by Adam Sampson
None of them were expecting the contraption to be able to jump forward eight feet on a long hinge, and so they were surprised, to say the least. Frank started swinging his mace at the head of the wooden zergling but was knocked on his back before he could connect. In moments, all six of them were on their backs, only one of them managed to hit it, but the spear to the side didn’t count as a good hit.
“All right, you are all dead. Not a great start, but it leaves us some room for improvement. Teams, switch places, it is Peter’s squad’s turn to flail about ineffectually,” Rex said.
Peter squared his shoulders and motioned his team forward. His team unlimbered their weapons quickly and Peter motioned Emma and Yoon to the sides. He put himself in the middle with Dima, Lola, and Jonas on either side. They moved forward to the same spot Frank's team had been and watched as Rex reset the contraption back to where it started.
Even though they had just seen the other squad get demolished, they were still hopeful that they would have a good showing. Peter’s squad had fought together in the field and succeeded against the real thing, they were cautious yet confident.
Their optimism was misplaced though, and seconds later all six team members lay flat on their backs. Rex laughed and told them to try again. Their team got back into position as the zergling was reset.
Peter stared intently at the wooden zergling and said to his team, “Attack as soon as it starts roaring, strike all at once.” He said this with confidence, sure that this would work.
It did not.
They did all attack as soon as the zergling gave its silent roar, but most of them extended themselves too far. Rex’s hands danced over the levers and the zergling weaved and struck out, two at a time until all six were down on the moss, groaning. If anything, they were all knocked over faster than Frank’s team.
“Excellent, much better. You are all dead of course, but you attacked first, which is great. That is the first lesson Woody here can teach you. Even if you let the zergling come to you, always attack first. You need to control the battlefield,” Rex said.
“Did you seriously just call this thing Woody?” Frank said.
“Yep, Woody the zergling, and this cute little guy is going to teach you how to kill the monsters out there. Ok, Peter’s team set up again, but before we go again I am going to show you guys a move to practice,” Rex said and left the controls to stand by them.
Starting with Emma, he showed each of them one attack. Put your feet, twist with the torso, extend here, etc. After he had shown all six, he had them go through the attack motions against the air. Rex corrected their stance and had them try again.
“Ok, close enough. Now, we are going to practice that one move against Woody here until one of you makes a good hit. It doesn’t have to be a killing blow, just a solid hit against something that isn’t armored,” Rex said and walked back to the controls. He turned to Frank's team and said, “Now, don’t think that I have forgotten your team. Y’all are next with Woody, but until then I want you to practice drawing your weapons and standing back to back. Ambush drills. If you are out in the field and a creepy crawly wants to ambush you, I want y’all to be combat ready at the drop of a hat. You need to go from weapons stowed to defensive positions at the drop of a hat. As soon as Woody here attacks, you draw your weapons and equip your shields,” Rex said.
“Everyone understand?” Rex said, getting nods all around. Then, when it seemed like Rex was still five feet away from the controls, the wooden zergling leaped forward and attacked Peter’s team. They were caught flat-footed again and all six soon found themselves bouncing across the moss. Frank's team was still unlimbering their weapons as the zergling grew still, and Rex blurred over to the slowest team member, Chris, and cut his forearm.
“Consequences, there are always consequences. Alright, reset and let’s try again,” Rex said.
This time Peter's team lasted a little longer, Jonas having blocked a strike from the zergling. It was just the one block though, they all found themselves on the ground in short order. Chris was still struggling to equip his shield and Rex blurred over once more. This time, he cut Frank’s arm.
“Hey! I wasn’t slow, that was Chris, what did you cut me for?” Frank said indignantly.
“Aren’t you his squad leader? You saw him struggling and did nothing to help him. Be a better leader,” Rex replied.
Frank swore and had Chris stand by him so he could help him out. The next attack had Peter’s squad on the ground again, but they were getting better. They dodged three attacks and a few strikes almost hit the zergling. Chris was holding his shield and sword by then, so no one got cut.
Two attacks later and Peter got a direct hit to the Zergling’s head. He was relatively sure it was a fluke but was glad to still be standing.
“Good job Peter, and with two teammates still alive. Ok, Frank’s team y’all are up. Line up, spears on the outside. Peter’s team, get ready for ambush drills,” Rex said.
Rex showed Frank's team their moves a few times, and then the zergling attacked. And attacked. And attacked. It took eight attacks before Simon had a good stab to Woody’s neck. The whole time Peter’s team was jumping into defensive positions, each of them helping their neighbor if needed.
The rest of the morning went that way, each team taking turns. As the hours went by, they saw rapid improvement, sometimes killing the zergling after just two attacks.
Lola sat on the ground panting and said, “Isn’t it lunchtime by now?”
“Yes, actually. I will go get lunch, y’all can take a break for a bit,” Rex said and walked off.
Two squads sprawled out on the soft moss, exhausted. As they lay there, they saw an alien transport fly by, the flatbed loaded large metal containers.
Emma squinted at the transport as it flew by, “What is that doing?”
Dima sat up and said, “Probably bringing food to the base. I bet they keep those things busy. If we can’t eat anything grown on Omicron, they have to ship in everything.”
“Huh,” Emma said, and lay back down. Everything was still so new and fresh, even food shipments. They would soon stop noticing the transports as it faded into the background of life on base.
Rex showed up ten minutes later with two small white boxes in his hand and said, “Good news, I got bento boxes for lunch!”
“That’s great, but what are the rest of us going to eat?” Jonas said.
“Bento boxes!” Rex said and handed out the two boxes he had. Then he reached to his side and pulled out another Bento box. He handed it out to the disbelief of the group, where had that come from?
“You get a bento box, you get a bento box, everyone gets a bento box!” Rex said as he kept producing boxes out of thin air and handing them out.
“How did you do that?” Emma asked in awe.
“I got them from my pocket... my dimensional pocket. I bought with my cuff. It is something officers can buy. I can fit up to fifty items of any size in there, as long as they can fit in this pocket,” Rex said and showed off the long slit in the side of his uniform.
“Like a bag of holding? No way!” Peter exclaimed.
“Yes way! Isn’t it awesome?” Rex said with a laugh.
The group was astounded with his pocket with magical properties, and happy with lunch. It was a tasty meal with meat and vegetables over rice and surprisingly filling.
After finishing his meal before most of the group, Peter turned to Yoon and said, “Hey Yoon, is this bento box like something you would eat at home?”
Yoon teared up and said, “Yes, actually. We call them Dosirak, and I used to make one for my son every day for lunch.” Her voice cracked with the last part and she turned away.
“Oh, I am sorry for bringing that up, Yoon. Listen, we survived the first day, that means we have a much better chance of surviving the war. I am going to make sure you make it back to your son, ok?” Peter said.
Yoon smiled through her tears and nodded. Lola reached over to comfort
her and the rest of them went back to finish their lunches. Peter kicked himself mentally and told himself to be more sensitive in the future.
After everyone was done with lunch, Rex directed both teams in front of the wooden zergling. He said, “I think we have had enough ambush drills for the day, I am going to have Woody here attack you both. There is an imaginary line down the middle the moss, and your team needs to stay on your side. Woody will jump in and engage your team, then jump back. He might jump at your team again, or he might jump at the other team. From here on out, when you get knocked down, don’t stay down. Get back up and attack again. Ready?”
The squads sprang into ready positions, knowing Rex wouldn’t wait for them to answer. It was good that they were ready for him because Rex was vicious. He controlled the wooden contraption like it was alive, the zergling shape darting forward at one squad, then jumping back when they attacked. Sometimes he would give them a few seconds respite by attacking the other squad, sometimes he jumped back at them without any pause.
They continued like this for hours, attacking without pause. Sometimes someone would stay down longer than Rex liked, and he would pause the attack to dart out and give them a shallow cut. Rex didn’t have a wide variety of motivational tools but the one he did use was rather effective.
Peter could tell everyone was frustrated with the constant abuse, but he didn’t mind. He was suffering along with everyone else, but he was secretly elated at his long lasting stamina and progress in attack skills. After just a few hours, his team was killing the zergling about half the time, and losing fewer and fewer members to imaginary deaths.
After an unbelievably long training session, the Chinese soldier returned. He carried a large black bundle over his shoulder. It looked like an enormous blanket had been rolled up and tied with a string. Rex saw him approach and spared his students further torture.
The soldier set his bundle down right by the wooden zergling and said to Rex, “Did you have fun?”
“Of course, working with that creation was a joy. I am sure that my students also had lots of fun working with the wooden zergling.”
“Heh, I am sure they did. Let's see how Woody is doing, any parts broken?”
“Nope, a few small dents, but nothing structural.”
After a quick examination, the soldier nodded and untied his bundle. It was the skin of a zergling. Not a fake one, a real zergling had been skinned and recently judging by the smell. It lay on the ground near the wooden skeleton, as if a steamroller had just been by and flattened the creature.
“Ok my little pupils, it is time to lend a helping hand. Lee Huang here will hold the head, the rest of you grab a leg or something and hold it up. I will slide Woody in beneath the skin so step back a bit. That’s it, just like that. Lola, get in there, don’t mind the smell.”
With a lot of grunting and pulling from everyone at once, they slowly dressed the wooden skeleton. When they were done, it looked like a real zergling was just resting on the moss, ready to wake up at any moment.
Lee grabbed the controls from Rex and slowly put it through its paces. When he was satisfied he said, “Congratulations, it works. This team,” he pointed at Peter’s team, “stand there and we will test it.”
Peter's team quickly grabbed their weapons off their harness and jumped into formation. Lee was not as cruel as Rex and waited until they were ready to attack.
Peter almost laughed. Lee was operating the zergling puppet at normal speeds, half the speed they had been practicing at. It was fairly easy for his team to block the first two attacks and Peter lunged forward to hit it on the weak spot on its head, “killing” it.
“Good, good. Looks like your trainer isn’t worthless after all. Now, leave here, my commander will be back soon enough,” Lee said with a shooing motion.
“Yep, back to our side folks, follow me closely,” Rex said.
Used to his antics by now, no one was caught off guard when he immediately started running, they just sprinted after him.
Once they got back to their barracks he turned to them and said, “Go ahead and wash up in the basins near the outhouses and grab your helmets from your footlockers. No need to rush, just meet me back here in 15 minutes.”
“You mean we aren't done for the day?” Frank asked in horror. His short frame seemed like it would collapse at the news.
“26 hour days my man. We still have six hours till bedtime,” Rex said with a sad smile.
They trudged back to their rooms grabbed their helmet and cleaned up from the day. Dima could be seen trying to console Frank, with little success.
To Peter’s delight, despite a day of sweating, he didn’t smell at all, the only proof he had been exercising at all was a lighter canteen strapped to his side. These uniforms were quite handy.
When everyone had returned with their helmets, Rex helped them adjust them till they fit just right. A few commented about how goofy looking they all were, but a knock to the head silenced those comments.
Rex stood in front of them with his hands behind his back and said, “Our next stop is outside the gates, we are going to go zergling hunting. This is a few days sooner than the other trainees, and I am sure many of you are nervous about going back out there so soon. Other trainers want to ease you into the realities of your new life, but I am sure they are wrong. If a horse bucks you off, you get back on right away, not a week later when you have had a chance to develop a phobia. So we are going out right now. But don’t worry, I have your backs, I won’t let anyone get seriously hurt. There isn’t anything out there that I couldn't handle single-handedly.” With a serious nod, Rex turned and started slowly jogging away.
Chapter 8
With a fast beating heart, Peter jogged after Rex. He was glad to see that the rest of the group followed. It would have been awkward if he was the only one following the trainer.
At a slow jog, they made their way south through the complex. Before too long, the metal fence appeared in the distance. They followed Rex to the gate they found there. There were two gates, one large one that could fit a few cars abreast through it, and a smaller one only slightly smaller than a regular door. The fence itself was very heavy duty, thick jagged sheets of steel crisscrossing in a weave that let you see the other side, but nothing could get through its holes. There was a small line making their way out of the gate, five small squads waiting in line to get checked out by the guard working the smaller door to the side.
“Why is there a line to get out?” Frank asked.
“Most of the animals out there are slowest this time of day. Most of them are this reverse cold-blooded thing, they are faster and more agile the colder they are. Since we have passed the hottest part of the day, most animals are resting in the shade, as lethargic as they are going to get.”
“Really? Wow.” Jonas said.
“No, not really, he just made that up,” said the woman in front of them in line. She turned around and looked at Rex and said, “This bozo here likes to make stuff up just to see if you will believe it. We are in a big complex with a lot of soldiers, there is often a line to get out, and a line to get in as long as it is safe.”
“Aww Sharon, you are ruining my fun,” Rex said with a smile.
“How you been, you old cheat?” Sharon replied.
“Been good, Thor got me this training gig, as you can see. This is my second class, and I think I am starting to get the hang of it.”
“Oh, how are Thor and the gang?”
“Just fine. Did you hear that Thor finally got his lightning strike?”
“Ha, that is awesome. He has been wanting that since before he was my trainer. Did you help him get that?” Sharon said.
“No, he got it himself. He found it in the menus last month, he has just been saving up for it for a while. He was so excited, it is way stronger than his old bolt.”
“Did he say it?”
“He did!”
Together both of them said, “God of Thunder!” and laughed.
>
When they finished laughing, Sharon asked, “So, where are you taking your newbies today?”
“We are off to E 11 today. It is pretty much hunted out, but I think we should find enough zerglings for their first time out. How about y’all?” Rex said.
“B 42, so nowhere near you. We are hunting lurkers,” Sharon said.
“Really? Bit more dangerous than you normally hunt, right?”
“Right. Jackson got his archery up to eight last week, and that is the last level eight in our squad. So we figure they are probably going to bump our squad to the next base soon. We want to get some more orbs before they ship us off to more dangerous territory.”
“Y’all are hunting dangerous prey just so you can be safer hunting dangerous prey at base B? Kinda silly logic there if you ask me.”
“Better the monster you know, than the monster you don’t.”
“Yeah, well, be safe out there.”
“You too.”
Sharon and their squad quickly went through the gate.
The guard held a tablet in one hand and a bored expression on his face. In a monotone voice he said, “Group and destination?”
“One trainer and twelve level ones hunting E11,” Rex replied, all business.
“Buzz out and be back by dark,” The guard said and pointed at a device attached to the wall at chest height near the door.
Rex turned to them and said, “Touch your cuff to this box here on your way out so they have a record of who is out hunting. That way they know who to rescue if anyone is overdue.”
They all filed out the door and a pall quickly fell over the group. In spite of Rex’s insanity, they felt safe within the base, but out here was the wilds. Out here was where they had just barely escaped death and witnessed so many others lose their lives. They looked around them, as they walked, hands ready to reach for their weapons.
Rex led them in a jog along a worn path that went almost directly south. The speed was much slower than they had been training at earlier today, and so they were able to take in the landscape as they went by.
