ADDICTION AND DEATH
BOOK TWO: TRIALS

CHAPTER 2: GRADUATION

“System 657 Absolution, bring up the current records on Shade Michael Romera, Gavin Christopher Jones, and Jacob Gustav Mercury.” the woman pronounced as she locked the door behind her, the mantel computer complied with a beep and a pre-programmed female voice saying ‘Affirmative, bringing up now.’ Whitney sat down at her desk clicking on the first file-Shade’s file “It’s been three months since they showed up. Shade, Gavin, and my brother Jacob. They’ve all done well-Jacob however has decided to take the less - heroic route as a sniper - odd that. “ she trailed off as she clicked onto the report from Sergeant Major Durand McGregor on Shade’s performance.

“Day-13 May 3rd 2048, 1:15AM, Diary of Sergeant Major of the Mantel Military 657 Absolution, Durand McGregor.” The computer played in a lightly static way.

“First recruit, Shade Michael Romera, birthplace is unknown, hometown is Sundries in the Lost Haven city. During training I noticed something. His stance, the way he acts, the fact he doesn’t get close to anyone-but during the battle exercise malfunction that injured several recruits he put his life on the line to save -one of his men- as second recruit Gavin Jones put it. First part I would like to talk about is performance, he seems to be more endured more than most of the recruits-able to last for long periods of time in harsh conditions even without Nectar. This leads me and the superiors to believe he has prior military experience, which isn’t to far off considering he knows a type of martial arts restricted to the Taiwanese and Korean military and special response police forces of 2001-2023.”

“Though this is very odd, he is only 19-21 by his records, yet he knows such ancient forms of close combat as that, however melee is one of his weak points. He seems more proficient with a rifle than he is with his fists, though he had one of our most physical built recruits on his knees when he had a combat knife or some form of blade in his possession.  Wherever he was born-whoever raised him, they did so as if they knew he was going to be in the military-or he has been. We are currently running background checks to see if he was placed in an African militia group or some form of illegal military activity when he was younger.”

“His proficiency with firearms is A+ however, he refuses to use anything but the B72 assault rifle and D6 pistol. He seems to center himself, knowing he wants to be a regular he refuses testing for other areas of proficiency though we know he is efficient with the guns seeing as he cleared a room of simulated opponents with a D118 shotgun and took down two enemy helicopters with one 387L rocket, though he repeatively says that the shotgun and rocket launcher just didn’t feel right. So he became a regular, though I have no doubt in my mind the black ops will definitely become interested in his performance should he prove useful in the field.”

“All in all, he’s well rounded, A+ in weaponry, C- in hand-to-hand without a melee weapon, C+ in engineering and piloting, and A+ in endurance, however he has a B- in leadership though we will start him off at the rank of corporal for his good grades at the allowance of the higher ups. He will be awarded true equipment upon graduation, a REAL regulars set of polymer steel body armor and the rest of the mantel regular uniform, along with a loaded and dangerous ’BlackSaw’ BSW-72 assault rifle, ’Diplomat’ Wilson D6 pistol which he has decided to nickname ‘Black Hound’, and three ’Spring Cleaner’ SK3 hand grenades.”

The computer closed the review as it began to show Shade on a sniper-fest whilst on Nectar with a B72 assault rifle, showing nothing but emptiness and heartlessness as almost always. Whitney grinned clicking on Gavin’s file “Show me Gavin’s, my Exes.” the computer complied as it brought up Gavin’s dossier before zooming into a recorded video diary from Sergeant Major Durand McGregor, this one looked shorter than Shade’s however looks can be deceiving.

“Day-26, May 29th 12:09PM, Diary of Sergeant Major of the 657 Absolution, Durand McGregor.”

“Second recruit, Gavin Christopher Jones also known as smartass to me and BJ or Blackjack to his teammates. He earned the nickname from being the light hearted guy on the team, I only pray this doesn’t affect him in the field. His performance has been slightly above average at best, not having much proficiency with many of the weapons in a normal military manner thanks to his crime record pointing at him being your stereotypical black thug-he was rather useful with a pistol, and he tends to be quick on his feet with a Hard Candy in his possession during a simulated test against a stolen BigBoy., he was born and raised in Sundries of the Lost Haven, parents disowned him after he beat up the headmaster of his boarding school.”

“He seems to be the only moral support the leader figure of the trio gets, by this I mean first recruit Shade. He also seems to be the most verbal of the group, like many mantel troopers with there meds administered in combat he’ll shout taunts, celebrate when he wins, and react to friendly fire by verbally and sometimes physically shooting the one who committed it in the knee. Records say he is 23 years of age, making him the second oldest in the group right behind third recruit Jacob. He seems to have a proficiency for fixing ground vehicles, however he doesn’t know jack shit about the Mrs. Mantel. he falls under the category of a rookie jockey by the normal days standards, however he is perfect for the position of land vehicle mechanic or fire support - he went with the later instead of the former and will be awarded the slit visor assault helmet, polymer steel body armor, and the rest of the uniform amongst his primary and secondary. Graduation he can look forward to getting an HK-387L rocket launcher and a Wilson D6 pistol he keeps referring to as a ‘gat’ and has aptly named ’Gatton Range’.”

“Nearly forgot about his endurance, years of smoking and drinking have worn out his lungs so he will have to undergo extensive organ healing or a flash-lung transplant by mandatory standards, the last thing we need is a liability drowning not even two minutes underwater. Other than that he did pretty well, couldn’t run very far because of his lungs but he prefers upper torso building more than anything. His preferred hand to hand involves a mix of kick boxing and some sort of desperate made street fighting, all in all I look forward to hearing about what vehicles of the enemies he has blown up, I just hope he doesn’t have his back turned more than needed-an overdosed fire support shooting his rocket launcher off like a trigger happy loon.”

Whitney let out a loud long laugh at the last bit said, putting a hand to her chest as she took a deep breath to try and calm down as the computer closed the video diary with the last bit of footage showing Gavin playing rugby with a couple recruits and guards on break. She closed her ex-boyfriends dossier and brought up her brothers, sighing at her disappointment with him for the fact he came here with dreams of fame-when he chose one of the worst positions to try and become a hero. Though she was thankful it was nearly a -2% possibility that he would be a liability at that position.

“Day-30, April 6th 5:16PM, Diary of Drill Sergeant Samantha Mikhail of training and recruitment center 2241 in Lost Haven.”

“In all honesty, I don’t think I’ve ever had someone who sucked at everything but was ace at sniping. I mean for heaven’s sake, the kids got a good aim but he just won’t take the -censored- cigarette out of his mouth. Doesn’t that idiot realize the smoke trails pretty much say ‘I’m a sniper please kill me first.’ which is why we’ve started him on chewing tobacco instead, and hopefully this’ll lessen his addiction to the point where we can get him on a nicotine patch. Speaking of health and endurance, this kid is pathetic, he ran one mile maybe two at the minimum before going out of breath and he looks like he has a normal physic, there is just no excuse for that! He swims like a drowning dog, and I won’t even go into his low-flexibility.”

“However he is very proficient with long range firearms such as the B72ESR Enhanced Sniper which will be his primary, and some of the other guns mostly the automatic ones. His unarmed combat is only efficient at numbing limbs as he uses some sort of mixed or hybrid style of the snake style martial arts, and melee weaponry is only good at jabbing-in short I’d call him a liability as anything BUT a sniper. He’ll be graduating by the skin of his teeth, if only he were like his sister than I’d be proud to call him a mantel soldier...pathetic and sad…short and simple.”

Whitney burst out laughing and it could be heard almost completely through the reinforced steel walls, she held her arms over her gut as she fell out of her swiveling black office chair. This was just to rich, her high-an-mighty brother had been knocked down several dozen pegs by the opposite sex he had strived so far to impress - oh she was going to gloat about this until the day he died she just knew it “I should probably prepare for the graduation ceremony, an admiral was going to do the presentation.” she decided to take a quick shower-locking her office as she stripped and walked into the warm spraying water lathering her body as she cleaned it quickly, drying off just as fast and making herself look decent before slipping on her uniform and placing on her lieutenants peaked cap quickly rushing outside.

==End of Part 1==Beginning of Part 2==

Shade stood in the organized group of the dozens and hundreds of soldiers standing in rows with their arms placed behind there back raising their heads high and wearing the graduation black and yellow beret. He quickly took his place amongst them managing to get into a position between Gavin and Jacob “It’ll start in a few minutes, be patient.” he watched the sweat trickle down Jacob’s brow. He sighed inside keeping it to himself - Jacob was undoubtedly a moron but was to prideful to admit it and go home, for what reason he didn’t know probably two reasons combined - to ‘protect’ his baby sister and still become a hero perhaps. Shade shushed himself as he saw the high ranking officers take their placed upon the podium in the large auditorium.

“In the many years of my service to the military - before Mantel Military I had thought I’d seen the best of the best…” the admiral hushed as he clasped his hands together taking off his peaked cap “But I realize, this day and age the true soldiers - the elite protectors of this world - the vanguards of human protection, are indeed trained by Mantel born from Mantel you are the steel of a sword, forged in the fires of this facility to be born as another effective blade of Mantel Global Industries.” the small noises became silent as a hush fell over the auditorium. The man looked around him at the men who all joined in a salute, Gavin and Jacob even but Shade remained perfectly positioned “At ease, and you-” he said pointing at Shade “What is your name, son.”

Shade sighed and looked up at the man with his black slit shaped iris’s “Shade Michael Romera.” he didn’t even break his stance, he kept his chin up and his arms behind him. He wasn’t going to falter under anyone’s ‘command’ especially not some fleet admiral he had just met, the man had little to no right to command him considering he was going to be on the frontlines.

“I like you.” he said with a somewhat hard-to-tell-if-it’s-sarcastic-or-not laugh moving aside from the microphones, whether he was going to make a public show of the odd recruit or not was unknown to everyone but one thing was for certain-he wasn’t going to do this for no reason. He looked through the list of recruits graduating on a clipboard laying against the podium before picking it up preparing to speak again “Shade M. Romera, graduating with honors at the rank of Corporal of the 657 Absolution under command of Lieutenant Whitney R. Mercury.” he continued onward to what type of soldier he’d be “You’re going to be a regular are you not?” Shade simply replied with a nod and closed eyes “Get up here, honor students graduate in formal duds - though I guess Durand forgot to say that, old sod was kind of slow without his meds.” Shade smirked but kept in a giggle and Gavin chuckled almost losing his posture, the rest of Durand’s recruits smirked or giggled at there teacher being slow witted unless there’s Nectar pumping in him.

Shade shook his head and complied going  up to the stadium and sitting in between a group of ten seated officers and honored recruits. Keeping his eyes closed as the ceremony continued - Gavin was awarded his ID first, than a female recruit, fallowed by several dozen other recruits who walked out with their diplomas and identification until it finally went to the honored recruits…

Shade said nothing as he was called up to the podium, remaining quiet and not smiling or grinning but saying a simple un-inspired ‘thank you’ when he felt the recorded I.D. and rolled up diploma slip into his hand and being told to report to the armory with his graduation items.

Since Shade was one of the last ones called up, he ventured towards the armory to be greeted by the sight of the newly enlisted admiring their gear whilst noticing Gavin lean against the wall beside the sliding door to the armory with his helmet on and spinning his handgun in circular motions.

The gunnery sergeant was expecting Shade and simply took his diploma and than slid the I.D. card over  a device before handing it back. When his armor was handed to him the first thing he picked up was his helmet, gazing into the yellow visor before placing it on “Yet again, I put on a uniform, yet again, I am trained to kill and murder in the name of a faction. If things go as planned, I’ll be loyal to Mantel until the end of the world - which may be sooner than I expect.” he thought all of this as he felt the full finger polymer gloves slide on his hands, flexing his fingers as he strapped the fore-arm guard, the integrated rectangular and hexagonal ab-designed body armor hooked around as the groin protector dangled over the private area, feeling the nectar administer rest against the back of his neck before feeling the needle prod into it wincing in a small amount of pain.

In little more than ten, maybe twenty minutes Shade looked like the rest of the mantel regulars, gazing through a non-glowing nectar yellow open shaped visor attached to his helmet, holstering his pistol in one hip and his grenades on the other. The feeling of the BSW-72 assault rifle in his hands feeling all too natural - as if he had held it before “Corporal Romera, reporting for duty.” he said walking over to Whitney who had been watching from a few feet away.

“I knew you had potential, good thing it wasn’t misplaced.” the woman said with a giggle as she hugged the armored and in-uniform boy which only caused a barely noticeable and couldn’t be seen blush beneath his helmet.

This was probably going to be the last calm Shade could admire, so he better make it last…