Dargons of Arma – Part 3
Introduction:
Chapter 5 – 6
Chapter 5
Waking up on Friday, it is a dark and cloudy day. This week had flown by quickly, I had narrowed down this week’s applications and had chosen 40 people for today’s auditions. I roll out of bed the holo display on the wall reads five before seven. I choose my outfit for the day looking at the DC logo that is now on the Nano-weave of the shoulder and back of my long coat. My long coat was a gift for my 18th birthday from the monks. Something to remember them by. They had pooled their meager funds and gone all out to buy me a Nano-weave jacket, which was expensive because of the nanites in the fabric. . They could be programed with a design or color and could change on command. Before coming to the school and getting my Percom I had to program it by hand every time I wanted it to change. Now I could make it my own and set up different programs and change with a touch of my Percom. Slipping out of my memories I rush to take a shower. As I get dressed my wrist vibrates, looking at my wrist I see I have an incoming call. I tap my Percom to the wall. “Dinester”
“Commander Dinester, this is Raish Maliut. The Headmaster was wondering if it would be ok if he and a couple of his guests could come and see a few of your auditions. He is interested in how you will be handling them. But since it is a DiCe matter he needs permission to attend.”
I think about it for a second before saying. “Tell him he has my permission to join us this afternoon. As long as it is cleared with Commander Gerosp. Please pass on the information he would be better off showing up 30 minutes before hand so I can explain what is going to happen with the trials.”
“I understand Commander. I will let him know. Have a great day and we will be seeing you in three hours.” The com shuts off. Slipping on my coat I walk out of my apartment and head to breakfast. By 9 o’clock I was walking into the commanders office with the other commanders already buried in their work. Ursor lifts his head as he walks in “Good you’re here. The Headmaster will be here in 30 minutes. I suggest you get everything ready.” I nod and walk to my chair and log in.
I start off with “Daio please open my Audition file and read the file marked orders and follow it please.”
“Understood Commander Dinester, who are the members you will be using in stage one?” Daio Responds.
I look at Ursor “do you have 8 DiCe members that I can use to pose as freshmen?
Kezaban butts in “I have a couple in the building you can use. What are you going to have them to do?”
I lean forward over the table “I am going to see how well the freshmen can follow orders. Can you have them come up here so I can fill them in?”
Kezaban is typing away on his display, nodding to me. I look back at Ursor. “Are you doing anything today? I need you to act as a judge.”
Ursor raises and eyebrow giving me a questioning look. “What do you have planned?”
I look at him and before exhaling and saying. “I have three tests and I want three judges to help me score them. Since I don’t have a PA or a Vice at the moment. I need two other judges I plan on asking the headmaster to be the third. When he gets here I will explain everything.”
He nods and finishes up his work. As I am looking over my work one more time, I hear the lift open. A couple chatting voices come in. Turning to look at them I see ten guys walking out. They stop and salute before taking a position of parade rest.
Kezaban stands up and motions to me. He says to them “Glad you could all make it Commander Dinester needs you this morning so listen up.” He nods to me and I step up beside him.
“Ok Gentlemen I need your help. This morning I am holding the auditions for freshman class. Your part in this will be fun for you guys. I am separating them into four groups by class. There will be; Humans, A Users, E Users and the last group is all AE and MAE users. You will be broken up into teams of two. Each of the groups of freshmen will have one of your teams assigned. You are to appear and act as if you are freshmen. Your entire duty is to try and get them to talk to you or each other. The first test is simple it is to see if they can follow orders. Their first order is that they are not to talk to anyone.” I smile and hear the other Commanders start chuckling.
Ursor says “You have a mean streak don’t you? You do realize most of the current classes had tournament style auditions, right?”
I nod and say without turning around “I know but I want people who can follow orders. Not just strong men and women who will bully other around.” I hear a couple coughs. I continue. “I want you to try and engage them. Don’t force it if they talk, they talk, if they don’t wander about and try again. You will have 30 minutes after the doors close to get them to talk. Don’t let on, don’t point anyone out, just talk. When the 30 minutes are up, we will come in and your task will be over. The first three groups will have one team per the big group will have two. Any questions?”
One of the guys raises his hand and says “What if they talk?”
I nod and say “If they start talking, try pulling in people around you into the conversation. Worse case try talking to each other and seeing if you can draw them in that way. Just keep in mind they don’t know this is a test. The partitions are up in the Arena so figure out who wants to go where and head to come in after the first few. By the way the message they received, was telling them which group they were supposed to be in. With the message to not talk to anybody. Thanks for your help.”
They quickly file out talking over their assignment. Ursor is still chuckling. “So three tests?”
Nodding I respond with “Yeah this is the first then there will be a squad battle and then individual.”
I walk over to the table and sit down. Looking at the display I realize I only have a few minutes before the headmaster and his group will be here. So I quickly go over the last of my messages. Finishing just in time to hear the lift opening. Feeling the headmaster stepping out I smile. And turn around slowly while saying “Good Morning Headmaster, I see you have brought your granddaughter with you. Who else do I have the pleasure of meeting?”
He gives out a deep belly laugh. “Hard to pull one over on you. Yes you know my grand-daughter. With me are Raish, the Liaison between me and you. This is …” I see the gothic goddess peak around from behind Ar’Isa. She is wearing a gorgeous black under bust corset covered in red embroidered roses. Over a black frilly short sleeve shirt, with a black knee length skirt. “Like I was saying this is Cyria Knyt, she is my granddaughters PA. I hope you don’t mind me bringing them along. There is a family function tonight and I thought it would be a nice day to spend together with Ar’Isa.
I nod and grab a couple chairs, quickly pulling them around the table. I motion everyone to a chair and notice Cyria takes the one closest to me and Ar’Isa is at her left. I sit in my chair and start my spiel. “Headmaster, I was hoping you would be a judge today along with Commander Gerosp and myself.” He nods and lets me continue. “Ok everyone else feel free to point out things if you see something we don’t. This first test is how well they follow orders. They have been instructed to show up and find their designated groups. Everyone has a certain group they are supposed to be in. They have also been ordered not to talk to anyone. We have ten Junior DiCe members mingling among them trying to get them to talk. It is not an automatic disqualification if they talk. But it will come into play later. So if you see someone please point them out and one of the judges will look over it and make an annotation on their card.”
I stop at this point, then begin tapping a few buttons on my display. I look at both Ursor and the headmaster. “You are now receiving the score cards. Daio will highlight those that you tap on. This way you can pull up the right card for the annotations. The first part is just to make annotations on how many times they are talking. If it is anything you feel they shouldn’t be talking about, place a D/Q and forward the card to me.”
Pulling up a copy of a blank score card I show it to them. “This is just the first test for the second test they will be split up into groups of five and undergo a tournament style elimination fight. Those will be graded you will score them. Five Points per category the categories are; Teamwork, Strength, and Speed. If they win as a team they get a bonus of 5 points. With speed I want you to rate how you fast they finished the match. If they finished it too slow, i.e. toying with the other team they can lose points in my eye while it might raise points in yours. Just because they win the fight doesn’t mean they will move on. Any Annotations you want to make about the fight will be put into the comments portion of the card. The team fights will go until we have the top two teams. These top two teams will be automatically accepted to my group. Unless something previous disqualifies them. Once we have them we will move to test three which will be the individual tournament fights. Once again you will score them in different categories with up to five points per category. Those categories are as follows; Strength, Skill, and Judgement. I will be keeping one team as a wildcard for the last auditions next week. So your scores will help me figure out who is staying and going. The team scores will be applied to the entire group. As the teams are made Daio will be sending out the group score cards and then will transfer the score to their individual cards after along with any notes. If you feel an individual but not a team deserves a chance please annotate it. Daio will be updating my cards with your scores after each fight.”
I stop and look around seeing if I had lost anyone. “Any questions?”
Ursor raises a finger before saying. “You said something about disqualifying teams? What would cause that?”
I nod and respond. “Any cheating or breaking of the rules. I will not have any great bodily harm or murder. No hits specifically meant to cause bodily harm or long lasting damage. No low blows, blows to the groin, neck, or armpits. I am allowing knock outs. That being said I am not a fan of excessive force. At that point we will be able to deliberate as to if it is a team or a disqualification. Any other questions?” Looking around I see a lot of shaking heads. “Good the applicants are arriving. So let’s get to it.”
The Display changes to four different screens displaying the gathering areas in the arena. For the next 30 minutes we watch each of the displays. I notice during this time that Cyria and Ar’Isa are both looking over at me. At the end of the 30 minutes I announce that we should head down now. As Cyria scoots her chair back I stand and hold out my hand to her. She blushes deeply and slowly puts her hand in mine. I gently pull her up and before she has time to gain her balance I pull her a little more making her stumble into me. Her breathing picks up and she slowly looks up at me and I inhale her scent. Leaning in close to her ear I softly growl in her ear. I feel her stumble again into me. I hear her whisper. “Why?”
I smile and whisper. “Why? Why what?”
She slowly pulls herself away from me then looks up at me. As she opens her mouth to speak I pull up her hand and softly kiss the back of her hand and softly nip at her knuckles. I hear a soft moan escape her lips. I smile and quickly turn and walk to the lift with everyone. Everyone except Ar’Isa seems to be ignoring the exchange between us. As we step into the lift I see the girls in the corner talking in a huddled whisper.
Chapter 6
We step off the lift on the ground level heading towards the arena. Stepping inside I see all the applicants look over our way. Walking to the center I feel the group with me walk over to the Judges Box. I say loud enough to be heard around the room. “Please form up in rows of 5 please. The DiCe members are hereby released. You may leave or stay to watch the festivities.”
The Dice members step out of the groups and salute before joining the group in the judge’s box. I watch as they form up in their groups. When they are finished I start talking. “Good Morning Everyone, my name is Heath Dinester. I am the class commander, if you make it through into the DiCe, you will be working for me. At any point if you think you are better and more capable of leading the class. Please feel free to step forward and challenge me, I will accept all challenges.”
Looking around I see if anyone steps forward to voice a challenge. When no one does I smile and continue on. “I do have to say I am a little disappointed in this class. Your tests started the moment you walked into this room. Your first test was if you could follow orders.”
I see a lot of confused faces. “You all received a message telling you what time to show up. Along with an order, not to talk to anyone until the administrators address you. Out of the 40 people standing in front of me only 5 of you followed that order. I thought I would have to tempt you by having some moles in the group. Instead we watched as you all started talking before they got involved.” I shake my head and look across the faces in front of me. I see the guilty, sadness, disappointment, and a few faces with pride.
“Don’t get ahead of yourselves if I wanted to disqualify you for it I would have told you to leave as soon as I walked in. Let me explain the rest this test to you. These tests will be point based. You will either loose points or gain points by your actions. Just because you win a fight doesn’t mean you will be moving on to the next round. The next test will be a team fight. As a team you will be fighting tournament style. The top two teams point wise will be moving on to the next round. There will be five people who will receive wildcards to come next week to fight for a spot in the dice. I will not reveal what we will be looking for in each test until after it is over.”
Looking around I tap a button on my Percom bringing up the roster. “Lucky for all of you, you did not talk across the groups. So this will be easy, or as Commander Gerosp would say Pure Evil. Group One Front and Center.”
I watch them all quickly walk in front of me and line up. “Each of you will choose one person from group two. They in turn will choose a person from group three. Then the person from group three will choose two from group four. These will be your fighting groups. Oh and before I forget none of you are allowed to discuss your powers or ranking. You are allowed to voice your opinion, on what your position in the fight should be. But not reveal anything about your powers. If you do you will disqualify yourself and leave your team a man short for their fight. In the end the people in group one are your team leaders and they will choose who goes where.”
Looking at group one. There are three women and five men. I point to the three women and start talking again. “Ladies first, please move to my right and choose who gets first choice.”
They whispered between themselves and quickly come to a decision. The one closest to me raises her hand. Nodding I motion to the rest of the men “All you gentlemen line up next to the women.” I wait a minute to let them line up before continuing. “Ok starting here and working down the line. You will make your choices once you make your choice you will take a step back and move back as needed. Until your team is formed. Once the last team is formed you will be given 10 minutes to hammer out your battle formation. We will be watching and listening closely.”
I start calling groups up watching them choosing people randomly. Finally after the last person is chosen. I move in front of the new team formation. “That went good now starting from right to left you will be numbered 1 through 8 that is your team number. You have ten minutes, find a place to sit and talk. At the end of 10 minutes we will start the tournament keep in mind we are listening.” With that I turn and head back to the judge’s box.
Taking a seat between Ursor and the Headmaster I look around at everyone. Ursor nods to me. “Well done Heath making them choose random people for their groups. But just wondering how did you group them in the beginning?” The headmaster nods in agreement to the question.
I chuckle and smile at them before answering. “The first group is humans, regular or candidates for the Arbiters. The second group are E-users. The third A-users. And the last was AE and MAE-users. So basically the humans are the team captains and no one else knows in the group.” I see many surprised faces around me.
Suddenly the Headmaster starts laughing then pats me on the back. “So the team captains now have to structure the groups without knowing their powers or strength. Only what their teammates tell them is their best position. Then they have to put themselves in the best position for them, without seeming like they are just trying to save themselves. I have to say Mr. Dinester. I like the way you think this throws everything they know onto their heads. The weak leading the strong I can’t wait to see how this goes.”
I nod and look at the wall clock before tapping a button on the judge’s display in front of me. A buzzer sounds and all heads turn toward us. Standing up I say “Time is up Team One to our right and team five to our left.” They quickly move out onto the arena floor. “The way this works is as follows: No Killing, No Permanent Bodily Harm. We will allow knockouts and incapacitations. If you think you are far outmatched you can surrender at any point. But don’t expect to move on. Also just because I like to test everyone there will be a random rule generator presented by Daio, She is the DiCe’s AI, so for match one Daio what is their random rule.”
I sit down as Daio responds with. “Well Commander knowing your penchant for curveballs. The first rule will be. No Elemental Projections. You are allowed to use elements on your own body but no throwing or firing of elements. First infraction will be point deduction second infraction will result in a disqualification. Will all parties not fighting please move to the bleachers. The Barriers will be raising in a 30 seconds.”
People quickly move to the bleachers. Turning on my mic I say. “Just so you all are aware. Just because you have time to sit together doesn’t mean you have more time to talk I would hope you pay attention to the fights. And on to the fights. Good Luck Teams.”
The first fight start slow all muddled, no teamwork, people getting taken out, or running away from other fighters. At the end Team One stands as the winner with two people unconscious. I am shaking my head when I stand up. “MMMMEEEEDDDDIIIICCCC!!!…. Teams Two and Six are next wait till the medics clear the floor.” Sitting back down I look at Ursor, he is typing a few last things onto the team card. Turning my head I see the headmaster doing the same talking quietly I say. “Well it was the first fight. Hopefully the farther we go the better they will get.”
By the end of the first round I had a good idea of who would be getting wild cards and which teams were probably going to make it in. Looking at the clock I stand. “Ok everyone we will be releasing for lunch. You will have 2 hours to have lunch and recuperate. At this point you are allowed to talk to each other. You can work on your strategy more now. You can discuss your powers and abilities and better shore up your teams. As a last note Team 7 you are disqualified. Two of your members discussed their powers with the team before your match and no one reported it. Don’t bother coming back.”
I turn around and ask “Lunch?”
Both Kezaban and the Headmaster nod, Ursor only shakes his head as he chuckles before saying “There is a new sushi place on Alpha ring why don’t we go there and try it out?”
The head master readily agrees “It has been a long time since I have had fresh sushi.”
