The next month passed by so quickly that if you asked Travis he wouldn't be able to differentiate one day from the next. It certainly helped that his training was pretty much the same the whole time.
Travis spent his days fighting the first sergeant, working out, fighting Vanessa, and then working out some more. The only real thing that changed was the first sergeant never used the same weapon twice, and imposed the same restriction on his apprentices.
When Travis had asked why, he simply said: "I am the only weapons master currently in the company, I want you two to join me in holding this title."
At first there wasn't any noticeable changes, but as the month wore on, it became apparent how effective their training really was. After roughly half the time had passed, they had improved so much that only those in the top five could be considered worthy sparing partners, although after a very close fight, Vanessa was still unable to take rank five for herself.
By the end of the month, she had succeeded, and first platoon first squad found itself with two of the top five in one team, and another two from the top twenty in the squad, making it one of the strongest squads in the company. Then the end of the training time came.
"Neither of you is at the level where I can give you the title of weapons master yet." First sergeant McLaughlin said, addressing Travis and Vanessa. "But you're well on your way. Now 30 more reps and you can go get cleaned up. Corporal Miller please keep in mind the new soldiers will be arriving at 1400, so be at the drill hall by 1300. And don't forget you are a leader now, so issue orders to your team appropriately."
With that they completed their reps and left the gym. Travis said goodbye to Vanessa and headed to his room. As he went to open the door, a hand grabbed his shoulder.
"I know you're probably tired, but we need you."
Travis turned around and found Lance and Taylor there.
"Can it wait until after I shower?"
"No." Taylor told him flatly, then grabbed his wrist and dragged him into Lance's room.
As the door shut behind him Travis spoke. "So what was so important that we have to have this meeting while I smell like shit?"
"A few things, 1: we need to figure out our orders for the initiation. 2: immediately afterwards, we have a mission which we need to plan for. 3: now that you are leadership you need to be brought up to speed on how the divine shards work." Taylor told him
"Alright, let's start with the first one."
"Since we have to be there at 1300, why not have our people be there by 1330?" Lance suggested.
Both Millers nodded their heads in agreement, and Lance and Travis quickly issued the order to their people.
"Now the second one." Taylor said. "There has been an anomaly detected in sector 23, our job is to investigate it and determine the threat level."
"What type of anomaly? And what part of sector 23?" Travis asked.
"Section 23-8A2. And a spatial type anomaly. We aren't sure exactly what, but something distorted the space in that area, similar to a rift. It was only open for a few seconds, so if it is a recon team they can't have more than a squad."
"And what's the response from sector security?" Lance asked.
"Sector security put the entire section on lockdown, and is currently checking the identifications of everyone inside, but if it truly is a team of demigods…"
"Sector security is fucked." Travis finished for her. "Well first let's see what sector security has for us on the ground then go from there."
"And no splitting up, if it truly is a team of demigods the last thing we need is to split into small groups and get ambushed one by one" Lance added.
"I do have an idea about what this could be though." Travis said. And as he did so both heads in the room snapped towards him.
Travis told him of his vision of the portal, and for a handful of heartbeats it was silent.
"So are they demigods?" Taylor asked.
"I can't say for certain, but I don't think so, they looked like regular mortals, albeit slightly taller, the only odd this was that the man had red eyes. But that doesn't mean he's a demigod."
"Well regardless, if we know there's only two, we can narrow down our search. And since we have a description of both of them we can forward that to sector security now so they don't waste time and effort." Lance said.
"I'll get on it right away. I'll also inform them that individuals matching this description should be monitored, but should not be approached." Taylor responded, getting up and moving to the terminal in Lance's room to send the order.
After she had done that. She turned back to the two men. "Now for the last part. This information is classified. Sharing it with anyone outside this room will result in a court martial. Understood?"
Both men nodded, so she continued. "As you know, the divine shards give us inhuman abilities and power our suits as well as all of our augmentations. But it goes deeper than that.
They make us practically immortal until the 250 years is up. We can heal from any wound, no matter how major as long as the divine shard is intact. The only way to prematurely kill a demigod is to destroy their divine shard. And doing so will actually strengthen your own.
In fact they are so powerful that we have to be cybernetically enhanced in order to give the shards a way to expend energy. Without that, our bodies wouldn't be able to hold up to the strain and would explode."