A Soldier For All Seasons Ch. 16

"You're upset."

Sofia Rivero snarled, pacing back and forth on the red carpet. It was too thick, too plush, but this was Admiral Li's office. It was all too plush.

Her vision colored red, the bloodlust threatening, stronger now she had her black facecovering around her neck. Mei didn't look worried.

"You're goddamn right I'm upset, Mei. My Judges. Traitors in my training school."

"They weren't Judges." The Admiral said reasonably.

Sofia huffed, nostrils flaring. "It doesn't matter. They were medics, they were transport, they were fucking admin. They've been here longer than I have, they could have connections with all of our best—"

"But all we know for sure is that they were connected with Jarek." The Admiral held her hands up. "It was never going to be as simple as cutting the head off. The poison will run deep."

Sofia sat down in the chair heavily, tilting her head as thanks as the Admiral handed her a steaming cup of tea. Mint, by the smell of it. Her and Mei had been friends for a long time, enough that Sofia could throw a tantrum in the Admiral's office without reproach.

Not that meant that she should, Sofia thought suddenly.

"How can I be sure that there aren't any more?" She asked, pushing her white bangs out of her eyes.

"You need a haircut." Mei said abruptly.

She shrugged, tugging the pure white strands, measuring it as the length reached her shoulder. "I never have any time for feminine upkeep."

Mei choked out laughing, tea spilling down her chin. "Goodness, Sofia. You are a woman, no? You are allowed to act like it. By the light, I hear even men get haircuts nowadays." She teased.

The white-haired woman rolled her eyes. "In my culture, the women's hair is brushed, washed and cut by her man. I find it...humiliating to pay someone to care for it. A reminder of my failings."

Mei raised an eyebrow. "It's humiliating to not have a found a partner? You're still so young, Sofia."

"For a human, perhaps. But the Voor bond young and bond for life and love. We are defined by our love. That I have not found is no shame, but that I haven't bothered searching..."

"You've chosen a different path."

"Vengeance." Sofia sighed, smiling bitterly. "And yet I stop trainees from mistaking their feet for their balls."

The Admiral settled her tea cup down firmly, the fine china clinking. "You train our Judges to hurt the bugs in ways nobody else can, Sofia, don't forget that. I know you long for the front lines, but—"

"But the other Voor won't have me." She smiled as Mei grimaced. It was true, regardless of whether the older woman would say it. The Voor were an ancient race where your clan was your ship — you did not fly with outside clans, and though they held an loose alliance, an agreement to fight against the bugs, they weren't anywhere near as close as the other races. That Sofia didn't have a clan anymore didn't change anything — no Voor would trust an outsider to fly on their ship, which meant she was relegated to training duty and the occasional Judge mission.

Seeing that the Admiral was still struggling to put the words together, Sofia decided to change back to her original tack.

"How can we be sure that the rest of the program isn't infected with Jarek's poison?"

Mei sighed. "We can't. But perhaps Jarek's own desire for vengeance against that man Clancy will bring more of them out into the light."

"He's straight off the ship, no good as bait."

"And yet he seems to be handling himself well."

Sofia raised her eyebrow dispassionately. Mei didn't hide her grin. "I have the authority to review the tapes."

"The authority, yes, but the appetite?" Sofia frowned.

The Admiral had the grace to look embarrassed. "I may have slightly overheard a rumor—"

"Admiral!" She admonished.

"—about my favorite instructor getting glomped—"

"Glomped isn't a professional word, I really don't—"

"—by a bloodied red devil, were the words, with the biggest hard—"

"Admiral, really!" Sofia pushed her tea cup onto the big wooden desk, scowling.

Mae giggled uncharacteristically, holding her hand to her mouth. Once her titters had subsided, she wiped her eyes. "Ah, I'd forgotten what it was to laugh, thank you."

Sofia just crossed her arms.

"How's he doing, anyway?"

"He's healing...he'll be fine. Got his first skirmish tomorrow."

"Is he going to win?"

"I put him into my most dysfunctional bunch of fuckups to test his leadership, so I very much doubt it."

"You are cruel." Mei laughed. "Really, though, what do you make of him?"

She frowned again, leaning back in her chair. "Got a way of causing trouble, not usually a good sign."

"So did you, if I remember correctly."

She threw her hair back. "I got hit on incessantly by every walking testosterone fleshbag, not the same thing."

The Admiral smiled at that. "I could see him getting hit on quite a bit too, judging by what I saw in that video."

Sofia bit her lip to stop her smile from spreading. "Maybe that's why he keeps getting in fights. Not enough blood in the brain."

It did the young Voor good to see her old Admiral laugh — the woman had taken her in when her family had died, when her father, the legendary Judge, one of the first, had been murdered, it had been Admiral Li who'd arranged for shelter and food and care for the distraught young girl. And Sofia had never forgotten it.

When the Admiral wiped her eyes, she sobered up. "What are you going to do?"

Sofia exhaled a long breath. "I'm—"

"Upset?"

"Angry. Attacking my trainee in my house, fucking...fuck." She finished lamely. "It goes against the Voor part of me. The clanship, the homeness, that which is sheltered by four walls is considered part of us." She shook her head. "If he hadn't pulled those moves out of his ass, he'd be dead right now. And you know what's worse?"

She didn't wait for an answer. "Three dead, the door hacked, but the alarms didn't go off."

Mei's brows furrowed. "So what?"

"So the door's on a localized battery, you can hack it open with a screwdriver and a script kit. But the alarms? The alarms are connected to the base's internal systems. They didn't go off. Someone turned it off inside the base, inside our security room or inside our server room."

They shared a grimace. "One more traitor." Mei concluded.

"At least one." Sofia told her.

###

Nate smiled as he felt the strong wind breezing through the open doors of the shuttle, thumbs hooked into the seat-belts around his shoulders. The shuttle banked left harshly and for a single stomach-dropping moment it felt like they'd fall away from their belts and directly down into the vista below.

The vista of towering white trees, though unlike trees from most planets Nate had seen, these had spherical balls at the top that occasionally bloomed into gargantuan petals. They'd frozen over since, eternal flowers waiting to be picked by mythical giants. They flew over the snowy banks and still waters, until they reached a different part of the planet, a place so green and lush that Nate knew instantly it had been terraformed.

And inside this new region, a rocky split of parted land,steep unclimbable cliffs that descended into a dry and narrow ravine between it. On top of the cliffs, it was mossy and forested, thick sequoias that prevented them from seeing beneath the green canopy.

Their shuttle paused, hovered, dropped. The other shuttle flew on, the one that carried the Magpies.

"Why do they get to see where we drop?" Graziano complained to the instructor.

"Winners get rewarded." He shrugged. Nate didn't know his name but he wore a Rhinos cap and clearly didn't give a fuck about anything. "Besides, their side of things looks just like yours."

Nate watched as the grass flattened as they landed, first by the sheer force of the shuttle's engines and then by its weight. He felt the spark of excitement run through him — he'd been waiting for this. Days in the medbay. Endless briefings about the medbay attack. The awkwardness of walking back into the food hall and everybody looking at him.

The cheers, the glares, the muttered comments. Nobody knew what to think, but they all had an opinion. Rivero had told everyone that he'd been attacked by bug-sympathizers, but all they knew was that three of their own had been killed. Xavier had glared at him — clearly Nate was not forgiven for having the temerity to throw a few punches back as he got his ass kicked.

On the good side, it had brought his team together. Graziano was still an asshole but the others had been furious that one of their own had almost been killed. Bastian tailed him into the bathroom every day since he'd returned. Hakeem started squaring up to anyone that looked at him for more than two seconds, which was more a hindrance than a help, albeit an amusing one. Lunar Moon had simply told him that she was gratified that he hadn't died in such a dishonorable manner.

She sat across from him now, serene and smiling. "Battle is upon us, Nathan Clancy. I see you too enjoy its welcoming embrace."

He nodded. "Better a good scrap here than a medbay, I want to see what Judge training is all about."

"Well, just listen to what I say and don't fuck up and maybe you'll get your first win." Graziano held his chin high.

"It is important to listen to the leader." Lunar Moon agreed. She had a big thing about authority.

"Listening to the leader has made it so we don't have any wins, but sure, whatever." Lita muttered under her breath, leaning over to him.

As they scuttled out of the ship, their instructor threw a red flag at them. "Here's your flag, try and capture theirs, you get the idea. Try not to die, huh?" He shouted over the din of the engines. Already the ship was flying up and away, leaving them with the sound of the only the breezing wind, the chirping birds and the slight hum of the drones above.

The drones that tried to rescue but didn't always succeed. Nathan frowned, adjusting the strap of his backpack rig, feeling the weight of the coils inside. It carried nothing else.

No food. No water. A cannon boomed from the loudspeakers of the shuttle, a medieval tournament initiated from a flying ship.

You'd think they'd emulate an urban environment. Isabelle said. Nate agreed.

"Alright, fuckups." Graziano clapped his hand together. "You saw the land, gimme your thoughts."

Nate stayed silent, wanting to evaluate his teammates.

"That ravine's a killzone." Lita said.

"It's not always fair, but they usually give the other team a symmetrical start." Bastian commented.

"Running the ravine's definitely out. So we have a choice between left cliff and right cliff and they're making the same choice." Graziano paused, evaluating the thick forest. The foliage and cover was just as plentiful on both of the steep cliffs.

"Any firefight in that cover will be slow going." Nate warned. "What do we know about the Magpies?"

"They are close-combat experts, great with blasters. Their accuracy percentages are real high close, but their long-range rifle shooting is a real shit-show." Graziano glowered. "I don't wanna run head into 'em. Which cliff looks less easy to run?"

"Remember," Nate warned, alarmed at how quick they were deciding. "The objective isn't a fight. The ravine's only a killzone for all of us, but one guy could make the run without getting spotted. If we can steal their flag and bring it—"

"Shut the fuck up, new guy." Graziano cut him off, scowling. "Every arena fight ends up in a shootout and it's gonna be about our positioning and our accuracy when the dust settles."

"The left cliff is more rocky." Lunar Moon decided, rubbing some rockdust between her fingers.

"We'll take the left cliff, they'll take the right. There ain't much room to move on the right with the lake, so they'll be forced to stick close to the cliff. We'll spot them and we can nail a few potshots. They'll be worse shooters at long range. Let's move out." Graziano declared, moving forward, expecting all to follow him.

Well, this isn't going to go well. Nate sighed. Bastian patted his shoulder as they traipsed past.

Twenty minutes later, they were battling the thick branches, tiny buzzing insects feeding on their flesh. Nate bit his lip as the sweat ran down his back, shirt sticking to his skin. They moved slow, startling at every sudden movement or snapped twig.

"Form up." Graziano muttered, making a series of hand gestures that Nate loosely translated as stick on my ass. He was crouching, neck craned to the right, staring across the ravine at the line of shadowy trees on the other side of the rock.

"You see somethin', Graz?" Hakeem gripped his rifle, impatient.

"Not yet, but I don't wanna miss 'em. If they get past us, they'll grab our flag without us knowing."

"Graziano, if we split up, we can send a recon team moving fast ahead, get some intel, maybe grab their flag." Nate implored. "At least get away from the cliff so they don't know our pos—"

"Grandpa, I told you already." Graziano spit out an insect from his mouth, swiping at his tongue. "Shut the fuck up and do as I say. Just 'coz you're old don't mean you know nothing." He held up a wettened finger, testing the wind, though Nate didn't know why the wind direction would change his plan.

Graziano nodded to himself, smiling. "Let's move forward. Keep an eye on that damn tree line!"

"Yes, team leader." Lunar nodded to herself, staring out across the ravine with an imperious glare. The others didn't seem willing to argue, so Nate again followed with a sigh, hoping he was wrong.

Over fallen tree trunks, past branches holding chattering black squirrels, they paused often, spotting shifting shadows across the ravine.

*Can you even take them out at this range even if you do spot them?* Isabelle asked.

*One or two, with clean shooting and good luck. But all of them, with this much cover? No way.* Nate answered.

Unlike the others, he kept his gaze straight head as the forest opened into a loose clearing. "Hold." He ordered.

"What?" Hakeem clattered into his back.

"I'd set up a trap here, if I were them. No cover, that's a ten second run. Easy shooting." Nate said.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Graziano said irritably. "We're almost at the end of the ravine, you think they'd have made this little ground in all this time?" He pointed across the ravine. "They're on that side!"

"If they're on that side and we haven't spotted them, then they still haven't made much ground." Nate pointed out.

The mafia man's skin purpled. "They're out there, I know—" A shot from the ravine cracked and boomed into the tree, just inches from Graziano, sending splinters into his face.

"Incoming fire!" Lita cried and they dove behind the trees, returning shots.

"I can't see them!" Bastian shouted in alarm.

"There, behind the dead tree." Lunar propped her gunblade in her gloved hand, fired and then hissed as she saw it go wide.

Nate kept his eyes wide ahead, on that open clearing. He wasn't wrong, was he? The birds squalled as they burst out of the trees above, splinters and dirt kicking up around them.

Another crack of fire echoed.

From behind! Nate and Isabelle thought as one, turning to see Hakeem fall unconscious from the disabling shot. Scant shots whistled by, their flanker taking the easy shots.

"Behind!" Graziano roared. "Flanker! Move forward, get to the other side, we'll hold their camp!"

Pressed from across the ravine and behind, they had no choice. They stepped out into the forest clearing.

And were immediately shot down by three flashes of fire from across the clearing, easy shots taking down Lita, Graziano and Lunar.

Nate growled, diving down into the dirt to make himself a smaller target. He took aim, stilled his rifle, fired.

Missed, burst smacking against the tree bark. He'd rushed.

The returning fire took him clean, sharp painful electrocurrents sizzling through his rig, through his bones. His limbs locked up and he fell flat, mouth to mud.

*Shot analysis suggests two across the ravine, one ran through the ravine to grab your flag and then flank you, while three waited in this clearing. They set this up from the start.*

Nate couldn't even grimace, just dribbling from his mouth as he heard the cheers of the other team. Well...fuck.

###

"Here come the zero-sixers!" Someone announced as they trudged in to the Oversight deck, muddy, dirty and embarrassed. Graziano colored red but said nothing, head hanging low. Hakeem growled but they could do nothing under the mirthful, watching eyes of Rivero.

"The tourists!" Someone added.

"The pacifists!"

"Not even Full Chub Clancy can save you!" Xavier smirked from where he rested on the railings, one of his beautiful team-members laughing along with him.

Nate hung his head. He hadn't realized that all the details from his medbay fight had leaked. He wasn't embarrassed — he might be older than the rest of them, but that only meant he was more inured to this high-school bullshit. He hated losing, but not because of the spectacle of losing, not the ego hit — it was just the feeling of what-could-have-beens. The regrets, thinking you let everyone down.

"Alright," Rivero clapped her hands. She hopped up onto a blinking server unit, swinging her legs as she sat on the large black pillar. "Let's do a quick post-mortem since the next match isn't starting for a bit. What went wrong for the Eagles?"

"Everything!" A voice shouted out.

"Easy, girls and boys." She smiled. "Serious answers only."

A pretty blonde raised her hand. Nate didn't recognize her.

"This isn't school, Lianne." Rivero rolled her eyes.

"Right, sorry." She squirmed. "The Eagles rushed their plan, didn't realize how vulnerable their camp was, they even moved too slowly."

"Elaborate on that last point." Rivero crossed her arms.

"Well...it wasn't a great plan from the start and they were probably doomed, but if they'd not walked so slow, they still could have had a five versus six, since the flanker wouldn't have time to get up the ravine and flank. They probably still push into the clearing, taking potshots from across the ravine, but with a rush or if they simply went west around the clearing...?" She trailed off.

"Good." Rivero said simply. Nate got the feeling that was the highest praise she gave out. "Graziano, why did you choose the left cliff?"

The man rubbed the back of his neck. "Wanted to avoid their close-combat shooters."

"Not a bad decision in and of itself." Rivero said. "Lita, what was your take?"

"I, uh, thought the ravine was a no-go. Too easy to hear and spot movement from above."

"And why didn't you spot the movement from above or hear Randalls running through the ravine? You were close enough to the cliffside." Rivero examined her fingernails as she spoke.

"Well, I mean," Lita looked around her team members nervously. "We were too busy arguing."

The white-haired Voor clapped her hands together, eyes lighting up. "Finally! There it is. We were wondering why you all kept stopping. Who was arguing?"

Lita darted a nervous look at Graziano and Nate.

"Well, well." Rivero hopped off the server, walking gracefully to peer at Nate curiously. "Clancy, what were you arguing about?"

"Uh, I didn't agree on our plan, Ma'am."

She hummed.

"Do you think yourself better than the rest of the team, Clancy?" She pulled a knife from her belt and started flipping it casually.

*Yes!* Isabelle yelled.

"No, Ma'am."

"Are you the squad leader, Clancy?"

Nate sighed inwardly. Did he really deserve this grilling? It wasn't his fault Graziano was a fucking idiot. "No, Ma'am."