Ignition Broker: Chapter 32 Squad Tactics

Chapter 32

Squad Tactics

“A team of soldiers can be an unstoppable force, so long as you have three core components: cohesion, adaptability, and a common goal. Take away any one of those and you have a group of highly trained but ultimately aligned individuals all without a common goal or purpose.” -Marcon on military squad tactics

“Don’t worry, I shall avenge your deaths,” the sole remaining soldier from the now decimated team of Cerusian warriors cried out as if reciting B-rate movie script lines with D-rate acting skills. The only problem was that they were not in a filming studio, and the person that was crying out wasn’t even using standard to make their cry of anger.

“AGHHH!”

Whoosh!

An S-Rank barrier flashed to life, surrounding the now raging Cerusian warrior as she all but dared to call out to anyone stupid enough to come challenge her in a one-on-one duel. Seeing the rage fueled moment for what it was, Arla just shook her head. Then giving the go sigh to her teammates at the far end of the field, a series of shots rang out.

Pfft.

A red arcing beam of plasmatic energy shot forward, striking the clearly impenetrable shield of the warrior. Like an unstoppable movie monster, the now raging Cerusian warrior first heard the impact of the first shot striking their protective 360-degree barrier, only to turn around in the direction of the shot.

Masterfully, like an expert concert maestro, Arla gave signals for the first shooter to stop, while giving hand gestures for two others to fire.

Pfft, pfft.

This time two blasts from two completely different areas rang out, striking the warrior from both sides. Once again, Arla only gave the signal to fire once and then drop. As before, these two shots did little to the shield, their altered form was clearly not powerful enough to penetrate the massive barrier generated by the innate power of the Cerusian. A power that was clearly on par with a true S-Ranker who trained their abilities from birth, and was afforded all luxuries. Well all luxuries but being trained by Marcon, one of the scrappiest and most underhanded warriors the universe had ever had a chance to see.

With the commands given, and the rest of her team clearly hiding in safety after their one and only shot was fired at an unsuspecting target from behind, Arla rose up from her position, readied her empowered rifle and fired a barrage of super charged rounds down field towards the suddenly stationary target.

Pfft, pfft, pfft.

Round after round fired, the first one striking the impenetrable S-Ranked barrier, causing a burst and cracks to form instantly, a fact that was different from the first two strikes. Then the second round struck at exactly the same spot as the first, causing an even deeper penetrating shot, followed by a third that managed to pierce and breakthrough the barrier. Until finally a fourth, and fifth rounds both surged forward through the unnaturally tough Cerusian powered barrier, striking the hapless warrior, as they began to turn around and find out what was causing the sensations that were tearing into their power reserves.

Pop, pop.

Two rounds struck, one striking the back of the neck with an intense burst that even after being muted for training purposes still felt like being struck with a baseball bat to the back of the skull. Followed by a second one that hit the still spinning Cerusian in the side of the face, all but knocking them unconscious from the impact, despite all precautions.

For her part, Arla acted as if she had not made the killing blow, as if she had not calculated her bursts perfectly. While she could have easily used the full extent of her powers and provided one supercharged round that pierced the barrier, followed by a second round that struck the intended target, Arla herself was keeping to the script. The script being that she was an A-Rank talent for Spirit Infusion. That was why she was able to provide a full complement of charged rounds that were ultimately effective, if a bit rudimentary in their need to be stacked.

Arla had already dropped behind her own mound that she had chosen as her observation point for this squad task. Her squad, that is the team she had chosen to lead was a team of C-Rank scrubs, at least that is what everyone had told her during her selection committee. Her choices had been simple, either be part of an S-Ranker’s squad, or lead a team of lower ranked individuals.

The reason why Arla chose to represent C-Rankers was for two simple reasons. Her first and most obvious reason was that no Cerusian would dare lower themselves to be part of the C-Rank teams. Even those that were in the B-Rank were there as part of a stop gap to make sure they witnessed whomever it was that they were tracking. While Arla was certain by now that they were after her, this foray into the realm of C-Rank squad leadership bought her just a bit more time before she could get her own plans ready.

As for the second reason why, Arla chose to slum with the C-rankers, it was simple, what these soldiers lacked in power they more than made up for in ability. They could all do two things necessary for Arla’s plans to work. Their first major claim to fame was that they could all follow orders, which was how her hand signals worked out so well. The second thing they had going for them was that they were all good shots, again in order to make up for their perceived lack of power, they had to excel at other areas of being a soldier, meaning they had all the qualities that a Spirit Infusionist like herself would need to both showcase her own power, and demonstrate her leadership, the two things she was going to be graded on as a squad leader.

Not even waiting for the all clear, Arla began doing multiple things. First, she began Infusing power into her next clip. Second, she began rolling and moving silently to her next observation point. One where she would be able to watch the rest of the field and see where her own teammates had also moved to. The run-n-gun method, at least that is what Marcon had told her it was. Though judging by the looks from her fellow squad members, it was either something Marcon made up, or something not taught until much later, as they all looked confused before she explained the concept. The team would first disperse and run to their designated areas. As the leader and most capable, Arla took it upon herself to run to the farthest spot first, placing herself right in danger as she made her way down the center of the field while the members of the opposition took shots at her. Her reflexes, and innate danger senses let her know when and how to move, and most importantly where to duck to avoid initial conflict.

Everyone was so focused on hitting her, that her team managed to get into position without anyone paying them any mind. From there, once in place, the battle went about as expected. Arla would get up, empower a round with multiple layers of energy that would burn brightly, and reveal the user to the rest of the squad, a Tracer round. At least that is the name Arla had come up with the shot, one that caused the gel pack to be extra bright and vibrant. Then with the target marked in such a way, the rest of the team would fire when they had open lines of sight available. Once they fired, they were to immediately duck for cover and move to a new vantage point at least ten feet away from where they were.

The hardest part was when Arla made her mad Infusion empowered dash across the field. Once she was in position, and got her first round off, the rest became simple. Highlight a target, then have the team all get a shot off, after which Arla would make a kill shot.

No deaths were possible, at least shouldn’t be possible, especially with how much the rounds were reduced in efficacy. This was likely why the barrier mage, or whatever that power was seemed so confident in themselves, thinking that the rounds could not make it through her shielding.

Air HORN BLAST!

As Arla had expected, those final bursts were deemed to be deadly force. The horn overhead signaled that the exercise was now over.

Hearing the sound, Arla stood up, held her fist in the air and all but summoned her squad to form up on her. With a shocked silence the other members of her team made their way towards her. Looking at the three survivors, it was clear that her team was not without its own losses from the kerfuffle. Two on the right side came, with glowing green paint covering their clothes around the torso and arms areas. While they had not been hit with direct killing blows, it was clear that they had stayed too long or had not moved around enough.

Arla glanced at them, making eye contact, those that glanced away all but declared that they died unnecessarily due to not following her directives of fire once then drop move and wait for a new signal. By contrast the other two, those that would look her in the eyes just gave a what can you do shoulder shrug. Seeing them, Arla nodded and relaxed her gaze slightly. The impact of that gesture was clear, as the two that had done everything perfectly relaxed slightly.

No words were said, but in this environment no one needed to speak, especially not the C-Rankers who it seemed were often ridiculed by upper classmen and higher ranked members. This was another thing that Arla had expected from her team, but didn’t quite know what to expect until she saw it all in person.

Silence.

Her team was silent, even in victory they smiled and aside from a few exuberant hand gestures, they made their way to stand behind Arla quietly.

By contrast, the losing team was loud, raucous, and chirping at each other.

“You moron, why didn’t you cover us!” One female Cerusian cadet hissed at the S-Ranked barrier mage who died a historic last dance, all in Cerusian.

“How was I supposed to know you would die that quickly, besides, what type of ammunition were they using. There is no way the standard rounds were enough to penetrate my shielding.” The barrier mage replied, also in Cerusian.

As they all approached, the opposing team of seven combatants all looked both defeated and annoyedly at the two S-Ranked Cerusian teammates who had been placed in charge of them.

While no one wanted to call out the two, it was clear from their gazes and body posture that they felt their leaders set them up for failure.

Drill Instructor Dazzing and adjunct Instructor Shri’arha were in front of the two formations. Arla stood out as the clear leader, her squad of seven soldiers, standing in front as if to form a human shield to protect her squad from the instructors. Likewise, the two Cerusians also stood in front of their squad of six soldiers, in what should have been a method to protect their own soldiers from the harsh criticisms of the instructors. Only the difference between the two groups was clear to see.

Behind Arla, who stood tall and proud, her team assembled in a perfect formation at attention and ready to receive feedback. By contrast the squad of human soldiers behind the two Cerusian leaders stood in a mixture of parade rest and at ease, many having to adjust their stances due to pains in multiple spots from welts that had more than enough time to begin to form from the training shots received. While the shots weren’t meant to kill, they were meant to be strong enough to make the soldier hesitate, even if only for a moment.

Dazzing gave the squads a moment to try to center themselves, only to find that there apparently was no helping the Cerusian squad. Even after glancing at the Cerusian delegate who had been assigned to assist, no corrective actions were taken. Realizing that this was more an indication on the lack of leadership potential in the Cerusian powerhouses, Dazzing just shook his head in disgust and began to give his honest feedback.

“Can anyone tell me what exactly happened out there?”

Silence.

Dazzing watched both squads, the Cerusian lead squad just nervously shuffled from foot to foot, while Arla’s team seemed to follow Arla’s stoic lead and just stared forward, while Arla herself seemed to stare into and through the instructor.

“No one? No one can say anything?” Dazzing began, then realizing no one would offer up anything to say he turned to his assistant. Looking at the brooding assistant, Dazzing saw the moment when something seemed to break in the normally stoic Cerusian’s face, that’s when he saw madness flare up within her cold pretty eyes.

“Yes, she cheated,” the Cerusian Instructor began and then raised one accusatory finger right at Arla.

Before Instructor Dazzing could even begin to process what was happening, the slightly unhinged Cerusian Instructor continued. “There is no way for someone of mere A-Rank to be able to break through an S-Rank Cerusian barrier.”

Dazzing was shocked, then found himself questioning the sanity of the officer. “That’s it, that’s your key takeaway, not that the superior team was outmatched and out hustled. Not the fact that the superior powered team just stood around like animals at a petting zoo? None of that? Just straight up, a cadet had to cheat? Because what? She’s human?”

Hearing that Arla inwardly smiled, as it was clear that at least some tension was forming between members of the two factions that had seemed too chummy as of late. Still, only a stoic look of calm played out on her face, even as the Cerusian was right, despite her delivery being flawed from having to translate into a secondary language. A fact that Arla was prepared to use when the moment struck.