War for Orion: Ghosts from the Past (24 page)

"Hello?" He asked the darkness. "Is there
anyone here?"

"We're over here," A female voice replied as
lights flickered on.

"We'll be your trainers," An Ovrean told him.
"We've been eagerly waiting to meet you. The famed son of Armino
Valens."

The Ovrean had grey, rock hard, skin and was
about the same height as Anlon, but much more built and over twice
his size.

"Moran told us we have a short timetable
here, so we'll cut to the chase and teach you the important stuff,"
the Quierleon said.

She was under five feet tall and had very
dark brown skin. Though she was small, her body was lean and very
well built. Anlon knew from looking at these two that Moran had
gone all out to make sure that he had the best trainers
possible.

Anlon gazed around the room for a couple of
seconds before responding to either of the races. The room was
enormous and seemed to be endless from where he was standing.
Everything he could see was stocked with a variety equipment:
punching bags, dummies, weapons, and much more he wasn't familiar
with, but knew he would be familiar with by the time he left
here.

"What are we going to do today?" Anlon
finally shifted his attention from the room and back to the two
races.

"First, we're going to introduce ourselves
properly," The Quierleon answered. "I am Emer and I came from Ares
in order to train you for your mission. I have trained as a warrior
my entire life. Once I'm done training you, you'll be able to fight
and survive in any environment that you may find yourself in."

"Nice to meet you Emer," He held out his
hand. "I appreciate you coming all the way out here to help
me."

"I'm Ferris," The Ovrean held out his hand.
"That's about all there is to know about me."

"Are you the same Ferris that worked with my
Dad?" Anlon asked, cringing as he squeezed his hard hands.

"Yes," He nodded his head. "That's the only
reason I'm helping you. I heard what happened to him and when Moran
told me you wanted revenge, I had to offer my assistance. I always
knew there was something wrong with that Malak."

"We both knew your father," Emer said. "We
would kill the races that murdered your family ourselves, but that
would be breaking orders from the Queen. She has specifically
ordered us not to do anything. Your father was a very well
respected man among many races, but he also had his share of
enemies."

"Adira never said we couldn't help his
surviving son do it though," Ferris winked. "Always a way around
orders."

Anlon grinned. "I wouldn't say she would
disapprove of your helping me."

"She knows you're up to this?" Ferris raised
his eyebrows.

Anlon nodded. "Donnchadh has already been
caught, so I've already had my chance to kill him. I decided
against it."

"Why wouldn't you kill him if you had the
chance?" Emer asked. "I would've done it in a heartbeat."

"The Queen gave me something more important
to do; something that my father would prefer I do instead of
carrying out revenge."

"Find the Deimos Brotherhood for her," Ferris
said aloud.

"Exactly. That's all she wants me to do. Once
I find them, she'll take care of the rest."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's start
training before they can carry out another mission. You'll train
with me first," Ferris called over his shoulder.

Anlon followed him further into the room and
lights flickered on as they walked into the dark. The lights
revealed a small gun range with a variety of weapons lying on a
table next to the range. The weapons varied from small pistols,
large rifles, cannon guns, and different swords and knives.

"We'll start with pistols and rifles," Ferris
said, picking up one of each. "What do you know about them?"

"Not much," Anlon admitted. "But I'm a fast
learner, so I'll know everything there is to know about them soon
enough."

"If I didn't think you were a fast learner, I
would've let someone else come and train you," he chuckled. "Armino
talked all the time about how you pick up things like this. All you
do, is point and shoot. Doesn't get much easier than that," he
demonstrated.

Anlon watched as he aimed his pistol and hit
the bull's-eye of the target. The target lit up orange where the
laser had struck, informing him he had hit dead on.

"Now you try," He handed the pistol to
Anlon.

Anlon aimed the pistol at the target and
squeezed the trigger. He didn't hit the middle and the target
informed him he had hit three rings out from the center.

"Not bad. A little more practice and you'll
be a pro."

"What about all the different kinds of ammo?"
Anlon asked. "There's more than just laser out there."

"Just depends what you want to do, really,"
Ferris answered. "That's a laser pistol like you said, which is
good for close combat. It's what you'll be using more often than
not in the situations you'll be in."

"What exactly does it do that makes it better
than the other ammo types?"

"It's not that it's any better than the
others, it's just more commonly seen. It burns through your target
cleanly without much of a mess and has no blast radius upon impact.
There are others like plasma, which burn your target in a sense,
but it's a lot messier than a laser. There is sonic, which will
blow up your target. That round is much better in open combat,
unless you like being covered in guts."

"Are there any others?"

Ferris nodded. "You'll run into others here
and there. Those are just the most popular types of ammo you'll
find throughout Orion. You'll still find the bullet from Exodus
Era, but that isn't used as much anymore, though you can find it
easily and it's very cheap. It's definitely not as deadly as the
others, and if you've never used one, you won't be very accurate
until you get used to the kickback."

"That's what was used on me and my father,"
Anlon told him.

"That's unusual," Ferris said. "The
Brotherhood usually only carries the most advanced equipment on the
market. I don't know why they'd be carrying that, but that's
probably what saved your life."

"How do I reload the pistol?" He switched the
conversation to get rid of the flashbacks.

Ferris took it out of his hand. "You hit this
button here on the side and the pack will pop right out. After
that, just slide the new power pack in and you're all good to go.
There isn't anything complicated about any of these weapons."

Anlon put a new power pack in and then aimed
the pistol at the target, this time hitting the middle dead on.

"Doesn't look like you'll need to do much
practicing with guns," Ferris handed him the rifle. "Try this one
for a little extra practice. I doubt you'll need it if you're
already hitting the middle with a pistol. Rifles are much easier to
use with any ammo type."

Anlon fired off a few rounds, hitting the
center every time. The rifle was much smoother and had a laser and
scope mounted on the top which made it close to impossible to miss
while stationary.

"Is this the same type of reload process?"
Anlon turned the rifle over.

"It is. Weapcon tries to keep everything
almost the same so their weapons are easier to use," Ferris
answered. "You'll run into special cases every now and then, but
you can still figure them out fairly quickly."

Anlon hit the button on the side and slid a
new power pack in the rifle. He fired off a few more rounds,
lighting up the bull's-eye every time, and set the rifle down.

"I think you got this Anlon," Ferris put his
hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you go train with Emer now, she'll
have some good stuff for you that may take a little longer to
master."

Anlon turned around to find Emer already
approaching them. "Are you about done with Anlon? It looks like he
already knows what he's doing. By the looks of it, he's a better
shot than you."

Ferris pushed him forward. "He's all yours
Emer, but be careful, he makes things look easy."

"Anyone can shoot a gun," Emer rolled her
eyes. "But what I have to teach him is much more difficult to
master. It took me years to get where I'm at."

Ferris made a face and picked up a rifle to
practice shooting on his own while Anlon left with Emer.

"Follow me Anlon," She moved forward. "I'm
going to teach you hand to hand combat today, which is one of the
easier things that I have to teach you. The basics are the most
important. Once you master what I'm about to teach you, you'll be
able to add on while you're traveling with some holovideos."

Anlon jogged to keep up with her. "My father
taught me some hand to hand stuff when he was home. I'm sure I
already have the basics down."

"Good. Now we'll perfect what he has taught
you, and add on little more since you think you know the basics.
Armino was never the best at hand to hand," she winked. "We'll
practice here," she stopped at a mat. "We'll start with very basic
techniques, like blocking and striking. Once I think you have those
down, we will add on takedown maneuvers."

Anlon practiced with Emer as she showed him a
variety of different blocks, many of which he had already seen, but
improved upon what he knew. She would show him and he would
practice blocking her hits and kicks using techniques she had shown
him. After he had learned several types of blocks, she started
teaching him different basic strikes and the process repeated for
close to an hour.

"What about different kicks?" he asked after
learning hand to hand long enough.

"You have barely mastered different punches,
do you really think you are ready for different kicks?"

"I think I have all this other stuff down,"
Anlon nodded. "I'm just perfecting what I already know."

Emer reluctantly started teaching him a
variety of kicks that were much more difficult than any of the
hits. She taught him the round kick, roundhouse, tornado kick, push
kick, and others he couldn't perform no matter how hard he tried.
After they had gone through all of the different kicks she folded
her arms in front of her chest and grinned.

"Now, we will combine everything that you
have just learned into one exercise. You and I will spar."

Anlon's eyes widened. "But I haven't gotten
to practice with everything together yet! Can we keep the kicks out
of this round?"

"No. You are the one who wanted to learn more
than I planned for you today, " she winked. "This is how we learn
on Ares, though not quite as quick as I am teaching you, but you're
the one who wanted to rush things. Sparring is the only practice
that will get you any better," She tossed him some gloves that fit
and a cushioned helmet. "I won't hurt you too badly if that's what
you're afraid is going to happen."

Anlon put the equipment on and got ready for
her to come at him. It didn't start as quickly as he thought it
would. She took her time and came with very basic punches and kicks
that he was able to block with ease. That quickly changed as she
threw a few jabs and hooks and he threw a couple back, never once
coming close to hitting her. After several minutes she ran and
jumped up, throwing a downwards elbow strike at him. Anlon tried to
block it, but ended up falling and rolling out of the way to avoid
her next flurry of strikes. He got up, but wasn't ready for the
throat grab combined with a knee kick that she performed on him
next.

He bent over in agonizing pain, once again
letting down his guard for her to strike. She hit him with a
tornado kick, followed by a spinning roundhouse which proved to be
the knockout blow as he stayed on his back.

"You let a girl beat you up!" Ferris laughed
from the corner of the mat.

Emer helped him up and turned to Ferris.
"Just because you're a rock and the only way to beat you is to blow
you up, doesn't mean you can make fun of normal races."

He shot her a glare and turned around. "Let's
go Anlon. There are still a few things I have to go over with you
before you leave for the day."

Emer nudged him. "You'll get better Anlon.
You did well to begin, but I needed to see just how good you were.
I upped the difficulty a little bit, but that's what you're going
to see if you run into any of the Deimos Brotherhood's best
assassins."

He smiled at her. "I'll practice more in my
free time. You won't know what hit you next time we spar."

Anlon followed Ferris back over to the range
where he was picking up grenades and the cannon launchers. "These
big things are called cannon launchers, or grenade launchers,
depending on what you load them with. They launch all types of
things, so chances are you'll always have something laying around
you can load them with. This should be cake for you considering how
quickly you picked up pistols and rifles. It's hard to miss your
target with one of these things," Ferris told him.

Anlon took the weapon from Ferris. "This
thing weighs a ton."

"You'll get used to it. Just get it up on
your shoulder, aim it in the general area where you want it to
strike, and then squeeze the trigger."

Anlon struggled to get the massive weapon on
his shoulder and aimed it at a lit target a thousand yards down the
room.

"The explosion won't be as big as the real
deal because I put a lower explosive ammo in it, but it'll give you
a good idea of how destructive these are."

Anlon shot it and watched as the target
erupted in a blue field of electricity. "What kind of ammo was
that?"

"Electric shock," he answered. "Good against
mechanical enemies, but it won't kill normal races. It'll knock
them out for quite a bit of time, and possibly fry them, but I
don't think you want to use it against anyone in the Brotherhood. I
would use other ammo in here, but I'm afraid it'd bring the whole
building down on us."