Chapter 42: First day of training

  “ Pvt Watkins: Gimme the nuke.

  Sgt Ricky: You trying to be a hero, Watkins?

  Pvt Watkins: Just trying to kill some plants, sir. ”

  –Last recorded words of NUSA private Watkins, minutes before launching a nuclear mortar shell at danger-close proximity, 2037.

  ***

  “Fuck me, we never had a class this big…” My mic stayed off for that comment. Didn’t need the newbies to know how fucking nervous I felt…

  Lila still noticed, even with my full glorious armor on. Did the animated eyes give me away? Had to learn to control them better. “It’s gonna be alright, don’t worry. You trained me well without any of that VR and mesh stuff. With time dilation and all that, you’ll have time to do one on one with everybody. They’ll be ready quicker than any of us before.”

  My tail wrapped around her midriff, an instinctive gesture of appreciation and fondness that felt so fucking weird! Mostly because it felt perfectly natural. Fucking mental integration…

  One day, I’ll make you admit you like the tail.

  “Nop!” I said, stepping into the old movie theater to escape Altany’s attempts at turning me into a furry.

  The crowd of twenty-two newbies scared the fuck out of me, on several fronts. The look in their eyes, their expectations and all the different emotions I sucked at analyzing in people I didn’t know that well fuck fuck fuck!

  At least quite a few clearly wanted this. I selected them because they were the type, but I could tell many weren’t so sure. The whole thing sounded too good to be true, and they didn’t survive by following false hope whenever it reared its ugly head.

  Many cleaned up nicely, nanites and showers doing wonders for their well-being! Hell, a full hot meal helped a fuckton too. Some still looked haggard, whatever medical treatments I could throw at them didn’t fix years of mistreatment in a couple days.

  Most were those I rescued along with Synthia. Some said no to the offer, and I could easily understand. The others were Marinia, Vincent, Carol and Garry. Only those last two had a full kit. The rescued only wore fatigues we’d scavenged from the mercs along with standard issue guns, but I’d get them good equipment soon enough.

  As of this moment, they’d be my responsibility. I’d train them, help them and…

  Are you afraid of making new emotional connections after your recent loss?

  I engaged my neural coprocessor to make sure I didn’t look hesitant. “Maybe… Look, I lost a lot of friends, it’s alright to hesitate to make new ones, alright?” I said, my mic off and emotions roiling in my gut.

  I am not criticizing you. Your reaction is natural. You do not have to befriend them at the moment. Simply train them and let things progress as they will.

  A deep breath later, my emotions stabilized. This would be training, not having drinks and shooting the shit. I could just focus on doing my job. “Thanks Altany. Let’s do this.”

  I opened my speakers and smiled. “Heya! Welcome to enforcer training!” A chorus of ‘hi’s, ‘hello’s and even a couple salutes answered.

  “Alright, so, first things first, you guys should get an explanation of what the fuck you’re doing here. What’s an ‘enforcer’ in the Bear-Yakuzas? Well, your job is to protect this building and its inhabitants.” I let a pause linger for a few seconds. “Yeah, that’s about it. I mean, enforcing the will of the council is a part of that, but it’s honestly secondary. I picked you to protect this building with all the resources I can throw at you.”

  A hand raised and I gestured at the young man, one of those from the shelter who used to be a sex-slave. “Hum, thanks for selecting me and everything but… why me? Why us? We’re not exactly super soldiers, you know? I mean, I want the job, it's just…”

  I interrupted the building rant with a nod. “Good question. In short, you give a shit. The selection process is a bit… complicated. I honestly can’t explain it fully myself, but all of you are protectors at heart. You want to help, care about innocent people and feel that urge to safeguard those who can’t do it themselves. Those of you from the shelter? You went through hell to protect those kids. You fought with all you had through incredible hardship, never gave up in the face of death. I respect that more than I can express.”

  My eyes lowered, sadness overtaking me. “I lost a lot of friends in that incursion. All of them died the same way. Each and every single one went down swinging, giving up their lives in the pursuit of protecting those under their care. Don’t worry, you don’t need to feel that sense of community right now. I mean, shit, you’re brand new! Not expecting that from you. I just know each of you has the… capacity to care that much.”

  I pushed my emotions aside to focus on the important things for today. “Alright, so, let’s go with the basics. First of all, this isn’t a PMC. Military discipline doesn’t apply. This is a voluntary job. You guys can fuck off whenever you feel like it. Second, this isn’t a PMC. No standard equipment or training since all of you are unique fucking weirdoes. To be clear, I’m not judging from my red panda shaped glass house.” My tail swished from side to side, getting a few laughs.

  I will admit that by human standards, the tail does make you look a bit odd. Thankfully, it is a drop in the ocean for you.

  “You’re all good at something, and I’ll help you find out what that thing is. It might not be fighting, really. Carol’s our first and only (for now) medical enforcer. Garry’s our tactician and recon specialist. Their job’s to protect in a completely different, but just as important, way. I’ll teach them to fight a bit because, well, shit happens, but it’s not their main duty. I’d still take a bullet for them just as much as for the rest of you.”

  My helmet nodded through the murmurs and surprised faces. “Yeah, I know what I said. I might be your boss, but everyone in this room is a warrior, me included. Our job’s the same, and I’ll be on the frontline right next to you. Actually, I’ll probably be in front, taking literal bullets thanks to my armor.” I retracted the helm and met their gazes one by one.

  “Enforcer isn’t just a job title. We’re more than just coworkers. This room is full of fighters with a purpose. We share a mission, we fight and live together. We protect the families of our fallen, help each other whenever we can, spend tons of time on patrol, shoot the shit, drink, fuck, whatever! I cared about every single one of those who died. In time, if you end up wanting to stay, I’ll care about you.” My throat started closing up so I decided to change the subject.

  Showing my face worked as intended. I’d been paranoid in the past few days, wearing all the armor I could whenever possible. This exposed my throat in front of a room full of people who could kill me. Showing trust and vulnerability helped dispel a lot of apprehension for the ex-slaves in particular.

  No one needed to know about my bulletproof skull…

  “Anyway! Lesson one: Just fucking roll with it. Don’t let confusion and panic take you over. As an example, when I became a samurai, a model six’d headbutted me into a wall. It shattered my ribcage, broke my spine, powdered my pelvis and burst quite a few organs. When Altany showed up and a model three came sniffing at my supposed-to-be corpse, did I ponder the implications? Asked questions about the particulars?”

  “Fuck no, I ordered a shotgun ASAP and shot the bastard. After that, I asked questions. Action, self-preservation and protection first. It’s not great for everyday life, but in a fight? Making imperfect choices is better than hesitating. If you think about what you do for a bit, it might mean better results, but only if you have the time. It also means that whatever happens, you keep going. Don’t let shock or surprise get you killed.”

  So far so good! No one looked up vids on their augs at least.

  “Lesson two: Fight now, grieve later. This is a tough one, honestly. You have to learn to put your grief, pain and sadness aside until you finish the job. I’ll be honest, it might make the pain worse when you do let yourself feel it. After the incursion, it took a while for me to get through it. However, it means you’ll have less to grieve about when you’re done, trust me.”

  “Lesson three: Shit happens. Expect shit to go sideways. It kind of relates to ‘fucking roll with it’. Things never go perfectly and you should prepare for everything to go to shit. Assuming that you won’t have to fight hand-to-hand is an insane level of optimism. Even if you’re not the close-quarters type, ambushes happen. Even with her range, Bella learned a martial art. Assume you’ll run out of ammo, your knife will break, etc…”

  A shy woman raised her hand in the middle of the crowd and I pointed her way. “What’s up? Seriously, if any of you have questions, suggestions, ideas, etc… I want to hear them. I’m not a genius and I don’t know everything. It applies in the field especially. Ideas are always welcome.” I blinked. “Wow, I apparently suck at asking ‘what’s up’, sorry! What did you want to say?”

  After a little laugh that helped dissipate tension, she answered. “It’s just that, hum… For close-quarters, I’d prefer just carrying more knives?”

  I laughed but made sure to keep any mocking or condescension out. “Smart girl!” I praised while deploying a vibro-blade from my gauntlet. “I’d recommend that for anyone, but I’ll still insist on a martial-art. Many focus on a knife or other melee weapons, it’s not just fists and kicks, you know?.” The smile she gave me warmed my heart.

  “That transitions us well to martial arts! So, what’s the best one?” Classic trick question, but not necessarily a well known one. After a few seconds of consideration, Garry, the wise, raised his hand and I gestured his way.

  “Mixed martial-arts? Like, something that’s tailored to you a bit?” That answer earned him an all important approving nod!

  “Smart as always! Really, every one of them has a specialty. Boxing, for example, rewards strength and weight. Fighting a weight category lower is profoundly unfair. On the other hand…” I continued while turning to knife-girl. “Stabbing someone in the eye fixes most deficiencies in musculature.” More laughter, I was on fire today!

  “What do you use?” A curious man at the back asked.

  “Well, I used to fight with a mixed martial art, mostly Muay-thai mixed with some boxing. Learned some grappling as well, but nothing that complex. Of course, because I fought a lot, my style adapted to my augs, equipment, weight, etc… It always happens, especially with modern body-mods. Classic martial-arts don’t take body-mods into account afterall.”

  Garry smirked at me, catching the deflection. “Used to?”

  I gave him a deep mock frown. “Well, since Altany decided to give me a stupid fucking tail…”

  I can see your brain chemistry, you should be more honest with yourself.

  The tail swished behind me to illustrate my point, receiving a few laughs and jeers. I didn’t let Altany derail me with her lies that held absolutely no truth. “...I decided to have an alien martial art downloaded into my brain. It feels weird but works damn well. Feels like I’ve been training for years. The moves integrated into my reflexes, which… yeah, bit fucky, but useful!”

  Lila raised her hand, speaking up for the first time since the start of class. “I got one of those too. Weird as shit, but I could crush any corpo-sec asshole in fucking seconds!” She said with a raised fist and big smile.

  I tried to get us back on track. “If you want something like that hum… Ask Altany? I only have the budget for mesh equipment, that download stuff is expensive, sorry.”

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  No one complained. Everyone in the room had too much experience with poverty. Having in excess still felt odd for most, but we’d get used to it!

  “On that subject, we’re going to train in the mesh. I bought equipment to do so for everyone. There are many reasons, but a couple big ones are time-dilation and equipment. Most of you don’t have a full kit yet. We’re going to build it from the ground-up! Trying different things out first will make all the difference in the world, especially since we’re going to buy expensive shit!”

  “For time dilation? Well, it means you can train a lot more than you should have time for. Everyday, you guys are going to come here and dive with me, Lila and whoever’s free. If you end up with a specialty another enforcer shares, they’ll help you out. The equipment is yours, you can bring it home and watch porn or something, I don’t care.”

  I gestured at a raised hand. “Hum… are we going to have homework?”

  That made me blink a couple times. “Huh… Yes and no? I’ll work with you to find training you can do at home, but it’s your choice to do it or not. Being a protector for so many people, it means that sometimes, well… You fail. During that incursion I… I failed a lot. As to how much blame I should get I have no goat fucking clue…” I looked away, wetness in my eyes. Lila put a hand on my upper-back in support. It helped me get my shit together.

  “Even if most of the deaths were unavoidable, plenty happened because I wasn’t enough. Not strong enough, smart enough, fast enough, you name it. I’m giving you the tools to be… enough. It’s up to you to use them.”

  Hard gazes met mine. Plenty had experience with not being ‘enough’. Their version came from being powerless to stop the horrors happening all around them. All had good hearts and kind souls, scarred by the things they couldn’t do.

  They hid under a shell of indifference that never fully protected them. Maybe that’s what I looked for? The soul under that shell. I’d help them take it off, because without it, they’d be more powerful than any mercenary in it for fucking profit.

  When I was done with them, the horrors wouldn’t be able to stop them.

  ***

  “Fuck!” The shout came for Katy, an impressive newbie in my opinion. The girl had so much resilience and determination! After a dose of Cleanse, food, shower and a nice bed (by street standards), that young woman laser-focused on the offer I made. She longed to be an enforcer the instant I told her.

  The problem? We were still trying to find her thing. After another short run in the corridor drill, I stopped the simulation “Alright, stop.” Each got worse as frustration built up, further ones wouldn’t be useful.

  We teleported back to a sort of old japanese dojo. The walls and doors had that beige and white esthetic. Altany apparently thought I should get a reference?

  “No, wait, boss, I can try again! Just…” I interrupted her panicked rant.

  “Hey, hey, Katy, it’s alright, breath. I’m not going to kick you out for having trouble trying out shotguns.” I took a few steps towards her and gently laid my hands on her shoulders. “You didn’t fuck up anything. I’m not mad or even disappointed. Everything’s alright.” Fuck it, hug time.

  After a quick tensing of her muscles, the scrawny tiny brown haired girl hugged me back, melting into it. “I’m sorry boss…”

  “The fuck are you sorry about? You’re fine. We’re trying shit out, it’s supposed to not work.” I asked with a snort.

  “I’m… I’m just not good at this stuff but… but I want to be! I wanna do what you said! That thing with the kids’ the best thing I’ve done with my life, but…”

  I pulled back and gave her a raised eyebrow. “Well, yeah, that’s what training’s for. You think I was always a killing machine?” That name used to bother me but I got past it with time and Robin’s help.

  A wet snort answered my attempt at cheering her up. “Easy for you to say, I’m not talented, I can’t do the…”

  My hands grabbing the sides of her face interrupted any further self-deprication. “That is fucking bullshit and you know it.” I told her with steel in my voice.

  “How… How do you know?” Her eyes met mine, all big, damp and hopeful.

  “Because you have more guts, courage and resilience than I’ve seen in almost anybody. You took punishment and just kept on asking for more just to buy those kids seconds more. I healed you, remember? I know how many bones they broke, how much internal bleeding you had. Fuck, I even heard you somehow roasted a guy’s dick while the goat fucker tried to choke you to death? You don’t need talent, Katy, you have determination.” That finally got a small smile on her face.

  “Weak ass hands. Tried to kill me for a while but I didn’t even pass out. Not my first rodeo. Thanks for shooting him in the crotch, boss.”

  I answered the quirk of her lips with a vicious grin. “My pleasure.” Should face holding last this long? Probably not.

  My hands fell to her shoulder. “Even then, I know you have talent.” I gestured at the tatami mat below and we sat.

  “I don’t know boss, that stuff I did… I just…” She had trouble articulating the exact words, but I didn’t.

  “You understood deep inside that you were going to die.” I said matter-of-factly. “Then something within you simply… let go. Your survival instincts went out the window when you got a chance to die doing something you could be proud of, something that’d make the world a better place.”

  I smiled at her surprised face. “It’s the same for all of us. It’s part of why I chose you! Now, let’s try something different. How would you kill me?”

  My newbie blinked owlishly at me. “What?”

  “How would you kill me? Let’s say there’s a bunch of kids nearby that I’m going to kill. It’s your job to stop me so, how would you kill me? How would you want to kill me?”

  To her credit, Katy did think about it. “I mean, I wouldn’t, I’m just used to hiding and making myself small and…”

  The girl needed a push. I made a cartoony gun appear in my hand and shot her in the arm!

  It caused very muted simulated pain, but it did the job! She gasped and I could see her gaze sharpen. Good, right mindset. I believed in her, she’d find it... “This is combat! I’m dangerous and innocent people are about to die! Come on!”

  “I… I’d sneak up on you, stab you in the back, got no chance otherwise…”

  The gun vanished and I smiled at her. “There you go!”

  “Huh?”

  “That’s a good place to start!” She didn’t get it.

  “I… Wait, you can’t protect like that… right?” Her eyes narrowed in thought, good!

  I shook my head. “Killing a piece of shit before he gets the chance to hurt someone is just as valid a way to protect as being a tank like me. Hell, that’s a good comparison!”

  “The first rule of modern warfare is that if the enemy can see you, they can target you. If they can target you, they can shoot you. If they can shoot you, they can kill you. You have to interrupt that chain of events. I stop it at ‘kill you’. The fuckers can shoot me, but I’m a god damn tank with layers upon layers of armor. Johnny? He stops it at ‘target you’. He’s not that subtle, but the guy just moves too fast to get hit. It’s why stealth is so important when corpos fight each other!”

  “You can stop the whole thing at the start. Stay invisible, get a stealth coating on your shit, sneak around them, wait to place your shots perfectly, get some vibro-blades to get through armor, hyper friction pads or something to walk on walls and get behind them! Be invisible, unpredictable and deadly. It’s an option, but there are others, up to you.”

  I let her stew for a bit on the idea before calling in Altany. The cyber-panda avatar manifested next to us in the dojo, looking as serious and attentive as a cyber-panda could. Still silly as fuck. “Got ideas for us?”

  Of course, a concerning amount of them, but I need to narrow it down. I’d like to ask a few questions. First, miz Katy, would you prefer to fight in close quarters?

  “Yeah, I wanna protect from up close, you know? Like, if people need help in the buildin’, they’re going to need me next to ‘em, right? Also, I just… I don’t know, it’s how I see myself…” I put my hand on her shoulder as an attempt to dispel her self-doubt.

  The idea that those pieces of fucking horse-cock sucking shit I killed injected so much self-loathing and doubt in her made my blood boil! However, this wasn’t about me.

  In this case, I believe it is important to ask your feelings on self-augmentation.

  I decided to interject on that one. “You don’t have to, you know? There are tons of options, from undersuites like Rosalie’s to prosthetics like Johnny, Francis, etc… Whatever your feelings, they’re valid and it’s fine to go with what feels best for you.”

  Katy looked down at herself, and I simply couldn’t understand the conflicted mix of emotions going through her in rapid succession. “I… I don’t like my body much, replacing parts sounds great…”

  I simply nodded. I had no fucking clue what it was like being her, but I could empathize with pain. Lots of that going around. Jesus cat molesting Christ we needed that therapy AI! The installation would finish in a couple days, thank the mesh. This building needed all the therapy!

  Thank you. In this case, I would recommend as many limb replacements as you feel comfortable with. Johnny Law’s methods should be extremely helpful to your effectiveness. Sadly, my vanguard does not possess a stealth catalogue outside of drones.

  “Yeah, I’ll buy one, something focused on stealth coatings?” Katy’s eyes went wide but I waved off any protests. “Don’t worry, we can use that stuff for a ton of shit, I’ll cover the cost. What’cha got Altany?” I asked with a big excited grin.

  Class 1 Stealth Coatings unlocked!

  Points spent… 100!

  In this case, I would recommend a fully stealth coated undersuite along with prosthetics that include hyper-friction pads and vibro-blade claws for maximum mobility.

  The look on Katy’s face made my day! Shocked at the purchase, then excited at the idea of super-upgrades followed by hyper-focused consideration. I had ideas too! “Alright, can we apply those stealth coatings to already existing guns? That way we could focus all our points on her prosthetics and stealth.”

  Absolutely. I see where you’re going with this. Aisha and Fatima have upgraded their weapons. Given their compactness and low recoil, Katy may be able to wield both at the same time in an emergency with the right arm-replacements. They would need aug-connections or laser pointers to make aiming feasible, but the cost would be quite minimal.

  The results may not be very accurate, but a large volume of fire is still useful, especially against the antithesis. Also, having both does not prevent you from using them accurately one at a time. However, I believe you may want to focus on something else for a main weapon.

  The woman’s wide eyed look of wonder made every point I’d spend worth it. “You’re right, if she’ll fight up-close and personal… What about Johnny’s helical-coilgun pistols? Pretty sure he hates them. They have almost no moving parts, don’t cause explosions and the velocity is adjustable, so they’d be fully silent. With the caliber and weight, they might even punch through some armor at subsonic speeds… I think?”

  The Bear-Yakuza would not throw out any outgrown samurai tech! Hell, we didn’t throw out much in general, partially for shit like this! Desperation made most people environmentally friendly in my experience.

  Yes, they could.

  I pumped my fist! Katy decided to chime in, not content to let us dictate her future. Good girl!

  “I’m going to need some vibro-knives, semi-long. If I get in close, that thing you said about stabbing through tough armor is gonna matter a bunch, I bet! Can… can you put them inside the prosthetics, miss Altany? I’d like to never be… you know, helpless.” I could see her confidence building by the second. Little stumble at the end, but she kept straightening up! Fucking beautiful…

  Of course. All that is left is a stealth-coated suite. Mad Panda’s catalogues are enough to get a very flexible undersuit with light Mole-Bear alloy armour that we will add a stealth-coating too. Your helmet has already been provided and the coating will apply to it fairly well. Given the point restrictions, this will not be a high-quality coating, but this can be remedied in the future. In the chaos of battle, shimmer or blur should be hard to notice.

  I believe the plan is to focus as many points as possible into the prosthetics, correct? I have constructed a simulation for you to test this loadout. Would you like to try it?

  Seeing girlish excitement entering what used to be a beaten and abused young woman in agony just… made my fucking year. It twisted my heart in beautiful ways.

  I quickly sent a few messages and Altany adjusted the simulation. Since it’d be Johnny’s prosthetics catalogues we’d spend most of my points on, I’d need his permission. That beautiful bastard decided to upgrade them a bit as thanks for what she did in the shelter. I would never let Katy find out that I went just a bit ‘over-budget’ myself.

  There were more enforcer donations in the meantime, either old stuff or just a few points from those who got to fight the antithesis and had enough to spare. Team building in action!

  Her corridor drills went ridiculously better! The ninja-enforcer had a talent for staying quiet and picking the perfect moment to start shooting. Sometimes, simulated groups of bad guys fell without even noticing her.

  After a while, I joined in, acting like a normal guy with a shotgun. I grabbed the enemy's attention so she could flank or sneak over them! Just a bit of covering fire gave her all the time she needed.

  After that, I sparred with her, which didn’t go nearly as well. On one hand, I didn’t want to crush her spirit, but I couldn’t go easy on her. This was practice for life or death situations! My martial art download was super unfair however.

  After a hilari– I mean, unfortunate faceplant, we ended the session. I totally didn’t laugh. Nop. Our new ninja apparently planned to practice relentlessly during her convalescence after the limb replacement surgery. Thankfully, the operation suite my samurai partner bought wasn’t single use, but the crazy amounts of nanites were.

  Altany put together a martial-art training module for her. Katy would spend a few days in bed, practicing in the mesh with a concerning amount of enthusiasm at the idea of getting to stab me…