Biodroid: Dawn of a New Age

Dawn

-"..."

-".....uP!"

-"Kenta Edwards WAKE UP!!"

As Ken opened his eyes, processing the sounds of his mother's calling for him to wake up, the nearby river running its course, a light breeze blowing through the open window of his attic room he feels his consciousness focusing and regaining the sharpness of awakeness

-"I'm up Mom..." he yelled. It was a warm morning, the sun was already out and he knew he had something to do today but couldn't remember clearly.

-"Oi! Ken! We are gonna be Late you lazy i***t!" it was Ryan's Voice, but late for what?

-"Ryan? Late for w..." and all of a sudden it became clear: it was the day of the ceremony for the new recruits in the Earth Defense Academy, "Not today! Why did i have to oversleep today of all days?" as he rushed down the stairs, he crossed his mother who was on her way up, probably to wake him up, -"You are Late Ken! That's a very NICE way to start your life as a defender!" said his mother Aiko. Kenta Edwards is the son of Cpt. Nicholas Edwards, leader of the Earth Defense Force and current Earth Defense Academy commander and Aiko Izumi, former robotics developer and regular cooperator at Fumire Labs, the local robotics research laboratory.

-"You worry too much, mom"said Ken as he grabbed a piece a bread from the table and ran to the front door to greet Ryan Walker, his childhood best friend, who was also joining the Earth Defense Academy Today.

-"So, you chose today of all days to sleep in? Is like you want us to fail from the very beginning!" said Ryan as he pointed to ken's bare Chest "So are you showing up in those to the ceremony?"

As Ken realized he was wearing only his pants, he quickly retreated to the inside of the house as Ryan followed him and greeted Aiko with a hearthly -"Morning, aunt Aiko" as he often called Ken's mother at the same time he followed ken upstairs. "Good thing I setted aside today's attire" Thought Ken at the same time he picked up his previously prepared Academy Uniform.

The uniform as a combined set of black pants, white shirt and a black jacket. The jacket was nicely decorated with white lines that started at the shoulders and ran along the long sleeves, on the left side of the chest was the Academy Logo, a flying white eagle surrounded by a white crown of leaves. The shoes were optional so Ken donned his long boots and he asked Ryan -"How do i look?"

-"You look LATE! This ain't a fashion show, we are super late, get a move on!"

Both ran down the stairs, past the dining table and through the front door,

-"Good luck you two, you are going to need it..." said Aiko with a strong tone as both of them ran to the center of the mountain surrounded village.

The house was situated near the far end of the village, close to the river that descended from the mountains. Zre Village was one of the few settlement that first started applying technology after the human race began to establish itself anew, using a chain of mountains as a defense against wild animals, the river as a primary water source and fishing spot, Zre village was a great place to build the center of the Earth Defense Force and it's academy.

Running through the village, Ken and Ryan saw the Academy Building a few hundred meters in front of them, the tall building stood above a clift in the outskirts of the center of Zre, with vast spaces between the center building and the rest of Zre, it was obvious that it was to keep the distance between them. The Academy was surrounded by a few people, parents of the other teens around Ken and Ryan's age, no doubt accompanying them on their welcome ceremony, at least to the door of the academy because none may pass within its walls unless it where a student or member of the Defense Force. As soon as they saw the door closing, Ken and Ryan's pace doubled, they panted as they reached the door just as it was about to close...

-"*pant* *pant* See?... I told you...we would...make it... * pant* *pant*" said Ken as they entered the main courtyard and looked for their assigned places in the formation, in front of the group of students joining the Earth Defense Force.

Ken and Ryan both obtained great scores on their admission tests and so their assigned places were at the front of the platoon. This year's new cadets were few, so few that they only needed one Platoon to group them all, it's command was assigned to Lt. David Cruz, a highly accomplished pilot on his own and Cpt. Edwards's right hand.

-"You are late! Both of you, see me when the ceremony is over!" said Lt. Cruz in a commanding tone, as Ken and Ryan recovered their respective breaths.

The ceremony began with the words the Academy's commander and leader of the Earth Defense Force, Cpt. Nicholas Edwards:

"Welcome all, in behalf of the entire human race and myself, I am Cpt. Nicholas Edwards, Leader of the Earth Defense Force, I want to thank you for joining us today, for today, you start a new chapter in the book of the freedom of earth!" A Round of cheers and applause from all different platoons roared and interrupted the speech.

-"This is no small task" continued Cpt. Edwards "You will become a beacon of hope for all of those that still dare to hope, light in the darkness of oppression, the future of mankind. Here at the Earth Defense Academy we will push you to your limits, both physically and mentally, in order to make you better than the rest of us, your training will be hard and difficult, sometimes even feel like it's impossible to go on, but do not flatter, you will not be alone. Look to both sides of you, there are your brothers and sisters, beacons of hope like yourself, look in front of you, your platoon commander, bringer of hope to all humanity, for hope is all we need, if there is hope, there is a will, if there is a will, there's a way and if there is a way, we will find success!." Cheers roared again, claps, shouts of joy and determination covered all other sounds, at that same time, Ken and Ryan glanced each other and their eyes showed no fear, no lack of conviction, they were sure that it was their goal to end this war and write the final chapter of the book of freedom of earth. Then, all of a sudden, the crowd went silent and attention was drawn to the speaking podium, interrupted by the silence, ken looked up and saw a female figure, around 60 years old, old enough to be his grandmother, silver hair tied to a ponytail, tired eyes and wrinkled face, with the looks of a feeble person, it was Dr. Wang Fu, head developer of the Biodroids at Fumire Labs, "so this granny is mom's old boss, huh?" thought Ken.

-"Welcome young ones" said Dr. Fu with a voice so commanding that even platoon commanders stood straight, "Welcome to this training and research facility, I am Dr. Wang Fu, Head researcher and developer of what you call Biodroids. As you should know, you are here to become pilots, but sadly, not all of you will be able to have your own Biodroid." A sudden chill ran through the whole crowd, Cpt. Edwards's eyes saddened briefly and the regained his usual bravado.

-"We have used most of the resources available to us in birthing and repairing the current fleet of Biodroids, thus not everyone will get one once you are deemed ready. The Resonance link is also something that we need to take into account, not everyone finds what we call a soulmate, sometimes we cannot find pilots that have the same mental pattern than our droids, this means that being able to graduate does not means you will become a pilot, after all, the droid and pilot must be compatible. But do not flatter, we are looking for ways to acquire more resources and I am developing something that, if completed, will help in this regard. Young ones, so much is at stake here, we need your strength, we need your courage, but we also need your compassion, for these droids feed on your emotions, the resonance link becomes stronger the stronger your resolve, and in turn, so does become your soulmate. We need you more than ever, we need you, new Earth Defenders, the world needs you!"

The crowd roared with resolve again, any trace of doubts created by Dr. Fu disappeared in an uproar of shouts and cheers, "Earth Defenders, you are dismissed, report to your platoon commander for further instructions, Welcome to the EDF Academy!"

-"Finally! We are Earth Defenders!" Said Ryan with obvious joy,

-"Not quite my little 'amigo'" Said Lt. Cruz in his usual friendly tone, "Listen up all of you, I Am Lt. David Cruz, I will be your guide during your time in the EDF academy, I will not tolerate any misbehavior, from ANY of you, is that clear?" he said as he eyed both Ryan and Ken

-"Yes Sir!" replied the whole platoon.

"My job here is to make each and everyone of you better than me in every way possible, I will try my best to turn all of you into fine pilot candidates, but I will tell you this: Fail and you will be expelled! This is non negotiable, as short as we are in resources for biodroids, so are we in personnel, meaning that we cannot devote ourselves to each one of you, so we find those who are truly committed and dedicated most of our time to develop those cadets, the rest will be reassigned or expelled depending on your scores and behavior, everything you do here is documented and added to your file, have a bad file and you are out. Devote yourselves to the EDF Academy and you shall be one of those cadets promoted to Pilot Candidate and hopefully, to Biodroid Pilot."

-"Sir, Yes Sir!"

- "Cadet Edwards, Cadet Walker, you owe me 100 laps on the training grounds for being late to the welcome ceremony, meet you in the training grounds in 5 minutes, to the rest of you: you are dismissed, meet me here tomorrow at 0500 hours"

-"Sir, Yes Sir!"

-"Thanks a lot, Ken" said Ryan at the time they both walked to the training grounds.

-"Cpt. Edwards, so your kid has finally reached the age of joining the academy, huh? " said Lt. Cruz while addressing Cpt. Edwards who was walking towards the recently dismissed platoon.

-"Hey Cruzie, yeah, please make sure he behaves, he tends to be a little... carefree, but deep down I know his true self even if he still doesn't know it, he shall become an even greater man than me, don't tell him I 1 said that!"

-"hahahahaha, You got it boss, don't worry, I'll make him straight as an arrow, just like you did for me" said Lt. Cruz with a proud tone.

-"Thanks Cruzie, I can't thank you enough, now if you excuse me, I have to ask old Fu what this 'something' she was talking about earlier really is. Oh, and Cruzie? Be sure you double that punishment for being late on those two, I'll handle their mothers, don't worry."

-"You're 'el jefe' " said Lt. Cruz as he turned around and directed himself to the training grounds with a smile.

"Alright, now on to the research lab, let me see if i can find out what this new something really is" thought Cpt. Edwards as walked to the inside of the main building. Inside the main hall, the building was as tall as it seemed on the outside, a large main hall with a 3 doors to each side, a circular receptionist like desk in the middle and a big ornate double door at the bottom of the hall.

-"Hey Tracy! Is Dr. Fu Downstairs?" asked Cpt. Edwards to Tracy, Dr. Fu's logistical assistance, her job was to maintain the Academy's resources like sparring weapons, uniforms, Cadet's reports and files organized and well provided

-"Yes Captain, she just went downstairs, you know you are not allowed down there, right?"

-"Ah yes Tracy, Tracy, Traaaaceee... do me a favor and look the other way just this time, would you?" said Cpt. Edwards with a joyful tone.

-"There is no need for such things" echoed a voice from the bottom of the main hall as Dr. Fu made her presence known. "This old lady..." thought Edwards, and with a hint of sarcasm said -"Hey Dr. Fu, why are you always so serious?"

-"What do you want to know Edwards? you should consider being more serious yourself, set an example for that carefree child you have that just joined the academy, that would be more fitting for the leader of the Earth Defense Force." Said Dr. Fu with a snappy voice.

-"Hey! you don't have to be so harsh..." said Cpt. Edwards with a hint of embarrassment. "That kid is going to surpass me one day, wanna make a bet?"

-"Sigh... We would be lucky if he even makes it to be half the Pilot you are with that carefree attitude of his, it will be very hard for him to surpass the best Biodroid Pilot in the fleet." "What is it that you wanted to 'investigate' that needed Tracy to look the other way around, huh? "

-" I Want to know about what you said during the welcome ceremony." his demeanor suddenly changing to a very serious attitude.

-"If this represent a hint of hope, I want to be a part of it, besides, if this also requires different training for the future pilots, I need to know." Said a decisive Edwards.

-" Sigh... Come with me, I was going to inform you anyway after today and like you said, you ARE part of this as you will find out in a minute." She gestured Tracy to open the locked double door at the bottom of the hall and motioned for Edwards to follow her inside.

Once inside the Lab, the most noticeable feature was the big screen and main console right in the middle of it all, surrounded by desks with blueprints on some of them, others with pieces of metal and parts, some were occupied by researchers and one of them and the biggest of them all was Dr. Fu's.

Edwards marveled at all the technology that was inside, even though he was used to the technology inside his own Biodroid, which was composed of two pedals designed to move the inferior part of his droid, two levers with triggers for the upper extremities and weapons, a central display HUD for targeting and overall awareness of what was happening during the battle and the usual helmet used to establish the resonance link with Julz, which is how he named his soulmate once they fully merged after their first joint of minds. This was on a different level, to him, it seemed more advanced, alien like, nevertheless awe inducing.

-"So you gave us the worst of it?" Said Edwards with sarcasm.

-"Nick, I wish we could give you more and better tools and technology, we are making the most of everything that we found and of all the knowledge left behind by the old ones, I know is not enough..." said Dr. Fu with a sad tone.

-"Hey Dr., I was joking around... I know you all do you best and we are thankful for it, I'm sorry if I offended you." Answered an ashamed Edwards.

-"It's Alright Nick, so, what is it you want to know?"

-"What's the new thing you mentioned during the ceremony? Care to elaborate?"

-" That will Take a while." said Dr. Fu arching an eyebrow.

-"I've Got the time..." said a decided Edwards.

......