Arda's Flag Ch. 1: Where We Begin

Hi! This is my first try at publishing this story, which I've been working on for two years. I would like to know if you think that too much information is contained in this first chapter, and weather the MC's description is good.

Chapter 1: Where we begin.

“Protocol One mandates that every Arma is to obey all orders that they are given to humans. Protocol Two mandates that every Arma that disobeys can and will be punished as severely as the offended deems necessary, and can, if they wish, condemn them to capital execution. Protocol Three mandates that in no way are Arma allowed to rebel against the control of the South-World NATIONS, every and all attempt of inciting rebellion, or beginning rebellion, will be punished with capital execution. Protocol Four mandates that in no occasion are Arma allowed to speak their language, speak of their culture or speak of their religion.”

The sun was high in the sky as the seventh sector Armi, about twenty people, repeated the protocol, as they had been instructed to do. While the troops repeated it, in the center of the clearing in front of the South-World NATIONS High Quarters, an Arma was being punished for having violated the First Protocol. A NATIONS officer, dressed in the green and white uniform of the tyrannical company, was whipping him, while three others, armed with rifles, ensured that none of the others tried to rebel or assist their companion. But the three men were not there to stop eventual uprisings, but as a dare, a dare to the Armi to start an uprising, which, everyone knew, would be contained immediately. A dare, so that the NATIONS could show off their power over them again.

“Hey, you! 814!” shouted one of the men, “you were ordered to recite the protocol along the others.”

Kira Arda, number 814.1117, had stopped reciting the protocol. She was enraged by the punishment his companion was being put through, and infuriated at the NATIONS, and most of all by the dare they had sent her, the dare that was the three men who were supposed to show they have complete control upon her and her people. Her eyes met briefly with the man, and she saw the look she adored to see. Barely concealed terror was etched on the man’s face, who was probably a rookie and had never faced her before, she who was the most famous Arma in history for her abilities in the battle field, and he had every right and every reason to be scared. To her, that moment was perfect: the NATIONS’ soldier, who was supposed to be high and mighty, had been scared by the simple fact that she had stopped singing along, and Kira had let him know, in that fraction of a second where their eyes had met, his green coming in contrast with her deep, blood red, that she was not his pawn. She hated the humans' eyes, just a round black hole in the middle of a single iris, while the Armi had two different irises, and their pupils were slits, much more elegant. Satisfied with the effect she had obtained, Kira tore her eyes away from the man, faced her companion and restarted the protocol, while the voices of the Armi mingled with the sharp crack of the whip and the shouts of pain of the one who was being punished.

“So what did Reean do this time?” asked Kira half an hour after the moment she and the soldier had broken off their stares. She and the others were now allowed to take the punished away to his room or the infirmary and then they were to restart the activities that they were engaged in before.

“Think he said something offensive to the officers in the battle field. How he managed to get only forty, I do not know,” answered Hessie. Kira held much respect for this man. He had saved the lives of many Armi in the battlefield, and was known for his work in the Raef city, where he originated from, but was then brought to the High Quarters, where all the best would go. He was tall and very handsome, his long blond hair tied in a ponytail.

“Wasn’t that a week ago?” said Kira.

“Yes, but they didn’t have time to do it then, they were preparing for the arrival of the President.”

“No time to punish and mock us?”

“Apparently the president’s arrival was on their priority list.”

“They just want to save their faces. The president isn’t an important figure anymore, they took everything over now, they’re even more powerful than he is. And they have us. If someone tries to say something is wrong with what they do, they threaten them with us, and then we have to kill them. Bastards.”

“Careful what you say Kira. You don’t want to be punished as well, especially since being weak in the battlefield isn’t helpful. When are you going?”

“I don’t care, let them. They won’t kill me anyway. I’m leaving in one week, if the A team doesn’t come back late. All the time in the world to recover.”

“I see. And Jack?”

“Jack’s on the A.2 team. I’ll meet him there and then we’ll finish the operation together.” They reached Reean, who was lying on the floor in a puddle of his own blood, his back bright red, the only color that Armi could see.

“A rebel, in the place where he belongs.” said Hessie lowering himself to Reean.

“Shut it, Hessie,” he answered, “that bastard. I hope he dies by the hands of demons.”

“We all do. So where do we take you, room or Infirmary?” said Hessie, helping Reean to his feet along two others, Vier and Janrea.

“Don’t ask stupid questions.” he answered sharply, his face grimacing with pain.

“The room it is then.” for the Armi, going to the infirmary was a perfectly legal option, but after having received a punishment, having the option of going there was just another dare of the NATIONS. No Arma would ever take that choice, instead they would let their companions patch them up in the rooms. So they accompanied him back inside, and climbed up to the fourth floor.

The HQ was enormous, as it was the base where the NATIONS operated, which was not only in charge of the military, but also of every energy source in the South-World. Half of the first floor was accessible to the public, the second half was for workers who operated in the computer rooms which divided equally the energy source for all of the cities in the country. While the second, third and fourth floors were strictly prohibited to people who were not an Arma or NATIONS soldiers. On the second the administration would deal with assigning missions to the soldiers, while the third floor was mission control on the left side, and the infirmary was on the right, and the fourth was the floor for the Armi, with a common room and the personal rooms divided by sector. As the twenty Armi marched to the front doors and entered the building, the sparkling white floors were stained by Reean’s blood, the human soldiers mocked them and laughed. Kira had never understood why they acted this way, while they knew full well that with one blow they could send them in a world of pain, and it only made her hate humans more. She hated their language, their bodies, their eyes and above all, the thing that every Arma feared, the fact that they were tailless, which made them equal to what they called demons. She resisted the urge to shout at them, and moved on, entering the elevator with the glass doors. A few minutes passed until they reached the fourth floor, and when the doors opened, they found the main room empty, as always. It was very big, and everything had the NATIONS’ sign on it, from the chairs to the walls. Seven doors lead to the rooms belonging to the Armi, each with a golden plate reading the number of the sector.

“Forty times huh? That breaks your record mate. Congrats!” said Vier once thy reached the rooms belonging to the seventh sector Armi, and helped Reean on his bed. Vier was the source of entertainment of the seventh sector; a mumbling idiot who only told bad jokes and who managed tripped in every possible way. Pity for the enemies that he wasn’t like that in the battlefield. The others had decided to give two different names, Vier in normal occasions where he was the idiot everyone loved, and Vierveiss while in the battle field, when he was a cold blooded killer, only rivaled by Kira herself. The sharp contrast between the two was almost frightening, but by now they had gotten used to it, and Vier had accepted his battle name with excitement. It was a subtle reference to his being a rebel, for veiss meant killer in the Armi’s language, and just mentioning it, as he said, broke the protocol, broke the NATIONS control on him.

“Well it’s quite evident that you’re still a rookie. I’m at sixty-five.” said Deistrie. He was probably the one that had been on the seventh sector longer, and the oldest of the group, nearly 44 years old. He was a vast man, very intimidating, but quite gentle, even though he could be ruff at times. A discussion broke out on who had received the most number of whips, while Kira watched Reean’s angry red wounds, who was weekly smiling now that the conversation had become more exiting.

Kira was lost in thought as the conversation went on, and didn’t even notice Janrea, the Arma medic, returning with some bandages and starting to tend to Reean. The Armi were like family, fighting to help each other, trying to hide the terror that the sight of reality brought: they were a species that had been brought away from their land, forced to fight the pointless war of the tailless beasts, and they were under their control, out gunned, outnumbered, out powered, and there was no way to escape. They could only obey orders, and she had been obeying orders, but her rage could not be contained for long, and the idea of rebellion was now, more than ever, the direction she was willing to follow. She and Jack had already started the rebellion in fact, from inside, helping the young Armi who were made NATIONS soldiers escape the prison they called base, and outside the rebels of the Ezra line would help them return to the Armi that were still free. The Ezra line was the last strand of hope that the Arma had, and that was why it was named Ezra, which meant hope in their banned language. Humans could not go there because of certain plants that created toxic gas that would kill every person, but the Armi were immune to it. The final strand of resistance was located there, but it was destined to fall unless someone attacked the NATIONS from the inside. And Kira, and all the Armi who had nothing else to lose, were quite willing to do so, her plan was nearly complete. And when it would be time to rise, they would have her to give her either freedom, or death, no midway agreement, because someone was going to lose, and she was going to die free, and they would die as demons. The exchange of information was hard however within the walls of the HQ, and the only time they were not being closely listened was in the battlefield, where there were other problems to think about, like staying alive.

“But you said eighty-five, isn’t that the record for the seventh sector?” asked Reean

“Nope.” answered Vier

“The record is held by none other than Kira Arda here, who got up to one hundred and fifty-six.” said Deistrie. Kira’s thoughts were interrupted as she heard this last piece of conversation.

"One hundred and fifty-six? How did you do that?” he asked.

“You grit your teeth.” she said, her deep, dull voice sounding through the room.

“What on earth did you do to get that much? And why that number? I thought they always ended in either five or zero.”

“Well, the same as you really. Didn’t agree with stuff that humans were saying on the battlefield, so I didn’t do what they told me. When I came back, they condemned me to one hundred and fifty-five. That bastard who was punishing me wanted to go on, I think his name was Weiss, but some other soldier stepped in and said that if he gave me another one I would have died. A dare, another stupid dare that the NATIONS set up. So I told Weiss to give me another one, just to prove them wrong. And so they were one hundred and fifty-six.” she finished. Reean was astounded, and Deistrie was smiling happily.

“Well kid, aren’t you glad you have someone like that on the team.” he said. Reean didn’t answer, as he was still astounded. He had joined the seventh sector a month ago, and Kira could remember him trembling as he shook her hand. Her reputation as great fighter was renowned, but it had done her more harm than good: humans were terrified of her, and that was perfect on her terms, but the Armi had also heard that she was terrible, so it was as if she was evil towards everyone, while her hate was really only towards humans. She loved and cherished her people, and she would never dare lay a finger on them.

“I have to go. I need to see if we have news about the A team.” she said bidding the others fare well and heading down the stairs and into the control room, where she found the A team was not late, but early. Her mission would start in four days.

Back in the seventh sector room Reean was still curios on what Kira had done to get herself into so much trouble.

“But what could she possibly have done that bad? I didn’t obey orders either, but I didn’t go through that.”

“Well… it’s a little more complicated than that.” said Vier.

“Tell me!”

“She was on a mission in the Heat Line, and the enemy got their hands on Jack, who you haven’t met yet, he’s been out for a mission for nearly two months now. Anyway, the enemy took him and tortured him for information. The leader of the expedition, a human like always, said that they should wait and see if the HQ allowed the assault.”

“And Kira didn’t agree with him, so she assaulted anyway?”

“Yes, but before assaulting, she killed the leader, along with every human on the team, and then saved Jack.”