Holy Order™ - RF Online Philippines

Everything was silent, and the only thing that could be heard was the heavy breathing from one of the members of the graduating class. He was seated upright on his bed, with sweat flowing from his forehead and down his brow. With his eyes wide open, he looked around and saw all the other members of his batch still sleeping. Gazing down his heavily laden hands, he tried to remember what he saw in his dream.

"What was that dream all about? When did it really happen?" he whispered to himself; trying not to wake up the other trainees. It was the third time he had that dream, and each time he gets to see more of what happens next. But, each time he would wake up right after the dream, and he would ask himself the same questions. He had thought of getting some answers by talking to their quarters counsellor, but he thought they would assume he was losing himself because of the training; he did not want that.

He looked outside and he figured that it was almost daybreak. The smell of the air and the way the still-cool breeze felt were his signs that it was almost time to get up.Today was a special day for him as well as the other 500 trainees of his batch that passed the training. He slowly took the container that he kept under his pillow and pressed on the lock. It gave off a short low-volume hiss as the pressurized locks opened up to reveal his accessories.

He took each accessory out one by one starting with the awards and medals that he was awarded during the training. He was awarded the leadership medal for leading his platoon to safety during an exercise in one of the desert plains in their vast training camp. Among the other awards that meant a lot to him was his medal of merit service, which was the last medal awarded to him by their training Sergeant, who was killed in a Turncoat ambush up North. It was that training Sergeant who taught him everything that he knew about being a shielded Bellato soldier.

Rank insignia was one of the most important accessories and he had that in a case like all the others. He was graduating with the rank of NCO-Royal, which was the second highest rank that one could achieve in the camp. He was satisfied with that as he breathed warm air on top of the case, then wiped the mist off with his blanket. He held the case with his large hands as he looked at the rank insignia with pride, then lay it down on his bunk in front of him as he was indian-seated.

As he lay the case down, he peered towards the next item in the foam-laiden case -- his name plate. It had his surname written across it in gold letters over dark metal. The glare from it, as the dim light from his spectrum emmitter shone some light on the plate, momentarily flashed over his eyes and he smiled. "DUREAUX," he read as he started polishing the name plate with a piece of static cloth that instantly removed the dust that would normally be covering the accessory.

"Anth, it's still too early. Turn off your light." called out another trainee. It was his buddy, Xadeus, another Sentry in the barracks, who was not a fan of being woken up ahead of his alarm.

"It's almost daybreak, Xad," Antherion replied casually. "You should get to preparing your stuff too."

"What? You're joking, right?" Xadeus replied in an undertone while peering out the window. He saw that dawn was almost breaking, and some light could be seen over the mountains. The large soldier rolled off his bunk and almost fell noisily on the floor, but he had enough agility to pick himself up quickly. Xadeus' accessories were usually under his bed so he took that out and started to do his own routine in preparing his uniform.

Antherion grinned in amusement as he always had the opportunity to watch his buddy fumble a bit whenever he woke him up in advance. About an hour before the troop call, the Sentry got up from his bunk and started dressing up in his black and blue gala uniform. Some of the other trainees in their barracks were getting ready as well; some still polishing their accessories while some were starting to wear their uniforms.

Just as Anth had finished closing up his top button, Xadeus was starting to wear his upper garment and seemed to be looking around for something.

"Anth, have you seen my name plate?" asked the overgrown Sentry.

Without looking, Anth replied with a smirk on his face, "It's there Xad."

"Where?"

"Where it's supposed to be, my friend." said the NCO-Royal as he turned around to point at his buddy's chest while fitting his white gloves.

"Oh. I already put it on."

"Yeah, but there's a smudge on it. You wouldn't want the Caters Johnson seeing that."

"No, of course not," Xad said as he took a oxy-emitter to blow some mist over the smudge, and then wiped it off with the back of the gadget.

Everyone was almost done wearing their uniforms when Anth finished packing his stuff into his duffel bag. He sat down on Xadeus' bunk as the other one was trying to get his items in order and started looking at some images in his datapad. It was the last time he will be seeing those pictures since they had to turn that datapad in after graduation in exchange for the one that they will be using in the field. He paused as he was looking at one of the pictures that had 4 of his closest friends in it.

"What do you think happened to Ouranos?" he asked as he was looking at the other images.

"Knowing him, he's out looking for girls," replied Xad with a grunt as he dropped a small hammer on his right foot.

"Heh. I mean, where do you think he'll be assigned to?" Anth asked as he closed his datapad and put it over his wrist.

"Probably somewhere in the Southern sector. He always wanted to go there."

"Where do you think we'll be assigned to?"

"You're even more anxious than I am, Anth! Let it go for a while! Let's graduate first!" Xad replied, giving Anth a strong pat on the back.

"I want to go to Novus." Anth said.

Xad paused for a while, and resumed stuffing his items into his bag. "Right into the meat of the action, as always, huh Anth?" said his friend, who was now arrranging his bunk. Antherion stood up and looked around at the other cadets as he stepped into the bunk alley. It was in that alley that he first bled in his entire life -- right in front of the bunk where he slept in.

It was his first day in the Academy and, as a maggot, he did not exactly get any priveleges. He was a cocky kind of person and had little respect for authority, and, on his first day, he met Caters Johnson as he was throwing his things on his bunk. Johnson was their training Sergeant. He was shorter than almost everyone else in the camp, but he was wide bodied and had rock hard muscles.When he was reprimanded by the smaller Bellato for throwing his items on the bed, he initiated the confrontation.

"Have more respect for your articles, maggot." snapped the smaller training Sergeant.

Seeing that the instructor was much smaller than him, Antherion turned around and snarled at Johnson without any knowledge that he was their instructor. "And what are you going to do about it?" he retorted in an arrogant manner.

"Beat you down, maggot," the relaxed drill instructor replied with a smirk. "And show you how things are done around here."

Without hesitation, Antherion moved to a suddent sprint and tried to go for a tackle. The experienced instructor just moved aside and gave the freshman a nudge that sent him sprawling on the floor and hitting one of the posts. As he was standing up, Johnson punched him and sent him falling on his backside, dizzy and with a bleeding nose.

From that time on, he had more respect for their company's training instructor, and took more effort into learning from him. Their company, Charlie Company of the Sentry Division, was known for having one of the hardest training sessions in the camp. By the end of all the years of training, it is something that everyone in the company grew to appreciate. With all the exercises into hostile territory, they only had 2 casualties.

Antherion reminisced the times that he fought side-by-side with their instructor during an exercise in the desert caves in Turncoat territory. He had a saddened look on his face as he remembered the time that he blocked a barrage of beam arrows aimed at Caters Johnson and another member of their platoon. He took another look at the award on his chest that was pinned to his gala uniform, since it was the award that he received after that encounter -- an Efficiency award.

A few more minutes passed before the morning call belowed across the camp. It would be the last time he, Xad and the rest of the Sentries would hear that call as they would be graduating on that day.

"Atten-tion!" commanded their Brigade Commander from outside.

The company stood at attention in unison, and one could feel the ground shake slightly as their feet stomped on the floor with gusto and a handsome snap. Commands to face right and march towards the graduation grounds were given and they smartly followed. They remained in formation, and continued to march in unison until they reached the field. They took their position beside Bravo company, a company of Armsmen, as the second platoon of their company made their way to their left.

The other companies soon followed as the sun rose from the horizon.

When all the companies of their graduating class were in formation, music was played on the speakers as one of their camp's officers, a Maximus, stood up and took the podium. When the music stopped, he addressed everyone, "Good morning ladies and gentlemen!"

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