“Kidnapping?” The governor looks concerned. “Our people wiped that out fifty years ago. It won’t rest easy.…”
“Governor, I have only five people; we have limited Time of Chaos before sides are chosen, and my bag of tricks does have a bottom. Our enemies can learn countermeasures. We must act quickly and we must make every operation count. If you have a better idea, I’m open to suggestions … short suggestions.”
He sighs. “We had hoped you would lead the charge.”
“I can appreciate that, but in reality you don’t want that for many reasons. First, this is a war you have to win. I can lead a charge of interstellar invaders who are going to colonize this world. You have to lead a civil war. Second, a purely military solution will take too long. How many battles would we have to fight? How many fronts would we have to fight on? And third, we’re mortal. I’m not going to outline them for you but we have weaknesses.
“No, our role in this is to decapitate and destabilize.”
The governor sighs. “I see your point. What do you need from us?”
“More targets!—which will destabilize the xenophobes and keep their factions from coalescing. And transport to and from those targets.”
<<<<*>>>>
We are in luck. The first target, the base to the north, is both where Panther and Stuka’s ammo and equipment is stored and a hub in the space defense system.
We’re taking a helicopter again and our pilot is Major Rufus!
“Don’t you have research to do?” I ask.
“I have a command,” he grins. “They’re on it right now. If I tag along I can interpret their results.”
“So you can, so you can. … OK, let’s get this show on the road!”
We head north.
“Capturing this base will be good for our war effort,” says Sean as we fly. “So we’ve begun an attack on it. We figure this will help cover your intentions as well as advance our own. We would have gone after the base south of Verdant first, but this works well if we take it.”
“Good. We can help on that,” I grin.
As we approach the base we can see dust rising from the combat.
“What’s the tough nut?” I ask.
“The base commander has moved into a hardened bunker. Can you root him out?”
I think about it.
“That’s a tough nut, all right. How about the base communication system?”
“Part of it will be hardened … but the antennas and local wiring closets won’t. There will be four antennas and a dozen or so wiring closets.”
“OK, folks. We’ll be on the bounce.”
“On the bounce” is a specific tactic, one of the first we learn and one of the most commonly used.
We don’t advertise it, but these people have weapons that can hurt us. Their small arms fire can’t penetrate our armor but it can spin us around when we’re in mid-jump—the gyros whine as they work to keep us upright and it can burn them out over time. Direct hits with artillery shells will take suits out of commission so their anti-aircraft weapons are our biggest threat: They fire fast, are designed to track fast-moving targets, and pack a hefty oomph. If we take a couple quick hits in succession they can decouple the gyros for a few seconds. Repeated hits on a limb will damage actuators and weapons.
How do we avoid all that? We bounce! In combat like this no mech stands still for even half a second. We bounce and we plan on the fly. Walls, floors, even ceilings become working surfaces when we’re on the bounce. When we’re on the bounce we look like fast-motion ping-pong balls, if you see us at all—speed, deception, and discreet movement are the heart of the game. To help out the suits will “chameleon” as we move around. When we are at our best, we bounce by a target and the defenders only realize we’ve been there when they look back and see that what they were defending is a smoking ruin.
When we’re on the bounce we concentrate on two things: Where to bounce next and picking target profiles. We let the suit targeting systems take care of actually hitting a target once we’ve ID’d it, and where to bounce next becomes almost as second nature as running. Typically the enemy casualties are light when we’re on the bounce because we don’t take time to dispatch defenders—we don’t have to.
“We’re after omni-directional antennas and phone-wiring closets,” I continue. “Gunther, you stay on board until we locate your hardware. Show your display to the major so he can point out our targets for us.”
“Yes, Commander.”
I’m glad he’s acting military again. I hate keeping him out of the action, but he’s the right one to leave behind until we locate his equipment.
Sean lands us two kilometers from the base. We come out on the bounce. He stays on the ground so he can watch Gunther’s display.
Our alliance commander is moving in from the north. He’s got ground superiority but little air cover. The base commander has air but little of it is tactical air—this is a strategic base—so the tactical air cover for both sides is thin and evenly matched.
We bounce in from the east, low and fast. We don’t want these people to even think of using AA on us until it’s too late. There are barbed wire fences. We hop those and we’re inside. This isn’t Theater of Terror so we’re as fleeting as we can be. We damage what we came to damage and we bounce on. If someone shoots at us we bounce away. We’re here to kill structures, not people.
The radio towers start going down. Those are easy to identify. With Gunther’s help Sean points out a phone closet and now those are going down too.
In ten minutes the base commander has no communications with his troops so they are fighting with only platoon level communication. The defense is in chaos, our gift to the party. From here on it will be mop-up for the attackers.
“OK, folks. Let’s find our stuff.”
We stay on the bounce. The first two logical places don’t pan out but number three does. Chin collects the ammo and equipment and I can feel Gunther’s anticipation.
“Chin, rendezvous with Gunther.”
“Yes, Commander,” I hear simultaneously from both. Now it will be four instead of three; it’s like the unit has reattached a leg to its body.
“Al, let’s you and I start on the space defense hub.”
Luck smiles on us. The hub is just another communications network and the chaos of the base lets us root out the vitals in another ten minutes. As we’re finishing Chin and Gunther join us.
“Sean, we’re done here,” I transmit.
“I believe so. From what I’m hearing on our military frequencies the surrendering is underway and the north side of the base is already clear.”
We bounce back to the helicopter and take off for Verdant.
“What have you found out about Targets Alpha and Bravo?” I ask Sean.