Chapter 13: Chain of Command

My name is Kru, and Camp Covington is my home. The camp doesn't have an official name, but that'll do until they come up with one. I hear the commandant wants to call it Camp McKesson but he keeps getting voted down.

You can do whatever you want here. There have been people all over the place here yelling at me and telling me to go here, and go there, and do this and do that. Some of the guys here complain about that all the time, but not me. Because each time they yell at me to do something, I can choose not to.

I've been here for three months now. I spent the entire three months in the PC processing camp fifty miles from here. PC stands for Physical Conditioning. Three months devoted to getting in shape, and getting my head around the concept of being free. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't inescapable slavery either.

Today had been my first at Camp Covington itself. We were brought in on transports immediately after morning mess and dumped in front of the regimental headquarters. I spent the entire day running around, getting processed and evaluated and placed by some exacting and mysterious formula into my assignment within First Division.

It had been explained to me, somewhere during the blur that was the day just past, that the organizational structure was still 'collapsed' because we were not yet at full strength. Sergeant Yashida told us that if the Preci Free Force ever reached 'full strength', there would be exactly one million, eight hundred and sixty six thousand, two hundred and forty warriors in 'this man's army'. Sergeant Yashida said it would take twenty years to build an army that size. Sergeant Yashida was my company commander. He was also my platoon leader. Part of that 'collapsed' thing. Right now platoons were companies and battalions were regiments.

"Tomorrow won't change that men." He said to us as we were gathered around him in the barracks. "Tomorrow wont change that, but it will change everything."

After morning mess, which we discovered to our amusement was exactly as good, or bad, depending on your point of view, as what we'd been getting at the PC camp, we were quick marched back to the regimental HQ, where eight of us at a time were led inside and told to sit in a line of chairs until we were called. A couple minutes later they called the first name. Three minutes later they called the second. I was called third.

The room I entered was bare except for a table, a box, a man in a skin tight blue suit and Colonel Mudfoot, the Regimental Commander.

Colonel Mudfoot wasn't the only Yaru I'd seen here, but he was the first one I'd seen up close.

"At ease Warrior Kru." The Colonel said. "Strip off your fatigues and put them in the box on the table please."

The boots were the hardest things to get off, but not that hard. I'd often wondered how well those self-closing running shoes would do as combat boots, especially with the stories some of the Earth guys told about their military. The guy in the blue suit pulled a bracelet out of thin air and tossed it to me.

"Put this on over your right wrist. Don't worry, it will stretch to fit."

It did slip on easily, which was interesting, because it seemed to be a solid metal band, and not stretchy at all.

The blue suit reached out and put his hand on my shoulder, I looked him in the eye, and suddenly the room got warm and I got dizzy and disoriented. Then something seemed to move in my head and suddenly everything was back to normal.

Except I now had a full working knowledge of what the bracelet on my wrist was and how to use it. I reached down and touched the bracelet, and with a sharp thought I was dressed in a suit like his, only mine had green highlighting.

"Spirit Master Hulin has given you the knowledge you need to use the suit you are wearing." Colonel Mudfoot said. "This is the official uniform and armor of the PFF. Please exit through the open door behind me."

I saluted the Colonel, and threw the Spirit Master one as well. I'd heard about those guys, no sense taking any chances.

"Thank you sir!" I heard myself saying in a gung ho voice.

I stepped smartly through the door, and I wasn't at Camp Covington anymore!

I was standing in a small clearing that was completely surrounded by what appeared to be very heavy forest. Judging by the height of the sun in the sky, it was late afternoon wherever I was now.

"Hello partner." I heard from behind me. I turned and there was a Yaru.

"Hello!" I said. "I'm Kru. Who are you?"

"You can call me Skid." The Yaru said. I had heard that the Yaru names were more stories than names. I figured I'd hear the story before too long.

"Any idea where we are Skid?" I asked.

"Good! I was worried I'd get one of those guys who was so busy talking he never thought to ask a question, and you have indeed asked the correct question. Where are we? I have no clue."

"This is some sort of test, at least that would be my guess."

"Mine too. We should spend a minute looking for any clue we may have been left. You have the eyes and I have the nose, shall we sweep the clearing?" Skid suggested.

We began a sweep, and as we neared the shadowed western edge of the clearing, I activated the 'high beams' in my suit. Two spots on each shoulder began to emit a bright beam of light, which I focused on the ground in front of me with a thought.

"Man I wish all the instruction we got was done the way this armor knowledge was. I know everything about using this armor, like I'd been using it my whole life!"

"Yeah, I got the same treatment for my collar. Pretty impressive. But didn't you get some of that kind of treatment when they first pulled you off of Preci?" Skid asked.

"Yeah, that was probably part of the program, but to be honest, I was so confused and dumbfounded by what had happened that I didn't realize it was happening."

That gave me a thought. I activated the comm functions, and sure enough, there was a message flag shining in my Heads Up.

"Skid, does your collar have the same kind of comm functions my suit does?" I asked.

Yes, it does. Oh, thorns! Good thinking Kru!" Skid said, his coat rippling blue for a second. I'd heard that the Yaru scale/feather coat could change color, but that was the first time I'd seen it happen.

We both had the same messages. The first was from the gear itself, warning of high altitude and thin air. I immediately kicked in the suits face mask and let it feed me normally pressured air. I looked over and saw Skid's entire head now covered as well. The other message was an ops bulletin. Meet at the beacon. When I pulled up the nav feeds there it was, showing a distance of 20 miles.

"That doesn't seem very far away. I expected the test to be tougher." I said.

"It is. There's map data in the navcom. Overlay it on top of the range display." Skid answered.

I did, and saw why a twenty mile hike was our test. The beacon was only twenty miles away, but it lay at the bottom of a half-mile deep canyon.

We'd wasted twenty minutes already, but we took another ten to map out a line of travel on the map and mark in some way points so the navcom would alert us to our progress.

The forest we were in the middle of thinned out after only a couple of miles, and then it was a good thing my suit had the exoskeletal enhancers it did. I was barely able to keep up with Skid, even using them at full power.

"Damn Skid, can you run!" I commented at about the five mile mark.

"Thanks Kru, but I suspect when we get to the canyon part of this little vacation, you'll be hearing me saying 'Damn Kru, can you climb!'." we both laughed out loud over that, and I liked Skid's laugh, it was deep and rumbled like distant thunder.

We had a river to cross in about a mile, and I decided now would be a good time to take a closer look at the map. When I pulled up the comm gear again though, I got some telltales immediately.

"Pull up Skid!" I said immediately, sliding to a stop.

It looked like our test included a few obstacles, or else we were about to meet a few more travelers like ourselves. There were two moving blips on the tactical display. When I'd pulled the comm gear up again it was busy warning me that it had detected heat and movement a mile ahead.

"Skid, we've been pretty dumb Warriors so far. Running across an unknown world and we had all our electronic eyes and ears shut down like we were on vacation!"

With the comm gear and the security features engaged this time, we headed for our river crossing again. It looked like our two blips were headed for the same spot, and that we would get there a little more than a minute ahead of them.

<We should lay in an ambush when we get to the crossing.> Skid said Over the 'private' channel of our suits. We were getting too close to risk being overheard, so I answered back the same way.

<Good idea!>

The terrain map we got through the navcom had made this place seem like an ideal crossing point, but it wasn't exactly designed for an ambush. There was almost no cover to be had, and what little did exist was not going to hide Skid, he was just too big!

That's when I found out that the color shifting properties of the Yaru coat could serve as camouflage. Skid crouched down in the sand near the river and his coat swirled for a second and he was gone! MY armor's stealth mode didn't work the same way, but was just as effective. I sat myself on top of a rock, big enough to sit on but too small to hide behind, grabbed a couple of rocks as improvised weapons, and cloaked and calm we awaited the arrival of our two blips.

A scrambling cascade of dirt from the edge of the riverbank about ten yards south of us signaled their arrival. That was followed seconds later by the sounds of a Yaru tongue lapping at the water in the river.

"The water's good Vic! And the map was right, this looks like a good spot to cross."

"Great, Frost" came a man's voice, "We've still got a ways to go though." I watched the man bend over upstream of where the Yaru had taken his drink. His armor retracted from his face and he dipped his hands in the stream to get a drink. That's when I hit him with the first rock.

He reacted instantly, launching himself in my direction. I dropped the second rock and met him halfway in a flying tackle. I was sitting on his chest, trying to decide what to do next when the Yaru snarled and launched himself at me from fifteen feet away. I saw Skid blur into visibility and intercept that leap in mid air, knocking both Yaru into the river.

For a small period of time there was some very energetic splashing around in the water and rolling around in the dust. Finally I decided we'd had enough fun.

"Stop!" I hollered. Everybody froze. The fellow beneath me began to laugh, and a few seconds later I heard the sounds of Yaru laughter coming from the river. Soon I was laughing as well. I stood up and deactivated the stealth mode of my suit. Skid came splashing out of the river to stand beside me.

"I'm Kru, and this is Skid. We're first Company, Mudfoot Division."

"I am First Frost and Clear Air of the Season's Shifting. Call me Frost. This is Victor Greene. First Company, Mudfoot Division."

I stood corrected. This Yaru was a female, that seemed obvious.

"I suspect that since the basic unit of our organization is a Quad of two Warriors and two War Hounds, the four of us are intended to form a Quad. If so, I have an immediate problem with the two of you." I said.

"Which is?" Vic said, bristling.

"Which is that on an unknown world, and with no knowledge of possible foes or other dangers, you ran all this way without your comm or security gear active." Skid said. "You had no idea there was anyone in the vicinity. We were able to set up an ambush, which you both walked into without any thought to the possibilities."

Victor Greene blushed and I saw Frost's coat ripple a dark red.

"If it makes you feel any better, we didn't figure it out immediately either. I would guess that that is half the lesson that they hope to teach us today." I said.