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“3 Days. Its just 3 Days.”
Trent thought to himself, sitting on a tree stump in the middle of nowhere, the training grounds for the northern scouting units.
It was still early in the day and he just got done setting everything up, clearing some snow and making sure the dorm room is heated.
It is not out of the ordinary that he would be here during this time of the year to train some new recruits. But this time… this time it was not some ordinary training.
High Command chose him out of all training personnel to be part of the “culture exchange program”, some thing the Warkun set up to make all their subjects know each-other better.
Trent was really not a fan of the idea of pushing some random alien creature through a shorter version of BSCT, the Basic Survival and Combat Training.
On top of that, High Command told him to take plenty of notes on the critter for some reason. Likely because they want to study them from afar.
He let out a little snort from his nose as he thought of some guy in a fancy military dress, decked out in medals sweating at the thought of maybe having a war in the future with some random aliens.
Hearing the sound of approaching helicopter blades coming slowly over the forest, he put the little notebook that he got handed into one of the pockets of his jacket and got up, hurrying over to the landing spot. He saw the large gunship fly over, doing a fly-around over the camp before setting down gently, Trent needing to shield his face as the rotors kick up a considerable amount of the fresh snow, making his canine ears flop in the wind.
Took the rotors almost a minute till they slowed down enough for Trent to pull his arm away from his face and look up again, getting his first look at the two figures that disembarked from the gunship.
“Could have told me that I need to babysit two of them.” He thought to himself as they approached, one figure small, the other large. They almost looked comical to him. Like father and son.
The small creature was barely one and a half meters tall, struggling to wade through the somewhat deep snow with his two tiny legs. The banner-like poncho it was wearing swaying softly in the wind, showing off his light brown fur underneath. Its leathery arms covered in bandages, likely to protect from the cold weather.
The large creature meanwhile almost looked like a scaled-up version of the small guy, standing at over two meters tall and taking tiny steps to keep pace with its smaller companion. Upper body clad in heavy steel plates, a piece of cloth hanging out of the front of the armour, baring the same logo as the poncho on the smaller creature.
They both came to a halt in front of Trent who took the initiative and spoke up first.
“So I like to guess that you both got active translators, right?” He asked, looking up at the larger creature, which in turn just stared down at him with its four eyes, not responding or moving.
“Yes yes, of course!” The smaller creature moved between Trent and its large companion. “Some good tech, good tech!”
This relieved at least some of the anxiety from his chest, knowing that he wont need to use his hands and feet while trying to communicate.
“I shall make this short, yes? Gotta go and do other stuff with your leader-person types in other places.” It added while pointing at the gunship.
Trent raised an eyebrow. “You are not staying here?”
The creature let out a whine-like laugh in response. “No no. I am no good at all this combat thing stuff.” Pointing a finger at the larger creature, which has not moved a millimetre since the conversation started, just slightly turning its face to face whoever is talking right now. “That’s what she is here for. Combat stuffs.”
The small creature rummaged through one of the pockets that were hung from the belt on its hips, pulling out a small metal tube and holding it up to Trent. “She be yours for the next few days, yes?”
He took the tube and took a moment to look at it. It was made of what he presumed to be aluminium or some similar metal, light in colour and decorated along the whole length with runes. The whole tube small enough to easily fit into his hand.
“This tube?” he said, looking puzzled at what the small creature meant with ‘her’.
“No no, silly. It’s her contract. With it, she be yours now. One of the finest warriors in our community, she is.”
“She be a bit stubborn sometimes but I am sure a big warrior like you wont be stopped by that, yes. Will be back in a few days and pick her up.” it added before turning around to go back to the gunship which with he arrived here.
“Hey, before you leave! Anything else I should know?” Trent exclaimed as he put the metal tube into his pocket but the small creature just waved its hand in the air as it walked away.
“No worries. She does not bite.”
And so they both watched the little creature waddle back to the gunship, engines spinning up as it entered and the whole flying metal brick leaving soon after, leaving the two alone in the camp.
Trent looked up at the large creature, which in turn looked back down at him, four eyes unblinking.
“So.. uh..” Normally he would start his whole drill routine with new recruits now but it just did not feel right. He felt somehow intimidated by the sheer statue of his newest ‘recruit’.
“Hope your trip here was alright.”
Five solid seconds of silence.
“Yes”
Trent blinked at the creature for a few seconds.
“So.. uh.. you wanna come inside for a bit and drop off your stuff or do you want to get started right away?”
“We can start now.”
“Very talkative, are we?” Trent thought to himself as he just turned around and gestured the creature to follow, making his way to the obstacle course, recruit in tow.
---
It barely took an hour for the large lady to just blaze through the obstacle course, showing off surprising amounts of dexterity while clearing over all kinds of movement challenges. The huge creature easily jumping over gaps, stones and ducking under wires at a brisk pace.
After all that, only one was remaining, the bane of many recruits, the wall.
Standing in the shadow of the 6 meter-tall slab of wooden boards with a rope attached, Trent explained “This is the final obstacle for the day, the Wall. Instructions are simple, get to the other side of it.”
He took a second to look at her study the Wall.
“And no, you cannot just walk past it.”
“Easy.” The creature said, before taking a few steps away from the Wall, taking deep breath and breaking into a full sprint towards the obstacle. All Trent could do is watch in horror as the heavy creature just elbow-tackled the Wall. The wooden construction just gave way to the sheer brunt force that was hitting it, boards cracking and turning into splinters, nails being pulled from their boards and going flying.
With a heavy grunt, the creature landed on the other side of the Wall, using her lower arms and elbows to slow her fall as she smacks into the ground, covered in wooden splinters and snow.
Trent rushed over and kneeled down next to her, watching her get up from the ground. “By the Redmane, are you alright?”
“Yes.”
Judging by her still not talking much, Trent just assumed that she was indeed fine. Taking a moment to look behind himself, seeing the hole in the Wall, he could not keep himself from just laughing. The sheer idiocy on how directly the creature solved this obstacle was getting to him.
“Something wrong?” She said, looking down at him, brushing some of the wood splinters off her upper arm. “I did like you said.”
“Nothing wrong, no. I just did not expect you to go through the wall, you know? I saw people come up with all kinds of silly plans while trying to best the Wall… but yours surely is the most direct approach.”
---
Trent decided that a little campfire would be nice idea for the first night. Grill some dinner and maybe have some chat, get to know each other.
The set up barely took any time and soon both him and the giant lady were sat next to a nice, warm fire.
“I forgot to ask you till now, but what is your name?” Trent asked, looking up at the big creature, her face just staring into the fire.
“Kai”, she said. “It says on the contract.”
“It does? I.. I am sorry. I cannot read your language.”
He took the little metal tube from his jacket and looked it at, the shiny cylinder reflecting the fire.
“So… how does this contract thing work?”
She turned over to look at him. “You hold the contract, you hold my life. I am sworn to obey.”
“So you are a slave?”
“I serve and fight. Its what I was made for.”
Trent took a moment to just look at her before looking down at the metal contract. He suddenly felt strange. While it was quite common along high ranking members of the military to have personal slaves at the place he was from, he never really thought much of the practise. And while he had the authority over his recruits during their rigorous training, he never had someone’s entire existence in his hands like this before.
“Besides fighting, is there anything you enjoy doing? Or any dreams in life?”, he asked, looking back up at her, realizing she has been staring at him the whole time.
“No”
“… No?”
She looked over at the fire, watching for a few seconds before speaking up again.
“This is my purpose. I fight.”
Trent did not know what to say, the concept was just too strange to him.
But before he could even speak up she turned over and looked at him again.
“You are a warrior too. Were you not made to fight?”
Her sudden more talkative nature took Trent by surprise. This has to be the first question she asked him all day… and then its immediately such a complicated one.
It took him a moment to think, looking down at contract before looking into the fire.
“I-I do not think that I was made to fight. I was born and raised by a family.. just happens to be that my old man was in the military, so I joined them too.”
He scratched his head.
“Dunno what I will do after my current job.. never really thought about this kinda stuff before.”
Turning over to look at her again, he saw that she was staring at him again, not saying a thing.
“For now I think we should get some food, don’t you think?” He added jokingly before pulling his backpack closer and opening the lid.
“What are you going to have for dinner?”
She just kept looking at him for a second before getting up from her little tree stump she was sat on, walking the few steps to the next best tree.
“This”, she just said before digging her claws into the tree with one quick jab, ripping off a piece of bark from the side of the trunk before just shoving it into her mouth, happily crunching away.
Trent just watched. He did neither expect nor comprehend what just transpired in front of him.
“Well… have a good meal, I guess…”
---
After frying up some cardboard-like bacon from a can and having that for dinner, Trent declared day one to be over.
He still could not get over the fact that the lady.. Kai just munched half the bark of a nearby tree, she did not even want any of his bacon, despite being offered some.
The fire was extinguished and Kai was shown her sleeping quarters in one of the wooden huts in the camp. Wishing her a good night, he left her to her own devices as he went into his own hut.
Relieving himself of his jacket and heavy boots, he slumped down into his chair, remembering to bring the little logbook with him.
“Day one..” he wrote down, recollecting his thoughts of the day
---
DAY TWO
Trent never really had issues waking up early, and today was no different. He spent a few minutes watching the sky slowly turn orange as he sipped his morning tea. He was somewhat excited for today as it was one of his personal favourites: target shooting.
After finishing his tea, he got himself ready, getting dressed as well as unlocking the locker of the little armoury he had in his cabin.
Taking out two rifles and a box of ammunition, he stopped himself, looking down at the grip of the gun and thinking about his recruit.
“There is just no way she can use this.. but didn’t we have one of..”
And just as he thought about it, he found it. A full-sized high-calibre anti-armour rifle, fitted to be used by heavy exoskeleton crews, meaning good chances of her actually being able to hold it properly.
With a grin, he pulled the weapon from its shelf and dusted it off, thinking about how this was sent to him as a tool for training heavy Rook exo soldiers… which never happened, quite to his dismay.
“Finally a chance to use this heavy piece of shit.”
---
Not much later, he knocked on the door of Kai’s cabin before opening the door.
There she just sat on the floor, in the middle of the room.
“Good morning?”, he asked, raising an eyebrow at the sight before him.
“Hello. I was meditating.”
“Meditating?”
“Strong body, strong mind. Both needed by a good warrior.”
“I.. I see… you ready for today?”
Not even saying anything, she stood up and just walked up to Trent and stopping right in front of him.
Trent in turn feeling rather small, the large creature looming over him like that. Took him a second to snap out of it before he stepped outside, pointing at the long, heavy rifle that laid pinned against the side of the cabin.
“This is your rifle for the day” He said, watching her pick it up and curiously inspect it
“Also be careful with it, it’s delicate equipment.”
Packing up all their stuff, both of them moved over to the shooting range, trotting through deep snow before arriving at the side of a small hill after a few minutes of walking.
It was a perfect day for a bit of shooting. While it was freezlingly cold, there was no wind and the sun was shining, casting its first few rays over the tree tops.
Trent helped Kai with the initial set up of her rifle, showing her how to load cartridges into the magazine and how to load said magazine into the weapon.
He also went over the basics of how the sights work and how to properly hold and go prone with the rifle.
Then he kneeled down next to her as she went prone, rifle in front of her, stock against her shoulder, following his instructions.
He caught himself getting used to Kai not answering him at all while he instructed her on the rifle operations. Not like he needed her to do that, she followed all instructions perfectly to the dot.
“You see the 5 targets over there? We shall start with the first one to the left. Line up the sights like I showed you and fire when ready.”
Trent turned to look at the first target, a wooden stump with a paper target stapled to it, around 150 meters away from them.
BLAM.
He flinched as the rifle fired, the thunderous bang echoing through the surrounding woodlands as a crater forms in the snow, left behind the designated target.
A shell ejecting from the large rifle and landing next to him in the snow.
“Looks like you missed your mark. But don’t worry about it. Just take a deep breath and try again.”
Kai took a second before looking up at him. “Can I try something?”
“What do you want to try?”
In response, she just got up, getting down on one knee and gripping the rifle by its carrying handle, getting ready to fire from the hip.
“The sight does not work with my eyes.”
Trent let out a little snort of amusement. “And you think you can hit better this way? Sure, suit yourself.” He said jokingly.
But she just took a deep breath again, her eyes focusing into slits before softly squeezing the trigger of the rifle
BLAM.
Trent did not even have time to turn and face the targets before she fired, but when he did his jaw dropped.
There it was. The designated tree stump, on its side, top half blown to pieces.
“See?” She just said.
“Beginners luck! Try the others too, if you feel so confident.”
She took aim again. This time Trent actually turned to keep his eyes on the targets.
BLAM.
BLAM.
BLAM.
BLAM.
He watched in awe as one stump after the other was turned into wood chips.
A click followed, the magazine of the rifle was empty.
“How… What...”
Trent could not even get the words out. While shooting unmoving targets from 150 meters away with a long rifle was hardly an amazing display of marksmanship, doing it while firing from the hip sure was something out of the ordinary.
“We have similar weapons at home.”
She took one of the spent casings in the snow, pulled it up to her muzzle and gave it a sniff.
“Small chemical explosion inside this shell causes a metal piece to be accelerated down the length of the weapon, guided by the hollow metal rod, yes?”
“Uh.. correct…”
He was baffled. His impressions from the first day they spent together was that she was quite daft… but it seemed like he was mistaken and maybe she was hiding something?
“I.. uh.. how do you know all that?”
“Some clans use weapons like these. Very similar designs. I do not think much of such weapons though. I want the glory of close combat.”
“Close combat?”
“There is not much joy in pressing a button to win combat, is there?”
“If you don’t think much about them, how come you are so damned good at shooting?”
“Did not say that I did not have training with them, did I?”
Trent could not do much but laugh. This was just too strange for him.
This character which he thought was just a daft brute now suddenly being like this.
“You surely keep surprising me, Kai”
---
They both continued with their exercises, firing more shots, going through basic tactics as well as weapon cleaning and maintenance. Kai passed through all of it with flying colours, further cementing the idea that she is actually a lot smarter than Trent first thought she was.
After all was done and he felt like they covered everything, Trent decided that it would be a neat idea to have lunch outside, taking his little gas stove from his backpack.
Kai watched and munched some more tree bark as well as random pebbles from the ground. Trent did not even bother trying to make sense of her eating habits anymore.
Putting some of his cooked stew into a small metal dish, he sat down in the snow and took a few bites using his spoon before looking up at the big lady.
“Your contract… What kind of stuff does it actually encompass?”
She just turned to face him, not even bothering to stop chewing, some wood chips escaping from her mouth. “What do you mean?”
“Like, are there any limits to what you could be ordered to do?”
“No. I serve and protect.”
“So I could tell you to do anything?”
“Within reason, yes.”
A little snort escaped from Trent as he suppressed a giggle. His brain just going wild with stupid ideas.
He took a moment to try and wave those thoughts but then the little voice in the back of his brain brought up how this is a once in a lifetime choice to ask stupid questions.
But he shook his head, denying such thoughts to manifest.
Leaning back, he opened his mouth.
“What about lewd stuff?”
He gasped but it was already to late, the thought already formed into words and escaped from his mouth.
The big lady just froze for a second, stopping her onslaught on her pieces of wood to look down at Trent, who in turn felt himself become even more small compared to her than before.
“What?”
“S-sorry! I just..”
“Care to find out?”
Trent’s brain just completely shut down then and there. His otherwise cool mind completely destroyed, his speech just turned into stammering and weird gasping, not knowing what to say.
Kai in turn just stood up and looked down at him, towering over the trembling mess of a man.
“Are you in dying?”
“No, no! I.. just..” he took a deep breath before looking up at her, finding her just staring down at him, unable to read her blank facial expression. “You are joking, right?”
She in turn just snort escape from her nose, mouth forming into something akin to a grin, pointy teeth showing.
“Pervert.”
That is all the lady said before she just turned around to grab some more random garbage to eat from a tree nearby.
Trent just sat there, mouth open.
Did the lady just make a joke? Did he miss out on his chance to be the first Xan in history to bang some four-eyed alien chick? Would he even want that?
Snapping back from his train of thought, he noticed that his stew has gotten cold. It did not really bother him much since it tasted kind of terrible anyways.
What did bother him though is that the temperatures seemed to drop more and more over the course of the day, meaning that it would likely get rather uncomfortable later in the evening.
“Hey Kai! We should pack up for today. I think the weather is going to worsen soon.” he said, pouring the rest of the stew out and cleaning the bowl with a rag before putting everything into his backpack.
The lady in turn just returned to Trent and put all of her things into her bags before lifting up the heavy rifle and shouldering it.
Trent looked at her and nodded.
“Let’s go!”
---
While the trek back to the cabins was not too long, the weather surely worsened on their way back. Heavy wind blowing over them as more and more snow started falling from the sky.
Both Trent and Kai just hurrying to the main cabin of the camp, rushing inside and closing the door behind them.
“Fucking hate the weather here!” Trent exclaimed as he brushed some snow off his shoulders, taking off his damp jacket, shivering a little. While he was covered in fur, most of it has gotten wet and the cabin was still cold.
Grabbing some of the wood from the pile in the room, he moved over and threw it into the oven in the corner, using a lighter to start it up.
Kai was just quietly removing her metal chest plate and putting it to the side, brushing some snow out of her head fluff.
Now wearing nothing on her top, she just walked over to Trent and watched him make a fire in the oven, waiting for him to be done before grabbing him from behind and lifting him up with her strong arms.
He just let out a surprised yelp, wiggling, trying to escape from the grab.
“What are you doing?!”
Without saying anything, she pulled his shirt off rolled him into a blanket which she grabbed from a nearby bunk bed, finally pulling his boots and pants off once he was all rolled up.
Now that he resembled more one of those veggie-wraps from those terrible military rations rather than a Xan military instructor, she lifted him up again and laid him down in one of the bunks.
While Trent was trying to fight her during the whole procedure, but he might as well tried to punch the outer city walls from his home town. The lady did not budge.
Trying to wiggle free from his blanket prison, Trent just found the big lady laying down next to him, her arm wrapping around him, pressing his back close to her chest.
“W-what are you doing?”
“You are freezing.”
“I don’t need to be treated like a child!”
“I will protect you.”
Her arm squeezed him slightly tighter, feeling more like a concrete divider, wrapped in leather, rather than a creature’s arm. Warmth slowly creeping up his back as her chest was pressed against him, the bottom of her muzzle resting against the top of his head.
While the sudden behaviour was weird and not really welcomed, Trent had to admit that it was a rather comfortable position that he now found himself him, despite it involving being spooned by a huge alien lady.
Unable to move much, Trent just accepted his fate and closed his eyes.
He laid there for a few minutes before he spoke up.
“So.. What is it like at your place?”
“My place?”
“You know? Your home and stuff. Place where you live.”
“Underground, deep in a mountain. Rooms carved into the rock itself.”
“You live underground? Like.. all the time?”
“Sometimes we go out for expeditions. But most of the time we are in the mountain, yes.”
“Interesting…”
Trent’s mind filled with visions of underground tunnels, filled with four-eyed aliens both big and small. He thought of how they might live their daily lives, what they think about.
As he laid there, imagining things, he slowly slipped into dreamland, passing out, hugged by the big lady.
---
DAY THREE
Trent woke up to some commotion in his room. Slowly blinking awake, his eyes adjusting to the light, he saw the big lady moving around. She was doing some form of shadow boxing in the middle of the room, her heavy armour rattling as she fights an invisible opponent.
Kai stopped as she saw Trent blinking at her.
“Apologies if I woke you up.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Trent rubbed his eyes as he sat up at the edge of the bed. “How long have I been out for? How late is it?”
The lady just tilted her head “The sun rose quite a while ago.”
Trent stretched before realizing that he was still naked under the blanket which was still covering the lower half of his body.
“What did you do with my clothes?”
“I ate them.”
“… What?”
Letting out a snort, Kai walked over to the stove in the corner of the room, where she hung Trent’s clothes up over a chair.
She picked the clothes off the furniture and tossed them over to Trent.
“They were wet so I let them dry while you slept.”
“Thanks...”, Trent said in reply before slipping into his shirt, enjoying the warmed-up fabric.
He took a moment to reflect on the interaction that just transpired. Was she making a joke? The more time he spent with her, the more of an enigma she became to him.
As he slowly slipped back into his clothing, the lady suddenly stopped, her four ears perking up. Eyes turning into slits as she was straining her ears.
Trent just looked her odd behaviour for a moment before trying to say something “Wha-”
“Quiet. Movement. Outside.” The lady did not even let him finish. She looked over at Trent “Are your friends back to collect me again?”
“Would be a bit early for that...” He shook his head before walking over the the window to take a look outside. By now he could also hear the noise outside. The sounds of a vehicle approaching, tires compressing snow, engine whirring. “They said they won’t be back before dawn.. oh..”
Looking outside, he saw the source of the noise.
An up-armoured van rolled into the training area and came to a stop in the middle of it, the vehicle bearing the mark of one of the known local raider gangs.
The doors of the vehicle popped open and 5 figures jumped out, all Xan, wearing all kinds of randomly assorted gear and weapons.
Trent took a step to the side, away from the window as to not get seen.
“Scavengers.” He said to himself.
“Who are these people?” The lady asked in response.
“They roam around, mostly looking for scrap to sell.” Trent thought to himself for a second before continuing. “They must be thinking that nobody is here and are looking for some stuff to steal. Or they are here to take us hostage or something.”
“We have people like these too, trouble makers. Stealing from traders. No honour.”
Trent was not really interested in lore right now and just continued. “They are armed and likely won’t be too welcoming about us being here.. We somehow need to call for help.”
“Do not worry about it. I will protect you.”
And with those words, the lady just got up and stormed out the door. Trent could not even speak up to stop her, not expecting Kai to just leave at such speed.
Trent swiftly slipped into the rest of his clothing, slipping into his boots and grabbing his rifle. He left his jacket behind to save time as he also stormed out the building.
He could hear some shouting and shots being fired as he quickly followed the large footsteps around the building and stopping at the corner.
His imagination wasted no time showing him grim scenes of the big lady being ruthlessly murdered by the intruders.
He took a deep breath, shook his head before pulling the cocking handle of his rifle back, a bullet sliding into the chamber of his rifle with a satisfying clicking sound.
“How will I explain this to High Command if she dies to some fucking scavs?” he thought to himself for a moment before shouldering his rifle and rounding the corner. He started looking for targets through the sights of his rifle, but instead of a Xan scavenger group beating up the Viskal lady, he just found four bodies on the floor with the lady standing in the middle. The last raider was standing a few meters in front of her, terrified, fumbling to grab his sidearm as Kai stood there, staring him down.
The raider noticed Trent and started shouting. “No! Get away or the monster will kill you too!”
Then the guy pulled his pistol up from his holster and fired 5 shots in quick succession. Two went wide, completely missing the lady, one hit her chest armour, which gave off a metallic clank in response. The last two bullets fired ended up hitting her lower left arm, which the lady used to shield her face.
Then there was just silence for a few seconds, Kai just slowly lowering her arm and staring down the scavenger.
“My turn now.” She just said before lurching forward.
The scavenger did not even have time to react. Or maybe he was just too afraid to act as the lady pulled her whole weight into an uppercut with her right arm, fist connecting dead-center with the raider’s chest.
The scavenger flew backwards a meter before landing on his back in the snow. A plume of the dusty snow was thrown up as he slammed into it. His arms and legs flailing and twitching for a few moments before his body just stopped moving.
Trent just lowered his weapon and slowly approached the scene, looking at the other bodies on the ground.
A display of broken bodies. Some had their arms twisted to the point of their bones breaking, others were rended, the lady’s sharp claws ripping through fabric, fur and flesh. The snow stained red around the bodies from the carnage.
The scene brought him back to his service back during the Troubles back on Vakiss. Separatists would often leave behind scenes like these after a raid. Though they were never just alone or unarmed, unlike Kai was.
“By the Redmane, what have you done?” Trent said he turned over to Kai, slightly horrified.
“I protected you.” she just said in response, unmoved. Her chest plate was dented slightly from the impacts of various bullets. A few drops of red blood fell from her claws as she just stood there. “Terrible fighters. They were also not made for fighting.”
“What?” Trent just said as he walked up to the big lady, genuinely confused at the question.
“They were weak, crumpled like bad craftsmanship.”
Trent was at a loss for words. The lady just obliterated 5 people in record time while being unarmed, and all she has to say is that she did not feel challenged by it.
He walked over and leaned down to examine the fifth body on the ground, the guy’s chest was completely sunk in, imploded as the lady smashed his ribcage with a single blow. His face was twisted into grimace, some blood flowing from his mouth.
Kai approached Trent from behind and stared down at him, blocking out the sun. “You will get cold again without your jacket.”
Trent just turned and looked up at her, the sun illuminating her outline. He did not know how to feel nor did he want to deal with this situation right now.
He just got up and approached the armoured van, keeping his gun ready as he opened the various doors, unsure if there might be a surprise hidden somewhere.
But no, the back of the vehicle was completely empty and so was the crew compartment.
He leaned into the driver’s door and turned the engine of the vehicle off and put the keys into his pocket.
The lady still stood in the middle of the carnage, using some snow to clean her hands off.
Trent just approached her, which made her stop her cleaning efforts and stare at him again.
“Let’s go back inside, shall we?” He said before walking towards the hut.
The lady just followed him.
He took another look at the carnage. Thinking about how he really cannot be bothered to deal with this now.
“Gotta get the lady fixed up, and see if we have enough time for this later.” he thought to himself as he walked back towards the hut.
---
“Doesn’t this hurt?” Trent said as he dug around in Kai’s arm, using tweezers to try and pull the bullets from her lower arm, some of her teal-ish blood dripping from the wound. “You sure you don’t want some sort of painkillers or something?”
The lady in turn did barely move or twitch, sitting opposite of Trent as she rested her arm on the table, letting the Xan work.
“It is nothing.”
Trent twisted his tweezers a little, which caused the lady to grit her teeth somewhat.
“If you say so…”
It was mean to be like this, but he just had to see if she has any pain response. To Trent’s surprise, the lady was apparently just trying to play tough.
Did not take long for Trent to remove the lead from Kai’s arm, and one bandage later, he deemed her “good as new”.
---
The rest of the day was rather unspectacular as most of it was just spent preparing everything for the lady’s departure.
Trent and her spent some time clearing the landing pad from the newly fallen snow and because they had some time left to kill, it was decided that they should also clear the mess that the lady left behind when she fought those raiders.
They lined the bodies up and covered them in blankets, preparing them for clean-up crew to just be picked up and taken away.
“What are you going to do with them?” said Kai as she dropped the last body onto a blanket with a thud.
“What do you mean? The guys are likely just going to bury them or maybe incinerate them… I actually don’t know exactly.”
“Are you not using them for something useful?”
Trent stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. “What?”
“We use our fallen for useful things. Would be a waste to just put them into a hole and let them rot.”
“Useful things like..?”
“Fertilizer, leather, tools, coal. We also inscribe skulls with the deeds of the fallen. Create a memory of their life.”
She paused for a moment and looked down at the line of bodies before looking back at Trent. “Nobody will remember them.”
“Guess so…”
Silence hung in the air for a few moments as Trent’s thoughts wandered off. Thinking about how the lady was kinda right. The bodies lying in front of him all likely had friends and family…
Friends and family that would never know what happened to them, wondering forever where their loved ones went.
“Guess that is just how things go when you jump a fence that has a big sign on it that says ‘trespassers will be shot’.” Trent mumbled to himself before turning over to Kai again.
She was just finishing up with wrapping the last body.
“That is all of them.”
And as if timed, the noise of familiar engines could be heard approaching over the tops of the tree line.
Just like a few days ago, the heavy gunship rounded the area once before landing on the concrete landing pad.
Trent and Kai headed over to the heavy machine, waiting for the rotors to slow down as to not kick up too much snow into their faces.
The side door opened and the familiar small figure stepped out and headed over to meet up with Trent. He waddled through the snow, stopping right in front of the Xan.
“I hope she did not cause too much trouble, yes?”
“Kai? No, not at all. She behaved nicely.”
“Ah, she told you her name? She must have been talkative. Once she starts, she never stops.”
Trent just raised an eyebrow as the small guy reached his hand out, staring up at the Xan.
“Speaking of.. The contract, yes?”
“Ah, yes.” Trent reached into his pocket and retrieved the shiny tube and handed it over.
The tiny Viskal inspected the tube before putting it into his pocket. “If you excuse me for a moment, I want to talk to her in private.”
And with that, the small Viskal and the big lady stepped away.
Trent’s attention was caught by something else though as a Rook powered-armour exited the dropship, distinctive blue camo paint job shining in the sun, making the Rook instantly recognizable.
“Captain Jamison!” Trent shouted out as he jumped into a salute. He was a little shocked to see the highest ranking Rook out here at this time.
“At ease, soldier.” The captain just said as he came closer, stopping in front of Trent. “I am not here on a mission.”
Trent relaxed a little but still felt uneasy. “What brings you here, captain?”
“I wanted to oversee parts of this exchange programme myself and learn about our new potential allies.”
“Allies, sir? I thought this was just some thing the Warkun set up for us.”
“Yes, sergeant. Allies. You see, the small guy is a very wealthy and powerful man. High Command sees great potential in opening up trade with them.”
He paused for a moment and leaned to the side a little, looking past Trent and pointing at the armoured van which was still parked between the barrack huts.
“Oh, by the way. Can you explain me why you have a raider vehicle stationed in the middle of the compound?”
“We were attacked by a small group of them earlier but the Viskal dealt with them, sir.”
“Dealt with them?”
“Yes, sir. She just ran up to them and ripped them apart.”
Jamison turned to look at the two Viskal, which were still a bit away and discussing something.
“Fascinating.”
Then he just turned back to face Trent. “I shall delay our leave until tomorrow as it will likely take this long for a clean-up crew to arrive.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I also expect your report on the exchange programme on my desk later.”
And with that, the captain turned around and left for the barracks, heavy metal boots stomping through the snow.
While Trent was upset about spending another day in this shitty camp, his mind was more thinking about the talks of trade that the Captain mentioned.
Not even the fact that he will have to explain his failure to actually write down a journal later could distract him.
“Trade, eh? I wonder if I could get myself a big lady like that” he thought to himself as he watched the two Viskal talk.
-----------------------------------------
“3 Days. Its just 3 Days.”
Trent thought to himself, sitting on a tree stump in the middle of nowhere, the training grounds for the northern scouting units.
It was still early in the day and he just got done setting everything up, clearing some snow and making sure the dorm room is heated.
It is not out of the ordinary that he would be here during this time of the year to train some new recruits. But this time… this time it was not some ordinary training.
High Command chose him out of all training personnel to be part of the “culture exchange program”, some thing the Warkun set up to make all their subjects know each-other better.
Trent was really not a fan of the idea of pushing some random alien creature through a shorter version of BSCT, the Basic Survival and Combat Training.
On top of that, High Command told him to take plenty of notes on the critter for some reason. Likely because they want to study them from afar.
He let out a little snort from his nose as he thought of some guy in a fancy military dress, decked out in medals sweating at the thought of maybe having a war in the future with some random aliens.
Hearing the sound of approaching helicopter blades coming slowly over the forest, he put the little notebook that he got handed into one of the pockets of his jacket and got up, hurrying over to the landing spot. He saw the large gunship fly over, doing a fly-around over the camp before setting down gently, Trent needing to shield his face as the rotors kick up a considerable amount of the fresh snow, making his canine ears flop in the wind.
Took the rotors almost a minute till they slowed down enough for Trent to pull his arm away from his face and look up again, getting his first look at the two figures that disembarked from the gunship.
“Could have told me that I need to babysit two of them.” He thought to himself as they approached, one figure small, the other large. They almost looked comical to him. Like father and son.
The small creature was barely one and a half meters tall, struggling to wade through the somewhat deep snow with his two tiny legs. The banner-like poncho it was wearing swaying softly in the wind, showing off his light brown fur underneath. Its leathery arms covered in bandages, likely to protect from the cold weather.
The large creature meanwhile almost looked like a scaled-up version of the small guy, standing at over two meters tall and taking tiny steps to keep pace with its smaller companion. Upper body clad in heavy steel plates, a piece of cloth hanging out of the front of the armour, baring the same logo as the poncho on the smaller creature.
They both came to a halt in front of Trent who took the initiative and spoke up first.
“So I like to guess that you both got active translators, right?” He asked, looking up at the larger creature, which in turn just stared down at him with its four eyes, not responding or moving.
“Yes yes, of course!” The smaller creature moved between Trent and its large companion. “Some good tech, good tech!”
This relieved at least some of the anxiety from his chest, knowing that he wont need to use his hands and feet while trying to communicate.
“I shall make this short, yes? Gotta go and do other stuff with your leader-person types in other places.” It added while pointing at the gunship.
Trent raised an eyebrow. “You are not staying here?”
The creature let out a whine-like laugh in response. “No no. I am no good at all this combat thing stuff.” Pointing a finger at the larger creature, which has not moved a millimetre since the conversation started, just slightly turning its face to face whoever is talking right now. “That’s what she is here for. Combat stuffs.”
The small creature rummaged through one of the pockets that were hung from the belt on its hips, pulling out a small metal tube and holding it up to Trent. “She be yours for the next few days, yes?”
He took the tube and took a moment to look at it. It was made of what he presumed to be aluminium or some similar metal, light in colour and decorated along the whole length with runes. The whole tube small enough to easily fit into his hand.
“This tube?” he said, looking puzzled at what the small creature meant with ‘her’.
“No no, silly. It’s her contract. With it, she be yours now. One of the finest warriors in our community, she is.”
“She be a bit stubborn sometimes but I am sure a big warrior like you wont be stopped by that, yes. Will be back in a few days and pick her up.” it added before turning around to go back to the gunship which with he arrived here.
“Hey, before you leave! Anything else I should know?” Trent exclaimed as he put the metal tube into his pocket but the small creature just waved its hand in the air as it walked away.
“No worries. She does not bite.”
And so they both watched the little creature waddle back to the gunship, engines spinning up as it entered and the whole flying metal brick leaving soon after, leaving the two alone in the camp.
Trent looked up at the large creature, which in turn looked back down at him, four eyes unblinking.
“So.. uh..” Normally he would start his whole drill routine with new recruits now but it just did not feel right. He felt somehow intimidated by the sheer statue of his newest ‘recruit’.
“Hope your trip here was alright.”
Five solid seconds of silence.
“Yes”
Trent blinked at the creature for a few seconds.
“So.. uh.. you wanna come inside for a bit and drop off your stuff or do you want to get started right away?”
“We can start now.”
“Very talkative, are we?” Trent thought to himself as he just turned around and gestured the creature to follow, making his way to the obstacle course, recruit in tow.
---
It barely took an hour for the large lady to just blaze through the obstacle course, showing off surprising amounts of dexterity while clearing over all kinds of movement challenges. The huge creature easily jumping over gaps, stones and ducking under wires at a brisk pace.
After all that, only one was remaining, the bane of many recruits, the wall.
Standing in the shadow of the 6 meter-tall slab of wooden boards with a rope attached, Trent explained “This is the final obstacle for the day, the Wall. Instructions are simple, get to the other side of it.”
He took a second to look at her study the Wall.
“And no, you cannot just walk past it.”
“Easy.” The creature said, before taking a few steps away from the Wall, taking deep breath and breaking into a full sprint towards the obstacle. All Trent could do is watch in horror as the heavy creature just elbow-tackled the Wall. The wooden construction just gave way to the sheer brunt force that was hitting it, boards cracking and turning into splinters, nails being pulled from their boards and going flying.
With a heavy grunt, the creature landed on the other side of the Wall, using her lower arms and elbows to slow her fall as she smacks into the ground, covered in wooden splinters and snow.
Trent rushed over and kneeled down next to her, watching her get up from the ground. “By the Redmane, are you alright?”
“Yes.”
Judging by her still not talking much, Trent just assumed that she was indeed fine. Taking a moment to look behind himself, seeing the hole in the Wall, he could not keep himself from just laughing. The sheer idiocy on how directly the creature solved this obstacle was getting to him.
“Something wrong?” She said, looking down at him, brushing some of the wood splinters off her upper arm. “I did like you said.”
“Nothing wrong, no. I just did not expect you to go through the wall, you know? I saw people come up with all kinds of silly plans while trying to best the Wall… but yours surely is the most direct approach.”
---
Trent decided that a little campfire would be nice idea for the first night. Grill some dinner and maybe have some chat, get to know each other.
The set up barely took any time and soon both him and the giant lady were sat next to a nice, warm fire.
“I forgot to ask you till now, but what is your name?” Trent asked, looking up at the big creature, her face just staring into the fire.
“Kai”, she said. “It says on the contract.”
“It does? I.. I am sorry. I cannot read your language.”
He took the little metal tube from his jacket and looked it at, the shiny cylinder reflecting the fire.
“So… how does this contract thing work?”
She turned over to look at him. “You hold the contract, you hold my life. I am sworn to obey.”
“So you are a slave?”
“I serve and fight. Its what I was made for.”
Trent took a moment to just look at her before looking down at the metal contract. He suddenly felt strange. While it was quite common along high ranking members of the military to have personal slaves at the place he was from, he never really thought much of the practise. And while he had the authority over his recruits during their rigorous training, he never had someone’s entire existence in his hands like this before.
“Besides fighting, is there anything you enjoy doing? Or any dreams in life?”, he asked, looking back up at her, realizing she has been staring at him the whole time.
“No”
“… No?”
She looked over at the fire, watching for a few seconds before speaking up again.
“This is my purpose. I fight.”
Trent did not know what to say, the concept was just too strange to him.
But before he could even speak up she turned over and looked at him again.
“You are a warrior too. Were you not made to fight?”
Her sudden more talkative nature took Trent by surprise. This has to be the first question she asked him all day… and then its immediately such a complicated one.
It took him a moment to think, looking down at contract before looking into the fire.
“I-I do not think that I was made to fight. I was born and raised by a family.. just happens to be that my old man was in the military, so I joined them too.”
He scratched his head.
“Dunno what I will do after my current job.. never really thought about this kinda stuff before.”
Turning over to look at her again, he saw that she was staring at him again, not saying a thing.
“For now I think we should get some food, don’t you think?” He added jokingly before pulling his backpack closer and opening the lid.
“What are you going to have for dinner?”
She just kept looking at him for a second before getting up from her little tree stump she was sat on, walking the few steps to the next best tree.
“This”, she just said before digging her claws into the tree with one quick jab, ripping off a piece of bark from the side of the trunk before just shoving it into her mouth, happily crunching away.
Trent just watched. He did neither expect nor comprehend what just transpired in front of him.
“Well… have a good meal, I guess…”
---
After frying up some cardboard-like bacon from a can and having that for dinner, Trent declared day one to be over.
He still could not get over the fact that the lady.. Kai just munched half the bark of a nearby tree, she did not even want any of his bacon, despite being offered some.
The fire was extinguished and Kai was shown her sleeping quarters in one of the wooden huts in the camp. Wishing her a good night, he left her to her own devices as he went into his own hut.
Relieving himself of his jacket and heavy boots, he slumped down into his chair, remembering to bring the little logbook with him.
“Day one..” he wrote down, recollecting his thoughts of the day
---
DAY TWO
Trent never really had issues waking up early, and today was no different. He spent a few minutes watching the sky slowly turn orange as he sipped his morning tea. He was somewhat excited for today as it was one of his personal favourites: target shooting.
After finishing his tea, he got himself ready, getting dressed as well as unlocking the locker of the little armoury he had in his cabin.
Taking out two rifles and a box of ammunition, he stopped himself, looking down at the grip of the gun and thinking about his recruit.
“There is just no way she can use this.. but didn’t we have one of..”
And just as he thought about it, he found it. A full-sized high-calibre anti-armour rifle, fitted to be used by heavy exoskeleton crews, meaning good chances of her actually being able to hold it properly.
With a grin, he pulled the weapon from its shelf and dusted it off, thinking about how this was sent to him as a tool for training heavy Rook exo soldiers… which never happened, quite to his dismay.
“Finally a chance to use this heavy piece of shit.”
---
Not much later, he knocked on the door of Kai’s cabin before opening the door.
There she just sat on the floor, in the middle of the room.
“Good morning?”, he asked, raising an eyebrow at the sight before him.
“Hello. I was meditating.”
“Meditating?”
“Strong body, strong mind. Both needed by a good warrior.”
“I.. I see… you ready for today?”
Not even saying anything, she stood up and just walked up to Trent and stopping right in front of him.
Trent in turn feeling rather small, the large creature looming over him like that. Took him a second to snap out of it before he stepped outside, pointing at the long, heavy rifle that laid pinned against the side of the cabin.
“This is your rifle for the day” He said, watching her pick it up and curiously inspect it
“Also be careful with it, it’s delicate equipment.”
Packing up all their stuff, both of them moved over to the shooting range, trotting through deep snow before arriving at the side of a small hill after a few minutes of walking.
It was a perfect day for a bit of shooting. While it was freezlingly cold, there was no wind and the sun was shining, casting its first few rays over the tree tops.
Trent helped Kai with the initial set up of her rifle, showing her how to load cartridges into the magazine and how to load said magazine into the weapon.
He also went over the basics of how the sights work and how to properly hold and go prone with the rifle.
Then he kneeled down next to her as she went prone, rifle in front of her, stock against her shoulder, following his instructions.
He caught himself getting used to Kai not answering him at all while he instructed her on the rifle operations. Not like he needed her to do that, she followed all instructions perfectly to the dot.
“You see the 5 targets over there? We shall start with the first one to the left. Line up the sights like I showed you and fire when ready.”
Trent turned to look at the first target, a wooden stump with a paper target stapled to it, around 150 meters away from them.
BLAM.
He flinched as the rifle fired, the thunderous bang echoing through the surrounding woodlands as a crater forms in the snow, left behind the designated target.
A shell ejecting from the large rifle and landing next to him in the snow.
“Looks like you missed your mark. But don’t worry about it. Just take a deep breath and try again.”
Kai took a second before looking up at him. “Can I try something?”
“What do you want to try?”
In response, she just got up, getting down on one knee and gripping the rifle by its carrying handle, getting ready to fire from the hip.
“The sight does not work with my eyes.”
Trent let out a little snort of amusement. “And you think you can hit better this way? Sure, suit yourself.” He said jokingly.
But she just took a deep breath again, her eyes focusing into slits before softly squeezing the trigger of the rifle
BLAM.
Trent did not even have time to turn and face the targets before she fired, but when he did his jaw dropped.
There it was. The designated tree stump, on its side, top half blown to pieces.
“See?” She just said.
“Beginners luck! Try the others too, if you feel so confident.”
She took aim again. This time Trent actually turned to keep his eyes on the targets.
BLAM.
BLAM.
BLAM.
BLAM.
He watched in awe as one stump after the other was turned into wood chips.
A click followed, the magazine of the rifle was empty.
“How… What...”
Trent could not even get the words out. While shooting unmoving targets from 150 meters away with a long rifle was hardly an amazing display of marksmanship, doing it while firing from the hip sure was something out of the ordinary.
“We have similar weapons at home.”
She took one of the spent casings in the snow, pulled it up to her muzzle and gave it a sniff.
“Small chemical explosion inside this shell causes a metal piece to be accelerated down the length of the weapon, guided by the hollow metal rod, yes?”
“Uh.. correct…”
He was baffled. His impressions from the first day they spent together was that she was quite daft… but it seemed like he was mistaken and maybe she was hiding something?
“I.. uh.. how do you know all that?”
“Some clans use weapons like these. Very similar designs. I do not think much of such weapons though. I want the glory of close combat.”
“Close combat?”
“There is not much joy in pressing a button to win combat, is there?”
“If you don’t think much about them, how come you are so damned good at shooting?”
“Did not say that I did not have training with them, did I?”
Trent could not do much but laugh. This was just too strange for him.
This character which he thought was just a daft brute now suddenly being like this.
“You surely keep surprising me, Kai”
---
They both continued with their exercises, firing more shots, going through basic tactics as well as weapon cleaning and maintenance. Kai passed through all of it with flying colours, further cementing the idea that she is actually a lot smarter than Trent first thought she was.
After all was done and he felt like they covered everything, Trent decided that it would be a neat idea to have lunch outside, taking his little gas stove from his backpack.
Kai watched and munched some more tree bark as well as random pebbles from the ground. Trent did not even bother trying to make sense of her eating habits anymore.
Putting some of his cooked stew into a small metal dish, he sat down in the snow and took a few bites using his spoon before looking up at the big lady.
“Your contract… What kind of stuff does it actually encompass?”
She just turned to face him, not even bothering to stop chewing, some wood chips escaping from her mouth. “What do you mean?”
“Like, are there any limits to what you could be ordered to do?”
“No. I serve and protect.”
“So I could tell you to do anything?”
“Within reason, yes.”
A little snort escaped from Trent as he suppressed a giggle. His brain just going wild with stupid ideas.
He took a moment to try and wave those thoughts but then the little voice in the back of his brain brought up how this is a once in a lifetime choice to ask stupid questions.
But he shook his head, denying such thoughts to manifest.
Leaning back, he opened his mouth.
“What about lewd stuff?”
He gasped but it was already to late, the thought already formed into words and escaped from his mouth.
The big lady just froze for a second, stopping her onslaught on her pieces of wood to look down at Trent, who in turn felt himself become even more small compared to her than before.
“What?”
“S-sorry! I just..”
“Care to find out?”
Trent’s brain just completely shut down then and there. His otherwise cool mind completely destroyed, his speech just turned into stammering and weird gasping, not knowing what to say.
Kai in turn just stood up and looked down at him, towering over the trembling mess of a man.
“Are you in dying?”
“No, no! I.. just..” he took a deep breath before looking up at her, finding her just staring down at him, unable to read her blank facial expression. “You are joking, right?”
She in turn just snort escape from her nose, mouth forming into something akin to a grin, pointy teeth showing.
“Pervert.”
That is all the lady said before she just turned around to grab some more random garbage to eat from a tree nearby.
Trent just sat there, mouth open.
Did the lady just make a joke? Did he miss out on his chance to be the first Xan in history to bang some four-eyed alien chick? Would he even want that?
Snapping back from his train of thought, he noticed that his stew has gotten cold. It did not really bother him much since it tasted kind of terrible anyways.
What did bother him though is that the temperatures seemed to drop more and more over the course of the day, meaning that it would likely get rather uncomfortable later in the evening.
“Hey Kai! We should pack up for today. I think the weather is going to worsen soon.” he said, pouring the rest of the stew out and cleaning the bowl with a rag before putting everything into his backpack.
The lady in turn just returned to Trent and put all of her things into her bags before lifting up the heavy rifle and shouldering it.
Trent looked at her and nodded.
“Let’s go!”
---
While the trek back to the cabins was not too long, the weather surely worsened on their way back. Heavy wind blowing over them as more and more snow started falling from the sky.
Both Trent and Kai just hurrying to the main cabin of the camp, rushing inside and closing the door behind them.
“Fucking hate the weather here!” Trent exclaimed as he brushed some snow off his shoulders, taking off his damp jacket, shivering a little. While he was covered in fur, most of it has gotten wet and the cabin was still cold.
Grabbing some of the wood from the pile in the room, he moved over and threw it into the oven in the corner, using a lighter to start it up.
Kai was just quietly removing her metal chest plate and putting it to the side, brushing some snow out of her head fluff.
Now wearing nothing on her top, she just walked over to Trent and watched him make a fire in the oven, waiting for him to be done before grabbing him from behind and lifting him up with her strong arms.
He just let out a surprised yelp, wiggling, trying to escape from the grab.
“What are you doing?!”
Without saying anything, she pulled his shirt off rolled him into a blanket which she grabbed from a nearby bunk bed, finally pulling his boots and pants off once he was all rolled up.
Now that he resembled more one of those veggie-wraps from those terrible military rations rather than a Xan military instructor, she lifted him up again and laid him down in one of the bunks.
While Trent was trying to fight her during the whole procedure, but he might as well tried to punch the outer city walls from his home town. The lady did not budge.
Trying to wiggle free from his blanket prison, Trent just found the big lady laying down next to him, her arm wrapping around him, pressing his back close to her chest.
“W-what are you doing?”
“You are freezing.”
“I don’t need to be treated like a child!”
“I will protect you.”
Her arm squeezed him slightly tighter, feeling more like a concrete divider, wrapped in leather, rather than a creature’s arm. Warmth slowly creeping up his back as her chest was pressed against him, the bottom of her muzzle resting against the top of his head.
While the sudden behaviour was weird and not really welcomed, Trent had to admit that it was a rather comfortable position that he now found himself him, despite it involving being spooned by a huge alien lady.
Unable to move much, Trent just accepted his fate and closed his eyes.
He laid there for a few minutes before he spoke up.
“So.. What is it like at your place?”
“My place?”
“You know? Your home and stuff. Place where you live.”
“Underground, deep in a mountain. Rooms carved into the rock itself.”
“You live underground? Like.. all the time?”
“Sometimes we go out for expeditions. But most of the time we are in the mountain, yes.”
“Interesting…”
Trent’s mind filled with visions of underground tunnels, filled with four-eyed aliens both big and small. He thought of how they might live their daily lives, what they think about.
As he laid there, imagining things, he slowly slipped into dreamland, passing out, hugged by the big lady.
---
DAY THREE
Trent woke up to some commotion in his room. Slowly blinking awake, his eyes adjusting to the light, he saw the big lady moving around. She was doing some form of shadow boxing in the middle of the room, her heavy armour rattling as she fights an invisible opponent.
Kai stopped as she saw Trent blinking at her.
“Apologies if I woke you up.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Trent rubbed his eyes as he sat up at the edge of the bed. “How long have I been out for? How late is it?”
The lady just tilted her head “The sun rose quite a while ago.”
Trent stretched before realizing that he was still naked under the blanket which was still covering the lower half of his body.
“What did you do with my clothes?”
“I ate them.”
“… What?”
Letting out a snort, Kai walked over to the stove in the corner of the room, where she hung Trent’s clothes up over a chair.
She picked the clothes off the furniture and tossed them over to Trent.
“They were wet so I let them dry while you slept.”
“Thanks...”, Trent said in reply before slipping into his shirt, enjoying the warmed-up fabric.
He took a moment to reflect on the interaction that just transpired. Was she making a joke? The more time he spent with her, the more of an enigma she became to him.
As he slowly slipped back into his clothing, the lady suddenly stopped, her four ears perking up. Eyes turning into slits as she was straining her ears.
Trent just looked her odd behaviour for a moment before trying to say something “Wha-”
“Quiet. Movement. Outside.” The lady did not even let him finish. She looked over at Trent “Are your friends back to collect me again?”
“Would be a bit early for that...” He shook his head before walking over the the window to take a look outside. By now he could also hear the noise outside. The sounds of a vehicle approaching, tires compressing snow, engine whirring. “They said they won’t be back before dawn.. oh..”
Looking outside, he saw the source of the noise.
An up-armoured van rolled into the training area and came to a stop in the middle of it, the vehicle bearing the mark of one of the known local raider gangs.
The doors of the vehicle popped open and 5 figures jumped out, all Xan, wearing all kinds of randomly assorted gear and weapons.
Trent took a step to the side, away from the window as to not get seen.
“Scavengers.” He said to himself.
“Who are these people?” The lady asked in response.
“They roam around, mostly looking for scrap to sell.” Trent thought to himself for a second before continuing. “They must be thinking that nobody is here and are looking for some stuff to steal. Or they are here to take us hostage or something.”
“We have people like these too, trouble makers. Stealing from traders. No honour.”
Trent was not really interested in lore right now and just continued. “They are armed and likely won’t be too welcoming about us being here.. We somehow need to call for help.”
“Do not worry about it. I will protect you.”
And with those words, the lady just got up and stormed out the door. Trent could not even speak up to stop her, not expecting Kai to just leave at such speed.
Trent swiftly slipped into the rest of his clothing, slipping into his boots and grabbing his rifle. He left his jacket behind to save time as he also stormed out the building.
He could hear some shouting and shots being fired as he quickly followed the large footsteps around the building and stopping at the corner.
His imagination wasted no time showing him grim scenes of the big lady being ruthlessly murdered by the intruders.
He took a deep breath, shook his head before pulling the cocking handle of his rifle back, a bullet sliding into the chamber of his rifle with a satisfying clicking sound.
“How will I explain this to High Command if she dies to some fucking scavs?” he thought to himself for a moment before shouldering his rifle and rounding the corner. He started looking for targets through the sights of his rifle, but instead of a Xan scavenger group beating up the Viskal lady, he just found four bodies on the floor with the lady standing in the middle. The last raider was standing a few meters in front of her, terrified, fumbling to grab his sidearm as Kai stood there, staring him down.
The raider noticed Trent and started shouting. “No! Get away or the monster will kill you too!”
Then the guy pulled his pistol up from his holster and fired 5 shots in quick succession. Two went wide, completely missing the lady, one hit her chest armour, which gave off a metallic clank in response. The last two bullets fired ended up hitting her lower left arm, which the lady used to shield her face.
Then there was just silence for a few seconds, Kai just slowly lowering her arm and staring down the scavenger.
“My turn now.” She just said before lurching forward.
The scavenger did not even have time to react. Or maybe he was just too afraid to act as the lady pulled her whole weight into an uppercut with her right arm, fist connecting dead-center with the raider’s chest.
The scavenger flew backwards a meter before landing on his back in the snow. A plume of the dusty snow was thrown up as he slammed into it. His arms and legs flailing and twitching for a few moments before his body just stopped moving.
Trent just lowered his weapon and slowly approached the scene, looking at the other bodies on the ground.
A display of broken bodies. Some had their arms twisted to the point of their bones breaking, others were rended, the lady’s sharp claws ripping through fabric, fur and flesh. The snow stained red around the bodies from the carnage.
The scene brought him back to his service back during the Troubles back on Vakiss. Separatists would often leave behind scenes like these after a raid. Though they were never just alone or unarmed, unlike Kai was.
“By the Redmane, what have you done?” Trent said he turned over to Kai, slightly horrified.
“I protected you.” she just said in response, unmoved. Her chest plate was dented slightly from the impacts of various bullets. A few drops of red blood fell from her claws as she just stood there. “Terrible fighters. They were also not made for fighting.”
“What?” Trent just said as he walked up to the big lady, genuinely confused at the question.
“They were weak, crumpled like bad craftsmanship.”
Trent was at a loss for words. The lady just obliterated 5 people in record time while being unarmed, and all she has to say is that she did not feel challenged by it.
He walked over and leaned down to examine the fifth body on the ground, the guy’s chest was completely sunk in, imploded as the lady smashed his ribcage with a single blow. His face was twisted into grimace, some blood flowing from his mouth.
Kai approached Trent from behind and stared down at him, blocking out the sun. “You will get cold again without your jacket.”
Trent just turned and looked up at her, the sun illuminating her outline. He did not know how to feel nor did he want to deal with this situation right now.
He just got up and approached the armoured van, keeping his gun ready as he opened the various doors, unsure if there might be a surprise hidden somewhere.
But no, the back of the vehicle was completely empty and so was the crew compartment.
He leaned into the driver’s door and turned the engine of the vehicle off and put the keys into his pocket.
The lady still stood in the middle of the carnage, using some snow to clean her hands off.
Trent just approached her, which made her stop her cleaning efforts and stare at him again.
“Let’s go back inside, shall we?” He said before walking towards the hut.
The lady just followed him.
He took another look at the carnage. Thinking about how he really cannot be bothered to deal with this now.
“Gotta get the lady fixed up, and see if we have enough time for this later.” he thought to himself as he walked back towards the hut.
---
“Doesn’t this hurt?” Trent said as he dug around in Kai’s arm, using tweezers to try and pull the bullets from her lower arm, some of her teal-ish blood dripping from the wound. “You sure you don’t want some sort of painkillers or something?”
The lady in turn did barely move or twitch, sitting opposite of Trent as she rested her arm on the table, letting the Xan work.
“It is nothing.”
Trent twisted his tweezers a little, which caused the lady to grit her teeth somewhat.
“If you say so…”
It was mean to be like this, but he just had to see if she has any pain response. To Trent’s surprise, the lady was apparently just trying to play tough.
Did not take long for Trent to remove the lead from Kai’s arm, and one bandage later, he deemed her “good as new”.
---
The rest of the day was rather unspectacular as most of it was just spent preparing everything for the lady’s departure.
Trent and her spent some time clearing the landing pad from the newly fallen snow and because they had some time left to kill, it was decided that they should also clear the mess that the lady left behind when she fought those raiders.
They lined the bodies up and covered them in blankets, preparing them for clean-up crew to just be picked up and taken away.
“What are you going to do with them?” said Kai as she dropped the last body onto a blanket with a thud.
“What do you mean? The guys are likely just going to bury them or maybe incinerate them… I actually don’t know exactly.”
“Are you not using them for something useful?”
Trent stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. “What?”
“We use our fallen for useful things. Would be a waste to just put them into a hole and let them rot.”
“Useful things like..?”
“Fertilizer, leather, tools, coal. We also inscribe skulls with the deeds of the fallen. Create a memory of their life.”
She paused for a moment and looked down at the line of bodies before looking back at Trent. “Nobody will remember them.”
“Guess so…”
Silence hung in the air for a few moments as Trent’s thoughts wandered off. Thinking about how the lady was kinda right. The bodies lying in front of him all likely had friends and family…
Friends and family that would never know what happened to them, wondering forever where their loved ones went.
“Guess that is just how things go when you jump a fence that has a big sign on it that says ‘trespassers will be shot’.” Trent mumbled to himself before turning over to Kai again.
She was just finishing up with wrapping the last body.
“That is all of them.”
And as if timed, the noise of familiar engines could be heard approaching over the tops of the tree line.
Just like a few days ago, the heavy gunship rounded the area once before landing on the concrete landing pad.
Trent and Kai headed over to the heavy machine, waiting for the rotors to slow down as to not kick up too much snow into their faces.
The side door opened and the familiar small figure stepped out and headed over to meet up with Trent. He waddled through the snow, stopping right in front of the Xan.
“I hope she did not cause too much trouble, yes?”
“Kai? No, not at all. She behaved nicely.”
“Ah, she told you her name? She must have been talkative. Once she starts, she never stops.”
Trent just raised an eyebrow as the small guy reached his hand out, staring up at the Xan.
“Speaking of.. The contract, yes?”
“Ah, yes.” Trent reached into his pocket and retrieved the shiny tube and handed it over.
The tiny Viskal inspected the tube before putting it into his pocket. “If you excuse me for a moment, I want to talk to her in private.”
And with that, the small Viskal and the big lady stepped away.
Trent’s attention was caught by something else though as a Rook powered-armour exited the dropship, distinctive blue camo paint job shining in the sun, making the Rook instantly recognizable.
“Captain Jamison!” Trent shouted out as he jumped into a salute. He was a little shocked to see the highest ranking Rook out here at this time.
“At ease, soldier.” The captain just said as he came closer, stopping in front of Trent. “I am not here on a mission.”
Trent relaxed a little but still felt uneasy. “What brings you here, captain?”
“I wanted to oversee parts of this exchange programme myself and learn about our new potential allies.”
“Allies, sir? I thought this was just some thing the Warkun set up for us.”
“Yes, sergeant. Allies. You see, the small guy is a very wealthy and powerful man. High Command sees great potential in opening up trade with them.”
He paused for a moment and leaned to the side a little, looking past Trent and pointing at the armoured van which was still parked between the barrack huts.
“Oh, by the way. Can you explain me why you have a raider vehicle stationed in the middle of the compound?”
“We were attacked by a small group of them earlier but the Viskal dealt with them, sir.”
“Dealt with them?”
“Yes, sir. She just ran up to them and ripped them apart.”
Jamison turned to look at the two Viskal, which were still a bit away and discussing something.
“Fascinating.”
Then he just turned back to face Trent. “I shall delay our leave until tomorrow as it will likely take this long for a clean-up crew to arrive.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I also expect your report on the exchange programme on my desk later.”
And with that, the captain turned around and left for the barracks, heavy metal boots stomping through the snow.
While Trent was upset about spending another day in this shitty camp, his mind was more thinking about the talks of trade that the Captain mentioned.
Not even the fact that he will have to explain his failure to actually write down a journal later could distract him.
“Trade, eh? I wonder if I could get myself a big lady like that” he thought to himself as he watched the two Viskal talk.
Culture Exchange Programme: Xan and Viskal
A story i wrote over the last few months, being the start of a bit of a world building project.
CW for: some violence
Enjoy!
CW for: some violence
Enjoy!
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Multiple characters
Size 100 x 100px
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