Iron Prince: A Progression Sci-Fi Epic (Warformed: Stormweaver Book 1)

by Bryce O'Connor

  No eyes, however, seemed to follow him half as much as those of Aria Laurent.

  Between the two of them, Rei and Viv had caught the C-Ranker scrutinizing him almost daily, sometimes in passing glances, sometimes frowning at him with such intensity Laurent might have been trying to read his mind. Even Viv wasn’t free of her gaze, of late, with Catcher swearing up and down he’d seen the girl watching her on the occasions he and Viv had had to eat without Rei, typically when he took the lunch hour to study or try to find better combat simulations to improve his use of Shido’s claws. It had been a bizarre enough feeling knowing several pairs of eyes were always trained on his back whenever he wasn’t locked away in the suite, but for the top first year to have taken such a poorly-hidden interest in him made Rei feel something between excited and self-conscious.

  “Now, there is a very important distinction that is made in neural interruption, particularly when it comes to the simulation of cerebral and spinal injuries. Let’s see… Laurent. Can you tell me what that distinction is?”

  Speak of the devil, Rei thought as the lieutenant major posed his question.

  Aria Laurent had taken a place separate from the others on the far end of a row two aisles up from him and Viv. Ordinarily it might have been odd for Rei to know exactly where another member of the class had placed themselves on any given day, but as the red-headed girl’s scrutiny of him had increased, so had his awareness of her. She sat with her back straight and her cap in perfect place, and answered Markus promptly.

  “Yes, sir. At its broadest definition, the distinction is typically classified by a separation of the autonomic and somatic nervous systems, allowing neural interruption to solely affect voluntary motor function and somatosensory input.”

  “Yes. Precisely. Now, if we are to consider—”

  Rei wasn’t listening again, still studying Aria Laurent as she returned to taking notes. He couldn’t claim it completely baffled him. Catcher had stated it best on their first day at school, when he’d said that no one at Galens was going to be any kind of idiot. Rei could understand some notice of him on the C-Ranker’s part, particularly following Shido’s second evolution.

  But Laurent’s interest seemed so much so that even now, as he watched her, he caught her green eyes flick towards him, then away again. They hadn’t spoken a word to each other—not in the month since the Commencement match—and yet her observation of him only appeared to be growing more and more intense with each passing week. He supposed he should have been grateful, really. Unlike Logan Grant, Laurent’s position at the top had made her somewhat unapproachable. She was always on her own. In class, in training, at the dining halls. It wasn’t that she gave off any sort of unfriendly vibe, but rather that she just seemed… unattainable. Like sitting down to have a normal conversation with her wasn’t something just anyone could do. Even if Grant caught up to her rank again, Laurent still had her Third Eye, an Ability that simply outclassed anything any other first year cadet could bring to bear on the field.

  In the end, if anyone was going to be watching him as carefully as Aria Laurent, Rei supposed he could count it a good thing she wasn’t likely to have ample opportunity to gossip about whatever she deduced.

  Thump.

  Viv’s kick under the desk had him jump, and Rei finally tore his eyes off of Laurent to glare around at his best friend. He was about to demand what she wanted when a booming voice cut him off.

  “Cadet Ward.”

  Rei jerked and snapped about in his seat. John Markus was watching him with narrowed eyes, and by the looks on the faces of every student in the rows before him and Viv—all turned in his direction in their seats—it was apparent the lieutenant major had been attempting to get his attention for several seconds already.

  “As on-point as Laurent’s answer was,” the officer said steadily, his voice threateningly calm, “I hardly considered it fascinating enough to deserve your gaping at her for a minute after the fact.”

  Rei felt his face go red, and more than a few laughs broke out all around him this time. Even Viv had to fight off a smile, he could tell, seeing her bring one hand to her mouth as she, too, sat rigidly beside him.

  “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir,” he got out tightly. He wasn’t sure what else to say, but apparently his apology didn’t satisfy the department head, because the young instructor pursed his lips.

  “If you were so intrigued by her response, then perhaps you would like to expand on it? Would you tell me, for example, how exactly the neural differentiation is decided, and why it is so important?”

  Rei brightened immediately. “Yes, sir. As far as we are aware, opponents’ Devices use a combination of neuron types and information provided by your own CAD to identify how and where to interrupt. I.e.: C- and A-Delta axons for pain and pressure sensation, A-Alpha and Gamma for muscular function, et cetera. As Cadet Laurent said, however, the most important distinction comes in a separation of what neurons work for the autonomic versus somatic nervous system. It would be a disaster if a blow to the head had a User’s heart stop, or kept them from breathing, for example.” He hesitated, then added: “Or if getting run through the stomach made you lose bowel control in front of your entire incoming class.”

  The laughs this time were his to claim, and he barely stopped himself from grinning himself as Markus blinked at him slowly, clearly unamused.

  “Correct, cadet,” the officer said after a moment. “Now imagine how much more impressed I would be with that answer if you hadn’t spent the entire class switching between ogling Laurent and watching the Venus SCTs with Arada under your desk.”

  There was an immediate scrambling of motion at this, with Viv’s quick dropping of Rei’s pad not being the only such panicked flinching. All around the class people were hissing along with the sounds of tablets being turned off or stowed away, and it was with an expression of gratified triumph that John Markus returned to his lecture, leaving Rei just one of many embarrassed students.

  An hour later the tone of the period ending said that the morning courses were done, and the lieutenant major called out over the bustle of almost thirty cadets gathering their bags and starting to make for the door. “Don’t forget that your afternoon training sessions have been canceled, and all students are to report to the Arena at 1300 for a special assembly. Also, I expect your papers on the anticipated evolutionary pathways of your Devices by next Wednesday.”

  There were a scattered chorus of affirmations from the class—Markus was rather lax on demanding appropriate military decorum from his students—before they all filed out of the room, heading for the building lobby. Once outside, Rei and Viv both had to grab hold of their cap brims when a hefty gust of wind cut across the grey of the stormy September day, forcing them to bow their heads against an inconsiderate wash of rain.

  “You’d think that after two hundred years of developing CAD technology they’d have figured out a way to turn a Device into an umbrella!” Viv shouted as they joined the others to move as one towards the mess hall.

  “I’d take just being allowed to run in this!” Rei answered her, making a face as he felt water trickle down his neck.

  “Try it!” she laughed in answer. “I promise I definitely won’t send you lots of pictures of my hot lunch when the first staffer who catches you makes you bear-crawl a lap around the school in this crap.”

  Rei chuckled, but said nothing more, letting himself be swept along in the huddled misery of the others. At one point he caught Sense’s eye, the bald cadet mouthing a more colorful version of “Screw this!” as he pointed at the sky, which Rei agreed with several fervent nods. Kay Sandree stood beside the Brawler, and Rei saw her looking accidentally, watching what had been a small frown turn into a bright smile as she waved.

  It really wasn’t just Laurent he had to worry about, he supposed…

  They made the mess hall in a few minutes, but that short walk was still enough to see them all soaked to their underclothes. F
ortunately, the moment they stepped inside the group was met by several of the service drones who ordinarily cleaned up after the students, and 1-A formed a few fast lines so that the bots could pass over them in quick succession with ion scanners, instantly heating and vaporizing all excess water from their clothes. Viv actually sighed in relief when she was dried off, joining Rei where he’d waited for her before heading for the back of the hall. “As crap as their rules are, can’t say the perks aren’t worth it, right?”

  Rei chuckled, and would have agreed had he not just caught sight of Catcher waving them down from the start of the automated food line.

  “Hey,” he greeted their roommate as they approached. “You didn’t have to wait for us, you know.”

  “Like I would have,” Catcher answered with a mock scoff, grabbing a trio of trays from the dispenser behind him and handing them out. “I just got here. Oraculum took down Hanson Frost in about five minutes, but there were a bunch of great fights on the card after that one. Did you guys get to catch any in class?”

  “Most of the Oraculum match, but then Rei got us all caught by ‘ogling’ Laurent,” Viv answered with a snigger, taking the lead ahead of the other two.

  Rei rolled his eyes and explained himself in answer to Catcher’s confused look. “Turns out the lieutenant major knew a bunch of us were watching the tournament the whole class. He just got annoyed when I got distracted.”

  “Distracted by… Laurent?” Catcher asked, putting his tray down on the rolling belt of the dispensary and starting to punch his order into a menu that displayed itself across the smart-glass shield covering the food. As soon as he was done a half-dozen automated arms began rapidly pulling his selections from the varied platters of offered food to deposit them one after the other on the tray.

  “Yeah—I mean no.” Rei glared at Viv as he completed his own order right behind Catcher. “Dammit! This is how rumors get started!”

  Viv giggled again, already at the end of the line to pick up her laden lunch as it rolled out the other side of the covering. “I wasn’t the one caught staring, Romeo.”

  “Whatever,” Rei grumbled, watching his turkey breast and Brussels sprouts get piled onto a plate beside each other before getting placed in the middle of his tray. Deciding to change the subject, he turned to Catcher. “Any idea what this ‘special assembly’ is about, by the way? It doesn’t sound like anyone was expecting it when we got our schedules Sunday.”

  “Not a clue,” the blond cadet answered with a shrug, picking up his food to step out of the way and wait with Viv. “There’s a rumor that Captain Dent is going to announce a field trip to some old ruin called ‘the Colosseum’ on Earth, but it sounds like bull to me.”

  “Has to be,” Rei snorted, finally collecting his tray and moving to lead the way towards their favorite table near the edge of the atrium, thankfully still vacant. “The Colosseum got mostly demolished about thirty years ago to make way for Rome’s population expansion.”

  Silence greeted this statement from behind him, and Rei shook his head. He could imagine his companion’s stares of empty disinterest.

  Viv finally broke the quiet as they reached the table and claimed their usual seats. “If it’s nothing special, then… It’s got to be an announcement about the Intra-School SCT, right?”

  Rei and Catcher both paused, staring at Viv in half-astonishment, half-realization.

  “Why are you guys looking at me like you can’t believe I said it first?!” she demanded in a huff.

  “Cause you’re supposed to be the ditz of our happy little company,” Catcher was the first to jab back with a grin, taking up his utensils. “If you start being the most on the ball, who’s gonna be our stereotypical blonde friend? It sure as hell isn’t about to be Rei.”

  “Meaning it would probably be the only person sitting at this table whose actually blond, jerk!” Viv growled, Catcher’s enjoyment of her indignation only adding gas to the fire.

  “If you’re gonna fight, can I at least finish my lunch first?” Rei quipped, tugging off a hunk of turkey with his fork before leaning over the table a little to point it at Viv. “But seriously. That’s probably it, isn’t it? The tournament’s in the second quarter?”

  “With Sectionals in the third, and Globals and above happening in the fourth and over the summer, yeah.” Viv nodded, her disgruntlement apparently appeased by the shift back to the subject at hand. “That gives us… What? Seven weeks?”

  “Six,” Catcher barely managed to say through a mouthful of mashed potatoes. “I guess—” he paused, deciding swallowing was better than struggling. “I guess it makes sense. They’ll probably want to start us on squad-format training sooner rather than later…”

  Beside him, Rei choked, coughing until Viv snagged a glass of water from a passing service drone and handed it over.

  “Squad-format?” Rei finally got out after he’d successfully avoided demise-by-sprout. “I didn’t know there’d be squad-format events in the Intra-Schools!”

  “Cause there won’t be,” Catcher assured him over his shoulder, taking a water for himself from another bot. “Team Battles and Wargames only start at Sectionals, and each school is only allowed to bring three squads, of which at least half of the members have to be individual qualifiers.”

  “Wait, really?” Viv asked, clearly only hearing of this for the first time.

  Catcher nodded.

  “But… That means aside from the sixteen school champions, up to another nine could be participating in squad events.” Viv looked astonished by this revelation. “That’s almost a fifth of our entire class…”

  “Which gives our lovely instructors ample excuse to start training as soon as possible, not to mention the hard-on Dent has for preparing us for live combat. Users are formed into teams on the front lines, too.”

  Leaving the two to their discussion, Rei chewed and studied the table as he thought. He’d never really contemplated Team Battles and Wargames much. He loved watching them on the feeds, and knew they were the more popular format outside of high-profile A- and S-Ranked Duels, but combat tournaments in prep school had been all one-on-one bouts, and never more. He wondered what it would be like, fighting a full group.

  And alongside a full group…

  He grinned to himself, shoving more turkey into his mouth, deciding it would probably be nothing short of awesome.

  “Wait, they are?”

  Rei looked up, having lost track of the conversation.

  “Yeah,” Catcher was confirming for Viv. “Everyone who goes.”

  “They’re what?” Rei asked. “Everyone who goes where?”

  “Catcher’s saying everyone who goes to Sectionals is allowed to participate in the Dueling events,” Viv said, sounding further surprised. “Even the ones who only go as part of a team.”

  “Oh. Yeah.” Rei nodded to second Catcher before smirking, seeing an opportunity. “Guess you wouldn’t know, given you’re not a ‘fanboy’ like us.”

  Viv rolled her eyes before leaning away from her tray to glare at him pointedly.

  “Kidding, kidding,” Rei put both hands up—still holding his fork and knife—in feigned surrender. “But yeah. Everyone gets to participate. It’s not something you hear about often because anyone who qualifies is technically seeded. I think you have to win two or three matches as a non-qualifier before you’re even bracketed in the first rounds you’ll see on the feeds.”

  “But why?” Viv asked, confused. “Why wouldn’t they show all the matches, then? Sounds like a lot of lost opportunity.”

  “It’s the opposite, actually,” Catcher started to explain, breaking off a chunk of bread for himself. “Those Duels happen before any of the other events, so they’d have to be the first fights shown to viewers. Not every school is Galens, much less in this Sector. A lot of those matches are probably…” He paused, obviously looking for a word that wouldn’t cast the Users in question in too unfavorable a light.

/>   “Lackluster?” Rei offered.

  “Lackluster!” Catcher agreed at once, popping his bread into his mouth victoriously.

  “I suppose,” Viv muttered, looking a little disappointed. Then she perked up. “Well damn… Even if we don’t qualify on our own, maybe we could still be able to go to Sectionals as part of a team.”

  “You could qualify.”

  It was, surprisingly, Catcher who stated the fact, beating Rei to the punch.

  Viv seemed taken aback. “Huh? You think?”

  “Definitely.” Catcher nodded with confidence, going for another hunk of bread without looking at her. “We’ve been doing almost three hours of extra training a day for two weeks now, and you hit D8 last Thursday, right?”

  “Yeah…” Viv confirmed a little uncertainly. “But I’m sure there’s plenty of people who—”

  “Not really.” Rei let Catcher chew his food, picking up the explanation. “Have you checked Benaly’s ranking lately? Of Lena Jiang’s? They’re still both D8. A few of the top sixteen have pushed into D9, and Laurent and Grant are both obviously Cs, but you’re on pace to pass some of the leaders right now.”

  “Seriously?” Viv hissed, her NOED flaring in her eyes. Rei and Catcher watched her pull up what must have been several profiles for the cadets who’d attended the summer training. After 10 seconds she spoke again. “Oh, whoa… It’s not just Benaly and Jiang… Most of them are still D8?” she looked surprised, then grinned as she closed her neuro-optic. “See?! I told you training with you would pay off!”