Ichor

Colonel (Part III)

Year 8 - Colonel
Planet Primae

° ° ° °

Percy was drowning in adrenaline. He looked around frantically. Enemies surrounded him. He could sense their presence. This was it. He was the last of his team. Once they got him... it was all over.

In a move of desperation, Percy knelt to the ground and channeled his Earthshaker abilities. He made fissures spread outward towards his opponents. The hard earth beneath him quaking violently. Enemy soldiers approached, only to fall on unstable land. A few plants tried to stop him, no doubt the powers of those he was fighting, but they too were unsuccessful.

Percy knew he couldn't fight them all off. There were too many. So he tried to escape their grasp and target individuals. But the others knew that was his plan. They knew their only chance of beating the Chaos Competition Champion was to overwhelm him in numbers. So regardless of their fear or doubts, Percy's enemies circled him in a tight formation. They blocked him in an inescapable ring of shields with weapons protruding from the sides pointing inwards. It all ended when a brave spearman thrust the tip of his shaft at the fierce warrior, who was still trying to fight back, and hit them square in the breastplate.

Percy looked down to see the glowing light signaling a critical hit on the armor. And at that moment, the opposing team finally, finally beat Ichor in a Chaos Army training game. They were playing Battle Tag where once defeated by an opposing team's member, they join that team and take down everyone else until all are on the same winning team. For the past three years, Ichor's team had managed to win every single game. But it was game over when all other groups formed a secret alliance to take him down.

This long-term exercise taught soldiers that a single person could make a difference while emphasizing the importance of cooperation. Percy loved days dedicated to training games because it reminded him of capture the flag games at Camp Half-Blood. It was supposed to be a surprise for anyone below a captain's rank, but everyone knew when they'd have a training game day because Ichor, as they knew him, would be in the best mood the day before. He went easy on drills and was less strict during lessons. Sometimes he'd even joke around, but his jokes were mostly sarcastic remarks and he never smiled. Of course, that only meant he was extra tough during the games, but no one minded.

Percy usually went all out for the games. It made him feel like a kid again. Not that he felt much like a kid when he was one. But the nostalgia was a nice change of pace from his serious attitude most of the time. It was one of the few times the army had seen him carefree—well, less uptight than per usual—and once he actually laughed. And not just a chuckle. No, it was a game of Rescue the Prince—very similar to capture the flag—and it ended in ten people wearing straight jacket dresses, seven drenched in blue glitter, and four with somehow neon orange armor.

When Percy took stock of the scene he laughed so hard the River nearby exploded and soaked everyone, which only served to make him laugh harder. He had never laughed as hard as he did that day in all his time in the Chaos Army. And his fellow soldiers could probably say the same because they too were reduced to hysterics. Technically, he smiled while laughing, but they never counted that as a smile to put on the plaque.

Several times, Percy wondered what his life would be like if he hadn't been forced to leave his home. Would he be with his friends playing war games? Would he be attending college with Annabeth in New Rome? Would he have a normal home and a normal job and a normal life? But the key question Percy asked himself was if he would want any of those things knowing what else was in the universe, knowing that this life existed for him.

And it scared him a little to admit to himself that the normalcy he desperately wanted back then was far from what he wanted now. He wouldn't have traded anything that happened in his past because the truth was, Percy loved Primae. He loved the Chaos Army and his fellow Chaos Soldiers. He loved the work he was doing and the lifestyle that went with it. So while he may have missed Earth and the friends he had to leave behind from time to time, he would not have wanted any of the things he suspected he would've done had he never left.

And then he had to do paperwork.

Suddenly, all his love was forgotten until the torturous documents were filled out. Yet even during those trying times of filing reports, Percy got to work with his new friends, mainly Andrew and Mason and Marissa and Darleen and Andrew. So it wasn't all bad. Truth be told, it wasn't bad at all.

Well, the being kidnapped by the Rikerian rebels and tortured part was bad, but other than that... wait, no, there was also the time he was poisoned and then the time he was shot in the head—long story, barely survived—and then the time he walked in on... yeah, ok, so not everything was good. Eh, semantics.

In the end, Percy's two years as a colonel were filled with crazy missions and intense training games and endless paperwork. But they were relatively easy and made him appreciate things retrospectively. If only Percy knew what was in store for him in the years to come.