The Lord of the Plains (25 page)

Riley became suddenly more interested when
they moved on to body armour. She had seen humans in full body
armour before- though at the time she had thought they were
something else entirely. She wanted to know how it worked and why,
and more importantly, how she could get past such a defence.

Major Berdis began that lesson by bringing
in a suit of armour on a stand, as well as a large case. The armour
mainly consisted of padding with thin plates of that strange
material over it. With a sour look on her face she handed a small
sample of that material to a student in the front row. ‘Pass that
around.’

She watched as the first student examined it
and passed it on hurriedly before turning and striding over to her
armour display. ‘You will see that body armour starts with padding,
over which are plates of Reismal, which you are now examining. The
Reismal provides protection against slashing attacks. You will be
almost completely protected from any sharp object that strikes the
Reismal. This is important, no armour affords absolute protection.
The Reismal is less resistant to force than slashing, but it is
still highly effective. However, you will notice from my display
here that the Reismal plates cover flat areas. It has very little
flexibility, and as a result joints are vulnerable. Is that
clear?’

Everyone nodded.

She continued, ‘The padding provides further
protection, mainly against the Reismal itself, which can leave a
very nasty bruise if that’s the only protection you have. You will
notice the helmet is made of a material that is only two parts
Reismal, so that it may be manipulated more easily. Inside again,
you will find padding. The visor is a flexible shield that will not
shatter into your eyes if it breaks. Is that clear?’

Again, everyone nodded.

By now the Reismal plate was in Riley’s
hand. It was cool to the touch, and smooth. She turned it over and
was tempted to try breaking it. But she resisted the urge and
passed it on to the next person.

‘This suit of armour does not provide
complete protection, you will not be invulnerable if you wear it.
Ideally, you should never be in a situation where you have to test
the effectiveness of your Reismal. Our weapons are designed to
eliminate any threat before they get close enough to launch an
attack of their own. Keep this in mind.’

‘Now, this example is white, which isn’t
very clandestine. You will find the suits used in the field are
coloured to blend in with the area surrounding Astar. Are there any
questions about body armour?’

There was the sound of twenty heads
shaking.

‘Very well…’ she gave them all suspicious
looks. ‘Then we will discuss the charge used in weapons. There are
three basic grades. High grade is the charge most often used. An
energy weapon loaded with this may act as if it is loaded with low
or medium grade, depending on the settings. Low grade should not
cause death, though in some cases it does. Medium grade is designed
to kill. Understand?’

There was excited nodding.

‘Most weapons can be recharged here at a
military office, without inserting a new load. In combat situations
if the weapon powers down, it may be reloaded on the spot. Most
combat units carry one or two extra high grade charge loads with
them for each individual. The internal forces carry one low and
medium load, and they don’t carry extras.’

Then she grimaced, as if it was physically
painful to tell them about weaponry. ‘We will move on to the most
basic personal weapon available then… This is what you will be
using when you first start practicing. It is also the weapon the
internal order forces use. For this reason it’s called an Order-1,
and sometimes the Student.’ From a large case she pulled out a
small weapon that Riley wouldn’t have recognized as a weapon if she
hadn’t been told it was one. It was very clean and shiny and
blocky. It looked like nothing so much as a rectangular prism with
a handle stuck on at a right angle at the end. 'It is preferable to
use two hands at all times while holding a weapon, particularly
when using a medium grade charge, understood?' as the students
nodded she continued, 'this is one of the few weapons that cannot
use a high grade charge, which also makes it excellent for use in
basic training, as it is unlikely you'll be able to accidentally
kill each other.'

Her eyes swept the room. ‘This weapon is
unloaded. So I will pass it around. Once I have it back I will
continue with a demonstration.’

Everyone was far more excited about handling
the Order-1 than the Reismal. Yet they also wanted to see Major
Berdis’ demonstration, so the Order-1 was passed on quickly after a
hurried examination. While this was going on Major Berdis pulled a
scarred cube of metal out of her case. She set it up on a stand on
one side of the room.

When Major Berdis received the Order-1 back
she gave another scathing look at the class. ‘Very well. I will
begin by loading it with a low grade charge.’ Everyone watched
eagerly as she expertly loaded the Order-1. She then walked to the
opposite end of the room and turned to face her little cube. It
wasn’t a large room, but from where Major Berdis was it looked like
a small target.

She raised her hands, she held the weapon
leisurely in one hand and fired. For an instant there was a stream
of light stretched across the room. Then it faded. Major Berdis
walked over to her cube and held it up to the class. ‘You may
observe the low grade left only a mark.’ which she wiped away as
she spoke. ‘A charge should not be unloaded right after use, as it
will be very hot. In a combat situation it may be necessary to do
so, but not now.’

The class waited perhaps five minutes before
the Major removed the charge, which was a tube that glowed faintly
gold. She then loaded another charge, which looked the same to
their untrained eyes. Then she moved back to her position on the
other side of the room.

This time she held the Order-1 carefully
with both hands. She fired. The weapon jerked back in her hands.
The light was the same as in the previous demonstration.

There was silence. 'Did you notice my stance
and grip?'

There was a chorus of ‘Yes, sir.’

Major Berdis seemed marginally pleased.
Casually she walked over to her cube and showed it to them. ‘As you
can see, the medium grade I used is far more powerful than the low
grade.’ There was an indent in the cube. The beginnings of a
perfect hole burned through it.

Sweat broke out on Riley’s skin as Major
Berdis continued talking ‘There are of course grades within the
grade…’ That thing, was that what was used on her in the testing
centre?

She couldn’t pay attention to the rest of
the class.

Aerlid was interested in the form of
fighting they used in Astar but Riley, curiously, wasn’t
particularly excited about having the chance to demonstrate.

‘So this is what we’re learning…’ Riley said
as she demonstrated the movements and routines Fergus had taught
them in a rather casual manner.

‘Do you not enjoy learning a new technique?’
Aerlid asked as Riley almost rushed through the movements.

She shrugged. ‘I don’t like fighting the
humans because I’m not supposed to fight them, and the other
gemengs aren’t very good.’

‘Ah. Well I suppose that’s why they’re being
taught, isn’t it?’

She shrugged again. ‘That’s all he’s showed
us.’

‘Well, what can you tell me about that
style?’ he prompted, trying to get a bit more out of her. He, for
one, was quite interested. It wasn’t based on the Akran technique,
which had been a very popular unarmed fighting style. He wasn’t
particularly surprised however as he’d always considered that style
far too flowery and impractical. It was very impressive to watch in
a theatre however.

‘Oh… I think it’s supposed to be used with
stronger opponents, but it doesn’t work very well.’

‘Well you’re not exactly sparring with
masters of that style, now are you?’

She shrugged again, then her face
brightened. ‘We saw this thing, it was like a play with Jeitar and
Molozor except the people were really little and in this little
square and they weren’t coloured.’

He frowned. ‘We could try practicing in the
style they’re teaching you. Perhaps you’d learn to appreciate it
more. What do they call it?’

She went back to being uncommunicative at
the change of topic. ‘Just unarmed combat training. But I can beat
them all really easily. I don’t even have to use any of the moves.’
she demonstrated with the chair by knocking it over. ‘I can just do
that. I don’t want to practice that. I want to learn how to sword
fight.’

Aerlid’s face clouded. ‘Do you keep your
guard up? Do you pay attention to your opponent?’

‘I don’t need to, they’re not very good.’
she said, not paying much attention. ‘I think we can just focus on
sword fighting now.’

‘Riley,’ he barked.

Startled, she looked at him.

‘That sort of arrogance will get you killed.
I don’t care what you think of your opponent, if you get in a
fight, you fight properly. You stay focussed, no matter how weak
you think your opponent is. If you can’t do that, don’t get into a
fight in the first place.’

When she nodded he said, ‘I want you to
repeat that to me and you’re not going to practice with your sword
until I’m convinced you understand that.’

‘But-!’

‘No buts! If I have to come to your school
and watch to make sure you’re staying focussed I will. Now,
repeat.’

Chapter 17

When Restday came around Riley was still
piqued she wasn’t allowed to practice her sword fighting. Aerlid
had refused to budge. Her technique improved markedly during
sparring sessions with Fergus, to the point that if Aerlid had been
there he wouldn’t have had anything to complain about. It made the
sessions even more tediously boring for her, and she was reduced to
giving tips to the unfortunate gemeng who was her opponent (humans
didn’t get tips). Her tips, which made perfect sense to her (’stop
doing it wrong’), were not very helpful to the recipient.

She was thinking she’d have to ask Aerlid
for advice on tip giving if things continued the way they were.

But it was Restday, and she could forget
about that for now. She had something to do that would require the
use of all the skills she’d learnt since coming to Astar.

It was with some trepidation that she walked
alone through the city towards Razra’s house. She was allowed to
walk to certain places alone now; school, military school, the
dormitories and Razra’s home. Not the park though. Riley had
determined that this restriction was not because the walk was much
more difficult than any other walk, but that she wasn’t allowed
in
the park alone.

She didn’t know where Razra studied or
worked, but she knew where he lived. And they were friends, weren’t
they? He’d said they would see each other. So this was the
appropriate response, wasn’t it, to go see him?

But she didn’t think about all that very
much. She was just vaguely nervous.

Razra lived in a similar apartment to her.
It was on the third floor of his building, was bigger and had more
homey touches to it, as well as being further towards the centre of
Astar, but it was more or less the same.

She climbed the stairs to his door and
without any hesitation, though her stomach had knotted itself up,
she knocked on his door.

It was a good knock. Firm, loud.

She waited. She’d never knocked on the door
of someone who wasn’t expecting her. She waited, wondering whether
they were home, whether she should knock again or whether she
should leave.

The seconds ticked by slowly. What if Razra
wasn’t happy to see her?

Before she could make any decision the door
opened.