There were two more attacks through the night. One was made up of larvae that Elias left the recruits to deal with. The last attack came just before dawn and comprised of a single bat. This had Elias running out of his tent and using his command interface to freeze all the members of squad. Not because of the threat of the bat but because it had been drawn straight to the densest energy source in the camp - the troop carrier. This meant that in their enthusiasm squad two were shooting across camp to try and take down the bat. Having made the camp safe from friendly fire Elias drew his energy weapon and shot down the bat himself before heading back to bed. He made one more change to the patrols before catching a last hour of sleep. Now there were four squad members circling the base and the fifth was positioned on top of the troop carrier in a support role.

The morning found one squad on salvage duty rather than PT. That left the other groups cycling through the morning circuit of PT, target practice, breaking camp and melee weapon practice. Slim had interceeded with Elias's planning to ensure that the groups salvaged parts from the Swarm before breaking camp so that they would have an opportunity to get clean before the day's journey. The high point of the morning was when Elias learnt that Mouse had the Salvage skill and offered to supervise this part of the work. Rather being subjected to the mess with the recruits Elias was free to 'motivate' the recruits training elsewhere.

They set off three hours after dawn had broken, same as the day before. The major change was their direction. After two hours more on the route they had passed the last of the valleys that cut the landscape south of their location. Rather than continuing to follow the trade corridor to Highpeak it was time to break virgin ground and turn in the direction of their final destination. Once they had set the new direction Elias jumped out with the recruits to train while Mouse took the wheel.

"Have you thought about today?" Mouse asked Elias once he returned to the cab half an hour later.

"Not really, it's tonight that's going to be different. No one has been through clearing Swarm on a regular basis where we are going now. We shouldn't have any problems while on the move though." Elias replied.

"Not wanting to be That guy, but since logistics is my area, I Am that guy." Said Mouse. He drew a couple of triangles on his console and thrust it under Elias's nose. "See here, we want to set up camp 500km from each of these two waypoints to set the first waypoint for our new trade route." He pointed at an equilateral triangle. "To get there we decided to follow the current trade route as long as sensible before cutting down. That means today we are travelling two sides of this triangle." He pointed again. "That means we need to travel about 600km." He paused, watching for a reaction from Elias. When he was met with silence he added "That's more than yesterday."

"I know, I know, I was just thinking." Said Elias. "Plus we will need to clear our own camp when we arrive rather than secure one that's already there."

He had planned to copy the timetable from the day before. Travelling in two hour blocks with time between to drill the recruits. A quick bit of maths told him they would arrive at their destination with only two hours before night fell with this routine.

"Ok Mouse. You're right, no more stops. Let's get there in one go." Elias said finally.

"Right." He nodded in agreement of the plan. "There might be another thing." He added sheepishly.

Elias sighed. It was mainly in frustration at himself rather than Mouse. They had set a plan based on his initial ideas but made as a group while they were in Porta. Since they had arrived he had been busy with the recruits and in front of them Mouse and Slim hadn't wanted to undermine his authority.

"Mouse, we're in this together. You know you're the best at logistics so if you have concerns, tell us." Elias intentionally dragged Slim in to the conversation not wanting to be the sole decision-maker any more.

"Yeah, sure." Mouse ran his hand over his head. "We don't have the man power to clear enough Crust for camp. Not with the distances we want to travel. We need a different layout."

"I'm hoping you have some ideas to go along with that problem." Elias said, rolling his eyes.

"Alright Mr Sarcastic." Mouse gave a mock bow, hard as he was seated and his belly didn't give too much room to bend in that position.

"In fact I did. I think we should camp on the Crust." Said Mouse, causing Elias to frown.

"And risk something burrowing through the Crust to get to the centre of the camp in the night?" Asked Elias.

"Not if we clear the area around it." Mouse replied. "Plus if we are on the Crust then our batteries will recharge."

It was a good idea. The activity of making camp would bring any nearby larvae out to the surface anyway. Elias thought through the implications and expanded on the idea. Elias remembered a book on ancient earth military that he had downloaded to his neural link, he forwarded this to Mouse to look for any extra thoughts on the design of their camp.

"Anything else to update Slim?" Elias asked as he tried to keep himself awake during the tedious drive.

"Not much, after this morning I set the platoon salvage rights as shared so they don't do something stupid like head out onto the Crust in the night to salvage their kills." Elias tried to hide the fact that he hadn't even considered this.

He had been in that situation, where the company in charge had linked rewards to who salvaged the kills. This led to some groups focus more on salvaging than ensuring the safety of the whole. It was not a pretty sight to see a group of recruits torn apart by Swarm simply because their comrades were trying to earn more rather than protect them.

"Elias. Stop thinking every mistake is your fault, we picked this up before there was a problem. It would normally be the company setting these rules for the expedition. I'm as much as fault as you, my job is logistics and I haven't been thinking of you as one of our people and just assumed you had everything in hand. I should have asked. Sorry for that." Slim somehow picked up on his thoughts and addressed them, proving where her skills lay once again.

"Also have you seen that three of the recruits have activated the Rifle skill?" Slim added. "I can only tell through the updated personnel files but it should be showing on your command interface."

Elias recognised the subtle hint and rather than ask what she meant he turned part of his concentration towards the display overlay that his neural link could provide, leaving the window see-through so he could leave at least some attention on the driving. It didn't take long to find the appropriate window.

Name

Gender

Squad

Member

Skills

Kills

Cora Curry

f

2

2

R

2

Jared Wong

m

3

2

R

1

Kyla Mcdonald

f

3

5

R

2

He also realised he had allocated the squads by first name. Maia; Michael and Muhammed in squad four probably worked that out much quicker than he had. At least the random nature of his allocation meant he had a split of men and women in each squad. He wondered what else he could find out about the recruits if he needed to, updates like this could help him start to allocate roles within the squads if they developed enough before they arrived at the ziggurat. In their planning he hadn't put that much thought into how much difference it would make to start the attack after days of training and defending their camp. Now he was excited to see that the journey itself could increase their chances of success.

The recruits were restless when Elias announced they had arrived at their destination. Even though they appreciated a chance to relax after two days of physical exhaustion and broken sleep it didn't stop them moaning about the cramp conditions they were resting in. They didn't realise Elias could tap into and hear the discussions in the rear of the carrier if he so chose. Being flat out busy and then mind numbing boredom in quick succession was part and parcel of life in any military or security, they would have to get used to it.

"Squad one, set North perimeter. Squad two, East. Squad three, West. Squads four and five, clear behind the carrier." Elias shouted out the initial commands and watched as the recruits moved into position.

They had turned the carrier before parking so it was facing west to east and would form the fourth edge of their camp. They needed a central area ten by ten metres to form the camp, this included the space taken up by the carrier. The remaining space had been partitioned into six; one for each of the squads and one for the command area. Leaving a metre around the edge for patrolling made the perimeter of their camp. Mouse had shared the plans with Elias who had updated the details onto the map for all the recruits who were moving to the edge of this area.

The plan was to use the uniform nature of the Crust to their advantage. It was not an accident that the cutting edge on the shovel function of the energy weapon was the same width as the depth of the Crust. To make cutting and moving Crust easier it was designed to form square bricks of material that would stack well for transportation. It also meant making a rampart from the cuttings would be a relatively simple task. They had reduced the initial area to clear from several hundred square metres to just over fifty. The movement spreading out to clear the area for the camp had already drawn five larvae to investigate, they were swiftly taken out as the teams swept out to the perimeter locations.

Unlike the days before they needed the third member of the clearing team watching over with their rifle as they worked. Seven Swarms had attacked from various directions as seven teams of three worked to move the cuttings in towards a slowly growing rampart. Mouse worked with the remaining men to add small grooves to the edges of the blocks that gave more stability as they built. It did not take too long for a metre-wide clearing to form around the base and turn into a three-foot high wall, the depth of the Crust making the wall appear four-foot tall from the outside. It was the perfect height for those defending from within to kneel and use the top as a rest for their rifle.

The second stage of Mouse's plan involved creating a second line of defence and enhancing the height of the inner wall at the same time. He had made the design unsure if they would be able to fully execute it given the speed the recruits had cleared Crust previously. Given the rest through the afternoon work went faster than planned.

"Mouse. Let's start the second phase of defence. South border first, then work up east and west corners if time." Elias messaged over comms.

They cycled the work teams, resting a third at a time for the next two hours. By the time the sun was starting to set they had formed a second C-shaped ditch another metre from the first with a stepped approach from outside. Elias was disappointed they did not have enough time to complete a ring around camp but the batteries in the carrier were most likely to draw an attack and this area was fully protected in three directions. Four more Swarm had attacked in the formation of this layer of defence and rather than work under the floodlights Elias called the platoon back inside the camp.

B x = Crust A x S x E x x x x x x x x x x x x x x