Chapter 2 – Winning and Losing

 

White light emanated from the small screen and projected a 3D hologram that hovered above the small AV journal.  A holographic representation of R’Tus’s head from the time he made the entry appeared and began to speak.  L’Cor knew without looking at the date of the entry that this recording was made shortly after R’Tus’s eighteenth birthday.

 

Start of Entry - Orbit 3011, 6^th Moon, 5^th Solar Cycle

 

Hello?  Is this thing on?  Oh…yeah…I’m an idiot.  This is recording, right?  Oh well, I’ll check it later…

 

Anyway, our instructors here at MAAC Basic advised us to keep this AV journal of our trials and tribulations.  Specifically, we’re to talk about our experiences with the MAAC trainers so that we can revisit our mistakes and learn from them.  But what if we didn’t make any mistakes?

 

I sound cocky now don’t I?  It’s true.  My instructor, Master Sergeant Frekkin said that I was a natural talent.  I don’t know about that.  I just know that the MAAC trainer just felt right to me.  As the rest of my unit struggled to get onto their feet, I was already standing and walking.

 

Anyway, maybe I should back up.  First of all, we wear this really - I mean really - tight suits called (of all things) a neural suit.  I mean, dagnag-it!  I was downright embarrassed!  Hadis, the girls sure looked hot!  I wasn’t the only guy holding his hands in front of his groin!  Anyway, the neural suit links into the internal feedback system of the MAAC trainer.  You half sit, half stand in this harness that captures your muscle movements and transfers them to the MAAC.  They said that it was like wearing powered armour, but it’s not.  First of all, you don’t really take full steps.  You just flex your muscles and pretend to take a step.  Ditto with the arm movements and the torso movements.  The MAAC trainer is 40 tons of layered alloy armour.  It’s too stiff to exactly duplicate a person’s movements.  By the time the rest of my unit could stand straight, I was jogging a lap around the track.  What can I say?  It was fun!

 

After the exercise, one cute little blonde named Cinda came up to me and asked why I made it look so easy.  I didn’t know what to say so I said, “It’s like wearing a huge piece of metal armour all around me.”

 

She frowned at me and said, “I don’t think so.  I’ve heard of that comparison and I’ve worn powered armour in Infantry Basic and this was nothing like that.”

 

She was looking at me rather intently and I was beginning to feel a little clenching in my chest.  Dagnag she was cute!  Her blonde hair was cut short in standard military fashion and her eyes were a strange shade of green.  Her nose curled up ever so slightly at the tip and her lips were full and red and sweat poured down her face from her earlier exertion.  I suddenly realized that she was waiting for me to say something so I improvised.  “It’s kind of like those VR sim games, you know?  All you have to do is just stand as still as possible and move with minimal movements.  Once you’ve trained your mind to adjust to how much minimal movement equals how much actual MAAC movement, you should be fine.”

 

She cocked her head to one side and she had a strange smile on her face.  “VR sim games?  You mean like the ones where you simulate sex or the like the ones that teach martial arts?”

 

I felt heat rush to my cheeks.  Was she flirting with me?  I mean dagnag-it…girls don’t come on to me!  They usually go for my brother L’Cor who is tall, athletic and built like a rock.  Most girls don’t give my skinny frame a second glance.  I stumbled a bit but finally managed to say, “Uh…martial arts of course.  I just got my sixth degree platinum sash.”  I cursed inwardly.  That sounded too much like bragging!

 

Cinda seemed impressed though.  “Really?  I’ve only got a third degree gold.”  She slowly turned away while maintaining eye contact for as long as possible.  “Maybe you could show me a couple of pointers some time?”

 

“Sure,” I stuttered.  I watched as she turned and sashayed away from me.  I couldn’t help it.  My eyes just could not look up from her round heart shaped butt.  Dagnag-it, these neural suits left nothing to the imagination, which wasn’t really that bad a thing when you think about it!

 

Anyway, that’s it for now…signing off until the next time!

 

End of Entry

 

L’Cor still did not feel up to going into Ivan’s shop to look for a Mick so he browsed through the AV journal until he found another entry that looked promising.

 

Start of Entry - Orbit 3011, 6^th Moon, 26^th Solar Cycle

 

We had our first live fire exercise today.  By now, I’ve gotten somewhat used the dirty looks that many of my unit-mates shoot at me whenever they think I’m not looking.  Even Cinda’s attitude has cooled a bit towards me.  We had a few sparring sessions as well as a couple of tutoring sessions, but they didn’t lead to anything else.  I think she wanted me to make a move of a sort, but I guess I was just too nervous.  I mean, I’ve dated a few times in high school, but none of the girls I went out with were quite as aggressive as Cinda.  I mean, I know she’s a few orbits older than me and all that but dagnag-it!  Everyone in my unit was older than me.  They had all gone to Infantry Basic first before scoring high enough in their aptitude tests to go for MAAC Basic.  As for me, I guess the high brass was getting antsy about getting frontline MAAC pilots because my enrolment officer had put me through a series of strange tests before bumping me directly to MAAC Basic.  I’m practically a civilian and my unit-mates treat me as such.  What would L’Cor do?  I know what he would do!  He would pummel anyone who dared to speak out and then he would take Cinda out on a weekend pass and show her a good time.  Ah, who am I kidding?  L’Cor would probably slap me on my back and ask me what the frak am I waiting for!

 

Anyway, by now, the whole unit was up and running and today, the instructors gave us a taste of real MAAC weapons.  MAAC weapons came in two main flavours: mounted and held.  A typical MAAC with a combat load had a mixture of mounted and held weapons.  A mounted weapon was the type that was mounted on fixed hard points.  These include the shoulders, upper arms and forearms, and upper thighs and waist.  Mounted weapons tend to be heavier with more destructive potential and higher ammunition levels than held weapons.  Held weapons have the advantage of being more versatile and a MAAC would switch out held weapons right on the battlefield without the aid of a Field Maintenance Unit.  Heavy MAACs like a Drac’en could mount up to four heavy calibre weapons and be a truly devastating force on any battlefield.

 

Anyway, I digress.  Today, they handed out small calibre auto-cannons that we held in the hands of our MAACs.  At forty tons, our trainer MAACs were theoretically the equivalent of a large medium class MAAC - which meant that we could have mounted heavier weapons, but I guess on our first day, they didn’t want us accidentally killing each other or blowing up the camp.

 

We were transported out into the desert and put through our paces.  We started off with the standard range shooting at static targets.  Everyone did fine here, even without the aid of targeting computers.  However, when the instructors fired up the moving targets, the unit didn’t do so well.  When more than one person started to complain about the lack of targeting computers, Master Sergeant Frekkin called a halt to the practice.

 

“Cadet Lieutenant Penrag’n, front and centre!”

 

I keyed my S’Wave communicator and said, “Yes Sergeant!”  All the cadets at the camp had an honorary rank of Cadet Lieutenant.  That meant that I was technically higher rank than Frekkin, but hey, I wasn’t going to try to pull rank!

 

“Uh oh, here comes the whiz kid!”

 

I don’t know who said that but I ignored it.  There were some muffled chuckles and several groans but again, I didn’t pay any attention.  It wasn’t that I was trying to show off or anything.  I just wanted to get through this training as fast as possible so that I could join my brother on the frontlines.

 

Frekkin fired up the Gauntlet, a huge combat simulator on an area large enough to host several starball stadiums.  “Show these losers how its done kiddo!”

 

He hit my right shoulder with a thump that was hard enough to half turn me to face the Gauntlet.  “Yes Master Sergeant!”  I kicked my MAAC into a slow jog and entered the Gauntlet.  My targeting computer was still down so I figured I would have to do this all on manual.  A movement out of the corner of my right eye caught my attention.  Without slowing down, I brought my auto-cannon in a one handed grip and fired off a shot.  The target, a life-sized representation of a Saxx recoiled from the hit.  It fell to the ground and I shot past it without another glance.  The fact that it went down with only one hit meant that the Gauntlet wasn’t programmed to simulate real Saxx behaviour.  From everything that L’Cor has told me about the Saxx, it would take more than one shot from a small auto-canon to bring one down.

 

I was coming to the ‘Downtwon District’ of the Gauntlet.  It had been modeled after a real city.  There was a dark blur over my head that splattered on the wall of the building across the street from me.  I glanced at it and felt a thrill of surprise.  It was a globule of paint.  They were going to shoot at me!  Master Sergeant Frekkin must really want to see what I could do.  They didn’t usually let the targets shoot back until a trainee’s fourth visit to the Gauntlet.  I ducked down a bit and sprinted to the next intersection and dove to the right.  I had just enough time to spot a Saxx in powered armour walking down the street with its weird three-legged gait.  Of course I knew that it wasn’t a real Saxx.  It was really a mountain of plastic and metal overtop a thin moveable endoskeleton, but still, the sight of the weird looking monstrosity sent a chill down my spine.

 

I side stepped out from behind a building and fired off three quick shots.  All three shots hit the main torso of the Saxx and then I ducked back before it could fire back.  I heard a loud crash and I knew that the target dummy was down.

 

I didn’t really have any mission objectives so I loped along inside the fake city for a while.  I didn’t have any radar so it was a pure combination of luck, reflex and instinct that let me avoid the next globule of paint.  It splattered on the ground beside me as I looked around for the shooter.  Far off in the distance, across a fake park, I saw a trio of Saxx in powered armour.  There were two more faint blurs in the air so I dodged to the right and ran.  As I ran, I saw on my secondary monitor that the Saxx were moving towards me.  They were staying close to each other as they moved.  This was a good thing for me.  I suddenly pivoted and changed direction.  I twisted my torso and brought my auto-cannon up.  I couldn’t shoot well from this angle so I transferred the auto-cannon to my left hand.  That was the neat thing about held weapons.  You could do things like change hands in the middle of combat!  With the gun now in my left hand, I had a much better field of fire.  I took aim at the Saxx on the far left so that if I missed, my shots would have a chance at hitting the other two.  While wishing my gun had a full auto mode, I fired through the rest of my magazine.  Semi auto just doesn’t cut it for strafing!  In any case, I had the satisfaction of seeing the centre Saxx fall down.  Ok, so my aim was a little off!  The other two suddenly split up, as if the remote human operators of the simulators realized what a bad idea it was to move in such close formation.  I slapped another magazine into my auto-cannon and moved away.

 

I could see that they were going to try to encircle me, so I decided to find some cover.  I lumbered over to another cluster of buildings and looked around for some cover.  There wasn’t anything that could cover me from two different directions.  I glanced up and saw a hovering camera.  Of course Frekkin and the rest of the unit would be watching.  They all wanted to see me get iced.  That wasn’t going to happen!  There was a large artificial pond off to the side.  The water was dirty and very murky.  What if?

 

I walked over and tested the depth of the water by placing my right leg in.  The water level went as high was the thigh of my MAAC - about ten feet.  Good enough!  I quickly made my way to the centre of the pond and lay my MAAC down.  It was awkward because I couldn’t lie all the way flat without submerging my gun and my MAAC’s head unit.  I didn’t know if either was waterproof and I didn’t want to find out the hard way.  If this didn’t work, the shame and humiliation would be double.  I half sat in a reclined position.  I kept my auto-cannon horizontal to the water and the only other thing sticking out was the top of my head unit.  With any luck, as the Saxx simulators came into this area, they would not be looking down at their feet.

 

Luck was with me.  The first Saxx entered the cluster and scanned the area at what would have been eye level for it.  I panned my head unit around until the cameras inside found the second Saxx, directly opposite of the first.  I waited until they were both looking in different directions before making my move.

 

I triggered three shots into the first Saxx.  All three shots made one large hole in the bottom of the Saxx’s torso.  I then sprang out of the pool in to direction opposite to where the second Saxx was looking.  That gave me a precious second before its targeting computers found me.  I fired off another three shots just as its arm brought up its gun in my general direction.  It crumpled to the ground and I breathed a sigh of relief.

 

Suddenly, my MAAC shook as if something hit it.  Dagnag-it!  I’d let down my guard!  Of course there were more Saxx in the area!  There was no call for an end of the exercise though.  That was strange.  Didn’t someone just splatter me with paint?

 

I pulled my MAAC around in a circle and it shook again.  Oh frak!  Why was it suddenly so sluggish?  My MAAC finally squealed in agonizing slowness until it faced my latest attacker.  It was yet another Saxx in powered armour, but this one had a very real looking auto-cannon in its arms.  The muzzle of its auto-cannon spat fire and my MAAC jerked as if in pain.

 

Wait…the pain was real!  That last shot must have dented the armour of my MAAC’s torso, directly overtop of the cockpit.  A small piece of the back of my mind said that the Saxx must have been firing short full auto bursts.  The cockpit’s interior shattered and a sharp piece of metal from my harness stabbed me in my right shoulder.  Thank goodness my gun was still in my left hand!

 

I brought my weapon to bear and fired three fast shots.  The Saxx recoiled but didn’t fall.  This one must have been programmed for realistic response!  A light auto-cannon like mine wasn’t going to stop it!

 

My mind raced as I tried to remember the weak spots in a Saxx’s power armour.  There weren’t many.  A Saxx out of armour was as big as a light class MAAC.  In powered armour, it was bigger than a Drac’en.  In combat, the only way to kill a Saxx in armour was to use heavy weapons like a Multi Barrel Cannon or an Aerial Remote Optical-recognition Weapon.

 

The Saxx fired again and this time, my auto-cannon flew from the remains of my MAAC’s left arm.  My eyes filled with tears of pain as I did the only thing I could.  I charged the Saxx.  I had one chance and one chance only.  This was not a real Saxx.  It was not in real powered armour.  In reality, it was a hunk of plastic and cheap metal.  If I could get in close enough, I should be able to take it off line.  What happened after that was completely unknown.

 

I was hit twice more and another piece of my harness broke off and stabbed me in my left thigh.  But I wasn’t dead!  I kicked out with my right left leg and one of the Saxx’s three legs broke in response.  It fell forward as I raised my pain filled right arm and smashed down on its torso.  My MAAC’s fist thundered through the plastic and metal plating and drilled deep into its body.  The Saxx lay still.

 

There was a flashing red light as well as a siren that I did not hear until now.  Master Sergeant Frekkin’s voice rumbled in my ear, “Emergency!  Emergency!  Shut down the Gauntlet.  Shut it down now!  Medics on scene!”

 

I spit out some blood from my mouth.  I must have bitten the inside my mouth as I fell forward onto the body of the simulated Saxx.  I didn’t care that the exercise was over.  I’d won.  They didn’t get me!  Only then, did I let myself black out from the pain.

 

Much later, I remember waking up in the hospital.  Frekkin was there was well as General Mora, the base commander.  General Mora was apologizing and explaining how someone had activated a live ammo drone in the Gauntlet and that it had followed a standard attack program.  Live ammo drones weren’t part of the exercise.  Obviously, someone had activated it as a way to bring me down a notch.  Frekkin stepped in and told me that they had found the culprits responsible and wanted to know if I wanted to be there to see their whipping and subsequent dishonourable discharge.  I shook my head.  I didn’t care who was responsible.  All I cared was that I’d won.  They hadn’t beaten me.  Just like those bullies who used to beat up on me as a kid couldn’t keep me down, these unknown culprits couldn’t keep me down either.  Just then, a nurse came in to my room and ushered Frekkin and Mora out.  She turned off the light and I fell into a restful sleep.

 

The next time I awoke, it was still dark outside.  The hospital was quiet but I instantly felt the presence of another person in the room.  It was Cinda!  She was dozing in a chair beside my bed.  I took my time to really look her over.  While at rest, her face looked like it was at least five orbits younger than she actually was.  She was wearing standard off duty trainee clothes, which consisted of olive green shorts and t-shirt.  That gave me a chance to appreciate how beautiful she really was.  She had well defined muscle lines on her legs and arms.  Anyone who went through Infantry Basic came away with great muscle tone.  My eyes traced a line up her strong but feminine legs, over her tight stomach and briefly paused at her chest.  I briefly wished that I could see through her shirt to the soft mounds that I knew was underneath but I quickly quelled that thought.  A gentleman does not take advantage of sleeping women!  I managed to pull my eyes up until they finally settled upon her open eyes.  Yikes!

 

“You like what you see?” she asked with a small smile on her lips.

 

“I…I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to stare”

 

Cinda laughed and sat up straight.  “I think I finally get you.  I keep forgetting that you’re younger than all of us here.  What’re you, like eighteen or something?”

 

My throat was too dry to answer so I merely nodded.

 

“Do you have a girlfriend back home R’Tus?”

 

My throat was still dry but I made an attempt to clear it and then said, “No, not really.  I mean I’ve dated a few girls, but nothing serious.”

 

“Good,” said Cinda as she got up off the chair and leaned over me.  She touched her lips to mine and gave me a deep long kiss.  Yeah it wasn’t my first kiss ever, but man, did it ever put me in orbit!

 

I felt her lips open in invitation and I hesitantly pushed my tongue up.  It met up with something soft and wet and I felt a spike in my blood pressure as I realized that it was her tongue that was touching mine.  Her left hand gently massaged my chest before making a slow burning path down my stomach, over my thighs, and then back up under my hospital gown.  Her hands encircled me and my back arched involuntarily at the sudden rush of pleasure.

 

I must have gasped into her mouth because she pulled away and gave me a humorous look.  “You’re a virgin, aren’t you?”

 

I barely managed a nod and her resulting smile dazzled me.  “Good, this is going to be more fun than I thought!”  Her left hand stopped what it was doing and before I had a chance to sigh, both of her hands went to the bottom of her shirt and lifted it up.  She threw her shirt on the floor and quickly took off her bra.  Her breasts were just beautiful.  I’m not a very experienced judge but they looked large on her small frame.  She took my left hand and held it to her breasts.  I gently cupped one and then the other, marvelling at their soft firmness.  She sighed and her hand traveled back down under my gown.

 

She leaned down again and whispered in my ear, “You were absolutely amazing yesterday in the Gauntlet.  Everyone’s talking about how a rookie took down four simulated remote controlled Saxx that were controlled by instructors and a drone that was programmed to kill with live ammo.”  She licked my ear and then said, “Everyone wants to meet you.  I wanted to be the first so I snuck into the hospital.”  She sucked on my neck as her hands did something out of sight.  Then she took my left hand again, and instead of moving it to her breasts, she directed it downward.  I felt something that was smooth, wet and hot.  I didn’t need my imagination to know what it was!  “See how much I want you?”

 

She climbed up on top of the bed while being extra careful with my bandaged left thigh. I could see that she was fully naked.  She lifted up my hospital gown and gently mounted me.  As she lowered herself, I felt like giant fireballs were going off in my head.  I think I groaned a bit too loudly because she covered my mouth with hers and duelled my tongue with hers.  All too quickly, my body suddenly rocked with spasms as I came long and hard inside of her.  She rode out the storm with a bright gleam in her eyes.  When the storm was over, she sat still for a few minutes before she started kissing and moving her body again.  She started much more slowly this time and…

 

Ah..uh..ahem…sorry, I got a little carried away there with my narration.  Hkumph!  Oh well, too late now.  It’s not every day a guy gets to record his memories of how he lost his virginity right?  Anyway, all of THAT happened earlier this morning.  Cinda had to leave soon afterwards to get back into training.  The doctor dropped by a few minutes ago and said that I should be able to rejoin my unit-mates in a few days.

 

Oh…wait…hang on a minute…

 

“What?  Oh…uh thank you very much.”

 

Ok, that was strange, a nurse just dropped by with a package…let see…Oh, it’s a card and it’s signed by my unit-mates.  It says:  Get well soon Ace!  Ace?  Well maybe not yet, but soon!  Oh, here’s another message.  It says:  Get some rest big boy.  You’re midnight visitor is coming back for a repeat performance!

 

Oh boy!  I can’t wait.  That’s it for now!  Maybe I should turn this on later to record what happens?  It would be for posterity, right?  Nahhh!  Signing off!

 

End of Entry

 

L’Cor laughed as he turned off the AV journal.  He was sure that R’Tus would’ve been embarrassed to Hadis and back if he ever thought that his older brother would be watching his AV journal.  Imagine losing your virginity to a hot blonde like Cinda!  After the war, L’Cor had tried to find Cinda, but without a last name or even the name and number of the unit she was assigned to, it was impossible.  That was a shame.  L’Cor would’ve liked to meet Cinda so that they could reminisce about R’Tus together.  L’Cor stood up and put the AV journal back into his pocket.  He was finally ready to meet Mr. McMac!