Aubrey could hear Paltit’s screams before she could see her. A jostling crowd of students had gathered just outside their Navigation classroom.

A tight circle had formed around the skirmish. Paltit lay on the ground, her legs tucked under her body, her hands covering her head. Twiki, Sar, a Jayakara with deep chips and cracks in his thick gray shell, and Istar, a redheaded girl with thick bushy hair and buck teeth, were pummeling Paltit as she lay there helplessly.

Aubrey pushed her way through the crowd, Mamre on her heels. With a couple of sharp elbows, they broke through. Aubrey threw herself over Paltit’s tiny frame as Mamre shoved Istar into a wall. Twiki and Sar both backed away at the sight of Mamre, coiled and ready to strike like a cobra.

“Are you alright?” Aubrey asked.

Paltit looked up at her, fire in her eyes. “Yeah, let me up.”

Aubrey pulled Paltit to her feet. Paltit dove at Istar, who was examining a tear in her suit. Paltit ripped and clawed at her, viciously tearing a chunk of auburn hair free. Istar shrieked, but Paltit wasn’t finished. She grabbed the sleeve of her arm, and torn the entire piece free. Aubrey grabbed Paltit and pulled her back.

“Alright, what is going on here?” Professor Shakkara demanded as he pushed his way through the crowd.

“She tore my flight suit!” Istar shouted. “And look, she got her blood all down the leg.”

“Is that true?” Shakkara asked, glaring at Paltit and Aubrey.

“Yes,” Aubrey said flatly. “But they were attacking her.”

Shakkara glared at the students. “That doesn’t matter. Paltit will pay for the repairs.”

Aubrey stared at Shakkara, dumbfounded. “You must be joking,” she said. “They attack her, and she has to pay for her own blood being spilled?”

Shakkara nodded. “We don’t know how things were in the pathetic time you came from, but this is how things work here. It doesn’t matter why the property was damaged. Just that it was damaged by Paltit. She will have to pay.”

Paltit stared at the ground. Aubrey couldn’t understand why they just accepted this. This injustice. Her cheeks burned, and her hand balled into a fist.

As fast as lightning, she turned and punched Istar in the nose as hard as she could. She felt the cartilage crunch beneath her fist, and a spray of blood spattered across her forearm and ran down her fist.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Shakkara screeched. “You can’t just-“

Aubrey turned and sent a fist straight into Shakkara’s wide mouth. She felt one of his large teeth wobble as his green blood mingled with Istar’s, and the arm of her suit caught on one of his incisors, tearing it.

He fell backwards into the crowd of students, who caught him as he slid to the ground in a daze. There was a loud gasp, and the students fell deathly quiet.

Aubrey squatted down to meet Shakkara’s gaze as he held his mouth, blood pouring between his fingers, his head sack deflated. She held up her arm, covered in blood, a long hole torn in her suit.

“You and Istar ruined my flight suit. The two of you can pay Paltit’s debt, and then give me the balance,” she said coldly, before turning and pushing her way through the crowd of students. Paltit watched her go, smiling as Mamre shook her head before the two followed her.

It wasn’t long before she was called into Nam Rood’s office. He was furious. He lectured her for what seemed like hours about proper decorum, about how he should expel her for insubordination.

“Is Shakkara my commanding officer?” she asked.

Nam Rood paused, his eyes boring into her. “No,” was all he finally said.

“So I couldn’t have committed insubordination,” she said. “Is it illegal to assault a professor?”

Nam Rood stared daggers at her. “No. It is not illegal.”

Aubrey relaxed. Clearly he was upset, but she wasn’t going to be expelled or jailed for what she had done.

Nam Rood sighed, sitting down at his desk. “But I will tell you this, Aubrey. You are walking a dangerous line here. The faculty helps keep the students in line. Help prevent things from getting… out of hand.”

“Where were they when the smallest member of my team was being attacked?” Aubrey asked, her voice shaking. “Convenient that the professor showed up just in time to save Twiki and her teammates, don’t you think?”

Nam Rood smiled. “Wealth does have its advantages.” The smile soon faded as he glanced at Aubrey’s trembling hands.

So she was right, Twiki was paying off the professors, using her power and influence to her advantage. “I thought we were going to be on a level playing field, sir,” Aubrey said through gritted teeth.

“What gave you that idea?” Nam Rood asked. “Don’t be so childish, Aubrey. The Five don’t care how you succeed. They only care that you do.”

Aubrey looked away. This man disgusted her. “Is there anything else, or am I free to go?” she asked quietly.

He watched her in silence for a few more minutes before waving his hand. “Go, you’ve got work to do. But if I catch wind of any further assaults against any of my professors, I will begin to penalize your team.”

“And I’m sure the same goes for Twiki’s team,” she noted bitterly as she stood. Anger welled up in her chest. “Or has she paid you off too?”

She regretted her words almost instantly.

Nam Rood stood, his anger palpable. “You forget yourself. Do not pretend to know my mind, child.”

Aubrey shrank under his gaze. “Now go,” he ordered.

Aubrey didn’t need to be told twice.

She made her way to bay eleven where her teammates stood, talking softly amongst themselves.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” she said. “Why are you just standing around?”

“Aubrey!” Ado shouted, as her team rushed to surround her.

Paltit looked up, grinning ear to ear. “They didn’t kick you out?”

Nube hugged her, her long arms nearly wrapping around Aubrey’s slender form twice. “When I heard what happened, I thought for sure you’d be sent to Rust World!”

“I can’t believe you punched Professor Shakkara in the face,” Nergal said. “I wish I could have seen it.”

Aubrey blushed and changed the subject. “Listen, we’ve got a lot to do, so let’s get back to it.”

Ado gestured to two new frames inside bay eleven. “Look what we finally got,” he said proudly.

Their smaller Juggers had arrived, Kaiser and Sentinel. Twiki’s team had managed to requisition their secondary Juggers almost a full week earlier. The sting of Twiki’s wealth and connections had struck again.

Next to the two new Juggers, Archon’s spinner sat. The team was making some technical upgrades to the control center, so the head sat detached on the ground.

Ado walked her through the two new Juggers as the rest of the team returned to their work. Amur followed Aubrey like a puppy.

“Sentinel is a short range, hardened assault Jugger. We’re going to make some weapon upgrades, but its biggest contribution to the fight will be to simply absorb damage and provide cover to any ground troops we decide to send in.”

Aubrey looked at him, puzzled. “I thought it was mainly a Jugger fight.”

“It is,” Ado answered. “But it is not uncommon for teams to make assaults against the command and control centers, or to provide ground support for the Jugger in combat.”

Aubrey’s heart sank. She had hoped that by piloting the Jugger herself, she could ensure no risk came to her teammates. She hadn’t seen any ground troops in the combat vids she obsessively poured over each night, but perhaps she was so enamored by the giant robots, she had simply failed to notice. She made a mental note to look through the archives and pay closer attention.

“Kaiser, however, is a much more interesting mech. Lightly armored, we ran some preliminary tests, and this thing is fast. Faster than any Jugger we’ve observed,” he explained. “Whoever is going to pilot this thing will need lighting quick reflexes.”

Aubrey rubbed her chin for a moment, a habit she’d picked up from her father years ago. “And who scored the highest in combat reflexes during the exams?” she asked.

Ado’s head inflated as he grinned. “Well, that’s what we wanted to talk to you about.”

“Sounds like trouble.”

“The thing is, Amur scored the highest. By a wide margin, of anyone in our entire class,” he explained.

Aubrey looked at Amur, her eyebrows raised. “Really?” she said, regretting the surprise in her voice.

Amur nodded his bobbly, boneless head.

“We think he’ll be perfect for the job,” Ado said with all the confidence he could muster.

“Forget perfect,” Amur said, embarrassed. “I’m just struggling to not be useless.”

“But every time we’ve run a Jugger test with Amur, he has been… sluggish at best,” Aubrey said.

Ado nodded. “We’re aware, but we think we’ve discovered why. The Jugger interface is designed for a bipedal creature. The Istaran physiology is very different from the rest of the known alien races; the bottom half of Amur is mechanical. So his controls are being translated from his body, to his mechanical legs, and then to the Jugger.”

“That’s what makes him so slow…” Aubrey said.

“We’d like to customize Kaiser; create a new control system geared towards Amur’s unique anatomy,” he continued.

Aubrey turned and looked at Amur. “What do you think? Is this what you want?”

He nodded his floppy head vigorously. “More than anything,” he answered breathlessly. “But the others say I’m too stupid.”

Aubrey’s brow furrowed. “Don’t ever let anyone tell you you’re too stupid; too stupid to be strong, too stupid to win.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “It won’t be easy. You may have to work harder, put in more time, which may not seem fair.”

He hung on her every word.

“But don’t just give up. Don’t let them decide what you can or can’t do. Understand?”

Amur nodded his head again.

“Alright, let’s do it then.”

Amur made a noise that could only be described as something between a high pitched whistle and a panicked scream. Aubrey covered her ears reflexively as his long, clawed arms wrapped around her.

“Help me,” she mouthed to Ado, who winked at her. Amur only released his grip when the three of them heard a loud clanging sound from inside Archon’s spinner.

As Ado and Aubrey headed towards the noise, Ado tugged her hand.

“We’re sorry, we just feel bad for Amur,” he said in a hushed tone.

Aubrey smiled back. “It’s easy to feel sorry for someone. It’s far better to help them. You did the right thing.”

“Great, it’s getting everywhere!” Nergal shouted from inside the spinner. Aubrey stepped in and saw a pool of white paint slowly forming on the floor. Paltit and Nergal had finished repairing some minor damage to the control interface, a square seat not dissimilar to the controls used for Obloquy. They were applying a finishing coat of white nano-paint, a protective substance that also doubled as a colored interface and visualization screen, but had spilled the can onto the floor.

Paltit was covered nearly to the waist in the thick liquid. She slipped, catching her hand against the wall to brace herself, leaving a white handprint on the black interior.

“Watch what you’re doing!” Nergal shouted. “I just finished that wall.”

Aubrey grinned and walked over to Paltit. She dipped her hand in the white paint and put her handprint next to Paltit’s. “C’mon, everyone. We’ve all worked so hard on getting Archon up and running. Let’s put our mark on this thing.”

Each of her teammates, one by one, dipped their hand in the paint, and left their print on the wall. Even James, perpetually crabby, put his twisted print along with his friend’s.

“Aubrey, I had an idea,” he said. “I know you don’t want us to sabotage Twiki’s team. We’re taking the high road, or whatever you’ve convinced yourself of.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Aubrey smiled. She had learned to simply ignore his barbs and sarcasm over the past months.

“But what if we made a vulnerability in our system, something a bit easier to crack than our current air tight security?”

“Why would we do that?”

“Well, we could put some malicious code in the vulnerable partition; Paltit could disguise it so it appears to be part of our code base. That way, if Twiki’s team does try to sabotage us again, it’ll backfire and burn their system.”

Aubrey thought for a moment, a smile slowly spreading across her face.

“I think that’d be alright,” she said finally. “There’s nothing wrong with some defensive measures after all.”

James grinned wickedly, exposing his crooked teeth as he gave Paltit the thumbs up.

“Alright, everyone back to work,” Aubrey said. “I’ll clean this up. We’ve only got a couple of months left, let’s make every minute count.”

She couldn’t help but smile as she watched her team work. Maybe, just maybe, they had a chance at this thing.

#

Aubrey awoke early the next morning, her heart racing. After months of work, today they were going to finally take Archon for its first real-life test run. Professor Enos would be supervising, a fact that Aubrey did not relish, but her excitement over the prospect of piloting one of the Juggers overrode any distaste she had for the woman.

Over the next week, they’d each get their turn at the helm, but her team had unanimously insisted Aubrey take the first run. The squad made their way to bay eleven, nervous energy crackled through them. Professor Enos was had already arrived, and was waiting for them, her foot tapping impatiently. Next to her stood a large white chamber, about five feet tall, its outside smooth like a polished stone.

“Welcome, students, to the first test run of your Jugger,” Enos said curtly. “Who will be piloting today?”

“Aubrey,” Nube said, grinning at her friend.

Enos’ eyes narrowed. “This is an Aeolist, a system that will interface with the pilot’s Mulier System. It will reprogram your nano-bots with any flight patterns, mission information, and attack formations necessary for the mission at hand. Tied directly to your nervous system, it helps your body control the Jugger's attack routines instinctively.”

She tapped on the outside of the chamber, which lit up with blue and purple lights. The chamber opened with an audible hiss, and inside was a bed. She gestured for Aubrey to lie down, which she did. Nervousness painted her face.

Professor Enos, after attaching a large, thick cable to Aubrey’s skull node, began connecting wires to the surface of Aubrey’s skin. The cables split, snaking out additional lines to Aubrey’s arms and legs like the branching roots of a tree. Professor Enos then took a white helmet and jammed it roughly onto Aubrey’s head.

The mechanical device adjusted to cover her eyes and nose, leaving only a small hole for her mouth as it wrapped under her chin. It was a terrifying sensation, and Aubrey had to breathe deeply to keep herself calm. She focused her anger on Enos, and the fact that she had not given a warning or an explanation of the process.

Enos tapped a few more lights, activating the Aeolist. Aubrey’s senses were assaulted. It felt like a searing white light was burning into her head, as thousands of images appeared in her brain. Her skin felt as though it was hardening, thickening somehow, and her internal fluids were boiling. She bit her lip, refusing to cry out. The acrid taste of blood mingled with her saliva.

And just as suddenly, it was over. Her skin felt hot and wet. As the helmet receded, she half expected to see her arms steaming.

“What was it like?” Ado asked.

She thought for a moment. “Intense.” She intentionally avoided Enos’ gaze as she stood, unsteady on her feet.

“Please enter your spinner, and prepare to interface,” Enos instructed. “The rest of you, follow me.” Enos stepped onto a mobile platform that hovered nearby, the rest of Aubrey’s team followed, and the platform lurched into the air.

Without a word, Aubrey entered the spinner. The chamber inside Archon’s head was twenty feet in diameter. Aubrey stepped past and over the various consoles and computers as she approached the large white cube at the center. It morphed and bent, its shape adjusting to accept the pilot.

A cable snaked out and connected to her skull node, while two pieces grasped her hand, and her feet sank into the ground. The malleable material formed around her limbs, spreading up her arms and legs, stopping at her shoulders and hips, connecting her to the base. The door to the spinner slid shut, and sealed seamlessly with a suctioned hiss. If Aubrey hadn’t just walked through it, she would be surprised a door existed.

She heard Professor Enos’ voice from outside. “Are you in position?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, release the spiders,” Enos said.

Aubrey felt a strange tingling sensation in her hands and feet, as if the circulation had been lost for a time, and blood had suddenly been freed and rushed back to her extremities. While not painful, it was unpleasant. Nano-bots poured out through her skin to interface with the spinner, tying her nervous system directly into the Jugger.

“Interface complete,” Enos announced. “Let’s move the spinner into position.”

Ado had been given the honor of putting the spinner in place. His aglets danced as a massive anti-grav lift gingerly carried the spinner into the air, the long mechanical tentacles hanging below gruesomely resembled severed veins and tendons as the decapitated head floated above the Jugger.

As it lowered, the tentacles began to move, searching for the body, which released a cluster of its own tentacles. As they met, the metal vines from the two intertwined, and the Jugger body pulled the spinner into place.

It was a strange sensation for Aubrey, as her nervous system connected to a new, alien physique. Her vision had been augmented, somehow layered. It was incredibly disorienting at first, almost like seeing double, but her brain quickly made sense of the visual information.

It was unlike anything she’d ever experience before. New senses flooded her nervous system, she could feel magnetic fields, and see the ultraviolet spectrum. New colors danced across her eyes. She felt powerful. She moved her hand, stretching her fingers experimentally, and the hand of the Jugger reacted, crashing and denting one of the support lattices.

“Hold still!” Enos shouted. “Do not move until you are free of the support structure.”

“Sorry,” Aubrey answered. “It would have been nice to review the proper procedure.”

“I guess I assumed you were smart enough to realize destroying your Jugger bay would be a bad idea,” Enos answered as she nodded over at Ado. Ado typed with his aglets, and the support structure and beams receded into the bay, leaving the Jugger standing under its own power.

“Alright, now, very slowly, step out of your bay,” Enos said.

Aubrey took a cautious, tentative step. It felt very strange, moving while suspended in the air, and her foot came down harder than she meant. She felt the metal floor crunch under her feet.

“I said slowly!” Enos shouted in her ear. Aubrey didn’t care; the exhilaration of piloting a Jugger was more than she could take. She raised her arm and stared at her metallic hand. Its three giant fingers opened and closed as she moved her own digits. She wondered how she would be able to activate the various weapons systems her team had installed.

As if in answer, her right hand pulled back, receding into the forearm and a long crystal blade extended, glowing white hot.

“I did not give you permission to activate your weapon systems!” Enos shouted.

“Sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose,” Aubrey said, grinning as she swung the blade carefully in the air. With another thought, the blade receded into her arm, and her hand reformed. She was amazed how naturally these strange movements came to her. Extending the blade had felt no different or more complex than balling her hand into a fist.

“Now, please, follow me,” Enos said flatly. “And try not to do any more damage.”

Enos steered the floating platform across the engineering bay, through an enormous metal door, and into the arena. As they made their way through the massive gate, Aubrey noticed the word Etemenak carved into the wall, the letters taller than even her mighty Jugger.

Despite her initial clumsy steps, Aubrey felt natural inside the Jugger, walking confidently onto the mock battlefield. She stepped carefully over a burned out bunker, and ducked underneath an overpass that jutted out from one of the immense walls.

Smoke lazily drifted through the air, and Aubrey was shocked that she could feel the gentle breeze that blew in from the west. She could even smell the pungent earth that crunched under her enormous feet.

They wound their way through a gutted cityscape, giant buildings scorched and blasted to pieces leaned against one another like drunken giants. They followed the concrete rivers, cracked and broken, covered in debris, as they made their way to a verdant field.

The platform carrying her classmates stopped at a crudely assembled firing range. About two hundred yards away were a series of stone targets, each a different size and color. They had been molded to roughly the shape of a Jugger.

“Please move into position,” Enos instructed.

Aubrey stepped forward, following the guidelines Alzar painted on her display as Enos’ platform rose above the Jugger and slid into position just behind the spinner.

“You are approved to go weapons hot,” Enos said. “Please take aim at the largest of the targets, and fire a volley of concussive missiles.”

Aubrey concentrated for a moment, trying to activate the missile system. Nothing happened.

“Now would be an appropriate time,” Enos said, irritation rising in her voice.

“I’m trying, I’m not sure how,” Aubrey responded.

Enos sighed impatiently, but offered no help.

Aubrey held up her left hand, and felt it transform with a simple thought, into a massive ion cannon.

“I said a volley of missiles,” Enos said.

Aubrey turned to look at her, the Jugger's massive torso twisting at the waist, spinning around so her body faced backwards.

“I’m trying. Some help would be appreciated,” she snapped.

Enos eye’s narrowed as she glared at Aubrey through the Jugger's glowing face. Her aglets danced, and the missile batteries on both Archon’s shoulders popped open.

Aubrey rotated her torso back, and felt a strange sensation of release as the Jugger fired a salvo of missiles down the range, striking the largest target square in the center, blasting a large hole in the stone, scorching it black. She felt exhilarated by the explosion, her heart stirred.

Aubrey could hear her teammates cheering behind her. She smiled, and fired a second wave of missiles, this time at the smallest target. It blasted into pieces, exploding outward, sending chunks of stone through the air in all directions.

“I said the biggest target!” Enos shouted, as she reversed the platform away from the firing range. “That target was meant for ion cannons, not missiles!”

Chunks of debris fell through the air, clattering into Archon. Aubrey was surprised that she could feel, not pain exactly, but definitely an unpleasant sensation caused by the impact of the stones as they rained down on her.

A red light flashed as Alzar highlighted a massive chunk of rock headed directly towards the floating platform that attempted to escape the barrage of stone missiles at a snail’s pace. It was more than half the size of the platform, and was going to tear the thing to shreds.

Without even thinking, Aubrey burst into motion, her Jugger leapt into the air, spinning as it did. The heated blade extended from her arm, which she swung in a high arc, cutting the stone out of the air, slicing it cleanly in half, and deflecting it from its course.

Aubrey landed heavily on her knees.

“Shut down immediately!” Enos barked at her, her face flushed an ugly red.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know-“

Enos didn’t wait to hear her excuse, her aglets danced in the air, and Aubrey felt the same burning sensation she had earlier as the nano-bots receded back into her hands and feet. The spinner released her as the Jugger powered down.

The sudden change, the sensation of all that new sensory input being yanked from her body was more than she could take, and Aubrey doubled over, spilling her lunch onto the floor of the spinner.

Enos didn’t give her a chance to recover. “Are you trying to show off for your friends by getting them all killed?”

Aubrey coughed, her joints ached as if she had a fever. A feeble “no” was all she could manage in response.

“I gave you very simple instructions, simple orders to follow, and you failed at even that!” Enos continued to tear into her. “And worse, you nearly killed your teammates!”

Aubrey struggle to her feet as the spinner opened. Enos’s platform now floated a few inches from the edge of the entrance.

“Get out of there before you hurt someone!” Enos barked.

Aubrey glared at her, before stepping out onto the platform.

“You are a pitiful excuse for a soldier,” Enos continued berating her. “If I have anything to say about it, you’ll never set foot in another spinner.” Aubrey felt her eyes sting as tears formed. She didn’t sit down as much as collapsed onto the platform, still disoriented. “You’re pathetic. And even worse, weak.”

“You can call me weak, but I’m not the one who is afraid to be kind,” Aubrey shot back, her senses still adjusting.

“Oh, and you think that’ll make a difference, your kindness?” Enos face hardened in anger. “Kindness will only get you killed. You will die a forgotten and pointless death.”

“At least I’ll have tried to make a difference, to help other people,” Aubrey shot back, anger rising in her voice. “Instead of giving up like a coward.”

Enos blanched as she piloted the platform back to bay eleven.

“Get out of my sight,” Enos said quietly, but with such intensely quiet rage that it made the students step back. “All of you.”

Without another word, the students filed out of the engineering bay, a quiet hush only interrupted by their footfalls as they marched through the hallway.

Aubrey was so furious her hands were shaking. Her friends seemed to sense her anger, and trailed back so she could walk alone. She hated Enos. Hated her with a fury that surprised even Aubrey.

With each step away from the Etemenak, her teammates behind her, she replayed the events over and over in her head. As she did, she became entirely convinced that Enos had set her up for failure. She wiped her wet eyes on the sleeve of her uniform as she walked through the twisted corridors she had become so familiar with.

She was so distracted, she barely stopped in time to prevent herself from crashing into Jar Breson, narrowly avoiding his bent frame as he waited for her.

“Come with us,” he said as he turned down a side passage. Aubrey waved off her teammates who seemed intent on following her, and headed down the corridor after the professor.

“First,” he said, as Aubrey fell into step next to him, “we want to assure you that Nam Rood, along with several other teachers, witnessed what happened, and Professor Enos will be properly reprimanded for her behavior.”

Aubrey felt an instant sense of relief.

“Professor Enos neglected to load the mission parameters into the Aeolist. Without the correct mission parameters, you should never have stepped outside of your Jugger bay, much less onto a firing range, with live ammunition.”

“Did she do it on purpose?”

“We doubt it” he answered, shaking his head. “She may be unpleasant, but she wouldn’t intentionally risk the life of your teammates over some petty grievance. More likely, there was a system error that she failed to notice.”

Aubrey wasn’t so certain, but decided not to press the issue further.

“I just hate feeling like I failed,” she said, her eyes falling to the ground.

“Failed?” Jar Breson laughed. “Our dear, that was, without exception, the most amazing display of Jugger piloting we’ve ever seen from a first year.”

Aubrey’s eyebrows raised, her eyes wide.

“The way you cut that chunk of stone out of the air - we were stunned. Nam Rood assumed you had been piloting the Jugger in secret, but we reviewed your Archiver, and verified it was indeed your first time controlling a Jugger.”

She grinned, but the smile quickly faded. “My Archiver?”

“Yes, we all have one. It’s part of your neural implant,” he explained, tapping the node at the base of his skull. “It records all sensory input, and can be downloaded and analyzed by your superiors.”

Aubrey found this new information troubling.

“Think of it as a black box for your skull,” he explained, sensing her discomfort. “It can also be a form of protection. Most of your teammates would cut your throat as you sleep if they didn’t fear reprisal from a superior officer over the loss of a valued commander.”

Aubrey’s lips pursed. “I don’t accept that.”

“What?”

“That my team would kill me if they had the chance. Despite everything, I still believe people are basically good, decent, caring creatures.”

Jar Breson smiled. “Sure, so long as they have food, shelter, and the comforts of life. But take those things away, put a little fear in them, and they’ll turn on each other like wild beasts.”

“Everyone here is so cynical. Soulless.”

Jar Breson looked at her, his brow furrowed. “Soulless?”

“Yeah,” Aubrey said, confused by his confusion. “As in they don’t have a soul.”

Jar Breson stared into space for a moment, before chuckling. “Sorry, our A.I. had to explain to us what a soul was. Before the Five, humans were replete with primitive superstitions. They did not believe in a God or gods, so much as they chose to not believe in nothing.”

Aubrey opened her mouth to protest, but Jar Breson held up a hand, cutting her off.

“But we did not come to debate philosophy with you,” he said, smiling, his head sack fully inflated. “Just to let you know that you are not in trouble, and there will be no formal disciplinary action against you, despite what Professor Enos might have threatened.”

“Will I have to keep attending her classes?”

Jar Breson nodded. “We’re afraid so.”

Aubrey sighed.

“Despite what you might think of her, Professor Enos is a brilliant tactician. As an admiral fresh out of Bavel, she was given command of an entire fleet. She even managed to capture a live Xaphan, and return it intact for study and vivisection. The only live specimen ever examined by our scientists. She lost her right arm and leg during the Ninus Offensive, and has never quite been the same since. High Commander Nam Rood trusts her implicitly.”

“She is unnecessarily cruel.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Jar Breson chided. “There is a place for both cruelty and kindness. As a soldier, you will not always get along with your commanders, or your subordinates. It is an important skill to develop; to be diplomatic and to learn what you can from everyone.”

Aubrey thought for a moment, and then nodded her head. “I suppose you’re right.”

Jar Breson grinned, and clapped Aubrey on the back. “Now, I believe you have some work to attend to.”

Aubrey smiled. “Thank you, Professor.”

He nodded, turning, and tottered his way down the corridor away from her, leaning heavily on his cane.

Aubrey turned, rounding a corner, and crashed head first into Mamre, her ever-vigilant bodyguard. She smiled apologetically.

“Let’s get back to the barracks; we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

As they entered the barracks, Aubrey’s team milled about, working in small groups on planned improvements to the Jugger, coordinating their efforts, and laughing as they cracked jokes. Aubrey watched them for a time, a smile spreading across her face.

“Alright, team, let’s go over our final battle plans one more time. It won’t be long before we enter the Etemenak for the final tournament.”