1 Chapter 1

    Chaz sat at bored in his classroom as the teacher spoke. "Okay class, I'm handing back test scores now." Her voice was extremely irritating and had an awful shrill that made Chaz want to break his tablet over his head. She came down the row, handing back papers to the students, most of which had the academic prowess of ancient homosapians, the thought made Chaz chuckle a little. The teacher, Ms. Applegate, handed a paper to Chaz. He was not surprised to see the '110%' he always got. He was however annoyed when he saw that he miswrote the date. "It's not two thousand two hundred twenty two you dipshit," Chaz whispered to himself. Chaz quickly erased the incorrect two and reread the date. "Two thousand two hundred twenty three," he said satisfied. The teacher spoke again, "Alright class, we are nearing the end of your eleventh school year. It's time you consider opportunities for a military school." Chaz's head was resting on his vertically standing arm when he heard Ms. Applegate say this his head fell off his hand and Chaz completely fell out of his chair, creating a loud thump causing everyone in the class to turn and look. Chaz looked at everyone as he sweated vigorously, "Sorry." Chaz quickly sat back in seat and after a long pause the teacher continued, "As you all know, a career in the military is the most fulfilling career one can have. You will fight along side your brothers in arms against the Alien Swarm and…" A student in the back raised his hand, "We know all this stuff hag, can you skip to the important stuff?" "What else could one expect from a garbage school," thought Chaz. The teacher dropped her proper attitude and leaned up the desk, "Fine. There are four hundred fifty three colleges specifically meant for military training. Tomorrow executives from each of the schools will show up here and select students. Though the chances of any of you being selected is minimal, you could be considered perfect as cannon fodder for real soldiers." Ms. Applegate began naming different colleges, each specifically made to train mindless fools into obedient soldiers. Chaz knew it was natural for poor school districts to do this, not one of the students in here was smart enough to pilot a Star Hawk Light Interceptor, or organize even a simple strategy commanding a Arizona Class Heavy Frigate. Chaz had memorized every active service military vessel and its schematics. Chaz would be wasted in a boot camp for idiots. He desperately wanted to go to an officer school so his genius could flourish and expand. Chaz was not just top in his grade, but for his school and district, spanning over twenty thousand students. His IQ was scaled to be upwards of two hundred twenty three, and his physical prowess was above that of most professional martial artists. However even these schools hardly produced alumni with half the intelligence Chaz had. Except one. Chaz stood up and yelled throughout the class, "What about Keys Military Academy!" Everyone in the class stared at him, a chuckle here or there. Applegate spoke "Chaz, you may be an accomplished student, but the odds of Keys Military Academy coming out to a backwater school is already slim to none, let alone the odds of them selecting you, I wouldn't count on it." Chaz's heart stopped. He thought of dozens of witty responses that would trip the teacher up, who was clearly ignorant of his intelligence considering it in fact surpassed her's. Chaz sat down slowly, feeling the one hundred eyes of the class still watching him. Once he sat down the teacher began speaking again about the boot camps and training programs. Perhaps she was right, he might never go to Keys Academy. His best friend who lived in the city was just accepted, would he leave him behind? Before Chaz could think more the school bell rang and the teacher spoke for the last time "Ok everyone get out, I'm not allowed to smoke with you all in here." The students funneled out of the one door and entered the cheaply built hallway with solar powered lights, white tile floors and several water fountains. Meanwhile other schools had neon lights and marble floors, proving just how cheap the Rhode Island District was. Chaz began walking down the hall, seeing bullies steal lunch money, mean girls talking shit, and the nerds trading Crazuman cards. Chaz was too smart to be a bully, to strong to be a nerd, and the incorrect gender to be a "Mean girl." Chaz stopped walking as he thought to himself, "Man I really need to take a piss." Chaz turned ninety degrees and went through the bathroom door. The hallway may have been cheap, but even that was nice compared to the uncleaned walls and piss stained floors of the bathroom. Chaz went to a urinal and began his business. Halfway through, three large boys entered the bathroom, one of which was Chaz's bully Todd Zarnecki and his two lackeys. Todd came up to Chaz and tapped hard on his shoulder, "What was with that shit in the classroom today? You retarded or somethin?" Chaz remained calm, "You'd know a thing or two about being retarded wouldn't you Todd?" Todd began getting mad, "Yeah well what do you know? I just came in here for your money, now be like the rest of the dweebs and hand it over, or I'll make you." Despite being outnumbered and outmuscled, Chaz was unfazed by Todds empty threats, "You came in here with your lackeys this time, are you perhaps afraid that I'll beat your ass again?" A single drop of sweat went down Todd's face and teeth began grinding. Todd grabbed hold of Chaz's shoulder and was about to pull him back when Chaz calmly spoke to him, "I wouldn't do that, those shoes look expensive and I'm still going to the bathroom." Todd let go and stood quietly. Chaz finished and zipped up his pants, and turned around to face Todd. He was tall, almost seven feet tall, and very big, maybe big enough to lift a car. Though those impressive traits were overshadowed by his hideous face, which ressembled that a of an ape. Todd stuck his hand out, expecting Chaz's money. Chaz sighed, and reached into his pocket. Chaz placed a job application onto Todd's hand. "I was thinking about working at the mall, but thinking about it now i'm probably too smart for it, though a mindless idiot such as yourself would be perfect for the job." Todd became very angry, his lips came back to reveal him grinding his teeth. Todd punched Chaz but Chaz moved to the left. Todd's punch connected with the urinal, breaking it and causing water to spray on his face. Todd covered his eyes, "Ugh, you little piece of sh-!" Chaz punched Todd in the gut, causing him to fall into the urenal, "You dumbasses forget that i'm not just the smartest, but i'm also the strongest at this school." Todd got even madder and yelled at his lackeys, "Hey, idiots, get the little fuck!" The two each grab one of Chaz's arms and hold him back, but Chaz always has a witty response, "Come on, thing one, thing two, lets make this a fair fight." Todd got back up and punched Chaz's gut, Chaz's head drooped downwards, "What do you have to say now loser?" Chaz coughed a little, "You know, if you put more weight into your punches they'd hurt a lot more?" Todd got even madder and kept punching Chaz in the stomach. After the sixth punch Todd stopped and stepped back smiling, Chaz raised his head to face Todd, "So, you haven't taken my advice yet?" Todd got mad again and went for another punch but Chaz kicked himself upwards and drop kicked Todd's face. Todd crashed into the white tile wall, and fell through it. Chaz headbutted the lackey to his right, who let go of his arm. With his right arm free Chaz uppercutted the lackey to his left, sending about five teeth flying. The three opponents were all knocked out, and Chaz began walking out of the bathroom. In the corner of his eye he saw himself in the mirror. He was not average by any means for a fifteen year old, almost six feet tall, one hundred twenty pounds, and able to bench upwards of five hundred pounds. He had brown hair that touched the bottom of his neck and had a very thin physique. He wiped a smudge of blood off of his cheek and left the bathroom. The hallway was still cluttered with people but not as much as earlier. Chaz walked through the crowd until he finally made it outside to see the well kept exterior of the school crawling with teens. Before long, Chaz saw his mother's car and hopped in. "How was your day sweetie?" Chaz responded the same way he did everyday, "Monotonous." Chaz's mother, Diana Sopa, had long, straight brown hair. She was average for a forty four year old, pretty enough to attract most anyone her age but not enough to attract anyone younger than thirty. "So what did you get on your test?" Chaz answered as he looked out of the window at the highway, "One hundred and ten percent as always." "Good, good. Did anything interesting happen?" Chaz was watching the other self driving cars next to them, "Nothing interesting ever happens anymore. Although they did bring up military schools today." Diana suddenly got a lot more giddy, "Oh jolly good! With a little luck maybe you can go to 'StoneWall Bootcamp' over in New Florida so you are at least closeby. Maybe you'll even be assigned to Earth so you visit every so often." Chaz's brain hurt at such a thought, "You'd sooner find me washing the bathrooms that nerds get high in. Someone with my intelligence should go to an officers academy like Tim." Diana turned her seat to face Chaz, "Now honey listen, it's not your fault that officer academies don't come out here, it's just a bad district. You should at least consider boot camp so you have some military service." Diana quickly turned back around. Despite the way Chaz thought of his classmates, he was a very nice and admirable person, but was never given appreciation for his actions. Chaz thought back to two years ago when there was a meteor shower. A building had caught on fire and there were still people inside. The local troop garrison was to afraid to go in, soft from years of peace, and Chaz could hear a woman at the seventh floor calling for help. Sick and tired of the soldiers arrogance Chaz sprinted past the police barricade and broke down the door and ran into the building before a soldier could stop him. Shortly after entering the building the entrance collapsed but Chaz didn't care. Chaz was not worried about the growing heat and began sprinting up the stairs. At the third floor Chaz's shirt caught on fire and he had to through it off, exposing his skin to the flames. Despite this he kept running up the stairs. On his way to the fifth floor a support beam fell onto Chaz, crushing his back and slamming him into the floor. Chaz managed to push himself up and throw the beam off of himself, but the heat still burned some of his skin off. Chaz still continued sprinting up the stairs when he finally made it to the seventh floor. Chaz checked every room on the floor, until he found the girl in room seven hundred fifty nine. She was only around seventeen years old and a support beam had fallen on her back and she couldn't move. Chaz quickly through the beam off of the girl but it had broken both of her legs and she couldn't walk. Chaz threw her over his shoulder and ran for the door. Just as he was about to make it the roof collapsed sealing off the door. There wasn't an exit out of the room and smoke began filling the room making it hard to breathe. The smoke filled the room so much it was impossible to see or breathe. Chaz knew he only had one option left. Outside everyone was screaming and the soldiers were trying to find a way in when suddenly the sound of glass breaking caught everyone's attention. Everyone looked up to see that Chaz had drop kicked out of the seventh story window. They were forty meters high and Chaz knew that the girl couldn't survive the fall. Chaz quickly arranged their bodies so that he would break the girl's fall. Once they hit the ground Chaz's back absorbed all the impact. They had left a massive crack in the ground. Chaz had broke his back, his right leg, right arm, left hand, right shoulder, and his back, along with several third degree burns and a concussion. Despite this, Chaz's actions were credited to Sergeant Walker, whose last heroic act was throwing the two off them out of the building and dying in the fire. Chaz rubbed the scar on his back that never quite healed as the car pulled up to the driveway. Diana and Chaz entered the front door where they saw Chaz's younger brother Toby watching TV on their brown sofa. Diana immediately went to the kitchen to begin dinner. Chaz began walking down the hall to his room. Looked through the door to his older brother's, Johnathan, room to see him reading a dirty magazine. Sprawled across the walls were posters on bikini clad females and his computer screen was more of the same. Jonathan was twenty one and a reservist in Earth's local troop garrison, lazy and poorly trained. When there wasn't a local riot or planetary invasion going on Jonathan was at home mooching off his parents. Chaz proceeded to his room, which had plain blue walls with dozens of military figurines and computers. He had a medium sized bed with black sheets leaning against his right wall. Chaz immediately sat down at his desk and scrolled through his computer, quickly reading any new announcements. One article caught his eye, "Are you sick of your planet? Good news, the first Human Colony in the Ross 154 System has been created. Now accepting migration to the newly named Ross System." Chaz hadn't realized that they pushed the swarm back far enough to be able to secure Ross 154. Chaz once again thought about what had happened in the year twenty twenty, as he does every so often. A mysterious alien race had appeared at Earth and began stealing it's natural resources. The aliens, which humanity named the Swarm, had space ships make up of hundred of living beings. It's unknown how they operate but most assume they are a hive mind. After a bloody five years humanity managed to repel the invasion. From that point on, most of humanity had completely come together with the United Nations acting as the governing body. After that point major strides were made in the field of space exploration and before long humanity had a functional space navy. Wormholes were created to take ships to other star systems and a slow war began with the swarm. That war has been going on for more than one hundred years now and humans have been on the winning side. This is why a career in the military is heavily encouraged by schools and why combat and physical training became standard in middle schools and high schools. In the corner of his eye Chaz saw that he had one notification. He looked at it, it was a message from Tim, "Hey Chaz whaz good? Sorry it's been awhile since I messeged you but I wanted to wait to see if I would actually be accepted to Keys. I was accepted. The academy is super cool and I'vs met tons of cool people. There are a few classified things I can't talk about yet but I'll fill you in when I can. They are waiting for one more student before they start teahcing us. Fingures crossed its you. See ya soom. -Tim Brown." Chaz was angered, he knew that there was a less than one percent chance he'd end up at Keys. Although he was still a little entertained to see Tim's terrible grammar and spelling. He chuckled, "Seems you don't need to be perfect to go to Keys." Suddenly Johnathan put Chaz in a head lock and lifted him off his seat, "What're you talking about?" Chaz, unamused, grabbed his brother and flipped him over his head on to the ground, "Despite your age and military training, I'm much stronger than you." Johnathan was somewhat irritated but still a little proud. Chaz stuck his hand out and helped his brother up. Jonathan shoved Chaz's shoulder, "Don't think that just because you were born with better genetics you are better than me." Chaz knew exactly what he meant, after the swarm invasion, parts of the world had greater levels of radiation from the alien craft. Instead of harming people it created extremely intelligent and powerful offspring. Over time the population of these "Super Humans" has died down but they are extremely powerful, some stronger than others in the case of Chaz and Todd. Chaz shoved his brother back, knocking him on to the ground, "You normally don't come in here, what's the occasion? Did you drop a sex hotline number in here?" Jonathan stood back up and patted his brother on the head, "No nothing like that today. There are a ton of pro alien extremists rioting in the city. My platoon has been deployed to assist the police force. I'll be gone for a few days." Chaz squints his eyes and stare into Jonathan's soul, "You sure you don't want me to come, I'm stronger than any soldier in your platoon." Jonathan chuckled as he walked to the door, "I don't think you're quite ready for this yet." Jonathan stopped in front of the door and picked up a piece of paper, "Would you look at that, I did drop a hot line number in here." Johnathan leaves the room and a few moments later the front door opens and closes. Chaz was amazed that his brother could live with such an uneventful life, he was hardly ever deployed. Chaz wanted nothing more than to explore the stars aboard his own Talon Class Heavy Cruiser, or lead of division of ground troops to victory. Life as a reservist would likely cause Chaz to go insane. Chaz often thought that the reason he was so skinny was because his brain burned tons of calories. Such random thoughts tired Chaz. He fell into his black bed and fell asleep.