- First Day

Gus woke up, drenched in sweat and breathing hard.

'What is that thing?' he thought to himself, the images in his dream seared into his mind.

It had been a standard dream, with Gus doing menial chores on Earth. But he could see something in his peripheral vision, something that was unclear. When he tried to look at it, the thing became even more distorted and incomprehensible. There had also been some kind of mirror, like the one that he saw in that room yesterday.

His breathing rate slowing down, Gus glanced at the clock in the cabinet to his side.

'Half six? Not too early,' he thought to himself, swinging his legs out of bed. He walked to his door and pulled it open, expecting the corridor to be empty. As he opened the door the corridor was submerged in darkness, a single green light blinking from the fire alarm in the centre of the corridor acting as the only source of light. As though it recognised the fact that a door was open, the lights flickered to life one by one, starting with the closest one overhead.

With the lights now on, Gus could tell that the corridor was not empty.

Bags, presumably the one's brought with people to the academy if the one at his feet was any indication, were placed outside of everyone's doors. Gus figured they must have been brought up at some point during the night. Unexpectedly, there was an envelope lying on top of Gus's bag.

Curiosity filling his brain, Gus knelt down and picked it up. On one side a label had been hastily thrown onto the envelope.

<Squad Leader Only!>

'Squad leader only? What is this?'

Gus took the envelope back into his room and sat on the bed before opening it. Inside were a couple of sheets of paper. On the front sheet, a timetable was printed into grid formation, displaying the classes that the squad would have throughout the week. Nicely enough, there were only four days of attendance at the schoolhouse required a week.

Putting the timetable to the side, Gus looked at the second sheet. It contained information on his squadmates, such as their names and blood types, as well as the rooms that they had chosen.

'How do they know that?'

Gus stood and put it onto his desk, figuring that he would get the most use out of it. The third sheet was a task sheet to be completed.

1. Name your Squad.

2. Design an Insignia.

3. Create a Squad Motto

'A motto? I kinda understand wanting a name and an insignia, but a motto? And what about all of that is for me only? Everyone needs to know the timetable, everyone should already know their information, and everyone can help with the tasks.'

Gus put down the third sheet onto his desk and went back to the door to retrieve his bag. As he grabbed the strap on his bag, the door on his right swung open.

"Morning, Gus," Connor said, spotting him.

"Morning," Gus responded, as he pulled the bag into his room.

"Did we need to be up this early?"

"It's good that you are," Gus answered, pulling a towel and some soap out of his bag, as well as a newly added training uniform that wasn't in the bag when he left it. "I'm going to jump in the showers quickly, can you make sure everyone is in the kitchen in about ten?"

"Ten hours right?" Connor joked. "Sure, I'll sort it."

Gus thanked him and walked down the corridor.

The showers were simply designed. Upon opening the door, Gus saw five cubicles of toilets on his left. Opposite those were four showers, separated by tiled walls. There were two sections to the shower. One was where the shower head was, where someone would wash. In the other section, a space had been granted to allow for people to dry themselves and get dressed while still in the privacy of the shower.

While he showered, Gus saw a message pop up.

*Issued Mission: Starter Tasks.*

*Complete each of the starter tasks assigned to you.*

'The system gives me missions based on what the academy does?'

*Reactive Mission: Defeat William Dean.*

'A reactive mission?'

A few minutes later, Gus left the room. Upon hearing a loud set of noises from behind the kitchen door, he smiled and pushed open the door halfway, before remembering the sheets of paper. Releasing the door, he quickly made his way back to the room, grabbed the missions and the timetable, and returned to the kitchen.

"Two things," he said, entering the kitchen and seeing everyone was there. "First, we've got a timetable," he said, pinning it to a notice board along the same wall as the door.

There were four classes in total. The first class they had, and the one most people would be excited for, was the Combat class. Then, in addition to that class, there was the Military Equipment class that Jet had mentioned the day before, a Tactics class, and a History-Corporations class that was joined together, seemingly because they would be linked together. Each lesson lasted two hours, and they had each of them daily. Each box on the table also gave information on what was required to bring to the lessons. For example, they were required to wear the training gear Gus got dressed in to the combat classes.

Gus allowed the others to crowd around the board and study the table before he demanded their attention with a throaty cough.

"Secondly we've got some stuff to do," he said, pinning the tasks sheet to the board alongside the timetable. "But we can look at it later, just keep it in the back of your mind. For now, Get ready. We need to be at the schoolhouse in under an hour," he said, stepping away from the door and glancing at the clock that displayed 06:50 above the door inside the kitchen.

"Didn't he say yesterday we had to be there for eight?" Kyle asked.

"He did, But Gus says before then," Connor responded.

"Any time they give us for deadlines, take at least ten minutes off it," Gus said, before letting them leave to get ready.

By 07:50, Gus and the others were outside the training hall, behind the school. Lessons were to be taken between platoons, and Gus had not seen nor heard anything from the other squad in his buildings when they left.

Each of them was dressed almost identically, wearing the training uniform. Only slight changes had been made to some to accommodate their cybernetics. For example, Anten's green layer, a long sleeved top worn under the blue t-shirt on top, was shorter than the others on account of his forearm cybernetic.

Soon enough, the other squads arrived at the school, one after the other. By eight, all of the five squads had arrived. And at a couple of minutes past eight the officer in charge of the class showed up, muttering apologies as he approached.

"So much for ten minutes early," Kyle whispered to Gus.

The officer was completely average looking. He was not tall, nor was he muscular. Gus wondered why he would be in charge of combat classes. In his hand he carried a register, across multiple sheets, of the class that was attached to a board. Next to each name was a space available for him to make notes.

The officer let them into the hall, and directed them to the sparring space on the far side of the hall.

"Now, for the first lesson I'll keep it simple. I'm Officer Cain, and I'll be in charge of your combat training. For this lesson, I want to see what you can do, so I'm putting you in the ring against each other in an exhibition form."

"First up: Gus Braye, against Timber Allen."