by Tom Germann
I have just reloaded when a burning sensation hits me and I am falling with my one arm lying in front of me. I hit the ground and see good old laughing Gorder in two pieces just off to the side of me. I look at the robots and they have finished shooting the runners.
They lower their aim point and open fire. Those little kids are cut into pieces and are dead.
I empty my weapon single-handed, remembering to try to take out one, then my weapon is empty and I only have one arm.
I am flipped onto my back and standing over me is another robot starting to bring its weapon down. I am still screaming. I drop my useless rifle, grab one of my grenades and pop the pin.
I lurch to my feet and jam my body against the robot with the grenade between us. It seems confused and I wonder if it’s because I keep screaming “Fuckers!” over and over again, or because I am hugging it.
Most of the company is down now, and then the grenade goes off and I have taken another one out but I don’t care because I am flying and it hurts so much.
Everything goes to black.
I am back on the couch. I sit up, as does everyone else in the room. I look around and realize that I am shaking. Everyone looks a bit zoned out, as that was a big detailed sim that was too realistic. I see laser beams carving flesh.
The main instructor speaks up from the central podium.
“The point in this sim, troopers, was to point out the fears that you have internalized. You have now faced them and can deal with them.
“The other point to this was that if you are facing your fears, some of you threw yourself in harm’s way to protect civilians or to avenge a fallen comrade. This is the wrong response. You will walk away from fifty civilians if it means that you would die. You are trained by the Corporation and are worth a fortune. One dead trooper may result in the failure of a mission. This can cost billions of dollars and affect the security of Earth and our system.”
My plants tell me that this sim took six hours.
We are dismissed and head back to the bunks. Only a few of us eat. Everyone seems to go to bed early and no one wants to talk. I keep seeing children crying and then jolting as they are hit.
We spend the next two weeks running through sims that are similar. None of them are as intense or as nasty as that one was. We go through every scenario, and some unrealistic, but not a single one in the full armour.
We are always operating as individuals, which does not make a lot of sense. Every section that deploys is a ten-trooper unit. Layout is always the same, in theory. Yet we are not doing that during the sims. No one has asked yet as no one wants to get dinged for asking a question.
As always, we will be told when we need to know.
On Day 18, when we arrive, the instructors are there as always. We move to the couches and wait for the brief we get before every mission.
The main instructor looks around at us. “Your mission today is in full current armour. As in previous missions, you will all be in your own sim this last time. Prepare to deploy.”
We all lie down on the couches and feel them move to fit our bodies.
I close my eyes and I am on a ship heading to a mission. I am standing in a prep bay with the rest of the section and we are about to verify armour and weapons before the final brief.
My suit of armour is gleaming in its alcove like all the rest around the square bay.
I query my plants on mission and parameters. We drop for a smash-and-grab raid on a mining and research colony. The atmosphere is breathable by the enemy, and the city we are dropping on houses over twenty thousand. The military is not huge, but there will also be security forces for the facilities. In this scenario I am Nine in the section.
We will be in location to drop in just over two hours. I need to work on my gear.
The armour is in top condition, as it should be. Power connections are good, feedback and sensors good. It is kept in depot shape with not even a whiff of body scent.
Everyone is used to sims. Virtual Reality is pretty darn good and, in fact, in today’s world there is a large problem with sim addiction. People are living in sims all the time and enjoying the good life or being heroes or whatever. They cannot face the real world.
Those are civilian sims, though, and are nothing compared to these sims for the Corporation’s training. This IS the real world, even if you know differently.
As far as we can look it up, as most information is restricted, the sims re real. Every tasking and action we carry out in the sim is just like the real world. Our body’s reactions, even to the point of developing muscle memory, are real. I have handled the standard troopers’ rifle on sim ranges dozens of times. Out of sim I can take myself through the motions of changing magazines or batteries and my body knows what it will feel like in armour.
Rations even taste like the same shit that we have to eat in the real world.
My armour is ready. I check my racked rifle. A standard marine rifle, a fifteen-millimetre caseless round in a twenty-round magazine that is semi and automatic, electrically fired. Low maintenance and highly accurate with a built-in adjusting electronic sight with backup battle sight in case. Accurate out to eight hundred-plus meters. Eight ready magazines on the armour and another eight in the back-mounted storage.
There’s an under-mounted twenty-four millimetre grenade launcher that takes a single round or five round clips, highly explosive, anti-personnel, smoke and burners. Effective range is out to five hundred meters. Six magazines up front and six in the back.
Personal side arm is a light laser pistol. Thirty-five shots per battery with an effective range of one hundred meters. Three magazines up front and two more in the back.
There are four light disposable rockets for use up to fifteen hundred meters for larger, harder targets like bunkers or light armoured vehicles.
I am ready to go and I still have twenty minutes before we need to deploy. Which is the way it should be. As the last of us finishes, we face the sergeant. He is older than me and has scars on the left side of his neck heading down. He is Four and has done a lot of missions, most successfully.
A low level sim pops up around us, of the deployment zone, as we begin. The sergeant’s eyes are dead as he speaks. “We move in and deploy. Nine and Ten will deploy and grab the case at this location.” A red icon pops up on our target. “One, Two, Three and Four will move to this building, move inside where they will lay charges, and then destroy the building.” The highlighted building is not big, but looks like a bunker. “Five, Six, Seven and Eight, you will act as backup and over watch for the main strikes in two groups, here and here.” More icons in good cover. “We will then move back to the drop ship and depart. Mission time should be maximum fifteen minutes. Questions?”
There are none as this is a very straightforward mission. As we move to our armour I query my plants about the race on the planet. There is very little information there. They are some sort of communal or hive mind that works for the greater good. Most of the information is guesses and theory. If we take too long, then the other workers, after they overcome the initial shock, may take up weapons against us, or they may run away. There is insufficient information to formulate a proper evaluation.
It is dangerous to form assumptions, but this is a combat simulation. The workers are going to attack us.
I load myself into my armour like I have done it a thousand times before. I have in other sims. All the connections click in and power comes up. My helmet closes over my head and then the sensors come online. I reach over and pick up my weapons. Side arm is mag-locked to my right thigh and the rifle is mag-locked to my chest. In sequence from One on we report readiness.
The sergeant says, “Disengage,” and we disengage ship umbilical’s, going to onboard power only.
The next command the sergeant issues is, “Go,” and in order we step to the drop ship and enter. We move to our pos
ition and connect to those umbilical’s and mag-lock ourselves to the walls.
Internal timers are running and then there is the rumble as the drop ship separates from the ship.
Thrust kicks in almost immediately, as drop ships are basically big engines with small armoured bodies to get us to location. The goal is as little time in transit as possible. We are going for a hot landing into the zone so we can engage and then get out before they can fully respond.
The acceleration is bad, but I only start to grey out a bit. The armour has some excellent padding. Now if it will only stop a missile or heavy laser hit.
I feel the engines change pitch as we get close to ground.
I am starting to hear the pinging of laser fire hitting the hull. So far only light stuff, and they can’t hold it on target long enough to make a difference. Seconds to go.
BAM! We are down. The sides drop and we disconnect and go. Everyone is a blue dot on the Heads Up Display (HUD) in my armours helmet. Targets are highlighted in red. Everyone in the area is stunned or whatever passes for stunned for their race. They are smaller than us, but I remember that females are bigger than the males and have almost mind control over those that they mate with. I stop the useless junk thoughts and focus on the target. There are shots everywhere now. I see two security officers picking themselves up off the ground. My rifle drifts over them and I take the shot. They are not wearing armour and the first one literally explodes from the kinetic energy of a fifteen-millimetre round hitting him in the torso. The second one is a head shot. As far as I can tell, they have purple-coloured blood, and a lot of it.
Another security team comes out of a guard box by the building entrance and Ten and I take them one round each, working from the outside to the inside of their line. Their armour is only good for light personal weapons. They are dead splatters.
I stop short of the door and provide over watch for Ten while she places the demo charge on the door. She moves to the side and we blow it.
The door flies off and I move ahead, with Ten taking the rear covering. We are running through the facility. As we advance, Ten drops scanners every few feet so we will have a better range on the sensors and have small charges in them for after we are done.
Sensors are working full out and there are multiple enemy in the hall ahead. I fire on the run, single rounds, and through the sensor hash enemy signals are fading fast, sometimes two at once as the rounds travel through the first target and take out another behind them. I fire my last round and take a knee, reloading smoothly while Ten continues past me. I can hear her firing and I am following, covering anything she passes.
She stops firing and we are at the door. Again she slaps a charge on the door and steps out of the way while I cover.
When she blows the door I am first through and shoot the three beings in the room. Ten moves forward and, pulling out a cutter, starts working on the vault door.
Twenty seconds and she is through. I am covering the entry and doing a full sensor scan through the scanners. There is no movement but there are lots of enemy in the area, mostly in offices. They are starting to group together.
Ten pulls the door away and checks the cases. There are three cases that look like our target and not the one that the intel told us about. Ten mag-locks one to her chest and carries one in her off hand. I grab the last one in my off hand and we are moving.
The other targeted bunker building is mined and the charges will detonate when they are tampered with, or all the charges will go off together with the rest of the gifts we left when the button is hit on our way out.
I take the lead and move, with Ten following.
The HUD shows that the section is in position and we are starting to collapse down toward the ship. Everyone is still on time. In fact, we are ahead of schedule.
As we exit the building, the sensors start acting up as the enemy begins jamming us.
Outside of the door there is smoke billowing up and the general chaos of battle. The others are firing more than I’d expected as they are engaging anything that is near.
I cover by the door while Ten starts moving ahead for the drop ship. I move out behind her about four metres and my mark-one eyeballs are strained to cover all the angles. The smoke clears and I see a little figure running toward Ten. I track and slow. It’s a child running scared and it is heading for a trooper. Time slows down and I flash back to the enemy robot killing the kids. I see them screaming as they are burned in half by the laser.
I squeeze the trigger and the enemy child’s body explodes. There is a much larger explosion that actually picks up Ten and throws her to the side.
My plants identify that the child was carrying a mining charge.
Ten staggers to her feet and carries on to the troopship. I can see her armour is damaged. I see two more children moving toward Ten, one with a laser side arm, and the other with a metal bar. I take them both down with single shots.
We are ahead of the rest of the section and Ten is now injured, according to her icon. I slap the case against my chest and mag-lock it.
Ten lets me know that she is at the ship and covering an arc.
I pivot and slowly walk backwards, watching for enemy forces. If it moves, I engage it.
This race is either insanely brave, very territorial, or there is some sort of hive mind engaged. From the little intel I am getting from sensors and what I can see, it looks like the enemy is running toward us rather than away.
A group is coming straight at us on my covered arc and I space out three grenades blasting them apart. Two get up and keep coming. They both have severe injuries but are still moving.
Another trooper goes down and gets back up again, with moderate armour damage.
We are collapsing inward to the ship and I am one of the last to board.
I empty my rifle and grenade magazines at the approaching enemy and then board.
The sides of the ship close and I immediately mag-lock myself to the wall. The engines come on and we are shooting for the sky.
Total mission time was twelve minutes.
We get back to the ship, which immediately moves out of orbit.
In the bay I remove my armour and then help Ten out of hers. The damage is minor. While I am helping her get the jammed leg piece off she leans forward and murmurs, “I guess I owe you for taking out those kids and saving me.” She throws me a wink and licks her lips slowly.
The sim ends.
I struggle to my feet feeling like I have been beaten heavily.
The instructors are sitting drinking something hot and talking. They all stand and then Armour looks at us. “Congratulations, you have passed this phase’s training. You are now considered Marines, almost. You still need to do more armour and section-level training, but this was the big test.”
I look around and notice that two of the couches no longer have people with them. I wonder what happened to them.
The main instructor continues. “The only way to win the mission is to engage all of the enemy forces. All but two of you did so.” She pauses and then continues. “Young or old, tall or small, male or female, any enemy can kill you and those enemies likely do not have the same issues or morality that you would.”
She continues again. “Congratulations. You have passed and are now Marines.”
I am a qualified trooper now. I almost couldn’t squeeze the trigger.
The few of us that are left head for dinner. Armour stands there in the door watching each one of us pass by her.
EVALUATION
AFTER SIM TRAINING.
FINAL CONFIRMATION
He looks at Seven. Timothy, her other half, isn’t here today. He is working on a new algorithm mod that, with some updates, is supposed to increase the sensitivity of the evaluation even more.
Hopefully that works.
She just sits there looking at him. She do
esn’t look smug or happy. It is the same mask that she always wears. He almost feels that she is gloating.
He has that feeling from the file sitting open in front of him.
The numbers in there are staring out at him. All those glaring zeroes.
This isn’t about ego. “So the initial tests show him as being well attuned to the armour during synchronization.”
She raises an eyebrow but says nothing.
“Those are just initial tests, and while I will agree that he is a good fit, these results are not conclusive. Not yet. After what you did to him and everything else he has been through, he may never fully stabilize.”
He stops and stares at her.
She is smiling.
She leans forward and touches the end of her finger to the line of test scores. “I was right.”
She stands up and walks out, closing the door behind herself.
He sits there and curses. He looks at the numbers again and sighs. She was right.
He carefully pushes the file back together and closes it. He places it into his briefcase and stands up, smiling as he closes it.
The new candidate is performing perfectly.
He turns the light off and closes the door, heading down to his office.
SHELLSHOCK
We have all been given the night off again but no one feels like celebrating or having “fun” tonight. I’m sure if everyone’s mission had been the same, but everyone has a look to their face.
I don’t know what to call it when I look at them. Shocked? Or maybe horrified?
Everyone looks the same. Their eyes are sunk back into their heads. They have black rings around their eyes. Maybe half of us are shivering, and on the way back to our accommodations, everyone, including me, is starting at every noise.
The lights seem brighter and every noise is much louder than usual. I stop in the big foyer and look at the shiny elevator doors. That is when I see my face. I thought I was doing well but in reality, I look like them. Panicked and terrified.
