They walked along a path through the forest until they came to a bunker. The general mood was dour, and the complaints about the test were more frequent now that they were out of earshot of the proctors. They likely hadn’t heard that the true mark of someone’s character was what they did when they thought no one was watching. Kiera was sure that their PUCs were recording what they said.
In front of the bunker was a group of proctors standing behind a table with vests and a variety of firearms on them. Most of them were plasma rifles, blasters, carbines, and a few ion weapons. The group gathered in front of the tables, one of the proctors looked at Gargax, a frown on his face.
“Examinee, do you know how this ordnance functions?” Unlike the knight he didn’t use Gargax’s name, but his stare was heavy enough that he didn’t need to.
Gargax looked at the weapons, “Point end, press button. Kaboom!” He met the man’s stare unflinchingly.
“Listen up! I am going to show you examinees exactly how to use this ordinance and its effects!” He proceeded to explain the settings, the one that would be used and then fired at a target. “These plasma weapons do not do anything else! Do you all understand!”? Even though he addressed the group his stare was once more leveled at Gargax.
“The beast cannot swim, does not know how to use a weapon, what is the reason that it’s here! Other than to waste our time?” Tracksuit sneered.
The proctor turned that heavy gaze on Tracksuit, “Son, you are obviously uninformed just how much of an asset the orkish race is to the Empire. Allow me to enlighten you. Examinee, come here.” Gargox approached the proctor who had picked up a rifle that had an obviously broken muzzle and damaged battery pack. Firing that weapon would likely cause it to explode in your hands, if it did anything at all.
Gargax looked at it, sniffed it and then looked at the proctor, “Shoot red beam go boom.”
“Demonstrate on that target,” he pointed to a combat dummy two other proctors brought out.
Gargax aimed and fired. A burst of red plasma struck the dummy and then exploded, scorching the ground around it. The proctor took the weapon back and aimed at the target. He pressed the trigger, but nothing happened. He passed it to a fellow proctor who had the same results. Gargax frowned and took it back when it was handed to him, and fired once more when instructed. The dummy exploded.
“I advise you to apologize for the insult. You will be entering a combat scenario together and unlike your video games, friendly fire does exist in the real world,” the proctor said. Tracksuit remained quiet. “When your PUCs light up you will approach the table and receive a combat vest, combat greaves, a helmet, and a weapon. Touch nothing until you are handed it. If anyone disobeys then they will get to enjoy an extra test tonight administered by Sergeant Savage,” the proctor’s gaze landed on Tracksuit. “You will also have one medical kit per group, designate one person as a medic. Examinee Larenthal, I am forbidding you from using your healing abilities in this scenario. It is extremely rare for a unit to have an asimaar with them.”
“Understood, sir,” Tamalyn replied. Kiera made a mental note to introduce Tamalyn to Tamarial and Chalice; only one in a million Elysiums a generation were born as an aasimar and fewer still left their planet. They were expected to “serve” in the Elysium Planetary guard, wed and have children. The Elysuims believed the child of an aasimar had a higher chance of being born as one.
As much as Kiera enjoyed watching the obstacle course’s PIC rip apart Tracksuit, she understood the threat for what it was. Savage was obviously the type that broke you apart. They collected and put on their equipment, it was all imperial standard and most of the examinees were familiar with them. Kiera helped Gargax with his greaves, he nodded at them and examined his weapon with interest. It was the weapon that had been demonstrated, the proctor wasn’t taking the ork lightly.
Kiera and Isaac also received a blaster rifles, Tamalyn and Robyn were issued a pistol, and Kinsley had an assault rifle that could be reconfigured into a sniper rifle. Of course, Tracksuit complained about his issued weapon. He thought he should have been given one of the ion rifles and not a blaster. Tamalyn picked up the medkit before anyone else could.
“Now that everyone is equipped, I will go over the scenario. You are to assault a base that is somewhere in the terrain behind me. That is all the information available. There will be no questions, anything else you need to know will be communicated through your PUCs, begin!”
“Assault formation gamma,” Isaac commanded, walking forward, rifle in his hand.
“No idea what that is,” Kiera said, stepping in behind him. Kinsley disappeared into the forest ahead of them. Tamalyn and Robyn followed Kiera, and Gargax brought up the rear.
Isaac started to say something but just shook his head and continued walking. They all kept on high alert as they moved through the woods, other examinees had gone on their own. Weapons fire echoed through the forest, but it was difficult to tell how far away or from what direction.
“Two clicks from your position, dire northeast is a patrol. They’re galvians. Holding position,” Kinsley’s voice came over the commlink in the helmet. Kiera didn’t bother to check her compass, Kinsley didn’t mean the actual direction, but the direction as if they were walking north, indicated by the “dire” phrase.
“Acknowledged, enroute,” Isaac replied, “She’s fast. Galvians, shouldn’t be surprised after the jotun.” He pressed a button on his PUC, “Attention all squads, we have confirmed galvian sighting.”
“I’m not familiar with them,” Kiera admitted.
“They’re a reptilian race with scales that increase their endurance and sharp claws. They can shroud themselves making them difficult to see even if they’re moving, although moving disrupts their shroud. There’s debate whether that’s an innate ability or a technology they’ve developed. They’re cold blooded and often carry heat packs,” Tamalyn explained.
Gargax growled at the mention of the name, Kiera could feel his growing anger, she put a hand on his arm, “Hey, hey. They aren’t real galvians. Even if they were, we have to keep level heads, okay?”
They walked for several more minutes before Isaac raised his arm to signal a stop. Kiera panned around the area, she didn’t see any sign of the galvians or Kinsley. A single shot ripped through the trees. A moment later a lizard man shimmered into view and collapsed. Weapon fire replied to the shot, more shrouds shimmering to reveal the enemy, none of the shots were aimed at their group.
The galvians looked like bipedal iguana with mouths full of sharp teeth. A frill ran down their heads and each one had a thick tail that rested on the ground behind them. At least this variety did. There were other varieties but they were all reptilian humanoids.
Kiera raised her weapon and fired two quick shots, striking the same galvian twice on his body. He stumbled but didn’t fall. A blast from Tamalyn sent him reeling and Isaac’s attack dropped him. As soon as they fired they moved to cover, the remaining three galvians turned to their position.
Gargax carefully aimed and fired, his shot took one of the galvians in the knee, forcing the alien to take a knee. Robyn fired at the same target, her shot sent him to the ground. Two remained. One of the galvians turned his back to them, Kiera didn’t hesitate and fired. Her shot struck a metal pack on its back; another shot hit it immediately afterward. For a prospective Medic, Tamalyn was a crack shot. A fist sized stone whirred into the pack followed a heartbeat later by a blast that caused the pack to explode, incinerating the galvian. A shot from the trees above them dropped the remaining galvian.
“Clear,” Kinsley’s voice came over the commlink. They approached the clearing where the galvians were slain carefully. Kiera switched her visor to infrared but saw no sign of any traps.
“They’ve got stingers,” Isaac said, kicking sized a weapon that was designed to be used in one hand, it was larger than the pistol blasters Tamalyn and Robyn had with a narrow muzzle and the top of the weapon was shaped like a large egg. “It’s a cruel weapon that spits out homing needles that explode a few seconds after impact. At least the real ones do.”
“Let’s keep going,” Kiera said before pressing her PUC, “Galvian squad of five down, no casualties.”
“Wish we could get confirmation from the others,” Isaac grumbled.
“It’s a competition,” Tamalyn shrugged, “At least that’s how they see it. Working together hasn’t crossed their minds.”
They moved forward again. Kinsley reported sighting another patrol, this one had six members and was on the move. They weren’t using their shrouds and seemed relaxed. <<“North of your position, three klicks. Their base may be close by, moving to investigate.”>>
“Be careful, Kins,” Kiera said.
“Hold,” Gargax said, “Ambush.”
“Not a bad idea,” Isaac said, “Let’s walk a bit further…” he trailed off as Gargax walked forward. They followed him for five minutes before he stopped and directed where each person should set up. They were all on the same side of the path. Crossfire would have been to their advantage, but there was the potential to hit each other.
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Twenty minutes passed before the galvians came into view. Gargax held his arm up with the same signal that Isaac used to stop them earlier. He waited until all five of the galvians passed them. Kiera counted again as Gargax pointed, signaling them to fire. Where was the last one? Scouting or following?
“Keep alert! Kins marked six but there are only five!” The others had already opened fire, their attention on the group now in front of them. Kiera looked back where the galvians had come from, shimmer caught her eye as a spray of needles appeared, launching from a galvian wielding a stinger.
“Stinger!” She shouted, pushing Tamalyn to the ground and covering her with her body. Tamalyn was their medic and the worst person to lose. Kiera heard the sound of blaster fire and felt thin blades impact her back. A second later explosions tore into her, the HUD on her helmet showing critical injury. The pain was real, she didn’t need the HUD to tell her she was injured.
Kiera rolled off of the medic and surveyed the area. Isaac and Robyn had the two surviving galvians pinned down with suppressive fire. Gargax stood over the one with the stinger, his weapon in his hands like a club. Kiera sat up and fired at the pinned galvians, wounding one of them enough that it shimmered and was gone. The other followed suit, the shimmer wavered as it was struck with plasma fire. The shroud failed and another blast took it in the stomach.
“There’s one left!” Isaac called, jogging where the galvian had disappeared.
“Isaac, come back!” Tamalyn shouted, but her warning was too late. Claws raked across his stomach as the galvian reappeared. It was only hidden. Robyn fired a burst, moving so she had a clear shot and dropped the lizardman.
“Clear!” She shouted moving over to Tamalyn as the medic started examining Kiera. Gargax brought Issac over.
“Second group of galvians down, two injured,” Kiera said over the PUC, “How is he?”
“Better than you,” Tamalyn said, “Hold still. Thank you for the save,” she applied medgel to Kiera’s wounds. It was a cool gel-like substance that could be used to close wounds and prevent infections, while numbing pain. When it hardened it acted like a cast
“You’re welcome, keep your medic alive so they can keep you alive,” Kiera grinned.
<<“Are you okay?”>> Kinsley asked.
“Yeah,” Kiera said, “It got a bit heated but we’re fine. What’s your position?”
<<“Eight clicks east, north east of your position. I have sight on their base, a ship.”>> she paused <<“Invasion force, I’m counting thirty more galvians. We need reinforcements.”>>
“Isaac, these guys won’t listen to a woman, can you try to rally them?” Kiera asked.
“They didn’t listen to me, either. I don’t think we can count on them,” Isaac said.
“Then we need to pull back,” Kiera said, “We can’t do this without the others, we’re too badly outnumbered. If this wasn’t just a scenario, what would we do?”
“This is a scenario, right?” Isaac asked.
Gargax held up the remains of the galvian that he had pulverized. There was a mass of wires hanging from it, some of them sparked. He tossed it aside.
“If this was a real incident, where a scout team came across any kind of invasion force, we would radio for reinforcements and hold position for observation until they arrived,” Tamalyn said, “Or if it would be too long, we retreat to a rendezvous location.”
Isaac nodded then spoke over the commlink, <<“This is Isaac Cross to anyone that can hear me. We have discovered a galvian incursion, encountering two patrols and the location of their base. We request reinforcements. Please reply.”>> He looked at the others, “Kinsley was using the commlink and not the PUC, maybe we were just communicating incorrectly.”
They waited for several minutes with no reply.
Kiera signed, “Those idiots are going to get themselves killed.Especially if they keep listening to that dumbass prince. Let’s fall back. Kins come back to rendezvous with us; the other squads aren’t communicating and we’re way out numbered.
Gargax walked over to the dead galvians and started to rummage through their remains. He came up with a device that looked like a headset. He closed his eyes and then made a growling, hissing sound into it.
“Did you…just call out to the galvians?” Isaac asked, “We should be retreating and reconnecting with the larger group!”
“Yes,” he said, “They come. No wait, stop them.”
<<”Kinsley to fireteam, one of the galvians just ordered another squad to head in your direction.”>>
<<”Fireteam here, Gargax just bamboozled the galvians into sending a back up squad. Do you have eyes on their numbers?”>> Kiera replied.
<<”Squad of five, If you’re baiting them I’m going to shadow and support you, unless you want me to wait here and keep eyes out for enemy movement?”>>
”Keep your eyes on them, Kins,”Kiera said, ”Knowledge is crucial right now. We’ll need to know their movements and numbers.”
<<”Can anyone hear me? This is Henry Blake, I’m here with his majesty and the royal stooges. We encountered some kind of lizardmen and need aid. The prince is badly injured and we lost a member of our impromptu squad.”>>
<<”Henry this is Isaac Cross, drop a beacon and we might be able to reach you. Did you just link to this frequency?”>>
<<”Yeah, the frequency that appeared on our PUCs was apparently sent by Prince Dumbass. No one realized it at the time. He just admitted it a few minutes ago. Most of the other squads are down…thanks to the prince and his goons calling out targets and directing three squads to fire on each other. Dropping a beacon now.”>>
“Trap,” Gargax said.
Kiera nodded, “Yeah, that’s pretty—” she paused when her PUC beeped, displaying a different commlink frequency. She switched to it, <<”Who is this?”>>
<<”Points for paranoia, Kara,”>> Kinsley’s voice came over the commlink, <<”I trust your instincts, but you know that’s obviously a trap, right?”>>
Keira grinned, ”We all did, sending the updated frequency to the others.”
“If they really did attack other squads, then that’s treason,” Isaac said, “Should we deal with that?”
Gargax shook his head, “lizard deal,” he started heading up the path the galvians came. The girls shared a glance and a shrug, sometimes Gargax didn’t make sense, but he had proven time and again that he wasn’t a simpleton. They fell in behind him while Isaac took up the rear position. An hour later they were in an ambush position again.
“They come,” Gargax said.
“I can see their shimmer as they walk,” Robyn commented, "about two hundred feet in front of us.”
”Target the central one’s heat pack like we did with the last group,” Isaac said.
A flash of red flew through the air, and a galvian shimmered into view, collapsing to his stomach. None of the others appeared, no shots were fired from the galvians. Gargax took a shot at the downed galvian’s heat pack. Kiera got off a shot as well before the lizardmen shimmered into view and returned fire, one scored a hit on Gargax’s shoulder before he had time to duck back under cover. A moment later the heat pack exploded, killing the one closest to it and disorienting the rest. The fireteam took the galvian’s disorientation to their advantage and fired at the middle lizardman. He didn’t survive the barrage. The other two shimmered out of sight.
The fireteam stayed where they were, having learned from their previous encounter. Gargax shot the heatpack of the lizard they just killed. The galvians appeared and ran, the explosion of the heatpack took out the closer of the two and sent the further one flying to the ground. Tamalyn fired at him, striking his head and ending the threat.
That was all five of them, Kinsley didn’t report any more patrols. “Continuing on is a bad idea, There’s still five times as many galvians as us and they won’t keep sending out patrols. They’re highly aggressive but they aren’t stupid,” Robyn said, “Even if it might be a trap our priority should be to hook up with the other squads.”
“Their beacon is mobile,” Isaac said, “From what I can tell they’re moving towards our last position, I pinged the beacon before we left. If I knew how to spoof a ping location then I would have been doing that.”
“We don’t have the equipment to do that,” Kiera said, “It only works when you have a drone.”
“You know, if we weren’t treating this like it was the real thing, I’d suggest that Kinsley ping their beacon from the base, leading them straight to the galvians,” Isaac scoffed.
“The goal isn’t to eliminate the enemy,” Tamalyn said, “It’s to assault and capture the base…and it’s a ship.” She pressed her comm, Kinlsey, “What do you know about hacking?”
<<”For a galvian computer? I don’t have the proper gear to connect and translate their controls otherwise I could probably do it.”
“I can,” Gargax said, drawing their attention.
“You can operate galvian tech?” Kiera asked.
The ork nodded, “galvian slave.”
Kiera studied him for a moment, “Your surname…Eskar, it sounded familiar when Cael Nimue said it…” she bit her lip trying to think, “It’s a planet name, Eskar on the fringe. There was a mining base near there that was destroyed by pirates. When the empire sent a cruiser to repair the station they were attacked by galvians who had taken up a position on Eskar’s moon. Which led to a conflict that drove the galvian’s from Imperial space, including an invasion ship that lifted off of Eskar. That was two solar years ago, which means if there were inhabitants on Eskar then integration would have been completed, making you eligible for citizenship.”
The ork didn’t respond, but his attention was fully on Kiera, his face unreadable. “Kins, if you can guide us up to the base, do you think we would be able to cause a distraction enough that we could slip inside, steal the ship and eliminate the galvians?” Kiera asked.
<<“Yeah, but it would have to be one heck of a distraction to get them to leave.”>>
“Tamalyn, you said earlier that the source of the galvian’s shroud was unknown, what’s the prevailing opinion?” Isaac asked.
“Technological. Their equipment becomes shrouded with them and if it were a racial ability most people in the medical field argue they would have to be weaponless and naked to be able to take full advantage of it, why?” Tamalyn asked.
“Because this is a simulation of a galvian attack, and since the prevailing theory is technological, then we might be able to find one among the corpses that weren’t incinerated, just like we found that comm unit.” Kiera said, “It’s gaming the system a little.”
Isaac shook his head, “Not at all, we’re applying what we know about the galvians. But even if we do find something that could be their shrouding technology, we have no idea how to use it.”
“We won’t be able to,” Kiea said, “But Gargax can.”