Finishing my physical therapy, teams of doctors took my information and samples of almost everything, afterward I was whisked into a truck and taken down a lonely desert road. My only company on the back of the truck was the blistering sun, and the occasionally hot wind blowing under the canvas. On mars these types of trucks never existed, most used electric turbine engines. These old relics where left over from countless wars. This was visually shown by the aged, rusted metal and the numerous jolts the engine and transmission gave out into the chasse. Besides their yellow tent, the sand and rocky terrane gave me a familiar feeling of home. About an hour into the trip a jarring CRACK broke my contemplation, as the covered truck came to a skidding stop, nearly sliding off a wide turn in the road. Fearing the worst I lifted the canvas lip covering the back and stepped out to be greeted by a blazing heat. Shielding my eyes I looked to the front of the truck and shouted, "Hey you alive?" as I approached. A stout man in green and yellow uniform met me with a laugh. "Ha, take more then an engine breaking down to kill me. I'll get it running or radio in for back up. Go ahead and sit in the back don't need you wondering off and pissing off the locals." He stated the last part as he rounded the truck and tossed me a small accelerator sidearm. "Now that's loaded recruit, sit in the back and anything bigger than a hubcap comes at you, well aim for the ground if its a person at least." I looked over the accelerator and nodded dumbly. I had seen guns before, but never held one. The accelerator was smooth and sleek with a long 10 inch barrel and about 6 inches wide at the furthest point. Inside rested 4 rails, and 48 hyper conducting magnets, in the handle set two micro electric batteries and a cartridge that carried around 200 projectiles at about .01 centimeters wide and .1 centimeters long. The rounds themselves are highly conductive and with a switch the user can apply an electric charge to their shots. Sliding the long barrel back into the holster I climbed into the back of truck hoping we would be on our way soon, wiping more sweat from my face. It was just afternoon and the heat, even in the truck was dreadful. I looked out from under the canvas hoping to see another vehicle or anything besides the blistering sands. Just as I was almost fully leaning out the engine roared back to life startling me forward, for a second I thought I might fall out flat onto my face. Not a moment later I pulled myself back into the back of the truck and the engine hood closed with a triumphant "Yea Baby that's right." The portly driver rounded the corner with a proud grin. "We should be good to go recruit here have some water. Oh and I'll take that back." He motioned for the pistol on my side which I quickly relinquished for the water. "How much longer till we reach the base?" I asked wearily, between long gulps. The Soldier smiled a bit. "Bout an hour yet, going to have to build up your stamina if your going to pass muster out here recruit." He said this with a very condescending tone as he smacked the side of the truck and walked back shouting. "Grab a bench we are rolling out!"
The rest of the ride to the base was down the same rocky endless road. The light reflected off the sand almost like water. Do to this as we rose above a dune nearing the base it appeared to be sitting in a very hot body of water, an odd and beautiful trick of the light. The base itself left a sour almost sickening taste in my mouth as I approached, from the immense defense turrets to the high concrete walls lined with sonic debilators to knock back anyone attempting to climb it. Six large sentry towers and one flight control tower set vigil against the sky. The gate itself was convex shape and made steel polystyrene and other materials, when deployed the reversed bowl like wall would deture assualt from the likes of vehicles, and explosives. At the base of the wall set a wide panel of steel that ran the entire premiter, this plating was equipped with pressure sensors and a electrified surface that when turned on would dump hundreds of thousands of volts per square millimeter. All in all the base was nearly impregnable and easily over designed as a training facility. The thoughts of what waited for me on the other side of that gate was troubling. I never planned to join the military that's for sure. It would be a lie to say I didn't think 'why didn't I just say no when the soldiers first arrived' but I was here now and there was no going back. As the truck rolled through the now open gateway the interior of the base became clear. Only a few structures rested inside as it appeared most of the area had been designated to drills, physical or weapon training. Of these structures one large building set at the back and three smaller buildings were positioned in a sort of city block style. Attached to this block, I noticed as we drove past, was a large open air depo for vehicle maintenance and training. This was the first time, I can say, I ever saw a Colossus.
The Colossus unit was designed pre war during a martian earth conflict easily lost to the history books. The Colossus was an OTS or Orbit to surface vehicle. The Colossus ran on two large triangular tracks that deployed after landing. Equipped with a variety of militant arms, these personal tanks were set to deploy from orbit and drop on martian cities. Their one use in battle saw a decisive victory. Just seeing the older unit sitting in the depo, even powered down, sent a shiver down my spine. With a sharp turn the truck turned into the depo with a squeal from the air breaks and the large derelict rolled to a stop.
I hefted myself over the tail gate and attempted to climb down. However my effort was thwarted by a swift strike to my shins that sent me toppling to the dirt. The violent strike was carried out by no other than Trevor, who was smiling down at me. "Still Slow Georgy boy." His large hand wrapped around the back of my shirt as he hauled me to my feet. "What's this?" He said pointing to my chest. "Looks like those treatments worked you must have put on a hundred pounds. Well come on, best get you checked in before they think you died in the truck. "Ha! Ha! Ha!" He laughed a bit as I was hurriedly dusting myself off, and garbing my pack. Trevor lead me into a nearly empty room with a bored looking clerk behind the desk. I tried to ask a couple questions but by the time I caught up to him we were standing in the room. "OFFICER ON DECK!" Trevor shouted startlingly, to which the clerk stood up so fast he smashed his knee into the desk lifting it and spilling his papers. He did manage to grimace and hold his salute though. "At ease," Trevor announced with a sadistic smile. "This here is George Yurgen, I believe he is the last recruit for Unit C." Trevor bent down and picked up a sheet that said Unit C at the top and passed it to the embarrassed clerk. "Um, yes let me check," The clerk quickly looked over the paper as he stepped out from behind his desk and across the room, "Come over here." he announced. I did as I was told. The clerk barely took note of me as he turned back to the wall, which had a well hidden wall console. Within a few seconds a large syringe gun was slid from an opening. "Your arm please." I extended my arm and without further notice the clerk pressed the gun against my arm and squeezed the trigger, a long needle shot into my arm and within seconds a syringe filled at the back of the device. Unhooking and storing the device he then turned and handled me a bundle of clothes, one pair of shoes, and a Bio chip which was inserted into the back of my neck. "Okay before I let you go, I need to check your chips calibration." The boredom in his voice did not fill me with a warm fuzzy feeling that everything is fine, more as if he didn't care if he accidentally blew my head up. "Okay, Starting up now." There was no sound from the display at first, the first menu at the bottom left of my vision displayed my heartbeat and blood oxygen levels, above this was a readout that at the time stated 0/0 most likely an ammunition tracker. The next part startled me slightly, as a young female A.I voice began to speak, 'Welcome Recruit Yurgen, I am the Tactical Artillary Lifeguard Immersive System or T.A.L.I.S, I will provide you with relative mission data, Aim assists, and finally personal and team based vitals. I can also receive and send messages or access the net during non mission hours. Is there?," Before the A.I could finish the clerk interrupted. "That's enough T.A.L.I.S, just think TALIS to access the program. That should be everything, your bunking down in house C. Your drill Sargent will bring in the rest of unit tomorrow morning so use tonight wisely." He passed me a booklet about the chip, then walked back to his desk and began to clean up the pads and papers that had been thrown. "You should just transfer all of that." I remarked as I left.
The data from the implant was abundant, a sense of anger still sits in my mouth just thinking what I could have accomplished with this tech. Everything from buried power lines to weapon schematics became visible, to most this would have been crippling. With a breath I set through sorting the information, from running cellular data analysis and other large amounts of research this was cake. Within moments I could see how many rounds most of the weapons carried. How thick the walls and depth of armor plating were, there was relatively little to no u.i however I found with intense thought the chip would analyze more. Within four hours of implantation I had accessed a terminal in front of me, which was not a feature normally accessible through the chip. I tried to push forward by accessing an old drone in the depo, regrettably as the drones u.i struck the chip with a set of codes. Before I could memorize the old computer codes flying past my eyes the chip shut down and my head began to throb. I managed to crawl to my bunk and close my eyes, my last thought was something about wanting the sun to not rise tomorrow.
I opened my eyes to a flood of green light and words, a grey shape of a man in the distance, everything seemed surreal just out of grasp almost. Than the text stopped, a voice grew louder over the defining nothingness. "GET UP MAGGOT, ARE YOU DEAF?" I would soon regret my response. "No, but I will be if you keep shouting in my ear." "WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME BOY! GET YOUR ASS OFF THAT COT AND GET YOUR ASS LINED UP SOLDIER!" His shouting didn't stop, while I got dressed, I dashed off outside to find Unit C waiting already at attention. Not knowing what else to do I ran to the end of line and tried to stand as the others. I didn't have a chance to look or even meet them all yet, but no one stood below me and most even after treatments made me seem a bit small. The cold desert night air ran over my exposed arms causing me to start to shiver slightly.
"Welcome to hell maggots. My Name is Drill Sargent Parks, for the next four weeks your mine. I will make sure you wish you were dead. We are going to run combat drills till you can't walk, then I'll throw you into a flight sim till your eyes bleed. If your going to give up, now's the time. I do not have time for anyone who thinks they can't cut it out there in space. The only way off this base is Convoy which will only depart and arrive once a week. So please step forward and stop wasting my fucking time." Drill Sargent parks held out his arm as a gesture to the waiting truck. Almost no one even moved a inch save for me who looked quite stupid looking over the line, expecting more than half to just walk off. It dawned on me this may be my chance to get out of this. I went to step forward but my feet stayed firmly planted to the ground, looking down at my feet I suddenly realized I could have stopped this all along. From the very first day I saw a soldier enter the lab, I couldn't have stayed on mars. I didn't obviously, now this was the moment I truly learned why, I craved adventure something new, my mind became relaxed in the labs, here I was already pushing myself beyond my limits. So as such my feet stayed planted even knowing what was to come. "Good you're not all cowards then, behind you are Drill Sergeants Mason and Clark." "You there on the end, George Yurgen, says here your from mars." "Yes sir." "Well I haven't seen anyone from that back hole in a while, what happened you all grow to weak to fire a gun?" "I uh" "What cat got your tongue?" "No, No sir" "I don't know what they teach you boys up there but when I say jump you better leap and NOT SHOW UP LATE TO MY LINE!" It took everything I had not to wipe the spit off my face as he was now centimeters from my face. "I WANT THAT WHOLE BUNK HOUSE SPOTLESS AND WHEN YOU FINISH THAT, YOUR GOING TO RUUUN BOY! I'm going to run you till you cant feel your balls. Now get out of my face you space worm!" I had never in my life been spoken in such a manner, I still don't know were I found the will not to talk back. "Mason make sure he gets it done if he slacks hit him with the incentive." "Yes sir, come on you heard him let's go!"
The next five hours Mason followed me around with a glove wiping everything I had just cleaned. I have cleaned up radiation messes from entire labs, yet somehow he would always find something and when he did in came the incentive. The Incentive was a small rod about three inches long, when placed against the skin it caused an intense overload of the surrounding nerves, alternatively it can also send out a high frequency sound that when placed close to the ear can cause nausea, dizziness and bouts of uncontrollable sickness. I still don't understand how their use is legal.
After five hours of pain and failures the Bunk house was finally up to snuff. Rejoining the group was no vacation however. "Well looks like our resident space worm finally finished his job. Get in line, Now we are going to run the course."
And this is how things went most of the evening. We ran the premiter of the base, the obstacle course, and lastly we each were given a breakdown of the flight simulator. I never cared for flying commercial or even in most private craft. I had gotten the chance to ride, but that I could have done all night. Overall rankings for the first day put me at the top of the class. Afterward was mess and lights out. This was the chance most had waited for to socialize. I could tell they were connecting over the pain, difficulty and harshness of the training. I however sat alone, not seeing the need for human interaction. I sat quietly and accessed files on every fighter vessel I could via the Talis chip.
The meal itself was carb loaded and rich in natural nutrients. The taste was diverse. I must have looked willing to start a conversation or something as I was staring off into the distance. I was studying the transitional burn engines of a Diver.mk.4 Interceptor low orbit high altitude vessel, as my reading was interrupted by the sudden twang of a metal tray being heavily set down onto my table, in front of where I was sitting. I looked up more than slightly annoyed. "This spot taken?" I heard from across the table. A thinner man stood motioning to the chair in front of me. "No one is sitting there so I guess it is." I could tell there was still a tinge of irrational in my voice. "So your from mars?" The excited voice of the man sitting in front of me only furthered my annoyance, after being called a space worm all day. "Yes, and if your going to give me shit about it then you can eat alone." "Whoa! I mean I get it. But still lower the judgy stick. I was just going to ask what it's like? But you dont want to talk I get it." His quick response held levels of fear or at least caution. "Listen sorry. My names George I'll answer a couple questions for you, but please keep it brief I need to hit the bunk." The young soldier raised an eyebrow as he considered what questions he would ask. He opened his mouth to ask, however just as he was about to, the large fist of trevor smashed down onto the table, startling me and the soldier who fell backward out of his chair. "Boo, Ha! gotcha come on George I got stuff to do and your coming. Hi Bart, clean yourself up man." He commented mostly mocking me for jumping, as well as throwing a towel at the soldier he called Bart. "What the hell Trevor? Wait go where?" I asked quickly as I got up attempting to catch up to the now leaving Trevor. I finally caught him at the door. "Trevor, Stop. Where are we going?" Without stopping he waved his hand back at me. "Don't ask questions just keep up, or you won't be coming back." I knew he ment it, I gave a quick sprint to catch up to the large soldier. We walked in silence till we got to the depo. I kept Trevor ahead of me so I could get a good impression of his state of mood. Curious I accesed the Talis chip, I tried scanning Trevor however the chip kept glitching saying unrecognized subject. We reached what I recognized as Trevor's vessel, surprisingly or maybe less so, there was no registered model similar to the shuttles style save for a much smaller non-atmospheric fighter, the T.A.L.I.S chip's scan confirmed this.
"Get in, head to the cockpit and get buckled down in the second chair. Oh George." "Yea?" "What ever you see tonight, forget it if you know what's good for you, and turn that chip off me if you want to keep it." After stating this he dismissed me with a wave and walked back to a stack of containers. I did as I was asked, sitting there I began to question just what we could be doing out here this late.
I sat silently for about twenty minutes, before Trevor arrived. He didn't say a word, his face was absent of any readable emotion. With no other warning than the engines roaring to life and the lurch as we lifted from the ground we left. Trevor did not speak till we neared the end of the flight. He had flown us to the opening of a great river, where a ship set on a small island in the center of the mouth. "I don't expect you to understand so just shut up and do as I say." As Trevor said this he unbuckled the old world revolver from its holster. "Now this is what's going to happen. You are going to go down there and be your best businessman self, If you can secure his goods than you will and If any trouble starts," He pointed to the wall behind my seat. "Take which ever one you can handle. Now this won't work if he thinks your with the base. So change into your civics, I brought them, from your room. Go, do what I say and you will make it through this." The only emotion he relayed was seriousness. I knew I didn't have a choice so I stood and turned to examine my choices.
[object scans processing]
[ From the far right, Assualt variant full auto SMG Micro rail. Assualt variant Burst Rail rifle stock scoped. Assualt Varient Spread, Powder based projectile multiple ammunition. Personnel Variant Side arm Accelerator.]
As T.A.L.I.S read through the choices only one called out to me. I grabbed the Micro rail accelerator. The gun felt light in my hands, even loaded. The smooth surface was obviously brand new. The body of the SMG was a very simple. Designed to resemble an Fn P90 however the railgun design added a bit of size to the barrel and ammo housing. Stepping out in my suit, it now felt slightly smaller though the army did tailor it to refit after my Treatments. As light as it was the Micro rail felt heavy as I walked to the cargo hold.
I stepped out and like Trevor said the person I was to meet was there, with five others. I realized I had no clue what I was suppose to be buying, so I would just have to think my way through. The person approached, he couldn't have been over five' three". He wore a protective vest over his suit and as he approached I heard the sound of the others charging their rifles. "We have what you ordered." He hollered over the remaining ten feet. "Yea, Well where is it?" I asked motioning with my rifle. "I only see your men and their guns. Not a great way to make me and my money comfortable." "Ha! Listen let's get this clear I can walk out of here and make more in the north. I'm giving you a deal. Bring out the merchandise." He yelled back over his shoulder. "But feel free to brose the merchandise." His retort was obviously half a bluff or he would have walked out and opened fire, common sense told me that. Nothing prepared me for what happened next. I watched one of the gunmen walk to the back of the ship. He returned pushing a gravity cart obviously Cirin make. Inside the cart was four dead Cirin on ice. None of them seemed to be older than their early 30s. My eyes drifted to the large vessel in horror as I did my best not to show my expression. They were body merchants, or Pirates who trade in the lives of others, alive or dead. "So what do you think those ones are not the freshest but for a few extra cert I'll throw in a couple freshly killed." My gut twisted. I was suppose to secure the cargo but the rage and simple disgust I felt was overwhelming, this was only made worse by the obvious execution wounds on the bodies. I remember everything that happened next I'll never forget it. Their leader approached me talking about payment, as he neared I snapped. Reaching forward I caught him in the throat with a solid strike. Before he could fall back I grabbed his coat and pulled him towards me, grabbing the exposed handle of his accelerator. Twisting the smaller man a full three hundred and sixty degrees on his feet as I pulled free the gun. I fired two shots, T.A.L.I.S instantly activated and moved my hand as each shot smashed into the head of two different Gunmen, before I could react a another shot sounded and the one to my left fell. The last two opened fire in my direction apparently unconcerned for their boss. As the rounds whizzed by I returned fire with unbreaking accuracy as both fell dead to the soft wet dirt. As the small firefight ended I became aware of the wheezing in my arms as the boss of the Gunmen was still trying to catch his breath, I pushed him off me in disgust and took aim. In the distance I heard a voice call out but it didn't matter. I placed the incrusted accelerator to the man's head as he looked up at me he began bawling, begging and grabbing at my clothes pleading for his family, I'm sure he never had. "Shut it!" I yelled so loud my throat hurt. "You want to take the lives of others, CHILDREN! FOR WHAT PROFIT! WHAT GOOD HAVE YOU EVER DONE WHAT WORTH DO YOU HAVE!" I got close to him. "Let me tell you, not a damn thing. You are worth less than this dirt that you kneel on. You have left nothing but pain. So I leave you with nothing but pain." I lowered my gun and he began thanking me. I didn't smile or say a word. I just raised my gun slightly and pulled the trigger twice. He screamed and howled in pain as each shot went through his hands, which he had placed onto his knees while begging, peircing through both. As the wretch toppled over into the ground he reminded me more of a worm as he bawled into the muck. "What the hell was that?" Trevor asked as he ran up with water running off him, holding a long barrel accelerator. I looked at him as he ran up observing the situation, "Nothing, Just dealing with some trash." Mostly in a daze I walked back to the ship, I sat on the lowered cargo door as the cool wind blowed off the river, bringing with it a thick mist of sea water. It was like the world was flowing back in, I wasn't sad, sick or mad at what I had done. In fact my only thought was something my father told me as a child.
"Son listen there are a lot of types of people, we carve our own path through our trials. As such a human is worth only what he has left behind him, the hard work, the results. If you live well you deserve to be peaceful if you live like trash, well you really don't deserve much do you? Live well son."
I sat there looking out at the tiny atoll we were parked on. The adrenaline from the fight had passed now and the gentle mist was cool on my hot skin. My peace was interrupted by a distant wailing that steadily grew closer. The source became clear when Trevor came into view dragging the injured worm of a man behind him, who he tossed down extremely hard onto the metal loading door. "Get up." He said kicking my foot to get my attention. This only caused a sneer from me. "Why? And what is that doing here?" I asked pointing to the man. "Whew, he must have pissed you off. We are taking him back to base for interrogation, and your going to help me secure this cargo and get these bodies brought onto their ship for collection." Trevor stated bluntly. I knew there was no point arguing as he would win in the end. I stood and headed back to the scene of the gun fight. The bodies lay motionless in the moist mud, the falling mist and thick smell of the river masked their scent. Over the next hour we loaded and logged everything we could, besides the bodies there where forty five Cirin prisoners and thirteen human, a quarter of both dead from neglect. As we finished up I did feel some relief and pride that we saved any of the prisoners. Trevor stayed silent until we were about to leave. "I am not going to insult you with an apology, yes! you were bait at best. Yet you proved to me your much more than your average egg head." He stated this off handedly, in a way that if anyone else had said this I would have shot them. Yet when Trevor said it I knew it was a compliment. "I figured once you said they would run if they saw millitary. Thanks by the way. I know one of them had me dead to rights if you hadn't dropped him." "HA! I doubt that, I've never seen a recruit handle themselves like that even with a T.A.L.I.S it takes months for most to even understand let alone use that chip." I smirked. "Funny I was trying to hack a drone the day before yesterday, guess the average recruit is a bit low bar." His face for the first time showed signs of shock though only for a second. "Okay Jurgen let's get back to base. Oh remember don't talk to your unit about tonight, I'll make sure you get your credit due, but keep it under wraps, recruits aren't suppose to leave base after all." At this he headed for the cockpit and began starting preflight checks.
Our arrival was better than I originally expected, as I remembered clearly the lack of outgoing or incoming vessels described by the drill Sargent. I fully expected a squad of soldiers waiting to intercept the unregistered vessel. Yet the base was dark, even the large terrifying S.A turrets set silent. I went to raise a question to Trevor but he just responded with, "Your Smart George Figure it out." I had already guessed the operation had a return window. After we landed Trevor dismissed me to my bunk. Leaving the ship I passed the now pale and still whimpering captain of the Criminals. With a last bit of anger I kicked the whimpering Lout in the gut causing him to wake and squeal like a stuck pig.
The next few days where uneventful by the previous days standards. The same routine wake up before your rested, get yelled at for everything from commands to reprimands. I quickly became a favorite of many of my squad members as I proved I could out shoot them with or without the T.A.L.I.S. This of coarse was to my dismay as now they hounded me for advice, techniques, or tutoring in advanced mathematics needed for flying advanced craft. I reluctantly agreed, usually the understanding of payment helped motivate me. Bart stuck near me, despite my irritable manner. He seemed to be happy to learn from watching me and keeping the others from bugging me, this is probably the only reason I never ran him off.
The start of the second week heralded a surprise, our Drill Sargent announced we would be going to Lunar OP One, the reason was to orientate non experienced soldiers, in how to operate in space, Low surface gravity. And for our Final testing we will be completing a successful op in the asteroid belt.