Free Fleet Box Set 1

by Michael Chatfield

  We were becoming automatons. We would do anything Taleel asked, no matter how it affected our dignity. We were never clothed and at night we slept in piles. Nudity was no longer an issue; nothing was, other than surviving.

  The only thing that mattered was not getting a seven. Seven was a dreaded number. It not only caused your nerve endings to be in complete and utter agony as if someone was pulling out every ending and fiber with pliers, but made your muscles convulse so hard that your last meal would re-appear. At eight, you would void yourself at both ends.

  After that, we never wanted to see what nine or ten would do. I still shudder inside to this day when I hear nine or ten.

  Yet through all of this pain, somehow we got to know one another. I don’t know how we found the time. We trained our bodies all day, got sleep at any time possible with the lights on, and showered—those who didn’t ran hundreds of laps, losing any chance to sleep. Even then, we were being trained. We woke up the next day knowing new ways to kill people or operate a rail gun that we’d never seen and a Mecha we’d only imagined in video games.

  After some time, we began fight training, with Taleel watching as we beat one another up. I remember the first day we started the fighting. He walked into the room.

  “As you know, causing damage to PDF will add time to your service. In fight training, this is the one time that this is null and void. You may cause any kind of damage to the PDF property you see in front of you, and no time will be added to your service.” His facial expression didn’t change as normal as we realized he was talking about each recruit.

  He wants us to beat the shit out of each other. I was reminded of the sick things that Romans and underground fighting rings did to their opponents in the arenas they set up. Now it would mean that the damage would be fixed by the medical chair. Yet, as I looked over the people in the room, I knew that any kind of punishment like that, especially from the people they were living with, would turn them against one another. The squad that I had learned about and actually bonded with would rip itself apart.

  I saw a few of the group changing after two people got punished for not trying hard enough, both receiving a four.

  People who had become close now separated themselves. I could see how the system was changing us. People stopped trusting one another. We were becoming beings who killed without remorse or regret, trying to please our masters and not be tortured. Squad mates were turning on one another with a viciousness I hadn’t seen before.

  I was sparring with the large Chinese-American guy called Chung Hoi. He’d been in the Marines since he could join before turning civilian and becoming a cop. He’d had enough of going to war zones across the world. Even for his stature, he was one of the most polite and nicest men I’d ever met. As we were sparring, I saw a violent movement out of the corner of my eye, something I automatically cataloged as bad. I turned to see.

  Annette, who had been a university athlete, twisted under and around Marco, a thirteen-year-old. He’d overextended to land a hit; she grabbed his fist as he fell. She turned it and pulled it in an odd angle across her body. His own momentum and weight were his downfall. I knew intuitively what was going to happen. Before I could say a thing, there was the unholy crack of breaking bone.

  “Stop!” I yelled as I ran from my fight to Marco, who still had his arm up. He was about to place his weight on his broken arm to get up. I bowled him over and held his shoulder, looking into his slightly wild eyes.

  “Look at me, Marco.” I could feel him moving underneath me to get to Annette, who prowled behind me. I shifted my weight so my knee was above his balls. That got his attention.

  “He’s mine, Salchar, and you know it.” Annette’s voice dripped with deadly promise. She felt invincible, god-like, and anything in her way was going to die. I knew the feeling from battles as I savored the enemy’s defeat before they knew they were defeated.

  My eyes hardened as I looked into Marco’s face. “Don’t move. Your arm is broken.”

  Realization and pain dawned at the same time as his face went white. He looked to the roof and grit his teeth. “Shit.” He growled. Pain was nothing new due to our pain implants. I patted his shoulder in reassurance as he moved to cradle his arm

  “Either move or I’ll take you out too,” Annette said, a feral look to her eyes.

  I ignored her as I checked Marco over. I heard her move her footing in order to bring her foot down to break my skull. I whirled, turning and coming up, grabbing her by the groin and lifted her into the air. Half off my shoulder, I stopped putting any power into the movement and dropped her.

  She whirled on the ground, coming up and facing me, but stopped as her eyes locked with mine.

  “Stay.” I growled in a tone that brooked no argument. She looked away, realization in her eyes. I was tied with Yasu as the deadliest fighter, though we had both never shown our full talents.

  I looked around the room. Everyone in my squad watched, even Taleel, who watched with what looked like slight interest. Hopefully it would be enough for me to say what I needed to.

  I needed to rein them in or they were going to kill one another, and any goodwill between them would be lost. I needed them to trust one another to have one another’s backs, not to kill one another. I felt shamed by the thoughts that I had. No matter how they looked, with their full adult builds and muscle that made them look like Olympians, they were, for the majority, children.

  If Taleel was making us into Mecha pilots, well then, I was going to make them my Mecha pilots. I wouldn’t see them tear one another apart.

  I felt anger well up inside me—at myself for letting it get this far, at them for letting themselves—but above all, I blamed Taleel and the PDF that had spawned him. I vowed revenge upon them again, using that fire as I yelled at everyone.

  “All right, fuck heads, this is our squad, the group that we need to trust, to have our backs no matter what, with people in it who would be willing to take a round for any other. We’re more likely to kill one another than we are to kill the enemy!

  “Get it through your fucking skulls—we need to work together or we will fucking die.”

  I let my anger show as I looked around the room. All of them lowered their gaze in understanding and anger at themselves. The children looked away in shame; the older squad members followed suit.

  Taleel and the universe won’t pull any punches. Cold resolve filled me. Neither will I, but I’ll work with them to make us ready for what this universe throws at us. I won’t turn them into automatons.

  “Working together will let us survive; working separate, by ourselves, is not only lonely but will make us weaker. You want to make it back to Earth, you work the fuck together.”

  “Yeah, but that’s in a game,” someone scoffed.

  I whirled, finding Wiry—he’d filled out his frame now, but there was still his subdued cockiness. It was obvious in his fights that he had some training, which he used with brutal efficiency.

  I turned to him, my eyes cold as the space outside of whatever we were in.

  “This isn’t,” I ground out. “This is life and death. You fail here, you will not survive. You have to be the damned best you can be or you are only killing yourself.” I looked around the room to encompass everyone in my statement. “Who here has played on a team?”

  The majority of hands went up.

  “Would any of you have succeeded without your teammates?”

  There were grumbles of no.

  “Louder!” I growled. Something seemed to possess me. I felt fire inside me. It was more than purpose—it was a belonging. This was where I was meant to be, and with these people I might be able to make something. Right then and there, I forgot my fairy-tale dream of escaping with MT back to Earth. I started to have a real plan, and it involved every damned person the PDF had taken.

  “No!” they yelled.

  I felt pride stoke the fire inside me as I pointed to each and every one of them. “This is your fucking team, mo
re than you’ve had ever before. We eat, sleep, train, and live together and we might possibly die together. Look at one another.”

  They did so.

  “This is your family; this is all we have now. We either trust one another and work together, or we don’t and end up dead.” I saw it got across to most of them, thankfully. Now I had to put my leadership on the line: either they would accept me or reject me.

  “Now, I’m not from the military or the government or anything like that. I’m a simple gamer. I know how to destroy those who go up against me. Now we have a choice to make. The way we’re going, it would be better if the human race was completely wiped out, if we’re all that remains.”

  I saw that had some impact as I turned to Annette.

  “Take him to the chair and watch,” I growled, looking to Rick. He nodded, following Annette; he’d make sure she did as I said.

  “Then what do we do about the fights?” Taylor, the young girl who I’d taken a beating for on the first day, asked.

  “We still fight. Bruises and cuts are fine; broken bones will sometimes happen, but no purposefully deadly or injuring hits. If we injure someone badly, then how can they tell you to improve when they’re in the medical chair? We need to ramp down the violence and think. Think about ways to kill your opponent and then try it out on your partner, but in a controlled manner. Anyone who doesn’t, well, I’ll tell Yasu to have fun with you and see if Taleel likes your effort.”

  I saw Yasu’s eyes flash as she stood silently at the back.

  I watched Taleel from the corner of my eye, wary of the black box in his hand.

  “I’m with Salchar. We need to work together to survive,” Yasu said in a voice that sounded as if she would rather gargle battery acid than agree with me.

  It also made me wary as I began cataloging her allies. I would have to see how they were planning to take over. It wouldn’t take much. I was pretty sure Yasu was able to beat me in a fight, easily.

  I looked around the room as people silently agreed with nods.

  “Good. Now, back to training. We won’t survive by just working together; we need to learn how to be the best at our jobs. Once we’re done training, we’ll be fighting side by side with the Sarenmenti. Are we going to prove Taleel right in letting them think of us as useless scum? Or will we make them question themselves for ever thinking that humans could be lesser warriors?” This got a few growls as I continued. “Good. Then we will train ourselves the best ways we know how. We will make our enemies tremble when they hear the humans have been sent to them.” My voice had taken on a throaty tone as more growls came from them, my squad.

  “Get back with your sparring partners, and work to improve one another. We are humans. We work together to get our goals; if we leave one behind, then we have failed. We will fail and succeed as one.” I looked over them again. Most nodded, while others vocalized their agreement.

  “Then let’s get back to it.” I moved toward them. They dispersed and I found Hoi.

  I turned from the others, feeling the air rush out of me. I felt oddly refreshed, even in the crap atmosphere.

  Hoi looked at me with a gentle smile on his face. “You did a good thing, Salchar. I think the next thing would be ranks, to give structure.”

  “Rick said that too, though I’m not going to announce myself as a leader,” I said, and I meant it. I wasn’t going to appoint myself to anything. I didn’t want power—I just wanted us to survive.

  “You already are.” Hoi gave me a serious look before he turned away. I saw Annette past him, walking behind Rick and Marco out of the chair room.

  I walked up to her as Rick and Marco walked past me.

  “With the pain implants and the fighting, I just...” She looked at the floor, shame written on her face. She looked close to tears.

  “I know. You lost yourself,” I said sympathetically, stopping her and raising her head with a finger as she fought to avoid my eyes. “We have to remember where we came from and that to survive we have to work together, not try to kill one another.”

  She nodded mutely, looking at my chest.

  “You can do it; I see that fire in you. Now you have some training to do. Teach Marco how to block—he’s all about attacking.”

  She looked down and stubbed her toe on the ground. “But he’s bigger than me. What would he want to learn from me? It was just luck.”

  “You put his ass on the ground, didn’t you?”

  Her stare became pensive. “Yes, but...”

  “You read him, and you used what skills you knew to win. You went overboard for a sparring match, but sometime in the future you might need to do what you just did.”

  She nodded mutely, seeing my logic—I hoped.

  “Doesn’t matter your size here. What matters is how you can win.”

  “Yes, Salchar.” She walked past me and began talking to Marco. After a few moments, they shook hands.

  “Enough messing around—back to fighting.” Taleel tapped a finger on his remote.

  I looked to Rick, who walked next to me as we started sparring lightly.

  “So how does Sergeant Salchar sound?” He grinned as I shook my head and grinned back as he lightly jabbed my shoulder.

  “Sounds much too lofty to me. I’m much more of a commander.”

  “And that’s not loftier?” He laughed.

  I laughed with him. “How does Sub Commander Salchar sound?”

  “I shouldn’t have asked.” He pasted a disgusted look on his face as I laughed slightly. I felt better than I had in weeks. It felt as if a weight had been lifted, as if I had freedom once again. At the same time, it was an alarming thought that if I felt I had freedom, I must have had it taken away. It was only much later in a maintenance closet with a crazed Kuruvian I learned the truth of my dismissive thoughts.

  Instead, I looked over my squad.

  Thankfully, I’d been able to stop my group from killing one another, but if it had been much longer before I talked to them, I didn’t want to think what would have happened to them. Taleel didn’t say anything as we continued on.

  Rick was a good friend and listener, plus his knowledge on technology, tactics, and most of the stuff we were learning gave me someone to talk to with utter confidence. Plus, he had been right. We did need structure and stability. Why hadn’t he stepped up, though? Or Hoi? I reflected on the future.

  Maybe Rick was right. If I’m going to pull everyone through this, then I need to be ready to do what needs to be done. If they need me to be a leader, then I will. To get them to survive, I need to be ready to sacrifice everything in order for them to be ready to do the same for me. It was a sober thought, but I knew if I wanted to keep these kids alive, I couldn’t sit back and be a zombie anymore. I had to actively motivate and lead them.

  For the remaining week and a half, we improved in leaps and bounds with our fighting classes, which went from a few hours a day to taking up the entire day. We fought in groups against one another and could fight by ourselves against multiple opponents. What my talk hadn’t driven home, the fights did.

  Since the beginning, I hadn’t trusted anyone—even Rick I kept at an arm’s distance, though no one would know it. We had three military members in the group, twelve athletes, and the rest becoming fighters. I was waiting for one of the military people to take control. Surprisingly, no one did. Wiry and his friend kept to themselves, but nothing really changed.

  Though, scarier than the military people and the rest of the squad, was Yasu. Whenever I looked in her direction, I would find her looking at me. I knew by her movements and my memories of her battles that she was trying to appear weaker than she was. Her body couldn’t hide the training that she’d undergone, the way she positioned herself for a fight or studied a person’s stance.

  I didn’t know how much later it was when I was talking about how to use a person’s power against them, between shoveling food down my throat, when Taleel strode through the door as we rushed into two lines. He was
pushing a cart of perfectly white folded things. He stopped in front of us as he walked up and down our lines, his jaws snapping in pleasure.

  “All right, today we’ll start actually training. You will participate in fights. This will happen between squads; those who don’t fight or who lose will be treated to a cycle of remedial training.”

  Whatever a cycle is in this place, I silently questioned.

  Taleel grinned, as only a four-jawed Sarenmenti could.

  “For the fights, you will have to wear battle suits. These are the Mark 1s, which were reviewed during your sleep training cycle.” He looked between us, as if trying to find someone to defy him, just to punish them.

  I avoided his stare, not wishing to bring attention to myself, but it was futile at this point.

  “Now, do Papa Taleel proud and kick their ass or I’ll make you wish you were never born.” His grin turned into something that made it look as if he were preparing to rip us apart. A chill ran through my spine as he looked at me.

  The door that led to the track opened. Lights illuminated a path to another open door. We’d all experienced the pain implants when someone was too slow to go through the opening doors, so we quickly filled the featureless room, except for a door in the opposite wall and a window above us, where Sarenmenti and races from ships’ crews watched.

  I tried to figure out the races in the room; there were purple Dasvours, heavy-worlder Orvunuts, cat-like Farsuni. It seemed half of the Union were watching the fights.

  Another squad appeared before us, the first humans I’d seen other than my own group. I felt hope rise in my chest as I searched through the ranks, looking for someone from Mecha Tail, even someone from the gaming community who I knew. After a few seconds, my hope turned into anger at myself as I’d let my hopes get too high. I found no one.

  Just another group of scared and deadly humans made to fight us, I thought angrily. I studied their faces, seeing a wildness in their eyes that scared me.