- Invitation Status
- Looking for partners
- Posting Speed
- 1-3 posts per day
- Multiple posts per week
- One post per week
- Slow As Molasses
- Online Availability
- On fairly regularly, every day. I'll notice a PM almost immediately. Replies come randomly.
- Writing Levels
- Adept
- Advanced
- Preferred Character Gender
- Primarily Prefer Male
- No Preferences
- Genres
- High fantasy is my personal favorite, followed closely by modern fantasy and post-apocalyptic, but I can happily play in any genre if the plot is good enough.
The graduation ceremony for the First Men's Interplanetary Expeditions Academy was being held in the Sir Martin Schreiner Auditorium Hall, a massive building made of glass and steel. The building was located right at the core of the proud city of Morecambe, the capital city of the planet Khepri, and also the heart of the United Planetary Alliance. Despite the fact that Khepari was one of the largest inhabited planets controlled by the UPA, it wasn't the kind of place just anyone could gain access to. Most of the people who lived on Khepari were the elite of the Alliance, people tasked with maintaining the health and wellbeing of an intergalactic commonwealth that spanned eleven different solar systems.
However, for someone like Aeva Rivans, such restrictions were almost meaningless. It only took one wave of her badge to get her into some of the most restricted buildings in the Alliance, let alone something as simple as being granted permission to land on a planet. With a population growing close to 100 billion people, there were still less than a hundred individuals who had the right to bear a Platinum Interplanetary Expeditions badge. It was a sign both of her value to the Alliance, and the great contributions she had already made towards its development. What made her stand out was that she was one of the five youngest people to earn the badge in the history of the Alliance, the only one of those five that was also a woman, and one of the twenty five who held the badge as a member of the support team, rather than the frontliners.
But Aeva had never put as much stock in the grade of her badge as many of her fellows did. To her, it was a convenience, something that helped her wave her way through the red tape that often slowed down government bureaucracy, and anything else that might get in the way of her ability to complete a mission. However, she knew full well that the grade of her badge wouldn't affect anything when she was millions of lightyears away from the interstellar quadrant of the Alliance. The monsters that lived on these distant planets would happily bite through her in an instant if she gave them a chance, whether her badge was colored iron or platinum.
Whispers followed Aeva as she walked in through the massive double doors admitting a slow flood of people into the hall, almost as effectively as the two bodyguards that flanked either side of the blonde haired woman, ensuring that no unwelcome persons would disrupt her passage. It was clear that the First Men's Academy had pulled out all stops for this ceremony, as per usual. The academy had been the highest ranked interplanetary expeditions school for the past 50 years, and well over two thirds of the current platinum badge holders were alumni of the school. The First Mens Academy pulled in recruits with potential from all over the Alliance, and successfully graduating from its rigorous curriculum proved a person as some of the up-and-coming talent of the Alliance, people who would one day bear the weight of the Alliance's health and wellbeing on their shoulders. These would be the people who would one day venture into the furthest regions of space, visit the most dangerous planets, to harvest the most valuable materials for dust attraction in the galaxy.
But there were always dangers associated with interplanetary exploration, and there was no way that the Alliance was going to let these rising stars perish in their early missions, when the young explorers were still learning how to transfer their knowledge into actual skill. That was why the First Men's Academy, along with many of the other Interplanetary Expedition Schools, had set up a mentorship program, something that paired these new recruits with senior explorers, who would be able to reverse the tide of a dangerous situation until the new recruits became competent enough to handle the unexpected.
Of course, the higher caliber the school, the higher level mentors they had the ability to invite. Despite having held her platinum badge for three years already, Aeva had only just now hit the minimum required age for the mentorship program, at 30 years old. But, even more than her rank, her age, or her status, Aeva was an anomaly for volunteering for the mentorship program. People who held gold or platinum badges were automatically exempt from the mentorship draft, as they were considered far too valuable to "waste" on teaching other people. Some schools, the First Men's Academy among them, had the resources to occasionally tempt a gold badge explorer into agreeing to participate in a mentorship for their more exceptional students. However, it had been five years since a platinum badge explorer had accepted a mentorship.
As Aeva seated herself in one of the seats of honor that had been prepared for her, she studied the mostly empty seats near her. Most of the invited honorable mentors would turn down their invitation to the graduation ceremony of their cadet explorer, finding it a waste of their time. They would wait until their pupil had completed all the after-graduation paperwork before finally calling them over to set up a first expedition.
Aeva found that a waste of time. She was here to grab her cadet as soon as the ceremony was over.
Aeva's timing was as exceptional as ever, with the opening speeches beginning less than five minutes after she'd sat down. Various people, including the academy principle, valedictorian of the class, and several honorable speakers gave speeches about the glory of the academy, the pride of the Alliance, and the value of interplanetary expeditions. Aeva had heard it many times before; none of the rhetoric was new to her. After the speeches dragged to a conclusion, the proper graduation ceremony began.
There were over 4,000 explorers graduating this year, and they were presented, one by one, with their badges. A large majority of the recruits were presented with tin badges. It was only a step above the lowest ranked iron badges, but that one step was something that millions of explorers could only cross with years of effort and dedication. The elites of the school were presented with brass badges, something that would allow them to take on the more lucrative explorations once they completed their mentorship. Only the top 1% graduates of the year were presented with bronze badges, starting their carreer only a single step away from entering into the lowest of the high rank badges, copper.
As the graduation proceeded, Aeva's vaguely bored gaze suddenly sharpened when a young man stepped onto the stage. He was taller than almost all of the other graduates, standing at a massive six and a half feet. She tracked his movements across the stage, as the dark haired man proudly received a brass badge, under the announcement of his graduation with honors.
Under normal circumstances, Sphinx Cyndari would be far from the most eye catching of the graduates, even among the frontliners. However, when Aeva had been flipping through the thousands of dossiers she'd received on the members of the First Men's graduating class, something about him had stood out to her. Perhaps it was simply that she saw a lot of herself in him. Aeva had also graduated with a brass badge, her figure all but lost in the shadow created by the top explorers in her class, half her mind still focused on how she was going to care for her family, new to the capital city after having spent their whole life on a border planet. Yet her own mentor had picked her out from among that crowd, and there was no way she would be here without him.
She figured it was time to pay forward the favor.
Even though the speeches at the beginning were kept relatively short, for speeches, the ceremony was still drawing close to the two and a half hour mark by the time the last of the four thousand graduates had made their way across the stage. As soon as the final, parting remarks were made, a speech which was kept gratefully short, Aeva stood up, her gaze locked on the young man she'd watched with such attentive eyes before. One hand extended to point a finger in his direction, before she flipped her hand over and beckoned him with two quick pulls of the same finger.
She knew he'd received her information the day before, probably in an equally long and boring ceremony when all the graduates received information on their mentors, but she had no doubt her presence at the ceremony had been a surprise for him. Not that Aeva was concerned about that. He'd had two and a half hours to adjust himself to that reality, and she wasn't about to sit around longer to wait for him to finish chatting with his friends, or whatever most graduates did after the ceremony was over.
"Let me tell you something," she began, as soon as the massive young man came to a stop in front of her. There was a hard look on her face, and determination blazed in the depths of her grey eyes. "You think school was hard? It's nothing compared to the hell I'll put you through. If you come with me, your every waking minute, your very life, is mine for the next year. This is your one chance to back out." One brow rose, and a faint hint of a smile crossed her face. "You ready to go?"
However, for someone like Aeva Rivans, such restrictions were almost meaningless. It only took one wave of her badge to get her into some of the most restricted buildings in the Alliance, let alone something as simple as being granted permission to land on a planet. With a population growing close to 100 billion people, there were still less than a hundred individuals who had the right to bear a Platinum Interplanetary Expeditions badge. It was a sign both of her value to the Alliance, and the great contributions she had already made towards its development. What made her stand out was that she was one of the five youngest people to earn the badge in the history of the Alliance, the only one of those five that was also a woman, and one of the twenty five who held the badge as a member of the support team, rather than the frontliners.
But Aeva had never put as much stock in the grade of her badge as many of her fellows did. To her, it was a convenience, something that helped her wave her way through the red tape that often slowed down government bureaucracy, and anything else that might get in the way of her ability to complete a mission. However, she knew full well that the grade of her badge wouldn't affect anything when she was millions of lightyears away from the interstellar quadrant of the Alliance. The monsters that lived on these distant planets would happily bite through her in an instant if she gave them a chance, whether her badge was colored iron or platinum.
Whispers followed Aeva as she walked in through the massive double doors admitting a slow flood of people into the hall, almost as effectively as the two bodyguards that flanked either side of the blonde haired woman, ensuring that no unwelcome persons would disrupt her passage. It was clear that the First Men's Academy had pulled out all stops for this ceremony, as per usual. The academy had been the highest ranked interplanetary expeditions school for the past 50 years, and well over two thirds of the current platinum badge holders were alumni of the school. The First Mens Academy pulled in recruits with potential from all over the Alliance, and successfully graduating from its rigorous curriculum proved a person as some of the up-and-coming talent of the Alliance, people who would one day bear the weight of the Alliance's health and wellbeing on their shoulders. These would be the people who would one day venture into the furthest regions of space, visit the most dangerous planets, to harvest the most valuable materials for dust attraction in the galaxy.
But there were always dangers associated with interplanetary exploration, and there was no way that the Alliance was going to let these rising stars perish in their early missions, when the young explorers were still learning how to transfer their knowledge into actual skill. That was why the First Men's Academy, along with many of the other Interplanetary Expedition Schools, had set up a mentorship program, something that paired these new recruits with senior explorers, who would be able to reverse the tide of a dangerous situation until the new recruits became competent enough to handle the unexpected.
Of course, the higher caliber the school, the higher level mentors they had the ability to invite. Despite having held her platinum badge for three years already, Aeva had only just now hit the minimum required age for the mentorship program, at 30 years old. But, even more than her rank, her age, or her status, Aeva was an anomaly for volunteering for the mentorship program. People who held gold or platinum badges were automatically exempt from the mentorship draft, as they were considered far too valuable to "waste" on teaching other people. Some schools, the First Men's Academy among them, had the resources to occasionally tempt a gold badge explorer into agreeing to participate in a mentorship for their more exceptional students. However, it had been five years since a platinum badge explorer had accepted a mentorship.
As Aeva seated herself in one of the seats of honor that had been prepared for her, she studied the mostly empty seats near her. Most of the invited honorable mentors would turn down their invitation to the graduation ceremony of their cadet explorer, finding it a waste of their time. They would wait until their pupil had completed all the after-graduation paperwork before finally calling them over to set up a first expedition.
Aeva found that a waste of time. She was here to grab her cadet as soon as the ceremony was over.
Aeva's timing was as exceptional as ever, with the opening speeches beginning less than five minutes after she'd sat down. Various people, including the academy principle, valedictorian of the class, and several honorable speakers gave speeches about the glory of the academy, the pride of the Alliance, and the value of interplanetary expeditions. Aeva had heard it many times before; none of the rhetoric was new to her. After the speeches dragged to a conclusion, the proper graduation ceremony began.
There were over 4,000 explorers graduating this year, and they were presented, one by one, with their badges. A large majority of the recruits were presented with tin badges. It was only a step above the lowest ranked iron badges, but that one step was something that millions of explorers could only cross with years of effort and dedication. The elites of the school were presented with brass badges, something that would allow them to take on the more lucrative explorations once they completed their mentorship. Only the top 1% graduates of the year were presented with bronze badges, starting their carreer only a single step away from entering into the lowest of the high rank badges, copper.
As the graduation proceeded, Aeva's vaguely bored gaze suddenly sharpened when a young man stepped onto the stage. He was taller than almost all of the other graduates, standing at a massive six and a half feet. She tracked his movements across the stage, as the dark haired man proudly received a brass badge, under the announcement of his graduation with honors.
Under normal circumstances, Sphinx Cyndari would be far from the most eye catching of the graduates, even among the frontliners. However, when Aeva had been flipping through the thousands of dossiers she'd received on the members of the First Men's graduating class, something about him had stood out to her. Perhaps it was simply that she saw a lot of herself in him. Aeva had also graduated with a brass badge, her figure all but lost in the shadow created by the top explorers in her class, half her mind still focused on how she was going to care for her family, new to the capital city after having spent their whole life on a border planet. Yet her own mentor had picked her out from among that crowd, and there was no way she would be here without him.
She figured it was time to pay forward the favor.
Even though the speeches at the beginning were kept relatively short, for speeches, the ceremony was still drawing close to the two and a half hour mark by the time the last of the four thousand graduates had made their way across the stage. As soon as the final, parting remarks were made, a speech which was kept gratefully short, Aeva stood up, her gaze locked on the young man she'd watched with such attentive eyes before. One hand extended to point a finger in his direction, before she flipped her hand over and beckoned him with two quick pulls of the same finger.
She knew he'd received her information the day before, probably in an equally long and boring ceremony when all the graduates received information on their mentors, but she had no doubt her presence at the ceremony had been a surprise for him. Not that Aeva was concerned about that. He'd had two and a half hours to adjust himself to that reality, and she wasn't about to sit around longer to wait for him to finish chatting with his friends, or whatever most graduates did after the ceremony was over.
"Let me tell you something," she began, as soon as the massive young man came to a stop in front of her. There was a hard look on her face, and determination blazed in the depths of her grey eyes. "You think school was hard? It's nothing compared to the hell I'll put you through. If you come with me, your every waking minute, your very life, is mine for the next year. This is your one chance to back out." One brow rose, and a faint hint of a smile crossed her face. "You ready to go?"