DVINSKY FOREST
150KM SOUTHEAST OF ARKHANGELSK, RUSSIA
Fluorescent rays from the full moon pour down through the branches of the forest like a light rain, creating puddles of shadows behind every rock and fallen tree. When combined with the soft sounds of the fall breeze through the trees, a blanket of tranquility seems to wrap itself around the old Dvinsky Forest. All is peaceful, but for the faint sounds of thudding that echo through the night.
Thud. Thud. Thud…
Heavy frightening sounds, almost rhythmic, that grow louder in intensity with every passing second.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The drone of the thudding builds relentlessly until it becomes so thunderous that the ground of the forest itself starts to shake. The horrific death sounds of unseen trees splintering and cracking only adds to the auditory assault. Though the moon helps to illuminate the forest floor, the source of the destruction is still out of sight. Until…
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Bursting through the forest, two large mechanical silhouettes run side by side weaving through the trees at high speed, snapping branches and toppling any birch too slow to get out of their way.
Tonight, two efreets are on the hunt.
Behind the controls of her TRC-5 Tigercat, Michelle “Buckeye” Barkley keeps her eyes focused on the fully augmented view of the forest before her. The sophisticated array of sensors and cameras in her high tech efreet project a view of the forest on her front canopy that appears clearer than day. The powerful onboard computer not only crunches the sensor data to keep the bipedal machine upright, but calculates and displays the optimal path for it to take as it races through the trees. If not for the sensors her machine might as well be a massive wrecking ball of deforestation while on the move. Or even worse, without their guidance, she could easily steer the giant efreet off the side of the ninety-four foot cliff only twenty feet to her left in the dark of the night. The constant ballet of electrical signals and miniscule readjustments seamlessly help to keep her efreet an agile and deadly weaponry of war.
“Did you see that?” crackled in the voice of her squad leader, Lieutenant Daniel “Gump” Sanders through the headset in her helmet. Buckeye always thought Gump was an odd callsign since she heard stories that Sanders mockingly earned it from a classic movie she had never heard of before she joined the Army.
“Damnit, Buckeye, stop seeing the forest for the trees and check your scope. Can you confirm our target identification?”
Caught red handed, she had been ignoring the radar screen in the bottom center of her heads up display to focus on piloting her metal monster. She knew that in combat, spotting the enemy before they saw you could mean the difference between life and death. Buckeye looked at it now and saw a small red dot to the southwest, flickering like a broken Christmas light approximately fifteen miles away. “Confirming the signal,” she said, “though it looks like the satellites overhead are having a hard time keeping a bead on it.”
Gump agreed. “That’s what I was thinking too. Either the forest canopy is too thick or our eye in the sky is leaving geosynchronous orbit. That might also explain why the computer can’t give us a positive target ID either.”
“What’s the play?” Buckeye asked.
“Look sharp. I’ll take the lead.” Gump ordered.
Without thinking Buckeye pulled back on the Tigercat’s throttle to let Gump take the lead position before matching speeds with him again to keep pace. Even though this was her first real mission out in the field, she didn’t feel afraid at the thought of the potential engagement in front of her. It’s true what they say she thought, that when in combat strong training takes over. And as such Buckeye felt confident. While many of her peers in academy viewed the efreet simulators they trained on as cheap imitations to the real thing, she was always the first to log in and the last to leave everyday. Every maneuver and procedure wasn’t anything she hadn’t already done hundreds of times before. Without thinking she switched the safeties off her Tigercat’s dual missile racks and massive 135mm cannon. The ambient green lights that filled her cockpit turned into a red hue as she turned the piloting interface over to combat mode. She double checked the ammo counts and armor strength displays that now slid into prominent view on her HUD for accuracy. Both her and her machine were ready for battle.
Nearly an hour ago, United Nations of Earth early warning satellites had detected an unauthorized orbital insertion in this remote section of forest. Though it was not unusual for the CPM to sneak small drones back to Earth for the purpose of gathering real time intel, the remoteness of this drop, the Dvinsky Forest was in the middle of nowhere, perked the suspicions of UNE command right away. Since the militaries and governments of the Russians and Chinese, now allied as the Crimson Pact of Mars, were forced off Earth almost five years ago, they had always kept an eye on returning to reclaim their lost lands. The drones stayed hidden and soaked up intelligence to send back. However there was no worthwhile intelligence to gather from this desolate stretch of forest which indicated a CPM efreet raid was a real possibility. And this is exactly why Buckeye and Gump had been scrambled for a reconnaissance in force (RIF) mission, to assess the situation while it was still hot.
Buckeye felt nervous but excited, with the same pre game jitters she knew all too well from her days as a collegiate athlete. She also knew she was lucky to be on station with Gump tonight, as he had a reputation as a no nonsense squad leader. Sure, he wasn’t the type of person you’d want to go grab a beer with, but with him in command at least you’d have that beer.
“I’m focusing my sensors in the direction of our bogey to try and lock in the signal.” Gump radioed in over the comm. “Switch yours over to a three hundred and sixty degree passive scan. I don’t want anything sneaking up behind us.”
With a quick, “Roger that.” and a flick of a switch on her command console Buckeye switched over to passive sensors. Thanks to the secure datalinks in their Tigercats, each efreet could seamlessly share the incoming data from their sensors with the other. By focusing all their sensor bandwidth on separate shared scans they were effectively doubling their scanning power which was helpful as they were closing in on the target fast.
This was exactly the type of mission the TRC-5 was made for. It’s sleek fighter like appearance housed a powerful cold fusion reactor that gave it the speed to get on target quickly while still having enough juice left over for its robust suite of advanced electronics and weapon systems. A newish design, the United Nations of Earth couldn’t get them into squadrons fast enough. Buckeye still remembers the sense of pride she felt when she told her family she was being assigned to pilot a Tigercat after graduating UNE efreet school. Which made up for the lie she said afterwards when she stated she’d be stationed in Germany instead of the troubled hotspot that was the remains of abandoned Russia.
Ahead of her, Gump’s Tigercat was pressing ahead at high speed. Darting around, and sometimes through the trees, he moved quickly to close with the enemy and press their surprise advantage. Buckeye worked the dual joysticks and foot pedals at her controls just to keep pace with him as she lacked the grace that came from her commander’s experienced movements.
Again, Gump called out, “I got a track. Eight miles and closing fast. We should be getting visual soon. Right after we crest this ridge. Swing left and we’ll tak…bzzrt scrrch... line abreast.” Buckeye was jarred by the clear sound of static breaking over Gump’s order. It didn’t make sense. All communication between their efreets was digital, there was no way for the message to go static unless… unless they were being jammed!
On instinct Buckeye keyed up magnification. A small digital window appeared on her canopy which she could move and magnify independently with the analog thumbstick on her left control. She positioned it over the incoming ridgeline and began to scan across it at four times magnification. As she did she missed the red blip on her radar flicker out.
“Buckeye, something’s going on here.” Gump called in as she continued her visual scan. “I lost contact on my screen. Can you confirm track?”
They were both nearing the ridgeline at high speed when she noticed the unnatural parting of two tree tops behind the ridge in her magnified field of view, just off to their right. She stopped scanning and pressed the thumbstick in to magnify further. A boxy shape slowly rose from behind the crest, its glassy canopy just catching enough of the moonlight to create a glare. There was no doubt she had spotted the enemy raider. Another efreet!
Buckeye shouted out, “Enemy sighted! Hull down! One thousand yards to your two o’clock!”
Confused, Gump replied, “Negative, Buckeye, my scope shows nothi……kssssssssh.”
Before he could finish a volley of missile fire streaked from the ridge into Gump’s cockpit. The missiles lit up the darkness of the forest like a strobe light, followed a second later by a thunderous explosion. Gump’s crippled Tigercat fell forward and plowed into the ground, a heap engulfed in flames.
“Jesus Christ!” Buckeye swore, to nobody now, as she veered her Tigercat away from the deadly ambush in front of her. Her training once again took hold and told her to vector away. To disengage from a hostile force in a superior defensive position and towards favorable terrain where she might try to reengage. Her mighty Tigercat picked up speed coming out of the swerve.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
As she ran, the raging fire from her commander’s efreet acted as a spotlight on her own. It helped little that her enemy was close enough that it might as well kick rocks down on her from above. With little warning, two quick impacts from behind followed by two violent jolts in her seat let her know she was taking fire. Combined with the warning lights and the unnervingly calm tone of the computer’s voice assistant informing her of damage received, Buckeyes overwhelmed senses ignored the calculated route on her canopy. Frantically, she steered off course barreling through the trees. Snapping them like twigs.
FWOOM!
Another large hit from behind combined with her hefty forward momentum almost caused her Tigercat to lose balance and somersault forward. “Turtling up” is what the pilots called it when an efeet went head over heels and she felt the sick movements of hers starting to trip. Before it could, the automated sensors buried in each foot kicked in with emergency overridden movements to keep the massive machine upright. As she leveled out she raced on.
From up on the ridge, in the darkness, the enemy efreet still had a clear line of sight on the fleeing Tigercat thanks to its own array of advanced sensors. It slowly advanced down the ridge to keep its retreating target in view. With a clear kill shot in sight the CPM efreet raised one of its arm mounted plasma cannons. Carefully, it aimed for center mass and fired just as another explosion, more massive than before, erupted from the destroyed wreck of Gump’s Tigercat nearby. The armored missiles compartments within dual missile launchers of the efreet had failed, resulting in a massive cook off of ammo so powerful it rocked the assailing enemy off balance.
The stray static filled ball of charged blue plasma hurtled towards and tore into, the right shoulder of Buckeye’s Tigercat. Instantly the warning lights and system updates that filled her cockpit with distractions disappeared. Her sensors went offline. Her augmented reality heads up display froze then shutdown. Her cockpit grew dark yet the efreet somehow remained operational. Luckily, the clear kill shot ended up only as wound.
Totally blind now except for the light of the moon, she pressed on, pushing her damaged efreet to the edge of its performance. And in her confusion, straight off the edge of the very same ninety-four foot cliff she had passed by only minutes earlier…
The pilot of the Crimson Pact efreet looked on, dumbfounded in their cockpit after regaining composure from the shock of the nearby ammo explosion. Where once there was an enemy efreet in front of them and on their radar had suddenly disappeared. There was no explosion to signify a direct hit. No fiery wreckage to confirm a kill. It’s as if the blast from the plasma cannon simply made the target disappear into thin air.
Holding position on the ridge, the pilot cycled through all the sensor settings of their efreet. Radar. Infrared. Chemical. Laser. Radio. Visual. Acoustic. Seismic. Radiation. All turned up blank. It was well known among CPM pilots that their sensors lagged significantly behind the capabilities of their UNE counterparts, so if distances were far greate, this sudden disappearance could be understandable. The fleeing Tigercat couldn’t been more than a kilometer away the pilot thought to themselves, but according to these scans it might as well have been on the moon. Where did it go?
Laying on her back, Buckeye slowly opened her eyes to catch the blurry visage of the full moon above her slowly disappear behind a large bank of thick clouds. Gradually, the moonlight that illuminated her cockpit faded away leaving her in total darkness. In pain, she pulled off her helmet to try and ease her pounding headache. As she let it go, it fell behind her head and dropped into the back of cockpit. “Turtle up. Great job on your first time out, Michelle.” she muttered. She knew she was at the bottom of the cliff for she could clearly see its edge looming over her. The impact from the fall could have, no should have, killed her as she owed her life to the Tigercat’s sturdy nano-steel armor and the built in shock absorption buffers in her ejection seat. The sharp pains she felt in her chest were reminders that she didn’t come away entirely unharmed, but she had endured broken ribs before.
Feeling around in the dark for her control panel, she tried to force a system reboot and get her efreet operational again but to no avail. The last hit had seemingly taken all her electronics offline. No doubt the massive fall didn’t help matters either, but no sensors. No heads up display. And no communications. Her Tigercat was effectively as blind and in the dark as she was.
The only good news seemed to be that the controls were still operational. She could see she still had arm movement, the Tigercat’s left arm could still wiggle its fingers, and she could feel the giant mechanical legs move when she inched up the throttle. Usually, efreets had an autopilot function for the rare occasion when they did fall over. But with no access to the easy difficulty setting, getting up would be a complex maneuver she would have to pull off manually. Buckeye thought back to cadet school when they tackled this scenario in the simulators. “Now what was proper arm placement for the TRC-5 again?” She began to think back to the second week of training but didn’t have much time to recall.
Thud. Thud. Thud…
Something was coming her way and she knew exactly what it was. “Here we go. Overtime.”
Her hands found the command console once again to hectically flick the reboot switch on and off hoping, praying, pleading with her battered efreet to come back to life. She didn’t have long to try as she saw shadow of her pursuer slowly creep up over the edge of the cliff and down onto her. A sinking feeling laid low in her stomach as she got a better look at her attacker. An EF-25 Hammer, just as he had feared.
The CPM Hammer was a fearsome weapon system. Built as a brawler, it carried dual missile racks above its shoulders that were most commonly armed with the short range missiles that made such short work of Gump’s Tigercat during their initial encounter. However its main weapon system were its dual plasma cannons that fired highly charged balls of plasma particles. Somewhat of a cross between a laser and a gun, plasma cannons weren’t as focused as energy weapons but offered far greater damage potential. Their only real drawback was their high energy drain and sluggish projectile speed which forced pilots to grant an ample lead when tracking targets. A hinderance during long range battles but hardly an issue when ranges were within two-thousand meters. For close quarters combat, few efreets were better suited as the Hammer. And with one kill already under its belt, and a second needing confirmation, the design was more than holding its own tonight.
At this point Buckeye knew playing dead was her only viable defense. No doubt she was being scanned and the even slightest shift of weight in her seat be seen would be seen and invite another plasma charge her way. She could see the Hammer standing above her, almost feel its electrical pulses washing over her with curiosity. She also knew it wouldn’t be much longer until it discovered her Tigercat, as wrecked as it may be, was still semi operational and in danger of being put down for good.
Holding her breath, she carefully crept her right hand toward the joystick. With her bottom finger she toggled independent arm control which would giver her full control of the right arm. The same arm that just happened to house her 135mm Rhinehart cannon. On her back and without her targeting sensors to guide her aim, she knew her chances of hitting the Hammer were one in a million. And once she fired, a miss would make return fire swift. As far as game winning shots went, this was the biggest of her career.
As she always did before a big play, she closed her eyes and pushed away all the distractions surrounding her. She focused on the mental image of her shell hitting its target. Eyes open now. Focused. The muscles in her body coiled tight and ready to spring. True the target was small. But the backboard was bigger. It was now or never.
With a quick flick of her wrist, she aimed the cannon towards the Hammer and fired off a round in one fluid motion as if she’d taken the shot a hundred times before.
BOOM!
The shell flew straight and buried itself in cliff underneath the Hammer. The ground under the enemy efreet crumbled under the impact of the high explosive shell in a massive fireball of flame and rock. With its footing suddenly gone, the heavy efreet found itself tumbling in free fall followed seconds later by a massive THUNK as it too fell to the bottom of the cliff, flat on its back. Turtle up.
This was Buckeye’s chance.
As soon as she saw the Hammer fall she manned her controls to plant the Tigercat’s feet into the ground and toggled manual control of both arms, reversing them into the dirt in a kind of reverse pushup. The weight of the damaged Tigercat started to shift higher. Now, she began to extend the arms, propping her up even higher for clearance, all the while ignoring the sickening crunch of metal coming form the right of her machine. She then reached down under her her legs to manually engage and lock in the Tigercat’s ankle servos. The servos kicked in and did their job by taking the efreets weight and pulling her up slowly. She then rotated both arms up to throw as much vertical momentum as possible forward. And like a corpse rising from a shallow grave, the mangled Tigercat, somehow, came back to life.
No sooner has she regained her footing when she saw the Hammer in front of her had engaged its own automatic standing procedure. Determined not to let it finish, Buckeye aimed her cannon again with a squinted eye and nothing but dead reckoning as she pulled the trigger. BOOM!
The shell flew widely to the left and impacted into the base of the cliff behind its intended target. A miss! Feeling sick, she looked down at the Tigercat’s right arm and saw the end of the Rhinehart cannon appeared as crumpled as a crushed soda can. She must have bent it by putting too much weight, too fast, on it when standing upright. With no hesitation she rotated the Tigercat’s torso to face the Hammer, selected her dual missiles bays and launched an unguided volley that was greeted in return by silence. “Seriously?” she groaned. Her targeting sensors apparently weren’t the only systems offline from damage.
By now the Hammer was on one knee and rising. With few good options left, Buckeye slammed her throttle forward. The Tigercat took a step followed quickly by another. But the step after was met with a blast of plasma fire that landed only a few short feet away. Another ball of plasma flew overhead. Unable to get a lock, the Hammer next let loose with a barrage of its short range missiles. But Buckeye’s Tigercat ran straight through them, shrugging off a few hits as the majority flew past harmlessly, she was closing distance too fast. Emerging through the smoke filled contrails she lowered her nose and slammed the Hammer all the back into the side of the cliff.
A searing pain, from more broken ribs, shot up Buckeye’s chest from the impact of the two fifty ton efreets colliding. Her discarded helmet slammed forward into the windshield nearly taking her head off on the ricochet back. Through the crash, she kept her hand planted firmly on the open throttle. The feet of the Tigercat dug into the ground, its exhausted shape memory cables that acted as synthetic muscles straining to push the metal pile forward.
In danger and like a cornered animal, the Hammer fought back fueled entirely by its own desperation. As best she could, she kept ramming the Hammer to keep it off balance. Discharged plasma cannons shot wildly as the Hammer emptied the last of its short range missiles at the mugging Tigercat that refused to stay down. They all flew harmlessly past Buckeye as her brazen charge seemed to be working at the cost of the annihilated forest spectating from the sidelines.
Locked up like two giant MMA fighters, the Hammer switched stances now to push the Tigercat back and open it up for a knockout blow. And thanks to its leverage advantage it was starting to gain control of the fight. Buckeye wrestled the controls to keep the Hammer pinned against the cliff, but could already see her position was starting to slip. In this position, one well placed shot from either of the deadly plasma cannons would end everything.
With few options left and the clock running out, Buckeye ran her last play. With all the force she could draw out of the shattered Tigercat, she jammed her crumpled cannon deep into the side of the Hammer, keyed up a round of armor piercing and hammered the trigger down.
FABOOM!
The cannon’s depleted carbon uranium round shot through its damaged bore instantly piercing the Hammer’s hip and flying out the opposite shoulder. In it’s path, a hail of shredded shape memory cables and jagged metal bits flew out of the exit wound as if a served artery had been struck. In an instant the Hammer fell to the ground limp and lifeless, its cold fusion reactor obliterated in a single shot. Now nothing but a pile of scrap.
Finally safe, Buckeye throttled her weary efreet back. The grinding of broken metal joints as it jerked backwards let her know her the old girl was just about used up. Shaking, she began to unbuckle the safety harness in her seat and collapsed into it, completely exhausted. The adrenaline started to secede and she felt cold sweat drenching her flight suit through the sharp pain of what felt like another broken rib. With no way of limping back home or calling in for help all she could do was sit and wait for search and rescue. As if on cue, a break in the clouds bathed her Tigercat in the moon acting almost like a beacon of light to aid in her recovery.
A small sense of relief then pride came over her. She had survived her first mission, though at a great cost. But her training came through. All the hours of practice paid off. She made it through her first game with a buzzer beater her friends and family would never believe.
“A hell’va way to start the season.”