COMMANDER VYCON DASE
I had returned from the copper mine. I wasn't happy about it. The work was almost completed. I had left Lieutenant Yata to do the rest of the work. I had to return because Leader Nizok had summoned me. But a part of me was happy to return to the base. I had been itching to set my eyes on Nicole, even if just for a second. But I knew that I could not speak to her. I still needed her to hate me. I was sure that the Leader would want me to take care of preparations for our departure that would be imminent. Because of this, I could not lead her on. It was all too dangerous.
“Leader, I have returned. You have summoned me?” I said as I boarded our ship.
“Yes, I believe the lieutenant is far enough along to work without you. I need you here. We will have a few more meetings in the tower, and I also want you working with the battalions here. I particularly want you working with this Earth sergeant.”
“Yes, he is called Sergeant Banks. I want you to train him in hand-to-hand combat in the way that we would fight a Waysaw Soldier. Show him how the Waysaw soldiers fight, the way they make sport of it. These humans do not know how the Waysaw have war games and fight differently. I want you to teach him so that he can, in turn, teach his soldiers. I want them to be ready. I want them to get the most of our presence here before we depart.”
I saluted the Leader and left his presence. A part of me was feeling happy and cocky in order to go around or two with this sergeant. I hated him, and I had a lot of energy to dispel.
I grabbed a few Grantsion soldiers and walked out into the path between the Earth Battalion and the Grantsion battalions.
“Private Martinez, sir,” the soldier said as he scrambled over to me. I had seen him before inside the tower. I knew he worked with Nicole. I quickly looked around to see if she was anywhere nearby, but I did not see her.
“Private Martinez, go into the Earth Battalion to deliver a message. I am seeking Sergeant Banks. Tell him Commander Vycon Dase waits for him out here for our training sessions,” I said.
“Yes, sir, right away,” he said as he scrambled into the Earth Base building.
I waited with my soldiers telling them what our mission was in training this Earth soldiers today.
“Well, if it isn't Little Boy Blue!” Sergeant Banks shouted as he came out of the base with a few of his soldiers.
I did not know what he was referencing, but I assumed it was an insult.
“Yes, that is the spirit, Sergeant Banks. I am here to fight with you, but it is not what you think.”
“Yes, I know. Your Leader has informed me that you are here to show us how the Waysaw fight. We are very aware; it is not the first time that we have come across them,” he said with arrogance.
“I understand, Sergeant. But I am here to show you how to defeat them in hand-to-hand combat. They fight differently, and therefore you need different moves in order to defeat them. Or are you too scared to take me on?”
The sergeant’s face grew dark. The fact that my soldiers were laughing at him did not help. It was easy to get this human worked up. I knew exactly which buttons to push to do it. I only had two wound his ego in order to get him to make mistakes and be sloppy.
He unbuckled the belt around his waist with his guns and handed it to one of his soldiers. I did the same. Then we met each other in the middle. A crowd was starting to gather. I could hear bets being placed.
“Now, I am going to do some moves that the Waysaw do, and Sergeant Banks is going to try to block them and hit me back,” I said to the soldiers that were gathered.
“Go ahead, Sergeant Banks; come at me,” I said putting my hands in the air motioning for him to come to me.
He shouted and ran straight for me as though he was going to tackle me with his shoulder to my belly. With one swift motion, I moved out of the way and had my hands around his waist and flipped him over, hitting his back hard on the ground. The wind was knocked out of him.
The crowd cheered, and the Earth soldiers let out remarks of pain sympathy for the sergeant.
“Do you see that? Did you see that move? Do you know why it works? It works because the Waysaw are expecting you to charge at them like that. Not only are they expecting it, they want it. Because then they can use that perfect swift move that I just showed you. They are not scared of you. They are not scared of me. They make sport of fighting. For every move that you have coming at them, they have a move to not only guard themselves, but to take you down at the same time,” I shouted, giving my lesson.
I stepped over the sergeant, adding humiliation to his defeat. He slowly got up and faced me again.
He swung a right hook at me. I caught his hand mid-air and twisted it around his back; I could snap his arm like this. He squealed in pain.
“Did you see that? Right now, if I were a Waysaw, I would snap his arm in two. I was anticipating his swing and already knew that I was going to catch it and twist him around. Now, that is enough show!” I said pushing the sergeant away from me.
“Right now, I want all of you to line up, and I am going to show you how to do these moves. I want you to master them and spread them throughout your camps,” I said.
I watched as every soldier enthusiastically lined up in order to learn this move. The sergeant was staring at me with hatred in his eyes. I knew hatred very well. He came over to me and spat on the ground, close to my boot. Then he leaned in and whispered, “This isn't over yet, Commander.”
“Oh, I hope not, Sergeant. I hope to meet again in the same light soon,” I said with a grin.
He slowly limped away. It felt good; it felt damn good. I continue to watch him walk away as I waited for the soldiers to line up and for my soldiers to assist me in the training. I watched him and noticed that he was not heading back inside the base building. Instead, he was heading off to the corner of it on the outside. It was then that I saw her. It was Nicole. She was staring directly at me. I felt an enormous amount of guilt and regret flood my body. The triumph of making a fool out of the sergeant went away. But as I looked at her, I noticed that the sergeant grabbed her arm. She yanked it away. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but it was obviously a heated argument. Wait a minute, was she involved with him? I did not know her life before I arrived. I hated him even more in that second. I wanted to go to her and defend her, but I did not want to give away that I was in love with her. Crap, I love her. I knew at that moment when I saw another man touching her. I was repulsed by his hands on her. She yanked her arm away again and stomped off. He just laid against the wall, catching his breath. I had really done a number on him, and I was glad because he would probably follow her if he wasn't feeling so badly and injured.
I now had a new fervor and anger to get rid of as I went about the training. The fact that there might be something between the sergeant and Nicole made me very angry. I would kill him if I found out.