The summer air on Kepler Terminus carried with it the tang of ionized metal and recycled oxygen, the scent of a city that had never known rest. Hover-buses screamed overhead while trains rumbled across magnetic rails, carrying thousands of young cadets toward the future the Kingdom demanded of them. For most, the Academy represented honor, prestige, and a chance to rise above the anonymity of civilian life. For Olivia, it was escape—escape from her crumbling home, her mother's addictions, and her father's violence.
Her twelfth birthday had come and gone in a haze of pink streamers and a princess cake her mother could barely afford. Olivia had endured it with a stoic face, too old inside to throw tantrums like a normal child. The very next morning, dressed in the standard-issue Academy gray cadet's uniform, she boarded the long silver bus that would carry her away from everything she despised. The driver didn't even look up as he scanned the glowing tattoo at her wrist—the mark of Alpha Compatibility. That tiny flash of light was enough to guarantee her place among the elites of the Kepler Kingdom.
She sank into her seat beside the wide window. The landscape rolled past: colossal skyscrapers wrapped in neon advertisements, rivers turned silver by pollution, and beyond them the glittering sprawl of the spaceport. Her chest tightened. She would not be back for years, if ever.
Good riddance.
The other cadets on the bus filled the space with nervous chatter. Some clung to their parents through the window, others boasted about the talents they had awakened. Olivia sat in silence, watching, listening, and already reaching out with her hidden gift. The nanobots in her body hummed faintly, invisible yet ever-present, and with only a flicker of intent she brushed against the minds of those nearest.
Fear.
Excitement.
Homesickness.
None of it surprised her. But one boy caught her attention. His thoughts burned sharp with calculation, like gears turning. His name flickered unbidden into her awareness: Marcus Veyra. The son of a high-ranking officer. He knew he would be tested against others and already weighed strategies to dominate. Olivia smiled faintly. Ambition leaked from him like radiation.
The bus hissed to a halt before colossal gates that rose higher than any cathedral. Embossed into the black alloy were the twin sigils of the Kepler Kingdom: the silver crown and the burning star. Behind them stretched the Royal Imperial Academy, the greatest military institution of the two-thousand worlds.
The gates opened.
The cadets filed out, dwarfed by the towering obsidian walls that seemed to swallow the horizon. Inside, a sprawling campus stretched like a miniature city, filled with parade grounds, barracks, training simulators, and towering hangars where the silhouettes of giant mecha loomed half-hidden. The air tasted sharp, filled with ozone and authority.
A woman waited at the center of the courtyard, her uniform a deep crimson that set her apart from the gray ranks. Her presence alone silenced a hundred children. She wore no insignia of rank—she didn't need to. Power radiated from her like a storm.
"I am Commander Seraphine Draikos," she said, her voice slicing across the crowd. "For the next six years, I will shape you into soldiers of the Kepler Kingdom. Some of you will rise. Most of you will break. Know this—there is no shame in breaking. There is only shame in failing to try. Welcome to the Academy."
The gates closed behind them with a boom that echoed through the bones of every cadet. For Olivia, it sounded like chains falling away.
The first day was not for lectures or drills but for Awakening. Every cadet was marched in silence to a vast circular chamber beneath the Academy. The walls glowed faint blue, humming with energy. At its center, a towering crystalline node pulsed like a beating heart—the hub of the planetary AI network.
One by one, cadets were strapped into reclining chairs that faced the node. Needles of light pierced the air as the nanobots in their bodies synchronized fully with the System. Some screamed. Some fainted. Others sat in stunned silence as their personal interface appeared before their eyes for the first time.
When Olivia's turn came, she lowered herself into the chair with steady calm. The cold restraints clamped over her arms and legs. A humming built in the air, rising, until the crystalline node released a spear of light that pierced her chest.
Pain lanced through every nerve. She gasped but did not cry out.
Then, in the bottom of her vision, words bloomed:
[Name; Olivia Corvinus]
[Compatibility; Rank A / Alpha]
[Innate System Function; Technology Communication]
[Strength; 4]
[Dexterity; 5]
[Agility; 5]
[Intelligence; 9]
[Endurance; 4]
[Perception; 8]
[Additional System Functions; None Unlocked]
The letters glowed with a quiet certainty, as if carved into her very soul. She felt the truth of them—her body was frail compared to others, but her mind burned sharp and fast. Technology Communication. She could already sense the flow of data around her, whispers from the crystalline node, echoes of signals bouncing through the Academy's machinery.
Then another window flickered, faint, half-hidden, like a secret only she could see:
[Potential Abilities Expanding…]
[Memory Integration: Compatible]
[Warning: Unstable Interface Detected]
[Memory have been incorporated into in your body]