Chapter 5: Final Year

A few days later Jason and his class mates started their third year of officer training. Jason seemed to have managed to do two years in one, without anybody saying anything about it. Carmen and Shelly became even closer to Jason, acting like brother and sisters even when they were in the privacy of their rooms.

For the next two months Jason was leading the class, academically as well as with physical activities. He seemed to fit in well as a natural leader to the point where even the three sons of barons treated him like the class leader. He never let that go to his head and even tried not to be appointed the leader for every exercise or excursion. With him having finished most of his academic training by that time, being taller than anybody in the training section, and really knowing what he was talking about whenever he opened his mouth, it didn’t matter if he suggested another leader. Everybody kept looking towards him to take the lead.

“Field trip? Cool!” Carmen exclaimed.

“That sounds so much like elementary school” Linda said. “Where are we going anyway?” Major Macon was standing in front of the class, having just told them that they would be spending the entire summer off the base.

“You all know that promotions in the Grendel Marine Corps is slow and far between.” The major said. “The main reason for this is that the empire has no external enemies. With Grendel being a dead-end system, we have less threats from pirates as well. We have never had a real fight on our hands. By comparison a large number of the Imperial Marines have battle experience. There are actually systems out there that will and do rebel against the empire, but the biggest threat is pirates. As marines we are supposed to be ship-bound soldiers. Our main objective is to train marines that can fight, even if we never had a battle ourselves. We have negotiated with the Third Imperial Marine Battalion to allow some of our trainees to join them and get some time aboard a navy cruiser.”

“Who makes the selection on who goes and who stays?” Grouse asked.

“The commander of the Third Battalion makes the final cut, after his company commanders reviewed the list of names that we supplied them.” Major Macon said. “Naturally we only supplied the names of those who we think would do us proud. We tend to keep our dead-wood in-house.”

“Are all of us going?” Meeker asked.

“Actually, in your case the decision is out of our hands” the major said. “We have to get parental permission for any marine trainee who is still under the age of twenty-one for any off-world excursions. The duke also insists that any son or daughter of a baron or higher has to get explicit permission from the baron or viscount in question. I am sorry but none of you three are going.”

“Which means none of us stand a chance of ever being selected to join the Imperial Marines” Meeker said with a sigh.

“What is the use” Grouse grumbled. “We have been wasting our time.”

“Only if you think so” the major said.

“So, what do we do now?” Grouse asked.

“You continue with your academic education” the major said. “Where a new lieutenant in the Grendel Marine Corps gets commissioned with the equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree, you can very well get commissioned with a Master’s degree.”

“Do you need us for anything?” Grouse asked in a rather snotty manner. The major just smiled and shook his head. The rest of the candidate officers just watched as the three sons of noblemen left the room.

“As far as the rest of you are concerned, we always submit a lot more names than the Imperial marines will take.” The major continued. “The number of candidate officers that gets to go depends not only on your grades but also on the number of marines that get accepted to go. Sometimes single marines are embedded in imperial marine squads but other times we supply whole squads complete with squad commanders. In this case Third Battalion allowed us to send a whole company, consisting of six platoons, 480 Grendel marines and officers. It seems the Third Battalion is a bit under-staffed at the moment. I will be commanding the Grendel Company. A squad leader is usually a sergeant but we have a shortage of those and you lot need to learn to lead, so, each of you will be in command of a squad which in turn consists of two sections or 20 marines. The final selection will be done by company commanders and the battalion commander. You lot have a week to get yourselves ready before we all go up to the space station to join the rest of Third Battalion.” With that the major turned around and left the room.

An hour later their tablets pinged to indicate incoming messages. Jason check his messages and found lists of names. The names were organized into 24 groups of twenty. Most of the names belonged to Grendel marines, local commoners that qualified as PFCs or corporals over the last year. Jason’s name as well as the rest of the class but minus the three nobles were listed as well. Jason quickly figured out that he was the squad leader of First Platoon, Second Squad. Carmen was the squad leader of Third Squad and Shelly was the squad leader of Fourth Squad. Dalton, Fielder, and Archer each had a squad as well. The other three were listed as squad leaders but with no squad assigned to them yet.

“Where are you going?” Carmen asked as Jason jumped up.

“Going to find my squad and find out what they are like” Jason said.

“Wait, we are coming as well” Shelly called as she and Carmen grabbed their tablets and followed him.

Jason found a group of marines in the gym, practicing hand to hand combat under the leadership of a couple of corporals. The fighting was not very serious and Jason could see they were mostly just keeping themselves busy.

“Come on you guys, put a bit of effort into it” A petite blond corporal called. Her voice was fairly high-pitched and just didn’t seem to be carrying much authority. When she turned towards him, Jason recognized her name tag as one of his two squad corporals.

“That corporal is mine” Jason muttered.

“Really, you just claiming her?” Carmen hissed at him. “Shouldn’t you at least introduce yourself and date her a bit before claiming her?” Jason glared at Carmen to see she was teasing him. “Okay, I agree she is cute. Is she on your list?”

“Corporal Lewis!” Jason called. The pixy-ish blond with page-boy style hair jerked her head around and glared at Jason. Then she came stalking towards him. She didn’t have a friendly look on her face at all as she came closer.

Up till that time Jason and his fellow candidate officers had nothing much to do with regular marines. They knew about the derogatory names they were called by the marines, names that were even worse than the names given to commissioned officers. Jason knew, from watching how Grouse and Meeker acted towards the marine PFCs and NCOs they came into contact with.

“Yes?” Lewis asked in a decidedly unfriendly tone as she stood in front of Jason with her fists in her sides. Since Jason was not an officer yet, and the title of candidate officer was not a rank, Lewis pointedly ignored Carmen and Shelly who were standing on either side of Jason.

“I’m Jason Cosgrove.” Jason said even if he knew she already read his name off the name tag on his BDU shirt. “According to the orders I received from Major Macon you are the corporal for Second Squad, Section B of the Grendel Marine Company going on a training exercise with the Imperial Marine Third Battalion.”

“I know that” she said in an icy tone. “I also know you are supposed to be our glorified squad leader.” While she was listening and responding to Jason, another corporal, a lanky guy with a similar careless attitude strolled over and stood next to Lewis. Jason Instantly recognized him as Fred Mars, his other corporal.

“How about we make you a deal” Fred said. “You stay out of our way and we will not hurt you?”

“Hurt me” Jason asked in confusion.

“You are just a wannabe officer, not any better than any PFC” Fred said. “I am a better squad leader than you ever will be. As I already told Lewis, I’m the most qualified even if she is marginally senior to me. Besides, the Imperials deploy woman but never in senior ranks, so, I should be the one getting bumped to sergeant” Then he looked Carmen and Shelly up and down as if he wanted to date them.

“Corporal Mars” Jason said in a low steady tone. He already realized from how Lewis was reacting towards him that he was going to have to earn their respect. “I don’t have a rank but at the same time I have been appointed into a position over you. So, listen up. I don’t like your attitude and I think you are all mouth. I saw how lethargic you have been in unarmed combat practice. How about I make you a deal. Grow a pair or request to be exchanged with somebody else because I doubt if you and I will get along while you have that attitude.” By that time the crowd around Jason has grown as the rest of the marines in the gym stopped doing whatever it was that they were doing and gathered around to watch.

“Think you can take me, mister nobody?” Mars taunted Jason as he stepped backwards while hooking his fingers to pull Jason closer. Jason didn’t hesitate as he passed his hat and tablet to Carmen. Nearly instantly the crowd cleared enough to give Jason and Mars sufficient space to spar.

Jason grew up far from the capitol in a mostly industrial region and went to a public school where he got bullied by bigger boys until he started standing up for himself. Since then he has been practicing unarmed combat for three years under the marine detail guarding the duke, as well as martial arts training under the tutorship hired by the duke to educate his grandchildren. By the time Jason joined the candidate officers’ class he was already a force to be reckoned with in both edged weapons and unarmed combat.

Mars was dancing lightly around Jason with his fists ready as Jason stood flat-footed waiting for him. The first strike from Mars seemed like it was going to hit Jason but at the last moment he moved his head sideways and Mars’ fist missed by about a centimeter. Mars instantly followed up with a punch to the solar plexus but Jason casually blocked the punch by swatting Mars’ hand away. Mars suddenly realized he was not facing a novice. Mars kept dancing around trying to figure out how to attack somebody with lightning fast reflexes and who was standing fully open.

“You going to fight or would you rather dance?” Jason asked.

Suddenly Mars came forward with a flurry of punches. Jason blocked all of them while also landing a couple of teasing taps on the side of Mars’ head. That just seem to make Mars angrier. When it looked as if Mars was going into brawling mode Jason grabbed him by his wrist and yanked him forward while Jason stepped aside. As Mars stumbled past him, Jason swiped Mars’ feet from under him. Jason followed up and face-planted Mars on the exercise mat while he knelt on Mars’ shoulders with his one knee.

“Your unarmed combat skills suck” Jason said in Mars’ ear before he stood and stepped aside. “Maybe you should ask Lewis to join you. Maybe together you two can give me more of a workout” Jason said as he hooked his fingers at a stunned-looking Lewis.

Mars was still angry enough to act before thinking so he jumped up and charged at Jason with his arms swinging wildly. Jason kept one eye on Mars as he taunted Lewis. She suddenly decided to make use of Mars’ attack by trying a sneak attack at the same time. She made as if she was not interested as she moved half behind Jason, forcing him to either face her or face Mars. Jason kept his eye on Mars as he moved so he stayed exactly between the two corporals. As Mars got within range Jason ducked under his swinging arms and grabbed him in a lifting grip. Jason guessed more than anything else where Lewis was as he dumped Mars right on top of her just as she came in to attack Jason from behind. The two went down in a clutter of flailing arms and legs.

Jason was casually standing a few meters away as Lewis and Mars finally untangled themselves and jumped up to face Jason. What made matters worse was that the privates that were watching started making comments about Jason being untouched and how funny the two corporals looked.

“Attention!” Jason thundered, causing everybody, including Carmen and Shelly, to jump to attention. “That was the worst form of unarmed combat I have ever seen. Neither of you deserve to join the Imperial Marine battalion. How about both of you ask to be exchanged?” He said to the two corporals, both who suddenly looked dejected and ashamed. Jason strode over to Carmen and took his tablet from her. “The following PFCs stay and form up so I can evaluate you” he said out loud before he started reading the names of his squad.

“That was truly a different side of you, one none of us have even realized existed” Shelly whispered as Jason got close to her. Jason just gave her a skew mock grin.

“I would like to see if the list of names given to me are worthy of joining the Imperial Marines Third Battalion.” Jason said to the group of marines. Lewis and Mars were still confused about what to do and ended up falling in at the end of the line of marines. “Grab the person to your left and start sparring.” Jason stood watching as the twenty marines suddenly broke up into pairs. The pairing resulted in Lewis and Mars facing each other.

As the pairs started fighting, Jason made his way among them, evaluating them. He quickly realized that what he saw earlier was basically a lot of goofing off since now they were actually good. Jason quickly started declaring winners among the ten pairs, including declaring Lewis the winner when she managed to overcome Mars after some struggling. Then Jason put the winners up against each other, until he had just Lewis as the final winner.

Then Jason bowed to her in traditional martial arts form before starting to attack her. She fought back hard and with a lot of determination but Jason quickly realized she was scared of him. That caused him to start taunting her. He has never really landed any punches on her while she didn’t manage any punches on him either. He eventually got her mad enough at him so she started to take chances but she still didn’t get near him. Jason decided to take a chance on letting her win. He knew he couldn’t suddenly fight so badly that she wins but he was bargaining on her not being able to do too much damage.

“I think all of you are capable of proper unarmed combat if you have some motivation” Jason said as he stopped sparring with Lewis in mid-fight. Lewis reacted as he hoped she would. The moment he faced away from her and stood upright she hit him with a double fist punch to the side of his head. He was half hoping she would go for his stomach since she was so short compared to Jason.

“Oh shit!” a voice said somewhere far off. Jason’s head was hurting as the world around him stopped spinning.

“Knocking out the quad commander, and a future officer, is not a good way to enter a career in the marines.” That voice belonged to Mars and had a snide sound to it.

“You okay?” Carmen asked with her face swimming into view. Jason’s sight cleared and he found himself on his back on the exercise mat with the whole squad surrounding him. Lewis, Carmen, and Shelly were on their knees on either side of him looking worried. As he looked up at Lewis, he again realized what a cute and pretty girl she was. At that moment she looked rather worried.

“Tomorrow at five am this squad will be ready for morning PT next to the water tower.” Jason said as he stood. He had to grab hold of Shelly’s shoulder to steady himself until his head cleared again. Nobody said a word as they stared at him. “Extra push-ups for everybody who finish the run behind me. Mars, you have a rotten attitude. Curb it! Lewis, you are the squad second in command” With that Jason took his tablet and hat from Shelly and walked towards the door.

“And that, ladies and gentleman, is how you get a new untested squad to worship the ground you walk on” Shelly muttered as she and Carmen fell in on either side of him.

“Now I know how to introduce myself to my new squad, except I think that was how not to do it except it seemed to have worked.” Carmen said.

“Did you see her face when she decked Jason?” Shelly asked as she peeked past Jason. Carmen giggled.

“I’m very curious to see how she treat him tomorrow morning.” Carmen said.

“Did you see the major watching the show?” Shelly commented. “He and two other officers in imperial uniforms, were watching from the gallery walkway.

“Did they see me getting knocked on my ass by a girl half my height and weight?” Jason asked with a groan. Both the girls just giggled.

The next morning when Jason walked up to the water tower, he found three squads waiting there, including Carmen and Shelly. He noticed one difference between the three squads; two of them were standing around in bunches while one was formed up in squad format, three rows, with Lewis and Mars in front of them.

“Trying to steal my show?” Jason teased Carmen and Shelly when he walked up to them.

“Hey, if it works...” Carmen said.

“Nobody else in the class can pull that unarmed combat trick you pulled. Nobody believed us either” Shelly said.

“Stretches! Corporal Lewis, lead the stretches please” Jason called out.

“Yes, Sir!” Lewis responded before she suddenly clamped her hand over her mouth. Jason just looked at her. There was no law against addressing a candidate officer as sir but generally it was not done either.

After some warming up Jason pointed down the road and took off at his regular pace. They ran the regular three-kilometer route, with most of the marines, including Lewis and Mars, staying close to Jason but not running in front of him. When they reached the end point, most of the marines slowed, especially those in front of Jason but when he just kept going for another round they took off again. Jason kept his pace and halfway through the second loop he started passing groups of marines. A few tried to catch up again but gave up after a short distance.

Jason was not surprised when only two PFCs finished ahead of him. The other two squads belonging to Carmen and Shelly came way last but Carmen and Shelly managed to finish ahead of their squads as well.

“You two, relax” Jason said as he pointed to the soccer field next to the track they ran on. His squad instantly formed up and then went down for push-ups. Jason also went down and started doing push-ups with them. He continued until he noticed about half the squad had dropped out before he stood and ordered them to stand. The two marines he told to relax ended up doing push-ups with their buddies, willingly and with grins on their faces.

The sun had just come up as Jason dismissed his squad. As he turned, he noticed Major Macon, Gunny Thom, and two foreign captains in the space-gray BDU of the Imperial Marine Corps approaching him. Carmen and Shelly had already joined him.

“Captains, this is three of our most promising candidate officers, Cosgrove, Crocker, and Palmer.” The major said. “Gunny Thom will be joining us as the company sergeant major.” Jason and the two girls all saluted the major as they came closer. “So, you three decided to introduce yourself to the squads assigned to you? Did you ask their current squad leaders if you can have them?”

“No major” Jason said. “We have only instructed them to join us before regular work hours.”

“What are you planning on doing next?” Gunny Thom asked.

“Get permission to take them to the rifle range and the indoor range, gunny” Jason replied.