Chapter 4: Boot Camp

“Drop and give me fifty!” Gunny Thom shouted as he came walking up to the forty new recruits standing around in the predawn dark.

Jason had moved from his single room into one of two boot camp barrack rooms over the weekend, to be joined by a steady trickle of new recruits. All of them have been processed at either Base Camp or Mountain Camp the week before. That morning at 4 am four corporals had woken them up and bullied them into getting ready for PT. Jason was one of the only new recruits who was ready to go. When Gunny Thom, the same gunny who has been ignoring Jason for the past four months while he dealt with the candidate officers, shouted to drop, Jason automatically dropped and started doing push-ups. The gunny did that with the candidate class on a daily basis but only when they did PT after their run.

The rest of the new recruits were slow to follow Jason’s example but soon all of them were facing the ground and doing push-ups. After some more PT the gunny, along with the four corporals, took the recruits for a one-kilometer run. Jason made sure he was not among the first to finish, which resulted in the gunny giving him the evil-eye look.

“Cosgrove, go again!” he shouted. “Corporals, chase Cosgrove around for a second time! Any recruit who can keep up with Cosgrove get an extra point.” Jason turned and set off at his normal pace with four corporals and about a dozen recruits chasing after them. The four corporals easily kept up with Jason, while also keeping an eye on the recruits.

After breakfast they fell in for their first day of boot camp. Jason stood out even if he tried hard not to. After wearing his marine combat uniform for nearly six months his uniform was long past the stiff and new look of new recruits. Not only did his uniform looked a lot neater, his boots were shinier as well. The gunny and the corporals did an inspection, and obviously ranted on everybody about the condition of their uniforms. Jason had to suppress a smirk when the four corporals seemed confused about him when they saw him in his full uniform in broad daylight for the first time. To confuse the corporals even more, the gunny ignored Jason after giving him a quick look-over.

“What is your case?” another recruit asked Jason later that day. By then the entire recruit platoon of forty recruits knew that Jason was not a new raw recruit. “Are you repeating boot camp or something?”

“I have never done boot camp before” Jason said. “I just joined earlier and has been hanging around for a few months waiting for boot camp to start.”

Jason was worried that the other recruits would have it in for him for being so much better but they seemed to bending the other way, they wanted him to give them tips and hints on avoiding traps and pit-falls. It was the corporals and the gunny who ended up making life difficult for Jason.

It soon became evident that the gunny was expecting a lot more from Jason than to just be a boot camp leader. Some things like running six kilometers every morning was fine, the gunny never ranted to Jason about his time, especially when he ran away from the four corporals. It was close order marching, weapons drills and equipment handling where he expected Jason to exceed boot camp standards. The corporals were assisting the gunny, who was the real instructor, and the gunny’s behavior towards Jason kept them in a constant state of confusion. He was far better than the other recruits but not nearly good enough for the gunny.

With Jason and his new comrades, being boot camp recruits, they were restricted to base for the entire three months period of boot camp. They did have all day off on each Day-Seven. Then most of the recruits would try and catch up on lost sleep or work on their uniforms. Most Day-Seven afternoons were spent around the base swimming pool.

Jason saw his previous class mates around but mostly from a distance. The three girls would wave at Jason when they recognize him but generally, they were too far apart to recognize him. That was until they ended up together at the pool. Jason was generally still very much a loner so he would change into PT shorts and go for a swim, usually on his own except any number of the other recruits would tag along with him since he seemed to be the natural leader. Jason had just swum up to the edge and hoisted himself out when Carmen Palmer and Shelly Crocker sat down on either side of him. The two girls were both wearing the military issue black one-piece swimsuits required to be worn by all female marines.

“So how is Gunny Thom treating you?” Shelly asked.

“Horrible but I guess I should expect that from him” Jason said. “The day that a gunnery sergeant behaves in a friendly manner towards a recruit is the day they dig him under the turf.”

“As long as you also realize that boot camp is meant to break you down so that the military can start building you up to be a killing machine” Carmen said. “Just imagine the looks on the faces of those guys when you finish boot camp and put on your second-year bars.” Carmen was looking over her shoulder to where a number of Jason’s fellow recruits were sunning themselves, and ogling the two girls next to Jason.

Carmen’s words echoed in Jason’s mind after that every time the gunny of one of the corporals found fault with anything he did, especially when he was already better than the other recruits. He realized that the gunny had to dig a lot deeper in order to break Jason down to a common level. That made Jason even more determined to do better.

After three long months of little sleep and constantly being degraded and chased around, boot camp came to an end. Major Macon, as the training wing’s commander, was there to congratulate the new batch of half-trained marines. They still needed to suffer through combat training, a further three months, before they could be labeled as privates’ first class and start their specialist training.

There was a month break between end of boot camp and start of combat training. That time was usually meant for taking leave and for rearranging the camp. During the first week the platoon relaxed and did uniform and equipment maintenance. The next two weeks all the new marine recruits went home, all except Jason. He has been living in the recruit barracks during boot camp and would still live there during combat training but he never removed his personal stuff from the single room where he used to stay. For the next two weeks he slept in his old bed, and spent the days in the classroom with his old class mates. He liked being welcomed back by the candidate officers. Even the three sons of barons treated him better.

The last week before the start of combat training was the winter festival. The recruits came back from leave but nothing much was happening except some festival activities, which was a low-level affair compared to the summer festival season.

The three months of combat training was effectively a continuation of boot camp. The difference was that the instructors expected the recruits to already be marine-fit and to know how to march and to operate their personal weapons, which was a ballistic-kinetic weapon. These weapons were powered by small pellet-sized black crystals, the same type of crystal that powered Jason’s lamp and camping stove. The main difference was that the power crystal released all its energy in one microscopic burst which resulted in the projectile getting accelerated at a very high velocity.

During combat training they received more intensive unarmed combat training as well as specialized weapons training like urban warfare, sharp shooter training and space vehicle operation. The most interesting part of specialist training was when they went up to the space station and practiced in weightless conditions. They also got taught ship-board security and safety measures. This included space walks using space combat armor and the maintenance of these suits.

While the initial six-month training period ends two months before the new marines have their graduation parade at the summer harvest festival, they held it during that time anyway, to ensure all the family members could attend. Once the actual training was completed the new marines headed in various directions. Some were deployed to various locations in the Grendel system, others continued with more specialized training, like those who were identified for leadership training. In actual fact the real graduation ceremony was held the Day-Five of the last day of their combat training period.

The morning of the final parade Jason and his fellow platoon members went for a final six-kilometer run. They were all very proud of themselves when the gunny told them that the six-kilometer run was a new thing, implemented after ‘some of them’ dared to challenge the gunny to run an extra circuit. Nobody mentioned who that ‘some’ were or even when it happened.

After a relaxed breakfast, the platoon, which started out at forty but has shrunk to thirty-two after six months, got into their dress uniforms. It was the first time they had an opportunity to wear their dress uniforms. All the uniforms were blank, no badges or rank insignia. That was soon to be corrected.

By 9 am the platoon was ready to march onto parade in front of the whole battalion and those parents and visitors who could attend. Two of the new marines have been appointed as squad leaders for the parade, being the recruits who scored the highest overall points during the entire six months. Nobody was surprised when Jason was one of the two. He was actually rather worried when a reporter shoved a camera into his face.

The tradition was that the four corporals who assisted the gunnery sergeant during their training would step forward as each recruit’s name was read and handed him his new badge of honor. These badges were primarily their Private First-Class badges as well as any military qualifications like marksman ship, fitness achievements, or special achievements during space training. All of them would receive badges indicating their space warfare qualification.

Jason and his fellow acting squad leader were the last to step up to the regimental commander. The gunny stepped forward and read off their achievements as the corporals pinned various badges onto their chests. The other squad leader then received his PFC insignia from the gunny himself but then the gunny stepped back. To everybody’s surprise Major Macon stepped forward and put Jason’s pair of white bars with two black stripes onto Jason’s shoulders. Jason could hear the rest of the platoon gasp in surprise behind him when his fellow recruits realized he was already halfway finished qualifying as an officer.

While the rest of the new marines were granted two weeks’ leave after that, Jason again joined his candidate officers’ class for regular classes. For the first time since walking onto the marine base less than a year earlier, he was wearing the same insignia as his fellow class mates. What made that a bitter-sweet event was three-fold; on the plus side he was quite pleased with himself for having achieved what he did. On the minus side, he would have loved to have his mother, Chloe, and Roxy present for that parade. Then there was the fact that he suffered through his sixteenth birthday with nobody being aware of it. He did give his real date of birth when he joined the marines but just changed the year.

“Jason, why don’t you come home with us this year?” Carmen Palmer asked as they finished their semester exams a few days before the start of the summer harvest festival season, which also meant that Chloe just turned fifteen.

“With both of you?” Jason asked in surprise. While he was fairly popular among the commoners in the class, the three noble-born candidates have closed ranks and did everything separate from the rest, the two girls have become quite good friends with Jason. Nothing was ever said about it but Jason suspected it was because he never tried to flirt with them. Not that they didn’t like being flirted with, they regularly got flirted with by other officers and civilian males but they realized even innocent casual flirting between them and their class mates could result in disciplinary action. It was dangerous enough to end up in a compromising position with another officer, let alone with somebody you might end up working with in the future.

“In case you have not figured it out yet, we are cousins” Shelly Crocker said. “Our moms are sisters. Our extended families all live on the same farm about an hour’s time outside Grendel City. Come with us, our dad would love to meet you.”

“Not to mention our moms” Carmen added with a girlish giggle.

“Maybe we should warn him about the others” Shelly added as she also giggled.

“Nah, let’s watch him squirm” Carmen replied. Jason was not sure what to think but at the same time he liked their company and especially since they treated him like a brother, not that he would ever turn them down as lovers if they ended up under different circumstances but not while they were all marines.

“Why did it sound as if you two share a dad?” Jason asked.

“No, yes, actually we had different dads but my dad died a long time ago. Shelly’s dad ended up taking my mom as his second wife” Carmen explained. Due to the prevalent imbalance between men and women, polygamous marriages were the rule rather than the exception, but Jason have never encountered families like that since neither Oscar deWitt nor his grandfather had second wives. Even his uncle only had the viscountess.

It was only the second time that Jason got onto the train to travel to Grendel City but this time he was in the company of two cute marine candidate officers, and all three of them were in uniform. They again were waved onboard by the ticket inspector without buying tickets. The two girls were very excited about going home.

The harvest festival was in full swing when Jason and is two lovely travel companions got off at Grendel City main train terminal. He was slightly worried about being recognized. His chances of being seen by a family member was slim but a lot of the castle servants might still recognize him. He was glad that the photos taken of him when he qualified as a marine never resulted in him being recognized.

He was half hoping that his grandfather or uncle and cousin Rick did recognize him and realized that they could not do anything to stop him anymore. The only person he really wanted to give him some recognition was his mother, and maybe Chloe and Roxy. He sighed in relieve when they got onto another branch of the rail line towards the eastern outskirts of the city, past the ducal castle but a bit further on.

“I would love to one day be able to go explore that castle” Shelly commented as the shuttle floated past the castle station at reduced speed. The train’s normal speed was around 250 km/h but at that speed the wind noise was rather loud so when the trains travel past the ducal castle they reduced their speed to about 80 km/h. The castle itself was only partially visible behind the trees. Jason didn’t say anything as he looked out the window at the four towers of the castle