AN:/ Many thanks to
@Jenny and redboots who helped with the update. You're the best!
Ico's head darts to and fro between the recruits under his command. What the balls. He trusts his memory and he trusts the regulations on squad size even more. Something is wrong here. "Squad, sound off!" IFF is squawking and the electronic ID couldn't be trusted.
"What?" Recruit back-to-boot-camp, as far as Ico was concerned, asks in confusion. Someone smarter picks up "Alpha-1"
"Alpha-2" The next soldier follows, and then the next. "Alpha-3"
"Alpha-4" Twin voices respond at the same time. Both sounding like the smart one he began to like.
Void dammit, "Squad weapons ready, target Alpha four. Both of them."
The snowstorm makes it difficult to see clearly. Helmet's hardware compensating could only do so much. The howling wind is picking up the snowflakes in waves, blinding Ico every few seconds. The night turns white to his eyes.
"Now both of you drop your weapons." He starts to position himself to get a better shot at the one near the group's edge. He trusts his guts and logic on this. Someone amateur hour enough to infiltrate them on a patrol must have taken the easiest route. "Now open the helmet and remove the mask. Both of you. No sudden..."
"What the fuck is happening. It's not funny." The almost confirmed infiltrator starts to look fidgety.
"Alpha-4, taking off the helmet now."
"But I'm Alpha 4!"
"Alpha-7, do it for him."
"Acknowledged. Don't resist", the designated recruit obeys the order. "He looks like, errr, him. Sir."
Damn, he was so sure. He subtly moves sideways, weapon trained on the ground. Careful to not spook them. "Alpha-2? What about the other one." No sense to risk your skin by checking.
"He's also him, Sir." The recruit sounds twice as befuddled as he was starting to feel. But in the end, it wasn't his place to think.
"Squad, secure both of them, someone radio the base we are going back."
The recruits split into two groups. The more talkative 4 is mouthing something but he can't hear it over the wind and the helmet's audio must have turned off from exposure to cold. One of the troopers next to him makes a show of aiming with the rifle and that cut down on the resistance. The other one seems to not resist at all, putting hands on his head without prompting.
"The radio's not working, we can't contact the Base, Sir."
"Of course it isn't" he starts to suspect he got caught in someone's tech trial. Bloody eggheads. It made sense to test things on recruits, but he wished someone told him beforehand. "New plan. There is a cave twenty clicks northwest. We get in, both of our friends strip and we ask them some personal questions."
He sends the location of the new rendezvous point over the squad link. "Let's get moving. Limit radio chatter and eyes on the horizon." For all the good it will do them in the night.
The wind picks up and swallows the sound of them walking. The only noise Ico hears is his breath and quiet creaks of the suit under his helmet. The snow covers their footprints almost instantly. A coating of ice started to appear on his suit a few minutes ago. He checks the map HUD. A few more clicks and they should be in the cave.
It was by pure chance he noticed the small beam of light - a few snowflakes caught at just the right angle. He turns around to follow the projected path. It's aimed squarely at the "loud" 4's chest.
"EVERYONE DOWN!" ingrained reactions kick in. Ico tackles the poor sod. Still too slow. The bolt of energy tears into the intended target's shoulder. A sharp crack breaks the silence mixing with the scream of agony.
"On my two, open fire!" He shouts. Too slow. The recruits are too slow. In his eyes, they barely turn the right direction. The unmistakable sputter of Tetras firing rip through the wind and roar of the snowstorm. Ico's not paying them full attention, focusing on the wounded man next to him. He was too slow. The body thrashes one last time. He looks at the wound, and the flesh is still melting in the lights of his helmet. Almost detached he notes unusual growths forming in the wound. Viral round. Someone wanted to make sure there was no trace left of the failed attempt.
The next recruit stops firing, head frantically scans the horizon. Then listening to some primal instinct he darts towards the rock. Risky move. Another flash streaks through the night. A body falls to the ground, superheated edges of a hole in the helmet rapidly darkening. Void dammit.
It still bought him a chance. He knows the position better now. "Covering fire!" He shouts and tags the point on the horizon on their shared tactical HUD. He starts crawling towards the rock himself, careful to keep the cooling body and living recruits between him and the shooter as long as possible.
Each pull drags him a bit closer to relative safety. He feels the ground scraping against his suits. Snow explodes to the left, debris hits him harmlessly. He darts towards the rock. A tricky move, but he now knows the reload time now.
Alpha-5 tries to run for cover too. Now in relative safety, Ico focuses on the tactical link again.
There is a flash, Alpha-5 spins on his axis. A sharp crack sounds over the roaring wind for the fourth time. Got you.
He smiles with satisfaction and aims carefully. A bolt of plasma from his rifle spears through the air, its loud bang deafening. A far off explosion lights the night, far brighter than from the projectile hitting ground or flesh.
Bullseye. They must have been carrying some extra junk that exploded. He pulled that off. That was a great shot. In his mind, Ico already saw himself telling that story for free drinks.
He commands "Hold your fire!" They obey not at once but fast enough for his liking. The night grows dark again, no shots illuminating the snow. He waits. One of the recruits moves, dashes into the cover of a rock. The wind howls but no shots are flying in their direction. He waits a bit more just to be safe.
"Drones!" What. No. His Hud lit at that moment.
Shit. They were done in the open. The wind could only help them so much. There was only one chance.
"RUN! TO THAT CAVE!" He bolted without even looking if they followed him. More bodies to cover his ass. He stops paying attention to them, focusing on the terrain.
***
A lone drone flies over two bodies on the ground, its engines working hard to keep it level in the wind. It dives towards the one and lands. A thin wire extends from a port underneath its manipulators and connects to the dead man's suit. Lights flash illuminating the helmet with a hole in it. A shrill beep comes from the speakers in both the suit and in the drone, and it disconnects. It hovers over the second body and repeats the ministrations. It moves again, the third corpse. The engines blast a mass of air to remove snow and it repeats its actions for the last time.
The job is done. It flies high into the snowstorm and vanishes into the night. The hungry snow covers the bodies and soon there is no trace anything happened at all.
***
The amber glow of bioluminescent fungi is calming to Ico's eyes. It means that now he has several metric tons of solid rock between him and whoever wants to shoot them.
"Sec…" he wheezes and catches breath. "Secure the perimeter and entrance."
The recruits look more tired than him but he doesn't care. He slumps onto the floor. Alpha-4 that stayed with them is looking around not sure if he should obey the new order or stay put. "You too. Someone give him back weapons."
"Sir."
There is a blur of activity and soon all the entry points are covered. Alpha-7 serves his duty as tech-medic and checks on the squad. He waves him away. He was as good as he could be. With a brief respite granted, he starts to think his chances are good.
Someone wanted to use this squad as a test for … something. He wasn't sure what for and going by the things he heard from other troopers he didn't want to know. Messing with the Old War stuff only brought troubles, or worse, Tenno.
"Perimeter secured, Sir."
He nods in acknowledgement. Right, time to take control again lest the recruits get ideas. "Try to get hold of the base again. You." he points at Alpha-4 "Before we left did you sign up for any research and development?"
"Not to my knowledge? I had my physical and that's it." He nods towards the Alpha-7. "We had it together. Hey, Seven, did you sign up for anything?"
"Negative. They just scanned me and gave general implant maintenance."
That told Ico everything and nothing at the same time. Pressure started to mount behind his eyes. They weren't out of the woods yet and someone higher than him just wrote off the recruits, and him by proxy, as a business expense. Must have been someone from the old guard. He knew they were afraid of his offworlder skills. He takes off the helmet to cool off.
"Stop trying to call the base now. Squad, we maintain radio silence." There was an outpost nearby, the woman in charge owed him a favour. Once there they should be safer. And they should be able to contact someone with enough power to bail them out.
He needs some rest, but cannot afford to stay in one place too long. The weather outside is getting worse, the wind shrieking louder and louder. Good for him, good for now.
One of the recruits, he doesn't bother to identify which one, asks, "Sir, what is going on?"
"Research and development games." At least they all are smart enough to not ask what it means.
He does a quick headcount. Eight people left.
"Four people stay on watch, four people rest. Rotation in half an hour. We march out in an hour." He slumps against the trunk of a subterranean fungus. There is a food ration in the pouch of his suit so he starts eating it. The cave is not much to look at but it offers a background noise for his mind. The lights from the Corpus suits cast harsh shadows against the washed-out yellows of chemical light produced by the mushrooms. Near the ceiling, something glints when he turns the head and lights. Probably remains of Orokin gold.
The four recruits not keeping guard form a loose circle. They talk about something in hushed tones stealing glances towards Ico now and then. He doesn't care right now, even with four to one he likes his chances. The small cave is slowly getting warmer. Between nine of them, they produce enough heat.
Ico idly notes various specimens of flora in the cave and catalogues their worth for trading. Not much with the official rate, but he could sell spores and fruits on the side for a tidy profit. As his head slowly moves there are more glints to one side of the cave. Something worth noting for future patrols.
The more he warms up, the more smells he notices. Earthy tones of the fungi make him hungry and he reaches for a second ration. It takes away the pang of hunger. As he's chewing he notices a faint whiff of a strangely sweet smell. A glance towards the recruits shows that they aren't doing anything beyond sitting and eating the same odourless rations he consumed. He closes his eyes and leans against the mushroom again. Somewhere deeper within a cave there must be a stream, maybe even a river. He hears the steady whisper of water flowing. They must have warmed the cave as the smell is growing stronger, now he can recognise the animal scat. The cave looks more and more promising to return to once all of this is over.
He eyes the HUD to check the time. Barely fifteen minutes passed. The recruits on watch reasonably set up a three people perimeter near the entrance and only one towards the back of the cave. Provided they survive the day he might look towards keeping them under his command.
There is a sudden staccato of soft thuds and the rearguard is catapulted towards the group resting on the floor. He slams into another soldier with enough force to push both of them into the rock formation growing from the ground. There is a crunching noise and Ico doesn't need to check hud to know what's happened. Poor sod's head is leaning against a stalagmite at the right angle towards the rest of the body. The other recruit lands in a pile of tangled limbs but seemingly no worse for wear.
A dark-maned kubrodon barrels into view, its red eyes tracking the dead body. It shakes its head and looks around. It snarls and starts charging towards the remaining recruits on the floor. In a blink of an eye, it slams into one of them. The soldier hit folds in half and lies moaning on the ground. The beast turns on the spot and snarls at the last man standing next to it.
Ico wastes no time and dashes towards the exit of a cave. "Run!"
The man hit with the body of his companion in the initial assault gets his bearings and starts shooting at the animal. All but one shot miss the target. The one that hits just singes the fur doing no lasting damage.
The kubrodon roars and gores the man it was attacking, blood barely visible on its dark head. Ico doesn't care. He just runs now. He hears that someone is running behind him, but he doesn't look back. They are all chased by the screams of the man left behind.
***
Ico was not sure when he put the helmet on again, instincts honed by training saved him again. Long enough exposure to cold would kill him as surely as the beast in its lair. He's breathing heavily and he stops to look at whoever managed to run to safety alongside him.
Alpha-3, 4, and 7. Part of him wants to laugh at the inanity of the sequence. By some unspoken agreement, the four of them stand facing each other.
Time to establish command again. "We must…"
Before he even has a chance to begin Alpha-3 interrupts him. "Fuck this! We must nothing!"
"Calm down soldier!"
"Fuck you, you are with them, I can read between the lines." Alpha-3 gesticulates more and more angrily with each word. "How much did you get paid, Seven. How much!?" He grabs a sidearm and points at the Alpha-7.
"What…" The reply barely has time to leave Seven's mouth. Blam. Standard issue Detron spews a load of angry particles. Vallis drinks Corpus blood for the ninth time tonight.
Whoomp. Ico is not sure when he shot his Sonicor. The wrist-mounted weapon still holds enough charge to finish the job if needed. There is no need.
This was insanity. It was supposed to be just a training patrol, not this.
The legs buckle under him. This was some Tenno-damned insanity.
"Sir, are you well?"
The last recruit under his command tried to tell him something. He couldn't hear it at all. His breath became shallow. HUD flared with warning lights. Tenno! That was it. He heard stories. Now he knew, and he was safe.
It cost him an arm and leg, but he was safe!
Ico's fingers jump to a button of a small device hidden in one of his pouches. Emergency short-range disruptor. Restricted Tech.
But he got it.
"We are safe now."
He slams and a wave of energy expands in every direction, reality discolouring briefly wherever it touches a solid object. In a blink of an aye it dissipates, its job is done. No more Tenno sorcery.
He turns towards Four. There is no Four.
In his place stands a Grineer soldier in white armour carrying corpus weapons.
"But... where is the Tenno?" Dumbfounded, he turns his head wildly and looks around.
***
"And here I needed you to live through this." Grem sighs, "Oh well."
His arm snaps up. Trigger pulled. Detron delivers its radioactive payload straight into Ico's brain.
The body jerks backwards and falls onto the ground of Vallis with a dull thud. The part of his faceplate still somehow working illuminates a small cone of snow falling onto the ground.
Face turned in the direction of the antenna set up for tight beam transmission earlier, Grem touches his faceplate. "Glitch, how fast can you edit the squad leader's memory buffer?"
"On it. Put the transceiver next to his head….Wasn't he supposed to stay alive?"
"Unfortunately he decided to be competent above his paygrade."
"Ok, there is some degradation already in place. But it should be …"
"Just delete the last minute and scramble audio."
A moment passes and a drone dives from the sky. It connects briefly to Ico's body and returns to the skies. By the time it's gone there is no sight of Grem either.
------
Part one of the job is completed!
Roll - mixed success. No extra rewards and the story's impact is slightly lessened from lack of living witnesses.
Moving on, what will our team get up to next.
[ ]A whole squad vanishing means more patrols in the open. Strike hard strike fast.
[ ]Using the same tactic so soon is cliche. Spirit away some important people now.
[ ]Tensions are high, dropping some hints into right hands should make them even higher.
