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Victurus Te Salute The briefing room was dark and damp, a single fluorescent lightbar was the only source of light present…. The cost cutting program was one of the few things that was actually done well in this corp. I was sitting at the long table running my finger through the embedded corp logo in it. Waiting for the leaders of the corp, who summoned me here, to make their appearance. Since long I had been a footmen in the Foederati corp. Fighting to protect the borders of our territory. The foederati were known throughout the country as a force to be reckoned with, since their loyalty to the corp was unmatched. Many brave youngsters had joined the foederati since their foundation, brought in with the promise that if they performed well on the battlefield, they would one day get their own position of power within the VTS corp and command one of the battalions that struck fear into the hearts of their adversaries. I was already dreaming of my new quarters, new wardrobe and new command function within the VTS, when the sound of the door sliding open caught my attention. I quickly jumped to my feet as I saw Harvester, leader of VTS stride in. shortly followed by Scorpion, his second in Command and Chukie, military advisor and jack of all trades. It was quite unusual that the leaders themselves were present during the promotion of Foederati. Normally the ceremony was done by Beta or Maxdamage. Caught off guard by the presence of the true power behind VTS I stumbled the well drilled Salute and made the hand gesture custom to greeting leaders. The face of Harvester showed no emotion whatsoever regarding my clumsy salute. Scorpion gave me a faint smile as to reassure me. “Be seated” the voice of harvester sounded low and fierce, demanding respect and obedience, just as I had remembered from his motivational speeches that were sent out once in a while to boost moral. I sat down and an awkward silence fell over the table, apparently I was undergoing a massive inspection from all three members of the council. Their gazes were penetrating my very mind, or at least it felt that way. “Fine” chukie finally spoke, breaking the silence. “do you know why you were summoned here Foederati ?” the tone at which he spoke the words Foederati was the least bit praising. “No sir, I do not” I replied with a slight tremble in my voice. “My commanding officer, the honorable Captain Develish gave me the summons without elaborating on the reason. He said that all would become clear soon enough” Chukie nodded and smiled, recalling Captain Develish and his way of sounding mysterious and reassuring at the same time. “Captain Develish spoke very highly of your performance in the recent skirmishes at the border of Gamma sector.” He paused, as if he wanted to read my memories on the battle last week. “ We would like to hear your version of the event.” Realising It was my turn to speak, I cleared my throat and started my story. It was the night the Neon Tigers tried to capture Gamma sector in order to destroy our research facilities, developing the Deathray technology. If they were successful it would have meant a devastating setback to our efforts in obtaining superiority in the arenas. I got cut off from the rest of the squad while scouting for enemy positions. We were under heavy missile fire from TNT’s mammoths and 3 Blackwings got shot down. One of the missiles destroyed the housing facility we were next to and I got covered under the rubble. The mammoths advanced to my position to finish the survivors. I was lucky my Droid, Nazgul, went offline due to the impact of the concrete on its hull. The tigers finished their scans and moved on once they found no energy signatures, leaving me for dead. I performed some diagnostic checks and made some bypasses in the power relays which allowed me to power-up my droid again. Systems diagnostics showed that my scanner and weapons were down and shields were at 29%. Luckily the servos were still functioning so I managed to clear the rubble on top of me and free myself. After short range scans showed no enemies in the vicinity I switched to stealth mode and powered up my passive radar. With no weapons and no scanner I started to head back to base hoping to get backup. Things were looking pretty grim at this point. I passed through a narrow corridor when my passive radar showed 3 blips only 1 click away. Hoping that my scan had not been noticed I made my way to the rooftop of a nearby building to gain some perspective. Peering over the ridge of the rooftop I saw 2 stalkers and a mammoth painted in the flashing bright colors of the Tigers. With my scanner down I was unable to read the droid signatures but they looked important. Since they were still undamaged and clean, obviously they were coordinating the attack from this remote location. I switched my scanner to thermal and performed a short active scan. The scan showed no heat in any of the guns, their Deathrays were not charged apparently, The attack must be going good I thought since the leaders seemed to be very relaxed and unworried. A rush of adrenaline shot through my veins as I realized this was the perfect opportunity to deal a mortal blow to their offensive. I rerouted all available power to my stalkers hand weapon and jumped down, Landing on top of the mammoth, crushing the missile launcher under the weight of Nazgul. A well aimed slash at the first Stalker ripped of his right arm causing the droid to spin and fall down. The second stalker barely aware of what was happening took a step back evading my slash and leaving me with my back faced to him. I quickly restored my orientation point and turned around to have another go at the stalker. I knew timing was essential here since I would not stand a chance once he got his shield and weapons online. So I ordered Nazgul to leap forward and strike the head of the stalker. The blow went right through the head of my adversery shutting down all its systems and dropping down. As I was turning around to have another go at the mammoth when all three of them engaged their emergency teleporters and dissolved into thin air. Shortly after that I got my comms system back online and I heard the voice of Captain Develish shouting the enemy was pulling back without apparent reason. We had won the fight. I noticed a smile on Harvesters face when I finished my story about the battle. “That’s some story” he said, rearranging the medals on his uniform. “Do you have any idea who you took out that night ?” Shaking my head in denial harvester continued “The two stalkers were no less than GoodZ and Elysian. Apparently they were overseeing the operation, we know this because of the markings we found on the salvage, the Deathray on the severed arm was elysians, and the head you took off was goodz’s. We do not know who was commanding the mammoth, but we expect it to be a lower ranked Tiger.” The look on my face must have been utter amazement, If I had know who I was facing at that time, I would probably have fled instantly. But I managed to keep that to myself. Scorpion continued :”Thanks to your heroic efforts we have managed to advance a great deal in our Deathray research, The Deathray you took of Elysian was invaluable!” I couldn’t help smiling at the compliment. “In view of your recent actions we have decided to give you your own command” chukie picked up. “You will start of as a captain, with a squad of 9 foederati to carry out our missions. We believe you have a great future ahead of you within VTS, and trust you will not fail us.” “I won’t fail you, I will serve VTS with great honor and devotion, I shall lead our foederati to victory on the battlefield!” I said as I stood up to salute the leaders of my corp. “Excellent” Harvester replied. “Captain Jimzz will show you to your new quarters and brief you on our current projects and campaigns. Dismissed!” As I left the briefing room, it dawned to me what had just happened. Following Jimzz trough the wide corridors of VTS hq I couldn’t stop smiling. I had done what so many before me had tried, I became a commander. No way I could have known what was waiting for me… (to be continued?) Written by Bart