Ding!! Ding!! Ding!! Clark was startled awake from the familiar ringtone of his military pocket phone. “Ahh, don’t disturb me,” he complained in a grumpy tone, as this just destroyed his sweet sleep experience.
“Wait, what says the time?” He suddenly questioned in alarm, as his consciousness quickly cleared up. His eyes immediately flew wide open, as he stood up to search for the phone.
“Oh, thank God, the time’s still at 5:30 am. I still have 30 minutes before the morning drill,” he exhaled in relief. He went off to wash his face with water before he suddenly recalled.
“Why the hell did the phone ring if there is still time? Oh shit!!” He cursed as he bolted back to his room.
There he saw the phone as he quickly unlocked it, prompting a message notification to be displayed. He opened it reading:
“Good morning cadets, there’s been a change in plans, all cadets will start the advanced technology training today. So be prepared, wake up early, and freshen up for this new phase of training. Good luck, from Captain Spoky.”
“What!!?” He questioned loudly while jumping up.
“We are starting the advanced training today? Oh my God, that’s awesome”. He exclaimed in surprise, as he directly entered a completely giddy mood.
He rushed to dress up, as he reminisced inwardly on the lessons that he learned about the advanced technology training. All cadets looked up to when the training commences, as it meant that graduation day is nearby.
And because of the rumors spreading about how the government provides some of their machinery, elite armor clothing, guns, and other ammunitions for the cadets, it was even more attractive.
Rumors even talk of the provision of the legendary stealth armor that was used in the assassination of the former Aragan president to the best cadet, after points are calculated.
Araga is the largest, most populated, strongest, and most prosperous country in the world at the moment. His country, tsk tsk, is just a small country at the corner of the world here with slightly middle-grade military strength.
Sparta, yes, that’s the name of his country, it was named after the ancient Greek civilization. Sparta is among the lower-ranked countries, in terms of military power and technological development.
This is the 22nd century, the age of exotics and technology. Technology is at its peak in humanity at the moment, quoted a famous professor from his country’s military. At this age, there’s nothing like going to school, only virtual learning.
Technology has advanced to the state where all children are augmented with implants to boost strength, intelligence, and other attributes, as well as to access the internet through their implants.
These augments are now compulsory in every country, that from the age of 10, every child is expected to be augmented and to learn everything that he/she needs through the implant online for a period of 5 years.
Then as from the age of 15, most children are allowed to focus on any profession they want. But 95% of parents push their children to the military, to help build their country’s strength by becoming soldiers.
This is kind of like the primitive ages where strength speaks. But in this case, military strength and technology speak.
Through the combination of exotics and technology, advanced military and medical techs have been produced to the extent of treatment being made available for life prolongment.
Law and order are in the hands of the new superpowers, the 5 biggest organizations in the world.
The Mercenary alliance, The Apocalypse military organization, The Sea Farers alliance, Oakland, and Araga are the rulers of this era. Araga is widely known as the strongest force with the most territory.
Araga and Oakland are the only 2 superpower countries. The 5 superpowers always fight and restrain themselves for exotics, to gain more technology to enable them to be the strongest power in the world.
This tug of war has not yielded any significant impact for decades, as the big 5 are mostly evenly matched in terms of military strength. Even if one was superior, the margin was too small to make a significant impact.
This even concentration of power led to the suppression of all other lower countries and organizations for years after the great battle, which brought the law of fight for survival.
Invasion between lower countries is a must, because of the low concentration of exotics and resources left by the big 5 being too low to serve the needs of all other powers.
The suppression by the big 5 led to a lot of resentment, but at this age, only the ones with the biggest fist get to speak. Clark came from a relatively average family, with both his parents dead. They both died on the battlefield.
The dream of every country in this era is to get a soldier who is exceptional enough to be recognized by the big 5. This indirectly led to a sharp increase in the number of people becoming soldiers, in the last few decades.
If a soldier is picked from a country by any of the big 5, that country will immediately undergo vigorous changes for the better as they can lean on that superpower.
Every other occupation is no longer as attractive, as only soldiers are better paid and treated, especially the exceptional ones.
In his cadet training base, Clark was not the best but he was definitely among the better ones. He had to make mama proud in heaven by joining a superpower, that was the dream of every soldier.
By this time, he already had his bath and was set as he quickly got ready to go.
“Clark!! Clark!!”
An exceptionally loud voice suddenly started yelling his name, startling him and almost making his thought process go haywire from the noise.
“Ahh, who is that?” He suppressed his irritation and ran to the door, fully dressed in the standard Spartan cadet uniform and boots.
“Clark Pendragon, where are you? Shit, this fool will make me late again,” Leonard grumbled.
Leonard is Clark’s friend from camp, both of them are 18 years old. They met on camp 3 years ago and they flowed together well personality-wise, hence their friendship.
“Oh, it’s Leonard the drunken hands. I’m coming”. Clark replied sarcastically in a lazy tone, as he quickly identified his friend’s voice.
“My name is Leonard Bane. Clark, try me this morning and you will get your fair share of pummeling.” Leonard retorted with a dark face.
Leonard is fair-skinned, slightly too muscular for a boy his age unlike Clark, who is slightly dark-skinned and has a mild athletic build. Both of them are of the same height, as they face each other stone-faced after Clark opened the door.
The tension built as they just stood there before Clark burst out laughing and bonked his friend on the head.
“I’m ready bro, let’s go for training before 6:00 am knocks. Or do you want to earn the captain’s ire?” He asked, as he slightly raised his brows to form a nefarious curve.
“No, Penrabbit”. Leonard replied as he tried keeping a poker face, but he failed miserably as he immediately laughed the next second, before gesturing for them to go.
[Thank you for reading this chapter, I really appreciate it. This is my first book, I hope the first chapter did not disappoint. The first few chapters are not really the best as I just started writing, but please persevere with me, it gets better in the later chapters.]]
“FORWARD MATCH!!” Anderson yelled as the young cadets did their daily morning parade. He is the best cadet among this batch. Very good in leadership, marksmanship, and fighting abilities.He is dark-skinned and slightly muscular, just like Clark. He stood out from the rest cadets, as he led them throughout the parade.Sitting to the side with a batch of soldiers in Spartan military uniform behind him, is Captain Spoky, the leader of this military base leisurely watching the cadets. He suddenly stood up, after they ended their parade, as he faced the cadets. “Good morning cadets”.“Good morning captain,” they yelled in reply.“I know a lot of you are excited because you will start your advanced tech training today. Let me give you a piece of advice cadets, don’t be too excited because your suffering begins today”.“No
The Moca republic is a country with middle-grade military power, directly opposite the Sparta republic in terms of territory comparison. They were neighbors in a sense, but that was just a title without any close sentiments attached to it this era.Due to invasion being a norm in this century, the Moca republic has always coveted the Sparta republic’s territory. The Moca republic is more advanced than the Sparta republic technologically, but not by much. This has served as a catalyst, for the Mocans aggression against the Spartans. Spartans are indoctrinated into the hatred between the two countries from birth, so there is hardly any good interaction between them.No business transactions are made. Instead, they trade blows through small skirmishes and a major invasion attempt from either side. But the Mocans are more enthusiastic about it, as they are slightly stronger.Clark, as a Sparta
Clark woke up feeling refreshed and revitalized. “Man, this is just like a VIP room, so comfortable,” he moaned with satisfaction.He looked at the tree leaves makeshift bed with a satisfied look, “I’ll miss this experience.” He stood up to observe his surroundings, the sun rays were shining as resplendently as ever. He suddenly started grinning, as he recalled that he was enjoying free vitamin D. “Oh what a free world,” he exclaimed feeling satisfied.He washed his face with water from a nearby pit, and also filled his water bottle. He looked at his shadow and determined the time to be around after seven in the morning. “I should eat before leaving,” he thought. After eating, he stored the remaining meat in a make-shift bag, hand-made by him from the tree leaves. Improvisatio
“This is going to be harder than I thought,” Clark soliloquized, as he walked through the jungle looking for a place to wash the blood off his body and clothes. He found a stream nearby, he subconsciously looked around searching for any threat, having found none he quickly rushed to wash himself up.“These four days remaining are surely going to be a pain in the ass,” he thought with resignation. He suddenly looked to the right, and to his surprise found a mango tree. His eyes brightened immediately, “thank God, at last something better to eat”. He brought out one of his daggers and conveniently climbed the tree with it, while still being alert.“My life is far more valuable than a mango tree, I can’t let my guard down because of food. That’s the behavior of fools and plants like Leo.” As he thought, he suddenly recalled that Leo was probably
Beep!! Beep!! Clark woke up to hear the familiar alarm ringtone of his phone. “It’s 6:00 am already. Man, I didn’t get enough sleep,” he grumbled as he quickly got up, brushed his teeth, and had his bath. Fifteen minutes later, he is ready in his new military cadet uniform which was provided yesterday. With his daggers and sword both also ready, he left his room feeling surprised as Leo always woke up before him.“What happened to this guy now?” he questioned himself again in a contemplative tone. “This piece of shit,” he cursed as he quickly went out, reaching the opposite room in less than 10 seconds. Bam! Bam! Bam! He banged his friend's door as he called out, “plant, what the hell are you still doing?”“Hey!! Clark, stop banging my door I woke up late. I&
Some minutes later, both friends were finally dropped in a mountainous region. As soon as they landed, Clark observed their surroundings as he slowly nodded in satisfaction.“I prefer this man. At least, I can see far and have more obstacles to take cover,” he told his friend, who was also observing the area.“Clark, I want us to come out on top, this competition. Let’s find a place to camp, as our defensive fortress before advancing”. Leo said in a soft tone, as he turned to look at his friend.Clark simply grunted in reply, as they quickly found a cliff with enough cover to keep them from the prying eyes of the exobeasts. They dropped their bags, prepared, and went outside to set up a defensive perimeter. Clark decided to naturally wield the sniper, as he was better than his friend in marksma
Leo woke up and glanced around, “where am I?” He asked while trying to stand up, which brought a wave of dizziness to him. This cleared up his brain a bit as he touched his head. He felt the itch from the cloth bandage, before recalling what happened.He sighed; “it’s already evening, I wonder where Clark went to". He soliloquized while glancing outside.During the construction of their make-shift residence, they both placed the rocks together to form something like a cave before all that happened- the exobeast encounter. He finally went outside to find his friend by a lump of fire-eating roasted meat. “Ah!! Bro, you’ve woken up, how’s your head?” Clark asked casually as he munched on his meat. “Clark...,
Leonard Bane woke up to see the golden sun rays shining down on him, from the corners of the cave. He admired the rays a bit as his eyes cleared before he looked at his shadow reflection.“Oh, it’s 8:00 am already. Why didn’t this piece of shit wake me up?” He cursed as he quickly got up, going outside the cave. There he saw Clark, diligent as always, doing push-ups.“Diligent my ass, this guy only did his push-ups daily to keep his 6 packs, to impress girls. F**k,” he couldn’t help but curse again, as the scene left a bad taste in his mouth.“Oh, Leo you’re already awake. "I thought you’ll sleep like a log of dead wood for the rest of the day. Good morning plant.” Clark finally greeted his friend properly after his regular exchange of insult greeting.“Clark, my head injury is healed, don’t try me. If you call me a plant again, I swear I'll skin you alive,” Leo retorted w