Day 279 - The War Corp. - Chapter 1 (1018 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

Chapter 1

The Pod was a familiar friend now that Induction had been completed and slipping into it prior to Project Launch was a welcome respite from the CBT they had to endure. Corps Basic Training was far from what the title implied, it was closer to a final exam before launching into the field of engagement, the campaign ready test.

CBT was the final run through of the skills and suitability of Team Members before a Team Leader was chosen from the ranks and any non-suited Team Members were zero-ed out as a DNF before the Project Launch.  A.C.E. Team were woken from the Pods refreshed and ready to go, delivered to the training grounds for the obstacle course and fitness test.

Of course it was not a bodily fitness test as each Team Member had been grown and delivered from the Pod in peak physical condition, recharging every night in Pod Time in complete Brain Death stage while the Pod did all the work to tighten muscles and load objectives and priority sets from the Manager for the current project.

Brodie Seven Three knew what was expected and his muscles were packed tight and ready to explode as soon as the first gate opened on CBT and the timed section was up. There was a balance beam to negotiate above a field of intense heat and light from the hard light field beneath the run. The objective was clear in his NINE; he had twenty seconds to navigate the length of the run. His HUD gave him a clear vector and velocity for approach and run through. You could pass through the course with eyes closed; the NINE would project the vital stats and the path through the course inside his eyelids. No one ever would do the course with eyes closed unless ordered to do so, to close your eyes was to show faith or fear, either of which would get you zeroed out of the Team. If you did not stay on the beam then the Hard Light field would incinerate your body in a flash of heat and light, leading to a Burn Out status.

The first explosion catches every Pod Baby by surprise, it is not coded in obviously that you will be under fire. The only way to gauge the ability to deal with a true shock is to truly shock the Pod Baby.  The best way to do that was to introduce them to a concussive blast on a balance beam in CBT. Up until that point they are only made aware of an exam and that conflict is some hours away. When the blast goes off three steps into the course the effect has two possible outcome, survival or death.

The number of Pod Babies that Burn Out at the first stage was usually around fifty percent, the blast was not a small one by any means of the imagination and in the first test a 50% pass fail set the team up on what to expect and how to move past project initiation and into the Launch phase.  The first person through the first stage was given an estimated chance of survival of the remainder of the team and the first of many KPI updates would come in.  You always had a completion ratio of one hundred percent to start with; you were one of an equal number of 32 people and the team all were tasked with achieving 100% of the goals for the team. With fifty percent of the team dead in the first CBT exercise that measurement would adjust to two hundred percent at the end of the first run.

It taught the Team two things, that they could zero out at any time and that every DNF in the team caused a percentage increase for individual KPIs instantly. You had to be ready for anything, and those things could potentially be the end of your project association. When you zeroed out then your share was divided and given to the remaining team members. If you died, you were dead but your Team Members paid the price. It was bad teamwork to zero out, and it was you that paid the price if you allowed a colleague to zero our. With over half of the Team on DNF at the end of CBT then the consequences of a DNF in the Project itself, there would be a noticeable lift in the individual load.

If your KPI’s were unattainable then you added to your project load the next engagement project, if there was one.  Veterans had to do CBT at the start of a new project; no one on the Project Deck could be missed in the CBT exam. It was a measure of readiness and suitability. Veterans could be weary and the Burn Out can becomes an option for the ones who do not want to go again.  There is no resignation from the team, but it was an accepted fact that Burning Out was painless and quick. If you Burn Out then the next designation in line for your model is added to the next team a little ahead of schedule.

Brodie Seven Three felt the wave of sound and air slam into his body and his instincts, grown within his bodily tissues kicked in and he fell to a crouch and sprinted forward, his nose lining up with the Visible Vector in his NINE. There was nothing in his peripheral vision, no heat and no light to distract, only the green line and the countdown to the last few inches in the course.

The Wall Clamber was next, sheer face with handholds that looked too far apart and another time limit to reach the top. This time the under fire was more apparent as bullets flew left and right across the field between the Pod Baby and the start of the ascent. There were clear lines of fire as the bullets raced back and forth, with distinguishable patterns and calculable intervals so a run could be designed and executed using your vision and brain only.