The Unlucky Mongoose

"Captain, we still can't reach the command ship, and the satellite navigation is off too."

"Got it. Keep trying, and tell me the moment you make contact!"

Lawrence watched the squad's communications specialist head off to find a spot with a better signal.

He sighed quietly, then pushed up his Tactical Visor and wiped away the sweat.

He had shut off his Exoskeleton's adaptive temperature control and air filtration.

After sustained high-intensity fighting and the "temporary" loss of their scheduled airdropped supplies,

he had to ration his Exoskeleton's remaining power for whatever fighting lay ahead.

As commander of Mongoose, a special operations platoon directly under the Imperial Central Intelligence Directorate,

he and his team had been assigned a top-secret mission by the Imperial Defense Intelligence and Security Directorate (DRSD).

[Secretly investigate Federation Research Institute 31027 on Robert IV]

At the mission briefing, DRSD's intelligence team had offered only a rough search area and the news that the institute had been abandoned twenty years ago.

Even so, Captain Lawrence had been confident in the mission.

The Eighth Expeditionary Strike Group was launching a massive assault on Robert IV.

The Federation Military's forces on the planet would suffer a devastating blow.

And any survivors would be hard-pressed to threaten his elite squad.

Besides, with so many attack ships in orbit,

he and his Mongoose platoon could count on unprecedented support.

Whether they needed fire support or friendly troops,

the DRSD intelligence team leader in charge of the operation had thumped his chest and said, "Don't worry. You'll have all you need!"

All I need, my fucking ass!

As he led his surviving men cautiously forward, Captain Lawrence once again cursed the intelligence team and everyone related to them.

At first, things had gone smoothly after their airdrop.

The preliminary orbital strikes and the assault by waves of Orbital Paratroopers

had left the nearby Federation Military forces too busy to deal with them, let alone come looking for trouble.

For the first two or three hours, Mongoose had advanced without much resistance.

Then a Federation capital ship had fallen into the atmosphere, and the explosion of its Fusion Reactor had caused severe interference.

Mongoose had lost contact with command, while navigation and satellite early warning had also gone haywire.

Under those conditions, the special operations squad had run straight into a Federation unit trying to break out.

Normally, a foot-mobile infiltration squad like Mongoose should never have fought the enemy head-on.

But with both sides' communications and navigation in chaos, that was exactly what had happened.

The Federation unit had plenty of mechanized equipment, including armored vehicles, main battle tanks, and Multi-legged Combat Vehicles.

Only a small detachment guarding its flank had set its sights on Mongoose.

Even so, its firepower and mobility had cost Mongoose dearly.

If they had not managed to contact a nearby Orbital Paratrooper unit with two HCPs and withdraw under its cover,

Mongoose might have been wiped out before it ever found its target.

As the main Imperial force pursuing the Federation unit closed in,

the troops that had nearly crushed Mongoose fled in another direction.

Lawrence recalled the unit markings he had seen on their equipment through his optical scope.

"The Yasin Base garrison. How did we run into them out here?"

"Is our luck really that bad?"

The thought gave the Imperial officer a headache.

Luck might be an intangible thing, but he still wanted it on his side.

This mission was nothing like the ones before it.

Lawrence and his Mongoose platoon had plenty of combat experience,

but all that "combat experience" had come from small-scale counterinsurgency operations.

This time was different. The Federation was no rebellious planet.

The Empire's leadership might have described it as "a house that would collapse with one kick,"

but the Federation was still a state that could rival the Empire in sheer scale.

Even on Robert IV, a border farming planet, its supposedly "feeble" garrison

was better equipped and more capable than any rebels Lawrence had faced.

"Dragon God above, let this mission go smoothly."

Lawrence was a citizen of the Star Dragon Empire, but he was also one of its rare nonbelievers. Unlike most Imperial citizens, he did not follow the state religion.

In his present situation, though, he was willing to try a last-minute prayer.

We can't keep having bad luck forever.

Captain Lawrence thought that as he picked his way forward.

The next second, the communications specialist cried out over the channel.

"Fuck! I've been hacked!"

"Everyone, disconnect from the squad data link! Watch out for the electronic warfare vir—"

Before the man could finish, Captain Lawrence had already cut his data link and disconnected from the squad channel.

But he was still too late.

His visor's HUD flickered erratically. The aim-assist firing lines, remaining ammunition display, and other functions vanished.

An unknown electronic warfare virus had knocked his Exoskeleton's fire-control system offline.

The communications module followed, then power management and detection.

Watching the compass spin wildly on his HUD, Captain Lawrence knew something was wrong.

He flipped up his Tactical Visor and shouted for the soldiers around him to take cover and keep watch, falling back on the most primitive way to communicate.

Then a shriek came from above, and his face changed.

Boom!

Before he could tell anyone else to get down, a 120-millimeter high-explosive shell detonated on open ground near Lawrence.

The blast knocked the Mongoose platoon commander off his feet.

"Nice, right in the middle! Ten points for Team A."

"Team B, you missed, damn it. Recalibrate your impact point!"

Amber, his Optical Cloaking active, was hidden in a large tree.

Through his magnified tactical goggles, he directed the fire of two 120-millimeter mortars behind him.

"Both infantry squads have reached the attack line I marked? Good. They're moving fast."

Amber glanced at the tactical map minimized in the lower-left corner of his view, then continued:

"Fire teams, three high-explosive rounds, rapid fire! Infantry squads, attack as soon as the shells land!"

"I'm in the big tree at the orange coordinates. Make sure you identify friendlies!"

"Don't skimp on ammunition for enemies who go down. Put a few more rounds into every one of them and make sure they're dead!"