[Erick Sanders]

I shivered as I turned the tap to stop the flow from the shower. I stepped from the shower and into the now full, bathtub. I was already clean, the dust and blood washed off by the steaming shower, but my legs now ached from the run into the city and would benefit from a long soak. I pulled waved my hand and pulled the holographic world towards myself. The toy floated over the bathwater as I lay back and adjusted the settings, the accelerated time slowed, and the small figures returned to a normal pace as they walked through one of many cities that dotted the continent I was zoomed in on. I tapped on a small icon and a panel opened over the city, [Brenston] The name read at the top.

This city had thirty-two thousand residents and was currently still in its medieval period. I dismissed the information panel and zoomed in on the town square. Many of the men walked the streets carrying simple steel swords, while the woman moved through the crowds with shawls and bowed heads, moving from stall to stall, carrying baskets of produce. I wondered if I could help them create a more progressive society.

From having read the instruction before I created the world, I could create natural disasters, shape undiscovered land masses, and adjust the mineral and element percentages within the atmosphere and landmasses. I could even create new primitive races, as I had done with humans, though they could only be placed on continents or parts of the world undiscovered by existing races.

I could also create smaller acts of ‘God’ making things fall off shelves, causing people to slip or for branches to break on trees. Maybe Jack was right that this was a waste of time. I sat there for a moment, zooming out from the square and into the castle where the king sat on his throne, overlooked by advisors and his queen, who sat silently to his left. I tapped on the king and another panel opened with his history and a scale of personality traits, I looked over his life.

He had come into the crown after killing his father and older brother while on a hunting trip, knocking them from a clifftop onto a rocky shore below with the ass end of his horse while they field dressed a small species of deer. Then he had taken his cousin as his bride, the young woman seated beside him. She stared silently into nothingness while her husband/cousin consulted with his advisors.

The king’s personality display showed that he had a tendency towards open misogyny, which was common within the kingdom and had a likening for red wines and whores. Ironically, the Panel listed his favourite whore as a woman who belittled him in the bedroom by calling him and fat piggy while subsequently making him trot around the room.

I chuckled quietly while I closed the king's information panel and opened the Queens.

She was well educated by the standards of the time, her late father had ensured she was tutored in law and diplomacy, all while hoping that she would one day be wed to a smaller kingdom from the west which valued the opinions talents of queens and higher female nobles. As far as I could tell, she was overqualified to be seated silently beside the king as nothing more than a statement of her beauty and a vessel to carry children, which she had yet to do.

I zoomed out from her blank face and looked at the stone panels that ran along the roof of the castle’s hall. I opened a control panel and began drawing lines on the stone. When I was finished, I tapped the centre of the shape I had drawn and cracks formed. A piece of stone, about the size of a car tire, dropped from the centre of the ceiling and fell directly onto the king’s head. His skull instantly gave way to the weight and he toppled forward off his throne. Blood pooling on the marble floor.

The King's advisors and guards jumped to attention, rushing to the king's aid. I checked kings panel to see that he was already dead, as noted by a small [Deceased] label beside his name.

While the guards and advisors were crowding around the body of the king, no one but me noticed the small smile at the corner of the Queen's lips and she looked at the body of the king. Before anyone could object, she jumped from her seat, rushed to her late husbands’ side and started ordering guards to return him to his quarters and for the royal physician to be called.

I was in the middle of watching her order a court herald to get word to the other nobles of the king’s condition when the door to my bathroom slammed open.

“What the fuck man!” I yelled, dropping my hands cover myself as Jack barged in.

“Why the fuck are you having a bath?” He asked, pulling a towel from the shelf, “Hurry up, we have to go!”

“Go where?” I asked, reaching one hand out to grab the towel as he offered it. Jack averted his gaze as I got out of the bath and wrapped the towel around myself.

“Sam and Mia are back, and I just got word from a friend, shits going down.” Jack cracked a grin and stepped from the bathroom.

I quickly dried myself and pulled on a clean uniform. One of three that I had found in the wardrobe of my room.

I dropped the holographic world on my bed and followed Jack from the room. Keg was waiting in the hallway and My boots echoed down the metal hall as I had to practically jogged to keep up with their longer strides. We navigated the grid of corridors, and out to the loading bay. As soon as we exited through the side doorway we ran into Samantha and Mia, both covered in blood with their spears retracted and resting on their shoulders. Sam cracked an uncharacteristic grin, “I killed the most people out of any human,” She exclaimed, obviously proud of herself.

Sam must have gotten the same notification I had after their battle. Since they were here, alive, I could only assume they won.

“Did you see them fight?” Keg asked, talking about the Grey Scarred Company.

“They were monsters! The enemy was so entrenched into the city, one of the guys dropped an entire building on them” Mia said with a grin. She wiped a spot of blood from her face only to smear it across her cheek. “might need a shower,” she said, looking at her dirty hands and smiling.

“Not yet, Razah said there is an observation deck. We need to see this,” Jack said, still not elaborating on exactly what it was that we needed to see. He turned and as we began following him again Mia walked up past Samantha to join me.

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“Sorry about before, I’ve never been great with timing.” She smirked.

“It’s all good. I’m not complaining, it actually took my mind off the fighting for a minute,” I said, sending her a small smile. She reached out and squeezed my arm.

“Same,” she said. “Did you have fun?” She asked.

“Fun isn’t the word I would use. Made me feel a little weak watching the others fight. If I’m being honest. I still got the same notification that Sam did though, so there is that,”

“Yeah, she went a little feral on the field. I’ve never seen her do stuff like that.” Mia fell silent for a minute before asking, “How many times have you died?”

I looked at her, her light brown eyes were looking out into nothing.

“A few too many times. Why?” I asked.

“I almost died a couple of times, Sam saved me. But just got me remembering the times when I have. I’ve died four times. Well not really died, cos it’s a dream, But it felt real.”

“I know, I always worry that I’m not going to wake up. Did you get shot?”

“Yeah, Shot three times and stabbed once. It wasn’t fun.”

“I had to drown myself once in a bucket of water, that was shit.”

“You drowned yourself? Why?”

“This whole thing, I was pretty much paralysed,” I said. Then I gave her a short synopsis on my time in the fighting pits and my first failed escape attempt, then our success. Told her about Havar and how we killed him, tapping the hilt of one of Havars swords as I told her.

“Wait so they’re his? And you kept them? Why?” She looked at me sideways.

I had asked myself the same question multiple times.

“He wasn’t all bad,” I said, “he was a bastard but…He treated his slaves better than most would or did. When I arrived, the others had some resemblance of happiness. That wouldn’t have been possible without Havar. Plus, they look cool,” I said. Mia laughed.

“Boys and their toys,” Mia said, still smiling.

Our conversation was halted as we passed through a door labelled [Observation deck]. Our collective breaths escaped us all at once. The walls, ceiling, and even the floor was a window into space. Though I suspected it was only a hologram.

We stepped out over the nothingness, all looking down at Earth.

The view of the surface covered the whole floor with the pacific was right in the middle. It was like we were standing on the edge of the atmosphere. With the sun and stars above and behind us.

“That’s a view,” Mia muttered beside me. She reached out and grabbed my hand as she stepped onto the holographic floor, as though I would be able to save her if she fell down to Earth. Her grip relaxed as she felt the stead floor but her hand didn’t leave mine. I wasn’t one for public displays of affection, and I still wasn’t sure about Mia yet, but I didn’t pull away.

“It’s about to start,” Came a voice from behind us. I turned my head to see Doctor Mendera enter the deck, also looking down at the planet’s surface.

“Sir, What’s about to start?” Sam asked, looking over at the doctor. V

“Your governments have paid a lot of money, they have bought new defensive structures, new surface to air and air to surface arms. But what they paid most for, was for the eradication of any threats. Just watch,” Mendera said.

As he spoke, he pointed down under his feet. From below us, from the bellow of The Explorer, hundreds of rockets spewed into space, falling down towards Earth.

“We’re nuking them?” Sam asked.

“No nothing nuclear about those. We wouldn’t use that many nuclear weapons on a habitable planet.” He stopped speaking to observe the missiles as they fell into Earth’s atmosphere. Once surrounded by gases, small blue flames could be seen propelling every one of them down to the surface.

“It’s chillingly beautiful,” Mia whispered, she squeezed my hand as she leaned forward.

The missiles banked slightly in unison, headed straight for where real-life China would be. Then all at once, they exploded on the surface, Small flashes of light along the Chinese coast and few within the mainland.

“That’s every military installation, shipyard, weapons manufacturing plant and political headquarters that your enemy possessed, and for added effect, we hit the mines and power stations for free.”

“It’s going to be a lawless wasteland down there,” Jack muttered.

“Likely, will be great for the rest of your army to gain some experience. That’s your war finished.” Mandera responded. He was emotionless, a man enjoying a show. A man just doing his job.

The rest of us watched the clouds of smoke form over the coast.

“You should go wash up, you’ll all be meeting with your respective section leaders,” the doctor said.

“Yes Sir!” Jack, Keg, Sam and Mia said instantly.

“Don’t call me sir. We’re no longer involved in a war, therefore our operations are no longer restricted. Your section leaders will explain further.” He said, turning and strolling from the room. His comments leaving the others scratching their heads.

“So…We’re on leave?” Keg asked, looking to Jack for answers.

“How the fuck should I know,” Jack responded.

“Well, I’m going to go wash up. Coming?” Samantha said, turning and waiting for Mia to follow.

Mia squeezed my hand one more time before she followed Sam from the room.

Since Jack, Keg and I had already had time to clean up we walked slowly to the mess hall. Mendera’s words about the change in operations seemed to be reflected through the ship. We saw less uniform and the members of the Grey Scarred Company carried fewer weapons than we had previously seen. Many we passed in the hallways had bottled of Hiteshian wine in their hands and were often causally leaning through doorways in open and relaxed conversation.

The mess hall seemed to be the epicentre. It sounded more like a tavern than a military dining hall. On the sidewall was a wide door we had never seen opened, through it was a large common room, leather couches and holo screens and surrounded a circular bar manned by a robot who was serving drinks.

“This is more like it,” Keg said. Strolling to the bartender and ordering a round of beers. After begrudgingly tapping his scanner against the robots outstretched hand to pay for them he handed Jack and I each a glass.

“So whats next?” Keg asked.

“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it better make us stronger,” I responded, still eager to be a match for the members of the Grey Scarred Company.

We drank in silence, observing the celebrating aliens around us until our scanners vibrated with a summons from Alaria. At least we thought it was celebratory, or it might have just been another day for the guild. A tall woman with four arms climbed onto a table and began dancing drunkenly as we left the room, following the yellow line on the ceiling.

“You’re shipping out tomorrow,” Alaria said, once we had entered her office.

“Shipping out to where?” Jack said.

“There is an academy we use. You have all been enrolled. One of our transporters will take you to a way station on the far end of the system, from there you will be taken to Nerion. Your courses have already been selected for you so you can best assist the Guild. You will be free to choose any extra topic, we will front the bill, but if it interferes with the studies we require, then you will be punished and fined the cost of all classes.” Alaria said. We all stood silently, not wanting to interrupt further.

“Be sure to not make the guild look bad. We have a reputation to uphold.” She flicked her consoles screen and our scanners vibrated. “Dismissed.” She said.

With that, we left the room.

“A very warm goodbye there,” Jack muttered.

“I’m more concerned about this study part. There is a reason I joined the army.” Keg said, flicking through his scanner's screen.

“True, you’re not much of a thinker.”

Keg off handily hit him on the arm while he walked and read. “Everything is here, from the guilds transport ID number, to the hotel at the…Echo two two seven system’s way station, and tickets to the public transporter to Nerion. More organised than the Oceanic navy, that’s for sure,” Keg said as we rounded the corner into the mess hall again.

“What do we do until tomorrow?” I asked.

“Drink?” Keg asked, looking over the room at Mia and Sam who were at the bar ordering drinks.

“Don’t get into trouble,” Jack muttered to me, before walking off after Keg.