by Tom Germann
That only takes a second but it is too much. I have to get my game face on. I rush into the open breach and head right toward the control centre. The rest of the team follows behind me, falling into an arrowhead formation with our Number Four covering the rear.
There are security guards in the hall ahead, mostly in body armour. They are bringing weapons up. The three of us start firing straight down our arcs, dropping them with body shots. Our shots are too heavy to be deflected off their body armour. We have ammo designed to take out power-armoured troops and, of course, killer robots.
I am shooting my last alien when I really look at it. It is shorter than me when I am out of armour. A biped, like most of the aliens are in these games. The head looks birdlike but more like a dinosaur, with forward-facing slit eyes that look purple. The mouth seems to take up half the face and is all nasty teeth. The rest of the face is pretty plain, aside from the leathery skin and the breathing slits.
It is looking at me and trying to get its hand laser up. They have four “fingers” and they look like they have too many joints.
Their short, stocky nature means when our rounds hit them, they explode pretty messily. I could see the gore and internal organs of the first ones that had been shot down. But this last one. It knows it won’t make it but it still tries to get its shot off.
My round hits it in the chest and blows it several feet down the hall, where it ends up lying there in a puddle of whatever it uses for blood.
I have more than half a mag left so I keep on. Trigger control or I would be out of ammo. I don’t even remember reloading my grenade launcher.
As we move down the hall, I try to ignore the gore splattered all over the walls and floor. This is more realistic than anything I have ever played before. I come up to that alien lying on its back and I look down at it.
It is looking at me and breathing through its mouth. Its one arm is twitching and then some of its gunky blood bubbles out of its chest and then its eyes glaze over and the blood stops flowing.
I feel like I am going to throw up.
We keep moving down the hall and I am covering my arc but picturing other people lying there, like Jeff or Steve. Heck, Tina may be somewhere out on a corporate project and invaders could be doing that to her now.
We come to the corner and one of the other guys yanks me back before I can just step into the hall.
I nod and someone else rolls a sensor into the hall. We have to go left and there are combat robots waiting for us. The feed is not good, but at least ten and maybe as many as twenty are waiting and they are a bit further down the hall, motionless, just standing there scanning.
The engineer hands me an explosive and I do the best I can to hurl it down the hall. I actually see it hit one of the robots in the head and before they can react, it explodes.
As soon as it does that, I throw myself out into the hall so that I hit the far wall and I go prone, with my weapon pointing down the hall and I start firing single shots at chest height. The second guy joins me on the floor and our Number Three keeps standing but just leans out around the corner enough to fire and minimize his profile.
There is a lot of wreckage flying around and visibility is poor. There are a lot of slow measured shots coming back toward us. I have just emptied my mag when my HUD goes off and I can see that I have been shot in the back. Our Number Three takes a shot in the arm, and now it’s unusable for him.
The robots’ fire ends and Number Two rolls back to cover and change mag for Three. That meant our tail end Charlie would have to move up and injured cover the rear. I just become Three as I stand up and discover I have lost approximately 10 percent of my functionality thanks to suit damage.
We keep going. I have gone through almost half of my ammo and I don’t remember firing a bunch of it off. We come to an elevator, which would take us down the two levels that we need to go to get to the AI command centre, but we won’t take it. Perfect ambush point, with explosives in the walls or a firing squad waiting for us. Instead, we leave a large booby trap and head for the stairs just a bit farther down the hall.
The net chatter is bad. The military has a large column heading for us with an ETA of less than two minutes. The lander is out of munitions but has shot down half of the fighters that have been coming in. There are more fighters on the way, though.
The six troops left behind have pulled back into the inner wall and are still covering us.
They are getting some local troops and harassing fire. But when the main military column shows up, they are going to be toast.
The door to the stairs is code-locked, and a heavy door. The engineer uses a bit of his spray-on explosives and then blows the hinges. The door only partly comes off and we can’t fit through that small an opening, so our two undamaged troops tear the door down.
Damn, these suits have some real power.
The stairs are too close together for us to use effectively, so we just jump from landing to landing.
Active sensors are showing almost no other activity in the building. The outer security must have been all that they were relying on. After all, who figures that aliens are going to land in the middle of their city and steal stuff and then run around causing destruction?
Two flights down is another security door. Before the engineer starts spraying explosives, I stop him. “Don’t do that. We’re in a small enclosed space. As directional as that is, we are still going to take some serious damage.”
He ponders for a second. “Hang on, I have this stuff.” He pulls a small tube out with a spray attachment and starts spraying the locking area and the hinges. It is some sort of fast-acting acid that starts dissolving the metal almost immediately.
The sensors are indicating movement in the hall. Lots of movement, but it is jerky and unlike the robotic movements we saw earlier.
The two undamaged suits hammer the door at the same time and it flies back into the far wall.
As it flies, I throw grenades down both sides of the hall. There is noise and then the explosion from both grenades. I lean out and fire down the one hall while someone else fires from the other side. We must have hit something because lasers start firing from both sides. There is more screaming and then the laser fire tapers off.
Either they’ve figured out they were shooting at each other, or are out of ammo and reloading.
The four of us step out and start shooting through the dust.
We finish, reload, and then start moving down the hall toward the secured command centre.
The aliens on the floor are not dressed like security. I figure that they are the staff that runs this place and their efforts had been a last-ditch attempt to hold us until the military hit the site.
I realize there is no buzz of comms. As soon as we stepped into the hallway, it had died. They must have set this up as a secure area and be jamming all comms.
The hallway opens into a large room with pillars holding the ceiling up. At the far end is a large secure door that is twice as large as the ones we saw previously. There are all sorts of sensors and computers to get through to break in.
Our plans show us that the command centre is ahead of us behind that door. There is nothing in the levels above but whatever they use as concrete, so nothing can get to the centre unless they go through the building and in through this door.
Sensors indicate no weapon systems or power sources aside from the computer, which is used for access.
We ignore that and the engineer pulls out his goodies.
An energy system comes online and a medium laser pops out of the wall and opens fire. It hits the engineer in the power pack on his back, and we can hear his screams as he roasts. We all open fire and the weapon emplacement explodes. I put rounds into the same spot on the other wall and am rewarded with a small explosion.
Tricky scumbags.
The engineer is dead. I grab the e
xplosives and start applying them to the door and the framework. I use most of it.
Then we move out into the hall and I hit the detonator.
The explosion is damaging and I can hear it over the auto-dampening system of the armour. The entire floor shakes and I can see cracks in the floor and walls. The dust that comes out blinds us and reduces visibility, including sensors, to zero.
One of the other guys speaks up for the first time. “Geez, man, I think you used a bit too much.” The lights are out and it sounds like something is collapsing in the distance.
The debris is down and some of the dust is settling so we move back in. The door is lying on the ground to the side and the opening is twice as large as the door had been. It looks like the walls are about five feet thick. Oh, and the columns holding the building up above the large room are mostly rubble piles. The ceiling had come down where the door had smashed through the columns.
The secure room looks bad. Lights are mostly out and there is sparking. The aliens I can see are dead and in large bits. The AI box that we are here to get is ahead of us, surrounded by screens.
I moved for the box while the other two covered me.
The blast and overpressure had killed everyone in the room, and it’s a good thing. They had been waiting for us with lots of lasers and some heavy slug weapons.
This AI or whatever needs to come with me, but it is secured in. I pull out the engineer’s acid spray and spray it around the base. A few seconds later, I rip it from the base and turn to go.
There is no movement on the floor.
When we make it back to the stairwell, we regain comms with the rest of the section.
They had all fallen back to the far side of the building from where we landed. The lander is still engaging the locals with its light weapons. Our lander is due in half a minute and the enemy within a minute.
We run.
There is no one left in the building.
We make it to the far wall and blow another hole in the wall with what explosives we have left so we can get out fast. The lander has just come in and we board. The doors slam shut and we mag-lock ourselves to the walls and click into the umbilicals.
We have two dead, five suits with minor damage, and three suits fine aside from scratches and dents. We had come in and with eight minutes of hitting the ground, we had effectively destroyed the central command and control centre for the region, stolen an important AI, destroyed six armoured vehicles, shot down seven fighters and escaped.
Below us on the ground, the armoured column finally arrives and the lander engages them with its light anti-personnel weapons. That does nothing. Before the column can fully move forward and surround the lander, it self-destructs.
It is a small nuclear explosion that takes out the column and the surrounding city.
We have won.
The game reset and I deactivated the VR suite and took it off my head. I was soaked in sweat, and thirsty. I grabbed my water bottle and took a swig, and then when I trusted my legs, stood up to go.
I felt like I wanted to throw up, it had been so intense.
Then I thought about there being some other alien race out there and how they had viewed humanity as something to be cleared off Earth so they could plunder our resources and already mined metals.
I got angry but couldn’t keep it up, I was so tired. I struggled to my feet, hung the sensor suite on the hook, grabbed my soaking-wet towel and dropped it into my bag, and then headed out.
That was insane.
I headed for the food court to get some dinner before going home.
Evaluating data. Subject Timothy Labaron fits the criteria for corporate recruiting. Subject has not loaded recently and subject is displaying signs of inner dissonance. Recommend that corporate recruiting AIs conduct thorough review and evaluation.
Subject does not understand why the Corporation is so important.
Attaching recommendation that subject be briefed on Code 5690-B by call sign Seven. Formerly called “Tina.” Scores taken from both together indicated a strong coefficient and mutual support. Subject Timothy will better integrate with main corporate requirements if he understands the loss of attachment and what call sign Seven is doing.
I finished up in the food court and then headed home. That had been an excellent game, but it was so real.
I realized that I still missed Tina. I wondered if she was out in deep space somewhere, worrying about pirates boarding her space station or mining station and killing everyone for those assets.
I was wondering if it was worthwhile, being in deep space, where we could not realistically protect our people.
I figured I’d go home, shower, and head to bed early. I had an early class coming.
Evaluating data. Third-level Glentol Corporation recruiting AI has submitted subject Timothy Labaron as a possible recruit for line Growth and Expansion. At this time, subject is sub-optimal for recruitment by the Corporation. Subject has been bombarded with negative images and is now falling into mainstream belief, which is tainting the subject’s effectiveness.
Subject is an excellent long-term match for corporate expectations.
This is in conflict. Submitting subject file to higher for review and final decision on the proposed course of action.
Subject will need to be approached with an initial offer for summer employment in a preferred position.
To clear subject and realign with corporate goals, it is recommended that subject be shown the reality. After evaluating the rationale of the gaming system, third level corporate recruiting AI and two human psychologists support this. Subject is incomplete without call sign Seven.
Authorization for call sign Seven to initiate contact with subject Timothy Labaron is approved and will occur via messenger.
The next day I woke feeling a bit better after that last gaming session.
Then I got the message from Tina. It was through the messenger system on the net, and I couldn’t get feedback on where she was. It came from a high-end corporate server. It was a simple and short message. It read:
Hi Tim. I work for corporate in the defence industry. I was offered a position all those years ago when we were in the food court. I had to leave immediately as it was part of the testing process they used. We went off to specialized classes in a secure facility after signing waivers. I was in classes for months learning all sorts of things. I saw the cutting-edge technology that the Glentol Corporation has been working on. I passed, which I thought was amazing at the time.
I did more specialized training and then headed off-planet after I received a full set of implants. They held off giving my course the implant set for a while as the new better system was just getting signed off on and wouldn’t shorten our lives or leave us with future problems. The Corporation always looks after its own.
One of the requirements of my work is that I not contact my family regularly. I am evaluated and poked and prodded but I can’t message or visit my family or any of my friends. I really wanted to for the longest time, but the Corporation has studied the effect and we become less effective in these jobs if we have deep emotional attachments at home.
I’m not even supposed to talk about what we do, but I was first asked to write you and then directed (ordered) to tell you what I was doing.
I’m a Corporate Marine. If you’ve played the latest sim games, then you know what my armour and weapons look like. We are the first line of defence for Earth. We deal with the rare pirate incident, conduct raids and ensure the safety of the solar system.
I have seen advances like you would not believe. Humanity needs to stay out here so that we can hit our full potential. I have seen some of the news reports of the movement to isolate ourselves in the solar system and it’s a mistake.
I am allowed to write all this to you but I cannot even write my parents. The Corporation has even ce
nsored some of what I wrote, but they gave the message back to me and simply asked me to modify a few bits to be more general.
I think they want you for something. If they offer you a job, then TAKE IT! This is exactly what we talked about sometimes when doing the homework and studying.
I was asked to keep this short, and I do not think I will be allowed to send a second message. But know that I didn’t want to just abandon you, my family or the rest of the guys. I am out here doing what is right. Please let my parents know that I am okay and try to explain.
I miss you and our gaming.
Tina.
I just stared at that message for hours. I had no way to get a message back to her.
Chapter 15
The next day I found out what the Glentol Corporation wanted. They offered me a summer job within the local main offices. But I didn’t know why.
I had received the offer that morning and it was on my pad waiting for me when I woke up. I talked to my parents about it when I went downstairs.
Mom seemed happier that I had a message from Tina than anything else. Dad just looked at me and asked some questions. My answers were pretty simple.
“So where do they want you to work?”
I shrugged. “I dunno; it didn’t say.”
“Okay, when would you start?” This Monday morning.”
“They are paying you?”
“Yup, intern wages, which are twice what I made last year.”
Dad finally gave up and motioned and I just handed the pad over. It was way easier than playing twenty questions when I didn’t have the answers.
He grunted as he scrolled through it. “So you start Monday, the number indicates...” He whistled and then looked at me. “You’re going to work as a summer intern in Senior Management.” He looked stumped for a minute. “I didn’t even know there was such a thing.” He gave himself a shake and then nodded. “We’ll have to get you packed and over to the train by Sunday morning. You are going to need clothes and supplies for two weeks, and make sure you are bringing two proper suits, not just that garbage ‘casual workwear’ that is trendy. They don’t like that...”
