As soon as I stepped out of the portal, I felt the magic energy go out of my control. It resembled the reality of the Mass Effect, but more powerful. Magic outside my body Vritras simply could not exist, and inside my body I could hardly hold it. What's the worst part, on the outer boundary, my astral body gradually dissipated, and matter was getting out of control. In other words, I dissolved in the surrounding space like a lollipop in a hot tea.

I didn't have much time, so I started looking for the nearest inhabited world. Fortunately, one planet was found very close to me, just a couple of million kilometers away. It was a typical earth-like planet with an atmosphere, oceans, and vegetation. Fortunately, the chakra was working fine here, so I immediately flew towards the planet.

It this time I decided not to worry about stealth, so I solved the problem of moving in a vacuum quite simply - using the chakra to create graphite, and then used it as a working body for the jet engine. Fear of being without a physical body drove me, so I was able to give myself quite a decent acceleration. But even so, I had to fly in space for quite a long time. Two million kilometers is no joke. Even with an acceleration of 20g, I had to get to the planet in an hour and a half. Half the way I accelerated, and the other half braked.

By the time I arrived in near orbit, my size was already a ball thirty centimeters in diameter. A scan of space showed that a several hundred meters long spaceship was flying not far from the planet. That's where I went. The fact that I was using graphite as jet fuel allowed me to arrive at the ship without being noticed. After all, the black carbon almost not reflected any light, plus it was cooled by me to the lowest possible temperatures before acceleration. So, it was quite difficult to spot the exhaust of my engine.

When I reached the ship under the stealth technique, I began to look for a way to get inside. Fortunately, despite the decent booking of the case, there were all sorts of recesses and niches where some devices were located. Not caring about stealth, I banally drilled my way into the technical door.

Once inside the ship, I mentally took a breath and began to look around for a suitable donor. Since I can't have a body made of magic, I'm going to have standard organic version. Fortunately, ordinary people lived on this vessel, so there were no problems with getting a new body.

Ten minutes later, I got through the ventilation to a crowd of sleeping people. Peering out from behind the bars, I saw a typical barracks, where stupid soldiers snored on tiered beds. Like a maggot of an alien, I dropped to the floor and crawled over to the chosen recipient, who was snoring nonchalantly in the corner of the room. Then I stunned him with ninjutsu and went through his mouth into his stomach.

Actually, the problem with survival in this world I had because I could not create a 'standard' astral body that can interact with organic matter. In extreme cases, the physical body could be materialized from the chakra, but the corresponding astral bodies could not be created with its help.

Within five minutes, I had removed the soul of its occupant from the body and began to settle in a new place, at the same time reviewing the memories of the donor. It was the year 2499, and humanity was successfully exploring deep space. At the moment, the ship was in orbit around the planet Korhal Two, engaged in a boring patrol of the territory of this sector. Unlike Korhal Four, which was the capital of the Confederation, this planet was a minor colony with an agricultural economy. The donor himself was a typical space marine- a banal private with mediocre abilities named Gregor Graham.

All these circumstances were enough for me to understand where I was. It was a world of StarCraft. True, humans didn't know anything about Zerg or Protoss yet, but that didn't seem to last long.

When I ‘woke up’, I went to the toilet to get rid of the remnants of my previous body After that, an early intimate breakfast was arranged, after which the actual time for sleep came to an end, and in order not to attract attention, I went to the morning training, mandatory for all paratroopers.

While the body used to run, jump and push, I pondered what to do next. I had to capture a spaceship somehow and then go to Mar-Saru. This is where the 'main story' of this galaxy was supposed to begin. My thoughts were interrupted by the sensations of going into hyperspace that were familiar to this body. Apparently, the ship was going somewhere.

I didn't have to guess what was going on, because my personal communicator received a message about the transition of personnel to combat watch mode, and on one of the screens on the wall of the room showed a face of the ship’s captain.

“Soldiers! I have received orders to relocate the ship to the Koprulu sector and orbit the planet Mar-Sara. All personnel are required to take up a combat watch and prepare for combat operations. In six hours we will be in orbit around the planet, after which the landing troops will be given missions. To attention of squad leaders, briefing will be after two hours.”

That was the end of the speech, and I headed for the landing capsules. According to the regulations, before the combat mission all soldiers were required to undergo a detailed medical scan. Each soldier was assigned to his own capsule, where in addition to health diagnostics, he was dressed in a landing suit. Its construction was essentially non-removable, and it was impossible to remove it without special equipment.

Climbing into the capsule, I plunged into virtual reality, where I had a training battle with hypothetical opponents, during which my actions and reactions were analyzed. At the same time, an in-depth body scan was performed. An hour later, I successfully 'passed the exam' and began to review the results of the scan. But before I could delve into the details of the summary report, my immediate commanding officer contacted me.

"Graham, have you seen the results of your scan?” The sergeant addressed me with a claim in his voice.

"I'm studying it now, sir." I answered, trying to figure out where I had screwed up.

"Look in the ‘Psi’ section. You have been diagnosed with a second level of psi ability.”

“What's going on? How is that possible?” The previous owner of this body was not a psionic, and therefore never looked at this bookmark.

"That's it! Your genetic map shows potential possession of psi powers. I don't know what triggered them, but after this assignment, I'm sending you to a crash course of psionics training.”

"Oh, no! Is this the same course where people are beaten to death and tortured?” My memory helpfully provided stories that the psionics are subjected to extreme stress and dangers to fully reveal their talent. And the statistics said that half of the participants are going through such training at best.

"That's it. But if you survive, you can count on the rank of corporal." The sadistic sergeant's face grinned. "I've already sent your progress report to Central headquarters. So, enjoy your last quiet days.”

With that, the smirked mockingly and cut off the connection. There was a nice bonus for every found psionics. If I had sent the results of my scan to my superiors, I would have receive a bonus of six months' salary. So, this amount of money will go to the sergeant. That's why he was so happy.

However, I wasn't really bothered by all this fuss. As far as I remember, no soldiers had left Mar-Sar alive, so there was no point in worrying about the distant future. It was more correct to make a plan for my future actions. I needed to find local game figures and make to them an unrefusable offer.

By the time the ship came out of the jump, I was inside a combat suit, which in turn was attached to an anti-acceleration box that looked more like a rack. Upon arrival in orbit, my personal tactical computer received information about the mission. We were supposed to protect the mobile command center and perform reconnaissance operation on enemy territory. Specific orders should have already been given on the spot. At the same time, information about the hypothetical enemy were not provided.

The technology of delivering soldiers to the planet was interesting. We were not dropped in any landing bots, but banally teleported. Each soldier was personally placed in a teleportation device, where about a minute of preparation took place, after which there was an instantaneous movement of the 'body'.

Once on the planet, I headed to the exit of the premises of the 'call of the trooper'. It was day outside, and it was raining. There were jungles all around, and only the cleared area of the base bore traces of human activity. Here we were drawn up and left to marinate until a detachment of 32 men was formed. After that, our sergeant gave the order to follow him and went straight to the jungle.

“So, privates, I will explain the task.” He began a speech that should have been delivered on the ship. “We need to proceed to square 25-13, where the enemy base is presumably located. This is a reconnaissance mission, so you should assess the size and strength of the enemy, and if possible, destroy their base.”

"Sir, who is the enemy?" One of the privates couldn't stand it.

“That's what you're going to find out, private Rubicus. Three attire of household works for violation of subordination.”

"Sir. Yes, sir."

"What was I thinking…? Oh, yes, our base is still in a state of deployment, so you can't count on reinforcements. The squad leader must send a full report every ten minutes or after important events. Go.”

After that, the Sergeant stepped aside and ran back to the base with quick leaps.

Well, who would doubt it? This animal doesn’t want to risk its venal skin. Looks like sending an infantry to slaughter is the most common strategy.