EliteCommander

The Cradle

Athena had been taken down, but not before taking Carthage with her. That was a pivotal kill to swing the momentum back in Blue team’s direction. The Red team flag had been dropped, but it was closer now, at least, and Carthage’s respawn timer would give them an opening to push and claim it. If they could take out Thebes as well on the way, their opponents would have less effective leadership for a time.

Once again, it seemed like Vreta’s opponents were not rating him too highly as a threat. Saddam elected to shoot Athena rather than Vreta, but it suited him to go under their radar. They might not have realized that Vreta was constantly marking their positions. If all went well, they would have the enemy flag captured before they realized Vreta’s contributions. About a dozen marines had respawned around him in their spawn, which was a good-sized force to make a second push for the enemy flag. Since Saddam was recovering his shields, Vreta focused his fire at first on the remaining marine on the ground floor. Though the supersoldier on the floor above would be a persistent problem that would need to be dealt with.

After firing a volley of shots at the marine on the ground floor, Vreta picked out three of the Blue team soldiers around him and directed their attention up to Saddam’s window on the first floor. “Saddam is firing from that position. You three, take him out if you can, or at least keep him suppressed. I’ll keep him marked, so you can predict his movements.”

For the remaining nine marines, Vreta decided it was time to join them personally in moving forward. He would be moving near the rear to stay within his weapon’s preferred range, granted, but it was time for him to help with one good, final push. “Help Kjartan. We’ll take out Thebes, then push for the flag.” He ordered to the soldiers around him. It also seemed like there were some Blue team soldiers on the upper floor of the apartments that had managed to claim part of the building. It was a pleasant surprise, and it would be good to have their covering fire for the push ahead.

As he moved out into the street once more, Vreta jumped onto a pile of rubble to get an angle on Thebes while his allies were advancing. He put more of his implant’s focus on predicting Thebes’ and Kjartan’s movements based on their momentum so he could weave in shots from a distance in the midst of their melee.

The Cradle

It was in times like this that quick and calm tactical analysis could serve Vreta well. Knowing his enemy’s positions, he could work out a reasonable plan, even as events had not gone perfectly well. His implant had collected enough data to be able to project a live-updated map of the arena, and the people in it, in the corner of his vision. He could identify the supersoldiers by their silhouettes, so he knew where they were, and which needed to be dealt with most urgently.

Thebes had bested Knossos, but he was still near the middle, among the clouds of smoke. He was still a few seconds from being able to help, at least, and more than that, he was behind enemy lines. Supersoldier or no, his shields were no more powerful than anyone else’s in the simulation, so if any Blue team marines turned around on him, he could not ignore them.

“Thebes' position is marked, behind our lines. Take him down.” Vreta said through team-wide comms. Though, his own focus had to be on the threats immediately around them. If Carthage was taken down, the momentum could easily swing in the other direction. She was carrying an object for cover, but he doubted that a simple door could stand up to a railgun intended for anti-materiel roles. Athena just needed the chance to take one shot.

Vreta himself had backed up away from the bus, taking cover in some rubble closer to their spawn and near to the flag itself. He no longer had an angle to shoot down the street, since the building to his right blocked his view, but he could still see the apartments. Saddam was accurate, but since he and Athena were in quite different positions, he still could only suppress one of them at a time. Vreta could use that. “Athena, eliminate Carthage. I will cover.” He ordered simply.

With Carthage’s position marked for his allies, Vreta fully-committed onto taking out Saddam. He peeked out from behind the rubble and fired into the window, quickly and accurately. Being that he was firing from long range, Vreta’s weapon did have the edge. It was only three shots for it to break shields, in this simulation. Still, whether he won or lost the duel was not important to his goals. Only a supersoldier like Saddam would be accurate enough at long range to stop Athena from taking her shot, so he just needed to be occupied for a few seconds. If Vreta lost the duel, Athena would still be able to take her shot, and a trade of his life for Carthage’s would be more than worth it.

The Cradle

The team did run into some bad luck when the enemy soldiers barged into a room that had an angle on Athena from the door itself. Vreta did mark them, but it gave him less time to warn Athena than if they had approached from any other room. Still, Vreta responded right away in giving her cover. They committed onto taking out Athena, so Vreta was able to focus one target down to score a kill, and Athena was able to make it to cover, if only narrowly.

Being that they were supersoldiers, Carthage and the rest of the Sacred Band had distinctive silhouettes, so Vreta knew right away when he had detected her. It took a moment to transition his aim, but he was able to see her the moment she was in view near the fire exit. He saw the launcher she wielded, and his implant could estimate its trajectory based on her current point of aim. She might have been able to take advantage of the opportunity, but, perhaps for reasons of pride, she inadvertently gave Vreta the time he needed to respond. The time she took to taunt Kjartan was only seconds, but on the battlefield, seconds may as well have been an eternity. Those seconds were enough for Vreta, while keeping low and out of sight, to retreat back a sufficient distance from the bus to keep his shield from breaking. Carthage had picked her target well, as Kjartan was not an immediate threat to her at range, but she may not have expected the trio of shots that Vreta sent through the fireball onto her position.

The Cradle

“I see.” Vreta answered. He kept himself in cover behind the bus, though Kjartan might have been able to see a smirk cross his face. “I see everything.” Naturally, there were some limits to what information his echolocation could give him. Anything deep within the building, in the interior hallways, were outside of his awareness, but he could see into any room open to the outside through a window or door. Vreta did stay behind the bus, though he did move from hard cover to a position where it was just the bus’ roof blocking the line of sight between him and the shooter. Vreta pointed his rifle up to the source of the shooting on the first floor, then fired, quickly and accurately, at the shooter straight through the thin metal roof of the bus. Whether Vreta got the kill or not, just forcing the shooter back to make them recharge their shields would be sufficient to buy time for the moment.

Vreta gestured towards the frontline. “We may or may not stop them, but we can stall them. Keep them from getting value out of their position. Push forward quick and get the flag. Just leave a few soldiers to help us contest the building.”

Vreta spoke first to Athena, then any other soldier that was helping to hold their flank. “I can see into the rooms. I can show you exactly which rooms they are in, and precisely when they are going to peek. The moment they peer out to shoot, you can take off their heads. Or if your railgun can pierce the walls, take them out as soon as they step into the rooms.” Vreta recommended. For the purposes of the simulation, he was not sure what surfaces could or could not be destroyed, but if Athena’s weapon could pierce the walls, then the apartments would be more of a deathtrap for them than a flanking route. “Just make sure to mark the window you’re going to handle. Everyone else, we can suppress their windows right as they are about to peek. Get kills if you can, but just stay alive and focus on keeping them from getting anything done. I’ll warn you if any of them try to leave the building.”

The Cradle

Vreta could track the fight between Thebes and Knossos. It had turned into a melee briefly, which meant that Thebes would not be able to focus on staying completely behind hard cover that Athena could not pierce. “Can you get the shot, Athena? I’ll keep him marked.”

With the number of lives they had available to them, it was not long before Kjartan was ready to head back into the fray. Ideally, Vreta wanted to try and prevent him from continually throwing himself at Carthage, because he had a feeling that she had the edge in that duel. Of course, from what he had witnessed of Kjartan’s personality, saying that directly would only encourage him to keep taking the fight. Vreta had already tried reasoning with him, so he decided to take a different approach to talking to him this time.

“I ordered a retreat from the building. With just a few soldiers, I can keep the exits locked down and keep her trapped in there.” Vreta answered. “We do that, and she won’t be able to accomplish much beyond taking a few potshots. Meanwhile, I say you march straight down the middle, bash your way through the rest of them, and take that flag straight out from under her nose. We’re filling the frontline with smoke, and I’m marking targets through it. If someone like you gets in there, you’ll slaughter them.” He said, and at least in this case, he did mean it. The current situation on the frontline was perfect for a soldier like Kjartan.

The Cradle

Vreta kept his position behind the bus and no longer tried to take shots on the front line, so the soldiers trying to suppress him were mostly just wasting their time. From the position he had, he could see the doors and windows of the apartment building perfectly fine without exposing himself to enemy fire. Even without firing a shot, he could still provide a great deal of assistance to the frontline, especially once the smoke came out.

As quickly as he could, Vreta spoke through the team-wide comms. “Help Knossos’ push! Get more smoke on the enemy; I’ll keep targets marked.” He ordered. The enemy team was winning out in the apartment; that much was undeniable. As confident as Kjartan was, Carthage had the edge on him. However, the frontline was where they could exploit their own advantage. It was a simple advantage, but one that could not be understated: the Blue team could shoot accurately through the smoke, while the Red team could not. Vreta had his implant working as fast as it could to give live updates on enemy positions based on his echolocation data. With more and more smoke covering the battlefield, now was the time to push. All his marines had to do was shoot at their HUD markers onto targets that could not meaningfully shoot back. The enemy had already used a large portion of their lethal grenades in their previous attempted push, so they would not have enough to repel this one.

The Cradle

Vreta moved behind the bus to block off the line of sight between him and Thebes, then took his other grenade in hand. It was a “scrambler” smoke grenade which, in addition to being a visual obstruction, provided disruption to enhanced vision modes, such as EM or thermal vision. Given the prevalence of augmented vision among militaries, smoke with disrupting capabilities was the norm. He landed the grenade just outside the doorway on Knossos’ flank to block off the sightline Carthage had on him, so she would have to run outside to have any impact on the front line. Since the smoke did nothing to disrupt sound waves, Vreta could still track enemy positions through it.

Since Kjartan had lost the apartment building, Vreta stopped trying to challenge Thebes and instead kept in cover while watching the windows and doors of the apartments. “Anyone still inside, retreat. I can cover the doors and keep them from giving chase. Our soldiers are holding the middle for now, so if we can keep Carthage and her squad trapped in that apartment building, they won’t be accomplishing much for their team. Every one of them in there is one less between us and the flag.”

Vreta’s conscious attention was now on the apartment exits, while his neural implant handled the live updates on enemy positions. “Knossos, Athena, work together to take out Thebes. If you can get smoke on him, Knossos, I can keep updating his position through it. He might not expect that. You don’t even need to get him out of cover. With me tracking his position, you only need to get him behind something Athena’s weapon can pierce through.”

The Cradle

Vreta was finally getting a decent amount of pressure on his own position. He dropped down quickly from the top of the bus to a more protected position behind it. He did not have quite as good of a view over the battlefield, but that mostly just affected the areas he could personally shoot. The information he could give to his allies was unchanged.

Ultimately, Vreta decided not to expose himself too much to enemy fire. He did peak from different angles around the bus to return fire on Thebes and keep him pressured, and as Thebes would discover, Vreta could definitely land his shots. However, Vreta prioritized keeping himself alive over trying to personally confirm the kill. For now, the intel he could provide to his team was more valuable than the damage he could personally deal. Even in a confusing situation, he could keep his frontline alert to threats, as well as making sure that no one from the apartments could surprise them with a flank. His zoom optics were sharp enough that he could identify that it was Thebes he was exchanging fire with, which was valuable information.

Taking cover behind the bus, Vreta tagged Thebes’ position with a high-priority mark, then opened a comm link with Knossos and Athena, specifically. “I spotted Thebes, right here. He’s looking at me right now.” He alerted them. Thebes was good enough to challenge any of them, but he could not do everything at once. One of the other two could have an opportunity to exploit.

The Cradle

The back-and-forth in the middle was pretty even at the moment. The enemy had taken out a few of Vreta’s team, but the assumption that they would be able to easily follow through and capture the position ended up costing them. Not only could Vreta still shoot accurately despite the obstructions, but sharing that intel also allowed his allies to do the same. As long as they were paying attention to their HUD, they wouldn’t get caught off-guard.

The team was still holding for now, but they had not stabilized their control of the hardpoint. Knossos had managed to take out the Agent, but he seemed to be in some trouble himself. He was the only member of the Sacred Band they had on the frontline, so he was an important person to keep alive. He could command the squads around him more effectively than Vreta could. Vreta himself did not have an angle on the source of the object that had struck Knossos, but he could still detect it. Every pulse of sound that his implant generated improved his picture of his surroundings, giving him more data to separate out static or inanimate objects from enemy combatants. He had picked out the location of Knossos’ nearest attacker, and though he could not get a shot from where he was, Athena’s weapon did not seem to have any difficulty dealing with obstructions.

“I’ve got a target for you, Athena, right here. Let’s give Knossos some help.” Vreta said as he marked the location.

The Cradle

Vreta, if nothing else, kept Thebes on his toes in his position behind the car. Before the wave of grenades, he did land a hit or two on his shields between the gaps, even if it wasn’t enough to send him back to spawn.

When the explosive barrage did come in, Vreta tried to encourage his team to remain aggressive, so as not to allow the enemy to dictate the pace of the battle. “They’re going to try to push off that. We can’t let them overtake the position. Get in some of your own grenades. I’ll mark targets.”

From a standing position, Vreta leaped up from the ground onto the roof of the bus, though he kept near the back in case he had to jump down into cover quickly. It was a more exposed position, but with all the dust in the air at the moment, there would be less eyes on him. Right now, they needed to be able to keep up the pressure, and the clouds of dust did not impede his awareness. With Vreta’s echolocation, he could continue to track their movements regardless of the dust. Anyone pushing would find themselves with taking accurate DMR fire. Though, likely more impactful was the fact that he had his implant broadcast markers for enemy movements to his allies. He wasn’t sure if all of the marines had augmented displays, but Athena at least would be able to benefit from them. Through it all, he still made sure not to tunnel vision entirely on the frontline. A subroutine in his implant was pretty much dedicated to scanning his peripheral vision for signs of threats. Being that he was far in the back, both of the apartment building exits on his side of the arena were in his field of view, so if Carthage won inside, he could at least make sure she did not get a surprise flank.