DogForge (17 page)

The conscripts murmured with excitement. The intensity grew like a rising storm. The tension that had been restrained was now on the edge. Denali could feel it and pulled back into herself. This was not a challenge she could win.

“But not like you did before,” Sergeant Roo said.

Denali perked up her ears.

“Geff Forge, Vera Forge, Gallus Forge, and Denny Forge. Front and center!”

Denali’s heart skipped a beat and she raced to the front of the group. She stood at rigid attention before Sergeant Roo. Then it hit her, the smallest dogs in the entire group were in front.

“We don’t lead by size,” Sergeant Roo said, and stepped to the side. “These are your new squad leaders.”

Oh no.

“Their word is my word. Their success is your success. But... all of you will fail together if you don’t work as a team.” He stamped down onto the sphere. It leaped into the air and exploded in size. It drifted down and bounced gently onto the floor.

“This is your objective. Each team is assigned a corner. You guard your corner and get the ball into the opposite corner. First team to score eats caribou for dinner.”

Denali eyed the ball and the thought of caribou, even just the smell, set her on edge. It would be a taste of home. She wanted it. She
needed
it.

How quaint
, Cicero mumbled in her ear.

It took all of her will not to shout out at him. She wanted to be a trooper. To lead, to fight, to have a place. Not to deal with some sarcastic figment of her imagination. She huffed and sighed quietly.

“You have thirty seconds and we start the first round. Oh, and the losers don’t eat anything,” Sergeant Roo barked, and dismissed them.

Denali spun and raced to the nearest corner. She turned and saw her team. Mjol, Seblig, a trio from the deserts—Haru, Sabu, and Rok, a chunky bruiser named Bellow, a female with a foxy face named Bev, and Samson.

Samson slunk across the hall, the last one to come to the group. His lips quivered with anger.

Denali could see it and ignored him. She eyed her team, they looked slow. Very, very slow. “I go in quick, everyone else get moving towards me. I’ll push it back towards you, then, we’ll—”

Sergeant Roo barked, “Go!” and they were off.

Denali sprinted directly for the ball. Geff darted in just as quick with Vera and Gallus holding back. The rest of the dogs lumbered out in great clumps all surging towards the center. The room was strangely silent. Everyone focused on the oversized sphere in the center of the room.

Geff pounced first and the ball exploded away from him.

Denali caught the full brunt of it right on her snout. She flipped over backwards and landed hard with a crunch. Her breath was gone and her eyes watered.

The first thing that ran through her mind was how dumb she was. What did she expect to happen?

Her squad rushed past, a flurry of legs and fur, and joined a general melee. The ball bounced off the ceiling, careened across the ranks, and was finally rushed into Vera’s corner by a lucky bounce.

Sergeant Roo barked angrily and stomped to the center of the room. “You fight like animals! This isn’t a test of strength. Again! Thirty seconds, now go!”

“Hurry, hurry!” Denali snarled and called her squad. This time she didn’t rush to the corner. “Let it bounce, everyone stick together. Get it inside of us, keep them away from it and we’ll guide it in. Bellow, you’re in the lead. Once we have it, keep it trapped between us.”

Sergeant Roo barked and the squads charged. The movement was slower this time. Each squad had a different formation, gone was the mad rush. Vera’s squad huddled tight and reached the ball first, but no one pounced. The other squads came in and no one wanted to be first to bounce it away.

“Bellow! Turn!” Denali barked. She stood in the middle of her squad and peeked between their legs.

Bellow cocked his massive skull and pivoted like a lumbering giant. There was an opening and the squad pressed forward. Bellow lashed out with his great maw and slammed aside the leading dog from Vera’s team.

“Sabu!” Denali yipped and darted out through the gap. Sabu followed a quick second after. Denali slapped the ball with her metallic foot and bounced it off Sabu. Then it was caught in the midst of her squad.

The other squads pummeled Denali and Sabu, separating them from the rest of the group. Denali’s squad flailed from one side to the next, under constant assault. Finally they broke apart and the ball was caught up by Gallus’s squad and steered into the opposite corner.

“One more time!” Sergeant Roo barked. “Thirty seconds!”

Denali saw the flaw in her plan: they were too tight, not enough offense, all defense. Then an idea ran through her mind. Instead of sprinting to her team, she rushed at Vera. “Split?”

“What?” Vera barked back. She eyed Denali suspiciously and cocked her head.

“Team up, we split it?” Denali barked again. She could see Vera’s eyes darting from side to side.

“Deal!”

Denali grinned, sprinted back, and made it to her team just in time to hear Sergeant Roo start it all.

They rushed once more at the ball. Denali barked out orders, Bellow was in the lead, the trio from the desert all around her, with the rest running offense. Samson lingered in the rear with a scowl on his face.

Mjol worked with Bev and the pair smashed into Gallus’s line. They bowled over the front dogs and the rest snarled. They broke into a brawl and were halted.

On the other edge Gallus meta with Vera and the two squads were halted as each side tried to push through the next. Vera was on the front with her teeth bared and trying to pull Gallus down.

Bellow reached the ball, nudged it with his nose, and passed it to Denali. Denali punched it into his back and they corralled it past Vera’s brawl.

Denali looked back and felt a surge of pride. They were going to do it! But then she saw that Mjol and Bev were pinned down.

Gallus howled to his squad and they sprinted towards Denali’s team. Denali’s defenders were down, three dogs were necessary to steer the ball. Only Samson was left.

Samson. To have her success ride on him made her angry. She eyed up the corner. “Faster! We’re almost there!” She judged the path of the ball, the speed of the team, and how quickly Gallus’s group approached. “Faster!”

The ball lurched and bounced drunkenly and careened off of Bellow. It rebounded off the ceiling.

“Get it!” Denali shouted. Her heart was racing. Damn, she thought. Damn! She knew she’d have to call Samson to hold them, but she couldn’t bear to make him the savior.

Then Gallus and his squad was on her. They bowled over Haru and Sabu. The two sandy haired dogs thrashed on the floor with their attackers and Denali was left with Bellow. Samson took on a single dog but the fight wasn’t in him, he danced back and watched.

“Go!” Denali barked and felt teeth on her back leg. She slammed into the floor and watched helplessly as the ball was carried away.

Gallus steered it into the other corner and howled as it sunk home.

Denali lay on the floor and felt her defeat. If she would have ordered Samson out, he could have held them, she knew it, but she’d be damned if he was going to save her.

“Get up!” Sergeant Roo barked into her ear.

Denali snapped onto her feet and shook with anger.

Sergeant Roo leaned in close with his nose almost touching Denali’s ear. His voice was low, calm, and deadly serious. “I don’t care what feuds you had on the ground. You could have won this. I know it, you know it, everyone knows it.”

She stared straight ahead and took in his words.

“Pull a stunt like that again and I’ll see you licking the latrines clean until you turn gray.” He turned away in disgust. “You could have made Samson your staunchest ally, now he hates you.”

Denali controlled her breathing and saw Samson glaring at her. She still hated him, and to hell with what Sergeant Roo said.

“Gallus’s squad, follow Corporal Rain, he’s going to get you dinner.”

A cheer broke out from Gallus and his squad and they sprinted out of the room.

“The rest of you can’t very well sit around for the next few hours. So run!” Sergeant Roo barked.

Denali felt the gaze of the losers on her and realized she’d let down two squads. But most of all, she let down herself. All over a world she’d never know again and a past she was determined to forget. She gritted her teeth and tried to put it behind her.

G
rit and slag crunched under Denali’s feet as she led her squad into the armory. They jumped to the side as a platoon of dogs in freshly forged armor marched by. The armor was large, thick, blocky at points, and thoroughly designed to take a beating.

Denali couldn’t wait to get her own suit.

She glanced back at her squad and ordered them forward. Her eyes caught on Samson and she quickly looked away.

The tension between Denali and Samson had simmered in the days since the first squad practice. The next round went better, and the one after that they actually scored. But still, Samson and Denali did their best to ignore each other.

She didn’t expect Samson to see it her way, nor did she really want to see it his way. His betrayal, anger, and attempt at revenge, seemed so long ago. But still, those events pained her deeply.

The squad was excited. They stepped lightly, their eyes sparkled, and they sucked in every detail. Even Samson was keyed up, today was the day.

“Squad Leader Denny!” Sergeant Roo barked. “Take you’re time, young lady,” he said sarcastically. “Now move!”

“Squad, double time!” Denali ordered and they sprinted into the heart of the armory.

Great forges and presses crashed down and shook the floor. Cascades of sparks spread out like glowing chaff in the wind. It smelled of burnt metal and electronics.

Denali snuck a glance down the line. Squads of conscripts were lined all through the factory. She wondered how many dogs were on Forge—for that matter, how many did they take from her home? The heads were like a blur and she couldn’t get a count, but guessed at over a thousand.

“What an army,” she mumbled.

And this is just where they’re trained.

Denali thought he sounded a bit less abrasive then usual. Almost a touch excited. Maybe she was starting to impress some of her emotions on him.

She tried to hide her excitement but couldn’t help sneaking glances at the suits of armor. They were everywhere, in racks, on gantries, and all for them.

Bellow couldn’t contain his excitement. His tail wagged and thumped against conscripts on either side. He tried to stop, but instead his butt wiggled and his tail stayed straight. Sergeant Roo shot him an angry glance and he whined excitedly.

Denali couldn’t help but smile.

This was it, the day that all conscripts would become even. The mechanical strength that the suits brought would be linked to the implants on the dogs’ bodies. They would become one with the suit. Denali finally had her dream, she’d be a runt no more.

Remember,
Cicero echoed in her mind.

She sighed to herself and wished she was allowed a guilty thought without some ancient relic popping into her head.

I heard that.

A dog stepped out from a heavy hatch and stared at the conscripts. He was a large dog with a patchwork of shaggy brown, white and orange fur. Both front legs were mechanical implants. One eye glowed a dull green while the other looked milky. His ears flowed down over his head in a great cascade.

“Sergeant, send them in a pair at a time.”

“Yes, Senior Engineer Ernst!” Sergeant Roo replied and stepped aside. He barked at Vera and Gallus. The two smaller dogs ran forward and the engineer motioned them inside.

Pair after pair went through the portal under the watchful eye of the engineer. He halted Bellow, and after taking a measurement, allowed him through. Bellow shook with fear and anxiety. He turned and gave Denali a look of excitement, then he was inside.

Finally it was her turn. She ran up with a dog named Baku.

“Halt,” Engineer Ernst said to Denali. A slender metallic rod darted out from one of his legs.

Denali held her breath.

The rod tapped her on the nose, the shoulders, haunches and tail. 

“Sergeant,” the Ernst said to Sergeant Roo. “Come here.”

Sergeant Roo ran faster than Denali ever saw him run before. “Sir!”

“She’s not sized as the rest, we have Forge suits here matched to the genetic diversity of that planet, she’s too small.”

“Sire, she came up from Forge.”

Ernst looked skeptical. “Hmm, one moment.”

Denali stood rigidly. Too small. Again. It hit her like a rock in the chest. Too small. Always the same refrain. Too small. Never fitting in. Too small. Runt.

“Recon suit or pilot modification?” Ernst asked. “She has a Flavian pattern.” He glanced down at Denali with his milky eye staring right at her.

“Recon,” Sergeant Roo barked quickly.

“Sergeant, I asked her,” Ernst replied with a sniff.

Denali glanced at Sergeant Roo and saw fear in his eyes. “Recon sir!”

Ernst raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “So be it.”

Sergeant Roo relaxed and trotted back to the front of the conscripts.

Denali passed through the hatch and had no idea what Recon was, other than the fear she sensed in Sergeant Roo told her that a pilot modification wasn’t for her.

Another engineer guided her away from the rest of the dogs and sent her into another chamber. Alone.

The chamber was cool and clean. The thrumming of the forges was gone. Attached to the ceiling and floor, like a mechanical spider, was a set of robotic arms. A single suit of empty armor hung in front of her.

The armor was a subtle black, like a smudge of charcoal on steel. The helmet lacked the bravado of the heavier suits, and instead was muted and blank. The augmetic struts, designed to enhance the troopers strength, were missing from the suit. Only a thin set of lines marked a lighter reinforcement. Where the trooper suits had hardpoints for weapons, this had nothing. Only a few small hookups adorned the outside.