Chapter Six:

Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Pyillos III, Unknown Location.

May 1, 7215

The next four weeks flew by in a blur of hunger, sore muscles, and exhaustion. The battalion was put through a more modern version of basic training. No deference was given to combat role, or rank. They were all expected to shape up or ship out. Except in this case ship out was in front of a very public execution. It seemed the Noble House did not take kindly to soldier’s dereliction of duty.

For the first couple days many of the soldiers were amazed by the genetically altered bodies they were given. However, that quickly disappeared when they discovered all it meant was they were expected to preform that much better, carry that much more, or survive that much longer.

Brandon didn’t even have much time to get to know anyone on more than a casual level. They were kept on such a tight schedule that not a single person found it appealing to lose valuable rack time to talk with their fellows.

On Brandon’s 31st day of life in this new existence the battalion was formed up on the muster ground for the first time. Five Company’s, each with 5 Platoons. Each Platoon held 4 squads. Brandon knew each Infantry squad was supposed to contain eight men and women. Some in the gathering did. But the majority of Squads had a member or two missing.

Slowly they were called one by one into the Lord Knight’s office. When the Battalion’s XO called off his name, Brandon snapped to attention and marched into the concrete building. He had not seen the interior of the Battalion’s administrative office before. However his time in the Earth simulation gave him an idea and one that wasn’t far from wrong. It seemed that no one had deemed it necessary to really change up the premise of basic offices in the last few thousand years.

Brandon walked past the closed office doors of each Company commander. Voices could be heard with-in. At the end of the short hall a Fully armored pair of Marines stood at attention with eh Lord Knight’s open door between them.

Stepping inside the office Brandon was surprised to have both Marines follow him in before closing the door. With the two soldiers dressed in full powered armor that made them stand nearly 3 meters tall it was needless to say cramped.

If this bothered the angry wisp of a woman behind the no nonsense metal desk glaring death at a holographic display it did not show.

Brandon came to attention and stood there for a full three minutes while the commander’s eyes rapidly moved back and forth. Although, the display was visible as phantoms of light from this angle it was not readable.

She finally turned dark eyes on him grimace still in place. “Congratulations soldier you have passed basic Infantry training and are now rated as an Infantryman. You can now serve House Nubran in glorious combat!” The zealot flare of a truly fanatical person flashed through her eyes.

“The psych levels show that your loyalty conditioning did not fully take.”

Brandon froze, daring not to breathe. It had not taken Brandon long to discover that the majority of the other soldiers had drank the Kool-Aid and gone back for seconds. Even with as little personal interaction as he had with them, it was obvious.

The Lord Knight let a long minute of silence pass as she stared holes in him. Then finally she nodded, “however, you did not show any signs of insubordination, or traitorous inclinations. Since it is his Lordships design to get as many fighting men trained as possible I am making the call to give you the pass.”

Brandon let out his held breath slowly and carefully.

“Now however that does not mean I approve of your request to become a Titan Jock. Those roles are the most coveted and sought-after positions in any armed forces galaxy wide. To have someone who may be harboring less than perfect loyalty piloting 25 tons of death god incarnate just will not due.”

The holographic screen flickered drawing the Lord Knights attention. She navigated the screen with her eyes and implants only to have her already thin lips draw into an even thinner line.

“By his lordships hairy ass! Those House Sang Fe fuckers finally made a move! It looks like it is your lucky day Mc’Dew we just lost a full platoon of Jocks and all Jocks in training are to be streamlined. The higher ups in their infinite wisdom think that if you’re in 25 tons of metal it isn’t as important to be able to fire a basic service rifle. I disagree. However, if I refuse your Advisor suggested role at his time due to my personal misgivings then I may be looking at a firing squad. So….”

She drew out the last word in to almost a hiss as she flicked something through the display. A ping sounded in Brandon’s head as his internal nanites lit up his personal HUD to show he received a priority message.

“There are your orders. Get the hell out of here. Your shuttle is on the landing pad to take you to be someone else’s issue. Dismissed!”

Having never been told to stand at ease, Brandon saluted arms crossing his chest and turned on his heel. The Marines exit the room first allowing him out. In the hallway back Brandon stopped abruptly as the door in to 2nd companies’ commander flew open. A young woman was being pulled out by a pair of Marines. Each one held the arm of the dark-skinned woman. For her part she hung there limply with wide dark eyes glancing around in shock. When she saw Brandon she yelled out.

“help me! They say I’m not loyal to Baronet Nubran! But, I’ve never done anything. You have seen me! I’m loyal! Tell them!”

Her pleas were cut off as she was pulled around a corner and out of sight. The commander of 2nd company locked eyes with Brandon for a brief moment as he continued walking down the hall, then with a bare nod, he shut the door.

Brandon entered the main room and hit the call button for the elevator to the roof and the landing pads there. Another soldier joined him after emerging from 1st Companies Co’s door. The doors dinged allowing both men to enter. A few seconds later they went up the four stories and emerged on the roof. As Brandon stepped out he heard a semi familiar scream, “No please!” Then a single gunshot rang out from somewhere behind the Battalion’s compound.

Brandon looked at the man beside him, a fleet spacer judging from his patch. The man looked at Brandon and smiled a thin smile, “For the honor of his lordship.” Then the man moved off toward the pad with a large shuttle awaiting the fleet solider.

Brandon went to another shuttle denoted on his HUD as the one he needed to report to. A Socman stood there with a pad in hand. The woman looked at his name on his uniform then her tablet again.

With a nod she smiled, “Sir, you’re the first of our cargo to arrive. We will be stopping to drop off the Aerospace TG’s first. Then we will take you Jocks to yours. Have a seat and buckle up.”

Brandon smiled back and was going to ask her a question, but her eyes moved past him. Glancing back Brandon saw another soldier coming this way. Letting it be he stepped up the ramp and entered the personnel shuttle.

Shuttles like this were made to deliver troops from ship to ship or ship to planet. Sometimes for things like this they were used to act as a bus across planets. Not designed for combat or large amounts of cargo the thing was filled with seats. Big enough to support a full armored Infantry platoon it currently stood empty.

The seats were stadium style with five-point crash harnesses that were pulled down from the top to secure its’ occupant.

Seating himself Brandon buckled in and waited. Over the next three hours the ship slowly filled. Men and women entered, found a seat and buckled up in silence. Every now or then a gunshot would echo through the open gangway. Sometimes preluded by a shout or scream. Sometimes not. After the first one though, no one jumped hearing the weapons report. Finally the last person entered and the Socman at the gangway stepped into the craft. “Okay folks buckle in. We are heading out.”

There was just a slight whine of engines and a jerk as the craft lifted off. The shuttle completed a perfect vertical takeoff, followed by a 145-degree horizontal spin, and then it blast into the air. Inside those near a window gasped. Even those who had performed their simulation in later times was still amazed by the huge seeming leap in technologies. The G-Forces that the occupants should have been feeling was nearly totally missing. Brandon felt like he was going 70 down an interstate, not moving at hundreds of kpH.

In less than 10 minutes the shuttle slowed and lowered, again in a sensationless vertical decent, to the ground. A short distance away stood the largest airfield Brandon had ever seen. Watching out the small round window of the shuttle he gasped seeing the area from the air. He counted no less than 50 runways. Some of which could hold three b-52’s wing tip to wing tip. Others were smaller and longer. Then there was countless number of landing pads like the one the shuttled settled on.

The gangway lowered a minute before the Socman appeared “Alright, you Aerospace cadets. Your chariot has arrived. Now get the hell off my bird!”

A series of nervous chuckles came from around the shuttle as most of the occupants unbuckled and exit the craft. Outside Brandon heard the screaming of Drill Sergeants or their more modern equivalents.

Less than five minutes after landing the shuttle was taking off again. This time the journey was farther… Much farther. To the surprise of the remaining five people in the seats they climbed and climbed, until the blue-green of the air darkened, becoming black. Brilliant stars glimmered in a view that nearly took Brandon’s breath away, and he had never been one of those crazy ass holes who wanted to see space. Now that he was here though … It was truly an awesome sight.

The shuttle moved toward the planet’s second smaller moon. The stellar body was locked in a trailing orbit of the much larger sister. As they neared Brandon got his first look at real Titans. In the haze of the moon’s limited atmosphere he felt his mouth fall open. He now knew why the Lord Knight had called them the gods of the battlefield.

Moving over the blue looking moon was true metal Titans. Brandon saw a platoon of four Apaches working on moving in formations. The ‘tiny’ Titan weighted in at a mere 15 tons and stood over two stories tall. Farther out Brandon could see the hulking form of an Arrow as it moved on some kind of maneuver. The 35-ton behemoth was more than 18-meters-tall and alone carried two Guass Rifles, two phasers, and a long-Range Missile Launcher on its right shoulder. The humanoid looking goliath was nearly impervious to all normal Infantry wielded weapons and could crush the life from a person with a pinch of its’ perfectly functional hands.