“Today is the start of a new year and a new semester. You will notice that there are five fewer cadets. They failed to meet the expectations of our academy. We have new cadets who were accepted into the DNOA but were unable to attend, and attended different academies. Their grades were deemed acceptable enough for us to approve their transfers. They will join class B, since you are adults I can trust that you can introduce yourselves. ”
“We also have our final instructor joining us. This is Captain Jericho Marley, and she will be taking over your maintenance classes, will be teaching survival training, and first aid with Major Farosh. Captain Marley will also oversee the joint survival expedition later this semester with the Naval and Armored Special Forces cadets later this month. You will notice that she is a Saturnian. I recommend that you treat her with the same respect as you treat me.” The major’s eyes locked onto Snowden, “I will also remind you that our expectations have risen as well and will continue to rise. Things only get harder from here; since we have lost three days this week, we will have full classes on Seventh Day. Does anyone have any questions?”
None of the cadets said a word, it was their first day back and classes would start the next day. Hearing they wouldn’t have Seventh Day off wasn’t terribly surprising. “The cafeteria will be open until twenty hundred hours. Master Sergeant Ransing has open simulator hours from eighteen hundred until twenty hundred, Captain Feren will be in the sparring room from fifteen hundred to seventeen hundred, Captain Nevis is operating the range from seventeen hundred to nineteen hundred, and Captain Marley will have the maintenance shop open from sixteen hundred to eighteen hundred for calibration testing. Dismissed.”
“I’m surprised that you’re here given that you skipped the finals,” Arun Snowden addressed Kiera, not bothering to approach her, “I don’t think you should be.” His white hair was showing yellow roots, making him look even more like a Dandelion than Kiera thought at their first meeting, and what she referred to him as. He was two inches shorter than Kiera, which she found amusing.
“I really don’t care what you think. Enjoy your one sided rivalry,” Kiera replied walking to the dorms.
“I’m surprised Dandy wasn’t expelled,” Corbin said, “Given how much disrespect he gave to Cael Feren, and the two of you.” Corbin was a bald, dark skinned human half a foot shorter than Kiera and capable of lifting three tons thanks to his high gravity homeworld. He didn’t have a roommate because the Academy gave him a gravity well that produced the same gravity of his homeworld of Grandelar so his muscles wouldn’t atrophy and he retained his prodigious strength. The army was still hounding him to switch branches.
“Might have had to do with his father,” Jin Reed said, “He’s an Admiral in the Navy. His older brother made Captain before he was dishonorably discharged. He left his post on a mining colony to chase down pirates. The colony was destroyed, all the ore was stolen and the pirates got away after disabling his mecha. Provoked two other pirate groups to attack mining colonies as well but both those were stopped.” Jin was from Arcadia and like Holt Peregrine and Leiella Feren was an Eladrin. He had dark black hair and bright green eyes and favored his glasses over the contacts that Peregrine required him to wear while flying or in the sim.
“That guy is such a tool. I’d put money on Hailey passing him when we’re actually flying and making Purple two. I wonder what these new cadets are like, ” Koda Oso said, “They didn’t make the cut the first time but now they’re here..”
Koda was a moreau, a descendant from a group of colonists who had been experimented on to create a race of super soldiers with the strengths and characteristics of animals. The experiment was a phenomenal success and a humanitarian nightmare. It was conducted illegally by a fringe group that had presented the experiment four different times to both the Imperial Scientific Advancement Board and the Imperial Military. All four times it had been struck down. The group received information about a new colony and funding from an unknown sponsor. Koda was a moderate bear moreau with a bear’s nose and sense of smell, bear ears, claws instead of finger nails, sharp teeth and shaggy brown hair. He had more body hair than the average sixteen year old and a small bear tail that he showed Kiera last semester He had a half a foot of height on Kiera at six foot two.
“The Empire isn’t free from corruption as much as we’d all like it to be,” Kiera said, “People sleep up the ranks, get posts they are not qualified for, have virtual immunity for disobeying orders or doing what they want. It’s all about who you know and what you can get away with.”
“I guess all we can do is fight against it when we come across it,” Hailey said, “and have the courage to do so.” Hailey was from Dalamar, her father the newly appointed King making her a planetary princess. She had tawny hair, bright blue eyes and freckles sprinkled on her face and shoulders and was the same height as Kiera at five foot eight inches.
“So are you going to tell us what happened or not?” Koda asked, throwing an arm around Kiera’s shoulders, “When we found out you were gone we were worried sick, especially Hails.”
Kiera put her arm around Koda’s waist. “I was kidnapped by professionals and delivered to Prince Tracksuit, the former prince of Dalimar. Also known as the complete tool that dared to insult me at my own birthday party.”
Haily stumbled, only Corbin’s quick reflexes prevented her from falling, “Wait…that was you!? Oh no,” she buried her face in her hands, letting her hair hang around her face.
“Not your fault, Halo,” Kiera said, “I hold no ill will towards the people of Dalimar especially since they now have new, competent planetary royalty and not the dumbass that used to sit on the throne. It takes time to root out all the corruption.”
Hailey gave Kiera a smile not commenting about Corbin’s arm still around her, “You’re too sweet, Kara. Are you guys hungry? I swear our transport from Dalimar was even earlier this morning.”
“I can always eat,” Corbin said.
“Grab some food, download that schedule and meet the new Captain?” Kiera asked. The others agreed.
The cafeteria food was different this semester, there were two new franchise restaurants that had been allowed to set up offering food from two dozen new worlds including one from the Kingdom. The lines were small and Kiera’s group was feeling adventurous. They each got something different and then traded bites of food; Kiera was a little disappointed the food from the Kingdom was some kind of leaf, fish and mushroom dish itorians enjoyed. The server said that it was supposed to boost brain power. Only Jin found it palpable.
They met some of their friends who they studied with last semester, Sam Collins and Sheldon Blake. Sam was a dark haired andoran, a people with leopard spots on their foreheads, arms, sides and legs. Sheldon was a beanpole of a human who was usually quiet but had a tendency to blurt out things at random. Usually about the girls.
After eating they had an hour to kill until Captain Feren’s session opened, Hailey pointed out that they could attend each of the events for an hour and hit them all, which would give them a good start to the new year. The first event was sparring with Captain Feren. She went over the basics of unarmed combat, including how to read your opponent. They practiced for the first half an hour, then Jin wanted to face off in a sword match against Kiera. Jin had improved but couldn’t beat Kiera even when she just counter-attacked. She’d been studying sword fighting since she was five and had, in her opinion, the best warrior in the Empire teach her: Emperor Amadeus Astria.
Two of the new cadets were also at Leiella’s sparring session. One was a tall, muscular, slender man with short blonde hair, piercing pale blue eyes and a scar running over his right eye. As he sparred, that eye turned green. The other one was shorter than Kiera but taller than Corbin. He was barrel chested and so muscular that it was hard to see his neck. His movements were slow but powerful and he didn’t know how to pull his punches; or seemed to care when he sent Hailey flying across the room.
“Dat’s why girlies shouldn’t fight der weak. If you lose to a girlie den you’re weak too,” he looked at Jin, “Knife ears are weak anyway.”
“Unless you want to be doing drills the rest of the day I suggest you mind your tone and your manners Cadet Vandreg,” Captain Leiella Feren said, helping Hailey up and checking her over.
“I ain’t going to listen to a knife eared girlie,” Vandreg said, “Where’s da Captain anyway?”
“She’s the captain, you idiot,” Koda growled, pointing at Leiella, “Sucker punching Hailey was a low move. Insult my Captain or my friend again and I’ll lay you out.”
Vandreg grunted, “Big talk, teddy bear. Bring it.”
Koda stepped into the ring and raised his fists. Everyone stopped to watch. Kiera didn’t care for this new guy at all. Watching Koda beat the crap out of him was going to be a joy to watch. Vandreg threw a powerful jab which Koda caught. He pushed the bulky boy back with an impassive look on his face. Vandreg followed with a haymaker that Koda dodged by stepping backwards. The moreau countered with three fast and powerful blows that sent the bulky man taking a few steps backwards. Vandreg roared and charged, anger on his face. He threw a wild punch which Koda caught and used the boy’s own momentum to throw him to the mat.
“Captain Feren taught me how to do that. I’d advise that you don’t insult her again. She’s handed my ass to me plenty of times.” Koda left Vandreg on the mat and walked over to Leiella and saluted, coming to attention.
“At ease, Koda, well done,” Captain Feren said, “Cadet Vandreg, report to Sergeant Labradore for drills starting tomorrow. You’ll be doing them at nineteen hundred for the next two weeks.”
“Looks like this place is going to be even better than I thought,” the other boy said, “Soren Holland, nice to meet you all.” He saluted the captain and left the gymnasium.
Next was assisting with calibrations at the mechanics shop. They had to jog across the campus to the mecha field and were greeted by a woman with light blue skin, rainbow hair and glowing pink eyes wearing a standard red Astrian Military Flight suit.
“Good afternoon, Cadets!” she greeted, “I’m Jericho Marley, I’m glad to meet you.” She spoke in Astrian with a barely noticeable accent that Kiera didn’t recognize. Saturnians were from the Kingdom of Benetir, one of the Empire’s closest allies. Or at least they were. They’d been embroiled in a civil war that had lasted nearly twenty years. For some reason the Kingdom wouldn’t accept any combat aid from either the Empire or the Alliance. There were refugees from the Kingdom that would occasionally come through. The refugees were granted special status so they could run businesses and own property without having to be citizens.
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“Hello, Captain,” Kiera replied, offering her hand, “Kiera Sol, welcome to the Academy. This is Haley Selune, Corbin Malut, Jin Reed, and Koda Oso.” Each cadet offered a hand as Kiera introduced them.
“You are a friendly bunch,” Marley said, “Are you here to just meet me, or do you want to help with calibrating the mecha we’ll be taking out tomorrow?”
“We’re happy to help,” Kiera said .
“Excellent. What I need is pretty simple, just control calibration. Grab a helmet, climb into a Jaeger and follow my instructions and we’ll be great!” Marley smiled, her eyes had shifted to a multitude of colors but changed back to pink. Saturnalians were empathic, like Kiera, and their eyes changed colors depending on their mood. Their empathy was leagues above Kiera’s. Their language was empathy based, reading and projecting emotions.
Few other people came to meet Captain Marley and aid her in the calibration. Kiera’s team spent the entire two hours helping her, and showing Corbin how to pilot an actual mecha. He fell over in all six of the mechas that he piloted and was teased by the captain that if there was even a single grass stain on any of them he’d be washing every mecha in the hanger by hand. Kiera immediately liked her, she was positive with everything she said, and patient when giving Corbin specific tips and instructions, and quick with a joke. As their group left to join the last hour on the range they all agreed they never wanted to get on her bad side.
Hailey excelled at the shooting range, a place where the rest of the squad was relatively weak. Jin was a decent shot, enough that he didn’t have to worry too much about any of their shooting exams, both Corbin and Koda would rather be up close in personal and had spent what extra time they could on the range to make sure their ‘acceptable” stayed that way. Kiera barely edged Jin out, but that’s only because she put more time into the range than he did.
Master Sergeant Ransing was running time trials on a blitz track. Blitz racing was one of several mecha racing styles. The goal was simple: race down a track three kilometers long as fast as you could. There were accelerators on the track that would boost the mecha’s speed to extreme degrees. Pilots had been known to pass out and crash by the sheer amount of gravitational force they were subjected to. Crashes were terribly common as the pilots vied for acceleration rings and the sensitivity of the mechas at high speed. The smallest turn on the controls could send a mecha flying off the track. Ransing had a prize for the fastest time and so far Dandelion was the one in the lead with a time of ten point six one seconds.
Dandelion and the only two people left from his group of friends, Javiar Ramirez and Tony Brantly, both humans, passed Kiera and her friends. “You might as well not participate, Pet,” Dandelion sneered, “No one is going to beat that time, and once we start piloting for real you’ll be losing your number one spot. I doubt you’ll even make Purple Squad.”
Kiera ignored him. Pet wasn’t that inventive of a nickname.
“That’s crazy fast,” Koda said after they left, “Does that include going through the final ring?”
“You can’t win unless you do,” Ransing said, “It’s a decent score, doing best out of three attempts.”
“I’m going to put that dandelion headed bastard in his place,” Corbin said, slamming his fist into his hands, “Sign me up, Captain!”
Ransing laughed, “Just choose your sim, Malut.”
“You said time trials,” Jin said, “What do you mean by that?”
“Blitz is usually a race like any other, but time trials are just a single mecha going for best time. There’s no one else to get in your way or to crash into. Blitzers train longer than any other racers just because it’s so dangerous. I figured time trials would be better, a lot of racers prefer them,” Ransing explained.
Corbin headed over to his favorite, number thirteen. It was the one that Dandelion refused to get into citing that it was bad luck. Kiera was sure there was no one on campus that hated Dandelion more than Corbin. As rude as he was to Kiera he was downright condescending towards Corbin. Hailey, Koda, and Jin headed towards the sims near his.
“Not feeling the need for speed, Sol?” Ransing asked.
“Always,” Kiera said, “I’m a heavy adrenaline junkie, just psyching myself up for this. I always hated watching these blitz races, Jac said they came out with some super ultralights that are just frames, a small engine and maneuvering thrusters that could barely be called mecha.”
“Jac Pulsar?” Ransing asked, “You know him?”
“My brother. By the way, congrats on your promotion!”
“Thanks. Next time you see him give him my thanks, he’s won me a lot of money by betting on him. Find out his favorite drink and let me know where I can send a case.”
“Jinxing Xho Black,” Kiera said automatically, “I’ll have a bottle sent to him, you can pay me back whenever. Or if that’s too expensive he also likes Rennevar Vodka, and Arcadian Moonberry Seltzer. Jac would prefer that I don’t give away where he lives.”
Jinxing Xho was a whisky made from the Xho grain that grew on Jinxing’s only moon, Jarax. It has a different flavor depending if it's made from Xho on the dark side, light side or from both, called eclipse. It was insanely expensive and had three strict requirements to be able to buy it which are kept secret and only shared with those who can stay sober through two fingers of each at the Jinxing Annual Eclipse Ball, which itself is only attended by invitation, and three other tasks. Kiera went with Jac her first year training with him as his guest and the next year she got an invitation. Kiera enjoyed both the lightside and eclipse.
“I think the Moonberry is more in my price range,” Ransing said, “I’ll transfer the credits if you’d send it to him for me.”
“Not a problem!” Kiera flashed him a grin and went into the simulator.
<<”Oh ho ho, the Sun is in the house!”>> Corbin called when Kiera entered the sim, none of her squad had started yet.
<<”Don’t tell me you guys waited for me!”>> Kiera exclaimed
<<”Purple Squad plus one does this together!”>> Koda said, <<”Hey that reminds me, we need callsigns.”>>
<<”We don’t get call signs until second year when we’re doing Space flights,”>> Hailey said, <<”But Corbin totally needs to be Strongman. Purple three ready.”>>
<<”Ooh, I like that,”>> Koda said, “<
<<”Gunning for my position, Bear Paws?”>> Jin asked, <<”The actual Purple Four ready.”>>
<<”You’re in my sight, Leafsucker,”>>
Kiera laughed at the antics. Koda had a rivalry with everyone when it came to mech flying, he said rivals make you better. It was especially heated with Jin, his best friend and roommate. With her squad it was friendly, except for Dandelion, <<”Sunbeam ready.”>> she said,triggering the countdown.
She waited for the lights to change from blue to red to purple and then she started, bringing her engines to half speed and then pumping them to full a half a second before she passed the first accelerator. She was slammed into the back of the seat, and made a small adjustment to hit the second ring, which caused her to miss the third and fourth rings, clipped the fifth ring and righted herself through six, seven, missed eight, then through nine and ten. She held the controller in neutral and passed through the decelerators and landed on the reset pad. Kiera looked up at the heat standings.
Purple Three - 12.31
Sunbeam - 12.39
Leafsucker - 13.1
Bear Paws - 14.5
Strongman - DNF
<<”That was just the warm up!”>> Koda called.
<<”You are Bear Paws again, since I beat you I will be—”>>
<<”Teasaurus!”>> Hailey called out, laughing, <<”Because you drink so much tea and tease Koda so much. Can I be Hailstorm.?”>>
<<”You get to be whoever you want, you won the heat! What happened, Strongman?”>> Kiera asked.
<<”Left turn,”>> Corbin muttered.
Laughter echoed over the comms. Corbin was notorious for turning too much to the left. Hailey started them off on their second heat. Now that Kiera knew what to expect she did better, only missing two of the rings this time, six and eight. The other members of her squad improved as well. Both she and Hailey hit 10.43, Jin hit 10.83, Koda 12.9 and Corbin DNF, again because he turned too much to the left, and launched himself off the course. This time he made it through two rings
<<”I’m closing in on you, Hailey,”>> Jin said, <<”My callsign with be Estriatthan when I beat you.”>>
<<”Dude, I can’t pronounce that,”>> Corbin said, <<’Sounds like you just said estrogen.”>>
<<”It does not! It’s an Eladrin word that means, “The graceful strike with a swift blade!”>>
<<”Yeah, Teasaurus’ a million times better. Let’s go! Last one!”>> Koda shouted
<<”I love you guys,”>> Kiera said, unable to keep the smile off of her face.
Kiera managed to get through all the rings except for the eighth, it was the one that she had missed every single time and chided herself for not being able to hit it. The scores weren’t posted for their final heat. She climbed out of the sim and waited for the others before they ran up to see their scores.
Ransing was looking at the monitors, his mouth agape, “Selune, you just beat Harash Ebons for that track. Nine point four eight.”
Hailey blinked and looked at the monitors as well, bewilderment washing off of her as much as it was on Ransing. Kiera hugged her from behind and kissed her cheek, enjoying the high that always came with going fast, “Our resident Speed Queen,” she beamed.
“Looks like you’re officially Bear Paws,” Jin said smugly pointing at the leaderboard.
“Yeah, yeah, and you’re Teasaurus,” Koda grumped, “Sorry you didn’t beat the Dandelion Fluff, Corb.”
“Hey, I finished!” Corbin said, “I’m just happy both our girls kicked the crap out of his score!”
Kiera hadn’t even looked at her score yet, too happy to celebrate Hailey’s success, she looked at the results from their final heat. “We weren’t the only ones that beat him, Jin and Koda did, too!”
Hailstorm: 9.48
Sunbeam: 9.68
Teasaurus: 10.35
Bear Paws: 10.58
Strongman: 20.11
“He’s going to be so pissed off about that,” Corbin grinned, “Oh that makes me so happy.”
“Which one did you two have trouble on?” Kiera asked, “I couldn’t hit eight to save my life.”
“Eight, I missed seven and eight on my last run,” Koda said.
“Six and eight,” Jin said, “I missed eight on all three as well, I’m not sure how you hit it, Hailey.”
“When I hit seven I Corbin’ed and then overcorrected to the right,” Hailey said, “It let me perform a parabolic swing to pick up nine and straight into the finish line.”
“Corbin’ed!” Kiera exclaimed, “I love that Halo! A parabolic swing? I hope you’re ready to tutor everyone in physics this semester!”
“My life long ambition has been fulfilled,” Corbin grumbled, “I’m a verb.”
They made their way back to the dorms, laughing and swinging by the cafeteria for celebratory ice cream. Kiera was happy to be back, she loved her family but this is what she needed after being kidnapped and having to fight her way to freedom. Talking about it helped some, but this was the best Kieartherapy that she could ask for. It was going to be a fantastic semester.