She jumped forward, taking a bit of a run up and threw all of her weight into the harness. The ropes pulled taut and snatched her back and the air was bashed out of her lungs as she fell down into the ground.

'He makes it look so easy,' she sighed, rubbing her chest where the harness had cut into her skin.

She had tried to pull the plough, find out exactly how difficult it was and had discovered that it was nigh impossible for her. If she threw all her weight into it she managed to pull it ahead ever so slightly but unlike him she lacked the sheer strength required to use it. It was one of her many pet gripes that she had with living in the village. She did not mind it overmuch, given that she loved him and understood his reasons, but she wished he would at least be more open about visiting the city once in a while. She missed the life there terribly, all the excitement, the countless people walking about. A constantly changing environment that she could drown herself in. She nagged about it once in a while, in a playful manner mostly. The few times it had become a serious plea, his insistent, almost desperate arguments had crushed any discussion. He was not ready for it and to unleash someone whose first reaction to any situation that caught him off guard was instant violence onto a city filled with people who would likely cause such situations wasn't fair on anyone.

So she stayed with him, not unhappy, but still dreaming of a future, as she guided him towards it, making him more of a human and less of a soldier with each passing day. Her nerves were slightly fraying, however. She loved her husband to bits but she missed being around other humans in a way. The villagers didn't really count, she had known them her entire life. Her ego was hungry for competition and while she had easily trounced most of her academic competitors a few had given her a run for her money and she had to put in a ton of work to surpass them. She thrived on it and as much as she enjoyed having a superhuman around who catered to her nearly-every wish, it was taking a toll on her self-esteem. Whenever he picked up a skill he improved by leaps and bounds within days while she helplessly paddled along, trying to get even the basics down. Physically she wasn't even in the same league as him. The only advantage she had was her degrees, most of them in psychology, and her ability to predict people, even if he was a daft hand at it himself. She blamed that one on his age rather than who he was. Spend enough time around humans and they become predictable to a degree. The only reason he wasn't trouncing her there as well was because his mind was an alien thing.

She was so caught up in her thoughts, fiddling with the harness, that she never spotted him coming. She felt the earth move as he landed behind her, his immense weight causing him to sink into the earth, but at the same moment his hands were around her as he gave her a gentle, needy hug. She screamed even as her mind made the click and told her it was him and not a wild animal about to trample her. She forced the rest of the scream down, turning around in his arms and preparing to give him a scolding when she noticed his frown.

'Something wrong?'

'Somebody's approaching our house,' he said. She noticed the beads of sweat rolling down his forehead and she started wiping them off. He didn't care for his looks at all despite her constant reminders.

'Oh? Somebody from the village?' she asked casually, knowing that if it was he would have mentioned already. Casual conversation, another thing he had to learn. He tended to jump to conclusions far too quickly and it made the other villagers uncomfortable even if they couldn't say why.

His opened mouth fell close as he caught the unspoken hint. He nodded, showing his understanding.

'No, I don't think so. Whoever it is, they're coming in a Vertigo. I don't think anyone from the village would bother to visit us that way, don't you?'

She nodded approvingly. He was learning. Sometimes he just needed a reminder. Unlearning a habit proved damn difficult, but despite his frequent slip ups he was trying.

'No, probably not. Somebody from the city then? Anyone you know?'

'I hope not,' came the too quick answer and she finally managed to place the frown. She flicked his nose and gave him a vastly disapproving stare. He wilted under it.

'Maybe someone you know?' he muttered, chastised.

'Possibly. Shall we go greet them?'

'Sure! They should be at our house in a few minutes, so if we walk back they'll be able to spot us from the main road.' He let go of her and took a quick step back.

'Well, if they're paying attention. Want me to draw some by putting you on my shoulders?'

She giggled at the suggestion and took it under consideration for a few moments, before deciding against it.

'No, I'll pass on that', she said, setting off quickly towards their house, pulling him along, hoping to pull him off balance just enough before—

'Why?' came the question she dreaded.

She sighed. She hadn't wanted to answer that one truthfully, feeling awfully selfish in her reasoning.

'If it's someone from the city it might be someone who's either known me or has found my profile online. I have a lot of my degrees to my name. Maybe they're out here with a job offer and then I want to make a good impression. I was the alumni of my year, you know?' she replied, a pinch of pride in her voice.

'Alumni? I don't think I ever heard that word before.'

'It means I had the highest marks.'

'Doesn't surprise me. Always knew you were a smart-ass.'

She stopped walking, letting him go by and watched him with wonder in her eyes.

'Was that a joke? Did you, mister super soldier, crack a harmless joke?'

His feet ground to a halt and he slowly turned. The sun caught him in the face and lit him up, his young, smooth features as handsome as ever to her. The smile on her lips was mirrored in his eyes as he met her gaze.

'Yes. Lovely, isn't it?'

Just as he predicted it didn't take long before they saw the road and only a moment later the Vertigo hovered into view, going at a slow pace as the driver took in the surroundings. Most of it was fields, divided in neat little parts with roughly half of them being ploughed already. There was a small wild patch of forest that had been left standing, but other areas had made way for meadows for the cattle to graze on and those areas were filled with sheep, goats, a pair of cows, some pigs and chickens that were wandering about all over. It painted quite the idyllic picture and to someone who was used to the hustle and bustle of the city it would be a distracting sight.

It didn't take long before the Vertigo driver spotted the couple and diverted itself away from the road, flying towards them at a far faster speed. It was a good thing she was holding Mentuc's hand as it approached, for when the driver started honking like there was no tomorrow she felt him tighten, his entire body readying itself for action. It was pure instinct and they both knew it, but she suspected that if she hadn't been holding on to him he would have likely been on top of the small aircraft before he'd regain control of himself. She found it simultaneously amusing and worrying. Then she returned her attention to the incoming vehicle, wherein there was someone who was clearly very happy to see them.

The small landing struts popped out and the floating car-like craft landed with a rather loud thunk, the struts sinking a good deal into the soft earth, tilting the vehicle precariously, causing Onoelle to gasp with worry. The port switched open and a young woman jumped out, shrieking with joy. It took her a moment to recognise the screaming woman as Jane Allistan, her friend from the city. Leaving her husband behind she ran towards her friend and the pair collided with surprising violence, Onoelle tackling her slightly taller friend to the ground with surprising force.

'Oomph! God dammit Leonne! Are you trying to kill me!' Jane coughed.

'Sorry! Sorry! I forgot, I mean, I!' Onoelle righted herself, turning beet red as she apologised.

'And what the hell were you thinking! You got married! Married! And you didn't send me an invitation! If I didn't know what an airhead you were when it comes to these things I'd be insulted!'

'Oh stars! I forgot! Jane I'm—' she began, then screamed as she felt hands slide under her arms and she was picked up.

'From a smart-ass to an airhead in the span of two minutes. I'm rather impressed,' came her husband's voice. 'You are?' he asked, his voice warm and friendly. At first glance.

'Oh my, you must be the rumoured husband then.'

'Yes. I'm Mentuc. Nice to meet you.'

She could feel the nervousness radiating off him. It was noticeable as well, his speech was polite, but curt and slightly clumsy. She nearly did a double take when she saw that he was wearing his sunglasses again. When did he...

'Lovely to meet you!' Jane all but shouted, too happy to notice anything strange. She took Mentuc off guard by stepping forward and throwing her arms around him. He stood there mutely and Onoelle had to push down her laughter, desperately motioning for him to hug back. He awkwardly obliged her and this time she lost it.

'What are you laughing about? Haven't seen you in years and now you're laughing hysterically!'

'I'm sorry Jane, I'm really happy to see you, I really am. Stars above it's been what, five years?'

Jane relented, smiling, before hugging her friend again. 'Give or take.'

She turned her head and looked at Mentuc, who stood there, clearly out of his depth.

'Never figured you for the settling down kind, but you managed to get quite a looker, didn't you?'

Onoelle laughed again, having missed her friend's easygoing character. 'You have no idea!'

'Also!' her friend said, breaking the hug and poking her with a finger.

'You're married now! Independent! A free woman! Why didn't you come visit me! You know where I live! I had to hear from your parents that you'd gotten married!'

Onoelle looked away. She wanted to be honest to her friend, but how could she? She knew that Mentuc had erased his traces carefully when he had settled down. It didn't matter how much she trusted Jane, he wouldn't and she did not want to find out how he would react to it. It would damage their relationship severely and that was one of the better outcomes.

'Oh, you know,' she half-lied, gesturing at the surroundings. 'I've been busy with running the farm. It's a lot more difficult then you think, really.'

'Really?' snickered Jane. 'You? Miss Alumni running a farm? God in heaven, professor Eisel would die laughing if he heard.'

'Eisel?' interrupted Mentuc.

Uh-oh she thought, recognising the name.

'Yeah! Professor Eisel! Headmaster of the uni your wife and I went to. Really smart man, won more awards than most people know exist! Ever heard of him?'

'No,' came the quiet answer, spoken so softly that Onoelle had to strain her ears to hear.

'I just once knew a man with the same name. A long time ago.'

'The Kra'lagh dreadnought will be the main target, designation Alpha. We're assigning twenty-five full platoons to it. That means that the full five hundred of you will be tackling it. Your main goal is to clear the ship of all enemies. You will be well supplied, but I advise you to exercise caution. We do not know what the enemy has in store on the inside. I have worked with the Imperial Intelligence to give you as much intel as I could, but it is limited. We don't even know if the air is breathable inside, so do not, under any circumstances, turn off your filtration system until your sensors give you an all clear.' Doctor Eisel paced back and forth in front of the aula, hundreds of eyes carefully following him. This wasn't the entirety of the soldiers of Project Genesis, but everyone would be briefed according to their target. This was the main group and he at least wanted to speak with them in person before sending them off to their potential demise. He trusted them. They were capable, more than capable, but there were still any number of factors that could go wrong. If it worked, however, it would turn the conflict.

'If their dreadnoughts are similar in construct to ours every section of importance will be located deeply within the ship's superstructure. Do not expect the lay out to be the same. Their biology is vastly different and we believe their ships may carry twice the crew that our own dreadnoughts carry. This is purely a guess, but it gives you an idea of what to expect. There could easily be between ten and sixty thousand bugs on that ship. If you manage to get hold of the bridge, the engines and the reactors however, all of that is moot. Besides, all of the fighting will be close quarters. It is what you all were made for. There will also be two thousand other soldiers tagging along with you. You will clear their way, do all the heavy fighting. They will secure whatever you capture and make sure the bugs won't retake it. You will be expected to capture the ship within twelve hours, alongside with the other teams that will board the rest of their fleet. It is a scouting fleet, standard composition. One dreadnought, four cruisers, eight destroyers and twenty frigates. All of them will be hit simultaneously. Your target remains the most important, but given that nobody knows how to fly the thing it will be imperative that every strike team succeeds within this time frame. Go beyond that, you risk the rest of the fleet annihilating you all. That is not acceptable.'

He looked at them. His creations. His inventions. Living weapons all, cold, calculating, the best of the best. The final hope of the Empire. He had faith in them. Absolute faith.

He tapped a few buttons and activated the holoprojector. He had worked alongside a few other science divisions for Project Genesis. After all, when you designed a new supersoldier from the ground up it made sense to do the same with their equipment.

'This will be your equipment. The new power armour Svalinn Mark I. The very best the Empire has to offer. Because of your strength we were able to remove most of the servos that are required to use it, giving us ample space to put new toys in. For starters every suit is powered by a miniature fusion reactor. This allows for on the mission charging of fuel cells, filtration systems and, and this is a beauty, shields. It is still an experimental technology and once you activate them they will put serious stress on the system. There is an inbuilt safety that can be overridden, but it is meant to shut down to keep the projectors from overheating. The shield reacts differently to impacts from different types of weapons, a full list you can find on your on board HUDs. Further we've installed the newest model of gravitic grenades. This model overheats the shrapnel it contains until it turns into plasma and then launches it at high velocity. It is ideal for clearing areas. The lethal zone against armoured targets, and bugs have their chitin that already counts as armour, is eight metres. A wide range, use it with care. Lethal zone against unarmoured targets is fifty metres. On that note, everyone who will deploy with you will also be wearing power armour, but not the Svalinn variant. Further your suits make use of the Muninn-class computers. These are expensive toys and will blanket-jam everything within two hundred metres, their starship alloys be damned, cut through jamming in an equal radius, give you radio contact within five kilometre on the planet and presumably within five hundred, radius, very handy, on board their ships. It also houses an advanced FOF system, can calls out targets, constantly links you with any ally that comes in the vicinity and you can designate targets at will with it. Honestly, Project Muninn was about as expensive as a hundred of you, meaning we could buy a small planet for what it cost. It is a miracle of computer technology and it is as close as we can get, at present, to making an AI.

Further you will go in with disruptor blades. I will not go over how dangerous these fields are. You will cut through anything with these, including your own shield as if it wasn't there. Your main armament will be the repulsor rifles. Once again, covered in training, you know how they work. Since there's a possibility that you'll be fighting in zero-G, the Svalinns are equipped with magnetic boots. Very powerful magnetic boots. You can walk up a metal wall with these even in full gravity, so don't worry about being blown clear of the ship. That is all soldiers.'

He shut off the projector and stood in front of five hundred of the best soldiers to ever grace the universe. He had created them, seen them come into life, raised them into the perfect human being, surpassing the existing homo sapiens in every way. He had played God and God saw that it was good.

'You are the Empire's last hope. If you get hold of these ships, we can put our industrial bases to good use. No more shall they work on ships that will get blown up from long range. No more will their workers slave away on hulls that won't even dent the enemy. The Kra'lagh are powerful. Unbeatable in space. A violent, aggressive race. You will show them that even in space, in their floating fortresses, they are not safe from the might of the Empire. We will take their ships, their technologies and we will turn this war around! They will not extinguish our species! They will not succeed! They will ruin the day they declared war upon us and it is you who will give them the first blow! Go, brave soldiers of Project Genesis! Go, and herald in the new age! The age of Humanity!'

'Mentuc! Mentuc! By the stars what's wrong with you?' Onoelle asked, shaking him.

'What!' he shouted, pulled roughly out of the memory. 'What?' he repeated, more softly, realising he had shouted.

'Jane asked you a question you tit!' she laughed. Her eyes weren't laughing. She knew where his mind was at.

'Oh, I apologise. Could you repeat the question please?'

'I asked what you did for a living. Before you settled down, I mean.'

'I worked with wood, took contracts,' he replied easily, falling back into his existence as Mentuc, loving husband of Onoelle.

'So does she, I bet,' grinned Jane, poking Onoelle in the ribs. She felt her cheeks turn bright red.

'She dabbles,' he said, the innuendo flying straight over his head. Onoelle felt her cheeks burn at this point. Then she glared at her friend.

'He is really good with his hands. Shame he can't show you,' she fired back, aware that her friend's love life was disappointing at best.

Jane's smile faltered a bit.

'Oh, but I can,' interjected Mentuc, completely unaware of the pit he was digging for himself. 'Hard to miss when there's evidence all over the house, really.'

Jane's laughter echoed through the air as a beet-red Onoelle violently rammed her elbow into the side of her oblivious husband.