S1, 03 The Long Mile (August 28, 2015)

**August 20th 2095**
Cadet Training Center, Soateria.

Gian: “Now rookies, we are about to enter your first challenge here on Soateria. The six of you will enter together and simply head through to the end with is a mile away. Sounds simple, right? Well keep your eyes open, there will be more than just you in there stopping you from leaving the other side. Choose a stun-gun here and enter when I give the go.”

Cadets: Sir yes sir!

The team walked over towards a small table with several stun-guns laying there. Each member picked up a weapon of their choice. Kayne looked over the table and decided on a small pistol, checked its rounds, clicked the safety off and joined with his team at the entrance to the mile.

Gian: “Ready! Time set! Go go go!”

Kayne both full of anticipation and excitement clutched onto his stun-gun and followed the others through the door to begin the mile.

As they entered the room, Kayne looked around to see a long corridor with a wall on the far end. He looked around trying to work out where they are meant to be going.

At this point he could hear the voices of Training Officer Gian McMillen and Major Tom Bowie being projected out of some speakers.

Gian: “Alright cadets, I’m going to tell you a short bit of info about the mile. There are several rooms like the one you are in right. By the end of them you would have traveled the distance of one mile. So all you need to do is find the exit to each room.”

Major Tom: "This test is to show us your natural talents as you need to use your minds and athletic abilities to be able to find your way through this. We will be watching your progress from here."

Gian: “Good luck cadets”.

.

The cadets look about themselves confused. Kayne himself and searched around the room and could see no sight of an exit.

Jacob: "So where on earth are we meant to go then?"

Thane: "Oh come on guys, we are clearly missing something."

Baxter: "Yeh but what?"

Kat: "Well boys, it might be this thing here."

Kat points towards a small button looking object connected to the wall near the door that they had just walked through.

Kayne: "Well should we press it?"

Jacob: "Well I don’t see any problem with pressing it."

While saying he quickly ran over to the button.

Kayne: "No wait Jacob, let’s think about…”

He was cut himself off as Jacob had slammed his hand on the button.

As soon as he did, a line of turrets had opened out of the wall on the far end and began to fire what looked to Kayne as plasma blasts towards them.

Kat: “Oh now you have gone and bloody done it!”

Jacob: “I didn’t know that this would happen!”

Kat: “That’s because you don’t have a brain to think with!”

Kayne looked over to the two of them arguing as he noticed a plasma blast heading straight towards Kat.

Kayne: “Kat! Get down!”

However Kayne noticed that there was no way she would have heard him probably as she was still fighting with Jacob. Kayne without another moment to think about it, he leapt towards her pushing her out of the way of the blast’s course, knocking her to the floor.

After realising what had happened, Kat moved him off her.

Kat: “Urr, thanks but I saw it myself.”

Kayne: “Oh come on! You were too involved at moaning at him! You owe me one!”

Thane: “Now, maybe you two should stop flirting and get under cover and work out what we are meant to do!”

Kayne looked around to see Jacob, Thane and Baxter behind barriers that had popped out of the ground. Kayne and Kat dashed over and hid themselves behind a barrier near where the others were hiding.

The cadets could feel the plasma blasts flying over their heads. Kayne felt confused that the officers would have placed rookies in such a dangerous situations.

While contemplating this line of thought, Kayne was quickly taken out of it by Baxter firing a stun-blast from his gun at the ground in front of him.

Jacob: “Oi! Bugeye! What the hell, do you think you are doing!?”

Baxter: “Just shut up for a minute! Look at the distortion of those plasma blasts coming from those guns.”

Kayne watched a blast distort against the ground. The blast fizzled out across the ground where it had hit. Baxter then fired another shot from his stun-gun. That’s when Kayden noticed that the stun shot’s distortion against the floor was similar to that coming from the turrets.

Thane: “So, they look similar when they hit the floor, how does that help us?”

Kayne: “No Baxter has a point. As these are stun shots coming from the turret, it means that thanks to the thickness of our amour, we would need to have to be shot straight on to be taken out of the fight. That means that we can take a few small shots to the leg or the arm and keep moving.”

Kat: “And how to you know this, wiseguy?”

Kayne: “Look both my dad and brother were in the military, so I learnt some random facts like that thinking I could use them to help me out.”

Jacob: “Man, you better thank you brother when we finish this as it wasn’t for him, we wouldn…” (Kayne cuts him off.)

Kayne: “Shut Up!”

Jacob: “Woah, sorry did I hurt a nerve or something?”

Kayne opened this mouth about to tell this team about Jon and what happened on ‘The Overseer’, before deciding that where they were wasn’t the time or place to put them in such a state of mind.

Kayne: “It doesn’t matter right now.”

Kat: “Alright, so now we know we can’t die from being shot. But we still don’t know how to get out of this room.”

Thane: “Actually… I think I have.”

Thane points towards the top of the line of turrets where there was a small platform with a hole on the wall.

Kat: “Alright, that looks like our best shot.”

Jacob: “Yeh but how do we get up there?”

Kayne contemplates a possible route of getting to the top. The turrets were in a straight line heading down the wall below the hole. He also noticed that the one of the barriers was quite close to the lowest turret.

Kayne: “We climb.”

In a quick moment, Kayne jumped onto of the barrier and had begun a dash towards the turrets, attempting to dodge the gunfire. Ducking and diving behind and above the other barriers.

The other cadets watched him as he started his mad run towards the guns.

Thane: “That’s great, so what do we do?”

Kat: “We get running”

Kat got up from behind the barrier and began to follow behind Kayne. After a moment of thought, Jacob got up too and began to run as well.

Thane: “Come on Baxter!” He yelled as he also got up to start running.

Baxter got up and watched his team members running and jumping towards firing turrets. While watching with a look of confusion on his face was suddenly changed to a moment of slight pain as a stun-shot from the turret hit him in the arm.

Thane: “Ouch! Damn yeh Kayne was right about it not killing us but it still bloody stings!”

Kayne had jumped and run his way to behind the closest barrier to the lowest turret on the wall. He looked back to see the rest of his squad following up behind him.

With a small grin on his face, he got up from the behind the barrier placed his gun in his holster, climbed on stop of the barrier and did a large leap extending his arms to grip the turret in mid-air.

He gripped the first turret with his hands and began to pull himself up to place himself perching on top of it. He took deep breath to get some energy back as he knew he would need it to keep climbing up these turrets. After his short break, he began climbing again.

Below him, the others had got to behind the closest barrier.

Jacob: “Oh god! That took the breath out of me.”

Kat: “Well you better buck up quickly as you can as you got to climb soon.”

Thane: “That shouldn’t be too bad.”

Baxter: “Talk about yourself!”

Kat: “Oh come on boys! Just follow my tail.”

Kat jumped onto top of the barrier, leaped towards the turret and pulled herself up.

Kat: “Follow me boys!”

Jacob got up and jumped to the turret with not as much trouble as he had thought.

Baxter looked to Thane with an annoyed look.

Baxter: “Mate, there is no chance I will make that jump.”

Thane: "Alright then I’ll give you a hand."

Before Baxter could say anything, Thane had picked him up and tossed him towards the turret.

Kayne was two away from the top of the line of turrets. He was tired and exhausted as he never had a lot of upper body strength.

He looked down at how the rest of the squad were doing. All were making their way up the turrets, but before he realised he had lost his grip and with a call of panic began falling down.
Kayne closed his eyes and thought at how he had failed. He failed his squad, himself and his family. He thought he was stronger than this. He thought he was better. He thought…

He was suddenly taken out of his thought. He wasn’t falling anymore. But he hadn’t hit the floor. He opened his eyes to see Kat had caught his arm.

Kat: “I think his counts us as being even.”

Kayne: “Thanks Kat! I couldn’t thank you more!”

Kat: “Oh shut up and just start climbing again.”

Kayne took back hold of the turret and began climbing again.

After a short while all of the cadet squad had reached the turrets within jumping distance of the platform.

Jacob: “WOO! That was intense!”

Thane: “Calm down Knight! We have a long way to go.”

Kayne: “I hope not too much more. Or I think this might kill me.”

Kat: “No if you make us fail this, I will kill you!”

Kayne: “Alright Kat! Let’s just get moving.”

Kayne and the squad each jumped to the platform and crawled through the hole to find themselves in a room that was completely dark. So dark that Kayden couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. Before he could say anything, Training Officer McMillien came over the speakers again.

Gian: “Good work Cadets! You made in through the first room at record time. Well, at least for a group of rookies. In this next room, you have to take down a target on the wall on the other side which will turn on the lights and allow you to continue. You maybe be asking yourself, ‘how can you see a target when it is so dark’. Well you have to work that out yourselves. Have fun!”

Thane turned to Baxter in frustration.

Thane: “You have to be kidding me! I can’t even see!"

Kat: “Actually, it is quite simple.”

Jacob: “Is it?! Cos I haven’t worked it out yet!”

Kayne: “Actually Kat’s right. Watch.”

Kayne took out his stun-gun from its holster and fired a shot that illuminated a small radius around it as it moved across the room and hit the wall, not hitting the target.

Kat: “Huh, nice job Arrowsmith. Let me take a shot.”

**Meanwhile**
Imperium Cabinet, Lazarus, Soateria.

A high-class man holding a briefcase walks down a decorated corridor towards a large of doors at the end. While walking a high-class woman walks over and joins him while heading towards the door.

Woman: “Does the Governor know the news yet?”

Man: “Unfortunately no, that is going to be my job.”

Woman: “Well, all I can say is good luck.”

Man: “Thank you; I don’t know how he will take it.”

The man opens the door and enters the governor’s office. Sitting at a long table is the Imperium Governor of Soateria. As the two walked in, he raised up in his seat to greet them.

Governor: “Aww Minister Fletcher, Minister Gromek. What a pleasure! What is it I can do for you?”

Minister Fletcher: “Governor, we have some grave news to inform you of.”

Governor: “Well it is man! Speak up.”

Minister Fletcher: “Umm, it seems that Minister Brydon has been murdered.”

Governor went silence and fell back into his chair.

Governor: “Oh god. Poor man. Does his family know?”

Minister Fletcher: “Not yet sir. We will be informing later this evening.”

Governor: “Alright. Do the police have any idea on who… who murdered the late minister?”

Minister Fletcher: “That’s the thing sir. They are expecting that it might a hired job.”

Governor: “Well get the Chief Inspector in here. I want to discuss a plan of action.”

Minister Fletcher: “Yes sir. Right away.”

Both Ministers nodded towards him before turning round and leaving. The Governor relaxes in his chair.

Governor turned towards his personal assistant who had been standing in the corner listening to every that had been listening to every that had been said. The Governor’s expression changed to a blank stern stare.

Governor: “Well Mr Hearn, I believe that I have a little errant for you. I need you to have a meeting with… our little friend.”

Mr Hearn: “Yes sir.”

**A couple hours later**
‘The Mile’, Cadet Training Center, Soateria.

Cadet Squad 6 had been making their way through the course, after several different rooms they have found themselves in a room where several robotic targets are moving heading towards them as they stand in a circle in the center.

Kayne: “Only a few more! Keep shooting, they are just targets!”

Jacob: “I’m running low!”

Kat: “Catch!”

Kat threw a round over to Jacob which is quickly clocked into his stun-gun and fired it at a target moving close towards him.

Kayne could notice that his team had sort of grown together during their time inside of ‘The Mile’. He had a small smile on his face as he saw Thane and Baxter take down the last target down. As soon as it was deactivated, a door opened next to them.

Kayne: “Come on people! We can now get the hell out of here!”

Thane: “Thank god!”

The team quickly turned towards the door and dashed towards it.

Outside was Training Officer McMillen and Major Tom standing there looking a bit pleased.

Gian: “Good job cadets! Not only did you work impressively as team, you also got through the mile at record times… well at least for a team of rookies.”

Major Tom: “If you would like to place your weapons on the rack and head back to your barracks. You can have a rest, until tomorrow at least when we will have another challenge for you.”

The squad look at each other with an excited as they have completed such a difficult task. Kayne stood back slightly and saw the other four smiling and cheering together, which brought a grin to his face to see his new friends together like this as they moved back towards their barracks. But as Kayne walked closer to the door, he could hear Training Officer McMillen calling to him.

Gian: “Cadet Arrowsmith. Mind if we have a word?”

Kayne: “Urr, yes sir. What is it?”

Gian: “Thank you cadet. Major, mind if you give us a moment?”

Major Tom: “I don’t understand. What seems to be the matter?”

Gian: “Nothing major. I just need a private word with his cadet about his performance in the mile.”

Kayne look stunned. What on earth could the Training Officer want to tell him that the Major couldn’t know?

Major: “Okay McMillen. I’ll let you off.” And with a strange glare towards Kayne, he left the room.

Kayne turned to McMillen.

Kayne: “Sir, may I ask. What was that you wanted to say to me?”

Gian: “Kayne. I’m going to tell you something that you must promise me not to inform our superiors I have even mentioned this to you.”

Kayne: “Sir. I have no idea what you are even talking abo…” (Cut off by McMillen.)

Gian: “I know what happened to your father.”

=== BONUS:

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*Thank you for reading my Third Episode of my TI series. This is the first episode to include a side story which will become a major part of my series from now on.*

***BONUS PICTURES***

The Mile Room 001

Governor's Office

Governor's Office Pic 2