1 Sector 83W72N

"Cadets, remind your C.O. how you got here."

"By rocket, sergeant!"

"Remind your C.O. how we got here in history, Cadet Allarine."

The dim lighting of the military classroom flickered; Sector 83W72N, called 'Mannerhaus' by its civilians, had a wide variety of operational facilities in orbit around eighteen planets, themselves spread across seven systems. Unfortunately for this particular facility, it was in orbit around a Gaia-type world - that is, while it is an easily habitable planet, well within the habitable zones of the red star it orbited, it was also incredibly large. That meant the satellite, which ran on solar energy, had to go on conservation mode while it passed the 32 hours of darkness in 83W72N-S02-P4 (called Anverheim's World by most)'s day night cycle.

At an arrangement of forty desks sat the same number of cadets, though it was perhaps a compliment to call them such, having been conscripted at the age of thirteen, when the first tests of GRANFIELD compatibility could be safely conducted. All forty children, a relatively even eighteen girls and twenty-two males, had tested positive for being host to fast enough reflexes and mental processes to operate the GRANFIELD system; that was enough, nowadays.

"In Earth Year 2050, the Starlight System was invented by the International Space Agency, sir!" The speaker was the same Cadet Allarine as had answered the first question - a teacher's pet, obviously, or maybe a girl hopeful that there would be a prize to come. The MP (Military Police) standing guard at the door hid a smirk; he had known someone similar, and he also knew they were prime targets to be singled out for bullying. She'd learn.

"Correct, Cadet. The Starlight System gave us the ability to cross worlds in seconds, but more importantly, it gave us the ability to cross vast tracts of empty space in milliseconds. Can anyone remind me who founded Anverheim's World?" The drill sergeant was an elderly man, obviously in the position only because he was too old to be on the front.

"New Westphalia Province, sir?" This voice was quieter, and from the high-pitched voice of a boy that maybe didn't belong in the military - at least, not in the militaries of the past.

"Exactly. In 2305, Lieutenant General Anverheim led an expedition here, and with a brave team of Westphalian soldiers colonized it. Why, then, are we called Mannerhaus?"

Silence, now. Even with modern technology like information-transferrence, children could only memorize so much at a time.

"Because they betrayed us."