《Outlook: The Stars (Consciousness Unbound Book 1)》


 Prologue: A Penny For Your Thoughts

    It would¡¯ve been nice if Rune could¡¯ve been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Unfortunately, the stars hadn¡¯t aligned for Rune. He¡¯d been popped out of his mother¡¯s womb in New Southern Chicago, the largest slums in all the United States, home to nearly five percent of the population, roughly fifteen-million humans at the time. Like a fairly large portion of the people unfortunate enough to count themselves among those in the mega-slums, Rune and his family were all strays.


    Strays were the dregs of society, the lowest rung on the proverbial ladder of American social class. The term had originated some eleven years before Rune¡¯s birth, in 2123, when Congress had passed the Subsidization Congressional Initiative and with it the Poverty and Unemployment Subsidization Congressional Initiative, also known as PUSCI. The Initiative was the back end of the response to what had come to be known as the Great Flood of 2100. Several major population centers lining the southern American coastline had been flooded and destroyed, and the government entirely lacked the funds to continue supporting the National Flood Insurance Plan. Instead of continuing the NFIP, Congress repealed the NFIP and passed the Relocation and Temporary Housing Act, moving vast numbers of people inland and into smaller cities and temporary housing.


    These millions of destitute and evicted refugees had formed massive tent cities which had eventually grown into slums¡ªcase in point New Southern Chicago. With not nearly enough jobs to go around and millions stuck in deplorable conditions, Congress would steadily pass various social welfare programs angled towards improving the lives of people in the various mega-slums, ramping up in scale and effect over the years. In 2123 Congress would pass the SCI and with it, PUSCI, widely regarded as one of the worst debacles of acronym history. The initiative would affect those millions contained within the mega-slums, and provide subsidies and the bare necessities for those unable to obtain them, and housing for families with young children. For a short while after the Initiative¡¯s passing opposers of the Initiative would derogatively call users of the Initiative pussies, denouncing them as the dead weight of society either not skilled enough to get a job or too lazy to work. Supporters would more generously call them cats. Then, after the opposition pointed out to a supporter in a forum argument that they shouldn¡¯t be called cats but instead strays as they lived on the streets, the current term came into being. Both romantic yet derogatory at the same time, the slang term spread like wildfire through social mediums and become the most commonly used term for PUSCI beneficiaries. And some eleven years later Rune would join the ranks of millions of strays within the United States.


    Being a stray was hard. Even more so being the eldest son in a large family. As the eldest son of six, Rune was expected to take care of the rest of his siblings as a child. More than one school day had been skipped to take care of sick siblings while his father had slaved away in a fusion plant and his mother had worked endless part-time jobs. It had gotten worse when Rune was ten and subsidization for government-sponsored housing for impoverished families was cut in half. Between paying protection fees to gangs in the slums and paying for the roof over their heads, the Yahuis were barely squeaking by. Things eased up when Rune started taking on part-time jobs himself¡ªat the expense of his class time.


    At the time, it had seemed like such a good idea. Skipping a couple classes here and there to help pay the bills and keep everyone out of the wind and cold of the frigid Chicago winters seemed a small price to pay. But a couple classes had snowballed into five, then ten, then an entire week, and before he knew it, he¡¯d racked up so many absences he couldn''t pass the grade. Now at nineteen years of age, having been held back a year and gotten a GPA of only 3.03 Rune knew he was screwed.


    There were two ways out of the slums. Either you could go to college, or you could enlist. With a GPA of 3.03 and having been held back a year, Rune¡¯s chances at getting into college had been abysmal. A hundred years back a GPA of 3.03 would¡¯ve been fine if he wanted to go to college. But in 2153 the college game had entirely changed. With the flooding of the majority of the major coastal population centers in the United States had come the flooding of a large number of colleges within the United States. With a significantly decreased number of colleges for applicants to apply to, the competition had intensely fiercened. It was rare to see anyone get into college with less than a 3.5 GPA. Even rarer for someone from the mega-slums with the need of a financial aid package. Besides, Rune didn¡¯t want to get saddled with hundreds of thousands in student loans if he was going to a bottom tier college. There simply was no place for Rune in academia, and the couple applications he did file were all rejected.


    The military was as much of a crapshoot. Once upon a time enlisting hadn¡¯t been too hard. All you really needed to do was graduate high school, not commit crimes, be relatively fit, and not fail the ASVAB. But the ASVAB had been revamped, and candidates not just needed to be fit but qualified. In the wake of the formation of the United Face of Humanity or UFOH by the Alliance of Powers (AP), the Southern Alliance of Island Nations (SAIN), and the US and UN, there weren¡¯t a lot of places for troops to be sent. For one of the first times in history, the vast majority of the world was peaceably allied with each other while they rebuilt their countries. People were focussed on peace and rapid demilitarization occurred, especially in America. The army was shrinking¡ªmore applicants weren¡¯t needed. But to the many impoverished and unemployed stuck in the mega-slums, the prospect of food, warm meals, and steady pay was very, very appealing. Hundreds of thousands applied every year. Only the best got in. Rune was in good shape and at the cost of two years and nearly all of his pocket money had managed to grind the rank of ace in a VR game called Whirl of Warplanes at the only VR arcade in New Southern Chicago. Unfortunately being well qualified to be a pilot didn¡¯t help him at all¡ªhe learned far too late from the enlistment officer that you needed to be an officer to qualify to be a pilot, and to be an officer you either had to go through college ROTC or be very, very well qualified and get into a military institution. Rune hadn¡¯t a prayer of either of those things happening.


    That was probably why Rune was in the process of signing his body away to the government. He didn¡¯t want to spend the entirety of his life in the slums and was willing to take a risk to get out.


    In 2124, the UFOH had begun the Virtual Citizen plan, an attempt to curtail the massive population overburdening Earth. The plan was exceptionally ambitious. In 2117 humanity had reached the virtual singularity, the point at which VR technology had become able to create worlds physically indistinguishable from the real one. The VC plan was a project to digitize billions worldwide through the process of extracting their brains, storing them in specialized VR dive pods, and placing them in underground stations complete with the servers that would host the world that the VCs would live in. The VCs would need a fraction of the nutrients just to upkeep their brains and wouldn¡¯t take up living space on earth. Even better was the fact that the digitized citizens would leave behind their bodies. All the various components of their bodies, including organs, bone marrow, DNA, whatever the human body contained, could all be harvested for a few million of profit. It was ingenious. Not just were the governments getting rid of excess population, the plan would practically pay for itself.


    It took twenty-five years for the UFOH to finally accomplish their goal. A full two-thirds of that time was spent engineering the needed tech, the final third was spent fine-tuning it. The project was a wild success. While the survival rate of the operation was only 95 percent, many millions from the slums across the world opted into the program. It was practically the only chance at a better life for millions.


    With no chance at college or the military, Rune could definitely count himself among those hopeless millions. Similar to the number of college entrees and military entrees, the program also had a low number of entrees: the UFOH was only getting maybe three-million off the planet every year and there were far more than that in terms of applicants. Somehow though Rune had gotten lucky and he¡¯d won the proverbial lottery for this year¡¯s shipment of VCs. Rune had gotten his ticket early on in the year. He¡¯d hoped to make it to college or into the military but had drawn a blank. While living in a video game sounded great on paper, he wanted to stay with his family and friends and most importantly didn¡¯t want to lose his body. There was also the risk of death. But Rune wanted to make something of himself. And he¡¯d never do that trapped in the slums. So there he was, sitting in the lobby of New Southern Chicago¡¯s VC office, signing away his body to the government.


    Do you forfeit your United States citizenship in order to become a Virtual Citizen of the UFOH?


    Rune grimaced and then checked the digitized checkbox on the PDA next to the statement. It was the last term on the form. He scribbled in his signature on the empty line below it. As a VC, technically, he wouldn¡¯t be an American citizen anymore. America was part of the UFOH, but the UFOH was technically a separate political entity. Not that it mattered. Soon he wouldn¡¯t even be on Earth and he¡¯d leave the UFOH, the mega-slums, and everything he¡¯d ever known behind.


    Rune got up and carried the PDA across the lobby to the cute registrar behind the main desk who was tapping away at a keyboard, entering something into her digisheet. She didn¡¯t even glance up as he came to a stop.


    ¡°Done?¡± She asked the question in a curt tone.


    Nervous and wanting to be on with the process, Rune kept his response minimal. ¡°Yeah, finished filling out the forms. Where should I put this?¡± He waved the PDA in the air.


    The registrar¡¯s eyes flickered to the empty desk space in front of Rune before flickering back to her computer. ¡°On the desk.¡± She paused for a moment before continuing, ¡°As soon as we verify that your forms are signed and in order, I¡¯ll call a nurse in to take you to your operating room. Expect a fifteen-minute wait.¡±


    Rune shuddered. ¡°Alright, sounds good.¡± The words came out a little shaky. He set the PDA down and gave her a nod. ¡°I¡¯ll just, uh, be waiting in the lobby then.¡± He turned around and strolled away, navigating his way through padded chairs filled with soon-to-be fellow VCs before finally getting back to the chair he¡¯d been sitting in. Rune flopped down bonelessly down into the empty chair.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    After letting out a shaky breath and smoothing back his forehead length hair, Rune checked his Digiwatch. It read 3:24. That meant that they should call for him at roughly 3:39. Rune let out another shaky breath. He really didn¡¯t like dissections. The idea of something underneath his skin and messing around with his organs¡­ Rune shuddered again.


    Just think of bunnies. Bunnies, sheep, puppies, kittens, cute things, scalpels, brains, broken bones, they¡¯re gonna dissect me and rip my brains out¡­


    After attempting to take his mind off his upcoming excerebration and failing miserably, Rune instead opted to see if he couldn¡¯t chat up the people sitting next to him. Glancing to the left, he saw an older man, maybe in his mid-forties or early fifties. Judging by his ratty, torn and mismatched red fleece and orange jacket and a rather unkempt appearance, the man was a stray just like Rune. And now that Rune was paying a little better attention, he finally realized where that smell was coming from. Rune¡¯s face soured a little, and he observed the man a little more closely. He in the midst of reading through the form that Rune had just filled out. The PDA was less than five inches from his face, and it seemed that the man was scrutinizing every line of the document. Rune didn¡¯t really feel like bothering the man, so instead, he looked at the person sitting on his right.


    Sitting to his right was a girl. But not just any girl. She seemed to be an uptowner. Rune did a double take. The girl was dress in the flowing, loose expensive clothing that was the current fashion trend in America. More telling was the fact that she was clutching a holophone in her right hand. That was a sure sign of at least moderate wealth. Pretty much everyone had a cellphone¡ªbut very few had holophones. A cheap holophone sold for upwards of two thousand digicoins which were enough for a mega-slums family to feed themselves for a year. Rune had seen them stolen before with his own two eyes at both gunpoint and knifepoint. She was definitely an uptowner to have both a holophone and that clothing. The only real question was what was she doing in the mega-slums VC office? Rune knew that there was an uptown VC office. Not just that, but to use the VC office in a district you had be a resident of that district, which meant residing there for more than a month. She would¡¯ve had to go out of her way just to be allowed to go through the VC office.


    ¡°Hey,¡± the word got caught in his throat and didn¡¯t come out quite right. The girl didn¡¯t even start, so he decided to try again, assuming she hadn¡¯t heard him.


    ¡°Hey. You from uptown Chicago?¡± Her left hand swiped a couple times and a couple more images from her holophone shifted around. Otherwise, there was no response. Rune scratched the back of his head. He was almost certain that the girl had heard him that time. He decided to switch tack and try a more neutral approach.


    ¡°Uh, so¡­ I¡¯m Rune. Do you have a name?¡± He asked the question in as friendly a voice as he could possibly muster, a warm and entreating smile stretched across his face. The silence stretched as the girl ignored him and continued doing whatever it was she was doing on her holophone. Rune¡¯s warm smile soured a little. He knew that there could be some pretty bad discrimination against strays, but if this girl didn¡¯t like strays what was the point of coming to their district to enter the VC program when she could do it perfectly well from her own? Annoyed but wanting to crack the enigma, Rune tried to strike up a conversation a third time.


    ¡°So then miss nameless, you looking forward to becoming a VC and playing Endless Stars?¡± Still no response. Rune was a little confused now. She should at least be telling him to shut up or something. Maybe there was a bug in her ear or something? He leaned out of his chair, trying to peer around her hair to see if there wasn¡¯t something stopping her from being able to hear him. Her eyes shifted to give him a flat stare as her right hand made a brushing motion, and her holophone turned off.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Each and every word was precise and terse. The girl was very clearly annoyed with him. Rune¡¯s face flushed a little. Now that he was actually looking her in the face, he realized the girl was kinda cute.


    Rune tried to shrug nonchalantly. ¡°Uh, nothing. I was just tryin¡¯ to see if you had an implant in your ear or something. You weren¡¯t really responding and I was trying to talk with you.¡± Rune tried his best to seem unconcerned. The girl¡¯s eyes narrowed.


    ¡°I was in the middle of something. Didn¡¯t your parents teach you not to interrupt people while they¡¯re in the middle of doing something?¡± Her voice was cutting, annoyed. She seemed to be pissed off at him and not really in the mood for a conversation, so Rune decided to cut and run before the conversation devolved into a full-on flame-fest.


    ¡°My bad, my bad, I couldn¡¯t see what you were doing.¡± Rune pointed up at his face. ¡°No vid glasses, see? I can¡¯t tell what you¡¯re doing on that holophone.¡± Rune shrugged. ¡°Pretty much nobody here in New Southern Chicago has one.¡± The girl opened her mouth as if to make a sharp retort, then recoiled a little as the words sunk in. Almost guiltily, she shot a furtive glance around the room.


    ¡°Oh.¡± The word came out of her mouth hesitantly.


    Rune shrugged again. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll let you get back to whatever it was you were doing. It seemed important, best not to let me keep you from it.¡± He started to shift in his seat, to turn to face the stray sitting next to him when her voice came again.


    ¡°My name¡¯s Ivona. And I am from uptown.¡± The words came out confidently, almost daring him to challenge her. Pausing mid swivel, Rune turned back to regard the girl.


    ¡°Ivona huh? So how did a high-class uptown girl like you get down into the slums VC office with the rest of us strays?¡± The words were slightly mocking, but Rune was genuinely curious.


    ¡°It¡¯s the exchange rate. It¡¯s higher down here,¡± Her tone was haughty as if she was explaining something that should be obvious to Rune, ¡°and I wanted to make the most out of my savings. The rate down here is 1.01 times what it is at the VC office with the next highest exchange rate in uptown, and with my savings, I decided that renting down here for a month was worth the cost so I could save a little.¡±


    Rune¡¯s eyebrows climbed for the sky as he quickly ground the math out in his head. Renting unsubsidized in a moderately nice apartment in the mega-slums was 300 digicoins a month. That meant that she had¡­ Rune¡¯s eyes widened a little. At least 30,000 digicoins. That was a lot of fucking money.


    ¡°Uh. Huh. I see. Yeah. Uh. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.¡± Rune did his best to make it sound like he was agreeing with her while he gave his head a slight shake. Uptowners like her lived in an entirely different world than him. Slightly shocked by that grand proclamation of wealth, Rune lacked the presence of mind to continue the conversation. The girl, after having Rune agree with her, seemed to be content to go back to doing whatever she had been on her holophone.


    Rune knew that people could convert real-world money into in game currency, but Rune had been looking forward to a fresh start. This was a stark reminder that the world would always be skewed in favor towards the rich, giving them a head start on everybody.


    His thoughts in a dark place, Rune hardly noticed when a nurse came by and picked up the girl to take her to her operation. It wasn¡¯t long after when Rune was finally called for his. The nurse led him through the winding corridors of the facility before they finally stopped outside one of the many, large, steel plated and engraved security doors. Rune was wondering where the card swipe for access was when the nurse put her hand on the door and blue lines pulsed up from the floor to trace the outline of the woman¡¯s hand before pulsing up and into the wall out the top of the door. Rune¡¯s eyes widened. It was a bioscanner. That was some expensive tech.


    The nurse stepped into the room and ushered Rune in through the door after her. Rune hesitantly stepped inside, glancing around. The walls were chrome steel, with dark black lines dividing the walls into separate sections, presumably only there for aesthetic. On the opposite end of the room from the entrance stood a holocomputer stand, and next to it a gel bath with some sort of strange machine next to it. Rune gulped audibly as his eyes fixed on the machine. It looked like something out of a horror movie, a set of spindly appendages complete with surgical instruments on the ends of them. Some were more mundane, such as pliers, scalpels, and prods. Others, like the small circular saw and massive injector full of neon green liquid, were downright terrifying. The nurse seemed to notice Rune¡¯s fixation and made a dismissive waving gesture towards the robot.


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t be scared of the surgicobot. Once you get into the gel bath you won¡¯t be able to feel a thing. Besides, a qualified assistant will be supervising the entire process and an actual surgeon will complete all the critical steps of your procedure. There¡¯s no need to worry at all.¡± The nurse strode over to the holocomputer and signaled Rune to come over. Grudgingly he did. The nurse handed him a pair of vid glasses and Rune slipped them on. Through the lenses Rune could make sense of the floating holograms. One allowed him to make digicalls, one allowed him to write a will, one had access to the Internet, and the last, arguably most important hologram allowed him to make a digicoin deposit into his account in Endless Stars. 356 digicoins. Everything he and his family had been able to scrounge together in the past month after he¡¯d finalized his decision to become a VC. They¡¯d wanted to send him off with a good parting gift. His parents had always felt as if they screwed over his future by not working hard enough and needing him to help pick up the slack and this had been their way of repaying him. Rune had really appreciated the gesture. But after realizing just how much an advantage someone from an upper tier district with several thousand digicoins to throw around had, Rune couldn¡¯t bring himself to spend that money on himself. Five minutes later, Rune had signed 256 of the 356 digicoins back to his family in his will, only keeping 100 for himself to help him get his feet off the ground.


    The remaining 100 digicoins he transferred to Endless Stars.


    Units added to your future bank account.


    With that Rune was had nothing left to do. With a shudder, he turned to the nurse who was patiently standing by.


    ¡°I¡¯m ready. How do we do this.¡±


    The nurse gestured towards the gel bath. ¡°It¡¯s simple,¡± she said in a matter-of-fact tone. ¡°Climb in.¡±


    Rune gulped and strode over to the bath. He clambered up onto the side of the bath and looked back nervously at the nurse. She gave him an encouraging nod. He turned and slipped into the bath, fully submerging himself. It was cold. Rune hoped that the general anesthetics in the liquid would hurry and get to work. It wasn¡¯t long before his lungs started burning. His instinctive drowning response kicked in and Rune started struggling towards the surface, only to find the surface closed, a sheet of metal preventing him from leaving the tub. Rune started panicking. Desperate for air, Rune opened his mouth and inhaled gel. He felt the burning sensation of the liquid filling his airways, esophagus, and stomach. Then he felt nothing at all.

 Chapter 1: A Digitized Existence

    For a long while, there was nothing but the void. It wasn¡¯t just complete sensory deprivation. It was nothing. No thoughts. No emotions. No sensations. Nothing. Just existence. Rune floating through the void, oblivious to the changing world. After what might as well have been eons, a series of words wormed their way into Rune¡¯s mind.


    >> Welcome to the Galaxy Rune! Please finalize your avatar.


    >> Would you like to continue with your listed VC name? (Y/N)


    What¡­


    Rune¡¯s thoughts drifted slowly through his head. It had been so long since he¡¯d last thought, that he needed to remember how to think.


    Who am I? Where am I? Why am I?


    Rune drifted through oblivion and pondered the quintessential question of existence. It took him awhile to come to satisfactory conclusions. He was Rune Yahui. He was a Virtual Citizen. And he was going to make meaning out of his life.


    Resolutions made, Rune shifted focus to the words floating through his mind. His name. Well, obviously his name was Rune Yahui. He didn¡¯t want to change that.


    >> Your name has been confirmed as Rune Yahui.


    >> Would you like to randomly or manually distribute your stat points?


    Rune had to think about more now. Stat points? What were stat points? Rune thought hard. If something was pointy, that meant it was sharp. So then were stat points something sharp? Something pointy? A weapon of some sort? No. That seemed wrong somehow¡­


    Stat then. What was a stat? Oh right. Statuses. Like an Instabook status. So then the points that someone made in their Instabook status? Characteristics of a person? That seemed really close to the meaning, but not quite right. Then it clicked. Video games! They were video game stat points!


    The memories started to trickle back. It was all starting to make sense. He had signed up to become a virtual citizen and was going to live out the rest of his life in a video game. And his stat points would define his character¡¯s various attributes. Finally understanding the prompt, Rune realized that he would vastly prefer to manually distribute his stat points. If he was going to be living in his character¡¯s body, it should be exactly as he would prefer, correct?


    Yes, I would like to manually distribute my stat points.


    Rune thought the words as loudly as he possibly could. This time, it was more of a sequence of words that drifted into his head.


    >> Name: Rune Yahui


    Level: 0


    Titles:


    Fame: 0


    Strength: 0


    Agility: 0


    Acuity: 0


    Comprehension: 0


    Constitution: 0


    Vitality: 0


    Reflex: 0


    Charisma: 0


    Distributable Stat Points: 15 <<


    Rune¡¯s brain churned as it tried to remember all the meanings of the words flooding his mind. Strength was¡­ Rune felt like the term was very familiar. A thought drifted through his mind.


    >> Strength: Increasing your Strength builds your body¡¯s muscles.


    More memories started to trickle back. Namely, those of his body. Rune¡¯s body. Rune had been human, and he had a body. Frowning, Rune struggled to remember what he¡¯d looked like. His body spoke of a certain natural athleticism, but he¡¯d never had the chance to build it to a meaningful level. He was much taller than wide, a gangly, skinny figure no matter how much he ate. He had decently long, solidly black hair that ran a good inch or so past the base of his skull. He¡¯d inherited that from his Asian father.


    And with that single thought about his family, everything came rushing back. His half American half Asian heritage. The mega-slums and Rune¡¯s desire to escape them and find something better for himself. The opportunity to become a VC his only chance at that dream. Everything with making a lot more sense now. He was in the character creation screen. Rune brought up his status page again.


    >> Name: Rune Yahui


    Level: 0


    v Attributes v


    Fame: 0


    Mental Linkages: 4


    Class:


    v Titles v


    v Stats v


    Strength: 0


    Agility: 0


    Acuity: 0


    Comprehension: 0


    Constitution: 0


    Vitality: 0


    Reflex: 0


    Charisma: 0


    Distributable Stat Points: 15 <<


    Upon reading it again, Rune frowned. There was an obvious problem. All his stats were at zero. Typically a starting character had ten or so base stat points in every category so that the character could have a baseline strength in either field. Why did he have zero? Almost as if something was answering him, an alien thought filtered into his mind.


    >> Stat points increase your natural inclination towards the stat by 0.5% of its original value plus 0.5% of the average of humanity.


    That made a lot more sense. Assuming that his base stats were about the average of humanity, that meant he had roughly 15% of increase in stats that he could distribute. Having gained a rough understanding of the situation, Rune read over his stats. He¡¯d pretty much already decided what he was going to upgrade by the time he¡¯d finished reading them.


    Rune wanted to make it big. Really big. Just as important, Rune wanted to be free. If he¡¯d had his way in life, he¡¯d have studied hard in school and worked his way up the social ladder with a good education. The military and the VC program had both been secondary, backup plans to the first¡ªwhich had utterly fallen through. Now was his second chance. Rune knew that if he was going to use his brain to go places, then his brain was going to have to be pretty smart. Accordingly, Rune dumped seven points into Acuity and seven points into Comprehension before rolling the last one as random. It landed in reflex.


    Stat distribution done, more alien thoughts drifted into his head. This time, they came with a hazy image. It was almost like Rune was seeing the image, but somehow he knew for sure that he wasn¡¯t looking at it. The image itself was very familiar to Rune. In fact, it was him. Or at least, the version of him that he best remembered.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    >> Would you like to modify your character¡¯s appearance?


    Rune shrugged. He wasn¡¯t itching to make changes to his body. He liked how he looked. He didn¡¯t have the most handsome face. His body wasn¡¯t perfectly proportioned. But he was himself. That was¡­ important. Changing that one last memento of who he was¡­ No thanks. With that last decision made, the alien words filtered out of Rune¡¯s head.


    The next thing Rune knew, he was falling. The lights were stunningly bright, glaring into his eyes. Then he slammed into a sheet of steel, successfully bruising both of his elbows and knocking the wind out of himself. He groaned, rolled over, and futilely tried to cover his eyes.


    ¡°W-what the fuck?¡± The words were half mumbled, nearly incoherent. Surprisingly enough, a voice answered his words.


    ¡°Subject 911. Rune Yahui. Former resident of New Southern Chicago.¡± The words were dry, matter of fact. ¡°Decent physicality. Average grades in school. No technical training of any sort.¡± The speaker clicked their tongue and paused. Rune tried to wipe the slime out of his eyes so that he could view the speaker and figure out what was going on. He only managed to make the problem worse, realizing far too late that his hands were also covered in slime and only smearing it more completely across his face. The speaker¡¯s harsh voice boomed out again.


    ¡°Take him to Initialization Ward 551.¡± With those last words the man¡¯s voice cut off, and Rune heard the stomp of feet on metal moving away from him.


    ¡°W-wait!¡± Rune rasped the desperate words, barely making them audible, before trying a second time. ¡°Wait!¡± His only answer was the familiar whirring and clicking of an automated steel door sliding shut.


    Finding his way unsteadily to his knees, Rune once again tried to wipe away mucus covering his face and eyes and failed.


    ¡°Is there anybody there? Hello? I need help.¡± Rune¡¯s voice broke on the last word. He was just about to call out again when a rubber clasp of some sort clamped around both of his arms and abruptly dragged him to his feet.


    ¡°What the fuck!¡± Rune shouted the words, thrashing against the unseen restraints. A harsh, loud mechanical voice boomed out in response to his antics.


    ¡°CITIZEN 8117459. PLEASE CEASE AND DESIST IMMEDIATELY. YOU ARE CURRENTLY WITHIN A FACILITY UNDER UIS PURVIEW. ANY ATTEMPTS TO DAMAGE OR OBSTRUCT FACILITY PROCESSES OR EQUIPMENT WILL BE MET WITH EXCESSIVE FORCE.¡±


    Rune gulped and stopped struggling. The machine continued to drag him, and as it did, Rune took a second to quickly gather his thoughts. This was supposed to be a video game. He¡¯d been cut out of his body, he was just a brain now. Nothing this game could do to him could truly hurt him. He¡¯d be fine. He just needed to breathe. Calm down. Keep thinking. In, out, in, out, in, ou¡ª


    Rune¡¯s exercises halted as he felt the steel floor underneath his feet fall out from under his feet. Luckily, the clamps around his arms kept him aloft. Only for a couple seconds though.


    With a whir of mechanisms, the pressure of the two clamps holding him aloft suddenly released and Rune found himself in midair. Falling. With an unmanly shriek and desperate flailing of his limbs, Rune fell through the air for a half second before splashing into a liquid.


    After a second of confusion, Rune managed to orient himself and open his eyes, finding for the first time that he was able to open his eyes and see more than opaque, blurred suggestions of objects through a layer of slime. He could see perfectly. Whatever the liquid he¡¯d been dropped into, it had burned through the slime that had been covering his skin. He could feel the substance slowly being removed, bit by bit, every little last drop of the clinging substance disappearing. Rune reveled in the faint itching sensation, flailing this way and that in the warm, clear liquid, taking stock of his new body and then his surroundings.


    Steel walls surrounded Rune on every side, seemingly forming a tank reminiscent of a larger version of the gel vat he¡¯d climbed into when originally becoming a VC. Rune shrugged and then pushed off the bottom of the tank, swimming towards the top. With a thunk, Rune¡¯s face bounced off the opaque covering to the vat Rune was in.


    Flailing about for a second, Rune struggled to overcome the pain and reorient himself when he realized that he was trapped in the tank. Rune didn¡¯t panic though. This wasn¡¯t the first tank that he¡¯d been stuck in through this process. Opening his mouth and breathing the liquid in, Rune felt the familiar burning sensation of the liquid filling his stomach and lungs. While it felt rather strange Rune didn¡¯t feel any need to breathe, the liquid somehow doing the work for him.


    `The most pressing issue solved, Rune glanced around the tank, thoroughly taking in his surroundings for the first. There were strange lines that may or may not have been decorative on the steel surrounding him, but aside from that, the vat was more or less plain. Bored, Rune did flips in the liquid to pass the time.


    Minutes passed and Rune passed them time by varying his acrobatics more and more. Then, the bubbles came. From the bottom of the vat, a veritable storm of bubbles heralded the first major change in the environment of the vat: heat. Whereas before the vat had been pleasantly warm, the liquid very swiftly turned scalding. Not kill you flesh melting scalding, but hot coffee all over your body sort of scalding. It did not feel good.


    Only seconds passed as the scalding liquid flowed up and around his legs before Rune decided he¡¯d had enough and he swam to the roof and slammed his fist against it. There was no response. The heated liquid kept flooding into the chamber, flowing further and further up, as Rune burbled as he tried to let loose a scream of indignation. The searing liquid flooded up and around Rune, fully encompassing him. Rune thrashed in the liquid as the burning overcame him, slamming against the sides of the vat time and time again. He didn¡¯t succeed in doing anything more than giving himself some more bruises.


    After an immeasurable amount of time and hellish agony, the burning began to slowly recede. As the pain retreated, Rune found himself able to think¡ªand he was angry. What the fuck? Wasn¡¯t this supposed to be a video game? Why did everything hurt so much? Was this some sort of sick and twisted introduction to the game? What sort of sicko had designed this?


    Rune waited, almost expectant, for the next thing to go wrong and cause him a ton of pain. Surprisingly enough, that thing never came. Instead, the liquid surrounding him began to lower. Then lower more. Soon enough, all the liquid in the tank had drained out through a single small hole in the bottom, and Rune was left standing confused in the empty vat. Only a few seconds passed before one of the patterns on the steel was shifted and exploded outwards, revealing a compartment filled with blue clothing, reminiscent of a wetsuit, except strangely textured. Picking them it up and deciding to try it on, Rune found that to his surprise the outfit fit perfectly.


    As soon as he¡¯d finished putting the blue, oddly textured skinsuit on another segment of the wall popped out, this time allowing a mechanical arm to extend forwards to present a PDA of some sort. A big, orange Welcome was written across the screen of the PDA. Glancing around the room, Rune saw that nothing else was coming forth from the walls of the vat. So Rune did what any decently technologically savvy person would do: he walked up and tried to tap the surface of the PDA. Unexpectedly, his fingers went right through the surface of the PDA. Giving it a closer look, Rune realized that it wasn¡¯t a PDA at all. It was a hologram of some sort!


    The screen of the hologram rippled and new words appeared across the screen.


    ¡°Greets, I am your Personal Assistance Artificial Intelligence, or PAAI for short. Would you like to give me a name?¡±


    Rune frowned. Was this some sort of gift to him from whatever government had just put him in the vat in order to appease him? Rune was hesitant to accept the hologram from his tormentors at first, but then he thought about it for a bit. Back when he was still a stray he¡¯d have undergone the same pain in a heartbeat if someone would give him a hologram for free. He was still pissed but he¡¯d take a free hologram any day of the week. Better to play nice now and maybe they¡¯d give him more free stuff. Shrugging, Rune spoke.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll name you Paine.¡± The name wasn¡¯t meant to be some sarcastic indirect slight, Rune had once had a friend named Paine. That was in elementary school before he¡¯d disappeared. Rune had known better than to try and figure out where he¡¯d went.


    The screen flared brightly and shifted through several colors before settling on green. Words scrawled across the screen.


    ¡°Thank you for the name. You should collect me off the stand and insert me into your sleeve.¡±


    The device¡¯s walls that were projecting the hologram collapse inwards while rotating, swiftly balling up into a very small half inch by inch rectangle of steel. Rune, checking his sleeve to confirm that it did have a small compartment of some sort, grabbed the hologram off the mechanical arm that was presenting it to him before placing the chip in the compartment.


    It slid in and locked into place with a click. Suddenly, a thought popped into Rune¡¯s mind.


    Greetings again Rune, I am Paine and have access to your neurological implants. I am capable of communicating with you telepathically and can directly transmit any needed information to your brain. If you are, however, uncomfortable with this function of mine, it can be disabled.


    No, Rune thought, I¡¯m fine with telepathic communication. You can¡¯t mind control me or anything like that, can you?


    Mind control and any sort of unapproved mental coercion are strictly prohibited under the 786 Amendment of the UIS constitution. Besides, your current implants are of an insufficient level to give any rider AI such as myself complete control.


    Alright. Then I¡¯ll be glad to have you along. Though, before we continue, what exactly is it that you are capable of?


    Somehow the AI managed to transmit smugness through the flow of electrons into his brain. I am a PAAI. I am capable of a range of functions. I can keep track or utilize a number of wireless basic devices. I can personally pilot a single more complicated device into battle at your side. I will manage your finances and create a Galactic Credit Account for you. I can also access the G-Web, provided there is a nearby stable connection.


    Wow. The AI seemed to be super useful. Rune was sure that later in the game it would be very, very useful. Unfortunately, however, everyone else would have one too, so it wouldn¡¯t give him any real advantage over others.


    So anyway, what am I supposed to do now?


    Wait. It won¡¯t be long.


    The AI was right. Rune didn¡¯t have to wait long before the front steel panels of his vat slid open to reveal a mostly empty room with only a pleasant looking, smiling woman sitting behind a steel, embellished desk. She was blonde, with huge dimples and a charming smile, the spitting image of a stereotypical receptionist.


    Despite her typical appearance, however, her clothing was strange and futuristic, like nothing Rune had ever seen before. Her hat was like some sort of strange hybrid between a pork pie and a bowler hat, angular towards the front with medium length rims. Her coat, or at least what he could see of it above the desk, resembled an overcoat except with the collar twice as large and high. A grey, partly translucent pattern adorned the jacket, with bright orange highlights running down the shoulders towards the chest. Rune was so caught up in looking at her strange outfit that he almost didn¡¯t notice when she cleared her throat and started speaking.


    ¡°Rune¡­ Yahui is it,¡± she said, her eyes scanning the air in front of her, almost as if she was reading something before her eyes swapped back to him. ¡°Artificial Citizen 1129123.¡± She paused a moment, almost as if waiting for something, then quirked an eyebrow and cocked her head before asking, ¡°That¡¯s you right?¡±


    Rune gave his head a quick shake, attempting to clear his confusion and quickly working through her words. ¡°Uh, uh, uh, yeah. That¡¯s me.¡±


    The woman swiped at the air a couple times before reaching into the desk in front of her and pulling out a simplistic, single pouch rucksack with the letters, ¡°UIS¡± emblazoned across the back.


    ¡°This is for you, Rune.¡± The woman said the words with yet another charming smile stretched across her face. Rune paused for a moment before stepping forwards to take the pack. As soon as he¡¯d picked it up, the woman pointed to the left to a pair of sliding steel doors.


    ¡°Now that you¡¯ve picked up your complimentary starter kit, you can exit the facility to the left through those blast doors. If you have any further questions, you can refer to your PAAI.¡± With those last words, she smiled at him and waited, almost as if expecting him to leave. Rune glanced between her and the doors, a frown stretched across his face, the pack hugged in front of him like a teddy bear.


    Rune cleared his throat. ¡°Isn¡¯t there supposed to be, you know, a tutorial or something? I thought this was supposed to be a game.¡±


    The woman furrowed her brow, squinting at him and giving him a look as if he was insane. ¡°A game?¡± She thought for a second before a look of understanding spread its way across her face. ¡°Oooohhhh. You must mean the VR arcade. Yes. If you could just ask your PAAI to pull up the local map of the Red Belt¡­¡± She trailed off and gave Rune an expectant look.


    Paine could you help me pull up this map she¡¯s asking for? Rune thought the words as loudly as he could.


    No need to shout, Paine said back, And yes. Hold up your wrist that has me in it.


    Rune held up his right hand, and sure enough, a holographic map sprang up between him and the receptionist. After staring at the map for a couple seconds the woman pointed to a particular square that represented a building. It was on the outskirts of the map, away from the primary concentration of buildings.


    ¡°This is the UIS ACI center.¡± She looked up at him. ¡°That¡¯s where we are right now.¡± She looked back down at the map, glancing at it for a couple seconds before pointing at another square, further away, towards the center of the map. ¡°That¡¯s where the VR arcade is.¡± A glowing orange line connecting the two squares soon popped up. ¡°And that¡¯s how you¡¯ll get to the arcade.¡± The receptionist flashed him another winsome smile. ¡°Is that all then?¡±


    Rune glanced between her and the map a couple times before speaking. ¡°Uh, I don¡¯t, uh, well, do you know of anywhere, uh, cheap to stay the night?¡±


    The woman glanced down at the map again before pointing to another building. If you¡¯re looking for a cheap hotel to spend a couple nights, I¡¯d recommend the Rusted Rose. However, if you want more permanent housing,¡± she paused, pointing to another building, ¡°then you might want to go to the UIS Office of Housing and Land Allotment. They can find you a cheap apartment or house to stay in.¡± She looked up at him and smiled. ¡°Anywhere else you might need to go?¡±


    Rune scratched the back of his head. ¡°Uh, no, I think I¡¯m good for now.¡± He paused, glancing at the door and then the woman. ¡°Do I just¡­ go now?¡± The receptionist gave him a friendly nod. After a brief second of hesitation, Rune headed for the door. ¡°Alright, thanks I guess.¡± The blast doors slid open and with that, Rune stepped out into a whole new world. Back in the reception area, the woman smirked wickedly at the doors.


    ¡°I¡¯ll give that one a month before he¡¯s dead.¡± The woman said the words in a playful voice, talking about the death of a man more like a game than a matter of import.


    Another voice breathed out of the deepest shadows of the corner of the room. ¡°Oh, I think you might be surprised¡­¡±

 Chapter 2: A Maze to Navigate

    Rune glanced back and forth, trying to get his bearing in the middle of the dimly lit street. Well, calling it a street would be generous. It was more a metal corridor that gently sloped upwards before ending with yet another steel wall. The lights in the wall also seemed more like what you¡¯d expect to find in some sort of scientific facility. Rune shrugged. He supposed it didn¡¯t really matter. His setting seemed more in accordance with what he would¡¯ve expected to find on a spaceship, but according to the map, it would have to be a massive spaceship to house the decent sized city displayed.


    After another couple seconds of observation, Rune made a damning observation for the idea that he was on a spaceship: the ceiling was made of stone. No spaceship should reasonably have that feature. Maybe it was an underground facility of some kind? Rune shrugged and set the problem aside for later as he raised his wrist and asked Paine to pull up the map for him. Once he found other players he could get some real answers.


    Setting off down the steel corridor, Rune followed the pathway shown by Paine that would lead him to the hotel. He figured that if any place was going to be similar to the cliche tavern in a medieval VRMMO it would be the hotel. At the very least, the receptionist there could likely point him in the correct direction. While he probably should¡¯ve questioned the last one a little bit more, he¡¯d been so eager to leave the diabolical facility he¡¯d asked only the bare minimum of questions.


    Now that Rune had a little time to think things over he was incredibly confused. What was happening? What was with all this pain? And hot damn, the realism was even better than he¡¯d dreamed it could be.


    When he¡¯d entered the VC program, he¡¯d expected something like Whirl of Warplanes. Highly realistic, yes, top-notch AI, yes, an open, interesting, explorable world, yes, but¡­ not quite real. There were always tells. The occasional lag spike. The vaguely inhuman emotionless inflection that nearly every AI had. The crowding of players to a single, concentrated population center where they could socialize. And most importantly, a whole bunch of noobs spawning into the same area. With purported billions in the game, Rune would¡¯ve expected himself to be only a single person in a very large crowd. Instead, he was the entire crowd.


    As Rune thought more and more about the whole thing, the stranger and stranger it seemed. In fact, Rune was so wrapped up in his thoughts and following the map that he didn¡¯t notice when the lights in the walls started changing from those of a scientific facility to some strange artsy parody of street lamps. He also didn¡¯t notice the doors built into his doors or the occasional window set into the wall. What he did notice, however, was the person that walked by him, nearly bumping into him, only dodged by a nimble last-minute course adjustment by Rune.


    The pungent stench of hard alcohol wafted into Rune¡¯s nose, and he only just barely managed to choke back words of annoyance after deciding it wasn¡¯t worth it. The man was dressed in baggy, faded green work suit, likely performing some sort of menial labor and headed home after a bar dive after a long day of work. Or who knew. Maybe in this futuristic society that was just the fashion. Best just not to mess with anyone till he¡¯d figured out what was going on.


    Broken out of his contemplative trance Rune realized that the drunk man signaled that Rune was probably headed in the correct direction. Where there was one person, there would be more, and if he kept heading in the same direction he would eventually reach the population center marked on his map.


    A few more turns following the path highlighted on the map and Rune found himself entering a more populated section. More and more people passed him by in the hallways, and Rune sped up his pace slightly, eager to make it to his destination.


    Then, as he started getting closer to the hotel, the roof started sloping up and away. Single story corridors morphed into the outlines of long, large double story houses, before finally as he was nearing the hotel the types of lights switched again to overhead mini-sun looking objects lodged in the ceiling a full three stories above.


    Rune passed through a single back alley before he broke out into a simply jammed with people. Here, the roof stood a full three and a half stories above Rune¡¯s head, with mini-sun like objects as the lights in the roof far above his head. Most buildings seemed to remain at two stories in height, but a couple here and there stretched higher.


    Everything was like nothing Rune had ever seen before except maybe in the odd sci-fi flick he¡¯d managed to catch as a kid. The buildings were mostly made out of gleaming silver metal, what Rune assumed was steel, with a whole variety of neon highlights giving them an unexpected vibrancy. The people were similarly garbed in all manner of outfits, ranging from skinsuits of all color similar to what Rune was wearing, to strange formal outfits like what he might have imagined would be the trend in a steampunk universe, to simple work suits Rune had seen a billion times back in the mega-slums.


    He stood there for a couple seconds, taking in the crowd, the buildings¡ªthe life¡ªas a grin slowly crept its way onto his face. This was what he¡¯d been waiting for.


    With a spring in his step, Rune pushed out into the crowd. Dodging around a cluster of people wearing oddly fashionable looking clothing similar to what the receptionist at the place he¡¯d spawned in had been wearing, Rune only noticed at the last moment the massive man standing behind them. Rune managed to dodge the man¡¯s arm as he walked by but then something smacked into him from behind, shoving him sideways and into one of the nice looking people.


    A gruff voice, presumably that of the muscled man, rang through the air. ¡°Hey, watch where you¡¯re going, kid.¡±


    After a quick apology to the man he¡¯d bumped into, a frustrated Rune spun to confront the muscled man who¡¯d told him off. Rune¡¯s retort died in his throat as the man was walking off, though not because of his muscle or to avoid the confrontation, no, it was because the man had four arms. Rune jaw slackened and his eyes widened as he watched the man disappear into the crowd.


    Had that been an alien? Burning with curiosity, Rune continued his way through the crowd, keeping his eyes peeled for any strange sights as he continued walking towards the location of the hotel. Aside from a couple cyborgs, robots, and another few four armed people, Rune didn¡¯t spot anything that he¡¯d consider to obviously be an alien.


    Now that Rune had a little more to observe, he noticed that he was walking through some sort of market area where a whole variety of things were being sold. At one stand, long, freshly cooked skewers of some sort of meat stood straight up on the metal surface of the stand, wafting a delicious scent through the market. Rune swallowed down his saliva and continued on. The next shop was simply a glowing neon sign above a dark entrance to a store, reading ¡°Ironclad¡±. Shrugging off his curiosity, Rune passed it by, promising to himself to return there later.


    After another few minutes of walking past strange and exciting sights, Rune finally arrived at the place on the map where the hotel was supposed to be. Looking at the building, Rune found it very similar to many of the other shops and stores he¡¯d seen so far. A flashing red and yellow neon sign boldly proclaimed the words, ¡°Deep Ditch Dwelling¡± above a rounded door surrounded by flashing rainbow lights that reminded Rune of Christmas lights.


    Rune walked up to the door with his hand outstretched, ready to open it, when it slid open of its own accord. Rune blinked in surprise as a wash of heat and noise poured out of the entryway before his eyes adjusted and he took in the sight in front of him.


    The dimly lit, crowded entry room of the hotel far more resembled a canteen or maybe even a club as opposed to a hotel, with a number of people drinking at tables throughout the room. Lining one wall of the room was a bar where Rune could see a man taking a drink from the man behind the bar. Rune looked around, taking in the room and its occupants. Much like the people walking around outside, the occupants of the room appeared to be of all sizes and shapes, from all walks of life.


    Despite the rundown vibe the place was trying to give off, however, Rune could tell definitively that it was anything but. The tables were all in good condition and were all matching, arranged to fit as many people as possible without seeming crowded. The room was full of grainy textures to make it look dirty and the light was being passed through some sort of filter to make it refract and look like the room was dusty.


    After a couple seconds of nervously hovering in the entrance to the building, Rune finally decided that he might as well go in. Even if this wasn¡¯t the hotel, they could probably point him in the right direction. Rune stepped into the building and the automatic doors slid shut behind him.


    Walking through the room, Rune weaved around a couple tables then dodged by a couple walkers before he finally made it to the bar.


    Rune stepped up to the bar before clearing his throat, his eyes fixated on the barkeep behind the bar who was currently tending to something on the back counter of the bar. The man turned to regard Rune, revealing a narrow face with horns coming out of the top of his head. The man flashed him a winsome smile, a squad of pointed teeth including his two canines barely visible in his mouth in the dim lighting of the bar. The man swept his hand along the counter, passing by several pitchers full of liquid.


    ¡°Care for a refreshment?¡± The man spoke loudly so as to be heard above the din of the room, an entreating look on his face. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Rune glanced back and forth before speaking. ¡°I, uh, just spawned in.¡± One of the man¡¯s eyebrows shot up in confusion at the word spawned, and Rune froze. Then the man¡¯s eyes widened in comprehension, and a smile split his face again.


    ¡°Oh, you must be a newly arrived synth.¡± A friendly smile stretched across his face, and he gave Rune a quick, respectful head nod. ¡°Then you¡¯re probably not here looking for a drink. The hotel?¡± Rune nodded for the man before the man gave a confirmational nod and continued speaking, pointing his finger at a blue screen towards the back of the room. ¡°Just go pass through there, the hotel is on the other side.


    Glancing between the man and the and the blue screen, Rune paused a second before nodding at the man. ¡°Thanks.¡±


    The barkeep waved him on. ¡°It was no trouble.¡± He turned and returned to whatever it was that he¡¯d been doing at the back counter.


    Rune walked off before the blue screen, weaving through tables and people before finally reaching it. Now that he was right next to it, he could tell that the screen wasn¡¯t actually solid as he¡¯d thought before, but slightly translucent. On the other side of the screen, there was a straight hallway that led to an open area with some strange looking furniture in it.


    Rune reached out and tried to touch the screen, flinching back when he passed straight through it. A throaty laugh boomed out from behind Rune, and he spun, suddenly on his guard, coming face to face with a woman dressed in a similar suit to Rune, a wide smile stretched across her face. From what he could tell in the low light of the room, she was at least in some part Asian, reasonably pretty, with an angular face, wide eyes, and a small mouth.


    ¡°You¡¯re a new arrival, right? A synth?¡± The woman spoke the words loudly to be heard above the noise in the room.


    Rune frowned at the woman. ¡°You¡¯re the second person to have called me that. A synth. What the hell does that mean? I¡¯m human, just like everyone else.¡±


    The woman frowned back at him. ¡°Aren¡¯t they supposed to tell you people things like this? They used to.¡± She snorted and shook her head. ¡°Of course not. The UIS can¡¯t get a single goddamn thing right.¡± Rune frowned and crossed his arms. She still hadn¡¯t answered his question. She caught his look and hurried to speak. ¡°Maybe you were human once, kid, but not anymore. Your brain got taken out of your body for the VC project, but the whole interweb virtual reality system? That never got set up. Only roughly a sixth of the bunkers got rigged up with the VR gaming system before the company went under. They¡¯d underestimated the price margin significantly, and the rest of the brains were put into cryo freezers and stored for future virtualization. That never came to pass.¡± The woman frowned, looking off at a wall with a distant look in her eyes before looking back to Rune. In the meanwhile, Rune was hanging onto her every word.


    ¡°The UFOH lasted about another forty years, and, well,¡± the woman shrugged, ¡°after the UFOH collapsed nobody wanted to pick up the tab. The various splintered nations of the UFOH that had the brains kept them for research or sold them off to a whole variety of corporations.¡± The woman shrugged. ¡°I guess your brain somehow ended up with the UIS. A couple decades back they started reintroducing subjects with particular genetic markers or physical attributes to society. I was actually just integrated a couple years back. Welcome to the crowd.¡± She smiled at him again and extended a hand for him to shake.


    His mind racing, Rune reached out and took the hand, giving it a firm, if slightly clammy shake. Was this even possible? He had to voice his objections. ¡°But I¡¯ve got some sort of level screen, status screen thing, in my head. Like in a video game. I-I can distribute stat points and it¡¯ll make me stronger. You know? That¡¯s only possible in a video game.¡± Even as the words came out of his mouth, he realized that it sounded slightly insane. It wasn¡¯t even like he could show her the status screen or his stat points, it was all just in his head. What if it was imaginary? What if he was simply going insane?


    Luckily, the woman seemed to have no problem with this, letting out a quick laugh before giving him a patronizing smile. ¡°It¡¯s the future now, man. The year is 2606. And more importantly, you¡¯re a synth, the latest marvel of bioengineering. It¡¯s kind of like upgrading parts on a machine. You¡¯re a third nanite, third robot, third organism. Upgrading your body with Shimmer is like switching out a robot¡¯s arm for a better one. Super easy.¡±


    Rune frowned. Something didn¡¯t make sense. ¡°So then, why did I only get fifteen points to start out with? Shouldn¡¯t I just be able to keep upgrading or something?¡±


    The woman rolled her eyes. ¡°No, that wouldn¡¯t make any sense. It¡¯s like you¡¯re building a spaceship from scratch. If you want to add more and better guns, you need to actually find the guns first to add them to your ship. It¡¯s the same thing with nanoparticles. If you want more Shimmer, you gotta find it.¡±


    Rune quirked an eyebrow, a cocky grin sliding onto his face. While he didn''t quite understand her whole shpeal about how this wasn''t a game, every gamer understood leveling up. ¡°Where do I find it then?¡±


    The woman gave him a sly smile. ¡°I knew you¡¯d ask that. New arrivals, always wondering how to ¡®level up¡¯.¡± Her face firmed, getting a little more serious. ¡°Kid, one of the fastest lessons you¡¯ll learn is to not do anything stupid trying to level up.¡± Rune frowned, and the woman smirked. ¡°There¡¯s three main ways to get more Shimmer. The first is to buy it from someone. The government, black market brokers, if you¡¯re looking for it, you¡¯ll find it. It¡¯s hard to make but there¡¯s huge demand and the years have spread it everywhere. A lot of people are looking to make a profit off it, which means a ton of sellers. The second way is to take it from ship systems. Several parts in spaceships need complex and constant microscopic adjustments to keep running and use modified Shimmer hooked up to a supercomputer to stay functioning. Run that Shimmer through a regulator, and bam,¡± the woman snapped her fingers, ¡°A couple levels in the bag.¡± The woman then frowned, as if considering something. ¡°The third way though¡­ it¡¯s the same as in a video game. You kill something with Shimmer, you get the Shimmer. You gotta run it through a regulator, but you get the exact same amount that they had. They had 100 levels? You get every single one.¡± The woman gave him a warning look. ¡°But kid, you don¡¯t wanna just run around killing things. That¡¯s the fastest goddamn wa¡ª¡±


    While the woman had been talking to Rune, a grizzled, middle aged man had walked up behind her and thrown his arm over her shoulder. ¡°Narissa, my gurl. Who¡¯sis you taaawkin¡¯ to huh?¡± The man reeked of alcohol, and he gave Rune a once over, his eyes lighting on his skinsuit for a couple seconds, before belching out a long burp. ¡°Oh. I see¡¯n then. You¡¯sa new ¡®rrival then.¡± He pointed at Rune, an intense look in his eyes. ¡°You, you can¡¯na listen to a single ¡®oddamn thin¡¯ she gon¡¯ sayin¡¯. She¡¯s, she¡¯s gonna tell you iss aaaaall real. No! Issa game. Game! Game. You remembr that.¡± The man waggled his finger, a stern look on his face. ¡°Remembr.¡±


    Narissa rolled her eyes. ¡°Clarence,¡± she spoke, amusement evident in her voice, ¡°Get off me.¡± Clarence pulled her arm off her, an offended look on his face as if she¡¯d just dealt him the gravest insult he¡¯d ever heard. She gave him a patronizing look. ¡°You¡¯re drunk. How about tomorrow you can talk to the kid more? Let me get him a room in the hotel, then maybe if he wants to talk we can do the whole philosophical debate thing with him after.¡±


    Clarence frowned before mumbling, ¡°Awright,¡± and stumbling off back into the room.


    Narissa turned back to Rune with an apologetic expression on her face. ¡°Sorry about that. C¡¯mon, let''s get you a room.¡± With those words, Narissa brushed by Rune to pass through the blue screen in the room beyond. After a half second of hesitation, Rune followed.


    The hallway he stepped into led to a room that was much more in line with what he¡¯d expect a hotel to appear as. Bright reddish-orange colored globes hovered in the air emitting a bright white light, giving the impression of fire except somehow clean. The furniture spread across the room was both ritzy and futuristic, neon highlighted with strange asymmetrical, curving white and gold designs. The place looked like nothing Rune had ever seen before.


    At one far end of the room there was a desk and behind it a woman dressed in a similar style of clothing to the receptionist who had been the first person he¡¯d met. She flashed the pair a winsome smile, looking pointedly at Narissa.


    ¡°Narissa! It¡¯s been awhile since you last visited. I¡¯ve missed you. Tell me, how is your team doing?¡± The words were warm and full of legitimate interest.


    Narissa flashed a return smile before speaking. ¡°We¡¯re doing great! Clarence finally finished speccing in his force-barrier shield cores. Now that we finally have a bulwark that can block lance-rays, we¡¯re able to run a lot more dangerous strikes.¡± All the terminology flew straight over Rune¡¯s head. ¡°How about you Maven, business good?¡±


    Maven smiled back. ¡°It always is. Travelers always refueling at the station while coming in and out of the system. You know the drill.¡± She shot a glance at Rune. ¡°Is this one of your¡­?¡± She trailed off, obviously uncomfortable.


    Narissa smiled reassuringly. ¡°Oh, no, he¡¯s just a new arrival. His name is¡­¡± She trailed off and glanced at Rune, obviously waiting for him to supply the answer.


    He cleared his throat and did so. ¡°It¡¯s Rune. Rune Yahui.¡±


    Narissa smiled and turned back to Maven. ¡°Rune Yahui. Can you book him a room for a night?¡±


    With those words, Maven¡¯s charm returned, and she smiled warmly at Rune. ¡°Of course I can.¡± She tapped at a screen in front of her a couple times. ¡°Done. First night is on the house, courtesy of you being a new synth and all. If you want to stay longer, just come to talk to me and we can get your Galactic Credit Account attached to your room. For the lowest class of single, it¡¯s just 150 GC a night.¡±


    Worried, Rune thought to Paine. Hey, Paine, how many Galactic Credits do I have in my account right now?


    Paine quickly responded. You currently have a total of 1327 GC with the inflation your money has undergone.


    Rune did the math out in his head. Approximately eight days in the hotel. Not bad. Not altogether that bad. He should be able to figure something out by then. Probably. Rune nodded at Maven, a smile on his face. ¡°I¡¯ll consider it. Thanks for letting me know.¡±


    Maven smiled back at Rune. ¡°No problem.¡±


    Narissa turned to Rune, a slightly anxious look on her face. ¡°So hey, uh, I know you might be tired after having just been integrated, but I was wondering if you might be willing to talk to me and my gang, I could tell you a little bit about the world, you could listen to my proposal, you know, couldn¡¯t hurt, right?¡±


    Rune stared at her a half second, thinking. Now that she¡¯d mentioned it, he realized that he did feel rather tired for some unexplained reason. But she¡¯d been nice to him so far, and her friend, while drunk, had seemed more or less like a good dude. He should at least hear whatever it was she had to say, she might even be able to offer him a job. Considering he could barely afford to stay in the hotel, he could sure use one. Rune shrugged and nodded, acquiescing. ¡°Alright, sure, are you guys just back in the bar?¡±


    A happy smile spread across Narissa¡¯s face. ¡°Yeah! Follow me.¡± And with that, Narissa turned and walked back towards the bar, Rune right on her heels.

 Chapter 3: A Tempting Proposition

    Clarence slammed his glass of alcohol against the table. ¡°Can¡¯na ¡®lieve it. Can¡¯na ¡®lieve it!¡± He pouted, staring angrily across the table at Narissa.


    Narissa massaged her temples, looking as if she were about to explode. ¡°You know, we¡¯d be able to have a lot better of conversation if you hadn¡¯t DRUNK YOURSELF SHITFACED,¡± Narissa shouted the last few words.


    Clarence drew his head back, aggrieved. ¡°I¡¯na, I¡¯na shit-faced. I only drane, drank, a-a ¡®ittle. Us¡¯ a coupl¡¯ gasses¡­ glasses,¡± Clarence¡¯s eyes unfocused for a brief second, before his head thunked down onto the table of the bar. The other three people at the table watched for a second before a snore sounding more like the rumble of a jet engine than something coming out of a human erupted out of Clarence.


    Narissa turned to glare at Rune. ¡°You just had to bring it up, didn¡¯t you? Clarence can go on about that for days if you¡¯re not careful.¡± Narissa shook her fist at Rune. ¡°Days, goddamnit. We¡¯re so fuckin¡¯ lucky he fell asleep.¡± She leaned back, slumping into her chair, moaning piteously. ¡°I can¡¯t listen to that shit.¡± With that, she picked up and gulped down the last of her bottle, slamming it down on the table next to another, already empty bottle.


    Rune shrugged, smiling abashedly, and spoke. ¡°Oops.¡±


    Narissa sat back up in her chair and gave him a smile, seeming to sober up. ¡°All is forgiven. Though kid, I gotta warn you, some people can really get passionate about that whole reality versus video game thing. There are a few factions of synths that just go around killin¡¯ people, blowing up merchants, and busting stations, just for Shimmer. Don¡¯t fall in with them.¡± She pointed at Rune as if giving him a warning, a dangerous look on her face.


    The other person at the table, Miraj, took that moment to speak up. ¡°That¡¯s not to say all people who believe this is just a game are evil, however. Clarence, per say, thinks that this all a game but I as someone who is not a synth know that he values me as a companion just as much he would someone he thinks is ¡®real¡¯¡±


    Rune recoiled a little. ¡°Wait a minute. You¡¯re not, like, a synth? You¡¯re an NP¡ªa real person? I thought¡­¡± Rune trailed off, glancing at Narissa.


    Narissa gave him a look that told him he''d been an asshole. ¡°No, dummy, just because he¡¯s not a synth doesn¡¯t mean he¡¯s lesser or anything. Were you less of a person back in the 22nd century just because you weren¡¯t a synth then?¡± Rune frowned and shook his head. ¡°Well, Miraj isn¡¯t either. And just because he¡¯s not a synth doesn¡¯t mean he doesn¡¯t have any sort of stuff to upgrade with Shimmer.¡±


    Rune quirked an eyebrow, his curiosity piqued. ¡°What? I thought Shimmer was just for levels. You can upgrade other things?¡±


    Narissa smirked, knowing she¡¯d caught his interest. ¡°You¡¯ll be a weapons nerd just like us, soon enough. There¡¯s all sorts of cool shit that you can upgrade with nano. A bunch of different guns hit harder, fire farther, faster, or more accurately with some Shimmer gelling up their systems. Most cybernetic systems operate more effectively and efficiently with Shimmer managing the flow of electrons to and fro. And pretty much all AI except for maybe the super old ones can be upgraded with Shimmer to be smarter or more powerful.¡±


    Narissa looked like she was going to continue ranting on about all the cool stuff you could do with Shimmer, but Miraj broke in. ¡°For me, I¡¯ve got a cybernetic implant in my skull and a synthetic arm.¡± For demonstration, Miraj raised one arm, brushing aside the black fold of his cloak before placing it on the table where it split in half to reveal an assortment of devices. Rune¡¯s eyes lit up in wonder, and Miraj let out of a brief smile before snapping his arm closed and returning it underneath his cloak. ¡°You can get something similar if you want, kid.¡±


    Rune eyes eagerly flickered back and forth between the two other occupants of the table, entreating them to tell him how, but Narissa just groaned and shook her head. ¡°There he goes, trying to sell another new arrival on bionics and cybernetics.¡±


    Miraj shot her an aggrieved look. ¡°Bionics are great!¡±


    Narissa just rolled her eyes at him before turning to address Rune. ¡°Yeah, Bionics are pretty cool, but this is definitely one of those times where you should treat everything like a game, and not like the real world.¡±


    Rune frowned at her. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    Narissa snorted. ¡°Okay, look, kid, you know how in classic RPGs you had a tank, mage, healer, rogue, and a warrior as a typical team?¡± Rune nodded. ¡°Well, in here, it¡¯s the same damn thing, and especially for us synths. With the whole level system and the ability to customize and improve our traits, it¡¯s really easy to become really good at a specific job. Let¡¯s say you wanna become a pro gamer for some reason. Then you might wanna dump all your points into Acuity and Reflex, to buff up your reaction time and critical thinking. Or maybe you wanna be a pirate hunter for the UIS. Then you¡¯re gonna want to put a lot of points into Constitution, a few into Vitality, and a few in Reflex and Agility.¡±


    Rune frowned. ¡°But wait, that doesn¡¯t really explain why I wouldn¡¯t want to get cybernetics or bionics.¡±


    Narissa rolled her eyes. ¡°C¡¯mon dude, I was getting there!¡± She took another sip out of a third bottle of alcohol. Rune wasn¡¯t really sure where it had come from. He glanced down at his drink. He wasn¡¯t even halfway through his first. ¡°So anyway, it¡¯s not so much that you don¡¯t want to get cybernetics or bionics, it¡¯s that sometimes they¡¯re a great idea, and others they just suck.¡± Rune was still frowning in incomprehension. Narissa sighed. ¡°Think about it. Let¡¯s say you wanna be a starfighter pilot, but you,¡± she gestured to Miraj, ¡°like Miraj here, decide to get a bionic arm with a ton of cool gadgetry in it. But now you have a problem. You see, even for all the tech improvements of the 27th century, your bionic arm ain¡¯t gonna be quite as fast or sensitive as a real one unless you get a really fuckin¡¯ expensive one, and then you might as well have bought a cheap one and upgraded it with Shimmer.¡±


    Narissa paused to take another drink before continuing. ¡°And that¡¯s Shimmer you could¡¯ve invested in either Reflex, Agility, or Acuity, all of which could¡¯ve made you a better pilot, as opposed to waste a shitton of GC on cool stuff that¡¯s pretty much all useless to you as you¡¯ll never use it in the cockpit of a starfighter.¡± She leaned back, confident in having proven her point but continuing anyways, ¡°and that much gear and Shimmer is gonna cost you a pretty penny. Decent cybernetic implants with a safe operation? Couple hundred thousand GCs. The Shimmer to upgrade it into something highly functional? Maybe only a hundred-k, maybe a hundred fifty. Admittedly not too much for a galactic highborn. But we¡¯re not highborns, just a bunch of UIS reintegrated synths. We work normal jobs, and make money like the rest of the rockpounders down here on Terrassis. A few hundred thousand GC is a few years of pay in most lines of work. That¡¯s gonna put you way behind, and you¡¯d be much better served to put that money into something that¡¯s actually gonna help you.¡±


    On the side, Miraj was nodding. ¡°Now, you may think that my implants may be too costly to be worth it, but,¡± Miraj gestured around the table at Narissa, himself, and Clarence, ¡°we¡¯re a bunch of ERD-TSTs, or Extraplanetary Rapid Deployment Tactical Strike Troops.¡± Miraj shrugged. ¡°That¡¯s just fancy lingo for a bunch of space mercenaries who board and engage pirates on their ships in, uh, ¡®hostile takeovers¡¯. It¡¯s a hard job, and we need top of the line weaponry to get the job done.¡± Miraj hefted his arm, putting it on display for Rune to see. ¡°Case in point.¡±


    Rune held up his hands. ¡°Slow down, slow down, you¡¯re getting a little fast for me here. We jumped from customizing myself for a job to taking on space pirates. Let¡¯s get back to the job thing here. How do I even figure that out? Is there some sort of special program for synths? How¡ªwhere do I even start?¡± He glanced between Miraj and Narissa, seeking answers.


    Narissa spoke up first, slightly abashedly. ¡°Well, that¡¯s a big part of what I wanted to talk to you about. Me and my group are members of a society called the Brighter Future for Sentience, or BFS for short.¡± Narissa flicked her fingers, and a holographic pamphlet slid through the air halfway across the table towards Rune.


    Meanwhile, Paine spoke to Rune in his head. Would you like to accept Narissa¡¯s document? No encryptions or potential for viruses or malware detected.


    Rune spoke back to Paine in his head. Yes, accept it.


    Narissa smiled when she saw the pamphlet disappear. ¡°That¡¯s just some information on what the BFS does and what opportunities it provides for its members.¡± Narissa shrugged. ¡°Now, I¡¯m no fanatic, but I know good when I see it. The BFS does a whole lot of good for interstellar communities that tend to not get a whole lot of aid from the UIS or other governments. Cheap rates for hiring mercs to take down pirates or escort merchants, initiatives to increase public safety, lower homelessness, and discourage criminal activity in young spacers, equal education for all¡­¡± Rune¡¯s eyes glinted at that last one. Narissa didn¡¯t notice, however, the subtle shifts in Rune¡¯s expression lost in the darkness of the bar. She leaned forward as if trying to be more convincing.


    ¡°What I¡¯m really aiming at, is that the BFS tries to provide equal educational opportunities at reasonable rates for sentients of all intelligence levels and¡­ forms of existence.¡± Narissa smiled at Rune. ¡°That includes synths. No matter how much money you don¡¯t have, the BFS will front the bill and put you through schooling. The deal, though, is that you¡¯ll have to register with the BFS and pay a five percent tithe on all profits for fifty years after you¡¯re done, or till you¡¯ve paid one and a half times what it took to put you through schooling. Then that money will be used to put another kid through schooling, with the rest going to other projects or getting used to keep things running.¡± Narissa flashed a winsome smile. ¡°Sounds great, right?¡±


    Rune had to admit, despite his skepticism, it did sound pretty great. Rune had always wanted to continue his education, and if this was his chance he¡¯d jump on it. Before he signed anything, though, he wanted to do some research, and figure out what all his options were. He gave her a gracious smile. ¡°I really appreciate your offer, but I need some time to think, and I always wanna do some research.¡± Rune rubbed his eyes. ¡°I¡¯m also tired as all fuck. Give me some time to think, and I¡¯ll meet up with you guys here tomorrow at the same place, let¡¯s say¡­ uh,¡± Rune frowned, glancing up at the pair. ¡°How do we tell time around here?¡±


    Narissa smiled at him. ¡°It¡¯s just measured in earth hours. The station rotates many times more than that in a day, and if we were measuring days by rotations, well,¡± she scoffed, ¡°that would be a lot of days. Anyways, you can just ask your PAAI for the time, it¡¯ll tell you. How about tomorrow night, 8:00?¡±


    Rune smiled, gratefully. ¡°Sounds great.¡±


    Narissa smiled warmly at him, leaning across the table to put her hand on his. Rest well. And take your time making the decision. If you need another day to think, just message me on my PAAI.¡± Narissa waved her hand, and a hologram of a number slid through the air towards Rune.


    Paine spoke to Rune in his head. Would you like to accept Narissa¡¯s PAAI G-Web address and add it to my database?


    Rune mentally confirmed. Yeah, add it.


    With that done, Narissa and Miraj both stood up from the table. Miraj spoke for the two. ¡°We¡¯ve got an early appointment on the docks tomorrow, so we should really be getting going now. It was nice meeting you Rune.¡± Miraj held out his hand for shaking.


    Rune smiled and took it before responding. ¡°Likewise.¡±


    With that, Narissa and Miraj both took one of Clarence¡¯s arms before beginning the long, slow, stumbly process of exiting the bar. Rune watched them go, clutching his drink as he sipped down the last of the bitter liquid out of some sort of twisted obligation. He didn¡¯t drink, anyway. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    He sat there, afterward, stewing in the darkness. He had a lot to think about, and some important decisions to make. Maybe tonight he¡¯d make a special exception. A couple hours and a couple drinks later, Rune was slightly poorer, slightly drunker, and extremely exhausted, and so beat a hasty retreat to his hotel room.


    ~~~~~~~~


    The next morning, Rune woke up with a groan and a mild hangover. As he was throwing off the sheets and rolling out of bed, a voice spoke up. It was his nightstand.


    The synthetic voice spoke in a very clearly inhuman voice. ¡°Your in-suite personal monitor has noticed elevated levels of ethanol passing through your system. Would you like medication to alleviate potential symptoms for 30 GCs?¡±


    Rune¡¯s narrowed, bleary eyes glared at the steel box before he frowned and shrugged. Why not? It was the future, shouldn¡¯t be unreasonable for a hangover cure to have been invented. 30 GCs wasn¡¯t all that much anyways. Rune waved his hand in dismissal. ¡°Sure, give me whatever.¡±


    A robotic arm with a tray attached to the end extended from the nightstand, raising up to be right in front of Rune. On top of the tray sat a large blue capsule. ¡°Here is the medication. Place it in your mouth, chew, then swallow.¡±


    Rune popped the blue orb into his mouth before chewing thoughtfully. The texture was strange and goopy, somewhere halfway between that of a steamed bun and rice pudding. A slightly sweet taste that he couldn¡¯t quite place had been infused into the medication. Nodding slightly, Rune decided that it wasn¡¯t altogether that bad.


    Rune rose up out of his bed while glancing around before wrinkling his brow and speaking into the air to see if his nightstand couldn¡¯t help him more. ¡°Yo nightstand robot, where is the bathroom, and how do I take a shower. Why is there only one door? Where¡¯s all the shit that a hotel is supposed to have?¡±


    A light on his nightstand flashed. ¡°Potential command recognized. Convert from Bedroom functionality to Bathroom functionality. Would Guest Rune like to confirm this command?¡±


    Rune frowned, slightly confused. He decided to roll with it. ¡°Yeah¡­ I would.¡±


    With a slight rumble and hiss, the bed, sofa, carpet, and several electrical appliances sank into the walls before a shower, stone tiled floors, a toilet, and a sink sprouted up from the floor. Rune watched these developments in groggy amazement.


    After everything had assembled, Rune found himself in a rather nice bathroom, with stone tiled floors, a pristine ceramic toilet and sink, and an elegant glass shower. Rune had quite literally never seen anything quite so nice except for in the movies. After a couple minutes spent poking things in amazement, verifying that they were real, Rune finally got into the shower, and after wrestling with the heating knob for a couple minutes, finally figured out how to make the water hot. It wasn¡¯t till he was stepping in that he realized that his hangover was gone.


    As the scalding hot water ran through his hair and down his body, Rune laughed. He had finally made it. Whether this was the future or a video game, it was a bright place, full of untold opportunities. Here, he could finally be the man he wanted to be. As guilty as it made him, all his siblings were gone and he¡¯d been cleared of that responsibility. And he could finally get an education that would leave him well qualified for a job.


    After finishing his ablutions, toweling down, and exiting the shower, Rune decided it was time to finally get to work. Despite his excitement, Rune wasn¡¯t going to launch himself into it like an idiot and sign the contract without fully figuring out what he was getting himself into. He¡¯d already done that once when he¡¯d spent two years and thousands of dollars grinding ranks in a video game all for nothing.


    He wouldn¡¯t do that again or dig himself into a hole he couldn¡¯t get out of. Rune knew he needed to do some research on his options. His first task was getting to a computer, however. Now that he considered it, though, he didn¡¯t really know whether there even was an internet and if computers were still a thing or not. He was stuck in a quandary for a couple seconds before he realized: he could just ask Paine.


    Hey, Paine, how do access the internet or whatever they have nowadays?


    Paine¡¯s response came quickly. Nowadays, people use the galactiweb, or G-Web for short. You can access the G-Web in any manner that you¡¯d like, mentally compose an image of what you¡¯d prefer and I¡¯ll form a hologram based on your intent. Otherwise, you can find a store that will sell you physical devices, and purchase one from there.


    Rune frowned. He¡¯d prefer something physical, but considering he bared had enough money to spend a few nights in the hotel he probably didn¡¯t have enough money to buy whatever passed for a computer nowadays. And besides, if it came down to personal comfort over utility, Rune would have to choose utility.


    Alright, Rune thought to Paine, project me a computer.


    Paine immediately responded. First restructure the room back to being a normal hotel room, and I¡¯ll project your keyboard onto a desk so you can type while you use the computer.


    After a brief session of shouting at the room, it shifted back into the original hotel room format that it had been in. Rune parked himself at the desk and a computer took shape.


    The screen was standard Windows 120, complete with customization features and basic apps. The keyboard below contained only the keys Rune could remember that he needed. He quickly began typing, first investigating into the BFS finding pretty much all glowing praises he expected with the exception of a minor scandal or two. Apparently, if he was going to be going back to school it would be at the uninspiringly named Terrassis Educational Facility, or TEF for short. Education had apparently changed dramatically since Rune had been put through school. Schooling was no longer mandatory, however, any and all people under the age of fourteen would be given the opportunity to be put through UIS regulated general education. People over fourteen and under thirty could apply for a second round of ¡°applied education,¡± in which they would be able to select a series of tailored courses to either help them find a career or excel in one if chosen. On paper, it sounded exactly like what Rune had always wanted. Job training.


    Rune got Paine to pull up the agreement that Narissa had sent him and after reading it over and confirming its legitimacy with his Paine he signed it.


    Done with that, Rune now had a few hours left to blow before he needed to meet up with Narissa. Curious as to what had happened with humanity over the several hundred years that had supposedly elapsed since he entered the VC system. Unsurprisingly, the answer was a lot. Too much, in fact, for Rune to be able to cover anything other than the most basic outlines of history.


    It seemed that after he''d entered the VC program, the world had quickly gone to shit. The UFOH had maintained relative peace up until it was somehow leaked that the VC program had been shut down and all those who would have been inducted into the program were essentially being killed.


    The VC program which had been heralded as the world¡¯s salvation had been rendered infeasible, and with its passing so had the people¡¯s hope for a better future. In 2183, eleven years after the VC system fell through the AP finally overstepped their bounds and occupied land owned by another country, sparking world war three. Billions died, both on the battlefield and to the megaton nuclear warheads that obliterated 75% of all major cities on earth.


    So began the first wave of colonization. Humanity, already possessing minor colonies on other planets, flocked out of the radioactive ruins of Earth for better prospects on the distant planets of our solar system, traveling primarily to Venus, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.


    Unsurprisingly enough, this was yet another precursor to another war. Earth corporations and governments who had funded the majority of the colonization soon came to collect their debts. Venus complied, but the outer three planets defaulted on their debts, banding together to form the Coalition of Sovereign Planets, or CSP. Earth began building a space armada in reaction to their insubordination, and the CSP followed suit, the two sides engaging in a massive cold war.


    Tension ran high through the Sol system until roughly fifty years later the two sides clashed over an asteroid which already had Fringers¡ªslang term for CSP citizens¡ªliving on it but was owned by Earth. Earth sent some ships and took the citizens hostage, and the CSP responded by sending some of their own ships to monitor the situation. Then, something went horribly wrong. One of the Earth cruisers had a hardware malfunction and exploded. Another one of the ships left unnamed by history, fired a shot. War broke out. History was made.


    Thirteen years of bloody fighting ensued. As far as wars went, however, the fighting wasn¡¯t that bad. While millions died, the numbers were nothing compared to the billions lost in the third world war. The war ultimately culminated in a massive decisive engagement over Mars, wherein the debris of destroyed ships came crashing down to the neutral colony and killed hundreds of thousands. The two sides, guilty over their needless destruction, would ultimately sign the Mars Accords, fusing the two governments back together. For fourteen years the Sol system would suffer through an uneasy peace. Then a genius invention would usher in the second wave of expansion.


    In 2325, Marcus Heinburgen would construct the first truly functional Alcubierre Warp Drive, capable of sending ships across the galaxy at speeds far faster than that of light. In 2344, the design would be reliable enough for humanity to start sending its first colony ships out to distant stars once thought unreachable.


    When reading about the second wave, Rune pretty much guessed what would happen based on what had happened pretty much every time a government had started making far distant colonies just as in the first wave. He wasn¡¯t disappointed.


    Very much following in the footsteps of the CSP, 29 of the 59 colonies banded together to form the UIS and declared their independence.


    This, surprisingly, wasn¡¯t actually too much of an issue. The 31 non-UIS systems banded together into the Core Systems Coalition or CSC, but after a couple minor skirmishes, ultimately decided it wasn¡¯t worth a massive space war and millions dead to bring the colonists back. The Sol War hadn''t been too long ago and no-one was eager for more. No, the real issue came afterward.


    See, the issue wasn¡¯t quite resolved because the second wave hadn¡¯t quite finished. As more and more colonies that the CSC had started trickled back, more and more of them defected to join the UIS. By 2485 the UIS had ballooned to encompass 79 systems, while the CSC had a mere 52. When the CSC decided to forcibly coerce a system into joining them the UIS responded with an armed fleet of their own, the conflict in the system ultimately setting off the deadliest conflict humanity would ever experience.


    Tens of billions died. Twelve planets were obliterated. Even a sun died. Poor choices had been made by both sides. Humanity had turned its knowledge of science and matter manipulation to destruction to achieve horrifying results. After the termination of a system and loss of billions of souls, the CSC and UIS finally saw their folly. To ensure that such a catastrophic misuse of weapon technology could never occur again, the two sides signed a treaty banning all unauthorized ¡°higher technology¡± research and ensured that any "higher technology" research that was engaged in would be joint.


    After the culmination of the End War, the two sides set their sights back on expansion, allotting certain sectors of space to one another and incorporating all systems within those areas. Between the end of the End War in 2506 and current, the UIS would first break into Endless Stars Alliance or ESA over an ideological split, soon followed by a similar split from the CSC of the Marcerian Empire of the Stars, comprised of a small set of powerful corporations. Years of relative peace had passed and, well, now Rune was here.


    After finishing catching up on history, or the backstory of the game, depending on who you might ask, Rune asked Paine for the time and quickly got the response that it was 7:13, and that he still had a little more than three-quarters an hour to waste. After nearly ten or so minutes of half-hearted research into what schooling would be like, Rune closed his digital computer before moving over and flopping down into his bed, staring up at the ceiling.


    He had a lot to think about. Was it all real, or was it all a game? The history, the G-Web, Terrassis, Miraj, everything seemed real enough to Rune. War upon wars, till humanity had reached current day. Seemed more or less like what he¡¯d expect. But then again, AI and VR in the 22nd century were top of the line. Who knew what a fully autonomous AI could do if it wanted to build a truly living, breathing world? What if he was just alone on his patch of realistic looking pixels in some sort of strange fantasy world the AI had dreamt up for him?


    Rune furrowed his eyebrows as he let loose a long sigh. He wondered what had happened to his family after he left. Had hundreds of years and generations left them complete strangers and him an umpteenth great-grandpa? Had they all been obliterated in one of the many wars that had rocked the galaxy? Or were they still just on earth some couple hundred miles below him living their lives out while he tricked himself into believing that they were all gone?


    Rune had no answers, but he was pretty sure he had a headache now. Rune lay still and silent ensconced in his sheets as his mind warred with itself. Rune wasn¡¯t really sure whether he wanted it to be a game or not. On one hand, he wanted to a second chance at life. He wanted a new playing field, a second chance to rise to the top. But to leave behind his family, trading everything for a game? If it was a game, was it even worth it? Did it being real make it suddenly worth it?


    Rune was starting to question the very nature of thought itself when all of a sudden an alert from Paine thundered into his mind.


    Rune, the time is 7:50, you have ten minutes till your meeting with Narissa.


    Rune jolted up in bed, sitting straight up. He thought a message to Paine as he rolled out of bed. Alright Paine, thanks for the warning.


    Paine quickly responded. Only doing my duty.


    Rune quickly checked to make sure that he had everything on him when he realized his phone and wallet were no longer items he needed to keep track of. A slightly sad smile on his face, Rune pushed the door open before he left down the hall, walking towards the bar.


    This was his chance. Real or not, he¡¯d take hold of it as firmly as he could.

 Chapter 4: The Grand Tour

    Rune followed Narissa as she led him away from the market, back through the section he¡¯d come through to get to the hotel from the UIS ACI. He jogged a quick step forwards to tap her on the shoulder, a slight frown on his face.


    ¡°Hey, where are we going?¡± Rune asked her the question for the fourth time, this time more forcefully, determined to get an answer.


    Narissa turned to him with a smile. ¡°Where do you think we¡¯re going? To check out your new digs, of course!¡± She turned away and flounced down the corridor, a silly grin stretched across her face.


    Rune stared at her back, shook his head, and snorted. It didn¡¯t really matter. He¡¯d figure out soon enough, and it wasn¡¯t as if there was an exit to the station over there. And besides, she certainly wasn¡¯t acting like she had any malicious plans for him. He¡¯d already signed the form and given it to her. He¡¯d just have to trust her.


    Another thirty or so minutes of walking unimpeded down long corridors and the duo finally reached their destination. A massive, serious, black and chrome silver sign on the wall announced, ¡®Terrassis Educational Facility: Aiming for the stars isn¡¯t so hard when you¡¯re already among them¡¯ Rune quirked a slight smile after reading the sign. Cheesy, but it was his sort of cheesy. He liked it.


    Narissa turned to him, a big smile on her face. ¡°Here we are! You ready for the grand tour, man? You¡¯re gonna love it! The TEF has the coolest shit.¡±


    With that, she turned and walked up to a set of sliding steel doors which slid open for her. She passed through, with Rune quick to follow.


    The inside was not as he had been expecting. The room he stepped into was a massive steel spire, a dual set of winding ramps spiraling up from the back of the room and going up to near the top of the building. Loitering in the room were three armored security guards and floating about in the air were a quad of rotund drones of some sort. Littering the walls and arranged around the edges of the room were a series of plants on top of colored triangular holders made of glass or plastic sheets. From out of the semi-translucent sheets beamed a whole rainbow of colors, reflecting off the steel of the room to produce a gorgeous effect. Rune was looking at one of the plants when he noticed something flitting by. It was a bird¡ªa bird in space! Rune gawked as he looked around, noticing a couple more birds and other strange animals he could identify.


    Rune was so caught up in taking in the sight of the stunning room that he didn¡¯t notice one of the security guards walking up to them, his mask unfurling to reveal a handsome face with a splash of blonde hair on top.


    ¡°Narissa,¡± the man boomed, enthusiastic, ¡°Great to see you!¡±


    Narissa smiled demurely at him. ¡°Good to see you too. We still good for Friday?¡±


    The man nodded several times, far too enthusiastically. ¡°Yeah, yeah, of course.¡± The man shot a sideways glance at Rune, who was still turning in circles, looking around the room in amazement. ¡°This kid a new arrival?¡±


    Narissa smiled and nodded. ¡°Yeah.¡± She gestured at one of the side corridors. ¡°I was just planning to take him on a quick tour, show him around the TEF, let him learn a little about what he¡¯s gotten himself into.¡± She smiled at the man. ¡°Wanna come with us, Devin?¡±


    The man¡¯s helmet closed up for a brief second as he glanced back towards one of the other security guards in the room, who nodded towards him. Devin¡¯s mask unfurled, revealing a big smile on his face.


    ¡°Yeah, the boss man said that it was all good.¡± Devin looked towards Rune, a bemused smile on his face as he let out a chuckle. ¡°That one¡¯s just like you. All full of wonder walking on in here. You trynna recruit him?¡±


    Narissa shrugged, a half smile stretched across her face. ¡°Maybe. Maybe not. I wanna see how he does first, what he decides to spec into. Who knows? He might choose to be a merchant or something.¡±


    It was about then that Rune realized that he had totally lost track of where he was and was standing some twenty or so feet away from Narissa, who was still standing back towards the door with Devin.


    He ran back toward them, and when he reached them he turned about and gestured up and around at the room before speaking, his voice full of wonder. ¡°You didn¡¯t tell me there would be birds here! It¡¯s¡­It¡¯s amazing!¡±


    Narissa smiled and patted Rune on the shoulder. ¡°Yeah, the Atrium is really something. There¡¯s not a lot of animals on Terrassis, and what few we have are mostly here.¡±


    While Narissa was speaking, Devin had walked up to Rune and held his hand out in greeting. ¡°Hey man, I¡¯m Devin. You¡¯re new here right?¡±


    Rune turned to him, and with an unsure but friendly expression on his face, shook his hand. ¡°I¡¯m Rune. Yeah, I¡¯m new.¡± Rune glanced down at the man¡¯s equipment, then up at his face. ¡°Are you some sort of¡­ security guard for the school?¡±


    Devin looked off and then shrugged. ¡°Kinda. Not really. I¡¯m a Law and Regulations Enforcement Officer or LREO.¡± He smirked. ¡°We run security around here. You have a problem,¡± Devin tapped his chest, ¡°you come to us. The school is run by the station, so the station staffs its security, and I pulled the shift for this week, so¡­¡± Devin shrugged, an easy smile on his face. ¡°It¡¯s the least dangerous, most simple job on the station, so who am I the complain?¡±


    Rune laughed. ¡°Least dangerous and most simple?¡± He leaned forward a little. ¡°Sounds like my kinda gig.¡± Turning back to Narissa, Rune spoke. ¡°So you are you gonna show me around?¡±


    Narissa nodded, before gesturing up at the room around them. ¡°Well, since we¡¯re in the Atrium, we might as well start here. The Atrium is one of the three key waypoints within the TES, the other two being the cafeteria and the third the Enclave. That¡¯s getting a little ahead though. Let¡¯s just start with the Atrium.¡± Narissa looked upwards, pointing as she spoke. ¡°The spiral ramp starts at the back of this room and goes all the way up into the ceiling. There are five separate levels, each one pertaining to a separate educational field.¡± She walked by him and beckoned him forwards as she moved towards the rightmost of the two exits on the side of the room. Devin hurried up behind her and took her hand. Rune eyed them, then followed, letting out a sigh. Suddenly her previous exuberance made a lot more sense.


    When they reached the first corridor, Narissa spoke up. ¡°The first level is pretty much devoted to infantry combatants. It¡¯s the shortest commute from the entrance for that reason.¡± Narrisa frowned. ¡°Not as if you¡¯d actually have to defend the school from anything as a trainee. If an enemy could bust in this far¡­well¡­¡± Narissa shrugged. ¡°Not anything you¡¯ll ever have to worry about, even if you chose to train to be a trooper.¡±


    Narissa stopped talking as she sidled up to one of the doors the right. It slid open for her, and Narissa poked her head in and peeked around before stepping in and turning back to face the pair. ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like there¡¯s a class in here. Lucky for us.¡± Rune stepped into the room after her, Devin right behind, taking in the massive view. She turned and gestured out at the room in front of them. The very room they were standing in wasn¡¯t actually that large, but one side of the room was a massive glass wall, on the other side of which was a set of steel walls which seemed to form a sort of labyrinth. On both walls of the room perpendicular to the one with the door stood a pair of large archways through the closest of which Rune thought he could see a sort of study room.


    Narissa walked up to one of the large glass panes that made up the wall before turning back to look at Rune. ¡°This is just one of the several training rooms that dot the facility. There are a ton more, mostly just for land operations. This is the cityscape training room. There¡¯s also a jungle training room, aqueous training room, desert training room, and mountainous training room.¡±


    The brief speech done, Narissa then turned and walked up to one of the archways, peeking inside and peering around. ¡°Through here is a locker room. You can change, bathe, arm yourself, brief missions, study, do a whole bunch of stuff in here.¡± Rune tried to peek over her shoulder without pushing her out of the way and had to jump back when she stepped back to let him. She gave him a patronizing smile and then waved her hand through the archway. ¡°You can go in and check it out if you want.¡±


    Accordingly, Rune did. It broke each and every preconception of a locker room that Rune had. The traditional steel storage cabinets used as lockers were completely absent from the room. In fact, the room was devoid of anything aside from a set of semicircular tables arranged in front of a screen.


    Rune turned to Narissa, a confused look on his face. ¡°This is a locker room?¡±


    She nodded, a smirk on her face almost as if she¡¯d been expecting the question. ¡°Yeah. all the stuff is hiding in the walls, waiting to come out of someone needs it.¡± Rune thought back to the bathroom in his hotel room. Suddenly it made a lot more sense.


    ¡°Oh, so when people need their gear it just comes out of the wall.¡± He shrugged and nodded with begrudging approval. ¡°Yeah, makes sense. A little weird, but I guess space is precious.¡± He paused for a second. ¡°Or, at least, the space you can breathe in and build on.¡±


    Narissa and Devin smirked as Devin spoke up. ¡°Yeah, kid, not a lot of that sort of space to go around in space if you know what I mean.¡±


    Narissa giggled, and Rune chuckled. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m pretty sure he knows what you mean, Devin,¡± Narissa said, before giving Rune a look. ¡°You ready to move on?¡±


    Rune gave the rooms a cursory glance, not really finding anything, before nodding to Narissa. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s go.¡±


    Together, the trio flowed out of the room through the entrance they¡¯d come in, moving down the corridor. As they walked, Narissa pointed and talked. ¡°On the right side of the corridor is where all the training rooms are.¡± She glanced back at Rune. ¡°You remember how there were four exit corridors to the Atrium, two in the back, two on the sides?¡±


    Rune nodded at her. ¡°Yeah, I do.¡±


    She turned back to face front. ¡°Well, this hallway curves around to come out on the other side of the Atrium, through that other exit.¡± She pointed at the wall. ¡°That¡¯s why all the training rooms are on the right. They need more room, and they can just expand out into the rock so they get it.¡± She then pointed at the wall on her left side. ¡°To the left, you¡¯re gonna have all the classrooms for combat training. Some are simulation rooms, there are a few lecture halls, a study area, a guidance office, a small food store,¡± Narissa cut off as the walked by a pair of sweat-soaked trainees wearing skin-tight suits with strange steel nodules engaged in an intense conversation. Rune caught a snippet of their conversation as they walked by.


    ¡°¡ªwant to avoid the blast from the Ion Cannon, even if it doesn¡¯t injure you it could fry¡ª¡± The girl was lecturing the guy, who had a depressed look on his face.


    As soon as they were out of earshot, Narissa continued speaking, a slightly abashed look on her face. ¡°Yeah, AJs can get like that sometimes. Super wrapped up in what they¡¯re doing, the tactics and all that stuff.¡± She let out an awkward laugh. ¡°I would know, I was one of them.¡±


    Rune frowned. ¡°An AJ? What¡¯s an AJ?¡±


    Narissa smirked at him and batted aside a stray lock of hair. ¡°Adrenaline Junky.¡± She let out a sigh. ¡°Couldn¡¯t call us Battle Junkies cause the acronym doesn¡¯t quite work, or something like Fight Junkies cause it sounds so lame, so AJs it was.¡± Narissa frowned. ¡°Or at least, that¡¯s what I¡¯ve been told. The term¡¯s been around a lot longer than me.¡± She smiled at Rune. ¡°Just kinda rolled with it.¡±


    Rune shrugged. ¡°Yeah, guess it makes sense.¡±


    Narissa smiled appreciatively at him and continued. ¡°Yeah, so anyways, you can tell that those two are AJs from how they look. Bags under their eyes the size of Jupiter. Both wearing haptic suits while walking through the halls. Not leaving the sim-room till like,¡± paused for a moment, presumably conferring with her PAAI, ¡°8:17, four hours after the last class.¡± She smirked. ¡°AJs for sure. I¡¯d know; that was me two years back.¡±


    Devin squinted at her back. ¡°I remember that. They used to call you the Hellion. A right terror on the battlefield, a master of deflection and ambush. The highest rating in your entire grade, if I remember correctly.¡±


    Narissa flushed. ¡°There wasn¡¯t a lot of competition. There have been plenty who¡¯ve graduated from the TEF with higher ratings, anyways.¡±


    Devin rolled his eyes. ¡°Please, spare me the modesty. You¡¯re one of the ten highest ranking Troopers to graduate in the past decade. Your name¡¯s even on a plaque in the Atrium.¡±


    Her mouth open, Narissa spun to look at Devin. ¡°They put that goddamn thing up?¡±


    Devin smirked at her. ¡°What the hell did you think they were gonna do with it. Burn it? Let it gather dust in a closet never to see the light of day again?¡± Devin shook his head. ¡°You might not have wanted to be reminded, but everyone remembers what you did. They¡¯re proud for you, even if you don¡¯t think they should be.¡±


    Narissa clenched her fist, somehow managing to look angry and contemplative at the same time. She let out a long sigh, before relaxing as her face settled into a slight frown. ¡°Whatever. They shouldn¡¯t have put it up though. I told them not to.¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Rune spoke up, his curiosity finally getting the better of him. ¡°What¡¯re you guys talking about?¡±


    Narissa just shrugged and sped, briskly walking the last few steps to the end of the corridor that led into the Atrium. ¡°Nothing I want to tell you about.¡±


    Rune looked at Devin, who shrugged helplessly. ¡°Hey man, if she doesn¡¯t wanna tell you, she doesn¡¯t wanna tell you.¡± He smiled with understanding, nudging Rune on the shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much though, someone will tell you eventually if you do decide to train here.¡± Devin then walked on by, following after Narissa who was standing underneath the aforementioned plaque with an aggrieved expression on her face.


    Rune ran up behind the duo to look up at the plaque which merely read: ¡°To the brave souls of the Lancer for uncovering malicious plot to undermine the sovereignty of the citizens of Terrassis.¡±


    Rune frowned up at the plaque. ¡°What the hell is that supposed to mean?¡± He looked at Narissa with confusion and annoyance evident on his face as he stared at her.


    Narissa just shook her head, and walked off, waving for him to follow. ¡°C¡¯mon, we still haven¡¯t even made it to a fraction of the facility. Let¡¯s get on with it.¡±


    The rest of the tour of the Atrium was passed in relative silence compared to the first floor. They moved sequentially up the Atrium, touring each and every one of the facilities. The second level trained people to operate a variety of machinery and vehicles, mostly spacefaring craft with a few different types of advanced machines or weapons in the mix. One small section of this branch was devoted to the operation of drones, which, according to Narissa, had replaced fighter pilots. Rune eyed these particular facilities with extreme interest. He figured that out of all his options this was the school he was most likely to spend his time in.


    The next floor was devoted to technology and scientific research. Rune zoned out as Narissa blabbed on about some class she¡¯d thought was cool that outlined the process of building a sustainable space colony, but focussed when they actually entered a classroom. There were two groups of people when they entered, three crowded around a set of metal, bulky shoes, and two others currently in the midst of modifying some sort of gauntlet.


    When they walked closer, however, Rune could see that what he¡¯d thought was a gauntlet was actually a robotic arm! Or maybe it was a synthetic arm; Rune wasn¡¯t quite sure. What he did know, however, that it was cool as all fuck! Rune was about to run over and start peppering the duo with questions, but Narissa caught his shoulder and warned him off with an amused shake of her head.


    ¡°Don¡¯t bother the techies when they¡¯re in the midst of fixing shit,¡± she cautioned. ¡°One wrong calibration and the arm won¡¯t work right for whoever needs it.¡±


    Rune looked back and shrugged, committing the duo¡¯s faces to memory. Despite what Narissa had told him about a bionic arm being a bad idea, he still wanted one. Maybe these guys could set him up, or at least point him in the right direction.


    While they didn¡¯t stop to chat with the duo working on the bionic arm, they did go over to the trio working on the boots. Apparently, they were a customized model that was both magnetic and equipped with small thrusters that could allow for propulsion in space without breaking the ankles of the user. Rune pretty much zoned out as they blabbed on out how cool a gadget it was, and how difficult it was to get it working. Rune figured that after he¡¯d been in zero-g he might have a greater respect for the device, but as of now, he wasn¡¯t overly thrilled. Shoes had never really been his thing.


    After a solid ten minutes of listening to the tech students nerd about their gadget, the trio decided to move on. They finished the floor, passing by another few experimentation rooms and classrooms, before finally coming to the exit and proceeding to the fourth floor.


    The fourth floor seemed to be devoted to what passed for in this day and age as computer programming, or as it was called nowadays, Attunement. As they walked, Narissa tried her best to explain it to him.


    ¡°So once upon a time, you¡¯d have programmers write hundreds upon hundreds of lines of code to make devices or programs run, but not so much anymore.¡± Narissa frowned and thought for a second. ¡°Nowadays, AI are complex enough to do it themselves.¡±


    Rune frowned and gave a slight shake of his head. ¡°Wait, so then if the AI write all the code to get things working, who writes the code for the AI?¡±


    Narissa waved her hand in a dismissive manner. ¡°Well, that¡¯s not really the problem, AI just writes codes for one another, the problem is that AI can¡¯t tell exactly what we need programs for.¡± She nodded as if the memories were all coming back to her. ¡°So what interfacers¡ªthat¡¯s just what people call them now¡ªwhat interfacers do is not so much as to write the code, but write complex instructions that direct their builder AI to write the code needed. But I¡¯m making something that¡¯s super hard sound a lot easier than it actually is. I mean, of course, for simple things like getting basic machinery to work, it¡¯s pretty easy. But when you¡¯re talking about a super complicated interfacing between a human brain and an AI like your PAAI and you? Now it¡¯s getting harder. Now imagine interfacing between an AI, human and ship systems. Insanely hard. These guys put in a lot of work, and make bank for it.¡±


    Rune looked around with a frown on his face. They walked through a classroom, but the two people they passed were both working on holographic computers. Rune supposed that it could be really hard, but from what he could see he couldn¡¯t tell. He shrugged. Who knew?


    Soon enough, they passed from the exit of the fourth floor and went up to the fifth. The fifth floor was apparently the general education floor, where all the kids under the age of fourteen who applied for it got gen ed. They were all gone, having long since been sent back to their rooms or their families if they lived near the TEF. There wasn¡¯t much to see, so the trio just passed through while Narissa pointed out curiosities for him that she recognized from her time in the TEF. Rune smiled and nodded along as they went.


    After the trio exited the gen ed area, they went up one more level, into the roof of the Atrium. Devin turned to Rune and asked, ¡°you like what you see, kid?¡±


    Rune smirked at him. ¡°How could I not. Getting to use battle simulators every day and getting recommended for a job for it afterward? It¡¯s like a second chance to play with the laser-tasers all the young rich kids had that I never got to use.¡±


    The group lapsed into a melancholy silence for a few seconds, before Narissa spoke up with regret in her voice. ¡°Rune¡­ As much as I¡¯d like to tell you how much fun it¡¯s gonna be, the TEF is hard. They¡¯re gonna push you, to be better, fight harder, think more, uh, creatively. It¡¯s just one huge competition to see who can rate the highest. And it¡¯s gonna be a lot of hard work if you wanna come out at the top.¡±


    Rune shrugged. ¡°I can work hard,¡± he said the words with traces of arrogance bleeding into his voice. ¡°I figure I¡¯ll just sign up for the piloting school, I hit Ace rank in Whirl of Warplanes, I know my way around a fighter jet.¡±


    Narissa frowned and shrugged, while Devin clapped him on the shoulder, laughing. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll do fine, kid, kick ass and take names. Right Narissa?¡±


    She shrugged, the frown still on her face. ¡°Yeah, I guess. Don¡¯t underestimate the TEF though, they will push you till you break.¡±


    Rune glanced at Devin, before snorting and casually shrugging. ¡°School can¡¯t break me.¡±


    Devin laughed. ¡°That¡¯s the spirit, kid!¡± Narissa shot an ice cold glare at him. Devin cut his laugh off awkwardly, and the trio walked in silence along the corridor for a short way along the corridor until they reached the exit.


    The final room was reminiscent of a lobby of some sort, except designed in a far more friendly and accommodating manner. Plush couches and chairs littered the carpeted room which boasted an array of colors that could match a rainbow. Wooden desks a color and grain reminiscent of mahogany were arranged in small clusters in what could pass for small study areas. A few tidy bookshelves, out of place for what Rune would¡¯ve expected for the 27th century, dotted the room infrequently.


    Striding out into the room, Narissa waved her hand in a sweeping manner and looked back at Rune. ¡°This is the Enclave, where people come when they¡¯re hanging out or studying.¡±


    Rune spotted a couple students lounging about within the room, thinking that maybe they would go over and talk to them, but Narissa instead turned and walked along a wall until she reached one of the four exits to the room. Rune followed, and after turning into the hallway and then making another turn through a sliding steel door, Rune found himself in some sort of office. There was a slightly plump man sitting behind a desk, who looked up and smiled at them as they entered.


    ¡°Narissa,¡± the man said her name with warmth, ¡°how incredibly good to see you! How have you been? Is your company doing well?¡±


    Narissa smiled back at the man. ¡°We¡¯re doing great, Ajax. We¡¯ve run four ops so far. The one in the reaches, a couple over in Helimgrad, and one long escort run from Psi Draconis to Densorice.¡± She spread her arms wide, showing empty palms. ¡°They all went off without a hitch. That¡¯s it. Now we¡¯re back for a bit.¡±


    Ajax smiled proudly at her. ¡°I heard about your strike over in Helimgrad. You and your team dropped into the middle of the Blackwater den and shut down the reactor so the UIS cruiser could bombard the place. Well done. The world is a better place with scum like that behind bars.¡±


    Narissa sighed and looked down. ¡°I dunno. They had kids, you know? I¡ªshit.¡± Narissa bit her lip. ¡°It¡¯s not like the holovids, you know. Just, you go out there, and you expect it to be all simple. It¡¯s just not.¡±


    Ajax opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it, giving Narissa a compassionate smile. ¡°I know what you mean.¡± He peered over the desk at Rune and Devin, as if noticing them for the first time. ¡°Hi, officer Charin.¡± Devin nodded back at him as a way of greeting, giving him a tight smile. Ajax turned his head to regard Rune. ¡°Are you the transfer student I was told that would be arriving today?¡± He glanced between Rune and Narissa once, before his eyes widened in comprehension. ¡°Oh! I see. He¡¯s a new arrival!¡± He held his hand out for Rune to take, who quickly walked up and took it, giving it a firm shake.


    Narissa spoke. ¡°Yes, to both, he¡¯s the new transfer student, and he¡¯s also a new arrival. He wandered into the Dwelling last night looking lost as a Purist on Wet Street, so I thought I¡¯d give him a hand.¡± Devin cracked a smile at the comment, while Ajax outright laughed.


    ¡°Well,¡± he spoke warmly,¡±always nice to meet a new fellow synth. Anyways, you¡¯ll be staying in Room 778, which is in the Marban wing. That¡¯s your room now, to do with as you please. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your courses, the school, other students, any problems, really, you can always come to me.¡±


    Rune smiled warmly at the guy. He decided that he liked the rotund and overly friendly man. ¡°Thanks, man.¡± He then cleared his throat. ¡°But uh, didn¡¯t I only submit the forms earlier today? Shouldn¡¯t it take at least a day to process.¡±


    Devin spoke up. ¡°We¡¯ve come a long way since the 22nd-century man. When a bureaucracy is primarily run by an AI, things tend to get done pretty fast.¡± Ajax nodded. Rune shrugged. It made sense.


    Narissa spoke up then. ¡°So, then, how about I show you to your rooms? You can move in today if you want, or tomorrow if you have stuff you wanna get.¡±


    Rune shook his head. ¡°No, I don¡¯t have anything. Let¡¯s just go to my rooms.¡±


    The trio was about to leave the room when Ajax called out to them. ¡°Remember, your orientation will be at 10:00 AM tomorrow, in the Atrium.¡±


    Rune frowned. ¡°Orientation? Is this just for me?¡±


    Ajax shook his head, a smile on his face. ¡°No, you appear to have come at just the right time. There is an orientation every semester, or six months, for new students. This semester¡¯s orientation is tomorrow.¡±


    Rune smiled. ¡°That¡¯s super convenient. Guess I just got super lucky.¡±


    Ajax smiled at him. ¡°That you did. Anyway, remember 10:00 AM, tomorrow, the Atrium. Some of your instructors value punctuality. Don¡¯t be late.¡±


    Rune nodded at Ajax and said, ¡°I won¡¯t be, thanks.¡± before the trio turned to leave the room. Together, they exited out into the hallway before exiting into the main room.


    Narissa pointed out across the room, at one of the six total exits to the room. That hallway leads to the Marban wing. In total, there are four residential wings, the Marban wing, the Joseph wing, the Cooley wing, and the Anasa wing. She pointed at the exits, moving from left to right as she listed them off. Peering closer, Rune realized he could actually see the names of the wings on small plaques above the entrances.


    Narissa set off across the room, weaving around desks and chairs, as she approached the Marban wing. ¡°I can remember this place,¡± she said, looking around with a fond smile on her face. ¡°Late nights spent studying, chatting with my friends¡­¡± Narissa trailed off, and what Rune thought was a look of sadness passed over her face, but was gone before he could quite tell properly.


    A smile soon back on her face, Narissa kept talking. ¡°I stayed in the Joseph wing while I trained here. I¡¯ve been through the other wings a couple times. Joseph has the best dinner by five miles, but Cooley rooms have the biggest rooms by far.¡±


    Devin snorted. ¡°They¡¯re pretty much all the same, kid.¡±


    Narissa smirked. ¡°Nah, Joseph¡¯s way better than all the rest.¡±


    It didn¡¯t take long for them to pass through the Enclave and enter the Marban wing. They followed the signs that led to the seventh corridor of the complex and followed the hall towards the 78th room, near the back of the hallways. They walked up to the door, and just as Rune was about to ask how to open it the door slid open of its own accord. He frowned.


    ¡°Hey,¡± Rune said, confused, ¡°It¡¯s not just going to open like that for anyone, right?¡±


    Narissa smiled and shook her head. ¡°No, it¡¯s keyed to your biomarkers. It scans your system remotely down to your DNA. Unless someone had a clone of you in front of the door, they couldn¡¯t get in.¡±


    Rune smiled and nodded, accepting the explanation. He wasn¡¯t really sure about the science of it, but he figured the school was probably secure enough anyways. Turning around, he walked into the room, checking out his new place. It was very similar to the hotel room.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Rune said, ¡°It looks like my hotel last night. Not bad at all, for student rooms.¡±


    Narissa shrugged. ¡°Well, schooling nowadays is more expensive. When rich parents pay for kids to go to expensive schools, the thought is that the kids should have at least acceptable accommodations. I know that this probably seems nice to you, but your hotel room from last night should¡¯ve only been like 150 GC. Now while in digicoins 150 might¡¯ve been a lot, in GC that¡¯s like nothing. It¡¯s like the equivalent of 2 or 3 digicoins. That¡¯s nothing. The costs of living are lower than ever before, and paying for something like this isn¡¯t too big a burden on the TEF.¡±


    Rune cocked his head, thinking as she spoke, then nodded when she finished. It made sense. ¡°Yeah, guess that makes sense.¡± He trailed off, and silence filled the room for a few seconds before Narissa finally spoke up.


    ¡°So anyways, want to go check out the cafeteria, or do you want to stay here and just relax, surf the G-Web.¡±


    Rune shrugged. ¡°I dunno. I got a lot to think about. I think I might just stay here, figure out whatever website it is that replaced Newtube.¡±


    Narissa smiled at him, a slight blush coming to her face. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sorry about the tour. It was a little weird. I just¡­ didn¡¯t think they¡¯d put up that plaque and¡­ Yeah.¡± She looked him in the eyes, sincerity written on her face. ¡°Remember you have my G-Web address, if you ever need anything, please message me. And if you¡¯re looking for a job after you graduate, well,¡± Narissa paused, and a sheet of paper popped out of her suit and into her hand before she held it out to Rune. ¡°Here¡¯s our business card.¡±


    Rune took it, smiling at her. ¡°Thanks a ton. And thanks for the tour too. I really appreciated it. I wasn¡¯t expecting somebody to be nice enough to show me around the place, or even get me training. Thanks a million. I¡¯ll definitely look you guys up once I¡¯m out of here.¡±


    Narissa smiled, and wave at him as she and Devin walked back towards the door. ¡°Awesome, well, hope to see you after you graduate. Good luck, kid!¡±


    Rune smiled and waved as the two left, the door sliding closed behind them. After they walked out of the room, Rune let the smile on his face slip off. For a stranger, Narissa had been exceptionally nice to him through these last couple days. Helping him with the BFS, giving him a tour of the TEF, these were the actions of family, not random strangers. While Rune would love to take the kindness of her actions at face value, Rune knew the truth of the world. When people were randomly nice to him, they wanted something from him.


    Rune walked over to the desk and issued a mental command. Paine, pull me up my holocomputer.


    Sure thing. The response was near instantaneous, and a holographic computer sprang to life on the sole desk within Rune¡¯s room. It was time to do some research.

 Chapter 5: Combat Aptitude Test

    ¡°You think that the damn pirates are gonna wait for you to stop huffing and puffing and get your ass into gear to board their ship? You think that just cause you watched some trumped up fantasy holovids of TSTs that you¡¯ve got what it takes to capture and kill some of the biggest, meanest, and baddest bitches in the galaxy?¡± The drill sergeant paused for a second as if waiting for a response. Nothing came but the sound of retching.


    ¡°Well, you better think that through again, fatass! If you can¡¯t even beat this track, you sure as hell can¡¯t beat the damn space pirates that took my arm and my leg! If you can¡¯t run here, slug, you might as well crawl your way back to your damn dormitory as there¡¯s no place for you in Trooper training.¡± The drill sergeant cut off, waiting for a decision.


    On shaky legs, the plump kid shuffled to his feet and took a shaky step forward, and then another one, and yet another, until he was moving at what could only just barely qualify as a jog. The drill sergeant crept up behind the kid until he was standing just behind him.


    ¡°You call that running?¡± the drill Sergeant shouted the words. ¡°I don¡¯t even walk this slow when I¡¯m coming to see you lot of ungrateful pieces of shit in the morning. Wet Street whores don''t even walk home this slowly after a full day of work.¡± The drill Sergeant waved out across the room, almost making eye contact with Rune, who made sure to look away. ¡°Do you even see one other trainee running half as slow? Hell no! That¡¯s because they all know that if you¡¯re gonna run down a pirate, you¡¯re gonna have to be fast. Fast enough to outrun a strumpet, that''s for damn sure!¡±


    The fat kid sobbed and did his best to speed up. His bouncing walk upgraded to a very shaky run, and breath heaved in and out of his chest, the kid barely able to keep going. Rune frowned. He¡¯d seen similar scenes in movies before, but watching it live was more¡­ visceral than he¡¯d expected. He glanced away from the scene as the drill Sergeant, seemingly satisfied with the fat kid¡¯s efforts, scanned the room for any slackers.


    A second later, the drill Sergeant¡¯s voice boomed out through the room. ¡°Each of you will keep running laps until slug here has finished his first ten. You will win as a team or lose as a team, and you will only be as strong as your weakest link. Remember! The weakest link is the link that will snap first.¡± The drill Sergeant leaned forward and snarled. ¡°Do not be that person!¡±


    The group continued running for nearly another five minutes as the chubby kid completed his last two runs. He just barely made it over the finish line before he dropped down on all fours, panting. The rest of the group slowly trickled in behind him. Most of them had lapped him once or twice, and several of the more haggard looking ones shot the kid an angry glare. Rune noticed the drill Sergeant standing off to the side, taking careful note of each and every one of these kids.


    Once about half the kids had come to rest at the end of the track, the drill Sergeant pointed to a strange looking device on the wall. ¡°For all you rookies wondering how you might be able to get food or a drink when in between classes or after drills, this thing is how. There¡¯s a store that sells some real food on each level, but you gotta pay out of your own pocket for that. You can get multibars and water from these for free, all the time. Like now.¡± The drill Sergeant glared around at the assembling students when only a couple moved. ¡°That¡¯s an order! Stay hydrated, all the time. Get some damn water!¡± The pack of students rushed over to the station, some of them tripping over themselves in their haste. All but the fat kid at the back.


    After a brief minute, the majority of the students were sipping water and standing around or sitting down as they waited for the drill Sergeant to tell them what to do next. The last kid ran in, finishing their run, and the drill Sergeant waited for that kid to run over to the station and grab a water. The drill Sergeant nodded and then glanced around, scanning the crowd until his eyes lit upon the chubby kid who was now sitting down curled up into a ball, most importantly without a water in his hand.


    The Drill Sergeant¡¯s eyes narrowed as he marched over and spoke to the chubby kid in a dangerously low tone. ¡°Trainee Keens. Did I not give you and this squadron an order to get water?¡±


    Trainee Keens looked up at the Drill Sergeant, regret obvious in his eyes and facial expression. ¡°Uh, yeah, you did that, sir.¡±


    The Drill Sergeant¡¯s eye¡¯s narrowed and he shouted, ¡°Then where is. Your. Damn. WATER?¡±


    Keens flinched. ¡°I, uh, I don¡¯t, uh¡ª¡±


    Rune spoke up, keeping his voice as neutral as possible. ¡°Sorry Sergeant, trainee Keens told me he was tired and asked me to hold his water for him.¡± He brandished a second bottle of water, before throwing it at Keens who looked for all the world like a million dollars had just landed in his lap. Meanwhile, the drill Sergeant glanced with narrowed eyes between trainee Keens and Rune.


    He finally spoke. ¡°Hmmm, then, I see. You were just holding his water for him.¡± The drill Sergeant gave Rune a serious look. ¡°The next time, you let him hold his own water. You can¡¯t be weak and make it through trooper training. And if trainee Keens can¡¯t even hold his own water, he sure as hell won¡¯t be able to hold his own on the battlefield! If you want entrance to Combat, trainee Keens, you¡¯ll have to step it the hell up.¡±


    Trainee Keens nodded meekly before the drill Sergeant stormed off.


    Rune shook his head before giving trainee Keens a look. ¡°He may be an asshole, but he¡¯s right about one thing. If your goal is to make it into combat, you¡¯re gonna have to step it up.¡± He then turned and walked off into the crowd, which was currently in the midst of following the Sergeant out of the room.


    Rune was walking with the other students when all of a sudden, an elbow came out of the crowd, hitting him in the side. ¡°What¡¯d you help the fat kid for, Rune.¡±


    Rune glanced over to see Jamis, one of the kids he¡¯d met the tech orientation day, walking next to him. He was short, skinny, and white with an immaculate wave of blonde hair running down one side of his face. Rune had thought he was a rich kid, but Jamis had declared himself as from the Deep Side, which as far as Rune could tell from his research were effectively the slums of Terrassis. Rune shrugged. ¡°Why not? For all you know, the kid could be amazing at Attunement or Harmonics. Could be useful to know someone like that in the future.¡±


    Jamis frowned and then shrugged. ¡°I guess, man. I guess. What¡¯re you planning to go into, anyway? Probably not tech from what I saw, but you seem like the Combat type. Am I wrong?¡±


    Rune frowned and shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m still not sure. Probably not tech. I like combat but¡­ I think I might go for Harmonics if I can. I want to be a pilot of some sort. When I was still, you know, human, that was one of my plans.¡±


    Jamis arched an eyebrow, an impressed look on his face. ¡°Harmonics, is it? Damn. Yeah, if you can go into Harmonics, you go into Harmonics. Don¡¯t know why anyone who could do anything different. So then how many neural linkages you got?¡±


    Rune frowned, it being his turn to arch an eyebrow. ¡°Why does it even matter how many neural linkages I have? And I have four.¡±


    Jamis, who had paused to take a drink out of his water bottle, choked and nearly spat it all over the floor, his eyes flaring in surprise. He leaned in a little closer to Rune, now speaking in a whisper. ¡°The earthsoul above, you have four neural linkages? How many were implanted? I thought you said you were a synth. Didn¡¯t you like, just get integrated? Did those people you met from BFS give you one or something?¡±


    Rune frowned, not quite understanding why Jamis was so surprised. ¡°Yeah I have four, and no, I haven¡¯t gotten any implanted. I didn¡¯t even know you could do that.¡±


    Jamis looked at him like he was insane. ¡°I thought you talked to a bunch of other synths. How the fuck did they not tell you about neural linkages? Everybody knows what neural fucking linkages are. And you naturally have four? Earthsoul.¡± Jamis shook his head.


    Rune frowned. ¡°What¡¯s the big deal? Doesn¡¯t everybody have one? I have four, they can¡¯t be that rare.¡±


    Jamis shot him another incredulous look. ¡°Dude, only approximately one in ten people even has one. And that¡¯s just one neural linkage. One. For every single one after that, it a hundred times more rare for someone to have one. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Rune frowned and crunched the number in his head. Ten to a thousand, to a hundred thousand, to¡­ His eyes widened. Holy fucking shit. That was a lot of people. Rune was just about to ask Jamis what use neural linkages had when the drill Sergeant marched through a door. Focusing back on the class, Rune and Jamis followed the drill Sergeant through the door to stand in front of him with the rest of the students.


    The drill Sergeant started off shouting, ¡°It¡¯s time for another exercise you lot of good for nothing steel-slinkers. Luckily though, especially for you slug, this exercise will not be an effort to gauge your physical fitness.¡± The drill Sergeant paced back and forth in front of the group, leaving them in suspense. ¡°No, this next exercise will evaluate your capabilities as a marksman.¡±


    The drill Sergeant pointed at the wall, where a rack of gun looking instruments was on display for the students. ¡°Each and every one of you is to take an EMR-27. Do not adjust any knobs or switches on the weapon. Do not attempt to fire the weapon. Keep the weapon pointed at the ground at all times during use. Do you understand me, trainees?¡±


    The crowd of trainees shouted in unison, ¡°Sir, yes sir.¡±


    The drill Sergeant waved towards the rack. ¡°Well then, get to it! Once you¡¯re done, stand in front of me, in formation. Finish within sixty-seconds. Anyone who doesn¡¯t have a weapon or isn¡¯t in formation by then is going back to the pit to run more laps!¡±


    All the students hustled to get the weapons and were back in front of the drill Sergeant standing in the more or less organized fashion that they¡¯d been instructed to earlier in the day. As soon as the last trainee had gotten back in formation, the drill Sergeant nodded and continued speaking. ¡°49 seconds! Not bad.¡± He nodded. ¡°Next time you¡¯ll have thirty!¡±


    He then held up the EMR-27. ¡°This is the Electromagnetic Mechanized Rifle, version twenty-seven.¡± He turned the weapon upside down, holding it so that they could see the bottom. ¡°This is the trigger.¡± The drill Sergeant pointed at the trigger, before turning the weapon on its side and pointing to a switch. ¡°This is the safety.¡± He glared around at the trainees. ¡°Do not switch off the safety at any time without my explicit instruction. Do you understand, trainees?¡±


    ¡°Sir, yes sir!¡± The voices of the boomed the response back loudly and clearly.


    Mollified, the drill Sergeant nodded and went on. He pointed towards one of the three dials on the weapon. ¡°This is here the power regulator.¡± Once again, the drill Sergeant glared around the class. ¡°Do not, under any circumstances, mess with the power regulator.¡± He then pointed two fingers at each of the last two knobs, which were right next to each other. ¡°These two here are the wave adjusters. You are allowed to mess with them, but know that if you do you will definitely fail this next marksmanship exercise.¡±


    Suddenly pointing at one of the female trainees, the drill Sergeant shouted, ¡°Trainee Yun, point to the safety on your EMR-27.¡±


    The trainee glanced down at her weapon, back up at the Drill Sergeant, before pointing towards the corresponding switch. ¡°This one, sir.¡±


    The drill Sergeant nodded, before pointing at another trainee and scream a similar question. This happened a few times until one kid messed up. After berating the trainee for being an idiot, the drill Sergeant went over what parts of the weapon did what again, and then went back to quizzing the students. This time, he made it through the entire crowd without anyone making a mistake.


    The drill Sergeant gave a nod. ¡°Alright, that¡¯s good enough for now. By now, you lot of steel-slinkers should at least be able to tell the business end of the weapon from the stock. Each and every one of you, through that door, into that corridor over there!¡± The drill Sergeant pointed at a section of the wall marked wall further down in the room, which slid open to reveal an opening.


    Rune, who was somewhere near halfway in the crowd, entered the room towards the back of the crowd. It seemed to be a firing range of some sort, with a long double series of booths for individuals to shoot from. The drill Sergeant gestured to the booths. ¡°What in the Earthsoul are you idiots waiting for? Each of you, into a booth!¡± The trainees rushed into the booths, each of them filling up a single space.


    Rune heard rather than saw that one of the trainees switched his safety off early. ¡°Damn it trainee Marone, were you listening to me at all earlier? What did I tell you?¡±


    The trainee¡¯s words came out confused with a hint of annoyance. ¡°Uh, sir, I¡¯m not really, sir, it¡¯s a firing range so I just thought¡ª¡±


    ¡°YOU THOUGHT WRONG.¡± The drill Sergeant screamed the words at the trainee. ¡°When I give you an order, I expect you to follow that order! On the battlefield, you follow orders or put the whole damn unit at risk! And if you can¡¯t do that now, you won¡¯t be able to do that later! You will eat only when I say so! You will shit only when I say so! You will think only when I say so! And you will turn off your safety only when I say so! Is that clear, trainee?¡±


    The trainee must¡¯ve nodded because the next thing Rune head was the drill Sergeant shouting again. ¡°Good, then you will run back to the Pit and run another lap! Meanwhile, we¡¯re going to start the marksmanship evaluation without you! Every target missed in the time that you¡¯re missing will be counted against you.¡±


    There was a brief pause before the drill Sergeant¡¯s voice came again. ¡°Well, trainee? What will it be? Are you gonna drop here, or are you gonna run?¡± There was a brief pause before the sound of pounding feet provided the answer. Rune got a brief glimpse of the kid as he ran by. A shock of red hair, braided back in a ponytail, Rune might¡¯ve imagined that he was Native American except for the fact that his skin was as pale as could be. He had an angry look on his face, but Rune just shook his head as he ran by. What an idiot, to turn off his safety early.


    The drill Sergeant waited for a couple seconds until the kid was gone, and then he shouted at the group. ¡°Alright trainees, now that the idiot is gone, each and every one of you can turn off your safeties.¡± He paced back and forth behind the trainees as the did so, looking at each and every one of them to make sure nothing was going wrong. ¡°Each and every one of you remember to keep your weapon aimed downwards at all times unless you plan on firing it. You will now see a series of targets appear in front of you. Shoot all the ones colored red. Successful hits on limbs will grant you one point. Body and headshots will grant you two points. Shooting a blue target will lose you a point. Your reaction time, rate of fire, and consistency will be factored into your score. You have a total of fifty shots.¡± All of a sudden, a holographic desert flickered to life in front of rune. It was pretty much empty aside from some desert shrubbery spotting the area here and there. ¡°You may fire whenever. Begin!¡±


    Rune just waited. There weren¡¯t any red targets that he could see, so he just waited till something changed. Sure enough, a red shaded human being began ran out from one side of the range, close to where Rune was standing in relation to the hologram. Rune gunned him down with ease, and the simulation went on. Some people dropped in from the sky. Other¡¯s ran in from the sides. Some popped up from the ground and ran for it. Rune shot them down indiscriminately. He missed several times, but for never having wielded¡¯ a gun outside of a VR arcade, he thought he did a pretty good job.


    Time passed, and after some immeasurable amount of time, Rune heard the drill Sergeant calling for a halt and for the trainees to switch their guns safeties on and then follow him out of the room. Rune immediately did so, and then fell into the crowd of people flowing out of the room and back into the main room where the Drill Sergeant was waiting.


    ¡°Fall in line! Formaaaaaation.¡± The trainees filed into the room, doing their best to line up and get into formation. Eventually, they managed to get in line. Looking up and down the line, Rune saw the red haired kid who¡¯d turned off his safety early standing in the line. He must¡¯ve gotten back sometime during the marksmanship assessment. Rune had been so focussed while shooting that he must not have noticed the kid run past behind him. The kid caught his eye and shot an angry glare at him.


    Rune held his gaze for a second, before shrugged and looked back at the Drill Sergeant, who was speaking. ¡°¡ªnothing fucking steel-slinkers! If this was a boarding operation the pirates would¡¯ve blasted off the docking clamps fifteen seconds ago! Back to the track, another three laps.¡± A collective groan came from the crowd, and the drill Sergeant swept a hard, angry gaze across the crowd before shouting out, ¡°make that six laps!¡±


    With some more restrained grumbling, the trainees filed out of the room before walking back to the track. They ran the six laps this time with the fat kid not falling over before the drill Sergeant rounded them up. ¡°Alright trainees, it¡¯s time for the next section of your assessments, namely the tactical assessment.¡± He paced up and down the track, glaring down at the trainees arranged in a variety of slouched over, sitting down, and standing positions. ¡°This assessment will take place in the sims room.¡± He stopped pacing, holding up a finger as if issuing a warning. ¡°There will be other, already admitted trainees using the sims rooms. Do. Not. Disturb. them.¡± The drill Sergeant shook his fist as he enunciated every word.


    ¡°Anyone caught harassing or bothering a trainee in the midst of a simulation or merely walking through the sims room will immediately be removed. Is that clear?¡± the drill Sergeant looked around dangerously.


    ¡°Sir, yes, sir!¡± The response was loud and near instantaneous. The drill Sergeant turned and strode out of the pit. The rest of the trainees trickled out behind him, Rune somewhere near the back of the group, Jamis hot on his heels.


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard this is the hardest section of Combat aptitude testing,¡± Jamis said. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that only four people ever have managed to score above a fifty on their original trial.¡±


    Rune arched an eyebrow. ¡°A tactical assessment the hardest section of the aptitude test? Isn¡¯t there like VR everywhere now? I¡¯d expect with all the combat games people would know what they¡¯re doing.¡±


    Jamis laughed. ¡°The games are completely different man. They all have magic, or something special. Nobody wants to play real life, man. That shit¡¯s too hardcore. Besides, most of them don¡¯t have pain.¡± Jamis leaned in, glancing around like he was telling Rune a dirty secret he wasn¡¯t supposed to know. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that the TEF sims lab goes for 100% pain.¡± He leaned back with a wide grin on his face. ¡°Now that shit¡¯s hardcore.¡±


    Rune frowned and then shrugged. ¡°I guess we¡¯ll see, man. I guess we¡¯ll see.¡±

 Chapter 6: The Small Fights of Small Men

    Rune stared out across the room, a frowning creeping its way onto his face. Filing into the sim room opposite to Rune¡¯s was that same red-headed kid who¡¯d been shooting him dagger eyes earlier when he¡¯d caught Rune staring at him. He was giving Rune the same look right now.


    Rune wasn¡¯t really sure what he¡¯d done to earn the kid¡¯s animosity, but he definitely knew what that look meant. It was the, ¡®fuck you asshole, I¡¯m gonna come over and fuck you up¡¯ look. Rune didn¡¯t know what he¡¯d done to get the kid to be so angry at him in particular, but he knew how to deal with people who had it out for you. You either beat them down hard enough that they couldn¡¯t get back up, or you ran. Rune cracked his knuckles and gave the kid a sharp smile. He wasn¡¯t about to run from this asshole.


    The kid¡¯s eyes narrowed, and then he slipped out of sight through the door to the sims room, but not before mouthing something at Rune. Rune had no idea what he¡¯d said¡ªhe¡¯d never really been any good at reading lips¡ªbut he¡¯d bet dollars to donuts that the kid had been threatening him somehow.


    Rune quirked a smile. He¡¯d been up against mega-slum drug runners, gang members, and the mega-slum cops, who might as well have been an armed gang of their own. Those were the sorts of people you ran from. Not this red-headed twerp who thought he was hot shit. Regardless of why this kid had it out for him, Rune was gonna put him down, and hard.


    Jamis bumped him on the shoulder. ¡°Yo, that kid looked pissed. You know him from somewhere?¡±


    Rune shook his head. ¡°No, I don¡¯t know him at all.¡± He frowned. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure all I did was shake my head at him when he ran by going back to the pit and make eye contact with him when we were standing in formation after.¡±


    Jamis shot him an appalled look. ¡°You made eye contact with him? How could you? Don¡¯t you know that¡¯s like, the biggest social taboo ever?¡±


    Rune¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°Wait, really? Am I not supposed to look people in the eyes? Oh shit. Damn.¡± He looked back at the other room with a look of worry on his face, thinking that society must¡¯ve changed a lot in the time that he¡¯d been gone. A muted choking noise came from his right, and he turned to see Jamis slumped over, barely hold back his laughter. When he saw Rune looking at him, he just broke out laughing.


    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you fucking fell for that. Not supposed to look people in the eyes.¡± He paused to laugh some more. Rune¡¯s face slowly turned red. ¡°I just looked you in the eyes, my man. Whaddya think, society turned so uptight we can¡¯t even look at each other?¡± Jamis kept laughing, and Rune joined him. After a while, they managed to calm down.


    ¡°Wow, I can¡¯t believe, I actually fell for that,¡± Rune said between gasping, laughing breaths.


    Jamis smirked. ¡°You¡¯re so gullible.¡±


    Rune just shook his head and shrugged. ¡°I guess I can¡¯t deny it.¡±


    They stood there and smiled for another few seconds before Rune gestured to the pod room. ¡°Well then, let¡¯s get in there and kick these guys¡¯ collective asses.¡±


    Jamis frowned, then glanced away, back towards the throng of trainees milling about the room and awkwardly forming groups. ¡°Don¡¯t we need a third member for a tactical group?¡±


    Rune shook his head. ¡°No, the Drill Sergeant said that he¡¯d just assign people to groups if they didn¡¯t join any. I figure that if we get in a pod the drill Sergeant will just assign us, someone.¡±


    Jamis frowned, and shot him a look. ¡°Wait, but if the drill Sergeant gives us the last, groupless guy they¡¯re gonna suck at this.¡±


    Rune just shrugged. ¡°Whatever man, together you and me can pick up the slack.¡±


    Jamis shrugged nonchalantly. ¡°Alright man, your call.¡±


    Rune strode by him, entering the sim room. Glancing around, Rune saw pretty much exactly what he expected; a bunch of dive capsules. They were smaller and more elegant than the ones that they¡¯d had back in the 22nd-century, but the basic outline remained the same. Rune cranked open the top, got in, and felt his consciousness fade.


    A few brief moments later, he materialized in what seemed to be an endless, glowing white room. Standing a few feet away from him was Jamis. Hanging up in the air was the massive blue letters, ¡®Friendly Party: 2/3¡¯ and below them, ¡®Enemy Party: 3/3¡¯.


    Jamis spoke up. ¡°Guess we just wait now, then.¡±


    And wait they did. After nearly two minutes the pair was beginning to get pretty bored when all of a sudden another kid materialized some ten feet away from the pair. They stood up to look at the kid. It was that same chubby kid who the drill Sergeant had been yelling at for not running hard enough. This could either be really good, or really bad.


    Deciding to play it safe an be nice, Rune walked straight up to the kid and held out his hand. ¡°My name is Rune, and you are¡­¡± He trailed off, giving the kid an expectant look.


    The kid nodded and said, ¡°I¡¯m Harvey, suh.¡±


    Jamis, right behind Rune, popped out with a smile on his face and held his hand out to the kid too. ¡°I¡¯m Jamis, ni¡ª¡± It was right about then that script popped up in front of each of the trainee¡¯s faces reading, ¡®Match begins in 60¡­¡± As they watched, the number ticked down to 59.


    Rune nodded and spoke. ¡°Looks like we¡¯re gonna get thrust into the fight right away.¡± he shot a stern look at the fat kid. ¡°Look, man, you didn¡¯t do so well at the pit, but I¡¯m still expecting you to pull your weight here. He gotta beat these shitters. They¡¯re assholes.¡±


    The fat kid nodded, a serious look on his face. ¡°I know. I wanna at least get entrance to Combat. Would be nice to take some of the classes. I gonna try just as hard as you are, I swear. Harder even.¡±


    Rune nodded, satisfied. As long as he did his best, Rune would be fine with it. Together they waited. ¡®Match begins in 5¡­¡¯


    Rune closed his eyes, waiting for the transition. When he next opened them, he was standing behind a pair of sliding glass doors. Behind them was a metal platform, and on the metal platform, there was a whole bunch of tech and other loot.


    A message popped up in front of each of the three group members. ¡®The objective of this match is gathering resources. Each team will take resources from the pile, receiving a number of points corresponding to the number of resources gathered, up to fifteen for all resources. Three points from the final score will be deducted for injuring or obstructing members of the opposing group. The door opens in 60¡­¡¯


    Rune frowned. This really didn¡¯t seem like the sort of round that Rune¡¯s group would win. While he could definitely pull his weight, Jamis was small and Rune wasn¡¯t quite sure how much he could haul, while the fat kid was definitely out of shape and wouldn¡¯t be too much help. As Jamis shouted words of encouragement, Rune was looking at the pile, trying to think up a plan.


    His eyes passed over what was a bunch of meaningless tech to Rune before his eyes finally lit upon an object he was familiar with¡ªin fact, he¡¯d just been using it.


    Rune spoke up. ¡°Guys, distract the enemy team. I think I¡¯ve got a plan.¡±


    Harvey gave shot him a questioning look, but Rune just ignored it. Jamis nodded like he¡¯d been expecting it and said with confidence, ¡°alright man, I¡¯ll trust you.¡±


    Rune gave him a thank you nod before the timer ticked down from one second to none the trio sprinted out into the enclosure. Jamis immediately began screaming every obscenity in the book at the other trio of trainees and was soon joined by a slightly less confident Harvey. The enemy group did their best to ignore them, also in turn ignoring Rune. Whereas all the other trainees stopped at the edge of the pile of resources, Rune ran into it. He weaved around something that looked like a massive microwave oven, a pile of bars of some strange type of metal, and then a small machine which seemed to be a drone of some type before he finally arrived at the object he¡¯d spotted from the glass window.


    After shooting a glance over his shoulder to make sure the enemy team wasn¡¯t right on his heels, Rune bent over before picking up and switching off the safety on the EMR-27. Spinning, he took careful aim at the three enemy trainees who were walking away with their loot. He shot the read headed guy first, followed by the black-haired Asian-looking guy who was standing just to his left. The final guy, who was stocky, brown-haired, but obviously fit and muscular, saw his two partners explode into red shards and tried to run back to the pile of resources to take cover. Rune didn¡¯t give him the chance, firing three shots, missing the first, nailing him in the hip with the second, and killing him with the third.


    Harvey looked at him, his mouth wide open. ¡°Earthsoul! I can¡¯t believe you did that! Won¡¯t we lose all our points for that?¡± As if the system itself had heard them, a message popped up in front of them. ¡®Challenge Complete! All resources claimed by Blue Team. 9 points deducted for injuring enemy team. Current Score: Red Team: 0 Blue Team: 6¡¯


    Jamis let out a whoop. ¡°Damn! Six points in the lead. Nah, that was way better than trying to take the resources one at a time. By the end, they¡¯d probably have been ahead and gotten a point or two on us. Now we¡¯re six points up, easy.¡± He ran over the Rune, a smile on his face, his hand raised for a high-five. Rune gave it to him. ¡°Good thinking, man.¡±


    Rune just shrugged. ¡°They said it was a strategy test, not an endurance test. There had to be some way to game the system, just had to figure out what it was. It¡¯ll probably be the case for all the challenges in this simulation.¡±


    Jamis and Harvey both nodded, serious looks on their faces. Harvey spoke first. ¡°Yeah, you prolly right. Gotta outthink dem, not beat dem down with our fists.¡± Harvey frowned. ¡°This is supposed to be my shtick. I¡¯ll be smarter next time. My b.¡±


    Rune just waved him off. ¡°No, it¡¯s all good. We¡¯re in this together. If you have a good idea, just speak up. I won this one alone, but for some of the future ones I¡¯ll bet teamwork is essential.¡±


    Jamis threw up his hands. ¡°Teamwork and fighting I¡¯m all down for, but I¡¯ve never been great at planning things out. More of a do now, think later sort of guy. Guess I got lucky with my group. I¡¯ll just leave this to you two.¡±


    Rune smiled at him and nodded, about to say that was okay when all of a sudden the world faded out again and Rune found himself in a bunker alongside Jamis and Harvey. In front of the trio was a rack with a set of three EMR-27s in it. After a couple seconds of standing around and glancing back and forth in confusion, a message popped up in front of them ¡®The objective of this match is to eliminate the enemy team. Each target eliminated will give the team an additional five points. Each team will have a map, two radios, one radar that will activate after ten minutes, and three EMR-27s. The door opens in 180¡­¡¯Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Jamis frowned, and looked around the bunker. ¡°I¡¯m guessing it would be a bad idea to hole up in here. They could just pin us down and keep shooting until we all went down.¡±


    Meanwhile, Rune ignored him and went up to look outside the sliding glass doors into the forest that was just outside of the bunker. He frowned. It pretty much just looked like a regular forest.


    Glancing to his left, Rune spotted Harvey looking out into the forest with wide eyes and a face full of wonder. ¡°Wow,¡± Harvey breathed, ¡°It¡¯s gorgeous.¡±


    Rune frowned. ¡°They still have VR pods, right? Haven¡¯t you seen a forest?¡±


    Jamis shrugged. ¡°Yeah they do, but not everybody uses them. I played a ton of games so I¡¯ve seen this plenty of times but,¡± he shrugged and pointed helplessly at Harvey, ¡°again, not everybody.¡±


    Rune nodded before turning back to look at Harvey and giving him a questioning look. ¡°You never played a fantasy game or anything before?¡±


    Harvey shook his head. ¡°Never even seen the inside of a pod before. First time. Never seen a forest. Too much work in my dad¡¯s shop, and ¡®sides, he was always tellin¡¯ me that this sorta stuff rots your brain. Spend too long in the pod, and soon enough that¡¯s the only place you¡¯ll ever wanna be. You know what I mean?¡±


    Silence reigned for a few seconds. It seemed that despite a change of four hundred years, some things still stayed the same. Rune sighed. ¡°Yeah, some people just disappear into the arcades. I know what you mean. My younger brother...¡± He cleared throat and stopped talking.


    The conversation lapsed into uncomfortable silence before Rune looked down at the window in front of him and realized that the trio only had 120 more seconds to plan out their strategy before the match started.


    He spoke with a hint of command in his voice, ¡°Guys, let¡¯s talk about our lives later, let¡¯s get the guns now and come up with a strategy.¡±


    Harvey and Jamis both nodded, and the three walked over to the gun rack so that each one of them could grab one of the EMR-27s. Rune glanced down at the ammo gauge, noting that it had forty shots. More than enough for the job.


    He glanced over to see Jamis looking at the map. ¡°Yo guys, it says here that we¡¯re inside a kind of arena thingy enclosed by a square wall. One section of the map is cut off by what¡¯s marked as a ¡®rocky shallow river¡¯.¡± He looked up at his two compatriots. ¡°Maybe we could just hole up in the corner, wait ten minutes for the sensors to come on, and then gun them down when they try to cross.¡±


    Rune was shrugging, thinking that it wasn¡¯t a bad plan at all, when Harvey spoke up. ¡°Nah, it¡¯s not a bad plan, but I think you were closer with your first plan.¡±


    Jamis frowned. ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    Harvey pointed down at the ground. ¡°We should stay here, in the bunker. Or, at least, two of us should.¡± He pointed to the radio. ¡°One of us takes that and leaves for just outside. They gonna expect us to stay in here and hide, and it¡¯s gonna be the first place they think to check. Besides, no offense meant, there¡¯s a problem with your plan. If they sees us holed up in the corner and waitin¡¯ for them, they just gonna cross the river somewhere else.¡±


    Rune was nodding along as Harvey finished. ¡°I like it.¡± He turned to look at Jamis. ¡°Now, it¡¯s not like your plan isn¡¯t pretty good, but I¡¯m pretty sure Harvey¡¯s is better. They¡¯re going to be pissed off after the last match, and they won¡¯t think that we have any strategy going. They¡¯ll probably just rush the bunker, and having one dude out there in the forest hiding who can snipe them down when they do will ensure we win.¡±


    Jamis shrugged. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s probably the better idea. Alright, so who is gonna go outside and snipe em¡¯ down when they come?¡±


    Harvey¡¯s eyes shifted to stare at Rune. ¡°Rune¡¯s prolly the best shot out of us.¡± He glanced between Rune and Jamis. ¡°Not sure though, haven¡¯t seen you shoot yet.¡±


    Jamis frowned. ¡°I dunno. I thought I did pretty good on the marksmanship test, but we won¡¯t know scores until the end of the day.¡± He sighed, waving at Rune. ¡°You might as well do it. You seemed to be a pretty good shot.¡±


    Rune nodded. ¡°Alright then.¡± He glanced down at the screen again, noting that they had just over fifteen seconds left before the doors opened. ¡°How about we all go out together after the doors open, find a good place for me to camp, and then you two come back here.¡±


    Harvey and Jamis both nodded, the first with a, ¡°sounds good,¡± and the second with a ¡°Yup, let¡¯s do it.¡±


    A few more seconds and the doors slid open. The trio jogged out into the clearing before moving into the woods. It didn¡¯t take long before Jamis¡¯ voice rang through the air. ¡°Hey guys, I found a bush that I think would work super well.¡±


    Rune and Harvey ran towards where they heard his voice coming from before they finally spotted him standing next to a dense pine bush with his hands on his hips. Jamis pointed at it and said, ¡°you could hide in this super easily. What¡¯s more, you can see most of the rest of the clearing if you pop your head out.¡±


    Rune nodded. ¡°Alright, guess this is it.¡± Climbing up into the bush, Rune climbed halfway through the bush before squatting down and sinking into the foliage.


    Harvey¡¯s voice came from outside. ¡°Yeah man, you¡¯re practically invisible. No-one¡¯s gonna find you unless they¡¯re looking super hard. We¡¯re just gonna head back to the bunker when they come you¡¯ll hear us yellin¡¯ and shootin¡¯.¡± Harvey paused for a brief second. ¡°Give it a couple before you pop out.¡±


    Rune nodded, moving a frond that was pricking him in the out of the way before saying in an annoyed tone of voice, ¡°yeah, sure, I got it.¡±


    Rune made out an, ¡°alright,¡± before he heard the sound of shoes crunching against dirt and leaves moving away from him. Sighing, he settled down for a long wait. He waited. And waited. For nearly four minutes he sat there until he heard a loud voice ring through the air.


    ¡°Hey, you cheaters in there?¡± The angry voice rang loudly through the air. Rune poked his head through the top of the bush, glancing around but not spotting anyone before ducking down and back into cover.


    It only took a second before Jamis¡¯ voice rang loudly out from the direction of the bunker. ¡°Who¡¯s cheatin¡¯, your mom?¡±


    The first voice, this time more aggravated, rang out again. ¡°You little shit! We should¡¯ve crushed you in that first challenge. When I get my hands on you, I¡¯m gonna beat the living shit outta you!¡±


    Jamis¡¯ voice, ever cheerful came back after a brief second. ¡°Won¡¯t be able to beat the shit out of me after a blast your hands off.¡±


    The first voice came again, this time explosively angry. ¡°That¡¯s it, you¡¯re fucking done.¡± A few seconds of silence passed before Rune heard the distinction fizzle-pop-CRACK of an EMR-27 being discharged. It was followed by another, then another, and continued for nearly a minute before firing died off.


    Jamis¡¯ voice came again. ¡°Please tell me you¡¯re not trying to sign on for Combat because that¡¯s some of the shittiest marksmanship I¡¯ve ever seen.¡±


    A different voice from the one that had first spoken rang out annoyedly. ¡°Oh fuck you. You didn¡¯t get any of us, either. How about you come out from that dinky little hole of yours and fight us like real men.¡±


    Jamis¡¯ voice came with a retort quickly. ¡°We wouldn''t be real men for long if we came out and let you blast our dicks off.¡±


    The first voice came again, this time slightly smug. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t be anything to blast off, no need to worry at all.¡±


    Jamis¡¯ voice came quickly. ¡°Same to you, Sluice Slut. Come in here and get us, and we''ll fill you up with all the plasma you could want.¡±


    A third voice spoke up. ¡°Hey fuck you. We¡¯re gonna blast the shit outta you dumbasses. Just you watch.¡±


    The clearing lapsed into silence for a good half minute before Rune suddenly heard a smattering of EMR-27 shot and then Harvey shouting, ¡°hey screw you! Don¡¯t think I can¡¯t see you tryin¡¯ to creep up on us from the sides.¡±


    A couple more shots rang through the clearing, and Rune poked his head out of the bush to spot what the enemies were doing. Two of them, neither the red-haired kid, were on each side of the bunker, creeping along the wall towards the entrance of the bunker. Meanwhile, the red-haired kid sat somewhere behind a copse of trees and fired shots through the opening of the bunker, keeping Jamis and Harvey pinned while his two teammates got into position. If Rune had been in the bunker they might¡¯ve been screwed, but outside this was the perfect opportunity to take them down.


    A savage smile on his face, Rune hopped out of the bush with as much stealth as he could manage before creeping towards where he could see the EMR-27 rounds coming from. Sure enough, he found the red-haired kid squatted behind a tree leveling shots at the entrance of the bunker whenever he saw movement. Rune blasted him with a single shot, before blasting one of the guys on the wall, exploding him into a cascade of red shards. The final guy turned to give Rune a surprised look before Rune blew him to pieces as well.


    Rune cleared his throat before shouting, ¡°I got them, guys.¡±


    Jamis peeked out from the bunker before he spotted Rune and let a smile creep across his face. ¡°Hell yes! We fucking owned them!¡±


    Rune allowed a smile to work its way onto his face, and he let out a chuckle. ¡°You should¡¯ve seen the expression on the last guy¡¯s face, they weren¡¯t expecting it in the slightest. We fucking destroyed them. It was an awesome plan, Harvey.¡±


    Harvey rubbed the back of his head, his face going red. ¡°Aw, man. It wasn¡¯t anythin¡¯, just some basic strategizing.¡± He gestured at Rune. ¡°You coulda done it, I¡¯m sure.¡±


    Rune shook his head. ¡°It was all on you man. That was some really great thinking.¡±


    Harvey flushed even redder, and seemed about to make a response when all of a sudden the world faded out again, and Rune found himself in a new environment. This time it was a futuristic cityscape, with skyscrapers made of a gleaming dark metal.


    This time, both groups were given a set of fifteen combat drones to control. Each member had three aerial, low firepower scouting drones and two ground based drones with heavy weaponry. There was a lot to plan and only four minutes to prepare, so the trio¡¯s plan this time around was a lot more slapdash and less thoroughly thought out. They barely managed to eek out a victory, Rune managing to catch the enemies with a flank from one of his heavy artillery drones. And then that challenge ended.


    Over the course of the next couple hours, they faced the enemy trio in a variety of strategy challenges. Some of the strategy challenges were more like puzzles and games, others featured combat and and more physical confrontation. Insults, blows, and gunfire were exchanged in generous helpings. Rune, Harvey, and Jamis all got taken down at least once or twice, and even lost a match or two to their enemies. At the end of it all, though, the trio had 122 points to the enemy¡¯s 97.


    As Rune rose up out of his pod, he came face to face with a grinning Jamis. ¡°Hell yeah man, we beat those fucking assholes!¡±


    Jamis held his hand out for a high-five, and, letting a smile creep onto his face, Rune followed through. Jamis lent him a hand to help him out of his pod, and Rune slid out of the goopy confines of the dive capsule. Glancing across the room, he spotted Harvey struggling to get out of his pod. Jamis followed his gaze and spotted Harvey in his predicament, quickly walking over to give him a hand and congratulations as well. Soon enough the trio was ready to go, and they opened the door to the pod room to find a very angry red hair kid waiting outside the sim room for them.


    The kid jabbed a finger into Rune¡¯s chest. ¡°Now don¡¯t you go thinking that because you beat us once that you fuckers are better. You fucking cheated, and that¡¯s the only way you won.¡±


    Rune looked over the kid¡¯s shoulder, to spot the asian kid looking abashedly away and the brown haired kid looking apprehensive. Those weren¡¯t the looks of kids who wanted to throw down. Rune opened his mouth, about to respond with his own bit of flame, when Jamis¡¯ voice came from behind him. ¡°Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that if makes you feel better.¡±


    Rune rolled his eyes. ¡°We¡¯re covered in gunk from the pods,¡± he said in a mollifying tone of voice, ¡°and I can see that you guys are too. How about we all go get a shower, maybe you¡¯ll cool down and stop being such a raging asshole.¡±


    A dark look came over the red haired kid¡¯s face, and his fist curled into a tight ball. Rune was readying himself to dodge when a sharp voice came from the side of the two groups. It was the drill Sergeant. ¡°Hey, what did I just tell you trainees? Get a goddamn shower and report to briefing room 115 for the written examination within fifteen minutes. What the hell are you lollygagging around here for?¡±


    The red headed kid shot an annoyed look at the drill Sergeant, but then let out a long sigh before taking a step back and letting the tension out of his shoulders. ¡°Yes sir, sorry sir, we just got a little distracted discussing the matches with our opponents.¡±


    Silence hung in the air for a couple seconds before the drill Sergeant spoke again, this time shouting, ¡°well, what did I just ask you? What are you waiting around here for?¡±


    The red headed kid shot one last angry look at Rune before turning around and walking off down the hallway, his entourage following close behind him. The asian kid gave the trio an apologetic shrug as if to say sorry. Rune and his friends just stood there for a second before following the trio past the drill Sergeant towards the shower room.


    As he walked, Rune frowned and thought back hard on what he¡¯d done through the day, eventually giving up as he drew a total blank. He wasn¡¯t really sure how, but it seemed that today he¡¯d made an enemy.

 Chapter 7: An Opening Mind

    It was the fourth and last of the orientation days, centered around Harmonics. Rune had arrived at the first lecture just ten minutes prior, just to be yanked out of it as soon as the lecturing instructor had gotten to the interesting information. Rune was currently standing outside of the lecture room, staring at the instructor who had pulled him out of the lecture with crossed arms and a vaguely annoyed look on his face, wondering what the man needed from him.


    ¡°You said here that you have four neural linkages.¡± The instructor stared at the hologram for another second before his eyes flicked up from the data table to regard Rune. ¡°You also marked the box for not having any implanted neural linkages.¡± He stared at Rune for another couple seconds, letting the silence fill the room. ¡°Are you sure that you didn¡¯t,¡± the man waved his hand in a circular fashion, ¡°you know, make a mistake or something.¡±


    Rune fidgeted, a frown flickering across his face. ¡°Uh, yeah. I have four. I just spa¡ªI mean, got integrated. I¡¯m a synth. Maybe they installed one in me? I have no idea. That¡¯s just what my character sheet, or whatever it is, says.¡±


    The instructor massaged his temples, letting the hologram hover in the air in front of him. He let out a gusty sigh. ¡°Alright, well, it appears that we¡¯re going to have to get you tested. Any claims of above two neural linkages have to be tested. It¡¯s protocol.¡±


    Rune shifted, glancing back towards the classroom where the rest of the trainees were getting a breakdown on what exactly they¡¯d be doing if they signed up for harmonics. He turned back to his instructor, sticking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the entrance to the classroom. ¡°But I¡¯m missing the lesson. Shouldn¡¯t I know this stuff?¡±


    The instructor just shrugged. ¡°It¡¯s not that important. I can give you the breakdown as we walk if you want. Anything you miss you¡¯ll quickly pick up if you sign on to Harmonics.¡± He looked down at the hologram. ¡°And if you actually have four neural linkages you¡¯d be an idiot not to.¡±


    Rune frowned, a little peeved that the instructor didn¡¯t trust his word, but not surprised. If having this many neural linkages was as rare as Jamis had told him it was, then the instructor¡¯s disbelief and doubt weren¡¯t unwarranted.


    The instructor marked a couple things on his hologram before dismissing it with a wave of his hand and turning away from Rune to walk down the corridor, beckoning him to follow. ¡°Follow me. The testing room is in the Enclave. If we hurry there and hurry back, we should be back a few minutes before the lecture ends.¡± The man accordingly stepped up his pace, and Rune hurried to catch up with him.


    After a couple brief seconds of briskly walking down the corridor towards the central spire of the Atrium, Rune felt his curiosity overwhelm his embarrassment at being so clueless and spoke up. ¡°So, anyway, both you and my friend are acting like having a fourth neural linkage is a big deal. He told me that one in every ten people have at least one, but that for linkage after the first it was a hundred times rarer. I can get that it¡¯s super rare but why would that actually matter? Doesn¡¯t that just mean I can pilot more machines that require integration? That¡¯s what instructor Pauling told us.¡±


    The man turned to give Rune an incredulous look. ¡°Wow, you really don¡¯t know anything, do you?¡± He shook his head. ¡°Nah, kid, having more neural linkages does a lot more than give you the ability to pilot a few more drones.¡± He frowned and looked up, a serious look on his face as if he was trying to decide how to best explain things to Rune. After a few seconds of contemplation, he let out a gusty sigh before his eyes turned back to Rune.


    ¡°There are a lot of reasons you want to have more neural linkages. You know that each neural linkage allows you to connect to another machine that requires integration, right?¡± Rune nodded. It had been one of the first things the instructor back in the lecture room had said. The instructor he was talking to nodded and continued. ¡°Well, there are several advantages to that. Along with being more¡­ convenient, one person piloting multiple drones is always better than multiple people piloting multiple drones.¡± The man looked like he was going to continue, but Rune interjected.


    ¡°Wait, but, how does that make any sense? Shouldn¡¯t multitasking be harder?¡±


    The instructor frowned at him. ¡°Yeah, I was just about to get there. Anyway, the reason that a single user with the same amount of training will always be more coordinated than a group. In one instance, the information goes to four different people who may all process it differently. With just one person, strategies will be executed flawlessly. There¡¯s no communication error, only user error. The coordination that can take years of training for several 100 rated single integration pilots can take mere days to learn for a person with a 100 rating at multiple integrations. One person in control makes every smoother. History has its fair share of examples of groups of ace single integration pilots being taken down by a single talented multiple integrator. You¡¯ll learn about these fights, sometime.¡±


    Rune interjected. ¡°That sounds like a nice benefit, but nothing really game changing.¡± Rune was slightly disappointed. He¡¯d been hoping for more of an advantage from something that was described as being so rare.


    The instructor gave him a measured look. ¡°Well, you¡¯re not wrong, and better control really doesn¡¯t amount to much in the larger space battles when you¡¯ve got hundreds of drones fighting. In smaller operations with only a few drones, a multiple integrator is very useful, but anything low stakes enough to need less than a dozen pilots isn¡¯t going to be too important.¡±


    The instructor shook his head. ¡°No, being able to to do multiple integrations to multiple drones is useful, but not game-changing, like you said. What really makes having more neural linkages such a game changer is that some machinery requires multiple integrations to operate. And there¡¯s a lot of really important tech that requires multiple integrations. Pretty much all starships with weapons systems are flown by multiple integrators. Even Star Destroyers.¡±


    The instructor then proceeded to launch into a lengthy discussion of career paths and why there were so many more options for people who had more neural linkages. It turned out there was a lot of stuff that needed operating that required multiple integrations. Ranging from UIS Battlecruisers to tank-like Mobile Armored Command Centers, or MACCs as the instructor called them, to specialized mining systems or even warp gate control, you needed people who could integrate multiple times. As long as you had some amount of proficiency, someone somewhere would want to hire you. Towards the end of their walk to the Enclave, the instructor finally got around to explaining why specifically four neural linkages was so important.


    ¡°Yeah, though, four neural linkages is a sort of the bare minimum for a number of neural linkages to really be impactful. Two or three, not too rare and nice to have but not too important. No, you become a really big deal when you have four naturally occurring neural linkages.¡±


    Rune frowned. ¡°What? Why? Is there something special that requires four?¡±


    The instructor shook his head. ¡°No, it¡¯s not four that¡¯s special, it¡¯s six.¡±


    Rune shrugged. ¡°Why six?¡±


    ¡°Star Destroyers.¡± The instructor said the words firmly as if they were an explanation for everything.


    Rune just frowned, shook his head, and shrugged before saying with confusion, ¡°What the hell even is a Star Destroyer, you mentioned it earlier, I think.¡±


    The instructor¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°Earthsoul, you really don¡¯t know anything, do you? How long have you been integrated? Have you heard of the End War?¡±


    Rune responded in a slightly aggrieved tone of voice, ¡°I¡¯ve only been integrated for two days, and yes, I have heard of the End War, I read about it online. What does that have anything to do with a Star Destroyer?¡±


    The instructor threw his hands out to the sides like there was something obvious that Rune was missing. ¡°You know how the End War ended? With the death of a star? What do you think destroyed that star?¡±


    Rune¡¯s mouth flapped open, then closed. ¡°Wait. Are you saying that I could pilot something that could destroy a star? Holy fucking shit. That¡¯s¡­¡±


    Rune trailed off, and the instructor nodded. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s exactly what I¡¯m saying. You¡¯ve got a shot at piloting a Star Destroyer. You need six neural linkages to do it, but you¡¯ve still got the chance, and it¡¯s not that remote.¡±


    Rune nodded, recalling his research from the night before. Apparently, getting neural linkages installed was a pretty common thing. The first operation had a 95% chance of success with the second dropping to 40% and the third an abysmal 5% success rate. The operation was dangerous as well. A solid half of people the operation failed for were left with some form of mental damage, with the other half straight up dying. While getting a fifth then a sixth installed was dangerous, it was well within the realm of possibility.


    The instructor kept speaking. ¡°But, there¡¯s more to it than that. Operating a Star Destroyer is one of the most difficult things you can do. The only simulators are owned by governments, and it takes several years of training to reach the proficiency level you need to operate one. You have to master all the subroutines of the massive ship, and there are tens of thousands of them. Besides, they¡¯re powerhouses and titanically important political pieces. Every single government currently in existence is only allowed because they control at least one Star Destroyer. It¡¯s the only higher tech that everybody knows everything about. Do you know about the Fairhand rebellion?¡±


    The instructor gave Rune a questioning look. Rune just shook his head. They were in the Enclave now. They had just walked through the main room and turned onto the corridor where Ajax¡¯s office was.


    The instructor glanced down the hallway before looking back to Rune, a slightly apologetic look coming over his face. ¡°Well, our synapse testing lab is right there,¡± the instructor said the words as he pointed to a doorway a short way down the hall in front of them. ¡°I¡¯d love to tell you all about the Fairhand rebellion, but you¡¯ll probably learn about it soon enough and we¡¯re already at the testing lab.¡± As the instructor finished speaking, he arrived at the door he¡¯d pointed to, and after a second it slid open. The instructor entered the room and ushered Rune in after him.


    Once in the lab, a bored looking, stick thin, middle-aged man with spectacles on and a white lab coat swiveled in his chair to face them. As soon as he saw who had entered the room, a wide smile slid its way onto his face and he got up out of his chair, holding his hand out for the instructor to shake. ¡°Instructor Hendrickson,¡± the man said, his voice full of warmth, ¡°how good to see you!¡± The man glanced at Rune. ¡°And I¡¯ll expect that this young man needs his neural capacity tested?¡±


    The man held out his hand for Rune to shake. ¡°I¡¯m Dr. Kaufman. I¡¯m one of the professors for Attunement. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡±


    Rune extended his hand to firmly grasp and shake Dr. Kaufman¡¯s. ¡°A pleasure to meet you as well.¡±


    It was about here that instructor Hendrickson interjected. ¡°It¡¯s nice to see you too, Phillip, but we need to get this kid tested so that we can send him back to class. If we could get it done fast so we can send him back as soon as possible it would be nice.¡±


    Dr. Kaufman nodded and turned to walk towards a large, humming machine. He opened one of the panels towards the top, and form it removed what almost looked like a helmet, with several large cables running from the helmet-shaped device back to the machine. He handed it to rune and then gestured towards a vacant chair, which Rune promptly plunked down in. After feeling around the back of his head for a half second, Dr. Kaufman reached into the machine and grabbed a wire before plugging it into a port in the back of his head, and starting to tap at the air in front of him.


    ¡°Configuring it should take me a couple minutes. Do not take the helmet off while I¡¯m doing it, or it might screw up the reading.¡±


    Rune nodded, and then the trio sat around in relative silence for a couple minutes while Kaufman muttered to himself and continued to swipe away. After a solid ten or so minutes had elapsed, a smile crossed his face and he nodded before speaking in a pleased tone of voice, ¡°Alright, I finished the calibrations. I just need to quickly run diagnostics on the interfacing, and then we¡¯ll be ready for the testing.¡±


    Dr. Kaufman tapped the air a couple more times before smiling and nodding. ¡°Everything¡¯s set. I¡¯m going to start the test now¡­¡± He trailed off, looking to Rune for permission. Rune nodded at him, and Dr. Kaufman made one final tap before the test started.


    It felt like cold water was running through his brain. Rune shivered and did his best to stay still in his chair as the test went on. After about a minute the sensation slowly faded and Dr. Kaufman nodded and smiled.


    ¡°Everything seems to have gone well,¡± he said the words happily with a warm smile on his face, before peering at the air in front of him more closely. ¡°It says here that you have¡­¡± His eyes bugged out, and he adjusted his glasses before he spluttered the words, ¡°four naturally occurring neural linkages? Earthsoul above!¡± He looked at Rune and instructor Hendrickson as if expecting them to be as surprised as he was. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Hendrickson just rolled his eyes. ¡°We came to get him tested, not evaluated. Regulations as I¡¯m sure you understand. Anyone claiming to have more than three has to be tested.¡±


    Dr. Kaufman stared at him for a second longer before a smile broke through the surprise on his face and he let out a genuine laugh. ¡°Imagine that! A quad linker from our quaint little backwater asteroid. What¡¯re the odds!¡± He unplugged the cable from the back of his head, and walked over to Rune, holding his hand out for yet another shake. ¡°What good fortune for me to meet you, young man, if I could convince you to come back to my lab at a later time, I would love to have to opportunity to study¡ª¡±


    Instructor Hendrickson cut in, his voice firm. ¡°Not now, Kaufman. The kid has to get back to class. You exchange G-Web addresses and message him later.¡±


    Dr. Kaufman gave instructor Hendrickson a frustrated look before a smile came over his face and he took a step back. ¡°Yes, where are my manners.¡± A distracted look crossed over his face for a half second before he nodded and said, ¡°there, I sent you my G-Web address and a request for your own.¡±


    Sure enough, Rune heard Paine speaking in his head. Would you like to accept Philip Kaufman¡¯s G-Web address and his request for yours?


    Rune responded with an ok, and a couple seconds later Kaufman¡¯s face lit up with a wide smile. He once again stepped forwards holding out his for Rune to shake before speaking, ¡°thank you so much. I¡¯ll message you after Harmonics orientation is done. If¡ª¡±


    Instructor Hendrickson broke in. ¡°Alright, alright, enough with trying to get him to come to your lab. We need to get him back to orientation. C¡¯mon kid, let¡¯s go.¡±


    Rune looked between Hendrickson and Dr. Kaufman once before nodding, taking off the helmet, and handing it to Dr. Kaufman who gave him an apologetic smile. ¡°I¡¯ll see you later.¡± The eager words followed Rune and instructor Hendrickson out of the room as they walked away.


    Once the doors had closed behind them, Hendrickson snorted. ¡°Dr. Phillips isn¡¯t a bad sort, but research types like him can get really caught up in what they¡¯re doing. Sorry about that.¡±


    Rune just shrugged. ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t mind it too much. It is pretty weird though, being the center of attention.¡±


    Hendrickson chuckled. ¡°Well, you¡¯ll have to deal with it for the rest of your life. There are only three-thousand five hundred or so other people registered with governments who have four naturally occurring neural linkages. Wherever you go, whatever you do in life, people will know.¡±


    Rune frowned. He¡¯d always been the sort that had preferred to fade into the background. Sticking out in the megaslums only ended in one of two ways, and neither of them was good. Who knew though? It was a different life and a different world.


    The walk back to the Atrium was mostly quiet. Rune had a lot to think about, and it seemed that the instructor did as well as he didn¡¯t attempt to strike up a conversation. When they finally got back to the classroom instructor Hendrickson ushered him through the door after wishing him luck in his tests, and Rune covertly snuck around the room and back to his seat on the leftmost side of the room.


    It seemed he¡¯d come back at the very tail end of the lecture. The instructor was telling kids that no matter how many neural linkages they had as long they worked hard and raised their ratings, they¡¯d be able to get hired somewhere for a high paying job. Over and over he repeated that these things were not guaranteed for other disciplines. Rune tuned out most of the rest of instructor Pauling¡¯s rhetoric. He¡¯d heard all he needed to hear to know that he was going to train in Harmonics. He¡¯d utterly failed yesterday¡¯s Attunement tests and the first day¡¯s tech tests, and while he was pretty sure he¡¯d done well in combat, he was also pretty sure of the two Harmonics was the more profitable one and also the one he¡¯d be better at.


    Eventually, the lecture drew to a close. Instructor Pauling stepped down from the podium where he was speaking to the class, walked up the center aisle, and told the students that they would be continuing to a mental applications test where they would solve a series of advanced puzzles designed to gauge the flexibility and reactivity of the brains of the aspiring Harmonics students. Rune and all the other students got up and followed him out of the room.


    Instructor Pauling didn¡¯t have to go far before he finally reached his destination, a set of sliding steel doors on the left side of the hallway. He crossed through them before letting the rest of the students enter past him to flow into the room. Rune was about halfway through the group. As soon as he stepped into the room, he looked around, taking in the comfy chairs filling the room. It seemed like a lounge, or maybe a library or study center of some sort. He eyed a chair but didn¡¯t sit down. Better to wait for instructions.


    Once everyone had entered and the doors closed shut behind the last couple students, instructor Pauling stepped forwards and addressed the group. ¡°This is the lounge. I imagine that in your future you¡¯ll spend a lot of time here with your colleagues. For now, each and every one of you is advised to take a seat while you take this test. As soon as you sit down, your seat will deliver you a chip. Please insert it into the port on your uniform.¡±


    Rune looked around and shrugged before sitting in the nearest seat available seat next to a tall, reasonably pretty girl with freckles. He would¡¯ve introduced himself, but she was already taking the chip out of a robotic arm proffering the object to her. Rune only had to wait a second before the robotic arm got to him and held out a chip for him to take. He took it before glancing at the girl who seemed to have a much better idea of what to do than him.


    She took the chip, folded back a section on the sleeve, and plugged the chip into a port. Then she leaned back on the circular couch, her eyes staring off into space and flickering back and forth as if she was watching something moving. Rune quickly followed suit, finding the section of his uniform he needed to peel back and plugging the chip in. After a couple seconds, a large blue screen filled his vision, and he leaned back on the circular sofa to steady himself.


    A second passed, and the word ¡®Welcome¡¯ blinked onto the screen, soon replaced by, ¡®This test is a mandatory exercise to gauge your mental capacity for problem-solving, multitasking, decision making, and motor control. Whenever you would like to begin, please select one of the below options.¡¯ Below those words were a green and red, ¡®YES/NO¡¯.


    Rune tapped the yes and the words disappeared for a half second, leaving his vision unimpeded before two screens popped up. On one of them was a series of linked square platforms floating in space with a sphere placed on one of them, and in the other was a bunch of blue text, at the top of which was the word ¡®Directions¡¯ in large font. They read, ¡®Use your finger to guide the ball through the red hole.¡¯ And then below that, ¡®0/50¡¯.


    Rune looked between the puzzle and the directions. This seemed a little too easy. He traced from the ball across the tiles to the red hole, and the ball fell through. Easy. He¡¯d won. Then, the screen shifted, and a new arrangement shifted onto the screen.


    This time there was a gap between the platform the ball was on and the platform the red hole was on. One of the tiles near the ball was glowing yellow, however. Rune looked at the directions which read, ¡®Passing over the yellow tile Will allow you to generate a tile space where there wasn¡¯t one. Guide the ball to the red hole.¡¯


    Rune nodded after reading the instructions. Still pretty simple. The second level, and then the third after that, and fourth, and so on were all pretty simple. But they got harder. Each of the first six levels introduced a new mechanic, and after those levels to introduce testers to the difficulty of the test, the levels began to progressively get harder. Rune took it slow, thinking through each level before attempting it. He wasn¡¯t quite sure how scoring would work, but he managed to get through thirty-four of the levels before he finally died. Luckily, it turned out he had three lives, and he managed to push on to the forty-first before losing his last.


    Rune barely had the time to celebrate his success before he was thrust into the next test. This time he was solving puzzles, with the clock serving as a sort of scoring for him. A couple were normal puzzles, some were interlocking twisted metal shapes that needed to be undone, a few others were matching games, and many, many more. He did decently well on these tests.


    The test after that seemed to be an attempt to gauge his fine motor skills and reaction times. In one test he needed to tap certain colored asteroid as they flew past him. In another, he needed to stack as many incongruous objects with each other as he could before they fell over. And in yet another test, he needed to continuously lay down piping so that the sludge oozing through the pipes didn¡¯t flow out and also form a series of patterns and connect to outflows on the walls of the passage he was laying the pipe in. The tests seemed endless, with nearly every variation imaginable. Rune did the best he could, failing some and doing well on others.


    Eventually, Rune finished one of the tests and instead of putting him into a new test, his screen blinked away and disappeared, replaced by the words, ¡®Congratulations, you have completed the problem solving, multitasking, decision making, and motor control test. Please return the chip to the robotic servant.¡¯


    Rune waved the words away and immediately spotted the same robotic claw that had given him the chip extended in the air in front of him with an open palm. He flipped back his sleeve, pulled out the chip, and placed it into the claw of the device which promptly closed and withdrew into the chair.


    Rune glanced around the room to see that the vast majority of students had blurry but visible holograms hovering in front of them, meaning that they were done with whatever simulated reality that the chip induced.


    This was something that Rune had learned about recently. There were two different ways to project things, either you could project it in the air in front of you like a hologram, commonly known as holographic projection, or you could project it onto your eyes almost like contacts, commonly known as visual projection. For the obvious reasons, the visual projection was more private and always the means for testing as Rune had discovered during the Technology and Attunement days of orientation.


    Rune quickly did a rough head count of who seemed to still be testing and who wasn¡¯t. As far as he could tell, roughly seventy to eighty percent of the class had finished before he had. That seemed to be a good thing, as lasting longer in the tests presumably meant that you¡¯d passed more levels than everyone else around him. Lasting longer than more than most of the class meant that he¡¯d probably scored pretty well.


    After completing his scan of the room Rune glanced at the girl next to him and spotted that she was still waving her hands in the air and manipulating invisible objects. He gave her a nod of respect, even if she probably couldn¡¯t see it. The tests were hard. He was sure that several here had trained for them, but still, Rune had spent plenty of time in arcades with his friends and had a good amount of experience in similar activities. He knew how hard these tests could be and a good performance was commendable.


    Bored after staring for a couple seconds, Rune turned away before asking Paine to connect him to the G-Web and open up a holographic computer on his lap for him to use. Paine quickly obliged, and Rune went straight to Newtube, eager to continue catching up on all of the social media that he¡¯d missed over the past few centuries.


    About fifteen or so minutes had elapsed and he¡¯d gotten through one video talking about space-travel and had moved on to the more entertaining gifs of the 27th century when all of a sudden, a snort came from his right.


    Twisting around, Rune turned to spot the girl sitting next to him staring at him with a smirk on her face. Rune gave her an askance look as if to ask her what her problem was.


    The girl nodded towards his holographic computer, pointing at it. ¡°Either you¡¯re a hardcore history geek or you¡¯re a synth. Nobody uses one of those in this day and age.¡±


    Rune glanced between her and his hologram, not quite understanding. He shot her a confused frown. ¡°What do you mean? It¡¯s a computer. Everybody has one.¡±


    She gave him a look like she understood. ¡°No, they don¡¯t. The only computers around today are the ones in museums, kid. That sort of tech is beyond outdated. Most people don¡¯t even know what computers are. But I guess that decides it. You''re a synth. Only been integrated a few weeks, or maybe even days?¡±


    Rune flushed red as he processed her words. ¡°Oh shit,¡± he said, slightly embarrassed, ¡°I didn¡¯t even think about it that way. Computers were just¡­ everywhere, you know?¡± He paused awkwardly and then started speaking again. ¡°Yes to your question though, I am a synth.¡± He held out his hand, and let a small smile stretch across his face, deciding to move past the embarrassment. ¡°I¡¯m Rune Yahui.¡±


    The girl smiled and took his hand, giving it a surprisingly firm shake. ¡°I¡¯m Teira Sheinfeld. I guess from all your glances that you¡¯ve never done anything like this? How long have you been integrated?¡±


    Rune¡¯s reply came quickly. ¡°Just six days. I¡¯ve never done anything like this.¡±


    Her eyebrows went up before she spoke in a slightly surprised tone of voice. ¡°Oh, shit, so then you were literally only in town for two days before the BFS snapped you up and sent you here.¡± She snorted. ¡°No wonder you know nothing. If you want to get a job¡ªany job, really, you need to get rated. It¡¯s not quite the same testing process, and it¡¯s considerably shorter, but if you¡¯d tried to get a job, you would¡¯ve had to go through it.¡± She waved a hand around the room, gesturing at the rest of the trainees. ¡°I¡¯d guess that all of these guys here have been rated.¡±


    Rune looked around thoughtfully. ¡°Huh, I guess I¡¯m¡ª¡±


    Rune was cut off when instructor Pauling¡¯s clarion voice rang through the room. ¡°Alright, it appears that the last of you have finished their test, so we can move on to the next phase of evaluation.¡± The instructor stood up from the comfy sofa on which he¡¯d been sitting before walking to the entrance to the room, speaking as he walked. ¡°Follow me to the Simulation Lounge so that we can finish up your testing.¡± Rune stood up to follow the instructor. He shot a glance at Teira and noticed she had a wide smile across her face.


    As they walked out of the room together Rune quirked an eyebrow and nodded towards her. ¡°What¡¯s with the excitement?¡±


    She rolled her eyes at him. ¡°This is the hardest section of all the tests offered here. It is the most reflective of what a real rating test would be like. Nobody attending the TEF has ever scored above a sixty-three on their first trial. I¡¯ve been training for this moment for years. I¡¯m sure that I can score at least a fifty.¡±


    Rune frowned. Nobody ever scored above a sixty-three? Huh. On the first day of orientation and testing the tech instructors had told him that he wouldn¡¯t receive his test scores until after all four days of orientation had finished, so he didn¡¯t know how well he¡¯d done. He thought that he would¡¯ve scored decently, but it seemed that tests weren¡¯t evaluated on quite the same zero to one-hundred scale that they been before. Rune shrugged. He¡¯d just have to wait and see like everyone else.


    As they walked, Rune shot a glance at Teira. It hadn¡¯t slipped his notice that the instructor had called for the group to leave the room where they¡¯d tested mere minutes after she¡¯d finished. ¡°So,¡± he drew the word out, letting it hang in the air, ¡°I noticed that you were one of the last, if not the last person to finish with the test. You must¡¯ve done pretty well. Did you train for it or something.¡±


    She shot him a sideways look and smirked. ¡°Of course I did.¡± She stared at him a couple more seconds before sighing and rolling her eyes. ¡°God, you really don¡¯t know anything, do you. I¡¯m what all the steel-slinkers here would call a ¡®highborn¡¯.¡±


    Rune¡¯s eyebrows shot up. ¡°Oh. Uh, huh. I didn¡¯t realize.¡±


    Now that she mentioned it, Rune could vaguely remember someone else making a comment about highborns earlier. As far as he could tell from the term it meant that she was effectively nobility of some sort, and Rune could definitely say that her appearance fit the claim. She was tall, blond haired, blue eyed, in good shape, and had a distinctively refined bearing and posture. Now that he knew, he wasn¡¯t really that surprised.


    Teira chuckled bitterly. ¡°That¡¯s why we were the only two trainees sitting at that table. None of these steel-slinkers would want to sit next to a highborn.¡±


    The candid and bitter comment shocked Rune into silence. By the time he¡¯d recovered, instructor Pauling had reached the door to the Simulation Lounge and passed through it.


    ¡°Alright you lot of steel-slinkers,¡± the instructor clapped his hands together before shouting, ¡°it¡¯s time to put your rocks in your railguns.¡±

 Chapter 8: Chrome Perfection

    Rune looked at Teira and then glanced back to the set of three cables on his integration chair.


    ¡°Hey. Psst. Teira.¡± He shuffled closer, confusion evident in his voice as he spoke. ¡°How the hell do I plug these things in.¡±


    Teira glanced at him with an incredulous look on her face, already having plugged the first two cables in with the third in hand and ready. ¡°You just plug them into your neural ports¡­ dumbass.¡±


    Rune gestured at the back of his head, an annoyed look on his face. ¡°I never got any neural ports installed¡­ dumbass.¡±


    Teira¡¯s eyes flicked to one side, then back to him. ¡°Uhhhhh¡­¡± A smile slowly crept up her face. ¡°You¡¯re a synth. All synths have neural ports. You¡¯ve just never used them¡­ dumbass.¡±


    Rune flushed red and started feeling around on the back of his head. ¡°No really, I don''t feel anything back there, nothing like the ports that you have. There must be¡ª¡± Rune¡¯s eyes widened as he felt over a trio of ring-shaped bumps that he¡¯d noticed before in the shower but had thought were just some sort of byproduct of being a synth. Hesitantly, Rune grabbed a cable and hovered it over one of the bumps. It didn¡¯t take for the first or second, but when he put it over the third the port opened and he was able to put the cable in. His face flushed even redder. ¡°Oh.¡±


    Teira leaned forwards, stuck her tongue out at him and then grinned. ¡°Dumb. Ass.¡±


    Rune chuckled and rolled his eyes. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m an idiot.¡±


    Teira quickly finished plugging in the last cable before sitting down in the chair and tapping a big green button on one of the arms of the chair, prompting a hard, semi-translucent sheet of some kind to rise up out of the floor. She gave him a nod. ¡°Alright. I¡¯m going to link. Good luck, man.¡±


    Rune nodded to her and waved. ¡°Good luck to you too.¡±


    Teira leaned back in her chair before her eyes rolled up in her head as the hard, semi-translucent sheet finished encasing her. Rune quickly finished plugging in the rest of his cables, before sitting down in the chair and hitting the same big green button that Teira had.


    A thought whispered through his head. 10 seconds to link¡­


    Rune closed his eyes and waited. 5 seconds to link¡­


    Rune¡¯s fingers tapped against the hard arm of the chair, and his eyes shot open. One second to link¡­


    Rune¡¯s eyes rolled back in his head, and he felt his consciousness expand in a way he¡¯d never experienced before. A million electrons rippled through a micrometer of gossamer copper cable in a flash. He felt his drives spark and then roar into life, ready to burn with the heat and intensity of a thousand furnaces in mere milliseconds. His weapons systems stood ready, a small but deadly array of lasers, missiles, a railgun, plasma cannons, and more traditional projectile weapons. And there were the vectors¡­ oh, the vectors.


    The vectors were the raw potential of momentum. It was overwhelming¡ªmore magnificent that he could¡¯ve possibly fathomed. He could see the exact path he would take if he flared his engines in just the right sequence, shot his missiles with a trajectory just so. And for those paths and every other he could devise, there were a million others that could result from minuscule adjustments, sending him in one direction or the other. This web of infinite paths branched out in front of him in an array of endless, geometric, incomprehensible shapes. It was the raw imperfection of the possible resulting from a billion branching, perfect paths. It was absolute, utter, sheer control. It felt so indescribably, incomprehensibly, right.


    As the rest of his sensory systems came online, Rune slowly acclimated to his new chrome body, an exoskeleton of a combination of Vallerium and self-repairing carbon nanotubes and innards of copper, brass, and a million different electrical and computational components. He couldn¡¯t imagine anything better, but as the sensors came to life his imagination was proved lacking.


    The first sensors were the light sensors. The dual suns of Taraxas IV slowly revolved around each other, a couple light years away from where he hung, suspended in space. The miniature dots of the system¡¯s two planets and their moons¡ªpractically invisible to Rune¡¯s human eyes¡ªhung with all their majesty clear viewing distance from Rune¡¯s 360-degree visual array.


    After his visual array came to a variety of other sensors. Electromagnetic, UV, radio, sensors capturing nearly every physical aspect of the system sparked to life and illustrated the system in a spectacle incomprehensible to the typical human brain. To Rune¡¯s, as it interfaced with the AI within his Integration chair, nothing could be more beautiful.


    He spent an immeasurable amount of time simply sitting there and taking it all in. His new body, the majesty of the cosmos, the infinite possibility of paths before him. He was slowly adjusting to his new circumstances when all of sudden he remembered he remembered he had a purpose. And there they were, hovering in the back of his mind like illusory phantoms. Instructions.


    Trainee, in your documents it was marked down that you had yet to operate any machinery requiring integration. This is a tutorial designed to accommodate new integrators that have yet to experience the process themselves. You will be given a full thirty minutes before each test to accommodate to your new form before you must take each test. When you desire to begin the test simply ask for it.


    Time Remaining: 17:13


    Rune banished the thought to the back of his mind along with the excitement of his new body. He needed to stay on task and do well on this test. That meant getting used to his new body. He needed to test his limits. Just thinking about it got him the information he needed. He could accelerate at a maximum 250 m/s2.


    He picked a vector that would lead to a cluster of nearby asteroids and started flying, his engines at full blast. By nearby, he meant twenty thousand or so kilometers away. That may seem like a lot, but with 250 m/s2 of acceleration it only took two minutes and twenty-eight seconds before he started decelerating, and three minutes and thirty-seven seconds for him to reach maximum firing distance with his railgun. And fire he did, wanting to test out his new armaments. First, he made sure that every shot collided with an asteroid, and tested the amount of damage that they would do. It turned out that his railgun not just did a lot of damage, but that it was also highly accurate. He hit every shot, and the asteroids hit either had chunks ripped off or simply broke into multiple pieces. If those shots had hit a ship, Rune was sure it would¡¯ve been smashed to pieces.


    At three minutes and fifty-four seconds, Rune passed the two thousand kilometer mark and came in range with his two projectile weapons and plasma cannons. He decided to test the projectile weapons first. These fired a series of short bursts of high velocity, non-magnetic kinetic based projectiles. They could very easily shred through an asteroid, but at their maximum accurate range of two thousand kilometers, only a few rounds in each burst would hit.


    The two plasma cannons had a different problem. Each blast of plasma was more accurate and did more damage, but the blasts traveled slowly and Rune only had thirty rounds. His sensors could detect the rounds seconds long before they reached the targets, and if someone had been firing at him he would¡¯ve been able to dodge them relatively easily. To land one accurately, he would have to get within five hundred or so kilometers to land consistent hits, a dangerous proposition at best.


    The lasers had a similar problem. The light-based weapons, while dealing a decent amount of damage and hitting every single shot, shorted out Rune¡¯s systems after a mere two shots. Rune could decrease the amount of power he was supplying, but then they dealt just about no damage. It simply wasn¡¯t worth using them offensively, and after scanning his databases Rune realized he had several subroutines to use them to shoot down either missiles or projectiles of various types. Unless he was in an extreme situation


    After testing out the rest of his weapons, Rune moved on to his missiles, which he had four of. Two were more traditional kinetic missiles that relied primarily on speed with a small amount of explosive force. The other two were antimatter missiles, high in explosive force, but rather lacking in speed when compared to the kinetic missiles. Rune shot them off at four asteroids. The missiles were very effective, utterly destroying their target asteroids. In retrospect, however, he could¡¯ve shot down both types of missile long before they collided. They were effective weapons, but would more likely serve as distractions or a close ranged finishing blow.


    What was confusing for Rune was why he only had a single railgun, and why that railgun had only ten shots, far less than all of his other weapons. After a quick scan of his systems, though, he quickly realized the rationale behind this feature. He was coated in a magnetic substance which made him capable of briefly emitting magnetic fields which could push the magnetic shot of a railgun off by a couple meters, causing the weapon to miss his ship. It was pointless shooting the railgun off unless the enemy ship didn¡¯t have similar magnetic fields or had been damaged enough it couldn¡¯t generate them.


    Rune scanned his systems for more defenses and found that he also had a dust blast which would fire a cloud of metal dust which could repel plasma shot. Unfortunately, the blast only had a single charge, so the protection was minimal, and could only be used if his systems registered the plasma before it collided, which if it was going to collide, wasn¡¯t very likely. In addition to the dust blast, the plating on his ship was specifically designed to deflect, absorb, and neutralize laser beams, drastically reducing their effectiveness.


    After a couple more system scans, Rune figured that he knew pretty much everything he needed to know about himself for combat. The majority of drone to drone combat would likely be with projectile weapons, shredding down defenses before finishing targets with his railgun. Plasma weapons would be used in the event of a very close range battle and could finish it in a single strike if he got lucky. Missiles could be used as distractions or to shoot down fleeing enemy ships, while lasers, in turn, could shoot down missiles or serve as a desperate last attempt to shoot down his enemies. He had more or less worked out what he was going to do in combat and was feeling ready to put his theories to the test.


    His mind thought back to his instructions after the phantom words whispered through his mind once again he knew he had three minutes and fifty-three seconds left before he would be forcibly put into the test. It wasn¡¯t a lot of time anyways, and Rune was feeling pretty confident. Screw it. He mentally willed the test to come. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Suddenly the data changed. Visual feed that had been showing one thing suddenly showed something completely different. The array of sensors detecting the various types of radiation suddenly shifted to getting completely different readings. The ammunition which he¡¯d previously shot off suddenly reappeared. His speed which had been aided by his acceleration suddenly cut out. It was very jarring. Rune took a second to reorient, before focussing on his mission.


    Like a shadow lurking just behind him, the words were there for him as soon as he called on them. This mission is to eliminate the pirates before they reach and destroy the merchant freighter. Points will be granted for each pirate ship destroyed but deducted if the merchant ship is destroyed or you are destroyed. Additional points will be granted for each pirate ship that surrenders intact. If you are destroyed, you will not proceed on to the next mission.


    Time Remaining: 19:58


    Even as he finished processing the words, his sensors were already going to work, scanning the system for the threats mentioned in the instructions. It took milliseconds for him to register them, first on the thermal sensors by the emissions of their drives, then by the distress signals of the merchant ship all throughout the system, and then visually on his optical sensors.


    Rune didn¡¯t personally recognize any of the six ships he was registering on his sensors, but as soon as he thought about it he could feel the data flowing into his mind. The first ship which was accelerating in an arc away from the other five was a remodeled Belthax III class Freighter. It was on the upper end of long-distance travel ships, complete with medium acceleration engines, a centrifugal habitation, an auto-repair section capable of maintaining up to four drones, and a single railgun with a 360 coverage array of lasers. It was a good ship. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t enough to deter these pirates or outrun them.


    Before he started planning the fight, Rune assessed the enemy drones and figured out how long it would take for them to overtake the merchant freighter. The pirates had a trio of drones that, while not nearly as good as Rune, were nonetheless serviceable. There were two Tauris DCs and a single Toshiba M class drone. The Toshiba M class drone had the highest acceleration at 280 m/s2, with the Tauris DCs lagging behind at 220 m/s2. These pirates knew what they were doing, however, and had them all flying in formation towards the merchant freighter, which was barely able to pull off an acceleration of 40 m/s2 to escape. After some quick calculations, Rune realized that it would take the pirates roughly three more minutes of flying to get to the point where he wouldn¡¯t be able to intercept them. That was plenty of time. With that in mind, Rune started analyzing the enemy ships and forming a plan.


    The Tauris DCs were practically scrap metal, essentially just flying missile carriers with a single projectile gun and a small array of point defense lasers. On the flip side, they had minimal radiation shielding and a weak magnetic field to repulse magnetic shot. A single, high powered shot with one of his lasers followed by a railgun round would destroy the drones with ease.


    The Toshiba M class drone was the real danger of the trio. The Toshiba M class drone was a niche drone that did a particular job exceptionally well. The drone sacrificed the majority of the advantages of having diverse weapons systems in return for increased defenses, speed, and higher powered and ranged plasma weapons.


    It had a better laser point defense system, more reflective plating, higher acceleration drives, stronger mag deflectors, and plasma weapons that couple hit accurately at ten kilometers. It was pretty obvious to Rune what the plan of this drone would be. It would rapidly accelerate towards another drone, closer the distance for close combat, and destroy the enemy drone with its plasma weaponry. The counter to this was rather simple: fly away, fire the projectile weaponry while keeping distance, and then gun the Toshiba M class down with his railgun.


    As for the two pirate ships themselves, Rune wasn¡¯t particularly worried. They were both crude ships constructed from a hodgepodge of spare parts from other ships and lacked enough uniform parts to be described as a particular make or model. One ship appeared to be largely comprised on parts from ships from Bannon Industries and seemed to fill the role of a tugboat, whereas the other one had parts taken from a Hachiro D class gunboat, an Orion class freighter, and a Halcyon-class luxury cruiser.


    Out of curiosity, he checked his database to discern what sort of drone he was currently flying. It was a Mao D class drone, created by Xing Feng Industries. If Rune had lips, he would have smiled at the name. The Spear. One of the more versatile weapons on the medieval battlefield. It was the perfect name for the drone.


    The latter of the two was simply bristling with railguns, to the point at which Rune might¡¯ve worried about getting hit, but he didn¡¯t plan on ever closing close enough for the ship to be able to use its railguns without some warning for Rune. The ship looked rather ramshackle, and his visual sensors could detect what may or may not be wiring on the outsides of the ship. If there was exposed wiring, which wasn¡¯t all that unlikely considering the makeshift condition of the ship, he might be able to fry its systems simply with lasers, or hit unprotected parts with his railgun. With that ship down he¡¯d be able to easily dispatch the tug which only had a point defense system of lasers.


    Deciding that his plan was more or less good and that he might as well go through with it, Rune fired up his engines on an intercept course for the predicted path of the enemy drones that would allow them to arrive at the same point at roughly the same time. As soon as he was in range for him to gun down the first of the two Tauris DCs, he fired off his railgun. After 0.72 seconds when the shot had crossed into the zone where it was close enough that it could not be evaded, Rune fired his laser at 80% power, slagging the side of the drone the railgun shot was coming in on.


    The drone never even stood a chance. One second it was there, the next it was a fiery ball of fire and shrapnel, one or maybe more of the missiles attached to the drone having been hit and exploded, setting off a destructive chain reaction. It took microseconds before the other two drones were readjusting course. The Toshiba M class drone curved towards Rune on an arcing path that would leave it flying next to him, while the remaining Tauris DC fired off its payload of eight missiles and then curved to fly off back towards the two pirate ships.


    Unfortunately for the pirates, the other Tauris DC wasn¡¯t able to turn in time to get out of Rune¡¯s railgun range. Hisflight vector plotted him a course that would overtake the drone, and in seconds he did. His railgun barked out three shots in rapid succession, one for each of the three most probable paths of the Tauris before his lasers lanced through space to fry the magnetic shielding on the Tauris. After another half second, his optical sensors confirmed the hit as another fiery ball of shrapnel blossomed in the darkness of space.


    Now, however, Rune was in a pickle. The missiles launched from the Tauris DC weren¡¯t a problem, his point defense system of laser had already begun to track, lock onto, and gun down the missiles hurtling through space towards him. No, the problem was that theflight vector that had allowed him to run down the second Tauris DC had made it so that the Toshiba M class drone would soon be tailing him, and with the larger acceleration, Rune wouldn''t be able to shake the drone which could pound him with its plasma cannons. The drone was currently accelerating towards him from the right, likely expecting him to curve away to the left. That would give the Toshiba the opportunity to follow him and pound him with its plasma cannons as he ran.


    It would be a closer fight, much closer than Rune would prefer. He racked his mind for any other option and quickly came up with one. Rune decided to do the unexpected. Instead of curving away to the left, Rune curved to the right, setting himself on a course that would allow him to shoot past the Toshiba. While he would still come into range of the Toshiba¡¯s plasma cannons, it would only be for a couple seconds, and it wouldn¡¯t be able to get more than a shot or two off. If he timed his dust blast well, he could repel the shot and not take any damage.


    Deciding this was a better plan, Rune made the course adjustments. There were mere seconds till the Toshiba and him passed each other, and whoever the pilot was he wasn¡¯t skilled enough to make the course adjustments that would allow him to follow and run down Rune. The pilot seemed to realize Rune¡¯s plans far too late and started adjusting his course to allow him to come around and follow Rune after passing him, but it was too late.


    Mere seconds later, the Toshiba came into range of his projectile weapons, and Rune opened fire. Milliseconds later Rune crossed into the range of the Toshiba¡¯s plasma cannons, and then milliseconds after that, Rune fired with his own plasma cannons before dust blasting. All the while his projectile weapons blazed, ripping holes into the Toshiba.


    A second later the ships had passed each other and Rune reviewed his sensor feeds. His readings showed that the dust cloud had successfully deflected a total of three plasma rounds, whereas his singular one that had hit his enemy was also deflected.


    Rune didn¡¯t let his concentration slip, however. While he¡¯d overcome the most dangerous part of the fight, he still needed to finish the job. A slip up here could easily spell death. Rune arced around as fast as possible until he was just shy of parallel with the flight path of the Toshiba before curving away to match the Toshiba¡¯s turning. While the Toshiba was indeed a faster drone, it¡¯s turning radius at maximum speed wasn¡¯t as good as Rune¡¯s was. In a deadly game of cat and mouse, Rune flew between the maximum range of the Toshiba¡¯s plasma cannons and the maximum range of his projectile weapons.


    A few seconds of his weapons pounding the Toshiba¡¯s outer hull passed before the pilot realized that he wasn¡¯t going to be able to outturn Rune, and started arcing away to generate distance between the two spacecraft. Rune wouldn¡¯t let him get off so easy.


    Rune¡¯s projectile weaponry pounded the back of the Toshiba as it attempted to fly away. The Toshiba was fast. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t fast enough. Rune¡¯s guns pounded the back of the drone for a good two seconds before one of the projectiles hit something critical in the engines, which exploded in a fiery blaze of light, crippling the ship, stalling any acceleration. Rune arced around and sunk a railgun round into the Toshiba for good measure, reducing the drone to fragmented scrap.


    With the primary threat eliminated, Rune checked the clock to make sure that he still had time to subjugate the two remaining pirate ships. 10:49. Plenty of time.


    The remaining operation was relatively simple. The remaining two pirate ships had attempted to run away. It didn¡¯t take Rune long to catch up and demand their surrender, but when he did they refused, and the ship with the railguns leveled several shots at him in an attempt to ward him off. Rune wasn¡¯t having any of it.


    He stayed out of range and systematically used his lasers to fry each and every railgun on the ship before once again demanding their complete surrender or that he would destroy them. This time, the response was quick and terse. They surrendered.


    After the pirates surrendered, Rune found himself pulled out of the mission and floating in a void, much like what he might imagine being in a sensory deprivation tank might be like. Words floated into his mind, and Rune quickly processed them.


    You have completed the first of eight segments of your first mission. You are being given five minutes of break. If you desire to begin the test early simply ask for it.


    Time Remaining: 4:57


    Rune shrugged before simply willing the next test to start. He was feeling confident after crushing the first test and ready to move on to the second.


    All of sudden, his mind went from sensing nothing to receiving feedback from tens of different sensors.


    A thought slithered it¡¯s way into Rune¡¯s mind before he could take stock of the situation. Drone launching in 15¡­


    Rune quickly rifled through his data and found that he appeared to be in the docking bay of a large cruiser, namely a Yamato Class UIS Battlecruiser named Streamlord. His drone was about to launch out into space. Rune could see several other drones in the hold of the ship either launching or preparing for launch, telling Rune that whatever was happening it was a large scale operation. He decided that he should pull up the mission instructions, and quickly scanned his database before retrieving the information.


    This mission is to eliminate the ESA drones and shoot down their bombers before they reach the Streamlord. Points will be granted for each ESA ship destroyed and deducted for each bomber that gets through or if you are destroyed. If you are destroyed, you will not proceed on to the next mission.


    Time Remaining: 19:38


    Alright. The stakes of the mission seemed to be going up. He guessed that they would go up for every mission after. He could roll with that. He just had to play smarter than all these AI in here with him. Rune cracked his metaphysical knuckles. It was time to scrap some ships.

 Chapter 9: Spinning, Always Spinning

    For the fourth time today, Rune felt the sudden and jarring sensation of sensory data as his mind went form detecting nothing, to observing everything. Ready for the sudden and drastic change, Rune took it in stride and immediately began sorting through his sensory data. What Rune found made him very nervous.


    Around him, Rune could see fellow UIS drones being shot down left and right. The UIS drones were massively outnumbered by a swarm of CSC drones, and were rapidly retreating away from a CSC Jupiter class battlecruiser. It only took Rune a single scan of his allies and detection of two intact bombers to figure out what was going on. They were retreating after a bombing run.


    This was bad. In the second mission that he¡¯d been on, the mission had been to defend their ship from a bombing run. That mission had been very easy. All Rune had needed to do was hang back and engage the occasional weaker drone that he saw flying by. He managed to get a couple kills himself, and even shot down one of the bombers. It was a relatively low-risk engagement, and the vast majority of the bombing squad had been taken down. Rune knew how easy it was to get shot down, and he was worried it could happen to him. Just to make sure getting shot down still wasn¡¯t an option, Rune pulled up the mission details.


    This mission is to protect the UIS bombers as they retreat from their bombing run on the Maleficent and attempt to return to the Streamlord. Points will be granted for each CSC ship destroyed and deducted for each bomber shot down. If you are destroyed, you will not proceed on to the next mission. This mission ends either upon arriving at the Streamlord, being shot down, or time running out.


    Time Remaining: 19:42


    While ten minutes was normally what Rune considered a short amount of time, when fleeing from your enemies as they unloaded tens of thousands of rounds at your back that could destroy your ship with a single unlucky connection, ten minutes was a really goddamn long time.


    Rune very quickly checked the make and model of his ship before doing the same to his allies and enemies. It seemed that he was currently piloting a Xenos X class pursuit drone. It was a speedy ship with decent firepower, with a maximum acceleration of 310 m/s2 alongside three railguns, a single projectile weapon, and single, low power laser cannon. His drone was rather obviously designed to chase down and destroy enemy ships that had their magnetic deflection systems damaged, working in tandem with other drones.


    Unfortunately, the specialization had come with severe downsides. While the drone was very speedy, it had traded defense for speed, sporting a lackluster magnetic deflection shield that would have difficulty deflecting most mid sized ammunition. It¡¯s hull wasn¡¯t particularly robust either, build to sustain high thrust and not damage from projectile weaponry. Usually only engine shots were crippling, but the Xenos X class ship had several other achilles heels that would lead to the ship breaking down if struck. Rune needed to be very careful with his piloting.


    With the analysis of his drone completed, Rune checked out the rest of his formation. The bombers had already dropped their payloads and weren¡¯t going to be of much help. Aside from the bombers there were fifteen total other ships remaining, six fellow Xenos X class drones and nine Bear class drones, large, tanky drones that had three projectile weapons and high powered lasers, the perfect combo with the Xenos X class drones they¡¯d been paired with.


    Unfortunately, the enemies had just as good machinery¡ªand a lopsided numerical advantage. The swarm of CSC drones in pursuit of Rune¡¯s squadron was a full fifty-four drones strong, whereas the UIS drones totaled only fifteen¡ªmake that fourteen, as one of the Bear class drones at the back of the formation took an unlucky railgun shot.


    Rune nervously adjusted course so that his drone was more towards the center of the formation. Rune knew that his model of ship had a much higher acceleration than the rest of his ally¡¯s ships did, so if he wanted to he could simply outspeed them and totally escape the enemy drones while they took down his compatriots. He was pretty sure, however, that doing so would cause him to lose most or all of the points he¡¯d get from the mission.


    Rune was feeling pretty useless just flying in formation, running away and hoping to not be shot down. Just as those thoughts crossed through his head, the Bear drone to his right at the edge of the formation was shot down, its engines going first with an unlucky connection, then the frame being blown to pieces after multiple railgun collisions. Yikes.


    Rune was becoming more and more receptive to the idea of pulling away from the rest of the drones, when he noticed a fellow Xenos X class drone utilizing its higher acceleration to pull ahead of the rest of the formation. Rune thought the drone was escaping for itself and was beginning to follow when all of a sudden, the drone cut its acceleration, used its adjustment jets to execute a spin while still moving forward, and fired off six railgun shots at the enemy drones. Rune watched in amazement as the shots flew past to impact with a high ranged lightly shielded enemy drone and destroy it with a lucky connection.


    If Rune had lips, he would¡¯ve grinned. As an ace pilot in Whirl of Warplanes, a move like this could¡¯ve never been possible. Airplanes on earth simply didn¡¯t have that kind of mobility: they didn¡¯t have adjustment jets, and more importantly, such rapid rotation would confuse or maybe even disable the pilot with the massive amount of force. In a drone in space, however, things were different. The rules had changed. And it seemed like Rune had a lot to learn.


    Now that he was looking for it, he noticed that each of the other Xenos X pilots were all full burning away from the enemy formation, likely in order to use the same strategy that the Xenos X drone he¡¯d just seen was using. Rune only deliberated for about half a second before he decided to try using the strategy. Even if he¡¯d never tested it, even if he had no experience, at the end of the day this was just a simulation. He had to start somewhere, and there was no better time than the present.


    Rune ramped his engines up to max burn, and started to slowly pull ahead of the rest of his allies. Once he¡¯d gotten a decent distance ahead and was moving slightly faster than them, he activated his adjustment jets, causing his Xenos X to spin in a fast circle. Data streamed through his systems, his railguns calculated the optimal paths to strike an one of the weaker enemy ships, and three shots lanced out from his railguns before his drone finished swinging around, another adjustment jet . His engines reignited, and he continued to accelerate at full blast.


    He¡¯d done it. A sense of satisfaction and confidence came over Rune. He¡¯d proved he could fight back. If he played it right, he could survive this¡ªno, he would survive this. Him and his allies would win. He quickly checked the stream of visual feeding coming in through his optical sensors. It seemed that none of the three shots had made a connection with the enemy drone. No matter. If not the first, second, or third, maybe the tenth.


    And so began a monotonous series of shelling runs, where Rune would fly ahead of his formation and level off a number of shots before needing to accelerate to do the same run again. Rune made run after run after run, always making sure to stay slightly ahead of the screening wall of allied Bear drones, which absorbed or shot down the majority of plasma, projectiles, and incoming missiles. Surprisingly enough, through the next four minutes of retreat, only two more of the UIS drones were shot down by their CSC counterparts. They weren¡¯t able to outspeed the UIS drones and surround them without leaving their heavy firepower support behind, and so couldn¡¯t effectively pound the UIS drones.


    Unfortunately, that all changed. At 15:11, all the other UIS flipped around and began full accelerating back towards the Maleficent. Shocked and very confused, Rune immediately pinged one of his allies to inquire as to what was happening, a skill he¡¯d picked up in one of the previous missions.


    The response came quickly. If we continue accelerating, we¡¯ll overshoot the Streamlord and just go straight by the ship. Then the CSC drones will have the opportunity to pick us apart.


    Rune quickly scanned his systems to confirm the veracity of his compatriots words, and realized they were true. They were moving extremely quickly, and if they wanted to arrive at the Streamlord and not simply pass it by they would need to decelerate quite a bit.


    It was a moment of comprehension for Rune. Earlier, when the UIS ships had been attacking the fleeing CSC bombing squad, they¡¯d only managed to down a few of them before the CSC bombing squad began slowing down which allowed the UIS ships to catch up and rip them apart. Rune had thought it had been coded in to the sequence to make it easier for trainees. Now he knew that was simply how reality worked.


    Based on his previous experience, Rune was of half a mind to simply abandon the rest of his squad and fly for it, but with fifteen minutes on the clock and several enemy drones that had equally powerful engines capable of tailing him and gunning him down, Rune knew that he definitely wouldn¡¯t survive. No, there was no real choice here. It was either stay in formation with the rest of the UIS drones and pray, or die alone. The choice was obvious.


    Rune and the other three remaining Xenos X drones balled together to form a core of snipers around the pair of bombers, with the eight Bears circling around them. The formation was very tight and compact, the drones mere tens of kilometers apart.


    It took nearly a full thirty seconds for the enemy CSC drones to pull up and surround the UIS formation, getting ready to pound the remaining thirteen ships as a group. Once the CSC swarm was in position to begin their assault, their juggernauts, powerful Jaxus IV models bristling with several projectile guns, plasma cannons, and point defense lasers. There were a total of fifteen of them. Rune was pretty sure that he and his allies were screwed.


    The Jaxus IVs opened fire on the Bears, and the Bears returned the favor. Rune followed suit with his railguns, one of which made a lucky connection with one of the Jaxus IV models, destroying it. It was a small but short-lived victory for the allied UIS drones. Over the course of the next minute or so four of the remaining bear drones were destroyed to a mere two of the Jaxus IV models, including the one Rune had gotten with a lucky shot.


    Rune nervously checked his systems to see how far it was to the Streamlord. They estimated it would take another three minutes of flying. There was no way they were going to survive another three minutes of this. But there had to be some way. There was no way the mission was impossible, as then every testee would simply fail on the fourth mission. Rune checked his systems again to make sure that he wasn¡¯t missing any crucial weapons systems that might help them in the fight. Nope. Nothing. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    If it wasn¡¯t on him, then maybe one of his allies. He first checked the Bear class drones and drew a total blank. Pretty much everything was exactly as he¡¯d expected. Multiple projectile weapons, a powerful point defense system, weak engines, a sturdy frame, nothing special. Then if not the Bear class drones it had to be the bombers. Rune¡¯s systems did a brief scan of the allied bombers and found that they held the key to the fight. They weren¡¯t all out of ammunition¡ªthey still had a collective three antimatter missiles, two swarm missiles, and a single EMP blast. If they utilized their weaponry optimally, they could take out four of the Jaxus IV models with just the EMP blast.


    Rune wasn¡¯t really sure why his allies hadn¡¯t taken use of the ordinance, but he supposed it was just part of the test. He immediately began pinging the bombers to prepare their ordnance and for the Bear class drones to start rotating in circles around the core of their formation. The Jaxus IV models rotated with the Bears, and as they were moving around another of the bears went down, causing more Jaxus IV models to rotate into positions near each other to use more firepower on the remaining Bears.


    Eventually, all three of the Bears had rotated to one side of the formation and attracted all of the Jaxus IV models. On the other side of the formation, the CSC drones began pressing into the back of the formation, one of the more eager pursuit models landing a few lucky shots one of his fellow Xenos X drones and downing it.


    It was worth it, though, when the EMP blast went off, catching and disabling all of the Jaxus IV drones, before the bombers shot off their remaining missiles, the swarm missiles breaking into hundreds of smaller explosive canisters, shielding the three antimatter missiles which targeted the highest firepower CSC drones.


    The CSC swarm scattered. With their Jaxus IV drones down the vast majority of drones with effective point defense systems were taken down, and what drones that did have point defense systems could barely defend themselves. The drones that lacked point defense systems simply had to fly away, making massive course adjustments in order to escape the missiles swarming towards them.


    While only a total of five CSC drones were taken down by the salvo, it bought the UIS drones the crucial time that they needed to make good on their escape. It took nearly a full minute and a half for the fastest of CSC drones to start regrouping, and without the support of their heavier Jaxus IV drones, they couldn¡¯t make a decisive engagement with the remaining UIS drones.


    Most of the last thirty or forty seconds of engagement were done with railgun shot from long distances, and only one more of the Xenos X drones was taken down. The CSC drones called off their assault at approximately fifty seconds to the Streamlord, when a massive laser from the ship lanced out of the darkness of space and incinerated one of the CSC drones.


    If Rune had lungs, he would¡¯ve sighed in relief at the sight of the CSC drones peeling off to begin to a long arc to return back to their ship. Another simple, relaxing forty seconds of flight and Rune pulled up alongside the Streamlord, pinging the ship requesting access for docking. The docking bay began sliding open, and as Rune attached himself to the docking clamps, Rune felt the now familiar pull of oblivion as his mind was pulled out of the drone, and placed in darkness with a familiar message.


    You have completed the fourth of eight segments of your first mission. You are being given five minutes of break. If you desire to begin the test early simply ask for it.


    Time Remaining: 4:58


    On all of the previous missions, Rune had simply jumped into the next mission immediately, but that last one had been pretty stressful. Rune wanted a brief break before he started the next trial, which he presumed would only be more difficult and stressful. For a couple minutes, his mind drifted aimlessly in the void before he finally decided it was time for him to start the fifth mission.


    The familiar jarring rush of data filled Rune¡¯s systems as he looked out at the galaxy through an AI¡¯s eyes. Rune rummaged through the data flowing in through his sensors and very quickly realized he was not in a good situation. Alongside him flew a Zilbanian class freighter, and in hot pursuit were a pair of drones, one being a Pingbi A class drone and the other a Kaori C class drone. They had just left their control ship, a Kuiper I class freighter. Neither were particularly strong drones individually, but together they made a very effective and powerful duo.


    The Pingbi class drone, its name fittingly meaning shield in English, was a defensive class of drone that moved relatively slowly, with a max acceleration of 240 m/s2. The drone had several dust blasts, high powered short range plasma cannons, a projectile weapon, and a high powered wide coverage point defense laser system for guarding its allies. Meanwhile, the Kaori C class drone was relatively fast with a max acceleration of 300 m/s2 coupled with two railguns, medium range plasma cannons, and a low powered point defense system.


    Meanwhile, Rune¡¯s Wolf class drone, while a powerful and speedy adversary, wasn¡¯t well equipped to take on the dynamic duo. The Wolf class drone had two advanced medium range projectile weapons, a single high powered railgun, a pair of low-mid ranged plasma cannons, a max acceleration of 280 m/s2, and a single dust blast. His frame was sturdier than the Kaori¡¯s and weaponry more powerful than the Pingbi¡¯s, but that was on an individual basis. Combined, they had more of both than him.


    Hoping the Zilbanian class freighter may have something to help him, Rune did a brief scan of his ally. It had jack shit. A point defense system of lasers incapable of high powered shots, a single projectile turret, and two missile bays, only one of which was filled with a kinetic missile. Against that Pingbi¡¯s high powered point defense system a kinetic missile wouldn¡¯t do shit. The Zilbanian couldn¡¯t do anything more than fire some pointless projectile shots and pray they hit or distract the Pingbi for a second by launching its missile. Even if those laser shots couldn¡¯t damage Rune, they¡¯d fry the missile with a single strike.


    Or wait¡­ maybe he could do a lot more with that missile than he thought. Just to get a quick check on time, Rune pulled up the mission details.


    This mission is to eliminate the pirates before they reach and destroy the merchant freighter. Points will be granted for each pirate ship destroyed but deducted if the merchant ship is destroyed or you are destroyed. Additional points will be granted for each pirate ship that surrenders intact. If you or the merchant ship are destroyed, you will not proceed on to the next mission.


    Time Remaining: 19:42


    Rune was torn. He had a plan, but it was risky one that would most likely get him killed very quickly. It said that he had yet another nineteen and a half minutes to finish coming up with a plan and engage in combat, but that was deceptive. Rune had carefully read the instructions, and this time it said that if the merchant ship was downed then he would also fail the mission immediately. That was bad because it meant that he needed to engage the pirates before they could get in range of the merchant ship and destroy it. And from his system¡¯s calculations, he only had approximately a minute to come up with a different plan from the near-suicidal one that he¡¯d come up with.


    For about a minute, Rune thought and tried to come up with a better plan. Maybe he just didn¡¯t know enough about space combat. There was probably some simpler, far less risky way to win this, but Rune couldn¡¯t think anything up. Maybe someone who had trained for this like Teira could do it, but not Rune.


    So Rune accelerated from the side of the Zilbanian class freighter, plotting a looping arc so that he could accelerate enough to keep up with the enemy drones. A half second after he¡¯d left the side of the Zilbanian class freighter, the missile launched and then started flying on the side opposite of him, shielded from the Pingbi¡¯s point defense laser system by his body.


    His plan was simple. Personally, fly the missile to the Pingbi so that it could get within the range where the Pingbi¡¯s systems wouldn¡¯t be able to react in time. He would¡¯ve picked the Kaori as a target, but the Kaori could easily outrun him and keep outside the minimum reaction range all the while peppering him with plasma. Moreover, while the high powered defense system of the Pingbi could take down the missile, the coating on the missile could resist the Kaori¡¯s. No, the only real choice was to fly the missile to the Pingbi.


    The plan was both stupid and risky, but it was the only plan he had. He¡¯d likely take a lot of damage on his run and he might even die, but he didn¡¯t see any other way to even the playing field. There was nothing left to do but fly and try to execute the plan.


    Rune¡¯s drone slowly arced around, the missile flying in close proximity to him, as lasers from both the Kaori and Pingbi lanced through space to miss or splash against him. As he started the arc, minor adjustments in his path allowed him to dodge mostof them, but as he got closer, more started connecting. They didn¡¯t deal any significant damage to him, the vast majority of disintegrated outer hull quickly replaced by carbon nanotubes. And he made sure to not let a single one get past to strike the missile and weaken its outer frame.


    As they started arcing around and the missile drone duo started nearing the pair of pirates, Rune switched positions with the drone in a split second, interposing himself between the two drones and the missile once again. A few more seconds passed of lasers splashing off his hull or ripping through the space around him, and then the truly dangerous last segment of the operation began.


    While Rune could be sure that he was in between the missile and the Pingbi at all times, he could not ensure the same of himself and the Kaori. While Rune continued flying for the Pingbi as that was the only drone of the two he could outrun, the Kaori circled around and started leveling laser shots into the missile and plasma and railgun shot at Rune at they caught up to the Pingbi. He began evasive maneuvers after pinging the missile to follow him, but the Kaori nonetheless managed to hit multiple shots. Luckily, none of the three shots it managed to hit on the missile were enough to cause the missile to detonate.


    Rune and the missile were able to fly within range of the Pingbi¡¯s guns, first the projectile weapon at 20,000 kilometers. Projectile shards ripped through his frame causing damage to his systems while plasma splashed against the rear of his ship and burn away his defensive coating. Then, at 3,000 kilometers, Rune was within the range where the missile could full burn and cover the distance in under a second, not enough time for the Pingbi¡¯s laser systems to react. Rune waited for a half second and pushed a tad bit further before dust blasting and commanding the missile to target the Pingbi.


    His sensors detected the flare of the missile, and a half second later detected the bloom of an explosion in front of him from near where the Pingbi had been. His drone arced away from the Pingbi, and projectile fire no longer followed him. His sensors did a brief scan of the dust cloud and confirmed that the Pingbi had been downed. Now the fight was just between him and the Kaori.


    Unfortunately, things weren¡¯t looking good for Rune. In his desperate assault on the Pingbi, one of his thrusters had been taken out, crippling his mobility. In addition to his thrusters, both his projectile weapons, thermal and UV sensors, power systems, and dust blast containment module had all been scrapped by the Pingbi¡¯s fire, while the Kaori had slagged the majority of mag deflector modules on the rear of his ship.


    By some stroke of extreme fortune, none of the Kaori¡¯s railgun shot had managed to him yet, but that wouldn¡¯t last for long. Running away wasn¡¯t an option at all with his downed thruster, and even if it was, his slagged rear end meant that he¡¯d take a railgun hit sooner or later. He needed another plan. There had to be some way to save himself.


    Rune thought furiously for a half second or two before he finally remembered back to the previous mission. Sometimes, the best way to stage a retreat was by shooting back.


    After a wave of plasma collided with the back of his ship, Rune cut his engines and started blasting one his adjustment jets, causing his ship to rapidly spin in circles almost as if the Kaori had hit something critical in his systems and caused him to malfunction.


    The Kaori took the bait, and instead of slowing and arcing away, sped towards him while blasting out railgun shots and more plasma. Rune gave it a couple seconds of wait for the Kaori to bridge some of the distance between them before flaring his adjustment jets, stabilizing his spinning, and rapidly accelerating back in the direction of the Kaori.


    It took nearly a full second for the Kaori to realize his plan and spin around to start accelerating away, but by then it was too late. He already closed the distance. The two ships queued up their short ranged high powered plasma rounds, sending red and green crackling through space towards each other. Rune¡¯s sensors detected one final blast of light, and then the void rushed in.

 Chapter 10: Dont Press the Big Red Button

    The remainder of the simulation section of the harmonics test was not half so stressful as the first section. Difficult, yes, but stress, not so much.


    Whereas the first section of the simulation testing had been solely focused on drones and their uses in combat, the second section of the simulation harmonics test was focused on management of a sort. The missions began with more simple tasks like operating the complicated and delicate machinery of a spaceport docking tube, slowly getting more and more difficult towards the later missions, the final one operating all the functions of a waste disposal and recycling plant at the same time.


    While the tasks weren¡¯t exactly the same sort of difficult as the combat testing, the tasks were still nonetheless very difficult. With the drone piloting a couple simple subroutines could run most of the ship for you subconsciously while you focused on a few key controls and strategy, but for the management section of the harmonics test, you had to run most of the operations yourself. Combat drone piloting was like focusing your mind down to a pinpoint while still being able to strategize and fight against enemies; the management section as Rune had taken to calling it was more about spreading your mind out and multitasking.


    Rune thought he did decently well at this section. As with the combat drone section, the first couple missions were more or less a breeze. He¡¯d played similar games at arcades, and the majority of the earlier missions simply required fine motor control in addition to some very basic management skills, which was pretty easy when you literally were the machine. In the later missions, however, more and more skill at multitasking and split-second decision making were needed, all the way to the last mission in which he was managing nearly sixty different outflows, intakes, and processors.


    If he could¡¯ve failed, Rune was pretty sure he would¡¯ve failed three or four missions before the last, but the management section didn¡¯t have failure, you simply tried and did poorly. Rune did his best to operate the various systems but he was pretty sure his scores on the last few missions were nothing short of abysmal. It was alright though, he¡¯d managed to acquit himself on at least half the missions and didn¡¯t feel that his score would be that bad.


    After a short break following the completion of the second section, Rune moved on to the third section of the harmonics simulation testing. It was very unlike the first two. Whereas the first two sections had been the application of a variety of tech that Rune mostly felt would¡¯ve been seen if in a simpler format in his day and age, the tech he used in the third segment of the testing was highly futuristic gear. Back when Rune had still been fully human, it hadn¡¯t been real in any sense of the word outside of popular science fiction movies. Now, though, if they were testing him on his capacity to use it, it probably was.


    The tests moved through a variety of different tech. Rune figured this was more of a basic ¡®can you do it¡¯ sort of test as opposed to a test of actual skill. For example, one of the tests required him to use a swarm of nanobots to mine out some ore without wasting excess energy. Another of the tests was making him operate a segment of a warp gate without causing it to blow up and kill everyone. There were a couple close calls, but he pulled it off without causing a disaster.


    A few more of the final missions were devoted to operating a variety of ground-based military tech. Some of it was fairly standard stuff, for example, an advanced tank that could shoot in multiple directions, or a specialized combat drone that was stronger, faster, and deadlier than a regular human soldier.


    One of the missions was really weird, though, wherein he not quite operated but more directed a swarm of creatures across a battlefield against soldiers. It was very strange, each of the creatures had a device attached to it which would release pheromones which would cause them to act one way or another. It was a difficult game of triggering the right response at the right time which would cause them to react in a certain way. It was one of the most confusing missions of what Rune was calling the miscellaneous tech testing.


    Aside from that though, none of the missions were difficult in easily recognizable manners. Rune figured that he could be better at his job, but at the end of the day, he still got the job done more times than not, so he figured he should at least get a passing grade. But who knew how they evaluated things around here? He might¡¯ve failed anyway, for all he knew.


    After he finished with the last of the miscellaneous missions, Rune found himself slammed back into his regular body. It was a jarring experience. His body went from silicon and wires encased in metal and stone to flesh, blood, and bone. His sensory organs slammed him with sensations¡ªthe faint sensation of his hand brushing against the steel of the seat he was resting in, the slightly damp smell of the inside of the enclosed area he¡¯d been linking in, the stiffness in his lower back from staying in the same place for hours. Everything felt so unbelievably sharp. Like he¡¯d never been living before.


    Rune sat there with his eyes closed for a few moments simply soaking in life, letting air rushing into lungs as he inhaled and rush out as his diaphragm push it out. He was thinking about how perfect it was to be alive when all of a sudden his stomach rumbled. Rune¡¯s eyes opened wide. Now that he noticed, he was hungry. Really hungry.


    Rune glanced around before his eyes lit upon a big red button right next to this big green button that he¡¯d pushed to let him dive into the harmonics testing simulation. After a couple more scans of the small enclosure, Rune verified that there was no other button to push on the inside of the enclosure. Rune gave the big red button a frown. In stories, the big red button almost always did bad things. Rune shrugged and smacked the button. It wasn¡¯t like there was a lot of harm to be done anyway.


    Sure enough, after he hit the button the semi-translucent screen that kept him enclosed started sliding upwards. After a few seconds, it had slid past his head and receded into the wall just above his head. Rune moved to stand up and was halfway out of his seat when the neural cables he¡¯d plugged into the back of his head went taught and then yanked out of the back of his head.


    To summarize briefly: pain. It felt like someone had tried to suck Rune¡¯s brain down through his skull and out the back of his neck.


    Rune collapsed onto his knees, hands clutching at the back of his head as he screamed, ¡°fucking shit fuck!¡± He sat there for a few seconds holding the base of his skull as the pain slowly receded from feeling like someone was holding a lighter to the back of his skull to feeling like someone was making an incision there with a blade. Through the haze of pain he just barely managed to make out the sound of feet pounding down the corridor.


    A few seconds later, instructor Pauling came into view, standing in the entrance to the simulation room with a concerned look on his face. It only took him half a second to spot Rune sitting on the floor with his hands on the back of his head, before his eyes flickered to the simulation chair to spot the four neural cords haphazardly lying outstretched on the seat.


    His face softened a little, and he walked up to Rune before he crouched in front of him. ¡°Hey, kid, you yank all four of your neural cords at once?¡± Rune slowly nodded, a grimace stretched across his face.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± the instructor spoke the word matter of factly, ¡°everybody does the same at least once in their career. After once, well,¡± the instructor shrugged. ¡°Most don¡¯t make the same mistake twice, for the obvious reasons.¡± The instructor patted Rune on the shoulder. ¡°You¡¯ll tough it out trainee, it¡¯s just a little pain. Nothing permanent. It¡¯ll pass quickly, too.¡±


    Suddenly the instructor started, and a frown crossed his face. ¡°Oh right, trainee, somebody hit the emergency release for their integration chair.¡± He looked down the row of integration rests, only seeing two more sealed seats. He turned to look Rune in the eyes. ¡°Was that you?¡±


    Rune shrugged. The pain had faded from burning agony to painful ache, and Rune found himself able to concentrate enough to say, ¡°Maybe?¡±


    The instructor frowned. ¡°Did you hit a big red button on one of the armrests of your chair?¡±


    Rune frowned and gave a ponderous response after a few seconds. ¡°Uhhh, yeah?¡± He didn¡¯t want to get in trouble, but his head hurt too much to come up with a lie of any sort so he just went ahead and told the truth. ¡°I was just trying to get out of the chair.¡±


    A look of understanding crossed the instructor¡¯s face before it morphed into one of slight embarrassment. The instructor cleared his throat. ¡°You uh, you uh probably haven¡¯t been in an integration chair before then, right?¡± Rune slowly nodded. ¡°Well, you¡¯re not supposed to press that big red button unless something is going wrong with your integration and you need to be removed from the simulation ASAP. That¡¯s why it¡¯s a big red button. You¡¯re not supposed to hit the big red button. Just give the shield three hard taps and it¡¯ll remove itself.


    ¡°And as for your neural cables, well, you¡¯re definitely not supposed to remove them all at once. It causes immense sensory feedback which usually manifests in the form of pain or other equally embarrassing things. Remove one, let your body adjust, remove another, and so on. Take it slow. Don¡¯t rush things or else¡­¡± He gave Rune a meaningful once over. Rune grimaced and nodded in understanding.


    ¡°Here,¡± the instructor said, taking Rune by the arm, ¡°let me help you up into one of the seats.¡± Rune tried to stand up himself but felt nauseous and dizzy and nearly fell over. The instructor grabbed him before he could teeter to the floor, bellowing a ¡°woah there,¡± as he grabbed Rune. A couple seconds later, and the instructor helped to guide Rune into one of the seats, patting him on one of his shoulders.


    ¡°Alright, well I¡¯m going to get back to my post now. Once you¡¯re ready, stow the cables from your chair back in their compartments, and you¡¯re free to leave or uh,¡± he gestured back towards the two integration chairs that still had occupants in them, ¡°I guess you could wait for your friends, if those are your friends.¡±


    Rune gave him a pained smile. ¡°Alright, thanks.¡±


    Pauling nodded and stood up. ¡°Alright, best of luck trainee, whichever way your river flows.¡± Rune just nodded and smiled back, and the instructor turned and left. Afterward, Rune just sat there for a while, his hands covering the back of his head, resting as the pain died away. Before long, the pain had died away to a much more reasonable throbbing, and Rune felt good enough to command Paine to create him a holocomputer so that he could watch videos.


    Glancing over to Teira¡¯s integration seat, Rune could see that it was still closed which meant that Teira¡¯s test was still going. Based on how the majority of missions had ended only with death, Rune could only assume that meant that she was doing relatively well and living for a while. Rune shrugged and decided he might as well wait for her to finish. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    His eyes flaring open, Rune suddenly remembered that he had an appointment to make. Quickly, he asked Paine for the time.


    Hey, Paine, what time is it right now in GST?


    Paine came back with a response near instantaneously. The current time in GST is 6:12. Rune let out a relieved sigh, letting his head fall backward in his seat. Still another hour and fifteen minutes. Plenty of time to wait for Teira. Content to wait, Rune focused back on his holocomputer and typed in ¡®Newtube¡¯, before clicking on the first link and pulling up a video from a history channel detailing the first wave and its effects on human culture. Rune had never really considered himself much of a history buff, more in the moment as opposed to considering the past, but he still found it fascinating to learn how the world had changed since he¡¯d lived.


    After roughly twenty minutes Rune was watching a section about the first great space war, commonly referred to as the Sol war, when a sudden hiss filled the room, after a brief second followed by a pop. Rune started, and glanced down the corridor-shaped room filled with integration seats. One of the two seats further back in the room was slowly opening. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t Teira¡¯s.


    Rune let out a gusty sigh, and went back to his video, ignoring the man climbing out of his seat and stretching. He was still sitting there and watching his video when a voice rang through the air.


    ¡°Hey, man,¡± Rune looked up to spot a medium height, lithe black man glancing down the corridor towards the single still closed integration seat in the simulation room before shifting his gaze to regard Rune. ¡°You¡¯re waiting on her, right?¡±


    Rune just nodded, slightly confused and a little annoyed at the guy for interrupting his watching, before he responded, ¡°yeah, I am.¡±


    The guy gave him a sideways look. ¡°You know that she¡¯s a highborn¡­ right? They don¡¯t really mesh so well, with uh, our kind. You know?¡±


    Rune stared intensely at the man for a couple seconds before responding. ¡°No¡­ I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m a synth. Care to explain why exactly she doesn¡¯t ¡®mesh so well with our kind¡¯?¡±


    A look of understanding crossed the man¡¯s face. ¡°Ah. I see.¡± He gave Rune a slightly patronizing smile. ¡°My bad. Thought you were a steel slinker, like me. You certainly have the look of one.¡± He shot another look down the corridor and then shrugged. ¡°Huh. Guess she¡¯s hot.¡± He gave Rune a sarcastic smile before turning away and walking off through the room towards the exit. ¡°Good luck, man.¡±


    Rune flipped him the bird and shouted after his retreating back. ¡°Oh, fuck off asshole.¡±


    The man didn¡¯t turn and just gave him the universal ¡®who cares¡¯ shrug before disappearing around the corner and off towards the exit to the Simulation Lounge. Rune glared at the exit for a few more seconds before huffing and turning back to his holo-computer. He¡¯d been focused on relaxing after he¡¯d yanked all of his neural cables so it had slipped his mind when he¡¯d been pulling up Newtube, but now that he remembered it Rune knew it was a good idea to check it out.


    Highborns. The title sounded almost like a title they would use to refer to noblemen from the medieval era. Everyone was calling Teira one, and Rune honestly had no idea what they were referring to. When he¡¯d done a search on the G-Web, he¡¯d been told that the UIS was a representative republic with free speech laws, and didn¡¯t have nobility or anything approximating that. Was she from another one of the space empires in the galaxy? Or was it some sort of derogatory slang? Rune had no idea, so he plugged it into his holographic search bar.


    Rune hit the first link and started reading. It turned out his whole presumption about highborn being slang for some sort of pseudo-nobility wasn¡¯t actually too far off the mark. In fact, it was pretty dang close.


    Highborn was a reference to the richer upper class of the UIS and CSC. But it seemed that the wealth disparity had changed massively since the 22nd century. Whereas in mid 22nd century America, the richest 1% had held a full 44% of the wealth of the nation, the upper 1% now held a staggering 96%.


    Rune frowned upon reading this number. To him, it didn¡¯t really make a lot of sense. People still needed to eat and drink. How the hell could the other 99% actually pay for anything with only 4% of the wealth? After a little bit of skimming through propaganda pieces that raged at the injustice, Rune finally set his search to find more scholarly pieces, picked one, and started reading.


    It turned one key reason why people could still pay for everything with what seemed like such little money was because costs of living were extremely low. The average person in the UIS made something like 96,000 GC and since costs of living had dropped substantially since the 22nd century, living was pretty goddamn easy. While most things still had costs, especially hard to get things on space stations such as food, water and land, many other things, such as electricity, were practically free. Somebody making 96k GC still had a ton of money to throw around, it was just that as you went into higher and higher levels of technology costs climbed exponentially.


    The rare earth minerals required, advanced physics and expertise, and extreme danger of such technologies made them exceptionally difficult to even utilize¡ªlet alone develop. Such projects could costs in the tens to hundreds of trillions of credits to run for even a single year. Take a Shimmer production plant. The cost of operating such a plant for a single year was priced at roughly 12 trillion credits. On the other hand, such an operation could earn you over 14 trillion credits a year at galactic market value.


    Highborns had the money and power to make those investments and run those operations, and had trillions of GC to throw around to make sure those projects got done. All the people a part of running the plant, setting up the plant, and making sure the plant worked in the first place would all be given a cut and be given tons of money, joining the highborn class.


    And it turned out that having a ton of money could get you a lot more than just a special status as a highborn. No, money gave you influence, and in the 26th century, influence could buy you immortality.


    One of the primary gripes he read about in the articles raging about highborns was how they kept immortality to themselves and didn¡¯t really share it with the population. While people had been researching immortality in his day and age, Rune was still skeptical that it could¡¯ve actually happened, but after a little bit of research found to his surprise that it was true. A yearly injection of a drug typically called ¡®Endless¡¯ would effectively halt aging for a person, stopping their DNA from decaying and body systems from breaking down.


    Rune did some more research and found that not just was creating this serum very inexpensive, but also that all sale and creation was restricted and banned except for by the government. At first, Rune was livid. If it was cheap, how could the government conscientiously allow people to die of old age when they could easily stop it? It was effectively murder.


    But Rune kept researching and found that the issue was a little more complicated. One of the biggest and most critical problems with making people immortal is that immortal populations tended to explode. Projections from credible scientists estimated that if the entire population were to be made immortal, the population would bloom so quickly that the number of people in existence would eventually outpace the rate at which new systems were being colonized.


    So on one hand, while they didn¡¯t want to deny the opportunity, they couldn¡¯t simply sell the serum to anyone who wanted it. Instead, the best citizens of the UIS were entered into a lottery and whoever won got the opportunity to be immortal. Mind you, it was a very small portion of the population, maybe 1%, but it was still some.


    The other way to become immortal was for you to purchase the serum at an exorbitant price and agree to not more than two children at risk of losing your citizenship. This made it so that the serum, which sold for millions, could only be purchased regularly by highborns, and that their population wouldn¡¯t be able to explode and get out of control, not even doubling with each generation. The rate of growth of the highborn population actually approximately matched the rate of growth of the normal population, so even if they were immortal there wouldn¡¯t be any numbers problems.


    On one hand, it rankled Rune who felt it was helping to facilitate a caste system within the UIS. On the other hand, he couldn¡¯t really think of any other solution to the problem. At the end of the day if the rich people wanted to be immortal they could do it, and if the government wouldn¡¯t let them they could always find another galactic empire in which to build their multi-trillion GC factories and laboratories that would allow them to be immortal. It was a tough spot.


    He still hadn¡¯t come to any real sort of decision on the issue when he heard a tap-tap-tap, and then a familiar hiss followed by popping noise. Rune glanced down the row of integration seats to spot Teira¡¯s shield slowly lifting up. A few seconds later and the shield had extended all the way up, and Rune gave her a smile and waved from his spot a few seats over.


    ¡°How¡¯d it go?¡± Rune asked the question more as a formality. He was pretty sure from the time that it had taken her to complete it that she¡¯d killed it.


    She just gave him a cocky smirk and shrugged nonchalantly before pulling out another neural cable. ¡°Went fine. Pretty sure I got that fifty. How¡¯d it go for you?¡±


    Rune shrugged. ¡°I had no idea what I was doing, except for on that first drone section. Played this realistic game called Whirl of Warplanes to try and help me get into the army. I knew a thing or two about piloting and strategizing on the fly, guess it helped a little.¡±


    Teira yanked out another cable, grimacing slightly. ¡°Well, I hope for your sake you did well. Score below a twenty and they won¡¯t let you into the discipline. And trust me, if there''s any one profession you want to go into, it''s Harmonics.¡±


    Rune frowned, worrying for a second, and then shrugged. What happened, happened. Even if he didn¡¯t score in this time, he figured that there would likely be an opportunity in the future, or at the very least, he probably scored a twenty in combat. Rune, Jamis, and Harvey had kicked their opponent¡¯s asses, so he was pretty sure he couldn¡¯t have scored too low there. In tech and attunement though¡­ best to simply forget about that.


    ¡°Well,¡± Rune said slowly, ¡°I should¡¯ve scored a twenty in at least one of my tests, so I should be fine.¡±


    Teira shrugged, flashed him a very brief reassuring smile, and then spoke, ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll get into at least one discipline, and even if not, you can always do some training and then come back in six months to take the test again.¡±


    Rune nodded, slightly reassured. He hadn¡¯t realized he could retake the tests again in half a year. That meant that even if he failed he could get some training in and then the next time he¡¯d for sure get in. He had to admit, he was sure that the test would¡¯ve gone a lot better if he could¡¯ve had some exposure to integration before he took the test. Some learning about basic strategies and space combat would¡¯ve been a real help. Rune added that to his list of things he needed to research, as even though he¡¯d probably learn everything he needed to know in the TEF, it couldn¡¯t hurt to be extra prepared.


    Teira yanked out her third neural cable and grunted a little, pulling Rune out of his reverie and back into the present. He glanced at her, only having to consider for half a second before clearing his throat. ¡°Hey, uh, Teira, I¡¯m gonna meet up with some of my friends in the cafeteria to grab some chow, in uh,¡± he mentally checked the time, discovering that it was now 7:04. ¡°Just another twenty minutes. Wanna come with?¡±


    Teira half-froze for a second, a strange expression on crossing her face for the briefest of seconds, before the familiar sarcastic smile crept its way back onto her face. ¡°Wow, so you do have friends. I thought you might not have, what with having to get so desperate as to cozy up to a highborn.¡± Rune snorted and rolled his eyes, and Teira waved him off nonchalantly as she pulled out the fourth and final neural cable. ¡°Well, I guess it couldn¡¯t hurt.¡± She stood and mimed brushing dust off her skinsuit, even though there was nothing on it. ¡°Alright then, lead the way.¡± She gestured towards the door.


    Rune smiled, got up, and started walking towards the door. ¡°So anyway, do you know when they release the test scores? I want to know what mine were. Tomorrow, maybe?¡±


    Teira shook her head as she followed Rune out of the exit to the simulation room. ¡°No, it¡¯s a lot faster than that. I expect the scores will be out by tonight, and if the time is¡ª¡± she paused, her eyes turning to look up at the ceiling in thought, presumably mentally checking the time, ¡°Seven-oh-five, then scores will probably be released at 9:00? Maybe 8:30, or 9:30? Soon. Sometime today. They need to give failed students a day to vacate, and students that pass a chance to select their courses. That¡¯s why tomorrow is off, to get all the logistics done.¡±


    Rune gulped. He¡¯d only paid attention to one primary piece of information in Teira¡¯s little speech; test scores came out in under two hours. Soon, he¡¯d know whether he got to learn how to fight and fly starships, or whether he needed to wait another half year to apply again. Rune had never believed in any particular god, but he was certainly praying that it was the former.

 Chapter 11: Stomach Pains

    Rune sat straight in his seat and perked his head up so that he could see above the mostly seated crowd, scanning the entrances to the cafeteria for what seemed to him like the billionth time. Just to be sure, he mentally double checked the time. 7:33. They were supposed to be there three minutes ago. Where the hell were they?


    Rune slumped back in his seat, letting out a gusty and annoyed sigh. Meanwhile, Teira smirked at him from across the table.


    ¡°You know,¡± she said, her voice slightly amused, ¡°they¡¯re only three minutes late. That¡¯s not that late. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve been more than three minutes late to plenty of things.¡±


    Rune grumbled and rolled his eyes before letting out another gusty, exasperated sigh, letting himself relax a little. ¡°Yeah, I know. I¡¯ll chill out.¡± He paused for a second. ¡°So anyway, I¡¯ve never really gotten to ask anyone, but where exactly are we, in terms of the galaxy? I¡¯ve spent most of the past few days watching history vids, but uh, nothing about geography.¡± He frowned. ¡°Or, space-ography. Whatever it would be.¡±


    A slight smirk crossed Teira¡¯s before she responded. ¡°It¡¯s cosmography or uranography, depending on who you ask. Most people use cosmography though because it sounds better.¡± She waved a hand, dismissing the subject, before saying, ¡°regardless of which is more important though, what exactly is it about the local cosmography that you want to know?¡±


    ¡°Uh¡­¡± Rune flushed a little red. ¡°Everything?¡±


    Teira quirked an eyebrow at him. ¡°Please tell me you at least know what system we¡¯re in right now.¡±


    Rune gave a quick nod. ¡°Yeah, I think it was Taraxis, uh four?¡±


    Teira was quick with a follow-up question, asking, ¡°And the sector?¡±


    ¡°Uhhhhhh¡­¡± Rune could only sit there, growing redder and redder as he was unable to come up with an answer. He sighed, his shoulders slumping in defeat. ¡°I have no idea. Tell me, what sector are we in. And by sector, do you mean the cluster of stars, or what?¡±


    Teira nodded. ¡°Yeah, the cluster of stars, in a sense. It¡¯s kind of like a voting district. Several officials are voted for, but all of them represent the same cluster of systems. It can be a little chaotic at times, but UIS government approval is the highest of all the governments in the galaxy if you would believe what the propaganda is telling us. Our cluster, in particular, is called the Herbert Sector, named after our first magnate.¡±


    "Huh.¡± Rune paused for a second before speaking, thinking. ¡°So, then, is the magnate like the president or something, and each sector kind of like a state within the United States back when it still existed?¡±


    Teira nodded, thought for a moment, then shook her head. ¡°I mean, in some ways. Yeah, the magnate is the face of the sector.¡± She stared off into the distance for a second, thinking. ¡°I guess you could liken him to U.S president,¡± she spoke slowly, ¡°but his powers are a lot more restricted. He¡¯s,¡± she waved her hands around in the air, ¡°a lot more of a check and balancer, as opposed to an actual political powerhouse. It''s not like anything from the 22nd century.¡± She eyed Rune. ¡°It¡¯d really, really help you to take a politics class. Doesn¡¯t have to be long. Just a couple months. This is information that you need to know.¡±


    Rune chuckled. ¡°Yeah, I feel like I¡¯m stumbling around in the dark, barely ev¡ª¡±


    Rune was cut short when a hand slammed down on his shoulder, and a familiar, cheerful voice rang through the air. ¡°Hey buddy, we were just looking for you! How¡¯s it going? Wanna find a different, more private table to eat at?¡±


    Rune glanced from his plate, up to Jamis and Harvey, the latter of which was fidgeting nervously, back to Teira, who was glaring daggers across the table at the former of the two aforementioned miscreants.


    Rune¡¯s mind raced for a half second before, in the hopes that Jamis had merely misinterpreted the situation, he spoke up, attempting to defuse the situation. ¡°Uh, dude, thi¡ª¡±


    He was cut off before he could even get out a sentence by an ice cold voice ringing out from the other side of the table. ¡°Is this your friend?¡± Rune turned back to Teira, his lips moving as he prepared a response, stopping after he thought better of it, and then finally finishing with a nod. Teira shifted her glare from Rune to Jamis. ¡°Well, your friend¡¯s an asshole.¡±


    With a cocky smirk on his face, Jamis pulled out one of the chairs to the table and sat down in it. ¡°Well, at least I don¡¯t think that I¡¯m better than 99% of the galaxy just because I was born with a couple extra creds in my GC Account.¡±


    Teira just raised her chin. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m better than you because I have a couple ¡®extra creds¡¯ in my GC account, I think I¡¯m better than you because I¡¯m not a fucking asshole, plain and simple.¡±


    Jamis whistled, his diminutive form needing to reach up to thump Rune on the back. ¡°Earthsoul, man. Where''d you find this one? A highborn that not just doesn¡¯t talk like a trashy 1800s pseudo-nobility reject, but can even fire back in an argument. Earth below, I¡¯m surprised that you can even¡ª¡±


    Rune finally blew up. ¡°Goddammit man, can you fucking not insult each and every person you encounter for once? Like goddamn, man, you barely know her, and all I¡¯ve heard today is highborn evil this, highborn evil that, stay away from the evil highborn, like what the hell? And anyway, how the fuck can you even tell that she¡¯s highborn in the first place?¡±


    Jamis swallowed. ¡°Earthsoul, man, no need to be so touchy. But everybody knows that highborns are a bunch of pricks, especially to us steel-slinkers. Highborns and steel-slinkers just don¡¯t mesh. The lot of them can¡¯t appreciate that it takes somebody to run society while they¡¯re off making trillions of GC cause they have the money to put into the super expensive projects needed to make money. It¡¯s a caste system, without an official caste.¡± A scoff came from the opposite side of the table.


    Jamis spread his arms wide, his face full of faux disbelief and astonishment. ¡°What, you think I¡¯m wrong? How so? Is it the budget skin¡ª¡±


    Rune growled out a word, yet again cutting Jamis off. ¡°Seriously? Dude, stop being such a jackass. Go get some food, take a chill pill, and then come back. Teira¡¯s cool, I¡¯ve been hanging out with her all day, and I¡¯m not gonna stop just because she''s a highborn and highborns are supposed to be stuck up jackasses, okay? So go get some food, chill out, and when you think you can come back without starting another screaming match, come back.¡± Turning to Harvey who was still awkwardly standing about, Rune swung his head to indicate Jamis. ¡°You should probably go with him too.¡± Harvey quickly nodded.


    Jamis frowned at Rune, looking like he¡¯d been forced to swallow something sour. After a couple seconds, he shrugged and stood up from the table. ¡°Alright, I guess I can go get something to eat. I¡¯m hungry. See you soon, then.¡± He shot Rune a tight smile as he left the table and headed for the diners, beckoning Harvey to follow him.


    After watching Jamis and Harvey walk away for a couple seconds Rune turned back to Teira with an apologetic look on his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get out a word Teira spoke. ¡°Your friend is an asshole. Jamis, you said?¡±


    Rune nodded. ¡°Yeah, sorry about that. I¡¯m not really sure what¡¯s up with him. Why does everybody seem to hate highborns?¡±


    Teira looked away across the room and then sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat. ¡°I dunno, I guess that your friend Jamis wasn¡¯t all that wrong when he said that steel-slinkers and highborns don¡¯t mesh all that well. He¡¯s not wrong. We don¡¯t.¡± She snorted bitterly. ¡°Hard not to be jealous when someone has more funds in their GC account at eighteen than you¡¯ll ever see in your entire life.¡±


    Rune frowned, thinking, and then shrugged after a couple seconds. ¡°I guess I can see why. I don¡¯t know. My parents were always on about working hard, getting a good education, and getting our asses out of the slums. It was on me and siblings to get out. My parents were pretty well to do before the Great Flood, and they never really had any sort of grudge against rich people. They always seemed to be expecting that things would eventually change for the better, that the when the job market finally rebuilt itself their fortunes would change. Who knows? Maybe it did.¡± Rune sighed, leaning back into his seat with a wistful and melancholy expression on his face.


    Teira, temporarily forgetting her grievance with Jamis, asked, ¡°Wait a minute, have you not researched what happened to your family?¡±


    Rune slowly shook his head. ¡°No, I haven¡¯t, I guess, you know, I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve put it off till now. It¡¯s a little weird thinking about it, you know? This is supposed to be a video game. That¡¯s what I signed up for with the VC program. How do I know that you¡¯re totally real? I played in the VR arcades, and top line of the tech was only years off creating VR games just as realistic as this. I mean I feel like if I search it up and¡­¡± Trailed off and swallowed.


    Teira gave him a sympathetic look. ¡°If they¡¯re all dead and there¡¯s a long, accurate history of what happened to them you¡¯ll know for more or less sure that it¡¯s real and they¡¯re all dead and long gone?¡±


    Rune sighed and slowly nodded. ¡°Yeah. I mean,¡± Rune let out another long sigh, ¡°yeah, that¡¯s pretty much it.¡±


    Teira just shrugged. ¡°Well, I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m real, so you might as well just hurry up and get it over with.¡±


    Rune gave her an incredulous look. Teira waved her hand dismissively. ¡°Besides, they¡¯re not necessarily all dead. It¡¯s not outside of the realm of possibility that some of them are still alive. Immortality Serum was first released for public distribution in the 23rd century, with initial testing starting halfway through the century. It¡¯s well within the realm of possibility that one of your siblings or your parents even did make it to a decently wealthy state and bought some. If they made it especially wealthy, shit, they could be a king of the MET or a station master somewhere in the UIS. They¡¯d probably have bought your brain and reintegrated you themselves if they cared, but hey. You can dream, right?¡± She gave him a winsome smile as if she¡¯d said something that should cheer him up.


    Rune¡¯s mind, in turn, was racing. Could his family still be alive? It was kind of mind-boggling to Rune to think that it was even possible for someone to be alive for a full four-hundred years. But still, no matter how slim the possibility, it was possible that his family was still alive. That was insane. Rune was struck by a sudden urge to go and try and find out whether his family was still alive or not, or what descendants they had left behind.


    ¡°Huh,¡± Rune said, thoughts running through his head, ¡°I guess I¡¯ll just check later tonight. I never even considered that.¡±


    Teira shrugged. ¡°Most government reintegrated synths don¡¯t. Many do actually have relatives around, they just never realize it. After you leave the academy, you should find yours.¡±


    Rune nodded. ¡°Sounds like a plan.¡±


    The conversation lapsed into silence for a second, before Teira¡¯s eyes flickered up over Rune¡¯s shoulder to land on something, her face hardening.


    Rune glanced over his shoulder to spot Jamis and Harvey walking towards the table, each with a tray of food in their hands. Rune gave Jamis a wary smile as he approached the table and parked in the seat next to Rune, with Harvey unexpectedly circling around the table to take a spot next to Teira. Teira seemed surprised, giving Harvey a look of mixed distrust and relief, who in turn gave her a shy smile before turning to his meal. Jamis also started digging into his meal, not making any more noise than the smacking of lips as he shoveled food into his mouth.


    Teira stared at Jamis for a couple seconds before shrugged and going back to her meal, picking at the last remnants of her steak as the other two ate. Rune sat there in the awkward silence for all of fifteen seconds before he¡¯d had enough. He¡¯d dealt with his younger siblings plenty of times when they were acting like this, and he knew that the number one way to get them back in each other¡¯s good graces was to get them talking.


    Deciding to start off with what was more or less a mundane question, Rune turn to Jamis and asked, ¡°So anyways, Jamis, how was your day? What¡¯d you do?¡±


    Jamis shrugged, keeping his eyes on his meal. He stuck a noodle in his mouth before letting loose a not-so-subtle jab. ¡°My day was good up till now.¡± He let that hang in the air a couple seconds before continuing. ¡°But as for earlier today, we went over to Tetris Town and hung out in the VR arcade and played some Swords and Spacecraft. Was fun. It turns out that Harvey here is better than just Attunement, but almost a pro Swords and Spacecraft player.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Rune looked to Harvey with an eyebrow quirked. ¡°A pro gamer?¡± He said the words almost wistfully, a faraway look in his eyes.


    Meanwhile, however, Teira was looking with much more interest at Harvey. ¡°What level have you managed to get to?¡±


    Harvey flushed for a second, hesitating before responding. ¡°Just eighty-four.¡±


    One of Teira¡¯s eyebrows went up and she nodded approvingly. ¡°Not bad, eighty-four. I¡¯ve reached a max of seventy-six. Eighty-four is really good. Huh. I might have been able to get there if I had another year to keep grinding but, eighty-four is impressive.¡±


    Harvey¡¯s face was glowing red by now, and he was opening his mouth to make a response when a scoff from across the table cut him off. ¡°Yeah, and how much did you have to pay for that account, huh?¡± Was Jamis¡¯ caustic reply to Teira¡¯s comment.


    Everyone, Harvey included, gave Jamis a scalding look, and Rune himself gave him a sharp elbow in the ribs.


    Jamis jumped in his seat. ¡°Ouch man, what the hell was that for?¡± Jamis gave Rune an indignant look.


    ¡°I told you to cool it,¡± Rune growled. ¡°Cool it, man.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Teira said from across the table, ¡°if he wants to pick a fight with me, then a fight he¡¯ll have. I did not buy that account. I played for it all the way. The only thing I bought was gear, and gear doesn¡¯t even really matter in the grand scheme of things.¡±


    ¡°Pffft.¡± Jamis waved his hand. ¡°Buying gear is still a huge advantage. Don¡¯t give me the I¡¯m not pri¡ª¡±


    Harvey, who had been shaking his head, finally interjected. ¡°C¡¯mon man, we all know it¡¯s true. Gear doesn¡¯t really matter that much. There¡¯s no real way to game the system with money in Swords and Starships. Past level fifty or so, it takes real skill to keep going. You¡¯re only level sixty-two, so you might not realize just how hard it can get once you start pushing past the seventies skill cap, but if you¡¯re going to get to seventy-six, you¡¯re not going to do it with money.¡±


    Jamis scowled at Harvey and threw his hands up in the air. ¡°Alright!¡± He said, exasperation and defeat in his voice. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll shut up. Whatever. If you two pros want to talk high-level Swords and Starship gameplay, go ahead and leave little old me out. Whatever.¡±


    Teira rolled her eyes and him, and Harvey let out a relieved sigh before turning to Teira. ¡°So anyway, what class you specced into?¡±


    Teira smirked. ¡°Starhunter Pod all the way.¡±


    Harvey¡¯s eyebrows climbed for the sky. ¡°Wow,¡± he said, drawing the word out, ¡°that¡¯s really impressive. Stones. You don¡¯t see a lot of those around, let alone at level seventy-six.¡±


    Teira smiled at the compliment before speaking. ¡°Eighty-four isn¡¯t so bad yourself. What do you play?¡±


    Harvey smirked, before responding in a tone oozing smug satisfaction. ¡°Xenoscourge necro, of course.¡±


    Teira¡¯s eyes opened wide. ¡°Holy crap! A controller class at eighty-four? That¡¯s monstrous! How long have you been above eighty?¡±


    For a while longer the two chatted away, happy to engage in discourse with a fellow gaming nerd. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the conversation was flying over Rune¡¯s head. After five or so minutes they tried to explain it to him, but he knew that he¡¯d never understand until he had the opportunity to actually try the game for himself and hardly understood what they were saying aside from vast, open-world, RPG, and customizable. The duo chatted for yet another twenty to thirty minutes, with Rune nodding along politely whenever needed, and Jamis pouting next to him trying to feign annoyance and disinterest. Eventually, the discussion concluded with the duo promising to meet up and play together sometime in game before they moved on to real life topics.


    ¡°So anyway,¡± Teira asked the table at large, giving each of them a glance in turn, ¡°what are you all planning to go into?¡±


    Harvey was the first to speak. ¡°Definitely Attunement,¡± he said with a voice full of confidence. ¡°My dad served as an MHP-HAI. Fought in the skirmishes with the ESA for nearly two decades, did border patrols for another five, and then did a stint as a shimmer diver for a few years before retiring as a tuner here in Terrassis. He was the division tuner while he worked for the army, so he knew the tricks of the trade and passed them on to me. He was always kinda hoping that I¡¯d go for combat but¡­¡± Harvey sighed and looked a little sad. ¡°I guess I¡¯m just not really cut out for it, you know?¡±


    Teira just shrugged. ¡°Yeah, you aren¡¯t exactly in shape my friend. But hey, to each their own. If you can get eighty-four on a controller class, you¡¯ve got a future in attunement.¡± She raised her glass and downed it. Harvey went beet red and Jamis looked like he was about to blow up, but Rune nudged him and shook his head. Jamis gave him an incredulous look, but ultimately sighed and kept his complaints to himself.


    The whole exchange hadn¡¯t exactly evaded Teira¡¯s notice, however, and she quickly focussed in on Jamis, turn to him and fixing him with her sharp gaze. ¡°So, Jamis,¡± she said, her voice oozing faux politeness, ¡°what do you think you¡¯re going to go into? Let me guess¡­ combat?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Jamis said, his voice confrontational, ¡°you got a problem with that?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Teira said, leisurely stretching, her voice oozing calm and confidence, ¡°no problem at all. In fact, my brother is an MCF-RI.¡±


    For a second, the table was silent, Teira coyly blinking across the table at Jamis. After a couple seconds, he managed to find his tongue. ¡°Regular infantry? What, is he the pariah of the family or something?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Teira drawled out, flicking a piece of uneaten steak still on her plate, ¡°my family is a military family. Each of my other two siblings has gone to a public academy. I¡¯m the last, the only integrator of three children. I¡¯m going into the military myself once I graduate.¡±


    Jamis opened his mouth as if to make a response, before slowly closing it, and then opening it again, only to say nothing.


    Teira smirked. ¡°You know, somebody with a lot of money has to make those ads about civic duty, joining the military, and reclaiming the lost worlds, and it isn¡¯t all the UIS, you know.¡±


    Jamis just sat there for a couple seconds, flabbergasted, before finally crossing his arms. ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll admit, I may have been a little too quick to judge. Maybe not all highborns are the same.¡± He rolled his eyes before holding out his hand. ¡°Peace?¡±


    A wide grin of victory on her face, Teira reached out across the table, taking Jamis¡¯ hand and shaking it. ¡°Peace.¡± She leaned back into her seat before continuing. ¡°But, for the cost of peace, you¡¯ll have to put up with my caustic dialogue.¡±


    Jamis just shrugged, the familiar smug smile coming back to grace his face. ¡°Eh. It¡¯ll take more than a couple sharp jabs to keep up with wits and dashingly good looks, young lady.¡± He drew out the last two words, saying them sarcastically, but this time in a less hostile manner.


    Teira just rolled her eyes and turned to Rune. ¡°I assumed that from the fact that you were testing in it that you were going into Harmonics, but just to confirm, that¡¯s your plan, right Rune?¡±


    Jamis snorted. ¡°Of course Rune is going into Harmonics. He¡¯d have to be an absolute idiot to go into anything else.¡±


    Teira gave him a weird look. ¡°I mean, not like I look down on combat or anything, but combat is a lot more dangerous and doesn¡¯t even pay as well. But still, there are people who choose to go into Combat over other more consistently lucrative disciplines simply because Combat is their preference. And besides, if he really wanted to he could take remedial courses and go into Attunement or tech. I don¡¯t see why he couldn¡¯t pick something else.¡±


    Jamis just glanced between Rune and Teira a few times, a smile slowly spreading across his face. ¡°He hasn¡¯t told you?¡±


    Teira arched an eyebrow, deliberately staring down Jamis before glancing at Rune and then finally reverting her gaze back to Jamis. ¡°Hasn¡¯t told me¡­ what?¡±


    Jamis nodded to and waved to Rune as if to give him the honors. ¡°You do it, man.¡±


    Rune glanced from Jamis to Teira. ¡°I¡¯m not really sure why everybody seems to think this is such a big deal. Yeah, I can pilot a bigger starship. So what?¡± He sighed, while Teira waved her hand in a circle, prodding him to go on. ¡°I have four naturally occurring neural linkages.¡±


    Teira cocked her head as if she was sure she had heard wrong, whereas Harvey slammed the table before shouting, ¡°you have four? Why the fuck didn¡¯t you guys tell me?¡± He glanced between Rune and Jamis, the latter of which was choking back his laughter, and the former of which was trying to shrug it off.


    ¡°I mean, yeah, I have a very low chance at piloting a massive starship that can destroy a sun, whoopdeedoo. Can¡¯t they just a build a machine that does the job without a human?¡±


    ¡°No, no, no,¡± Harvey said, ¡°that¡¯s not the point, and even if they can, it is so much more expensive to maintain for a long time. But star destroyers aside, multiple integrators are so much better in combat and get so much more pay.¡± Rune opened his mouth to talk, but in a surprising show of assertiveness, Harvey continued speaking, cutting him off before he could get a word out. ¡°Really, if I remember right the average quadruple integrator earns approximately a thousand times what a single integrator earns. So not just do you have the potential to bring down entire systems, you also have the potential to earn shittons of money.¡±


    ¡°And besides,¡± Teira interjected, ¡°People will hire you just for the potential you have. Even if you suck at integration and have no real talents, the government, a mega-corporation, or somebody will snap you up just so that others can¡¯t have you. Lucky thing you were born in the UIS cause in the MET or CSC you would¡¯ve been obligated to serve the government for your entire life.¡±


    Rune frowned and shrugged. ¡°I guess it is pretty important, then. Huh. Just doesn¡¯t seem like it would be that important, you know? I can control four drones at once¡­ so what? I figured technology would have advanced beyond that at this point.¡±


    Teira laughed. ¡°Well no matter what you think, you should definitely go into integration if you¡¯ve got four neural linkages. You¡¯re be throwing away your potential if you didn¡¯t.¡± Jamis and Harvey were both nodding along with her.


    Rune put his hands up in a placating manner. ¡°Alright, alright. I¡¯ll go into Harmonics. It¡¯s just¡ªyou know, I was kind of hoping to pick up other courses too. Maybe a self-defense course in Combat, and some remedial courses in tech and Attunement.¡±


    Everyone else at the table was staring at him like he was an idiot.


    ¡°You dolt,¡± Teira said, ¡°as long as you score high enough, you can take whatever courses you want. The TEF offers five years of courses, and as long as you¡¯ve taken the prerequisite courses or can test into later courses, you can literally take whatever course you want whenever. There¡¯s no set path. You just learn whatever you sign up for.¡±


    Rune raised an eyebrow. ¡°Really? Back in the 22nd century, schools and colleges were still highly regimented. You know, you must take these four courses a year, and those four courses the next. Is that gone?¡±


    Jamis was the first to respond. ¡°Man¡­ education hasn¡¯t been like that for ages. Practically since humanity expanded to the stars. Trades these days take years to learn, and most of what you¡¯ll learn is very nuanced. Tuners take decades to perfect their craft, and techies often take nearly a decade just to learn enough to build basic things. Combat and Harmonics are similarly big commitments. If they did regiment things like that, it would just hold back those with more skill and stop more dedicated people from exploring their fields.¡±


    Teira gave Jamis a nod of acknowledgment. ¡°Well put.¡±


    ¡°Wait a minute,¡± Rune said, a look of mixed worry and confusion on his face, ¡°then when do we choose our classes?¡±


    Teira responded first. ¡°That¡¯s tomorrow. We¡¯ve got the entire day to pick out our classes. Here, let¡¯s all just meet up tomorrow at noon for lunch, and I can walk you through the process. Typically they have a series of instructional assemblies through the day, so if you want to go to one of those you can, or you can just rely on my stellar advice.¡± She flashed a winsome smile at him.


    Rune smiled and nodded. ¡°Awesome, yeah, that would be a big help.¡±


    ¡°No problem,¡± Teira said.


    From there, the conversation lapsed back into more mundane things. Jamis, who was clearly interested in both Teira¡¯s family and Harvey¡¯s father, asked for further details. This sparked off a long series of war stories, which captured both Rune¡¯s and Jamis¡¯ attention for next hour or so. Harvey and Teira each kept telling more impressive and grand stories, moving from stories they¡¯d heard from their relatives to mere hearsay, while occasionally discussing some more technical aspects of the stories. Time flew by. 8:00 passed, then 8:30, then finally 9:00 when a message from Paine misted through Rune¡¯s brain.


    The Terrassis Educational Facility has sent you a document. No encryptions or potential for viruses or malware detected. Would you like to open the document, or save it for a later date?


    Teira, who had been talking about some daring raid on a pirate lair, stopped mid-sentence with a faraway look in her eyes. ¡°Scores are back,¡± she said, excitement in her voice, ¡°I¡¯m going to check mine.¡±


    Rune had already opened his, and the information sank slowly into his understanding.


    Technology test score: 5 Course Levels Available: Remedial


    Combat test score: 41 Course Levels Available: First Level


    Attunement test score: 3 Course Levels Available: Remedial


    Harmonics test score: 32 Course Levels Available: First Level


    Rune wasn¡¯t totally sure what to make of the scores, but they seemed decent enough to him. Teira had said something about 20 being the cutoff, and he¡¯d passed that level for both Harmonics and Combat, which meant he could go into one or the other. Rune looked up from where he was sitting to spot all three of the other kids at the table sporting smiles on their faces.


    Teira was the first to speak. ¡°I can guess from your faces that you all managed to make it into the courses you wanted to make it into.¡±


    Jamis was the first to respond. ¡°Yup, a thirty-nine in combat which is pretty much everything I wanted.¡±


    Harvey was nodding too. ¡°A forty-five in Attunement. Not to mention a flat twenty in combat. Wasn¡¯t hoping for anything else.¡±


    Rune slowly spoke. ¡°I guess I got a thirty-two in Harmonics and a forty-one on Combat.¡±


    Teira slowly glanced around the table, an impish smile on her face. ¡°I scored a sixty-three on Harmonics.¡±


    Jamis whistled. ¡°Stones. That¡¯s insane. A sixty-three? Wasn¡¯t the high score a sixty-something? How close were you? Did you beat it?¡±


    Teira shook her head. ¡°No, but I did tie it.¡±


    The table was silent for a couple seconds. ¡°Earth below,¡± Harvey said, ¡°and I thought my score was good.¡±


    Rune cleared his throat. ¡°Well, I guess we all got into our respective fields.¡± He glanced across the table at Teira. ¡°Tomorrow, then, at noon?¡±


    Teira nodded. ¡°Yup, see you then. Afterward, if you two want to meet up with us, we can all head over to Tetris Town or something.¡±


    Jamis nodded. ¡°Sounds like a plan.¡±


    ¡°Alright!¡± Teira said a genuinely happy smile on her face. She pushed back her chair and stood up. ¡°Well, I need to go and message my family and do some other stuff. I¡¯ll see you guys tomorrow.¡±


    She was soon followed by Harvey, citing similar excuses, leaving Jamis and Rune alone together at the table. Collectively they decided to head back to their rooms together, whereupon they split ways and went into each of their separate rooms.

 Chapter 12: Family Memories

    Rune¡¯s family was dead. It hadn¡¯t taken long at all after coming back to his room and opening up his holo-computer to find the information. It wasn¡¯t too much of a surprise, but it still hurt. Rune still wasn¡¯t wholly convinced that this was reality and not just a video game, but from what he¡¯d seen and the people he had interacted with, he was more inclined to believe this was reality as opposed to a very sophisticated video game. But no matter which option was true, either his family was dead or he¡¯d never see them again¡ªthey were gone. Rune could only move forward.


    In a strange, melancholy way of finding closure, Rune devoted the rest of his evening to trying to figure out what had happened to his family. Unfortunately, things, for the most part, had not gone well.


    His mother and father had managed to do relatively well for themselves. After he¡¯d left, the economy had slowly improved over the course of the next ten years. More jobs had opened up, and just two years after he left to become a VC his father had managed to get promoted from fusion plant drudge to fusion plant operator, a considerably more cushy and well-paid position. Meanwhile, his mother had managed to turn a temporary cleaning job into a more permanent operation that seemed to even extend to managing certain properties.


    They¡¯d done their best to save up money to help pay for the kids who made it to college while also saving for retirement. Overworked but satisfied with having secured most of his children¡¯s futures, his father would pass first at the old age of seventy-eight, with his mother following just years later at the age of eighty-three.


    That was about where the happy story ended. His parents had been very lucky, missing World War III by a scant couple of years.


    Of his five siblings, only two would survive after the nukes dropped. Both Stella and Mabel, the second eldest and youngest respectively, were still in Chicago when the bombs hit. Neither was logged as entering a shelter and both had been marked down as presumed dead nearly a decade later after the government had finished combing the city and rescuing survivors. All Rune could do was sit there, close his eyes for a moment, and pray that it had been quick.


    Daniel, his second youngest sibling, had been in New York when the bombs dropped. He¡¯d passed through college and was working as a shrink in uptown New York. Due to where he¡¯d been, he¡¯d had the opportunity to make it to a shelter. His family hadn¡¯t. Things got a little vague from there, but with a little bit of digging, Rune had managed to piece together most of what had happened using archived hospital and social media records.


    From what he could tell, Daniel had signed on as a disaster relief volunteer and started combing the city in the the hopes of finding his family. While he hadn¡¯t found them, he had found a lethal dosage of radiation due to faulty shielding, causing massive internal organ failure and ultimately his death after a year of struggle. Even with the benefits of 22nd-century medicine, he hadn¡¯t been able to pull through.


    Jade and Finn, the other two siblings, had been dealing with problems of their own, unable to easily arrange travel and dealing with the fallout from the nuclear explosions themselves, trying to pick up the shattered remnants of their lives. They hadn''t come to see him in his final months. Daniel had died, in pain, all his friends and family effectively swept away in the wake of the nuclear explosions which had decimated all the major North American population centers. Rune took a moment of silence for him as well.


    Luckily, that was more or less where the devastation ended. Finn and Jade, his two middle siblings, twins and both twelve when he¡¯d left, had survived the initial exchange of nuclear bombs, the fallout, and the rest of the war.


    It was fitting that Jade had been one of the ones to make it. She had always been the pacifist of his siblings, buying into all that environmental conservation, world peace, and charity UFOH propaganda crap. It was enough pleasant on the ears, for sure, but didn¡¯t really translate into reality. The truth was right there in the mega-slums all around for anyone with eyes to see, with the uptowners watching from their ivory towers as more than half the population of the city toiled in abhorrent conditions just to eke out a living, stabbing each other in the back just to get a leg up in the free-for-all that was New Southern Chicago.


    Rune couldn¡¯t begrudge her positive outlook on life though, and things had gotten better for people living in the slums as he¡¯d grown up. Better yet, it was those same impulses that had saved her life, working her way up through non-profit organizations that would eventually leave her in Wyoming working wildlife conservation, hundreds of miles from the nearest bomb strike.


    Meanwhile, the other of the two twins, Finn, had taken the gilded road, making it through college to graduate with a degree in business to push on through law school to become a lawyer, graduating third in his class from Columbia. He¡¯d traveled out to New England and somehow managed to build a reputation for himself as a consultant and prosecutor working the odd job here and there before finally getting hired into a big name law firm.


    In what could only be described as great fortune, Finn had been in an airplane with his family moving from Boston to New York after swapping law firms when the bombs had fallen. The plane had been rerouted to a rural military base and his entire family, sans furniture and pets, had survived.


    What had been the misfortune of millions was the fortune of Finn. With just over 70% of the American population annihilated in the face of the bombs, Finn had an opportunity like no other. The number of high profile lawyers and businessmen had been drastically reduced, leaving hundreds of billions of assets floating and very few left behind to claim it.


    When the dust finally settled, Finn had managed to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions, leaving him one of the richest and most influential men in the United States. He¡¯d spend the rest of his life consolidating his power and making investments, securing his family¡¯s power for the next generation.


    For her part, Jade would actually opt to leave with her family on a colony ship for Neptune not long after the two-year-long Third World War ended, one of the first but definitely not the last of a mass exodus from earth. She¡¯d never seen eye to eye with Finn when they were younger, and it wasn¡¯t surprising that she might¡¯ve felt alone in the world, what with her family having mostly died and humanity having destroyed most of the earth.


    After arriving on Neptune with her husband and four children, those children would all find partners and all leave more children behind than Jade. Ten or eleven generations of propagation later, the Yahuis descended from her had spread all throughout the stars, with hundreds of relatives distributed through the ESA, MES, CSC, and UIS. Rune did a quick query and found that not one of them was on Terrassis and that the closest ones were on Helimgrad.


    Rune shrugged at the information. He was their great-great-great-great-great-whatever grand-uncle or something like that. There wasn¡¯t a chance that they¡¯d ever recognize him, even if he was related to them in some small way. It was probably pointless to track them down.


    Clicking away from that, Rune finished researching Finn. Unsurprisingly, Finn¡¯s section of the family had done very well for themselves. Finn gave his all to his only child, putting him through the best of the top private schools remaining before finally teaching him the tricks of managing the business. His son would do the same for his sons, letting them help him expand the business even larger, an eternal CEO after the invention of immortality serum. Each successive generation expanded the workings of the past, and within three generations Grey Duck enterprises had grown to be one of the largest corporations in the sol system, possessing several shipyards, thousands of prime asteroids for mining, and several connections to the supply of weapons to Earth¡¯s armada.


    It was hard to tell exactly what the extent of his brother¡¯s children¡¯s influence was on earth. But when the Sol war finally broke out between earth and the newly named Coalition of Sovereign Planets containing Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, a decent 10% of their ships had been built in Grey Duck Enterprise¡¯s Shipyards.


    Likewise in the End War between the CSC and UIS¡ªa full 14% of the ships built by Grey Duck Enterprises. What¡¯s more, when the MES had finally split off from the CSC, a major faction in the MES was Grey Duck Enterprises, in fact, 37% of their ships had been constructed by Grey Duck Enterprises. And considering that the current CEO of Grey Duck Enterprises was actually just Finn¡¯s son, Jett, who was also a current MES Chairman or ruler of some sort, that meant that Rune was actually the Uncle of one of the current rulers of the MES.


    Damn. That was pretty crazy. Someday in the future, he¡¯d try to get in contact with his nephew, but for now, he wanted to study up and age it little. It was super weird, after all, having a nephew effectively being three hundred years old with Rune still having less than twenty years of life experience.


    Curiosity sated Rune checked the time and realized that it was almost 11:00. While staying up late was fine and all, Jamis had told him earlier that if he was going to train in Combat he¡¯d need to wake early and stick to a strict schedule. Mentally banishing the projection of a computer, Rune collapsed into his bed, pulling up the blankets around him. He wanted to sleep, but he couldn¡¯t help but keep thinking about the information he¡¯d learned.


    While Jade¡¯s story was more or less what he¡¯d expected, Finn¡¯s was nothing short of inspirational to him. While Rune hadn¡¯t been able to make it out of the slums himself if any of his siblings could¡¯ve made it out of the slums, passed college, gotten through law school, and amassed a fortune of billions of digicoins, it was Finn. Out of all of his siblings, Finn had always been the one that was most ambitious.


    As kids, Finn and Rune had grown up very differently. When he was just a kid, Rune had needed to fend for himself. He¡¯d gotten into a lot of fights and always finished them alone, earning a reputation as a tough brawler. He hung with kids from the less shady end of the mega-slums, primarily kids whose parents worked in fusion plants, and eventually managed to establish himself as the goto community muscle, something of a minor authority.


    And aside from the occasional scuffle and a couple intense years in middle school, the gang kids, and fusion kids kept fighting to a minimum. The unspoken agreement was that the kids in the gangs left the fusion kids alone, and the fusion kids minded their own business. Those kids that didn¡¯t often disappeared, with only their parents left behind to ask questions as to where they went.


    Rune¡¯s younger siblings fell into that category of fusion kids simply because of Rune and his reputation. Nobody really screwed with them, and growing up from a young age, Finn didn¡¯t have to deal with all of the harassment that Rune had faced. He was friends with the younger siblings of the kids that Rune was friends with, and nobody really wanted to mess with them and piss off them and in turn Rune.


    When he was young Finn just stayed in his room, played video games, watched Youtube, and studied. He had a certain kind of studying hard and working hard grit, but not the tough-as-nails, streetwise can¡¯t hold me down sort of grit that Rune had. He flourished in the safe space right up until about fourth grade. Rune could still remember that whole fiasco very well¡­


    ~~~459 Years Previously~~~


    The screen outer door slammed open, and then after a brief second of waiting, something in the inner steel door beeped and it swung open. Rune swallowed the last of his curry flavored ration bar, watching out of the corner of his eye as a short shadow with a similarly short haircut laboriously shoved open the heavy door and then maneuvered it closed.


    ¡°Hey,¡± Rune said, ¡°Finn.¡± It couldn¡¯t be anyone else, not with that hairdo. ¡°What are you doing home? Did school get canceled or something?¡±Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Rune had skipped school to work that morning at a construction site. His shift had ended at 11:00, and he¡¯d come home to grab a meal and chill for a couple hours before he left for the local supermarket to work a cashier and earn another few digicoins. But while Rune had a pretty damn good reason not to be at school, there was absolutely no reason for Finn to be skipping.


    Finn just ignored him, stripping off his shoes and throwing them haphazardly on the floor before grabbing his backpack shoulder straps and running up the stairs.


    Rune frowned as he watched him run. ¡°Hey,¡± this time Rune was shouting, ¡°I asked you a goddamn question!¡±


    Thump-thump-thump went Finn¡¯s feet pounding up the stairs to the second floor of their five-room apartment, but no sounds coming out of his mouth. If anything, Rune frown steepened. Finn could be abrasive at times, but never anything like this. He was a quiet, respectful kid, more so than Rune, and he wouldn¡¯t just ignore him after coming home. Something was wrong.


    With a sigh, Rune set the datapad he¡¯d been watching Youtube videos down on the worn and torn couch next to him beside a stack of varied flavor ration bars. He then got up and walked past the faded photograph of his smiling grandparents hanging on the wall next to the stairway leading to the second floor, thumping his way up the stairs in slow pursuit of his younger brother.


    Frown still on his face, Rune walked down short, faded brown dilapidated corridor and entered the second room on the right, the small bedroom that he shared with the two twins. Rune stepped through the door and sat down on the bed next to Finn who was sitting there on the bed, his fists balled and face scrunched up in anger.


    Rune took in the sight of him, bruises on his face, a black eye, scuffed skin on his knees, and cuts on his elbows. Nothing on his knuckles. Someone had beat the shit out of him, and it had been a mostly one-sided affair. Rune¡¯s frown deepened. Anyone who beat the shit out of his kid brother either had balls of steel or shit for brains.


    Rune cleared his throat. ¡°Who did this to you.¡± His voice was flat. Harsh.


    Finn looked away, pursing his lips. He shrugged. ¡°No-one.¡±


    Rune scoffed. ¡°Is that what you told your teachers before you skipped class? You had a hot date with the stairwell? Don¡¯t give me that bullshit. Someone beat the shit out of you. Tell me who. Nobody beats up a Yahui and gets away without a few bruises of their own.¡±


    Finn snorted. ¡°Easy for you to say. You¡¯re good at beating people up. And what if I don¡¯t want you to beat him up, huh?¡± Finn turned to look Rune in the eyes. ¡°What if I wanna do it myself, huh?¡±


    Rune arched an eyebrow and gave Finn a slow, critical once-over before finally speaking with some disbelief, ¡°Kiddo, you¡¯ve got no muscles on your arms and I bet you couldn¡¯t even run half a mile before collapsing. You couldn¡¯t beat up a rabbit, let alone whoever did this to you.¡± Rune paused, his voice turning serious ¡°You should probably let me take care of it, kid.¡±


    Finn did the sideways glance thing again. Rune frowned. ¡°What is it?¡± He asked, slightly confused and annoyed.


    Finn let out a sigh, and in a petulant voice said, ¡°It was Harry Westman.¡±


    Rune put his hands behind him in the bed, looking up at the ceiling and thinking. Harry Westman. Westman. Rune didn¡¯t know Harry Westman, but he sure knew his older brother, Clive. He ran with the gang kids, in particular, the ones that ran drugs through the school. Clive, in particular, wasn¡¯t really high on the totem pole, but he wasn¡¯t really at the bottom either, somewhere in the middle, a small-time locker room peddler.


    Rune stared at Finn for a second, considering. Whether he could talk to Clive and deal with the problem that way entirely hinged upon one thing; ¡°Finn, what the hell did you do to him to get him to beat the shit out of you?¡±


    Finn pouted for a second, his little legs unable to reach the floor as he swung them back and forth through the air. ¡°I dunno.¡±


    Rune¡¯s eyebrows went up. He knew that response. It was the ¡®I fucked up and don¡¯t want to admit it¡¯ response. ¡°Kid,¡± Rune began, traces of frustration in his voice, ¡°you need to tell me what you did to piss him off.¡±


    Finn threw himself back into his bed. ¡°Alright! Fine.¡± A sulky look crossed his face. ¡°I saw him cheating so I told the teacher and he figured out it was me who ratted him out.¡±


    Rune let out a big sigh, frowning at Finn, who indignantly spoke before Rune could reprimand him. ¡°C¡¯mon, he was so bad at it too. Like the note sheet was in plain view on top of his backpack. There was no way the teacher wasn¡¯t gonna find out.¡±


    Rune fixed him with his sternest gaze. ¡°Then you should have let the teacher find out, not ratted him out. You don¡¯t fuck with the gang kids, Finn.¡± Finn opened his mouth to speak, likely in protest, but Rune cut him off with a growl before he could even get out a word. ¡°No buts, kid, I¡¯ve told you before a million times, you leave the gang kids alone.¡±


    He kept his eyes locked with Finn¡¯s who finally caved, looking away. ¡°Alright, so what do I do? Can you talk to his older brother or something, call him off?¡±


    Rune let out a sigh. The honest truth of it was that he probably could. The dumpster fire that would result from beating up Clive or his younger brother wasn¡¯t really an option, but he could probably talk him into telling his younger brother to lay off on Finn. But then he¡¯d end up owing Clive a big favor, and owing gang kids big favors never ended well. And besides, this was 100%, legitimately Finn¡¯s fault. Nobody liked a rat. Telling on another kid in the community was stupid, even if that kid was a dick. Finn had dug his own grave, and it was on him to get himself out of it.


    And besides, Finn was always getting coddled, shielded by his older brother¡¯s reputation and being academically the best out of all the siblings also the favored child of their parents, told he could do no wrong. No, Finn needed to learn that his actions had consequences and that sometimes he¡¯d need to take care of it himself.


    ¡°No, kid,¡± Rune said, ¡°you made this problem, so you need to take care of it.¡±


    ¡°Pfft,¡± Finn snorted, ¡°how the hell am I supposed to do that. I just play video games. I don¡¯t even know how to throw a punch. How the hell am I supposed to convince him to stop coming after me?¡±


    Rune shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know. You can give him your lunch money, suck up to him. Just avoiding him will work for a time. Or you can fight back, show him that you¡¯re not worth messing with.¡± He looked at Finn, a serious look on his face. ¡°And don¡¯t tell me that you can¡¯t fight, I know you. We¡¯re Yahuis. We can do anything that we set our minds to. Do you want to beat this kid? I can teach you how to throw a punch and how to take one, how to win. It isn¡¯t gonna be easy though kid.¡±


    Rune wasn¡¯t lying to Finn. If Finn was willing, he¡¯d teach him some basic fighting skills and help him get in shape. Right now Finn was all skin, bones, and blubber, with hardly a single muscle fiber on his scrawny arms after a lifetime mostly spent sitting in his room watching Youtube videos and playing video games. It wouldn¡¯t be an easy road, for sure, but it was definitely doable.


    A fist curled up and an angry voice rang out from the other prone form on the bed. ¡°I¡¯ll do it. Teach me. I¡¯ll beat the shit out of him.¡±


    A smile spread across Rune¡¯s face. ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s get started.¡±


    They quickly worked out a deal: Rune would teach Finn the basics of street fighting, and Finn would have to do all of Rune¡¯s chores for him while he taught him. First, they started with some basic fitness training. The first day they ran one mile through the less shady parts of New Southern Chicago, then two miles the next, all the way up till four. Rune ran with him, sometimes threatening him with canceling the training when he stopped, other times taunting him with insults. Rune also had him doing small sets of planks, pushups, pull-ups, and jumping jacks each day.


    After roughly two weeks of training, Rune decided it was finally time to teach Finn how to throw a punch. Together, the two brothers went down to the local gym, run by a retired pit fighter who Rune had always called old man Kahn. The place was in what was typically referred to as the fusion sector of New Southern Chicago, next to the fusion plants and also where the vast majority of fusion workers lived.


    Most fusion plant workers worked long hours and didn¡¯t have a lot of time or need for extracurricular muscle building exercises, and at 4:37 in the day, the place only had another four or five guys who ignored the two kids strolling in. Rune walked up to old man Kahn, nodded to him, and tapped his phone to the old man¡¯s already outstretched phone. Old man Kahn eyed the screen critically for a second, before a smile lit up his face and he spoke in a gravelly voice, ¡°Pleasure to see you around Rune, you should come by more.¡±


    Rune just smiled and shrugged, gesturing to Finn, ¡°Younger brother wanted to learn how to throw a punch, and I couldn¡¯t think of a better place.¡±


    Old man Kahn nodded, a gracious smile on his face, and he put his hand on Rune¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You¡¯re always welcome here kid. Come back more. Here, as a treat, you can have any of the back rooms you want.¡±


    Rune smiled appreciatively. ¡°Thanks, old man. I¡¯ll be sure to swing by some more. Life¡¯s just been hectic recently.¡± He gestured to Finn to follow him and started walking towards the back of the small, run-down fitness center.


    The pair entered a small room, and Rune took his phone out of his pocket and set them down on the floor in the corner. Watching him, Finn did the same, withdrawing his phone and a slew of writing implements. Rune walked to the middle of the room and spread his arms wide in an open stance.


    ¡°Alright,¡± he said, his voice full of confidence, ¡°come at me.¡±


    Finn frowned, and after a couple seconds of hesitation, drew back a fist, and ran across the room before throwing the punch a near half second before he actually reached Rune. Rune snorted in disdain, pushing his fist out of the way with one palm and backhanding him and sending him spinning to the ground with the other.


    ¡°Come on, kid,¡± he said, his voice full of scorn, ¡°what the hell was that lame ass punch supposed to be? Get up and try again.¡±


    Finn slowly collected himself, pulling himself up off the ground, a big frown on his face, his lips wavering.


    ¡°Come on.¡± Rune was almost shouting at him. ¡°Come at me! Don¡¯t be a chicken. You¡¯ve taken worse falls. I¡¯ve seen them.¡±


    Finn again ran at him, his arm cocked back. This time his punches came strong, but they were slow, sloppy, and uncoordinated. All Rune needed to do was back away to dodge them. After a couple wild misses, Rune grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and slammed him into the wall before letting him drop to the ground with a whimper.


    ¡°Owwwww,¡± moaned a hurt Finn, sitting on his knees facing the wall, ¡°I think you might have broken my nose.¡±


    Rune grabbed Finn¡¯s face, twisting it so that he could see Finn¡¯s face. His nose definitely wasn¡¯t broken. He snorted. ¡°Are you quitting now? I¡¯ve barely even roughed you up at all, kid. You want to head home?¡±


    Finn didn¡¯t respond.


    Rune shrugged. ¡°Alright kid. Either help yourself or get buried. He started walking towards the corner that his phone was in. I guess I¡¯ll have to tell Alicia that we¡¯re still on for tonight.¡±


    He was plugging numbers into his phone as he heard the soft sound of pounding feet on the ground behind him, sneaking a glance behind to see Finn running at him. He dropped his phone and his hand scraped across the ground before he spun and hurled a fistful of dust into the eyes of his younger brother, who shrieked and threw up his arms, first failing to block it and then scrubbing at his eyes.


    With a single long stride, Rune crossed the distance and shoved Finn hard, sending him stumbling back to fall on his ass, his head thunking off the dusty dirt floor.


    Rune walked up as Finn sat up, still scrubbing at his eyes, before yelling at him. ¡°You just going to sit there and take it, huh? You just gonna cry there and hand over your lunch money and then run home and cry some more? Or are you gonna get up and fight and show me who the hell you are?¡±


    A half second passed as Finn scrubbed at his eyes, and then he mumbled something. Rune cocked his head. ¡°What was that?¡±


    This time, Finn was shouting. ¡°I said fuck off.¡±


    He moved one hand back to glare at Rune, fire in his eyes before he tried to sucker punch Rune in the balls.


    Rune saw it coming, and the punch struck air as he stepped back. A smile was on his face, however. He knew that fire. It was the same fire that was driving him to try and get out of the slums. The fire that let him burn his way through problem after problem in school and the workplace. The fire that would let him attain ace rank in Whirl of Warplanes the next year. It was determination. It was grit.


    ¡°Alright,¡± Rune said, a grin on his face, ¡°I guess it¡¯s time to show you how to throw a punch.¡±


    For the next couple of weeks, Rune did his best to coaching Finn on some of the basics of fighting. How to throw a punch or a kick correctly and without breaking anything. How to deflect or block a punch. Some basic footwork and stances. Where to hit to take your enemy down. These weren¡¯t huge advantages, but in the world of clueless teenagers wildly throwing fists at each other, these small advantages could easily tip the balance.


    A few days after Rune finished showing Finn the basics of fighting, he came home with bruises on his knuckles, yet another black eye, and confidence in his posture. Rune didn¡¯t even need to ask who won the fight. He already knew.


    ~~~Back to the Current~~~


    Out of all of his siblings, Finn had been the only one that he¡¯d truly expected to be successful. He had the right combination of burning ambition and steel will that could really take people places. As Rune twisted and turned in his bed, trying to get to sleep, he imagined what Finn and Jade¡¯s lives might¡¯ve been like if he¡¯d been around. He wished he could¡¯ve been there with the rest of his family, to see them through turbulent times. Unfortunately, that ship had sailed long, long ago.


    All the life he¡¯d missed fresh in his mind from having just read about it, Rune tossed and turned for another couple hours before exhausted, he finally fell asleep.

 Chapter 13: Choosing a Path

    The next day, Rune awoke late, the time in his head reading 9:12. He wasn¡¯t totally sure of the exact time he¡¯d fallen asleep, but he was pretty sure he¡¯d gotten more than nine hours of sleep. He yawned, blearily swiping at his eyes, before climbing out of bed and commanding his bedroom to convert itself into a bathroom. It wasn¡¯t anywhere near as nice as the bathroom at the hotel, but nonetheless, having a private bathroom and shower at a school was gift horse he wasn¡¯t going to look in the mouth.


    After finishing showering, Rune sprayed a shout of mouth mist into his mouth, threw on some new clothes, and then went out to the Enclave proper, finding a place to sit down and do some watching of videos on the G-Web. He briefly entertaining the idea of trying to find his friends earlier, but he decided to just wait it out. After all, there were hundreds of years of history to catch up on that he¡¯d missed.


    A few hours passed on Rune watching videos of the great wars of the past before at 11:30 Rune finally decided he might as well head to the cafeteria and see if his friends weren¡¯t there. After the long walk between the two places, Rune finally arrived in the cafeteria to find that to his surprise both Teira and Harvey had already shown up, sitting at their own table off in one of the corners of the cafeteria.


    Rune leisurely strolled over before taking a seat next to Harvey, opposite to Teira who was sitting on the opposite side of the table. Both the occupants of the table were currently absorbed in their own digital projections, Teira assumedly watching some video as she absentmindedly stared at a projection, with Harvey giving the air the occasional swipe.


    Because she was sitting facing his direction, Teira noticed him first and waved as he walked over to sit down next to Harvey. Harvey glanced up in surprise, but as soon as he saw who it was he gave Rune a smile and a nod along with a, ¡°Hey man.¡±


    Rune smiled and nodded back, responding with a reciprocal, ¡°Hey man,¡± before sitting down at the table next to Harvey. Glancing around the table, he noted that Teira already had a finished meal in front of her, whereas Harvey had nothing in front of him. From what little time he¡¯d spent with Harvey, Rune knew he liked to eat, so he¡¯d most likely already eaten. They¡¯d been here a while.


    Rune cleared his throat. ¡°So anyway, you said you were going to help me pick some classes, right?¡±


    Teira nodded. ¡°Yup, that¡¯s what I said I was going to do, and I''ll gladly help you figure out it all out. There are a lot of courses you can choose, and it¡¯s really easy to get confused.¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡± Rune said, ¡°so how do I even get started.¡±


    ¡°Well first,¡± Teira said, her voice taking on a confident tone, ¡°You need to go to the TEF¡¯s G-Web page and through there access the student access portal.¡±


    Rune smirked. ¡°Well, maybe education hasn¡¯t changed so much as I thought since the twenty-second century.¡±


    ¡°Pfft,¡± Teira said, waving her in a dismissive manner. ¡°Bureaucracies will always be bureaucracies. How else do you think people would do things? Students attending most educational facilities pick their own paths, and how else do you think they¡¯d have you choose?¡±


    Rune shrugged, thinking about it for a brief second, before saying, ¡°Huh, I dunno. I always expected that people would change things up somehow, make it easier, simpler.¡±


    Teira¡¯s eyes twinkled. ¡°What, you think us elitist bastards running the academies are going to make it easier for you plebeians to get a good education? Please.¡±


    Rune chuckled. ¡°Alright, I guess you got me there.¡±


    ¡°No, but in all seriousness,¡± Teira said, ¡°highborns like me run the vast majority of the academies, and the TEF is no exception. Academies like this serve to indoctrinate skilled people like yourself or Harvey and ultimately recruit them for one house or another. People who sign on with noble houses get distinct advantages. Less tuition to pay, an easier time navigating a convoluted situation, and what¡¯s an essentially guaranteed job after graduation provided they do decently. It¡¯s a pretty good deal.¡± She held up her hands as she looked across the table and caught Rune¡¯s expression, a placating smile on her face. ¡°Not that I¡¯m trying to recruit you. But,¡± she said, sticking up a finger, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be opposed to the idea.¡±


    Rune frowned, slowing shaking his head, about to vocally reject her, when a voice from his right chimed in. ¡°I¡¯d absolutely love to if you¡¯ll have me.¡±


    Rune glanced to his right to see Harvey pushing up his glasses, an uncharacteristically confident look on his face. ¡°For someone without any formal training, a forty-five is pretty damn good, and you know it. I¡¯m going to spec into advanced stellar weapons systems controls. On the condition that you¡¯ll provide me with training resources, I¡¯ll sign on as your first systems tuner for a decade, no charge. As insurance, if I haven¡¯t gotten a sixty-five by next year, an eighty-five by the year after that, and a one-hundred by the third year, you can cancel the deal. Besides, most of the expensive shit won¡¯t be needed till halfway through the second or third year.¡±


    Teira crossed her arms, a small smirk on her face. ¡°Somebody clearly did their homework.¡± After a couple seconds of an intense staredown, she shrugged, relaxing a little. ¡°It¡¯s not a bad deal. I might need to make an adjustment here and there. I¡¯ll draft up a contract, run it by my dad. We should be able to work something out though.¡± She shrugged, then smirked. ¡°Besides, I don¡¯t mind doing favors for my friends.¡±


    Rune glanced between the pair, slightly flabbergasted, events passing by too fast for him to quite keep track of. ¡°Wait a minute,¡± he said, disbelief creeping into his voice, ¡°did you just become her flunky? How long did that take you? An hour or two of knowing her?¡±


    Harvey just shrugged, a smirk on his face. ¡°Hey man, you snooze you lose.¡±


    ¡°B-but¡­¡± Rune spluttered the words out. ¡°That¡¯s like, what, a decade of your life? That¡¯s a lot of time to just sign away so quickly.¡±


    Harvey just shrugged again, that same smug smirk on his face. ¡°Man, you snooze, you lose. I gotta take all the opportunities that come my way. Steel slinkers like me get one shot, fail once and it¡¯s all over. At least you got the pits, worst case scenario.¡±


    Rune frowned. The pits? Whatever. ¡°Huh,¡± Rune said, some amount of skepticism in his voice, ¡°I still can¡¯t imagine signing myself away like that. I want to find my path for myself, you know what I mean?¡±


    Harvey just shrugged. ¡°My road is set in stone. Either I¡¯ll walk it, or I¡¯ll go nowhere.¡±


    Rune¡¯s eyebrows went up, but after a second or two of consideration they went back down and he shrugged. ¡°Huh. I guess¡­ I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s too early for me to have chosen my own path.¡±


    Teira let out a short bark from the other side of the table. ¡°Well, you¡¯re going to have to have chosen one by the end of today, at least for the rest of this year. And even then, restarting two or more years in is an incredibly stupid idea. Once you pick a path, there isn¡¯t a lot of going back. You train for five years, and you become very good at one thing. Take your pick and pick well, because you¡¯ll only get to pick one.¡±


    Rune frowned for a half second, then shrugged, letting a smile spread across his face. ¡°Well, hey, lucky thing that I have such a knowledgeable, intelligent teacher. I won¡¯t have to sign on to any sort of plan that forces me to join a mega-corporation, right?¡±


    Teira fixed him with her most serious look. ¡°No, you won¡¯t. You¡¯ll just have to be my slave for the rest of time.¡± A disgruntled expression came onto Rune¡¯s face and after a half-second Teira burst out laughing. ¡°Of course it¡¯s free, dumbass, you could find this information for free online with just a little bit of research.¡± She reached across the table, this time with a slightly more reassuring smile on her face. ¡°It¡¯s a favor, from a friend. No need to think into it any more than that.¡±


    Rune gave her a half smile and pulled up his holo-computer. He quickly got to the TEF¡¯s G-Web page and found the student portal. The link was very obvious, and he clicked through it to his student portal. There were a few more very obvious links, one leading to his scores, one to his classes, and one to his information. He went through the one to his classes and found another link leading him to the selection page.


    He went through that to find four more tabs that showed a selection of the courses he could choose. It turned out that there were a lot of courses. As in, over four-hundred total courses available to TEF students. The drop-down section of courses for those going into Harmonics was a full eighty-three courses long. There were a lot of options. Combat had a similarly large number of options, with a full ninety-two.


    Rune quickly scanned the list, reading the first five or so titles, before he threw his hands up, giving up. ¡°Alright,¡± Rune said, ¡°I need some help here Teira, how the hell am I supposed to make heads or tails of this. There are a ton of fucking courses.¡±


    Teira smirked. ¡°Well, it all depends on what you want to opt into. There are a bunch of different paths you can take. Do you want to fly starships? Do you want to fly drones? Do you want to do something safe, or are you the sort that lives on combat rushes? Do you want to make a million GCs a month, or do you not care about the pay? I think, though, that we¡¯ve already established that you don¡¯t want to work for a highborn house or some corporation.¡±


    Rune nodded absentmindedly and then sat there for a bit, frowning as he thought. ¡°I guess,¡± he started speaking hesitantly, ¡°I guess that I want to fly drones. I don¡¯t really care about the pay, as long as it¡¯s enough for me to get by on my own, you know? I¡¯m good with action. I¡¯m not against risking myself if I need to. Dangerous is fine, as long it¡¯s rewarding, you know?¡±


    Teira though for a second, then started speaking. ¡°So I guess you¡¯re probably going to mostly be going for soloist operations, as opposed to group combat. That actually narrows it down quite a bit. Coordinated drone operations are completely different from solo operations. Large coordinated drone operations tend to be far more focussed on cooperation between individuals, whereas solo operations tend to focus primarily on the skill of the pilot.


    ¡°For you, coordinated action is going to be mostly out of the picture. Unless you¡¯re working for a big corporation or highborn house, nobody is going to have the resources to equip and pilot more than a dozen or so drones.¡± She stared carefully at Rune for a couple seconds. ¡°You¡¯ve got a few choices. You could go mercenary, with a couple of different options. You can become a specialist, focussing on learning a few models and styles of drones particular. Or you can become a generalist, picking up several styles at the same time.


    ¡°Honestly, I¡¯d strongly recommend the generalist option. As a multiple integrator, it could really be beneficial to you in the future to be able to control an entire squadron of drones yourself that can cover each other''s weaknesses. Now don¡¯t get me wrong, it¡¯ll take a ton more work, but it¡¯s definitely doable.¡±


    Rune was nodding along. ¡°Yeah, I probably want to go more soloist, and being able to control multiple drones at the same time, it would definitely be smarter to learn to pilot multiple types of drones. Where does that leave me in terms of options?¡±


    ¡°With not many left, if I¡¯m being honest,¡± Teira said the words with a regretful expression on her face. ¡°In fact, that pretty much narrows down the pool to a couple course plans. Do you want to opt into any combat courses, or are you going to stick solely with Harmonics?¡± If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Rune thought for a minute before he nodded. Doing his job was important, but always getting shoved around while not in his drone would suck. ¡°I want to learn some basic infantry skills, if possible to work into my schedule.¡±


    Teira grimaced. ¡°Eh. I mean, it¡¯s doable, but between training to be a generalist and also learning basic Combat skills, you¡¯re going to be hard pressed for time.¡±


    Rune shrugged. It wasn¡¯t like he¡¯d had any significant amount of time to himself in the last four years of his living. ¡°I¡¯m used to it,¡± he said.


    Teira¡¯s eyebrows went up, and she gave him an assessing stare for a couple seconds before shrugging. ¡°Alright, whatever you say. You¡¯ll either make it or fail somewhere along the way. It¡¯s on you to make sure you don¡¯t overload yourself.¡±


    Rune smirked, a slight smile crawling up onto his face before he spoke with confidence. ¡°I¡¯ve got what it takes.¡±


    Teira just shrugged, a slight smile coming onto her face. ¡°We¡¯ll see, mister four neural linkages. We¡¯ll see.¡±


    A couple seconds of silence elapsed as the two stared each other down. Rune was the first to break the silence. ¡°So anyway, which courses should I pick, then?¡±


    Teira smiled, got up from her side of the bench, and walked around the table before sitting down next to Rune. A mental question from Paine sounded in Rune¡¯s mind as she sat down in the chair next to him.


    Teira Sheinfeld has requested the ability to view your projection without distortion. Would you like to allow her to view and manipulate your projection?


    Yes Paine, Rune mentally responded, I would like it if you could allow Teira to view and manipulate my mental projection.


    Teira somehow seemed to have realized that Rune had authorized her to view and manipulate his mental projection and quickly flicked through the list, highlighting six courses in the list for Harmonics and three in the list for combat. ¡°To balance your courses, I¡¯d recommend picking four of the six courses for Harmonics, and one of the three courses for Combat.¡±


    Rune frowned, quickly scrolling by and reading each of the titles for each of the different Harmonics classes. They were Basic Fighter Drone Combat Simulations, Basic Fighter Drone Offensive Strategics, Basic Spaceship Safety Protocols, Basic Fighter Drone Defensive Strategies, General Fighter Drone Systems Knowledge, and Basic Fighter Drone Maintenance and Regulation.


    It barely took a single read for Rune to figure what it was he¡¯d be learning. He checked off the marks next to Basic Fighter Drone Combat Simulations, Basic Fighter Drone Offensive Strategics, Basic Fighter Drone Defensive Strategies, and General Fighter Drone Systems Knowledge. The others sounded like they would be useful¡ªeven critical to his future success, but at the moment, Rune was looking for something more exciting.


    Teira, sitting beside him and watching him make his choices, smirked. ¡°You picked all the exciting ones,¡± she said, half judgmental, half amused. ¡°You¡¯re going to have to finish at least the standard level courses for the other two if you want to go solo, though.¡±


    He waved her away, a dismissive look on his face. ¡°Yeah, yeah, I get it. It¡¯s important stuff. I just want to do something exciting, make sure this is what I really want to do.¡± Without waiting for her response he scrolled down to the combat courses.


    Meanwhile, Teira shrugged. ¡°Whatever flies your frigate.¡±


    He quickly found the three that she¡¯d selected for him. Basic Extraterrestrial Combat Operations Training, Basic General Combat Training, and Basic Extraterrestrial Tactical Strike Trooper Training were the three options that she¡¯d highlighted for him. He was a little confused, though, because some of the other options seemed pretty appealing to him.


    ¡°Teira,¡± he stared, confusion evident in his voice, ¡°why wouldn¡¯t I instead opt for something like Basic Riflery Training, or Combat Simulation Classes?¡± Rune frowned. ¡°Both those classes sound like they could potentially be very useful to me, especially if I wanted to become something like a marksman.¡±


    Teira rolled her eyes at him. ¡°Look, if you want to become a marksman, then you should prioritize Combat as opposed to Harmonics. Becoming a skilled marksman takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication. It¡¯s not the sort of thing you learn half-assed while spending the majority of your time mastering another incredibly difficult skill¡ªit¡¯s the sort of thing you spend a career perfecting. The other courses you can pick up are made much, much more useful by picking up other Combat courses. If you just want to generally know what you¡¯re doing in a shootout in space, pick one of these because you won¡¯t have the time to master anything else.¡±


    Rune cocked his head as he listened, then nodded when she finished. It made sense. ¡°Alright,¡± he said, a little hesitant, ¡°I¡¯ll trust you.¡±


    Teira gave him an honest, wide smile. ¡°You won¡¯t regret it, I promise.¡±


    Rune glanced back to his holo-computer and between the three options. This decision didn¡¯t come quite as easily as it had with the Harmonics courses. With the Harmonics courses, the names were on the money, but with the Combat courses, he wasn¡¯t totally quite sure what the options entailed. After a second of search with his eyes, he found the more information box and clicked through it, opening a longer description for each of the courses.


    Basic Extraterrestrial Combat Operations Training seemed to focus on the usage of a variety of equipment used in breaching or repelling breaches in a station. It sounded useful, but Rune wasn¡¯t really sure if he¡¯d ever be raiding or helping defend a station and he moved on to the other two after reading the description.


    Basic General Combat Training was different, a hodgepodge of different types of training in a variety of different situations. The course touted itself as primarily infantry focused, giving trainees a wide variety of skills useful in a variety of settings. Planetary combat, extraplanetary combat, station combat, and even ship raiding would all be covered in the course. Rune liked to be self-sufficient and know what he was doing, so being able to cover himself in all fields was appealing. But even while the course strongly appealed to him, he decided to read the third¡¯s description and see if it wasn¡¯t something equally as appealing.


    It turned out it was. Basic Extraterrestrial Tactical Strike Trooper Training focused on training in a few very specific skills. In particular infantry combat on starships and offensive raiding equipment were the focus of Basic Extraterrestrial Tactical Strike Trooper Training. If Rune was going to be spending the vast majority of on starships doing, the skills from the course seemed like exactly the sort of skills he could one day need to survive.


    After a minute or so of deliberation Rune still found himself unable to choose between the two. Picking Basic Extraterrestrial Tactical Strike Trooper Training would allow him to polish skills that could be vital to him in the future. But Basic General Combat Training would allow him to pick up those same skills and master many more at the same time. Struck with indecision, Rune ultimately decided to ask Teira for her advice.


    ¡°So,¡± he said, leaning towards her, ¡°between General Combat Training and Tactical Strike Trooper Training, which do you think would be better?¡±


    Teira, who had been watching and waiting as Rune deliberated, was quick with a response. ¡°Well, I wouldn¡¯t quite say that one option is better than the other.¡± She paused for a second. ¡°They¡¯re both good options. That being said, Basic TST Combat Training is obviously the more specialized of the two. If you¡¯re going to be a drone pilot, depending upon what you do, it could even be considered a critical skill. If you want to do something like pirate hunting, for example, TST Training is definitely the better choice for you. If you¡¯re going to become a mercenary, however, doing odd jobs here and there, many times those jobs could take you down on to planets, and if you trained to be an Extraterrestrial TST, you might have absolutely no idea how to handle yourself properly. Weaponry, tactics, equipment, ROE, a lot of things change when you take it off planet.¡±


    Rune frowned, nodding thoughtfully. It was honestly a very tough decision. ¡°So,¡± just hypothetically, if I do decide to train as a TST as opposed to a General Combat, exactly what advantages will I have?¡±


    Teira nodded. ¡°Yeah, good question.¡± She thought for a moment. ¡°Well, aside from having nearly double the experience in space engagements of various types, Extraterrestrial TST training will actually certify you to join a boarding pod crew. As part of that, you¡¯ll get specialized high G endurance training and modifications. Completing the course will qualify you for some jobs you might not have otherwise qualified for. It will also clear the path for you to the Planetary TST training regimen, and you¡¯ll be able to start at the standard or even advanced levels if you can manage to test in. I guess it¡¯s feasible for you to finish Extraterrestrial TST training in four years, then spend your last training Planetary, leaving you with more knowledge and experience than what four years of general would teach you. That would be insanely hard work, though. I definitely wouldn¡¯t recommend it. You won¡¯t have much a life outside the TEF.¡±


    Rune shrugged. It wasn¡¯t like he had any sort of life outside the TEF, anyway. What would be very helpful to him would be if he could get an extra year or two of training. ¡°Is there any way I might be able to get an extra year or two in terms of training?¡±


    Teira frowned. ¡°Well, I mean, it¡¯s not impossible. You¡¯ll have to apply for it, and it¡¯s not all that likely it¡¯ll be granted. You have to be an exemplary student and have extremely high scores to boot. Thirty-four percent of students apply, but only five percent of them are admitted.¡±


    A voice chimed in from behind the trio. ¡°Already thinking of extending your time here at the TEF man? You¡¯ve got a rock for a brain if you want to stay in this hole for any longer than you need to.¡±


    Each of the three table¡¯s occupant¡¯s heads swiveled, to spot Jamis standing behind them with a cocky grin on his face. ¡°How''re everyone¡¯s mornings?¡± His eyes flickered over Rune¡¯s shoulder. ¡°And what¡¯s Rune doing that everyone¡¯s so interested in?¡±


    Jamis Specter has requested the ability to view your projection without distortion. Would you like to allow him to view and manipulate your projection?


    Yes Paine, Rune mentally responded, Let him have full access.


    After a half second Jamis¡¯ eyes focused on the holo-computer, and understanding dawned on his face. ¡°Ah. Picking your courses then.¡± He frowned as he saw the two highlighted courses on the screen. ¡°Extraterrestrial TST or General Combat? I thought you were going with Harmonics, not Combat?¡±


    Teira Rolled her eyes at him. ¡°He¡¯s going with Harmonics, you dummy, he just wants to pick up some Combat courses so he knows how to handle himself.¡±


    Jamis shot her a quick frown and opened his mouth, but closed it after a look at Rune¡¯s stern face, instead opting for a dismissive shrug. ¡°I mean, I guess. But if your choices are between TST or gen combat, TST every day of the slagging week.¡±


    He smirked. ¡°Gen combat is for a bunch of sissy newbs who have no idea how to fight and want it all, fast. Gen combat isn¡¯t for actually teaching soldiers how to fight, it¡¯s about teaching a bunch of idiots which end of a blaster spits out plasma. Real men sign up for TST training. Boarding pods, orbital drops, suit combat, you learn all the cool stuff in TST training. Gen combat isn¡¯t going to have a single career trooper in it. You want some real action? You should sign up for TST training.¡± He paused for a second and then shrugged. ¡°Besides, I¡¯m training to be a TST myself. I¡¯ll be in that class. Why not join in?¡±


    Teira had a frown on her face, and she seemed like she wanted to jump down Jamis¡¯ throat, but Rune spoke before she could. ¡°Alright man, I¡¯m sold.¡± He turned back to his computer, clicked the box to select the course, and then scrolled down to the bottom of the page to find the Submit Selections option. He clicked it and was instantly rerouted to a massive message reading, ¡®Thank you for your prompt selections.¡¯


    Teira opened her mouth as if to say something, giving Rune a slightly annoyed look, then thought better of it and shrugged. ¡°Whatever. Your frigate.¡±


    Rune nodded and glanced around at his friends. ¡°So anyway, you three going to select your courses then?¡±


    Jamis laughed. ¡°Man, I dunno about the other two but I picked out my courses earlier this morning. I figure that miss highborn know it all has picked her courses and Harvey¡¯s likely the same if he wants to become a tuner. Most people who don¡¯t already know what they¡¯re signing up for are clueless steel slinkers who got in off the loto or synths like yourself that couldn¡¯t tell the bridge of a starship from the engine room.¡±


    Rune went a little red and then shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± he said, slightly embarrassed, ¡°It¡¯s not my fault I was born in the 22nd century.¡±


    Jamis just laughed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, old man. I¡¯m not an ageist. Speaking of your lack of knowledge, have you been to Tetris town yet? You said you were just recently reintegrated.¡±


    Rune slowly shook his head. ¡°Maybe? I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t think so? I stayed in some hotel earlier.¡±


    A wide smile stretched its way across Jamis¡¯ face. ¡°Well, then, I guess I¡¯ll just have to show you around.¡± He glanced at Teira and Harvey. ¡°Whaddaya say, guys, show Rune around the town?¡±


    Teira frowned and nodded, while Harvey got out of his seat with a wide smile on his face. ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s go. We can hit up the arcade, too,¡± he said, clearly enthused.


    Rune threw his arms up in acceptance, also rising. ¡°Alright,¡± he said, ¡°sounds like a plan.¡±

 Chapter 14: On the Town

    Rune frowned and spoke loud above the hubbub as he looked out across the familiar crowd from his spot at a small table where he and his three friends sat, each sipping a drink. The shop itself was actually just down the street from the hotel, apparently one of the many buildings in the services section of Tetris town.


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve been here,¡± Rune began, ¡°but I didn¡¯t know it was called Tetris town. How did it get that nickname? Isn¡¯t Tetris some lame twentieth-century video game about like,¡± Rune paused to think for a moment, ¡°blocks? Or rectangles? Something like that.¡±


    Teira¡¯s laugh rang through the air. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s pretty much what Tetris is. The town is only made of squares and rectangles, and that¡¯s how it got its name. Nobody really would know anything about a game like that except for stone heads. Which would be the reason, obviously, why this town is named after some archaic game from whenever.¡±


    ¡°Hey,¡± Jamis interjected, ¡°Just because we respect our roots doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯re a bunch of psychos. We¡¯re not reversionists.¡±


    Teira rolled her eyes. ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯re not a bunch of backward, obsessive miners, though.¡±


    ¡°Oh you¡¯re one to talk, miss stick-up-your-ass I¡¯m better than everyone else highborn,¡± Jamis angrily retorted.


    Teira chuckled at him. ¡°Can¡¯t take a joke, now can you? Good at dishing out, but not so good at taking, huh?¡± She smirked at Jamis, who went a little red before frowning and crossing his arms.


    Rune, however, for once, wasn¡¯t paying any attention to their little spat, instead of looking out at the crowd with a confused face. ¡°What is that?¡± He asked, pointing confusedly at a very strange looking creature, almost like someone had mixed a slime, Lovecraftian nightmare, and spider to create some horrendous creature, and then somehow civilized it and gave it human tech.


    To start, the creature had way too many limbs, more than Rune could count. Its lanky, skinny, carapaced limbs extended in a black curtain three or four feet down from a bulbous body with a total of six thick, powerful looking four jointed arms extending out from the main body, three of which sported large claw-like protrusions. In between each of the arms, there were a series of five cylindrical spurs that were topped with strange, clear, interconnected caps that ultimately connected to some sort of massive belt contraption which went around the entire beast. On the top of the creature was a series of sacs which continually inflated and deflated, flaring purple at their maximum size and dying back down to black when they finally contracted.


    Rune couldn¡¯t find a mouth, nose, or eyes. Whatever this creature was, it was nothing like Rune had ever seen in his life. Either it was some sort of sick mad scientist¡¯s lab experiment, or it was an alien of some sort.


    Stuttering in awe, Rune spoke while pointing at the creature. ¡°Is¡ªis that an alien?¡±


    His three friends broke out laughing. Jamis was the first to catch a breath to speak. ¡°You sound like a kid after his first gram of paradise.¡±


    At this line, Teira doubled over. ¡°Oh my god, you are so right.¡± She kept laughing.


    Rune¡¯s face slowly went redder. ¡°What, so is it an alien, or not? What the hell guys?¡±


    After a minute his friends finally managed to stop laughing, and Jamis was finally able to explain to Rune. ¡°Yes, that one was an alien. A Terrulian. There aren¡¯t a lot of aliens, though, and most of them are nowhere near as technologically advanced as mankind. Only three races have been deemed advanced enough to be integrated into society, the rest we¡¯ve just left alone on their planets to keep growing.¡± He frowned then. ¡°Well, at least, for the most part, we have.¡±


    Rune quirked an eyebrow at that, about to ask more, but Teira interjected with her own two cents. ¡°I¡¯d be careful, though, Rune. You don¡¯t just want to go around calling anyone and everyone that doesn¡¯t look totally human an alien. There are a lot of cyborgs, bi-augs, synths, and even some spliced around. And for many people, getting called an alien is pretty offensive. So unless it looks definitely not human, I¡¯d assume it¡¯s one of the other groups.¡±


    Rune frowned and nodded, looking back out across the crowd. ¡°Alright, sounds fair enough. Don¡¯t go around assuming that people are aliens because that can be offensive. Still, though, there are aliens? How the hell did that happen? Where did they come from? Don¡¯t any of them have starships or anything?¡±


    Teira outright laughed at his questions. ¡°Well, I mean, there aren¡¯t aliens like you know aliens, nothing like what you might find in any of the many sci-fi flicks of the past several centuries. Aliens simply haven¡¯t developed that far. We know because of colonization. With our current tech, we¡¯re looking at two thousand or maybe even one thousand years before the entire galaxy is colonized. It¡¯s an exponential process. Every system colonized in turn colonizes more systems, and they¡¯re all interconnected. After a few hundred years a single system may send new seed ships to ten, twelve, hell, even sometimes up to twenty systems depending upon how many resources a given system has. If there are any aliens out there in our galaxy, they¡¯re either technologically at approximately the same stage as us or significantly less advanced.


    ¡°All the races discovered so far have been the latter. Honestly, there¡¯s a large percentage of the population that doesn¡¯t think they should¡¯ve been assimilated at all. Calling them technologically less advanced is kind of like saying that a sea cucumber has fewer arms than a human. Only the Fasteans have any sort of technology, and by technology, I mean crude tools. It¡¯s hard to tell how long, exactly, but it could¡¯ve been millions of years before they got anywhere near as technologically advanced as us if they even got more intelligent.¡±


    Rune frowned at that. ¡°Are they a lot dumber than humans then?¡±


    At this, Harvey spoke up. ¡°Yeah, I would prolly say that most aliens aren¡¯t that smart. If I remember correctly from classes I¡¯m pretty sure that even after extensive biological augmentation the most intelligent aliens only had about 90 IQ. Pretty dumb, for a genius, you know?¡±


    Rune frowned again because he didn¡¯t really know a lot about IQ. ¡°I actually don¡¯t really know. Is 90 a low IQ? I don¡¯t really know how the scale works.¡±


    At that, Jamis chuckled. ¡°Well, you probably should know. If you go in for a job evaluation, they¡¯ll test your IQ and a whole bunch of other random shit. But yeah, as for your question, 90 is pretty damn low, especially for nowadays. Most people genetically edit their kids in an attempt to make them smarter, and the average nowadays is supposed to be about 120.¡±


    Teira smirked at him. ¡°Well, your parents obviously chose not to give you that boost.¡±


    Jamis just snorted and waved her off. ¡°Oh, can it, miss I¡¯m way richer than anyone else. I¡¯ll bet your parents gave you the whole package, with all the newest and freshest IQ enhancements and physique upgrades. And even with all that, I¡¯m still better looking and smarter than you.¡±


    Teira smiled, this time slightly wider. ¡°Touche,¡± she responded.


    ¡°So anyway,¡± Rune interjected before they could get back to dissing each other, ¡°That guy right there, who looks like a pro bodybuilder who sprouted an extra two arms. What¡¯s his deal? Is he a mutant?¡± It was a big, four-armed humanoid, similar to the man that had bumped into Rune and knocked him out of the way on his first day.


    Teira quickly responded. ¡°Mutant he may be, but the more correct term would be biologically augmented, or as everyone ever calls them, bi-augs.¡± She snickered. ¡°There are a bunch of bi-aug groups around town, but those guys are by far one of the biggest. They call themselves the Fourmidables.¡±


    Rune raised an eyebrow, the question obvious on his face.


    ¡°Like, as in, four-midables,¡± this time Teira enunciated each of the two halves of the word.


    One of Rune¡¯s eyebrows went up as a smirk crept its way onto his face before he facepalmed himself. ¡°Oh my god,¡± he chuckled, half in pain and half in amusement. ¡°That has got to be the worst pun I¡¯ve ever heard.¡±


    Jamis broke in, with a surprisingly serious tone of voice. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t underestimate them though, or give them shit. That¡¯s how you end up getting fucked up. As ridiculously stupid as their name is, the Fourmidables run the largest gang on Terrassis, and,¡± Jamis looked around nervously, leaning into the table and closer to his friends, ¡°rumor on the street is that they¡¯re in bed with the pirates.¡±


    Teira frowned at Jamis. ¡°Really? Are you sure about that? The Fourmidables run a sizeable part of station security. There haven¡¯t been any sizeable station raids in the past year. I¡¯d expect that there would be at least a few, especially if there are guys on the inside.¡±


    Jamis just shrugged, holding up his hands in placating manner. ¡°Just what I¡¯ve heard, the word on the street. I don¡¯t know the specifics. Haven¡¯t really been in with that crowd in a long while, not since I applied to the TEF and got in. Still, though, I know some people, and they¡¯re out here in the tunnels. They hear things. And the word is that the Fourmidables are going up in the world, far faster than regular station security would. Could be a black deal with pirates, could just be that they found a couple large resource nodes. But guys like that never seemed big on mining, and everyone¡¯s heard about those hits on freighters.¡±


    A troubled look was on Teira¡¯s face as she stared down into her drink. She shrugged. ¡°Huh. I don¡¯t know. I guess I might talk to my dad, then. Good to let him know.¡±


    A sort of awkward silence came over the group for a few seconds, the seriousness of the prior conversation stalling any talk.


    Eventually, Teira broke the silence. ¡°Have you been to the starport, Rune?¡±


    Rune shook his head. ¡°No, I¡¯ve barely been anywhere. All I¡¯ve seen in Tetris town is the hotel and this shop. What¡¯s in the starport, anyway?¡±


    Teira shrugged. ¡°Well, it¡¯s called the starport, but there¡¯s a huge open market there where traveling merchants, miners, and even megacorps coming from all over the galaxy hawk their wares. You can buy pretty much anything there if you look hard enough. Starships, drones, shimmer, paradise, you name it, you can probably find it, or at least find someone who knows where you can get it.¡±Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Harvey chimed in. ¡°Yeah, there are actually a few things I want to pick up there. Now that I¡¯m confirmed to tuning I should probably pick up some basic gear.¡±


    Rune shrugged. ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s go check it out, then.¡± The quad of friends got up, Jamis and Teira taking the lead with Rune and Harvey following behind as they pushed their way through the crowd of people, drinks clutched in hand.


    Rune frowned. ¡°What¡¯s this paradise thing you guys keep bringing up? Some sort of drug? Does that even work on a synth like me?¡±


    Jamis snorted. ¡°Of course it works on a synth like you. Synths are mostly biological, man. Something like half of you, or a third of you is flesh, blood, and organ. Some parts have been replaced or removed to make your function more optimal, but life for you is mostly what life would be like for a normal human. You still need to use the bathroom, and you still need to eat things and sleep from time to time.¡±


    Rune recoiled a little bit. ¡°Wait, do I not need to sleep or eat as much?¡±


    Jamis looked at him like he was an idiot. ¡°Yeah, you don¡¯t need to sleep or eat as much. I don¡¯t remember what the numbers are, exactly, but I know that you can go for days without needing to eat anything and also go for a few days without sleep and still be fine.¡±


    ¡°Ehhh,¡± Teira said, ¡°not quite. I mean, not totally wrong, but also not totally right either. Rune here can probably only go for a day without food and a night or two without sleep before he starts feeling the effects like a regular human. If he wants to boost his ability, he¡¯d need to increase his vitality. What you¡¯re talking about is when a synth gets to one hundred or so vitality. I don¡¯t think that Rune is anywhere near there, or, at least, I wouldn¡¯t expect that he is.¡±


    Jamis just shrugged. "All I''ve heard are stories. But of course, you know everything, don''t you rich girl."


    Teira rolled her eyes. "Anyone could figure that out with a single G-Web search. It''s not my fault you can''t even use your own interface."


    Jamis shrugged and smirked. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m a simple Combat trainee. Spent all my time learning actual, applicable combat skills and staying in shape, as opposed to wasting it searching the G-Web for the most boring and useless information.¡±


    Teira scoffed. ¡°It won¡¯t seem so boring and useless once you¡¯re working with synths in your unit and fighting those in your enemy¡¯s.¡±


    Jamis just shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ll learn it then. All good.¡±


    Teira smirked. ¡°Might be a good idea to learn about your enemy before facing them. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. It¡¯s an age-old proverb, soldier boy, and you should probably follow it if you plan to make that your career.¡±


    Jamis seemed about ready to retort but Rune spoke before he could say anything, pointing at a figure in the crowd. ¡°So, is that one of those spliced guys you were talking about earlier?¡± The figure that he was specifically pointing at seemed to be some strange hybrid of Freddy Krueger and the Alien from Alien. It had long claws, and most of its body was covered in a sleek black carapace. Its heavily muscled arms were elongated with four joints as opposed to three. A decent length, presumably prehensile tail stretched from its behind. It lacked sexual organs of any kind that Rune could see. The only part that looked even remotely human was the face, and even that looked something like an orc¡¯s from a swords and sorcery sort of game or movie, with small dangerous looking tusks coming out of the jaws and arcing up.


    Teira shook her head. ¡°No, that isn¡¯t one of the spliced. That¡¯s just another bi-aug. That¡¯s a Shadow. They don¡¯t have a significant force in this town like the Fourmidables, but they¡¯re a much more powerful force overall. For the most part, they¡¯re assassins. They¡¯re extremely fast, have insane reflexes and strength, and can kill unarmed people in the blink of an eye. They also occasionally serve as foot soldiers or scouts in the army. They¡¯re widely spread, and they have a lot of respect from people in the UIS.¡±


    Rune watched the bi-aug pass, a curious look on his face, averting his eyes when the Shadow¡¯s eyes passed over him. ¡°Huh,¡± he said contemplatively, ¡°they look dangerous.¡±


    Teira snorted. ¡°That¡¯s because they are.¡±


    Rune nodded, and the quad kept walking forwards through the crowd. Eventually, the crowds thinned out and a different style of building replaced the vibrant, flashy and colorful section they had just been in. Now the walls they walked by were dark and drab, featuring steel and even some roughly hewn stone in a few places. Adverts occupied the lower sections of the walls whereas graffiti was painted festively across the highest sections of the walls defining various buildings. The bustling crowds of vibrant people wearing all manner of clothing had disappeared, and in their place men and women wearing fatigues and uniforms of several different makes, logos emblazoned across their chests or arms.


    ¡°Are we out of Tetris town, now? Is this some kind of military sector or something?¡± Rune asked the questions as the group walked through the steel corridors, wanting to know more about his new home and where he might be able to find things in the future.


    Harvey was the one who responded. ¡°No, this is actually still part of Tetris town.¡± He paused for a second as if debating whether to continue, before actually doing so. ¡°Tetris town is super organized and also where most of the money is. Up in the northwest, you¡¯ve got the guild and the mines, and right below that, you¡¯ve got the residential district. It¡¯s pretty big, and it takes up about a third of Tetris town. In between north and south and stretching from east to west you¡¯ve got the service sector. Vendors, mercenaries, recruiters, hotels, you can find a lot in the service sector. When you have money, that¡¯s where you go to hang, you know?


    ¡°What we¡¯re walking through right now is called the industrial sector. Honestly, though, while they call it that, it¡¯s also the military sector. A ton of Combat trainees go there after graduating and sign on to serve in the UIS military for a decade or two. Nobody really comes here unless they¡¯re going to the Starport or something happened to them. Just so you know, this is the Southeastern section of Tetris town. And in the last quad is the commercial sector. That¡¯s where most of the bigger corps are set up, and also where a lot of the bigger tech deals go down. People don¡¯t really head there unless they¡¯re doing big business, or again, if they¡¯re going to the Starport. That¡¯s just Tetris town, though. There¡¯s also the Dungeon, the Deep Side, and the Warrens. The Warrens doesn¡¯t really count, though, I guess.¡±


    Rune frowned. ¡°The dungeon and the Deep Side?¡± Rune pulled up the map of the town. ¡°Are these specific places? So Tetris town is this big cluster in the middle. So I assume residential is up at the top with service, commercial, and industrial below them.¡±


    Harvey frowned, and a half second later Rune received a mental query from Paine. Harvey Dorlan has requested the ability to view your projection without distortion. Would you like to allow him to view and manipulate your projection?


    Yes Paine, Rune mentally responded, Let Harvey view and manipulate my projection.


    Once Harvey could see sections of the map, he pointed to the different sections, naming them and causing them to light up in different colors with their respective labels. The Dungeon was the large section to the east of Tetris Town, and The Deep Side was the cluster of tunnels to the west of Tetris town, with the Warrens being a sprawling network of tunnels slightly further east than the Deep Side.


    ¡°So,¡± Rune began hesitantly, ¡°what¡¯s the difference between all these different parts of Terrassis? Does everyone live in the residential district? It doesn¡¯t seem big enough to hold, what, eight-hundred thousand people?¡±


    Jamis shook his head. ¡°Most people don¡¯t live in Tetris Town¡¯s residential district. The vast majority of people here on Terrassis live in The Deep Side. It¡¯s pretty much the slums of Terrassis. Buildings go much higher, and as many people cram into them as they can fit. A good three-quarters of the population of Terrassis lives in The Deep Side.¡± He frowned, then shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve lived in The Deep Side most of my life. Only the richer upper middle class can afford to live in residential. A few super-rich own massive mansion complexes over in The Dungeon. I¡¯d figure that there¡¯s a Sheinfeld house somewhere over there.¡± He looked fiercely at Teira as he spoke, almost daring her to make a comment.


    She just shrugged. ¡°Of course we do.¡±


    Jamis looked like he wanted to comment, but decided against it. The conversation died off, and they walked on in silence for another while before Jamis and Teira finally led them to an especially large set of sliding steel blast doors. A number of people in fatigues who seemed to be industrial sector workers were clogging the corridor, and some of the more vibrantly and exotically dressed Terrassis citizens were also pushing through the crowd, in one direction or the other. Rune and company joined the crowd, moving with the mass of bodies flowing through the large doors.


    Eventually, they managed to get through the doors, and Rune and his friends spilled into a crowded room. Aside from a few service desks and buildings built into the walls, Rune didn¡¯t really see anything too impressive.


    He frowned and spoke loudly to be heard over the hubbub of people walking around. ¡°Is this supposed to be the market? It¡¯s not really¡­ what I expected.¡±


    Teira snorted. ¡°If this was the market, we wouldn¡¯t have bothered coming at all. No, this section of the starport mostly holds larger starships, namely the larger frigates and haulers. You can see them through the viewport up there.¡±


    Now that he was looking for it, Rune realized that the farthest section of the room was a massive glass panel. He could only see the roof over the top of the crowd, but he assumed that somewhere below there were starships. ¡°Hell yes,¡± he said, rather excited, ¡°I want to see some starships,¡± Rune said. Not waiting for his friends, he started weaving his way through the crowd, heading towards the glass panel so that he could get a good view.


    Saying that it was like a scene out of a sci-fi movie would not have done it justice. The starships were larger than life, both literally and figuratively. By Rune¡¯s approximation the massive ships were at least one-thousand feet long, likely more. There were a total of four in the bay, taking up nearly all the room available, arranged in a square pattern.


    Massive, shimmering swarms of what were assumedly nanomachines swarmed through the air, occasionally passing over the hull of a ship, leaving behind a structure different from what had originally been there. Mechanized workers dotted the shipyards here and there, moving crates or miscellaneous technology. And massive robotic arms extended from the walls, floor, and ceilings in places, some laying dormant, others active in a whir of machinery, making minute adjustments here and there on the starships.


    Coming out of one of the ships was a long line of what looked like people. They were at quite the distance so it was difficult for Rune to tell.


    An appreciative whistle came from next to him. Rune turned to see Teira standing next to him, an impressed look on her face. ¡°You probably don¡¯t know much about starships, but that one furthest from us on the right?¡± Rune nodded. ¡°That starship is a Javelin class corvette. Produced by Grey Duck industries. That model of starship is owned exclusively by the MET, and they don¡¯t come here a lot. They must¡¯ve just gotten in, or I¡¯d have known about it. This is pretty big news, there aren¡¯t a lot of MET ships flying around in UIS space.¡±


    Rune arched an eyebrow but said nothing. Maybe he¡¯d investigate later.


    For the next few minutes, the group of friends stared at the starships as Teira and Harvey explained the classes, purposes, and affiliations of the various ships currently docked. Two of the rest of the three ships were merchant ships, one carrying drones and spaceship parts with the other luxury commodities. The one carrying munitions, owned by Chikara Industries, was being escorted by the fourth ship in the hangar, a lightly armored gunboat.


    Once Teira and Harvey had finished their explanation, the group simply stood in silence and watched the small people at the other end of the hangar unload the Javelin Class Corvette. After a minute or so Jamis announced his boredom, and the group moved on. After a short walk alongside the glass pane overlooking the hangar, the quad reached a steel corridor and turned onto it.


    Inside the corridor, there were even more of the colorfully and artistically garbed people Rune might¡¯ve expected to see in Tetris town, and less of the people wearing what Rune assumed were workers clothes.


    After a minute or so of walking Rune and his friends finally passed out of the corridor and into the market. The market was like nothing Rune had ever seen or imagined before. All the stalls were interconnected, forming one massive superstructure that spanned the entire room. Glowing swarms of nanites, floating lights of all colors and sizes, and glowing signs and wares of all manner of inscriptions and functions decorated the various buildings. Styles from all eras were featured in the various building of the market, in one place a Victorian staircase leading up a level, in another place what looked like a ramp constructed out of bamboo shafts, and in yet another place a futuristic, glowing tile with rails floating up through the air towards the second level.


    Rune gawked in wonder for a second, taking in the sight before his friends finally pulled him forwards into the market.

 Update

    Hey, decided I should make a final post instead of just disappearing. It has been a while since I last posted a chapter, and one won''t be coming for quite a while. There are a lot of excuses I could cite. I just started college for engineering, and it''s a lot of stress and work, more than I expected. I''ve also had more personal responsibilities to manage and tried to put more work into maintaining a social life. But I still have free time to screw around. I could use that time to write, and I don''t.


    I''ve been having difficulty getting motivated. When I first started writing I didn''t really understand how difficult it would be to finish a story, really see it all the way to its end. I hammered out the first 200 pages of TBoHL and then realized that the story wasn''t going anywhere, just towards some dead-end meanless MC kills the final boss sort of ending. A similar thing happened with Consciousness Unbound. I haven''t done enough planning, or enough thinking about the story to really make it good. And while vanity makes me wish the story had a higher rating, if I were to rate it myself I''d give it at best 3.5, and honestly, that''s being generous. I might not even read it myself. I want to go back, revise, edit, plan and think more, and take my time to write a truly good story. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    So I guess that brings me to my next point. I''m going to quit Royal Road for a while. I''m not going to start publishing some half-baked epic with no endpoint in sight, as I''ve tried and failed twice. Instead, I''m going to plan, write, revise, and really take my time to make a complete story before I publish here. And yes, if you think you''re misinterpreting, that means I''m going to write the entire story before I publish it here. I might not be back for years.


    If you''ve stuck with me for this long and are still checking this, thank you. I feel like I owe it to anyone that actually read my works to publish this. I''m sorry for not being able to deliver this story to you on a weekly basis. But while it may not be done any time soon I promised I would write it and someday I will post it on this website.