XI
Like Father, Like Daughter
3 years have passed on the Fear Naught, in which time the children had completed to a high standard almost every task laid in front of them, save one, Philosophy. Max once quoted "As Technology advances, reliance on religion decreases". This had become particularly true in Britain and the British founded colonies on varies planets across the universe. Jordan and Leticia are 14 years old now, Max and Kyle, 12. The children were inseparable. Even when training was finished, they'd often continue talking about various topics, occasionally Tia would even join them in a discussion, helping to visualise descriptions using interactive holograms and researching the validity of one of their claims, often times the children would be accurate in what they said so the research was hardly necessary.
"Leticia, your day's training is going to start in two hours' time"
Leticia blinked her eyes open, blinded by the bright blue hologram of Tia at the foot of the bed in the otherwise black room.
"Huh? What? Oh…" She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and swivelled around to the side of the bed, hanging her feet off of the edge.
"What's happening today Tia?" Leticia asked while still adjusting to the light.
"Today the training schedule, including breaks and meals is as follows: 1 hour breakfast, 1 hour first aid theory, 1 hour first aid simulation, half an hour break, 1 and a half hour Tai Kwando lesson, 1 hour martial art simulation, 2 hours lunch and free time, half hour combat simulation brief, one and a half hour combat simulation with secondary objectives. Total day time 9 hours. "
"That's not too bad then. The first aid sim sounds fun… Can you turn the lights on please, Tia?" Leticia stood up and walked towards the bathroom door. The lights flicked on, just dimly to start, then slowly brighter to allow Leticia's eyes to adjust. She opened the door of the bathroom and the lights in there flicked on also, the same gradual brightness effect of the bedroom lights. She walked in, undressed and showered, washing the sleep away, preparing for the day ahead.
Leticia called out to Tia, "What time is…"
"Lights out?" Tia knew what Leticia was going to ask, she has done every day for the four years aboard the Fear Naught, without fail. It's at 2300 ship time, it is currently 0605."
"Plenty of free time later then." Leticia turned off the shower and stepped out, wrapping a towel around her body and another around her hair, tying it into a head wrap.
Half an hour of hair drying, light make up applying, and dressing later, Leticia was ready. Her mother was also awake by this time.
Ms Young, Sophia Young, had a relatively relaxing time aboard the Fear Naught, most of her time simply spent conversing with Tia, Arawn (when he was available), Commander Davies (again when he was available) and the other parents back on Earth giving near-live updates of evens on board using messaging services and letters.
"Hey darling, what's happening today then?" Sophia asked her daughter.
"Only 9 hours of training today, 2 hours of lunch too, doing some first aid, a first aid simulation and some Tai Kwando" Leticia deliberately avoided the mention of the combat sim, her mum always gets worries, despite it not being real.
"Pretty easy then yeah? I'll be writing a letter home to all the other parents later, anything the boys want to say?"
"I'll let you know through Tia later, probably around lunch time. Can we have a cinema night tonight? There's really cool film out about the Chief"
"About who? Master Chief? Wont that be all violent though, you know I don't like watching those types of films."
"No, no, it's more of a documentary on his life, bit published as a film so people can keep it I suppose…"
"Maybe, I'll have a talk with Tia. Will the boys be coming?"
"I'm not sure, they suggested it a while ago but never really did it, I'll ask Jordan but He'll probably be playing on his computer. He plays games from the 21st century, it's quite cool to watch actually."
"I'll see if I can get you a computer then" Sophia said smiling.
"Ordered, one 21st century PC" Tia said over the intercom "any particular specification?"
"Just make it good enough to run a decent game" Leticia responded.
"So will that be Dual or Quad SLI Titans?"
"SLI what? Actually don't worry about the what. Quad please."
"Is that all?" Tia asked, already knowing the answer
"Yes, thank you Tia."
Leticia's hair had dried on the short walk to the mess hall, falling into a straight flow over her shoulders down to her chest. She had a slender figure from physical training and the nutritionally specific foods from the mess hall (typically high protein and carbohydrate) and a soft, yet defined face. She favoured a full fringe and kept it straightened in free times, despite the natural straightness. She sat on a table along with the 3 other children, opposite Jordan, next to max. Kyle sat next to Jordan. Tia accompanied the children on a small holo-pad near the middle of the table.
The four kids wore the same uniform. Black cargo trousers with grey urban digital camo trims and white straps and quick-release buckles around the thighs and calves. A small rubber insignia was stuck on a Velcro pad on the left side cargo pocket, the White Hoods insignia. The knees were padded. They all wore black t-shirts and fitted white and grey digital camo hooded jumpers. The shirts were plain black with the insignia on the left breast and each child's surname on their back along with a larger insignia and room enough for a nickname to be printed later.
The hoodies could be described as segmented, each panel of fabric in a differing colour. The torso part was plain white with straps and a few "male" quick release buckles on the back of the shoulders and lower back. The sides of the torso were grey and black digi-camo. The upper sections of the sleeves were a light grey with wrap around straps and buckles to allow adjustment for ops or comfort (also usable as a tourniquet if needed). The grey section tapered to a tip near the elbow and the lower section was white and cut short, giving a three-quarter sleeve. The lower section was digi-camo, again, with an adjustable strap and buckle. The elbows where padded like the knees.
The hood of the hoody was complex. A 6-segment hood with wire re-enforcement to give a nice heptagonal shape. A couple of male quick release buckles attached to the sides facing horizontally when the hood was up, these could be used for the attachment of coms equipment. Another adjusting strap was present across the rear of the head, with two buckles to allow symmetry (the designer was very OCD about symmetry, plus it didn't look to bad either). Instead of a straight edged hood, the hood had a shape resembling of an eagle's head as if screeching, coming out to a point mid was down the panels. The peak was very pronounced, when worn it would almost completely block the wearers face, save the lips, however the wearer could see out, a small holographic display housed in the hood and a camera mounted on the peak allowed a live stream and target acquisition data to be seen instantly. A similar display will be installed onto the battle suits.
"Have you guys eaten?" Leticia said as she sat.
"Yeah but I'm still hungry. The portions are tiny." replied Jordan rubbing his belly
"Yeah, want to come up again? I need some food, training starts in half an hour"
The boys nodded. Tia sent a warning to the canteen to serve the kids again, with a slightly larger portion this time. Growing kids are known to need more nutrition than adults, especially when the kids are doing two different sims today. The kids returned to the table, plates full of a full English breakfast, adult sized. 2 bacon, 2 egg (fried for the boys, poached for Leticia), 1 sausage, 2 peeled and fried tomatoes, 1 hash brown and a puddle of beans, a handful of condiments including salt and HP brown sauce.
"That's a lot of food, Jordan" Tia pointed out to the boy who had somehow managed to get an extra bacon and egg.
"What can I say? I'm a growing lad" Jordan struck a pose, 'The beach is that way', tensing his biceps although the hoody covered them over.
"Ha-ha very funny Jordan" Leticia said in a subtlety sarcastic voice, cutting open the first of the poached eggs and dipping the hash brown into the golden yoke.
One and a half hours later, the short brief for the first aid sim was being disused, the previous lesson had covered laceration wounds, dismemberment and gunshots.
"You will be placed into a simulated combat scenario, instead of fighting you are the casevac team. Does everybody remember what a casevac is?" Tia testing their knowledge while briefing them, she found it was a better indication of their knowledge than formal tests.
The boys were clueless, uming and erring and repeating the two syllable word, hoping that the answer would suddenly spring on them "Cas…Evac…Cas…Evac… Casevac"
"Doesn't it mean Casualty Evacuation?" Leticia answered
"Correct, I'm surprised you boys didn't get that, it is fairly obvious. Anyway, as I was saying, there will be an unknown number of casualties, some may be dead, but you won't know who, so you will have to check all signs of life. You will be witnessing some gruesome and hyper-realistic looking injuries, however remember at all times that it is a simulation, if it gets too much to hand shout 'stop' three times and the sim will instantly stop you will be debriefed and checked out"
Max spoke up "Well that's re-assuring. Kyle don't go crying at some holo-blood now will you?"
"Hey, if anyone is gunna cry it'll be you" retaliated Kyle
"Stop it you two, we're a team now remember?" Leticia didn't want the team to break down before the sim even started, no-doubt that would carry over to the combat sim later, and that really won't be ideal.
"Around you a battle will be taking place, a defensive position on a FOB is going to be attacked by rogues of the UNSC, their aim to simply disrupt. You are not to participate in combat unless necessary for your own self defence, you will be equipped with a basic Medic load-out: light armour, MA7AP assault rifle with select fire and silencer, M6C/SOCOM silenced sidearm, your own personal combat knifes issued to you on earth, Bio-foam 2 canisters per person, tourniquets 3 per person, 4 Morphine syringes single dose per person, a hard light field amputation knife, and a hard light two man field stretcher.
"Your task is simply to evacuate injured men off of the battle field to an RV where a pelican will be waiting for you, use any means to get them there, the AI is interactive, so giving orders to a soldier will equal it carrying out that order, however be careful, you may end up causing more casualties. We want these men alive and in a fit condition to be able to be healed and made fit for battle, so only amputate limbs if no other options lay, there is no moral right or wrong in first aid, work off of what you think is right. Simulation will stop if you take too long, one of you get injured to the point of needing aid or 3 casualties die from their injuries without being treated."
"Affirmative" each of them said in succession, Leticia being the first and already writing note on her hand and checking the ink on her marker pen.
"Simulation start in 2 minutes, make your way down the corridor to the holo-deck and you will be given your equipment."
The kids left the room, Leticia second in line, Jordan ahead, Max and Kyle taking up the rear walking in a pair. Once inside the children were each handed a bag of holo-skeletons, a skeleton body harness a rifle skeleton, magnum skeleton, and knife handles. No actual items are ever taken onto a holo-deck. All weapons and equipment are projected onto the skeletons, on weapons the only working parts simply being a removable magazine, usable bolt and trigger. Knifes had the blades projected from the handle and any and all equipment was projected onto holo-skeletons which could vary from a syringe to a full mobile shield generator. Body armour would be projected onto harnesses.
"30 seconds to simulation" Arawn came over the intercom and flickered onto a life-size holo-pad to the entrance to the holo-deck "Good luck kids, remember: it's only a sim."
"Thanks Arawn" each said as they walked past. Arawn re-shaped his beret on his head, calculating the stress levels of each child by the wave forms of their voices, logging it. Leticia was calmest to no surprise. Jordan was nervously exited, Max and Kyle were worried yet also exited. He logged this and sent it to Commander Davies and Tia for further interpretation and for further records. He would also analyse the waveforms of their voices throughout the sim to detect over stress, panic and shock in order to stop the sim if needed, all records would be deleted from his servers after the sim was completed.
"10 seconds to simulation"
"Good luck guys, remember stick together, use coms, don't panic, pause, and get help."
"5….4…3…2…1…Simulation starting"
A low buzz was heard as the room filled with holograms, this was quickly silenced by nearby gunfire as the scene loaded in using hexagons as pixels, starting off as indefinable then finally creating a hyper realistic scene. The kids were stood in the back of a pelican, simulated physics took hold, the pelican banked left and the children were thrown into the left hand seats
"Remember your briefing?" The pilot of the pelican shouted back to the hold, "In and out, as quick as you can, but as safe as you can."
The kids clicked a button on their tac-pad confirming what the pilot had said with a series of green dots on his screen, each of the children could also see three dots, one for each of them, all flickering green in confirmation. The pelican landed with a light thud against the dew sodden grass in the woodland clearing, just a 5 minute sprint to the FOB. The cargo door lowered and the kids ran out, in patrol order, Jordan leading, Leticia following, followed by Max, then Kyle scanning the Rear. They cleared the area, ensuring no ambush was in wait for the pelican. Then sprinted to the FOB.
"Are you the Evac?" shouted a soldier on a fortification
"Yeah, what's the damage soldier?" Jordan shouted
"An enemy force, twice if not triple our size is attacking from the north, we have 6 base turrets up, fortifications fully manned and mortars firing, but the turrets are low on ammunition and they are what is holding the majority of the forces back. When they go down we may be over run." The soldier gave various hand gestures pointing in the direction of the enemy and the turrets.
"Affirmative. Leticia, Max, go treat the wounded over there on the parade square, get them fighting if you can, Kyle we are going to go to the front and get people to the parade square."
Three green blips appeared on Jordan's tack pad.
"What's your name, soldier?"
"Corporal Smith"
"Alright Corporal, I want you to help out Leticia and Max, anything they ask, got it?"
"Yes sir"
Leticia made it to the parade square, 5 men, and 2 women sat against walls and laying on the floor. "Max, go help those two" she pointed in the direction of two men, one walking around aimlessly, white as a sheet, the other with a serious gunshot laceration from a close call with a bullet to his right arm, tearing just enough of his bicep to make it un-usable for firing.
Leticia set about rallying some help from the station medics, send one to treat a man with a shot to the knee and thigh, another to a woman with a dismembered arm and lower leg.
She calmly walked over to a male soldier laying on the floor, his armour removed and under-shirt ripped open to reveal a shotgun wound.
"I'm so dead, a shotgun to the chest, no-one is surviving that, I'm dead" the man was repeating himself over and over.
"Hey! What's your name mate?" Leticia said to the man when only a few feet away, removing a holo-skeleton from her bag which immediately formed into a bio-foam canister. Another one turned into a morphine jab.
"My name? George, Lewis. Lance corporal."
"Well lance corporal George, I promise you, you are fine. Here's something for the pain though." She jabbed the man's thigh with the morphine syringe, injecting the painkiller into his body.
"You got family George?"
The man was calming, although sill repeating the same words when not talking about anything else. "Yeah, a wife and kid… Will I see them again?"
"Yes, I promise" she applied the bio-foam to his chest, filling some of the deeper wounds. Any metal would be excreted through the foam after a few minutes of application. "Do me a favour George? Can you stay here for me until I come back in a few minutes?"
"Y-yeah sure, thank you"
"It's alright" Leticia's attention turned to Max, she called him over coms "how's it going?"
"Yeah not bad, I applied bio-foam to the arm guy and I've got the other guy that was in shock talking, They should be alright, how about you?"
"Yeah I've fixed one guy up, heading to a bad one now, talk in a bit"
A green light appeared on her tac-pad, Max's light. The next guy was dying. A laceration to his face by a bullet, penetrating injuries to the chest, just missing his vital organs, one shot to the thigh, millimetres away from his femoral artery (if it had been just a mil closer, the artery would have bled and he would have died within one minute due to blood loss). He also had a concussion, and bloodshot eye (blinded no doubt).Leticia patched him us as best she could, but he died from a slow internal bleed and faded out of the sim.
Jordan came over the headset to Leticia, "1 walking wounded and 1 in a stretcher in bound" Leticia looked up to the security doors to the outer walls and say the 3 injured along with Jordan and Kyle. Jordan and Kyle carrying the third man.
"This one has a broken right leg and a head trauma." Jordan shouted "this one on the left has a shot to his arm.
"Lay that one down here, we'll patch them up and get out of here" Leticia called back. Jordan and Kyle placed the stretcher down and ran off to help other people, Jordan saw to the man with the shot arm, Kyle went over and assisted Max who was treating his third casualty.
Leticia used another morphine jab on the man with the broken leg and inspected his leg. On examination she found the bone sticking out from the skin. The bone was shattered into 5 pieces. Two parts visible from the wound, 3 more could be felt through the skin. "I'm sorry, your leg is shattered in 5 places. All I can do is splint it and hope the guys back home can fix it or amputate it, you choice"
The man looked at Leticia in agony, his face streaked with dirt and tear tracks. "Cut it off, it's caused me enough trouble over the years" He laid his head back down, preparing for the removal of his leg.
Leticia took the hard light saw from her back and prepared it for use. The saw was heated and vibrated rapidly to trick the nerve endings into not feeling the cutting and cauterising the blood vessels as it went through. She lined the saw up 2 inches below his knee and cut through. The man squirmed and grimaced, smelling his burning flesh and hearing the singe of meat and blood. Leticia found the bone and dragged the serrated blade across. The vibrating saw made a squeal as it bit into the calcium and further into the marrow. Once through the man relaxed (as much as you can relax while having your leg sawn off). The singe of flesh retuned and the leg was held on simply by the calf muscle. Leticia cut through and the leg came free, no blood sprung due to the instant cauterisation. She wrapped the leg in a cloth and placed it to the side, calling Jordan and Kyle to pick up the stretcher.
"Hey, do you have any transport here?" she asked a nearby soldier.
"Yeah, one M831 TT, You need it?" The soldier replied, out of breath
"Yeah, can you get it for me?"
"Yes ma'am" The soldier ran off
"Mortar!" A whizz followed by a bang, a spray of mud and dust and a scream. Leticia ran to the impact site. The exact spot Lance Corporal George was left. Parts of his holographic body strewn all over the ground and slowly faded out.
"Jordan, we need to get out of here!" Another mortar shell struck the wall just as the warthog drove through the gate just a few meters away, sending rubble through the roll cage.
"I hadn't noticed!" Jordan replied. Shaking his head and throwing his arms into the air. "Kyle! Get over here, we need to get that stretcher onto the hog!"
Kyle ran over to the stretcher and helped Jordan lift it onto the Hog's rear bed. Fitting it down into the foot well of the rear seating. "Anyone who can walk, get over here and find a seat!"
Another mortar struck, followed by another soon after, both just 20 meters away. Leticia grabbed the nearest guy and helped him to the hog. Another mortar landed just 15 meters away, shrapnel hit Leticia's back, her armour absorbing the impact.
"Is everybody in?" Jordan shouted over the whizz of mortars and crack of gunshots in the distance. Leticia pushed the last man into the passenger seat and used a karabiner and rope to fasten herself to the side of the roll cage, all seats were full.
"Yeah" called Leticia as the 3 boys also hooked onto the hog, two on each side, Jordan on the same side as Leticia, equipping their weapons ready to defend, handing their magnums to 4 more able bodied soldiers.
"Drive!" Max and Kyle shouted in sync to the driver. The mortars went quiet just as 3 in a row hit the same piece of wall, destroying it. Rogues ran through, spraying their weapons across the courtyard, soldiers defending the base screamed and gurgled as they choked on their own blood.
"Fire at will!" Shouted Jordan, the 4 children picked off rogues one by one, the soldiers with magnums laying down suppressing spray fire. The hog sped off, the sudden acceleration throwing Jordan off balance, he fell, caught by his safety rope.
"That's Karma for getting sassy with me!" Leticia called offering Jordan a hand.
"Ha-ha very funny" Jordan climbed back up and resumed shooting back at the rogues, the hog at top speed swerving through the woods to the pelican site.
"Last mag!" Max shouted
"Same" Jordan called, Leticia offered Jordan another mag, Kyle offered max.
"One minute!" shouted the driver. The pelican's engines could be heard over the warthogs and the heavy gun fire.
The hog came into the clearing, lined up with the back of the pelican in one wide drift and drove forwards, the cargo doors open, the hog drove in and hit the front wall.
"Jesus…." The Pelican rear doors closed and accelerated off into the sky Metallic dings and pops faded out as the Rogues shot up at the escaping transport.
Everything slowly faded white as the simulation finished.
"Mission successful, total preventable deaths: 2." Award read as the light grew brighter, forcing the children to close their eyes. Seconds later, the light faded and the children opened their eyes again, then proceeded to walk out of the holo-deck, handing their holo-skeletons back in.
"Half an hour break, here I come!" cheered Kyle, running off to the canteen, followed by Max. Jordan and Leticia walked together to the lounge and sat on the memory-gel sofas.
"Good work Tish" Jordan said, turning the holographic TV on.
"You too J" She replied, sinking into the gel seat.
AUTHORS NOTE
Hey guys thanks for reading yet another chapter :D
This one is a tad longer than the previous chapters (By a tad…. I mean literally double the average of the previous ones). As always feel free to like the FB page at the usual facebook address just with …
/Halowhitehoods
…Added onto the end.
Don't forget to favourite and review, Until next chapter
~FAIL
