It would take time for him to track down the Deimos Brotherhood, but he was also going to find her hidden daughter. He was on two seemingly impossible missions that would save Orion from Kirill and his plan of complete genocide of every race he deemed unworthy of existence. She wouldn't trust any other person but Anlon to fulfill these two impossible missions. She had a feeling about him, and the one thing she had learned in her reign as the Queen of Orion, it was to trust her feelings even if they were logically impossible.
Chapter 15
Anlon woke up early the next morning, eager to begin his training. Visiting the Queen had delayed his training, but after his visit he knew his training was even more vital. He opened his drawer and grabbed out the small piece of paper that Moran had given him and opened it to see what was inside.
"22812B," he read. "Doesn't sound like a floor to me."
He got in his truck and headed to Moran's apartment complex, leaving the truck out front once he arrived. The robot greeted him when he entered, which he knew alerted Moran that he was here, and he entered the elevator. Anlon looked at the keypad on the wall and typed in the code that Moran had given him, unsure of what would happen.
He felt the elevator lurch down and it continued descending for two long minutes. Once at the bottom, the elevator stopped with another lurch and the doors silently slid open to reveal nothing but darkness in front of him.
"Hello?" He asked the darkness. "Is there anyone here?"
"We're over here," A female voice replied as lights flickered on.
"We'll be your trainers," An Ovrean told him. "We've been eagerly waiting to meet you. The famed son of Armino Valens."
The Ovrean had grey, rock hard, skin and was about the same height as Anlon, but much more built and over twice his size.
"Moran told us we have a short timetable here, so we'll cut to the chase and teach you the important stuff," the Quierleon said.
She was under five feet tall and had very dark brown skin. Though she was small, her body was lean and very well built. Anlon knew from looking at these two that Moran had gone all out to make sure that he had the best trainers possible.
Anlon gazed around the room for a couple of seconds before responding to either of the races. The room was enormous and seemed to be endless from where he was standing. Everything he could see was stocked with a variety equipment: punching bags, dummies, weapons, and much more he wasn't familiar with, but knew he would be familiar with by the time he left here.
"What are we going to do today?" Anlon finally shifted his attention from the room and back to the two races.
"First, we're going to introduce ourselves properly," The Quierleon answered. "I am Emer and I came from Ares in order to train you for your mission. I have trained as a warrior my entire life. Once I'm done training you, you'll be able to fight and survive in any environment that you may find yourself in."
"Nice to meet you Emer," He held out his hand. "I appreciate you coming all the way out here to help me."
"I'm Ferris," The Ovrean held out his hand. "That's about all there is to know about me."
"Are you the same Ferris that worked with my Dad?" Anlon asked, cringing as he squeezed his hard hands.
"Yes," He nodded his head. "That's the only reason I'm helping you. I heard what happened to him and when Moran told me you wanted revenge, I had to offer my assistance. I always knew there was something wrong with that Malak."
"We both knew your father," Emer said. "We would kill the races that murdered your family ourselves, but that would be breaking orders from the Queen. She has specifically ordered us not to do anything. Your father was a very well respected man among many races, but he also had his share of enemies."
"Adira never said we couldn't help his surviving son do it though," Ferris winked. "Always a way around orders."
Anlon grinned. "I wouldn't say she would disapprove of your helping me."
"She knows you're up to this?" Ferris raised his eyebrows.
Anlon nodded. "Donnchadh has already been caught, so I've already had my chance to kill him. I decided against it."
"Why wouldn't you kill him if you had the chance?" Emer asked. "I would've done it in a heartbeat."
"The Queen gave me something more important to do; something that my father would prefer I do instead of carrying out revenge."
"Find the Deimos Brotherhood for her," Ferris said aloud.
"Exactly. That's all she wants me to do. Once I find them, she'll take care of the rest."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's start training before they can carry out another mission. You'll train with me first," Ferris called over his shoulder.
Anlon followed him further into the room and lights flickered on as they walked into the dark. The lights revealed a small gun range with a variety of weapons lying on a table next to the range. The weapons varied from small pistols, large rifles, cannon guns, and different swords and knives.
"We'll start with pistols and rifles," Ferris said, picking up one of each. "What do you know about them?"
"Not much," Anlon admitted. "But I'm a fast learner, so I'll know everything there is to know about them soon enough."
"If I didn't think you were a fast learner, I would've let someone else come and train you," he chuckled. "Armino talked all the time about how you pick up things like this. All you do, is point and shoot. Doesn't get much easier than that," he demonstrated.
Anlon watched as he aimed his pistol and hit the bull's-eye of the target. The target lit up orange where the laser had struck, informing him he had hit dead on.
"Now you try," He handed the pistol to Anlon.
Anlon aimed the pistol at the target and squeezed the trigger. He didn't hit the middle and the target informed him he had hit three rings out from the center.
"Not bad. A little more practice and you'll be a pro."
"What about all the different kinds of ammo?" Anlon asked. "There's more than just laser out there."
"Just depends what you want to do, really," Ferris answered. "That's a laser pistol like you said, which is good for close combat. It's what you'll be using more often than not in the situations you'll be in."
"What exactly does it do that makes it better than the other ammo types?"
"It's not that it's any better than the others, it's just more commonly seen. It burns through your target cleanly without much of a mess and has no blast radius upon impact. There are others like plasma, which burn your target in a sense, but it's a lot messier than a laser. There is sonic, which will blow up your target. That round is much better in open combat, unless you like being covered in guts."
"Are there any others?"
Ferris nodded. "You'll run into others here and there. Those are just the most popular types of ammo you'll find throughout Orion. You'll still find the bullet from Exodus Era, but that isn't used as much anymore, though you can find it easily and it's very cheap. It's definitely not as deadly as the others, and if you've never used one, you won't be very accurate until you get used to the kickback."
"That's what was used on me and my father," Anlon told him.
"That's unusual," Ferris said. "The Brotherhood usually only carries the most advanced equipment on the market. I don't know why they'd be carrying that, but that's probably what saved your life."
"How do I reload the pistol?" He switched the conversation to get rid of the flashbacks.
Ferris took it out of his hand. "You hit this button here on the side and the pack will pop right out. After that, just slide the new power pack in and you're all good to go. There isn't anything complicated about any of these weapons."
Anlon put a new power pack in and then aimed the pistol at the target, this time hitting the middle dead on.
"Doesn't look like you'll need to do much practicing with guns," Ferris handed him the rifle. "Try this one for a little extra practice. I doubt you'll need it if you're already hitting the middle with a pistol. Rifles are much easier to use with any ammo type
."
Anlon fired off a few rounds, hitting the center every time. The rifle was much smoother and had a laser and scope mounted on the top which made it close to impossible to miss while stationary.
"Is this the same type of reload process?" Anlon turned the rifle over.
"It is. Weapcon tries to keep everything almost the same so their weapons are easier to use," Ferris answered. "You'll run into special cases every now and then, but you can still figure them out fairly quickly."
Anlon hit the button on the side and slid a new power pack in the rifle. He fired off a few more rounds, lighting up the bull's-eye every time, and set the rifle down.
"I think you got this Anlon," Ferris put his hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you go train with Emer now, she'll have some good stuff for you that may take a little longer to master."
Anlon turned around to find Emer already approaching them. "Are you about done with Anlon? It looks like he already knows what he's doing. By the looks of it, he's a better shot than you."
Ferris pushed him forward. "He's all yours Emer, but be careful, he makes things look easy."
"Anyone can shoot a gun," Emer rolled her eyes. "But what I have to teach him is much more difficult to master. It took me years to get where I'm at."
Ferris made a face and picked up a rifle to practice shooting on his own while Anlon left with Emer.
"Follow me Anlon," She moved forward. "I'm going to teach you hand to hand combat today, which is one of the easier things that I have to teach you. The basics are the most important. Once you master what I'm about to teach you, you'll be able to add on while you're traveling with some holovideos."
Anlon jogged to keep up with her. "My father taught me some hand to hand stuff when he was home. I'm sure I already have the basics down."
"Good. Now we'll perfect what he has taught you, and add on little more since you think you know the basics. Armino was never the best at hand to hand," she winked. "We'll practice here," she stopped at a mat. "We'll start with very basic techniques, like blocking and striking. Once I think you have those down, we will add on takedown maneuvers."
Anlon practiced with Emer as she showed him a variety of different blocks, many of which he had already seen, but improved upon what he knew. She would show him and he would practice blocking her hits and kicks using techniques she had shown him. After he had learned several types of blocks, she started teaching him different basic strikes and the process repeated for close to an hour.
"What about different kicks?" he asked after learning hand to hand long enough.
"You have barely mastered different punches, do you really think you are ready for different kicks?"
"I think I have all this other stuff down," Anlon nodded. "I'm just perfecting what I already know."
Emer reluctantly started teaching him a variety of kicks that were much more difficult than any of the hits. She taught him the round kick, roundhouse, tornado kick, push kick, and others he couldn't perform no matter how hard he tried. After they had gone through all of the different kicks she folded her arms in front of her chest and grinned.
"Now, we will combine everything that you have just learned into one exercise. You and I will spar."
Anlon's eyes widened. "But I haven't gotten to practice with everything together yet! Can we keep the kicks out of this round?"
"No. You are the one who wanted to learn more than I planned for you today, " she winked. "This is how we learn on Ares, though not quite as quick as I am teaching you, but you're the one who wanted to rush things. Sparring is the only practice that will get you any better," She tossed him some gloves that fit and a cushioned helmet. "I won't hurt you too badly if that's what you're afraid is going to happen."
Anlon put the equipment on and got ready for her to come at him. It didn't start as quickly as he thought it would. She took her time and came with very basic punches and kicks that he was able to block with ease. That quickly changed as she threw a few jabs and hooks and he threw a couple back, never once coming close to hitting her. After several minutes she ran and jumped up, throwing a downwards elbow strike at him. Anlon tried to block it, but ended up falling and rolling out of the way to avoid her next flurry of strikes. He got up, but wasn't ready for the throat grab combined with a knee kick that she performed on him next.
He bent over in agonizing pain, once again letting down his guard for her to strike. She hit him with a tornado kick, followed by a spinning roundhouse which proved to be the knockout blow as he stayed on his back.
"You let a girl beat you up!" Ferris laughed from the corner of the mat.
Emer helped him up and turned to Ferris. "Just because you're a rock and the only way to beat you is to blow you up, doesn't mean you can make fun of normal races."
He shot her a glare and turned around. "Let's go Anlon. There are still a few things I have to go over with you before you leave for the day."
Emer nudged him. "You'll get better Anlon. You did well to begin, but I needed to see just how good you were. I upped the difficulty a little bit, but that's what you're going to see if you run into any of the Deimos Brotherhood's best assassins."
He smiled at her. "I'll practice more in my free time. You won't know what hit you next time we spar."
Anlon followed Ferris back over to the range where he was picking up grenades and the cannon launchers. "These big things are called cannon launchers, or grenade launchers, depending on what you load them with. They launch all types of things, so chances are you'll always have something laying around you can load them with. This should be cake for you considering how quickly you picked up pistols and rifles. It's hard to miss your target with one of these things," Ferris told him.
Anlon took the weapon from Ferris. "This thing weighs a ton."
"You'll get used to it. Just get it up on your shoulder, aim it in the general area where you want it to strike, and then squeeze the trigger."
Anlon struggled to get the massive weapon on his shoulder and aimed it at a lit target a thousand yards down the room.
"The explosion won't be as big as the real deal because I put a lower explosive ammo in it, but it'll give you a good idea of how destructive these are."
Anlon shot it and watched as the target erupted in a blue field of electricity. "What kind of ammo was that?"
"Electric shock," he answered. "Good against mechanical enemies, but it won't kill normal races. It'll knock them out for quite a bit of time, and possibly fry them, but I don't think you want to use it against anyone in the Brotherhood. I would use other ammo in here, but I'm afraid it'd bring the whole building down on us."
"Can I use the same type ammo as rifles and pistols?"
"Yeah, you can," Ferris nodded. "Like I said, you can put almost anything in it. You can put in plasma, sonic, incendiary, and anything else that someone may have designed for this."
"Why'd you grab those grenades?" Anlon asked, pointing to them.
"To show you how to use them, of course," He replied throwing one of them down the range.
It hit the ground one-hundred fifty yards away, blowing up the dummy that had been standing there moments ago. Grey smoke engulfed the area and when it subsided the dummy was completely gone.
"How do you use them?" Anlon picked one up. "There's nothing on them to activate them that I see."
"You have three safeties on them that you have to push at the same time in order to activate them," He explained, showing him where the safeties were located on the grenades. "Once you push them down, you have eight seconds before detonation. So you want to plan it out just right so your enemy doesn't have time to get away from the blast."
Anlon pushed the three safeties down with his pointer, middle, and ringer fingers, then chunked the grenade towards a dummy. It hit the ground and blew the dummy to a few small fragments.
"Not much to it. That's all we're going to teach you today," He looked down at his watch. "Long enough if you ask me."
"When do I come back?" Anl
on asked.
"Same time tomorrow," Emer answered from behind him. "We'll have everything ready for you when you get here."
"I'll see you guys then. Thanks for helping me out by the way, you don't know how much it means to me," He smiled, walking towards the elevator.
When he got on the elevator he hit one and felt it lurch up to the lobby. Moran was already waiting there for him when the doors slid open and he got out.
"How did your training go?" Moran asked with his hands on his hips.
"I'd say it went pretty good," Anlon answered. "Emer kicked my butt, but I picked up the weapons part pretty fast."
Moran laughed. "Emer has only just begun to kick your butt. You wouldn't believe the things that she can do."
"I can't wait to see what she has in store for me," Anlon forced a smile. "When do I break into the prison?"
"Tonight. Come back here right before sundown and I'll set you up with what you need."
"Can't I see the stuff now?"
Moran pushed him towards the door. "Just come here before sundown and I'll give you everything you need to get in. Right now, you need to get rest. That training wore your body out and you need to be alert for tonight."
Anlon rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'm going."
"He's been in there for a long time," Giustino muttered.
"What do you expect? He has no one else left to talk to," Kanti said. "His family was all he had on Gaea. He has absolutely no relatives that we are aware of anywhere else in Orion."
"So he decides to spend all day with some guy he didn't even know existed until his family was murdered?"
"Cut him some slack," She rolled her eyes. "You can't say you wouldn't do the same."
War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past Page 16
