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I wielder of the Armor Swear upon my life To protect New Earth and its inhabitants To always put others above myself To always strive for more And to do whatever it takes to achieve that. I will do this through My Armor My Strength My Mind And With Hearts of Steel Eight years ago, a small group of 12 year olds placed their right hand over their hearts, and raised their left hand, then swore this oath. Since then, they have been working non-stop, becoming the deadliest humans ever to live. With their Armor, they are now finishing off their training, and just in time. Because the alien lifeforms that exterminated most of humanity 200 years ago are back, and only the Armor wielders will be able to stop them this time. Inside the main meeting room, and most other rooms about the base, a large monitor was positioned on the wall. It read: 1. Zero 2. Spectre 3. Sigma 4. Archangel 5. Destroyer 6. Paladin 7. Rho 8. Barbados 9. Shinra 10. Valkyr 11. Arisen 12. Vanquisher 13. Epsilon 14. Immortal 15. Conductor 16. Stray To almost anyone but those fifteen people, this would make no sense. A random string of words that meant nothing without context. But for those names, the list was much more. Their entire life had been focused around this leaderboard, built around their position and what it meant. Number One always got the best deals, the most privileges, meanwhile those on the lower end of the spectrum were punished with the harshest punishments. Capital punishment and deprivation of food or sleep were commonplace. Recently that has stopped for the sake of getting the wielders ready for the oncoming war, but the mental scars remain. Get to the top, or else. Rho cracked her knuckles as she stood ready in the arena. An area for sparring or advanced training, the arena was a complete cube of steel, with laser neutralization and momentum dampeners on all the walls, floor, and ceiling. She was scheduled for a one on one sparring match for today, and had, as usual, gotten their early, anxious for the match. She had already removed her excess clothing, the skintight armor ready to do its job. Rho reached behind her head, and pulled the hood over her scalp. The computer overlay appeared, keeping track of her vitals and armor integrity, as well as weaponry ammunition and status. She took a deep breath, feeling ready. (First come first serve for this match, but only one on one) Sigma sat up in the observation and operation chamber for the arena, silently watching Rho prepare, and waiting for her opponent to arrive. Computers were lined all across underneath the main observation window for manipulating the various equipment and training programs that were built into the room. Sigma always enjoyed watching the fights of his peers, and if one was scheduled, he was often to be found observing. It was always great fun, and it always helped to keep him wary of new tactics and techniques. Any kind of fighting lessons he could gleam were helpful. Of course, he enjoyed watching Rho for other reasons as well, but he kept those safely tucked away. Epsilon sat in the library and read a particularly interesting journal of the Meeting and the war that followed from the perspective of a civilian doctor. The more she learned, the more Epsilon pondered. Why did the aliens come? Why did they do what they did? Why did they wait so long to come back? They were interesting questions, but ones that had never been answered. Capturing these enemies was a difficult thing to do and very rare, and even when they did, they either refused to talk or did not know any human languages. All of the data was the same way. Even after this lengthy time, the alien language has not been decoded. This lack of information often frustrated Epsilon to no end. Throughout the rest of the base were multiple other rooms, from basic amenities such as personal rooms and a cafeteria to a luxurious lounge and game room, and a heavily equipped gym complete with a track and a field that could transform into anything from a hockey rink to a baseball diamond. Not to mention the locker room, hangar, weaponry and engineering labs, and classroom. Anything that one could want for a team of young adults destined to save the human race could need, aside from any kind of shopping area. There was no civilian access, and even military officials only came by rarely, so the team was only really ever in contact with the staff and supervisors of the program.