Chapter 25: Front 15 – Casnel – Part 1/3

THUD!

Had it been a less alarming sound Hoki might of considered the strange way in which outside sounds interact with our dreams.

"Hoki, Hoki!"

THUD!

Hoki awoke with an arrested start, struggling to raise an arm out of her sleeping bag up to wipe her eyes. She slowly moved her hand over to the wall mounted monitor next to her and pressed the receiver on;

"I-I'm up, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?! They're here that's what, the Casnel! Five bloody days of waiting, I'll kill old man Nilas for all this waiting!
Now wake yere'self up, Plan A is a-go!"
 Scarlet said back in a voice of alarmingly gleeful excitement.

After that Hoki was quick to shake the sleep from herself - They had of-course practised the drill of what was to be done if the enemy arrived while asleep and now she put that into action.
 Quickly changing back into her uniform and grabbing her handheld, Hoki headed for the door with only a minor wistful look towards the toilet she knew she'd not see again for some time.
 Making her way through the rounded tunnel that connected the Vijaiks to the field camp, she landed into her pilot's chair - Carefully sealing the airlock of the cabin behind her.

"I'm in Scarlet, Sit-rep?"

 Before Hoki had even said it she could hear the faint whir of the connecting tunnel being disconnected, Scarlet having obviously activated the removal process on her end. The tunnels were soon retracted and the camp's small set of thrusters activated, propelling it off back towards where the fleet lie in waiting - Leaving only the thin and easily snap-able comms cable behind.

 It had been another day since Hoki and Scarlet had opened up to one another and said day had been as uneventful as all the others, though with more easy-going conversations between herself and Scarlet.

 As promised they had gone over the plan, Scarlet soon droping her aloofness to give all sorts of advice - At times they had neared bickering but overall Hoki was confident on the arrangement they'd decided on.

"Computer says T-Minus 2 minutes till the Casnel is in estimated firing range Ma'am, Visuals should be coming over to you as we speak".

 Scarlet's formal report took Hoki slightly aback but she had little time to think on it. Her mech had been left in stand-by and as she now flicked everything back on she watched each screen spring to life and smelled the faint scent of hydraulics and machine oil beginning to move about - All to the sound of faint crunching and whirrings with-in the machine.

While much of what her and Scarlet had discussed had in reality been strengths and weaknesses they had already known about each other - One thing of note worthiness had been Scarlet's high level of tech-savviness.

 Despite her continued distant for using simulators to train, the woman actually had quite the grasp for Noughts and Ones. As planned rather then immediately charging towards the enemy, Scarlet's mech waited silently beside Hoki's, while she herself worked with the on-board AI to calculate the enemies trajectory and where the Submarine should be hiding.

Indeed, all evidence thus far indicated their invisible foe never strayed far from its prototype Casnel accomplice.

110

Hoki glanced at the main monitor, now springing to life with the data from Scarlet. What appeared was like a landscape painting of black nothingness - But for the green crescent-moon shape of the Clover to the right side - And of course it.

At their current distance the Casnel was little more than an ill-defined blur but Hoki could still make it out for the most-part.

 Like the Neo-Vijaiks, it had two arms and two legs. Accompanied by a two eyed, sloping head piece. Unlike the Vijiaks, it was painted in an array of blacks and grays as though to blend in with space - Something it almost achieved but for the green glow behind it.

Indeed for all the sleek, slim black machine seemed to cut through the night like a knife, behind it large thrusters threw out a bright green colour that left behind it a faint wavy line - Almost like the contrails of regular planes in atmosphere, might leave behind them.

 Said green drew a narrow line that almost divided Hoki's screen in half, with the Casnel at its front creating an almost arrow like effect, pointing towards the unsuspecting - Semi-defenceless Clover.

100

Hoki didn't have to try hard to imagine what it must look like in Scarlet's cabin right now, no doubt her hands much like Hoki's were a blur moving from keyboard to keyboard - All carefully laid out in front of her in a semi-circle pattern, with the machine's actual control handles pushed almost out of reach to make more space for the work that needed to be done.

 As Hoki had been taught it, there was three principles to using a 'Vijaik long-range rifle'. These three were what made them so very rare, to the point of Hoki being the only operator among the 15 pilots of the Valerie Flotilla.

First was the separation. Imagine the feeling of holding something, not necessarily a weapon but simply a hot-poker or a walking stick. Now think of how much control you lose when wearing a pair of heavy gloves or marigolds.
 Imagine trying for example, to precisely move something with a garbage-picker - Its snappy two pronged head awkwardly clamping open and shut, fumbling around the handle of the walking stick - Imagine that much and you might start to get some idea of the First Principal.
 Although the AI of the machine could handle some things, ultimately one had to trust in the machine's accuracy and their own calculations to move the mecha's two massive hands, hands larger than people, over the delicate surfaces of the sniper-rifle.

Then there was the visuals.
 Unlike a real rifle, with a Vijaik you didn't look through the scope but rather through the viewfinder, or literally the head of the Vijaik - Which in turn would be automatically adjusted for the difference of metres between where it and the rifle beneath it lined up.
 Almost like putting a periscope in front of a pair of binoculars - This disorientating process of looking at a screen that's been artificially un-focused was the second hurdle of the job.

80

Thirdly was the numbers.

 To be a sniper required one to both have the intuition, gusto and the natural talent of a frontline soldier, but also the mathematical prowess to computate streams upon reams of figures.

 The distance between her and the enemies wasn't just a 1000-metres like might be the case for a regular rifleman, but rather more like 10,000m.

 Of-course being in space helped, with no atmospheric pressures or weather conditions to consider - But that could hardly account for the energy element. Where a conventional bullet could theoretically fly forever in space, an energy bolt would gradually dissipate, becoming less effective over range.

Ordinarily this meant nothing for the distance this would take being far too great to be of concern to regular pilots - But for Snipers every detail had to be neatly considered.

60
Hoki pressed down the final equation, a faint message box appearing on one of the many screens to confirm it was done. She heard a faint stirring from Scarlet across the comms, as she too received the message.

56 - 14

There was another principal that Hoki knew past the first three, one no one ever said outright - For it was almost a contradiction to all the cold logic required for the rest of the sniping process.

 At the centre of all her keyboards lay the 'Auxiliary Control Stick' sticking out from the floor. It was weird to think her and Scarlet had till just yesterday repurposed the gear-lever like objects for the use of playing cards on the big monitor.

On it was a small red trigger.

The fourth step was Obviously firing. All the numbers now in, the weapon positioned to a millimetre accuracy and a second timer starting it's descent.

Hoki had never met a single marksmen who trusted it enough, the automatic fire sequence that is.
 Too many things could go wrong, too many sequencing errors or AI glitches in the system.

No almost every sniper would pull the trigger themselves.

52 - 10

A faint crosshair outline was now overlaid on her monitor, a few paces away from it the Casnel still streaking its way forward - In the bottom right corner of the screen - The countdown clock.

48, 47, 46 - '46 seconds until it's in range of the Clover, in range of a space-station filled with 100s, maybe thousands of mostly defenceless civilians.' - 45 - 3.

44 - 2

43 - 1

BANG

The thin-line of brilliant blue ejected out of Hoki's rifle in a blinding flash of colour. In a second it began its short journey through the night sky, crossing kilometres in mere moments.

'Huh, look at that. I think that's my best shot ever. Beating a Casnel for my first ever proper space-battle, whatever will father think' - Hoki allowed herself a small grin, more of relief than pride.
 Her aim had been perfect and even if the Casnel saw it coming, there would be no dodging at the speed it was moving - 40.

At worst the incredibly powerful shot would go straight through one of the machine's limbs, hampering its combat potential and killing its momentum.

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 At best, as this shot indeed seemed to be - It would hit the mid-riff of the machine and either destroy the cockpit or cause a chain reaction to blow up the machines power-cells - 'Totally Victory just like that. All that waiting for just a single, clean shot.'

38.5

38

37.9

"Mother of--" Scarlet muttered aloud, taking the words from Hoki's own agape mouth.

 The shot had been perfect as estimated and yet the Casnel didn't even have a scratch.

Hoki lurched forward, forcing all her viewing equipment to it's maximum zoom. The Casnel was completely undamaged, even so far away from it she could tell that much.

What had changed was the clock - It had stopped at '38'.

 It dawned on Hoki that the Casnel had been pushed back at a ninety-degree angle to its original trajectory, all from the force of the blast.

 Additionally a square-green shimmer now held around the machine, like some form of shield that had absorbed the blast on the Casnel's behalf, only causing it to be pushed back.

With-out a mark to even prove it.

Hoki fell back into her chair - 'Blocked? Blocked! For Sun's sake you can't just block something like that with a shield, it's impossible!'

"Hoki, Hoki! Ensign Bachika! For crying out loud Hoki, they're calling your bluff. Line up the next shot!" Scarlet yelled across the still connected comm-link.

 Hoki shot back up to the controls, cursing herself for panicking she began to reach around the cockpit.

The enemy mech had began to move again and though it would take time to regroup its previous speed, it became clear it indented to continue towards the hapless Clover.

 As the last of its previous line of green faded, a new one took its place as Hoki began the process of firing all over again.

37.5

She clasped at the controls, her hands trying to work faster than before, her mind racing;

 'What good is firing again if it can block you - Block you! What in Sun's name can block something like that! Enough, that's enough, you're acting like a cadet, control your breathing woman.'

37

A faint orange flashing in the corner of her machine accompanied by a quiet whirring alerted Hoki to her mech's need to ventilate the influx of energy.

 She reached hurriedly behind herself, spending a full couple of seconds trying to remember which of the heavy-set levers to pull in order to ventilate the right side parts of the machine.

36.25

As she finished pulling the lever she turned back to the keyboards and computation reems, the faint smell of greasy oil filling her nose as she tried to desperately bring her breathing back under control. It wasn't the same as panic exactly, she didn't feel scared per-say. More like her mind slowed to a crawl, like the numbers strewn in front of her began to swim - To form mocking faces - As though the logic she relied on was taunted her itself;

"Best shot you've ever taken right? You're meant to be a rationalist ain't ya?
 So logical thing to do now is call it all off. Don't waste the power on a second shot. If you won't trust logic what else have you got left?" - The imaginary voice cooed.

35

"San, sanju, Nana-niju--"

 Hoki stared in disbelief at the small speaker emitting the numbers in the voice of Scarlet.
 'Those are, they're from home. Why would Scarlet know those numbers?'

Though somewhat simplistic in nature, Scarlet continued to call out a series of numbers, co-ordinates, in Hoki's native language. Further to Hoki's surprize was her own hands, which she realised had subconsciously begun to key in the string of number into her machine.

33

The numbers seized swarming now and her mind began to calm back down. With Scarlet helping to make up the time she had lost, the duo quickly had the rifle adjustments finished, far faster then it had taken to prepare her first shot.

'I didn't know she even had spotter-training, I guess I'll have to ask about it when we get back...Ya, when we get back.'

30

BANG

Once again the brilliant beam of blue soared across the skyline on a direct intersection with the green line of the Casnel. This time Hoki knew it would see the shot coming and wondered whether it would use that strange translucent shield again.

 To her initial surprize and then relief the Casnel did not block this time. Instead it seemed to reverse all its thrusters, narrowly stopping just metres away from the energy attack, which in turn passed by meer metres from the black mech.

Scarlet whooped across the radio exclaiming excitedly; "Ha-ha, told you it was just a bluff! Whatever that shield was he ain't willing to risk getting hit by you twice. As little as I want to admit it - I would do the same in his place, that's some of the best damn shootin' I've ever seen Hoki!"
 Scarlet exclaimed.

The Casnel didn't try to start towards the clover for a third time, instead it turned and after a short moment began to head towards Scarlet & Hoki's position at long last.
 "Well it's about time, I'm sending you the data on the submarine with its most likely positions - Good Luck!" Scarlet uttered before leaning forward to turn off the live feed.

Before she could Hoki interrupted her; "Wait, maybe I can get one more hit, I--"

"Oh heck no, the plan Ensign remember? I get you the coordinates then intercept the Casnel while you reveal the enemy ship." Scarlet finished sternly.

Hoki reddened a bit at being the one to question the plan she had insisted on making, before replying back to Scarlet with a curt apology and 'good-luck' of her own.
 Scarlet seemed satisfied with this and as the camera cut for the last time, Hoki could of sworn she saw a glass & plastic looking cylinder float past one corner of the screen - Though she payed it little heed, more focused on the wolfish, almost sinister grin that spread across Scarlet's face as the image cut.
 
And like that the comms cable snapped and Scarlet (Careful as Hoki had asked, not to disturb their metal platform) was gone, making her way across the endless dark towards the nearing figure of the Casnel.
 For Hoki's part she quickly arranged Scarlet's figures on one of the Tv sized monitors and started running calculations for the third time that day.
 Much like her unexpected use of a foreign language, Scarlet's maths were equally impressive with the row of co-ordinates being more professional than Hoki had seen from many other fellow marksmen in the past.

Before long she had her third shot lined up, however where before she'd had a target to aim at (However small) now she was faced with only blank space. Nonetheless she braced herself and took the shot, all the while faintly aware to the bottom right of her screen as two more weapons fired.
 These were indicative of the Casnel which fired a large arm mounted cannon - And Scarlet who carried with her and even bigger bazooka type weapon that fired a massive shell of physical ammunition.

Hoki watched as her cyan-energy-shot, hit nothing - Coursing off into the deaths of space. Unperturbed she rapidly began lining up the fourth shot based on the second most likely place for the enemy-vessel to be hiding, according to Scarlet's carefully crafted numbers.
 As for the other two, Hoki half-watched from the corner of her eye as Scarlet easily cartwheeled and dodged out of the path of each shot the Casnel fired. The luminous green blasts of bloated energy from its imposing cannon, seemingly posing no threat against Scarlet's speed - Her large red mech dancing around the enemy.
 Similarly the Casnel easily avoided the shells from Scarlet's bazooka, simply striving from side to side with minimal movement.

Finally the duo of machines reached each other face to face, both with a glowing red Arc-Staffs drawn. The speed at which they collided caused the two thin plasma weapons to flicker violently like candles in a breeze, and for their light telescopic frames to bend and buckle under the strain of one another - But neither machine gave any ground.
 Hoki was loath to say it but if Scarlet could compliment her, then she too could compliment Scarlet;
 'Her control of the machine's movements is unreal!'

Even as the thought went through her mind she watched as Scarlet rose her bazooka in her off-hand while still locking blades with the Casnel.
 In sync with Hoki's fourth shot, Scarlet's shell flew free. The Casnel rather than trying to shield, instead boosted to one side before being knocked back by the force of the shell explosion.
 Had she not been busy with her own part of the plan Hoki might of considered the implications of this:

Did the Casnel have limited power? Could the shield not stop solid projectiles? Or most likely of all, if the green shimmering square of light was really made of pure energy - Then would activating with an Arc-Staff drawn risk cutting through the Casnel's own weapons? --However Hoki was indeed busy, at long last a shot had hit home and the only thought she could spare for her allies small victory was of little substance;
 '15 loaf to Scarlet.'

The better part of 8 of more kilometres away, Hoki's endless line of cyan energy had stopped as though frozen in mid-air, the thin energy simply sizzling against nothing like a rain drop held in mid-air - Before suddenly pooling outwards in a rapid circle of lapping water - A stone thrown onto the surface of a murky lake as it were.
 When the beam itself at last faded it left a pure white-metallic circle of about four metres in diameter - Simply floating in space - Like some bizarre 2D doorway among all the blackness of nothing.

'Invisible Submarine no more!!'

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