Darkness. That was all Honey saw. She can’t feel her limbs, and her eyelids flutter, but not enough to open them. They remain shut, keeping her in the dark. Multiple objects were pressed into her arms, making her feel numb and immobilizing her. There was beeping and hissing. Something was in her mouth. She wanted to move, wanted to open her eyes, wanted to speak, but none of that was possible.
“The good news is that she’ll make it. The bad news…” said the doctor, his voice trailing off.
“The bad news is what?” said Tobias firmly.
The doctor hesitated. “She won’t walk unless we modify her.”
“How much?”
“All of her. There’s an experimental process that we have been wanting to try, and it is the best chance we have to get her to walk again.”
“I see… Well, I don’t want to make the decision for her. When she wakes up, she’ll decide what to do with her body.”
DING! DING! DING!
Honey’s eyes flutter open, and she groggily looks around the shuttle. The other recruits are waking up as the bell continues dinging. Astros rubs his eyes and blinks, and Honey looks out the window. Her tired gaze gets a burst of life when the shuttle moves through the clouds, revealing a structure built into the side of an entire mountain. Rings protrude from it, and each ring is held up and connected to another ring by pillars, and an airfield lays at its base, as well as extensive fields ranging from grass to track, and firing ranges.
The shuttle turns towards the airfield and lands roughly, causing everyone to jerk around inside and shake away whatever sleepiness remained. The shuttle’s wheels squeal on the runway and come to an abrupt stop that lurches the occupants in their seats, causing everyone to release groans or curses. Then the cockpit door opens, and Heinlein comes out.
“Who’s not dead? Sound off!” says Heinlein.
There are mutters and groans as the recruits rub their heads or snatch puke bags. But in the case of Emma, she raises her hand with a proud smile.
“I’m still alive, sir!” says Emma.
“Of course you are,” says Heinlein.
Meanwhile, the shuttle moves smoothly across the runway towards a hangar. Honey looks out her window and sees other shuttles landing or pulling into their own hangars, and when she looks at where they’re going, she sees they are going to Hangar 20. The afternoon sunlight is gradually replaced with the interior lights as the shuttle goes into the spacious structure, and when it stops, Honey watches a small group roll a set of stairs towards them. Heinlein opens the shuttle door, and the stairs are hooked in.
“Alright, we’re going to exit in an orderly fashion, like a zipper. Right side first front row first, then left side front row, and then right side second row and so on. You have sixty seconds, starting now!” instructs Heinlein.
The recruits immediately get up, and fortunately there isn’t too much trouble. Each row exits the shuttle quickly, and everyone that makes it down the stairs are instructed to stand inside a large red square. After everyone is off the shuttle and put in the large square, Heinlein approaches them and places his hands behind his back as he paces back and forth. Honey tries to keep her eyes on him, but her eyes keep flicking to the stairs being removed and the shuttle being hooked up to a taxi. Fortunately, she snaps her eyes back to him when he looks in her general direction.
“Everyone, sit down,” orders Heinlein.
Everyone sits down on the concrete floor without hesitation, and the hangar doors are closed, sealing everyone inside. Then a soldier wearing urban camouflage gives Honey a stack of papers and orders her to take one and pass it down. She does as she’s told, and the soldier moves to the row behind her and repeats the order, and he keeps doing this until all four rows are passing papers.
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After passing her stack, Honey looks at the paper and sees that it’s pink with a goofy clipart of a soldier pointing at a list of exercises in The Academy of Irregular Defense Standardized Training Program. The very first thing she notices is that the first two weeks are labeled 0-1 and 0-2, but she doesn’t read any more because Heinlein starts talking, bringing her eyes to him.
“I already gave my deeply moving and thematic speech back at the shuttle port, so I’m not repeating myself,” says Heinlein, his stern voice echoing in the hangar. “Now, we’re finally at the Academy, we’re going to get to business. There are thirty six recruits per shuttle and one trainer per shuttle, and there are twenty shuttles in total, making it to be seven hundred and twenty recruits to twenty trainers. What they don’t tell you is that all twenty shuttles are in competition with one another. So, us thirty six are going to be competing against the other six hundred and eighty four recruits. The prize for winning is first dibs on station location when you complete your fifty two weeks of training. Among other things, but that is the best one.”
Heinlein waits for the information to soak in, and the soldiers with him stand at ease with their hands behind their backs, legs spread slightly, and eyes locked on the recruits. Honey’s eyes flick to the one closest to her, but he looks over her, and she covertly returns her attention to Heinlein when he speaks again.
“As per tradition, each group of thirty six will be split into nine groups of four, and each of these four will have their own rooms that they will maintain. The team leader will be responsible for the team’s coherency and efficiency, and each team leader will meet with the other team leaders for weekly meetings to give reports to me, which templates will be provided to show the proper way the report is to be conducted. I will give this only warning, if you lie in your report, you will be expelled from the Academy without hesitation. No leniency. Got it?”
The recruits nod and mutter vocal affirmation, and Heinlein frowns.
“I said, GOT IT!?”
“YES SIR!” says the recruits in unison.
“Good. The first two weeks will be basic evaluation where we analyze your abilities and weapons. Then in week three we will prepare you for the first test, which will be conducted at the end of the third week. Depending on how the test turns out, you will either keep your team leader, or get a new one. And just so everyone is prepared, there is a possibility of you dying on that test. But you’ll only die if you’re retarded, so don’t be a retard. Now, everyone stand up and get your gear.”
Everyone stands up, clutching their luggage and weapons cases.
“And now get into groups of four. You have ten seconds. Go!” says Heinlein.
The soldiers around the recruits begin shouting down from ten, and Honey, Astros, Asmund, and Petals quickly form a clump. Then Rocky and Emma get into a group with the two they were talking at the shuttle port, and the other recruits quickly get into their groups with two seconds to spare. Once the two seconds are up, Heinlein shouts, “STOP!”
Everyone stops, and Heinlein walks forward, looking at everyone as he inspects their group, nodding in approval with each one.
“Good. Very good,” says Heinlein. He goes over to Emma first and sighs heavily. “I can’t believe I’m doing this, but since you read the fine print, you are team lead for now.”
Emma grins. “Excellent, sir.”
Heinlein points at her nose. “Don’t fuck it up.”
“I won’t sir.”
Heinlein grunts and goes over to Honey. “And you. You also read the fine print, so you’re team lead for now.”
Her group looks at her, but quickly averts their eyes when Heinlein looks at them.
“You got a problem with that?” says Heinlein.
“No sir,” says the three in unison.
“Good.” He looks at Honey again. “The Thorntons have a strong legacy with this organization, so don’t tarnish it.”
Honey swallows and stiffens. “I won’t, sir.”
“We’ll see.”
Heinlein keeps moving, and selecting random people to be the team leader, and when everyone is chosen, he gets back in front of the group and orders everyone into squares. Those squares are then put into two columns, and one of the soldiers walks ahead of the group to open a large side door in the hangar, revealing the outside. After that, Heinlein goes up front and orders the recruits to follow him. They go outside with the other soldiers flanking them and the sun beating down on their heads. The mountain looms ahead and the sunlight reflects off the base’s windows, and already Honey can feel her heart and stomach knotting. This isn’t helped by the fact that she can see Lilian in the sky looking down at her. So she looks at Astros out of the corner of her eye for something to ease her tension, and he does the same to her, but offers a quick nod instead of something more helpful, like a reassuring smile or hand gesture, but she takes the nod as the crumb of comfort it is and they both look ahead.
“Walk mighty and proud, recruits!” said Heinlein. “Today is the first day of your new life!”
While the words sound nice to hear, the mountain and the base’s imposing sizes only fill Honey with a creeping sense of dread and possibly regret. But whatever happens next, it will be a long fifty-two weeks, and she’ll see it through to the end.