The marshal's screen showed a very intense face. A man over fifty years old, black skin and a very square and scared face, with short black hair. Aiden used to think Pardalis looked bad, but this man seemed about to attack someone.
“I'm sorry, General Sorom, what subject do you want to deal with?”, ask Laserfield.
The answering voice was as rough as his appearance.
“It's those Chaos Agents! They stole six more ships yesterday, one of them from the police! We have to cut this evil off soon.”
Unfortunately, the boy had to keep walking or knew he would take a scolding of Pardalis. When he entered the elevator, the general spoke as if he were reading the boy's mind.
“When you're ready, you'll be aware of all the problems in this country, but there's a lot of ground ahead.”
They went back to the ground floor, in a large lobby with closets and corridors that Aiden could hardly imagine where they would lead.
“I have more important things to do than show the barracks to a recruit, I will call your roommate for the tour. If you have any questions, take it with anyone other than me.”
At the end of the sentence, he retired again to the elevator and the boy was left alone waiting for his supposed roommate.
He had seen a lot of people go by. Tired men coming back from training, some others in administrative uniform, a couple of very serious women. Over time, the boy began to get nervous, he was alone in an unknown place and did not even know the name of his colleague. At least he deduced that no one knew he was the chosen one, since he didn't get any strange looks.
While distracted, someone touched his shoulder and he jumped with the scare.
“Relax there, buddy, I'm here to help you.”
He turned around and saw an 18-year-old. He was much taller than Aiden and could see his muscles underneath a white blouse. His slightly orange hair was cut like a Mohican and had an infectious smile on his face.
“My name is Dom! I mean, I'm Private Dommerick Rammer”, he said he was imitating a serious voice “but everyone around here calls me Dom.”
While Aiden greeted him, he tried to introduce himself; however, before he could, Dom interrupted him.
“Aiden MacCoy, the chosen one.”
The soldier examined Aiden and show disappointment.
“Yes, there's a lot to work with here, but we can work it out. Follow me.”
He took the boy off the base, where he showed the various training camps and some sports courts.
“Most of the training takes place here, but there is nothing special to show, just prepare for what you will have to face daily here.”
Aiden wasn't out of shape, but he wasn't an athlete and those courses seemed ridiculously difficult.
“On the ground floor we have the refectory and some showers for those who have just returned from training”, said Dom while guiding the boy to the elevator again. “Let me think... From the seventh floor up is just for the big guys, but you're "the chosen one", so you might have to go there someday. First floor is our arsenal and has a shooting training range as well; sometimes we train here within the same base.”
As soon as you got on the elevator, he pressed the button to the fifth floor.
“The fifth is our room. Never get in the sixth: it's the girls' and the policy of not mixing here is serious. The second floor is a gym with some fighting rings, another place you will spend a lot of time. That’s where we learn martial arts and things like that. The third floor is the infirmary, apparently you will also go there a lot...”, he stopped and think “The fourth floor should have nothing big, because I do not remember him.”
He guided the rookie through fifth-floor hallways. There were several paths leading to large dormitories with a series of bunk beds. They arrived at a very distant door, with more beds and young soldiers talking.
“And here is our room. You're going to stay in my bunk.”
Aiden looked confused at the amount of people as he went to his new bed.
“I thought you were my roommate...”
“And I am, as all these guys are, or you thought you were going to have a special room for "chosen"?”
He spoke the word in a tone of disdain, then opened a mischievous smile.
“Speaking of which...”, he turned to his other colleagues and spoke loudly. “Hey guys, this here is the chosen one who came from the farm. Let's welcome him.”
Aiden was extremely uncomfortable with the announcement. Dommerick looked at him maliciously.
He heard the other soldiers commenting, "How short is it," "This weak is the chosen one?", "He won't survive three days here."
Then Dommerick pushed Aiden into the bottom bed and spoke softly.
“Welcome to hell.”
Training
The boy had been waiting to be awake early but was surprised to see that it was Evelin who woke him up.
“What are you doing here? It's the boys' room”, he said still with blurry vision.
She rolled her eyes before giving her answer.
“Come on, MacCoy, you've got a long day ahead of you.”
No time was allowed for him to change and ended up following the girl in his pajamas, a white blouse and light shorts provided by the army. He observed that all his roommates were still asleep and saw on a clock on top of the door that pointed to 5 a.m.
“What are we going to do?”, asked Aiden “Dom said that training only eats at six o'clock.”
“Laserfield wants me to teach you some basics first. Apparently, he expects us to create some kind of bond or something.”
She took him to the first floor that was completely empty. In the environment, there were several shelves with weapons, technological gray discs and some explosives, however all items were trapped behind glass screens with passwords. He also noticed some blue armors with rockets embedded in his back and was very curious about how they worked.
On
