Day 278 - The War Corp. - Prologue (1327 Words)

The War Corp.

 ©Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Wayne Webb and constantwriting.blogspot.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

THE WAR CORP.

By Wayne Webb

PROLOGUE

“Designation?” The question came from the air, and was the first thing to happen to him as he woke to start his assignment.

“Brodie Seven Three.” Brodie answered as his vision swum into focus, and he could see through the misty haze of waking from the chamber ready for action.

The voice that had asked the question was attached to a man in a white coat, who was checking things off a tablet in his hand, a checklist of appropriate actions for the release of Brodie Seven Three from the Pod.  He nodded as he catalogued the answer and moved down the list he was working from, not looking at Brodie but rather checking off the readings from the Pod instead.

Satisfied with the readings he finally looked at Brodie Seven Three and flicked his gaze casually across the man’s naked body looking for faults, imperfections or potential issues before release. He sighed at the end of the visual inspection, at what Brodie could not start to guess but it felt embarrassing to him to be evaluated this way, and he did not know why.

“B73, proceed to briefing room Alpha Charley Echo on the …” he checked his tablet once more, “The Green Line.” Then he turned away and never looked back at Brodie as he opened the next Pod and started another release procedure.

Brodie Seven Three walked unsteadily at first out of the pod and then his programming kicked in and directed him in accordance with his orders.  The order had been given so a fresh directive loaded in his visual field and he could see the brief in the upper left corner of his sight line.

“Briefing: ACE, Green.” The word “green’ was flashing red and engaging his attention until he looked down and saw there was a green line superimposed on the floor. He knew that it was not actually on the floor itself but rather an artifact projected into his brain via ocular input systems and only he and other designations of his Team would be able to see it.

As the Green line was connected with his sight the word “Green” flashed from Red to Green and he started following the directive and staying on course.

“Designation?” he could hear the technician behind him asking the newly awakened Pod Baby in line next to his own Pod. He double timed his pace and did not hear the response from the next in line.

The corridor stretched on and the Green Line took him around several corners until the arrived at the room where the Green Line became a Green Circle firmly projected in his eyes on the middle of the door. In faded stenciled lettering on the right hand side of the doorway was the Acronym A.C.E. and his destination was reached.

Inside B73 moved to the second row of seats and took the next empty space as there were eleven other naked men all of a similar build to him but all marked by different complexions and hair colours. This was his Team and he was in the second of four Rows of Eight men.

The Team when completed would have Thirty Two Pod Babies in it and they would get a briefing followed by a deployment into War, the first assignment where they would fight to their objective and submit to Key Performance Indicator Tasks that would roll up to the Team Objective. If they met their individual KPI’s them the Team Objective would be achieved and they would be up for a review and reassignment.

B73 sat waiting for the last Team Member to arrive before the Team Leader would be chosen and the Manager would lead them on an Objective Review and set their KPI’s before going to work.

The Manager came into the room behind the last of the Pod Babies and as the last designation to arrive the ACE Room darkened and a spotlight fell on the podium that swished up through a hole in the floor as the Manager stepped to the fore and waited for the speaker stand to stop moving.

He cleared his throat and began his briefing.

“You have your Team Objective.” As he said this the TO field in the bottom left of the field of vision of all Thirty Two Team Members all blinked into life and showed them the Goal of the Team this deployment.

“To reach the T.O. you will all need to aim to exceed your individual KPI with an XL rating. An S will not be sufficient for the T.O. to be reached, and BS will be exactly what it says.”

The Manager who had not yet shared his designation with the Team narrowed his eyes and squinted at every single one of them in a directionless glance and let them all know that he was addressing them each individually. “If you survive the deployment with a BS? It will be Bull Shit because you will not be pulling your weight. If you survive with a Sufficient then it may as well be a Bullshit Below Sufficient because you will not be pulling your weight.”

The Manager looked back at the screen behind him and the deployment area flashed on the screen, a map with index markers and colour coded Team and Individual Goal Icons superimposed in the Visual Field of the new Pod Babies that made up this Team.

“This is a new Team and there are no Veterans on this A.C.E. deployment. In the last deployment this Team scored zero ratings.”

A ripple of shock went through the audience of Pod Babies, though they had been alive technically for a few minutes, their orders and priorities were pre-set enough to know that a Zero Rating was not going to be acceptable.

“That’s correct, a new Team composed of nothing but Pod Babies. You will die, you will die en masse and if you want to get a rating, you had better understand, reach and then exceed your KPI’s or you may as well be DNF’d into a Zero Rating and you’d better off Dead that getting a BS rating in the A.C.E. Team.”

The Manager surveyed the room and then he too wondered if any one of them would be surviving the next deployment. The company they were going up against had been selected to balance the engagement and had a low Profit and Loss Schedule but they did have some veterans of previous campaigns. Sure they had to have lost a few Objectives, more than they had won of course otherwise their PNL Schedule would be higher. The problem was that the last A.C.E. team had hit a Forbes List team on a handicapped T.O. and the decimation was merciless and complete.

That was the only time he had to Zero Rate an entire Team in one Objective Engagement. It had been embarrassing and was a stain on his CV, he needed to get them through this T.O. with at least fifty per cent making a Sufficient Score on the KPI’s to meet his own KPI. If he did he had already been promised a better Team Manager assignment in a new Corporation.

This T.O. for the Pod Babies was his interview for the new assignment. If the Team survived with at least fifty percent on “S” then he would get his prize. If not?

Maybe he’d be ACR’d? Nobody wanted the Gold Watch, not until they had burned out anyway.

He shook off the thought of Advance Early Retirement and used the Neural Interface Net (Enhanced) to advance the Team to the pre-deployment stage.

“Quartermaster.”

The Team did not move. The Manager forgot to change the status of the advance order from pending to active, he knew he was being watched so he turned the mistake into a chance to motivate his Team to meeting the objectives.

“You have your Nines, get the fuck out!”