"Ben Weaver - Brothers in Arms 01 - Brothers in Arms" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weaver Ben)

I snapped off a salute, gathered my gear, and jogged away. I felt very afraid for my brother.
 Some of the first years like myself often joked about how Generals Ky-Tay and Jotanik lacked
originality and had blatantly ripped off the traditions of other military academies to create South Point.
But once I had read up on the institutionтАЩs brief, highly classified history, I discovered that the generals
had had every intention of employing traditional models, which, in their estimation, simply worked. They
had begun their work in 2278, just twenty-three years prior, had given the establishment a familiar name
reminiscent of the old United StatesтАЩ West Point Military Academy, and had embraced the conventions
of a cadet code, prayer, and medallion. All fifteen hundred of us had been organized into an officerтАЩs
training regiment comprised of four battalions, sixteen companies, forty-eight platoons, and one hundred
and forty-four squads.

But despite the generalsтАЩ intentions to make the academy rest on the foundations of yore, South Point
still lay seventy-eight light-years from Earth and stood on a moon orbiting 70 Virginis b, a gas giant over
six times the size of Jupiter. Thankfully, ExeterтАЩs magnetic field shielded it from 70 Virginis bтАЩs tidal forces
and intense radiation. Eight hundred thousand years ago, the moon had had a thin atmosphere of nitrogen
and a gravity of .758 Earth standard; now it inexplicably maintained a breathable atmosphere and
near-Earth gravity, much like the colonies of Aire-Wu, Epsilon Eri III, and Rexi-Calhoon. Some theories
held that the Racinians breathed an atmosphere and preferred gravity similar to ours and had terraformed
Exeter and the other worlds. Nothing in the aliensтАЩ technology had thus far proven those theories, and
most experts agreed that they had left our galaxy about fifty million years before we discovered their
existence.

I hustled toward the barracks, having fallen well behind the others. The trail wound tortuously along a
cliff that afforded striking views of the academy lying below, all one hundred acres of her grounds
cordoned off by towering mesas, some of which eclipsed the multihued bands of 70 Virginis b. The
architecture of the academyтАЩs classroom buildings and library sacrificed artistry for function and relied
heavily on sloping, transparent roofs set upon circular, quickcrete walls. But the administration building
took your breath away with its carefully planned assemblage of isosceles triangles. We first years rarely
visited the place. Going to admin meant you were in a world of trouble, IDO, or dead. On the fringe of
the academy grounds lay the barracks, unremarkable rectangular structures divided into four main
sectors: first, second, third, and fourth year. First years billeted in the cleanest and most orderly sector in
all of the barracks. The second, third, and fourth years kept us busy cleaning it by way of тАЬsurpriseтАЭ
inspections six to ten times every day. EarthтАЩs military traditions had weathered the light-years quite well.

Inside the barracks and fully out of breath, I staggered to my gelrack, third down on the right, and
dropped the rope and gear pack beside my footlocker. Barracks GY27 housed all three squads of the
Twenty-seventh Platoon, though each squad had its own bunkroom and latrine. Any cadet venturing into
another squadтАЩs room could do so only with the express permission of that squadтАЩs sergeant, which was
why I frowned at Pvt. Carstaris from the Eightieth as she came up to me, her black utilities unzipped to
the navel, her peach-sized breasts moving in an easy rhythm with her step. тАЬI saw what happened,тАЭ she
whispered in my ear. тАЬHalitov paid someone to do it.тАЭ She turned and sauntered out, leaving nine dirty
looks in her wake.

тАЬWhatтАЩd she say?тАЭ Halitov asked, wearing only his boxer shorts, sweat dripping from his steely
pectorals. Of course his gelrack lay next to mine.

тАЬNothing,тАЭ I snapped, eyeing the deck as I unzipped my utilities.

Had I been facing Halitov, I would have seem him coming, not that I could have fended off his choke
hold, but at least I could have braced for it. I hadnтАЩt realized how much strength dwelled within those