Psychosomatic Output: 10,000 Bio-Units

  Synaptic Rank: unbound

  Arthros office was crammed as the pilots gathered for the debrief. The twins boasted loudly about the mission to anyone who would listen, while Fydither snickered beside them. Dight, because he couldn’t fit inside the room, rumbled something intelligible from out in the hall.

  “So, you blew up a bunch of Relocun ships? That can’t be why you called us all in here.” Graito said, two sets of arms crossed against his elongated torso.

  Arthros kept his expression neutral, “No, I noticed a Union ship anchored several kilometers outside the battle. So, I got close enough to data scan.”

  There was a collective gasp and the room went quiet.

  “An intrusive scan on a Union cruiser?” Randrea’s mouth hung open. “The Sovereignty is going to skin you alive.”

  Arthros lip twitched, “No they’re not, I just spoke with them. It was my first stop when I returned from the guard duty. They had to know what I found.”

  They all stared at him expectantly, and he took a slow breath.

  “I have a firm suspicion that the Union is pnning on starting a war.”

  The pilots all shared uneasy gnces; he had been preparing them for a possibility like this for a long time.

  “The cruiser belonged to a council member named Cyprus Atik, Zero is uploading the data scan to your PETs.”

  The pilots all twisted their palms upward to activate their PETs. For the Hokkonians, it was a ring on their forefinger. Sto'ram and Graito didn’t have fingers slim enough, so theirs had to be converted to bracelets. Dight was physically incapable of wearing one, so he waited patiently in the hall.

  A holographic portrait of Cyprus appeared on their all their palms.

  Arthros gred at the repeating image, “This is the same human who denied me access at Terminus-14 when I was investigating the breach. I think she’s harboring the invader and plotting to unch an attack into Sovereignty space.”

  “So, this woman is allies with the HWND killer?” Fydither muttered.

  Arthros nodded, “I think so, moving forward we should assume the alien is with her.”

  “We have another mission?” Flux asked.

  “Obviously you idiot, why else would we be here.” Scor said, smacking his brother in the head.

  “You’re the idiot! -“

  “There’s no mission,” Arthros said loudly, “The Sovereignty is assigning another division to the case.”

  He scanned the room and met the eyes of his Pilots. He could see the disappointment in their faces. “I wanted to make sure you were all up to date on the intel. In the meantime, you’ll oversee Jericho’s training.”

  The others hesitated but accepted the order with slight nods.

  Graito let out an exasperated sigh “I don’t mean any offense Commander, but he’s a human, he’s going to get us killed! We’re not going to stand for it.”

  The room went quiet. Fydither nodded but the others looked away.

  “So that’s it? The human passes one lousy test and suddenly you’ve all accepted him?” Graito sneered.

  Arthros smmed his hand onto the desk, and the Myrd fell silent. “They’re obeying my orders, something that’s expected of you as well. Do you forget about the life I saved you from? You weren’t so different from Jericho.”

  Graito stared at him, the hurt written on his face. Arthros felt genuine concern for the Pilot, but he didn’t have time to unpack the underlying issue. The Myrd would just have to accept the reality and move on. He hoped that would be possible.

  “He’s trying at least,” Randrea’s mutter broke the awkward silence.

  The hurt on the Myrd’s face twisted back to anger, “That’s another thing, I don’t know what’s wrong with you tely! You’re as obsessed with him as Arthros.”

  Arthros blinked, what did that mean? It was no surprise that she was his greatest supporter, but obsessed seemed to be a strange choice of words.

  The female’s spines stood on end, “I despise what you’re implying.”

  Graito’s lips curled, “and what am I implying?”

  A nervous tension filled the air. It wasn’t often that the two of them fought, and when they did the others didn’t know how to handle it.

  Randrea took a step to Graito, her spines now fully erect, “He’s progressing faster than you.”

  Graito faltered, and Arthros sighed. He was really hoping to keep Jericho’s true potential a secret for as long as possible. Once the others found out he was unbound, the merit of his grit and determination would be lost. No one liked to admit when someone was better than them, especially pilots whose ego alone could match HWND mech in size.

  “That’s impossible,” Graito snarled, “he’s a human.”

  “He’s currently emitting a psychosomatic output of 1,044, that’s a 248% increase after two days.” Sto'ram’s watery voice cut in.

  The twins started to whisper to one another and Dight stomped his feet in the hallway. Even Arthros couldn’t help but be impressed, the human’s growth was rapid regardless of his unbound psymetra.

  Graito’s mouth opened and closed like a dying fish. He didn’t know what to say, and Arthros felt a flicker of sympathy for the frustrated Myrd. Jericho was going to surpass all of them in due time, it was up to them to understand that and foster the human’s growth until then.

  “How, how is that possible?” The Myrd ground the words out through clenched teeth.

  Randrea smoothed her spines and shrugged. Sto'ram shook her head and turned pupil-less eyes on Arthros.

  It was Fydither who clued in first, “I think there’s something the Commander isn’t telling us.”

  Arthros groaned inwardly and fought the urge to exasperatedly deny. Jericho needed more time to grow before his secret was out! All eyes were on him as he thought of an answer, unfortunately his silence spoke volumes.

  “Who is Jericho?” Sto'ram said.

  “What is he? A human isn’t capable of this.” Randrea muttered.

  His office explode in a cacophony of questions, from Dight’s rumbling to Sto'ram’s watery inquiries. What would they do if they found out? What would happen to the dynamic of the division? Jericho need allies, not jealous enemies.

  “Commander?”

  “Arthros, if he’s not human does that mean we can fight him now?”

  “Cap? What’s going on?”

  Arthros stood up from his chair and the sudden movement caused everyone to fall silent. He took a moment to look at each of their faces. This family had been built from his sweat and blood. What would happen if they knew about Jericho’s unlimited potential? Would they revere him or ostracize him.

  Probably both.

  “Jericho is unbound, like me.” He said.

  They all stared at him in shock. Even the twins ceased their incessant gibbering. Arthros watched them carefully, but they were experts at guarding their emotions. Judging from their silence, they were in disbelief.

  “You’re all dismissed,” He said quietly.

  They left without a word.