Soldier Phesx!
“I'll bring him away now,” Paul nodded at Phesx Caolia before saluting the officer with a rapid nod. Guiding the young boy out of the building, Paul held the gray-black folder and continued nodding to himself, letting Phesx Caolia process what just happened. His near future wasn't going to be nice.
“You see,” once outside the building, Paul grabbed the young boy by his shoulders before helping him walk further into the encampment. “We’re heading to the military zone now. It is where all the good stuff is, and where you’ll mostly live from now on. Tell me something.”
Phesx Caolia lifted his eyes to match Paul’s, who wasn’t that tall, unlike Phesx Caolia, who was quite tall for his age. Paul asked with a smile, “Did he note down anything after interrogating and testing you? A word, perhaps?”
‘After?’ Phesx Caolia blinked twice, tilting his head to the left in between, before responding. However, Paul added just before he started speaking. “Yeah, did you manage at least one IK?”
“I got like 5, I think?” Phesx Caolia’s words came out calmly. However, Phesx Caolia continued walking forward, while Paul stopped and remained on the spot. Phesx Caolia seemed to not notice it as he continued walking aimlessly forward.
‘…Uh, what? Five? Words? Even with… huh?’ Paul shook his head and hurried forth to catch up with Phesx Caolia. Once again, the young boy’s shoulders were hugged. Paul shook the previous matter away, when Phesx Caolia innocently asked, “What’s IK?”
“That’s something all the military in the world don’t like the media knowing about, professional or influencers alike. It’s integrity key. It doesn’t matter. Anyway, you’ll have some free time just observing because of your injury, but you have to get checked still.”
“Oh,” Phesx Caolia nodded. Paul did the same and said, “That doctor, miss Sofia. She seems very resourceful. When her name was written in the system, a few of our medics and our only ER surgeon immediately came to advocate for her. She’s mainly the reason why the LT Colonel promised to speak with you. However, even then, no one would falsify info… hm…”
Phesx Caolia ignored Paul’s last few words and opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. Paul smirked and nudged his chin upwards, appearing very handsome. “What? Not content that it wasn’t because of me? Hah, what can an encampment instructor do? No, no.”
Phesx Caolia rolled his eyes, but he also grinned a little. After a few minutes walking, Phesx Caolia saw that the tents were much better distanced between each other than at the ‘wall’ on the outer inner perimeter of the encampment. It also had many more people moving about than in the previous areas.
Instead of fewer civilians present, there were just more. Of course, the ratio between these and soldiers also thinned down. Furthermore, the quality of items being sold, and the amount of different food and drinks shown was better.
A little later, they finally arrived at a metallic gate, with a railing comprised of square-shaped bars about 15 inches thick, surrounding a large area in the center of the encampment, further to the west. The soldiers guarding it only glanced at them for a few seconds before giving the sign to open the gate.
Then, Phesx Caolia was shown the military zone in its maximum splendor. Paul smiled as he saw the kid’s widened eyes and surprise. Knowing well what the kid felt, as he experienced it, too, he softly elbowed Phesx Caolia’s side.
“What? Thought it would be dirty and everyone would be men saying they want to rape women? Unfortunately, we’re all human, too.” Paul said, making Phesx Caolia feel somewhat unusual with that advice.
“I expected it to be dirty, yes.” Phesx Caolia nodded. Paul grinned and wasted no time to say, “Alright. Let me show you around. Then, you can go to the administration facility and deliver your document. Make sure to first visit where your quarters with your new comrades will be, and check that wound.”
“Hm? Why?” Phesx Caolia tilted his head and frowned a little, sincerely asking. Paul tsk’ed without noise, “Do it. Just do it.”
“Oh…” Phesx Caolia lowered his head and darted his eyes to the left. Paul lightly led him around the military zone with his arm behind his back. He was friendly, without airs of superiority.
This zone wasn’t simple, like a circle or any shape in particular, for that matter. It was pretty irregular, focusing on logistics, perhaps, as there were many paths leading to alleyways where different tents were pitched up.
Some looked important, showing cases with weapons being reassembled or placed inside, part by part. Others showed they were half-full from pistols, explosives, devices, and magazines and clips. Other tents showed ration-looking bags, with some beverages, which were thin, slightly long, and flexible.
Others had several soldiers or recruits reunited around them. It might be because of the distribution of tasks and other things Phesx Caolia wasn’t familiar with. While he ogled around, Paul acted as his tour guide and presented a few places to him, offering him to show him the place if he wanted, or threatening him to.
“That’s the area where everyone eats. You have to go through a quick check before being allowed in… and further inside. There’s a vicious cycle of plagues, so don’t hesitate to search everywhere in your body if you suddenly start feeling sick.”
“That one is for getting your equipment, in case you’re new, need repairs, lost some, or used it all up. There are limitations, don’t forget that. Social credits are used more within this perimeter than the rest of the encampment, alright?”
“Oh, see that one? That’s where all soldiers go to, male or female, to find the comfort they might need. It’s not forceful, although it might be ‘eventful’ within some groups. Either way, they are our kitten household. Anyone can go there and try their luck. Maybe some kitten will give it to them if they just ask, but usually, one pays social credits and credits to lay with them.” Paul lifted his arm and aimed to a section of the military zone, where many beautiful women, all appearing mature enough, walked around.
They wore military pants or jacket, but didn’t have any equipment on, and they either wore something ‘relaxing’ underneath, or nothing at all, and it showed.
It was easy to differentiate between customers and providers, as the ‘kittens’, as Paul says and calls them, are the relaxed bunch who do look like they own the place. The customers are either flirted and seduced, or doing the flirting themselves.
Phesx Caolia saw many trying to court one for free, which, to his eyes, seemed the same as fuck buddies, as he heard a lot of from his envious classmates before he dropped out. He saw some being quite understanding, and others were good losers. But some were aggressive, without showing signs of action, only on their ‘ways’, and a few were abusive.
Indifferently, Phesx Caolia looked away. Paul understood when he looked at this, there was no shortage of rare people in situations like this. However, before they walked away from the kitten household section, Phesx Caolia saw a pretty lass with red hair walking nearby wave at them.
She had creamy-bronze skin, and large, clear, sepia brown eyes. She was truly a beauty. Paul waved back at her, while Phesx Caolia only stared at her fleetingly before staring ahead. It wasn’t him who she was waving, and he didn’t like taking advantage of others to meet new people, so he did nothing and walked ahead.
“Look at that, that was kitten supreme, so to speak. She’s a good person. When you’re ready, I can let her take your childishness away, eh?” Paul nudged his chin towards him before saying with a smile. Phesx Caolia looked at him with a neutral expression, “Would you say the same if I was a girl?”
“Good weather today,” Paul looked up and commented, staring at the gray, night sky. ‘Eh, no. I’m not getting into trouble again.’
“Okay, here’s where I leave. This is the team you’ll be working in the future with, and squad, if there’s a need. Just work hard in your training, and if there’s something you need others to know, then let the instructors know.” Paul said. Phesx Caolia frowned and looked at him, speaking with his voice, soft and semi-broken. “How do you know this is my place? I haven’t even gone to the administration tent.”
“I did pull some strings, aye.” Paul scratched his head, looking at the side and feeling a little silly. He passed the gray-black folder to Phesx Caolia and warned him, “Don’t open it. If you do, you might be delayed into becoming a soldier even 2 years later. You’ll be up to 4 times later than newer generations behind you.”
“Oh, okay.” Phesx Caolia took the folder. Paul seemed to think of something before saying, “Don’t call them tent!”
“?” Phesx Caolia bent his neck, titled his head, and frowned. Paul didn’t wait before explaining, “if you call them something like building, that would be stupid, as we can’t build anything like that in a few weeks, or months, without machinery, duh.”
“Then why tents-” Phesx Caolia was interrupted before he could show his irritation. Paul shook his head, “If you call them tents… try telling that to the people working there, who work their asses to keep the camp afloat. So…”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Just tents,” Phesx Caolia finished the words. Paul nodded. He muttered something about Phesx Caolia’s ‘potential’ while tapping his back before walking away. However, he had just started walking, when a soldier passing by voiced, “Hey, Paul! You’re with the kids, now? Hey kid, don’t let him touch you when no one’s watching!”
“Is something the matter, soldier?” Paul looked at the guy and spoke out loud. His tone, casual but direct, made the soldier shut his trap and keep walking away with a low nod. Phesx Caolia looked at the development, gradually fully opening his eyes, growing little thoughts in his head. Thoughts he didn’t even know existed and somehow understood, just like when he was little.
“Aight, go ahead.” Paul nodded at Phesx Caolia before turning around and walking away. Phesx Caolia looked at his folder after Paul left. He stored it in his military jacket, which no one seemed to care about, and eyed the tent before him.
It was a little long, but not so wide. Phesx Caolia stepped into it and expected it to be empty. It was night, and the other tents, similar to this one, were empty with no sign of life showing. But when he pulled the curtains away, expert at doing so for more than 13 years, he was stunned.
A few soldiers, refreshing their bodies from the sweat, and topless, male or female, looked at him from their respective 1 person-tall lockers. There was a long bench, spreading almost across the tent’s whole length, for people to sit on opposite sides comfortably.
Phesx Caolia was shocked to see breasts in real life, outside a meager computer screen, for the first time, but he somehow kept it cool. Furthermore, he strangely gained sudden eloquence as he gestured his black-gray folder, “I was told I would work here in the future. I wanted to present myself without bothering you first, pleased to meet you.”
With that, seeing a few nods out of the corner of his right eye, Phesx Caolia smoothly walked away towards the infirmary. After walking for half a minute, he felt as if he had done something that made… sense. ‘Huh… I feel like I acted appropriately. It’s weird.’
Meanwhile, back at the camp, the soldiers reacted. Some jumped their eyebrows, some hooked the corners of their lips downwards, and some tilted their heads, or all of these. One of them, a female soldier looking for a new, fresh top, said while putting it on braless. “Nowadays, very few recruits are so attentive. How cute, no?”
“Haha,” another soldier, a male this time, smiled before storing his muddy boots away in the open locker for the cleaners to take care of. “Maybe he’s super talented and will bring us to the preis and pronas main camps to assassinate and explode the enemy’s leaders and bring peace in the Centralized Parliament in the future, heh heh.”
“Ah, like in that Dawnoon!” - “Yeah, yeah.” - “Let’s see if he survives first.” - “Awww, party pooper.” - “Someone needs a few kittens…” - “Or the whole household!” - “Hahaha, kukuku…!”
When arriving at the infirmary, Phesx Caolia’s eyes reflected bright, gentle lights lighting up the entire, massive tent. It was maybe 400 square meters inside, quite the sight. This wasn’t the infirmary for battle wounds or soldiers to rest and be treated, but where anyone getting sick, struck by a plague, insects or illnesses, could attend any time.
As soon as he went in, a doctor seemed to be waiting for him. Phesx Caolia politely followed an old man to an open booth, before the doctor enclosed it with sliding blinds. Then, he took his shirt off and was left with his boxers for an examination.
“…Well, it seems you’re really healthy. Let me take this off. Seeing how old this one is, it should have gone dry since a few hours ago. It should be still suctioning the filth out of your wound, but you’d need more nutrients.” The doctor said after Phesx Caolia put his pants on.
Phesx Caolia nodded and sat on the comfy stretcher as the doctor sat on a lower stool to check his contraption. The doctor detached it from his abdomen by just tapping at the center. There were some buttons Phesx Caolia didn’t notice before. They also looked friction-proof, and were very resilient. Yet, the doctor considered it an ‘old’ medical equipment.
Phesx Caolia felt the needles living his body, his flesh. He could feel them perfectly, as if they were his bones, and he somehow could feel every millimeter conforming his body. He grimaced and put on a disgusted face, feeling the cold needless leave him, and expelling some purplish, gooey contents spilling from within them.
“Ah, yes. It also needs nutrients to clean that. My, it would’ve been bad if you were here any day later.” The doctor said before saying nothing else and grabbing a couple of smallish devices and a small bag with bright yellow contents. He used one of the devices to fill the tiny bags in the contraption with different, tiny tubes, whose top was opened, before closing it again.
“Wow!” Phesx Caolia looked down at his abdomen and saw the rosy, plastic-like, healing flesh. It was like a tender, bulbous piece of flesh, with several rumps all around, closing the wound. The doctor nodded, looking at the state of the wound, “It seems miss Sofia does have sacred hands. But the filth left behind would’ve ruined it all. It’s good now.”
“Here, don’t hurt your teeth.” The doctor passed a resistant object, with fabric glued around it, to Phesx Caolia so he could bite it. But the young boy gave the thing a nasty glare and gritted his teeth. The doctor, surprised, asked before letting the young boy be, “You don’t like biting then? Mm, she said you have strong pain tolerance. Just tell me if you need your teeth checked, too. As a matter of fact, I’ll just check them, too. Now, here they come.”
Phesx Caolia pressed his yolks on the stretcher until reaching the metallic bed frame. He stuck his chest out, but his abdomen was calm and relaxed, as if it belonged to another body, unrelated to Phesx Caolia’s intense coping reaction.
After the doctor confirmed the contraption worked, distrusting these ‘old’ things, which Phesx Caolia considered heavenly, he looked up and commented. “You didn’t have to do that. A good thing these relics have is they already have a Mintip percentage to help stabilize the flesh. It doesn’t matter even if it became stone, as long as the tip penetrates the wound, it can enter it.”
The doctor slapped Phesx Caolia’s left knee before taking a few dentist’s tools, and telling the young boy, “Always remember to keep your wound fully checked, and understand them. You’ll know what I’m talking about after your semester regimen. And clean as deep as you can, alright?”
“Mhm,” Phesx Caolia nodded, already calming down a bit. Similarly, he noted the importance of being repeated such a thing twice in his first ‘pre-day’. Next, he got his teeth checked, which were… perfectly healthy, according to the doc. Out of curiosity, Phesx Caolia asked his nails to be checked, too. Yet, his hands were perfectly fine, except for the large gash on his right backhand from that exploded bullet.
At last, Phesx Caolia went to the administration facility. He saw more guards than in the infirmary, which was to be expected when no battle had been fought. Either way, Phesx Caolia talked to the young girl working in the reception and waited a few minutes before he gave his black-gray folder away.
At first, he might’ve cared to know about his fifth IK, but right now… he cared no more.
“Alright. It’s all ready. You’ve been checked up and are now in the system, ‘sir’. Welcome to Prequa military camp’s commander Karlos’s encampment.” The pretty young girl smiled cutely and handed Phesx Caolia an ID, with the back being the same as that black-gray from his folder.
It had his picture and rank, date of admission, and what seemed like the preqs’ emblem. Crops to the 2 extreme sides, with the middle consisting of fertile, brown worked land. A shadow of the Centralized Parliament far away in the upper center of a blue sky.
“Thanks,” Phesx Caolia said while checking his ID. ‘Is every camp doing this? They must have a fool-proof anti-copying mechanism, or something. Hmm…’
. . .
3 days after Phesx Caolia joined Prequa military. In the same encampment, in a small room from one of the few buildings that remained mostly intact.
An overweight yet not obese man of regular height, light cinnamon skin, black eyes, and curly, medium male hair sat in a small room. There was only 1 chair and a table in front of it. The man held a radio, waiting for the other side to answer.
“Commander Karlos, do you hear me?”
“Ah, yes. Finally, brother.” Commander Karlos sighed in exhilaration. He felt his sweat cooling off, calming down. Wearing a complicated expression, he began, “General, I have the reports of casualties during the congregation day. It’s… I have to say, if our information on the other military camps is accurate… We have really sinned.”
“Ugh, okay. Brother. What have I told you? In matters like these, if one isn’t ruthless enough, there’s nothing to do but wait for someone else to make a move. You see, we weren’t the only ones to go through until the end. Our soldiers died in just a few days, we don’t have the right to decide if their sacrifice would be left adrift.”
“Even then, brother, it was too much!” Karlos insisted, trembling as he hunched his back, as if careful to not be heard. Hearing the tension from him, the other side went silent. Karlos added, “You haven’t seen it yet, but you will understand once you do.”
“Does it go above a hundred thousand?” The other side, the general, suddenly asked. Karlos went silent for 3 seconds before closing his eyes, starting to sweat more. “Yes…”
“Preis did worse, don’t bother about it anymore. They are already above our numbers, and they haven’t even started recruiting. Don’t vacillate any further. Catch the rats, have your fill, and become my new second-in-command. Have you seen any good prodigies?” The general went on. Karlos weakly answered, “Mm, there’s a few. We’ll need a few years to have them checked out.”
“That’s it! Keep going. I’m checking with the other commanders. Remember your role. Yours is the most important so far. Don’t let the awful truths hit you now. Hold in there, brother. Endure!” The general said. His voice was handsome, so to speak. It was guaranteed he carried strong pride and power, and not because of charisma.
“That Centralized Parliament can become the written history of us 2 brothers to overlap the weakening of the world, that laughable Green Transformation, in 2 centuries!” The general continued. Karlos’s breath became heavy, but not because of pressure, not anymore.
“Yes, brother.” Karlos nodded, wishing his brother could see it. The general spoke through before cutting off, “I, and the Nation State Prequa will be counting on you. Cleanse the south.”
“…” Karlos kept his posture for a few minutes. The heavy pressure from before returned, reminding him of all those images. But he was a man destined for greatness. Others could do it, but only he and his brother put each other forth to accomplish it. At last, he sighed that heaviness out. “Sigh.”
Standing up, the overweight man turned around, grabbed a coat, and walked out of the room. A few hallways later, he went downstairs, where a few soldiers guarding him saluted. Feeling a bit of pride, commander Karlos nodded before heading to a door.
“…Here he comes!” - “He’s the commander? Oooh.” - “…”
The commander walked from the building’s side, showing up to a few new recruits, before walking around the corner towards a stage in the middle, facing everyone. One of these recruits was Phesx Caolia, who looked up at the higher floor the commander stepped into.
“Welcome to the encampment’s recruitment regimen! You are the first recruits who will become Prequa’s brand-new generation of soldiers from this camp, and to all of Prequa’s military! All of you, hear my words!” The commander began the pre-programmed speech, with Phesx Caolia looking at him with upturned eyes. They were indifferent, and absolutely different from the rest, with a natural behavior that hid him from the discerning eye.
Paul, like all other hundreds of instructors, watched as the thousands of recruits were accommodated and welcomed in. Paul’s eyes were on Phesx Caolia for some time before departing them. He looked outside this scenery and up, wondering…
But then again, what could the human do, but think, when there’s nothing?
…