Spectres (Æthyrium Rising - Spectres Book 1)

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  She gave him a mocking smile, “Girls can have just as much fun with each other you know. Also, not if there were two of you, perv.” When she noticed my confusion she rolled her eyes, “Three’s compa-”

  “Alright,” I almost shouted, “alright, now that I’ve got that mental image for the rest of my life, can you tell me what you’re doing? Even if we’re not in squads yet you probably shouldn’t be running about.”

  Xario shrugged, “That’s what I thought, but after our haircuts, we went and got the hats and our guide told us to come back here and await further instruction. Everyone else is just taking their sweet arse time.”

  Jurol’s eyes widened as he saw something behind us. He pulled his hat out of his back pocket and put it on at a slight angle, something Juno quickly corrected for him, before going to attention and gesturing for us to turn around.

  I straightened my back and spun around, locking my arms to my sides and coming to a full stop facing the other direction. It was Garrett, eating a fresh apple and looking over us, “How’s your first day going?”

  “Good sir!” we shouted back.

  “Wa kào! Wanna tone it back a bit?” he asked laughingly before taking another bite.

  We all shared a confused look before slowly relaxing out of our stance, “There, ain’t that better?”

  “Yes sir,” I said as calmly as I could manage, the accentuated shouting from my training trying to break through, “you know Mandarin?”

  “Mǎ niú yúmǎlíngshǔ?” he asked in a completely serious voice.

  I couldn’t help it, a single laugh blurted out of me and I just about bit my lip off catching it.

  Garrett smiled, “Just so you know, laughter’s allowed. Ah good, looks like the rest of the boys are showing up, c’mon! I’d like to have lunch at some point today!” he shouted over to them before looking down at his apple and chuckling, “Oh… right. Now everybody fall in!”

  All 24 of us did as ordered, forming up in front of Garrett with myself and my new found friends up front.

  “Today’s going to be all drills,” he said as he paced in front of us, “lots and lots of drills. I’m gonna see just how far we can push you before you break, and then go a bit further for good measure. If you can’t hack it, that’s fine. Just go ahead to HQ and get yourself some discharge papers. But I will say that those of you who stick it out will come out as some of the best soldiers in the galaxy. Any questions?”

  Before anyone could shout out ‘No sir’ Jurol lifted his arm to waist pocket height, “Will we be training with you the whole time sir?”

  Garrett pointed at him with his apple wielding hand and nodded, “That’s a good question. No, you’ll be training with every one of the mentors. We cycle through so you get plenty of different perspectives. Anyone else?”

  I rose my hand as Jurol had and waited until the Field Master looked at me, “Is there anywhere I can cook? Or is there a place where I can get a portable stove?”

  “What? Breakfast not to your liking?” he asked, and before I could start stammering he smiled and started talking again, “Course there is. At the soldier’s shop you’ll be able to pick up a small, battery-operated cooker, or you can access the kitchens outside peak time. Tea, person I take it?”

  I nodded, “Yes sir.”

  “Just like your father then, good man. Well, if you’ve got that old busted up thing of his you can take it to the kitchens and get it filled with boiling water. Can even ask someone in the mornings when they come by your table. Doubt you’ll be needing tea to sleep though, ‘specially not after the next few days. Your dad taught me that. Any other questions?” he asked. He waited a few more seconds then gave a nod, “Good, let’s get this show on the road. Recruits! Forward march!”

  I didn’t know what was better, the fact that this man, this mentor, knew my father, or that he actually gave a damn when people asked questions. I had a feeling he was going to be my favourite mentor.

  Training

  The next two weeks went by pretty quickly. Sleep, eat, drill, study, repeat. I personally enjoyed it, but just over a quarter of the recruits washed out in the first week, and even more after that until there were just seventeen of us left. To my friends and I that just meant we were the strongest, something the mentors were constantly reminding us of.

  I was starting to get to the point where I was actually starting to really get into it, the cardio and strength training, the marksmanship courses, even the theoretical and technological aspects turned out to be a good time for me, especially the parts about the CRS, which stood for ‘Cellular Regeneration Serum’. They were these auto-injectors that had only very recently been given the go-ahead for field use that did everything from fixing a broken bone to helping the user grow back entire limbs in mere seconds.

  The whole experience was utterly amazing though, and I even almost cried when I was given my white dress uniform and told I was going to graduate.

  It was a nice ceremony, out on one of the fields, and not one of us was out of place. All of our uniforms were pressed and perfect, our white hats sitting perfectly on our heads, and our black leather shoes standing firmly on the grass, reflecting the noon-day sun with how well they’d been polished.

  “Congratulations Private,” Field Master Feldon said as he handed me my first yellow star, “you’ve done well to earn this.”

  “Thank you Field Master.” I said with a respectful nod before joining the others who’d received their stars.

  A few more names got called out after mine and I felt so proud of all of them. It wasn’t my place to be proud or not, I know, but even though it was only Juno, Xario, Jurol and I who’d become close friends, the others were all a part of my family, and they’d all done really well, especially Jurol, who’d gotten significantly fitter since we’d arrived.

  He’d still had a fair few ‘dead’ moments, like when he collapsed during our first run and everyone thought he’d gone into anaphylactic shock, or when he hit his head so hard on a doorway that he bled and passed out. On the whole he’d done well though, and he’d certainly persevered through a lot more than any of us had.

  “Well done,” Field Master Janis said as she came to stand at the head of our formation, “you’ve stuck through to the end and that’s admirable, but from here on out your training only gets harder. The five Warriors of the Seven will of course go with Monk Ri’ath, the rest of you are going to be evenly assigned to one of us based on your skillset.”

  After that we started getting split up, the brothers and two others going with Feldon, then four of the girls with Janis, leaving us with Garrett who, as always, was chomping down on an apple.

  “I can’t believe it,” Jurol whispered as Garrett started coming toward us, “I knew we’d get him. What do you think his skillset is?”

  Juno, who was clearly displeased with the selection, shrugged angrily, “Probably how to waste time and make a mockery of ourselves.”

  I went to ask her what she meant, but Garrett had just arrived and was looking over the four of us. “So you’re with me then. I know some of you aren’t going to be looking forward to that, and I know it’s all that some of you have wanted since you got here, but I want both groups to keep something in mind. I am, by far, the most difficult person to work under on this base. My teaching methods are ‘creative’, and I take my job very seriously, but I’m sure that if you’ve made it this far you’ll stick with anything. Any questions?”

  Xario raised his arm, “When do we start?”

  Garrett smiled, then shrugged, “Really depends on the general mood. Anything else?”

  Jurol lifted his hand at the same time he opened his mouth, effectively interrupting me, “What skill set is your group under?”

  “Can’t tell you, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out after our first bout of training. One more question, then we eat.”

  Suddenly every question in my head had disappeared, being replaced by thoughts of food and drink and the oh-so-hallowed sleep, w
hich was apparently what happened with everyone else based on the complete silence that had fallen over us and lack of raised arms.

  “Good!” Garrett said excitedly, “Feel free to ask me anything at any time during our training. Now, let’s head on over to the dining hall, I hear they’ve got something really special set up for you guys.”

  Aaand did they. There was alcohol, ice cream, apple pie, and any food that we’d had in the past two weeks was available to us. It was a great night.

  I roughly remember having a mix of some kind of very bitter alcohol and tea, which did not sit well, followed by a very intense dancing session on the fields, then, finally, passing out in nothing but a pair of underwear.

  It was a good night.

  Up ‘n’ At ‘em

  “Up ‘n’ at ‘em!” Garrett shouted into our room, “Twenty seconds from now you’d best be ready for combat!”

  I jumped out of my bed and found some fatigues, a headache hitting me like a ton of bricks as I looked down. I didn’t let it stop me though, and while Garrett was shouting at the boys, who’d taken up residency in the room across from ours, I was pulling on my boots.

  “Three! Two! On-” Garrett stopped when he saw both Juno and I dressed perfectly, hats on our heads and boots tied, I’d even managed to get on a new pair of underwear. “Nice work ladies. Get a move on to H-block, hangar eight, we’ve got a mission.”

  Without saying anything we ran out the door and made our way toward the H-block hangars, which was basically a carpark for ships.

  “What do you think our living situation’s going to be like?” Juno asked as we rounded a corner.

  I gave her a quizzical look, my dry mouth ensuring I wouldn’t get the opportunity to speak for at least another few minutes.

  “With the boys, surely they won’t keep us in the recruit barracks. They’ll have more arriving soon, and I don’t remember sharing with any privates, you?”

  I shook my head and choked out “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

  We got to H-block and discovered an ‘Out of Order’ sign over the elevator’s buttons, to which Juno sighed and started running up the stairs without me.

  Me though? I was stuck looking at the sign, crudely written on a piece of paper from a notepad and sticky taped in place. I lifted the note and pressed the up button which lit up, “So far, so good…” I muttered to myself right as the elevator doors opened to reveal a perfectly functioning lift.

  I stepped in, pressed the ‘4’, which also lit up, and watched as the doors closed and felt the elevator start to move. I hadn’t been trying to be lazy or anything, I swear, I was just so exhausted, justifiably if the elevator’s clock was to be believed and it really was just past 3:45 AM, and didn’t see the point in at least trying to avoid the stairs.

  When I reached the fourth level and stepped out and was a matter of literally ten steps before I was in hangar eight, as defined by the massive ‘8’ painted in a dozen spots around the ten-by-ten metre concrete garage that the ship was in.

  The ship in question was nothing special, stock-standard C-Class Raider troop transport. It was broken up into three sections, the back which acted as a sort of passenger area for up to ten soldiers, the DR, or Drop-Room, which was where troops would deploy from in most circumstances, and the bridge, which also happened to have a mini warp drive built under it, a poor decision in my opinion.

  Externally it was pretty slick, with very few chunky parts so that it was next to aerodynamic perfection, its four retractable hover engines positioned as two per side capable of full 360 rotation for tight urban combat, as well as a single high powered engine on the back for breaking atmo when necessary.

  In terms of weaponry it didn’t have much to offer, a static plasma minigun mounted between two tungsten ones at the nose, however I had seen them fitted with Rylio missiles on the sides for anti-air, but I’d also heard of stories where those spots had been hit by lucky Federation snipers and boom, no more ship.

  I continued to admire the orange and brown coloured ship until I heard a very annoyed sounding heaving coming up from behind me, “How… the Hell… did you…”

  “Elevator.” I said, saving Juno from further pain.

  “But it was… out of…”

  I shook my head and started to feel a bit dizzy, “I think Garrett just did that to trick us into not using it.”

  It was right about then that I started getting annoyed with my superior officer. Don’t get me wrong, he was still my favourite mentor, but I knew that he’d deliberately made it so that we stayed up almost all night celebrating only to wake us up at sparrow’s fart, followed up by a trick to make us climb four flights of stairs hungover. I hoped that that was the only trick-test that we were in for, but at the same time I had a feeling that I was starting to get to know Garrett, meaning an almost certainty that it was not.

  I was just hungover and tired, I knew that, and it had nothing to do with him personally, but that didn’t change how I felt.

  It was about the time that Juno finally caught her breath and my head stopped spinning that Xario and Jurol showed up, having both run up the stairs, followed shortly by a very pleased with himself Garrett coming through the elevator doors.

  “Morning privates! Enjoy the stairs?” he asked semi smugly before producing an apple from his pocket.

  That’s when Juno decided to be snide, “Why don’t you ask Kurla here?”

  Garrett turned to face me with a smile, “So, you took the elevator, huh?”

  I gulped and nodded, “Yes sir.”

  “Good on you! See, that’s the exact reason why you’re the leader of the squad.”

  “What!?” both Juno and I exclaimed.

  “You heard me. Kurla has done well as a leader both over the past two weeks and prior in her position as sheriff. Made some calls back to her office and there wasn’t a soul who had anything close to a negative comment about her. Now quit with the stallin’, we’ve got a mission to run.” he said as he walked over to the Raider and slammed his hand twice on the side.

  A few seconds later the ship started to whir to life and the back door lowered to us with a series of hydraulic hisses. Once it had touched the ground and entered ‘ramp mode’ we boarded, slowly trudging into the ship with Garrett right behind us, hitting a button on the right-hand side of the door’s frame, making it rise back up and sealing us in the passenger area.

  I nearly tripped over in the pitch-black space as we started to lift off, my perception of the room grossly distorted by what I was sure was some still slightly present inebriation.

  I heard someone fumbling with the intercom system, then the thump of something small hitting the ground and Garrett cursing, “Lieutenant? Mind if we get some light back here?”

  There was no response, just a red light that illuminated the passenger bay, “There we go, much better. Thanks.” Garrett said before putting the receiver back in its place on the wall that separated us from the DR.

  Garrett sighed sadly as he watched his apple roll around on the metal floor, then found a seat on the right side aisle, “I suggest you all find yourself a place to sit mighty quick, we’ll be breakin’ atmo any minute now.”

  I wanted to ask what the Hell he meant about breaking atmo, but instead ran over to the seat across from his and buckled myself in. It was similar to the transport we’d come in, only it was a lot prettier and I felt a great deal safer as we thundered skyward.

  There was still the occasional creak, but nothing unexpected clunked or hissed as we broke into space, a certain emptiness falling over the cabin as if to reflect the outside.

  “There we go.” Garrett said, unstrapping himself and getting to his feet, “All done. So, how’d you sleep?”

  “How’d we sleep?” Juno snapped out of turn, “You dragged us out of bed and forced us to go on an off world training exercise, all before labelling her the leader! What makes her special?”

  I expected Garrett to start barking at her about the
chain of command, but instead he just shrugged, “Said it before, she’s the most qualified of the lot o’ you. And we’re on a mission little lady, so I suggest you bite that tongue of yours and listen up.”

  Juno gasped in disbelief but didn’t say anything, while Xario and Jurol chuckled for a second then stopped. I was glad that at least the two of them didn’t seem to have a problem with me being in charge, not to my face at least.

  “Should we be doing a mission, sir?” I asked, “We only just became privates a few hours ago. Not trying to be disrespectful or anything, it just seems a bit irresponsible for HQ to send us out like this.”

  The Field Master dismissed my concerns with a wave of his hand, “You’re far too young to be so old that you worry about stuff like that. What happened to the good ol’ days where kids like you were rarin’ to go? Besides I’m sure you’ll be fine.” He was obviously joking about the ‘good ol’ days’, but that didn’t mean it didn’t piss me off a little that he was so cavalier about having us go on a mission.

  I will say that I still wasn’t convinced we were going on a mission, I just wanted him to admit that so we could go into it with the mindset that it was just training. But he was adamant about sticking to his story.

  Everyone kind of phased out for a second, myself included, until Garrett decided he’d clap his hands together as loud as possible and steal back our attention. “Who wants to get a look at the DR? I’m sure you’ve all read and seen everything there is to know about these Raiders, but I always like to have a refresher before going feet first into Hell.”

  I nodded dazedly, still recovering from the clap that felt like it had ruptured my eardrums, before getting to my feet while everyone else stayed right where they were.

  Without thinking about them, I went to walk over to Garrett who gave me a significant look and then back to the rest of my team.

  I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes and spun on my feet, “Everybody up!” I shouted over the steadily dozing off privates, instantly snapping them into the conscious world.