Tauren Invasion Snippet 3

 

Chapter 3

 

Lebynthos

 

“Knowingis half the battle,” Lieutenant Shana O'Hara said. The lieutenant was fromNuevo and one of the newest to arrive. She had red shoulder-length hair and thenickname “Scarlet” to go with it.

She wasalso in army intelligence and had taught the class on Nuevo at the academy andthen taught it remotely in Antigua before accepting a transfer. She'd expecteda transfer to the front, possibly even Pi. Instead, she had been sent to Tau.

Now shehad to make the most of what she saw as a bad situation career wise.

Shekept up to date on the pirates but her new focus was on the Confederation. Shehad already researched the biology and psychology of the Tauren species as wellas their history. What was surprising was the lack of material on the currentConfederation. They did not let anyone in. It was a police state in all butname.

Thereport that they had implants made her curious. She began to compare what theyknew to what the Federation did with implants in Taurens. There was a lot ofvariety possible.

Shesurveyed her class. There was a half dozen in the class; army intelligencewasn't a big thing at the moment. Everyone was into the other specialtiesapparently. That might change in the future though.

“A goodbattle plan means you need good intelligence. That means doing yourhomework—know the history, know the terrain, know the players, and knowyourself. To paraphrase Sun Tzu's The Art of War, 'If you know the enemy andknow yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you knowthe enemy but not yourself, for every victory you achieve you will suffer adefeat. If you know not yourself or the enemy, you will be beaten in everybattle,” she said.

Shesurveyed the class. “That's my version of it. Learn the original sourcematerial. Study it. He's right; intelligence can be the key to winning orlosing a battle. Questions?”

“SunTzu?” a bull terrier asked.

“Yes.What about him?”

“Terran?”

“Yes.Chinese. Ancient. You'll find a lot of ancient battle strategists are stillrelevant even in this day and age.” She saw his look of disbelief. “Theconcepts remain the same even if the battlefield and tech changes. Figure itout,” she said as she turned to the rest of the class.

~~{}~~

MajorLetterman frowned as he scanned Lieutenant O'Hara's report on the Tauren Confedtech. She had more questions than answers in it, which he unfortunately agreedwith.

Theymight learn more after studying the Tauren guards a bit more. Their nail gunslooked normal, nothing new there. They had standard light body armor, nothingpowered. Pity they couldn't get a detailed look.

Hecopied her memo into a condensed form and sent it off to the capital andforwarded it to Ensign Virginia with a request for the raw feeds of the guards.That would of course have to come by courier, but that was fine.

Herbaseline comparison to what the Federation put into Taurens was good, possiblyspot-on. But they didn't know the standards of Confed implants or their techlevel. She erred on the side of caution, basing her comparison straight acrossthe board. She was right; it was better to be surprised that they weren't up toFederation standard than to get bitten in the ass for being overconfident.

He wascurious if they had come up with anything new though. He knew the Taurens had asoft spot for powered combat armor and ground combat. What had they come upwith in their isolation?

Hewasn't sure if he was willing to find out the hard way.

~~{}~~

CaptainJG Mya Halice watched the work party being put through their paces. They had towork on the equipment and get it right. They were fortunate to be in themaintenance bay with proper equipment. They even had grav lifts along withstandard push-pulls.

Thegrav lifts were an item she was still leery about using. You had to be waryaround them; if you stuck your hand under them when the presser was on, itwould slam you down. The same for a foot or something else. She'd seen a fewpeople get injured; a couple even had a leg ripped off when they got careless.There was a reason for the lights, sirens, and warning tape.

Butthey were incredibly useful too. A forklift or push-pull outfitted with a gravlift could move very large cargoes in a hurry. You set it up under the cargo,made sure it was balanced and secured to the platform or frame and then turnedit on. The system self-balanced as it lifted off until it was floating acentimeter or so off the deck or ground.

Nuevohad toyed with the idea of making lifting devices with air, but they had provento be noisy and not nearly as effective as they'd hoped. The hover craft hadcome in useful in other ways later though.

Shewatched as the team put the lift around the troop transport and then link themtogether. The grav lift itself was locked down to the bay by a robotic arm. Themodules linked up and then the glow came on and the vehicle lifted off.

On aship, the system would be connected to the ship's computer to negate thegravity under the object. On the ground, it allowed the robotic arm to easilyswing the vehicle around and then lift it into a cradle. Once it was securedthere, the emitters were shut off, and the mechanics moved in to work on theunderside.

Sheshook her head. A better setup would have been a mechanical pit or a hydrauliclift under each corner. But oh no, they had to get hyper technical about thething. Over complicated, easy to break down, no wonder the old Federationcollapsed.

Herlips pursed in annoyance. This latest foul-up was courtesy of the people inRho. They wanted the army to have the best tech toys and money. She shook herhead.

“Okay,what's wrong with this picture?” she asked, stopping the work. All eyes turnedto her. “Toys,” she said, indicating the arm and lift. “Toys break. Toys arehere, not in the field. So, if you were in the field, how would you deal withthis problem?”

“Call awrecker?”

“Youare the wrecker and maintenance team,” she stated caustically. “Try again.”

“Ah …?”

“I wantanswers, people! Think old school,” she said, pacing.

ATauren lifted his hand. She pointed to him. “Speak.”

“Dig atrench. Roll the vehicle over the trench and do the work. In this case droppingthe transmission.”

“Got itin one! Easy, simple, and cheap. Remember that, people, when you are out in thefield and the toys break or are unavailable! It could save your ass,” shegrowled.

Shesurveyed the group and then nodded once. “Carry on,” she said as she tookherself off.

~~{}~~