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Headhunter strikes the mech hangars in the south, delaying any reinforcements possible and sowing chaos while you continue to mimic a Black Knight from Icicle company, pushing for the actual target of the stadium.
The chances of being uncovered and identified before you complete your mission rely on the unreliable and impossible to calculate metric of human interest, but nothing should be out of order. Outside of visual acquisition, that is.
Over the next minutes on the approach, you send a series of transmissions. Carefully timed and curated to appear like random junk data, they should be impossible to decode unless one has the appropriate cipher key and is listening for the correct cues.
Even an AI like you would be annoyed at catching enough worthless junk first. Yet, they convey the new and updated plan of attack to Headhunter. Coordinates of strike point and a timer. To try and fit anything else is unneeded.
The response is a slight flare on thermal sensors, further off than you were expecting. To the west and trailing your path. A brief dropping of whatever thruster baffles conceals their flight capabilities. You assume that is an acknowledgement and affirmation, even without a specific returning comms channel.
Good. It would be aggravating if they undid your careful work of hours maneuvering into position with a single miss-timed broadcast.
The delay does have the extra benefit of giving a mandated rest period to your pilot, ideally giving a respite from the intense focus of Mid-sync.
Her see-sawing on the gamut of mild nervousness to crushing fear isn’t particularly conducive to relaxation, and you still don’t exactly know what you can do to settle her.
Maybe you got too used to the slightly cold, separated connection of Thea’s VNDI implants. Was Sophie always so….unstable?
“Relax, pilot. I have conveyed instructions to Headhunter, and they have received them.”
Calm. Focus. Confidence. All things you try to convey across the tenuous link of low-sync.
“You are safe. We will not know defeat.”
“Easy to say when you can see.”
The retort is half-hearted, and followed by a sigh.
“I am your eyes, pilot. Better than your own sensors could be. For example, I detect three active reactors to the west of the Academy.”
A stop in your own tread tells you more.
“Two Medium or light units. Designate Target One, Two, Three. Two appears to be following One, moving fast on an irregular path. Three is stationary.”
“Towards us? Are…”
“Negative. It is not optimized for a search pattern. Highly inefficient. They are doing irregular stopping and starting movements. Thermal readings detect light laser fire. Moving patrol elements may be engaging undetected targets on the ground when stopped.
