* * * * *
Private First Class Holden Eckwood needed to adjust the knee coupling on his Exo-Suit. The squad was already up and moving out through the door of the shared barracks, but Eckwood’s right knee servo was failing, and he knew the suit would not be able to bear the full weight of the gear without the pneumatic assist. He was already fully locked into the Exo-Suit so his options for repair were limited. Unlocking from the Exo-Suit would take time and he would need help from someone else in the squad. He could hear the sounds of action outside. Listening to the sounds of the squad outside, Eckwood realized this was not a drill. The squad was moving out. The noise from the activity outside the barrack added stress to his situation.
To begin the repair work, he hoisted his leg inside the heavy armor up and onto a stool that was nearby the communal work station. Eckwood selected the star bit and affixed it to the end of the pneumatic wrench. He then was able to use the pneumatic wrench to loosen the holding screws on his armored knee covering. Once the holding screws were free, he simply pushed at the metal knee armor until it popped free from the suit with an audible snap. With the armored knee covering removed, Eckwood could inspect the knee coupling and the servo connections.
From his position inside the barracks, Eckwood was still distracted by the noise outside. He now heard the sound of the military vehicles starting up. He could hear the loud engines in the motor pool outside. He could also hear the shouts and orders from the officers. The shrill tone of Lt. Lancer’s voice told him this was not a drill, the squad was moving out. It was a mechanized convoy and his squad would either be in the lead vehicle or the last. If they were in the lead he knew he would not make it. He could feel the weight of the Exo-Suit all around him, making his movements slow and deliberate.
Eckwood used a flat head screwdriver to lift the knee coupling bracket and it broke free easily, separating itself from the servo and mechanical components that it was meant to protect. Eckwood watched as fine grained sand, that was trapped behind the coupling, spilled out onto the floor. The knee seal was compromised and sand had fouled the controls of mechanical action of the knee servo. Eckwood disconnected the air hose from the pneumatic wrench and then blasted clean compressed air from the hose directly into the knee servo. He used the air to clear as much sand as he could see from the knee joint. When this was done, he picked up the silicone grease gun and pumped a thick layer of black silicone into the place a replacement gasket would normally go. It was a shortcut, but there was no time to get to the part depot find the gasket and install it properly. A proper repair would have to wait until the squad returned from riding as the security contingent in the mechanized convoy across the desert.
Eckwood pumped the black silicone into the knee joint in thick globs. When it looked ready, he clipped the knee coupling bracket back into place. Then he re-positioning the armored knee covering back into its proper placement and the sticky silicone held it in place. He set the star bit in position on top of the holding screw and then triggered the pneumatic wrench in the opposite direction.
The holding screw twisted and tightened down until black silicone oozed from the openings around the armored knee covering. Black silicone dripped down onto the leg armor. The knee bracket was secure again. He activated the servos, stood, and checked for mobility.
By listening to the steady high pitched whine made by the servo when he flexed his knee, Eckwood could clearly hear that it was making the wrong sound.
“Something is out of adjustment,” he thought and then cursed aloud.
Eckwood had a low tolerance for technical issues with his Exo-Suit. In fact, he did not feel comfortable with basic repair and maintenance of any of the complex military hardware that was utilized by his squad. Unfortunately for him, he was serving in an environment that naturally corroded high tech gear. The heat in mid-day overtaxed the cooling systems and the extreme cold at night burned up the heating coils or froze the hydraulic systems. Worse than the extreme temperatures was the sand. Sand mixed with tiny dust particles was carried on the wind. The sand was a constant factor for the complex gear used by the modern military. Sand clogged filters and added grit to oiled joints. At times the region would become trapped in a wind storm that lifted the sand off of the desert floor and then sand blasted the barracks and stripped the paint off of the vehicles. If a soldier was caught out in a sand storm, the blasting gusts of sand would foul the servos and immobilize the soldier. Once trapped in a storm like this, the constant sand blast could quickly overwhelm the suits environmental controls and, if the wind was strong enough, it could erode the protective plating that covered the outside of the Exo-Suit.
Eckwood activated positive pressurization in his Exo-Suit and then he instinctively yawned to clear the high pressure from his ears. He watched the pressure dial spin up into the green normal zone and then stop.
He watched with interest as the pressure dial dropped slightly but perceptibly. There were leaks, but then there were always leaks.
“Good enough,” Eckwood declared.
His frustration with mechanical maintenance and the immediacy of Lt. Lancer’s shrill voice from the assembly yard overwhelmed any inclination of further Exo-Suit repair. Eckwood locked the Exo-Suit startup controls and switched his suit into full active mode. He dropped the pneumatic wrench back onto the workbench and bounded out of the barrack door and into the bright white light of the desert morning.
The sun was bright and hot at 7 A.M. in the morning. The blinding white light from the morning sun caused the Exo-Suit to automatically lower the internal sun shield over Eckwood’s eyes. The world viewed through the sun shield was blue and green, as if he had somehow just stepped into an artificial landscape. The world viewed through the Exo-Suit sun shield looked like an incomplete construct; a proto-type world where the colors were yet to be added.
Eckwood bounded towards the convoy.
“How very nice of you to join us this fine morning, Mr. Eckwood,” the sarcastic chiding from Lt. Lancer buzzed across the communication system that linked the squad together.
Eckwood could see the lead convoy trucks had already passed through the security gates of the military compound. He was relieved to see that his squad had climbed into the multi-purpose vehicle that was positioned to defend the back of the convoy. He had made it on time. They had not left him behind. Eckwood moved to join them.
“Sir, sorry sir,” he said responding to Lt. Lancer.
Lt. Lancer did not respond. He was already chasing down other issues, like getting the last of the convoy vehicle loaded, started, and moving.
Eckwood pushed into the multi-purpose personnel carrier. Being the last to join meant he would be sitting over the tailpipe in the back of the vehicle. If you were the last to get in, then you were also the first to get out. The soldier sitting in the back was also the most exposed to sniper fire.
Eckwood sat back in his seat and connected his Exo-Suit to the vehicle via a cable that was installed into the vehicle. Once connected, his Exo-Suit accessed power and communications from the vehicle and the Exo-Suit’s internal batteries could recharge. Once Eckwood connected to the cable and into the vehicle, the Exo-Suit became integrated with the militaries “Communication and Resource Assignment and Mobilization” system known as Comm-RAM.
Comm-RAM was the latest in military intelligence and battlefield tactical support. The purpose of Comm-RAM was to provide the commander in the field with improved intelligence and superior tactical decision support. Comm-RAM tracked each Exo-Suit that was connected into the Comm-RAM network and then used these connections to monitor the vital statistics of each soldier. Comm-RAM delivered tactical decision support directly to the officer in command on the battlefield based on updated and constantly changing battlefield intelligence. This intelligence was gathered from all sources including Satellite, local radar, and the information gathered from the Exo-Suit’s that were deployed into the battle
field.
Eckwood exhaled, closed his eyes, consciously slowed his breathing, which in turn calmed the rate of his heart beat. Now that he was connected to Comm-RAM, the military intelligence system would be automatically monitoring his vitals. If Comm-RAM decided that he was too excited or too nervous based on the readings from his respiration and heart rate monitors, then Comm-RAM would notify the base commander, Lt. Lancer in this case. Or, if they were in a combat situation, they would notify the battlefield commander. Either way, being on the nervous soldier report was not a good experience.
Therefore, all of the soldiers in the squad had learned basic mediation techniques so that their vital statistics were always within the normal range. Better to find a way to be calm then to attract attention from the officers.
Eckwood exhaled and then inhaled deeply. He focused on his breathing and slowly felt the stress of the last minute Exo-Suit repair drain from his musculature. He relaxed.
Eckwood considered the squad members who he could see sitting around him. Even though they were all encased in Exo-Suits, which were set to Full Active mode and meant that the armor covered them completely, Eckwood could differentiate them on sight. Sometimes he could recognize them by the stripes and chevrons painted on their chest armor indicating rank or awards, but most often by the scrapes, scratches, and scuffs that made each Exo-Suit unique to its owner.
Fetch was sitting in the driver’s seat. Although officially designated as the vehicle operator, Fetch rarely did any real driving of the vehicle. His position in the driver seat was more indicative of his status in the squad. The multi-purpose vehicle was primarily controlled by Comm-RAM during a normal convoy operation. Fetch could override the Comm-RAM control and actively drive the vehicle using manual controls if this was needed, but so far, this had only happened during training exercises.
Sitting next to Fetch in the front cabin was Fontaine. Fontaine liked Fetch, and had earned his position in the front of the vehicle due to seniority within the squad. The other six members of the squad, including Eckwood, were crammed into the back together with the retracted feet of the tripod. This was deployed in order to stabilize the .55 caliber canon that was mounted to the top of the multi-purpose vehicle. On previous long convoy missions, the squad had debated what the “multi” in multi-use vehicle referred to. It seemed to the squad that the multi-use vehicle really only had one purpose, which was to transport a heavy artillery canon and crew into a battlefield environment.
Eckwood together with the other squad members in the back of the vehicle had been together since boot camp. Fetch and Fontaine riding in the front of the vehicle were serving out a second tour. The men in the squad had developed the bonds of soldiers serving together under the stress of combat. There were clear friendships and some rivalries, but in total it was a tight group. Private Holden Eckwood, however, was an outsider. He felt like the second cousin that had come for a visit and then over stayed his welcome. He knew he would never be accepted into the squad as an equal. He knew this, and he knew why. The other members of the squad treated him like an outsider because of the purple stripe that decorated the helmet of his Exo-Suit. When the squad members talked with him, Eckwood sensed that they were looking at the purple mark above his eyes. They knew what it meant and it made them uneasy.
Eckwood had volunteered to be part of an experiment. He had traveled to a top secret compound before he was deployed to the desert wars. There he had undergone a rigorous interview process. When the doctors and scientists had finally decided he was a good test subject, they conducted an experimental surgery on him. They implanted a brain-stem interface device into his neck. Through this device, Eckwood was now directly integrated into Comm-RAM. His Exo-Suit was outfitted with a syringe mounted above his chest. Eckwood knew, along with his squad, that if Comm-RAM detected a live fire fight situation erupting within this squad, then the syringe would be triggered and instantly pump 10CC’s of liquefied Somnambutol directly into Eckwood’s aorta. When this happens, Eckwood would immediately be rendered into a heavily sedated hypnotic state. An instant later, a veteran soldier, standing by in a specialized combat ready room, would remotely Synap-in, via Comm-RAM, and assume control of Eckwood’s body.
The men in the squad had all seen it happen during training. When the exchange was triggered, quite suddenly, Eckwood’s body would become possessed by a veteran combat soldier. The officer in the body of Eckwood would instantly become the senior officer in the squad and assume command. They recognized Eckwood’s voice, but they could tell by the tone of his voice, and the words that he used, that they were now in the presence of an experienced combat officer. So, in a strange way, Eckwood was the squad leader. However, when Eckwood was himself no one treated him as a squad leader. In fact, he had less rank and seniority than anyone else in the squad. During normal operations, Fetch was in command of the squad and Fontaine was the next senior member.
Eckwood volunteered to be part of the experimental program before he was deployed to the desert wars. Now, after many months of waiting, the military leaders who were controlling the experiment, were anxious to start seeing some results. There were only a handful of soldiers who had volunteered for the program. The military called them, “Synapse Soldiers” and had embedded them into combat, or in the front line squads across the regiment. So far, none had been tested in actual combat.
When Eckwood first heard about this experimental program and understood that he could be outside of his body during a live fire combat situation, he was immediately ready to sign up. Eckwood knew instinctively he was not a combat soldier. His ritual of writing a letter to his mother every night helped tamp down the fear he felt by allowing himself to assume the voice of a better soldier, a braver soldier. But, Eckwood knew he was not really the person he pretended to be when he was writing those letters. In actual combat, the fear he felt would overwhelm him. He imagined he would be killed, or worse, his inaction would result in someone else in his squad being killed. Eckwood volunteered not because he was afraid for himself, but he was afraid his failure in combat would endanger the other soldiers in his squad.
Eckwood wrote a long letter to his mother about the day when General Mueller and Lt. Lancer presented the program to the squad. They discussed the specifics of the program with the entire squad, and they interviewed each soldier privately looking for volunteers. When it was Eckwood’s turn, he did not hesitate.
Now it was six weeks later and military command was growing increasingly impatient to see results from this experiment. The squads, with embedded Synapse Soldiers, started to draw more frequent and more hazardous assignments. It was a subject that the squad did not discuss openly, but it was something that clearly contributed to the cool attitude Eckwood received from his fellow soldiers.
The multi-purpose vehicle rumbled as the engine caught and then instantly lurched forward to join the caravan. Comm-RAM operated the vehicle efficiently but not smoothly. Rough driving combined with rough roads made sleeping or resting impossible. Everyone tried to relax as they were jostled and banged together. Eckwood’s view on this trip would be through the back window. He watched as they passed through the security gates that marked the perimeter of the compound. He knew they were now outside the green zone.
Once they were off the compound, they were on alert. It was a status that would last for many hours as the automated convoy vehicles crawled across the open desert. Men crammed themselves into Exo-Suits, and then the Exo-Suits were crammed into the multi-purpose personnel carrier. The squad was crowed, hot, bored, and scared.
Time passed slowly. Eventually, Private Herrera, who was sitting across from Eckwood, began questioning him about his unusual role in the squad.
“When someone takes over,” Herrera asked, “Do you know who it is?”
“Nah,” Eckwood replied, “They tell me it’s an experienced combat Vet, an officer.”
Eckwood did not like questio
ns about the Synaptic interface experiment. His reasons for volunteering for the experiment were not something he would like to share with his squad mates. Even when he wrote about the experiments in the letters to his mother, he described the Synaptic interface experiment in a positive light. Eckwood described the experiment as another modern military technology that would keep him safe and protect him. In his letters, he described the interface with the veteran soldier as something that would give him an advantage when he was in combat. It was something that he could not say to the other squad members, and he hoped these questions from Herrera would end.
“Are you still there?” Herrera ventured, “I mean when someone takes over, are you still watching?”
“Yeah sure,” Eckwood said, “It’s like watching an old fashioned movie on a vid-screen. I can see the action, but I’m no longer there, I’m just watching. The other guy is at the controls.”
“That’s a trip, man,” Herrera commented, “What a mind bender to watch your own body go into action being controlled by some guy who you don’t even know. What if you start getting wounded? What then, are you gonna start yelling at the dude – hey be careful with my body, your messing me up!”
“I’ll let you know,” Eckwood said, “It has never happened.”
Eckwood felt the pin-prick on his chest before he heard the gunfire.
“Say something original.”
- Franklin Tempo