Of Hearts And Stars (Classic Editon) (The Cadet Starship Chronicles) (14 page)

A black haired young girl on the side of the room raised her hand.

“
Cadet Himawari.”

“
Marcus Antica married Aurora Danera, and had three sons: Julius, Mathos, and Tiberius. He also sired a daughter, Aria, who at the time of his demise was still an infant.”

“
Correct. When the investigation finally reached the imperial family, tensions broke into a frenzy. Tiberius, being four years of age, was quickly ruled out by all but the most dedicated fringe conspiracy theorists. Thus the spotlight was shifted to Julius who was sixteen and Mathos who was fifteen. With the throne open and a power vacuum forming, both Julius and
Mathos made their move. From our lesson the other day, do any of you recall what happened next?”

A blonde haired young man in the front was called upon.

“
Cadet Iggori.”

“
In order to seize control, Julius and Mathos understood that they would need the support of the people. Julius sought power in wealth, declaring Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars as his territory while taking up the interests of the nobility. Mathos saw power in numbers, and so made plans to make use of the poor. He claimed Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter, and Neptune as well as the dwarf planets.”

“
Indeed. The two territories are separated by the Belt Line, which greatly isolates The Empire and Rebel Faction from each other. Control of the outer planets gave Mathos considerable control over resources and manufacturing, leaving Julius to rely on the stockpile held by the inner planets and the wealth of their people.”

Gin had zoned out for a bit. When he came out of his educational coma he took a look around the room. Some of the students were taking notes, others were texting each other with their phones down in the their laps, and a few were even napping. He saw Swift and began to wave, but his hand stopped and hung lamely in the air. Swift was sitting at that console in the back of the room. That jacked up console!

Gin stood and slammed his hands on his own console, glaring at his classmates with contempt.

“
Take your seat O'Hare.” The instructor ordered Gin, but he did not listen.

“
Swift...” Gin growled through clenched teeth.

A female classmate sitting next to Gin hissed “Don't talk to
him!”

“
Fu-” Gin began to shout at the hissing female, but Swift had risen, dashed over, placed a hand on top of Gin's mouth.

“
Sorry! Be back soon!” Swift called to the instructor as he hauled Gin from the room.

“
Take your time.” the instructor said and shook his head.

Once they were in the hallway Swift let go of Gin. They began to walk down the hallway.

“
What the hell?” Gin asked.

“
I know right? History is wack.” Swift deflected the question as he strolled leisurely with his hands in his jacket pockets.

“
No! I mean, is that really your console?”

“
Yes.”

Gin threw his arms up and asked “You let them write that trash on there?”

Swift raised a hand signaling him to stop.

“
I don't let them, but haters gonna hate. If I busted up every bad kid that took a shot at me, I'd never have time to just be.”

“
Be? Be what?” Gin asked.

“
Be me. Be wonderful. Be Smart. Be funny. Be. Happy.” Swift answered.

“
I don't see how you can be very happy with people pulling stunts like that.” Gin grumbled.

“
It's not as if anyone in there would own up to having written that junk.” Swift explained “Empty words carry no weight.”

“
They can still sting whether they have weight or not.” Gin argued.

“
On their own those words can sting you no more than a knife laying on a table. Unless it is in someone's hand you'd have to prick yourself on it.”

“
Well if words are knives, then in this case a hand does wield them. The hand is just invisible.” Gin persisted.

“
I haven't heard of a ghost stabbing anyone lately.” Swift said with a shrug and asked “Have you cooled down yet?”

“
Have I cooled down? I can't believe you're not fired up!” Gin cried and asked “Why are they so jacked up towards you?”

“
I'll explain another time, but for now just know that in most of my classes the students pretend that I do not exist. It goes way beyond ignoring me; I might as well be dead to them.”

“
Can't you tell me why? The short version?” Gin asked.

“
There are students who hate me for what I did to this gang of cadets who used to call themselves The Nine. They ran the student body a few years back until I put a stop to it. Those who still aren't happy about that bully the ones who don't play along with their revenge. So under the threat of humiliation, torment and violence most people just go with it. You see, they cannot confront me directly for whatever reasons they have, so they exploit the weak as part of some psychological game.” Swift explained.

“
Dang, that's messed.” Gin observed.

“
Word.” Swift agreed and said “Let's get back to class.”

When they stepped back into the classroom, Gin looked around for his console and spotted it in the back, right next to Swift's.

“
Ah jeez.” Swift said, scratching his head “Sorry Gin.”

“
And then there were two.” Gin said with a smile and they both laughed.

-
32
-

After history came algebra followed by field combat training, an activity exclusive to ESC members. Each Elite Student Crew member has a weapon of their choice imprinted to them. The weapon can be summoned in almost any situation via the Dynamic Material Generation System, DMG for short, a form of replication that stimulates light particles into solid mass, allowing said particles to duplicate the micro-structure of a component. DMG is still an experimental system largely due to being an incomplete science. While DMG can be achieved through the use of devices that act as catalysts, certain humans have been documented to use this ability with what is argued to be their psyche. The rarity of such humans has thus slowed research.

Gin arrived on the twenty-first floor courtyard, still very impressed by the incredible accuracy of the Academy's weather simulation system. The grass and soil perfectly replicated to resemble a beautiful day right down to the last molecular level. The appearance so natural, the blue sky with cumulus clouds, forsythia and lilac freshened the air as rays of sunlight touched his skin and blades of grass gracefully dance with the soft breeze, tempting Gin to walk barefoot around the grounds.

Swift saw him and waved his hands “Yo Gin!” he called out.

Gin looked around and saw Swift jogging over to meet him “Hey Swift.” he said.

They bumped fists and Swift asked “Ready to throw down fool?”

“
You know it dude, but I've noticed something.” Gin said.

“
What's up?” Swift asked.

“
Well I know about DMG, and everyone's been practicing with their weapons at combat training, but not you. You're always just hitting the heavy bag or doing push ups.”

“
My fists” Swift flexed and threw a few punches “are my weapons.”

“
Hmm...” Gin sounded a bit disappointed “That's all?”

Swift wore an expression of mock outrage “That's all?!” he asked “Hmph. I guess I can show you something cool then.” he said and took a deep breath before letting it out slowly.

To Gin it seemed that Swift just stood there doing nothing. This was probably another joke, and Swift would bring out some outrageously sick looking weapon. Then he noticed something so subtle that he nearly missed it. A flicker of bluish light had passed over Swift's eyes. Then it happened again and again, rapidly picking up speed until Swift's eyes were two blazing orbs of cerulean fire. Gin saw the blue light form an aura around Swift's hands, and the light shifted and shimmered with his movements.

“
Oh snap dude! What
is
that?” Gin asked in astonishment.

“
I call this weapon Wrath of God. It's experimental technology called AKE, short for Amplified Kinetic Energy.”

“
I see.”

“
You're just saying that because you don't know what to say Gin.”

“
Okay, you're right, but just show me what it can do.”

“
Check this out.”

Swift approached one of the boulders stationed for cover in the training field. He squared his feet, and threw a sharp jab into it. A loud thwoom marked the impact of Swift's fist on the boulder, and Gin found himself amazed that he did not break his hand. They walked around to the back of the bolder, and at first glance it seemed that the it was largely unaffected by Swift's punch. However, closer inspection proved otherwise.

“
No way...” Gin said, and when Swift took a handful of the bolder and let it blow away in the wind, he asked “You...
granulated
it?”

“
What?” Swift asked.

“
You turned it to dust?” Gin clarified his question.

“
Ah, yes.” Swift said and struck the bolder once more where it remained solid; the punch shattering what was left like an explosive charge.

“
Holy god dude,
how
are you doing that?” Gin asked.

“
You know how they have ki in martial arts anime? Well I'm not saying that exists, but the body does have a natural energy that can be projected. On it's own it's barely noticeable, but can be detected with the right equipment. As of now it belongs to a fringe science at best, and is actually unnamed; even in my notes I simply refer to it as kinetic energy.” Swift began to manipulate the dust around them, swirling it up into a dirt devil “Wrath amplifies this energy, and then projects it according to my will.”

“
That's amazing.” Gin said “Amazing and confusing.”

“
Wrath is an amazing weapon indeed, but...” Swift said and put his hands on his knees “it does take a bit out of you the more you use it.”

Gin could see that Swift had began to breath heavier. He wondered just how many of those amplified punches Swift could dish out, but then decided that one would be enough for anybody.

“
So when do I get my weapon?”

“
Well Gin, that's where it gets tricky.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
While you're authorized to make use of DMG to summon a weapon the minute you become an ESC member, you are not assigned a weapon. You must choose one.”

“
Wow. How did you find Wrath?”

“
I designed it. Revy handled the construction and calibration, and Felix helped with the testing as well as some of the research.”

“
That's incredible! Do cadets ever develop anything for the military?” Gin asked.

“
No. We're only students,” Swift said “and most of what we engineer is either highly experimental, unorthodox, illegal, or just ridiculous. As a result we try to fly under the radar, and we do not share research.”

“
That sucks. I bet you guys could make a lot of money.” Gin said as they began jogging along the track “I still haven't figured out what kind of weapon I want to wield, but I hope it's cool like all of the others.”

“
Doesn't have to be cool, just has to work. Take your time and choose what fits. For now I'll teach you some basic hand to hand and Revy can show you some gun stuff.” Swift said.

“
Dope.” Gin replied.

Once they had done a few laps, they began hand to hand combat training. Swift started out with stance, movement and proper foot placement, while encouraging Gin to attack him. He would then nimbly dodge these strikes with ease, much to the frustration of Gin, who was trying his hardest to land a blow. Firearm training with Revy went considerably better. Gin has good eye sight and is a quick learner, so he was able get the basics down pat and even shoot the targets with decent accuracy. After they wrapped up training Gin finished his classes for the day and went back to his dorm. Classes had ended early today, but there was a crew meeting in the afternoon. He wasn't sure what to do until then, so he went down to the lounge.

-
33
-

Dante dashed back and forth before unleashing a devastating combination of ice, fire, and lightning attacks. Just as he was about to deliver the death blow with his sword, a loud and rapid clacking of buttons heralded a flurry of kicks, punches, and energy attacks from Ryu. So sudden was the barrage that Dante was wiped out completely.