I couldn't tear my eyes away from the dean. The man stood tall, his uniform crisp and spotless, arms crossed tightly. His expression was severe, but I caught a flicker of something else beneath the hardened exterior. Pity. A quiet and unspoken sorrow that only made everything worse because it meant he knew. He understood what this meant for me, and yet he would do nothing to stop it.
"So it is settled" he said, his voice cold and unwavering. "Prepare yourself."
The words struck me like hammer blows, each syllable heavier than the last. My chest tightened as a feeling like iron bands wrapped around my ribs. The weight of inevitability crushed down on me, and for a moment I struggled to breathe. "I have been drafted?" I managed to whisper, though the words barely passed my lips.
The dean gave a single nod. It was slow. It was deliberate. It was final.
My thoughts spiraled into chaos, an endless storm of disbelief and fear. Just weeks ago, I had been an academy student still struggling to adjust to this world, still trying to carve out a future. Now all of it had been snatched away. The military draft had always been a shadow lurking in the background, a distant possibility whispered about in hushed tones. But I had never thought it would reach me. For some students conscription meant opportunity. It meant access to resources and a path to power. But this was not peacetime. This was war. A brutal and unrelenting conflict against alien forces on the farthest edges of the known galaxy.
I had heard the rumors. The draftees were thrown into the front lines as expendable reserves. And the survival rate? I had seen the numbers. It was nothing more than a coin flip, and that was being generous. Even with all of humanity's advanced weapons and technology there were enemies out there who could wipe out entire battalions with a thought.
I swallowed hard and forced my voice to remain steady. "Dean, isn't there another way?" I asked. The plea slipped from my lips before I could stop it, raw and desperate. "I am all my family has left."
For a single moment something in his expression softened, a flicker of hesitation, a moment where I thought he might reconsider. But then the steel returned to his gaze, and his voice remained firm. "Michael, everyone must do their part. The draft is our duty. Your service will ensure humanity's survival."
I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms, but I forced myself to stay silent as he continued. He spoke of benefits. Rations. Privileges. The chance to survive long enough to be reassigned to a safer post. As if a slightly bigger meal and a bed with fewer lice would be enough to justify walking into a slaughterhouse. As if surviving long enough to escape the front lines was anything more than a fantasy for those without the right bloodline or political connections.
My blood burned with fury, but I kept my face calm. Duty. Survival. If it was such an honor then why was he standing here in his immaculate office instead of marching to the battlefield himself? But I knew there was no point in asking. No point in begging. No point in fighting a system that had already decided my fate.
"Yes sir," I murmured, though the words tasted like ash.
The dean gave me a curt nod and dismissed me before I could say anything more.
I stepped into the hallway where a small group of students my age stood waiting. Their faces were pale, their eyes wide with silent terror. No one spoke because there was nothing to say. We all understood. We all knew what this meant.
I walked through the academy's once-familiar halls, but they felt different now. The towering walls that had once inspired ambition now felt like the walls of a prison. As I passed by a news panel, a headline blared across the screen in bold letters.
"Human Alliance Draft Expands: Ensuring Survival Against Alien Aggression."
A bitter laugh threatened to escape my throat, but I swallowed it down. Out of twenty billion people, ten million had been chosen. And somehow I was one of them. Why did it have to be me?
When I reached my room, I sank onto my bed, my mind racing for an escape. There had to be a way out. Something. Anything. And then a thought struck me. NovaSys. The AI that governed the entire Stellar Human Alliance. If there were rules, then there had to be loopholes.
"NovaSys," I whispered, barely able to hear my own voice over the pounding of my heart. "What are the conditions for exemption from the draft?"
A cold mechanical voice echoed through my mind, devoid of emotion. "The compulsory draft falls under Stellar Human Alliance Policy 3621. Exemptions are granted under specific conditions."
I held my breath as NovaSys continued.
"The first exemption applies to Ascendants. These individuals are considered vital to humanity's survival and development. Their military service may be deferred indefinitely."
I exhaled sharply, feeling a deep and bitter sting in my chest. Ascendants. The untouchable elites. They were spoken of like living gods, people who had broken past the limits of normal humanity through genetic modification, rigorous training, or arcane rituals. They were everything I was not. The thought was laughable. Me? An Ascendant? I could barely afford a proper meal, let alone the genetic serums, cybernetic enhancements, or divine inheritances that created those legends.
NovaSys elaborated as if mocking his thoughts. "Ascendants fall into several categories:
1. Elemental Ascendants: They trained by bonding with natural elements or forces of nature. There are many varieties of Elemental Ascendants, such as:
Flamekind: These types of Ascendants mainly draw their strength from fire and heat.
Aquatic Sentinels: They merge with water or aquatic energy.
Earthen Titans: They manifest the power of stone, earth, and minerals.
Sky Callers: They harness air and storm-related abilities.
2. Technological Ascendants: These types of Ascendants integrate technology into their bodies or consciousness. There are many varieties of Technological Ascendants such as:
Cyborg Ascendants: Enhance themselves with cybernetic implants.
Digital Minds: Upload consciousness into digital networks or synthetic bodies.
Nano Ascendants: Utilize nanotechnology to enhance physical or mental abilities.
3. Genetic Ascendants: Individuals who achieve evolution through genetic modifications, biological enhancements, or inherited traits. There are many varieties of Genetic Ascendants such as:
Gene Warriors: They are enhanced through genetic serums or engineered DNA.
Bio-Mutants: These people achieve evolution through exposure to radiation, mutation, or experimental serums.
Bloodline Ascendants: They inherit unique traits or abilities from ancient or powerful bloodlines.
4. Beastial Ascendants: These types of Ascendants evolve by bonding with monsters or gaining traits from them. There are many varieties of Beastial Ascendants such as:
Beastkin: They blend human and animal abilities through fusion or lineage.
Predator Lords: They rule over animalistic instincts and primal power.
Totem Ascendants: These people channel energy through sacred animal spirits into their bodies in the form of totems.
NovaSys listed them all as if twisting the knife deeper. Elemental Ascendants who could command the forces of nature. Technological Ascendants who merged with machines. Genetic Ascendants who evolved beyond human limitations. Beastial Ascendants who fused with monstrous creatures.
"The second exemption applies to individuals whose contributions to human civilization are deemed irreplaceable," NovaSys continued. "Scientific innovators, economic benefactors, political figures, and high-tier citizens are among those granted immunity."
I felt my jaw tighten as the list dragged on. Visionary scientists who had revolutionized energy production. Billionaires who had single-handedly saved collapsing colonies. Politicians and aristocrats who had secured their safety through generations of influence.
And then the final blow.
"Individuals may also receive exemption by developing a new Ascendant pathway," NovaSys concluded.
I let out a hollow laugh, shaking my head as I stared at the ceiling. A new Ascendant pathway. As if that was something I could accomplish. It was the kind of achievement that required decades of research, vast resources, and the kind of brilliance that reshaped history itself.
The system was rigged. Every path to freedom was a locked door, and I did not have the key. I was nothing more than another expendable body thrown into the war machine.
And no one was coming to save me.
That night I lay back on my bunk staring at the cracked ceiling the glow of the academy's dim emergency lights casting long shadows across the room. NovaSys's words replayed in my mind like a cruel whisper reminding me again and again of my powerlessness. Every path closed every option sealed away like a door bolted shut just out of reach.
What choices did I even have? I was not an Ascendant, not rich, and I had no powerful family name to shield me. I could not bribe my way out, and I could not fake an exemption—my health was too good, my records too clean. There was no trick, no loophole, no hidden clause that could save me.
I let out a slow exhale, my breath shaking slightly as it left me. First-tier citizenship—the lowest of the low, the foundation of the towering pyramid humanity had built for itself. To escape the draft, I needed to reach Third Tier, an elusive status that only the privileged ever attained. The statistics were damning. Ninety percent of the people on Amethyst Star would remain First Tier for their entire lives. Even the planetary lord, the ruler of billions, was only Fourth Tier. The gap between me and safety was an endless chasm, an unclimbable mountain.
I clenched my fists, my nails pressing sharply into my skin. "Damn it," I muttered, my voice barely more than a whisper. "Even if I wanted to fight, they're just throwing us into the meat grinder. What chance do I have? Die on some barren alien world and be forgotten in the dirt?"
Something tightened in my chest, raw and ugly. I didn't want to die. Not like that. Not as a number on some casualty report, not as another faceless corpse abandoned on an unfamiliar battlefield.
Frustration and exhaustion warred inside me until, eventually, the weight of it all pulled me into a restless sleep.
And then I dreamed.
No—it was more than a dream. It was something vast, something ancient, something real.
Before me loomed a colossal gate, stretching so high into the void that I could not see its peak. It pulsed with an otherworldly radiance, its surface shifting between solid metal and pure light, as if it existed between reality and something else entirely. The air around it buzzed, thick with power, a pressure so immense that it pressed against my chest, making it hard to breathe.
I took a hesitant step forward, my heart hammering in my ribs. "What… is this?" I murmured, the words slipping from my lips unbidden.