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  Butz barely made his way through the cuts that occurred each year at Crest, working twice as hard as everyone else to pass the rigors of physical endurance. Just earlier this year, he had passed out in the middle of a training simulation far above his own level, a challenge he unnecessarily took on. Where Magnus was physically gifted but a nerd deep down, Butz was mentally gifted but a soldier deep down. The two often bemoaned each other for wasting their natural talents. Prior to academy, he had been recruited aggressively by universities, but had decided early on in his life that he would become a soldier.

  Butz’s familiar, Linx, was a stage 2 Aeyz Cat — a difficult breed to tame, but powerful and impressive in combat with an extreme penchant for agility. Aeyz Cats bent circumambient light while they stalked prey to become nearly invisible, had a strange habit of howling like wolves to alert others of danger, and enjoyed pentachromatic vision, extending their ocular perception to ultra-violet and infrared. Butz often wondered what it would be like to perceive the world through Linx’s eyes — seeing everything in ten times more color and depth than humans ever could. If Aeyz Cats were able to grow into their later stages, their silvery fur acquired a spectral aesthetic; an attribute that often attracted an artistic set of owners who believed, sometimes wrongly, that they had the determination necessary to nurture such a powerful familiar to its later stages. But for this very reason, prolific hunting of Aeyz Cats has turned extinct the most mature members of their breed.

  “It’s not funny guys,” Butz whined. “He never listens to me, and he won’t get off my head now.” Butz swiped again at the space above him, but the cat maneuvered flawlessly around it, and then looked down disapprovingly at its owner.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten such a hard to tame familiar,” Red remarked. He always thought there was something alluring about familiars in the cat family; their manners were mysterious and aloof, just watching them was entertaining. He once read that to properly tame them, you needed not only a powerful and dominant owner, but one who was appropriately balanced and foremost a master of themselves. As they grew into powerful beasts, their feral instincts required a nirvana-like discipline to properly control.

  “Yeah, and at the rate he’s growing, he’ll be stage 3 in just a few months. If he’s not tamed well enough by then, you’re gonna end up as his dinner one day,” Magnus laughed. Linx licked the top of Butz’s head more hungrily than lovingly right after the comment. Butz sighed in desperation, giving up any hope of freeing his head. “Well I guess I have a hat now,” he said optimistically as the other two howled with laughter again.

  “Oh, they’re already inside by the way,” Butz said, ushering Red and Magnus to follow him through the entrance. The height and design of the library’s doorway added a grandeur aura to its foyer. The heads of various critters lined the top of a long mantle that hung high above, representing the achievements students had championed at Crest. Two of their own were among the decorations — the heads of a boorish looking Danube, a four legged hairy beast that had nothing on its body besides an enormous mouth, and a much more prominent looking River Harpie, a creature that Red and Magnus had spent a week deep-diving into a freezing lake to find. River harpies were scaly humanoid creatures that looked like a cross between a Landshark and an elf, and were capable of hiding themselves in complete camouflage while underwater. It was rumored that once, long ago, before hunting Dragons was a breach of imperial code and a highly ostracized practice, the head of a Crimson Reaper lined the mantle as well, and overshadowed everything below it. There were twenty six types of dragons, each one identifiable by their distinct shade of color. Crimson Reapers, whose hides always glowed a blood red, were notable for their infinite resistance to heat and their radioactive vision.

  They made their way inside, preparing for all the laughs Butz would get, but instead found almost everyone cluttered around the main screens in the lobby, their attention glued to a news report. From afar, Red could make out images of the desert, and what looked like footage of a search. They walked over hurriedly, attempting to piece together what the report was about from whatever they could gather.

  They scanned the area and found Raven and S near the edge of the group. S was watching along nervously while Raven had her usual look of disinterest, only occasionally glancing at the screen to follow what was going on.

  Red had grown up with Raven Maestro, the captain of their team, and the highest individually ranked student at Crest. Raven had jet black hair with strands of dark blue, lilac eyes, and an athletic build. She was the only student classified as Prometheus, a rare category reserved for people who were proficient in enough distinctions to avoid a single classification. She was generally a loner, save for a strong attachment to Red — with her sword being her second best friend. While her gear was mostly second and third-grade like Red’s, her blade was a remarkable work of art, an enormous weapon she had won from a dueling tournament that entertained contestants from all over Avalonia. Red had met her when they were both only seven, more than twelve years ago. Prior to that, she had grown up in a colony on an outer planet, but rarely spoke of that time. She had a line of admirers including most of the boys in their senior class, but always seemed overly disinterested in getting to know anyone. Her fighting style was precise and clean, but Red always noticed it had a touch of excessive brutality, an immaculate form corrupted with the slightest hint of a sadistic undertone.

  Their fifth and last member, S Nova, was an upbeat and sociable healer that loved fighting for a good cause. S took combat seriously, had a taste for sarcasm, which she would exercise on Butz regularly, and like Magnus, was extremely loyal. She came from a wealthier family outside of Avalonia, but had a natural talent for fitting in wherever she went. She was blue-eyed, slightly taller than Butz, and regularly changed her hair color. Currently she was sporting a distinct shade of green. She was the most recent addition to their team, joining a little less than two years ago, but since then, the five of them have stuck together like family.

  “What did we miss?” Magnus whispered.

  “Caravan went missing yesterday at 29:30,” S replied. “MegaCORP transport, whole crew disappeared. They were found later…but…umm…not in the same state.”

  “Someone tried to steal Cron?” Red asked, in an incredulous tone that reflected how difficult the task was. The caravans that transported Cron were taller than buildings, manned by highly trained crew, and nearly impossible to penetrate. Once they were locked for transport, not even the crew responsible for moving them could reopen the seals. There was a time long ago when MegaCORP was regularly threatened by radical groups who opposed the use of Cron or wanted to protest MegaCORP’s extensive web of influence, but more recent security measures and generous buy-outs reduced the company’s enemies to all but a few extremists. There were a few locations in Avalonia that were rich with Cron, among them, a place in the Alloy Desert several hundred tezras south of Echidna City. The extraction plant there was the size of a small polis, the second-largest in Avalonia by output.

  “That’s what makes it so bizarre; someone could’ve stolen Cron, but didn’t. They only went for the crew,” S replied. “Seems like they were disinterested in the Cron itself; they were just looking for people, and the ones they found happened to be transporting Cron.”

  “What happened to the crew?” Butz asked anxiously.

  “Attacked?” Magnus guessed. “Maybe it was a political thing. You know how riled some people can get over MegaCORP.”

  S gulped nervously before beginning her response. “Well it looks like…it looks like they were eaten…”

  “No!” Butz whispered loudly. “What?!”

  “Maybe it was a creature or something in the desert; who knows what could be out there? It has to be,” Red replied.

  “Couldn’t have been,” S answered. “All the vehicles were left perfectly intact, there would’ve been collateral damage or at least displacement in the sand if it was something that could take a MegaCOR
P crew out. It was done too precisely. Crew was taken out and their…leftovers… were found fifteen tezras away approximately a day later by the Echidna Guard, after an auto distress signal was sent out from the stationary caravan.”

  “How many?” Butz asked.

  “Seven in total,” S replied. “Trained crew and everything too, so whatever did it…”

  “Is still out there,” Raven remarked bluntly — finishing S’ sentence and snapping the rest of them out of their awe. “We have a lot of work to do. We still have a field test,” she added curtly, before making her way towards the terminal lifts. Red, Magnus, S, and Butz shared an uneasy look with each other before following her, unable to shake off their foreboding feelings. Red glanced back at the screens one last time before stepping onto the lift, catching an image of what looked like a gruesome collection of limbs and bones in a net. Must’ve been what they found he thought to himself.

  At the edge of the lift, Butz decided to have a go at Linx one more time, attempting to catch the cat off guard, but fell prey to the cat’s reflexes once more.

  “You clearly just don’t know anything about cats, do you?” S remarked matter-of-factly. “You just have to offer them food.” She took an elk pop from her pocket and held it towards Linx, offering the treat in a pampering voice. The cat looked at her in the eye as she pleaded with it, showing no interest. After a while, she blushed and withdrew her hand, trying to pretend the exchange never happened.

  “Marvelous!” Butz screamed, as Magnus and Red laughed along. The exchange helped lighten the mood as they made their way to a terminal on the top floor. They trained with another team of five, going over a north-eastern route that would avoid the area where the caravan was found, to everyone’s relief. The route would pass through zones of powerful enough critters to score them points, but still remained relatively close to “safe areas.” Their microAI’s would act as their primary grading mechanism, recording everything around them to be re-imaged, including their encounters and how they went. A control room at Crest mapped everyone’s progress this way. More points were earned for fighting more powerful creatures or going deeper into the desert, either underground through cavern entrances or outwards in any direction.

  The dread from the news downstairs eventually dissipated as everyone settled into a rhythm while they drilled. They wanted to end early to conserve their energy, but Raven insisted that they have a comprehensive session. The team they partnered with had gone back to their quads long before their own session ended. At the end of it, Red and Magnus walked back to their shared room half-asleep. Magnus could barely stand and collapsed almost instantly, while Red more gradually ebbed into his dreams. He had nearly forgotten about the news clip from the library, but the thought surfaced in his mind as he tried to sleep. There was something eery about the occurrence; he would’ve felt better if it was a Xenosite attack or something understandable. It was always the inexplicable, no matter how much less disturbing the substance of the event was, that really bothered him. I guess that’s normal, everyone feels that way, he thought to himself as he drifted to sleep.

  A few short hours later, he awoke with a jolt, electrified from a nightmare. His palms were covered in cold sweat and he looked down to see his body visibly shaking. Everything ached and for a moment he thought the pain was only in his head, a phase of his nightmare, until he remembered their training from earlier. Brilliant idea Raven, have us all burned out before the field test. He rested his head on his palms, trying to shake off the exhaustion and imagined that he would be fine after a hot shower, a stretch, and a long period of meditation. His dream had left him feeling nervous and edgy, not a good state to be in prior to an exam that would determine the course of his life.

  He stared out of his corner window, recognizing the familiar dimness that started as their two stars, one red and one blue, set for the only time during the year. Crest was housed in the top 42 floors of one of Echidna’s smaller super structures; but the building was still tall enough to grant its upper inhabitants a magnificent view of the city. Out of his window, the giant metropolis looked like an urban jungle. Hover pods floated freely through the air above most of the city at speeds that forced them to swerve dangerously around super structures, cars formed rivers of traffic around the network of streets and bridges that webbed around the city, and all the different hues from advertisements and signs melted into a dazzling tapestry of neon colors. Despite the fact that he had only spent the last four years of his life here, Echidna was the only place he felt he could call home. Even with its erratic weather and less than ideal location in the middle of a desert, he felt comfortable and at ease here.

  Magnus was still sound asleep, occasionally snoring in a heavy manner. Red snapped his microAI from his wrist and sent out a mass message to his closest friends to see if anyone was still awake. Because Avalonia enjoyed endless daylight, students slept as they pleased around their 33 hour days, but teams usually conformed to the same sleep schedule. After he sent his message, he remembered glumly that most people had either left or were resting before the field test. But a minute later, his microAI lit up with a response. It was Raven, who he realized never seemed to be asleep at all. She was eating downstairs just two floors below their quads.

  Realizing how hungry he was himself after her message, he decided to skip his shower and opted for a quick face-wash. As he splashed water on his cheeks to wake himself up, he looked up towards the mirror in front of him, and then leapt to his feet, snapping around to attention behind him. There was nothing there, but he could’ve sworn he had seen a silhouette of something in the mirror. He wiped his face with his eyes open, feeling more anxious than ever, and impatient to meet someone else who was awake. Company always settled his nerves. He sat by Magnus for a minute to gather himself, and then quietly put on his combat suit. While the armor was comfortably thin, it was still padded in certain areas to absorb shock and incoming energy waves. The vest was particularly heavy, protecting his torso area for the maximum amount without sacrificing flexibility. The suit was colored a dark grey with strokes of light green, the colors of Crest Academy. After taking a long look at his room to make sure he had not forgotten anything, he quietly headed out.

  He felt a wave of relief as he entered the halls, noticing that there were still a few other people walking around. As he made his way to the elevator platforms, it occurred to him that he may never see this place again. He had mixed feelings about leaving — excitement for moving on, but a nostalgic type of bleakness for losing everything he had here. He brushed off the thoughts, imagining that there would be enough time to lament the end of his time here after his field test was over. If I fail, it may very well not be the last time I’m here, he laughed to himself.

  He found Raven sitting by herself at a long table, eating a brownish fruit covered with seedy ridges that he’d never seen before. The variety of foods at the eatery was constantly changing, one of the benefits of a tier 1 academy. There was no one there besides two other students in pajamas at the far opposite side. The floor to ceiling windows that usually flooded the place with light now faded into a grim shade of dusk. Besides the library, the eatery was his other favorite place at academy. It was always alive with noise and laughter during the year, and he had many of his best memories hanging out with his team here. Combat training was its own type of fun, but nothing could match the pure joy of companionship.

  “Can’t sleep?” she asked when he got to her. She hacked away at her fruit, whose skin seemed unusually sturdy. He noticed that she was using a cutlass, a combat weapon, and not a fruit knife like normal people.

  “Mmhmm” he replied. He grabbed the fruit from her and took a bite, instantly regretting it as his taste buds coiled in agony from the bitterness. “Ew… what is that?” he asked.

  “Marrow egg,” she smiled, referring to the scaly birds that flocked around the rooftops of Echidna. Red made a disgusted facial gesture after hearing he had eaten one of their premature kin that made
her laugh.

  “Don’t laugh too hard, people might hear you,” he teased. “I think the food’s gotten worse since we first came here. I remember tasting much finer things during our early years.”

  “I think it’s gotten better — much healthier — but that never seemed to be your style of appetite,” she replied sarcastically. It was true, both he and Magnus had a penchant for eating unholy amounts of junk food, but they figured they worked hard enough to burn it off. They both had made a resolution long ago that after they graduated, they would retire to much healthier lifestyles. Now that that time had finally come, he was unsure if he would follow through.

  “Remember when we first got here and we’d never seen that much food just given out for free?” Red asked.

  “Mmhmm. I remember spending the first three days here just eating,” she smiled, her voice peppered with just the slightest hint of nostalgia.

  “Do you feel bad…I mean…about leaving?” Red asked.

  She paused for a moment before answering, glancing around at the eatery as if she were recalling all the times they had eaten here. Red felt as though it were just yesterday that they had their first meal here. He even remembered which table they sat at. “It’s a useless emotion,” she finally replied. “Missing things. This is how life is, what’s the point?” She seemed to zone back to her usual aloof attitude after the question, as if her response reminded her that this was how she felt.