The Lord of the Plains (24 page)

Riley looked down at him curiously. ‘Are you
ok?’ she asked.

He was already up and threw a punch at her
jaw.

She caught his hand, twisted, and forced him
to the ground. He tried to get out of her hold. Suddenly Riley let
go. In his surprise he wasn’t ready for the boot to the back she
gave him.

He sprawled on the mat for a second before
springing up again.

This time, he was more careful. He came
towards her slowly, his hands in a guard position.

Riley watched him, waiting in guard. The
only part of her that moved were her eyes.

In a move that would have received a
scolding from Aerlid, as it would only work on one weaker and
slower than her, she grabbed his arm and so fast he couldn’t do
anything about it and flung him to the mat again.

She beamed.

This time he stayed on the mat.

‘Are you alright?’ she asked.

He slowly got up til he was sitting on his
knees. ‘Yes. I think we can safely say you beat me.’

Riley just smiled in response.

‘Who trained you?’ he asked curiously.

‘My uncle.’ she said. Then, ‘he’s human.’
she added.

One of the shouting man’s assistant came
over to them. ‘You,’ she said, pointing at Riley. ‘You’re in
Fergus’ group.’ Then he looked at the boy. ‘You’re with Major
Aniggs.’

Riley helped the boy get to his feet.

By the time he was up the assistant was
already gone.

The boy looked around. A few pairs were
still fighting. Most were standing around like they were.

Then it was over. The assistants went and
stood at various places around the hall. The shouting man announced
the names of the assistants and everyone scattered to get to their
group.

Fergus was a muscular gemeng. His group
consisted of seven humans and three gemengs. When everyone had
arrived he asked everyone to tell him their names. ‘You’ll be
working together all this year, so you should get to know each
other well.’ he said. ‘Every morning you are expected to come here
and exercise, we’ll discuss the routine in a moment. In the
afternoons we will practice hand to hand combat. Naturally this
doesn’t include Restday.’ His eyes roved over the group. ‘Any
questions so far?’

A human boy, Jann Geggis, stuck his hand in
the air and at Fergus’ nod asked, ‘why are we doing this stuff? If
a gemeng attacked me no amount of hand to hand training in the
world is going to save me.’

Fergus nodded. ‘Fair question. First,
physical fitness is important in the army. You need to move
quickly, carry heavy equipment, you have to be able to use the
energy weapons without dropping them. The exercise routine is for
this reason. The hand to hand combat will also improve your
fitness. For the gemengs in the military, a fight with gemengs from
outside Astar doesn’t mean certain death. So for them, I think you
can see the benefit of learning how to fight without energy
weapons. A second reason is that you need to know, deep inside,
just how different gemengs are to humans. Even if they don’t look
any different, they are. They are much, much stronger than you.
Some young men and women do foolish things sometimes… This training
will prevent that, it will teach you to understand your enemy. And
for this reason humans will be paired with gemengs during training.
Does that answer your question?’ he asked.

Jann nodded.

‘Alright. Now during the middle of the day
you won’t be with me. You’ll be learning theory with someone else.
This is important, the weapons you’ll be using are complicated. You
need to know how they work before you’ll be allowed to use them.
You will also be taught the basics of team strategy, which you will
put into practice in the second half of this year. Any
questions?’

There were none so he continued.

‘The exercise routine will follow hard-soft
pattern, this is so you don’t tire yourself out or injure
yourselves…’

For the rest of the morning Fergus went
through what the exercise routine would be. They started that day
doing the soft pattern. When the time was up they all gathered at
the entrance to the hall and were led by the shouting man out of
that building and into another. Two exercise groups were grouped
together for the theory lessons and were directed into their
classrooms by the shouting man.

Riley filed into the room with her group. A
sharp looking woman stood at the front of the room. It was similar
to her classroom from primary school, except nicer. It didn’t look
like any of the desks were wobbly.

Everyone settled into a desk. It was a lot
more orderly than her first day at primary school. Riley didn’t
particularly care where she sat, though she noticed the exercise
groups tended to stick together.

‘Hello everyone,’ the woman at the front of
the room said, her mouth pursed, ‘I am Major Berdis. I will be
teaching you theory this year.’ her gaze raked over the class. ‘I
expect many of you will find this boring, and will want to skip
straight to using weapons. I assure you, that attitude will get
your hand blown off. I am not here to coddle you however, I am here
to teach. If you choose to ignore what I’m trying to teach you,
that is your problem, not mine. Are we clear?’

There was a mumbled, nervous, round of,
‘yes, sir.’ from the class.

‘Very good. We will start with a discussion
of the basic types and capabilities of gemengs. We will then move
on to a discussion of body armour. Then we will talk about hand
held weapons and weapons that require supports. After that we will
talk briefly on mobile weapons, including ground and air units,
very briefly ocean units and remotely activated weapons. After that
we will discuss the defence system of Astar, including the resource
routes and the importance of the Coastside supply line. From there
we will discuss strategy and techniques, on a large scale, which
includes unit deployment, and then move to the small scale: the
five member unit. These are things you all must know, whether you
go into infantry or air, or request transfer to Coastside. After
one year you will split into your respective fields and go through
a more detailed and specific training regimen. Are we clear?’

There was a mixture of nods and ‘Yes,
sir.’

‘Very well. If you have a question, raise
your hand. I tolerate no stupid questions, and contrary to what you
may have heard, there
are
stupid questions.’

Jann Geggis looked at her from across the
mat. It was the second week of military school, and from now on
gemengs would mostly be partnered with humans during training.
Though not all the time; the gemengs still needed to get something
out of it too.

Jann approached Riley carefully, his guard
up.

Fighting a gemeng was one thing, but
fighting a human was something else entirely.

Fergus had had some trouble with Riley. The
style Aerlid had taught her was different to the style gemeng
parents taught their children, which they had learnt from their own
military training. She was perfectly willing to learn another
style. She just liked to mix and match the two on occasion. If her
way was a more efficient, cleaner way of winning, why should she
use anything else?

As Jann approached Riley stood still as a
hunter, her arms by her side.

Jann darted in close, punched and darted
back out. Riley casually brushed his strike aside and was still
again.

It was quite unnerving.

He came in again and released two quick
punches in succession before darting away. Riley stepped back and
again was so still that it was hard to say she had ever been in
motion.

Jann tried to get around behind her and
strike from there, but she turned, following him. He struck again.
Again. A kick.

Riley merely sidestepped.

Jann was looking more than a little
frustrated by this time.

His only training had come from this week.
He wasn’t even particularly fit, whereas Aerlid had been teaching
Riley all her young life. Even had she been human, it wouldn’t have
been a fair competition.

‘How long do I have to keep doing this?’
Jann demanded.

‘Until one of you wins or surrenders.’
Fergus replied.

‘Fine, I give up!’ Jann cried.

‘Very well. Krope, Geggis, you two
switch.’

Jann walked away to spar with Batar Krope’s
opponent, a human girl.

Batar was bigger than Jann, but that didn’t
mean much to Riley.

Batar was more patient than Jann however,
and was content to keep throwing himself at Riley, trying different
moves and approaches without a hint of frustration showing on his
face.

Batar was darting in low when a cry came
from another mat. Surprised, Riley turned. Batar’s fist caught her
under her chin. Riley responded automatically by taking Batar’s
legs out from under him with a sweep of her leg.

He went down without a sound.

But he wasn’t hurt. Everyone’s attention had
just turned to Maztar Lemnar and Gasann Hulin.

‘Do you think that’s appropriate, Maztar?’
Fergus was asking. He had a soft and gentle way of talking compared
to the other adults Riley had seen at the school.

‘No, sir.’ Maztar’s eyes were downcast. ‘I’m
sorry, Gasann.’

‘You’re a gemeng, Maztar. You may be
stronger, but your duty is to protect your weaker comrades. Never
to hurt. I pair gemengs and humans up not so one may win, but so
your human comrades may learn from the experience. Do you
understand?’

‘Yes, sir, I’m sorry, sir.’

Riley felt uneasy as Maztar helped Gasann to
his feet. He had a red mark on his cheek.

Riley looked over at Batar. Would she be in
trouble now?

Fergus instructed Gasann and Maztar to keep
sparring together. Then he instructed everyone else to get back to
what they were doing.

‘Hey, you, Meilis, are you ready?’ Batar was
saying.

Riley didn’t feel like sparring with humans
anymore. ‘Um…’

Fergus came over to them. ‘Is something
wrong here?’ he asked.

Riley didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure
what to say.

‘I landed a hit on her, sir.’ Batar
said.

‘And how hard was that for you, Batar?’

He was silent for a few seconds. ‘I think I
got lucky, sir.’

Fergus nodded, satisfied. ‘Good, you may
continue.’

Batar asked her again, ‘are you ready?’

‘Y-yes, I’m ready.’ Riley replied.

If Riley had been careful before, she was
doubly so now.

The first few theory classes they didn’t
learn very much, they were all too busy being amazed by the
Screen.

They began each class in the regular room
with Major Berdis. They then departed to a small dark room located
in a different building. On the opposite wall of the small room was
a square section that, while slightly different from the rest of
the wall, did not look very interesting on first examination.

That impression quickly changed.

‘This is the Screen. Some of you may have
come here to see shows for the public. It will show you recordings
of gemengs from the Plains, these images were taken by Predators.’
she said, referring to the standard fighter jet used by the air
force.

Then the square lit up. Black and white
images paraded across the small space. Fields and monstrous
creatures. Clouds and mountains.

There were gasps and exclamations.

Riley remained silent, her eyes fixed on the
strange moving creatures inside the square.

They didn’t learn much that day.