Back to Created and Consumed: Ch 2 Pt 2

Three months later…

I struggled to learn the basics of field combat, quite often I felt Ado would kill me but he never lost his cool with me. Despite my lack of progress in the more precise arts of cutting a training corpse in two, I excelled in the hacking and strategic positioning exercises. I had to master them to become at least remotely familiar with the way the platoons under Ado’s command worked, so I made that more of a priority rather than ripping the limbs off of dummies in the training yards. Ado wasn’t disappointed in my alternate methods of battle, in fact some of my ideas he liked.

“So what you’re saying is…” he began, sweeping his training sword over my head, making me duck, dodge and return serve, “… I should have my elites, the Molta, go in with the stealth gear…” he swiped again and I blocked, “… from the air?”

“No, what I’m suggesting is…” I swiped across and gashed his arm, “… we take the stealth gear and cloak our aerial assault teams instead…” I lunged, faltered and Ado caught me on his foot.

“Nice little plan there, Zyrra, but we tried that one already…” he held the training sword to my neck and I gulped, “… it failed miserably when the pilots lost track of each other and collided in mid-air .”

Of course, quite a few of my ideas flopped when it came to the technology part; I was only just beginning to learn it. “Motion Tracker failure?” I asked and redirected his blade away from my throat; he faltered and dropped me to regain his balance which allowed me to get back onto my feet, “I mean, if that were the case then it need only be retested, right?”

Ado smiled, “You think like a scientist, Zyrra. We did retest it, there was no malfunction in the Motion Trackers, the cloaking devices worn by the Molta teams are designed to be undetectable by radar, hence the problem!” He leapt for my waist; his sword was thrown aside, the exercise had changed.

I caught him by his arms and continued the motion, swinging him around and throwing him, unfortunately, he had gripped my wrists and I ended up falling on my stomach with him. Neither of us were armoured but Ado was heavy, I ended up flying a few feet in the air, landing and then skidding a little along the hard floor. I coughed, winded and wounded, and gasped for breath.

Ado did not apologise. Before I had started my training I had expected such courtesy when struck, but later learned that there were no apologies when one kills another, only duty. Today I knew better than to wait for my enemy to recover, I drew my blade and sliced Ado easily across his back. He screamed and curled in pain.

The door to the training arena opened and I deactivated my training weapon, “Lesson’s over Ado.” I grinned and offered a hand to help him up which he took and pulled me down to the floor. I scowled, “Not fair, Ado!”

“The lesson is over when learned, Zyrra. Never trust the enemy, even when their actions appear to be in good nature. Remember that.”

“Acknowledged, Commander.” I inclined my head to him and muttered, “It still wasn’t fair…”

“Is battle ever fair, Zyrra?” He smirked and walked to the door, leaving me to collect myself. I picked up my sword and propped it up on the wall where assortments of other training weapons were perched. After a few words with our visitor, Ado called me to the doorway, “Zyrra, this is a representative from the Covenant Battle Guild.” He breathed; he was still a little exasperated from our exercise.

I looked out of the door and my eyes met with a broad shouldered elite, he was Ado’s height but had to be at least double his weight in muscle mass. I knew this elite, I had been his entertainment on more than one occasion. I growled a greeting and made no effort to meet eyes with him.

“Zyrra…” Ado nudged me, “… be polite will you? He’s going to be your mentor for the rest of your training…”

“Aha, I don’t think so…” I snapped, then walked back into the arena to punch something.

I heard Ado excuse himself and follow me inside, then a second pair of feet padded over the floor as well. I was close to furious that this elite was even allowed within fifty feet of me.

“Zyrra, you’re being unreasonable!” Ado pursued me, “This elite can help you to complete your mission, to prove to the Prophets that the female Sangheili are worthy of battle!”

I rounded on him, “Ado, how long have you spent your life as a female in the Covenant?”

He was stumped by my out-of-the-blue question, after a pause he replied, indignantly, “None, why?”

“Exactly, none. You don’t know what it’s like to be raped, to be used, exploited, and brought to your knees by something you have absolutely zero power over!” I was breathing heavily now, “Ado, do you know what it’s like to hear your fellows screaming, every second of every minute of every day? No! You have no idea!”

Ado didn’t say a word; there was no warning, only the sharp pain of his steel knuckles meeting with my stiff jaw, I stumbled sideways and clutched my mouth. He approached me, “Don’t assume that your life is the only tragedy in this city, Zyrra… some, like yours, have been far too horrible to tell in front of an audience, painful to relive…” he crouched beside me, “… you will train with this elite, and you will face your demons…” I looked up to him and he wiped some of the blood from my lower jaw.

“Should I come back later Ado?” the Mentor asked.

“No, I think we have something to discuss…” Ado took one look at my expression and calculated his chances; they were slim but obviously favourable enough. He sat beside me on the ground and introduced the elite, “Zyrra, this is Gura Mothanamee, Gura, this is Zyrra Jiserraphira…”

I folded my arms and nodded to Gura icily.

“I take it that you remember me, young Zyrra?” Gura chuckled, offering a hand to me, I didn’t take it. He looked at Ado, “Very defiant isn’t she?”

Ado huffed, “She has her reasons, Gura, Zyrra please; make an effort to at least be courteous!”

“Alright…” I muttered, then smiled falsely to Gura, “Sorry, Sir. I didn’t know you were so desperate for a child that you just HAD to choose me from the list of thousands, only to miscarry it…” I said. Ado shot a reproachful glare at me, making me retreat back to being highly unimpressed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took a while, but somehow, Ado managed to maintain calm in the arena and convince me that Gura was not going to make any attempts on my life. He also agreed to stay and watch for the first few days of my training until I was used to how things worked, but after that he had to leave for a while, he didn’t specify where exactly to or how long.
I was ordered to begin immediately, even though I felt it was too soon to alter my routine. My argument didn’t hold much flame though and I was shut down almost immediately by Ado. “Zyrra. I can’t be your mentor forever. I have my duties and you have yours.”

So in practically no time at all, I found myself in the front row of Gura Mothanamee’s Battle Guild between the shoulders of possibly two of the most idiotic Sangheili I had ever met. This was to be my place for the whole of my training in this gaggle of adolescence.

"You each have been born into the Covenant as useless pieces of flesh..." Gura paced in front of us, "... you are still useless pieces of flesh..." he looked at me, "... and you always will be useless pieces of flesh..." He straightened up and cleared his throat. "Boys..." He addressed his elites, each were dressed in dark grey armour, I looked through the three lines, each were not much older than I, "... we have a new victim, I mean member of our happy little family…" he wrenched me from my post and turned me toward the rest of the assembly.
A couple stared and a few jaws dropped, they obviously hadn't seen a female in warrior armour. I fiddled with my wrist guards nervously. I heard a couple of elites laugh and flushed with anger, I was just as capable as they were, how dare they think of me as any different...?
”Yes, take a good look, boys, because she’s about to lose all this useless beauty…” there were some complaints but Gura continued, “… all of you testosterone-driven pretty-boys had better keep your hands under control…” he patted me on the back and scanned the formation mock-wisely, “… she has three months of Commander Ado Mortumee’s training under her belt…”
I was pushed forward by Gura's strong hand and I took my place in the ranks again.

I could feel close breath on my neck, “I’m interested to find out what else is under that belt of yours…” two hands slid over my waist.

“Hey, are you mentally retarded or something, Radamee?” Gura growled. He slapped the hands away and wrenched me from my place again, “Or am I not being clear to you?” The male who Gura had addressed as Radamee, didn’t answer. “You touch a fellow warrior like that again and I’ll begin to question your allegiance.”

To the left of Radamee, an elite remarked, “Yeah, that’s a whole new kind o’ heresy, Sir.”

I expected Gura to pounce on the insolence but to my surprise he grinned, “Ah, Jurdo, of course you would be the one to know…”

“Ohhh… burn…” whispered a third recruit. Jurdo replied with a sharp elbow drive to the ribs.

Gura scowled and I was pushed back to my place, "She is to be treated as your equal. Do whatever it takes to get it through your thick heads! Now I don’t care if you have to slice your baby-makers off to remind you not to play with it in her presence, you’ll remember that if you don’t… I sure as hell will…" he called out to his elites.

“Sir, but if we mess with our ‘baby-makers’ in the presence of our mates, it shouldn’t be any different for the newbie!”

“An excellent point, Morrathera,” he made a devious smile, “I’d be sure to log that in my study notes if I were you fellas…” he walked up and slapped the elite in the head, then addressed us all again, “I do believe that Morrathera has just volunteered to scrub the showers… again…”
Gura began to pace the ranks once more, "She will eat, sleep and breathe in the same barracks as you! She will train in the Covenant, with the Covenant, for the Covenant."
Ado seemed a little uneased by Gura's rough handling of his Guild but did nothing, he was bound by the agreement that he would not interfere. “Ado, I expect you are needed elsewhere…” Gura said, it was neither kind nor with malice.

“I’ll return for your report on Zyrra’s progress, Gura.” Ado replied before looking to me, “Good luck, Zyrra.” He saluted me and then turned, I could feel his sadness but he daren’t show it to the others, I tore my eyes from his form and reverted back to the hard and muscular body of Gura.

Several weeks later…

“Each and every one of you…” Gura walked slowly along the ranks, “… is a weapon of mass destruction…” I watched him, his pace was slow, important, he knew he was the only power in the room, “… your task this morning… is to defeat me…” he stopped pacing and sized up the group, each of us had only been in his elites for two months, but it had been enough for me to form a couple of rivalries, one most vicious was with my mentor.

“Hey! Hey, Zee!” I was prodded between the shoulders, “Zyrra!”

Onward to Created and Consumed: Ch 3 Pt 2