The Lord of the Plains (34 page)

‘Do you expect humans to get in the way of
two gemengs fighting?’ he asked mildly.

‘They started the fight. And watched. And
left him there.’

‘I see. Well I’m afraid those eight other
people you think should be punished tell a different story. They
say they met to talk and when Maztar and Alann started fighting
they were afraid to get in the middle of it. In fact, they were so
frightened, they ran. They’ll be punished for cowardice, but that’s
all.’

Riley’s glare did not subside.

‘I imagine from your expression you don’t
believe that story.’

Riley said nothing.

‘I hope your attitude changes, but if it
doesn’t well,’ he shrugged. ‘You wouldn’t be the first gemeng to
decide they’re not happy here.’ His eyes were cold, his voice
colder. ‘This is disturbing and recent news to you. You’ll be given
a little time to come to terms with it. Do you understand?’

Momentarily afraid, Riley nodded and said,
‘I understand.’

Riley left as quickly as she could. She put
on a calm face, while inside fear and anger and turmoil
swirled.

When she had a chance, she talked to Fergus.
She was careful though, lest he get the idea she was discontent. He
told her that what made all this so troubling was that Maztar had
been born in Astar. Maztar would serve as an important reminder,
Fergus said, that even gemengs who had known only civilization
could still fall prey to the violence that lived within them.

Upset and troubled by his stance, she asked
Jillia, carefully. Jillia’s response had been a reassuring tirade
about Astar. As Riley was leaving she passed by Mr Bogresh, who
stood outside watching the forest. As she passed he said with a
grin that was more a snarl, ‘the violence of a gemeng!’

Chapter 25

The rest of the final year of combat
training drifted by.

Whenever Riley smiled at Garis he nearly wet
his pants. It was a somewhat gratifying response, as long as she
didn’t think about Maztar.

The rest of her unit were carefully awed by
how she had avoided Garis’ SIGPEW. She told Geilar how she’d done
it and eventually he was able to do it too if the distance was far
enough. She didn’t tell the rest of her unit the limitations to her
trick. If someone tried to shoot her she wanted that ace up her
sleeve, despite its flaws; it wouldn’t work if her attacker got
behind her (she needed to be able to see after all), or if there
was more than one. Considering the limitations, she thought it best
to avoid being shot at in the first place.

At the end of the year their unit was on top
of the leader board by a good number of points. The prize? Respect
and admiration.

And then it was over. The units gathered
like they had on the first day. Colonel Hamnar said a few words and
called out the new designations of the units and where they would
be reporting.

TU-4 became U-16. They were assigned to the
Astar Home Defence Patrol. The unit found this rather exciting.
They’d be outside Astar. As far as the infantry was concerned,
they’d be the first line of defence for Astar. Perhaps there was
more to topping the leader board than respect and admiration.

Riley was concerned to find she had been
given command of their unit, which as a gemeng was the highest
position she would ever reach. The rest of the unit wasn’t.

‘You didn’t know?’ Jann asked an eyebrow
raised. ‘Wow, maybe I should lead then.’

‘When did this happen?’ she demanded.

‘Um, like six months ago?’

She just gawked at him.

‘Who’s always telling us what to do in
combat training?’

She didn’t want to answer because it was
usually her.

‘Exactly.’

For the first two weeks their unit had two
more experienced soldiers working with them.

Mazra- commonly known as Maz- and Lestar
were a curious pair. Maz was good at telling them what to expect,
common mistakes and so on. He was helpful. Lestar would, on
occasion, jump at his own shadow. He wasn’t so useful.

But Riley didn’t mind, as they were in the
forest. Outside the wall, not as far as Garrondin or the testing
centre, but even so, they were outside. Most days the glimmer from
the AgriShields could be seen. And if you cared to look, the Shield
Tower might be visible, a lone point above Astar.

Something eased in her whenever she was in
the forest. It was like letting out a breath she didn’t know she’d
been holding. And so she was happy and determined to make a good
impression so she could stay in the Astar Home Defence Patrol.

The routine for their unit was a morning run
followed by reporting to their commanding officer at the Astar Home
Defence Patrol offices. There they picked up the radios- which were
returned when they checked back in, and were told which area they
would be patrolling. Then it was outside. They’d split into two
groups and meet regularly throughout the day. They didn’t stop for
lunch, which was eaten while patrolling.

Mostly it was boring work, unless you
enjoyed walking around forests, then it was rather relaxing.

Chapter 26

It was over a year since graduation, Riley’s
sixteenth birthday had passed and nothing too stressful had
occurred during her time with the Astar Home Defence Patrol. She
hadn’t seen much of Jillia, who’d been assigned to the Internal
Defence Force. She still saw Razra every few weeks though.

Once while on patrol, Jann, Geilar and Leili
had run into a gemeng who’d gotten lost. They escorted it to the
camp outside the testing centre without incident and spent the next
few weeks talking about it as it was the most exciting thing to
happen on patrol since they’d started.

So when they received a new mission it was
greeted with eager anticipation.

‘Garrondin!’ Jann said. ‘Real gemengs.’ he
sounded nervous. ‘Hey, maybe they can give you some tips?’ he said
to Geilar.

Geilar didn’t rise to the bait. He had
recovered much of his good humour since Maztar’s execution, but not
all. He was more reserved, more careful than he’d been before.

‘I wonder why they’re not sending someone
who’s been to Garrondin before.’ Leili mused, ‘I mean, if the
gemengs there are upset about something it must be pretty
serious.’

‘I heard from Lestar they don’t like talking
to humans. Maybe because we have two gemengs in our unit.’ Jann
said with a shrug.

‘Lestar said that?’ Leili asked with a
frown.

Jann just grinned. ‘It wasn’t firsthand
knowledge, I can tell you that much!’

For whatever reason, the units who patrolled
near Garrondin had noticed the gemengs had become very uneasy about
something. Whatever it was, those units hadn’t been able to get it
out of them by talking. So U-16 was going to see if they could do
any better.

Garrondin was closer to Astar than the
testing centre, though not by much. Even so, it didn’t take much
walking to get there.

As usual when on patrol, they were kitted
out in full Reismal body armour and SIGPEWs loaded with high grade
charge on the medium setting. Even in her full armour, Riley didn’t
tie her black hair up. Most Astarian women wore their hair short,
and if not, they tied it back. She’d received a few comments about
it, but as it didn’t interfere with her work, and she was a gemeng,
no one really cared.

From what Riley knew, Astar provided the
people of Garrondin with metals from which to make armour and
weapons. In exchange they were expected to defend Astar from
attack.

Approaching Garrondin, Riley saw it was
quite different to the gemeng village she had briefly lived in. The
buildings were wooden and one story, and they were all nicely
maintained, much like Astar. It was also at least three times as
big as the village from long ago. The roads were all dirt.

As they entered by the main road Riley saw
people standing in doorways or peering at them from windows.
Children were snatched from play and thrust firmly inside the
safety of their homes.

Jann looked around, confused. ‘What, are
they afraid of us?’

‘You seem surprised.’ Riley noted.

‘They’re gemengs.’ he stated, as if that was
answer enough.

‘And you have a SIGPEW.’ that seemed enough
reason to Riley to be afraid.
She’d
be afraid if someone
pointed a SIGPEW at her, or even an Order-1 (perhaps especially an
Order-1).

They spread out. Riley let her SIGPEW hang
from the strap and took her helmet off. It was the least
threatening she could look considering how she was dressed.

Riley looked around. The gemengs peered at
her, and did not approach.

Raising her voice so it would carry she
called, ‘I’d like to speak to whoever’s in charge here.’ She
waited.

She heard the sounds of children playing.
Apparently not all of the children had been rescued by their
parents. She turned to look.

They were coming from a side street, little
children chasing each other and shrieking, but not in the way they
had cried in the gemeng village from her childhood. She smiled.

The children did not see them, or if they
did they didn’t pay attention.

Leili turned to look at them, then went back
to surveying the village.

Riley did the same.

Still no movement from the gemengs. Perhaps
they’d do no better than anyone else.

Suddenly from behind her came a feminine
cry.

Riley turned around. In the space it took to
turn she saw Leili on the ground, a little gemeng child crying and
Jann-

Jann mistaking childish play for a
threat!

Without thinking she raised and shot before
he could pull the trigger.

There was a cry that made her stomach turn.
She raced to him. She’d shot his hand with a SIGPEW set to
medium.

Human body armour was not designed to
withstand their
own
weapons.