by Aer-ki Jyr
That’s what his head told him, or rather had told him a few hours ago. Right now his emotions were running wild and he was following the instructions he’d told himself to follow in case this happened, in case he got emotional again, so that Nadia couldn’t use it to twist him around like she had so many times in the past. He didn’t mind so much before, but this was important…and he had to make his own decisions.
Like he’d planned, he knew he had to leave now before Nadia, his parents, or anyone else could get to him. He wasn’t in a mood to argue, and was afraid if that was what happened he’d cave. He was weak like that, which was one of the things he didn’t like about himself. That meant now was go time, and he had to head off his weakness before it caught up with him.
That meant calling his uncle and having him come and pick him up. He knew better than to tell his parents, but couldn’t just walk out on them. His uncle would explain things afterwards, so that way they’d know where he was and that he was alright, but they weren’t going to like his not graduating high school one bit, not even to join Star Force, which was much harder to accomplish.
Rio glanced over his shoulder at the others playing games in the park, realizing he had a moment of opportunity that was going to vanish fast. Nadia was upset, and soon word would get around, meaning he had to go now. Pulling out his communicator he searched for and found his uncle’s contact ID and sent him a preplanned message, which he got a reply for immediately, along with a timestamp indicating that his uncle would be here to pick him up within 2 hours.
Rio was already packed, which amounted to little more than a backpack, based off the fact that Star Force had said he wouldn’t need anything once he reached the recruitment center, but he had a few keepsakes he wanted to bring with him…along with his favorite shirt.
“Here goes,” he said, turning away from the sunny cityscape and walking slowly away across the large park, feeling his anxiety spike. This was the moment. The moment where his life was going to radically change, and now that it was here he welcomed it. He was a nervous, emotional mess, with a hole in his heart the size of a starship, but this was what he needed to do and he knew it. Now that he’d called his uncle there was no going back.
Rio walked through the park, found the down elevator, and returned to his family’s quarters. He grabbed his small satchel, swung it over his shoulders and quietly walked out, intending to hide elsewhere in the building until his uncle arrived so no one would have a chance to talk him out of it.
Two hours later, as promised, his uncle showed up and got him through the underage security measures at the building’s entrance. From there they walked to a nearby transit terminal and hired a transport car to take them off, with his uncle returning several hours later to explain to his brother and sister-in-law what their son had done.
2
May 27, 2458
Solar System
Mars
“Welcome to introduction, cadets. I am Trainer Henderson, and I am tasked with determining which of you passes basic training and which of you wash out,” the tall, thin, muscular man said wearing a pure white uniform as he paced back and forth across a platform set before a wall-spanning open ‘window’ that looked out onto the training grounds which, since they were on Mars, were all indoors.
“Yours will be individual training, allowing you to progress at your own rates. The only way one of you washes out is if you choose to leave. If you cannot pass the graduation trials, then you will remain here in perpetual training until you do. Those sitting beside you are your induction class, but whether or not you remain together is determined by how far each of you advances and in how timely a manner you do so.”
Rio glanced to his left, seeing two men considerably older than him sitting on the narrow bench beside him. They were probably at least twice his age, and about half of those sitting in front of him looked to be at least 30. He sat in the back row of 5 benches, just trying to listen and go along with the flow, feeling very out of place, for he was by far the youngest of them all, including the 4 girls out of the 48 member group, all of whom looked to have been post-college in age.
“Today you get your first taste of training, which will be based on the scores you entered with. There will be a lot of running…and by a lot I mean a lot. Running is the foundation of a commando, for if you can’t move around the battlefield you’re little more than a living turret, and if we need turrets we’ll just build them. We need you to be commandos, meaning you’re mobile, accurate, intelligent, and possessing a strength no normal Human can match.”
“Commandos are Regulars, and Regulars serve the Archons, assist the Knights. You are not cannon fodder, but rather one man armies capable of undertaking difficult tasks solo or combining your skills in group missions. You must learn to do both in your training, during which you will be subjected to multiple challenges to probe your weaknesses. Learn from them. Don’t fear failure. Analyze and adapt. If and when you achieve full commando status, you will know that the most important lesson to take with you from this training facility is to stay alive. Die in battle, and you will be of no further use in the war. We need you to become warriors, not the expendable commodities you’ve seen in vids.”
“How much you know of the lizards I cannot say, but I can tell you that you don’t know much. The lizards outnumber us so greatly we can’t even count them all. If we trade lives, one for one, one for five, one for ten…they win by default. The only way we prevail is by being better than them, which means our troops walk away at the end of the battle able to fight in the next one. Death is failure, even if you take a million enemies with you.”
“That means sometimes you have to run away to live and fight another day. It’s a cliché, but one you need to remember. When to run and when to fight is something that we will endeavor to teach you here, but there is not a rule book written that can take into account every possible scenario. You will have to make the call in the moment, and the best way to help you prepare for that is by throwing you into a plethora of learning experiences here, so be prepared to run the gauntlet. The more we hit you with here, the less surprises there will be out there,” the trainer said, pointing up at the high ceiling, indicating the stars beyond where the war was ongoing.
“Now, don’t concern yourself with tomorrow. We don’t send rookies out to the front lines. Only our best get combat assignments…unless the enemy ends up on our doorstep. If that happens here, you might as well kiss your asses goodbye. If the lizards reach Sol, then we’ve already lost and it’s up to us to make their victory as messy as possible. Our victory comes in keeping the enemy busy on the frontier while Star Force grows stronger, which is what you are doing here…becoming stronger, wiser, faster, sharper.”
“If and when you graduate, you will leave this facility to pursue even more training, one day rising in ability enough to get a field assignment. By then you will be ready, now you are not, and my advice to you is not to be thinking ahead to the war. Live in the moment, for this training, while modulated to each of your individual skill levels, is going to be more of a challenge than you’ve ever faced before, and it will require your full attention. Anything less, and get used to receiving failure notices.”
“Now, this is where it begins. When you go through that door,” he said, pointing to his left and Rio’s right, “you listen, you learn, you obey…and grab on with two hands to the greatest challenge of your life to this point, for there is no turning back or slowing down. If you wash out, it will not be an instantaneous thing. There is a procedure to follow, to ensure that you’re not making a rash decision, for if you do decide to leave, there’s no coming back for a second try. Not with the commandos anyway, though you might have a chance with the mechwarriors or pilots.”
“We learn to get things done the first time by never stopping our efforts and always working the problem. Surrender isn’t in our vocabulary, nor is it something the lizards will allow. They’re out to kill us all, so get used to the idea of havin
g to find a way to win or survive to win another day. Second place in this conflict means you’re dead.”
“That said, we are not our enemy, and we do not always kill our enemy. Each mission varies, and we will allow the enemy to surrender when we can. That is also something you will have to learn. Many wars are fought between bad guys. Being the good guy means we fight differently, so get used to that difference. If our enemy were as honorable as us we wouldn’t be fighting them, so expect your opponent to use different tactics and tricks, and be alert for them.”
“And make no mistake, this war is not some misunderstanding or diplomatic snafu. The lizards want to rule the galaxy, which in their definition is to kill or enslave all others…and guess which one they’ve tagged Humans for. That’s right…kill. They will kill you on the spot, sometimes blowing themselves up in the process. They are dishonorable scum that you will not emulate. You will defeat them and their methods, not become them.”
“Star Force is part of an alliance with other enemies of the lizards, one of which is called the Nestafar…or perhaps I should say was, because they betrayed the Alliance and joined with the lizards. You may end up fighting them one day, or one of hundreds of other races we’ve come into contact with. Each of them is a person, like you, and you will treat them accordingly. Some you might even be fighting alongside, like the Calavari, and if you have enough prolonged experience you will come to realize that they are just like us…only different, and those differences you will need to learn. There are good and bad people in every race, so see the individual, not the species.”
“That is why we give our enemies the chance to surrender, but when they’re out for our heads the proper response is to kill them first, and do it quickly. Torture we do not tolerate, and as commandos you will have the most up close contact with the enemy, who does use bladed weapons as well as plasma. There will be blood, gore, and nastiness that you probably can’t even imagine. Through it all you must remain true to who you are and true to Star Force. To quote an Archon, ‘you must not turn to the dark side, no matter how dire your situation.’”
“So, let’s recap,” Henderson said, clapping his hands together as he finally stopped pacing. “Hardest challenge of your life so far…learning a lot of things I’ve mentioned that you currently have no clue about…always be the good guy…never expect the enemy to…neither hate nor trust the aliens, they’re people like you…gotta go superhuman in order to beat the lizards…and oh, yes, one more thing. Don’t ever call an Archon ‘sir.’ They take it as a sign of disrespect.”
“So,” he said, pulling his arms behind his back and standing up. “You have two doors. One door starts your training, the other door takes you back to civilian life and your chance to become a Regular isn’t wasted…in so much as you can always have a change of heart and come back and give it a try, so long as you test out again. Once you go through that door it’s make or break, so make your choice. My task here is done.”
With a smile the trainer stepped backward towards the edge of the platform and in a blur of motion did a backflip over the railing and fell out of sight, leaving the 48 recruits alone to make their choice.
Rio stood up with the rest of the group, but held his place as some of them ran up to the edge to look down on where the trainer had gone too. The 17 year old massaged the sides of his grey pant legs as he watched the others, not wanting to make a move towards the door before anyone else did. There was a bit of chatter between some of the men, but there was a sense of wary silence as the first of them walked over and opened up the door with a press of a button.
It vanished into the wall revealing a tiny compartment large enough for only one person. Rio couldn’t see from his position, but suddenly the person that was there a moment before no longer was, drawing a bit more talk from those nearby. Slowly the crowd moved up, with others disappearing, until Rio finally got a clear line of sight to see that the door would close over the person at the touch of an interior button, then open again with the person having disappeared.
Rio waited at the back until there were only a handful left, including three standing along the platform railing and looking out over the very active training grounds.
“How old are you?” one of the two men asked.
“Me?” Rio said in a small voice, then coughing to cover his nerves when the man nodded. “I’ll be 18 in three months.”
“That means 17,” the girl corrected.
“And you passed the PT test?” the man asked again.
“Yes,” Rio said as the last of those behind him disappeared through the door, leaving only the four of them behind.
“What do they want children for?” the second man asked the first.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure.”
“Do you know each other?” Rio asked, prying his eyes off the hundreds, if not thousands, of people moving across the training fields like an army of ants, and taking a glance back at the door that stood invitingly open. The other one that they’d entered through had never been shut, allowing them a visual line of retreat if they wanted.
“We’re ex-military, kid,” the girl answered. “Out of a job, now that the old armies were scrapped.”
“You coming or leaving?” the first man asked.
“I was going to go through last. Why are you waiting?”
“Just enjoying the view,” he said, cracking a touch of a smile through his goatee. “Name’s Raven. This is Styk and Julie. Formerly of the United States Ranger Corps.”
“Rio Jakson, from California.”
“Well now,” Styk said, immediately getting a bit more friendly, “another American…or should I say former American, now that they’re tearing the old girl up into bits and pieces.”
“You really going through with this, kid?” Julie asked.
“Yes.”
“Then get going. We’ll follow you through.”
Raven nodded at him to go, so Rio didn’t argue. He turned and walked over to the door and stepped inside the compartment and hit the button. The door slid shut behind him, then all of a sudden the floor dropped out and he began to fall…
He bounced off his arms and legs against a flexible tube as it curled and twisted underneath him, reminding him of a dry waterslide as he slid down very, very far before falling out through open air onto a pile of foam squares that gently dragged him to a halt in an alley set off a main street in some sort of city. Rio had landed face up, and found himself staring at pure blue sky…but that was impossible, for he was on Mars, not Earth.
Rio sat up…immediately falling back down as the foam resisted his movements. He tried again, eventually able to wiggle himself over to the far end of the foam field and get his feet onto the hard pavement and stand up. Neither Raven, Styk, nor Julie had come down yet…nor did he see anyone else around, so he walked out and looked into the street.
He couldn’t believe his eyes. There was a city, a huge city all around him with building after building going down as far as he could see in either direction, as well as some huge skyscrapers in the distance…not to mention the one behind him that the alley had been carved out of. It rose up so high he had trouble guessing its height, but there was more to worry about at the moment…like the fact that the streets were rubble strewn and deserted.
“What the…” he said, getting caught in the right arm by a small projectile. It smashed into goo, leaving his elbow numb and his head turning, trying to see where it had come from.
Something inside him told him not to wait, so even as he looked he ran across the street to the nearest set of doors he could see, causing another shot to miss him by inches.
The next thing he knew he was inside and climbing stairs as people were chasing him. He ran and ran, ducking into one deserted hallway after another, going up stairs, then down stairs, then up again trying to lose his pursuit. Eventually he ended up on a decorative ledge spanning a wide set of double doors, laying down behind some short potted plants that had long since withered and
died.
In truth he didn’t know where he was or how he’d gotten there, but all Rio knew at the moment was that he needed to slow his breathing and hope to hell that they didn’t see him. He closed his eyes and concentrated, noticing that his left hand was shaking and he couldn’t stop it, so he tucked it underneath his butt as he lay on his back and tried to think of a calm ocean beach under blue skies, light years away from his current situation.
His eyes snapped open as he heard the faint rasps and clicks of armor as someone ran by underneath him…then another some 20 seconds later. Neither paused, and Rio was enormously grateful, despite the fact that his heart felt like it was clenched up into a diamond inside his chest.
He waited a long time before getting enough courage to slip an eye up over the edge of one of the pots and have a look. The hallway was big, bigger than he remembered. It must have been a main corridor within the building, but it was completely abandoned. He saw a desk tipped over and otherwise askew down a ways, remembering suddenly that he’d nearly tripped over it as he ran by after slipping on a puddle of water or some liquid that he couldn’t see.
Rio took a deep breath and tried to think back to what the trainer had told them, especially the part about living in the moment. This had to be a test, one where they didn’t get forewarning. But if it was a test what was he supposed to do?
Approaching footsteps from underneath prompted Rio to duck back down, but he silently scooted far enough that he could look around the dead stem of one of the plants and get a tiny peek at who was chasing him…only to see another grey uniform like his own flash by.