Chapter 10: Training Ground

“Morning trainees” Sergeant Baker mumbled, entering the briefing room. He had received some last minute orders for the training session he had prepared for the newcomers. Sergeant Baker didn’t like last minute changes on a plan. Either they indicate the previous plan was bad or they mess up a good plan.

“Good morning Sir!” the group of Marine trainees shouted in response. They stood at attention, eyes front.

‘Okay, they are motivated at least,’ Sergeant Baker thought. He inspected the group of five male and one female Marines. He let them sit down again and started the briefing. “During the last two months your bodies were enhanced, you learned to use them properly to walk, run, climb and for some more pleasant activities.” Several Marines grinned. “You have learned through sleep trainers about almost every weapon Marines use on a battlefield. You have handled most of those weapons in reality. Today you will have to use your most important weapons. Your brain and teamwork. The setting for this mission is ‘keep the flag, get the flag’. You are Team A. You have the flag and you have to keep it. You’ll get a limited set of weapons. Actually, the flag is a container of about two-hundred kilos, it is hard to destroy and it should not fall into the hands of Team B, your opponents. You may have heard rumors of civilians on the training grounds. Those rumors are true. It’s not mandatory that everybody in the area is either Team A or Team B. You have to find out how to deal with them. Any questions?”

When Sergeant Idenfield rushed into the briefing room, the Marine trainees rushed up from their seats and saluted. They roared “Good morning Sir!”

“Good morning trainees. Sit down please. Welcome to your first training mission. I expect you feel fit and know how to handle any weapon we might give you. I heard one of you still has problems handling his new body?” Sergeant Idenfield looked over the group of ten male Marines.

Private Rieth stood up and apologized “I’m sorry Sir. I was used to handle a slender fifty kilo body. Now I’m all muscle, but I still underestimate the mass when I run a narrow curve. I’m working hard on this.”

“No problem, private. Some people need up to six months to adjust to their new body. It will be fun to watch you running around the area.” Sergeant Idenfield grinned.

“Your mission for today will be to get the flag. The flag actually is a two-hundred kilo container and is protected by Team A. You are Team B and have to carry it to the transporter nexus that brought you into the area. There might be other people around. Find out if they mean trouble to your job. You’ll get your equipment at 0900 at the armory. At 1000 you will enter the training ground. Any questions?”

Major Sanchez looked over the crowd of concubines that had shown up as usual. Normally, a sergeant would have handled this, but things changed when two of the concubines, the Governor had on his list of potential volunteers, showed up. Gerald was a fourteen-year-old boy with a CAP of 6.3 who was working hard to improve his score. L’ielit was the concubine of one of the scientists, a mysterious African beauty. They both met the sub scores of a good Marine. The others were extras with insufficient skills for the special game, Major Sanchez had in mind for them but maybe they would spice up the scenario. About one third of the concubines were male and there were a few kids between ten and thirteen too. Somehow the Distraction Forces had mutated to something like family entertainment.

“Silence please,” Major Sanchez shouted. “Thank you. As you know, we have new recruits and this is their first training mission. It’s not a specialized scenario. We just want to find out how they act as team, leading qualities of the group leaders and so forth. Some of you will have more experience than they have, but they are better equipped, as usual.” Some of the concubines laughed. “There will be two teams of Marines. You will play a group of natives. Your village has been destroyed. We have a setting of ruins and some improvised tents, some campfires, food and water for you. We want you to play upset because of the destruction of your village. Don’t play stupid. Team A and Team B are heavily armed, you are not. Some of you already know what we expect. Approach them carefully, talk to them, maybe demand reparations or evacuation. Try to distract them. It’s up to you what you do exactly. If you get commands through the collar, obey them. As you play natives, you should know the terrain. You have two hours to study the maps and explore the terrain before the first Marines arrive.”

L’ielit We found out that among other things we got some knives and five muzzle-loader firearms. Peter, one of my companions who is a Distraction Forces veteran, said that he had used one of them to hunt holographic rabbits in the past. It makes a lot of noise and Marines tend to jump on that sound. Of course, those weapons were only tag items, as the weapons of the Marines are. I took one of the firearms and a knife.

Peter took another of the firearms and played top banana. He suggested doing what the major had said. Build a delegation when the Marines appear and approach them. About half the people agreed to support this idea.

A young man approached me with another of the muzzle-loaders in his hand. “Hi, I’m Gerald. I want to flank Peter and his delegation. Wanna join?”

On the training ground, it’s hard to believe that all those people of the Distraction Forces are concubines, a lot of them unassigned ones. Sure, there are a lot of concubines who can’t abandon their submissive behavior. But the rest gets all relaxed and plays the game when on the training ground. For some of them, it’s an outlet for all the steam they collect over time. Instead of doing something really stupid at home, they come here. Here they are allowed to do stupid things. There are limits, of course. At my first visit here I’ve seen a group of concubines who started a serious fight. It was a pecking order thing. They all were paralyzed and they weren’t allowed to join the Distraction Forces for a long time. So this young man wants to flank the diplomats. “That’s an interesting idea. Do you know anything about tactics and the like?”

“Yeah. My dad talked a lot about how to act on a battlefield. I work hard on improving my CAP score and he believes in me,” Gerald said. “Never let some fools run around unprotected, he says.”

“Okay, let’s see if we can follow our ‘fools’ unseen.” I looked at him. The Distraction Forces uniform was ragged grey and brown cotton clothing. “You are a little shiny for the hiding game,” I said.

“Uh yeah, camouflage.” He grabbed some dirt and smeared it on his face, forearms and legs. He grinned from ear to ear. “Mom will go nuts. She hates dirt of all kind. If you enter our pod, she’ll follow you with a mop to wipe out your footprints.”

We waited for another fifteen minutes. Several people were wandering around or staying watch on higher ground. One of them came to our camp and informed us about the arrival of the first team. They had entered a heavily damaged house at the far end of the ruined village.

Peter and two female concubines hit the road and Gerald and I wandered across country, not more than twenty meters away from the road. Peter didn’t rush. So we were able to keep up with him without making too much noise. Three of the Marines kept watch and Peter’s group ran into one of them. Peter talked to the Marine, asking for their business and the like. Gerald and I slipped past the guard and took a look at the ruined building. They just started to mine the area around it. “Memorize the safe paths, might be useful,” I whispered to Gerald. He just nodded.

Peter This is just too good to be true. I was in role playing games back on earth. Not that computer game crap the kids play today. No, the pen and paper role playing games. Three times a week I spent my evenings with friends and we played everything, from sword-and-magic over historian settings up to science fiction. I’m intelligent and I’m a leader type. The reason for why I am a concubine, an unassigned one? I’m pacifistic to the point that I’ll accept my own death before I harm someone else. I’m not even a defender. The best I can do is to tolerate others who think violence is another way to reach a goal. My leadership skills and my attempts to be dominant annoyed two female sponsors enough to finally dump me to the Civil Service only months after we landed on Vandergast. But then they came up with the Distraction Forces. For me its role playing at it’s best. I’m happy not to be a Marine. They are bound to very limited missions here. We can do what we want. For the Marines, it’s something different of course. This is training and testing their limits. It’s a serious thing to them. I won’t mess it up, because if I do, this would be the end for my hobby.

Today we shake up some new trainees. I’ve been in this scenario seven times or so. I claimed one of the firearms not because I want to shoot at somebody. For me it’s a symbol of leadership. I saw Gerald flinch when I used it like a walking stick. If the game masters give me a crown or a scepter, I would take that.

Now I’m standing before a big Marine with two other concubines at my side. I’ve cornered him with arguments. I’ve told him the story of my virtual life, the destruction of our village and all that. He’s obviously not a bad guy. He wants to help but can’t. He has no resources like food or transportation capacity to offer. In fact, they have less food and water than we have, so I offered him to share our rations with his team. He said he can’t follow an invitation. They have to stay at this position. This conversation took almost an hour. Enough time for Gerald and L’ielit to spy into what the Marines are up to. So I waved good bye and we walked back to our camp.

When we were out of sight for the Marines, Gerald and L’ielit joined us. They told us that the Marines had set up a mine field. It’s their standard procedure to hold a position as long as possible. I’ve seen other solutions for this scenario only twice. We split again before we reached the camp. They wanted to stand guard. Well, it’s their way to play the game. I don’t bother.

We were sitting around a camp fire, enjoying a simple meal in the sunshine, when a group of four Marines approached. I stood up to talk to them. The leader of the group wanted to know if we had seen other soldiers around. We talked and I made clear that I’m not willing to help them kill other people. Then we heard a nearby bang and hell broke loose. I don’t know where the bang came from. Maybe one of us was hunting rats with one of the muzzle-loaders or maybe the game masters triggered it. But the Marines had some backup to cover their backs and they went nuts on that sound. They shot at everyone within the camp, except for their comrades. It took only a minute to wipe out the camp people, including me. Being shot is one of the nastier things in this type of role playing game. The nanites support the game by tinting the clothes red and causing pain to those who are not able to act like a wounded without this stimulation. The pain is nothing I can’t handle, even if a lethal wound is simulated. I’ve heard that the Marines have to handle more pain if they were wounded in the training ground, because for them it’s training, not only a game. Today I was shot dead. Bullet in the head. No pain from the nanites, just the instruction from the collar “You are dead. Drop immediately.” The AI knows that I’m a good player. I don’t need a stimulation to follow a game master’s order.

Gerald I watched the whole incident from my position, about four-hundred meters away from the Marines. I’d seen one of the others chasing holographic rats so I wasn’t very surprised when I heard the bang of his firearm. I was very surprised by the reaction of the Marines. They had several rifles to cover their back, what was wise for the given situation. But it was clearly an overreaction to a distant bang when they started killing everyone. The four Marines in the camp ran for cover. A minute later it was over.

<Why didn’t you do anything?> the AI suddenly asked.

“There was nothing I could do. These things are no sharp shooting equipment. What went wrong there? Are some of the Marines on a power trip?” I whispered.

<I am not authorized to deliver this information to you. So what are you about to do now?>

“I’ll let them pass my position. Their target is obviously to fight the other team. They have to pass my position within sight I figure. Then I’ll look if there are survivors and I’ll do what I can do for them. And then I’ll go tag one or two of them before they get me,” I answered.

Fifteen minutes later, Gerald watched a group of ten Marines pass his well hidden outpost.

L’ielit I kneeled under some bushes only ten meters behind the Marines that covered the approach of four Marines to the refugee camp and watched them. I could almost smell the adrenaline rush of two of them. They were clearly on a power trip. They had argued with the group leader before they moved into position. A crumbling wall of one of the ruins could cause a disaster here. And exactly that happened. I heard a distant bang and then those two started firing. The other four Marines joined after a few seconds.

The group leader returned and shouted “cease fire dammit! What do you think you are doing? This is not your little 3D shooter console game, this is Marine training!”

They argued for a minute or so. Six of them watched the surroundings, so I did nothing but listening. I learned that their group still was not functioning and they clearly caused their own distraction. I also learned what their mission goal was and I was able to identify a lot of their equipment. When they left I stayed quiet for some minutes. I knew where to find them later.

I left my cover when I saw Gerald enter the camp. He was looking for survivors, helping them. He missed to stay alert and so he nearly peed in his pants when I laid my hand on his shoulder from behind. “I’ll follow them. They need to know that everything they do causes reactions,” I said.

Gerald nodded. “I’ll follow when I’m finished here,” he said. “Please don’t do that ever again.”

“What do you mean?” I played innocent.

“Sneaking in from behind like that. I nearly died from heart attack, and I’m just fourteen years old”

“Watch your back” I told him, grinning. Then I left the camp.

“AI, these knifes become all rubbery when I hit somebody with it, is that correct?” I asked when I entered the ruined village.

<This is correct. May I ask for your plans?>

“I plan to kick some Marines ass. This will seriously distract them and I hope they regain their senses. Two of them are out of control,” I whispered.

<I am not allowed to comment your analysis at this time. Good luck L’ielit Debir.> At 11:00 PM the killer team exposed their position. I heard heavy fire and grenades north of the defender team’s position. Sneaking there was a bit risky but I found a position from where I was able to watch them. I saw the killer team draw back and re-assemble in a dell. I sneaked up from a side they weren’t watching that good. The guard was more interested in discussing the possible attack plan than observing the surroundings. He hadn’t even climbed up the slope to a position where he would have been able to observe the area. I sat on top of that slope, well hidden between bushes, not three meters away from him. I saw my chance when some of them started to munch energy bars.

Without making a noise I jumped in the back of the guard, targeting his knees to force him in a kneeling position without throwing him completely to the ground. I hit the side of his neck with the knife in my right and then dropped it. I immediately reached around him with my left hand, pulled one of his hand grenades from his belt what removed the safety pin and just dropped it. With my right I caught the rifle he had dropped from the sudden attack. One second. Surprise delay is something wonderful. Even augmented Marines don’t react that fast if surprised. I pulled another hand grenade, holding the clamp. Two of the Marines were yelling “Grenade!” what finally brought them to their senses and made them move. I threw the rifle up the slope, grabbed a vine and hauled myself up. Two seconds. I heard a few unsighted shots in my general direction when I reached the top of the slope and grabbed the rifle. Veteran Marines would have reached cover and seriously shoot at me at this time. Three seconds. Boom! Those grenades make a lot of noise and trigger the nanites to display some fake damage on those who didn’t manage to take cover. I ran eastwards, trying to avoid noise. My goal was to tangent the open area of the defender team. That was a calculated risk and I really hoped that the defenders were not that stupid as the killers. I heard somebody following me. The open area was about a hundred meters ahead. At eighty I popped the clamp of the grenade. One. Two. At sixty, I threw the grenade behind me. Three. At about fifty meters the grenade exploded and I heard curses. Seconds later I tangented the area of the defender team running full speed. Twenty meters open ground, then I dived into the ruins. I had about two solid walls between me and the open area when the defenders opened fire on the Marines who were stupid enough to not recognize where I have led them. I ran for another five minutes, trying to avoid noises and leaving marks before I stopped.

My clothing was a mess. Before, they looked like old clothes, now they were tatters. My arms and legs were covered with scratches. I checked the rifle. Fifteen bullets on the clip, one grenade in the mounted grenade launcher. Not that bad.