Recovering Our Own

Chapter Nine: No Messing Around

"Welcome, everyone, to the first day of training for combat in the Recovery!" Tyler yelled into the megaphone. The crowd of people in workout gear, of all shapes and sizes and appearances, male and female, gave a huge cheer. They may all be so different, but they had this in common: they were a common species, their ancestors had been a common species, and their ancestors had been wronged. It was only right that they take up arms and fight for what truly was theirs and they had been wrongfully taken from. And the only way to do that was to unite. At least that's what Tyler shouted out in his pre-training pep talk, which generated even more cheers and applause.

"And now, we'll be calling you out one group at a time to start training. When I call your group letter, please stand up and head over to your leader. A's please! A's, your with Eric!" He pointed to a burly fellow security guard holding a large letter "A" sign over his head. The Primum seemed to have been group based on specialty skills, and judging by the ones that headed over the Eric this was the 'extremely muscular tough looking' group. A number of them were probably Fistidiis, which was the regular small Primum non-wartime "military", who mainly worked as bodyguards for important officials.

"Now B's! You guys are with Owen, he's right over there. You guys are our human weapon specialty group, you'll be training in a course designed to enhance the skills you would need to fight a human nation's armed forces." B was the ones who were agile and quick to dodge bullets, the ones most accurate with a gun.

"And, C, you're with me, so just stay where you are for now," Tyler continued. "Group D! This is a special combat group composed of those with air abilities, you'll be learning how to use them to your advantages specifically for air combat purposes. Head over to Travis, Travis is the pilot of the Duxian's personal airplane and he'll lead you over to the far field where you'll be learning a lot. Don't say I didn't worn ya'!" he added the last part in with a bit of a chuckle.

"Group E, group E! Y 'all will be with Taya. She's training a special stealth and strategy group, you'll be the first in the fray ready to surprise them with attacks on major cities. After all, it's what they did to us, only fair!" Tyler said. Taya waved her "E" sign energetically above her head.

"Her?" cried out a disgruntled voice. "She's going to be leading us to the first attacks of this battle? She's fifteen Ty, for crying out loud!"

Suddenly, Taya stopped waving the board. She walked over the guy, who must have been in his mid-thirties, Primum age. The energetic-ness of before was gone, replaced with fierce determination.

"Never let anything limit you. We live in a world of youth. Raidah, our current Duxian, the one starting the Recovery after all these years? The youngest Duxian so far, she's only thirty five, twenty one in human age. So, never let anyone tell you your strength is a weakness," she said, a harsh tone edging every word.

"Now then! Shall we go?" The youthful exuberance was back and she smiled widely. "Follow me! We're going to have so much fun and be in so much pain today!" She paused, reconsidered her words, and then said: "But I mean good pain, like from working really hard and being sore when you finally accomplish what you were working for. Exercise pain. Satisfactory pain. You know?" This got several nervous nods, mainly because people were suddenly a bit scared of her.

"All right then! Follow me please!" Taya chirped. "We're headed to the gym first, for a nice all-around workout. Specialty training won't start until tomorrow." As Tyler continued calling out letters, Taya led the group to the Tower. There were approximately forty people in the group, which worried Taya slightly, but she figured that with their Abilities it would be simple to take on the humans no matter how outnumbered they were.

They arrived at the base of the tower, flooded the lobby and gathered around the base of the narrow stairwell.

"First part of training!" Taya announced. "Before we even get to the gym! Isn't that nice?" Without waiting for response, she kept talking. "Stairs! Don't worry, it's not that difficult. Up and down thirty times. Try to avoid crashing into people, always run on the right and pass on the left. When you get back to the bottom after the fifth, just run back up and head over to the Fitness Center. Everybody got that?" The group was a sea of bobbing heads as everyone confirmed that, yes, they understood.

"Oh, I'll be timing you as well, as sort of a pre-assessment so I can assess you individual skill levels," she added. "Ready? Set? Go!"

Footsteps pounded on the steps as forty of the fastest Primum on all three Islands, plus Taya, took the first steps towards the inevitable. War.

"Are we all finished?" Taya called out ten minutes later. "You two!" she hollered, pointing to a pair of out-of-breath Primum still running. "Why aren't you done yet? Everyone else finished!"

"I'm sorry," one of them managed to say between pants. "Just a few more left."

"Just a few more?"

"Yeah."

"Slow! Lazy! You should be done by now!" Taya scolded. "I will not tolerate this indolence. And did you just 'yeah' me? No! I am your commander and you should respect me. Obviously since you cannot do even that, maybe you would be a better fit in a different group?"

"Ex-excuse me, miss?" the man stuttered.

"We're terrible sorry. Won't happen again," the other added.

"It most certainly will not happen again! You are both reassigned to Group J," Taya commanded.

"Group J?" asked the first soldier. "What's that?"

With a small grin, Taya raised an eyebrow and said to him: "The backup group. The extras."

They protested, but Taya stood firm. Once she had made up her mind, there was no changing it.

"Both of you! Out! I do not want to see you in this unit ever again."

The two men hustled down the stairs, heads hanging, dejected.

"Well then," Taya said crisply to the thirty-eight remaining soldiers. "I do hope all of you will prove to be satisfactory. We have a small enough unit as it is, I hate to lose anyone but I simply can't have anyone slowing us down. Now, let's see how you'll hold up with some nice weight-lifting."

A/N Okay so I know Taya's part of the story may not be as interesting, but it's important, I promise! What did you think of this chapter? Predictions? What do you think of Taya's personality? 

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This chapter is dedicated to @CamoyPampoy for being so amazingly supportive!

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