Unwanted Partnership
We were a few of the last students to arrive. Most of the club was sitting in pairs. More than likely they were the pairs that Goliath had arranged. I crossed my arms trying to ignore Savannah entirely as I waited for the club meeting to start. Goliath watched Amelia come in last.
Her wrist was completely healed by now so she didn't have a cast. She still reflexively rubbed her wrist when she spotted me as she headed to her seat.
"From what I can tell most of you read my message," Goliath started, "The person I paired you up with is either the best person to help you improve your ability or the person you can help improve the most." Goliath paused letting it sink in to those who hadn't read the message as they tried to covertly read it, "Now it's a requirement for you to work with your partner in this class. Your partner will not change while they're still alive. Any questions?"
"Why am I paired up with her?" I shot my hand up.
"I can discuss partnerships after class," Goliath clapped his hands together, "You two are particularly well suited to aid each others growth. Due to each of your unique circumstances."
"Why do we have to spend so much time together?" Aaron's hand shot up.
"You have to learn each other strengths, and weaknesses," Goliath explained, "Once we go to rift city your partner will be the one watching your back. I would do teams, but with enemies like the Archaic's you often find yourself alone on the battlefield. They specialize in doing massive amounts of damage to groups of people. Small groups tend to fair better despite what you're taught." Goliath paused, "You can't save everyone on a battlefield, but sometimes you can save one person." Goliath inhaled slowly, and let the breath out slowly, "Now on to the rift city briefing."
Goliath tapped the control panel quickly. A large dome quickly formed in the arena, and then part of it's roof opened to reveal the layout of part of the inner walls as well as the interior of the dome itself. Then a small scale appeared near the bottom of the dome. From what I could tell rift city was about twenty miles across. A massive spiraling pillar in the middle held up the center of the dome. The dome had hundreds of floors contained within it's walls.
Within the dome was a surprisingly varied number of biomes. There was an area that appeared to be a desert as well as a small mountain. Swamps bordered the bottom of the mountain. Sparse forest surrounded the swamps, and the rest of the area was half deep forest half grassland. My sharp eyes could see representations of three or four open portals in the model.
"Rift city is a weak point between our world, and other worlds," Goliath started, "It's not the only weak point on our planet, but for whatever reason it has the smallest least stable rifts. I don't know the specifics, and I don't think you care to hear all the science speak behind why the rifts here are smaller. Smaller rifts discourage Archaic beasts from coming through, and the instability of the rifts keeps most intelligent Archaic's from crossing through. Now that doesn't mean intelligent Archaics don't cross over. The probability of one crossing through in rift city is very low, and at your level of training even a weak member of intelligent Archaic race would ground you into bloody pulp in minutes. If you see an intelligent Archaic in rift city next week, you report them, and you run. Rift city has countermeasures in place to handle any, and every type of Archaic beast so do not take on more than you can handle. I don't care how strong you think you are. You will have live weapons. Keep in mind that the weapons are all tagged so if you shoot another student every single teacher in rift city will know immediately, and there will be consequences. Do Not Point Guns at other students. Don't even joke about it. Each club will have one teacher, and one five man squad looking after them. You will be given an emergency signal. A silent alarm as well as a flare. Silent alarm is for intelligent Archaics. Flare is for injury preventing you from moving. Don't get them mixed up. They always clean up rift city before students visit so there won't be as many beasts roaming around."
Goliath adjusted the model so that the walls dropped most the way. Several small outposts appeared on the map.
"These outposts are where we will be staying Saturday night," Goliath continued, "We have arranged transport to sleep in the dome walls Friday night. So we will have one full day of hunting, one night out in a rift city outpost, and then we will be returning to the academy. Again this is a live fire exorcise. Do Not Point Your Weapons At each other. If it becomes a habit then you will be court marshaled. I will court marshal you myself." Goliath paused, "It's a bad habit to have, because it leads to friendly fire. Friendly fire leads to time on the front lines. Time on the front lines leads to death if you're not properly prepared. There is an information packet headed to your inbox now. I recommend you read it. More than once."
The model dissolved back into that plain grey floor. I huffed out a breath as I leaned back into my seat.
"It's our job as a military academy to get you ready for the draft when you turn eighteen," Goliath stepped out from behind the console, "You're not ready to face the enemy if your a corpse, and you will die if you can't handle looking out for the man next to you. You will die if you're worried the man behind you is thinking about shooting you. You will die if you forget how to fight the enemy in front of you. No matter what you do you will die. My job as your teacher is to make sure that the day you die is as far away as possible. You are dismissed."