Chương 73: Riptide

Academy Hill, Vidako Imperium Stellarum February 11, 2848 When Cassie stepped into the simulator hall at Bachman Training Center on Tuesday, the day after her meeting with Commandant Marlowe, she was surprised to find that Lieutenant Commander Libby wasn't present to oversee training. Instead, Lieutenant Kekoa, the Alu'kan officer who'd dragged the class of 2851 through a grueling Hard Burn at the beginning of the year, stood in the center of the catwalk with his arms crossed.

The pose strained the sleeves of his uniform to such an obvious extent that Cassie half expected the fabric to burst at any moment. Once the cadets—minus Arc and Pika, who were still out on patrol—had gathered in a loose semi-circle facing Kekoa, he leveled his gaze at them, meeting eyes in turn until there was absolute silence.

"Lieutenant Commander Libby has been called away temporarily, and will not be able to supervise your training today," he said, voice ringing off the metal of the walkways and stairs.

"It's likely that I'll be here tomorrow, as well, but I would expect him back by Monday, at the latest." I wonder what that means for my test on Saturday, Cassie thought. Given that Commandant Marlowe ordered it herself, I doubt there will be a substantial delay, Lyra replied. I'm more curious about why he isn't here. Do you think he's being punished for what he did to us? Cassie didn't know, and she didn't have time to think about it, because Kekoa didn't pause.

"One thing that I've noticed is severely lacking in your training," the lieutenant said, with a wide grin, "is marine operations." Hesitantly, Zora Al-Hamra raised her hand.

"Sir, isn't that because we pilot land-based training mechs?"

"Every member species of the Imperium requires water to live," Kekoa replied.

"As do the people in the Singularity and, so far as we can tell, the Na'xir swarm. As a result, conflicts between these groups are likely to disproportionately happen on planets with liquid water resources. It's not at all unlikely that you'll find yourself fighting on a beach, island-hopping across an archipelago, or securing marine-based resource extraction assets, such as a deep-sea mining rig.

The Tyro is watertight for a reason, and you've all got an emergency five liter tank of liquid oxygen, with a converter rated to keep you alive for up to forty-eight hours sealed inside your mech, in the event your normal oxygen extraction systems fail—or you're submerged." Cassie felt her heart sink. She did not feel at all good about where this was heading.

"You will break into four mech squads," Kekoa declared.

"Each squad will be deployed to a simulated island. Your goal will be to protect the designated facility on the island from a single Riptide. To make this fair, I've removed the standard long-range missiles from your designated enemy. Off you go—partner up. If you can't find a team, I'll make one for you." At least we won't be nuked from eight thousand kilometers away, Lyra grumbled. But this is still a ridiculous assignment.

Before Cassie could muster a response, she was surprised to find that Rain, Vee and C'rise had stepped in to form a small group facing her.

"Work together?" Vee asked, with a cocky grin.

"We're going to get annihilated," Rain complained.

"Even with four Tyros, this thing is going to outmass us by fifty tons."

"Thirty-five," C'rise said, and then looked uncomfortable when everyone turned in her direction.

"My Pulsar is fifty-tons. I can't pilot a Tyro, remember?" Cassie considered that, and chewed her lip for a moment while she thought things over.

"What kind of weapons have you got on that thing?"

"I'll send you the specs," C'rise said.

"The resonating laser rifle is roughly similar to the model your Tyros carry. Slightly shorter range, and the battery capacity doesn't stretch as far..." Lyra wasted no time in displaying a summary of the LeShaii mech's capabilities for Cassie.

"Resonating crystalline structure," she murmured.

"I have no idea what this does. Wait—you've got integrated vectoring thrusters? Not just a detachable landing pack?" C'rise shifted her feet and nodded. Cassie couldn't remember her doing much of that at the beginning of the year, but her roommate had been picking up more and more body language during her time at the academy.

"A Pulsar is meant to be just as effective in zero-g as on a planet," she explained.

"It's built to amplify the range of the pilot's abilities."

"Amplify like—how far?" Vee asked.

"By a factor of a thousand," C'rise said.

"So if my normal range is five to six meters..."

"You could sense five kilometers." Cassie felt a spike of excitement.

"Have they modelled what you can do into the sims?"

"Not everything," C'rise admitted.

"But my simulator pod works with my AI to add points of interaction to the default scenario Lieutenant Commander Libby—well, in this case, Lieutenant Kekoa—prepares. It isn't quite the same as real life, but it helps."

"Five meters." Cassie nodded.

"Alright. Today, we're taking the pods closest to C'rise, down at the end. Vee, I want you in one of those drop packs so that you have thrusters. Everyone load up on ballistic weapons and super cavitation rounds, as much as you can. They penetrate water better than lasers." It took less convincing than Cassie had feared to swap simulator pods; Ryan McCarthy, in particular, was eager to do Cassie a favor after she'd recommended he start using sonic claws on his Tyro.

The bigger problem wasn't getting him to agree, it turned out, but to put him off on asking for more advice until after their training session was over. It felt a bit odd to be in a different pod—practically speaking, they were all the same, but she was used to hers. Her fingers danced over the touchscreen, while Lyra spoke simultaneously in her head. You're giving up a lot of range by going with all ballistics, the AI pointed out.

It would be different if someone had a larger mech to mount missiles or rail guns, but with only autocannons...

"It looks like that," Cassie admitted.

"But the lasers will diffuse in water pretty quickly, while the autocannons will keep a certain amount of velocity—especially with rounds that are made for it, like these." With a final stab at the screen, she nodded, and then sat back in her seat, tightened the restraints, and closed her eyes.

"Hook me up," she told Lyra. A moment later, she felt her awareness expand to encompass the simulated chassis of her Tyro. A wireframe armor schematic, battery readout, and weapons displays quickly populated the bottom left of her view. There was a fuel counter for the thrusters built into the drop pack she was using, and both the plasma blade and twin 20mm autocannons attached to the hardpoints on her mech's shoulders were familiar. It was the rifle that was different.

Rather than the standard CO-4 mech grade laser rifle, Cassie had selected the Broadleaf Arms 30mm rifle, a seven-barrelled, handheld rotary autocannon that could spit out four thousand rounds in a minute—if she'd actually carried that much ammunition. Twelve-hundred, spread across short bursts, would have to do. It was only rated for a range of about four kilometers, compared to the CO-4's twelve, but neither of those figures accounted for shooting into an ocean.

Once she was certain that her weapons loadout was correct, Cassie took a look around with the Tyro's optical sensors. She was standing on a sandy beach, with breakers washing up against her mech's wide feet. Spread out to either side of her were two more Tyros and a larger mech that was, by process of elimination, C'rise's Pulsar. In the distance, she could see the faint outline of a reef, which sheltered the shore from deep water. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The LeShaii mech stood about four meters taller than a Tyro, with digitigrade legs and a hunched forward, aggressive posture that put Cassie in mind of some sort of predatory bird. She could actually see the crystals sticking out of the mech's armor at various points, almost as if they'd somehow grown there rather than been installed. They pulsed with a luminous, soft blue light from within, the rhythm matching all across the mech's body.

There were crystals in the rifle that C'rise carried, as well, and Cassie had to admit that she didn't have the slightest idea of how effective that weapon would actually end up being. Thirty seconds until the scenario begins, Lyra informs her. Your task is to defend the landing strip, repair and refuel facilities at the interior of the island. The map display in the upper-right corner of Cassie's vision pulsed with a marker about a kilometer inland.

"Alright, here's the plan," Cassie said, opening up the comm to all three of her roommates.

"C'rise, try to give us as much warning of what it's doing as you can. We don't have sonar, so the thing's practically going to disappear as soon as it goes under the water. Maybe you can get a read on the pilot before they come up, if the simulation is that advanced."

"Now that it's been modified, it should be," C'rise said.

"The rest of us take shots whenever we can," Cassie went on, because they were nearly out of time.

"Cover each other's back and try not to get hit. A Riptide has weapons big enough to smear us from here to the horizon. Oh, and don't let yourself get dragged out to sea." Scenario in progress, Lyra announced. For a moment, nothing happened. Carefully, Cassie walked her mech to the left, creating a bit of distance between her and Rain, who was piloting the closest mech. The sand gave beneath her Tyro's feet, but so long as she had thrusters to jump with, that shouldn't be a problem.

"I don't see anything," Vee complained.

"Do you think—" They never got a chance to hear what her friend was going to say, because just at that moment C'rise shouted: "Scatter!" Cassie lit off her thruster pack immediately, and that, combined with the psycher's warning, was the only reason that she got out of the way in time. An enormous torso breached the surface of the ocean, out beyond the reef, and salt-water streamed off two raised gun barrels. An instant later, twin toroids of plasma shot toward the beach.

C'rise was already moving, lifting up into the air above the island on twin plumes of fire; she'd felt the enemy coming first, after all. Vee showed the super-human reflexes and spacial awareness that Toreans were known for, blasting off in the opposite direction. It was only Rain's mech that was caught in the path of the Riptide's assault. Even though they all knew it was a simulation, Rain screamed, and Cassie didn't blame her. The pure firepower coming out of the Riptide' s plasma cannons was terrifying.

Scaled-up versions of the IMT Plasma Accelerator that came mounted standard on a Janissary's shoulder, the guns wreaked a mind-boggling amount of devastation on Rain's mech in a single volley. Cassie's sensors caught an impression of melted legs, arcs of uncontrolled electricity visibly bursting out of and along the Tyro's chassis as its electrical systems went haywire, and a spray of half-melted sand and glass that went up when the mech's remaining upper half hit the beach.

Absent a miracle, Rain was out of the fight already. Vee, Cassie and C'rise shot out over the lagoon toward the reef, their thrusters sending sprays of water and steam out behind them as they skimmed across the surface of the ocean. The range was close enough that not a single one of the cadets waited to open fire. The thirty-millimeter rifle cradled in her Tyro's hands spit shells, bucked and threatened to throw her off course with every burst.

If it hadn't been for all those hours Cassie had spent training with Lieutenant Pilar de Estrada, over winter break, she'd have never been able to keep from crashing. Tracer rounds lit the air not only in front of Cassie, but to the side, where Vee was pouring on fire, as well. But though their rounds connected with the Riptide's hull, the impacts didn't actually seem to do much. The thing was simply enormous, at a hundred and ninety tons as much an armored submarine as a mech.

To Cassie's horror, hatches on the exterior of the thing's streamlined torso slid open, releasing four anti-air missiles. One of those missiles has locked onto us, Lyra practically screamed in her mind. Cassie wondered, in a fragment of thought, whether Vee or C'rise was the unlucky one who'd drawn two missiles. She didn't have chaff launchers or flares, because the Tyro wasn't designed to be dogfighting—and she certainly didn't have the thruster fuel to lead anything on a chase.

It would have been nice to have an anti-missile turret, or the plasma shield mounted on Lady Ren's arm, but as it was, she only had one real option. With a blast of her thrusters, Cassie shot right for the torso of the Riptide, hoping that the missile's arming systems wouldn't be able to deal with the sudden jump in how fast they'd be closing range.

It almost worked—the missile detonated just past her, with the force of the explosion throwing her forward and changing the color of the rear armor on her readout from green to a motley of yellow and orange. Just before she hit the Riptide, Cassie threw her BA 30mm rifle aside and drew a plasma blade from the Tyro's hip. She slammed into the monstrous mech's hull, raised the blade once, and then stabbed it down into the torso.

She had the satisfaction of watching the purple-white blade sink hilt-deep before one of the two plasma cannons which made up the Riptide's arms swung into her, knocking her mech off into the ocean with a crunch of armor. The simulation has determined that we are taking on water, Lyra informed Cassie. Internal compartments flooding. Critical systems shorting out. Simulation ending. 𝝮 They had time to make two more attempts before the class was finished.

And while they didn't ever actually win—Cassie was convinced that they weren't meant to—she did actually end up finding the experience enjoyable, to her own surprise. It was a challenge, for one thing. For another, she got to team up with her friends for the first time. That was a thought she examined, once she'd disconnected and had a moment to unbuckle herself from the five-point harness that kept each cadet secure in their seat while their mind was sunk deep into the simulation. Was C'rise a friend, now?

She certainly hadn't been at the beginning of the school year. When, exactly, had Cassie stopped being uncomfortable in the other woman's presence? Was it sometime during the meditation sessions—or had it begun during that dinner Rain had organized up on the roof of Tycho Hall? Maybe not a friend quite yet, Cassie decided. But getting there. She stood up and ducked out of her pod and stretched her back, only to hear a commotion from the top of the stairs.

Cassie frowned, and took the steps two at a time, one hand on the side rail, to see what was going on. Vee, Rain, and C'rise stood clustered about the catwalk, watching a confrontation between Jessica, who'd planted herself right at the top of the stairs, and Monica Yarborough, of all people. Cassie paused just behind her bodyguard.

"I need to speak with Her Imperial Highness," Yarborough was saying. She was wearing a skirt-suit again, though this time it was of a deep, navy-blue fabric, and Cassie couldn't imagine how she managed to stay upright on the catwalk in those heels.

"You will wait until she's out of her simulation," Jessica shot right back. Cassie reached out and put her hand on the imperial guard's shoulder.

"It's alright," she said.

"I'm here. Thank you for waiting for me, Miss Yarborough. What can I do for you?" With one finger, the spy adjusted her wire-framed spectacles, and shot a glance at Cassie's waiting friends.

"This should be a private conversation."

"Are we going to talk about something that requires a security clearance?" Cassie asked. As much as she wanted to blurt out that anything Yarborough had to say, she could say in front of Cassie's friends—it wasn't actually true. There were plenty of things that Cassie was authorized to discuss that she simply couldn't share with her roommates.

"Not as such," Yarborough admitted.

"But this is certainly the wrong environment. I think you'd prefer a private room, for the same reason as our previous conversation."

"This is about Arc's duel with Radecki," Cassie guessed.

"It's about whether he even makes it to the duel," Yarborough shot back.

"Four Sakers, carrying Lieutenant Commander Libby, Doctor Nara Seung, and a whole host of medics and techs, headed out this morning. Two of those Sakers have already landed, bringing a pair of cadets back to the infirmary, while a third cadet has been detained by academy military police."

"Arc?" Cassie wasn't certain what she was more afraid of—that he was lying wounded on a hospital bed right then, or that he'd done something that would see him court martialed. Then, she remembered that Pika had been one of the other three cadets on that patrol. Even if Arc was alright, another friend might not be. From the wide-eyed expressions on Rain and Vee's faces, they'd just realized the exact same thing. Cassie realized that her heart was beating so fast she might actually be sick.

"Your boyfriend is in trouble," Monica Yarborough confirmed.

"As best I can tell, he and Libby are walking two functional mechs back through the jungle. But when they arrive, word is the MPs will be waiting for him, too. This puts everything we talked about at risk." Cassie let out a shaky breath. He's alive, at least, she thought to herself. Arc, what the hell happened out there?