The Recruitment: Rise of the Free Fleet (10 page)

The first was Hoi he was a largish brute, and had been a cop before being recruited, despite his outward appearance he was gentle and polite, and had the unenviable task of corralling Wiry and Yasu. Abella was Latina and one hell of a looker; she’d been training to become an IFBB pro, a hard weightlifting discipline.

After talking for a bit, eating our new food and getting a better feel for them all I looked to them all, the mood changing from a light one to one of people ready and waiting for orders in a second.

“Alright, we’ll be fighting soon get your people ready.” They nodded all of the leaders had been in fights before, they knew how to look after themselves. I could tell from watching them.

“Yasu! Could you come here please?” I asked sweetly smiling at her as she looked as if the food had gone bad as she slowly stalked over.

“Yes.” Yasu ground out, as if the words physically hurt her.

“For basic training do you want to split people up into groups based upon their skill, the most advanced being instructors?” I looked to Yasu, extending my olive branch of working together.

“I’ll sort it out myself.” Olive branch tossed in the wind. She stalked away as she began telling people to move to different parts of the pod. Splitting them up as I had suggested.

Some people just can’t play nice.

Time to get suited up!

Shrift looked at the Humans he’d heard about as they walked through his sacred armory looking at his perfect nine foot Mechas lining lined up on their racks.

They’d been recruits for five and a half months, they had moved from basic technology to knowing of all current technology. They knew every race that made up the Union, they could disassemble and reassemble any weapon in record time, they knew battle history, they knew how to kill with their bare hands and they had nearly reached their bodies’ maximum efficiency which had been modified by the PDF’s supplements, drugs, training and implants.

While they knew all of these things it was in general terms and they didn’t know how to put most of these things into practice in the real world. Such as they knew the purpose of a mecha, how to turn it on and such, but they didn’t know how to use it, how the specific sciences or technologies worked together to get it working.

Shrift was happy he wouldn’t be dealing with the recruits after training. It was the period when the most deaths and injuries occurred. Recruits weren’t shown how to handle weapons and any other vital equipment other than the mecha. The PDF believed that if a recruit made it past four months of being a Mecha in the Mecha corps then they were worth something. Otherwise, they were just useful cannon fodder. Which is why recruits got the worst jobs.

These humans had been given a special privilege of being introduced to their Mechas first as they held the current record for wins during training. They’d been in close to a hundred fights, one to three a day every day, and still they kept up a six to one record. Shrift watched them closely. There was something scarier about them than the Sarenmenti, sure the Sarenmenti were deadly, and they looked like what Shrift imagined engine demons would look like, but these humans seemed to have an edge to them. Instead of laziness, and only doing what they had been told, these ones had initiative, they thought further than what they were told. That act of thinking made Shrift take a second glance at them.

It wasn’t just that they thought though, it was that they had purpose, they had drive. Shrift compared them to Taleel

Taleel was already wearing his Mecha as he brought his squad into Shrift’s armoury. His plasmid daggers in their scabbards giving off a greenish blue hue as the plasma which made the blades so deadly was held within an electrostatic field.

He had his rail gun strapped across his back with a pistol in his drop leg holster. It painted the picture of deadly Mecha, yet there was no drive in Taleel’s eyes. Instead there was a dullness to them. The only emotion that showed was sadness hidden behind joy as he hurt his recruits. Shrift banged on the knee joint as he looked away, frustration at the system he found himself in and how he and Taleel had to do what they were told. Otherwise they and their recruits would get punished more.

Shrift pushed that thought aside as he focused on working on the knee joint of one of the Mechas. The bugger’s magnetic bearing was off kilt and causing the whole thing to lock up.

“Shrift!”

“What you want Taleel! Some of us have to work!” Shrift twirled waving a crowbar at the officer. Taleel recoiled as Shrift moved towards him. The Sarenmenti might be big and deadly looking, but the Kuruvians were known for their strength and smarts. It was the basic reason why none of the Sarenmenti ever picked fights with them.

“You want someone ask for them with a damn hello, or, are you busy! Especially if it’s the Kuruvian looking after your own armour!” He advanced until he metres away from the humans he was to train.

That goes for you all too!” He said brandishing his crowbar bringing himself to his full height of four foot, his upper’s wielding the crowbar as he crossed his lowers. Their eyes popping from their heads at the sight.
 
Heh, they look kind of cute.
 
Shrift thought as he caught one not looking at him in surprise, but studying the Mechas instead.

“What’re you looking at?” He demanded as the boy looked straight ahead.

“Mechas sir!”

A look of disgust crossed Shift’s face.

I’m no officer. I am just Shrift.” He said, making sure all of them had got the message.

“Be easier to work on that with a jack than trying to crowbar it out.” The human continued.

“Oh would it?” Shrift asked brandishing the crowbar in front of the man’s face. To his credit the man didn’t flinch at all as he took the crowbar walking over to the Mecha.

“Yes.” He turned to the tools locker opening the drawers.

“Shrift.”
 
Taleel said in warning.

Shrift silenced Taleel with a motion as the human got another tool from the drawers. Shrift recognized it as an expanding wrench. He shrugged looking to the other humans.

“George give me a hand.” Another human went, holding the wrench in position as the first opened it.

The opening jaws pushed the magnetic fields acting on the joint out of position. Shrift grinned, his mentor would be pleased, and it seemed that these humans at least had a few more brain cells to rub together than their Sarenmenti trainers. The second held the wrench as the first applied the crowbar.

“Smart.” Shrift said approvingly as he came up to observe the work. The human used the crowbar to pop out the magnetic bearing from its counter acting upper and lower leg rings, catching it as it came out.

Shrift pulled the new one off of his belt and slotted it in place.

“Release the clamp.” The second human did so as Shrift pulled a universal jack cord from his belt attached to his own in the palm of his hand, and to the Mecha as reams of information passed across his eyes, symbolizing the Mecha’s.

“She’s all aligned.” Shrift said with a grin. “What’s your name?”

“Salchar.” The human put his hand forward obviously wanting a returning gesture.

“Shrift, the armourer and the guy that puts everything back together after you’ve broken it.” He said pointedly, his three fingered hand clasping the humans who shook it briefly before releasing it.

Shrift thought it an odd gesture.

“And George?”

“Yes Mr. Shrift.” Shrift repeated the arm pumping gesture.

“No need for that Mister stuff here.”

“Leave them with me Taleel.” The Sarenmenti officer made a show of taking the pain implant control off of his belt and giving it to Shrift.

“I will expect a report on their actions as I retrieve them.”

“Certainly.” Shrift took the remote, just able to hide his disgust as his carapace shifted in anger and annoyance.

Taleel turned and stomped out of the room, the hatch sealing behind him.

“Thank god that Voshuna’s gone.” Shrift said sourly as he threw the remote by his tools drawers like the garbage it was.

The squad looked at him with curiosity, probably trying to see if his throwing away the remote was a rouse or not.

“I’m not going to use that thing.” He said at the accusatory stares. None of them believed him. He was going to have to build their trust it seemed. He huffed, they had time to get acquainted, soon they’d be fighting with Mechas which meant that they would be spending increasingly more time with him putting back together what they broke, or in the medical chairs getting put back together themselves.

He was going to give them the tools that they’d need to stay out of that dammed chair, and tell death to take a hike.

Salchar joined the squad staying at the front as they became a half circle Shrift able to see them all. He studied them and their hands as well as their eyes. Most of them looked like they worked with their hands and there was a spark of something in their eyes. Hopefully it was intelligence! Realizing how long he and the humans had been studying one another he gritted his vocal sacks

“Alright Humans! Listen up as I’ll say this once. LOOK AFTER YOUR DAMNED MECHA’S!” He yelled at everyone hiding a grin as they looked shocked at the volume he was able to produce from such a small frame. Shrift mentally patted himself and thanked his mentor Eddie, now that was a Kuruvian that could shout! This might even be interesting he thought, even after the way his teacher had practically forced him to take the armourers position, instead of remaining an engine tech on the Golden Refuge.

“Gather around.” Shrift jacked in with his universal port/finger to a control panel as a Mecha rotated down from one of the racks. He stood in front of it as the humans stared at it. Most with blind awe at its deadly lines, just a handful actually trying to glean the secrets the dark grey Mecha held.

“A Mecha will keep you alive and your enemy dead, without it you will die in most habitats, like say space. Your Mecha is your second skin, you keep it working or you will DIE! Saying that it’s not your personal damned bumper car!”

“Seeing as your testing says you are smart enough to comprehend more than a Sarenmenti. I’m going to put you on your own suit maintenance. Any damage you do to scrap bots while you’re fighting with them you’ll fix!” Shrift said with a happy smile, the humans faces turning from confusion to unhappiness at the new job they faced.

“As your basic physical training, hand to hand and weapon identification is complete. Your sleep training will now consist of Mecha maintenance and repair!” A few faces showed interest.
 
Who knows maybe I can turn some of these humans into engineers!
 
Shrift thought, as he hid a shiver of excitement. If Kuruvians liked anything more than taking something apart and putting it back together to understand how it works, they liked to share information. Shrift accessed their training schedule through his implants and removed some garbage slotting in the maintenance and repair.

“Now gather around and listen up I won’t say this again!

He pressed a button on a panel that brought forward a Mecha from the racks behind it. It looked like a human made from metal sheeting. There were no flourishes or accents. It was built to keep it’s user alive, and their enemies dead. It’s visor was a blackened material.

While it was deadly, it was also exciting. It gave everyone who saw it a sense of power. Everyone that wasn’t in it’s way.

“Your Mecha enhances your strength and agility. It’s also armoured and can work in any damned environment you can find, including space. Its internal batteries will give you two days’ worth of power fighting full out. The Mechas also connect directly with your nerve ports to co-ordinate to your movements. Which means if your organics become compromised, say a breach in space on your arm, your nerve ports will turn your normal movement into action as if the Mecha wasn’t breached and your arm wasn’t expanding massively. It will take some time to map your neural pathways and what mitigates a response, but once we have that then we can upload it to every Mecha you’re in.” He paused to let them absorb this.