Chapter Eight – Cat Skips the Ethics Module

“I think it’s high time that we acknowledge that much of our educational system is dedicated to teaching things that have no real-world importance, purely for the sake of indoctrinating our youth!

What use does a scientist or future businessman have in Ethics?

It’s nothing but an excuse for the intolerant leftist to fill the minds of our youth with their twisted ideals!”

–Jim Reeds, the ‘Real Man Podcast’ 2029

***

Professor Rogers stepped up to the front of the class, then narrowed his eyes as he looked across all of the students.

In the meantime, I moved to the very back and smacked the floor with the tip of my shoe. The desks were meant to fold in and out of the floor, along with the chairs. Obviously so that the floorspace could be used for other shit later on. There was a seat open for me next to Olivia way out at the front, and I sure as shit wasn’t going to be sitting there.

The Professor cleared his throat. “We’ll be starting now,” he said.

“Yeah yeah,” I muttered before bending down. Oh. There was a little clasp thing. Yeah, that made sense. I pulled on it, then the seat and desk unfolded out of the floor all nice and easy like.

“I don’t think we’re supposed to add seats,” some guy said.

“First rule of combat class,” I shot back. “Don’t do the expected thing.”

Then I sat my ass down and gestured to the professor. “Present.”

He breathed out of his nose in what might have been a laugh, but it was also perfectly deniable. “Good. Now that everyone is seated. Let’s begin. This is a special class of Combat and Tactics. We will be covering some material not usually covered, skipping some that is, and handing out far more homework than usual. If you’ve signed up for this class in particular, then you know what’s going on.”

He gestured, and the digital blackboard behind him lit up with a sort of powerpoint presentation.

“We’re skipping the history modules, the legalities of armed engagement module, and the ethics module. Instead, our first three weeks, which are usually split between the above, will be dedicated to the other two modules that we usually cover.”

Two of the remaining modules on the list were highlighted.

“Basic battlefield tactics, and physical combat. This first lesson will be on the former. Tomorrow’s class will be on the latter. Which means that when you come into class tomorrow, please bring the appropriate clothing and safety equipment. For those of you who have chosen to wear glasses, bring safety goggles. In fact, bring those anyway even if they’re not on the list, there’s always someone that gets an aug poked.”

One of the students raised a hand by the front, and Rogers pointed to him. “Will we be covering any martial art in particular?”

“The primary art taught alongside this class is Keep Safe, the corporate martial art. Obviously, that art has areas where most people find it deficient, we’ll be supplementing that with grappling, traditional wrestling, boxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and some Krav Maga. Does that answer your question?”

“Yes sir,” the student said.

I felt a nervous pit in my stomach at that. Martial arts? I’d swung a punch or two in my day, and I wasn’t exactly unfit. I had protein in my diet and everything nowadays. But against someone with formal training?

Yeah, I was gonna be swallowing my teeth. I eyed the students. It was hard to tell, from behind, but I’d safely say that the average in this room skewed towards the more fit side of the spectrum. Some of the dudes looked like they were seven feet tall and able to wrestle a train.

I opened my Aug app and added a note to myself for later. ‘Get martial arts training thing.’

There, that would do for now.

“Let’s begin with our primary focus for this semester, then,” Roger said. “Basic battlefield tactics.” Reaching over to the side of a desk, he pulled out a thin book. It wasn’t very impressive to look at. The cover was stained and the whole thing looked waterlogged. “Sun Tzu said that all warfare is based on deception. He was and is correct. Moving into the 21st century, humanity came face-to-face with an enemy that wasn’t other humans.” 𝙧𝘈₦Ǒ𐌱ΕS̩

The slide behind him changed, showing pictures of several antithesis, charging in the direction of the camera man. It had a very renaissance feel to it, the way they were all laid out to fill the frame.

“The lessons in combat and warfare that we learned previously and honed over hundreds of years were tested, and surprisingly, they were not found wanting. Our equipment needed to be changed and our attitudes adjusted, but the fundamentals of warfare remain the same. That is, that every war can be won before the first bullet is fired. Sun Tzu.”

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The screen flicked over to a list of numbered quotes.

1 – All warfare is based on deception

2 – Know thy enemy and know thyself

3 – Subdue the enemy without fighting

“Take these down, if you’re the note-taking type,” Rogers said. “All warfare is based on deception. If your enemy, be they the antithesis, another nation, a rival corporation, or rebelling workforce, knows what you’re doing, then you’re already losing. In the corporate world, that means misinformation campaigns, corporate espionage, cyberwarfare, and press manipulation. In a war against the plants, it means having functional advanced warning systems and troops ready for deployment.”

The first quote expanded, taking up the top of the powerpoint. All warfare is based on deception.

“We often paint our enemies as stupid and inefficient. They are both a menace and idiotic. A threat, and someone you can laugh at. Humans are good at holding two contradictory ideas as if they are self-evident. Most of the time, we don’t even realize it. If you approach a tactical situation with that kind of dichotomy in your knowledge, then you’re giving your foe a massive advantage. Deception means fooling your adversary. Deceptive warfare means knowing when you are being fooled, most of all by your own preconceptions.”

He reached up and the slide changed again.

“We’ll be covering three examples today, and more will be slid into your assigned reading. The first is ancient history. Operation Mincemeat, conducted in 1943. During World War II, the British needed to convince Nazi Germany that they were invading Greece and Sardinia instead of their actual target—Sicily. So what did they do? They took a dead man, dressed him up as a British officer, and loaded him with fake invasion plans. Then they dropped him in the water near Spain, where they knew the Germans would find him. The Nazis bought it. They shifted their defenses away from Sicily, sent reinforcements to the wrong locations, and left the real invasion site vulnerable. One dead body. One forged document. Thousands of lives saved. A whole war shifted. Obviously, this wasn’t the only plan similar to this. Often-times in war, you need to take a scattershot approach, attempt to deceive your enemy in several ways.”

Another slide clicked into place.

“The Black Eye War of 2041 was a competition war between Pondsmith Biotech and Arneson Cybernetics. PB was about to launch a new model of eye-based augs and Arneson was going to launch their own. The Arneson devices were about three years ahead of the curve thanks to an alliance with a local samurai who allowed them to reverse-engineer an implant.”

Rogers nodded to a student who’d raise their hand. “Is that an actual war?”

“Do you mean, were nations fighting? If so, no. Do you mean to ask if principles of warfare were used, then yes. People died, so I’d like to think it counts. The Black Eye War happened over the course of six months. Pondsmith’s intelligence bureau heard about the Arneson Cybernetics’s new eye and they launched a coordinated attack in three phases. First they hacked the Pondsmith supply chain, creating subtle reports about a defect in the product. Then they leaked the news to the public and threw up a fuss about it in the media. Finally, on Black Friday, when the new implants were both launching, they crashed Arneson’s stock with a seventeen trillion credit dump. It almost bankrupted Pondsmith to pull that off.”

“Did it work?” someone asked.

“Arneson’s stock value dropped by 62% overnight. Pondsmith acquired the company three months later, then sold the non-defective stock out for a premium. The models they sold became the most commonly used eye-aug in North America for half a decade.”

Roger switched slides.

“Now, let’s get into the big example. The 2048 Siege of Atlanta. One of the biggest successful pushbacks against an active incursion in our history. We’re going to go over this one day-by-day, and I’m going to be highlighting how the commanders in charge–that is, an army general, a PMC commander, and a pair of local samurai–managed to actively deceive the antithesis and lay out a trap that resulted in a clean-slate incursion wipe in only four days.”

I sat up in my seat. I hadn’t even realized that I was leaning forwards. Shit… maybe some folks were onto something with this learning crap.

***

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