The recruitment pool was so shockingly small, it felt like the participants were here to take up a cooking course. There were only 10, but already there were huge dissimilarities between Horus and them. One of the most obvious differences was the physique, yesterday when Madam Lee looked down on his build she wasn't laughing at him but saying that as a fact.
An old man walked along the row of recruits standing at attention. "I am your course instructor Larry Fields, from this moment you will address me as sir, am I clear Maggots?!"
"""Sir, yes sir!""" It seemed like a very cliché following so he just abided by it.
"A little bit about myself, I have been training and qualifying recruits since the early days of XCOM! de Winters, McMillard, Delgado, you name it! But now Central asks me to train prepubescent brats in a matter of one week, he's got to be shitting me!"
Fields? So he was somehow related to Heather then, father or an uncle.
"But he is my superior officer, so whatever he tells me to do I do because that's what makes a good soldier. I have one week gentlemen, one week! To turn you from Maggot to qualifying combatant! Even the old XCOM would weep manly tears if you graduate from my course and only if you graduate!"
He may have been old but his motor skills certainly didn't show it through the way he walked and spoke.
"I can give you a hint, I think not everyone will make it out of the hellish one week I've set aside of you maggots."
The stood right in front of Horus, staring into his eyes.
"What's your name scumbag?"
"Horus, sir. Just Horus!"
"Oh? So you're the little runt who my darling little girl's been talking about recently. Tell me, do you want to come home and fuck her in my house?" The instructor punched him in the gut and he knelt on the ground holding his stomach.
"Get up, Maggot! Because I know you spend time with my darling daughter I will be hard on you thrice fold so that I can make a son-in-law out of you yet! I said get up!"
To be honest, it wasn't as bad as the beatings he had at high school when the union began bullying him. Because of them no one really wanted to be associated to him, so he spent his schooling in solace. He quickly got up like he was told to, he wasn't sure what Heather had been talking to the instructor about him but he guessed he was going to be treated harshly to make it clear later it was not nepotism. Because if he knew Heather, a decorated veteran in the combatants' others would think he pulled strings to get here. So to protect himself, his daughter and Horus he had to be harsher on him in training. Which worked out fine for Horus, he believed this would help him build up on strength and combat skills faster than the rest.
"Right! I'll leave you maggots alone while I get you day ready!" He walked out of the Armory where they were to be trained.
The recruits started to mingle amongst each other. Horus joined in.
"Hi, I'm Horus. Nice to meet you!"
"Yo! I'm Chris Holt, that was some bad luck to happen to you on the first day, respect man!" A tall beanie wearing man shook his hand.
"Any plans on which role you wanna take at the end?"
"Mostly gunning for specialist due to my major..."
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Chris! What's up with not introducing me. Hi, Horus! Stephanie McGuinness, I'm Chris's childhood friend from the same Haven in Belfast. Where were you from?"
A curly redhead hung on Chris and Horus with both arms, attempting to physically bind them both.
"They found me in Adelaide."
"Hmm. I didn't know there be a Haven near the ADVENT city."
"I meant they found me from the city."
"What?! Really? You're from the cities? What's it like there, are there really Amphitheaters and concerts held in there?"
This girl seemed to be into arts and music.
"Oh? What's a city dweller doing all the way here? Did you think this was a vigilante organization?"
Horus didn't turn around to meet the rude comment at all and instead answered Stephanie's query.
"Oi! Look at me when I'm talking to you!"
He merely glanced over his shoulder to see who was making the racket in calling him. It was a group of men led by and ikeman looking fellow.
"Will you please pipe down! I'm trying to explain something to a friend here!" Horus told the pretty boy.
"Careful Horus, that's the son of de Winter. There'll be consequences for offending him." Steph warned him.
"I've no idea who that is. So I'd might as well do all the offending I want." He said casually to the childhood friends. To which they looked concerned.
"You need to understand that down here there's a hierarchy that needs to be abided by and as the one on the top I expect you to obey me!"
"Have you considered acting?" Horus's random question cooled off the tension in an instant.
"Acting?"
"Yeah, acting! You seem to pulling it off pretty well right now, or maybe you should consider comedy if it doesn't work for you, if you get my meaning." He mocked the man's display of authority and some of his henchmen also held back on laughing.
"Quiet you! You really have the gall to go up against me, do you know who i am?"
"Not a clue."
"I am Lucius de Winter, son of Karl de Winter! A Bavarian aristocrat and a decorated XCOM combatant so if you know the scale of who you're dealing with then you'd better show that you understand! Apologize!"
"Seriously, I haven't the slightest clue who fuck is that kraut and what his contributions are to XCOM. I'm just a wanted terrorist to ADVENT who's trying to fit in with everyone here."
This Lucius fellow looked stunned or more like he was frightened at his declaration, whatever his impressions were of terrorists it wasn't something he could not hide his fear of. Technically, Horus was labelled a terrorist for cyber hacking classified material belonging to the state so he still fell under the category.
He actually fell on his back, Horus just found a new playmate to vent all his frustration he'd been getting from Lily and Alicia. He unconsciously let out that disturbing smile from his delight, dread came over Lucius and his followers upon seeing his malicious grin.
"H-hiiieee!"
Just then, Instructor Fields returned from sorting out some paperwork and came to witness Lucius on the floor in front of Horus.
"Sir! What the hell is this terrorist doing in our organization?!"
"Terrorist? I haven't the slightest fucking idea what the hell you are talking about Winters jr.!"
"But, sir! Wait, my name's not winters it's-"
"I know what you fucking name is and what isn't maggot! I called your dad Winters so I'll you Winters jr. out of respect for your old man. Unless you want me to call you Sally instead."
"No, sir. That name is fine!" He got up and straightened himself.
Right! Go to the armskort and retrieve the weapons I've requisitioned, on the double! Move!"
The recruits doubled to retrieve the arms from the armorer.
The weapons consisted of two of each weapon. An assault rifle, shotgun, precision rifle, revolver, some sort of Gatling with a pistol grip Horus wasn't sure about and a grenade launcher with a cylinder. Today they were to do weapons familiarization, he instantly found favor in the assault rifle. It was the most versatile and the easiest to handle and clean, nor did it weigh heavy like the Gatling or the high-powered precision rifle. He was aware he would be carrying tech to the field as well so carrying something light was always good.
Lucius and the other guys seemed to understand the technical aspect of the weapons beforehand, they probably had more exposure to the weapons out on the Havens carried by the guards and all. For Horus it was the first time, or so he thought. He had only handled the weapon once that was during his rescue but the weapon seemed easy to understand in theory and practice. It was like he had handled them before, it honestly bothered him.
He helped out his new friends on weapons handling as well as Lucius but the boy was too afraid of him as he willingly smiled while suggesting he would help him in understanding the technical data. Horus found it to be amusing.
And just like that the day ended. It made very one wonder what was so stressful about one week of training, everything seemed to be moving at a slow pace. But this was all part of the illusion Instructor Fields had set. The next morning at 3 o'clock he doused them each with water to wake them up and forced them to do a rigorous physical training regime. Running on the roof of the facility till the sun broke. Most of the men and women dropped against the deck panting except for Horus. He had been running at a consistent pace and regulated his breathing, turns out Steph and Chris were no different, the same could be said for Lucius but that was because of his physical prowess. Also he was trying to show off to Steph as his eyes were caught by her fiery hair and pretty features but also those emerald eyes.
He still kept a distance because Horus was in between.
Breakfast came in the form of hot pockets delivered to them while they continued to train, breakfast had never so good after working for it. After which they began close combat training.
"Ready when you are." Horus announced to Steph while holding his dummy knife.
"Ready, come at me!"
Horus thruster the knife at her lower abdomen, she moved back and locked his wrists in an instant. Chris clapped from far away while training with another guy. Moments later, Horus was on the floor with his arm at his back and held down by Steph. "I give up!" He swore she nearly snapped his arm. He knew that in the close combat specialty he was below average, he'd have to spend more time training on it after hours.
"Hehe! Better luck next time, eh? I think you should focus of the person more than the weapon, buddy!" Steph advised him.
"Where did you learn to do that?"
"Oh this? That's a family clan martial art passed down from McGuiness to McGuiness. Get this! It was developed by our ancestors to win in a barfight!" It sounded noble until the point where she mentioned it's intended purpose.
"At least I know who not to go without on a trip to the bar then!"
Steph laughed at his remark but she held out a thumbs up. "That'll be fine, but it'll cost ya!"
A whole day went by with the recruits practicing their fighting skills with and without blades. "Hey! Wanna hang out? Steph found this cool place near the officers' room." Chris invited but he declined.
"Another time, Chris!"
Chris nodded and left with a group of them out of the armory leaving him the only one left. He continued to memorize the strokes and the way the body could contort once in motion. Practicing a few swings with the dummy knife in thrusts and slashes. This continued on till it was 11 in the night, he spent five hours of self-training but he had a much clearer understanding of unarmed combat and knife dueling. He wondered what his new found discoveries would leave on Chris and Steph and the others on his improved close combat competency.
"Did think there was anyone who would care about lessons as seriously as you do."
Horus turned around to see who spoke, it was Instructor Fields. "Sir..."
"At ease son, call me Fields when you not having lessons, still. This actually brings back memories of two such people who trained and performed other tasks while always going the extra mile."
"I'm not going the extra mile, I'm just acknowledging that if I were to apply these skills in real life i might lose my life or someone else's."
"A pragmatic answer if I ever heard on. There really is a resemblance between you and them."
He didn't like the way Instructor fields was emphasizing a comparison of one of his traits to some other people, but this was merely because Fields wanted to talk about it and tell him an old man story which he would probably fall asleep to.
"There are three billion people on the planet so far so it wouldn't be surprising if I mirror at least a hundred in similar traits."
"... Heather wasn't kidding about the praise issue you had." The instructor was now laughing at him.
"You said you've been in XCOM since the beginning, what was the old XCOM like?" This was a chance to find out about this organization's history once and for all, no ADVENT propaganda spam box shall filter out the truth from this senior member's own experience.
Fields took out a smoking pipe and some matches.
"No smoking in the building."
"Damn it kid! Give me a break!"
Horus returned the equipment that they had taken out to practice and followed Fields to the roof where he was free to light his pipe for a smoke. Then he began his story.
"We were the vanguard of humanity against the invasion, our sponsor was the council of nations, an international organization consisting of member nations taking part in collaborations to solve world crisis.
Initially we had a rough start, the kill ratio was 5:2 that's 5 of us for 2 of them. But we had one of the greatest minds of the planet. Dr Vahlen and Dr Raymond Shen, Lily's late father. They studied the aliens and their weaknesses, reverse engineering their tech into ours. And building more advances to the base in Mont Blanc.
But the real might of XCOM lay with the combatants, after all it was they who fought the aliens and those traitors if I may add.
Then, we received word that the council had lost faith in us. If that were just the case, we would have just disbanded but instead they sold us out!"
Larry became visibly angry just by thinking about it his knuckles turned white from clenching, he smoked his pipe to calm his nerves.
"The council gave away our base coordinates to the aliens as a part of a 'peace offering' if you will to them. The aliens assaulted our base and the Commander was kidnapped, we never saw him again! Damn! If the vanguard were there that siege would have been easily handled! So what happened next was the remaining XCOM members faded into the background or joined the cities, some of them still harbor ill will to the aliens and are preparing for the day the whole world rebels, and that's the basic history of the present XCOM."
So XCOM had been sold out by the council for a conditional peace. They probably feared that XCOM would drag down the entire human race to extinction.
"So who's the sponsor now?"
"Sorry?"
"Last time XCOM was funded by the council and their member nations, even if it's a fraction of a nations GDP that's still a lot of funding for any organization. So who's our present sponsor, who would dare risk their asses to support the operation of a rogue organization?"
"As much as I would like to tell you, I'll have to say you're not entitled to know for their own safety… at least in your current status in XCOM."
"Figures, I'm turning in for the night!"
"What? Not interested in any other stories? You're just going to leave an old man outside hanging?"
"Your only old when you feel like being old, so your point is invalid, Goodnight Instructor!"
"Goodnight, rascal!" He took a strong puff of his pipe.
He had been lying against a large boulder completely worn out, Instructor Fields forced them to trek 50 miles across the forest back to the base after being dropped by Firebrand in the middle of nowhere.
"I'll be waiting at the base for you, when you arrive then I'll mark you as finish." Was what Fields said before pushing them off the Skyranger.
He had been accompanied by the rest because they couldn't understand mapping and trekking without a GPS or inert navigation.
"And they call me the city dweller!" He cursed under his teeth.
"Who much further Horus, my legs are killing me!" Lucius complained on behalf of everyone else.
"Do you want to navigate instead?" He passed the compass to him.
Lucius and the rest held out their hands up high saying no thanks. "That's what I thought, dumbasses…"
"Oh Yeah!... And I've been asking around! You're no terrorist, you were a fugitive of ADVENT for hacking!" He said with all his resentment for him.
"Took you long enough to find out dumbass! But I'm still technically a terrorist of the cyber warfare category." Horus teased him for his naivety.
Horus ignored him and continued navigating through the forest.
"Where did you learn to do navigating, Horus?" Chris asked.
"Hmm? From my parents, from a camping trip we once went out on."
"Eh? That must've been fun! Perhaps I should learn it from you parents sometime soon!" Added Steph.
"…. I don't think that'll be possible, they've been missing for almost 20 years."
"But that would have meant-!"
Stephanie realized what a terrible mistake she made, Horus bent his head to conceal the pain of two decades of loneliness.
"I- I'm sorry! I did mean to-…."
He knew she was ignorant of his family's affairs so this really couldn't be helped so he just waved his hand and forced a smile to say it was fine.
It wasn't long before the dark metallic top of the base could be seen from far away.
"It's there! Great job, shrimp! Right! Last one there washes the bathroom!" Lucius declared before running ahead.
"Hey! That's not fair!"
"Who cares, just don't be last!"
The rest ran after him back to the base. Chris and Stephanie were about to do the same.
"Hold it, you two!"
"What seems to be the problem? At this rate, we'll be the last ones!" Chris urged him.
"Calm your nerves, Chris! When has Instructor Larry ever made things easy for us! He sent us out into the wilderness to track back and made us carry full gear with loaded rifles, well paintball at least."
"Isn't it just to simulate realism?"
"Like he said, one week to train all of us is preposterous. Physical aspect of a soldier is important but so is the mental strength. He probably predicted that we'd get excited after spotting the base from afar and get careless while running to the base like complete idiots. He probably lay a trap for us to fall into somewhere ahead."
The faces of the two became grave. "So what do we do?"
"Let's treat this like a recon scenario. Move in through heavy foliage to reduce visibility, we'll treat this as infiltrating enemy territory."
"Ok!"
"Sounds reasonable."
They formed a three-man formation learned previously from their evening lessons. "Shall we load weapons?"
"Paintball only, we don't want to hurt anybody."
After some cautious maneuvering, they reached the end of a cliff, below in the valley there was not trees or bushes to conceal the length to the base. Worst was the rest of the recruits were nowhere to be seen.
Steph thought it was a false alarm and was about to breath concealment, but Horus pulled her down quickly.
"Hey!"
"Look." He pointed to a place where a large tree dominated the plain. The greens blocked visibility of whatever was under it from their high elevation.
An armed combatant walked out from under the large tree to observe the surroundings.
"Well I'll be a monkey's uncle! You were right!" Chris peered through the binoculars to confirm that the man wasn't one of the recruits.
"But what if it's just an armed patrol from the bases protection detail?"
He had to hand it to her, that could also be the case.
"Let's get closer to get a better look, I still believe it's not the case. If I'm wrong I'll take responsibility for cleaning the communal bathroom."
They couldn't disagree to that so they followed him a little bit longer his way.
After much crawling through the dirt the managed to get a hundred metres from the shading tree, peering through his binoculars Chris once again confirmed his findings. Three men accompanied Instructor Fields beneath the shade the tree with the recruits rounded up with their weapons confiscated.
"I'm sorry I doubted you." Steph said, she was rather pissed at him for a while for pulling her down into the dirt at the cliff.
"So now what? We're heavily outmatched and outnumbered."
"Inventory."
He took out his kit to inspect what devices were in his possession to allow the overpowering of Fields. The two did the same.
"So what do you intend to do?"
"Subdue Fields"
Steph and Chris looked stunned at his declaration.
"We aren't distracting them to bypass them to get to the base?"
"And leave the rest behind? If this was real life would you do the same thing!" Horus's words struck Steph like a brick.
"N- No! I'll never leave anyone behind for my own safety!"
"That's good to hear."
Horus observed the kit laid out. "three smokes, three thirty round magazines of paintball, a flashbang and two flares."
"Plan?"
"We should wait till nightfall or at least dusk where the light dims and reduces visibility."
"Is that necessary?"
"There is a hundred metres of nothing to their location and four highly trained individuals loaded with paintball most likely. We don't have enough munitions, it was supposed to be a ten-man effort but Winters jr. really fucked it!"
Seeing Horus angry for the first time wasn't something they wanted to bring out again in future.
"We're with you on this one all the way so what are your orders!" Steph encouraged them.
Horus whispered his plan to them. "Take a nap, I'll call you when it gets dark."
The three combatants from the reserve called up by Fields to apprehend his recruits were restless, they too had gone through the grueling process of being captured by their predecessors during their recruit days. Now it was these recruits turn to feel the wrath of Fields and his punishment for being complacent in their efforts. Night was falling soon, and the area became darker.
Lucius felt utterly shameful of what he had done, he'd compromised everyone with him through his stunt. He had shamed the name de Winter. It wasn't long before they would look at him with ire in the future but there really wasn't anything he could do because what's done was done.
"Chief, you sure those brats didn't get lost?" One of the combatants asked but Fields remained quick as he was still assessing them, the remaining three had not returned yet. But he had a feeling that they wouldn't let him down, he was about to get an exciting show.
"Oi! Brat! Where the hell are your friends?"
"How should I know, they were the ones who navigated for the rest of us, there's no way they could get lost!" One of the recruits confessed to the combatant.
"What?! Rhein, Bean! Stay frosty, they should be coming at any moment!" The combatant had a bad feeling about the recruits coming to surprise them.
Just as he said it a flare popped out from the darkness and illuminated the surrounding sky.
"Eyes peeled! They're here!" Fields who was still assessing sat back against the tree trunk smiling.
Rifle fire muzzle flash came from a bush not too far in front of them. The combatants pointed their weapons and fired to suppress while converging on the location. When they reached they found only a slung rifle with ropes and branches, it was just a diversion.
(Pak) (Pak) One of combatants were hit with paint on their clothing signifying a kill.
"Fuck! Bean, grenade!" The combatant said as he laid heavy fire on the location of the shot.
"Grenade!" The Bean fellow threw his primed paint grenade.
"Ouch!" Chris stood up from cover with his hands raised, he had been 'killed' and walked to the rest of the recruits and Fields were. "Sorry guys, it's up to you now!"
"That's one Jim! Two more!"
As they continued their automatic fire, smoke began to creep in on their position concealing them from each other even. Steph and Horus had used the smoke grenades to close the gap.
Horus and Stephanie rushed through the smoke to take out each of the last combatants. Stephanie clashed with the Jim fellow and Horus with Bean. He jumped aside as Bean fired at his former position and fired his gun at Bean and had a lucky graze on his shoulder, Bean raised his hands that he was killed.
"Owww!" Stephanie was shot after failing to bring down Jim with her close combat skills
Now it was just Horus and Jim, the two faced each other in a stand-off with their guns raised. (Click) (Click) Coincidentally both men's rifles were empty. Horus dropped his rifle and pulled out his knife and took a stance at Jim.
Stephanie rejoined the recruits and Fields in watching the show and spoke up.
"This is bad!"
The others turned to Steph, some knew why while others waited for her explanation.
"His close combat skills aren't really the best, and that guy beat me as well." The oblivious recruits now knew what this meant. Horus was fated to lose.
Jim looked at Horus with a malicious grin and drew his own knife, he could not ask for a better situation than this. Because close combat was his specialty as a Ranger, the brat in front of him wasn't as largely built and he was far too early to beat him at his own game.
Horus saw the situation he was in and that emotion came over him, everything he had faced some sort of adversity it would always trigger off so he let it out naturally.
Horus released his devilish smile upon his own poor existence.
Jim felt a little troubled by the youth's expression, initially he thought he had the upper hand but this kids smile was unnerving, he felt like he was the one in danger.
Jim thrusted his knife and the next action took everyone watching by surprise.
Horus threw his knife.
Jim was also astounded and was two minds on whether to continue or retract his knife as it was at the moment where his momentum was pushing him forward.
Horus grabbed his wrist and twisted while lying on his back and pressing his leg against Jim flinging him in the air. Jim landed on the floor with the knife out of his hand, Horus stood over him and pushed Jim's hand to his back effectively pinning him to the floor. Horus picked up the knife on the floor near him and pressed it on Jim's neck.
"I give up! You win kid!" Jim declared and Horus released his grip and pulled him up.
The recruits cheered for him and their victory. Horus was focused on something else and picked up a fallen rifle and inspected the chamber and magazine.
"Alright folks! That's all there is to the show, come on! Let's head back while supper's still hot!" Fields said as he led the group back. Everyone was on a good note and picked up the fallen weapons, ready to leave.
(Pak) The sound of a paintball bursting against someone's body was heard everyone was stunned and looked up.
Instructor Fields shirt was stained with a shot and everyone tracked the trajectory which came from the gun Horus was holding pointed at Fields.
"Horus! What the hell!" Chris was shocked by Horus's action.
But Horus, still smiling said to Fields. "Who ever said you weren't part of the group ambush!"
Fields blank stare turned into a smile and he applauded, which caused the recruits to be confused as to what was going on.
"To the least perceptive of you, no one ever questioned my being here. I never said I would assess you here, only that I'll meet you at the base. Recruit Horus has demonstrated focus in the task at hand and perceptiveness in the obvious."
Chris sigh in relief as he was initially worried Horus had done something incredibly stupid.
"I hope you all learn from your mistakes and use this as an example in your exploits, the battlefield won't be so kind as it is here! Right, let's head back. Jim, take point. The rest of you, your excused from my punishment because you didn't lose in the end."
A sigh of relief overcame the recruits and the buzzed amongst themselves about the unexpected victory.
Hello, I'm the one who secured this victory. Where's my fucking parade?!
A hand rested on his shoulder and he turned around.
"That was an impressive show, I almost don't feel bad about losing. Have you ever considered becoming a ranger?"
Jim was now trying to recruit him to take up the ranger class and join their fraternity.
"I already have my eyes on something else, sorry to disappoint."
"Man! That's a shame, we were looking for someone with a knack for stealth during clandestine missions. Still, if you change your mind, just look for me and I'll introduce you to the works."
Horus nodded in understanding, satisfied he left him to take point. Chris and Steph closed their distance after seeing Jim leave.
"Where did you learn to fight like that? That's not what I recall you doing in practice."
"Was it during the afterhours practice, I remember you turned us down on that trip to the mess bar."
"That was partly it, but it was only a revision of what Steph did on me."
"Me?"
"Yes, I was watching your moves when I was fighting with you and replicated it during the after hour practice. So it's fair to say if it hadn't been for you we would have never gained this victory, Thanks Steph!"
"O-Oh!..." Steph began to blush.
"Come on, just accept the praise this once, Steph!" Chris tugged her.
"Shut up, idiot!"
In the Commander's Office where Bradford sat a screen was displaying the events of unscheduled war game for the fire team commanders to see. Lily's drones were watching the Recruit's movements via surveillance. Alicia smiled at the success of her future Specialist, but she wasn't the only one with their eyes on Horus. Tsukuyo licked her lips in satisfaction that the Recruit she wanted didn't disappoint her at all.
"Well that just sums it up, I hope you've found the recruits' performance to be adequate. I'll wish you all the best on the bidding." Bradford said.
"Wait! Wasn't this a rotation for recruits this time around?! I should have the right to the first recruit of my choice, right?!" Alicia asked frantically.
"Oh don't be such a spoil sport, Alicia! This time around, everyone has a fair chance at getting new rookies, I happen to have my eyes on one right now!" Tsukuyo told her.
"This batch holds a very special surprise amongst the recruits, there is one who has an expertise in cyber intrusion among the ten. I'll let you guess who it is." Bradford played this kind of game to keep his commanders on their heels, one which he thoroughly enjoyed doing during his term. He couldn't enjoy these things when a certain someone had kept him on his heels every time he reported to him, but that was in the past.
"But-….But-….My right…." Alicia cried to herself miserably.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I've found doing this story to be very theraputic and that makes me glad. For the people who read XCOM: Conquest don't worry, that story takes priority over this one.