Sometimes the littlest things can be effective. Did you know that even a modern battle tank can be stopped by enough razor wire? Sure, it takes a lot, but it can work. It’s even more effective against legged mobiles like antithesis.
--Practical Defense, a PMC Training Manual, 2043
***
Sergeant Teia sat nearby, with her heavy backpack opened to display a whole suite of electronics. She had her long blonde hair unbound and was working to tie it back up. “So cute! What is it?”
“A mobile AI to help with comms and drone management.”
She glanced at the displays on her backpack. “So that’s what the new data stream is. Designating it as Xenovir Jr.”
I unstowed two of the Chibats and set them on the new bot’s back, where they moved to a charge port. While the Dragonflies cycled through much-needed charge cycles, I walked around the defenses. The EYRIE followed me like a lost puppy and was just as clumsy. Eventually, all the drones cycled through, except the Carrier Pigeon, which I stowed since it was now redundant.
Back at the front, I stood and scanned the valley. The first fifty meters were bare stubble crossed by ditches. Beyond that, dry grasses reached thigh-high in places and competed with random shrubs and the occasional tree. At six hundred meters, the remains of rural farmhouses rotted under what used to be decorative trees, blocking sight of the rest of the valley.
In my visor’s map, a handful of drones covered the open field between us and the treeline, while most were concentrated on the forests to our left and behind us. One Albatross hung out deep and high over the valley, and the other made large circles around the company but rarely over the far treeline.
[“Tara, Corie, can you use the drones to map out the interference? Figure out where the edges of the effect lay and if it’s moving?”]
[“It will be rough,”] Tara said. [“Not very precise since we don’t have an EM meter on any of them.”]
[“The EYRIE can use visual glitches as a measure of interference.”] Corie said.
[“Do what you can to draw a line where the interference stays at the same level. We might be able to track them that way. Or at least get a bead on their direction.”]
I called Carlson on a voice chat. “What is it?” he barked on connecting.
“Have you seen the reports of drone connections dropping?” I asked.
“Yes, and they don’t have any working reasons. I see yours still work.”
“I just bought an upgraded communications hub that’s letting us burn through it better. We’re still degraded, just not as much. My team thinks the increase might be due to the lead swarm swerving towards us.”
“I thought you said you could follow them and give us some warning?” His voice had a harder edge, all but accusing me of lying to him.
I forced myself to pause and take a calming breath before responding with carefully chosen words. “I said we could follow any traces they left behind. If they didn’t leave any traces, we can’t follow them. And we haven’t found any traces for a while now.”
“So what are you suggesting?”
“Nothing yet. I’m just making sure you are aware of the possibility,” I said. “I’m pushing out some drones to try to find them by mapping the interference area.”
“You can do that?”
“It won’t be precise, but it should be better than nothing.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I heard him sigh over the comms channel. “Okay, let me know what you find.” And the channel went dead.
Over the next few minutes, Tara’s drones flew out and about. I ignored their dance and instead looked east down the valley on my map, looking for a better defensive position.
[“It’s definitely coming closer, and not advancing down the valley,”] Tara reported. [“I’ve pushed out both of the Albatross, and I’m using them to find the edge. The southern edges are expanding, but the eastern front hasn’t moved. They are coming your way.”]
Captain Carlsen was nearby, talking with Martin and Morris, the centurion in charge of the construction crew. I waved for their attention and waited my turn. After a minute, however, all three startled and stared off into the middle distance as they read their augs.
Ginny spoke up in our conference channel. [“The lead dronist took the data from Tara’s tests and ran it through some calculations. They estimate, based on area covered, that more than one Model Twelve is behind that EM field, probably five or six.”]
[“I peeked at their figures, and they’re a little high, due to adding an extra level of caution. My calculations say four or maybe five of them,”] Corie added.
“And if there are more M-12 than expected, that means the whole force is bigger.” I said in both the conference and in person, while stepping closer to the command group.
Carlson scanned over the defenses, and his face paled. “We can’t hold against that.”
I nodded. “We’re out too far from the hills and forest. If we hold where we are, we’ll be flanked. That might not mean the end of the company, but it will leave the construction engineers exposed.” My mind raced ahead, thinking not only about the lead group of antithesis but also the bigger one following behind and the human army still on the way.
I turned to Morris. “Why are you setting defenses here out front and not behind the gap?”
“These will be the forward outer flanks. It’s mostly passive harassment to make the gap itself an easier path. The majority of the work will be behind the gap.”
“Ah, she caught the wrong fish.” I said. “Centurion, I think you should pull back behind the gap and work on those instead.”
“Wait a minute,” Carlson broke in. “Chain of command, Samurai! Your orders go through me.” The captain, always a bit touchy, turned red as he got in my face.
I hadn’t meant to challenge his authority, nor did we have time for egos to get in the way, but he apparently thought differently. “A suggestion is always allowed, Captain. I’m well aware of the chain of command.” I growled my reply, meeting him, eye to mirrored visor, with our feet close enough the toes touched. I felt my shoulders tense up as I continued, “I might've not used the best tone, but considering the threat we have coming down on us, do we really have time for social niceties?”
That set him back on his heels at least, and I continued. “I suggest that we look into relocating your company too. If you are interested, I have an idea of how to both improve our defenses and keep the good centurion’s non-combatants out of harm’s way.”
The reminder of imminent danger caused him to rein in his temper. He stepped back, giving us both space. “And what is this plan? Samurai in some magic cannon?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of pulling the antithesis to a better defensive spot.”
“The gap is the best defense around. That’s why the commander sent us here.”
“The gap is the best defense for a large force. Especially if they want to use those defenses to ravage an even larger army. But it’s too big for a small force like us to realistically hold.”
“And you think you have the commander figured out?”
“I have a good idea what she’s thinking. When I checked in with her, I spotted a well-used copy of Tactics, Strategy, and the Antithesis getting cleared out with other books and battle maps. I’m quite familiar with the ideas in that treatise.”
“And what, in your great wisdom, does that tell you about her plans?” he sneered.
“That she’s a fan of drawing the enemy to attack prepared defenses or into other situations that give her a force multiplier and do nothing for the enemy. Like behind that gap where the army can block the valley and set up a gauntlet of crossfire from both hillsides.
“The only reason to have defenses in front of the gap is to keep it clear while also attracting the attention of any antithesis going down the valley. There’s little value in reaching out this far otherwise. She wants to draw them into the gap, where the alien’s numerical superiority can’t come to bear.
“She expected this lead force to be long gone by the time we got here, or far enough out that we wouldn’t pull them in.”
“My orders for this outer line are to be quick and allow mobility with several retreat options,” Morris said. “From the plans, it wasn’t meant to hold, just delay them enough for the other lines to be completed, force them to group up, and make it easier for the antithesis to use the gap. The plans for behind the gap match what he’s described.”
