As the door slid open with a familiar woosh, Alpha Squad stepped inside their new living quarters, and their eyes widened in awe at the luxurious interior. The shared living space boasted a comfortable, spacious layout, complete with plush seating and a state-of-the-art entertainment system.
The open-concept kitchen featured sleek, modern appliances and a generous island, perfect for meal preparation and socialising. The walls were adorned with artwork and decorative lighting, creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere.
The squad members couldn't help but exchange excited smiles, as they explored their new home. Each member had their own well-sized room, which was a rare luxury in military accommodations. The rooms were thoughtfully designed with both comfort and functionality in mind, and were furnished with a comfortable bed, ample storage, and a well-appointed private bathroom.
As they continued to explore, the squad members discovered the additional amenities that Major Quinn had mentioned. The private training hall, which doubled as a shooting range, was equipped with cutting-edge training devices and a wide array of weapons for practice.
The gym boasted state-of-the-art exercise equipment and plenty of space for rigorous workouts, while the basic research station was stocked with the latest scientific tools and resources.
The luxurious surroundings and high-end amenities served as both a reward and motivation for Alpha Squad to maintain their elite status and continue pushing themselves to excel. It was apparent on everyone's faces that the UHF's plans to instil determination to perform above the norm within their elite squad had succeeded with flying colours.
Thea was completely blown away by the luxurious housing unit she had been assigned as part of the squad. She quickly grabbed her backpack, which had been placed next to the entrance of the housing unit, both to get settled in and also in part due to shame, as she saw the personal effects of her squad members and couldn’t stop herself from comparing them.
It seemed that even her fellow mid-world squad member had brought enough to require a full travel-case, rather than the half-filled backpack that Thea was clutching to her chest. Hoping that none of the other members of Alpha Squad had paid too much attention to her meagre belongings, she quickly darted into her room.
She had already been exceedingly happy with her old accommodations at the UHF station over the past two years, but the room she had been given now was vastly superior in every regard. Instead of barely having enough space to change her clothes without having to do acrobatics on her bed, she felt somewhat overwhelmed by the spacious room she found herself in.
"I'm definitely going to have to buy some extra things for this room... My one hoodie isn't really going to cut it when it comes to filling out this space," she joked self-deprecatingly to herself.
She placed her only piece of clothing, her favourite violet-coloured hoodie from Lumiosia, inside the large wardrobe located in a corner of her room, and then put her prized controller onto the desk in front of the provided data-screen.
Much to her delight, she realised that even the chair she had been provided with was new-tech! She immediately recognized it as a grav-chair, a specific type of office chair made for naval and spacecraft alike.
The grav-chair allowed the user to gravitationally lock themselves to the chair while also locking the chair to the ground, providing steadfast seating without the annoyance of belts. It also featured different settings that allowed the user to fine-tune their experience, choosing to sway with any potential movements of the ship or keep their body stationary at all times.
Old-school artists particularly favoured these chairs for their ability to keep a steady hand when painting on a canvas, regardless of the ship's movement. While this feature might not be as relevant for Thea, she was excited to play around with the gravitation-lock features of the chair nonetheless. As she started experimenting with the chair, she felt like she was in a dream.
Having such a luxurious housing unit, an agreeable squad, and her own private room with new-tech available at her fingertips was more than Thea could ever have hoped for when she had initially signed up for the Marines. Filled with a warm feeling of joy, she began experimenting with the different options provided by the chair.
Her excited experimentation was interrupted by a knock on her door.
"Thea, Corvus wants to have a squad meeting! Come out whenever you're situated; we're waiting at the dining table for you," Karania's excited voice came through the door.
Thea quickly replied, "Ah! Yes, I'm coming!"
Embarrassed that she had made the rest of her squad wait once again, Thea quickly disabled the chair's features she had activated and rushed out the door to catch up with Karania before heading to the dining table.
As both of them arrived and sat down next to each other, the rest of Alpha Squad had already assembled. Without wasting any time, Corvus immediately jumped into the conversation, sporting a big smile.
"So... that's pretty crazy for military housing, huh? I really didn't expect that when Alpha Squad was first mentioned, but man, I'm happy to be part of it.
"I believe we all agree that we want to stay in this cosy place, right?" he asked, looking at each of them in turn and awaiting their nodded approval.
After receiving nods of approval from the whole squad, some more enthusiastic than others, he continued. "Then I'd like to propose we get started on gaining an edge on the competition immediately. While the Major was touring us around, I came up with a basic plan for us to start working on our squad cohesion right away. I'll need everyone to participate, though, as otherwise, the whole idea won't work.
"I propose that we each share our Abilities with each other right now so that we can brainstorm ideas on group makeups and potential buddy-systems together. I believe that understanding and fully utilising all of the features the Allbright System grants us will be key to performing above expectations.
"I'll gladly start if you're all feeling apprehensive about sharing your Abilities first. Since I'm kind of the leader right now and proposed the idea, it only makes sense. Does anyone have any objections?"
Finishing with that question, Corvus looked around the assembled squad once again, waiting for approval from each member.
As his eyes landed on Desmond, however, the man spoke up, bubbling emotion evident in his expression and voice.
“I refuse to share any of my secrets while the cyan is here. You can’t trust cyans for shit. I held my tongue this entire time because we were on a mission, but we’re not any longer, so that’s that.
“It's bad enough that that thing is part of our squad, but now you want me to share my System Ability with it? Pah. Why don’t you just throw me out an airlock right away? That saves us all the effort before I inevitably get backstabbed by another one of the mother killers.
”And don't give me those looks! Don't pretend you don't feel that strange sense of wrongness whenever you look into its eyes. I think I might even understand it now, after the whole System Integration... I bet the Cyan Solution messed with its Soul somehow! Maybe it's some kind of Soul abomination, as a result of the murder? That's not my area of expertise, but it would explain a lot, wouldn't it?”
Completely taken aback by the sudden vitriol and blatant hate directed towards her, and the new revelation that people apparently felt a strange sense of wrongness when looking at her, Thea simply sat there in stunned silence. If she was still back on Lumiosia, she would have likely beat up Desmond for his words, but that was not an option in the Corps. Instead, she could only stare incredulously at the agitated Desmond across the table. It felt as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped on her, abruptly yanking her from her joy-filled state.
“You take that back, right now,” came a sudden interjection from Thea’s left, in a voice that more resembled the growl of a rabid voidhound than human speech.
Taken aback by the sudden shift in atmosphere and the violent reaction of Karania, the rest of Alpha Squad stared at the, usually all-so-friendly and bubbly, girl with wide eyes.
Thea herself was similarly surprised by the extreme reaction of her squad member and stared at her, only to be slightly frightened by the expression on Karania’s face.
Karania's face had distorted into a grimace, a stark contrast to her former natural-looking beauty, as she bared her teeth at Desmond in a display of feral rage, as if ready to jump over the table and rip his throat out with her very mouth at a moment’s notice.
Even Desmond seemed taken aback by the sudden, violent retort, as he jumped up from his chair and stepped back from the table to distance himself further from Karania.
Lucas and Isabella tried to de-escalate the situation, as they each started arguing with Desmond and Karania alike, further adding to the intense chaos unfolding before them.
Thea was completely frozen at the sight before her. Just moments ago, she had felt like everything was perfect, yet now, it seemed that their whole squad was already doomed to fail. And it was Thea’s fault. If she had simply not been born a cyan, this situation would probably never have occurred…
"Enough!" came the loud interjection from Corvus' side of the table, his voice akin to the crack of a whip, splitting through the chaos and silencing the room in an instant.
Surprised by the outburst of their squad leader, whom they had all gotten to know as a most agreeable, logical, and calm person so far, all members of Alpha Squad stared at him.
"Karania, calm yourself. Sit back down, Desmond. Lucas, Isabella, I appreciate the effort, but I'll handle it," he commanded in a voice that barred all arguments.
It was clear to everyone in the room that Corvus had taken control of the situation entirely. Despite being less physically impressive than both Lucas and Isabella, the way he carried himself and the manner in which he spoke commanded an authority that nobody else would be able to match inside their squad.
It was evident that this was not the first time he had been in such a situation either, and he was acutely aware of what needed to be done, as his eyes gleamed with a confidence that could only stem from a pre-formulated plan.
Seemingly contemplating the situation for a moment, Desmond decided to sit back down after a few seconds, as Karania's face returned to her usual smile, a slight blush of embarrassment evident in her features.
Nodding in appreciation at the two parties, Corvus started talking with an ice-cold steel in his voice that sent shivers down Thea's spine, "First of all, Desmond. Disagreements are fine, but insulting a fellow Marine to this degree is way past the point of being reasonable, so get your shit together. If I ever hear you insult another Marine, especially a member of Alpha Squad like this again, I will personally drag you to Major Quinn and get you discharged from the Corps. Are we clear?"
Still taken aback by the change in Corvus' behaviour and the frank threat levelled at him, Desmond simply nodded.
"Great. Now, for the issue at hand, let's table the plan for now. I'll talk to each party individually to figure out where the issues lie and find a middle ground that we can all agree on. I wasn't expecting my proposal to lead to this kind of an outburst, but I'm kind of glad it did.
"That way, we can clear these issues out of the way early on, before they become bigger problems at a later date. Thea, I apologise for Desmond's hateful words and would like to ask for your forgiveness.
“As the Squad Leader, it's my responsibility to make sure that there is no bad blood between the members, but I failed to do so before proposing this idea. It will not happen again."
He bowed his head towards Thea slightly, in a bid to show his genuine intentions.
Shocked by the sudden deferral, Thea wanted to quickly answer that it wasn't a big deal and that it wasn't a problem, but stopped herself just before opening her mouth.
Thinking about it for a second, there was no reason to answer in such a way. It was a big deal, as Karania's reaction had proven to her. If she had been alone in this situation, she likely would have simply folded, but having seen the level of anger that Desmond's words had sparked in the girl, Thea felt justified in her feelings of hurt for the first time.
"Thank you, Corvus. I appreciate it," was the answer she ultimately decided on. She didn't want to cause further troubles and truly did appreciate the squad leader's commitment to the issue, but also did not want to simply fold and claim it wasn't a big deal.
With a nod of acknowledgement, Corvus turned back towards the rest of the squad.
"Outside of Desmond, does anyone else have issues with the proposed plan? Speak up now, so that I can talk to you after this meeting and figure things out one-on-one, before I bring it up in the next squad meeting again," Corvus continued, his voice returning to its usual tenor as if the previous incident had never occurred in the first place.
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Much to Thea’s surprise, Isabella spoke up next.
“While Desmond’s words were unnecessarily rude, he is not entirely wrong in what he’s saying. Firstly, the whole feeling of wrongness? He got a point and I believe we all know it to be true. Looking into a cyan’s eyes feels like staring into the void itself… It's strange. While his conclusion seems extremely far-fetched, the fact of the matter is that he’s not necessarily wrong about it.
“Secondly, I hail from a mid-world, so I’ve had extensive interactions with cyans from both the mid-world proper and the undercities.
“Trust me, when I tell you, that even mid-world proper cyans are scum. Most are criminals, gang members of extremely violent organisations or straight up psychopaths. And that’s with all the assistance that the mid-world proper grants to its orphans and lesser privileged.
“Undercity cyans are around a thousand times worse. Before getting the chance to join the UHF in the Cube trials, I was part of a private security company for a couple of years. The amount of heinous crimes, that I really don’t want to list here unless absolutely necessary, committed by undercity cyans on the regular was so bad, that the city itself had to stop letting people from the undercity inside the walls.
“Despite those attempts, we still ended up with more than a dozen crimes committed by undercity cyans a day. And that’s just one part of a single city.
“I don’t believe for a second that this undercity cyan right there is trustworthy, and I also refuse to share my Ability with her, until proven otherwise.
“I’ll reconsider this if I see her perform well in training and missions going forward, while keeping a good head on her shoulders. But from the get-go like this? No shot.”
The entire squad was stunned by the amount that Isabella had just spoken. They had pegged her as the silent brute type, but it seemed that their first impressions of the large woman might not be entirely accurate.
Thea couldn’t help but feel that the complete dismissal of her achievements so far to get to this point was unfair, but she also realised that what Isabella said held some truth to it. There was no real way for her to prove that she was not, in fact, a criminal or gang member hailing from the undercity of Lumiosia, as most of the cyans truly were.
She briefly considered using her last name as a sort of proof, but quickly threw that idea out, as it would be easy enough to simply claim any last name when signing up. Without proper proof or evidence to the contrary, Thea could do nothing but accept Isabella’s judgement for now. At least she had given Thea a clear way to earn her trust and wasn't actively hostile towards her, like Desmond.
Furthermore, the confirmation that it wasn’t just Desmond that apparently felt this strange feeling of wrongness when looking into her eyes, was startling to Thea on a whole other level. Nobody had ever mentioned anything of the sorts, instead simply calling her names or simply attacking her physically or verbally, but with this information in hindsight, a lot of the previous situations in her life made a lot more sense.
She could not help but feel severely alienated by everyone around her at this moment, but knew that simply shutting down or leaving would only cause the issues to persist or maybe even get worse.
Emboldened by her recent successes and Karania’s previous outburst, Thea managed to address Isabella directly, “I understand your concerns. I can live with those terms, Isabella. I will definitely prove to you that not every cyan is scum and a criminal. I’ll make you apologise for doubting me.”
Surprised and somewhat embarrassed by her own forceful tone, Thea quickly shrank back on her chair, as Isabella simply raised a surprised eyebrow at her declaration.
“Well… I guess that’s that then. I’ll dismiss the squad meeting for now. I’ll come by later to each of your rooms to talk about a few things, but you can relax for now. Remember that we will be getting our schedules later, so make sure to be awake until then. We have no idea at what time we have to get up tomorrow, so wait until we get the schedules to pack in for the night,” Corvus ended the squad meeting, getting up from his chair to return to his room, likely to prepare for what he intended to talk about with each member.
Still shaken by the rough meeting, Thea slowly got to her feet as well and started walking towards her room, before Karania caught up with her.
“You okay, Thea? Desmond was a real asshole back there…”
Thinking about it for a second, Thea replied, “Ahh… Ye. I think so. I’m kind of used to this after all. I just didn’t expect it from a member of Alpha Squad. And Isabella too…? I mean… I get where she’s coming from, but it still feels bad, you know?”
A genuine expression of sadness hushed over Karania’s face, as she carefully observed Thea while closing the distance between them. Thea was not sure what Karania was intending to do being so close to her, but the way Karania had defended her, had left her with a positive impression of the girl, so she did not back away.
Thea suddenly felt Karania’s arms wrap around her, as the girl hugged her. Stiffening up at the unexpected physical contact, Thea simply accepted the hug, not wanting to strain the relationship with Karania away once again, despite her unease at the sudden physical contact.
"I can't even imagine what that feels like… I'm so sorry you have to go through this. Desmond's words made me so angry… Having studied the Cyan Solution for years, I think I understand it more than most who aren't directly affected by it. It's not like you chose to end up in this awful situation. You didn't even have a choice…" came the quiet words of Karania next to Thea's ears.
Thea felt a whirlpool of emotions rise up in her throat at those words. Karania was completely right. She never had a choice in the matter. Her mother had made the choice for her and sacrificed herself so Thea could live. Thea had always seen it as an act of selflessness and unquestionable love, yet that exact choice was what Thea was being shunned for.
Calling cyans 'mother killers' was not uncommon, despite the overall workings of the Cyan Solution being widely known.
It was a vicious insult that completely disregarded the actual user's wishes and placed the entirety of the blame for the situation on the child born as a result, furthering the thought that cyans were simply uncaring monsters. Moreover, it demonised the cyan for the exact self-sacrifice that the mother had so selflessly given.
Normally, this kind of insult would have simply bounced off of Thea's thick skin, from her years of growing up in the undercity and being subjected to it many times and worse. But the conditions for this particular time had been different.
She had felt safe and let down her guard, only to be blindsided by someone she had assumed was, at the very least, agreeable.
Coupled with the newfound realisation that her eyes were, apparently, inherently off-putting, it cast a sobering light on many of her unpleasant memories from both Lumiosia and her two years in Basic training. It seemed that no matter what she did, she would always struggle to be accepted by other people...
Karania's hug triggered all of these thoughts to surface in Thea's mind, and she felt her face starting to burn as her vision turned blurry.
“... Thank you, Karania, for defending me…” was the only thing Thea managed to say before her voice broke.
Karania had made sure to face Thea towards the nearest wall during her hug and kept her in a tight embrace, not letting Thea escape from the comfortable warmth she tried to instil, “No need to thank me. Nobody deserves to be treated like that, and I know you're trying your absolute best.
“I saw you work really hard during the digitization procedures, by the way. You did great. I can tell that social situations are hard for you, but you really did an amazing job, Thea. Know that I'll always be there to have your back, alright?”
Thea fought with her emotions as she tried to rein them in as much as she could, but Karania's words seemed to be perfectly aimed at her weak spots. Unable to escape the gentle yet firm hug of the kind girl, Thea could do nothing but quietly accept her embrace while continuing to wrestle with her own emotions.
Over time, Thea felt her stiffness and anxiety lessen as the warm and gentle embrace of Karania slowly seeped into her body. When Thea felt like she had herself under control again, she addressed Karania once more, “Thank you for everything. You're really kind, you know that?”
Giggling next to Thea's ear, which tickled Thea slightly, Karania answered, “You're probably the only person to seriously believe that... I'm not exactly kind... But I guess to you, it would seem that way.”
Unsure what the girl was referring to but nevertheless thankful for her assistance, Thea gently pulled away from the hug. She now realised that this was by far the longest hug she had ever been a part of and immediately regretted having stepped back from it, silently fearing that this was the only embrace of this kind she would ever get.
Looking at Karania's face, Thea was glad to see that her facial expression was still the same kind and gentle one that she had come to know. Her ominous words had left a lingering feeling of dread in Thea's mind, fearing that once she pulled away from the hug, she would be faced with the voidhound version instead.
“You know... you were pretty scary back there. I didn't think you had such a side to you,” Thea added, in an attempt to diffuse the awkward situation of them simply looking at each other from less than a metre away.
Karania's face flushed red, and she turned away slightly at the mention of her reaction to Desmond's words. She expertly deflected Thea's implicit question, leaving her without a retort, “Ahh… Well… Everyone has a line they don't accept others to cross. This was simply one of mine, I guess…”
Unable and unwilling to dig further, Thea decided to leave the conversation at that. She slowly started walking towards her room again, waiting for Karania to catch up with a few quick steps.
Just before they reached Thea's room, Karania excused herself and headed to her own room, leaving Thea to take care of herself for the rest of the night. They briefly agreed to eat breakfast together the next morning before parting ways.
Once Thea had entered her room and made sure the door was properly closed, she sank face-first into her bed, utterly exhausted from the intense social interactions of the past hour.
----------------------------------------
She simply remained lying on the bed like this until a sudden knock on her door woke her from her exhausted slumber. Somewhat unwilling to partake in any further social interactions for the day, Thea didn’t move a muscle.
Another knock on the door left her without a choice, as Corvus's voice reached her through it, “Thea, it’s me, Corvus. I just wanted to quickly check up on you; do you mind if we talk for a minute?” Sighing heavily, Thea got up from the bed and opened the door, inviting Corvus inside.
“Thank you, Thea. I can imagine that you’re not very interested in talking with any of us right now, but I feel like leaving the situation as it is isn't an option,” he began as he sat down on the grav-chair at her desk. Thea took a seat on her bed, a couple metres away from Corvus.
“I talked with Desmond about what happened, and… I’m not here to make excuses for him. His behaviour was unacceptable, and I will make sure it doesn't happen again. That said, I also learned some interesting things from him that I think you have a right to know.
“You see, the reason he really hates cyans as a whole and thinks they're all traitors is because his brother and father were killed by a group of them. They were part of a private military company that was often hired out to all kinds of worlds, including mid-worlds.
“Over time, the company built a good rapport with the mid-world clients that had hired them and started their own recruitment efforts on those worlds. It proved to be exceptionally worthwhile for the company, as they did not have to compete with the UHF for recruits, as you very well know.
“Some of those recruits ended up being cyans from different parts of the mid-world, including the undercity. During one of their missions involving a group of them, the group of cyans suddenly sprang an ambush on their own comrades, as their allegiances had ultimately still been with the gangs they had originally been a part of. During that ambush, Desmond's father and brother died.
“It was an especially heinous betrayal, as they had been some of the most staunch supporters of including the cyans in their company in the first place. Desmond's family had always been fairly progressive and welcoming... After that incident, however, Desmond's view on the matter understandably changed.”
Corvus paused his explanation to let Thea digest the information for a bit. Before she could formulate a response, however, he continued.
“Listen, Thea. I’m not asking you to forgive him because, frankly, he doesn’t deserve it. I’m not here to make excuses for him either. I just felt that you were owed at least an explanation as to why Desmond is acting the way he is.
“I’m certain he will perform properly during missions, as he has already partially proven today, so I don’t think we will run into too many issues from a squad perspective. I can understand if you don’t want to have anything to do with him, and I’ll do my best to keep you two away from each other in assignments, but considering both of your fields of expertise, it will be hard.
“Can I rely on you to perform during missions and work with him, despite his poor behaviour?”
Thea didn’t even need to think about the answer to this question and immediately replied, “Yes, you can. I’m here to do a job and become the best damn Marine the UHF has ever seen. I won’t let some resentful inner-worlder ruin that for me.”
A big smile formed on Corvus' face at Thea's words, before he replied, "Ha, that's the spirit. I like that. Thank you, Thea. Seriously, I don’t know how I would react in your situation and whether I could have the same level of enthusiasm despite what you just went through.
“I’ll also be going forward with the plan of sharing abilities, but due to Desmond and Isabella’s concerns, we will do it in two parts. Lucas, Karania, and I are fine with sharing ours with everyone, so we will do that together at the next meeting. You’re free to share your ability with whomever you want. If you want me to remove Desmond and Isabella from the table when you do so, just let me know.
“Lastly, I got your schedule from the Major. She came by earlier and dumped the whole list of schedules on me to divvy up. Perks of being a squad leader, I guess…” he ended with a self-deprecating tone, making Thea smile slightly at his antics.
He handed Thea a data-pad from his pocket before he got up from the grav-chair.
“That’s all I wanted to say. Have a good night, Thea. I hope you will rest well. Tomorrow we finally get some answers on this whole System thing, so I want you to pay close attention. As members of Alpha Squad, we’ll have to be at the forefront of everything regarding the System, after all.”
Just as he reached the door, he stopped for a moment.
“Oh and that whole eye thing that Desmond and Isabella mentioned…? Not everyone hates that feeling. I know it’s not a real consolation for always having that stigma follow you around, but there are some that don’t mind it, at all. So don’t feel like you need to evade other people’s eyes, on the off-chance they’ll react badly. Easier said than done, I know…”
With those words, he quickly left the room, leaving Thea alone with her thoughts and with no time to answer. She appreciated the way in which Corvus seemed to inherently understand her disinterest in long conversations at the moment and was once again impressed by how mature and professional he seemed, despite looking barely older than herself.
His parting words left her with a glimmer of hope as well. They might have even explained Karania's reaction to her eyes, although that was difficult to be certain about. Thea had quickly realised that Karania was a very unique person. Her adamant and fierce defence of Thea during the previous incident had not only solidified this thought, but also earned her considerable appreciation in Thea’s eyes.
Going forward, Thea was determined to grow even closer with Karania. She had finally found someone who not only seemed to tolerate her being a cyan but genuinely liked that aspect of her. Regardless of the reasons for that like, Thea simply longed for a true friend…
Pushing aside the melancholic thoughts for now, Thea finally checked over the schedule on the data-pad in her hands, she set up the alarm on her wristwatch for 0600 DDS-time. Switching into the pyjamas she had found inside the wardrobe of her room, she once again marvelled at the level of luxury the UHF provided for Alpha Squad.
She had never experienced clothing that was as comfortable in her entire life. She had to begrudgingly admit that even her favourite violet hoodie couldn't match the cosiness of the clothes she had just put on.
Turning off the lights with a voice command, Thea sunk into her new, large, and fluffy bed, thankful that this intense day of revelations and emotional rollercoasters was finally coming to an end.
It was hard for her to reconcile the fact that it had barely been fourteen hours since the System Integration, yet so much had happened to her since then.
The worst of all was that instead of receiving answers to her long-standing questions, she had gained even more questions instead. While some questions had been answered, she was even more confused by those answers than they had actually helped to enlighten her.
Putting her hope into the System 101 class that was scheduled for the next morning, Thea rapidly drifted off to a well-deserved, dreamless sleep…