Chapter Eleven – A Teachable Moment

Chapter Eleven – A Teachable Moment

“Everyone has to start somewhere. Even samurai aren’t ready to go all-out from the start.

Well, except for me. I was ready. Actually, more people should be ready for more things. If you’re going to be a samurai, the least you could do is not be lazy about it.”

–Live Interview with Deus Ex on the Saturday Morning Show, 2056

***

It started with explosions, which I was reliably certain was always a good way to start something.

Since Gomorrah and I weren’t gonna be in the thick of it unless the newbies fucked up royally, I mostly decided to stand back a ways and watch. That didn’t mean I wasn’t gonna help. I didn’t feel like sitting here for hours, in a high-risk environment, without getting some sort of reward out of it.

Mostly I was aiming at some of the smaller models on the periphery and limiting myself to using my gun to tag them. It was live aim practice.

The newbies had come up with a plan.

Well, no, it was more that Hedgehog came up with a plan, and the others didn’t have a better idea. They poked at it a little, added some touches of their own, but that was about it. He was kind of carrying the show during the pre-fight stage, and I figured that was probably alright.

This wasn’t about forcing the newbies to get good at stuff that wasn’t in their… domain. It was more about giving them a chance to play to their strengths. Hedgehog’s big strength came from a few years of experience in the field, probably lots of training, and a heap of knowledge he’d picked up through his job.

So his strengths were actually pretty fucking strong. Sure, he was a little weird for a samurai, all stiff and shit, but he was still good.

Gomorrah and I had listened in on the planning phase, of course, just in case they came up with something too stupid.

It wasn’t.

“Alright,” Hedgehog said. “That’ll catch their attention. Be ready. Eyes on your sectors. Keep your ears open.”

“Got it!” Princess said.

We were all atop a small hill with a sharp embankment on the side. Below was the remains of that poisoned forest. Fallen trees and dead vegetation for a hundred metres. And also a large smoking crater now.

Tankette had been the one to start the explosions by firing some sort of HE round into the ground some ways ahead. It had taken a good ten seconds to go off. There were still clumps of dirt coming down from above, and the pillar of kicked up dust was still settling.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to bomb the place?” I asked Gomorrah who was standing nearby. I wondered if she was miffed. I could plink away at the odd model one or three, but her gear was a little more… up close and personal.

“I think one distractionary explosion shouldn’t be that big of a deal,” Gomorrah said.

That had been the crux of the plan. A big, loud boom to let the hive and all the little plant babies around it know that we were right here and a threat.

The aliens reacted pretty predictably. There was some scuffling, then little black forms started to run across the fallen forest. Model threes leapt from trunk to trunk, smaller ones ran beneath where there was space, and a whole flock of flying models took to the sky.

“Tankette, do you have anti-air?” Hedgehog called back.

“Oh, um, I do!” Tankette said. She was, of course, in her little tank. There was a hatch open on the top, and if she stretched back, the top half of Tankette’s head could poke out of it.

The turret turned, there was a light clunking noise, then Tankette ducked back down. She had insisted that everyone wear hearing protection before she started firing. Gomorrah and I had that stuff built into our helmets, Hedgehog was wearing the kind of headphones I saw soldiers wearing all the time, which left Knight and Princess and Crackshot to figure shit out.