Sitrep:
So, I received the manuscript back from Goodlifeguide this morning. I'll be uploading it this afternoon or tomorrow morning.
On to the snippet!
Antigua
Zuhura
and Jethro managed to pry Bagheera away from his gaming system but the other
siblings were busy. The trio of adults took Ember to the zoo. Ember was wide-eyed
and a bit fearful of some of the larger animals. She did enjoy the petting zoo
briefly; that enjoyment ended when a pig blew snot on her fur.
She
had fallen asleep on her mother’s chest at lunch. The boys took off to ride a
roller coaster through the aquarium area while Ember took a nap in the shade
with Zuhura.
When
they returned, they were a bit damp and giddy. Zuhura was amused by their
antics as they playfully swatted at each other. She ended up trading with
Jethro in order to go on a ride with her younger brother.
Jethro
curled up next to Ember in the shade of the tree. There were other families
nearby. He watched the little imp sleep. She rolled onto her back and stretched
and then curled up on his arm. After a few minutes, the arm started to fall
asleep. When he tried to move it, the little imp locked onto it with her paws
to keep her warm pillow in place.
He
snorted and resigned himself to his fate for the time being.
“She
yours?” a fox asked softly. He looked over to where the Vixen was nursing a
trio of pups.
“No,
my granddaughter,” Jethro admitted.
“Granddaughter?”
the vixen asked blinking in confusion. Jethro flicked his ears. “Well, there is
quite a family resemblance.
“Something
like that,” Jethro admitted and then yawned. The fox looked politely away and
after a moment looked down tenderly to her trio as they finished up nursing.
Jethro
relaxed and waited for the others to return. He knew he was going to feel a lot
of guilt over leaving the little imp behind but it couldn’t be helped.
<<(O)>>
Suqi
slipped down the hall and then waited. Her lead robot had cleared the path but
she paused when something glittered in the vent. She checked the corner with a
scope and noted the glitter again and then carefully changed position.
Tricky,
she thought as she rested her hand against the wall. Her AI sent out a single
stream of nanites out and down the wall. It took time but for the moment she
had time to spare.
The
nanites went around a hatch and then into the vent. They found a small sniper
robot waiting there. It had a camera lens and barrel ten centimeters from the
vent. If the user hadn’t bent the vents apart to allow the barrel and camera to
get a good shot and view, she wouldn’t have picked up on it.
She
couldn’t hack it without the other side noticing. Nor could she just shut it
off, that would alert them of her location and that their trap had failed.
Instead,
she had the nanites form a camera above the robot camera and then take a
snapshot of its view out the vent.
She
then directed her AI to create a false image with a web of nanites over the
vent. It took time. There were a lot of nanites to move into position and
program with the RGB, but eventually, she had replaced the view with a false
image.
Only
when it was finished, did she move out carefully.
She
grinned slyly and then hand signed her team to begin moving out again. That was
a trick she had picked up from Sabu, and it was nice to use it against him.
<<(O)>>
Sabu
had a feeling that his sister was up to something. Their respective platoons
were on Orbital Fortress 9 training against each other in a cleared section of
the massive station. It was far better than a virtual game session, allowing
them to employ some real world tricks and toys to test out in real world
conditions. So far so good.
He
knew his sister was highly motivated to get revenge for his trouncing her in
the last exercise. Well, he had no intention of going down easy even though he
was playing the defender in this round.
She
had found his sniper hide but had missed a patch of light sensitive nanites
he’d put up as a tripwire at the corner. That told him her approach path.
He
had his squad activate a series of mines. The claymores were thin, coated to
look like the bulkhead. When Suqi’s squad came around the next corner, it would
go off.
<<(O)>>
Suqi’s
robot crept around the corner and then paused. It was programmed to stick to
the shadows and to the sides of the corridor. It tripped the sensors for the
claymores and the mines went off.
The
bot was covered in pink paint and immediately shut down, falling over in a
simulated death. Suqi narrowly missed getting splattered.
“Missed
me, bro,” she murmured as she deployed a second bot; this one she directed to
climb the wall and then hang from the ceiling. It would move slower but it
wouldn’t trip any pressure sensors on the ground.
She
winced when a second claymore went off with a loud thud and the bot was ripped
off the ceiling and went flying into the wall across from her.
Unless
of course he’d thought of that too.
Well! She thought as she reconsidered
her options.
<<(O)>>
General
Lyon smirked as Sabu and Suqi faced off. He had traveled with the two platoons
to the fortress in order to umpire the exercises and possibly even participate
in a few of them.
So
far Sabu seemed to have picked up the tricky side of Jethro’s lessons. But he
refused to underestimate Suqi. There was something to be said about the female
always being deadlier than the male of the species. No doubt because they liked
to be underestimated.
The
training and prep for the assault was going well. Pretty soon they would be
ready to move out.
<<(O)>>
Bagheera
was playing a first-person shooter and managed to win the match using a few
tricks his dad had taught him. It was a simple matter of finding the right spot
to snipe and having an escape plan if they spotted him.
When
he took out the enemy medic trying to revive a shooter, that more or less won
the match for his side. They easily captured the objective.
As
the match cleared, the other side complained about being taken out by a pro. He
grinned. “I am a pro.”
“Dude!
Not cool! Vets have their own servers!” a couple of players complained.
He
blinked. “I’m not a vet,” he said, trying to cut in. It took a couple of tries
before he got through their complaints. That earned some disbelief and
raspberries.
“Look,
my dad is a sniper. I picked up some tricks from him.”
“Marines
or Army?”
“Well,
he was in the marines.”
“Oh,
he’s out now?” one of the gamers asked. “Why?”
“No,
he’s in the Cadre.”
The
disbelief was almost palatable and then people went ballistic with excitement.
He became peppered with questions about the Cadre to the point that the next
match countdown was forfeited. The team he had been on wanted to keep him but
they wanted to play too.
He
was annoyed when he pulled back to the main forum only to find out that word of
who he was had followed. He was besieged by players wanting him on their team
or wanting information about the Cadre. It bugged him. They were more
interested in him for his dad than for his own skill set. That irritated him so
much he ended up logging out.
When
he logged in later, he was flagged with an email and then an alert that his ID
had been frozen. Incensed he emailed corporate to find out why and found that
they had been told to do so by the FBI.
He
was confused. “Look, I’m not a piker …”
“We
cannot reactivate your ID. You’ll have to speak to them and create a new ID,”
the customer service chatbot warned.
“Are
you serious?” he demanded, incredulous that he’d lost all of his stuff as well
as his points and prestige. He had been about to make the next tier damn it!
A
knock at the door made him look up.
“It
is for you,” Bast said from his computer.
“Damn
it, leave my PC alone!” he growled as he got up. “Who is it?” he demanded. A
video screen window opened, and he saw the video camera image of two people in
business suits. They looked either corporate or … “Ah hell,” he muttered.
“Bagheera
McClintock?” the lead agent asked as he opened the door.
“Yes?”
Bagheera asked. He had his headphones around his neck.
“My
name is Agent Smith; this is Agent Roberts,” the male agent said, indicating
his female companion. “We are with the FBI.” He showed off his credentials.
“What
is going on? Is my mom okay?”
“She’s
fine. This has to do with you.”
He
blinked and then his eyes narrowed. “What did I do? Do I need to call a lawyer
or something?”
“You
aren’t under arrest. We just need to clear up a few things,” the junior agent
said soothingly.
He
blinked and started to relax a little.
“You
spoke about the Cadre and your father in a chatroom and in the forums earlier
this evening?”
“Damn
it …,” he muttered. “Is that why my account got locked? Look it was
stupid I know. Someone was bitching about my being too good, and they thought I
was a ringer. I said I learned from my dad.”
The
lead agent nodded sagely.
“Your
account was locked because you broke protocol. Are you aware of the secrecy act
in regards to the Cadre and their family members?”
“Yeah,”
he sighed heavily. “I know; I screwed up.” He felt his ears flatten. Something
his mother had taught him was not to make excuses, especially to the
authorities or to her.
“I’m
proud of my family. I should be able to show it,” he muttered resentfully.
“We
get that. But you need to understand that they need to work from the shadows to
work effectively. And for their safety and your own, you need to help them keep
their anonymity,” the lead agent said patiently.
“Okay,
fine,” he growled. He wasn’t looking forward to starting out as a nugget again
though.
“If
only to keep from a repeat interview from us?” Agent Smith asked. “We could of
course take this downtown, take a day or two …”
“No,
no, I’ll be good. Honest. I know I screwed up. I’m sorry,” Bagheera said
hastily. The two agents looked amused.
Bagheera
rolled his eyes. The agents looked at each other and chuckled a little.
“Just
remember, people can and will bait you. They’ll try to get details out of you.
Some of the best cons out there gather the data and use it to steal your
identity or to get you into trouble in other ways.”
Bagheera
looked a bit affronted.
“And
yeah, we know, you are too good to get caught out like that. Believe me, we’ve
heard it before,” the female agent replied dryly. She shook her head in
resignation at the stupidity of some people who thought that they were
invulnerable. “Just think it through before you say something. Even something
minor can get you into trouble.”
“Loose
lips sinks ships?” Bagheera asked amused.
“Exactly.”
“I’ve
been told that a few times. I’ll try to be more careful.”
“Good.”
They shook hands and departed.
<<(O)>>
