Recruit A Jack Forge, Fleet Marine Story
James David Victor
Fairfield Publishing
Contents
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Thank You
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Copyright © 2017 Fairfield Publishing
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Except for review quotes, this book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the author.
This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Prologue
The Destroyer Gemini slowed as it approached the massive asteroid. The support fighters raced away from the Gemini and took up flanking positions. Alone and this deep in space, there was always the present threat from the Chitins. The destroyer activated the deflection laser and began nudging the asteroid off its collision course with the populated planet, Eros.
The first flash came from the shadows on the surface of the asteroid as the Chitin craft fired a plasma spear. The second came from the furthest fighter as the plasma spear vaporized it. Two more flashes from the Chitin weapon quickly destroyed two more fighters.
Within a nanosecond of the first flash, the Gemini’s artificial intelligence targeted the point on the asteroid where the Chitin weapon blasts had originated and launched a salvo of combat drones. At the same time, the forward battery of guns each fired a thousand rounds of high density metallic shot in a wide spread over the target area.
The Chitin craft lifted off the surface, spreading its tentacles while charging its primary weapon, avoiding the mass of shot from the Gemini that slammed into the surface of the asteroid, vaporizing the ice and tearing through the rock.
The combat drones identified the Chitin craft as it lifted off the asteroid and automatically targeted the central body of the craft within the mass of black, writhing tentacles. The drones accelerated toward the Chitin craft, the magnetic field around the antimatter payload timed to deactivate once in effective range. The Chitin craft fired its arcing plasma flares. Dozens of seething orange strands, each reaching across the space around the craft, sliced through the drones, transforming them into small, short-lived stars that lit up the battle space.
Having reached full power, the high energy laser on the Gemini activated. The beam slammed into the Chitin craft, piercing the tentacles that wrapped forward across the central body in a protective shield. The laser moved slowly and cut across the tentacles, slicing through one and sending it spiraling off into space. The orange liquid interior spilled out from the severed tentacle as it tumbled through the void.
A focused plasma arc erupted from the Chitin central body and slammed into the forward section of the Gemini. The composite hull cracked and fractured, biomech flesh and fluid spewing out and boiling away into space. A second plasma spear sliced clean through the five hundred meter long craft, erupting out of the aft engine assembly.
Automated distress calls from the Gemini died before the ship’s complete log could be transmitted, but as the destroyer burned in the empty interplanetary void, the military command on Eros was receiving the most significant points: the Chitins had struck again and destroyed another major military vessel in a battle that had lasted a fraction under seven seconds.
Chapter 1
Jack Forge sat in the lecture theater watching the hands on his small silver pocket watch tick across its shimmering pearl face. The latest grades would be revealed in a few moments. The room was silent as the students counted down the seconds.
Attendance at his brother’s funeral had been authorized, so he had been free to leave his studies and attend. Jack knew missing time would count against his grade, but he was on top of his studies and his grades were excellent. He could afford to drop a few points and still maintain his two-plus student rating.
The recruiting sergeant stood at the front of the theater next to Professor Bowen. One of these men wanted the students to maintain their two-plus, the other did not. His classmates watched the seconds tick down on the large display. Jack watched on his small family heirloom. It was all he had left of his family.
The second hand reached the top of its final round. Jack heard the ripples of distress and gasps of horror as the students whose grades had dropped realized they were now the property of the military.
Jack looked up to the display. He picked out his name. He saw it there pulsing on the screen in red, a pattern that could only mean one thing. He scanned across to his grade. Two. Only two. The plus was missing for the first time in his three semesters. Three other names pulsed. Jack knew them all. He’d studied with them, socialized with them, laughed with them. He would most likely never see them again.
The sergeant barked out transfer orders to the first name on the list. Jack watched as the second hand ticked along. He was only seventeen seconds into his new life when his name was called out by the recruiting sergeant.
“Jack Forge. Fleet Marine training.”
Jack looked up from his watch. He looked at Professor Bowen. The old man was slumped in a chair, his eyes averted as his class was further reduced in number.
The doors to the lecture theater opened and military police entered. Jack had seen this before. Students had complained and argued, fought and resisted their removal from university to the ranks of the military or some war production facility. The arguments were familiar to Jack. He heard the most common of them now from across the lecture theatre.
The students being drafted into service promised to pull their grades back up. They argued that it was only a small drop. They argued that they were too smart to be sent to the military. The arguments and complaints descended into shouts and screams as the former students were dragged away. Friends shouted their good-byes. Lovers kissed and cried. As a guard came toward Jack, he tucked away his watch and stood. With a nod to his escort, he walked down the steps at the side of the lecture theater toward the open door.
Chapter 2
The passenger deck on the transport vehicle was dark and dirty, the air filled with the stench of putrid bodily excretions. A Marine sergeant was pushing the recruits toward the seats that ran along either side of the deck, a small tazer in his hand. The cover on Jack’s chair was covered in dark smears. He sat uncomfortably on the sticky surface. The floor in front of his chair was covered with a caked-on splatter of vomit.
A sudden eruption of gas and steam from a vent above the seat opposite Jack brought gasps and shouts of surprise from the packed passenger deck, and somewhere in the stinking dark, Jack heard a burst of uncontrolled sobbing.
Jack looked at the faces of the young men and women sitting in the seats along the deck. Most were nervous but they all looked like the usual military conscripts, a mix of the poor and stupid, unable for one reason or another to dodge the draft. As he looked along the line, he saw one face glaring back, the hard face and cold eyes of an angry and aggressive recruit.
Jack averted his eyes from the hard stare opposite. The wailing and crying from further down the deck had grown to a wild yelling. It was the same excuses he’d heard in the lecture theater time and again; they shouldn’t be here, it was a mistake, they didn’t belong, they wouldn’t be any good as a soldier. The deck lit up in a flash together with the fizzing of a tazer. The crying stopped, replaced by the creaking and groaning of the old transport.