The Texas Renegade Returns

Monday, February 25

Bridges Rotation

I spotted Zan again, having dinner when I went for breakfast, and wasn't slow to ask to join her. She had circles under her eyes, but almost sort of smiled at me as I sat down. I asked if she could recommend any novels to read, and tried to explain fantasy to her. I don't want to read stories about Setari – I was getting more than enough of them in real life and from television – but hadn't succeeded in finding any good stories which were based on mythology rather than reality, so to speak. We had a really interesting conversation about the origin of myths and the kind of stories people tell when they know what's "out there" compared to when they don't. I almost forgot to meet up with First Squad for the day's mission, and had to dash off, but she emailed me a list of books to try.

Bridges Rotation is only one space, although we had to walk through an awful lot of Tare's near-space to get to its gate. Near-space is usually fairly clear, because the Setari spend such a lot of effort killing off everything in the surrounding spaces, but we've a couple of times encountered things on the way to the gates and today there was this swarm of razor-tipped rabbits (O.o) which First Squad chased down and killed on the way.

The Bridges space itself was very strange. The bridges are all made of bone; the starkly curving ribs of giants. But the space is twisted, distorted, and perspective plays tricks with up and down and where things end and begin. A space designed by Escher, which I should have appreciated, but it made me dizzy, so I eventually had to concentrate just on the section of bridge in front of me.

There were three types of Ionoth there. Quite large ones, about the size of a car, that had attached themselves to the underneath of the bridges and were very similar in colour. I suppose the idea is that they wait until something walks above them and then they close these massive filigree claw-things over the top. An odd kind of Venus fly-trap. Combat Sight made these immensely easy. Maze or Zee would spot them well ahead, and then Maze just pried them loose with Telekinesis and held them up so Lohn could shoot them with unenhanced Light beams.

The rest of the time we chased about after long-legged, metallic storks with curving, sword-like beaks. They would run if they met us alone, collect in groups, and then try and rush us. The walls of light and columns of fire came in handy for them.

And there were two dog-things, rather like afghan hounds, but with possum-type claws to grip the bridges as they raced along. They trailed a pearly rainbow light, and looked strange and dangerous. Since they were a new type, First Squad paused to observe and document them, waiting to see how they would react when they sighted us.

They stopped, and sat down, heads angled toward each other as if they were talking. First Squad waited, and made no move to prevent them when the dogs loped off through one of the gates.

I was glad First Squad doesn't indiscriminately slaughter everything they encounter, but curious as well, and asked Zee about it over dinner. I've learned not to ask too many questions while in the spaces. First Squad will usually answer me, but I think they'd rather keep their attention on scanning for attacks.

"Fortunately, the Castle Rotation was one of the first spaces we encountered," Zee told me. "It's an obvious lesson: some of the Ionoth can act as our allies, if only by lowering the number of our opponents. Combat Sight allows us to judge intention to a degree, and those two today sparked no reaction. Wary, but no more. If they attack unprovoked, they'll be put on the kill on sight list, but not until then. In some of the spaces, if we tried to kill everything there, it would take us a week, and it only makes sense to focus on Ionoth which pose a tangible danger. Still, don't–"

"–pat cats," I finished resignedly. "Has been seen again?"

"Not yet. Hardly an ideal situation, having an Ionoth loose in KOTIS, no matter how useful. It is pushing us to develop newer and better scans. If you see it at all, contact one of us immediately."

I nodded, though I can't say I'd particularly want to help get it captured. Tomorrow is Fifth Squad testing, worse luck. Not looking forward to it.

Tuesday, February 26

Fifth Squad

Fifth Squad are f*ckwits.

Their captain is that Kajal guy with the voice, who was making an ass of himself to Zan. I was lucky, I think, that I'd had that warning about what he was like: smugly pleased with himself and the type who is really interested in proving himself better than everyone else, even for small things. I don't know if his squad started out as unlikeable as he is, but he seems to have infected them pretty thoroughly. It's a five guy, one girl team, but I can't say that the girl, Elwes, is any nicer than the rest of them.

They're a generalist squad, so we met in Test Room One to start with. They were all standing in the middle in a circle, and didn't glance at me as I came up. Kajal's a big guy, maybe 6'4", and the rest of his team are pretty close to as tall. Even though I'd learned from Seventh Squad that I shouldn't have to worry about official on-the-record test sessions, I still felt a bit nervous. And then annoyed, because even though there wasn't a chance they didn't know I was there, Kajal left me standing at his elbow while he finished telling his squad something not particularly interesting-sounding about their next day's rotation.


"Right then," he said, at last. "Let's get started. Nise, you're first up."

They moved away, only one of the guys staying near me (he had great hair: spiky with dark blue tips). He waited till Kajal nodded at him, then grabbed my shoulder for a moment and began testing a Telekinesis talent. It went on like that for all of them. None of them spoke to me or nodded to me or anything like that. Every one of them gripped my shoulder in the exact same way – not roughly or hard or anything, but enough for me to feel it through the uniform's padding. All the other squads, since the first day with First Squad, have barely touched me, usually brushing the back of a hand against my arm. It couldn't be coincidence that every single one of Fifth Squad approached enhancement so differently, though it's really hard to imagine them sitting around deciding this would be a worthwhile exercise.

Then we went into the Ena to test Ena-specific talents. Since Kajal continued to address all his remarks generally, so they could be interpreted to include me, I followed along behind, wondering if what he was trying to do was get me to kick up a fuss or act upset or what. We always do Ena tests in the grassy space First Squad took me to, which is both easy to get to and seemingly permanently clear of Ionoth. There was nothing different about what Fifth Squad did for their testing there, except they walked in front of me on the way, striding along at a pace I didn't expect, so that I trailed them by a few feet.

That was a mistake, I think. Sure, there was pretty much no chance anything was going to attack me, but it looked like they were being lax and had forgotten they were supposed to be protecting me. I hope they get demerits. And when we were back in real-space, they just walked off without another word.

I took myself off to medical, and tried to figure out why Fifth had bothered. To intimidate or upset me, yeah, but why? What does it gain to make me feel uncomfortable? It did work. I spent most of the time feeling embarrassed and angry. They acted like my enhancement was something bad, a thing causing them inconvenience. Like they were barely tolerating that they had to work with me.

Perhaps they expect me to complain? For a lot of the time I felt like it, but I don't even see the point. I don't feel safe working with them in the Ena, but I'm unlikely to be assigned to another generalist squad if they do change who I work with. I figure I'll either be kept with First Squad or swapped between the big hitters and the Sight specialists as the need arises. I don't know. I want to bitch and complain about it, but there's no-one I can do that with. Everyone on First Squad would have to deal with it officially if I whined about it, and so would Zan if I laid it on her.

I guess, if I brood on it too much, they'll have won. So I'll try to forget all about it, and not worry unless they show up on my schedule again.

It's occurred to me that, in gaming terms, I'm an escort quest. So funny. And Fifth Squad are hardcore pvp-ers who think quests are a waste of time. Tools.

Wednesday, February 27

Cancelled

Today was supposed to be Boxes Rotation, but when I woke up this morning I had no appointments for the rest of the week. I've gone all paranoid that this means they've decided to assign me away from First Squad.

I guess this is an opportunity to catch up on all the school work I've been ignoring, which I will get to right after I'm done with some important worrying and sulking.