Mistress Julia looked around the class hall filled with children. A mixture of eager young kids and lethargic adolescents stared back at her. Several visibly yawned.
Unfazed, Mistress Julia picked up a marker and wrote four words onto the whiteboard.
'The Hundred Years' Crusade'
Taking a deep breath, Mistress Julia began her lesson.
"Since the dawn of mankind, we have been fascinated by the stars. Humankind had hungered to see what lay beyond the great abyss. What we didn't know was that the great abyss had a hunger greater than ours.
It took us seventy years to go from rudimentary flight to landing a man on the moon. But when we landed there, Mankind was surprised to find that we were not the first.
Here, on the grey, shattered plains of Luna, mankind encountered the remnants of the Dar'on race. The technologies that remained there empowered our civilisation and propelled our scientific progress by decades, if not centuries.
At the start of the second millennium, humans finally made it to the planet nearest to us, the red giant, Parax.
We expected to find a barren world; instead, we were greeted with war. An ancient war, between the Hive Queens of Paraxx and an invading force -the Demon race.
Mankind had stumbled onto something beyond our current capabilities. Wisely, we retreated, back to the safety of Mother Earth.
The existence of extraterrestrial life brought great upheaval to our society, but the news of war brought even more chaos. The world found itself divided into factions, each adamant that its position would preserve mankind. In that dark time, brother turned on brother as fear stirred the hearts of many.
That pervasive fear began to curdle into something else: rage, impotent rage. Soon, civil war erupted as states all sought to push forward with what they thought was best for humanity. Others opposed them.
In the war that we remember as The Third Great War, millions died as famine and disease plagued the land. Cities and states were decimated as bloodshed cut through our civilisation.
Now I know we may judge our forebearers for this civil war, but we must remember that this was a tumultuous time in history. In less than a single lifetime, humanity had gone from being alone in the universe to being surrounded by dead or warring species. It is difficult to say what the correct response to this should have been, but hindsight is the weakest sight.
Regardless, it was with the use of three nuclear bombs that the war's end was punctuated. Just like that, the great cities of Paris, New York, and London were rendered uninhabitable for the rest of time.
It was this era of disorder and grief that gave rise to The Valoured.
At first, they were rumours. During the war, there came stories of soldiers doing the impossible: a captain lifting a tank to save his subordinates, a diver falling out of a plane and landing on his feet, barely harmed, and a single soldier wiping out entire squadrons of enemy combatants.
When the war ended, its heroes found themselves not just figures of Valour, they had become something... more.
These heroes had stumbled onto supernatural powers in a nebulous time in history. Desperate men rallied around the miracles they performed, and soon these new social powers grew to match the failing states of the era. They were called The Clans.
The valiant warriors of The Third Great War helmed the clans. And although they differed greatly from one another, one thing united them more than all else: their drive for greater power. But due to the most gracious among them, like the first patriarch of our Bayne clan, the Clans did not seek to dominate their fellow man.
They had nobler pursuits.
So it was that after a decade at war with itself, humanity finally returned to the arena of space. United at last and armed with The Valoured, we sought one thing: Conquest.
It is said that the first men to land on Paraxx described a desolate land, torn asunder from centuries of conflict. It was those first men who slew Paraxian Soldier Bugs and began what would be known as the Hundred Years' Crusade."
Mistress Julia looked around the classroom. The youngest of her students, those hearing this story for the first time, seemed the most excited. The older youths had heard its retelling dozens of times and were thus unimpressed. Still, the general atmosphere of the classroom was one of excitement.
Surprisingly, there was even a hand raised.
Mistress Julia looked at the small red fingers with a pout. "Yes, Nautilus", she said, "You have a question?"
Eager amber eyes looked up at her. "Miss Julia", young Nautilus inquired, "I get that the real history is important, but what about the demons?" He lifted his shoulder in an animated shrug, "The Hundred Years' Crusade ended with the death of the Demon King, but you said it started with the invasion of Paraxx. Those are, like, two different things."
There were snickers from the older students, but Mistress Julia paid them no mind, choosing instead to smile at the red boy seated in front of her.
"Of course, those are two separate things, Nautilus." Mistress Julia offered, "But those were very complicated times for our species. You see, Paraxx was not the only world mankind was interested in. Hodeum, Mersul, Vadis and all the others, you must have learnt about them in Mistress Viola's class, yes?"
Nautilus responded with an enthusiastic nod. "Hodeum, Mersul, Vadis, Darxon, Heilryf." He childishly listed.
"Correct!" Mistress Julia answered. "Humankind had an interest in conquering all those worlds. It might have been a grand ambition, seeing as we were fresh out of a massive civil war, but those times were the era of grand dreamers.
Each of the Clans and remaining nation-states sought a piece of what seemed to be a vast universe, so they all went after what they sought the most.
But surprisingly, we encountered something we had not accounted for. Can anyone guess what it was?"
Mistress Julia paused, looking slowly across the classroom. No one seemed willing to answer. "Anyone... Reynard?"
An older boy with spiked green hair snored loudly. He had his face covered on the table he sat on. His deskmate prodded his side, and he jumped up onto his feet, revealing a shut third eye on his forehead and drool running down the side of his mouth.
"Uhh, yes?" He said.
"Glad to see that you're still with us, Reynard." Miss Julia quipped, eliciting some snickers. "I was just asking the class, when the early Clans began the multi-pronged invasion of the solar system, what did they encounter on the many worlds?"
"Uhhh," The older boy scratched his head. "De....mons?"
Mistress Julia scrutinised him sternly before tipping her head slightly. "That is correct. You may sit down." She turned her attention back to Nautilus. "You see, students, when the conquest of the stars began, we found that the Demon race had already begun their invasion of the solar system. They were like an infestation that had been loosed into reality. Unlike mankind, which relied on costly and time-consuming traditional space travel, Demonkind had mastered teleportation magic, allowing them to move from world to world at a pace we could not match.
It became clear to our forebearers that our crusade would not take off as long as Demonkind competed against us, and thus the Conquest of the Stars became a Crusade against the Demon race, one that took mankind a Hundred and Twenty Nine years to execute, and ended only seven years ago, with the demise of the Demon King."
Mistress Julia took a long look at the classroom in front of her, taking in the slack-jawed younger students and the apathetic adolescents. She leaned against her desk, ready to continue her lesson when a quick rap of knuckles sounded on her wooden door.
Before she could answer, the door was swung open, and a soldier entered the classroom. The children were unaffected by the sight of the tall, camo-draped figure.
"Orders for you, ma'am." The soldier simply said, offering a slip of white paper to Mistress Julia.
She took the slip in hand and whispered to herself. Her eyes quickly ran over the words. Once done, she smoothly folded the paper and handed it to the soldier. "I don't know about Wukong and J-46, but I can get you three right now." She told the soldier. Then she turned back to the students, pointing, " Reynard, Musa, Nautilus, get up. You've been summoned to the Principal's office. Follow Private... Matsumoto here."
The three students promptly got up and formed a short line by order of age. Reynard languidly led the awkwardly tall Musa and then the ever-eager Nautilus.
Private Matsumoto led them out of the classroom, where they encountered a small crowd of whispering children. The children immediately fell silent at the sight of the soldier. The children quickly formed a marching line, which Reynard led his small squad to join.
The soldier, Matsumoto, took off. The students followed closely behind.
They travelled the labyrinthine, sterile halls of The Base, which many jokingly referred to as the Zoo. Every few halls or so, they would see the open sky through slitted skylights.
The Earth showed especially bright, like a blue pearl in a sea of black ink.
After several turns and narrow passageways, they reached another classroom, one much noisier than Mistress Julia's. Private Matsumoto entered the class and emerged a few moments later, followed by an adolescent.
The apelike boy had golden hair adorning his body. And bare hands where his feet should have been.
He smiled broadly upon seeing Reynard, revealing large, sharp canines.
He squeezed himself into the space behind Reynard, pushing back awkward Musa, giving only a brief 'sorry' before turning to his green-haired companion. "Rey, man, you have any Idea what's going on?" Wukong whispered.
"Nothing, Wukong. All I know is the Principal summoned us out of class. That's it"
"Well, I'll take any chance at a free period." He glanced around conspiratorially, "Hey, you don't think it's because of-"
"Shhhhhh" Reynard placed his hand on Wukong's mouth, silencing him and stalling the marching line behind them. They quickly ran to catch up.
Reynard continued, "If it was that, why would they summon so many of us. Look, even Little Red is here." He gestured to Nautilus, whose eyes were following the slitted skylights up above.
"You're right," Wukong said.
"I know I am." Reynard answered, "Now shut up or we're gonna get noticed."
They continued in silence until they reached a long hallway that ended in a tall, domed structure. Hexagonal niches filled the walls and roof of the space, giving it an echoic quality. The lower niches of the structure were filled with dim candles, crackling gently in the obviously sacred area.
Private Matsumoto entered the temple-like hall with his slip of orders. He offered them to a short, broad man in brown robes. The man left for a side hall and returned with a tall adolescent.
The boy had dark, scaly skin and no visible nostrils. He had simple eyes that stared at the space between his toes. An easy-going smile played on his lips.
The short monk spoke to the boy, and his whispered words echoed.
"J-46, I need you to go with the nice soldier, okay?" The words were gently delivered.
The boy answered with a simple nod.
"You'll be back with me soon enough. You just have to meet the principal. You like the Principal, don't you?"
The boy nodded again.
"Good. Now join the line and you'll follow the nice soldier to him."
The grey-scaled boy shuffled to stand last in the marching line. With him present, Private Matsumoto began counting. He consulted his slip of orders one last time before they took off once more. This time, they wandered deeper into The Base, so deep that the slitted skylights were no more, and the sterile metal walls were replaced by cool moonstone.
They marched until they stood before a pair of large steel doors. Private Matsumoto typed in a series of numbers on a keypad beside the doors, and they slid open with a hiss.
Standing behind the doors were two men. One was tall and spectacled, with bright, scholarly eyes and a shock of silver hair. The other man was dressed in classical Japanese clothing and painted heavily with powder white make-up.
Both men shared a proud glance at seeing the assembled children.
The spectacled man moved forward. He was the principal of the Base's "school", Dr Traubert. He shared a fatherly smile with each of the children and clapped his hands together.
"Well, children, I'm sure you are all wondering why I have brought you here. I'll not tarry any longer. This is a friend of mine, his name is Dr Fan, and I've told him all about you special kids, and he has been interested in meeting each and every one of you for a long time.
I hope you kids can humour these two old men and show us what you've got!"
The assembled children looked confused.
Reynard felt a tapping on his shoulder.
"Hey, Rey", Wukong said, "I think I figured out what the principal summoned us for."
"No shit."
"It's a talent show!"