I was only out for a few minutes. I took severe damage from using my Big Bang ability, but I took the health stim in time to avoid any long-lasting damage. Claire also administered some healing to me while I was out. The concern about the ability moving forward was that I wouldn’t be able to use it if there were more than two or three enemies near me. I couldn’t afford to be knocked out in a fight. There was also the tiny issue of losing my armor for 60 minutes as a result of using the ability.
Right now, those things didn’t matter much since I was already back to full health, and there no longer seemed to be any Lacertines heading our way. Matty and Jax took off to scout the surrounding area and hadn’t seen any more Lacertines near our base camp. Tiff had T.T. in the PUP doing aerial recon, so we all felt pretty good that we wouldn’t see another attack. That was good; we weren’t ready to repel another surprise attack.
While everyone was busy, I took a minute to look at my stats. Everyone had gained another entire level when we eliminated the Rerek faction. I had also gained some XP from killing the single Rerek during our assault on their faction. I gained another two levels when I used the Big Bang to kill the seven Lacertines. So, I was sitting about halfway to level 15 now. I took a second to look over my total stats.
Name – Andrew Timothy Dawes
Race – Human
Level – P-14
Class – Havok Bringer
Stats –
Strength – P15 – 23%
Intelligence – P15 – 12%
Dexterity – P14 – 36%%
Defense – P14 – 22%
Current skills:
Make me feel good, Daddy – Health stim activation
Baby needs his baba – Stamina Stim recovery
Current abilities :
Pulsar Blast – Planetary class ability. Upgrade status - 12%
Big Bang – Planetary class ability. Upgrade progress – 05%
The Gains since I started were unbelievable. My base stats were growing at a good pace. I saw that I would soon start running into a logjam of sorts. My strength and intelligence stat had already crossed into level P-15 and would keep increasing as I continued fighting. Dexterity and Defense were still at the low end of level P-14, meaning that I couldn’t level up until I progressed both of them to level 15. This wasn’t a major issue right now but If I didn’t find a way to train individual stats, it was going to be a nightmare to level up at higher levels. I also noticed that my Big Bang ability had gained five percent in progress. I still needed to find time to discuss the Planetary class descriptive with Tiff, but things had been chaotic lately. I kept looking at my stats and began to consider how the stat increases had affected me. The increases were visible in my physical appearance and output potential, but the increases were not directly equivalent to my level. I wasn’t 14 times stronger or faster than an average human.
I was not complaining; I was exponentially faster and stronger than I had been before entering the tutorial. My ability to recall information and problem-solve had been greatly increased but the increase wasn’t as simple as the numbers made it seem. I really needed to sit down with Tiff and discuss this in detail but that would also need to wait.
“CJ, Red, I need you two to help load the rover. As soon as that is done everyone needs to rally back to the HAB. We are about to be Oscar Mike,” I said over the comms. It was weird that I had started to recall military terminology and tactics that I had learned about during my life. It could have simply been something I learned in school or saw on TV, or the internet. As my intelligence stat grew, so did my ability to recall information. Tiff said this would happen, but it was still amazing how much I had been exposed to during my life before the drop.
“Oscar Mike?” CJ asked.
“Yeah, on the move,” I responded.
“Okay, Rambo, when did you become Mr. Military?” he asked with a chuckle.
“My intelligence stat has grown a crazy amount since this whole thing started. I can recall information I may have learned a long time ago or something I saw on a Facebook link or YouTube video. Do you realize how much information we consumed pre-drop CJ?” I asked. “I wasn’t in the military, but I watched plenty of military shows and movies. I took an elective in my second year of college, called military history. It was a study of major battles and tactics used during those battles. Honestly, it was a pretty forgettable course, but it was an elective, and I needed a break from all the heavy math classes I was taking. I can recall nearly every minute of that course now,” I said.
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“So does that mean you have a plan for this next part where we are outnumbered three to one by the Lacertine faction?” CJ asked.
“I’m working on it. I know we aren’t sitting around here and waiting for them to come to us. They have the numbers in a straight-up fight. So, we can’t give them a straight-up fight,” I replied.
“So do you have a plan?” CJ asked.
“Did you ever watch that movie Lord of the Rings?” I asked.
“You just told me you have a bunch of military knowledge floating around in your head, and you are gonna pull a strategy from the Lord of the Rings Movie?” CJ asked with a snort.
“Well, actually, it’s the Two Towers, and you aren’t going to like it…at all,” I said.
We were all in the Pup an hour later, except for Loren, Matty, and Red. They were driving below us in the Rover. We were approaching the Lacertine base camp at a low altitude to try and avoid enemy fire before we could deploy our secret weapon.
“I really don’t like this plan,” CJ said for what seemed like the 15th time.
“Just help me finish strapping all this to your drop suit and get ready to execute the plan,” I said.
I did not remember the plan from my military history and tactics class. It was, in fact, something I had seen in a Lord of the Rings movie. In one scene in the second movie, an Orc berserker rushes the sewers of helms deep to blast an opening for the armies of Sauron to get in. Suicide bombing is not a tactic I would generally employ in any scenario. In this case, however, nobody would be injured. Well, CJ’s suit would be destroyed but we could get him another one. T.T. would do one quick flyover at low altitude with the Pup. CJ would jump his armor into the middle of the Lacertine base camp and quickly neutralize as many Lacertines as possible. How would he do this, you ask? He would have most of the arsenal that we looted off of the Lycoan, Rerek, and Lacertine troops. That arsenal consisted of eight inferior mines, one interstellar vacuum tube, and several grenades of different varieties. Matty had looted a mortar from one of the Lacertine troops as well. That is what they had used to destroy part of our Hab and nearly kill several of the crew. The mortar had ten bombs remaining and would create the diversion we needed to get as many Lacertine troops out in the open as possible. Matty would exhaust his supply of bombs while Jax took out as many of the Lacertine troops as he could with sniper fire from a distance. Jax had found an elevated position about a mile out, giving him a good line of sight into the Lacertine courtyard.
At the same time, Loren would drive the Rover directly toward the main entrance of the Lacertine base while Red unloaded the turret on anything he could destroy or kill. The Lacertine base camp was much more advanced than our own. The Lacertines had poured considerable time and expense into ensuring they left this moon victorious. The Base was a pentagon-shaped facility. The rear of the facility was a flat wall, and a solid structure ran the length from side to side, about 200 feet across by our best guess. We assumed that was where the troops were housed. The front half of the base was segmented into an open courtyard area with three guard towers at each intersection of the wall. The walls weren’t very tall, only about 10 feet high, but they were decently fortified. I guessed that lack of time and the ability to transport the materials needed from orbit kept the Lacertines from building stronger defensive fortifications. There was also the matter of them outnumbering all the other factions, four to one.
We would attack the front of the base to try and draw as many troops as possible into the open courtyard area. Once that was done, CJ would deploy his suit and lay waste to as many Lacertines as possible. Once his suit became inoperable, CJ would activate the interstellar vacuum tube to incapacitate the remaining enemies if possible. Then Tiff, Kaj, and I would drop in as the rest of the crew advanced to provide support and suppressing fire. It seemed like an okay plan, and for now, it was the best we had.
“Cap, Jax and I are set and ready to open fire on your signal,” Matty said. ” We see a few of the Lacertines in the courtyard, but for now, they don’t seem to be on high alert.”
“I see three guards in the towers; those guns they are manning look nastier than the last fat girl at the bar before it closes,” Jax said. “You and Loren need to make sure you avoid taking too many rounds from those, Red. I can take out one, maybe two, before they get cover, but that leaves at least one of those turrets that will be gunning for the Rover.”
“Copy that, Jax, we are about 3 miles out. We will keep an eye on those towers,” Red said.
“Was the fat girl comment necessary?” Loren said sourly.
“If you have ever been in a dive bar at 1:45 in the morning, you would agree that the reference was 100% accurate,” Jax said with a chuckle.
“I second that!” Matty chimed in.
“Guys! comms discipline!” I said, trying to get everyone back on task. “Matty, wait 60 seconds, and then rain hellfire on those bastards. That will give the Rover time to get into effective range. Once you all engage, we will commence with the flyover of the Pup. We need those towers to be taking heavy fire so they don’t have time to get a firing solution on the Pup, understood?” I asked.
“Copy that Cap we gotchu. We will keep those damn towers busy. You guys just make that delivery,” Matty replied. Sixty seconds later, Matty unleashed hell on the Lacertine base. His first three rounds targeted the troop housing complex, blowing large holes in the roof and side walls of the structure. The next seven rounds were launched about 15 seconds apart and targeted the towers and the courtyard. At the same time, Jax was doing heavy work with his sniper rifle. “First tower guard down, the second and third took cover after the mortars started going off. I see several Lacertine troops running out into the courtyard,” Jax said.
“We’re approaching the front of the Lacertine base now!” Loren said.” Red is laying into that outer wall and front guard tower, but we are taking heavy fire from the right guard tower. Claire keeps pumping shields into us, but the Rover won’t be able to take much more of that turret fire!”
“We are 10 seconds out; keep the pressure up! Jax, can you focus fire on that third tower?!” I asked.
“I’m trying Cap, but he has some sort of defensive field inside. I can’t get a good shot on him.”
“Cap, I’m out of bombs. I’m going to advance toward the base now, ETA 3 minutes. I’ll head for that third guard tower.” Matty said.
“We’re making the drop now,” I said. “Everyone except Jax prepare to advance and attack. If it moves and it’s not part of our crew, put the motherfucker down.” As we flew over the Lacertine base camp, the rear door of the Pup swung open. CJ walked his armor to the rear ramp. The drop suit armor had explosives attached all over it, along with the interstellar vacuum tube strapped to its back.
“We only have one shot at this CJ. Make it count!” I yelled to CJ over the sound of rushing air inside the cabin of the Pup. CJ gave me a thumbs up from his console behind the pilot’s chair as he jumped his suit out of the Pup and dove for the Lacertine base camp courtyard.
“LEEEROOYYY JEEENKIINNS!!!!” CJ yelled as his armor dove headfirst into the fray.
