Posted Aug. 6, 2022, 11:42 a.m. by Civilian Jessa Novar (Child) (Kate O'Neill)
Jessa held her breath as the invisible beam swirled around her and moved her along its invisible tether from one place to another. It was still disorienting to her to use this method of transport. What disoriented her more was the state of the ship. Jessa looked around and felt like she was sucker punched. The XO was correct. The crew of the Atlantis had not just broken into the Beacon of Hope but destroyed all hope of the ship ever returning home.
Panels hung from half-broken hinges. Wires and electronic components seeped out from dented walls and consoles and coalesced like mechanical pools of blood on the floor. A few wires occasionally sparked in dark recessed corners or from overhead. The once honey-colored wood accents bore scorched marks where they had been set afire and put out from environmental fire suppression systems before becoming fully ablaze. Cracked and shattered console screens had sent chunks and shards of crystal plaz all over the floor. It made each step in the area sound like Jessa was stepping on newly formed ice. Large black streaks from weapons fire crisscrossed the walls, floors, and ceiling carving into the metal as if claws had tried to rip their way out of the metal skin of the Beacon’s hull.
For a second Jessa froze as misinformation from Aimee Rian and the state of the shuttle began to morph into a distorted sense of reality. Her mind went blank feeling the weight of what she was about to do begin to crush her. Closing her eyes, she fell back into a memory from home to center herself and increase her resolve.
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In Class at the Educational Center for Guardians
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This room was like all the others in the school with glistening white marble floors and walls. It was austere with no decorations except for two flags that hung on the wall framing the large windows that looked out to a peaceful garden. There was no need for mats or other protective gear when one was Divine. The injections by the medical staff ensured that any nick, scrap, or broken bone was healed almost as fast as it was acquired. The injections were tailored so the students could feel the pain long enough to know they had failed but this resulted in no permanent injury. In battle, one had to push through pain so a taste now helped the students to make fewer mistakes in accruing them.
The only people in the room were rows of students dressed in white athletic robes and one man dressed in black from head to toe. The visuals of the room and its occupants were mesmerizing. It was meant to be that way. It invoked a feeling of purity and strength.
Adar Vyce’s voice boomed through the walls of the gymnasium the students had gathered in for their lesson. “The universe does not bestow beings anything. It is earned through struggle, pain, and conflict. Life is a struggle, conflict, and pain. Rise about the anguish in a battle to know a warrior of the light lets no obstacle prevent them from pursuing the course given to them. Those who have a will to live in the light will triumph in battle. No one can stop a warrior on the path of righteousness. So who can stop you.”
“You can’t stop me. So who is going to stop me,” Jessa yelled out the response in unison with the rest of her peers?
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