Ep. 1.5 – Initiative – (Closed)

[Deleted]

Set during Week 1, Day 1!

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When: 2300
Where: Unknown, Spyglass camp

Rain drummed into the roof of the camouflaged GPS tent.

It sat midway between the communications tent and the motor pool, roughly sixty feet into the treeline. The furry boughs of the pine trees shielded it from the worst of the downpour, but rain still dripped from the branches and struck the camouflage netting in a relentless tempo. Water had gathered at the entrance of the tent, a shining puddle of it.

A carpet of dead pine needles absorbed much of the rain that hit the forest floor, but where vehicle tracks had cut shallow ruts into the softer loam beneath the dark mud showed. Most of the trucks were under netting of their own, save for a transport that was been parked beneath a frame maintenance tent with a damaged rear axle.

If that was the only damage that the command unit would suffer during the exodus from Ruby Hill, then Silas would be satisfied. Vehicles broke down in the field. It happened. You fixed them and moved on.

Frowning, he scrolled through a decoded report from another of the surviving units that had tactically scattered in the wake of the Ruby Hill attack. The message was a simple one: ops normal. He hadn’t been pleased about being forced from the base – a good deal of time and money and under the table politics had gone into acquiring the ghost town and its old mines and establishing it into a functional research and development site – but it happened. You fixed things, you learned, and you moved on.

And besides... he hadn’t made the retreat empty handed.

At his hand a cup of coffee steamed in the cool, damp Pacific air. The MECH commander sat at the head table in the command tent, beneath the glow of the projectors. They beamed a map of the Northwest onto a portable telescoping screen rigged to the wall of the tent. The rest of the screen was divided into camera imagery from the half dozen security cameras covering the perimeter of the camp.

Open laptops and microphones sat along the full length of the table. Beneath it the cords were neatly tied off, powered by hidden generators. Silas sat at one of the computers. Only two other laptops were occupied, by one of his analysts and a logistics officer. The rest of his command staff had been dismissed for the remainder of the shift. The next shift would be arriving in less than an hour anyway.

Electric lamplight suffused the cool grey interior of the command tent with an eerie radiance. Voices echoed through the open tent flap, muted by rain and canvas. Silas absently sipped his coffee and glanced at the corner of the laptop screen. 2314. With luck, the particular officer he was waiting for would be arriving soon.

As if on cue a duty watch guard appeared at the entrance. Water dripped from his dark and muddy poncho as he saluted.

“Sir, Odile is here,” he said. “Shall I admit her?”

Silas leaned back in his chair and smiled, faintly.

Not all of the news he had received after Ruby Hill had been bad.

“Send her through,” he said.

[Deleted]

Thana was in pain. As a rule, she didn't take pain killers because they were hell on her. She'd never had the tolerance for anything as simple as codeine as multiple use led to vivid dreams and hallucinations. It was pointless to take the over counter medicine for the stitches pulling at the skin on her calves so she just had to deal with the pain as it came. Which was in waves, given the driving of the idiot she was stuck with.

She had no idea where Spyglass was located, and didn't care to know until the moment she was expected to arrive there. It wasn't her job to know the minutia of MECH and she respected and relied on a need-to-know basis. However, if she'd known the camp was at the end of a soggy, pot-holed drive in the middle of the damp forest, she would have taken the time to swallow a few aspirin to at least dampen the pain. She had to grit her teeth with every bump of the vehicle as they were built to last not for comfort. Any banter the driver may have attempted with her was swiftly cut off and rebuked in exchange for a quiet ride.

By the time they'd arrived at the hidden base, Thana's face was pale and her temper could be described as "rattlesnake." She refused any help out of the vehicle and carefully climbed out with stiff grace. Her boots sank into the mud a good quarter inch as she stood there and looked around, familiarizing herself with the camp. The weather was paying hell on her joints and despite the raincoat and hood, her pants were getting damp below the knees.

With little time to acclimate herself, she was ushered across the slippery ground towards a tent that was acting as HQ for the moment. A bead of sweat rolled down the nape of her neck and she rolled her shoulders to ease the tickling, irritating sensation. Nerves were not a problem. She'd never been a fidgety, neurotic child. Her adolescence hadn't been a long tangle of nerves and squirming discomfort. In that regard, she may as well have been dead to the senses. Sweat trickled down her back because it was hot under the raincoat and pain forced some reaction out of her that she couldn't control.

Without a word to the guard leading her into the tent, she stepped inside and carefully pulled back the hood from her face. Her hair was clipped back away from her face, unbeknownst to her, giving the illusion of a softer visage with the framed black locks fluffing out in the damp.

"Sir."

[Deleted]

The guard saluted and edged back out of the tent. He knew better that to loiter.

At the other end of the tent sat Silas. He had shed his body armour and wore dark combat fatigues instead. A heavy raincoat lay draped over the back of his chair. It was still damp; he himself had been out in the rain as well. The sound of the downpour hitting the roof of the tent echoed quietly in the background.

Two of his staff members sat on the other end of the table, bent over a laptop. Both of their brows raised when they spotted Thana standing at the entrance, her hood lowered. Without a word they gave Silas a questioning look, which he answered with a nod and a gesture.

"Leave us for the moment," he said. "Report back at twenty-four hundred with the next shift. And tell the communications officer on duty to come with you. I have a message I need sent to Point Lookout."

"Yessir," they said.

Both men stood and slipped out of the tent. One of them nodded amiably to Thana as he passed. The other avoided eye contact, evidently intimidated by her expression.

When they were alone Silas pointed to one of the chairs.

"Come in and sit down, Gillespie," he said. "I understand it's been a long drive in less than enviable conditions. There's coffee, if you want it."

And there was too - to one side of the tent sat a folding table with a big stainless steel coffee brewer on it, next to a stack of tin kit cups. A portable radio in a canvas pack lay under the table; beside it was a khaki footlocker with several field logbooks on it, as well as a handful of canteens and a holstered pistol.

[Deleted]

Surprisingly, Thana wasn't a coffee drinker. However much she enjoyed the smell of the pungent, aromatic drink, she avoided the liquid because it tended to make her high strained and jittery to the point of distraction. And, as her father had pointed out to her, drinking decaf was just a waste of time. She felt like she could get a contact high from just smelling the drink.

At Silas' offer, she nodded but instead of fetching a drink, she took her seat with a grateful grunt. The muscles in her calves let go with a stinging pull on the stitches and she resisted the urge to rub the toe of her boots against the itchy irritation. Instead she just clasped her hands together and leaned on her forearms.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" She needn't worry about showing how tired or irritated she was in front of Silas. He somehow just knew even if she hid the emotions behind a very good poker face. The leadership skills of the man were enviable and inspiring which is one of the reasons Thana tended to soften around him and actually listen. The man rarely did anything that was wasted or useless.

[Deleted]

True to form, Silas did not waste time on further preamble.

"I'm catching up on the events that occurred after Ruby Hill was overrun," he said. He nodded briefly at the laptop he sat at; the glowing screen was stacked with open windows, most of which were filled with text and notated IR reconnaissance photographs. "As you know I've been preoccupied with organizing our scattered forces from that site. In the meantime you were left in charge of an airfield base northeast of this location. I've since learned that it suffered an attack by a - Decepticon force, one which additionally sought to target inbound transports."

Silas leaned back in his chair, which creaked beneath his weight. He folded his arms and frowned, but when he spoke it was in his usual calm tone, devoid of anger or annoyance.

"You ordered our on-site hard and soft databases scrubbed and a base wide retreat - which was wise. You and those personnel are valuable assets to MECH, not easily replaced. But not -"

He smiled. "- But not before inflicting damage against one of the invaders' command units. Indeed, if my intel is correct, the robot you incapacitated was their lead command unit. Which of our weapons did you use against it? I am very curious to know."

[Deleted]

Thana scowled at the mention of Ruby Hill. Not only had the base she had been overseeing been ruined, Ruby Hill had been a loss. That was two attacks MECH, and Thana, had failed to rout. Not only had valuable equipment been lost, men had lost their lives and humans were ever important assets. (Even if she was willing to sacrifice a whole score of people to meet a goal.) It wasn't like it was a secret as to how dangerous their mission was. You didn't join any militant organization without willing to sacrifice your life.

"- But not before inflicting damage against one of the invaders' command units. Indeed, if my intel is correct, the robot you incapacitated was their lead command unit. Which of our weapons did you use against it? I am very curious to know."

She wasn't one for pride but Thana did feel a certain...frisson of content that her actions had been right. She had given in to her anger, a dangerous gamble, but she had made the right choice to use the weapon. Even if it hadn't completely incapacitated the leader of the enemy. Not that she had known she was facing off with their leading unit. If she had known what she was looking at, she would have paid closer attention and perhaps taken the time to re-aim. One more shot could have been a very large difference between the ongoing war and ending the struggle.

"The howitzer prototype. The other two shipments hadn't arrived in time and I could not secure their safety." The muscle in her jaw bunched as she grit her teeth long enough to realize she was clenching. With some effort she relaxed and took a soothing breath. She had not failed her post. She had acted and behaved in an effective manner. This, she told herself over and over.

[Deleted]

Silas waved it aside.

“Their loss is a blow, but not one that we are incapable of recovering from,” he said. “More important were the scientists and engineers assigned to that base. And I have been informed that, to a man, they survived the assault and were evacuated to a secure location with acceptable combat losses. If the Decepticons prioritized the shipments as the more important asset to be seized, they did so in error.”

He rubbed his jaw. There was a light of interest in his eyes.

“The howitzer prototype,” he mused. “Interesting. I’d written it off as a powerful but inefficient short range artillery unit against a high mobility enemy. Given its limited targeting capabilities you must have needed to have fired it from within medium to close range. A calculated risk. That takes a degree of nerve. Combined with your decision to evacuate the base without delay it leads me to arrive at a decision. I am aware that MECH does not cleave strictly to the military traditions that many of us were formerly accustomed to, but in this case I am willing to make an exception. How would you feel about a field promotion, Gillespie?”

[Deleted]

Thana's eyes widened for a scant moment, the only show of surprise she would allow herself. Of all the reasons she was called here, a promotion was the least she would have bet her money on. Not that she had expected to be chastised for her actions, either. She had acted to the best of her ability and would call out any man or woman who thought they could have done better. No, at the most she had expected to be briefed her actions for a in-depth field report. Data was the name of the game.

"I would not turn down a promotion, sir. But I must speak frankly and admit the shot was a fluke. The conditions were right and anger guided my actions. Had I missed, I would not be here but my actions would have been enough decoy for retreat at any rate." That said, she leaned back in her chair and placed her hands in her lap. Her calf muscles were already growing stiff from the extended sitting and she surreptitiously flexed her lower legs under the table.

[Deleted]

"I understand your reservations, Gillespie," he said. "But let allow me to speak frankly in turn."

A slight motion of his head indicated the entrance of the tent and the camp beyond it. "My officers are good. They were hand-picked from a short list of men and women dissatisfied with the current state of affairs within the American military. Or else discharged from it, like myself."

A ghost of a smile; he had never made his ejection from the military a secret. But in doing so he had made it worth dismissing.

"They are competent and skilled. But in deferring to my authority in most matters they remove from themselves an important element of command: initiative. The ability to recognize a favourable opportunity outside of the current objective and seize hold of it. And if that sounds like a risk, then yes, you would be right."

Silas nodded to her. "Acting outside of operational perimeters to secure a vital opening sounds glamourous, but in reality is fraught with risk. We both know that. You will not be forgiven if you take a chance and fail. And failure is a blemish that is difficult to erase. But we are MECH. We do not have the safety net of the American government to shield and protect us should we fall. To survive in a hostile technological market - a hostile world filled with dangerous enemies - we need to take risks. To tread the safe path is to invite in stagnation, discovery, and persecution. We must seize opportunity when it presents itself. We can afford to do no less."

He spoke quietly and firmly, his words unwavering. He did not touch the laptop or his cooling cup of coffee as he did so, but leaned back in his chair and kept his eyes upon her face.

"Your shot was a fluke," he said. "And yet you took it, knowing you surely would have been killed had it missed. But in taking the shot you not only inflicted serious damage upon an enemy unit, but also deflected the attention of its subordinates from our retreating personnel. You put yourself at risk in order to secure their escape. Ordering and organizing the retreat to your best ability, seizing hold of the idea to use the howitzer - it showed a predilection for authority. I would like to expand upon that. I need good field commanders. That is the promotion I am offering you."

[Deleted]

The woman nodded once and laced her fingers together. Silas' official position on her actions weren't sugar coated. For that, she was grateful. Thana had never gotten into any position through half means or under dubious actions. There was no "good enough" for the soldier. She either gave as good as she could or failed.

"Just so we are understood, sir." She cut her eyes to the side and slowly, stiffly pushed away from the table. "I think I will take that offer for a drink after all." It would be a cold day in hell before she limped in front of a senior offer. Even if her calves were swollen from the weather and movement. With measured calm, Thana poured herself half a cup of a creamer and surreptitiously fished two antibiotics from her pocket to swallow. The pills had a bitter tang not easily washed away by the dairy.

"Sir, you can tell me to stow it, but I have to ask: what is your next move? We've lost the prototypes and two bases."

[Deleted]

Silas watched her, relaxed and assured.

"A fair question," he said. "The Ruby Hill base in particular was a sore loss. There is little point in denying it. We lost a good deal of valuable accumulated data on the machines in the process. But not all of it."

He smiled and leaned back in his chair, crossing one foot over to rest it on the opposite knee. The glow from the overhead projectors outlined his pale head with a frosty glow.

"As you are aware, the machines that infiltrated Ruby Hill were successful in rescuing the firing range subject," he said. "That was unfortunate. Our biotech research team had further tests scheduled to ascertain exactly how much of the creature's perception and targeting systems were based on simple visual acuity and how much was based upon specific coded software, unaffected by visual distractions or physical distress."

Silas touched his temple, two fingers coming to rest beside his right eye.

"But no matter - long before we were attacked we were able to move a third test subject to a base located in the mountains northeast of Salt Lake City. It has remained there to this day, hidden. And it hasn't sat idly - the base engineers and technicians have crudely restored the armour it lost during the initial capture and Ruby Hill ballistics testing, and have successfully rewired its central neural system to bring it under wireless control. Like an automaton - a metal golem - its systems currently respond positively to simple control inputs generated from our own computers. Within a matter of days it should be ready for field testing."

With a frown, Silas rubbed his jaw.

"However, despite our success in hijacking the neural system of one of the machines, we do not have the data or technology yet to artificially recreate it," he said. "I wouldn't mind downing one or two more subjects for closer study. If we can isolate one of the machines and bring it offline, our goal will be to disassemble it. If we find the remains of one on the field, the objective shall be the same. We need parts. Biomechanical parts. That is only part of our next move however. The bulk of it shall be revealed in due time."

He nodded to Thana. "It is my intent to involve you in that operation, Gillespie. It's part of the reason why I wished to give you greater authority in the field. How do you feel about travelling abroad?"

[Deleted]

Thana's eyes widened perceptively in mild shock. Silas had been very busy and ambitious. Given their limited means and losing ground to the enemy, such an initiative wasn't a bad thing. MECH needed calculated risks on the forefront if they were to have any leg to stand on in a fair fight. And Thana didn't plan on fighting fair at all.

"I would be interested in reading the reports on the golem." There was something appealing about using their own tech against them. But using their own bodies? That opened a whole new set of possibilities and evened the playing ground even more. Would one be able to infiltrate their ranks and be an effective spy? No matter if they lost the body, the information gleaned from such a maneuver would be unimaginably worth the time.

"I would not be adverse to a change of scenery. My passport is up to date." She smirked, just the faintest hint of a smile on her usually severe mouth. The gesture looked more threatening than teasing.

[Deleted]

Silas smiled.

“Excellent,” he said. “I’m glad to hear it.”

He glanced sidelong at the laptop next to him, where a message had just popped up in a corner of the screen. He read quickly, then dismissed it with a keystroke.

“I’ll get a primer on the golem from the Salt Lake lab forwarded your way,” he said. “In the meantime, you won’t be travelling alone. I’m assigning a small team beneath you; you’ll serve as the unit commander. It won’t be large – four weapons specialists, a combat engineer, a computer technician, possibly a sniper team – I’m still working out the details. A small unit, because you will need to be mobile. But if the new weapons our ordnance branch is developing continue to indicate positive results...”

This time his smile was cold. “Then very soon a small unit will be all that is necessary to bring down one of the titans in the field.”

[Deleted]

Brows furrowed, Thana clasped the cup in her hands but her minds were ticking away at the possibilities of her new found promotion. A smaller team suggested a large amount of stealth in her future. Covert missions were not new territory as, technically, every action MECH took were done without full view of the public eye. (Just as most military operations were so to operated.)

She could gladly face another of the nasty filth invading their planet. If they were such sentient beings, they would surely understand they were unwanted and leave. Intel suggested they were very intelligent for a parts held together with no soul. So their continued stay told Thana all she needed to know about them: they were invasive and stupid.

"Yessir. I will be ready."

[Deleted]

Satisfied, Silas nodded.

"Very good," he said.

He shifted in his seat, drawing straight. With it his demeanour changed, subtly, hardening with an air of command. Still, his gaze remained calm and even as he sized up Thana, as if taking in her muddied boots and raincoat, the unseen seam of stitches in her leg, and the firm and upright way she carried herself despite the dampness in the air and the biting injury.

"In that case, Gillespie, you are free to leave," he said. "Take four days to rest and requisition whatever supplies or gear you need, and to prepare yourself for a short trip. You will be reassigned to a new - to a drier - location shortly. Your orders will be delivered to you within that time period. The rest of your unit should report to you before then as well. I imagine they will brief you on whatever new or developmental ordnance they will be bringing with them. Be sure to familiarize yourself with your kit before departing for your next assignment. Any questions may be forwarded to myself or my tactical staff."

Silas stood, his chair creaking as his weight was lifted from it. A roll of his wrist revealed his watch, which he glanced at before he returned his gaze to Thana, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Once again, sterling work," he said. "I suspect we will have a strong need for your skills in the weeks to come. Dismissed."