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I was monitoring the landing from the bridge. Lance was spearheading the task force along with two captains. Lance had his own platoon that was there to keep the bad guys off of him and allow him to direct operations. The rest of the team spreading out by platoons—one platoon per landing craft. In our command structure, our officers also doubled as platoon leaders. The sky was bright blue, almost a Terra blue but with a twist, so it did not feel exactly right. A grassy plain stretched out in front of them. Sensors showed that the area was clear, but Lance was acting as if we were going to be facing trouble right off the bat.

I heard Lance command, "Bill, take your team and secure our right, Jay you take the left." The words had no more than left his mouth when over a dozen massive fixed mount disrupter beams thundered out their challenge against the world. They converged on our spearhead and Lance, and his leaders were gone. Even Imperial heavy armor was no match for twelve of those fixed-mount weapons.

I swallowed convulsively, I would cope with this shock later; right now, my children were facing overwhelming forces. I could not be prouder of them. The remaining troops hit the ground, and the leaders that were left took charge, no hesitation, no fear. Just a this is our job—so let's get it done attitude.

Full heavy Imperial armor looked almost like the mechs of anime fame. Light armor was form fitting in the way that Batman's armor was. The power amplification capabilities linked to sensors that touch your skin, when your arm pressed against the armor encasing your arm it moved away to reduce that pressure. The stronger your movement, the stronger the armor moved to neutralize that pressure. Conversely, if your armor touched something, reduced pressure was exerted by the sensors so that you could feel what it was that you were touching. The end result was you just wore it but whatever you did was amplified many-fold. I would not hesitate to change a baby's diaper while wearing light armor. But I would not allow a newbie to try that trick….

Heavy armor was similar, but as the engines that drove your musculature were massively greater, the suits looked like almost headless powered mech. The shoulder muscles bulked up over the wearers head, a sensor pod was where a standard humans head would have been—if the armor was not so bulked on steroids looking. Unlike light armor, heavy armor encased the head behind armor in a fixed area in what looked like the chest of the mech. Inside there were retina level ultrahigh resolution screens that were controlled by the way your eyes moved and your chin could trigger various amplification and enhancement capabilities.

Heavy armor operated with the same feedback type sensors against the skin that light armor uses, but in heavy armor, swat a fly and walls would collapse. Jump, and you could clear buildings. Issue an override in the middle of a jump and flash into hypersonic flight mode. Heavy armor could carry all kinds of hardware, the type that leaves enormous holes behind….

While our disrupters could reduce any matter to atoms, our armor was protected by fields, as much to protect us from enemy fire as friendly fire. But when over a dozen beams from fixed mount weapons focus on you, you are going to be in trouble.

I saw our team launch scrambler grenades towards the sources of those beams followed by our own disrupter beams. The scramblers would neutralize or at least weaken the fields of the enemy's armor, allowing our beams to penetrate enemy armor. At the same time, platoons were launching into hypersonic flight inches from the ground jumping beyond the attacking forces.

A well-coordinated mobile force could take any fixed base no matter how strongly reinforced. But the key word here was well coordinated. We had plenty of theory classes, but this was different than the classroom. The kids were following the textbook, jumping around like fleas. Fire off an attack and jump again before the fixed mount weapons could focus on you and fire. It looked like a lot of fun, but one by one a rookie mistake happened, and someone was vaporized by the enemy weapons.

I sounded recall, retreat, —get the… 'troops' out of there. Call it what you want, but it means to disengage and save your butt. Their screens returned to normal, and Lance was waiting for them as they returned. With a frown Lance launched into the debriefing, OK rookies let start out with your first mistake…." The dressing down took a while, but it was all instruction, not a chewing down.

Right now, we were trying everyone in every position to see how they fit. The expectation was that the real leaders would rise to the top during this virtual reality training.

My mind flashed back to my boot camp days when I first wore heavy armor. Tiny Tremain was my Sargent during training. His real rank back when he was my corporal was really Lieutenant. But he took a reduction in rank as punishment for a faked-up charge so that he could assist me back in my double agent spy days. Last I heard right before our wedding was that he was up for Major.

Back when I was learning to be a Marine, it was Tiny's job to turn us into Marines. And trust me he had his work cut out for him. He had no idea at the time just who I was, and that was the way I wanted it. I remember my first time in heavy armor. You have to wear armor against the skin. The recruits that came from places were clothing was the rule rather than the exception had issues with getting nude in mixed company at first, but by the time we graduated no one noticed such minor details.

As you slip into your armor it just cuddles you, it is warm and has an almost alive feeling. The most disconcerting feeling is that as you settle fully into the legs, there is a catheter that slips into your most private spot. Now that took some getting used to, but you can't peel off armor just to relieve yourself. After a few times of being in armor for a few days straight, you start to appreciate the sensation. I understand that for guys this is not such a simple task and a few have requested reassignment as they just could not adjust to this one procedure.

After your legs are in, you duck so that your head goes up into the command and communications pocket while your arms slip into the powered arms of the suit and again that warm, alive sensation welcomes you. The chest area is adjusted to fit and support, this is not too critical for men, but us girls needed that support as when you scurried in a evasion pattern nothing could be flopping around.

You almost dive into a suit and when you stand upright the back wraps around your body and finishes the warm almost alive feel cocooning process. This is a perfect fit suit, and if you gain weight expect your equipment tech to chew you out big time as it takes a lot of effort to fit a suit to a Marine.

Movement is entirely natural but enhanced. As raw recruits, our suit's power levels were turned down to just enough power to overcome the weight of the powered limbs. We were able to walk around and move naturally the first time wearing a suit. The hard part of wearing a suit is dialing back your strength. A fly swatting movement in a fully operational suit could level a brick wall. We had to learn to make gentle changes to avoid breaking everything around us.

Your head is free from controlling anything external on the suit. But as you move your head, you can see with a clarity that surpasses normal vision. By using head movements, you can control your communications and intelligence systems. Intelligence as in information about your surroundings. Your eyes control what information is shown on the heads-up display.

Becoming more aware of what was going on outside my head than my reminiscing, I noticed that the virtual reality training was going again. It was going to be a long trip, but hopefully, when we arrived, we would have a team that could take on professional warriors and win.