Dark Universe & Forbidden Love (6 page)

An electronic bullet struck
Jason on his left shoulder. He lost his balance, fell over and plunged in the
trench.

“What
the fuck are you thinking?” Erikon yelled as he ran to Jason and shot the
approaching robots. Lucis and Idi were providing the covering fire with shock
wave guns, pushing some robots back.

“Are you
alright? Get up, man.” Erikon said as he squatted next to Jason. He pulled up
Jason with one hand and fired his laser rifle with the other.

“Jason,
Erikon, get out of there. Now!” Sayilin yelled.

Jason
picked up his rifle and ran to the nearest bunker with Erikon.

A small
plate landed at where Jason was seconds ago and then hundreds of laser beams
busted out of it.

Right
now, Jason and his six teammates were in the middle of a ground combat
exercise. It was a live fire exercise and they were wearing heavy armor suits.
Their target was to capture the flag on the other side of the training field
and keep the flag as long as possible. The field was as big as a football ground
and was dotted with platforms, trenches, bunkers and steel barricades. Some
twenty robots were defending the flag.

Titainein
and Orizy were shooting behind a steel barricade, holding the ground at Jason’s
left flank. In front of Jason and Erikon, about 25 meters away, five robots
were approaching quickly. Lucis and Idi joined Jason from the right flank. Now
only Sayilin was fighting on the right flank.

“Jason,
Focus. Focus!” Lucis screamed.

“He is
bleeding.” Idi said as she checked Jason’s left arm armor.

“I am
alright.” Jason said as he reloaded his rifle.

“Vampire,
Idi, Erikon. Cover me.” Jason said and darted out of the bunker. He rolled
behind a steel barricade and shot down one robot at the front and then ran to
the closest trench.

Three
Robots were closing to the right flank. Sayilin got on to a platform and
destroyed one. But he was forced to back down to the lower ground as two robots
left the flag and joined the robots at the right flank. Erikon, Lucis and Idi
gunned down another two robots in the front. The last robot at the front took
out a laser net plate. Just before it hurled the plate, Jason shot the robot’s
hand and the plate fell on the ground. Hundreds of laser beams tore the robot
into pieces. Another five robots left the flag and headed to the middle sector.
Now there was only one robot protecting the flag.

“Move
forward. Idi, to the right!” Jason shouted as he headed to the flag.

Erikon
and Lucis ran forwards and provided the covering fire for Jason. Idi joined
Sayilin on the right flank. Titainein and Orizy still held their positions at
the left flank. Erikon and Lucis took a platform and fired at the incoming five
robots. Jason grabbed a damaged robot and dragged its body to a nearby
barricade. He removed the battery and threw it at those five robots. One robot
shot the battery in the air.

“Boom!”
The battery exploded, projecting thousands of bolts of lightning at the ground
as if there was a lightning storm. Those five robots froze for two seconds.
Jason took this chance and gunned down two of them. Erikon and Lucis took care
of the rest.

“Cover
me!” Jason said as he ran to the flag. It was about 20 meters away. His
teammates kept other robots busy as he was closing the distance. Jason ran like
crazy, but he somehow saw Gloria’s bloody face in his brain. He shook his head
to get rid of her, but it didn’t work.

“Jason,
the mine!” Lucis yelled at the top of his lung.

“Stop!
Jason. Stop!” Sayilin screamed as he saw Jason heading right into the mine zone
next to the flag.

The
ground under Jason’s feet was morphing into sticky liquid. Tens of globs
emerged from the liquid surface, flying to Jason. 

“Surrender!”
Erikon shouted

“Surrender!”

“Surrender.
Surrender.” Others shouted.

All
robots ceased fire immediately. The globs stopped in the air and fell back to
the liquid surface. Jason was frightened. When he saw those globs, he knew that
was it. At that very moment, he was thinking about Gloria, his mind filled with
regrets. He was surprised that he didn’t think about his father, his mother or
brother. He let out a long sigh and waved to his teammates. They ran to Jason
and helped him get out of the sticky liquid.

Later
the group went back to the changing room. They stepped out of their armor suits
and had drones take the suits away.  

“That
was our first failure. Man.” Lucis said unhappily as he walked to Jason.

“Jason,
you OK?” Erikon asked caringly as he walked to Jason.

“How is
your arm?” Idi asked.

They all
gathered around Jason.

“Sorry,
Guys.” Jason said in a low voice, his left arm still bleeding.

Titainein
took over a first aid kit.

“That
was a nice throw, by the way.” Titainein said kindly as she took out a spray
bottle from the kit and handed it to Jason.

“Yep.”
Jason said and sprayed some mist on his left arm. The bleeding stopped right
away.

“Gotta
be careful. The game is coming. We don’t want to lose you.” Sayilin joked.

“It will
take more than that to kill Jason, am I right?” Orizy smiled.

“We will
be fine. We have the best record except this one.” Lucis said.

“I don’t
want to win. If we are the champion, we will compete with first class. But you
know, last year, two second species were killed in the game.” Idi said in a
worried tone.

“For
real? I rather quit before that.” Erikon said.

“It
happened all the time. They won’t hesitate to kill us.” Sayilin said seriously.

“We will
worry about that once we are the champion.” Jason said easily.

“Jason,
it seems that something is bothering you today.” Titainein said gently.

Jason
smiled reluctantly at Titainein and said, “Let’s go back. We still have
classes.”

They
left the changing room and headed back to the classroom.

After a whole day’s training,
Jason was tired, but he couldn’t fell asleep. When he closed his eyes, he saw
Gloria’s face and body. He didn’t feel he did something wrong. In his opinion,
there was no difference between male and female when it came to fights. Victory
was the only thing mattered. He felt good for beating a first class species.
But when he thought about what happened to her on that cruiser, he felt sorry
for her. Jason went through something similar when he just got into the Human
preselection institute. He broke free on his own and beat the shit out of those
who set him up.

Jason
turned left and right on the bed and then sat up.

“Fuck!”
He said as he got off the bed and got dressed.

As he
was heading to the Glycan’s library, he kept telling himself that if he saw
Gloria this time, he would apologize. Minutes later, Jason was right in front
of the vent. He took a deep breath and entered in the library. There she is,
sitting next to the window. Jason felt his heart was going to jump out the
chest. He suddenly changed his mind and wanted to go back, but his body didn’t
listen to him.

Gloria
let out a sigh, stood up and turned around. Now they saw each other.

“Hi.”
Gloria said happily and smiled at Jason.

Her
smile was the most beautiful curve on her body. Jason felt like a bolt of
lightning hit him and electrified his every muscle.

“Hi.”
Jason said nervously.

“I
thought you wouldn’t come today.” Gloria said nicely as she walked to Jason.

“Well, I
am here.” Jason said gently.

“I know
it’s a little late to ask this question, but what’s your name?” Gloria asked
shyly.

“I am
Jason.”

“Nice to
meet you, Jason.”

“Nice to
meet you, Gloria.”

They
smiled at each other and fell into silence for several seconds. Gloria looked
at floor and Jason looked out of the window.

“Look, a
supernova.” Jason said as he pointed at the shining spot in the distance.

“Ah, it
is.” Gloria said. They stood side by side, gazing at the supernova. It only
lasted for three seconds.

“It is
beautiful!” Jason said.

“It is a
good sign.”

“A good
sign of what?” Jason asked curiously.

“In our
culture, if someone is with you at that very moment, it means you find the one
you want to spend the rest of your life with.” Gloria said shyly.

“In our
culture, it means the same thing.” Jason said quickly. He had no idea what he
was talking about.

“Really?
I thought second class....” Gloria suddenly stopped and gave Jason a sorry
look.

Jason
gave her a kind smile and said, “I get used to that.”

“Sorry.”

“You
know if we didn’t start with the wrong foot, I will ask you out.” Jason said
nervously.

“Like a
date?”

“Not
like a date, a date.” Jason said firmly as he looked into Gloria’s eyes.

Gloria
turned her head away and asked, “How did you know it was me back then? My face
was covered.”

“Oh, it
was the aroma from your body.”

Gloria
smiled and took out a knife from her pocket. It was Jason’s knife.

“Can I
keep this?” Gloria asked, her voice soft like a summer breeze.

“Of
course.” Jason said without hesitation.

“Thanks.”
Gloria said happily.

“So you
are still mad at me?” Jason asked carefully.

“Kind
of. You beat me two times.”

“Three,
if you count last time.” Jason said in embarrassment.

“I was
thinking you saved me one time, so it evened out one.” Gloria said easily.

“Oh,
yea, I mean, right. So it’s because I am a second species.” Jason stammered.

“What do
you mean?”

“I mean
I asked you out and you turned me down because of that.”

“I
didn’t turned you down.” Gloria said with a kind grin.

“Ah, oh,
huh, huh. I see.” Jason stammered again.

“So
let’s say if we are going out, where do we go?” Gloria asked casually.

“What do
you do for fun?” Jason asked.

“I watch
movies.”

“Me,
too.”

“Oh, I
always want see movies from...your species.” Gloria said as she casted her eyes
down.

“You
want to see our movies?” Jason asked excitedly

Gloria
nodded.

“I can
arrange that.” Jason said happily.

Just at
this moment, Gloria’s family badge was flashing. Gloria turned it off.

“Something
is up?” Jason asked nervously. He didn’t want this night end.

“Probably
from my family.”

“So how
about we go to see a movie next time.” Jason asked nervously, his hands
sweating. “Sure.” Gloria asked, but she avoided the eye contact with Jason.

“When
you want to do it?”

“Better
hurry. The selection is coming.”

“Yea, I
know.”

“You
know about our selection?”

“I read
about it. You guys are insane. I can’t believe Glycan do that to their own
people. I mean tens of thousands of kid died. That…”

“Jason.”
Gloria interrupted Jason and gave him a bored look.

“Tomorrow
night. OK?” Jason said hastily.

“Don’t
you have the ball game tomorrow?”

“Yea,
right. But that is a piece of cake.” Jason said proudly.

“Sure.
Tomorrow night then.”

“Great!”
Jason said. They looked into each other’s eyes and smiled quietly. The silence
was so peaceful and enjoyable that they just stay like that for a while.

“Jason,
I need to go back.” Gloria said sadly.

“Ah, me
too. It’s getting late.”

They
said goodbye and parted in different ways. While Jason was running back in the
ventilation shaft, he was so happy and excited that he made the wrong turn. It
took him an extra hour to go back to his dorm.

In the ball game, there were six
matches in the first round and each match had three teams competing with each
other in 30 minutes. The second round had two matches and then two winning
teams went to the final. The champion could compete with first class species.
Each first class species had one team consisting of seven trainees. Plus the
champion team from the second class species, there were ten teams.

In the
game, all players wore heavy armor suits and used real weaponry to get their
hands on the ball. Two hands must be on the ball at the same time to start the
time count. If more than one team was holding the ball, no team got the time.
The ball was designed in a way that no team could hide it. Players in the game
could use whatever methods to disable other players. If a player was shot on
the helmet, even if the player was not injured, drones would take him or her
out. The heavy armor provided very good protections, but accidents did happen
from time to time.

Jason’s
first game would start in ten minutes. He didn’t worry about the game. He was
thinking about the date with Gloria tonight. He couldn’t believe it was
actually happening and it seemed to him that Gloria also liked him.

“Jason,
you alright?” Erikon asked.

“Yea,
you know, it is the first time.” Jason said uneasily.

“Yea, I
am nervous too. Some guys died in this game.” Erikon said in a worried voice.

“12 to
be exactly. It’s not that bad.” Lucis said nervously.

“You
didn’t count those died in matches with the first class species right?” Idi asked. 

“There
were eight just for last year. Class of 82 and class of 83 each had four.”
Sayilin said.

“Did any
second species manage to kill a first class?” Orizy asked.

“No, our
weapons can only scratch their armors.” Sayilin said.

“It’s
good those first species kill each other.” Titainein said without emotion.

“For
them, that happens every year. Glycans, Estian and Uainanese are just killing
for fun.”Sayilin said.

“And
Diilres just shoot to show off their weapons.” Idi said angrily.

“They
use their own weapons and if we fight them with what we have. We don’t stand a
chance.” Erikon said reluctantly.

“Let’s
see the good side. We are not there yet. Besides there was one team from class
of 53. They made it to the second round.” Jason smiled.

“And you
know what happened to that team, right?” Sayilin asked.

“Yea.”
Jason nodded.

“What
happened?” Idi asked innocently.

Everyone
looked at Jason, waiting for his reply.

“They
all died.” Jason sighed.

They all
fell into silence.

The red
light was flashing. It was the time.

“Alright,
guys, I want to be the first one killing a first species and I need all of you
to fight beside me. We are the champion!” Jason shouted and pointed his index
figure at his teammates.

“Yea.
Yea.”

“Yea.”
Everyone yelled.

The
ceiling above them slowly opened and the ground beneath them rose, bringing
them up to the game ground the size of two football fields. There were hundreds
of trenches and barricades and the ball was at the center platform, guarded by
seven robots. Above the platform, there was a big light ball. Due to live fire,
there was no audience on the site. Drones were flying around and providing the
live feed of the game. Three teams were positioned on the edge of the field
with equal distance to each other. Beside Jason’s team, the other two were
Leseu’s team and Ruei’s team. Leseu was a Lozisusis and Ruei was a Dolanz.

“Buzz!”
The game started.

The
robots were shooting at all three teams.

“To the
left, we take out other teams first.” Jason said and led the team to Ruei who
was heading straight to the center.

As
Ruei’s team fought with robots, Jason’s team ambushed them at their right flank
and took out three of them. When the leftover were struggling to fight off
Jason’s team, three trainees from Leseu’s team attacked Ruei’s team at their
left flank. Soon, all members of Ruei’s team retired.

“Jason,
we should split.” Sayilin said as he ran to Jason.

“No,
stay together, that’s the only way. Watch your left and move to center.” Jason
said as he proceeded cautiously.

In the
center, three robots were fighting with Jason’s team and the other four were
dealing with Leseu’s team. Both teams were about 20 meters to the center. Jason
was shooting at the robots and he saw two robots were moving to the left of the
platform.

“Lucis,
Idi, watch your left.” Jason said as he ran to them.

Leseu’s
team suddenly appeared at the left flank of Jason’s team. They hit Lucis on the
shoulder and shot Idi on the chest. Sayilin, Erikon, Orizy and Titainein
quickly came to the left and backed up Lucis and Idi.

“Where
the fuck did they come from?” Lucis said angrily.

“Take
cover and keep them busy.” Jason said calmly and ran away.

“What!
Where are you going?” Erikon asked as he fired at the opposing team.

“What
are you doing, Jason?” Orizy asked.

“Guys,
trust him!” Titainein shouted.

Jason
circled around the center and reached the left flank of Leseu’s team. None of
them expected attack from that side. He took out Leseu first and then gunned
down another three. Sandwiched by Jason’s team, the leftover only held the
ground for several minutes. Jason and his teammates then focused on those
robots. After another five minutes, Jason climbed up onto the platform and held
the ball in his hands. They won.

Jason
jumped off the platform and threw the ball to Sayilin.

“Stay
together, Huh?” Sayilin smirked.

“Well,
you know, for the most time.” Jason smiled.

“I want
it, too.” Idi said as she reached for the ball. But Sayilin held the ball above
his head. No matter how hard Idi tried, she couldn’t reach it.

“Let me
help you.” Titainein said as she winked at others.

They all
gathered around Sayilin, lifted him from the ground and tossed him into the
air. After several times, Jason made a devil look and everyone pull their hands
back. Sayilin fell hard on the ground.

“Guys,
that hurts.” Sayilin complained.

Everyone
laughed loudly. They pulled Sayilin up and headed to the changing room.