[DeathsVirgin]

"You fine young men and young women have trained hard! Some have quit along the way. The 100 of you recruits who have completed two years of basic, intermediate, and advanced training should be proud, because I sure as hell am!"


I'm indulged in Commander Jox's speech. Hard work we went through, indeed. I learned to shoot straight, specializing as a Heavy Assault. 15 years old, buff and 150 pounds, I had turned my scrawny ass into a soldier who was ready to fight.


I learned how to use military equipment, I learned to drive a tank, I learned to fly Reavers! I was taught to switch to my sidearm when my ammo ran out in the midst of a battle. I learned how to use my nanoweave shields wisely. I learned how to take a serious beating.


So much experience I gained without setting a foot on the battlefield. I knew it wouldn't be the same; but...


I was ready to fight for people's right to live a normal life. If the NC drew back from the war, the possibility of Vanu and or Terran going after our cities would be high.


Freedom over Oppression!


"I’ve seen undeniable progress since day one from each of you who stand before me. In the New Conglomerate, we never give up. And we never take the easy way out. Those Terrans can't hold us down! The Vanu can't improve the human race. You are the next generation of soldiers! It is your duty to protect our citizens’ liberties and human right to live a normal life, away from this non-ending madness! With this said..."


We all grin with anticipation.


"I now deem you officially part of the New Conglomerate Junior Division!"


We throw our berets up in the air and cheer. Part of the New Conglomerate. Following in my grandfather's footsteps. The battlefield awaits.

************************************************** ************************************************** **********************




We are lined up, naked. It is time to connect our matrix into the rebirthing network. I'm shaking. Commander Jox explained:


They'll strip you and make you drink a whole lot of nanites to the point where your stomach can't take anymore. Then they'll place you in a cylinder filled with liquid rebirthing nanites. They'll close the lid cutting off all oxygen, and you are basically supposed to drown in the nanites. They'll leave you in there for a few days so that you get tapped into the rebirthing network. Obviously, you're dead, but the nanites will preserve your corpse. They'll drain the cylinder after the time being, and then your dead body will dissolve into the network, and your matrix will be sent to the nearest spawn tube. Pretty neat, huh?


"That sounds f***ing brutal man," Adrian agrees.


We watch the boy in front of us drink to his stomachs limit and perform the drowning ceremony as we call it.


"You're next."


I gulp. I'm still trembling. My ultimate death fear is death by asphyxiation or drowning. I sit down in the chair and they pour me a glass of nanites. I drink.


Extremely metallic and bitter. As I swish my mouth, the nanites move around clinging to my tongue and every piece of skin in my mouth. They're like mouthwash, but thick and just more potent. They burn my throat like a coke being consumed without stopping. They slide down my esophagus and my stomach pops and fizzes. I can feel them entering my bloodstream as rejuvenation and strength comes from nowhere.


I drink another glass. Then another. By 5, my veins are pulsating with nanites and my future brothers in arms have stopped cheering "chug, chug, chug!" as I lay down my glass, prepared to vomit from my stomach being overfilled.


With much embarrassment, but realizing that everyone today has done it, I remove my undergarment avoiding embarrassed eyes, and climb the ladder into the cylinder or nanites. They are warm. To my right, is a row of tubes stretching forever. I can't see the end, but I see the dead bodies of my friends submerged in their cylinders. I take a deep breath and exhale completely.


"Be strong soldier," I think.


I plunge myself into the murky pool of green. They close the lid over me. I do nothing for a few seconds, scared, panicked, unable to breathe. Think of grandpa.


With all the willpower I can muster, I suck in the Nanites. I begin to cough, which my body naturally makes me inhale right after. The more I cough, the more nanites I inhale. I'm soon unable to even move. I can feel the nanites in me. My lungs are completely filled and darkness begins to take over. Feels good.


************************************************** ************************************************** **********************



I wake up in a bed and vomit everything. I feel lightheaded, dizzy, and tingly from head to toe. My vision is heavily blurred. I look down to see the ground before me covered in green nanites.


"Heyyyy! Looks who just spawned" Adrian congratulates me, handing a towel for me to wipe my sticky bare feet. I look around to see about 30/60 of my male companions. They are either up and about in their blue and yellow-trimmed bath robes, not yet spawned, stumbling and staggering like drunkards, or vomiting nanites as I. I put on a robe from one of the hangars.


"Where the f*** are we?" I ask.


"We're in the main spawn room of Poseidon!" Adrian intrinsically exclaims.


"You mean of the NC infantry?" I am bewildered, but embarrassed of my lower status. "What's going on?" I ask.


"We're waiting for everyone to spawn, girls and boys. Then we're going for squad assignments," a cold looking kid says to me.


I look at the spawn tube to see green nanites fluctuating green and nothing, forming a hologram of a body and then the meat begins to fill in. The boy step out of the spawn tube and vomits.


"That's so weird, but so cool," I say.


We watch him struggle with a dogged attempt to walk in a straight line.


************************************************** ************************************************** **********************



We are in the spawn room waiting for each boy to spawn with approximately five minute intervals, until there are exactly 60 of us.


In two hours, we change from our bathrobes into our basic gear and make our way back to the ceremony or party room of the NC.


"Finally the boys are done," a girl says. "We've been waiting an entire moon cycle"


We line up.


A familiar face takes the stage. It is the woman from before! She spots me and smiles. Does she really remember me?


She begins calling squads. I am placed in bravo squad, junior platoon 1, generation 3. Adrian luckily is in my squad, as well as my frienemy Sarah, and professional buddy Tolky.


"Now," she smiles, "for squad leaders."


Murmurs begin to fill the air. Who would have the honor and responsibility of being a squad leader? As she begins to speak, we are hushed.


"Alpha Squad Leader of Platoon 1, Generation 3, by vote, Tyler Gray!"


I give a personal applaud. Tyler had helped me through my breaking point during "hell week," otherwise known as the Devils playground. 6 weeks of torture, obstacle, and endurance training.


We were sent to vote after the last day of training, 8 people we would see as squad leaders (excluding ourselves). I guess the person with the most votes was deemed the squad leader, and Tyler deserves Alpha.


"Now, Bravo Squad Leader of Platoon 1, Generation 3, by vote..."


Who could it be?


"Frederick Blake!"