Kestrel

Chapter 2 - Ciphers

I

‘Enemy fire up front!’ Legionary Gaius Valerius Trajan yelled as the first volleys of mock high-impact contact rounds ripped towards them.

‘Find cover and return fire!’ Centurion Alicia Vostroya bawled as she scrambled to the nearest piece of protection she could find, slipping behind a fallen marble column with her weapon cradled closely to her chest.

It was now the fourth day of their tactical operations training, and the rigors of the regimen only grew more demanding. For the first three days of the course alone, the men of the legion’s dedicated tactical operations cohort, nicknamed the “Ciphers”, were immediately put through the rigorous discipline of weapons drill. The non-stop practice and exercise of both firearm and blade discipline had effectively refreshed the soldiers on the fundamentals of combat techniques they have learned in basic training. Intended to bring the soldier into shape and all manner of combat sharpness, it had indeed accomplished its purpose of preparing the legionaries for the demanding training that was to take place in the days ahead.

Four days into the tactical operations program, as the breaking dawn arrived at the Fortress of Excelia, the legionaries of the Second Cohort now began their training in earnest. Centuries of the cohort had been transported by road from the main camp at Excelia to the adjacent rural villages and farmlands. The patches of provincial land had largely fallen into disuse and were promptly appropriated by the legion to serve as one of its training grounds. The various settlements provided one of the best locations to simulate combat operations, from search and destroy missions to the more sensitive recovery operations.

In one of the settlements, Centurion Alicia Vostroya and her contubernium of legionaries had already started combat simulation courses from sunrise to sunset. Fatigue had already set in as the rigors of Imperial military combat training took its toll. Exhausted as they were and aching for a proper bath from the sweat brought on by the hot day, they had to get stronger and start scoring high marks.

Their last simulation for the day brought them into the confines of a rural settlement called Taris. A simple town in the countryside where the Taris river ran straight through, it was packed with small houses, huts, animal pens and the occasional watchtower. Alicia and her legionaries had been tasked to find and neutralize a group of mortar emplacements situated on the other side of a bridge that connected the town over the river.

One last drill, and they would be done for the day.

‘Return fire!’ Centurion Alicia Vostroya yelled above the din of the roaring fusillade as mock contact bullets tore through the air towards them.

Along the main thoroughfare, the legionaries of the contubernium were taking cover behind derelict cars, fallen columns and the occasional piles of debris. Weapons barked in defiant blasts as the legionaries promptly returned fire, peering above cover and squeezing off shots.

Alicia racked the slide of her carbine and turned to open fire. She pulled the trigger and fired in single bursts, letting off contact rounds in systematic rhythm. One round flew and hit her target square on its face, blasting out its head and spilling broken machinery in a flurry of sparks.

Throughout the conduct of the simulations, the legionaries were mostly fighting servitors: pre-programmed automatons that fulfilled the role of target dummies. The servitors from a model of the Imperial Science Corps’ line of automata servii, mechanical drones designed to take and potentially surpass the role of organic slaves. But for now, the legion simply made use of servitors as semi-intelligent droids to emulate hostiles in combat situations. Utterly utilitarian and without any aesthetic appeal, the servitors were cheap to replace and ideal for targets as they fought with firearms of their own. Albeit loaded with only non-lethal contact rounds, the automatons operated effectively and have challenged even fully-trained professional legionaries.