The Phoenix Fallacy Book I: Janus (11 page)

Chapter 14: The Dove and the Hawkes

The five ran together to Sigma 3, just catching up to Wouris as she walked inside for their afternoon meeting.  She gave them a look of disapproval, “Almost late, watch it, cadets.”

Wouris gathered
the unit around her, “Alright you bluebacks, tomorrow you begin the actual training.  Today was about me getting a feel for you.”  Some of the cadets gave knowing looks and grins, many wore looks of relief.  Wouris couldn’t expect them to run the same distance every day; it would be suicide.

“Tomorrow, we’ll start with our same run, but stragglers will start losing their
free time.”   The smiles faded.

“Then, you’ll begin your hand-to-hand exercises, tactical lessons, and weight training.  Eventually you’ll be expected to work on these on your own.”
The cadets’ faces and shoulders drooped.  “All of these are the basics.  You will have much more to learn if you want to survive the final test.”

One of the cadets chimed in, “Will we have another chance to complete the test if we fail the first time, Sergeant?”

“What’s your name, cadet?”

“Alexis, Sergeant.”

“That is incorrect,” Wouris replied angrily, “Your name is cadet until I call you otherwise.  And you misunderstood what I said,
cadet
.  I said if you want to
survive
the test.  Your final test will be to complete and survive your very first mission.  If you do so, you will be accepted as a fully fledged Adept.  If not, well, you certainly won’t care, will you?”    She smiled and ended cheerily, “See you in the morning.”

Not one cadet slept that night – just the way Wouris wanted it.

Janus and the other cadets tumbled out of their rooms the next morning bleary eyed and exhausted.  Wouris lined them up for roll call and quickly took off.  In no time they were jogging around the trunk, huffing away.  Despite Wouris’ statement the night before, their exercise that morning was lighter, and although some of the cadets definitely struggled more than others, no one had collapsed by the time Wouris called for them to stop.

The sun was up in full and shining down on them through the Great Seal as they made their way to the mess, with Wouris in the lead.  Celes, Marcus, and Janus jogged side by side.  Lyn and Ramirez were right behind them.

“I wonder what our tactical lessons will be like?”  Celes asked. 

Marcus shrugged, “Good question; could be a million things, if what they had lined up for in S.T. training meant anything.  Don’t worry; I’ll look out for you guys.”

“What about you, Janus?  Any ideas?”  Lyn asked.

Janus was silent, and Celes shrugged back at her.  After a moment, however, Janus responded, “I guess we’ll study Corporate weapons and tactics first, to give us an idea of how to form our own strategies and tactics against them.”

             
Celes smiled at Marcus, “Hear that? I think he actually knows what he’s talking about.”

Marcus grimaced, and Janus tried to hide the fleeting smirk on his face.

Wouris stopped them outside the mess hall and ran down the schedule of the rest of the day’s lessons and exercises.  “Alright, listen up.  You’re due with Col. Keats and Col. Hawkes for Tactics at 0700.  Don’t bother to eat too much; you’ll just pay for it later.  Just grab a bite and meet me at 0650 in front of the Beacon – if you’re late, you’ll definitely pay for it.  The exercises should take till 1400 hours, where you will have 30 minutes to eat before we start running.  Again, don’t eat much, or else you won’t enjoy our run.  At 1600 hours you’ll report to Major Northcott for weapons training.  At 1800, you get to meet me and I’ll see how you’ve progressed today
with some one on one combat.  At 1900, you can eat without worry because 2030 is sack time.  Except for you, cadet and you, cadet.”  She pointed at two cadets named Hughes and Kwandis. 

“You’ll meet me outside Sigma at 1930 for some extra endurance sessions.  We can’t have you falling behind now, can we?  The rest of you will have a chance to review your lessons, which I strongly recommend, and catch some early shuteye.  Any questions?”  Hughes and Kwandis t
ried to speak but Wouris cut in, “No questions? None at all? Good.  Now move out!” 

Strategy and tactics was held in a domed extension of the city, known by two runes, ‘kenaz’ and ‘eihwaz’, designated by symbols that looked like the front of an arrow and a line that was bent at each end:

It
meant “Beacon of the Tree”.  Wouris had told the cadets two more Beacons were in the city, all designed to serve a multipurpose role.  What that role was, Wouris did not elaborate, but the room seemed innocuous enough.  As Wouris led them inside, Janus noted it appeared to be nothing more than a large auditorium, with raised seats rising towards high windows that flooded the room with sunlight and currently provided a spectacular view of the open ocean.  On the floor of the room, a large, round, and thin translucent disk was set into the floor.  Janus was still studying the glass-like plate when Col. Keats and Col. Hawkes joined them.

Colonel Keats was the tall, slim woman with black hair and green eyes Janus had seen at Cerberus.  She walked with the ease of flowing water, her long black hair cascading down her back.  She had a strong, but gently rounded jaw.  She seemed to radiate both serenity and strength, her friendly smile brightening the room.  Her bright green eyes, however, seemed even more intense than Janus remembered, like she was a coiled spring, waiting quietly until the perfect moment to explode in a flurry.

Colonel Hawkes, on the other hand, was none of these things.  The colonel was short, stocky, and stomped around like he was constantly crushing insects beneath his feet.  He wore a scowl that made an angry Wouris seem carefree and pleasant.  He carried numerous scars across his face and neck, just below a fierce cut of hair.  He looked like he could crush a skull in his bare hands, his muscles rippling whenever he moved.

Wouris spoke to Keats first, “Good morning, Colonel
.”

Keats chuckled, “Good morning, Sergeant.  Keeping the cadets on their toes?”

“You betcha’, but I’m expecting you to get their brains working properly.”  Wouris smiled and turned to Hawkes, “And you, Colonel, better watch out. I’m expecting to get them back in one piece.  If someone’s going to kill these cadets, it’ll be me.” 

Hawkes returned the smile with an ugly grin, “Of course, Sergeant.  I’ll try.”

Wouris addressed the cadets, “All right, sit down, shut up and maybe you’ll learn something.  I’ll return at 1400.”

“Col
onel Keats, Colonel Hawkes,” she saluted and marched out of the room at a sharp pace.

Col. Keats addressed the cadets while they sat in the raised seats.  She
spoke softly, but with command in her voice that bade all the cadets listen to her, “Greetings to all of you.  I am Col. Keats, and this is Col. Hawkes.  As you know, we will be training you in the basics of tactics and strategies.  However, we will also test some of your physical training, to help you understand your strengths and limitations when executing battlefield tactics. 

“
I will be responsible for your training in the overall ODIN strategies, as well as discussing the structure of the Corporations in depth.  For your tactics training, both Col. Hawkes and I will train you.  We will cover everything from how best to fight using your terrain to teaching you how to communicate silently, with anything from your hands to your environment.  Col. Hawkes will be responsible for putting you through physical tests.  We will alternate between tactics and strategy lessons every day.  Eventually we will work with Major Northcott, to incorporate your weapons training.

“Lights!” She
shouted suddenly, and the room darkened, the lights going dim and shades coming down over the windows, “Projection on!”

The translucent disk began to glow, filling the room in a pale bath of green light.  The strange device rose upward, revealing many identical, thin plates, all stacked on top of one another.  The device pulsed, as if alive, and hundreds of tiny motes of light appeared, hovering within their prison.

“For those of you who don’t know, this is a Multidimensional Projector.  It projects a holographic image inside the cylindrical crystal plates.  Around here it is affectionately known as the ‘muddy’, m-u-d-i, for its tendency to map out mission plans and strategies in a way that make them appear far worse than they usually turn out,” she smiled.

“Map Valhalla,” she said, her smile disappearing.  A tiny Valhalla appeared, suspended, inside the translucent glass.  Janus leaned forward in his chair.  The miniature Valhalla was exact down to the tiniest detail, from the huge engines keeping the city aloft, to the four docking bays, all the way to the very top spire of the floating fortress-city, where the command and nerve center of the entire base resided.  As the map rotated slowly, mimicking the movement of the city itself, Janus could see one of the bay doors was open, and tiny Adepts worked diligently inside while transports and fighters flew in and out of the bay.

Janus brought his attention back to Keats as she explained, “We use these to show anything from previous ODIN encounters to current battlefield intelligence.  Muddies are extremely useful for examining any situation that might present itself to you without the limitations of a two-dimensional screen.

“Enhance location.”  The model of Valhalla expanded and closed in on one side of the city.  The view passed through the wall and showed an image of the cadets listening to Col. Keats, while Col. Hawkes paced beside them.  Janus found the experience somewhat surreal.  Col. Keats noticed Col. Hawkes pacing in the picture and looked up at him.