Rachel had cursed for the first two minutes after she had collected Rake from school, he was pretty sure she was not happy about his linguistic skills.

“I ask for another trooper and they send me a child, you could think they want me to hate them.” Rake shook his head, the Allfather preached to love all your fellow brothers and sisters in the faith, Rachel must have not received a proper education for her to cuss like that.

He would need to remind her about the love of their god and to spread it among her fellow siblings in faith rather than cursing them.

He would probably first need to learn the language correctly though, there was little worse than a preacher that was not understood by his flock. The two of them passed though a couple of rooms, each of them equipped like the teaching room rake had been in, to his surprise did Rachel ignore any and all painted signs that had told him where to go.

It seemed that there were different paths that lead to the same goal. After a long walk they reached a red double door, big black letters read ‘Do not open, emergencies only’. Rake stopped and looked at Rachel, who ignored the very clear instructions and opened the doors anyway. A loud noise erupted from two speakers next to the doors as Rachel walked outside and looked at Rake, after a second she shouted something and signed for him to come to her. He was not sure that would be a good idea, she had just broken a rule, Sue had been very clear about rules and that you were expected to follow them or punished.

Sadly for him Rachel’s expression indicated that regardless of what he did he would be punished, either by her or by whoever had painted that sign, given that the painter was not around and Rachel was, Rake decided to stick to her rules for the moment.

He hurried to move past the doors and Rachel slammed them shut behind her.

“Next time I give you an order and you do not follow it immediately we are going to have a problem. How long have you been awake anyway? You language skills indicate a month at most…”Rake looked at her, what was a month? Sue and he had not gotten to time measurements yet. He had been allowed to sleep four times since he had woken up from the strange desk, maybe she was talking about that.

“Fol times sleep.” Rake mumbled, talking was hard and the training before had made his throat numb. Rachel looked at him she was probably trying to figure out what he was saying.

“So you slept four times… since what? The start of your learning period? How about basic training? You clearly made it through the training, you got the muscles for it even if you do walk a bit sloppy.” She looked at him some more then raised an eyebrow.

“Wait a minute, are those incisions? Did they start growing muscles before planting them into a host already? Or did they stimulate them to grow faster?” Rake just looked at her in surprise, what was she talking about.

“Sleepy desk?” he asked carefully, maybe this was all because he had fallen asleep on the desk back before he had started to learn.

Rachel sighed and put a hand on her forehead

“Don’t tell me I got the wrong guy again… Oh holes this is bad…” Rake’s eyes widened, somehow Rachel was in trouble, had she not meant to get him?

“Okay, have you seen the sky yet Rake?” Rake shook his head, he had however heard about it.

“Oh fuck, no, no, no. this is bad… Ahm, so how long have you been learning with Sue? Do you know what time is? Or how you measure it?” Rake shook his head, he knew what time was but not how to measure it.

“Okay, sorry for being mean earlier, how about you follow me and we will learn together okay? Until then just be quiet and don’t say anything okay?” Rake squinted his eyes at her, was he supposed to help her cover up a mistake? He quickly thought about the pros and cons, if he helped her now she would most likely help him in the future, the way he saw it that would come in handy at some point.

“Oke” rake said and nodded, Rachel escaped a breath and she clapped him on the back.

“Thank you! I feel like we are going to get along great.” Rake smiled at her and did what she had told him, he said nothing.

“I see you understand quickly. Good, good you gonna need to. Now I am going to introduce you to the team, whatever happens just smile and nod I will come up with a way to explain your lack of words.” Rake nodded again, this seemed to be easier than he had expected.

The two of them continued through an abandoned part of the building, large empty rooms the walls covered in fabric and markers on the floor.

“This is building twenty four, the ercinee are expanding the breeding grounds the War is going far worse than they had expected. If the pace in which soldiers are killed stays the way it is right now we won't have enough troops to replace thim within the year so HQ is building more clone facilities and expanding the ones we already got.” Rake was confused the war was going badly? Sue had said something about a large offensive being under way and victory to be within the grasp of the Allfather over the Darkwing.

This was seriously confusing, had somebody not told Rachel about the victories in the Tiber systems? Or the extermination of the enemy's home planet?

“Something bothering you Rake?” Rachel asked and he nodded, he thought about what to say using only the words he knew how to pronounce correctly

“We no win? Sue say we win…” he paused, it seemed like speaking was easier now that he had listened to Rachel. Not a lot easier but enough for him to notice.

“Oh, right… most of the bullshit Sue told you about the war is wrong, we are getting a beating. The First and Second Fleets of the Empire have been pushing us back ever since they began their assault in our own territory. Now don’t get me wrong the war is far from over, we outnumber them at least a hundred to one but they got the better tech, we can’t catch them and that will most likely remain the status quo until some eggheads in research manages to find a way to either detect them or allow us to travel just as fast as them.”

Rake was not convinced Rachel was telling the truth, yet she seemed to have very little to gain by lying to him… about as much as Sue had to gain and that was an AI.

The had reached a small green door and Rachel stopped.

“Now, this is the door to the outside world, there is gonna be a lot of weird things you won’t understand but I have to ask you to stay calm. I am gonna take you on a walk as soon as we are dont introducing you to the others okay?” Rachel sounded concerned, the room beyond that door had to be either scary or beautiful, like always Rake nodded and smiled. No use thinking too much about it.

Rachel waved her hand and the green door opened, beyond it was a very bright light and Rake could only make out light brown rocks on an uneven floor.

They walked through the door and Rake had to compose himself not to start screaming in joy, there was no ceiling as far as he could tell. A deep orange covered everything above him and as far as he could see there were buildings, trees and to the west the silhouette of a large city rose against the sky. He was outside for the first time.

Rachel pulled him along and Rake did his best to look unconcerned but everything was new, the small lizards on the ground, the rocks, the grass ,the strange taste of the air he was breathing.

Why would anyone stay inside? This was so much more beautiful, so peaceful. Until they reached the barracks of course, then things got hectic as soldiers like Rachel and Rake ran around, everyone busy and either carrying something or fully equipped for battle.

Rachel lead him to a small platform in the middle of one of the steel barracks, the building was a couple of hundred meters tall and the entire wall was filled with elevators and platforms carrying goods and people up and down in a frightening speed.

She pushed him on one of the platforms and typed on the small bracelet she was carrying, the platform shot upwards along a rail on the side of the building. Close to the top it stopped and Rachel jumped off pulling rake with her, as soon as his feet had left the platform it shot upwards and sideways most likely answering to another call.

The room the were in was about as wide as one of the wide tunnels rake had passed through on his way to the teaching room. On either side were beds, most of them empty, the sides were closed off while either end was open and fresh air blew through the openings.

“Fireteam, group up we got a new one!” Rachel barked, Rake turned to her, she sounded different than before and not in a good way.