Its the year 2175, Humanity have come a long way since finding some old alien relics on the planet of Mars nearly thirty years ago. That's when we knew that we weren't alone in the universe. A year after its discovery, all the great nations of Earth got together to form the Systems Alliance. The Alliance has its own government and is charged with expanding and defending Humanity's rapidly expanding empire in the galaxy. Expansion in the galaxy is made possible through these relay things in space that can instantly transport a ship or loads of ships from one relay to another, thousands of light years away.
It wasn't long until we made contact with another alien race called the Turians on the planet Shanxi, and a brief but nasty war erupted. People say that we would have lost the war and Humanity would have been wiped out, but the Citadel council intervened and brokered peace between our races. The Citadel council was the ruling body of a very large galactic community, comprising of an infinite number of different species working peacefully together. The council was impressed with our military strength and allowed us to continue to expand in the galaxy. I think there were a few rules the Systems Alliance had to follow but eventually a Human embassy was opened on the large Citadel station, the capital of Citadel space.
Recently the Alliance ran into military skirmishes with a race called the Batarian's, they were and still are, getting in the way of our expansion program and were often colonising the same planets we were. Avoiding all out war they took a diplomatic stance and filed an official complaint against Humanity to the Citadel council, which of course was heard by deaf ears! As a response, the four eyed Batarian's closed their embassy on the Citadel and became a rogue nation of Citadel space.
My name is Blake Gogova, a Systems Alliance marine based on a large floating bicycle wheel also known as Arcturus Space Station, the head quarters for the Alliance and guardian of Earth's solar system, the home world of Humanity. Not my home though, I was born on Demeter, the first planet outside Earth's solar system to be settled on.
We all apply, some of us are selected but only a handful of us pass the N7 specialist training program. I'm just graduating from the program with the highest achievement on record. It was the toughest thing I have done in my short twenty years. Our drill Sergeant is still giving us the congratulations speech. I feel an elbow gently dig into my right ribs, I know immediately its John, no doubt the gesture is to bring my attention to that of 1st Lieutenant Rebecca Tinniswood. We were talking about her just before we entered the graduation hall. That's what its been used as today, tomorrow I'm certain the hall will be used for something else like a weapons workshop. John makes a perverted grunting noise. I try everything I have to stay still and not burst into laughter, a good mental discipline goes a long way. He does it again but a little louder. I want to laugh out, but doing so would..... I'm not even sure what would happen! Am not going to find out either!
Rebecca Tinniswood has also been based here on the station for two years. Am not sure if she's part of our N7 group, but then again she must be if she's in the room right? One thing I do know is that she is by far the finest woman I have seen in a lone time! She has green eyes, or maybe they are blue? I can't remember, but am sure she is a natural blonde though, a rarity found on planet Earth let alone in space. Am sure every bloke on the station knows of her and her striking looks, and not just me and my idiot friend John, who by the way, continued making those grunting noises.
".....the best of what the Systems Alliance has to offer the galaxy and....." The drill sergeant was still blabbering on with his long speech. I didn't see the point, its not like we were allowed to invite our friends and family to watch the graduation. Everyone in the hall were either graduating or in a position of authority. It wasn't the spectacle students from universities got when they graduated. I pretended to listen to our drill sergeant, well, former drill sergeant. He would be my former drill sergeant when he decided to shut up. I attempt to steal a glance at Rebecca, I still don't know why she's here though, unless she is now leading a team somewhere, and is here to pick fresh graduates to join her. Surely, I should be the first name on anyone's list and it would be really good if they called for me and John to join her team. I steadied myself to make a quick glance over at her, I instinctively felt that someone was staring at me and it had to be Rebecca, I wanted it to be her. I looked up and was surprised when I made eye contact with Commander Troy Keys, and not Rebecca.
Commander Keys was one of the instructors for the N7 program, and he taught us about stealth, infiltration and espionage, he was tough. John had nicknamed him the 'Machine', but none of us would ever tell him that. John and myself aspired to be like him, and of all the training instructors of the program, we respected him the most, and right now, he was starring right at me, piercing my skull. Now I wasn't sure if I should have returned my gaze back to the front and toward the drill sergeant, but with this being mighty Keys, he was always testing us as candidates and I didn't want to show him any sign of weakness especially as I was just about to be graduated with the highest achievements. Eventually Keys gave me a subtle nod then looked away. What on earth that disturbing moment was about I have no idea.
"And now without further delay, I would like to call out the names of the graduates assigned to recently promoted 1st Lieutenant Rebecca Tinniswood." The drill sergeant was finally handing out assignments. Surely my name would be called out and and it would be a bonus if John's was too. But they never did, not even my name, the beautiful lieutenant stood up from where she was sat behind the plinth, (all the authority figures were sat behind the raised plinth). I exhaled heavily, flaring my nostrils, which alerted John, he knew exactly why I was upset.
"Chill" John whispered barely audibly.
"Graduates who's names have just been called, please follow me" Tinniswood said leading the lucky gits away, I tried in vain to make eye contact with her as she walked past without moving my neck, but she was gone.
Time went by and other graduates had their names called out and were lead out by various people sat behind the plinth. As I saw my friends of two years getting led away, I started to wonder if I would see any of them again after today, would I see Tinniswood again? Would I see John again? He was still stood next to me though, so the possibility of us two working together was looking more and more likely. I daren't turn around to see how many of the hundred graduates were left but there couldn't be many, in fact I was sure that we were the only two soldiers left lined up. Ha, I chuckled in my mind, they kept us together, one of those pen pushers who decided where we were assigned to, got something right. The only people left on the plinth were the instructors, the drill sergeant and a major. I think he was a major, I hadn't seen him before, but his uniform suggested that of the rank of major.
"Major Kyle, Private John Shepherd is assigned to you sir." the drill sergeant bellowed at the top of his voice even though there were only a handful of people in the room, all within close proximity to him. Again, my name wasn't called out, in my mind, I was screaming. I looked up to see Major Kyle rise from his chair and head down toward us to come and take my mate away. John broke ranks and turned to me, his face was full of shock and disbelief. It's exactly how I felt too and I'm sure my face was expressing the thoughts I was feeling. I held out my arm and he took it to shake on our farewells just as Major Kyle approached.
"Good luck John my friend. Stay in contact!" I said, I was still in shock that we weren't going to be working together. John had a strong grip and held my hand firmly.
"You too matey, I wonder where your going?" John said, I never had time to answer his question, Major Kyle was with us now.
"Private Shepherd," the major interrupted. He had an air of confidence but there was something about him I couldn't quite work out, but John would work it out in time and tell me. John was gone. I was left stood facing the plinth with all the program instructors, what was going on was anybody's guess. Surely they didn't want me to do the whole dam thing again? Or maybe they wanted me to be an instructor. I didn't work my butt off to teach without seeing any action.
Commander Keys got up from his seat, then the rest of the instructors did the same.
"Private Blake Gogova," the drill sergeant called my name out as though there was more people in the room. "No recruit has graduated from the N7 program with scores as high as yours," I waited for the drill sergeant to continue, I was either going to like what he was going to say or dislike it. Either way, they were going to know my thoughts.
"So were accelerating you," Commander Keys said stepping off the plinth walking toward me. So the possibility that they wanted me to become an instructor was still viable, I couldn't see it happening, I didn't want it to happen, not yet. I started thinking about all the instructor's here, and what experience they had before becoming a teacher at the program. Only Commander Keys had any real credible combat records and the others were just..... That's when the penny dropped. It looked like I was going to be assigned to the Commander. "I knew by the look of the Commander's face, he knew I realised what was going on."Yes Gogova" Keys said "your going to be my bitch now!" I couldn't believe my ears, I wasn't expecting the Commander to say something like that, it wasn't his style. Did I hear him correctly?
"Sir?" I asked, shocked at his statement. I was now surrounded by all the instructor's now and I must admit, I was feeling a little uneasy with them all stood in front of me in a line.
"Your going to be my partner on special operations." the Commander said. I wasn't expecting this but I was liking what Keys was telling me. I was already looking forward to working with Commander. He was an excellent teacher, not lecturing us from some training manual, but from his actual combat experiences. There were rumours he was part of an elite espionage team carrying out missions during The battle of Shanxi in the First Contact War. Learning from Keys was one thing, working with the man would be a totally unique experience.
"Am honoured to be working with you Commander, I will work even harder than I did during my training sir, I wont let you down." I told him. I said the words more for me than for him to hear. This was an opportunity beyond what I was hoping. I was so full of excitement that it suddenly dawned on me I had no idea what I was going to be doing with the Commander.
"I know you won't," Keys responded to my statement. "Because if you do, you will let yourself down, you will compromise missions, you maybe captured, killed or worse." There was no emotion on his face as he spoke. I hoped for a smile or a small glint in his eye, something to tell me he was joking. Am not sure what he meant by ' killed or worse'. There was nothing worse than being killed in action, but as soon as I asked myself that question, a possible answer came to me. I thought about what might happen if I had been captured and tortured until my minds resolve broke. I could be integrated by the enemy, giving them Alliance secrets, or worse, the location of my family so they could slaughter them. A cold shiver ran down my spine, I tried not to shiver and look ungrateful in front of the Commander and the rest of the instructor's. "Get your things Gogova" Keys ordered "We ship out in twenty five minutes!" I couldn't believe what the man had just said, twenty five minutes? I was just about to ask him where we were shipping out to, when I was surprised again.
"Ten hut!" the drill sergeant shouted out, immediately I went to salute but then I realised the instructor's had all beaten me to it and were saluting me! It was a surreal moment, one that I will always remember. "Good luck Gogova!" the drill sergeant told me. "Fall out!" he barked, and the other instructor's, including Troy Keys, my new commanding office, walked out of the room. I had just over twenty minutes to pack my things and say goodbye. Goodbyes? I didn't have time for goodbyes, I couldn't say 'see ya!' to John or any of my other training pals, but we were the best and I was certain I would see them all again. Including Lieutenant Tinnswood. With that last thought, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and exhaled slowly. I walked over to the barracks to collect my personal items.
My career was just starting.