The Ninth (33 page)

“Yeah, isn’t it wonderful?”  Cain chuckled.

Brent couldn’t make out the crowd beyond the blue haze of the large table.  A prompt appeared in front of him explaining the battle.  The battle of three claws was a massive assault on the Shard Citadel on the southern coast of the main continent.  The other three troopers were to command the human forces while Brent got the losing position of the Shard Citadel about to be overrun.  He couldn’t resist chuckling at the familiar scenario.

“Would you listen to that?!” the announcer shouted instantly.  “He
mocks
you!”  The announcer stirred up the crowd.  “You throw the best you’ve got at him, and the new commander
laughs
at you!  And I thought you all were cruel; this guy is downright
evil
!”

Brent couldn’t see them, but he could hear the laughter and jeering.  The crowd was being whipped into a frenzy.  Apparently, the announcer was good at his job.  The prompt continued on that his objective wasn’t just to defend the Citadel but to wipe out the opposing forces.  They really didn’t want him to succeed.  A list of units at his disposal came up.  He found it odd that he was defending with
Commonwealth
troops.  At the bottom of the prompt, it asked him if he was happy with the make up of his forces.

Brent tapped “no.”  A new screen popped up.  On the left hand side were dozens of possible units; on the right was his pre-selected force.  He searched the page until he found what he wanted.  A small font on the extreme bottom edge of the screen read “historically accurate units.”  He tapped it and a large red prompt flashed asking if he was sure he wanted to use historically accurate units.  Tapping in the affirmative, Brent read a second prompt in an even brighter red warning him that he was about to use Shard units.  Finally, he was prompted what units he wanted to use.  There were no preset configurations.

“We got ourselves a thinker!  His foes have already selected and placed their forces.”  The announcer was keeping the crowd interested while Brent selected his units.  “Our new commander likes to take his time.  Only time will tell if that will save him.”

Content with his choices, Brent accepted them and quickly placed his units strategically around the Citadel.  At once the battle began.  Smoke trails etched through the simulated sky; the opposing commanders were already bombarding him with artillery.  He feverously tapped at his command console.  His units snapped to his orders.  The warheads impacted in bright flashes.  The flashes subsided, leaving small craters.

“Ouch!” the accounted shouted almost melodically.  “That’s got to hurt.  Terrance takes a commanding lead, bombarding seven of the new commander’s units out of existence.  How will the new commander respond?  Looks like he is mobilizing his . . . what are those things the new commander is using?”  The announcer tripped over his own tongue.

Brent pressed the momentary lull as the artillery reloaded.  A half dozen large silver cubes on dual treads moved into position.  With a single order from him, they launched their ordinance.  Each one spilt down its middle as a swarm of small missiles erupted from within the cubes.  A second barrage of artillery fire smoked through the sky.  The missiles from Brent’s Strikers intercepted the warheads and zeroed in on the artillery platforms.  His three opponents gasped as their entire set of artillery pieces erupted in flashes of light.  With his three enemies stunned, he launched a counter strike, moving a squad of Slashers toward each of their main bases.

“Looks like the new commander threw us all a curve ball.”  The announcer recovered from the surprise.  “Instead of using Commonwealth forces, he has chosen to go for pure historical accuracy.  The new commander is fielding
Shard
units against our seasoned commanders.  I guess it’s official.  He
is
evil.  Take him down a notch boys!”

The shouting of the announcer snapped the other commanders out of their confusion.  They each mounted defensive lines against the approaching Slashers.  The fire from the Commonwealth troopers didn’t phase the tripods.  The enemy commander in green had focused almost entirely on artillery and other heavy weapons; the Shards ran through the few base defenders he had chosen.  The Shards sacked the base, eliminating the commander from the battle.

“The first kill of the match is also the first kill of the new commander’s career!  Curtis is down for the count.  Can Terrance and Kinsley hold him off?”  The announcer tried to hide the fact he was as stunned as Curtis.

Terrance’s brown forces managed to destroy the shards before they could reach his base.  Kinsley’s blue hadn’t been so lucky, as two tripods survived long enough to decimate most of his forces.  Whatever he had left abandoned the base and hightailed it to Terrance’s base.  Brent moved the Strikers back; with no long range units left, their interceptor missiles would be useless now.  Terrance and Kinsley fortified their combined base.  Without their ranged units, the two had to rethink their battle plans.  All Brent had to do now was bide his time.  Terrance moved a squad of heavy armor toward the Shard Citadel base while Kinsley followed a fair distance behind.  Their treads menacingly ripped at the terrain as they edged closer to the Brent’s forces.

It was apparent they were trying to provoke him into moving some of his defensive forces into an ambush.  Brent ordered the surviving Slashers in the green base to head toward the remains of Kinsley’s base.  Terrance continued to edge closer to the Citadel, his armor training their turrets on the weak points of the Citadel.  When the armor was just far enough from Terrance’s main base Brent ordered the Slashers in Kinsley’s old base to charge.  With incredible speed the tripods lunged down the path Kinsley’s forces had used only minutes prior.  Kinsley panicked and moved all his remaining forces to intercept.  With Terrance’s armor unprotected, the Slashers on defense rushed them.  Hastily switching targets, the tanks fired everything they had on the approaching tripods, but the targets were too nimble and dodged most of the massive bolts of energy.  Kinsley annihilated the Slashers running in from his old base, but it had cost Terrance dearly.  From beyond the grid, Brent watched Terrance throw something at Kinsley.

“Looks like a division in the ranks!  The new commander used a brilliant feint attack to take out some of Terrance’s main forces.”  The announcer almost seemed to be rooting for Brent.  “Looks like all that thinking paid off in the end.  Terrance has a single squad of heavy armor left and he’ll need to keep it safe if he plans to put a dent in that Citadel!”

Brent was only moments away from the end game, but his foes weren’t in the right position.  He ordered the Strikers to take firing positions on the enemy base.  He knew they couldn’t do anything, as their interceptor missiles were useless without something to intercept.  He hoped the opposing two commanders were ignorant of that fact.  Kinsley’s forces quickly returned to Terrance’s base.  Noticing the moving cubes, Terrance positioned all his forces in a circle around his remaining armor.  Kinsley joined Terrance’s forces, making a looser circle around the armor.  Almost there.

Brent ordered the Strikers to space themselves equally around the enemy base.  As the cubes complied, Terrance’s forces trained their weapons on them.  Kinsley’s forces followed suit.  Every remaining unit in the Commonwealth base was completely focused on the Strikers.  Perfect.  Brent tapped a single command and rested back in his seat.  Terrance noticed his opponent relaxing; his eyes widened.  Out of the ground burst seven Slashers.  They instantly started swinging their blades in their dance of death.  Before Terrance or Kinsley could even realize what was happening, their forces were completely wiped out.  Terrance jumped to his feet and pointed at Brent.

“Cheater!”  Terrance was nearly foaming at the mouth.  “He rigged the grid!”

“Now, now Terrance.  No name-calling.”  The announcer tried to calm down the irate commander.  “Let’s see if we can’t shed some light on this mess.”

The grid seemed to pulse as the terrain turned transparent.  Just outside the Citadel where the initial artillery had impacted were seven tunnels.  The “craters” were mole holes where Brent’s Slashers had dug into the ground when the warheads flashed.  Everything that followed was a diversion as the Slashers tunneled under the map.  The four tunnels headed toward the green and blue bases changed course about half way across the map toward Terrance’s base.  With all of his foes amassed in one spot and their attention diverted, the ambush went perfectly.

“I’ve heard of the hundred meter dash but the hundred meter
burrow
?  Looks like we have a new one for the tactic books.”  The announcer shouted over the crowd.  “The new commander pulls it off.  A first time win!”

With the volume of the crowd’s shouting, it hadn’t been so easy a feat for the announcer to be heard.  Over all, it wasn’t a supportive sound the crowd was making.  Jeering and protests were the loudest.  Brent felt a tug at his elbow.  The short trooper with a lisp was gesturing for him to follow.  Quickly complying, he could hear the sounds of a fight breaking out behind him.  The short trooper guided him to the rear of the room and out a side doorway.  The other troopers were too busy shouting angrily to notice his departure.

“Now, I don’t want to hear you saying I never take you to nice places.”  Cain was already waiting for him in the hallway.

“Are they going to be all right in there?”  Cassandra asked the short trooper.

“You kidding?  They love this kind of thing,” the trooper lisped happily.  “We’ll have twice as many troopers tomorrow!”

“See?”  Cain grinned.  “Everyone had a pleasant evening, I trust.”

“Evening?”  Brent was puzzled.  “How long were we in there?”

“Time flies when you are teaching troopers a lesson in humility.”  Cain chuckled.

“It’s a little after eight.”  Cassandra didn’t sound bored at all.

“And you’ll never guess.  Sandra didn’t complain
once
!”  Cain grinned.  “Well at first she did, but after things started, I dare say she got into it.  She was one of your most
vocal
supporters.”

“That’s
enough,
Cain,” she said irritably.

“Well, I’d love to stick around and spar with Sandra, but
I
have a hot date.”  Cain gloated.

“You?  On a date?”  Cassandra was shocked.  “With who?”

“A girl down in maintenance.  What can I say; I have a thing for working girls.”  Cain shrugged.

“Don’t let us keep you; enjoy yourself.”  Brent had the feeling Cassandra’s jaw was hanging open behind her helmet.

“I plan to.  A nice romantic dinner followed by a shared 3P.  Just standard dating fair, but sometimes the simple pleasures in life are the best ones.  Don’t wait up.”  Cain winked as he departed.

“Just when I thought I had him figured out,” Brent mumbled to himself.  “Given his over the top nature, I never would have figured he’d enjoy the simple things.”

Realizing Cassandra had gone silent, he glanced at her.  A thick orange and red was blazing around her.

“So, Cassandra?”  he interrupted her reverie.

“Yes?” she responded, half listening.

“Would you like to join me for some dinner?”

The helmet quickly spun and locked on him; the red aura doubled in size and intensity.

“Seriously?”

“My treat.”  Brent grabbed her arm and pulled her along.

“For what?”

“For taking so long, and to make up for not turning Cain down in the first place.  I know you didn’t want to go with him.”

“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  I actually enjoyed myself.”

The mess hall was much more full than it had been earlier, but most of the plethora of tables were still empty.  It took Brent a while to find the right spot.  Finding what he had in mind, he took Cassandra and sat her down before running off to fetch the meals.  It turned out that A rations cost thirty credits
each
, while D rations cost three.  Carefully balancing the two plates, Brent returned to the waiting suit of armor.  He placed the meals on the table as he took his seat.  As Cassandra reached for her utensil, he grabbed her hand.

“I have a single request before we start.”  He braced for a blow.

“Oh?”  Cassandra sounded surprised.

“No faceplate.”

“You have
got
to be kidding.”  Swirls of blue and black danced in her outline.  “Not a chance.”

“Look around you.  Not a single trooper for at
least
four tables.  Plus, you are facing the wall.  Even if someone did look your way all they would see is the back of your helmet.”

Cassandra glanced around, checking out his story.

“Why do you care?”  She was trying to negotiate her way out of it, but the black had faded away so at least she wasn’t mad at him.

“I’ve been talking to my reflection all day.  Although, I can see how that might be an attractive concept for a narcissist like Cain.  Do you think the girl from maintenance wears a suit like yours?” Brent joked.

Cassandra burst into laughter.

“Fine, I give.  If it means that much to you, I’ll do it.”  She made it clear he was forcing her.

She tapped at the panel on her left wrist, and the faceplate obscuring her face vanished.