Chapter 4

"How's the mute? Any weird habits?" Zero asks.

"Eh. She's okay, her name is Raven."

Sam, Zero, and max are supposed to be paying attention to the video that is playing, explaining the enhancements they are about to start receiving. It will explain everything they need to know for the time being.

They will have to learn and adjust to the enhancements which could be painful and even are risky enough to kill them. It is a "casualty" they are willing to make to win this war. The enhancements will make them stronger, faster, and smarter, but of course, it only works if they possessed the proper traits and abilities. If they didn't, they ended in a horrific death, of course, a price that had to be to learn how to find the right traits.

If the three are successful, they will become part of the elite training team and be moved to unit f where they would be put under Jax as their commanding officer.

Jax is known to be a troublemaker, but like his partner, Andromeda, is also a fearless and ruthless leader. They are some of the first successful projects in the enhancements, of course, they are flawed but they managed to pull out and come on top. They set the example for the following people, of course, peace still lost people even after the success.

"Alright, Subjects 100, 99, And 98," the officer who had played the video says. "Until you are successful, we cannot call you by your chosen names. This is to ensure that we don't have too much attachment to you in case you die. Except, all of you may die, maybe one of you will be all that survives. Any questions?"

"Yeah, I have one," Max says nervously. "Why me? I don't possess any of the traits."

"You work well with subject 99. Teamwork is definitely key. Any other questions?"

"When do we start?"

"That's classified. When it's time we will move you from your rooms to a new area."

"Will it be just us or are there more?"

"You will see. You are all dismissed."

As they leave the classroom, they join their classmates who are heading to the locker rooms to change for the physical exams.

"They always hold physical exams before selecting the next group of trainees for enhancements," Zed is telling a group of trainees who worshipped him. "I just know they are going to pick me. I've waited for this moment since I was so rudely placed in this scum unit."

"Yeah, that's tough shit," one of the classmates responds. "You got your ass whipped by a newbie on her first day on the grounds, they'd choose her over you in a heartbeat." A bunch of students agreed with her, she was pretty popular. "It was about time someone stood up to you, now you're the very scum you call us all." This made Zed turn red with anger.

The exams are harder than any of the training they had been subjected to. It is the last part of their examination before selections would be made, none of them know, but the whole time they had been there they are being tested for the qualifications. Everyone put in their best efforts, even the ones who won't try before.

A whistle blows across the grounds followed by Soot's booming voice. "Great job everyone, see you tomorrow morning after selections have been made. You've all done your best and now it is left to decide who is leaving and who is not. Class dismissed, go shower and get ready for dinner." She looks at several students with great pride. The selections had already been made. This was just to make everyone think they had a chance.

In fact, the majority of the trainees in this unit won't pass the enhancements, this unit had the highest mortality rate of all six units (a-f). Despite being the lowest ranking group, some of the best generals and officers had started here.

"Tonight's dinner seems great. Must be to keep the moral high," Zero says after finishing the last of the cheesy potatoes on his plate.

"Yeah probably." Max is pale. He can't help but think about what they were about to go through in the next couple of weeks. Surely he wouldn't make it, everyone else had a higher chance than him.

"Dude, you're as white as the walls, cheer up dude. if you die, you'll have died for a great cause."

"I don't want to die Zero, I'm comfortable being the lowest of the low…."

"Sup scums." Zed walks up and slams his fists on the table making the whole room go silent. "Tomorrow when you all wake up I'm not going to be here. Sam, I just want to inform you that my first mission, is to kill you when I get the chance."

"Get lost. Sam could kick your ass in a heartbeat and I'll help," the girl from earlier says joining us at the table.

Several glares are exchanged before Zed walks off in a rage. He keeps thinking about all the things he could say, but he could never beat her. She is more popular than him.

The night is a long one. No one wants to sleep. They want to be able to hear if someone is coming for them but exhausted they all eventually fall asleep one by one.

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It is nearly four. Officers are set out to wake the ten subjects that made the cut: Zero, Max, Zed, Sam, Alec, Carly, Chris, Dot, Eric, and Jo.

"Make sure they are fully awake." Ice water is splashed on each of us. "Hello, new recruits. I am officer Jax. You've all been chosen by us, elites, to become part of our team, of course, you know that."

We were still waking so none of us had actually looked around to see who was recruited. Jax went over the basic rules and what was supposed to be expected of us, same thing as what was shown in the video Ezekiel had made Sam, Zero, and max watch.

"Well that's enough of that, you're all probably tired of the endless talking, so go ahead and meet your teammates," Jax says to end his speech.

I looked around… oh god, Zed and the popular girl, Jo. Zed must have had something similar go through his mind. he was staring at us all wide-eyed.

"What the actual fuck…" he blurts out of his mouth. "Why are you here?" He is looking at me. His little rich boy ego must have really been crushed.

"Well look at this," Jo says while putting an arm over my shoulder. The room is full of tension, so much so that no one actually paid attention to the other recruits. It felt like all eyes were on us three. "This is going to be fun."

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Week one: Stage 1; exams.

"Sir, the trainees are ready for the exams."

"Good," Ezekiel nods his head. "How are they…."

"They are all fine sir. Your son too. Perhaps, he is a bit too cocky, and that could lead to his death."

"Keep me informed…." Ezekiel sighs. "Make sure you do everything you can to keep Max alive, we need his smarts."

Ezekiel walks away from the glass window that overlooks the trainees. "You heard the man Doc, go do your job."

The doctor grabs his stuff then gets in the elevator that takes him to the floor the trainees are on.

"Hello, subjects," the doctor says nervously. "It's my job to examine you before any other steps are completed. I have to determine whether you will make it or not, not that it matters, they will put you through this hell anyways. So where to begin." He smiles at all of us. "How about you." He points at me.

The exam goes by quick, about twenty minutes per person. The doctor leaves us alone in the room to finalize his report and then turn it in.

"Guys what if I don't make it," Max says, the worry in his voice very strong. "I know I don't possess the qualities they need."

"Maybe you possess something of importance scum."

"Shut up Zed, he wasn't talking to you," I say in my demanding tone.

"Hello, squad," Jax says stepping out of the elevator. "So I am your commanding officer, however, I need you to choose a squad Leader. I'll give you five minutes to discuss and then I want a name. You will also need a backup in case your chosen leader dies during the next few weeks."

"Perfect, I declare myself the leader!" Zed declares despite no one listening to him.

"I say Sam is our leader. She's tough." Jo says pointing at me. Everyone agrees to that except Zed and me.

"Okay, so we want Sam to be squad leader and if anything happens to her then we will make Zero the leader."

"Sounds good." Jax nods then continues. "I saw the results, however, I'm not allowed to say, but I will say that I believe you chose wisely." Jax turns to the doctor who is now standing next to him and they start whispering about something.

Sam, Zero, and Jo would definitely survive the process, max and Zed are iffy. The rest, wouldn't make it and somehow if they managed to, they would want to be dead rather than deal with the pain and torture it would put them through.

"Subjects 100, 88, 99, 98, And 101, that's your number now Zed, will all be sharing a room, the rest of you will be on the other side of the hall," Jax says breaking the silence. All ten of us are scared, we know that the process will not be easy or fun.

We are shown to our rooms, four bunks and one single like the one back in my old room. The rooms are much more luxurious as if they were trying to say thank you for unwillingly letting us change your biology to do our bidding. We have a tv and a game console. The rug is a lushly green and it looks like it will be very soft. The walls were painted to look like what Peace must have once looked like, clear blue skies and trees in every direction you looked. Peace is the wood producer for the whole galaxy we live in, well… was until the fateful day that the wolves burnt it all to the ground and caused them to take their ships and leave.

There are seven planets in our galaxy. Peace, Hope, Eden, Earth, Stellar, and the home planet to the elders who make the rules that our world revolves around Juniper.

Earth, was where we all originated from, it was once our home until we destroyed it, now she's a wasteland used to dump criminals. They told us, take care of Mother Earth, but we didn't listen to them, we took all her resources till she was left with nothing, the waters, soils, air, everything was ruined so we had to leave.

Eden was our second chance, of course, he was inhabited by otherworldly beings. They taught us what we know now, how to survive and not rape the worlds of all resource. We lived on that planet for a long time, long enough that eventually our ancestors are connected for several generations. The elders of the first groups to start mixing were disguised and told everyone they were blackening the pure human races bloodlines, but eventually, there were no pure humans left. Soon we overpopulated that planet and had to move on, that's when we found the twin planets.

Hope and Peace, first we colonized Hope, the planet provided us with more water and fish, we turned her into our fishing supplier and anyone who lives there eats fish in every meal. Peace was deemed uninhabitable after the first groups of colonists were killed by the wild animals, large red wolves, that lived at the top of the food chain.

Stellar is the next planet we found. The most dangerous thing on that planet was the acidic rains that burnt everything it touched. We solved the problem after discovering that if we used the resources already on the planet to build shelters we would be okay. Then we learned how to predict when a storm was on the verge of forming and we beat the system making the planet more survivable.

The last planet, Juniper, is said to be paradise, but no one knows anything else about it. You get a one-way trip and you have to earn it by sacrificing and even possibly dying to even go there. Our elders and the wise men of the council are the only ones to set foot there. Even though Juniper was the last planet we inhabited, Peace was really the last one, we sent people who were prepared to die to kill the red wolves.

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