Imperium: Volume 1

I waited till the clock on the wall read 5:30 a.m. before I got up and made my way out to the hanger floor. Surprisingly there were quite a few people all ready up, and taking to their duties.

I walked around just looking over everything, and taking it all in. I still couldn't fathom the aspect of me being here. It was too surreal.

There was so many things I missed the first time. I didn't even notice the big gymnasium size room that peered off the hanger floor. I looked into the empty room, as the lights were on.

It was covered in mats in one area, and on the one end I could see practise targets, that were sprayed with bullet holes.

"Good morning June." Harry said as he walked up from behind.

"Good morning." I said.

"This is where we train." He told me as he saw my curiosity. "We have people of all types that we train in hand to hand combat, aswell as weapons training." He fell silent as I continued to canvas the room.

"Raeve tells me your quite skilled in hand to hand combat." He said.

"What else did he tell you?" It came out more bluntly than I wanted it to, but he answered.

"He told me you are a fighter, and would be a huge asset to us." I looked at him, as he too surveyed the room.

"I hope to be of value." There was no denying that.

"Perhaps, you can join us for our first session then?" He asked.

I looked at him and nodded.

"Excellent. Training starts at 7, so you have plenty of time to go have breakfast. I'll walk you to the main cafeteria." He said as he gestured back to the hanger.

He showed and told me some other aspects of the facility on the way to the cafeteria. The main part of the shelter was the hanger floor and housing units, but there were actually several floors below us, that consisted of offices, rooms delegated to mission planning, weapons storage, and a bunker room.

It only took a few minutes till we reached the cafeteria. Even though every unit had its own kitchenette, the cafeteria was always open to anyone, and I could already see a few people seated, enjoying a quite breakfast.

Harry was kind enough to give me the run around and helped me select my breakfast before someone came by requesting his assistance.

I took a seat and sat alone, while I dug into the assortment that rested on my tray. I forgot what most of it tasted like, as I was so used to eating such bland and tasteless food. I also managed to find some more lavender tea, which I let steep, to get the most flavour out of it.

"Can I join you?" Said a gentle voice.

I turned to see Bowdie, making her way around the table, taking a seat across from me.

"Your up awfully early." She said.

"I couldn't sleep." I looked over to her. "What's your excuse?"

"I have training today." She said as she indulged in her breakfast.

I just looked at her. She seemed so gentle I couldn't picture her fighting this war. She caught me looking around the cafeteria before she chimed in.

"He's not here." She said.

"Hu?" I said.

"Your looking for Raeve?" She asked.

I didn't think of it like that, but I would be lieing if I said I wasn't. He was the only person, thus far I spent a majority of the last few days with.

"He was asked to go somewhere late last night and hasn't returned yet. He should be here soon." She reassured me.

"What is it that he does?" I was curious.

"He's a scout." She said.

I just kind of looked at her like I knew I understood. She could tell I didn't though. She smiled.

"His ability allows him to go from one place to another at a moment's notice, so it comes in handy when we need to relay or retrieve information, or scout out places. He's gotten real good at it, and he basically works first hand alongside Harry." She informed me

"I see......and are you an Imperium aswell?" I asked.

"Nah, I'm afraid that gene skipped me, but our mother was a teleporter as well." She said without peering up.

I hung onto the word " was ".

I could tell it upset her bringing it up, so I quickly changed the subject.

"Harry asked me to join the training session this morning, so I suppose we will be training together." I told her.

She seemed to perk up at the idea.

"Really? Raeve told me all about you. He said he's never seen anyone move like you do." She said excitedly. "Perhaps you could show me a few moves?"

"Sure." I said with a grin.

She clapped her hands, and glanced at the clock. "We better get going! it's about to start."

She grabbed our trays and placed them on a receptacle, and waved me over to follow her to the training room.

We arrived just before the training session was to take place, so she had us on the mats, where we stretched with a few others who also showed up early.

There was a vast amount of people that ranged to women, men and Imperiums of all ages. I believe the oldest one looked to be 50, but he looked like he took care of himself. The youngest had to have been around 12. It was roughly around the time I started training, and I recognised the boy to being the one who was levitating the shipping crate from yesterday.

He looked focused, and so did Bowdie. Her gentle young adolescent side was now replaced with a more mature, serious nature. The clock struck 7 and in walked the instructor.

"Alright, listen up folks! Today's lesson is disarming your enemy." He had an assistant who walked with him to the mats holding a duffle bag. He set it down and pulled out guns and knives. Ones that looked much like mine.

"I need all of you to pair up and watch carefully! I'm only going to demonstrate it a few times, before I come around to see you individually. So pay attention. This can save your life." He said sternly.

They were same words that my father told me.

I went ahead and paired up with Bowdie. Each pair was handed a unloaded gun and a wooden knife for practise. We all then took a seat on the mat and watched as he effectively disarmed his partner, using several techniques, that I was all to familiar with.

Then he had us do it.

I held the gun first, as Bowdie tried to disarm me. Everytime, she tried the same move of just trying to grab the gun and pull it from my grasp. We ran through it several times before she started to look frustrated, and was on the verge of giving up.

"Bowdie, let me show you. If you are going to grab the gun, the number one thing you don't want is my finger still on the trigger." She was listening intently.

"If your ever in a position, where someone is holding a gun to your chest or face, quickly get a good foot hold. The second thing is not to panic or be over confident. It will be useless, if you do it in either of those states. This isn't something you want to screw up." I told her.

I held the gun up to her chest. "Now what I want you to do is take your dominant hand and grab the gun pushing it to the right of you, so it's no longer pointed at your person. We're just going to do it slow." She did so. "Then with your left hand grab my wrist. Then your going to twist my wrist as you twist your body to end up facing away from me." She looked nervous but she did so. "Now remember when your doing this next move, you'll be doing this alot faster and will have more momentum. But what you want to do is flip me over you, making me topple over onto the floor. Don't let go of my wrist. During this time, I will lose my grip on the gun and that's when you rip it out of my hand."

"Okay she said." And went back to the original position.

As I got ready to do it again I could see Harry standing next to the instructor, with their eyes on us.

"Okay Bowdie, you ready?" I asked her.

"Yes." She answered.

I got ready, and lunged forward holding the gun to her chest. Just like I showed her, she pushed the gun to the right, grabbing my wrist and twisting her body over, where she then threw me over to the ground, successfully disarming me.

"Good Bowdie!" I said to her.

"Ya!" She jumped up for joy as I got up.

"You forgot the most crucial part though." I told her.

"What?" She asked confused and disappointed.

"You forgot to shoot." I replied.

"Dammit! Ok Ok again." She said more confident.

As we got back into position I looked over and Raeve was now joined with Harry and the instructor. They were talking amongst themselves. Raeve was facing in my direction, while talking to them, but glanced over and grinned while still conversing. Then Harry called me over.

"June!" He yelled.

I excused myself from Bowdie and made my way over.

"June, I would formally like you to meet the instructor Davidson." He said.

"Nice to meet you." I said.

Davidson then interjected. "Where did you get your training June, If you don't mind me asking?"

"My father trained me sir." I replied.

He looked over at Harry then back to me. "How are you with a blade?" He then asked me.

"Bad ass." Said Raeve with a smile that was fixed on me.

"Interesting." Davidson went over to a table and grabbed two six inch blades, and made his way back over to me.

"Have you used one these before?" He asked.

He handed one to me.

"Yes." I answered.

"Excellent." He walked back towards everyone on the mat. "Everybody please pay attention. Our next lesson is on how to disarm an enemy with a blade. June will be demonstrating with me."

I quickly looked over to Raeve and Harry. Harry had his arms crossed over his chest intrigued, and Raeve had the biggest grin on his face.

I let out a deep breath. "Oh boy."