Chronicles of Terrus Chapter 6: Introductions
Me, Eliza, Serri and Heyo walked down the line of vessels. I didn't know about the others, but I was completely unimpressed, and I was making sure everyone knew it. "They're just ships. Ships and more ships. A bug fighter here, a freighter over there, oh what's that? A cruiser docked beneath us even? So fascinating so amazing it's like..like we've NEVER seen this before at all!" We kept on walking and I kept talking until finally Serri got sick of it "What is the matter with you Terrus? You never act like this! Either shut up or explain what's going on." I stared at him innocently and said "I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm acting like myself." He just laughed and replied, exasperatedly "No you're not! You haven't even asked about the weapons or what kind of damage they can do or any of the normal things you'd talk about! So what's your problem miss?"
Our group stopped moving and I stared at the ships. I remembered the very brief flight simulations and scenarios. Every single time I died. I shivered slightly and he noticed. "Miss? You aren't scared are you?" I cursed myself for my reaction. He stared at me intently, as did Heyo and Eliza. I stared at the ground like there was something interesting there. What a darkap, just asking me flat out. I like it when he's blunt but not when it's directed at me! Unable to stand the staring I looked up and said softly "I'm scared yes. I'm scared of flying. I'm scared of crashing and burning and I'm scared of losing any of you during the crashing and burning. I wouldn't be anywhere without you."
I was expecting Eliza to say something profoundly comforting. She always knows how to make things right again. The comforting comment, however, came not from Eliza, but from Heyo. He met my eyes and said "I'm scared of you but I don't avoid you. I'm working with you..you're scared of flying, so work with it." I smiled and replied "Thank you for the advice, and telling me that you're scared of me." He seemed to zone out for a few seconds before saying "It's not really you that I'm scared of. I'm scared of who you remind me of. She's like eight of you and she was nearly impossible to get away from..." I was about to ask who "she" was but was interrupted by an unknown Hork-Bajir controller approaching us. We all turned to look at him and he said cryptically "Visser 25. All of you are ordered to see him. Follow me."
As he led us through the base, I tried to get more information out of him every few minutes. But I might as well have been talking to a corpse. He didn't speak at all until we reached the dracon scorched hallway to the training room. "All entrances will be closed and locked when you're inside." I glanced into the training room, hoping Visser 25 wasn't in there, and that this was a setup, but nobody lies about Visser 25 and his orders unless they want to die. The four of us entered the room and walked to the center. I looked around for the Visser, but found him nowhere. Maybe this IS a setup!
That thought died a second later when I saw him back flip off the overwatch balcony to land in the middle of us. What an impressive sight..If I hadn't already done nearly the same thing an hour earlier. The Visser moved his cold stare over us and said in a voice equally cold "You're no doubt wondering why you're here. Due to your..unexpected unauthorized recruitment of Heyo 222, your team functionality needs to be reassessed. Since you four have been fighting live Yeerks all day I decided to personally put together a very special scenario to test you."
I didn't like the grin he gave. I didn't like how he was keeping us all off guard. I REALLY didn't like the sight of 4 Hork-Bajir controllers jumping down one after another to land behind the Visser. Three of them had regular sized hosts. Though they were heavily muscled males. My gaze travelled to the fourth Hork-Bajir, a short 5 foot female. Easy kill. Eliza just stared in surprise. Serri laughed for about 10 seconds until the small female gave him a look of disgust which shut him up in a heartbeat. Heyo gave a sharp intake of breath and gaped down at her. She looked up at him and gave a grin that seemed both very friendly and VERY predatory. She spoke very quietly, almost a whisper. "Hello Heyo. It's good to see you again too. Darling did you really think you could escape me that easily?" There was nothing but sincerity and kindness in her voice and her looks. It was so very at odds with..if this was the right person..then it was all at odds with her fierce spirit.
Heyo actually stumbled backwards a few steps and tripped on his own tail, which only got Serri laughing again. Heyo glanced at the little female and stuttered out "Desha? I never tried to.. to escape you I just wanted to..to join a..i mean..." She took one small step forward, he flinched and she smiled. Serri was laughing so hard I thought he'd die. Maybe we'll all get lucky and he will die! I glared at him but he didn't stop. Abandoning the glare approach, I kicked him in the stomach, he fell back and STILL kept laughing at Heyo's predicament. I'm going to kill him if I ever get left alone with him for 5 seconds even. Eliza was amused by it all but didn't seem to know who to help, me or Heyo. Visser 25 gave Serri a very disappointed look and said "Don't make me regret promoting you." Serri stopped laughing really quickly.
The Visser spoke, and all eyes went to him. "Now that the reunion and the introductions that I so graciously allowed are out of the way...There will be two simple facilities on either end of the floor. They will have two levels. There will be a main entrance in the front, defended by two dracon cannons to either side of that entrance. On the roof there will be one dracon cannon that will fire down into the field between your simulated bases. There will be many barriers you may use as cover in the field. Behind each base there will be a small shield generator. Disable it to gain entrance. Inside the base on the first level there will be three rooms. One room contains training weapons. Another room will have a data terminal with which to monitor the simulated battlefield. The third room will be a lift to the second level. The second level is one room. In the center will be your primary objective. A smooth metal sphere. You must recover it from your opposing teams facility and take it to your own. There are two ways you can end the round, you need to place it on the scanner in your teams terminal room, or if every member of a team is disabled. There will be no killing. There will be 10 rounds and no time limit to succeed. However, you will have 10 minutes before each round starts to plan and weapon up. Remember that the strength of a team is every individual, and the strength of every individual is their team. Team number one is: Serri 481, Eliza 388, Terrus 5633 and Heyo 222. Team number two is comprised of: Desha 609, Zani 214, Zani 2144, and Kamia 752 Understood?"
Everyone chorused "Yes Visser!". The Visser shook a claw up at the control booth, and the battlefield rose up.
10 minutes. 10 minutes and NOTHING WAS PLANNED. Eliza and I planned. Heyo and Serri disagreed with everything Eliza and I said but didn't agree with each other either. I had twin dracon beams, Eliza had only one. Serri and Heyo were carrying dracon rifles. I heard the "Round Begin" from the announcement systems and the four of us got behind the barriers closest to our base and waited. I had chosen the furthest left barrier. Part of my plan with Eliza. I peeked around the side of it and saw nobody. That didn't mean anything. I looked at Heyo, who was behind the barrier directly right of me, and I whispered "Heyo? I'm going to move left, you go-" Heyo completely ignored me, ran out from behind his barrier. I watched from the safety of mine as he made a mad dash straight for the base. I sighed and muttered "Or you can just run out, do whatever you want and then get killed.."
What a DARKAP! He was fast but not faster than the cannons. I saw him take 3 hits to the chest, and get blasted backward. Half a minute in and we were already down a soldier! I looked over at the heap on the ground behind me that was a paralyzed and slightly burnt Heyo. His eyes locked onto mine. I shook my head at him and said "You DARKAP! That's what you get! I'm not helping you get anywhere. I think I'll leave you to be stepped on."
Forgetting Heyo, I rolled quickly over to hide behind his barrier. I saw Eliza stick her claw out and quickly fire the dracon beam at the cannon on the roof, hitting the disabling point dead on. It powered down. I stared at Eliza. "When did you become such a good shot?" She just smiled and shrugged at me. I saw one of our enemies sneaking up behind her with a dracon beam! I pointed behind her, she turned and he fired at her weapon arm. She used her still working arm to try to grab his weapon but he fired at that arm too, then he fired 3 quick blasts at her head. Eliza went down and didn't get up.
While I'd been watching her he'd taken advantage of it. I saw it slowly, as I often did at times in combat, I saw him squeezing the trigger, I dived to the right exactly when he fired, but I suffered a hit on my left arm. My dracon beam I had been holding fell out of my now useless claw. I ignored the pain and I brought my right arm up and fired with the second dracon beam, hitting him in the chest. He fell forward flat on his face. I wasn't done with him yet though. I dashed over to him and flipped him over with my foot. I crouched down over him and looked him in the eyes. I told him quietly "This is for doing that to Eliza." I deliberately pressed my dracon beam against his arm and fired. He tried not to grunt in pain. I laughed at him and did it to his other arm. He couldn't help but cry out in pain a bit. "Not quite there yet are we? Let's fix that" I said.
I pressed the dracon beam to his chest this time and stared into his eyes. I let him KNOW what I was doing and what I was going to do. I let him fear it. I put my face close to his and whispered "I'm going to make you scream this time." I smiled and fired 5 quick times, point blank at his chest. He screamed very loudly and I pulled my face away from his and stood. I glanced around quickly to see if any other enemies were coming. Seeing none, I looked down at the helpless Yeerk. He was still screaming. I looked at Eliza, who still wasn't moving.
The Yeerk kept screaming. I stared down at him coldly. "Shut up". I told him. I fired point blank at his face.