Marine Summer: Year 2041 (12 page)

“That’s why we knocked your ass out,” Boom said. “Testing is some painful shit.”

“When do I try it on?” I asked. I was eager to get the chance.

“Not so fast, rook. You need to go through training before we let you move on to that level. If we take you out into the field right now, we’d just be getting you killed. We’re giving you three days to heal, then Garcia over there, well…she gets your ass. She’s going to whip you into shape,” Motown said.

“But in the meantime, get to know your surroundings,” Hunter said, motioning for me to come to him.

“Yeah, show the kid,” Boom said.

Hunter opened the door to outside the dorm. As I walked through, I was blown away by the view.

“Welcome to Colorado kid, the true home of the Suits. We’re on the 15
th
floor. There are 20 floors total. It’s the biggest secret underground base in the U.S.”

It must have been a mile across. It was a perfect circle. Artificial light from the ceiling poured down through the center opening to the base of the facility. Concrete bridges across many levels created shortcuts from one side to the other. Military and civilian personal congregated on the open patios of overhanging ledges. Taking it all in, I noticed things I remembered from my childhood, like a McDonald’s and a few other fast food places, neatly tucked into one of the lower levels. The 4
th
floor directly across looked like an old town street, complete with stores and shops and lampposts lighting up a cobbled road that was busy with foot traffic. People were walking along like there wasn’t a war even going on. They didn’t seem to have a care in the world.

“Pretty impressive, huh?” Motown asked.

“How many suits are here?” I asked.

“Six person teams, five levels each housing twenty teams. So that’s…”

“Six hundred,” I said answering for him.

“Give or take casualties, the number fluctuates,” Hunter said.

“So why here, why Colorado?”

“Because we’re five miles underground. Undetectable!” Motown proudly stated.

“Get your ass up!” Bob said to me, as I lay looking up at her, flat on my back for the 100
th
time.

“From here, I think I can see those nuts the guys were talking about,” I kidded, peeking upward as she had both feet straddling the sides of my head. Her hands were on her hips as she looked back down at me in distaste, disapproving of my laid-back attempts to defend myself.

My back was killing me, my head felt like I had a severe concussion, and my body was now covered in bruises of various colors.

“This is hand-to-hand combat training, and it would be a shame if you flunked out, knowing how you can meld with a Suit. It’s a fucking disgrace if you ask me.”

“Sorry, sergeant,” I said lackadaisically. I found it hard to hit a woman back. For the past two weeks she had kicked my ass daily. My heart wasn’t in it, and she knew it.

With the help of her scientifically engineered super arm, she pulled me back up onto my feet. My posture was lazy, non-aggressive, and it pissed her off to see me act so carefree toward training.

“Boy, you don’t start trying, fighting back, I’m going to flunk you. I don’t give two shits if I have to send your ass packing. I’m not going to have some half-ass wannabe like you in the field watching my back. You’ll get us both killed!”

“But Sarge, I can’t hit a woman. It goes against everything I’ve ever known, everything I’ve ever been taught in my life.”

She quickly responded, “Oh, really? My presence as a woman conflicts with your moral values, huh? Okay, you wait right here. I’ll be right back. I’ll fix that for you.”

Angry with myself, I wandered over to the window overlooking the rest of the base. Observing civilian couples walking hand in hand down the aisles, streets, and passageways. I was trying to remember the last time I’d held a girl’s hand. The last memory I could muster was in, I think, 7
th
or 8
th
grade. It had been a long time.

“How’s this, sissy boy?” the digital voice behind me said.

Turing around, I saw that Sergeant Garcia was now in her Suit. Her black metal breastplate was stamped out and formed to…well, allow room for her breasts. It immediately held my focus and had my full attention, In some sick way it was kind of erotic. It also scared the hell out of me.

“I can’t fight a Suit,” I said.

“You can’t fight me without it! Either way you’re going to defend yourself!”

She dashed toward me, her right arm drawn back to swing. Instinct took over and I dropped to my left and somersaulted out of her way, using the wall to stop her advance. She spun around to find me on the far side of the room.

“Whoa, Sarge, let’s talk about this!”

“To late for that, Butler! Defend yourself…or die today!”

Unlike the other Suits, this one exposed her right arm. Not thinking clearly, I targeted it on her next approach. At the point when she reached with her left arm, I jumped and clung to the right. It wasn’t weaker, as I’d hoped.

“Are you kidding me?” she said.

She swatted me away like I was a bug. I once again found myself looking up at her. She squatted down, her face shield retracted, locks of black hair covering her right eye. I was confused. She almost had a civil smile on her face.

Then, all of a sudden, she snatched me up and threw me across the room. I could feel the road rash burning as I skidded across the floor, almost skipping like a rock thrown across a pond.

Writhing in pain, still grounded, I felt her kiss my forehead. I opened my eyes to see her sheepishly grinning, not even realizing how swiftly and easily she reached me before I could get back up.

“Does the little baby give up?” she said, her tone condescending, as if she were talking to a baby or a dog. “Let me help the wittle baby up.”

As she offered her hand, I deliberately and cautiously lifted my hand to hers as slow as I could. Just as our hands were about to meet, I zipped mine past hers, unexpectedly poking her in the eye.

“Fuck!” she screamed out. “You little son-of-a-bitch!”

Unable to rub her eyes, she floundered around trying to regain her vision as I made my way to the door as hastily as my aching legs would carry me.

“Get your ass back here!” she cried.

My escape would have been flawless if it hadn’t been for Boom standing on the other side of the door. In my weakened state, and looking behind me as I ran, I abruptly crashed into him sending us both tumbling to the floor.

“What’s the hell’s your problem?” Boom asked.

“She’s going to kill me!”

“Who?”

He knew exactly who when she ripped the door off its hinges and pounced on me. With her hand embedded in my chest she pinned me down.

“Stand down, sergeant!” Boom ordered.

“Stay out of it, Gunny!” she responded, her fist drawn back.

“Girl, I’ll put you on the carpet if you don’t stand down now!”

“Whatever,” she huffed, shoving off my chest. “That was a dirty little trick, Butler! I should rip your head off!”

“What in the hell did you do, corporal?” Boom asked.

“I improvised, that’s all.”

“You pulled an underhanded move!” she shouted at me.

“Only because you put on the Suit. I did what I had to do.”

“Stop!” Boom shouted.

Boom climbed to his feet dusting himself off, “I don’t know what happened, and at this point, I don’t want to fucking know. You violated protocol wearing the Suit during a training exercise, and you should know better. It’s grounds for dismissal from the team.”

“Gunny, let me explain…”

“Shut it Garcia! Butler, get your ass up. We’ve got no choice but to expedite your training. We have orders to leave in four weeks. Something’s come up.”

“What’s come up?” I asked.

“Can’t tell ya, that’s classified. But if you ain’t good to go after these four weeks, your ass will be peeling potatoes for some chow how hoochie for the rest of your military career.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“Then you’d better learn to fight me, shut your cock holster, and do what I say,” Garcia said poking me in the chest.

“You’d better do what all of us say. You’ll be pulling three training classes a day. Very long days consisting of no nights. This is crunch time, boy. It won’t get no realer than this,” Boom said. “Garcia, if he ain’t up to speed, cut him loose.”

“I’ll be up to speed, I swear it.”

“We’ll see about that. Back in the training room. Now!”

I was motivated at the prospect of wearing the Suit, but my mental block about hitting Garcia still existed. It wasn’t that she didn’t give me all the ammo I needed to hit her, I just wasn’t wired that way. If there was a dirty name, she called me it. If I didn’t hit her hard enough, she chastised me. When I slacked off, she went harder. Nevertheless, she pushed me through the training until I could hold my own with her—and her robo-arm.

Training with Boom was easier: shoot a few rounds and blow some shit up. He was careful with his instruction; safety was his key. And when all hell broke loose, he showed me how to decimate the enemy. An energy blast triggered outward from the Suit’s power supply would destroy anything within a six-meter radius. But it came at the risk of leaving the Suit inoperable for a short period of time until the power supply recharged itself. That left us vulnerable to attack.

Brains was the one who put me in the suit.

“I need a woman’s name, and don’t pick your mother’s, for god’s sake,” Brains said.

“Why?” I asked.

“It’s for voice command. It will be your suit’s computer’s name. Generally I place a woman’s voice in the controls. It’s more comforting.”

“Awe geez, I don’t know.”

“Come on, Butler, think of someone. An old girlfriend usually does the trick.”

This was going to be embarrassing. I’d only had one girlfriend in my life. It was for three weeks in the third grade. Her name was Geraldine Schuster. I ran away when she tried to kiss me, ending that short romance, but in my defense she’d had some of her lunch stuck in her braces.

“Can’t really think of one,” I lied.

“Come on dickhead, think of a movie star, a model, someone sexy.”

“Rita.”

He laughed, “Oh you got a death wish, don’t you?”

“You have to admit, she’s kinda hot.” I stated.

“Yeah, but we don’t tell her that. It makes her mad, and we don’t like making her mad. But I’m going to do it. It’s your funeral. What do I care?”

As he plugged in my Suit and pounded away on the keyboard of his laptop, I asked him, “Brains, why are you only a corporal? I mean at your age I thought you’d be higher ranked.”

“Well, my dumb young compadre, much like yourself—and I know all about you and not finishing boot camp. Yes I hacked your records,” he confessed. “But, much like yourself I didn’t finish boot camp either. Actually, I never went. I was working on this project, the Suit, when the aliens attacked. So when they asked me to enlist, I cut a deal with them. No boot camp, lifetime job, and a big bag of money in the end. Guess what?”

“What?”

“They agreed.”

“But why corporal, why not a higher rank?”

“Cause, I don’t care about it. I’m not some gung-ho ‘yes sir, no sir, can I spit shine your knob?’ type of soldier. All I care about is that big pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

“But what happens if we lose?”

“Then we’re all dead and it doesn’t really matter, now, does it?” he shrugged. “Okay, we are ready. Step onto the back of the platform and stand very still. I don’t want the Suit cutting off your little winky.”

“Cut off my what?”

“It’s just a joke, dude. Stand still.”

Wearing nothing more than a neoprene suit, round portals sewn in areas where the red blotches used to cover my body, I stood waiting for something to happen, watching as he pressed enter on his keyboard. He reared up and smiled.

“You’re going to like this part,” he said to me.

Starting with my lower limbs, robotic arms fastened individual pieces of the Suit to me. Piece by piece, it carefully put me into the inner working shell of the Suit. The innermost layer was a self-contained plasma gel layer that rode against the surface of the neoprene suit.

“The gel layer will protect you from getting rub marks on your skin. That, and it will keep you cool or warm depending on the outside temperature,” Brains said.

Next to be fastened in place was a thin mechanical layer, electrical prods sparking as they came closer. On each layer more prods were inserted into each portal to make the connections.

“Don’t be alarmed, you aren’t going to get electrocuted,” he told me, seeing that I looked nervous as they inched closer.

A slight tingling sensation caused me to twitch—a normal reflex, I thought, but it kept happening as the prods kept firing.

“Hold still, Butler,” Brains demanded.

“Sorry, it startled me a bit. Wasn’t expecting it.”

“That’s nothing, just wait.”

I could feel the weight increasing as the layers started to add up. I was starting to struggle to hold it all up.

“Relax. It doesn’t need you to try and keep it upright. Close your eyes, calm down, and let it hold you up.”

That’s easier said than done
, I thought.

With my eyes closed, I took a deep breath and let my body go limp. The hum of the robots as they moved through the air was comforting, at least. The occasional sound of screws twisting into place was almost therapeutic. It was soothing until the sound of a million tapping noises caught my attention. I opened my eyes to see a hoard of small, shiny, metallic spider-like creatures heading toward my head as they climbed up the suit.

“Hey, what the hell is that?” I asked, frantically trying to move although I was restrained inside the inner shell of the suit.

“Nano-bots. They fasten your armor from the inside. They won’t hurt you; no need to panic. Don’t be a big baby,” Brains chuckled.

There must have been a million of them. None of them actually touched my body, but the sounds of them climbing up and moving around in the inner shell sent a creepy sensation up my spine. My mind tricked my body into thinking that actual bugs were crawling across my skin.

“Here comes the fun stuff, the armor. Once the armor is in place and fastened we’ll load the ammo and battery pack onto your back. It will also house the bots after they finish. But if you receive any damage in battle, the bots will release and repair that damage…if they are given sufficient time to do so of course. If not, they will just fill the hole, kind of of like a can of Fix-A-Flat.”

“Fuck me running, this is some weird shit,” I said.

“Nah, this is the easy stuff. Just wait till you take your first steps. That’s when shit gets weird.”

“What’s the armor made out of?”

“It’s a titanium alloy, considered lightweight, but with everything in place you’re tipping the scale at around a thousand pounds.”