Even I knew that I would have to figure out a way to get better than that. This week was essentially a tutorial and I was going to be dead weight on exploration missions. I was able to practice during the night. I was able to get a bit faster during climbing. The sixth day, we got to use our power armor. We would be using it 2 days in a row. It had the same camouflage pattern as our trainee uniform pants. The first day was for hand-to-hand combat and the second was for mock battles with guns. Calibration was easy now that I knew what to expect. I got 4 wins out of five. Haroon got 3 wins while Dolan and Corey both got 2 each. On the second day, I was on fire. I won all 5 fights and Haroon got 3 wins. Dolan got 2 wins and Corey got 3 wins. At the end, the male robotic voice said "As there is less than optimal numbers, you have all been advanced. Results will now be displayed." Out of 46 boys, I was ranked 29. That exosuit day really killed me. Haroon was ranked 19. Dolan and Corey were 26 and 35 respectively. "Choose your companions. A squad is no more than six people." the voice said.
Four people was not a full squad. With only 46 people, you could only make 7 full squads. Four people would be left over. We did not want that to be us. Larl Warwin and a shameless Alyas Orr were ranked 45 and 46. Since they had did the worst, they were frantically asking others to team up with them. I was going to ask others and move on, but Haroon brought them aboard. I asked him why. "You got to choose Dolan and Corey. I wanted to pick people too. And I don't want to be the squad with only four in it." Larl had yellow-green hair and black eyes. He had a cloth head wrap that forced his spiky hair to go in a 55-degree angle. Alyas had crimson red hair and nice bronze-colored eyes. He had a black plastic hairband that kept it straight and long. They were also fit with an athletic build. It was the same for the others in the squad as well. I was the only one out of place in the cohort. I was a bit on the lanky side with not a lot of muscle tone. Nobody seemed to care. Because we took Larl and Alyas in, that left the boys ranked 41-44 stranded. All of our squadmates were really thankful to us.
If the training was cool, the celebration was even better. There was a full festival, and we were given formal military outfits. They were a dark yellow with orange trim. We got to play around the ship and the dining hall gave us a great meal. People all over the ship thanked us and wished us well. The voice told us to report to the temple for the ascension ceremony. It was a whole floor of the massive ship. Priests came out the woodwork with very gaudy robes. At the end, all four of the deviants were brought up to the. Orin Maddox, Michee Meyers and Maison Wover were brought to the chopping block above the altar one by one. They were beheaded and then their hearts were cut out of their chests. It was pretty gruesome, but also heavy metal. Zake Anderson broke free by punching the priest holding him and running. The priests tried to blast him with their solar beams, but he was too fast and agile for them. He was a born and raised warrior. When he reached the doors to leave the temple, he was then skewered by several spears from all the guards outside. Zake died there. I looked at him.
Going by the looks on both Dolan and Corey's faces, they knew that would have been them unless I stepped in to save them. I said "Corey. Dolan. Don't worry about it. I will protect both you guys." I held their hands. A chill ran down Corey's spine. Dolan turned to me and said "Please!" His undercut was pretty cool. Corey had wild hair with bangs. After a bit of cleanup, they priests were able to finish the ceremony. They sprinkled the blood on us from the top of the steps. With that ritual finished, we were dismissed. We left the temple and had free reign of the ship again. We were now fully fledged Rays of Osolario. That meant that we could be called on to defend all of the tenants of faith or enforce the religious laws. The next day we were told that we would be able to choose assignments. It was clear to me that I was more suited to combat, but exploration would be cool. I saw lots of places that we could go. In this system, there were five planets and there was a couple of colonies in the last system we were on. We could go police some problems that sprung up there or help explore here.
