Otis padded back to Josh and glared up at him. “Give my men some credit, Colonel. They’ve all been instructors here at one time or another. And give them a chance to prove their mettle. Your men far outclassed them on the cruiser, and they’re smarting from it. They are not accustomed to being second best under any circumstances.”
Josh’s eyes continued shifting from side to side, waiting for another ambush. “How do you expect us to learn anything if we’re constantly distracted with trying to stay alive?” he asked.
“If you and your men learn that and nothing else, we will have accomplished our goal,” Otis replied matter-of-factly. “You might be the best of the best at soldiering, but that is no longer your task. You’re here to learn how to protect. We’ll cover planning, organization, and the necessary technology, but our job often comes down to the instantaneous reactions of trained men.
“Your men will never be the equal of mine. They are not physically as well adapted for this job,” Otis lectured, “but they will learn to provide backup, and it will be meaningful backup. They will add to the teams’ effectiveness, not drag the team down, or else this plan will fail. Your first month here will be devoted solely to that purpose. All training will take place outdoors. All of you will be forced to be on guard constantly. The lessons you receive during that time will be basic and repetitive, allowing you ample room for distraction. Your second and final month here will include indoor instruction under circumstances that will allow concentrated focus on the material, but we will spend plenty of time outdoors then, as well. Even after graduation when we’re on the job protecting the Queen, everyone’s mettle will be constantly challenged by training events the team leaders prepare. I can’t say your men will be better soldiers when we’re done here,” Otis added as they continued up the track toward the village, “but I promise you that your men will be far better Protectors.”
Otis continued lecturing as they walked, informing them that the Great Cats had, over the centuries, become known as Guardians, sought by the wealthy and powerful throughout the galaxy for their protection skills. Brodor was very, very highly paid for these services. The People fielded one Guardian for about every 200 of The People, meaning there were some 500,000 Guardians in total. Of those Guardians, one in a hundred reached the level of Protector, some 5,000 Protectors in all.
Mike was stunned. “You mean there are only 5,000 Protectors in the whole galaxy?”
“Actually, we’re short a few right now,” Otis responded gravely. “They’ve come on hard times.”
Mike, until this very moment, had never realized just what it meant to be surrounded by Protectors all the time. The cost of protecting the Royal Family must be prohibitive.
“Uh, just how much does the Royal Family pay Brodor for this protection?”
“Nothing,” Otis snapped. “We never charge the Royal Family. It’s a privilege to serve as we do.” Then his lips rose, presenting his teeth in a leer this time. “Don’t worry. We more than make up for it with private contracts. Besides, Brodor’s needs are minimal. We don’t need a lot of income from the Empire. That may be changing. It’s beginning to look like we’ll have to apportion more proceeds to our own protection, but in the past, the Queen has always taken care of that for us. The special skills we sell to the Empire are not appropriate for planetary defense. We’re going to have to bring a whole new group of fighters into existence. As you can see, it has become a problem of the first magnitude, but it is not your problem. We will deal with it.”
“Actually, as First Knight, it might very well become my problem. I might insist that it does. We’ll see.”
The training was everything Otis promised and more. The men were issued stun guns in addition to their personal blasters. Stunning was the preferred method of defending one’s self in the training area, otherwise the whole area would become devoid of life. If a blaster was used by mistake, penalties in the time-honored form of extra physical training befell the unlucky soldier.
Target practice with all manner of weapons was the primary goal of the first month of training. Everyone’s aim was expected to be perfect, whether it be a gun, a knife, or any number of other Empire weapons, most of them simple and old fashioned rather than highly technical and modern. Hand to hand combat was practiced to a certain degree, but the humans could not match the strength of the cats and didn’t have to find out the hard way to know it. Instead, hand to hand focused primarily on identifying the most sensitive zones on many different alien bodies and the weakest spots on body armor.
Early on, Josh’s men paired up with Otis’ cats into teams consisting of six Great Cats and six Terrans, as the men from Earth began calling themselves. The teams proved to be too large and unwieldy and were soon divided in half, doubling the number of teams, each consisting of three cats and three Terrans.
About one-tenth of the cats were Protectors, the rest Guardians, but the Terrans could detect no differences between them and were not told who was which.
To everyone’s surprise, guard duty became the most hotly sought after activity among the Terrans, so much so that Josh had to work out a rotation among his men to ensure everyone spent at least a minimum amount of time in the classroom. All manner of creatures lurked in the wild, but the greatest challenge came from the cats themselves. Cats from the instructor cadre roamed at will, and they took pleasure in surprising the unwary. Josh’s men quickly tired of being made to look inept, always on the losing end of the Great Cat’s sneak attacks and. With his permission, they began actively patrolling the surrounding countryside and setting up ‘hide sites’ from which they could warn others. The hide sites, when constructed properly, and Josh’s men were superb at the task, virtually blended into the surroundings. The instructors soon found themselves forced farther from the main group, and they were eventually forced to plan coordinated attacks in order to get through.
The Terrans had brought Ghilley suits with them from Earth and spent every spare moment preparing themselves to blend in with the countryside. It became a game for both sides, sometimes a dangerous game as many cats and Terrans fell to stunners, but in the end Josh’s men proved their mettle against these cunning teachers.
Otis changed tactics during the third week, sending out six-man/cat teams instead of just the Terrans. There was some disgruntlement among Josh’s men following this announcement – competition had been fierce among the men on the teams, to the point that wagers had become commonplace.
Mike, a hunter since childhood and anxious to prove his mettle, got plenty of opportunity to learn the basics. His team, consisting of himself, Josh, and Sergeant Jacobs, was paired up with Otis, Jessie and one other Great Cat. At Otis’ insistence, knowing that Mike and Josh would spend more time around the Queen than any of the rest and that they might someday find themselves cut off from other support, they focused on the basics: marksmanship and small team tactics. They patrolled, but they spent little time in the hide sites.
Mike clearly dragged down his team’s performance. He was no match for Josh or Jacobs, both tough veterans of many missions, both hardened warriors. No one was surprised: there was just no way he could catch up on their years of experience, nor was he expected to. But as he had aboard ship, Sergeant Jacobs never let up on him, always demanding better performance. And he got better, much better. In addition to improving his skills, Mike got tougher. Gone were any vestiges of underlying fat from his many months aboard ships. He was in better shape than most soldiers on Earth, and he became reasonably well-skilled in the basic skills needed by Protectors.
The Terrans had brought advanced thermal vision goggles with them from Earth, and the goggles proved extremely helpful. The Great Cats had for eons depended on natural selection to hone their skills, preferring to operate unencumbered by advanced technology. They quickly found themselves at a distinct disadvantage in the dark. Though they could move faster and more quietly, they could not see as well as the Terrans. Josh’s men, on the other hand, had specialized for years in night fighting and were as comfortable working in the dark as they were during the daytime. They, in fact, preferred the advantages offered by darkness.