Risen: Echoes of War

Chapter 1: Hard Lessons

"Advice I suggest you yourself take, barbarian," Caesar coldly stated as he stepped back, having delivered a shot after deftly slipping out of Raven's arms.  "Had I my trusted glades, you would be missing your head for the insult you've put upon me."  A heart beat later it was Caesar on his knees, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it after a grim Hannibal delivered his own crushing blow.

"Now that we've all had lessons learned this day, I suggest we move forward and get on with the real reason we are here," the Carthaginian ghost growled.  "Which is learning how to fight like they do in this time."  He took a step back from both echoes before looking over at a bemused Adeesa and a frowning Bridget and waving them in.  As they complied, he continued to speak.

"As we all have seen, these new bodies that we've somehow managed to possess, are powerful and sturdy.  But not invincible.  You'll need to learn not only how to use them to their maximum potential but how to protect them as well, so you can return and fight another day."

Hannibal paused to look down at his silvery hands.

"To tell you the truth, I am honestly unaware what will happen to our essences if these bodies are damaged beyond your abilities to repair it."  The hands clenched into fists.  "It may be enough to push your essence out of the shell, perhaps even dispersing it completely."  He looked up and quickly swept them all with a hard look.

"You may get the opportunity to do what few have: die twice.  I can barely imagine what that might feel like.  So let us practice our new craft to the point where we won't have to experience it."

"I, for one, am satisfied with dying just the once," Adeesa said in a quiet voice, touched with a hint of an exotic accent.  

"It carried horror enough to create this version of me.  I do not wish to die unnaturally again."

"Agreed," Bridget said with a nod before looking over at Hannibal.  "I have hung from the neck until dead more than enough for any woman, thank you.  Teach us, general, to not only fight these monsters with vigor but to not die doing it as well."

Hannibal slowly nodded.  Before he could reply, however, Caesar spoke, the Roman just then carefully climbing back to his feet.

"You have made an excellent point, my frater," he said in a voice measured and cultured, pausing to shake his head once more, the silvery appendage still sporting the dent Hannibal's punch had put into it.  

"These bodies have limits.  May I suggest we learn what those limits are?  Perhaps even tutor ourselves in what how similar they are to our former shells of flesh and blood by doing so."

Hannibal's eyes narrowed in thought.

"Calisthenics?" he asked and Caesar quickly smiled and nodded.

"Calisthenics."  He looked at the other echoes.

"Any of you fancy a run?"

It was perhaps somewhere during the third lap around their small compound that Hannibal noticed the lean figure of the tesla Max had named Felix standing with arms folded, watching them with a thoughtful expression on his face.  Letting the rest of the echoes carry on, he slowed to a halt beside the lean Risen.

"Hello," he said in the way of greeting, earning himself a quick look and an equally quick smile.

"Guten tag," the tesla replied, his tone both friendly and filled with curiosity.  "You are the one called Hannibal, yes?"

"I am.  You are the tesla commander, Jolt."

The lean Transcended bowed his head slightly in confirmation.

"But please, call me Felix.  The others seem to enjoy their Risen pseudonyms but I prefer my natural born name," the tesla said with a smile.  Then he was turning to gesture towards the jogging echoes, glimmering in the late noon sunshine.

"Your newest recruits." He looked over at Hannibal.  "How are they working out so far?"

Hannibal fought the impulse to sigh.

"I must confess, it's difficult to tell," he said with a frown.  "Their personalities have taken on additional characteristics since they inhabited the K'thik bodies."

"Additional characteristics?" Felix repeated with a frown of his own, clearly confused.  "We're not talking Risen abilities here, are we?"

"No, no, nothing like that.  More like they're remembering what they once were, and how they got to their present state."  Hannibal's frown grew.  "Tensions are already starting to appear between a couple of them."

Instead of being dismayed, as he was, Hannibal was surprised to see an excited smile appear on Felix's hawkish face.

"Fascinating!" the tesla breathed in amazement.  "I would've thought the new recruits would be experiencing some of the left over emotions, if they had any, of the K'thik essences that once inhabited those shells.  Not their own recovered memories!"

Hannibal felt an eyebrow lift of its own accord, amazing in itself since he hadn't actually had eyebrows for thousands of years and had almost forgotten what it felt like to have one move.

"Sounds like you've been thinking about this somewhat, Felix," he said and the tesla quickly nodded in confirmation.

"Ever since you returned in a K'ethik shell from that NADF base, my friend," Felix said with a smile.  "While the existence of paranormal phenomena is broadly accepted, thanks in great part to the Risen's own presence, I wouldn't have thought ghosts like you and your friends, could've existed.  Never mind having the power to possess bio-mechanical bodies sufficiently to actually control them."  He paused, shaking his head in disbelief now that he was thinking about it.

"Yet there they are, jogging along like slivers of quicksilver, undeniable in their existence."

Hannibal's head turned of its own accord until he too was watching the other six, now performing a series of jumps and squatting thrusts with their legs under Ceasar's instruction.

"Yes," he said somewhat distantly, his own thoughts returning to their earlier musings.  "There they are."

That earned him another quick look from the frowning tesla.

"It sounds like you have some uncertainties about this project of yours, general," Felix noted and Hannibal couldn't help his wry sigh in reply.

"Only in not knowing what exactly they'll be able to accomplish, Felix."  He looked over at the lean tesla.  "Not many were warriors in their previous lives.  And none of us have experience in fighting the kind of war your Max Niekro is now fighting against these aliens, these velkin."  He paused to look back at the exercising echos.

"If I was to give them one of your plasma rifles, I'm afraid they wouldn't know which end to point at the enemy!"  He looked down at the ground.  "Any warrior that doesn't know the tools of their trade in the fight they're in, will die.  That much I do remember from my former life."

"Yet none of those warriors were born with that knowledge," the German tesla deftly pointed out.  "You yourself were a great general in your other life.  Did you know in your cradle that you would be leading armies through the Alps to attack the Romans with elephants later in your life?  An attack that nearly won Carthage the Punic Wars and forever changed the landscape of the ancient world?"

"Of course not." Hannibal looked up and over at Felix.  "I was more interested in my wet nurse's teat than a sword at that point.  But I did start my martial training not long after that."

Felix abruptly grinned and pointed at Hannibal.

"Exactly.  You began your training."  He then pointed at the exercising echos.  "Just as your new recruits now need to begin their training.  Preferably by somebody who knows what they're doing.  While the best man for the job would've been Max, being a former soldier himself, our leader is somewhat busy planning and preparing for his next assault against the velkin.  However, ..." His voice trailed off thoughtfully as the tesla considered a couple options.

"I think I have just the fellow that can show your people what they need to know!"