First Strike - An Earth@War Novel

Chapter 1

Naval Assault Forces, Recruit Training Command
Naval Base Bravo, Mars
May 13, 2487, 1320 Local, 1420 UT

Naval Base Bravo was the Navy's primary training facility and housed the Recruit Training Commands for both the Navy and the Naval Assault Forces as well as numerous schools for technical training. The training station consisted of a series of domes connected by tunnels, with each dome housing a specific command. Dome 3 housed the Recruit Training Command for the Naval Assault Forces, the ground assault troops for Earth's Navy.

Max Finley, in his fifteenth and final week of boot camp, was sweating. The dome for the Naval Assault Forces boot camp was intentionally hot and the gravity generators set to 1.2 G's, forcing new recruits to excel under adverse conditions. Many recruits couldn't handle it and quit. Max Finley, however was not a quitter.

Max tightened his grip on his L-29 assault rifle and belly crawled to cove behind a large boulder. He looked to his right and saw Phil Moore, originally from Atlanta, and another recruit named Lou on their bellies, L-29s at the ready. To his left was Dave Roberts and another recruit named Joseph using a shallow crater for cover. Max, Dave and Phil had met on the shuttle from Earth to Mars and had become close friends as they went through training together. They were all 19 years old, tough and willing to do whatever it took to make it into the Naval Assault Forces.

Max repositioned his L-29. The assault rifle was the standard for the Naval Assault Forces, replacing the L-27. At nine pounds, it was lighter than the L-27 and had a range of 200 yards. It fired 8-mm bolts in single fire, three bolt bursts or fully automatic modes. Max currently had single fire mode selected with the safety off. The laser was set on low power mode for this live fire exercise which still stung and often stunned you if you were hit. The low power mode only existed on the training version of the weapon, since in the field, you only fired if you intended to kill the enemy.

Max was the fire team leader for this team exercise. A fire team consisted of four team members and a team leader. As team leader, Max would maneuver his team through a two-mile course, engaging the enemy played by various drill instructors. He did this from the middle position, with two members of his team on each side. He would signal his teammates to move, cover or hold depending on the situation.

"What are you ladies waiting for? The enemy to come to you?" the Company Drill Instructor yelled through the ear piece Max was wearing. Easy to say advance when it isn't your ass on the line, thought Max. Still, this was his mission to lead and he wasn't about to fail, especially after almost 15 weeks of training. Failing this course would mean moving back in training if you were lucky, and being removed from recruit training and returning to civilian life if you weren't, meaning the last three months of your life was wasted.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and signaled to the left for Dave and Joseph to advance approximately 100 yards to some boulders they could use for cover. He sighted his rifle down range, covering for the two of them. Once Joseph and Dave were in position, he signaled for Phil and Lou. They advanced to a trench approximately eighty yards from the previous position. Finally, he signaled for the fire team to cover for him as he advanced to a mound that he would use for cover.

As he began to move, half squatting as he ran, a bolt hit in front of him, blowing red Martian dirt into his face. He instinctively dropped and rolled right as he heard return fire from his team. Pressing his body to the ground, he moved his rifle into position and fired two rounds blindly downrange. Another bolt flew above his head. This time Max located the source of the incoming bolts. The enemy was behind the same mound he intended to use for cover. He waited, L-29 sighted just above the mound. Thirty seconds later, although it seemed to be a lot longer than that to Max as he laid in the dry Martian dirt with his heart racing, a head appeared, peeking over the mound. Max double tapped his trigger sending two bolts into the head of the instructor who had fired at him, dropping the instructor. Max considered swapping out the power cell of his L-29 but realized that he still had at least 26 rounds left.