R.A.E.C.E. Genesis

by Geoffrey C Porter

The second read, "Suicidal. Recommend long term managed care.

  The third read, "High probability of disobeying orders, recommend rear line assignment, if any."

  All of this made Jack pause. He paged Wilson. Who answered, "Hi, Jack."

  "Colonel, I have a recruit that has psychiatric black marks on her record, recommending her for rear line assignment. She wants to be on the front line."

  "You can put her on the front line. It's up to your discretion. You have black marks on your record."

  Jack paused to think. "When can I see them?"

  Wilson smiled. "I hear you can see your own file once you make General."

  Jack asked, "You can see my file though, can't you?"

  "Yes. Had I followed their initial recommendations, you wouldn't have stayed in Fleet."

  "Ok, sir, I know what I have to do."

  "Just remember, some of those people you take under your command are going to die. The more you can inspire in them that survival and winning are what matters, the better."

  Jack signed off with Wilson and paged Sarah's quarters. Rob answered, "Hello?"

  Before Jack could speak, Rob jerked to attention, saluted, and shouted, "Hello, sir! I was just helping Sarah move furniture."

  Jack smiled, thinking to himself, I wasn't born yesterday. He showed pity on Rob and simply said, "At ease, Private. Can you get Sarah for me?"

  Sarah came up to the terminal and asked, "Lieutenant?"

  "Sarah, are you sure front line duty is something you want? Orion does need defenders…"

  Sarah's face tightened up and turned pale as a death mask. "You have to ask me that?"

  Jack said, "No, I guess I don't really…"

  "You're cutting me, aren't you? This is 'cause of that psych eval isn't it?"

  "Why, don't you think the psych eval was fair?"

  "All that happened is I took two white pills and some fruit drink and then woke up four hours later on a couch!"

  "Yeah, they're fun aren't they? No, I'm not cutting you. You're in."

  Rob perked up. "What about me, bossman?"

  "You're in, too."

  * * *

  Jack did cut a few trying to pick the best of the best. Wilson outlined Jack's training duties. In the morning he would fight a mock hover tank battle then in the afternoon he'd fight battles with his troops in armored suits. The hover tanks would fly the obstacle course in the afternoons, and the infantry would run computer generated battles in the morning. Jack learned to fight in an armored suit. It fit like a glove, and you aimed its Gatling blaster with the right arm and the grenade launcher with the left.

  The suit's sensors worked to about one hundred meters. Anything in sensor range could be automatically targeted with precision. The Gatling gun's zoom site worked well up to a kilometer. The grenade launcher was a formidable addition to the suit with a maximum range of two hundred meters, a laser range finder, and auto inclination mechanism.

  Their first day of training landed on a Monday, and Jack spent the morning fighting a mock battle with the hover tanks. Kevin played squad leader against him--stock fair for them. It warmed Jack's heart to be in training again. He'd taken one of Henderson's pills and didn't notice any ill results. Jack didn't look forward to fighting the other infantry in the suits, figuring he'd be taken out of the battle quickly. He jetted home in his hover and ate lunch with Lexi.

  When Jack stepped into the hangar, somebody shouted, "Officer on deck!"

  All 100 of Jack's mechanized troops stood at attention and saluted. Jack looked down the line of men and their machines and walked it, looking everyone over. A fair number of the suits bore paint, often with team colors. Wilson allowed for teams of up to five. Jack planned to continue to encourage this.

  He found nothing out of order with the troops. "At ease."

  He walked to where his suit waited, opposite the other suits. Jack turned to face the soldiers. "I'm Lieutenant Jack Grean. I'm your new commanding officer, and very likely I'll be leading you on the next offensive."

  People smiled. Jack got the impression they maybe pulled stuff about him from the Internet. News sites still carried articles about battles he fought in. He got to the point. "Today we'll fight a death match round. Teams are allowed, and last man standing wins. Even though it's our first day, we'll count kills towards your permanent records."

  Jack paused, waiting for comments or questions. Nobody spoke. Jack said, "Saddle up!"

  He stepped up to his suit and turned his back towards it. Then he stepped back into it with his left foot, then his right. He put his left hand through a shoulder joint and an elbow joint and then into a powered hand. He did the same with his right. He activated the suit, and its front armor pieces closed in around him. The helmet lowered itself from above and locked in place. The computer powered, and Jack could see everything, even around his backside, depending on which view he looked at. Jack stepped forward, disconnecting his suit from its docking station.

  Everything in Jack's cockpit read green, so Jack took off in a run towards the playing field. A few suits had a lead on him, but most hadn't suited up as fast as Jack, especially the first-timers. The suit couldn't run as fast as Jack could. He pushed his legs against the suit and tried to pace himself to its speed.

  The training field consisted of a grassy field with hills and trees here and there. A city showed up on Jack's tactical display. The computer simulated structures and walls. Jack could see the city in the distance, and he tried zooming in on it, which worked. One big video game, except being played by 101, three ton war machines.

  Jack stepped into the training grounds, and his computer displayed, "60 seconds to match start." Jack stood in the middle of the street and started to advance. He looked down both side streets and continued to advance to the center of the "city." The computer counted down to zero and spoke, "Weapons armed. Begin match."

  A red blip appeared on Jack's sensors on his left, then another one on his right. Jack paused, just waiting. The red blips started to move. Jack advanced to the next street, pointing his grenade launcher down the left street and his Gatling down the right street. Jack keyed the auto target on both weapons and held down the fire mechanism. He watched three grenades streak towards an armored suit, computer simulated explosions followed. Jack glanced right and let go of the firing switch on the blaster. His opponent was effectively dead. The computer chirped, "Mechanized suit destroyed. Mechanized suit destroyed."

  Jack's sensors showed nothing in range. Jack took the time to look around and even use his zoom sights on the streets to his left, right and ahead of him. He didn't see anybody and proceeded towards city center.

  * * *

  Sarah did her homework on the computer interfaces of her suit, and she convinced Rob to help her in the plan she cooked up. She wanted to go after Jack in the death match. As soon as she and Rob suited up, she barked at the computer, "Computer, Form Team Sarah, Members Sarah and Rob."

  Rob's computer chirped, "Join team Sarah?"

  Rob said, "Yes."

  Both computers chirped, "Team Sarah created."

  "Synchronize Sensors," Sarah said. "Lockdown communications to team only."

  Both computers chirped. "Sensors online. Communications locked."

  Rob's suit and his sensor data showed up on Sarah's screen and vice versa.

  Sarah spoke, "Let's go."

  They both took off in a run towards the practice field.

  The virtual city showed up on their maps and blue dots appeared along the front representing places for Sarah and Rob to enter the arena. Their computers counted down the seconds until the match started. They stepped onto the playing field, and the computers finished counting down. Three red blips showed up within sensor range on their maps: one to the left, one right, and one straight ahead. Buildings stood in the way of a clear shot, but within ten meters, a street cut left and right.

  "Wait," Sarah said. "Zoom ahead and try for a clear shot on the one in front."

  "There a
re trees in the way," Rob said. "He's moving away from us."

  Sarah watched the red dots on her screen, and sure enough, the forward one moved away. The left one seemed to be running down the street towards them. The right one advanced towards city center. Sarah said, "Target left, everything."

  Both suits pointed their weapons to the left as they used the auto targeting mechanism. As soon as the suit turned the corner, they opened fire, and it froze to a halt as the computer marked it as dead. Easy kill, thought Sarah.

  Sarah said, "Come on," and then started running down the street towards city center. She figured Jack would go there and kill people as they showed up. Another red blip showed on their sensors, ahead of them this time. Then two red icons swarmed it, and it blinked out. Sarah lined them up in her sights and shouted, "Fire!"

  Rob didn't need the encouragement--with one in his sights, he squeezed the trigger on the blaster.

  The enemy suits froze under their fire. Sarah and Rob started running, thinking a lot of people would be trying for the city center. With five more blocks to go, a red blip showed on their left, at the very edge of sensor range. Sarah said, "Keep running!"

  The red blip went away as they ran. They saw city center before they reached it: a park surrounded by a square road. Sarah said, "Slow," and they both slowed to a walk. Sarah could see into most of the town square, and she said, "Stop, watch the rear. When I give the word you know what to do."

  Sarah used the zoom on her gun sights and started watching the park, shifting the sights left and right. After a minute or so, the Lieutenant stepped into the park on her far right. She shouted, "Go! He's on the right!"

  Rob turned and ran straight into the park, steering to the right. Sarah lined both guns up on Jack, and she fired on full auto. Jack opened fire on Rob, but Sarah's weapons froze his suit before he could kill Rob. Rob let out this grumbling kind of low pitched laugh.

  That's when a cluster of five red icons appeared on Rob's sensors, and they cut him down. Sarah turned and ran until she got swarmed by five red blips as well. Sarah and Rob walked their suits back to the hangar. Jack waited for them. He approached Sarah and said, "You almost sacrificed Rob to get to me…"

  Sarah replied, "Yup."

  Jack just looked her up and down trying to figure out a reason. He gave up and went to his desk to view the rest of the battle.

  Jack watched as individuals and teams returned to the hangar and backed their machines up to the power stations. The armor slid open, and people stepped out of the suits. Tired, sweaty people for the most part.

  Jack watched them mill around. One guy stepped up to a crowd and said, "I'm forming a team. We'll call it the Ravens. I'll take the first four who want in."

  It took a few seconds to register on people then four of them stepped forward, and the five wandered off. Jack watched as other teams formed up. One of the last to die in the battle returned to the hangar and backed his suit up to its power station. Jack noticed the kid because he scored seven kills and happened to be the youngest on Jack's roster. The kid stepped out of his armor and approached a team of five. They looked at him, one said, "We've got five, moron."

  The kid looked down and then looked around. He saw a group of four and walked towards them. One of them caught sight of him. "No way, runt. We're waiting on someone."

  Jack thought to himself, he had a mean crew, but the kid did look young, and he could have been bigger. He was 19. The guy scored extremely well on written tests. Jack recalled his martial arts test though, and the instructor had largely waved him through.

  Jack heard Sarah whistle--pretty much everybody in the hangar heard it.

  She stared at the kid and said, "Come here, kid…"

  The kid grinned and walked up to Sarah. When he got there, she asked, "You'll follow my command?"

  This made the guy pause. He glanced at Rob, who just stood there with his arms crossed. Nodding followed. Sarah asked, "What's your name?"

  "Jeremiah…"

  The name on his uniform said, "Hawk."

  Sarah said, "Jeremiah Hawk?"

  He nodded.

  "Well, we've a new name for our team, Hawk," Sarah said. "And I think we shall call you Little Hawk."

  Jeremiah looked her dead in the eyes. "Please don't call me little."

  Sarah nodded. "We'll just call you Hawk then."

  "Ok."

  Chapter 35

  A.D. 2135

  Forward Admiral…

  When The Attrition returned to Orion, an Admiral Rodgers called Steve into his office. Rodgers cut right to the chase. "Captain Creech, your mission success rate is one of the highest in Fleet right now."

  Steve looked around himself: no coffee, no liquor, nothing. "Thank you, sir."

  "You likely aren't aware of this, but we need a new Forward Admiral. Briars is quitting. He's done."

  "No, I didn't know that. He'll be missed."

  Rodgers leaned back in his chair and put his hands together, interlocking the fingers. "We've got to replace him, and there are only a few potentials."

  "What does this have to do with me, sir? You can't possibly be considering me. I just lost two ships."

  "Our other commanders are suffering worse losses or not coming back at all. You did take out their population center and four Dreadnaughts."

  Steve thought of a question. "If we're taking all these losses, how many Lithor planets are left out there?"

  "Only four, but they're well guarded. We don't have enough firepower to go after any of them as of right now. Not and leave our reserves protecting Orion."

  "If I were Forward Admiral, how many ships would I have?"

  "Six Corvettes are ready, counting The Attrition. Six more are in production. They'll be done in four months. You'll have a good number of transport ships you'll be protecting."

  "Who all is in the running for the job?" Creech asked.

  "I really can't say. We're giving everyone a battery of tests. Whoever scores the highest will get the position."

  "I guess I'll take the tests and do the job if need be."

  * * *

  "Forward Admiral?" Julie asked.

  Steve smiled. "I'm in the running apparently."

  "There are others in the running though, so it's not a sure thing yet right?"

  "Right."

  The next day Steve started taking their tests, some intelligence tests and psych tests administered by a psychiatrist. The last day of the test he fought a battle simulation, with 12 Corvettes against 20 Dreadnaughts. Steve lost ten Corvettes but won the battle.

  Steve felt pretty good about the testing. Little did he realize, nobody else took the tests. Creech was high command's first choice. They just wanted to be sure he could pass the psych evals, and he really wanted the position by how he approached the testing.

  High command made its decision, and Admiral Rodgers informed Creech of the good news. They made Steve attend a formal ceremony, and Creech's crews took over the officer's club. Sixty crewmembers, all already assigned to ships. For many that night, it meant meeting their new commander for the first time.

  The next day Steve started recruiting. A simple priority email went out to all fleet members. Thirty-five people replied to the email wanting in, and Steve needed 60. Steve called on Admiral Rogers, and the Admiral promised to make a few calls and put some pressure on some potentials. Within three more days Steve had his 60.

  * * *

  With only six ships with crew space for 60, Steve alternated weeks. One week half drove the Corvettes and half fought from computer terminals on Orion. Then after a week the people would alternate. Fleet estimated their opposition at twenty Dreadnaughts, and most days they fought a simulated battle against them. Sometimes Steve raised the odds though, to 25 or 30 Dreadnaughts.

  Steve always divided the 12 Corvettes into four wings of three. He wanted to give Julie command of a wing, but she wouldn't have it--she wanted to stay tactical officer on The Attrition. The gunner from The Attrition scored well
flying, and Steve sent him through the officer candidacy school, making him Lieutenant and assigning him his own wing. The other two wings went to Creech's best scoring pilots.

  The success rate went up once the best pilots flew the wings. Another month of training passed. Scores started to fall as boredom crept in. Creech cut back on their training schedule from six days a week to five. That seemed to help. Steve also thought up a few variations in the simulation they ran.

  One by one their new Corvettes came off the production line. They christened them all with comic book super hero names, all but the Attrition. Steve wished for more real officers, assigning ships to Lieutenants with two weeks school seemed out of place to him. Still, he could train them.

  * * *

  Finally their last ship rolled off the assembly line. Creech looked over his fleet and reported to high command their state of readiness. Fleet started loading supplies and armament onto the transport ships. Within a week they launched for Lithorian world AEG-170.

  The crews of the Corvettes practiced fighting the upcoming battle during the six month trip to AEG-170. Fleet intelligence promised that their opposition would be twenty Dreadnaughts or less. Steve figured that meant losing three or four Corvettes. That's how the simulations worked. A lot would depend on the ship crews on those Dreadnaughts and their commander. If Steve ran a mock battle against his Corvettes, with Steve playing the Dreadnaughts, the Corvettes could lose.

  When the fleet entered the AEG system, Steve ordered the transport ships to lag one hour behind them. Steve ordered, "Battle stations!" within an hour of engaging the enemy fleet. Steve ordered, "Long range sensors. Have the computer generate a count."

  Julie pushed two buttons on her panel, paused, then answered, "Computer shows twenty-three distinct signals, with a margin of error of five."

  Creech waited. They had 30 minutes until they reached the enemy fleet and until their velocity allowed for more maneuvering. In theory, they'd be in sensor range of the Dreadnaughts with ten minutes deceleration at one gravity. At 15 minutes left Steve planned to open fire on the waiting Dreadnaughts, which hopefully didn't have their shields up.