Chapter 3

Zainal reviewed the arena battle in his mind as he lay in his bed that night. Something had changed during that fight. Jason, Toni, and John, had convinced the rest of the platoon to go with their plan. He had noticed a few recruits who had only gone along with their plan because they had realized that no one was going to back them up with their own plan of attack. Still, after the battle Zainal had seen a hierarchy had been established and accepted among the recruits. He had also noticed how the recruits, during their hour of free time before lights out, had gone up to the squad leaders asking advice or for their opinion. A sense of camaraderie seemed to be developing, but Zainal wanted to make sure that no cliques formed. They were one platoon, not a number of small squads that worked together from time to time. He needed to remember to tell Toni to keep an eye on that and make note of any developments.

Slowly Zainal’s mind started drifting off to sleep; his mind making one final observation that for the first time, he felt comfortable, peaceful, and at home before sleep claimed him.

Suddenly, he felt a sense of imminent danger, causing him to bolt upright just before someone lunged at him on his bed. As he leapt off his bed, he noticed that Toni was wrapped around someone who had tried to ambush her too, and she was going to town punching the hell out of whoever her attacker was. Jason had his own problem requiring his attention. Infact, the majority of the platoon was being attacked, and Zainal identified that his attacker was none other than the Senior Drill Instructor.

“Incapacitate, Do Not Kill!” Zainal called out. He knew only too well that Toni would be too preoccupied with the fact that she was attacked during her sleep to care if the person attacking her lived or died. More than likely, Toni preferred her opponent to die if truth be told.

Major Demming was in the Drill Instructor room watching through the one-way mirror shaking his head. He had fifty-five highly trained special forces personnel out there in the squad bay, all to restrain one platoon of recruits and what was he seeing? Five of his people down were already down; between Jason and Zainal efforts, the Senior Drill Instructor had now had to retreat twice, and Toni was like a wild animal to anybody that tried to get close to her. Did she just growl at his people? The Smith boy was also managing the situation well, with his primary objective obviously being to prevent his fellow squad leaders from getting flanked by their opponents. A few of the other recruits had managed to join in on the fray, providing additional support to their leaders also.

Demming couldn’t believe what he was watching. Normally when Special Forces Teams tried this, even on each other or during a training exercise, the ambushed team was always quickly subdued; they have never had to resort to overwhelming their opponents with three full teams with five operators each. Demming wondered what the outcome would have been if they had only sent a single team in to test them. Eight more people went down before the recruits had finally been subdued.

Lt. Stephanie Thompson, Major Demming’s aide, viewed the scene as she stood next to him in front of the one-way mirror. “That was a cluster fuck.” she stated dryly.

“Yes”, he stated dismissingly. There was nothing else to say. With the recruits down Demming turned and made his way out to the squad bay.

Corporal Jeffries looked up from where he was sitting as they approached, holding a hand to his neck covering the bite he had received. “I think she bit me sir”, he stated worriedly in answer to Major Demmings’ questioning look.

“If she didn’t break skin, then I don’t think you have to worry about rabies, Corporal.” Demming joked.

“No sir she didn’t, I ain’t pulling an old yeller today sir” Jeffries kidded back. “She’s an animal when she’s fighting sir”

“She, is a woman who had her sleep broken.” Lt. Thompson stated in a dry tone.

Grim laughed. That could well explain why most of the damage to the team had come from the female recruits. But then again, he believed everybody knew females of the species were always the most dangerous, a thought he knew better than to state in the presence of Lt. Thompson. “So, what’s the plan now Sir?” he asked.

“Now we put them in the cattle car, and we move this training to 29 Palms, The Salt Mines.” Demmings explained. “Grim you will be in charge of the Company; facilities have been built for this.” Demmings looked Grim straight in the eyes. “Go and make me Spartans.”

Sergeant Greene watch the medical team off-load the Recruits and put them in their beds at the new training facilities. Grim was standing next to her. “You know Dr. Halsey was branded a traitor to humanity for what she did to produce her Spartans.” she jokingly told him.

Grim nodded. He knew of the Game she was talking about, and of the doctor she was referring to. “We aren’t kidnaping them. They volunteered.” he answered.

“To be Marines, Staff Sargeant. This is something more.” She shot back.

Grim nodded because it was true. “That was a video game”. He looked on as recruit after recruit was off-loaded, all unconscious. “Let’s do implants tomorrow. Set it up with medical. We have the whole team here already and I don’t want to bring them back two weeks down the road.”

Green looked over at Grim, “I already set it up, we actually can begin now as they bring them out ... if you authorize the nano version.” she said after a pause.

“It’s ready?” Grim asked her.

“Approved for deployment last week.” she responded.

“Do it.” he approved, turning to walk away.

Zainal cracked his eyes open to gauge his surroundings. Seeing as he was still alive and not tied up, he wondered what tests the drill instructors had in store for them next.

He was startled as a voice began talking in his ear, “Welcome to the initialization process of the Mark X military implant. Please remain in your bed during this process.” The monotone voice continued. “Be advised that verbal speaking is not needed to communicate with this device.”

“So you read my thoughts?” Zainal asked in surprise.

“Thoughts that are directed towards the implant AI will be detected. All other thoughts are ignored by the AI unit. Do you wish to name your AI unit now?” It questioned lifelessly.

“Zoe”, Zainal said after thinking about it for a moment.

A more feminine voice took over. “Hello recruit Lyon. Did you know that your resting heart beat is extremely low?” It asked in a curious tone.

Zainal chuckled. He wondered how many facts about his body the AI would be analyzing. “That’s not a bad thing, is it?” he asked sarcastically.

“Well, no, I don’t think so. Just unusual. Also, your immune system is incredible for a human. But none of this is in your medical records. In fact, there are many discrepancies between your real body and your medical records, would you like me to update it?” Zoe asked.

Zainal’s eye grew in a panic, “No, don’t do that!” He interjected, “It will be our little secret, ok?”

“Oh fun! We are bonding already!” Zoe replied, attempting to sound enthusiastic. “I will ensure that only information that we want to be known will go into your medical records in the future.”

“Thanks Zoe” Zainal said, sighing in relief.

“The rest of the platoon is waking up and initializing their implants. This process is estimated to take approximately three hours to complete. Could I suggest that you take this time to mentally prepare yourself and be ready for your drill instructors’ arrival to start your next phase of your training?” She informed.

Zainal took her advice and began to ready himself, trying to imagine and figure out what the instructors have prepared for the next stage of training. He smiled as he thought about the fact that he already saw Toni, Jason, and John as ‘The Team’. The fact that he recognized Toni and Jason as part of his team was natural to understand, but why he included John also was a mystery? Zainal believed that it had something to do with the ambush. John had protected Toni’s right, while he and Jason had held Toni’s left. They had surprisingly worked very well as a team. Having them as The Team had a pretty nice ring to it in his mind.