Video Game Recruiting (Corporate Marines Book 1) (5 page)

Analyzing data. Two of four subjects have potential as defined by Level 1 testing. Increasing complexity of combat program. Enemy forces will have sixty seconds’ more notification of an inbound assault and will have better security forces located within the complex. Anticipated failure of subjects, two minutes. Beginning program now.

We dive right back into it. Tina blasts the door this time and we go in fast and hard, but it’s like it’s a different scenario with the security forces. As soon as we are off the shuttle we come under fire. We make it into the building and there are more security guards, and the automated turrets wait till we are closer, popping out and firing on us.

By the time we come to the first T-junction, we all have minor hits. At the intersection it’s the same trap as last time, but they have shields on the heavy weapons now so the explosives aren’t as effective at stunning the gun crews. We lose Steve and carry on.

Before we get to the next intersection, two more automated turrets pop up in front of us and open fire. The laser targets Jeff and the other weapon is a rail gun. It starts firing at me and then fires past me, hitting Tina in the back. I can see the explosion roll over us as her armour goes up.

Jeff and I blast the turrets and jump around the corner firing. There is nothing there and we stagger reload, then take off at a run, keeping an eye on the statues in the alcoves.

The booby trap is in the ceiling this time and comes in the form of a series of directional mines that take us both out.

The screen fades to black and the red “GAME OVER” pops back up.

I take my helmet off and everyone is standing there in the room looking shaky.

We lasted less than three minutes and that was the hardest scenario we had ever been in.

I look at Steve and Jeff. “We still have just over two minutes. Last try? See how much damage we can do?”

Steve looks upset. “Yeah, let’s do this and kick their teeth in. I want my money’s worth.”

Before I can even look over to Tina she has already hit the button as the VR starts coming online. We take a second to change our load out and then we are walking off the shuttle.

We had gone for the up-armoured long-range attack option. This gives each of us six short-range smart missiles that can target individually or mass fire depending on what you program in advance. The two packs of three missiles are mounted on extra armour on the shoulders. It looks weird, but it works as an extra punch when you need it and you can still operate with the gear.

Jeff fires and blows the wall in, then dumps his extra armour. I walk in and turn and there are already security guards in the hall and some soldiers so I fire all my missiles and blow them clear away in a firestorm. When we come to the T-junction I throw an explosive where the automated weapons always are and Steve just steps out into the hall and fires all his missiles.

That’s overkill, even though there are three manned weapons waiting for us.

Steve gets shot up on that one, but is still able to move so we take off down the hall. At the next intersection I roll out a sensor ball. There is nothing in the hall so we go down at a run. Then Tina stops and turns to go through the door short of where the explosives kept going off and blowing the floor away.

A timer appears in the upper corner of my view, counting down from twenty.

We are almost out of time.

I don’t know what Tina is doing but it doesn’t matter; our time is almost up. I just hope we didn’t waste the last few seconds. She runs at the door that leads to outside and hits it hard. As soon as she goes through she dodges right. Jeff is right after her and I follow through. I can hear Steve firing back down the hallway and the sensors indicate dozens of icons closing on him.

I can see missiles streaking away from Tina and hammering two of the tanks, blowing them sky high with only four seconds left.

We all open fire and volley our grenades at the last tank as we start taking serious hits.

The last tank goes up in a greasy fireball that fades away and the real lights come up. Then I am standing there shaking, a fourteen-year-old soaked in sweat with his friends.

They always want you out of the room fast ‘cause the line is so big. This mall has one VR room and it’s busy most of the day. At a hundred bucks for ten minutes for up to four people, it’s the best deal around. These guys could charge twice as much and most of us would still play. But the Glentol Corporation has tons of money, so no one cares, I guess. Better for us.

We all clamber out of the harnesses and rack the helmets and weapons before walking for the exit. Someone comes through on the hour and quickly wipes everything down. Disgusting, but we make sure that we are in at the beginning of that hour.

The rest of the guys come out. Jeff and Steve are already jumping around like crazy.

They are both pounding Tina on the back. “You were crazy there, Tina! You took out two tanks with those missiles and we blasted that third one to bits with our grenades! They ain’t gonna forget us soon!” Steve is the worst gamer, but always the first to brag.

We head out to get a drink before meeting our parents; after all, we had sweated out a couple of litres and the latest real fruit energy drink with twice the caffeine is out and I want to try it.

Data analysis complete. Subjects Timothy (Timmy) and Tina show potential. Subject Tina has the highest rating alignment. Recommend that subject Tina be further evaluated in future. Saving and processing data for later retrieval.

T
he man’s name was Michael Harley Smythe. He was a boring man that wanted power, even though you couldn’t tell that by looking at his face. The suit that he was wearing looked right on him. He had that stamp on his forehead that said “mid-level manager.” If you could read the fine print, you would see it also said “mediocre.” The presentation that he had prepared was still sitting on his pad, but it would never see the light of day. It was a review of the “Marine Trainer” video game. He had prepared for days to present, and sink the program with the three senior executives of the Glentol Corporation that were reviewing it. The call he had received just a few hours before the meeting had been very clear: If the project was closed, then he would be in charge of the janitors at one of the arctic research stations for the rest of his life.

He had reworked what he had; he’d been able to put a positive spin on the project and talked about the long-term impact of early training of children and getting those children used to thinking about working in teams. He discussed the way the game would change their worldview so that the children understood that Marines represented the best of the Corporation in the front lines, as well as the possible threats that Earth and the Corporation faced.

He had been successful. In fact, he had argued that the gaming systems that were set up out there should be networked together so that groups across the country could work together. An eight-player section would expand what they could do in the game, and would improve initial AI evaluations, getting a better read, which should increase the number of successful candidates that the system found.

Finally, with the advances in simulation training that were starting to be made, the system would be more immersive and gain better results for testing.

He hated the whole video game system and would have pulled all the funding to spend on something worthwhile, like developing weapons systems for the solar system.

But when the corporate executioner calls, you do what you are told.

Michael knew that if he hurried, he could just make it to the boss’s party at the local restaurant. He could play up what he had done and how important it was, and then suck up a little to the boss’s wife, who was a brainless idiot but very socially active.

Michael stopped by his office and dropped his pad off, making sure it was secured before taking off for the evening’s work.

“H
i, everyone! This is Billy Banger! I have an amazing bit of gaming news for you today! The Glentol Corporation contacted me directly because they know that I’m the Gamer That Gets IT, with a viewing audience of almost five hundred million!”

The young man in the image is dressed in the latest flash clothing, showing off a pale, skinny body. Behind him, the screen morphs into the Glentol Corporation logo with pictures from the most popular game on the planet. This live video feed has been hyped for over a week and there were hundreds of millions of viewers waiting to hear whatever rumours Billy had been passed by the Corporation. After all, Billy had made it big when he had been given exclusive permission to broadcast the first
Corporate Marine
game seven years earlier
.

“Direct from Glentol head office! The rumours are true, but didn’t cover everything coming your way! The game ‘Corporate Marines’ is being rereleased TOMORROW! At every gaming centre. The centres are closed today for upgrades that will include new gear in every location, with a more realistic feel and a more immersive gaming environment. Also, EVERY gaming centre will be networked together, for several reasons. First, you will be able to play with up to ten players in each game now! Second, global scoring and current ranking is here now! Third, when you go to play, you will find that the computer system will remember you and recommend a better fit for other gamers! You can still play with the gamers that you have played with for years. But if you want to experience what it’s like to be challenged to your max, then you can go in, plug in your info while waiting, and the computer will plug you in to a game with other people at your level ACROSS THE WORLD! Are you a newbie? Play with others starting off so you can learn with others near your experience level. Been playing for years and could give the real CM a run for their money? Then you can! Finally. All the old missions are going to be there, but those may feel a bit boring if experienced gamers are hitting this together again. So there is a new mission being released tomorrow: ‘Space Station Takedown’! I don’t have info on anything there, but there will be a short gaming clip in a minute and let me tell you, IT’S FRACKING AWESOME! The Glentol Corporation has also stated that it will be releasing new missions regularly, as well as rewriting some of the old ones. Stay tuned after these sponsor messages; you are going to see two minutes of combat along with one of the intro videos. I am going to tell you now that I have booked my local gaming centre and will be there at opening with my team. We have special permission to play back-to-back games and will be recording it all!”

The sponsor messages poured out after Billy finished. He set a record, with over four hundred million viewers during his initial brief. The next day, when Billy and his Bangers went into the gaming centre, there were over six hundred million viewers. This shut most servers down and caused lags across most of the net. Viewers spiked when he and his team were carried out and had to receive medical evaluation after “
the most intense workout ever
!” according to Billy in a later interview. The game centres were booked solid for weeks and people were willing to pay up to a thousand dollars to scalpers to get in.

P
rocessing data. The new team allotment is working much better. Subject Steve has been removed and subjects Jeff, Billy and Tina are teamed up with a better grouping out of Canada and South America. Possible suggestions are to remove Jeff in the future after more analysis. Data will continue being gathered and evaluated.

Data must be comprehensive enough for correct evaluation.

This is our second time in, as we got lucky and booked the second that we heard about the new releases. Steve came the first time, then backed out the second time, selling his ticket to some other guy for a couple hundred bucks. No real loss. We opted for the evaluation game this go-around so that we are playing with people more to our level. We got lucky ‘cause the computers have to evaluate you after several games, so everyone thinks that the matching won’t be that good for the first few games until there is enough data and it gets averaged out. But we have some awesome players coming on board for this run, at least according to their gaming scores.

Everyone agreed to play an earlier mission. We are all new to each other and everyone knows what is expected on some of the earlier raids. We are going for “Destroy the Planetary Defence Centre.”

We were able to communicate with the other guys before we entered the game, and that communication works. We have some ideas on what to do and different load-outs we have not used before.

The shuttle comes in for a hot landing with some small-arms fire hitting it. Right before the door opens, the shuttle shudders as the short-range missiles launch off and the door starts opening right after they explode, filling the area with shrapnel. When we exit, all the enemy forces in the area are down.

We are broken down into two teams, with a smaller lead team followed by a larger follow-on. The three in the front have the standard missile load-out on their shoulders and will start firing to breach the building and stun the local security. The seven of us in the rear have one missile launcher on one shoulder and other follow-on gear, including a heavy laser and missile launcher with reloads spread throughout the team.

We are trying to stay in our local teams as much as possible so that we can rely on knowing how each other works for the games. After we play a few dozen games we should know how different people work together and the computer will even recommend what positions people play so they can play to their strengths.

The lead team stops and the one in the middle fires their missile load. The missiles shriek as they launch out of the box launcher on the shoulders. I can see the armour releasing off of her shoulders and dropping away. The graphics are so much better in this version. I can see the missile exhaust as a grey cloud behind the missiles. They spread out just a bit before impacting and blow a huge hole in the side of the building. The impact is just to the side of the security station and should have shredded them. The entire structure is shaken and I can see debris falling from around the opening.

We storm in, covering our arcs, and I can see dead security guards spread out in the entry foyer.

We turn right and head down the corridor. As doors pop open and one or two security guards lunge out, trying to slow us down, they explode backwards as our ten-millimetre round hits them in the centre of mass.

I understand the rationale of going for the safe shot, but enough armour will stop even a ten-mille armour-piercing caseless round. A head shot will blow right through a helmet, but that’s a harder target to hit.

As the lead team runs low on ammo, they simply step to the centre of the corridor and the follow-on team takes over, clearing a path. At the T-junction up ahead, they barely slow down, throwing larger explosive charges both ways and then following right after the blast hits.

The follow-on team heads down the main corridor while the group that stopped to reload turns to the right and deals with the two automated defence turrets, or what is left of them.

The rest of us swing in behind the clearance team and the group that took out the automated turrets falls in at the rear to cover our six.

The new lead team is now clearing the path and putting a round into every statue and alcove as booby traps are common with this enemy.

Analyzing data. This section is conducting itself well and will reach target within seventy seconds. They will successfully destroy the target with a maximum of four minor casualties.

There is no way that current forces can effectively deal with the section. Executing tactical redirection with modified mission parameters.

Estimated chance of success decreased by 60 percent. Execute.

Suddenly our comm gear clicks and a woman’s voice comes over the built-in radio.
“Three section, mission change. The enemy is relying on local power generation to run the defence centre you are assaulting, as well as to keep the laser defences for the area going.”

A map overlay appears and I recognize where we are. The building across from us is glowing and there is a power icon in the centre of the building. There is almost no detailing on the building, as our sensors didn’t pick up anything on the way in.

The voice continues. “
If you can destroy or severely damage the power generation plant, then the defence centres will have to rely on battery backup. The heavy laser defences will lose over half their effectiveness and enemy AIs will also lose effectiveness. This mission is ranked highest priority. Do you understand?”

A question from the computers during game play is weird. Normally we just get smaller briefs and never have to respond.

Tina never hesitates. “We understand and will comply.”

The woman’s voice says,
“Understood, good luck.”
And the circuit closes.

Tina’s voice barks out over the comms. “Clear the corridor like always, but only get us to the first door down the next hall. Then we go left through that door. Blast the wall and move straight out. There will be a lot of tanks; spread most of the remaining missiles out over them, but keep two in reserve to breach the generator building. Clear?”

Everyone grunts back understanding and we move out at the same high speed. At the next intersection, the sensor ball clearly shows nothing beyond so we move out again.

The team in the lead is clearing nicely, and some of the probing fire detonates booby traps farther down the hall in a few of the statues that are sitting in those stupid alcoves. We come to the first door and the lead man runs right through and starts firing. The rest of us follow and we are in the same room, like so many times before.

Crud, this is the outer wall where there are almost always something like eight armoured vehicles and nearly a hundred enemy soldiers.

We line up and then I empty my grenade launcher at the wall, popping five rounds in a five-foot circle. Nothing. I reload. The grenades should have blown a hole in the wall so we could save our missiles, but whatever. I guess the computer isn’t up on the effect of the weapons we have.

One of the others has a three-pack of missiles on the shoulder and fires them in a tight spread. Most of the rest have programmed their missies to go after armoured vehicles. I am holding mine to pop the far building wall.

When the missiles hit, there is a flashback and rolling thunder. Those missiles hit maybe forty feet from where we are standing, and I find myself dancing around trying to keep my footing. Everything is blanked out by the rumbling noise in my helmet.

We don’t wait. Before the dust is really settling, we take off for where the opening should be.

The hole is as big as the one that we made on the way in. There are no bodies nearby in this case, though. As soon as we clear the building, enemy forces start popping up all over the heads-up display. There are currently five armoured vehicles and a large number of enemy soldiers in the causeway between the two buildings. We have an open area of approximately five hundred meters to cross before we are at the other building.

As we come out of the building, the first person to see an armoured vehicle fires at the closest. A second later, the next person fires and then two others fire. The missiles streak off in groups of three and hammer into the vehicles.

There are several different variants of the vehicle and that is much clearer now. Two tanks go up, along with two troop-carrying fighting vehicles, and then a command variant covered in different antennas. As soon as the command tank goes down, it seems like the enemy becomes a bit less competent.

Everyone is walking and firing at individual soldiers as they see them. With ten of us instead of four, we are cutting through them like there is no tomorrow, and we have only started crossing the open space. There are so many enemy soldiers down that some of those at the rear are running away looking for cover. We keep firing. With a fifteen-round magazine, we have lots of extra rounds, and we are missing some shots but not that many.

Jeff was trying for head shots but kept missing. Now he’s just aiming for centre of mass. The massive rounds finish off the enemy with a single hit even though they have armour on. They might as well not be wearing armour for all the good it is doing them.

Three more vehicles come rolling forward from around a corner farther away, moving fast and spreading out into a line. This must be a crack unit because all three are firing on the move. There’s one tank and two personnel carriers that are heavily armed. They have maybe sixty soldiers with them as well.

The soldiers are good, and that is going to be a problem.

One of the section members takes a hit in the chest from a tank round, which has to be a fluke. But his torso is vaporized and that disrupts our advance.

Three more sets of missiles launch, one after the other, and the nearest vehicle explodes, followed by the other two in succession.

We hadn’t reloaded as we were still firing at the other soldiers. Now we have sixty fresh troops coming at us and we are all about to hit empty.

My weapon clicks on empty and I reach for a mag. Then, no one is firing except for two who start slowly firing rifle grenades from the underslung grenade launcher. It works, and enemy soldiers are being blown into the air.

I slam my next mag in and hit the button release, chambering the next round; then, I continue putting rounds out. A few other weapons start up and then I hear the whoosh of missiles. Tina and two others with any missiles left have pulled back from the line. I don’t know who fired, but a full spread of six missiles hammer into the wall, shattering it and leaving a nice big opening for us. Anything on the other side will be either dead or unable to react to us now.

That ran through my mind while I was trying to target another soldier and I missed twice. I can’t watch because the noise alone distracted me and I’ve taken two grazing hits from lasers and have some minor dents from the projectile weapons that most of the soldiers are carrying. There are too many of them.

My heads-up display shows the three behind us moving toward the power building, and the rest of us start inching along, trying to keep the soldiers here between us and what is coming.

The enemy soldiers don’t have much hope of stopping us without their armoured vehicles. That is, unless they have heavy weapons hidden away and they can pull out. The individual weapons they carry won’t do it, unless they all open fire on just one of us and get lucky.

The last few soldiers pull back and we are almost halfway to the power building. We turn and run off before something else can go wrong.

I reload on the run. Two of the suits of armour are moving slower because of damage. I can hear Tina calling over the comm link as she directs us. “The two damaged suits are going to stay at the entrance and keep the soldiers from getting to us. Fall back into the building if more armoured vehicles show up. These halls are just as wide as the last place, so three troops up, with the last two guys with missiles right behind them, followed by the last two guys as rear guard. Plow the road. We need to be through fast so we can blow this place and then either hole up or move out till the force lands. Everyone good?”

Everyone comes back with grunts and the occasional panting “yes.” I don’t know when Tina took over, but she’s doing a good job of it. Both women in the section are doing really well at this.

We hit the opening and run through into the corridor beyond. The lights are standard and everything is a boring grey paint, like all these places are.

We drop off the two damaged suits and they prepare to hold the opening, as we are already getting sensor reads of more troops coming up along with at least two vehicles coming up.

We head into the complex.

Analyzing data. The section has successfully covered the open distance and dealt with eight armoured vehicles and a medium infantry company. If mission were to be extended to full planetary invasion, local forces would be reinforced with heavy infantry, armour and armoured vehicles, along with air and artillery support.

Assembling suggested changes for upgrading of grading/evaluation system.

Set decision tree. Complete mission or do not.

Additional heavy enemy forces are unrealistic within the facility. Carry on with assessment.

We are moving at a run down the corridors and there are very few booby traps or anything else really. The few security guards are all heavily armed and armoured, but no one expected to have the enemy breaking in here, obviously.

The only heavy weapons we have seen brought out have been lasers, and they are quickly and poorly set up.

We caught them napping here. They have had enough time to get ready for us, but not enough to actually bring in any heavy military gear that would stop a heavy raid like we’re carrying out.

The comm link clicks in our helmets, which is surprising. They really upped the game if the computer can judge when to call in and change something on us. I just hope whatever the changes are, we can deal with them, as we have used most of our heavy-hitting ammo up.