“I’m sorry, madam congresswoman, but the last thing we need out there is more firepower. Sure, the N.O.V.A. is impressive, but what about upgraded armor? We can kill well enough as is, what we need is the ability to avoid dying out there.” – A General Officer addressing the senate.

  Dave strode nervously down the hallway toward Theresa Kos’s office, each step pounding in his ears in a constant reminder that today might be his last. An inner war of fear and determination nearly caused him to stop right there and go back. He knew his squad would understand. They’d gone over this decision with him several times, and they’d all come to the same conclusion; this was his choice to bear, and if he decided not to do it, that was ok.

  He’d delayed the procedure as long as he could, telling himself over and over that he wasn’t ready, but now he was out of time. With the looming deployment—even if it was just garrison duty—he had to decide. If he was back home in Georgia, his grandmother would have told him it was time to shit or get off the pot.

  I guess I finally gotta take that shit.

  Frankly, despite the decision, the idea was terrifying. Barca had not-so-gently painted him a picture about how this could go, and if he was unlucky, it could go extremely badly. In the end, he would either be a raving lunatic or significantly more powerful. The knowledge wasn’t comforting, but it was straightforward.

  Before he knew it, he was out of time.

  He was standing in front of a wooden door that was propped open with a small wedge. He hadn’t seen a true wooden door since his days on Earth, and most of those were historic relics of the past. Stenciled on its grainy surface in plain black letters was the name of its owner; Theresa Kos.

  “Ma’am?” he asked, quietly tapping on the wooden portal. Between its rustic charm and the inviting way she decorated the office inside, he felt like he was visiting an elderly grandmother.

  “Ah, Specialist West. Do come in,” a kindly woman he’d never met said from behind a desk.

  If asked to describe her, the only word Dave could use would be ‘motherly.’ There was something about the way she smiled that put him at ease even while being terrified. Everything about her cultivated that feeling, including the omission of accessories that suggested she was in the military at all.

  “Frederick is in the back waiting for us, but I’m certain he is just planning some new project. We can take our time without needing to worry about him. Would you like a cup of tea? I find a nice cup before something stressful makes it significantly easier.”

  “No thank you, I think I just want to get this over with,” he said, trying to understand how this matronly woman could be the head of an entire corps of assassins. While the Phantom Corps provided most medical services for the AHF, they were also incredibly effective at silent killing.

  “Famous last words,” she laughed, easing his tension just a little more, “Although, with both Frederick and myself on the scene, I can all but promise that you will be ok. If the Light absorption and redirection overwhelms you, either of us can bleed off the power.”

  “Will it hurt?” he asked, following as she led him to a small treatment room attached to the office. Silently, he wondered if all seven Unranked Officers had a space reserved on each hub-ship. Honestly, it would surprise him more if they didn’t.

  “The enhancement, or the injection?”

  “Well, I kinda figured the injection would hurt. I guess I meant the enhancement.”

  “I don’t think so. I designed this blend so that you could use it rapidly in combat. If you’re too busy writhing in pain, the boost doesn’t help, does it? Worst case, I have to cut off your ability to feel pain while the enhancement runs its course.”

  He finally realized what it meant to have Theresa Kos as his doctor. She was more than powerful enough to cure any illness, and yet she spent what time she had with him. Yes, he would be stronger for it, but how many others could she be helping right now?

  “Ma’am?”

  “Yes?” she replied, motioning to a hospital bed in the center of the room.

  “If you and the other Unranked Officers are so powerful, why do you waste time on us?”

  The response wasn’t what he expected. For one, it came from the large man working at a table against the wall. For another, the answer came as laughter.

  “Specialist,” Barca said, putting down his tools and turning toward him, “we tried to be a benevolent group of leaders that stopped people from hurting one another. In fact, we succeeded for several years. Unfortunately, the human psyche does not see this as freedom and caused a mob to attack us.”

  “Not long after that, we disbanded the human empire and rebuilt it as a republic,” Theresa said, picking up a module that Dave only slightly recognized. “Please remove your uniform top.”

  While Dave unbuttoned the jacket and removed the shirt beneath, the two Unranked Officers looked over the equipment one last time. He was glad someone could check the math because if it were him, the process may as well not exist.

  Hanging the jacket on a peg, he took a long, hard look at the corps patch on his sleeve. The heptagon, with its blue shield over the seven-pointed star, sat as a shining reminder of why he was going through with this. It reminded him that he’d chosen this path. Not just the enhancement, but the AHF as a whole.

  He’d joined to start over and do something meaningful with his life. As much as this next step scared him, he was making a conscious choice to push himself harder for the chance to save someone else. That meant something, didn’t it?

  “I’m ready,” he said after laying back on the cool hospital bed.

  The ancient Phantom approached and pulled four straps from under the bed and secured his limbs. In a way, this was the last possible chance to back out. No matter what happened from here, his life would never be the same.

  It seemed like a theme in the AHF.

  “Relax and let the power flow through you,” she said as a green light washed through his body and made him numb. “Your body will feel dull so your mind can stay sharp. I’m laying the module on your shoulder. There is a vein there that will inject the enhancer into your body as quickly as possible.”

  “Ok,” he replied dazedly. He could still think, but his body was no longer his to command.

  “You’ll feel a sharp prick in about thirty seconds.”

  “And then it’s over?” he asked hopefully.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “No,” Barca said, turning to look at him with false confidence, “then it begins.”

  He could faintly feel the pressure from the module being laid on his chest and a slight tickle as the injector positioned itself accordingly. Those seconds were the worst. Waiting for something that felt like it would never come just about drove him insane.

  Then he felt it.

  Sharp pain lanced through his shoulder as the injector drilled down with the force of a nail driven by a sledgehammer. If that was all he had to endure, things wouldn’t have been so bad.

  But then the enhancer hit his bloodstream.

  If he could, he would’ve screamed until his throat gave out.

  But he could not. At that moment, all he could do was endure the pain.

  High-ranking brass lined the walls as Dave walked into the training room two days later. So far, there had been no ill effects from the drug, and he felt no overwhelming desire for more. All in all, he was pretty satisfied with how things had gone.

  He was so deeply absorbed in his self-reflection; he didn’t even notice the crowd pressed against the walls. Instead, he walked confidently toward the center of the room to join his friends in yet another training session.

  “Hey, you ready to pound out a little training?” he asked, knowing they would respond in the positive. When they just stared at him blankly, he knew that he’d missed something important.

  Again.

  Looking around, he finally noticed the odd number of observers. If it was just the normal brass, he would have brushed it off as nothing more than officers being weird. They acted odd all the time, almost like a different species.

  No, what made him realize things were odd was the strangely high number of Unranked Officers in the room. One was an oddity, two was a rarity, and three… well, that just never happened.

  There were three.

  “What’s going on?” he asked warily.

  “Um… You went through a highly experimental procedure and the brass want to see if it worked?” Candice replied with a raised eyebrow.

  “Nah, that can’t be it. This many folks here to see little old me?”

  “No bud, I’m pretty sure she’s right,” Alec replied.

  “Ain’t no reason to get excited. I’m really not all that special.”

  “Sure,” Nessa said, whipping out a dagger and throwing it at Dave.

  “Now that’s just hurtful,” he replied, the dagger stuck to a shield that hovered a few inches from his face, “But I could do that trick before.”

  Murmurs rose as the high-ranking officers became increasingly annoyed at Dave’s refusal to acknowledge them. He knew what they wanted, and they could just wait until he was good and ready.

  “Attention everyone,” Barca said, cutting Dave’s minor rebellion short. “As you all know by now, we’ve recently been given a rare gift. Not only did this squad infiltrate the Serum factory and retrieve highly useful material, but one of those soldiers took on significant personal risk to further our power.”

  Picking up the thread, Theresa continued, “While in the Vault, they came across multiple pieces of tech that we once abandoned. Of those, two were directly useful to Specialist West. The first injects a chemical that increases his Light Manipulation limits exponentially. And the second takes that power and focuses it into a much more dense protective field than he can normally craft. Sadly, these effects are not permanent and must be used carefully. When a soldier uses the modules, they must wait at least one full day before doing so again. If they don’t, they will suffer unwanted effects. The human body cannot sustain exposure to that level of radiation for an extended period without long-term consequences.”

  “This is the proverbial ‘oh shit’ button. If—and when—your soldiers come across beings that are resistant to Light, this will be key to their survival,” Albert said, taking over the conversation as the three Unranked Officers walked toward the members of Turaspeir.

  “How long does it last? And what happens when it runs out?” Command Sergeant Major Anderson asked.

  “It lasts as long as it lasts. Depending on how quickly the body burns through the drug, a soldier's enhancement may last for forty-five minutes or eight hours. Because of that, it’s hard to specify the duration,” Albert explained, while the others inserted the modules into an empty suit of armor. “To your second question, it will be as if the soldier’s body was fully human for about a day. A soldier that uses this will be unable to craft Light until their body has recovered.”

  “Like a rechargeable battery?” The CSM asked.

  “Exactly.” Turning back to the squad of young soldiers, Albert said, “Soldiers, I’m going to ask you not to train today, instead we are going to test Specialist West’s new capabilities.”

  Taking the queue, Dave stepped into the armor and waited patiently for it to close around him. After just a few seconds, its HUD integrated with his AI and came online. It only took a moment to find what he was looking for, but it took so much more mental fortitude to push the button. Steeling his nerves, he engaged the first module. The jab of the needle was a stark reminder of the pain that would soon wash over his body.

  His blood became fire as the enhancing serum coursed through his veins, flooding him with a power he could never attain on his own. Letting out a gasp, he dropped to one knee. Last time, the pain lasted until every part of him became infused with power. Would this be the same?

  “It’s… taking effect,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Good,” Barca said, approaching the man. “Stand up and activate the second module.”

  Knowing it was time to put up or shut up, Dave rose and activated the second module.

  Unlike the first, he didn't need to flood his bloodstream with power before using this one. Instead, it just needed to integrate with his body through countless sub-dermic hooks in its base. While it maintained contact, it would amplify the Light used by the Aegis wearing it.

  Forcing a smile, Dave pulled on this new well of energy. He understood that light was made of countless frequencies, and the only limitation to his power was how many he could draw on.

  When put into numbers, the average soldier could only draw on four or five frequencies. Unlike the Optics, his corps had to feel the power and draw it out of their own bodies like a blanket. Then and only then could he layer it over itself and harden it into a shield.

  Without the injection, Dave could only command three frequencies. The new power flowing through his veins increased that number tenfold. Thirty distinct layers of Light were being drawn into him and devoured as if he were a black hole.

  “Is this… what you feel?” Dave asked Officer Barca. Even though he’d used the enhancer once before, he could only vaguely remember the experience.

  Laughing in delight, the big man clapped him on the back. “Not even close, my friend. Not even close.”

  “Sir? I feel at least thirty here… are you telling me you can bring even more together?”

  “West, I don’t even know the limit of how much Light I can layer into a shield. More than likely, I’ll run out of spectrum before I run out of power.”

  Still amazed by his increased ability, Dave pushed one layer of power out of his body and into a shield that enveloped his left arm. Looking down, he noticed it was the same pale blue as it normally was when using only one layer.

  “It wants to act. It wants to obey.”

  “Of course it does, you are its conduit,” Barca said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

  Smiling, Dave layered two more frequencies into the barrier and watched as the color darkened and became slightly more solid.

  This was it.

  This was the barrier he always faced, the stasis he’d achieved despite hard work and deep focus.

  It was time to break stasis.

  Grabbing every layer of Light he could handle, he reinforced the barrier and watched it darken and solidify. It was no longer translucent, but completely solid and humming with captured energy. The power was densely concentrated, but examining the edges of the barrier revealed a fraying that reminded him of an old blanket.

  It was the strongest he’d ever been, yet it was also the most uncontrolled.

  “Are you ready?” Barca asked, signaling a soldier from another battalion to step up.

  “As ready as I can be,” Dave replied, setting his stance and expanding the shield.

  Taking that as confirmation, the soldier drew a hilt and crafted his blood-red Light into a two-handed battle ax. Stepping forward, he swung with all his strength, fully expecting to carve through the specialist’s shield and send him to the hospital.

  The weapon bounced off the shield without as much as a ripple.

  Stepping back, he pulled a weapon stock from his kit, shaped it into a rifle, and fired.

  With the sheer volume of Light compressed into that round, it should have—and normally would have—torn straight through Dave’s barrier. But when faced with raw power like this, the shot did little more than diffuse into nothingness.

  “And there you have it,” Albert said, stepping in to stop the display. “This was just an experiment and a successful one at that. In science, we call that a win. As you can all see, this holds incredible potential for the entire AHF, not just the Aegis Corps.”

  “So you plan to outfit all seven corps with this power?” CSM Anderson asked.

  “Eventually, yes. But for now, we will continue our tests and see how this plays out.”

  “I’m sorry sir, but you can’t just reveal something like this and expect us to wait patiently,” he said again, insistent on getting the answer he wanted.

  “I can, and I did. Sergeant Major, I am dismissing you. In fact, everyone that is not a member of Turaspeir is dismissed.” Albert ordered with finality.