Planet: Kestra, Elite Training Grounds

First Insurgency War

MAIA

Her nerves refused to settle from the darkness of her podbunk. No one had the heart to celebrate their last day of training — not with the knowledge that for some it'd be their last day of life. Maia clutched her churning stomach, but she long since steeled herself for whatever life threw at her. Onto the other side of her bed, she tried to ignore the passing steps which faded.

I know she said the odds have improved, but by how much? It's not certain if she felt the need to bring it up...

The UC embedded into her unit ticked the next moments.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

She ignored everything to ease her jaded nerves. Hours passed, and a knock on her door jolted her out of her last minute doze.

"Maia Urtanes?"

Out of bed to face her ultimate fate, Maia came face to face with General Falae, who kept her promise — but not alone. Black Wolf stood beside her, arms crossed and gaze trained on the ground. He dug his face into the jacket he wore before, freshly laundered from the lack of dirt.

General Falae asked with a smile, "Are you ready, Maia? You indicated that you wished to go through with this."

"Ready as I'll ever be..."

When General Falae's smile softened, a stab of homesickness struck her through the heart. Maia held her arms rigid at her side and stepped out of the pod bunk for the last time. "Come on," General Falae said. "It's best to get this over with as fast as possible. I don't want you stewing over this for long."

Maia wandered out of the D-5 bunk, with her back turned to the semblance of normalcy, they entered the domed elevator. General Falae took out her ID and slipped it into the slot on the button panel. "Are either of you scared?" she asked while golden light hushed past in slow bursts. "You can be honest with me."

Maia hugged her sides. "Yes, I'm sorry."

"Why apologize, Urtanes?" General Falae asked with a turn. "Why apologize for the fact that you are afraid?"

"Well... before we entered B.T for Elites, the Instructors drilled into our heads that we're not supposed to feel fear," she pointed out.

General Falae closed her eyes with a small shake of her head. "I'd actually advise the opposite, Urtanes. Hold onto that fear," she observed. "If you weren't afraid of what was to come, I'd call you foolish. Fear isn't bad." She eyed Black Wolf, who refused to acknowledge either of them. "Ignoring fear makes people act rashly. Accepting your emotions strengthens you, and I consider it true bravery if you stand against the unknown despite the fear." Comfort chilled her boiling blood when General Falae turned back to the buttons. "This process will help you face the fears of those you'll be tasked to protect. Bravery in the face of terror will save more people than you and I will ever know." One more tip of the head, she smiled. "Smile. Stay strong, even when the black hole seeks to take that one small act of rebellion away from you."

Maia grinned at her wise words, but stopped when Black Wolf's brow creased in pain and he dug his nose deeper into the collar of the jacket — not afraid, but deep-rooted grief. In a moment, she wanted to reach out and understand him, but she stopped herself when he broke into unshakeable steel when the elevator slowed and came to a daunting stop.

General Falae led them through the dark corridors, where no noise rang through her ears save for the heavy footsteps. Around a curved bend, Maia shivered at the large, metal doors which lined the walls.

"I will be here," General Falae told them. "I'll check on your progress periodically." One more moment of silence, she frowned at Black Wolf. "James, I'm giving you one last chance to think about this. Once you go through that door, there's no coming back, do you understand me?"

"I understand," he said, calm while she shivered with terror. "I told you, Ma'am. I'm willing to accept the possibility of what may come next if that's what's waiting for me. It's not like I have anything left to go back to."

Maia choked at his words, while General Falae released a soft, sad sigh. Another moment where all she wanted to do was reach out. Unable to stop herself, she clutched Black Wolf's shoulder. He turned to her with a strange expression, but she tightened her grip. "I'll see you on the other side, Black Wolf."

Even if you're a smug asshole... you don't deserve what might come next.

His words rang a different tune compared to the terrifying presence he once commanded before General Falae slammed him into the dirt. No fear. No confidence. Only shattered acceptance of the last moment. He never wavered, and she let him go. "How long is this going to take?" Maia asked.

"It depends on the individual. It takes an hour or so for the edevium to run through the system," General Falae explained. "Another hour for the body to situate itself."

Maia nodded and headed for one of the open doors, but stopped when Black Wolf sneered at her.

"I'll see you on the other side, Mouse." Without another word, he stepped into one of the rooms and closed the door behind him.

Did he really just—? Maia clenched her jaw. Asshole.

General Falae smiled and took her into the room, where red-eyed Medic Elites stood around a golden, metal pod. The crosses on their arms glowed with iridescent lights which pulsed through the small cubicle.

"Urtanes." General Falae stopped her with a hand. "May I give you some advice?"

"Of course, Ma'am."

"I won't lie to you. This is going to hurt like the void hells," General Falae admitted. "You can't relent and give in to what your heart wants. You can listen to it once the edevium runs its course through you. Once the first phase of the injection is finished we will take you to a quiet place to get through the second phase and for some needed rest."

Maia nodded and hauled herself into the pod. It hissed and tilted so she came face to face with the dark ceiling. Every single cartridge along the inside of the carapace purred in response, loaded with a beautiful cyan liquid.

Edevium.

"You want me to stay until they begin, Maia?" General Falae asked while a Medic Elite stood at the panel.

Golden light dulled her senses. "I'll be okay, Ma'am. Thank you."

"Good," General Falae said and headed for the distant door, further out of reach. "Good luck, Urtanes. I'll come see you after."

Maia breathed deep, then smiled up at the Medic Elite when they patted her head. "Don't worry," a female voice spoke through the mask. "We'll be here for as long as it takes. We'll be using our abilities to keep you stabilised during the process. We're not letting you go without a fight."

Maia nodded. "Okay, let's do this."

She readied herself for the sensation of a thousand needles jabbing into her limbs, but no such sensation came. Maia took one more breath when the pod closed, and she couldn't ready herself in time for the punch in the heart that came with no warning.

Fire lit through her bloodstream. Her heart skipped a few beats while the gold turned into bubbling magma against her temples. Unable to time her breaths with her heartbeat, her mind screamed though nothing left her lips.

Edevium cartridges emptied around her.

Every heartbeat in the room came into focus to echo against her own. Her blood coursed through her ears with creepy clarity. Heart ablaze, it burned into nothing but ash. Darkness clutched the gold while her body writhed to escape the foreign agent. It wasn't pain, too light a word to describe the horrific tugging on her ribcage.

It was being dragged through all the black holes in the universe, with her head hitting rocky spikes while her mind turned into messy spaghetti, reconstructed on the edge of the event horizon. It swallowed her light, and all which surrounded it.

Falling.

Her head cracked against a rock trampoline, where the light called out for her return. Blood ran down her cheeks while she bit down on her tongue and tore it to shreds, healing over and over. Back down she went when the relief rejected her. Gravity showed its cruel whims when it drove her into the trampoline of crags. Each heave, the light grew close enough to touch.

Her fingers stretched out, but then she stopped.

The final landing knocked her silly.

Her heart screamed against her ribcage and longed to rush for the light.

It echoed every dying thrum.

Another sensation rolled with pain when she hauled herself off the blood-splattered rocks. Everything in the deathly dream snapped with the force of a galaxy birthing explosion. White stars filled her vision.

Reality melted her blood rock.

"...Abnormal BPM: 150, currently rising," an A.I voice in her head spoke.

Something rolled beneath her, and she listened to her heartbeat while it continued to beg for the light.

Except it wasn't just hers. Others sounded around her, but she ignored it to fight off the starfire bursts in her blood.

A Vita-mask hissed against her face and she breathed in the life it brought. Chills crept around her neck with a soft tickle of fabric. It eased the pain in her throat.

"Warning: BPM decreasing at alarming rate," the same A.I voice observed with all its emotionless fervour.

Thank you for the vote of confidence.

At her own clear thought, she snapped open her eyes. Two Medic Elites leaped out of their seats to assist her.

"Warning: BPM rising."

"Don't, Urtanes," the Medic Elite said. "Relax, or you'll relapse back into it."

Every heartbeat drove into her head. "Shut that thing up."

"Warning—"

The Medic Elite tapped a button, and cut off the A.I. Left with the collection of beating hearts. Others slow and steady, some fastened into focus. Each breath she took, white edevic lines pulsed off the world and brought her back the added information.

Maia closed her eyes, and the pulsing ceased.

It fell quiet.

Should I even try to open my eyes again?

With little else to do, she opened them. Vision back to normal, she blinked out the defined edges. As she pressed her back into her pillow, an Elite came forward. "You're alright, Urtanes. The worst is over. You're stable."

"Awesome..." Maia released the sigh stuck to her lungs. "Where is General Falae?"

"Right here."

The familiar voice made her investigate, where General Falae sat in one seat, book in hand. "You've made it out of the first charge. Good job."

"Hm." Maia gave her a shaky thumbs up. "What'd you know, it wasn't that hard after all." She winced when her heart skipped another beat, but she resumed the count of her life. "You weren't kidding — it did hurt like a bitch."

General Falae smiled. "You're being up to A-level. Once you've recuperated, you'll take a number test for your full rank."

"Really?"

"Yes." General Falae turned a page, where the crinkle of parchment overloaded her ears. "You've got a very strong heart, Maia. You recall how the grading system works?"

"I... a little," she rasped. "My head's killing me."

"You need some more rest, Urtanes," General Falae said. "This is a precarious time for new Elites."

"Wait." Maia sat up, but rested her hand against her chest when it tightened. "Ugh... did he make it?"

Black Wolf's attitude made her want to punch the grin off his face, but something within the grief-stricken pain battled her wish to knock him off his high horse. His words screamed with self-destruction when faced with a permanent fate, where he faced it without caring about himself.

General Falae raised an eyebrow, then pointed past her.

Black Wolf laid in the bed a few feet away from her. Sweat glistened across his brow, but he breathed deep and steady with the Vita-mask pressed against his face. He made no motion of ever hearing her arrival, or their conversation. Another Medic Elite stood nearby, observing him. Maia focused through the heartbeats to his, where it rang out with each rise and fall of his chest, and she returned her attention to General Falae.

"He was one of the first to come out of the initial charge, but he's still sleeping off the excess energy," she explained as she headed to Black Wolf's bedside, where her shadow embraced him with a mother's warmth. "He's a little feverish, but I expected that. You're both fine. Get some rest, Urtanes."

Annoyance replaced her dull ache. "And of course he's sleeping like a baby while I can't get my ears to turn off."

"You'll learn how to control that," General Falae said when she leaned over him to examine him. "Other Elites require a check-up, so I'll leave you to rest." She turned with a smile. "Welcome to the Elite Corps, Maia Urtanes."