A World of Hurt by David Sherman; Dan Cragg

Author:David Sherman; Dan Cragg
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction - Adventure, Science Fiction - Space Opera, Fiction - Science Fiction, Science Fiction - Military, War & Military, Space Opera, Fiction, Science Fiction, Adventure, Life on other planets, Military, Marines, General
ISBN: 9780345460523
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2004-11-23T10:33:27.136000+00:00

The FIST-level UAVs were much more sophisticated machines than those used by the infantry companies. The company-level UAVs needed to be constantly controlled and observed, so if both of a blaster company's UAVs were flying simultaneously, both members of the UAV team had to focus on them, one Marine flying each. FIST-level UAVs, on the other hand, had low-level AIs capable of enough independence that an experienced operator could easily control two simultaneously. FIST UAVs were even smart enough to recognize not only the patterns they were programmed to look for, but patterns that didn't match anything they'd already observed on their missions, and to draw their operator's attention to them.

Staff Sergeant Geiger monitored his displays with only a part of his attention during the flights of his two varpuna thrushmockers to the strange, calderalike valley north of Ammon. He paid far more Page 106

attention to the instruction he was giving Lance Corporal Hawker, the most junior and least experienced man in the FIST UAV squad. It was only Hawker's second live operation. Admittedly, the previous operation--against the Skinks on Kingdom--had been quite a baptism of fire.

"We have to do this a lot differently," Geiger explained. "On Kingdom, we had to search an entire planet, with lots of open landscapes and swamps. Here, we're going to be looking in small areas with very definite boundaries and dense forest--and we don't even have any clear definition yet of what ground level is, or how the ground lays." That was why Geiger operated the thrushmockers while Hawker handled the two mock Joseph's coated papukaijas. Usually, the senior team member had the larger UAVs. Here, Geiger expected most of the intelligence they gathered to come from deep within the tree cover where the larger UAVs would have more trouble maneuvering, and he wanted personal control of the vehicles that could go deep.

"I want you to stay high," Geiger said, "one in the treetops and the other above them--"

"You already told me that several times, Staff Sergeant," Hawker interrupted.

"And I'm going to keep telling you until you can repeat it in your sleep." Geiger wasn't annoyed by the interruption, he expected it; Hawker wasn't the first Marine he'd broken in as a UAV operator, and they'd all reached a point where they got so sick of having their instructions repeated to them that they objected. He'd done the same thing when he was a lance corporal just starting out as a UAV driver. Just wait until this youngster had to start repeating his instructions after only hearing them one time--and keep repeating them until the mission was over.

"As I was saying, you stay high, I go low. You look for clearings, even breaks in the canopy that are just large enough for a hopper to drop a man-line through, anyplace that gives access between the top of the canopy and the ground below the trees. And pay attention to your infra views. Close attention. You've seen the records of the Skink infra signatures. They don't show much in infra, but theydo show--you have to look sharp to spot and recognize them.

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