Two teenagers faced each other. The redhead was just a centimetre taller than the sorcerer.
"Anri."
"Soren."
"..."
"..."
Their interaction was a bit awkward after the rough beginning they'd had.
"Mention my forehead and this temporary partnership will end."
"You're the one bringing it up," Anri replied as he scanned the crowd for two more potential team members.
Small scattered groups of individuals were forming all around them. He noticed that a four-member group made up of very athletic looking teens had already created a team. They were speaking in hushed tones to each other. Anri was going to eat his shirt if those teens weren't already acquainted before the battle.
One of the four noticed Anri staring in their direction and he smiled at the sorcerer in a distinctly unpleasant manner. Rather than get intimated or look away, Anri kept staring at him till it got uncomfortable for the other guy.
"I think we should ask that dude to join us," Soren pointed to a tanned shirtless teenager with thick muscles. He looked big and dumb.
"Then go ask him," Anri replied.
"Huh? Why me?"
Anri was good at many things; many, many important things. But being friendly and convincing people into letting their guards down around him weren't high on the list of his people skills. Then again, his redheaded companion was just as offensive as he was while also being loud and annoying. And that made him worse than Anri.
"I'm not great at talking to people," Anri confessed.
"No shit, captain obvious," Soren replied but there was no bite in his tone. "Seems like it's up to me to save your ass for a second time." Soren stood up and rolled his shoulders like he was getting ready for a fight.
"Oi, look whose coming towards us," the redhead said to Anri in a whisper.
The sorcerer glanced in the direction that Soren was looking. Nova, followed by a small pack of boys, was marching their way. She looked pissed.
"Hey, can I join you two?" She asked as soon as she reached them.
"No," Soren immediately replied.
Anri remained silent.
"No?"
The answer was refreshing to Nova. She desperately wanted to get away from the simps who wouldn't leave her alone. The young lady had known that the decision to join the military was going to cause her grief but her patience was running out faster than she'd anticipated.
"Why though?" She asked the redhead who wasn't pleased to have her around.
Soren rolled his eyes at the beauty. "It's cause you're Nova fucking Ainsworth. You're like a beacon to the enemy. Don't you know that you're not supposed to look conspicuous on the battlefield? It draws fire." As hot as Nova was, Soren's desire to get admitted to Starfield was stronger than his desire to flirt with the beauty. He was throwing away a chance that any one of his simp friends would have given their lives to experience.
"You're right," Anri added thoughtfully. "But in this case, we can use her as a shield against the enemy." The sorcerer was hoping that the enemy simps would hesitate to attack her directly.
Nova was caught off-guard by Anri's words but she wasn't really offended by the treatment she was getting from the two teenagers. They were carelessly talking about her as if she wasn't there listening to them.
"A shield? You mean we throw her to the simps when they're chasing us?"
Now that wasn't a bad idea either.
"Only if there are more people than we can take on in a fight," Anri replied.
Soren wasn't fully convinced but he relented after a few more words from Anri. The redhead then looked at the young girl whose amber eyes were golden red in the light of the setting sun. She was breathtaking and he blushed just a little bit. "Can you use your feminine wiles to aid us?"
Nova had trained with her father and his colleagues while growing up. She had so much to offer to the team and it disappointed her that Soren had already relegated her to honey trap duty.
"Fine," she replied. "So, am I in?"
"Yes," Anri responded. "Welcome to the team Nova. I already have an assignment for you." The sorcerer pointed at the shirtless teenager who still hadn't found a team to join. "Go recruit him."
_____
Their fourth member was called Jason. Nova had to only say a few words and he was already following behind her like a pup. Now the four of them were standing as a group and watching the first team enter the boneyard.
"Memorise the order of colours that are going in," Anri whispered to his teammates. The colours weren't there just to act as markers for the team. Any group that didn't realise this was already doomed. The battle hadn't started but the test had begun.
Two men in uniforms were handing out black zip vests to each team. Coloured Velcro patches the size of a fist adhered to the back of the vests. They had been told that only one team member would be carrying the number tag under the velcro patch and that the distribution was randomised so no one would know who was actually carrying the tag. This was going to make it harder to eliminate a team.
The intelligent ones would realise that the tags could be taken off and swapped as long as the enemy didn't catch sight of the number, while the less astute ones would be fooled by rule number three. Even the information about the randomised distribution of vests was given to add more confusion. It wasn't a very clever ploy but there were some overthinkers in the mix of intelligent people, and the military didn't want them.
"Why memorise it?" Jason asked. "Does it have something to do with the code?"
"How else are we going to order the number tags if not by colour? They serve a specific purpose," Nova answered. "Unless we find another clue pertaining to the code, this is probably it."
Soren looked at her like he was impressed she wasn't as dumb as her peers. He'd seen quite enough of entitled stars and starlets acting like the world owed them a favour.
"Time to go," Anri told his teammates. Only two colours had, so far, entered the boneyard. The two teams were standing beyond the wire mesh fencing, waiting to see the order of colours going in.
Soren wanted to protest the decision to enter so early but he followed Anri. The redhead had come to notice that Anri was smarter than him and probably knew better.
"Thank you," Nova politely told the uniformed man who handed her a vest. She was the last to accept the vest on her team. They were the fourth team and wore purple tags.
"Now what?" Soren asked after they'd crossed over to the other side.
"Now we leave and get into a position of advantage," Anri replied. "I'll hide behind one of the piles of junk and keep an eye on the colours while the three of you stick together and scout out places where we may have to play hide and seek."
The sixth team was already inside and the situation was going to get chaotic the moment the last team entered. Anri wanted to conserve their energy and wait it out till the other teams eliminated each other.
He was aware that the other groups would think of the same strategy; but there was no rule that forbade an eliminated team from refusing to hand over the collected tags or hiding them in the massive piles of junk. Anybody who wanted the code would then know that the best strategy was going on the offensive right from the start and ending the battle as soon as possible. Anri refused to believe that the examiners actually expected anyone to get the code.
From what information he had read about the boneyard, the entire place stretched out for miles from end to end. Any one team could decide to sabotage the test by playing hide and seek till everyone was tired and fed up. For Anri, this had a lot of implications about the truth of what qualities were actually being assessed.
"Are you sure?" Nova asked with some concern. "You won't mix up the colours?"
"There's no need to worry," Anri assured her. "Hurry and leave but don't go too far. I'll find you guys soon."