Galactic Year 10,653
November 19th
6:10 AM
Waking up was always the worst part of my day. It started with the bright lights above me blinking into life and the door to my room sliding open, an indication of morning's arrival, and before I was even remotely awake I was up and donning my shirt and pants. I went through the same mechanical motions I do every day, and a moment later I went through the door of my room into the hallway.
On my left five similarly garbed teenagers like me stood in front of their rooms, all as groggy and listless as I, and on my right stood a girl with large black bags under her eyes. As I stepped out of my room she glanced at me, the sharpness in her eyes contrasting her sleep-deprived appearance.
"Sure you're up to the task today?" she asked quietly. "You look like you slept poorly."
I returned her question with a concerned smile, "You look like you slept a lot worse than I did."
"I didn't sleep at all, actually. Too many voices again."
I frowned at that, giving her a concerned look, "I thought the changes they made to your room stopped that?"
"They did," she mumbled, "for a few weeks. They're getting stronger now: the work they did isn't enough."
I took a small step toward her and squeezed her hand gently, receiving a tight squeeze in return. "I'm sure if you ask tonight they'll take a look at fixing it again. I'll go with you to ask, okay?"
She gave me an appreciative smile, "Thanks. I couldn't get through this without you, you know that?"
I stepped back to my door and looked over at the larger boy on my left. "She'd be fine without us, wouldn't she, Neagen?" I asked.
The boy nodded solemnly, "Absolutely. Kaeya's the strongest of all of us after all."
As I turned to give Kaeya a cheeky grin a voice in my head, crystalline and hollow, replaced my thoughts, "No. No, I wouldn't be fine at all. I'm only strong because you're here with me..."
I looked at Kaeya, expecting her to be looking at me as she does when talking telepathically, but instead she was looking away, awaiting our researcher's arrival. What had I just heard, then?
Then the doors at the end of the long, white hallway slid open and two women wearing lab coats entered. The taller of the two, Meredith, handed each of us a breakfast bar. We got the same food every morning, but at least it didn't taste too bad. "Eat up, today's the big day, kids," she said gently, "and you're gonna need the energy."
The smaller researcher, Chantelle, stood waiting as we ate, and spoke up only once we were all finished, "Today we will finally determine whether or not each of you are fit to continue working here with us, so I better see you all trying your hardest. We don't expect all of you to display psychic gifts, so those who fail will still be rewarded a promising career at the Naval Academies for your work here. Now come this way, you'll change into your pilot's suit on the way."
She spun on her heel and set a brisk pace down the hallway as we marched behind her. A few minutes later we arrived in the one room none of us had set foot in before, dressed in our pure black pilot spacesuits. We were in a large dome at least two hundred metres across, standing lined up at the feet of a massive humanoid robot.
It had to be at least twenty metres tall, clad in armor plating colored a deep violet and gripping a massive sword impaled into the ground next to it. It was called the Prodigy, from what I'd heard. It was the machine we'd been specially trained to pilot.
Looming over us with his bulky build and clad in his drab grey lab coat stood Lead Scientist Hearth, the man in charge of the entire facility.
"Today we finally commence aptitude trials," he thundered, his voice booming throughout the dome. "You will be undergoing two separate tests. First: you are to attempt to start up the suit standing behind you. The cockpit has been modified to forcibly extract the needed psychic energy from you, so you merely need to survive the process." He turned and looked each of us down individually, "Afterwards, you are to show us the skills you've learned in your training by defeating a category three monster we have prepared. Do you understand?"
A simultaneous chorus of "Yes, Sir!" rang up from us, apprehension hanging thick in the air, and finally the trial we'd prepared for for so long began.
The first person to climb the nearby scaffolding up to the suit's chest and enter the cockpit was a smaller boy named Jackson. He wasn't a particularly outstanding person, and I never really talked much with him, but I still found myself silently cheering for him, waiting for something to happen. Unfortunately, mere seconds later the paramedics on standby hurried forwards and pulled him out of the cockpit, rushing him away on a stretcher. As they carried him past us I could see blood streaming from his nose, his eyes a lifeless void.
My stomach churned uneasily as the feeling of nervousness among us grew.
The next person, a stubbornly serious girl named Liana, was also pulled out by the paramedics unconscious, and the third, the cheery Henri, left coughing up a shocking amount of blood.
The fourth up, Neagen, was the first to successfully start up the colossal suit. Its reactor thrummed with life for a few seconds, but then it fell silent once more and he also had to be pulled out from the suit. His body was lifeless.
Fifth was a rambunctious girl named Lilly, but despite her efforts nothing happened, and she was forced to return dejectedly after two minutes, unsuccessful but uninjured.
Kaeya was next.
I glanced over at her to see her staring up at the Prodigy, a look between awe, determination, and fear on her face. Again, I heard that hollow voice among my thoughts, "I... I feel it. You're not a normal machine, are you? Or..." Kaeya clenched her fists. "No, it doesn't matter what you are. This is the path I must take to protect everyone. I will not allow you to harm anyone else."
The voice disappeared, and Kaeya cast a reassuring look at me as she began climbing the steps upwards. "I'll be fine, just you watch me!" she shouted.
"You'd better be fine!" I shouted back.
The next minute felt like an eternity, watching her head up to that cockpit with my heart tight with the fear that she would end up being injured like the others. Every step rang out in the relative silence of the dome, and as she climbed into the suit her hand appeared from the cockpit in a fist, a single thumb raised. And then the hatch closed, a high-pitched whining beginning.
"I'm sure she'll be fine, Kalani," said Lilly from where she sat behind me. "We already know for sure she's got psychic gifts unlike us, so I doubt she'll have any problems."
I stared up at the enormous robot as Kaeya did, watching parts of the suit begin to start up one by one. "I know. It's just... controlling something that big? I'm worried it'll be too much for even her to do." The whining noise grew louder and deeper. "I mean, it's clearly dangerous to even start it up, so-" I was cut off as the suit took a step backwards, it's foot landing with an impact that cracked the rocky ground around it. The whining was now a deep thrumming, and the suit's arms moved around in a stretching motion.
The Lead Scientist donned the headset that had lain around his neck, speaking into it, "Well done, you've lived up to our expectations so far. When you're ready, brandish that sword and we'll begin test two."
I look over at Lead Scientist Hearth, raising my voice over the noise of the Prodigy moving, "Isn't it dangerous for us to be in here? What if the monster gets past her?" I asked.
"Then it shall be killed by the implants," he responded without even looking at me, annoyance on his face.
Right: all captured monsters were implanted with neural shocks that could kill them instantly. I had forgotten about them. Well, it's not a normal day if I don't feel like an idiot at least once, I guess.
I turn back to watching Kaeya, the gargantuan suit she was in lifting a sword almost as long as it. She pondered the weapon for a moment, the suit's human-like head looking at it, then flourished it. "I'm ready, sir," she said through the suit's speakers.
In response a gate on the opposite end of the dome opened, revealing a beast inside nearly as large as the Prodigy. It was covered in thick, heavy carapace, and stood on six large tree-like legs while it's face bore two short but sharp tusks.
The beast charged out of the pen the moment the gate was open wide enough, the ground shaking violently with each mighty step it took. Kaeya responded by sending the Prodigy into a casual, loping gait towards the charging foe, her blade held lightly to her side.
For a tense moment we watched the two titanic combatants drawing nearer, breaths held in suspense, and then they met with a thundering crash.
With a scream audible even over the cacophony Kaeya ignited the Prodigy's thrusters and leapt up and sideways, bringing her blade up and into the monster's thick hide. As the beast swung one of its tusks at her she tore the blade free, hopping backwards with a short push from her jets.
In a mere moment the beast recovered its wits and charged at her once more, ignoring the gash in its side that should've crippled its movement, but with a deft twist of her blade she parried aside the incoming tusks and, grabbing onto one of the beast's top carapace plates, threw herself on top of it.
The sudden weight forced the monster onto its stomach, and Kaeya held it down with her left arm as she brought the blade down upon its head repeatedly. Finally, several excruciatingly long moments later, the beast fell silent, it's roars still ringing in my ears. Stepping off the corpse, Kaeya walked the Prodigy back over to us, carrying the now-bent blade over its shoulder. "Told you I'd be fine," she said over the speakers, panting.
I grinned, an unfamiliar and odd sense of pride welling up inside me.
"That is far beyond fine, Cadet," Hearth proclaimed, looking down at an Info-Tablet and speaking into his headset. "You have surpassed our most far-fetched expectations; it would seem we still have much more to learn about Psychics. Now re-dock the Prodigy and get yourself checked out by the paramedics, I don't trust the life support when it says you're in perfect condition."
"Roger, Sir," Kaeya responded.
Hearth's suspicions seemed to be correct, for when Kaeya opened the cockpit and stepped out her legs buckled, and she had to be assisted down. As she finally reached the ground she gave me a flat look, though I could see her mouth twitch up in a smile. "I don't wanna hear it. It totally still counts as fine."
I sighed, more in relief than humorously, "I suppose you're right, you're still able to be so stubborn after all."
"Of course I'm right! And I would've been even finer if I'd had a heavier weapon that could actually penetrate that damn carapace." She paused for a moment, "I'm expecting you to be just as fine as me, you got that?"
I gave her a thumbs up, "I'll do my best, Kaeya."
The paramedic walked her over to a small medical station up against the dome's wall, and I was left standing alone, the last to attempt to pilot the suit.
Hearth looked at me, annoyed once more, "Well? If our tests are correct you stand a good chance of succeeding, so don't let us down Kalani."
Ever the inspirational orator, as usual. I ascended the stairs up to the cockpit slowly, thinking about Jackson, Liana, Henri and Neagen. They hadn't made it out of the cockpit unscathed, so what was going to happen to me? I stepped up into the cockpit without hesitation, hitting the button to close the door and sliding into the seat inside. In the dim red lighting I could just make out the button above me to initiate startup, and I paused just before my finger touched it.
The tiniest whisper in the back of my mind bid me stop. Gave me the impression that pressing the button would be dangerous. That I would not succeed like Kaeya. I couldn't let something as stupid as doubt stop me here, though, and I pushed in the button and gripped the twin control sticks.
A few things happened very quickly. First: I could hear that same whining beginning again, the sound of the reactor spinning up beneath me. Second: my head began to hurt immensely, and it was getting worse quickly. Third: I could hear somebody speaking to me, though it was too quiet to understand.
I gritted my teeth through the splitting pain and gripped the controls harder, my knuckles turning white with the pressure. I could feel the different parts of the Suit starting up, a feeling similar to paresthesia overtaking each of my limbs and then fading back to normal. The pain in my head worsened even more, and I felt blood trickling out of my nose.
As more systems came online the overhead monitor lowered down, a single underscore blinking in the top left corner. And then it moved, a broken message following behind it.
Go aw y Kalani. I do 't w nt to h rt anyon else. Go aw y.
I grit my teeth, my vision blurring slightly as the pain grew to mind-numbing levels. "I'm not. Going. Anywhere... I must. Protect. Kaeya..."
You ar n't trong eno gh. Yo 're g ing to kill yo rself.
"I don't know who. Or what. You are..." I said to the overhead monitor, struggling to breathe. "But you are not. Going. To stop me..." I could hear shouting from outside; presumably a paramedic.
The underscore blinked for a few seconds, though I could barely see it through whatever liquid was running down into my right eye.
. . . No. Initiating emergency startup abortion.
???
The next thing I remember was being rushed through some hallways while on a stretcher, a bandage ensconcing my head. After that I was woken up again by nearby voices, this time while laying in a hospital bed.
The first voice wasn't one I recognized, probably some researcher. "None of this data makes any sense! There was no system for aborting the startup sequence, so why did it stop? By all means he should be dead right now."
The second voice was Lead Scientist Hearth, his tone harsh. "Well it's your job to make it make sense. He had the reactor running, so couldn't he have done it subconsciously? With his psychic powers?"
"I mean, there's no way to measure that, sir," replied the first voice. "It's hard enough to measure the Prodigy itself, never mind the intricacies of the Pilot's psychic influence."
"Work on it then. You're dismissed."
A moment later a new voice piped up. "How is he?" asked Kaeya.
There was a moment of silence before Hearth responded, "You know he failed. We're going to have to erase his memory of everything now; he'll become a Navy Cadet."
"How is he?" she asked again, raising her voice.
"He's okay," Hearth answered. "He's going to make it through just fine. Whoever canceled the startup sequence saved his life, though if I catch them they're dead for tampering with the trial."
"It's not whoever, it's whatever. Or at least I think it is. I could feel it when I was piloting the Prodigy: there's something odd about it."
Hearth's voice became grave and angry, "This shit is why I hate Psychics. The hell does that mean, Kaeya? You want me to believe that the Prodigy is sentient or something?"
"I'm not sure what it is" she stammered in response, "I just know I could feel something. It's not like it matters now anyways, I'm the only one who'll be piloting it."
The wall of whatever room I was in groaned lightly with the stress of someone leaning on it.
"You've been told about what comes next, right?" Hearth said quietly. "You'll be transferred into the Teracon Navy Reserve to continue testing the suits and training in their use. You'll be leading a crew, too. Your work is just starting."
There was another moment of silence before Kaeya spoke.
"I want him with me," she said firmly.
"What?" Hearth replied, his voice incredulous.
"If he's not by my side," Kaeya said, her voice wavering, "I don't think I'm going to be able to do this. I understand that his memory has to be wiped, but please... At least don't take him away from me entirely..."
Another pause. "I suppose with his skills it could be arranged..." Hearth replied.
Kaeya's voice cracked, "Thanks... I just..." Kaeya paused, taking a deep breath. "I'll do my best, sir."
"The future of Teracon depends on it. I'll give you some time with him, but you don't have long. The procedure is in 2 hours, before he wakes up."
As the door slid shut I felt two soft, warm hands grip mine, tear droplets landing on my fingers. Then I slipped back into that long, dark slumber.
Six Years Later
April 7th
2:12 PM
I stopped in my tracks as I passed by the hanger doors, a newly minted battleship currently docking up. A few people jokingly told me to stop gawking at the new ship when they passed me by, but it was not the ship that had caught my attention. After a moment of summoning up my courage and straightening out my uniform I walked into the hanger, approaching the Captain of the new ship. They looked up from their tablet as I approached, smiling ever so lightly.
It would be rude not to introduce myself first, so I leaned up against the railing next to them, "I'm Special Technician Kalani Shairolette. What's someone as... Erm..." No, not the time brain! Why now!?
She laughed softly and held her hand out, a smile as dazzling as a thousand stars lighting up her face, "Nice to meet you Kalani. I'm Lieutenant-Junior Kaeyanth Aybrams, but you can call me Kaeya."