Welcome to the Marines (Corporate Marines Book 2) (15 page)

They are doing all the wrong things.

I unsling my rifle and load it. I have two grenades and that is it. No one has any medium or heavy weapons, just rifles and a basic ammo load.

“Soldier, what do you think you are doing?” The major and the command team are watching me while I re-sling my weapon. The lander is much closer and is disgorging some sort of other specs. There are four more landers coming in behind it in line.

“I’m loading and getting ready to face that, sir.” I point over his head at the closing lander and dots. The sergeant major looks as well and frowns.

“Okay, soldier, you are young and have just been through a lot. We are
not
engaging anyone. We will begin conducting domestic operations and provide what support we can after those earthquakes did all this damage. So unload and get ready to really help.”

I blink and then more information flows into my brain and I understand. The military has not been involved in any real conflict for years. Just peacekeeping and assistance to civilian authorities. There is no “warrior culture” in North America at this time.

The sergeant major speaks up. “Sir, I think the private may have something. That is a spaceship and it looks like it has just launched assault ships.” Luckily that the senior NCO of the company is a combat vet. More info flows into my brain. She is a combat vet, as the sim provided her.

Then the signaller speaks up. “Sir, comms are out. There is a lot of interference from whatever happened, but we are also being jammed. I can’t reach anyone, even in the company, sir.”

The major finally looks at the lander and then looks at the sergeant major. She nods affirmative to him. He slowly starts. “Very well, sergeant major, deploy the company. Signaller, send runners by fire team to the other four companies at their last reported locations. Tell them to run. If this is an attack, we will deal with it. If not, we can help the survivors soonest.”

Everyone starts moving and the company slowly starts gathering into some sort of formation and taking cover in the wreckage.

I see Corporal Gorder with a gash in his armour. He is grinning and has already loaded his weapon. Most of the rest of the troops have not done that yet, but are starting to as the sergeant major yells.

“Well, newb, I guess we are being invaded by aliens. I wonder if they are green with tentacles?”

The first assault ship passes low overhead and starts dropping cases.

None of us are firing as we are not under contact and this age’s Rules of Engagement are clear.

The major starts and moves from his sort of cover. “I wonder if they are dropping aid packages for the victims?”

A captain starts moving toward the closest case. “I’ll check what’s in it, sir.”

These people are idiots.

The first lander is coming in for a proper touchdown in the distance and it looks really big. As it hits the ground, all the cases suddenly start transforming. They expand and open into short bipedal humanoid robots with laser rifles. The laser is a very old design and likely very weak. It is attached by an umbilical to the robot’s side.

The captain is just staring at the robot, which stares back. Before he can move, the robot fires and cuts him almost in half. His screams are cut off as he hits the ground almost in two pieces.

I take a knee and start firing into the torso of the robot. After the eighth round, it drops after I finally penetrate its chest. I am no more than eight meters from the robot and that’s the best my weapon can do?

Most of the company is slow to react and only a few are putting effective fire on the targets. It appears that marksmanship is not a strong point, but some of the robots are falling. Just not fast enough.

I continue engaging the closest robots, and every time I need almost ten rounds to drop one with all my rounds on target. I am already down two mags and only have six left.

The robots are all finally transformed and begin engaging the company, and the screams start as they are cut down. Some try to run, but the robots are everywhere and cut them down with short bursts of laser fire.

Corporal Gorder and a few others are doing well and the immediate area is clear of the killers at the moment. They appear to concentrate on what is closest first and then move on. Whatever processors they are running are not very high-powered, or they are still learning.

I see the lander opening as the front pivots down and more robots march out, and then I see what appear to be vehicles moving behind them. Great.

Corporal Gorder throws me someone’s ammo pouches. “Hey, newb, they aren’t going to need it and you seem to be doing pretty good. Fucker took a full mag for me to drop. We are so screwed.”

Behind him I see one of the robots using short bursts and cutting down humans around them. Men, women, children, it does not care. It just engages each target and moves on.

They are grouping up into squads and starting to advance. I see the little piece of green grass with the jungle gym and maybe twenty kids hiding on the ground, crying and screaming but too scared to run away.

One of the squads of robots is heading for them. I start moving and realize that Gorder is with me. I am yelling for them to get up and run, but they just lie there crying.

Weapon up and pop, pop, pop. Half a magazine gone thanks to firing on the move and one drops. Gorder is firing as well and manages to drop another. Then the other five spread out and bring their weapons out. I can’t use a grenade as it is too close to the kids. I hear myself screaming. The robots start shooting the running people first.

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 position 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.