Drill Seargent Jeffery Peters hung over the new recruits. There were 250 of them, The complete order for Marvin's Ship-Board Battalion. They were a light mix of mercenaries, zoners and others who've simply heard the infamous Mr. Orphelia was recruiting for a guard battalion to be placed aboard the renouned Pendulum.In other words, They'd just wanted to see a freak show. But this was different, Jeff thought. These looked like the real deal... The recruits stood at attention, and Peter's began the run down. At least im getting paid for this, he thought smugly to himself.
GO! GO! GO! Jeffrey yelled over the Communication unit. The obstacle course at what many of Marvin's loyal-long time crewman called "Camp Zero" was quite the tough one. Marvin himself made sure it was up to standard, even rivaling house training courses. Camp Zero was a rather small, 1,150 acre "base" that is owned by Marvin, it stores ship parts and various matenince facilities for smaller vessels. It also harbors enough space in its medium-sized broken down barracks to feed and care for 2,000 men. The facillity had never been extensively used before it was sold to Marvin. He felt it would be a nice place to store his belongings outside of the Pendulum. It was located on a windswept desert plateau in one of the many schorched burning deserts that dotted Gran Canaria's surface. There were underground levels of the facillity that were like a maze in the depths of the plateau. They were off limits to nearly everyone, except for Marvin himself and some of his most trusted crewmen...
"Not bad!" Jeff yelled over the comms. A large hulking man leaped over the short brick wall and down an embankment and landed face-first into the mud, which was entangled in short-lasting poision razor wire. Marvin really didnt play around, Jeff thought. Drill Seargent Peters was a ex-soldier who'd gone AWOL from the Liberty Armed Forces. The pay was low, and officers were angry pit bulls in the L.A.F. Thing's out here were much more better. More money, less laws. That's exactly the way Jeff liked it.
There was little time and so much to do. Heartless, Camp Zero's management-AI was about to wake the soldiers. She was originally assigned to accompany Marvin and the other smart-AI, Wilson, aboard the Pendulum. But no. She had been stuck down here in this dust hole. Everything was running smoothly. The old reactors, the janitor... She was actually bored. A smart-ai such as Heartless was accustomed to multi-task much more. Her internal Gran-Canaria-Attuned clock winked 6:30 A.M...
Drill Seargent Peters awoke, startled. He'd fell asleep in his quarters. The holo pad glowed and showed the form of Heartless, a greek godess she chose as her avatar. Her voice was not quite there... yet.
"Its time to wake the... 'soldiers'" she said sarcastically doubting them as much as the Seargent himself.
"Ah, good. We've got a special guest for them to meet, also..." Heartless chimed in her usual voice. Her hapiness never lasts, however, and this was something Peter's did not know.
The wood paneled office lit up in a quick glow. It was actually the "Base Commander" Quarters, but Peters was the officer in charge. His dormitories back home were no where near as good as this.
He remembered the "No Expenses Spared" doosey from Marvin. Naturally, for Marvin, This meant there was a whole damn box of home-grown Pendulanian Marijuana...
Peter's got up and strode down the brightly lit hallway, it was not far to the dormitories, as Marvin had spent more on the course than even the drugs...
Jeff screamed: "SIX FOURTY FIVE, MAGGOTS!" he sounded the bullhorn. The Guard's ran in as if they were doing a raid, rousing the sleepy recruits from their quarters. It had been a rough night.
The recruits lined up in front of the Seargent.
"You've got a special treat today, men!" Peter's yelled. "You'll be trainin' with Marvin himself!"
A few recruits coughed and more went a bit wide-eyed. "He ain't no sissy like y'all! A rough rider if ah do say so myself!"
After their usual morning routine-- Namely, Pushups, pullups, and a trot around the field, they headed to the Mess hall to get their lunch.
Later, The Drill Seargent called them back to the line. "Welp! Our guest has arrived!"
Just as Peters' spat out the words, a sonic boom was heard as the shuttle Stranger In A Strange Land ripped though the upper atmosphere. An outline of the Pendulum could be seen in the high horizon.
The soldiers eyes lit up. The shuttle twisted and turned through the cloud decks of Gran Canaria to the raggedy landing pad...
Marvin J. Orpehlia coughed and readied himself for the men that'd be guarding his ship for quite a while.
He'd told the recruiting officer to get whoever was loyal and had a lot of time on their hands.
"Ah, It'll be good to aqquaint to Heartless again" Wilson's cheery voice chimed in as his avatar, a roman god, appeared on the console of the Stranger.
"Yes, well. It'll be good to get an ol' trainin' session again. I've gotten a bit lazy in that soft captain's chair..." Marvin added.
"Hah!" Wilson chuckled, The kind of emotionless, courtesy laugh.
The shuttle hit the ground with a loud, CLANK. Wilson was more used to controlling the largest of ships, not a tiny ten man shuttle. The APC-like door opened downward as Marvin stepped out, as if he was about to give a diplomatic speech.
Marvin strode across the yard to the waiting recruits, who were already perplexed by his stature.
"Good Afternoon, SOLDIERS!" Marvin yelled, rejuvinated by his visit already.
GOOD AFTERNOON SIR! They returned, drownding out the chirpers nearby.
"Any of you believe you can knock me down?" Marvin said, his usual arrogant self.
"I think I can SIR!" A burly, large bouncerish man said sternly.
He stepped up near Marvin, nearly 1 1/2 "head's" shorter. He started with a left hook as Marvin ducked. The right hook ended worse, however, as Marvin cought the mans' fist as his mucles chlenched and shown. With a sickening crack-snap the man's arm crunched into two peices. He screamed in pain.
"MEDIC!" Marvin yelled. "Lets get this show on the road then, ladies!" He screamed enthusaistically.
They began the fast jog, moving up in speed as time went on. Some kept up with Marvin, yet some trudged behind.
An hour later, They came to a stop on the top of a rather large, steep hill with a twisting, dusty road heading to what appeared to be an obstacle course of some kind.
"This is one of my personal favorites" Marvin said. He typed in a code on the holo-pad on the side of the rusty garage. The doors clanked open, revealing five, smaller jeep-type vehicles, and a larger, apparently custom one.
"These, ladies, are HJ-55's. The toughest, meanest millitary technology out today. Just don't ask me how I got it" He added then laughed. He leaped into the seat of the larger HJ.
"Who's got the guts to ride with me?" He asked, sarcastically but challengingly.
Oddly enough, a woman, very possibly the only one in the entire group, leaped into the Gunner position and a larger man moved to the passenger seat.
"Well then, saddle up men!" He yelled. The HJ's quickly filled to capacity, lining up on the road as if to race.
Marvin screamed over the roar of the engines "3... 2... 1... GO!"
The vehicles launched off of the top of the hill, hitting the dust at 50mph. They quickly accelerated as they skidded around the treatcherous corners of the run. The ramp ahead triggered dummy targets.
"Ready up, MAGGOTS!" Peter's yelled over the vehicular communication systems".
Marvin's HJ launched over the hill and triggered the first and second lines of dummies. The woman in the gunnery position with the customized Laser penetrator weapon nailed the bullseye on each of the targets, before the HJ hit the dirt and Marvin struggled for control.
"Damn, Girl!" The man in the passenger seat yelled.
They completed the track, Team A had a cumulative score of 95%, while B had 83.2%.
"First one to complete the final trek in this course, Gets to sleep in for tomorrows run!" Marvin said, challengingly.
"And, This." Marvin said, showing a Squad Leader pin.
Imedeiately, Both teams trudged through the mud to the apparent forest of wooden posts, varying in hight. Many simply tried to climb the smooth wood, Julia Vasquez, The woman who rode with Marvin in the HJ, however, thought differently. She and another recruit used the two man lift to ring the bell at the very top post, while the others struggled far behind.
The recruits trudged off to get a good nights rest, The Pendulum was a tough place, afterall...