*Perspective of Stellar Union of Mankind Apprentice Maila Saar*

I’ve been in the Union’s army for three years, and all this time I've wondered if I made the right choice in life. After countless hours spent in the barracks of different ships, even in different systems, my mind was starting to drift away from the wish of trying to become a beacon of hope in the universe, to just be happy with being able to have something to eat and a place to sleep.

When i was sent to the Sleipnir and shipped away to this remote planet on the border, and even assigned a commander who was supposed to be a puppet from one of the big corporations, i thought that this was a signal for me to abandon any hope that i’d fulfill my dreams here, and should start looking for options, perhaps as a bodyguard in one of those metropolis.

Mr. Santángel then told us about the situation on the ground, and even with my doubts, i followed him; i was afraid, obviously, but standing still when we could try to save some lives… I just couldn’t. A few minutes on the ground, I resolved myself that this would be the place I'd die. At least it would be doing something I could be proud of.

Then, the Commander landed. I was a few meters away from her when she came from the heavens and splattered one of those hounds into a puddle. Then she proceeded to annihilate what would have been our killers.

It was hard to explain, the feeling of understanding you need to follow someone. There were no words said, nor even an understanding glance or a silent command, most of us just knew. This person, fighting like a demon, emanated a type of weird charisma that compelled us to fight as demons as well, and we got a new found strength and vitality, and fought as if we had just started fighting, not like we had been in that situation for hours. In the end, even an Avatar of Mh’ithrha wasn’t enough, and we succeeded, we survived.

Some of us were concerned that our commander was in a artificial cocoon, we didn’t even had a chance to speak to her, and this phenomenon just amplified the feeling that she was someone from the corporation, as the technology needed for this kind of thing was just not available to the Union’s army. But i knew, i was sure of, that this person was not just a puppet; no puppet can fight like that, nor it can rally a group of soldiers to follow her to fight a ground of fucking hounds of Tindalos.

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Now this person was in front of me, just having woken up a few minutes ago, and was speaking to all of us. She told us her background, and even though we knew some things like her having fought against rachnids and being highly augmented with implants, the thing about that happening a hundred years ago was not in the memo. It was hard to believe, but she explained it in such a way that it left no way to express doubt.

Then she dropped the ‘you’ve got ten seconds to deal with it’ shit. Had any other person said that, this tent would have exploded in laughs, insults and mockery. But we all saw her on the field, and we all followed her to battle. There were some people chuckling, some serious, and some were smiling, like me. But no one said anything.

She looked at us seriously, and her gaze stopped when she looked at me. Our eyes locked, and i got a bit nervous.

“Does the robot eye bother you?” She spoke.

I froze. I mean, the eye was strange but it wasn’t bothering. I was just feeling the pressure of suddenly being in the spotlight and having my first talk with the Commander, a being that could fight off an enemy that a whole squad of trained soldiers were having problems with.

I just denied with my head.

“What’s your name, soldier?”

“Apprentice Maila Saar, ma’am” I stood up firm and saluted.

“Well then Ms. Saar, let me tell you and everyone else something” She said “I have no idea what the Union expects of us, nor what the corporation does, but I know one thing… I was a soldier a hundred years ago, and I intend to continue down that path… i advanced forward until the end, where i fell fighting” She then stopped looking at me and then looked up to get a view of everyone here.

“I didn’t ask to be your commander, but i am now, and i don’t know what our missions are gonna be like, i can only promise that for as long as i am your commanding officer, i’ll lead you to the best of my ability so that you can outlive me...which is not going to be that hard if we have encounters like this often” The people laughed, me included, now a bit relieved of the pressure from before “Well now... at ease, soldiers, let’s get our shit together and leave this place”.

Even though she said that, she spent the next couple of hours talking to every single one of us as we packed up all the stuff. I talked to her briefly, and asked why I joined the army. My answer, well… I just said that I found where I belonged.