The Lord of the Plains (28 page)

She closed her eyes and spun around. When
she opened her eyes she was pointing at Jann.

‘Ok, Jann will stay here.’ she said.

‘Alright. Who’s staying with me?’ he
asked.

Riley looked up at this. ‘Jann should
capture the base. Batar and Leili should stay here.’ she said. She
rather thought putting Jann in charge of sitting still anywhere was
a poor idea. He was more likely to get frustrated and bored and
leave his post. Batar on the other hand was very patient, whereas
Leili was good at following orders.

‘Ummm?’ Jann murmured.

‘You’re not likely to stay put.’ she said,
somewhat uncertainly.

He shrugged. ‘I guess. Ok, we can go with
that. What are you and Geilar going to do?’

‘One of us should stay here, the other
should go with you.’

‘I’ll go.’ Geilar said.

That settled Jann and Geilar started talking
about how they should go about capturing the other team’s base.
Riley walked around their area, noting the places the enemy could
get through. She passed her conclusions on to Batar and Leili.

Then their time was up. Jann looked
uncertain for a moment before saying, ‘ok, we’ll move out. You
guys, make sure nobody gets through.’

For a long time it was quiet and boring.
This was fine for Riley. Hunting wasn’t always very exciting
either. Batar also, was not bothered, and Leili was good at sitting
quietly if that’s what she had to do.

Batar and Leili stayed inside the base while
Riley, every now and then, made a sweep around the barriers and
walls closest to their base.

It was on one of these sweeps that she
spotted a human and a gemeng sneaking up on the base. They stopped
behind a wall and were debating how to get close without getting
shot. Riley raised the SIGPEW to shoot and started shaking. It had
been months since she’d had this much trouble.

The pair was just sitting there. She could
get them both, as long as she could shoot. She clenched her jaw.
Bile rose in her throat. They would spot her. They would shoot
her.

And suddenly a stream of light burst from
her SIGPEW, then another so fast it merged with the first.

She looked at the two in shock. They were as
surprised as her. Riley barely noticed. She felt as though she
might throw up.

‘What happened-oh!’ Leili was talking. She
had come out of the base. ‘Did you get them?’

Riley didn’t answer, but the two were
answering for her.

‘That’s good, hopefully Geilar and Jann are
doing as well.’

Riley nodded slowly. Leili turned back
towards the base and in a daze Riley followed her. The walk helped,
though it wasn’t very far at all. It was mainly the fear at what
would happen if the rest of her unit saw her in such a state that
made her regain control. She shook her head, clenched her jaw. By
the time they were back at the base she seemed fine, if a bit stern
looking.

‘What happened?’ Batar asked when they
returned.

Leili explained and Batar calmly added that
he’d shot someone who was approaching.

‘That’s three.’ Leili said, ‘so that’s two
for Geilar and Jann to take out.’

They waited some more.

They didn’t know how the others were doing
until a whistle blew.

That was the signal that the game was
over.

Leili and Batar looked at each other.

‘Do you think we won?’ Leili asked.

Batar shrugged, ‘let’s go find out.’

The two groups gathered back at the
entrance.

Colonel Hamnar looked them over sternly.
‘Both of the attacking groups were taken out over half an hour ago.
The defenders just sat there, doing nothing. So I’m going to call
this as a loss for both groups. Now, I want you lot to figure out
what went wrong, then we’re doing this again and again. All day. At
the end of the day, you’re going to explain your results to
me.’

When he was done the units reunited and
explained what had happened to each other. Jann had been taken out
by the defending team, as had Geilar, but Geilar had managed to
take out one of the defenders before being shot.

‘What’s their base look like?’ Riley asked
after they had finished. She was looking away from the unit, still
struggling to control herself. She didn’t know if she could do this
all day, so she tried to focus on the talk instead.

‘Pretty much the same as ours.’ Jann
muttered. ‘Uh, I can’t believe we lost!’

‘Well, at least we did better than they
did.’ Leili said. ‘But we still lost.’ she added quickly.

‘We need a better plan.’ Geilar said, ‘we
can’t just charge into the base like we did last time.’

‘Maybe if we had more people…’ Jann was
saying

‘The defence worked well.’ Batar said. ‘But
they sent three guys at us, we might not have been able to do it
with just two.’

‘Well they managed!’ Jann said hotly.

‘Do you think they’d go on the offence right
away?’ Riley asked thoughtfully.

‘Um, yes!’ Jann replied. ‘What else are they
going to do, sit there?’

‘Was it easy to get to their base without
being seen?’ she asked.

‘I guess.’ Geilar said. ‘We didn’t get shot
til we arrived at their base.’

‘They might be more careful this time. You
and Jann can go find out how many are defending their base…’ she
paused, ‘Leili could go with you. Do you think you could try and
lure one of the defenders away?’ she asked.

‘I could try…’ Leili said.

‘If they think just one person is out there
they might send someone out to get you.’ Riley said thoughtfully.
‘If they do, it will be easier for us to attack whoever is
remaining at the base.’

She nodded. ‘I can try.’ she shrugged. ‘It’s
better than nothing.’

‘If you don’t come back then one of us will
have to go.’ Riley said.

They agreed to go with that plan. The game
started again and then it was just Riley and Batar in the base.

Riley thought about it for a few moments and
decided to check around the obstacles near the base again. That
just left Batar defending, though it would be worse if Maztar’s
unit snuck up on them.

Riley wasn’t surprised when she eventually
spotted two people sneaking around near their base. The Astarians
weren’t really very stealthy when compared to mountain cats, or
anything from the wild really. It was easier to shoot them this
time, though her stomach still objected afterwards.

Before she could spend much time trying to
get herself under control she saw light over the base. Around one
wall and another and she was back. Batar was down, as was another
enemy. Without thinking she raised her SIGPEW and shot the fourth
who was just making it into their base.

In surprise she hurried to the base and
scanned the area.

With a grumble Batar and the other four got
up and left the area quickly. They weren’t supposed to talk to each
other once they were dead.

Riley prepared herself for a long wait. If
Leili’s team failed then they’d lose this round again, she could
hardly leave the base now.

She didn’t have to wait long before the
whistle blew.

She left the area. When she arrived at the
gathering place Jann, Geilar and Leili were looking very pleased
with themselves.

‘This round goes to Unit Four.’ Colonel
Hamnar looked marginally satisfied at this, but perhaps it was a
trick of the light. ‘Ok, discuss. Then we’re going again. There’s
one more round on this set up and then we’ll change the obstacles
around.’

They continued like that for the rest of the
day. Every day began early with a run, then they had theory, then
practice. Sometimes it was weapons practice, sometimes it was
combat training. They trained with different rules and against
different units and in different situations. Eventually they
started training outside the city walls in the forest near Astar.
They set up league tables, so the combat training became very
competitive.

Once they began training outside the walls
of Astar, Riley discovered how much she missed the forest. The
smell, the feel, the sights and sounds. The training in the forest
was a time she treasured. It also eased the difficulty she had with
the energy weapons.

Riley found she rather enjoyed coming up
with different strategies, though not so much shooting people, even
on low settings. If she had been using her sword, perhaps it would
have been different.

Chapter 19

The Shield Tower was the most important
building in all of Astar. There was more than one tower that held a
shield in Astar, yet only one was known as the Shield Tower.

The Shield Tower was located in the centre
of Astar and was the highest point in the city. It held the only
shield that could cover all of Astar by itself. The military had a
large presence within certain parts of the city as well as outside.
Internal Defence Force personnel, equipped with SIGPEWs and Reismal
body armour were always stationed around the Shield Tower. The
power stations and food and weapon storage facilities also had a
large contingent of armed guards around them at all times.

The constructs on top of the buildings in
Astar that had so intrigued Aerlid, Riley now knew, were part of
the power network of Astar. Astar used fuel of many different
types, so that if one was cut off during an attack they could
switch to another type without too much trouble. She knew much of
the fuel used to power the energy weapons came from caves to the
north, though the shields were primarily fuelled by the sun through
the tower-top constructs.

During that year Riley spent a lot of time
with the Internal Defence Force standing outside the Shield Tower
counting the clouds in the sky.

Many of the resources used by Astar came
through Coastside, a city on the coast connected to Astar by
reinforced underground tunnels. There was a mine near Coastside,
though many of the other resource extraction sites were flung
further afield. It was the job of the submariners of Coastside to
get those resources from the extraction sites safely to Coastside
where they could then be taken to Astar.

While she was counting clouds that job
sounded very exciting to her, but that wasn’t one of the jobs her
unit ever trained on.

Every morning began with a run, sometimes
around the city, sometimes around the park and sometimes in the
military school compound. Riley did not enjoy these runs very much.
Geilar wasn’t very fast, and she obeyed Aerlid’s instruction to
never be faster or better than the strongest gemeng. There were
other units running with them, but Geilar was in her unit so she
tied her performance to his. So she had to be slower than Geilar
all the time
.

At least she’d had practice with this in
primary school. Still, she did not enjoy it.

Geilar was giving her a strange look when
they finished their run that day. ‘You don’t look very tired.’ he
said reproachfully.

‘I am.’ she answered, glancing at him. He
was sweating and panting. It occurred to her suddenly that she
should start sweating and panting too. ‘I just hide it.’ she
added.

‘You’re not losing on purpose, are you?’ he
asked, anger entering his voice.

‘No.’ she replied, surprised. Before this
conversation it had never occurred to her that someone might guess
she wasn’t trying very hard.

Seeing the hard look he was giving her she
added, ‘I’m good at hiding it.’

He continued observing her. She returned his
gaze, bewildered.

He sighed, ‘you’re good at hiding it?’

‘Yes.’ she stated simply.

‘Ok, how and or why are you good at it?
Because you are
really
good at it.’

‘Uh…I don’t come from Astar.’ she finally
said.

‘Really?’ he replied, mildly amazed. ‘So you
learnt how to do that out there? Is it important?’