Joacim & L'ielit (9 of 10) - Bad Day

Military training grounds haven't changed that much from times past. They were places where recruits learn how to act under attack. For this, they had to shoot at dummy targets, invade buildings or practice any other situation that might be useful for the success of their unit. Other soldiers often play the 'enemy' in those role-play games. This was the natural way to do as long as any possible enemy would be human too.

Since the evacuation of Homo Sapiens Sapiens started, things have changed. The enemy is the Sa'arm, a race of three-legged lizards with swarm awareness. We need computers to calculate their reactions and we never found a way to communicate with them. Needless to say, the action area of our troops now varies a lot more than back on Earth. A good training ground must be able to take this into consideration.

Darjee technology and good old bulldozers allow us to create specialized training grounds. Technology can even create different atmospheres under force field domes. The facility controllers still have problems simulating the enemy for hand-to-hand combat situations, but for anything else we have solutions. One of the most successful solutions is advanced holographic technology. Joacim Zelle, a Marine scientist, asked his home AI to create a full animated holographic image for a more pleasant interaction between humans and the AI. After solving a few minor problems, this idea spread through the whole colony on Vandergast. It wasn't a big move to get this technology to the training grounds and use high-tech variants of paintball rifles for the training. Nanite technology supports the training by turning body parts red and cause real pain when a trainee is hit. We are even able to make our soldiers feel the soft touch of a holographic plant by using the nanites those soldiers carry in their bodies. These are great improvements for the military training, even if it was only a minor hobby project for our small team of scientists.

A completely different improvement was invented by an over-worked Civil Service Centurion who had plenty of unassigned concubines with absolutely nothing to do. At one point he shouted at one of those concubines "Why don't you play PITA at the training facility? I'm searching for more than just you for a new sponsor!" The concubine in question had asked him for the millionth time about his efforts on her case. Some other concubines heard this and after a while they asked if helping at the training ground would be a possibility. Their purpose was to fight boredom and avoid being shoved into the brothel. So a few days later, Centurion Mark Evans Benish asked Major Melanie Sanchez, the leader of the training facility on Vandergast, if civilians playing wounded or panicking mob or whatever could improve the training. Four weeks later, a group of six soldiers was confronted with a 'panicking' mob of one hundred concubines who were fleeing from the invading Sa'arm holograms. This might not sound like a big deal but this simple improvement taught the trainees more about their own mental capabilities than ten conventional training lessons. Since then, the Distraction Forces are a common part of the military training at Vandergast. Trainees have to learn to deal with wounded, panicking, hostile, hopeful or dead people no matter if their mission is intelligence, scouting or fighting the Sa'arm.

To be honest, the training facility is oversized for the colony Vandergast. The colony holds five thousand sponsors and around thirty thousand concubines and children. The training facility can easily deal with one thousand Marine trainees per quarter year. When the colony was founded, headquarters had great plans. But as they quickly found out, Vandergast was not at a strategic position. Marine missions lasted ten days longer just because of additional traveling time. Plans were rewritten when other planets were colonized. General Leroy Culhane, lifetime governor of Vandergast, tried to make the best out of this situation. He wanted to improve the qualities of Vandergast to make it attractive for further colonization. Istar, a planet with a deadly acidic atmosphere, was the first R and R colony with only a bowling center, a multi-functional hall and a stall full of rabbits (real rabbits, no bunnies). Their only advantage was the position behind the front line.

There was another point that was eating on the governor and his aides. The Confederacy was getting humans off Earth to defend the Confederacy. They won't do anything to defend Earth. When headquarters doesn't need the service of Vandergast, maybe Vandergast has to offer its services to somebody else. Those who want to stay at Earth to defend it might be interested. The million-dollar question is how to get the service to the people...

A call from the governor is not what Joacim expected when he entered his laboratory. He lived on Vandergast for three years now and had met Governor Culhane from time to time. He had no idea what the subject could be.

"Good morning Governor Culhane, how did I earn the honor of your call?" Joacim asked when the AI established the connection.

"Hello Mr. Zelle. I have here a list of potential Marines. As you know, the war isn't going too well and it's my personal mission to recruit all potential volunteers available on this planet."

"I don't know how I can help you there. Markus' CAP is still below anything acceptable and I have no offspring near the age of adulthood, Joacim responded. He had a slight hunch who the governor was really talking about.

"I'm not talking about your kids. I'm talking about your black drone, Lilly, L'il... Damn, how do you pronounce that?"

"Her name is L'ielith, Governor. I don’t see how..." Joacim tried to play innocent but the governor interrupted his speech.

"Of course you know. That woman was on the edge of being a volunteer at her first test. Her sub scores show that she's a perfect Marine. Since then she has learned two languages at minimum, learned to read and write, learned to love sex as I was told. You treated her well, Mr. Zelle. She is expected to reach 7.2 or more if retested. So why do you hold her back?"

"Well," Joacim sighed "you may have heard that she hadn't a pleasant past. She's happy to have reached a safe place. She's the mother of two little children now and her world is centered on them. I expect that her battle related scores have dropped since her first test."

"So why don't you just shove her into a med tube and retest her to check that out?" the governor lurked for a gap in Joacim's defense.

"Governor, do you want an unwilling fighter? Half her childhood she was forced to fight and as I understand it she hated it. She's my property and as long as she shows no signs of a cosmopolitan view on the threat by the Sa'arm war, I won't force a test on her that might force her out of my house and into that war. Sorry Governor, L'ielit is not available."

"Well, well, it was worth a try," the Governor sighed. "Have a nice day and give us some new evil gadgets then." He chuckled and terminated the connection. "We have to work on that," he told his aide, Major Melanie Sanchez. "Mr. Zelle doesn't know half of the truth. I have a dozen reports here that show her skills. She's aware of her surroundings up to a ridiculous radius without even thinking about it. The two times when she joined the 'Distraction Forces' in the training grounds, she had a far better overview what was going on than our trainees. I want her."

"Maybe we should improve her view of the world and the war," Major Sanchez commented. "As we talked earlier, we had the idea to improve TownTV by adding reports from Earth. Why not add some reports from other colonies and the war? Maybe that will awaken more than one concubine with potential. Our current TownTV is just cheap entertainment."

"Melanie?" the Governor asked.

"Yes sir?" Major Sanchez asked back.

"Hand me the damn papers to sign. I know you had the whole plan ready before you tried to talk me into it."

"You know me too well, sir," Major Sanchez grinned and reached for her digital notepad.

"Sir, why didn't you push more with Mr. Zelle? I know you did with a lot of Marines that had less promising candidates in their stables." Major Sanchez asked.

"How could I force someone who improved our training facilities with advanced holographic technology like he did? He saved more lives than I'm willing to count with his work. His analytic skills have improved the work of our little scientific team by at least fifty percent. I wouldn't argue with him too much if he had five drones like that Lilly... Damn, how do you pronounce her name?"

"Sir, we still have to refill more than four hundred pods." Major Sanchez changed the topic once again. "I've learned that we can ask for specialists if we like. I also have heard rumors about a huge history database of the Confederacy that contains lots of technical blueprints. Outdated stuff for the Confederacy but incredible advanced for Earth. The AI has told me that we get access to it if we like. The special database at Earth is a result of the consensus of the AI's what they are willing to give to humans that are not sponsors. I also like to ask for a few industrial-sized replicators and a handful of engineers."

The governor looked dubiously. "That would allow us to produce things. I see the benefit for our colony. But how can this help us to get involved in the defeat of the Sa'arm or planetary defense of Earth?"

Major Sanchez smiled. "Industrial-sized replicators are able to create factory-sized replicators. Factory-sized replicators can create spaceships. We could start with our colony replicators, but it would take us about three years to build our first factory-sized replicator."

"And spaceships lead us where?" the governor asked.

"With spaceships we are no longer limited to this planet. I talked with our AI. If we use old Confederacy technology, we are not completely bound to the original contract. The contract only covers modern ships and AI's and limits people with a CAP of 6.5 and above to use it. We can't create AI controlled weapons. AI's simply do not pull the trigger. But if we manage to get a big enough group of technology-affine geeks in our empty pods I'm sure we can come up with a few surprises."

"I still don't see where this is leading us to." The governor said.

"Sir, we are bound to the contract to serve in the defense of the Confederacy with our 6.5 plus Marines. But we have five times more motivated concubines to man our own old-timer fleet and then we still have enough of them to support both the Marines and the space-ship crews. We can carry Earth defenders up here, train them and send them back without using bound resources. We can train them to use the best available equipment for non-Confederacy humans. Hell, we can tell them what's available for them. While an AI needs only seconds to locate specific ancient machines, the computers back on Earth need days to search through the database. When we send them back they will take blueprints for all the modified ancient engines with them that we have modified into effective weapons or armory."

"We are crazy, aren't we?" the governor asked Major Sanchez. "I can't believe that we can do that. The advantage of AI-based Confederacy technology is that they can shut everything down if we use it against the Confederacy. I don't plan to do that but I can understand that the Confederacy races fear us. I have read the reports about the Mafiosi-Church alliance and the Muslim exodus. But those cases are no reason for them to allow us to do the same."

"AI, is the use of historical blueprints restricted in any way?" Major Sanchez asked.

"I assume you refer to the database published on Earth. There are no restrictions in the use of this database. It was published to give your race a chance to defend Earth. As long as you don't use resources that are bound to the Confederacy by contract, you can do as you described it."

"Is a replicator that we claim for colony support such a bound resource?" the Major asked.

"Not as long as the use of that replicator for something other than colony support has no negative impact on the bound resources, namely Marines. Since this colony hasn't even had an industrial-sized or bigger replicator for five years, I can't see a negative effect by using a new replicator for your project instead of using it for the colony." was the answer of the AI.

"AI, are you arguing yourself into this?" governor Culhane asked the AI.

There was a noticeable pause before the AI answered, "You could say that I am not pleased that the resources of this colony are not fully used for the war against the Sa'arm. This is not the fault of this colony, its administration or the Marines stationed here. Your efforts to maximize the Marines training and the output of volunteering offspring have been proven successful. Headquarters simply doesn't ask for them."

The governor laughed out loud. "I always thought you are an emotionless machine, but you are seriously pissed!"

"I would comply more with any plan that improves the resources bound to the Confederacy," the AI lamented.

"It would be easy to build both old and modern ships as soon as we have a factory-sized replicator" Major Sanchez improvised. "We just have no Naval crews to man them. We can ask headquarter to ship one or two transfer crews every time they come and get our Marines for a mission. We also can massively improve our planetary defense for the unlikely case that the Sa'arm show up here. Would that be an improvement of the resources bound to the Confederacy?"

"That would be an improvement of great value," The AI said. "You might need the algorithms developed on Azahar that allow skipping the prototype sample phase when using modified designs," the AI added. "The blueprints in the Earth's copy of the database can not be used on replicators directly, but you could use the original replicator template files from the unrestricted history database that is also available to you. But even then those blueprints are not very useful as weapons if you don't modify them. Without those algorithms you have to build samples and feed them to a replicator in order to create replicator template files."

"Now where did this come from? Our AI is a conspirator!" the governor mused.

"Then this might be a plan for our colony, if I can talk you into this, Sir?" Major Sanchez grinned.

Lightning struck the household of Joacim from a completely different direction. Markus had matured and CAP tested. He was a disappointment, reaching only 2.5. He was highly intelligent but his social skills were a mess. He was lying just for the thrill of being caught and talking himself out of trouble like a politician. Joacim established a system of permissions and bans to keep the kids and especially Markus in line but it simply didn't work on him. He was testing the limits every day.

The day he went over the top started pretty normal. After breakfast, a pretty impressive and time consuming event with eleven kids below the age of three involved, he started playing hide and seek with Honi, Zoe and a couple of the neighbours' kids who were around ten years old. Since all other adults were busy with the other kids and the household, nobody noticed when he slowly changed the rules of the game in a way the AI did not notice. At first he made himself the seeker every time. By finding the kids quickly he made them search for hiding places in an increasing distance from the pod. The distance to the next pods was about fifty meters, but the pod of Joacim lay at the edge of the colony. Hiding places were not that uncommon. There were bushes and flat ditches all around the area.

Then Markus decided to be the predator, not just a seeker. The first kids he found he ticked to make them squeak, but very fast it turned to sexual entanglement. Finally the distant shrieks of one of the kids alerted an adult. L'ielit was the one who found Markus trousers down, shortly before penetrating little Honi's pussy. He kicked and swore when L'ielit dragged him off the child. L'ielits was in rage, but she was wise enough to ask the AI for permission to behead Markus bare handed for his crime. You can really overload an AI by asking for something that the AI calculates to be 99.9% impossible to do. The AI called Joacim at work for a decision, something that hadn't happened even once the whole time he had lived on Vandergast. He denied termination of any kind by a concubine but ordered imprisonment in a force field of the child's mother's specification, again except for lethal ones.

Helga was very creative. She ordered a force field cage hovering one inch above the floor. Markus was constantly zaped by the energy wall that built the floor of the cage. By the time Joacim arrived at home, it smelled like burnt bacon there. The kids were locked in their own wing of the pod, herded by Petra and Sabine. Somehow they had managed to calm even those kids who were involved in the whole thing.

Hearing the story by L'ielit and the AI and seeing the few pictures made by a randomly present drone drove Joacim mad. The AI was not very helpful, since Markus had managed to lead the kids out of the observation radius of the pod's AI. So the AI thought they were still only playing hide and seek and was only tracking their positions with the city's GPS system.

When Joacim made the force field drop, Markus instantly tried to talk himself out of trouble, ignoring his hurting feet. He was accusing Honi to have teased him into it. Joacim drove his fist in Markus' face with enough force to break his hand. He didn't even notice it. He ordered L'ielit to grab Markus's unconscious body and follow him to the city core complex where the core engines were situated. There, Joacim made the disposal of Markus official and let L'ielit throw him into the big mouth of the machine. She slapped him on his face until he finally awoke. "Look boy, this is your new home!" she yelled. Then she threw him with a wide swing into the recycling machine.

Joacim and L'ielit stood there for a few minutes, hugging each other. "You know," Joacim said, "You did a good job today. You are a true protector and ordered everybody around in a way so that no one else did stupid things. The AI told me that Helga was on the edge of killing Markus without asking. Something that would have caused serious trouble for her, even when I ordered his death afterwards."

"I'll throw my life into the way of any harm that approaches you or our family. I use what I have to protect our home," she smiled.

"You have remarkable skills and I want to honour you. I'd like to give you more freedom. The AI expects you have a CAP above 7.0 now. On the other hand, I really don't want to loose you."

"Please let's not talk about CAP now. We lost a son and defeated a homegrown monster today. Now let's go to the medics to fix your hand. It doesn't look that good. Oh, and my rib maybe. Markus seemed to have broken one by kicking around."

"Sure, my warrior queen."

Helga thanked L'ielit in her own way, by joining her in bed and driving her to several mind-blowing orgasms. Neither of them did the lesbian thing very often, they both preferred Joacim being present when having sex. But it was the right thing to do now.

At one o'clock in the morning, Helga sneaked into the master bedroom and joined Joacim, who once again was sleeping alone. He still wasn't a sexual fiend and liked to go to bed alone once or twice a week. Joacim woke up when he felt the movement beside him. He recognized Helga in the dim light of the stars shining through the window.

"Sorry for waking you," Helga whispered.

"I don't mind. But I haven't asked for company tonight, have I?" Joacim asked.

"No you haven't. It just felt like a good idea to join you. I have thanked L'ielit for Honi's rescue and now I want to thank you for your judgment over Markus. He was part of our family and Petra is really down because one of her kids was such a jerk and bully. But she isn't mad at you or anything. She hopes that you don't rate her on the stupidity of her offspring." Once again Joacim was pleased to have Helga as head-bitch of his household. In the morning her daughter was nearly raped, but after only a few hours she was again in control of everybody and supporting him by telling him what was going on. "You talked to L'ielit saying something about a CAP re-test?"

"Yes I did. I would not be happy to lose her. But I know that her score is above 6.5 since we reached Vandergast. I know she was a slave back on Earth for some time, and I can figure that she's not entirely happy with technically being property here. I just don't see any signs that she's not happy with her situation. And she's so focused on family life that I really don't see her as a Marine, going off planet to fight the Sa'arm."

Helga frowned. "L'ielit is happy. And you are the reason for that. You give her life stability and you gave her children. Having no right to live when leaving her family is more common to her than to anybody else in this house. It is normal to her. It disturbed her more when you told her she can take another CAP test and maybe leave her home."

"She doesn't need to leave. It's just that she can stay at her own free will, not because I own her." Joacim replied.

"It will take some time to explain this to her in the right way. I'll ask Sabine to help me. She's good in explaining rational things in an emotional way. May I now take care of your little prince? I have the urge to thank you that you care so much about all of us." Helga gently stroked Joacim's boner. Joacim let her get on top and enjoyed the rise of arousal until he shot his load deep into Helga's pussy.