Part 1 – Selection
In 2075, Humanity discovered how to make faster-than-light jumps from one side of the universe to the other by harvesting Dark Energy which supercharges a ship's engines, and launches it at mind-melting speeds.
This discovery led to the rise of a vast empire that spanned as far as they could go.
It also led to the discovery of many different cultures and alien species which led to the vast empires.
In 2349, there were four of the most powerful that rule the known cosmos.
The Legion of Invictus is an expansive multi-cultural empire of citizens bound by the laws of the founding fathers of their society who were their ancestors from Earth. The governing body of The Legion as everyone calls it is a selected group of many different species that decrees the laws of the lands.
Another of these empires is Aarcadius, an empire whose government is run by the powerful businesses that create everything in their empire from cars, to guns, to shoes, even starships all the way up to bombs.
The third empire is Dastian, an empire that doesn't concentrate on its military, they instead concentrate of politics and keeping their economy up and running. They decided to do this because in 2100 their economy took a huge downturn, leaving sixty eight percent of their population unemployed.
Finally there's the Blood Redemption Disciples or BRD for short. The BRD is an iron-fisted dictatorship that believes in very strict rules and harsh, brutal punishment for those that don't obey. Their leader is a blood-thirsty dictator known as Orochimaru whose actions has led to the death of millions of his own people.
The BRD hates everything the Legion of Invictus stands for, and like Germany funding the Bolshevik Revolution, the BRD decided to fund revolutions against governments that supports the Legion of Invictus.
One young sergeant ready for selection in the Legion of Invictus's Special Forces, the United Operations Force hated the BRD with a passion almost like it was his life mission to wipe the empire off the face of the Universe.
He didn't know what destiny had in store for him.
Six-foot-four nineteen year old Caucasian/Japanese male Sasuke lined up along with his other recruits dressed in the low-grade armor built for light infantry.
The armor was nothing but armored boots, hip and groin protection armor, a small chest-plate, armor-plated gloves, and combined shoulder and neck armor.
"Alright maggots listen up," Staff Sergeant Michael Gorman said as he walked in front of the line of recruits, "You're all here because you think you have what it takes to become our empire's best! I'm here to tell you the selection committee thinks you are! To me its bullshit unless you can prove me wrong," he then stood at the end of the line, "Are you going to prove me wrong recruits?"
"Sir yes sir!" They all exclaimed.
"I can't hear you," SS Gorman said, "Are you going to prove me wrong!?"
"SIR YES SIR!" They all yelled.
"Good," SS Gorman said, "Let's go to the training grounds! Mount up!"
The recruits leaned down, picked up their backpacks, and marched toward the drop-ship.
The drop ship was made out of white-metal and had two windows in the cockpit.
The training grounds for selection was an oval-shaped planet called Telos.
The entire planet is divided into six different regions, a city, a forest, an ice-land, a volcanic region, a desert region, and a grass-land.
Once the recruits were about to be over the drop-zone, Gorman started explaining their equipment, "Alright, listen up," he exclaimed, "Your packs contain all you need to survive the crossing of the planet! You have survival knives, you have MREs, you have chocolate bars, you have wire, you duct tape, and you have bandages. There will be five other squads on the planet! Your objective, like there's is to survive until you get to your extraction zone on the other side of the planet! There is a little red button located on the right strap of your packs, if you've had enough, all you need to do is hit that button, and say, 'I'm through', and we'll pull you out. That button is for quitting or emergencies only! Did you get that?"
"Sir yes sir!" The recruits exclaimed.
"Good," Gorman said as he looked out the window, "We're above the drop-zone! All stand," the recruits stood up, "Mount up," the recruits attached their bungee-cords to the mount above them, "Equipment check," the recruits checked the backpack of the recruit in front of them, "Sound off!"
"Five ok!" six-foot-two African-Invictus male Martin Astrid exclaimed.
"Four ok!" five-foot-two Caucasian-Invictus female Megan Moro exclaimed.
"Three ok!" five-foot-ten Hispanic-Invictus male Logan Paul exclaimed.
"Two ok!" six-foot-one Oriental-Invictus male Damarcus Chen exclaimed.
"One ok!" Sasuke exclaimed.
"Are we happy?" Gorman asked.
"Hell yes!" The five exclaimed.
"Standby," Gorman exclaimed as the side door opened, "Go! Go! Go!"
The five recruits jumped off the side of the drop-ship, and free-fell for about five thousand feet before the bungee cords they were attached to snapped, gently lowering them the remaining five hundred feet to the ground.
The recruits unhooked from their cords, and scrambled for cover, Telos might be on the verge of being a dead planet because it's only home to several gangs of low-tech thugs that preferred to use brute strength instead of brains that will kill just for the fun of it.
And a big drop-ship hovering above the ground is a dead-give away of your position.
The area Sasuke and the other recruits were released into was the city area.
The city area of Telos was once a thriving urban environment, police patrolling the streets, children running left and right playing, and enjoying life. That was before the cataclysmic event known as The Event that left the planet almost completely uninhabitable. The Event was a massive earthquake that cracked the volcanic section of the planet almost in half.
As the five recruits dashed into cover, several members of the Anarchy Gang, the primary gang on Telos that wanted to control everything.
The gang primarily uses anything they can find as armor, old TVs, radios, car parts, even parts of the crumbling buildings.
As the gangsters looked around, the recruits hid in the ruins of the old buildings, looking at the thugs as they walked around the area, searching for them.
"They have small-arms," Logan whispered as the recruits looked down at the thugs from a window on the second floor of a ruined factory, "We can use those."
"Not now," Sasuke said, "We need to get them all at once if we're going to take them out."
"Spread out you fools," the leader said in a deep, threatening voice, "Find them!"
"Now's our chance," Sasuke said as he slid down the debris, "Follow my lead."
The five thugs spread out among a fifty-foot radius, searching for the recruits.
One of the thugs was walking down an alleyway, he was wearing a pair of work boots, jeans, a plaid shirt, with a broken TV for a helmet.
As he was walking, his feet were pulled out from underneath him, sending him to the ground, as he was about to jump up, someone jumped on his back, unsheathed a twelve-inch knife, and drove it through the back of the thug's neck.
In a separate alley, one thug dressed in a pair of steel-plated boots with brown shorts, a white tank-top, and wearing a set of antenna wires stuck inside his skull.
As he was walking down an alley, he heard a brick hit the side of a building, as he went to investigate, he was grabbed from behind, and stabbed four times in the arm-pit.
The armpit might seem unimportant, but there is actually a very important vein in the arm-pit that circulates blood from the heart to the arm, if you cut that the heart is going to pump blood until you bleed out.
Two others who decided to search together were entering a building when they were both grabbed, thrown head-long into the wall next to them, and then stabbed twice in the chest.
The final one was walking through the doorway to one of the buildings when something dropped down behind him, as he turned around, the next thing he saw was a brick coming straight at his face.
The brick made contact with his head, knocking him backwards, and sending him to the ground with a thud.
After he pushed himself up, a short female came at him with a knife, the thug swung at the girl, making contact with her skull, knocking her backwards.
As the thug raised his M3A1 Greece Gun to fire, there was a clicking sound from behind him, and a shot rang out.
As the thug fell, Megan looked up, and saw Sasuke standing there, holding an M4A1 Thompson Submachine gun, the barrel smoking.
"You good," Sasuke asked as he held out his hand to Megan who accepted the hand, helping her stand up.
"Yea," Megan said as she picked up the M3A1, and both she and Sasuke walked outside to see the rest of the recruits who all had weapons.
"We good?" Sasuke asked.
"Yep," Martin said, "We should get moving: we've got a long way to go."
"Alright," Sasuke said, "Let's move."
As the team made their way across the city into the desert region, a small group of Anarchy thugs found their dead comrades, and set off after Sasuke and his team.
The team walked in almost single-file behind Sasuke heading toward a large rock that looked like a single flat-top mountain in the Grand Canyon back on Earth.
*Important survival tip when stranded in a desert: if you need to find your way out of the desert by having to walk long distances, find a natural land-mark, and just walk straight toward it.
That's exactly what the team did, keeping their weapons at the ready, they walked straight toward the mountain.
Once they reached the side of the mountain, the team wrapped duct tape around their hands, and began climbing.
They reached the top of the mountain the second it was night-fall.
"Alright," Sasuke said as he sat against the fallen tree, and put his backpack down, "Everyone do a magazine-check, and take inventory."
Sasuke checked the magazine on the Tommy-Gun, only one bullet fired, one spare thirty-round magazine, fully loaded, not exactly the ideal conditions to take on an army, but it would do.
Martin had a Kar-98, five rounds in the chamber, plus fifteen spare bullets.
Logan had picked up a Winchester Model 1912, six rounds in the tube, and eighteen spare shells.
Damarcus managed to snag a M79 'Blooper' Grenade Launcher, one round, plus four spare grenades.
The M79 was used in very high numbers during Vietnam, even though it was highly successful, it became known as the 'Blooper' to the U.S. troops that used it.
Megan of course had snagged the M3A1 Greece Gun with half a magazine, and a spare magazine.
The team gathered up some dead wood, and made a fire.
The team then cooked the MREs they had together to try and coax some good flavor out of them.
As I might have said before in a previous story, MREs are the worst things you will ever put in your mouth, and some military soldiers actually try to mix different MREs together to get better taste, with questionable success.
However, cooking several altogether in the same pot over a fire might be a better idea.
After eating, the team took some time to get some rest while Sasuke and Logan stayed up, and doctored the fire all night.
"Amazing night," Logan said as he laid back on his backpack which he used for a pillow.
"Yep," Sasuke said as he poked at the fire with a long stick he had.
"Tell me something Sasuke," Logan said, "Why'd the oldest living blood-son of the wealthiest man in the Legion of Invictus join the Invictus Army?"
"Felt like it was my calling to serve," Sasuke said, "After my big brother was killed, I was kind of lost, looking for something to believe in. The Army seemed to have structure, so when I enlisted at sixteen, I immediately found what I had been searching for after my brother died."
"Never one for stories like that," Logan said, "But I can relate, my grandfather was killed in a surprise raid on an Invictus outpost by Blood Raiders."
"Oh yea," Sasuke said as he leaned back against the wood.
"You know we're being followed right?" Logan asked.
"Yep," Sasuke said, "We'll be passing into the volcanic region pretty soon. Beyond that is the ice land region, and beyond that is the forest region, that's where our extraction is. They'll never catch up with us."
"Maybe not." Logan said.
The next morning, Sasuke and the other recruits set off for the volcanic region.
Once they arrived on the edge of the volcanic region, you could literally smell the Methane gas pouring out of the volcanos, some so big you could see them all the way on both sides of the area, and some so small you could crush them with a barefoot, and not feel a thing
As the five recruits continued on, they had the gas-masks attached to the neck of their jackets pulled over their mouths.
The gas-masks their used were very similar to the ones used by advanced infantry divisions in the Invictus Army that work by cycling un-breathable gasses and air, and filtering it into breathable air.
The problem with the methane in the volcanic region is that you can't fire a weapon in the methane because the explosion from the gunpowder in the bullet coming out of the barrel will melt the bullet before it would reach the target.
As the recruits were marching across the land, there was a scream, they looked behind them, and the thugs they thought wouldn't catch up with them was racing toward them.
"Run for it!" Sasuke exclaimed.
The recruits ran across the volcanic region before arriving at the Split, the area of the volcanic region that was split almost in half by The Event.
Sasuke looked around, and after a few seconds, he saw a simple land-bridge.
"There," Sasuke exclaimed as he pointed at the bridge.
The recruits crossed the bridge very carefully, once they reached the other side of the bridge, Sasuke spoke again, "Let's knock the bridge down," he said, "Use the butt-stock of your weapons."
Sasuke, Martin, Logan, and Damarcus repeatedly wacked at the bridge with the butt-stock of their rifles, which at first was a bunch of thumping.
"Ah fuck this," Damarcus said, "We're getting nowhere."
"They're coming!" Megan exclaimed.
"Damarcus, when we're far enough out, shoot this thing," Sasuke said, "Let's move!"
After the team ran for several feet, they stopped, turned around, and Damarcus fired, the grenade of course has no gun-powder behind the charge so when the grenade came flying out the end of the Blooper, there was no explosion, at least not until the grenade made impact.
The grenade struck the bridge just as the thugs were attempting to cross, and the resulting explosion launched the thugs backwards, and caused all the methane around the Split to explode violently.
The resulting fire cause the recruits to shield their eyes, and make a run for their lives.
As the recruits were running across the volcanic region, Logan stepped the wrong way, and his entire foot to about an inch below his knee sunk into a small volcano.
Logan screamed in pain, causing Sasuke to stop as the fire was coming at them.
Sasuke ran back to Logan who was stuck in the small volcano.
"Get out of here," Logan said, "I'm worthless."
"Shut up," Sasuke said as he yanked Logan out of the volcano, everything from an inch below his knee down was gone.
"Is it bad?" Logan asked.
"It's glorious," Sasuke exclaimed as he heaved Logan onto his shoulders, "Grab your weapon, and hold on!"
Sasuke ran across the volcanic region with Logan, following the fellow recruits.
After reaching the edge of the volcanic region, the force of the fire sent the four standing recruits diving face-first into the snow.
The recruits pushed themselves up, and brushed themselves off.
After gathering up their weapons, the recruits grabbed their weapons, and continued across the snow, with Damarcus carrying Logan while holding his M79 in one hand.
The recruits walked toward a large mountain that was about the same shape and height of the one back in the desert.
When moving across any place that's covered in snow, and you don't know which way you're going, it's the same principle as the desert, just find a natural landmark, and head straight toward it.
The recruits kept moving toward the mountain before arriving, and finding a single cave.
After squeezing through the small opening in the side of the mountain, the team entered into a small area about the size of a child's bedroom.
"We'll rest here tonight," Sasuke said, "Let's get set-up."
As the crew set up their gear, Megan took a look at Logan's wound.
"Is it bad?" Logan asked.
"Not as bad as you think," Megan said, "Let's get you a replacement."
"I'll call it in," Sasuke said as he hit the button on the strap of his pack, "Command come in."
"Command here," SS Gorman said over the other line, "What's up recruits? Had enough?"
"Fuck that noise," Sasuke said, "We need a replacement limb. Male, left leg, and a replacement boot."
"Got you," SS Gorman said, "Standby for med-drop."
After a couple minutes, there was the sound of metal hitting the ground, Sasuke looked outside, and there was a metal canister lying erect in the ground.
Sasuke brought the canister inside the cave, and opened it, revealing a synthetic leg, and a spare boot to replace the one that melted off Logan's foot when his foot melted.
"Alright," Sasuke said as he placed the synthetic-limb against the area where Logan's foot was gone, "This is going to hurt like hell, but it's better than one of us carrying you all the way to the extraction-point."
"Let's get it over with," Logan said as Megan placed a towel in his mouth to bite down on.
"Ok," Sasuke said as he hit the Merge button.
Four hydraulic grips came out of the leg, gripping onto the area below Logan's knee, and the next second, Logan screamed in pain as the small drill burrowed inside Logan's bone, and merged with his leg.
After several seconds of excruciating pain, Logan relaxed as the pain subsided, "God that hurt." Logan said.
"Ok," Sasuke said, "The instructions tell me to do a few tests. Now what I want you to do now is to flex your toes," Logan flexed his metallic toes, "Ok, now I'm going to hit a few basic controls," Sasuke hit a few buttons, and after about several seconds of a system check, everything was in the green, "Ok," Sasuke then slid the boot over Logan's new synthetic boot, "You're good."
"Thanks," Logan said as Megan offered him a bit of chocolate which he accepted.
"Anytime," Sasuke said as he slapped Logan on the shoulder, "What are fellow recruits for?"
"Never thought a rich-boy like you'd be interested in helping a middle-class son of a bitch like me." Logan said.
"We're all the same," Sasuke said as he sat against the cave wall, "Not the first time I've been called a rich-boy."
"Hey, that's not a bad codename," Logan said, "RichBoy."
"I like it," Sasuke said, "RichBoy."
"We going to just sit here?" Martin asked.
"To dangerous to walk a blizzard in the middle of the night," Sasuke said, "Rule one of ice-land survival."
"K, RichBoy." Martin said.
"It's growing on me." Sasuke said.
The next morning, the recruits picked up their weapons, and walked off in the direction of the forest, and their extraction point.
Keeping the mountain behind them, they continued on, soon finding themselves on the edge of the forest.
"Alright," Sasuke said as they crossed into the forest, "We've had water only once, and that was yesterday, "Grab your canteens, and take a drink."
After taking a drink, the recruits continued on.
Pretty soon they arrived at their extraction point, and Damarcus set off a flare, signaling the drop-ship.
Thirty seconds after the flare was sent up a shot rang out, and the recruits dropped to the ground as they were fired upon.
Sasuke peaked out from behind cover, and about twenty two Anarchy thugs came out of the canopy.
"We got hostile contact," Sasuke said, "Return fire."
Martin readied the Kar-98, took aim, and concentrated as he fired.
The bullet shattered the glass of one thug's TV helmet, and caused blood to explode all over the inside of the screen.
As Martin pulled back on the bolt, Megan fired two controlled bursts from the M3A1, the bullets killed two thugs.
Sasuke managed to kill about five by the time the drop-ship came in for a landing.
"Alright," Sasuke said as he looked at the recruits, and reloaded the Tommy-Gun, "Reload your weapons," after the recruits reloaded their guns, Sasuke continued, "When I say so, stand up, empty your clips, and run for your life!"
"Ready." Martin said.
"Alright," Sasuke said, "Ready? NOW!"
The recruits all stood up, and opened fire on the thugs, once their clips were empty, they turned toward the drop-ship, and ran.
As soon as the recruits were halfway to the drop-ship, the Anarchy thugs stood up, and fired.
With bullets whistling all around, the recruits dove into the side of the drop-ship, and took cover as it took off.
Once they were clear of the atmosphere, the recruits relaxed.
Heading back toward the station was no picnic either, they were only half done with the final stage of their selection.
When they arrived at the station, they were ordered to drop their bags, and march to the holding cells.
Once there, they were ushered into a holding-cell, and handcuffed to a chair.
A holographic brute that looked like an Anarchy thug with a TV over his head appeared in front of Sasuke.
"I'll ask you now," he said, "Why'd you attack our home?"
"Uchiha, Sasuke," Sasuke began, "Sergeant, 19-1-19-21-11-5."
The thug punched Sasuke across the face.
He asked again, Sasuke gave him the same reply, name, rank, and serial number.
This was like this for twelve hours until the hologram went off, and Sasuke was given water.
Sasuke was bleeding out of his nose, he had a black-eye, a cut lip, and a cut over his eyebrow.
The next morning it was the same for another twelve hours until the hologram went in for the killing-blow, and it was suddenly cut off.
Sasuke had a dislocated jaw, a cracked rib, a black eye, two cuts on his face, one large cut on his chest, and a bloody nose.
The next minute, Gorman walked in, and knelt in front of Sasuke, "I've thrown everything I could at your Uchiha. And you just took it on the chin, and kept going," Gorman began as he walked around the chair once, "As you know, the Spec Ops division of the Invictus Army is controlled by the council," Gorman then stood behind Sasuke, and knelt down to the chains that held Sasuke in place, "And you've impressed both them and me, you've shown me your loyalty to the Invictus Army is greater than any physical pain you can endure," Gorman unlocked the chains, and helped Sasuke to his feet, "Congratulations, because you belong to the council now."
Sasuke was helped, by Gorman into the med-bay where Martin, Logan, Damarcus, and Megan were getting treatment for their wounds.
Once Sasuke had everything that was broken and cut on him repaired, Sasuke and his fellow recruits were given new dress uniforms.
A pair of black leather boots, black TRU-SPEC 24-7 pants (for Megan it was a black skirt), a white short-sleeve TRU-SPEC tee-shirt, a special black dress-coat with the insignia of the Invictus Army's Spec Ops division on it which was the image of two olive branches that surrounded a skull, and a black beret with the same insignia on the crest.
As Sasuke, Logan, Damarcus, Martin, and Megan stood at attention in their new uniforms, SS Gorman walked in front of them.
"Well soldiers," Gorman said, "I must admit, I didn't expect this many of you to be here standing here in front of me. All five of you are the only ones out of your class that have aced the written exam, passed the hand-to-hand combat training, crushed the physical exam down on that planet, and passed the psychological test. You are the only five to not give up or be killed by these tests. For this, I commend you all. You've all done well, and I am now officially giving you what you deserve. A place among our Empire's greatest, and a one hundred and sixty eight hour leave until you are called to serve your empire."
"Thank you sir!" The five exclaimed.
"Good work men," Gorman said, "Grab your things, you leave begins the second you step on the surface of your home planet."
As the five soldiers were packing up, Logan asked, "So Sasuke, where are you going on leave?"
"I'm going home," Sasuke said, "Haven't seen my adopted sister, my little brother, or my parents in three years."
"Same here," Megan said, "I'm heading back to Aquarius. I want to get into some swimming."
"I'm going home also." Martin said.
"So am I." Logan said.
"And me as well." Damarcus said.
The five Spec Ops soldiers walked off, ready to face the Universes.
As the shuttle taking Sasuke home to his home-world of Metropolis took off, he wasn't too sure about how his parents would react to him being in the Special Forces now.
Sasuke's now a Spec-Ops soldier, and is heading home to face his parents, how should they react?