When he’d not been able to reach her, he forwarded her a message. “We can’t wait to see you.”
Then he moved to a drink cabinet, poured himself a stiff one and retired to watch the sun rise over his rebuilding city.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Malazar School
Tricticus, Emarl System
12/3555
Pela dropped down into her seat at the cafeteria with her tray of food.
“You just get off?” Remy asked. The man was part of her working group and in her dormitory.
“Yeah.” She started to shovel food in her face.
“What—no more setting out your food and eating prim and proper?” Ashaeed said.
Pela simply gave him the middle finger to the others’ smiles and laughter as she kept eating.
“’Sup, swabs?” Aileen dropped into a vacant seat. She was in their dormitory but she was a few weeks ahead of them and had already got the health and safety qualification.
Instead of working on the general duties or attending health and safety lectures filled with practical tests and examples of the hundreds of ways people could die working their jobs, she was now allowed to work on her chosen job. She had taken a different route from what she planned and was now working to become a pilot instead.
It wasn’t that abnormal for people to change their given profession. It happened most of the time, actually. Though different courses had different costs of teaching it; more or less time was added to the person’s contract and they would need to work for the Victor Corporation for longer.
Most of them didn’t mind this. If they got a job with the Victor Corporation, after all, then their lives would be changed forever.
The others jeered as she sat down.
“Don’t worry, you too will become as revered as my great self in the coming future,” Aileen said as if some reigning monarch, only serving to increase the noises of complaint.
Aileen laughed as she looked to Pela. “Even the fine Pela here will become a true health and safety guru like my fine self!”
“How did the test go?” Ashaeed asked.
“Fine,” Pela said, pausing to annoy them.
“Well, did you pass?” Remy asked.
“Of course I did! Don’t want to be a swab all of my life!” Pela laughed with a great big smile on her face. She took in their looks of annoyance as she shoveled the oh so tasty and victorious mashed potatoes in her mouth.
“Show-off.” Remy rolled his eyes.
“I knew you had it in the bag, sister!” Aileen laughed and held up her hand for a high five that Pela happily clapped.
“When’s your lessons on engineering start?” Ashaeed asked.
Pela checked her NIAI, who had already received her new schedule. “In about five hours,” Pela said. Even if it meant that she wouldn’t be getting as much sleep tonight, there was no way to cut down on her happiness for the day.
“Well, that should be fun. You know what the first lesson is?”
“Nope, but it’s called general systems. It says to look at general engineering systems, from electrical to mechanical and some coding,” Pela said.
“Generalist course—makes sense. They’ll probably have you doing a bit of every job to see what you fit best with, then let you specialize,” Aileen said. As she was further than them all, she had more information on the way that the school and the Victor Corporation operated.
The others nodded in understanding.
Pela looked at them all, excited for what they might do in the future, and thinking how this ragtag group who had barely known one another three weeks ago were now some of the closest friends she had ever been with.
She still didn’t know whether she would make it through training but she knew that she couldn’t go back to her clan after this. She had seen a small glimpse of what she might be able to achieve and like a drug, it had got in her system and hooked her.
She wanted to explore the system, to build some incredible things, and proudly say that she was a person of the Victor Corporation.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ducharev Line
Indalia, Otarvi System
12/3555
Quina knocked at Nerva’s temporary office door. When he motioned for her to sit, Quina did so and waited for him to say something. Instead, Nerva pointed at the screen. Quina didn’t recognize the face, but she could see the military inside the man who stared back at her.
“Legate Quina,” the man said. “Good to meet you. Nerva’s said some very good things about you. I’ll be conducting a small interview with you today.”
“Interview?” Quina hadn’t realized it was a video conference. “I’m sorry.”
“Quina, meet the very retired Primus Pilus, Cilo Calidius Farus.”
Quina swallowed. She’d heard tales of the retired primus and his lead against the first sets of Maraukian invasions. To be staring at him now, she was overjoyed and almost couldn’t speak. “An honor to speak with you, sir.”
“Legate Nerva, may I speak with Legate Quina?”
Nerva raised an eyebrow toward Quina, then at the man he’d been conversing with. “Of course. I’ll return shortly. Take all the time you need.”
Farus’s respect for Nerva was obvious in the way he looked toward the much older man.
“So,” Farus said. “I’m sure you know who I am, and what I’ve done?”
Quina nodded. She knew he was one of Nerva’s men, and could understand him wanting to ask all the questions of her. But she wasn’t sure of the outcome from this. Why had Nerva left the room? “Yes, sir.”
“That’s very good. But do you know where I’m living?”
Quina thought hard about answering this question. She had heard many rumors about the older generation retiring somewhere spectacular. But she’d not really looked into it. It was a dream of most: die in battle or retire to overlook Roma in the gardens.
“No, sir.”
“Let me show you. One second.” Then as the camera view moved, she heard “dammit” and a few other choice curse words.
A moment later, the video feed moved and then she actually followed the side of the old legate’s face to look out of a camera attached to a device he was holding onto. Really old school. No AI system for him? she thought. Maybe he was just against them?
What she did see stretch before her was a large orbiting station.
“I’m one of the lucky ones. When this was built, I picked the top tier, so I can see down below the circling and spinning monstrosity that this is.”
The station was a series of circular portions that were attached to a long central spine. The two rings at either end were the largest, with the rings in between of varying size.
It was covered in blinking lights and had solar panels covering most of it. The places that weren’t covered showed greenery that covered the station. If one was to look closely, they might even see the animals that lived in the different habitats that had been made for them.
Each of the circles spun to maintain gravity and make it easier on the people who lived and worked there.
Large freighters could be seen arriving and departing, bringing in new supplies and taking away the grown products on the station.
Roma by itself wasn’t a hospitable planet and there were many such growing stations that dotted the planet’s orbit, but this one was the largest and the oldest of all the stations.
Its image struck a chord with Quina. She didn’t know the station’s name but she remembered seeing it before. “Where is this?”
“Orbiting Roma, of course.”
“It’s amazing.” She knew of it, but didn’t quite believe how visually stunning it was. “You’re in the Hellenic system?”
“Yes, but I don’t think for long. It seems that Nerva’s asking us to move.”
“What…” Quina swallowed. The station was huge. Could it be moved without damage? She thought long and hard about the technology they possessed. Yeah, maybe it could. “What’
s the problem? Why are you moving?”
“That is my question to you. You’ve been working with Nerva for a good few months now on Indalia. You’re almost finished with the invasion there, yes?”
Quina nodded, trying not to let him see that she was clenching her fist quite tightly.
“Well, the top and bottom of it is, he’s lost trust in the legion. He wants me to close out all communications within the next month. This is my only chance to talk to him, friend-to-friend, before the station does move. We have a choice. We can leave with the station or we can move back into the Hellenic system. What choice would you make?”
Quina didn’t hesitate and spoke clear. “I’d stay with the station, sir.”
Farus rubbed a finger through his thin hairline. “Thank you.”
Quina hadn’t really done anything, but when Nerva returned, she was chatting over some of the old historical battles on the field with him. They were laughing and that had been something new for her. These last few weeks had been dire.
Nerva leaned over and looked into Farus’s eyes. “Did that help your decision?”
“I believe you’ve made the right choice, and Quina will be an asset to you.”
Quina listened to the man chuckle. What?
“You’re one of the last on my station who knows where and how it came about. I trust you to speak with everyone else.”
“Of that, I will. Be assured that my report on its occupants will be with you as we move away from the Hellenic system in the next few days.”
“Thank you.” Nerva moved to disconnect their transmission.
He then turned to her and she had to ask. “Sir, what just happened?”
“I need people I can trust, Quina. You’ve proved yourself on and off the battlefield. There will be a new name for us as a military, but we’ll work within a system we all know. However, from here on out, you’ll have a promotion.”
Quina smiled on the inside. Any promotion was good, right?
Chapter Thirty
VCF Osdal
In Transit to Emarl System
12/3555
Dodger and Miles were currently on a plateau, overlooking the merger hopefuls who were trying to fight back the Maraukians and were advancing into their fire.
It was a slaughter. There was simply no way that they would survive the battle, but they gritted their teeth and moved forward. Even with the Maraukians killing their fellow trainees, they reorganized their forces and kept pushing, trying to gain any advantage possible.
It wasn’t going to be a simple battle but instead of just wasting their lives, the troopers were fighting with everything they had. Every action they made was to try to kill more Maraukians and defend the lives of the people with them.
Dodger and Evan looked on. Their eyes were glowing as they were currently merged, not only watching the battle but analyzing their attack methods and how they were coordinating with one another.
There wasn’t anyone else who was able to do it—no human would be able to, at the very least.
Mark appeared out of thin air, with Ava beside him. The two of them didn’t say anything but looked down on the simulation battlefield as well.
Fussli and Vrouck were running the battle from the Maraukian side. There wasn’t a need for them to do anything complicated. They only altered the direction the Maraukians were going on, making it so that there was no letup on the troopers.
This wouldn’t be regarded as regular training by many. The troopers who were undergoing the selection had been in fight after fight, battle after battle, in and out for what felt like months for them.
There was no end in sight, which only added to the mental strain. Also, they would feel pain whenever they died. Many who couldn’t deal with this had already dropped out. Knowing that the pain wouldn’t stop and with no end in sight, it was easy to see how people’s mental fortitude was weakening.
Two thousand had started the training, but after a month of training in real time, just a few dozen remained. From that, the number would decrease even more.
The last of the troopers was left on the battlefield. Still, they didn’t give into despair but kept on fighting.
When they had started, those who had survived until later had given up on fighting, taking the pseudo death instead of fighting on in a helpless battle. After the berating by the mergers, none of them dared to do that anymore.
“What do you think?” Mark asked Dodger and Evan as the two stopped merging.
“They’re the best of what we’ve got,” Evan said.
Dodger nodded.
Seeing those people down there, fighting day after day, he couldn’t help but think he was just setting them up so that they would be new bodies to decorate the battlefield.
He had lost too many people over the years and although death was a familiar companion to him, after Edani something had changed. The mental and emotional connection with other mergers—he felt closer to the mergers in a way he couldn’t describe.
As much as they were their own people, they knew one another’s secret hopes and wants, and at the end they felt the fear and desperation that ate away at them as they knew that they wouldn’t be able to act on those impulses anymore.
More than anything, the young ones who hadn’t even been able to experience much out of life, who had fought for the military and then become mergers, was a loss he was having a hard time understanding.
He could just give it up and quit the Vanguard, but the voice in his head wouldn’t let him, telling him that he would be letting down the people who had survived.
He might be training these people to die, but the solace he took in his actions was that if they went on that battlefield, he did so giving them the best tools, knowledge, and training, that they had their eyes wide open and knew what was coming.
He knew that the others didn’t want to have to do this, but they would bear this duty and they would train up others and go into battle with them, hoping that their actions would bring about a future where there was no need for mergers or the Vanguard.
“How is the building going?” Dodger looked over to Mark and Ava as the scenery changed and they were inside what looked to be a military camp.
The newly dead troopers were settling their gear and preparing themselves for whatever was to come. There was a lifeless look in their eyes as they moved by reaction and need. Dodger knew that in an instant those lifeless looks could change as they switched on and fought through their battles.
“Well, the second batch we can train five thousand in one time,” Mark said.
“Have any more applied?” Evan asked.
“Yeah, about another thousand,” Ava said.
“Looks like we’ll have a higher pass rate than back on Tricticus with this selection,” Mark said.
The others nodded. They had all been checking this selection against the one on Tricticus. After all, they were the only two selections that the mergers had undergone.
“Think it’s about time.” Mark sighed.
“Form up!” Dodger yelled.
The remaining troopers all moved out from where they were, grabbing their gear and tossing food in their mouths.
It might be simulated but back on the ship, their cryopods would release food; when they were in the simulation, this was to add another layer of difficulty for them all.
Evan had made the joke that if they knew how little food they would need in the future, they might as well have a bad impression of eating before they made the transition.
The troopers all lined up in formation quickly, looking forward at the selection staff.
“You’ve made it far, further than seventy percent of the other people who entered this selection with you! Now it is just the start of the real work. Now it is time to make a decision to see if you want to be a merger, if you want to die. Becoming a merger is no simple task. As we have said again and again, there is no going back. You will get a week off from selection to do what you want, to talk to whoever you wan
t, and yes, sleep.” Mark smiled a bit at the end.
The troopers brightened up as they thought of the coming time off. It looked as if the end was finally around the corner.
“When you come back—those of you who decide to—you will die, to be reborn as mergers. Don’t make this decision lightly. Don’t be forced by others. You need to make this decision for yourself. As a merger, you will be thrown into battle after battle. When we are fighting, it doesn’t stop. We will take losses. We won’t get to sleep. We won’t get time to do anything but fight. If we don’t fight, we die.”
Mark’s words struck a chord. Even tired as all hell and pushed past their limits, all of them understood what he was saying and it showed that they weren’t simply listening.
“Enjoy your time off, and no matter your decision, it is yours to make. If you don’t want to be a merger now, in the future if you want to become one, then the door will be open for you. Passing this training has given you that right.”
***
A week later, Mark was once again in front of the people who wanted to become mergers. Out of the forty or so people who had passed, fourteen were willing to make the jump.
When the first set of mergers had finished their selection, everyone had stepped forward to become mergers. This was due to three reasons. One, they didn’t truly believe they would be thrown right into the fighting as much as possible. Second, they didn’t understand how complete the change was. And finally, they were in a state of war. Most of the people had come right from the battlefield. They were angry and looking for a way they might be able to do more. For these reasons, they were willing to ignore the warnings and step forward.
He understood why they wouldn’t join but he didn’t blame them for that. He respected that they had enough knowledge about themselves that after all this, they decided that it wasn’t good for them.
He didn’t want people who were scared or had hang ups about being mergers. If they were second-guessing themselves here and went through with it, then it would be in the back of their heads the rest of their lives.
An Empire is Born (Maraukian War Book 3) Page 14