AUTHOR NOTE: going to try and get this one in early, I really do like reviews by the way, at about this point I pretty much run on expensive whiskey, oxidized iron (RUST) and reviews. I'm going with the answers on the poll(if ever puts it up) within the next few chapters. That about sums it up. Bull shit cold ass winter is almost over, then I get few weeks of good 70 degree weather, then it gets hot outside sadly. OKAY HERE WE GO!
Meeting the Starlight Knights
I woke the next morning, groggy and angry at the fact that I was woken whine it was still dark. I look over to the digital projection clock on the space above the door, its red numbers shining out a horribly early time of 3:00 AM. What woke me was the sound of the door opening to the house and something heavy falling. So begrudgingly I decide to investigate, still in the clothing I fell asleep in, I walk to the door and reach up to the knob, turning and pushing, then stumbling out of my room, and I lean against the wall as I scrape my way to the front room. Where the noise must have come from, and to my surprise a short, scrawny looking bundle of a kid that looked like he had to be at least a year younger than me, was sprawled out with an over sized duffle bag strewn over his back.
"Who goes there?" I say in a yawn and walk over to the still open door and close it, I also notice at the base of the door, another pair of black leather combat boots slightly smaller than mine and an even smaller pair of fur-lined pink canvas boots, obviously belonging to the other two who were supposed to be here yesterday. Seems that they learned how to enter a house quietly as to not wake its occupants, I take my eyes off the shoes and bring them back onto the pile of child and winter clothing in front of me.
"Oi! Boy; You still alive down there?" I say quietly but forcefully so it doesn't wake up the other two in the house, and I poke him with my foot. He groans in protest and slowly turns himself over, and I see the extremely bright orange hair of the kid who somehow looks half dead and half asleep at the same time as he stares at me with dumbfounded look in his eyes.
"Who are you?" He asks while stifling a yawn, and then tries to shake the tiredness out of his head. I walk past him into the hall and turn around to face him at its opening, my hands in my pockets and most of the sleepiness gone out of my head.
"I'm Fawkes." I answer him then sigh as he still stands with the same nearly asleep look on his face. "Come on; let's find you a room, then maybe I can go back to sleep after being woken up." I say, then sigh again as he hangs his head and mutter something I couldn't hear, I ignore it as being unimportant for the time being and walk down the hallway, poking my head into bedrooms as I go along.
In the room right next to mine, a dark colored pile of long hair covers the pillow at the head of the bed. 'That must be the girl who the pink boots belong to' I think as I quietly back my head around the door jam and shut the door, twisting the knob so it wouldn't click as I closed it. Then the second room had a boy about my age laid out on the floor with half the blankets off the bed laying on him. The other have still lay on the edge of the bed. I snicker quietly then leave that room, shutting the door all the same, the third room I poked my head into had Instructor McGrath lying on the bed. Awake and reading something out of a folder under the red light of a night time flashlight. He looks up from it, sees me, then closes the folder and turns the light off before standing up and yawning.
"Why are you awake Fawkes?" he asks me while I still try to figure out why he was there, well… It does make sense that there would be an instructor watching a group of kids like us, it was kind of dumb of me to assume they would just leave us alone in a cabin to ourselves. I nod my head as the boy walks up next to me.
"Just trying to find this kid an empty room, his less than stealthy entrance woke me up." I say, trying not to yawn as I speak, and also try to stay awake as well. McGrath walks over to the door and grabs onto the other boys shoulder to steady the nearly asleep child.
"Go on back to bed; I got this covered. Tomorrow you can meet the other two; they got here just after you must have gone to sleep. I think you might like those two." He says while directing the boy into the last room in the house and I turn around and return to my own room, my brief period of alertness quickly waning away as I approach the comfortable bed, and I was out like a light when I hit the mattress.
My alarm woke me up at exactly eight o'clock in the morning, and I feel completely rested, even after that late night escapade.
I hop out of bed and go take a quick, blazingly hot shower, then throw on a set of forest camouflaged pants and a plain black shirt before I walk from my room and enter the front living room.
Rolled up into a ball on the couch was the same girl from the night before, her face hidden in her knees, she wore a set of black colored sweat pants and a sky blue colored shirt with a star league emblem on the back of it. And in the armchair next to the fire place was instructor McGrath. Still as awake looking as the night before, wearing his pressed officers suit, displaying the shiny gold bars and turquoise particle cannon bursts of a lieutenant instructor, as well as a silver star placed on top of a small Knights sword.
I grab a spot on the L shaped part of the sofa next to the girl and look at the television, the Atreus planetary news playing across the slightly transparent holographic screen. I wait for the other two boys to get up and come out to the living room.
"The other two are going to be asleep for a while longer, I shut their alarms off because they both got here really late. Miala over there got here an hour after you did about ten or so, and Hail got here at around one in the morning, and Niels got here at three so I turned off their alarms to let them sleep. Compared to those two, you and Miala live right next door to the training camp, they both lived on different continents than the Athena combat school." McGrath says quietly, trying not to wake up the sleeping girl next to me. I nod in recognition and turn my eyes back to the television.
A few moments later, the red haired kid stumbles out of the hallway, wearing a grey fur lined parka and black jeans. He walks three steps out of the hall, and then falls down flat on his face. It seems that he's a bit clumsy when he's tired.
He stands himself back up then walks to the sofa and sits at the far end, rolling himself into a ball not all that dissimilar to the one the girl, Miala; has herself rolled into. Then he promptly falls back into a lighter sleep, shortly later, the last boy, Hail; walks from the hallway. Fully awake and dressed in the winter camouflaged version of what I was wearing, and he had a brown heavy canvas parka with a fox fur lining folded up in his hands. He looks up at me and smiles brightly.
"Hello, you must be Fawkes; I'm Hail Collems, Nice to meet you." He says while sitting in the empty space of the sofa, and then looks at the two sleeping kids and sighs.
"Instructor McGrath… Can I wake up these two sleepers?" Hail mischievously asks, a little twinkle in his eye showing he was going to do something embarrassing for the rest of us to wake them up.
"Go for it; and call me Carl, being called instructor McGrath all the time make me feel old, I'm only twenty three." Carl says, looking away from the news to the sofa, and smiling at the childish antics soon to come.
Hail stands up, and then claps his hands once, louder than physically possible with hands that small.
Miala immediately wakes up with a quick shout of "I'm awake!" and then blushes in embarrassment.
While Niels flies from the sofa and smacks face first into the ground, once again providing a hearty laugh for the rest of us.
Once he recovered, we all ate simple MRE meals, just to save time that we already wasted by sitting around. Then we all headed to the parade grounds were all of the new MechWarrior trainees were being welcomed.
The first thing I noticed upon arrival was the murmurings and glares we were getting from the older, more aggressive looking men and women in the growing crowd. The second thing I noticed, which confused me a lot, we are the only kids there.
After a long and boring speech about how the protection of the free world's league and its entire people are up to us MechWarrior's, the rest of the cadets split off to wherever they were before coming here. My little group was also making its way back to the cabin, but not before I caught a disturbing conversation between two of the oldest looking trainees, both large men, looking to be in there early 40's. Even older than our instructor… what they were saying really bothers me.
"Hn. It's disgusting, using children to do a job those men should be doing, and even giving them their own quarters. Those arrogant brats are going to die." The smaller of the two says to the larger, grey looking man. Who replies with a sharp "Shut up. You're going to get us in a lot of trouble talking that way; I hate them as well, thinking there better than us. Getting special privileges' They WILL get theirs." I pale at the man's weakly disguised threat, and feel instructor McGraths hand clench my shoulder and steer me away from the area, pushing me faster than we were moving before. He must have heard it too; at least I know he will try to keep them away from us.
We soon reach the cabin and go back inside of its warmth. We all congregate into the living room and spread out on the couch, McGrath takes the arm chair again, and we all pretty much sit the same way we did before, almost like un-official assigned seating. Once we were all settled in, Instructor McGrath passes around a box with heavy brass pins in it; each one a named Star tipped Knights long sword with a blue ppc burst on each side of it, all set on top of a house Marik eagle, with the words Equitum Sidereus laser scribed into the purple painted eagles tail.
Each one of us took the ones with our names on them and I held mine in my hand, wondering at its marvel. I am so focused on it I almost miss the little speech from instructor McGrath.
"You are the Knights starlight, a new mech lance assembled for the protection of the inner sphere from the clans, pirates, and the periphery. Be proud of who you are, you are a new breed of MechWarrior's, and will from this day forth, begin training to protect and serve for the safety of the inner sphere." He says, a proud crescendo in his voice as he announces it, the four of us look up to him in awe, and I feel in my heart that what he said will be true. His words are what I truly believe in, peace and safety in the inner sphere.
That's all for now folks, 2100 words, longest chapter yet I'd have to say, review this. I like them. At some point I will set up a picture of the knights starlight pin, and when I do I will post it up to take a gander at by you people. i may at some point make references to roguebaron and ulquiorra9000's mechwarrior works, namely ulquiorra's prodigies and baron's Ikerensky series, just tidbits. I'm purposefully trying to write this so it doesn't directly relate with either's timeline in most parts of it, but in this, to think of a time frame of whats going on in the rest of the universe while the training is happening post op-bulldog the clanners make a prodigy-esque uprising. that is all, and yes, this can be considered free advertising for the prodigies and ikerensky, read them, review them. you wont be disappointed. at this point at the very beginning of training, is about... oooh a good 3 quarters through the prodigies storyline in timeframe for the rest of the universe, thinking that other shit is going on in the universe in this way helps me write. if either of you two authors dont like it. them may you go men in black style and mind wipe me. Ill try to keep direct references to a bare minimum. and read of the newer bits of your works at some point...
Have i told you yet that i absolutely fucking hate the cold?