The Lord of the Plains

by Sarah Chapman

Chapter 16

  The military school was located in the central district of Astar. It was smooth and shiny, with well-equipped classrooms and smartly dressed people trotting smartly around to do smart things. The roads in this section of the city were all paved.

  On her first day, Aerlid dropped her off, as with her first day of school. He left, apprehensive.

  All the new students were gathered in a long, rectangular hall. On the floor were cushioned mats. The students stood in rows along the long side of the hall facing a fierce looking man who liked to shout. Behind him stood a row of about ten people dressed in uniform. Riley didn’t know the people around her.

  He’d been shouting for some time now. They were to report at so and so time. They were to only talk when spoken to. They were to address their teachers as ‘sir’. They were expected to continue their training in their own time. Each day when they reported in they would spend three hours exercising. Then they would learn theory of weapons and strategy. Then more exercise. Later they would be trained in the actual use of weapons. And so on and so forth…

  He stopped, eyeing them as if he didn’t like what he saw.

  ‘Pair up! Gemengs with gemengs, humans with humans.’ He roared, ‘I don’t care how you do it, I want to see you take your partner down! GO, GO, GO!’

  Everyone scattered. Riley was more than a little overwhelmed. She was tousled this way and that. Somehow she ended up facing a gemeng boy.

  ‘You’re the one who doesn’t live in the dormitories, right?’ he said, looking at her from across the mat.

  Riley nodded, wondering how he knew that.

  ‘I see. So you haven’t any training then?’

  ‘I have…’ she said slowly.

  Surprised, he said, ‘really? That’s good, you don’t want to start behind here. Are you ready?’

  Riley nodded as her eyes flicked around the room to see what the other children were doing. She’d never fought anyone but Aerlid. She felt a spark of excitement.

  The boy was coming at her. She sidestepped and tripped him. He hit the mat with an oomph.

  Riley looked down at him curiously. ‘Are you ok?’ she asked.

  He was already up and threw a punch at her jaw.

  She caught his hand, twisted, and forced him to the ground. He tried to get out of her hold. Suddenly Riley let go. In his surprise he wasn’t ready for the boot to the back she gave him.

  He sprawled on the mat for a second before springing up again.

  This time, he was more careful. He came towards her slowly, his hands in a guard position.

  Riley watched him, waiting in guard. The only part of her that moved were her eyes.

  In a move that would have received a scolding from Aerlid, as it would only work on one weaker and slower than her, she grabbed his arm and so fast he couldn’t do anything about it and flung him to the mat again.

  She beamed.

  This time he stayed on the mat.

  ‘Are you alright?’ she asked.

  He slowly got up til he was sitting on his knees. ‘Yes. I think we can safely say you beat me.’

  Riley just smiled in response.

  ‘Who trained you?’ he asked curiously.

  ‘My uncle.’ she said. Then, ‘he’s human.’ she added.

  One of the shouting man’s assistant came over to them. ‘You,’ she said, pointing at Riley. ‘You’re in Fergus’ group.’ Then he looked at the boy. ‘You’re with Major Aniggs.’

  Riley helped the boy get to his feet.

  By the time he was up the assistant was already gone.

  The boy looked around. A few pairs were still fighting. Most were standing around like they were.

  Then it was over. The assistants went and stood at various places around the hall. The shouting man announced the names of the assistants and everyone scattered to get to their group.

  Fergus was a muscular gemeng. His group consisted of seven humans and three gemengs. When everyone had arrived he asked everyone to tell him their names. ‘You’ll be working together all this year, so you should get to know each other well.’ he said. ‘Every morning you are expected to come here and exercise, we’ll discuss the routine in a moment. In the afternoons we will practice hand to hand combat. Naturally this doesn’t include Restday.’ His eyes roved over the group. ‘Any questions so far?’

  A human boy, Jann Geggis, stuck his hand in the air and at Fergus’ nod asked, ‘why are we doing this stuff? If a gemeng attacked me no amount of hand to hand training in the world is going to save me.’

  Fergus nodded. ‘Fair question. First, physical fitness is important in the army. You need to move quickly, carry heavy equipment, you have to be able to use the energy weapons without dropping them. The exercise routine is for this reason. The hand to hand combat will also improve your fitness. For the gemengs in the military, a fight with gemengs from outside Astar doesn’t mean certain death. So for them, I think you can see the benefit of learning how to fight without energy weapons. A second reason is that you need to know, deep inside, just how different gemengs are to humans. Even if they don’t look any different, they are. They are much, much stronger than you. Some young men and women do foolish things sometimes… This training will prevent that, it will teach you to understand your enemy. And for this reason humans will be paired with gemengs during training. Does that answer your question?’ he asked.

  Jann nodded.

  ‘Alright. Now during the middle of the day you won’t be with me. You’ll be learning theory with someone else. This is important, the weapons you’ll be using are complicated. You need to know how they work before you’ll be allowed to use them. You will also be taught the basics of team strategy, which you will put into practice in the second half of this year. Any questions?’

  There were none so he continued.

  ‘The exercise routine will follow hard-soft pattern, this is so you don’t tire yourself out or injure yourselves…’

  For the rest of the morning Fergus went through what the exercise routine would be. They started that day doing the soft pattern. When the time was up they all gathered at the entrance to the hall and were led by the shouting man out of that building and into another. Two exercise groups were grouped together for the theory lessons and were directed into their classrooms by the shouting man.

  Riley filed into the room with her group. A sharp looking woman stood at the front of the room. It was similar to her classroom from primary school, except nicer. It didn’t look like any of the desks were wobbly.

  Everyone settled into a desk. It was a lot more orderly than her first day at primary school. Riley didn’t particularly care where she sat, though she noticed the exercise groups tended to stick together.

  ‘Hello everyone,’ the woman at the front of the room said, her mouth pursed, ‘I am Major Berdis. I will be teaching you theory this year.’ her gaze raked over the class. ‘I expect many of you will find this boring, and will want to skip straight to using weapons. I assure you, that attitude will get your hand blown off. I am not here to coddle you however, I am here to teach. If you choose to ignore what I’m trying to teach you, that is your problem, not mine. Are we clear?’

  There was a mumbled, nervous, round of, ‘yes, sir.’ from the class.

  ‘Very good. We will start with a discussion of the basic types and capabilities of gemengs. We will then move on to a discussion of body armour. Then we will talk about hand held weapons and weapons that require supports. After that we will talk briefly on mobile weapons, including ground and air units, very briefly ocean units and remotely activated weapons. After that we will discuss the defence system of Astar, including the resource routes and the importance of the Coastside supply line. From there we will discuss strategy and techniques, on a large scale, which includes unit deployment, and then move to the small scale: the five member unit. These are things you all must know, whether you go into infantry or air, or request transfer to Coastside. After one year you will split into your r
espective fields and go through a more detailed and specific training regimen. Are we clear?’

  There was a mixture of nods and ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Very well. If you have a question, raise your hand. I tolerate no stupid questions, and contrary to what you may have heard, there are stupid questions.’

  Jann Geggis looked at her from across the mat. It was the second week of military school, and from now on gemengs would mostly be partnered with humans during training. Though not all the time; the gemengs still needed to get something out of it too.

  Jann approached Riley carefully, his guard up.

  Fighting a gemeng was one thing, but fighting a human was something else entirely.

  Fergus had had some trouble with Riley. The style Aerlid had taught her was different to the style gemeng parents taught their children, which they had learnt from their own military training. She was perfectly willing to learn another style. She just liked to mix and match the two on occasion. If her way was a more efficient, cleaner way of winning, why should she use anything else?

  As Jann approached Riley stood still as a hunter, her arms by her side.

  Jann darted in close, punched and darted back out. Riley casually brushed his strike aside and was still again.

  It was quite unnerving.

  He came in again and released two quick punches in succession before darting away. Riley stepped back and again was so still that it was hard to say she had ever been in motion.

  Jann tried to get around behind her and strike from there, but she turned, following him. He struck again. Again. A kick.

  Riley merely sidestepped.

  Jann was looking more than a little frustrated by this time.

  His only training had come from this week. He wasn’t even particularly fit, whereas Aerlid had been teaching Riley all her young life. Even had she been human, it wouldn’t have been a fair competition.

  ‘How long do I have to keep doing this?’ Jann demanded.

  ‘Until one of you wins or surrenders.’ Fergus replied.

  ‘Fine, I give up!’ Jann cried.

  ‘Very well. Krope, Geggis, you two switch.’

  Jann walked away to spar with Batar Krope’s opponent, a human girl.

  Batar was bigger than Jann, but that didn’t mean much to Riley.

  Batar was more patient than Jann however, and was content to keep throwing himself at Riley, trying different moves and approaches without a hint of frustration showing on his face.

  Batar was darting in low when a cry came from another mat. Surprised, Riley turned. Batar’s fist caught her under her chin. Riley responded automatically by taking Batar’s legs out from under him with a sweep of her leg.

  He went down without a sound.

  But he wasn’t hurt. Everyone’s attention had just turned to Maztar Lemnar and Gasann Hulin.

  ‘Do you think that’s appropriate, Maztar?’ Fergus was asking. He had a soft and gentle way of talking compared to the other adults Riley had seen at the school.

  ‘No, sir.’ Maztar’s eyes were downcast. ‘I’m sorry, Gasann.’

  ‘You’re a gemeng, Maztar. You may be stronger, but your duty is to protect your weaker comrades. Never to hurt. I pair gemengs and humans up not so one may win, but so your human comrades may learn from the experience. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes, sir, I’m sorry, sir.’

  Riley felt uneasy as Maztar helped Gasann to his feet. He had a red mark on his cheek.

  Riley looked over at Batar. Would she be in trouble now?

  Fergus instructed Gasann and Maztar to keep sparring together. Then he instructed everyone else to get back to what they were doing.

  ‘Hey, you, Meilis, are you ready?’ Batar was saying.

  Riley didn’t feel like sparring with humans anymore. ‘Um…’

  Fergus came over to them. ‘Is something wrong here?’ he asked.

  Riley didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure what to say.

  ‘I landed a hit on her, sir.’ Batar said.

  ‘And how hard was that for you, Batar?’

  He was silent for a few seconds. ‘I think I got lucky, sir.’

  Fergus nodded, satisfied. ‘Good, you may continue.’

  Batar asked her again, ‘are you ready?’

  ‘Y-yes, I’m ready.’ Riley replied.

  If Riley had been careful before, she was doubly so now.

  The first few theory classes they didn’t learn very much, they were all too busy being amazed by the Screen.

  They began each class in the regular room with Major Berdis. They then departed to a small dark room located in a different building. On the opposite wall of the small room was a square section that, while slightly different from the rest of the wall, did not look very interesting on first examination.

  That impression quickly changed.

  ‘This is the Screen. Some of you may have come here to see shows for the public. It will show you recordings of gemengs from the Plains, these images were taken by Predators.’ she said, referring to the standard fighter jet used by the air force.

  Then the square lit up. Black and white images paraded across the small space. Fields and monstrous creatures. Clouds and mountains.

  There were gasps and exclamations.

  Riley remained silent, her eyes fixed on the strange moving creatures inside the square.

  They didn’t learn much that day.

  Riley became suddenly more interested when they moved on to body armour. She had seen humans in full body armour before- though at the time she had thought they were something else entirely. She wanted to know how it worked and why, and more importantly, how she could get past such a defence.

  Major Berdis began that lesson by bringing in a suit of armour on a stand, as well as a large case. The armour mainly consisted of padding with thin plates of that strange material over it. With a sour look on her face she handed a small sample of that material to a student in the front row. ‘Pass that around.’

  She watched as the first student examined it and passed it on hurriedly before turning and striding over to her armour display. ‘You will see that body armour starts with padding, over which are plates of Reismal, which you are now examining. The Reismal provides protection against slashing attacks. You will be almost completely protected from any sharp object that strikes the Reismal. This is important, no armour affords absolute protection. The Reismal is less resistant to force than slashing, but it is still highly effective. However, you will notice from my display here that the Reismal plates cover flat areas. It has very little flexibility, and as a result joints are vulnerable. Is that clear?’

  Everyone nodded.

  She continued, ‘The padding provides further protection, mainly against the Reismal itself, which can leave a very nasty bruise if that’s the only protection you have. You will notice the helmet is made of a material that is only two parts Reismal, so that it may be manipulated more easily. Inside again, you will find padding. The visor is a flexible shield that will not shatter into your eyes if it breaks. Is that clear?’

  Again, everyone nodded.

  By now the Reismal plate was in Riley’s hand. It was cool to the touch, and smooth. She turned it over and was tempted to try breaking it. But she resisted the urge and passed it on to the next person.

  ‘This suit of armour does not provide complete protection, you will not be invulnerable if you wear it. Ideally, you should never be in a situation where you have to test the effectiveness of your Reismal. Our weapons are designed to eliminate any threat before they get close enough to launch an attack of their own. Keep this in mind.’

  ‘Now, this example is white, which isn’t very clandestine. You will find the suits used in the field are coloured to blend in with the area surrounding Astar. Are there any questions about body armour?’

  There was the sound of twenty heads shaking.

  ‘Very well…’ she gave them all suspicious looks. ‘Then we will discuss the charge used in weapons.
There are three basic grades. High grade is the charge most often used. An energy weapon loaded with this may act as if it is loaded with low or medium grade, depending on the settings. Low grade should not cause death, though in some cases it does. Medium grade is designed to kill. Understand?’

  There was excited nodding.

  ‘Most weapons can be recharged here at a military office, without inserting a new load. In combat situations if the weapon powers down, it may be reloaded on the spot. Most combat units carry one or two extra high grade charge loads with them for each individual. The internal forces carry one low and medium load, and they don’t carry extras.’

  Then she grimaced, as if it was physically painful to tell them about weaponry. ‘We will move on to the most basic personal weapon available then… This is what you will be using when you first start practicing. It is also the weapon the internal order forces use. For this reason it’s called an Order-1, and sometimes the Student.’ From a large case she pulled out a small weapon that Riley wouldn’t have recognized as a weapon if she hadn’t been told it was one. It was very clean and shiny and blocky. It looked like nothing so much as a rectangular prism with a handle stuck on at a right angle at the end. 'It is preferable to use two hands at all times while holding a weapon, particularly when using a medium grade charge, understood?' as the students nodded she continued, 'this is one of the few weapons that cannot use a high grade charge, which also makes it excellent for use in basic training, as it is unlikely you'll be able to accidentally kill each other.'

  Her eyes swept the room. ‘This weapon is unloaded. So I will pass it around. Once I have it back I will continue with a demonstration.’

  Everyone was far more excited about handling the Order-1 than the Reismal. Yet they also wanted to see Major Berdis’ demonstration, so the Order-1 was passed on quickly after a hurried examination. While this was going on Major Berdis pulled a scarred cube of metal out of her case. She set it up on a stand on one side of the room.

  When Major Berdis received the Order-1 back she gave another scathing look at the class. ‘Very well. I will begin by loading it with a low grade charge.’ Everyone watched eagerly as she expertly loaded the Order-1. She then walked to the opposite end of the room and turned to face her little cube. It wasn’t a large room, but from where Major Berdis was it looked like a small target.

  She raised her hands, she held the weapon leisurely in one hand and fired. For an instant there was a stream of light stretched across the room. Then it faded. Major Berdis walked over to her cube and held it up to the class. ‘You may observe the low grade left only a mark.’ which she wiped away as she spoke. ‘A charge should not be unloaded right after use, as it will be very hot. In a combat situation it may be necessary to do so, but not now.’

  The class waited perhaps five minutes before the Major removed the charge, which was a tube that glowed faintly gold. She then loaded another charge, which looked the same to their untrained eyes. Then she moved back to her position on the other side of the room.

  This time she held the Order-1 carefully with both hands. She fired. The weapon jerked back in her hands. The light was the same as in the previous demonstration.

  There was silence. 'Did you notice my stance and grip?'

  There was a chorus of ‘Yes, sir.’

  Major Berdis seemed marginally pleased. Casually she walked over to her cube and showed it to them. ‘As you can see, the medium grade I used is far more powerful than the low grade.’ There was an indent in the cube. The beginnings of a perfect hole burned through it.

  Sweat broke out on Riley’s skin as Major Berdis continued talking ‘There are of course grades within the grade…’ That thing, was that what was used on her in the testing centre?

  She couldn’t pay attention to the rest of the class.

  Aerlid was interested in the form of fighting they used in Astar but Riley, curiously, wasn’t particularly excited about having the chance to demonstrate.

  ‘So this is what we’re learning…’ Riley said as she demonstrated the movements and routines Fergus had taught them in a rather casual manner.

  ‘Do you not enjoy learning a new technique?’ Aerlid asked as Riley almost rushed through the movements.

  She shrugged. ‘I don’t like fighting the humans because I’m not supposed to fight them, and the other gemengs aren’t very good.’

  ‘Ah. Well I suppose that’s why they’re being taught, isn’t it?’

  She shrugged again. ‘That’s all he’s showed us.’

  ‘Well, what can you tell me about that style?’ he prompted, trying to get a bit more out of her. He, for one, was quite interested. It wasn’t based on the Akran technique, which had been a very popular unarmed fighting style. He wasn’t particularly surprised however as he’d always considered that style far too flowery and impractical. It was very impressive to watch in a theatre however.

  ‘Oh… I think it’s supposed to be used with stronger opponents, but it doesn’t work very well.’

  ‘Well you’re not exactly sparring with masters of that style, now are you?’

  She shrugged again, then her face brightened. ‘We saw this thing, it was like a play with Jeitar and Molozor except the people were really little and in this little square and they weren’t coloured.’

  He frowned. ‘We could try practicing in the style they’re teaching you. Perhaps you’d learn to appreciate it more. What do they call it?’

  She went back to being uncommunicative at the change of topic. ‘Just unarmed combat training. But I can beat them all really easily. I don’t even have to use any of the moves.’ she demonstrated with the chair by knocking it over. ‘I can just do that. I don’t want to practice that. I want to learn how to sword fight.’

  Aerlid’s face clouded. ‘Do you keep your guard up? Do you pay attention to your opponent?’

  ‘I don’t need to, they’re not very good.’ she said, not paying much attention. ‘I think we can just focus on sword fighting now.’

  ‘Riley,’ he barked.

  Startled, she looked at him.

  ‘That sort of arrogance will get you killed. I don’t care what you think of your opponent, if you get in a fight, you fight properly. You stay focussed, no matter how weak you think your opponent is. If you can’t do that, don’t get into a fight in the first place.’

  When she nodded he said, ‘I want you to repeat that to me and you’re not going to practice with your sword until I’m convinced you understand that.’

  ‘But-!’

  ‘No buts! If I have to come to your school and watch to make sure you’re staying focussed I will. Now, repeat.’