Outcasts of Earth (Outcast Marines Book 1) by James David Victor

Author:James David Victor [Victor, James David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Fairfield Publishing
Published: 2019-01-26T16:00:00+00:00

“Disqualified,” said the severe voice of the Colonel Asquew, looking down at Arlo’s dismayed face, Solomon’s grimace, and Wen’s scowl—if Malady had any expression at all in the solid metal, Solomon couldn’t read it.

They were still in the launch bay of the station and were still wearing their light tactical suits—apart from Malady, of course—but now each of the trainees were holding their helmets under their left arm.

All of the squads had returned once Arlo and his squad had ‘won’ and the challenge was officially over.

Only we didn’t win, did we? Solomon thought miserably. He was even more aware of the surreptitious glares and hard glances from the other squads around them, standing in small rows spaced around the central area. Above them on the metal grate balcony stood the two Marine colonels still in their power armor, but similarly holding their fierce-looking helmets under their left arms.

Colonel Asquew was a woman with a gray and brown crewcut, and a bionic eye. She looked to be middle-aged, perhaps, but that didn’t mean that her face betrayed any sign of weariness. Her head appeared small against the mighty bulk of the suit around her, but her one good eye was bright was anger. Beside Asquew stood Colonel Madavi, a similarly middle-aged Indian man with a buzzcut and grey stubble over his grizzled chin. Warden Coates stood a little further back and to one side of the two colonels, the veins in his neck standing out as though his head might burst with rage.

“Disqualified!?” Arlo burst out. “But why? We came first!”

Bad choice, Arlo. Solomon winced, seeing the colonel’s power gloves clench just slightly on the railings above. He remembered how much trouble he had got into just for questioning the warden’s judgement back on the shuttle. With any luck, they’ll deport him to Titan quick-sharp.

But Colonel Asquew didn’t fly into a rage as Coates would have done. She just stared at the angry Arlo and stared some more until Arlo had to realize just who he had tried to argue with.

“Uh, I mean…” Arlo quickly backtracked. “Colonel-sir…”

Asquew gave a very minute nod to recognize the appropriate title and cleared her throat. “Your team has been disqualified from the challenge, Regular Menier, because you fired against one of your own side.” Her words were like thrown shards of glass. “This challenge was a test, and not only of your physical abilities but also your mental faculties,” she stated. “We are monitoring your emotional responses to stress and battle, your ability to react creatively and with excellence to a situation, but also your ability to remember your orders, and your self-discipline to stick to them. At no point did we say that you were meant to regard each other as enemy combatants, otherwise we would have given you laser rifles and let you shoot it out!”

I knew it, Solomon thought, to be surprised when Arlo rounded on him.

“Sir, Colonel-sir.” Arlo cleared his throat. “I was the assigned commander, and of course I take

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