Unity

Chapter 1

Downtown never held much appeal for me. The few remaining pre-war buildings were a mixture of old brick and mortar, concrete, and glass. Steelcrete was applied generously over the old surfaces to reinforce the structure. The little glass that remained was a highly resilient composite developed during the war. The clashing visual only served to showcase the scars inflicted by the Great War. Most of the buildings were a single story tall with extensive underground levels. During the war, cities began building down instead of up. This was slowly changing with new construction, but it would take time for people to feel comfortable leaving the safety offered by mother earth. The city was situated on the Nebraska, Colorado border. Prior to the Great War, it was a new, rapidly growing city. Now, its population was a fraction of what it had been. Posing no military significance, it had seen less destruction than most cities. Like the rest of the planet, it still wore scars of the twenty-year war.

I stepped onto the crowded bus and found a rail to grab as the bus's electric motor struggled to pull the weight. Everywhere there were crystal screens, displaying news stories and highlighting the Council's latest achievements. The new device was the latest in a string of new consumer products. One headline caught my attention. For the first time since the war, we were producing a surplus of food and medicine. Starvation and disease had killed more than the fighting had during those dark years. I was lucky enough to have been born the same year the Council was formed, just two years after the Ceasefire. Twenty years of war had reduced the overall population to less than a billion people. After nearly nineteen years, we were finally creeping up on that milestone.

I exited the bus outside the local Battle Fleet recruiting office. Battle Fleet had been announced when I was eleven and I was hooked. I worried that they would begin recruiting well before I reached eighteen, but as most government projects go, it was running behind schedule and over budget. Eight years after the announcements, they were finally recruiting. To say the recruitment process was rigorous, was like comparing the mass of a pebble to that of the moon, an astronomical understatement. Four months of aptitude batteries, placement exams, physicals, psychological evaluations, and being poked and prodded in every place imaginable were now behind me. All that preparation was now going to be put to the test. Today was the final evaluation. What that meant, I had no idea.

"Name," a bored security guard droned at the entrance.

"Zack Ryan," I answered. There was a pause while the guard checked my credentials. Once he was satisfied, he pressed a button to disengage the magnetic lock on the door.

"Have a great day," I told him as I passed by. His grumbled response was too quiet to understand.

The building was busy, but with so many dropping out over the last four months, it was much less busy than it had been. Even though word had spread about the difficult recruiting process, there was still a line of people hoping to be recruited. I walked to the assigned waiting room and sat down. There were two other applicants waiting, both appeared to be nervous.

"Whatever you do, don't eat the food," I heard somebody whisper. I looked up just in time to see a young man with slumped shoulders walking away, looking very displeased.

"What was that about?" I asked the other two in the room. Both, who appeared to be in their mid-twenties shook their heads. We were all so worried with the upcoming evaluation that conversation was out of the question. Soon, it was just me in the waiting area. I was doing my best to focus on previous tests to keep my nerves in check. Finally, my name appeared on the crystal screen on the wall. I entered the only other door, into a small room. A single chair sat there waiting. It reclined, allowing the occupant to lay down while the arms and legs were strapped in.