Considering the sources of their power, it is not surprising that the second action taken by the new country was to take steps to address climate change and ecological damage from corporations. (The first being the establishment of a strong, standing military.)
The auto industry was forced to comply with draconian vehicle emissions regulations. Public transportation was mandated in all communities. And the establishment of the first true bullet train in North America was driven through despite the protests of many corporations, business owners, and homeowners.
When the nation extended into British Columbia, the rail line was extended and renamed the Eu-Vic. The rail has proven remarkably reliable, despite the antithesis invasion(s). Moving at upwards of 500 kilometers per hour, the train passes before nearly any antithesis is able to react. The most remote portions of the line have been buried as a second layer of protection. With careful monitoring of the path and aggressive sweeps by both hired PMCs and the national military, the only impact the antithesis have made on the railway was in the need to add washing facilities for the lead car at all stops.
--High school report, 2054
***
Fully automated and autonomous trains were easy to keep on time. Not so the bus lines needed for me to get to the train station. I caught the bus at Mega-16 in what I thought would be just enough time to catch the northbound bullet train. Unfortunately, I arrived an hour early and had to sit around waiting.
I sat in the plastic chair and watched the trains come and go while I thought ahead to fighting the Anti’s again. Didir had forwarded a situation report from the military, who had been bombarding the hive with artillery for days, and now they were preparing to move in and finish it off.
It described the likelihood of encountering models in the mid-teens to be “on the upper end of likely to inevitable.” At the end was a synopsis of each of the models covering the strengths and exploitable weaknesses, where known. The farther down the list and the higher the model, the fewer weaknesses were listed, though I had vague intuitions of many vulnerabilities that were not mentioned.
As I read through the list, I considered each model and how I’d fought them in the past, or what it might be like to fight them in the future. As the models grew larger and more protected, I started to worry. Sure, the Deuce Rail could handle heavier rounds than the standard rifle, but a rifle shot was still tiny compared to a Model Twelve, which was easily the size of Trimet’s transit buses I’d just gotten off of. Yes, internal shockwaves would help, as would deeper penetration, but…It didn’t seem enough.
I felt the worry lines creeping across my forehead, and my shoulders hunched. Without thinking, I rubbed my thigh where I’d been stabbed by the M-4 and blacked out. I’d gone in before, thinking I was ready, and it nearly killed me. While I was stronger now, how much was uncertain.
--Simple kinetic damage is so last century. You haven’t even started to explore the variety of rounds you have available. Need to go deeper? I’ve got penetrators. Need to get past armor? I have rounds that can bypass the armor entirely. Need to spread out the damage? High Explosive and Incendiary rounds are cheap, as are Acid and Corrosive delivery rounds.
--Puh-lease!
Her reply dripped with scorn and pushed the word into two syllables.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
--You think we’re using Earth’s simple explosives? One of my HE rounds contains as much explosive power as a modern hand grenade. And it’s more effective than that would imply since it will be going off inside the target, and the charge will be shaped for maximum effect.
--As a railgun, the rounds are all caseless. Almost no weight is lost on gunpowder or the case, so the throw weight will be much higher than you are used to. With effective bullet weights reaching 200 grams, there’s a lot of space to tinker with.
--Of course. It’s a rail gun. All the mass and volume not used on casing and gunpowder can be converted to payload. And the muzzle velocity is often higher than terrestrial rifles. You’re going to have to watch the kickback, though; while there is some recoil reduction, I couldn’t fit in a lot of it. Not without increasing the class, which would require a token.
I did some quick math in my head, and the kinetic energy numbers left me reeling.
--We won’t start off at that large a round. You will need to get used to the difference in kickback. Oh, and your train has arrived.
I hadn’t even noticed the train’s arrival, it was that quiet. Still in a daze, I boarded the train and found a seat.
--Here are some of the top choices from your Esoteric Munitions catalog.
A list appeared in my visor, with names and descriptions of a number of exotic rounds. We spent the whole twenty-minute ride discussing the various options and how they might be used. I was so involved in the conversation that I didn’t notice the lights outside as we rushed by city after city.
After getting off the train, an enlisted man, who had also just debarked, introduced himself. “Decurion Tolson said you would need a ride out to camp. I’m returning from some R&R and have a car here still, so he asked that I take you.”
“Works for me, corporal. Lead the way.”
During the short drive between the train station and the base, Tara woke up and sent me a conference call invite. Since it looked like our working together would be a regular occurrence, I asked Corie to set up a permanent conference. She borrowed some server access from somewhere and added in a dash of Samurai Communication protocols to create a stable, clear voice and data connection.
--That will do for now. Once the apartment is completed, we can set up a dedicated server for the chat that’s fully private.
The main base bustled with activity. Troopers and vehicles moved with a purpose that bordered on random, and my guide and I were nearly run over by one of the bigger trucks. He handed me off to another trooper, then another, before I was admitted into a large tent, which turned out to be divided into rooms. One of the rooms had a couple tables on the side, with a few troopers packing up some equipment and books. Among them, I caught the familiar cover of my grandfather’s book: Tactics, Strategy, and the Antithesis.
“Commander Khan, the Samurai, Xenovir.” I was introduced to a tall woman built with what I knew to be the standard Khan mold. Her black hair, dusky skin, and Caucasian face spoke of her subcontinental descent, though softened by the epicanthic fold of recent East Asian influence. The Khans had been in the military for generations, and I recalled that they had at least one Marshal General tucked away in the family tree.
“Nice to have a Samurai on time for once. Didir said you had connections to the military?” she asked.
“My father is Lt. Colonel Corin.” That raised an eyebrow from her, and I shook my head deprecatingly. “Not as famous as you Khans, but there’s a few of us around.” Last I’d heard, her family had thirty-some active in the service, at all ranks and specialties. I think one of my sister’s squadmates was an in-law to one of them even. “What is the situation?”
“The situation is that we’re moving. We’ve been hammering a hive to the northwest for a few days, softening it up with artillery. The plan had been to move in today and finish it. But a satellite pass half an hour ago showed that it spat out a large force centered around a group of M-20s heading east. Our best guess is that the hive is trying to force us to engage it directly. That, or get away from us since we’re far enough out that it can’t find us.”
“Okay. Where do you want me?” I asked.
“The profile I have on you is thin enough I could use it for window panes. What is your MOS? That is, what can I expect from you?”
“I’m so new the squeak hasn’t rubbed off, so it’s not surprising you don’t have any info on me.” Without thinking, I found myself speaking like all the soldiers I’d been raised around.
“Against the antithesis, I’m a switch-up rifleman with both rapid-fire and precision strike capability. My best range is under 300 meters, but anything inside that range is dead when I fire. My only action so far has been a staggered rear guard in an urban environment using improvised defenses to get a hundred non-combatants out of a hive’s proximity.
“I’ve picked up a few tricks since then, and I should be able to handle anything in the teens without any problem, and I might be able to handle a Twenty-something solo, but that’s untested.”
“That puts you in Tier Two, maybe the upper part, but it’s unproven. Hmm.” She looked at the map on one of the tables while considering what I told her. “Mobile? Or fixed position?”
I half smiled. “You can always make the ground more deadly, but you have to get there first. I prefer to be free to move.”
“Okay.” She glanced to the upper-right middle distance for a second before continuing. “I’m sending out a short company to slow up the antithesis so we can maul them from behind. I’d like you to go along. You’ll be able to reinforce them without slowing them down like sending some tanks would, since the roads between here and there don’t connect.”
Another trooper led me out of the tent into the still bustling camp. In the east, the sky was starting to show the first hints of morning light, but flashlights still flickered everywhere, filling in the shadows left by floodlights on poles.