The Rift

Chapter Six

Ava was impressed by the base. It was huge and ultramodern, with crome and glass everywhere. Of course all the glass was high tech bulletproof, and Ava doubted that this building could be broken by an army with power grenades. Compared to base three this new base, base one, was a fortress.

The bus from base three had taken them on a half hour drive through the crowded streets of New York City. Thanks to the self driving automobiles there had been no traffic. The cars knew where everyone was, so the were able to take routes to minimise traffic and get to their destination on the fastest route.

Now here they were at base one ready to get their divisions. To get into a division you needed to take a test to qualify. Some were much harder than others, and so were usually only attained by soldiers who had some experience and recommendations by their previous leaders. There were five air divisions, five ground divisions and the military coordinators. Each ground division had a vowel as its name, and the air divisions used consonants. Ava was not interested in the ground divisions which meant she had to pass a test for something she wanted more. The division that Ava wanted the most was the T division. Those were the small, but very fast, one person planes. Unfortunately the T division was one of the hardest to get into. Ava had flown a T division plane before when her dad had been building a new model. He had said that she had a natural talent for flying, but that did not mean that she was good enough to get into the T division right away.

They continued walking down the gleaming hallways following the military coordinator, until they got to a large open area. There were eleven glass doors spaced out around that walls and a few sets of tables and benches. Each door was labeled with a letter representing one of the divisions. One side of the room had the air divisions, the opposite wall had the ground divisions and the wall straight in front of them had one door marked MC for military coordinator.

"You should all know the different divisions by now," said the coordinator. "If you do not there is a list with descriptions on each of the tables. Through the doors are the tests. Each test is designed to take about fifteen to twenty minutes. If you pass, you will be taken to your divisions training area. If you do not pass any of the tests that you want, you can choose to be a MC or a division A foot soldier. Good Luck."

Everyone rushed toward the divisions they wanted, not wanting to get caught in a long line. Hardly any of them were heading to the T door. Ava had talked to her friends, and they had said the the idea of flying alone without anyone else inside the plane to help you was daunting. Apparently most of the people around her agreed. As Ava approached the door, it slid open with a slight hiss. Ava walked through into a small hallway. She followed it around a corner where she came out in a small room. There were two T division soldiers sitting in chairs looking at screens in front of them. She could tell that they were T division by the insignia on the upper left side of the uniform. All of the League's uniforms were a dark army green, but each division had its own insignia. The T division had a azure blue insignia with a black T.

"You can sit there," said one of the soldiers pointing at a row of chairs along the wall. Ava looked at the soldiers. Both were female, and both looked as if they wished they were somewhere other than here.

"It will probably be about fifteen minutes until one of the testing booths is open."

Ava sat down, and greatfuly realized that the seats were mechanical, adjusting the pressure at certain points on her back. By just sitting down she had a seat custom shaped for her. She looked up at the screens, four of them total, that the soldiers were staring intently at. They were showing the occupants of the testing booths. There were two booths and two screens for each booth. One screen showed the person and the other the simulated T plane that they were flying. Looking close at the screens, Ava realized that they were actually touch sensitive holographic screens. The video quality was so good that Ava had thought that they could not have been holographic. Wow, she thought to herself. The League had pretty nice equipment, and apparently a pretty big budget too.