From the day she was born until a few minutes ago, Camille had always lived on the Earth ring. The artificial continent was a marvel of technology, forged with the power of old and almost ununderstood artifact, bringing life to a paradise where one could thrive in peace. Covering a large chunk of the Indian ocean, it had been overrun by nobles in a blink of an eye who left behind the less prosperous population of the planet. Together, they created a small utopia fuelled by their boundless fortune and extravagant envy. A place where one could find anything dear to their heart and more than the wildest dream.

For thirteen long years, she only knew perfection, but now she had to face the ruthless reality of the federation. Taking her first step into reality was hard and horrifying for the blessed youth and the ring military base was the worst place one could have begun with.

Pleasing the eyes was not in the mind when the behemoth had been built. Black steel and concrete merged together to shape some excuse of a building. Rectangular and deprived of any windows, barren of any ornament as only one light had guided his architect, protect. The federation symbol was crudely in scripted into the front reminder of their absolute rule in those rooms.

How can something like this exist?

Camille could not see the practical purpose behind the square of steel. It was higher than any construct she had gazed in her short life but did not deserve to be consider with any of them. Never she would have accepted to live inside such a thing, even standing near was a nightmare. Ironically, it fitted her current situation.

While she wondered about pointless question, her butler was extracting himself of the cockpit. A smoke in his hand, sat on the edge he looked at the shape he had not seen for a long time. He cursed life, binding him to walk again the place before turning to the girl.

Camille was gazing at him, smoking was forbidden in the house, her mother could not stand the atrocious stench. Jasper reacted to the inquiring eyes with his natural instinct and threw the poison away. Crushing it under his shoes as he moved down.

- Apologies my lady. I only take one when I feel stressed. Let me carry your bag to the enlistment service.

She took the offer with a nod and started her advance toward the gates. She had no clue where to go but believed her servant would find out easily. He was always more practical than her.

- At least we will not have to wait long. He mentioned. The base seems almost soulless, I was not expecting crowds, but this is ridiculous. We will have all our time to ask questions to the enlistment officer, maybe find a way out.

Reacting to his words, she looked around. The twenty landing-pad were all empty, but a distinct smell of oil was obstructing her noise making her head dizzy. From bellow, threatening sounds of machinery were heard. What could go on down there?

Jasper grabbed the bag and pushed the girl forward. The automated door whistled while opening as if they were about to break. The main hall was a small room only giving access to a row of lift and a map to find their way. The admission centre was quite a few floors below, they had to take the steel cage. The girl was not assured during the haul as squeaking and rumble would follow there descend which, she believed, could turn at any point in a last fall. Once the door open, she rushed outside not spending a second more into the cramped space.

She almost regretted it after witnessing the unsightliness grey carpet they had seen in their life. Colour she would have to learn to like with cream white walls. Plentiful of benches were taking the dust, skeleton of the supposed goal of the room. To their left, a row of desk where applicants should have been received was walling them up. Only two were in use.

The closest one was a boy in his sixteen, bearing long and messy dark hair. He was sitting cross-legged and pay little to no attention to the newcomers, his whole awareness taken by the physical screen in front of him. His companion was a woman of the same age, yet uniquely different. The skin was sick white with purply tones in it, hairs long and blue-sky which was not some artificial colour. She was rather petite even if like her comrade distinctly in shape. After witnessing the gloom of her reddish eyes glittering like nocturnal sky in the reflection of her screen, Camille knew she was a Vlin’ns. The race the federation had fought during many generations and now allied after their empire crumbled at the end of the last war.

- Excuse me?

None reacted, the Vlin’ns was wearing some headset and was not looking at them. The boy was right next to her, but he kept getting more pissed at his computer. Camille acknowledged that the piece of technology belonged to a museum, but watching someone curse under his breath was formidably annoying.

- Fuck! I had it! He grumbled before turning toward the girl. Zat!

He almost fell from his chair as shock deformed his trait. Camille lifted an eyebrow, struggling to understand what he was doing. The boy’s muscular memory had tried to reach for the missing gun he should have been carrying.

- Come on! You scared the shit out of me! Try to look sorry at least?

- He? Sorry?

Behind her Jasper became tense, his eye narrowing on the boy who swallowed his saliva.

- Zat! I was sure that was just my imagination when you talked earlier. That damn place is driving me nuts! Tell you what, next year I will behave just to avoid working here again.

She started to question his mental health, but maybe it was common among the military. Normal would not have described Lesskov and Blue either. He was wearing the same uniform as them, but it was far more worn out.

- I have received a letter of mobilization, is this where I’m supposed to be?

He gave a sorry look at Jasper and nodded.

- Ya! No luck, I also got drafted randomly for this bullshit. You will see, we quickly get used to this life. Can I have the paper?

Camille plump cheek turned to tomatoes. The letter had been left in her room. She asked for help with a gaze to her butler, for once Jasper would not her back.

- I kind of forgot it at my home…

The soldier had a small laugh before grasping she was not kidding.

- Really? How could you forget that? Zat, never had a special case like you… In reality, you are my only applicant this year. The other was handle by my friend. He explained with a renewed smile. Can you give me your name and surname? I will look you up in the database.

After her answer, he started to type again, stopping repeatedly, and becoming more frustrated with each occurrence. Camille leant to gaze at the screen where the query returned emptiness and dust. For a second she hoped for all of this to be a mistake, but her handler was not about to give up. Grabbing a sheet of paper, he promptly turned it into a ball before turning toward his friend to throw it.

- Koliane! I need your help! I can’t find her!

The ball struck the back of her head. Looking over her shoulder, she glared at him before removing the headset.

- Zat! Can’t you even do anything alone? Why do I have to be stuck with you?

- Sorry Squad lead, your poor soldier needs you highly developed Vlin’ns mind to answer his question.

Rolling her chair next to the boy, she studied Camille for a second before displaying a cheerful smile.

- Hi! My names Koliane, I’m the squad leader of the 12-1-22-BD-E4. She articulated to help the girl understand. I bet he didn’t even give you his name…

Camille shook her head, mesmerized by the girl delightful aura. The teenager had never seen a vlin’ns up close and couldn’t help but stare at her magical eyes. They were said to be sharp-minded and cultivated as the best among nobles. For sure, Koliane’s vibes were not on the same lines than her comrade as if a commoner would dare to stand next to noble kind. The two seemed rather close, startling at first as she could not expect someone of higher status to befriend a lower class.

She soon realized the boy was the first nonnoble she ever met, excluding her butler. This last hardly counted as one, as he behaved more like a noble than some.

- His name in Anil Remzi. One of my men and the worst one by far. Don’t expect much of him.

- Sorry to disappoint new head. Still, I cook the best marble cookie planetwide…

- Back to work Trainee! She ordered, slapping the back of his head. Can you give your name again?

They started all over and she could just watch them struggle. After five minutes of a blend of tense silence and childish quarrel between the two, Koliane moved again toward the girl. Far more inquiring than in the near past, her narrowing eye focused on Camille’s face. A creeping chill rose along her neck putted her on alert before vanishing like a gust of wind.

- You… What is your civilian rank?

- Noble… Well, my father is one but my mother a bourgeois.

- I told you to check that option, you idiot! She yelled striking her fist at his shoulder. You just wasted us so much time!

- Zat! You have the delicacy of a nog’lon… groaned the boy. How was I supposed to know? New head even wears normal clothing! At least the other one had the decency to look like one! How the hell did you manage to get enlisted? Are you sure it’s not a mistake? God bless, you are one hapless chick.

- Show some respect Anil! She is noble!

- Who cares, she is a soldier now… he squeaked under his breath. Finally, Ca… Miss Weiss, daughter of Verin and Amidia Weiss. One little sister. Studied at Solar’s study centre and you were supposed to join Dincer’s higher school this coming year. Mix study? What does that even mean?

- Yes, that’s me.

Her eye dropped on the group, the need to cry looped again as her faint hope was savagely murdered away.

- And this man with you? A relative?

- Jasper Gardner, butler of the family.

- Where are your parents? Looking for my superior? Because we are only two in the whole base…

They both shook head at the same time, dropping an awkward veil over the conversation. Koliane seemed a bit relieved to avoid a confrontation with nobles, the opposite of her subordinate who would have paid to witness that.

- Well, let’s move to the next step then. Now I’m supposed to present myself, which as already been done by my squad leader who needs to read again the enlistment procedure. Anyway, we both joined the military three years ago and after the enlistment camp I joined the 12-1-22 where I was later joined by Koliane. My main specialization is heavy equipment, even if I’m crazy about piloting. For the next minutes you will have to endure me as your enlistment procedure. Alright?

As he finished, he offered his hand to the girl. She nervously shook it, under more pressure than the time she had met with the two consuls.

- Get use to handshake, the protocol wants us to do it with any nonmilitary we met. Same goes for the salute, you will see once at your base. He winked with a smile. Now we have all the boring question to ask… Are you prepared? They are not easy.

- He is lying, they don’t matter at all. Just don’t lie some graded could read them.

- Squad lead, can you stop disturbing my applicant? Camille I’m sure you have done sport frequently?

The ironic grin on his face was a punishment, he was revelling from the girl awkwardness. Chewing on her lips, she was overthinking her answer convinced she was about to make a fool of herself.

- At school… Just a bit…

- Yeah! Extremely athletic as I imagined. Have you ever driven anything? Glider, meks, anything? Maybe the REG-63 skycraft that you parked at the front which I really want to try out?

- No.

- What a lucky girl, those models are not available to civilian and Erin IV don’t have enough funding to buy us that kind of toys. Used a gun before? Any knowledge about weaponry? Of course not, what a retarded question.

The pitiful Camille watched him answer all the question, barely listening to her answer as he always guessed them. Worthless would have defined her judgement over herself. Showing weakness was a crime for noble, all her life she would have blatantly lie than confess a lack of knowledge. She wanted to flee away, hide her shame even from someone difficultly her equal like Anil.

- Anil stop that! You are bullying her! Don’t worry, it was the same for all of us. Tried to ease Koliane. Anil only knew how to drive elevator truck and it never helped him during classes. The last question is more personal, do you have any special item you need to bring which is not in your three allowed outfit? It’s important or they can destroy it at the base.

- So, you tried to smuggle something in the end! Mocked her friend. I never knew they destroyed them.

- I have this card and one necklace, cut Camille as the two were starting to talk again. I would like to keep them.

- For the necklace there is no problem as it goes with your clothes. Just take care as it can break during training. I need to see the card. We have strict rules about techy stuff that enter the base especially random card.

Camille presented her strange gift which drew astonished face on her audience.

- Where did you put your hand on this? Asked a suspicious Anil. That’s a reliquary key, not a lot of people own one. Wait! It’s one of ours! Who gave you this?

The renew in seriousness from the two startled her at first. Just like them her curiosity was picked by the small rectangular key. What could a reliquary be? She wanted to know what secret were hidden inside and hoped for her two superiors to help her. She described her encounter with Lesskov and quickly explained that he gave the key.

- Alexandr? Poor thing, she is dead meat!

- Why? Is the major important in your base? And how do you know him?

-It’s not easy to explain, started Koliane. The major is well known in our base for being a pain to every trainee. He expects a lot from everyone, even the weakest and when he takes a liking over someone… It’s not just worst, he becomes a tyrant as well. Because he is our squad tutor, we have a lot of experience with him.

- Yeah! Alexandr is not easy to live with, giggled Anil as painful memories played back in his mind. And he is so scary.

- Zat! Most of the trainees are afraid of him. The major is not liked by the higher up too, young instructors like to joke about him. They think he doesn’t deserve his post because he can’t do anything but a bit a techy stuff. During trainee camp, he often supervises PE because his real expertise is not useful. I think he is the engineering spec trainer… I’m not even sure…

- He is! Madman, I’ve seen him built a whole MEA with pieces of scrap and a blowtorch. Told you what, more impressive than Major Sibelle’s ex list.

- Anil!

- What? She is a bitch and don’t like Alexandr! How I’m supposed to respect her?

- Is that why you are calling him Alexandr?

- Hm?

Anil turned back to Camille, lost in the middle of the two conversations, who executed him on the spot.

- Because you have no respect?

Koliane busted into laughter while the boy’s narrowing eyes stared at the girl. She started to turn pink, not sure if she was supposed to address him like that. She had been dragged away by their gibberish and regretted it profusely.

- This is it! You choose her side after all I have done for you? Whatever, we can agree it’s written all over her she need to go to BD.

Koliane stopped laughing to agree, removing the tears at the corner of her eyes.

- Wanted to send her somewhere else? Proxeron is for nerds, Nexil II creates retards and all the other bases are either too specific of blatantly incompetent.

- You forget SkyHand?

- Jerk factory?

- Well, most noble and child of good family are sent there. Becoming a poster boy for the military is a dream for some people…

- Zat! How many times are you going to remind me this? If you have nothing interesting to say just take her to the landing bay and get moving. The other one had been waiting for an hour now.

- Someone else enlisted on this day? Asked an intrigued Jasper. Same case as my lady?

- Not at all. Noble, but the strange kind. Volunteered herself to join. She seemed a bit over the moon, you see what I mean. Anyway, you will meet her right away, trainee. You two should say goodbye while I finish all the others paperwork.

A touch of melancholia was shimmering around her butler, clouding away his powerful aura. One could have confused him with a grand father sending his child far away, a brave smile on the face but pain visible in his wrinkle.

- Take care lady Camille. I can assure your parents will do everything they an to get you out of this.

- Of course, she spoke doubt in her voice. Look after Liane for me and tell Mom and Dad, I love them. Thank you for everything Jasper, I’m glad that you stayed by my side.

The old butler held her against his chest. She felt a pinch in her chest as those were no goodbyes, but slow and forlorn farewells. Not as terrible as the piercing pain when she left home behind yet far more depressing.

- If ever you return to Earth, be sure I will be waiting. I will always be there for you my lady. May you walk under a clear sky.

She nodded with all her might, morning to cry again, but holding to hide the weakness of her feelings. This time they were no more solution but to pray that someone would act in her favour which she knew would never come. The boy jumped over the desk and invited her to follow. Not without a last gaze to her butler she walked away to the inner lift. Behind them, Koliane talked a bit with the man before joining them.

- You alright, new head? He realized the stupidity of his question and gave a comforting smile. Don’t make that face, it’s not that bad.

- You sound more intelligent when you are serious.

- And you look better when you are not crying.

- I’m not crying…

- My bad, he whispered as his superior entered the lift. I’m doing the ride?

Koliane, who was tapping a code to activate the elevator swiftly nodded.

- Anil will take you to Erin IV. Even if he is silly, you can’t find a better pilot in our whole section. He didn’t crash anything for months now.

- Hey! Don’t say it like I was alone! If that was true you would not be there as well!

Koliane clicked her tongue, sending him back to his place.

- The flight to Erin will take some time. You should rest if you can because as soon as you arrived at BD base you will start your first day. Don’t worry too much about leaving, you can come back during permission. A trainee base is like school, in summer most of us go back to our family.

- Except those who do bad things like us.

- What did you do exactly? She asked more to occupy her mind than by real interest. You talked about crash?

- Easy! I will explain during the fly, giggled an enigmatic Anil. Grand art like never seen.

Koliane rolled her eyes, she had enough of him for the day. The door opened with a funny noise, all three watched as if the place was about to collapse. Camille jumped out before turning around, about to complain about the horrific condition of their base and stopped when she bumped into an unexpected scene.

Koliane’s other-worldly eyes were devouring her partner. With a smirk on the face, he closed the distance before kissing her. Camille stood frozen, feeling her cheek heat up before moving her gaze to the other side as if she had not seen anything. Her childish reaction was met with two bursts of laugher far more humiliating.

- She is so cute! I like her already!

A cheery Koliane pushed her boyfriend out of the lift before waving to the girl.

- See you at the base Camille! Next time we will both have dust in our blood. We will be families. She turned a harder gaze to the smiling boy. And don’t crash Anil!

- Only on Sibelle office, he answers with his playful smile. Ready to go trainee?

- She is your…

- Girlfriend? No, that just normal goodbye in the military. He jested before whispering. She is crazy about me.

The next second his chin hit his chest as if he had been slapped behind the head.

- Hey! It was a joke! He yelled at the elevator before turning back. Stupide vlin’ns with their psyck… We have been together for some time now. Never expected to fall in love for a vlin’ns when I joined, I had seen one before either.

- I was not expecting a human to be with another species… Is that normal?

- Nothing specific. Vlin’ns are our closer relative, even among the five prominent. My life is not that interesting. Let’s go to the ship. If we are late, I will be hanged by Alexandr.

Camille had not yet studied her surroundings and found herself walking in the middle of a hangar. Only a few dark ships were landed, but each one was tremendously larger than the small skycraft she was used to. The tiny craft would have fit with ease inside the military units.

Only one had its rear door open, the inside filled with rows of seats accommodated to carry personal from one base to another. Those models were unusual as NEF were mostly used to transport military unit. Those used by infantry could carry around fifty men to the front line, but their core usage was to move around MEA unit which shrank the load to seven people, eight at best.

Someone knowledgeable would have found out they were not about to use a military one, but the transport variation created for civilian use. Most of the gunship material had been removed to allow more seat, useless right now as the ship was completely empty.

Anil helped the girl to get inside before closing the door. The heavy steel left the ground with a shrilling complain before clothing them away with clicking thuds. At that exact moment, the young boy’s eyes sparkled with joy.

- Welcome about my ship trainee Camille. Hope you will enjoy the fly because it’s gona be a hell of a ride!