I heard the clicking and scraping noise of a helmet coming off behind me. I tried to turn to face my opponent. Panic filled me as I knew how limited my movement and my sight were.
“Looks like you’ve finally found your place,” Wiry said as I looked around for aid. Everyone was fighting in the middle of the room, whereas I’d never gotten there as I’d been assessing them again. There was just me and Wiry.
He stomped on my left hand and the bones cracked in my hand underneath the relatively weak armor. I screamed inside my helmet but no one could hear me.
“They’re going to find you in the middle of battle, having been viciously killed by the other team. They’ll be distraught, of course...”
I got up on my wrist and other hand. I will not die on the ground.
He kicked out my left elbow, stomping on my shoulder joint repeatedly. “And I’ll be there, saying that your own pessimistic ways got you killed. That it’s killed or be the killer, and then you know what?”
I pushed myself back onto my ass with my good hand so I could see him. There was a giddy grin on his face and his eyes shone.
“Then I’ll turn them against one another.” He took pleasure in the words, I could tell. “I’ll rip down your rules and make it so only the strongest win. Then, at the end of it, I and those loyal to me will rule the rest of the leftovers.”
“You think the others are going to let you?” I yelled.
He cupped his ear, looking confused. “I can’t quite hear you.” He turned to me, a dark look in his eyes as a snarl rested on his face. “Who cares what they think, or you? The PDF make the rules and they say the strongest win and rule.” His snarl turned hungry and sadistic.
“I’ll make sure no one hears you again.” He launched himself at me, rolling me over as he thrashed at my armor; he was beyond carefully destroying my Mecha. I could feel every punch, kick, and claw as I tried to get away. I kicked him with my good leg; he rolled and came back at me, without pause, grabbing my leg and throwing me on my face. I looked at the floor as I felt him laying into me again. Panic set in.
Repeated strikes hit my helmet, denting it; I could feel the weak and rusted armor caving as I tried to avoid the hits.
“Fuck you, Salchar,” Wiry hissed as I focused on my nerve ports, imagining and feeling as if I was throwing my right, useless arm. I felt movement as I saw it move slightly. I braced myself for what I had to do to hit him.
I gritted my teeth as I swung the dual joint. I grunted in pain, my arm broken as my limp wrist connected with something. Wiry stopped hitting me and rolled off. I tried to get myself up.
Yet Wiry seemed to be lying on me. I stopped as I saw deep crimson lines drip down my visor. Oh shit.
The ground shook with Mechas coming close, then some hands picked me up.
With my one still good arm, I pulled off my helmet with its enhanced strength. The sight before me made me want to throw up. Anger overcame shock as I threw a foot toward him, the servos useless in my leg.
“You fucking idiot! Why the fuck did you try to kill me, you stupid sounvabitch!” I yelled at the body. I turned on the now silent room. “That’s why you don’t try to kill your goddamn squad mates! Or take off your fucking helmet!” I yelled.
“Why did you kill him?” a woman demanded from the enemy squad. My squad intermingled as they looked at me.
“He tried to cave my head in,” I said savagely, throwing my helmet at her. She turned it in her hands; her eyes and those around her went wide at the damage. I turned so I looked at them all as I talked.
“This is why we have rules, people. So shit like this doesn’t happen.” I pointed to the corpse.
“I would like to amend the rules. If someone comes at you with the intent to kill, you are allowed to do everything in your power to stop them. Up to and including deadly force. As we can see, some people don’t obey the original fucking rules!” I wanted to hit and hurt something; instead, I stood there, looking at the others. Tears welled in my eyes. He’d been fifteen years old. I wanted to curl into a ball and cry. And he wanted to kill me.
“I agree that Salchar killed Wiry in self-defense. Wiry has been gunning for him since day one. I won’t say I like that another person’s dead but from the damage of the helmet and collar, you can tell he wasn’t able to see what he was going to hit. It was self-defense,” Marleen said.
“I agree,” the other squad’s leader said. No one denied it after seeing my helmet.
“Self-defense is allowed, but there has to be cause. If someone attacks another and then claims self-defense they will not have meals for two days.” I looked to the other squad leader. “Agree?”
“Yes,” she replied without hesitation.
“We automatically lose because of internal conflict.” I spat the last words in disgust as I grabbed the helmet spattered with blood, like my fist. A voice told us to separate. The dividing wall cut the squads off from one another as the door to our armory opened.
Shrift could see something was wrong by our faces but caught on as he saw my fist and the missing Mecha. “What happened?” he demanded.
“Wiry tried to kill me; broke my visor and locked up my collar so I couldn’t see anything when I countered.” I paused and gathered my thoughts. “Smashed right through his visor and killed him,” I said in a monotone voice as I slowly stripped out of my Mecha, my body numbly doing as it was trained. This is what they’re training us to do, to kill. I fought to get out of the Mecha slowly.
When I had first seen a Mecha, I had been ecstatic. I would have a real Mecha. Now I wanted nothing to do with it. I stood in front of it in my battle suit, looking at its feet.
I killed Wiry. Not the aliens or the Planetary Defense Force—I killed him. He was fifteen and I ended his life. Anger burnt through me as I looked up at the chest of my Mecha.
“Everyone into the sparring room,” Taleel said. Talking stopped immediately and we filed into the room, creating a formation in front of where Taleel stopped. “Salchar.”
I stepped forward as Shrift walked up and whispered something in Taleel’s ear. He grunted in agreement. His face looked even happy as he brought out the pain implant remote.
“Remove your clothing.”
I did so; I knew what happened if someone didn’t.
“Let’s see how long you’ll last at eight.”
There wasn’t time to register the gasps behind me as my body betrayed me and I crumpled to the ground in agony. I lost muscle control as nerve endings were set alight and seemed to be pulled from my body with pliers. Someone was screaming, I noticed, as the pain stopped.
A new expanding pain jolted me as I came back to the harsh world; fire rushed through my body.
“You just had another lifetime added to your service.” Taleel walked away.
My body writhed in pain as it set to fixing the damage caused by pain implant over-use. My mind was on another plane as I stared blankly at the Hellfire tube in front of me.
“Rick, Charles, get him showered.” I heard Shrift’s voice as I was hauled upright.
I made to complain as pain lanced through me, my nerve endings still raw, but found my voice was gone. I surmised it must’ve been me screaming as Rick and Charles carried me to the noxious showers, cleaning off my own waste I’d collapsed into.
They dressed me as my body returned to normal. I stood tentatively as Charles and Rick made sure I was okay.
“Shit man, you just died,” Rick said as I got back control of my own body.
“Huh, looks like death doesn’t want me just yet.” I felt mentally and physically drained.
“Shrift will want us back,” Charles said.
I nodded as I stood by myself. “Let’s go then,” I said, determination driving me forward. I didn’t need my people scared of their own leader and unsure at a time like this.
Rick led the way, Charles undoubtedly waiting to catch me if I fell as we made our way back into the armory.
I’m going to make the Planetary
Defense Force wish they never visited Earth, I vowed.
Until then, I would take all of the training the Planetary Defense Force had to offer me and more. I would be their recruit, the best recruit they had, and then I would destroy them. I remembered the sleep-taught lecture on the controlled systems of the Planetary Defense Force. There were thousands of planets. Quintillions of sentient creatures populated those systems, protected by trillions of Planetary Defense Force members.
They were bigger than anything I could imagine. Though it didn’t matter, I would rip it down, with sheer will if I had to.
I nodded to my squad mates, trying to look confident and energetic even though I didn’t feel it.
Taleel marched in. His eyes seemed to squint in annoyance at me. He punched me in the gut; I was too drained to do anything as he kicked me.
“Get up! You owe me eight hundred laps,” he yelled as I fought to get up. He hit me in the face.
“Move it!” he barked as I ran for the track. Bile rose in my throat. I was barely walking when I got to eight hundred laps. My body had given me better endurance, but it had also added a lot of weight.
“Armory,” Taleel said, behind me as I blindly walked to the armory.
I hid the anger welling up inside me as I continued through a full maintenance schedule.
The rest of my squad gave me looks as if to say it was all right, but there was no hiding the fear in their eyes as I focused entirely on my Mecha.
“Feel big, Salchar?” Yasu said in a light tone as I gripped my wrench harder.
“Go away, Yasu,” I said, calmly as I could.
“Why? You are going to kill me if I don’t?”
“Stop acting like a petulant child! Yes, back on Earth we played a game. A game that, at least to me, was my life. Now we’re being trained to die. That’s it. They’re showing us how to use these Mechas so that we might do something useful before we die for them. It doesn’t matter if we die—they can just pluck another person from Earth, train them and replace us.” I hit my Mecha and she was for once thankfully silent.
“We’re parts, Yasu, just parts in the Planetary Defense Force’s machine. You want to keep on threatening me—sure, go ahead. But think about this. If you threaten us and isolate yourself, who’s going to help you when you need it?”
“I don’t need help,” she barked, turning away and stomping back to her Mecha with her fists so tight her fingers turned white.
Yet there was no mistaking the fear or loneliness in those eyes. Maybe she wasn’t trying to not be one of us; maybe I was driving her away.
“Everyone needs help.” My voice was soft, filled with my exhaustion and anguish. I saw her flinch as all of the squad looked at me. None of them cried anymore. I realized they’d figured out how useless it was.
“We all have to adapt to our new reality,” I continued, not liking my own words, but believing them nonetheless. I got a bit of energy as I talked to them.
“Stop slacking. We need to learn as much as possible. The more we do, the better chance we have of surviving.” I saw acknowledgment in the older squad members’ eyes. The younger ones were still upset. I was still surprised that when they were straight up told about their situation, they couldn’t handle it. It was still a game to them.
I finished the maintenance schedule and I began helping Shrift with the movement calibrations for the Mechas. The rest of the squad were doing hand-to-hand combat with their Mechas under the guidance of Yasu. I knew I should be too but I didn’t trust myself to stay calm, making excuses to stay in the armories.
“It wasn’t your fault, James,” Rick said as I stared at a data pad blankly. He broke me out of my reverie by using my name for the first time without being prompted to by me. He put a comforting hand on my shoulder.
“I know. It’s the fault of the damned Planetary Defense Force that put us in this position. If it wasn’t for them, then Wiry would’ve never tried to kill me. It still doesn’t make it any easier.” I fought down the need to throw up as the image of his headless Mecha appeared in my mind. Instead, I focused on the data pad.
I studied Yasu.
“She’s better than me,” I said as she worked to adjust her students. She truly was a master of her trade. She was respected by all; she was as fast as I was in sleep training. I bet she even knew how to use her Mecha better than me.
“Why do you say that?”
“She should be squad leader; they need someone strong and good at this stuff to lead them.”
“James, you are too.”
“Yes, and I’m also the person who just killed one of them. I’m soft; they need someone who will force them through training.”
Rick didn’t say anything as we silently watched Yasu. After a few minutes, he looked back down at me.
“What’re you up to?” he asked, as if he could read my thoughts, looking at the lines of code before me.
After I had finished helping Shrift with the Mecha repair, I moved onto movement stuff and a small side idea I had. “Making a Mecha builder.”
“Mecha builder?”
“Instead of having to put a Mecha together and then testing how it works, this’ll allow us to see what modifications will do without having to build the thing first, just having to input the data.”
“I think your time would be better spent reassuring them. After your outburst, they’re scared.”
“I should talk to the others,” I said, getting the idea as he kept looking at me expectantly.
“Something like that.”
“All right, get the leaders.” I got up.
Quickly, the others grouped around, making me think that Rick had been planning to have the meeting whether I wanted to or not. “All right, enough moping around on my part. How is the hand-to-hand training going?”
“It’s going really well. Yasu is a great teacher, but she’s only one person. We need someone else with hand-to-hand experience to help her out.” Hoi looked at me expectantly.
“Anything else?”
“Do you really want us to stop slacking?” Abella asked.
“Yes, we need to learn all we can. I don’t know how long we’re going to spend training, but we need to use it. Once we leave here, we’re going to be fighting. I want us to survive.”
They were quiet in thought.
I broke the silence after a few moments.
“All right, I’ll see if Yasu will allow me to train. The rest of you, do confirmations and your squad’s sleep training. Get through the first-aid and start on the firearms course. Dismissed.”
They rose, going about their tasks as I went back in my Mecha. Someone had thankfully cleaned off the blood. I fixed the collar and got a replacement helmet, checking my work before I got into it. Once inside, I powered it up and moved toward the training room.
It became quiet as people stopped fighting to see what I was doing.
“What, do you think this is a yoga class? Get back to work,” I barked, walking to Yasu.
“Look over the advanced hand-to-hand combatants,” she said without looking at me, moving away to fix a beginner’s positioning.
I winced internally. I was out, but working with the higher level hand-to-hand groups would mean I would have to show them more of my moves. Thus her too, giving her an advantage in my eyes. I shrugged; she’d seen enough of my fighting skills already. I turned to my group.
“All right,” I said, giving myself some time as I remembered their previous fights and their different skills, categorizing them in my mind.
“Higher hand-to-hands here.” They came in a rush, grouping around me. They’re afraid I’ll have another outburst, I thought sadly.
“Okay, today we’re going to work on hitting vital points in your opponent’s armor to immobilize them.”
Someone raised a hand at the back of the group.
“Yes?”
“Yasu already showed us how to rapidly hit the nerve points of a person.”
“That’s a person. Seeing
as there’s only one planet of humans that we know of, we can deem that human nerve endings won’t be universal to every alien race. Mechas, on the other hand, are used by both Sarenmenti and human. Probably quite a few more races than that. With these classes, you can learn how to stop any Mecha moving.” Now I had their attention as I had Rick come forward as a test subject.
“You on test mode?”
“Yeah.”
“Now everyone pay close attention. Attack me, Rick.”
He came at me in a controlled flurry of fists. He was damn good. I was on the defense as I rolled from his punches. My leg snaked out, hitting his knee, causing him to buckle. Three punches and his elbows were locked out.
“First, Rick, you need to change up just hitting with fists. Second, with a Mecha, it’s not like your body—you can’t override a joint that doesn’t work like with a human. Nor do you feel it, and when you’re in the black, you aren’t going to know a joint is out until it doesn’t work. Always know what joints are working and not.”
We learned as we went through more fights. We learned the basics of plasma, laser, and rail guns; everything seemed to be waiting in my head for the words to unleash the information. We took apart weapons, put them back together, cleaned them and moved on. There was always something else to learn and my squad soaked it up like sponges.
“Projectile weaponry within the Planetary Defense Force is used for forty percent of engagements. For the other sixty percent, we use melee weaponry.” Taleel unsheathed his blue-green glowing daggers, displaying them in front of the squad room.
“All melee weapons are edged in static-encapsulated plasmid.” He sheathed one blade and grabbed a piece of metal.
“When the blade comes into physical contact with something, the electrostatic field is pushed away, allowing the plasmid to come into contact with the object and cut through it.” He lowered the blade, cutting the metal as if it were butter.
Free Fleet Box Set 1 Page 10
