The road remained unpaved with packed earth covered in a fine sandy dust that Christopher quickly learned gets everywhere, your own efforts notwithstanding. Two dozen dusty, dirty, sweaty figures shambled down the the side of the road. A there were a few other pedestrians about (it was the middle of the day after all) but they either were very intent at whatever they were doing or else realized they had forgotten something at the other end of town and quickly made efforts to retrieve it.
The intercom, which had remained operation quiet up to this point cracked to life “We’re going to stay outside”. Cracked to life is more of a saying, really. The closed circuit intercom was incredibly high fidelity, so much so that Christopher wished for some of the crackling interference that you’d get with much older rigs. As it was, it was like having Sergent Dora sitting on your shoulders, pointing like a two year old child saying “dat way! day way!” complete with squeals of joy and fits of frustration depending on her mood. Only the squeal of joy was her general moody silence and her frustration was a clearly defined tongue click.
*Click* If you didn’t know the quality of the system, you’d think it was the interference. But there it was, Dora the Explorer was unhappy. And given that no quietly barked reprimand followed Christopher was inclined to believe it was because she wasn’t invited to the tea party inside. “Unit A will take across the street – a red marker materialized next to Sergent and zoomed across the clean but dust strewn road to another pagoda complex with some exterior stairway structures to access haphazardly constructed shops. A moment later, red slashed squares appeared to approximate where individual squad members would find their perch. “Unit B will cover the back end and vanguard the trucks – a blue waypoint similarly appeared and drove through Christopher on its way to the backside of the building via the way they came. He flinched instinctively and silent chided himself for fearing the twos, ones and zeros of the imaginary world and waited a moment longer as A and B marched off to their, not so subtle, perches.
When he could stand the silence no longer, or the awkwardness of muscles long used to being micromanaged, he asked, “Where do you want us, Sarge?” A moment longer and Dora watched intently as the rest of the crew made their way through the black framed red door into a brightly lit interior. Christopher brought up his HUD sensor array which was undoubtedly what the Sarge was pouring over. Counter-intelliegence readout indicated a whole mess of signal jammers, but as the two systems attempted to countermand each other Christopher got a very clear readout of an advanced automated weapon system, conspicuous looking guards, and a very well attended gathering of guests in bright, festive clothing.
The normally low voice said at a normal decibel, “We’ll wait right here.”