Wolf Team

The ship rattled as I heard the disgusting sound of a skull hitting metal. I started to think of the pain that person could be experiencing, which made it even worse. I winced also holding my head as if I had hit my head. I knocked the metal above me, “You alright idiot?”
“No.” came the muffled growled of Sofia. I imagined that she was holding her head, and slowly rocking back and forth.
Then I looked to the floor to see two glow crimson eyes open looking around in the dark. Of course Sephtis had to sleep on the floor, as the beds were only meant for the maximum height of seven foot human. So he had pillows, and blankets from the two spare beds on the floor. “Sephtis you good?” I asked. He nodded to me before closing his eyes again, and the two crimson eyes faded away. The room was totally dark again, so I also shut my eyes trying to regain some lost sleep.

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I awoke to a deafening ringing. I covered my ears gritting my teeth trying to ignore the annoying sound. Then the voice of Sofia called out, “Alright we’re up!”.
The figure of Catherine stood in the doorway holding a box with the numbers 10:00 am clearly glowed in the darkness of the room. I accidentally rolled out of my bed, and onto Sephtis’ chest. A low small groan came out of a mussel and two crimson eyes looked at me, which did not portray anger but were blank. I pushed myself up to a sitting position on his furry chest, “Sorry Sephtis.” I said scratching his chest. I just got a small nod from him before he began to rise holding me. He placed me on the ground gently cracking his back. “Mind telling us why you awoke us so rudely?” I asked letting out a small yawn.
“Rudely? This is a blessing.” she chuckled, “In basic training you would woke up at five o’clock sharp, and maybe going to sleep at nine p.m. if there was no night training, which was almost everyday.”
“Well we’re usually sleeping in more.” Sofia said hopping down from the top bed cubby.
“Ha you're funny! In the army there’s no such thing as ‘sleeping in’. All it would take is the drill instructor to whisper the words ‘get up’ and we shot out of our beds!” Catherine said placing the metal box on a metal stand near the door. We all walked out of the room. Sephtis was the only one whom seemed to be alive, and not walking zombie. He had his jumpsuit off of his chest, and had it around his waist. We followed Catrine to a room where two men stood around a bed that had a ring around the middle.
“What’s that?” asked Sofia pointing at the machine. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“A body, and mind scanner of the highest sensitivity money can buy.” Catherine said as if she was presenting a product on a commercial.
“What does it have to do with us?” Sofia asked a question tugging on all of our minds.
“Well it’s a check up so see if your fit for duty. If you have some type past injury or illness that will prevent you from fighting will find it.”
I just stood stock still. The conversations fading into white noise. A image flew through my head of a bloody medical table. Nothing was on it, but I felt like there was something supposed to be there. Then the words: ‘a test gone wrong’ were said in a deep voice. I could feel myself begin to shake before a tap brought me back to reality. Sephtis’ eyes were on me, and his big hand on my shoulder. “I’m fine.” I muttered out placing my hands around me as if I was cold. (No that was long ago i-it will not happen again.) I tried to convince myself.
“Well all that going to happen is you're going to lay on the bed, and then it will scan you. The result will come, and that’s it. Nothing with nettles, or anything sharp just brain, tissue, and other types of scans nothing else. Septhis would you like to go first?” Catherine said placing her hands behind her back.
Septhis just simply nodded walking into the room. His big frame just barely made it through the door. When he entered the room the two men stepped back in fear of the beast in front of them. When he got onto the table the ring began to glow a gold before it began to spin, and move around the table going from Sephtis’ head to his feet repeating the process a couple of more times. A screen came out of the wall showing the form of Sephtis. His head was a bright blue, one of his shoulders a bright orange, and everything else a dark purple. Catherine walked into the room studying the screen. Sofia and I stayed where we were. The door shut with a hiss. Sephtis go up from the table looking at Cathrine. Catherine began to talk, but we could not hear her. She pointed to the screen hinting that the unheard conversation was about the parts that were colored differently. The same was for Sofia, but it was more in the head than anywhere. Then it came to my turn, and I swallowed hard. Walking into the room eyeing the machine.
I was able to catch the last bits of Catherine talking to Sofia, “It’s nothing big, but just don’t be getting into anymore fights, and if you do just try and protect your head.”
Sofia walked out of the room the door shutting with a hiss. I got onto the bed the ring beginning to spin bathing me in a gold light. A sweet began to form on my forehead as I tried to convince myself nothing was going to go wrong, but it wasn’t working. As the scan finished I looked at the screen seeing my head was a green. My right arm was a silver also, but the rest was purple. I looked at Catherine she too she confused a bit. So you have something wrong in your head, and metal in you arm?” Catherine said standing next to me.
“Yeah uhm... just an injury I had awhile back, and for the other a bit of schizophrenia sometimes. It does inflict with me doing things just voices that’s it. I have a very very mild case of it, so it’s not too bad.” I answered sitting up placing my hands in my lap twiddling my with my thumbs.
“Well you seem ok for the fight. Well you just need to get fitted for armor, and we shall be off to the academy for some training, and then we go on our first mission together.” Catherine said seeming unsure, “Miranda do you think they will follow my orders?”
“Hard to say… I mean Sephtis mostly likely will, but Sofia.... it may depend on the order. But you giving them a freedom from their life sentence, so they aren’t, or should not argue… most likely.” I said, “But with the academy what are we getting into?”
“Well it’s going to be exercises, and a lot of combat training. Although in the field there is a little hitch that may prove to be fun, or completely aggravating.” Catherine said rushing through the last part.
“How so?” I asked not letting it slide.
“Well basically there is a leaderboard ranking system judging the team on it mission completement rates, order followed, kills, and etceteria.” Catherine stated, “A new season of ranking will start where the board is wiped totally clean and everyone states with a score of zero. We will be in the next season, which started very shortly. Think of it as a somewhat of a uhm… job ranking. If we do good then we get interesting jobs, but if we do bad we get boring ones, but again they are still all important.”
“Hmm” I began to ponder her words, “So basically we have to compete against other teams to get better missions?”
“Basically.”
“Who is the teams we will be going ‘up against’ ?” I asked knowing this ranking will be a pain sooner, or later.
“ Zodiac, Ox, Elk, Gator, Rabbit, Ram, Hawk, Wolverine, Badger, Fox, and Demon to name a few.” Catherine said listing the teams off on her fingers.
I looked at her with an expression of ‘are you kidding me’ as my jaw hit the floor. Of course she didn’t get what I was silently saying, “Catherine, you said: ‘To name a few’.... That eleven teams how many are there?” I now knew that there was going to generally difficult to sustain a high ranking. I thought there would be like less than five teams or something.
“You have no idea, as new ones are formed almost every month or so.” Catherine said, “Technically we aren’t even a team yet soooo yeah.” She said walking out of the room. I followed her out of the room. Catherine must of given the same rundown to the others, as Catherine began to walk to another room Sephtis, and Sofia following her.
We entered a room four big thin rings with four rectangles: two top and two bottom greeted us. The scientist came up to us, and gave us black body suits for us to put on. We removed our jumpsuit from Grime Way prison replacing them with the black bodysuits. Each ring had a pair of scientists at them. “So what does this state of the art armor entail?” I asked as we took our places in each ring. Of course Catherine didn’t step into one of the rings as she already had her armor on. When we stepped into the rings the scientists had us put our feet and our hands into the rectangles. The rectangles closed around them holding us in place. The ring began to move making us parallel to the floor. Green lasers began to scan our body’s around the black suits. Then the lasers shifted to our heads. When the lasers turned off the ring flipped us back to a standing position. The metal around our hands, and feet released us. We stepped off the rings as a monitor lit up displaying three armor sets with numbers and letters on lines pointing to certain armor plates.
When the whole process was done Cathrine finally answered my question, “This armor is made from a Titanium, Platinum, and a Xenoantium alloy. While the suits you have on right now are the newest kevlar outthere. Now those suit you have on will block almost all small and very few medium arms fire such as rifles, and pistols bullets they are not bullet proof they are what we call bullet resistant. The armor will take some time to get use to so do not expect to be running miles in the suits when you first get them.” Catherine finished placing her helmet on. The helmets let out a hiss as it was placed on her head.
“But isn’t Titanium, and Platinum like super heavy or something?” Sofia asked making a good point.
“Yes it’s very heavy, but with the Xenoantigen which is the least densest, and lightest metal it makes the suit feel more like you’ll always holding twenty-five pounds on your shoulders.” Catherine responded
“But why just because you add something light to something doesn’t mean it will become lighter.” I retorted now fully interested in the suits of the UEC now more than ever.
“Xenoantium was found on the planet Scipio. Scipio’s gravity is the strongest in all of the known galaxy that has been explored.” Catherine said almost as if it was second nature, “But Xenoantium repels that strong gravity almost creating it’s own zero gravity fields. Now it does not create perfect zero gravity like in space. But it makes Scipio somewhat habitable to most species, and they don’t get crushed into bloody pulp. So you see why the armor is so light.”
I just nodded examining the black suit I had on trying to imagine what the armor look like, “Do we get to chose what type of armor we get?” I asked, “I mean like if it’s heavy, medium, or light plates on the armor.”
Catherine stopped for a minute, “I guess you could. Just talk to those scientist over there Virus.”
I did what she said walking over to the scientists looking over the monitor jotting down notes on holo pads, “Excuse me I would like to make some personal touches on the armors.” The scientists look at me before sharing a glance.

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After seven hours the ship finally landed. Sephtis and I were still in a game of chess, but didn’t get too finish. “Alright you three we have to go, follow me.”
Sofia was watching, and was the first to leave. I reluctantly shut off the board the holo pieces disappearing not leave any trace they were there. Now Sephtis may look like the big and dumb, but holy hell that acquisition was wrong. He is a really good strategist. He basically had me outnumbered three to one. Before we got off the shuttle Catherine gave us pants, and jackets that were colored a slate silver Near the right breast pocket where the letter ‘UEC’ elegantly carved on a metal rectangular tag. When Sephtis put the jacket on the sleeves ripped due to his size. Before anyone could say something he just ripped the sleeves clean off. Catherine went to say something, but just closed her mouth. When we got off the Shuttle Catherine began to give us a tour of the training facility of the UEC.
“And this is the War room.” Catherine said as we walked into a empty grey room. The room was giant. The room looked like two empty lots that were made for a five story buildings. “Before you ask it this room is designed with holographic technology, of the highest power and engineering, to simulate any environment.” As Catherine finished four people walked in. By the looks of them they were another team of the UEC. The people had on armor that was obsidian black with red highlights here or there on their armor. One of them looked like the same size as Sephtis, but was not as tall.
“Boss are these the newbie convicts the sarge was talking about?” One of the armored people said the voice was distorted and changing making gender impossible to guess. The person’s helmet was almost all visor, but had helmet plates around the chin, jaw, and back of the head. He also had blades going from the back of his head and down his spine.
“Yes they are, I’m just showing them around the facility. We have some time to kill before they are fitted with armor and we go on a test run in the Dome.” Catherine said putting her hands behind her back, “So Demon team how was the quarry run with Fox team?”
One of them looks toward Catherine before laughing under his breath. He had on a helmet that had a visor pentagon shape with a skull painted on it, and on the sides of his helmet it had two painted red horns on it. His voice had a thick Irish accent to it, “They had a good run, but they’re bloody sloppy. I think they should be put on the queue again before they be going into the field. Fox is not ready to go in the battlefield while they fight like that.”
“But you do have to say they are new.” Catherine pointed out, “And you guys are the best team in the UEC.”
“Yeah you may be right, but the enemy is going to play fair nor are they going to go easy on them.”
Catherine opened her mouth to say something, but closed it quickly. “How bad are these rebels?” I asked looking at what I supposed was the leader.
He looked at me, “They’re killing civilians, and burning worlds that don’t join their cause.” He said his Irish becoming even more stronger in his words.
Sephtis and the Demon member who was like him were basically staring each other down. “Four we got training to do.” The leader said as he walked into the grey battleground that slowly turned into a thick foggy jungle. Who suppose was Demon four walked into the jungle still throwing Sephtis a glance before he vanished into the brush.