Rake thought about the way he would ask about the Angels during his walk back to the barracks, as far as he could tell the topic was not something the soldiers here spoke freely about. When he entered the outer circle of military buildings the test facility for Angels was to his right, the building was also called the Angel factory, or dream eater depending on who you asked.

As he passed the front a side door opened, a small vehicle exited the building a driver in the front and the back covered with a piece of fabric. It clearly was loaded with some sort of cargo since the suspension was a lot deeper than it should be.

Curios he stopped for a moment and watched as the vehicle circled through the side paths away from the camp. Rake shrugged and continued his walk towards the barracks, there were still lots of things he did not know about.

Their room was nearly empty, Rachel was still out, probably trying to get Rake into the next training session.

Mint and Leaf were sitting on a bed and playing cards, both seemed only mildly interested in the game, or talking with each other. If Rake remembered correctly Mint was currently undergoing the training for Angels, maybe she would talk to him?

“Uhm, Mint can I ask you a question?” he began thinking frantically about how he should ask her without making her mad.

The woman looked up, one eyebrow raised, Leaf took the chance and slipped one of her cards into her sleeve and took another one from the middle, winking at Rake.

“I suppose… as long as you are aware that I will tear you limb from limb if I don’t like the question…” Rake grew colder, sweat appeared on his forehead, he was never sure if a threat like that was to be taken seriously or not.

“I wanted to ask you about the Angels… and how you could become one.” Leaf dropped the cards she was now rearranging and Mint closed her eyes.

“Let me guess, you saw one of those recruitment videos and now want nothing more than to become an Iron Angel?” Her tone told him she was not a fan of the idea, but Rake stood fast in his resolve to ask about it.

“No, I met an Ercinee called Raya, she told me about the Angels and I grew curious… Nothing more and nothing less.” He meet the woman’s eyes and she sighed, Leaf was picking up her cards again using the opportunity to swap a couple of them, trying her best not to smile.

The smile vanished when Mint dropped her own cards and turned to Rake, who was still standing at the entrance to the sleeping accommodations.

“Angels are the most potent soldiers we have… They are faster and stronger than any of us, but becoming one is very unlikely, there is a seventy percent mortality of the people that start the transformation and from the thirty percent that do survive only five manage to actually get to the last stage of the training. If you do manage to get there you will be scarred for life and only one out of a hundred manage to pass the last stage. The others either wash out early or get far enough to wish they never started the training, if you do wash out at the end there is a fifty fifty chance you will be too damaged to resume duty.” She listed all of it with an expressionless face while subconsciously touching her neck where a scar sat right under her jaw.

Rake was taken aback, he had not expected this, rough training? Sure he was up for that but not something like this… thirty percent survive… those odds were horrible.

“Don’t worry, the decision isn’t yours anyway, only the best among us are chosen to begin the process, which means you would first have to join operations with us and perform extraordinary to even be considered.” Rake sat down on the bed next to the two women, it wasn’t his but he felt slightly dizzy.

Being the ultimate defender of the Ercinee and the Allfather sounded like something he wanted to be but if seventy percent of the participants died… maybe there was another way? A way where he could make sure he survived without actually dying in the process? Maybe Leaf could help him.

He looked up at the woman and saw that both, Leaf and Mint were looking at him.

“What did the Ercinee say to you? Was she an overseer? An acolyte of the Allfather?” Mint asked, she had put down her cards on the bed and was looking at him with a strange expression.

“No, she was a young one I think, came to see where all the transporters went with her friends.” The two women relaxes at the news, seemingly meeting an Ercinee was something not a lot of humans did.

“Well be sure to thank her to bless you with her company, Ercinee are way too valuable to be talking to lowly humans like us.” Mint smiled at him and picked up her cards again, Leaf did so as well and Rake watched as the woman’s expression darkened when Mint began playing with her new cards.

The match was over after a few more plays since Mint had a card for every value change at hand and easily won every round.

“I see the Allfather is blessing you tonight Mint…” Leaf said between barred teeth, Mint smiled at her and collected her reward, a small pile of markers that could be used to get additional food, or drinks, the amount was enough for the loss to sting.

The markers were only given to soldiers with extraordinary devotion to the Allfather and excellent performances during simulations and training exercises.

Rake rose from the bed again and walked over to his own, he had not yet received any markers or any private possessions, not even a weapon. The courses for explosives were long and tiresome but also kind of entertaining, their teacher was another human rather than Sue, the woman had only half a face and her hair was missing in large patches atop of her head where scar tissue covered her skull.

She was always talking louder than she had to and turned her left side to the audience whenever someone asked a question or answered one she had asked. Now Rake had another goal besides passing the explosives course, now he had to get on more training exercises and maybe the Ercinee would deem him worthy to become an Iron Angel. He was excited again, maybe he got to participate in the next training mission, or Allfather beware even a real battle to show his skills.

When Rachel joined them the sun had already set behind the horizon and they had only a couple of minutes left before they would need to get to sleep. She seemed angry, which was never a good sign especially since she left to discuss Rake joining the Fireteam in their next deployment.

“Rake! You have been busted… they know we took you in by accident and that you should still be in the complex for training and the like. However since you have proven extraordinarily resilient and fast progressing you will be joining the training for the Angels, you are to join Leaf tomorrow morning when she reports to the factory.” Rake could not have been happier, he was going to become an Angel? The Ercinee had decided he was worth the procedure!

“Don’t fucking smile! You are probably going to die over there you fucking moron. And even if you survive you are going to be left crippled for the remainder of your life… Soldiers take years to get to being accepted into the factory, you probably won’t last a day!” The smile was melting off Rake’s face, Rachel had always been supportive of him so far, mean maybe but never like this.

“But if the Ercinee decided I can be an Angel then I should be ready right?” He asked with a quiet voice, something was not how it was supposed to.

“The Ercinee need Angels more than anything, even if ten thousand soldiers die to make one they will gladly do it… They are not cruel but Angels are the only defense against the Godslayers and Darkwing… So yeah, you are probably going to die…” Rake sunk back onto his bed, the others were quiet.

Rachel stood up and moved to her own bed when he failed to respond, there were too many thoughts in his head right now, most of them unpleasant. Then he decided, he was not going to die, Raya believed in him and maybe Rachel had given up but the Ercinee knew what they were doing. He was the first of his Batch to go through the process of becoming an Angel, nobody knew if he would perform the same way as the others, he might make it and become the ultimate protector of the Allfather’s children.

A smile appeared on his lips as he turned to the side to sleep, yes, he was going to make it and show Rachel she had worried for nothing.