Chapter 8 – Sibling Rivalry

When L’Cor got back to his apartment, he could still feel Yoko’s lips on his cheek.  To turn his mind away from potentially dangerous ground, he slumped onto his tiny bed and fired up R’Tus’s AV journal.  Yoko’s story about her sister reminded him of a similar one involving R’Tus.  It had happened shortly after R’Tus joined his unit on the northern continent of Arca.  R’Tus’s reputation had proceeded him and everyone at the base in Arca wanted to see the two brothers duke it out with simulated weapons to see who was the better pilot.  R’Tus hadn’t wanted to do it, but L’Cor had to admit that he was just a bit curious to see if the stories about his brother were true.  Besides, duty in Arca tended to involve long periods of tedious waiting followed by short intense combat.  In the end, R’Tus had caved in to popular demand and the two brothers had squared off in the icy wastelands of Arca.

L’Cor scrolled through the AV journal entries until he found the one he was looking for.  He pressed the play button, rested the journal on his chest and closed his eyes.

Start of Entry - Orbit 3012, 3^rd Moon, 3^rd Solar Cycle

A strange and wildly exhilarating thing happened today.  I had a MAAC duel with L’Cor.   In retrospect, I should have expected this but truly, it was not something that I wanted to happen.  Before I shipped out here, my old crew chief Chief Warrant Officer McMac had warned me about letting my skills and victories go to my head.  He was of course, referring to my actions in the mountain regions of Appal.

I was part of a recon quad out on patrol in the mountains.  Our Wyv’en MAACs were equipped with light weaponry that emphasized mobility over power.  Officially, our job was to scout the region and report any Saxx activity.  Unofficially, everyone knew that recon Wyv’en MAACs were best suited for drawing out any Saxx that were hiding.  Mobile bait is the term most often given to Wyv’en pilots.

My quad commander 1^st Lieutenant Womark knew this of course, which probably explained why his patrol route did not cross over the mountain range.  Any long-range weapons from our base would not be able to reach over the mountains so we would not have any fire support if we crossed.

To make a long story short, I spotted a long column of Saxx making their way through a large valley, between two large mountains.  Most of the warriors in the force did not have power armour but instead wore heavy plating that covered most of their vulnerable parts.  There were however, several Saxx in power armour running up and down the column.  Based upon intelligence reports, we now know that the Saxx in power armour were the equivalent to our officers while the ones in unpowered armour were the grunts.

Upon seeing this force, Lieutenant Womark immediately ordered us to withdraw.  I didn’t think that was a good idea.  Our base was about one hundred miles from here and there were a lot of valleys with good cover between the base and the mountains.  If the Saxx force got out of these mountains, they would be able to travel through these valleys and be literally at the base’s doorstep before any shots could be fired.  Our long-range cruise missiles would be of limited use if the Saxx force dispersed and went to ground.

I argued that here, in the mountain ranges, would be the best place to engage the enemy.  True, we wouldn’t have the benefit of long-range artillery due to the terrain, but several well-placed MAACs with HVC’s would create a massacre in the Saxx force.

While we were standing their arguing, a Saxx air recon craft nailed Lieutenant Womark with an HVC shot.  I guess it really doesn’t pay to paint your rank insignia on the outside of your MAAC!

Anyway, the point was now moot.  We had been spotted and the Saxx force sped up their progress.  I took aim with my auto cannon and shot down the air recon craft.  Then I told the other two members in my quad to take cover in the high walls of the valley.  I called in to the base and apprised them of the situation.  Not surprisingly, they agreed with my assessment and promised some support as soon as possible.  We only had to delay the force for about fifteen minutes.

We were armed with medium auto cannons and single shot missiles.  I doubted that we would last for five minutes.

The single shot missiles had one advantage over other types of missile systems.  Since there wasn’t any need for additional ammunition, the warhead on each missile was much larger than other missile systems.  The idea behind them was for a recon MAAC to carry them and use them to help cover a tactical retreat.  Each of our Wyv’en’s carried two on the shoulder hard points.  It was enough.

Six high yield warheads caused a rockslide that conveniently divided the Saxx force.  The bulk of the force was trapped on the far side while about fifty of them were on our side.  That evened the odds a little bit.

What evened the odds even more was the quad of Grif’cens that flew over the mountains and touched down.  I never liked the Grif’cens.  Out of all the MAAC models, they were the least humanoid in appearance.  The Grif’cen is a medium class MAAC, but it could only use light weaponry that is typically assigned to Wyv’ens.  The reason is that most of the Grif’cen’s shape and mass is dedicated to a geometry shifting system.  Like the ancient legendary beast for which it is named after, the Grif’cen could fly.  In its aerial mode, it could not perform like an air superiority fighter but it did well enough to allow its pilots to travel from point A to point B fast at low altitudes.  Its armour also helped it to function decently as a low altitude air support vehicle.

Anyway, just this once, I was glad for their support because they brought with them the most powerful projectile weapon available to light and medium MAACs – the hyper velocity cannon.

I directed the quad to higher ground for cover and we proceeded to shoot downward at the Saxx force.

It worked for a while.  I don’t know about the Saxx’s alien mentality but any human soldier caught in a situation like theirs would find it hard to shoot back much less hit small entrenched targets that were busy killing his comrades.

It wasn’t enough though.  We just couldn’t kill the Saxx fast enough.  There was a large number of Saxx in power armour who could shrug off two or even three hits from an HVC.  I needed a way to kill them faster – especially since the Saxx that were trapped on the other side of the rockslide were slowly climbing over it.

I passed my HVC to a quadmate and pulled out my monofilament cutter.  This by far was my favourite MAAC weapon.  Basically, a MFC was a long bar that emitted an L-Wave beam all around it.  As a melee weapon, the MFC was ideal because it could cut through most armour as if it wasn’t there.

I jumped down into the valley and ignited my MFC.  The eerie blue light was like a torch that drew the Saxx to me like moths to a candle.

I threw myself in the thick of things.  I knew that my only chance of survival was to get as close to as many of them as possible.  At that range, their weapons were next to useless because they had a much better chance of hitting each other than me.

I kept on the move and I kept swinging my MFC.  There was no finesse to it as each swing almost guaranteed me a kill.  The torso armour of the Saxx in power armour was too thick for even my MFC, so whenever I came upon one, I aimed for its legs.  A Saxx with one or two legs missing was as good as dead.

The law of averages say that eventually, one or more of the Saxx was going to get lucky and nail me.  Luck favoured me instead that day.  Before the Saxx could get their act together, reinforcements arrived in the form of a full tri-quad of heavy MAACs.  They rained AROWs down upon the Saxx force and in the confusion; I was able to jump jet to safety.

I really didn’t see the big deal with what I did.  I was in a desperate situation and I made a desperate call.  If I had more guns and more MAACs, I would’ve never jumped into that valley.  Anyway, the brass at the base saw fit to give me a medal and award me any assignment of my choice.  I think they expected me to opt for a safe cushy assignment because when I asked to be shipped off to Arca, there were many surprised reactions.

*

Ok, I see that I got a little sidetracked.  I was going to record my thoughts regarding the duel between L’Cor and myself.  Well for one thing, it lacked the life and death feel of true combat.  We were using simulated weapons so neither of us was ever in any real danger.  We had our choice of MAACs and L’Cor, true to form, chose his heavy Drac’en.  I think everyone else was expecting me to choose a Drac’en too, but I didn’t.  I stuck with my Wyv’en.  What can I say?  The Wyv’en was the most humanoid of all the MAACs.  In a way, it reminded me more of a giant man dressed in knightly armour than a MAAC.  Of course, that wasn’t the only reason.

The Wyv’en is my favourite simply because it was the only MAAC that was fast enough to keep up with my movements inside the combat harness in the cockpit.  It was faster and more agile than any other MAAC.  Sure it couldn’t use the really big guns like the multi-barrel auto-cannon or the AROW missile system, but what it could carry was more than enough to take down a Saxx or another MAAC.

I armed my Wyv’en with an HVC and a MFC.  The HVC wasn’t going to be enough to take down L’Cor with one shot but if I could get close enough, my MFC would do the trick.

I knew that L’Cor would probably load up with his usual mixture of MBC, AROW, laser cannon and a rocket-propelled howitzer.  He’d always believed that bigger guns equalled big victories.  I was about to prove him wrong.

We started off about fifty miles apart on a flat frozen field.  There wasn’t going to be much cover for either of us.  Maybe it was an unfair duel from the outset.  I mean, who knew L’Cor better than I?

As I had predicted, L’Cor opened up with his AROWs first, hoping for an early victory.  I must admit.  Once an Aerial Optical-recognition Weapon had zeroed in on you, it was very difficult to evade.

Difficult, but not impossible.

As the first missile approached, I stood still and waited until it had a solid lock on me.  As soon as its sub-munitions burst out, I boosted away.  I zig-zagged in a random pattern as the individual computerized warheads fell all around me.

Next, I knew that L’Cor would open fire with his RPH, in the hopes that splash damage would slow me down.  He didn’t disappoint.

For today’s duel, I had outfitted my Wyv’en with shoulder foils instead of shoulder weapons.  These allowed me very minimal flight capability when I used my jump jets.  They were enough to get me out of the computer calculated blast zone of L’Cor’s shot.  While I was up in the air, I took the time to fire off a shot of my own.  My computerized HVC round hit L’Cor high in his left shoulder.  Because he was stationary, the computer simulator ruled that his AROW system was damaged and was now offline.

L’Cor realized his mistake and fired off another shot from his RPH before he began to move.

His shot came nowhere close to me as I closed the distance between us.  He fired his laser but I blocked with my small shield.  Little reactive armour pockets in the shield blew out as the computer calculated the damage.

I spared another precious second to line up another shot and let fly with another HVC round.  This one hit near L’Cor’s waist and it drastically slowed down his already slow MAAC.

In return, he fired his MBC and shredded my small shield.  I didn’t care.  I threw the shield away, transferred my HVC to my left hand and drew my monofilament cutter.  In normal fighting conditions, the L-Wave engine in the MFC would generate a wave of ultra compressed laser light that was so tight that the leading edge was just over one molecule wide.  For this duel though, my MFC was just a handle and the computer threw up a blue hologram to simulate a L-Wave beam.

I think it was at this point that L’Cor finally realized the danger that he was in.  I had taken out his long-range weapons by destroying one and rendering the other one effectively useless by closing the distance.  Then I had had destroyed his mobility and in doing so, had limited his ability to track me properly with his remaining weapons.

I threw down my HVC and went in for the kill.  L’Cor did his best.  He rotated his waist and brought his right arm up.  My heads up display showed me a line of computer-generated tracers as I hunched down to dodge the attack.

My fake MFC drew a beautiful line in the air as the fake beam ripped up under L’Cor’s right arm and through his torso.

L’Cor’s Drac’en froze as his computer shut it down.  The duel was over and I had won with no damage to my Wyv’en.  My chronometer display showed that less than five minutes had elapsed from the start of the duel.

Later, I got a lot of congratulatory slaps on the back for my performance.  I don’t think anyone thought I had a chance of winning.  My victory gave me a lot of respect from many of the younger pilots.  It even filled up my nightly social calendar as many of the female admin staff that had watched the duel suddenly found me very attractive indeed.  I accepted as many of the proposals as I thought my body could handle.  My physical needs were now taken care of, but my emotional ones remained unrequited.  Ever since Cinda, I had not allowed anyone to come close to me so my heart still belonged to a certain princess in a somewhat fictitious book.

L’Cor didn’t say much to me beyond quietly congratulating me on my victory.  I wonder, was he angry with me?  Did I make him look like a fool in front of everyone?  I’m too scared to ask, but deep inside, I hope that he is proud of the man I have become.

End of Entry