Two

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          He looked around at the pool of moving colors as the band and teams were putting on their uniforms. The band members had blue pants and blue long sleeve shirts of a felt-like material. The blue was almost the same color as graduation robes. Over that they put an overlay. A sash of yellow-gold from their right shoulder to their left hip cut into the otherwise white overlay. Contained within the stripe of gold was the word Arramone, in all capital letters and in a navy blue, outlined by a thin line of white. The navy blue on the white made the letters look almost black.

          The flag team had similar colors. Their dresses, which barely reached a quarter down their thighs, were sparkly all over. From the right shoulder to the left of their waist was a 3 inch thick sash of reflective metallic gold sequins. Above the sash, the dress was white with sparkly 4-point stars evenly distributed throughout. The bottom was blue with frills towards the bottom.

          Then there was the drum majors. Their uniform was the same as the band members, but their overlay was sewn in and the only blue was the navy lettering on their sash. Wherever else the band uniform was blue, the drum major uniform was white. The drill team had the same uniforms as the drum majors, except that the pants and shirts were black instead of white. And any white on the sewn-in overlay save around the letters was black too. The gold sash was transformed to two 1 inch thick lines of gold. And the inside of that was all black around letters that were bright blue, which matched the blue pants and shirts of the band. The sea of blue, white, and gold was disturbed by the drill team’s black uniforms as they got dressed on the west edge of the crowd.

          “Mark time?” Mark called out.

          “5:10!” someone called from the crowd. The sea of people began to calm down and the volume of it increased.

          “Crystal!” Mark called. She appeared next to him out of nowhere.

          “You rang?” she inquired.

          “Hey, I think they’re finished getting dressed. I need to address the drill team and open up the vault and locker.”

          “All right!” Crystal turned as she spoke loudly, enunciating every word. “Band members, if you are dressed, grab your instrument and let’s go warm up outside!” She reached for the three maces next to the door.

          “Hang on!” Mark crossed to her in five swift strides. He held out his hand to drop two items into Crystal’s now outstretched palm. They looked like the BA devices called Bluetooths. “Two Airwire connections. One for you and one for Ligafte. Already tested. You know why these are important tonight.”

          “Thanks,” she said before herding the rest of the band members outside.

          “Drillers, gather round! Tonight will be a little different. The Omega procedures that you thought were useless will likely become very important tonight, so I hope you’ve all been paying attention during practice. Tonight, we are acting as security too.”

          “Why?” one of the first-years asked curiously.

          “Because rumor is that our worst rival in the area, Catrimon High, is planning for a takeover tonight. And the police don’t have the power needed to interfere with an attack by Catrimon, so they won’t even show up until after. They’re scared and forbidden to.”

          “But why Catrimon? We didn’t beat them last night. We beat Yantri Mati High,” one of the second-years said, obviously confused.

          “Us beating Yantri Mati was worse. We are now top in the nation. Which is why Catrimon wants to show some superiority over us tonight. Worse still, we know that they are one of the most powerful in the area. So all precautions are in place. The truck is  loaded, sniper nests are set above the booth, and in each of your rifles, in the back of the magazine are already three real bullets.” He started walking towards the instrument storage room.

 

          “Everyone gets a rifle, load two blanks into the magazine and then close the action.” He pulled a key out from around his neck and unlocked the wire cage door. He began picking up rifles, opening the actions, and passing them to his right one by one. When he finished, he took the rifle he was holding, loaded three blanks into it, and handed it to one of the other sergeants.

          “Open and reclose your action now to load the first blank. Safeties should be on for now. Lieutenants, grab a battalion shield. We’ll need all of them.”

          “Why are they so heavy?” a couple of lieutenants asked as they picked up the large chrome cast shields.

          “Because we actually loaded the semi-machines in this time. Remember what to do with them. You guys are a key part of the defensive offense. Our rifles, handguns, and snipers are nothing on their own against the manpower we’re expecting. Now, everyone grab an Airwire, put it in, and turn it on. Let’s test them one at a time.” He grabbed his own as he said this, as he had the Commanding Airwire. He could reach up and push a very small button to talk the others, but unlike them, also had a very small broadcast switch which allowed him to continually talk and be heard without pushing the button.

          Once they were all tested, he brought the high sergeants into the closet. He pushed the same key from the locker into the slot on the vault, keyed in a passcode, and then reached to turn the handle. Once open, he grabbed the thigh holsters and handed them out to the high sergeants. They were quiet as they cinched down the straps. He pulled out one of the Beretta 5mm pistols, grabbed one of the fully loaded magazines, and pushed it into the bottom. He handed it to Carter who continued to pass it. Once the process had been repeated three more times, Mark loaded one more and jammed it into his holster. They walked back out.

          “All right, remember, first-years go for cover and sniping nests. Only take the shot if you are for sure clear. Lieutenants, crack open the shields and empty them, then use them for cover as you wait for the truck. Once the truck arrives, find a weapon and use it. Second-years, stay close to a lieutenant unless directed otherwise. Sergeants, you know where the sidearms are hidden along the base of the bleacher tonight. There’s around 30 of them at even intervals, so you should have no problem finding one. Remember sergeants, you are the front line, defending the others. Now, let’s go! Move, move, move!” As they piled out the door, Mark quickly went back to the vault, which he’d left open. He grabbed an extra magazine and shoved it down into the side of his boot, grabbed his key, and turned off the lights of the closet. As he walked towards the exit, he paused to grab two more of the Airwires which he’d personally tested. Then as he briskly covered the rest of the distance to the exit, he pulled out his Beretta, pulled back the action, let it lock back forward with a satisfying click, and reholstered it. Tonight was the night to show everyone what he could do. He’d put everything into tonight. And it was time to shine.

          Outside, he gave an Airwire to Skylar and Hallia. He retrieved the mace he was supposed to use from Crystal and walked to the side of the building, out of view to relax for exactly twenty seconds. He was met there by Mr. Sabrinete, dressed in his police uniform.

          “Markus.”

          Mark took one look before saying, “I will do everything to protect her and keep her safe tonight, even if it costs me my life.” Then he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, Mr. Sabrinete was gone, and he headed around to rejoin the band, auxiliary, and drill. He reclaimed his rifle, but gave it to Hallia to hold. He walked to the head of the group, moved the whistle from around his neck to his mouth and blew once.

          He pushed the switch on his Airwire to broadcast before he said, “Attention! Shoulder arms! Guard formation!” As he did so, he moved from at-ease to attention, reaching to bring the head of the mace from his right hip to his left shoulder, then to push it back towards his right shoulder. Hallia was the only other one in front of the band. She stood to his right. The drum majors were behind them.

          “Flags! Shields up and fall in!” Hallia called out.

Now the band stood protected, drillers alternating with flag members up and down the sides and back of the band; soldiers with their rifles on the shoulder farthest out from the band, flag members with shields on the outside too.

          He repositioned his mace so it sat in his right hand, which was palm up. He raised the whistle again, blowing a whole note and four quarter notes, setting the marching time. taking off on what would have been a fifth quarter note, hearing the band play Cadence behind him. As they reached the entrance to the football field, he turned around, holding his mace up, parallel to the ground between both his hands. He repeated the whole note followed by four quarters on the whistle, except this time as he did the four, he stepped four times in place before stopping. The drum majors now turned around and did the same whistle pattern, but instead of stopping marching, which they already had, they stopped the band’s music.

          Still in broadcast mode, Mark called out, “Crowd control formation!”

          He and Hallia took ten steps forward.  Eight other drill team members and eight flag members stepped forth. He slipped the mace into the long sheath strapped onto his back as Hallia handed him his rifle. He opened and closed the action before turning the gun’s safety off. He then held it perpendicular to the ground using only his right wrist and leveraging his right palm against it. He held out his left arm and Hallia slid a shield onto it. The other driller and flag member pairs had followed suit. The flag members then all put shields on their own left arms and held their flags up in their right hands.

          “Remember, Lt. Jordan, you’re going to take a second year and a flag member and block off the path to the bleachers where the three foot wire fence divides the path to the field and the path to the bleachers. Sgt. Hammond, you’ll take a first year and a flag members and block off the path to the opponents bleachers.”

They now stood with a slightly more spread out guard and a triangle head of drillers and flag members. The shields were the flag team’s. The shields were inch thick metal, probably steel, covered in a blue paint. The fronts had a white letter outlined in gold or a white panther with blue eyes, golden insides of ears, and a golden collar. Lined up, the shields showed two panthers, ‘ARRAMONE,’ two panthers, ‘HIGH,’ and two more panthers.

He restarted the march as he had earlier. Except as the reached the middle of the driveway to the field he called out “Lower arms!”

          At this command the rifles and flags dropped down to create what looked very similar to the Roman infantry with shields locked and spears pointing out.

          As they marched, Hammond and his group broke off to the right to block off the side path. Then ten steps later, Jordan and two others broke to the left to block their path. The shields now said ‘Arramone High’ in all capital letters, without any panthers in it at all. They continued forward, approaching a couple of small crowds. They pushed straight through the first crowd, using the shields to push people back. The crowd dispersed. The second crowd was larger and refused to budge.

          “Don’t follow my lead,” he whispered into the Airwire on broadcast mode. Mark pulled the trigger of his rifle, firing a blank. The sound was enough to make the crowd disperse, the flash had the added effect of making the crowd move even faster, a favorable added effect. The band repeated the stopping process and then moved up to their section in the bleachers.