Preparations for War

Gin waited in the packed room. He estimated roughly two-thousand were either seated or standing up. They were all waiting on the colonel, who had called everyone for a briefing. The chattering that had gone on before died down as all eyes were on the colonel, who was making her way to the front of the room. She waited until the last of the chatter dissipated. Her voice was commanding and was able to be heard at the back of the room without aid.

‘I am sure you know why I have called everyone here. We have been given the privilege of taking part in an upcoming battle!’ she said, to which the whole room went into cheering.

Gin found it strange that people would be happy to fight. Were those of Squadron W just fight junkies? Maria calmed everyone down and spoke once again, answering Gin’s thoughts.

‘For too long we have been looked down upon. They wouldn’t even give us a chance, how impudent! We are seen as the worst Squadron in the whole of Eurasia, only accepting the ‘rejects’ of the MBP. But now, we are given a chance to show our worth. If we win flawlessly, we are sure to be promoted and get much larger rations, more bases and a stronger force.’

The room erupted once more to the colonel’s delight. It was true how the provisions, provided to each member of the squadron, were below what Gin had expected. Compared to the rumours of Squadron A members getting a whole tree to themselves, Gin’s tiny little room in a tree housing two to three-thousand people was nothing. A chance to get promoted was something everyone in the room wanted.

‘How did you do it?’ someone shouted from amongst the crowd. Everyone went silent once more. It was a question on everyone’s mind.

‘Yes, it is true that we have been only given the worst jobs for the past few hundred years. Harvesting crops, surveillance works in essentially our own backyard, nothing that you can consider promotion worthy. But we have a new asset that has changed all this. I would like to call upon our newest recruit: Wo Pim.’

All eyes set on the lanky pale skinned figure that walked between the people. He walked in a swagger that oozed confidence. Most people already knew where he transferred from and it led to mutterings amongst the crowd. Everyone wondered how such a weak looking figure could have come from Squadron A, but they still kept their distance, out of the unconscious fear they had of him. Wo then stood at the front, beside the colonel, back straight, and searched around the room.

‘Yo! Gigi! Come on up!’ he shouted, looking at where Gin was. Gin tried his best not to notice but unfortunately he was surrounded by his teammates in Alder’s battalion. They knew exactly who Wo was talking about and began shoving Gin’s back, pushing him towards the front. Everyone found it hilarious and either joined in, getting Gin towards the front or began chanting ‘Gigi’. Some aspects of human nature never change, Gin thought, feeling embarrassed.

‘Gigi, set up the map like we discussed the other day,’ Wo told Gin.

‘Can you not call me Gigi in front of everyone,’ Gin whispered to Wo.

Ignoring Gin’s request Wo turned to the crowd, ‘Thanks to Gigi, We get to see something unlike anything we have witnessed in our lifetime. I will now hand it over to Gigi who will set things up.’

Gin grabbed a silver coloured INS from his belt and activated the mechanism. The silver cuboid grew two rods, one on each side, which bent downwards. Gin placed the INS on the floor, with the rods acting as a stand, and pushed his finger into the second hole of the INS. A bright beam of light emerged from one end and shone on the wall opposite. Everyone stared in amazement. Right before them was the map of the world, with detailed labels of the cities, and three large labels for the continents: Eurasia; Afro-Australia; The Americas. How did something like that suddenly appear on the previously untainted wall? Gin turned to see even the colonel with a look of surprise. She then asked the question on everyone’s minds,

‘Child. What is that?’

‘I thought you already saw my INS before,’ Gin commented. ‘Anyway, they aren’t just for offence, but can be used for utility purposes too. This one in particular is my projector INS. I have to programme what I want to show on it beforehand but it’s pretty useful for things such as presenting to a large audience.’

‘Thank you Gigi,’ Wo said, ‘Ah, where are my manners? Haven’t introduced myself, yet. I’m Wontiferus Poxim. You may know this already but I am a transfer from Squadron A. Gigi, here, is a close friend of mine. Gigi is the creator of the contraption you see before you,’ Wo said, emphasizing the name ‘Gigi’ at every opportunity, before continuing,

‘As you can see, the whole world is now right in a map in front of you. We are here, just outside the city of Israel, in our little town of Jerusalem. From reliable sources, the AAA is planning on a little invasion from Egypt. We are told a small force of a thousand mages, from the city of Egypt, will move towards Eurasia. Due to unrest in the East, a possible breakout between Eurasia and The Americas, most of the Squadrons have been moved over to our bases in China and France. Along with my ties with Squadron A, We have managed to land the privilege of taking on the AAA’s small army.’

Gin was squatting beside his INS. At Wo’s signals, he went through several pictures, including tactics, formations and zoomed in maps of the place of battle. Most battles between the Eurasia and Africa were fought over sea but this skirmish was on land. There was a small strip of land connecting the two continents, connecting the city of Jordon to the city of Egypt. It was, relatively, extremely close to where they were situated. This made Squadron W ideal to be dispatched for the mission, due to the small numbers the enemy threatened us with.

‘But there is one catch,’ Wo said, ‘As you may know, Squadron W is in a rough spot. The government is just happy to let us be. We aren’t given any meaningful missions that can alter our rank. It was a miracle they actually gave us this mission. We have to count ourselves lucky that The Americas made their move or Eurasia would have sent another Squadron to deal with the threat.’

‘So what is the condition the government set us? We can’t use Rank A or above mages. That means I, Maria and a few of our battalion leaders won’t be able to attend. Today, the leaders, who can’t join in the main battle, will appoint a temporary replacement. We will, however, situate ourselves in the town of Eilat, just outside Egypt. If anything goes wrong, we will come bring help. Oh but don’t worry. We expect their forces to be pretty weak anyway. Probably a scouting division so we won’t see high level mages most likely.’

‘The whole of Eurasia sees us as the rejects of the MBP. The government don’t see the AAA’s invasion as a threat and so want to test us. They don’t want the ‘strong’ winning the fight for us and want to see what these ‘rejects’ can accomplish by themselves. This is our only chance to prove ourselves. I don’t want us to just pass this test of theirs. I want us to commit an act of perfection!’

The room erupted by the rallying cry of Wo. They knew what was at stake. This was their chance to have a better life. This was what their years improving themselves were for. Everyone hated the mentality people had that you will never amount to anything, if you were not born talented enough. They wanted to show that it is hard work that can make someone surpass several ranks above their own.

‘One more thing,’ the colonel said, taking over again. ‘To make sure our success rate is as high as possible, we dispatched two members of our squadron earlier on to assassinate one of their key figures. They succeeded in their task but we haven’t heard back from them since. We will have to assume the worst.

Their contribution has bought us a lot of time while the AAA sorts out a new plan. We can safely say we have at least a year to prepare for this upcoming battle. But remember, if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have had as much time to train. As a result, I would like for everyone to hold a minutes silence in their honor.’

After the silence was over, the colonel dismissed everyone back to their rooms. The corridors were filled with the noise of the people chattering. They were excited for this battle. Gin, meanwhile, went back to his room to work on his INS. For a first time using the projector, it went smoothly. He was going through all the slides just to make sure it worked, as some weren’t needed, when he felt a tap on his shoulders. Gin turned around, only to find Joan waiting for him.

‘How’d you get in here?’ Gin thought out loud.

‘Maria gave me this,’ Joan said showing him a key exactly the same to Gin’s room key. He let out a deep breath before saying,

‘Do you need anything?’

‘You really got to keep track of time, Gin. We have our daily check up right now, remember?’ she replied.

‘I told you already, I’m fine. There’s no need to do this after my heart was recreated.’

If Gin turned around, he would have realised how annoyed Joan’s face looked. But instead he continued his work, prompting Joan to speak up.

‘Dealing with you is really frustrating, you know that? At least stand up and face when speaking to me, it’s rude just sitting there toying about on your, erm, whatever it is.’

Gin reluctantly got up, resetting the projector back to its cuboid shape and slotting it on his belt.

‘First of all it’s called an INS- Integrated Nanobot System- I’m sure I’ve told you already. Secondly, I don’t need you looking after me.’

‘Sheesh. Why must you be so hard to deal with? You do realise I am your medic?’

‘I got Wo. Who asked for your help?’

‘I don’t like it either but Maria assigned me personally.’

‘So it’s the colonel? Just ask her to give you another task.’

‘I did.’

‘So?’

‘The answer was no.’

‘There’s over a thousand mages that aren’t medics. Why am I special enough to get a personal one?’

‘I’m pretty sure the reason for that is that heart of yours’

‘Ah, right. It did amaze me too that I managed to make a working one in the state I was in, too. Looks like there’s nothing we can do. I’ll talk to the colonel about it afterwards. For now, just get the examination over with.’

‘Oh look at me. I get special treatment but I’m going to act ungrateful.’

‘Ugh. It’s not like that, Joan.’

‘Haha. I was just teasing you.’

‘Just get on with it!’ Gin snapped.

‘Sure thing, boss!’

Gin took off his shirt for Joan to examine. She first took at his arm that had been broken a month ago. It still amazed her how it completely healed within the span of two weeks, but she made sure that was the case.

Gin was hairy as always. Most mages opted out of having body hair, apart from the ones that have fire resistant fur. Even then, they grew it out like a coat of fur, rather than the thin strands that protruded out of Gin. He even had a beard. Who grows facial hair like that anyway?

Joan then pierced his skin with her nails, into Gin’s veins. It acted like a blood test. Her nails contained various chemicals that react to different compounds in the blood. Everything was normal, but she always had a strange feeling whenever she did the test. Gin told her that it was the nanobots reacting to her, but that didn’t stop her feeling unnerved. Joan then turned towards the front where she saw the fresh scars on Gin’s torso.

‘Alder really likes cutting you up, doesn’t he?’ she said

‘He doesn’t even let me defend. ‘Just dodge’, he says. I am going to see him today soon. Hopefully it will be the last time I do.’

‘Did something happen?’

‘I’m just mad at how he’s using my weaponry.’

‘What’s he done? I know you hold your INS with a sense of pride.’

‘He...well, I don’t know really but he’s using his Xernim.’

‘Why’s that a problem?’

Gin thought about before answering meekly, ‘I guess it’s because it’s a Xernim.’

‘It seems you don’t actually know what he’s doing and making half-assed excuses. Gin, Squadron W is based on the lack of prejudice we hold on one another. I’m sure Alder wants the best for you. Just don’t make any rash decisions when you see him, ok?’

Gin sat there as Joan finished off the examination. He thought deeply about what Joan said. She was right. He didn’t check what Alder was doing and just made assumptions that he was ruining everything. He should give Alder a chance to show what he plans and Gin was definitely interested in Blade Boxing. In these thoughts, Gin almost missed Joan leaving and called out to her,

‘Hey, Joan.’

‘What is it Gin?’ she responded, turning round.

‘It’s not that you’re a bad medic or anything, but having to do this daily is a pain. Talking with you isn’t that bad, to be honest. Just please don’t visit me every day at least. I’m quite busy, you see.’

‘Did you just compliment me, Gin? Didn’t expect that from you.’

‘You are the only one that calls me by my real name.’

This put a smile on both of their faces as she left. Between the training with Alder, and the embarrassment caused Wo, Gin hadn’t had much time to smile himself. Gin decided to finish on the creation of the INS that Alder asked for. He wanted a copy of the sword that Gin had already given him. With the preparations for the skirmish in Egypt ever looming closer, it was probably too late to deny Alder the chance to, at least, show him what he was doing.

Gin finished the job and headed up to the marsh of a room where Alder often resided in. Gin had a firm idea of Alder’s routine on the days he was to see him. Alder would often meditate and once Gin came, their training would begin. After that, the two would head over to the room that emulated a desert, joining the rest of Alder’s battalion. At first Gin would join in with everyone as they carried out formations, tactics etc. but lately, Gin was excluded and was told just to watch and observe. He didn’t understand why and it did frustrate him slightly. However, it did allow Gin to see the mages Alder’s battalion was composed of.

There were fire mages, some specialised in close combat, lighting their limbs aflame during fights. This would cause extra damage during grapples and if your resistance to fire was especially low, would cause problems to even come close to them. There were also those specialised in artillery. They would bombard the enemy with fireballs from a distance, range depending on the mage.

Other elementals included the water types, who can fire highly pressurised streams of water, piercing the flesh of most mages; earth types, who carry stone on their body that they can make malleable, being able to shape them for certain purposes; nature types that utilise Xernims for various purposes.

Amongst the Bestials were some juggernauts, beefy front-liners that can soak as much damage as they can deal; Defenders that act as a wall between the enemy and the back line and often are used to block enemy projectiles; Stealth who utilise their invisibility to assassinate targets in the chaos of battle; Familiar-users who use animals as their form of combat. To Gin, they seem like the closest to a manush such as him, but the animals only obey their chosen Familiar-user type. Gin didn’t understand how that was possible. Yet these animals refuse to disobey their master nor did they listen to anyone else, so Gin hypothesised that it had something to do with the ‘aura’ mages possess. Unlike the nature elementals, Familiars can live independently from their master and so they are put in a separate category and typing.

Overall the fire and bestial type mages made up for seventy percent of the battalion. Gin also didn’t notice any utility mages and presumed that Alder’s battalion were purely used for the offensive. Although he thought there were no utility mages, Joan and Wo were technically part of the battalion but they were there because of Gin. Where he went, so did the other two.

Despite the way Gin sorted everyone in the battalion out, he could tell that everyone had their own unique style. It helped set oneself out from the rest, with personal strengths and weaknesses, allowing for different people to be useful in different scenarios. Since everyone was a misfit of Eurasia’s MBP, it was expected.

Once Gin arrived at his destination, he found that Alder was meditating, as usual, in the middle of the room. Gin, out of habit, joined him for a few minutes before being woken up. Alder was holding two gauntlets, both made of the same wood as his armour. Both gauntlets had two rectangular shaped holes engraved on them. In the gauntlet, meant for the right hand, was Gin’s INS slotted neatly, slanting slightly at an angle out of the gauntlet.

‘I turned off the touch sensitive mechanism from the INS, like you asked. Now what did you want me to do?’

‘Put it on,’ Alder said.

Gin took the right-handed gauntlet and put it on. The wood was smooth and cold. Suddenly Gin began writing in pain as something sharp pierced his right arm. It was as if something was latching onto him. Several more points on his arms were puncture by needle-like wood. Gin felt weaker soon afterwards. His energy was being drained. What was going on?

‘Wow. It really likes you, brat,’ Alder commented.

‘What?’ Gin replied, still feeling pain in his arm.

‘I guess being liked isn’t normal for you.’

‘Please tell me what’s going on.’

‘The Xernim is making you its host.’

Gin was shocked. How did he not realise that he was going to be made into a host? The whole reason a Xernim is a Xernim is because they are parasitical entities! It’s what they do.

‘I didn’t agree to this,’ Gin said, clutching onto the gauntlet.

‘You put it on. That’s good enough consent for me, brat. Would you have changed your mind otherwise?’

The pain became tolerable and allowed Gin to sort out his thought process. He was sweating and tired. There was no point in arguing. The way the Xernim planted itself into his arm probably meant that removal was equally as painful. It was done now, so he gave Alder a shake of the head and let him continue.

‘Good. The Xernim is just ‘setting its roots’ into you. These roots connect to your blood stream and take the nutrients it needs from it, exactly like how my one works. The initial stages are painful but it will settle down in a day or two. You should feel two to five ‘roots’ in your arm.’

‘Those needles that dug into me?’

‘Yes.’

‘That’s odd. I felt twelve.’

Alder was in a state of shock. His whole armour was a Xernim but even then there were only twenty roots dotted around his body. How did Gin have twelve in just his arm? Was it because Gin was someone who wasn’t bred to adapt to the Xernim? No, that can’t be it. By using his Xernim as the ‘parent’, Alder was able to make replicas of it in the past and with a 100% success ratio. The mages that he gave the Xernim clones to reacted in the same manner as his one. So why did it act different for Gin? Alder felt a sense of unease.

‘Alder, are you going to give me the other gauntlet or not?’

‘I think we should let the pain go from the first gauntlet before going for the next.’

‘The pain’s gone.’

‘You’re lying, brat. It should have taken a day minimum for that.’

‘Look. I can move my arm freely. No problem’

‘This really shouldn’t be happening this soon. I need to check one last thing. Brat, first create a fist with your hand.’

‘OK... Nothing’s happened. Am I doing something wrong?’

‘No. No. That’s working as intended. This is the real test now. Think of the Xernim entering the first hole in your INS and activating the mechanism.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Just do it.’

Gin was confused but still carried out the order. As the thought entered Gin’s mind, the gauntlet started to change. Thin branches weaved around the INS and entered the first chamber. To Gin’s surprise, the branches managed to open the hatch that led to the button at the bottom of the chamber. It pressed it and immediately the sword was created. Gin looked to Alder who was equally shocked.

‘This is amazing! How did the Xernim manage to read my thoughts, Alder?’

‘To be honest, I’m not sure myself. It’s always been able to respond to what its host is thinking. It’s how I managed to make it grow into my armour. Maybe magic?’

‘Magic doesn’t exist. You just haven’t found an explanation yet.’

‘Doesn’t matter how it works, as long as it does. But thanks to you turning off the touch-sensitive part of your INS, the branches could open the hatch, which is why it managed to reach the bottom of the chamber.’

‘OK then. Regardless of how this works, I need to shorten the sword length a bit. It feels too clunky as it is. How do I take the INS out of the gauntlet?’

‘Like how you activated the switch, you just need to imagine the Xernim releasing the weapon and it will.’

Gin pictured the release of the INS. The branches, which led into the chamber, began to degrade at a rapid pace. The lining of wood withdrew from the INS, allowing it to be plucked from the gauntlet. Gin was amazed at how fast the plant grew and degraded. Although the way it responded to Gin’s thoughts was sketchy, as if it was used as a convenient plot device for a fictional book, Gin mused, but it was very useful.

‘Alder, give me the other gauntlet.’

‘Are you sure? You look tired. It might be a bit unsafe to have two parasites leeching off you so quickly.’

‘I’m fine. Just hand it over.’

‘Don’t blame me if your impatience kills you, brat.’

‘You’re a shitty mentor anyway,’ Gin muttered while putting the left-handed gauntlet on. His mother always told him not to swear, and he normally listened to his mother. ‘But that was just a slip of the tongue’, Gin would have said to apologise to his mum, to which his mother would say ‘she knows’ and then kiss him on the forehead.

‘‘Shitty’? I’m sorry but I don’t understand what that means.’

‘Nothing you should concern yourself about. It’s old English.’

The ‘setting of the roots’ was less painful than before, and the number of roots embedded into Gin’s left arm was relatively lower than his right, reaching eleven. The process was also much faster. His body was already adapting to being a host to two parasites. It wasn’t a bad experience but it did leave Gin exhausted.

‘How are you going to shorten that claw of yours anyway?’ Alder asked.

‘I was going to do it later but since you asked, I can do it now.’

Gin put his finger to activate the mechanism in the 3rd chamber. The side opposite where the sword came out made a ‘click’ sound. Gin was then able to twist and remove a portion of the INS. There was a switch inside of that mostly hollow section which he flicked on. The section enlarged, both in length and width, and a screen popped up inside.

‘This is what the people of the third millennia would have called a ‘computer’, Alder. This is what I use to programme all of my INS. The system then sends the programme to the main mechanism, which then sends an image, created by said programme, to ‘print’ it into a three dimensional object using stored nanobots as material. In this instance, it’s my sword.’

‘‘Computer’; ‘nanobots’; ‘programme’; ‘print’; ‘mechanism’. I’m presuming it’s more old English?’

‘Yes.’

‘How comes you know so much about the old tongue?’

‘I guess it was how I was brought up.’

‘We’re all brought up the same, through the MBP.’

‘That’s true,’ Gin responded, he hadn’t told Alder that he was a manush, ‘guess education has slightly changed from when you were brought up,’ he lied.

‘Maybe,’ Alder accepted.

After some modifications, Gin downsized and fit the INS back together again. He plugged it back into the gauntlet and imagined the Xernim wrapping itself around the INS and activating the mechanism. The sword formed itself once more, but this time it was considerably shorter than before, allowing the gauntlet to be wielded much easier.

‘You adapt quickly, brat. You didn’t even ask how to put it back in and you did it as if it was natural for you.’

‘I understood the way the Xernim works now. Still suspicious of how it works but anyway, I owe you an apology for how I behaved last time. This looks like and feels amazing. It’s as if it’s part of my arm. Guess I’ll change the name of the sword to a blade to suit what I’m about to carry out.’

‘Apology accepted. But to be honest, I’m a bit worried...’

‘Hmm?’

‘This is all too fast. It might be dangerous.’

‘You’re telling me this now?’

‘I didn’t expect for you to adapt so quickly.’

‘I’m the guy who can make a fully functional heart by being in a coma for a week. This shouldn’t be all that surprising.’

‘I suppose so. Anyway, the gauntlets were all I wanted to give to you today. I have imbedded the other sockets, above the ones designed for your claws, for your other INS like your shield. I hope it is to your liking. You seem to have grasped how to use them and so that will be all. Next time you will learn how to blade box, so make sure to come in two days time for your next lesson. I also have got a surprise for you next week. ’

Surprise?