I slid further down into the freshly dug hole at the base of the tree. I had to get my entire body low enough so that there was no indication anyone was there. It had been several hours since I last heard from my team but I wasn’t worried yet. Cass and Brutus preferred low communication during missions and Lyse would follow their lead. With Amelia already eliminated it may be several more hours until they were able to enact their last ditch plan to win this round. Looking up, I guessed roughly three more hours of daylight. While it wasn't impossible to win at night in this cursed practice arena, poor visibility generally benefited the defending team over the offensive team.
This was the last training run before command would decide personnel groupings for the next phase of the war. A win here would mean placing in the top five teams in the stryker division, securing a spot at the front. The mission's goal was simple: incapacitate three members of the defensive team or capture the flag from the small wooden fort.
My name is Sylar Till, and I was one of the newest wildcards for a stryker squad in the Eter 3rd army. I was a few months from turning seventeen, and I had wanted to join the army and become a stryker for as long as I could remember.
The plan was simple for my part, the path leading to the fort was an old goat trail running through a clearing in the forest around forty feet wide and roughly one hundred feet long. I had spent the entire morning painstakingly circling the fort until I found a tree that gave me a sight line in through the exposed roof, to stay hidden I had dug out a small hole behind the tree. Using my knowledge of the local fauna, I had found a bush of pyrus berries that when crushed released a scent that attracted the arranx in the area. Arranx were large birds that traveled in small groups of six to eight but were vicious when scavenging. I was a passable archer but never placed in any of the training tournaments, still I could at least land an arrow inside the small fort.
Crushing and smearing the pyrus berries on the six arrows I had, I quickly climbed the tree and shot all six inside the fort to that most inconspicuous area I could. I foolishly hoped the defenders did not see or hear the arrows but it did not change the plan. Once the arranx began to circle the fort, Cass would make the call to charge. Using the birds as a distraction and trying to brute force over the wall and to the flag was the best plan we had been able to come up with.
Our last attempt lost us our main infiltrator when Amelia was taken captive. Cass and Brutus would come from opposite directions and distract the defenders, leaving Lyse and myself to try and find a gap in the defense and grab the flag. Stryker teams trained to eliminate the target at all costs over self preservation, just touching the flag was a win.
While it was hard to gauge time precisely under the canopy of the forest, I guessed it was around fifteen minutes later that I heard the first high pitched shriek. Having lived near the forest all of my life, I knew that sound meant the arranx had smelled and located the berries. I watched as the large birds began to circle the fort and dive down for a closer look.
Once all eight of the birds arrived they began to swoop down into the yard of the small fort and I saw an arrow chase one of them back into the sky. Knowing the time was coming, I began to slowly creep towards the wall on his side. A loud shout followed after a few seconds and I recognized Brutus' voice as he hurled himself into the wall and over it. I could hear fighting behind the wall and began my sprint to my designated spot. Hurtling over the wall in a maneuver drilled into me during my time at the stryker academy, I landed and immediately crouched then attempted to survey my surroundings.
I spotted Brutus grappling with Omar, squad leader from the defenders and quickly started looking for the flag. A whistling sound off to my right caused me to reactively dive to the ground in front of me as a blunted arrow passed directly over where I was standing. I whipped my head around to find the archer and found Trea aiming another arrow right at me, before I even had time to get back on my feet she had already fired her follow up and tagged me right in the side. An explosion of pain hit me and stole my breath as I quickly tapped my locator and signaled that I was out of the fight. A bright blue light shone from the locator indicating to everyone that I was down to prevent anyone else from taking a shot. Blunted arrows wouldn’t kill but they damn sure hurt.
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Cass grumbled under his breath ahead of him as they walked back down the well worn path to camp. I asked him what he said, as I wasn't sure if I was meant to hear it. He repeated it louder this time “I was so focused on the wall up ahead of me that I didn’t even see the arrow coming.”
After I was taken out, I watched as both Brutus and Lyse were eliminated before taking the flag. Cass, I learned, had been taken out by an arrow meant for an arranx and he was throwing a tantrum about it. This loss put us in sixth place out of ten in the stryker academy and meant we would not be moving with the advance group to the northern front. Out of the ten squads currently in training, the top five would advance while the bottom five would journey with the bulk of the 3rd legion once the front was secured.
The 3rd legion had been badly beaten and nearly destroyed by the armies of Norx during an ambush. The nation of Norx had recently undergone a political transformation and the new powers immediately launched a war on the smaller but resource rich nation of Eter. The 3rd legion was due to march in one month to reclaim the northern border.
I was disappointed in this result even though as the wildcard, team performance weighted on my score less heavily than individual performance. My idea to lure in the arranx for a distraction had earned him praise from his instructors during the post training debrief. I had been designated as a wildcard due to my unorthodox problem solving and love of traps.
Stryker squads were broken down into five roles; squad leader, squad second, logistics, infiltrator and wildcard. As the squad leader of squad 6, Cass was directly responsible for the planning and execution of missions. Squad second, Brutus, served as the leader if the squad leader was indisposed or killed in the field. Logistics, Lyse, was in charge of supplying each squad member with mission appropriate gear and maintaining camp supplies. Infiltrator, Amelia, acted as a scout and assassin, they were trained primarily in field craft and subterfuge.
Wildcards were made up of varied skill sets and served as adjuncts to squads, they were paired with whichever team needed their particular skill set. While I had trained with several squads, I vastly preferred squad six and considered them my closest friends at the academy. The news that none of them would move with the advance group weighed heavily on their thoughts. When Norx launched their attack on the village of Grove, the entire village was razed. Everyone was killed including Cass’ parents.
The camp was a hive of activity as the young strykers prepared for graduation and to receive their future assignments. Those who would join the advance army were packing and preparing for tomorrows march, those who would stay would join the other divisions at a main camp a few miles away in a few days. I was anxious to get my assignment and join the ranks of the main army.
My father, Lorn Till, was a legendary stryker, one of the longest serving infiltrators, and was currently deployed in the forest surrounding the former village of Grove. I had not seen him since the war began nearly six months ago. My mother was a camp follower trailing the third legion due to the forced evacuation of their town in preparation for the advance of the Norx forces. Sleep came slowly that night, my thoughts raged and my mind would not settle. The reality of going to war started to slowly seep in, my anxiety and fear increasing. Spending the last four months at the academy training all seemed like a blur, games played by children behind their parents backs and now it was finally real.
A blaring musical sound woke me from my sleep, the camp wake up call. Quickly dressing and lining up for inspection gave me time to settle my thoughts from the night before. As my instructors called out the formation for graduation, I felt my resolve stiffen. I would travel with the 3rd legion, whether today or in a month, and I would find my father. I would help beat back the armies of Norx and bring peace to my country.
My name was called and I marched in tune to shake the hand of the general, whose name I did not know. I was congratulated and given a pin to place on my right shoulder in the army tradition and then I went to stand with squad six and await assignment. As expected, squad six would not travel with the advance group, we would travel to the main camp of the 3rd legion in a week to await the levies and re-supply before marching towards the northern border.