Codename: Freedom - Book 4 - Chapter 39 part A

Hitting our rhythm, as Kline had put it, came sooner than I’d have guessed. I basically ended up living in my Cube has I had in Freedom. There were a few exceptions. Marching and the streamlined version of basic training they had us going through, which was a shadow of the real thing, was done out of Cube. Combat parkour was another. Other than that, all of my personal training was done in the recover chamber and training hall which were in sim.

Schedule

Sleep (0000-0200)

Early Morning (0200-0600)

- Heavy, explosive full body workout. Psionic use minimal, but consistent.

- Recover through psionic healing and the recovery chamber.

- (Intake 1090 calories every two hours on average)

- Agility training. Psionic use minimal. Cycling through notes or micro pulses during exercises.

- Recovery.

Morning (0600-1200)

- Breakfast.

- Marching/military training. (Cycle psionic notes while training)

- Psionic ability training. (Current focus on Hovering)

- Meditation and recovery in recovery chamber.

- Combat parkour with Mara.

- Recovery in recovery chamber.

Midday (1200 – 1600)

- Lunch.

- Training with Krato.

- Recovery.

- (New) Meet with Combat Development Team to research unique uses of psionics and military solutions.

Early Night (1600 – 2000)

- Recovery.

- ~Vanguard~

- Continue Prodos expansion on planet Hectate.

- Food intake when possible.

Prime Time (2000 – 2400)

- Most major events will be held during this time.

- Normally, this is an extension of Prodos expansion.

- Varies depending on how long each day’s mission take. Close out the day fighting simulated enemies in the training hall.

When I focused solely on my physical progression, my schedule left much to be desired. I was only able to put in two to three sessions a day with that as the main focus. Combat parkour could also be considered a hybrid session as was my meeting with the Combat Development Team. Training with Krato held the potential that it might become more physical, but so far he had kept it skill based.

I’d hoped my time commanding my men during Prodos’s expansion would’ve given me more opportunity to fight, but that was rarely the case. I was mainly there to learn, give directions, and step up if there was an enemy that couldn’t be defeated by my men.

My time recovering was spent mostly in mediation. As Kline had recommended, I began taking my human competition seriously, though half the time I still studied what we could find about the Ekseliksi. There were only two battalions we really had to worry about. Forefathers had a mix of Freedom and Genesis participants, but only a few of the top fighters from each. Lethal Accord, on the other hand, was made up of solely of those from Genesis. The only one that really worried me was Lethal Accord.

“The first main event is scheduled for the end of the first quarter of this year,” Destiny said through her life size hologram. We were in the recovery chamber alone, so she wore a comfy, flowery dress and was sitting there, dangling her feet off the side of her drone. Her eyes were scanning an invisible panel. “Curious… There will be no one-on-one tournament this quarter. There are a few internal memos explaining that they hope to build up anticipation for one large tournament at the end of Vanguard. They hope to do the same thing with the battalion vs battalion competitions.”

I was standing in the middle of the recovery chamber cycling from psionic note to note when I responded. “You mean we won’t be facing any of our competition directly?”

“Exactly. And if the ratings do well, it sounds like they plan on keeping it that way until the very end of Vanguard. Each event they hold will be much fairer than the first, and ramp up in difficulty. They plan on holding one every quarter and have the last one as the grand finale. It’s then when they will put battalion against battalion and also hold a grand tournament.”

“Then we won’t get to face off against our competition until then.”

She kicked off her drone and walked over to me. “I think this is to our benefit. By then, more of our men will have advanced to rank E. I can always observe all the battle and training footage of each competitor and set up a training sim so that you and your men can fight them.”

I acknowledge that she had a point, but there was something else she said that made things look dim. “And if you’re right? Seven or eight of them have the potential to reach rank D psionics by that time?”

“That’s true, but only half of them belong to Lethal Accord.”

“Only half?”

She mockingly mouthed, “Only half?” Looking at me pointedly, she continued. “You were able to beat rank E psionic users when at rank F.”

“But the jump in power between E and D seems much more potent.”

“Maybe, but you faced off with a rank D Ekseliksi elite with only rank E psionics.”

“Sacrificing my own body so that a city-sized energy weapon could finish him isn’t exactly what I consider a personal victory.”

“Eh,” she brushed off my complaint, and threw up a window in front of me.

Psionic Status

Psionic Level: Rank E

Psionic Energy: 313,073 (Units)

Psionic Power: 311 (Maximum energy use per second)

Psionic Recovery Rate: 4.03 (Units of Psionic Energy recovered per second)

“Your psionic power is still at the beginning stages of rank E. By the end of the year, you should be much closer to rank D than you are now. There is a large jump in power between ranks. However, each point you earn through training has a measurable impact, and its more pronounced than it was when you were rank F.”

I stopped cycling my psionics altogether considered the implications. “How much of a difference is there between a low and high level rank E user?”

She just grinned, waiting for me to beg.

Leaning forward, I loosed my breath on her holographic form.

She stepped back holding her face in melodramatic fashion. “How dare you, peanut butter/banana breath.”

Her hologram had no power to smell me, but the sensors her drone’s body were equipped with could smell many times better than I could.

“Okay,” she said. “I give up. You don’t have much to compare it to now, so let’s say going from the lowest to the highest level of rank E is similar from ranking up from G to F. It’s a very significant difference.”

I was stunned. Snapping out of it, I asked. “So that’s why there is such a difference between Genesis participants when over a thousand of them are rank E.”

“Skill and psionic abilities play a larger role as well, but you’d be right in saying that.”

“That changes things…”

I turned away and began pacing.

A now familiar hum filled the space around me. Stopping where I was, I turned to Destiny as her microdrones surrounded us.

Once they were set, she began speaking. “I think you should bring this to Victoria. It has been more than a week since we met with her, and even though I’m capable of making such inferences, I can guarantee this is something she’s already well aware of.”

I rejected the option outright. “Vanguard has really just begun. The last thing she needs right now is for me to burdening her with questions on fine details about the basic.”

“Then why not discuss it with Peter?”

“He gets enough questions from me due to the Combat Development Team. Let’s limit them to the most important ones. You’re the one always telling me that I’ve been delegated a leadership role, so if I see something that needs done, I should just do it.”

“You’re a pain in the rear, do you know that?”

“Do you technically have a rear end?” I glanced at her drone body.

“Funny. Now, get a move on. Recovery times up.”