Chapter 27 Big Changes

After a week in the gravity enhanced environment, Max started to notice major changes to his physique. First was the expected toning of his body, which was a welcome improvement. The boyish softness was disappearing in favor of a chiseled look better suited to a proper soldier.

Since all the kids are taken away to military academies at age twelve, Max had never seen anyone go through puberty in this life, and it hadn't previously seemed like an important memory to look up, so the whole process took him by surprise.

Not as much as the changes to his face though. He had often wondered which of his parents he would look like, but looking in the mirror now, shaving the scraggly blonde beard from his youthful face, he recognized this face. Not a mix of his parents but his own face from his previous life.

It was the first memory of his past life that had ever triggered, and all Max could do is stare at himself and try to recall something, anything else about that past life. But nothing was coming to him.

He wondered if the system is upgrading his entire body back to what it was in his past life, or if it's an effect of being reincarnated. Because from what little he had learned of biology, his current appearance makes no sense.

For one, his height has shot up to 180cm over the week, a full 15cm taller than his father. Combined with the physique and the face, he no longer resembles his current family at all. A small blessing, but an important one in his opinion.

If Max is stunned by his changes, Nico is only annoyed. Her growth stopped at 145cm tall and stubbornly refuses to increase. She's gained a lot of strength this week though, since her stat was so low to start with.

She reminds him of the professional bodybuilders he had seen on the data net as a kid, every muscle in her body was visible and rippled when she moved.

Compared to his own square jaw and strong Roman nose, her facial features looked very angular, elfin and delicate. That was a cruel joke to Max though, there was nothing delicate about his friend. Now that her strength has mostly adjusted to the constantly increasing gravity she routinely beat him down during training.

But not for much longer. Nico might have the advantage of experience, but Max was quickly catching up in skills. The new style General Tennant was teaching them seemed tailor made for him and he was confident one day soon he would be the one to secure the wins. Just a little more speed and dexterity should do it.

Max had just got his coveralls on when the General came in with one of the school doctors, who almost missed a step as the effect of the additional gravity hit him.

"Weekly checkup for you both, plus your Central Governed Mandated birth control shots now that you've reached puberty. The fleet doesn't want any incidents during Academy training after all." General Tennant laughs.

Max supposes that makes sense, with coed facilities and hundreds of hormonal adolescents, it's only natural that at least a few romantic relationships would form. The Kepler Military doesn't mind that, they just don't approve of unnecessary downtime.

The checkup was a simple thing, just checking their progress. Max read the doctor's mind as he worked, learning that his physical progress was well ahead of what the doctor expected for his stat bonuses, which he credited to the gravity training.

General Tennant assigned them a morning warmup of stretches, push-ups and burpees while he went back outside with the doctor to discuss the results.

"So Doc, what did you find?"

"As we already knew, Cadet Nico's family is indeed that ancient Tarith military family, and not from Kepler Terminus originally. The size is totally normal for them, in fact the Mecha formerly belonging to the main branch of her family are still in storage and reported to be sized too small in the cockpit for most users.

The surprise was Cadet Max. Despite his birth records, the Genome search shows he is not a native of Kepler Terminus either. His mother certainly is, but we will need to research who his father is. What I can tell you is that he reacts exceptionally well to the system, and all other forms of nanotechnology." The doctor confirms General Tennant's suspicions.

"Thanks Doc, I owe you one. I'll have someone look into both families. Alpha level Compatibility doesn't just come out of nowhere like that, there's got to be something we're missing."

The doctor goes back to his work and General Tennant heads back inside to put the Cadets through another day of training. The gravity training is working wonders and their bodies have almost stabilized enough to move on to the next phase of training, moving from simulators to actual Mecha.

While the experience is very similar, live Mecha training teaches responsibility. Cadets will be forced to assist in the repairs and maintenance of the units they damage in training, alongside the mechanical classes, and it teaches them respect for the equipment and their fellow soldiers.

At least for most of them it does. This phase of training in the other classes is where the determinations of potential officer promotions begin to be made, with the Cadets attitudes and leadership abilities being put on full display in a real world scenario.

For these two it's already obvious they're qualified, and that Cadet Max is more of the everyman's leader, while Cadet Nico has all the grace and charm of a Drill Instructor with a sore tooth. She's a great tactician, and a good leader, but she's better suited to scaring Cadets into action than inspiring patriotism in the masses.

Perhaps he could arrange for her to be Cadet Max's Executive Officer? General Tennant has friends in the Commissariat, the army's police and internal logistics department, and he could have them send someone here early to give the Cadets a dose of additional training.

A well trained Commissar handles a units provisioning, with logistics officers and staff doing the leg work. They're also tasked with handling discipline matters, and are the perfect choice for an executive officer, a units second in command.

General Tennant decides to add it to the list of required topics for the semester, despite the Cadets already having their hands full with physical training.