by Adam Sampson
As they were practicing with the shields Flynn said, “How many hit points do you think this shield can absorb?”
“Huh?” said Peter
“Yeah, like I was thinking this shield is like a gorrum shield, it probably absorbs about two hundred hit points before it breaks,” Flynn said.
Peter recognized the gorrum shield from a game Simon played. He replied, “This isn’t a game Flynn. This is real life. There are a lot of factors that play into how tough we can make our shield.”
“That is where you are wrong. This absolutely is a game,” Flynn replied.
“This isn’t a game, and that kind of thinking will get people killed. Hundreds of real life people died our first day here, and they won’t be getting another life,” Peter said, wondering what was wrong with Flynn.
“People die all the time,” Flynn said with a wave of his hand, “This is a game, and this cuff here is my ticket to winning. I used to play video games all the time back home, leveling up and killing monsters. This is the same thing. I am going to min-max my skills and be the best mage the army has ever seen. The ladies will be dropping panties left and right. This is a game, and I am going to win,” Flynn said with a maniacal look in his eyes.
“Slow your roll short stuff,” Mike said, “This isn’t your fantasy. This is real life and you are just a fat slob with delusions of grandeur.”
Mike’s comment did not go over well with Flynn.
Lao Shi had to break up their fight. He wasn’t against a little pugilism, but their super powered punches and kicks were threatening to mar his building. He put Flynn and Mike in time-out, which the ladies of the class thought was particularly funny.
The next day Lau Shi taught them something mages had to worry about more than most, orb management. Each magic skill they used gained its power from orbs. The cuff siphoned off power from the orbs they had stored to power their skills. It wasn’t much, at their level they could create shields all day and it would use about an orb a week. But if they ran out of orbs to use, their cuff would start using the orbs in their body, eventually killing them. So Lau Shi made sure they knew how to read where their screens showed how many orbs they had left. They weren’t allowed to let it get to zero.
Everyone had to worry about this to some degree, even if they didn’t intentionally use skills. The passive skills of strength, speed, and constitution still slowly used orb energy. It may take months, but even a warrior that didn’t use a skill once could die from orb starvation.
This is why they couldn't go home for good. Orb energy was found on most planets in the universe, but not Earth. The celebrities that came back home to Earth never stayed home because eventually they needed to go back out there to earn orbs. A regular transfer of orbs could keep you healthy on Earth, but the trolls wouldn’t allow that. They needed the orbs for the war effort.
It hit Peter hard then. He would never go home for good. They told everyone that the first day, but this was the first time he really felt that fact. Earth was forever closed to him. A short visit was the most he could hope for.
Friday morning they heard from a friend of a friend that they would be getting new recruits soon. This made everyone in Peter’s squad think back to when they first got here. It had been seven weeks, but the memories from that first day were bad enough that all they felt was sympathy for those that were soon to be drafted.
Friday afternoon brought a surprise, everyone’s cuff sounded an alarm and urged everyone to head back to their barracks. A troll was coming for a surprise inspection. Which was weird since the trolls usually supervised the new recruits whole first day.
Chapter 16
This was Peter’s first inspection while on base, and it made him nervous. He hoped he wouldn’t see the troll. They were the reason he had been yanked from home and almost died. His life had been near constant training and stress since that day and it was all these trolls’ fault. They claimed it was all for a war the Protectorate fought to save Earth, but he had no way of knowing if that was true or not.
Plus, the trolls were super powerful and could kill him with a glance.
As he got to his barracks he saw everyone lined up with their backs to the building. Rex wasn’t there, but Ensign Butters was waiving everyone into formation. He joined the line, only a few people away from Chis and Simon. After a moment, Lola joined him on his other side. Someone up the line reminded them to stare at the troll if it happened to walk by.
They stood there at attention for a while, at least fifteen minutes. There were whispered conversations about how this seemed different than a normal inspection. Ensign Butters told them to shut up and stay at attention until they got the all clear.
A steady thumping sound was heard before it was seen. Troll feet pounded the ground, three of them abreast, followed by three humans. They were heading from the armory to the south gate and would walk right by their barracks on the way.
As they got closer, Peter could hear them talking. That low guttural voice they used grated on his ears and he wanted to look away and hide. But he stood there and stared, knowing that anything else would be a misstep in the troll's eyes.
With a shock, he realised that he could actually understand them as they talked to each other. They were still talking galactic common, but he could understand it. His translation skill must work on spoken language as well.
<... and I don’t see how they could have known it was today, we keep it random,> the one on the far end said.
Chris had gotten scared and was looking away from the trolls, flinching away as they spoke.
The troll raised its hand.
Peter yelled, “Chris, look at him, look at the troll.”
But Chris was frozen in fear.
The humans behind the trolls dashed forward to try to force Chris to look, but they were too slow.
A thundering bolt, a searing flash, and Chris was gone.
Simon yelled and jumped at the troll who killed his brother. Before he even landed a punch he too was vaporized.
Two cuffs lay on piles of ashes.
The trolls all jumped back and pointed their hands at the group of soldiers. They yelled at the soldiers, and the ranking soldiers yelled for everyone to stay still.
No one moved, a standoff where only one side had weapons.
When nothing happened after a while, one troll turned to the other and said,
The first troll just grunted and walked off, the rest following him.
Everyone started talking at once. Clara fell to the ground in front of the ashes, sobbing. Her squadmates stood around her and tried to comfort her.
Peter stood there, staring at the remains, not moving. There was a buzzing in his ears and he couldn't understand anyone around him. Tears slowly streaked down his cheeks.
White hot anger and grief poured through his body, agony of his own making. This was his fault, he should have warned Chris sooner. He could have jumped in front of Chris, or at least stopped Simon.
They were like the brothers he never had. Why did the trolls have to do that? They were just stupid teenagers. Peter started sobbing openly. The trolls went straight to lethal punishment, just for not looking at them.
After a while, Peter’s squad led him back to bed. He slept like the dead. The next morning, he refused to leave bed. Rex came by in the morning, and grieved
with them. They stayed in their room and talked about the good times with Simon and Chris, funny stories of their brief time together.
Rex explained why the trolls had been on edge. A group of Human First rebels had escaped back to Earth when the latest tribute train was coming in. The trolls had been furious, planning on killing all the rebels, but most had escaped. They were on base yesterday to try and ferret out the rest of the rebellion. As far as Rex knew, the trolls and their flunkies hadn’t found anyone, which is probably why they let out their anger on Chris and Simon.
Finally, Rex had to leave, explaining that he wasn’t their trainer anymore. He had to take care of the next group. He reminded them that they still needed to show up to their skill class training. He took Frank with him because they would need to refill their group.
Peter spent the rest of the morning grieving. He was so angry at the trolls, for killing Simon and Chris, for allowing so many of the tribute train to die, for pressing all of them into service for a war they knew nothing about. Lola tried to comfort him, but he had a hard time opening up to her, or anyone. Many reminisced about their good memories of Simon and Chris, and they brought Clara over to their room to grieve with each other.
Sitting there listening to them talk was good for Peter, it helped it not hurt so much. But he couldn't contribute. He felt guilty for not doing more to save Chris, and he felt red hot rage against the trolls. Some way, somehow, he was going to get revenge. No matter how long it took.
Chapter 17
A week later, in Lao Shi’s class, they unlocked small fireballs. It only cost three orbs, so it was a relatively cheap skill. It was also much easier for Peter to use than shields. Their teacher praised Peter on how quickly he picked up the skill.
All skills were unlocked through the cuff, but for mage skills, you had to be in the right mental state. Shields required a calm and focused mind. Fireballs were more focused and flew faster when the caster was at least a little angry. Peter made his fireball zoom across the room and explode on target his first time.
His rage against the trolls had some uses.
Still, Peter was glad that they had learned the light heal skill earlier in the week. It seemed like Flynn had a bad habit of letting the splash damage from the fireball hit his classmates. They were doing exercises specifically so that they would learn to control that splash damage, but Flynn just smiled and shrugged when he hit Peter.
There was no love lost between Peter and Flynn these days. The first day back to class after the incident, Flynn had blamed Simon and Chris’ deaths on themselves. He said they had earned their Darwin Awards. Peter had promptly decked him. Lau Shi punished Peter for an extra stan that day, and Flynn got off without punishment.
Peter still loved shooting the fireballs though. They were about the size of a baseball, and came screaming out of his hand. When he focused, he could hit any stationary target within two hundred feet. It seemed like his arm knew just where to point to hit what he was looking at, it was so intuitive for him. The rest of his class had it much harder.
The two ladies, Sofia and Olivia, were much better healers, Mike and Flynn were good with shields, and Peter was by far the best with the small fireballs. He could even curve the fireballs with enough concentration.
Walking back from class that day he stopped off at the armory. He recognized the guard at the security door outside, it was the same guard that gave Rex a hard time their first day. There weren’t many bald fat guys on duty around here so it was easy to tell it was the same guy.
“Hey there, it’s Dave right?” Peter said.
“Yeah, I’m Dave. Do I know you?”
Peter shifted back and forth, “Not really, we just met that once. I was wondering if you meant what you said, that we were slaves to the trolls.”
Dave looked at him suspiciously, “What are you talking about?”
“I just wanted to talk about the bastard trolls, I thought you would appreciate that after what you said last time,” Peter said.
“Look kid, maybe you should get going,”
Peter looked at him angrily, “Look, some trolls came and just killed my friends the other day, they just killed them. They were kids, they didn’t do anything wrong. The trolls have to pay, and it seems like Humans First is the only ones willing to do something about it. If you don’t know anything, I don’t know who would.” The words just tumbled out. Peter realized that he would make a terrible secret agent, but he couldn't just beat around the bush anymore.
Dave looked more compassionate after hearing about Simon and Chris’s death, “It sucks losing a friend. I have been there,” he looked around for a bit, “I don’t know anything about Humans First.” Seeing Peter’s crestfallen face prompted Dave to continue, “If I had to guess, I would guess that they only take level eights and above. Maybe start talking to people after you get stronger.”
“Level eight?” Peter said.
“Yeah, maybe, I don’t know. I am just supposed to guard around here. Get going,” Dave said and shooed him away.
...
The next Friday Peter’s squad was scheduled for their first real hunt alone. They had been hunting shortly after Simon’s death but had only hunted adolescent zerglings. Although it was a trip without Rex, it didn’t really count as their first hunt. With their current skills, the zerglings hadn’t been a challenge, let alone a danger. They got their three orbs each and left for the day. This time they were hunting the saber-tooth monkeys. Peter plotted their path and Lola said she would teach them how to kill the buggers.
Friday morning came and ten minutes before they were to leave, Peter was missing. The squad split up to check the usual places but didn’t find him.
Lola eventually found him on the roof of their barracks building. There weren’t any stairs, but at this point all of them could easily jump the fifteen feet up to the roof. Peter was sitting on the southern corner staring off into space.
“Hey Peter. You doing alright?” Lola asked.
This startled him out of his revery. Standing up and brushing off his pants he said, “Yeah, I am fine. I just needed some time to think,” Peter replied.
“What about?” she asked.
Peter glanced at her, trying to decide how honest he wanted to be with her. They were getting closer, but opening up was never easy. He took a big breath, let it out slowly, and said, “I am scared.”
Sitting back down on the roof, Peter continued, “I am scared to lead the team. Every day out here we are in danger of getting killed, and I have gotten used to that. But now I have to worry about everyone else’s lives too. Up till now Rex was in charge, he was the safety net, but now I am in charge. I am responsible if anyone gets killed.”
Lola sat down next to him on the roof and just listened as Peter continued, “They want us to spread our wings and fly the first time out of the nest. We got a movie and training and wooden contraptions to learn how to kill zerglings. But now we are going to just go out there and kill them? Just like that? The last time I saw one of these things, it almost killed me. I don’t know if I could take it if it killed someone on the squad. If it killed you.”
Lola wrapped one arm around Peter tilted her head to rest on his shoulder, “It is tough being a leader. It is a lot of responsibility that I certainly don’t want. I am sorry that you don’t have much choice in the matter,” Lola turned and looked him in the eyes as she continued, “But if anyone is going to lead us to victory, it is you. You are an excellent leader. Our squad is heads and shoulders above the other squads because of your leadership. You know how to get the best out of us. And that’s the other thing. You aren't alone, we are all working together. We have faith in you Peter, and you need to remember to have faith in us too. We can do this.”
Peter smiled and said, “Thanks Lola. That means a lot to me. And I have to admit, I have lots of fun ideas for what to do with the orbs we earn hunting.”
Lola reached around, grabbed the back of his head and pulled him in for a long
kiss. “Go get ‘em, tiger.”
Hopping off the roof, they found the squad and headed towards the hunting grounds with Peter’s cuff acting as a GPS. They went to the edge of the closest knife forest but stopped before the sapphire blue leaves reached above their heads. Then he let Lola take over.
Lola had brought some bait, fresh monster meat, and was throwing it around them in a large circle. It wasn’t zergling meat though, nothing ate zergling meat.
Lola cleared her throat and said, “Ok, so here are the rules when hunting the Smilodon Ateles, better known as the saber-tooth monkeys. I don’t know why we call them monkeys though, they look more like spiders with fur if you ask me.
“Anyway, the meat should draw them in, and we attack them. We need to keep an eye out for more saber-tooth monkeys joining the fight since they live in packs. They like to ambush from the heights so that is why we are at the edge of the forest, so they can’t get the drop on us.
“You don’t have to worry about weak points, their skin isn’t as tough as the zerglings. But you do want to keep clear of their teeth and claws. They have a weak poison on them.”
“Ug, really? Does everything on this stupid planet have to suck balls?” Jonas groaned.
Peter smiled and said, “I have a light heal that should take care of their poison, but try not to get hit. Alright, today Lola and I will be using our ranged skills from behind, mostly to draw the monsters in. Don’t jump out of position, you would jump into our line of fire. Speaking of which, Yoon and Emma up front, Dima and Jonas to the sides behind.”
They stood around waiting for more than a half stan before the bait started showing results. They just sat or knelt in the forest, hiding from their prey, careful not to touch the bladed leaves around them. A small saber-tooth monkey appeared at the edge of the forest, sniffing the air a bit. Peter was considering whether or not he could hit it from this range when it suddenly sprouted a round wound in its side. Lola had shot the beast from at least three hundred feet away. Not too bad for a slingshot, even if it was military grade and all metal.
