Heating things up.
Max decided that she liked this whole human holiday thing. The trainers were much less snappy and Bill always got her presents. It had been three and a half years since she had met him and every Christmas and Easter he surprised her with a present. Mostly it was books, things that were useful to her but she could hide or explain away if they caught her with them. His wife often baked her something. Mince pies or something called Christmas pudding which she ate warmed up in the lab at night with Bill, the last thing had been an egg; an Easter egg which was made out of chocolate and made her mouth water.
Last week had been the birth of Bill's only child. A girl called Laura, which Max thought was a beautiful name. Bill had taken so many photographs and showed her so many times and told her about everything. It was so odd to hear about a baby whose sole purpose wasn't to be a soldier and that instead of being given guns to play with was bought fluffy toys. The idea made Max's lips twitch and she hid the expression.
This wasn't the time to be caught smiling.
She was standing in line up with the unit and they were awaiting instructions for their latest mission.
Missions. They had been cleared as a unit to go on these last year and it still made Max reel. She was a real soldier now; she went on missions and manoeuvres. Always watched of course and monitored by real soldiers with experience and under their command- for the time being anyway, after all the X5's were being trained to take command of any situation at any time. Their first had been to infiltrate a hotel as a bunch of children on a school trip and to steal certain files from the chambers. It had been fun, just pretending to be normal kids. Their eyes had been wide at the new things that they had seen that they had only heard about and Max had loved it.
It didn't mean that they stopped their simulation exercises but that they now viewed them differently that before. Now they had purpose.
"Today you will be commanding a simulation against Unit 8. That's right you will pit against each other. Unit 6's target is to reach the stronghold of Unit 8 and capture their flag. Unit 8's target is the same. The commanding officer for Unit 8 will be 851 and Unit 6 will be taken by,"
Before he could finish their was a growl from the lines and he stopped
"Is there a problem?" he yelled angry at the interruption.
"No Sir!" they chorused but the growl came again and they tried to look around to see where it was coming from.
"Eyes FRONT!" he screamed. Max had called him Bellow because that's all he seemed to do but even this was new for him.
A delicate scent touched her nose and she sniffed wondering what it was.
Out of the corner of her eye she noticed several of the males in the front row bristling.
Her head turned as she heard another growl and she noticed that 654 was sweating heavily. 654 was in Unit 8 and hadn't really made any impact on Max, she was slim and blonde and seemed to be in pain if the writhing had anything to do with anything.
"654 are you ill?" Bellow touched her forehead and the growls increased.
"Don't touch her!" yelled a broad red haired boy that Max thought was 921, she had always called him Carrot.
Bellow turned red faced "What did you say to me Soldier."
"Don't touch her." Carrot growled and moved out of formation to knock the trainers hand away.
What the hell? Max thought in shock as other males in the first row turned to glare at Carrot.
"So who says you get to touch her huh?" Bulli yelled at Carrot.
"Back off." Carrot snarled and Max's jaw dropped as 654 slunk behind Carrot and draped a hand over his chest.
"Mmmm." She purred.
"Back in line." Bellow ordered but they all ignored him, the boys staring to circle each other.
"So you two think you are worthy huh?" another boy joined in and then two more growled and started to circle.
Max looked around but the rest of the girls seemed as nonplussed as her.
"Units get back in line or I throw the lot of you in Psy-ops." Bellow shouted.
654 pouted and ran her fingernails down Carrot's chest.
Bellow grabbed at her to get her out of the way and as soon as he touched her the whole unit came alive.
Carrot turned on Bellow and punched his across the face sending him flying backwards and Bulli advanced on 654 with a gleam in his eye.
"Back off." Carrot demanded as Bellow got to his feet and pulled out his taser.
"Stand down." Bellow countered and they began to circle each other.
Bulli reached 654 and pulled her against him crushing his lips to hers.
Max felt sick as 654 pulled him closer and her purr caught Carrots attention. She could see the exact moment that things hit the fan.
Carrot ripped Bulli off her and threw him into Bellow. A brown haired boy pushed Bulli and threw a kick at Carrot who responded with a kick of his own. 654 panted in glee and Bellow suddenly looked scared as the other two boys advanced on him.
"Back up!" he yelled into his radio and she heard the crackle of static as guards came rushing from all over.
Bellow was rushed and Max knew that if they did hurt him they were all in for it.
"Unit's assist trainer." She found herself yelling. She snapped forward and pointed at the first row of startled females "Subdue 552 and 756." As they hesitated she grimaced "Do you want to go to Psy-ops?"
That decided them and a squad of girls raced to help Bellow who was getting a beating from the two boys.
"Remaining Males go stand over there." She pointed back at the tree line and they raced to get out of the fracas.
She pointed at six girls in the second row "Take 654 over there." She indicated a wall furthest away from the units and downwind. She suddenly had a strange thought about what that smell had been.
The remaining girls she split into three.
"You five take 921 and hold him. You get 261 and you hold 878." She ordered and they ran to do as she asked.
The boys were a blur now as they attacked each other with a fury that they didn't show during training. They ended up hitting the advancing girls in their anger but with five girls to each boy they were soon subdued.
The guards arrived panting to see several soldiers being held down by the units and Bellow getting up from the floor, his face a mass of blood and holding his ribs.
"Get them to lockdown- separate." He coughed up some blood. "And get that bitch to med bay." He gestured to 654 who was straining to get to the males who had been fighting. "I want this mess sorted out! And someone get Lydecker!"
Max looked around scared. Great, Lydecker was coming.
As the guards grabbed the offending culprits and dragged then off to isolation they all fell back in line waiting for orders.
"I," Bellow coughed and more blood fell into his hand "Little shits broke a rib or two." He grimaced.
"Hey Mike, we best get you to hospital." Another guard said.
Bellow-no Mike, nodded. "Sure, need someone to watch the rest of them. You." He pointed to a guard with a semi "Guard this bunch until Lydecker can get here."
The man nodded and trained his gun on them.
Max swallowed hard as she wondered what had gone here today and what Lydecker would say when he figured out what had happened to them. Oh and Bulli was going to be so pleased when he found out that it was Max that had ordered for him to be subdued by the unit. That was going to earn her some bruises later on.
The rest of the unit waited patiently for Lydecker to arrive but she could tell that they were all thinking deeply about what happened here today and the ways that they would be punished for their team-mates infraction.
It was an hour before he arrived from headquarters and stood in front of them with his hands on his hips listening to the reports from the officers in charge. Then he turned to the squads.
"Well does someone want to tell me what the hell happened?"
Max cringed at his tone.
"Sir. They were fighting over 654, sir." One of the girls in Unit 8 answered. "Aggressively and with intent to kill, it was like they were not in control of their own actions. They attacked the trainer when he tried to intercede Sir!"
"I see." Lydecker mused "What happened then?"
"We were ordered to capture and hold the soldiers so they couldn't hold down the trainer and to get the remaining males and 654 out of the vicinity."
"Your trainer was under fire at the time who gave the order?" there was silence.
"Who gave the order?"
"452 Sir." The girl said grudgingly.
Lydecker turned to her "Quick thinking 452."
"Sir." She answered
"Why did you remove 654 from the vicinity?"
"I noticed a strange odour from her just before the attack and theorised that perhaps that was the cause of the strange behaviour. It seemed prudent to remove her from the equation."
Lydecker nodded again.
"I need to speak to the doctors; I will debrief you at 22 hundred hours. You are dismissed for the day."
"Sir Yes sir!" they saluted and disbanded.
Max sat on her bunk ignoring the looks from her team-mates. Like their hatred was something new anyway. They had finally stopped their vicious jokes but still took every opportunity to tell her how little she was worth and how they hated her. But the thing was that she didn't care. People's opinions only hurt if they actually matter to you and her unit meant less than dirt to her.
"452." She looked up
"Yeah?"
The girl just watched her "Don't think you can order us around all the time, we won't take it."
"I wasn't intending to but I have no more inclination to go back to Psy-ops than you do." this girl she had named Simper because all she did was simper around Bulli. She shrugged one shoulder and gave a cold smile "Think of it as selfish motivation, that shouldn't be too hard for you right?"
Simper frowned almost reflectively and moved back. "Affirmative."
"Whatever." Suddenly she didn't want to be around these people who only thought the worst of her all the time.
She stood up and walked out of the room well aware of the silence following her.
She made her way to the training rooms to work out what was in her head.
The debriefing with Lydecker was an eye opener.
The females had been taken aside and had to submit a blood test and then they all stood together in the debriefing room.
"Okay, we have ascertained the cause of this mornings little escapade. Feline DNA means that those females of you with parts feline will mimic the heat mating cycles of the common cat. We need to take samples and these will be tested. Those of you that go into heat will be taken aside so any changes to behaviour such as excessive sweating, attraction to members of staff or your unit and impulsive inclinations must be reported. You will be taken to lock down for the duration of your cycle. Males with the feline counterparts will react like tomcats in heat. They are dangerous and will be sectioned until we can find a way to diminish the effect that the pheromones have on their behaviour. Dismissed."
And that was it. Max couldn't help but want to laugh. They really hadn't seen that one coming.
Just as predicted when Bulli was escorted back to training the next day he sought out Max who was wrestling with 322.
"My turn." He snarled and 322 shot her a sympathetic look as he walked away.
Bulli circled Max "So you think you can order the team around?"
"It was tactically advantageous." She smirked and dodged a blow.
"You just want to be centre of attention."
"Yet I wasn't the one trying to lick out 654's tonsils in front of everyone."
Bulli kicked out at her and she jumped to avoid the foot. She retorted with a roundhouse punch which connected. Bulli scowled.
"You'll pay for that."
"Oh please, like you need a reason to beat on me. I'm just surprised you haven't got your buddies to hold me down first. Didn't think you'd dare take on the on niner yourself."
He growled and flung himself at her and she took the opportunity to rid herself of her frustrations.
She felt her fist crunch as it hit his face and he came back swinging with both ham hands and it was her turn to feel pain as she didn't duck quite fast enough.
An agonising pain sprung in her shoulder as his full weight smacked her. Max kicked out at him and her foot contacted with his stomach making him gasp as the air rushed out. She followed that with a kick to his solar plexus and an elbow on the back of his neck. Bulli rolled and kicked her legs out from under her causing her to fall heavily. Luckily she had been practising gymnastics last thing at night and she flipped to her feet faster than him and got in two kicks to his midsection before he grabbed her ankle and rolled on top of her crushing her beneath his weight. Max hated being pinned and hated even more the way she could picture him smirking as he held her down. She pretended to give and when she felt his grip loosen she rammed her head back into his nose in a blatantly dirty fighting technique that would be frowned upon should any of the trainers be watching.
"Hey!" he grabbed his nose which was gushing blood over the floor.
Max grinned "Oops."
Of course there are always consequences to actions and Max found hers out the next week. Lydecker stood in front of the squad and reminded them that they still had that tactical exercise to complete.
"Unit 8's C.O is 852."
They nodded, 852 had a good head on his shoulders and would be a good choice.
"Unit 6 shall be commanded by 452."
Everyone froze for a second but it was long enough for Lydecker to take that as acquiescence and he continued.
Max stood as shocked as everyone and felt her hands shake which had nothing to do with serotonin deficiency or heat cycles.
As the other unit left for their side of the wood they all turned to her but before they could start she moved ahead.
"Ok I know what you are all thinking – what is she doing in command and believe me I know how much you don't want me here. Well believe that I want to be here even less. In the field we will get times when we are under a commander that we would rather not be. None of that matters right now, Lydecker had placed me in charge of this exercise. I know that you are probably trying to come up with ways to throw the mission and prove that I am a big a screw up as you all think I am. Well too bad. This doesn't just reflect on me but on the whole unit. So we suck it up and move on."
A few of them looked nonplussed at her use of slang but most nodded agreeing. They wanted her to look bad but not at their own expense.
"So here's how we do this."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Nat1- nice to hear from you- you like it?
Sigma1- Loads of twists be here.
Brynnmissy- Short and sweet thanks.
Lyndsay- Max kicks ass at the best of times and here is no exception.
Acb- updated now.
Elfie- Glad you liked the two chapters Inspired- really? Hope this shed some light on the situation.
There is a noticeable lack of reviews this time around- are people getting fed up with the story??