STEP 3: Understand why the trap was built.

  RG Doctrine

  Grievance matters more than weapons.

  Feebee’s ‘manual’

  They followed Corporal Taggett towards the larger building in the middle of the compound. He tried to rush them, but they kept up effortlessly.

  They went down a short corridor. The corporal’s breathing echoed off the walls as he showed them into the back of a large room and left.

  It was full of people.

  Feebee did a quick head count. 12 rows, 15 to a row. Quite a few spaces. Maybe 30 empty seats.

  Feebee stood easy as they waited. The other two did the same. She could feel faint vibrations through her feet. They pulsed to a cadence that matched the flickering lights. At the front, a captain and two lieutenants were struggling to get the holotable working. It sparked into life then died.

  The lights went out completely then came back. No one seemed to mind or notice. The holotable came on-line, the RG crest rotating in the air at the front of the room.

  The Captain was at the front, about to start, when Taggett rushed into the room, waving a printout. He made a bee line to the front and handed the paper over. The Captain looked up, to the back of the room. His eyes drifted across Feebee and settled, taking in each of her marines in turn.

  “Before I start, I’d like to welcome three of our off-world colleagues to our base. They are here to observe and learn. Make sure you extend to them the courtesy they deserve.”

  He pointed. Everyone turned to look. Some even stood.

  The QI started to talk, ‘Don’t …’ Too late, she smiled and waved back. The other two waited for the briefing to get going.

  The Captain caught everyone’s attention, “Right!”

  He brought up a satellite image, it was a real time feed of the compound. The black stain within the compound and surrounding the base was clearly visible. Outside, there was vibrant crystal jungle. It did look pretty. The colours and shapes were fractal and pulsing, but the images indistinct.

  Feebee noticed the crystal jungle pulsed in time to the vibrations she felt through her feet. She sensed a current flowing, not sure where or how.

  It did feel familiar, the QI was right. 'Do you feel that?' She asked it.

  'Of course. It's like music. A tune I know. I like it here. I feel stronger, faster.'

  'How are the scans going?' Feebee asked.

  'I no longer scan. I talk.'

  'Talk. To who or what?'

  'Not sure.' The QI continued, 'But they are benign. They give the same answers but quicker.'

  'They? Who are they. I, we need to understand. This is making me uncomfortable.'

  'Interesting. The interaction with this world is making me very comfortable.'

  The Captain was talking again, “This is body cam from the successful clearance of dissidents at Sector 14.” He pointed to an area on the satellite image. It stood out like a tumour in an otherwise pristine environment. Off to the side the body cam ran on, switching from operative to operative, their ident visible. An explosion blew a glade of crystal trees to pieces, showering the patrol with razor sharp shards. Operators were firing at shadows, blowing apart the jungle that echoed with gun fire for many seconds after the firing stopped. Not once did Feebee see a dissident in any of the body cam.

  She worked her way around the outside of the room; wanted to see the faces of those attending. A lot of them had bandaged arms and legs, small cuts, healing scars on their faces. They were all wearing clean, crisp uniforms and didn’t look like happy operatives who'd just completed a successful operation.

  The Captain switched to flickering overwatch from a drone. On the right, in the projection from the holotable, were watch patterns and doctrinal slides. He went through the successful establishment of a perimeter, suppressive fire and then the final rapid decisive action that saw the operation conclude.

  He summed up. "Minimal resistance. One dissident killed, 14 captured. None of our people killed. Mission completed on schedule. All objectives achieved. Well done.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  The barracks shook with the call of “Ooh Rahh.” The Captain smiled.

  "Any questions? Comments?" The Captain asked.

  Feebee resisted the urge. She needed more data. Some hands went up. The Captain pointed to them, inviting comment.

  "Jackly, UAV Team. We lost three drones. Not sure why, but the EM environment is very messy." As if on cue, the holotable flickered. Someone sniggered which drew dagger looks from the officers.

  "Singhaj, Recon. Two of my men were hit by friendly fire from elements outside the mission brief. There were also multiple cuts from crystal shards."

  "We encountered unpredictable terrain," the Captain continued, "had to adjust."

  "Daniels, Comms. There was a blackout for three minutes during the fire fight. One of the perimeter units got disconnected which led to a near miss incident."

  "I understand there was a crystal bloom over the area. Messed with the comms. Anyone killed?" Asked the Captain.

  "No sir," responded Daniels.

  "Excellent. Excellent." The Captain chose that as a good point to shut down the Q&A session.

  Feebee looked around the meeting room. She was thinking there was nothing more to learn when the Captain held up a small fist sized object. Completely non-reflective, black.

  "This is one of the proximity mines the dissidents are using. Same tech as we're encountering in orbit." He looked at Feebee, noticing that casual indifference had suddenly shifted to a level of predatory observance. One that was laser focused on his every word. He shivered; those weren't the eyes of a teenager.

  "This is a smaller version. Anti-personnel. Be alert and on the look-out for these." Then with deliberate emphasis he continued, "Comms can trigger these. Our techs are digging. These are a new development." He then called to the back of the room, where Feebee's Alpha team stood.

  "Do you have any 'observations'?"

  "Just two questions." It was Feebee, "How many shots were fired? And secondly; how many enemies were actually seen?"

  The room went silent, everyone looking to the Captain for a response.

  "I don't have that data yet." He looked at his watch, "Thankyou everyone. You have your assignments. Good luck out there."

  Alpha-2 leant over to Feebee, "That wasn't very subtle. Their methods are very different from what we do. No problem analysis. Unpredictable terrain? Crystal blooms blocking comms." He shook his head. "They are fighting the environment."

  Feebee nodded, then ever so quietly said, "We need to get one of those mines."

  "Ack"

  "I'm going back to the ship."

  Before she could leave the captain had cornered them, "What the hell was that?!!" he asked. The question clearly directed to the two Alphas. "And who’s in charge?"

  Alpha-2 spoke, "We're here to observe." Feebee and Alpha-3 remained silent and nodded.

  The captain felt pressured by their casual demeanour. "Well, observe then. Why don't you go out on a patrol. To observe. In fact, why don't you do one. I'll even give you two dozen men for support." He then leant in close, “And we know it was you that caught the 'traitors'." He spat the last word at them. "Thanks for nothing. Now we're men short.”

  "Oh. Ok. Good. And about the patrol. That's a good idea but just the three of us will go."

  He laughed, people in the room turned. He'd never laughed before. "You want to go outside the wire. Just the three of you. You won't last an hour."

  When they got back to the ship, Alpha-2 threw something at Feebee, hard and fast. She saw it coming out the corner of her eye and reacted without thinking, pure instinct, and caught whatever it was before it hit her in the head. It was cold in her hand.

  It was one of the anti-personnel mines. She smiled.

  With the QI's help she dismantled it and had its components laid out. Alpha-2 and Alpha-3 were watching. From a distance. Able to see what she could via their overlays.

  The QI scanned the pieces and asked Feebee to turn over one of the circuit boards.

  'This isn't human tech.’

  'You sure?'

  'Yes.'

  It wasn’t the dull black of human tech, it sparkled in the light. The QI highlighted an area on the board in their overlays. 'This is ours. Our tech does the same but is different.'

  'How do you know?'

  'I know. Its different. Not human.' Was its response. No lag, immediate. 'I going to analyse this more? Ok?’

  ‘Sure. Knock yourself out.’

  What's really going on here?

  Feebee moved away from where she’d been working and sat on the floor, cross legged, fists loose and resting on her knees. She did her breathing exercises and was quickly into a state of absolute stillness.

  An idea started to emerge, 'Do you have data as to where the main conflict areas are? Also, where known dissident camps are thought to be.'

  'No. But I can get it.'

  'Do it... and don't get caught.'

  It wasn't long before the QI had come back to her. A high-level map showed conflict zones and dissident camps. There was no pattern to them. What if this was about the crystals...

  'Can you add known locations of crystal groves or crystal deposits.'

  The result caused her to loose balance, all she could say was "Wow!!"

  Every conflict zone the RG reported matched an area with high value crystal. Whether deposits or groves. One area in particular had seen stiff defence against an increasing number of RG operations.

  Feebee pointed to it. "This is where we go next. But first, we get ready."

  ‘Anything more from studying the proximity mine?’ She asked the QI.

  ‘Not really. It looks more like a processor node than a mine.’ The QI dropped the image of the circuit board onto Feebee’s overlays. ‘They process data and communicate with other nodes, with each other. Think of each proximity mine as one brain cell and the mine field the brain.’

  ‘Yeh. I get it.’

  Scratchy laughter, ‘You can’t lie to me.’

  ‘Fair enough. I get it now.’

  ‘Better.’

  They laughed.

  The QI had knocked itself out analysing the mine further.

  ‘These mines are smart, they could easily handle quantum computations as part of a larger distributed network. But, they've been modified and re-purposed, as mines.’

  ‘How does that help us?’ Feebee asked.

  ‘It doesn’t but then I asked Alpha-2 to strip everything off the circuit board and dismantled the components. Guess what?’

  Feebee patience was being stretched. ‘Get on with it.’

  The QI carried on, ‘This is the detonation control.’ The QI showed Feebee a small element of the circuit board. As the light shifted it sparkled.

  ‘It’s crystal!’

  ‘Yes.’ The QI conveyed excitement.

  A series of images popped up in Feebee’s overlays. They were more of the components comprising the mine.

  'Look at these.'

  The QI then broke them apart. They looked like schematics from an instruction manual.

  As Feebee watched, components were circled by the QI, a lot of them.

  ‘All the pieces I circled have crystal lattice at their core. Its integrated into their tech.’

  ‘This is getting murkier, not clearer. We need to understand the crystal more?’

  The QI responded, ‘Yes. Answers will come and with them clarity.’

  It sounded like a well used phrase, but Feebee had never heard the QI use it before.

  'Where did you get that from?'

  'Just came to me, sounded right.'

  Feebee directed the QI to send a message the Chen.

  TARGET FOUND

  DEPART IN 7 DAYS

  A response came back straight away, Does the man never sleep? she thought.

  YOU DON'T HAVE TIME

  She'd discussed Chen's message with the QI. They took his message to be a hurry up. The other interpretation they discussed was that they were in danger and had limited time. Feebee's response covered both bases.

  I'LL MAKE TIME. WE'LL SET THE PACE