Aerith AI: 2018

[Errant.Venture]

---

Story Arc: Unexplored Space: Spring – 821 A.S. – Location: Tereus’ Mind
Chapter 4: Archived Memories
Part Two: Memory Sequence Two: Enter, The Nightmare…

---

“30 Seconds.” The jump master’s voice crackled over the comm. Tereus and his squad were already in position, lined up at the open aft of the kestrel. They were a man short, behind schedule, and doing an on the fly LALO insertion into a hot LZ. The best laid plans…Tereus thought as he activated his helmet comm to Daughtery.

“You ready for this Daughtery? If not, just remember Major Cobwebs is watching…” Tereus could hear the swearing before the response came through in his helmet.

“Hey boss…Fuck You! Drinks on you I hit the ground first…” Daughtery retorted.

At least he’s in good spirits. Tereus thought. “Roger that Daughtery, you’re on”

The jump light turned green and Tereus and his squad stepped into open air one hundred and fifty meters above the designated drop point. Below them tracer rounds arced across the terrain, bright red orange, blue white, and magenta bursts created the illusion of slow moving lines indicating forward firing positions of the other squads and the combat droids engaging each other below.

100 meters…..80 meters…60 meters….40 meters…there was a sudden lurch, the power armor’s integrated AAD activated and the backpack jump jets kicked in, the squad went into a hard deceleration and hit the ground upright moments later.

Like shadows escaping the light Tereus and his squad dispersed into the surrounding terrain, taking cover while Tereus linked up and synced up, establishing squad connection to the Scenario Battle Command System, or SBCS. Link established. Tereus gave the non-verbal signal, signaling his squad via in-helmet HUD and outlining his plan of attack to the rest of the tanks in his staff. In silent acknowledgement the squad members where Oscar Mike, the Marshall’s taking off to set up an overwatch position on the ridgeline half a klick away, the Deveraux’s moved to secure the flank and slow down any unnoticed combat patrols, as Tereus, Daughtery, and Tiberius moved quickly and silently towards the western flank of the droids engaged with the main offensive force of cadets advancing from the south.

A dull beep and brief flashing in the right corner of his helmet HUD indicated that the Marshall’s had reached their overwatch position, confirmed by their immobile status on his integrated mini map. Tereus acknowledged their position and zone of fire, when a visual proximity alarm on his HUD alerted him to an approaching combat patrol. “Cover” Tereus stated to Tiberius and Daughtery, as the trio hit dove for the closest cover available and activating their optical camouflage. Moments later a small combat patrol of droids in a single column formation trudged heavily, through the foliage. Eleven droids…standard infantry programming…standard squad armament…Let them pass. Tereus sent via SMS neural-net burst, direct to Tiberius, Daughtery, and the Marshall’s.

The trio remained in casual respite, the combat patrol pausing just meters in front of them, scanning the terrain. As Tereus remained motionless, closest to the combat patrol, he made a mental note that eleven was an odd number for a patrol. The droids completed their visual scan of the area, paused for a minute, then decided there was nothing there, and trudged onward taking a snaking path towards the North East.

The trio stayed in cover for a few moments more allowing the patrol to proceed to a safe distance away from their position, then altered course, travelling perpendicular along the route the patrol came from. As they moved swiftly and silently through the snow covered underbrush the thought that eleven was an odd number for a combat patrol was still on Tereus’ mind. As the thought began to drift away, a light illuminated Daughtery, and temporarily distorted the integrated night vision in Tereus’ helmet.

“HALT!” The synthesized voice of a combat droid stated. As Daughtery froze like a deer in the headlights of a hover transport, Tereus lunged towards the droid, vibroblade in hand. The droid caught the movement too late, as it turned towards Tereus, its targeting algorithms brought the weapon in hand to bear on the threat, right before the biomechanical synaptic system was severed by Tereus’ blade. With an audibly heavy thud, the droid fell to the ground effectively neutralized.

Daughtery nodded, an acknowledgement of his fuck up, and the Trio zipped onward through the night towards their objective, two klicks away.

Tyler Marshall watched from the ridgeline through his scope. Bringing up the integrated image enhancement in his helmet HUD he watched as Tereus neutralized the threat. That efficient bastard…Tyler thought to himself…stole my fucking kill…Tyler depressed his finger from the trigger and continued to follow the advance team’s progress towards the designated checkpoint, which would serve as their point of penetration into the CP of the OPFOR group being played by the combat droids.

Tonight’s commencement exercise was a wash, in Tyler’s opinion this was essentially a farce. The command staff had been planning for a hard exploitation of the OPFOR CP for the better part of a week. At the last minute Commander Faustin had reassigned Major Aerith to a “secret mission”, and the squad to low profile HVT extraction. Same target rich AO, minimal engagement, for all intents and purposes they were an over-geared recon force, engaging in a text book snatch and grab…of a droid commander. Complete fucking waste of our talents and time…Tyler thought to himself.

The command staff had spent the last six rotations training hard, fighting harder, and at the culmination of their special warfare training, were playing out the role of baby sitters. Seriously…this was year two stuff. Tyler thought as he tracked Tereus, Tiberius, and Daughtery’s movement through his scope. The trio below was rapidly approaching their point of entry, a drainage ditch near the latrines, again reinforcing in Tyler’s mind what an immense waste of talent and expertise this was. His comm beeped, signaling that the advance team was in position and preparing to breach the outer perimeter of the OPFOR CP. Time to relocate..Tyler thought as he grabbed his gear, signaling to Zach it was time to move.

Aerith observed the progress of the commencement war games from the OPFOR CIC, monitoring the deployed resources on the battlefield. While the main force was engaged with the primary advance from the south, and other blips on her SCBS linkup were mobilizing for a counter-offensive from the North East quadrant, OPFOR was losing assets at a discouraging pace. At this point the games will be over within the hour…Aerith thought to herself. While she knew that was the ultimate end game, she was disappointed and irritated that she had been reassigned at the last minute, she was hoping to actually participate, not just coordinate as an observer in this final exercise.

She paced within the CIC, allowing herself to analyze the scene before her. There were a few staff, other observers undoubtedly gathering statistical data for use in the final grade of the cadets, the standard contingent of command droids all pre-occupied with their programmed tasks, and a holo-link to The Academy staff, overseeing the war games. Earlier one of the combat patrols that was linking up with the main counter-offensive force had lost a unit to unknown forces. At first Aerith had hopes it was her team, but the lack of any enemy contact even after extensive scans of the are just lead her to believe it was an advance recon team that got trigger happy.

Aerith sighed. It was going to be an uneventful night. She let her mind wander, thinking about how she’d complain to Tereus tonight in his quarters about Commander Faustin’s reassignment, and the mundane, mind numbingly, boring events that took place tonight…

Tereus and the advance team had successfully infiltrated the OPFOR CP and were making their way towards the CIC. They were making great progress and thus far remained undetected and unengaged. While it wasn’t necessarily his style, Tereus knew this had to be some sort of test, and as the last minute mission brief had been non-descript, generalizing the extraction of an HVT, he concluded that he’d rather not necessarily have to extract the HVT beyond the perimeter of the OPFOR stronghold, while under fire. He had full confidence in his team, but with a three man advance, he figured a blitzkrieg clandestine op was better than a full blown fire fight.

Stack up. Tereus signaled to Tiberius and Daughtery who quickly fell into position behind him. It was against all rules and regulations for the squad leader to be the first through the door, but they were all officers, and in the unlikely scenario where he went down, the squad could work autonomously. He felt Tiberius tap his shoulder. Go time. Tereus swiftly opened hacked the outer access panel to the CIC tower. The door slid open, and he moved in, Tiberius training his weapon over his left shoulder, and Daughtery bringing up the rear. Clear. The entry corridor was empty, strange, but welcome.

The trio advanced rapidly up the rear stairwell, The Marshalls were in constant contact via neural-net link, no unusual activity from the CIC, initial thermal scans showed that the occupants were completely unaware of their presence. Tereus posted up outside the CIC entrance. This access panel would take slightly longer to hack, but not by much. Tiberius posted on the opposite side, and prepped a stun grenade, Daughtery checked his weapon, as Tereus completed the hack and was granted access. Tereus nodded to the two, hit the door control, while depressing the button on top of his stun grenade.

One…Tereus stared at Tiberius.

Two…The door to the CIC was completely open.

Three…Tereus and Tiberius lobbed their grenades into room.

Four…The occupants to the room turned to look at the door, empty in their eyes.

Five…The grenades hit the floor, and panic ensued, the occupants scrambling for cover.

Six…The grenades went off.

The trio rushed into the CIC prioritizing targets, and opening fire on the combat droids. A short suppressed burst flashed from Tereus’ carbine. He was rewarded with the thud of the first two combat droids dropping to the floor. Two subsonic rounds entering through the CIC window indicated the Marshall twins had chosen their targets, two more thuds. Tereus moved to his position within the CIC, two more short burst from his carbine, three more targets down. Tiberius and Daughtery had secured their positions, neutralizing the other targets as they went.


Seventeen…”Clear!” the audible acknowledgement from Tiberius let Tereus know that he had cleared his sector.

Eighteen..."Clear!” Daughtery acknowledged his sector was clear.

Nineteen...“Clear!” Tereus acknowledged, “Area secure, secure the package!”

Twenty...Tereus hit the button on the side of his helmet, the visor slid into the top of the helmet, revealing his face. Ah..fresh air.

Twenty-one...The HVT did the same and a brief moment of surprise crossed his face…Aerith?

Aerith stared at Tereus smiling. Commander Faustin had an interesting sense of humor. Here in front of her was her “love”, come to carry her off into the night…

The high pitched whine of incoming artillery fire screeched towards the CIC at the center of the OPFOR CP. A barrage of artillery tracked its target, ready to blanket the abandoned area with a magnificent display of fire power, and signaling the end of the war games…

Tereus was instinctively barking orders, and he and the occupants of the CIC rushed or were dragged out of the CIC, down the corridor towards the stairwell as the incoming artillery barrage screamed furiously down upon them.

Twenty-two...Tereus was in the doorway, urging everyone out.

Twenty-three...Aerith scrambled towards the door.

Twenty-four...Tereus’ visor locked into place in front of his face.

Twenty-five...Aerith stumbled into the doorway.

Twenty-six...There was an explosion.

Twenty-seven...Aerith was launched into him.

Twenty-eight... He was propelled through the windows of the second floor of the CIC building.

Twenty-nine...Tereus could feel himself falling even as he lost consciousness.

Thirty...He didn’t even feel his body slam into the permacrete below.

---

|Historical Archives|

|Bio|Aerith|ZoE|

SGM| RP Revive Roll Call|***|SGM|Comm Channel

Aerith AI 2018 - SGM| Database

The reports of my trying to imitate the revered Michal Golanski are greatly exaggerated...my avatar should prove this.

[4:17:08 PM] Michał Golański: I knew you have some prehistoric backing to kick them in the nuts.