by Kal Spriggs
I flagged down Wallace, the squad leader. He halted them and put them on security positions and then ran over to join me. “Change of mission,” I said. “There's a blockage on the main route, go to your alternate route.”
“Ma'am, aye-aye, ma'am,” Wallace replied. I saw him hesitate. Last time they'd gone to an alternate route, it had been right into an ambush. I saw him think about it for a long moment. While we'd told them to treat this like a real event, I could see him considering whether that covered taking extra precautions.
He didn't ask, though. Wallace jogged back to his squad and started snapping off orders. I couldn't help but feel a bit proud of him as he ordered two of his squad ahead as scouts. Because, after all, it was an ambush. Ogre had a squad in that area who'd been told to ambush any foot patrols coming through.
And while I wasn't going to help Wallace and second squad, I wasn't going to be unhappy if they figured it out on their own. Especially if it meant they got the upper hand against Ogre. I turned the noise dampening down on my helmet headset, so I’d be able to hear the ambush as it began.
They moved into the ambush area a few minutes later and the scouts triggered the ambush early. It was unfortunate for them, but it meant that Wallace started maneuvering his squad against the ambushers. I saw several of Ogre's candidates go down to the counterattack. Everything was going well, right up until I heard the unmistakable crack of a real bullet going past.
“Candidates, down, now!” I shouted. Second Squad went to the ground and I searched for the shooter. A couple of Ogre's candidates were still up and my eyes tracked to one female candidate, only fifty meters away. I saw her sweep her weapon around, searching for targets... and the barrel came in line with me. She squeezed off a round.
The unmistakable crack of a real bullet almost sent me diving for the ground. Instead I remained still, “Candidate!” I barked, “Lower your weapon, now!”
She stared at me for a long moment, only now seeming to recognize that I had the white markings of a Cadet Instructor. Slowly, she lowered her weapon. I ran over and pulled it out of her hands and checked the magazine. Live rounds.
Ogre's Cadet Instructor ran over, “What the hell is going on?” she demanded.
I recognized Sashi Drien. “Your candidate has live rounds,” I snapped. “She nearly killed me.”
“That's impossible...” Sashi looked at the magazine in shock.
“We have to shut this down,” I heard myself saying.
“I'll check the rest of my candidates,” Sashi said, her voice resigned. “I don't know how this happened...”
“No,” I said, “We have to shut down the Grinder. There were live rounds in one weapon, there could be others.”
“What?” Sashi shook her head, “You're insane. This was probably just a mistake somewhere, there's no sign that there is a problem anywhere else! If you shut down the Grinder, this whole exercise is over!”
“Someone nearly died,” I said, pulling out my datapad. I brought up the emergency commands and stared at it for a long moment. Someone, somewhere might have a loaded weapon that could kill another candidate. I really didn't have a choice.
“Armstrong, don't you dare...” she trailed off as I pushed the button.
“You don't listen! Why don't you ever listen!?” Sashi snarled.
I looked up at her, “Disarm your candidates, I'll do the same with mine.”
“This isn't the end of this, Armstrong,” she hissed at me as she turned away.
“Uh, ma'am,” the candidate next to me spoke up, “I think you're bleeding.”
I looked down and saw a spreading red stain on my arm. “Well,” I said, “that's unfortunate.”
***
Luckily, I'd only been winged. I had Candidate Green slap a pressure bandage on it while I talked them through the field first aid. The way they were all staring at me, you'd have thought I was seriously injured or something.
The entire Grinder had gone eerily silent. The normal rattle of gunfire and distant sound of explosions had ceased. Even as I thought that, I heard the drone of engines and then a combat skimmer settled to the ground a few meters away. Commander Scarpitti jumped out. “Armstrong, what's going on?” Commander Bonnadonna came down the ramp a moment later, followed by Commander Pannja.
“There's an issue with ammunition, ma'am,” I reported, holding out the magazine and rifle for her inspection. Sashi Drien had asked for them back, but I'd refused. “One of the candidates from Ogre section somehow had live rounds mixed in with their training rounds.
Command Scarpitti stared at me. She took the rifle and magazine from me, her eyes lingering on the wound on my arm. “You okay, Armstrong?”
“I got winged, ma'am,” I admitted. “I'm fine.”
“Right,” she said, her voice harsh. She checked the rifle and magazine and then nodded, “Yes, no mistaking it... but why shut everything down? It looks to be just the one weapon...”
“We couldn't confirm that other candidates didn't get issued live rounds, ma'am,” I said.
“Good point, Cadet Armstrong,” Commander Bonnadonna nodded. He donned gloves and took the magazine from Commander Scarpitti, “Which candidate? Who all has handled it?”
I felt my back go up as I met his gaze. I didn't trust him and I still suspected he'd tried to kill me, but I spoke as professionally as I could manage. “Candidate Heavey, sir. Myself and Cadet Drien have handled the weapon and magazine besides her. And yourselves, of course,” I said.
“Sir,” Sashi hurried up. “I have to protest this! Cadet Armstrong shut down the exercise before my candidates had time to react. I think this was a way for her to game the ranking system!”
Commander Bonnadonna stared at her. He didn't speak, but he put the magazine in the weapon and worked the action, ejecting one round after the other. Past the first one or two rounds that were alternating live and training, the remainder of the magazine was live rounds. I swallowed nervously as I considered that. The training rounds were light, they had a bit of bright colored paint and delivered a tranquilizer on impact with skin or clothing. The live rounds, on the other hand, were composite rounds that would kill, and they traveled far faster and further. The two types of round made different noises when firing, but a candidate probably wouldn't have understood the difference. Most Cadet Instructors, if they didn’t have their sound dampening turned down on their helmets, wouldn’t know the difference unless they were really paying attention to their candidates.
The large number of live rounds at the bottom of the magazine meant that the longer an engagement went on, the more likely it was that she would have killed someone. I felt sick as I stared at all those possibilities of death. They'd been aimed at my candidates. I couldn't help but look up and glare at Sashi.
“She made the right decision given what she knew at the time,” Commander Scarpitti was the first one to speak.
“Did we question the candidate?” Commander Pannja asked.
“Yes, sir,” I replied. “She drew the magazine just before the mission. It was one of the lot issued to their squad. Cadet Drien told me that they expended most of their ammunition in an earlier engagement and they received a full restock just before they went on this mission.”
He stared at the live rounds on the ground in front of Commander Bonnadonna. “We'll need to do a full investigation and inquiry. You were right to shut the exercise down. There could be other contaminated lots of ammunition. Good work, Cadet Armstrong.”
***
“Biohazard shuts it all down!” Kyle Regan gave me a grin as I got back to the bunker. Behind him, I saw Cadet Lieutenant Webster and Salter, and most of the other Cadet Instructors for Sand Dragon.
I just shook my head and then leaned against the wall. “Hey, Jiden, you okay?” He asked.
“Yeah,” I said quietly. “Just tired of people taking shots at me.”
“I didn't mean anything by it,” Regan said. “And what happened, anyway? I got the stand-down message and th
en a few minutes later we were told to check every bit of ammo on our candidates. What happened out there?”
I showed him the bandage on my arm. “One of Ogre's candidates had live rounds.”
“What?” Everyone in the bunker started talking at once.
“Quiet!” Webster barked. He hurried over, “You're saying one of Ogre's candidates shot you?”
“Yeah,” I said. “But she was shooting at my candidates. With live rounds. Which is why I shut everything down.” I was tired and angry and I realized that I probably was coming off the adrenaline spike of being shot at.
“Right, we probably need to get you to the aid station and get you checked out,” Webster turned away, “It'll probably be a few hours before the exercise goes back up...”
“No, sir,” I said. “The word should be going out soon. As soon as everyone reports in clear on ammunition, they're pulling us all out of the Grinder. There's going to be a full investigation.”
“They're shutting down the Grinder?” Webster turned around in surprise, “What, all of it?”
“From what I heard from Commander Pannja, yeah. He was on the net to the overall exercise commander. Until and unless they know none of the training ammunition is contaminated with live rounds, they're putting a halt to all of it.”
“That's never happened,” Salter shook her head. “Oh, man, Armstrong, when you do something, you don't do it in a half measure.”
I wanted to say this wasn't my fault. I couldn't manage it though. Someone had taken shots at me. Sure, I could imagine there was an accident where live rounds got mixed in with training rounds. But that should have been more than the one weapon. As far as we'd been able to tell, the only one with live rounds had been candidate Heavey. And it would have been something else if she'd loaded the rounds herself. Maybe someone could have made a case for her pocketing some live rounds from target training before the Grinder and loading them here.
It would have made her one of the stupidest candidates ever, but it would have been possible.
But the magazine had been issued to her. That meant someone, somewhere, had loaded those rounds in it. Then there was the change in mission, which had only happened after I'd taken over from Kyle Regan. This feels like a set-up, I thought. I'd taken the time, on the flight back, to look up Candidate Heavey. She had the lowest rating in Ogre section. She'd been penalized twice during the Grinder for shooting Cadet Instructors, both times she'd admitted to firing without identifying a target.
This didn't feel like an accident. It felt like someone had tried to kill me... again.
***
Chapter Nineteen: That's The Real Killer
“In all probability, we probably won't know how exactly those rounds got into Candidate Heavey's magazine,” Webster finished briefing us.
“Sir, this is insane,” Kyle Regan shook his head. “Armstrong was shot, several of our candidates could have died.”
“I know,” he nodded. “But the lot of ammunition that the rounds came from was no longer on inventory.” He'd already explained that. For that matter, I'd read the report myself. The lot of ammunition had been reported destroyed as “out of date.” What that told me was that it was probably made to disappear in the same way that Tony Champion and his father Isaac had been making military parts and equipment disappear.
This was tied to the smugglers, again. Only no one in the room knew that besides me.
Well, me and Ashiri and Karmazin, I reminded myself. Both of my friends had solemn expressions. I figured they'd put two and two together already. Regan didn't seem willing to let it go, though and he didn't know all the backstory. I put my hand on his shoulder, “Just let it go, Kyle, it's fine.”
“It's not fine,” he snapped in reply. He let out a tense breath, then, “Sorry, it's just... God, this is so frustrating.”
“It's that way for all of us,” Webster replied. “Believe me. This is the last thing I wanted happening on my watch. The training staff officers are the ones who put you all in these circumstances. I'm just happy that no one was seriously injured.”
This time, I thought. But whoever had made the attempt was bound to do so again, I knew.
“Moving forward, we're past the big hurdle of the grinder,” Webster went on. “The candidates are in their classes, so we have a bit more time. I want all of you using that time. We don't get a lot of it at the Academy, be sure you take the opportunities to get out and have fun.”
I stared at him and I wasn't the only one. I would never have expected Cadet Lieutenant Webster to tell us to have fun.
He seemed to realize how odd that sounded and he coughed, “Admittedly, that may sound strange coming from me.” He shot a look at Cadet Salter who gave him a nod. “What most of you probably don't realize is that this is my sixth year here at the Academy.”
I frowned in confusion at that. The Academy was a five year program... My eyes widened as I realized what he meant.
“I'm a set-back. I... had some issues, last year, I wasn't allowed to graduate. It's not a path I recommend. But one of the things I realized was that I pushed myself too hard. I burned myself out, taking every assignment I could and additional classes as well,” He looked over at his datapad and I wondered if the maze I'd seen on its surface was related to that somehow.
“We're going to have a lot more free time over the next few weeks, right up until we do their final exercise,” Webster said. “So make the best of the time, go out, play some games, get a chance to relax.” I didn't know how I'd relax, seeing as someone had tried to kill me again, but I appreciated the sentiment.
“Now, besides duties of moving the candidates around where they need to be, we will be doing the last preparations for the final exercise for the summer,” Webster said. “I volunteered to help draft it up, and I hope that all of you are willing to help.” He keyed up his desk display and then projected a map. It was the maze I'd seen him working on before. “Four of you in here were among the best scorers for last year's run. I'd like to see you give this a crack when we demonstrate it to our candidates, right before they go through.”
“Sure thing, sir,” Karmazin said.
“No problem, sir,” Ashiri said.
I didn't answer, I was staring at the diagram. There was something oddly familiar about it, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was.
“Armstrong?” Webster asked.
“What?” I looked up, “Yes, sorry, sir, I guess I'm more tired than I realized. Of course I'll help out.”
“Good,” Webster said. He shut off the display. “It'll be a maze run, as you saw. I'm favoring total darkness with entry points along the outer ring and, of course, completion by anyone who reaches the central chamber. There's the three outer sections that all feed into the inner section, so it'll be a good challenge, I think.”
“Where'd you get the idea, sir?” I couldn't help but ask. I couldn't think of any mazes I'd been in, or diagrams that I'd seen with the ring-inside-rings pattern. The whole thing looking familiar enough to bug me, though.
“Oh,” he grinned, “a game that I picked up when I did my assignment last summer at Duncan City. Commander Scarpitti actually introduced me to it. Hopefully none of our candidates have played, or that might give them something of an advantage. Luckily it doesn't seem to have been very widely available.”
“Oh,” I said. That might make sense, why it seemed so familiar. It might have been one of the games distributed on the military network. I'd played a bunch of games last year and a bunch more this year, including a few that Commander Scarpitti had distributed as part of her class.
“Yeah, I've been working on adjusting the overall design for twenty participants. Thankfully I didn't have to change much,” Webster said, “most of the rest was filling in details and trying to figure out how to build it all...” He looked around at us, “Though, if you're doing the run, then I can't really give you any more details.”
“Of course, sir, not a problem,” Regan said.
We took that as a dismissal. Ashiri and Karmazin gave me a wave as they headed over to pick up our candidates. They had them the rest of the morning. I waved back and then I found myself standing out in the corridor, not really sure what to do. I didn't have candidate duty until the evening. I didn't have any classwork... I didn't have any classes, either. Some part of me itched to go check out the maze, to see which game it was that I remembered it from, but I figured it would be cheating, so I didn't want to do that...
“Armstrong... Jiden,” Regan said from behind me. “Got any plans for the rest of the morning?” He gave me a friendly smile and I couldn't help but smile back. We'd spent a lot of time together over the past couple of months.
“Not really, you?” I asked.
“Well...” he shrugged, “they opened the Scuttlebutt to Cadet Instructors, to give us a place to relax out of sight of the candidates. Could I buy you lunch?”
I stared at him, taken off guard. “You want to buy me lunch?”
“Yeah, I mean, unless you don't want to...”
“No,” I said in a hurry, “I'd like that. A lot, I mean.”
“Great,” he said. We found ourselves grinning at each other and I felt a little bit like an idiot... but at the same time I didn't care.
Someone cleared their throat and we both turned. Salter raised an eyebrow at us. “You two should probably vacate the area, the candidates will be back soon.”
“Yes, ma'am,” we both said at the same time.
For some reason, we both found that hilarious.
***
I'd never been inside the Scuttlebutt. I'd sort of known it existed. It was a restaurant of sorts that the Academy staff and faculty used. It was totally different from the chow hall, it actually felt like a nice place and as we came through the doors, I immediately felt out of place.
