08:45 Combined Forces Classroom 14-265AA

“So, these defensive positions here have space for two people. One shooting above and one below.” Patrice pointed at them.

“We should have our designated marksman stationed back there.” Terry added.

“Shouldn’t be too hard to get into position, but there’s open areas here and here. DMs are going to have to haul ass to get there. We’ll need a rifle squad here and there to suppress enemy fire. That’s a tight window.” John said as he was pointing at the image.

“Wouldn’t it be safer to come in from here?” Theresa pointed.

“And the rifle squads could cover from here. Would be slower for the DMs to get into position, but they could avoid that open space.” Jessica added.

“Then the attack squads move up from where the DM’s push back and head here towards the central area.” Patrice was pointing at the route they’d take.

“The rifle squads should push forward to there as well. Good place to hole up and protect our flanks. We are spreading ourselves thin, but the plus side we’ve got angles at everything.” John was smiling. “So, then our two snipers hold back here and here. We provide overwatch.”

The platoon kept on working on the movements. The primary plan was coming together. They worked on some contingencies if certain things happened. The plan evolved over time until it was nearly time to head to the hangar for practice.

“Ok, so at practice today I want everyone to work on getting into position as quickly as possible. DMs will leave the tunnel first. Snipers will push off from the ceiling of the airlock. Let’s get out there and kick some ass.” John smiled. The squad marched out of the room and headed to the locker room to suit up.

They had two hours to practice. The order in the airlock was changed to increase the platoon’s efficiency. Midway through the practice they began to practice their back up plans and how they’d move into those positions. The practice went very well.

After their practice they had a lecture that lasted a bit over an hour. Then they were off to chow. The wargame would be at 15:00. Following an after-action review of the final wargame they’d head back to Earth. The squad was exhausted and ready to get back to Earth.

“So, John, doing anything fun once we get back?” Jessica sat down at the table next to Andern.

“Pffft. Fun? I’m doing my fucking taxes. God, I hate doing them.” John inhaled his lunch; both his hands were covering his face.

“Sounds painful.” Andern laughed.

“Piss off, it sucks. I owe so much money this year.”

“Dare I ask how much?” Alice smiled. John leaned in near her and whispered the estimated amount. “Oh, my fucking god. How the hell?”

“I hate taxes. I wish I could just not pay them. But not paying them means the IRS will hunt you down. They have like unlimited resources to go after tax cheats.”

John’s questionable ethics related to taking money from bad guys had numerous pitfalls. He was an excellent money launderer, years of reviewing financial results of criminals taught him everything he needed to know and more about the topic. It was quite possible that the only thing he actually feared in the universe was the IRS.

“My heart mourns for you. You going to tell us about spring break in a couple weeks?” Kevin asked.

“Not yet, sucks they pushed it back but oh well. We win and we’re going all out. Lose and it gets dialed back. So, lets kick ass this afternoon.” John smiled. He wasn’t lying about that, he had big plans for that week if they won.

15:10 Military Hangar, Final Wargame

“Their snipers are dead.” John shot the enemy team’s fifth sniper. “Patrice, any chance to grab the objective?”

“Negative, their DM’s have us locked down.”

John didn’t have line of sight on the enemy DM’s from his vantage point. “Paul and I need to relocate. Anyone know where we can move?”

“You’ll split up, there’s a box up and to your left and down and to your right.” Alice said as she fired off a couple three round bursts.

“Need covering fire in three…two…one… Move!” The rifle squads all fired several bursts of automatic fire forcing the enemy team to get into cover. “Secure, Paul, hold fire. Sync your HUD to mine, when I shoot you do the same.”

“Roger.” Paul was getting himself locked in place.

The squads traded fire, no casualties from either side had been taken since John eliminated the last snipers. There were fifteen minutes left in the wargame. Their platoon was in the lead, but John wanted the win.

“Paul, sending you a target. Sending countdown, when it gets to one then fire.”

The countdown on the HUD showed one. John and Paul fired off two shots apiece. “Scratch four enemy DMs. Looks like their back lines are repositioning. DM’s punish them.”

Their platoon’s marksman counterattacked precisely and took out another three riflemen. Now they were truly in command of the mission. John wanted to rush but there was still too much enemy fire for the attack squad to secure the objective without taking heavy casualties.

“Paul new targets. Attack in three.” John and Paul fire off another salvo of sniper fire.

Two more DMs were taken out. Fire was being traded between squads. But bit by bit the enemy was being worn down.

“Their DMs are knocked out, only have riflemen left.” Andern shouted.

“It’s time John.” Patrice yelled.

“Hold, we need to take out a couple more, they still have too much fire in that open area.” John ordered. Patrice begrudgingly stood down. “I’m repositioning, Paul and DMs, fire at will.”

The DMs had largely conserved ammo up to this point. They popped out and took shots only when it was safe and clear too. The attack and rifle squads were used as distractions and to absorb suppressive fire. The enemy lost another two riflemen. John looked at his rifle, he only had six rounds left. His backup gun was a submachine gun.

He leveled his rifle and fired off three more shots, taking out one and wounding another. He followed that up with two rounds at the enemy that Paul forced into John’s line of sight. The last round he rushed the shot and missed.

“Bingo ammo. Switching weapons. Patrice, moving into cover above the objective. I’ll help suppress from here.”

“Sync your HUDs, fifteen seconds, then we rush.” Patrice ordered.

John activated the mag lock and was creeping over the side of the box he was locked too. His gun was leveled and ready to fire. The countdown was at five seconds.

When the countdown hit one second everyone started firing from their positions at where the enemy was. They enemy was completely suppressed and couldn’t move from cover. Aaron was the first over the cover where the attack squad had held position. He grabbed the objective and spun backwards and was ready to kick off the far parts of cover to head back towards friendly cover.

“Cover Aaron. Keep firing at enemy positions.”

The enemy platoon had no chance now. The objective was securely in friendly territory and moving towards the airlock. The squads were running low on ammo, when that warning came over coms John ordered the platoon to fire in single fire only. While the outgoing fire toward the enemy platoon was greatly diminished it was still very accurate and they simply had no chance to do anything.

Aaron reached the airlock and then the lights turned on and a horn sounded. The wargame was over. The combined platoon dominated in their last game.

“Fucking amazing! Hell yeah boys and girls. Hell of a job.” John shouted. He was standing upside down to the main floor of the bay.

The platoon was in high spirits. They were making their way back to the airlock. Atmosphere was being pumped back into the hangar. The platoon was all in the airlock and the hangar doors closed, the lights went red, then yellow, then green and the door to the intermediate storage room opened.

“Helmets can be taken off.” Terry yelled. The group walked through another airlock then into their locker room.

“Hell of a job folks. Hell of a job.” John boomed. “Stow your gear and get cleaned up. We have forty-five minutes till we need to be in the classroom. Before we go to the classroom have all your gear back at the barracks packed and left in front of your lockers here. Sooner we’re all packed and ready the sooner we head down to Earth.”

The platoon was in high spirits. Everyone was cheering and excited for their performance. They didn’t lose anyone and only had two people who took minor wounds. John stowed his pressure suit in the locker and grabbed a clean pair of underwear and shorts and headed off to the shower.

Five minutes later he was clean and walking around the locker room high fiving and fist bumping everyone. He was finally letting their success hit him. It felt great. He hopped into an open shower and got cleaned up. Afterwards he changed into a fresh set of clothes and got all his personal effects into his bag.

“TEN MINUTES.” John bellowed. He sat down on the bench waiting for the men to finish cleaning up.

“Terry, your squad did a hell of a job out there. Same for the attack squad Patrice. Sucks that you guys had to just stay in cover for so long.” John shook Terry’s hand.

“What wins a wargame wins a wargame right?” Patrice smiled.

The two cadets were not friends, but they both realized they needed to work together to win these games. And they both wanted to win above all else.

The ten-minute countdown finished then the men and women of the platoon left their respective locker rooms and headed to their barracks. John needed five minutes to get everyone back to the locker room on their way to the debrief. Once they got packed up, they headed back to their locker room and dropped off their bags in front of their lockers.

The after-action report for them was glowing. Their platoon’s tactics and accuracy were simply too much for the enemy. It was clear what they wanted to do against them, but the sniper and DM fire from the back portion of the lines just hammered the enemy and basically blead them dry. Their platoon was dismissed after congratulations by the training officers on hand and then they were back in the locker room putting on their pressure suits.

18:00 Space Elevator Lobby

The platoon was tired and hungry. The military provided the cadets a meal at the lobby. Within fifteen minutes all of the food was devoured. They were in a bus heading back to the academy. They’d arrive a bit after 20:00 but it was mercifully Friday and that meant they had a free weekend to relax and unwind.

John was entering some information into his tablet. “Fucking hell that’s a lot.”

Alice heard that and looked over at the tablet. “Ouch, seriously. Is that everything?”

John just shook his head. “Nah, I’ve got a few other things I’m waiting on. God, I hate this time of year.”

“Well, it could be worse, you could be getting an audit.”

“Please, don’t say that word. That’s really not funny.” John winced at the thought of that.

Alice laughed. Though she was a little offput by his reaction. There was genuine terror in his voice just now. John put away the tablet and the couple continued their conversation. Alice was trying to get the spring break plans out of John, but he refused to say anything. But he did confirm they were going with the more luxurious option. And that they’d fly out Friday night on an evening flight to their location.

The cadets all got a message midway back to the academy. They had mandatory PE this weekend along with a PE session when they got back on campus. Even though they were in simulated gravity they needed a lot of exercise over the next two weeks. The message indicated a need to ensure they didn’t lose any bone density due to their time in space. They now know why spring break got pushed back.

The group decided to do PE in the morning on Saturday and afternoon on Sunday. That way they could go out party and not feel like hot garbage while running and lifting weights first thing Sunday. No one was looking forward to working out, but it had to be done.

22:30 Dorm Lounge

“Dude, I’m just saying. They are going to get pissed if you try and setup cornhole down here.” Kevin got the bug too up on the station, he wanted to play just as much as John did.

“Have you seen anyone else ever use this room? No one except us ever uses this room. This is practically our room.” John was adamant they should try. “Look, fifty bucks says they won’t say a damn thing.”

“I’ll take that bet.” Andern laughed.

“Think they’ll freak out if we get an axe throwing bay setup down here.” Thomas asked.

Everyone nodded.

“Well, it would be fun.” Thomas said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

“John, you are one hundred percent at fault for all of this madness.” Alice had to admit that even she liked playing cornhole.

“Hey, my ideas just happen to be fun ones.” John was a bit to smug for everyone.

“Hey, there no curfew tonight?” Kevin asked.

“Negative. They didn’t relax the dorm rules though. So, no one of the opposite sex in your rooms now.”

“Well shit.” Theresa looked annoyed.

“Agreed.” Alice was leaning on John’s shoulder.

“Anyone mention anything about that crazy watch John?” Kevin.

“Nah, probably better that way. Not gonna lie though, I almost peed my pants in excitement when I saw they had this one in stock.”

“Wait, you knew that thing was there?” Thomas asked.

John just smiled.

“You know you’re an evil genius, right?” Nate just laughed.

“Hold on, you only went there because they had that one didn’t you.” Alice shook her head.

“Well yeah, but I mean I really did want this watch. I knew they only made sixteen of them. Best part about this one is it’s got the first serial number. So, when I do go to sell it, I’m going to make bank on it.” John just smiled smugly.

“You need to get your collection together sometime and show me it.” Kevin saw the money John spent casually on that watch, his collection had to be impressive.

“Might have to wait till after spring break but I’ll see what I can do. Downside is the insurance company says this watch has to go to storage tomorrow.”

The group continued their random chat and just enjoyed being back on land. The irony here is when they graduated, they’d spend the vast majority of their time in artificial gravity environments. They might spend four or five weeks a year on a planet’s surface for the majority of their careers. But that was in the future, for now they were enjoying the time they were here.

“Ok so after PE I’ll get the boards and bags after I drop this beauty off in the bank and then we can set shit up and play till chow.”

“Sweet.” Kevin was looking forward to the morning. “So, PE at 08:00?”

“Yup, chow at 07:00.” John answered.

“Alright, well I’m heading to bed.” Kevin was yawning.

And with Kevin stating the obvious the group dispersed and headed back to their room. They overachieved during training. But they had two weeks of hard training ahead of them before they’d get a proper break. John would also get his taxes finished that weekend and did determine he had to pay in an astronomical sum. He wanted to hide a large chunk of his income that year, but it simply wasn’t worth the risk. John had no problem picking fights with damn near anyone, but not the IRS.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. The cornhole boards were setup and no one said a word about them. Their class had started an informal cornhole league that kicked off that weekend. John was ecstatic about it. Alice swore he used his abilities to make everyone want to play cornhole, even though he claims he didn’t have the ability to do that. Lastly Andern was annoyed when he had to pay John the fifty bucks for losing the bet. John just said something about beer money in a couple weeks.