Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 15:07:40 GMT
Varras System: Union Space
Nahl checked over the power capacitors one more time. It was the fourth check today but it never paid to be too careful. This was untested technology after all and despite the best efforts of both the entire research division and their Dirge engineering allies the reactor still had glitches here and there. Most had been ironed out and alignments changed so that they were no longer a problem but there were still some left. They were not important however they were primarily In the subsystems not the reactor systems itself and Nahl was confident that it would work like it had the past two times.
Only this time they would have an audience. Nahl looked to the observation window, seeing Carnaithian, Artificia and RSC representatives alongside Dirge and Union overseeing the progress to begin the start-up sequence and smiled giving a nod. He hadn’t expected guests but then there was a large wargames operation going on planetside and HICOM had seen this as an opportunity to show off the latest joint project to those who were attending as a selling point for technological integration with the Dirge. Nahl didn’t really care for the politics only for the scientific advancements that would come of projects like this.
He sighed as he completed the capacitor check, looking up at the reactor proper, it was an odd looking thing a strange hybrid between some organic living tower and an organised non organic reactor system. It looked alien within the confines of the huge circular room, not at home with the aesthetic around it but it could seamlessly be integrated into other technology thanks to the nature of Dirge technology.
The time was approaching criticality as the start-up sequence had been initiated, Nahl now stood in front of the reactor and began to speak to the assembled observers, he aimed to give a complex run down of its workings, if he could show the marvel of this kind of technology it very well might turn the tide in the war.
“This unique reactor as you can see here uses subspace tapping combined with Union Zero point energy collection to tap into another realm and use its own vacuum energy to provide power with near limitless possibility and no waste products. Between both Union and Dirge subspace scanning we located a particular dimensional state that had very high levels of vacuum energy, harnessing this is far more substantial than our own pocket dimension harvesting and as you can see power levels here are massive and the reactor is still warming up” Nahl gestured as the information streamed across the observation window showing huge power production. The reactor itself beginning to glow through specialised regions a dull red colour “As the reactor reaches its maximum power outage it will be able to power some of the most prestigious weaponry and technology in the AGA on a tiny vessel, imagine refitting our fleets entirely with these reactors and seeing the capability of our ships skyrocket for a fraction of the cost of replacing them with new designs, we could win the war within a year with the increase for shielding systems it would provide alone” He smiled.
An alarm sounded as Nahl and the observers turned to see the reactor was now humming loudly, and with a strange undertone to it. The red light was now turning into a strange purple colour as readings skyrocketed beyond anything seen before.
“What the hell is happening? Shut it down!” Nahl shouted. The technician shouted back that it was impossible.
“Then power shunt to the rest of this planets facilities we have contingences for this!” Nahl could feel his fear rising. One of the Dirge forms frantically tried to input the reactor shut down codes both manually and through linkage.
“It is no good, something has happened we are detecting massive energy spikes within the core… Sir these readings…” Someone called out.
The observers were already being evacuated as Nahl shouted for them to also be evacuated but it was too late. The reactor seemed to blur slightly as a yawning vortex tore itself open inside the chamber, those caught near it were dragged in screaming. The facility began to shake violently as the room began to collapse, Nahl hit the floor as a piece of material hit him full square on the head, crawling away the last thing he saw was the portal widening and the leering face of something horribly inhuman tear its way through before the entire room collapsed on top of him.
---
The foliage was thick, but that didn’t stop them.
The team of ten swiftly made their way through the thick undergrowth, their dampeners softing any noise they made as their optical and sensor stealth systems kept them hidden, both passively inbuilt into their armour and active from the systems they carried on their backpacks the Union Ghosts were almost totally invisible as they moved towards their objective. There was no talking between them just a pre made plan that would be followed to the letter. The ten men quickly got into position, the enemy target was an ammunition dump, heavily guarded with vehicles and infantry but it was active non the less. The Ghosts took positions as silent confirmations came into the network signifying that the allied recon units had also gotten into position. On the mark Vyos brought out the marker lighting up the enemy dump for a precision artillery strike, his allies would do the same triangulating the target for perfect accuracy. He could see the enemy moving round, and he had to be quick a patrol was coming this way. Another silent ping on his HUD signified the strike was on its way, the Union Ghosts then pulled back quickly, a rapid barrage of several cluster missiles from a Union and Carnaithian MRLS battery was launched from far behind the lines, the missiles taking a minute before the entire ammo dump was destroyed in a fantastic display of pyrotechnics. Waiting for a moment the signifier of ‘Mission complete’ appeared on Vyos and their squads HUDs. Sighing they deactivated their stealth systems and their HUDs, their enemies were pure holograms. The powerful servers of Varras had been chosen to in load a full APP tactical assault force, uploaded to each soldiers HUD the combined wargames was an AGA effort to train both new and old soldiers in fighting the APP and working together. The enemies they fought were merely holograms but the missions were real and everything was done with live fire.
Vyos and his men walked over to the large smoking craters where the imagined ammo dump had been, expecting to see his fellow allied recon squads at any time now. As well as their Dirge observers who were on planet anyway and they had attached several war forms to squads and units to oversee how the allies operated and in places taking part in the wargames too.
“Mission complete 10/10 top marks as always, these allied squads are pretty good sir” One trooper remarked. Vyos smiled and nodded.
“Yes they are, im glad we are working with them, the APP won’t know what hit them when we all see action, quite literally”
By comparison, the Unanimity force had been much less subtle in their approach. Then again, their objective was a distraction, not the strike, so subtlety wasn't their goal in the first place. If anything, the loudness of their weapons was wanted. So as the AUGF soldiers ducked from cover to cover, their guns returned fire with a loud, raucous cacophony, their muzzle flashes easily visible from the Union position.
"Squad! To the crater, now!" the squad leader, Sergeant Zhari, called over short range comms, the soldiers rushing one by one into the blackened crater.
"Marks, what're we up against?" she glanced over at the marksman.
"Like, I dunno, a few dozen? I'm seeing some armour, too." he called, briefly peering out through his scope.
"These guys are small time!" one of the privates laughed, opening up in bursts at the oncoming soldiers. That was, before a return shot hit his helmet, the front plate narrowly deflecting the shot. "Woah, shit." was his only comment.
"Alright, keep em down troopers! Gotta push em back into the blast radius! Airstrike inbound!" Zhari ordered, met with nods from the soldiers, various rifles and the one belt-fed MG thundering, several of their targets dropping.
"Inbound, down!" she called again, the soldiers dropping behind cover as the strike landed. All signals from the APP force blinked out.
"All IFF signatures, blank! Ammo cache destroyed! Objective completed." the Corporal, Kuyr, sighed.
"Alright, good job team! Any casualties?"
"The Private's dignity, maybe." the gunner chuckled.
"Hey, I got more of them then they did of me."
"Don't always rely on luck, Private, your armour will only stop so much." the Sergeant sighed as she stood up, the soldiers slowly clambering out of the crater, Zhari waving at the Union squad.
"Alright men, let's link up with our friendlies. Maybe we can get a drink after this."
After a moment the Private pulled off his helmet, glancing at what had been an APP position.
"Wait, where the fuck did they go?" he called. "There were bodies everywhere a second ago!"
"VR sim, trooper." the Gunner huffed. "Holograms."
"We--We've been--we've been shooting holograms?!"
"Yup."
"Are none of you bothered by the fact we've essentially been shooting, like, ghosts or something?!"
"I had a moment like this before the sim. Were you not listening?" the marksman glanced over. The Private shook his head in utter disbelief before he looked in the direction of the Union soldiers.
"Holograms?! Really?!"
The RSC squad under Staff Sergeant Kesar Shulgin emerged from the night in their camouflaged gear, at least one trooper lighting up a cig now that they were breaking into the open... though they did cover it regardless. A trooper in a long camo poncho was sheathing their S-1, the other soldiers in the 12 man unit removing the suppressors from their AK-246 rifles. Judging from the harsh grins of grim satisfaction on the faces of some soldiers without balaclavas and a few others in the process of reloading, they'd run into an 'APP' patrol in the jungle.
That 'APP' patrol evidently had not expected close contact with RSC recon troops, and had paid the price for it. Shulgin slung his rifle onto his back as he turned off the NV filter for his HUD, heading towards the Union and AU squads. He'd heard the Artificia private's remarks about holograms as they'd approached, and while he respected the AU for their tenacity and skill he bit back a sarcastic comment about the soldier feeling bad about it. Sarcasm is sarcasm, as they say. Some of his soldiers wandered over to say hello and trade small items and food with both the Union and AU troops, be it spare batteries, a packet of instant coffee, chewing gum, things like that. They were allies and there was no reason to stop it, so Shulgin didn't. Besides, doing harmless little things like this were good for morale.
"Comrade Vyos," the staff sergeant said, nodding to the Union squad leader coming to a stop.
"Good strike on that ammo dump, the buggers never knew what hit them. Encountered three APP patrols on the way here, all three of them taken down. Only one wound, and that one was light. Any trouble on your end?"
Though they came to the war games all identical, amd for all intents and purpose generic units, each now held a unique form. They adapted quickly to the allied groups they had attached themselves to, amd lacking any dedicated , unified force, supplemented the allied squads with extreme effeciency.
Now that the games had come to a close they more or less lazed about the area. Lacking any personality, or individuality they were difficult to tell apart, with the exeption of spare name tags pitched in from the varied squads. They generally just observed the socialization, speaking only when spoken to, or to interject whenever the Dirge were directly referanced.
Carnaithian MMLS systems weren't quite as obvious as their shell sizes would suggest, as the simultaneous approach with the Union systems evidenced, thought Lesser Sergeant Dukes as his fireteam jogged back towards the central component of the squadron. The Dirge battleform, shaped into some parallel of a field gun, cooling as its massive legs scuttled past each other along the bottom and sides of the creature to keep up with the EXO-equipped Carnaithians. As he made the swift movement of unjamming his new-issued railgun - merely the movement of using the charging handle - he noticed a single red dot out of the fifteen-man squad, and another yellow. He charged into the clearing just as the third fireteam did the same, the combat lifesaver of the central element tending to the nervous interface of a "downed" trooper.
"Ondis caught a hardlight slug to the throat as he popped up. Nervous interface kicked in and simulated the whole picture, holo-projectors spewing blood and all," Corporal Wakoa Said to Dukes and the third element leader, Corporal Matherson, in a soft voice that didn't quite fit her rank. "Koid says that those Union nervous interfaces even simulated Carnaithian anatomy, too," She continued, pointing to the medic as the downed trooper shot up, screaming and backing away as he awoke from simulated death, bringing laughter from everyone in the fifteen-man squadron except the two lifesavers and the lead medic.
"We're used to virtual reality beds. You die, you shoot back into the bed and know you're still alive. These things," Koid continued, motioning to the interface on his armor, "simulate the real deal. Give my pal Ondis some ease," The man announced as he stood. "What say we head back and link up with the other three units?"
"You heard the medicine man," Dukes announced to the team as he walked past Koid, who towered another whole head above the Lesser Sergeant, a title that the squadron always joked about when off duty. The fifteen men didn't drop the act just because the projectors had stopped playing; they had pulled the interdiction straw, and caught glimpses of the Unanimity squad as they pulled out of their defensive positions across the clearing. 'Twenty kilometers an hour jogging,' Dukes thought to himself. 'The projections for these new suits weren't off by much this time,' he cut off as he refocused, steering well clear of the bioplasma that had clipped the ass end of an approaching holographic breacher vehicle. Within a few minutes, the tiered arrow formations of the fireteams, trailed by the battleform, pulled into the clearing surrounding the sizable crater. 'three minutes a kilometer,' he smiled to himself as some fist-bumps and helmet-taps were made.
"What's the sitrep on the overall front?" he loudly asked.
Vyos watched as the other allied units formed up on his position, the various forces beginning to talk and check equipment and go over post battle plans for what had transpired. Vyos himself assembling the squad leaders around in a small circle before replying to Dukes first.
"Overall front looks good, with this ammo dump destroyed the line can advance some 20 miles east, our next mission was supposed to be scoping out enemy artillery emplacements mainly Capitol Zeus SPGs but mission changed just before we pounced on this dump, the lines been saying hold until further orders for the past 30 minutes the fact we havent got any seems strange perhaps their suffering from server lag or some shit" He said aloud to the squad leaders.
"I suspect we should take up a move formation to where the artillery was supposed to be, better the objective we had than the objective we dont know and HICOM can judge our move however they want. Whats the sitrep of your squads?" Vyos asked after drawing the locations he mentioned with a stick on the ground rather than giving away their position by using his bright holocomputer, despite the fact they were not in a true combat zone training still kicked in.
"One light wounded from a graze, but our medics got them and they're fine." Shulgin stated, looking at the map. "Three total magazines of ammo expended, all else still ready to go."
He looked over at his men chatting and trading with the Aritifica, and as he watched packets of instant coffee changing hands he sighed. He noted that they were going to be down a bit of consumables because of that, but it was nothing critical.
"All accounted for, though the Private took a shot to the helmet. He'll live. Hopefully." Zhari shrugged, gesturing to the soldier still shouting about holograms, now getting shoved along by the gunner.
"Maybe the server's got something up. AI director got a bug, maybe?" she suggested. "We could always ask."
Nahl checked over the power capacitors one more time. It was the fourth check today but it never paid to be too careful. This was untested technology after all and despite the best efforts of both the entire research division and their Dirge engineering allies the reactor still had glitches here and there. Most had been ironed out and alignments changed so that they were no longer a problem but there were still some left. They were not important however they were primarily In the subsystems not the reactor systems itself and Nahl was confident that it would work like it had the past two times.
Only this time they would have an audience. Nahl looked to the observation window, seeing Carnaithian, Artificia and RSC representatives alongside Dirge and Union overseeing the progress to begin the start-up sequence and smiled giving a nod. He hadn’t expected guests but then there was a large wargames operation going on planetside and HICOM had seen this as an opportunity to show off the latest joint project to those who were attending as a selling point for technological integration with the Dirge. Nahl didn’t really care for the politics only for the scientific advancements that would come of projects like this.
He sighed as he completed the capacitor check, looking up at the reactor proper, it was an odd looking thing a strange hybrid between some organic living tower and an organised non organic reactor system. It looked alien within the confines of the huge circular room, not at home with the aesthetic around it but it could seamlessly be integrated into other technology thanks to the nature of Dirge technology.
The time was approaching criticality as the start-up sequence had been initiated, Nahl now stood in front of the reactor and began to speak to the assembled observers, he aimed to give a complex run down of its workings, if he could show the marvel of this kind of technology it very well might turn the tide in the war.
“This unique reactor as you can see here uses subspace tapping combined with Union Zero point energy collection to tap into another realm and use its own vacuum energy to provide power with near limitless possibility and no waste products. Between both Union and Dirge subspace scanning we located a particular dimensional state that had very high levels of vacuum energy, harnessing this is far more substantial than our own pocket dimension harvesting and as you can see power levels here are massive and the reactor is still warming up” Nahl gestured as the information streamed across the observation window showing huge power production. The reactor itself beginning to glow through specialised regions a dull red colour “As the reactor reaches its maximum power outage it will be able to power some of the most prestigious weaponry and technology in the AGA on a tiny vessel, imagine refitting our fleets entirely with these reactors and seeing the capability of our ships skyrocket for a fraction of the cost of replacing them with new designs, we could win the war within a year with the increase for shielding systems it would provide alone” He smiled.
An alarm sounded as Nahl and the observers turned to see the reactor was now humming loudly, and with a strange undertone to it. The red light was now turning into a strange purple colour as readings skyrocketed beyond anything seen before.
“What the hell is happening? Shut it down!” Nahl shouted. The technician shouted back that it was impossible.
“Then power shunt to the rest of this planets facilities we have contingences for this!” Nahl could feel his fear rising. One of the Dirge forms frantically tried to input the reactor shut down codes both manually and through linkage.
“It is no good, something has happened we are detecting massive energy spikes within the core… Sir these readings…” Someone called out.
The observers were already being evacuated as Nahl shouted for them to also be evacuated but it was too late. The reactor seemed to blur slightly as a yawning vortex tore itself open inside the chamber, those caught near it were dragged in screaming. The facility began to shake violently as the room began to collapse, Nahl hit the floor as a piece of material hit him full square on the head, crawling away the last thing he saw was the portal widening and the leering face of something horribly inhuman tear its way through before the entire room collapsed on top of him.
---
The foliage was thick, but that didn’t stop them.
The team of ten swiftly made their way through the thick undergrowth, their dampeners softing any noise they made as their optical and sensor stealth systems kept them hidden, both passively inbuilt into their armour and active from the systems they carried on their backpacks the Union Ghosts were almost totally invisible as they moved towards their objective. There was no talking between them just a pre made plan that would be followed to the letter. The ten men quickly got into position, the enemy target was an ammunition dump, heavily guarded with vehicles and infantry but it was active non the less. The Ghosts took positions as silent confirmations came into the network signifying that the allied recon units had also gotten into position. On the mark Vyos brought out the marker lighting up the enemy dump for a precision artillery strike, his allies would do the same triangulating the target for perfect accuracy. He could see the enemy moving round, and he had to be quick a patrol was coming this way. Another silent ping on his HUD signified the strike was on its way, the Union Ghosts then pulled back quickly, a rapid barrage of several cluster missiles from a Union and Carnaithian MRLS battery was launched from far behind the lines, the missiles taking a minute before the entire ammo dump was destroyed in a fantastic display of pyrotechnics. Waiting for a moment the signifier of ‘Mission complete’ appeared on Vyos and their squads HUDs. Sighing they deactivated their stealth systems and their HUDs, their enemies were pure holograms. The powerful servers of Varras had been chosen to in load a full APP tactical assault force, uploaded to each soldiers HUD the combined wargames was an AGA effort to train both new and old soldiers in fighting the APP and working together. The enemies they fought were merely holograms but the missions were real and everything was done with live fire.
Vyos and his men walked over to the large smoking craters where the imagined ammo dump had been, expecting to see his fellow allied recon squads at any time now. As well as their Dirge observers who were on planet anyway and they had attached several war forms to squads and units to oversee how the allies operated and in places taking part in the wargames too.
“Mission complete 10/10 top marks as always, these allied squads are pretty good sir” One trooper remarked. Vyos smiled and nodded.
“Yes they are, im glad we are working with them, the APP won’t know what hit them when we all see action, quite literally”
By comparison, the Unanimity force had been much less subtle in their approach. Then again, their objective was a distraction, not the strike, so subtlety wasn't their goal in the first place. If anything, the loudness of their weapons was wanted. So as the AUGF soldiers ducked from cover to cover, their guns returned fire with a loud, raucous cacophony, their muzzle flashes easily visible from the Union position.
"Squad! To the crater, now!" the squad leader, Sergeant Zhari, called over short range comms, the soldiers rushing one by one into the blackened crater.
"Marks, what're we up against?" she glanced over at the marksman.
"Like, I dunno, a few dozen? I'm seeing some armour, too." he called, briefly peering out through his scope.
"These guys are small time!" one of the privates laughed, opening up in bursts at the oncoming soldiers. That was, before a return shot hit his helmet, the front plate narrowly deflecting the shot. "Woah, shit." was his only comment.
"Alright, keep em down troopers! Gotta push em back into the blast radius! Airstrike inbound!" Zhari ordered, met with nods from the soldiers, various rifles and the one belt-fed MG thundering, several of their targets dropping.
"Inbound, down!" she called again, the soldiers dropping behind cover as the strike landed. All signals from the APP force blinked out.
"All IFF signatures, blank! Ammo cache destroyed! Objective completed." the Corporal, Kuyr, sighed.
"Alright, good job team! Any casualties?"
"The Private's dignity, maybe." the gunner chuckled.
"Hey, I got more of them then they did of me."
"Don't always rely on luck, Private, your armour will only stop so much." the Sergeant sighed as she stood up, the soldiers slowly clambering out of the crater, Zhari waving at the Union squad.
"Alright men, let's link up with our friendlies. Maybe we can get a drink after this."
After a moment the Private pulled off his helmet, glancing at what had been an APP position.
"Wait, where the fuck did they go?" he called. "There were bodies everywhere a second ago!"
"VR sim, trooper." the Gunner huffed. "Holograms."
"We--We've been--we've been shooting holograms?!"
"Yup."
"Are none of you bothered by the fact we've essentially been shooting, like, ghosts or something?!"
"I had a moment like this before the sim. Were you not listening?" the marksman glanced over. The Private shook his head in utter disbelief before he looked in the direction of the Union soldiers.
"Holograms?! Really?!"
The RSC squad under Staff Sergeant Kesar Shulgin emerged from the night in their camouflaged gear, at least one trooper lighting up a cig now that they were breaking into the open... though they did cover it regardless. A trooper in a long camo poncho was sheathing their S-1, the other soldiers in the 12 man unit removing the suppressors from their AK-246 rifles. Judging from the harsh grins of grim satisfaction on the faces of some soldiers without balaclavas and a few others in the process of reloading, they'd run into an 'APP' patrol in the jungle.
That 'APP' patrol evidently had not expected close contact with RSC recon troops, and had paid the price for it. Shulgin slung his rifle onto his back as he turned off the NV filter for his HUD, heading towards the Union and AU squads. He'd heard the Artificia private's remarks about holograms as they'd approached, and while he respected the AU for their tenacity and skill he bit back a sarcastic comment about the soldier feeling bad about it. Sarcasm is sarcasm, as they say. Some of his soldiers wandered over to say hello and trade small items and food with both the Union and AU troops, be it spare batteries, a packet of instant coffee, chewing gum, things like that. They were allies and there was no reason to stop it, so Shulgin didn't. Besides, doing harmless little things like this were good for morale.
"Comrade Vyos," the staff sergeant said, nodding to the Union squad leader coming to a stop.
"Good strike on that ammo dump, the buggers never knew what hit them. Encountered three APP patrols on the way here, all three of them taken down. Only one wound, and that one was light. Any trouble on your end?"
Though they came to the war games all identical, amd for all intents and purpose generic units, each now held a unique form. They adapted quickly to the allied groups they had attached themselves to, amd lacking any dedicated , unified force, supplemented the allied squads with extreme effeciency.
Now that the games had come to a close they more or less lazed about the area. Lacking any personality, or individuality they were difficult to tell apart, with the exeption of spare name tags pitched in from the varied squads. They generally just observed the socialization, speaking only when spoken to, or to interject whenever the Dirge were directly referanced.
Carnaithian MMLS systems weren't quite as obvious as their shell sizes would suggest, as the simultaneous approach with the Union systems evidenced, thought Lesser Sergeant Dukes as his fireteam jogged back towards the central component of the squadron. The Dirge battleform, shaped into some parallel of a field gun, cooling as its massive legs scuttled past each other along the bottom and sides of the creature to keep up with the EXO-equipped Carnaithians. As he made the swift movement of unjamming his new-issued railgun - merely the movement of using the charging handle - he noticed a single red dot out of the fifteen-man squad, and another yellow. He charged into the clearing just as the third fireteam did the same, the combat lifesaver of the central element tending to the nervous interface of a "downed" trooper.
"Ondis caught a hardlight slug to the throat as he popped up. Nervous interface kicked in and simulated the whole picture, holo-projectors spewing blood and all," Corporal Wakoa Said to Dukes and the third element leader, Corporal Matherson, in a soft voice that didn't quite fit her rank. "Koid says that those Union nervous interfaces even simulated Carnaithian anatomy, too," She continued, pointing to the medic as the downed trooper shot up, screaming and backing away as he awoke from simulated death, bringing laughter from everyone in the fifteen-man squadron except the two lifesavers and the lead medic.
"We're used to virtual reality beds. You die, you shoot back into the bed and know you're still alive. These things," Koid continued, motioning to the interface on his armor, "simulate the real deal. Give my pal Ondis some ease," The man announced as he stood. "What say we head back and link up with the other three units?"
"You heard the medicine man," Dukes announced to the team as he walked past Koid, who towered another whole head above the Lesser Sergeant, a title that the squadron always joked about when off duty. The fifteen men didn't drop the act just because the projectors had stopped playing; they had pulled the interdiction straw, and caught glimpses of the Unanimity squad as they pulled out of their defensive positions across the clearing. 'Twenty kilometers an hour jogging,' Dukes thought to himself. 'The projections for these new suits weren't off by much this time,' he cut off as he refocused, steering well clear of the bioplasma that had clipped the ass end of an approaching holographic breacher vehicle. Within a few minutes, the tiered arrow formations of the fireteams, trailed by the battleform, pulled into the clearing surrounding the sizable crater. 'three minutes a kilometer,' he smiled to himself as some fist-bumps and helmet-taps were made.
"What's the sitrep on the overall front?" he loudly asked.
Vyos watched as the other allied units formed up on his position, the various forces beginning to talk and check equipment and go over post battle plans for what had transpired. Vyos himself assembling the squad leaders around in a small circle before replying to Dukes first.
"Overall front looks good, with this ammo dump destroyed the line can advance some 20 miles east, our next mission was supposed to be scoping out enemy artillery emplacements mainly Capitol Zeus SPGs but mission changed just before we pounced on this dump, the lines been saying hold until further orders for the past 30 minutes the fact we havent got any seems strange perhaps their suffering from server lag or some shit" He said aloud to the squad leaders.
"I suspect we should take up a move formation to where the artillery was supposed to be, better the objective we had than the objective we dont know and HICOM can judge our move however they want. Whats the sitrep of your squads?" Vyos asked after drawing the locations he mentioned with a stick on the ground rather than giving away their position by using his bright holocomputer, despite the fact they were not in a true combat zone training still kicked in.
"One light wounded from a graze, but our medics got them and they're fine." Shulgin stated, looking at the map. "Three total magazines of ammo expended, all else still ready to go."
He looked over at his men chatting and trading with the Aritifica, and as he watched packets of instant coffee changing hands he sighed. He noted that they were going to be down a bit of consumables because of that, but it was nothing critical.
"All accounted for, though the Private took a shot to the helmet. He'll live. Hopefully." Zhari shrugged, gesturing to the soldier still shouting about holograms, now getting shoved along by the gunner.
"Maybe the server's got something up. AI director got a bug, maybe?" she suggested. "We could always ask."