Still can't decide on a name! Two chapters away from making its own story thread on SB/QQ and being posted on AO3. Same scheme as with AYWGOT, Patreon will remain four chapters ahead as an Early Access benefit.
Chapter 4
Catherine Halsey studied Tanya as she viewed video after video the ONI surveillance teams took of her parents.
“I believe that should be sufficient, Tanya. If you open this folder, you’ll see a compilation of the other parents of your trainees. My purpose was to minimize harm but also to avoid any alarming suspicions of children being kidnapped for secretly funded programs like this. Killing off your parents or other parents would be counterproductive.”
The girl before her had been in the training program for a year. In that time she had excelled in every metric other than raw biometrics. In distant running, sprints, and pure strength measurements, she was below average for the group. In any sort of contest where technique or tactics played a part, Tanya dominated with seemingly effortless ease.
The gap is narrowing in some areas, but it is still wide.
“This is comprehensive, but give me a few more moments.”
Catherine could sense no waver in Tanya’s voice, but she knew what was going on. Tanya had her proof of life evidence. She just wished to prolong how long she was able to see the footage of her parents. It was heartbreaking and worse, very counterproductive to what Catherine had hoped to accomplish.
For the other children, the exhausting routine, the endless competition and physical training along with cramming as much information into their gifted brains as possible had made thoughts of home difficult to focus on. The new bonds they were forming with the other trainees were replacing the family dynamic they had previously. Many had begun viewing their identity by their first name and number, which was exactly what Catherine had intended. The reshaping of the ego was an important, if secondary part of this program.
“That’s enough, Tanya. This constant looking back only makes this harder for yourself.”
Catherine almost physically recoiled at the momentary glance of the purest loathing from the seven-year-old child, before a heartbeat later a more placid visage presented itself.
“Don’t try to renegotiate our deal, Doctor Halsey. I’m perfectly capable of compartmentalization.”
Nonetheless, Tanya opened the other folder and then frowned.
“Why do some of these families have surviving flash clones?”
“Flash clones can survive longer than some might think. ONI’s science teams keep trying to perfect it, but ultimately it is a dead-end. The degenerative process is impossible to predict. Most will only last a month or two, others could potentially last for years, but all will begin their metabolic cascade failure almost immediately. Yours… well, yours was an exception.”
Tanya went utterly still.
“In what way?”
Curious, why has she suddenly grown wary?
“After doing a short-term memory wipe of your parents ONI agents placed your flash clone in your bed. The following day, upon waking up, it screamed and then went into a tonic-clonic seizure. Your parents credit their memory problems due to the shock and horror of that day. Your clone died from a massive brain hemorrhage before you ever arrived on the training facility.”
Tension melted away from Tanya’s small frame. Halsey made a mental note to arrange for another flash clone to be made. Her scientific curiosity had been kindled and while they weren’t cheap to produce, the budget she had was fairly massive.
“You’ve kept up with your end of the bargain, Doctor Halsey, and so I will continue to keep up mine. I’ve even avoided being vocal about slanted lessons Déjà has been pushing.”
It still frightened her how perceptive Tanya could be, as well as the sheer breadth of her historical knowledge. Given the catastrophic nature of the flash clone’s death, she had instructed the ONI personnel in the guise of research doctors to ask her parents about their child’s early interests. Since the age of three, she had been able to read and had voraciously devoured books on science and history before moving on to academic papers.
If she hadn’t been abducted for SPARTAN-II, she may have ended up being as academically accomplished as myself. Why her parents wanted her to attend regular schooling is beyond me. How could they have been so selfish as to try to hide this prodigy from humanity?
Oh…
Catherine was mildly embarrassed at insulting the appropriate foresight the Fischer parents had about the risks of exposing their child’s intelligence to the government.
“You are fulfilling your end very nicely. Not just by not objecting to some of the propaganda, but in the contests themselves. It has been amusing the myriad ways you find loopholes in CPO Mendez’s contests. Keep at it, please. While it interferes in part with our analysis of the capability of the trainees, it is also teaching them lateral thinking which will be critical for their future success. It has also pushed the more competitive trainees to work so much harder.”
“John and Kurt, right? Those are going to be future leaders,” Tanya said with a hint of fondness. “I admire how single-minded they are on performing.” The girl paused and then shifted her body to mirror the way Catherine was holding hers. “If you’d like, I could make some recommendations and help propel them even further.”
She wasn’t going to alter the program, at least not in the short-term, but she was fascinated as to what Tanya had in mind, the thought process behind it, and more importantly, why she would even offer given the raw boiling hatred Catherine knew that Tanya had for her under her calm demeanor.
***
Doctor Halsey didn’t run with my idea, but that was fine. I wasn’t overly enthused about any of this anyway, but I did yearn for more autonomy. It wasn’t just about the enjoyment of being able to structure my day.
Perks are secondary to accomplishing goals.
As I thought more about this program the more I came to the conclusion that there was more going on. Doctor Halsey was an odd fit for this and I still wasn’t sure what the success and failure parameters were. I’d have to keep my eyes open, pry out more details where I could, and in the meantime do my best to provide incentive to keep me around.
I knew the other trainees were not getting proof-of-life sessions every year and that meant I had to at least perform as an outlier. It was easy going for now, but I could already tell I was going to seriously work at it to keep up with these genetic freaks.
And they were genetic freaks. I was among the smallest of the trainees, despite the fact that I was moderately above average compared to normal kids my age. They were all incredibly coordinated and learned very quickly. My past lives gave me a sizeable edge, especially when it came to planning tactics, but the gaps in physicality were starting to show.
Damn you, Being X. You couldn’t let me have the win of being tall compared to my peers, could you?
On the plus side, it meant that I would be surrounded by incredibly effective meat shields. Plus, if they were larger, maybe our enemies would target them first. I try to find all the positives I could, but I knew that in a heartbeat if I could have the size and strength of Samuel, I would do so instantly.
“What do you think they have in store for us today,” Linda asked as we finished our calorie-dense breakfast.
“They’ve linked training exercises to the material we’ve covered in our classes on more than one occasion. We’ve moved from some of the more ancient eras to the middle ages, so I suspect we might be looking at some sort of armored combat.”
Musha nodded. “I concur.”
Linda laughed. “Concur? Really?”
The boy was little more than seven, but he fixed Linda with a steady look.
“We are training to be soldiers, so we should try to elevate our vocabulary.”
There’s quite a bit of difference between how soldiers talk in the mess hall, the frontlines, and then within the formal structure of the Military Academy. He’d be surprised how soldiers actually spoke to each other.
I was often correct in predicting things, but that’s because the program was fairly logical. They weren’t trying to trick us, but to teach us through a crash course of as much of military history as they could. We were being trained on weaponry at the range regularly, but the more complex team-based field exercises were almost always tied to what we had gone over with Déjà.
After a casual five-kilometer run we were addressed by Mendez.
“John-117, Kurt-051, up here now. You will be the captains, and will take turns selecting peers to fight with you on this field. Before you do so, let me explain the rules.”
Mendez took us through a tour of the equipment presented here.
“You will be wearing the full suits like you had for shooting each other with lasers. This time, these suits are going to be calibrated differently. They come in three different settings. The lightest allows you to survive one solid strike and can keep fighting. The next step up, doubles the effective weight of the suit and will significantly slow you, but you will be able to take three hits before being done. The final one is even heavier, but will allow you to take ten hits.”
Mendez had all of us gear up and then try each of the settings. I could barely move in the heaviest. It was a bit absurd, as no plate armor of the time period truly limited movement the way this did. I’m sure our trainers weren’t looking for a true mirroring, but it gnawed at me a bit.
“Additionally, you will be given a choice of different weapons. Spear and shield or a bow and twenty arrows along with a knife. You are not allowed to pick up or trade weaponry. If you are assigned the bow, you cannot use a spear or shield, just the knife. Solid hits require force and the torso has the most sensors. If you strike someone’s foot, don’t expect it to register.”
The bow and arrows weren’t true archery tools. We had practiced with them a few days ago, these were more child’s toys than anything. The ‘arrow’ could probably only get to about thirty meters of distance. It felt a bit like a trap to select the bow and arrow, especially with the ability to take a shield. Meanwhile, the medium setting of the armor allowed me to move, but running would be difficult and it would sap my stamina fairly quickly.
“When teams have been decided you will be placed in a two kilometer diameter circle. After thirty minutes, that circle will shrink to two hundred meters. The interior two hundred meters has zero cover available that has been cleared from those woods. After teams are selected you will be given ten minutes to strategize and then the battle will begin and enter from opposite ends.”
John got first pick and his team would only have thirty-seven compared to Kurt’s thirty-eight. He selected Samuel.
“John-117, you are to address your fellow trainee formally. That is Samuel-034.”
Reminder from your friendly overseers, you are just a number.
“Yes, sir! I select Samuel-034!”
Linda rolled her eyes next to me which caused a faint smile to appear on my face.
“I select Solomon-069,” Kurt belted out.
“I select Kelly-087,” John shouted.
“I select Tanya-118.”
I walked over next to Kurt and whispered, “Good choice, but for the rest of your picks, go for the largest and strongest.”
The teams filled out and Musha ended on our team, but not Linda. Adriana, the would be escapee, gave me a nod as she lined up.
“What do you think, go with the heavy armor settings for our strongest?” Kurt asked me.
Before the match started we would have to lock in the setting for our armor and make your weapon selections. Since we were on opposite ends of the wooded area we couldn’t see what our opponents were going to pick either.
“No, in fact, I would recommend almost no one do so. Even on the medium setting we are going to get worn out quickly. The shields are also heavy and holding them up will grow tiresome. The bow is not going to be very effective, but we can look to circle. The question really is if John chose to have his larger comrades go heavy or not.”
“It matters, but you’re thinking of something specific here, explain,” Adriana demanded.
“With the heavy setting you can take several hits, so it’s tempting to take. But if you have to move, you are going to get worn out and you won’t be fighting nearly as effectively. Even if you are fully fresh, you just can’t move your weighted limbs as quickly without it. Since our fighting area becomes more limited, holding the center is important and eventually forces a battle without any sort of cover. Directly shooting into a shield wall is going to be of limited utility, these bows aren’t going to be accurate or allow a lot of distance. But what if we were behind them?”
Kurt furrowed his brow.
“They can just form a turtle formation like the Spartans.”
“Easier said than done, these shields aren’t going to overlap all that well. And unless they forgo archers all together, they will have even more spaces. No, I would suspect that they would try to run us down, which is where lighter armor has the advantage, we can push an engagement and then flee with our lighter armor more easily.”
“Then why did you ask me to pick the biggest people?”
“So, they would think that our strategy would be to go for the heavy armor,” I replied.
“I concur,” Musha added. “We should do a mixture of light and medium settings.”
Someone has a new favorite word.
Kurt agreed and we ended up with twenty light and eighteen medium, with only half the lights being archers. I was reasonably confident that accuracy at range when not firing into a formation was going to be dismal. The point wasn’t to score kills or ‘wounds’ on the enemy, but to tire them out and then defeat an exhausted foe.
It was time to replay the Battle of Carrhae.
***
As team captain, John had been tempted to pick Tanya first. Loyalty to his friends made him select Samuel and Kelly first, and by the time he got to his third pick, she had already been snagged by Kurt. When it came time to talk strategy he said that they should get the heavier armor and fight in a tight formation.
Kelly disagreed.
“Some of us can barely move in that. Plus, you saw who Kurt was picking first. You and Samuel can take the heavy and still move decently, but most of us can’t. Give me a dozen and we’ll dash forward to distract them before they can reach the inner clearing. The field is mostly flat, but there’s a slight incline on one side. If we get there first, we can take the high ground.”
Joshua disagreed. “That won’t make much of difference. If you are in light armor setting you are going to get taken out too quickly.”
“They have to catch me first,” she replied.
“Kelly, you are too good with a spear to be wasted as an archer. Light armor works for you, but when it comes to the actual fighting, you can score a lot of hits fast with your speed.”
They didn’t have a lot of time to argue and Kelly settled down. In the end, John, Samuel and eight others went with the heaviest armor setting. Another twenty went medium, and Kelly along with six others went light. Five of the mediums ended up going with the bow as did five of the lights.
As the battle began, John and Samuel led the way, shields up front and marched quickly to the center. Despite being in excellent physical condition he was heavily winded by carrying nearly his entire bodyweight. He wasn’t one for idle speculation, but he wondered how the suit managed to create actual weight just by altering the computer settings.
No, don’t get distracted, it’s probably magnets.
That was John’s typical answer, but he paused for a second.
“Hey, Samuel, pick me up.”
Samuel looked at him oddly and then lifted him.
“Now lift one of the light armored ones, and tell me how much heavier is it.”
“Not as heavy as I expected. What are you thinking of?”
John shook his head. “Not sure that it matters, but somehow the suit is restricting us and making it feel like we are heavier, but we aren’t actually any heavier. Sorry – mind is wandering while we wait.”
Kelly shouted, “Behind us!”
A trio of arrows were fired from the tree line from where they had marched through. One arrow wasn’t very close to hitting anyone, the other two struck shields. Since the arrows had blunt ends, they just bounced off and down. John saw some of his archers return fire, but they were using the trees as cover.
“Hold!” John called out as some were already advancing forward. In a quieter voice he said, “They want us to chase, just keep your shields up and we will be fine. Preserve ammunition unless you have a clear shot.”
John watched as the trio fired again, two struck at shields, one was aimed at an archer who dodged it. Unlike a real archer from some bygone era, these bows couldn’t fire at the same velocity and they were all very used to dodging projectiles.
Then the enemy appeared. Twenty of them with spears at the ready. John felt his blood pumping, his prior weariness gone.
“Get ready to charge. Remember, stay in formation, we fight as the Spartans did! Shield to shield!”
As everyone lined up, the trio fired again, and John frowned as one managed to strike the back of one of his heavies. It was just one hit, and he could take nine more before the armor went rigid and he was frozen, but it was a worrisome issue.
“Advance! If they follow to stay in range by getting out of the trees, archers take those stragglers out!”
As his fellow trainees advanced, the enemy began backing away. John gritted his teeth, there was still plenty of time before the battle area shrank, so the enemy team didn’t need to fight them now. Moving backwards was less steady than advancing forward, but they would probably get to the trees…
“Halt!” John thundered and his team stopped.
The enemy kept going backwards and halted at the very edge of the wooded area. The trio had not left the safety of the trees and for a couple of minutes a standoff ensued. Then the enemy advanced again, and with them from the trees came an additional five archers. A couple of arrows were fired and the distance closed as John kept his team stationary. Arrows thunked off their defenses, but it was getting tiresome to hold them up.
The enemy charged and then John gave the same order to charge as well when they were only twenty meters apart. As soon as they rushed forward, the enemy charge divided into two and they sprinted to the right and left. They ended up getting strung out in two groups while the enemy then brought out the last of their forces. A few more archers showed up and fired perpendicular into the spear side of John’s forces.
John ignored the burning of his muscles as he kept up with the more lightly armored people next to him. His other heavies had lagged behind. He also saw Kelly catch up with one of the retreating enemies and jab her spear twice, freezing their armor.
Then the enemy turned on John’s staggered group. John blocked a blow and countered with his own heavy strike. The blunted spear-tip hit the technologically advanced suit and registered a hit. Around him, others fared less well. They fought, but the mere act of lifting a spear against someone who wasn’t as encumbered made their strikes slower.
It doesn’t matter; I’m still going to win!
John fought through the sweat on the inside of the helmet as he slammed his shield into a trainee about to strike one of his allies. He scored another hit to someone’s head and saw their suit freeze. He lowered his own head avoiding a hit and then shoved his body hard into someone, knocking them to the ground where he struck once, but then had to back away as two spears struck at him.
He lost track of the larger battle as he became a whirlwind of deadly strikes. The helmet dinged with each hit and despite the fact he could still keep fighting he was hit with two final arrows in the back and he was done. John’s suit froze and he saw that most everyone was already down. There were only five opponents left in the immediate area.
Damn it, so close!
His neck was frozen but he could see out of the periphery of his vision that Kelly was still fighting. The five advanced on her. She lunged with a war cry at the three remaining spear and shield trainees, but that was a ruse, she pivoted on her step and then dashed forward the two archers. Both loosed arrows, both missed. She sped out of John’s sight but he no longer heard the twang of arrows being fired.
Several more minutes passed and then the suits unlocked.
“The winner is Blue Team, with one surviving trainee.”
John breathed a sigh of relief. He hated losing.
“Congratulations, John, Kelly, both of you were exceptional,” Tanya told them as they began to take off their suits.
What was important was that he had won. But it was also important that he understood that it wasn’t because of how he handled their tactics. He had to win next time too. Mendez said they learned history since it was better to learn from someone else’s mistakes than your own.
“It was close,” Samuel said, “it was too damn hard to fight properly even if we could take more hits.”
That had been a mistake, but while it was better to learn from other’s mistakes, John could learn from his own just as well.