A boy in the front raised his hand and answered, "They have insectoid bodies."
"That's correct," Morris replied, "But I'm looking for a better answer than the educational pamphlets we hand out to children. Does anyone know what Earth creature they look like?"
Gatrie raised his hand and said, "I've heard they look like praying mantises."
"Good! You're correct; they do look like a greatly enlarged version of our praying mantis. The average one that we came across during the war was almost eight feet tall," Morris continued, "Their height is only the first of many intimidating features they have. The most crucial strength and the reason why schools like this one were started is their exoskeleton." He tapped on his watch and brought up a holographic picture zoomed in on a Mantoan's head. He tapped a second time and brought up a picture of a rifle of some kind next to the Mantoan.
"This gun is a Barrett M99 .68 caliber anti-materiel rifle. Before the war with the Mantoan, this weapon was the pinnacle of armor penetration, capable of piercing a tank or similarly armored vehicle from half a mile away," Morris said as he pointed to the gun, "The rifle pictured here is the only weapon known to break through the Mantoan's exoskeleton at one hundred feet. Furthermore, the Mantoan have a natural resistance to radiation and explosions, making most of our arsenal worthless. Even our laser weapons were slow to damage both the personnel and equipment of our adversary." Then he quickly flashed through some scenes of
destruction from the war. Humans had leveled several of their own cities attempting to stop the
war of attrition including Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Rome, and Johannesburg to name a few; in total, one billion lives were lost during the war.
Morris sighed, "Without magik, humanity would have been wiped out or worse. Since the war ended in a truce without a decisive victory, it is this institution's responsibility to train the next generation of fighters. We will all spend the first few weeks of class learning about the Mantoan and the war. Are there any basic questions so far?"
"Why did they come here in the first place?" someone asked from the class.
"That's the biggest unanswered question we still have," Morris chuckled, "The official reason they gave was to take our resources; however, during the several years they occupied the Sol System, they never made any attempts to collect any materials, let alone what we would consider resources. In this class though, we will not explore why because that thinking is beyond our reach. We will instead continue our discussion on Mantoan biology."
Innes raised his hand, "Once the exoskeleton is broken through, isn't it fatal? I mean once you crack a bug's shell, it's done."
"Unfortunately, the appearance is where the similarities between the Mantoan and Earth insects ends," Morris shook his head, "Besides their incredibly tough exoskeletons and resistance to explosions and radiation, Mantoan also have enhanced healing capabilities. While we are still unsure exactly how quickly they can heal, multiple head shots were not always enough to incapacitate them. Decapitation is the only surefire way to fell a Mantoan." He tapped on his watch to change the image to a full-size image again, yet this one seemed to have wings extending from its back.
Morris continued, "As if their defenses weren't fearsome enough, they share a couple other features with insects, the first being retractable wings. Luckily, the Mantoan seem unable to use these wings for true flight and are only able to use them for temporary hovering or gliding. They are also capable of using their wings as a blade to strike foes behind or to the side of their body since the edges and tips are sharp. Additionally, Mantoan have hands with opposable thumbs like us, but their fingertips are sharp like claws. Though not strong enough to cut through our reinforced vehicles and defenses, they are more than strong enough to cut through traditional body armor and normal metal. Are there any questions?"
"So, they're virtually indestructible, have a speedy recovery, and have natural weapons against most of our protection," a kid in the middle of the room blurted out, "Do they even have a weakness?"
Morris sighed, "There are two slight advantages we have against the Mantoan. First, the few autopsies we have been able to complete show that Mantoan are sterile. Of course, that doesn't solve any immediate problem, but it does show that either Mantoan have a limited number of forces they can send or the resource they are looking for could be other forces, conscripted to fight and die on their behalf. Second, they are, on average, only slightly stronger than your average human, meaning it is their durability, not their strength, which makes physical confrontation challenging. With magik, one can tip the scales in their favor and overpower a Mantoan." Many of the students nodded their heads in agreement with the statement. Magik
was taught and practiced among all ages due to this one fact. In the end, technological advances had largely mimicked the practical use for magik between AI and smart appliances, but weapons were limited by the materials used to make them.
Morris continued to describe the Mantoan as he flipped through pictures, but Emory had started to tune him out. Although this information was important, she had gotten the full picture of the Mantoan through the holograms now that Morris had described the important bits. She liked this part of the lesson, either here or back in secondary school, because it was the part when she had figured out the lesson and could just passively listen to the rest. While in this state, her mind would wander as she thought about different things. Today she replayed her combat lesson in her head over and over again but thought of different ways she could strike.
Midway through the class, Morris gave everyone a ten-minute break to use the restroom, stretch their legs, or get some water. Most of the class used the opportunity to move around at the very least. When the class was ready to start again, Morris dimmed the lights and tapped his watch to change the hologram to that of a man most of them didn't recognize. "Does anyone recognize the man in the hologram?" Morris asked.
"Isn't that Alvin Bluey?" Sam responded with her hand raised, "He was one of the most well-known heroes from the war."
"Correct. Alvin Bluey is credited with creating the Rapid Response System that marked the turning point in the war against the Mantoan. Does anyone know what the RRS did that changed the war?" Morris pressed them further.
Another student raised their hand and replied, "The RRS was the first functional communication system that used quantum entanglement to relay messages."
"Correct again! You see, though we had long solved the way to travel across the galaxy quickly, we had not solved instant communication. Mr. Bluey was the scientist on Proxima Centauri B that implemented quantum entanglement theory into morse code that serves as the basis for all our modern communication devices," Morris explained, "Once our communication systems were superluminal, we could coordinate our forces across the Sol system with a greater urgency than before. It is one of two major turning points in the war. Can anyone tell me what the other turning point was?" This time, though, the class was silent. Finally, as Morris was about to answer the question himself, Emory raised her hand.
"The scientists here on Mars discovered a cure to the famine," Emory answered confidently.
Morris tapped his watch again and the holograms changed to a couple. The man had short curly blonde hair that matched his below average height and weight while the woman had long straight red hair down to her waist and stood a head taller than the man. Morris pointed to the hologram and said, "Though it was a team, these two heroes led that team. This is Marty and Roselin Reiss, two of the brightest Martian minds. After they developed a cure, they hastily adapted it to the genes of all our master seeds. When the fighting came to Mars, they bravely laid down their lives to save the rest of the team of scientists. Every one of you should strive to live up to the example they left as Martians." Sam nudged Emory who sank down in her chair. Emory didn't like to think about her parents, so what few memories she had of them, she had blocked them out. However, she knew the story of her parents passing all too well.
~~~
June 27, 2144
Sirens were going off in the lab and lights were flashing across all the screens in the lab. A tall ginger woman in a lab coat shook the shoulders of a much smaller blonde man standing in front of one of the only screens not flashing clacking away at a keyboard. "Marty, it's time to leave. You've done everything you could," she pleaded.
Marty replied, "Rose, it's not safe yet. You know we need to bury the information so deep that no one finds it. Please get to the shelter."
"It's still just conjecture," Roselin countered, "We don't know where that data came from. It could even be a plant." Marty just kept typing away on the keyboard. On his screen, lines of code were running across the screen so fast it almost looked like a blur. After a minute or so, the siren's roar died down suddenly while the screen continued to light up with some alert. Then a man came out from behind a metal door in the back of the room.
"Didn't you two hear the siren stop? That means they're in the compound! Get in the bunker with us!" the man whisper yelled.
"Rose, go with Tim and lock the door behind you," Marty firmly stated, "I've started the final wiping process, but it will take some time to finish. Please, think of Emory." Tears were welling up in his eyes as he said these last few words.
Roselin put her hand on his and softly replied, "'Til death do us part, remember? Tim, you heard my husband: get in and lock the door." As she finished her command, a loud crash could be heard down the hall. Tim looked with longing eyes back at the couple. He sighed as he accepted their inevitable sacrifice.
"I will never let them forget your sacrifice," Tim said as he started bawling. A few moments later, the door was shut, and a series of locks were heard clicking into place. Marty calmly walked over to a shelf where a pair of metal gauntlets sat. He donned them and turned to his wife who had made a glowing white sphere of magik in her hands. Then they could hear a distinct clicking noise, as if someone were smacking their lips repeatedly.
"What percentage is the wipe?" Roselin asked as a single tear rolled down her face.
"82% and climbing," Marty replied as he moved away from the screen again and pushed a desk into the front door of the lab, "This will only slow them down for a few seconds, but it's all we can do." He grabbed her hand and squeezed tight. His voice wavered, "I'm sorry we didn't get to grow old together. But I couldn't leave that information out for anyone. Even if we're gone, there's still Emory. If we can shield her from the worst of this, we've done our jobs as parents."
Roselin smiled as she looked at her husband, "I don't regret our decisions. Not a single one. Am I still your favorite?"
"Always," he replied as he kissed her. Then the door and part of the wall fell on the table as if someone had cut through the whole setup. The Mantoan had arrived.
~~~
After homeroom class, it was time for dinner. Emory had zoned out after seeing her parents on the hologram. The whole ordeal was still raw for her, maybe it always would be. Unfortunately, Morris didn't detail what happened to the Reiss family after the Mantoan killed her parents. One by one her father's family was slaughtered by the Mantoan; although they could be chalked up to coincidence because they were all killed in combat, it was strange that she was completely orphaned within the year. Emory had never met her mother's family. The group noticed that Emory was a little distracted, but they didn't press her on the issue. When dinner was finished, they headed back to the room. Most of them were tired from the first day of
classes and content to lie on their beds, yet Emory wasn't. She pulled out the book she got from the library and started reading.
This one was titled "Hexbloods" which wasn't a term Sam seemed to know anything about for once. As she started reading, she could feel eyes staring at her. Sam was only a few inches away from her face when Emory jerked up.
Sam asked, "What does this one say?"
"Hexbloods," Emory replied, "It's weird. I didn't have to use my magik to read this one. Honestly, I don't have to use magik to read the other one either."
"You don't? That is weird. And I've never heard of Hexbloods before. Can I sit with you while you read and listen to what it says?" Sam bashfully questioned. Emory sighed, rolled her eyes, and then patted the bed next to her.
~~~
Hexbloods
A Complete Compendium of Mortal Fae
Several thousands of years ago, mythical beings called the Fae roamed the world. They were physically similar to humans with two key differences: their pointed ears and their magik awareness. The Fae used their magik freely but mostly for their own benefit, only helping humans that brought gifts or traded favors with them. It is not that the Fae were evil, rather that they had no vested interest in the plights of humanity. However, after some unknown incident, the Fae decided to teach certain humans how to sense and use magik. Then at another time, the Fae largely disappeared, and those that remained interbred with the humans. The union of these two species created a separate species called a Hexblood. They were born with all the magik power of the Fae in the body of a human. Unlike humans, though, they can only learn one sphere of magik for each one is already born with a special sphere unique to themselves
called Arcane; however, they are also able to learn Fae spheres as well as Human spheres. In this compendium, we will dive further into the differences between Fae, Hexbloods, and humans, then briefly discuss the spheres of magik available to Hexbloods, and finish by talking about theories about the power limits of Hexbloods as well as their conceivable power ascension.
~~~
Emory paused after reading the book's introduction and looked at Sam whose jaw was hanging wide open. Most of the words meant nothing to Emory, but they had clearly affected Sam. "Sam? Everything okay?" Emory gently asked.
"I just can't believe it all," Sam quietly replied, "Does this mean that you're a Hexblood?"
Emory rubbed her chin, "It doesn't say that only Hexbloods can learn Arcane, just that they're born with it. Though in my case, this seems more likely because I truly had no idea that I could do this."
"Well go on then!" Sam said as she nudged Emory, "Flip to the next page." They opened the table of contents and read through them thoroughly. "By my count, there are nine spheres of magik that humans can't learn," Sam stated as Emory rattled off the table of contents, "Or at least eight spheres I've never heard before and Arcane which we don't know about. What do you suppose they are like?"
"Should I skip ahead to the sphere descriptions then?" Emory asked.
"Why don't I give you some space while I meditate and practice channeling my magik?" Sam suggested, "Then you can give me a summary whenever you find something interesting. You know you're going to read it anyway." She had a cheeky grin on her face as she said this. Emory glared but knew she would indeed enjoy not reading every word aloud; the book was several hundred pages long. Then a certain creaking from Tana and Tethys's bunks as Emory saw both the girls try to quickly hide their interest.
Emory sighed, "Since all of you are invested now, I suppose I'll share what I read." The other girls just snickered as Emory started reading. Given that she had only recently discovered her first sphere, she wasn't interested in the other spheres just yet. Luckily, Emory was a speedy reader due to her life spent reading research papers, so she started reading about the Fae first. Tana had called them faeries but surely, she didn't mean the ones from the fables.
After reading for fifteen minutes, they were indeed talking about faeries. Emory learned all sorts of information about these creatures that she shared with her roommates. Fae or faeries were creatures from another place and had come to Earth due to its vibrant life force. Even more strange to the Fae was the intelligent life here wasn't born with or practiced magik despite the planet having an abundance of it. The Fae were humanoid in appearance, but each one looked like the pinnacle of human beauty with distinct pointed ears. Although height varied greatly with some only four feet tall and others seven feet tall, their build was consistently fit across the population. Their skin color, though ranging from alabaster to ebony, always appeared to glow and was always flawless.
Another biological difference between humans and Fae was their natural restorative powers. Most small injuries healed almost instantly; anything short of dismemberment could be healed with enough time. That assumes one could damage a Fae in the first place as their skin is stronger than animal scales or shells. Though not impenetrable, it only added to their prowess. Beyond physical durability, the Fae also seemed to process information and react to stimuli faster than even the best of humanity. But their most impressive regenerative feat is their longevity; according to the book, they were biologically immortal and immune to human sickness or disease.
But the biggest biological difference between humanity and the Fae was their innate magik. Humans perform magik using the power round them and fill themselves up like a vessel; in contrast the Fae naturally produced their own magik, only drawing from their surroundings when it was available. This allowed them to produce feats of magik no human could produce.
When Emory finished her summary, she paused and looked up. Tana and Tethys were staring intently but Sam's jaw was hanging open. She gasped, "Do you know how much we just learned in that little bit?"
"I'm curious though," Tana interjected, "Where did they come from? And why did they leave their old world?"
"Where did they go as well? Ooo or maybe they're still around somewhere," Tethys added.
"It doesn't say where the magik on Earth comes from or whether it's just Earth with an abundance of magik either. Obviously, there must be some here otherwise we couldn't perform magik, right?" Emory pondered aloud. Emory went back to reading as the other three continued to think about what they had heard.
Unfortunately, the book was scant of information about the Fae's home world except for a few key facts. The world they left was losing its magik, and the Fae themselves were being attacked by some unknown aggressor. However, Earth was only one of several worlds they visited. And while some may remain on Earth, the number at the time of the book being written was in the double digits.
Fae society revolved around magik and was prevalent throughout their daily lives. These
achieved this feat through their internal supply as well as through a process called enchantment. It was a specialized form of magik that inlayed power in inanimate objects similar to the magical forging of today's era but far more advanced in both the properties one could bestow and the variety of items one could enchant. It was unknown how old the book was, but this enchantment sounded better than anything we currently had, let alone at the time of writing. With that, she had finished off what the book had to say about the Fae. It had gotten very late, and the girls decided to leave it there for the night. Emory couldn't stop thinking about the Fae
and how much magik they would have had. She finally smiled and dozed off when she remembered that the Hexbloods were supposedly mortal fae, meaning they may have as much power as the Fae.