"I don't see why anything about me would concern you," Nathan remarked with Jeremiah pinching the bridge of his nose. "Hah, you honestly don't know how to control that tongue of yours."
"I just want you to not bother yourself with me. If you stay away, everything will be fine. No need to rub your strength in my face." Nathan was not about to get into a scuffle when he was aware of how little time he had with his mission.
He had better things to do. "Heh, alright then. But I'll be keeping an eye on you. I'd like to see just how far you can go before that ego of yours gets crushed." Jeremiah said his piece after which he left.
"That guy is honestly something else." Nathan sighed. Reyes chuckled beside him. "But you still dealt with the situation nicely. I was worried I'd have to step in."
"If he decided to push things over the limit, he would be the one to lose face. He was smart to withdraw." "I agree. Wanna have dinner before we head back to the room?"
"Yeah of course." Reyes and Nathan left and headed for the canteen which was opposite the social area. Once there, they picked out trays after which they were served a pudding mix.
Due to the effects of the war, a lot of food categories had been abandoned due to an inability to sustain them.
They were forced to bioengineer plants that could be artificially grown without the need for water and sunlight, opting for directly infusing the nutrients into them to enable growth.
These new plants were collectively known as GMC, genetically modified crops and they came in different flavors. Some even tasted like meat. The wonders of technology are shown in all their glory.
After they had finished their meal in the canteen, they headed back to their quarters. "Can I ask you something?" Reyes looked over. "Yeah, what?"
"When Doctor Hassan came to pick me up and Sergeant Armstrong infirmed him that I wouldn't be able to get a bed space, you stepped forward and said you'd keep one for me." Nathan paused just as Reyes puffed up his chest and raised his shoulders.
"I know. It looked like a scene out of a comic book. The hero stepping forward to save his best friend." Nathan resisted the urge to slap the back of his head.
"Not the point. What I want to ask is why the sergeant agreed to allow you to keep a space for me after you told him your surname." Reyes dropped his shoulders. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask about that."
"Is it a sensitive topic?... You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Nathan quickly replied. "Nah, it's fine. The reason Sergeant Armstrong buckled was that my family is a subsidiary of the Aurora family."
Nathan paused as his eyes widened. "The Aurora family?... You mean one of the twelve leading families, that Aurora family?" Reyes nodded. "Mn. They have declined a lot lately actually, part of the lower end of the leading families."
"I never realized. But is that enough to cause the sergeant to buckle?... From what I know, Subsidiary families have never been treated the same as their main branch."
"Well, would you look at that? I guess you are right about that. I was adopted by the main family after they found out about my rather high affinity for Tachyon at a young age. They intend to groom me to become one of their finest warriors. All in a bid to return to the top."
Reyes didn't exactly look happy as he explained. Nathan was familiar with the expression he carried. It was the same one he had when he had landed on the Guardian and met with the station guard.
"Sorry for prying." "Nah, we good. If you want to pay me back, you could tell me about your story." Nathan chuckled. He was quite lucky to have met a person like Reyes. He would do well to cherish this sudden friendship.
They returned to their quarters to find Riley munching on a pack of kelp chips and the other guy meditating.
Soon enough, it was time for lights out and Nathan went right to sleep, having survived a rather peculiar day.
***
It was dark at first. Then he slowly opened his eyes to a bleak sky. His sense of smell caught the undeniable scent of blood and the scent of charred skin. It was almost choking him.
He sat up and was immediately stunned by what he saw. It was a battlefield, better yet, the battle had already ended. All that was left were an uncountable number of bodies. Some had been shot, others had been blown to bits and some others… well they must have suffered before they took their last breath.
His body shook at the scene around him. He felt terror, it completely overwhelmed him as he began to scream at the top of his lungs. No sane human would be able to watch such a scene without reacting strongly.
It was horrifying, to say the least.
Just as he was about to calm himself, he saw it. Some of the bodies began to move. His eyes widened in shock. Those that had hands pointed at him with anger and hate in their eyes.
"You did this. You are the cause of everything… You could have saved us yet you abandoned us!!!... Join us!!!!" Their cries filled the area as they placed the blame on him. He inadvertently began to cry. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
He also blamed himself. At that moment, there was a whirring sound. He was familiar with it. It was the sound of the Machines coming. He looked ahead and he saw it. A Machine with bionic tentacles and a round body.
Its big round eye zoomed in on him, it began to glow an ominous red. "I deserve it." A red beam fired out of its eye. It erased everything in its path and once it got to him… There was silence.
***
"Ha…Ha…Ha."
Nathan suddenly woke up. His eyes were shaky, his forehead was sweaty and he was hyperventilating like he had just finished a marathon.
His body trembled as he recalled the events that occurred in the dream. "What was that?" He gulped down saliva as he patted his forehead.
At that moment, a blue screen appeared before him.
[Daily mission: Refurbish ten Exo suits.]
[Duration: 00:00:00]
[Mission status: Failed.]
[Penalty: A night of terror and fear.]
Nathan stared at the screen for a few seconds as he slowly regained himself, at least, regained himself enough to think straight.
"So the dream is the penalty for not finishing the mission. I honestly wasn't expecting something like this." Nathan mumbled to himself as he glanced at his roommates. Thankfully, they were still sleeping.
He swallowed some saliva again before laying back down in bed. Though the room was cold, Nathan was sweating. The dream had been too real. The feelings of hopelessness, despair and utter horror were imprinted in his heart.
Once again, he realized the weight of his mission. The fate of millions of humans rested on his shoulders and any mistake on his part would lead to their demise.
It was terrifying thinking about it. "I need to try to finish the mission tomorrow." He tried to sleep again as he closed his eyes. Unfortunately, he ended up waking up a total of five times that night.
Each time a different dream with varying degrees of hopelessness tied into them. It was only in the early hours of the morning that he managed to catch some short eye.
[Wake up, you sissies!!!... Today marks the beginning of your life as a cadet. I want to see some hustle and bustle from you diaper-wearing delinquents!!]
A loud voice coming from the PA systems installed across the dormitory woke Nathan up. He almost cried as he realized he had only managed to sleep for a little over two hours.
Unfortunately, he had to get out of bed lest he got punished for waking up late. He sluggishly left his bed. "You don't look so good. Did you sleep well?" Reyes asked worriedly as he looked him over.
"Yeah… I'll be fine." Nathan yawned as he walked into the toilet. Reyes watched him for a bit before ultimately shrugging as he walked in as well.
Their first day as cadets were about to begin.
Once they were done freshening up, they got decked up in the uniform that was sent to their room. It was a plain white military jacket with a zip-up and trousers and white battle boots to match.
"That's weird. I thought they said that our squadrons would be decided today and our corresponding uniforms will be sent over." Riley commented as he checked himself in the mirror. "Well, no need to think about that. Once we head out, we should figure things out." Reyes replied.
Nathan, Reyes, and Riley headed out together. Their fourth roommate had left ahead of them. Judging from how he hadn't said anything to any of them, they saw him as the quiet tsundere type.