We need to get some rules in place now, before people try killing one another. We’re going to need to fight together, which is not going to happen if we start being afraid other humans will kill us instead of trusting us. Anger rose in my chest. I hardly noticed the doors closing behind both squads, sealing us in together while I walked forward.
That I’m thinking of such things just shows me how far the Sarenmenti have pushed us.
With a look, I stopped the rest of my squad, except for Wiry and his sidekicks—though it was a token rebellious action as the deadlier ones of my squad stopped them with further looks.
I pointed to the window. “These bastards want to see us rip one another apart, to kill one another and do their jobs for them. They want us to stop being humans and turn into remorseless killers.”
“You talk too much. We do what they tell us or we’ll be killed. I’m not dying today,” a man from the opposite wall with a dangerous look on his face said. Well, at least he looked like a man. In the time we’d been training, everyone had been propelled into adulthood, complete with massive Defense Force muscles.
“Oh, and you’ve seen Earth, have you? Great, then can you tell us how our families are? If they’re alive? If Earth still exists?” I looked to him as anger built on his face.
“The hell does that have to do with anything?” A rawness filled his voice.
“We were kidnapped, but do you have any idea what they did after that?” I could see that this thought shocked him. To be the last humans was an incredibly lonely thought.
“Are you telling me that you want to kill off your own race just because they say so?” I pointed to the window angrily, not pausing in my tirade as I saw anger, sadness, and confusion warring on his face. “We will survive and we will reclaim Earth, but we will do so by fighting one another fairly. We will do it together, as apart we have already lost. These are my rules: no low blows, or direct attempts to break bones. If they tap, you let them go to the sides.” My voice filled with confidence I didn’t feel as I saw the deadly, drug- and synthetically-enhanced muscled killers in front of me.
I put forth my hand and looked at them all. “Do you accept?”
I saw a movement in the other squad as they parted for a heavyset man. All of them looked to him with reverence, not with the fear I’d seen when my own squad had seen the Sarenmenti. The way he walked spoke of a confidence in his weight that the younger children didn’t have. Growing so fast meant that they were awkward in their new bodies.
That meant he was one of the oldest recruits. The way he set himself as he stood an arm’s length away from me spoke of a fighter. There was a confident but calm air about him. He talked in rolling, deep tones of someone from a rural area.
“No biting or scratching?” He was even bigger than Hoi, I’d guess, as I studied him closely.
“Agreed.”
“Well then, let’s have a clean fight, Salchar.” He added my name as if it was a second thought, a good-natured grin on his face as his hand dwarfed my own.
“What’s your name?” I found his grip firm, but not crushing.
“Henry.” He pumped my arm quickly.
“There a rank with that?”
“Lance corporal.” He grinned as I smiled back.
“Well, good luck, Henry. See you after all of this, hopefully.”
His people were already organizing themselves. He’d trained them well.
I could see the observers were loving the build-up. If they hadn’t, I had the feeling my pain implant would’ve put me on the floor.
“You too, Salchar.” He turned to his people. His voice’s volume, like what I had seen in movies, seemed to fill the room.
“We’ll fight according to Salchar’s rules!” He walked back to his people, and me to mine.
I looked at my own people, calculating looks on their faces as they readied themselves for a fight. We’d come a long way from being a group of strangers scared of everything. Sure, we were scared, but at least we had people we could rely on now.
“All right, ladies—let’s get ’em!” I said. It was as if a switch was flicked as both squads rushed together in a flurry of fists. For the first time in a long time, they were able to see the fruit of what we’d been training for. Grins formed on their faces as they realized that they did know how to fight; in this arena, they weren’t defenseless, and instead they had a chance.
They had hope, and I’d need that for later.
I kept back from the front lines as I watched the two come together, frantically fighting. The rules made it better. Someone who didn’t abide by the rules was automatically pummeled by everyone. Quickly, everyone stopped breaking the rules as they saw it was a losing proposition.
Henry joined in the fight once it was clear that no one was to break the rules. I started forward into the melee, heading for Chen, who was being attacked by three fighters.
Even with the rules, people pushed the boundaries. I shook my head, thinking about what would’ve happened if we didn’t have them. I mentally patted myself as my knee collapsed from a blow behind me.
I turned as I fell so I faced my attacker. There she was, her eyes smoldering. She’d finally chosen her moment to strike—in the middle of a fight.
“How does it feel to be on your knees, Salchar?” Yasu hissed.
“Uncomfortable.” I wondered when she’d finally come after me. I stood, my fists at low guard.
“Always the one with the quips. It was one of the reasons I made Samurai’s Revenge. You have no honor. You make light of the situation and you do not act like a professional; you make a mockery of war.”
“You want to fight a war with honor? That’s cute. Do you think it was honor that drove the Sarenmenti and their leaders to capture us as children and force us to train for war? As for the rest, I don’t really care. I would have won against you in Mecha Assault Two, not because of who I was but because my team worked together, not as separate warriors like Samurai’s Revenge was.”
She kicked faster than I thought possible as I threw my legs out from under myself instead of taking the blow across the side of my knee.
I rolled away from her, bringing my arms up in a guard as her fist struck my forearms and then pummeled my stomach. I tightened my abs as I took the harsh hits. Then she twirled; her kick landed on my ear, stunning me as I stumbled sideways. I could feel blood coming from my ear as it buzzed unnaturally.
I lowered my guard, seeing her pleased look as she brought her left leg up to strike my other ear impossibly fast. I rushed forward and tackled her. Her leg was still raised; my shoulder pinned it to her. We dropped; I wrapped one leg over her remaining leg and tightened my grip.
If I were in that position, I would be crying in pain. She was flexible as a damned elastic band and as strong as a damned ox!
I moved my arms from her shoulders to her elbows so she couldn’t hit me. Still, she fought me.
“STOP,” I yelled in her face, emphasizing it by tightening my arms. “What the hell did I do to you to deserve this?” I demanded, my face inches from hers.
“You fight dishonorably with tricks instead of fighting honorably, face-to-face. You use deceit instead of using tactics.”
“Really? You do know that many of the greatest tacticians are called the greatest liars, crooks, and backstabbers also?” My eyes bore into hers.
Her eyes were cold and hard with disgust.
“Well, we’ve now fought face-to-face and I think we can both see how that went.” I rolled away into the melee, blocking against a jab. She rolled away from a foot as I kept yelling for her to hear over the screams and yells of the fighting.
“Stop being an idiot—we’re not on Earth. Rivalries don’t count here. Getting home does and we’re not going to do that if we’re stabbing each other in the back.” Iron filled my voice as I came under the guard of the girl I was fighting; a few taps to the ribs put her down. I saw Yasu’s face, her lip curled in anger.
She dispatched her a
ssailant, putting him on the ground, crying from being hit in the ears.
I smacked her in the back, disorienting her as I wrapped up her arms around her head and dropped my weight on her. “If you keep this up, I will keep tossing you around.”
Her head whipped around to face me. “You couldn’t.” She seethed in anger, struggling to free herself again, to no avail.
I brought my face to hers. She’s actually rather pretty, if in a cold, deadly sort of way. “Watch me.” My tone was wrought-iron as we locked stares. Her glare wilted after a few seconds. I pushed off her, as if disgusted.
“Now fight for your team and squad. There is no one else here who will stick up for you. Your squad is your family now.” I looked around the room, seeing that both squads had tired themselves out, and that my speech and Yasu’s antics had garnered attention, effectively stopping the fighting. Yasu got up slowly, her face red from embarrassment.
I walked back to my squad, who grinned triumphantly. The other squad did the same. They just needed to blow off some steam. I caught Henry’s eye and walked over to him.
“That’s some different kind of fighting.” Henry grinned.
“Shut up. It’s not like that.”
“Suuuuure it’s not.” His grin grew wider, which I couldn’t help but copy as I gave him a light tap on the shoulder.
“Time limit up. Squads, return to your pods,” a voice said through the speakers. My grin disappeared as I heard Taleel’s voice, which promised pain for someone.
“Come on, guys,” I said as grins disappeared and hardness filled their faces. We’d all had to change, becoming tougher and closer.
Without a word, we fell into formation and marched out of the door. There was something powerful about marching in a group, all of our movements identical, all of us one body. We came to a halt in our squad bay as Taleel walked in behind us. His jaws quivered in anger.
“You lost for fighting among yourselves. Now, time for remedial. Everyone, along the wall you came from.” Taleel marched out of the room.
My body started to get heavier and heavier as, quickly, the entire squad were on their stomachs, breathing raggedly. The speakers in the room crackled to life as Taleel began talking.
“This is two and a half times your world’s normal gravity and the air pressure has been reduced by thirty percent. To stop the remedial training, you will have to crawl to the other wall and touch it. Otherwise, you’ll be here until further training.” His voice rang with finality as the silence was filled with grunts of my fellow squad mates.
Everything was so heavy, I hadn’t noticed how used I’d gotten to the strange air till it was reduced and I felt myself passing out as I had the first day.
I began to cough as panic hit me. I’m going to pass out and then my own body will kill me. I lowered myself to the floor, succumbing to the heavy gravity and lack of air. My brain lost all logic as I fought the unseen forces in the room.
“Salchar!” I heard Rick say, but my brain didn’t process it as I thrashed like a person drowning, the light dimming from the lack of oxygen.
Ashley sobbed, trying to speak, which started her own coughing fit.
Others began crying as someone hit me in the side. Pain focused my mind as I stopped thrashing; Hyun Soo looked at me. He was twelve years old but had more composure than I did.
I felt embarrassment turning to anger at myself, at letting so many people see me so weak.
Grunting with effort, I pulled my legs under me, reaching out with my arms as I heaved myself forward, my body wracked with pain as my breathing became labored. I continued going, grunting as I did so. I had to clench muscles to move the blood around my body so I didn’t pass out. Waves of nausea hit me as I dragged/pushed myself onward.
I used the pain to take my focus away from how hard it was to breathe; pain had become familiar with Taleel. Gritting my teeth, I reveled in it as I pushed on.
I heard another trying behind me. I turned my head, which had become a chore in itself, and I saw Rick behind me.
“Can’t...let you...get...there...first...boss,” he rasped breathlessly as he heaved himself forward.
Gradually, others joined him as I turned to face the wall. I’d started out just wanting to be free of the doubled gravity for the unknown amount of time till Taleel decided we could sleep. Now, instead of selfishly wanting to get to the other side of the room to sleep, I was filled with pride. It wasn’t the kind of pride for myself but a pride that I was thankful to be with this group of people who would push themselves even if they didn’t need to. I saw their determination and their pained faces as they pushed themselves. We might have been individuals before, but now we were pushing to the other side as a team, together.
I turned to the other wall with determination and a fire to get to the other side because of the others behind me. I was now crawling so these people, my squad, could rest. When I looked into their eyes, I felt camaraderie resonate within myself and, in their eyes, a feeling that I thought that I would only have with Mecha Tail.
We’ll get through whatever you throw at us, and then, when you’re all unsuspecting, we’ll destroy you, I vowed against the Planetary Defense Force as I drove onward.
I was surprised as my hand hit something when I reached to pull myself forward. I looked up in wonder as I found the wall.
“Back.” Taleel’s voice rang through the room as I turned. Fire burned within me as my body felt as if it had been crushed by a bulldozer.
“Come...on...guys,” I hissed. I waited for them as they dragged themselves to me.
“We’ll...do...this...” I coughed, fighting to finish my sentence. “Together.” I saw determination in their eyes as they pushed onward.
Then, as they were all there—except Arthur (the one I’d named Wiry) and Dominik (the one who had charged me after I’d beaten Arthur),as well as Jen and Akashi (their followers)—I pushed off at a pace that everyone could keep up with. We focused on moving, my mind blank as I focused on pulling and pushing my body as I breathed.
Yang touched the wall first this time. As we waited on the floor, the weight lifted and the air returned to normal.
We lay there, too tired to move, as George spoke up.
“I’m forgetting my family,” he announced into the air. “I can’t remember my parents’ faces. All I can remember is that it wasn’t painful, and I wasn’t working all the time. I didn’t know half of the weapons I do now, or how to kill people with my bare hands. What will happen when I forget the life I had?” he asked.
I picked myself up slowly as I saw them looking at me. “What do you remember?”
“I remember my trike,” he said, a smile on his face as everyone looked to him.
“Who gave you the trike?”
“My dad. My mom didn’t want to get it because we didn’t have much money, but my dad found one when he was looking for parts for his car.” Seeing the attention he’d garnered, he continued.
“It wasn’t a great trike; it was actually really beaten up. Though he told me if we worked on it then it’d be the best trike ever. My dad worked on his Mustang, so he knew how to fix anything,” he said proudly, as if anyone working on a Mustang could naturally fix anything.
“He called it the third love of his life, after me and my mother. I helped him with the car, handing him tools while he helped me put my trike back together.” A grin spread across his face at the memories.
“We got the trike ready for the summer. I rode it everywhere, and then when I couldn’t, me and my dad would work on the Mustang and trike. I wanted to become a mechanic, to pull apart machines and fix them. I remember my dad’s smile at that. Even under the car, with me waiting to give him tools, I could see that smile.”
The room was silent as I saw more than one person lost in their own memories. I hadn’t seen them so relaxed since we’d begun training.
“We should all share a story of our family when we have some free time,” I said. A few surprised faces looked at me.<
br />
“That way we can all remember our families and where we came from, instead of this hellhole.” Thoughtful nods came back as people were still absorbing George’s story.
“Salchar!” Taleel entered the room. “You’re doing laps for losing me that match. Move!”
My body moved before I knew it. Obeying was now ingrained in me as I followed Taleel out to the circuit, realizing what rough shape I was in from the torture crawl.
He turned and suddenly punched me in the stomach, causing me to drop from losing all breath from my lungs and the pain that wracked my body.
“Get up!”
I did so without complaint, as he did it again.
“Get up!”
I did so. Anger raged in my eyes. I wished to snap his jaws. Instead, I brought myself to attention.
“The Mecha Corps will not coddle you or your people. You’re a leader, Salchar. You will be the one taking your squad, or a squad like them, into battle. You cannot have someone question your rule. Especially in a way that makes me lose a fight. I put seven rotations of service on the line against three other Sarenmenti. That means I will be serving for twenty-one more rotations because of your fuck-up.” He leaned toward me. His jaws snapped inches from my face as I stood at attention.
“You humans are weak. After your growth cycle, you will be stronger than a Sarenmenti, but your growth cycle is much longer than a Sarenmenti’s, meaning that you will have to teach your squad how to fight properly. I’m making you squad leader. As such, you will run three hundred laps while the others rest when you win. Eight hundred when you lose and you will endure the group punishment. Understand?”
“Yes.”
“Now get running.”
I started off on a jog, thinking.
The most powerful weapon a human has is their ability to think.
Time to Shake Things Up
I was more tired than I had ever been in my life. My muscles ached from fighting, from crawling, and from running, but I felt more alive than I had since I’d been captured.
Free Fleet Box Set 1 Page 6