Welcome to the Marines (Corporate Marines Book 2) (8 page)

The professor smiles and gestures. The lights immediately dim down, leaving the stage as the focus for us all. The quiet murmuring of people talking stops immediately and everyone focuses on him.

He begins. “Good evening, everyone! You are done your first phase of training, which was a primary focus on the hard sciences. Or should I say impossible?” He giggles at his own joke, which I find creepy.

“But now you need to move on to the next phase. So for the next stage, you are going to be covering a great deal more history and planning. There will also be a bit more physical fitness training as the nannites in your system are just hitting the optimum saturation point. You are likely...” He pauses at the noise coming from us and the whispers from one of the gym teachers.

He looks around with a baffled air and then tries to carry on but we are getting louder. We have nannites in our systems? I have little robots inside me rebuilding me, maybe wiping out memories, maybe rebuilding how I think!? How much of me is gone? Am I even thinking like I used to? Why have they done this? Are they going to make us cyborgs or use us as experiments?

The woman’s voice snaps out. “Quiet. Sit down. You will wait.” I just sit there watching her. She had never spoken to us before, not till now. The leader of the three figures has a warm voice that I can hear the warning growl in. She has walked forward and is standing at the front of the stage in the centre. She looks like she is ready to leap off into the audience on whoever continues making noise. She radiates aggression. We all quiet down and sit there staring at her.

She turns to the professor. “Professor, explain what was done and why, and what the next step is in the procedure.” She moves back to her spot with the two others and stands there waiting.

The professor is still blinking and then nods. “Of course, of course. When you first arrived here, you were scanned, and in the first day medical nannites were worked up for each one of you. Every meal and every drink, the system scans you and releases those nannites to you so that you can ingest them. They have moved into your system and started removing defects. Those of you with a predisposition to cancer or other illnesses have had those treated now. The fitness regime you went through was to stress your system so that the nannites could identify the problems within your body; now, as you hit saturation with nannites, the new ones know what to go and fix.”

The woman holds up her hand. “Professor, you are confusing them. Show them the simplified presentation so they can see and understand your words.”

The mad professor looks startled at being interrupted again and then says, “Of course of course ma’am.” He waves his hands and on the back wall, an image of a person appears. The lights dim down,

Words and overlays on the person’s image start popping up all over. I understand the basics that I’m seeing here, but I realize I need a lot more explanation.

The mad professor continues. “As I was saying, problems are identified and then tagged to be fixed when there are enough nannites in the system.”

On-screen, the person has a marker on his abdomen labelled simply “cancer.” Our viewpoint shifts and we are looking at a mostly transparent three-dimensional rendering of someone’s stomach. We can see little robot nannites that for some reason all have smiley faces on them move in and first tag a small growth of cells on the side of the stomach wall. Then, more nannites come swarming in and begin working on the area. The dark gray area on the stomach wall slowly turns pink and healthy like the rest of the area.

The professor’s voice continues. “After that, the nannites will work on weaker areas, again marking them for follow-on nannites to do the work to improve joints and decrease the chance of damage through physical exercise or exertion.” Here the figure is running and then stops. A spot on the knee is flashing red. Again, the swoop to an inside, almost transparent view and nannites working on muscle and tendon in the area, also reinforcing the kneecap, which is discoloured. By the time they are done, everything looks fresh and clean. The figure starts running again but it is obviously going faster.

“Finally, the next phase, as you conduct more physical fitness that is carefully regulated, you will build up muscle and a bit more bone density so that you are stronger and tougher than you currently are.” The figure is now stretching and lifting weights. It stops and we zoom in. Muscles expand and the internal workings of the body are being reinforced. Bone appears to be reinforced, too. The zoom-out happens and it’s obvious that the figure is now incredibly fit with not much body fat.

The professor is really warming up now. “The final stage will be when the nannites work on rebuilding your nervous system in preparation for the installation of the—”

“That will be more than enough for now, professor. The candidates now know what has happened and what will be happening in this next phase of training.” Her voice is firm and powerful. It cuts the professor off in mid-sentence and he just stands there nodding for a minute. The woman continues. “You should likely continue briefing the candidates, professor. There is a great deal to do.”

The mad professor doesn’t look so mad now as he starts up again. “As I was saying, you will be much more physically active during this next semester, including some martial arts, and you will be covering planning and theory. You need to expect to have to think here. That is all that I can really tell you. You are still in the same sections and you are dismissed for now.” He hums to himself as he, along with the gaggle of instructors around him, moves off the stage.

As the lights come fully up, we all get up and file out the door and head out toward our dorms. Most of us are yawning.

I am walking down the hall toward my room just behind our vocal blonde when she stops at her door and looks at me with a horrified expression on her face. “Oh my God! What if those nannites are inside me pirating my fat…” She grabs her breasts, gasping. “…to make it into muscular abs! Wouldn’t that be horrible?”

I look at her. “Uh, yeah, that would be real bad…”

She slides up next to me and presses her body against me. She is quite warm and soft. She whispers in my ear, “Maybe you could work them out so the nannites think they are a muscle group and leave them alone?” She then pulls away from me and looks me in the face. “There, now you don’t look so horrified at having
nannites
in your body. Have a good night, Grumpy!”

She throws me a big smile as she walks into her room and closes the door.

Everyone around me chuckles and then goes to their rooms. One of the smaller guys calls out to me as he passes me heading down the hall. “Wow, you should have taken her up on that! Not that she would have gone for it as that would cut into her studying…”

I just stand there for another second and then go to my room and grab my towel. I have a nice, long, cold shower until my teeth are chattering and then head off for bed.

I stop outside her door. I always just think of her as the vocal blonde mouth of our course. Her real name is Kellye O’Dargo. I looked at her name tag once. But I think I prefer to call her Vocal Blonde, or maybe Mouth, as it describes her perfectly. After a second, I continue on to my room.

Back in my room, as I’m falling asleep, I realize that she had broken the tension in our hall with what she did. Part of me wishes she had used someone else to rub against as her straight man. The other part says, “Shut up, idiot!” and remembers how firm and warm she felt pressed up against me.

I finally fall asleep sometime after midnight.

The next day my entire section is called down to a different part of the complex and taken into a large medical room with medical beds lined up in two rows. The lead armour trainer is there, along with the mad professor. They are talking to each other in the back of the room. Actually, it looks like the professor is doing most of the talking while the trainer ignores him.

We have three personnel at each table.

They are just corporate drones and I am worried because they all have the same fake plastic smile on. The woman who looks like she is in charge asks me to lie down. Everyone else is getting the same directions and we all end up on the beds.

I see lots of tools everywhere, and the lighting right over the bed is so bright, I have to keep my eyes closed. There is a jabbing pain my neck and I open my eyes and try to sit up but I can’t feel anything. The woman’s face grins at me and, in her squeaky voice, says, “Don’t worry, everything is going to be just fine. You’ll be a new candidate when you wake up. Unless we screw anything up…”

The next thing I know, I’m waking up from a deep sleep and moving my head around. I am in the same room but no one is there except for the people on the other beds. I try sitting up and find that I can do it but I felt woozy.

I hear a gravelly woman’s voice. “It’s about time you people started to wake up after a day of sleeping, doing nothing.”

I see the speaker and it is the scary female armour instructor. She is standing in the same bodysuit she’s worn every time I’ve seen her. Her arms are crossed over her chest.

Everyone else is trying to sit up and doing it by the second try. I struggle to my feet and find that it is easier to move than it was before. Everyone else is up and starting to move around.

There is a loud snap. It’s her again. She turns on her heel and calls back over her shoulder as she starts to walk through the door. “Let’s go. Follow me and I will get you back through the main checkpoint so you can get back to studying.”

It’s a short walk, and then we are back in the main area and she just keeps walking off.

I feel strange, like I am more aware and operating at a higher level, but everything is the same as before. Yet it’s different. Everything is clearer but I feel like I’m missing out on something.

The bell sounds for dinner and we head to the cafeteria. We finish grabbing food and sit down when I realize that we are missing someone.

There is no one to ask and we are always under surveillance, so I don’t feel comfortable asking the rest of the section.

We have just lost someone. How many others have we lost and not been aware of it?

We haven’t been in class so have no homework or studying to do. It’s a magical night.

I head off to bed, and while I slept all day, I’m out as soon as I lie down.

The next day we are up at four a.m. We run eight kilometres in the same time as we had been doing five before. Then, when we get back we are taken through a short, brutal round of circuit training. We have to get cleaned up fast and then we are off to breakfast, which is high protein and carb and tastes so good. Our classes are different now. We sit in history lectures and discuss what is important. We finish that and have a forty-minute workout in one of the gyms, and we push our bodies to what feels like the breaking point. Then lunch, more classes, more working out before dinner, dinner and then study time after we do a physical fitness test.

The test every night is to show us what we have accomplished and how we are developing through the fitness routine. It consists of number of push-ups, sit-ups, and full-arm-extension pull-ups, all done in a minute. We also lift weights and do a grip test.

Seeing how I’m improving every day helps keep me focused on getting through this.

The daily testing and quizzes continue. We have a final test for the last day of this phase that is nasty. Instead of sitting in a classroom or the auditorium and writing some sort of test on a topic, we are told to pick a historical event, explain what happened, and discuss how this affected the course of the following events. We then are to suggest how to be more effective with the event and explain the changes that this would have had.

Finally, we are to present this to some of our peers, who will then ask questions and attempt to poke holes in the scenario unless we can answer them.

I throw up a bit. I really hate high-end schoolwork. A lot of others throw up as well for whatever reason—stress, fear, and I don’t doubt some from paranoia.

But when I think back, I can easily remember a good number of those classes and the alternate way of thinking that they promoted. What had happened was accepted as the best decision of the time. A lot of classes felt like we were armchair generals.

I don’t like that. We don’t have the information that they did at the time. We don’t have all the past experiences that those leaders and the other side had either. When I brought this up once in class, I was surprised that the instructor agreed with me.

She said, “Thinking. That is what we want to get you to do here. One day when a similar event happens, the belief is that if you are trained, you will recognize the similarities and react in a better way than those did in past. No, we are not trying to brainwash you. But certain similarities do pop up in military operations regularly. Now, should you advance or retreat? Fortify or blow in place?”

She looked at us. She wasn’t smiling and I could feel how serious she was. “You will not have hours to make decisions. As technology does advance, then we shorten timeframes down. You may have seconds or less to make a tactical decision today that can lose the battle and war tomorrow or next year. Moving from a tactical decision to something that is strategic is so fast, it’s done before you fully realize what you have done. Thinking will kill you. Automatically reacting and doing? That may save your life, and the lives of your section mates.”

She had stopped at that point and walked out and we headed off to the next class. By the end of this section we had lost more people than previously, and at the time I had no clue why.

W
e sat in a lecture on the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. The professor was a kindly-looking older man who smiled a lot, but he was probably the most bloodthirsty individual that I had ever heard speak. His specialties were on force projection and he carried out research for both North and South American political organizations. His work was recognized around the world—or so he told us. Before he started every class, he told us, “I don’t want the class answers that you learned in school. I expect you to actually use your brain and think.”

Afghanistan was a country that had been a focal point for conflict in the twentieth century. The Russians had invaded for several reasons, including the desire to gain a foothold in the area, as well as keeping the Muslim faith in check through a defensive border. Other factors that figured in were fighting the drug problem that was starting to come up into Russia, as well as locking down possible sources of future resources that were as yet undiscovered.

He smiled as he talked; it was a fast-paced lecture. “The Russians started strong with this conflict. They were invited in and then they set up the puppet regime, as they had done in other places in past. They brought in specially trained advisors who could organize a military and police force. They established their rules and made sure that the ruling group was supported.” He paused and snorted. “So why did they lose? Anyone?”

Then, as he liked to do, he randomly went around the class picking people. He stopped on our favourite vocal blonde, Mouth. “You, candidate, please let us know why the Russians failed in Afghanistan.”

She looked up and began with a blank face that meant she was reciting from memory. “The Russians had lost the will to fight after a bitter and expensive action in a foreign land where few locals supported them and their forces had to leave built-up areas in company or larger formations.”

The professor applauded and had a big, beautiful smile on his face. He was going to crucify her. Everyone had been up late working on homework, the assignment and test preparation. Some of us were letting some of the “recommended” reading slide. He closed in for the kill. “Well, candidate, that was a truly pathetic grade-school answer from someone who isn’t that smart. Perhaps someone here would like to help you dig your way out of the hole you put yourself in? Or perhaps they will join you and I can just throw some dirt on you and call you dead. Hmmm?” His smile grew even bigger.

I put my hand up. “I think I can help, professor.”

His smile became predatory and I could see Mouth stiffen. He looked between us both. “Very well, candidate. Your answer will set the grade for both of you for this topic. Surprise me.”

I nodded, took a deep breath and slowly released it. “There are several reasons that the Russians pulled out of Afghanistan. First, we need to understand that the reason for their being there had never changed. They were still hoping to have Afghanistan as a barrier to the religion that was sweeping up into the south of the empire. Also, drugs were still filtering in. While the flow had been slowed right down, they knew that if they pulled out, then the trickle would become a flood and there would be a very real problem in the country after they departed. When they left, the local government collapsed quickly and all those problems happened anyway.”

I stood up and moved to the map at the front of the class and pointed to the areas of the former Warsaw Pact and continued. “We need to remember that Russia pushed for the invasion but used the Warsaw Pact forces to go in, not just Russian forces. This conflict was far from home and not very popular. When a war is going on, it has to be popular if it is going to be long; otherwise some people will not be happy with the cost of the conflict and they’ll argue for peace. If their border is not the same as the one with the conflict, they will feel even better about that as their neighbours will have to take the impact of the peace before they will. Most affiliated countries thought they would be there for maybe two years and that was all. But the war lasted much longer and there was a slow trickle of casualties, which the client countries did not like.” I paused again and pointed at the North American continent. “The U.S. at the time saw this as an opportunity to test new weapons in a combat environment and also snub the Warsaw Pact without starting an all-out war. They supported and sponsored the local insurgents. This made the entire situation worse, lengthening the conflict and increasing casualties.”

I turned and looked at the professor. “I think that the Russians and Warsaw Pact forces could have kept that conflict up for a long time. I think that they could have ‘won’ as far as beating the organized forces and still accepting some slow losses as fighters trickled in from other surrounding countries. But with increasing openness with the West and the increasing costs, the decision was made to pull out. Both were political reasons resulting in a political defeat, not a true military one.”

The professor was nodding. “I see you put some thought into that, candidate. A basic explanation, but acceptable. Tell me, how could the Russian and allied forces have won that conflict?” He was watching me carefully and I thought about it for a second.

I took another deep breath. “If they had not cared about the political impact and had fought smarter, then they could have held the country against the rebels. It may have bankrupted the Pact, but they could have done it even by cutting their costs. Smaller military units of not conscripts, but Special Forces going out and finding the people supporting the insurgents, then killing them all. Wipe out the entire family or tribal structure behind them. It would bring such fear that the locals would work with them after a few examples. Historically, this has been done by other groups and has been extremely successful. You have to be good to your supporters and merciless to your enemies. The Middle East appreciated strong leadership and a firm hand, as long as it was not harsh.” I paused and continued. “The other option, using conscripts, would be to block off the main passes into the country and take the war to the supporters hiding in other countries across the border. Complete and total war destroying the supply chains so that a single rifle has to come in on foot from a port hundreds of miles away.”

I moved back to my seat while the class watched me. Some of them looked shocked at how bloodthirsty I had been in my solutions. Some didn’t. The vocal blonde was looking nervous but relieved.

The Professor cleared his throat and was smiling as always. “Good answer candidate.” He looked at Mouth. “Be thankful he saved your hide on that one.” He looked back at me. “A very good answer. Totally rule and dominate the countryside so anyone resisting you knows that they, their family and even their tribe will die if they are caught. Used successfully in past. Those empires tend to do well if they are balanced. The other option decreases the chances of the locals fighting back as no one can support them effectively. Of course, that means you are fighting an even bigger war.”

He paused and gave us this last option. “You could always just carpet-bomb the country and then nuke it, rendering the entire area useless and impassable. Nothing can pass that, then, and your enemies know how serious you are.”

He looked up and grinned again. “Time for your next class, candidates. Off you go, then.”

We trooped out with lots more to think about. I wondered, were all senior personnel in the Corporation as bloodthirsty?