Yac'Kua stretched her aching joints and as she looked skywards, though all she saw was the top of her guard booth, her insectoid eyes spared from the glow-lights rays by their natural coating. She would have been able to tell the light was green, if she wasn't colourblind like all other Yan-Nai. She smiled, and also she secreted pheromones and sent out low level telepathic rays subconsciously. Any other Yan could tell she was in a very good mood. She was content, despite how menial and tedious guard duty was, in the end it payed absurdly well for a guarding job and she had a husband and two hivelings to come back to. Plus in a few weeks she would be off work due to "Jainath", where all mining would be put on hold, which would give her more time to spend with her little 'lings. She briefly wondered what Gan would be cooking for dinner when she arrive home. She sighed, leaning back in her chair. Still, she had always wondered if there could be something more to her… It was a strange yearning for a Yan, especially one so contented.
Kua got up, she technically still had five cycles left in her shift, but she knew her replacement would come early. Yan almost always arrived at least five minutes early to anywhere they went. It was a very strange trait that even Aheani scientists couldn't fully explain.
She walked out of her booth, sure enough she saw the other female meant to take over the night shift in the distance. Akeva'Juve was her name. Kue never talked to her. One would always be too tired to talk to the other. She did talk to the person she took over for though. Lura always seemed to have energy… Kua had no idea how she did it.
She walked down the dirt road that headed to the mining facility itself, from there she would take a transport up to the mothership in Orbit. She psychically chirped, a nice melody she had learnt as a child. She never remembered the words though.
She suddenly stopped, seeing the figure who came towards her and the guard post. She squinted at it, the chittenous figure not looking quite right. It wasn't Juve…
"Who are…" She muttered. Then tried to psychically contact the figure. No response… In fact nothing at all. As if she didn't exist. The figure seemed to be a female Yan cloaked in rags of some sort.
She was hallucinating, that was the only explanation. Sometimes the atmosphere would do that to Yan, the Xocine was very prevalent in the atmosphere after all.
Suddenly the figure was right in front of her. As if she had been there the whole time. Kua took a step back, very frightened now. The figure responded only by touching Kua's head. Though Kua felt nothing, again, as if the figure did not exist.
"You have been chosen."
Kua had no time to question her words. She fell, collapsing in the dirt. Paralyzed somehow. Suddenly everything went very dark.
---
Kua opened her eyes again, but this time those eyes were different. They had turned red. There seemed to be another Yan standing over her. Kua noticed something different, in fact everything was different now.
"Are you alright?" Nervously asked Juve. She had been late for her shift, which almost never happened, but this time she had… been distracted. She had sensed something… Like a changing in the wind.
Kua got up, "Am… am I alright?" She said, staring strait into Juves eyes. Her voice was confident, something she had never previously possessed"Yes. I've never felt better in my entire life."
Juve was confused. "Oh… okay." She said, taken aback by the sudden tone of Kua's voice.
"Do you want to change the universe Juve?"
"W-What?"
"Do you want to change everything?"
"I don't understand… Why are you using my given name…?" She was close to panicking at this point. Kua sighed, Juve had always been skittish…
"Don't worry. You'll understand." Kua said, lightly touching Juve's head. With this gesture, Juve's eyes now also turned red. Juve first stepped back.
"Yes… I do." Juve suddenly said. "We need… others."
Kua nodded. "Soon, everyone must understand, everyone will." She said. "And if they can't understand… theres no place in our universe for them." She said, a chill to her words.
---
New graduate,
By the the will of the Aheani Council and the New Human Coalition (NHC), due to excellence shown in academy training, you have been selected for an exclusive new program. You will no longer be attached to your core of origin nor will you be reporting to your cores Commander for assignment. Instead you have been reassigned to a new division outside of the cores. You have been assigned to the "Star Wardens" and are now under the command of Admiral Catherine Iseleb, Admiral Akun Kani-Sur and myself.
As part of this elite division, your challenges and responsibilities will be greater. You will be assigned the most vital and some of the most dangerous missions. However if your record is any indication, you should be able to handle these types of situations. Besides the prestige and honour this placement will bring you, you will also reap the enormous benefits of being one of humanities best and brightest, including a greatly increased salary.
Do not discuss this assignment with anyone besides your training officer. As soon as you receive this message, wait in your academy's transport centre, where a coalition appointed vehicle will come and take you to The Sanctum of Reason, where you will be spending the bulk of your time as recruits of the 303rd Core.
We look forward to seeing you.
Admiral Kaur, 154 Core.
---
Meanwhile, Aboard "The Sanctum of Reason"
The Sanctum of Reason was an impressive Battlecruiser to say the least. Though it was relatively small for it's ship class, it was only meant to house the very elite. Known for being fast and very maunurverable, yet still being large enough to house an impressive array of guns. It was an odd hybrid of human engineering and Aheani engineering, as human ships tended to be cheap and easily produced, while Aheani ships tended to be tech masterpieces built to last.
Inside the docking bay, several transports had landed. Smaller ships, about the size of an old earth truck, with a cylindrical outer shell covering several seats. The small ships were capable of incredibly fast speeds, but could only carry about seven humans or Aheani at once, making them useful civilian transports but poor military dropships. They were usually piloted by AI's, though never usually that advanced. Still, they served their purpose well, and the journey would be decently comfortable for those inside.
And those inside were the graduates, taken from several different academies all across Aheani territory. Likely they wouldn't know each other, as thousands upon thousands tended to attend the academies at once, and even though multiple cores did send their students to single academies, the cores mostly stuck with each other. Though only about one or two graduates would be on a single ship.
In fact, the cores were independent to the point where joint divisions like this, while not rare, we're usually only temporary. Often designed to a single purpose.
But not this one… Hopefully…
The cylindrical ships all opened their doors at once, which would allow their occupants to exit the small ships. The respective vehicles AI's would tell their charges to wait in the bay for a commanding officer, before beginning to shut down their systems until they were needed again. Which left the recruits with a bit of time in the mostly empty docking bay, save a few technodrones and Aheani engineers.