Chapter Eleven - A Teachable Moment

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.

Gomorrah chuckled. "I suppose."

"Open fire!" Hedgehog said. "Focus the larger models. Crackshot, keep an eye out near the hive for direct counters."

"Aye-aye, Hedge," Crackshot said. He grunted as he went to a knee, then laid himself down on the ground atop a coarse blanket he'd laid down. He aimed down-scope and started to plug away at the incoming horde.

The others fired out as well. Hedgehog had a... actually, I wasn't sure if it was an SMG or an assault rifle. It was thick and bulky, and looked like it could be used as a makeshift brick if something came too close and Hedgehog was feeling particularly violent. Princess unloaded with her new shotgun, the recoil pushing her back with every shot, and Knight fired short bursts from that rifle she'd liberated from the army earlier.

It wasn't an overwhelming amount of firepower by any means. I was pretty sure my mech alone could put more rounds downrange than the entire newbie squad, but it didn't matter. They were punching holes into the alien's growing formation, and their initial distraction was working. The aliens were still following the first group that had run towards the crater that Tankette's HE round had created.

"Oh, look, a few are coming around," I said as I raised my Laser Pointer to my shoulder and sprayed a few bursts down the slight incline leading up to where we were.

"How much are we supposed to help here?" Gomorrah asked.

"Gom, we're the ones that decided to do this. We can help as much or as little as we want," I said. "Why, getting nervous for the newbies?"

Gomorrah shook her head slowly. "Not nervous. They'll succeed. But Hedgehog's plan is too... conservative."

"Oh?" I asked.

"Sitting back from a position of strength and taking out the antithesis as they come is a very military-minded approach," she said. "It doesn't work in the long term. The hive will start sending out different kinds of models to test things, and with all of those model twenty-twos around, eventually it'll find something that works."

"Right, don't get into a war of attrition with the ever expanding aliens," I said with a nod.

"Exactly. If they just stand on this hill, they'll just get overwhelmed eventually. Or maybe they'll keep the hive's numbers down, but that will only last as long as they can keep focused on keeping it down. There's no such thing as culling an antithesis hive."

I nodded along, then glanced over to the newbies. "So... do we tell them?"

Gomorrah shrugged. "I'm considering it. Let them mess up for a little longer, I suppose. It's free points for them, and we can always burn this area down if they take too long."

"Ah yes, the 'burn them all and let god sort them out' solution," I said with a sage nod. "That's always a solid plan B."

***