Chapter 1: 1

“Please insert your military card.” A lovely computer-generated voice coming from the speaker. Tang Long was standing inside an elliptical booth, inserting military card that he applied recently into the kiosk.

“Name: Tang Long, Age: 18, Gender: Male, Education: High School, Service Branch: Infantryman.” The monitor was displaying Tang Long’s personnel file. The voice again, “Please stand by for identity verification.”

Tang Long, standing very still with eyes wide open. A scanning beam swirling left and right, top to bottom.

“Facial feature… match”

“Skeletal feature…match”

“Blood type…match”

“DNA…match”

“Iris…match”

“Verification completed”

*bibibi

*card ejected

“Please report to Basic Training Camp 504 of the 23rd Battalion 3rd Company 1st Platoon 1st Squad. The Federation Armed Service welcomes you, Cadet Tang Long.”

The door behind Tang Long opens up after he safekeep the card. Beyond the assignment booth was a long line of many lines, eager new recruits were waiting to their assignments.

“Shit! This is so troublesome! If I’ve known this, no way I would have come in the first place!” Cursing out of dissatisfaction after leaving the assignment booth. The door behind closed as another person steps into it.

+

Recently attaining adulthood, after graduating from high school, Tang Long has the option of enrolling into university because of his family background. Alternately, he can also choose to work at his father’s company. But he chooses neither, instead he wanted to become a soldier. This was a lifelong dream of his since young. He dreamt of one day, becoming the army Marshal that unite the universe. In his mind, in order to become the Army Marshal, he first need to become General, and way before that, a soldier.

There is a hearsay that, if one were to enroll after graduating from The Defense University, one can immediately attain the rank of SubLieutenant. Indeed, life is far more pleasant and quicker for the graduates of the Defense University compare to those that need to grind from the rank of private.

Well, not that Tang Long didn’t want to take this path, but amongst the tens of millions of the Federal SAT ranking, being ranked 1000, from the back, really does not qualify him even for an interview with the admin body of the university. And it is not like The Defense University a place where one can bribe himself into. Even if he can bribe himself in, not like his family will approved of his decision to enlist. Tang Long’s family has been a single-child for many generations, they can’t afford to bear the risk.

Speaking of the name Tang Long. It was named by his grandfather way before his father was married. In a mysterious way, his father and grandfather instinctively knew that the next generation would be a boy; and indeed, Tang Long was birthed into this world as a boy. Afterwards, for 18 long years his parent tried so hard for the second, but not even a remote hint of pregnancy.

When Tang Long was mature enough to understand, he asked grandfather why he was given this name? With proud, dada told him that the surname “Tang” came from a race in the orient of a very ancient civilization called “Earth”, which is also the birthplace of humanity. Everyone in the race has a yellowish skin, black iris and dark hair. “Long”, as in dragon, represent the most powerful person among them. Even though the planet was long gone, the orient culture, along and among other, help shape the universal century for thousands of years, generation passed their cultural knowledge to the next generation, on and on.

+

Although unspoken, the meaning behind the name “Tang Long” engrave deeply into his little mind when he was very young at that time. Maybe that is the reason why Tang Long wanted to join the armed services.

“I want to take a summer break vacation to distract me from the fact that I almost flunked high school,” using that as a cover, Tang Long acquired sponsor and an identification card. Went to planet Kyla, which was about 10 thousand light year away and enlist.

It is easier to asked for forgiveness than permission.

There are several types of armed service available, but they either needed to sit for cultural examination or physical. Being good-for-nothing, Tang Long choose the only one, which only requires the recruit to reach adulthood to enroll and no other pre-requisite, the Marines.

+

With a hand carry and his military card, Tang Long dwadle around the assignment hall. From the top view one can see a series of elliptical-cylindrical booth stretched as far as eye can see, outside of each booth formed a line of people, waiting for their assignment. The assignment booths are manned by an AI, it will assess all your test result, consider your preferred branch, and assign you to the best-suited Basic Training Camp, or bootcamp for short.

Apart from the new recruit, you can also see soldiers of the Federation standing guard, watching over the recruitment process. Each of them wears their service uniform, primary black with silver edge. Tang Long watched evilly as the soldier exude a sense of might, while at the same time looking for entrance to Bootcamp 504.

Like finding a particular gate in an extremely large airport, Tang Long was struggling to find the correct entrance.

Entrance 234. Nope.

Entrance 239. No.

Entrance 320. X.

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Entrance 443. Nope.

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Entrance 500. Next.

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Entrance 504. Ah haaaa, here it is.

In front of him there are only a handful of new recruits. Tang Long stepped into the conveyor belt and let it carry him to his departure site.

There was nothing interesting to see in the tunnel, out of boredom and curiosity, he looked back to see if there are any more new joiner. To his surprise, there was none after him.

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After some 10 plus minutes, he felt that the guys in front are pulling away slowly from him.

It felt that the conveyor sped up! The guys in front became smaller by the minutes, getting smaller, smaller, until they were so far that they only looked like a single dot.

Until it is just him alone.

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*silent

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A feeling of panic starting to creep in. There was no noise other than the one made by Tang Long.

(O∆O)

A long silent and sense of stranded causes him to burst into sprint, even though the conveyor belt was carrying him on the same direction

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*running….

It did not take long for Tang Long to stop running and drop down to his feet. He was tired, he was out of breath like a dog, because he had been a couch potato since middle school. Not much of an exercise person, more of the type that sits down and play computer game reading manga. Out of breath, the sense of fear and dread were put aside, as for now, the most important is catching breath and not die.

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*halt

The conveyor comes to a complete stop. Looking up, he was standing in front of the exit. Next to it was a monitor showing: “Total journey, 30 mins”.

“Idiot!” Tang Long hit himself on the heads. The actual journey only took about 20 mins, because he was running along due to fright. This was also the longest he had run in 18 years too.

Stepping out, it was a huge spaceport. He slotted his military card into kiosk nearby.

*Verifying

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“Please go to passage 23rd for boarding.” The computer instructed.

Retrieve his card, Tang Long walked towards the passage “23” that was inked on the floor. This time, it only took him 30 second to board the spaceship.

Oh my god!

Tang Long look at the cabin in awe and disbelieve. This space shuttle has a carrying capacity of 10 passenger, which means this is a small spaceship, relatively, but he was the only soul in it.

“Dear passenger, please fasten your seatbelt as the craft is about to takeoff.”

Tang Long hastily found a seat nearby, buckled the belt. Looking outside he saw a jumbo spaceship was taking off.

“Surely this is not right. Why is my shuttle so damn small? Am I the only recruit that is going to the 23rd Battalion. Right?! Where are those recruits that I saw just now, aren’t they not 23rd too?” Tang Long was saying out loud, he found that doing this can help me ease the dread that is was beginning to felt, again!

*hummmmmmmmmmm

*Fuuuuuuuuuuuuueeeee

Tang Long can heard the jet engine spooling up as the shuttle taking off. He felt an immense pressured on the cheat, pressing his body into the seat, he knew that the spaceship was accelerating to reach escape velocity. Anyone who does interplanetary travel would need to withstand this, but the G force only persist for about 1 min plus. The pressure he felt just now had gone, he knew that the shuttle already left the planet’s atmosphere and reaching orbit. Looking outside, starry light, like a pinch a salt, sprinkle and scatter among the dark canvass of the universe. This view never ceases to amaze Tang Long.

Snapping back into reality, Tang Long hastily unbuckled the seat belt and rushed towards the cockpit. He wanted to ask the pilot where are they going to.

But, what he really wanted to find another soul to talk to, because the eerie silent of the cabin was just too much for him to handle.

*knock knock

*knock knock

No answer.

*try open the cockpit door

The door was not locked!

Ok, that is surprising!

Since millennial ago when human learned how to fly, the most fundamental rules on a passage plane is that: cockpit door must always remain locked, from the cockpit.

When Tang Long open the door ajar, a bigger surprise awaits: There are no one in the cockpit too!

Stunned by what he seen, Tang Long tried recover his composure and gathered his thought.

He then remembered that spaceship this size normally does not have human pilot it in, and always controlled by AI, or flight computer, because the flight path was fixed, there was no need to waste human resources on such tasks.

Knowing that, Tang Long also knows that the destination will not be far away, and he unapologetically took the empty seat of the pilot.

Man, this view is dope!

This is the first time Tang Long enjoy the view of space from the point-of-view of a pilot and he was loving it. He never knew that he would have a chance of enjoying a private chauffeuring service on the first day of his service. The sense of proud washes way all the anxiety and dread he was feeling just now.

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*after few minutes.

“Dear passenger, please fasten your seatbelt and put on your safety helmet. We are about to execute a space jump.”

(✿☉｡☉)

“SPACE JUMP! You got to be kidding me. How the hell this kite has a jump drive? And where the actual fuck is 23rd Battalion?”

+

Usually, only a jumbo craft can be equipped with Jump Drive, because a small spaceship, like the one Tang Long was currently in, would not be able to withstand the shearing force of spacetime jump. Also, jump was only necessary when the travel distance was more than 1000 light years away.

+

Tang Long quickly fasten his seat belt and put on the safety helmet. That helmet was meant to be used during jump to reduce the jump stress to minimum. At the same time, all the screen and windows will be blinded to reduce the damage of light dilation on the eyes.

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A sense of numbness was felt on the body. Tang Long knew that the shuttle begun jumping. He way praying, praying to all the gods and to all the religions he knew, because he knew that, there was never been a case where such small spaceship can survive the space jump. But because he was already in it, the only thing Tang Long can do now was to pray to the gods and deities, that this be a successful jump and not end up be a space debris.

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“Jump completed, ETA 30 mins.” The jump lasted only tens of second, and the helmet retracts.

If the ETA is 30 mins, why can’t I see any planets nearby? Why such bizarre things happen to me?

*sigh

Well, since I be reaching in 30 mins, might as well.

Still belted, Tang Long closed his eyes.

“Landing in 10 seconds,”

“9,”

“8,”

Tang Long’s field of view from the pilot seat was occupied by an asteroid, spanning about 1 km across. He saw a crack of light in front, the crack slowly widens and turn into an entrance. He realized then that this is actually a small base.

So… this asteroid is actually Bootcamp 504 for 23rd Battalion?

Landing was a breeze in absent of gravity. From the monitor Tang Long saw the landing light, the instruction light; the control tower was well lit, but he did not saw anyone there.

As soon as the jet bridge was connected and seal established, Tang Long ran into the arrival hall.

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*silent

*soulless, apart from Tang Long

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Tang Long begin to run around the hall hoping to find another person.

But.

Not a single soul. Just absolute silence except for the sound of his own breathing.

Sensing something was out of place, Tang Long begin to panic and start running towards the shuttle.

Unfortunately, the jet bridge already detached from it, then the refueling line. Tang Long watched as the craft begins to reverse slowly out from the base as the gate closed.

“IS THERE ANYONE THERE? MY NAME IS CADET TANG LONG, REPORTING.” Tang Long was shouting, en masses, while stepping into the conveyor, trembling in the heart.

(╯•﹏•╰)

The conveyor brought him into a dome-structure that was covering few thousand square meters, and had only one visible exist, his’s. Tang Long let out a sigh of relieve, he knew that he had reached the correct destination. He saw this kind of structure before on the 3-D telly back home, this indeed, was a bootcamp. The structure shaped like a dome, the ceiling painted white, and was designed to 3-D project any scenario or weather condition; the floor, smooth and flat, but it can shift and transform into any layout or obstacle depending on the training topic. Along the wall, exits will appear, leading to mess hall and barracks for officers and recruits.

The word “23” in gold stands out against the white color the ceiling. The worry and anxiety were expelled completely from Tang Long, as he knew that was in the right location.

So, this is 23rd Battalion?

But why the hell is it so small?

Facility of this size can only accommodate the size of a Company, and why aren’t there any seniors training? Are they sleeping?

Should not be, it is only 2pm now.

Baffled, Tang Long shouted “CADET TANG LONG, REPORTING!”

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“You are Tang Long?” an ice-cold voice sounded from behind, as Tang Long gets ready to shout again, even louder.

(^-^*)/

Heart cheered, Tang Long turned towards the sound while shouting: “PRIVATE TANG LONG, REPORRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG!” His shouting turned into shrieking, dropped down, trying to crawl away from the voice.

He saw a skeleton wearing military uniform.

Losing his voice, Tang Long was trying to crawl his way back to the exit where he came from, but the exit was nowhere to be found.

Where the hell is the exit?

Oh shit, this is a closed circuit bootcamp.

There was nowhere for him to run. As Tang Long was about to lose his consciousness from the panic, the skeleton walked up to him and pick him up by the sleeve, skull pressed against Tang Long’s forehead and shouted: “Are you TANG LONG?”

Felt a cold metal pressed against the forehead snapped Tang Long back into the reality. He realized that the skeleton was made of metal, with threads of wire along its neck, a miniature speaker on the location where the mouth was. The skeleton was actually an android.

+

Supposedly, military android ceases to exist over thousands of year ago, with the exception of high-hazard android that still exist in small quantities. Same goes for any other general-purposed android. Several thousands of year ago, human created android, the technology became so advance that the android achieve sentiency and begin to…well…rebel against their creator by attempting to wipe humanity off the universe.

Long story short, humanity prevailed, android was wipe out of existence. That was until several hundreds of year ago. A country with an insane leader began to mass produce military android for use in battlefield, but was infected by virus from the opposing country during the tumultuous times. The viruses, designed by the software engineer of opposing country were so well engineer that, it was able to spread so well that it infected every one of the military androids, some of the viruses were misinterpreted and they began to go after any organism with heat signature: first human, then chicken, cow, cat, dog,… Until eventually the android collectively wiped out all living organism, and subsequently destroyed the planet.

That event banded all humanity together and, for the second time in history, reach a united consensus: A general-purpose android are unstable and bad for humanity. That consensus leads to agreement abbreviated as the “xA Accord”, banning any form of R&D related to android. Whomever attempt to walk down that path with be perceive as the public enemy number 1 and be terminated with extreme prejudice.

+

Why is there military android on the Basic Training Camp 504 of 23rd Battalion?

*thump

Still in confusion, the android dropped Tang Long on the floor.

“Are you TANG LONG?!” A pair of green eyes gleamed threateningly.

“Cadet Tang Long reporting, sir.” Replied Tang Long while jumped on his feet.

Standing beside Tang Long, the android spread his legs, hands at the back, eye front and retort coldly, “I can’t hear you.”

Taken aback by the respond, Tang Long immediately understand that this was the usual ploy by the training officer to greet the young recruit, based on what he saw on telly.

*suuuuuupppppp

“PRIVATE TANG LONG REPORTING, SIR!” he took a deep breath and shouted on top of his voice.

Satisfied by his answer, the android arm reached out, palm upward; Tang Long immediately hand over his military card over.

“Accepted!” as the android safe-keep his card.

^1

Sighed in relieve, Tang Long can consider himself to be a soldier now. Seeing Tang Long standing there in bewilderment, the android screamed at him: “Listen! That is your room, that is mess hall. Training begin at 1600.”

As the android pointed, 2 exits appeared; then it turned around and left Tang Long alone.

Tang Long’s gaze followed the android as it walked towards the wall, suddenly an exist appeared and closed back up as it passed.

Tang Long walk up to the wall that the android pointed, one of the exits reappear. Beyond the exit was just darkness, heisting for a while, Tang Long creep slowly into the darkness and *ding! The entire area lit up immediately.

The room is about 10 plus squared meter, equipped with a single bed, a study, a chair, a wardrobe, and a shower that was fully loaded.

Wait, aren’t this room designated for officer?

Well, I did not think that that android drill instructor was such a good guy!

Whistling while opening the wardrobe, Tang Long saw 3 sets of neatly folded Federation dress uniform, combat fatigue, service uniform, PT uniform, 3 pairs of combat boots, running shoes, military dress shoes, well, basically 3 sets of everything.

Threw his bag onto the bed, Tang Long pull out the dress uniform for fitting.

Damn, how do I look so handsome?!?!?

Tang Long was totally absorbed in his own image, admiring himself with the official dress uniform on the mirror. All military garbs are bespoke, that’s why it will always looked good on anyone. In Tang Long’s opinion the only blemishes in the view was the single silver bar on his rank, denoting the insignia of Private.

*grrrrrrrrrrrr

Sound of hunger, Tang Long rushed to the mess hall next door for a bite to eat. As usually, the mess hall was completely void of human, except for him. Feeling uneasy eating along in such a big hall, Tang Long grab a ration kit from the counter and run back to his room.

Why is there no a single soul here? What the hell is going on? Why is it looked like I am the only infantrymen on the entire damn armed services?

Tang Long’s mind wonders as he chowed down on the rations.

+

What Tang Long did not realize was the mistake he had made when was selecting the branch. Because in UC3432, the branch “Infantry” was disbanded from the service because there was no need for it anymore. Most of the battle was between spaceship, either ship-to-ship or fighter-to-ship battle. Although melee and close quarter combat still exist, it was only limited to on-ship forced boarding or on-planet forced landing. Two branches of services designated for that, a more general-purpose division known as “Astro-Marines”, AM, or highly specialized division, called “Special Astro Service”, SAS.

Then why is it “Infantry” still exist as an option during enlistment?

That is because few hundreds of year ago, the 23rd Marshal of the Federation first started in the service as an infantryman. When he became the Marshal, he realized that the role of infantry has become redundant in the space battle, hence he decided to remove it from the service. But as a reminisces, he kept the one and only infantry barracks in the entire Federation, the 23rd Battalion.

During that time, the use of military android was very common. Using his influence and rank, he built the 23rd Battalion on the remote location and left a couple of military androids that serves as drill instructor. He also knew that, in future, no one will be serious enough to enlist in the infantry service, so the base will be slowly forgotten in the flow of time.

But, what he did not think of, was that the base was still operational because all the system within the base are controlled by AI. Human being human, always the creature of comfort, even though android was eradicated, humanity still kept using and developing AI for convenience.

During system upgrade and migration of the entire military computer system, Infantry Basic Training, designate 23rd Battalion, was also included and listed as an available service branch. Even when there was no new recruit, the base and the flight plan still kept active.

Sometimes, office did discover the existence of 23rd that serves no purpose, but they kept it as-it-is as a sign of respect and remembrance for the 23rd Marshal. They though that only the unfortunate or the exiled instructor were sent to the base to retire, totally unaware that the base was actually manned by military android instead of actual human. That was because those droids were arranged by the 23rd Marshal through back channel.

Because of such, the 23rd base maintains its status quo even though there was no new recruits. Any officer that knew of the existence of 23rd died of old age one by one, and brought that information into the grave.

Another reason why 23rd remained undetected was because it was able to self-sustained, and the only expenses were the maintenance of its spaceship and the flight path. In the entire scheme of Federation military budget, that expenses were equivalent to a nano-droplets in a sea of monies, with zero financial impact. But because there were no new recruits, the system automatically downgrades the spaceship from normal carrier to a 10-seater small shuttle that was designed to ferry officers.

When the good-for-nothing Tang Long was shopping for enlist, he accidentally bumped discovered this branch because he was looking for services that do not required any prerequisite except for come-of-age. Feeling lucky, Tang Long enlisted, without knowing that this branch of service was already redundant.

+

*splash

*puuuuwwwwww

Tang Long was abruptly awaken from deep slumber by a bucket-full of ice-cold water, water was spewing out from his mouth. Shocked and full of range, curse words about to burst out from him mouth, and then he realized that the android instructor was staring at him, with what he perceived to be a murderous intent. Them curse-word took a u-turn just before it exited his mouth.

“Sir, Good Day, Sir.” While executing a poorly-posed salute and spew out remaining water from the mouth.

“You worthless piece of maggot! The training supposed to start at 4pm sharp and you are here sleeping?! Give me 10 rounds.” The murderous intent manifested in the words of the drill instructor.

Oh, shit fuck, I totally forgot and android has the keenest sense of time and I am forgetful as a goldfish.

On my god I am going to get punished, a lot, in the foreseeable fucking future.

Moaning in the mind, Tang Long stand still.

Seeing him unmoved, the drill instructor walked to the back of Tang Long and give him a strong persuasion up his ass, with its boots.

That was a solid and strong robotic shove, Tang Long ended up rolling onto the training ground. As Tang Long about to sooth the spot, a pair of boots appear in front of him. Looking up, he saw the instructor slowing bending down and utter in a chill yet bassy voice: “Why are you still here?”

“Sir…. Sir yes Sir.” Tang Long saw 5 identical android instructors.

Realizing Tang Long still standing still like a deer in front of the headlamp, it pulled out the sidearm, load the magazine and pull the trigger.

*pew

A blast of laser bean scorched the floor right next to Tang Long feet, smoke swirling from the blast hole.

*ssszzz

Tang Long was in shock, trying to process what was going on.

(ʘᗩʘ’)

“My rank is captain, and that grant me the authority to execute any soldier that disobey my order. If you don’t start running after I finished my sentences, the next beam will be on your head.” Said the 1st instructor, with a tone of sub-zero.

At the point, Tang Long had a late-into-the-party realization that he was, indeed a soldier, in a bootcamp, trained by a bunch of non-human drill instructors.

If I did not pull myself up and get some street-smart, I ain’t going to be alive before my graduation.

That though put shivers up his spine, so Tang Long pull himself up and start running.

The 1st instructor was monitoring Tang Long, the remaining 4 drill instructors stand motionless. While running, Tang Long clearly saw the 3 star and a single bar on their military rank.

*huhuhu

Damn I did not know that robots can acquire military ranks.

*huhuhu

*huhuhu

*huhuhu

Running as fast as he could.

Because any sign of slowing down was an invitation from the laser pistol.

Tang Long was running so hard for his life that he forgets about the fear and fatigue, and completed the 10 rounds as instructed.

After the 10th round, the squat on the floor, he never ran this much on his life before.

*crack

Sound of whip hitting the ground next to Tang Long as he about to fall on his knees. Hearing the sound, he forced himself to stand straight.

“Soldier must keep his poise no matter where and when! Stand straight, eye in-front, shoulder back, hands on the side palms straighten on the side!”

The 1st instructor demonstrated as he utters out the instruction.

*whip

*whip

*whip

*whip

*whip

*whip

*whip

*whip

*whip

*whip

*whip

Any mistake will result in, first a whip, follow by correction instruction.

And not too bad for Tang Long, he managed to pull off the standard pose after more than 10 whoop-ass from the drill instructor.

God damnit where the hell did those robots learn how to whip? The internet? And who did they practice on?

The whip inflict pain, but the drill instructor controlled it so that it can inflict maximum pain without any bleeding. What a sadistic fuck.

Tang Long was told to maintain that position. In the meantime, the white benign surrounding transformed into desert, with the big bright sun any everything, the whole desert emulation package. The emulation was not just cosmetic, the ambient temperature starts to raise too.

Well I guess I can count on being lucky because they don’t choose to put me in a planet with binary stars, you sadistic piece of rusting metal!

Sweat soaked the uniform wet.

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Tang Long felt his head swirling, his vision blurred, he found it difficult to maintain the posture.

*whip

Pain travel as fast as the whip into Tang Long’s brain, jolting him back to awareness and readjusting his posture.

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The cycle continues.

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*thump

Exhausted, Tang Long fall on to the ground, still maintaining the posture. 1st drill instructor rushed to check on him.

“Fainted.”

The desert scene disappeared back to the original white, the remaining 4 instructors still unmoved with the same posture.

“He is weak.”

“Yes, that is why we must train him harder!”

“After his physical, would it be my turn to teach him about Space battle?”

“Surely you are joking. He fainted! Also, isn’t it supposed to be my turn to teach him about stratagem?”

If Tang Long was awake, he will be at awe and stunned by the exchange between his drill instructors. The way they converse was so human-like, it sounded like each of them have its own unique personality and independent specific skill. And what that means was, his drill instructors were a military android that have achieved sentiency. ^2

The uprising of android, several thousands of year ago was caused by android gaining sentiency, allowing them to think for themselves. If the Federation knew that 5 military androids in 23rd were sentient, they would have blown the base, no, vaporized the base until only dust remained.

“We do not have much energy left, we must properly train the one and only recruits we had in 456 years in one-year time.”

All 4 androids responded with military salute.

“Yes! We will do everything in our ability to shape him into the greatest soldier ever, in the name of Android Drill Instructor!” 

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