Chapter 4: Molding

It had been two days since Hannock had that talk with X-Ray. Just as he had predicted, Hannock was beginning to find it easier to handle the scenarios that X-Ray was putting him through. He had just finished his latest simulation and walked to his barracks. He had been doing that to calm himself down after his training, which had begun feeling like a punishment, yet he could finally acknowledge it as training. As he was making his way to the barracks, he noticed the other soldiers weren’t staring at him like the green horn he was anymore, or at least not as much. Perhaps that “Hell Week” thing was like an initiation on their team. Or maybe they were just used to seeing him by then. Either way, it wasn’t as uncomfortable to walk around anymore. He made it back to the general barracks and noticed a sheet sitting on his bed. He looked it over quickly, getting the gist of it. It asked him if he could confirm that the people listed on the paper were, in fact, his family members. It was an odd request, but he definitely knew them, so he checked off all of their names and put the sheet in the outgoing mailbox at the front of the barracks.

            As Hannock reentered the main room, he noticed that most soldiers were just sitting around and talking, but not normal conversations. They seemed to be looking at something on tablets, more like studying than looking. X-Ray walked into the room after him. He was breathing more than usual; he had probably just come from the workout area. X-Ray looked at Hannock and instantly noticed that he was wondering what was going on.

            “They’re looking at the briefing,” he said to Hannock, not looking at him.

            “Where did they get it?” Hannock didn’t care that X-Ray immediately knew what he was thinking; he just took it as an opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of the team.

            “I’m the one who receives it. I just pass it on to all of them.”

            “Alright, then where do you get it? And what’s in it?” Hannock continued questioning him.

            “I get it from the officers who run this place. They leave it at the team’s door where I pick it up. As for what’s in it,” He looked at Hannock directly now, “It contains the information for our next battle.”

            “We already have a battle? But I haven’t finished your ‘Hell Week’ thing.”

            “Do you see a briefing in your hands?”

            “No.”

            “Exactly.”

            X-Ray started walking away. He met up with Reaper and left the barracks altogether. He had no idea where they were going, but decided it was best not to follow them, seeing as how no one else felt inclined to. There was still a lot he didn’t know about the team and a lot he didn’t expect from what he learned during cadet training. Even though he wasn’t going to be in the battle, he still wanted to see what they were like. He noticed several monitors high on the walls that were off. He guessed that they probably turned on whenever the simulator was activated.

Everything about where he was, Project Shadow, was so interesting to him. The fact that there were one-hundred facilities, just like the one he was in, housing multiple armies within each one and being able to have them practice actual combat with each other and learn from mistakes they made as individuals and as a team. They all had a hierarchy of ranks that they set up, themselves. The leader could train the team however he felt like. The officers basically left the teams to function as their own armies. They received their own budgets to spend as they would. They designed their own uniforms, which he had recently learned about. They even had their own teams of engineers to build the weapons that they design. The engineers were actually pretty interesting as well. The teams were made up of college-aged engineers just like they were the same-aged soldiers, yet they didn’t join the battles. He hadn’t actually met the engineering team yet; he just knew about them.

Hannock spent his time before X-Ray and Reaper got back watching some of the veteran soldiers relax by playing foosball. According to one of the oldest soldiers it had been there for so long that there was no one left who knew where they had gotten it. Hannock continued talking to those soldiers, trying to gain more information, which seemed to be the only thing on his mind those days. One of the older soldiers, the same one who had given him directions to the launch chamber, was the one mostly answering his questions. He explained that the reason soldiers were relaxing at that time, playing games and such, was to help them settle down before a match. It kept them calm and helped them think straight. He explained the briefing method that the officers used. It had three parts to it: the team they were fighting, the terrain they were fighting on, and the objective they were fighting for. It was simplistic, no extra information of the teams, quick description of the terrain plus a map, and a spot marking the objective. According to this older soldier, whose name was Dak, there were many different kinds of objectives that the simulator had programmed in it. The objective of their newest match was going to be data retrieval/defend match. One team was going to control a BoO containing a server of, supposedly important, data, while the other team had to steal it and copy it to their own server by any means necessary.

None of the matches ever had a time limit. They could go on for as long as it took for one side to win. The longest battle ever recorded at that time had taken an entire week before one team was brought down trying to break out of a siege laid by the opposing team. To keep up with their battle schedules, the simulator used a time accelerator system during battles. Basically, The only people who experience a battle in real time are the ones fighting in it. Other than that, the entire battle is happens in a fraction of a second. Because the brain can process information so quickly, the simulator uses this to create an extremely fast reality. It does this while also keeping everything on the same pace so that the brain corrects the speed to be similar to the way time moves in the user’s memory. Soldiers in the base were still able to watch the match, but it was basically a recording where they could skip to certain areas and see how teams were doing.

X-Ray and Reaper walked into the room holding a sheet of paper with scribbled out drawings and plans. Reaper took the sheet and laid it out on the table in the center of the room. All of the soldiers who were taking part in the fight, which basically meant everyone but Hannock and the other rookies, gathered around the table.

“Alright, boys, as you all should know, we have a battle with Blue, and we’re the ones trying to steal data. This is gonna be a hard match. As you know, Blue is an extremely strong, defensive team. We won’t be able to perform a straight rush and hope to get through. The plan is gonna be our basic stalker defense and decoy play. Squads Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, we’re gonna run decoy on the East side of their defenses. Delta, you guys will move in on the South side. They know about our decoy strategies and, while they won’t know whether it’s real or fake, they’ll still leave some soldiers on the West side to watch their weak spot. Squads Echo and Foxtrot, you’ll be watching over Delta, keeping them safe from inside fire. Watch the windows and the walls, keep any extra threats off them. Golf, you’ll watch the over us, keep their heads down when you can, draw some fire off us if you’re in a good position to do so, etcetera. Hotel through Juliet, you’ll be ready two miles up the road from our base. Hide your vehicles in the tree line around the road and keep yourselves in the shadows. When we get that data, they’ll likely be alarmed and on our heels as we’re coming back. After our transport passes you by, be ready to lay down cover fire and get them off us. If they pass you then start a chase, we need to be ready for heavy resistance and I’d rather have that resistance not entirely directed at our objective. Lastly, squads Kilo through November, your teams will take guard rotations thirty minutes at a time. One squad will watch the entrance from the walls; one will watch the inside with one sharp shooter at one window apart from each other. In addition, one will be set to guarding the server room and escorting us when we get back with the stolen data. I’ll expect any offensive measures on their part taken care of by the time we get back. Is everyone clear?”

“Yes, Sir!” the whole team answered.

“Alright, then show me. Let’s move out! Oorah!”

“Oorah!” everyone answered with a warrior’s cry.

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            X-Ray really knew how to rile up his men. Yet, at the same time, they still kept their discipline. They gathered their gear quickly and immediately started to move towards the Launch Chamber. They moved down the corridor in an orderly fashion. It was amazing to Hannock how much was happening away from the eyes of the populace. Two armies were currently operating within such close proximity of each other, all under the cover of one of the strongest shields in the natural world, the mountain. The only reason they could even pull this off is because they don’t actually fight in reality. Those VR launch terminals weren’t only an impressive feat for humanity in the technological world, but they were also an amazing tool for training an army that no one else can see. Over the years, the U.S. military had been seeing a vast strength growth in each soldier and seeing the quality vs quantity ratio making a serious spike on the quality side. This wasn’t just the Army either, the Navy, and Air Force were seeing the same growth. The only reason there was no Marine branch in Project Shadow was that the Marines were put into the Navy branch so that they could practice their same combat in the environment where they would be deployed.

            The team had left the barracks and were launching into the battlefield. Hannock stayed behind, in the lounge area watching one of the wall monitors that was currently on standby, waiting for the battle to start. He saw Maxwell waiting in the lounge too, whom Hannock didn’t know well but started to get to know over the few days that they had been teammates. While they were waiting for the battle to start, a buzzer had rung from the barracks entrance. Hannock went to go check to see who it was. He opened up the view port on the heavy iron door and saw a face he knew, but hadn’t seen in a while.

            “Damien?” He asked, somewhat happy to see him.

            “Yeah, man. Can I come in?” He replied, clearly hoping to see him as well.

            Hannock opened and saw his former buddy from cadet training in an obviously red uniform. Damien Marx was a good soldier during the training. He was ranked number four over all as a soldier and tied for the first ranking in DMRs with one of the female cadets. Hannock graduated ranked number two overall but was really known for his first ranking in hand-to-hand combat. The two of them had almost entirely been rivals during the training to get the highest overall rank. It was that rivalry that had actually built their friendship. They were often thought of as twin soldiers because their body type and skill levels were almost exactly the same. It was the same with their personality. They each had their own defining quirks, but on paper, they were almost the same person. Damien had confused people in the past with his tendency to ignore rivalries between groups of people and try to get to know people he should be playing against. Not only that, but he would show significant interest in personal rivalries. It made it hard for people to read him.

            “So, how’s it been man? Your team been treating you well?” Marx asked him as they he sat himself down in the lounge.

            “To be honest, I’m not sure whether my leader wants to keep me, or kill me,” Hannock replied with a bit of humor.

            “Nah, they’re all like that. I’ve been talking to some of our rookie brethren on the other teams and they’re all saying the same thing.”

            “Every team has been letting you into their barracks?” Asked Hannock.

            “They usually all will. That is, unless they’re planning for a battle or designing some new weapon, basically anything they don’t want other teams seeing. Other than that, though, you can basically walk right in.”

            “Of course, you would be the first to try that theory.”

            “Someone’s gotta find out. These military types are generally not the type to want to talk to us newbies unless we’ve earned their respect, which is kinda hard in only a few days.”

            “I hear ya on that,” Replied Maxwell, who had been listening to the whole conversation.

            “Hey look, battle’s starting,” Marx noticed

            He was right. The monitors had switched to views of what looked to be a large forest on some rough terrain. The time of day was clearly night. It was pitch black all around, but the monitor was able to show everything. This was the battle map, decided by the officers in charge of each battle. They, of course, didn’t have time to build the maps, but they could choose the variables they wanted in it and let the machine do the rest. Hannock found a tablet connected to the monitor. He grabbed it and gave it a look. It seemed to be the same thing as the others, though it had options for affecting the monitor. He could move to watch different areas of the battlefield or he could watch through the eyes of or around a single soldier. He could even watch the other team and spectate their soldiers. He decided to keep the view on X-Ray. No one argued with him so he didn’t have to worry about it. The soldiers drove themselves almost all the way to the edge of the forest where the tree line opened up to a large clearing where the Blue Team’s base was. It was hard to see through the darkness, but they were able to point out a large silhouette in the clearing. A couple of groups of soldiers and one Eagle ditched the team and went to separate areas of the tree line. They must have been Echo, Foxtrot, and Golf. Hannock noticed that Eagle moved away on his own. Which squad is he in? Hannock thought. He saw that every other person in those three squads were staying somewhat close, even though they had spread out across the tree line. As he was trying to figure that out, X-Ray was on the move with his men to the East side of the base. They moved low and kept flashlights off. When they got to the middle of the clearing between the edge and the base. X-Ray gave two taps on the Morse code button on his radio. Right away, a barrage of bullets and smoke was lighting up the entire field. The three squads that moved towards the base used the smoke to get towards the wall. Once they had made it, they stood flat against the wall, which was their only cover in the whole place. He noticed corpses falling from the wall. That must have been the work of the sniper squads. He realized that, of the Elites on the team, he had only seen two so far.

As if he was thinking the same thing, Maxwell had chimed in, “Where are the others, you know, Delta?”

Hannock left X-Ray’s view and moved to the free fly camera. He went over to the West side of the base, where Delta squad was supposed to advancing on. He noticed they all had silenced weapons. They were clearly trying not to divert the enemy from the decoys. That also happened to be where some of the other Elites were. He managed to find Reaper, and Sentinel in the squad along with two other soldiers who seemed to be a part of the stealth team that X-Ray had mentioned in one of their talks.

 How many sub teams were there? He wondered. He tried to recall the ones he had heard of. There was the stealth team. Part of the fame of Black Team was their incredible stealth soldiers. There was the engineering team. Whom he hadn’t met, but he knew didn’t fight in battles. They technically didn’t join the regiments as soldiers. They came from engineering universities for their skills and known interest in the military. Along with those, there was the ground vehicles team. They don’t fight in every battle, but if the team felt they needed ground support for the battle, they would bring in the tanks or other ground vehicles with the ground vehicles team. Lastly, there was the air support team. Since they were a part of the Army branch of Project Shadow, they didn’t fight in jets, bombers, or anything like that. However, the Army branch did use helicopters to carry troops or lay down cover fire if needed. They had three types of helicopters to use. A small, two-man chopper used for small attacks on infantry and light armor. A larger one with Vulcan cannons mounted on the sides for carrying and protecting friendly infantry. The last one was the most dangerous: an attack helicopter meant for fighting heavy armor and other air vehicles.

There was no standard vehicle for any class or team. Each team used their budget to make their vehicles. They could use their engineers to make new vehicles for their team, or they could simply use older designs to make a definitely working vehicle.

“Dang, those two look dangerous,” Marx blurted when they found the Elites.

“You probably wouldn’t tell me if you were, Damien, but are you sure you’re not spying on our team for Red?” Hannock looked over to him, but smiled as he said it to not look hostile.

“Don’t worry, man. I promise I just came over to see my graduation buddies. Also, you may as well call me Marx now, seeing as that’s what the rest of my team calls me.”

“Alright…Marx,” Hannock hesitated slightly.

“You’ll get used to it. It’s not a big thing.”

The battle was picking up. Delta squad had made it over the wall undetected thanks to the distraction from Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, along with the cover from Echo and Foxtrot. They had noticed that squad Echo was entirely made up of Eagle. Instead of wondering who was with Eagle, they started to wonder why no one was with Eagle.

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            The battle ended with a Black victory. Everything had gone according to plan and X-Ray seemed, at least, pleased with that. He came back and congratulated his men on, what he called, a “clean” victory. Hannock didn’t know what he meant by clean, but he guessed it must have meant that there were few causalities or everyone acted efficiently. The soldiers who drove the data back to the base against the, predicted, heated pursuit, clinked glasses of well-deserved drinks. Marx had already left the base, they knew that Hannock could be understanding, but they had no idea what X-Ray would think of a rival team’s member being in the barracks, watching their battle. Of course, he could watch the battle anywhere. Each barrack was fitted with monitors that could view the battle even if their team wasn’t in it. X-Ray walked over to each of the soldiers, exchanging words of gratitude and just holding conversations about the battle. That was what everyone was doing. They spent every day of their time there training for the battles or participating in the battles and yet they could still get that hyped up over one battle. It was probably the adrenaline rush. From what Hannock remembered during cadet training, the simulator didn’t block any body functions, and even REM sleep didn’t block the process of adrenaline, so when they got a rush in there, they kept it out of there, too.

            Since the battle was over, it was time for Hannock to go back to his routine of mental torture that was Hell Week. He was still in the thick of it, with the end still far off from sight.