Ravens of Eternity

14 Resilience

The Red Planet, Mars.

Named after the Roman god of war, it was the fourth among all the planets in Gaea’s solar system. And true to its namesake, humanity had made it their primary military base and the heart of their military might.

Thanks to Sol being mostly enclosed by Helios, its solar winds could no longer wreck havoc on the planet, and this allowed its frozen waters to melt. Humanity helped Mars’ redevelopment along by terraforming it purposefully and restored its atmosphere as it used to be countless millennia ago.

This covered half of Mars with an ocean of water, where its crystalline blue was a strong contrast to its reddened, oxidized earth.

Littered everywhere on the surface were multiple bases and training yards, while the planet itself was surrounded by a half dozen orbital yards.

There were various ships in and around the yards, many of whom were in various states of manufacture or repair. There were also a handful of cruiser-led fleets that patrolled as well.

Eva stepped out of a shuttle that had just landed at one of the training yards, and got her bearings.

A group of hardened cadets were on their daily run close by. They wore the distinct blue and silver uniforms of the Federation, colors which represented Gaea’s ancient sky. They ran in step with their instructor in perfect formation, a testament to their training.

.....

She, along with a number of first-cycle cadets were casually gathered at the landing pad as they looked around and got their bearings. After a few minutes, a couple of gruff officers came up to them, faces hard and stern.

One was male, the other female. The man was broad-shouldered and dark-skinned, while the olive-skinned woman was nothing short of Amazonian.

“Attention!” yelled the male officer.

This caused the first-cycle cadets around Eva to jump and immediately turn towards him. She wasn’t sure what to do, so she simply observed what the others did, and followed suit.

“Form up in lines five deep,” the woman yelled. “At these points here.”

She pointed at a number of spots on the ground.

“Now!” she yelled.

Everyone immediately lined up as instructed, though it was very disorganized and hectic. Once they were in position, the two officers yelled at each and every one of them, to ensure that their positions and stances were exactly perfect.

Then they went to the front of the group and assessed the cadets.

“I am Sergeant Akim, and this,” he gestured to the female officer, “is Sergeant Elyn. But you will refer to either of us as Ma’am, Sir, or Drill Sergeant. Am I clear?”

Most cadets weren’t sure how to respond, but one of them chimed in with, “Yes, sir.”

“Only you agree, cadet?” asked Sergeant Elyn. “What about all of you other misfits?”

She then arched her eyebrow at the rest of the cadets, who then repeated the affirmation in poorly-timed unison.

“Yes, drill sergeant!” they yelled.

“Good,” said Akim. “Grab your things and follow us.”

They did as they were instructed with their backs as straight as they could.

The two Sergeants gave them a brief tour of the training grounds, from the main offices to the simulation pods, to the hangar bays. They were rather more clinical than explanatory, and only mentioned the purpose of the building itself and offered no details.

They passed through the Quartermaster’s office and were assigned their uniform, flightsuit, flight helmet, sidearm, and empty magazines. Those who already brought much of their personal effects found themselves overwhelmed and juggled their items to keep them from falling.

Eva didn’t have any problems, since she came with little more than her simple black outfit.

At the end, they came to their barracks, and each cadet went in single-file. They were assigned their beds, and told to put their things away within a hundred seconds.

The cadets immediately rushed into action to put away their items. Some recklessly threw their things around, so the Sergeants immediately berated them for their chaotic energy, and made them start over.

Since she was a refugee and didn’t own anything, Eva simply put her issued items on her bed neatly, then stood at attention at its foot. She noticed that another person – a man who looked like he was of Chinese descent – also had no personal belongings and stood at attention at his bed.

She presumed that he was also a refugee, but decided to keep her questions to herself. She caught his eye, and they nodded to each other in recognition. If anything, for their shared lack of “stuff.”

Sergeant Elyn trudged up to Eva, eyes cold and stern, but oddly had a hint of warmth.

“Already done, cadet? Aren’t you a little bit too fast, hm?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Eva replied quickly. “I have no personal items to slow me down, ma’am.”

Elyn was taken slightly aback by this. She had never come across a cadet who had nothing.

“Tell me your callsign, cadet.”

“Freya, drill sergeant.”

Elyn moved up closer to Eva, and leaned down and got in her face slowly.

“Freya, huh,” she said with feigned derision. “That mean you’re gonna pay or fuck or kill your way to victory, cadet?”

Eva truly did believe that winning took serious mettle and a lot of sacrifice, and that it didn’t always need violence to achieve. More critically, if she relied solely on one method to solve her problems, she would never get anything done.

Without skipping a beat, Eva replied, “Whatever it takes, ma’am.”

The instructors’ faces were stern and hard. It was part of the ritual of it all. The military had to break in their new recruits, show them who was boss. It was their duty to instill discipline and obedience quickly.

The hard harassment was tough to bear sometimes, but the sergeants all existed to do one thing. That was to teach them all how to keep cool, rely on each other, and stay alive in battle.

No matter what.

This woman who came here with nothing truly understood what it took to survive, and that struck a chord deep within Sergeant Elyn. Her gaze glinted with tenderness for just a moment, but it was gone in a flash and her face turned back to stone.

“Carry on,” she said before moving on to torment a softer, more vulnerable cadet.

When all the cadets were done, the sergeants had them strip down and wear their uniforms. Some were rather surprised considering this was a mixed dorm with both genders, and they would see each other completely naked. But the sergeants were adamant, so they started to strip down, albeit with plenty of hesitation.

Some dragged their feet on it.

Eva was curious about the Chinese man’s body, to see what it was like. Rather, she wanted to see if his body was similar to hers. She found herself quietly watching him undress out of curiosity, but ended up marveling at his masculine physique.

Just as she guessed, he was also fit and lean. He looked to be in his early twenties just like she was, as well. His skin was tanned and smooth, and his muscles were well-defined and sleek.

And then her gaze wandered to his lower regions, and inadvertently stopped. As though she was entranced.

A cough came from beside Eva, which brought her back to attention. She looked up and saw Sergeant Akim’s scrunched face, clearly displeased by what he saw.

“Would you care to explain why you are staring at that cadet?” asked Sergeant Akim sternly.

She opened her mouth to simply say that she was curious about his body, and that yes, she was attracted to him and lost herself for a second. But before she could say anything, Sergeant Elyn quickly intervened.

“Everyone step to attention!”

All the cadets did as they were told, and stood straight in attention. They were all in various states of undress, but the majority were fully nude.

“Now, everyone look at each other. Go on! Look!”

The cadets then looked around at everyone else. Bashfully at first, but then actually allowed themselves to really look. Since they were all young and relatively attractive, many of them started to get aroused, too.

Eva realized just how different everyone’s bodies were. Some were shorter or larger than average. Others were lankier or paler than others. Many were outright ashamed at having to show their bodies. Like her, their faces were flush from embarrassment.

“You. Since you like staring so much, step forward.”

She pointed to Eva, who took a step.

Everyone got to take a good look at Eva’s pale, beautiful form. She was lean and shapely. And tall, though not as tall as Elyn. Her body was still quite feminine, but it had a muscular edge to it. She looked strong and sexy at the same time.

She looked like a sculpture, and many cadets stared at her in awe and envy.

Eva’s heart was pounding in her ears. She had never been naked in front of so many people before. Her face was red with shame and humiliation. She tried to push those feelings down, but they didn’t want to seem to budge.

“This,” said Sergeant Elyn, “is just another human body. Flesh and blood just like everyone else’s. You – all of you – need to let go of that modesty and that shame. You don’t need it. It’s bullshit and all it does is drag you down. So what if people see you naked? So what if other people are naked around you?”

Eva raised an eyebrow. What she said made a lot of sense. Why was she so hung up on it? Sergeant Elyn was right – it was just a body. We all had one, even if they were a bit different.

“You’re all in it together now,” Elyn continued, “you’re gonna have to sweat together, shower together, fight together. So you gotta get used to each other, how you all look, how you all stink. Because if you don’t, if you let it get to you or distract you, it’s gonna get you, or someone else killed. So work it out of your systems!”

Everyone was still hesitant, but the lesson sunk in. Modesty didn’t have any place here. It was going to take them time, but ultimately, they were all going to forget about feeling ashamed about their bodies.

“Alright, now get into your uniforms, on the double!”

Everyone ran into action and hopped into their uniforms as quickly as they humanly could. They then went straight back to attention at the foot of their beds.

“Good, now follow me,” yelled Sergeant Akim.

Sergeant Elyn shepherded them into a four-column formation as Akim headed outside in a light run.

The cadets did their best to keep up and stay together, but things started to go into disarray not even fifteen minutes later. Some were already tired and started to break formation.

Elyn, however, ran up to them, cursed up a storm, and got them back in order.

They did this for the next hour before they were given a moment to rest and rehydrate. But then they continued for another hour, which not many could handle. By the end of that second hour, a good amount of the cadets were stumbling, red-faced, and out of breath.

The sergeants shook their heads at them. They needed a lot of work.

There were some cadets who were rather fit and weren’t quite falling over themselves, but were certainly worn out. Even the two sergeants were relatively worn out and panting hard.

And then there was Eva and the other refugee. Both of them were red-faced, sweaty, and their breathing was laboured, but it looked as though they had just gone through a light jog around the park. It seemed like they still had lots of energy to spare.

Everyone was completely shocked! Were those people even human?

“You two!” yelled Sergeant Akim. “Since you’re so damn healthy, do another compound run!”

.....

They simply nodded, and ran off for one more loop around the base.

When they were out of earshot, Eva said to him, “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said back.

“I’m sorry for staring at you earlier,” she said slowly.

“Don’t sweat it,” he said with a grin. “You couldn’t help yourself. I understand. I’m cursed with irresistibility.”

She scoffed at him playfully.

“I’m Chengli Sun, by the way. Callsign’s Zhulong.”

“Eva Benjamin. Callsign Freya. I, uh, take it you’re a player?”

He shot her a dejected look.

“We only just met, and you’re casting aspersions at me? How shameful.”

“Ha, ha, wiseass. Give it to me straight, mister irresistible.” Her tone was sardonic, but she was amused nonetheless.

“Yeah,” he laughed, “I played Bellum for a bit. My friends and I were in a clan. We did trading, mostly. But I ran protection.”

“You ran protection? What are you, Triad? Got any sweet gangster tats to show off?”

A mischievous grin formed on his face. “You’ve already taken a good look,” he shot back, “so you tell me.”

That shut her up quick. Not so much because she was still embarrassed about it, but because she couldn’t remember if he had tattoos at all... Her mind was focused on other things.

“C’mon,” she said after a few moments, “quit dawdling.”

Her grin spread wider as she picked up the pace.