The Drop III

Continuing on with the Drop story.  At this point he's no longer dropping, but I guess I might as well stick with the name I've been calling it.  Unlike the story set in the Hellenistic world, this should all be sequential and from the same character.  This week I'm also in the process of moving, so if I have to skip this Wednesday, you may have to forgive me.

He had landed near a large fountain, spraying water triumphantly into the air, and surrounded by the building on all sides, four stories tall and made of a light grey material, mayhaps concrete covered in stucco, with tall windows and white drapes.  The courtyard itself was filled with plants and paths and benches, four tall and narrow cypresses framing the courtyard, with hedges separating the paths in some manner of geometric design.  Avitus heard explosions in the distance, three simultaneously; his pod had detonated to avoid capture and reverse-engineering.

After gathering his surroundings and surmounting that there was no immediate threat, he centered his view on the direction that he was supposed to head in order to reach his unit’s rendezvous point, the self-correcting compass in his view having a marker to show him the direction.   Oriented, Avitus immediately began running off to one of the four tunnels, one on each face, which exited the building.  As he did so, he voiced, “Section channel,” picked up by a tape sensor across his voice box, detecting vibrations it made, to which his suit responded by displaying a glowing “S” on the upper portion of his view, next to the compass.  He continued, “Gaesetae, report.”  His two subordinate officers chimed in, each reporting a satisfactory condition, to which he replied, “Good to hear.  My pod was struck and knocked two kilometers out.  Proceed to rendezvous point.  Section channel out.”  The glowing letter disappeared from his view. 

By now he was in the street outside, observing all of the windows for any sign of activity.  The buildings outside seemed all to be quite similar to the one in which courtyard he had fallen, all quite the same.  He voiced, “Company channel,” with the suit responding by replacing where the previous letter had been with a glowing “C”.  “Gaesetae Zero, this is Gaesetae Three.  Section is on ground and proceeding to rendezvous point.  How copy?  Over.”  This would transmit all the way up to the ship in orbit, and so all responses were delayed by about half a second; a quarter to go up, and a quarter to come back down.

“Gaesetae Three, this is Gaesetae Zero.  That’s a good copy.  Proceed as planned.  Out.”

The Decurion voiced, “Company channel out” and the character disappeared from his view.  He hadn’t seen anyone since he landed, which was a good sign.  It had meant that everyone was either holed safely in their homes or fled the city entirely.  Regardless, it made them more like to stay out of the line of fire and avoid both civilian casualties and confusion on the field of battle.  The less complications there are, the better.  War was complicated enough as it is.