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Read about the Forgotten Spartan I Program
Butane: To protect the world from devastation!
sir_brilliant: To unite all people within our nation!
Rainman89: To denounce the evils of truth and love!
sir_brilliant: To extend out reach to the stars above!
SpaceGhostFlyer: Jessie!
Butane: James!
sir_brilliant: Team Rocket blasting off at the speed of light
Butane: Surrender now or prepare to fight
sir_brilliant: Meowth, that's right!
Chapter 14
0900 Hours, May 7, 2525(Military Calendar)/ Epsilon Eridani System, Reach Military Complex, planet Reach
The Naval Officer’s Academy was a strange scene to most of the men, but to Simmons it was like a homecoming. He hadn’t been to the famous Reach academy, but he was looking forward to it. The majority of the NCOs were bemused and took in the sights, while the privates just whistled and commented on the Navy’s digs. Simmons walked up the stairs and was forced to block his eyes from the sun as he admired the scalloped dome of the main academy building. Doctor Halsey was leaning against one of the columns, conversing with an AI in a toga.
“Morning Doctor,” Simmons called out.
“Good morning Lieutenant. I hope your men are enjoying themselves,” she said with a smile.
“Men! Lets bring it in!”
“Thank you. Now gentlemen, let’s begin.” The Good Doctor ushered them with a wave to the medical building. Most of the men hadn’t sat at a desk since grade school, and the sight of Dominique squished into a chair designed for twenty year old officer hopefuls was enough to make everyone laugh. “Today’s class,” the doctor began, “Is on battlefield medicine.” A series of holographic diagrams were coming up, each suffering typical battlefield wounds, and the group was being herded by the same toga wearing AI. “This is Déja, and she’ll be assisting us. Now, our first malady is a bullet wound to the abdomen from a 12.7mm round. Yes private?”
“What does all that mean ma’am?” a young member of the squad enquired.
“It means he got shot in the stomach. Now, who knows what to do first? No, not you corpsman. Anyone else? Yes, Corporal.”
“Biofoam?” a Corporal timidly raised his hand.
“No, in ideal conditions, first you would remove the bullet. Good guess though. The round would be unlikely to penetrate very far, but since I doubt you have ever removed a bullet before, we’ll practice that. Biofoam is next, then a field dressing. Now gather around the lab table here, and I’ll show you.” As she spoke, a hologram of a Sergeant with a 12.7mm pistol round in his pancreas appeared on her table. The doctor was about to begin when she was interrupted by a voice from the back.
“Shouldn’t you wash you hands first, Doctor?” Simmons asked.
“Maybe you’d like to perform the operation, Lieutenant?”
“Sure thing Doctor.” Simmons had failed his field medicine class back at Quantico, and was forced to take it again. He had run this particular simulation twelve times, and had received a one hundred percent on the last one. When he reached the ‘body’ he saw the Doctor had changed the program. The ribs were coated with some weird gel, and the vital signs were super charged. It was a simulated Spartan. It was a subtle difference, but Fiurah noticed. Simmons motioned this to Doctor Halsey, and she took the medic from the room.
“Déja, please supervise the class for a moment.”
“Of course doctor. You may begin when ready Lieutenant.”
Simmons successfully treated the simulated patient, and was glad to realize the program had given him a ninety three percent. That meant the Spartan oriented medicine would still work on normal Marines.
As the Doctor reentered, she checked the score. “That’s almost an ‘A’ Lieutenant. Very good. Does anyone else want to try? Yes, very well corpsman.” Within an hour everyone had performed the operation and everyone had passed. Dominique had nearly yanked the subject’s intestines out with the bullet, but he managed a seventy percent. “Alright class. Same time next week. Corpsman, Lieutenant, could I see you for a moment in my office?”
“Yes ma’am?” Simmons asked. He thought the session had gone well, but he was ready for the good doctors ‘not good enough’.
“Your men performed extremely well. I’m surprised. Now, corpsman, you noticed the program’s alteration extremely fast. Where did you train?”
“Oxford, ma’am. First in class. It was kind of obvious, the vital signs gave it away,” he replied with a smirk.
“Very well, thank you corpsman. That is all.”
“Ma’am. Sir.” And with that Fiurah left the building to catch up with the men.
“You hand picked him, didn’t you ma’am?”
“He was in my class for a semester. Most of the professors said he was the best they’d seen in a while. I knew he’d come in handy, so I called in a favor. You’re catching on Lieutenant. But that’s not why I kept you here. Tomorrow there will be another exercise. You will support the Spartans in their attempt to infiltrate Bravo Company’s perimeter and retrieve their flag. Your Pelican’s will be delayed and you will be forced to spend the night in the woods surrounding Bravo Company’s perimeter. Your and your men must insure the Spartan’s safety and make sure that flag ends up on my wall here.” She motioned toward the long wall of her office and it seemed her Spartans had managed to swipe at least one flag from every unit on Reach, and even a few on other planets. There was a space for Bravo Company’s, so they were sure to be expecting this. “Now I don’t pretend to be a tactician, but I think this would be a good opportunity for our two units to bond. I understand two man pickets are a viable strategy to spend the night…”
“Understood ma’am.”
“I’ll leave the pairings up to you. Thank you Lieutenant.”
“Thank you ma’am.”