Chapter 1: Basic Training

I was born Author Geoffrey England. My mother and father were both well known scientists. Even with a very high IQ I had dreams in another area. At the tender age of seventeen I enlisted in the space forces.

I was just over two meters tall with brown hair and blue eyes. I had finished secondary school a year before and spent my time finishing my testing in an ancient martial art. The shuttle up to the transport ship was packed with other recruits that boasted and bragged. As soon as we walked out of the shuttle it started.

A large angry sounding sergeant major was yelling and cursing at us. Several other sergeants were shoving us towards painted footprints on the deck. A few were even disciplining men or women that were to slow. Before I knew it we were all on our face doing push ups as they screamed and yelled at us. I knew what was going to happen and kept my mouth shut and just did the exercises.

Finally we were lined up and our civilian clothes were stripped off and thrown away. We shuffled forward beside a counter as men and women run scanners over us and tossed clothing and equipment at us. After that it was the medics turn and we walked through a gauntlet as they injected us with everything you could think of.

In a large room we set our new clothing and equipment down before walking into a set of showers that washed us and felt like it was removing layers of skin. A senior sergeant walked into the room and started calling names. Those he called grabbed their clothing and equipment and began moving out of the room.

Outside the room was a top sergeant with several senior sergeants. We were formed into ninety man platoons and marched out. Walking through a ship naked is both embarrassing and humiliating. It is also designed to weed soldiers that are not emotionally fit out.

My company started with four hundred and fifty men and women. The first week was spent doing paperwork and evaluations. It was also a week of hell for most of the company. If we were not filling out some paperwork or doing an evaluation, the sergeants were pushing us through physical exercises. By the end of the first week the company had less than four hundred.

It is hard to describe a carrier, they are over ten kilometers long, five wide and five tall. The crew for a carrier is over five thousand with up to another ten thousand in soldiers. The imperial carrier Duchess was designed for one thing, training new troops. We made several stops as she jumped from system to system. We never knew what the next stop was going to be; jungles, woodlands, deserts or even underwater or space operations.

From the very first day I was leading the company in fitness and weapons skills as well as classes. We were each issued an assault rifle that used 6mm rail bullets. The rifles were unique because they would only work for each soldier they were issued to. Week followed week and more people dropped out until we were down to just over two hundred. We were into our eighth week with another month before graduation.

We entered the Cerberus system and the sergeants called for a formation. The top sergeant looked at us and shook his head, “You are a sorry bunch. For the next week you are going to be detailed around the planet to give the Twenty-Third Space Force a break. You will maintain your professional bearing at all times. Those of you detailed for guard duty, take it seriously. There have been a few reports of dissidents so stay alert.”

He looked us over before looking at me, “Private England you will report to me after the formation.”

When I walked into his office it was to see the Duchess’s captain sitting on the edge of his desk. He smiled as he looked me up and down. I snapped to attention and the top sergeant nodded, “because you are at the top of the regiment, we are giving you the honor to stand guard outside Counselor’s Hall. Use your best set of class three utilities and draw a basic load for your rifle.”

I nodded and he waved towards the door. I spun and marched out smartly with both pride and fear in my heart. I knew the guard outside Counselor’s Hall was mostly for show, after all who would attack the system counselors? I was inspected three times before boarding the shuttle down and another two times by senior sergeants on the ground.

The Counselor’s Hall is a wedge shaped building. The open side is raised above the street and has a wide stone porch with huge stone pillars. There is the standard clear area out to the street and a wide central boulevard leading straight to the building. High in the outer wall is a line of narrow windows that let in light from the porch.

There is only one door into the building from the porch and I was posted beside it. Just inside the door was a wide hall that spanned the building with a central set of stairs up to the viewer’s galley and two doors on each end of the entrance hall. The hall itself was shaped like the building except there was a room beyond the speaker’s podium where the counselors argued and made decisions. There were rows of stone seats down to the central platform where all nine counselors sat.

I relieved a smart looking corporal and he glanced at the sergeant of the guard before following him down to the waiting vehicle. It seemed like a slow day with only a few people entering. I saluted each counselor when they arrived and then as their session started everything seemed to stop. My eye constantly flicked around the distant buildings, more to give me something to do than to look for threats.

The subtle movement caught my eye and I broke position. I brought my weapon up and side stepped in front of the doors. That saved my life as a large rail projectile hit the wall behind where I had been standing and static screamed from my radio. I flicked the safety off and advanced the sight holo as I aimed. The sniper jumped out at me and I squeezed the trigger.
I moved forward and behind the stone pillar to the right. I moved to the right and looked around it and down the wide boulevard. The sight I saw sent chills down my back as I realized I was probably going to die. There was easily a thousand men in body armor with assault rifles rushing the building. I did not hesitate and began aiming carefully and firing.