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Nicole poked Fargo’s foot and stepped back as he went still, then immediately eeled out of bed and slowly stood. She held out the bulb of coffee and said softly, “Forty segs until the driver gets here.”
“Thank you.” He took the bulb and immediately headed for the fresher as she shivered inadvertently. Even after almost seven years, she was still scared about waking him, simply because of his non-reactions. It just wasn’t normal, at least in her mind. She knew it was a combat mindset, and they had talked about it more than once, but still…
He came out five segs later, dressing quietly as she slipped back under the covers. “Thanks for the coffee. I won’t be back until late, since we’re going to observe the training today. Have you heard from Becky?”
She shook her head. “No, I know she was going down by terraformer four to look at…I think, dingos?”
Fargo nodded as he leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Yes, she wasn’t sure if they were communicating or not. I just thought she might have messaged you if nothing else.”
“If I hear from her, you want me to let you know?”
“Please. It’s not like her to not keep one of us informed.” He paused at the door. “You want any breakfast?”
“No, I’m going back to sleep until I have to get up with the kids. I’ll eat then. Get a fourty-seven, it’s high in protein.”
“Yes, dear.” He walked quietly through the house to the kitchen, glad it was well separated from the kids’ bedrooms, and looked at the autochef. “Forty-seven. Always forty-seven. Food is food.” Punching in forty-seven, he added another bulb of coffee, and one of fortified water. Moments later, the autochef dinged softly and spit out the three items. He sat and ate quietly, enjoying the peace and predawn darkness out the window. Finishing quickly, he shoved the water in his carryall, and went out to sit on the front steps. He looked up at the variety of stars and saw Celeste and George, the two moons, dipping toward the horizon as the sky lightened in the west.
As the runabout pulled up, he was surprised to see Horse driving. He got in and asked, “What brings you out this time of the morning, Horse?”
“Ah, Ekavir, I’m going out to add a twist or two to the OPFOR.”
Fargo dipped his head. “Have you talked to Aphrodite? You know she doesn’t like surprises.”
“More or less…”
Fargo sighed. “What are you going to do?”
Horse grinned. “I’m not telling!” They pulled up in front of the headquarters, and Fargo got out as Horse sped off laughing.
Thirty segs later, Fargo was staring at the segment of the training for the next two days, the transition from plains to mountains. What in the hell could Horse be up to? Nial came into the conference room and asked, “Where do you want to observe from, Ekavir?”
Fargo idly traced the rough track from the plains toward the canyon that was the choke point for entry into the mountain phase. Tapping the map, he said, “I guess up here along this ridgeline. I’m guessing you have part of the OPFOR up there?”
Nial glanced at his wrist comp. “If we head over to the flight line, Boykin can insert us with the troops that will be up there. We’re due to start in three hours, so the attackers aren’t in visual range yet. They were supposed to be given directions at sunrise.”
***
Boykin had dropped them on the back side of the ridge, after having flown a circuitous route to get there. She had told Fargo she was going to be flying support to the reserves, with a small QRF force from their battalion aboard, simulating a standard force support flight of attack shuttles. She had grinned when she told him he might she her again today, before she dropped down the face of the ridge and went back to pick up the QRF.
Fargo was glad he’d decided to wear his heavier gear, and made sure he had the white band on his helmet and jacket, as he stomped back and forth trying to stay warm as the morning wore on. Nial had laughed when he noted how few troops were up here, only saying, “Well, Horse is running the OPFOR today. I’m afraid we might have been getting a bit stale. But all the hard points are manned.”
Sweeping the canyon with his helmet vid, Fargo saw hot spots in each of the hard points build out of rocks that would stand up to anything but heavy artillery fire. The problem was, they were all in predictable places, and he made a note on his wrist comp to re-look at the OPFOR simulations later.
The reserve battalion came into view on the plain, in the standard combat spread, and he selected their channel in one ear as he heard Nial say, “OPFOR light off the bobbers.”
His HUD started filling with more troop symbols in the various hard points and on the ridgeline, and he chuckled to himself. Amazing tech. Two pounds of electronics and hydraulics that simulates troops, and they will even present on the drones as troops, since they are using our drones in place of their combat loadout. “Nial, what is the criteria for shooting down the drones?”
“Visual range, realistic targeting parameters for each weapon. And a random hit/miss ratio for each shot we take.”
“Where do we recover them up here?”
Nial pointed to a flat spot a hundred yards down the back side of the ridge. “Right there. We’ll take them back with us tonight, do any required maintenance, and recharge them, then they are reissued as requested.”
In his other ear, he heard the battalion commander, “Well, here we go. Scouts, press to contact. Launch drones as planned. Prep for action, do not bunch up when we get contact. Three-sixty alert, we don’t know where the bad guys are.” It’s nice to be able to hear both sides of the conflict, too bad I can’t tell Nial what they’re doing, but he’s done this for three years, so I’m pretty sure he could tell me just about word for word what is going on. Aphrodite is riding with the command vehicle, and from what few reports I’ve seen, she’s pretty impressed by this bunch.
A div later, the battalion was fully engaged at the mouth of the canyon when the battalion net erupted with voices, “Contact rear! Heavy contact rear! I don’t know where they came from!” Fargo’s HUD suddenly showed almost of a company of OPFOR popping up behind the battalion, coming from the plains they had just crossed, and he couldn’t help but laugh. Damn, Horse, you weren’t kidding you were going to put a twist on the action today.
A calm voice came over the battalion net, “They’ve taken out both the lieutenant and captain with snipers, but we countered them. We’re targeting their leadership to the rear now. We need support back here to keep from being overrun.”
Another voice, high pitched, came over the net, “The colonel and major are down. I need an officer to take over up here. Diederik, you fucked up, you and Alesander were supposed to keep them safe. You aren’t getting any help! Major Archer where are you?”
That…should never have gone out over the net. That’s going to negatively impact those troops that are the rear guard. I wonder why Aphrodite took out both of them at the same time? “Nial, who is our sniper today?” Fargo was wincing as he saw the battalion below wasn’t reacting to the attack, but he did see the rear-guard units moving, apparently on their own, to counter the attack. They must be on another frequency.
“Dawa is the spotter and Bijay is the shooter. They’re a fairly new team, but they are good! They are from the second group that came in and live in the other Enclave.”
“Ah, that’s why I don’t recognize their names. Let me guess, they’re also armorers?”
Nial grinned. “Yes, they maintain the armory at the other Enclave.”
A beebop came over the battalion radio. “This is Major Archer, I have command. Forward elements hold, Charlie company pivot and support rear guard. The call is fort up, I repeat fort up. I will be moving to the command element now.”
Fargo’s mind and command lace were racing as he mulled what he would do, when he heard the high-pitched voice again. “The major is down. Battalion retreat, battalion retreat!”
CSM Aphrodite came over all channels. “This is the referee, exercise is FINEX. All units hold position. I say again, this is the referee, exercise is FINEX. All units hold position and clear the net.”
***
Four divs later, the major players gathered in the conference room at headquarters, joined by Colonel Horton, still in his mussed field uniform. Fargo walked around the table, stuck out his hand, and said, “Colonel Horton, Ethan Fargo. For my sins, I’m the director of Camp Cronin. Can I get you a cup of coffee?”
Horton’s handshake was firm, and he smiled wryly. “Bill Horton. If you’d point me in the right direction, I’d appreciate it. We…didn’t cover ourselves in glory today, did we?”
Fargo held up his hands. “I’m not in charge of the debrief, Bill, CSM Aphrodite is, but the coffee is this way.” When they both had coffee and were seated at the table, Fargo went around the table, pointing at people and identifying them. Once that was done, he said, “CSM, would you take over, please?”
As usual, she stood and walked to the holoscreen controls. She brought up the holo in the center of the table and proceeded to debrief the exercise from beginning until the point where the colonel had been taken out. “Colonel, do you have a precedence of command structure in place?”
He nodded. “Yes, we do. The top sergeant knew that.”
She glanced at Horse. “Warrant, did you purposely take out the rear guard’s officers as a first stroke?”
Horse smiled. “Yes, those were the first two shots. They were both up at the same time, and it was easy.”
“What happened next?”
Horse sniffed. “Both myself and the other shooter were taken out immediately, then their sniper back there took out anybody on the OPFOR that looked like they were taking charge. If they had reacted faster, they could have broken through our lines rather quickly. Whoever was in charge did the next best thing, trying to fort up just as we FINEXed.”
Aphrodite asked, “Colonel, who was in charge of the rear guard at that point?”
Colonel Horton sighed. “As far as I know, Sergeant Diederik took charge and started the fort up while he looked for an officer to take over.”
Another div of back and forth, and the CSM finally said, “That is all I have, Colonel. We will not repeat this phase due to time constraints. Give your troops a day, and we will move to the middle of the mountain phase to finish your training.” She gave him a frosty smile and added, “Believe me, sir, your troops have performed much better than many of the GalPat troops who have come through here for training.”
That drew a rueful chuckle from Colonel Horton as he got up. “Ah, CSM, I believe that is…damning with faint praise, but after today’s cluster, I will take it. Thank you all.” He walked over to Fargo, who quickly got up, and said softly, “You have one helluva training area here, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say you have a lot of Ghorka on staff. Are most of them veterans?”
Fargo smiled. “All of them, Bill. We’re also the planetary militia.”
“Damn…” Horton shook his head as he left the room. “Ghorka, damn…”
***
The following Oneday, Fargo, Colonel Horton, Mac, and the CSM stood on the tarmac as the last of the reserve battalion loaded aboard GPS TANAKA as it sat hulking at the spaceport at Rushing River. Omar, the Arcturian sergeant of the space port guards rattled to a stop in his patrol vehicle, and squeaked a greeting that his Galtrans projected to Fargo’s implant as, “Ho, colonel of the retired, done are they?”
Fargo nodded, replying, “Ho Omar, leaving they are. Problems they caused?”
Colonel Horton looked on with interest as Omar’s Galtrans chittered, “Problems they not caused. Spacer problem caused. Resolved they did.”
Mac laughed. “Yeah, I heard about that. Four troopers had six spacers backed into a corner of the Landing Pattern, plus two on the ground when the guards got there. OneSvel didn’t even have to put the two spacers in the box to fix them up!”
Colonel Horton sighed. “My understanding per Top, our guys just went in for a quick drink while they waited on a ride to town, and a spacer took offence at them sitting at his table. He swung on Private Inman, who is one of our combatives instructors, and it went downhill from there.”
Fargo shook his head. “How much damage to the bar?”
Mac said, “None! I had to service their supplies on Sixday, and Sherman was griping that they didn’t break a single table of chair.”
“What about the barracks?”
“As neat as a pin, Colonel. They were the cleanest, most well behaved troops I’ve seen through here. They were respectful of the barracks, and the townies.”
Fargo nodded. “That’s good!” He turned to Colonel Horton. “Bill, you wouldn’t believe how some of the GalPat troops treat the barracks.”
Horton smiled. “That’s good to hear. Since we’re reserves, we live, work, and drill all over the planet we live on, as opposed to most of the GalPat troops. I think that is why our troops were respectful of the barracks and Rushing River people.” He looked up as the top sergeant motioned to him. “Well, looks like we’re loaded. Thanks again for a fantastic training evolution! I just wish you were closer to us, I know you opened a lot of eyes, including mine.” He shook hands with each of them, trotted over to the ramp, and disappeared inside.
Fargo said, “Well, another one down. Mac, I know you’ve got to get back to work, thanks as always. CSM, lunch on me?”
Mac nodded. “Slaving away, that’s me,” he smiled and headed for his delivery parked at the end of the operations building.
She smiled. “Thank you, sir. I would enjoy that.”
Omar asked, “Ride to the village you would like?”
Fargo nodded, replying, “Appreciated is the ride, Copper Mug we go.”
As they stepped inside, Hank looked up from behind the bar. “Fargo, you just missed Nicole. She took the kids over to Holly for their med checks.”
“That’s okay. CSM and I were just looking for lunch.” He glanced at Aphrodite. “You want to order off the menu?”
She asked, “What’s the special today, Hank?”
“Loafmeat Oneday, just like always. Taters and strings.”
She nodded, and Fargo said, “Make it two.” He led her to a table near the kitchen, adding, “It’s noisy, but nobody will overhear us back here. I’m assuming you weren’t happy with some things during the training?”
They sat down and Hank brought over two fizzies, saying, “It will be a seg or two for the food.”
When he left, she grimaced. “Sir, it is not often that I…am not happy with training, much less with a senior enlisted, but in this case—”
Fargo interrupted, “The high-pitched voice telling them to retreat?”
Aphrodite nodded. “He is not an effective leader. London tried to get me to give him the plan for OPFOR, then he…” she spat, “He tried to get cozy with me, plying me with alcohol, and saying how politically connected he was to get me to remove his failure of leadership!” She blew out a breath. “Like I would ever do that! And he plays favorites, wanting me to upgrade some of the troops’ performance while downgrading others, like Sergeant Diederik and Corporal Alesander. When the snipers fired the course, those two got 299 out of a possible 300, while the primary sniper team, according to London, only got 258. He swore the scores were reversed and tried to change them. Lal had personally overseen the sniper course, and refused.
Fargo blew out a breath. “Anything else?”
She nodded. “Of more concern is their armor.”
“Their armor?”
“Yes, I checked four sets, and they saw less than twenty divs in use in the last year. And eighteen of that was during training here.” She shook her head. “And, London kept the troops up all night cleaning and polishing the suits after the training, even though Colonel Horton had told him to let the troops have the night off.”
Fargo goggled. “He went against the colonel?”
She shrugged. “Apparently, he does it to cover his ass. That…” Rolling her eyes, Aphrodite continued, “I’ve…contacted some folks I know to look into his conduct.”
Growling, he said, “His ass would be gone if I ever caught one of my senior enlisted doing something like that.”
“Oh, he hides it well. Any troop that crosses him pays!”
Hank interrupted, “Your daily specials! Enjoy!”
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