7 Years Before
"James!"
Something slammed into my back so hard I nearly ate dirt. I staggered, caught myself, and spun to find the culprit: Albert Kollins.
He wore that fox grin, dark blue eyes bright with mischief. Pale-blue hair in a lazy bun, a few bangs framing his annoyingly perfect features. Despite boot camp hell, the bastard still had marble skin, while I smeared burn cream on my arms every night. Courtesy of Captain Archibald Rademaker.
"Would you be careful, Albert? I almost went face-first into the mud! That could've ruined my helmet." I pried his arms off my waist. He was already snickering. Gods, he was infuriating, always treating life like a joke.
"Ohhh, is little James shy about his pretty pink hair? Afraid the other recruits will call you a girly-girl?" Albert puffed his chest and flexed under the crisp white ceremonial uniform of the 7th Medical Corps.
He smirked, pretending to be some caring superior when he was just a brat like me. "Don't worry. Big brother Albert is here to protect you."
He was showing off his medic promotion and he knew it. When I made Journeyman Engineer and Corporal faster than him, I'd show him who was boss.
Eldean ranks were simple enough that even that dunderhead Alice from Logistics could remember them. First, Privates, where Albert, Alice, and I started. Then Corporals, who led squads of five Privates and taught the basics in live engagements. Sergeants handled active duty and took mixed teams on scout missions. The big leagues began at Lieutenant: projects, infiltrations, the start of real danger. Captains, according to Archibald, were different. They were deployed for grand ops like major nest strikes, with a lot of downtime between. Commanders and Generals rarely hit the field; they did mostly strategic work. When the red tide came, everybody from the lowest Privates to the Generals was forced to fight on the front lines.
Each corps had its own names, but they all meant the same thing. I never understood why the old men needed so many titles. What's wrong with "Corporal" plus the division?
"Shut it. You know why I don't like going without my helmet," I said, tightening the strap. His grin faded to something more thoughtful.
"You're not a cadet anymore, James. You don't have to hide your hair. Those bastards in boot camp bullied anyone they could. They're just failures from past years."
"I'm not afraid, Albert. I'm a soldier of Eldea. Courage is my blood and fire is my will. None shall stan—"
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard the motto a hundred times," he cut in, rolling his eyes. "Boot camp, parades, those fancy parties. It's sawdust in my ears already. Mate, you don't have to parrot Captain Rademaker like a town crier."
"That's Eldea's anthem, Albert! Denigrating it is grounds for being court-martialed!"
"I doubt the higher-ups care. I bet even your pops—uh, Captain Rademaker—wouldn't blink if you complained to his face, no matter how patriotic he is."
"Ca—Captain Archibald is an honorable man," I said, heat crawling up my neck. "He'd follow procedure. He'd have to take disciplinary action."
Albert caught the slip. Grinning like a devil, he hooked an arm around my neck and dragged me close.
"Yes, the disciplined and serious Papa Archibald would surely scold his adopted son," he snickered.
"Albert—"
He just laughed harder, the sound bouncing across the training field as he dragged me forward.
Present Time
The memories rolled in like a tide, but I couldn't let my guard slip. Albert wouldn't want me wasting his sacrifice on nostalgia or getting duped by some shapeshifter wearing a somewhat convincing face of my old friend.
I kept Bastion tight to my chest, angled so I could drop the guy if he moved. I didn't point it right at him; I wanted to hear him out—or I hoped that was the reason. His smile stretched a little, like he approved of the alert but not aggressive stance.
"Well then, friend. I'm Khun Aguero Agnis. I saw how well you handled that Malacostracoid. How about a deal?"
"What kind of deal?" I asked, listening for grass shifting, movement, drawn blades—anything. He could have teammates, and this could just be bait. The fire behind me was a solid wall now, too thick for a flank unless the Tower had something that could walk through flames or absorb them.
"No need to be so tense. No one's stabbing you in the back," he said, smiling a shade too clean. "Simple terms: I help you pass this test, you help me pass the next. What do you say, buddy?"
The offer was tempting; minimizing risk would keep me alive. Eldea taught me plenty. I've seen over a hundred fights and survived the last war, but I'm not immune to stupidity. My mistakes are why Norman and Archibald are dead. The thought hit hard and my heart shuddered with grief. I couldn't fold here. Their deaths are on me, and maybe I'm scum for still breathing, but the least I can do is keep going. Honor the memory of the people who helped me get where I am now.
The issue lay in trust. Could I trust this stranger? Trust him not to stick a knife in me? Not to use me like a pawn and toss me the first chance he got? Could I trust anybody?
"No. No, I could not."
The picture shifts: a soldier running. He leaves two wounded Privates behind—one hauling the other, barely alive. The coward's armor is worn, seasoned. He runs anyway without stopping. The pink-haired Private calls for his officer, begs him to help. The man doesn't look back. That day, a friend died so another could get their revenge. Albert's sweet smile was drowned by his screams.
"I'm sorry, but I must decline," I said, beginning to back away from Khun Aguero Agnis. Before he could disappear, I chucked a red flare toward him.
Flare Stick
Signaling Device
Type: Thermal Diffusion, Signal Device
Weight: 0.4 kg
Durability: Single-use
Smoke Duration: ~2 minutes
Effect: Emits a dense column of reddish smoke visible up to 300 meters.
"You're a bit young, so if you need help, use it. If I'm available, I'll try to help you," I said.
The young man quirked a brow before smiling and stashing the flare in his bag.
"Don't you think I could use it to trap you?"
"I can tell you one thing, young man," I replied. "I have enough experience that whatever trap you set would matter little when I could see it from a distance."
I hoped I was more experienced than he was. He looked around sixteen, and even Eldea didn't send cadets to their deaths before their fourteenth birthdays. This world held plenty of strange things, but I hoped dearly that at least here, children didn't have to watch their friends die in front of them.
"You're quite arrogant, aren't you?" he asked.
I ignored his last comment. Arrogance had already cost me much. Norman would still be alive if I had prepared enough or delayed the mission. This was a futile attempt to make sure that, if need be, I would be there to save him—or them. A futile attempt by a man who had already disappointed a bright, innocent soldier so similar to himself in his youth.
I watched as Khun Aguero Agnis waved goodbye, then confirmed that the spreading fire was still causing plenty of trouble for other participants, before I also departed from the chaos behind me.
I readied my rifle as I spotted a jumble of humanoid species fighting one another in a melee farther off. I could have climbed one of the nearby outcroppings and engaged from a distance, but from here, the fighting looked even more intense on the ridges than on the flats. Climbing while under fire would have put me at risk of being shoved off—and a fall in this yellow purgatory would have been a very bad way to die.
The best option was to stay in the shade, press my back to a wall, and use my Bastion rifle to snipe the stragglers after they had exhausted themselves, thinking they'd won. Scanning the surroundings, I spotted a suitable location about two hundred meters away and rushed forward like a bullet. My footfalls made sizable craters in the ground as I sped forward, keeping my body low so the golden grass would cover my charge and hide me from any ranged attacks.
When I arrived, I crouched and used Bastion's iron sight to analyze the battlefield exploding before me. Around fifteen combatants were tearing each other apart—stabbing, slashing, ripping each other's guts out. There were no children or innocents who could be caught in the crossfire, so I took aim and began shooting the tired victors one by one.
K-CHAK
A multi-armed red humanoid dropped as I sniped him through the back of the skull.
K-CHAK
A man missing an arm had his eye blown out; the bullet exited cleanly from the back of his head.
K-CHAK K-CHAK
A pair of snake-like creatures feasting on their kill had their meal ruined as bullets tore through their heads.
K-CHAK
A masked man, wearing nothing but a pair of pants, had his brain explode inside his leather mask.
The remaining three combatants seemed to realize they were being shot from afar and two quickly tried to escape away from me, one of them charging straight at me. Apparently, the rhinoceros-looking creature felt confident in its charge and toughness. He might have been right, but arrogance was nothing more than a death sentence in my experience.
I swapped in a more robust magazine and dove sideways as the rhino slammed into the wall, his eyes were likely too far apart to see me directly, and his momentum worked against him. I braced myself for the recoil and fired armor-piercing rounds into the side of his skull. The recoil exploded in my shoulder as the creature's face caved in around the point of impact and fell limp after two shots.
"MIC TEST! EVERYONE STAY WHERE YOU ARE!! THE FIRST TEST IS OVER NOW!!! ALL REMAINING REGULARS STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND LISTEN CAREFULLY. ANY REGULARS FIGHTING FROM NOW ON WILL BE ELIMINATED "
"So, 200 people died. I suppose it is the better option, the endless killings have begun to wear me down and it would be bad if I exhausted myself too much."
"-IT MAY SEEM RUSHED, BUT A SHORT SECOND TEST WILL BE CARRIED OUT RIGHT AWAY"
"No rest for the wicked, I suppose" I complained as I switched back to the standard magazine and prepared myself for whatever bullshit, this fucked-up tower had ready for me. I saw in the distance that the 2 escapees from my previous shootout had also stopped and had begun actively charging me.
"Shit, these bastards are planning to get in close after the guy speaking disallowed violence, so that they could remove my ranged advantage. Should I just shoot them? I mean it is a large area, maybe the- No, that's naive. Given the floating box in the sky I imagine he has some means to see if anybody broke the rules"
I took out a smoke grenade and chucked it at my feet as I was obscured by rapidly expanding ashen colored smoke. Instead of escaping, I crouched low and listened for any possible movements that would disturb the flat grass beneath the shade I was under. I took out my knife and prepared myself, remembering how I managed to hold out for 5 minutes before we were overwhelmed back then. These fellows were not insectoids so it should be easier.
Smoke Grenade
Obscuring Grenade
Type: Signal/Obscuring Device
Weight: 0.5 kg
Durability: Single-use
Smoke Duration: ~3 minutes
Effect: Emits a dense cloud of grey in a spherical space of 5 meter diameter.
"-THE SECOND TEST. THE CHALLENGE IS GETTING TEAMMATES!"
"What?" I thought as I quickly stood up and I rushed out of the smoke and came across my 2 teammates. A red-haired man with dark skin, dressed rather ostentatiously for a battlefield and a dark-haired dark-skinned woman holding a sword.