Chương 8: Arc 0 - Chapter 8 - Shadow

Over the next twenty minutes, Thea reported two more scouts.' Do they really just have an endless supply of people for this shit?' she thought grimly.' No way the UHF would ever throw lives away like that…' Decoys were normal in warfare, of course—ambushes, probes, bait to test enemy positions—but there was always an assumption they'd at least try to survive.' These ones are decidedly not even trying.' Instead, the scouts walked straight into the open and waited without cover nor hesitation.

Just standing there until a sniper ended them, like it was routine.'

This is absolutely fucked,' she thought, irritation building as she continued spotting more and more of them. Finally, however, her comm pinged, snapping her out of it.

"Private, Kellerman here. Thought you'd want the update: Command confirmed your theory over on the eastern front. They set up a counter-decoy and it worked. Sniper moved away from his squad, took the shot, booked it—and boom. Explosion right where the shot came from a couple seconds later. Brass is pretty damn happy with the progress." She tapped her comm once to acknowledge.' Good.' The update came at the right time, too.' Getting stuck in my own head out here is a damn bad habit I better not fall into...

The Old Man would've made me run until I puked for that.' She was about to settle back into her scope and refocus on her actual task at hand—spotting the scouts whenever they showed up—when her comm pinged again. Kellerman's voice came through once more.

"Actually—just got a request from command. They want you involved. We're setting up a counter-decoy on our side too, near the eastern edge of our front. One of our snipers is going to take the shot.

"Captain Greysmith—the one from the bunker—wants you watching for that black shadow you mentioned. Since you nailed the decoy thing, he's hoping you're right about this too. Op goes live in about five." The sudden spike in responsibility and trust being dropped on her made Thea freeze for a second.

'They're going to risk a sniper and his squad just so I can catch a shadow I'm not even sure I saw? That's insane!' …Was it, though? They'd already tested the theory. The eastern front had proven a sniper could survive if they fired and moved immediately. The hard part was done.

'So how much risk is there, really…?' She pushed the hesitation aside and sent an acknowledgement ping to Kellerman.' Guess it's time to actually earn my keep,' she told herself.' I might not be as fast at running as Kellerman, but fuck me, I can at least see better than most. That's gonna have to count for something, right?' Determined to finally do something other than stare at enemies she wasn't allowed to shoot, she settled into a position that let her raise the rifle at a moment's notice.

If the shadow appeared again, she'd track it as long as she possibly could. Then, time dragged. Each second felt heavier than the last as anticipation built.

About twenty seconds before the five-minute mark Kellerman had mentioned, her comms pinged.

"Op is a go. Good luck." She narrowed her focus to a needlepoint and brought it all into her scope. She dialed the zoom down to ten times from sixteen, trading magnification for a wider field of view. The distant crack of a sniper's rifle echoed over the fortifications. She ignored it completely. She didn't know where the shadow would appear, so she scanned the entire hillside. The strain piled up fast. Fifteen seconds in, her eyes were already watering, but she forced herself to keep looking. Seconds crawled by.

'Any moment now,' she thought, heart hammering.' Any moment there'll be an explosion. If I miss this, they'll have risked their lives for nothing…' Just as dread started to rise in her chest—she finally saw it. She moved faster than she ever had before, snapping her scope up to track the shadow—too late. It vanished as abruptly as it had appeared. Still, she didn't despair.

'That's confirmation. It's fucking real,' she thought, breathing a sigh of relief. Now all that was left was the aftermath… Moments later, another massive explosion tore through the eastern side of the fortified hill. With a grim sense of morbid satisfaction, she opened her comms and contacted Kellerman.

"SL, I can confirm visual contact with the shadow. It was there. I tried to track it, but it was too damn fast. No shot." A short acknowledgement ping came back, followed by silence. About a minute later, Kellerman replied.

"Command wants clarification. Was the shadow the same size as before?"

"Yes, sir. Roughly the same size." Another minute passed.

"Any idea where it came from?"

"Somewhat, sir. Bearing one-three-one from our position. I can't judge distance—I don't know its true size. Somewhere behind the hill is all I can say."' Why are they playing messenger instead of just asking me directly…?' irritation started simmering in her chest. She waited again. This time, more than three minutes.

"Private. Command is setting up another counter-decoy. They want you to time how long it takes from the shadow appearing to the explosion. Op goes in ten."

'What? Why didn't they just ask me about that in the first place?!' The irritation boiled over. She vaulted out of her foxhole and sprinted toward the nearest trench where Kellerman's squad was dug in. Before he could ask what was wrong, she spoke fast.

"I already have that information. There's no need to risk more people. Can I speak to command directly? This game of he-said-she-said is slowing everything down." She caught herself.

"Uh— sir." Kellerman blinked at her, clearly caught off guard. Around them, the rest of his squad suddenly found very important things to do, though it was obvious they were listening in—it was probably the most excitement they'd had all day. He frowned for a moment, weighing his options. Then he brought up his squad's comm unit and handed it to her.

"Alright, Private. You've done solid work. I'll trust you again. Just… please don't get me court-martialed," he said with a crooked smile. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. She nodded and gave him a grateful look before taking the comm.

"Command, this is Private Thea, speaking through SL Kellerman's unit. I already have the data you're asking for. From the moment the shadow appeared to the explosion, exactly nine-point-four seconds passed. I timed it using the primary mission timer on my HUD, assuming it might help narrow things down." A heavy silence followed, and her chest tightened.' Did I just screw this up? Was going straight to command a mistake? And mentioning the mission timer—was that something I should have kept to myself…?'

Before the spiral could take hold however, the comm pinged.

"Private Thea, it's good to hear from you again—despite the… unorthodox method of communication," Captain Greysmith said, his tone friendly but decidedly firm.

"Excellent work on the reports so far. We have a few more questions, so listen carefully: Squad Leader Kellerman mentioned you weren't able to track the shadow after it left your vision. Roughly how far did it travel before disappearing?"

'Thin ice,' she realised immediately.' If I don't give them something useful, this stunt's going to bite me… Damn it. The Old Man was always adamant about InfoSec—about keeping everything in a strict hierarchy with the UHF... But it's so frustratingly inefficient.' She ran quick calculations in her head, pulling from the distance and velocity formulas he'd drilled into her for years. Then she ran them again.' I can't afford to be wrong here.'

Finally happy that she wasn't making any hasty numbers mistakes, she replied,"I'd estimate around seven to eight hundred metres straight up, sir. It's hard to be exact without knowing its starting distance. If we had that, I could give you a more precise answer. Sorry, sir." A second voice cut in a moment later.

"Private, roughly how long did it take the shadow to cover that distance? Think carefully. This is important. Be as precise as you can be—but even a close-enough estimate will do, if that's all you have for us." She stiffened slightly.' Lieutenant Ormir. Didn't expect him to ask me for anything…' Her opinion of the man adjusted a notch upwards once more.' Competent asshole indeed… Alright. Give him everything you've got.'

"Sorry, sir. I can't be precise on this at all," she said honestly.

"It moved faster than I could blink. Best estimate I can give is somewhere between one-tenth and one-twentieth of a second. I know that's a wide range, but I don't have any way to narrow it down further, as I'm missing information on how far away it really was." She hated to be so wishy-washy about the specifics, especially with it being Lieutenant Ormir's request, in fear of once again getting reprimanded by him, but she simply had no way to be more accurate with the data, no matter how much she wanted it.

Silence stretched on for several minutes. Kellerman and Thea exchanged a few uneasy glances, neither of them speaking. Finally however, the quiet broke as the comms pinged again.

"Private, we're running another test," Captain Greysmith's voice came through.

"Keep your eyes peeled for that shadow and gather whatever data you can—distance, speed, size, anything and everything. With some luck, we won't even need it. We've adjusted our countermeasures, so this one might not end in another explosion. Op goes live in ten. Get in position." Thea stared at the comm unit in her hand, caught off guard by the sudden follow-up test being announced like that.

"Well," Kellerman said casually, accepting the orders seemingly without much surprise at all, "guess that's that. See you after the next test, I suppose?"

"Uh… yeah. Sure," she replied, still a bit stunned by how fast things were moving. Then she snapped back to attention.

"Ehhh—Sir!" Kellerman's squad immediately burst out laughing.

"I fucking love this Private," one of them said, nearly doubling over.

"She's got more balls than most Marines were born with. And she's funny as fuck! Keller, let us keep her." Kellerman shook his head, amused, and took the comm unit back from Thea before handing it to one of his men.

"She's directly under Captain Sable. Can't poach her that easily. Sorry, lads. Now get yourselves in order—we've got an op to watch." He gave Thea a grin and a nod, dismissing her. Her face still warm with embarrassment, she hurried back toward her foxhole.

'Get a damn grip, Thea,' she told herself.' If I want to make it in the UHF, I can't keep losing focus over dumb little things like that… Still… running into Kellerman was definitely lucky.' He'd been friendly, patient, and had backed her twice now—both times undoubtedly risking his own neck if things had gone really wrong.

'With another squad leader, I might not have been able to reach command at all…' She made a quiet decision as she ran to her cover.

'If I ever get the chance, I'm joining his squad.' About ten minutes later, another scout's head burst into a mist of red and gore, the sharp echo of a gunshot rolling across the UHF hillside. Thea stood in her foxhole once more, fully focused, her eyes fixed on the horizon beyond the enemy hill. Moments later, she spotted it again—the shadow shooting straight up into the sky at incredible speed.' So my estimates weren't off earlier,' she noted with quiet relief.' Good.

No awkward explanations for Lieutenant Ormir.' She kept her eyes on the mission timer in the top-right corner of her vision as she waited for the blast. It tracked time down to a tenth of a second—not perfect, since something more precise would've been ideal, but good enough for what she needed here and now. Nine seconds passed. She braced herself against the side of the foxhole, already tired of getting slammed into the dirt by shockwaves. Then—nothing.

A fraction of a second later, a thunderous blast echoed high above them. Not from the hill, but from the sky itself. She looked up just in time to see the fading remains of a massive fireball, hundreds of metres above the fortifications. They'd intercepted it. The countermeasures had worked. Adrenaline surged through her. She vaulted out of her foxhole and sprinted toward Kellerman's squad to report in. The squad leader was already waiting, a wide grin on his face.

"Good shit, Private," he said, giving her shoulder a firm punch.

"Looks like we're safe from those explosions now. Thanks to you."

"Thank you, SL," she replied, grinning just as hard.

"This wouldn't have happened without your trust. Seriously." He handed her the squad's comm unit, and she didn't waste a second.

"Private Thea reporting," she said, excitement clear in her voice.

"The explosive was intercepted roughly eight hundred metres above our fortifications. Whatever adjustments you made worked. I've got the requested data ready, if you still need it." This time, the reply came right away, carried by a noticeably calmer and more upbeat Captain Greysmith.

"The UHF thanks you for your exemplary service, Private Thea. Without your critical intel, we would've had a much harder time figuring this out. I'll be sure to mention both you and Squad Leader Kellerman favourably in the after-action report.

"The additional data you gathered is no longer required. We have determined that the shadow you observed earlier was the shell of a GOG launcher.

"Our countermeasures were not originally configured to deal with this type of attack, as the Stellar Republic has never displayed this level of technology before. While its appearance is deeply concerning, we should be safe from further retaliatory strikes for the foreseeable future. All countermeasures at Theta Outpost have already been recalibrated, and the brass is transmitting this information to the rest of UHF forces on the planet, as we speak.

"We've saved countless UHF lives here today, folks.

"You're allowed to pat yourselves on the back for a moment—but remember, you're still in an active warzone. Return to your posts and continue the same level of exemplary service you've shown so far." The comms went quiet, leaving Thea, Kellerman, and his squad standing in stunned silence—though for evidently very different reasons. Thea stood frozen at having been named directly and praised as an exemplary Marine, with her actions slated to appear in the western front's after-battle report.

Kellerman's squad, meanwhile, was reeling from something else entirely.

"A void-fucking GOG launcher…?" one of them muttered.

"How in the Emperor's name did those freaks get their hands on that?"

"I thought the Stellar Republic wasn't even close to this tech level," another added.

"Where the fuck did they get this shit? You think they got more surprises like this hiding under those dirty fucking rags?" Hearing their reactions, Thea forced herself to dial back her own excitement.' So it's not all good news after all.' She cleared her throat.

"Sorry for my lack of knowledge on this," she started carefully, "but what exactly is a GOG launcher? Why is it such a big deal? Didn't we just manage to counter it?" The entire squad—including Kellerman—turned toward her with surprised looks. Kellerman frowned slightly, but spoke anyway.

"This should've been covered in basic, Private… but I'll humour you," he said.

"After all, you've been nothing but helpful so far. Anyway, GOG stands for 'ground to orbit to ground.' It fires a shell in a high arc that leaves the planet's atmosphere on the way up, then comes back down through it on the way to the target.

"That gives the shell insane kinetic energy from the speed alone, which makes it hard to stop. On top of that, it bypasses a lot of standard countermeasures meant for artillery, mortars, and similar weapons. Even kinetic bombardment countermeasures don't count for it, as it also has explosive compounds inside the shells—it counts as both and neither, at the same time.

"But the real problem isn't just the launcher itself," he continued.

"It's what its presence here means. The Stellar Republic has never shown tech like this before. Seeing it on our front today points to a bigger issue: Either they've made a massive technological breakthrough in a very short amount of time—which is unlikely, but still the better of the two options— or they've found a supplier or ally willing to provide advanced weapon systems, and even train them to use them.

"That second option is why we're not celebrating as much as you might expect. We went from knowing our enemy inside and out to facing something new—something we don't understand yet." With every sentence, Thea felt her mood sink. The earlier praise drained away as the full weight of the situation settled in.

"… fuck," she muttered under her breath.

"Exactly," Kellerman said, nodding.

"But don't lose heart. We're UHF Marines. Fighting unknown enemies is what we do. Stay sharp, trust your squad, and rely on your training.

"We'll send these freaks back to the void they crawled out of—no matter what toys they managed to get their hands on." The confidence in his voice was infectious and something that felt distinctly "Squad Leader". Before she knew it, Thea joined in with the squad's loud cheers, feeling a surge of her lost energy return. Ultimately swallowing the words " But I've never had any training… or a squad…

", she simply continued to smile at the rest of the squad, nodded an acknowledgement to each of them and left for her lonely foxhole once again…