Dual! Shattered Universe

by DivineEternal1

Ilath is an orphan that has been at a spy training facility for as long as he can remember. Happy to finally be at the point of graduation he finds that much more is required of him. *This story is based on Dual! and has none of the cast from the show*

1. Graduation

Prologue

It happened fifty-three years ago, it was the Great War. Oddly nobody remembers anything about the War or what had happened before. It seemed that what people were left on the planet had all gotten amnesia. Anything pertaining to history before the end of the war was destroyed, nobody on earth knows what happened before the war, and all we know is that huge amounts of radiation were left leaving the surface uninhabitable and all of the oceans had been irradiated as well. All of the survivors lived in underground cities safe from the radiation. The estimated death toll of the war was in the billions judging from all of the destroyed buildings on the surface. The technology used in the war was powerful.

After a few years some of the cities had managed to build scavenging vehicles and go to the surface to collect resources and technology. The first two cities soon began exploring the surface followed by a city, Coval, which lay across a very large ocean. Soon these cities sent scavengers all over the world greedily taking tech leftover from the war. The first two cities, having greater manpower, soon took the lead in technology. Growing conflicts between the two cities and the other city quickly grew into a minor war. During the minor war the two sides looked for help from other cities in their areas. The result was two new nations.

First, the Confederacy of Cadan was formed. The Confederacy had six cities over all, and having a population of about two hundred thousand. These cities quickly developed mining capabilities and started to reopen mines that had existed before the Great War.

Second, the Forsha Consortium was organized. It consisted of four semi-independent cities scattered over what had used to be a large continent. This alliance of cities was not totally stable because of all of the cities were large distances from each other and therefore communication was extremely hard because the radiation prevented long range communication.

Other minor countries also formed at this time. These were Ashga, Natire, and Kirdan. These countries only consisted of one city but had also made small settlements while the Confederacy and the Forsha Consortium were preparing for war.

The CC-FC war lasted for five years with both sides only taking light casualties from radiation exposure. The war was mainly a war of sabotage with some light armed conflicts. Minor improvements to scavenged technology were also made. Eventually both sides realized that there was nothing more to fight over since there was no more technology being discovered. With the war over the members of the FC left realizing that the city of Coval had selfishly kept all of the technology for themselves, but not wanting conflict just left the alliance and took to their own development.

Slowly the years passed and the CC grew in technology closely followed by Coval. Soon small settlements began to be built once the populations of cities grew and city expansion was not fast enough.

Slowly the cities began looking at the debris that was floating in orbit. Soon a space race began. Every city started research on space travel and the rockets that would get them into space. Cities not affiliated with the CC and Coval saw the advantages of the technology the space debris offered and many scientific alliances were formed, the largest being the UNCA. With these alliances the smaller city nations began to catch up in the technology race. The CC, wanting all of the technology for themselves, prematurely built a rocket. The rocket ended up exploding killing its single crew member. This boosted the confidence of Coval which in turn launched a rocket two years later. This launch was successful. All of the people of Coval were ecstatic at their defeat of the CC in the space race, but this lead did not last for long as the UNCA launched a three man rocket which managed to collect a small piece of fuselage from a destroyed ship.

Years passed and the race with Coval and the CC proved a new height in technological advancement, both from research and scavenging. Then on the year 33 SNB (since new beginning) a large intact warship was discovered by the CC in a large debris field. They found the ship to be advanced beyond anything that was ever found on earth. There was only one problem with the ship, only women could pilot it. It was also found out that all technology worked better with the interface. After another five years most of the city nations on the earth had achieved space travel and had at least some of their own scavenging successes. It was still obvious that Coval and the CC were the most advanced.

Over the next twenty years wars were started, fought, and ended. Almost every city nation was involved except Coval and the CC. During these wars some nations grew and some fell, including the UNCA.

After all the wars five great nations existed, the first and most advanced is the CC. Because of its size, technology, and lack of desire to fight it was relatively untouched. Although the CC has the largest army, it avoided war and became an isolationist society. Over the twenty years the CC grew to have a very large population spread over ten major cities and a few small settlements.

The second was Coval. Over the years Coval became known for its mercenaries and used the wars for profit. Coval did have its fair share of skirmishes, but was relatively untouched. Currently Coval only resides on a chain of islands. Coval is relatively small compared to some of the other city nations but is second only to the CC in technology. Coval now consists of three major cities but has no small settlements. They do, however; have the largest cities on earth.

The third is the Jukoba Empire. This nation was formed through the hostile takeovers of nearby city nations. The Jukoba Empire has the most cities but because of heavy fighting has a low population. The capital city of Jukoba is the only big city in the empire because it is far away from any war zones.

The fourth is Tirth. This nation has been relatively untouched by wars, which has enabled them to achieve a larger population. Tirth is known for their spies and is slowly gaining technological improvements. Tirth has two major cities, one in on a small island continent and one to the north-east on a large island. There are other minor cities scattered across a large group of nearby islands.

The fifth nation is the Democratic Republic of Natire. The DRN is greatly known for their one way defense systems, it is almost impossible to penetrate the defenses but once you get passed them they are easily taken out; because of this the DRN has lost very few cities to the Jukoba Empire. The DRN has two major cities with only a relatively few minor cities. Other than these five Nations there are other minor city nations in all of the continents.

Chapter One

Graduation

Hello, my name is Ilath; I am a one of the "Eternal One's" as they call us. I am a part of a group of children that were raised to be expert spies for the nation of Coval. As children we were trained to be expert computer hackers, proficient mechanics, and adept at the martial arts among other things. This life is all I have known, as long as I remember I have been at this place. When I was a baby I was found outside of a small settlement after it had been sacked in a pirate attack, and not being able to find any records about my past nobody knew what to do with me so I was sent to this place. Now it is nearing my "graduation" after which I will be assigned to take the place of an unfortunate victim of a "pirate" attack in one of the other city nations.

"Ilath, wake up," boomed the voice of the barracks supervisor. "Ahh, come on it's the day before graduation, can't I get a little extra sleep for once," I replied to the supervisor. "Only if you want to get hit with my reprimand stick," was the reply. I was no stranger to the reprimand stick and its electrical shock, as I had done things like this before. "Alright I'm coming," I said while rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I then proceeded to get dressed and then went to the mess hall for breakfast.

"Hey, look its Ilath," yelled the familiar voice of my long time friend Chibo. I walked over to the table that Chibo was sitting at and sat down. "I heard you almost got the supervisor to use the reprimand stick on you again. Why do you keep doing that, you already have the record for using it the most," Chibo noted with a grin on his face. "I don't know what I have done that makes them want to use the reprimand stick on me. Maybe they just do it to see if it is still working," I replied. "No, every time I have seen them use it on you they had a good reason to," said Chibo with an even bigger grin.

Without warning the loudspeaker boomed, "Ilath of Block 6, come to the head supervisor's office immediately." With that Chibo said, "Wow Ilath, what have you done now?" I replied with a simple I don't know. "I guess this means I have to skip breakfast," I said as I got up to leave.

Despite my record I had not been to the head supervisor's office before. As I walked to the office I could feel a sense of dread and a wonder of what I had done to warrant a visit to the head supervisor. I finally neared the door to the supervisor's office. I shivered at the thought of what might happen to me. With some hesitation I opened the door and walked inside.

There sat the supervisor behind his large wooden desk. I just stood there not knowing what to say while the Supervisor just sat there looking at me. After a while he finally spoke, "Ilath, I have been watching you for some time. I have a special task for you, now if you agree to this task you must not tell anybody else what I tell you." I looked at the supervisor dumbfounded. I was somewhat relieved that I was not in trouble and his proposal had gotten my interest, but why me? It was like the supervisor was reading my mind, "Ilath, I take it that you are wonder why I have chosen you. If it will make you feel better you will not be alone in this task, you are one of ten special candidates chosen for this task." After he had finished speaking I said, "Actually somehow I felt being the only one made me feel special. Still I think I will accept your offer, but first will you tell me what I will be doing?" With that the supervisor smiled and said, "I am glad you have agreed to do this task for me. After I tell you what you are going to you cannot back out, do you understand?" I quickly replied, "Yes Sir!" The supervisor smiled again, "You will be doing cargo shipment escort duty." My shoulders immediately slumped. Escort duty, that was one of the least wanted jobs in the entire military. The Supervisor spoke again, "Immediately after graduation tomorrow you will report to cargo hold 3. You are now dismissed."

I left the supervisor's office with a foul taste in my mouth. I felt as if I had been tricked into doing something petty. Still lost in my train of thought Chibo had snuck up behind me in an attempt to scare me. "Boo!" yelled Chibo in a now futile attempt to scare me. "Chibo," I said, "don't you ever get tired of trying to scare me. It hasn't worked in a long time." "I know,"replies Chibo, "but someday I know I will get you and that will be the day." Chibo paused for a little and than inquired, "hey, what did the supervisor want you for?" Remembering that I was not supposed to tell anybody anything I tried to find a response that I knew Chibo would believe. Finally I replied, "They are testing a new type of reprimand stick and since I know the best out of anyone here what the receiving end feels like they asked me if they could test them on me and then tell them if it was better or worse than the old ones." Chibo thought about it for a moment than replied, "Hmm, I don't blame them for choosing you, you are kind of stubborn and the teachers don't like it when we are stubborn."

I was relieved that he had accepted my explanation, but was also pained that I had to lie to my best friend. Maybe someday I could tell him what really happened this day. "We better get to class Ilath," said Chibo "I don't want to get the reprimand stick, but honestly I think the teachers are getting bored of using it on you." Chibo than smiled and said, "hey, maybe that is why they got the new reprimand sticks since the old one's aren't as effective as they want them to be." Laughing Chibo and I headed for our last day of classes.

The last day was just as hard as any other day of classes. Our teachers really wanted us to be as good as possible at our jobs as we could. This day was also a special day in that I only got the reprimand stick once. I actually got a compliment from the head teachers who said this was my record low in the last few years. Somehow in some strange way I will miss the reprimand stick and the wake up call (a quite short one for me) it gave. I'm surprised they never kicked me out of the training courses and just put me in some backwater maintenance job, but they never did.

At the end of the day everybody was excited that our training was finally over. Graduation was tomorrow and our job assigning would be soon after. Most of us had some idea of where we might go considering the fact that they put us in classes that trained us in the fields we were best at. It would be stupid any other way I guess. Chibo and I had both been put mainly in the mechanics and hacking classes. The teachers had always said I had a gift for mechanics while Chibo was better than me by a ways in hacking. We knew that we would most likely not be positioned at the same place especially if we were to be operatives in another city nation. The big problem with operating in another city nation was that every citizen was registered and required ID to go anywhere. Every city nation had this precaution, but a few years back Coval found some tech on the moon that would let the user look and sound like any person on the planet, it was called the Holographic Mimicry Unit or HMU. After finding this technology Coval set up the training program that I have been enrolled in almost my entire life. Soon my class would be sent all over the world after being assigned to a person with the responsibility to take over their identities without being caught. On the event of being caught we would promptly destroy the HMU which would also kill the person wearing it.

An hour before we were scheduled for lights out Chibo and I decided to make good use of the last free hour that we would spend together. We decided to do something so daring that it had rarely ever been attempted before. The two of us quickly walked to the mess hall and stopped before a door, a door that none of us had ever been through before, the door to the girls' section.

In some ways the teachers encouraged what we were about to do to help us practice our hacking and lock breaking skills, but we were told never to touch this door. After inspecting the door I walked over to the spot that was the best place to keep watch while Chibo used his hacking skills on the door. After a few minutes he managed to open the door to one of the most mysterious places in the entire facility, a place we had never been before. As we walked through the doorway we were ignorant to the silent alarm that had been set off when we had opened the door.

To our disappointment there was nothing special on the other side of the door. It was a mess hall almost exactly the same as the one we had just left. This fact did not deter us, we had already come this far. We soon left the mess hall and quietly snuck down the mysteriously vacant hallway. Soon we started to hear voices, voices that sounded too high pitched to be a boys voice. We were close to some real girls! I know the next day we would have seen them at graduation, but we were seeing them before all the other boys, besides it made us feel more like the spies that we were soon going to be.

The voices were drawing nearer and our excitement kept growing. We neared a corner and peeked around and saw them! We were somewhat disappointed and awed at the same time by their appearances. We were not close enough to hear what they were saying so we decided to get closer so we could hear just what girls talked about. Chibo quietly slipped around the corner and hid behind a laundry cart in the hallway careful not to let them see him. I watched as Chibo slowly pushed the laundry cart closer to the girls. I would have followed him but there was no way I could have gotten closer without them seeing me.

Suddenly in the distance I heard footsteps coming. I was surprised to have not heard any before. I motioned to Chibo to come back, but it was too late the footsteps were getting closer. At that moment I envisioned more girls coming back to their rooms for lights out so I was not too worried. Still, to lessen the chance of being seen I went into a nearby janitorial closet. Suddenly I heard the voices stop and a door closing. Somewhat relieved I quietly exited the closet. To my surprise I found Chibo on the floor. I was about to see what had done this to my friend when I felt my familiar friend, the reprimand stick set to stun, which they had to use twice considering I was used to its effects.

Chibo and I were dragged back to the boys section and put in solitary confinement. It was then that we learned about the silent alarm and how they had removed the women staff to help lessen our "pollution." They were surprised at how quickly we had moved and had not expected us to get as far as we did, however they did let us off easy considering that we would have seen them the next day.

The night passed slowly, not from being stuck in solitary confinement but to the fact that tomorrow the life that I had know most of my life was going to end. I was feeling excitement, anxiety, and sadness. I was feeling sad because I was about to leave all of my friends. Finally sleep came to me and dreams of the future to come.

For once I had awakened before the barracks supervisor arrived. I waited patiently for the barracks supervisor to come let me out. I hoped he would come and let me out. After what seemed like ten minutes I heard footsteps out side the door and then I heard some buttons on the door pad being pushed. A few seconds later the door opened and light poured into my dark room. I had to close my eyes from the sudden flood of light. The barracks supervisor stood in the entrance and said, "Times up Ilath, hurry to the mess hall now," he grinned, "oh yeah you were already there weren't you?"

I stepped out of my cell and headed to the mess hall. I saw some of my companions from my barracks and they all asked me about why Chibo and I had been put in solitary confinement. I simply told them we had stayed out too late. I walked with a group of my friends to the mess hall talking about what jobs we might be assigned to. They had talked about it the night before too, possibly late into the night. I personally would just be happy to graduate. My thoughts then focused on what the Head Supervisor had talked with me the day before. What exactly did they have planned for me? I hoped it was more than just escort duty.

I could now smell the familiar aroma of our breakfast. We had the same thing almost every day. Almost all of our meals came from a nearby hydroponics farm. This farm provided us with almost all of our dietary needs with a small amount of our food coming from other places, because of our reliance on this farm we had to eat the same things, this was mostly rice and wheat products with some other vegetables also included from other hydroponics farms.

After getting our breakfast from the cook my group of friends and I sat around the same familiar table for what would probably be our last time. As we sat at our table eating and talking Chibo finally made his first appearance today. He had purple bags under his eyes and looked like he had trouble sleeping for the past week. "Chibo what happened to you? It looks like you had a horrible night." I inquired. Chibo sat down and after a few of my others friends kept bothering him about it he finally replied, "One of the pipes by my room had a leak. It was one of the pipes that go to the sewage reclamation center. The smell was enough to keep me awake." One of my friends, named Lyr, spoke up first, "Why didn't they fix the pipe?" Nobody expected Chibo to know the answer to that.

Breakfast passed quickly and the excitement for graduation grew even more. After the allotted time for breakfast ended everyone was sent to the auditorium to await graduation. My friends and I hurried to the auditorium to find our seats. When we arrived we were told we would be sitting in alphabetical order. This arrangement meant that I would not be sitting by any of my friends. I quickly found my seat and waited for the ceremony to start.

Over an hour had passed by and the ceremony had not started yet. I could tell everybody was getting anxious to have the ceremony start. After a few more minutes the lights dimmed slightly and the Head Supervisor came onto the stage. The ceremony had finally begun! After the Head Supervisor had come out the rest of the staff also came out and sat in the seats arranged on the stage. To my utter disdain we were treated to over two hours of speeches from various staff members. After the speeches were over they finally started to name the graduates. I was part of class of three hundred and seven graduates, the largest graduating group ever at the facility, which excluded the girls' numerical count.

As the names were listed I noticed that two of the other graduates had been skipped over. I though that they must not have finished their training and would be held back a year. Slowly they were getting closer to my name. I was getting excited, my turn to go up was getting closer. Another minute passed and they called up the person sitting next to me. I was next!!! Then something unexpected happened, they skipped me! My heart sank and a depression started to come over me. Had I failed to graduate? Many other possibilities entered my mind as to why I had not been called. I then looked at Chibo to see if I could get any strength from my friend, but he was avoiding eye contact with me. I felt like I had failed.

Eventually all the names were read, except for another seven. This made me fill a little better to know that I was not alone. I could tell which of the others who had been passed over by the looks on their faces. In all I thought there were nine others.

Everyone was watching the stage as the Head Supervisor walked up to the podium. After making sure he had everyone's attention he spoke. "I would like to congratulate the third graduating class of the Nogida Training Complex. Now would everyone who had their names read please proceed to the main courtyard for your assignments." I stayed in my seat and watched as everyone left. After a few minutes nine others besides me were left in the auditorium.

The Head Supervisor was still standing behind the podium apparently waiting for everyone besides us to leave. After looking at each one of us he spoke, "I can imagine what you ten are thinking right now. I know if my name had been skipped over I would be feeling sad." The Head Supervisor looked at us again then continued, "The reason that your names were not called is that your training has not been completed yet. The ten of us looked at each other with looks of surprise. The Head Supervisor continued, "Yesterday I called ten trainees to my office and gave each of them an offer. Since it was you ten that I called to my office you know that the offer was vague, but still each of you accepted my offer which was a good choice on your parts. Before I explain anything else I would like you all to go to the destination I gave you yesterday immediately." After finishing the Head Supervisor motioned for us to leave.

I immediately left the auditorium and headed to cargo bay 3. As I was on my way Chibo stopped me. He had a look of 'that's too bad' on his face. After a slight pause Chibo started what probably was going to be a speech, "Ilath, it's too bad…" I interrupted Chibo before he could get too far, "Chibo, relax. I've been told that I just need to get a small amount of extra training for my assignment before I graduate." As I had expected this had made Chibo happier, "Is that all? I thought they were going to hold you back another year."Chibo paused and then continued, "So what is your assignment? I knew he would ask me, "I'm not too sure; they are apparently going to tell me when I get to wherever they want me to train at." Chibo was obviously disappointed with my answer, but kept whatever he thought to himself. Now it was my turn to ask a question, "Chibo have you gotten your assignment yet?" Chibo sighed and said, "I'm going to be an apprentice at the Intelligence HQ in the capital," he said half-heartedly. I was partly wanting to laugh and partly sorry for him, because Chibo had just landed a desk job. Trying to cheer him up I said, "Hey with that job you can keep track on me and all our other friends." This seemed to cheer him up a little. Suddenly I realized that I was supposed to be going somewhere, "I'm sorry Chibo, but I'm supposed to be going somewhere and I don't think it will be good if I'm late. Maybe I can see you later tonight." Chibo replied, "Okay, we should figure out something fun to do before we have to leave on our separate ways." Little did I know that this would be the last time I ever saw my friend Chibo.

After finishing my talk with Chibo I hurried to cargo bay 3 hoping I would not be late. I soon reached the cargo bay airlock and, to my relief, found that I was not the last one there. Six of the others had made it before I had. The boys that had made it before me were already putting on their environment suits in preparation to go into the cargo bay. I followed suit and started to put on my suit and by the time I had finished putting it on all of the others had made it to the airlock. As we were getting ready no one talked, which somewhat surprised me, but I thought this was because everybody was thinking about what was about to transpire in the cargo bay. It was then that I noticed why nobody had entered the cargo bay, the door was locked. Whoever was waiting for us must not have been ready for us yet or they were waiting for everybody to finish getting dressed. After another minute the last of us had gotten his suit on and what do you know, the door unlocked.

A voice then came over the speaker system, "Hello boys, the time has come to show you what the rest of your training will be before you are given your assignments. Now if you will please enter." With that all of us got up and entered the airlock. After waiting for the airlock to cycle through all of us then entered the radiation filled hanger that lead to the outside world. This made me think about how long it had been since I had been outside of the training facility. Wow, it wasn't since I had been admitted here when I was a child.

In the hanger was a small transport vehicle, which I assumed would take us to our destination, and there was also a man standing near the entrance of the airlock of the transport. The man soon motioned us to come over to him and we all walked over quickly, because we were all very eager to learn about what the rest of our training was going to be.

As soon as we reached the transport the man continued speaking, "Now I know how anxious all of you are about what extra training we have in store for you, but I cannot tell you at this place. As soon as we reach the destination where you will pick up your equipment we will tell you what you are going to be trained in, then after that we will the take you to where you will train. Now, if you please, get on the transport."

After all of us had gotten onto the transport and were seated the transport proceeded to leave the hanger and what had been my long time home, not that I would miss it. As soon as we left the hanger everybody looked out their windows to get a good look at the wasteland that was the world. There was practically nothing other than acid scorched rock and sand on the ground and the sky had nothing but reddish colored clouds and an occasion burst of light within them. Those clouds were also the bringers of the acid rains that prevented any activity outside of the earth covered facilities that all humans were forced to live in. After a few minutes of looking at the barren world I noticed two core robots come and take formation around our transport. I assumed this was to help keep the pirates from attacking us. Both of the robots were the quick, but lightly armed, scout recon models. Still, they would keep small pirate squads from attacking us.

"Hey," said a voice to my left, "I think we should start to get to know everybody since we will all be training together. Oh by the way my name is Vico." For a few seconds I continued to look out the window and then finally turned to look over Vico. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes (which was the norm for most people on the planet), was a little taller than me and a little stockier. After looking him over I started to reply, "Hi I'm…" Before I could finish Vico said, "There is no need; I already know your name because you are somewhat famous." I looked at him stunned, "How exactly am I famous?" Vico just smiled.

During the rest of the trip everybody got to know each other. The others were Yinth, Kail, Parano, Ithan, Pyran, Aarand, Natani, and Firnin. Like most of the other boys that had come from the training facility all of us had had our parents killed when we were very young. I also found out that all of us had done the best in mechanics. I found it strange that I had never talked to any of them before, although I had seen some of them during meals. Since I was not one to get into conversations I soon left the group and went off to think.

After an hour had passed I sighted our destination. Since this was my first time away from the facility I didn't recognize where we were and after giving the place a good look over I motioned to the others that I had spotted our destination. The guys soon were all looking for the mound of earth that marked where the mystery facility would be. Natani was the first to speak, "I wonder what that place is? Is it a city?" Aarand replied, "I doubt that, if it was a city shouldn't there be civilian vehicles around?" Parano was next to speak, "Look at how small the mound is; if it was a city wouldn't it be bigger?" Natani, conceding defeat replied, "I guess you are right Aarand, the mound is a little small to be a city or town." Natani paused, and then continued with, "Could they just have built deeper into the ground?" Kail took this opportunity to add his opinion, but I was getting bored with the conversation so I went back to my spot and watched the mound as it slowly drew closer.

After ten minutes I decided to put on my environment suit so I would be ready to get off as fast as possible. The others started suiting up soon after. By the time we had all finished suiting up we had reached our destination and a voice over the intercom told us to disembark.

We all walked quickly to the airlock and exited the transport and entered the mysterious facility. Waiting for us inside was an older man with a young woman whom I guessed was his assistant. The man looked at us for a while and then motioned for us to follow him. Nobody said a word as we followed the old man, well except for Firnin and Ithan who seemed to becoming friends quickly. As we walked I noticed that there were no other people in the hallways which I considered weird. I just figured that we might find out later so I didn't worry about it much.

After another minute or two the old man stopped us in front of a door. The old man finally spoke, "I know that you are anxious to know what we have in store for you. In this room I will answer all your questions and what you will need to do to finally graduate. Now let us enter."

Most of us walked into to the room excitedly, while Yinth, Kail, Pyran, and I just walked in. I just wanted to get this over with as fast as possible and from what I could tell Yinth, Kail and Pyran felt the same way while the others were all talking about how we were special and that we were getting big jobs in other countries and other things like that. After about five minutes the old man finally spoke again, "It's time to tell you what we have in store for you boys. You have all been selected to test a new device we have been working on for quite some time now." Like clock work his assistant walked in hold a large container. Almost immediately the old man took it from her and opened the container. Inside were gloves, yes you heard what I said gloves.

Everybody looked at each other with looks of disappointment. Why would gloves be so special, but I decided that the old man would tell us so I decided to ask, "What exactly is so special about these gloves, sir." The old man looked at me and said, "I was just going to get to that. Now that you all have seen what you have been brought here for I want you to all put them on. Now once you put them on they will bond with your skin so you won't be able to remove them afterwards, so if any of you want to back out, now is the time, in other words there is no choice but to go on even if you decide later that you don't want to help test out these gloves and also be sent out on your special assignments after you graduate." This was getting frustrating, all I wanted to know what the gloves were for, but before I could speak up Kirdan beat me to the question. "So, what exactly are the gloves for?" Kirdan said impatiently. The answer made the situation even more frustrating, as the old man simply said, "I'm afraid I don't have the authority to tell you that. Although I assure you at you next destination you will be told most everything that is planned for you. Now, who wants to be the first to put on the gloves?"

Parano was the first to step forward and said, "I don't know about you guys but I want to see what they have in store for us, so who is with me on this?" Almost immediately Kirdan, Ithan, and Aarand stepped forward. Parano looked the rest of us over and then picked up a pair of gloves along with Kirdan, Ithan and Aarand, and put them on. At first nothing happened, but slowly the gloves started to tighten around his hands and eventually disappeared completely. After a few moments Parano looked at those of us who had not yet put on the gloves and said, "look guys, it didn't hurt at all, who knows these gloves might even give us super powers." After Parano was done speaking Vico, Yinth, Kail, and Firnin all stepped forward and also put on the gloves. After they were done everyone looked at Natani, Pyran, and me to see what we would do. I just stared back at them. I was not sure about this especially since the old man had not told us what they did, but then all of a sudden I got a strong feeling that the path this decision would take me would lead me to answers, answers to things that would change my life forever. With this the risk seemed less unappealing and that it was worth any bad thing that it put upon me. It was decided; I would put on the gloves and face what future it had in store for me.

Finally coming back to my senses I realized that Parano had started another one of his speeches and was just finishing it. I was happy that I had chosen the right time to space out. Just as I was about to step forward and take my pair of gloves I realized that Parano would think that his speech had stirred me into putting on the gloves, I could not allow that. I was going to have some fun with Parano. "Parano," I said, "What guarantee do you have that these gloves will bring no harm to us? Heck you don't even know if they will do anything at all, why should anything you say sway me into putting on a "magical" pair of gloves?" As I ended my little "speech" everybody looked at Parano intently to see what his reply was going to be. Parano, not losing his composure, replied with a simple. "I don't know how to answer those questions of yours... it was Ilath right?" I just looked at him and after a few seconds he continued, "You'll just have to trust the researchers who made these gloves that they will be perfectly safe." After Parano finished speaking Natani unexpectedly stood up and walked to the container holding the gloves and then looked at Parano and said, "If the scientists think they are safe then I guess I'll trust that these gloves are people safe." With this Natani put on the gloves and joined the others who had also done the same.

With Natani's sudden "turning of sides" there was only Pyran and I. Part of me actually wanted Pyran to put on the gloves too so none of the group would be separated, still I wonder what was holding him back. Apparently Parano was thinking the same thing and said, "Pyran, that is your name isn't it?" Pyran replied with a quick nod. Satisfied Parano proceeded, "Pyran, I think I know why Ilath hasn't put on the gloves, but could I ask what your reason is?" Pyran stood there for a second and then said, "Because I didn't want you to think that your speeches had persuaded me." Pyran had a grin on his face and after taking in all the dumbfounded looks he was getting he walked up to the container and put on a pair of the gloves. At that moment I knew I could become good friends with Pyran, like they say "Great minds think alike".

Now I was the last person left to put on the gloves. After noticing that everyone was still looking at Pyran I took the opportunity to get my own pair of gloves and then hurry back to my former position. Now holding the gloves in my hands I took the time to study them. They looked like nothing too special; they were clear and extremely thin and elastic. That was it, no marks or any other thing that one might expect to see on a pair of military gloves. After giving them a thorough inspection I decided to finally put on the pair of mysterious gloves. As I went to put on the gloves a small spark of static discharge went from by body into my left hand glove, but I though nothing of it, I mean how could simple static mess up some supposed high tech gloves. After putting them on I watched as the gloves were absorbed into my skin and hoped that I would not regret this in the future.

As the gloves had finished merging with my hands I turned to the others who were now watching me. As I stood there Parano had a look on his face that said he had another speech ready for my uneager ears, but before I could speak up I said, "Look in the container." Everyone did so, and then they all turned to me again. Natani was the first to speak, "When did you get the gloves Ilath?" Like I was going to tell them. If they didn't see when it happened then they were never going to know.

Again I was eager to move on with finding out what exactly was planned for us. As I turned to talk to the old man I found that he had left during our little discussion about the gloves, now only his assistant remained. Curious, I asked the assistant, "When did the old man leave?" Before she could answer Ithan harshly said, "Don't talk about your superiors that way Ilath!" "Shut up." I replied calmly. With my back to Ithan I couldn't see the look on his face but I could imagine he wasn't too happy. After taking my attention away from Ithan I turned back towards the assistant and said, "Well..." The assistant seeing that there were no more interruptions explained, "The "old man" was only here to see to it that you put on your gloves and left as soon as he was sure that you all had put them on. Before he left he told me that I should tell you that you should now head back to the airlock so you can all head to your next destination." With that I immediately headed for the door that lead to the hallway, while in the back I could hear Pyran thank the assistant before also heading for the door. What a polite guy I thought.

Before long everybody had made it back to the transport and once again we were on our way to our next destination along with the same mecha that had escorted us to what I had come to believe was a research outpost.

After a while I began to notice flashes of light in the distance. These flashes were not weapons fire but were the result of a deadly ion storm. Ion storms could be so bad that if one came up even the fiercest of battle would come to a halt as both sides ran for cover seeking refuge from the deadly blasts that would tear through all but the thickest of armor. I was not worried about this ion storm because it looked as if was about to cease and was moving away from us. Still I knew that there were going to be many more storms that I would have to face in the future.

As we reached our destination I found evidence that the ion storm had been at this spot as I saw a construction mecha that had been thoroughly gutted by an ion strike. It was a good thing construction mecha ran off of batteries instead of nuclear reactors or else the mecha would have gone off. Currently there were other construction mecha salvaging the gutted mecha which would be fixed at a later time; however, it appeared that the pilot had not been as lucky.

Not long after we had passed the wreckage we saw a mound indicating the presence of a base and soon we had entered the hanger and were heading to our next and hopefully last briefing. Soon a guide greeted us and led us to where all of our answers would hopefully be answered. This time was different then our last stop as the hallways were full of people going about their business. For once I found it refreshing to be around so many people.

After about ten minutes our guide stopped us and motioned us to go into a nearby room and we all entered excitedly. Inside the room waiting for us was a woman dressed in military attire. As was to be expected she looked us over thoroughly before speaking. After she was satisfied at looking us over she said, "So, you boys are what the academy have chosen for the special training course. From what I understand you have been told very little at what your training is going to be. I know you must be anxious after being taken from the academy without graduating with your peers, but I assure you that what we have in store for you will be worth the delay in your graduation."

As soon as the officer had finished speaking she picked up a stack of folders on a nearby table and handed each of us one. After she finished handing the folders out she continued to speak, "I am Major Eleba and I will be overseeing the remainder of your training. Now, if you will, please open your folders and we will go through what it is exactly that you will be doing."

Immediately everybody opened their folders and began to look over the first page. What I saw surprised me, if what the paper said was true than we would be the first men to pilot mecha. Suddenly it connected in my head; those gloves we put on must somehow make it possible for men to pilot mecha. Still I had to make sure so I raised my hand and asked the Major, "Sir, are those gloves we put on earlier what makes it possible to pilot mecha?" The Major looked at me and replied, "Well Ilath, if you just turn a couple of pages you will find out." I figured as much, but I just had to ask.

I scanned through the pages that were contained in the folder and sure enough I found information about what the gloves exactly did and how they worked. There was also information on what our training course was going to be like and also said that we would be training as part of a group of ten others.

After the Major was sure that we had all finished reading she continued speaking, "Good, it looks like you have all seen what we have in store for your training, also, I will be overseeing your training. Now that you all know we can now go over what is to be expected of you while you train. I'm sure by what you have read in your folders that we will be training you to be the first male pilots."

After the Major said this I got excited at the prospect of piloting the awesome vehicles, my whole life I knew that only women could pilot the mecha so I never really thought about the possibility of me actually piloting one, but now that had all changed thanks to those gloves that we had put on not knowing what they were for or even if they did anything at all.

Not wanting to miss anything I resumed listening to the Major, "...the first thing we will do is to find out if the gloves that you put on actually work. The second thing we will do is to train you on how to pilot the mecha. After you have been through the basic training course we will split you into two group and you will be assigned to a squad of female pilots which will help prepare you for your duties after you have finally graduated from the Eternal1's." So, I thought, we were still going to become spies even after our training. This would be an excellent way to steal an enemy mecha as they would not expect a male to be able to pilot one, nice.

Major Eleba continued, "I will now tell which groups each of you will be placed into. In Group One will be Ithan, Pyran, Natani, Yinth, and Vico. Group Two will consist of Firnin, Parano, Kail, Aarand, and Ilath. Group One will be staying at room 6 in block 3 and Group Two will be staying in room 2 in block 1. You will all begin your training tomorrow and will receive further instructions then, for now you are all dismissed to you rooms."

As soon as commander Eleba had finished speaking Parano stood up and said, "You heard the Major; let's go to our rooms now." It was now official, Parano was getting on my nerves and I had to say something, "Parano, I think we got it when the Major said it, besides group leaders have not been assigned yet and, if they are assigned at all." I smirked at him and just sat there, that is until Ithan spoke up, "Guys I know how to settle this." He looked around to make sure the Major was gone and that everybody was paying attention. He continued with, "We will have a dual. The winner will be the leader of the group." With this I rolled my eyes and said, "I don't care about being a leader, but I also don't want someone to give orders without having been given the authority from the proper places." After I had said this I got up to leave but before I was out of hearing distance I heard, "Ithan, I like this idea, I'm in." The next person, which I'm guessing was Ithan, said, "Thank you Aarand, I'm glad somebody likes my idea." I was getting further away but I heard at least two others agree to do a competition for leadership. The fools were going to be split up so why did we need a leader, of course they could end up choosing a leader for each team. It didn't matter really because I would not submit to their false authority.

I soon found my way to my assigned room and found that my few possessions were already there, including a disarmed reprimand stick that apparently my barracks supervisor had hidden in my bag with a note that said, "Missing you already." When I was done packing the others in my group started arriving and also started to unpack. Aarand was the first to speak, "Hey Ilath aren't you wondering who won?" I ignored him but knew that I would find out eventually. I was putting my money on Parano, but hoped that I would be proved wrong. Five seconds later I was proved right when Aarand continued speaking, "It was Parano, but he had a tough time getting the title. I know you're thinking that it was me, but surprisingly it was Kail that gave him a tough time." Without acknowledging that he had even spoken I climbed into bed and closed my eyes. Even then I could feel Aarand staring at me. I soon fell asleep.

Once again I was late in waking up, but I did not receive the jolt from a reprimand stick. A morning without a shock from a reprimand stick was like being deprived of sleep as I was even slower to wake up. As I lay there half awake I heard a knock on the door. I looked up to see if anybody was getting it when I noticed that I was the only one in the room. I started to get up when the door opened. A woman walked into the room. She stopped when she saw me and said, "I was told that you would be like this but I wanted to see for myself so I let you sleep in. I will not let you do this again. I will not be barbaric like they are at your old training facility and use a reprimand stick on you, but I want to let you know that I do have many methods for people who sleep in."

While she was standing there I started to get dressed quickly as I always did when the barracks supervisor woke me up, but almost immediately the woman said, "Ilath, please don't do change in front of a lady." I stopped and said, "Umm, I didn't catch your name." I continued to change into my uniform. By this time the woman had looked away, but said, "Oh, I'm sorry Cadet Ilath my name is Lieutenant Doyen and I'm the squad leader of the squad that will be helping in your training." By the time she had finished saying this I had finished changing into my uniform. Lieutenant Doyen having noticed that I had finished changing said, "You're very fast at changing your clothes!" I walked over to her and said, "I've had lots of practice in the past. Anyways wasn't there something you needed to tell me?" Lieutenant Doyen turned to the door opened it and said, "Training started an hour ago and all the other trainees have successfully tested their gloves. You are the last one that needs to test." Doyen then walked out from the room and I followed.

It was a short walk to the airlock. After putting on the pilot suits we walked into the hangar where the others were training in small training mecha. There were also five recon Deleterious class mecha in the hanger. I had a pretty good idea that these were the pilots that we would be training with.

After letting me look around for a few minutes Lieutenant Doyen pointed at an immobile training mecha and said, "That will be your mecha until we feel that you are ready to pilot any combat mecha that we feel suits your skills." Immediately I walked over to the mecha and opened the cockpit. After looking at the layout I climbed inside and sat down in the seat. The cockpit didn't have very many controls in it, but the most noticeable things were two red orbs placed at the end of the armrests of the chair. I was confused at how to pilot the thing but then I remembered that the folders that Major Eleba had given us had some diagrams of the training mecha and some brief details about how to pilot them. Immediately I regretted not reading that section more thoroughly.

In the back of my mind I got the feeling that I should put my hands on the orbs. Not knowing what else to do I put my right hand on the orb to my right and immediately it lit up and the mecha hummed to life. As if on queue I heard Lieutenant Doyen come on the speakers, "It's about time Ilath we were starting to wonder if you were going to ever figure out how to turn your mecha on." Lieutenant Doyen paused for a moment then continued, "The first thing we want to do is test your Life Sympathy readings so we can see how well you will be able to pilot a mecha. OK your readings seem to be on par with the others." There was another pause and then the Lieutenant continued speaking, "Ilath your synchronization is all wrong try putting more effort into the left orb. When Lieutenant Doyen said this I replied, "Of course it's all on the right side, seeing that I only have my right hand on an orb." There was silence for a moment then Lieutenant Doyen came back on the speakers, "What do you mean you only had your right hand on the orb? The mecha shouldn't power up unless you have both of your hands on the orbs. I should have known you wouldn't be serious about this."

I didn't blame her for not believing me considering she couldn't see me and there is also the fact that I have a reputation for things like this. To prove my innocence I wanted to show Lieutenant Doyen that I was telling the truth. At that moment I thought about opening a view screen to her diagnostic station but at that moment on a section of the main view screen a smaller "window" opened revealing Lieutenant Doyen's annoyed face. Immediately she looked at where I assumed my face had appeared. "I see you finally figured out how to open the video channel," was the Lieutenants quick reply. Seeing that I had her attention I pointed at my right hand and said, "See I told you that I only had my right had on an orb. I wish you would trust me a little more."

I was getting tired of this conversation and decided that I would get to the next part of the testing and learning how to pilot a mecha. Still all of this seemed familiar somehow. "It shouldn't be possible for him to be able to have activated the mecha with only one hand, although it is possible to pilot with one hand after activation…" was what the Lieutenant was saying to another person that I couldn't see, that is until I interrupted their conversation. "Can we please get on with this? I bet you are just as anxious as I am to get this over with," I said after not liking where their conversation was going.

The Lieutenant looked at me and said, "You're right and we are also a little behind schedule, now would you please try to move your mecha forward a bit." Finally I would learn how to pilot this thing and not wanting to get too far behind the others I... wait how were you supposed to move this thing anyways. Maybe it would be like how I opened the view screen with a thought. With all my might I willed the mecha to move forward. As soon as I though about it the right orb glowed and the mecha jolted forward. Well it mostly jolted forward as the right side of the mecha was the only side doing the moving which resulted in me doing a somersault with an inclination to the left. Immediately I thought that it did this because all of my synchronization had been to the right side.

A few seconds after my "acrobatics" display a worried Lieutenant Doyen reappeared on the screen and said, "Are you alright?" then after seeing that I was fine (although the mecha appeared to have landed upside down which left me hanging off of my chair courtesy of some automatic deploying safety straps) she got her usual annoyed expression on her face and continued speaking, "You do realize that this happened because you had not corrected your synchronization ratios." I looked at her and simply shrugged. The Lieutenant then changed the subject and said, "I'm surprised Ilath," said the Lieutenant after seeing my reply, "not very many people get their mecha to move on their first try. If you had your synchronization right you would have done extremely well."

I wanted to do it right this time (blood was also pooling in my head) so I concentrated on equalizing the synchronization ratios and get back on my feet. Apparently it worked as Lieutenant Doyen said, "That's much better Ilath your ratios are now acceptable."

After Lieutenant Doyen had finished speaking I willed the mecha to stand upright and again the mecha did as I willed it to do. After getting back on my feet I started to walk around and soon it became as if the mecha was my body.

When I had fully gotten my "mecha legs" I walked over to where the other mecha were training and then wondered what exactly it was that we were going to be trained on today. From what I could see they were doing an obstacle course. I also noticed that the training mecha had been paired up to a Deleterious mecha, however there was one Deleterious that was beside the group watching me approach the group at the obstacle course. It was safe to assume that this pilot had been assigned to me and had been waiting this whole time for me to come. At this thought I felt a little ashamed at having made this pilot wait over an hour to baby-sit me as I learned how to pilot.

As I got closer to the obstacle course the waiting pilot appeared on my view screen where Lieutenant Doyen had been before. The pilot appeared to be a girl about my age, probably a little older than me. She had the usual brown eyes but had hair that was lighter than normal, almost blond. Then, almost as quickly as her face appeared on the screen she said excitedly, "Hello! You must be Ilath! I've been excited to finally meet you!" was what the pilot said as her glowing nature poured over me through the view screen. I was somewhat relieved that she wasn't mad at me for making her wait. Just as I was about to reply to her she continued, "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! I almost forgot to introduce myself; I'm Private Lillie of the city Atrea." Finally seeing an opening to speak I said, "You apparently already know who I am, and let me say this I'm glad you're my partner because I was afraid you would be mad at me for taking so long." After I said this she grinned even more and said, "Yay! I'm glad that you like me. I'm sure we'll get along together really really well." I could say one thing for sure; it would be very interesting being around Lillie.

Now that we had met each other Lillie got more serious, although only slightly, as she told me what exactly I was going to do next, "Ilath I think that I'm supposed to tell you what we're going to be doing here. I'm pretty sure that you have seen the obstacle course over there." I nodded and then let her continue, "All we have to do is go through it until we feel that you have gotten good at navigating around the barriers, also you are not to speak to the other pilots. The only one you can speak to is me. I look forward to getting to know you." After she finished speaking I gave her a devious grin and said, "I'll race ya!" with that said I took off followed closely by Lillie.

That was probably a bad thing to do considering that the Deleterious class mecha was the fastest in the Coval arsenal and the training mecha was made for beginners and had not been made for speed or maneuverability. Still I was going to do my best even if it meant playing dirty.

Not surprisingly Lillie had easily pulled ahead of me, but this was training for war so I had to prepare myself for anything. Luckily Lillie was still fairly close to me so I jumped and landed on the back of her mecha knocking it over. I knew this was mean but I was going to win no matter what.

As I had expected Lillie came on the screen, but instead of being mad she had a grin on her face and she said, "I see how you are going to play, so don't expect me to play nice either." After she said this I knew I was in for it and did my best to quickly get past the obstacles, which at this point were very easy to get past. Wanting to see how Lillie was doing I willed on the rear view camera in a section of the main screen and as I had expected she had already gotten up and was heading towards me at a very fast rate, but because of my earlier move I had gained a fair distance ahead of her. I had to use this advantage so I started thinking of a plan.

What I ended up doing apparently surprised Lillie because she was not expecting me to turn around and start running towards her. From what I saw she tried to jump over me but before she got out of my reach I grabbed the legs of her mecha and slammed her onto the ground. Taking the advantage of her being on the ground again I took off but before I got very far my mecha did a face plant into the ground. Not wanting to waste time thinking on how it happened I hurriedly got up and started running again. Looking in the rear view I saw that Lillie had also just gotten up and was just a little ways behind me. I had to think of something fast or else she would get too far ahead of me and I wouldn't be able to catch up to her.

This time I tested my jumping skills and did a quick back flip while managing to land right on the top of her mecha knocking her down again. Yet again I hurriedly got the mecha onto its feet and took off. This last move had apparently stunned Lillie as it took her a little longer to get up. Suddenly on my screen Lillie appeared again and said with a smirk, "Now you're dead." After she had said this I looked into the rear view and saw what looked like a very angry monster heading my way, but then suddenly Lillie jumped and for a moment I lost track of her. A few seconds later I found out what she had planed as her mecha did a drop kick right to the back of my mecha which sent me fly forward a little and making me do a few somersaults until I was stopped by an obstacle.

I had hit the obstacle hard and most of my view screen now was full of static so I could no longer see most of what was in front of me. Lillie had taken this opportunity to jump over the obstacle and get ahead of me, but I caught up quickly by going through a hole which had been made from my impact and soon caught up to Lillie. She was not expecting me to have such a short cut and was expecting me to jump over as well but in this moment of opportunity I made another move and jumped at the legs of her mecha making her fall over again. Having her mecha's legs I proceeded to drag her mecha over to an obstacle and tangle them in it, but before I could do that one of the legs came loose and kicked my mecha in the back three times before I let go. The kicks were not strong enough to knock me over but they foiled my entanglement plans so I had to think of another idea.

I knew that this was going nowhere so I had to think of something big. Apparently Lillie was thinking the same thing and had come over ready to punch my mecha, but I saw this coming at the last second and with a glow from the right hand orb I managed to dodge Lillie's punch. At that moment something dawned on me, I was still just using my right hand and that maybe only using one had reduced the effectiveness of my mecha. What happened when I put my left hand on the left orb was not exactly what I would call a performance boost because as soon as I put my hand on the orb everything in the cockpit erupted in a shower of sparks and then just as suddenly the power turned off. I sat in my cockpit dazed for a few seconds and then sat there for a few minutes thinking about how Lillie had pulled this move off.

When what seemed like five minutes had passed I heard someone outside of my cockpit and sure enough the hatch to my cockpit opened revealing a worried looking Lillie. "Are you alright?" she inquired as soon as the hatch opened. Wanting to ask her how she had done what she did I said, "Lillie, that last attack was amazing, how did you do it?" Lillie looked at me quizzically and replied, "What do you mean? You managed to dodge my attack and then suddenly there were sparks flying out of your mecha."

Shortly after Lillie had opened the hatch several technicians and a medic came to my now dead mecha. As soon as I was out of my mecha and on the ground the medic came over to me and made sure I was not injured and after confirming that I was uninjured left. While I was being checked I looked at my training mecha and saw that there were large dents from all of the moves that Lillie and I had done. There were also some small scorch marks where the "light shows" had taken place. Currently the technicians were scowling at the damage and would periodically glance at me and Lillie. My mecha wasn't the only one that was damaged either as Lillie's mecha also had many dents on it but not as big as the ones on my mecha.

When the construction mecha arrived to move my mecha to the repair dock a small shuttle car came with it. As soon as the car stopped the driver got out and said. "Private Lillie you are to take your mecha to the repair bay for maintenance." Immediately the driver turned to me and said, "Trainee Ilath you are to come with me back to the airlock where you will receive your training debriefing." Not having a reason to disobey what the driver said I started walking to ward the car, but before I got too far away I turned to Lillie smiled and said, "Hey Lillie, I had fun and I look forward to next time." Lillie returned my smile and replied, "You won't be so lucky next time!" Lillie giggled and then both of us went to our respective vehicles.

Soon my vehicle reached the airlock and I was instructed to wait on the other side where I would wait for my companions to finish their debriefings, which I did. Once again I was the last one to arrive and only Firnin and Aarand were still waiting for their debriefings. Firnin was sitting in a corner with his head in his hands rocking back and forth while Aarand was leaning on the wall closest to the debriefing room. Poor Firnin looked like he was in pain, so I walked over to him and said, "Are you alright?" (The only reason I remembered his name was because he was in my group as well as Aarand). Without looking up Firnin said, "Oh, it's nothing. I just get migraines a lot. I don't know why I had to get one in the middle of training. I was getting better until I got this migraine." When Firnin finished speaking Aarand said, "You're just blaming your poor skills on that migraine." I looked over at Aarand and frowned at him, I mean how someone could criticize another while they were in pain? That was just plain mean.

Soon after this the door to the debriefing room opened and Kail walked out, and a voice from inside said, "Aarand will you please enter now." Immediately Aarand walked into the room with the tense atmosphere disappearing with him. When the door finally closed Kail looked at me, smiled and said, "I enjoyed watching your bout with your training partner Ilath." And with that Kail left the waiting area.

Firnin and I just sat in the waiting room without speaking and after what seemed like only five minutes the door to the debriefing room opened and Aarand walked out while Firnin was called in. I didn't even look up to acknowledge Aarand and he soon left the area. Now that Firnin was in the room I was completely alone but I didn't really mind it. When another five minutes or so passed Firnin finished with his debriefing and I was finally summoned into the room. As I passed by Firnin I gave him a warm smile and the entered the room.

Sitting behind a large metal desk was Major Eleba, who then directed me to sit down in the lone unoccupied chair in the room. As soon as I had seated myself the Major picked up a data pad and said, "Before I get to your statistics I would like to let you know that sleeping in will no longer be tolerated and you will be punished as seen fit by Lieutenant Doyen." The Major then looked at the data pad and continued, "The first thing I would like to talk about is you Life Sympathy levels. The only problem that we could see with your levels was the imbalance when you first turned on your mecha, but you seemed to fix that problem very quickly so I don't see that as a problem in the future. The next thing about your Life Sympathy is your level, from what our instruments gathered you have a slightly above average level for a beginner and you had the second highest score out of all ten of the trainees.

So far I was indifferent about what the Major had said so far, but I guess having the second best Life Sympathy level was good although it was still not the best. I wasn't going to make a big deal out of having the best level as skill was more important to me, yet having a good Life Sympathy level helped with how good you could use those skills. Then I remembered about how I had only used my right hand the whole time and how that might affect Life Sympathy levels. I also remembered about the shock to my left hand when I put the glove on and how the mecha got fried when I put my left hand on the orb. Would they kick me out of the program if the instructors found out what happened? I didn't want to find out what would happen so I will not tell anybody about the spark and what I think lead to the mecha getting damaged.

"Trainee Ilath, I'm not done talking to you yet so would you please put your attention back to me¿" Upon hearing Major Eleba speak I jumped away from my thoughts and said, "Sorry Major." Now that the Major saw that she had my attention she continued with the debriefing, "The only other thing that I'm going to talk to you about is your obstacle course results." This was not the thing that I was looking forward to hearing in the debriefing. "Ilath, you were the only trainee that did not finish the obstacle course, however you are not to be fully blamed on this as your mecha failed. We know that the system burn out was not caused by Private Lillie's and your performance. This brings me to the most important thing that I wanted to say to you, because of your "performance" with your training partner we have decided to let you skip the obstacle course and proceed directly to field combat training as today you showed us that you are capable of contending with mecha of superior size and speed for an extended period of time while navigating through rough terrain, which is what led us to our decision."

When the Major had finished speaking she put down her data pad and then added, "Do you have any questions trainee Ilath?" There was only one thing that I was really interested in asking, "Yes Major I have just one question. Do you know what made my mecha burn out?" The Major thought for a little and replied, "We're not exactly sure what happened, but we thing it had something to do with a strange reading we received from the Life Sympathy monitor right before the system burn out." This partially confirmed what I had concluded earlier, but I was not willing to do a test for fear that I would be ejected from the program. Once again bringing me away from my thoughts Major Eleba said, "If that is all trainee Ilath you are excused and may return to your room." Immediately I stood up and said, "Thank you Major, I don't have anymore questions." Promptly I turned around and headed for Group Two's room.

Upon returning to the designated room where I would be staying for an untold amount of time I saw that all four of the others were also here. I didn't feel like associating with anybody but before I could find a corner to hide in Aarand came over to me and before he could say anything I said, "I'm going to study, please leave me alone." Aarand shook his head and said, "Come on we can study together and maybe give each other tips." I thought over this for about one trillionth of a nanosecond then said, "I'm sure Parano, Kail, or Firnin would be happy to study with you but I have some things I want to think over while I study." Aarand stood there for a few seconds then he put his hands on my shoulders and put his face a few inches away from mine and whispered, "I saw those moves you pulled earlier, if we joined up and taught each other what we learn then we can make the others look like fools when they are compared to us." Immediately after he finished speaking I gently pushed Aarand away and said, "I think we should all learn at our own pace as I think one would do better learning a skill oneself. Now please leave me alone and let me study." Aarand gave me a poorly hidden scowl turned around and then walked over to Parano, while I picked up the materials that had been left for us to study and began to read through the rest of the day.

Slowly I began to awaken from my usual deep sleep, but something was strange this morning. At first I ignored it as I was too 'out of it' to think much of it, but then as I started to come to I noticed a tickling feeling on my cheeks. Slowly I opened my eyes to see Lillie standing in front of me brushing my face with a weird looking brush, which answered the question as to what the tickling feeling was. Now seeing that I was awake Lillie smiled and said, "You slept in again today Ilath, so I've been asked to give you a punishment of my choice as 'I'm the one being inconvenienced by his inability to wake up on time' or so Lieutenant Doyen says." When Lillie had finished speaking I noticed that I was no longer in my group room but was now in a room with a large mirror surrounded by lots of lights. Now I was curious as to what punishment Lillie had for me so I asked, "Lillie, what do you intend to do to me?" Lillie smiled and replied, "Once I get you to put on this," she held up a purple dress, "You're going to spend the day with me as you made us miss our training." Lillie was going to make me wear a dress; well I guess there were worse things that could be done to me, but oh how I missed the reprimand stick.

I had never worn a dress before so I had to ask Lillie to help me put it on, which she did happily, and when I had finished Lillie said after giggling, "Look in the mirror to see how cute you look!" Immediately I turned to the mirror and saw me in a dress and also saw the cause of the tickling, Lillie had put makeup and lipstick on me, but something was missing something that made the image incomplete, "Lillie, somethings missing," immediately I pointed to my chest and continued, "don't you think?" Lillie smiled and said, "I'll go get some things from my room." Lillie quickly ran from the room and after a few minutes returned with a bra and some packing foam. "Here you go," said Lillie as she handed the items to me and after I had finished placing them I turned to Lillie and said, "I might as well try to have a good time and try to fool as many people as I can." I smiled at Lillie whom smiled back then we both turned to the door and walked out of the room.

Lillie and I were just a little ways away from the room when I asked her, "What are we going to do Lillie?" Lillie turned to me and replied, "I'm hungry so I thought we could go to lunch and then do some shopping." Lunch was fine with me but I had a big problem with shopping as I had never been paid in my life so I asked, "Lillie I can't go shopping as I have no money." Lillie smiled at me again and said, "Silly girl," Lillie giggled, "you don't have to buy anything, besides you can help me pick and if you're a good girl," Lillie giggled again, "I might just buy you something." One thing I could tell is that today I would be learning a lot about the opposite sex and the outside world; this was going to be an interesting day.

I was looking forward to lunch and considering I had slept through breakfast and had also skipped breakfast, lunch, and dinner the day before I was VERY hungry. Now that I thought about it I hadn't eaten since I was on the transport. Curious about what was served here as I had never had anything outside of the Nogida Training Complex I asked Lillie, ""What exactly do they serve here?" Lillie thought a little and then said, "We get some vegetables, you can count on getting rice, and we even get fruit when it's in season." Wow, we rarely ever got fruit at the Complex. Soon we arrived at the mess hall and got in a short line so we could get served our meal, and after a short wait we received our meal of rice with sliced carrots in a delicious smelling sauce, rolls, an orange, and some imitation grape juice.

As we found a table Lillie said, "Ilath, why did you choose to dye your hair green?" I had not been asked this question before as everybody at the training facility had all been used to the fact, but to answer Lillie, "I don't dye my hair, it just happens to grow this way, besides I like it because it is different from everybody else that I have seen." Lillie looked like she thought over it for a nanosecond and said, "You're the first person I've ever heard about having natural green hair! Do you think it would be alright if I dyed my hair green too Ilath?" There was a slight pause and the then Lillie continued, "I'm just kidding! Did I surprise you!? I would never dye my hair green." I couldn't help but wonder if all girls were this weird, I think I was beginning to understand why they had kept us apart at my old home.

I couldn't help but feel as if I was being watched, granted I probably did look funny wearing a dress and a wig, and almost immediately after becoming aware I heard some snickering coming from nearby, but I decided it wasn't a very big deal so I chose to ignore them and continue my "enlightening" conversation with Lillie whom, from what I could tell, had not noticed that we were being watched.

During the course of our meal Lillie educated me about some of the finer things of life like how this color of lipstick made you look a certain way and how another color made you look another certain way and I also got promised that sometime I would be given the chance to discover which colors went best with my skin tone. I must have fallen asleep with my eyes open as Lillie hadn't noticed that I was not in the waking world and that I had missed the last half of her debate over which color looked best on her and maybe even a little discussion about colors on me too.

When I had come to my senses I looked at Lillie and said, "Thank you for that information Lillie, now I feel refreshed and ready to get on with the rest of our day." At this Lillie smiled and said, "That's right we were going to go shopping weren't we!" Immediately Lillie stood up, grabbed me by the arm and then led me out of the room. "It's not too far to the shopping center. It's not as good as the ones in the cities but I still like to come and see if they have anything new," said Lillie as she led me down a corridor. "Lillie, what exactly is sold in a shopping center?" I inquired. Lillie looked as if she had been hit with a large object of some sort and I was somewhat puzzled as to why my question had come as so much of a surprise to her, but after she had recovered herself she said, "How could you not know what is sold at a shopping center?" Lillie paused for a second and then started smiling and said, "I'm happy because I get to be the first person to show you the beauty that is shopping." What a wonderful day.

When a few minutes had passed Lillie and I entered a large plaza that had a fair amount of people going about whatever business they had. I also noticed that most of the doors had signs over them and some had large windows with goods displayed in them. I knew what to expect as I had been shown pictures before.

While I had been deep in thought Lillie had led me in front of a store which had a sign which told me that it was a clothing store of some kind. Before we entered the store Lillie said, "This is my favorite clothes store on the base Ilath." What a way to waste money, I thought, and then said to Lillie, "Why do you like to spend money on new clothes, I mean all you really need is your uniform and a small amount of casual clothes for when you are off duty." After listening to what I said Lillie shook her head and replied, "Silly Ilath, you don't need a reason to buy clothes." I really didn't care enough about her hobbies to argue with her so I just replied, "I guess I shouldn't care what you do with your money, but I'll stick with my uniforms." When I finished speaking Lillie hesitated for a few seconds and then with a grin on her face said, "Come on! Let's see if they have anything new in the store."

It seemed like hours had gone by when I was in the clothing store with Lillie dragging me to almost every single scrap of clothing and then having to wait for her to try them on and then asking me how she looked in the outfit, in which I just said 'you look fine," and her giving me a 'why do I even ask' look. Eventually Lillie finally said that she wanted to go another store and look around, in which she led me to a store and said, "This is a lingerie store so you can't come in, but will you please wait for me outside?" I looked at her a said, "What's Lingerie?" Lillie gave me a look that said 'what is wrong with this guy' and then said, "It's underwear." Upon hearing this I thought why don't they just call it an underwear store?

When Lillie disappeared into the store I took a position near the door and decided to not move until she came out because I didn't know the area well and didn't want to get lost and/or see what happened when I skipped out on Lillie. When a few minutes had passed I heard some familiar voices and when I turned my head to see who it was I found Ithan, Pyran, Natani, Yinth, and Vico walking out of a music shop. I had no desire to talk to them so I just decided to ignore them, but after a moment I heard someone say, "Is that Ilath in the dress over there?" It appeared that I had been seen and I knew that it was extremely likely that they would come over and inquire to why I was wearing a dress, and sure enough I was soon greeted by the trainees from group one. "Ilath is that you?" asked Natani. Yinth was the next to speak, "Of course it is Ilath. How many people do you know that have green hair. By the way Ilath, why are you wearing a dress? I do have to admit that you look quite cute!" After Yinth said this all five laughed, I personally did not see what was so funny but I said, "I slept in again and my partner Lillie was given permission to choose the punishment I was going to get, and so here I am. What I don't get is how this is a punishment; I mean why would having me wear this type of clothing be a punishment?" All of the members of the group looked at each other and then laughed. As soon as Vico had stopped laughing he said, "Why don't you think of this as a punishment?" I thought for a few seconds and replied, "Why are the reasons I should think of this as a punishment? While it is true that I would normally never choose to wear these articles of clothing, the only reason I would see this as punishment is that because it is stereotypical for only women to wear these things and that it might be considered a mockery to a male's psyche to wear these, but why should it be detrimental to a male to wear a woman's clothes while a woman is totally fine wearing a man's clothes? Is it that a man is supposed to look tough while women are supposed to look weak and easily controllable?" I paused for a few seconds to let what I had just said sink in and the finished by saying, "Although I do have to admit that I do look rather attractive in this dress, wouldn't you agree?" When I had finished saying this, the group simply looked at me until finally Ithan spoke up and said, "Come on guys lets leave our cute friend here and let him finish his lingerie shopping." When Ithan finished he walked away followed by everyone except Pyran, who said, "It was nice seeing you again Ilath," before he too took off with the others. As I watched them walk off I thought to myself about the wonderful victory I had just received and also knew fully why I should be embarrassed but I simply chose to not worry about it a just make the experience as good as possible.

Far sooner than I had expected Lillie came out of the lingerie shop. There was one thing I was curious about so I asked Lillie, "We've gone through two stores and you haven't bought anything, why is that?" Lillie smiled and replied, "I told you before that I only buy things after I get paid, and we don't get paid until next week." Upon hearing this I drooped my shoulders a little bit and said, "Where to next, master?" Lillie grabbed my arm and replied, "We're going to look at some clothes for you now, Ilath!" I didn't want any new clothes so I said, "Lillie I'm fine with the clothes I have now, and I…" I was going to say I didn't have money but I already knew the answer to that problem. Suffice to say Lillie dragged me to the Men's clothing store and was practically forced by Lillie to try on different clothes; at least I was able to get out of the dress for a little while. Thankfully after we were done at the Men's store Lillie led me back to the cafeteria for dinner and let me go free as soon as we had finished eating.

As Lillie and I walked back towards the residential quarter of the base Lillie said, "Didn't you have a great time today Ilath?" I smiled at Lillie and replied, "You've helped me learn a lot as to what it is like to be a girl and it made me realize how lucky I am to be a male." I don't know if Lillie ignored the statement or just chose to ignore it because she simply said, "I had fun, let's go out again when we get paid and then we can actually buy something!" At that moment I thought about if I would even get paid as I had not heard anything about it, not that I cared because I was just fine with being fed and having a place to stay, but I just said, "Lillie, I'm sure we can after my training is over, okay." Lillie looked a little sad after I said this, which confused me, and for the rest of the walk she didn't say anything. When we finally reached Lillie's room I said, "Thank you for the interesting day Ms. Lillie, I had an enlightening time. Oh, do you want me to return the dress to you tomorrow or do you want me to bring it back as soon as I've changed back into my uniform?" Lillie smiled weakly at me and said, "You keep it." Immediately Lillie walked into her room and closed the door. Then it hit me, why did Lillie get her own room?

Now that I had been released from my tour of punishment with Lillie I headed back to my assigned room. Immediately I changed into my uniform and then pondered how I could avoid being punished again. It didn't take my mind long to realize that there was one thing that was very effective at waking me up in the morning, the reprimand stick. The reprimand stick would surely save me from ever having to go on any more tours of punishment. I also had to make it so that the stick would go off like an alarm clock. The alarm clock would be easy to adapt for triggering the reprimand stick and I also had the disarmed reprimand stick that the barracks supervisor had given me. Now all I had to do was adapt the alarm clock and also find the parts that I needed to rearm the reprimand stick. Now that I had the plan formed in my mind I began searching for the parts and tools I would need for the project.

I awoke with a start the next morning and at first I was startled at having been woken up so rudely, but then I realized that my project last night had been a success and was actually able to complete it before any of the others had returned from wherever they had been. "Hey! Why isn't my shaver working?" Is what I heard Parano say after a few minutes. I knew this wouldn't be the first thing of his that he would find didn't work as I had used some of the parts from a few of his various electric devices to build my "Anti-sleep-in device" or ASiD. I was the first one to wake up and so was the first to get dressed, which came as a surprise to everyone, but this was only so I would have a chance to escape before anybody found out who had done what.

I soon made my way to the airlock, changed into my suit, and then got into my mecha. It appeared that I had even made it to the training field before any of the others, but I still decided to get some practice while I waited for everybody to arrive. Lieutenant Doyen arrived just after a few minutes and as I expected she called out to me, "Trainee Ilath I never would have expected you to be one of the first to arrive, but I applaud you at overcoming your problem." I replied with a simple "Thank you Lieutenant" and then continued on with some jumping and rolling routines.

When everybody had arrived Lieutenant Doyen came over the comm. and said, "All of you have done extremely well and it has been decided that you will all be elevated to the next level of training, in which you will be fighting in mock battles with your partner using paint guns." This training was going much faster then I had expected it to go and I was getting slightly excited that I would soon be able to go out and fulfill my training in the real world. "Ilath," came Lillie's voice over the comm. suddenly, "let's have lots of fun today!" I completely agreed with Lillie's thinking and replied, "Lillie I could beat you with one hand off of a LS orb!" I could only use one hand so it would be true if I did happen to beat her. Lillie laughed and said, "You could beat me at half power?! There's no way you could beat me at full power even if you were in a combat mecha, not that weak training mecha!" She was right, how were we supposed to win against a combat type mecha in a training mecha?

Lillie and I ran out of the hanger to the irradiated land outside of the base where our mock battle would take place. When I reached or designated spot I found a large gun perched on a concrete barrier, which I immediately picked up with my mecha's hand. As soon as I had picked the gun up a new status display and a targeting reticle appeared on my HUD. The first thing I noticed was that I only had fifty shots and that I only had a range of 300 meters, so I would have to get close and only fire when I was sure I could get a good shot. Unluckily for Lillie Eternal1's were trained for this type of combat situation. When I had finished looking over the stats of the gun I looked at where Lillie and I would be having our skirmish and noted that there was plenty of cover in some areas and almost no cover in areas that one would HAVE to cross to advance much across the terrain.

Immediately I headed for an open area and crossed it cautiously. I took the open area first as it was the fastest way to cover some ground and guessed that Lillie had gone for the slower route behind the cover. I'm sure Lillie hadn't expected me to go for the open area so quickly so by the time I had crossed it and made it to some cover she had only managed to get off a few poorly aimed shots which gave away her position nicely. Watching the place where Lillie had shot from I tracked where she was moving to easily and moved when she was in a poor position to shoot at me accurately. I also had another advantage for moving as Lillie was just a little outside of the guns effective accuracy range so her shots would always be off. By this time Lillie had fired fifteen shots while I hadn't fired a single shot.

Eventually I made it to a large clearing which was almost in the exact center of the battlefield and realized that it was slightly farther across then the maximum effective accuracy range of our guns, so either one of us would have to run across from their side to the other, we would have a long range low accuracy battle, or we would both fight in the clearing. I decided to see how inaccurate the gun was so I fired two shots at Lillie and watched as both of them hit at random places on either side of her. This was no good; there was no way either of us would get in a clean hit if we both stayed where we were. I also figured that Lillie would likely not run across the field so I decided that the final move would be up to me. Suddenly I noticed something; Lillie was not where I thought she was. As I used my HUD to zoom in I found that she had piled up some rocks to make it look like she was still where I had thought her to be. Immediately I started scanning the battlefield to see if I could find out where she had gone off to. I was surprised that I hadn't noticed them before, off to the right was a series of large rocks where one could easily cross the field undetected.

In anticipation of an attack from my side of the field I quickly changed my cover and looked for a good place to ambush Lillie, but just as I started to move a bright pink paint bullet splattered all over the rock I was hiding behind. It appeared that Lillie had the upper hand at the moment, but now that she had revealed her position I could think of a plan to finish her off. Two more paint bullets splattered on to a rock immediately to my left splashing my mecha with small drops of paint. It appeared that I could not easily move without getting hit, but on a whim I picked up some small rocks and threw them over at where I thought Lillie was hiding and then rolled out from behind my rock and aimed at the rock Lillie was hiding behind fired a few shots then jumped on top of the rock. Somehow she had not noticed me jump onto the rock and was now looking around the right side of the rock aiming at where she had seen me shoot from.

With my gun pointed mere meters from the top of her mecha I sat quietly waiting to see how long it would take for her to notice I was sitting there. Apparently she was not anticipating an attack from above and never once glanced towards the top of the rock. Sitting there I decided that I wanted to have some more fun before we finished so I threw down my gun in front of Lillie, who jumped back a few feet, then jumped on top of her mecha grabbed her gun and then tossed it as far as my mecha could. It took a little while for Lillie to realize what had happened and then she grabbed my mecha and tried to pull it off. While all of this was happening I started to punch the cameras which were mounted in the 'head' of the mecha, but before I could cause much damage she manage to pull me off and slammed me into the ground, right next to my gun; however I did not fire the gun but stood up and threw it as hard as I could.

As Lillie and I were about to attack each other my comm. came on and Lieutenant Doyen said in a rather irritated voice, "Cease your activities immediately, the purpose of this exercise was not hand-to-hand combat. You both are to immediately head back to the hanger and go to the staff room for debriefing. That is all." Immediately I looked over to Lillie and shrugged my mecha's arm after which we both headed back to the hanger with both of us complementing each other on our tactics.

Apparently Lillie and I had not taken the longest to finish and we both had to wait for Kail, Firnin, and their partners to come back. When they had finally seated themselves Lieutenant Doyen entered the room and said, "Now that everyone is here I would like to say that I'm quite happy about the results of everyone." The Lieutenant paused for a second and looked over all of us before continuing, "Trainees, I am impressed that you were able to do so well on your first try and that you did so well in mecha that are inferior to what your partners are using, still it was possible to win as this exercise was almost entirely decided on tactics and strategy. Only one of you was able to get into a position to take out your opponent, but he stupidly decided not to take his opponent." Lieutenant Doyen glanced at me and then continued, "I expect that in the future that one will take the opportunity when it is available, all of you should remember that as it could lead to your death if you do not take advantage of every opportunity to take out an enemy." The Lieutenant looked around the room again and then said, "Trainees you are now dismissed, partners will remain for further debriefing." As I got up to leave I noticed Lillie flash a smile at me which, to not seem rude, I politely returned and then left the room.

As soon as I had left the room I heard something growl, which I soon realized was my stomach telling me that it would be a bad idea if I didn't feed it. I decided that I would go and eat lunch, and while eating lunch I could decide on what I would do for the remainder of the day. When I had finally picked up my tray and found a place to eat I realized that our training was not as long as it should be, after all the training today had only taken a little over an hour. As soon as I finished lunch I walked over to a nearby operator and asked if they had any simulators nearby. Apparently the officer did not know of the training that was going on and laughed saying, "You're full aware that men can't pilot mecha so they would never let you use the simulators." At this moment I realized that from what he knew he was completely right in saying what he said and that it would be a waste of time for me to use the simulator, still I asked, "I'm new to this base and I just want to know where everything is." When I said this the officer decided to tell me where they were, after he finished I said "Thank you" and headed in the direction that he had just pointed out.

I easily found where the simulators were and to my relief my I.D. card was approved and I entered the room. I soon found myself in a room full of 3 rows of pods, some of which were closed and others open ready for use. Immediately I walked to a pod in the back left corner of the room and sat down. The inside of the pod looked almost exactly like the cockpit of my training mecha with some minor differences. Upon further inspection I noticed a screen that had choices of what I guessed were different types of battle scenarios, and after looking over the list I chose a scenario which I thought we would most likely be assigned to do the morning. As it turned out I spent over eight hours doing various scenarios and variations of them. When I was about ready to head back to the cafeteria to eat dinner I decided to try using both of my hands so I could find out if the problem I had experienced before was just a one time thing and that it had nothing to do with a faulty glove, but as soon as I put my left hand on the LS orb alarms sprang to life and immediately I took my hand off. Soon after I could smell electrical smoke coming from somewhere, but fortunately the simulator was still working.

When I finally opened the simulator door I noticed that there were three girls standing around my pod, all with serious looks on their faces, and as they saw me they all got angry looks on their faces. The first girl to speak up, a private first class that had (obviously dyed) blond hair and brown eyes, said angrily, "Don't you know that men are not allowed in here?" The girl standing next to her, a private second class with brown hair and brown eyes, added "How did you get in here anyways? Only pilots and pilot trainees are allowed in here, well and the maintenance crew, and you don't look like you are any of them, actually I don't even see a rank on your uniform." As soon as she finished speaking I said, "First, I would ask you to ignore the electrical smoke as the simulator appears to still be working perfectly. Second, I got in here because my I.D. card let me in. Now if you will excuse me I'm headed for dinner." Before I could get very far two of the girls grabbed my arms and the first girl said, "I'm sorry but we are going to have to take you into custody." Immediately she walked over to a nearby comm. terminal and soon some MPs came and escorted me to the brig.

Fortunately for me Major Eleba soon came and released me from the brig and also told the MPs that I was allowed to use the simulators whenever I wanted to. When the Major had finished talking to the MPs she apologized to me and assured me that this would never happen again. I was just happy to be set free and assured the Major that I thought the whole ordeal was actually funny in a way. Finally I was excused and I made my way to the cafeteria before finally heading back to my room.

When I reached the room I was confronted by Parano and Aarand. "Ilath," said Parano in an unusually nice voice, "some parts from my and Aarand's things have been removed, would you happen to know what happened to them?" I pretended to think for a second and then said, "Yes I do, last night while you were out and some anti-idiot gnomes came in and took them." Both Parano and Aarand got irritated looks on their faces and Aarand said, "Give us our stuff back or we will have to get them back while taking some compensation." I looked at both of them and said, "Fine, I'll get it out." This morning I had anticipated a confrontation with these two and that they would most likely look through my belongings in search of the parts so I had put the ASiD into the pouch that I always wore, which contained all of my tools and some belongings, pulled it out quickly, and used it on Parano then Aarand. Both of them jumped back quickly from the shock of the ASiD and to also avoid being struck again. While they were still wondering what had happened I walked over to my usual place and sat down. For the rest of the night neither of them bothered me, although I did get plenty of dirty looks from them.

Once again I was the first person awake and also managed to leave before any of the others had woken up. Like I had been doing it for years I donned my pilot suit and boarded my mecha and rehearsed what I had practiced in the simulators the previous day. Eventually all of the others made their way to their mecha and Lieutenant Doyen briefed us on what we were going to do this day, "Today we are going to do what we did yesterday, however today we will be having a two-on-two battle and a three-on-three battle. Once again it will be trainee against partner. I expect good results from all of you, now I will send you your assignments and who has been selected as your teammates." I was curious as to who would be my partner. After a matter of moments the data appeared on my HUD and found out that my partner was Parano, I bet he requested to be my partner, and that I would be going to a different place then I had been previously. Quickly I headed out of the hanger and decided that I would have fun no matter what happened.

I had been the closest one to the hanger exit so was the first one in position, but before I started I radioed Lillie and said, "Lillie want to finish what we did yesterday?" Lillie's image smiled back at me and said, "Sure, but what do you need to ask me for?" I grinned and said, "I have a plan…" After I had finished telling my plan to Lillie I picked up the gun that had been placed for my use and then radioed Parano and said, "You ready?" And as I expected I got a rude reply, "It's about time, now let's hurry and move out and please don't slow me down."

As I had expected Parano tried to take charge and kept telling me when and where to move, while I would give advice as to what strategy I thought we should use. I don't think either of us did what the other said or recommended. "Ilath, move to your left, and then do some cover fire while I move across the clearing." I knew that we were still farther than the effective maximum range of our guns so I said, "We're still too far away for them to get an accurate shot off so I don't think we should waste ammunition." After some bickering we both made it across the clearing. Now there were no more clearings in the field and it would be duck and cover fighting from now on. Suddenly I saw movement ahead of me and eventually found where one of the opponent mecha had just moved to, and after some more surveying I found what I thought was Lillie's mecha a little to the left in close formation behind another rock. Once we got a little closer I could start the execution of my plan, but annoyance got the better of me and I called to Parano, "Will you please shut up or at least deflate your head enough to work on a plan we can both agree on?" Apparently Parano thought differently as, "Ilath, you are aware that I was made leader of our group so stop being insubordinate and follow my orders." I was now thoroughly annoyed with Parano now, "Will you please shut up about that, I don't recognize your authority so just please, please be quiet." Parano was now getting angry and his faced popped up on my HUD and was about to say something but before he could say anything I said, "Screw you, I'm going to finish this without you." This got Parano even angrier and he shouted, "Do what you're told or I will shoot you myself." I would have shot him with my paint gun but didn't want to waste my ammo so I picked up the largest rock I could find and threw it at his mecha's head hoping to knock out the cameras that were mounted therein.

What ensued next must have confused our opponents as they did not fire at us when Parano jumped out and started to shoot at me with his paint gun, but before he could hit me I jumped out of the way and managed to dodge his fire. This time I did shoot back but Parano had taken cover behind another rock and managed to avoid my shots. Before long Parano made another move and fired some shots while moving to a position more advantageous to him which forced me to also move. At this point I noticed that Lillie and Parano's partner had not moved and were just watching Parano and I fight. I took this opportunity to shoot at the closer of the two, which I shot easily. Unfortunately this sprung the other mecha into action again and had given Parano an opportunity to move into a position that would easily get me shot. This did not look good as it was now two on one with the now painted mecha as a spectator.

I was now open to fire and had to think quickly or else get shot. I decided to do some back handsprings, which I had practiced just for fun in the simulator but now proved useful, and managed to slam into a rock that I had not noticed behind me. I had hit hard and was somewhat dazed so I did not recover immediately, however I did not get shot at. Were they laughing or just surprised at my sudden move? As soon as I recovered I jumped behind the rock I had just hit. Half an hour later no one had made any progress and I was starting to get really annoyed so I just started throwing rocks in random directions and just hoped someone would make a move soon. Unexpectedly the rock which I had been hiding behind started to slowly fall towards my mecha so I was the one that had to make the deciding move that would break this stalemate.

How heavy was this rock anyways? I wondered if my mecha was capable moving the rock considering it was loose and very willing to move. I tried picking it up but it was much too heavy so pushed it over sideways, but apparently Parano had seen my situation and was now shooting at my now partially exposed mecha. I was now forced to abandon my position. Parano and I were not the only ones making a move as the remaining partner, who I thought was Lillie, had taken the opportunity to get in a position that had clean shots at both of us. I was now also adding to the fire, but my gun jammed and refused to fire. I was now in a very bad situation but decided that my gun was good for one last thing, abandoning it at very high speeds towards Parono's head. Parano had noticed that my gun had stopped working and was now making his way towards my now 'unprotected' mecha. When I was sure that I could get in an accurate throw and that Parano was preoccupied with the other mecha I threw my gun as hard as I could and it successfully hit his head causing noticeable damage. The other mecha had seen this happen and moved in successfully shooting Parano in mere moments of my attack. Now it was one-on-one and my opponent knew that I had just thrown away my weapon and was now unarmed. So, I decided to go out on the offensive and jumped over the rock I was behind and then made my way quickly towards my target.

This was going to be an interesting debriefing because I practically knew that the Lieutenant would not be happy with Parano and I.

All ten of us were sitting in a moderately sized briefing room and some were chatting among themselves. I, personally, was not talking to anyone but was thinking about what had just gone on and what the consequences would be for my actions.

Before too long Major Eleba, not Lieutenant Doyen, stepped into the room carrying a few data pads. When she had placed herself in the front of the room she stated, "You have all shown remarkable progress in piloting skills, and besides some minor insubordination you are all qualified to proceed from the pilot training and, with your partners, will practice more in depth on what one does in an effective squad. When everyone has displayed the desired discipline and respect for your squad leader," Parano gave me an evil gaze at this comment, "you will finally be able to graduate and you will receive your missions according to what skills you have shown yourself best suited for."

This was good news and everybody showed their happiness in one degree or another. I personally couldn't wait to get out into the world and see for myself all of the things I had only read about.

Later that day Parano and I were contacted by Lieutenant Doyen and were told that we were to be paired into squads, along with our partners, and would be doing the rest of our training together. The good things was that Parano's partner was selected as the squad leader, Lillie protested from what I heard, and I was glad that it wasn't Parano so I didn't care.

Over the next week for four hours a day my squad would practice maneuvers with each other to the point where I had to use ASiD to keep me alert. After the first week it was announced that we would be fighting against the other squads. I would say that my squad did quite well and I had fun devising ways to get Parano shot up with lots of paint, which I managed to do every so often and without getting into trouble. I'm not sure if he tried to do the same to me, because somehow I never took a single hit the entire week. If it wasn't for the pesky rule of "Three members down and you lose" then I would say our team would have been undefeated, maybe if I hadn't been so mean to Parano...

The time had finally come and all ten of the group of trainees had managed to graduate. The graduation ceremony was small and only our partners were invited because of the need to keep the facts about male pilots a secret. After the rather dull ceremony was over Lillie ran over to me with a huge grin on her face and said, "I hope they put us in the same squad so we can be together!" I smiled at her and said, "We'll see." Lillie's mouth suddenly dropped a little and said, "Now that your training is done we can go shopping! You do remember you said you would, right?" Indeed I did remember after she brought it up but I stated, "I believe I said I might go with you. There is a difference between will and might, isn't there?" Lillie looked as if she could cry at and second but I continued with, "When do you want to go?" With this Lillie perked up and replied, "After the graduation party!"