Nova Academy's school year was split into thirds. Two of those thirds were considered the standard semesters, filled with normal school activities and classes. The remaining third part was then divided in half and separated so as to occur in between each of the two main semesters.
These two intermediate periods that were not designated for school work were commonly known as the 'vacation' periods as there were no mandatory school requirements during this time.
Contrary to its name, however, it was expected of most students that they would spend this time trying to improve themselves rather than relax. A hard working student could turn a single vacation period into the equivalent of a whole semester's worth of advancement if they tried hard enough.
The first vacation period of the year was quickly approaching for Nova, something that Kaden had not forgotten about as he sat at his workbench connecting molecule-thin circuits on one of the several devices in front of him.
This task marked the last of the modifications that needed to be made before he could finally do a full test of the equipment's functions.
Right on time, a soft proximity alarm chimed from the direction of the lab's entrance, an indication that the workshop's security system was scanning a visitor.
This was then followed by the sound of a robotic voice, "Permission granted… Alister Azimuth… to laboratory designation: '7"
Kaden had asked his friend for his help in testing the new weapon he was working on, as it would need someone with considerable skill to operate. This would also allow the tan Lombax to focus completely on monitoring the device's stress levels and energy readings during the experiment.
Once he'd crossed the threshold, Alister wasted no time approaching Kaden, "Nearly done?" he asked with a poorly hidden excitement in his tone.
For Alister, one of the best things about having a friend like Kaden was getting a VIP pass to all of the crazy inventions he would come up with. And, after seeing his friend so determined to design something, he was looking forward to seeing this latest one very much.
"Almost," Kaden answered without looking up from his work.
Kaden was wearing very large goggles, displayed on which was a real-time, nanoscopic video of the circuitry he was working on.
Although it appeared that he was directly manipulating the molecules themselves with the large sticks in his hands, he wasn't. The tools he held were actually just controls. Nanites, similar to the ones used in nanotech, were instead mimicking his tools' movements after scaling them down to the proper ratio size, which allowed him to freely complete the necessary high precision work that all new, modern technology needed.
Alister watched his friend work for a few seconds and wondered how long he'd actually take . 'Almost' was not a very specific time when spoken by Kaden, so the answer could really be anything.
"You really think you can stop Kor with this?" Alister eventually asked impatiently.
"I won't know until we test it, but I hope so," Kaden answered. "I've been looking forward to seeing this one's test run since I put those holes in the ceiling during the concept phase."
Alister looked up to see dozens of tiny pockmarks in the ceiling and nodded his approval.
As Alister continued to wait, the restless white Lombax began to explore the large room. Kaden's workshop was filled with all kinds of electronics, crafting equipment, and other inventions, a few of which he even recognized as ones he had already helped test.
"Are all these things going to be sold by Mercatus?" Alister asked.
"Any of them he wants to, yeah ," Kaden answered, still without looking up from his work. "He has some good connections with a group of Grummels. He wants them to market the devices outside of Fastoon. He says the right device at the right time could bring in a fortune and that his contacts are apparently really excited about my latest cryo-weapon."
"Oh yeah?" asked Alister curiously as he wandered to the back of the workshop . "What's it look like?"
"They're blue orbs that come out of a special gauntlet," Kaden called back distractedly. "The gauntlet generates them from a condensed state because they don't transport very well on their own."
Alister stopped walking and turned back to Kaden, "Wait a second. Isn't it illegal to sell Lombax technology to outsiders?" he asked suspiciously.
Kaden still didn't look up from his work, "There's an exception to every rule," he countered. "This weapon's design doesn't use any of the advanced manufacturing techniques or materials that are known only to Lombaxes."
Alister shrugged in acceptance of the answer, not that he knew enough to argue, "What does it do?" he pressed, while looking around for the object in question.
"The orbs are filled with Cryogel," Kaden explained. "You throw them from the gauntlet and when they explode the gel coats nearby enemies, freezing them solid."
"Oh! So they're like some kind of ice-grenade?" said Alister, suddenly spotting the blue orbs in the corner of the room, his love of grenades drawing him in.
"No," said Kaden, still not looking up from his work, "they're actually Cryomines."
"Cryo- wha-" Alister began, but was cut off by a loud bang, followed by the sound of rapid crystallization.
Kaden grinned to himself as he put down his Nanotools and looked up from his work at last.
Alister stood in the corner of the workshop with most of his lower body encased in solid ice. His frozen pose clearly showed him still reaching out to grab the device from where it had sat on the table, but the blast pattern of crystal showed that it had detonated at about his chest height.
'That means the seeker function worked,' Kaden noted observantly.
"I said," the tan Lombax began again, in a tone of mock annoyance at having to repeat himself. "They're not ice-grenades, they're 'Cryomines'. They've been designed to chase down any enemy that gets too close to them. I left them armed and in this far corner because I was testing how long they could last after activation."
"Wh-wh-when w-were you go-go-going to tell me that?!" stuttered Alister through chattering teeth.
"I wasn't," answered Kaden with a mischievous grin. "Hmmm, seems like they've lost some of their coating capacity. I guess it's been sitting a little too long," he noted aloud in disappointment. He'd been trying to work out the kinks in the cryo-formula for ages, but it seemed he still had a ways to go.
"Wh-wh-whatever, j-j-just get me out!" Alister demanded.
Kaden put up his hands, "Don't worry, I will… just chill out for a second."
Alister suddenly grasped the true danger he was in and his eyes filled with dread as he stared at the grinning face of his sadistic friend. He knew what was coming next.
Kaden then called out across the room, "Thermal Adjuster, charged forty percent positive."
Upon hearing the command, one of Kaden's two lab-bots rolled over toward Alister before raising a red glowing panel in one of its extending arms. It stopped just short of Alister's frozen form and held the device a few centimeters away. Seconds later, droplets of water began rolling down Alister's legs onto the floor as the ice began to melt.
Kaden then walked slowly towards his friendcicle, "Now Alister, what have we learned about touching things that don't belong to us?" he asked in the voice of a parent lecturing a child. "It's not very n-'ice'."
Alister simply stared back at his tan friend coldly, determined to endure.
"Don't give me that 'icy' glare," Kaden continued unabashed. "You've always had a bad habit of touching things you shouldn't. This time it was just a little cryogel, but what if next time you touch something that could actually hurt you? I 'shiver' to think what could happen."
Alister's expression didn't change, it was 'frozen' in its refusal to show any form of reaction towards Kaden's brand of torture.
The malicious Lombax frowned and waved a hand at his lab-bot, which then removed the heating panel from the half-thawed Lombax.
"Oh co-come on," Alister chattered.
"I don't care if you're bored, you need to stop touching things in my workshop." Kaden pressed. "Are we 'crystal' clear?"
"F-f-fine, I'm s-s-sorry. Now unf-f-freeze me already!"
"That's what I 'thaw'-t," Kaden said authoritatively before waving his lab-bot back to work.
After about a minute, Alister was finally freed from his icy prison and he turned to Kaden with an irritated expression.
"That better not have been the 'test' you called me down for," he growled angrily.
"Sheesh, no need to get 'frosty'," Kaden replied. "Don't worry, that wasn't what I needed you for. We're going to be testing out my latest personal-defense energy-weapon. I call it 'The Metal Storm'." Kaden then swiftly moved to another part of the workshop to grab a hover cart before beginning to place various pieces of equipment onto it.
"Then I'm still willing to help you and I'll even forget about the Cryomine thing... but only if you promise to cool it with the ice puns," threatened Alister with a serious tone.
Kaden froze, then, with a huge grin on his face, he slowly turned to look at Alister, "Ok. I'll 'cool' it," he agreed as he restrained himself from laughing out loud.
Realizing what he'd just done, Alister bowed his head in defeat and his ears drooped sadly to their sides, before he began walking listlessly forward to join Kaden in loading up the cart.
Once they'd finished loading the materials, Kaden's other lab-bot attached itself to the cart. The tan Lombax then ordered the assistant to follow them to the lift and the three of them left the workshop.
The group emerged through the back entrance of the main Science Field building. Their destination was a combat testing arena in the Military Field that Mercatus had rented for Kaden's use.
Kaden had heard of quicker ways to get to their destination if they took the lifts down and traveled through the mountain itself. Supposedly, a few floors of the Science Field actually connected directly with floors from the Art and Military Fields, but as a level one student, he wasn't allowed to access them… or technically know about them for that matter.
When the two Lombaxes finally arrived at the underground arena, Kaden was pleased to find that it had been set up exactly as he'd requested.
Scraps of metal were heaped into bins on the side of the room and two lifter-bots with magnetic attachments stood waiting patiently next to them. There were also three combat test androids stationed on the other side of the room, each equipped with both a projectile weapon and a plasma based weapon.
Kaden got to work immediately, explaining how his invention worked to Alister as he attached over a dozen nodes and power couples to his friend's armor.
"The Metal Storm generates strong magnetic fields around its user," Kaden explained. "The idea is to pick up scraps of debris from the battle field and throw them around as makeshift weapons. It should also be useful as a shield for blocking both solid matter or plasma-based projectiles. The system itself sucks up a ton of power though, so there won't be much anti-grav assistance. That means you'll have to carry most of the weight of what you pick-up yourself."
When he was finished, Kaden ordered the lifter bots to spread small amounts of scrap around the arena while Alister took up a position in its center. When everything was ready Kaden left the arena floor and moved to the observation room.
Alister gave his friend the final thumbs up and Kaden activated the device on Alister's suit remotely.
There was a sudden pulse of energy that emanated out from where Alister stood. The white-furred Lombax could see graphic representations of a dozen small magnetic fields blooming into existence, represented with dozens of vector lines in his helmet's HUD.
The fields themselves were invisible, but their presence could be seen in the wave-like pattern of shuddering scrap metal that rippled out from Alister's feet as the magnetic fields burst into life before stabilizing and becoming calm once more.
"You should be able to see the magnetic fields now," said Kaden over Alister's helmet intercom. "Try moving them with your hands."
At Kaden's command, Alister slowly raised his arms, where the main control nodes had been placed.
Despite being able to guess what would happen, Alister was still amazed to find that the magnetic fields responded directly to his movements. He then proceeded to move his hands and arms up and down and side to side experimentally.
Soon he began experimenting with the scrap around him. He found that whenever the lines on his visor, representing the magnetic fields, came into contact with a piece of metal on the floor, that metal would be pulled into the fields as if it were a piece of wood caught in a heavy tide, before then gently floating around the magnetic fields' center along its vector lines.
As Alister became more comfortable with the device, he decided to set about collecting all the bits of metal off the floor and gathering them into the various magnetic fields.
"Now try combining fields," Kaden commanded over the radio.
"How do I do that?" replied Alister.
"Just make two or more fields touch," Kaden explained. "If their centers get close enough, the Metal Storm's system processor will rearrange the field projectors automatically."
Alister did as he was told and commanded two fields to collide. As they touched, the vectors lines became chaotic as their magnetic fields interfered with each other . However, a second later, the lines realigned and became one, single field. Larger than either of the first two and containing all the metallic bits that they had collected.
With a little more instruction, he soon mastered how to create new fields at will and delete current ones with a snap of his fingers. All the while the shards of metal scrap flew and danced through the air like leaves in a heavy wind. He had complete control of a literal metal storm with nothing more than his fingertips and his NID.
From what he could see, Alister was growing more confident that the Metal Storm could make a decent combat weapon. Most importantly though, he found that it was a lot of fun to play puppetmaster to scrap metal.
After 'experimenting' on his own for a few minutes, the white-furred Lombax eventually forgot about the test completely and his actions devolved into him simply playing around with the device.
For example, he quickly collected all the metal scrap in the room into various magnetic fields, before combining it all into one massive ball of scrap. He then supercharged the field's power by closing his fists tightly. The increased focus of energy caused the metal in the field to spin faster and faster until it was whipping around in a roiling ball of jagged scrap.
As he watched his creation churn in the air, an idea struck him.
Alister released his fists , cutting energy to the one remaining field significantly, causing all the scrap to slow back down to a gentle swirling ball.
Once the Metal Storm system had reclaimed enough energy capacity, he created a new magnetic field centered on himself.
The feeling of his armor and insides being tugged by a powerful magnetic force caused a little discomfort at first, but once the field had stabilized he spread it out so that no vector lines ran through him and instead simply spun around him.
With preparations set, Alister pointed at the first, metal-ladened field and then pulled his arm back towards his chest.
The motion caused the metal-saturated field to collide with the new one and, as he then increased the power of the one around him, it began absorbing the material from the first.
He continued like this for nearly a minute, until every scrap of metal was spinning around his body as the two fields had completely merged into one.
For the final touch, Alister squeezed both hands into fists again and within seconds he found himself standing at the center of a massive metal cyclone that would obey his every command. He could now see the true suitability of giving it the name 'Metal Storm'.
Up in the observation deck, Kaden kept a careful eye on both the status readings of the Metal Storm on his digi-pad as well as Alister. The tan Lombax smiled to himself as he watched his friend visibly lose track of their objective to test the prototype and revert into a child with the newfound ability to move objects with a whim.
Eventually though, it was time to get back to work, "How does it feel?" he asked over the comm.
"Feels great, getting a little heavy though," replied Alister gleefully.
Despite his enjoyment, the white-furred Lombax had been noticing that his armor was starting to weigh more, specifically the parts that had Metal Storm nodes attached to them.
It wasn't a significant strain, but it made every move slightly more taxing and, after playing around for so long, it was starting to tire him out.
"That's normal," insisted Kaden. "I told you that there wouldn't be much grav reduction. You'll just have to carry what you can. I see you figured out how to surround yourself with a metal shell. Try reaching out with your arms then slowly pull them into your chest."
Again, Alister did as he was instructed.
When he reached out with his arms and still closed fists, the magnetic fields slowed and aligned the material evenly around him before settling into a lazy orbit.
Then, as Alister pulled his arms closer, the wall of metal began to swirl around him at a much faster pace, even surpassing what it had done before. The closer his fists got to his chest, the faster the material moved.
Faster and faster it spun around him and, between the friction of the air and intense pressure of the magnetic fields, the metal began to glow hot.
By the time his hands touched his armor, Alister was surrounded by a whirlwind of angry, cherry-red metal that looked as if it could shred a fully armored Lombax in seconds. From Alister's point of view, having this power at his fingertips was so empowering that it was almost terrifying.
"Alright, it looks stable," came Kaden's voice again. "Moving on to phase two."
"Phase two?" repeated Alister curiously over the comm. He hadn't even known that there was a phase one.
Kaden didn't answer him. Instead, Alister squinted through the fog of metal and could just make out the figures of the three combat drones in the corner suddenly come to life. They then rolled forward and surrounded him.
The bad feeling that Alister had gotten when Kaden had said 'phase two' was venerated, as he watched the robots release the safety locks from their rifles and take aim.
Before Alister could voice his considerable concerns, the drones opened fire.
Instinctively, the white-furred Lombax threw up his arms to protect himself, but as gunshots rang out, filling the air with the repeating sound of their discharge, Alister felt nothing.
Slowly, with the gunfire still chattering, he raised his head and took a look around.
The drones were still shooting at him and they were definitely pointing directly at him, but the metal slugs they were spraying never reached their target. Instead, they were being immediately swept up in the magnetic field that surrounded him.
Though not being stopped completely, they instead were being veered off course and carried along with the magnetic tide until finally expending enough energy to be absorbed into the maelstrom, becoming just another piece of Alister's collection.
Still, it was more than enough to feel safe from harm. When he finally realized that he was in no danger, Alister laughed nervously in relief.
"Phase three," said Kaden in monotone.
All at once the firing stopped and the droids lowered their projectile weapons. Then they raised their plasma rifles in unison, once again aiming at Alister's chest.
Unable to help himself, Alister flinched again as the hissing whine of discharging plasma filled his ears, but... yet again nothing hit him.
He looked up once more to find, again to his relief, that the balls of superheated gas were being shattered against the spinning wall of metal and scattering amongst the scrap like glowing flower petals, before being swept up by the magnetic fields as if landing in a flowing river.
As the energy continued to follow along the magnetic field lines, it mixed with the metal scrap , turning entire sections of the dark red debris into bright and radiating oranges, yellows, and even piercing white as the material absorbed the heat.
"I'm glad that part was successful," said Kaden with a clear note of satisfaction. Alister could almost hear his tan-furred friend grinning through the intercom, "I wasn't sure if the magnetic properties of the plasma would be strong enough for this, but it appears to be working out better than expected."
"Yeah , I'm glad too," said Alister in annoyance, though he was sure that his friend had extensively tested the device before firing live rounds at him… well, pretty sure, "If it hadn't worked, then we'd have had to test my theory next. You know, the one about kicking a Lombax in the tail so hard that it comes out the other end?"
Kaden laughed to himself, "I told you already, an average Lombax tail is far too short. It'd never make it through all the intestines," he countered with his usual response to Alister's favorite threat.
"Still worth a try in my opinion," pressed Alister, finishing their joke.
"All right then, on to the next test," Kaden declared, as he refocused his mind. "Try to hit the drones with the metal by striking out at them, and get creative. In theory you should be able to make the metal move like a tidal wave and blast a drone in a flood of scrap."
Alister nodded his understanding and turned to face one of the drones that stood around him. He then proceeded to try and do as Kaden wanted, but the task turned out to be much more challenging than he'd expected.
Whenever Alister tried punching forward with his arms, the metal in front of him would fly outward toward his target, but it retained its angular momentum and missed where it was aimed completely.
Alister then tried to compensate by leading his projectiles and taking bigger swings that allowed more material to be launched at once.
After a few more swings, he was starting to get the hang of predicting the metal's path, but if he was off with his timing by even just a little, the scrap blast would miss completely and it would then take the white-furred Lombax some serious effort to rein the material back into the funnel around him.
The constantly shifting weight didn't help either. Whenever he threw a chunk of metal, several pieces would always have enough momentum to leave his magnetic field, which would make a node or two on his suit slightly lighter, throwing him off balance slightly.
However, those lost pieces of metal would sometimes brush against the magnetic field again and be unintentionally reabsorbed. Their weight would then suddenly return to him and pull him down on an entirely different body part.
The situation was even worse when the metal managed to escape above him and was then reintegrated as it came back down, forcing him not only to take on the weight again, which he often couldn't see happening, but also the added strain of dissipating the additional gravitational momentum of its fall.
The whole process was literally like trying to juggle thousands of heavy metallic shards. Each change in weight was relatively small, but the strain of all of them combined was quickly adding up and Alister's stamina was rapidly draining. On top of that, he was still barely able to hit the targets… and they were stationary!
"Kaden," wheezed an exhausted Alister, "I don't think this is a very practical offensive weapon," he admitted sadly. "Don't get me wrong, I like the not getting shot and the whole bending junk to my will parts, but in a firefight I don't think I'd want to be armed with this."
Kaden pondered Alister's words. In truth, he'd already known that this outcome was a relatively high possibility despite the success of the device's many lab tests. The sad, but all too familiar feeling of a project being mentally labeled a failure began to grow in his chest. Plus, he knew that the system also had another 'very big' downside that they hadn't even addressed yet.
"That might not even be the worst of it," said Kaden sullenly over the intercom.
"Then what is?" Alister huffed back.
Alister immediately regretted asking the question the moment he realized how he'd likely get his answer.
With a simple command from Kaden, the two lifter bots reached down in unison and together, picked up a massive metal ingot that had been lying on the floor next to the scrap carts.
Both androids visibly strained their joints' motors as they lifted the heavy block of metal into one of the now empty carts, which groaned audibly as the considerable weight was added to it. Together the two robots both pushed the cart into the metallic tornado.
At first, Alister was not sure what was going on. He watched the androids let go of the cart and then he watched the cart come closer to him. Then he watched as the cart crossed the threshold of the digital vectors that made up the edge of his moving magnetic fields and made contact with the he ingot.
A moment later, Alister was slammed into the ground, the weight of his armor suddenly overwhelming him, as his nodes attempted to lift the cart and the ingot inside.
Alister raised his head from the floor disorientedly and tried desperately to disperse the field around the cart, but succeeded in only pushing more vectors towards it, increasing his suit's focus on trying to lift the new metal.
Luckily for Alister, the magnetic field generator nodes were mostly on the front of his armor, which was now between him and the floor, so most of the weight simply pinned him down. Had he landed on his back however, he may have been crushed by them.
As Alister struggled in vain to pick himself up again, the weight holding him down suddenly disappeared and he sucked in a massive breath in surprise.
After blinking a few times curiously, Alister slowly got up to his knees. But then the bits of metal that had been left spinning above him were retaken by gravity and the white Lombax was forced to dive back down and cover his head as the shards of scrap rained down onto the floor.
After the last clangs of metal had faded out of existence, Kaden walked out into the arena area and made his way up to Alister's sprawled form without even a glance toward him. His eyes were instead glued to his digi-pad and his free hand stroked his chin as he considered the results.
"Was that actually necessary?" asked Alister as he rolled over onto his back and looked up at Kaden.
"Well this was a test of the system's limits and that includes user limits, so… kind of," Kaden answered with a half-hearted shrug. He then scribbled a few more notes on his digi-pad before attaching it to his belt and leaning down to give Alister a hand up.
"I'll admit that it was pretty cool, but it falls just short of actual practicality," Alister declared honestly. "Maybe with years of practice and another hundred pounds of muscle I'd be comfortable taking it into a fight, but not now."
Kaden nodded his reluctant agreement. He had also already given up on the Metal Storm in its current form and had already started pondering if there was any way that he could salvage the design.
Maybe he could attach the system to a large disk-like object that could be launched at a group of enemies, making a single, localized hurricane of magnetic force. Or maybe even a large magnetic ball that could roll across a battlefield, crushing and picking up enemies as it went.
The only problem he could foresee would be figuring out how the user could control and direct such weaponry without the nodes being connected to, and subsequently interfering with, a user's standard range of actions.
"I had hoped to use the Metal Storm as a way to fight Kor without giving him an opening to attack, but I guess not," Kaden admitted disappointedly.
"Kaden, I get that it was a big deal," Alister began with mild concern, "but we haven't even seen or heard about him in months. Ever since he got promoted to level two he's been a ghost. Don't you think you're being a little too obsessive?"
"That only makes it worse," retorted Kaden with a shake of his head. "The way I see it, I've worked for all this time and I'm still no closer to beating him than I was back then. We're not even level two's yet. Kor accomplished that in his first few weeks."
"Then I have some good news for you!" shouted Varick from the arena entrance.
Neither Kaden nor Alister had seen him come in and the two spun around in surprise.
"Oh?" said Kaden with a curious yet cautious tone.
He was a little annoyed at how the president always seemed to pop up as if he'd been watching the whole time, but he was also intrigued because Varick usually only ever showed himself for a reason.
"Indeed," beamed the tall, white-furred Lombax happily, ignoring Kaden's constant expression of annoyance towards him, "for both of you in fact. As of today you are both level twos!"
Kaden, Alister, and Varick all sat in a Military Field lounge, located near the Military Field's stardock. Unlike the Science Field, however, these lounges were stripped to the bare minimum and could barely be considered worthy of their name. The area was nothing but hard chairs, thin tables, and a few holo-screens tuned to Nova Academy channels.
The only real purpose such facilities served were as staging areas for teams getting ready to board one of the shuttles docked on this side of the mountain or meeting up with teammates and going to some kind of extracurricular group activity… like war.
"What do you mean we're level twos?" Kaden asked again.
Varick had refused to answer the question until after they'd cleaned up the arena and made it to the lounge area.
"Exactly as I said," the president began after he'd gotten comfortable, "in just a short while you, Kaden, and you too, Mr. Azimuth, will both be receiving official notification through your NIDs that your status as Nova Academy students has been upgraded to that of level two for the Science Field and Military Field respectively. You'll also be receiving all the security clearance and privileges that come with it," Varick finished while looking very pleased about it.
"But why?" asked Alister. He had expected Kaden to be promoted quickly in the Science Field, his friend was a genius after all, but he himself had only performed marginally better than the average student in all of his classes. He hadn't expected to get promoted until at least the end of the first semester.
"Because, Alister, ," replied Varick with an encouraging smile. "You sell yourself far too short. Getting second in the MSE Tournament on top of your near perfect aptitude for all basic weapons and combat makes you an excellent candidate for promotion; unlike Kaden here who scored a zero in the tournament. It's a good thing that he's a Science Field student and not a Military Fielder," Varick added with a laugh.
Kaden tried to give Varick a dirty look, but nothing could penetrate the smiling white Lombax's aura of cheerfulness, "In fact," he continued undaunted, "it should also be considered a miracle that he got promoted in the Science Field at all, what with his extreme lack of motivation for class work, or anything really, that doesn't happen in his little workshop. He's not even signed up for a single extracurricular activity in the entire Academy."
"Why am I being promoted then?" questioned Kaden in annoyance. He was sure Varick was purposefully prodding him with his words, but he'd had enough.
Varick simply smiled back at him, "Because your scores are well above that which the average level one student would display. That's partly thanks to me, though," the smiling Lombax finished with a self-satisfied look.
"And how's that?" Kaden asked with a sigh, realizing that Varick had yet again been meddling in his life.
"Because I told your instructors to give you all that extra work and those harder tests," Varick said proudly. "I'm sure you've noticed the schoolwork you were getting was twice as difficult as your classmates'." Kaden looked confused at Varick's words, which made Varick take pause and match his confused expression. "Didn't you notice that the material you were studying and being graded on were from higher level classes?" he asked.
Kaden tried to recall ever having thought his school work was too difficult before shaking his head slowly, "No, I don't 'think' so," he answered simply.
Varick's smile didn't disappear, but it twitched for a moment and now looked slightly forced, "Well that's... That's actually really irritating," he said through his teeth. "Well, whatever. Now you two can leave Nova this vacation and still get school credits," he added dismissively as his expression returned to its usual cheerfulness.
This time, both Kaden and Alister looked confused.
"I was planning on experimenting in the workshop all winter," said Kaden with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not going anywhere."
"And I was going to visit Kreeli Comet for a while," added Alister, "to help with the mining security detail."
"I know, that's what I was talking about," replied Varick. "Well, not about what Kaden was saying, he's quite mistaken. You see, both of you have been officially contracted by Azimuth Trillium Mining Industries for the duration of the vacation period."
Kaden looked at Alister, "Did you know about this?" he asked.
Alister shook his head, showing as much bewilderment and surprise on his face as Kaden.
Varick simply continued talking, "It is for precisely this type of situation that Nova Academy even allows level two and three students to go on contracted missions at all. Originally, at Nova's founding, no students were allowed to work outside of the academy until level four, but some families, like the Azimuths, usually make their children come home for the vacation periods to help with family business and learn about their future responsibilities. This has caused some problems, however, since many students use the vacation periods to try and improve their class ranking. This meant that the ones who instead went out and gained real-galaxy experience often unjustly fell behind. Eventually, Nova Academy allowed level two and three students to complete contracts by request so that students could learn about their likely future occupation and still get credit for it."
"Hold on," interrupted Kaden. "I was requested too?"
Varick nodded and was about to speak again, but paused as he noticed the chronometer on one of the Holo-boards, "You know what?" he said as he leaned back in his chair. "Rather than have me explain the details, why don't you just read the request for yourselves, hmm?"
Just as the president finished his sentence a message alert blinked in Kaden's peripheral vision and from Alister's simultaneous reaction, it was apparent that he must have received one too.
Kaden and Alister both touched the surface of the table they were sitting at and a holo-screen that was automatically logged into through their respective NID was displayed for both of them. Both Lombaxes then quickly moved to their mailboxes and opened the message from their NIDs.
Just as Varick said, they had both received an official congratulations at having been selected for promotion to level two. This was followed by a list of floors in their respective fields that they now had access to, new classes that they were now allowed to take, a small section about school events they were now allowed to participate in, and an explanation as to how the contract system worked. The latter, for the most part, had already been explained to them by Varick.
About a minute into reading the first message, a second one appeared. They both opened it as well and found it to be the contract request from Azimuth Trillium Mining Industries that Varick had mentioned.
In it was explained that the company wanted them to work over the winter vacation for the Kreeli Comet Security Division. It also explained that there had been frequent sightings of Agorian ships around the Comet's current sector recently.
Agorians were a very aggressive warrior race that made a living by attacking and pillaging settlements or by selling themselves as mercenaries. It looked like the CEO of Azimuth Trillium Mining Industries, Alister's father, was concerned that they might attempt a raid on his mining operations, thus the request for extra security.
"This is the first I've heard about any of this," said Alister, somewhat irritated about being left out of the loop. "This looks like a copy of a formal job posting too. Father is probably hiring more than just a few new security forces besides us."
"Well I can't say I blame him," Varick said. "Agorians are just dumb enough to think they have a chance at successfully raiding a Lombax territory. They never seem to learn, though, that might be because they stopped evolving as a species. When does it say you leave?"
Alister checked the message again, "It says we have until the end of the semester to respond. I guess that's when we go," he answered.
Kaden scratched his chin, "Hmmm, that's not enough time to finish any of my current projects," he said as he thought about the contract. "I hope Mercatus will be ok with what I've made so far."
"Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine," said Varick dismissively before standing up. "Besides, the best part of this great news has yet to come. Now that you're a level two, Kaden, I can begin authorizing you for official Science Field missions and contracts! I already have a short list that you'll be perfect for."
"Funny, I don't remember giving my consent to anything like that," Kaden said, knowing there was probably nothing he could do about it.
"Just a formality," replied Varick cheerfully. "Well then, just in case I don't get a chance to say it later, or, you know... forget, let me wish you both good luck on your first Nova Academy contract."
Varick then left the table and strode jovially out of the lounge doors. Kaden shook his head before turning back to the message to read the contract in more detail.
The timing of the request was actually pretty good. He still needed to test the majority of his latest inventions in actual combat before he used them to fight Kor. And, if he was lucky enough, or if the Agorians were unlucky enough, he'd soon get the chance to do just that.
AN: In this chapter, Kaden first ponders the basic concepts for weapons that would eventually become the Tornado Launcher and the Dynamo of Doom. He mentions the only problem would be with controlling the weapons, but both devices are eventually controlled by the sixaxis of the PS3 controller.
The Agorians - are a violent, warrior race who like to fight more than anything else. As Varick mentions in this chapter, they have stopped evolving as a species in official canon.