"Now move on. The march downhill is easier on the stomach, but heavier on the legs. Everyone take two salt pills, and don´t forget to hydrate often. I want you all down in one piece."
They did as the decurion had told them, and moved on.
An hour later, they were down, and Ariel collapsed in a heap.
"Hey, you made it," Ethan whispered in her ear. He saw the faintest smile on his friend´s face. If she could take this, she could take on anything. Jed looked more proud than ever, having completed the march without falling behind.
"What a team, eh?" Ethan said.
"Yeah, and we´re not dickheads either," Julian added. Ethan looked at him sideways, before he grinned.
"No, we´re not," he said.
23.
They were slowly walking through the jungle, about half a day´s march from camp. Divided into teams of eight, two teams opposed each other, while the third team observed. Ethan had been put in charge of one of the teams, and the one that hunted another team, headed by Antonio, whose mission was to avoid capture.
Ethan had already sent Ariel and Jed out in front, to scout and search for signs of the other team. The remaining six, including Ethan, had fanned out and were ready to attack in force as soon as Ariel or Jed found anything. He thought his team might lose one of the scouts, but it was an acceptable loss if it meant taking out the other team. He cradled his rifle, crouching slightly, and signaled with his hands for everyone to keep a straight line. When they attacked, everything had to be ready.
The jungle was never silent, except when the occasional predator was near. A cacophony of animal sounds, birds chirping and singing, crickets and creaking of old trees swaying, the sounds were a natural backdrop where any human sound were as alien as the Lumins. That´s why he startled when he heard a loud scream, immediately cut off. Something was wrong.
"Forward," he signaled, and began running. Guns were ready, the safety was off and his finger was straight ahead; he would not discharge a round by accident — even if they were only blanks.
They moved quickly through shadows cast by the thick foliage above. Antonio´s team was already there when they reached him, but no shots were being fired. Jed lay on the ground, a bloody knife by his side.
"What the hell..." Ethan blurted, and got to his knees. Jed had been stabbed in the side, but luckily the attacker hadn´t finished the job. Probably didn´t have time, since Antonio and his team had been so quick to reach them.
Optio Morales came running, and pushed Ethan aside. He quickly applied a spray of blood stopper, and covered it with a healing patch. Ethan stood and looked around. There. He stared straight at Dan, and looked him up and down. A small splatter of blood on his sleeve, so small, he wouldn´t have recognized it if he hadn´t already been convinced of the recruit´s guilty face.
"You again. This time you really did it, didn´t you?" Ethan growled as he took a step forward. Robbie came to stand beside his buddy.
"Hey! You try anything toward him, you´re dealing with me as well," Robbie said. Ethan glared at him.
"Fine. My guess, you were in on it as well. You bastards killed him together, didn´t you?"
"Nobody´s killed here. He´ll be fine," Optio Morales said as he stood up.
"Oh, but somebody´s going to die today," Ethan said, balling his fists, and taking another step towards Dan and Robbie. Robbie produced a dagger, and grinned at him.
"Yeah, it´s your turn now, sucker." Then he hurled himself at Ethan, dagger pointed toward him, ready to kill.
A shot ringed, and Robbie fell, clutching his leg as blood spurted out of it. Ethan turned and saw Decurion Schwartz lowering his pistol.
"Recruits Avila and Chambers, please take recruit Carruthers into custody. Optio Morales, please see to it that this piece of shit doesn´t die on me. I don´t want to have to explain myself to a court martial, even if it´s a clear case." Ariel and Antonio grabbed each of Dan´s arms and held him, while the optio tended to Robbie´s wound.
The decurion stepped forward, and punched Dan in the gut.
"This is for Recruit Boone," he said, then he punched him again, this time in the face. The recruit´s lips burst open, and Ethan heard his nose break. Blood splattered everywhere, and Dan would have collapsed if not for Ariel and Antonio holding him upright. Decurion Schwartz shook his hand, and leaned into Dan´s face.
"I want you and your comrade as far away from here as possible. I´m reporting you both as unfit for regular duty, and transferring you to the correctional brigade. You´ll get sentences, and I promise you, you´ll never get a decent job in your life. But hey, look at the bright side — you´re going to see Mars." Ethan swallowed. The correctional brigade was a unit of criminals and misfits, too dangerous to serve with others and too dangerous to bear personal arms. They were Mars based, but were regularly sent to colonies on the asteroids or the outer planets and moons to build and man bases kept near enemy presence or in hostile environments. And always far away from the regular colonies. Many didn´t survive their sentence. He looked at Dan. Why had he done what he´d done? Why did he have to pick on Jed in the first place?
"Alright, alright, that´s enough, the decurion said. "This exercise is over. Everyone line up, double line. We´re going back to camp."
24.
It had been more than a month since the attack on Jed, but Ethan noticed the kid wasn´t himself anymore. He was more like when he had first met him, perhaps even more deferential, more cowed in a way. Jed didn´t speak much to anyone, not even Ethan, Julian and Ariel, who were possibly his closest friends around. The four of them had climbed Mount Wallis together, had faced so much hardship during boot camp and it was as if he had forgotten how close they were. But Jed did what he was supposed to do, and Ethan noticed that he looked more like a soldier and less like a misplaced kid from school.
The teams were lined up on the side of a field littered with obstacles, wearing body armor and helmets with live rounds in their weapons. Ethan watched as the first team stepped up to their starting positions. Their task: reach the other side, eliminate all robots in their way and survive the task. Simple, yet difficult. The robots standing in their way had better reflexes, were smart AIs that drew upon thousands of real and staged fights. This was to give them the closest possible equivalent of combat experience. And further, they had better weapons. Much better. The robots´ weapons had a higher rate of fire, were more accurate, and when they managed a hit, a device inside the humans´ armor would stun the victim. Getting hit would be extremely painful, which was the intention.
The optios had given them a demonstration earlier, with Morales being the unlucky one. The robots looked awful, with dents and patches from wear and hits, and some looked like they were about to fall apart, but once they began doing their thing, they reminded Ethan of old soldiers — not much to look at, but every scar hid a wound and every wrinkle told a story. Robots or not, their enemy today would be a hard one to beat. He fully expected this to be a painful experience, for most, if not all of them. For now though, Ethan would be watching as Ariel lead the first team onto the field.
"Recruit Chambers, is your team ready?" Optio Walker asked on the loudspeakers. Ariel lifted a hand and gave him a thumbs up.
"Charge!" the optio shouted, and the field came into life. A robot whirred around, and took a shot, grazing Ariel as she ducked for cover.
"Wow, almost took out your leader!" Optio Morales said. "She´s still alive, but that was just dumb luck. Gotta be ready for anything folks, these robots aren´t stupid."
Ariel used hand signals to her team, which was under heavy fire now. Antonio, Jamila and Julian all concentrated their fire on one of the robots. The robot managed to take out Julian, who fell screaming in pain as his body convulsed from the shock. Ethan winced silently. As the robot whirred to take on the others it was hit from two angles simultaneously. Several bullets tore the robot apart and it finally stopped moving.
"Alright, you got one!" Optio Walker commented. "Now you h
ave an idea of their weakness. Use that to your advantage."
Ethan watched as Ariel´s team tried to repeat the maneuver. They managed to take out one more robot, before the robots adapted, and began teaming up as well, turning the tactic against their human opponents. The next one to fall was Antonio, followed by Malika. Ariel tried to regroup her team, but it was too late. The rest of the team lasted less than a minute, as the robots tore through them. Ariel was among the last to fall, as the robots attacked in force from three sides.
"So, I would say that was a shitty performance. What do you think?" Optio Morales said, grinning. Walker nodded.
"I have to agree. They had one move, but the key to this game is being flexible, innovative. And this team didn´t seem to have any of those qualities."
"More training then?"
"Definitely. These robots are tough, but the Lumins are tougher. And they don´t merely stun their targets."
"Alright then. Recruit Chambers, are you with us?"
Ariel rose to her feet, slowly and clearly disoriented. Yet, she gave another thumbs up.
"Good. Then step off the field and let´s see if Recruit Green can improve on your score."
Ethan braced himself as he stepped forward, taking up his position next to Eileen. She gave him a sideways wink and he smiled back. If things went well, he might get lucky tonight. If not, well, who knew. They were on and off, and still tried to keep everything secret even though it seemed everyone knew. But except for a wink and a smile, they were all business, focused on the task at hand.
"Recruit Green, is your team ready?" Eileen gave him a thumbs up, while keeping her weapon trained on the nearest robot, ready to fire at a second´s notice.
"Charge!"
The moment Optio Morales gave the signal and Eileen fired, shattering the first robot. Ethan followed suit and took out another. In mere seconds, the recruits charged forward and Ethan dove behind a boulder that covered him from two angles. He kept firing until his magazine was empty, and changed it quickly.
"Jed, Ethan, Tom, you guys cover while the rest of the team advances." Eileen said. Ethan gave her a thumbs up, and found a new target. He saw Jed empty his magazine as well, switching just as swiftly as he had. Smiling, Ethan thought Jed was really becoming a true soldier, even if his personality had changed somewhat. But it probably happened to all of them, on some level or another.
They had taken out half of the robots when they reached the middle of the field. Ethan was concentrating his fire on a mounted robot that had proved particularly hard to kill. It was armored, and rolled back and forth, seemingly undisturbed by anything they tossed at it.
"What the hell do we do about that tank-thing?" Tom said, just before he was struck by a beam from one of the other robots, collapsing him and sending him into convulsions. Ethan and Fran took out the one that had fried Tom, and ducked back behind cover.
"I have an idea," Fran said, and rolled over to him. "Jed and Eileen, cover while you go to the left. I´ll go right. If one of us can get a series of shots in just below that... ear or whatever it is — it looks like it has a weak spot there, in the joint, where the head swivels. Look, see!" Ethan peered out from his cover, and had about a second to look before the robot spotted him and fired. He quickly retracted and nodded to Fran.
"I think you´re right. What do you think Eileen? You´re in charge here."
"We´re a team, and I think it´s the best shot we´ve got," she said. "So, one of you guys dies, and the rest of us hope that´ll divert its attention enough that the other gets a shot from the opposite side. And all the while, Jed and I fire everything we´ve got, right?" Fran nodded decisively. Eileen grinned.
"Yeah, let´s do this."
Everyone checked their magazines and made sure they were ready. Then, on Eileen´s signal, Ethan and Fran stormed out to either side, while Jed and Eileen fired straight at the tank-robot. Ethan ran as fast as he could, and barely avoided being hit as he threw himself behind one of the robots he´d taken out earlier. He peered out and saw Fran reaching cover as well.
"One more to go, and it´s all yours," Eileen shouted across the field. Ethan clutched his rifle, flexed his fingers and licked his lips. Now or never.
"Go!" The second he heard Eileen´s voice, he started forward and was hit by something that caused his armor to buzz. He collapsed, and lost his grip on the rifle. He shivered as the shocks stunned him, and pain consumed him. In the distance he heard automatic fire, and he wondered if Fran had made it. Then the shocks ended, and he lay on the ground, panting, slowly regaining his bearings.
"Medic!" someone screamed in the distance. He almost laughed. He was, after all, just stunned. He managed to wave a hand.
"I´m okay, don´t worry," he said, but his voice wouldn´t carry. "I´m okay," he repeated, stronger. Then he looked around and saw optios Morales and Walker running across the field, followed by medical personnel. Nobody was running toward him though. He got to his knees and looked over at where Fran should be.
Fran lay in a pool of blood. He could only see part of her body, but he immediately knew something had gone horribly wrong. He looked over at where Eileen and Jed were coming out from behind their cover. Eileen looked like she was trying to comfort Jed, who looked ashen as he walked unsteadily forward, shaking his head all the while.
"I didn´t mean to, I didn´t mean to," the big recruit repeated again and again.
Optio Morales and Optio Walker were standing above Fran´s body, while the medics were working on her. One of them rose to his feet, shaking his head. A moment later the others rose as well, taking a step back. Optio Walker motioned for Jed and Eileen and went to meet them. Ethan could only watch as Walker and Eileen held Jed as he screamed his lungs out.
25.
It was an accident. As Fran had leapt forward in that final push toward the tank-robot, Jed and Eileen had fired everything they had, hoping to cover Fran´s advance. It had been close, but that´s what they were being trained for. When Jed had to switch magazines, just a few seconds later, while Eileen was still firing at the robot, Jed had switched to auto by mistake. It was a known issue on the aging rifles that the safety switch and the firing option switch were similar, but after weeks of training, no one should’ve been making that mistake anymore. Apparently, in the heat of battle though, Jed did. To compound the mistake, he had slipped as he was taken by surprise, so instead of the shots going high, as one would expect, the barrel of his rifle dipped. Two of the bullets hit Fran in the head, while a third hit her neck, going through the spine and exiting through her lower chest, cutting through bone, arteries, a respiratory tract and the left lung on its way out. It was, the coroner determined, the head shots through the brain that killed her though. The only comfort was that it all happened instantaneously. She never suffered.
Ethan watched as Jed received his ten lashes, and winced every time Decurion Schwartz landed his whip on his back. A lenient punishment for causing the death of a fellow recruit, but then again, it was an accident, partly caused by a flaw in the weapon´s design. As the half-unconscious recruit was dragged off to his cell by Optios Morales and Walker, where he would remain for two weeks, Ethan couldn´t help feeling sorry for his friend. It could have happened to anyone. But a death demanded punishment. The design flaw and the unfortunate string of events couldn´t completely excuse Jed´s negligence.
Jed´s words before his punishment commenced had moved Ethan and every other recruit. And even some of the instructors, Ethan suspected. Jed had stood before them all; his fellow recruits, his instructors, his commanding officer and a group of higher officers from Legion HQ with tears running down his cheeks, and begged forgiveness for his error. He had never begged for mercy though. Not once. Even through the screams, Jed had never begged the decurion to stop. He had taken his punishment without hesitation, and carried the weight of his guilt like a true soldier.
"Poor guy," Ariel whispered. Ethan shook his head.
"No. He did it, and he accepted responsibili
ty for it. He took his punishment as he should."
"But it could have happened to any one of us," Julian said.
"And yet, it didn´t. Now, having taken his punishment, he will be clean of guilt and ready to serve again."
"When did you get so cold?" Julian said, giving Ethan an accusatory glance. Ethan shook his head.
"But it´s true. If he hadn´t been punished, he might have carried that guilt with him. He´d never make a good soldier after that. This way though, he might feel he has paid for his mistake, and move on. I guess that´s what the brass is hoping for anyway, and I think for once they´re right."
"Well, I´m not sure I´d be able to move on at all," Julian said quietly. "Not after that. Meeting the eyes of everyone, you know." Ethan and Ariel both nodded in solemn agreement. Nobody knew how Jed would ever come to terms with this, or if he would.
26.
"I never dreamed of being a soldier," Jed said quietly. "I just wanted to become a florist, like my mom and dad. But they were struggling so hard the last few years, and then my dad got sick. In the end, they had to sell the flower shop, just to pay for the bills. And I, well, I had nowhere else to go." Ethan nodded. He had never dreamed of becoming a soldier either, even with his story, which he never told anyone except for his closest friends, of being born on the first day of the invasion. He had never met his biological parents, but he imagined they would have asked him not to go, just like his adopted mother had done. Sure, she had supported his decision to join up, but only so that the army could pay for his education. She probably thought he´d do some kind of office work or something similar. Not join up for a semi-official legion, to be sent off to the worst hotspots in space.
"I know how you feel, but... look, we´re in it now, and we might as well make the most of it. You´re a fine soldier, Jed, and I´m sure Adjunct Lyons said so at the trial."
Ghost Legion Page 7
