Republic Falling: Advent of a New Dawn (Excerpt)

Chapter 1 Excerpt

Planet Eden

Defense Force Academy

EXCITED CHATTER AND boisterous laughter filled the Academy's auditorium as a gathering of enthused, and relieved, military graduates waited for their commencement ceremony to begin—surrounded by empty tiers of seating. They stood proud in their dashing blue Class-D Uniform, having gone through hell to don such a distinction. With the uniform's elegant service jacket, men wore creased pants and glossy black shoes; women wore skirts, stockings, and matte black heels. A single insignia on the standing collar denoted rank. The crimson hash marks on the sleeves indicated lower enlisted. And the white waist-length cape symbolized righteousness—what a Guardian embodied.

Momentarily, these young cadets would be officially inducted into the Commonwealth Defense Force (CDF), becoming the newest defenders of humanity's intergalactic republic—a republic fraught with homicidal war. Not the least bit interested in joining the preceremonial gabfest, twenty-two-year-old Cadet Randal Scott secluded himself in a lonesome corner. Arms crossed, eyes shut, and chin tilted to his chest, his thoughts were preoccupied with delivering retribution to the traitor for his mother's death and defilement of his family's legacy. The man who'd been a decorated serviceman, the man he had admired, the man who raised him was a disgrace; and his sins could never be atoned for, in Randy's eyes.

Being Linked (cerebrally linked) with his mother as she was atomized from existence, he had inherited a well of mental unsoundness. Psychological experts claimed that if a loved one's passing was inhumane and brutal, being Linked during their demise could cause long-lasting psychic trauma, if psychological treatment was prolonged. The sharing of thoughts, emotions, and memories—through implantation of a nanochip beyond human ingenuity—could only be credited to the Commonwealth's Union-approved trading partner, the Quilgarians. A Link with another human being—upon mutually granted access—expanded rapport-building, empathy, and understanding on levels incapable of actualization during humanity's bygone Earth Era. And such mental communion enabled parents to cultivate deeper bonds with their offspring.

Randy's psych evaluation for CDF admission was administered before the murder; no one but him, his aunt, and his closest peer, Cadet Stacie Spencer, knew he was Linked with his mother when she was obliterated. A new psych eval and some therapy would benefit him, but he couldn't risk a mental-health discharge, not until he made the bastard pay.

The skin between Randy's brows crinkled as kind memories of the treacherous one, his father, antagonized his mind. Why? he wondered. Reminiscing his mother's funeral, the repulsion on his face worsened, twofold.

He'd had the utmost respect for his father, Captain Arson Scott. The man was once a common laborer slaving in the quarries of Colony Four, on mankind's secondary world, a ringed planet designated Satellite One. He later met the woman who would become his wife, Kathleen Warner, and then followed in the footsteps of his father, and his father before him. He abandoned the drudgery of the quarry pits and answered a higher calling, enlisting into the military to assuage his yearning to be of service to humanity and ensure the livelihood of his wife and son. He forged an esteemed military career in the CDF, fighting in the Phazharian and Bhalkran wars and earning the highest commendation awarded, the Commonwealth Meritorious Service Medal.

Randy's admiration of his father motivated him to enlist into the Defense Force. The revered war hero had made his family and compatriots proud. Then, roughly six months ago, he mysteriously went AWOL, disappearing from his command post. Rumors and accusations of Arson Scott joining the terrorist insurgency, which opposes the Commonwealth Government today, circulated throughout Eden and the colonies of Satellite One. Randy later witnessed his father partake in Kathleen's murder, after his disappearance had crushed her, inducing worry, grief, and bouts of depression, which Randy experienced in unison through their Link. At times Kathleen would raise her firewalls to spare Randy's mind from being immersed in her personal distress.