Destiny Sorrow Read online

  Aiden put the necklace around his neck and went to pick up his luggage. A suitcase with what he could take to the army.

  He went downstairs and found his father. The three of them had a breakfast together, with the presence of Corel, who also said goodbye to Aiden.

  Soon a siren rang from afar and the boy knew what it meant. His father turned to him and started giving reminders that Aiden was tired of hearing.

  “Don't forget to brush your teeth every day and don't let anyone abuse your power, show these army guys who's boss!”

  Aiden just agreed whit a motion of the head and hugged his family once again before leaving home

  A few meters away he saw General Roy Pardalis with a girl by his side. At the age of seventeen, she was blonde, with long hair pulled back and had piercing blue eyes, and also wore military clothing. Aiden was surprised by her beauty and lost her posture for a second. It wasn't until he saw the general's serious gaze that he straightened his spine and made a respectful greeting.

  “Aiden MacCoy, this is Evelin Simeht. She will accompany you on her journey.”

  “Simeht?”, he asked surprised “Do you have any relation to Guardian Simeht?”

  Despite the girl's beauty, her expression was not one of the friendliest.

  “He is my father.”

  The short, rude answer made the boy think better of his next words.

  “Two years before you received your destiny”, Pardalis spoke to Aiden, “Evelin received hers: to protect the chosen one. We've been confused all this time until you show up, clearing it up.”

  “So, you're my bodyguard?” Aiden repented as soon as he asked the question and saw Evelin's sharp look as an answer. Pardalis acted interrupting the moment.

  “Now come on, you're going to have plenty of time to get to know each other better.”

  The three followed without further words to a ship. It wasn't any air car Aiden had ever seen, but a real military transport ship. He sat in front of Evelin while Pardalis went to the cockpit. The ship promptly began to take off.

  There was plenty of internal space with several chairs attached to the walls, and it was uncomfortable for the boy to be alone with Evelin in those conditions.

  “Look”, said Evelin to the surprise of the boy “I do not want to be rude, but both of us have a job to do, regardless of what we want. And you better treat me for who I am and not for who my father is.”

  Aiden imagined this as a good opportunity, but she soon shut up and the boy felt the mood too heavy to start any conversation, so he just agreed shyly.

  After a little less than an hour, the ship started to descend. When the side doors opened, Aiden found himself in a large hangar with a multitude of different ships, all military.

  Curious people looked at the two descending from the ship, some people in military uniforms, others who looked like mechanics and one was even a cook; however, when general Pardalis emerged, he scared them all.

  “Are you all off duty? Get back to your stations immediately if you want to have dinner tonight!”

  Quickly the crowd disappeared, leaving only a few mechanics working and two guards prowling the area trying to observe Aiden discreetly.

  Pardalis started walking, hoping that the two of them follow him.

  “This is the largest Gardenia base on land. Administered by Marshal Magnum Laserfield, it is almost eighty kilometers from the city.”

  The three entered a panoramic elevator. As they went up, they saw the entire exterior of the quarter. It was made of a lightly purplish metal that the boy could imagine to be very sturdy. The base was longer than tall, and had ten floors, several security towers and a large empty land, where Aiden could see soldiers doing their training.

  The elevator stopped on the sixth floor, where Evelin left. Aiden started going after her when Pardalis stopped him.

  “I will show you your quarters soon, but first you will have a conversation with the marshal.”

  He watched Evelin disappearing through the corridors and continued the quiet ascent with the general. He had met marshal Laserfield. He was an old man, but very energetic from what he remembered. His black skin contrasted with her short gray hair accompanied by a goatee of the same color. He remembered him smiling a lot and telling the boy stupid jokes when he was young when they met. If General Pardalis wasn't friendly, at least he knew he could count on the marshal.

  Upon arriving on the top floor, Pardalis walked with strides and Aiden had to exert to accompany him. The floor and walls of the hallway were composed of a white material with large and numerous windows making the environment even clearer.

  When the doors at the end of the corridor opened, Aiden found himself in a very imposing environment. It was the base control bridge, a vaulted room with a large circular window showing the outside. Various tables with computers were occupied by people working on them. Those people wore army uniforms too, but they were a little different from the others, lighter and simpler, appearing to be the uniform of the administration.

  In the back of the room, was an imposing chair in front of a screen much larger than the others. In it sat the marshal.

  As soon as he saw the boy coming in, he got up and smiled. Yet something seemed wrong with him. Now the energetic man he had met had a tired look and appeared to be much older. However, he still presented himself as a gentle man. As he approached, the general saluted and Aiden promptly imitated him causing a slight laugh at the marshal.

  “Hello again, Mr. Aiden. Are you ready for your life in the army?”

  The boy faltered to answer, which, to the marshal, was the answer itself.

  “Of course, sir! I'll do my best!”

  “Very good. General Pardalis, you can take him to see the base. I have other business to attend to at the moment.”

  Aiden thought the conversation was too shallow. The marshal sat down again while the general headed for the elevator. The boy watched Laserfield as he left slowly.

  The marshal's screen showed a very intense face. A man over fifty years old, black skin and a very square and scared face, with short black hair. Aiden used to think Pardalis looked bad, but this man seemed about to attack someone.

  “I'm sorry, General Sorom, what subject do you want to deal with?”, ask Laserfield.

  The answering voice was as rough as his appearance.

  “It's those Chaos Agents! They stole six more ships yesterday, one of them from the police! We have to cut this evil off soon.”

  Unfortunately, the boy had to keep walking or knew he would take a scolding of Pardalis. When he entered the elevator, the general spoke as if he were reading the boy's mind.

  “When you're ready, you'll be aware of all the problems in this country, but there's a lot of ground ahead.”

  They went back to the ground floor, in a large lobby with closets and corridors that Aiden could hardly imagine where they would lead.

  “I have more important things to do than show the barracks to a recruit, I will call your roommate for the tour. If you have any questions, take it with anyone other than me.”

  At the end of the sentence, he retired again to the elevator and the boy was left alone waiting for his supposed roommate.

  He had seen a lot of people go by. Tired men coming back from training, some others in administrative uniform, a couple of very serious women. Over time, the boy began to get nervous, he was alone in an unknown place and did not even know the name of his colleague. At least he deduced that no one knew he was the chosen one, since he didn't get any strange looks.

  While distracted, someone touched his shoulder and he jumped with the scare.

  “Relax there, buddy, I'm here to help you.”

  He turned around and saw an 18-year-old. He was much taller than Aiden and could see his muscles underneath a white blouse. His slightly orange hair was cut like a Mohican and had an infectious smile on his face.

  “My name is Dom! I mean, I'm Private Dommerick Rammer”, he said he was imitating a seriou
s voice “but everyone around here calls me Dom.”

  While Aiden greeted him, he tried to introduce himself; however, before he could, Dom interrupted him.

  “Aiden MacCoy, the chosen one.”

  The soldier examined Aiden and show disappointment.

  “Yes, there's a lot to work with here, but we can work it out. Follow me.”

  He took the boy off the base, where he showed the various training camps and some sports courts.

  “Most of the training takes place here, but there is nothing special to show, just prepare for what you will have to face daily here.”

  Aiden wasn't out of shape, but he wasn't an athlete and those courses seemed ridiculously difficult.

  “On the ground floor we have the refectory and some showers for those who have just returned from training”, said Dom while guiding the boy to the elevator again. “Let me think... From the seventh floor up is just for the big guys, but you're "the chosen one", so you might have to go there someday. First floor is our arsenal and has a shooting training range as well; sometimes we train here within the same base.”

  As soon as you got on the elevator, he pressed the button to the fifth floor.

  “The fifth is our room. Never get in the sixth: it's the girls' and the policy of not mixing here is serious. The second floor is a gym with some fighting rings, another place you will spend a lot of time. That’s where we learn martial arts and things like that. The third floor is the infirmary, apparently you will also go there a lot...”, he stopped and think “The fourth floor should have nothing big, because I do not remember him.”

  He guided the rookie through fifth-floor hallways. There were several paths leading to large dormitories with a series of bunk beds. They arrived at a very distant door, with more beds and young soldiers talking.

  “And here is our room. You're going to stay in my bunk.”

  Aiden looked confused at the amount of people as he went to his new bed.

  “I thought you were my roommate...”

  “And I am, as all these guys are, or you thought you were going to have a special room for "chosen"?”

  He spoke the word in a tone of disdain, then opened a mischievous smile.

  “Speaking of which...”, he turned to his other colleagues and spoke loudly. “Hey guys, this here is the chosen one who came from the farm. Let's welcome him.”

  Aiden was extremely uncomfortable with the announcement. Dommerick looked at him maliciously.

  He heard the other soldiers commenting, "How short is it," "This weak is the chosen one?", "He won't survive three days here."

  Then Dommerick pushed Aiden into the bottom bed and spoke softly.

  “Welcome to hell.”

  Training

  The boy had been waiting to be awake early but was surprised to see that it was Evelin who woke him up.

  “What are you doing here? It's the boys' room”, he said still with blurry vision.

  She rolled her eyes before giving her answer.

  “Come on, MacCoy, you've got a long day ahead of you.”

  No time was allowed for him to change and ended up following the girl in his pajamas, a white blouse and light shorts provided by the army. He observed that all his roommates were still asleep and saw on a clock on top of the door that pointed to 5 a.m.

  “What are we going to do?”, asked Aiden “Dom said that training only eats at six o'clock.”

  “Laserfield wants me to teach you some basics first. Apparently, he expects us to create some kind of bond or something.”

  She took him to the first floor that was completely empty. In the environment, there were several shelves with weapons, technological gray discs and some explosives, however all items were trapped behind glass screens with passwords. He also noticed some blue armors with rockets embedded in his back and was very curious about how they worked.

  On top of a simple metal box were two folded uniforms.

  “These are yours”, she said pointing to the costumes “You are responsible for taking care and cleaning them. Don't expect any special treatment because you're the one. In fact, be prepared to be treated badly, some soldiers and officers may not like your position very much.”

  The boy flinched; however, his current mission was to get close to Evelin.

  “I'm going to do my best, Evelin. I promise I won't be a nuisance to you.”

  The boy opened a slight smile in response. It was pretty quick, yet enough for Aiden's heart to race.

  “Now wear your uniform; it also has its barrier projector; don't forget that.”

  The boy took the suit and blushed, avoiding eye contact with Evelin.

  “Do I have to change here?”

  The girl turned her eyes again and stood with her back to him.

  “You have thirty seconds and don't expect that privacy from other people here. Frankly, this is the army...”

  The boy tried to put on his clothes as fast as possible. But it was too complicated, with more buttons than he expected, and he still couldn't close the boots when its time ran out.

  Evelin helped him close the rest of the outfit, which made the boy blush more.

  “After a while, you get the hang of the uniform, you're going to have to put it on faster than that...”, she stopped when she noticed the expression on his face “Are you all right? Your face looks weird.”

  He just waved his head and distanced himself from the girl. His attire had the same dark blue pattern as the others he had seen, but no special medals or marks, which revealed his low rank. As soon as he was ready, Evelin took one of the gray discs and gave it to him to hold.

  “Do you know what that is?”

  The boy's expression was the answer Evelin was waiting for.

  “It is a barrier projector. That's what protects us in combat, this one's a level two. They go up to level ten, but the more powerful the size. So only vehicles use level six up.”

  The girl pulled out her pistol and pointed at Aiden, who was tense at the time, however concluded that she would not shoot.

  Then she shot.

  The first reaction of the boy was to shrink; however, he heard the sound of the bullet falling to the ground and felt no pain in his body.

  Now he saw a mischievous smile on his bodyguard's face.

  “You shot me!”

  “To teach you a lesson”, she replied with exaggerated calm, contrasting with the boy's nervousness. “Your uniform is already embedded with a barrier projector, it can't take many shots before he burns out, but it's enough to guarantee his life until you solve whatever you are doing.”

  The boy was still nervous about the shot, but Evelin was already starting the next explanation, pulling an object from a pocket in her uniform. It resembled a knife handle with a series of buttons, however no blade.

  “And this, do you know what it is?”

  “It's an All Tool, isn't it?”, the girl nods her head agreeing. “It has a liquid metal inside and magnets, depending on the configuration of it can turn a series of tools.”

  She pressed one of the buttons and a liquid metal began to come out of the cable until it formed a blade and solidified.

  “It is a very useful tool for combat and survival, with a variety of modalities” she continued. “And I'm showing this to teach you something else from your barrier projector. He defends you from projectiles ending their momentum in the air, but if any force continues, you'll get hurt.”

  To demonstrate she propelled the knife in the direction of the boy, he saw her hand faltering against an invisible force before reaching him, soon he could feel the tip of the knife pressing on his belly.

  “I would like not to be the target of weapons anymore.” Aiden asked.

  “You came to the wrong place then. That's what I needed to pass on to you at the moment, you're going to have physical training with Rayzer today, and as far as I know, I'm going to teach you how to shoot. Pardalis is teaching combat.

  He falters as the girl left the room. He saw
the time and quickly took his other costume and ran to the room. By the time he arrived, his colleagues were already waking up and preparing for the training day. At the bedroom door was an older, bald, dark-skinned man, with a high rank. As Aiden passed him, he felt a serious look, yet no word.

  Upon arriving at his bunk bed, Dom slapped his back.

  “Good morning, chicken. When I didn't see you here, I thought you had already run away.”

  “Evelin woke me up earlier to give me my uniform and explain some things.”

  “Oh yeah! Eve's your guardian, right? How lucky.”

  The informal way he called the girl upset Aiden.

  “Do you know her?”

  “Of course, I know... I mean, everybody does. The daughter of Guardian Simeht, the prodigal girl and the destroyer in the dice game.”

  He inspected Dom for a moment and realized that if he was the competition to stay with Evelin, he wouldn't stand a chance.

  “Now get ready soon, or Rayzer will literally eat you.”

  Only wearing the pants of the uniform and a basic white blouse all the men went to a racetrack, forced to take several laps.

  Aiden ran at his own pace. He knew he couldn't take it if I tried to keep up with Dom and the others, and in fact, the boy was well behind.

  He was already tired of running when Dom came from behind and accompanied him.

  “How are you skinny? Surviving?”

  The boy was panting and could barely answer.

  “Everything... Is fine.”

  “Good! Captain Omara Rayzer there is the leader of the air battalion. I've been wanting to join them since I got here.

  “Air... Battalion??

  “Yes!” Dom was clearly excited to talk about it. “They have bigger armor and jet packs! Omara is the one who decides who enters this battalion and, as the equipment is expensive, has few vacancies.”

  “It looks very... Fun...”

  “Yes, it is! I flew one of them once! I was horrible, but if I train a little, I'll get the hang of it. Anyway, if I keep slow like you, I'll never going to get accepted.”