The next mourning Malik was awakened by the voice of Arowson. He heard the groans of other recruits as they awoke from there sleeping chambers. People sliding off their bunks and drowsily getting dressed.
"Come on get up ladies we got work to do," sounded Arowson's voice.
Malik looked at the clock next to his bed, 5:30. Shit that's right he was supposed to be out on "The Field" at 6:00. He scrambled out of his bed and slipped on his newly acquired recruit uniform. Then after neatly making his bed, as all marines were required to do, he headed to the mess hall for a quick breakfast before he headed out to begin the first day of boot camp.
"The Field" was the slang name for the marines training area, mainly because it included a large field were they would do exercises and other things. It also included an obstacle course and a shooting range. Then there was the tech room, which was located near by for the marines to learn to pilot and fix the vehicles that they may need in real combat situations.
After every one was lined up on the large open area of the field, Arowson paced back and forth in front he stared at the single file lines that went back about five lines all containing ten people. He stared for a second then smiled at the perfect appearance of everyone.
"Fist I would like to welcome four new recruits, Mr. Alson, Mr. Necoro, Mr. Sacard, And Mr. Zero. I hope you all show them a nice welcome and don't rough them up to bad. Now as you all know we will do some basic exercises then we will suit up in our combat suits and get some start some more advanced stuff. New recruits find a more experienced person to help you with your combat suit. Ok every one first give me thirty laps." And so ended Arowson's good mourning speech.
Malik stared in disbelief, he new it would be hard but warm up exercise's being thirty laps around a about a 100 yards long. It was the first in the mourning and he wasn't even fully awake yet. Most of the others didn't feel his disbelief and were already starting to jog along. As Malik began to pick up his pace he heard a familiar voice behind him.
" Hay Zero, hold up a minute." Panted a young man about Malik's age. Malik instantly recognized him.
" I didn't no you were here Jason," Said a surprised Malik. Jason was an old friend from high school, infact a really good old friend. After high school though he said he was going to go out and try to do something with his life, Malik never thought this is what he meant.
"Yea, I tried a couple of things for a career after I left but I just couldn't make it in the real world so here I am," came the answer from Jason.
"How long have you been here," Malik asked another question.
"About three weeks so if you need anything ask me I kind of know my way around, I'll even help you with your combat suit after we're done with our field exercises."
After the recruits were done with all of there exercises they gathered in two large groups. Group A consisted of thirty-five people including, Jason and Malik and was lead by Arowson. It was called Marine squad. Group B was composed of fifteen other people lead another ranking officer that Malik was not acquainted with. They were the Firebat squad. Firebats are much like marines using a combat suit but most of the similarities end there. The firebats combat suit is made to sustain harsh heat situations and is a bit larger. It also has to plasma based generators on the back that would connect to the firebats weapon, the Perdition Flamethrower. As the name implies it is a high-powered flamethrower cable of causing death on a much larger scale then your average weapon. The Marines armor was a bit lighter and was built more for all round combat situations, more versatile but a little litter and not quite as strong. The primary weapon of the marines was the Gauss rifle; it was the standard issue weapon for most of the confederate army. Fully automatic, 2x scope, versatility compatibility and armor piecing ammunition, it was a very fine weapon.
Malik's squad started to try on there combat suits. As he watched he found that the other three recruits were having just as much trouble as he was. He decided to take Jason's offer and asked him for help. Even with the more experienced soldiers help it took nearly fifteen minutes for Malik to suit up, Jason explained that after you get used to it will only take a couple of minutes at most. The other three recruits took almost twenty minutes until finally some of the more weathered recruits helped them out as well.
The first exercises was jogging and doing some basic activities in the combat suit. This in its self was much easier said then done. The combat suit its self weighed a couple hundred pounds and Malik didn't even think he could lift his leg, but the computer microbes worked along with his actions so that when he would try to lift his leg the machinery inside would agree and the limb would raise. After a few tries Malik decided he had gotten the hang of it and started to move a bit faster. He started to run the track with the others and soon realized he was doing much better then some of the recruits, even ones that have been here for a while
"Very nice, you wear that suit pretty well," Jason commented.
"Its not to bad once you get the hang of it," replied Malik.
"Just wait till you get to fire a gauss rifle," said Jason and then dashed off faster then Malik thought his suit could even go. After a couple of exercises to get the suits and the recruits ready the went on to try some target practice. Malik followed Jason to the shooting range staying a couple feet behind not wanting to test how well the suit would stop in a sudden instant. When they arrived Arowson handed each new recruit a gauss rifle. Malik ran his hand over it and knew that this weapon could be the basis for every thing he did after he was through with boot camp.
"Alright, dirt bags line up and take out your marks," Yelled Arowson.
Malik and the others lined up against an old wooden wall with notches in the top to rest the barrel of there guns. About 100 meters out were some moving targets made mainly from alloy and titanium condensed with some other metals they were beaten pretty badly, but once again the confederacy doubted that replacing them would be a good financial decision. The targets darted around using the same anti-gravity pulsations that the Vultures did. Malik heard the sound of automatic fire on either side of him and decided not to keep his own rifle silent.
He let three rounds go, and happily noticed that they hit a target making it flip and spin a bit before recovering, as he smirked he heard something that sounded like "beginners luck" come from one of the other recruits. He continued to unload all of his clips. His first day and he was already shooting as good as the others and was able to use his combat suit just as well as them also. Finally at the 10 o'clock that night Arowson gathered them together.
"Ok that's all you're dismissed," he said in his rough voice.
As every one was scrambling to the barracks to get out of there combat armor and get some rest, Malik was stopped by Arowson.
"That was some fine shooting out there, you also got used to your combat suit much quicker then most recruits do. I think your going to make one hellava good marine." Chuckled Arowson.
"Thank you sir, I will try hard to better improve my self," Replied Malik, standing at attention.
"At ease, were just talking like friends your activities are over for the day," laughed Arowson. "Well its getting late I think I am going to go back and get a little shut eye tomorrows a new day and I am going to be coming by really early again. We'll work with you mechanical skills and teach you how to pilot some vehicles you might need on the field.
With that he took off. Malik smiled, he did well today and tomorrow when they covered vehicles he was sure he would do even better. His father had taught him to drive and service things, his father being a mechanic. Yea, he was turning out to be one of the best at this little camp. And tomorrow he would just do a little better, but for tonight all that remained to do was get a little sleep, so he to retreated to the barracks. Taking only ten minutes to get the hulky combat armor of then he relaxed in his bed so as to be ready for the next day's challenges.
The next mourning he got up at 5:15 and was ready by the time Arowson came to get up the rest of the crowd. As they went into the tech room to service their guns and to practice on their vehicles, Malik looked around. He noticed Vultures and some other field vehicles, but there were some that he hadn't ever seen in person. A large Goliath Walker stood off to his right. It had very tall legs and a pivoting waist so as to let it turn in all directions. In the space directly below the waist was an automatic chain gun and on the shoulders of it their packs loaded with hellfire missiles. On the Left Malik noticed a large siege tank being fixed, probably from some old combat experience. It was in its tank mode right now, meaning that it had reduced range from the siege mode. When in siege mode the tank sprouts to large metal arms on the side to grip in the ground. Its turret turns into a mortar cannon device and it has twice the range and power as before.
The recruits were to help and fix up some of the machinery as so they could use it in their exercises. Malik found this rather easy and immediately started to help fix up a nearby Goliath. After many of the vehicles had been deemed good enough to pilot Arowson took the recruits out and taught the new ones how to drive the machinery. The more experienced trainees stood watched and laughed as the fresh recruits screwed up; the only exception was Malik, who seemed to be fine at driving the vehicles.
The day was quick and was over soon. Malik once again retreated to his quarters and feel asleep. The Field was pretty quiet for the next week, every one just doing what they were supposed to. The got four or five new recruits. Malik was turning out to be a good marine and then something happened to screw every thing up. Peace can never last and this was no acceptation. \
