Read Semper Fidelis for Free Online Page B

simulation couldn’t simulate. Reactions and gut feelings that couldn’t be experienced while sitting behind a computer screen. Zach’s drone was controlled from afar and that would be its greatest weakness.
    Galen adjusted his gear and took a swig of his water as he waited for the sun to rise. It wasn’t as if he wanted Zach’s drone to fail, but he wasn’t planning on failing either. He hoped that no matter how today ended up, Zach would want to see him again. He was geared up and keyed up. Ready to move. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner he could see Zach. Unfortunately, Zach wouldn’t be anywhere on the course—that was the point of an unmanned drone.
    The CO’s voice came over his comm. “So here’s how this is going to go. We have three dummy IEDs planted on the course. While they won’t explode if triggered, they have been rigged to pop. This isn’t a contest to see which can spot the IED first—man or drone. But—” Galen could hear the smile in his CO’s pause. “—there are three of them out there, and not an even number, so take that as you will. Good luck, gentlemen.”
    He settled into the passenger seat of the Humvee and nodded to the driver. “Let’s do this.”
    The sun began to crest over the mountains as they drove through the grid set up for this training exercise. Twentynine Palms was a gigantic base—the largest of all the Corps bases—and he had a lot of ground to cover. That would be his greatest weakness. A drone could cover much more ground in a shorter amount of time. But twenty minutes into his search, something caught Galen’s attention, and he lifted his binoculars to get a clearer view.
    Galen squinted, made sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. There was fascine ahead, the bundle of plastic pipes used to bridge a drop in the desert landscape, visible only inches above the gap. The rays of the morning sun hit the black pipes at such an angle that they were lit in rosy half-light, and the shape… Galen’s internal warning system pinged. “Hold up,” he instructed the driver and got out of vehicle when it came to a stop.
    In combat, there was strict protocol of how to approach a suspected IED. But his CO had let him know yesterday that the point of this exercise wasn’t to test his ability to follow orders. He was tasked with locating IEDs, and accuracy and expediency outweighed regulation for this one morning.
    He came around the side of the ditch and peered into the tube that had a slight bowing at the center. Sure enough, there was some kind of device stuffed into the one in the middle—placed directly in the path of a vehicle trying to cross it.
    He radioed in. “IED sighted at the Cross Culvert.”
    So fucking easy.
    “IED location confirmed,” a voice came over his comm.
    When he jumped into the Humvee again, his driver smirked. “One down, Magneto, sir.”
    “One to go,” he finished. All he had to do was spot one more to unofficially win this not-a-contest contest.
    Zach’s drone buzzed above him, swooping over their vehicle and doing a pass over the fascine. Zach was following on Galen’s find to see for himself what he had missed.
    It took another forty minutes, but Zach won the next point. “A second IED has been confirmed,” a Marine said over the comm.
    “Location, sir?” he asked.
    “The southern perimeter.”
    Only one IED left to locate and Galen had a feeling it was hidden in the fake city the base used for urban warfare training. He instructed the driver to head in that direction.
    “Hey, Magneto. You hear what Synthfad’s drone has painted on the side?”
    He shook his head but kept his focus on the road and landscape ahead. “Nope.”
    “A Sentinel. As in—”
    Galen interrupted him. “The X-Men Sentinels that killed Magneto in the last movie.”
    “That’s ballsy, sir.”
    He snorted when he laughed. “Yeah, the guy flying that thing must have an impressive set.”
    The drone tracked near them, always