PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

“You got to be kidding.”

I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing, lined up in the training ground next to me were some unknown people and others who were familiar to me, there was that boy with reinforcement ability whose name I do not remember and that girl Claire who had a telekinesis ability; I think her last name was Lynwood or something.

But neither she nor the other guys were the reason for my surprise, no, the reason I was so surprised was due to a certain person that I did not expect to see so soon.

“Alright boys and girls, it’s seven o’clock, that means playtime is over.”

Perhaps due to his young appearance, most of the people around me ignored what he said even if he was wearing the uniform of a superior officer; only Claire and I were silent.

“Oh, it seems I have a lot of spoiled kids by recruits.”

I wondered for a second what he was going to do, but I was distracted when I saw Claire who just started to levitate a few inches above the ground, feeling my gaze the girl put on a helpless expression as she pointed at something with her finger.

Following the direction of her finger, I saw our young officer in charge slowly lift his right leg, just a fraction of a second later a metallic sheen seemed to coat his extremity; I didn’t even have time to react when I saw his body temperature rise to an alarming level and immediately felt the tremor.

.....

Lieutenant Astryd had hit the ground with a horrible force not only creating a small crater where the impact occurred but also shaking the ground around him, it was nothing exaggerated like an earthquake, but for those unsuspecting, it was a very uncomfortable sensation; not to mention that the noise given by the impact was not soft either.

Only then did I see Claire put her feet on the ground again as she stuck her tongue out in my direction in a mischievous way, she seemed like quite a cheerful and energetic girl... maybe I can be her friend.

Of course, I was the only one who had things like friendship in mind right now, all the other recruits around me were now looking seriously at the young officer in front of us.

“I see that you were finally silent, in that case, I think we can start with the introductions, I am First Lieutenant Desmond Astryd and you will address me only as Lieutenant Astryd or sir unless I indicate otherwise; Understood?”

His voice exuded confidence, but there was an oppressive sense difficult to hide in the way he spoke and acted, it was not easy to describe it, but I would say that feeling the look of a predator; I had no basis for that thought, but for some reason, I thought that was the case.

Having learned to act a little more disciplined, all the recruits responded with a yes sir, although there was no coordination between us.

“Well, that’s much better, from now on I will not only be your commanding officer but also your instructor, for now, I think I should explain the rules to you; There is only one rule that you must obey as if your lives depended on it ... because you do, the rule is very simple: do everything I say ”

Arrogant, incredibly arrogant, and despotic, he was nothing like the person I had met just a couple of minutes ago, there was no kindness in his words, and the smile on his face now only caused me apprehension.

“You, the idiot who seems to have a cardiac attack, yes you, the one who looks at me with hatred; if I order you to hit the person next to you, what do you do? ”

The person who had been singled out was the boy with reinforcement ability that I had seen in my school, from what little I heard while waiting here; It seems that he comes from a military family and it seems that he does not take very well having to obey orders from another person who is almost his age.

“I don’t hit him, sir, I must never harm a comrade in arms”

Many showed approval for what he said, but I thought differently, and it seems that I was not the only one; Claire was also looking at the boy like he was an idiot.

“Wrong, if I order you to hit him, you hit him and nothing else, what does it matter if he is a comrade in arms, if I order you to harm him, you must assume that I have legitimate reasons to give you such an order; Do you think I would ask you just on a whim? Get out of here, I don’t need an idiot who doesn’t know how to listen to orders and thinks he knows everything ”

Simple as that, a single wrong answer, and he kicked the guy straight out of the squad, it was ridiculous, but I could also understand the reasoning.

“You, the bald man over there, if I order you to shoot a prisoner, what do you do?”

“I obey his order, sir.”

The question and answer pattern was repeated another two or three times, but this time there were no surprises until it was my turn.

The smile on Lieutenant Astryd’s face grew several notches when he looked into my eyes making me feel more insecure by the second and the question finally came.

“I see that we have more than one beauty around here, I hope you do not think that I will be nice just because you are pretty, on the contrary, you should prepare for the worst; you the ice beauty if I order you to come to my office at night and have sex with me, what do you do? ”

The lieutenant’s voice was strong and clear but still, I couldn’t believe what I just heard, to think that someone would be so cynical and scoundrel, I wasn’t the only one who thought so; all the women present looked offended, but also fearful.

All the attention focused on me while everyone waited for the kind of answer I would give, some looked at me with pity, but some looked at me with mockery and pleasure for the pain of others.

On the other hand, I was only looking at Lieutenant Astryd, the person who had been so kind to me just minutes ago was now looking at me with an expression of hostile mockery; the contrast was shocking, to say the least... but I still responded defiantly.

“I would refuse to follow his order, according to the military code article 57, under no circumstances can a military officer force us to comply with an order destined to cause us any personal harm; although danger always exists on the battlefield, you cannot directly order us to hurt ourselves ”

Time seemed to stop while everyone waited for the reaction of our new officer in charge, even I was nervous; at the end of the day it didn’t matter if I was right, Lieutenant Astryd could still kick me out of this unit if he wished.

The smile faded from the lieutenant’s face and when everyone thought an aggressive response from him was approaching; They all watched in surprise as the lieutenant nodded approvingly.

“That is correct, although the military code is quite extensive, almost all the rules in it have exceptions; except for a few like this one. Very well miss, what is your name? ”

“Silvia, Silvia Trevstone.” It took me a couple of seconds to snap out of my daze before I could answer, I hadn’t expected such a change in attitude from Lieutenant Astryd or that he would accept my answer as correct.

“Very well, I will remember; now ... if someone has a problem or complaint with the way I do things, now is the time to take a step forward. ”

As soon as those words reached my ears I knew there were problems, not for me and certainly not for Lieutenant Astryd but for the poor idiots who took the bait; and as if they were trying to prove my point five people stepped forward.