The Xilashi woman towered over the crowd waiting nervously in front of her. I swept my eyes around, taking in the figures of those around me. I recognized a few mercenaries from the Tavern. Some of them must’ve made it out, and made the same decision as us. The others stood with a much more timid energy. Those must’ve been Maralu residents who decided to take their chances here. Didn’t sound like a good idea to me, but it wasn’t any of my business. I moved my gaze back to the Xilashi captain.
She was massive. Somewhere around five to six meters tall, and half as wide. She wore a crisp Galactic Union uniform that strained against her huge muscles. She was probably the most intimidating person I’ve ever met. But she couldn’t be a bad person, she’d taken responsibility over the Maralu refugees. I hoped.
“Alright, listen up!” She barked. “I’m Captain Ceel. I’m going to be in charge of you dumbasses. You’ve got to be stupid, confident, or both if you’re enlisting. You could’ve had a much easier life getting on one of those transport ships. As a matter of fact, you’re still free to do so. If you’ve changed your mind, go ahead and leave.”
A few people shuffled away. Smart choice.
“Alright,” Ceel continued, “Those of you that stayed. I commend your bravery. The Haivu are no joke, but I’ll try my best to make sure you don’t die out there. We’ll begin training as soon as possible, we’re short on time. Now, let’s walk while I talk.”
Ceel started walking towards a somewhat distant gate that led into the ground. Her long strides sent rumbles through the ground, and the crowd of recruits shambled behind her.
“Here’s what’s going to happen today. You all will get situated with your barracks. You’ll be handed a military spacesuit if you need one, and you will be fed. I’m aware some of you are mercenaries or something equivalent. If you prefer your original suit, just keep it on. Anyways, after you all get some food into you, we’re going straight into training. We can’t waste any time. I’ll explain the training further when we get there. For now, just get situated. Those of you who are tradesmen offering their services for the cause, come talk to me while everyone else is setting up in the barracks. There are other arrangements for you, and I’ll try to get you to your departments as soon as I can.”
The Xilashi woman fell silent and the crowd started talking amongst themselves as we walked.
“So, I guess we’ll be splitting up soon, then.” Yori piped up. “Hopefully we’ll still be able to see each other every once in a while.”
“We’ll see.” I said. “I think they’ll let us keep our tablets at least, so we can definitely stay in touch. But I feel like Noah and I would be too busy getting whipped into shape to hang out or anything.”
Noah sighed. “I’m not looking forward to whatever training Captain Ceel has cooked up, but I’ve made my choice.”
I leaned in close to Noah and whispered, “Remember, Noah. Your identity is going to be difficult to hide, harder than ever. Keep that suit on at all times, and make excuses if they don’t let you. But if you’re backed in a corner, call for me and we’ll see if I can bail you out.”
“Fuck, you’re right. How am I going to eat in public?” Noah said. “I’m going to have to sneak away and eat somewhere else, aren’t I?”
Yori contorted their face in sympathy. “Good luck, Noah. Don’t get your cover blown.”
I patted Noah’s shoulder. “We’ll figure something out. We can probably sneak protein tubes into your helmet, anyways. People might look at you weird for keeping your helmet on all the time, though.”
Noah slightly slumped over. “This is going to be nerve wracking. But I’ve made my choice. I’ll start thinking of excuses why I’m always wearing my helmet. Maybe a skin condition, or something. If I say it's contagious, people are bound to leave me alone.”
Yori nodded. “Yeah, that’ll probably get people to leave you alone. Make sure to always keep your helmet locked so any pranksters get foiled.”
Noah nodded.
Several minutes of brisk walking later, we finally arrived at what appeared to be the barracks. They appeared unused, and relatively new.
“They’re currently empty because this station has been undermanned for a while.” Ceel explained. “The other soldiers’ barracks are elsewhere.”
The barracks were exactly how I imagined. The hallway leading to the barracks was pristine, gray, and wide. There were several doors leading into long rooms filled with cheap looking cots, thin lockers, and no windows. The barracks were underground, inside of the asteroid’s dusty gray stone. Most of the military structures on this station were underground. Anyways, the lack of windows and the uniform design of the room was incredibly depressing to look at. This was where Noah and I were going to be staying for some time.
“Alright, recruits! Find yourself a cot and put away any belongings that you have! You have ten minutes to assign yourself a cot and put on the suit inside of the locker! If you have a better one just keep that on! And the military suit inside of the locker fits all sizes, it’s got body wrapping technology. If you’re not a recruit and instead aiming to join one of our support departments, come over here to me. I’ll send you off immediately.” Ceel barked.
The crowd bustled and moved as people walked inside of the barrack rooms and assigned themselves cots.
“Alright,” Yori said, “I guess this is it. I’ll see you guys around.”
“Good luck, Yori! See you!” Noah replied.
“Catch you later, Yori. Don’t get into any trouble!” I said.
Noah and I exchanged quick hugs with Yori. Then, they were gone, their small figure disappearing into the crowd, in the direction of Captain Ceel’s towering figure. Yori would be fine. They were talented and hardworking, they’d fit right in here. And Yori would be out of the action. They were in a lot safer place than Noah and I.
We found cots next to each other in one of the barracks rooms. I put away my shotgun (that I’d been carrying on my back the entire time) into a locker. Noah opened his locker to look at the military suit.
“I’m not going to bother putting this on, but I’m curious: Is it better than Yori’s?” He asked.
I snorted. “Hell no. That’s some mass produced shit that they’re giving out to recruits. It doesn’t even have a shield gen. Keep your suit on, I paid a small fortune for that.”
Noah closed his locker. “Thought so.” He didn’t have any belongings to store in there, other than his handgun. And Noah kept that on his person at all times.
We still had five or so minutes of our ten minutes left, so we both sat down on our cots, facing each other.
“So, what do you think training is going to be like?” Noah asked.
“How would I know? I’ve never been a soldier. I’d imagine it’d be exercises and gun drills, if the movies are accurate.” I said.
“I know I wanted to stretch my legs, but if Captain Ceel forces us to do hard military drills I’m going to lose it!” Noah complained. He was smiling, though.
“I don’t want to hear that from someone who runs long-distance as a hobby.”
----------------------------------------
Once everyone was set up and back in front of Ceel, she led us to the mess hall. The layout of the base was pretty simple. It was pretty much in a grid pattern and cylindrical. The asteroid was similar to a gyroscopic space station because it was constantly spinning, so artificial gravity was present, too. The hallways aligned with longitude and latitude, with the latitude hallways always curving upwards to account for the curve of the asteroid. Overall, it was pretty similar to how Maralu worked.
The mess hall met my expectations, much like the barracks had. There were automated dispensers on the far side of the hall, several vending machines placed on the perimeters, and the entire room was covered in tables and benches. It was a massive hall. Which made sense, considering how many soldiers this station was capable of housing. According to Ceel, this was one of three mess halls on this asteroid.
We all lined up at the food dispensers as Ceel took a seat on a bench in the corner of the mess hall. The dispensers had a wide variety of options, surprisingly. I opted to go for a synthmeat nugget meal with a mystery soup. Noah had to choose a food tube. They were options at any place that served food, since there were races that couldn’t chew food. Food tubes had a reputation for being pretty bad, though. A tasteless paste wasn’t exactly appetizing.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
Noah and I took our dinner back to a secluded table. I dug into my synthmeat nuggets.
“I should’ve expected worse. The nuggets are alright but there’s no sauce. It’s really dry.” I complained.
“At least you get to bite into something!” Noah wailed. He had snuck the food tube up through his helmet. “I have to drink this tasteless paste! It’s got the viscosity of peanut butter and it’s making my mouth hurt trying to suck it up!”
“Sucks for you. Wait, what’s peanut butter? I asked.
Noah spent the next few minutes explaining what peanut butter was, and its many applications. I made a mental note to try out peanut butter once we got to Earth. It sounded amazing. It could be put on toast? In something called oatmeal? It could even be added to certain drinks? I needed to try all of the options, if what Noah was saying is true. I couldn’t wait to try out Earth’s finest cuisine. Space food was nothing compared to planetside food.
As we ate, Noah and I made small talk. A little bit about the Haivu war, which continued to dominate the news feeds. As of now, both the Haivu and the Galactic Union had not made any moves since declaring war on each other. However, the Galactic Union was shoring up their military might on the most crucial border, where the Haivu home planet was located close to. Otherwise, the Galactic Union had spread a thin layer of defense across the Haivu border.
Ceel gave us thirty minutes to finish eating, then she rounded us up. We once again marched through the wide hallways of the base, until we arrived at a large clearing. It was a massive cave inside of the asteroid. Floodlights suspended from the ceiling of the cave illuminated the area. Here, there was a field, an obstacle course and a shooting range. On the far end of a cave, I saw a small arena, presumably used for simulations.
“Welcome to the Training Cave!” Ceel’s voice boomed. “Here, you’ll become a soldier. Get familiar with this room, because you’ll be in here a lot!”
Ceel pointed towards the field. “Alright, we’re starting off strong. Go run laps on that field for fifteen minutes. I don’t care how fast you go, I just want you to keep moving for fifteen minutes straight.”
I heard slight groans and complaints from my fellow recruits, but we all complied and briskly walked towards the field. Once we were all set, Ceel shouted “Go!” and started a stopwatch.
We all started jogging at a pretty fast pace. I looked over at Noah. He was jogging at the same pace I was so he didn’t pull away. I knew he was probably way faster than all of us here, but he was holding back so he didn’t stand out and stayed alongside me. Eventually, the cloud of recruits started spreading out. Some of the people with more stamina and speed led the pack, while the slower people trailed behind. Noah and I were near the front, but I was starting to get tired. My breaths were ragged and my legs were aching. Togumo weren’t designed to run for this long! I swung my arms in an even rhythm and matched it with my steps to try and reduce energy loss. I was much better at sprinting than jogging, and sprinting required me to be on all six limbs. When I was jogging upright, I had no idea what to do with my arms. I just watched what Noah did and tried to imitate how he ran.
Noah seemed perfectly fine. His breaths were even and his pace was uniform. I could tell he wasn’t even winded at all. Noah’s endurance was definitely impressive. I’d watched Noah on the treadmill before, but being next to him as he ran made a fact clear: Noah’s stamina was in a league above mine. He held a huge advantage in this field.
Near the end of the fifteen minutes, everyone near the front had reduced their pace to a brisk walk. They burned through their stamina too fast, it seemed. The people in the back had stopped jogging entirely, and were walking instead. A few dozen people were still jogging, however. Even though the pace was a lot slower, I saw a few Aeons, a couple Maneri, several Sabis, and Noah and I still jogging. Noah also had to lower his pace to meet theirs, but I could tell he could still go for much longer, and faster. It would just be suspicious if he blew everyone out of the water.
“ALRIGHT! Time’s up! Walk it off!” Ceel shouted from her post, on the side of the field. Everyone immediately stopped jogging and started walking, gasping for air. Noah wasn’t breathing very hard, but I was. I probably looked like a fish out of water.
“Saka, put your hands on your head, like this.” Noah told me. “It lets you get air to your lungs more efficiently.” He demonstrated, putting his hands on his head and leaning back slightly. It was the second time he’d told me.
I listened to him, and put all four of my hands on my head and breathed deeply. I felt slightly better, but I was still winded. I hated long distance running. How did Noah do this as a hobby?
“Good job, recruits!” Ceel’s husky voice boomed. “None of you stopped moving. I’m glad to see some of you kept walking instead of stopping completely. And those of you who didn’t stop jogging, I’m impressed. You’re already at the standard of what the average soldier can do.”
I saw Noah turn his head in surprise.
“Only fifteen minutes?” Noah whispered to me. “Even teenagers on Earth can do that!”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah, not all of us are naturally good at running, Noah.” I said.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it in a mocking way. I’m just surprised.” He said.
“Yeah, and I’m surprised those poachers caught you when you’re supposed to be good at running!” I laughed and slapped his back gently. Noah winced.
The tired recruits gathered up in front of Ceel once more, dreadfully waiting for her next command. Ceel cast her eyes over the frazzled recruits.
“Oftentimes, you’re going to be shooting after you run. So that’s what we’re going to be doing. Follow me to the shooting range! I’ll teach you how to shoot! If you already know how to shoot, no you don’t! I’ll be teaching you the proper way!”
Ceel walked us over to the nearby shooting range. There, a few soldiers waited for us, in uniform.
“I’ve got some assistants to help me out for this part.” She explained. “There’s too many of you!”
The recruits spread out in a row, behind steel counters that were about waist height. Once we were all properly lined up, Ceel addressed us once more. She was holding a kinetic handgun. It was much larger than normal, since a regular one wouldn’t fit her massive fingers.
Ceel went over the basics of gun safety. Trigger discipline, how to use the safety, how to reload and how to check if the gun was empty. It was stuff I already knew, and what I had already taught Noah. In fact, speaking of handguns, Noah and I already had our handguns. They were holstered on our suits. We’d brought them because Ceel didn’t mention anything about them, so I assumed it was alright to do so.
Ceel eventually finished her explanation, and fired off a few shots at a target to demonstrate. All of them hit the target, center mass. She wasn’t a captain for nothing. After she unloaded the handgun and stowed it away, Ceel’s assistants came over and handed each of us an unloaded handgun and a couple magazines.
One of the assistants spotted Noah’s handgun, the Fune 2.
“Nice piece,” he said, “Good beginner gun. Keep that one close.”
Noah fumbled out words of gratitude. Both of us received the training pistol from Ceel’s assistant.
I couldn’t tell what make or model it was, but I assumed it was the standard issue for the Galactic Union military. Maybe they had a contractor that exclusively made these for the military.
Under the instructors’ watchful eyes, the recruits began practicing reloading the handguns. Noah and I had it done fast. We were already familiar with it, after all. I saw a few recruits around us fumbling around a bit, but many others reloaded just as fast as Noah and I. Most people on Maralu had some sort of gun knowledge. It was normal to have weapons on a fringe station like Maralu, after all.
The instructors watched us flip the safeties off, and we started firing. I hit my targets eight times out of ten. Noah hit his target nine times out of ten. The sounds of cracking gunshots echoing through the cave filled the air. Our suits had ear safety built into them, so our hearing was perfectly fine. My helmet folded my ears down, anyways. It reduced the sound intake.
After handguns were done, we were taught how to unload the handguns and how to check if it was truly empty. Noah and I did this with no issue, of course. Once the instructors were satisfied, we moved onto rifles.
I hadn’t actually taught Noah how to use rifles. This time, Ceel demonstrated how to use a beam rifle. It had several power settings, a battery, and three firing modes. She meticulously went over safety again. Eventually, the instructors handed us our rifles.
I turned the rifle and inspected every face. It was pretty blocky, with angular edges. Otherwise, it was pretty typical. It had a foregrip, a stock, and holographic sights. It looked easy to use, which made sense. Nobody liked easy to use weapons more than the military.
We took turns firing the beam rifles, too. I hit all of my shots on the close targets, most of my shots on the far ones, and some on the distant ones. The lack of recoil made it easier to hit targets, but when it came to long distance shooting, I wasn’t the best. I was used to fighting in narrow corridors, after all.
Noah, however, was different. He hit all of his shots on the close target, the far target, and most of his shots on the distant one. He was a natural. His skill on the Leviathan’s turret applied to the rifle too, it seemed. He was better with the rifle than he was with the handgun. The instructor behind him whistled in approval. Noah scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
We once again learned how to safely shut down and store the beam rifles. We handed them back to the instructors, who began to start packing up. We’d finished this portion of training, it seemed.
Ceel clapped her hands together. “Alright, recruits! We’ve finished shooting, for today. We’ve got a few more exercises for you, but I’ll spare you, for now. You’ll be getting a quick break, then we’ll get right back to it! You guys need to be up to the military standard as fast as you can!”
Shooting wasn’t so bad. It was fun, actually. During our break, Noah and I chugged down water and prepared for the next exercise. Noah began to stretch, so I tried mirroring his movements. Our anatomy was similar enough, I think. A few minutes later, I felt a lot more loose and relaxed.
Ceel brought us over to the last exercise of the day. The obstacle course. I had a feeling it was going to be that, since it was the only other thing in the training cave we hadn’t used yet.
“This obstacle course is simple!” Ceel boomed. “Get to the other side, as fast as you can! You will climb, swing, hang, and crawl! I don’t care how long it takes, just finish! This will be the last bit of training for today!”
We were lined up in rows, and sent to challenge the obstacle course row at a time. Noah and I were near the middle, so we had some time to observe the course. It had a few walls to scale, monkey bars to swing from, and nets to crawl under. The course was also littered with random hurdles. It honestly looked really fun.
I hopped on the balls of my feet and swung my tail, itching to challenge the obstacle course. Togumo were practically made for these things. I didn’t know how well Noah would do, but my competitive streak was starting to show. Noah had beaten me badly in the fifteen minute run, so I would blow him out of the water on the obstacle run.
Eventually, we were up next. Ceel blew into a whistle to signal the start, and we were off.
I sprinted towards the first wall. It was as tall as I was, so I easily hooked my arms over the top and scrambled up. I dropped down to the ground on the other side, and sank to all six limbs. I continued to sprint, my claws dug into the dirt and granted me more leverage.
The next obstacle was a low net that you were supposed to crawl under. Thanks to the low profile of my sprint, I didn’t lose any speed at all, and continued to dash underneath the net. I turned my head backwards to check on Noah’s progress.
He had just made it over the wall while I was underneath the net. I saw a few other recruits at around the same point he was, so Noah was actually doing pretty well for the group. I already had a solid lead, however.
After I scrabbled under the net, I clambered over a series of hurdles. I swung my legs over left, then right, then left again, preserving the momentum to keep up speed. A manic grin spread over my face. I hadn’t had this much fun in a while.
Next up were monkey bars. They spanned about ten meters in length. I grabbed the first bar and kept up the momentum, and swung onto the next bar. I had four arms, so I used each one in order, allowing me to move a lot faster than the inferior two-armed folk. I hit the ground and sank down into a crouching sprint once more.
The last obstacle was upcoming. It was a tall wall with ropes hanging down from the top to assist climbing. It was about ten meters tall. I launched myself off the ground and grabbed the rope as high as I could. I leveraged my legs against the wall, and used my powerful arms to haul myself up. My upper body strength was greater than most, thanks to my four limbs. Togumo were built for climbing.
Once I scaled the wall, I looked back at the rest of the recruits challenging the obstacle course. Noah was neck and neck with an Aeon and Sabi recruit. They were currently challenging the monkey bars. Noah was doing better than I expected. I thought that he would be slower since humans were built for endurance, but he was managing the obstacles really well. He swung through the monkey bars without struggle.
I turned my attention back on myself. I was currently standing on top of a ten meter wall, and I needed to get back down. The ropes were also present on the other side of the wall, but I didn’t need them. I launched myself from the top of the wall, using my tail to balance mid-air. I hit the ground and absorbed the shock through all six of my limbs. I finished the obstacle course soon after, as the finish line was straight ahead.
Noah finished a couple minutes later. It seemed like he struggled slightly on the last rope wall. It was hard to get up, and he lowered himself safely on the rope. He still came in fourth. The Aeon and Sabi recruit had beaten him, in the end.
Noah was gasping for air. “Wow… That was worse than I thought!”
“You did pretty well, though.” I complimented. “I thought you were going to do worse.”
Noah’s head snapped up indignantly. “Hey, I don’t have claws and extra arms to help me climb. You were practically cheating!”
I shrugged while he shook his fist at me in mock anger.
After the other groups finished the obstacle course, Ceel finally freed us from training. We were guided back to the barracks to shower and rest. However, before she left, Ceel reminded us of something dreadful.
“See you tomorrow.”