The Allbright System - A Sci-Fi Progression LitRPG Story

Making sure his uniform was sitting properly and was unblemished in front of the mirror once again, Major Ukuar Rurix, nodded to himself in satisfaction, before quietly muttering to himself, “Looking good… I can’t believe it’s the second Emergency Meeting in less than what… 10 hours…? I’ve been on board the Sovereign for more than eight months and haven’t seen a single EM, yet barely 40 hours after we took on that drive of Recruits, we’re already on our second…? Just what exactly is going on here…?”

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he briefly made sure that his black-cloured, shoulder-length hair sat properly, before raising his voice and addressing the ship’s AI.

“Sovereign, I’m ready to go. Confirmation code Romeo-Uniform-Romeo-One-Seven.”

Without delay, the monotone voice of the Sovereign echoed through the Major’s private quarters, “Confirmation code accepted. Please step through the doorway to your left to be transported to the Emergency Meeting room, Major Rurix.”

To his left, a two metre by two metre square of pure white had appeared, that Major Rurix promptly walked towards. Before entering, he made sure that his uniform was properly fitted and showed no creases or other blemishes, before ducking slightly to enter the doorway in front of him. Briefly checking his wrist-pad, he saw the clock reading 22:43:54. Sighing briefly, he hoped the meeting wouldn’t take too long, as he was exceptionally tired and simply wanted to sleep…

Stepping inside the light, still slightly hunched to save his head from hitting the top of the doorway, Ukuar felt a familiar tug, as his body was moved. Immediately, he found himself sitting at a familiar long table, the same one he had sat at just hours before when they had learned that a Recruit in the new drive had obtained two starting Abilities, instead of one, from the Allbright System.

Reminiscing about the last Emergency Meeting, Ukuar thought to himself, ‘That EM was an absolute shitshow… I hope this one’s going to be a lot easier to follow… I wish they gave new Majors some kind of manual to figure all this stuff out…’

Looking around, he saw the same faces he had seen during the last meeting as well, but also a couple of additional ones, he had never seen before. There were a total of eleven other Majors, all responsible for the drive, as well as Captain Cross, heading the table and himself. Nodding to a couple of them, as they similarly scanned the room, Ukuar started wondering what the reason for the renewed EM could possibly be, considering they had just been here mere hours ago.

Not having to wonder for long, a strong, commanding voice started speaking up from the opposite side of the table, around half-way up towards the head where Captain Cross was seated with an impassive expression on his face.

“Thank you, everyone, for indulging my renewed request for an Emergency Meeting. I apologise for this, but there’s been another incident regarding the Recruits of this drive…”

Ukuar couldn’t help but smile, listening to Major Quinn’s opening. He may have only been a Major for a couple months, but even he was aware that Major Quinn had absolutely no such scruples, when it came to ringing people out of bed, if it came down to something important. This was definitely her going through the motions expected of her, not a real apology for making them all appear here once again.

“... and it is likely going to be of great importance that we discuss this topic together. To start with, is anyone unaware of the current ongoings with this drive? I assume everyone read my primer and the summary of the last meeting?”

The assembled group of Majors nodded or hummed their affirmation. Ukuar did the same.

He had, of course, read through everything sent over by Major Quinn after the last meeting, because he had tried his hardest to understand what was even happening, to a small amount of success. Having only recently been promoted to Major, the sudden influx in responsibilities, meetings and documents he had to pour over on a daily basis, had made it hard for him to truly get used to this new role.

However, just as Major Quinn was about to continue, a deeper set voice interjected, “I was a bit confused by the summary of the last meeting, actually. In it, you mentioned that the members of Alpha Squad are all generally exceptional, comparatively to the majority of drives, but then it sounded like you only focused on one of them, during the actual meeting. Is my understanding correct here, Zephyr? Is there a particular reason why the rest of the members of Alpha Squad were not part of the meeting? Were they not involved at all?”

Ukuar’s eyebrows rose at the mention of Major Quinn’s first name. It hadn’t been the first time, but definitely one of only a handful of them. Major Quinn had earned a lot of respect in the UHF Marine Corps over the last decades, so most newer Majors tended to look up to her to a certain degree. Ukuar was definitely one among them. The only people that consistently called Major Quinn by her first name were generally of the older, more experienced variety, so it was interesting to see one of them speak up during this meeting.

“That is correct, Major On’jaby. The rest of Alpha Squad was not involved with the incidents regarding the last meeting… As there do seem to be quite some questions after all, let me give you a quick primer on the current situation, just so we’re all on the same page.

“This recruitment drive is the first one involving mid-worlds, and it’s caused quite a lot of … strange things to happen. We’re currently unaware of whether this has anything to do with mid-worlds in specific or not, but the UHF’s research and investigation department is working on figuring this out as we speak.

“The largest concentration of strangeness, however, is focused on one Recruit in particular. Her name is Thea McKay and she hails from the mid-world of Lumiosia. It’s undercity, specifically.”

Eyebrows rose at the mention of the Recruit’s background, something that Ukuar was quite taken aback by, ‘I guess they didn’t carefully read through the summary and primer after all…’

“To paint you a more vivid picture of this Recruit: Firstly, Lumiosia. Her home planet. Frankly, it’s a backwater of a backwater, placed roughly around dead-centre inside the Eonon star cluster. Its population size is estimated to be around the bottom 2% among all the populated planets inside UHF controlled space, so it’s exceptionally unimportant, for any recruitment efforts, no matter how you slice it.

“Regardless, due to the new policy of the Council, Cube Trials were placed in strategic locations around the cities, including their corresponding undercities. In Lumiosia’s capitol, or rather its undercity, our Recruit in question had taken her trial at the young age of 15. For some reason, which is still under investigation by our equal rights department, the chosen trial assessment for this particular Cube was the Rog’An Prime outpost defence.”

At the mention of the infamous mission, eyebrows around the room rose once again, with some individuals around the table involuntarily opening their mouths in shock, ever so slightly.

Seeing that, Ukuar was glad to be among seasoned Majors instead of a group of more inexperienced Marines, as he definitely did not want to do deal with noisy and showy overreactions, especially considering Major Quinn and Captain Cross’ personalities. Who knew what would happen if the meeting was extended simply due to constant interruptions from people being unable to hold their basic emotions in check.

“Now, as you are all undoubtedly aware, this mission is far beyond the capabilities of most Cube Trial candidats, much less those that would be coming to us from mid worlds. Despite that fact however, Recruit Thea McKay somehow managed to not only beat the mission, but she did so without dying a single time.

“To further add to the strangeness of it all, she managed to come in 17th on the leaderboards. And I’m not saying 17th, past the AI scores. I mean 17th. She somehow beat 13 of the AI-generated potential high-scores, for Privates taking the assessment. I don’t think I need to further iterate how utterly ludicrous this is? She was un-integrated, as a shoe-in Private and somehow managed to beat 13 theoretical high-scores for T1 integrated Marines.”

Ukuar himself suddenly felt his own mouth being agape, which he rapidly fixed before thinking to himself, ‘I read the whole report, but having it laid out like this, is truly something else… Just how in the Emperor’s name did the Recruit manage that…?’

Looking around, Ukuar found that the other Majors were equally perplexed by this revelation. All of them, except for one. One of the Majors that he had not seen at the previous meeting, seated close to the head of the table, instead, had a large grin on his face.

Major Quinn continued her explanations without pause, clearly wanting to get to the meat of the meeting as fast as possible.

“Fast forward to today, when the Sovereign picked up the impossible information from the exact same Recruit, that she had apparently integrated with not one, but two Abilities. For some, currently unknown reason, she got a Passive Ability, in addition to the random Active Ability that everyone got during integration. That was the topic of the last meeting. If you care about learning more regarding that incident, refer to the summaries I’ve sent to all of you earlier today.

“Now, as the Emperor would have it, another incident has just occurred, minutes ago, that forced me to call in another Emergency Meeting:

“While I was in my office, working on the aftermath of the last incident, the Sovereign requested my access-code to the UHF database regarding our Achievement records, as it often does. Naturally, I granted it immediately, as the Sovereign generally does all the vetting of the requests beforehand, but asked the Sovereign to keep me apprised of its findings. Not thinking much of it at the time, when suddenly, I saw the Sovereign’s report come in.”

With a waive of her hand, Major Quinn activated the holographic projector in the middle of the room, displaying a, clearly Sovereign-written, report.

[Final query reply given to Recruit *******:]

[I have queried all 96,564 Achievements located in the UHF database using Major Quinn’s access permissions and found a total of 0 partial matches for the word ‘*******’. For the word ‘*******’ I have found 1,361 partial matches. The connecting string between all of them, being that they represent the highest possible Achievement of their type. Do you wish for me to repeat the query?]

This time around, a few whispered words of confusion could be heard among the crowd of Majors, as the atmosphere in the room had suddenly flipped to an even more serious one.

Ukuar himself felt completely out of his depth, as he had no idea what exactly had caused this drastic change in atmosphere. Reading through the report of the Sovereign, again and again, he failed to see any particular things that would cause this reaction.

Uncertain, he simply retained his impassive glare, hoping that Major Quinn would explain what exactly the issue at the heart of it all was.

“Judging by your reactions, I can see that you have understood the gravitas of the situation… While it is common for Recruits especially, to ask for the Sovereign to hide their identities and potentially even their exact request, what is not common, is the fact that the Sovereign failed to fulfil the query in its entirety.

“This, much like for all of you right now, naturally gave me pause, so I requested top-level access from Captain Cross, to briefly override the Sovereign’s command routines and request the uncensored version of the query, despite the brief interruption of service it would inevitably cause. After explaining the circumstances, Captain Cross gracefully agreed to my request.”

At this, Major Quinn briefly nodded towards Captain Cross, who mirrored the gesture.

“Luckily, I had been doing some office-work, as previously mentioned, so the time dilation was active when the whole incident first occurred, giving me ample time to intercept the query, pass along the request to Captain Cross and gather the data I’ll be presenting in just a second. You are likely all very much aware how much of a pain it is to try and get past data from the Sovereign, if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for…”

A grumble of agreement came from the assembled Majors, which Ukuar naturally joined in. While he had never personally ran into this issue, he had seen it happen to many of his peers before.

It was almost as if the Sovereign was acting like a petulant child, out of spite that it had been interrupted in its normal operations, whenever one tried to access past-data without exact details.

Oddly enough however, this had never caused the UHF to fail to get critical information, regardless of how imprecise their requests had been, when it really came down to it. This was likely the reason that the AI for the Sovereign had never seen this peculiarity fixed. That, and of course the fact that Captain Cross vehemently refused any and all alterations to the Sovereign’s internal systems.

“Now, what I found when I took a look at the full query, is the reason for our meeting. The full query also lets us know who of the Recruits requested it. Without giving too much away, I think some of the people here already have a good guess in mind for who that mystery Recruit might be…”

With those words, Major Quinn once again waved her hand, causing the projection to change to the full query report.

[Final query reply given to Recruit Thea McKay:]

[I have queried all 96,564 Achievements located in the UHF database using Major Quinn’s access permissions and found a total of 0 partial matches for the word ‘Progenitor’. For the word ‘Apex’ I have found 1,361 partial matches. The connecting string between all of them, being that they represent the highest possible Achievement of their type. Do you wish for me to repeat the query?]

Reading through the fully de-censored query, Ukuar could not help but wonder just who exactly this Recruit was. There was no way a random mid-world Recruit would have so many impossible-seeming things line up, all at once.

Seemingly not the only one with that thought, one of the other Majors, he had seen at the last meeting, spoke up, “Major Quinn, with all due respect, before we continue… Is there any more information you can give us on this Recruit? She can’t just be a normal mid-worlder, right? I can’t be the only one that thinks it’s strange how all these incidents happen around her, right?”

Murmurs of affirmation followed, before Major Quinn answered.

“As much as I would like to, Major Blackwood, I unfortunately cannot. All the information we have regarding Recruit Thea McKay, is listed in her profile. The only thing I have neglected to mention so far, and one that we do not have any fields for in the profile quite yet, is the fact that she is a Cyan.”

At that, the assembled Majors fell into a stunned silence. Ukuar himself could not believe his ears. A Cyan from a mid world undercity?

Ukuar himself had heard a lot of tales regarding the circumstances surrounding mid worlds and especially their, in his mind, excessive usage of the Cyan Solution, in preparation for his deployment with the training fleet. Very few of them had been favourable, especially towards the Cyan population.

Yet, despite all of that, this strange Recruit that had caused all of them to gather twice in mere hours due to them managing to break what the UHF had assumed were unbreakable rules of the System itself, was one such Cyan…?

With an uncharacteristically annoyed tone in her voice, Major Quinn continued.

“Furthermore, due to the genius flash of insight by our very own Major Daxton over here, we have been unable to access her assessment profile. For some Emperor-forsaken reason, he decided it would be a great idea to request a black-level lock on it, instead of the usual light-grey one. Thanks for that, by the way, Atlas.”

Surprised to hear Major Quinn call anyone by their first name, Ukuar looked over at Major Daxton. Immediately, he recognized him as the man who had been smiling previously, when the Recruit’s Cube Trial results had been read out loud.

‘What is his connection to the Recruit…? And why a Black-level lock, that’s insane?!’

With a bow that caused one of the veins on Major Quinn’s forehead to pulse menacingly, Major Daxton replied in a cheery voice.

“Ahh, Zephyr, I appreciate the praise! I’ve really outdone myself with that one, haven’t I… Honestly, I was not expecting her to become as big of a deal as she did, but here we are… Cut me some slack, will ya? I did recruit her personally, after all. Without me, she might not even be here, for us to break our heads over!”

That pronouncement raised a lot of eyebrows, Ukuar’s included. ‘He personally recruited a random Cyan mid-worlder? Why…? She’s undoubtedly an Ace candidate, but that still doesn’t justify a Major going planet-side, especially on a mid-world, to recruit her. This story just gets more and more ridiculous…’

With a certain strain evident in her voice, Major Quinn continued, “Be that as it may, that’s the reason I cannot give more information at this time. I have already requested the lock to be lowered to a light-grey one, days ago, but due to the nature of the black-level lock, as you are all undoubtedly aware, the processes necessary to do so are taking quite some time…

“Regardless, the reason I’ve asked for this meeting is not to talk about the Recruit, but about the Achievement itself. After reading through the decensored query, I asked the Sovereign to provide a picture of the Achievement, as the Recruit had undoubtedly shared it with the Sovereign for the purposes of the query. I’ll be showing the Achievement now, please, if anyone has any idea what this Achievement might mean, where it comes from or what it entails, speak up.”

With this uncharacteristic appeal from Major Quinn, that elicited the highest amount of surprised looks on the assembled Major’s faces, she once again waved her hand to change the projection.

At the sight of the orange-coloured box, a gasp escaped Ukuar’s mouth involuntarily. Judging by the sudden increase in the noise-level of the room, he had not been the only one.

[Apex (Unique) Progenitor]

??? ??? ??? ??? ???

Next Rank: None.

Rewards: ??? (Claimed)

Stunned by the appearance of a Unique-rank Achievement, Ukuar had no idea how to proceed. He had been prepared for a lot, going into the EM, but seeing the emergence of a new Unique-rank Achievement had not even remotely been what he had prepared himself for.

Everyone in the room, surprisingly enough, Captain Cross included, who had scooted ever so slightly closer to the table to take a better look at the Achievement, seemed to be feeling the same way, as a stunned silence descended upon it.

A minute later, a deep sigh could be heard from Major Quinn, that made all Majors snap their focus back towards her.

“Haaa…. I figured about as much. It was a long shot, but I figured asking all of you for opinions on the matter was worth trying… As you can tell, this is a big headache for everyone. I queried the database myself, in the faint hopes that maybe the Sovereign had missed something, but of course, no dice.

“According to everything I could find, this is the first time a ‘Progenitor’ Achievement has been given out. Based on your silence and demeanour, I assume you’re also at a loss about this, Captain Cross?”

Solemnly nodding, Captain Cross fell into a contemplative mood, leaning back on his chair and leaving Major Quinn to handle the rest of the meeting. Seeing her superior cede the room to her once again, Major Quinn continued.

“Looks like we’ll be doing some detective work, then. Based on what we know about the Apex-line of Achievements, we can pretty much guess what that particular aspect means. Whatever ‘Progenitor’ means, this Achievement that the Recruit has obtained, is the final level of it. The fact that it’s Unique, is the real issue here, as everyone undoubtedly knows.

“Nobody else can ever possibly get this Achievement anymore, as it’s been taken. It’s on a Recruit, which makes the whole issue a lot more fickle than I would’ve ever wanted to see. Whatever the Reward has been, it seems to have been claimed already, but I seriously doubt the Recruit did it herself.

“I hypothesise that the System claimed the Reward at Integration, for some unknown purpose and reason. I feel like we would have been able to get a bead on this earlier, otherwise. There’s no way any of us, especially the Sovereign, would have missed an Ability or Reward given by a Unique Achievement.”

A murmur of agreement went through the Majors, until one of them spoke up.

“Isn’t it possible that this is the reason for her second Ability at Integration…? It would explain why the rules seemed to have been broken, no?”

Ukuar saw Major Quinn smile at the question, as if she had expected it. Seeing that, he couldn’t help but wonder, ‘Just how much work have you done for this meeting ahead of time, Major Quinn…?’

“I thought about that for a moment as well, but then I thought about what we know about the rules of the Allbright System. An Achievement always gives at least an equivalent reward to its rarity ranking, in terms of value. While a second Ability, especially a second Silver-rank one, is powerful at the start of the integration, does that really equate to a Unique-rank Achievement, in terms of difficulty to accomplish it?”

A brief moment of silent contemplation followed, but the answer was apparent to everyone immediately: No, it did not.

Following that realisation another Major, that Ukuar did not yet know the name of, spoke up, “Progenitor… The word generally refers to someone being the first of something. Could it be possible that this Recruit was the first mid-worlder or Cyan to be integrated…?”

Once again, Major Quinn focused her attention towards the renewed request with a subtle smile, as if she had expected this question to come up.

“I have checked the records in preparation for this EM and can confidently say that this is not the case. While this is the first time the UHF is actively recruiting from the mid worlds, it is not the first time a mid worlder has been recruited. For quite a lot of mid-worders, getting off of their planet and joining the UHF is a very real dream that they fervently work towards, despite their terrible odds of achieving.

“Some of them do, however, achieve it at one point or another. When it comes to Cyans, it was a lot harder to track down, as we simply do not have a field for that in the profile sections, but I was able to confirm the existence of at least thirty Cyans across the UHF’s current Marine Corps. The unreported number is likely to be quite a lot higher, of course.”

Once again, the room fell into a silent contemplation, as they tried to come up with a potential avenue of thought to follow that looked more promising.

In that moment, Captain Cross’ baritone voice suddenly cut through the room.

“Sovereign, repeat Major Quinn’s query, using my level of authorization.”

Immediately, the Sovereign responded, “I have queried all 112,761 Achievements located in the UHF database using Captain Cross’ access permissions and found a total of 0 partial matches for the word ‘Progenitor’. For the word ‘Apex’ I have found 1,421 partial matches. The connecting string between all of them, being that they represent the highest possible Achievement of their type. The results of the query are incomplete. I have detected locks on potential matches for the word ‘Progenitor’, that require a higher level of authorization to access.”

With a victorious grin on his face, marred only by the frown of dissatisfaction, Captain Cross leaned back in his chair again, “Hrumpf… As I thought… So the UHF does know what that means. We’re just not entitled to that knowledge, for one reason or another…

“I’ll request access permissions from the brass, regarding this matter, and circle back around whenever the hearings and proceedings are done, that will invariably hold up this investigation… Until then…”

Captain Cross’ voice trailed off, a complicated expression visible on his face. In the silence that followed, an inexplicable level of pressure descended upon the assembled Majors, unsure of what could possibly lead the stoic Captain to falter like this.

With a heavy sigh, Captain Cross spoke up again, breaking the tense silence, “Just to be sure, we cannot leave any stones unturned, however. While we do not know what exactly the ‘Progenitor’ part refers to, we do know for a fact that it’s something new. Whether it’s the fact that the UHF finally decided to recruit from mid-worlds, her being a Cyan or whatever else… We can’t afford to sit back and wait for the brass to potentially clear things up…”

Ukuar saw Captain Cross’ face harden, as he visibly steeled himself for whatever he was about to say next. Ukuar himself felt cold sweat run down his back, at the mere potential of what the Captain was about to say, that could cause a stoic man like him to struggle like this.

With a voice, ladened with an equal amount of regret and determination, Captain Cross continued, “Major Daxton. As you seem to have a penchant for recruiting mid-world Cyans, based on your own admission, I hereby order you to travel to the closest mid-worlds and gather 1,000 promising mid-worlders, as well as 1,000 promising Cyans.

“Choose an equal mixture of undercity denizens and main-city ones, as well as an equal spread of gender. We can’t leave anything up to chance. They will be marked for rapid integration procedures, in the hopes that we can find an answer to our concerns and questions.”

A stunned silence followed the Captain’s orders, as everyone simply stared at Captain Cross with a wide range of emotions visible on their faces - disbelief, reluctance, hesitant understanding and agreement.

Ukuar’s mind raced, having only recently learned about the special procedures regarding the integration in question, ‘Rapid integration…?! That’s going to kill most of them…! Only having them train up for a month, just to be shipped to a major battlefield in the hopes that some of them survive and integrate… That’s what the freaks do, not us!’

Conflicted, Ukuar couldn’t help but feel for the unsuspecting mid-worlders that were going to get caught up in this investigation. Simultaneously however, he also felt a certain level of respect for Captain Cross. He clearly had made the decision for this order with heavy heart, fully knowing the implications of what rapid integration entailed. But he also knew that it was a necessary evil.

A unique achievement was not something the UHF could afford to let go and simply adopt a ‘wait and see’ tactic. They did not have the luxury of time to let this chance pass by.

If they could find out how and why this Recruit had gotten this particular Achievement and potentially replicate it with the inferior versions of the Achievement, they could rapidly gain a handful of extremely promising Recruits, something the UHF could not afford to let go.

Major Daxton, unsurprisingly, was the one to answer the Captain’s orders, “I… I see why you’ve made that decision, but I urge you to reconsider! We’re dooming those people to certain death, if we go down that path! We should just wait for the brass to give us the intel we requested and go from there…”

The Major’s voice trailed off, seemingly unable to hold back the doubts in his own mind.

With a pained smile, Captain Cross spoke up again, “I understand your apprehension, Major Daxton… I really do. I did not give this order lightly, as I’m fully aware of the slim chances of its success. But… as you clearly already know, we cannot afford to wait. We’re at the precipice of what the Allbright System has in store for us, with only around 60 years left on the timer.

“If we intend to become a dominating Faction in those remaining years, we absolutely cannot afford to let go of a once-in-a-lifetime chance like this. This Recruit’s Achievement is an open invitation for us to gather a handful of promising Recruits. We all know this. An Apex Achievement, by design, means there’s inferior versions of it as well.

“If we could even get two or three of those lesser Achievements on new Recruits, it would drastically increase our chances of success in the next couple decades. Just think about it: How incredible would the reward for a Palladium-ranked Achievement be? And now think about getting to start your career with one. That’s the level of importance we’re talking about.

“I don’t like dooming all these mid-worlders to death, as it’s likely that barely a dozen of them will survive the rapid integration, but I ask you: Do we have any other choice?”

Silence, once again, dominated the room, as everyone waited anxiously for others to speak up. They all, however, knew that nobody would. What Captain Cross had said was the truth and nothing but. They could not afford to let this chance go to waste, whatever the cost… Even if the cost was terrible and inhumane, it was calculated to be more than worth it, by everyone present. After all, what were a couple thousand deaths, compared to the trillions upon trillions of humans inside the galaxy…?

With a deep frown, Major Daxton bowed slightly at Captain Cross, before answering, “Very well… I have received your orders and will strive to fulfil them to the best of my Abilities, Captain Cross.”

With a genuine sadness in his eyes, Captain Cross nodded at Major Daxton, “Thank you, Major Daxton. I know that this order is a difficult one to accept and even more difficult to fulfil, knowing that everyone you select will likely die… But it is something we simply must do. For the sake of all of humanity.

“With that unpleasantness cleared up, please continue with the meeting, Major Quinn. My apologies for derailing the conversation like this…”

He nodded towards the Major, before leaning back in his chair and falling quiet once again.

Sensing that everyone was at a loss for words, due to what had just occurred, Major Quinn swallowed hard, before picking up the conversation again, “Now… as it appears that we’re at an impasse with the Achievement question for now, I’d like to point towards another peculiarity regarding this Recruit.”

When Major Quinn launched into the next topic, several of the gathered Majors couldn't help but show their disbelief at the topic. They raised their arms in frustration, their experience and training failing to keep their emotions in check. Witnessing this, Major Quinn merely scoffed, her face breaking into a sincere smile.

“Trust me, I’m at the same point by now… As it turns out, our she-daemon Cyan also ended up with some utterly ludicrous Attributes, granted by the System. Alpha Squad has apparently decided to share their Attributes and Abilities, barring a couple individuals for reasons I won’t go into here, in order to discuss potential build options. While I definitely think this is a great show of camaraderie and smarts, it is even more important for us, as they all decided to display their full Attribute arrays to each other, just moments ago.

“Naturally, the Sovereign was able to provide us with a full rundown on each member’s Attributes. The ones that are most interesting however, are Thea’s.”

With a renewed wave of her hand, Major Quinn changed the projection to display Thea’s array of Attribute, eliciting another round of disbelief from her fellow Majors.

Attributes

Strength: 3.18 Focus: 4.31

Finesse: 4.73 Perception: 5.28

Vitality: 2.43 Resolve: 5.97

Recovery: 2.68 [Psychic: TBD] (Locked 17.99/30)

Stamina: 3.11 [TBD: TBD] (Locked)

Ukuar similarly could not hold back his exasperation. For the first time in the meeting, he spoke up himself, “Just what in the Emperor’s name is this Recruit? Are we certain this isn’t some kind of elaborate joke? Not that I assume that Major Quinn is the joker here, but rather, a victim as well. Are we certain that this Recruit is truly who she says she is…?”

A murmur of agreement from the rest of the Majors set his exasperated demeanour at ease. At least, he wasn’t the only one that felt this was some kind of elaborate joke…

Shaking her head with a mixture of emotions visible on her face, Major Quinn replied, “There are two Majors in this room that have personally met this Recruit. Major Daxton and myself. I think I can speak for both of us when I say that she’s definitely real… Although…”

A brief frown flashed over her face, just long enough to be barely noticeable for Ukuar.

“There is one thing I’m still confused about, myself. I met her during the graduation ceremony. I stood next to her, for a variety of reasons, one of which was to test her. I had been informed by Major Daxton that she possessed some… more than impressive reflexes, which I promptly confirmed myself. He assumes that she’s a Wielder, which I am inclined to agree with.

“While she is definitely real, when it comes to my Psychic senses, she almost seemed to be non-existent. It almost felt like standing next to a Null. I have never felt that way with any new Recruit, outside of literal Nulls, of course. Her potential for the Psychic Attribute is equally off the charts. Her being a Wielder would partially explain her absurd Resolve Attribute, as well as the potential for that strange feeling of her being a Null. Depending on which path she inherited, it definitely could lead to that feeling…

“Although a 5.97 Base Resolve is still beyond ludicrous, by any standards. I’m fairly certain this is the highest Base Resolve ever recorded in UHF history, for a newly integrated Recruit, but thi—”

“Second highest,” interjected the deep, resonant baritone voice of Captain Cross.

As silence filled the room and everyone’s eyes focused on the grizzled man heading the table, Captain Cross leaned forward slightly, before continuing.

“That’s the second highest Base Resolve ever recorded in UHF history. It’s natural that you would not know, Zephyr, for you were not yet born when the last one appeared. His name was Cetirin Zamir and he came to us with a 5.98. He went on to become one of the greatest Psykers the UHF has ever seen, but ultimately, as with all Psykers, the Void took him at his prime. Truly unfortunate…

But the pathways he laid and the victories he achieved, still serve as the foundations upon which all of our efforts rest, to this day. Seeing another Recruit with such a Base Resolve is truly exhilarating… Yet… I have to wonder, should we send her down the same, self-destructive path of a Psyker…?”

With those words, Captain Cross leaned back in his chair, letting the heavy weight of his words smother the room’s atmosphere into a pressing silence.

Ukuar had forgotten to breathe due to the heavy atmosphere and quietly gasped for air, as someone finally broke the silence.

“I say we do. While the ultimate fate of Runepriest Zamir is most unfortunate, we cannot understate the importance of his existence. I, for one, met him personally at a gathering on Terra once. He was a deeply ambitious man, despite the perils that his role entailed. Always aiming for greater heights, the next campaign and the next battlefield.

I say, it would be a disservice to his memory, to shy away from, at the very least, considering this path for another, once again. At the very least, we should leave the decision up to the Recruit.

“Furthermore, Runepriest Zamir had always regretted being unable to go down the path of the Psyker before he had reached the second Tier. I hereby propose an even more drastic plan: Give her the choice of becoming a Psyker during her first Tier and potentially even surpass Runepriest Zamir’s legacy.”

Feeling moved at the powerful words spoken by Major On’Jaby, Ukuar could not stop himself from agreeing.

They should not simply dismiss the idea of something, because there might have been sad outcomes in the past. At the very least, they should give the choice to the Recruit and let her make the decision!

The rest of the assembled Majors seemed to agree with the general sentiment, as a murmur of support went through them.

With not further voices being added to the discussion, Major Quinn spoke up again.

“Very well… Let’s put it to a vote then. If this motion passess, we will ask the Sovereign to present the Recruit with a comprehensive plan on how to become a Psyker, at the next convenient time. We will also include an option for her to become a Psyker as a result of her T1 class choices, although further resource allocation will have to be discussed for this endeavour.

“All choices will ultimately lay in the hands of the Recruit, although we all know that a direct recommendation from the Sovereign has a large impact on a new Recruit. Voting for the motion ultimately makes you complicit in second-degree choice manipulation, should the motion pass, making you liable for any potential negative outcomes in the eyes of the Council.

”Anyone in favour of actively interfering with the build of the new Recruit named Thea McKay, raise your hands.”

Ukuar immediately raised his hand, together with a fair number of other Majors. Looking around, a frown appeared on his face, ‘Really? Only about half…? I guess I can understand their reluctance… Potentially dooming a new, extremely promising Recruit down the path of Psyker right from the get-go can definitely lead to some sleepless nights…’

A minute passed by in silence, as Major Quinn waited for the voting period to pass, before she spoke up again, addressing the room and Captain Cross, “Looks like we’re at a tie… six in favour, six against. Captain Cross, would you do us the honours to break the tie on this motion?”

A heavy sigh followed, as the grizzled Captain took a deep breath.

“According to the UHF charter, choice manipulation is considered a major crime. While not punishable by death, it will generally incur heavy penalties, for robbing someone of their right to make an informed decision. This motion ultimately asks us to doom a promising Recruit, in the pursuit of a potential future outcome, with a high variance of value…”

Hearing the devastating truths laid out bare like this, Ukuar’s heart sank. Was this really what he wanted? A seeded recommendation from the Sovereign was almost as bad as brain-washing, after all. Marines relied on the ship’s AI for all of their build advice, barring a few, special instances.

But at the same time… The UHF did not exactly have the luxury of morals and ethics at this time. The war was decidedly going against their wishes, despite their best efforts. Any and all advantages had to be found and taken now, lest the end of the grace period would arrive before the UHF made any major strides towards a satisfying resolution.

Ukuar was ripped from his thoughts by the continued speech of Captain Cross.

“That said… What Major On’Jaby said does hold a kernel of truth. Runepriest Zamir was a very ambitious man and a very good friend. He would have wanted us to pursue this, despite the horrible implications it has for all of our psyches… If the war situation was looking different… I would make a different choice, ten out of ten times. But we do not have the luxury of dilly-dallying around, nor do we have the luxury of letting an opportunity like this pass.

“I hereby vote aye, and break the tie of the vote to let Major On’Jaby’s motion pass. Let the records show that this decision was made by Captain Horatio Cross, in full conscience and full knowledge of the potential repercussions that this may bring.”

At the Captain’s words, everyone present saluted towards the head of the table. A show of respect for the potential sacrifice the Captain had made, by letting the motion pass.

As was UHF custom, on a tie, the highest ranking officer would break it, ultimately voiding any other votes and taking on all responsibilities for the decision. With something as impactful as this decision and the potential repercussions it could lead to, including, but not limited to, the potential charges for second-degree choice manipulation by the council, Captain Cross had taken a major risk in breaking this tie in the way he did.

Ukuar was speechless at being able to witness such a moment. While it undoubtedly played out many times a day across the entire galaxy, being in the middle of it was a whole different thing entirely.

A heavy silence once again descended upon the room, but thankfully, it was quickly broken by Major Quinn.

“In light of this decision, I’d like to request the official transfer of Runepriest Vedun to join us on the Sovereign, to take a closer look at our new prodigy Recruit. While I am fairly adept at Psychic Abilities myself, when it comes to detection, knowledge and guidance, he would be my first choice.”

Immediately, Captain Cross gave his go-ahead, “Do it.”

Nodding towards the Captain, Major Quinn continued.

“Lastly, I will request to have the Sovereign confirm the Recruit’s Wielder status, as soon as possible. Knowing whether she is one or isn’t, is going to make a major impact on our allocation of resources towards the previously passed motion, furthermore it wi—”

“She’s definitely a Wielder. You met her yourself, Zephyr. What’s there to confirm? I chased her all the way through the Undercity, for like twenty minutes! There’s no way she’d be able to avoid me like that without some Precog.”

Ukuar saw Major Quinn’s jaw muscles twitch, at the interruption by Major Daxton.

‘These two have known each other for a while… Major Daxton is definitely playing with fire, teasing her like that, though…’

Focusing her attention on Major Daxton, Major Quinn calmly asked, “Say… dear Atlas… What were you doing on a mid-world again? Considering the clear instructions of the council for high-ranked UHF personnel to stay away from said worlds, especially Majors considering our troublesome history , what exactly was your reason for being there again? I must have forgotten.”

Major Daxton’s smile showed a miniscule crack at the question, as all eyes were now directed towards him.

“Ahh… I was in charge of setting up the Cube Trials on the mid-worlds of that sector, Zephyr. You were the one who asked me to. How could you forget that?”

Ukuar swallowed hard, at the renewed, challenging tone that Major Daxton took with Major Quinn.

He might’ve only been a Major for a couple of months, but he was well aware of Major Quinn’s reputation. Looking at her smile, which seemed utterly terrifying to him, for some reason, he was certain that Major Daxton had just crossed some kind of invisible line, as Major Quinn continued, with a colder tone in her voice.

“Since when are Majors of the UHF Marine Corps required to personally head planet-side for this task, Atlas? Are you secretly a Deep-Dive Simulation engineer? Maybe an Ability that I was unaware of, to speed up the task? Or was there a certain, violent incident that required your personal ‘touch’, that you failed to mention in your reports?”

At this, Major Daxton’s smile cracked, as his face turned a slightly pale-red colour.

“Ehh… I was trying to make sure things were working properly…?”

Major Quinn simply raised her eyebrow at this attempt of an explanation.

A deep sigh followed, after which Major Daxton threw up his arms in exasperation, “Did you really just have to throw me to the hounds like that, Zephyr? You’re damn ruthless, man… I was there, ‘cause I heard my old mentor was on the planet. I had hoped to catch up with him, see how he’s been doing since he left the UHF. Unfortunately, he didn’t agree and I didn’t end up finding him…

“Ah! That reminds me, the funniest thing, really. The Recruit we’re talking about? Recruit Thea McKay? She got her last name from him, apparently. She’s the old man’s adopted daughter. Figured that out like two weeks after I left the planet. Couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the documents. General McKay gone soft in his old years, can you guys believe that?”

A loud bang startled the assembled Majors, as Captain Cross’ hand slapped on the head of the table with such force that the granite split beneath it.

With a tense voice, one that Ukuar had never even anticipated the usually cool-headed Captain to be able to have, Captain Cross prompted, “General McKay…? You’re not referring to THE General McKay here, right, Major Daxton?”

With a big smile, seemingly unable to read the room, Major Daxton replied, “The very same. General James McKay. That’s her old man. Crazy small galaxy we live in, eh?”

At that, Captain Cross suddenly jumped up from his chair, which flung across the room, the metal supports of it twisting and breaking upon impact from the sheer force.

With a voice, quivering from held back emotions, Captain Cross slowly posed his next question, apparently choosing his words carefully.

“I want to know one thing, Atlas. Just one,” he raised a slightly quivering finger, before continuing.

“What… And I repeat, what exactly led you to believe that this information was something to be hidden from her profile?”

Major Daxton, finally seeming to feel the pressure and danger exuded by Captain Cross, shrank down on his chair as he looked up at the towering Captain before him, before answering in a meek voice, “I… I kind of… forgot. I actually just remembered that connection, because Zephyr mentioned the reason I was on the midworld in the first place.”

Mouth agape, Captain Cross simply looked at Major Daxton for what felt like an eternity to Ukuar, before finally raising one hand towards his temples and gently massaging them. Sitting back down on his, newly spawned, chair, Captain Cross let out a big sigh.

“I swear… Sometimes I wish you had been zero’ed during that campaign on Thalassa IX, Atlas. You’re a massive pain in my ass.”

Suddenly realising he had been holding his breath during the entire situation, Ukuar breathed a sigh of relief.

He had been uncertain what Captain Cross would do to Major Daxton, but for a moment there, he had been utterly convinced he was about to see the Captain rip the Major’s head off.

‘This General McKay must be quite the big deal, for the Captain to react in that way… How have I never heard of him before…?’

Major Quinn looked equally done with Major Daxton, as she was staring incredulously towards her colleague.

Unwilling to stay in the dark, Ukuar spoke up, “Excuse me… This might be a weird time to ask, but who is this General McKay? While it’s definitely a big revelation that a new Recruit ended up being the adopted daughter of a retired UHF General, I have the feeling there’s more to it than that? Is General McKay someone I should be aware of? I apologise for my ignorance, I only recently was promoted to the rank of Major and haven’t gotten through the mountain of documents quite yet…”

Shaking her head, Major Quinn looked over towards him, her impassive smile back on her face, before answering.

“You did nothing wrong, Major Rurix. General McKay is something akin to a legend in the UHF. But he’s from a whole different sector of the galaxy, which is why I never even bothered to think about the fact that he and our mystery Recruit share the same last name. Not to mention, McKay isn’t exactly an uncommon name, after all… You might know him under a different moniker, however: General Harbinger.”

Realisation suddenly striking him, Ukuar’s eyes widened. General McKay was General Harbinger?! And this Recruit was his adopted daughter?! No wonder the Captain had reacted in that way…!

“For anyone who still doesn’t know him, General James “Harbinger” McKay, was a UHF General, who’s prime was about a century ago. During his prime, he operated as the strategic leader of many campaigns around the Xantheon sector primarily, but he was deployed to countless campaigns over the time of his service.

“His callsign came from the fact that, for some inexplicable reason, his arrival would always herald some kind of massive change in the campaigns. Either some unexpected occurrence changed the landscape of the war, sudden enemy reinforcements showed up, or a myriad of other similarly massive incidents occurred. This had become such a common thing, that he had been ordered to get tested for latent Psychic potential by the Council, to see whether he might have inherited a Precognition path or similar, but to no avail.

“He ultimately retired around fifty years ago, but the UHF lost track of him, despite our best efforts, around twenty years ago. Apparently, Major Daxton here managed to find him regardless, however.”

She gestured towards Major Daxton, who simply waved back with an awkward smile.

Murmurs went through the assembled Majors, as they shared what little information they each had on the General, before the baritone voice of Captain Cross cut through the room once again.

“Sovereign, request the presence of the Fanged Viper, the Black Sword and the Valiant Radiance at our next stop. I’m not taking any chances with this Recruit. Who knows if she inherited her father’s penchant for horrible things to occur, adopted or not...”

The monotone voice of the Sovereign answered promptly, “The order has been confirmed and the requested ships will wait at the rendezvous location for our arrival.”

Visibly relaxing, Captain Cross sat back in his chair, returning to massage his temples before announcing, “If there’s nothing else to discuss for now, you’re all dismissed. Major Quinn?”

A brief moment of silence followed, before Major Quinn shook her head, “No, that should be all. I’ll message the relevant parties regarding the passed motion and get everything underway. If anyone else finds out anything, regarding the Achievement, send the information to me and I’ll compile everything. Let’s hope that this is the last Emergency Meeting for the next while, otherwise the Sovereign is going to have all of our heads…” she added with a chuckle.

Her remarks made the other Majors in the room chuckle as well, before they all got up from their chairs and quickly filed out of the room. Major Rurix got up as well and stretched, before walking through a door of light that conveniently appeared before him.

Back in his private room, he subconsciously checked his wrist-band for the time once again, only to breathe a deep sigh.

The time read 22:43:57.

‘That was a really long meeting… You’d think they could shorten them…? But I guess the information was extremely important to discuss. I can’t believe we have the daughter of General Harbinger on board… I really hope this isn’t going to cause any issues… There’s no way that this superstitious stuff is real, right…?’

With those final thoughts, he quickly stripped off his uniform and fell into bed.

There was guaranteed to be another long day ahead of him tomorrow, after all…