- Surprise Package

They arrived back to the house not long before midnight. As a result of their lateness, they decided to stay up until the midnight news released to see if they could see something about their game. As they entered, they found a large box waiting for them in their kitchen.

Attached to the box was a small note, with writing taking up only a couple of lines.

'Apex Reapers,' the note read. 'Inside you will find communication devices along with a television with a handful of set channels installed. These devices are designed to assist you with your time at the academy.'

After emptying the contents of the box, they found that the communication devices were small watches that were tailor made to fit on the wrist of it's owner. It seemed that they needed a little bit of time after the entrance exams to finalise the watches and have them sent to the appropriate houses. Already in the watch was information about the individual, such as physical features, cybernetics, something called Academy Credits and some kind of ranking system.

The TV was a lot simpler, and posed a lot less questions. Already connected to a SolBox, a bit of technology that provided access to TV channels circulating exclusively through the solar system, it was simply a matter of plugging in the TV and turning it on.

The first channel they discovered was Solar News Interstellar, the news company that broadcasted to the entirety of humanity the news of the solar system. Since their main broadcast station was found somewhere around Neptune, the channel fell under the purview of the solar system, and was thus allowed to operate through the SolBox.

"Now, over to sport. Big news out of the Permia system today, as Smokers star Rytan Jahn is set to sign a new contract at the spaceball club."

"He's staying?" Joel said. "I figured he'd be moving to one of the Linthol teams. They're the future of the sport, I'm telling you."

"I'd hoped he'd go for a shock move to the Martians," Kyle added. "He's just the type of player they need to sort out their season."

"Their season? Season's only just started, hasn't it?" Faye asked.

"Yeah, but, like, have you seen the Martians? They're already fighting for their spot at the end of the season without some big signings."

"Wait, can we go back to the fact that you hoped Jahn would go to the Martians? Why not the Terran Homeworlders?" Connor asked, a mischievous grin spreading onto his face. "Don't tell me you're a Martian fan over the Homeworlders?"

"It's been in my family for generations. If you go back far enough, my family were Martians."

"Really?"

"No way!"

"The derby is gonna be pretty fun this year," Joel said with a laugh.

At this point, spaceball was a fairly old sport. Introduced as the evolution of football for the space age, the sport was played on special arenas found above orbit of a planet. It's rules were practically the same, but the lack of gravity allowed the ball to move more freely in more directions, while the players were restricted to the ground by Gravity Inducing boots. This new dimension of movement, along with the slick new designs of the stadia, truly encapsulated the idea of the sport being the next step along the evolutionary track of sport.

"Ooh, look!" Krista said excitedly.

Turning their attention back to the television, Gus and the others saw a report on the game they had just played in the academy league.

"…Exciting start to the league, as the Apex Reapers came from behind to win against the Diamond Blades. It was a close victory, with the Reapers coming out on top after a tense one on one situation in which the leader of the Reapers bested one of the Blades.

Cheers erupted through the room, as Gus and the others celebrated their win.

The cheers were swiftly silenced as the report on the news was interrupted.

"Breaking news now, coming out of the Vanil system. We have heard reports of ships appearing on the edges of the system, ships that appear to belong to the Covenant of the Bloody Dawn. For more, we'll hand over to our war specialist…"

"Covenant ships? In human space?" Emmy asked.

"They've been in human space this entire time. But god, this is terrible," Teala commented.

"I guess we'll be going out there sooner rather than later," Gus said. "They're going to want everyone they can get out there."

Normally, it would not have been a problem for Gus. The old him would have preferred to be sent out into the galaxy sooner rather than later, since it would give him more time to fulfill his promise. But now, with the power of the system at his disposal, he would prefer to have more time to build it up in a rather safe environment at the academy than being thrown head first into the war.

'It's crazy how one little thing can change you so easily.'

"… you already know, the Covenant have long occupied the space in the human frontier. They have been unable to advance upon human space, due in large part to the efforts of the people of the frontier who relentlessly fight day after day to keep them at bay. Their presence in the Vanil system means two things, either those on the frontier are gone or the numbers of the Covenant are now too large for the fragmented forces of the frontier to contain. If true, is it anything to worry about? Not really. As we all know, the Vanil system is home to three of the largest factories available to humanity. Between their native war mechs and ships, which are constantly upgraded with the best equipment available to our species, as well as the Doorway Defense System, it is highly improbable that the Bloody Dawn will rise on our space anytime soon."

"Well, enough of that," Gus said. "We have an early start tomorrow again, so let's all go to bed ready."