It had only been 12 hours since Jake’s team had finally made it back to the settlement, but Jake and the other cadets all felt as if they’d slept for days. A warm meal, a warm shower and a new set of clothes had gone a long way in recharging the group’s batteries. The settlement facilities were hardly equal to what most of the wealthy scions of some of the most powerful families of the sector were used to but after spending weeks inside the hostile wilderness of Genova, it was a welcome improvement, with even King not uttering a single complaint. For Jake and Ryan, it also meant that they’d finally been able to receive some much-needed medical attention, thanks to one of the goblins.

  The small humanoid lifted a hand in Jake’s direction before he felt a surge in biotic energy rising inside his body. The feeling felt a lot like when activating his strengthening skill, although a nice, comforting warmth had replaced the sense of empowerment that came with his biotic reinforcement ability.

  The feeling only lasted for a second, during which Jake’s flesh had visibly mended back together at a speed visible to the naked eye. Only after the goblin had proceeded to use the same skill on Ryan did Jake finally speak up again.

  “What was that?” He asked.

  The goblin looked at him like he’d asked him why the planet was round.

  “That’s the problem with you humanlings from the Alliance,” he said. “The only thing they teach you is how to kill when there is so much more to learn.”

  The goblin let out a weary sigh before he finished patching them both up with a clean set of bandages.

  “Your wounds have mostly been healed, but I’d still like to see the two of you again tomorrow.” The goblin added. “By the way, I’m Arzusk.”

  “Thank you, Arzusk,” Jake answered, with Ryan echoing him moments later.

  With his injuries looked at, Jake made his way back with Ryan to where his group had established their shelters, somewhere in the heart of the settlement. While all the other teams had been assigned rooms, space was still extremely limited and the cadets had decided to all sleep in their individual shelters instead of sharing rooms with one another. On his way there, Jake couldn’t help but catch sight of the newly built fortifications that surrounded the settlement, which looked nothing like the ones they’d seen when they’d first arrived on Genova.

  The worn-down, decrepit fortifications had all been replaced with thick, domineering rock walls. All around the walls, gigantic turrets were placed every half-hundred meters, along with barrels of what looked like munitions and maybe even explosives. To top it all off, a gigantic biotic shield now surrounded the entire settlement?—?minus the external walls?—? much like the one he’d seen back at the academy.

  According to Ryan, it seemed like First Lieutenant Breyr and his team had been put in charge of building the fortifications, as well as repairing the settlement’s biotic shield. Safe to say, accomplishing that much in the two short weeks they’d been here was something to be proud of. As he finally arrived at the location of their squad’s shelters, Jake was surprised to see Officer Neilr waiting for them along with the rest of the team.

  “About time, cadets.” He said, sternly. “Meet me and the others in front of the town hall in five for a briefing.”

  Jake threw a sidelong glance at Owens, who was standing next to him. Still, the cadets all made their way back to the shelters, picked up their gear and started walking toward the town hall, which was located nearby. Once they finally reached their destination, they joined the other teams of cadets into cleanly formed ranks facing the four commanding officers, along with the goblin that had only recently healed both Jake and Ryan.

  “We’ve finally been able to get a hold of headquarters, and new information concerning the threat to Genova has come to our attention.” First Lieutenant Gwyra started. “As a result, all remaining cadets have been reassigned into 10 new teams, and more information will be passed along through your respective implants.”

  Jake took a glance around at the other cadets for a second. There was something odd about what the officer had said that he thought was quite strange. As discreetly as he could, Jake did a quick headcount of the cadets, suddenly realizing what the commanding officer had meant by “remaining cadets.”

  Out of the 50 cadets that had landed on Geneva no more than two weeks ago, only 37 remained out of the original number. That was quite the important loss for a mission that had only begun a few weeks ago, especially considering they were probably weeks away from accomplishing their objective. Somehow, Jake felt anxiety take hold of his mind for a second,

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  “As you are almost all aware already, the Vertaerax horde is bound to get here in less than five hours according to our estimates, which means you most teams will be assigned to defending the mining settlement. Three teams will receive different objectives through their implants. Understood?”

  “Yes ma’am!” The cadets echoed before a small prompt appeared in Jake’s field of view.

  He barely had enough time to read through the thing before Officer Neilr seemed to appear out of thin air right in front of him, wearing a dangerous-looking smirk.

  “Looks like you four are stuck with me.” He said with a grin, looking at Ryan, Jake, Kirk and Owens.

  After the briefing, they all had been sent to gather their shelters and other belongings, after which they had all made their way to the meetup point their Kreigen officer had set up. They were currently waiting in front of the south gate, where they were still waiting for their commanding officer.

  “So, anyone else finds it extremely weird they all put us in the same team?” Kirk said, wearily.

  “It isn’t that weird,” Owens answered. “It’s in their best interest to keep the cadets that work well together in teams.”

  “Precisely,” The Kreigen said as he suddenly appeared, prompting a surprised reaction from the cadets. “Also, I’ve requested to have you four assigned to me, want to know why?”

  “I’m flattered Officer but I don’t really swing that way,” Kirk said, drawing a laugh from the other four.

  “I hope you all didn’t miss the desert for too long.” He said. “We’re going back out there, and it’s not going to be pretty. The others don’t know this yet, but our implants are pretty sure something or someone is controlling or at least influencing the Vertaerax’s actions. Our job will be to find out who or what.”

  A small hint of deception could be felt at the thought of losing again the relative comfort they had all enjoyed during the last hours, although the excitement of setting off onto another adventure was plain to see on the cadet's face.

  “How?” Ryan finally asked after a moment.

  “There are a lot of things that don’t add up concerning this particular Vertaerax nest.” The Kreigen declared. “Our best bet is to go take a look at the nest since the Vertaerax have mostly vacated it. If we don’t find out who’s behind this, at least we might find some clues.”

  The cadets all exchanged puzzled looks before the giant gate that stood in front of them opened up in a rumble of metal against rock.

  “When you say the Vertaerax have mostly vacated the nest, what does it mean exactly?” Owens asked.

  “It means we shouldn’t have to carve our path through mountains of corpses, probably. Although I wouldn’t bet on it, things rarely end up going as smoothly as expected in this line of work.

  “That is NOT reassuring, at all.” Kirk almost shouted.

  The first part of the operation for the cadets had been to create some distance between themselves and the settlement before the Vertaerax reached their location, which had revealed a lot harder than expected. Their goal was to be out of sight before the creatures reached the settlement, that way they wouldn’t end up being caught into a fight since they had more important things to do.

  Five hours later, they were finally far enough from the horde to stop their mad dash. Still panting, the cadets all drank a few mouthfuls of water to revigorate themselves.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask for a while, officer,” Ryan said, suddenly. “Don’t you need to eat or drink anything at all? I’ve only really seen you do either a handful of times in the last few weeks.”

  The Kreigen looked back at the giant, smirking.

  “The more one’s biotic energy reserves increase, the more they become dependent on biotic energy as sustenance. In exchange, sleep, food, and water all become less and less important. I’m still far from the point of having to forgo these things, but it is said that some of the strongest beings in this universe can go years without either of those.”

  “How strong are these beings?” Jake asked.

  “Strong enough to lay ruin to an entire planet, or crush an entire faction by themselves.” Officer Neilr answered. “Only a handful of these beings exist in this universe, although I couldn’t speak for the universes beyond our own.”

  The cadets all stayed silent for a few seconds. Every citizen of the Alliance was more than aware that they weren’t alone out there, and the current war with the next universe over was proof of that. However, it was one thing to know there was something else out there and know how to get there.

  “How would one even go about travelling to the next universe,” Jake asked.

  “Try not to die here first, kiddo.” The Officer told him with a grin. “Once you graduate, you’ll need to figure out what it is exactly you want to do. Whether that is to become a mercenary at the frontier, join the war effort as a soldier or travel outside of the Alliance.”

  Jake looked at the officer for a moment, then at Owens, whose eyes were literally sparkling with excitement.

  “Now, let’s focus back on the task at hand.” The Kreigen said. “Our job is to go inside the nest and find out why the Vertaerax are so numerous, and why they have left their nest. If possible, we have to do this before the settlement gets wiped out.”

  The cadets all exchanged nervous glances at the thought of going back toward the nest, although Jake had to admit he was somewhat excited at the thought of another adventure, especially considering their new team.

  They set out with a rapid pace in the direction of the nest, with Jake’s implant flaring up as a prompt appeared in his field of view.

  [ Distance to Vertaerax nest: 247 km ]

  “I want to get there in two days at most, so you all better buckle up and run fast, because I will leave you out here in the desert if you slow me down.” Officer Neilr said, resolute.

  Jake’s face twisted in a pained grimace at the thought of running 250 kilometres in two days while carrying his giant sword, but he still set out with the rest without so much as a word. No matter how hard things got, he could find comfort and encouragement in his squadmates, and his resolve had only grown stronger in the last few weeks. No matter what, he would make it out of Genova alive.