Six years had passed. William and Samuel were having a discussion in the living room.
"Just sign it!" yelled Samuel.
"You are just seventeen, you are gonna get killed"
"Dad, is enough. If you don't sign it now, I just have to wait 6 months, I will be eighteen, I'm getting the test and I will enroll as a pilot. The more time I have to train, the better pilot I will be, the less chance I get killed. There is no stopping me, just sign it!"
William looked at Samuel with tears in his eyes. Samuel nodded at him. William signed the authorization.
"Thanks dad"
"Just go"
Samuel took the papers and left in his electric motorbike in his way to the recruitment office at the local Exopilots headquarters.
"Good morning" greeted Samuel.
"Good morning" answered the man at the reception.
"I came to do the neural compatibility test and join the program"
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen and a half" answered Samuel.
"You are to young to enlist kiddo, unless you have authorization from your tutors"
"I have it right here. Physical copy and the digital version, I got both" Samuel passed the papers to the receptionist and connected his headphones to the terminal using the wireless system.
"I see" the receptionist made an ugly face. "Excuse me a moment"
He left his post and went to look for his superior. A few minutes later, the man came back in the company of a woman. The receptionist showed her something in his computer terminal.
"Hello Mr. Terrence, I am Elizabeth Holmes, you can say I am like the manager in the recruitment center. I'm sorry, but there seem to be an opposition to your application. Of course since this person is not your legal tutor, his authority to block your enlistment is limited. Wold you like to overturn this opposition?"
"Yes" answered Samuel without thinking to much.
"I'm sorry grandma" he said in a low voice.
"In that case we will proceed with you enlistment. Do you agree?"
A camera was filming Samuel answers.
"I do"
"Do you understand that this is a very dangerous profession and once you are eligible to become a pilot and enroll in the program there is no way out?"
"I understand"
"Do you understand that once you are a pilot you will be send to the battlefield, the probability that you die, get badly wounded or crippled is high, still you must obey your orders and fight the enemy even if that means your death?"
"Ma'am, my grandfather was a pilot of the first generation, I have seen him without his life support suit, I know what I am getting into"
"Great for you Kid, but we have to warn you, is part of the admission protocol" the receptionist said pointing at the camera.
"Oh!, okay"
"So, Do you understand that once you are a pilot you will be send to the battlefield, the probability that you die, get badly wounded or crippled is high, still you must obey your orders and fight the enemy even if that means your death?"
"Yes, I do"
"Great, we will do the neural compatibility test now. Follow me" The woman started to walk.
"Wait" Samuel looked at the receptionist. "Who tried to block my inscription?"
The receptionist looked at his superior, the woman nodded.
"Captain Magnus T. Carlsen"
Samuel expression was stunned for a moment. Then his face changed, his eyebrows furrowed, his jaw clenched, his hands balled into a fist and he walked behind the woman.
Samuel was taken to a room, there was nothing there, except a weird machine, a metal rectangle with a hole the size of a fist on it. He was instructed by the woman to get his hand into the hole and grasp at the cylindrical structure inside. A few seconds later a cold feeling spread through Samuel hand, then something pricked his skin and that was it.
"You can remove you hand now" the woman announced.
"Thats it?"
"Yes, technology has improved over the years, we just need a small nervous terminal from the skin to do the compatibility test. Now wait outside, we will have your results in a few hours"
"Wow, thats fast"
"We got the world best equipment here" said the woman proudly.
Samuel sat in a waiting room along with two other men, they were probably just a few years older than him, one of them was of brown skin, had a shaved head and was a little bit overweight. The other one was a blond, tall guy. Samuel looked down to his hand and saw the small band covering the prick wound. After a few minutes, he got bored. The man in the room didn't seem like they wanted to do small talk, which was normal for their generation. Everyone just connected their headphones, activated their favorite application, net-media or any other entertainment, and got lost in their own personal world.
A few hours later the headphone system called their attention and disconnected Samuel from the show he was seeing.
[User attention is required]
Elizabeth came out and walked to the three young men.
"Mr. Gonzales, congratulations" the women handed him an envelope.
"Yeah! Gracias Dios" The brown skin guy yelled looking at the sky and doing the cross sign.
The women walked towards the blond guy.
"I'm sorry Mr. Pollack, but your compatibility is too low for the pilot program. If you don't mind we would like to keep your information for the future, in case technology improves compatibility"
"Please do. Can I leave now?" the disappointment could be seen in the blond guy face.
"Sure, Mr. Pollack"
Pollack just got up and walked out the door. The woman walked towards Samuel, he was nervous, his hands were sweating.
"Congratulations Mr. Terrence"
Samuel got the envelope from the woman hand and opened it up, reading its content. His compatibility and tolerance to the exoskeleton was around sixty percent, wasn't the highest score but was over the required forty percent threshold to be a pilot.
"Gentlemen, follow me please"
The two young man were taken to another room. A very basic room with just two chairs. They sat down as instructed.
Then their headphones automatically connected to the wireless system of the room. The ocular projector of the headphones came on line and moved in front of their eyes and a few images were projected into their retina. They saw a series of short videos of exoskeletons being destroyed, pilots who where yanked out the cabin and grind to minced meat by Tenctopus or pilots who were taken out of their exoskeletons with their faces bleeding from every orifice while they convulsed uncontrollably until they died.
Once the videos stopped. A man and a woman in military outfits came into the room. The woman had white skin; the shaved head, the blue color of the military uniform and the insignia of a gear wheel with a star in the middle and two European style swords on the right side of her chest, told the two young men who she was; a pilot. The man was using the typical camouflage pattern army uniform.
"Stand Up soldiers!"
The two men stood trying to imitate a military stance as best as they could.
"Good afternoon gentlemen. I am captain Tiffani Langrer Romani. I know you came here with the intention to be pilots and I admire your courage. I know you might be having seconds toughs about joining after what you have seen, if you do, please, leave. There is no shame in it, there is no shame in protecting your own life, out there with the Tenctopus, you are going to die."
The woman was as serious as serious could be, but the two young men didn't even flinch. Captain Tiffani smiled.
"Pilots, do you accept this risks?"
"I do, Ma'am!" the two man yelled.
"Excellent. From now on, you are already pilot candidates, unless something goes wrong with the surgical procedure; in a few months you will be training along other pilots candidates, in a two years you might be piloting your own machine in the battle field. Now, I will address one of the most common unspoken questions that almost no recruit dares to ask. Why is she trying to discourage us from enlisting?"
The two young men kept silent, but their eyes clearly announced that they did wanted to know.
"I know everyone has heard the rumor that we are at a stalemate with the enemy, and that is true. This has become an attrition war. We don't know where the enemy base is, we don't even know if it is on this planet and they reproduce way faster than us. We will eventually lose in the long run. So, why do we cripple our forces by trying to scare our recruits? The answer is simple, a pilot who runs away will doom a whole squad. It is not worth it, we don't need cowards; a pilots death is a good death; there is no greater honor than dying saving your brothers, protecting your species, your country, your home, your family, your people, engrave that into your hearts and brains"
There was silence for a few seconds.
"The AI will answer all the other questions you might have, welcome, brothers"
The captain moved closer to the to two young men and stretched their hands with a smile.
"Excuse me, but I am on duty, if everything goes well we might see each other in the battlefield. Major Litman here will take care of the rest from now on" the captain signaled to the man dressed in the military uniform.
"Good luck"
The captain left. Major Litman walked to the door were he came out from and invited them with a hand motion. As they stepped outside the receptionist and another woman saluted the two young men in a respectful military style. Two military armored vehicles awaited.
"They will take you home, rest and enjoy your family company, in one week you will go under surgery for the necessary implants" Major Litman announced.
"What about my bike?" asked Samuel.
"It has already been sent to your address along with a back pack and some other items you might be interested in" the major answered.
The two men got into their respective vehicles and were driven home. It was mid afternoon when Samuel arrived.
"So, you got in, right?" said Williams as a welcome.
"Yeah"
William sighed.
"Help me prepare dinner"
Father and son were cooking some pasta when someone rang the doorbell. Samuel went to see who it was, when he saw his grandfather face on the old screen he hastily opened the door. After the experience six years ago during the attack, William did some changes to the house; now all locks in all doors were analogical.
"So, are you happy now? in the end you made your grand son join the Russian roulette of the battlefield" recriminated William.
"Things are not what they seem son" Magnus replied.
He looked a lot older and his face was even more emaciated than before, the cheek bones, even the lines of his jaw could be seen, his aspect was more of a skull than a living face.
"Yeah dad, things are not what they seem. Do you know someone put a petition to deny my entry into the pilot program? At first I though it was a grandma thing, but, surprise, it wasnt. So, grandpa tell me, why?"
William stood there confused.
"I had my reasons Sammy, I still do, maybe there is time yet, maybe you can still pull out before the surgery" Magnus answered.
"Are you afraid that I will be a coward? Are you afraid that will stain your name and shame you by running away from the battlefield"
"No Sammy, I just... I... I don't want you to end up like me"
"You are great man grandpa" said Samuel confused.
"Nah! Your father was right, I... I wasted my life"
Samuel was angry, he had always been very proud of his grandfather, that man was his role model and now he was acting like his father, like a coward.
Magnus could feel the kid frustration, anyone that saw him now would be able to.
"Anyway, congratulations"
Magnus stood at attention and saluted his grandson in a military fashion. The young man responded to his grandfather in the same way. An uncomfortable silence reigned for a few seconds.
"I must go now, you grandmother is waiting for me, we are supposed to dine together and I am already late"
Magnus turned around and left. William and Samuel finished making dinner and sat at the table.
"Maybe you should consider you grandfather advice and..."
Samuel interrupted his father.
"Don't dad, just don't. I will be a pilot, there is no turning this around"
They ate in silence, washed the dishes and then with the excuse of being tired; Samuel when to his room and started reading the instructions for the surgical procedure and some other information available in the pack send by the army.