Was it the third or fourth day since Roy’s been there, he couldn’t tell. As dirty as his homeworld was, Earth still had a sun and he could see pictures of cleaner days. They were all from Earth, as much as he had gathered so far. The other groups had a larger variety, as he could see some Martians every now then, they’re tall and lithe bodies stood out amongst the crowd. At least that’s what Bear said when they passed by them on the way to their table during lunch.

Focusing on what day of the week it was helped Roy keep his mind off of things, such as how every step hurt.

“Roy, I swear to God if you don’t get the fuck up right now, I’ll have you doing planks in your sleep!” Roy was currently behind the other recruits in the free weight room, struggling to get on his feet. The searing pain running through his body felt like he was just dropped on hot lava, bouncing across it’s rocky molten surface. With a struggling breath, he sat himself up using his arms, though they shook like trees in the wind. After that, he managed to stand on his feet but he knew it was just a precursor to the pain that was about to port. After all, they were only thirty minutes into body exercises before they were free for lunch.

“Good, now jump and grab those bars! Hold on to them like they’re your fucking life lines! Squire Talia, keep an eye on this trash, make sure he finishes his set. If he drops, make him start over. Bear! Move your fat, hairy ass or I’ll grab the wrench you used to kill a man and shove it up your ass!” Grimacing, Roy felt sympathy for Bear and the others as Knight Halloway floated like a wraith between them, promising pain and worse if they didn’t excel. Just as Roy felt better now that he was no longer her primary target, a sharp pain sprouted from his middle back.

“Recruit, how come you aren’t hanging from the bar already? Do I need to be more hands-on?” Breathing nervously, Roy didn’t bother to turn around to know the tall, pale woman’s face held a malicious grin in his direction. It was a smile most men would fall for before they realized it was too late. That was how all the squire’s were, physically superior in every way while holding a condensed ball of hatred where their souls should’ve been. Maybe that was just his aching muscles talking in his head for him, but damned if he didn’t agree with them. It was with great pain and misery that he jumped and grabbed the bar above him, gasping in pain during the process.

“Good! Now keep your back straight and lift your legs. Just do it ten times, recruit. That’s it! You can start anytime now.” She walked around Roy until she was several feet away from Roy and the space his leg lift was supposed to occupy. He refused to look at her face, that creepy grin still plastered on her face would throw him off and she knew it. God knows how many others failed to complete their sets with her haunting expression focused on them. Struggling, he spent precious energy just trying to hold on and lift his legs, but after two or three days of constant working out he knew he could do it. But the cost was pain.

He had almost finished his set when she lunged forward and punched him in the gut.

“Don’t you dare fucking let go! You’re hanging from a ledge and if you drop, you’ll die! Screw the leg lift, use your arms and give me a chin up, right now! People are counting on you, Roy! You have to live for them! Now pull! Pull goddamnit!” She was screaming in his face, no longer smiling for once and that unsettled him even more. But he got the point. His breathing was shallow and if his body heart before, now they felt suffocated and desperate. His vision was dark and he could hear those whispers from beyond.

He pulled but his arms failed to listen to his commands. He needed more power, but he was weak, too weak to lift himself up. But yet, like Squire Talia said, if he dropped then he’d be ‘dead’ and fail everyone. He knew he wouldn’t really die, but that wasn’t the point. He could see it already in his spinning vision, a premonition of struggle. Him dangling from the edge of a shattered building, tired after running, dodging and fighting. What’s worse, he was bleeding and hadn’t slept for a whole day. If he let go, then he’d die and he couldn’t allow that to happen. He wouldn’t.

His soldiers, the scarred citizens, children, humans, aliens, it didn’t matter. They needed him, all of them. Screaming loudly, with weak and tired arms, he reached deep inside himself and pulled out that latent angry energy and forced it into his arms. His muscles swelled and his veins threatened to burst, but they were too strong to give out and he crawled himself over the ledge and laid on his back victorious. When he felt the cold sweat on his back press against the matt, he blinked at the bright white light that pulsed along narrow lines in the ceiling. Then, a grinning face with vermillion eyes leaned down and swallowed his vision.

“Good job kid, go rest by the wall with the others. And stay off your ass, no need getting too comfortable or else we’ll see if you can go for a round two,” she said, emphasizing with a wink. Pale faced, he nodded dumbly and stumbled his way across the far wall where a few others were leaning against the wall or stretching. Bones was there with his arms crossed, nodding towards Roy with barely any sweat on his person. Now that Bear had mentioned it, he noticed that Bones always finished the exercises first and never seemed too out of breath.

“The fuck you lookin’ at, kid?” Startled, Roy just realized he’d been staring and he was the last person he should be doing that to.

“Uh, sorry Bones. I was just, uh, that breathing technique? How does it work again? You barely look tired, so I was wondering if it had to do with that.” Bones narrowed his eyes at Roy before looking around to see if the others were nearby, then gestured with his head to stand next to him.

“Pay attention kid, ‘cause it’s important. You see what you’re doin’ right now? Your chest is heaving, I bet you’re sore all over too.” Nodding, Roy looked down at his chest and then back at Bones, waiting for him to continue. “So stop it. Right now. Exhale everything you got, then breathe through the stomach. Don’t let any into your chest, always first through the stomach. Next time they make you do some stupid shit, breathe through your stomach and then let it fill your chest. Controlled breathin’. It’ll take time to get used to it, but that’s all we got right now.”

“Oh, okay. Doesn’t sound too hard, thanks Bones. I’ll, uh, start practicing then. How long did it take you to get it down all the time?” Roy asked.

“I don’t know, kid. Years? Now leave me the fuck alone, you ask too many goddamn questions.”

“Uh, okay. Well, thanks for the advice Bones.” Somewhat used to his gruff demeanor, Roy walked a few feet away and leaned against the wall trying to get his breathing under control with the method Bones just told him. At first, he would fill his gut and then his chest, but it was erratic and it felt like he wasn’t getting enough oxygen. But after awhile, if he focused on it, Roy was able to get a smooth cycle going. It was after the rest of the recruits had joined them against the wall, a ragged Bear and Fat Mike most noticeable, that Roy was taken out of his stance and forgot.

“Alright, good work you lot. These past few days we’ve pushed you physically and mentally as hard as we could. A lot of you show promise and if we had the same resources as the other groups, I’d be sure you’d all be Pages by the end of training. But, no one gives a fuck about a bunch of former prisoners and some orphans, so all we got are these.” She gestured towards a card that was brought in earlier and Squire Higgins silently walked over and grabbed the bucket that was laying on top. Knight Halloway reached in and pulled out a cylinder, filled with a watery purple liquid and a tag with someone’s name on it.

“John Anglebar, come here.” Some of the others snickered at the name and Roy couldn’t help but smile along with them as a bald headed white man walked towards her. When he was close enough, she stopped him and then walked the rest of the way. Quickly, she reached up and slammed the flat end of the tube against his neck the liquid was injected into him. He flinched on reflex, but the dark skinned Squire Evone held him in place with a look of disgust on her face while she had him physically locked down from the opposite side of the Knight.

“Now normally, these handy little toys are used to eliminate toxins or any poison introduced into our soldiers, but none of you will have the same benefits as the others. Since none of you will undergo any gene editing in the near future, this will clear out most scar tissue and damage done to your ligaments over the years. Can’t fix brain damage though, so most of ya’ll are shit out of luck.” A few laughed while most just gave an honest and tired smile.

By the time she was done speaking, the liquid had finished it’s injection and John was wobbling slightly only to be steadied by the Squire, who looked like it was beneath her to be helping. She held him up for a moment until he got his feet steady and then she shoved him back in line. Then, each Squire walked over to the tub and grabbed two injectors before walking towards the line of recruits, applying the injectors to their respective name tags.

“The ones who’ll benefit the most are you old fucks, you’ll feel twenty years younger and for all intents and purposes you are. Each one of these injectors were specially tailored to your body based off of the blood that was taken before you were shipped to Sol Invictus. It’ll take time for the solutions to do their job so after lunch, we’re going to switch it up.” A few people cheered preemptively, earning a wicked grin from Knight Halloway that reminded him all too well of Squire Talia’s.

“I’m glad you all are excited, I know I am. Because you lot are deemed non-essential, we get to play with more dangerous toys. After a generous thirty minutes of lunchtime today, we’re all going to go for a stroll alongside Sol Invictus. Hope ya’ll are ready to earn your space boots! Squire Higgins, take ‘em away and meet us at hanger five when they’re done. Let’s see how they handle EVA.” Squire Higgins saluted and then gestured for them to follow once they were done with the injections. He never spoke more than a few words and only when they were necessary did he say them. His icy blue eyes, similar to the Knight’s, were calculating and constantly scanning everything around him. On top of that, the sharp black and gold uniform the Squire wore was more formal than those his fellow Squires and the long pink scar on his face gave an air of authority and danger.

He was the most hands-off with them all, but every now and then he’d be there to provide adequate motivation by barking commands that they felt compelled to follow, if only because he spoke so little they almost sounded alien coming out of his mouth at such a volume. It was a deep bass and at those volumes it felt as if he was shaking your bones down to the marrow. They followed in a single line, eager to eat and relax a little bit. Though Roy was relieved, he was also nervous about what an EVA was and why the Knight and all the Squires were grinning at them, even Higgins. Glaning up, Roy saw glimpses of white-blonde hair cut short, barely visible beneath the cap.

Something was off, every member of the G.U.N. Roy had met so far have been cruel, cold and seemed unhinged. Lord knows what happened to make them so, but the galaxy was a big place and the G.U.N.s reach went far and wide from what he’d heard from his time on earth during his off days in the library. The sound of muffled voices grew until Squire Higgins opened the door to the familiar cafeteria. The place had turned into an almost holy place for Roy, where he felt safe from the random targeting of his superiors. They usually only had ten or twenty minutes to break from their exercises, but today they had thirty. It felt too good to be true and remembering the grin Knight Halloway was wearing made him wary.

He simply waited in-line with Bear and received his daily portion of food, listening to others talk around him. Bear was uncharacteristically quiet and Bones was glaring at the table instead of others at the table. The three of them made up a bubble that others stayed away from, steering their conversations towards others. Jerry and Fat Mike guffawed at one end, eating eagerly to see if they could get seconds for once and Billy was telling another story of his at the other. The hispanic woman, who Roy had learned was called Nicole, was busy telling the men around her to fuck off when they tried to flirt with her and Valorie was showing off her biceps, challenging those around to arm wrestle her. The table was boisterous and full of life today and Roy was happy just to bask in the ambiance of it all.

But his mind kept drifting towards Knight Halloway and Roy couldn’t help but voice his concern. He turned to Bear, who was busy staring at the wall with a distant look on his face, something he’d not seen from the gruff but jovial man. Roy nudged him slightly with his elbow and Bear flinched, blinking rapidly before turning to Roy.

“Yeah? What’s on your mind, kid?” he asked. Roy ignored the kid remark and pushed forward, no point in arguing with him when everyone called him kid.

“I was wondering, what’s an EVA?” Bear grunted and turned to his plate, stabbing a slab of barely flavored tofu and chewed on it for a few moments while staring up slightly. When he was done thinking, he nodded to himself slightly and turned back towards Roy.

“See kid, you got more questions than a rabbit fucks, so I’m gonna just go ahead and talk. You listen. An EVA means an ‘Extravehicular Activity’ and it could literally be anything, as long as it’s in open space. I used to work on a lot of the orbital structures as a special kind of technician, a glorified welder if you would. We’d be called to do anything like pry panels and check some wires or weld parts to ships that docked or to the stations themselves. All of it fell under an EVA. But I imagine with Halloway and her Horsemen, they won’t make it as simple as just walk over structure. Nah, I’m thinking one of the runts are gonna get tossed, float around a little bit. Maybe puke in their suit, but we’ll see. Who knows, maybe the station will get hit by debris?” A grim smile curled up from his mouth as he laughed darkly, turning back towards his plate but no longer eating. Roy felt that something was wrong, but before he could ask, a voice interrupted the upbeat attitude of their group.

“So, the infamous Bones lives and breathes, safe on a ship far away. Or at least you thought you were, huh?” A large group of men, maybe seven or eight had approached Bones from the other tables in the cafeteria. Confused, Roy had turned to look at Squire Higgins who usually sat with the other Squires and Knight of their group, but was being surrounded by an even larger group of men.

“Your mommy isn’t gonna save you this time, your little Knight and her lackeys are nowhere to be seen. You betrayed the Family and we just can’t let this opportunity pass, now can we George?” The tall, dark skinned man directly behind Bones said, tilting his head towards his tall red, headed friend who chuckled darkly, popping his knuckles in anticipation. Roy knew a fight was comin’ from a mile away, no stranger to violence himself from roaming the streets. Maybe it was the stress from the constant workout and abuse or possibly the lurking presence of madness that he felt in the shadows all around him. But whatever it was, it snapped something inside of him, that weak part of him that watched from the sidelines as people were hurt and taken advantage of. The voice of reason that he’d listened to all his life was gone and it’s place was of cold anger. That ancestral animalistic side that roared the question, fight or flight?

Well, he was tired of flight. So in one moment, a large group of mixed ethnic races towered above Bones, a fellow Dreg like himself threatening him with violence and worse. In the next, an enraged Roy with a feral look across his face launched over Bones wielding his hard plastic tray like a hammer towards the closest man and bashed the top of his head with it as hard as he could, staggering the man. But the deed was done and the spell was broken. While Roy’s body followed the laws of physics and fell on top of his target and wriggling his body to get a good choke hold on the man, Bones took the window he was given to jump out of his seat on the bench and whirl his own tray against the next closest man faster than the eye could blink.

After that? The room erupted and it became a brawl.