Vestige Chapter 13 - Teamwork

“It’s about time we kick y’all’s training up a notch!” Han yelled at the top of his lungs. “Y’all are gonna get some actual experience this time!”

Outside of the advanced class building five red nightmares and five blue ones were already prepared for us and an extra one, which was distinctly black in color, for Han. He placed his hand on top of his unit.

“Get into teams of two and get in already! I don’t care who you team up with just stick with that person for the rest of the camp! It makes the paperwork easier. Anyways, let’s get going! I’ll explain the rest later!” Han leaped into the cockpit of the nightmare and began to drive off.

Jean and I partnered up and got into a nearby red unit labeled ‘Unit 2’. It wasn’t the same one we had the other day, but it drove well nonetheless. We trailed behind Han who drove towards the field. Instead of going to the field like before though he turned and charged quickly into the nearby forest.

“Does he seriously want us to go in there?” Jean snarked from above. “It’s too dense to drive these things without hitting a tree or something.”

Several of the other teams had already begun to make there way into the forest. “I don’t think we have a choice.” I pressed down on the gas pedal and pushed into the dense woodlands.

Around us, the foliage was thick which reduced our visibility greatly. The closeness of the trees also forced us to swerve back and forth as to not crash into anything, yet the forest was peaceful.

Han continued on far in front of us, yet we followed behind him for about three hours before he stopped somewhere in the middle of the forest and got out of his nightmare.

“This is far enough.” Han said aloud as we drove up towards him and parked. Around us, the other nine teams showed up soon after.

“Alright, this is the day y’all maggots learn what war is really like!” Han shouted back at us. “Last time y’all were equipped with anti-nightmare smoke ammo. That stuff’s great for play fights but in a real battle, ya need something better! So this time, y’all will be using actual ammo! The stuff that can kill people!” Han yelled before fidgeting with his watch for a few seconds.

“Alright here’s the deal. Y’all will be splitting into two teams, five units on each team and fighting each other. Teamwork will be key to success here, so I’ve already set up the communicators for each team. Last team standing wins, y’all got two hours and ten minute grace period!” Han reached down into his jacket and pulled out a pistol.

“That ten minute grace period starts now!” Han fired the pistol straight into the air.

“Shit. We only got ten minutes? We’ve gotta get moving.” Jean said. “I’ve already got the first two shots ready.”

“Nice.” I started up the nightmare. “I’m going to try and figure out how the communicator works.”

“Damn. The other teams are already heading off to our right.”

“There!” I finally figured out the right channel for the intercom. “Hello?”

“Oh hey, Lulu.” Aurelia’s voice replied.

“Lulu?” Fay’s voice responded. “Oh wow! Everyone in our room is on the same team! This is great!”

“And us!” A male voice I didn’t recognize called back. “We’re here too.”

“Who are you again?” Ophelia’s voice entered.

“Huh? The name’s Marlo! Rocky and I are driving unit three! Remember we’re the guys who won that first battle the other day!” Marlo bragged.

“Be a little more humble, Marlo.” Rocky interjected.

“Come on, man! We gotta really show em, ya know!” Marlo responded.

“Can we instead focus on the task at hand?” Yoko’s voice sounded.

“We’ve gotta get moving, blue team already left about a minute ago.” Genesis added.

“Let’s move.” Ophelia announced, as unit one, her unit, turned and rushed into the forest, traveling the oppose direction blue team had gone.

“Hold on! Shouldn’t we go a different way?” Marlo cried.

“It doesn’t matter, we need to get going as soon as possible. We need to make some distance.” Unit four, Aurelia and Gray’s unit followed after unit one.

“Of course, I knew that.” Marlo begrudgingly murmured as unit three trailed the other two units.

I started up the nightmare and followed behind the other three, keeping a decent enough pace to keep them in view, yet still, avoid trees. Unit five, Yoko and Genesis’s unit lagged behind us a considerable bit.

“We got the talkative team, didn’t we?” Jean said as he muted the microphone.

“Yeah, but we still need to work with them.”

“You’re right.” Jean agreed as he unmuted the microphone. “Hey, unit five! Kick the speed up a notch, you’re falling behind.”

“Yeah..” Out of breath, Genesis said as unit five sputtered trying to catch up.

“How much longer we got?” Jean asked.

Promptly his question was answered by the sound of a distant pistol shot.

“Convenient.”

“Alright! We gotta spread out!” Marlo commanded. “Unit one go left, unit five go right. The rest of us will slowly flank the front!”

“Who made you the leader?” Ophelia remarked.

“Yeah, don’t just boss us around, man.” Gray added.

“Come on, guys.” Marlo said. “I’m trying to get us somewhere.”

"Shouldn't we all go back in there direction?" Fay suggested.

"God no, that's a terrible strategy, we should go in smaller groups and cover a lot of ground." Yoko said.

"Is anyone even listening to me!?" Marlo yelled.

“It doesn’t matter. We gotta move.” I interjected. Arguing like this won't get us anywhere, I need to do something. “Just split up. We don’t know their location at the moment, so our best course of action would be to search separately for them. When we encounter them, we’ll fall back, to avoid fighting. Once we can pinpoint their location, we’ll surround them.”

“Wow, that’s amazing!” Fay exclaimed.

“Lulu, wh-” Aurelia started.

“Unit four go north, unit one will go south, unit five can go west and we’ll go east. Unit three, since you’ll stay here and act as a center marking.”

“Got it!” Fay exclaimed and drove off.

“Alright.” Genesis left to the west.

“What! You guys are agreeing with her?” Suprised, Marlo yelled.

“Whatever.” Ophelia sighed.

"I trust her, more than you, to be honest." Genesis explained.

"The hell are you trying to say!?" Marlo screamed.

"Calm down man." Rocky cooled the steam.

I quickly shut off the intercom to get a break for a moment and then drove off to the east. I honestly can’t take their childish squabbling. It gets us nowhere.

“Wow, I didn’t expect that kinda leadership from you.” Jean remarked from above.

“And?” I replied as I drove the nightmare through the dense forest.

“I didn’t mean anything bad by it, just that I’m surprised.”

“Well, we weren’t gonna get anywhere by sitting around and arguing forever.” Nonetheless, I don’t know if the strategy I choose was a great one. This defensive stance relies on the fact the enemy travels in a group. If they split up as we did, then this would all be useless. I can't doubt myself though, I need to focus on the plan and act swiftly.

Suddenly the quiet sounds of the forest around us and of the nightmare chugging along were interrupted by that of a loud gunshot behind us.

“What the hell, was that?” Jean began searching for the source of the explosion noise.

I quickly switched the intercom back on. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” Fay responded.

“Ugh, been all quiet here.” Marlo sighed and complained.

“I’ve seen nothing so far.” Aurelia responded.

“What about Yoko, and Genesis?” I asked.

Several moments of silence called back.

“They must be offline.” Gray suggested.

They got taken out!? This early? That’s unfortunate. I didn’t expect them to go down so easily. This will put us at a disadvantage. Nonetheless, this gives us a good idea of the enemy’s location.

“I think they were pretty close by, I’ll head over there!” Marlo called out.

“No, don’t!” I responded just before he shut off his intercom.

I was planning on setting up an offensive line and charging them, but I’m not sure if three units will be enough for that. With Marlo, going off on his own, this tears down my plans. Actually, maybe I can use this to my advantage.

“Unit one and four, can you loop around to where unit five was?”

“Can do!” Fay announced.

“You got a plan, Lulu?” Aurelia asked.

“Yeah."

“Alright. Let’s put everything that’s happened behind us and win this then!”

Assuming the enemy is grouped at unit five’s position, I’ll likely not encounter them. as I went in the opposite direction. Nonetheless if unit one and four loop around, they can surround the enemy and with unit three charging, we should be able to take care of them. That being said, I’m so far away, I’m not sure if there is much I can do to help.

I silently drove the nightmare through the forest. The trees around me remind me a lot of that day back at the orphanage when Mother took me out past the gate. It is strange, that all feels distant now, yet that was only days ago. A lot has changed since then, yet I’ve got to keep focusing on the present and forging my way into the future.

“Hmmm.” Jean let out a huge yawn. “Not gonna lie, I’m pretty bored right now.”

“Just focus on lookout.”

“Yeah, but I can’t even see anything, it’s too dark. Plus, it’s been like a half-hour and nothing has happened. Shouldn't the others have informed us about what's going on by now?”

“We still need to focus on.”

"Yeah, yeah.

We continued to dart through the forest. The others had shut off their intercom for some time now and weren’t giving me and information on what happened. They should have got to unit five’s location fifteen minutes ago. What’s going on right now? Why haven't we seen unit five yet?

“Hold up! We got a blue nightmare to our left, Lulu!” Jean announced and steered the gun towards it.

“Alright, I’ll try and keep steady this time take it out!”

From the small window view, I could see the nightmare charge out from our left and push on directly in front of us. It darted forward past us and into the dark forest. Jean kept his gun trained on it, yet failed to get a good shot at it.

“What the hell? It just left.”

Wait, was that some kind of decoy?

Suddenly explosions boomed on top of us and the nightmare shook back and forth rapidly. I was quickly sent flying out of the seat and headfirst into the control panel smacking my head on the table.

“What happened?” Blood from my head seeped down into my eyes. “Jean?”

I gathered myself and peered up through the hatch. Jean laid back on the seat, unconscious. Blood dripped down from the hatch and onto me. Peeking my head over, I could see four other blue nightmares surrounding us from behind, preparing their next shot.

How did they get to us? Does that mean they got the others? If not, then where are the others? Why won’t they answer the intercom? What's going on?

Nevertheless, if I don’t do something quick, I’m gonna get blasted to bits! They'll be switching to their second volley soon, so I pulled Jean down from the hatch into the now cramped cockpit and rammed the nightmare forward to get some distance.

That blast did some serious damage, I can feel the right track is lumping to the left, and I can’t imagine how dented the armor must be, as it likely took most of the damage. Still, I darted forward through the forest and through the trees. With Jean out cold and up against five nightmares, I can’t possibly defeat them. Therefore I focussed my efforts towards speed and escape.

Quickly the four blue nightmares disappeared from my vision; I lost them easily. Still, that wasn’t the end of it. Soon the first nightmare we encountered materialized in front of me. Laying in wake, it sat there ready to fire at me.

They must have anticipated that I would run this direction. I should have gone in a different direction then. That doesn’t matter now, because if I don’t do something the nightmare directly in front of me will take me out!

It may not have been the best decision, but I decided to drive over the enemy. I pushed the pedal down and pulled the lever to get maximum speed. Though my tire track was damaged, I managed to crawl over the enemy before they could get me. Noticing the fact I was about to flatten him, the kid mounting the gun jumped into the cockpit and allowed me safe passage straight over them.

With that moment to spare, I took full blast forward to gain as much distance as possible from them. After about five minutes of driving, I took a quick turn into a shady grotto and stopped the nightmare.

I needed to rest a moment. My head was pounding yet though the bleeding had stopped. Still though Jean was still out for the count. Inspecting his wounds, it seems an explosion must have nailed him in the back. He likely fainted from the sudden shock. Luckily, the injury had already closed, but he has yet to wake up.

Without Jean and with the current silence of my teammates, I’m sitting here stuck. I now know all five of their units are still active and where they are, but that doesn’t do me any good. How can I possibly take all of them out just by myself?