Fabienne Gschwind - The Fallen Heroine

We sat down in an upholstered group in the lobby and stacked our weapons against the old-fashioned fireplace.

But Gabin was crafty, he had loaded some ego-shooters games on the combat armor computer. The images were superimposed directly on our visors and the time flew by.

We were conducting a Viking battle among glaciers and volcanoes on Firrland when Tartelette stood before us.

"What are you doing?"

Gabin jolted up from his chair. "Strategic simulations ..." he stammered together. But that didn't seem to interest Tartelette. She plopped down on the nearest free upholstered chair.

"So it took all night, but Thibault, the stupid strategists, and the reconnaissance drones did a great job. We have located with great certainty the cave system in which this terrorist has holed up along with repros. The army is sealing off all access points... and no, we can't blow up that cave," Tartelette interjected before Emily could ask.

"Orders from the king. We need to track down this guy or these guys so he can punish them properly. The intelligence agencies want to know what they're actually up to with these repro beasts. Someone who can dress repros, so to speak, is extremely dangerous. If these people have developed it, we must prevent them from making it available to other terrorist groups. In short, we go into the cave, kill the repros and take the terrorists alive. March out in 10 minutes!"

"And that's the only access left". Tartelette pointed to a small pond at the bottom of a hill as the decacopter set us down. I looked around, searching for a cave entrance.

"Where? I don't see an entrance," I then commented.

"Under the water! Where else? Where is our cave diving expert? Aha there..." She beckoned someone to her.

I felt stupid, I could have thought of that myself. I really had to be careful not to say stupid things, and get used to the fact that I had a lot of fans watching me.

Then a second embarrassment on my part. When Tartelette attached a big coil of rope to my back, I asked irritably, "What am I supposed to do with this rope?"

"Well, that's not a rope. It's a cable, or do you think our weak radio link will make it through the earth? Today's youth ...!"

Now I really felt ridiculous. Because everything was over the airlink these days, I had completely forgotten about the old-fashioned cables. But today we were fortunately not live on the air, because finally the terrorists should not watch live what we were doing.

I was about to remark that I had never dived before, but Tamara closed my combat visor and then asked, "Do you see the sky?"

I lifted my head and looked up at the sky, which was beginning to shine in the dawn. "Beautiful," I said.

"Maybe the last time you'll see it."

She kicked me in the chest and I fell backwards into the water.

As soon as my head was under the water, I lost my bearings and floundered wildly. I wouldn't even make it to the cave entrance that way. But then Emily and Gabin were already at my side and straightened me out. In the murky water, I saw next to nothing and let the others pull me along willy-nilly as the cable uncoiled from my back. It was dark and thousands of suspended particles reflected in the beam of my helmet lamp. But then I felt a slight current and had to swim harder to fight it. The radio buzzed slightly because we were underwater: "That's the underground river flooding the cave system now. It's still several hundred meters. Then we come to the first larger chamber and the current subsides."

Our cave diver, Peter by his first name, spoke with a heavy Swiss German accent that immediately reminded me of Alsatian. I was tempted to exchange a few words with him in the dialect, but then let it go because I had enough to do not to bump into rocks.

The diver helped us squeeze through a few crevices, weapons and all. Gabin had a hard time with his broad shoulders, but the cave expert showed him with a sure hand how to squirm.

Finally we reached the chamber, which was filled with clear water, and it was dreamlike. Like one of those me- dia shows I'd seen on the venerable BBC, we were swimming among the stalactites of a flooded stalactite cave. "Careful. Don't get near the stalactites. They can break off and hit you."

Amazed, we crossed the cave and unerringly Peter led us to an exit. His head burst through the water and Tartelette also emerged, her zapper ready and she surveyed the cave. Conveniently, the temperature in the cave was 12 degrees, so all warm-blooded animals would be immediately detected by the heat detectors. Finally, these things were useful for something, because outside the heat cameras had never been of any use to us until now.

"Whew, we're in the right place," Emily commented as we emerged, the repro smell hanging heavy in the air. It took us almost half an hour to set up all the specialized equipment. We even had a couple of minicopters with us that would fly down the cave passages completely autonomously and warn us if they saw any animals.

"Stun drones would be exceedingly handy," Gabin commented like a pro.

These small drones attach themselves to the neck of any creature they find and can paralyze animals as well as humans with electricity for several hours. They were banned in France because they often killed bystanders and were therefore only useful in uninhabited areas.

Tartelette had the receiving station attached to the cable.

"Okay guys, we're in position. Prepare the offensive." The idea was that the Army and other ReS units would periodically strafe the other cave passages and infiltrate them with remotely controlled combat robots, so it would look like the attack was coming from the outside while we looked around in here. We were only a good 200 meters from the other cave where the terrorists were believed to be. Peter, who had explored the cave system, said it was passable, but very narrow in places.

The diver hurried to get away and we strapped on our last weapons.

Via radio cable, we were able to consult with other cave experts who helped us find our way because they could follow everything through our helmet cameras.

It was on hands and knees through the tunnels for quite a while.

But then the heat sensors beeped and we took up position in the cramped tunnel.

"Bats! Repro bats, a whole swarm!" shouted Emily, and then chaos broke loose.

Less than an hour after the mission began, the first person was already seriously injured:

To stop the reprogrammed bats, we detonated an HAN grenade, actually a crappy idea to do that in a cave. Gabin didn't manage to take cover in time. His leg armor didn't hold up to the plasma storm. With a nearly charred left leg, we brought him back.

It was amazing that the tunnel had held. The force of the explosion could have collapsed everything. But you have to get lucky sometimes.

"Okay, people retreat. There's no point in us crawling through corridors here and messing with Repro in the confines. I said from the beginning that this was a stupid idea! Let the army shoot down the repros with combat robots and their oversized tanks and arrest the terrorists. Thibault call it all off!”

"Captain Arlette, this is royal Vice President Guisan! You have orders to arrest these terrorists. So act accordingly. Or the king will charge you with insubordination! The entrance of the cave is too small and soldiers in armor can't get through!"

Even this threat left Tamara cold. She shrugged and confirmed the order.

She turned off the radio and looked at us coldly, "If we don't follow the King's orders, our families are as good as dead...believe me!"

So we had no choice then to return. I had a queasy feeling that the king was going to knowingly send Tamara to her death and we were going to be with her….

It was pitch black in the cave. We only use the infrared headlights so as not to give ourselves away. Because all the animals would have to attack blindly, since they didn't have sonar ... except for the bats....