Wolf Team

Chapter 5: Test Your New Skin

When the sun was more than halfway across the sky the tour ended as we entered a lab where the giant rings, and rectangle restraints, “Alright take the uniforms off and armor up.”

We did as we were told taking them off stepping into the rings. Instead of making us parallel to the floor it just flipped us upside down, as metal arms began to put the pieces of armor on us. I could feel the armor's weight, but also couldn’t feel it at the same time. As the machine put the armor into it’s place a combination of lock’s and heavy duty screws we put in sealing us in the armor. When the helmet was placed on my head all I saw was darkness. Then a red light lit up inside the helmet as a blue grid popped up in. We I was placed back on my feet the helmet let me finally see, and everything was tinted a shade red before other color began to fade in. When we we let go from the ring I step out feeling a bit slower then I remember. When I flex my fingers, and rolled my shoulder I could feel the armor shifting and moving. When I looked to my left I saw a hulking metal beast. It was more akin to a walking tank rather than a person. When Sephtis looked at me he put out a fist. I bumped it a small smile crossing my face. My armor was much smaller than Sofia’s, and Sephtis’. The armor had very small armor plates around the wrists, shoulders, chest, and legs. Around my joints and waist there was nothing but the sleek shiny body suit. The armor plates themselves were also sleek and were colored a midnight purple. Sephtis was a full black with white here or there, and Sofia was just a crimson. I could tell we were all still getting use to the second skin if you could call it that. “This is probably going to take sometime to get use to.” I said still continuing to shift in the armor.

“Well you can do that when we get to the Dome.” Catherine said getting her own armor placed on.
When she had all of her armor on we began to walk toward a door simply labeled: ‘The Dome’. When the door opened we saw two groups of soldiers. One group had on armor that was slightly similar to our, but obviously was not the same and the other did not have any armor to speak about. The people with the armor were going through obstacle courses while the others seemed to be talking in a gym area of sorts. The people in the Gym area had on t-shirts that had the letters ‘OD’ on them, “So are these some sort of soldiers in the UEC or something?” Sofia asked earning a look from one of them in the gym area as we pasted them.

“Yes they're apart of the Orbital Drop divison. We may do some missions like them or even with them, however no matter what they say I’m still your commanding officer and you answer to me.” Catherine said making sure the last part was stressed enough.
As we moved through the facility we were in we ended up with the armored ODs at an obstacle course. As we approached their leader or whoever his rank was he was currently chewing them out for some as they stood in a line and one of them paced back and forth in front of them yelling a bit, “When we do this I should not see anyone slowing down! Do you think the rebel terrorists are just going to stop firing at you because you're tired?!”

The soldiers that were getting chewed out simultaneously said, “NO SIR!” before the guy began to speak again one of the females in the group shouted, “Commander on deck!” The whole line saluted toward Catherine, and even the person yelling at them turned around and saluted Catherine.
“At ease.” As the words left her mouth all the soldiers there stop saluting, but still stood their like they were, “How goes everything Sargent?”

“Everything is in order just doing some routine drills. To what do I owe the pleasure of having a UEC team in my presence today?”

“They just got their armor, so they need to get a feel for it, and I was hoping you could help with that.”

The sargent put his hand to his chin, “Ah rookies hmm, yes I think I can help them.” The sergeant came in front of Sephtis, Sofia, and I seeming to be sizing us up. I was the only one shorter than he while Sofia and Sephtis were taller., “Alright run through the obstacle course together and we will see how you do.” He pressed a button on one of the walls near the obstacle course, and it began to change. He pointed toward the changing obstacle course, and we started.

We began to run across a bridge, but it fell. Sofia jumped up pulling herself up leaving Sephtis and I to fall to a lower level that was a dead end. Sephtis turned around facing me and lowered to one knee. “I throw you up.” He said in broken English. I jumped up on his shoulder as he stood up quickly and throw me. I grabbed onto the ledge pulling myself up. However when I began to pull myself up it was very difficult as I struggled to lift my bodyweight with the armor, which for some reason was heavier than normal. When I finally got myself up I looked down to see Sephtis run toward the dead end. I ran over to the other side to see him smash through the wall and moved on the lower level. I continued to see Sofia swing across a drop falling to the ground when she landed. I ran and jumped after the rope swing like she did, but when I landed I rolled past her continuing on. I slid down a sharp downward ramp slamming into Sephtis. He was getting ready to jump so me knocking into him made him fall into a hole trapping him. I reached my hand down to help him up, but with him and his armor I couldn’t even lift him an inch off the ground. He tried to lift himself out of the hole but there was no use. I looked behind me to see Sofia slide down the ramp coming over and helping me lift up Sephtis. When we finally got Sephtis up and out of the hole, Sofia and I were exhausted, but we still trudged on at a slower pace though. When we reached the end we were a dying for breath, well except Sephtis. Sofia was on the ground taking gulps of air, and I was holding my knees thinking my body was trying to die on me. I could see Sephtis was a little winded, but he far better than us.
“My body- is trying- to- die.” Sofia barely gasped out.

When the Sergeant and Catherine came over they looked at us like we were total morons, “Have have never seen a more cringe worthy run through of this course. You three left each over behind, knocked into each other causing more problems multiply times, and not to mention you three have the worst possible time. Even behind Galileo squad, which was considered the worst team in the UEC. However I have to give it to you three misfits you are damn fine at improvising.” The Sergeant said a very small smile plastered on his face.

“Catherine I just have to ask…. Are these suits always so heavy sometimes?” I asked taking off my helmet my jet black hair falling to my shoulders over one eye.
“Yes that happens time to time, like I said it creates an ‘almost’ zero gravity field. The science team in the UEC is trying to work on a solution for that.”

“What would those solutions be?” I asked my breathing slowly returning to normal.

“Well some say neural implantation from the body to the armor, other say body augmentation, and another said supercomputer based power armor. Although none have ever created a successful prototype of their ideas.” Catherine finished with a shrug of her shoulders tucking her helmet under her arm. I did the same looking toward Sephtis and Sofia. Sofia got up from the ground.

Sofia also took her helmet off which was all golden visor except for the jaw and back of the head. When I looked at Sephtis his helmet was almost all armor except for a small circle in the top right corner. “How do you even see through that helmet?” I asked only gaining a shrug from Sephtis.

“Alright time for all of us to get some rest. I need you all well rested and prepared from our mission in five days. In three we will get your armaments and gadgets for your armor, and hat will give you two days to be acquainted with them. Lights out in two hours.” Catherine said, “Our barracks are on the east side of the compound right across from the armory.”

“Did you say munitions?!” Sofia asked seeming full of energy.

“Did you say gadgets?” I squeaked out through a girly squeal.

“Yes I said both of those, but in-three-days.” Catherine said stressing the words ‘in three days’.

As Catherine and the Sergeant began to walk away Sephtis close behind them Sofia nudged me, “My first real UEC meal says Sephtis gets a shotgun.”

“My meal is on him getting an assault rifle.” I challenged shaking her hand.

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Three Days Later

Catherine awoke to knocking at her door. She got up groggily looking at the clock next to her bed reading three AM. Catherine got up walking over to the door opening it. A man stood there no older than eighteen if Catherine had to guess. The patch on his shoulder displayed his rank, “Private?” Catherine asked rubbing her eyes with one hand.

“Commander do you know your soldiers are currently at the Dome?” The kid asked.

“No I didn’t, what’s the problem?” Catherine asked worry clear in her voice, (No it can be anything serious, can it? If my teammates are making trouble I may lose my rank or worse.) Catherine thought.

“Well there’s a fight going on.” He responded calmly.

“What?! With who? How long? How’s hurt? Is anyone hurt for that matter?! What about dead? Is anyone dead, oh my god please tell me no one’s dead!?” Catherine asked one question just spawning two more in her mind. The kid tried to answer, but couldn’t come up with anything as the Catherine rushed passed him running to the Dome rushing to put her coat on as the cold wind rushed through the UEC base. She sprint to the Dome slowly beginning to hear a commotion of armor shuffling and the sound of metal hitting flesh. When she burst into the Dome a crowd circled a sparring ring where a man got thrown from the ring hitting the ground hard as he was dragged away by some of the crowd.

“Sir Stone is down it’s a six on one now what do we do?” A women said in full Orbital Drop armor. The blueish plates seeming to be dented in in several places.

“Surround him we attack as one as a unit.” A man said panting his helmet having a heavily scratched visor. The other four did what he said as a grey wolfman in the center of the forming circle his crimson eyes watching them. Sephtis snarled showing his many sharp teeth. Sephtis hit his chest roaring as if he was taunting them. He wore only the leggings and the armor around his tail. The black metal tail was very slow swishing side to side. Catherine pushed her way through the crowd till she got to the sparring ring. Then the OD soldiers rushed forward as one. Sephtis whipped his tail around hitting three of them to the canvas as he grabbed two of the three still standing smashing them together and throwing them aside as the last one standing tried to tackle Sephtis to the ground, but he didn’t move an inch as he was picked up and side slammed to the ground the canvas ring moving down and up in protest to the force put on it as Sephtis rose. The man who was side slammed grabbed his stomach and chest as he lay there on his side hitting the canvas with his boots trying to ignore the pain, but he was getting up. Sephtis grabbed his leg slamming him into another soldier who was rushing him as the two fell out of the ring.

“Three gone… Six left.” Sephtis growled coldly as he lowered to his hands and feet looking like an actual wolf as he snarled waiting for his last opponents to make a move.

“Sir Blast and Shatter are down.” The woman said raising her fists.

“Thinks he sees that Echo!” A different woman said, “Sir he- it’s a animal we should just yield we can’t beat it he has too much power.”

“Cool it Twitch, we can do this. It’s like you said he’s an animal he’s relying on feral instincts, we have strategy and wits.” The commander who by the voice he was male. Sephtis just growled as he rose to his full height cracking his knuckles as he slowly made his way toward the last three as they raised their fists taking on a defencive stances.

Twitch rolled right, whilst Echo rolled left. The commander tackled Sephtis while Echo and Twitch jumped on to his back. They punched him in an effort to bring him down, but failed. Sephtis fell back crushing Echo and Twitch. Sephtis kicked the commander off of himself. The commander went flying out of the ring colliding with a wall. He fell to the ground hard groaning. Septhis rolled over wrapping his jaw over Echo’s arm as Twitch held onto his neck. Sephtis whipped his head back throwing Echo out of the ring. Twitch flexed her hand four blue dots and a blue web farmed on her gloved hand, “Now you’ll see why they call me twitch you son of a-” Twitch cut herself off as she placed her hand on Sephtis throat. Suddenly Sephtis ignited in sparks roaring in pain. Twitch flexed her other hand also placing it on his throat intensifying the sparks,

Sephtis fell to his knees trying to throw off Twitch. He roared in pain as she tightened her grip sparks tripling as they arched off Sephtis. It also did not help that Septhis had conducive metal plates to the electricity to feed on. Sephtis fell to his hands and knees as he let out another roar of pain before collapsing, “No one could have survived that! Looks like the UEC just lost a new recruit! Jesus Christ maybe she went too far! Well good luck explaining this to the major! Oh my god that was just absolutely brutal god brutality to the max! He’s dead… He’s just dead that’s it he’s dead!” Voice began to say as Twitch let go of Sephtis smoke and some excess electricity bellowing off Sephtis’ limb form.

(Did I just lose a teammate over a stupid ass brawl!?) she thought about to get into the sparring ring when Sephtis snarled madly, fury clear in it. Just the snarl alone stopped Catherine in her tracks, along with all of the voices of the crowd.

Twitch turned around to see the form of Sephtis slowly getting up his eyes burning with an unmeasurable rage. Sephtis smashed his head into Twitch’s head smashing her helmet completely. Then he slammed his fist into her side cracking the back plates and chest plates. Sephtis then grabbed her and slammed to the the ground five times his muscles raging through the effort Twitch’s body unmoving through the punishment. Then Sephtis threw her to the ground bashing her legs from under her a loud, sharp, painful crack sounded as Twitch’s leg guards cracked falling off her legs and into the crowd. As if to add insult to injury Sephtis torn off her back plates with his teeth throwing it into the crowd along with her body. When Twitch hit the ground she let out a long strained groan. Sephtis hit his chest with each hand once roaring at the top of his lungs some blood and spit escaping his mouth falling to and staining the white canvas of the sparring ring. Miranda stepped into it raising her voice, “Alright I take all the bets that were against my good friend here and that’s the fight. Anyone else like to try?”

The crowd was silent and no challengers even attempting to think of it. For some reason a thought popped in my head, (If I act like some office girl you bosses over basically paperwork then why should they follow me? I mean they were imprisoned on charges made by authority of the UEC. I need my armor and…. What the hell brain?! I thought we were on the same side?!) I argued with myself as I began to walk through the crowd.

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“Ah I see. The UEC is not big on over challenges huh?” I said leaning on the ropes of the ring my bust being raised up a bit almost like on display, “So I just want a point in. Anyone who still believes that were just some misfits from a prison on wrongdoings I want it to stop. Just because my buddy here wiped the floor with you ‘best of the best’ soldiers you have to offer. Now no offence but I do not want an army who can’t even beat the people they imprison. Now don’t get me wrong I love being out here just collecting dollar after dollar as if some entertainer for your pleasure of being beat up. But so far I’m severely disappointed, however I do love being free and seeing people getting their butts kick without mercy. Again no offence I’m just projecting my thoughts.”

“Well you have him but what about you little spitfire? Talk is nothing compared to combat strength.” A man said from the crowd like he was proving dominance over me.

“Well well well, Young man aren’t you just the alpha type…. I despised being dominated unless someone can actually kick my ass in battle and in bed.” I sneered scanning the crowd a smile crossing my face, “I may not have a whole lot out here, well that can be debatable with my… ‘assets’ here on me, and my colleagues here. But I’m all up here.” I said seductively tapping my head with my right hand, “I cracked military, which I think it was this this military, intelligence in a couple of minutes give or take a few. I was fourteen. It was the simplest thing I’ve ever done. So you wanna push me try it see where it gets you. I will find every weakness you have external and internally and break you.”

“How about a one on one? Sephtis and I.” A familiar female voice asked in challenge.

I looked to my right to see a fully armor soldier. She it was Catherine I could tell easily, “Is it fine if you get some bruises or broken bones?” I asked chuckling darkly. The crowd looked and part allowing Catherine to walk to the ring.

“Is it fine if I break his?” She shot back.

I looked at Sephtis as his crimson eyes hardened as a small dark smile crossed his muzzle, “He can handle it, but trust me Mistress you have never faced anything like him.” I said as I stepped out of the ring as she stepped in, “Oh sweet, sweet Catherine you're going to fall.”