File 8.5 - The Absence of War

Across the center of the monitor a red bar expanded in front of Ansgar. His eyes opened quickly as the break was over. Snapping his body back into action, he began to run checks on his system. Through the chair, he felt the machine vibrating as his body immediately became alert and hyper-sensitive to every change.

A small communication window appeared in the corner of his view, the woman officer from before. “Ensign Toule, Ragnarok’s been detected attacking Torton in the former African continent. Landing coordinates are point 4B of the AFD region.”

“Understood, sir!” The window disappeared as the transport locked into place. He flipped the switch and navigated mentally to the transport’s channel. “Ensign Toule here, point 4B AFD.”

“Roger and confirmed, 4B AFD. Let’s get those bastards today!”

“I plan to…” Ansgar closed the line and changed to communication with the Skadi. “Air, the mission is a go.”

“Understood, sir! The Skadi is fully prepared for combat.”

“This is our first time to sortie as a team, so keep the line open and follow my orders.”

“I will, sir.”

He minimized the window leaving the open line as only a waveform. It was his first real time in command and first time partnering with Air. They only had simulations together for a brief time, so he worried about their teamwork. ‘Given what I know about Air, I won’t have to worry about her deviating from the plan.’ The rest of his team gave him greater worries, but he had to focus on the mission at hand. He needed success first with Air.

Ansgar felt the pull through the transport as it banked sharply aligning with the new marker. Their destination of Torton gave them a fortunately ideal location. It sat fairly closely within their forecast region. And the time to reach the target would put them well inside the thirty minute time window that they worked under.

Torton sat deep inside the continent and surrounded by vast fields. Unlike much of the other reclaimed landmasses, the old African continent had the best land for agriculture thanks to vast open plains. According to the history books, the old geography was quite a bit different, but the less mountainous region became ideal for crops. Significant effort was placed in maintaining and managing the giant farms that made up more than seventy percent of the food production.

There could be worse battle zones to be found, Ansgar knew this, but Torton easily made it up there. Due to being the agriculture hub, the traffic was notorious for being one of the worst in the entire planet. Only Antarctica could top it for volume. That also meant the city could be in complete chaos by the time they arrived. ‘I just pray the security forces have stopped all traffic. But they’re not used to dealing with this scale of attack…’

Flipping through the menus on screen, several columns of data populated his monitor. He began mentally sorting each into different groups. To the sides were old data that might be of use while the more current and wider views filled the center. ‘Timestamp…a minute old…where’s the most recent…I want to see live if possible…’ The system filtered through the videos based on his criteria until it came up with the latest. Not all of the systems finished handing over control to the military. So he didn’t have all of the cameras for reconnaissance yet.

The few given to him were enough though. He could get a sense of the battle from them. Once more came in he could make a more accurate battle plan for when they arrived. Swift and precise were their orders. ‘Looks like much of the traffic hasn’t ceased yet, though they’re being redirected around. So stupid, close the port. Business isn’t worth losing everything. Fortunately, it seems the terrorists aren’t attacking the civilian transports, only the security forces. How long will that last though?’

A comm. line back to Command opened with the communication officer. “This is Ensign Toule. I’m looking at a live feed from Torton and the trade port hasn’t been shut down yet. Has the order been given to them?”

“Torton Port has received orders, Ensign Toule.”

“I’m still seeing them operating. They’re ignoring military command. It’s going to be chaotic if we arrive in a civilian active air space.”

“I’ll pass it along.”

“We’re ten minutes out, Toule out.” He tensely gripped the stick. “Damnit! Don’t they realize this is a battle? Are we so unfamiliar with this that we don’t know how to react correctly?” All Ansgar could do was complain to the screen. Nothing changed yet. He prayed that the situation improved before he arrived. Trying to plan an attack around a populated city was bad enough, now he had to deal with a crowded air space.

He tried to breathe and focus on the plan. In the end, whatever happened with the port his mission remained unchanged. He had to destroy all of the enemy machines and finally secure peace once more.

Making a plan based on cameras and nothing more useful turned out to be about as challenging as he expected. The civilian radar that they used was ineffective on anything as small as the machines being operated. They just weren't really prepared for this sort of situation. Thankfully, his on board computer could aid him in extrapolating locations and movement to give him a model to work from. He had five units to track and determine targets.