Malaki Anthology #3 - “Aryth” - Worldbuilding Excerpt

A buzzer blared and the lights snapped on, forcing Aryth’s eyes awake in an instant. He allowed himself a glancing smile; he wasn’t at the Academy anymore, but some things never changed.

He spurred himself into action, checking to make sure he had room before vaulting off of his top bunk and landing softly on the freezing concrete floor. It took him only a moment to retrieve the black bodysuit that composed their uniform from the lockers at the foot of the bunk-bed he shared with Naphtali and get dressed. From there he rapidly straightened his bed and joined the line of cadets standing at attention in the aisle between the rows of beds.

The last of the cadets joined the line a moment after him and there they waited patiently, arms behind their backs and feet slightly spread. Mere seconds passed before the dormitory door slid open, a testament to the efficiency of the Corps’ training. The Captain strode briskly into the room and stood at the head of the column of cadets.

“Step to, cadets!” he barked. “Mess hall, go go go!”

The two lines of cadets promptly turned and jogged out of the dormitory, joining other groups as they made their way through the Corps’ training facility to get breakfast.

The hall was silent save for the pounding of boots in rhythm. Conversation in the Corps was strictly limited to off-time and situations where it was required of the cadets. Penalty for ignoring this was severe. Aryth flinched at the thought of his first insubordination and the phantom throb of pain emanated from the lines on his back where the electric flail had rent his skin.

Aryth has been a kind and talkative person at the Academy, but both of those qualities had been suppressed by the Corps’ intense indoctrination over the last three months– at least in the eyes of his superiors. He harbored resentment towards the Empire over abducting him at birth and subjecting him and countless others to this life. Be it out of revenge or satisfaction, he found small ways to exercise his own freedom.

The cadets arrived at the mess hall and received their meal for the morning. When they were seated, Commander Briggs addressed them from the front of the hall.

“Good morning cadets,” he began in a monotone that didn’t support the pleasantry very well. “Today is an important day. We have thoroughly studied and tested you, and now we believe that we are ready to appoint you to your squads.”

Aryth’s pulse quickened and he sensed the same excitement and anticipation from his peers. Briggs continued.

“At the end of this meal, you will be given a briefing station to report to on your personal communicator. There, you will meet your new squad. Squad commanders will be given additional instructions and your first official promotion to the rank of Corporal. That is all.”

The anticipation was palpable for the remainder of the meal. A half-minute before they were released from the mess, Aryth felt his personal communicator vibrate with an alert.

Bay 35 was all it said. He hadn’t been selected as a commander, then. No surprise there, he supposed. He returned the tray and exited the mess, making his way to deployment bay 35 with haste. He thought it best to not make a bad first impression since he didn’t know which of his former classmates and peers were going to be joining him.

The deployment bays were attached to the facility’s combat training arena, which was curious to Aryth. He already had plenty of experience on the training field in the short time he had been in the Corps, and they had never used them for anything other than gearing up for combat trials. In the back of his mind, he wondered if there was another reason they were meeting there.

When he arrived, he wasn’t the first one there. A young girl, brunette and thin, but with soft features and a kind face was already waiting in the bay. Aryth recognized her from his years at the Academy, but did not know her name. A brief smile flickered across mouth, and he returned one in kind before taking a seat in an open chair next to her.

The next person to walk into the room surprised Aryth. He knew the boy’s name- Manu- without needing to ask. Manu was strong, his bronzed skin lean with muscle. Aryth had been surprised when he didn’t make the cut and remain at the Academy after the Crucible after his exceptional performance. He stood a half a head taller than Aryth and scanned the room with a critical gaze, passing over Aryth and the girl without comment or expression. He glanced down at his personal communicator impatiently.

The last person to join them was a scraggly boy with red hair and a fair complexion. His mannerism was skittish and mousey as he darted into the room and took a seat without making eye contact with Manu, glancing at Aryth and the others fleetingly. Finally, Manu spoke.

“Layla,” he began, without pausing as it was clear which of them was she. “Aryth?”

Aryth nodded.

“And so that leaves Kite,” he finished without confirming, much to Kite’s apparent relief. “I’m Manu, your new squad leader. From here on, you will address me as Corporal or sir.”

The idea of referring to one of his peers as a superior put a surprisingly bitter taste in Aryth’s mouth, but he stifled his response automatically to stave off trouble.

“The CO’s want to throw us right on the fire, so gear up. We’ve got a four-team elimination trial in five minutes. I expect to win, so don’t screw it up. Is everything clear?”

In unison and out of habit, the squad responded “yes sir!” Begrudgingly, Aryth relented that Manu knew what he was doing in coordinating a squad and busied himself attaching protective over-plating to his bodysuit. Each plate magnetically attached itself with a slight whirr, leaping the short distance from his hand to its anchor when it was close enough.

When he was fully outfitted, he grabbed a helmet from the rack, sliding it on and sealing it with the rest of the suit, allowing it to access the wealth of data cycling through its nanowires. In response, indicators flashed to life on his helmet display. Next was his weapon, a Corps issued M-25A rifle loaded with electric stun rounds designed to short out the cadets bodysuits and immobilize them. They did their job and hurt like hell in the process, as Aryth had discovered many times in the arena beyond the door.

After checking the magazine for himself and securing two backups, he pulled the slide and chambered the first round, ensuring that the weapon was fully ready to be used as soon as they were allowed to enter the arena. Then they waited, Manu counting down the time in fifteen second intervals.

Aryth’s muscles were tense as Manu indicated his post by the entrance to the arena, his whole body thrumming with the adrenaline that he always felt before a live fire trial. He glanced quickly at the other members of his squad, sizing them up and silently theorizing their odds of survival in his head out of instinct. Manu would be fine, Kite was dead in the first five minutes. Manu’s count reached fifteen.

When he looked at Layla, however, he was startled to see her looking back at him with her dark eyes. Ten seconds. He studied her closely, and in that moment something unspoken passed between them– something that gave Aryth confidence and a sense of camaraderie with her. Manu reached five and stopped counting, taking up his position in front of the door and preparing to lead the squad into conflict. The door snapped open, a buzzer blared, and cold fire rushed through Aryth’s veins as the four Enforcers-to-be charged into the arena to meet their opponents.

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Hello steemians!

This one was fun to write and expands on the backstory of a character briefly mentioned in the prologue of my book, all the while giving another glimpse into a different part of the world. If you're intrigued, I'd highly encourage you to swing by my blog and catch up a bit on my introductions and other anthology works. Incorruptible, title WIP as of current, will release here first on steemit sometime in the near future, so stay tuned!

Catch you on the flipside,

~ Mako

Malaki Anthology #1 - "I wasn't there"
Malaki Anthology #2 - "A Class Project"
Malaki Anthology #4 - "The Catalyst of Unification"