There was a muddled murmur of mornings as the squad met at the edge of the residential building. It was still cool out, enough that it would be refreshing as they moved their bodies. Due to Smith raising his Con stat they decided to meet each morning and run around the base until they gave up.
“Jamieson isn’t here yet?” Barten asked.
“Yeah. Said that his head is bugging him,” Conners said. “Said that he usually doesn’t get headaches. But it should go away if he goes back to bed.”
“Hah, Myles is probably soft enough to let something like that happen,” Monroe said. She was already bouncing on her feet after having done her warmups already. “Back in my last outfit anything short of a bullet wound wouldn’t keep us from training.”
“Just where the hell were you stationed?” Conners shook his head. “Might as well just retire proper if you had to keep up that pace.”
Monroe shrugged. “It wasn’t so bad. We worked hard to keep in shape. But it was needed to respond to the calls in time. Which was more often just posturing across the border. Infantry life is hard.”
“Wait, Infantry?” Barten asked, to which Monroe nodded. “I was a pilot in the 8th. Kind of figured that everyone else was as well.”
“I’m a pilot,” Smith said. “Though I also started in artillery. Usually flown something with heavy ordinance.”
“I was mobile infantry,” Conners said. “Worked around escorting troops and rapid ins and outs. For the 5th.”
“Ah, I was in the 9th,” Smith said.
“Anyone know what Jamison was?” Conners asked.
“I think that he might have been in the 3rd. A sniper or something,” Monroe said. “We got to talking one day about our favorite guns.”
“Hah. Why settle on just one gun?” Conners asked.
As Monroe and Conners got into which gun was best, the rest got to running instead of dealing with the gun two nuts. After every lap Barten would check out the terminal that had been all but living on his left wrist. He found himself checking it often throughout the day. Hoping that something would have increased. When they tested out running distance or evening in the sun Smith always seemed to have a leg up on the others. There was also a difference individually. Monroe was probably second in endurance, with Conners coming in last. Even though everyone’s stats all read the same 10. Did it have something to do with how active they were?
It wasn’t until towards the end of their morning run Barten finally saw an improvement in his stats.
Kyle Barten
Str: 10
Con: 11
Agi: 10
Dex: 10
Per: 10
PRe: 5
And instead of continuing to run against his endurance he just plopped down on the spot. “Wait, Barten? Are you alright?” Monroe asked as she jogged back to him. “Why did you just drop like that.”
He held his arm up and showed his stats. “Got one in Con. No idea if it’s going to be worth it. But isn’t all this running a little much?” he asked.
“Well. Who knows really? And it might be that we never see combat during our time. Given how little they know about the threat. And this is sort of semi-retirement,” she said and then started jogging in place. “Shouldn’t we do everything that we can in order to make it easier for the next generation?”
“I guess that’s one way to look at it,” Barten said and slowly stood. “Somehow I’m starting to feel a lot better. Faster than I did yesterday.” He rotated his shoulders and bounced on the balls of his feet. “Hells, I could probably run some more.”
Monroe laughed. “Well. You did just increase your Con by 10% right? That isn’t a small amount now is it?”
Barten shook his head. “No. But now maybe I’ll be able to keep up with you and Smith.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” she said and flashed her terminal to him. He only got a look at it before she took off running, but her Con had already risen to 11. Barten shook his head and started running after her while grumbling under his breath.
***
They hit the showers, got breakfast, and Barten was lounging in his bed for a moment. There was a meeting coming up. But he had really overdone it chasing after the others. Although Conners was in last place, he being second place, wasn’t in a good position himself.
As he was considering being late and if it could be worth it a terrible racket could be heard from down the hall. Barten jumped from his bed, flew out of his room, and ran to see what was going on. What he found was a group of people standing outside of a door looking in.
“Barten, what’s going on?” Smith asked as he came down the hall from the other way.
“I’m not sure, it seems like,” he said and stopped when he saw the name on the door. “Jamieson’s room. What-?” Once Barton had muscled through the onlookers he found that the room had been trashed. All of the furniture was either broken or twisted. The windows were smashed out, and Jamieson was in the process of destroying the walls and ceiling. “He’s gone berserk.”
“What? Berserk?” Smith asked.
“It’s something that happened back then-” Barten was interrupted when Jamieson turned towards the door. Either having noticed them standing there or talking. His eyes were red and bloodshot. Drool frothed and dripped from his mouth. The giant of a man took one step forward, his back hunched over and his hands grasped tightly into fists. They were bleeding and lacerated from the damage that he had done to the room. When he took his second step the onlookers started to scatter. His third sent him into a leap towards the door.
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Barten and Smith shared a look and the two of them collided with Jamieson at the same time. Smith high, and Barten low. Between the two of them they were able to knock Jamieson to the ground. But that wasn’t the end of the things. “Oof, what is he lifting?” Barten asked as he struggled to restrain Jamieson’s legs.
“I don't know. But this isn’t going to end cleanly,” Smith said as he struggled just as much. Jamieson had an arm free and was tearing at Smith’s shirt.
“What-?” a voice called out from the door.
“Monroe? Good timing! Help me either get him under control or knock him out or something. At this rate he’s either going to kill someone or get shot,” Smith said. She was there before he finished speaking and wrapped her arms around Jamieson’s neck. He tried to get his free arm around her, but she quickly restrained it with her legs. And it was a moment later when the raging Jamieson finally went limp.
“Anything to tie him up with?” Monroe asked. “Cuffs will probably eat into his wrists,” she said as she cradled Jamieson’s head. “What could have happened to make him act like that?”
Sergeant Myles entered the room with the base Doctor. “Great, you’ve already taken care of him. There have been a few other scattered cases already today,” he said as the doctor rushed to their side. He already had out a syringe and injected Jamieson with something.
“It’s just a sedative,” the doctor said. “It’ll knock him on his ass for a few days, and then he’ll be fine.”
Another group of people arrived just then with a stretcher and they carefully loaded him up. Sergeant Myles spoke after they watched Jamieson get carted down the hallway, “Alright, everyone clear out and report to your CO. You lot,” he pointed at Barten, Smith, and Monroe, “find Conners and meet with me in the same room as last time. I’ll find out more about what is going on.” They snapped a quick salute and were off.
“Wait, what happened?” Conners asked as his jaw dropped. “Jamieson always seemed like such a level headed guy.”
Monroe shrugged. “That’s the feeling I got as well. And yet he tore that room apart in moments. With his bare hands even.”
“Leave it for now. Hopefully Myles will have some more answers for us. Feels bad to lose one of our own like that,” Smith said. “This whole thing is giving me a headache.
“What? You too? I was fine this morning. But every since about 10 minutes ago one has been setting in. Do you think that maybe there was something wrong with that slop they are still feeding us?” Conners asked.
Monroe rubbed at her temples. “And here I thought that it was strange. The pain feels like something is ticking away in my head.”
Barten looked between the three of them. “Um. I’m still good,” he said and gave them a thumbs up. “I must just have an iron stomach or something.” For some reason they only turned to glare at him instead of answering.
***
They had gotten everyone gathered and waiting in the small auditorium. Aside from the usual chatter they were quiet due to the headaches most were experiencing. Barten grabbed a bottle of painkillers before they left the residential building. And it was quickly doled out and polished off. By the time that Myles arrived there was a strange feeling to the air that Barten couldn’t place.
“Alright, I’ve got good, bad, and worse news,” Myles said as he set up his laptop with the projector.
“Might as well start with the good right?” Barten asked as he looked at the others.
“Jamieson should be okay. And if anyone else was going to go berserk then they would have by now.”
“How do you know that?” Smith asked.
“The same thing happened at New Eden all those years ago,” Barten said. “Several people went on a rage-fueled spree, smashing everything and everyone.”
“That wasn’t something that was shared with the public,” Monroe said. “At least in the information that I could find.”
Barten shrugged and looked to Myles who spoke, “There were a number of people who made it through the damage done at New Eden. Barten here just happens to be one of them.”
“No shit?” Conners asked. ‘Why didn’t you say anything?”
“There was a gag order put into place. Though most people didn’t really pay it much mind and had to be reminded,” Myles said.
“I always wanted to enlist. And from what I could understand at the time it made more sense not to say anything about it. Though I’m surprised that I came up with such an idea as an 8 year old.”
“Alright. Now onto the bad news,” Myles said. He had pulled up and projected a slide of the rundown base they were in. “You probably all wondered why the base was in bad repair as it was.”
“Right. Place is a right shit hole,” Conners said and rubbed at his temple.
“About 5 years ago they discovered a second object.” Myles showed the next slide. It was a satellite image of a mountain range without any civilization nearby. “And then another.” The next slide held an image of what appeared to be a small village in the middle of grasslands. “And another,” he said and continued to move through the slides. “All told we’ve found 24 of the objects so far. They are extremely deep within the crust of the earth. Such that even if we tried we wouldn’t be able to deal with the heat. Even then there was a fear that any interference would cause them to activate. Raising to the surface and sending out another pulse, or worse.”
“What is worse?” Smith asked.
“There were remains in the first one that we found. It seemed like something went wrong, cold sleep failure, lack of food, or who knows. At this current point in time we believe that these objects are inhabited in some way. While they haven’t launched any attacks on us yet. There is no telling what would happen if we opened Pandora's box by interfering with them.”
“And so we prepared. Building or otherwise retrofitting bases nearby the objects. Training to be ready for when the day comes.” Myles move through the slides showing the same locations as before, only with bases or new buildings. The last slide that he showed landed on a location that everyone in the room was familiar with. Having spent the last few weeks onsite.
“Wait, so there’s one right outside of the base?” Monroe asked.
“What the fuck is that? I signed up because of the semi-retirement. To wind down before the civilian life.. Damn it. There was what whole saving the world bit as well I guess. Shit,” Conners said. “Ma always did tell me that I’d die in the forces. Guess I never should have left the cushy mobile infantry life.”
Myles showed a small smile. “Your unit was slated to be distributed to one of the locations of an object anyways. Instead you’re here with us. So we’re lucky on that front.” Conners laughed, winced, and rubbed at his temples not saying anything.
Barten slowly raised his hand. “Then what is the worse news?
“Ah. Well,” Myles said and looked up at the satellite image of the base. To the northwest of the base lay a city. And to the east of that was the location of the object. “What else do you remember of the New Eden event Barten?”
“Ugh, not much,” he said and ran his fingers through his hair. “There was some sort of disabling event before the object broke the surface. I remember the violence. We were in school that day. And were forced to stay inside. And then I work up a makeshift hospital, long lines of beds lying in the gym. All my friends and classmates lying unconscious.”
“That would have been a psychic pulse that was emitted by the object. We weren’t sure what it was for. Researchers suggested anything from genocide to a warning to a beacon.”
“Wait, a genocide?” Monroe asked.
“That’s right. Everything with a brain within 20 kilometers was fried. Humans made it out better than most. But everything smaller than a medium dog was dead once the pulse happened. Anything larger was knocked out for a few days.”
“Does that mean it’s expected to happen here?” she asked.
“Within the next 24 hours. We aren’t ready for it. But it looks like the object is waking up,” Myles said.