by Devon Loos
We had the fifth day to ourselves to rest and practice on our own.
We began practicing together on the sixth day. Each of us trying and failing miserably at sparking energy. By the end of the day, we were all exhausted.
Improvement finally arrived on the seventh day, but when Gen and Alto began to excel, I continued to struggle. Once it started, I could maintain the power well. Sparking the energy proved difficult, however.
By the eighth day I was only sparking the energy half as often as the others.
The ninth day was meant for us to begin practice combat with energy. I was halfway to the room when Brin approached me.
“Jacob, I’m sorry but I’m not going to be able to let you pass like this.”
I remained silent.
“Don’t worry. This won’t prevent you from reaching the final test, but you will have to do it as a rifleman. Perhaps, if you give it another year, you’ll be able to try again.”
“Yes, sir.” I turned and left. I was disappointed in myself, but not surprised. I knew I had power, but releasing it was always a coin toss for me. Controlling it was even worse. I watched as Alto used his powers to create symphonies, while Gen used hers to send blades of energy at holographic opponents. They had control. Their powers obeyed them. My powers were only a last minute option. I sighed and returned to my bunk, and rested the remainder of the day.
I spent day ten in my usual manner. I ate, trained, ate again, and rested. Towards the end of the day, I found myself in the training room. One of the holographic rooms was empty. Hoping no one else needed it, I slipped inside and started a simulation. Three targets stood before me. I spent what felt like another hour trying to get a spark. Nothing happened. I tried desperately, wanting, begging, willing the energy to appear, but it eluded me. By dusk I gave up. Tomorrow was the final test and I needed the sleep. I left the training room and entered the hallway. I continued on into a large, darkened room that I knew well. Below a Rovanekren sign another sign read “Artifact and Prophecy Library” in Gaia. The room was overwhelmingly spacious, with ceilings that rose to the heights of the ancient cathedrals. The walls were covered in shelves of books and capsules filled with objects from unknown times with unknown stories. There were few lights in the room, giving me the notion that I had just escaped the very bounds of time. The room was filled with tables, desks, and platforms with descriptions of objects in Rovanekren. There was a group of Rovanekren civilians listening to an instructor lecture about a strange statue towards the back.
The statue was a Rovanekren warrior of solid marble and of surprisingly poor condition. There were chips and pieces missing, and very little detail in the statue itself with the exception of the faceless head. In place of the statue’s facial features were a few strange markings covering the place of the eyes. The left was a circle with two parallel lines with symmetrical L shapes attached near the end of each line. The lines that passed through the circle disappeared, leaving the circle empty. The right “eye” had no circle, but a single asymmetrical line of the same design. The statue held a shield in one hand, a sword in the other, and stood in a stance of victory on a rock. I looked closer and noticed that the dull and broken blade of the sword was actually metal, unlike the rest of the statue. The blade was engraved with a small phrase on its side. “Never meant to be a weapon,” I think it said.
The instructor came up behind me and startled me. “Ah, yes. The angel’s High King statue. This statue is said to have been carved by angels. It’s supposed to be some sort of savior who will come to prevent the end of time. As you can see time has taken its toll over the centuries, but its remained mostly intact. The blade up there is said to be part of the sword that he will wield when he comes.” He finished. I looked back at the battered blade. The piece looked as if it could shatter if an insect landed on it. “Uh… huh…” I replied, doubtfully.
He continued. “There’s also a prophecy connected to this statue,” he pointed to a plaque. “The legend translates, ‘At the end of time, when war amongst guardian brothers spills innocent blood, the eternal darkness shall rise to swallow all light, and all will plunge into darkness’s gaping maw. But one shall rise, a perfect and imperfect flame, with the armor of Kings and the sword of life, to bring back the sun and end the night. For love conquers all, and lover’s sacrifice shall bring the light that will banish the darkness of night.’ Pretty neat huh?”
The students all started to speak among themselves and the professor gestured them to continue on to some other unknown part of the room. I took one last look at the statue and turned to leave. My final test was tomorrow and I needed all the rest I could get.
[Chapter 7: The Final Test]
We were given the opportunity to sleep until ten the next morning, the latest time during the entire three month training period. They wanted us well rested. Today was the day half of us would prove ourselves worthy of the title of warrior. By noon, every remaining recruit had awakened, eaten, and now sat anxiously in the main theatre, waiting for the final test. We sat uncomfortably for another hour. Finally, the commander entered the room.
“Welcome, young bloods, to your final test. Today is the day that you have all worked for, these last three months. Most of you have been with us for much longer than that. Today, however, half of you will emerge victorious. These victors will go forth as guardians and protectors of our way of life. Look around you. Today, many of these men have been your enemies, but tomorrow you will fight alongside them as brothers.” He paused, and moved onto the actual test. “Today you will all be assigned to two separate teams: maroon team and sky team. You will then move to the appropriate side of our outdoor battleground. There you will be led by one of two generals.” He gestured to two figures as they walked in. The two generals reached the stage and stood like monuments of great power and intellect. One wore a black and red cloak while the other wore blue, white, and gold.
“These generals will communicate with your squad leaders, who will then give orders to you. They are both brilliant tacticians, so follow their orders without question. Your objective for this battle will be to eliminate every member of the enemy team, or to defeat the opposing general. Your generals will not be joining you in combat, but are allowed to defend themselves should they come under attack.” The commander walked off the stage and another instructor took his place. The instructor then read aloud names from a list, assigning each one to a team. I was on the sky team. We were then dismissed for an hour of free time, so they could verify that the field was ready. Just before I could leave I was stopped by Brin and directed to the armory. My armor was finally ready.
I quickly made my way to the room where I was greeted by the instructor in charge of the armory.
“Ah! Cartlidge, is it? Your new armor has just arrived.”
“Yes, sir.” I looked around. “Where is it sir?”
“You see that machine there?”
“Yes, sir.”
“It’s in there. I just fired it up. We need to give it a nice coating of paint to finish the customization process.”
“Paint… sir? Why? Nobody else has paint on their armor, except generals.”
“True, but that’s because their armor isn’t custom designed.” He began working on his computer terminal. “You see, you father left enough money in his will to have your armor both custom made and custom designed.”
“I don’t follow…”
“Your armor automatically had to be custom made so that it could fit your human form. Custom designing, however, means that we can put a lot more into the final product, the materials, the amount of protection it potentially can offer and any other accessories you can think of! Its almost mandatory for Generals and Elites.” An image of the set appeared on a large screen. The armor was silver, and had a smooth design to it. The helmet was a single piece with no noticeable details, aside from the silver visor that blended almost perfectly with the helmet. The cuirass was equally simplistic, with the lower half of the torso l
eft exposed to increase mobility. The arms were covered in three long plates each, and were strikingly similar to the bones of the human arm. The waist was covered in a long, silver belt with several clamps for holding weapons. The legs were covered only by large metal shin guards, which were specifically designed to be separate from the shoes, allowing for greater agility and speed. The shoes were clad in light, metal plating that protected the entire surface.
“Accessories?”
“Attachments, robes, emblems, trophies, that sort of thing.”
“So… What about the colors?”
He handed me a touch screen device. “It’s your armor.”
I thought hard for several minutes, then began drawing with the device. The computer screen updated, covering the silver armor in a skeletal image. The helmet became a furious skull that had lost its lower jaw. The cuirass evolved into a ribcage, and the arms and legs were covered in a dull, grey color. The mesh remained mostly black, except for the locations of the neck and spine. These areas were painted as vertebrae.
“What an interesting design. I’ve never seen a human so determined to portray his humanity.”
“Well, sort of. The human skeleton is typically a symbol of death to humans.”
“Really? Interesting.”
I handed the device back to the instructor. The then machine began humming silently as he moved his finger across the screen. “Anything else?”
“How about a cloak. Maybe with a hood?”
“Alright. We’ll have that ready by tomorrow. Your armor should be ready in a few seconds.” The machine suddenly stopped, and a large metal door opened to reveal the freshly painted armor. I quickly put on the mesh suit, then the plates. I left the helmet off. The armor was heavy, but fit perfectly. I threw some punches and a kick into the air to see how easily I could move in the set. It was perfect.
“The mesh suit has large fibers that work with hundreds of smaller fibers to stretch the suit when you move. The suit will feel like a normal shirt, but retain its overall protection.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“No problem. You better get going, though. The test is in 15 minutes!” I nodded, grabbed my new helmet, and left. I reached the meeting room for sky team, only to find it already filled with anxious recruits. The majority of the team had already entered, chosen their squad, and began to socialize. I wondered if being late to the test meant that a recruit would not be allowed in. Five more people came in after me, and I quickly moved towards the squad terminal. Each squad was comprised of five soldiers, and a commander. Since we were all recruits, the commanders were chosen from those who were first to reach the room. Most of the squads were already filled, with the exception of two. The first had only its squad leader and Tek. The second had only two spots left, and was led by Jevack. I sighed and typed my name into the first squad. The choice was not difficult, the possibility of conflict made me feel nervous. I found an empty chair and donned my helmet. Instantly it fused itself with the mesh suit. I checked it to be sure I could find the release clips. The two clips were located halfway down my neck, covering the neck muscles. I opened a hatch in the back of my helmet and pressed the switch that activated the helmet’s systems. The visor portrayed a list of systems like a screen.
“O2 filter: online. Cooling: online. Audio amplifiers: online. Stand by for window.” I smiled and thanked the unknown manufacturer of my armor for programming my helmet with Gaia. Several other systems rapidly joined the list. The visor then lit up with a green border, as the list shrank and moved to the top left of the visor. “Unarmed” appeared in the top right. The room was then filled with green dots, confirming that all my fellow recruits were not hostiles. I grinned childishly. It reminded me of the typical “Head’s Up Display” system on Earth. I spoke in a clear voice to the helmet.
“Voice systems: on.” The helmet responded, sending “Voice systems: online” to join the list.
“Targeting systems: off.” That system also joined the list, but in red font. The green dots quickly disappeared, and my visibility was restored. The remaining fifteen minutes passed by quickly, and our general entered the room to brief us on our strategy. We would engage the enemy team at the center of the map, while two squads kept watch for any flanking attempts. If a section were to open up in the left or right, we were to push around and surround them. Our overall goal was not to attack the general, but to eliminate his team, forcing him to surrender. The general then met with our squad leaders for a few minutes to explain each squads role in the fight. They were each given a communicator to talk to the general. The squad leaders then reported to us and told us each of our jobs. We left the room and made our way to the armory, where we were given the same weapons we used in the arena. After twenty minutes of preparing, we finally made our way to the field.
“Alright. Window visors must be offline. We have to rely solely on eyesight for this mission.” The general shouted. After a minute we continued.
The battleground was a massive rectangle, with thick, concrete walls that towered several stories high. At the center was an empty plain, bordered by several large rocks, logs, trees, and other forms of cover. Small, rocky cliffs separated the plain from the walls. Large forests covered both sides. We quickly rallied to an opening in the forest, just southeast of the field. The general climbed a tree and instructed us to reach the field where the attack was likely to take place. We walked for a minute before reaching the line of obstacles. Each squad quickly moved into position in their designated spot. My squad was the furthest right, without being the lookout squad. The lookout squads were hidden in the trees bordering the cliffs. The field was filled only with the songs and smells of nature. We waited for several agonizing minutes.
“Cartlidge!” My commander whispered from behind a large tree. “Move to a different cover. That log’s too old to give you any good protection.”
“Copy that.” I shifted myself and crouch walked over to a large boulder near Tek. A shot echoed in the distance, just as the round scraped across the back plate of my armor and crashed into a tree before disintegrating. Instinctively I leapt forward and landed behind the rock. Several soldiers shouted and rounds began to fly. Chaos ignited, and the sounds of gunfire soon drowned out the song of nature. I grabbed my rifle and began to fire. The firefight continued for several minutes. Occasionally someone would fall over, stunned unconscious by the training weapons. The recruits training to be medical officers were not allowed to help any of the soldiers who were hit. Often the potential medic would flinch when they saw another soldier fall; they consciously forced themselves not to intervene. This test was meant to test not only our own strength, but theirs as well. Roughly twelve minutes into the fight our commander was hit. Another member of my squad moved to reach for his communicator, and was struck in the leg. He gave a cry, but quickly recovered.
“How bad is it?” Someone shouted.
“It stung at first, but then my leg just fell asleep. I can’t move it.” He tried to shift away, only to be struck down by another round. I attempted to track the angle of the bullet. It seemed to have come from the trees, rather than the cover on the other side. Tek quickly made his way to my spot.
“I think there’s a sniper over there.” I shouted over the gunfire.
“A what?”
“Sniper. The … human term for a watcher.”
“Oh. I’ll see what I can do, but you need to point him out.” I nodded then carefully scanned the trees. Another shot ricocheted off the rock, centimeters away from my head. I hid, my heart racing.
“Eleventh tree.”
“Got it.” He shifted to move but stopped. “Sorry for fighting dirty during our match.”
“Hey, we both made it didn’t we?” I laughed.
“So far.” He rolled away, dodging another round from the sniper, and shifted himself to fire. He fired two rounds, then ducked behind the large decaying log. He looked at me and nodded. As the battle continued, two more of our squad members fell. A
n enemy squad was starting to use the cliff as cover, and the nearby lookout squads were engaging them, preventing them from moving forward.
“Cartlidge! I think we’re running out of teammates.”
“What am I supposed to do about it?” I turned, fired, then hid again. “I’m not a medic and our actual medics aren’t allowed to help.”
“I have an idea. How about we use your arena tactic on their general?”
“There’s no way we’d make it that far!” I shouted.
“Our team’s gone, so why not?” He began to move from cover to cover.
“This is never going to work.” I complained, but reluctantly followed. We made our way to our end of the cliff. Several of the lookout soldiers were gesturing for us to move away. We ignored them and began climbing the rocky stairs. We slowly, silently continued until we reached the top. After crawling across, we fired at the squad that hid below. Surprised at our advance, three of the remaining five fell before they realized what was happening. One of the soldiers took cover behind an old log. The tree had been long dead and the log was in poor shape. I smiled and aimed at the log itself. I fired three rounds into the log, causing it to fall apart from the concussive force. The third round crashed into the back of the soldier, stunning him. The other soldier turned to fire at me, only to have the rifle shot out of his hands by Tek. I then stunned the soldier myself. I took a moment to examine the battlefield. We were losing, badly. Tek’s plan had to work, or we would fail the test. After taking a moment to reload, we snuck into the enemy forest.
We continued walking, carefully scanning for movement. We stopped just before the clearing and separated. Tek climbed a tree with a good view of the opening while I moved behind another nearby tree. Tek’s plan was to have me distract the general while Tek stuns him with his rifle. The general stood at the center, guiding each of the commanders with his communicator. There was only a single squad guarding him. I sat for a moment, trying to think of a way to distract the squad long enough for Tek to fire. The general stopped for a moment to say something to two of his soldiers. If I attacked now I could catch two or three of them before they were ready. Suddenly the two soldiers twisted around and fired. One at me, the other at Tek. I twisted behind the cover of the tree. A single sound came from Tek’s tree. He may have been hit. I twisted around the side of the tree and fired blindly, I missed the soldier who had fired at Tek, but miraculously struck another soldier in the arm. The soldier threw away his rifle, only to draw his pistol with his other hand. I twisted back behind the tree. This wasn’t going to work. I thought hard, searching my mind for some sort of edge I was able to use. We were technically allowed to use any weapon for the test, as long as it did only minimal physical harm. A looked at my rifle. I was on the last canister of ammunition. I desperately began trying to spark my energy in my left. Hopefully I would not hit the soldier too hard. An orb of energy filled my hand, and my forearm was covered in the strange purple light. I slowed my breathing, aimed the rifle to the left, the orb to the right, and froze.