Black Market Merchant

Special Officer Hawkins had done as he was last directed and made his faux exit of Moab City. He and the rest of his forces boarded their Hover Transport Ship Class 3 being sure to allow the Moab City surveillance units to see them doing so. They then proceeded to fly out of the city’s air space, which was only twenty kilometers past the city limits as per the International City State Conglomerate Accord (ICSCA), before proceeding to engage their astral projection cells and radar deflection optimized to its maximum.

Then taking further evasive maneuvers, the ship was then piloted to rise above the ground to two thousand meters. It was here they would be safe from being in danger of collisions with other aircraft and wait for the Light Class Robotics Transportation (LCTR) hover craft to arrive. While they waited Hawkins and his men were not going to be idle. They had left behind their Osprey Drone, still under IO Gill’s watch, to monitor the site of the dead Hoard Mother and all that was going around the area outside of Moab City.

Sitting in his captain’s chair, which was situated at the center of a horseshoe shaped control panel, Hawkins watched the footage the Osprey Drone sent and began to plan how the new unnamed robotic soldiers would proceed. He had undergone numerous simulations commanding robotic soldiers before and even live missions to contain riots. However, these new types baffled him.

From the redacted information he had been given it did not give much insight on how these robotic solider would manage during the operation. What was their top speed, the strength and variation of their firepower, or was their AI reaction speed good with receiving ever changing commands; these we all unavailable to them. These were all crucial in the way he would map out their movements and strategies. Yet these redacted files listed nothing of the sort; meaning he was going into this mission mostly blind.

Hawkins sighed heavily before addressing a soldier on his right. “What is the status of Second Lieutenant Caswell and the Twisted back at the town?”

The soldier quickly opened a yellow colored holo-projection of listed reports from the Second Lieutenant. “Last message says briefly that the base is untouched, the town population suffered heavy casualties, yet the Skull, Mad Dogs, ERM, and the Cyborg Unit’s 56 and 24 are still alive. The mini hoard was eventually forced away by the unexpected arrival of the Sun People. The report says the Sun People used their secret gas concoction to do so.”

“Hmm, that is indeed unexpected. How did the two cyborg units handle fighting with the baby Hoard Mother?” Hawkins asked. “Did they show off any of the skills we need to be aware of?”

“Report states that 24 was the only one to directly make contact with the Twisted, whereas 56 remained passive and only provided minimal sniper support.” The soldier replied scanning the message further. “24 did use her Advanced Armament: Stage Two to combat the baby Hoard Mother, but only in a limited manner. As to why, remains uncertain.”

Hawkins raised an eyebrow hearing this. “Oh, did the Second Lieutenant attach a video of the incident?”

“Yes sir.” The soldier replied as he double tapped the holo-projection with his index finger twice. The image of a paused video appeared on the Hover Transport Ship’s front window. “Here is the specific edited clip.”

The video began to play nearer to the end of the fight, and it showed Lisa, 24, in her Stage Two form. She was currently on the back of the Party Badger protecting it from the baby Hoard Mothers attacks as it was being pushed towards the cliffs edge. Her neon green glow and enlarged form was easily recognizable.

“It does indeed look like the videos we have on file.” Hawkins said after watching for a moment. “I would also like to point out that even in this form she was still unable to deal much damage to the baby Hoard Mother. Either she was holding back, or the Twisted’s hide is just that impenetrable. I only see the eyes of the baby Hoard Mother are still in the process of healing.”

Hawkins then recalled how 24 had attacked and destroyed the Hummer when they first came in contact. He then opened his own controls to minimize the video on the window screen and in its place open a document of his own. “This shows that we have all the more reason to succeed in this mission. If we can take the subsequent list of materials here, our robotics and Mech forces defenses will be improved greatly. There is no room for failure, and nothing is out of the question. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir!” All the AFR soldiers around the horseshoe shaped control panel chanted in unison.

As soon as they finished saying this a small beeping noise drew a soldier’s attention. “Special Officer, a transmission is coming in from two of our own ships. The signal code matches the one for the LCRTs that were sent our way.”

“Good. Have them go to the predetermined Landing Zone (LZ) and begin deployment. Have the robotic units from ship A go into place first and have ship B remain in reserve.” Hawkins replied sitting up in his seat.

Opening the footage from the Osprey Drone to display it on the window screen, Hawkins then used a laser pointer to explain the following plan. “As you all can clearly see here the main target of interest, the Hoard Mother’s corpse, is on an open plateau of relatively open desert scrubland. It will be hard for any forces to come anywhere near it without being seen by the Moab City defenses that have already been placed in a double ringed circular patter around the corpse. Both ICAD-18’s and artillery trucks are poised to take on anything within their range. As such we will not be attacking the Hoard Mothers corpse.”

“We are attacking the supply lines, correct?” One of the soldiers on Hawkins left announced.

“Exactly.” Hawkins answered forgoing the interruption. “The problem is the transportation vehicles are being guided by ICADs along a road being surveilled by tanks placed on peak points along the way. In order to get to these vehicles, the unnamed robotics forces we have will supposedly need to takeout these tanks and ICADs, seize the materials, and get away without leaving evidence behind, all before the Moab City reinforcements can react with additional ICADs or worse, air support.”

“If the unnamed robotic soldiers are anything like the new models, they shouldn’t have to many issues doing this. Our firepower and AI targeting is much more advanced.” Another soldier from the right said.

“This maybe so, but the strength of these units is not going to be key. It will be their speed. Even if we shootdown anything that tried to overtake them, if a single one of our own units is compromised, destroyed or identified, this will eventually link us to the crime.” Hawkins replied. “We need to remain covert.”

“So, how will the plan go?” A soldier on the left asked.

Hawkins pointed his laser pointer at the window screen and began circling a spot. “One third of the distance away from the corpse is a low spot in the terrain. Running lengthwise to the cities plasma wall in this low spot is a small cliff enclosed creek. This creek runs north towards the LZ and ship A before turning westward and back to the Colorado River. The main force of unnamed robotics will sneak down this route to intercept the transportation vehicles we will target.”

“The vehicles we target must be determined minutes before they leave the corpse and in the few additional minutes before they reached the creek interception point, our unnamed units must first make it there unseen. I do not need to stress how hard this will be, especially considering how little we know about these units speed and agility in rough, cramp terrain. To further their chances, a small detachment of these unnamed units will use a long-ranged attack to hit the tanks stationed just outside of the City’s plasma wall. Thus, drawing the attention of the defenses and human personnel. It will be then the main force will engage the transport vessels and seize the materials.”

Hawkins looked about him at the soldiers expectantly. “Are there any questions?”

“Yes sir.” One soldier on his right at the far end of the control panel said while raising a hand. “What if the City’s defenses give chase to either the main or detached unit? Will we engage or retreat leaving the materials behind to slow them down?”

Hawkins thought for a moment. “I will assume they will engage regardless of whatever happens. We will do neither option, or at least not directly.” Hawkins then pointed the laser back at the window screen. “The LZ is located behind this row of hills. The detached unit will be sniping from here and will be able to provide enough distraction from the air defenses coming from the city. It will be up to the main unnamed unit to retreat with the materials away from the defenders surrounding the corpse. It will be from these ranged based units that we will be likely to have the most trouble with.”

“I will prioritize giving up our identification rather than the materials. Even if we receive political backlash from this, not many other countries will be in favor of siding with an isolated City State with only local strategic importance. In the long run its better we have the materials to strengthen ourselves. So, in light of that, the ship B units will be setting up a two-sided trap if the main unit is followed. The most direct route to the LZ is through this small canyon. It will be here the trap will be laid.”

The soldier that was keeping watch on the LTCRs progress spoke up. “Sir, the ships have arrived at the LZ. Shall we begin? The program and instructions you have input are ready too.”

Hawkins closed the window screen and opened it back to the Osprey Drones footage. “Let’s begin by getting all the unnamed units into place. Then we will specifically watch for the materials being loaded at the corpse. I want all eyes watching the contents being loaded. Once we exceed half of the list, we will strike.”