Guardians (Æthyrium Rising - Guardians Book 1)

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  Vyard’s justice had proven to be quite brutal in the past few days, but I hadn’t decided whether or not it was unfounded yet. I had no doubt that the violent display would be broadcasted later today as another example of what happened when laws were broken.

  I was sure that no one would attempt anything like Makthar had again, and I doubted anyone would want to pick a fight, especially with Tyr or anyone else in our family. Still though, it was the justice of war that was getting to me, it was much more black and white than on Kaltjarna.

  You did something wrong, you were punished, that was the end of it.

  No trial.

  No criminal record.

  Just a questioning, then a lashing, confinement, or death.

  I watched as the Captain hit the button to clear the airlock, spacing the broken body of Makthar in an instant, leaving nothing but a bloody streak across the floor.

  “I’ll have someone come around to clean up later.” Vyard said as more of a mental note than a clarification for me. “You’re dismissed Pledge, I’ll see you in the morning.”

  It was one of the oddest experiences I have ever had leaving that hall. Not too long before that point I’d been busy feeling sorry for myself and wondering if I was even worth to be on the Valkyrie, but after seeing that it made what happened to me look relatively tame.

  The entire walk back to my quarters felt like it consisted of a gigantic sigh. Everything over the past few hours was a long bout of pain and confusion, and my head just would not stop spinning.

  “Wh-what happened?” a very nervous Mouse asked from her bed as I collapsed on mine.

  “I… don’t know.” I said into my pillow, “Makthar’s dead, Tyr’s free.”

  “Wha- how?”

  I turned my face out of my pillow and looked at Mouse, who’d curled up in the corner of her room and was still clutching her little box, “Tyr killed him.”

  It wasn’t until after I’d said the words that I realised it may not have been something Tyr’d want her to know. He was known to hide things from her that had the potential to scar her or change her opinion of him.

  After I’d said my little piece though, Mouse quickly became disinterested in talking further on the matter, instead opting to somehow tuck even further into the corner, something that I was more than okay with.

  Don’t get me wrong, I love talking to my sisters, it’s one of my favourite things to do, but that was definitely one of the things that would be more suited to discuss with Eira.

  I rolled onto my side and faced the wall expecting to stay that way until the morning. Except that’s not what happened, no, instead the second my eyes rolled shut I fell into a deep and relaxing sleep.

  How weird is that?

  Life on the Valkyrie

  The next day had me waking up feeling truly refreshed, and right up to breakfast I had a smile on my face, which only grew when Tyr showed up.

  “You’re out?” Eira asked confusedly as her twin sat across from us.

  I looked between them, before settling on Tyr and tilting my head, “You didn’t go back to your room?”

  Tyr shook his head, “Spent most of the night in the gym, doctor suggested it so I could relieve some of my tension. Didn’t matter how many times I told her how calm I was, she wouldn’t have me going back to bed without exhausting myself. Ended up sleeping on a bench-press.” he said before smiling proudly and digging into his breakfast, “Good news is, it’s got me out of PT for the day.”

  “Lucky bastard.” I said with a smirk.

  The two of us dug in for a little while, missing the speechless looks from Eira, before she finally decided to snap, “Tyr! How are you out?”

  “Gods Eira! Calm down! Look, I was put away, and now I’m out. I didn’t break out, I haven’t done anything that’ll get me in trouble, so can you please drop it?”

  Eira clearly didn’t want to give up on finding out what had her brother acting so cagey, but she respected him enough to let him out of the conversation with nothing but a stern look.

  After that we got to enjoy our meal in silence, and then it was off to PT, then lunch, then more PT, then dinner, then more PT, then sleep, then… You get the idea, we spent a lot of time doing PT.

  Sure we had the occasional class where we got to sit around and learn about weapons, vehicles, and some strategy stuff, but it was all theoretical. The only time we got to hold anything close to a firearm was in our weekly games of paintball, and we were getting good.

  Every one of the pledges on the ship kicked arse at everything in that regard, from the stock standard team games, to the much more intense free-for-all, we were unstoppable, and me and my siblings were at the front of the pack.

  Eira was the best out of all of us, her reaction time was insane, and on the theoretical side of things no one could top her.

  The graduation to Cadet came and went for me like any other day, we got dressed up, ate some cake, it was all very fun, but also incredibly uneventful. The only really good thing to come out of it in my opinion was that I got to grow out my hair again, other than that… meh.

  In fact, it wasn’t until we got word that we were touching down in a few days that I got anywhere near excited. Some place called ‘The Proving Grounds’, a tiny moon sitting as close to the core planets as the Federation could put it without pissing off the UPC about their whole ‘civilian worlds can’t be militarised’ rule.

  It was very lame, especially for someone like me from a world that kinda sorta bent that rule.

  Anyway, back to the story.

  Paint splats of every colour decorated the once pristine white walls as I stalked the halls with my pistol. I whistled a disturbing tune and waited for the sound of running.

  None came.

  I hadn’t seen a soul for ten minutes, but the floating digital scoreboard clearly indicated that there were still four of us left in the running, and I knew exactly who they were.

  As if to confirm my suspicions Tyr shot around a corner just ahead of me and disappeared back down the corridor I’d come from.

  “You can run Frey, but you can’t- Gods damn it!” he shouted after the sound of three paint-filled sacks of death hit him.

  I darted around the corner at the end of the corridor and pressed my back to it, “Eira? That you sweet stuff?”

  “N-n-no!” an adorable voice called back.

  I was confused to say the least, but eventually I started to step around the corner, “Mou-?” I’d barely gotten into the corridor when five pellets hit me hard directly over my heart, “Holy-”

  “Cadet Nokri, please exit the arena.” a firm voice said in my ear.

  “Yeah yeah.” I replied disappointedly before finding the nearest exit.

  I walked down the long hall in between two arena zones and made a right at the end where I found the stairs that led to the viewing platform where all the other cadets were waiting. It took me a minute of looking around the crowded room to find my brother standing with his arms crossed as he looked down over the field.

  “Who’s left?” I asked as if I didn’t know and squeezed through the crowd to stand next to Tyr.

  He sighed, “You know who…”

  I bit my tongue playfully and gave him a big grin, “Yeah, but I like hearing you say it.”

  “Ugh, fine. Eira and Mous-”

  “Eira and Mouse. Your sisters are kicking your arse big guy.”

  He looked at me with annoyed disbelief and shook his head matter-of-factly, “They beat you too.”

  “True, but not before they got you, so nyeh.” I said mockingly while making a mocking face.

  “Nyeh right back at you.” he said with a laugh as the buzzer went off, “Mouse won.”

  “I know! That girl is going places if you ask me.” I said as the crowd started to disperse for the exit, “What do you think the Proving Grounds are gonna be like?”

  “For Gods’ sake! Will you shut up about the Proving grounds? It’s all you bloody talk about these days
and it’s starting to get kinda old.”

  “Kinda?” a familiar voice said from behind me.

  “Oh shut up Stromweld,” I said playfully as I spun around to face the guy I’d been teasing for the past two months, “you’re just jealous because I’m in the first party off.”

  Richard Stromweld was rather dashing if I do say so myself, and I’d had a lot of fun spending more than a few lonely nights thinking about him, but it was far more fun being a tease and torturing him. He didn’t seem to mind.

  He ran his hand over his shaved head and down to his sharp jawline, a bright blue paintball having caught him just beside his ear. “Yeah, well, you got me. What are you guys up to after this?”

  I shrugged and turned back around, almost tripping in the process, going from walking backwards to walking forwards is difficult as Hell when you’re surrounded by people. “Dunno, probably wash off and get ready for when we land.”

  “That’s hours from now, are you seriously going to spend your entire afternoon waiting around to land?”

  I nodded enthusiastically, “Gotta make sure my hair’s just right.” I joked as I tossed around my shoulder length hair.

  I felt like a princess going to the ball, if the ball was filled with live fire exercises and meant having my feet on some solid ground.

  “Aha, yeah, well, if you’re interested in mussing it back up, give me a shout.” Richard said with a wink before disappearing into the crowd in search of his friends.

  Tyr shuddered, “Why have you gotta do that around me? Seriously. I’m your brother, I shouldn’t have to deal with hearing that crap.”

  I smiled goofily, “But then who else would I share my grand stories with?”

  “Anyone but me. Again, bleugh. I shouldn’t know about the boys who’re interested in you, especially in these close spaces. Let’s just find Eira and Mouse and get on with the day, please?”

  “Fine, but keep in mind you’re the one who brought it up, not me. I was more than happy to keep my little fantasies to mys-”

  “La-la-la-la!” Tyr shouted, jamming his fingers in his ears. “I don’t want to hear about it.”

  I laughed at how uncomfortable he was, it was probably a bit of a shitty thing to do, but it was also really funny.

  “Hey guys…” a disappointed looking Eira said as she pushed through the crowd toward us.

  “Hey, where’d she get yo-oh damn…” I seethed when Eira bared her teeth and showed the blue paint that coated them, “How’d she get you in the mouth?”

  “I didn’t,” Mouse said almost cheerfully as she appeared from behind Eira, “I got her in the palm, paint just went in between her fingers.”

  “Don’t sound so chipper,” Eira warned, “I’m about three seconds from slapping you. Why were you even going for a headshot?”

  “I wasn’t, it’s just hard to aim when you’re upside down.”

  “You were upside down!?” I laughed excitedly, “How did I miss that? Where were you?”

  “There was a corner,” Eira said bitterly, “somehow she scurried up the wall and managed to get on top of it, ended up cartwheeling from one wall to the next and caught me off-guard.”

  I ground to a halt, disrupting the flow of human traffic, and looked between my sisters a few times, “But… but you’re so…”

  “Uncoordinated and clumsy?” Mouse asked excitedly, “I know! It’s weird, but apparently all that exercise finally paid off. I started practising a few nights ago down here. Did you know I can do a backflip now?”

  It was Tyr’s turn to be surprised, “Wha-… Ho-… Did you know something about this Frey?”

  I shook my head wildly, “No way! I saw her leave the room a couple of times, but I just thought she was going to the bathroom or something.”

  “Nokri,” Doris’ old voice croaked over the speakers, “no parking in the transit halls.”

  “Sorry Doris!” all four of us called up to the ceiling before restarting our walk.

  “Wow Mousy,” I said once we were almost at the showers, “you’re really kickin’ arse.”

  “Yeah,” Tyr chimed in, “I think I speak for everyone when I say we’re really proud of you.”

  Eira, who’d calmed down significantly, and I gave a nod, “We really are. You excited to touch down on the Proving Grounds?”

  “Really?” Tyr laughed, “You’re gonna hijack the conversation to that again.”

  I looked away innocently and shrugged, “I’m just seeing if she is, I have no ulterior motive.”

  “Sure thing,” Eira said with an unconvinced eye roll, “let’s just get in the showers, I really need to brush my teeth.”

  The Feast

  We stood proudly as the doors opened and the ramps descended. The ride to the planet’s surface had been as smooth as it had been the entire time we’d been floating among the stars, but even still I found myself having a bit of trouble staying upright when we commenced our march.

  Luckily I wasn’t the only one, and within a few seconds we were all tumbling over ourselves to get out like a massive formation of meat dominos.

  Meanwhile, under the grunts and apologies being made by myself and the other cadets, the officers and soldiers on the ground all laughed their arses off.

  “Space legs!” someone called out over our heads, “It’ll take another trip or two to get used to it, ‘til then try and remember that gravity is not your friend!”

  I was not overly amused being the butt of all of these guys’ joke, though I was certainly understanding of it and, unlike how I was in that first week of being a soldier, I was only looking forward to the opportunity to do it myself one day.

  It took a good deal more stumbling, but we all eventually got to the point that we were standing back in formation on the gigantic concrete slab we’d landed on. We all looked around in admiration at the barracks and other buildings that made up the military compound not five hundred metres from us.

  “Afternoon everybody!” Vyard bellowed as he made his way to the front of our ranks, “Welcome to the Proving Grounds! Here is where you will finish your training before we start you out on the battlefield because, as good as the facilities are on the Valkyrie, we simply do not have everything necessary to prepare you for what it’s like to really survive in the heat of battle and, truth be told, nothing ever will.”

  After that the Captain let a silence fall over us, of everything that could be said about the man, he certainly knew how to hold a crowd’s attention. “While here you will participate in live fire exercises, learn how to operate basic FNDC vehicles, as well as some survival training. Now, it is likely that some of you will be taken into consideration for specialist or officers training, and I want to reiterate that the situation on the Valkyrie is the exact same one as here. If you make it into one of these programs it does not make you a better person than anyone of the people standing next to you today. Understood!?”

  “Yes sir!” we shouted back.

  “That’s what I like to hear! Now fall out, follow the soldiers to your to the mess hall. Tonight you feast!”

  I’m sure everyone wanted to roar, Gods know I did, but we’d all been trained to the point that we had some level of self-control, which sucked.

  “Did he just say there’s gonna be a feast?” Tyr asked excitedly from beside me as we started marching.

  “That he did, what do you think they’re gonna have?”

  “Ice cream. Probably won’t, but I want some damn ice cream. It’s been so long and I deserve a treat.”

  Normally we wouldn’t have spoken when in formation, but with everyone else doing it we were lucky enough to be some of the quieter ones, and the soldiers escorting us really didn’t seem to care.

  “Ice cream would be good, but I’m pretty sure I’d have a heart attack from all the sugar at once.”

  Clearly my joke was lost on Tyr, who gave a sad sigh and said “Yeah, probably… I know you don’t mean literally, but I reckon you’re right that it’d at least mess our sy
stem up for a week.”

  I wasn’t trying to be rude, but a scoff escaped me nonetheless, “Seriously? Enjoy, if they have ice cream I’m having six litres of the stuff. I don’t care if I go into hypoglycemic shock, I’m going wild.”

  And that’s just what I did, and yes, there was ice cream. The mess hall itself was very similar to the one on the Valkyrie, with the obvious exception that it was much bigger. They also had so many amazing things available to us, burgers, real fruit, jelly… stuff, I don’t know exactly what it was, but it was good. Everything I’d been craving for the past few months and more.

  “This stuff is so good,” Tyr said between mouthfuls from where he sat across from me, “I never want to leave.”

  I looked up to see his goofy smile between two food filled cheeks and couldn’t help but start laughing.

  “What?” Tyr asked after swallowing everything he had in his mouth at once.

  I caught my breath and wiped away a tear, “Nothing, nothing, you just… heh, you looked just like you did when you were eight. It was a cute bit of nostalgia.”

  Tyr, who normally didn’t like being reminded of his chubby phase, looked over all of our faces gave a smile, “You know, I hadn’t actually thought about that in ages. Honestly, I haven’t even really thought about home in the past few months. This is home to me now.”

  I went to agree with him, but was interrupted by Commonwealth soldiers in full-face helmets busting through every door of the mess hall.

  Most of those around us went into panic mode, hiding under tables, trying to make a break for it, stuff like that, but there were some like my siblings and me who went on the offensive.

  The first thing that Tyr did was start whipping his dirty dishes at the soldiers that were coming for us, allowing the rest of us to charge them, even Mouse.

  I was actually pretty proud of us, we managed to take a grand total of four down before we all got hit with some sort of stun rounds that felt like little more than a flick to stomach, but made every part of my body seize up which, when you’re halfway through a jump, does not equal a good time.