Copyright (c) 2019 James Miehoff, All Rights Reserved.
This work may not be published whether for fee or free without this copyright.
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The following is a work of fiction and as such all characters mentioned herein are fictional and any resemblance to any persons living or fictional is coincidental.
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As I high-tailed it over to Training Pod 13, I ran over what little I knew about the squads. Rumor had it that there were thirty of them. Fifteen of them were based here and another fifteen were based in HQ2.
That was about it.
Oh yeah, except that all squads were four man squads. When deployed they went in a spear head formation. Basically, front man was Point (call sign: Point). There were two Wingman, Wing1 (Call sign: Wing1) and Wing2 (call sign: Wing2). Traditionally, Wing1 was on the left of Point and Wing2 was on the right. The squad leader (call sign: Bossman) was a free floater. He normally was directly back from Point and right between Wing1 and Wing2. They form a perfect triangle. Except when Bossman decides to move up and reinforce Point or pull back to watch.
In a retreat, Bossman takes Point and Point brings up the rear. Wing1 and Wing2 stay in their respective positions.
It was a good thing there wasn't much to review. I was already at the door to Pod 13.
Following protocol, I knocked on the door and waited. Almost a minute later the door opened and I announced, "John Smith, acting Point, reporting as ordered. May I enter?"
A hand appeared from the side of the door frame. I handed over my transfer papers. A random thought danced in my head. 'In this day and age of electronic everything, we still get our orders on paper. How odd is that?'
The hand collected the papers and disappeared. A voice called out, "John Smith, you may enter and present yourself."
I stepped through the door, which was closed behind me as soon as I had passed. The boom of the door sounded ominous. I stepped forward in the dark and was about to engage my IR filters when a circle of light appeared before me. In the circle were 3 men in formal dress.
One of them stepped forward. He must be Bossman. The hand appeared in the circle and handed Bossman my papers. He glanced at them and addressed me, "Step forward."
I did as told and stepped forward until I was within the circle of light.
Bossman looked me up and down, then simply said, "Assume your position."
My brain went into overdrive, 'Assume my position? WTF does he mean?' Then I looked. Wing1 and Wing2 were 2 steps behind Bossman on either side of him. I moved around and placed myself 2 steps behind the Wings on the other side of Bossman. He nodded and we walked to a different door.
We stayed in formation until we reached the HQ building. Without turning around, Bossman announced, "Point, take 2 steps back." I complied. I was completely mystified.
We entered HQ in formation and walked solemnly until we were in the lobby.
A flag was draped over a shape that could only be a casket centered in the round room.
Bossman maneuvered us until we were facing The Wall. The Professor presented him with a golden object. He nodded and turned to the wall. When he held it up to the wall, I could see that it was an extruded golden five point star, about 2 inches long.
Bossman inserted the star into a matching hole engraved in the wall and pressed it in about a half inch. As he pressed the star in, he spoke, "James Richard Mossbach, rest in peace, my brother."
After a moment, Bossman stepped to the side and one of the Wings stepped forward. As he pressed the star in another half inch, the Wing spoke, "Jimmy, I'm sorry."
The first Wing stepped to the side and the other Wing stepped forward. He too pressed the star in a half inch. He tried to speak, but couldn't. After a pause, his finger fell off the star and he moved to the side, head down.
There was still a half inch of star protruding from the wall and Bossman was looking straight at me.
I stepped forward and then circled around the spot where the previous Point would have been. I reached the wall and my finger pressed on the star. My mind went blank and I heard my voice proclaim, "I never knew you my brother. But I vow to make you proud and to honor your sacrifice." As the last echoes died away, I felt the star click in place.
Bossman walked out in front and the Wings fell in two paces behind. I fell in two paces behind them. We held that formation all the way back to Pod 13.
When we got there, a table was set up in the center of the training room. There were five chairs.
During that meal, before we introduced ourselves, Bossman, laid out the rules. No asking personal questions. If something was volunteered great, but no questions. Everyone was to be addressed by their position or nickname, in case the opposition caught wind of our chatter, there was nothing to trace us by.
Bossman finished with, "The only two times your name will be used is when you report to your pod and when you get your star. You have used your name once. Pray that it doesn't get used again."
During the dinner I learned my team mates nicknames.
Reno was Wing1. He was a tall wiry dark haired kid that had been on twelve missions. He liked playing cards and I was warned not to play cards with him. He whined that, "nobody ever proved anything and besides it was all for fun anyway, I didn't keep their money."
Disco was Wing2. He was a stout fellow. Not as big as the Professor's bodyguards, but bigger than me. He likes to go dancing when he gets free time, hence the Disco moniker. He said he had been on sixteen missions.
Jericho was Bossman. He was solid. Not as tall as me but he just had that look that said, "If you hit me, it's your hand that will break." Didn't explain the moniker and refused to say how many missions. But I got the feeling that Reno and Disco both looked up to him.
Finally, Jericho called an end to the festivities for the evening. "0800 sharp, be in combat gear here. We have taken the liberty of dropping new gear off at your apartment and retrieved your old training gear. Don't bother with the arm guards anymore. The door has been coded to your palm print. Don't bother knocking, just come in. Questions?"
I looked at him for a second then asked the question that had been burning in me all night. "Why was I included in the ceremony today?"
Jericho stared at me for a while before speaking. "You weren't supposed to be. I am guessing that the Professor had some reason to having you show up when you did, but fuck if I know why. Despite that, you did well today. Moss would have been proud of the way you handled yourself. How many star installs have you been to?"
"None," I said. "I know there have been five stars installed while I have been here. But I was in training and never got a chance to see one. I just did what I did today out of respect. If James made it to Point, he deserves respect."
Jericho nodded and the three of them headed off in different directions.
I took that to mean I was dismissed. I headed for the door and the walk back to my apartment.
When I got there, Honey was sitting on the side of the bed. From the mascara lines down the front of her dress, I could tell she had been crying for a while.
"Babe, what's the matter," typical clever opening line from me.
She sniffed and partially turned away from me and said, "Nothing."
I closed the gap and put my hands on her shoulders and turned her towards me. Not rough, just firmly.
She resisted then gave in and turned and pulled me down on top of her. Holding me like she wanted to squeeze the life out of me, she quietly and haltingly choked out her concerns. I'm not going to go into details, but it all boiled down to my choice to join the squads. Basically, she said in terms that I can't even begin to reproduce, what kind of idiot I was and what kind of idiot she was for falling in love with an idiot like me.
I rolled over so I wasn't squashing her and I tried kissing her nose. She just buried her face into my chest and the waterworks began again. It took a while to finish and I did finally was able to get her to lift her head up.
The long and the short of it was that Honey was concerned for me. Well, to be honest concerned is too light a word for it. She was sure that I was going to get myself killed. In no uncertain and mostly profane words she told me that the life expectancy of a Point was 2.3 missions. A Wing was not much better at 4.7 missions and that she had already buried 4 assholes that had left her and she wasn't going to do it again. That was why she picked me. I was going into the cyberwar office and wouldn't have to worry about getting fucking shot, stabbed or blown the fuck up.
I didn't try to do the usual guy thing and reassure her that, "It won't happen to me." I just held her and kissed her and eventually we ended up making love with a passion and a fury I have never felt before or since.
Just as I was falling asleep, she whispered, "Promise me that you will try your best not to get killed."
Sleepily, I responded with, "I will do better than try. As long as I have you to come home to, I am not going anywhere else." That was apparently good enough as she kissed my cheek and we drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, I was not at my best. We both forgot to set the alarm clock. And since we ended up cuddling and crying all night, I didn't get dinner or breakfast. In fact, I barely had time to splash some water on and jump into one of the new combat suits. In fact, I was trying to run and zip it all together as I headed for Pod 13 in a full out sprint.
I hit the hand plate at 7:59:30 and made the training room just as Jericho counted out , "5 -- 4," and stopped as I stood to attention three paces in front of him.
"Gentlemen, it appears our newest member is a stickler for shaving the edge of punctuality. Let us hope that this behavior is not habitual." Reno and Disco finally couldn't hold it in anymore and both started giggling and then full out laughing. Eventually Jericho joined in.
Getting control, Jericho held out his hand and a couple of twenties were deposited to be tucked away immediately.
My lifted eyebrow must have tipped them off to my curiosity, so Reno offered up the explanation. "We had a pool going. I had you coming in late. Disco said you would be at least ten minutes early and Jericho had you showing up within a minute of being late. Never bet against the Bossman."
Jericho let my emotions play across my face for a few seconds than said, "Alright playtime is over. Let's get to work."
In this case, 'work' turned out to be a set of confidence and trust building exercises. The sort of thing you would do at a summer camp. You know the being lead around blindfolded and falling backwards hoping they catch you kinds of exercises. We did that until lunch, when I found out that the pod had a full kitchen and I was the designated chef. I slapped together tomato bisque and some grilled turkey, ham and cheese sandwiches with scratch brownies for dessert.
As Reno pushed back from the table, he looked at Jericho and remarked loudly, "Can I nominate the new guy for permanent cook?"
Jericho rolled his eyes and slowly remarked, "No. Eating your cooking is a character building exercise."
