Shrift silenced Taleel with a motion as the human got another tool from the drawers. Shrift recognized it as an expanding wrench. He shrugged looking to the other humans.
“George give me a hand.” Another human went, holding the wrench in position as the first opened it.
The opening jaws pushed the magnetic fields acting on the joint out of position. Shrift grinned, his mentor would be pleased, and it seemed that these humans at least had a few more brain cells to rub together than their Sarenmenti trainers. The second held the wrench as the first applied the crowbar.
“Smart.” Shrift said approvingly as he came up to observe the work. The human used the crowbar to pop out the magnetic bearing from its counter acting upper and lower leg rings, catching it as it came out.
Shrift pulled the new one off of his belt and slotted it in place.
“Release the clamp.” The second human did so as Shrift pulled a universal jack cord from his belt attached to his own in the palm of his hand, and to the Mecha as reams of information passed across his eyes, symbolizing the Mecha’s.
“She’s all aligned.” Shrift said with a grin. “What’s your name?”
“Salchar.” The human put his hand forward obviously wanting a returning gesture.
“Shrift, the armourer and the guy that puts everything back together after you’ve broken it.” He said pointedly, his three fingered hand clasping the humans who shook it briefly before releasing it.
Shrift thought it an odd gesture.
“And George?”
“Yes Mr. Shrift.” Shrift repeated the arm pumping gesture.
“No need for that Mister stuff here.”
“Leave them with me Taleel.” The Sarenmenti officer made a show of taking the pain implant control off of his belt and giving it to Shrift.
“I will expect a report on their actions as I retrieve them.”
“Certainly.” Shrift took the remote, just able to hide his disgust as his carapace shifted in anger and annoyance.
Taleel turned and stomped out of the room, the hatch sealing behind him.
“Thank god that Voshuna’s gone.” Shrift said sourly as he threw the remote by his tools drawers like the garbage it was.
The squad looked at him with curiosity, probably trying to see if his throwing away the remote was a rouse or not.
“I’m not going to use that thing.” He said at the accusatory stares. None of them believed him. He was going to have to build their trust it seemed. He huffed, they had time to get acquainted, soon they’d be fighting with Mechas which meant that they would be spending increasingly more time with him putting back together what they broke, or in the medical chairs getting put back together themselves.
He was going to give them the tools that they’d need to stay out of that dammed chair, and tell death to take a hike.
Salchar joined the squad staying at the front as they became a half circle Shrift able to see them all. He studied them and their hands as well as their eyes. Most of them looked like they worked with their hands and there was a spark of something in their eyes. Hopefully it was intelligence! Realizing how long he and the humans had been studying one another he gritted his vocal sacks
“Alright Humans! Listen up as I’ll say this once. LOOK AFTER YOUR DAMNED MECHA’S!” He yelled at everyone hiding a grin as they looked shocked at the volume he was able to produce from such a small frame. Shrift mentally patted himself and thanked his mentor Eddie, now that was a Kuruvian that could shout! This might even be interesting he thought, even after the way his teacher had practically forced him to take the armourers position, instead of remaining an engine tech on the Golden Refuge.
“Gather around.” Shrift jacked in with his universal port/finger to a control panel as a Mecha rotated down from one of the racks. He stood in front of it as the humans stared at it. Most with blind awe at its deadly lines, just a handful actually trying to glean the secrets the dark grey Mecha held.
“A Mecha will keep you alive and your enemy dead, without it you will die in most habitats, like say space. Your Mecha is your second skin, you keep it working or you will DIE! Saying that it’s not your personal damned bumper car!”
“Seeing as your testing says you are smart enough to comprehend more than a Sarenmenti. I’m going to put you on your own suit maintenance. Any damage you do to scrap bots while you’re fighting with them you’ll fix!” Shrift said with a happy smile, the humans faces turning from confusion to unhappiness at the new job they faced.
“As your basic physical training, hand to hand and weapon identification is complete. Your sleep training will now consist of Mecha maintenance and repair!” A few faces showed interest. Who knows maybe I can turn some of these humans into engineers! Shrift thought, as he hid a shiver of excitement. If Kuruvians liked anything more than taking something apart and putting it back together to understand how it works, they liked to share information. Shrift accessed their training schedule through his implants and removed some garbage slotting in the maintenance and repair.
“Now gather around and listen up I won’t say this again!
He pressed a button on a panel that brought forward a Mecha from the racks behind it. It looked like a human made from metal sheeting. There were no flourishes or accents. It was built to keep it’s user alive, and their enemies dead. It’s visor was a blackened material.
While it was deadly, it was also exciting. It gave everyone who saw it a sense of power. Everyone that wasn’t in it’s way.
“Your Mecha enhances your strength and agility. It’s also armoured and can work in any damned environment you can find, including space. Its internal batteries will give you two days’ worth of power fighting full out. The Mechas also connect directly with your nerve ports to co-ordinate to your movements. Which means if your organics become compromised, say a breach in space on your arm, your nerve ports will turn your normal movement into action as if the Mecha wasn’t breached and your arm wasn’t expanding massively. It will take some time to map your neural pathways and what mitigates a response, but once we have that then we can upload it to every Mecha you’re in.” He paused to let them absorb this.
“Now each of you will be getting a Mecha as well as the battle suit you’re wearing. The battle suit has an auto tourniquet feature, which also works when the Mecha is breached, and a medical emergency capability. Now make an orderly line, smallest first!” He jacked in again as he guessed the humans sizes in front of him and a Mecha rotated down.
“Follow it.” The Mecha went to the bay, the human following it diligently. Shrift repeated the process for all of them.
“Now time to put the Mecha on, I want to make sure that it fits, though through your training you will change so I will not be making any solid changes.”
He then used Salchar as a demonstration for getting the Mecha on. Once they’d done it for the first time he had then repeat it for hours until he was pleased for the day. He passed out the extra battle suits which they put with their Mechas in their assigned lockers they’d come to call ‘coffins’
“Alright tomorrow we’ll begin with Mecha training. It’s mostly to get you acquainted with the machines, and to map your neural pathways.” Salchar guided them out as another squad came in a few minutes later.
He ran through the same things as they left. Shrift was able to get in a small nap, taking wake-up before Salchar’s squad returned. Taleel stayed this time, which agitated Shrift.
Shrift watched them get suited up with now semi-proficient hands. In fifteen minutes they were ready. He felt proud even as he knew what coming.
“We’re going to need to make that faster.” Taleel said, Shrift couldn’t miss the pleased tone in Taleel’s voice at their speed. Sarenmenti’s took hours to suit up on their first day. Shrift remembered all too well. He had no doubt that the officer would be bragging to his fellows as soon as possible.
Shrift watched as Taleel had them go through the process for hours, smiling as the pain implants we
re activated. Soon the humans were too tired and numb to do anything but suit up and down.
“They are yours Kuruvian.” Taleel said giving him the pain implant remote. Shrift took at, and as soon as he was gone deposited it behind his workbench. He ordered food for the squad, with added stimulants which was delivered minutes later by other Kuruvians.
The anti-grav pallet could’ve taken the food, but the Kuruvians were a curious race, something as interesting as another race turned them into excited children.
Shrift turned off his translator happily conversing with them as they discussed the humans and passed out food tubes. The humans drank them hungrily. A few Kuruvians put sensors on the squad members, who ripped them off as the entire squad reacted as one, they grouped together in two’s which looked out for another pair, and that four another four and so on.
The group was highly protective Shrift saw, they also had a solid command structure, unlike the mess the Sarenmenti called one, and they were fighters. Whatever Taleel had taught them, they’ taken up fighting easily.
“What is he doing?’ Salchar asked; his voice calm but Shrift knew that with a command Salchar’s people would beat the Kuruvians in the room to pulps, no matter their strength difference. He saw the way their eyes moved, as if he could see the mental gears behind those eyes turning. They were already seeing how best to win. They’d spent months fighting other groups of humans who were bigger and stronger than them, beating whoever faced them.
Shrift wondered for a second if Salchar knew that the Sarenmenti had started wearing power amplifying gauntlets because the humans were now stronger than the Sarenmenti and could take a beating better. Also the captains and their personal crews of the higher status planets had been so delighted with the news they had made sleep and food mandatory, as well as daily physical training. Shrift realized his mind was wandering as he returned to Salchar’s question.
“They are trying to test to see what you need for your optimal growth.” Shrift said. “It also helps me see how I should modify my Mechas to suit your needs.” Maybe I can make a new series, just for humans to amplify your power. He thought with glee, he was an engineer through and through, the idea of tackling something new and interesting gave him new energy.
The humans relaxed slightly.
“Truly?” Salchar looked at Shrift, his eyes pleading for truth, there was so much pain. Even after all the human had gone through, he was extending himself out, expecting to be cut off Shrift saw.
“Yes, truly Salchar.” Shrift’s eyes never moved a fraction as Salchar smiled tiredly.
“Get that grub down you. I have a feeling we’re going to have all kinds of fun with our Mecha training today.” Salchar said as a few smiles appeared as people reclaimed their food tubes. The Kuruvians were already trying to analyze what had happened as Shrift looked at where Salchar’s eyes had been.
He watched as the human looked after his own, he truly cared and he was willing to trust another alien race, even when he had been treated so badly by the first. Hope grew in Shrift. Maybe Relentless and Eddie were right? Though now is not the time or the place. He reminded himself as he rotated down the scrap Mechas and gathered the tools he would need for the humans to put their Mechas back together once they broke them, as well as a few injectors of hell fire—Mechas were a whole other game compared to normal hand to hand.
Ten minutes later Shrift beckoned to the humans as the Kuruvians stepped aside, watching.
“In each of your berths there is a scrap Mecha, you will be using these for the fights. The ones in your ‘coffins’—as you say—will only be used during non-combat training and once you graduate for real combat.
“Well get in them, then we can go and train.” Quickly the humans rushed to obey and in five minutes they were walking out of their berths in the odd jerky motion that came with uncoupling the Mecha from the charging harness.
“Follow me.” He pushed a grav cart with his tools into a large open training area, this one four times the size of their pod.
“Now spar.” He said as he got out a seat and sat down.
“Then we’ll damage the Mechas.” One of the humans said—a smaller one.
“Yes, and then you’ll learn to fix it. I’ve put you on a quarter power, move around get acquainted with them. You can just move around in them if that’s all you care to do, but I would suggest you spar so that you can defeat the other teams that you come up against.”
All of them looked to Salchar.
“Get moving! Once I think everyone has a grasp of their Mecha, we’ll all be under Yasu.
“Work through the motions with your half-squad, first walking then simple jabs and counters.” Salchar said as the Mecha’s split into two groups one fighting one another as the second moved around cautiously and then more steadily as they watched the first group and commented on their movements.
Salchar came to stand next to Shrift, becoming confident in his ability to walk with every step.
“armourer Shrift, are we able to upgrade our Mechas?” Salchar asked moving side to side, moving his arms and squatting as well.
“What do you have in mind?”
Salchar paused looking over Shrift for a few seconds before continuing.
“I just want to do some minor modifications to the armour and the joints are based on a magnetic bearing which is supposed to move in every direction, we could optimize the power by customizing the joints to the human body.”
Shrift felt his eyes widen in pleasure. Finally someone interested in Mechas!
“I’ve had that thought before but I haven’t been able to get medical records of the users bodies.”
“I could just tell or show you, and then you wouldn’t need to get medical records.”
“I would be very interested if you did that. See I make Mechas they’re my joy right now but if they aren’t doing the best possible then well. I think of it as a failure on my part.” Salchar and Shrift made eye contact.
“Thank you armourer Shrift.” Salchar said simply, bowing his head as much as his Mecha would allow before walking away.
Shrift had the distinct feeling Salchar was thanking him for much more than just saying he might be able to change his Mecha.
All he’d done was give him a meal, let him train his people and taken away the threat of the pain implant. Maybe I have done more than just give him hope to change his Mecha.
Chapter What’s the use of a new toy if you don’t use it?
I was on last watch as the screeching announced our rest was over. We got up quickly and nervously, we’d been in the Mechas for three days now and were wearing neural mappers, it was a cable like thing which directly connected with our nerve ports; it saw how different actions caused our nerves to fire in different ways which would help translate our normal movements into synchronous Mecha movements.
That goal seemed a long way off, especially after our abysmal attempts at fighting so far.
“File through and get your scrap Mechas.” Taleel said through the squad pods speakers as the door to the track and armoury opened. We filed through shortest to tallest as Shrift was there waiting for us.
We all enjoyed our time with Shrift, well most of us did. He was nice, he wouldn’t yell unless it was necessary and he taught us more than Taleel ever had. There was a sense of mutual respect between Shrift and us, with him not using pain to motivate us. While we doing the best to impress. With Taleel we just worked to meet his standards.
Where our battle-ready Mechas were minimally dented and had no rust on them, the scrap Mechas were busted up worse than some cars I’d seen after accidents and there was more rust on them than metal. Under Shrift’s constant guidance we were able to get our mechas into fighting trim. It felt good to be building something instead of being constantly scared and fighting.
He handed out food packets, a plastic like module that could insert into our food reservoirs on our lower back under our armour. Then using their finger balls and HUD access the food comm
and. When the user took a pull of their water hose they got delicious goop—minus the delicious part.
As we took food packets Shrift scowled at the recipient of the packet good-naturedly, telling them about something they’d missed or some issue with their suit. We quickly got to work fixing whatever he found to be an issue, before he was satisfied enough for us to get into them.
These scrap Mechas also didn’t fit right like our battle-ready ones. The padding was woefully inadequate and warnings flashed onto our screens, telling us of limited mobility as we ran our start ups.
I dropped down and forward as I came out of the charging harness, as soon as my foot touched the ground I flew into the ceiling, crashing back down to the floor. I didn’t feel a thing as the rest of my squad laughed. Only my pride was hurt. I inserted my food packet, looking to Shrift.
“Oh yes, I put them to one hundred percent, seeing as you have two days left you’re going to need to get pretty accustomed to them.” I could swear I saw a grin on the Kuruvians face as I picked myself up gingerly.
The Recruitment: Rise of the Free Fleet Page 9