The Enigma Ignite

We need to extend all professional courtesies to our American partners, which is to say don’t use the rude designation of COBWEB when referring to him. Didn’t you get the memo? And just for the record, what is a COBWEB?”

The Major, feeling chastened after this dressing down, defined, “Civilian Observer Blokes Wearing Excessive Bling, Sir. I will purge the term from my vocabulary, Sir.”

“We

ll, Major, let’s not keep the COBWEB, er… gentleman waiting any longer, bring him in, please, and begin the briefing.”

Keith Austin Avery was well groomed and properly educated for his role in the defense contracting world with an advanced degree in mechanical engineering. He always placed his military counterparts at ease with his in-depth knowledge of warfare robotics and ground communications. The British and American defense communities were both being squeezed from a budgetary standpoint, so they’d hit on the idea of collaborating to solve next generation problems of battlefield communications.

The basic problem had always been to be in close communications with the soldiers at the point of hostile contact and to be able to direct support resources in the form of artillery, air strikes, medical resources, etc., to the friendly combatants with little or no risk to those resources. Modern warfare had become not just more efficient but also much faster. Field moves based on incorrect or stale information were almost always fatal, and so it demanded faster and better communications at all times. This was the problem that every generation of military professional wanted solved