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“Education is not merely a means for earning a living or an instrument for the acquisition of wealth. It is an initiation into life of spirit, a training of the human soul in the pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue.” ~ Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit


Chapter 3
INITIATION


“Why do we have to use kids?”

“You read the rules, Andrew. Kids are easier to apply the mental conditioning to. The few of-age soldiers we have in this group have more than enough potential to simply be trained. And besides… who would suspect a kid is holding a Glock in his back pocket?”

“Not very many people.”

“Right.”

“But still… they’re only children. I mean, one of them is eight. I think that’s just pushing it.”

“There isn’t much to it, you know.”

“Yes, I know.”

“We’re not the people who decide how this thing’s gonna work. If some FBI goon is gonna decide, ‘oh, let’s have a bunch of boys and girls who don’t know multiplication go off and risk their lives in a war,’ then it’s not in our authority to have a word against it.”

“Yeah, well I’d like to get that FBI goon to shut his damn mouth. He’s just gonna make things worse.”

“We don’t have the right to say that.”

“Since when?”

“Since we joined the military.”

“Oh yeah. Swear an oath, get enlisted, then go do some country’s dirty work.”

“What you’re saying is bordering treason.”

“It’s not treason. I’m not planning anything against the States.”

“Neither am I. Not yet at least.”

"What do you mean by that?"

"Nothing you should know about."

"You're an ass, you know that?"

"Americans are asses. And I'm American. So therefore, I'm an ass. And if anyone has a word to say against it, it's their problem. Besides... what's wrong with being an ass?"


The next few months went by in a flurry. In February of 2003, Victor boarded a plane that had a United States airport in mind.

He was accompanied by Chief Petty Officers Hayes and Remarque, who had picked him up in the middle of class at Norlane High.

The plane was a lavishly decorated multi-level jet, and wasn’t like any commercial plane he had ever known. It had kitchens, a sort of spa, and the top floor consisted of multiple cabins, one of which he was introduced to as his own. It looked like a compact hotel room, complete with its own lavatory.

This kind of service was a little… overboard. It was only a plane. But Victor had a feeling that this sort of treatment wouldn’t end here.

When they landed in Kentucky, US the next day, he was escorted to a limousine. The ride was long, but during that time Victor got to take a look outside the window. Much of the rural terrain consisted of vast, rolling plains and endless mountain ranges, coated with mostly woodland. Here and there he’d spot a deer, squirrel, or rabbit, which somewhat surprised him considering that he had grown up with kangaroos and koalas. The fact that they were driving on the right side of the road also disconcerted him, though only slightly.

There was much more to get used to. After going through much tedious paperwork at a large office building, he was driven another hour to a large, empty plain. The land had been flattened for acres around, and nothing existed on the plain but dirt and soil, and it was all surrounded by a thick brick wall. It was his land, where he would be constructing his new military campus.

He met with the landowner, named Andrea. She was surprisingly young to be a real estate owner, but he quickly found out she was only here on behalf of her parents, who apparently couldn’t make it. She gave him information about the land, and how many resources he could use.

“I thought there was no limit,” said Victor.

“Who told you that?” she asked, scribbling unreadable jargon on her clipboard.

“That man. Andrew Hayes. The one who brought me here.”

“You mean that one army guy, right? Ah, the American military loves to tell lies in America. They’re just trying to get you a job. I swear, the military here is so much more different than the one in Australia.”

“Australia?”

“Yeah. That’s where I come from. But you don’t have to worry much; you have so many resources it’s virtually infinite. The White House has plenty of money. They spent a lot on this here piece of land, and they also gave me an extra one hundred million to drop off to you. All that’s going straight into your bank account.”

“Wow, that much?”

“Yessir. It’s a limit, but a reasonable one. You’re gonna be using it to construct your campus and get supplies. You can relay all that stuff to Jay.”

“Jay?”

“Yeah, Jay Kaizer. He’s the one responsible for hiring the construction crew. Says he’s got a great bunch of guys from Simple Machines Company. He’ll also be the groundskeeper here. The Keeper of the Keys, if you wish to call him that. He’ll be responsible for a bunch of stuff; security, construction, and ordering all the resources you’ll be using to outfit your army, plus extras.”

“Fair enough.”

“All right, if you’ll just sign here,” she held out the clipboard, “I can give you the land and be on my way.”

“Right…”

Victor took the keyboard and the pen and signed on the dotted line.

“All right, thank ye very much. You have yourself a nice day, and if you have any problems, report them to me.”

“Got it. Thanks a lot.”

“See ya later.”

She got in the taxi waiting for her, and it drove off. Victor looked at the large expanse of land before him, and tried to imagine what it would look like in six months.

He couldn’t possibly imagine it.

The next day, after a good night’s rest in the trailer provided for him on campus, he was greeted by Jay Kaizer.

“Yeah, I’m your caretaker all right,” he said. Like Andrea, he was young. A bit older than Victor was, but still surprisingly young for his occupation. “I’m gonna be the one keeping tabs on everything, and I’m in charge of construction and security.”

“I see.” Jay had a sort of free casual air about him that made Victor feel a little more comfortable, since everyone up until now had been extremely formal.

“Now, since I’m in charge of this entire place, that basically means I can build my own mansion here, or drop a nuke, or just make a big giant mall and make some money for myself. Okay? That’s basically how much power I have over this heap of dust.”

“Is that so…”

“Yeah. But, since I’m a nice person, I won’t do that. Instead, I’ll tell you everything that you’re supposed to have for your campus. Then I’ll give you a few tips and tricks, then I’ll help you out with making the place. Layout of the campus, architecture of each building, things like that, you know what I’m sayin’?”

“Mm, okay…”

“Right, so let’s get started.”

He, like Andrea, was holding a clipboard.

“First, and most importantly of all, you need dormitories. All your men and women are going to be using dormitories so they have a place on campus. We need two, since there’re gonna be boys and girls here. Let’s also not forget the officer’s dormitory, which is for the higher-ranked guys like you and the ones directly under you.”

“I see.”

“Second of all, we need an administration building. It’s gonna be the focal point of everything. You aren’t the only one staying here; I am, and so are those two shady guys Hayes and Remarque. And we’re gonna have a lot of staff working here too, like receptionists, secretaries, cubicle workers, and the guy who fixes the coffee machine. I’m also gonna have my own little office there so I can go over all the campus things.”

“Am I working in that building too?”

“Well, you’ll have an office there, but you probably won’t use it much.”

“Right.”

“Another something you’re gonna need is the bathhouse. Yes, a bathhouse, for everyone to go and take showers and take care of nature’s business. Unlike the dorms, though, it’ll all be in one building. But the thing is, the building’s split in half; boys on one side, girls on the other.”

“Why not two different buildings?”

“No clue. The guy who designed them designed it in a guys on one side, girls on the other sort of way.”

“Interesting.”

“Anyways, we’ve already got the reception building underway, so you can ignore that. It’s just gonna be where people check in and stuff to get into the campus. No tours allowed.”

“Right.”

“Last of all, we’re gonna need a security office. Keep the bedbugs out of the bedroom, and just in case if something bad happens, we have a task force to take care of it. Though security guards won’t stand much a chance against terrorists loaded with Tommy guns and bazookas.

“There are a bunch of other things you’re gonna need. Let’s see… an intel office to gather intelligence and find out what dumpsters our enemies are hiding out around; a main hall to gather your troops for announcements, kinda like your multi-purpose room at school; and an armory so you can dump all your ordnance and weaponry for quick and easy access.

“And, just for the sake of keeping your guys comfortable, a mess hall for eats; a food court for fast eats; maybe an entertainment lounge, where you’d have a library, a small theater, some video games, a bunch of musical instruments, things to keep your guys entertained, hence the name; a gym so your soldiers can exercise and stay fit; and a lounge, just so they can hang out and discuss Pokémon over tea and crumpets, or warm themselves on a snowy day around a roaring fire. You knoW what I’m sayin’?”

“Uh… yeah.”

“Oh yeah, let’s not forget the firing range for practice. And a parking lot for the staff who come here to work every day. And a personal parking lot for your men, and for any military vehicles like Hummers and jeeps. And a few helipads, and a runway.”

“Wow, planes?”

“Yeah, you’re gonna be using planes. Bungee jumping, air strikes, you name it.”

“Sounds fun.”

“It will be.”

“So I’m in charge of making all of this.”

“Yeah, we’ve already got the blueprints, you just gotta design the campus. I’m giving you a month to do that, and then after that I’ll send in all the construction workers from Simple Machines, and they’ll do the rest. It should take about four months for construction, and by then you’ll be up on your feet and ready to get your soldiers.”

“I have to wait until June to meet my members?”

“That’s right. In between now and then, you’re mostly gonna be working at your own house in Australia.”

“How come no one told me I’d be going back so soon?”

“You’re staying here for this month. And then you’re going back once you’ve got the plans down.”

“Oh.”

“So have fun with that.”

“Can I get anyone to help me?”

“You’ll have an advisor helping you out.”

“All right then.”

“Best you get to work now, since you’ve only got a month.”

“I’m only planning a campus.”

“It’s harder than you think.”

And he left without another word.

Jay was right. The next couple of days were a struggle as Victor tried to figure out how the campus was gonna be designed. The advisor wasn’t coming for another week. Victor had gotten the blueprints for every single building on campus in his tablet PC, and it was nothing more than just placing them down on the lot. But it was difficult, for many reasons.

Jay had told him over the phone that the campus needed to have a good, operational layout, so that things could be easily within reach when needed. The administration building had to be near the front, and the dormitories near the center. The bathhouse needed to be near the dorms, so people wouldn’t need to walk far to take a shower. The mess hall had to be near as well. Security had to be near the front, intelligence had to be near security. Entertainment had to be near the lounge, and both had to be close to the dorms. Everything seemed to be surrounding the dorms. Except for the firing ranges which needed to be far away from the dorms, so those who were resting weren’t disturbed by the metallic crackle of gunfire. Everything had to work just perfectly. It was hard.

Jay had also forgotten to tell Victor about the briefing room, where people would go to briefing for their operations. This surprised Victor; he didn’t think they’d be doing anything serious at all. But then again, what else could this whole thing be about?

But by the end of the second week, with a little help from the advisor, who actually happened to be Jay himself (“Who’d you expect? Some landscaping goon from Extreme Makeover?”), the layout for the entire campus was complete. The administration building and the dorms would surround a small courtyard, which was directly in front of the entrance to the campus. The baths, leader dorms, and entertainment services would cover the left side of the campus, and the military facilities would cover the right. The mess and food would be behind the administration building, and the firing range would be in the far back with the armory. In fact, there were two firing ranges: one was based on sniping and long range and would situate a beach, and the other for closer assault tactics on a bombed out street.

After all of the planning, Victor was tired out, but he decided to stay behind, since he had finished so early. Jay managed to get some designers to help out with the campus landscaping, and by the end of the month, Victor was able to take a look at computer-graphically generated images of the entire campus, of every building, of every tree, down to the dumbbells on the weight lifting set in the gyms and all the guns in the armory. The campus looked simply beautiful. The buildings were extremely well fashioned, and no one would have guessed it was actually a military installation. In fact, it was hard to tell what it looked like. It looked more like an extremely expensive university campus. But every building was made in such a way that it looked more comfortable than any university campus Victor had ever imagined. And it sure as hell didn’t look like a military campus.

“Your whole Assault and Negotiations thing isn’t really military,” said Jay. “It’s just a secret little thing that the government created to quell anything that’s too trivial for the military. Kinda like the MI6 in London.”

“The what?”

“The place where James Bond works in those 007 movies.”

“Ah, I see.”

Victor went back to Australia on a plane later, and was welcomed back home with open arms. For the remaining five months, he didn’t attend school unless he wanted to, and very often he did just to see how things were working. He did some work at the fish and chips shop with the assistant that the White House had hired, a friendly girl of about seventeen years old, who lived just down the street. His family really liked her, his little brother especially. And Victor enjoyed her company as well. She was very friendly. Victor, however, had to keep all details of his new life a secret. And that was something he really had trouble doing.

So Victor lived a slightly altered, but still borderline normal life for five months. But during those five months, he positively couldn’t wait to return to that military campus. To see what the construction crew had created for him while he was gone, and to meet the new soldiers he would be working with for many months to come.

 

The Anime
Copyright @ 2006 Takeru Yamamoto, The Sons of Liberty Productions. All rights reserved.