Chapter 3- First Day Part 2
Close Combat Training
Tali walked into the hand to hand training room, trying hard to stay awake. While shooting and psionics were both fun, math and history were Booooorriiinnngg! The room she found herself in was an open square, with a hard mat covering the floor. Several swords were displayed on the far wall, while a rack of knives stood on top of a storage unit. The class slowly filtered in, the students in various states of boredom. As soon as they were all in, the door closed, and a VERY loud voice screamed "ATTENTION!"
Every single student stopped in their tracks and looked around.
"I SAID ATTENTION MAGGOTS!" Came the voice again. A MASSIVE human decloaked in front of them, deactivating his mimetic skin. The students quickly formed neat ranks, facing the instructor.
"Too slow, DROP FOR TWENTY!" Said the instructor, and every single student in the room promptly fell down into a pushup position, and did twenty, before getting up again.
"Too slow, Twenty more!" The instructor said. The students obediently complied, springing up when they were done.
"Some of you may be thinking to yourselves: Hey, this isn't boot camp! Well, let me tell you, this is NOTHING compared to basic training! Each and every one of you here is a person, be they Human, Muton, Aiva, Turian or... whatever the hell you are!" He said, pointing at Tali. "After you are done with this class, you won't be people anymore! My job is to turn you into weapons! Living, thinking, deadly weapons! In here, you will learn to use your Gene mods for something other than pulling pranks. Here, you will learn how to use those sorry excuses for limbs for something other than jacking off!" The vocabulary soared over the students' heads. "At the end of this year, if you aren't able to kill me in at least twenty two different ways, YOU FAIL!" He screamed. "NOW, PICK A PARTNER AND FACE HIM!" He screamed. Tali turned left, only to see Reegar going off with Solana. She turned right, and saw Lia walking away with a human boy. She felt a hand tap her back. She turned towards the source and nearly fainted. There, standing not two feet behind her, was the biggest muton that she had ever seen.
"You're my partner." He said. Tali looked around. Everyone was paired up already. Gulping, she nodded acceptance.
"WELL WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? THIS IS CLOSE COMBAT TRAINING!" Shouted the instructor.
The room exploded into a mess of fighting aliens. Tali felt herself be picked up and tossed a good six yards by the hulking mass of muscle that was the Muton. Landing hard, she felt the wind fly out of her, leaving her breathless.
"Get up and fight, little baby!" The muton screamed. Tali tried, but before she was back up, she was on the floor again, the muton in question having delivered a devastating punch to her chest.
"Fight me, you tiny teeny little baby!" Came the muton's voice, as he ran in to floor her once more. Tali squeezed her eyes shut, kicking blindly. She felt her foot impact flesh, and she heard the Muton scream.
"AAARRGGHH! STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!" he screamed. Tali looked up to see him bent over, her foot having slammed into its crotch. Jumping to her feet, Tali attempted to follow up with several more punches, only for her fist to be grabbed in midair.
"Now is coward killing time!" He said, voice radiating malice. Tossing Tali across the room, he bull rushed towards her. Tali barely jumped out of the way, causing the muton to slam into the wall at her back. Running to the nearest wall, Tali paused, just as the muton screamed once more.
"You cannot hide, coward!" The muton charged again. Tali dove out of the way, causing her opponent to slam into the wall where she used to stand. Anything remotely resembling rational thought drained out of the muton, throwing him into a berserker rage. He roared in anger as he charged Tali, slamming aside several students in his way. Tali dove out of the way, causing the raging muton to slam into the wall length mirror that was conveniently placed behind her. A spiderweb of cracks formed where Tali's partner slammed into the glass. Turning around, the alien roared once more. He sprinted towards Tali, who stuck her foot out, causing him to trip. The force of the Muton slamming into her foot sent her sprawling, but it did the trick. The muton slammed headfirst into the wall, knocked out cold. Tali walked out of the room covered in bruises, but with her head held high. Lia walked up beside her.
"So what's next?" She asked. Tali looked at her. Her left eye was swollen and black, and her nose probably did not look like that before class started.
"Yeah, what do we have next?" Kal said, his face having several claw marks, and were those BITE marks on his neck?
"Science. I heard that Mr. Lisek is pretty good." Tali answered.
The trio of Quarians went on to the next class.
Science Room
"... So through this, I have concluded that lectures are not as effective at imparting information as some more conservative educators believe. Students learn best when they are engaged in the subject with hands-on activities, rather than in a dusty old classroom with some boring old nutcase speaking to them." The science teacher said. "Since this class is a multi-year course, it will progress in the following manner. Rather than assigning you 'Worksheets' and 'homework', which are, in my humble opinion, antiquated relics of the past, suitable only for display in museums, you will be given a list of projects. Said projects are funded by major corporations such as MARSEC, MEGAPOL, and TRANSTELLAR, which will use your research (providing you with ample compensation, of course) in the design of their latest products. Pick up your datapads and check your inbox. You should have received a list of possible projects for you to do. The more of them you complete by the end of the fifth grade, the higher your grade in this class will be. Get into groups of... just get into some random groups of your friends, who am I to enforce social regulations? The lab and engineering workshops are all yours!" Mr. Lisek walked out of the room, leaving the class silent.
Tali looked at the list of projects and almost did a double take.
"HOW ARE WE EXPECTED TO DO ANY OF THESE?" She screamed.
"What's the matter?" The human boy sitting next to her asked.
"THEY WANT US TO DEVELOP LASER CANNONS AND BIOWEAPONS! WE HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN TAUGHT BASIC ALGEBRA!" Tali screamed.
"So we throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Lets get to work." The boy said.
Tali sighed, hopeless, and called over Kal'Reegar and Lia'Vael. They came, with Solana and Garrus in tow.
"So we're a team?" The boy asked.
"Looks like it." Garrus answered.
"Then lets introduce ourselves. I'm Solana, Solana Vakarian." Solana said.
"Garrus Vakarian here."
"Kal'Reegar, demolitions expert."
"Lia'Vael."
"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya."
"Shepard. John Shepard." The boy said, concluding the introductions.
Almost immediately, the group hit its first snag.
"No, we're building more accurate laser guns and that is FINAL!" Garrus said.
"Explosives or nothing!" Reegar screamed in reply.
"I still think that we should try to work with gene mods." Shepard said, the looks of the rest of his teammates screaming 'NO, just NO!' at him when he suggested it.
Eventually, they had decided that they would work on laser weaponry, albeit in an attempt to use biomatter to add in explosive capability. Once they finally decided that, the bell rang, signalling the end of school.
