Unwilling From Earth

by Andrew Maclure

  “So,” Mark asked Simon, “Don’t the enemy troops have very good energy field armour?”

  “Their armour is good, though ours is better, but theirs will stop multiple shots from a Mark Seven with no trouble at all, if that’s the reason you are asking.”

  “It was. So what is the point of me having one of these if it won’t have any effect? You said I’m just luggage. Have I got this as a toy to play with in the corner while you grown ups do the real stuff?”

  Simon frowned. “No, my job is to make you useful. The weapon meets your need for being lightweight and simple to use and it meets my objective of making you useful. In a firefight, we don’t have time for passengers. As long as you do as you are told you will be a key team member. If you screw up badly, it will be a toss up who shoots you first, the enemy or me. Sally will be annoyed if I shoot you so I need to make sure you know what you are doing and can use your weapon properly.”

  “Just one moment. You’ve told me it won’t work against the enemy energy field armour and now you’re telling me I’ll be a key team member. How does that work?”

  “OK, I think I see why you’re confused. Energy field armour can be overcome, that’s why we wear body armour underneath it. It can be overloaded and fail if it gets too many hits from particle weapons, but it takes a lot. That’s not usually going to happen in normal battle conditions, though Mark Seven hits supplemented by the new field attenuators should make it possible for you to collapse field armour by yourself. That’s what we are hoping, anyway. However, if field armour takes sustained hits from KE weapons…”

  “Hold on.” Mark interrupted. “What’s a KE weapon?”

  “Kinetic energy - bullets. They can be propelled by pressurised gas, explosive charges like you mostly use in your handguns and rifles on Earth or they can be magnetically accelerated in rail guns. So, if we can get some fast KE hits onto an enemy’s field armour it will collapse. Their body armour will soak up a lot of KE hits though, so you’d have to be lucky to hit an unprotected area, but body armour is useless against a Mark Seven. Your job will be to drop them once their field armour is overcome. Sally, Orange and I will be using KE weapons and carrying Mark Sevens as backups, you and Mike will be using Mark Sevens, Ti’rrk will use heavy calibre KE’s, mortars and Ant particle weapons. That’s one of the advantages of Ant soldiers, they carry a lot of ordnance.”

  “So my job is to kill people? I don’t think I can do that.”

  “When you get a moment, look up the primary job of a soldier in battle. And ignore any of that crap about peacekeeping and maintaining order. Your job is purely to engage, fight, and defeat the enemy in face-to-face combat. The only way to defeat them is to kill them. All of them. That’s what we do. If that sounds harsh, the alternative is to let the Ants in. They will stop a war by killing everyone, defenders as well as invaders. Not as a deliberate strategy, but that’s the way it always works out. There are rarely any survivors after they have been in, so we would only ask them to intervene as a last resort. We have never had to yet and I hope we never do.”

  “But what does Ti’rrk do as Ant liaison, if you’re never going to use them?”

  “We use Ant squads in our spearhead attacks and more units in reserve for when things get really tough. They are seconded to us by the Ant hives, so strictly speaking they aren’t part of our army. Sally tells Ti’rrk what she wants the Ants to do, Ti’rrk tells the Ants to do it.”

  “You seem to have thought this through.” Said Mark thoughtfully.

  “No shit. We’d be dust by now if we hadn’t. There’s another reason why we need extra particle weapons now. Your field attenuator. This is something our R and D people have been working on for a long time. This will be the first time they are deployed in battlefield conditions and we hope they will give us an edge. Even with our reinforcements on the ground, the enemy will still outnumber us six to one. We are comfortable with odds of four to one but beyond that and it gets hard. These aren’t pussycats we’re up against, they are well trained and tough, and probably drugged up to feel no fear or pain. Their particle weapons are better than ours, they are more powerful and have a faster fire rate. Mike has been pulling them to bits with R and D and hopefully we’ll have a Mark Eight soon that will match their performance. The field attenuators monitor the frequencies of their energy field armour and disrupts them. We have protected frequencies that we use, so hopefully they won’t affect our armour. If they work, we’ll be able to overwhelm our targets before they can take advantage of their superior firepower and numbers.”

  “Have you bitten off more than you can chew? It sounds like we’re just cannon fodder! What happens if they wipe us out!”

  “If all else fails, the Ants will come in. But that almost certainly won’t happen. The advantage of being in Sally’s unit is that if things go badly for us, there will be an all-out effort to extract us or our bodies. The disadvantage is that we will go in with just the five of us - six now you have volunteered and been accepted as an elite trooper - and we won’t have any support on the ground. The main battle force will be toughing it out toe to toe with the enemy, taking ground and reducing their numbers. We will have a more strategic objective.”

  “Can’t you just get some more soldiers in?” Mark’s voice was starting to tremble a bit despite his best efforts to control it. He was feeling seriously nauseous now the reality of being thrown into the front line of a battle with heavily armed maniacs. And the enemy seemed scary too. He felt if he wasn’t going to be sick, he’d be much better off sitting on a toilet. “You must be able to get some other mercenary armies in, surely?”

  Simon laughed out loud. “Of course we could, but we won’t gain much kudos for that. If we put out a general call for volunteers, half the galaxy would turn up, but that would be no fun! Anyway, don’t worry about it, we’ve all got to die one day!”

  “I was hoping to get a lot older before I die and I’d like to do it peacefully in bed.”

  Simon laughed again and told Mark to bond his AI with the Mark Seven and field attenuator. Mark’s AI was connected directly into the visual cortex in his brain and gave him a visual overlay, like a Head-Up Display so when he looked at the dummies they were using as targets, they were outlined with a pale blue line, easily visible in the dim light of the firing range.

  Simon showed Mark how to hold his weapon with the ribbon-like extension on the left pressed against his chest for extra stability. There was no trigger, he told his AI when to fire, his AI-controlled the weapon. When he fired, he was surprised that nothing appeared to happen. There was no recoil from the Mark Seven and no beam of light came out of it. It didn’t even make a sound when it fired. It was nothing like the weapons in Star Wars or Star Trek. He mentioned this to Simon who told him his AI would give him a sighting indicator on the target and show when he hit it. The feedback from the field attenuator would give him the status of the target’s energy field armour.

  It took Mark a bit of getting used to, but after a couple of hours, he was able to fire as soon as he locked onto a target and could even hit multiple targets as he swept the barrel of the Mark Seven across them. The attenuator locked itself onto the targets as Mark selected them and did it’s best to disrupt their energy field armour which had been set up to mimic the enemy units they had captured. On the firing range with dummies to work with it was highly effective with the armour collapsing after three or four shots. If it worked as well on the battlefield they would hardly need their kinetic energy weapons.

  The Mark Seven and the field attenuator both had powerful AI’s built into them to aid targeting and firing, but Mark retained executive control of target selection and fire control. Simon was impressed with how quickly Mark was able to integrate with them and the amount of control he had. Mark thought that all of his time playing video games hadn’t been wasted after all. He hoped that when they were in a battle he could convince himself it was just an immersive VR video game and then he might survive it without passi
ng out, vomiting too much and hopefully without soiling himself. He wasn’t too sure about the latter though.

  “Take a break now Mark.” Simon said, "We’ll get something to eat, then we’ll get you kitted out with your body armour and energy field armour pack and have some more practise.

  “I could do with a break. Look Simon, you mentioned that the enemy might be taking drugs to make them fearless and not feel pain. Can I have some of them?” Mark half expected Simon to laugh at him.

  “Sorry Mark, this must be very hard for you. It would be tough for a normal person to be thrown in the grinder like this and for you, it must be even worse. Sally won’t allow the use of drugs in battle. There’s a reason for fear and pain. If you have troops that take those drugs you end up with a lot more dead soldiers. We’re all frightened out there, it’s what keeps us sharp. In a tight unit like ours, we all look after each other. Stick close to me, I’ll look out for you.”

  Mark really hadn’t expected to hear that from Simon. He thought he was going to cry.

  “Just a moment, you said it would be tough on a normal person and even worse for me. What did you mean by that?”

  “You might have noticed that I am not very diplomatic.” Simon said. “Sally won’t let me in the same room when she is negotiating, so don’t take this the wrong way but you have definitely not shown any of the characteristics I want in a soldier. I’m not looking for soldiers who are so gung-ho that they can’t wait to get themselves killed, but on the other hand, I don’t want to depend on someone who is going to find a hole to hide in at the first sign of combat. I have no choice but to trust you to do what you know must be done when the time comes. I know a good soldier when I see one and you’re not it. Sally and Alan are both better judges of character than I am and they think you have the strength of character within you to overcome, er, shall we call it - your lack of bravery, and that you’ll step up to the mark when the time comes. Don’t disappoint them.”

  “They do?” Mark was amazed. He thought Alan viewed him as a semi-evolved ape that made an amusing pet, and Sally just thought he was something convenient and easy to torment. Mark sat down heavily on the ground and felt his whole world rearranging itself. He thought he was going to cry again.

  Simon grabbed his shoulder and lifted him easily up onto his feet. “Come on Mark, you need to get something hot to eat. And don’t be frightened to show your emotions. It’s something I have a problem with and apparently that’s one of the reasons I’m so fucked up.”

  They walked over to the seats and sat down. Mark kept his head down and wouldn’t look Simon in the eye. He was really worried now he knew how much Alan and Sally had misjudged him. “How could they have got me so wrong?” Mark wondered. He knew he would let them all down. He always did, as his parents had never stopped telling him for as long as he remembered. Only this time, it wouldn’t just mean that they were a bit disappointed, it could end up with them all being killed.

  Simon went over to the booth and came back with two plates of food. Simon’s was twice the size of Mark’s and looked completely different. He handed Mark the plate and what looked like a cross between a spoon and fork with one edge serrated.

  “Careful with the fork.” Simon told Mark. “The serrated edge is sharp. You’ll get used to these, they’re all you get to eat with during an engagement.”

  Mark didn’t feel hungry. Simon was the last person he expected to show him any kind of comradeship, but he had told Mark that he would look after him and protect him in battle. And now he was going to repay him by letting him down and probably getting him killed. Why didn’t he just stop feeling sorry for himself when he was back on Earth in a safe environment with a secure job and where he knew where he would be every day. He may have had no one close to him back home, but he didn’t have an army of savages intent on killing him either. God, why had he been so, so stupid to want to leave that cosy, comfortable environment? He thought the best thing he could do for everyone involved - including himself, would be to kill himself. He had never felt so bad.

  “Come on Mark, wake up and eat!” Mark looked up and saw Simon grinning at him. “Cheer up, it could be worse!”

  Mark couldn’t think how it could get worse - but then told himself not to think that because every time he had that thought since he left Earth, things got worse. He nodded to Simon and slowly started to eat. The food didn’t taste bad, but it didn’t taste of much at all.

  “Shit!” Mark thought. “I’m not going to kill myself. I haven’t got the guts to. I’m just going to have to work at this for now but I really don’t know what happens next. I do know that I can’t do this soldiering thing. I’ve really messed up this time. How did I let myself get into this?” He sighed deeply.

  “OK, break over now. Let’s get you kitted up and carry on. I heard Alan got you a fully equipped gym all for yourself. How is that going?”

  “Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. I never saw it. Things just sort of happened.” Mark answered disconsolately.

  Simon showed him how the body armour went on. It looked bulky, but it adjusted itself to him covering him from his neck down to his ankles. It was comfortable and didn’t hamper his movements at all.

  “What about my head and feet?” He asked Simon, he was mildly curious but didn’t really care.

  “Your boots will protect your feet and your helmet will protect your head. Head shots are uncommon, the main thing to protect your head against is shrapnel and for close combat fighting.”

  “I won’t need a helmet, I don’t like wearing hats.”

  “You will wear a helmet. It’s not a hat, it’s part of your equipment and includes your energy field armour. You’ll wear it whether you like it or not.”

  “Yeah, OK. Whatever.” Answered Mark. Simon frowned but said nothing.

  They moved back to the range and spent the next four hours shooting at stationary, moving and partially hidden targets. Then, shooting at the targets while they ran, jumped and crawled. By the time they finished it was almost like second nature to Mark, but he was exhausted.

  “OK, we’ll take a half hour break for a drink and some food, then we do some more of this in the dark.”

  “I’m knackered.” Mark said. “Can’t we finish now and have another go tomorrow?”

  “We could be on the ground by tomorrow. You need more practise.”

  Mark groaned but got on to his feet to walk back to the booth with Simon. “You said half an hour.”

  “That’s all we’re having.” Simon said. “We need to get this done then hopefully we can get some sleep before we go down to the ground.”

  “But Alan said there is no standard way of measuring time - it’s all relative.”

  Simon sighed. “Look, the People don’t see the galaxy like the rest of us. They don’t really live in it. They are a bit like observers looking at us from the outside. All of what Alan would have told you is true, but it only applies to them. Of course we measure time. There is a galactic standard calendar with standard years, days and hours. So you don’t you have a clock running in your AI?”

  “Alan said they don’t use clocks. I’ve never seen one on Mother. How do I get a clock on my AI?”

  “Just tell it to give you the time and date in galactic standard time and set reminders and timers whenever you want them. You have got the most sophisticated AI in the galaxy inside your head with probably more processing power than the total available to the average emergent civilisation. I don’t think that telling you the time when you want will stretch it.”

  “So, how many hours in a standard day?”

  “I use thirty, that’s what my home world uses, but you can use any number you like. Your AI will translate the day and time into a format you are most familiar with. If you use ten hours in a day for instance, at midday it will translate that for you into five o’clock. At the same time of day, my AI would tell me it was fifteen o’clock. If I was arranging a rendezvous with you in three of my hours, it would tell you it wa
s in one of your hours. Get it?”

  “But we use twenty-four hour days on Earth. How would that work?”

  “And I thought I was the thick one.” Simon said, looking up into the air and speaking to nobody in particular. “Look, pay attention. As you use a twenty-four hour clock, at midday it will tell you it is twelve o’clock. If we have a rendezvous in three of my hours, it will tell you it is in two point four of your hours. Do you get it now?”

  Mark was inclined to agree with Simon’s assessment that he was the thick one. Mark was usually pretty good at working out that sort of thing - but it had taken him by surprise. At least, that’s what he told himself.

  “Seems straight forward enough.” Mark replied. “I don’t know why you are making such a fuss about it.”

  Simon scowled at him. “You get the food this time. And don’t forget drinks.”

  Call To Arms

  When Simon allowed Mark to finish practising in semi-darkness, they both jogged back to their quarters. They found Mike and Orange sitting at the table with hot drinks in front of them. They turned to greet Simon and Mark as they walked in.

  “We were just talking about you.” Orange said to Mark.

  “All good stuff I hope.” Mark said with a weak smile. He was tired and still feeling frightened and depressed at the thought of getting into a firefight.

  “No.” Replied Orange, picking up his drink and taking a sip.

  “How did he get on at the range?” Mike asked Simon.

  “Surprisingly well considering he has no combat training. He got on well with the field attenuator too. If it works as well in battlefield conditions as it did out there it will give us a big edge.” Simon replied. “And if he works as well in battlefield conditions,” Simon said, nodding at Mark, “I may not have to shoot him.”