Melbourne Acliate followed the HR class to the library for a lecture about the history surrounding the foundation of Fort Relecon Academy. This would be a short, minor history lesson before the final Drill and Ceremony class of the day.
The library was huge and was filled with classic marble statues and busts that made the place look antique. Chandeliers lined the arching ceiling and four levels of balconies hosted scores of bookshelves and holodiscs above the ground level.
Lieutenant Lavender left the class alone with another Lieutenant, an elderly-looking man with glasses.
"Greetings, Cadets!" announced the man. "Welcome to the Fort Relecon Academy Campus Library! My name is Lieutenant Malev, and I will be your primary military history instructor for your freshman year. This library is among the most comprehensive libraries on Mars today, one of the MANY reasons why Fort Relecon Academy is considered the most prestigious military academy in the Martian Republic, perhaps even in all of Sol! You should all consider yourself honored to be a part of this grand place! In these halls and the other classrooms of this university, you will all learn what it takes to be among the best of the best officers in the Martian Republic's Grand Space Navy!"
Lieutenant Malev waited for the students to take in the environment, smiling proudly at the many muffled "oohs" and "ahs".
"Fort Relecon Academy and the Fort itself have a proud history dating back to the founding days of the Martian Navy itself! As I expect most of you already know, Admiral Relecon was the first Admiral of the Martian Navy when it was established in the year 2185. The Navy was established after Martians began the process of asteroid mining in response to increasing attacks by space pirate groups. The spreading of Ganymedian space infrastructure also prompted the Chancellor of the day to order the construction of a navy to ensure orbital defense far into the future. Admiral Relecon served Mars for twenty years after his promotion from Army Colonel while the changing atmosphere of Mars still required one to wear a gas mask on its surface. He witnessed the day when the first man walked on the Martian surface with no oxygen mask and got to breathe fresh Martian air himself. In fact, according to his autobiography, it was this momentous occasion that inspired him to build Fort Relecon after his retirement in 2202. It was in the year 2205 that Fort Relecon was established as a military base to defend the outskirts of Olympia and a place to train soldiers in space infrastructure and warfare. Admiral Relecon had a great passion for learning and ordered the construction of this library, embellishing it with the trappings of ancient Roman architecture as seen in ancient historical files from Earth. In this library are countless old fashioned books made of paper in the fashion that the ancestors on Earth used to publish as well as plenty of historical documents that are not available on the exonet. In order to access many of these files, you will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement as much of the information is classified to the general public, though it is available to cadets. That is one of the many benefits of your enrollment here. Much of the information present is not available anywhere else in Sol. Feel free to study here as much as you like as soon as your classes are through each day until curfew, or on the weekends when you have no classes."
A wave of understanding crashed on Melbourne. That's it. That's why Agent Rune was so encouraging of Melbourne to access information from the Academy. They didn't have any cyborgs who could infiltrate the place and collect the classified information. The non-cybernetic assets couldn't store memory digitally the way that Melbourne could. This probably made Melbourne quite a valuable asset to the Red Cybers indeed. Melbourne would have to be extra studious and learn all he could, as though he hadn't already planned to do just that.
"Alright, class, that will be the end of today's lesson." said Lieutenant Malev after a somewhat brief lecture about the history and importance of Fort Relecon. "I hope I have inspired you into a greater sense of pride about the university you have become a proud part of. We are pleased to have you here. Now, you will not have any more history courses until next week. Those will take place in the History Building located directly across the way outside of this library. Now, the remainder of the day is short and your homeroom teachers must guide you to your final lesson of the day. I hope you all place well in the rest of your Induction Week."
Melbourne followed LTC Lavender to a large field where a staff sergeant wore a dress uniform as the other students were wearing now.
"Welcome, cadets!" said the staff sergeant as Lavender left the field. "I am Staff Sergeant Zeo and I will be your D and C instructor. This is where you will begin learning the basics of drill and ceremony. These classes are about military customs and formality and are designed to promote soldier discipline and respect for the system and chain of command. You have probably seen many videos of military formations in events such as parades or other formal ceremonies. They respond to the commands of a commanding officer or NCO and march in unison, salute in unison, and follow other commands in unison like a well-oiled machine following a rhythm. It's like dancing without the fluidity and illusion of freedom. Today, I'm going to train you in the most basic forms of D and C. I will wait until tomorrow to train you in more sophisticated commands. Today we will work on assembling a basic drill formation. When I say 'ATTENTION!' you will stand straight as a stick with your hands flat on your sides like this and look straight ahead without any facial reactions. When I ask 'do you understand me', you will say 'Yes Staff Sergeant!' as one unit. Do you understand me?"
"Yes Staff Sergeant!" exclaimed the cadets in low synchronicity.
"That will need some work. You should train yourself to wait exactly one half of a second before responding to my questions. Do you understand me?"
"Yes Staff Sergeant!" exclaimed the cadets in better synchronicity.
"Not perfect, but better." said Zeo. "You will get the hang of this by the end of the week. Now, when I say 'Form up!', I want you all to form up in a straight line of ten cadets facing me, looking completely parallel to the cadet next to you. After each ten, you will file in directly behind the rightmost cadet in the next row without a cadet already behind them. This will create a ten by five formation of fifty cadets. FORM UP!"
The group formed up in a rough grouping that looked like a badly placed chess board.
"Now, when I say 'dress right, dress', I want you all to stretch out your left arms to ensure the cadet next to you is exactly one shoulder's length away from you. You will then adjust your position to have your shoulders touch the tip of the fingers of the cadet to your right. DRESS RIGHT, DRESS!"
Most of the cadets took the half second advice to heart and the group smoothly straightened out.
"When I say 'arms downward, move!', you will return to attention. ARMS DOWNWARD, MOVE!"
The cadets moved more uniformly than ever.
"Excellent job. You're getting the hang of this. Now, when I say 'cover', you will extend your arms forward and the cadets behind other cadets will align themselves to be an arm's length away from the cadet in front of them. COVER!"
The cadets moved in synch.
"Arms downward, move! Now you look perfect. You may break formation and we will practice forming up until the end of the Period. You do not break formation until I say 'dismissed'. DISMISSED!"
The group scattered and Zeo immediately said "FORM UP!"
For the next hour, the cadets drilled in repetition of this simple formation until they got it down perfectly.
"Excellent job, cadets. This is the end of your class day. You shall report back to your homeroom tomorrow to continue induction week and I shall teach you 'at ease', 'left face', 'right face' and 'about face' tomorrow. You will learn marching on your third day. Supper will be served between five o'clock and six. This is the only meal where you are not on a serious time crunch or forced to be in formation. DISMISSED!"
Melbourne went straight to the library and signed the non-disclosure agreement that allowed him to access all of the learning resources in the facility. After this, he spent an entire hour exploring and familiarizing himself with the various departments, targeting 'Modern Military Tech', 'Military History' and 'Espionage'. There was an entire section dedicated to the mysteries of The Artilect War as well, and Melbourne made a mental note to dive into that section first.
As Melbourne went to the mess hall to get supper, he ran into Jeremy Olan who was hanging out with Timothy Faran, another one who made it to the top ten in the PT Test leaderboard. After grabbing some delicious looking steak, mashed potatoes, gravy and peas with milk, water and a tea designed to help one sleep, the three sat together.
"Hey, Jeremy, how have you been?"
"Alright." said Jeremy somberly. "I was shocked to get into the top ten in PT."
"How was your Strategy score?" asked Melbourne.
"Only 1,321." said Jeremy sullenly.
"That's definitely above average." said Melbourne. "I think you'll be fine. They didn't actually teach you this subject. You can ascend into higher places in the future."
"Maybe." said Jeremy.
"You're Timothy, right?" asked Melbourne, shaking the hand of the orange haired timid man.
"Y-yes." said Timothy, shaking Melbourne's hand tentatively.
"Alright, nice to meet you. I saw you in the leaderboard too. What was your strategy score?"
"Two thousand forty-eight." responded Timothy.
"Not too shabby. What wars did you two face?"
"I was in the Hesperian War of 2245." responded Timothy. "You know, the one where Lavland Jemar created a temporary kingdom called The Hesperian Kingdom in 2234. The Martian Republic finally responded ten years later in response to waves of rapid territorial expansion."
"I'm familiar." responded Melbourne, looking back to Jeremy. "And you?"
"I was in the First Lunarian War." said Jeremy. "It lasted from 2312 to 2316. It was the first war for the independence of Luna from Mars. What about you?"
"The Astroman War." responded Melbourne.
"Ah, recent history." said Jeremy. "Interesting. How did you get such a stellar score? Tell me your secret!"
Melbourne rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably while grinning meekly. He liked Jeremy and wanted to tell him that it was because of a special cybernetic enhancement guiding him through the motions and giving him expert strategic advice through a video game like interface. He wanted to trust Jeremy. However, he could not. Despite the month they had spent sparring together, Melbourne had no idea how Jeremy would feel about a violation of the Artilect Protocol.
"Well, I grew up with a particular passion for RTS games. Real time strategy is a very enjoyable field. Also, I read a lot of military history books when I was growing up. I think those might have helped me."
"Genuine prime nerd status there, Jeremy." said Timothy. "I'm getting jealous of your friend. How do you guys know each other again?"
"A little summer internship." said Jeremy. "We're not at liberty to discuss the details, but it was with Arian Horizons."
Timothy whistled. "You guys are getting very interesting people very interested in you. I gotta stick around with you two to see where destiny lands you two. It's surely going to be somewhere exciting, but wherever it is, I want a piece of the action."
The three laughed as they dug into their supper. Meanwhile, Logan Indri sat with Liana Rays and Lane Shogoth in fury as he stared at Melbourne with daggers. He accidentally broke his metal spork as he pressed it down on the table.
"There's no way a peasant such as yourself is capable of scoring above me!" he mutters under his breath as he grabs Lane's spork as the other is taking a bite. "I will show you up in the knife combat lessons tomorrow! We'll see who gets the last laugh."
He turns and notices Lane looking at him in anger.
"What?" asks Logan as though he did nothing wrong. "Hey, did you lose your spork? You should go get another one. And remember, stick with me if you want to be at the top. You're family has a rich history and I could use you in my close circles. I'll keep you one of the top dogs of this academy as long as you stick with me."