Plain

"I'm Lieutenant Sehlolo of the Global Army," The humanoid wolf-like alien announced. "I will handle the special class of Ylaco's training camp. Other Lieutenants will manage the other groups from your city and the other training camps. We can move once you stop puking on the teleport."

Khan never blinked as he kept his gaze on the Kred. He had only seen a few images of that alien species on the network due to their connection to Lieutenant Dyester, but the real deal gave off a completely different vibe.

The Kred were creatures that humans often saw as evolved animals due to their stark resemblance with the fauna on Earth. Lieutenant Sehlolo was the perfect example of a wolf who learned how to stand on two feet and talk.

Their language didn't have fixed grammatical rules. The Kred used cries that reflected their apparent connection with the animal species on Earth, but they could understand each other even if their sounds were different.

A wolf-like Kred could understand a lion-like Kred and so on. The reason behind that feature was an innate mental connection among the members of their species. They were a spiritual bunch, and humans could communicate with them only if they managed to tap on that mental environment.

Khan had tried to understand more during his lessons of xenolinguistics, but Professor Thogett had never focused on a single alien language during the first semester. Rumors said that accessing that mental connection was possible only after accepting the innate feral side, but Khan didn't know how to take that information.

'It definitely looks wild,' Khan commented in his mind while trying to find any feature that could hint at her sex.

Dark-blue fur covered the entirety of Lieutenant Sehlolo's body. A few white strands of hair appeared under her long chin and seemed to stretch through her chest, but Khan couldn't confirm that due to her uniform.

Her right shoulder featured two stars, while the left only one. She was a second-level warrior and a first-level mage, but Khan wondered whether those symbols had the same value on a Kred.

'I didn't know that the Global Army had aliens in its ranks,' Khan thought while planting a foot on the teleport. 'They should have a better body, but they can't handle mana as well as us.'

Khan reviewed the little information about the Kred learnt during the past months while he prepared to stand up. He recalled their devotion to mana and their rebellion, but his knowledge ended there.

Martha was still holding his hand, and she had yet to find the strength to stand up, but her complexion was far better than the other recruits. She seemed ready to leave the teleport, but she clearly needed some help.

Khan crouched toward her ear before whispering a few words. "I'm going to help you stand now."

Martha frowned before performing a weak nod. Her grasp on Khan's hand tightened before relaxing and releasing it completely.

Khan took that as the signal that she was ready to stand. He took her hand and placed it on his shoulder before wrapping his arm behind her back and slowly pull her up.

Khan would be lying if he said that he wasn't enjoying that moment. He didn't like seeing Martha in that state, but the warm sensation spreading from the hand clutched at her waist was quite intoxicating.

He had heard his peers talking about hormones, but he had never felt them so clearly. Part of him wanted to hold Martha right away, but he suppressed that instinct to focus on helping her.

Martha clutched her hand on Khan's shoulder, but her grasp slipped away. She had to reach for his neck to gain a good handhold, and her short nails inevitably tried to pierce his skin.

The duo eventually ended up on their feet, and Khan remained in that position until Martha found her balance. The process took a few seconds, and Martha's hand soon left his neck to slide through his back and return to her side.

Khan did the same once Martha nodded, and the duo exchanged an understanding gaze afterward. They both had performed a few useless moves just to touch their friend's back a bit longer, but they let that knowledge remain silent.

The other recruits were doing worse than them, but Bruce and Luke showed signs of recovery. The two kids from the Rotston family were in a similar situation. It would only take a few minutes before all of them could stand on their feet and leave the teleport.

Martha and Khan jumped off the platform and started to study the area. The teleport was almost identical to the others seen on Earth and Onia, but the rest of the building was completely different.

The floor didn't have metal tiles. Instead, ground and glowing blue plants surrounded the oval platform. Walls made of a black material that seemed able to store electricity separated that hall from the outside world.

Many consoles and soldiers wearing white medical coats handled the various consoles attached to the black material, and a dark corridor connected the hall to the rest of the building.

There wasn't much metal in the hall. Most of the materials used for the walls and tubes that brought electricity and mana seemed to come from natural substances. Only the consoles and the teleport had a completely different technology, which required various alloys.

The recruits slowly stood up and gathered around Lieutenant Sehlolo. The Kred grunted before turning toward the corridor, and the kids instinctively followed her.

The same black walls unfolded in their vision. Pale azure glows shone from behind that strange material and made the recruits fear that everything could crumble at the slight tremor. After all, that black substance seemed to have the same fabric as Onia's terrain.

"Humans always rely on their metal," Lieutenant Sehlolo snorted when she saw the reaction of the recruits. "You are completely unaware of the potential of natural resources, but your power allows you to thrive in your ignorance."

"I'm sorry, ma'am?" One of the recruits asked after mustering enough courage. "Why did you decide to join the Global Army then?"

"We can do better together, humans and Kred," Lieutenant Sehlolo explained. "Istrone has been the home of the most recent rebellion, but the Kred believe in peace and cooperation. It's only logical for some of us to join the Global Army and try to change things from the inside."

"Change what, ma'am?" Another recruit asked.

Lieutenant Sehlolo didn't seem too scary after her first answer. She had a threatening appearance, and a wild aura surrounded her, but her voice hid a peculiar kindness. Her behavior was rude compared to human standards, but Khan began to accept that the Kred simply were extremely honest.

"Humans exploit the mana without caring about the consequences on the environment," Lieutenant Sehlolo explained. "Mana can empower everyone and have enough power left for the world, but the humans don't know how to contain themselves. They need a Kred to learn harmony."

The group went through the usual scanners and signed the familiar forms before going out of the building. Khan discovered that even Martha, Bruce, and Luke didn't require to use pills to breathe anymore, and he couldn't help but feel happy for them.

A proper jungle unfolded in their vision once they left the building. Tall trees that had greenish trunks and blue leaves stood all around the structure. Their large and thick crowns covered the sky, but a yellowish halo seeped through them anyway.

Azure glows ran through the terrain and ended in various plants that trembled when that energy spread through their structures. Violet flowers blossomed right in front of the group's eyes, and new vegetation appeared from those spots.

Khan and the trio who didn't need the pills took a few minutes to accept the change of atmosphere. The air there was dense and wet but also powerful. Khan could feel mana everywhere. It seemed that every inch of Istrone had grown with that energy.

"The days last twenty-six hours here, with an almost perfect division between day and night," Lieutenant Sehlolo explained once Khan and the others became able to breathe. "Don't underestimate the vegetation, humans. Most of the plants here have a will of their own and have gained special abilities through mana. You can consider them Tainted creatures."

Everyone immediately became wary of their surroundings. The recruits had yet to see a spot of Istrone that lacked plants, so their worries inevitably intensified.

"There aren't many paths on Istrone," Lieutenant Sehlolo continued. "Only the natives here can avoid losing themselves in this everchanging environment. Follow me closely. The area for the first mission is right ahead."

The group followed Lieutenant Sehlolo across uneven paths that had many hindrances on their way. They had to move roots, branches, bushes, and even entire plants at times to proceed forward, but a large plain eventually unfolded in their eyes.

Khan could finally see the single sun of Istrone once his group left the tight array of trees. The star radiated a pale-yellow light that kept the temperatures relatively low. He wasn't freezing, but he felt like in autumn on Earth.

Crowds of younglings filled the immense plain and surrounded the various metal platforms in the area. Those structures were thirty meters wide and two meters tall, but they had stairs on their side, which hinted at some special purpose.

Khan recognized some of the students from Ylaco, but he also saw many unfamiliar faces. However, the uniforms were all identical. The location of their training camp didn't matter. They all belonged to the Global Army.