Whitecrest operatives teamed very well with SOR; they were small, quick, quiet, deadly, extremely perceptive, could go where the hulking SOR men could not. They were also well-versed in many tactics of subtle infiltration and maneuver, things someone like Warhorse or Righteous were neither trained in nor would be well-suited to perform.
But where did that leave Daar? He very much wanted to serve but he was in many ways the opposite of a Whitecrest such as Regaari; Stonebacks were large and hulking beings, extremely strong and enduring owing to their long history as laborers, equipped with much bigger and tougher claws and teeth from their long pedigree of security, protection, and warrior specialists…and it affected their attitudes as well. They were cunning and direct in their thinking. Admirable qualities for many purposes but not much use for a Whitecrest.
Which, when one thought about it, made a Stoneback—especially a truly exceptional specimen such as Daar—much like the SOR. But that being the case, what value does a Stoneback add to the team? Not even a legitimate freak such as Daar—one who could comfortably outperform most any strongman alive—quite compared against even the smallest men of SOR. At least, not in any functional capacity that really counted.
But then a funny thing happened. In their daily interactions with Daar where the SOR “felt out” his skill-set, they discovered Daar had an absolutely incredible nose, one much more sensitive than previous-champ Faarek’s. Was it due to his bigger nasal cavities? His larger head? Broader and deeper chest? Simple luck? No one quite knew, though both Whitecrest and Stoneback cubs were known for their excellent senses.
They learned this when Snapfire brought out some plastic explosives to “play” with. He was designing shaped charges for a demo project the next week, one to clear a large obstacle in the new expansion to HMS Sharman. Daar sat in the other end of the project room with Rebar, far away from the “safety” corner where projects such as Snapfire’s very small quantity of explosives could be properly handled.
Practically the moment Snapfire opened the packages, Daar paused, sniffed the air, then looked back over at the source of the smell.
“That smells like explosives. Three different kinds.”
Faarek piped up. “Hold on, you can smell the three separately? How?”
Daar furrowed his heavy brow for a moment. “Well, they all smell, uh, ‘sparkly’ I guess, like most explosives.” He approached as Snapfire watched warily, discreetly securing all but his working samples in their safety containers. “But that one—” he pointed at the C4 while standing a fair distance away, “—smells like tar, and a bit bitter. That one—” simple gunpowder, “Has an acrid smell. And that one—” a tiny wad of ANFO, “Just stinks terrible. Almost…rotten?”
Faarek approached with a bit more caution than Daar showed. With an approving nod by Snapfire, he sniffed each sample in great detail, nose practically on top of the sample.
“…yes, I can smell the things you describe. But you did so from across the room! How did you detect these undertones so quickly?”
Daar shrugged his big shoulders. It was a human gesture that had begun to thoroughly infiltrate Gaoian society. On most Gaoians—being fairly narrow across the chest—it was a subtle gesture. Not so on Daar. He was much broader and his shoulders were quite pronounced even beyond that. It still wasn’t like a human; Gaoian shoulders sloped down from the neck instead of jut out abruptly like a human’s would. This gave any Gaoian surprising strength on fourpaw but weakened them beyond a certain range of motion, the exact opposite of a human’s anatomy. But then again, upright labor was more amiable to tool use, giving a human a decided advantage. The laborers of Gao therefore needed to compensate for the less flexible shoulder with heavy development in their chest and upper back.
Or, in Daar’s case, just exercise to make everything bigger, apparently.
“I don’t know, Faarek. I’ve always had a very good nose. I heard tell once that it’s ‘cuz we Stoneback are bigger, but I dunno anything ‘bout that.”
The humans smiled. Daar was only beginning to learn English and so his translator—clipped to his tool harness, for Stonebacks were seldom found with implants—spoke for him. It had chosen an odd rendering for his voice. It was very deep, a match for his natural voice, had a bit of a “backwoods” idiom as the humans say, and carried a slightly Austrian inflection, whatever that meant. It never failed to amuse the humans and Daar didn’t seem to mind. He didn’t mind much anything.
“Hey Daar,” queried Snapfire, “You know much about demo?”
There was a pause as the translator deciphered the idiom and rendered it in Gaori. The word for ‘explosives’ was extremely and satisfyingly onomatopoeic.
Daar’s face lit up once that word was played back. “No! Are you going to teach me?” He bounced on the balls of his hind paws and wagged his tail, an emote so extremely canine it was impossible to remain stern-faced.
“Yeah, bud. We’re gonna do demo. Let’s go…introduce you to the toys. Can you promise to do only exactly what I say?”
“Yeah!”
“Heh, good Daar.” The joke was lost on him, or perhaps he did not care. Either way he growled happily and followed behind.
“Aww, I think Sikes made a new friend!”
“Bro,” said Titan, “If he’s good at demo…”
“Yup.” Rebar was already planning it out on his tablet. “I think we’ve discovered what Daar is for. Let’s go watch and make sure.”
One cleared range and twenty minutes later, Daar detonated his very first shaped charge. It was difficult to tell who was more pleased, he or Snapfire.
“That was amazing.”
“Mhmm.”
He pondered for a moment.
“You could reshape the landscape with little tools like that.”
All the Defenders grinned. “Yes, Daar. Yes you can. Let us teach you.”
He wagged his tail unconsciously.
12y AV
Entrance Evaluation, HMS Sharman, Folctha, Cimbrean
Champion Daar of Clan Stoneback
Evaluation day arrived for Daar. He needed to do well or he would be jeopardizing his chances in the Program, and possibly the chances of any future Stoneback. After all, while he was without question an extremely strong and capable being, and with SOR’s training he’d greatly improved his full-body strength in an astonishingly short time, his size had proven to be a bit of a liability on the obstacle course; not even his very impressive power could overcome his shoulders’ inability to rotate like a human’s.
This hurt his course time, and hurt it badly. While the Whitecrest were small and nimble and had ways to compensate, Daar did not. He needed to use muscle power to get through, and while strength solves many problems, it is frequently a poor substitute for other abilities.
Just this once, Daar willingly admitted to a small measure of envy of Regaari.
“You will do fine, Cousin. The obstacle course is not the only part of the evaluation. The run, ruck, and field maneuvers are equally important. I know you’ll do well. Look at how much you’ve already improved!”
Daar wished he shared that sentiment.
Up to that point, though, his introduction to the SOR had gone well. He, too, got his expectation-setting Zero Day. Like the Whitecrest Brothers he performed well and earned a rare smile and nod from Stainless. Not that he understood; mostly, he suffered under Warhorse’s unflinching eye, exercising until movement was an impossible agony, and then beyond. Warhorse knew exactly how to push a Gaoian to the very edge.
But after the first week he hardened up quickly. He was, after all, bred for precisely that type of activity, and his body responded, strengthening muscles with new movements and loads. Like the Whitecrest Brothers he already possessed the necessary drive and capacity to perform. And his Stoneback training had him at peak physical conditioning, which greatly shortened the time necessary to bring him up to standard. All they needed to do was get him used to performing under load and at battlefield maneuver, and trained and adapted to the basic tactics of human special operations. He learned quickly.
And so, barely more than a month into his ‘crash course,’ he faced the obstacles. Some of the obstacles were team events, so the Brothers agreed to re-run the course so Daar could challenge it properly. Together they stood in the late morning light, while he waited at the course’s starting line and gulped nervously.
Warhorse approached. “You ready? Good and warmed up?”
Daar head-ducked nervously. “I think so.”
“No, goddamnit, you are ready. You’re gonna fuckin’ smash this, y’hear?”
“…yes, training sergeant.”
“Good. Line up at the starting point. When you’re ready, begin.”
He paused, psyching himself up, and began. He knew two of the obstacles would severely challenge him so he ran between them with all the speed his impressive strength could muster. Seconds count, and he needed them all. His first obstacle was the Tough One, a rope-net and balance challenge that tested his sense of balance. Next was Slide for Life, which was easy, then the Confidence Climb…one can see a theme developing. Virtually every obstacle involved climbing of some kind. Most were fairly simple for a Gaoian; claws could grip, and Gaoians were actually quite good climbers.
The Skyscraper was his first real challenge. In that obstacle, there were a series of open floors, and the goal was to climb up each along the supporting poles. That required one wiggle up a pole then haul themselves onto the landing above, preferably with teamwork to speed the challenge. And that, right there, was the difference between a Gaoian and a human. For a human, it’s easy: grab the lip of the above floor, swing up, and flip over. For a Gaoian that is nearly an impossible move. And what’s worse, once they reached the top, they needed to climb back down in reverse.
Even with the Whitecrest helping it took a worryingly long time. By the time he reached the top his shoulders and abs were aching and he still needed to get back down. And by the time he was at the bottom it felt like his torso was on fire.
Oh well. Medicine awaited him at the end. He ran at full speed towards the next. Next was Belly Robber, painful but easy, then Tarzan. This was the absolute worst of them all, as it required overhead swinging. A Gaoian simply could not do this with their body hanging down, like a human. Instead their body must hang forward, a very difficult bit of gymnastics for human or Gaoian alike, and quite nearly impossible for all but the fittest specimens.
Daar was certain he had a hernia. Onward, no slowing down.
The remaining obstacles were all balance-oriented and therefore not a genuine challenge, especially since fourpaw movement was permitted. A blessing, since Daar was well behind his clock. Ignoring pain, he charged across the remaining obstacles, hopping over and across logs and beams, jumping between stumps and making quick work of the silly x-rope jumping pads.
The end! In absolute pain and exhaustion he charged with what remaining reserves he had and zoomed across the finish line like a freight train, practically tumbling to a finish. He panted, desperately, growling in pain as Warhorse ambled up.
“You beat your last time by six seconds, bro. That’s a full fifteen seconds under time. Congrats!”
Daar weakly acknowledged the praise, too tired to even feel relief.
‘Horse, meanwhile, handed him a sports drink and a Crue-D patch. “Rest up. You need to start your run in two minutes.”
It would be a long, painful day.
“How is he?”
“In pain and passed out.”
“How did he do?”
“Well, altogether pretty good. The obstacle course really kicked his ass but we were expecting that. The rest? Actually, I’d say above expectation.”
Major Powell did not agree. “Eh, I’d say he was sluggish at the end.”
“True,” responded Arés, “But that’s because we were quite intentionally hard on him.”
“Aye, and the Whitecrest lads woulda done better.”
“And they’ve also had almost seven months of very intensive training, sir. Daar’s just barely begun.”
Powell considered. “It’s risky. I’d rather he had more time to get up to speed. Dropping him straight into advanced tactics could prove a mistake.”
The men nodded, but Adam pressed his case. “It’s a calculated risk, sure, but it’s also an opportunity. We need to see how these very different Gaoians perform together. If nothing else it’s good intel.”
Nodding all around the room. “Very well. He moves forward, but he is not to slack on his training. I expect you will push him as hard as is reasonable.”
Burgess and Arés both chuckled darkly. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”