chapter 1

Chapter 1

William Jonathan Russell rolled out of bed at 9 am like every morning since leaving high school. his family being a middle or " middie" meant he couldn't afford the higher education of the rich "uppers" but wasn't but was lucky enough not to be a "Lower" or poor. His parents worked 60 hour weeks and it was enough to put food on the table receive a 4 person apartment allotted by the government that him his younger sister and parents shared for the first 18 years of his life. Will got him his Work Force permit after school allowing him to be hired for a middie job move into a one person apartment of his own and work 60 hours a week. Here in manticore city if a middie shows up to work on time and is careful with their finances they can retire at 145 and live another 40 years in comfort before dying. that isn't as much  as the uppers life expectancy at 250 but beat the lowers short life of just 100 years. The life of a middie is set you have the yearly lotto where one lucky middie and there family per city gets a upper permit and becomes an Upper  the odds of winning are less than a ten thousandth of one percent but there was a winner. between marrying up and lotto that was the only real way for a middie to make Upper that or join the military. the Republic was beginning to recover from the blindside of the gates reopening. serve for 30 years as a Midie you get to take a job as a Upper and enough to furnish a house. For some reason only 20% take the offer or so Will read in his morning paper yesterday no a week ago? The days all blend together eventually. It wasn't hard to understand why not. even the uppers were just managers which could afford more but had the same life as Will his boss had probably laid in bed for 10 minutes thinking about life too. His alarm rang again 910 time to actually get up with a sigh he sat up stumbled to shower he was not a morning person. Looking in the mirror he checked his facial hair it could go another day. He wasn't to remarkable healthy but out of shape Will stood at just shy of six feet weighing in at 200 with green eyes and black hair. Showered dressed and daily needs of teeth brushing done he went to living room checking clock it was 930 right on time for some coffee and toast and scrambled eggs retrieve paper 945 eat read an article on wars and on on politics while still considered uppers politicians have long been considered there own category above all the others the most land the most wages the most luxury. All for the good of the people of course. the clock beeped 10. Will dropped plate in sink with a quick rinse walked out door quickly locking it behind him headed to elevator the rest of the day shifters who lived in his apparent building were getting on as well the elevator took them to the lobby were they all went out the doors as a bus pulled up . this bus was the same one as every day william settled in for the long trip to work. He closed his eyes for the 20 minute nap he normally took on way to work. The daily ads were playing. Come work for us, vote for us, join the mobile infantry etc. Will drowned it all out was just starting to drift off when he heard his name he looked up groggily. "What?" he asked dazedly " I said aren't I right" a black haired red eyed girl about a head shorter than William. In the early days science and tech expanded rapidly genetic alterations were all the rage eye, hair, skin, colors were changed as easily as cloth but times and prices changed and these traits just mixed into the pool. " what are you talking about raven?" she got her name looking thru the net apparently it was a old earth bird she thought resembled her it stuck thru school and will couldn't recall her given name anymore. " life is boring I mean since school we get up go to work get home go to sleep 6 days a week and maybe hang out on the 7th but honestly it's errands and stocking up for the next week it's just so tedious." Josh another of their school friends since junior high chimed in " and what raven, do you plan to do about it" he was a tech geek always looking for solutions and running numbers give him a task and he'd get it done but don't count on him for a out of the box solution Will laughed to himself. " we should enlist we could join the fleet or army or MI. Something that isn't this bland. " Will decided this beat the morning nap so he slid closer to the middle " you probably don't wanna do army then there's a retired one on my shift it's all garrisons and riot control all the real fighting happens in space and all the agreements these days involve the safe transition of ground forces there hasn't been a real planetary assault in ages" raven pondered it for a secound then " what about MI?" Josh looked at her like she was crazy " MI? The marines do you want to get us all killed storming enemy ships and stations is crazy " MI or mobile Infantry was in charge of shipboard security and taking the lead in boarding action if there's a shootout you'll find MI there they trace their history back to wet water navy and will still say there called marines no matter what the government labels them as. Raven glared at him. WIll recalled that  those two have been " just good friends" since high school will wondered if they would ever just realize what everyone else saw. " we can join fleet then " she said sounding proud to have made a decision and looking at josh to make sure he didn't have an objection, which fortunately for his foot raven was ready to stomp, he didn't. " fine when do we start this crazy adventure?" William asked as he settled back into his seat for the rest of ride. " right now" raven said hitting the trip destinations and armed forces center button. William and josh both looked at her and unison shouted "Raven" she got a sly half smile and sat back in her seat.