The Recruitment: Rise of the Free Fleet

by Michael Chatfield

  “Why did you put up that charade?”

  “I want them to be confident.”

  “Why?”

  “Simply because I know them more than I know another group.” I think it was time to spin some bull, for the good of morale of course.

  “Plus, it would set back my planning for breaking out.” I wouldn’t say it was a complete lie, if I could escape I would, but the opportunities looked to be very slim indeed.

  Rick’s eyes lit up at this as he looked back at me, hope in his eyes, the hope monkey had him. Now I had to get a few more loyal to me and I could start putting a plan into action-whatever plan I came up with that is.

  The door opened to the chair room as the shower opened. One of the smallest kids, no more than seven came up to me. He probably recognized me as Salchar the gamer, and latched onto me because I was something familiar from his regular life.

  I seized up for a second as he wrapped his hands around my neck in a hug. He was so small that that his head was level with mine as I sat.

  He wiped his eyes his body shuddering as he looked at me.

  “That Huuuurt.” he said into my neck, sniffling

  Sadness tore at me as I hugged him back, patting his back, careful to miss his ports nakedness and awkwardness forgotten.

  “My name’s Salchar. What’s yours?” I said gently.

  “I’m George Everez.” He said, his body jerking from the after effects of constant, ferocious crying.

  “Well George you’ve got cool new ports don’t you?” He nodded numbly.

  “But I want my Mommy.” He said hyperventilating as if he was building up for another crying episode.

  He wrapped his arms around me as he cried silently, after a few minutes he peeled away, taking hiccuping breaths as he’d run out of steam.

  “I know George, but you got through that just now, you can get through anything.” I said with a kind smile. He looked up to me, searching for more.

  “That’ makes you like us adults.” A look filled his eyes, one of a child that didn’t understand adulthood but wanted to be one all too much. I have a feeling you’ll be an adult sooner than you think. I thought unhappily. “I need you to do something special for me.”

  “What?” He asked temporary mollified with the idea he could do something adult.

  “I want you to calm down the people as they come out of the showers.”

  “Why?” He said clearly not understanding how that was adult.

  “Then you can show how brave you are being one of the first, and they’ll stop crying too, because they’ll want to be as adult as you.” He looked at his feet, nodding.

  “I’ll help.” He said, a glimpse of a smile appearing. I grinned in reply, messing up his hair as he tried to bat me away, a grin forming on his face as I stood up.

  I wanted to cry and lash out in frustration, though it would do me no good. I needed to get my family back together, and then we would destroy these bastards, every last one of them. I kept smiling as I watched George go talk to the other kids, everyone listening to him, a few crying and others looking defeated. But there was a glimmer of hope.

  He turned to the door and walked over to it slowly as one of the younger kids came out, bawling their eyes out as well. George got them to stop within a few minutes as I felt more guilt hit me as I was using the kids just as this planetary defense force was. I just used George like these aliens did. Though I’ll do my best to keep him happy. I looked to the other kids in line. All of them happy.

  It felt like I was in the orphanage intake. That had always been a depressing place, where children were introduced to the home for one reason or another, their parents giving them up, or dying and no one else wanting them. They would cry for days, weeks and months, realizing that no one was coming for them.

  It had been a great place to set up my gaming station as no one wanted to go there for the racket. Though I found the children if they were tired of crying would find me, gathering around to watch me play video games, temporarily leaving reality behind. That was what I was getting George to make the others do. For a few minutes they could think that they didn’t want to cry in front of someone younger than them. I’d keep their minds off of what was happening by any means necessary until I could get them away from these bastards and back to their families to live out their childhoods.

  I knew, just like those kids that entered the intake at the orphanage, none of them would be the same.

  A group of kids had gathered around me, I had them telling one another their names and let them take it from there. The older ones wandered by, striking up an attempt at conversation. I made idle chat getting a few names and striking up some conversation that was essentially the same with every person.

  “So you’re Salchar eh?”

  “Yeah; the one and only, why do you ask?”

  “I watched a few of your games, remember when…” They’d talk about some fragment of a game I barely remembered and talk about how it was a brilliant win, or what they would’ve done and such. It was strange; here we were abducted and still talking like we were on Earth.

  More and more gathered as the children started asking the teenagers and adults their names, acting as if they were adults themselves giving out handshakes as if they did it all the time.

  I smiled as I studied those around me. I began heartlessly categorizing them, it was a habit from MT. The one that had charged Taleel looked to be an overgrown fifteen year old. His size made him look as if he was eighteen. I was the oldest, or looked like it; though I was far from the biggest. An Asian man with kind features that moved as if he was trained in putting people down took that spot. Have to get better acquainted, muscle is always useful.

  Then there was Yasu, ninteen and deadlier than anyone in the room. She didn’t look like it the deadly creature she truly was as I noticed her hand shaking slightly. It stopped, turning to a fist. She must have sensed my stare, a look of disgust crossing her face as I saw past her slim frame and remembered how I’d seen her fight. She straightened and walked into the implantation room without a trace of her previous nervousness.

  I was a strategist, for my skills to work I needed people; it was as simple as that. Before in MT I had been given my dream team, here I had to take these people and turn them into a tool. The implants were the first obstacle, then came building myself a team that I could use to get me out of this prison and make our abductors pay for what they’d done to us in blood.

  So far I had the kids and Rick tentatively on my side, and most of the twelve to fifteen year-olds coming over. Though there was little I could do with their small bodies, lacking in the majority of the skills I needed. They didn’t know what was going to happen, but I had a grim idea as I looked at Taleel and his enforcers—they’d be getting some of the skills I needed from them through Taleel soon enough.

  One by one people filed into the chair room; Rick quieting them as they came out of the showers. It did two things, it showed that I had Rick, a military person doing as I said. It also established a hierarchy, with me at the top. I felt guilty as I was establishing control while these kids were terrified and confused. It was the best time to make a structure. It would give them stability and affirm my position.

  I didn’t need them to know me; I just had to have them trust me to do what I told them to do. That meant I was going to have to become Salchar, not just a gamer called Salchar. It was cold reasoning, but I needed to free MT. Guilt made me want to throw up, I was just using these people.

  Maybe there’s a way to help everyone. No, I can’t there’s no surety MT will survive. I need to do this. I said, hating my own reasoning. I knew that my resolve to just save MT would crumble as I got to know these people.

  One of the last people to get nerve ports came out yelling.

  “Fuck that hurt you assholes!”

  “Don’t’ swear in front of the kids.” Rick growled as the other older teenagers gave the guy a harsh look. The younger ones looking slightly confuse
d.

  “It’s all your fucking fault,” he pointed to me as he walked up to me, he had a slim looking build, but his features and hair product put him as someone that was wealthy.

  A larger guy joined him as he walked. From their body language I could see what was going to happen, they were two scared young men, with too much anger and no one to release it on but someone else. I was the easiest target, and with my own slim build they would probably think that they had me at a disadvantage.

  Rick was beside me as I looked for somewhere to run. I only knew how to fight through an interface. I imagined them as two Mechas but I was having issues as they kept on coming, Wiry getting into my face. Shit.

  “Who even made you the boss anyway? I think we should have a vote on who should be the boss around here.” He looked past me at the others menacingly. I looked past Wiry seeing Taleel watching, interested, hell it looked like he was enjoying himself! Yasu also looked on with interest, her panther like stare watching me.

  There were two things that I had been made aware of as I joined the professional gaming circuit with Tail. One the fans were more brutal than football fans (the world version, not American). If their team lost they would find where you were and beat you up, there had been more than one incident of team members being killed because they won against another team.

  The second was that the gamers, especially those in Asia were nearly as bad as their fans. For some of them if they lost a battle, then they would have to regain their honor in another battle. For some a battle didn’t need to be fought on just Mecha Assault and instead fought in RL, or real life.

  I’d seen videos of fans trying to attack Samurai’s Revenge. This wasn’t your average team, they were all highly trained in hand to hand and knew how to handle most weapons and use them. One time when they’d defeated the top Korean team Skriver the fans had attacked them. Their bodyguards were overwhelmed so they jumped into the fray. Other than bruises and scratches they’d been fine. The opposing fans had run in fear and no one had attacked SR ever again.

  “No one.” I said, his face inches from mine. He let a sultry breath of air go as he looked away. I saw the blow coming as he turned viciously, his fist coming up. Pain lanced across my jaw as I stumbled, I used the blow to move around Wiry as I found the bruise was itchy due to the strange atmosphere, thankfully the pain of breathing had lessened, it must’ve been due to the injections and implants that had been put in my body while in the chair.

  I kept Yasu in my peripheral; I didn’t need her seeing my fighting style. If she was like me then she would need a bit of a time to see how I held myself, how I struck and defended, giving her the one up on me.

  Wiry continued to talk, turning away from me and gesturing to me, as if he had no care that I would fight back.

  “Look at the weakling, can’t even fight. Who wants a leader that can’t fight?” A sickly grin on his face as the others cowered away from him, except for the large man that had followed him.

  “I don’t.” He said, a feral grin on his face as he clenched his fists, I could see in his eyes he was just waiting to beat me up.

  Anger welled up inside me. I knew what would happen if he got control, everyone would be his slave. I had seen it before. I remembered when I had first entered a family home after I had been found to be gaming in an apartment building with no adult supervision at the age of fifteen after having hacked the adoption society and creating a fake family to get out of the cursed system.

  Look it’s that kid that wanted to live by himself, the loner.” The others in the room sniggered at the nickname. I had the feeling that it was going to stick.

  “Leave me alone.” I said putting my few possessions on my bed.” The government had taken all of my stuff, saying that they believed I had stolen it. I had found out on my Asus pad within five minutes that they were selling it online; even my characters and basic translation suit.

  There was a thud as the boy got off of his bed and three others followed him.

  “Did you just tell me what to do Loner? “He said, dragging out the word as if to rub it in my face more.

  “Just leave me alone.”

  “You think you’re kind of special huh?”

  He pushed me on the ground, his eighteen year old strength overpowering my fifteen year old skinny frame.

  I felt my face screw up. It was so unfair!

  He squatted down. “Are you going to cry now?” He said, jutting out his lower lip making his words sound babyish. I turned away as my eyes burned; his hand snaked out as he viciously brought my face to look at his.

  “You’re Loner now, Loner. You’ll do everything I say or I’ll kick your ass.”

  He threw me back down, my head cracking on the floor so hard I was dizzy.

  I stood up as I felt fury run through me. I had spent three weeks of hell in that home before I could fake transfer papers out. I’m not going to be bullied, or let you bully them. I thought, looking to the kids and the people I’d only just met.

  “You want to fight? Alright, I’ll fight; no scratching, biting, gouging or low blows. If the other taps you release.”

  “Look at you and you’re fucking stupid rules, this is real life not some video game.” He said making a show of it, jabbing a finger in my forehead and pushing me back.

  “Do you want to fight?” My blood was up; I wasn’t looking for anywhere to run now.

  “Why would I fight a cunt like you?” His eyes filled with disgust as he curled his lip.

  I reacted. My first punch connected with his stomach. His eyes bulged as he backed away. I grabbed his neck, bringing his head down fast. My knee viciously connected with his face. I felt his nose crunch against my knee as his head shot backwards. Blood was already covering his face.

  He raised his hands to his face. I needed to put him down. I kicked as he feebly attempted to block. He stumbled backwards as I advanced. I didn’t give him time to recover as my fist connected with his solar plexus. He collapsed to the floor, all of his wind forced out of his body.

  The atmosphere and his now inability to breathe turned his pain to panic. His veins bulged as he spat blood and his chest that refused to inflate.

  The bigger guy charged me, driving me into the wall I cupped my hands slapping them against his ears as he roared in pain his hands darting to them. I dropped to the floor. He turned to face me, his hands just leaving his ears. I didn’t have time to think as I stood up. Using the power of my legs and my arm I drove my fist into his chin. He had a blank look on his face as he fell backwards, unconscious. I cradled my hand, which was throbbing, looking at my attackers.

  “The hell?” Someone said as they came out of the implantation room at the two downed bullies. I walked over to the wiry one leaning down to check his breathing and putting him in the recovery position.

  I squatted down. “Challenge me anytime, next time maybe you won’t survive.” I felt disgust roll through me, I was the bully now.

  “Why are you helping him? He was going to beat you up. He said so in line.” Yasu asked calmly. Clearly trying to disrupt any control I was establishing over the others.

  “He’s still human, part of this squad. No matter what happens, we must remember that we are human. The Geneva convention says that we should care for one another. If we are enemies or not. Life is hope.”

  I stood to face everyone as I shook my hand.

  We moved out of the way of enforcers, waiting for blows as they instead grabbed the two bullies and took them to the chair.

  “Well Wiry was right about one thing. It does hurt a hell of a lot.” I said rubbing my neck nerve port for emphasis. Elation filling me as we’d escaped a beating

  Grins appeared on more than a few people’s faces.

  “Fun’s over into formation, two lines!” Taleel barked as all levity was lost as the twin enforcers began beating us back into our positions. It was clear we were seen as no more than reasonably useful cattle in their eyes.

  “Included in the im
plantation package is a kill switch and a pain implant.” Taleel said, every head in the room snapped around to face him as I felt my blood go cold.

  “The pain implant is to keep order; if you do not obey then it will be activated. It is similar to the pain prod; it activates the pain centers of your brain and body causing you to feel immense pain while having no physical damage, except on higher levels. The kill switch is used if you disobey orders and are deemed as unacceptable. Your Officers will have control of both at all times, keep that always in mind.” I reeled in shock at what he was telling us. We were like dogs with the anesthesia on a remote and a shock collar.

  “You never told us about a kill switch!” Someone yelled out, as some cried and others touched their ports in fear.