BEACON- Part of the TORCH Saga

#13

"The last thing I'd like to mention is that I've noticed some friction between the hatchlings and the older birds," said Ruth. "BEACON_Command saw fit to fill almost every slot opened on Ambys with a textbook-fresh Academy grunt, and their attitudes have led to some complaints."

All the eyes in the room went to Herod, who shrugged. "What kind of complaints?" Lucifera asked slowly.

"Not their battle prowess, they all fight well- I had the opportunity to discuss training with some of the women at the Proving Ground as of late, and the new curriculum has been turning in splendid results." Ruth sniffed. "The issue is more in the vein of disrespect, haughtiness, ears closed and mouths open. A few were heard making remarks about the Mater Protectoris that upset some of the older birds- myself included, in the interest of full disclosure."

Grace, the Mater Protectoris and the Marshal of BEACON. Well-known to be all-but-deified by the rank-and-file for her courage and integrity- or at least, that was how it used to be. There were three universal laws of legion life: make sure nobody leaves any equipment behind, never completely trust somebody of a higher rank than you, and never speak ill of the Mater Protectoris.

Tamar shook her head. "Wasn't so long ago that disrespecting the Mater would get you a month of latrine duty. The hell are they teaching them at the Proving Ground these days?"

"It's not the school's fault, it's the SPRING-owned newsphere treating her like the devil's shitty kid sister," said Sheba, absently clutching her stump. "I think we ought to give the hatchlings a history lesson or two. Not right for any bird to talk shit about the Mater."

"It strikes me as terrifically low on our list of priorities," said Amalek.

"Well, that's why we keep you far away from the rank-and-file," Sheba replied. "You might know everything about guns and vehicles and formations, but you wouldn't know a woman from a wanigan."

"A what?" Amalek asked.

"I have no idea. Point being, the 119th is a unit. People can think and say and wear what they want- in peace. In war, we're all on one team, and we can't tolerate resentment or insubordination."

"I agree," said Lucifera. Now it was Amalek's turn to redden in embarrassment. "Sheba, Ruth, you two figure out something to do about it. Amalek, what do you got for us?"

Recovering, Amalek projected a large map with his watch. "The points on this map represent the eleven BEACON vanguard legions that have landed on Kra-ki-wa. This one's us." One of the dots turned red. "There are no major cities that we can see on this planet. Most of the settlements appear to be armored citadels like the ones we've taken, or entirely underground as our friends in the 106th Legion discovered."

"That's not right," said Tamar with a frown. "Romeo builds these citadels only in wartime- and it surrounds them with outlying villages. This is a planet with no war and no villages. Who the hell are they fighting?"

"Could it be us?" asked Ruth, stroking her narrow chin. "Mayhaps the leaders of the great houses were security-minded or paranoid and planned for our invasion long before we did?"

"We've never seen that sort of mass organization from Romeo before," replied Amalek. "And if that were the case, they did a terrible job of it. As Tamar pointed out, their defenses are laughable. More of a rabble than a true warband."

"Maybe some nasty local wildlife?" Tamar asked.

"It's not impossible." Amalek didn't sound convinced. "In any case, this chain of citadels was the second-largest area of concentration for the enemy that our sensors have detected. The biggest is..." He traced upwards and pointed at a gigantic cone on the 2.5D map. "...this mountain."

"I'm guessing we'll be marching on it soon enough," said Lucifera. "Wonder why they didn't just land us there."

Amalek smirked. "I know why. We'd have to land at the foot of it and fight our way up, it's too well-defended to land directly over. This would put our backs to the citadels, which would let the enemy encircle us. This way, we can turn the citadels into a staging ground and take our time to pry Romeo out of his mountain fort."

"Well, we've got plenty of muscle," said Tamar, rolling her shoulders. "Should be a good fight. Toughen these hatchlings up some. How long a march is it?"

"On foot, about ten days- five if we really push it. With vehicles, a day." Amalek nodded at Ruth. "My main concern is terrain. Kra-ki-wa is unusually diverse... it's far from desert all the way to the mountain."

"I can make tweaks and changes accordingly," said Ruth softly.

"Of course. But it's not just logistics, it's fighting prowess. Heat aside, a desert's an easy place to fight. Good visibility outside a sandstorm, simple geography, clear night skies for low-tech navigation." Amalek gestured to the biomes between them and the desert. "But these are swamps, tundras, mountains, and those can be different stories."

"We'll kick those asses when we come to them," said Lucifera. "But thanks for bringing it to our attention. Tamar, you got anything-"

Lucifera's watch buzzed and rang, interrupting her. "LEGATUS LUCIFERA HUMOL. YOU ARE RECEIVING A CALL FROM LEGATUS BERENICE SOREK, THE MATER BELLUM. DO YOU ACCEPT?"

A pall overtook the room. Nobody spoke, nobody so much as breathed. Herod could hear the wind stirring the sand at their feet. It was like the watch had told them they were about to be hit with a nuclear bomb and there was no potential for escape. "P-patch her through," Lucifera spat out.

(AN: Berenice is an important character in TORCH overall but she plays a very small role in Act 1, only cameo'ing here and then being discussed later in HEARTH. She's completely insane, I quite like her.

Like I talked about last week, one cool thing about TORCH imo is how the characters discuss Grace, who none of them have ever actually met, and then we actually see what Grace is like- and the disparities between their opinions of her and her apparent personality.)