Chapter One: Joining Up

”Attention all new recruits: Please report to the MPR in ten minutes time for a scheduled briefing by the High Colonel. Everyone else, help out those that can’t find their way and proceed to your training stations. That is all.”

Boris Terzos had just joined the Bollwerk military yesterday, and already he was stationed at some large training base. The base looked like nothing more than a very large dome on the outside. But on the inside, it looked like hell with a space shuttle in the center of it all. Pretty much every building was pushed to the edge of the dome, the one exception being the two story MPR/control center only a few meters from the base of the shuttle. The top floor was the control center, which for the most part always seemed empty. It looks like a little shack compared to the rather large MPR, but that was understandable considering the many purposes the MPR fulfilled. It was the conference hall, the cafeteria, the meeting area, whatever was needed. According to the announcements, the MPR was to be a conference hall in about ten minutes. Boris headed in that direction when he was confronted by a group of people.

“Well, well, well,” said the man in the middle of the group, who was stepping closer to Boris. “Looks like we have some fresh meat for the grinder. Oh, and what’s this? He’s a Third!” the man jabbed his finger into Boris’ chest, making Boris take a few steps back. He had forgotten he was given a ‘special’ outfit, made especially for Thirds. The only real difference the Third outfit had from all others was the large triangle in the chest area, donning the name ‘The Triangle of Shame’. “Well, Third, you gonna just stand there? You need to get to the MPR, don’t you?” Everyone behind the man was laughing and doing their best impressions of what Thirds do, while standing in place. The man lifted his left arm and pointed at the group. They all went silent. He then used the same hand to make a sort of gesture towards the group. The group parted to make a path Boris could walk through. “Well, go on ahead, Third.”
Boris began walking towards the hole in the group. When he was just past everyone, they all grabbed him and lifted him up off the ground. They carried him to the side of the path where there was a small pond used for decoration. They prepared to throw him in, counting from one to three, then threw him in. Boris landed in the water, face first, with a splash. As he laid there the group pointed and laughed at him, followed by everyone else that was within sight of the pond. Boris didn’t bother budging. He stayed where he was, holding his breath for almost a minute. Someone came by and told everyone to report to where they needed to go, and everyone shut up and obeyed. The new man jumped into the pond beside Boris and lifted him up by the shoulder. The man turned Boris so he would face the man.

“Are you alright?” The man asked. Boris just sat there, staring at the man’s face. The man shook Boris a little and got Boris to respond.

“I-I’m fine.” Boris said, his gaze still set on the man’s face. Who was that guy, and who’s this? Boris thought to himself, trying to remember if someone in the group had mentioned the first guys name.

“Well, that’s a relief. I don’t think another death would have been good for troop morale.” Can this guy not see my chest? Why is he talking to me like I’m not a Third? Unless… Boris shifted his gaze down a little and got a glimpse of the man’s chest. He’s a Third! But how did he get everyone to listen to him? “By the look on your face, you’re wondering how I got those guys that tossed you here to go away? Follow me.” Boris nodded and followed the man. “By the way, my name’s Kimball. H.C. Kimball. And you are…?”

“M-my name’s Terzos. Boris Terzos, sir.” H.C.? What’s that supposed to be? Boris tried thinking of whatever H.C. could be when they made it to the MPR. Kimball reached for the door and opened it.

“After you, Boris.” Boris nodded and entered the MPR. Everyone in the room was loud and sort of in many separate groups. Boris took a few steps forward as Kimball slammed the door shut behind him. A nearby group turned to see who slammed the door and immediately snapped to attention and saluted Kimball. Kimball saluted them back and walked to the platform at the front of the room. When he got onto the platform he stood there, eyeing the crowd before him.

“Ten-SHUN!” Kimball shouted to everyone. His booming voice got everyone to immediately shut up and face him with their arms to their sides. Boris decided to follow suit and snapped to attention. “Glad to see all you new recruits. I am your High Colonel Aaron Kimball, but you may refer to me as Sir.”

“SIR YES SIR!” Everyone shouted to Kimball. High Colonel? So THAT’S what H.C. meant! Why didn’t I recognize him earlier? Boris wanted to smack himself in the face for not recognizing the High Colonel when he first saw him. But if he did, he would make Thirds everywhere look dumb because one smacked himself for no reason in public. So he just stood there and listened, punching himself on the inside.

What felt like hours passed before the speech ended. When it did end, three large weapon racks rose behind Kimball. “Even good soldiers run out of bullets or find themselves too close to the enemy to use a gun. In cases like these, it’s best to have a close-quarters combat weapon. Using the gun as such a weapon will be, put bluntly, very stupid. Why? Because if you do use it and you find some ammo, it will be bent and your accuracy will drop- in some cases, dramatically. So come up and choose your weapon. When everyone has their weapon, you will be sent to a weapon-specific tutor. When you have your weapon, it will never leave your side. It will become your best friend. That is, as long as you pay attention to your tutor.” Everyone in the room walked up to the platform to receive their weapon. Boris waited for everyone else before getting in line. Some people took longer than others when choosing their weapon. When Boris did get up there, he did a quick browse of the different weapons. He finally chose the weapon he wanted to excel with: A basic combat knife. A shiny blade, comfortable leather handle; supposedly, in the right hands, a basic combat knife can have over a hundred uses in battle. Of course, with how prejudiced some people can be, Boris might not even learn half of those uses. He grabbed the sheath for the knife, sheathed it, and turned around. He was so focused on his knife that he didn’t notice anyone in front of him and accidently walked into them.

“You should really watch where you’re going!” A familiar voice said. Boris looked up and saw the face of High Colonel Kimball. “Next time the knife might not be sheathed, and someone might get injured!” Boris took a nervous step backwards and saluted Kimball.

“S-sorry sir! Won’t happen again, sir!”

“At ease, Terzos.” Boris brought his arm down to his side. “So, you decided to go with the combat knife?” Boris nodded. “I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors about it having over a hundred or so uses?” Again, Boris nodded. “I think you’re going to like you’re instructor. I hear they’ve found over a thousand different uses for the handle alone. Maybe they will pass on all of those uses to you. Better not keep them waiting too long.” Boris saluted Kimball once more, and Kimball saluted him back. Boris walked to the doors leading out of the MPR and went out to find his tutor.

While outside, he saw several groups that all held up their weapons. The one that seemed to have the most people was the Stun Baton group. I guess they only want to stun, not do permanent damage? Boris looked around for anyone holding up a knife, and eventually saw someone. He walked to the person, and, when close enough and in front of the person, saluted. He didn’t really take a good look at the person, but after about a minute the person acknowledged Boris.

“You know, most people just raise their weapon in the air when they meet their teacher, if you haven’t already noticed.” The voice that belonged to the knife master sounded rather feminine, and caught Boris off guard. Boris remained looking at the helmeted face of the knife master for a few seconds, and slowly began looking down to the knife master’s chest area, and when he saw he quickly looked back up. The knife master put the arm she was using to hold the knife down to her side and lifted her other hand in front of Boris’ face and snapped her fingers a couple times. “Did you not just hear me? I said, don’t salute me! Raise your weapon to salute, and don’t just raise it to your face! You should hold your knife high in the air, with pride! You got that?” Boris nodded, lowered his hand to grab the knife, and lifted it high in the air. A FEMALE knife master?! I always thought women didn’t like violence? And to top that off, she’s ALSO a Third! How many more high-ranking Thirds are there?! Boris quickly looked to the weapons master to his right and noticed the chest. He looked back at the knife master. With this many high-ranking Thirds, I’d think Thirds were no longer looked down upon! And I think I should think differently about women not liking combat…Nor should I just look at random chests…

The knife master noticed Boris looking at her chest and the weapons master beside her and stepped closer to Boris, making Boris stiffen himself up. She leaned in close and whispered into Boris’ ear. “You know we are issued helmets for a reason, right? If they didn’t issue one to you, I can get you one. If you do, wear it from now on. Alright, we begin weapons training in about a week. Too bad no one else wanted to use knives. Oh well. Until next week. Oh, and by the way, you may refer to me as either Ma’am, or Linda. Understood?” Boris nodded. The weapons master, Linda, saluted Boris, and Boris saluted back.

Chapter Two: A War?!


“Wrong!”
Boris had lunged at Linda the knife master only to have her sidestep him and hit him in the back of the helmet with the butt of the knife handle. “If you’re going to lunge, do NOT make your stance give you away! I thought you learned that on the first day!” Linda sounded abnormally peeved at Boris today. Then again, Boris had learned that he should not have an obvious stance when lunging. He did learn it the first day. For approximately two years he had been told to start off with a lunge and had not messed it up. Ever. For some reason, today was different. Boris could feel something bad was about to happen. What, though, he didn’t know. He quickly shook his head and turned back to Linda. Boris got into a defensive stance just as Linda began charging at him. He sidestepped her just before she stabbed him in the gut, reached out with one arm to grab her by the shoulder and pulled her close, and got kicked in the shin. He let Linda go and lifted his leg, caressing it in both of his hands as he hopped in place. He let his leg go back down after a moment and winced a little as he put some weight on it. He was just about to go into a defensive position when the intercom buzzed on.

”Attention in the fort! Everyone, report immediately to the Shuttle in the center of the fort for a debriefing from the HC!”

Boris and Linda exchanged quick glances before running to the Shuttle. It was practically the center of the entire establishment. Its basic shape resembled a large cylinder with a cone top. It had two bat-like wings protruding from the sides that look like it would have aided it in maneuvering through space. The reason it was called a shuttle was because it once travelled to other planets for vacations, capable of carrying thousands of passengers to and fro. At least, that is what Boris was told.

As the announcement stated, everyone had reported to the Shuttle. Thousands of people were surrounding the shuttle, chatting amongst each other about what might be going on. Boris and Linda were just a little too slow and wound up at the back of the crowd. After a few moments of waiting around the HC appeared in front of the Shuttle and everyone went quiet. Unfortunately for everyone behind the shuttle and too far away, there were no screens to show what he did up there. However, there was a microphone and plenty of speakers, so everyone heard everything he said.

“On a normal day I would open up with telling everyone to snap to attention, but today is no normal day. The astronomer we have has noticed a planet has come within orbit of our beloved little rock we call Bollwerk. This planet is not normally of our galaxy; somehow the inhabitants have tapped into their planet’s natural resources to create an engine of sorts to propel it around as they battle other planets for supremacy. Approximately eight hours ago, something coming from the planet hit a fort several cities away. It doesn’t take a scientist to realize that that would mark us as the next intended target. We aren’t going down without a fight!” The crowd had started to cheer on the HC. “We are going to bring the fight to them!” More cheers erupted from the crowds of people. “This shuttle has been out of commission for a few years, but it still runs, and has been worked on during that time to keep it up-to-date with technology advances and will run even better than before! We are using this to go straight to this rival planet and will bring the fight to them! Everyone, grab what you need if you don’t have it already! We leave in oh-one-hundred hours!” The crowd erupted into cheers. The HC had rallied everyone into a fighting spirit. After moments of cheering, it slowly quieted down as people ran off to their bunks to grab whatever it was they needed and entered the shuttle.

As Boris and Linda entered the Shuttle, the first thing they realized was that the entire thing was titled. At least, it was until their bodies adjusted to the alternate gravity inside the shuttle. Because of how the Shuttle was, it was expected some form of gravity alteration would occur. That or some way of climbing up the aisles, which wouldn’t really be practical. The interior of the shuttle had some sort of carpeting in an attempt to make the flight seem slightly more comfortable. Boris and Linda found the nearest seats and sat together. It seemed like ages until the pilot spoke through the intercom.

”Hello, everybody. Today’s flight is straight to our enemy planet. This flight should take no time at all, so relax as best you can or plan strategies to eliminate the threat in as little time as possible.”

As the pilot finished speaking some of the people in front were laughing and cheering and having a good time in general. They already knew which side was going to win this interplanetary war. After a moment the dome over the shuttle opened up. It was slow to open, what with not being opened in several years. During this time the Shuttle’s engine sprung into life, shaking the Shuttle a little. When the dome opened completely the Shuttle slowly began to rise from the ground. Everyone was excited. Some because they were waiting for a war, some because they were scared of flying, and some because they’ve been waiting to fly. Boris and Linda fell somewhere under the second category.

The flight seemed to have taken much longer than originally planned. At least, that’s how Boris and Linda felt. The Shuttle landed in a small clearing. The trees surrounding the clearing were bending over as the Shuttle touched down, dust being kicked up and blown everywhere. Once completely on the ground the shuttle opened up to let the passengers out. Everyone was stretching their legs as they eyed the surroundings. No one had a helmet off because of the possibility of the air being toxin. Once the last person had gotten off, grabbed their stuff and moved out of the way, the Shuttle had taken off again to return back to Bollwerk. This reduced the risk of it being spotted and let it refuel for the next time it had to come to the planet.

Everyone was given or giving orders already. The majority was on scouting duty, walking around and watching for any enemies. Some were ordered to set up camp in case someone was injured already. Boris was ordered to search a nearby cave and look for anything suspicious or something that may be of use. He grabbed his bag of equipment and brought it over to the cave. Putting it down gently, he opened it to get out his knife and put it in its sheath on his belt. He also retrieved his battle rifle and a clip of ammo before closing it up. He turned to enter the cave and pressed the center slit of his visor to activate his Night Vision. He took a deep breath and entered the cave. His search had been fruitless up until the last few feet. Finding nothing, he turned to leave when he heard gunfire. He ran to the mouth of the cave and switched his vision back to normal.

Everyone was shooting into the trees, and the trees were returning the favor. A stray bullet barely missed Boris’ head, causing him to duck. He deactivated the safety on his gun and aimed into the trees, trying to find a target. He had located a target, but before he could fire another couple of bullets came at him: one buzzed past his head, barely missing him, and the other hit his gun, causing him to drop it. His comrades were dropping like flies and the enemy was perfectly protected in the trees. Boris turned to run into the cave again, a few more bullets heading his way. He activated the Night Vision again as he ran. He turned back to see if anyone was following him when there was a sudden burst of light. Disoriented, Boris wound up running into a wall. This had caused a great deal of confusion for Boris. He quickly switched his vision back to normal and blinked a few times, getting his eyes adjusted to the new light. Light? I don’t remember this when I was checking the place out. What happened? Boris stood up, looking around. There was a sound of crickets chirping, and the sound of battle was long gone, almost as if the battle hadn’t happened. He was in some strange forest, no sight of the cave he was just in anywhere. Was everything just a dream? Boris contemplated the thought that nothing that had recently happened even occurred. Then he remembered that he was blinded and had his Night Vision on a moment ago. Only the wearer of the mask could switch the Visions, and currently Boris was the wearer. So everything did happen. Then… How did I get here? More importantly, where IS ‘here’? Boris looked around, trying to find anything that could tell him where he is. The only thing he found was plants, trees, animals and bugs. This place somehow looked familiar, but he had never been here before. The only reason he was certain of that was because he had never been to that planet before. Unless some teleportation device had picked him up and thrown him to some other planet, he somehow missed this spot of the cave. But how would that be possible? The Night Vision would have rendered him blind if he looked for so much as half a minute in this light. Something strange was going on, and Boris would have to tell everyone about it when he got back to Bollwerk. Of course, seeing as the cave is pretty much gone, getting back home would be very, VERY hard to do. He looked at his arm, hoping he had grabbed his Transmitter from the bag. No such luck. He was up the creek without a paddle, and if he made it back to shore the bear lying in wait will come after him. Figuratively speaking of course. So far, the forest seemed like a peaceful little haven. No savage animals, no one out to get him, no sign of war…

“Oh no, the war!” Boris began to panic, but soon calmed down. He was not really ready for a war and was secretly feeling happy that he didn’t have to partake in it. “I just missed out on my first war. I get to live another day. But wait, what of my friends?” Boris chuckled at himself. “Friends? I was everyone’s punching bag. They could rot, for all I care. All those pieces of…” Boris cut himself off at the thought of his knife instructor. Among everyone there, she was probably the only person that treated Boris as a fellow soldier and not like a piece of trash. His feeling of happiness had dissipated, and he was starting to feel upset that he was a coward and fled from battle while everyone was fighting for their lives. He hit his helmeted head against a tree as he calmed himself down. He thought of the situation at hand again and looked around for any signs of civilization. Following a gut instinct, he headed to the west to try and find something or someone to help him get a grasp of the situations at hand.