79 M1 - Term: 2, Round: 2 (1/2)

Attendance at Fortescue Military Academy M1 Y:2142

House Thoth, Squad Leader, Squad Zero

M1 Rank: 1/1275, Tier 3 M-Rank: Null

Term: 2, Round: 2

Daedalus Operating Capital: 140,000 bitcreds

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Daedo was surrounded by his squad, they had just been dropped off in the small pretend village in the centre of the Loire Valley practice range. The practice range itself had many constructafoam buildings replicating different environments as well as natural mountains, trees, valleys, ridges and sections of flat grassland.

The entire range was massive. Although the mission object was only fifteen kilometres, the range itself was over twenty kilometres from north to south and forty kilometres east to west.

*Daedo: let's move.*

Myrmidon placed a waypoint on the entire squad's HUDs. This would allow Picard and Barran to take the lead without having to wait for directions from Daedo. Both Barran and Picard had a shield equipped and their sword handy to draw. Everyone else had their sword and shield stowed with railguns at the ready. The Military sword was sheathed in the rear of the shield, it was similar to the claws their opponents were using in the respect it would paint damage on an opponent based on the strength of a hit.

The squad only had enough goo ammo to kill four hundred wolf-soldiers, as they were called in this exercise. Assuming every pellet hit, it would take three hits to take down an enemy.

The waypoint was south-east as there were mountains directly to the south. The squad sent out four of their eight reconnaissance drones immediately. The drones spread out in a south facing arc from east to west. After running for less than a minute, a fifth was left to trail behind the squad at five hundred metres from the rear. The sixth was sent five hundred metres ahead, towards their current waypoint, and would adjust course every time they moved the waypoint.

This gave Myrmidon, and Daedo visibility in front and behind. An early warning system as the drones could detect enemies within a maximum range of up to eight kilometres. The detection was hampered by terrain, dampening and the enemy using various conventional methods to hide. The drones were far from foolproof with an effective range from a half to one kilometre.

*Mace: oh no.*

The squads HUD started popping with enemies as the recon drones picked them up and fed back to Myrmidon and subsequent AIs. At first, there were three, then nine, fifteen and as a drone dropped the orange dots kept appearing. Twenty-four and another drone bit the dust, thirty-two before finally stopping at forty before all four advance scout drones were eliminated.

This meant that there were at least forty wolf-soldiers, with the bulk clustered to the south.

*Daedo: East, full-speed. Kang lead. Barran and Picard rear.*

Daedo adjusted the order, allowing Kang to lead so she wouldn't get left behind.

*Picard: Faster Kang. Run or we all die.*

Daedo sent the second last drone ahead to scout the terrain, the forward and rear drones were still in place with no enemies were on their tail, yet.

*Daedo: we didn't pick up any enemy drones on the scans. It appears they are role-playing some sort of alien that only attacks with claw weapons and has no tech.*

The squad ran east, further away from their objective, and the forward recon drone picked up a small group of mountains which would give the squad height advantage. The only issue was they were covered with trees.

Myrmidon updated the waypoint. Trees would nullify any height advantage they gained from the mountain cutting visibility and allowing the wolf-soldiers to close without having their numbers thinned by the squad's railguns.

Daedo was undecided. There was no clear course of action other than making a stand at the treeline or to change direction again and look for a battlefield with a better advantage.

*Daedo: as soon as we hit the treeline the waypoint will move north.*

Daedo was hoping their movement would thin out the enemy, forty in a bunch was way too many to handle.

The cadets ran north at the fastest pace Kang could manage without becoming tired. They were saving their jumpjets, and while they were sure their exos had the advantage of mobility this was lost when the natural speed of soldiers was factored. They were fit adults in their twenties and thirties who were naturally much faster than the young cadets.

Daedo had an idea, he had kept the first set of recon drones low, unsuccessfully trying to use natural cover to hide them from the enemy. He still had four left including the front and rear early warning pair. He sent one drone high up into the sky, pushing it as high as he could before the EUDF system halted its climb. The drone was one kilometre in the air and hopefully out of reach of the enemy. Assuming they had no ranged weapons that could reach one kilometre.

It had already begun to pick up their pursuers but lost them just as quickly due to the terrain. It was information they did not possess before, and hopefully, this drone would remain in situ. Daedo sent it to the south as he steered the squad north.

*Vannier: what are you doing?*

*Daedo: they can't shoot it down, but they can see this drone. I am hoping they think we are stupid and have it directly overhead of our position. They will follow it south while we head north.*

The squad were now heading away from their objective. And their eyes in the sky showed Daedo's plan was working the orange dots moved to the south, picking up their speed trying to cut off his squad.

*Barran: They're fast!*

All the squad could see the orange dots on their HUD, and the rate at which they moved was apparent. Myrmidon would extrapolate movement and only drop the dot when he wasn't sure of their position. The eye in the sky was able to keep track of the wolf-soldiers for half the time unless they went into tree cover which they began to do as they closed in on the drone.

The orange dots began to disappear, while Myrmidon placed a haze on the most likely location of the wolf-soldiers.

*Kang: what the hell?*

The next waypoint was set for Alcatraz as Daedo swung it west after the squad ran north for six minutes.

*Daedo: we are trying to lose them. The last thing they would expect is for us to come back here.*

The eye in the sky continued to move south, and Daedo directed it to head east skirting and pulling their pursuers further away from the squad's position.

*Daedo: now we head south-west.*

*Daedo informed the squad as he set the new waypoint.*

*Daedo: jumpjet burn: three in ten.*

Their jumpjets would make noise, but the enemy was a long way away now. At least four kilometres. A burn rate of one second out of every ten allowed the reactor to easily keep pace with the draw.

*Picard: they could still hear us. Noise can travel far on the range, only the trees and ridges will break it up.*

*Daedo: part of a battle is taking calculated risks. If we can get closer to the objective than the forty wolf-soldiers, we can race ahead of them.*

*Barran: they move fast, that's a big ask.*

*Daedo: we need as big a head start as I can get us. I will try to gain time by kiting them with the drone. But surely they will catch on soon.*

*Daedo: at the moment I have it behaving like a scared stupid cadet. Its now heading north and will catch up with our actual tracks in three minutes.*

When it was obvious the wolf-soldiers had cut off the cadets decoy, Daedo turned the drone ninety degrees and sent it north. He was speeding up the drone incrementally to buy more time, but the wolf-soldiers would catch it eventually or work out it was a ploy when it was travelling too fast.

Kang jumped a log using her jumpjet, the squad was skirting a mountain using the trees at its base for cover and to muffle their noise. Just before she landed, she called through the comms.

*Kang: Pit.*

The wolf-soldiers had laid an environmental trap, this would have been close to their initial position. The exercise had not allowed grapplers, and even if it had Daedo was not sure he would have brought them given the terrain. Kang fell a couple of metres smashing her chest heavily into the far wall of the pit before she bounced back landing on her arse.

Vannier and Axelzero immediately reached down to pull her out.

*Vannier: are you alright?*

*Kang: I'm fucking fine.*

*Kang: Is this why I am leading?*

She asked as they pulled her out.

*Daedo: No. Picard take the lead with Kang's average pace. Barran stays at the rear. Everyone stay sharp watching for flanking attacks.*

After precious moments were wasted hauling Kang to her feet and a short recovery the squad got moving. This trap wasn't designed to harm, it was part of a larger network laid in this area, which was probably an initial ambush location.

V*annier: go go. Kang is good to go.*

Picard picked her way past a couple more rudimentary traps designed to make the enemy hesitate or trip them for a moment. The wolf-soldiers must have spent precious minutes setting up this section, and with such a vast area to choose from, they chose one of the most likely paths that headed to the objective. It showed how well they knew the terrain and the exercise. They had a home ground advantage.

*Daedo: I am changing the waypoint. We are on a predictable path.*