Champions (Volume 1)

Champions Ch15 - Defect

Champions
Ch15 - Defect

“Everyone has their reasons.”

SM had explained everything to an excited and frightened Anna. She was attempting to interact with the holograms, but to no avail.

“The craft has no biodata from you, it doesn’t know how to interact with you.” SM would explain. She still kept trying, though. “Would you like to observe the other aliens?” Anna’s face lit up and drained of all color at the same time.

SM smiled (as close as he could physically get to one) and led all of us out of the room. Anna followed cautiously and eagerly at the same time. In a few short minutes, we entered the Arena.

“This is the only training area aboard the craft where we allow interaction. The other one is like a human cafeteria.” He continued. Anna was obviously confused, but SM seemed prepared for everything. Instead of teleporting, however, we walked into the observation room.

“I have noticed something about the arena. How do you keep your people from dying?” I asked, remembering my broken jaw, bruises, and other cuts and injuries. How brutally some of the others were injured.

“The armor reads your vitals and predicts what will happen around you. You are an interesting species, though. The armor has a hard time predicting your moves. When you sacrificed yourself to ensure your team continues, you almost died. Not only did the armor not predict it, but the doctors didn’t either. You are lucky.” SM answered. Oh.

“Anyway, I have set up another tournament to raise spirits after the last assault from the Tirid. It will start in a few minutes.” He announced. He turned to Anna, “Would you like to watch?”

Anna nodded, excited to see the different species.

***

The battle started with three person teams on each side. The aliens were relentless and the ones that observed with us were excited. It was quite a sight being up here and watching without having to worry about our lives or have bones fixed.

There were two aliens downed almost immediately by ranged weapons. It happened so quickly that the doctors had to run to make sure they didn’t die.

There were battle cries and cries of pain only few seconds after the team in Green began to take down the opposing team with ranged attacks. Not many made it to the middle.

Anna was appalled at how someone could enjoy this, but I don’t think this militarized lifestyle has much anything else to enjoy. She also wasn’t used to how the medical equipment worked and I won’t lie, I am not quite sure either.

“So why do you use this for entertainment? You could just as easily use music or board games.” Anna asked.

“Music? Oh, yes. Different species have different ways of hearing things. I use telepathy to hear you, you use vibration to hear me. We could kill some of our own by using sound. We do have board games as well to teach strategy and quick thinking. Tournaments test that ability.” SM explained, “We use this as entertainment because chess doesn’t keep our soldiers’ attention like a lance.”

“It is still inhumane.” Anna muttered.

“And we aren’t human.” SM replied quickly. We sat the rest of the tournament in silence, though it didn’t last very long.

***

We made it through the rest of the ship, showing Anna many things. She was impressed by the structure and size of the ship, though now we were all very tired. Some of the places we saw were places that I didn’t know existed.