War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past

by Conner Walworth

  Your most prized possession is in the safe protection of the Waldmunt's on Demeter.

  It was signed with Armino's signature, but it wasn't specifically addressed to anyone, though Anlon had no doubt who it was intended for. It was so vague, that if someone had come across it without knowing what he knew, they wouldn't have known what it meant and surely would've thrown it out.

  Anlon walked out of the house and saw Kanti waiting by his truck. "What are you doing here Kanti?"

  She opened his passenger door. "If you're taking me with you, I need some training too. You obviously didn't do any training yet today since you dug up that box."

  "I can't bring you to training. I haven't even told Moran what happened at the District prison yet."

  "You can and you will," She shot him a smile. "You can tell Moran all about what happened with me standing right next to you. I'm sure he'll be thrilled that you got caught red handed."

  "Moran isn't going to like this," He muttered as he got in the truck. "Isn't Giustino going to be mad that you're with me?"

  "Let him be mad," she shrugged. "I'm leaving Gaea with you soon anyway. What does it matter if he's mad at me and tries to punish me?"

  "Moran will be the one he determines if you get to leave Gaea."

  "It doesn't matter what Moran says. He can't force you to not bring me along, it's ultimately your choice. I can help you, this isn't something that you'll be able to do on your own, and you have to know that by now."

  "Do you really think that it's safe for you to come with me? I mean, these are dangerous races. It's their job to hunt and kill."

  "Where else am I going to go Anlon?" She turned to him. "I have no family, I live alone, and the only person I've become friends with is about to leave Gaea to go on a mission for the Queen. I want to go with you and do something important with my life, not work in an office here on Gaea for the rest of my life," she told him. "If I die, so be it. At least I'll die doing something that means something."

  "Okay, fine. You can come with me, but don't say I didn't warn you about the danger."

  "You were actually thinking about leaving me?" She hit him on the shoulder.

  "No, I wouldn't leave you behind. I just don't think there's any chance that Moran will approve of it."

  "Yeah. Sure," Kanti rolled her eyes. "So, why exactly does Moran live in that beat up apartment complex anyway?"

  "He doesn't want people to find him."

  "But in that apartment? I'm sure he could find a better place that's still hidden from the general public. It's not like the Queen wouldn't get it for him if he requested it."

  Anlon laughed. "Who would expect anyone to actually live there?"

  "I guess you're right. I sure wouldn't expect to find someone working for the Queen there. I'd think they'd live someplace a little more appealing to the eyes and not in such plain sight."

  Anlon parked the truck outside of the apartment complex and took off his seatbelt. "Why don't you let me go in first and try to explain why you're..."

  It was too late. Kanti was already halfway to the building before he had the chance to open his door. He hopped out of the truck and ran to catch up to her.

  "Where do you train here?" She asked, looking at the building. "I really don't trust this place at all."

  "Follow me," Anlon motioned to the elevator. "Moran has a whole room designated for training."

  Kanti followed him on and he entered the code 22812B on the pad. The elevator made a noise and then lurched down.

  "Whoa! There's stuff underneath this building?" Kanti asked.

  "You wouldn't believe the stuff that's under this building."

  The door slid open and Anlon walked out into the training room. Ferris and Emer were already waiting for him with everything set up for the day.

  "He came back for more!" Ferris shouted. "I was starting to think we saw the last of you yesterday."

  "You didn't think I was going to quit on you two, now did you?" Anlon joked.

  "We didn't know what to expect kid," Ferris replied. "After yesterday, we were both prepared for anything."

  "Who's the girl in the elevator?" Emer asked, motioning her head to Kanti.

  "I'm Kanti," She introduced herself. "I'm one of Anlon's friends."

  "Why did you bring her here?" Ferris looked at him. "You're supposed to be doing this alone."

  "Uhhh," he started. "I kind of ran in to her last night and she asked if she could help me on my mission. I figured I'd bring her along for some training if she was going to come along."

  "You told her about what you're doing?" Emer exclaimed. "Are you insane?"

  "Yes. He told me," Kanti answered. "I think I can help Anlon on his mission."

  "I'm going to guess you haven't told Moran any of this because he hasn't mentioned a word of this to either one of us!" Ferris chuckled.

  "This isn't funny, Ferris!" Emer snapped. "Why would you do this Anlon? The Queen trusted you to keep this discreet. You can't just go bringing along whoever you want, that's dangerous."

  "I really think she can help," He replied, unsure if he believed the answer himself. "The Queen said I had to do it without her help. She never said I couldn't bring a trustworthy friend along with me."

  "She can't just leave Gaea, Anlon." Emer glared. "It'll raise questions and could tip off the wrong individuals that you're up to something."

  "Actually, I can," Kanti smiled. "I have no family, my only friend is Anlon, and I was about to leave anyway. No one is going to care that I leave."

  "I don't like it, but I guess we can train you," Emer studied her. "It's too late to kick you out now that you know as much as you do. There's more chance of you doing harm than good if we do that."

  "You'll train with me first today," Ferris motioned to them. "Today we're going to go over long blades and knives."

  "Awesome," Anlon smiled.

  Kanti rolled her eyes at him. I thought you were serious about this stuff."

  "What? You don't think I'm taking this seriously?"

  Ferris chuckled. "Looks like you just brought along another girl that's going to kick your butt," He grabbed two long blades off of the table and tossed one to each Anlon and Kanti. "You'll copy what I do to start."

  He picked up his own blade off of the table and started swinging it in different ways. Some were high swings while others were low swings. They started off very simple, then Ferris started adding twists and other tricks that were much harder for Anlon and Kanti to copy. Practice lasted for an hour before Ferris called it quits.

  "Now you two can practice fighting each other," Ferris grinned. "Let's see if you can beat him too sweetheart, Emer was beating up on him all day yesterday."

  Kanti and Anlon faced each other and Anlon couldn't help but smile, knowing he would easily beat Kanti. After all, it was her first day and she'd never seen any of this stuff, whereas his father had showed him bits of it every now and then.

  "What's so funny Anlon?" Kanti asked. "Is it because I'm a girl?"

  Before he could answer, she came swinging at him. He blocked the swing, but she was immediately on him again, striking low this time and knocking him completely off balance. Panic washed over him as she continued coming in a fury of blows, strike after strike with precision and ease that she hadn't demonstrated while practicing. Their dull blades came crashing together and her eyes looked into his before a grin crossed her face. Her blade dropped to the floor and she rolled away from him, pulling out a small blade.

  "I don't think you were quite ready for this," she panted. "I may have forgot to tell you I had some prior experience in knives. It didn't cross my mind to tell you earlier."

  "Great," Anlon steadied his blade and inched towards her. "Still doesn't mean that you'll beat me."

  "You still think you're going to beat me because I'm a girl?" A smile crossed her face as she circled around him. "Wouldn't be the first time someone thought that."

  He swung at her, missing completely. "No. I don't think I
'll win just because you're a girl. I think I'll win because I have more experience."

  "An hour?" She charged him, causing him to back up, and she threw her short blade in order to grab the long blade again. "I've had years of it."

  Once again, relentless blows followed, this time with grace and finesse. The blade twirled in the air as Anlon awkwardly blocked the blows any way that he could, stumbling on his feet in the process. As she lifted her blade over her head, he went for the kill strike, only to hit air as she let go of her blade and dropped to the floor. The blade landed in her hand and she jabbed his wrists causing him to instinctively drop his own blade. Kanti picked it up and spun both of them before placing them on his neck.

  "Still think girls are inferior?"

  Anlon pursed his lips. "I never said that they were."

  "You were thinking it," She dropped the blades.

  Ferris came over clapping. "Good job, Kanti. That was by far some of the best fighting I've ever witnessed. The ease you showed in swinging that blade, I'm at a loss for words," He turned to Anlon. "You'll get there someday. Until then, keep practicing and maybe she'll let you win every once and awhile to boost your confidence."

  "I almost beat her," He let out a deep breath. "She was just a little better than me."

  Kanti smiled and shook her head. "You have quite a way to go until you master the blade like me. How do you think I spent all me free time on Demeter?"

  "Enough of the fighting, Kanti won fair and square. And it wasn't even close," He led them over to the table again. "Now for some knife training. Not too much to train you on here, except how to hold the blade," he demonstrated. "You jab like this and that's about it. Everything else is just instinctual, and if you're fighting for your life, you'll know what to do," Ferris nudged Anlon. "You may want to take some queue from your girlfriend, she'll be able to help you."

  "That's knife training?" Anlon raised up his hands. "I thought you were going to teach us stuff."

  "What do you want me to do?" Ferris asked. "Show you how to stab someone? That's pretty simple to do and it seems Kanti already has all the basics down. If you do get in a fight, I suggest you hide behind her," he winked.

  "That's not funny!" Anlon crossed his arms.

  Kanti laughed. "I'll teach you what I know. He's not lying when he says it's easy to learn the basics."

  "I'll teach you some important stuff," Emer said from behind them. "Follow me."

  Anlon and Kanti followed Emer over to a different part of the room that lit up as they neared it. When the lights flickered on, an obstacle course that was enclosed in walls was revealed to them.

  "Today, I am going to teach you stealth and how to get through places without anyone knowing," Emer informed them.

  "You didn't teach him this yesterday?" Kanti snickered.

  "I should have," Emer grinned. "Seems he isn't very good at not getting caught," She walked into the opening. "I will demonstrate how to get through the obstacle course before you proceed. A screen will come up that shows you my progress, so you'll know exactly what you will be up against once you enter the simulation."

  The screen showed her creeping through hallways, always staying hidden from view. When she reached what appeared to be the end, a person came walking down the hallway. She silently took him down and dragged his lifeless body into the shadows of a corner then emerged with a key in hand, entering another area in the simulation.

  Races were walking back and forth all over a warehouse carrying out their work. She kept to the shadows as much as possible on her way through, every now and then leaving the cover of the shadows to get to a different part of the warehouse. Slowly, she made her way through the entire warehouse without raising suspicion of a single race and opened a red door to another level.

  This time she walked into crowded streets and races emerged immediately from around a corner, guns pointed directly at her. She disappeared into the crowd for cover, weaving in and out of them to avoid the pursuing races. Emer made everything look smooth and natural, hiding in the shadows just as the first few races sprinted past her. As the last one approached, she leaped out and took him out before dragging the limp body into the dark alley. She emerged from the darkness with his weapon and stalked the others from behind, taking them out once by one without the public seeing a thing. Once the last enemy was taken out the simulation flickered off and she walked out of the door.

  "That is how it's done."

  "That was great!" Kanti clapped. "You made it look so easy!"

  "Doesn't look too hard," Anlon shrugged. "How does it work?"

  "It is just a projection. Every time you saw me open a door, it was just the changing of scenery and a new level of difficulty. I made all of the levels yesterday, and those are the only ones that you're going to run through today. None are too difficult, but they're good areas to start."

  "I'll go first," Anlon walked forward.

  "No," Emer grabbed his arm. "You both go in together. If you're bringing her with you, you won't be sneaking around by yourself. You need to practice together because that's what it's going to be like when you're out on your mission. It's much more difficult for two to hide, but that's what you're going to be doing."

  Kanti walked up next to him. "Let's go, partner."

  They both walked through the door and didn't even get halfway down the hallway before an alarm started going off. Anlon had slipped out of the shadow just enough that the camera caught him, triggering the alarm.

  "Camera saw you," Came Emer's voice. "Start over."

  The scenery changed back to the office and Anlon and Kanti started over, making it all the way to the end of the hallway, only to get caught by the guard they couldn't take down quickly enough.

  "You're going to do this over and over until you get all the way through successfully," Emer's voice boomed through the simulation. "You're going to have to work together as one if you want to make it through. If even one of you tries to act alone, you will fail."

  It took Anlon and Kanti over two hours to finally make it through the entire simulation, but they accomplished it. The first level had started out with alarms to show they failed, but after that, shock guns were the punishment for failure. They hurt, but didn't do much harm to the body as they were only made to simulate the same feeling as being shot with a laser pistol. Anlon had lost count of how many times he had gotten shot, but his entire body ached in pain and he could tell by Kanti's face hers felt the same.

  "Took you two long enough. Still think it's not that hard?" She teased Anlon. "You both did good for first timers, now you need to go home and rest. Training only gets harder from here on out."

  Anlon and Kanti both smiled at Emer and walked towards the elevator, exhausted and ready to get some relaxation.

  "See you two tomorrow!" Ferris waved. "Don't forget to practice not getting beat by a girl, Anlon!"

  Anlon rolled his eyes and Kanti laughed as they entered the elevator. It lurched up and Anlon looked to her.

  "Is it what you thought it would be like?"

  "It was much worse than I imagined," Kanti said, still grimacing in pain from the shock simulators. "The blade training was fine, but those shock guns hurt after five or six times. I don't know what getting shot by a laser feels like, but I have no doubt the simulators do a good job of showing you."

  "I wasn't quite ready for the shock guns either," He rubbed his arm in one of the spots he was shot. "Now I get to tell Moran what's going on. I'm not sure how he's going to react once I tell him that you're coming along with me, so let me try to do all the talking."

  The doors slid open and Anlon bumped directly into Moran. "What is she doing here Anlon?" he asked.

  "She's coming along with me on my mission. I've already told her everything, so it's impossible for me to leave her behind now."

  Moran looked her up and down. "Okay."

  "Okay?" Anlon asked, surprised. "Just okay? No questions or objections?"

  "Nope. Just okay," he repeated.
"If you think she's a good companion to bring along, and I think she is from what I've seen of her in blade practice, then it's all up to you."

  Kanti smiled at him. "Anlon said you wouldn't want me to come."

  Moran shrugged. "I don't want to know the story behind why you're going with him. I'm sure it has something to do with him being dumb, so you can keep that to yourselves. If he wants to bring you, it's all up to him, it's his mission. I've watched you quite a bit and you can definitely handle yourself. It's not a bad decision on his part to bring you along with him."

  "Told you I would be good to bring along."

  "Did you find the Deimos Brotherhood's base?" Moran looked to Anlon.

  "They're on Erebos," he replied. "I found them tracking their ship."

  Moran stroked his chin. "Not a bad place for them to hide out. Still close to their original base. Not too much on Erebos, which leaves them with plenty of hiding places."

  "How am I going to find them?" Anlon asked. "I just know they're somewhere on the moon."

  "How are we going to find them?" Kanti corrected.

  "Scout," Moran said. "That's all you can do. Just find a place to lay low and look out for them. Their ugly heads will come out in time."

  "So we're just going to sit around and wait?" Anlon asked.

  "Mostly. You'll be using a lot of what Emer is teaching you, so pay close attention to that stuff. You'll eventually find enough information from the locals that you'll have an idea which places will be best to sneak into. Once you gain that information, it's just a matter of getting in and out successfully. Scouting isn't an easy job, but if you do it right, you'll find where their base is located."