Hello, everyone! This is my first Fiction ever, so flames will be blatantly ignored or deleted if they are anonymous. Some constructive criticism would be very nice, though. Other than that, just sit back, relax, and enjoy the fic!

Chapter 1

They Wouldn’t…

“Another F?” A seventeen-year old teen with messy sun-blonde hair and hazel eyes contorted his face in frustration as he looked at the pathetic transcript in his hands. Two teens ate their simple lunch in a large courtyard, sitting on the base of a large bronze and marble statue of a past emperor.

A tall, clever looking boy with well groomed black hair plucked the paper out of his hands and looked at it with amusement. “An F in Math, English, Latin, Rhetoric, Engineering Sciences, and Fine Arts. Honestly Caius, I still don't understand why you're kept here. You have the worst academic grades of anyone in our class.”

Caius indignantly snatched his transcript back, clearly embarrassed. “Stow it, Lysander. You know I could kick your sorry arse in a fight any day.” Lysander merely smirked at him, and leaped off the glittering Emperor statue.

“Well, who woke up on the wrong side of the bed?”

Caius grunted a childish sound, glaring slightly at Lysander. “Just because you get perfect grades doesn't mean you can lecture me, Lysander.”

“Actually, I think it does. You just need...”

“Blah, blah, blah...Apply myself and all that crap. You should know by now that I just don't get that stuff.”

Lysander rolled his eyes as the intercom system blared a sharp tone, signifying the end of mid-day break. “Come on, Caius. If we're late to the finals in Tactical Combat, Major Regulus'll really make us regret it.” Caius shuddered when he said that. He still had both physical and mental scars from the last time the Major... disciplined them. But the look on his face when his rifle started firing bubbles was completely worth it! “And lighten up. Since when did an idiot like you care about grades? ” Caius chuckled, feeling somewhat relieved. As usual, Lysander was right. He really didn't care about grades, but it did get frustrating. He really tried to get passing marks this time around, but he never was very good at things like math.

As they exited the courtyard and entered the main building, Caius took another look at his transcript. It wasn't all bad. True, he had received failing grades in most of his subjects, and it was also true he was at the very bottom of his class. But he always seemed to excel in combat related classes, even when they involved subjects he was otherwise horrible in, like Combat Statistics or Emergency Medic classes. He never quite understood why, but it was almost as though he was bred for combat. “Lysander! I just got an awesome idea for another prank to pull on Major Regulus...”

--

“Alright you pathetic maggots! Put on your training armor double time and choose your weapons!” Major Regulus barked in his loud, intimidating voice. His gigantic stature loomed over the teenage students, instant commanding their undivided attention. They immediately dashed over to the crate where the armor was kept, and started putting it on. Caius took out a newer looking piece and examined it. It was a torso piece, and it wasn't the thick rubbery kebinite armor that was usually issued. It was oddly thin, and felt distinctly like a sheet of paper. He cocked an eyebrow and gestured Lysander over. “Is this really armor? It looks more like a shirt.” Lysander briefly looked over it, and set it down.

“I have no idea what this is, but the stats that come with it claim it's ten times stronger then kebinite, and why would Emperor Tybarius authorize such a stat if it wasn't true?” Lysander slipped on the vest over the Academy's standard urban gray camouflage uniform. Caius sighed at his remark. He never vocalized it, but he was having serious doubts over the emperor's leadership. After all, if he was the incredible genius portayed by the media shouldn't he have ended the war by now? From the recent intelligence reports, the rebellion had just taken back a vital portion of the Argentum Cape, restoring the stalemate that has gone on for 115 years now. Lysander was unflinchingly loyal to the emperor, something that Caius worried about. But he had learned that Lysander was always right in these matters, so he grinned widely and pulled on a vest of his own.

“Alright! Let's go show these losers what we're made of!” Caius grabbed a couple of light assault rifles; some stun rounds, and eagerly ran to the entrance of the training facility. “Come on! Let's see if I've been assigned as the squad leader for the test!” Energetically dashing over to the board, he scanned it and found his name. He was listed as... a corporal? What? But... he... “WHAT?” Caius looked absolutely shocked, looking at the board again, and pointing at the lieutenant slot. “That should be me! I actually aced that tactics class! IT WAS THE ONLY ONE I ACTUALLY PASSED!”

“That failure isn't our leader?”

“Good. He'd probably just end up destroying the training grounds.”

Several other students where commenting to each other, thinking Caius couldn't hear them. He never was the most popular person in the Academy, probably because he was famous among the students and staff as an incredibly disrespectful idiot. The biding comments continued, until Major Regulus walked in. “Alright men, this will be our final test. After this, you will be graded as to what position you get within the army...” He then strode over to Caius and harshly whispered, “I'm watching you, boy. Embarrass me, and I'll make sure that hell looks promising...” Caius stepped back and looked at the Major with a disrespectful look in his eye, and simply joined his squad. His squad lieutenant turned to him. He was fairly short and scrawny looking, and not very dangerous at all. “Listen up, idiot. Just keep out of the way, don't blow anything up, and don't chatter on the radio. You're enough of a liability already.”

Caius glared at the lieutenant, grinding his teeth together. “Don't piss me off. I've had a really bad day, and I won't hesitate to pump a few stun rounds in you if...” Lysander shot Caius an alarmed look that convinced him to stop.

The lieutenant made a deep grunting sound, and tried to puff up his short stature to look more intimidating. “Just stay out of our way. I've heard that they're selecting more Elite soldiers in this test, and I won't let you infringe on my chances.” He pushed his way to the briefing room and opened the door.

The training ground was the biggest building in the school by far, the size of 12 city blocks. It was designed to simulate an urban environment, with real concrete buildings and asphalt roads. Many of the buildings where partially destroyed and the roads where filled with potholes, presumably to simulate the wake of artillery strikes. There was broken furniture in the houses, shattered tanks in the streets, and improvised bunkers were littered at every other block.

“Okay, we've all been over this. The objective of this test is to defeat your enemy by capturing all of the bunkers in the facility, and then to capture the stronghold. Cameras are scattered around the area so that the evaluators can judge your skills. Good luck, and don't do anything stupid.” The Major finished his speech with a quick glare at Caius, and opened the large steel door to the facility.

--

Caius dashed down the streets, looking around carefully for a target. He had ditched his squad a long time ago, and was acting as a lone wolf. He didn't like those pricks anyway. Spotting a small sandbag bunker about fifty yards in front of him, he readied his gun and charged at it. Unfortunately, an enemy with a light machine gun set up his weapon and opened fire at Caius, forcing him to take cover in a pothole. The blue stun rounds where whizzing over his head, filling the pothole with dust. “Great, now I'm stuck...” He heard a click, a loud bang, saw a bright flash of blue light overhead and realized the gunfire had stopped. He peeked over the pothole carefully, and saw a figure with short brown hair dressed in his team’s colors approach him.

“Caius? Is that you?” He recognized that voice. Oh, he was in deep trouble... “You idiot! What the hell do you think you're doing? You should know by now not to charge a machine gun head on!” It was Aemilia, his second friend in the academy. She walked over with a scolding look in her blue eyes and dragged him out of the pothole. She may be shorter than him, but she was a lot stronger that she looked.

“How did you get rid of that gunner?” Caius asked with eyes wide and somewhat intimidated by Aemilia’s dominant nature.

“I threw a stun grenade from the second floor of that building,” Aemilia replied as if the answer was completely obvious.

“Oh.”

“God Caius, I wish you'd think before you do stupid things like that!” she snapped at him, getting tired of Caius’ clueless ways.

“I thought that bunker was empty!” insisted Caius, trying to help himself in the argument, though knowing his friend, arguing was a lost cause.

“An hour into the test?”

She had him there... He sighed and picked up his gun. “Well, I need help taking down that bunker. Be careful this time, alright? I might not be able to save you again.” Caius pouted childishly and ran over to the bunker. “I'm not a child, Aemilia. I can take care of myself.”

She shot him a furious look, and looked around frantically. “It's supposed to be Aemilius! You're lucky there’s no camera around.” He laughed sheepishly, a little embarrassed at his slip. Women weren't allowed to join the Imperial army, and she said that she always wanted to fight. So she dressed as a man, falsified her documentation, and entered the Academy under an alias. Caius accidentally found out she was a girl three years ago, and promised to keep it a secret. They'd been friends ever since.

Caius carefully went into the lower level of the bunker, scanning the hallways carefully with Aemilia in tow. He turned around a corner, emerging into a large room with three enemy soldiers looking out a port, manning a heavy machine gun. One of them spotted Caius and opened fire, causing them to take cover. Quickly regaining his composure, he bolted out from the doorway, braved the gunfire and quickly punched the first guard, pulled out his pistol and stunned the second, and pointed his gun at the third, who was unarmed. “Caius! My god, use your head for once! Didn't training tell us to use a grenade when we're pinned like that?”

“But that's so boring!” Caius moaned, letting out an exaggerated sigh. His eyes lit up again, as he pointed out, “And look! I got us a prisoner!”

She growled and looked at Caius dangerously, smacking him over the head. “Fight like that and the rebels will tear you apart in your first week of combat.” Caius rolled his eyes and continued on.

“I think we've cleared out the bunker,” Caius informed her, Aemilia nodding before she spoke.

“Well, we need to move on to the enemy stronghold then.” Aemilia stunned the prisoner and ran in front of Caius. “I'm leading from now on. Apparently, you can't be trusted with your own safety.” Caius opened his mouth to protest, but Aemilia shot him a glare that shut him up instantly.

“Fine. Which way is the stronghold, then?” Caius asked with a groan.

--

Caius dashed down the hallway, frantically looking around as he went. 'Great. No ammo, separated from Aemilia, and to top it off, I'm in the enemy stronghold being pursued by heavily armed guards. Let’s recap… We got to the stronghold, I got overexcited, charged it, Aemilia shouted something at me - I think the word retard was in there somewhere… I used all of my grenades to take out the forward guards, climbed the wall to the second story, used half of my ammo to take down a squad that saw me, used the other half on another squad that I ran into, and now even more guards are chasing me like a dog.’ He rounded a corner and realized he was at a dead end. “Crap!”

He desperately searched for an escape and spotted an air vent in the ceiling. He pried it open and as he was getting in, he had an idea. The guards rounded the corner after him. “What the... Where'd he go?” The dead end was empty, and one of the guards put down his gun and scratched his head in confusion. He looked up and saw the open air vent. “Hey! He must be in that vent!” The guards picked up their guns and fired a salvo of stun rounds at the vent, causing it to smoke slightly

. “…Did we get him?” The guard lowered his gun and put another clip in, eyeing the vent carefully. The guard heard something drop behind him, felt his pistol being drawn, and was swiftly stunned. Caius swirled around and stunned the other two guards, and dropped the pistol.

“I love how all the vents here are interconnected.” He picked up an assault rifle from one of the fallen guards, and slung it over his shoulders. “A bit big for my tastes, but it’s better than going unarmed.” He heard some gunfire in the hall next to his, and crept into the room and saw Lysander standing with a bomb, setting it up in the munitions room. “What the... How the hell did you get in here?”

Lysander turned around, smirking. “I snuck in though the sewers.” He jerked his thumb over to a service entrance on the opposite wall. “What, did you do a couple of brazen attacks on the front of the base?”

“…Maybe...” Caius mumbled with a sheepish smile.

“You never learn, do you?” Lysander sighed. He finished setting up the bomb, and ran out. “Come on, Caius. We don't to be around when that goes off.”

“That’s not a real bomb, is it?”

“No, but the stunning wave would hurt like hell.”

They entered into the streets, and ran to the nearest bunker. An explosion rocked the silence, and the intercoms crackled to life. “Team B has won. The test is over. Please report to the main hall. That is all.”

“The test’s over already?” Caius asked, slumping to his knees and wiping his forehead.

“Well, that bomb would have destroyed the stronghold in real life.”

“I knew that,” Caius mumbled with a weary smile.

“Sure you did…”

Caius and Lysander entered into the main hall, and looked around briefly. Everyone was lining at the large television screen at the end of the room, looking at a list of where to report. The two reached the front of the line after a short wait and scanned the list for their names.

Report Directly to Major Regulus’s Office:

1. Lysander Spartana

2. Caius Dracus

“What’s that supposed to mean? I didn’t blow anything up! …I think…” Caius looked quizzically at the column, noting that only he and Lysander had been listed under it.

“Who knows? Maybe it’s something good,” shrugged Lysander, thinking about all the possibilities.

“You should know by now that if the Major wants to see me, it’s NEVER anything good.”

Lysander sighed and turned around. “Well, we don’t want to keep him waiting. The Major is not a patient man.”

They approached the door to Major Regulus’s study carefully, and Lysander knocked on the door softly and tensely, as though he felt it would bite him. “Enter.” He turned the handle gently and entered the room with Caius. It was a small, stuffy room with various filing cabinets and a small steel desk where the Major sat.

“Permission to speak?” Lysander asked in a respectful tone.

“Granted,” came the stern reply of the Major.

“May I ask why we’ve been summoned?”

The Major looked at them with a hard look in his eye, and said, “You’ve both been given the position of Elite. I expected you to get it Lysander, but I don’t understand myself why the evaluators gave you such an honorable position…” He glared at Caius, and stood up. “Stay here. I need to go get your papers.” The Major walked out of the study, leaving the boys alone.

As soon as the Major shut the door, Caius jumped excitedly.”Yes!! I’m an Elite!” He then looked at one of the filing cabinets labeled ‘Recruitment Information’ and opened it, looking though the file labeled ‘Elite’.

“Caius, what the hell are you doing?” Lysander stared at him, thinking about preventing Caius to look any further.

“Just finding out about our new jobs is all.”

Recruitment Criteria

A potential candidate must be either:

A.Unnaturally brave, resourceful, and able to think on their feet on a level not expected of ordinary soldiers.

Or

B.Cunning, rational, and generally intelligent. They must have a considerable amount of charisma to add to their natural skills.

Caius chuckled when he read A. So that was why the Examiners decided to make him an Elite… He flipped through the folder, skimming over the words as he read.

Identity will be utterly destroyed….

Wait, what? Caius flipped back to the page where he glimpsed those words and read it in full:

Controlling Elites

As Elites will be handling sensitive information, their undying loyalty to the Empire must be assured. The candidates will undergo a full mental examination to determine their mental stability, and a regimen of Re-education will be implemented. Their personal Identity will be utterly destroyed, assuring their undying devotion.

Caius looked over the page again. He couldn’t believe what he was reading. He read and re-read the page over and over again, hoping that the words might change. But they stayed there, taunting him.

“No… They wouldn’t…Would they?”

Yup, I'm ending it there. I don't have very much to say yet, other than a review is greatly appreciated, and the next chapter should be up within the week.

-Hail Caesar!

RomanCommander