Next, I knew I had to impress them. Why the hell should they listen to me? That question had to be burning in their minds. I decided to show them why. First, I shouldered one of the new bulky reactors and gripped the connected beam unit. Then I marched them out into the jungle, to another region I’d plucked bare of trees. There were dark spots of open earth where trees had been hours before. The land looked like the gums of an old man who’d had all his teeth pulled at once. Big tropical insects crawled in every freshly-exposed hole.
“This will be our initial training ground. We are going to spend some time here, learning how to fire these new weapons. Visors, everyone. Full gear on. Button up!”
They had looked as if they were all bored, slouching and leaning against whatever was handy. But when they heard my barked commands, they snapped into motion. Every single one of them. They had been well-trained.
All their suits were light-reactive, and when I opened up with the new heavy beamer, the autoshades instantly darkened their eye portals. I fired into the edge of the forest, picking a mahogany tree. The thick vines that covered the tree twisted like grass stalks. The bark peeled away like burnt skin and the white flesh of the tree beneath instantly blackened. A moment after that, the entire tree trunk exploded and it sagged over on its side.
I knew most of them had never seen the power of one of my laser rifles. None of them, I was sure, had ever seen the power of one of these new heavy beamers. It was like having a blowtorch in your hands, a blowtorch so powerful tree trunks were like thin, dry weeds before it.
I took off the pack then. I waved them forward.
“As you can see, we can’t allow any friendly-fire accidents. They would be fatal almost instantly. Now, I want a volunteer to put on this pack and try to take out that tree over there,” I said, indicating a tall palm. It looked like an easy target. It was much thinner than the mahogany had been, and closer. All they had to do was blow it down.
“Who’s first?” I asked.
A dozen hands shot up, I pointed to the closest. I noticed that my only non-comm, Sergeant Wilson, kept his arms crossed. He had a small smile on his face.
The first man to take up my challenge was a Russian. He reached down to grab the pack. He heaved, but it didn’t budge. He looked surprised.
“Come on, put your back into it, soldier,” I said.
He swallowed, then put himself into the straps in a squatting position. He heaved, legs wobbling. He almost managed to dead-lift it. It was close. He roared and grunted, but couldn’t quite do it. I had to admire his tenacity.
“I can’t do it,” he said, defeated.
“What?”
“I can’t do it, sir!”
“What’s your name, private?”
“Sergey Radovich, sir.”
I nodded. “Are you a weak man, Radovich?”
“No, sir.”
“Are you sure?”
“Hell yeah, sir.”
I nodded again. “Who else here wants to try to put on this pack, stand up and burn down that tree for me?”
A lot of the early volunteers didn’t raise their hands a second time around. They knew a setup when they saw one.
One or two kept their hands raised, however. I pointed to an Asian-looking fellow. He was the biggest Asian I’d ever laid eyes on. He looked like a barrel with legs. He was a sumo wrestler, but without the blubber.
He had amazingly thick thighs, much bigger than my own. He stepped forward and took up the straps. Like Radovich, he positioned himself for a dead-lift. But he did it differently. He rocked forward and balanced the pack on his back. Roaring, he stood under the weight of it, four hundred pounds of metal, glass and polymers.
Legs shaking, he targeted the palm tree and fired. The trunk exploded and the tree went down.
“Very good. What is your name, soldier?” I asked him.
“Kwon, sir,” he said as he eased the pack down.
“Excellent work. Now, we will run back to the parade grounds. I want you all to pace me. This will be a jungle-run. All out. Full speed.”
As I spoke, I lifted the pack and settled it on my back. Their eyes were big as they watched me handle the weight confidently. I pretended not to notice the stares.
I ran then. I ran faster than any normal man had ever run, to my knowledge, across this Earth. None of them could keep up. In fact, I was standing on the parade grounds again, looking bored, when the fastest of them broke out of the jungle and sprinted back into the sunlight.
When they were all assembled in front me again, I asked if there were any questions. A few hands went up. I pointed out Radovich.
“Why the hell we run for no point, sir?” he asked, reasonably enough. His accent had become stronger, I noticed. It must have been due to all the exercise.
I nodded, accepting the question as legitimate. “I wanted you all to understand some things. I am going to ask you to make some fantastic sacrifices. I want you to understand why I’m asking you to make them.”
I told them then—about the injections. I did not pretty it up. I told them they would be screaming for the first hour or so until they blacked out. I told them we couldn’t give them anesthetic. The spooks from the Pentagon had tried it on some chimps, but the nanites had neutralized all foreign chemicals injected into the test subject’s system. Next, I told them about the incredible strength and speed they would gain, and how they would fear for their girlfriends’ lives afterward. Then, I pointed to the pack I had removed and placed in front of me.
“But, without the nanites, without undergoing the injections,” I told them, “none of us can perform well enough to do our mission. We cannot be effective soldiers. Not without becoming—something new.”
They thought about it, and slowly they realized they were going to have to become a marriage of man and machine. The idea was repugnant to some. But they did not argue. They did not refuse. The people who had selected them had chosen well.
In the end every last one of them underwent the injections. No one backed out or refused in the final moments when they were strapped into a chair and the five gleaming, worming needles made their appearance.
When the ordeal was over, we hosed the puke and blood off each other. One soldier had torn out his left eye. I assured him it could be regrown. I hoped I wasn’t lying.
After the torment ended, I let them sleep it off in their barracks. When we assembled the next day, I promoted Radovich to the rank of Lance Corporal. I made Kwon into a Staff Sergeant. They had both been more highly ranked in their past lives, but I didn’t care about that.
They had started over again as marines in Star Force. They were my marines now.
-29-
Brazil had been pretty much eaten up by the time I’d finally built a big enough assault force to go after the Macros again. The Pentagon boys had been after me night and day, with General Kerr spearheading the effort to get me to deploy. But I wanted to have a force that couldn’t be dealt with easily. I wanted to have a force that didn’t just slow the Macros, or stop them. I wanted a force that could shock them and roll them back.
I had a number of good officers to back me up by this time. Major Radovich was among them. He had advanced quickly from that first day. He’d been a great help to me in organizing and training the new waves of recruits. Sergeant Wilson had been promoted to Lieutenant. He had the job of performing tricks like the one I’d done on the first day. His only complaint was he’d been running out of trees to blow down lately.