Descent into Mayhem

CHAPTER TWELVE - IMMINENT CONTACT PROGRESSION

945 kilometers south-east of Lograin, 03H43, 14th of June, 2771

Enveloped in darkness, Toni awoke to a persistent beeping sound. Groggy with sleep, he decided to ignore the sound in the hope that it would eventually go away. Instead it was replaced by a compelling whoop suspiciously similar to the alert one would hear inside an armored Suit.

Then he remembered.

Opening his eyes to find yet more darkness, he ordered his unit to activate. Eyelids still sticky with sleep, Toni finally gained audio and visual, and he blinked furiously at the written warning on his virtual foreground.

ALARM MODE ACTIVATED. SIGNAL SOURCE ASC P1 S4

Feeling a chill reach into his bones, Toni inquired over the comm.

"Brother One, here Unit Seven, over."

There was no delay in the answer.

"Shut your ass, Seven, I'll get to you in a mike."

A particularly loud report suddenly made itself heard, jolting him fully awake more quickly than anything else could have. Moving his helm around, he tried to lay eyeballs on the source of the explosion, finding only that the remainder of his platoon, still facing inwards into their circle, were trying to do the exact same thing.

"Here LOGIS Prime. All units about-face and hunker down where you are." It was the lieutenant, and he sounded angry.

Toni hurried to comply, whirling fast around his center of gravity and putting his kneepad to the ground a full half-second before the rest. He gripped his rifle firmly and strained his ears, trying to pick up every sound.

All remained silent, except for the occasional nervous chirp of birds woken by the report. He wondered if perhaps they were hearing something he could not.

He increased audio sensitivity, gradually becoming aware of far-off popping sounds, followed by a second-long roar.

Somewhere far off, a unit of the ASC was firing thirty millimeter cannon.

Toni tried to keep his breathing slow and steady as the seconds passed by, his effort sabotaged by a particularly loud concussion from the south-east. The unit to Toni's left flinched at the sound, the Suit producing a shudder in the act. It was Hirum, and he had probably augmented his audio sensitivity too. Toni dragged his ocular mouse to the communications panel on his virtual display and looked at his options there, finding that the lieutenant had kept his word. He activated a private comm link between Units Seven and Fourteen.

"Yo, Fourteen, you believe this?"

"Toni?" a disbelieving voice sounded over the comm.

"Yours truly. No worries mate, Grimm's with the sec-leader now. You're with me from now on."

"Really?" there was an almost childish note in Hirum's voice.

"You OK with that?"

"Hell yeah, Toni, 'course I am. Are we on an encrypted channel?"

"Yeah. I, uh, took a look at the communications panel and realized your unit is on it. Maybe the pairs can parley privately now."

"Oh, that's great. That's more than great, 'cause I'm freaking out here ..."

"Listen, Fourteen. Don't do that, OK? All we need to do is what we're told. It'll all work out, alright?"

A monotonous voice cut off their conversation.