Jack Forge, Fleet Marine Boxed Set (Books 1 - 9)

by James David Victor

  Jack was sent sprawling as a blow landed on the side of his head. He fell to the ground on all fours.

  Torent was holding his hands up to the squad again. Jack saw Crippin look over to Hacker, he guessed she was about to order a tazer jolt. Torent turned and faced Jack with a grin.

  Jack rushed at Torent. He saw the momentary look of surprise on Torent’s face. The thief had probably thought Jack was truly beaten. Jack took a blow to the head but it was poorly timed by Torent who was now on the back foot. Jack ran at Torent and shoulder charged him in the gut. Torent let out a groan and staggered backwards.

  Jack wrapped his arms around Torent’s waist and powered forwards, driving with his legs, the powerful muscles trained by hours of running propelled him forwards. He lifted Torent off the ground and drove him down.

  Jack landed on top of Torent. He looked down at the surprised and furious Torent. Jack brought his fist around and punched Torent hard on the side of the head.

  Jack felt the punches land and jolt Torent’s head from side to side. He was about to land another when he felt himself being dragged up by the collar. Sergeant Hacker pulled Jack away. Jack looked at the gruff old sergeant who gave Jack the slightest wink of approval.

  “Stand and fight,” Crippin shouted. “One minute more. Starting from now.”

  The crowd shouted and cheered as Jack and Torent moved in toward each other. Jack saw Torent lead with his strong right swing. He ducked under it and delivered a sharp left to Torent’s ribs. Torent squirmed away and brought his right around again. Jack leaned back and Torent’s fighting mitt sailed across in front of Jack’s face narrowly missing his nose. Jack leaned in and sent a right jab at Torent’s ribs and followed it with a left. Jack couldn’t believe his luck as Torent was out of position and struggling to bring his left fist around and Jack was able to land another hard blow on Torent’s ribs.

  Jack saw Torent had recovered his step and was swinging a wild left punch. He stepped inside the arc and landed a right jab on Torent’s face.

  The punches to Torent’s ribs had given Jack the advantage in the fight but the blow to Torent’s smirking face was the most satisfying. Jack brought his fist up and landed a blow on Torent’s jaw. It was a weak punch, though, and he positioned his right to land another blow. And as he savored the thought of knocking Torent down he saw the head butt flying in.

  Jack brought his mitts up and defended the head butt from Torent. Jack heard a distant call from Crippin for them to use mitts only.

  Torent wrapped his left arm around Jacks neck and began punching with his right. Jack delivered a series of right hand jabs at Torent’s gut and a series of left hand jabs to the thief’s lower back. The rain of punches Jack was taking was starting to take its toll. His eye was bruised so badly it had gone numb. Jack hoped Torent would keep hitting him there as it didn’t hurt so much.

  Jack landed a blow higher up on Torent’s gut and he felt the grip around his neck slacken off. Jack delivered another and another. He heard the satisfying sound of Torent wincing in pain. It was the only sound he wanted to hear and he struck again and made Torent let out the stifled cry of pain again. Maybe, Jack thought, he’d broken one of Torent’s jobs. The thought filled Jack will glee and enthusiasm and he hit there again hoping to cripple the nasty thief.

  Then Jack was free from the grip. He stood up ready to finish Torent and then the world spun as a blow landed heavily on the side of his head. He staggered backwards, the view a swirling blur of dark ground, cheering squad, sergeant Hacker and a shouting Crippin.

  Jack couldn’t hear what Crippin was shouting, he could only hear a ringing in his ears and a voice inside screaming for him to kill Torent, to punch so hard and often that the thief went down and never got up again. Jack staggered toward Torent.

  Torent was nursing his ribs with his left and was raising his right for another punch. Jack went in, head down, fists up and rained a left right hook combo on Torent’s gut as Torent delivered a series of heavy punches to Jacks head.

  Jack staggered backwards. He saw Crippin step in between him and Torent. Jack couldn’t understand why she would do that and stop Jack from killing Torent. Torent came around Crippin and swung a punch at Jack. Jack took the blow as he went in to deliver a salvo of his own.

  Somewhere in the distance Jack heard the voice of Crippin as the ringing in his ears subsided.

  “Time’s up. Stop fighting.”

  Jack saw the murder in Torent’s eyes and he felt the rage boiling up inside himself. They stepped together ready to kill or be killed but neither was going to back down and stop the fight.

  The decision, Jack discovered suddenly was not his or Torent’s to make. He heard the crackle of Hacker’s tazer and then the world went black.

  Jack woke up on his bunk. Foul smelling sticky salve pasted over his cuts. Torent was propped up on his bunk opposite, his face spotted with salve, he had a heavy bandage around his torso and a brash grin on his face.

  The two glowered at each other. Jack had given Torent a beating, but he’d taken one himself too. Jack wasn’t sure either of them had won their fight. He was sure he wasn’t going to beaten by Torent.

  10

  Standing on the parade ground in the cold morning, Jack felt fresh and ready for another chance to beat Torent. There was a buzz of excitement running silently through the squad as the recruits looked at and tried to guess what was in the large crates that they found waiting for them. Crippin and Hacker seemed nervous. Everyone was quiet until Crippin finally spoke up.

  “Listen up, hayseeds.” Crippin was standing in front of the stack of crates all branded with the Fleet Marine seal. “Today, the Fleet is letting you have a go at being proper Marines. Although you don’t look ready for it. Today, you get to meet your last best friend. Today you will learn all the systems of the Fleet Marine Pulse Rifle. You will practice long range sighting and firing. Close quarters direct fire and Electron Bayonet training. The Fleet Marine Pulse Rifle will be your primary weapon. This is your responsibility. This is the means by which the Fleet Marines will defeat the Chitin scum.”

  Crippin paced in front of the squad. She fixed each recruit with a stare, as if assessing their readiness for the task of carrying the rifle that would be with them every day from this day until their last day as a Marine.

  “You will look after this rifle and it will look after you. You will carry this rifle forward to the Chitin scum and the rifle will carry you through. And if anyone is seen mistreating this fine piece of equipment, they will discover that Sergeant Hacker and his tazer is a most gentle treatment. Mistreating this equipment is seen as an act of treason in a time of war. The penalties are severe. Squad Leader, bring your squad forward to receive their rifles.”

  Hacker began handing out the rifles to the squad in a solemn procedure. So far, Marine training had been a series of grown up playground exercises, including a glorified playground brawl. This was a much more serious business.

  Jack took his rifle in his hands. He looked at the dark machine. The Fleet Marine Pulse Rifle was a sophisticated piece of equipment designed to do one job: to kill Chitins. Jack suspected from the look of the weapon that it did its job well. Crippin ordered the recruits to follow her and the squad set off at a run toward the training ground.

  The rifle was cold and light. Jack turned it over in his hands as he ran. It was clean and new. Every item of equipment Jack had seen on the entire training moon from Lieutenant Crippin’s buggy to his bunk blanket was tattered and broken. But this rifle, the Fleet Marine Pulse Rifle, was new and in excellent condition.

  Jack had heard so often during his semesters at university that the best of everything was reserved for the military. The university was a rundown, once grand building. The entire population of Eros struggled with an austerity that few could endure with good humor. The store shelves were bare of luxuries. Food was scarce and families planted every patch of ground they could to supplement their rations. The war against the Chitins w
as consuming the best of everything. And now, here in Jack’s hands, was the evidence. The military had the best of everything and they were starting to give it to him.

  Jack ran the now familiar course, but this was the first time he ran it with the pulse rifle in his hands. He ran along the well-trodden paths between the low hills. Crawling under the wire through the sharp rocks with the rifle held in front of him Jack felt the power the weapon gave him. As the automatic fire from the gun batteries to the side of the barbed wire fired their bursts of live ammunition. Jack barely flinched. Clearing the wire Jack climbed to his feet and advanced along the narrow path with the rifle aimed forward.

  Arriving at the wall, Jack instinctively slung the Pulse rifle over his shoulder. The strap tightened and held it in place against his back. Leaping up the wall and scrambling to the top Jack saw he was ahead of the rest of the training squad, but he was not running this course today as an individual, he was running as a military fighting unit with his pulse rifle. Jack knew he and his pulse rifle would be more effective if he advanced with his squad, though, so Jack sat atop the wall and called out encouragement to the rest of the squad.

  The dark-skinned girl who was almost as fast as Jack came toward the wall. Reaching down to her Jack called for her to jump.

  The girl slung her rifle and grabbed Jack’s forearm. She climbed to the top and sat facing Jack.

  “You’re pretty quick,” the girl said. “I thought you’d be leaving us all behind.”

  “Maybe we need to start thinking as a team,” Jack said. “You’re Osho, right?”

  The girl nodded and smiled.

  “You helped Torent stop me when we first ran the course,” Jack said accusingly.

  Osho grinned. “Yeah,” she said. “Sorry about that. I came in first because of that. I couldn’t have beaten you otherwise.” Osho spoke with a sly twinkle in her eye.

  “Here come the others,” Jack said as he noticed the next group of recruits approaching the wall.

  “Sling your rifles over your shoulders,” Osho shouted.

  “Grab hold,” Jack said, reaching down to the first recruit. It was Torent. Jack looked at him with a grimace. Torent grabbed Jacks arm and climbed the wall. He cleared it in a moment and was over the other side.

  “Come on,” Osho shouted as she helped a recruit up and reached down to assist another.

  Jack reached and assisted as one recruit after another cleared the wall. With the last of the training squad clear Jack looked to leap down. He caught a glimpse of Crippin and Hacker and the approving look they gave him.

  Jack lowered himself toward the ground and dropped. He set off at a fast run. He was behind but he knew he would catch up in moments. Up ahead Jack heard an unfamiliar fizzing crackle. It grew louder as he ran on. Turning a bend in the training ground maze Jack came upon the shooting range. The recruits were opening up with their pulse rifles, shooting at distant targets. Their rifles gave off the crackling sound that Jack knew he would come to know well.

  “Fire on your targets,” Crippin shouted. “This is the one kilometer range. A stone’s throw. The Fleet Marine Pulse Rifle is accurate to a distance of five kilometers in a vacuum. Don’t miss, hayseeds!”

  Jack sighted the target through his rifle mounted scope. He breathed easy and fired a single round at the distant target. The bull vanished as the round struck almost instantaneously. Jack looked at the rifle, impressed.

  “Don’t stand there staring, hayseed,” Crippin shouted in Jack’s ear. “Run!”

  Jack ran and behind him he heard Crippin shouting insults and expletives at the recruits who had missed their target. “We haven’t got bullets to waste, hayseed! We need every round if we are going to kill all the Chitin scum!”

  Jack ran on. He reached the front of the pack and jogged alongside them, through the well-worn narrow paths of the training ground to the next training station.

  Hacker was waiting at the next station. A series of cylinders made from rough black composite were hanging from a frame. They hung four across and four deep. Hacker stepped up in front of the recruits, a pulse rifle in his hand in place of the tazer. He held the pulse rifle sideways for all to see. He indicated a button and pressed it.

  A white beam burst from the muzzle end. A fine brilliant beam of light half a meter in length that looked solid and deadly. It fizzed in the air. Hacker indicated the button again and deactivated the bayonet. He demonstrated the electron bayonet activation once more and motioned for the recruits to charge and attack the hanging composite cylinders.

  Jack fired up the bayonet. The power of the bayonet was as impressive as the powerful firing ability but the bayonet had an extra fearsome quality. The bullet did its damage as much as five kilometers away. The bayonet was very much up close and personal.

  Jack charged the first cylinder. He jabbed and slashed. The bayonet pierced the rough composite easily, sliding effortlessly through again and again. The recruits to either side of him were delicately manipulating the deadly device.

  Jack watched as the recruit to his left stabbed at the cylinder before him. The recruit overstretched himself and lost his balance. His toe caught a loose rock and in his unbalanced position it was enough to send him sprawling forward. He fumbled his pulse rifle as he fell. Jack saw the weapon turn, butt down, muzzle up.

  Jack’s warning shout was still in his throat when the recruit fell headlong into the up-pointing electron bayonet. The sound of the beam slicing through flesh and bone was one Jack immediately tried to bar from his mind. There were no cries from the recruit, the blade sliced clean through his skull, shoulders and torso. The body fell in two. Jack fell to his knees and looked helplessly.

  The hard blasts on the whistle from Sergeant Hacker sounded distant. Jack deactivated his bayonet. Training for war was as dangerous as war itself, Jack thought, maybe even more so because the recruits hadn’t had time to get to know their weapons. Jack knew all he needed to know about his pulse rifle. It was deadly and it had no respect for the careless.

  11

  If Jack had thought Fleet Marine training stopped following the accidental death of a recruit he was robbed of this thought by the early morning shouting of Crippin. She kicked them from their beds as Hacker flung rations bars on each bunk. They ran them out of the bunkhouse with shouts and a threatening buzz from Hackers tazer.

  Their countenance seemed harder today. Jack didn’t know how many recruits they had lost during training, but he knew that two had fallen since he had been here. He hoped there wouldn’t be any more. He hoped he wouldn’t be next.

  “You hayseeds are going to fight like proper soldiers,” Crippin said. “Today, you are going to meet and kill Chitin scum. And here is your first.” Crippin pointed behind the assembled recruits. They all turned and looked.

  The first thing Jack saw was the teeth. The long head of the Chitin was extended forward, the round mouth ringed with pointed teeth lunged forward at the assembled recruits. The gasps and cries of horror and surprise rippled around the recruits. Jack felt himself tingle with panic. The writhing tentacle-like limbs thrashed the floor and propelled the creature forward. Jack tripped and fell backwards. He scurried away, staring up at the teeth dripping saliva and slime. The antenna-like structures all around the smooth head twitched and whipped around, feeling and tasting the air.

  “That’s enough, Filth,” Crippin said calmly. She walked through the recruits toward the massive Chitin. She held out her hand toward the creature. The Chitin fell silent.

  “Easy, Filth,” Crippin said and touched the smooth head. She turned to the recruits.

  Sergeant Hacker was dragging recruits to their feet and shoving them back into line.

  “This is Filth. This is the first Chitin scum you have ever seen. If you work hard on your training then the next one you see won’t be the one to kill you. This is a flesh drone built to look and behave like a Chitin, except this one won’t rip your intestines out through your back, not unless I tell it to. Down t
here…” Crippin pointed to the training ground, its paths and hills, “…is a squad of Chitin scum. You will go down there and kill every last one. Take them down, Sergeant Hacker.”

  Sergeant Hacker ran the recruits down into the training course. He kept the squad in a loose formation with Torent running at the front alongside him. Jack jogged along at the back of the formation, looking down at the obstacle course below. He spotted movement in the paths between the many small hills. Dark shapes keeping just out of sight.

  Once down on the plain at the edge of the training ground, the view was confined to only a few meters in front as the hills blocked the line of sight. Within the labyrinth of paths were the Chitin flesh drones.

  Sergeant Hacker went through the recruits and pushed them into two groups, one for Torent to lead and one for Hacker. The sergeant stepped up to Jack and looked down at him with a twinkle in his eye. Jack felt like the big, silent sergeant was friendly toward him, which seemed strange after the tazing he’d given him. Hacker grabbed Jack and with a smile, and pushed him toward Torent.

  The sounds of rifle fire soon filled the training ground. Jack spotted his first active Chitin flesh drone and opened fire. The rounds ripped away chunks of flesh, but failed to drop it.

  Torent was facing another direction when he opened fire. The sound of the rifle next to Jack’s ear was frightening. Turning to see what Torent was firing at, he saw a Chitin flesh drone take a hit and scurry off.

  Jack stood next to Torent. “We need to concentrate our fire,” Jack said.

  Torent wiped sweat from his forehead. “No,” he said. “We need to draw them out into the open. Take two of the squad and flank left. Draw them to you and we will take them out.”