The Assassin
Chapter 2
Training (TY10-month 111)
Our training progressed reasonably well. Capo Humphreys had been in the Army back on Earth. She’d come to Tara as a concubine to one of the Marines who came here for R&R and made the choice to join the planetary Militia. Her sponsor wasn’t happy. The first six months of the program was especially difficult. The first class was trained by the Marines on the Marine base at Sunnybrook. The capo didn’t get much freedom from her former sponsor.
After the first class was trained, the base at Drovers Run was opened and those who had been trained took over training the next class. They organized themselves under Director Kotter, appointed by the governor from her own concubines. With fewer than two hundred in the active Militia, the director also filled in for the non-existent chief—the structural top of the Militia pyramid. There was one deputy and one officer. Foremen had been appointed by the deputy and finally, as the Militia grew, capos were promoted to lead cohorts and conduct training. None of them had held that rank for a full year yet. It was a pretty flat organization with only four levels of management and three of labor plus recruit trainees.
If I tallied that correctly, I would become only the fourth manager in the Militia. I thought that was hysterically funny. I read up on Militias thanks to an extra session in the sleep trainer facilitated by Cricket back on the farm. Up until the announcement of the Sa’arm invasion, American Militias were marked by an abundance of egoists who called themselves ‘colonels’ in their state Militia. They could field only about ten to twenty Militia members and half of those claimed to be officers. Over the past four years, we’d heard of Earth Defense, Einherjar, Maquis, and half a dozen rising Militias preparing for an Earth invasion by the Swarm.
There was even one Earth Militia calling itself the Pussy Pirates, but it was mostly just a new game people were playing. I’d seen it listed in our entertainment guide, but Amos and the bitches were all too conservative to allow it in their home. You’d think Mom and Christine hadn’t fucked their way into the pickup in front of an entire county fair. Anne just didn’t care enough to take either my side or theirs. Amos decided if I had time to play a game, I had time to take on another chore. I never mentioned it again.
Over the next few weeks in the Tara Militia, I found out a lot about our little planet that I didn’t know. They teach that kind of thing in school. Most of the others in our morning classes were concubines whose owners wanted them better educated, or younger kids on the concubine track. We didn’t have any classes with sponsors or the sponsor track kids.
Tara, when discovered, was a green planet. It was pretty much covered with a layer of water and algae. It had a breathable atmosphere, slightly higher in oxygen and lower in nitrogen than Earth’s. We had mountain ranges that broke up the air currents so between the mountains and the angle of the rotational axis, we had seasons and polar areas. There were two large land masses generally considered eastern and western on the planet with a third unsettled island continent in the south. The eastern continent, called Erehwon, was the largest and most populated, though not the first settled. Five of our eight established townships were on that continent: Twelve Oaks (where I was from), Sunnybrook (the Marine territory), Green Acres, Cold Comfort, and Oasis. The western continent was called Elysium and had three townships: Drovers Run, Lleifior, and Drylanders. Finally, the smallest continent in the south was called Eldorado. So far, no one lived on Eldorado and it was said to have been seeded with more tropical plants and animals.
Of course, there was a variety of islands scattered through the oceans. The oceans were slightly shallower than Earth’s oceans, but overall, the climate on the planet was temperate compared to Earth’s. We had less tilt on our axis than Earth and our orbit was marginally closer to the sun than Earth. A single small moon, where our ship repair facility was, created tidal action in the large bodies of water as did the somewhat closer sun.
The total population of Tara was about three-quarters of a million, including sponsors, concubines, dependents, and Militia. The smallest and newest township, Drylanders, had just over 20,000 souls, total. When the planet was first settled, people clustered in the cities, but we were organized as an agricultural planet. People moved farther out into the wilderness as soon as plots of land were organized and surveyed. The scattering of the farms and ranches meant that each needed its own independent infrastructure. As a result, household AIs had a much bigger responsibility on the farms than in the city. They had to provide power for the farm, replicator and recycling, communications, transport, and education. Eventually the township infrastructures would connect to the farms, but no one knew when that would be finished.
Taken as an independent measurement, our day was shorter than an Earth-day. Our year was longer. Still, we maintained a twenty-four-hour clock system. It just meant our clocks ran faster than Earth clocks did. Tara mimicked Earth in having its 387-day year divided into twelve months—nine had thirty-two days and three had thirty-three days. We didn’t even try to translate it to Earth time. The sixty years I’d serve active and reserve in the Militia were measured on our time, not Earth time. This was where we lived and we pretty much ignored Earth. As it happened, we had a math problem that had us figure out the difference between Earth and Tara. Earth had a shorter year than Tara by about twenty-two days. But our day was shorter, even though it was divided into twenty-four ‘hours.’ It ended up not being enough to make a significant difference in the time we served—less than six days’ difference a year. In sixty Tara years, Earth will have progressed sixty-one years.
I got up each morning at 0430, about the same time we started on the farm. It was half an hour earlier than reveille so I could step outside the barracks and do my forms. By 0530 I was in the mess hall for morning rations. At 0600 we were on the field for PT. After we’d been on base about a month, I was told to lead basic forms during PT and everyone was supposed to follow me. They didn’t do badly. It wasn’t enough, but it gave me an hour a day to work on my technique. We had fifteen minutes at 0800 to clean up and change clothes for school and were in class from 0830 until 1130. We got back for mess at 1200 and were in classroom A at 1300. We were in sleep trainers until 1700 and had an hour of recovery and rest before mess at 1800. At 1900 we had two hours of ‘special interest’ training. At 2100 we had an hour free before lights-out at 2200. A lot of people were asleep in bed long before the lights were out.
Promotion (TY10-month 111)
I’d been on base for nearly four months when our class was ordered to the parade ground instead of afternoon classes. We’d graduated from Classroom C for Cunts and were now assigned to Classroom D for Dickwads. Everyone looked at me but all I could do was shrug. The AI was silent when I queried it. The base AI was not as friendly as the farm AI, Cricket, was. To the family, the farm AI was as interesting as the rest of them. It plodded along, never offering anything, but doing as it was told and nothing more. But when I challenged it to a chess match, things changed. He—yes, I’d definitely decided my AI friend was a he—budded a shell to handle its routine household duties and separately taught me. We played chess. He instructed me in my forms. He suggested all kinds of things for me to learn. He was my best friend—well, my only friend—and I still missed him here at the base.
We arrived on the parade ground and snapped into our formation when we saw Capo Humphreys lead a huge Marine toward us. Other classes and cadres were arriving and taking up their positions as well. It didn’t look like anyone knew what was happening.
“Outfit, attention!” snapped Capo as she approached the field. We all received her order as if she was talking directly in our ears and came immediately to attention. Two new classes of trainees had arrived over the past months and I was proud of the way they fell in behind our class in proper form and position. “Cho! Front and center!”
Uh-oh. I suddenly had a feeling I knew what this was all about. As I got closer to her and the Marine, I could see he was Asian, even though he was huge. I was considered tall for a Korean at six-two. This guy had me by half a foot. I snapped to attention before my capo and the sergeant.
“Sergeant Wu, this is trainee Cho. He has advanced independently in the study of Taekwondo and, according to his family AI, has shown competence at a black belt level. He has not, however, been tested beyond yellow belt on Earth. Will you do us the honor of testing this recruit?”
“Thank you, Capo Humphreys. Trainee Cho, will you accept me as your master and sifu for testing?” Chinese. I wondered how the testing for Kung Fu differed from that for Taekwondo.
I shifted at once from military posture to martial arts posture, clasping my hands and bowing to the sergeant.
“It will be a great honor to be tested by one so proven, Sabomnim,” I said.
“Very well, we will begin.”
I followed Sergeant Wu’s lead in removing my boots, but when he took off his shirt, I realized my uniform was one piece. Oh well. I stripped and stood naked as Rika gathered my clothes and boots. Wu grinned and stripped naked as well. My god! That’s what Marines are always bragging about! I focused on his eyes and we faced off. Bill Campbell rushed up to take the sifu’s uniform and boots.
That began a long and grueling afternoon. Sifu Wu did not just jump in and test me for a black belt. He was meticulous in testing me first for my green belt and then each of the six levels after that. He awarded me the belt for the level after each test. By the time we finished the black belt test, the entire outfit was late for mess. They’d been required to watch every step of the testing process, right up to and including my three five-minute sparring rounds against the sifu. When it was completed, I was told to dress and Rika brought me my uniform and boots, brushing me off carefully before letting me put it on. Bill performed the same service for Sergeant Wu. I could have used a shower, but as I zipped up the coverall uniform, Rika knelt and made sure my shoes were shiny. I fell in line next to my class and watched the consultation among Sergeant Wu, Capo Humphreys, and Deputy Kramer. I didn’t know when he’d arrived. I guess people had been arriving all afternoon. It looked like the whole unit was on the parade ground. I saw Director Kotter arrive and stride across the grounds to join the consultation.
Sifu Wu and I had sparred in every test, though the first two were non-contact. I’d broken over a dozen three-inch boards with my hands and feet, sometimes two thick. Surprisingly, I still felt good and energetic. Probably better than those who had stood to watch for five hours.
“Niall Cho, I have tested you according to the standards of Taekwondo and have found you worthy of a black belt in the fourth dan.” He reached around me and pulled a black belt with four yellow stripes on it around my waist and tied it. “According to Taekwondo Federation standards, you are now to be titled Sabum, Instructor in the Martial Arts.” There was applause from the officers in front of me, joined by the Militia members around me. I bowed to my instructor and stepped back at attention to salute the senior officers. The director returned my salute and stepped forward.
“Trainee Niall Cho, in recognition of your achievement and of your diligent work during training, it is my pleasure to announce your promotion to Officer Niall Cho and award you this symbol of your new rank.” She attached a vertical bar to my sleeve with a single black square in the center. As soon as she stepped away, Capo Humphreys stepped up and snapped to attention with a crisp salute. I returned her salute, my first as a manager. She stepped back and Deputy Kramer stepped up.
“In recognition of your accomplishments and new responsibilities, I award you this badge as an expert and trainer of the martial arts for the Tara Militia.” The badge was simple, just a tied black belt. It was pressed onto my uniform shirt just above my name badge.
“This has been a long afternoon on the parade grounds and I’m sure you are all a little peeved at Officer Cho for having kept you out here for over five hours,” Director Kotter said to the assembled cadres. “In order to mitigate your anger, all evening duties have been cancelled for today, including both training and post responsibilities. The mess hall will also be serving beer this evening. You can all enjoy a couple of brews and congratulate Officer Cho. Capo, the field is yours.”
“Militia Unit One, Attention! Salute!” The entire unit snapped to attention and saluted. The AI informed me it was my responsibility to return the salute. I did and they dropped theirs. “Unit dis-missed!” For the first time in the afternoon, there was a cheer from the group. I found myself surrounded by my class and those that followed us, being congratulated and slapped on the back as we all headed for the mess hall and a dinner far better than what we’d been having for evening mess.
“We can still screw, can’t we?” Rika asked. “I mean now that you’re an officer and I’m a lowly comrade. I’d like to continue.”
Rika and I had been frequent bedmates together since the second week of training. We’d been given weekend liberty to head to the brothel and get laid. She’d stopped me on my way and suggested the two of us didn’t need to go to the brothel unless I found her unattractive.
Unattractive? You’ve gotta be kidding!
Rika was petite but everything was perfectly proportioned. We were both still only fourteen and our combined experience amounted to two episodes. As it turned out, like Anne had come to me after midnight on my fourteenth birthday, Rika’s father had come to her. She said it wasn’t all that unpleasant but she couldn’t imagine a steady diet of him. She still thought of him as an old man. Like I had done, she left directly from the testing center to the recruiting office.
“I can’t think of a reason to stop as long as the AI doesn’t jump on my case.”
“You will be monitored,” the AI intoned for both of us. “If the relationship is deemed to be coercive on either party’s behalf, it will be terminated immediately and may result in removal of rank or dismissal from the Militia.”
“Thanks for that encouragement,” I said.
“You are welcome.” I’m not sure the AI caught that I was being facetious.
Rika, however, took that as permission to get naked immediately. I just loved that sleek body. She’d grown stronger during our four months of training, just like all the rest of us had. And she’d been joining me at 0445 each morning for my half-hour of forms. She was doing pretty well.
I picked her up and carried her to my bed to find I had no bedding on it.
“AI, where’s my bedding?”
“Officer Niall Cho now has private quarters on the second floor. Please note, comrades below the rank of capo are not permitted on that floor unless accompanied by a capo or officer or deputy.”
“In other words, you can’t sneak up there in the middle of the night to surprise me,” I laughed at an indignant Rika. She didn’t struggle, though, as I carried her to the lift and found my room. I had to laugh at what we saw. It was about the same size as our personal bunk area on the lower floor of the barracks. The only difference was that it was defined by walls instead of by an imaginary line between bunks.
That didn’t slow us down once we were in the room. Rika was an enthusiastic lover. I couldn’t imagine having a concubine as willing to couple with me as she was. In fact, the idea of having a slave to service me instead of a genuine lover was inconceivable. I didn’t want to even try to imagine it. We enjoyed each other to the maximum. I absolutely loved her breasts and showed I adored them with my hands and mouth. She pulled one hand down to her crotch and as I sucked her nips, I diddled her clit to her first come.
That’s one thing about living in the sexually liberal Confederacy. We really don’t know everything about making a partner happy, but we aren’t all that afraid to tell our partner what they need to do.
After she’d come, she pushed me back and gave me an oral tribute that was far better (and a lot longer) than my promotion declaration. Then we got down to fucking in earnest. We hadn’t been enhanced yet, but we did our best to last as long as possible as she moved up and down on my dick. And when she came again, she settled down to get it in her as far as she could and felt me jet my come into her welcoming channel.
That was another thing about being in the Militia. We were required to be sterile until we’d been in service for two years. We were still a young service, but based on Militia training on other planets, we could expect about fifteen percent attrition during the first two years. Those recruits would return to being concubines, some with a sponsor, and the majority assigned to the civil service. As far as I could see, neither option had anything on enduring our training. Regardless of the options, the powers that be didn’t want any notion of families to develop during that time.
The same was true of taking a concubine. We could be assigned a pod once we were out of basic training, but it was not much bigger than the bunk space we had in the barracks. We could have a fellow recruit move in with us. We could bring home a brothel whore for a specified period of time. But we couldn’t make a long-term arrangement of owning a concubine until we’d shown a likelihood that we’d complete our service—in other words, surviving our probationary period of two years in the Militia. That would be an interesting development. I still couldn’t imagine owning another person. I guess I’d see what happened in the future.
Rika and I weren’t nearly finished for the night. We cuddled and kissed and then made love again. And again. We finally slept in each other’s arms until I rose for my morning forms. She was right beside me at 0445.
Duty (TY10-month 111)
I had my first meeting with Deputy Kramer the next morning.
“Congratulations, Cho. I don’t mind telling you, I’m glad to have another person to shovel some of this shit off to,” he said after returning my salute. He motioned me to a chair and sat across from me.
“Thank you, Deputy,” I said. “It came as a bit of a surprise, but I guess that way I didn’t have time to get nervous.”
“When Sergeant Wu reviewed your files, he suggested we wait until you had completed your initial training to make any moves.” He retrieved a couple of cups of green tea from the replicator in his office. “We have 236 comrades in the Militia, including our present four managers.” Everyone above raw recruit, from top to bottom, was a comrade, a term roughly equivalent to ‘soldier’ on Earth. “So far, we’ve all been located here in Drovers Run. There are six other non-military townships on Tara and we’ve been running to them to do policing and to help with civil engineering projects. It’s time we moved people out to these outlying areas.”
“I see.”
“I will be moving a cohort to each of the four townships needing them the most,” Deputy Kramer said. Our basic groupings in the Militia were cadres of four to a dozen or so comrades, cohorts of two to eight cadres, outfits of some number of cohorts, units of a few outfits, and sections of several units. With only a couple hundred comrades to divide up, we were all part of the same section and unit. We were dividing up with numbers on the low side. The AI already informed me that I’d have one cohort at Drovers Run and several classes of recruit trainees which I was informed would comprise my outfit. The deputy continued, “Some Militiamen wouldn’t be happy about moving from a cozy pod here in Drovers Run with two concubines and two little brats. That’s why no permanent relationships are to be established in the first two years of service. But we have comrades who have completed two years of service and are ready to settle in now. I can only say no one will be less happy than I am at Cold Comfort,” the deputy said.
“How can I help, sir?” That was always a good thing to say. It wasn’t quite volunteering but was leaving a door open for assignment.
“Officer Williams will be relocating with his outfit to Green Acres. Our most recent five classes will remain here with the training cohort under your supervision. You will be responsible for all training and recruitment here. I’m leaving you a more senior cadre of trainers that includes Capo Humphreys. Capo Slocum will continue to run recruitment. Try not to piss them off with incompetence. You’ll find they’re incredibly valuable. Five classes equal about forty comrades. Your first responsibility will be to assess their competence, promote foremen and form cadres. I don’t expect you’ll need any more capos for a while yet. You will as you build your unit.”
“My unit, sir?”
“Yes. In the midst of Officer Williams and me stripping you clean of the most seasoned comrades, you need to build up a large enough group that you will be promoted to deputy with at least two officers and close to 200 comrades beneath you. All while we keep taking your best graduates. Then we’ll move you and your unit to somewhere rewarding like Twelve Oaks.” I cringed in spite of myself. Twelve Oaks was where I was from. I think I’d prefer Cold Comfort.
“Yes, sir. We’ll get busy then.”
“And, Cho.” I stopped where I was standing, thinking I’d been dismissed. “You will also have weekly classes in martial arts to teach for each of the cohorts. Work it into your schedule and theirs.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Dismissed.”
I left the deputy’s office and squared my shoulders. I felt nowhere near ready to meet this challenge.
I sat in my office looking over duty rosters and training schedules. We had requests for various patrol and labor personnel from all the townships. With luck, I’d be able to graduate a couple more classes soon and start filling requests. Many sponsors had been unhappy about having a Militia, but the upper brass in their organization had quickly discovered how convenient it was to use Militia for just about any task no one else wanted to do. Animal patrol on the fringes of the settled areas was a favorite. I wasn’t sure how soon I’d be able to fill any of these requests. I decided to test my subvocal skills with the AI. It was amazing how little direct communication we had with it during normal training.
«AI, exactly how many comrades are under my command?» I asked, setting aside the paperwork. My first week on the job had been almost identical to the training up to this time. I still did my forms and still went to PT and class at the school. During my afternoon training in classroom D, however, my sleep training now focused on administration and promotion of enlisted comrades. I learned more about the civil organization and structure of Tara than I ever wanted to know.
«You do not have command, Officer Cho. Your post is administrative. Command decisions are made by the deputy. Your activities are restricted to training and organizing this camp. When relocations have been completed next week, you will administer a training camp of fifty-five Militia recruits, comrades, foremen, and capos. You will also be expected to recruit another class of enlistees within the next three weeks. Your directive is to start a new class each month.» Even in my head, the AI sounded smug in putting me in my place. Officer was not a decision-making position. It was administrative. Fine. I still had fifty-five people under my administration. I started reviewing files to determine who was ready to complete training and start working.
I called Capo Humphreys and Capo Slocum in to help me review the personnel. One thing I’d learned in my four months plus of training was that these two knew everything there was to know about everyone on the base.
“For now, we just need to organize this mess into cadres,” Slocum said. “I wasn’t sure why the deputy was having us wait before graduating anyone in these classes. Previous classes usually have foremen appointed by the end of the second month.”
“Getting organized, true,” Humphreys said. “But we need to look at the long term, too. Foremen should be promotable in the next year or two. If you grow our numbers at the rate the deputy wants you to, we’ll need more capos. And we need to consider your administrative cadre. They should all be qualified to train one of the subjects.”
We tossed the names back and forth, finally organizing eleven cadres, including a staff cadre. Slocum would head the recruitment cadre and Humphreys would lead the training cohort. Bill Campbell and Junior Rogers would report to her as Foremen for the training cadres. These two guys had really come a long way in terms of adapting to the Militia life.
Rogers had quickly become an expert in the weapons we’d been trained to use. Unfortunately, Capo Levy, who trained my class and most of the classes before us on weapons, was transferred with the deputy’s administrative cadre. We were all confident Rogers could step up to the task of teaching the weapons we had. There weren’t that many. We were taught the use of stingers and nightsticks for peacekeeping, but there weren’t many comrades actually doing peacekeeping patrols yet. We had the pulse rifles from the Pussy Pirates that we trained with every day just to get coordinated on movement and tactics for facing the Sa’arm if by some remote chance they showed up here. And we had a form of tranq gun for use on wild animals infringing on domestic lands.
Campbell had surprised me by being an astute guide and mentor to new recruits. Well, he’d had a question for everything during training. That experience alone made him a natural as the systems and responsibilities trainer.
Slocum would continue to work in recruiting but I was going to need to work with him to expand what we were doing and assign at least a couple of comrades to his cadre just so the office could be staffed full time. All without turning sponsors against us. Humphreys would be in charge of the overall basic training program. And I would still be leading martial arts training. I didn’t have command, but I had a heaping helping of responsibility.
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