any distractions with contact being made.
"Puta they just fragged two of us with grenades!"
Of course said other fireteam leader might feel the need to give a play-by-play regardless.
"They're using my plan!" he shouted. "Oh shi-"
The AR system even simulated the bang of explosives detonating on the other side of the radio. The effort to provide an immersive experience was quite impressive if nothing else.
"Oh, shit," Coburg however was a bit too preoccupied to appreciate that effort. "You still alive over there? Hello? Anyone?"
When the radio crackled again, an entirely different voice sounded.
"Sergeant Coburg, this is Corporal Ackermann. I regret to inform you that your other fireteam is now all deceased. I hope you understand this isn't personal, but we will be coming for the rest of you now."
Ackermann. Coburg took only a brief moment to recall who the woman was. She would have been the point woman in the squad that helped relieve his own during the Babel incident. A squad that as he recalled was very trigger happy with the explosives. That probably explained his fellow sergeant's remark about the soldiers using the former's plan.
"Well, this is going to be a problem," Coburg remarked somewhat rhetorically.
"What now?" Marika asked.
"Assuming the soldiers didn't take any losses of their own, which seems likely considering it was fireteam Foxtrot, we're now outnumbered two-to-one," Coburg stated. "If they manage to pin us, they can just lob more explosives at us, since the objective here isn't to capture or rescue you alive, but to take you out. Our best bet then would be to avoid contact for as long as possible and only fighting if we have no other choice."
"Are you suggesting we run away?" Marika asked, sounding somewhat incredulous.
"Considering that's the scenario objective in the first place, of course." Coburg raised an eyebrow. "You weren't seriously thinking we were going to win by fighting the soldiers head-on, were you?"
That seemed to catch Marika short as she took a moment to respond.
"No, you are right, Sergeant. The objective is to extract myself safely, not outright defeat the other team."
"Glad we're on the same page," Coburg cracked a wry smile. "That being said, the regimental ladies aren't just going to let us waltz on over to the extraction site. We'll have to fight, but we don't necessarily have to win."
Marika's eyes immediately narrowed as she inferred his meaning. She then gave a determined nod.
"I will not let your sacrifice be in vain, Sergeant."
"I sure hope not," Coburg said with a wide smile. "Not that I intend to go down easy either, but if it happens, I don't mind it being for the sake of a pretty lady."
Marika flushed ever so slightly at that. "Umm, just so we're clear, I already have a boyfriend."
A whistle sounded from one of the other gendarmes. "Damn, that's gotta be a new record for how fast the sergeant got shot down."
"Wha-I wasn't flirting with her!"
"Sure, Sergeant, sure."
"Can it you lot," Coburg said with an exasperated sigh. "Unless you're looking to volunteer in joining me in my glorious last stand."
The chuckles really could have meant either way. But that was fine, since that just meant Coburg could voluntold them instead.
"Contact," a soldier from the other fireteam announced over the radio. "Three hostiles, no sign of the target." A brief pause passed. "They're engaging!"
"That leaves one MP to guard the VIP," Mikasa's own team leader remarked. "We can't let them slip by. Split into two-man teams and search and destroy."
"Roger," came the chorus of responses.
With her partner, Mikasa trotted down the corridors, alert for any movement. There were only a few routes left towards the extraction point, so assuming the target had not managed to outright outrun them, they should be able to spot them along the way. At the sound of the approaching footsteps, Mikasa's choice of routes was vindicated. She raised a closed fist, signaling for her partner to hold position. The sound of clinking metal was just loud enough to alert Mikasa to something else.
"Nade!"
The two soldiers scurried back, just in time as the grenade detonated. A second later, the hiss of gas could be heard as a follow-up smoke grenade filled up the hallway, obscuring everything. As tactics went, that was not a bad one, creating layered distractions to buy time. If the lack of vision caused Mikasa and her partner to hesitate long enough, the VIP and her escort might even be able to make a clean break. Unfortunately for them, Mikasa was well versed in using all of her senses, not just her sight. As the footsteps drew closer, she dove into the smoke and tackled the runner. Both bodies tumbled out of the gas, revealing that Mikasa had indeed been on the mark, successfully interrupting Marika's escape. That was not the same as having ended it, however. Even if Marika was playing as the VIP, she was also a trained soldier, and a sworn knight to the Princess Cornelia. Rolling onto her feet, she tried to level her pistol at Mikasa, an admirably quick reaction, but not one that Mikasa was unprepared for. The Japanese woman spun about, knocking the sidearm away with a solid kick, prompting Marika to respond in kind. Letting go of her rifle, Mikasa blocked with her now-freed hands, trying to grapple on to throw Marika off-balance.
By now enough of the smoke had cleared out for both Mikasa's partner and Marika's escort to be able to see what was going on. Neither was in a position to really do anything to help their respective partners, what with the two women locked in close quarters. For that matter they were barely in position to even try to shoot each other, what with the melee spilling out all over the place. To his credit, Coburg did not stand there gawking for very long, but it was still a second longer than the other soldier, who promptly shouldered her rifle and charged in with a pseudo knife. That was enough for the gendarme to respond reflexively, snapping open his baton and moving to intercept. While the fight between Marika and Mikasa had a certain fluid grace, the brawl between Coburg and the other soldier quickly devolved into mad bashing at each other, at least on the sergeant's part.
With her opponent trained in the same hand-to-hand techniques as herself, Mikasa was forced to rely on her greater physical strength to press Marika. The knight was herself somewhat taken aback by the sheer brute force behind each of Mikasa's kicks and punches, her arms shaking from every blow. Her stamina was slowly being whittled down, and without a proper weapon she was not in a position to equalize the difference. Just as the knight felt she was being backed into a corner, a cry sounded.
"Run!"
Followed by the hiss of another smoke grenade going off. Rolling into the sudden plume of gas, Marika made a mad dash towards the target point, fully expecting pursuit to be right on her heels. The boom that sounded later, and the slight prickling of the armor indicating just how close the explosion was, put paid to that thought. Marika immediately realized what had happened, Coburg having popped a proper grenade after the smoke one to try to take the two soldiers with him. For that the sergeant had Marika's genuine respect, even if this was a simulation it still took a degree of will to suicide like that in the hopes of taking your enemy with you. Breaking out into a full-on sprint, the knight was determined to not let Coburg's sacrifice be in-
The distinct ping sound of a grenade being popped interrupted Marika's thoughts. Multiple pings, for that matter. The next moment Marika yelped in pain as the armor shocked her.
By the third day of the exercise, all of the participating soldiers had a good grasp of the AR system being used. They had also developed a healthy respect for each other's prowess, and even if not all of them were prepared to admit it, a slight anxiety about the abilities of the Eden Vital battle sisters. While the scenarios that pitted the gendarmerie, royal guard, and army regulars against each other had a fair amount of back and forth and chaotic surprises, the two matches against Eden Vital were so lopsided scuttlebutt was pretty certain the Order was using these exercises to test out some sort of secret weapon.
After the match between the gendarmerie and the 597th, which ended in a close victory for the latter, Cornelia's guardsmen were pitted directly against the battle sisters. Setting aside the fluke gendarmerie victory of the first match, no one really doubted that the two facing off represented the best of the squads assembled today. Even so, Eden Vital still managed a resounding victory without losing a single member while completely wiping out the other side. And this when Eden Vital was supposed to be on the defensive protecting a VIP. That requirement had not seemed to limit the movement of the battle sisters much, with them leaving a core guard of Anya, Lucretia, and Sancia babysitting "Granddaddy" Coburg while Alice, Dalque, Kallen, and Oldrin, wreaked havoc on the other side.
Having watched how the battle sisters had taken apart the regimental soldiers, Claudio at least tried to come up with countermeasures for the employed tactics. By keeping his own teams clustered together to watch each other's backs, the captain hoped to at least prevent flanking attacks that had allowed Eden Vital to defeat their previous opponents in detail. Unfortunately such efforts could only do so much when your enemy seemed to know your exact location without you benefiting from similar such awareness. Perhaps taking inspiration from the judicious use of explosives in the prior match, the ambush launched by the Eden Vital team involved tossing grenades from multiple directions at the advancing guardsmen. The initial wave of explosions wiped out over half of Claudio's team then and there, with the disoriented survivors in no shape to put up much of a fight. As far as time to victory from initial contact went, this match certainly set the record.
Today, instead of pairing the various teams up again, all of the participants were lined up for one final scenario. On one side, the Cardinal Lamperouge himself alongside the seven women that made up the Eden Vital contingent. On the other, a combined team of twenty-four soldiers drawn from Cornelia's royal guard, the 597th, and the gendarmerie. The scenario, an assassination attempt on Lelouch, with the defenders outnumbered three-to-one. As Master-Sergeant Coburg put it, that might have been just about even odds for the attackers.
"I kind of feel a bit sorry for the other teams," Kallen remarked as she finished strapping on the AR armor. "They have no idea what they're up against, and with our advantages, it's almost like we're clubbing baby seals or something."
"Despite us being outnumbered three-to-one this time?" Sancia asked.
"Do you really think that'd be enough?" Kallen retorted.
"Hopefully not," was the other woman's blunt response, "otherwise we are falling well short of the force multiplication that Anya's telepathic link is supposed to provide us."
While the official rationale for inviting the other service branches to participate in this training exercise was to show off the AR training system to see if they would be interested in adopting it, Lelouch's personal objective was to conduct a field test against live opponents the new telepathic link centered around Anya's geass. The girl's ability started out as being able to connect to single other minds, but its growth over the years saw the numbers and distances upped. With other mundane humans this simply offered a secure, instantaneous means of communication, valuable in and of itself. When the other participants in this telepathic network were also geass wielders, the force multiplication factor increased significantly. By connecting the likes of Lucretia and Sancia, the environmental mapping performed by the former combined with the movement projections of the latter was made available to every connected mind, offering a real-time view of the entire battlefield. That information then allowed the others to better position themselves to launch ambushes and flanking strikes on their enemies while also maintaining a clear line of retreat, hence the curb stomps of their opponents yesterday. All this, without the geass wielders with more physically inclined powers even exercising theirs. Not that they would want to in such an environment, or really could for that matter. Anya's superspeed played merry hell with the ability of the AR system to switch between wireless access points to ensure peak performance, as well as the localization mechanism used to actually identify where she was for her shots to land. There was also no desire to physically destroy the training facility, which ruled Dalque's and to a lesser extent Kallen's powers out. And while Oldrin could still sneak around the place, the AR goggles everyone was wearing did have cameras constantly recording, and it would be just a bit weird to have the soldiers run right past the girl blithely unaware while she was entirely visible on camera.
"I would arguably prefer that our opponents are able to find some sort of weakness in our current lineup," Lelouch said, "if only so the same does not end up happening on the battlefield proper. There is bound to be some flaw that we ourselves have not noticed but which those properly invested in defeating us are more likely to discover. Though whether this particular group of opponents possess the necessary proficiency to do so remains to be seen."
Kallen raised an eyebrow. "Didn't these fireteams get picked because they were considered some of the best?"
"For the most part," Lelouch said. "The trouble is, those most successful at their craft have a tendency to be overly reliant on what has worked before, resulting in a certain creative sterility. And as we have seen amply, those more conventional approaches are inadequate for dealing with the advantages we possess. It remains to be seen however whether our opponents have learned the lesson."
"Huh," Kallen said. "So meting out those two defeats against the Princess Cornelia's guard served an actual purpose beyond just showing them up?"
Lelouch blinked, then cracked a wry smirk. "You wound me, Kallen. Do you really take me to be so petty?"
Kallen did not respond, instead casting her gaze at the other women gearing up. As one, they all nodded, even Oldrin. When Kallen finally did return her gaze to Lelouch, her expression mirrored the cardinal's smirk before shifting to a more pensive one.
"If the princess' guardsmen are supposed to be the most proficient, and therefore most inflexible, does that mean you were expecting the gendarmes to be the least inflexible?"
"The Imperial Gendarmerie tend to run into a lot of situations where going in guns blazing is decidedly not the best course of action," Lelouch said. "That often requires a greater degree of creativity to be employed in carrying out their duties. Recall that laser pointer trick they tried to play. Even if it did not work, that sort of improvisation in the field is much more difficult to account for than simply reacting to the rote employment of tactics from the army infantry handbook. And besides, even if they did lose in the end, Sergeant Coburg's final action did nearly see Lieutenant Soresi to the exfil point."
Not that nearly was particularly worthwhile on the actual battlefield, but the purpose of training exercises was to let these nearlies build up into experience that would help carry the day when the actual bullets were flying.
"So you're expecting the gendarmes to be the trickiest to handle?" Kallen asked.
"If Captain Darlton is smart enough to actually make use of their expertise," Lelouch answered. "Otherwise they're just a few more rifles being thrown at us the old-fashioned way."
"Respectfully sir," Coburg said with all the patience a senior NCO might reserve for an especially green junior officer, "that would be a mistake."
Granted Claudio was, as a captain, not so junior an officer anymore, but compared to someone with as many years in the service as Coburg, he still counted as rather green. The captain was at least smart enough to recognize this, so as much as his irritation flared at Coburg's objection, he knew that was not grounds to dismiss the master sergeant's concern.
"And where does the mistake lay, Sergeant?" he thus asked.
"It's fairly evident from the last two exercises Eden Vital participated in that they have some way of knowing exactly where their opponents are, sir," Coburg said. "Last three, if we count the first match where Sister Lucretia decided to involve herself as an active participant instead of just a passive stand-in."
Claudio's jaw tightened at the reference to his first defeat, but he kept listening.
"That being the case, trying to outmaneuver them, even with our numerical advantage, probably won't work. Unless we got extraordinarily lucky, it is at their initiative whether to engage us or avoid us, which means it is also at their initiative to concentrate their own numbers to defeat our individual teams in detail."
"So what would you suggest instead?"
"We should stay concentrated, with each team in range to support each other. Since this is an elimination match, against an enemy this good, we need to keep them from whittling away the only advantage we have against them bit by bit, our numbers."
"Are you suggesting we play it safe?" Claudio asked.
"I suggest we not play to our opponent's strength, sir," Coburg responded. "They're simply too maneuverable for us to chase down or try to encircle ourselves. We need to force them to confront us head-on, where our greater numbers would allow us to neutralize their mobility."
"For what it's worth, sir," the regimental sergeant spoke up, "I agree with Master Sergeant Coburg."
Claudio looked back and forth between the two sergeants. Technically, his rank meant it was entirely within his right to ignore the two and proceed the way he wanted. Doing so however was not going to endear him to the rank-and-file men and women that made up the two's commands. Not that such a consideration by itself should be enough to dissuade the captain, if he could be certain his own plan would work. Or even if he lacked that certainty, when it came down to it.
"Alright Sergeant," Claudio finally said. "The point you raise is a valid one. But even if we stay concentrated and avoid giving Eden Vital any chances to defeat us in detail, we still need to have a way of taking the fight to them to inflict casualties on them. Unless your proposal offers us a better chance at that, I would rather risk defeat in detail than to play things safe."
"Simulation start," Andreas announced over the intercom.
As with the last few instances where both Lucretia and Sancia were participating in a scenario, the general was acting as the stand-in announcer for the simulation.
"Activating connection," Anya said a moment later.
A shudder still passed through Kallen's body as she felt Anya's mind touch her own, and then link up with the others. Each member of the team had a distinct feel to their mental topology, with Alice being of focused determination while Dalque was just a more narrow, attentive focus. Lucretia seemed to keep a tight rein on her thoughts, while Sancia's mind felt abuzz with them. Oldrin, a temporary member participating in the exercise, felt fainter than the others, while Anya herself was a mild cacophony as she worked to keep the crosstalk between the linked minds to a minimum. As for Lelouch, Kallen could feel an intense drive, one that pushed the girl herself to go further. For some reason, Kallen felt no sense of discomfort from that particular drive. In fact it seemed to complement her own will quite well.
Once the telepathic link was established, no further words were exchanged. Everyone so connected was able to pass on their intentions automatically, so Kallen did not need to be told to take point, she did so reflexively, just as Alice and Dalque took up positions behind her. The three-woman formation hurried through the halls, charging directly for the first group of targets.
The opposing side of course had not gone into the simulation without some strategizing of their own. As the ranking commissioned officer, Claudio had assumed overall command of the other side, though with only a single evening to work with the overall unit cohesion still left something to be desired. Perhaps that was why his own side was more or less split up into its constituent fireteams, spread across a rather wide front. Each team was technically close enough to another so that backup could be readily called upon, but the respective reaction times would still be notable before reinforcements could properly converge on anyone in trouble. With how fast the engagements happened, that arguably meant each team was as good as alone.
Kallen and Dalque opened fire first, while Alice skirted around to intercept a pair of soldiers trying to flank her teammates. The trio did not stay long in their present position, falling back quickly to avoid getting boxed in. After turning a corner, they split up again, Kallen and Dalque positioning themselves so their fields of fire overlapped while Alice went off to do her own thing. The pursing soldiers seemed to notice the new ambush set up for them, and instead of charging head-on a metal cylinder bounced in their direction. The flashbang went off, but as Kallen and Dalque were behind cover they were unfazed by the bright lights. The two women stayed behind cover as well, letting the enemy think they had been stunned and so be tempted to push forward. The sound of footsteps, plus Lucretia's mapping, indicated their opponents were obliging, which was the moment when Alice zipped past right behind them while tossing a charge of her own. Alice's was a grenade instead of a mere flashbang, however, and the enemy had maybe a moment to realize what was happening before a simulated explosion triggered the shocks from their armor. That was one fireteam wiped out in its entirety, and for not so much as a scratch on Kallen's side.
On the other side of the halls, Lelouch's team was launching their own attack. Despite the objective of the scenario being the cardinal's assassination or protection, the person actually at the center of the defensive formation was Anya. Seeing as losing her would cripple his side's ability to coordinate, prioritizing the Eden Vital sister more made a degree of sense. At the same time, they were still outnumbered, so Lelouch needed to take at least some care in how he went about reducing the enemy's numbers. At the moment, the cardinal's fireteam had actually managed to maneuver around to the rear of Claudio's unit. The captain himself was further up, so taking out the rearguard would regrettably not disrupt the opposing side's chain of command as much as Lelouch would have liked.
As with Kallen's group, Lelouch organized his troops to catch his opponents in crossfires. With Lucretia pinpointing where every single enemy soldier was and Sancia able to predict with high probability where those soldiers might be headed, that allowed Lelouch to position his subordinates in a manner that would not see them flanked or cut off in the process. Arguably if Claudio was willing to take the losses, he did have the numbers to simply rush those positions once they were discovered, but that would have required clustering his forces more tightly together. If his losses continued to mount like this, that option would be off the table entirely anyway.
There was a sudden shift in the enemy formation, as all of those not currently engaged surged towards Kallen's unit. Claudio had finally made the call, but with his teams too spread out it would take them time to converge. The unit currently engaged with Lelouch's team was also putting up a dogged fight, trying to stall them to give the others time to wipe out Kallen's detachment. Of course the problem with standing your ground like that was the threat of encirclement, which Lelouch promptly achieved. A second fireteam was now completely out of the fight.
Having been alerted to the wave assault headed her way, Kallen maneuvered around to regroup with Lelouch. Doing so however would require punching through at least one other fireteam, hardly an insurmountable challenge, but doing so could still slow them long enough to get hit from behind. Kallen quickly communicated this fact to Lelouch, who responded by launching an attack on that weak section himself. So distracted, Kallen's team was able to hit the enemy from behind. Twenty minutes into the exercise, Lelouch's side had racked up fourteen kills while suffering no losses of their own. The op force would need to significantly step up their game, or at least try a different tact, if they did not want to be wiped out entirely.
The surviving enemy soldiers coalesced together, no longer trying to spread out to outmaneuver Lelouch's forces. It had unfortunately taken Claudio the loss of half his force to finally come to this conclusion, or rather to accept the gendarmerie's recommendation. Despite being the only group that had not actually faced off against Eden Vital the day before, it seemed they still managed to glean the most insight into how Eden Vital was maneuvering. It was also on the gendarme's recommendation that their side started breaking out the explosives. Lots and lots of explosives, seeing all the grenades being readied.
While there was not a dedicated grenade launcher in the arsenals of either side, the AR controllers were configured to simulate underslung launchers. As such the moment contact occurred, a trio of grenades were fired down the hall towards Lelouch's forces. Alice managed to roll out of the billowing smoke mostly unscathed, but that was more down to luck than any predictive reactions. The enemy was also firing wildly, apparently relying on ricochets to try and suppress the Eden Vital contingent. That the AR simulation system was detailed enough to actually account for bullet bounces was a testament to the engineers that put it together, though it was certainly an inconvenience for Lelouch right now. As one, the battle sisters fell in behind the cardinal and beat a hasty retreat, though not before sticking a few things on the wall.
With no return fire, their assailants grew confident enough to make their own advance, giving chase while still being mindful of any further ambushes. Their progress continued without any shots interrupting it, until a large boom echoed in their earpieces and six more soldiers were marked as fatalities. Despite retreating, Lelouch and company had left behind some parting gifts, explosive charges detonated at just the right moment for maximum effect. Caught in the blast was Claudio himself and the knight swore colorfully at falling into the trap. But while his own troubles were over, that of the surviving soldiers and gendarmes was just beginning.
Having doubled back, this time it was Eden Vital's turn to be profligate with the explosives. Their trap was only an opening prelude, with a barrage of grenades bouncing around the corner and catching out those still trying to recover from the prior carnage. Whether out of luck or prudence, Coburg's fireteam had actually pulled back the moment the charges blew, so were spared the worst of the follow-on attack. They immediately opened fire, hoping to suppress any enemies that might be tempted to peek out. Unfortunately, the numbers were now tilted against them, and the survivors were unable to cover all the angles of approach. That and the battle sisters seemed outright inhuman in how skillfully they bounced their own grenades. Penned in and with nowhere to run, the gendarmerie had the dubious distinction of being the last to fall. The simulation ended with twenty-four fatalities on the opposing force, and zero for the defenders.
"Phew, now that was some intense training," the gendarme sergeant remarked.
While the guardsmen and battle sisters had already departed from the FOB, the gendarmes and soldiers were scheduled to depart the following day and so had some time to unwind.
"Sure was," Coburg replied. "And those Eden Vital sisters, they really schooled us."
"Not just us, they really worked over the royal guard. Wonder if there's some sort of beef between the cardinal and the princess."
"Nah man, if there is, better that we not poke our noses into it," Coburg said.
"Eh, fair enough. At least I'll be looking at a nice payday from the pool."
Coburg blinked. "What? What do you mean? We lost, two to one."
"Nooo," the other sergeant drawled. "Didn't you hear what the cardinal said? He said he wasn't expecting the combined team to win the last match, so the group that lasted the longest should consider itself the winner. And your fireteam lasted the longest. Even longer than the guardsmen."
"But-that's not how that works," Coburg protested. "The cardinal only meant it in the sense of a moral victory, we still lost because we failed the objective."
"Are you really going to dump on yourself and your own team like that?" came the response. "The cardinal himself said you should consider yourselves winners for surviving the longest. Are you really going to deny his generosity?"
"If it's the difference between a few hundred quid, yes," Coburg said emphatically.
"Are you really going to make this about money?"
"You're the one that started it! What was that about a nice payday?"
"Look, I'm just trying to resolve this matter in the most harmonious way possible. If we go with my way, we get to claim that we got the highest score, well, second highest after Eden Vital, at this training exercise. Wouldn't that look great on our records?"
"Except we didn't actually win the last simulation. And no one cares about second place."
"Says you. I prefer the reality where we managed to beat out not just the army but even a royal's guard."
"Oh, and you think anyone's going to believe a unit under your command was better than guardsmen?"
"No, a unit you commanded. See? I'm helping bolster your reputation."
"I don't need any bolstering of my reputation," Coburg responded. "Besides, popularity is ephemeral. I'll take cold, hard cash over it any day."
"See, this is why you're still single. If you actually put some effort into being popular, you wouldn't be so lonely. And here I am trying to help you with that, and you don't appreciate me at all."
Coburg regarded his colleague for several long moments. "You're broke, aren't you?"
"What me? No, of course not. I'm a responsible adult with a steady income that I do not carelessly frit away."
"Uh huh, and how much did that racing sim rig that you've been showing off on social media cost you?"
"Hey, I don't ask you how much you spend on all those fancy whiskies and bourbons."
"I'll let you off the hook for your part of the pool if you agree with me that we lost two to one."
"Done."
Coburg gave an exasperated sigh. After so many years working together with the man, having risen up the ranks from mere recruits to their current non-commissioned rank, the two of them were almost frighteningly good at knowing what buttons to push for the other. If one were to ask if that meant the two were friends, Coburg's answer would be to quote the dictionary definition thereof and suggest the questioner draw their own conclusion. To which most would conclude the answer to be, yes.
End of Chapter 46
Make that five chapters. Five chapters till we get to the climax of R1. Hopefully. Maybe.
I have to admit, I actually don't remember which bullshittery the conversation about Cyanide's dog occurred in, and my quick glance through them I couldn't find it, so I had to more or less rely on memory to capture the gist of it. It's also probably with some mild irony that Womble decided to play a police simulator again (demonstrating in the process how questionable his literacy/situational awareness levels are) just as I'm making use of him and a few others of ZF as the Britannian equivalent of SWAT. Maybe not mention to him he's in an anime fanfic though. Or maybe mention it to see him predictably whinge about it. That may be worth a chuckle or two.