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THE ENTIRE FIRST YEAR followed much the same routine. Physical training, rifle training, endless hours on combat mats in the martial arts. Ruiz, Noku and I stuck together throughout, becoming a team so adapted to each other that during war game exercises, we were often paired alone against larger squads and remained victorious.
Training, for me, was often amusing and passed far more quickly than it had for anyone else. In the end, several challengers emerged, and while all were extremely capable, none managed to defeat my tactical expertise. I admit, this lead to a great deal of cockiness and arrogance on my part. I now reflect that perhaps that was what lead to future mistakes.
Our training totaled just over five full years. Our seventeen and eighteen-year-old bodies were sculpted into hardened, scarred and tough fighting machines. We were taught the finest points of education, math and sciences. Our instructors, the same ones who had attempted to train a group of veterans before us, declared us the finest fighting men that Vandor had ever seen.
Graduation day was a mixture of disappointment and excitement for me. Five years, we had trained. At twenty-two, I had grown taller and stronger. Mallory and I would be split from our roles, she a combat pilot within the Navy. I assured her that regardless, we would remain friends throughout.
The evening we graduated, we had all retired to a small, off campus bar that served a variant of alcohol. I enjoyed a tall ale with Ivata, while Mallory opted for some sort of fruit juice mixed with spirits.
“Rumor has it,” Ivata said with his no-nonsense tone. “That we’re going to be deployed for zero gravity combat training to Gilbaglia.”
Gilbaglia was our closest neighbor. There was a short corridor through the nebula that Vandor was situated in that lead directly to the three-world system that was almost as beautiful as our own. They were an odd alien species that was partly humanoid and partly Avian, with tall ruffled crowns, angular faces with yellow-gold beaks and tall lean bodies.
We often trained near their world with their own military. After the Phelb Empire had fought us in our own space, Vandor had been in a period of military buildup. Our fleet was six times the size of what it had been when we last fought the Phelbs, and now the addition of our unit as Special Forces.
I possess the gene that allows me to raise one eyebrow at a time, and my left rose at this. “We’ve logged over a thousand hours of zero g. Why would they send us out system for that?” I asked. “Besides, I’m more interested in what they’re going to name our unit.”
“Well it won’t be me.” Mallory added. “I’m bound for the belts to learn some combat maneuvers.” By belts, she meant the asteroid belts that circled our system, closer to our sun.
Ivata’s eyes followed a sanitation truck as it hovered down the street, spraying a water solution and vacuuming the street dry and clean. “Destota, you know that my father is in central command.”
Mallory and I glanced at him. “Yes.” I responded carefully.
“Talk to your dad.” He suggested. He finished his ale.
I remained silent, glanced once at my communication device laying dark screened in front of me, then up at Mallory. I managed a small smile. “Good luck out there.” I said softly.
She blasted me with her radiant smile that made her brown eyes sparkle with inner light. “You should do that more often.”
I blinked. “Wish you luck?”
“Smile.” She leaned over and kissed me on the lips lightly, then slipped from her chair, threw her jacket over her shoulders and left. I stared after her for a long moment until Ivata chuckled.
“That one,” He said, taking a sip of his beer. “Will be your undoing, sir.”
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