I woke up to knocking at my door. I call out "enter!" and the door slides open to reveal my uniformed helper. He walked in and spoke. "Good morning sir, the Colonel has requested that we bring both of you to the cafeteria to eat breakfast before you begin your testing for the day." I nod, allowing him to help me get dressed and shower before finally ending up back in my wheelchair again.

He wheels me into the common room where Mindal and his helper along with four new faces patiently waiting for us. "Good morning Lieutenant!" Mindal says brightly as he catches sight of me. I smiled and return the greeting before turning my head to get a good look at our new arrivals. There are three men wearing similar standard-issue uniforms like Mindal and I. One of the men is also confined to a wheelchair, with his own black uniformed helper standing near him. He's a skinny man with light blonde hair, pale blue eyes, and a pale white skin just like Mindal's. His name tag reads Rathor with his rank denoting a Sergeant Major. The man standing two his right is a tall, muscular man standing six foot two, with dark brown hair and intense brown eyes. His name tag reads Klem with the rank of Sergeant. The last man is a slightly shorter, albeit still muscular man, only standing five foot eleven, with fiery red hair and pretty green eyes. His name tag reads Wright with the rank of Sergeant as well.

I offer them a nod in greeting and they all return it except for Rathor, who stares blankly off into the distance. The two men standing step forward and introduce themselves. "A pleasure to meet you Lieutenant, I'm Sergeant Klem. I was stationed in a different bunker than you on Urtol, but everyone's heard of your valiant fight against the mutant kryssik." spoke Klem with a smile on his face and a respectful look in his eyes. Sergeant Wright spoke next saying "Of course everyone's heard of his battle. It's not every day that a paper pusher paints a cafeteria with the guts of an un-killable monster!" Klem shot Wright a look which caused him to speak quickly while looking embarrassed. "I meant no disrespect sir, I'm Sergeant Wright. It's an honor to be working along side you during our testing." I smile and respond "Think nothing of it, I was sure I was going to die after the kryssik put a massive hole in my stomach so I'm just happy to still be kicking."

After our introductions I turn my gaze to Rathor, who still sat quietly in his chair, staring off into space. Mindal noticed my gaze and spoke up. "That's Sergeant Major Rathor. He was injured in a mine explosion while on a mission which resulted in complete paralysis." He explained. "Everyone arrived last night after you went to sleep and the Colonel didn't want to wake you so he gave me the rundown. I nodded and addressed everyone in the room. "It's a pleasure to meet you all, but I'm starving so why don't we continue introductions during breakfast?" Everyone nods in agreement and our black uniformed helpers wheel us into the hallway and towards the cafeteria while Klem and Wright follow closely behind.

I can tell when we're getting closer to the cafeteria as my nose is once again caressed by the smelled of delicious food until finally we reach the door and enter the large room. I spot the Colonel sitting at the same table we ate at yesterday and after he notices he offers a wave in greeting. Our helpers wheel us to the table and ask us what we feel like eating before going to wait in line with the two Sergeants to retrieve our food. "How was your first night of sleep in your room?" The Colonel says after our helpers leave. "Pretty good. The bed was comfortable and the shower was nice." I say with enthusiasm. The Colonel nods. "Glad to hear it. Once the other two get their food and sit down I'll brief you on the agenda for today and the type of tests you'll be going through during your stay here."

We wait until our helpers return with our food, depositing trays with large piles of pancakes in front of us. The two Sergeants sit down as my helper begins to cut up my food and push it into my mouth and the Colonel begins to speak. "On the behalf of the Federation I want to once again thank all of you for volunteering for this program. I'm sure you're all very curious about just what exactly these tests will entail, and what the overall goal of this program is." He forms his hands into a tent and leans in towards the table. "I won't lie to you and say there's no risk of death, because there's a very likely chance you may not walk out of this alive. However, if successful, this technology could give three of you your legs back, and make all of you the most powerful soldiers the Federation has ever seen." He leans back into his chair and continues. "The goal of the Officer Project is to create unstoppable super soldiers, powered by the most advanced technology the Federation has on hand."

"What do you mean by super soldier? More than half of us are paralyzed in some form, so we couldn't fight if we wanted to." I said, causing the Colonel to sigh before speaking again. "Allow me to give you a little bit of back story to help this make a bit more sense. 20 years ago, after the end of the Stelken war, the Federation realized that fighting intergalactic wars were too costly and wasteful, leading to an unacceptable loss of life for an arguably small amount of gain. So, they commissioned the Federation Officer Project, and built The Lab, deep under the Pacific Ocean. They brought in the best scientists from all over the Federation to develop technology that could allow a soldier to be sent far off into the galaxy, to prepare planets with strategic interest, for integration into the Federation."

"The Federation split the research into two fields. The Humans would focus on building an indestructible body, capable of creation and destruction not yet seen, and the Stelken would focus on building the mind, allowing the body to be piloted."

"The Human scientists finished the development of the body close to five years ago, and the development of the piloting system was proceeding smoothly, however, they ran into a major roadblock. The virtual interface they had planned on using wasn't able to handle the strain of trillions of individual parts all working together. So the Stelken presented a more promising, albeit risky solution. They proposed using a newly developed technology to transfer the consciousness of loyal soldier directly into the machine. This would allow direct control over the body, without implementing an artificial intelligence that could potentially go rouge."

The four of us sat in silence, with Rathor still silent, contemplating just what exactly the Colonel had told us. I had assumed that this program would be some kind of prosthetics testing after he told us we would be able to walk again, but what he was explaining was something completely different. "What makes this testing so dangerous? It sounds like you've got it all figured out already." I ask. The Colonel turns to me before answering. "We've been successful with transfers in animal testing so far, but this would be an entirely different phase. Human brains are much more complicated so the Stelken scientists need test subjects to brain map. Don't worry though, the initial testing will just be brain scans to get a good idea for if you'd be a good fit. The real danger won't show itself until we attempt the first transfer, as your body will be left without a mind. If the transfer goes wrong, there's a high possibility that you'll die."

I nod, having already guessed this, and speak again. "I understand, I'm still willing to go through with this, even if there's a small chance I can regain the ability to walk." The other three men with me nodded as well, with Rathor still sitting in silence and the Colonel clasped his hands together and exclaimed. "Excellent! Now, how about we go and meet the scientists for your first round of testing?"

We make our way out of the cafeteria, down a different hallway than the one we came in. As we move, we pass by large glass barriers that allow us to see into large, intricate laboratories, populated by scientists completely focused on their tasks. They all wore different uniforms than the sharp black ones we had seen before, wearing clean, white lab coats with protective safety goggles perched upon their heads.

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We continue down the hallway until we reach a door with the words Officer Project in bold lettering across the front. The Colonel scans his wrist to the door and we enter, taking in the advanced laboratory that may be our graveyard. All around us were plasteel tables populated by intricate lab equipment whos' purpose I couldn't even begin to fathom. The air was populated by a sharp, sanitary smell, no doubt coming from the clean, white, rubber tiling that covered the floor.

As soon as we enter a strange man makes his way over to us. He is short, only standing about five feet tall, with stringy white hair and skin so pale you could see his veins stretching out across his face like an intricate network of roots. As he locks eyes with me I see that he has tall, slit pupils similar to a cat, with pale, grey irises surrounding them. I can immediately tell that this man must be an important scientist, just from the way he holds himself, and as soon as he speaks my assumption is confirmed. "Greetings Federation soldiers, I am Chief Scientist Menrik." He straightens his back to stand proudly in front of us before continuing. "It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the Federation Officer Project. You all are doing a great service for the Federation and we are all honored for your sacrifice. I want you all to know, although there is a high chance of mortality within this program, we will do everything in our power to stop that from happening. The Federation hates to waste valuable resources, and we will do our best to uphold that value."

His speech didn't exactly put me at ease but it was a little comforting to know that the Federation considers us to be "valuable resources". He says a quick "Follow me" and turns his back towards us and heads towards a door at the very back of the room. He scans his wrist and we all enter, and we all form a circle around a large glass box in the center of the room. The box was filled halfway with what looked like dark black powder. Only, this powder was shifting and flowing like it was alive. I as I watched it ebb and flow, I felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck. The powder continued to flow throughout the container but now it was slowing pushing towards me, against the glass.

The scientist seemed not to notice as he spoke. "Inside this containment vessel is what will be your new body." The scientist explains. "The black substance you see is composed of trillions of microscopic, self-replicating robots. They are extremely versatile, able to deconstruct any material we know of, as well as constructing new materials from consumed matter. Each robot is equipped with its' own miniaturized fusion device, allowing them to split and fuse atoms at will, and providing their controller with the ability to create almost anything imaginable. The potential of these robots is nearly unlimited, as they are also equipped with an assistant managing system, allowing their controller to modify and upgrade their resistances and usefulness even during an intense battle. This will allow you to adapt your body to any situation you may come across, as long as the robots get a sample of what you want to implement, they can put it to good use."

We all listen intently, not saying a word as none of us had ever seen something quite like the black substance. We continued on further into the room until we reached a chair with a helmet hanging above it. The helmet had thousands of tiny wires poking out and twisting together until they combined into one thick cable at the top of the helmet.

Speaking again the scientist explained just exactly what we're looking at. "In front of you is our brain mapping device. It allows us to scan the brain patterns of whoever is sitting in the chair and upload it into our system. It also allows for the direct transfer of the consciousness into the main body when the time comes."

The scientist then asked for a volunteer to demonstrate how the machine works to which I accepted, allowing myself to be placed into the chair by the scientist and my helper. He then said "Just sit very still and it should be completed in a few seconds", before lowering the helmet down onto my head. I heard a loud thrumming sound for about five seconds until it stopped abruptly, and the scientist raised the helmet from my head.

Looking to my left, I could see a large LCD screen embedded in a control panel in the wall. Displayed on this screen was a map of my brain, only it looked alive. Billions of little streaks of light shot back and forth across the neurons inside my head and shooting down my spine, until abruptly ending where I assumed the damage had severed it. After removing the helmet and allowing my helper to place me back into my wheelchair, the scientist walked back over to the LCD panel and studied it intensely. "Hmmm very interesting indeed. It seems as though even with your body paralyzed, your brain still remembers exactly how to communicate with your extremities. This is very good news, as you seem to be an excellent candidate for testing." He then has everyone take their turn having their brain scanned and I see everyone's brains appear on the screen one after another.

After everyone finished their scans, scientist brought us into a room adjacent to the last, and introduced us to a team of short, young-looking scientists, all with the same pale skin. After introducing us, he instructed the other scientists to perform a general workup of us, drawing blood, testing reflexes, and taking DNA samples. Close to an hour later, after all of the testing had concluded, he bid us farewell and we were escorted back to our common room, with the Colonel staying behind to speak with the scientists.

Once we arrived back at our dorms, the helpers went to wait outside the door and left us to talk amongst ourselves. I learned that Klem and Wright had both served together as foot soldiers, clearing out infestations in mines and racking up an impressive kill number of over 500 each. They were both born on mars like me, but had joined the military only four years ago. They told me of how they were selected for the program, having been deployed on a mission in a gold mine, deep below the surface of Urtol. They had entered with a hundred men, traveling down the mine shaft for several days before reaching their objective. A large group of small kryssik had eating all of the mining equipment and support beams, causing a catastrophic collapse and trapping their squad deep in the mine. They were forced to fight their way out, losing dozens of men to wave after wave of attack from the kryssik, until finally, they were able to travel far enough into the natural cave system and find an open mine shaft.

Having spent weeks within the depths of Urtol, they had lost almost all of their men by the time they made it to the surface. With only ten out of the initial one hundred leaving alive. After their escape, they were brought to a Federation medical ship just like Mindal and I to recover from severe dehydration and starvation. After they were strong enough, they were approached by the Colonel, offering them the chance to gain the power to never be in such a dire situation ever again. They gladly accepted and were brought to The Lab shortly after us.

After Mindal and I shared our story in return, they were in awe, as they had never seen a kryssik so large even after spending months surrounded by them. After theorizing for a while, they chalked it up to a random mutation and proceeded to ask tons of questions about what it was like to be covered in bug guts.

After our lighthearted conversation we decided we were hungry so we called our helpers back in and headed to the cafeteria. I got steak and mashed potatoes again and Mindal decided to try the soup. It seemed like he enjoyed it as the entire bowl was gone after a few minutes. After dinner we all retired to our common room again and sat around talking about boring life in the Federation. Eventually we heard a knock on the main door and the Colonel walked in. "All right everyone, I've just finished speaking to the head scientist and he gave me who he wants to work with in order tomorrow." Confused, I speak up. "Excuse me sir, but I figured we'd all be tested together." The Colonel nodded and responded. "Yes, I thought so too, but apparently the scientist thinks some of you may take longer than others in tomorrow's round of testing, so he thought it would be better for the rest of you to relax in here while you wait." I nod in acceptance and the Colonel speaks again. "Okay, so first up tomorrow will be Lieutenant Clark, then Sergeant Major Rathor. Then he wants Staff Sergeant Mindal, followed by Sergeant Klem and then Sergeant Wright. Everyone get a good night's rest and we'll start fresh tomorrow." He then turned around and left us with our helpers. I took a shower, brushed my teeth and was lowered into my comfortable bed once more and drifted off to enjoy another restful night of sleep. But, my sleep for tonight would be anything but restful.