LITTLE DRAGON
by Ulquiorra9000
Chapter 4
Campus grounds, Capella War College, Capella
Capellan Confederation
September 10, 3029
Saturdays were typically a light day at the Capella War College, and by early afternoon Chen had at least a few hours of spare time to himself once his English lecture was concluded. His mind was still buzzing with basic verbs and nouns when he bid farewell to Han and made his way toward the nearest exit of the Campus Center. No doubt Han was going to visit the sparring rings to show off his rapidly-developing Wing Chun proficiency. Watching Han fight on par with second and third year recruits made Chen feel rather small, so he decided to get some fresh air outside.
"Good morning. Good evening. Hello. Goodbye," Chen recited the English words to himself as he leisurely strode down a stone pathway, blinking in the bright Capella sunlight. A few fluffy white clouds hung in the cerulean sky and the blossom trees rustled in a warm breeze. Fine day for a picnic, Chen found himself thinking. He vaguely heard a dropship making its drop descent toward the spaceport a few miles out from the College. Maybe a group of prospective recruits was on board.
Brushing past a pair of brawny third-year recruits, Chen just started reviewing a few English verbs when he saw her sitting on a nearby bench, studying a field manual. Mei. His newest friend at the College. Well, kind of.
"Good afternoon, Mei. How are you today?" Chen said kindly in English as he approached her, hands in the pockets of his camo pants. He smiled. "Did I do that right?"
Mei looked up, sharing his smile. "Excuse me?"
"I just got out of my English lecture. Getting some live practice done."
"Actually, I'm taking Swedish."
Chen deflated a bit. "Oh..."
"Det är okej," Mei assured him. "It's okay. Want to chat for a bit? I just finished this chapter."
Settling on the warm wooden bench next to Mei, Chen peeked over at the book. "That's an advanced Battlemech field manual. I thought we wouldn't get into that until second year."
Mei snapped the paperback closed and set it on her lap with a shrug. "Yeah, it's tough to handle, but I thought that I'd at least get familiar with it beforehand." She tapped the book's glossy cover. "At least six Death Commando veterans added to this book. They are remarkable people, Chen. The absolute elite of the CCAF."
"You sound almost reverent."
"Actually, my grandfather on my mother's side served with them for almost two decades," Mei added. "His name was Mark Xiu Chiang. He used to show his medals to my brothers and I when we were kids. We heard all his stories. It was our favorite part of visiting Grandfather and Grandmother's house on Sian."
Chen tried not to stare. Mei's family was awesome! "That's really cool."
"Yeah. He told me that I could grow up to be anything I wanted if I served the Confederation proudly," Mei added, tucking up her legs to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. "To be honest, it's intense back home. My brothers compete with each other constantly while me, their little sister, watched. I was scared at first. But you know what?" She lowered her voice to a tantalizing extent.
"What?"
Mei beamed. "I decided to beat them both and signed up for the Capella War College while they went to law school."
Chen laughed. "I think you one-upped them pretty handily."
"I guess so. But don't get confused. I want to make my grandfather, my mother, and everyone proud," Mei added earnestly. "The Hanfan family could use an advocate, so here I am." She leaned toward Chen slightly. "So what about you? I've seen you around but you never seemed to open up much except to Han."
"Well... um..." The honest truth is that Chen felt intimidated by Han's progress here at the College and even more so by Mei. He was surviving his classes all right, but Mei and Han thrived on the intense competition and high standards here. They out-shot him in the simulators, out-fought him in the PT sessions, and outperformed him in class.
Raising her eyebrows, Mei asked,"You okay?"
"Of course." Chen sighed. "I dunno what I came here for. Han wanted to join the CCAF after graduating and I thought that was the best idea for me too. I didn't take much interest in business, science, literature, or any other civilian career field in high school. So I went with Han even though the military is more his idea than mine."
Mei made a sympathetic noise. "Not everyone knows what they want from themselves, Chen, especially not at our age." She clapped a hand to Chen's shoulder. "You passed the rigorous entrance exams, though. That's proof enough that you're ready for what you're getting into, now isn't it?"
"Well, yes..."
"So be proud." Mei sat upright, her eyes glinting with enthusiasm. "Winners don't quit, Chen. Are you scared of a little challenge?"
Feeling distinctly riled, Chen responded, "Hell no."
"Then think of all this the way I do. This isn't a chance to fail. It's a chance to succeed and make everyone proud of you. Look up, Chen, not down."
Chen opened his mouth to respond but took a second to consider what Mei had said. True, he feared that he had plunged himself into something he wasn't ready for, but this College was a demanding one and Chen had passed the entrance exams where many others had failed. And he did like the energetic feel of this place, learning new things at the lectures and competing in the 'mech simulators to hone his skills. Did he deserve to give himself a chance? He nodded once. "I guess you're right. I felt... well..."
"Insecure?"
"That was quick."
"I've sometimes doubted myself too," Mei admitted. "But still, you can fight back. Take a deep breath and take the plunge. You'll thank yourself later."
With a grin, Chen joked, "What, are you a therapist too?"
"No, but I'd make a heck of a motivational speaker."
"No humility for you, huh?"
"I can't help it. That's how I drive myself."
Chen suppressed another grin. "Maybe you could spend a bit of that energy to help me out? I've been looking for a study partner and Han's more interested in beating up second-year recruits."
Mei made an approving noise as she took out her copy of The Art of War from her duffel bag. "True that. I wasn't sure what to think about you, Chen, but you're a nice guy."
Chen tried not to blush. "I like you too. Can't believe how timid I've been."
"Well, in a place like this, one must put academics over social networking while settling in," Mei figured. She flipped to the third chapter of the book. "So let's go over the fundamentals here. What is -"
She was cut off when the sirens mounted on wooden poles blared. Students froze in alarm. Chen and the others recognized what that was: the intrusion alarm. The Capella War College was under attack.
"All recruits, report to the College Center at once!" an officer's voice barked on the external comm system. "Armed intruders have breached the perimeter! This is not a drill!"
Mei paled as she dropped the book to the wooden bench. "No way. How can this be happening?"
"Come on." Chen bolted to his feet and offered a hand. "We've got to get to shelter." He heard the scramble of students herding to the Campus Center while alarmed chatter babbled across the campus grounds.
"Y-yeah." Mei swallowed nervously as she accepted Chen's hand, letting him hoist her to her feet. She scooped up her books and stuck close to him as they both joined the throng of students flocking toward the safety of the looming College Center. Before they could reach the front gates, however, loud gunshots shattered the air and the recruits ducked their heads, some screaming in terror.
What the hell! Chen dared to raise his head for a second, then turned and saw what was happening. Over a dozen men in black body armor and equally dark ski masks rapidly advanced on the students, assault rifles in hand. They sprayed bullets at random and Chen felt his gut go cold as a few recruits toppled to the grass.
Chen couldn't believe it. Who were these men, attacking unarmed academy recruits? He knew that the war against the invading Davions was raging, so maybe these men were on a team of FedSuns operatives. Still, what kind of soldier would attack defenseless targets? Chen felt Mei tightly gripping his arm in fear and he direly wished that he had a weapon from the College armory. How he'd eagerly shoot these Davion demons in the face!
Luckily, Chen didn't need a weapon. College security officers in olive green body armor deployed from a truck that pulled up and their semi-automatic burst fire slowed down the invaders' progress. Three black-armored men toppled to the grass in bloody pools as the rest shouted in defiance and fired back chaotically. One security guard's body jerked back as he took fire from the invaders, but the rest of the troopers dispatched the remaining FedSuns agents. If that was indeed what they were.
"Everyone in the College Center! Move, move, move!" the security squad's commander shouted to the recruits urgently, pointing to the Center's front doors as a medic rushed to the downed man. "We're getting reports of more invaders across campus. Follow emergency procedure!"
The students pushed open the front doors and crammed in through the front doors. Chen and Mei anxiously joined the thronging crowd, following the air-conditioned hallways toward the emergency shelters. Chen knew that there were several reinforced rooms on the ground floor with shelves of rations and small arms for calamities such as this. He prayed that no other black-armored scumbags would be waiting for them. Still, he could hear gunfire ringing throughout the College Center as well as the screams and shouted orders of men on both sides.
"Quickly, now," urged a soldier as he and two other security guards stormed out of a side hall to escort the students. Chen's ears were ringing with the sounds of distant gunshots and he couldn't help asking what the hell was happening.
"Large raiding party on campus grounds, recruit. Let us take care of it," another soldier told him. "You're not ready for combat."
Just as the party rounded a corner into an intersection, gunshots hissed through the air. Six more raiders appeared and peppered the escort soldiers with fire, forcing the security guards to drop and take cover around the corner. The recruits sprinted even faster to escape the firefight and Chen had never felt more vulnerable. He had to clear the zone of fire quickly –
Pain exploded in Chen's right shin and he toppled to the floor like a sack of grain. He shouted and seized his bleeding leg. Staring up at the combatants from the floor, he realized that the intruders had taken pot shots at the recruits and a bullet had snagged Chen's leg.
"Chen!" Mei faltered, shock etched on her face. She started toward her fellow recruit but Chen waved her away.
"Run! Don't get killed for me!" Chen shouted, feeling blood leaking from his leg with every heartbeat. If Mei died because of his carelessness, he'd never forgive himself.
Getting the message, Mei gave Chen one last worried look and sprinted back down the hall toward the shelter. Meanwhile, Chen looked back at the battle. Only one security guard was left standing, exchanging pot shots with two intruders. Seven men lay dead or injured, their weapons scattered across the floor.
Getting an idea, Chen dragged himself toward one of the fallen guards, his eyes fixed on the heavy-duty pistol strapped to the man's belt. I only get mediocre scores at the shooting range, but that's good enough. He winced as his injured leg scraped against the floor, but now was not the time for weakness. He had to do something!
The guard snagged an intruder on the arm with a burst shot, but the other intruder scored a clean shot on the guard's throat a second later. Gurgling blood, the last security guard toppled and sprawled flat on his back. The two intruders whirled around to face Chen and execute him, but the recruit already had the fallen guard's pistol in hand, switched off the safety, and took aim.
The pistol recoiled in Chen's hand like a mule's kick, but Chen's aim was true. A heavy anti-personnel round punched into the wounded intruder's chest, and the man screamed and stumbled back. Chen aimed the pistol a little high and snapped off rapid shots, the gunfire echoing loudly in the confined hallways. The man's body spasmed as two more bullets tore into it and he crumpled a second later. The other intruder, clearly shocked at Chen's audacity, took a second too long to train his rifle at Chen's prone form.
Chen's finger squeezed the pistol's trigger as fast as it could. The first bullet went wide and pinged off the wall, but the next three rounds smashed into the invader's chest and leg. The man wailed in pain and slumped to the floor, his assault rifle skidding away.
I have to get out of his line of sight! Chen hauled himself quickly into cover down a hallway, adrenaline overriding the white-hot pain signals coming from his injured leg. Panting and bleeding, he rested against the wall and kept his pistol at the ready. He heard the invader fumble for his own pistol, but Chen prayed that more guards would arrive in time.
A minute later Chen's prayers were answered. Two College security guards slipped into the intersection and finished off the wounded invaders. One of them approached Chen and helped the recruit up, careful to not aggravate Chen's wounded leg any further.
"We'll get you to the shelter, kid," the guard assured him. "Then we'll take out these invaders and find out just what the hell is going on."
Dropping his borrowed pistol, Chen let the guards half-carry, half-escort him down the hallway and nodded to the man's words. He suddenly felt too tired to do much else.
*o*o*o*o*
College Center, Capella War College, Capella
Capellan Confederation
September 12, 3029
The War College's infirmary patched up Chen's leg injury without any trouble, but the nurses told him that he'd have to use crutches for the next week while his leg healed from the trauma. The limited mobility was good enough for him, because he was required to attend a speech in the College Center's auditorium.
"Two days ago, our War College endured a trail of fire," spoke Sergeant Zheng behind the podium to over four thousand combined recruits and officers. "Men identified as belonging to a Federated Suns terrorist cell infiltrated our grounds and attempted the complete destruction of our campus. Enough explosives were rigged in the lower levels of this building to level this entire facility, but it is thanks to our courageous security staff that the explosives, and the enemy agents, were neutralized. The survivors have been... questioned... and we learned that these men were opportunists who attempted to prey on us during the momentum of Hanse Davion's assault on our realm. Rest assured, however, that the calamity is over, our dead will be honored, and our College will carry on as it always had." He placed a hand to his heart. "Long live House Liao!"
Chen placed a hand on his heart and thundered the man's words in unison with everyone else. In his heart he felt his distaste for the Federated Suns ignite into rage. How dare these FedSuns rats strike such a low blow? Did everyone think that they could abuse the Capellan Confederation with impunity? Maybe this was why he wanted to join the CCAF: to defend the nation of his birth from total annihilation by the Davions and everyone else. He had been born in the Capellan Confederation, and he would die defending it.