Plus, she had been worried about him, becauseof the dreams where he was in danger. That was a good sign too,wasn’t it? She wouldn’t worry if she didn’t care, at least alittle.
To be an effective bodyguard, he’d have tocapitalize on all of those feelings, which wouldn’t be toodifficult, considering that he was feeling them too.
* * * *
The hovercraft soared above the giganticbuildings of Pangua for a few miles, then the landscape changeddramatically. Dense forests, craggy hills, sandy expanses—the mostvaried topography Rem had ever seen. And the perfect setting formech practice fields, where “half the battle,” according to allaccounts, was the ground on which it was fought.
Zia had taken the seat next to the pilot inthe front, leaving Rem and Humber to sit in the row behind them,with the huge Malaran soldiers planted in the back rows. Luckily,the front half of the craft was all window, so everyone had a greatview.
“Did they unload my grandfather’s giant yet,Humber?” Zia was asking the ambassador. “They need to make sure itwasn’t damaged during the flight.”
“It is safely on the ground,” Humber said,adding slyly, “It was Quito’s skirmisher that attracted most of theattention though. The skirmisher that brought down a colossus.”
Zia rolled her golden eyes, clearly refusingto be goaded into defending her colossus. “Are we almostthere?”
Humber nodded. “We are there already. Youmust understand, both of you. We do not have armies of mechs, andso your dream of seeing them in lines and rows is inaccurate. Theyare solitary warriors, or working in teams of two or three. And sothat is how they train. See if you can spot them.”
“Down there!” Rem jumped to his feet,energized by the sight of two skirmishers sparring with each other.“Can you see them, Zee?”
“I almost missed it,” she admitted. “It’s sohilly.”
“They practice on all types of terrain,” hetold her. “I’ve seen the vids and they’re amazing, but thisis frigging unbelievable. Remember, since Alluva challenged Malara,Malara gets to pick the site for the battles. And theconfiguration.”
She rolled her eyes again. “You just eat thisup like candy, don’t you, Stone?”
“Yeah. Hey, look!” Rem shifted to the otherside of the craft and pressed his nose against the window. “Aprowler. What’s he after? That hoverbot? Seriously? A prowlerversus a hoverbot?” He watched in disbelief as the smaller,stealthier craft threaded through the underbrush, approaching thehoverbot, which was maintaining a height of five feet above theground. “He’s going to get it! Unbelievable. Do they use paint asammo for these practices, Humber?”
“Yes, a form of paint that is easy to see,easy to remove.”
“Damn.” Forcing himself to calm down, hereturned to his seat. “What’s the overall strategy? Does Alluvahave a weakness? Do they prefer a certain configuration? WillMalara pick its best team on paper? Or will they focus on pilotswho have already seen battle? Have any of them seen battle?Your last challenge was with Zellot, right? Seven years ago. Arethose guys still active?”
Humber smiled. “Malara’s greatest hero atZellot was a female named Carrak. She now trains all of ourwarriors. And she still pilots a colossus, although I do not knowif she will see actual battle in this conflict. Those decisionswill be made by the ministry.”
“Tomorrow night during our meeting withthem,” Zia agreed.
“Well . . .” Humber gave a sheepish laugh.“The outside world will be told that the meeting is to planstrategy. But I imagine those decisions will be made by a muchsmaller group—one that does not include you or me. The minister isvery secretive about such things, for obvious reasons.”
“I’d kill to be part of that strategysession,” Rem admitted, half to himself. “They won’t just bechoosing the place and the configuration, they’ll be choosingpilots too, right?”
Humber gave him a sympathetic smile. “Theyare aware of your interest, Captain. But do not have raised hopes.We have many talented pilots. Not all will see battle, or at least,we must hope they do not. That would mean the conflict lasts toolong—too many months, possibly even a year.” To Zia, he explained,“Based on past history, a war that is won in the first battle isalways a victory for the challenger, which makes sense, becausethey must have tremendous confidence to issue the challenge in thefirst place.”
“Especially because if the target ever didwin the first battle, they’d collect double the challengebounty, right, Ambassador?” Rem demanded.
“Yes, those are the rules. But as I said,that has never happened. The challenger’s advantage is too strong.But after that first battle, a short conflict usually favors thetarget—it is a sign that the challenger underestimated itsopponent. But when the conflict lasts for many battles, thechallenger is once again the more likely victor.”
“Well,” Zia replied thoughtfully, “at leastyou have more robots than they do now, so if it lasts a really longtime, you’ll win by default, right?”
Humber’s expression grew grim. “There areapproximately fifty mechs on each side. Assuming a maximumconfiguration of three for each challenge, that would mean weendure sixteen challenges. An exhausting campaign that would leaveboth sides vulnerable to attack by a third party.”
“What’s the longest campaign ever, so far?”Rem asked.
“Six challenges.”
Rem considered it carefully. “So? Six months?That’s a short war by Earth standards.”
“Look!” Zia interrupted them. “Twoskirmishers and a giant. The classic configuration, right,Humber?”
Rem moved to the window again and gawkedopenly at the sight, imagining that this was how it had happened atthe Battle of the Canyons with Daniel Quito at the controls of ared mech much like the one that was bounding off the ground beforetheir eyes, trying to get the jump—literally—on a green-and-silvercolossus. The attempt failed, and the mechs retreated from oneanother, positioning themselves for another round of maneuvers.
The thought that he might not be allowed toparticipate in all this made his temples throb with frustration,but he composed himself before he turned back to Humber andrejoined the conversation.
The ambassador was giving Zia a furtherstrategy lesson. “Earlier, we said six challenges would take sixmonths, but that is not necessarily
