Chapter 4
Ashon Zenith Point
Deep Worlds’ Collective
Outworlds Verge
30th January 3041
“AC/20 huh… when I was evaluating the cockpit damage, I did theorise it was caused by a high caliber impact…” Bryan stared blankly at the ground, his right hand stroking his chin thoughtfully.
The two were standing in the mech bay, in front of the docked Phoenix Hawk, its cockpit’s repairs mostly completed. Bryan had inquired about the cause of death of the mech’s late pilot, and Artemis had recounted the main details of the battle that ended Norman.
Her fingers were lightly grasping the pockets of her cargo pants — suppressing any emotions from spilling out from the recollection of Norman’s tragic death turned out to be more difficult than she had first anticipated when agreeing to their little deal.
“Moving on. It’s your turn, how much battle has Anders seen, exactly?” She bit her lower lip gently, her right hand slowly rising up to wipe away a growing tear with one subtle motion.
“Plenty. From what I understand he might have fought for and against each of the Successor States at some point in time, and he’s piloted a wide range of mechs. He’s usually rocking a heavier mech than his enemies though, so I’m not exactly sure how good he is.” Bryan’s gaze was wandering about the wall behind Artemis, his eyes twitching and tensing ever so gently.
“From what you understand? How long have you two been working together? You’re brothers, right?” Artemis raised an eyebrow, studying Bryan’s face carefully.
Bryan loosened his shoulder muscles and made eye contact. “Yeah. We were separated at a young age when our parents got divorced; I was raised in the Federated Suns with our father while he was with our mother in the Lyran Commonwealth. Our father was a mechtech while our mother was a mechwarrior, so you can imagine the difference in upbringings we received.”
“Mmm… I can imagine. Must have a huge ego disparity too…” Artemis’ hand fiddled with the flap of her right pocket thoughtfully, her eyes still focused on his face.
“Oh tell me about it. With your skillset though, I imagine you’ll be able to tone back his ego.” Bryan offered a smile.
“My… skillset? What do you mean? You’ve never seen me in combat before.” Artemis twitched, raising an eyebrow.
“No, but I looked you up before we left Comstar’s HPG reach, and you did beat Anders up.” Bryan pulled up his datapad to chest level, his eyes scanning through its contents. “Your combat reports are… interesting. Did you really manage to destroy a full medium lance all by yourself?”
Artemis was taken aback. She didn’t think she was leaving a trail that easy to follow. “I… uhh… you’ll be surprised how bad the pilots are in the outer periphery; you can pull off nearly anything if they’re stupid enough. H-how much did you manage to find?” Her voice faltered for a moment; she felt exposed. I don’t remember posting those combat reports anywhere, how does he have them? What else does he know?
“Couldn’t find detailed reports of the campaign in Sadachbia, but I know the medals you earned during it. Your kill count must be pretty high…” Bryan’s right hand casually stroked its index finger across the datapad at irregular intervals, his eyes occasionally looking to her to watch her reaction.
“Oookayyy. Point taken. Let’s not go further.” Artemis resisted the urge to lunge forward and yank the datapad out of his hands. Last thing she needed was everyone knowing her past; she always wanted to keep a low profile.
Bryan nodded slowly and returned the datapad to his side. “‘Mmm alright… in any case, I’m glad you’re on our side. You’re the sort of pilot I have nightmares of watching Anders getting his sorry ass killed by.”
Artemis offered a nervous smile. “Yeah thanks… just don’t mention any of this to anybody else, please?” Artemis took a quick look at her wrist watch to glance at the time. “Anyways, I need to get to the bridge right about now to discuss the planetside plans, you can join me if you want.”
Bryan nodded, and the two made their way out of the mech bay, through the hallways and into the bridge. Anders and Roy were already present, both standing around a holodisplay of Ashon III.
Both looked to Artemis as the duo entered the room. Artemis nodded to them both, and approached the holotable. Captain Samson, who was standing by his command chair, followed suit.
“Alright, what’s our available intel?” Artemis’ eyes looked to the holotable, which was currently displaying a frozen imagine of Ashon III.
Captain Samson pulled out a datapad, giving it a quick read before speaking. “The friendly planetside forces sent us a data dump on the planet. It has a thick atmosphere thanks to stronger magnetic fields present. It has 3 moons too. As a result of these factors, it has some extreme weather, with storms constantly raging across it. Ashon is a F class star, its mass 1.5 times that of Earth’s sun, and Ashon III sits on the edge of the hot end of the goldilocks zone. The equator is too hot for habitation, and the temperate regions have weather that literally tears things apart, so the inhabitants have colonised the north pole. Gravity is 1.2 times that of Earth.”
“Alright, what about the OPFOR? Any intel on them?” Artemis’ eyes studied the planet’s features. The frozen image showed a hurricane over one of the temperate region’s landmasses, a team of tsunamis converging on another landmass closer to the equator.
Roy piped up. “The OPFOR, a small pirate band known as the Shogun Trinity, has two Wasps and a Vindicator, run by three brothers hailing from the Capellean Confederation. Shogun Trinity made planetfall on the other side of the colony’s landmass, probably to avoid any AA guns or a storm at the time. Water is scarce on this planet; however they’ve got plenty of suitable compounds for water production, so most of their water supply is synthesised in factories. As a result, they’ve been pushing for the main industrial sector to get enough water to produce hydrogen fuel for an escape, plus the usual plundering and pillaging along the way. The militia’s lost two open plain battles with them, so their armour has sustained heavy losses.”
Artemis raised an eyebrow. “They have three mechs, and the militia threw armour at them twice?”
Roy nodded. “Thankfully, their colonel died in the second battle, and a major has taken over and engaged Shogun Trinity in guerrilla warfare. It seems a lot of the OPFOR’s armour has been wiped out, and their infantry has taken heavy losses. We should be able to get a straightforward mech battle out of them. I’m sure they’d be happy to have a standard mech fight at this point too.”
“Normally, I’d suggest doing a few sweeps over their position to scout them and get a few cheap shots in, but with the storms around the planet I’m not so sure.” Captain Samson pursed his lips, his eyes studying the north pole’s terrain.
“A scout sweep?” Artemis raised an eyebrow.
Anders turned to her, his eyes narrowing as he studied her facial expressions. “Yes… you know what that is… right?”
Artemis bit her lip. Oops. That might have been a good thing to have learned a little earlier… “Yeah yeah I do, just checking that we’re on the same page. M-moving on, I agree. Last thing we need is a wrecked dropship. I think we should probably plant ourselves right outside their camp, issue a challenge and give them hell.”
Anders immediately objected. “I disagree. The militia still has some force to speak of, so we should link up with them first, then knock on their front door and spook them. If a straight up mech showdown is what you want, you should at least first give them a reason to give it to you.”
“Mmm… alright then. We’ll do that.” Artemis kept her voice firm and unwavering, though her right hand clenched tightly at her cargo pants.
“So… what’s our landing site ma’am?” Captain Samson pulled up his datapad again, looking to Artemis.
Artemis looked to Anders. “Outskirts of the city nearest to their camp. They have a functioning rail road system, right?”
“Correct. I’ll punch the coordinates in, will that be all for me, ma’am?” Samson began tapping on his datapad, his gaze lifted from the commanding officer.
“Yes Captain, thank you.” Artemis nodded, and Samson took his leave.
“Captain, how much experience in planetary strategy do you have?” Anders leaned in, his eyes staring at hers.
“I… I’ll leave the strategies up to you, I believe you’ve got more expertise in that. My forte is in mech combat and battle tactics.” Artemis bit her lip. Her eyes avoided eye contact and instead fixed themselves on the holo-display. Anders smiled, and turned to Bryan and exchanged looks with him.
“I don’t doubt that. As long as you can keep your pretty mouth restrained while I work my magic, we’ll get along just fine, captain.” He straightened up and made for the bridge’s door, his right hand reaching out and patting her on her right shoulder as he passed. She flinched.
A hand grabbed his arm. Artemis turned to see Roy grasping Anders’ upper forearm firmly. Roy stared him down intently. “She’s our CO. I strongly advise you respect her as such. Are we clear?”
Artemis looked away from the two of them, and closed her eyes. The feeling of her elevated heart rate, every nervous breath, and the tensed up muscles along her body pounded into her consciousness.
“... Yes sir.” Anders withdrew from Artemis’ shoulder, and Roy in turn released him. Anders looked to Bryan, then to Roy, then to Artemis, before silently leaving the room.
Artemis remained frozen in place, her head staring at the holo-table and her mind completely blank. The room remained silent for what felt like an eternity to her, before Roy and Bryan finally quietly took their leave.
As soon as the two had left the room, Artemis’ head drooped low, her high ponytail flipping over to dangle over her head, flowing down to rest on the holotable before her. Her fists clenched up tightly, and she took a deep breath. She sighed. She felt incompetent, unable to lead or even plan out strategies properly.
Do I even deserve my position? Where did I screw up… Her mind drifted back to her training under in the Combine Officer Cadet School, all those times she elected not to pay attention and argue with her superiors…
Well…
Shit.
<^>
A short nap and a lunch later, Artemis made her way over to the Infantry’s barracks. Her black combat boots clacked against the cold metal floor of the dropship, her gaze fixed on the large double door of the barracks ahead.
She laid her right hand flat against the cold steel door, and pushed it open slowly. The dim illumination of the corridor was quickly blasted aside by the dazzlingly bright lights of the barracks. The room was large and rectangular, with two long lines of bunk beds positioned perpendicular to the door.
Soldiers are sitting in groups near the bunk beds, the room filled with their chatter. Several look up to see the new arrival by the door, and eyes widened.
“Commander on deck!” The room freezes, every man in the room rising up from their place and standing at attention towards Artemis.
“As you were.” Artemis nods. She looks to Roy, who approaches her after placing his auto-rifle aside. Roy is dressed in olive green fatigues, his short jet black hair combed neatly to the right.
“Captain?” Roy raises an eyebrow — Artemis rarely dropped by to see the infantry.
Have all my failures been of my own doing? “Just… want to see how the boys are doing… I figure some change in what I do is appropriate. Have they been briefed? ” Artemis crosses her arms, trying her best to project a strong front.
“Yes Captain. I’ll introduce the platoons to you.” Roy took a step back, and his right arm gestured for her to step further into the barracks.
Artemis nodded silently. The two walked side by side deeper into the room. “What’s our numbers looking like after the last battle?” Artemis’ gaze wandered amongst the lounging men; some were cleaning their rifles and preparing assault packs, others were chatting, sleeping or even just boredly taking in the sight of her.
“I’ve had to fold the company into 2 platoons; one’s our Jump Trooper platoon consisting of 2 squads, and the other is an extra large foot platoon of 5 squads. Lieutenant Leon is in charge of the jump platoon, while I’m taking the foot soldier platoon.” Roy comes to a halt beside the jump platoon section.
The Jump Troopers are distinct from the rest of the infantry; their body language spoke of tougher discipline, much fewer of them were relaxing, with the majority of them making various preparations.
A man wearing an officer’s coat stood up, approaching the duo. “This is Lieutenant Leon, my second-in-command.” Roy gestured to him, who bowed slowly and carefully.
“How can I be of assistance ma’am?” Leon’s voice had a Japanese accent to it. His eyes were sharp and brimming with life, and his stature was tight and serious. Roy must have picked him up recently. He still seems accustomed to life in a Combine unit.
“Tell me about your platoon’s fighting capabilities.” Artemis crossed her arms, resting her weight on her right leg. Her eyes fixed themselves on Leon’s face.
“Our Jump Platoon acts as a support for our main infantry force, providing some skilled mobile firepower when needed. Our sniper squad is particularly effective with their laser rifles. All of our men have tangoed with mechs before too, and are more than ready to help take them on when called to do so.” Leon’s voice is sharp and crisp, his confidence at just the right level.
“Roy, what about your platoon?” Artemis turned to the captain, who straightened up at the mention of his name.
Roy made eye contact with Artemis. “My platoon brings the main firepower of our infantry. We’ve got no small number of veteran Combine ex-soldiers, and I’ve specially trained them to be quick with grenade launchers. We can bring you your boom on the move.”
“Hmm… that’s good to hear. It’s unlikely we’ll be able to find any Draconis Combine exiles out here though, so I’m giving you authorisation to recruit a wider range of men from the systems we stay in. We need our infantry numbers back up, and I doubt we can afford to be picky.” Artemis pursed her lips. Her eyes drifted away from Roy’s, considering her words carefully.
“Understood Captain, I’ll draw up a recruitment plan when we finish up with Shogun Trinity.” Roy nodded while Leon silently observed the exchange.
“Alright then, if you two don’t have anything else for me, that’ll be all from me.” Artemis exchanged bows with the two, before turning on her right heel and making her way out of the barracks.
She silently strode along the dull corridors, her mind pondering the past, in particular her time as a mercenary. Mistake after mistake. I’ve screwed everything up, haven’t I? The proud-ass mechwarrior prodigy who forged her own crappy destiny. Well done me.
Finally, she reached the mech bay. The automatic door slid open as she approached it, and she looked to the beautiful sight of her Wolverine standing alongside the repaired Phoenix Hawk. The two metal titans stood proud and tall behind the various docking clamps and maintenance platforms.
She felt a swell of pride wash over her once again, memories of the countless victories she claimed in that mech drowning out those of the failures. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and clenched her fists by her side. A smile slowly curled into existence on her face.
None of it matters anymore. New unit, fresh chance. I’ll seize victory and drag it kicking and screaming back into my life, no matter what it takes. I’ll prove myself a worthy daughter of Tai-Sa Daiki Kurian.