Of course, being the only one who knows the tactic won’t do him any good, and the Commander has a lot more to do then just train troops, so Max will need to bring Nico up to speed with his ideas.
With that on mind, Max spends the evening writing out the battle tactics he improvised so he didn’t forget them. Nico will likely have more ideas to add to the list that she hasn’t sent to him yet, and then they will have to practice them, so late that night Max sends her an alert to meet him at the training simulators at 07:30 the next morning.
That gives him time to have breakfast and get his mind in order before they start training in all new combat tactics. Even infantry tactics, infiltration, and exoskeleton suits for close quarters combat are within the deployment possibilities for a Special Tactics force.
It’s a shame that everyone else is retiring though, an extra month to get the officers up to speed would save so much time later.
Max suspected that a lot of the new men he is going to be assigned would be graduates from the local academy or university’s Special Forces and advanced officer training classes, but he also knows the Russo and Ibanez were way behind where Nico and him were when they arrived on Belmont.
The next morning when Max arrives at the training room, Nico is not alone, three offers in Pilots coveralls stand with her. Two tall, olive skinned and dark haired men and one blonde athletic looking woman who has a face like a porcelain doll, but with a hint of madness in her eyes that reminds him of Nico during battle..
“Commander, meet Paul, Vincente and Ari. All three are qualified Crusader Pilots and all were denied amnesty due to the nature of their crimes. I know you wanted veterans for the team, and these three all have dozens of kills to their records.” Nico introduces them and the two men snicker while looking at Ari, the striking blonde.
“Something amusing Pilots?” Max asks.
“Good morning Commander, I am Captain Mary Aisha, or Ari as everyone prefers. As you guessed, I came with the convicts, sentenced to lifelong penance as part of a botched bank robbery. I was the demolitions expert that rigged the building next door to the back to collapse as a distraction, but the cops were onto us and chose it as their observation post.” After her explanation, she shrugs as if it was no big deal, or maybe she’s told the story enough times now that it’s just routine.
Max pulls up her details on a data tablet, finding that she is indeed a highly qualified expert, but that over fifty local defense force officers died when the building collapsed.
That explains the humor in “dozens of kills”, she has accomplished that both on and off the battlefield.
The other two were in for weapons trafficking charges that look extremely flimsy, but bear a planetary governor’s personal signature as both judge and prosecutor. That explains why they weren’t pardoned.
All three Pilots have beta ranked system compatibility, with two having strength primary and one with dexterity primary stats. Unexpectedly it is Vincente who has the dexterity primary, though the tall and muscular, olive skinned pilot had put a lot of work into his physique to not look as lithe as most dexterity specialists do.
“If you are competent, I will give you a chance. If you can’t keep up, I will see that you are transferred to a suitable posting once the new units arrive.” Max decides, glad for the chance to have at least enough trainers to get the rookies trained once they arrive. Book smart with no practical experience won’t get them far on a Special Tactics team.
None of them are infantry officers though, and the squad will be a mixed force again, with infantry making up the bulk of their numbers. He will just have to work with what he will be handed.
“Alright, the fist test scenario I will use to evaluate your existing skills is a facility capture. Each of you will lead a squad, running the scenario separately. I will give you five minutes after the orders arrive to plan.” Max declares setting the mission in the simulators, then calling Nico to come watch their test with him.
He is planning to have them each lead a team tasked with the assault on the technology facility that he led on Belmont to recover the rebel research and development data. Bravo Company, and even his Stalwart made great gains there thanks to the captured rewards.
Max knows how he did, so he can compare their responses. Mostly it is creativity and attention to detail Max is looking for. Tactics will be trained as they go.
The prep time passed quickly and Max checked in on their plans. Paul had made a very by the book sort of assault plan. His Crusaders will attack the facility from the top of the hill while light mecha and infantry rush the compound.
Vincente plans to besiege the facility and send an infiltration team for the data, not terrible, given the information they have, which is the same that Max was given, but with the hidden Mecha in the one hanger, it likely won’t end well.
Ari plans to send two infiltration teams in advance to bomb the warehouses and cause chaos while the Mecha attack from the main road and the majority of the infantry sneak into the main building using shaped charges to blow in a half dozen windows at once, giving access all over the building.
They have all equipped their units very differently. Paul has a balanced force, similar to what Max had to work with. Vincente went with long range heavy weapons for most of his infantry team, while Ari went full stealth. In this case they would complement each other well if they were working together, each leading a section of the force.
“Nico, what do you think? I see some issues, but do you see anything major?” Max asks, reading her thoughts to see what his second in command truly thinks.
“Ari picked a cooling vent for the power reactor as one of the bombing targets. It’s not in the intelligence analysis, but it’s going to go critical before she finishes the attack. All three are going to struggle to recover the data for different reasons.”
She is exactly right. Paul had problems getting into the main building, but eventually recovered some data. Vincente nearly lost his entire team when the Crusaders in the larger hanger activated and had to modify his plan and try again with more stealth, skipping six hours in the virtual scenario to give the base time to stand down.
Ari nearly blew her entire team up when the reactor went critical, but got a bunch of data from the main building and research warehouse out safely.
“Results are in. Not bad on the creativity. Paul revived the most data, but it might have gone more smoothly if your men had cut the power.
Vincente, your plan was good, but the slow adaptation to the surprise Mecha cost you a lot of time they used to destroy top secret data.
Ari, bad luck with the breaching charges. That vent was for the nuclear reactor, not the warehouse forges.” Max informs them of their results.
“That was a great twist, totally didn’t expect it.” She answers with a nod, thinking of ways she could have avoided such a mistake.
“It looks like you will all be capable squad leaders, you don’t waste troops and you all equipped yourselves well for the plan that you made. Take this as lesson one. The intelligence is always incomplete when it isn’t outright incorrect.
For the rest of the transit time, we will be working on the specialized core skills every Special Tactics team needs to know. Then when we reach Kepler 111, we will all be training the recruits what they need to know to stay alive.” Max announces, looking forward to the rest of the day.