by D. P. Oberon
“You spoke to Instructor Ali?” Saradi asked Peng.
“She wanted to know more about Ganmi,” Peng said, nodding.
Instructor Ali held her hands out and pulled a camo tarp off of a large pile of rifles. The huge weapons seemed to stare at them.
“These are mock LR4s. They are actually much heavier than the real rifle. These are stock rifles in SOHIC. You will each take a weapon.”
Saradi strode out first just as Chengmedu strode out with his squad. For a moment she thought about overriding him but then she held out her hands stopping her squad and let Chengmedu’s squad take their weapons.
As they stood back in line Buckingarra said, “You’ve got to be joking. I’m strong and this thing feels like a steelcrete pylon.” He held out the mock LR4. Its smooth barrel stretched out well past an arm’s length. It weighed more than twenty kilograms.
Saradi stared worriedly at Yoriko, who couldn’t weigh more than fifty kilograms herself. Buckingarra easily weighed one hundred twenty kilograms. Peng probably just at the high nineties. Saradi weighted sixty five kilograms. She had level ten upgrades, and her musculature rippled as she held the weapon. She wouldn’t be the one to have a problem carrying the weapon, nor would Buckingarra.
Instructor Ali stepped forward holding out her own mock LR4 in her hands. “Your rifle you will hold by stretching both arms above your head and then bending your arms back, like so.” She demonstrated by holding her rifle over her head slightly back over her head so it would unbalance her.
Buckingarra muttered, “Oh wonderful. Might as well hold it with my cock.”
Saradi whipped her head at him. “Shut it,” she hissed. He had murmured it quietly beneath his breath but Instructor Ali walked towards them.
“Buckingarra Freeman, did I hear something?” Instructor Ali asked.
“Instructor, you did not,” Buckingarra replied decisively.
“Give me a hundred. Burpees,” said Instructor Ali. When Buckingarra dropped down Saradi felt a savage grin on her face that shattered with Instructor Ali’s next words. “What are you all waiting for? Everybody get down and give me a hundred.”
“Oorah.”
Instructor Ali stood in front of Buckingarra. “Don’t lie to me next time.” She went back to the front and she began to churn out burpees with them.
It was the first time Saradi did burpees in the snow and she hoped it was her damned last time. She went loose to fall to the ground and the snow just sucked her right in. She came back up spluttering. Each time she ducked down and tucked herself in she was covered in white mush. Eventually the area around her flattened somewhat but her hands began to go numb. Instructor Ali knew how long exactly before they got hypothermia and at the twenty minute mark they were told to run.
Instructor Ali said, “You have forty-five minutes to run up five kloms carrying your weapon. If you do drop your weapon you are to get down and give me ten, successive drops will be an additional ten, so second drop that’s twenty and so on.” She stretched out her hands over her head holding out the LR4. “Let’s run!”
“Oorah!”
Run? Saradi thought, gathering herself. She turned to her squad. “We run together as a squad. Learn from our week one mistake. We aren’t reaching Ganmi out of tune, so to speak.”
“They should just torture us,” Buckingarra said, holding up his LR4, getting ready to go.
“Yoriko, Peng, you keep pace. Bucki, you take that edge. I’ll take this one. Yoriko and Peng will be in the middle.” She eyed Yoriko. “It will be okay, just keep pace.” She chin pointed Buckingarra. “Follow Peng’s pace.” She wanted the slowest members of her squad to set the pace, that way they wouldn’t be left behind.
Saradi put her hand out in the middle, Peng followed, then Yoriko, and lastly Buckingarra. “Bravo. Two. Zero!”
Holding the glorified steelcrete bar back above their heads altered their balance, especially going up a four percent gradient. It felt like walking up stairs with heavy luggage tied around their necks.
Ganmi’s red cube was the barest of dots above them. Their lenses had been disabled and they couldn’t block out the shining sun. It scalded their eyes, reflected by the white of the snow.
“Sara, I need rest,” Yoriko said, panting heavily. Her face smeared with sweat and the flesh beneath her eyes a dull gray. Her hands shook as she shoved the LR4 into the snow using it as a crutch to keep her from falling.
“Me too,” Peng said. He didn’t seem as bad as Yoriko but he favored his right foot.
“C’mon guys, we can do it,” said Buckingarra, eyeing the dwindling forms of Chengmedu’s squad as they streamed up ahead, the first out of all the squads by a fair margin.
“Rest up, Bucki,” Saradi ordered. She felt fine. Her upgrades easily compensated for the physical stress. Her muscles had been developing since week one and now she was much stronger when she’d arrived. She wondered how long it would take before she could give Chengmedu a run for his money.
Buckingarra shook his head and muttered beneath his breath as he dug out his canteen and splashed water all over his face. She wanted to caution him with the water as they were only allowed refills at sanctioned intervals. But she also wanted him to learn a lesson. She was starting to think there was only one way people like Buckingarra learned.
Instructor Ali soon appeared, cajoling the slow squads, as she spotted the momentarily halted Bravo Two Zero she jogged up to them. The expression she wore tsked at them.
“Does Bravo Two Zero want to quit after only five hundred meters? Please, don’t feel obliged to participate in this exercise. Things are only going to get much tougher as Selection progresses.” She looked around inquiringly. Her eyes settled on Buckingarra. “Quit now, please.” He entire postured conveyed the unsaid word: losers.
Buckingarra shook his head. “Instructor, I’m all the way.” He growled and then jogged, leaving the three members of Bravo Two Zero standing there staring after him.
“Buckingarra Freeman, you get back in line, that’s an order,” Saradi shouted after him. He kept plodding along pretending he didn’t hear.
Saradi thought she caught a smile on Instructor Ali’s face as she went to another squad who had decided to take a breather. Ali’s pressing my buttons on purpose, testing my leadership skills, she realized.
We’ve only gone five hundred meters, she thought watching the other squads pass by. The snow was pockmarked with the marching steps of recruits. Never in her life had one point five kloms feel like such a herculean feat.
“We’re thirty minutes in,” Peng said. “The cut-off was fifteen minutes.”
Saradi didn’t see how it could be possible to finish the run in fifteen minutes. Could she see the members of Bravo Two Six right up at the top near the red cuboid form of Ganmi?
“C’mon, keep on going. We can do it,” Saradi said. She pushed Peng and Yoriko the entire way. “We’re nearly there,” she repeated.
The pain from the incline, and the exertion of continually pulling their feet from the sucking snow, took all of their effort.
Saradi hauled Peng and Yoriko the final ten meters, using all of her strength to keep pushing. She gritted her teeth, told them to stop being weak, to try harder, whatever came to mind. Her tendons strained as they spotted the finish line ribboned across the snow. Ganmi floated a meter behind the finish line.
“Arrgh!” Saradi shouted as all three of them collapsed over the finish line. Ganmi bobbed up and down and she flashed a beaming smile to Peng. They weren’t the last squad, Saradi realized. Buckingarra made it before them. His face looked haggard and drawn as he used his rifle to support him.
Saradi growled at Buckingarra. He’d disobeyed her. He’d spoken out of turn. She needed to get him under control or he would jeopardize their already slim chance of surviving Selection. What do you mean? a voice in her head said. It’s not as if you’re going to pass Selection.
We’re going to pass, she told it. “We are going to pass,” she sai
d out loud.
Yoriko held Saradi’s sleeve. Saradi realized she’d walked towards Buckingarra.
“Sara, not here, do it back in the barracks,” said Yoriko.
Peng lay on the snow his cheeks puffy and red. He pushed himself to his elbow and looked on with interest.
“Let go of me, Yoriko,” Saradi said, whipping her hand away. She strode toward Buckingarra and raised her fist when Instructor Ali spoke.
“Feet!” Instructor Ali shouted.
“Feet,” the recruits replied, half of them lurching to their feet from lying on the snow.
Buckingarra had just risen when Saradi’s comet took him across the lower jaw. His face twisted and he staggered but amazingly kept his feet.
“What the heck?” Buckingarra screamed.
“Don’t ever disobey a direct order,” Saradi said.
“We were coming freaking last,” he said lumbering towards her, and then quick as a flash he jabbed.
Saradi reacted instantly. She watched the fist go past and then she rammed her knee into his ribs. He grunted and still didn’t fall. It felt like hitting a wall. Up came her elbows and down went the red tear across his forehead. He threw a hook. She ducked and countered with a left and right jab. He swayed on his feet and then toppled to the ground. Out cold.
Saradi wasn’t even breathing hard. The adrenaline flowed and everything came clear. When she turned every single recruit stared back at her.
Instructor Ali walked towards the curled form of Buckingarra and toed him gently. He groaned. She said, “Take five, recruit. And then re-join your squad.” Everybody lined up in line again, holding their mock LR4s across their chests.
“Too slow,” the two words sent shivers down the recruits’ spines. Several of them went into position to churn out burpees. Saradi squeezed her eyes hoping those words wouldn’t come out of Instructor Ali’s mouth.
“We already spoke in week one about time. What is it you don’t understand about fifteen minutes? It means a quarter of an hour. It means fifteen sixty-second intervals.” She spoke these last two statements slowly as if enunciating to a child.
Instructor Ali’s eyes met Chengmedu’s. “Only a single squad managed to meet the cut-off time. I suggest you watch and learn from Bravo Two Six.” She paused. “You shall repeat this drill, running back down to the start. Then you will take no rest and you will run back up here. You will only stop on my command. Understood?”
“Instructor, understood!”
“Begin!” Instructor Ali shouted.
“Oorah!”
Instructor Ali kept them at the exercise for eight hours. She allowed them only the briefest of breaks to rehydrate. Saradi lost count how many times she fell during the squad exercise; balancing the LR4 was more difficult than she’d expected.
Now, Saradi and the rest of the recruits lay on the snow like a decimated battalion. The night sky, clogged with pollution, was a dark roiling black.
They were so hot they didn’t care about the cold. They wanted to plunge their entire faces into the snow. Whatever AAEDEF did to generate the snowflakes had been switched off and replaced with a light pattering of rain.
“Feet,” shouted Instructor Ali.
“Feet,” chorused the reply peppered with coughs and sneezes as they all stood up on shaky feet.
Saradi dreaded the next words to come out of Instructor Ali’s mouth and positioned herself to drop down for burpees, push-ups, or sit-ups.
“Attention,” shouted Instructor Ali. Behind the woman, across the vast mountain peak, Saradi made out the silhouette of an octocopter as it flew down. Its blinking green lights and loud noise filled the air with anticipation.
Everyone stood stock still, their backs taut, hands straight by their sides.
“Who would be coming at this time?” Peng asked.
“Somebody important,” Yoriko said.
Buckingarra had completed the drills together with Bravo Two Zero, but didn’t say anything the entire time. Saradi knew she had some serious patching to do. She’d had to confront him, but she’d probably made it worse by taking him down in front of everyone. I should’ve listened to Yoriko’s wise counsel, she thought.
The octocopter paused, hovering a hundred feet over them. A dark form jumped out and landed with a heavy thump in the snow. Saradi knew immediately it had to be somebody important. It took some serious upgrades to withstand a hundred foot jump. Possibly level ten upgrades.
“General Rangi Topeora,” said Instructor Ali, as the octocopter flew away.
The soldier’s face melted out of the dark to reveal a weather worn face that seemed carved out of bronze and granite. The artificial snow illuminated the area like moonlight. The woman sported a braid that didn’t seem to move. She wasn’t tall, nor short. She wasn’t wide nor narrow. Even her voice when she spoke was quiet, but every single person in attendance strained their ears.
“At ease Class 108. How are you all doing?” General Topeora asked.
Chengmedu replied. “Rough and ready, General.”
Saradi wanted to roll her eyes at the false bravado. It would’ve been impressive if Chengmedu didn’t look like he was about to collapse. Even Saradi felt like she’d been put through the wringer. The difference between the others and Saradi was that her recovery time was ten times faster.
“Tired, General,” said Tomas Arson of Bravo Two Five.
“Dead tired, General,” echoed Quirita Singh of Zulu One One.
Many others nodded. They probably all felt the same way.
“Selection takes its toll,” the general said. “But we have to be sure we’re sending the best. Your lives will be in each other’s hands. We brutally weed out the weak. The toughest ones for us to let go are the ones who try but just don’t have that SOHIC trait. We need to be good in the air; some people can’t overcome their fears.” She held her hands in front of her. Unlike Instructor Ali the general didn’t hide her face behind dark shades. Her genuine smiled was tinged with reflection as she said, “Once, I was afraid of the air.”
Saradi found herself smiling back.
“It is week three day three. Another two weeks and you’ll be half way through Selection. Everyone asks me for advice on passing Selection. And I always give the same answer. Take each day, separate it into tasks, and focus on each task. Think of nothing else except that which is before you, and you may pass Selection. Those recruits who think too far ahead, who focus on there being ten weeks of this hell — they rarely make it.”
They stood silent in the snow. Their thoughts of their hard work that day fled. Their pain momentarily forgotten. A powerful force emanated from this woman as she stood there.
“Well, I thank you for your Service. I thank every single person for their service. Every single day.” General Rangi Topeora saluted them crisply. She appeared relaxed yet her salute could have cut a black hole from where she stood. A glimmer appeared in her eyes.
She said, “The time is coming for us; our planet is dying. We are need of men and women of genuine character.” The smile that filled her face lit a fire in the recruits. Her voice boomed, “Oorah!”
“Oorah!” the voices of fifty-six recruits roared back and it was like they had been given a second life.
Later that night Saradi stood in one of the offices within SOHIC Central, waiting for Instructor Ali to walk into the room. She fidgeted, her fingers tapping and stopping, and tapping and starting again. It’s already been five minutes, she thought. Instructor Ali was never late.
At last, Saradi spied the Instructor through the transpasteel glass walls. The door opened and closed behind her with a slight hiss.
“At ease,” Instructor Ali said. “Sara, I’m going to be open and frank with you, because I think you came here for the right reason, to help us get Bheem back. Ask anyone and it’s universal, Bheem was well liked. He had an easy going personality and he worked his ass off. He had this beautiful charisma about him that he didn’t even really realize he had. Women fell for hi
m. Men wanted to hang out with him.”
It made Saradi tear up to hear her speak of Bheemasena. A sudden and deep longing for her brother shook her. She couldn’t help the tears that fell.
“Bheem joked to me once long ago that if he got stuck out there I’d have to come and rescue him,” Saradi said.
Instructor Ali smiled. She looked younger without those shades hiding her expression. The smile faded as the muscles on her neck tautened. “You’ve got to learn how to deal with problem individuals in your team without beating the shit out of them. Everything we do is recorded and I’ve just been talking with the Disciplinary Committee. They showed me a video of you beating the shit out of Buckingarra. Apparently he put in the request to SDC. Now, in days past SOHIC have had complete reign in the way we ran Selection. People died in Selection. Mostly due to student incompetence but sometimes it was our fault. Recently with some political pressure — I won’t go into it besides to say Trisdale isn’t loved — they’re taking an interest.”
Saradi shivered. Goose pimples rippled her entire body. She shook. “Instructor, please don’t say that I’ve been dismissed.”
“You haven’t,” she said. “But if you do it again you will be.” She walked forward and grabbed Saradi’s hand. “Leadership isn’t easy, Sara, and dealing with somebody like Bucki just makes it all the harder. For what it’s worth I think he’s a good individual performer. He’s immature and doesn’t think enough, but he shows glimpses of intelligence. It’s up to you to make sure his strengths overcome his weaknesses.
“Clear?”
“Clear,” Saradi said, thinking that she probably learned more about effective motherhood from Instructor Ali than her own mother. Communication and empathy, she told herself. She would give Buckingarra another go.
Chapter 21 – Key
Selection, Week 4
At the end week four the recruits were issued the SOHIC armor they would wear during battle. The four squad members of Bravo Two Zero returned to their barracks after breakfast to find the armor laid out in their rectangular, aquarium-like beds. The black armor sat at the bottom of the bed inside the gelfoam.
