Codename: Freedom - Book 4 - Chapter 46

Author Note: As some of you have probably noticed, I don't curse in any of my books. Most people don't seem to notice since I don't use fillers to make it obvious. Below, Liam uses some language that I don't think technically would be considered obscene language, but let me know what you think. I'm not against cursing necessarily in fiction, I just don't want it to stand out so much that it's abrasive at this point in the book.

Cheers!

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After being bombarded by the opinions of my friends yesterday, I through myself into my training, and the training of the rank E psionic team. It had only just formed, for obvious reasons, and would be called upon to face our most dangerous opposition.

Early that morning, I messaged Mara to inform her that I wanted to meet in the training hall for our combat parkour training. I was extra sensitive to what this might mean to her after what Kline had said, but spending less time alone with her wasn’t the only reason for it.

When she arrived in my simulated Jungle in a yellow and blue leotard, she scanned the three other rank E psionic users with a wide-eyed expression. She was the only one not in her ballistic suit. She gathered herself quickly, putting on confidence like a cloak.

“Hey, boys,” she said strutting up like she was in charge. “So what’s the plan, Major? You want me to break these newbs in?”

I couldn’t help but to feel bad to ask her, but I was also her commanding officer. “If you would please. I’m sure they have some subpartraining, and with their new, improved psionics, they can hardly take a step without stubbing their toe. We have less than a week to get them walking again.”

She rubbed her hands together sadistically.

“Oh, and try to have some fun,” I added.

Mara tilted her head to the side and gave me a sweet look. “Ahhh. The Major is learning.” She headed toward the three staged tower that was the first obstacle before entering. “Come newbies. Aunt Mara will show you what’s what.”

As they followed her, Mel drew back from the group to address me. “Are you going to be training with us?”

“Not directly. You’ll see me in there though. We’ll get to combat training and working as a team during combat development. I’ll leave you with a bit of a challenge, though. Since your push technique is getting better.”

I headed toward the base of the entrance obstacle. Stopping at Mara’s side, I said in a low tone. “Thank you.”

She seemed to notice something was off but answered cheerily anyways. “Get going already, doofus.”

I stopped myself from turning it into a playful spat and took a casual step forward and jumped. With Othisi’s push, I soared over the six, eight, and ten foot platforms. As I neared the top, I wasn’t close enough, so I took a single wind step to give me a little more distance and landed softly on top.

Looking down, I saw everyone looking at me, but found Mel giving it some serious thought. I inclined my head in challenge then turned away.

I pushed myself across the top of each obstacle, then from wall to wall until I was at the top of a mid-level mock-building.

“Let’s get started,” I called out to Destiny.

The rooftop was thirty by thirty yards, so there was some room to work with. It was flat with no obstacles except for the rim at the edge of the building. It made for a nice little arena. A simulation Krato appeared across from me hovering there. We’d be playing the same game I did with the real Krato, except the goal was different.

I cycled through the different layers of my dragon slayer technique. After I had the timing right, I pushed off the roof and began hovering in opposition.

Krato flew right at me. Destiny had him set up to use the same push technique to try and send my flying to the ground. I wasn’t just trying to remain in the air, however, but to land my technique.

I skirted sideways, immediately cycling, and striking out.

His push jerked my head back, even as the phantom fist part of my technique struck him in the ribs. He stopped me before I could put hammer to stake, and what did hit him wasn’t enough.

A blast of energy from my feet sent me fleeing backwards. I looped to my left, and struck out a second time, trying to attack his palm before his energy exited.

It threw us both back a few paces, and neither one of us landed anything.

His foot pierced forward unexpectantly, and a gust of Othisi sent me flying back.

I let my feet drift upward and tucked. Backflipping, I sprawled out on all fours to catch myself and slow my momentum. I didn’t touch the ground.

I’d come a long way since he’d first started training me. As we continued, our speed only increased, and I was able to fully connect with dragon slayer a couple times. I hadn’t perfected the technique to where I always timed it right, but I hadn’t injured my hand in days.

I dragged the five of them, including Mara, to the recovery chamber afterwards. It wasn’t the first time Mel and Mara had been there and gone through Victoria’s exercises with me. I’d informed them of its benefits in the early days of the Combat Development Team. Kline and Barrell also used it.

The same information hadn’t been given to the entire battalion simply because the recovery chambers had a limited amount of energy. As long as they did well in this next event, Prodos should have the money to invest in another reactor. That would allow the number of recovery chambers to go from two to four, and our base’s shield would have more power than it could use. By then, we should be able to give everyone some time, which should speed the rate at which our men were ranking up.

Achilles had once asked me if I wanted to continue training under him after psionics were discovered. As much information as he had, there were expert psionic trainers offered in Freedom that should’ve been able to offer more. However, I had declined training with anyone else. It was then that he gave me some options. One option was to throw myself into his life and death bandit combat sim. I spent almost all my time fighting, leaving only room for food, a little sleep, and the restroom. That same option wasn’t available to me as it had once been because I was no longer responsible for just myself. It didn’t stop me from implementing the closest version that could work with my schedule.

Schedule

Sleep (0000-0200)

Early Morning (0200-0600)

- Combat against rank E Ekseliksi with random combinations of psionic abilities in the Jungle.

- Food

- Recovery chamber

Morning (0600-1200)

- Food

- Marching/military training. (Cycle psionic notes while training)

- Fighting exotic psionic users. Based on monstrous Ekseliksi soldiers.

- Combat parkour with Mara and rank E psionic squad.

- Recovery chamber

Midday (1200 – 1600)

- Food

- Training with Krato

- Recovery chamber

- Combat Development Team – Event focused training.

- Recovery chamber

Early Night (1600 – 2000)

- ~Vanguard~

- Continue Prodos expansion on planet Hectate.

- Food intake at consistent intervals if possible.

Prime Time (2000 – 2400)

- Finish Vanguard missions for the day.

- Combat and technique training.

Such training sharpened my senses and timing even further. I became more proficient executing Dragon Slayer and Phantom Fist. My movement techniques grew even further. As much as I wished I had more time, I knew I was as ready as I could be.

***

“We’ve received the feed,” Junction said from his desk in the command center. “Relay complete. Whenever you’re ready Colonel.”

“Thank you, Jay,” Victoria said, calling the gamer by his given name.

The intelligence team had grown to eleven and everyone was spread out in the three rows of desks laid out in a half moon formation. Liam sat in the back row and maximized the display through his headset.

The room disappeared before his eyes and the three-dimensional promotional video played. An eagle flew over a lush landscape of pockets of forested area and rolling hills. It was a call back to one of the early Freedom promotional videos.

The eagle dived and everyone’s eyes merged this it. For a moment, it just soared calmly over the tree canopy, then it dived again, straight through a cloud of leaves and branches. Below there were bodies scattered everywhere. The eagle headed toward the carnage, swooping toward a blood covered victim. At the last moment, it pulled up and snagged a rail rifle through the ring of its stock and a psword’s hilt in the other claw.

I grazed just over the carpet of bodies toward a wall of light at the exit of the forest. It dived right through it. The white light was blinding, but soon our vision returned.

We were climbing up the bank of a steep hill. It was larger than all of those in the area. Arguably a small mountain. The lip to the top was nearing rapidly. Like piercing a grand veil, we shot through it and the top of the mountain was revealed.

A castle of columns and arches the size of the largest military base on earth was surrounded in walls of natural stone and brick. Dozens of orange and silver psionic bolts flew from the wall as the eagle tried to spin and dive. It was too late as a silver bolt struck it. There was an explosion of feathers and blood.

The rail rifle and psword fell from its claws, coming to a rest of the ground near the ledge.

A hold squad of soldiers with oddly tinted skin were already a few strides away as they hurried to inspect what had fallen. They wore smooth chest armor that looked like white plastic. Liam immediately recognized it as Ekseliksi standard. Before they’d stopped to look at the fallen weapons, he’d seen them using auras. He thought back trying to count how many of them had been using rank E psionics.

He let out a slow breath as he realized it was only one of them. The rest of this scouting squad had been using rank F. But if there was one rank E psionic user in every squad, one was more than enough.

The screen froze as a stone placard slammed downward. It was the detail of the first major event of Vanguard.

Opponent

Ekseliksi – Psionic rank F foot soldiers and rank E officers.

Troops – 2,000 strong.

Battlefield – Castle siege.

All battalions will face an equal opponent on parallel battlefields.

Performances will be judged on efficiency, tactics, as well as team and individual performance. The number of player deaths will also reflect heavily in a battalion’s score.

It was impossible for Liam to miss that they were following the events in Freedom to a tee. The siege of the goblin city had been the next major event after the early horror of how realistic it was. Having the battalions practice defense of their forts and taking other ones was undoubtedly a logical step in their training.

“Summon our Majors and have the vid released to the entire battalion,” Victoria commanded.

“And Lucius?” Peter asked.

She hesitated. “Yes. I need my Right Hand. If he doesn’t like it cutting into his training, then he can just go without sleep tonight.”

Many on the intelligence team laughed openly at the remark, but Liam could tell it was just a smokescreen. The two of them had been at odds for more than a week. He’d done extensive investigations on both of them, and had known them personally in Freedom. The rules against fraternizing between soldiers was one that would only loosely apply to these Freedom participants turned officers. Even if they did break the rules cleanly, the military had opened the pandoras box of public opinion. Trying to prosecute them wouldn’t turn out well. Their training, after all, was a joke. But Liam had personally signed off on these two.

What in the fiery hells had he been thinking? They were still technically teenagers. Teenagers he’d sponsored to lead thousands in the most advanced training simulation in the history of the entire godforsaken world. Not to mention the most expensive.

He had to calm down. They weren’t normal teenagers. At least Victoria’s quality of work wasn’t affected, even if it was obvious their love-spat was bothering her. After a few additional months of watching her, he hadn’t forgot the fear he felt when she’d confronted him about his betrayal in Freedom. He’d grown less suspicious she was holding underhanded intentions after seeing her strong tendency toward compassion. There was something firmly holding her back from the normal negatives of someone that rated high in the agreeableness trait. Maybe it was because she was also high in conscientiousness, but he still held back judgement. She also seemed to score off the charts in openness, which made her especially difficult for him to get his mind around.

It was Lucius he was most worried about. As disciplined as the boy seemed, Liam saw him as a potential battering ram to an unlocked door. If he lost his edge and just let himself go, he’d likely leave a trail of ruin in his wake. If that happened, then Victoria would be the one who could smooth things out, and rather quickly, or the entire house could come crumbling down. They both fit into the box of hypercompetence, so he could have them both wrong. Personality traits had their limitation. He could be wrong about everything. The boy’s discipline was just unnatural and seemed impossible to sustain indefinitely. It was like he funneled every stressor into an engine that fed on it for fuel. Perhaps it was the girl that would self-destruct, and the boy would be there to pick up the pieces.

After all the Majors arrived, Peter took over leading the meeting. They discussed everything they could discern from the promo vid, what they believed they could expect, and possible strategies. They were done within the hour.

As everyone was leaving the room, Lucius stayed back and waited until the other Majors were gone. He was standing at ease and only watching Victoria out of the corner of his eye when he spoke. It was low, but Liam’s headset filtered out and bolstered the words that passed between them. “Tonight, when you’re having trouble sleeping and second guessing all of our plans, remember we have your back. You know where to find me.”

As he walked away, she reached out to grab his arm, but pulled back and let him go.

It was just one of many similar interactions between the two of them, but Liam filtered it away for later. They weren’t the only two’s mental health he was monitoring. He was responsible for the entire battalion. He better get back to work. In just two day the castle siege would begin.