As night cycle came around, I called Min Hae, Felix, Henry, and my wonderful wife into the armory. Shrift was already there.
A few people came in, bringing a gravity cart that some engineering Kuruvians had given us with drinks and food on it.
“Thanks, guys,” I said as they were all smiles, getting back to work as the cart floated between us, acting as an impromptu table.
I grabbed a bowl of goop eagerly, seeing others waiting looking at me. “Hurry up, don’t know when you’ll be eating next.” I swallowed my food and followed it with some old energy drink-tasting squeeze bottle, putting it back on the cart. They took a little longer than me to finish off their meals.
“All right, starting from my left around to the right, tell me how thing are going—split into advances, problems, and thoughts toward further advancement.” I pointed to Henry, who started.
“We’ve put people into two groups: those proficient with rifles and those not. Those who are, we’re putting through the paces of heavy weaponry as me and my people learn more about them ourselves.
“They won’t be anywhere near as proficient as I’d like but they’ll know enough to not shoot a buddy in the back. After we’re on the planet, we can pick up on training. We’re going through the basics of advancing under fire—leapfrogging it’s called. One group covers and the other advances, then they cover the first group who advance, continuing on until they reach the objective. It’s a damn workout doing it, but they’re getting better.”
“Good. Please identify those in the slower group on the command roster. Also, your lessons are your own; you are allowed to modify them as you wish. Talk with Yasu about tactics and strategy, teach the leaders and commanders, having them pass it down in the free time their people have and during training.”
Henry nodded as he was writing on his data pad.
I looked to the next person. “Min Hae.”
“We’re working on making the forum and chat room easier to use. In the meantime, we’ve put together a file from the ships we raided.” He took a breath. “Everything we’ve got so far points to the documentary and what the Kuruvians are saying being true.
“We’ve been able to capture messages between the ships’ crews, which have been interesting—especially between the captains.” His face was dark as he looked to us.
“In what way?” I asked.
“The conversations have also backed up the documentary.”
“Do you have a transcript from one?”
“Yes. This is between two low-ranking bridge crew members,” he said, finding the transcript before narrating it.
The raid on Chaleel should be good. I overhead Captain Welick talking to Captain Quiart. We should be making six figures off of this.
Yeah but we’ll be lucky to see a tenth of that.
At least we’re not slaves. We’ll probably lose half of them from accidents or fighting and all the while they’ll be thinking that they’re killing terrorists.
Means more money for us. Don’t have to split with them. All we have to do is watch.
Min Hae cleared his throat. “They go on for some time, swapping war stories. We’ve checked them against the history we have so far and it confirms our worries.”
“Definitively?”
“Yes, but we’re going to need more than this to get people motivated. Even after the documentary, more than one shrugged it off. These people want to survive, though with taking Chaleel we can get access to a wealth of information. With that, we can show the rest what is really going on and hopefully get them motivated into doing something about it.”
I nodded my agreement.
“Make sure that information goes to the leaders and commanders, Henry.”
Henry and Min Hae leaned toward each other, swapping notes.
“Very well then. Felix, what do you have?”
“We think we’ve got a way to stop the kill switch,” Felix said. People perked up, looking first to him and then me.
“Think?” I asked, not thrilled by the use of the word.
“Well, the kill switch is a gas-operated system, five slugs positioned around the neck that, once activated, the pressurized gas will detonate the slugs, effectively severing the head and then proceeding to bounce through the Mecha until its kinetic energy is stopped.”
“Ouch.” I grimaced.
“Yes, ouch. You can’t hack the remote switch or it goes off. Removing it or tampering with the housing it—again, goes off.”
“Why not just deactivate it when we’re not in Mechas?” Yasu asked. Henry and Min Hae gave agreeing nods as well as studying glances.
I waved to Felix. I knew the reason but he could explain it a lot better than I could.
“If we’re in a battle situation, we won’t have the time. Plus, we don’t know if they will alert the Syndicate or not.”
“When do you think we can start putting them into the Mechas?”
“Well, supplies are an issue, plus, fabricating all of these takes time. I suggest an excursion on 3247.” He looked at me, making the statement a question.
“Sounds good to me. We’ll keep everyone on the lookout for the necessary materials and machines. Put it on the forum as well as lists for their HUDs. Make sure all of the other ships know.”
“Yes, sir.” He pulled his data pad out.
“Make sure that’s only put on after everyone’s seen the video though.”
“How sure are we about the security of the chat network, forums and such?”
“Well...” My pad vibrated as I pulled it out.
It’s secure, and any work that happens inside this armory I can cover up.
-R
“It’s secure, as well as all activities within this armory. As such, Felix and Min Hae, I want you to keep all work inside the armory. Don’t even talk about what you’re doing unless it’s in here.”
They nodded somberly as I looked to Yasu.
“Yasu?”
“I have begun with hand-to-hand training. It will take some time. There will be some effect by the time of planet fall but it’ll be minimal.”
“Can we get them fighting with plasmid weaponry more?”
“There are a few who are better suited for that than hand-to-hand. I will make separate classes.” She paused, looking at her hands before she looked at me. “Would you be able to help teach them? There are not many who are advanced enough to be teaching.”
Is she giving me a peace offering?
“I’ll try to help out as much as possible.” I nodded as I wondered how I’d fit it in. Even without needing sleep by using the Wake-Up that Shrift had, there still didn’t seem to be enough time for everything. It would be good to keep active and it looked as though trying to get away from her was not going to work.
“All right, Felix and Min Hae, have you got the lists for the people and the positions they want to take?”
They sent them to my data pad. I scanned the people and the small bio with them.
“All right, good. Here’s the sleep training information packets.” I flicked them the data packets that Resilient had supplied.
“Why are you giving them to us?” Felix asked.
“You know your people better than I do. Tell them that I’m the one running it so that you can see what they try to do when not being observed by me. It will put you in a position to see all sides of them before they start training. Plus, if I die we need other copies of the sleep training floating around. Which reminds me.” I sent more training packets to Yasu and Henry.
“That’s sleep teachings that pertain to your areas of expertise—weapons, hand-to-hand, and machinery.”
I didn’t tell them that I’d been on all three as soon as I’d found them. It was good to keep a few tricks up your sleeve.
“All right, Henry, Yasu, I’m going to need people who would suit tactical and sensors. So people with quick reflexes and good communication skills. Those for gunner positions should have amazing aim, the ability to work in a
dverse conditions and can work in a three-dimensional mind frame.”
“Maybe we should start with some null gravity training?” Henry said.
“Good thinking.” I smiled. “Basically, whoever you think is best suited for the job postings I put on the forum, put them through the training.
“From this point on, everyone will be doing sleep training. There’s just too much we don’t know to be asleep and not learning what could keep us alive in this cold bitch called space.”
They nodded, agreeing.
“Now, there will be people who will want to do other things, like someone currently in engineering will want to be a doctor and such, so work together. People are to be given equal opportunities. Suggest training to them, but they have to choose. It’s up to us to guide them into the right positions based on what we know and give them a dose of reality when they need it.”
They nodded seriously, realizing they were partly shaping people’s futures with their decisions, decisions not to be taken lightly.
“I’m going to pass on a report on what we’ve found to Iron Bok Soo and Rick Casterly and see what they say in reply. Also, get some sleep, people. And that’s an order. I’m going to need you fresh for Chaleel.”
They picked themselves up and tiredly gave their two-finger salutes, walking out of the armory and back to their quarters. Yasu led them out of the door. Any rage that she might’ve lost in taking it out on other people was clearly not enough to stop what anger she felt toward me.
Henry stayed behind, waiting for me.
“Might want to take your own advice once in a while, boss.” He nodded in the direction of Yasu.
“I’m more likely to get a shiv in my side than I am to get a hello.” I sighed.
“Best to try to fix any broken fences, talk to her and air things out.”
“You might have an idea but I’ll finish up here before I get some sleep.” I sighed as I thought of what I still had to do.
“I’ll check on the night watches.” Henry picked himself up and pushed the gravity cart in front of him.
“We have watches?”
“Yes, roving in the main areas and then stand-alone in place in main entryways. The Kuruvians were quite nervous when we started going around the hangar bay. Then Eddie gave everyone a lecture that if they touch everything, he was going to teach them how to fix what they’d broken. All the while, he was throwing cowboy boots at them. Since then, both the Kuruvians and us have been more than happy to keep to our own things and fume about his antics when he isn’t around. I wonder if he meant his lecture to bond the two groups.” He looked thoughtfully at the ceiling.
“Sounds like Eddie all right.” Shrift rubbed his head.
“Doing two things at once but don’t doubt his teaching being the hard way.” I grinned.
“You’ve met him before?” Henry said, looking to me and Shrift.
“Yes. I should really get him in on these meetings if we have any more in the future. Could you see about that, Shrift?”
“He probably won’t like it too much but I think I might be able to wrangle him into them every so often.”
“Also, see if you could get a few people working on the upgrades on the Mecha.”
“You’re lucky us Kuruvians need a quarter of the sleep you humans do.” It was his turn to look thoughtful. “Well, at least the others of your species. You seem to stay awake even more than us.” He pointed to me.
“Got to keep people on their toes.” I winked.
“All right, I’ll try to get some help with the other armorers and see if I can get some people from engineering. Eddie will probably be happy to hand me a few layabouts. Though where he’s got a shoe, I have a rail gun,” he said with an evil grin. Henry and I returned it in kind as he walked out into a maintenance shaft and through the wild maze that was the realm of the all-powerful Eddie.
“Reminds me that we need to get a complete outlay of the ships.” My data pad beeped with it. I could get used to having a ship AI.
“First, get some damned sleep, sir.”
“Sir? I was never a sir.”
“Well, you are now. You’re leading our ragtag group, which makes you a sir in my book.”
“Well, let’s see if I can actually produce before you start saying sir. Sounds weird.”
“Sure, Commander. Sleep? You’ve been awake for four days now.”
“Well then, I think that’s a new record.” I yawned. “All right, I’m going to get some sleep. Wake me up in an hour or so...” I found it hard to keep my eyes open.
“Yes, Commander. Let’s get you home.” With a guiding hand, he brought me to my door.
“Thanks, Henry.”
“No problem, boss.”
As I walked in, I heard him talking to someone.
“No one is to disturb him until I say so, understood?”
“Yes, Commander!” I heard Henry growl as the door closed behind me.
I basked in the dark, my eyes finally resting. The lights came on with blinding brightness.
“OH GOD! TURN THEM OFF!” I yelled as the lights quickly turned off.
“Damn!” I felt my head pounding from the assault on my eyes. I lay down, finding my pillow missing.
“You got a pillow?” One sailed out of the darkness with an oompf.
“Thanks, Yasu,” I muttered. I lay down comfortably as the Wake-Up wore off. I quickly passed out.
I woke up and pulled my data pad from its pouch on my back. Seeing the time, I jumped up with a start, pulling down reports and scanning through them. The door opened and I found a team outside my door in their Mechas, which gave me a start as they saluted me. I returned it quickly, my face becoming a mask, making it appear as if I expected two Mechas standing guard outside my door. I made my way to the mess and grabbed a few tubes. It was the same as the goop we ate in training but in squeezable packets.
Many agreed it was an improvement just because it made eating them faster.
The armory had quickly become our command center and where I practically lived. The other armories were being used to refit the Mechas with the kill switch disabler. It was a terrible name, I know.
I moved on out to the hangar where groups of Mechas were in their suits, using weaponry from pistols to heavy crew serviced plasma and bead cannons. Others were going through a series of movements that depicted wielding a sword and fighting hand-to-hand.
I walked around, talking to people here and there, looking as if I knew what they meant about plasma blow-off and heat relay replacers.
“Your wife’s training has helped immensely. People’s coordination has improved and we’re now nearly as good as you and your squad were,” one woman said as I saw a gleam of worship in her eyes.
I smiled, making a comment about how she was great at training people, before I moved off.
Great, now the Mechas like her. They complimented her more, and I moved on to the melee weapons and hand-to-hand teachers.
Again, I saw the glow of worship in these people’s eyes.
“Oh yes, your wife said that you’d be able to help with the more advanced fighters. She did tell us to make sure you keep to one fighting style.”
I scratched my head awkwardly. “Aish. All right, which style was she using?”
“Ninjitsu with the revolutionary moves. As well as Mecha adapted ones.”
“She would go with the ones she came up with.” I sighed. “All right, I’ll grab my Mecha.”
I quickly did so, having them go through what they’d already learned. I was surprised to see how much they’d improved in such a short time. They also had a healthy determination to learn more, which was what I needed more than anything.
In most games, and even the military on Earth, fighting with melee weapons and hand-to-hand was seen as wasteful when people could be training with weapon systems and adapting to the hardware. Now, in close quarters and possibly on a ship, we didn’t want a rogue round going through a hull or a fusion core. So hand-to-hand
had again become a much desired skill.
“All right, stop. This is as painful to watch as I would expect stabbing myself in the eyes with a pair of blunt knives would be! Yes, you’re following the moves, but that’s it. You aren’t using the Mecha’s power to make those hits hit like a freight train, or spinning and flipping so fast you can hit an enemy before they’ve completed their attack.
“Today I want you to fight by landing the most damage on a target. Hammer them down—don’t piss on them! Again!” I had them run through it, stopping them again shortly afterward.
“All right, watch this.” I threw a flurry of slashes, a combination of attacking and parrying or blocking moves as fast as my Mecha could move. My arms blurred at the incredible speed as the Mecha moved as fast as my brain could think. I followed up a stabbing motion with a low kick, then a skip and a high kick. My leg snapped out as the servos screeched. I came back rolling, turning the momentum into a spinning kick then flipping myself to my feet again, going through blocks and attacks.
I finished, my breathing a little hard as my Mecha and battle suit cooled me off and kept me oxygenated. I took off my helmet as I got close to them.
“Fighting is about killing or incapacitating the other bastard. Use everything at your disposal: your Mecha’s power, their own momentum, and your training. Your blade is an extension of yourself. You shouldn’t need to look where it is—you should know. We’ll continue with more advanced moves and into holds later. First, I want to see you able to do what you know with your Mecha at one hundred percent,” I said with finality, my eyes like turrets as I scanned the group in front of me who said resoundingly:
“Yes, Sensei.”
Great, she even had them using Japanese terms. I growled internally. I have to work with what I’ve got.
“I’m sorry, I must be FUCKING DEAF. I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” I put a gauntleted hand next to my ear, turning it in a show to clear it.
“Yes, Sensei!”
“What is the purpose of an Armored Marine Commando?”
“What?” one of the teachers asked as I mentally kicked myself. I’d been thinking of a name for the Mechas other than, well, Mechas. I’d landed on Armored Marine Commandos. I was going to announce it later but a combination of lack of sleep and adrenaline had worked it out of me.
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