Ender, World-Capital of Nenov, Sector 8.

August 30th, 3091

“JAKE! GET YOUR DIRTY TEENAGER ASS OUT OF BED, RIGHT NOW!” A familiar voice echoed.

Jake’s eyes shot up, his heart racing furiously until he realized what was happening. He sat up, tossed his covers to the side and promptly got out of his bed. He’d barely taken a single step toward the door when he heard shouting again.

“JAKE HAWKINS! IF YOU DO NOT WAKE THE HELL UP RIGHT NOW, I WILL BEAT YOU UP.” Grandma Al’s voice resonated in his ears, immediately sparking a fear in his gut only his dear grandma could instill in him.

“I’m coming!” Jake shouted back, horrified, and he heard Grandma Al’s snort echo all the way to his room in response.

He made his way toward his closet, taking out the uniform he’d prepared the night before, before putting it on. He stood in front of the mirror for a moment, making sure his new outfit fit him perfectly, and his eyes went back and forth between his clothes and his face.

Jake was a six-foot-tall, slim-as-a-toothpick 18-year-old with cool brown hair that cascaded all the way down to his shoulders. His facial features were sharp and defined, which would have been a good thing if it hadn’t made him look even scrawnier than he already was. The rest of his face looked pretty average, except for his eyes, which were a shocking silver-gray that looked almost identical to the shimmering gray of the distant nebulas that littered the vast universe. The uniform was a sleek, nearly pitch-black military uniform with only a small insignia placed over his heart to complete the look. For years now, he’d almost drooled at the sight of the uniform, and now there he was, in said uniform, finally getting ready for the grand departure.

A few seconds later, Jake finally made his way down the stairs almost going two at a time, getting down to the kitchen in record time. If there was one thing Grandma hated, after all, it was waiting.

“Took you long enough! I swear you’re just the same as your father sometimes, a damn hooligan! Now, do you have everything prepared for the academy, or are you also as forgetful as your father was?

Jake looked at Grandma Al momentarily, raising an eyebrow at her. She must have been pretty anxious about his departure to bring up his late father, as she only ever did so when she was either absolutely pissed or very stressed out. He didn’t stare at her for too long, however, as he was very aware of what would happen if he did. Instead, he answered.

“Yup, everything is packed, and it has been for two days now, just like I told you yesterday.”

She looked at him for a moment with a frown, before her features softened, and she looked at him the way only a mother — or grandmother — could.

“Let’s go, then.” She said, giving him a warm smile.

He made his way across the small kitchen, before ending up in the middle of the living room, where something caught his attention. In front of their apartment’s only couch, was a small, worn-out holographic display that was so faint you could barely make out the image. The thing must have been older than Grandma Al herself, and it was the only thing in the house that seemed to be worth a credit, even in its current state of disrepair. On the small display, a very professional-looking middle-aged woman was currently giving a rundown of the week’s event.

“We have just received confirmation as of ten minutes ago that the Intersystem Alliance has lost yet another military outpost at the frontier, as our border remains under the constant attack of the invaders. The Alliance has refused to provide any additional information at the moment, even though this one marks the 13th outpost falling under the corrupted this week.”

Jake couldn’t stop himself from listening to the news report for a few seconds, before closing the display with a wave of his hand.

Both of his parents had died when Luke was still an infant before he’d even turned a year old. They’d both been soldiers, and they’d both died fighting on the front lines during the war, which was still raging all across the universe even today. It had progressively gone from bad to worse during the last few months, as the Intersystem Alliance — the current government which had been born from the union of the galaxy’s strongest and most influential races a few hundred years ago — kept losing more and more territory to the invaders.

Since the day his parents died, Grandma Al had raised him singlehandedly while working full-time as a school janitor. As a result, he’d spent every school year at a boarding school somewhere on Nenov — his home planet — most of the time in one of the less reputable schools of the capital, as they couldn’t afford for him to go anywhere else. Still, they’d spent every summer break together and Grandma Al was the closest thing to a mom he could have ever hoped to have, even though he had to admit she tended to have a short fuse or two.

It was fair to say that Grandma Al had sacrificed a lot for him, too much even. Yet, she had this unrelenting determination on her face, which he’d always found odd, like some sort of weird pride and confidence that shouldn’t belong on the face of a school janitor, yet it did. She was a tall and slim woman with gray hair and creamy white skin, and looked to be anywhere between her 40s and 50s, although Jake believed her to be closer to her 60s. She’d never actually dared to reveal her actual age to him, and she’d hit him in the back of the head the first and last time Jake had asked her about her age. She may have been his Grandma, but the woman could throw a punch, so he hadn’t asked her ever again after that. He wasn’t afraid to admit it in the slightest; he was terrified of Grandma Al, but the good kind of terrified. She was an extremely odd woman and an even weirder grandma, but she was also family.

They both made their way to the small apartment’s entrance, where Jake threw over his shoulder the three bags that had been waiting next to the door since the night before. Two of those were Grandma Al’s, but what kind of grandson would let his old grandma carry her luggage on the way to the spaceport?

“Don’t forget your coat, dear.”

Jake glanced to his left, and grabbed his coat, barely managing to stop himself from rolling his eyes. He hated when his Nana babied him more than anything else, but as he’d said earlier, life was too short to tempt fate that way.

He was about to leave when he turned around to get one last look at the apartment he’d grown up in. The small two-bedroom wasn’t luxurious by any standard, even for this neighbourhood, but it was still where he’d spent most of his life until now. In a weird, incomprehensible way, Jake felt sad. He’d dreamed of the day he’d move out of here for as long as he could remember, yet now that the day had come, he couldn’t help but feel like he’d miss the place, if only for the memories that came with it. He looked thoughtfully for a few seconds, then took a deep breath, and with his heart pumping and a smile on his face, they set out for what would be the beginning of a completely new life for him.

They stepped outside the apartment, before making their way across the narrow streets of Ender, the capital of the planet. It might have been more appropriate to describe the narrow, poorly-lit hallway winding between the massive skyscrapers that arose from each side as an alley, or maybe a path, as there was simply no way even the smallest shuttles would fit in here, so calling it a street would be kind of an exaggeration.

The fact that the streets were narrow didn’t mean that they were empty, however, as a crowd of people unfurled everywhere around them, cramped and dirtied, and as always everyone on these streets looked nothing short of miserable. Only Jake and Grandma Al, in their sleek black uniforms, looked out of place for once.

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They’d spent the last 17 years living here, in the slums of Ender, which was widely considered among the poorest areas of the sector, although they were far from the worst off around the neighbourhood.

A smile made its way onto Jake’s face, as he looked all around him. It was a nice feeling to know that starting today, his life would change. The last years had been hard, but today marked the day he became a cadet at the Royal Military Academy — or RMA for short — one of the best academies across the entire Intersystem Alliance, where he’d go through basic training before finally becoming a full-fledged member of the military.

They both entered the station and headed toward one of the shuttles that were headed to the spaceport, which was almost half of them by all accounts. The shuttles were rectangular vehicles made out of hyper-resistant carbon alloys that could carry around a few hundred passengers per trip and were able to reach speeds of around 500 miles/hour by gliding across electromagnetic ramps. A few years ago, he had learned at school that the ancestor of the shuttles were called trains, although no one had seen one in almost a millennia by now.

They climbed into the vehicle, and thankfully there were still many seats available in the car. He wasn’t sure he would have been able to endure Grandma Al’s complaining for a full hour, although he knew his ears were far from safe just because they’d be able to sit for the ride.

Royal Military Academy, Earth, Sector 1.

September 2nd, 3091

“Good morning, cadet, and welcome to the Royal Military Academy.”

A tall, muscular but otherwise non-descript officer declared to Jake as soon as he’d stepped foot through the gigantic door that led inside the compound. Grandma Al had already gone her separate way a few minutes earlier, as her first shift would start soon and Logan needed to head to the infirmary before he started class tomorrow morning.

“My name is Private Woods, and I will be in charge of guiding you across campus to the infirmary, where you’ll be provided with an Alliance-issued neuroimplant, far better than anything you could have ever seen or heard of on civilian markets. You’ll also need to undergo a small medical exam with the officer in charge of inserting the implant inside your brain, as part of the usual procedure.”

The officer said, and he must have noticed Jake’s puzzled expression because he immediately spoke up a moment later.

“I know you might have a lot of questions, but they will all be answered after you’ve received your implant. For now, I ask that you remain patient. Is that clear, cadet?”

“Yes, sir!” He answered

The officer made a small gesture to follow him, and they both were on their way to the Academy’s hospital a few moments later.

It had only been a quarter hour or so since Jake had arrived at the Academy, and he was pretty certain his mouth had stayed wide open the entire time he’d walked from the entrance gates to the hospital. The entire trip from Ender to Earth had taken almost two entire days, for a total of forty hours, during which he’d spent most of his time either sleeping inside his cabin or exploring the spaceship. It wasn’t every day you got to set foot in a ten-kilometer-wide spacecraft after all, especially considering the fact he’d never set foot inside any spaceship before. Even that, however, was nothing close to the impressive appearance of the RMA.

While he had expected the Academy to be huge, he was extremely shocked to realize how much he’d underestimated the sheer size of the compound. All of the Academy was surrounded by a gigantic force field that made the whole thing look like it was housed under a giant bubble. According to Private Woods, the school grounds covered an area of 100 kilometers wide in diameter, most of which was covered by forest, and students were under no circumstances allowed to step foot inside unless they had an officer’s authorization.

While his home planet had looked like a gigantic steel warehouse crammed with metallic skyscrapers, the academy was like a haven of nature, and every building was littered with trees, plants and vines, contrasting greatly with the sleek, polished black and white carbon alloy the Academy’s structures were made out of.

Jake looked up at the gigantic building in front of him and took a deep breath before entering through the large gates. As soon as he stepped inside, his heart sunk in his chest as a giant pair of yellow eyes bore into him.

It was the first time he’d ever seen a Kreigen, and it caught him off guard for a second. The alien must have noticed his reaction because he let out a small chuckle, before speaking up.

“First time seeing a Kreigen before, cadet?”

Jake’s eyes widened, and he suddenly realized he’d been staring at the officer for a few seconds now.

“Y-Yes. I mean… I’m sorry sir.” Jake spat out, and the words twisted on his tongue momentarily before he could finally speak.

The Kreigen was around two meters and a half tall while being twice as wide as the average human. His skin was murky brown, its texture reminiscent of a snake’s scales, an impression further accentuated by his slitted, predatory yellowish eyes. Despite this reptilian aspect, his build was predominantly humanoid, except for his reptilian face, though his complete lack of hair—across his entire body—added to his otherworldly appearance.

“I am First Lieutenant Neilr, and I will be in charge of your medical examination.” The Kreigen said, amused, before he gestured for him to follow him.

They both entered a small room that looked like a classic hospital room, with a dozen weird-looking medical devices attached to the walls, along with a single examination chair located in the center of the room.

“Sit, cadet.” The officer said, and Jake executed right away.

During the next half hour or so, the officer ran more than two dozen types of tests, using every single medical device in the room to do so, before he’d disappeared for the last few minutes. During this whole time, not a single word had been exchanged between them, except for a few questions that the Kreigan had asked him directly at the beginning.

When the officer finally came back, he was holding a small tablet in his hands and immediately made his way toward Jake and spoke up.

“You’re really fucking weak, even for a human, but that should change pretty quickly once you’ve gone through basic training, so I’m not too concerned by that.”

Jake was taken aback by the abrupt honesty for a moment, wondering why the hell the Kreigan was telling him that, but he still managed to respond without too much anger in his tone.

“Yes, first lieutenant.”

The officer snorted before he finally continued with the medical evaluation.

“Except for your weak ass body, you’re pretty much well above average in all neurological and mental acuity tests, and you’re perfectly healthy, so that’s good. Now, it's time for the fun part kid.”

As soon as the last words had left his mouth, the officer took a step back, and a mechanical device that had been fixed to the ceiling slowly went down until it reached a few inches above Logan’s head, where it stopped.

“After we’ve inserted the neuroimplant inside your brain, you’ll be taken back to your dorm by one of our staff.”

Of course, Jake had known about this part all along, as it was common knowledge that every cadet would receive upon their acceptance at the Academy one of the Alliance’s top-tier neuro implants. The benefits of the implants were rumoured to be not only extremely potent, but also numerous, and he couldn’t help to feel somewhat excited, even though his brain was about to be opened by someone who looked like they would belong on the front lines rather than the insides of a hospital.

“Yes, sir.” He answered anyway.

And before Jake knew it, the anesthesia kicked in and he fell asleep.

Owens Family Estate, Mars, Sector 1.

September 1st, 3091

Noelle had been walking toward her family’s private spaceport when she’d been summoned to an audience with the family’s patriarch through the message functionality of her neuroimplant.

She had been minutes away from departure for Earth before she’d been forced to turn on her heels and make her way back to the main family’s compound by shuttle.

Now, she was currently standing impatiently in front of the large gates that led to the audience hall, where she’d meet with the family patriarch in a few minutes.

She let out a sigh of relief when a small message notification appeared in the corner of her eye, with the large gates opening up simultaneously.

She stepped through the doors and walked all the way toward the man standing on a huge metallic throne on the opposite side of the room. She bowed slightly in front of him, as a show of respect, after which the patriarch spoke up.

“Your uncle tells me you will start attending the RMA tomorrow, is that true?”

His voice was powerful and steady, yet still domineering. It only made her hesitate for a second, however, before she answered.

“Yes, patriarch.”

“I see. I’m assuming I do not need to remind you of what is at stake here.”

Her heart clenched and she had to fight with all her might for her next words to not get stuck inside her throat.

“No, patriarch.”

He paused for a few seconds, visibly looking for the right words.

“Tomorrow, you’ll finally become an awakened, and I have no doubt you’ll be just as talented as your father was in that regard.”

He stared at her for a second which felt like an eternity, and a chill went down her spine at his next words.

“However, I also hope you understand what will happen if your performance at the Academy is subpar?”

“Yes, patriarch.”

A small smile appeared on his lips, and the words that followed were let out in a softer tone than before.

“Do not disappoint me, my dear granddaughter.”