It’s the final snippet for the book! Let’s get ready for liberty call!
It wasn’t much of one, a simple tripwire with a mine resting at the base of a tree and a smoke grenade beneath it, but it would have been enough to completely wipe out the small fire team had they come this way. While the mine was a dummy and was set to simply pop red smoke had they tripped it, it would have been enough to cause their team to fail the exercise. Somebody was being devious.
“Pigeon, Tavi.” He commed in over the team’s private channel, then paused. He looked back down at the dummy mine, unsure. Was it a leftover from a prior training exercise? The Legion did regularly use Sagetnam for training purposes. However, a legionnaire never made assumptions. It was one of the sacred tenets of the Legion—assumptions made an ass out of everyone. “Found something. Tripwire, dummy mine, with training grenade. OpFor in area?”
“Not that I’m aware,” Pigeon muttered. “If there is, Ordo must really be pissed off at us. Okay, let’s assume we’re dealing with oppositional forces and not simple, mindless wild animals who happen to have opposable thumbs and a working knowledge of combat engineering for a second. Fire Teams One and Three are nonresponsive. I’m open to suggestions.”
Tavi looked around. He couldn’t see anybody, but that meant nothing in an environment like this. The hamatic suits had been designed for precisely this sort of environment, where their skin could molt and shift in color and light to perfectly blend into a surrounding area where sunlight changed within a few steps. In the clearing, he could see the patrol fanning out, keeping their weapons on standby. They were filled with training rounds, so while someone felt it when they were shot, it was still no more than taking a hard hit.
The “civilians” were safely in the center of their quasi-protective ring near the downed logs. If someone—or something—came for them, they’d have to face down the entirety of Team Two in order to achieve their goal. The position wasn’t great, with lots of cover and concealment for any opposing forces, but the downed logs could provide some cover.
Which suggested the trap wasn’t just a random leftover. They had been herded here by Sergeant Ord, after all.
“Can we . . . I mean, are we allowed to call in CAS?” Tavi asked in a quiet voice. Someone giggled. He wasn’t sure if it was Krawdaddy or Vixen, because both of their indicators lit up simultaneously on his HUD. Struggling for words, Tavi continued. “Um . . . Bronze Raven Four’s up there anyways, and nobody said we couldn’t during the briefing . . .”
“Heh. I like it. Your idea, Tavi. You get to call it,” Pigeon said after a moment. Tavi swallowed nervously. This was definitely outside the expected wheelhouse. Yet at the same time, he would have to do it eventually. Might as well be during his first training exercise with the Bronze.
He changed frequencies. “Bronze Raven Four, Bronze Raven Four, this is Fire Team Two. Copy, over.”
“Fire Team Two, Bronze Raven Four copies. Go ahead.”
“Bronze Raven Four, requesting close air support around point two-five, one hundred yards out. Simulated potential hostiles surrounding Team Two’s position.”
There was silence on the comms for a few seconds, and Tavi began to wonder if he’d screwed something up. Were they breaking the rules of the exercise? Really, nobody had ever said they couldn’t use their Rhinos as close air support, and he’d seen the door gunners of the airships. The dropships were up there, just circling, idling away. Before he could really start to worry, though, the smooth voice of Bronze Raven Four responded.
“Confirm close air support on point two-five, Team Two. ETA one-five seconds. Clear the area.”
Tavi backed away from the trap and headed back to point two-five as quickly and quietly as he could. Overhead he could faintly hear the roar of the Rhino’s engines as power was poured into them. Looking up, Tavi got a glimpse of black and gray as it descended from on high.
“General broadcast, general broadcast,” Bronze Raven Four’s call went out to every single comms device in the exercise area, the smoky contralto of the radio operator at odds with the fury the Rhino was bringing to the table. Every head on Team Two turned and looked skyward as the Rhino screamed low overhead, barely clearing the treetops, before banking sharply to the left and disappearing from view once more. “Simulated strafing run around point two-five, one hundred yards out, and circling. Any and all OpFor in the area are considered dead. Real live-fire exercise commencing in one minute on grid one-one-seven-four-four-five. Repeat, live-fire exercise commencing in one minute on grid one-one-seven-four-four-five. Clear the area.”
“Motherfucker!” an unfamiliar voice screamed over the comms. “You cheated!”
“There is no cheating in war . . . only the will to do what it takes to win,” Tavi muttered quietly under his breath. The Tyrant responsible for his genetics had said that to him many times. Unfortunately for him, the comms easily picked it up and broadcast it across the entire exercise for all to hear.
“Damn, Tavi. That was cold.” Pigeon chuckled once the laughter died down. “I like it, though. A lot. Good call on the CAS, by the way. That should make Ordo’s day. Let’s sit back and watch the rain.”
Tavi found a small log to sit down on and watch as the Rhino above began to spit fiery death down upon a nearby section of the dense jungle, the tracers from the gunners rounds appearing like lasers as they fired. The noise split the air, ripping through the space between them with purpose and hate. The Rhino began to smoothly maneuver in a figure eight pattern, with each door gunner taking turns laying down a steady stream of fire while the dropship’s chin-mounted railgun seemed perfect for tree trimming and general destruction.
After two passes the nose of the Rhino abruptly pitched up and the ship clawed for altitude. Behind it, white flares so bright they defeated the helmet filters were ejected from the rear of the Rhino, creating a winged pattern. Blinding strobes of light filled his eyes. The flares dissipated and, when Tavi’s vision finally returned to normal, there was no sign of the Rhino anywhere.
“Not sure who was flying that bird, but that was one badass bitch,” Vixen murmured happily. Tavi nodded in agreement. “Smart money’s on Blue, though.”
“Team Two, Ordo. Terminate exercise. Good work. You might earn your way back into my good graces yet—if my civilians are undamaged and unharmed. I will be inspecting them. Using the Rhino was the right call. Extraction in five minutes on your location. Don’t forget to bring your civvies home. Debrief at FOB Four at sixteen hundred hours. Ordo, out.”
“Team Two copies extraction,” Pigeon confirmed. “Two, out.”
“Hell yeah! Good work, Tavi!” Vixen crowed and smacked him on the shoulder, nearly knocking him off his log. “We’re going to be out of here in a hurry, and we can enjoy the nightlife of Sagetnam!”
“Early?” Tavi asked as he rebalanced himself. “What do you mean?”
“Debriefing before chow means we’re getting all the love, tasawa, and early liberty call,” Jabber explained. “Question is whether we get a muster liberty, or only midnight.”
Tavi nodded, not really caring when they had to report back in. Liberty call meant potentially getting to stay topside on a planet, to breathe the air, not worry about toxic water dripping onto his bare skin, and see another sunset. Best of all? It would be a sunset on an entirely new world. Even if they had to be back by midnight and all he could do was watch the sunset, he would be happy.
Which was something he’d never really thought about before the Legion.
Happiness, that is.
Missed the previous snippets? No worries, I got you covered.
Jason Córdova 