Foothold For A Loner. Макс Глебов

rather unusual. To begin with he had chosen a very exotic modification of the Storm complex to be his primary weapon. Normally, Storm was intended for heavy infantry. It was very heavy, and to use it effectively required an enhanced exoskeleton that was part of a heavy infantry rig and combined with strong armor. But this huge mass restricted mobility and shortened the combat time while using a standard battery. This is why Alexey’s guys, for whom secrecy and mobility played a crucial role, had never even thought about using it.

      The Cadet, however, clearly understood that so much mass will negatively effect his mobility, which is why all his exoskeleton’s armor plates with heavy infantry gear were replaced by light composite protection. This allowed to reduce the overall mass and dimensions to the extent that you could install a second battery pack and an additional box for ammo. That didn’t seem to be superfluous because the Storm, which includes a 30 mm automatic gun, long-barreled sniper rifle and a rotary machine-gun, had a great appetite for ammo. At the same time, the exoskeleton’s lifting capacity was large enough to provide good mobility.

      After carefully watching his team’s new member for a while, Alexey said to the Cadet with a tint of doubt in his voice:

      “Well, move around a bit. Jump, show me a change of positions.”

      “Yes, Sir,” answered Lavroff, jumping up three meters almost instantly. Having hit the ground he rolled 20 meters to the left, and he was almost immediately under the technical service car, pointing the barrel of his automatic weapon toward an imagined enemy.

      “Hmmm, that’s enough.” Alexey’s voice sounded neutral, but any of his team’s older members understood that the Lieutenant at least wasn’t disappointed by what he’d just seen. “We’ll see how that's gonna look in real combat. Let’s get on board.”

      When Alexey and his new subordinate ascended the dropship’s ramp into the drop bay, the rest of the team was already there. Having glanced at the novice, they turned their puzzled gazes to their commanding officer.

      “This is Cadet Igor Lavroff, who is replacing Trenton,” Alexey calmly informed his soldiers, immediately spotting the bewilderment and confusion on their faces. Ivan, who was senior in rank only after Alexey, expressed what all of them felt:

      “A cadet? Did we hear that right, commander?”

      “You heard it right.”

      “But…”

      “We got an order and can’t discuss it. Lavroff is going with us.”

      “Yes, Lieutenant, Sir.” Ivan’s answer sounded extremely formal, which made it perfectly clear that the members of the group still didn’t understand how that could be possible. “Let me ask a question, Sir.”

      “No, Ivan. I see all your questions written on your face and I don’t have any answers. We must take off. I’ll introduce him once we get under way. Cadet, take your place opposite the sergeant,” said Alexey, nodding towards Ivan.

      Literally a minute later the ramp went up, and the turbines started buzzing. The dropship took off from the tarmac and set a course for the destination. The escorting interceptors caught up with the ship almost immediately.

      “So, Cadet, across from you is Sergeant Ivan Kelt. Deputy commander and pathfinder. To Ivan’s right is Private First Class John Zeit, sniper. Next, Private Anton Gnezdoff, a universal commando and your colleague. On my right is Private First Class Kay Shefferson, communications and equipment specialist. And, finally, Private First Class Ilia Kopytoff, physician. Now, about our mission. There’s already a map on your tablets with our destination indicated.

      The border of the search area is marked red. A fly-car with our long-range recon patrol was shot down there. We have to find the survivors, provide necessary assistance and evacuate them. Just as usual, we’ll disembark, comb the area thoroughly, find our guys, grab them and get out of there. The meeting point to board the dropship is on the opposite border of the search area. Any questions?”

      “May I speak, Commander?”

      “I’m listening, Anton.”

      “Who will be the hen to fuss over this chick of a cadet? With his crazy outfit and his cannons he’ll give us away and slow us down. Besides, he doesn’t know our code signals and tactics. We’d have to give him a lot of extra voice commands, and you know how that goes with our communication systems.”

      Alexey looked at Lavroff, at how he’d react. But the cadet sat perfectly still and waited for the Lieutenant to answer. He was clearly interested to hear the answer despite the sarcastic question. Alexey rubbed his chin and looked at Anton.

      “I’ve already told Ivan that I’ve got no answers to many questions. We’ll show our code signals to the cadet now, and as for the danger of giving us away we’ll find that out only on site. I hope Lavroff won’t need any special care.”

      “Where did he get this equipment from? Who chose it for him? It doesn’t fit in well with the bulk of our equipment,” asked Shefferson.

      “Cadet, explain,” said Alexey.

      “Yes, Lieutenant, Sir. I chose and prepared this equipment myself. Since I didn’t have the chance to match it with the group’s armaments I assumed it has to meet the basic task of a universal commando, namely to provide fire support for the group and, if necessary, provide cover for a withdrawal. Besides, I focused on the probability of acting alone, hence I maximized mobility, ammunition and power availability at the expense of protection.”

      “You did it yourself? Who trusted you with this? What about camouflage? You’ve got a huge ‘barn’ with cannons. How are you going to move discreetly?”

      “Unfortunately, camouflage only protects from visual detection. And so I had to give it up, as I did with my protection system. But my gear is well protected from electronic surveillance equipment: there’s a special scattering layer on the armor and a built-in electronic warfare device with an additional noise and decoy generator that can be adjusted so it won’t bother our guys.”

      “Stop!” Lieutenant raised his arm in order to prevent new questions. “We don’t have time. We must brief Lavroff on our group’s tactics. Look here, cadet, and try to remember everything the first time I say it…”

* * *

      Trouble started the moment they entered the No Man’s Zone. The escorting interceptor that had flown ahead to do recon disappeared from the scanners. Generally, there was nothing unusual in that. The electronic warfare systems used by both sides in the conflict were much more advanced than the communication equipment, and so both faced awful communications. The interceptor, however, didn’t return at the appointed time. Still, the group had its orders, and their ship continued towards the missing plane’s last known location.

      And this is where the enemy hit them.

      The interceptor had been attacked by a ground-to-air missile – the dropship pilot’s voice could be heard in Alexey’s helmet. The Lieutenant noticed the interceptor make a sharp evasive anti-missile maneuver, but then it disappeared out of sight. There was no sound of an explosion.

      “He evaded it,” said the pilot. “He’s lucky. Stop! One more missile. And one more…”

      A siren’s scream let the group know that their dropship was also under attack. The large and slow aircraft, unlike the interceptor, couldn’t evade a missile, and the interceptor couldn’t help because that pilot had his own problems.

      The dropship’s pilot shot off a bunch of thermal and radio-location decoys, and directed his sluggish craft downward. But the missile didn’t fall for the trick. The siren continued to scream, and on top of that was the loud clanking of the ramp going down and the noise of incoming air.

      “Jump, Lieutenant!” the pilot was almost shouting. “A ground-to-air missile is gonna hit us in about 20 seconds.”

      Alexey saw the missile coming from the back; its contrail clearly visible in the opening above the ramp that was drawn down. The missile’s nose could already be seen. It approached steadily despite the decoys and the anti-missile system. Alexey understood they weren’t going to make it and jumping