Walker Brigade - Book of Incidents

There were several explosions to our right flank when Scans called out, "Contact multiple bogies."

"Fire at will, all squads, fire at will," the Chief called out over all-com. I was busy scanning the area I was in and channeling com signals. The Chief was right beside me. We slowed to a walk as we encountered the M'roby. Most of them jumped up and ran in the opposite direction. Others stood and fought, to no avail.

The pulse blasts and streams of slugs, crisscrossed the field in front of us, twice M'roby slugs hit me, but the Chief vaporized them before they could get off a second shot. We moved forward into the M'roby lines, deeper and deeper, causing a panic among them. Then we spotted it, a defense field, off to our right about two klicks. I tapped the Chief on the shoulder of his walker and pointed to the field. He stopped turning to face me.

"We don't have to do this. We could say we never saw the field."

I just rolled my eyes and I pointed in the direction of the field. We dropped back fifty meters behind the squads and crossed behind them so that we were directly facing the field. We broke through our line and then the M'roby line, headed for the field. Squad leaders were calling the Chief asking him what we were doing.

"Echo One to Green One, you're in charge now sir, make us proud," was all the Chief said to the lieutenant as we disappeared behind some hills.

The Chief had his plasma cannon on auto-fire as we cut a swath through the M'roby we encountered. We took it slow and easy, making sure that we didn't happen on a large group of M'roby before we got to the field. The field was now a hundred meters in front of us. There were five M'roby inside the field working on the generator. We could hear the chatter of the other squads as they tore through the M'roby. Ninety percent of them came running past us on their way to who knows where. The Chief got up and walked with me trailing, right up to the edge of the field.

The M'roby inside caught sight of him and doubled their efforts on the device. Placing the muzzle of his rail-gun just inside the field, the Chief picked the M'roby off one by one. He then indicated that I should go inside and shut the device down if I could.

"Echo squad, rally point my position, ASAP," I head the Chief order as I stepped through the field, then all transmissions cut off.

* * * Max Jones

Becky, who was now on her own, was inside a field, which was now about a hundred meters wide. I had called for my squad to support this little side trip since I couldn't watch all around the field by myself. I didn't want anything to happen to Becky.

As my squad members showed up, I placed them around the field perimeter with orders to keep everyone out of the field. Then I grabbed Akers and pulled her to the side.

"Akers, I want you inside with Latham. I don't care how you do it but keep everyone and everything away from her so she can work. You are to protect the device and Second Latham, and no power weapons. Do you understand?"

"Aye, Chief," she shouted before she stepped inside the field. I saw her trot over to Becky and unlimber her rail-guns.

I was standing there scanning my section of the field perimeter when Green One came dashing toward me.

"Chief explain yourself."

"Orders sir!" I couldn't tell him anything else about the secondary mission Becky and I were on.

"What do you mean orders?" He was green.

"Orders, sir!"

Fox One was now with us and I saw his lips move but didn't hear anything from the comm. He and Green One talked for some time before Green One turned to me.

"We'll talk later, and Chief, you better have a good explanation." He turned and sped off into the distance. Fox One gave me the thumbs up sign, which I returned. He knew what was going on since he had been there many times in the past. I knew I wouldn't be talking to Green One later. Once the operation was over, he would be pulled aside to have things explained to him by the higher ups in the chain of command.

"Echo five, report, front and center," I called out to one of the other female troops. She appeared in front of me within seconds.

"Shonner, go inside and see what's taking so long."

"Aye, Chief." She ducked inside and trotted over to Akers and Becky. Becky looked up, said something, then went back to work. Shonner turned and trotted back to me.

"Uh..."

"Spit it out, Shonner."

"Well, Chief, Second Latham said to tell you..."

"Tell me what?"

"She would be done when she was done, and for you to quit bothering her." Shonner was looking really nervous.

"Right, back to your post." She was gone before I finished.

So we would wait. In the meantime, I placed a call to DevTech on the assigned frequency. The only reply I got was a 'received'.

* * * Becky Latham

I stepped into the field expecting what happened last time. It took a few seconds, but the tingling on my skin started. I trotted over to the device, placed my walker in standby and dismounted. Looking down at the field generator, if that's what it was, I studied the pattern of lights and slide switches. There were two button like things on the side of what I assumed was the control panel.

I jumped at the gentle touch on my shoulder. Spinning around, I saw Akers standing over me and smiling.

"The Chief wanted me in here to protect you." For some reason, the comms were working inside the field.

"That's just dandy. Thanks, Akers." I turned back to the panel in front of me and tried to figure out how or what would turn it off.

"Second Latham?" I turned to see Christine Shonner from my squad standing over me.

"What?" I said softly.

"Chief wants to know what the holdup is and when you might be done." I almost exploded but realized that she was just the messenger.

"Tell the Chief...tell him...I'll be finished when I'm finished. God, he's such a bonehead sometimes." That got a giggle out of Shonner and Akers.

"Should I include the bonehead part?"

"Only if you like getting chewed out." I turned back to work and Shonner sped off to tell the Chief what I said.

"Damn. I got two buttons here, at least I think they're buttons, but I have no idea what they do. They could turn this thing off or make it explode," I said aloud, but talking to myself.

"What color are they?" Akers asked scanning the horizon.

"The top one is blue and the bottom one is shaded toward purple, why do you ask?"

"The lobsters' color vision is shifted in the longwave spectrum, so blue would look green and purple would look red. Does that help?"

Hell if I knew, but if I followed our logic, green was on and red was off. I pressed the red button, the lights went out, and my ears were flooded with com chatter. Looking around, I saw that the field was down.

"Echo squad, maintain perimeter. Watch for DevTech, they should be along shortly." I turned and saw the Chief approaching our position as I started to climb back into my walker.

"Good job, Latham."

"It wasn't me, Akers did it."

"Akers!"

"Chief, it wasn't me, it was all Sec Latham. I just remembered something from a brief I read on the lobsters." Akers was backing away as she talked. As she finished she turned and headed back to her team.

"What was that all about?" I asked the Chief.

"You'll find out one of these days," was all the Chief said to me, as he turned to scan the horizon.

* * * Max Jones

I was scanning the horizon for DevTech when on all-com Scans shouted.

"Contact bearing one-eight-five true, distance one hundred klicks, fifty klicks AG and descending." So they were coming by airbus.

"Roger, Scans, that should be DevTech."

It was confirmed seconds later by an all-hands broadcast. The airbus lumbered out of the sky toward our position.

"Echo Squad, collapse to twenty meters from my position."

The airbus now had plenty of room to land outside our perimeter. As it touched down the landing pads sunk into the ground about a foot. It must be loaded down with a lot of equipment. As the forward ramp lowered four Mark X, state of the art walkers waited to disembark. The ramp hit the ground, and the four walkers glided out of the airbus followed by ground transport and several armored figures.

"Chief Jones, front and center," came over the comm. The lead Mark X had a flashing marker light. I headed over to it.

"Chief Jones, reporting," I just stood there waiting.

"Second Latham, front and center," the disembodied voice called again. Becky slid up next to me without a sound.

"Second Latham, reporting."

"Report."

"What?" I asked.

"Who?" Becky asked.

"How does that piece of equipment work?"

"And, to whom am I talking?" I waved Becky to silence.

"It doesn't matter. Now, tell me everything you know about that piece of equipment."

"I regret to inform you that the information you requested is classified under Section 405 subsection b. It will, however, be included in my After Action Report, which will then be classified under said section. If you have the clearance necessary you can read my report." Silence, nothing but silence filled my helmet.

"...ell. Chief, I am Captain Phenius Brook, DevSecCom Pacifica. I will flash my clearance to you and your Second." His clearance flashed in my HUD along with his picture and orders.

"Now wasn't that easier?" God, sometimes I could be such a smartass, especially when it came to dealing with my father's section. "Becky, tell him what he wants to know."

"The purple button turns it off, sir."

"And?" Captain Brook asked.

"That's all I know sir." Becky tried to shrug her shoulders but that's hard to do in armor and attached to a walker.

"Do you know how to turn it on?"

"No, sir."

The Captain's faceplate cleared and we could see the exasperated expression on his face. My HUD now showed we were on a private, secure com channel. The com light was blinking pink. I had never seen it blink pink, and I was amazed since I had heard through scuttlebutt that pink would mean no record of the conversation as long as it was blinking.

"Chief, we are now totally private, no recording, and no uplink to command. Could you please tell me whatever you know about this damn thing?"

"My old man breathing down your neck Captain?" I asked.

"Yes," was all Brook said, as he rolled his eyes.

"Becky, tell him everything."

"Aye, Chief. I think the blue button turns it on, and I know the purple one turns it off. The sliders work in combination somehow to increase the size and strength of the field, but I don't know which ways to move them or what. Also, the inside of the field is lethal to males. And laser com works inside the field."

"Thank you. You don't know how much..." He paused as he listened to another com call. "Roger. Ok, you two can rejoin your unit. They are ten klicks to the east mopping up the M'roby."

"Aye, Captain," I responded for both of us.

The pink light turned to green in my HUD and all-com blared in my speakers.

"Mark Tens. How I would love to get my hands on one of those," Becky said as she longingly watched the Mark X's float around the Airbus.

"Fat chance," was all I could say.

* * * Max Jones

We had surrounded the M'roby in a fortification with a bunker in the middle they had built in the foothills. Our group of walkers was placed on the perimeter around the bunker, while the Marines were pulled back in a defensive formation between the spaceport and us. Major Sykes had relieved Green One and issued a freeze order at twenty-one hundred hours. As far as we could see, there were only about five hundred M'roby left defending that bunker. Of course, we didn't know what was in the bunker. Our sensors were having a hard time penetrating the rock formations the bunker was built in.

Our outside mics were picking up the twittering. It sounded like twigs rubbing together. They appeared to be talking to each other.

"Chief, put a call into DevTech, would you? Maybe we can find out what they are saying," the Major asked.

"Sure sir. Echo One to Captain Brook." I waited.

"Brook here, what can I do for you, Chief?" the Captain replied a few seconds later.

"Captain, Major Sykes thinks your tech guys might want to scramble over here and see if they can tell what these lobsters are saying to each other."

"You can hear them talking?"

"Yes, sir. He thought you might want to take a look-see for yourself."

"We'll be right there." Then silence.

"Major, they'll be here in a minute or so." It was a minute and a half before they showed up. The Mark X's came off first followed by ten technicians with equipment strapped to their backs. Captain Brooks trotted over to me.

"Chief, thanks for the invite. We have been trying to listen in on their conversations for months now."

"No problem, Captain." I gave him a thumbs-up sign as he turned to leave.

The techies ran around the perimeter recording things for about twenty minutes or so then ran back inside the airbus, which shut its ramp.

"Chief, safe your squad's weapons, put half your squad to sleep," the Major ordered.

"Aye, sir. Echo Squad weapons to safe. Echo two, four, six, eight, ten and twelve sleep." Half my squad was now asleep, and all my squad had its weapons on safe and we were in a freeze.

Twenty minutes into the freeze, All-Com came alive with the twittering of the M'roby. Soon it was answered by a different pitched twittering. Apparently, the tech boys have broken the language barrier, and are in the process of talking to the M'roby.

"Chief, wake your squad up."

"Aye, Major, Echo squad, wake." I knew the sleepers wouldn't consciously hear the wake command, but they would wake up.

"Chief, move your squad back one hundred meters."

"Echo squad move back one hundred meters, execute."

"Freeze 'em, Chief."

"Echo squad freeze." The twittering went on and on as it turned dark and still, they talked.

After about three hours, four fresh squads arrived to relieve us and still the talks continued. While we didn't return to base, there were chow wagons set up just behind the Marines defensive position. The Marines had their own chow wagons spaced along the line. Racks for our walkers were set up around our chow wagon.

"Alright, everyone, rack your walkers and shed your armor. Let's eat," I said as I backed my walker into a rack. Two of the Mark X walkers showed up and racked their walkers alongside ours. The squad trotted over to the chow wagon to get out of the cold of the high plains.

* * * Becky Latham

Mop up of the M'roby was nothing less than silly. If a woman approached their position, they would run away. If men approached, then an all-out firefight would ensue. We really didn't want to kill any of them we didn't have to, but it was looking as if they would die until the last man.

They had all pulled back to what looked like an underground bunker of some kind. We now surrounded them; there was no escape, yet they fought on. The Marines had been ordered back and the squads that had been part of the flanking maneuver were on the perimeter, back about two hundred meters from the bunker. Echo squad was on the eastern side of the perimeter. Major Sykes, a veteran the Chief admired, had replaced Green One.

We waited in a circle around approximately five hundred M'roby. We were close enough to hear them twittering to each other. All weapons on our side had quit firing, as had the M'roby. As long as we kept our distance at about two hundred meters, they didn't have a problem with us. We stood out in the open like statues around that bunker. Shortly after we took over the airbus from DevTech showed up, offloading the four Mark X's and ten technicians with sound and recording equipment.

The Mark X's took up post around the airbus as the technicians scurried around the perimeter recording the twittering from around the bunker. This went on for about twenty minutes, then the technicians pulled back to the airbus and went inside. Major Sykes issued a freeze order as the airbus ramp closed leaving the Mark X's outside. We stood, waiting, for what seemed like hours. Orders to safe our weapons came down and I was ordered to sleep by the Chief along with half the squad.

A loud twittering in my ears woke me. For a moment, I thought the M'roby were inside my suit but I soon realized that the twittering was coming from the com. It would appear that the DevTech boys had worked out the M'roby language. There was now another twittering coming over the com, different from the first. It seemed that we were now talking to them and them to us. Now maybe we would find out why we were here or maybe not.

The chat went on and on, meanwhile, we were still in a freeze.

"Echo Squad, move back one hundred meters." Max's voice sounded disgusted. I could hear the other squads being given the same order.

"Echo squad freeze." Again, we waited. The twittering became calmer on the comm. Looking toward the bunker I could see that the M'roby were more relaxed as they waited.

After three hours of waiting, we were relieved and sent back for chow.

* * * Max Jones

We entered the chow wagon in a good mood, as it appeared that the action with the M'roby might be over. The inside of the wagon was warm and clean, as we were the first ones to enter. The squad lined up behind me as I went down the line getting my plate filled with food. I was starving. Then the two men from the Mark X's entered, and all heads turned toward them. The first one was Captain Brooks, the other I didn't know. I continued to get my food and found a table. Becky joined me with a stack of pancakes and sausage covered in syrup. We started eating as if we hadn't eaten in a week. Was it really only this morning?

The rest of the squad found a big table where they could all sit close by. Captain Brook and his companion stood looking around the wagon. The Captain spoke softly to his companion, then came over to our table, while his companion headed for the table next to the one where the squad was sitting.

"May I join you, Chief?"

"Sure, Captain, have a seat," I told him. He sat in the chair next to me and across from Becky. He was all smiles as he set his tray down.

"Chief, you can call me Phinn while we're in the wagon," he said to me, but he was smiling at Becky.

"Well Phinn, I'm Max, and this is Becky." I smiled as he extended his hand to Becky.

"Nice to meet you, Max. Becky, it's a real pleasure to meet you."

"Why, thank you, Phinn. It's a pleasure to meet you, too." Becky was really laying it on thick. Her voice dripped with all the sweetness of the syrup on her pancakes. He set down a device next to his tray; it was black and had a loop antenna.

"What do you have there, Phinn?" I asked, nodding my head toward the device.

"Nothing," he replied, pressing the solitary button on the front. A display came to life, which he watched for a few seconds.

"Ok, now we can talk. All bugs and listening devices within ten meters are now hearing static," he said, looking around the room.

"What about video?" Becky asked.

"That is now recording nothing but snow."

"Well, then, to what do owe this honor?"

"I just wanted to say thanks again for earlier. And..."

"Here it comes," I said, poking Becky in the ribs with my elbow.

"I thought I would tell you what's going on in the talks with the M'roby."

"Now, why would you want to do that?" There was something else involved, I couldn't put my finger on it, and I couldn't articulate what it was. But there was something up.

"I just thought you should know, along with some other things that are going to happen in the future."

"And, just what would that be?" Becky sat in silence watching the two of us spar with each other.

"Just let him talk, Max," she told, me poking me in the ribs with her elbow, hard.