Hunt then added, “My men and I will be able to teach you a lot, Adam, but the most important thing you will need to learn is how to adjust to change. When I was growing up, my dad told me an old saying: ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.’ It was said a very long time ago by a famous boxer at the time. You will see when you go into combat that no plan survives first contact. When the blaster bolts start to fly, the only thing that matters is killing the enemy as quickly and efficiently as possible to accomplish the mission and keep your people alive.”
The machine didn’t nod or say anything in response to what Hunt had just said, at least not right away. His soft blue light continued to move from right to left across where human eyes would normally be. Finally, Adam asked, “Will I be accompanying you personally into combat?”
Before anyone else could respond, Royce explained, “That depends, Adam, on how long it will take to get you ready for combat and how we’re going to integrate the C100s into our military units. Personally, I hope I’m able to take you into combat with me; there’s a lot I want to teach you in hopes that what knowledge I pass down to you will be passed along to the other C100s.”
Dr. Walburg had a broad smile on his face as he saw the interaction between his creation and the soldier he had been built to help. It made him feel exceptionally fulfilled to see Adam really taking on a life of his own.
“Adam, in the coming weeks, you will learn much from Lieutenant Royce and other soldiers like him,” Dr. Walburg explained. “Right now, while we have the admiral here with us, I’d like you to demonstrate some of your skills for us. Can you begin by showing everyone some of your combat skills?”
For the next hour, Adam ran through a series of drills, demonstrating what he could do. What everyone seemed to find most interesting, though, was Adam’s ability to ask questions and hold a conversation. For the military men, this was important. The Zodarks were a unique enemy, one that would learn over time how to fight them and eventually win. If the combat Synths were going to be effective, then they needed to have that same ability to learn and adapt to the changes in the way the Zodarks fought.
When the demonstrations inside the building had been completed, they prepared to head out to the range. The Deltas had helped Walburg’s engineers build a shoot house and urban tactical course, and it was time to test Adam’s skills.
*******
Range 5 – Shoot House
Lieutenant Brian Royce finished attaching the rest of his equipment on his exoskeleton combat suit and then did a quick double-check of the sim rifle. The sim rifles were exact replicas of their M85 advanced infantry assault rifles, with the exception that they didn’t fire lethal rounds. Since the op-four or opposition force was going to consist of a company of regular army soldiers, they needed to use the sim rifles.
The platoon of soldiers suiting up with Royce looked skeptically at Adam. This was the first time any of them had worked with a C100. To say they were a little anxious about working with an automated killing machine was an understatement, given what had happened during the last Great War.
Royce saw their hesitation. “Listen up, guys. Adam here,” Royce said, pointing to him, “will be accompanying us on this exercise to prove androids can function as a bona fide member of a Delta team. I want you guys to treat Adam just like a regular team member. This exercise will test his ability to work as one of us and not just a single situation operator. This is also a chance for us to show off our skills and ability directly to Admiral Bailey, so don’t screw it up or Captain Hopper will have us cleaning toilets on our trip back to New Eden.”
Some of the soldiers laughed while a few others grumbled. They got the not so subtle message—don’t make Royce or the captain look bad in front of the brass.
“Second squad, you’re going to HALO into the village at this location. As you descend, you need to be zapping guards on the roof and anywhere else you can find them before you land on the ground. Once down, reform and move to the building holding the hostages.”
The squad leader and his fireteam leaders nodded in acknowledgment.
“Third squad, you’ll be doing the exact same thing as second squad, except you’ll be on the opposite side of the village, here.” Royce used a pointer to highlight the section on the map the squad would be hitting. “Once you guys are on the ground, clear this section of the village from any possible hostile. Once second squad has the hostages, you’re going to need to help cover their exfil from the village.”
Royce turned to fourth squad, which was traditionally his heavy weapons squad, mortars, and anti-armor weapons. For this mission, they were suiting up to be extra shooters. “Fourth squad is going to assault the main compound with Adam and first squad to take out the enemy commander. This is going to be a tough position to assault because you can bet those RA guys are going to have it locked down tight. They’ll be itching to prove to the brass watching in the stands that they are just as good as us. Well, let’s show them why they aren’t.”
That last comment got a lot of laughs and snide comments from the Special Forces guys. The rivalry between the two factions was alive and well.
With their mission brief over, the operators filed out of the team room and made their way over to the hangars with the Ospreys. While they could pack the platoon into a single bird, they were saddling up in four different ones so they could hit their objective from multiple vantage points.
Forty minutes later, the craft carrying Lieutenant Royce and first squad made a tight left turn and suddenly dropped altitude rapidly. The pilot came on over their HUDs telling them what was going on. “We’re circling in on the objective. Intelligence says this will be a hot insertion, so expect resistance immediately.”
The operators grinned and fist bumped each other. They loved a good fight, and this was gearing up to be just that. While his human counterparts psyched themselves up for what was about to happen, Adam just sat there, his blue light sliding from right to left.
The Osprey made another tight turn. This time the chin gun opened fire on some unseen targets, firing their own simulator stun rounds. The pilot came on over their HUDs again. “We’re almost to the drop zone. You need to get ready to jump, because I’m not sticking around.”
Royce stood up, his magnetic boots helping hold him to the floor as he walked towards the rear of the craft. The crew chief was lowering the ramp so they could jump. As Royce neared the edge, he could see the small town that constituted the range, where two hundred and twenty RA soldiers were hunkered down, ready to carry out their roleplay for this combat training scenario.
The Osprey slowed its descent a bit and leveled out. The jump light turned from red to green, telling them it was time to jump. Without any hesitation, Royce ran forward and jumped out the back of the ramp. His HUD told him he was roughly a hundred feet above the ground. The automated targeting reticle was already identifying hostiles for him to engage as his body fell toward the earth below.
Out of his peripheral vision, Royce saw Adam hit the ground before him. The combat Synth had his rifle up and was engaging targets at an astounding rate. He wasn’t firing wantonly either; he was hitting hostiles with the accurate precision only a machine could or highly trained individual could achieve.
In seconds, Adam was off at a trot as he moved to a covered position, his rifle tucked in his shoulder, firing the entire time. Steadily, he took defender after defender out.
As Royce continued his fall to earth, he brought his rifle up to engage the hostile targets. The green targeting reticle danced across his HUD until he managed to synch it up to the red one denoting a hostile. Royce squeezed the trigger several times, sending stun rounds flying toward the RA soldiers.
Several of the rounds slammed into one man’s body, who clutched at his chest as the electricity coursed through his body, causing him to collapse to the ground, spasming. The stun rounds wouldn’t kill him, but they sure did sting.
By the time Royce had hit the ground,
he and the rest of his squad were moving rapidly to catch up with Adam as he trailblazed a path ahead of him. Royce saw an RA soldier with a heavy blaster try to lay into Adam. Dozens of blaster bolts set to stun flew toward the combat Synth. To Royce’s amazement, Adam demonstrated his incredible agility as he deftly dodged the string of shots, moving at incredible speeds. Adam’s large but agile frame then rolled to one side while still firing his rifle as he slid into a new covered position.
Royce and another one of his squadmates locked eyes for a second and shook their heads in amazement. They’d never seen anything like it.
Suddenly, a platoon of RA soldiers appeared from a couple of alleyways and windows of some buildings from further away. Their appearance caught Royce and his squad by surprise.
I thought we’d just cleared that area, Royce thought, trying to remain calm. They were only a hundred meters from the building where the high-value targets were hidden.
“I’m hit!” screamed one of Royce’s guys as he went down hard on the ground, convulsing from the stun rounds.
Looking to his right, Royce saw two more of his guys go down. Damn, that’s three we’ve lost.
He switched over to the platoon net. “Fourth squad, I need you to shift fire over to sector K and assist first squad. We’re pinned down by what appears to be a platoon element in the buildings opposite our position. Second squad, I need a SITREP on the hostage recovery.”
Royce could see from the blue force tracker that second and third squad had just entered the building with the hostages. They appeared to have a wide perimeter set up around the place, so they’d cleared the area of hostiles.
“Lieutenant, we’ve recovered the hostages. Second squad is working to exfil them now to the extraction site. Do you want me to send third squad your direction to help you guys out?” asked Royce’s platoon sergeant, who was overseeing that part of the mission. Third squad had a second C100 with them. They wanted to test the synths ability to function in a hostage rescue role as well as the direct-action role where Adam was playing his part. Hostage rescue required a lot more fire discipline, so one of the hostages wouldn’t mistakenly get killed.
“Yes, that’d be a good idea,” Royce answered. “I want them to try and gain entry to the building from sector L. We’ll continue to draw the enemy’s fire over here—that should give you guys the opportunity you need to make it happen on your end. Out.”
Royce and his squad continued to lay down covering fire while third squad lined up against the building to breech it. Adam’s aim was incredibly accurate—his covering fire did more than just keep the enemy’s heads down—he took out defender after defender.
Smash! Bang!
Royce heard the door being smashed in, followed by the flashbang. Third squad would clear one room at a time until they found the high-value target and eliminated them.
Zip. A stun round narrowly missed Adam. He always seemed to move in the last fraction of a second. Royce was actually starting to feel a bit jealous.
Moments later, the whole exercise was over. The HVI had been taken down, and the building had been cleared of RA soldiers.
The feeds from the drones must have impressed the higher-ups. “Good job, guys,” Admiral Bailey told them over their platoon net. “Beers and burgers are on me tonight.”
Royce and the rest of his squad cheered. Everyone liked free grub and drinks.
When everyone had recovered from their celebration, all the Deltas were interviewed on how they thought the C100 performed. The engineers wanted to know everything. From how did the android function as a team member to an individual shooter. They would review the footage of every soldier involved in the training exercise to the two C100s, but nothing beat an honest assessment from the soldiers who would be fighting with them.
The Republic Army soldiers thought the C100s were terrifying—they were hard to kill and they could fire back at them so rapidly that they lost a lot of their numbers very quickly. The Deltas loved them because they operated like a 20-year Delta veteran with how fast and smooth they moved. The human soldiers provided their own insights into what could make them operate better, but in general, they loved the combat tool.
The brass was convinced. Now it would just be a matter of drilling them some more with their military counterparts and putting them into full production. “I think we just found our new ace in the hold to fight the Zodarks with if the war ever becomes a ground battle,” said Admiral Bailey.
********
Earth, Sol
John Glenn Station
“It feels strange spending Christmas in orbit like this,” Hunt’s son, Ethan, commented to everyone as they sat in the family room of Hunt’s quarters.
“Yeah, I suppose it is. I wish we could have celebrated Christmas down at our home in Florida,” Hunt replied wistfully. Going to the beach on Christmas and New Year’s Day had become a Hunt family tradition over the many years they’d lived in the tropical climate.
“Why are you and Mom staying up here?” Ethan pressed. “Aren’t you still waiting on your ship to be completed?”
Hunt admired the small Christmas tree in the family room. He breathed in deeply as if he could breathe in Christmas and hold this family time in his heart like a time capsule. He turned back to his son. “Most of the work Admiral Bailey has me doing these days is taking place up here, at least until my new ship is completed,” he explained.
His son fell silent for a moment as he looked down at his feet. Hunt’s wife gave him a prodding look, which he knew to mean that he should say something about his son’s next assignment. Ethan was going to finish his last round of training in a few weeks. Most of his classmates were starting to get assignments, but Ethan hadn’t received one yet.
Hunt groaned, more to himself than anyone else. Then, speaking just loud enough for his son to hear him, he said, “Ethan, follow me back to my office. Let’s talk.”
Hunt got up and made his way to the working office he spent a lot of his time in these days. His son followed him in and they both took a seat in the chairs in front of his desk. It felt awkward, like that obligatory talk a father and son have about the birds and the bees, but it needed to happen anyway.
Looking at his son, Hunt asked, “What do you want to do with your career in Space Command?”
Ethan sized him up before he responded, “Ultimately, I want to be a ship captain like you.”
Hunt smiled proudly at the idea of his son following in his footsteps. At the same time, he felt obligated to warn his son of the road ahead. “You know, it took me nearly twenty-six years before I commanded my first warship,” he said. “And I lost that warship along with more than half of its crew after only having it for a few years.”
Ethan squirmed in his seat. “I know, Dad. I mean, long-term, that’s what I want—I want to command my own starship like you. I know I’ll have to work through the ranks and all, and I’m willing to do that. I just want a chance.”
Hunt got up and walked over to his desk. He opened one of the drawers and pulled out a couple of tumblers and a bottle of fine Scottish whiskey. Hunt poured the two of them a drink and placed them on the desk in front of their chairs. Then he sat back down.
“Before you give me a speech, Dad, I know Mom has probably asked you to try to pull some strings to get me a safe desk job here in Sol, or worse, in Alpha Centauri. But that’s not what I want,” Ethan insisted. “I don’t want any favoritism. I want to be treated just like the others in my graduating class. I’ll take a regular assignment to whatever ship requires a new officer.” Ethan had a defiant look in his eye.
Hunt sighed, reached for his shot glass and downed it. He winced slightly as the alcohol burned its way down to his belly. “Look, Ethan, I can’t get you assigned to my new ship. There’s no way Space Command will go for it. A father and son can’t serve on the same ship, especially when the father is the ship’s commander. So, that leaves us with a couple of options: I can get you assigned to Admiral Bailey’s staff, whi
ch would give you some incredible staff experience most officers would kill to get, or I can get you an assignment to a starship. A starship is going to place you in harm’s way with the coming battles. We’re going to be fighting the Zodarks again, and I have no idea if or how we’ll survive the coming battles. Which would you prefer?”
Hunt wanted to offer his son some options, not just a take-it-or-leave-it choice.
“If I wanted to serve on a starship, could I get an assignment to one of the new battleships being built?” Ethan asked eagerly.
Hunt sat back in his chair and thought about that for a moment. The last thing he wanted was for his son to be stationed on one of the fleet’s new battleships. They were destined for combat, and many of them were probably not going to survive. Then an idea formed in his head.
Leaning forward, Hunt asked, “What if I could get you assigned to something better than a battleship?”
Now Ethan looked intrigued. “What could possibly be better than being assigned to a battleship?”
Hunt smiled as he reached for his tablet. “You’re an officer now with a security clearance. I want to show you something; it’s classified, but soon everyone will know about it.”
He then turned the holographic display unit on, and an image of the new class of frigates appeared. It was small, nimble, and sleek. Ethan smiled when he saw it, and Hunt knew he had found a safe way for his son to still serve and not be in direct combat.
“What is that? I haven’t seen or even heard of this new ship,” Ethan commented as he looked on at the floating image in front of them. He then thumbed through some of the ship specs to the right of the image and read through them.
“This, Ethan, is going to be one of the most important ships for the future of humanity. We’re calling them Vipers. They’re going to be our eyes and ears for the fleet. They’re our newest reconnaissance ship. I’m going to tell you something you can’t repeat to anyone else, got it?” Hunt asked as his eyes narrowed. He was giving his son that look that said he’d be a lot of trouble if he didn’t listen to him.
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