by D. P. Oberon
“Ganmi has checked, all is good,” the robot said.
“Let’s strap in,” Saradi ordered, throwing an annoyed look at Buckingarra as he strode to the fore of the craft. “Strap in,” she said louder as he bent to inspect the empty weapons racks.
Buckingarra strode past her and nodded at Peng who gave the engineer-bot a kiss. “Kid needs help,” he said, shaking his head as he strapped in.
Saradi took her seat. The seat had a five-point harness that pressed her into the cushion of the seat firmly. Small green lights blinked along the upper brace.
She gave her squad a thumbs up. Yoriko’s face paled in the red blinking lights. Peng stared at Ganmi as the engineer-bot buckled into a seat specifically designed for bots.
Immediately the megabat began to rumble. The entire craft turned translucent and displayed the landscape outside. It took off so quickly that several gees pressed against the squad.
Saradi’s heart felt like somebody’d tethered it to a nuclear generator and hit the red button.
“Enemy inbound. Ship class Dragonfly,” Ganmi said.
Several aircraft appeared in the sky heading toward them and opened fire. A las-bomb whooshed out from a sleek launch bay, gyrating in the air leaving a trail of orange light. It burst apart right next to their megabat, shaking it violently. The millions of nano-filaments hit the megabat, tearing a hole in the fore cabin and exposing it to whooshing air.
Saradi hadn’t even been in a megabat before. But it was obvious the megabat wasn’t going to last. So she shouted out, “Eject on my count. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six—” Another las-bomb shot to the side of the megabat and gashed its rear end.
The entire craft spun in a circle. Someone ejected. Then another person. And another. Saradi stayed until they had all left and then she ejected.
The ejection sequence happened quickly. Red lights blinked against the carbonmite chair. Gel-foam shifted her backward and then a magmite shell covered her completely, obscuring her vision. There was a loud clicking sound and then a bang as the seat’s catapult mechanism burned.
The g-forces pushed at her as she blasted into the sky. A capsule-shaped pod enclosed her, protecting her from enemy fire and the elements.
The sky filled with fifty over pods as they shot in the air, each one in various states of deployment. One pod launched itself downward, hurtling itself into the snow and slamming so hard it caused a huge ripple across the plains. Another group of pods burst apart as fire shattered their shells and recruits tumbled out like ants, falling to the ground where their chutes deployed.
A holo-pad blinked in front of Saradi showing her the battlefield and the red of the enemy. She just stared at it trying to think what to do. Out of her periphery vision a flash of light shot out from one pod and hit a dragonfly right in the nose.
Saradi’s eyes widened. Our pods can shoot, she realized.
She put her hands to the holo-pad controls and felt their feedback reassuringly against her palms. She tilted and a crosshair appeared. A dragonfly flew over a falling megabat and launched a superheated magma missile. Saradi watched in horror as it flew at her like the spittle from a volcano. She fired, thought she hit something, and then the sensation of being pummelled bodily blacked her out.
Instructor Ali said, “Universally pathetic. I think you should have those words glyphed across your retinas. Only fourteen squads launched themselves from the megabats in time. Out of those fourteen, two squads managed a landing. They were decimated by the sheer number of the enemy. If all the squads had landed then you would’ve stood a chance on the land. Well done.” She clapped her hands.
A deep anguish and guilt crept over Saradi, even as she stood there feeling like her body had been pounded. Instructor Ali always wanted them to do their best and her mock applause hurt more than any swear word could.
“Screw me until I bleed,” said Buckingarra. “As soon as we got into that thing it was like having my dick in an auto-blender.”
Peng burst out an abrupt laugh that he caught with his hand over his mouth. Yoriko just glanced to Buckingarra and shook her head.
“Bucki,” Saradi said warningly. “Listen. You’ll learn something.” Buckingarra used humor to diffuse serious situations and while in Selection he had learn to break the habit. Of late Instructor Ali had been giving Bravo Two Zero the eye and Saradi knew why.
The megabats lay in smoking ruins all around them. Some clanged as the wind pushed against them. They had been mock bats — simpler designs based on the real megabats. Several tractor-mechs trundled up to the snowy plains and their huge scoops dug in the snow, sweeping aside all the debris.
AAEDEF’s budget must be astronomical, Saradi thought. Instructor Ali’s voice pulled her attention back as she walked up and down the lined-up squads.
“You weren’t give any prep into what it was like in a megabat, but you didn’t need it. This is not unfair. This is battle. Chaos.” Her hands smacked in punctuation, spittle flew from her lips.
“Squad Leader Anantadevi, what happened out there?” Instructor Ali asked.
“Panic, Instruc-tor!” Saradi answered, feeling a tinge of smugness at her quick and loud answer.
“But you’re a level ten upgrade. How can you panic?” Instructor Ali retorted.
Saradi’s face heated. All assembled eyes turned to face her. She hadn’t kept it a secret, nor had she blurted it out. At loss of words Saradi felt a choking sensation in her throat.
“Instructor, I believe we got stressed and our stress lead us to being panicked… and that lead us to well, being dead.”
Instructor Ali walked up to Yoriko and eyed her. “Yes that is correct.”
Their instructor continued by saying, “By the end of today you would have memorized this chant.” She cleared her throat.
“Panic will get me killed. Stress makes mistakes,” said Instructor Ali. “Get down and give me one hundred. As you come up you will recite ‘Panic will get me killed’ and then when you go down you will recite ‘Stress makes mistakes’. Execute!”
“Oorah!”
For the first time since week one day one, Saradi didn’t feel the pain of the push-ups as much. Her voice was loud as she repeated the chant ‘Panic will get me killed. Stress makes mistakes.’ By the time she was finished, the snow below her had melted from the sweat she’d dripped onto it. Saradi finished first, followed by Chengmedu. Instructor Ali waited until they had all completed the exercise before resuming her tirade.
Ali said, “We are going to teach you about every single component of that megabat. By the time you are finished with your training you will know how to build that thing if we give you the raw smelted ironridge. Is that clear?”
“Oorah!” they replied.
On the last day of week two, Saturday, while the rest of her squad mates headed to the mess for Chef Ananda’s Saturday Lunch Feast, Saradi sat at the edge of the bed and wanted to throw a razor-tank at SOHIC HQ. She called up the ‘Class 108 LocalNet Homepage’ and read the ‘end of week two’ scores:
Bottom 5 Squads
Uniform One One: +1 pts
Uniform One Three: 3 pts
Zulu One Three: 1 pts
Uniform One Two: 0 pts
Bravo Two Zero: -2 pts
Saradi stood up and shouted, “This is bullshit.” She kicked at one of the beds and shouted as pain ricocheted up her big toe. It snapped to the side. She watched as it healed instantaneously. She kicked at the bed again. Pain screamed at her. She watched it heal.
Saradi almost kicked the edge of the bed a third time when footsteps echoed behind her. She turned to see who it was.
The smiles on the faces of Peng, Yoriko, and Buckingarra dimmed and then melted as they noticed the holo-display floating at the foot of Saradi’s bed.
She headed outside brushing past them ignoring Yoriko’s call.
Bravo Two Zero’s scoreless week rent a scream from Saradi’s lungs that caused many a head to turn and stare. But Saradi didn’t care. Her wor
ld had gone red.
Chapter 20 – Artic Warfare
Selection, Week 3
The sleeping alarms woke Bravo Two Zero at zero one hundred in the morning. Saradi couldn’t help it, she’d woken minutes before to check their scores. She’d thought she’d caught Yoriko staring at a holo-display but she’d been too tired to notice. They were still coming in last with only two points after three weeks. Would they be kicked out now?
The four members of Bravo Two Zero made their way somewhat groggily towards the courtyard and lined up in their sleeping attire. Apprehension lodged in Saradi’s throat, she couldn’t swallow.
Instructor Ali stood at the head of the courtyard. She said, “Uniform One Four, Echo One One, and Echo One Two add your helmets to the pile.”
The remaining squads saluted the dismissed squads. Saradi glad her squad hadn’t been called, and guilty for feeling glad.
The pile of helmets sat at the head of the courtyard of Class 108 looked like macabre skulls laid out as an offering to the God of Death. Some of the black helmets stood straight, others at angles, and some even upside down. Saradi watched in sadness as the three most recently named squads added their helmets to the pile, straightened their backs, and saluted.
Eighty of us started this journey just three weeks ago, now fifty six of us remain, Saradi thought. The courtyard felt spacious for the first time.
The remaining recruits returned crisp salutes. Everyone knew what pain the dismissed recruits had gone through. There were no smirks of superiority from those that still stood in formation.
“Da fuck gotta boot out squads at one a.m. at beginning of the week? Such a downer,” said Buckingarra who stood one down to Saradi’s right, Peng sandwiched between.
Saradi’s anger flared at his swearing. “Shut the fuck up and deal with it, Bucki.”
Buckingarra jerked his bead back in surprise. She felt his stare out the corner of her eye but she didn’t look at him. She regretted her outburst instantly. Instructor Ali’s calm demeanor influenced Saradi to adopt the same approach. She realized in the past she’d been too quick to anger. Buckingarra just pressed all the right buttons.
For a moment their squad kept silent as they stood there waiting for the diminishing backs of the dismissed squads to depart the courtyard. They vanished among the walkways towards their barracks. It would be last time Saradi ever saw any of them. Maybe I should’ve gotten to know them? Saradi thought.
“Dismissed,” Instructor Ali said to the rest of them.
The oorahs that came in response lacked spirit and even Instructor Ali didn’t bother chastising them. She rooted for the recruits just as much as they rooted for themselves. Saradi found the stoic woman to have a refreshing leadership style compared corporate rats.
Eventually Instructor Ali left the courtyard. For a moment the instructor almost appeared human as she bowed her head and then she pulled herself upright and strode tall. Saradi felt the urge to run up to her and ask her about Mission Platypus Lagoon but Instructor Ali’s body language clearly stated she wanted no interference.
Peng and Yoriko gathered around Saradi as most of the recruits headed towards their barracks. From the overhead conversation everyone talked about their squad scores.
“Bucki,” Saradi called, but he pretended not to hear.
Buckingarra headed towards their barracks. Saradi watched him go with a mixture of anger and regret. Chengmedu didn’t have problems holding his squad together. The ex-super-marine stared at her from over the head of Yasmie Lasi, one of the two female ex-super-marines in Bravo Two Six.
Chengmedu shook his head at Buckingarra’s retreating back. He’s probably calling me civvy trash, she thought. And they’re probably masturbating over their perfect twenty. No doubt Bravo Two Six would score another ten this week.
Peng whispered, “It doesn’t make sense. Echo One One and Uniform One Four were in the top three.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Saradi agreed. “But we’re still in. God knows how with that score.”
Yoriko said, “Ali isn’t hiding anything. You heard her. Those squads tried but they couldn’t deal with the megabat altitude sessions. Ali is looking at more than just scores.”
Peng made a face. He said, “I don’t like looking at our scores. Not that it matters because Ganmi tells me them every morning and I told her to stop it because we’re always coming last. It upsets me.” He looked up at Saradi and Yoriko. “I’m not blaming anybody; I know it’s me that’s holding everyone back.”
“It’s not you,” Saradi said, feeling a flicker of annoyance. She grabbed his arm and stared him in the eye. “We need you Peng. I need you.”
“Sara,” Yoriko said slowly. “I have a theory about the scores.”
Saradi chewed her lower lip. Her forehead creased. “What’s wrong with them?” Yoriko had been awake that morning checking the scores, tucked herself over her blanket pretending to rest above the bed.
“I’ve done some predictalytics,” said Yoriko.
Saradi thought, this is one of the things that frustrates me about Yoriko. Where Buckingarra voiced his opinion on everything — especially things he had no clue about — which was an extensive array of topics, Yoriko, the CodePoet Laureate and world record holder for the number of honorary PhD’s at over a thousand, didn’t voice her opinion at all.
“Yoriko the time for being diplomatic or for waiting until you’ve got all the data sets and analyzed them to the nth degree is gone. We’re in the third week of Selection.” She tapped Yoriko’s collarbone, not quite believing how close and how quickly she was getting to know her squad members. “I value your counsel but I need you to speak up. This isn’t the Bucki Show.”
“I … yes, okay, Sara,” said Yoriko almost bowing. She appeared to steel her resolve and said, “According to my predictalytics Bravo Two Zero’s scores should be higher.”
“What?” Saradi jerked her head.
Yoriko explained in quite complex terms the math behind predictalytics which made Saradi feel dumb. But Saradi’s strength was in being able to understand complex things, that’s how she’d run the most profitable business unit in one of the most profitable companies on planet Earth.
“Peng and Yoriko, you’re both geniuses.” They stared at her with raised eyebrows. “What I’m going to say might sound counterintuitive but I need you to agree to it.”
Saradi took a deep breath, “From now on, no squad leader in Bravo Two Zero will check the scores.” She shook her head at their confused looks. “I mean nobody in our squad will check the scores, me included. I don’t want any of us looking at them. Clear?”
Yoriko’s jaw lowered itself slightly and she rubbed at her chin. Peng squished his lips left to right.
“Clear?” Saradi repeated. “That means Ganmi too, Peng,” she added.
“Okay,” they responded without much enthusiasm. They probably thought she wanted to keep them in the dark.
Saradi said, “In week two Instructor Ali said ‘In a real war nobody keeps a weekly score’. So we’re going to take her advice. We’re not going to keep a weekly. We’ll just bring it. Every. Single. Day.”
Peng and Yoriko’s bowed heads didn’t give Saradi confidence. “Hey,” she said. “We’re still here aren’t we?” Saradi put her hand out in the middle. “On zero.” Peng and Yoriko put their hands out too. “Bravo. Two. Zero!” they shouted and let go with a slight laugh.
As they headed back to their barracks she thought she caught Chengmedu staring at her. She made a fist at him. Bring it, she mouthed.
Now she had to convey her new order to Buckingarra.
#
If Saradi had known the hell of a day that awaited her she would’ve eaten a triple serving of breakfast. Or slept more. But there was no real sleep for her, just endless sims once they immersed themselves in their beds.
“AWP. Artic Warfare Provisioning. Feels like home doesn’t it?” Instructor Ali said, gesturing at the snowy mountain. The assembled squads shiv
ered atop the shoulder of Little Everest, a snow capped mountain at the edge of Truganini Antarctica. In the distance on the white snowy plains Saradi could see another group of recruits going through a megabat training exercise.
A week ago I stared at this mountain from there, now I’m right on top of it, Saradi thought.
“I love craggy rock, thin ice, and lots of nice soft fluffy snow,” said Instructor Ali. She stood on a slope dressed in white camo with a large set of shades wrapped around her eyes that made her look like a snow bug.
Saradi paid attention to Ali’s words. Soft fluffy snow likely meant they had to be extra aware of the snow itself. The snow would probably be their most treacherous enemy.
Saradi, Peng, Yoriko, and Buckingarra, along with the thirteen other remaining squads stood atop an ice cold mountain shivering with cold. The change had been drastic. One minute they were in the hot fort in the middle of the Australian desert and the next they were in arctic conditions. Most of them had sunk to their ankles in snow.
Saradi’s squad lined up in the front row along with Chengmedu’s squad. She felt that getting there earliest and being at the front meant that Buckingarra stayed in line. It also kept Saradi sharp. Instructor Ali occasionally asked questions of those in the front row. She hoped it also showed Ali that they were rough and ready and good to go, anytime. No tardiness with Bravo Two Zero.
“You’re all probably wondering why we are doing so much snow training. That’s because we’re training you for snow missions. We’re sending the successful recruits on the same mission that a much more prepared squad failed. Today I’m going to kill you. Tomorrow I will do it again.”
“We’ll start with a light run of two kloms up the mountain. The gradient is four percent. We will run up to Ganmi. Recruit Peng has kindly allowed me the use of his engineer-bot, yonder.” Instructor Ali pointed to a now red bobbing cube. “You have fifteen minutes to complete the run.”
A light run of two kloms in snow up a steep incline? Only a SOHIC instructor and Claas would call that light. She felt a twinge in her heart every time she thought of him.