Karol laughed. “You tell Tom that another package is on the way!” Then, after some heartfelt good-byes, it was time for Raynor to surrender the fone to the next person in line. It was nice to know his parents were okay, but the conversation still left Raynor with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Once the recruits had showered and shaved, it was time to put on the antiquated CMC-200 series armor that they’d been training in for weeks. Each suit had logged thousands of hours of use before being repurposed for use in boot camp, and smelled funky inside.
Only about twenty percent of the hardskins were fully combat-ready at any given time, but they looked good, thanks to the countless hours that each recruit was required to spend washing, polishing, and applying touch-up paint to them. And the attention to detail didn’t end there. Each gauss rifle had been cleaned, lubricated, and inspected to make sure that not so much as a tiny fleck of dirt or rust could be found on it.
Then, having checked one another for flaws, the recruits filtered out onto the grinder for the final inspection that would precede the trooping of the colors. During the ceremony each company would carry a flag that belonged to a serving battalion. This would honor the line units that many of the newly graduated marines would soon be part of.
Could the people on the reviewing stand actually see a ding from hundreds of feet away? Murphy claimed that they could, but Raynor knew that was absurd, not that it made any difference.
So they stood inspection, Murphy pronounced himself happy with the results, and was visibly proud as the flag for the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines was given to the company’s four-person color guard for safekeeping. Kydd, who had been chosen to march on the right side of the battalion’s flag with a gauss rifle on his shoulder, was beaming with pride.
There was a fifteen-minute wait for all of the units to get into position, followed by a barely heard order from the training command’s sergeant major, and a swift flurry of drumbeats as the troops went into motion. The band played To the Eternal Glory of the Confederacy followed by a sequence of stirring marches as each company completed a full circuit of the grinder before coming to a much-practiced stop in front of the reviewing stand.
As luck would have it, Kydd’s company was toward the center of the large formation and the four-person color guard was directly in front of the stand. So when Macaby rose to introduce the battalion’s guest of honor, Kydd could not only hear, but see the Honorable Cornelius Brubaker, who was one of his father’s best friends!
As Brubaker began to speak, Kydd was tempted to break ranks and run forward, thereby rescuing himself from the Marine Corps. He couldn’t bring himself to do it, however, because even though the strategy would almost certainly be successful, it would ruin the graduation ceremony for his friends. Plus, given Macaby’s promise to buck his case up to division level, Kydd figured there was no need to make a scene. Once the people at the top took action, justice would be done. In the meantime, it felt wonderful to be truly good at something, and to be included in an organization on account of his personal accomplishments, rather than the name he had been born with.
So Kydd stood at parade rest, eyes front, as Brubaker thanked the newly graduated marines for their dedication and sacrifice. And that was when Kydd remembered that the rifle on his shoulder had been manufactured by a subsidiary of Brubaker Holdings—which meant that both the businessman and his family had profited handsomely from the wars. Just as Bennet Industries had. In fact, the more people and equipment that were destroyed, the better it would be for the Old Families! No wonder Brubaker had been willing to speak.
Once Brubaker’s comments were over, and he returned to his seat, Macaby stepped up to the podium again. “It is my pleasure, and my lasting honor, to welcome you to the Confederacy’s Marine Corps,” the officer began. “As you know, once marines complete basic training they are normally sent on to Advanced Infantry Training, or AIT. However, due to the somewhat unusual situation here on Turaxis II, we have an opportunity to provide you with actual combat experience, rather than further training scenarios.”
At that point the battalion’s sergeant major shouted, “Hip, hip …” and the marines shouted, “Hooray!”
Macaby smiled knowingly, as if to suggest that he could scan minds. “I know all of you want to get out there and fight the Kel-Morians as soon as possible! But it wouldn’t be a good idea to drop you directly into a combat situation without some additional seasoning—so you will spend your first few weeks well back of the front lines. Then, when your commanding officers decide that you’re ready, they’ll move you up. All in all it will be a good way to support our line units while providing you with the extra training you need.
“Once you return to quarters you will receive your orders, load-out schedules, and an additional issue of field gear. Your armor will be issued to you when you arrive at your receiving command. Again, congratulations, and good luck.”
At that point the sergeant major shouted, “Atten-hut!” and a crash-thump was heard as the training battalion obeyed.
Then, after three beats came the order, “Dis-missed!” and a cheer went up as Raynor, Harnack, and all the rest removed their helmets.
During the celebration none of them noticed the semi-transparent figure that had materialized on a steel walkway high above their heads, or heard what the apparition had to say: “Some of you will lead—and others will follow. Those who lead must spend lives wisely—and those who follow must give themselves gladly. For you share a common bond, and when you die, it will be for each other.” Then, like the spirit he was, Gunnery Sergeant Travis disappeared.
BORO AIRBASE, ON THE PLANET TURAXIS II
The trip from the airstrip adjacent to Turaxis Prime to Boro Airbase covered more than seven thousand miles, all aboard a maxed-out four-engined Bennet Industries heavy transport aircraft. The huge transport had been designed to haul anything from troops to tanks—which meant scant attention had been paid to the creature comforts. So the three hundred–plus troops packed into rows of removable seats could do little more than shoot the breeze, make use of whatever was stashed on their newly returned fones, and take uneasy naps as the large vehicle droned toward its destination.
Raynor and Kydd, both of whom enjoyed reading and listening to music, took the trip in stride, but it was more difficult for Harnack, who slept some but spent a lot of time fidgeting and bothering those seated around him.
Raynor, who was listening to the latest music file that Kydd had sent him, frowned and pulled one of his earbuds loose. “This stuff is kind of slow, Ryk … and what the hell is a fugue?”
“It’s an imitative polyphonic composition, in which a theme or themes are stated successively in all of the voices of the contrapuntal structure,” Kydd replied matter-of-factly. “Keep listening—it will grow on you.”
Raynor nodded, put the earbud back in, and surreptitiously switched to a tune called “The Mar Sara Shuffle” by Harvey and the Heartbreakers.
When the transport entered Turaxis II’s eastern hemisphere, four Avengers took up stations around it, because the aircraft was a juicy target for the KM fighters. So once the landing gear finally thumped to the ground, and the transport taxied to what looked like a new terminal building, the marines were glad to deass the plane and collect their gear from the jumble of bags that came out of the cargo compartments. “Damn, it feels good to get off that piece of crap,” Harnack exclaimed, as the three of them lined up to retrieve their bulky B-2 bags.