Sync Chapter 2

Chapter 2
Kenny
*Riiiiing!*
God, I hate that bell. I sat up with an annoyed grunt and glared at the speaker embedded in the steel ceiling of my room. As if it were by my command, the noise ended. Much better. I groggily dragged myself out of bed and to the small bathroom. Ugh. I hate mornings so much. I started my brain up as the tooth brusher went to work on my teeth. Man, I remember when I first got here and I had no idea how to work any of these machines. I was hopeless. Being from a outer ring colony, I’d never had access to this level of tech. Then again, most people don't have access to THIS level of tech. Only the best for the Bastion.
Ahh, the Bastion. The most advanced technology in the galaxy, all to train soldiers to fight an under-equipped, lesser enemy. Sure, they said we were here on some academic bullshit, but everyone knew that wasn’t really what was going on. Wish they’d stop pretending and just ADMIT that they were training super soldiers. At least, I was pretty sure that’s what was going on here. Like, ninety-five percent sure.
I was here to find out what was happening-- an agent of that under-equipped, lesser enemy. A spy behind enemy lines. Like from one of those old books. For a second, I fangirled over the thought of going back home, showered with fame and glory. Kenny Nikola, Spy Hero. I luxuriated in that thought for a moment, before getting up. Okay, cool spy moment over. Now for some actual spying.
I pulled on my bland uniform-- black shirt, black pants, black boots-- and started on my way to breakfast. As I stood on the moving floor, I looked around, searching for that clue as to what else was going on here. I had been here for nearly five years, and still there was much going on that I don’t know about. As the walkway passed the door into the High Command Unit, I craned my neck for a look into the inner sanctum of the whole base. If I was ever going to find the information that would win us the war, it would be in there. If I could ever get IN there. I won’t stop looking, I promised myself as I did every day. As I had for the past five years.
I got off of the walkway at the school building and took my place in the growing line of cadets waiting outside. I nodded to a few, but we weren't allowed to speak during class time without permission. And of course, no one wanted to annoy the Chief Matron.
“Enter.” The voice of the Chief Matron rang out over the intercom as the doors slid open. We walked inside and sat down silently as the Matron watched us, hawklike. Every day of every year she would glare at us as if just daring one of us to talk so she could flog them half to death. We all stayed quiet and waited for her to begin the lesson.
“Okay, class. Today, we are studying the barbarity of the rebels, the heroics of the great General Belatov, and his war to cleanse the universe of their heresy.” She spit out the word rebels like it was something people did not mention in polite society.
I started fuming. Wonderful, I get to hear more lies about me,  my friends, and my family. I braced for four hours of total bullshit to begin.
“As you know this war is the fault of these barbaric heathens. They rejected the Ideal and his glorious technology, for gods of so called nature." If there was anything to be said about the Chief Matron, it was that she loved her technology.
"Those barbarians want to come in here, and would torture and kill each and every one of us as a sacrifice to their barbaric gods!” I wish I could sacrifice you, but I doubt the "barbaric" gods would accept you. From what I knew of the sacrificial religions, nothing more consequential than a goat had ever been sacrificed. So maybe we SHOULD sacrifice her... save the goat farmer a bit of trouble!
“They unlawfully practiced their religions and defied the commands of our glorious government so we heeded the Command of the Ideal to cleanse them from the world! The great General Belatov lead the Purification of all the heathens in the outer colonies. He wiped out the rebel army and left the tatters fleeing into uncharted space!” And now that “crushed” army is returning and defeating every General they face.
Soon.
“You are here to learn how to fight the rebels and bring The Ideal back to these heathens!”
After three more hours of this propaganda it was time for combat training, which was just as well. Another hour of the Chief Matron’s BS would’ve made me lose what little sanity I had left, and I could use a little therapeutic violence right about now.
We all silently waited in line on the walkway as it took us to the battle center. I had learned that everyone here has a high sync rate with bionics. That was why we were recruited and brought here, to use the most advanced bionics ever created to suppress the rebels, and...  
There was another reason we were here. I could feel it.
“Enter.” The voice of Lieutenant Schofield came over the speaker as we arrived, and the blast proof sliding-glass doors were already open. We all walked in and relaxed, lounging around the training room. The combat training rooms were large, with padded mats in the center and a shooting range on the far wall. Standing in the center of the room, decked out in black combat fatigues was Lieutenant Schofield.
Lieutenant Ethan Schofield was a Recon Marine commander who had been pulled from the fighting to train us. He was also the nicest person in the whole Bastion and easiest to get classified information from. He actually viewed us as people, not weapons. “Welcome back, everyone! Now that you’ve been bored half to death by the Matron, we can get started with some excitement.” The Chief Matron gave the Lieutenant a death glare, and he smiled, continuing on. I love that man.
“Today we will start off with some more hand-to-hand combat and we’ll finish off the class with bionics training.” This is the only fun part of coming here... other than being a freakin’ awesome spy!
Hand-to-hand combat was a basic course comprised of mostly martial arts and other forms of close combat. We had been training in hand-to-hand every day that we had been here. Bionics training, on the other hand, was a rare event.
Bionics were the little mechanical implants that could be put into the body, like an electronic eye or arm. Common bionics were only about as useful as the limb that they replaced, while the bionics from the Bastion had other properties-- eyes that could see in the dark, arms that could break through steel... anything, possible or impossible, could be done with a bionic. The ones we used in training weren’t true bionics, which require a surgical brain implant and an amputated limb, but were temporarily wired to the brain and functioned like an extra, superhuman body part. At the end of our training in the Bastion, one of the higher-ups would look at our training records and decide which bionic would be most practical for each of us, and would give us the implant right after graduation.
Today, we got to use handheld training bionics on the shooting range. They were absolutely devastating weapons, blowing holes in the targets with a great rate of fire and accuracy. I gritted my teeth and remembered Ms. Phillips, the kind old lady who lived across the street and kept a bunch of cats. Her old house, husband, and two children had fallen to this model of gun. She’d never forgotten. No one had forgotten the attack on our colony ten years ago.
I’d never forget.