Evay Maver: I was given my station, my post, and my squad all at once as Lila, Aurora, and I all got off of our carriage. Everyone in the military stationed along the west coast of Taegan which was where the forces of the Ring of Nations would presumably be landing. The war on the eastern front was being covered by legions six and seven and legions eight through twelve—us—were going to cover the western front. From what I heard this was due to two reasons. One was that legions eight through twelve just had more sheer numbers than any of the other legions combined. I heard that there was a ridiculous three million warriors stationed along the entire western front, and so even if we weren’t as strong as the other legions we made up for it in numbers. Second, the western coast was a tough barrier to crack as the Ring of Nations would have to cross the sea to get to it. Because of this, they probably weren’t going to send their strongest warriors to us. More likely than not, they were going to send massive amounts of warriors in order to hopefully crack through the sea and our defenses. Therefore, our strength was enough to hold the western front.

The eastern front on the other hand was a lot more bare since all we had were land borders separating us from a vast array of enemies. Mother Nature wasn’t going to help us there so we put our stronger legions east in order to deal with those messes. Finally, legions five and up would be in charge of either assisting us on the eastern or western front, or they would be conducting assaults on enemy forces and territory. This was precisely why Geon wasn’t with us—he was shipped off somewhere north to meet up with the first legion guys. I was told we would be arranged into squads and given stations and posts but I didn’t know it’d be so soon. All of us, besides Geon, had been put into the eighth legion—which was probably due to our past experiences and results in tournaments. We had gotten a huge boost up since most warriors started in the tenth or even eleventh, but that didn’t mean we were going to be on the same squad. I was being put into commander Feron’s squad, I was given post A.1.SC, and stationed at the southern bloc. I had no idea what any of this meant but all I was concerned about was seeing what everyone else had got. It was like reviewing class schedules all over again, except this time there were no classes and only future death squads and grown-ass strangers. Aurora had been put into commander Klight’s squad, and Lila had been put into commander Sueter’s squad. We were all going to be separated…. All of us looked up and tried not to meet each other's eyes. Before I could say anything a huge hand slapped my shoulder and a loud voice gruffly boomed into my ear,

“SETTLE IN NOW! NO TIME TO WASTE,” I reeled from the sudden explosion of sound into my ear as I looked over to see an extremely jacked, gray-bearded man, wearing a battle vest and battle pants looming over me. He looked towards us and spoke in a gruff voice, “Kids are always too hard to deal with for this type of stuff…. Stop looking so shocked—you all are warriors now, get to your posts, now!” We all nodded but none of us made a single move—not because we were defying him or something but because we had no clue what any of these directions meant. A lady who had tight skin, a black bun, and sharp eyes marched over to us and spoke in a stern and cold voice,

“It might help to tell them what all of this shit means, Dalton. You think they can’t read?” She snatched my paper out of my hands as she scanned it like a hawk. She handed my paper back to me and spoke in a stern and commanding voice,

“You’ll be able to find your squad by looking at the tents—your commander’s name is above the tent. Your task is labeled by difficulty—from grades A to D—number of intended units—from one to four—and finally by type—scouting, counter assaults, etcetera. Look at it and ask your commander if you have any questions. Go on now.” She shooed us off but we all hesitated to move. She looked at us and rolled her eyes, “Kids… We all meet back at central camp after the day has passed—you will see each other again—now GO!” We all jumped a little and gave each other smiles of relief. I saw Aurora and Lila give me a nod before we all walked off into different directions towards our commander’s tents. The scary lady suddenly spoke, “Stop.” I stopped dead in my tracks and turned around to face her, “Are you three by any chance those kids—I’m sure you know what I mean by that.” I looked at her and nodded. She smiled slightly, “So I get the troublemakers, huh. Welcome to the eighth legion kid, don’t fuck it up.” She turned around and walked away and the big scary guy followed her. She’s scary….

I looked around at the absurd amounts of tents organized in neat little rows along the vast stretch of open wilderness surrounding us. Camp was set up super systematically so that the eating quarters, hygienic quarters, and sleeping and living stations were all clearly separated and maintained. The training grounds were all set up and the commander tents–tents where commanders met to discuss stuff–were all set up as well. It didn’t look very inviting but it felt proper and systematic which was good enough for seemingly everyone. I slowly trotted up and down the camp looking at every tent and the name which was plastered on its door. Commander Feron, where is Feron…. Where is this dude’s tent at? I looked around and took a deep breath before tensing my eyes. My see-through vision helped me give me a visual on the tents far towards the back of the camp–which were originally covered by the tents in front of my face. I quickly looked around and tried to find the tent with the name Feron on it until it finally appeared. Towards the far back right of the camp a tent, identical to all the others, with Feron on its front door stood alone–almost sort of isolated from the other tents. I floated a little off the ground and flew over camp and dropped down in front of my tent—which would be home for the foreseeable future.

I opened the tent, stepped inside, and sort of reeled back in shock as I laid my eyes upon my surroundings. The tent was super big—like as big as a regular house. It was the same liquor technology which had been used to build our battle stadium back at Eden academy, but this was probably even more impressive than that. The tent looked like a small little hut on the outside but was a luxury home with individual rooms and bedding on the inside. The floors were made with mahogany wood, the walls were well painted, and the furniture was well furnished. I looked inside one of the rooms and found a nice sized bed with a nightstand and a closet in it. I had heard the Taegan military took camp organization very seriously but I never knew that this was how well they treated their warriors. I guess it made all the difference if we were well rested or not, so these tents were worthy investments but still, it seemed crazy. I turned around and a girl who looked to be in her early twenties—maybe late teens at the youngest—stared at me for a second before giving me a wave, “You’re the new guy right? Feron squad? If not, you're in the wrong place—holy shit you look young, how old are you?” She dashed up to me in an instant and bore her eyes into me like I was some sort of puzzle. I stayed uncomfortably still before speaking in a confused and tense voice,

“Um… hi. My name is Evay Maver, it’s nice to meet you. I'm in the right place—here’s my card.” I handed her my card but before I could even fully extend my arm she slapped it out of my grasp and looked at me with wide eyes,

“Maver? Like, Evay Maver?” I nodded and she backed away with a cautious look on her face,

“You’re the kid… I heard you gave us some pretty useful intel—it helped us find who the enemies were. I heard a lot of your buddies from a bunch of warrior academies are coming out to fight right?” I nodded and she scoffed, “Fucking kids fresh out of the academy aren’t going to do anything, I’ll tell you that.” She sat down and looked at me with sharp eyes. She had shoulder length black hair and tan skin with deep black eyes. She wore a tight, night black battle vest and camo colored pants as well as a single ring on her left finger. I looked at her with an almost offended look,

“I’m sorry if us ‘youngins’ aren’t good enough for you but I think we can hold our own.” She scoffed,

“Yeah because fighting in an empty ring, with liquor screens, and zero threat of death is very realistic.” She rolled her eyes and tossed an apple at me, “The first thing every kid out of the academy has to learn is that real war, real fighting, is very different. I heard one of your buddies, that Taran kid, took out an enemy Raga soldier. That’s pretty impressive—except for the fact that that one battle hospitalized him for an entire two weeks. I heard that kid was considered pretty strong for your class as well and even he almost died in his first fight. It’s different out here, Evay, the quicker you realize it the better you’ll be. Eat that apple, we have a task to finish.” I nodded slightly as she stood up and knocked on a bunch of doors. “GET UP! GET UP! Newbie is here!” The doors both swung open at the same time and two very different looking people walked out of them. On the left was a guy, who looked to be in his early to late twenties. He had short brown hair and a pretty cool looking beard which made him look a little more rugged and experienced than he probably really was. He wore a simple white shirt and beige pants with sandals. The other person who had walked out of the door on the right was a girl who also looked to be in her early to mid twenties. She had long blonde hair and very vibrant green eyes—which was jarring since I had never seen that combination of traits before. She wore an emerald green battle vest and white pants as well as a number of beaded bracelets on her arms. They both looked at me with impassive curiosity as they examined every inch of my body. The guy spoke first,

“Evay Maver—what are the chances you’re on our squad…. It’s nice to meet you, I’m James of house Mullry—your other ground scaling specialist.” I shook his hand and tried to remember all of the roles which Aurora had told me about. The girl came up to me and shook my hand,

“I’m Zella, nice to meet you. I’m your long range specialist. I don’t like taking a lot of shots so please don’t make me save your ass too much.” She yawned and plopped down on the couch in a fetal position. The first girl who I had met rolled her eyes at me,

“Zella is a little bit… what’s the word…. lazy. She’s got your back if you really need it though. I’m your intelligence, Zia, make sure you make the most out of what I give you.” I nodded and she slapped my back really hard, “Now all you have to do is to meet the commander—that’ll be fun.” She gave me an eerie smile as I felt my nerves tingle. I looked around and did a double take,

“Wait, there are only four people in a squad right? Why am I here then? Including commander Feron you guys have four.” Zia threw a wad of paper at Zella before answering my question,

Stolen novel; please report.

“That’s because it works like that from the fifth division and up. They don’t have enough to make five to a squad but since the eighth to twelfth legion has a good amount of warriors we can manage. The most common strategy is to run two ground scalers in a squad since that’s where you’ll see the most violent and massive conflicts. Some squads prefer to have two long range specialists and it’s rare but some like to have two intelligence specialists if they want to conduct their operations in a special way. But we’re always more of the front line type—not to brag but you joined a pretty strong squad.” I nodded as James sat down next to Zella and kept trying to stack cookies on her now unconscious face. I looked at Zia who kept staring at the clock,

“So… I’m going to be a ground scaler. That means I’m pretty much always going to be fighting in the front lines right? I’ll have James watch my back?” She scoffed,

“You’re going to need to watch his back—he’s always quick to become tunnel visioned and chase after enemies. You two will be working with other squads in our legion to control the brunt of our attacking forces. You’ll receive an overwatch from our long range specialist so you can go in quickly.” I looked at the sleeping Zella—who now had about seven cookies stacked on her forehead—with doubt,

“Are you… sure?” Zia sighed,

“I’ll give you information which will help you select your pathing and blitz points effectively.” She tossed me a weird looking black piece of metal which was shaped like my ear.” I looked at her with confusion,

“What’s this?” She gave me a surprised stare,

“You don’t know? This is a new piece of tech that your little girlfriend with auburn and blue hair made. She’s probably been getting pretty rich off it since the military has been begging to buy it off her. It’s something which she calls a ‘recording and communication device.’ Whatever that means…. Anyways, it doesn’t use liquor so enemies won’t be able to detect our presence on the battlefield when on stealth missions. It’s also pretty cheap to make since, like I said, liquor isn’t involved. She said it uses electricity to make sound waves and transmit them too. Anyways, I can communicate with you on the battlefield as long as we’re not too far apart. Your girlfriend’s pretty smart—not to mention just plain pretty. You struck gold.” My face went a little red as I put the device in my ear,

“I did—I’m pretty nice like that, you know?” She rolled her eyes and went to wake up Zella I remember how Aurora had used some type of recording device to prove my innocence after I beat up Ren. That seemed so long ago…. I had no idea that she was continuing to develop her tech though. I knew Aurora was pretty smart but I had no idea she was this smart… I kind of liked it though… She’s hot and smart… Nice. I shook my head to regain my focus as the tent doors suddenly burst open. I turned my head to see a man in his mid-twenties with crisp cut brown hair, a bright white and golden commander’s battle robe, and a deadly serious look on his face march towards me. Zia’s eyes went wide as she snapped into a perfect salute, James scrambled to his feet and did the same, and Zella woke up from her slumber in the blink of an eye and followed in their footsteps as well. I quickly tried my best to emulate them as the commander looked at me with his piercing eyes, “Evay Maver, welcome to our squad. I see that you have acquainted yourself with your new squadmates. Sit down, tell me about yourself.” He pointed at the seat nearest me and I sat down in it almost instinctively. He calmly took a seat across from me as everyone watched us. I cleared my throat and tried to sound as confident as I could,

“It’s nice to meet you sir. I’m here as your ground scaler and I’m from Eden Academy. This will be my first time working in a squad so I will try my best to learn quickly.” He observed me for a bit in silence. Looking at him gave me the jitters and staring into his eyes seemed to sap my confidence away. He had that demeanor which made you listen to him and follow every word that he said. He didn’t look scary or intimidating in the classic sense but I sure was far more afraid of him than the two important looking men and women I had first met when I entered camp. He spoke up,

“Are you familiar with the story of Oslo Thompson?” Zia, Zella, and James all seemed to wince in pain and regret for a brief second before refusing to meet my gaze. They each looked at their feet with shameful looks in their eyes, but Zella looked particularly distressed—which I could tell was out of character for her. I looked at the commander with a confused expression,

“No sir, I don’t.” He kept staring me in the eye as he continued to speak,

“He was our original second ground scaler. He was young—18 years old—much like yourself. He had a great relationship with everyone on this squad and he was with us for nearly three years. The squad celebrated his 19th and 20th birthdays with him in this tent, and we enjoyed success with him in most of our missions which involved protecting our borders from terrorists and rebel groups from foreign nations. He actually got engaged last summer to a girl he had known since he was a young boy and all of us, including myself, were invited to his wedding.” I looked at him and everyone around the room with caution, “His fiance was actually pregnant, which was a nice surprise, and they were expecting a girl. Zella knit the girl a scarf, Zia got her a bottle, and James promised to babysit her when Oslo was away.” A bad feeling kept growing in my heart as I looked into the commanders eyes,

“Sir, this sounds like a very touching story but…. but it doesn’t seem like it will end very well.” The commander practically ignored me and kept talking,

“I even promised to temporarily relieve him of his duties once his child was born. I met his fiancé as well—she was a lovely young lady. Oslo requested some time off due to a trip that he and his fiancé’s family were going to make before their wedding. They wanted to go to Evian since their resorts are beautiful around this time of year, and so they did. While they were there some of Oslo’s in-laws wanted to go see the Youth Championships being hosted in the nation at the time.” My heart dropped to the bottom of my soul. “They enjoyed the atmosphere and the entertainment especially since our very own Taegan Youth team was putting up a valiant run in the semi-finals where stars like Geon Leventen and Evay Maver were fighting.” My throat closed up, my heart started to beat out of my chest and I felt like throwing up. “That’s when an explosion of light which incinerated half a million people claimed the lives of Oslo, his wife, his soon to be family, and his unborn child. Out of the fire came four warriors, not five, and we all thought you were dead. It turns out you’re quite resilient and you came back with some valuable information.” I tried my best to keep my composure as I felt my entire body grow sick. The commander spoke with the same cold and constant tone, “What I am trying to tell you, Evay Maver, is that you are more connected with this squad than you fully realize. What you were a part of created this need for you to be in our team and as the commander I feel that you should deserve to know that. It would be adamantly unjust for me to demand that you replace Oslo which is why I am not asking you to do so. I only ask that you do what is told of you, you trust me and your squad mates, and you fulfill the promises you have made to us and to your nation. I feel that those are reasonable demands—do you disagree?” I shook my head and he stood up, “Good. I believe we have a task we need to accomplish. The other squads are gearing up at this moment and we should start going too. This will be our first run with a new member so you regular members should work to adjust him to our ways. Be out in five minutes—do not be late.” He looked at me one last time before heading out of the tent, “Also, Evay Maver, if I ever see you doing something which will ultimately harm our squad or put the lives of your comrades in danger I will not hesitate to take your life. You will die faster than you can even process the thought—do you understand me?” A glowing tint of red light shined on his one visible eye as I nodded slowly. He rushed out of the tent and I waited a bit before running out to get some fresh air. I quickly ran behind the tent into the woods and threw up in the soft grass. I felt sick—almost like some type of intense nausea and guilt had bore itself into my stomach. I felt my heart beat quicker and quicker and quicker until my chest started to hurt and my head started to spin.

I killed him? I was the one that killed that guy? They don’t know… they don’t know… I killed him, I killed him, I killed him. I—

I felt a hand gently touch my shoulder as I looked up to see Zia standing over me. She had an empathetic look in her eyes as she helped me stand back up, “Evay, I know you’re young. To be honest you’re way too young to be here. I blame the empire for conscripting kids—no matter how strong you guys are you shouldn’t be here. I know it’s hard to grasp—the fact that you’ll be sleeping in a dead man’s bed, taking a dead man’s spot in the team, and living in the shadow of a guy you’ve never even met. I need you to get used to it—I’m not going to ask you to understand—but you need to get used to stuff like this. Please, for your own sake.” I gave her a weak nod as she monitored for me to follow her.

That’s not why, Zia. You don’t understand, how could you possibly understand? How can you understand what I have done, what I am doing, and what I will end up needing to do. How can you possibly understand if I can’t even understand myself?

I wiped my mouth and followed Zia as everyone was stationed outside the tent. I looked around to see a bunch of other warriors all huddled around their commanders and preparing to go do their tasks together. I slowly walked up next to James and stood patiently as the commander spoke to all of us, “A.1.SC—we’ll follow the usual formations and strategy profile. Remember to use the natural foliage to your advantage and do not engage with the enemy if you are to find them. Locate their positions and do nothing more. Understood?” Everyone nodded and I followed suit. The commander led us out of the camp and towards the forest. A couple of other squads were also lined up in front of the forest as well and I tried getting a better look at them but Zia elbowed me in the ribs. I gave her a confused and annoyed look. She spoke sternly,

“Focus on the task at hand.” I rolled my eyes,

“Would you mind actually telling me what that is then. If it’s just staring at this forest all day then I’d say I’m doing a pretty good job, no?” Her eyes went wide,

“Don’t tell me they never taught you task labels?” I gave her a blank stare and her face filled with exasperated shock, “So all they teach you is to hit stuff and kill stuff really hard?!? Ok, well, tasks are all given a label. The first letter—A, B, C, or D—represents the difficulty level of the mission. The second number—1, 2, or 3—represents the level of importance of the mission. The last two letters represent the type of mission you’ll have to undertake—SC meaning scouting, AU meaning assault, DF meaning defense, and SP meaning support. We’re about to do an A1 scouting mission so, in other words, get your shit straight.” I looked at her with confusion,

“Scouting? I thought the enemy would come over the sea—what do we need to scout for?” Zia kept her eyes on the forest and kept speaking,

“Mevillime and other western nations will come across the sea. We’ll worry about them later. For now we have to deal with some of their allies in the south. Taegan is famous for its dense forests which give us some natural cover. Even if they give us cover they hide our enemies as well. Praga and their soldiers are believed to be pushing through to us right now—we need to scout out our forests to try and see how far they’ve progressed.” I gave her another confused look,

“Praga?” Zia took her eyes off of the forest and looked at me as if I was the dumbest person in the world,

“Motherfucker, do you not know any geography? Praga? The nation is literally right below us. You do know what the map looks like right? I heard you’re from the countryside but you’re not stupid right?” I gave her an offended look,

“I’m not stupid! I know what a…. a map looks like!” She gave me an doubtful look,

“Sure… Our primary enemy is the ring of nations but the main nations we have to worry about are the Mevillime empire, Tundra, the Republic of Savarha, the Northa kingdom, and of course Raga. They all surround us from the north to the south and to east. We need to try and fend them off and establish our dominance between our borders before Mevillime and those fuckers from the south west get here.” I nodded and saw a squad swiftly disappear into the dense dark forest. Commander Feron held up his hand without even looking back at us. Zella dashed away to a large cliff side away from the forest and Zia jumped up into the branches of a giant tree. James motioned for me to follow as he looked at me with a serious expression,

“Evay, let’s go. Stay calm, stay quiet, and follow me. Zella’s got us with overwatch, Zia will give us intel and some eyes in the forest, and the commander will make sure everything is running smoothly. I got your back as well. Come on man, it’s time to get the war started.”