Welcome to the Marines (Corporate Marines Book 2) (9 page)

T
he next class that stood out was with the same professor. But he didn’t ask us for a rationale on why things had happened as they had in that series of conflicts. He just told us.

He was at the front of the class with his big smile, as always. As the last of us sat down in our seats, he began. “Today’s discussion is the U.S.’s involvement in the Middle East. The U.S. as an entity became involved in the region after the discovery of oil. This was important as a tactical and strategic advantage in the ongoing cold war. The problem, simply put, is that the United States is a democratic country that wanted to export what they had: democracy. They assisted locals and helped set them up and then demanded that they start having elections.”

“Early in this process, they did not worry about that. There was a ‘cold war’ on and factions that supported them in the region were what they needed. When the ‘cold war’ ended, they had won. Other political systems were clearly inferior, and democracy and the free market system
must
work. And really, it does.”

He was walking back and forth in front of the class with a serious look on his face. He talked with his hands and waved them around constantly. Thankfully, no one was close to him or they would have been clubbed.

“For the American system to work, then, the country involved has to be advanced and be willing to play by the rules, including debt. There were and are huge problems with every system. Today I would say, look at the Projects and the people still living there, when that was supposed to be a solution for a decade or slightly longer. It’s still in use today.”

He stopped and then turned slowly to face us, smiling, which made me worry.

“But I digress. The U.S. system could not work in the countries that were set up by the Americans. Those countries had the death penalty and did things that would make civilized liberal and conservative Americans flinch in shock and horror. Moreover, they—civilians—did not understand the rule of iron. Those countries were tribal and religion-based. What would that mean during the setup of a regime to the locals? You!”

He was pointing at one of the smarter guys in the class. At least, he had been in the first semester. I hadn’t seen him since the new classes had started, though, and judging by the look he had on his face, he wasn’t into history.

He spoke up quickly, though. “Sir, the government should have set up the local government with enough heavy weapons and supervisors to use them and keep them going. After a few years of fighting, the other side would be beaten down and then it would only be maintenance.”

The professor nodded. “I can see how you would think that. It’s very basic and what someone who doesn’t think much would come up with. There are two options for a civilized country to follow here. Give me one and, if you can, tell me why they wouldn’t use it.”

He turned and saw me sitting just behind Mouth. His smile got real big. “You there, who can think a bit. Tell me how you would lead and win.”

I nodded. “Yes, sir. One option is to go in and help whoever you are supporting to crush the enemy. Do a fast, hard clean sweep and kill thousands. Wipe out one or two of the smaller tribes and while that is going on, negotiate with the medium-size tribes or factions for their support. After everything settles out, they are to be left alone by the government if they toe the line. Find out who among the larger groups is against the people in charge and wipe them out, passing their holdings on to the medium-sized groups as rewards, and your own followers, of course. Then, provide the leadership with lots of older military gear and help them set up depots to maintain it, realizing that there will be lots of bribes going on.”

He tilted his head expectantly at me and I realized that I wasn’t done. “The Americans couldn’t do this because they wouldn’t support going in and wiping out people for a demonstration. Everyone could see that the locals being supported by the U.S. and its allies were held back by the rules that were applied to them, unlike the other side. It made them look like they lacked the will to do what had to be done. So shortly after the U.S. pulled out with the Army, the other groups would get together in loose coalitions and throw out whoever the Americans had put in power. Then there would be power struggles in the area.”

The professor looked thoughtful for a second. “Not a bad answer. Not the best, but good enough for right now. Can anyone tell me the other option? It should be obvious, and it’s staring you right in the eyes.”

He looked around with his eyebrows raised and considered us all. He sniffed like something smelled bad. “The other option would have been to act as a stand-off third party. The Russians successfully did this for years, as they understood how the region worked. Well, they understood it better than we did. If the U.S. had gone in and strong-armed everyone equally but used better-quality weapons than they could buy on their own or even just provided them cheaper…then they would have been able to use the carrot-and-stick approach. They didn’t.”

He walked back to his podium and closed down his files without talking to us. As he finished and started walking out, he paused and looked at us.

“The reason for their failure is they wanted everyone to be like them. Not everyone was. Be aware, there are lots of aliens out there and some are watching us and would attack if it was feasible and they could. When interacting with the aliens, I tell you this: Never allocate them any belief system that humans use. Pre-conceived notions will kill you and possibly others.”

He turned and left the class. We didn’t see him again for the rest of the course.

W
e had another series of instructors and covered other incidents. Most were not really that interesting for me. The one that stuck out was something that had happened before several of the smaller nukings. What really upset the balance of power in the world: the Chinese-Canadian meltdown.

Our professor for this one was a petite woman that was just stacked. She was okay-looking but never smiled or looked the least bit happy. Her class was interesting as she was a self-declared socialist who believed in the betterment of man. But she was working for the corporation and teaching military history.

She was pacing up and down the front of the class—another instructor that appeared to be on the hunt, looking for candidates that did not live up to her standard. She had brown hair that was cut right back and big brown eyes. She spoke in rapid bursts of words like she was firing a machine gun, and she was always on the move.

“So, candidates, tell me the fail point of the Canadian peacekeeper contingent in the Valley of Death.” She looked around. “Anyone? Ah, you!”

She had picked out another member of our section, Charlie. He was the most social of our section and studied twice as hard as everyone else. But he didn’t like to talk much—at least, not in class. He was always trying to start up conversations during our study time, but he never had any luck.

He sat up straight, looking up from his pad. “Yes, ma’am. The Canadian contingent attempted to work with the different contingents that had been sent as part of the multinational force meant to block the Chinese army from advancing and conquering their neighbours during a period of expansion. They should have realized up front that the force was doomed to fail because of equipment issues. There was a lack of equipment, and the equipment was incompatible to work together. Many units were using older weapons and there were multiple different calibers in use. Logistics was their big problem.”

He stopped and the professor continued pacing. She paused and looked at Mouth. “You, candidate, what else caused the problems that existed? Some of those countries had excellent soldiers that should have been able to handle themselves no matter what came at them. What went wrong?”

Mouth didn’t hesitate at all. “The initial wave was eighty thousand Chinese soldiers advancing straight down the line toward just under ten thousand soldiers in the peacekeeping contingent. Behind them were almost a million more backed up with a lot of heavy support. No one could defeat that.”

The professor just shook her head slowly with a disgusted look on her face that everyone was getting used to seeing.

“No, no, no! The Chinese were not looking to push a million troops forward. They had a huge war machine and a lot of investment in it. They wanted to see what would happen if they attacked. Estimates are that they would have engaged and then pulled back. They wanted to use their big, shiny toy, but this is a very small world. They realized that they were production giants for the world. If they went to war, who would buy their goods? Or ship them resources? The answer was, war was bad for them. They could win in the long term simply by smiling and allowing everyone to end up in debt to them. After another few generations, they would have quietly conquered the world.”

She gestured and a map appeared on the wall behind her projected from the podium, it showed the troop deployments. When she moved her hand, the troops started slowly moving. A very large number of blue icons were heading toward a small line of orange markers all surrounded by green. Small pink artillery shells were suddenly flying out of the advancing column.

“As the Chinese expeditionary force advanced, they used limited artillery to clear their path. They had much more available, but did not use it. Some of the troops that had been sent by their home countries? Conscripts with no training.”

The orange line seemed to be shedding small orange lines. Most of those disappeared as the artillery symbols kept falling on the line.

“Then there were conflicting orders from higher: several countries told their contingents to pull out as they were not wanting to risk a war with China over what was really a piece of land that no one wanted except for some local drug lords.”

Other sections of the orange line broke away, but those were ordered and took no casualties as they slowly moved south, putting distance between them and the advancing blue Chinese markers.

“Those that were left after having been shelled for several hours retaliated with a devastating artillery barrage. Unfortunately, this killed the command team of the expeditionary force and removed the careful control that had been maintained to this point. In war, things often go wrong. Including communication with higher.”

The blue icons had been moving back and forth and then suddenly surged forward, engaging the orange line, which slowly faded away. More blue icons started moving south from the mass at the top of the screen, then stopped. Then it moved back to the start point. The blue mass that had overrun the orange line quickly regrouped and then continued moving south much faster.

“So the expeditionary force did better than the Chinese high command expected. The allied contingents had always been splintered and not a single force. Yet those who stayed and fought did terrible damage. The expeditionary force advanced with over eighty thousand troops. After a day of combat, they had forty-eight thousand troops left that were fit for the field. The expeditionary commander’s replacement, thinking his high command was right behind him, continued the advance. We all know what happened from there.”

The screen faded away. “The Chinese had wanted to move forward, continue growing, and possibly have some military victories. Over three thousand Canadian soldiers died in that action, along with other Commonwealth forces that ignored or did not receive orders to pull out. There were also two thousand American soldiers of assorted branches there that had not pulled out. All of them were dead. More weapons were fired in anger, but that was quickly calmed down by all the assorted governments. Yet the battle cry of the civilians was, ‘Don’t buy Chinese!’ The slow takeover of the world by an industrial giant was badly hurt by that. Regionalism became stronger, along with nationalism. The Chinese economy shrunk by over 10 percent and many countries manufacturing pulled out of China. People were suddenly willing to pay more for products. The Canadian government called for calm, but collapsed when it was found out that other contingents had run, but not their own poorly equipped troops.”

She looked around at us. “Have any of you ever watched the old news reports from that time?”

She didn’t bother waiting for us to answer before continuing. “The Chinese attempted to call in some of their debts. They had just conducted offensive operations and killed a sizeable force of troops that were
not
on the attack. Then, someone in their government was stupid enough to go to those same countries that had dead soldiers and call in debts that were in the high billions. They were told to ‘pound salt,’ which is the expression, I believe.

“The entire world teetered on a huge recession and depression. Several countries were screaming and militaries were being waved around like swords. It was the Chinese that saved the day. They pulled back and apologized for what had happened. They made efforts to make amends and some governments saw what they were trying to do. Russia and Germany were leaders in the settlement negotiations. It took two years and a lot of calming before the people were pretty sure that nukes wouldn’t be launched. Then the worldwide recession, which became a full depression in some countries, took another five years to lift.”

The professor waved her hand and the icons disappeared from the screen. She put a hand on the podium and tapped a finger on it.

“The lesson here, candidates, is that there can always be a fog of war. Intentions are not always clear and the enemy will see what they want to see. You will see what you want to see as well. A small incident can have long-reaching consequences. Make sure you are doing what needs to be done, but make sure it is for the right reason.”

She looked at her watch and then yelled at us, “Goodness, you are late! Off to your next class now. Buh-bye!”

We were up and running before we realized that we still had five minutes left in the class.

We didn’t see that professor after that class anymore, either.

Part of what made those lectures stand out so much was the fact that the instructors were gone after giving them. Did they cross a line, or were they done with us?

The last lesson that stuck in my mind was more current: the invasion of Earth and the beginning of our expansion and colonization of space.

Everyone covered this in school, in history and social studies. There were hundreds of movies and series out at the time. I had even seen some girls at school reading romance books about soldiers and young girls. They told me that it was very popular. Almost a billion people ended up dying because of the invasion, and countless millions more, including my family, were moved to the Projects.

Yup. Alien robots had hit Earth with kinetic weapons and then invaded. It took weeks to dig them all out and finish them off. It had reset the way the governments of the world thought and accelerated the quest for space.

I had seen all the big movies and the spinoff TV shows that came about. I even had the Alien Invasion set from when I was a kid.

So while this was covered in our classes in detail, almost none of it was new.

To sum it up, several large meteors hit the Earth in specific locations to cause mass death. The meteors had engines attached to them to guide them in and maximize the damage. They came in relatively fast and while there was some initial concern that they might hit Earth, they had been coming in on an angle which would have missed. Then, suddenly they were shifting and coming in much closer to Earth. It took hours to confirm that, and then word went out: each one was a bullet in a gun.

Traffic congestion was so bad that most major cities became gridlocked.

It was obvious that this was a planned attack, as the rocks were far enough apart that they could hit all their targets across the Earth with no more adjustment to their flight path. Two did not hit dead on target, but they did massive damage. And the one that hit the ocean? The waves hit hard on populated coasts.

Before they hit Earth, the spaceships were picked up by space and earth based surveillance systems. Less than a day after the first rock hit, the ships would be in atmosphere. They had been coming in from far out in space, slowly building speed, and then continued coasting in so they’d initially look like other meteors.

After the impacts, every area was on its own. No one had resources or personnel available to send, as they were busy with surviving and starting rescue operations. Communications were mostly out as well, so people did not know what was going on.

The world was reeling from the damage, and hundreds of millions were dead or dying. Then the main invasion force came in. Several smaller kinetic weapons hit the West Coast of the United States. They struck in a pattern that knocked out most services and made getting assistance into the area harder. Right behind them came the landers.

The militaries of the world had been on standby because of yet another sabre-rattling incident that had been occurring in Asia. That was upgraded when the rocks were noted to be shifting course toward Earth. Units on the ground did not have all the information, though, and most were not carrying full combat loads.

The North American forces were so far gone in being politically correct like their government masters had wanted them to be that when the attack came, they hesitated, waiting for carefully worded orders from their superiors. Because of this, a lot of soldiers died.

It was never mentioned how many ran out of ammunition in the first few hours of fighting, or just sat down and did nothing because of the shock of the attack. But we were briefed on all that. There was lots of information available about it—available to us, at least. It was all still highly classified and never came up for the public. Every soldier that had served in that time was a hero.

In a way, it was terrible to learn about. We were shown classified information about government attempts to communicate with the aliens and work out a peace deal. The conflicting orders that were handed out over the first few days were pretty shocking as well.

I wondered how many soldiers and civilians that died would have come out of the invasion alive if the government had not meddled in previous years.

We also had the full non-classified transcripts about the Canadian contingent. Everyone knows that Canada sent troops to help. We just never really knew the details.

Eighteen hundred combat and support personnel were deployed. They came fully loaded with enough extra ammunition and supplies to carry on for weeks. The communication lines were so messed up that the officials only learned they were coming when the troops showed up at the edge of the impact areas and asked to move in. Other countries were able to deploy some troops to the areas as well. They fought hard and, in most cases, took 70 to 80 percent casualties trying to hold areas from the invaders.

There was a lot of other information that never came out. No one will ever know how close it came to our side using nukes to stop the invaders. After the action was over, when recovery crews went in, the question that was never made public was why the invaders never used the nukes on their ships.

The aftermath of the invasion is very well documented.

There were ongoing deaths that resulted from lack of services, no food, and rioting. The worst-hit parts of the world reverted back to rule by warlords, in some cases, but that was fixed after a few years.

Immediately the political correctness that had held back some of the militaries was gone. No one was concerned about bad jokes or ‘equalizing the standards for all people who wish to apply.’ If you made the grade, you could join. Otherwise, you could volunteer with any number of different organizations out there.