Cavalier's Gambit 2 -ch 10-

Chapter 10

Wayne pivoted on the next waypoint on the exact GPS location marker relayed to him by the mapping AI and the drone AI. Both of them had been devoured the day they’d arrived after Wayne popped them into Warhorse.

The translator AI had arrived too late and Tink was sending it his way.

She was hanging onto the diagnostician AI for now.

I bet she’s already rebuilding it’s hardware.

Just needs software to upload to it.

Because that’s my Tink.

“Fifth checkpoint reached,” Natalie reported to their handler. She had more or less takinen the role of communications expert. “Nothing to report. Company H shadowing.”

“Still kind of shocked they invaded the planet before we even got here, but now they’re just sitting around and half the planet is in one fleets hands, the other half, the other,” Barbie muttered, directly on his right.

Cara was behind him, with Sal on his left. Natalie and Mick were bringing up the rear. They were moving in a tight formation right now because there’d been a number of reports that anti-material snipers were operating in the area.

Looking out to the east, Wayne could see that ‘company H’ was indeed shadowing them. Wayne could even see where their weapons were pointing as they’d been nearby for so long, his AI had extrapolated everything about what they were using.

That and the mapping and drone AI had supplemented it. Elevation and shifting terrain wouldn’t even shift it anymore.

“They’ve only got about four months before they have to pull out, or finish it. They won’t be able to reinforce this planet at that point,” confirmed Mick. “They hurried up to make this happen, then ended getting stuck here and now they clearly don’t know what to do about it.”

“I don’t think they were expecting to run into the resistance they did,” Sal opined. “To be fair, everything that was here was in transit elsewhere. It was just really bad timing or luck.”

“Or they wanted to do this,” Wayne suggested even as he watched the minimap display by his AI. It had all the enemy Walkers marked for him as they shadowed them. “They wanted exactly what was happening. Because for the next four months, even if they do nothing, even with minimal forces and ships, there’s a portion of Bertson’s forces locked down here.

“Including us, in fact. We were already on the way here so they didn’t change anything but… here we are. Stuck on endless patrols doing nothing much of anything. Along with a bunch of other companies, all doing the same thing.

“That doesn’t even include the fleet above. Playing orbital chicken with the other fleet, each of them hunkered down on one side of the planet and watching the other side.”

“Yes,” Cara said immediately. The force behind the word was complete. “Yes! That’s exactly it. Isn’t it? It is. I think. Wayne…?”

“It’s what I think, yeah,” Wayne confirmed, still watching the other company while also watching his minimap. He didn’t even have to try now. There was even a stupid line on the map telling him how to get to the next patrol marker without a concern. “We’re busy with this with more troops than we want, with a minimal number of theirs. Just enough of a backbone that we can’t shatter them, but enough as well that we have to have people here.

“Just my take on it. But I bet our Witty and Attractive Captain would agree. You’re welcome to ask her when we get back.”

Miriam and Josephine were running PR and royal PR for MDF, Wayne, and the Mirkil family. There was just too much going on for them to tune in to his cockpit adventures.

Especially since that for the last two weeks, all he’d done was walk patrol routes and get shadowed by the mercenary company they called ‘company H’.

Wayne’s eyes flicked from the mercenary group to his minimap. Either the drone Natalie was running above them just caught sight of something, or his mapping software linked into the cyber attack or general AI and plotted something.

Wayne swung Warhorse around as he shifted on the patrol route they were on.

“Wayne?” Barbie asked immediately. So in tune with him and how he operated that apparently him shifting at all was enough to catch her attention.

Looking out in the direction that his minimap had registered a question mark, he looked. Staring out into the open fields on the outskirts of the country that they were posted in on the planet. There were several rolling hills and shifting plains out there. They curved and flowed about but not with any sharpness.

It was all gentle changes that bled from one to another.

Natalie had caught on to the shift as the Drone she’d been operating was now flying out that way. The video feed form it was coming straight to him from his AI, implant, and the walker.

A white box flits up in the distance and Wayne gets a notification of exactly what it is, a Tick.

Light, barely fifteen tons, and not very big at all. They were pretty fast given their size and weight compared to their engine output.

Often used for recon or just mopping up infantry without any anti-armor support, they were strange Walkers. They didn’t evne have arms.

This one had been painted a similar color to the ground, was crouched low in a small grouping of trees, and blended in very well. Except it had some type of system that was open and his grouping of AI had picked it up, picked it apart, and were now aware of it.

“Warrior,” Wayne said, starting to look forward again. He had a thought of what this might be. He turned to look at the company that was shadowing them again. They had shifted closer, but nothing outside of the ordinary.

Wayne came to a slow stop and shifted his Walker about slowly. As if they had just gotten new orders and were about to change a direction.

“Yes, Lord?” Cara answered.

“That’s a god damn Tick where Squire’s got he Drone over. It’s in the frickin’ trees. There’s no way you could get to it in time before it buggered off, right?” he asked, lifting his weapon and looking to a nearby hill top. As if they were expecting something from it.

“Yes, Lord. Too far. If it’s a Tick and this far forward, it’s… made to be fast and unseen,” agreed Cara. “Nothing can hide from my perfect Lord.”

“Oh shit I see it,” Mick growled. “I didn’t even see it at first but now that you mention it, yeah, it’s right there. The question is, was it there for us, or someone else.”

“This isn’t a new patrol,” Natalie added. “This is a route we walk often at this time of day. That means they’re waiting for us. Or at least it’s the more likely option. Coincidence is still possible but… far less likely.”

“Think you can pick them off Longbow,” Wayne asked. The angle felt weird, but a single shot from Mick might be enough to leg the damn Tick or blow out it’s cockpit outright. “Think you could leg’em? It’d be nice to have someone to question.”

“I could probably leg’em now that I know they’re there. Here, Shield, let me brace my barrel on your arm,” Mick muttered. “I bet you they’re watching us even now. If we make it obvious they’ll bolt.”

“Let’s go for that. I want someone to question. Before you do it though, Warrior, Lance, do a duo walk and move around the long side. Natalie, trail them and route the video feed back.

“Just in case there’s more and this isn’t a one off scout. Because… it could always just be the one we noticed, rather than the first. We might’ve even passed some on the way.

“Don’t go far, just enough that we can look further that way without being obvious about it. Like you two were asked to check something.”

“Oh, right? There’s a hill right there. We’ll just go up to the top of it and eject a marker there. That’ll be believable enough and honestly, we probably should’ve put one there previously. It’s big enough to get notated on a map.”

Cara and Barbie pulled away from the squad and began heading up toward the hill.

The Drone that’d been lingering near the Tick flew off toward Barbie and Cara. Likely giving the Tick a sense of escaping being caught.

A cat passing by a mouse clinging to a wheel well, well within reach but simply not looking up.

Or in this case, down.

“Nothing I can see,” stated Barbie.

“Nothing,” Cara reported. “Perfect Lord?”

Wayne was looking at the display from the drone and trying to get a good read on it. To understand it and what he was looking at. He didn’t actually see anything out of the ordinary but that didn’t mean there wasn’t.

“I got nothing. Alright, Longbow, take the shot when you’re ready. Warrior, rapid advance when Longbow tells you to go, get me that Tick,” Wayne orders. “Everyone else, move to engage with Company H if they decide to get testy. For all we know, that’s one of their people.”

There was silence as everyone set up.

Wayne noted the sudden balistic trajectory coming out of Mick, his weapon braced against Sal as if he were inspecting the weapon or checking something. It looked weirdly natural.

“Warrior, go,” Mick ordered, then waited.

Cara began moving at a light jog toward Wayne and the rest. As if it were nothing at all. Only to turn in and begin sprinting at full speed straight for the Tick.

She hadn’t been able to beat his max speed yet, but she was trying at every opportunity.

Patchwork was burning across the grass straight toward the hidden Walker now.

As if realizing what was happening, the Tick twitched and multiple sensors came online for Wayne as the Walker was registered and recognized by Warhorse an enemy combatant.

“Cold start” flashed across his screen in the corner as the Tick powered up.

Then there was a boom as Mick’s rifle went off.

“Dunked,” Mick reported with a chuckle, the round vanishing into the woods.

Wayne couldn’t actually see very well what was going on without the drone view, but he got the impression the Tick was indeed, legged.

Wayne turned to look at the area in question and squinted at it. He didn’t have any zoom optics on his Walker but he was starting to think maybe he should have them installed. This was the second time he had ended up having an issue with distance viewing.

“My perfect Lord,” hissed Cara. “Longbow had a great shot. They are not leaving. I am bringing the Tick. The pilot is inside. I broke their cockpit.”

Wayne was watching the mercenary company across the way.

The entire time that Cara and Mick had acted, Company H hadn’t moved. They’d kept their distance, unmoving shadows that patrolled in a near mirror to Wayne every time he went out.

Curious, Wayne wanted to make contact with them. Even if it was just limited.

They would likely know by now that the Tick had been caught if it was theres. Chances were good that they would’ve been reporting in about the situation even as it happened, in fact.

He didn’t have to look to know that Cara drug the Tick physically over to his side. He had told her to ‘get me that Tick’ and that meant she was going to bring it to him directly, he imagined.

There was a clatter and a thump next to him as the Tick was nearly dropped on his foot.

Turning to look, Wayne found that the cockpit was indeed broken and wide open. The pilot strapped inside had their hands up and were just sitting there. The uniform of the house of Zane clear and wearing urban fatigues.

“Taking you as a prisoner of war,” Wayne reported to the pilot after turning on his external speakers. “You with that group shadowing us?”

The pilot just stared at Wayne.

Not a word was said, not an eyeblink, not even a twitch. They were as cool as ice.

With a click of his tongue, Wayne realized that this person wasn’t going to give up information. They would rather be silent at the moment than reveal anything.

Looking out to Company H Wayne clacked his massive balistic weapon to his hip. Then he raised his hand far above his head and waved it back and forth. There was a slight change in Company H, several of the Walkers turning to face him a bit more head on.

Wayne made an exagerated gesture at the Tick beside him. Pointing at it several times in large motions. Then he pointed at Company H several times.

Finally he gave a thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs up, thumbs down with his Walker’s rather limber arm. He would need to thank Tink again. Warhorse was ridiculously perfectly tuned and at a point that it was outside of even what would be considered an outlier.

To be fair, she was sanding individual parts for more movement space at the millimeter level.

Company H didn’t move, didn’t react, but Wayne got the impression that they were conferring amongst themselves. Likely across radios or encrypted channels.

One of the Walkers stepped up, put their weapon away, lifted an arm, waved it, then gave a thumbs down dramatically after pointing at the Tick.

“Tick’s not from them if we believe them,” Wayne said aloud. “Could be lying, could be telling the truth. Personally I’d rather believe them. They seem like they were put here as a counter to us, but also to keep an eye on us.

“House Zane really doesn’t want us getting involved and they’d rather have whatever Company that is trying to stop us without killing us, I imagine. Which isn’t that bad of a counter to what’s happening but… anyways. Let’s just… do a thing.”

Wayne lowered himself down to the Tick’s cockpit level after retrieving his weapon from his hip. Wayne looked at the pilot up close.

“Warrior, be a love and point Yuna at this fool. Or someone with a laser canon, actually. I need to get in his cockpit,” Wayne ordered.

“I’m on it,” reported Barbie, followed by a click as if the comms channel shifted, or turned on. “Hey, Lord, I’m sending this directly to you. You doing something stupid? I’m more or less your body guard at this point. I need to know if you’re doing something stupid.

“I swear if you’re doing something stupid I’m going to follow you around the base moaning at you as loud as I can till you run back to your room and learn from your mistakes.”

“I’ve got a cyber-attack AI on board. I want to get into that Tick and see if there’s any orders, information, or comms on it that we could get into,” Wayne explained.

“Oh. Oh… alright. Hey, did you use that to spy on me when I was wandering around my room naked the other day?” Barbie asked suddenly. “Its just a thing I do after a shower and I swore I could hear you said something like ‘wow look at that pair’ next door and I just… I mean, I don’t mind if you do. I just… did you?”

Wayne blinked, hesitated, then laughed.

“Did you just ask me to roast your interior and pop your shell off? Or did you just tell me you did it for me and you were expecting me to peep,” Wayne muttered as he opened up the cockpit after grasping his USB ‘Arsenic’ device.

The cockpit swung open and Wayne made that he was shielded from Company H just in case. The last thing he needed was someone sniping him.

He hesitated for only a moment and then leapt into the Tick’s cockpit. Slamming into a number of controls, as well as the pilot. The man started cursing at him and Wayne just ignored it outright.

The AI, which Wayne was calling ‘Arsenic’ promptly provided him with a red box of where to stick the USB. It was partially behind the controls and behind what looked like a thruster control.

Pushing the pilot out of the way, Wayne found the entry, jammed the USB in, and then scrambled back into Warhorse. No sooner than he was seated then her set the cockpit to close after laying his implant into the magnetic attachment. Then he quickly buckled himself in and settled in.

Looking at the Tick, he saw the red box flicker, turn green, then blue. A series of entries came back that Wayne couldn’t make heads or tails of.

Though he could guess.

There was an emoji next to each entry, amusingly enough. Almost as if the AI he’d eaten, wasn’t entirely gone, was aware of his inability to understand, and was attempting to compensate.

The first entry was a sword, which likely meant to break through whatever was there.

The second a skull, which more than likely was to eradicate the entirety of the data.

The third a save symbol, as if to download it, but he imagined they’d have to break in first. Then he sighed and growled.

Reaching out he tapped at his communications and pushed over from his private channel and group channel, to the command channel. He knew Wendy was working with a lot of different people to keep him in the know and keep things moving, but he needed to get into this.

It also meant trusting her more.

“Witty and Attractive Captain?” Wayne tried. “Any chance you’re available?”

“Oh I’m definitely available. Are we going out on another date? Last night’s dinner was great,” Wendy said with a warm laugh. “While we’re at it, can I ask you out for dinner tomorrow and the day after?”

Wendy had literally been taking him to dinner almost every single day since they landed on planet. For two weeks, she would pilot a skipper down, pick him up off the base, and take him up to the station and take him to dinner.

With Miriam working with Josephine, Tink back at the newly named Station Steeple, Wayne had assumed he’d just eat in the mess hall and go to bed.

Right up until Wendy had shown up and carried him off.

To be fair, she’d been rather animated, fun to talk to, and rather personable.

Wendy has died, Long Live the Wendy.

Cause fuck has it been a massive turn around.

Holy hell.

“That’s fine, Wendy. I… okay, so, I’m not normal, you know this. You just don’t know how. I’m a Lode. I break AIs. I have a weird chip in my Walker that lets me run a Walker rather than frying it,” Wayne explained quickly. “My implant is black market, my eye is fake, and I’m a Lode, with a strange chip. I eat AI and then they become like… onboard AI to my implant.

“Now, I have a cyber-attack AI in my head. I just booted into this damn Tick we captured from House Zane. I can’t read what the display is because it’s probably in Dashi. Can I describe it to you and you give me what you think it is?”

There was dead silence on the other end of the line for several seconds, followed by a sigh.

“Well that explains a lot and why it always felt weird with how often you broke Walkers,” she murmured. “Your secret is safe with me. And yes… describe the words and I’ll translate for you.”

“Great, okay. So… the first is—”