Хроники Аскета: Вторжение / The Ascet Chronicles: Invasion: Глава 4

Chapter 4

Camrad_RIP 07.02.22 в 20:34

After all, conservatism is very much inherent in the military. Such a conclusion would be drawn by anyone who entered the Institute. It was located in a former military base near Moscow. The walls of houses painted dark green, an asphalted parade ground, a column of fir trees along the road. Except for the portrait of the President in the office of Colonel Sergachev, my new boss, and the tricolor flag, there were no signs of modernity. One could think that this was not the twenty-first century, but the seventies - so much like a Soviet military town from an old movie.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 09:51

My escort turned out to be the same Moses Korobkov, who was interrogating me about the reasons that prompted me to go to the military: he was afraid of early death in the stomach of a stranger and convinced me that it was not too late to change my mind. It was a bit of fun to brighten up the boredom of the journey. The only way he left me was to promise me that I would come to him for hire after my legs had been bitten off.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 09:52

However, when we entered the gates of the base, he stopped sulking and cheered up. Moreover, he took me by the arm (!) to the colonel, saluted me as if he had waved me off, sat down in the chair without permission, and stared at his superiors with faithful canine eyes. He had a wide smile on his face.

Sergachev looked dejectedly at his rival, turned his gaze to me, and said:

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 09:53

"Please, take a sit."

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 09:54

"Yes, Vitya, sit down, there's no truth in your feet!" chuckled Moses Lvovich. "Alexander Vasilyevich, this is Victor Andreevich Korobov, here for your training. Please love and welcome. My boys looked, he has power, asked to go to the Nests, has already climbed into one, very curious, so he was sent to you. Ninety-two points! And just in time, and the main thing is that there will be seven of them, a mystical number. You know, Pythagoras had seven children, and that at the age of sixty, so you also, Alexander Vasilievich, will have seven children, hee-hee!"

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 09:56

"Someday, "Korobok", I'll kill you," said the colonel thoughtfully, "for your idiotic jokes."
T.N.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 09:56

"What kind of jokes, Alexander Vasilyevich!?"

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 09:57

Sergachev was no longer paying attention to Korobok and spoke to me:

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 09:57

"Victor Andreyevich, this base is full of people who have been exposed to the aliens and have acquired various abilities that are difficult to explain. Some of them, like you, have expressed a desire to participate in the fight against the invasion in the future, and, given your abilities, such help would come in handy. Therefore, a group has been created on this base to provide training in everything that can be useful in operations against the aliens. Everything we know at the moment." And immediately, without transition, he asked a question: "As far as I know, you're a completely civilian, you didn't serve in the military?"

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 09:58

"No, I didn't see the need. I have a bad stomach, that's why category "B"."

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 09:59

"Well, what can I say... it's going to be difficult at first..." The colonel grimaced slightly. "We have the same physical requirements as any of the elite units - Special Forces, Airborne, and the like. You were initiated about a week or two ago - so the body will soon be cleared, but still, physical activity at first will seem very heavy. When we will bring your physical condition to normal, we will work on energy, it does not make sense to include you in the main group earlier. You will have to catch up with me, but I`m not going to have any difficulties - the material is corrected constantly. Of course, the fact that you have not served, it's bad, it's hard to get in shape right away."

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:10

Sergachev seemed to me a good man, a workhorse, which is the reason why any structure exists, while the more cunning bosses fight over power. Strangely enough, he didn't ask me why I had chosen his group, but it was better for me: I'm not sure I could have answered clearly.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:12

"Any questions or requests, perhaps?" Sergachev finished his story.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:13

"No, perhaps later."

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:13

"All right. There are only seven people in your group, it will take six months of training, and then you'll be part of the mobile cleanup squad. If you can, try to learn faster - we don't know how to fight the creatures, so we hope that your group will gain the necessary experience. That's pretty much it. Korobok, will you escort Victor Andreevich? Kotelnikov is busy now, he'll be here in about twenty minutes."

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:14

After saying goodbye to Sergachev, Korobok and I - it's beyond my power to call him by his first and patronymic names - went to meet my future colleagues, or associates, or friends - as the case may be. During the whole way I listened to various suppositions about the similarity of our surnames, about intellectual capacities of the military - Korobok turned out to be a civilian expert, attracted by FSB and it was unclear how he had acquired his rank - and about sexual predilections of high ranking officials and colleagues. Soon I began to choke in a stream of information, oddly enough, useful and interesting. Only too much of it poured out on my head. Fortunately, we were there.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:16

The room I was going to live in for the next six months was small and sparsely furnished. It was about three by four meters, with a bed, a closet rack, a table, and a chair.

I threw my bag into the locker:

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:16

"When will you introduce me to the others?"

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:17

"Don't you have anything to say about the room?!"

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:17

I looked around once more.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:17

"What's wrong with it?"

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:18

"It's small!!! You can't even put a normal closet in here!"

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:18

"There's a bed to sleep in, I'll eat lunch in the cafeteria, study in classrooms and outside, and I don't have a lot of clothes. Why do I need a big room?"

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:19

"But it's uncomfortable here!"

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:19

"Why?"

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:19

Korobok puffed unhappily:

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:20

"You, my dear fellow, are so ascetic."

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:20

Korobkov was exhausting, only a saint could stand him for long, so I took Sergeant Kotelnikov's appearance as manna from heaven. I could not have imagined that in a couple of days I would hate this man. Before the end of the evening, the sergeant showed me around the town, I got my uniform and learned how to salute properly - it turned out that I had been promoted in absentia to the rank of junior lieutenant, even though I had skipped the military department at the institute. But until the full course of study is completed, I have to stretch in front of every person in uniform, like this. They did not introduce me to my future classmates, saying that they were busy.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:22

From the next day, all hell broke loose.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:22

I got up at six o'clock, jogged three kilometers around campus. My legs hurt, my heart leaps out of my chest, my right side stings, and Kotelnikov rallies and laughs like a horse. The stallion, he's a male. I got angry tears in my eyes and was short of breath. After the run I have no energy at all, the foreman commands me to "rest", I fall to the ground.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:39

I have an hour to get myself cleaned up and have breakfast. With great difficulty I got to the shower, the cold water made me wake up a little. Breakfast is swallowed in the blink of an eye, and Kotelnikov is already calling me after him. We go to the shooting range: I've never seen such machine guns, the recoil knocks out my shoulder. What does he shoot with? My shoulder is fixed, I shoot from the other hand. I'm at the range till noon, then I go jogging again, I do gymnastics. Lunch, an hour of free time.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:40

The hand-to-hand combat classes begin, the foreman teaches how to work with a short sword, I have some experience - thank you, my native group! My arms fall off, my shoulders ache, the muscles in my abdomen are knotted into a single torn lump. A short meditation: focus on the point in the center of the abdomen, run the energy through the whole body, "Imagine a smile the size of the Milky Way!" Sword again, practicing blows, shoulders no longer moving. Dinner. I stare blankly at my plate, no strength to bring a spoon to my mouth. I slowly take my first sip to stay awake. In a minute, the plate is empty. Where did the food go, I do not understand. Kotelnikov calls me into the yard again, we learn kata. Ten o'clock lights out.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:42

The next day I can't get up, the foreman throws me out of bed, rubs my body, and when I get sensitive he kicks me out into the yard. I go for a run, my muscles warm-up, an extra kilometer for being late, after breakfast I go back to the shooting gallery. My shoulder is sore: yesterday I had sort of knocked it out, and now there's a big bruise... We shoot at moving targets. Until the evening the program is repeated.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 10:43

This is the third day. Or is it the fourth? I can't understand anything, my head is not thinking, my body follows Kotelnikov's commands like a machine, I fall asleep every chance I get. Sleep is happiness. Let me sleep for twenty minutes and you are my friend. And the sergeant is my enemy, he wakes me up. Why did I ask to come here? There was some silly reason, I don't remember what it was.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 11:40

How long have I been here? I don't know. Now it's not just Kotelnikov who's tormenting me: two more men join him, I don't remember their names, I just address them as "Comrade Sergeant", the pace of training increases, there's absolutely no energy left.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 11:45

Now I realize that my training was handled by high-class specialists, who determined exactly what workloads can be given to a beginner, which ones are too early. But at that time it seemed to me that a little more and I would die. Every day my teachers were proving that I knew nothing about the limits of my strength and were forcing me to reach those limits. The greatest mystery to me was why I did not rebel, did not refuse to continue bullying myself, and crawled outside at six o'clock every morning for a run. It wasn't pride - rather, it was the influence of Kotelnikov and his comrades. Not particularly educated, these people impressed me with their tenacity, perseverance, and efficiency, and when I was around them, the very thought of retreating seemed mean-spirited.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 11:49

The pace taken would have killed an ordinary man, but Korobkov assured my tormentors that my body had already begun to change, and they chased me without mercy. One evening I noticed Sergachev next to me, closely observing the class. He called Kotelnikov, a short meeting followed - and they let me go. The sergeant had to repeat the order: I did not immediately understand what he wanted. When I did, I didn't believe him. I had enough power to crawl to the shower and fall into bed.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 11:50

The next day after breakfast, Kotelnikov did not take me to the shooting range but instead gave me some good news:

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 11:51

"So. We think you're more or less human now, and we can put you in the whole group."

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 11:51

He was silent, letting me understand the meaning of his words, then he added:

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 12:30

"But we'll still be seeing a lot because you can't do much, your breathing is weak, and you have no stamina. Anyway, I'll introduce you to the others - you'll catch up with the material and you'll study with me again. Let's go."

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 12:41

I had never been in that part of the building to which the sergeant led me. We entered a small room, which reminded me of the biology classroom in my old school. The same desks, the teacher's desk, a drawing board with strange symbols scrawled on it, a pile of strange objects on the shelves, and posters of various animals. More specifically, aliens.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 12:42

There were seven people in the classroom - the teacher and six students. A man with the appearance of a researcher, who was standing near the blackboard and interrupted when we arrived, nodded to the foreman:

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 12:48

"Thank you, foreman, you are dismissed." After that he turned to the class: "Well, gentlemen cadets, let me introduce you Victor Andreevich Korobov, from today he will be trained together with you. Semenov!"

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 12:49

"Yes!" A tall, gaunt, blond man stood up from his seat.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 12:50

"You are assigned to supervise Korobov, so he should familiarize himself as soon as possible with the material you've already learned. Help him get used to it." He turned to me: "My name is Pavel Sergeyevich Chizhov, I am the curator of the group, I also teach you a course in xenobiology from the Research Department. Take a seat at your desk."

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 12:40

It was hard for me to adjust from the wild rhythm of training that I had gotten into lately, so I began to look at my future colleagues. They all looked alike - physically strong, sturdy, with short haircuts and an elusive aura of superiority and confidence in their abilities. Looking at these people, it became clear what Kotelnikov meant when he said that I was still growing up. I did look a little pale against the general background. With an effort of will, I forced myself to listen to the lecturer's words.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 12:39

It was a speech about the classification of outsiders. Conventionally, they were divided into "officers" and "soldiers". An officer was any creature of a high level - what he meant by that term, Chizhov didn't explain - capable of using signs, soldiers were called all the rest. And sometimes a soldier was stronger and more dangerous than an officer. Based on the proposed classification, the creatures I knew were soldiers. The abilities of the aliens varied greatly; according to the lecturer, one could go through the entire Nest and never encounter two creatures of the same species. Apparently, the queen was creating a new individual for a specific task. The whole lesson was devoted to describing and showing drawings of different species of aliens; our task was to learn how to classify them and identify their vulnerabilities.

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 12:38

After the lecture was over, Semyonov came up to me:

Camrad_RIP 08.02.22 в 12:36