by D. P. Oberon
Bottom 5 Squads
Uniform One One: +1 pts
Uniform One Three: +1 pts
Zulu One Three: 0 pts
Uniform One Two: -1 pts
Bravo Two Zero: -2 pts
“Last,” she said to herself. She couldn’t remember ever coming in last. All those cajoling remarks she’d thrown at Bheemasena when he’d told her of the AAEDEF physical toll. She’d always smirked, told him with her upgrades she could do any training.
The average score out of twenty squads stood at three points. They couldn’t even get to average. She snorted and swiped the display shut, plunging her face back into the dark.
Negative two points. Awarded to Bravo Two Zero because she and Buckingarra had completed the forty kilometer run without Yoriko and Peng, who had taken too long. The sour bile that coated her throat tasted of failure. A thick miasma draped over her like heavy cobwebs, making it difficult for her to breathe. Was this how Claas felt in the pits of his despair? Was it karma coming back to haunt her?
How were they going to beat Chengmedu’s squad, Bravo Two Six? All the other squads consisted of hardened military veterans who trained for Selection. They had an unfair advantage over her squad.
She laughed shrilly. Hadn’t she told Novalie that life was unfair? Hadn’t she told Novalie that the sooner she realized this the better?
Peng, Yoriko, and Buckingarra looked like babies in a womb. The gel liquid massaged them, revitalizing their bodies through nutrients, and healing their injuries. The material also contained yocto-bot synthetics that clustered around their heads like a glowing aura. Even so they winced, their hands waved, and their feet kicked in the middle of battle simulation exercises.
“No REM sleep. What have we got ourselves into? Only one day gone. How the heck are we going to handle another sixty nine days? Listen to yourself, Saradi. You’re talking to yourself.” Since when did she talk to herself?
Saradi gave up and slammed back into the bed. She frowned when the surface didn’t suck her back into the gel.
A red light in the middle of the room began to flash, accompanied by a loud wailing siren. The beds ejected the sleeping squad members and then hardened beneath them, leaving them gasping in the air like fish out of water.
Instructor Ali appeared in a hologram in the middle of the room. “Rough and ready!” Her voice blared from around the entire room like cymbals crashing near their ears.
Saradi, more awake than her squad members stood up and shouted back, “Rough and ready!”
Buckingarra was next followed by a somewhat slower Peng and Yoriko.
“Courtyard, now. Bring your helmets,” Instructor Ali’s hologram said, and then vanished as if it had been an apparition.
Instructor Ali stood at the head of the courtyard with her feet spread shoulder width apart. As usual, her eyes were hidden by black shades. A tendon below her sharp chin twitched.
Eighty recruits formed into twenty lines, ten squads in each half of the courtyard.
“Rough and ready!” Instructor Ali shouted.
“Rough and ready!” eighty recruits bellowed in return.
Everyone assembled wore only their singlets and shorts, some were even naked, and a few had their blankets wrapped around them. Nobody dithered this time. And nobody was going to delay. Not after yesterday.
“Listen carefully and take note of what I have to say,” Instructor Ali said.
Saradi nodded. Being a level ten upgrade meant that her AI — unless deactivated — was constantly recording everything. The recruits had been told to only deactivate their AI’s during exercises.
“You all look too asleep,” said Instructor Ali. “Burpees,” she said.
“Burpees,” replied the recruits.
“Fifty,” said Instructor Ali.
“Fifty,” they shouted back, getting down and cranking them out.
Saradi finished and as she stood back up, shaking and covered with sweat, she noticed she’d beaten Chengmedu. Where the super-marines had strength and muscle, she had quickness and whipcord tension. She gave an appraising glance at her squad. Peng’s gut could be taken care of. Yoriko’s slenderness could be sharpened with muscles, and Buckingarra was already like a smaller version of the super-marines, though he could become leaner.
We can still compete, a voice said in her head. Was it foolish? She observed that the leaner recruits were faster.
When everyone finished Instructor Ali spoke. “Yesterday was a complete disaster. Out of twenty squads only two complete squads finished. It matters not that somebody in each of the twenty squads went over that finish line. You only went over the finish line because you guessed correctly, that if somebody in your squad didn’t go over you would get negative points.” She stopped suddenly, then walked through the gap that separated the ten squads to the back of the courtyard.
“In a real war nobody keeps a weekly score. No one counts the points and then allocates it to teams like its some damn game. In real life you’d be dead without your squad mates.” She now ran past them, all the while she kept talking. “You need to give it one hundred and ten percent and then one hundred and ten percent more. If I do not see you trying, you will be incised like the cancer you are. Your attitude poisons Selection.” She ended her speech at the front of the courtyard.
Saradi had run her lungs out. Her individual time had been good. But she hadn’t got there with her squad and she was beginning to feel that was a very bad mistake. She had at least gone back to encourage Yoriko and Peng. They had both tried. That much was evident from how tired they had been when they returned to the barracks. Everyone in Bravo Two Zero had finished the run, but not all of them met cut off. Saradi disagreed with the negative grade and would’ve told anyone else so. Not Ali though.
“The following six squads step forward,” Instructor Ali said. “Bravo Two Zero, Uniform One Two, Zulu One Three, Uniform One Three, Uniform One One, and Zulu One Two.”
Saradi felt a cold trickle of sweat go down her neck. Buckingarra whispered, “Fuck,” Peng kept looking down, and Yoriko shook her head.
Saradi being the squad leader for Bravo Two Zero stepped out first. They lined up with the rest of the called-out squads. The squad leaders stared at one another with a sinking feeling. The sweat stung Saradi’s eyes but she didn’t dare move to wipe it away. A silence fell on the courtyard. Chengmedu’s squad, Bravo Two Six, smirked at them. Their smirks disappeared when Instructor Ali walked in front of them.
“‘In Our Mateship We Trust,’ that credo is embedded into every single SOHIC uniform. It means teamwork comes first. Without your team you are nothing. Wars are not won by suicidal individuals, they are won by many teams working together.” Instructor Ali took a deep breath as she walked the perimeter of the courtyard like a shark encircling its prey. Her voice came soft but clear. “That means you eat, sleep, and shit together. Understood?”
“Oorah!” bellowed the recruits.
“When you take a shit I want your squad members to be around you. When you fire your weapon, your squad members are to be around you. When you feel you need space and really need to get away, I don’t care. Your squad members are to be around you.”
Saradi looked at Yoriko just as Peng looked at Buckingarra. The four of them nodded.
Eventually Instructor Ali came back to stand at the front with the six squads she’d called out. The tension was so thick it felt like all the recruits stood on a net that could be cut at any time.
Instructor Ali said, “Uniform One Two, Zulu One Three, and Uniform One Three.” The three out of six called out squads stepped forward. “Turn around and face the squads.”
Saradi felt the worry on her face reflected in Thersa Renshi’s, the squad leader of Zulu One Three. Thersa’s squad, Zulu One Three, had argued from the get go, but they had all completed the run. Thersa had chatted to Saradi on their return when everyone went to the mess hall. Thersa had known Bheemasena, apparently they had joined AAEDEF at the same time.
&nbs
p; Instructor Ali clapped her hands. At first it was only her, and then all the other squads joined in. No one knew what they were clapping for exactly. Instructor Ali held up her hand and it cut through the applause like a scythe.
A deathly silence pervaded the courtyard. Thersa’s eyes looked wet but Saradi couldn’t tell if it was just the harsh lights from that floated above the courtyard.
“Place your helmets at the base of the flagpole,” Instructor Ali said. The recruits stacked the twelve helmets neatly against the flagpole at the head of the courtyard.
Instructor Ali stood in front of the three squads. She gave such a crisp salute it made Saradi wonder if she was half robot.
“I thank for your service. You are dismissed from Selection,” the Instructor said.
Thersa’s face scrunched up and Saradi thought the woman would cry. But she didn’t. All the dismissed recruits responded back with half-hearted oorahs. They marched out of the courtyard. Every single one of them had been military, Saradi realized with a start.
Instructor Ali watched them leave and then she said, “Those three squads did not know the meaning of teamwork. I know. I ran the forty up and down a total of six times yesterday.”
Ali turned and looked at the remaining three squads including Saradi’s. “Your squads are still here because you worked as a team, but you all scored one point or less. Next time I call your squad up it will be to dismiss you. Is that clear?”
Twelve voices roared, “Oorah.” But Instructor Ali wasn’t finished yet. She turned to Chengmedu’s squad.
“Bravo Two Six, burpees. One hundred.”
“Oorah,” Chengmedu replied.
When they finished the burpees, Instructor Ali got them to do one hundred push-ups and one hundred sit-ups, and finished with a hundred burpees.
“Sit-up position and hold,” Instructor Ali called out at the end. By now all the super-marines dripped sweat and their arms shook as they held the position.
Instructor Ali swivelled her attention to the rest of the recruits. “Any one I dismiss, or who voluntarily quits will be shown complete and total respect. I will not tolerate anything less.” Her eyes settled on Chengmedu’s form with his arms outstretched shaking. “Is that clear?”
A hearty “Oorah!” rang throughout the courtyard.
Saradi walked back to the barracks in a daze. The air of relief was made palpable by the jokes and chatter among the recruits.
“We aren’t dead yet!” Buckingarra shouted, grabbing Peng and Yoriko around the shoulders and crushing them in an embrace. “Still here, team!”
Saradi trailed her squad, lost in her own world, her fists clenched as she whispered to herself, “Bheem, I’m coming to get you.” Her voice rose so loudly her squad mates turned around.
She made a fist and whispered the words to them, “We’ll do better next time!” She gritted her teeth, and the tendons on her neck stood out. “As a team.”
It dawned on her as she slept in her bed. They were on day two of seventy days. How were they going to last?
Chapter 19 – Emergency Action Procedures
Selection, Week 2
The seventeen remaining squads stood ankle deep in snow northeast of Fort Windradyne in the terraformed battlefield Truganini Antarctica. A mountain, artificially made, stretched out in the distance, and along the horizon Saradi could see the blur of an aero-train as it zoomed in the air.
Saradi was almost overcome by the sense of displacement she felt. In one moment she had been inside a base in the middle of a desert and the next she shivered in snow.
Even though the training exercise commenced at zero seven thirty, they’d assembled at zero seven fifteen, every single one of them.
Peng stood to Saradi’s left and pointed at the horizon. “Look, megabats,” he said excitedly. “Those are our squad transports. That’s what SOHIC uses to get troops behind enemy lines. I’ve always wanted to see inside one.”
The squat, blocky aircrafts made no noise as they flew towards the waiting recruits. Within moments the megabats began to land and Saradi caught a glimpse of a troop transport whose overall shape looked like a thin box with a sloped nose. Two large thrusters jutted out of the top rear looking like hunched shoulders. From the inner lining of these thrusters vertical winglets cut upwards at slight angle. The main wings descended at angles from underneath the thrusters.
“Looks like that shit they build bunkers out of,” Buckingarra said.
Peng nodded at him like a puppy dog. “Yeah, they are, steelcrete fabirons.”
One of the megabats came very close to the assembled squads and landed near them. Two exits stood on its left and one of them thudded open, doors sliding into the walls. Instructor Ali stepped out and onto the snow.
“Emergency Action Procedure one-oh-one,” Instructor Ali said. She still wore the dark wraps around her eyes hiding her expression from view. “This procedure includes three sub-procedures.” She held out three fingers and as she counted a finger disappeared into the black gloved fist. “One, Proximity Alert Procedure. Two, Crew Preparatory Procedure. And three, Ejection Evaluation Procedure.”
“Shit, I thought she said ejaculation,” Buckingarra whispered.
Saradi laughed and managed to catch herself just in time. She knuckled Buckingarra in his gut. “Cut the jokes, Bucki.” Peng chuckled and even Yoriko smiled, but Saradi didn’t want any attention drawn to her squad. “Ice cold, Bucki.”
“Yeah, well, look where we are,” he said. His eyes reflected the wide snowy plains on which they stood.
Instructor Ali turned around and signaled with her outstretched hand. “These ugly looking things are known as Megabats. These transports are exclusive to SOHIC. The megabats have five drop pods.”
“Five pods because one is for Ganmi,” Peng said, obscuring Ali’s next words from Saradi’s hearing.
Saradi’s brow furrowed. She had wanted to know why there were five pods.
“Thanks,” she muttered, out of the corner of her breath.
“I think Ganmi is already inside of those megabats,” Peng said.
“Okay, enough,” Saradi said, as Instructor Ali walked towards them.
Instructor Ali said, “Unlike any other aircraft operating in AAEDEF the megabats have two way hatches. You can eject up from the ceiling of the craft, or down from the floor of the craft.” She stared out over them. “Can anyone tell me when you would use one instead of the other?”
Nobody raised their hand. Saradi’s eyes swivelled left and right wondering why.
Peng’s tremulous voice said, “Instructor, it’s because Leviathans can easily suck the pods up into their bays for greater mobility.”
Behind those dark shades Instructor Ali’s head tilted slightly as if observing an insect at the tip of her nose.
“And?” Instructor Ali said.
Saradi groaned inwardly. This is why nobody answered. Most likely everyone here knew why there were up and down ejection options but not of them volunteered because they knew Ali wanted an in-depth explanation.
Peng’s breath frosted in the cold air but dots of perspiration coated his forehead. His squeezed his eyes shut muttering to himself. Instructor Ali made to talk but Peng said, “There are several reasons, Instructor. In orbital situations there may be a preference to eject both ways, in failure scenarios when the ejection mechanisms fail there are now extra options — though that depends on how the ejection mechanisms are constructed. But lastly, I believe the upward ejection option was added to enable the kamikaze strategy employed by SOHIC forces during the Empire Wars.”
Instructor Ali walked right up to Peng and she did what Saradi had never seen her do. Her dark shades shuffled back into the sides of her head. She had green eyes with lines on their sides making her seem older than she probably was.
“Recruit Huizhong, you’ve read the Huckler and Farzogba Catalog?”
“Yes Sir, version five,” Peng replied.
“I love the illustration of the new LR4. Looks be
autiful.”
“Me too, it’s so smooth,” Peng said. He put his hand against his mouth and added, “Instructor.”
The dark shades smoothly elongated back around Instructor Ali’s face. “You will all have homework tonight. I want you to read the Huckler and Farzogba Catalogue, version five.”
Oorah, they replied, though Saradi thought it wasn’t as loud as before.
Instructor Ali coughed and nodded. “Each of these megabats have your squad names digi-glyphed on their side doors, like this one.” The megabat behind her had the words ‘Echo One Five’ emblazoned across its doors.
Instructor Ali said, “Your simulated exercises will start as soon as you get into your megabats. Go, go, go.”
“Oorah!”
Bravo Two Zero thundered towards their megabat. The snow sucked at their heavily booted feet. By week two, every single squad member in Bravo Two Zero knew that no one in SOHIC walked. They ran. Everywhere.
Saradi reached their megabat — located the farthest afield — and went to the side as the door thudded open.
“Go, go, go,” Saradi said, as Peng, Buckingarra, and Yoriko entered the megabat.
As Saradi stepped in, the warmth immediately engulfed her. The spartan interior consisted of five huge seats in a circle that faced inward and a compute column in the center. A weapons and armor rack lay stripped of their inventory.
“Ganmi!” Peng said running to the huge cube-shaped robot that had materialized out of the air, startling Saradi. The robot that once looked like a huge Rubik’s cube with the assortment of colored square panels now sported a digital blue and white camouflage. Saradi could imagine the robot blending into the snow effortlessly.
Ganmi said, “Ganmi flew it here, Peng.” Her voice sounded excited as she bounced. The engineer-bot turned and smiled at the rest of them.
“Ganmi, is everything on the megabat prepped and good to go?” Saradi asked.
As Saradi asked the question red blinking lights flashed on and off and a siren sound filled the cabin.
Ganmi bobbed up and down in a nod. She had gotten over her acute shyness during the first week. She still didn’t talk to the rest of the squad much, but she wrote the answers across her display panels.
