The Defense Ministry knew that Japan's future was riding on the outcome of this operation, so in addition to mustering twentyfive thousand Jackets, an endless stream of overeager generals had been pooling in this little base on the Flower Line that led down Boso Peninsula. They'd even decided to allow Americans, Special Operators, into the game; the U.S. hadn't been invited to the party at Okinawa.
The Americans probably didn't give a damn whether or not Tokyo was reduced to a smoking wasteland, but letting the industrial area responsible for producing the lightest, toughest, composite armor plating fall to the Mimics was out of the question. Seventy percent of the parts that went into a state—of—the—art Jacket came from China, but the suits still couldn't be made without Japanese technology. So convincing the Americans to come hadn't been difficult.
The catch was that with foreign troops came tighter security. Suddenly there were checks on things like missing alcohol that base security would have turned a blind eye to before. When the brass found out what had been going on, they were royally pissed.
"How's that for luck? I wonder who fucked up."
"It ain't us. I knew the Americans would be watchin' over their precious battalion like hawks. We were careful as a virgin on prom night."
Yonabaru let out an exaggerated moan. "Ungh, my stomach… Sarge! My stomach just started hurtin' real bad! I think it's my appendix. Or maybe I got tetanus back when I hurt myself training. Yeah, that's gotta be it!"
"I doubt it will clear up before tonight, so just make sure you stay hydrated. It won't last until tomorrow, hear me?"
"Oh, man. It really hurts."
"Kiriya. See that he drinks some water."
"Sir."
Ignoring Yonabaru's continued performance, Ferrell walked out of the barracks. As soon as his audience was gone, Yonabaru sat up and made a rude gesture in the direction of the door. "He's really got a stick up his ass. Wouldn't understand a good joke if it came with a fucking manual. Ain't no way I'm gonna be like that when I get old. Am I right?"
"I guess."
"Fuck, fuck, fuck. Today is turnin' to shit."
It was all playing out how I remembered.
The 17th Armored would spend the next three hours in PT. Exhausted, we would listen to some commissioned officer, his chest bristling with medals, lecture us for another half hour before being dismissed. I could still hear him threatening to pluck the hairs off our asses one by one with Jacket—augmented fingers.
My dream was looking less like one by the minute.
3
There's an exercise called an iso push—up. You lift your body like you would in an ordinary push—up, then you hold that position.
It's a lot harder than it sounds. You can feel your arms and abs trembling, and eventually you lose your sense of time. After you've counted something like the thousandth sheep jumping a fence, you'll beg to be doing ordinary push—ups, anything but this. Your arms aren't designed to be pillars. Muscles and joints are there to flex and bend. Flex and bend. Sounds nice just thinking about it. But you can't think about it, or you'll feel even worse. You're pillars, hear me? Pillars! Nice strong pillars.
Muscle isn't really all that important for a Jacket jockey. Whether a person's grip is thirty kilos or seventy, as soon as they put on that Jacket, they'll have 370 kilos of force in the palm of their hands. What a Jacket jockey needs is endurance and control—the ability to hold one position without twitching a muscle.
Iso push—ups are just the thing for that. Wall sitting isn't half bad, either.
Some claimed iso push—ups had become the favored form of discipline in the old Japan Self—Defense Force after they banned corporal punishment. I had a hard time believing the practice had survived long enough to be picked up by the Armored Infantry Division—the JSDF had joined the UDF before I was even born. But whoever thought of it, I hope he died a slow, painful death.
"Ninety—eight!"
"NINETY—EIGHT!" we all cried out.
"Ninety—nine!"
"NINETY—NINE!"
Staring into the ground, we barked desperately in time with the drill sergeant, sweat streaming into our eyes.
"Eight hundred!"
"EIGHT HUNDRED!"
Fuck OFF!
Our shadows were crisp and clear under the scorching sun. The company's flag snapped and fluttered high above the field. The wind that buffeted the training grounds reeked of salt and left a briny layer of slime on our skin.
There, motionless in the middle of that gargantuan training field, 141 men from the 17th Company of the Armored Infantry Division held their iso push—ups. Three platoon leaders stood, as motionless as their men, one in front of each platoon. Our captain watched over the scene with a grimace from the shade of the barracks tent. Sitting beside him was a brigadier general from the General Staff Office. The general who'd opened his mouth and started this farce was probably off sipping green tea in an air—conditioned office. Cocksucker.
A general was a being from the heavens above. A being perched on a gilded throne, higher than me, higher than Yonabaru, higher than Ferrell, higher than the lieutenant in charge of our platoon, the captain in charge of our company, the lieutenant colonel in charge of our battalion; higher than the colonel in charge of our regiment, higher even than the base commander. The generals were the gods of Flower Line and all who trained, slept, and shat within its walls. So high, they seemed distant and unreal.
Generals didn't steal liquor. They were early to bed, early to rise, always brushing their teeth after every meal, never skipping a morning shave—goddamned messiahs. Generals went into battle facing death with their chins held high, calm as you please. Hell, all they had to do was sit back in Nagano drawing up their battle plans. One order from them and us mortals on the front lines would move like pawns across a chessboard to our grisly fates. I'd like to see just one of them here with us in the mud. We had our own rules down here. Which is probably why they stayed away. Hell, if one of them showed, I'd see to it a stray bullet put them on the KIA list. This was the least damning thought running through my head, any one of which would have been enough to send me to a firing squad.
The brass in the tent weren't the only spectators around to watch our torture.
The guys in 4th Company were really laughing it up. A while back we beat them in an intramural rugby match by more than thirty points, so I guess they felt this was some sort of twisted payback. The liquor we'd swiped was for them too, so this display of solidarity was touching. What a bunch of assholes. If they got into trouble on Kotoiushi, I sure as hell wasn't going to bail them out.
The U.S. Spec Ops and some journalist imbedded in their squad had gathered around the field to watch us from a safe distance. Maybe they didn't do iso push—ups where they came from, but whatever the reason, they were pointing their fat fingers at us and laughing. The breeze coming off the water picked up their voices and dumped them on us. Even at this distance, the commentary was loud and grating. Fingernails on a chalkboard grating. Oh, man. Is that a camera? Is he seriously taking pictures? All right, that's it, motherfucker. You're next on my KIA list.
Pain and fatigue racked my body. My blood pumped slow as lead.
This was getting old. Counting my dream, this was the second time I'd endured this particular session of PT. Not just PT, iso push—ups. In training they taught us that even when you're in excruciating pain—especially when you're in pain—the best thing to do was to find some sort of distraction, something else to focus on other than the burning in your muscles and the sweat streaking down your forehead. Careful not to move my head, I looked around out of the corner of one eye.