Chapter Thirty-Two - The Confusion Before the Storm

"Jets were the future of aviation. Being able to cross national borders, intercept intercontinental missiles, and be where they are needed in only minutes made the jet fighter the weapon of the future.

And they don't explode with a Model One flings itself into the jet's engine."

--Between Two Skies Podcast, conversation with Mike Yu, Coeing CEO.

***

I took control of the camera drone, then sent it flying up and into the sky above. I had a flash of brilliance and kept it below the flight ceiling of the artillery that the army was using. I didn't want it to catch a stray shell in mid-air. Not much I could do about avoiding AA fire, but for now there wasn't much of that.

I split my attention between controlling the drone and moving the Nyanzerfaust back and away from the front line.

With the aerial view, I had a better idea of where the Antithesis were, though it wasn't perfect. The drone didn't have thermal vision, and since it was more of a 'film the spectacle' drone than a drone designed for anything tactical, the software that I had to see through it didn't have an easy way to lock onto the aliens and mark them out.

I mean, there was probably a way to do that. Just glancing at the settings was enough to show that whichever alien had cobbled the drone together had plugged it full of options, but I didn't have the mind or the patience to work through all of that at the moment.

Instead, I focused on piloting my way closer to the wall. The sun was almost overhead, so there wasn't much shade next to the wall, but I figured that would change in a few hours. Weird thought to have, but I imagined that no one that was on our side would enjoy fighting the aliens in the near-dark. Hopefully, this whole thing wouldn't last long enough for that to be a problem.

Once I was at the wall, I plotted a course and set the M.E.O.W. on autopilot, then leaned back in my pilot's seat. For the next couple of minutes, I mostly zoned out, half of my attention on the reports over the main army channels, and the other half on the livestream.

The army was rushing to get everything in place. Some people sounded genuinely pissed off that the engineers couldn't assemble an entire AA emplacement in under five minutes or that any soldier, anywhere, might consider standing still for more than two consecutive seconds.

There was talk about calling in the air force, which was surprising, I hadn't seen too many aerial support things, but I supposed that this was a good setup for a bombing run or something.

Otherwise, there was just a lot of confusion. I was on the channel reserved for officers, so the people I was listening in on were mostly lieutenants and a few sergeants, but even they had questions. When I switched to the militia channel, it was an entire cluster fuck. No one knew anything, and everyone was either doing what they thought was best--and it never was--or they were just asking stupid questions non-stop.

I didn't envy the poor idiots that had to wrangle all of that.

Still, things were getting organized. I heard Libre pop into one channel to give a few simple orders at one point, and that seemed to get some people moving while it just confused others even more.

I continued along the length of the wall, walking at a relatively slow pace. "When is the actual fighting going to start?" I asked.

You don't have easy access to predictive software in any of your current catalogues. There are a few that might have some that could help. Notably the Simple Predictive Systems catalogue, or there are some racial catalogues that have more precise software. Vanguard Libre is making--pun unintended--liberal use of some of those.

"Uh-huh," I said. "No thanks. Not that I don't want to know the future. I just think that the moment I do know, people will start to rely on my knowing. Then if I fuck up, I won't have any excuses since I could have known, ya know?"

I know.

I laughed, then glanced ahead. We were coming up to the shore of the river flowing out from below the city walls. The edges were walled in by concrete barriers, all slightly angled into the river. There was some good flow near the base, but it evened out the further from the wall the river went.

I wasn't sure if the Antithesis would be able to swim across from here, but they might be able to further out. They'd have to be damned good swimmers to enter the city from under the wall, though. I wasn't an expert on water pressure stuff, but I figured it had to be pretty insane down there.

"You'd been mentioning other races a bunch. Like, aliens," I said. "What's up with that?"

You noticed! Well done!

"Well, it wasn't exactly that subtle," I said. "So, what's with that?" I maneuvered one of the mech's legs around, extending the claws on its feet to pick up a rock the size of my head, then I flung it up and into the river where it hit with a big splash.

You have been a Vanguard for some time now. It won't be for a few years, but there may come a time where you'll be asked to interact with non-human, non-Antithesis individuals. Expecting even a baseline understanding of Protector culture is somewhat unreasonable, but I think I might be able to teach you a few things via osmosis.

"What, are we getting guests?" I asked, sitting up straighter.

Aliens--the sort that wouldn't want to eat us, that was--on Earth would be... big news. I wasn't sure how I felt about it.

It was also really not a great time for it. Earth was kind of a massive, planet-sized shithole at the moment.

People were locked up in walled cities that stank, our environment was blown up, toxic, or had suffered a ton because of humanity's idiocy or the Antithesis, and the less said about the average human the better. If the public saw an alien there would be two races launched at the same time. One to see how the aliens could be painted as evil, disgusting enemies, and another to see who could fuck them first.

Guests is a broad term. Keep in mind that the nearest planet within the sphere of Protectorate influence is deeper in the galactic arm that holds Earth. I know that math and distance aren't your best, but generally speaking, when one starts to use astronomical units to define how far something is, that means that you can simply imagine that it is 'very' far.

"Har har," I muttered. "You didn't answer the question though."

Yes. Eventually, Earth will have guests. Whether that is within your lifetime is up to debate.

"What? They'll show up when I'm eighty?" I asked.

That was more a reflection on the average lifespan of an active-duty Vanguard.

"Oh," I said. Right, people that actively threw themselves into fights against endless hoards of enemies didn't exactly live longest. Though I was pretty sure there were still some first generation Samurai alive out there. Some of those that had become Samurai way back during the first couple of big incursions.

The rest... well, that was like, thirty-plus years ago, so they might have, maybe, died of old age? I kind of doubted it.

"Fuck it," I said as I turned my mech around and started heading back.

The livestream drone was capturing some decent footage of the wall, alternating between slow, sweeping takes of the Quebec wall with all of the militia and troops visible through thin embrasures, and the wide countryside where distant Antithesis were gathering.

Wait...

"What are they doing?" I asked.

They seem to be amassing for an eventual charge.

"Yeah, but why aren't they all just running in already?"

It would be a little too convenient if the foe was kind enough to form up in single-file for a nice, orderly slaughter. The Antithesis, unfortunately, don't usually subscribe to doing what is convenient.

I had the camera drone fly up, then squinted at the feed. The aliens were grouping up in big, disorganized-looking clumps. They weren't forming ranks, unfortunately. It did look like a lot of them were making something like mixed unit groupings.

They were also, I noted, just beyond the edge of the furthest artillery craters.

"Well, shit," I muttered. "Looks like they figured out how to tell the maximum range on some of our weapons."

If you attack them now, you may provoke an early charge. But they next wave will adapt, and won't be nearly as predictable. Let's just hope that this branch of the foe hasn't discovered that humanity's weapons require logistical chains.

"Why's that?" I asked.

Because, then they'd know that they can simply play for time. Eventually, your army will run out of bullets before they run out of bodies. It has led to the loss of more than one valiant defence.

I felt a cold shiver run down my spine at that. Shit.

***