The Hipno Chronicles:

Ghosts of Liandris

Chapter 5:

War Games

1620 HOURS, AUGUST 24, 2541 (IMPERIAL CALENDAR) \

ZETA MULRADIS SYSTEM, NEAR CAMP CURRAHEE, PLANET LIANDRIS BETA

(FOUR YEARS AFTER HIPNO-III ALPHA COMPANY OPERATION PROMETHEUS)

Bullets peppered the dirt near Bludshot's head. He pushed farther back into the hole, hugging the ground, trying to be as flat as possible.

The irony was Team Foxtrot had done everything by the book. Maybe that was the lesson today: going by the book doesn't always work.

Bludshot had led them through the forest, evading snipers and patrols of drill instructors waiting to jump them. They made it too easy.

That should have been his first clue. The DIs never made things easy for them.

When they'd come to the open field he'd checked the perimeter. No one had been there. He'd waited, though, and checked and rechecked. DIs in their Mark-II SPI armor were hard to spot even with the thermal imagers in his field binoculars.

Bludshot had then warily led his team onto the field and toward the pole with the bell. That was the mission: ring the bell. They had two hours to find and ring the thing to qualify for continued Hipno training. Simple.

There were 418 candidates, and only three hundred slots. Not all of them could be Hipnos.

His mistake had been leading his entire team into the clear. They'd all been to eager.

It got them ambushed.

Machine-gun fire from the treetops rained down on them. Anique and Jamie, in flanking positions, were immediately taken out. Only Bludshot and Ruby had made it to the muddy hole. It was just deep enough to keep from getting shot.

"This is crazy," Ruby spat through her mud-covered face. "We gotta do something."

"They have to run out of ammo sooner or later," Blud told her. "Or one of the other teams will show up and get us out of this jam."

"Sure they will," Ruby said. "After they ring the bell." She squinted at the trees. "There has to be a way out of this. Automated gun turrets up there. That's why they didn't show up on the thermals."

That's what the Force Col. was always saying about machines: "They easily fool the unsuspecting...but they're also easy to break."

The guns wouldn't kill them--but they'd sure as hell stop them cold. With only gray sweat suits and light boots for protection, the stun rounds hit so hard they numbed whatever they hit: legs or arms or God help you if you got nailed in the groin or an eye.

"Nuts to this." Ruby rose into a crouching stance.

Bludshot grabbed her ankle, pulled her down, and punched her in the gut.

Ruby doubled, but she recovered fast--rolled over Blud and got him in a stranglehold.

Bludshot shrugged out of the lock and held up both hands. "Come on," he said. "Truce. There has to be a way out of this--a way with us not getting shot."

Ruby glared at him, but then said, "What do you have in mind?"

Kikoji's POV

"What is the point of this 'exercise,' Brigadier?" Deep Winter asked.

The AI holographic projection of an old falcon took a step toward the bank of monitors and touched the screen showing a boy and a girl pinned by machinegun fire. A crackle of ice spread across the plastic.

Full Bird Colonel Domovoi Kuran stood, and swatted at a mosquito, frowing as he glanced back and forth among the two dozen displays in Camp Currahee's control center. The air conditioner had broken, and both Kuran's and Kikoji's uniforms were soaked with sweat.

Kikoji said, "Our candidates are doing well in their studies?"

Deep Winter turned his glacier-blue gaze to the Brigadier. "You've seen my reports. You know they are. Since you announced their grades were a factor in the selection process, they practically kill themselves every night to learn everything before they pass out. Frankly, I don't see--"

"I suggest," Kikoji said, "you not worry about seeing the point of my battlefield drills, and focus on keeping the candidates on track with their studies."

What could and AI possibly know what it was like on a real mission? Bullets zinging so close over you head that you didn't so much as hear them but felt them pass. Or what it was like to get hit, but still have to keep going, bleeding, because if you didn't everyone on your team would die?

Alpha Company had lost their team cohesion on Operation PROMETHEUS. Kikoji vowed that would not happen with Beta Company.

Deep Winter ruffled his cape, and a flurry of illusionary snow swirled about the control room. The AI was likely programmed with human safety protocols, so it was natural for it to be concerned.

"We don't know what they're capable of," Kikoji finally told Deep Winter. "Stick with the by-the-book drills and we'll never find out, either. But put them in an impossible situation, and maybe they'll surprise us."

"Short definition of a Hipno." Dom remarked.

That's what people had siad about the HIPNO-IIs who were the genetic cream of the crop, and wore skeletal-grafted armor, as per Keidrian Genetic Warfare Protocol. They could do the impossible, and do it alone. The HIPNO-IIIs, though, would have to work together to survive. Be more family than fire team.

"Still," Deep Winter whispered. "This is cruel. They will break."

"I'd rather break them," Kikoji said, "than let them go out into the field without ever experiencing an untractable tactical situation."

"Personally, I don't think that these kids can be broken," Dom said, more to himself than to Kikoji or Deep Winter. His gaze now firmly fixed on Bludshot and Ruby. "Ten years old and these two have so much grit they scare the bejesus out of even me."

"Look," Deep Winter said. "What are those two doing now?"

Kikoji smiled. "I think...the impossible."

Bludshot's POV

"Let's go over the plan one more time," Blud said.

Ruby huddled next to him in the mud hole. "Why? You think I'm stupid?"

Bludshot didn't say anything for a moment, then: "Those turrets are probably using radar to target. So we fool them."

"And if they're using thermals?" Ruby asked.

Bludshot shrugged. "Then I hope they nail you first."

She grimly nodded and hefted a muddy rock. "So we throw these."

"Into their cone of fire," Blud said. "The small angle will make them hard to track. Mabye tie up their brains for a fraction of a second more."

"Then we run."

"Evasive maneuvers. Try not to step on Anique and Jamie."

"Got it."

Bludshot grasped his rock tighter and pumped it once, working up his courage. He and Ruby knocked their fists together.

They stood at the same time--chucked both rocks.

Bludshot heard gunfire, but didn't pause to look; he ran right, then left, he rolled and tumbled and then sprinted like crazy for the tree line.

He felt the dirt near him exploding with tiny puffs..

Fire cut into his thigh and his leg lost all feeling. He pushed off with his good foot, and landed hard on his stomach in the tall grass by the acacia trees.

Staccato bullets dotted the ground centimeters from his prone form...but missed him. He laughed. He was just inside their minimum angle of fire. Stupid machines.

He rolled over and spotted Ruby, panting and crouched in the grass. Blud waved to her, and then pointed up into the treetops. Ruby gave the thumbs-up signal.

Bludshot hopped on one leg. Some of the feeling was coming back...mostly the feeling of pain. He stomped it out. He couldn't let it slow him down. The drill instructors might show up any second.

He pulled himself up into the lower branches of one of the acacias that shook with gunfire. He took great care to avoid the spines on the tree's trunk. He climbed up ten meteres.

On a platform sat an old M202 XP machine gun hooked up to an automated fire control. It twitched back and forth, waiting for a target to present itself.

Bludshot reached up and disconnected the wires from the radar array, and the the power supply. The gun froze.

He climbed onto the platform and unscrewed the securing bolts. He pushed the gun off the platform, where it made a satisfying thud as it impacted the muddy ground.

He climbed down. He grabbed the machine gun, cleared the barrel, and stripped off the remaining autofire control. He test-fired a burst of three rounds into the tree trunk. "Awesome," he said.

Ruby was down from her tree as well, machine gun balanced on her shoulder. She moved onto the field to help Anique and Jamie get up. "Come on," she said. "We still got a bell to ring."

Anique boosted Bludshot and then Ruby to make a living ladder, and then Jamie clambered up and clanged the bell.

Nothing had ever sounded so good.

They all climbed down. "Now for some payback..." Bludshot said. "Anique, Jamie, take up spotting positions" --he pointed-- "in those trees there and there."

They nodded and ran off to the trees.

"You and me," he said to Ruby, "will set these," he patted his machine gun, "up there." He pointed to a large boulder. "I'll be there." He nodded to the tall grass on the edge of the field.

"And do what?" she asked.

"Well, we've cleared the field and rung the bell. I figure with the other teams getting here and ringing the bell in record times..."

Ruby grinned. "The DIs will come running and gunning."

The DIs at Camp Currahee were a mix of handpicked NCOs, medics, and the washouts from the first Hipno class. The washouts always went out of their way to make the lives of the Beta Hipno trainees hell. Two years ago, Team X-Ray vanished on a routine exercise up north. A lot of the kids said there were ghosts up there---floating eyes in the jungle---but everyone really believed the DIs had done something and covered it up. ONI even came in and fenced the place off. Called it "Sector Zero" and declared it "absolutely off limits."

It was time to teach those DIs they couldn't get away with bullying Beta Company.

Jamie whistled from the treetops.

Teams Romeo and Echo slinked into view. Bludshot signaled them and explained the plan. Teams Zulu and Lima joined them, and soon two dozen trainees were scattered in the trees and grass, watching and waiting.

It took only fifteen minutes before a whistle sounded at three o'clock. There was a subtle motion in the grass on the edges of the field.

Bludshot signaled his scouts to fall back while Ruby maneuvered to get a better line. Bludshot ran in a crouch to intercept.

He spotted three targets, their SPI armor mimicking the grass well, but not well enough to cover the parted grass at their feet. They turned to face Ruby.

Blud fired, spraying at knee level where the armor was weakest.

Three outlines crushed the grass, screaming and convulsing as the rubber bullets pelted them.

Ruby joined him and opened fire.

When the screaming stopped, Bludshot moved in and peeled off their armor, revealing three very dazed DIs.

They had not identified themselves, so by the rules of engagement they were fair targets. Anique ran up and helped him and Ruby strip the bodies.

"Pistols and PA6-Ls, both with stun ammunition," Anique said.

Ruby held up a double-handful of grenades, and smiled. "Flashbangs."

"Now," Blud said, grinning, "this really gets interesting."

Later that night...

The moon had come out and set. The grass was wet with dew and Bludshot's stomach growled so loud he thought it might give away his position in the dark.

Five waves of DIs had come, and been neutralized by a now armed, armored, and fully equipped Hipno Trainee Defense Team. The instructors were tied up in the middle of the field by the bell. Hostages.

Blud and the other Hipnos were working together like they never had before. And they were winning. He was hungry, wet, and cold, but Bludshot wouldn't have traded places with anyone in the entire galaxy.

He heard a rustle in the tall grass, turned, machine gun aimed waist high.

There was nothing there, and nothing on the thermals, either. He must be getting jumpy.

A hand clamped on his shoulder, while another hand wrenched the machine gun from his grasp.

FBC Kuran stood over him. At his side was Brig. Mantadurru.

Bludshot half-expected Kuran to shoot him right there.

"I think that's quite enough," Dom growled.

The Brigadier knelt beside Bludshot and whispered, "Good work, son."