Borderlands Fanction(Untitled)

As an Apology for missing a day, I'll post a much longer piece today, I was working on this piece for a little bit and you'll recognize the combat scene I posted a while back. In case you didn't read the last piece or want some context, this is a borderlands fanfiction project I started with a friend a longtime ago and I did the bulk of this work back then, but have since focused on revising this a bit since I did like the direction it was heading. 

I think for now, I'll also put it out there that I'll be kinda slowing down on the posts. Doing the daily posts have been fun and cool, but I want to sorta shift towards just writing things when I want to. Posting half-baked chapters is an interesting part of the process, but I guess I want to only post things here now when I can offer a substantial amount. Plus I've involved myself in some other creative projects that take time away from me being able to put these out with the time and effort that I would like to. Overall, this really isn't the end and I don't it to feel like it is, just slowing down so I have more time to dedicate to other things that I've been working on. So will I be back tomorrow? Maybe. If I am, I will see you there!

 *DING DING DING* The mechanically distorted sound of bells dinging was all Alec could hear as the digistructed environment around him began to dissolve.

 

“New high score, GOOD WORK SOLDIER!” The simulation AI, an interesting fellow nicknamed Borris said in his gruff drill sergeant voice.

 

         “Wow,” Alec sarcastically stated as he reached for a bottle of water to quench his thirst, he had been in there for about five hours this session, “What a surprise!”

 

         It really wasn't, Alec had only been in the program for a month and he was already outperforming people who had been in the program from the start. In fact, he was even topping scores of decorated Dahl soldiers who actually fought in the field.

 

         “General Juds would like to speak to you, GET MOVING!” Borris, completely unshaken by his sarcastic tone, gave him his orders. The coordinates to the general’s office appearing on his Echo device even though he knew these halls inside and out.

 

         “Sure thing buddy,” Alec started walking towards the door, “don’t shout too much, you’ll break your speaker system.”

 

         He walked out laughing to himself at his joke.

 

As Alec walked the halls of the Dahl Digistruct Research labs on Eden-4 many other members of the program playfully jeered at him for being so good at the simulation. At least they didn't mean it, it was certainly different than when he first came to this place.

 

         Alec got off the shuttle at the Eden-4 space port, he had never left his home back on Eden-2 so this was a new experience for him. He was greeted by Dahl soldiers who were supposed to escort him to the lab, someone about him being “precious cargo”. More like a test subject for the new Dahl military training simulation program. It would use Digistructed environments and enemies to test new recruits and see if they had what it takes to be a soldier in the massive Dahl military.

 

         He first found out about the program through his mom, his mom found out about the program from a recruiter who told her about the many benefits about the program, including a chance to receive a large scholarship to the Eden-4 university. Going to the Eden-4 university wasn’t on Alec’s bucket list, but he didn't want to disappoint his mom so he went anyway.

 

         His first day wasn't the best experience he could have asked for, the other new recruits all gave him that “don’t even think about talking to me” look. Alec didn't blame them. He ended up rooming with someone named “Joseph Killian III”. Joseph and Alec got around ok, they were both in it to get a scholarship and they were both interested in computer stuff. Killian was from Eden Prime, his parents were high up in Hyperion before Handsome Jack, but they were killed during the Lost Legion incident. So he moved with his grandparents and they sent him here so he could get the scholarship.

 

They spent the first week getting to know each other, comrades got to have camaraderie right? They were briefed on the gist of the program. How they would be going through the simulation at least once a day, any extra runs would just add to the total score of each recruit. Oh yea, there was a ranking system. To help inspire “friendly” competition each individual recruit would have a personal score based on performance in the simulation. All it did was make the top spot the most coveted thing in the group. Alec didn’t really care about all that competition, all he cared about was not completely failing on his first try, now that would be embarrassing.

 

They ended up touring the rather large campus, they got to see the official simulation room, which took up the largest part of the campus being right in the middle. Without anything actually being digistructed in the room it looked rather empty. The campus was also equipped with full fledged physical and mental training facilities. Alec made a note to spend plenty of time at those places, he wasn’t a sporty kid, at his old school he always opted to do something else, like drama/theatre orientated, anything really to avoid sports at all costs. He would have to be getting his physical fitness up if he wanted a chance to survive in the simulations. Mental training facilities would help recruits train their reactions, mental acuity and confidence. He would definitely visit those, he had a tendency to choose flight over fight in situations. The tour continued to the campus’s very expansive firing range, the same digistruct tech would allow them to train with any gun they could think of, all the brands, Dahl(obviously), Hyperion, Maliwan, Jakobs, Bandit, Torgue and Tediore. Alec definitely wanted to go there, you couldn't survive the simulation with just brains and brawn alone, you needed guns. Their tour concluded at the dorms, the campus had set up proper accommodations for them, each pair of roommates had a private room, they were provided with their own echo devices for personal use. It was definitely better than going to an actual military training camp.

 

“SO ROOMY!” Joseph said a bit too enthusiastically as they were settling in, “You ready for next week!”

 

         “Well considering I’ve never done any sort of serious physical or mental exercise in my life, nor have I ever fired a gun, I’m going to have to do some work.”

 

         “Well what school did you go to?” Joseph asked.

 

         “Just some public school on Eden Prime,” Alec looked back fondly, “Wasn’t challenging, the kids weren't that smart, curriculum wasn't that tough, but it was nice no one hated each other.”

 

         “I assume that’s why you want to go to the Eden-4 University then.”

 

         “Well it's not so much me, as it is my mom wanting me to go, but I guess the challenge would be welcome?”

 

         “eh, who goes to school because they actually want to?”

 

         The two shared a laugh, a rather jovial one, before someone in the room next to them told them to shut up.

 

         The next morning was pretty uneventful. They were still prepping the training facilities so they wouldn't be available until the afternoon. So Alec decided to just walk around the campus and see what they had. There was food at the mess hall, but it was crappy military rations, it actually made his cafeteria food look appetizing. He had made plans with Joseph last night to spend the afternoon at the firing ranges the minute they opened up, but he was still asleep. Without anything to do all he thought of doing was just walking around. He just wandered around aimlessly on the campus until he bumped into someone, this “someone” turned around. He was clearly a military man, had many medals. Alec wasn’t about to piss off some important looking general on his first day here

 

         “Sorry sir!” He shouted giving the man a salute.

 

         He laughed, annoying Alec a little bit, “Don't be so worry kid, I don't mind.”

 

         He gave Alec a pat on the back, “I’m General Juds, I run this place.”

 

         “Pleasure to meet you, sir,” Alec responded.

 

         “You don’t have to be so formal young man, on the battlefield you don't need to be proper and all that, so you sure as hell won’t need to learn that here here.” He stated sternly.

 

         “Ok… Um…,” Alec fumbled around for something to call Juds, “General?”

 

         “Eh that works, so what are you doing outside the firing range, it doesn't open for another hour or so?”

 

         “Well I just want to get training as early as possible, I was going to be practicing with my room mate, but he’s still asleep so I didn't know what to do.”

 

         “Well don't you kids these days have that damn echo net and all that entertainment and such?”

         “I prefer to read books, but I wasn’t allowed to bring too much stuff, and I don’t want to spend money on echo books.”

        

         “Well it was nice to meet you uh…”

 

         “Alec, my name is Alec.”

 

         “Alec, well it was nice to meet you.”

 

         “Same to you.”

        

         He waved goodbye to Alec and they parted ways. As General Juds was walking away Joseph was walking up to him.

 

         “Hey who was that?” he asked.

        

         “The person who runs the place, I kind of ran into him.”

 

         “Hope he isn’t mad at you.”

 

         “Nah, he seemed fine with it, I don’t think he’s the type the hold a grudge”

 

         “You better hope for your sake.”

 

         Despite Joseph showing up really late, they still had plenty of time before the firing range would open. After waiting for what seemed like forever, the doors of the firing range finally opened, a weary looking janitor stepped out, he regarded the two teens with a look of scorn.

 

         “You kids don’t hurt yourselves in there.” He cackled as he left the two, probably to go to his closet or something.

 

         “Well he’s a jerk,” Joseph stated, “So… ready to go in?”

 

         “Yea…” Alec said with anticipation.

 

         “What you nervous,” Joseph teased

 

         “No dude, its just that I never fired a gun before in my life, now here I am, about to fire one.” Alec responded.

 

         “Well, I never shot a gun either, but you don’t see me being all nervous about it, c’mon let’s go!” He grabbed Alec and they both barged into the building.

 

         They were obviously the first ones there, the entire range was empty and they were the only ones who were actually waiting for it to open. The large and expansive room was populated by the isolated one-person slots for individual training. Alec and Joseph stood there waiting for something to happen, but nothing did.

 

         Joseph started, “so…”

 

         Then out nowhere a voice rang out through the facility, “PREPARE FOR WEAPON TRAINING MAGGOTS!”

 

         A hologram materialized in front of them, it took the appearance of a drill sergeant.

 

         “Uh… Hello?” Alec said.

 

         “ARE YOU MAGGOTS READY TO BEGIN TRAINING!?” The hologram shouted at the top of it’s digistructed lungs.

 

         “sure…?” Joseph said

 

         “THEN GET MOVING!” Holographic spit flew from his mouth disappearing right before hitting their faces.

 

         “But what do we do? This is our first time.” Joseph asked.

 

         “I don’t have time to teach lowly recruits like you how to shoot a gun.” He glared at them.

 

         “Then what do we do?” Alec asked.

 

         “TALK TO THE TUTORIAL LADY!”

 

         “Alright fine”

 

         They both left the hologram’s presence and went to the booths. A lady’s voice greeted them. “Welcome to the Dahl digistructed weapon simulation training course.”

 

         “Great to be here ghost lady…?” Joseph said.

 

         “Let’s begin, first choose your preferred weapon type!” A GUI appeared with the different weapon types, SMG, Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, and Pistols.

 

         “Hey where are the Rocket Launchers?” Alec asked.

 

         “Rocket Launchers are reserved for those with proper heavy weapon training and specialists.”

 

         “Alright then… guess I’ll go with Assault rifles, what’s the worst that can happen?”

 

         “I’ll go with pistols!” Joseph enthusiastically pushed the pistol button.

 

         “Weapon types selected! Now proceed to choose manufacturer!” Another GUI popped up with different well known companies, Alec saw Bandit, Dahl, Jakobs, and Vladof.

 

         “No Hyperion then” Alec mused.

 

         “Hey I can choose Hyperion!” Joseph said as he pressed the button.

 

         “Oh well” Alec said as he pressed the Dahl button.

 

         A mini-digistruction factory popped in their booth, it immediately assembled guns based on their desired choice in front of them. Joseph got a Hyperion pistol, with the classic yellow-white scheme that Hyperion was so famous for, while Alec got a familiar digital green pattern that all standard issue Dahl weapons had. He picked it up and to his surprise it felt familiar and perfectly balanced, then suddenly the drill sergeant appeared in front of them.

 

         “YOU MAGGOTS BETTER LISTEN TO ME!” He shouted at them.

 

         “Ok” Alec said

 

         “Now in most situations, your gun will not feel as perfect as these, these have been custom tailored for your use by our digistruction systems based on your medical and physical attributes, but in the real military you will not be so lucky, NOW HIT THOSE TARGETS!”

 

         As soon as he vanished targets suddenly began popping up all over the place. Alec began to line up with the first target and pulled the trigger. He was suddenly knocked back as the first round flew out of the barrel. Then the rest of the burst proceeded to spray elsewhere.

 

         “Alec you ok?” Joseph asked.

        

         “Yea, just the recoil was a bit much…” Alec got back up to be greeted by the disconcerted face of the AI.

 

         “SOLDIER WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON THE GROUND!?” It shouted

 

         “Give me a break I just needed to get used to the recoil.” He went back up ready to fire again, when suddenly the gun reconstructed itself into a Dahl Pistol.

 

         “Maybe we’ll start you off with something a bit less powerful, just for the poor boy’s arms.” The AI mocked.

 

         “Fine.” Alex grumbled and began firing again.

 

         After about another five minutes of firing a bell sounded signaling them to stop. They both looked at their results, which were less than stellar. Both of them never achieved an accuracy above 35% missing the majority of their shots, and the ones that did hit, could only be accredited to luck.

        

         “Well 30% is better than zero…” Joseph said as they left the facility.

 

         “It was our first time, what did we expect?” Alec said as he looked back at his horrendous accuracy of 15%.

 

         “We still have a week before the simulation actually begins.” Joseph said.

 

         “Yea, but we need to make a lot of progress if we want to not fail our first test.

         The next morning was pretty boring, Joseph slept in again, but Alec was up bright and early, he went to the weapon training course again. He ignored the shouting by the AI and stepped into a booth, he picked up another Dahl pistol, determined to get a better accuracy score.

 

         He was ready to begin, he grabbed his wrist to stop the shaking and readied himself. He shot his first burst at the targets, the first one scored true, but the other two bullets flew right by the target, aim knocked off by the recoil of the burst. Alec cursed under his breath and readied himself to fire again.

 

         He spent well over an hour there, shooting the target over and over. His arm was tired, but he kept it locked in place, determined to get a good score. He felt someone pat his back only to whip around and point the gun at whoever did it.

 

         “Whoa there, it’s just me bro!” Joseph jumped back.

 

         The gun immediately deconstructed itself in his hands, “Crap, sorry I was just focused.”

 

         “I was just looking for you because you weren’t at lunch nor responding on your Echo.”

 

         “Wait its lunch time already?” Alec picked up his Echo and looked at the clock which read 3:24pm.

 

         “Past lunch time bro, how long have you been here?”

 

         Alec looked at the time frame on his practice session, it read over seven hours, “I was here for THAT long?”

 

         “At least tell me you improved your accuracy.” Joseph said.

 

         “HE CERTAINLY DID!” The AI appeared in front of them with a graph, “LOOK AT THIS GRAAAPH!”

 

         “Ok” Alec said.

 

         “Your accuracy has improved to 85%, much better than yesterday!” the AI congratulated.

 

         “I think that’s an improvement Joseph!” Alec said smugly as he walked out of the room.

 

         “Well where are you going!” Joseph shouted.

 

         “Rest, then the gym!” Alec shouted back, “Can’t stop training!”

 

         “Ok I’ll just be here if you need me!” Joseph began to do his own firearm training.

 

         After taking a nap Alec started towards the gym, he walked in and was immediately greeted by the very pungent smell of sweat and what ever they used to clean the gym. He immediately jumped onto a treadmill and began running, though it didn’t take long for him to be panting and sweating on the treadmill as his athletic ineptitude quickly caught up to him. He flopped over and landed face first onto the treadmill and rolled off, much to the delight of many of the other gym patrons, whom quickly began laughing at him.

 

         “Aw, does the little boy need a sippy cup?” One of the men bended over him.

 

         The first day of the second week was Alec’s first run at the simulation. Well real run at least. He looked at the score board, “H. Blake” held the highest score 17564/30000. Alec looked over to where he sat, proud smile on his face as he eyed Alec with suspicion. Probably scared about losing his leadership spot Alec mused.

Write more here

 

He stepped inside the sim room, in all its seemingly endless glory. Apparently the simulation’s AI would determine what guns he would like best and the field of battle was determined randomly. Of course that was only during practice. Here he was forced to run the same first course as everyone else. He had spent the majority of the last week studying the course, watching everyone else do their attempts. He had gotten pretty proficient in using quite a few of the weapons and he admitted that he had gotten more physically fit. He felt ready.

 

As he saw the massive environment be digistructed in front of him, it vaguely resembled the Highlands, so Alec predicted Stalkers and Threshers. He was given a choice between 2 sets of guns, A Dahl pistol, E-tech with a corrosive element plus a Torgue Rocket Launcher, explosive obviously. Weapon set B consisted of a Hyperion sniper rifle, the gun displeased him considering what Hyperion was known for, but it was electric, which was useful for stalkers, it also came with a Jakob's Revolver, nothing special, just a standard revolver. Alec opted to go with set B, while a rocket launcher would have made itself useful, it wasn't as versatile as set B. The weapons digistructed themselves in his hands, they felt nice, properly balanced, but they were digistructed, so it wasn't that surprising. He walked to the starting zone, giving a quick spin on the revolver hearing it satisfyingly click as he prepared it to fire.

 

A life size hologram of Borris, walked up to him, “SOLDIER, ARE YOU READY!”

 

         Alec sarcastically saluted back, “Sir yes sir.”

 

         Borris seemed satisfied with his answer and disappeared, in his place rose up a 10 second counter, Alec readied himself, he could swear that he felt the looks through the one way Windows installed.

 

10…

9…

8…

 

Alec clicked back the hammer on his revolver…

 

7…

6…

5…

 

He quickly scanned the battlefield and saw a large rock that would make a great piece of cover, he made a mental note…

 

4..

3..

2…

 

He took the last few moments to emotionally centered himself, this would be intense

 

1..

BEGIN!

 

A large dinging noise sounded and soon the sound of digistruction filled the room as Alec looked around and saw a large amount of stalkers, wave 1…

 

He sprung into action quickly killing a stalker just as it finished digistructing, he then made a beeline for the rock. He sprayed behind him as he ran towards the rock, he had two choices, he either climbs it or he runs around, running around seemed to be safer, he swiftly reloaded his revolver adrenaline kicking in as he dashed for the top of the rock. He killed another stalker with a swift bullet to the head, he used its corpse as a shield from the spikes thrown by the other stalkers. He was able to run to the top of the rock without encountering anything else. He pulled out the sniper, he wasn't by any means a distinguished marksman, but the stalkers moved slow enough for him, he quickly shot any stalker he could see, the electric element quickly disposing of their shields his first shots missed, it being a Hyperion sniper and all, but when he emptied the clip he could hit anything he saw.

 

Just as he was reloading a stalker came right up behind him and quickly pounced on him. He was caught off guard, dropping his sniper, it fell and bounced down the rock until it landed on the bottom, this wasn't good, he was able to wrest the stalked off easily enough and quickly killed it with his revolver. He started his descent, the stalkers had all lost their shields so their cloak was pretty much useless, he ran down shooting at a stalker whenever he got an opportunity. When he finally reached his sniper he was dismayed to find that the lenses of the scope were shattered during its rough fall. With some quick thinking he quickly tore off the scope from the tactical rail and threw it at the nearest stalker, stunning it. He used his sniper, now bereft of a scope and got a quick headshot on it. It only took a few more minutes to clean up the rest of the stalkers.

He walked back to the starting zone panting, the adrenaline left him as quickly as it entered him, leaving him feeling drained for the next wave, not a good thing

 

The same 10 second timer popped up, and started counting down. A new scope slowly digistructed itself on his sniper, he could go up to to the rock again. The timer started again.

 

10…

9…

8…

 

He prepped his revolver again

 

7…

6…

5…

 

He felt sweat dripping all over his face, he was still breathing pretty hard

 

4…

3…

2…

 

He took a deep breath and prepared for the worst

 

1...

BEGIN!

 

Another sound filled the room, he saw about seven threshes get digistructed before they burrowed straight into the ground. He was lucky that none of them were special ones. He had done plenty of research on the different types of enemies he might encounter, he was glad that they weren't throwing any of them at him right now.

 

         He quickly dodged to the right as a thresher erupted out of the ground where he stood, he unloaded a full clip of the revolver into it, killing it instantly. He heard rumbling all around him, the rock would not be viable this time. He reloaded his revolver as fast as he could, but a revolver came out of the ground right in front of him, causing him to drop the revolver as he was knocked back. He looked on in horror as the revolver was eaten up by the thresher.

 

         “Great” he thought, now he didn't have a secondary to his sniper.

 

         He whipped out his sniper shooting the thresher, three shots resulted in it dropping dead. He looked around, he needed a vantage point so the threshers couldn't attack him. He ran, getting some no scopes on the threshers, but he never landed enough hits to actually kill one. A thresher came out of the ground in front of him and he shoved the barrel of his gun down its throat shooting its insides. He pulled out the gun from its throat watching it flop to the ground.  He brought it up to shoot at the other threshers now coming towards him, then suddenly he heard a fizzling noise and the blue lights on the gun signifying the elemental status turned off, that was worrying. He tried shooting it, but all that came out were normal bullets.

 

         “crap” he thought, this gun was pretty useless without its elemental effect augmenting its damage output.

 

         He quickly ran fumbling with the gun, it turned out that some of thresher’s guts had jammed up the electronics, he futile tried to clean them with his sleeves, he quickly stopped and he started rubbing it with his shirt, he must’ve have hit one of the sensible parts because a really ominous beeping noise came from the gun, he was knocked back as it released an electrical nova, much like the Maliwan shields, conveniently enough the threshers had all gathered around him ready to strike, but the nova completely annihilated them, killing the rest of them. He quickly stood up, he had no guns left, but he quickly realized that he had killed all of the stalkers.

 

         “Thanks Hyperion…” He muttered under his breath.

 

A long ding signaled that he had completed his first run.

 

         “New Record, CONGRATULATIONS!” Borris shouted at him, he looked to the large screen that would display his score. He got a solid 25634/30000, vastly ahead of Blake, who he knew now must hate him.

 

         He heard clapping and turned to see General Juds walking up to him, “Son, that was the best run I have ever seen, and that’s saying a lot after the first week of recruits.”

 

         “Oh come on, I couldn’t have been the BEST run.” Alec was flabbergasted, he was probably the least qualified here.

 

         “Look at the leaderboard, no one even came close to you!” He gave Alec a pat on the back and a smile.

 

         Alec smiled back, “I guess your right, I did do pretty well.”

 

         “That's my boy, now go get some rest, you deserve it!” Juds started to lead him out.

 

         “Wait how long was that?” Alec asked.

 

         “35 minutes.” Juds gestured to the time stamp on his results page displayed in its full glory on the wall.

        

“Heh, felt like 5 years!” Juds and Alec shared a laugh before Alec went back to crash in his room.

 

         He had the chance to run the Simulation again in the afternoon, but he passed, he was only required one a day, and he wasn't too afraid of him losing the high score anytime soon. He spent the rest of the day studying enemy types for each arena. He wanted to be ready. He would have wanted to study load outs for each day, but that was a luxury he would not get.

 

         The rest of the week became a blur after that, he went through The Dust, Three Horns, Eridium Blight, Wam Bam Island, Hunter’s Grotto, and Thousand Cuts, all sorts of Locations scattered around Pandora, He noticed a clear trend towards Pandora as a arena, he asked Juds why that was.

 

         “Are you kidding!?” He let out an uproarious laugh, “Pandora is probably the best planet to do this on, do you understand Pandora’s history?”

 

         “Uh… No…?” He felt that he had heard about it before, but he never gave it too much thought

 

         “Pandora was terrible even before the first vault opened, it was a barren wasteland, BUT when the first vault was opened on it, it attracted all sorts of unwanted attention. Hyperion, corrupt as they were came to the planet looking for trouble with the Lost Legion, that's the so called “Lost Legion incident”. Then after that Handsome Jack ruined the planet further with massive Eridium mines all over the planet pushing the planet even further into the dirt” Juds stopped for a moment and brought up a star map of Pandora and its neighboring moon, Elpis, “What was left is probably the single best crap hole in the galaxy.”

 

         “Interesting, but what are the vaults you mentioned?” Alec, realizing that vaults was the triggering event was curious

 

         “Oh just some alien constructs left behind by some random alien race, you don't need to worry about that.” Juds quickly dismissed Alec’s question.

 

         “Ok then,” Alec not convinced, but certain that was all he would get, “Anything else I should know about Pandora?”

 

         “Yes, one thing, so there’s this girl, Moxxi, is what they call her, she used to run this coliseum style place called the Underdome, I’m gonna let you in on a secret, that is pretty much what inspired this project, you see the people who went in, they came out as hardened veterans pretty much ready for anything that was thrown at them,” Juds looked at a photo of him and three other random people, “after surviving it with my old squad mates, I decided that if Dahl were to use something like that to train its soldiers our army would be unstoppable.”

 

         “Are we ever going to see environments from any other planets?” Alec questioned.

 

         “Well you see,” Juds started zooming in on the map at various places pointing Pandora’s very diverse landscape, “Pandora has all sorts of different environments that it already creates enough adversity, we might even borrow some from Elpis, Pandora’s moon.”

 

         “I see; it would be nice to see other planets though.” Alec thought about the studying he had put into learning other planets.

 

         “Maybe when you’re in the army son” Juds patted him on the back again and set him on his way back to his room, “You keep it up and they might even promote you before you’re even in the army!”

 

 

         Alec’s routine for the rest of the month became just that, running the Simulation over and over again. He felt comfortable doing two a day after week one and now on week three he had just finished his third run of the day.

 

         “Hey Alec! Congratulations!” Joseph walked up to him, “Another record broken.”

 

         “Thanks,” he responded, his record breaking performances weren't that impressive, only improving by a mere four points this run.

 

         “You don't seem to be that happy about it?” Joseph asked with concern.

 

         “Yea, it's just that I’ve broken my record so many time it feels like a routine you know?” Alec walked by him.

 

         “Hey where are you going?” Joseph started walking with Alec.

 

         “General Juds office, wonder what he wants.” Alec answered.

 

         “Yeah, tell me how it goes!”

 

         “Sure thing!”

 

         Alec continued walking towards General Juds office. He opened the door and was greeted with a pat on the back by him.

 

         “WELCOME!” Juds was reviewing a chart of Alec’s constantly increasing scores for the last month, “I have good news!”

 

         “What might that be?” Alec asked.

 

         “Well,” Juds picked up an envelop from his desk, “It’s a little old fashioned.”

 

         “Old fashioned is a bit of an understatement,” Alec deadpanned, “but if it’s paper, it must be important right?”

 

         “Indeed it is,” Juds handed Alec the envelope, “that’s the official certificate of your Scholarship the Eden-4 university, you’re already enrolled for the next school year.”

 

         “Wow, this… this is huge, and only after a month?!” Alec was dumbfounded, he expected to be there for the latter part of this year.

 

         “Well I never did say how much time you would have to be spending here…” Juds poured out two glasses of a drink, probably hard liquor, “But I thought I might celebrate your exemplary performance in the course, much better than anyone else here by a large margin!”