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 ranting 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

“They have a marine platoon stationed there” Carmen responded. “You can always try and get a posting there once you got your commission”

“Where would you like to get posted?” Shelly asked Jason.

“Don’t know yet” he said. “Maybe in space” Jason replied.

The terminal where they got off was next to the smallest town Jason had ever seen. The terminal itself consisted of an open-sided shack and a public toilet next to the bare anti-gravity line. Parallel to the rail line was the only street in the town, flanked by a row of double-story buildings on either side. Jason recognized two eateries, a general dealer shop as well as other smaller businesses.

“That building is the local pub” Shelly pointed out to Jason as the train slowed to a stop. “It’s huge for a pub but that is because they have dance parties there every Day-Five and Day-Six evening.”

“We should bring you there tomorrow night” Carmen added. “Not tonight though, tonight we spend with the family.”

“Unless everybody already planned to go dancing” Shelly said with a sneaky look on her face.

There was a single mid-sized cargo hovercraft waiting next to the shack. As the three marines walked towards the cargo hovercraft truck, a young male stepped out of the open cab. Jason judged him to be in his early twenties. He looked like a typical farmer, heavy-duty work clothes and a wide-rim hat on his head. He grinned big as he gathered both the girls in his arms. Jason stood watching as they formed a three-way hug. There didn’t seem to be much fooling around or flirting involved in that group hug.

“Arnie, this is Jason” Carmen introduced them. “Arnold is our older brother” Jason and Arnold shook hands without the girls letting go of Arnold.

“These two wrote about you often enough, it feels like I already know you” Arnold said. The two girls just laughed. Jason again wondered why they would tell their family so much about him because they never showed anything other than familial friendship towards him. Jason ended up on his own in the back seat of the truck as both the girls squeezed in next to Arnold for the trip to their home.

The trip to the farm house was relatively short. When they got there the two girls jumped out and ran inside, leaving Jason and Arnold to handle the three sets of luggage. Arnold laughed and shrugged his shoulders as he nodded towards the open door.

“Females; cannot live with them but cannot live without them either” he said. “Mom prepared one of the porch rooms for you. This way.”

The house was a typical ranch house, a single story with a wrap-around porch. While the porch was all the way around the house, each of the four corners had a small room built onto the porch. There were a number of armchairs and couches scattered around on the porch next to the front door.

A short distance from the house was a barn with some smaller structures built onto the sides of the barn. Behind the barn was an assortment of animal paddocks, all empty. Beyond the log-framed paddocks was an open field with some cows grazing. There were large shade trees everywhere. Jason noticed that there was a low hill behind the house. He realized it formed part of the range of mountains behind the castle except the castle were about hundred and twenty kilometers away.

Arnold led the way up the porch towards the nearest corner of the house. There were doors from both ends of the room, one leading to the front porch where Jason and Arnold entered the room and the other leading to the side porch. The room contained a stand-alone closet made from local wood and a wider than normal bed but not quite a double bed. Jason dropped his bag next to the bed and followed Arnold back to the front door with each of them carrying a bag belonging to the two girls.

Arnold dropped the one bag just inside a bedroom on the inside of the house and pointed to another bedroom across the passageway. Jason left the other bag just inside that door and followed Arnold into the kitchen at the back of the house.

There were four females standing around in the huge kitchen. If it was not that two of them were dressed in marine uniforms Jason would not have known who were who. The girls introduced Jason to their mothers, who were obviously sisters, very young-looking sisters.

“Dad and Danny are out on horseback with the others” Carmen said with a sneaky look on her face.

“Let’s go get into normal clothes” Shelly suggested.

“No, wait, your dad would love to see you in your uniforms” Shelly’s mom said. “Wait a while, they are on their way back.”

Jason, Carmen, and Shelly were relaxing in the kitchen as they waited for the husband and ‘other kids’ to arrive back. Every time one of the mothers started mentioning a name, she got interrupted by either Shelly or Carmen. Arnold must have clicked on because he soon had a big smirk on his face every time one of the two mothers tried to say something and got interrupted. Jason found himself enjoying their company. It helped that Arnold stayed in the kitchen as well, asking Jason about his experience during boot camp. Jason didn’t need to say much, Carmen in particular was quick to fill in all the gaps that Jason was too shy to talk about.

After about 45 minutes Jason heard the sound of horse hooves approaching. Arnold stood and grabbed his hat, causing Jason to follow his example. Carmen and Shelly also jumped up and followed the two males to the front door.

When Jason got to the front porch, he saw four horse riders pulling up next to the barn. Arnold jumped down and strode over towards the barn as the new arrivals got off their horses. Jason was not sure if he should follow Arnold or stay on the porch but then Shelly and Carmen each took one of his arms as they all stood watching the group at the barn.

Arnold and the group moved into the barn with the horses but a few seconds later three of them came walking towards the house. Jason realized that two of them were young kids based on their physical size. The two kids dropped back as they got close to the house.

“Daddy, this is Jason Cosgrove, Second Year Candidate Officer of the Grendel Marines and our class mate.” Carmen introduced him. “This is Jeff Crocker, our dad” Jason shook hands with Jeff. Jeff was lean and suntanned and with firm hand grips. He was also about half a head shorter than Jason.

“Welcome to our home” Jeff said as the two moms moved in on either side of him as both of them put their arms around his waist. “The girls had a lot to say about you. Apparently, you are quite a force when it comes to academic achievements” Jason had nothing to say about that. He could feel his face getting warm as everybody smiled at him, except the two kids who were still hiding behind the adults.

“Shall we sit here on the porch?” Jeff suggested as he headed for a seat.

“Make yourself at home” Alicia Crocker said. We will bring the coffee and some freshly baked cookies out in a few minutes. Come help, girls” she said to the two kids who finally stepped up onto the porch. Then only did Jason realize they were both girls, teenage girls.

The fleeting image Jason had of the two girls were of two petite females with the same rich brown hair, both tied into thick braids that hung way down their backs. Both of them were wearing jeans and work shirts. As the two teenage girls scurried after their moms and older sisters, Jason noticed that their jeans were fitting nice and tight over some slender and very shapely butts. He was curious about their ages since their shirts were bulky enough to hide their chests.

A while later Arnold and another younger guy came walking from the barn. Jason got introduced to Daniel Crocker, the younger brother. He and Arnold must have stayed behind to take care of the horses.

Jason was sitting at one end of a three-seat couch when the ladies, a small crowd of them, came out. The two teenage girls had replaced their check work shirts for more feminine blouses. Arnold stood and helped them as they pushed a trolley full of coffee cups and plates of cookies out onto the porch. Carmen poured a cup, adding sweetener and milk, before handing it to Jason. Then Shelly handed him a small plate of cookies. When everybody has been served, Carmen nudged Jason to move over just as Shelly sat down on the far end of the couch. Jason had no choice but to sit in the middle between the two girls.

Jason mostly listened as his hosts talked about farming matters, the local as well as interstellar politics, and the state of the economy. The discussion soon settled on the marine training and Shelly’s, Carmen’s, and Jason’s experiences. Jason discovered that the family seem to know a lot more about him than they should. He assumed Carmen and Shelly has been writing home a lot and told all they knew, or suspect they knew, about him. Jason’s apparent age, what he told the marine recruiting sergeant, was common knowledge among the two families. During all this time the two younger girls barely said a word as they sat across from Jason, squeezed in next to each other on a single armchair. The two seemed to be best friends.

“Are you youngsters planning on going to the dance tonight?” Sophia Palmer asked a while later as they cleared away the coffee cups. All the youngsters, including Jason turned to look at Shelly and Carmen.

“No, not tonight” Carmen said. “We planned on going tomorrow night. Let’s go change into more comfortable clothes” she said as she nudged Jason. He got the hint and excused himself as well.

A few weeks earlier, when the summer started, Jason had discovered that all his clothes he brought from the castle were too short and too tight for him. He was glad that he had been saving up his salary, even if it was only half pay, so he managed to buy some civilian clothes when he first got invited to go with the girls. He changed into his new jeans and button-up shirt before joining the males on the porch.

“ ... according to mom they take the no fraternization rule quite serious in the marines” Arnold was saying as Jason walked towards them. They all saw Jason walking towards them so he was a bit surprised that they would talk about him like that but then the two adult males both smirked at him as he got closer. “Jason is quite safe with those two. It’s the younger girls he should watch out for.”

“Let’s go show you around the farm” Carmen said as she and Shelly came out of the house. The two younger girls followed as Jason got pulled off the porch.

“Don’t go too far” Arnold said. “Danny and I will be starting to herd the cows towards the milking stalls in a while.”

“Don’t worry, we will just be around here” Shelly said. “We have not introduced you to our sisters yet” she said as the five of them walked over towards the barn.

“Oops” Carmen said with a sneaky grin on her face. “Jason, this is Simone, my sister. That is Lacy, Shelly’s sister.”

“They are cousins like us but act more like best friends while looking like sisters” Shelly added. The two younger girls were blushing and looking down at that stage so Jason didn’t bother to shake hands with them.

“Why did Arnold warn you guys about the cows?” Jason asked as the five of them leaned on the wooden poles forming the one paddock.

“We do the milking” Lacy said shyly.

“Milking is a girl’s job” Simone added. The two glanced at each other and turned even redder in their faces.

“It became a girl-job when these two started teasing Arnold about playing with a girl-cow’s boobs” Shelly said with a grin.

Over the next half hour Jason got led around the inside of the barn and the other farm buildings. He discovered, accidentally, that one of the small attached structures next to the barn was actually the ‘boy’s bathroom’. Since Jason, Arnold, and Danny all sleep in the outside rooms on the corners of the porch they also used that structure which contained a full bathroom.

“It is actually meant for cleaning up after mucking the horse stalls and getting all dirty working with the animals.” Lacy said. She seemed to have defrosted first towards Jason and was standing quite close to him by that time. Jason discovered that Lacy and Simone were both sixteen, the same as his real age.

Jason stood watching as Lacy and Simone milked the four cows after they have been brought into the milking section of the barn. Danny did all the herding while Arnold fed them. Jeff came out as well but he just stood and watched the others. Lacy and Simone, or Sammy as the others called her, had disappeared for a while to change out of their nice blouses and back into their work shirts. Jason was flattered when he realized they did that to try and impress him.

After they were done with the milking, Lacy and Sammy insisted on showing Jason how they separated the cream from the milk using a mechanical device. By that time Shelly and Carmen had decided to go help their mothers with supper. Danny also disappeared while Arnold hung around to help with the pails of milk and supervising the girls as they cleaned the machine afterwards.

“So, are you three hoping to make the imperial marines’ selection or are you planning on staying in the system?” Jeff asked. They were all sitting around the huge dining table as the younger ladies scurried around putting all the food on the table. Alicia and Sophia were sitting on either side of Jeff, who was sitting at the head of the table. Arnold, as the second oldest male, sat at the bottom end of the table with Lacy and Shelly on either side of him. That meant Jason was sitting across from Danny, between Lacy and Shelly and across from Carmen.

“Everybody wants to make the imperial marine selection” Shelly stated.

“We heard the main reason why the Grendel Marine Corps allow females to train as marines is because the Imperials have no problem deploying us” Carmen added. “If I don’t make the imperial selection I most likely will work out the minimum time and then retire.

“I heard on the news that they were training female marines to act as body guards for important people like the duke’s wife, if he was married, or the two viscounts’ wives.” Sophia said. “How many female marines are there?”