A Prince Among the Ranks

The day was dark, almost like night. If you asked anyone, they'd know it was no later than nine in the morning. The sun was blocked by clouds the size of warships and the air was full of warships the size of mountains. We were getting ready for war…Our whole country was getting ready for more war and no one knew what to do about the number of kids who signed up to fight. Half of them were forced to join, a third of them actually wanted to join and the other portion was indifferent. It was going to be an interesting war.

And an even more interesting flight to the training center. We trained in a place that was far enough from civilians that when we practice, we wont hurt anyone. Our country was at war with another and we weren't ready. No one was. Our king decided to wage a stupid war with some sort of czar or some nonsense like that. I didn't even know. All I knew was that I was a general in the army of my King and I was to do whatever it took to make sure our country stayed our country.

I was a general in his army. A great general. My family had served the king for a long, long time; starting with my great grandfather. He and my great grandmother actually met while they were on the job with the king. He was the general and she was the handmade to the queen. They had my grandparents and they followed in suit with their jobs and so did my parents and now my sister and me. My mother was a technician for the king's newest weapons and my father was a pilot. My sister and I were the generals of our family. My sister was the first woman to become a general and I was the youngest, seeing as how my sister is 3 minutes older than me. We were twins, you see. Well, as twin-ish we can be being opposite genders.

Where we come from, it's rare to have twins. Let alone twins of opposite gender. But, we were born and we were important people in the army of our king. We were at a war and my sister and I were in charge of the newly joined recruits. How that happened, since we were generals and not some lowly maggots, was beyond me but I don't ask questions. It was my duty to protect my king and that is what I would do. Training newbies wouldn't be so bad since I could teach them how to protect their country like a good soldier should. Same with my sister. We could teach them what's right and what's wrong. It was a serious business.

Only, the two of us weren't so sure we knew what type of business we got signed onto. You see, our superior--a stiff with a big nose, broad shoulders, sharp features and deep dark skin-- assigned us to the little hairballs and we were to watch for two kids. They were just like us, though, I'm not sure what that meant. Really, my sister and I were very rare. We were to meet the recruits at ten hundred hours. It was a lot of confusion to deal with when you have to meet hundreds of thousands of teenagers waiting to join your army.

It was ten hundred minus ten, or for you non-military personnel, that's 9:50 in the morning, and we were all set on the main deck of the craft that would take us from gathering center in the capital of our country, Gardiana, named after the first king of Melania. We were heading to a remote island off the coast of our country where we could easily train the recruits without political interference. There is nothing I hate more than getting pushed aside by pencil pushers because I stepped on someone's toes. It is the most annoying thing I have ever dealt with. I suggest no one go into politics.

My sister and I stood on the hanger that connected the land to the ship and watched as truck after truck brought people down the streets of the now silent capital. It was an especially dark morning and it wasn't going to get any brighter, trust me. By the time eight o'clock rolled around, the ships full of already trained soldiers would be headed towards the battle front, just in case. And where was I? Training fresh meat. My sister and I should not have been babysitting. We should have been leading armies to the enemy!

The trucks dumped out kids like they were garbage, though, we haven't used trucks for garbage in a long time. My sister and I were the only two staring. The only two waiting. The only two watching. My sister and I stood five eight and six four. Her hair was a deep molten red while mine was a pale silver. Our eyes clashed, hers were a dark blue, almost black, and mine were a pale grey.

"Shall I give the address or would you like to?" My sister, Diona, asked in the universal language Cirian.

"I suppose I shall, it would at least make this a bit better, no?"

"Depending on your definition of better." She muttered to me. I nodded and once all the children were chattering, I cleared my throat. Never really had a need for microphones.

"Welcome to your first day of training, ladies and gentleman." I said, my stentorian voice carrying over the group, whom had fallen silent. "I am General R.P. Jensen and this is General D.R. Jensen. We will be your commanding officers during your stay with us. If you should have a problem, report to us. Now, this war is something some of you signed up for willingly and some of you were forced to do, I understand that. But we will not hold sympathy for you. You are in our hands now and our hands will push you until you bleed. They will beat you until you are stronger. This is not tea with the queen, people. This is war. Don't think we'll go easy on you. Newbies get it the worst. Now form lines from where you are alphabetically. You will have two minutes to do so before we start boarding. If you are not in your place you will run laps around our biggest carrier." I paused and glanced at the massive, 20 ton ship behind me. "And this is not the largest ship we have, ladies and gentlemen. This is actually a small ship. So do get to work." As I walked back to my sister, she was smiling at me.

"No need to make them pee their pants Romar." She said to me in our natural tongue; Siberan. We were from a town just south of the capital called Saranta.

"But it's fun." I said with a grin as well. She started to laugh and we both checked our watches before walking to the edge to stare down at the maggots. Oh how wonderful it was to have power. The group was almost completely assembled, aside from the few stranglers but we could make exceptions once.

"You will proceed onto the ship, starting with the A's. We will check you off and then you will be assigned a bunker and three room mates. No male shall be partnered with a female nor a female with a male. This situation will be your crew on the camp. You will be responsible for all actions taken by your crew members and if one is punished all are punished. This is an army, not a free vacation. You work as a unit. If that means suffering punishment….then I suggest you don't screw up." My sister said and I held back a smirk. We were so alike. "Any questions, bring them to your crew leader or us. Any problems, notify us."

"We wont solve their problems, Do." I muttered to her in Siberan.

"They wont know that," was her reply. I grinned a little and nodded.

"Proceed then." I said.

"Alright, let's go. Move, row A. We're not going to wait all morning!" My sister shouted, making the first kid in line jump and sprint towards the door, the others following after. "Slow down, A! We must take attendance!" She growled out, making the group slow. It was great to be on top. We, my sister and myself, walked through the open gates after the people had walked in and headed towards the front. We had to teach them. Only, someone caught my attention.

"Sir," said a man. "We have a pair of sisters and a pair of brother and sister. We pulled them aside like you asked." I nodded and glanced at Diona.

"We'll take it from here, thank you. Please go set up the children and their barracks." The man saluted to my sister's order while I was heading towards the four that they had set aside. One girl was short and was standing with a taller girl. They looked to be roughly four years apart. The boy and the girl seemed to be like my sister and myself, though the boy looked a few years older.

"Welcome," I said as I held out my hand for them to shake. The girls shook it timidly and the boy, firmly. "My name is Romar Jensen. My sister is Diona Jensen. We have pulled you aside for a quick evaluation."

"General," said my secretary Jamian. "There's a message from Chief." I looked at him and nodded.

"Please excuse us." My sister and I walked to my office where the picture of our boss, Nalantor, was projected on a screen.

"Hello you two." He said in Siberan as he nodded. We saluted and waited for his order. "Take it easy, I just wanted to let you two know about the siblings you were supposed to keep your eyes on. Landro?" He asked as he looked for a skinny blue haired boy who scurried around the room. Landro, I remembered, was from Euranta, a place where blue hair was as common as red hair in our city.

"Y-y-yes S-s-sir?" he stammered.

"Pull up the files of those two will you?" He nodded silently before walking over to the screen and touched the picture of Nalantor. It took up half the screen as opposed to the whole thing and the boy quickly moved his fingers so he could pull up two more pictures, one of a small girl and one of a taller girl. "These are the girls you need to get. Their names are Gandra and Kantra. They are very important to our operation."

"Sir," said Diona. "I have been wondering, you mentioned they were like us. But, I can't help but think that that is impossible."

"They are like you two, Diona. They….they just don't know it. Please be careful while you're flying as well. There seems to be a very thick cloud coverage today and I'd really like it if you were here before the storm came."

"We're leaving now, Sir." I answered as I looked at Landro and gave him a nod, making him scurry away again and in moments, the ship fired up.

"Good, we'll see you in a few hours." He said before disappearing.

"Shall I go deal with the females?" I asked my sister.

"You always were better with children than I was."

"Sir," a man said to me in Perianin, a language from another small town of the country. "The ship is ready to go but the clouds are a little too thick, shall we push through?"

"Yes," said my sister. "We're going to remain on course. We're expected and I wont let weather slow us down. Good luck General Jensen."

"And to you, General Jensen." I replied as I walked back towards the two girls. "You two may go," I said to the boy and girl. "I only have business with these two." The sisters stared at me and I looked at the guard in front of the door. "Take them to my sister," I said in Perianin. Most of the crew was from Pernasia so most of the time we used that but they understood Cirian as well. It was customary they learned it.

"Right away sir." He said before leading the two away from us. I glanced at the other soldier and nodded.

"Wait outside if you please." He nodded once and left before closing the door after him. I removed the black hat from my head and walked over to the table. We were in my sister's office. It was much like mine, well, exactly like mine. We both had large screens behind a solid wood desk, shelves showing off our many metals of honor and weapons of choice. We had refreshment stations to the right and the most comfortable seats just beside them. The room was lined with a blue fabric that we got from Pernasia and the walls were solid metal, much like the rest of the ship.

"Are we in trouble, Sir?" The elder sister asked. Before I even looked at her, I could tell she was worried. Her voice was soft and timid, much like the look on her sister's face. I looked at her and noticed the small resemblance to someone I used to know. I couldn't put my finger on it but she seemed familiar. Her hair was a rich red and her eyes a rich blue. I glanced at her, then at the younger sister. She had light silver hair and pale grey eyes. No where I knew of had people who looked like that. Then again, no where I knew of had people who looked like me and my sister. The sister's eyes stared at me open fear and I felt bad that I had to keep them locked up until we got to the camp.

"No," I said with a small smile. "In fact," I removed my white gloves and placed them on top of my hat. "You are very important to this army, the two of you, and we are to ensure your safety."

"Why are we important?" The elder one asked as she pulled her sister closer.

"Trust me," I said as I looked down. "If I knew, I would tell you. It's just my orders to make sure you two stay safe." I poured myself a cup of our strongest branis, or alcohol, and swallowed it down. "For now," I looked back at them and offered a smile once more. "I'm going to have to ask you a few questions."

"Anything." Said the older girl.

"Your name, for one?"

"Gandra. This is my sister Kantra." I smiled as I sat down across from them.

"My name is Romar, please address me as that while we're in private. I hate it when everyone is so formal." Gandra nodded and smiled a little. "Where are you two from?"

"Lanmara." Lanmara? That place was almost in another country. What were they doing here?

"Really? It's a long way from home." I commented.

"We are happy to serve the king."

"Why was it you and not your elder brother or something?" Gandra swallowed.

"He, our brother, said this war wasn't his fight. That it was pointless." I nodded. It was understandable. It was pointless. The whole thing was just moronic but I couldn't say that. I couldn't deny my king's orders. "So we told our father we'd come instead."

"Did you?" I asked as I looked at Kantra. It seemed odd for such a young girl to join the army. "How old are you, Kantra?" She remained silent but I could hear her voice in my head. "Oh, what an interesting little trick you can do." I said smiling. "I have can do that too. And another one, wanna see?" She was silent but her head moved ever so slightly in the "yes" persuasion. I smiled as I thought about moving my hat from the table. It lifted itself up and floated over to my head. My gloves lifted from the top of my hand and dropped into my lap. "My sister has one like yours, only, but it's a little different." I said as I thought about Diona and her power of persuasion. She had used it many times before but we never really let it get out of control.

"You're like Kantra?" Gandra asked.

"And probably like you," I answered. "What can you do?"

"I can make things come back to life." I nodded a little and smiled.

"Sounds like a heavy burden. I hope you use it wisely." My sister knocked on the door and I let it open with my mind.

"Romar!" She hissed in Siberan.

"Relax," I said with a grin in her direction. "They're like us." She narrowed her eyes before she looked at the little girl in surprise. "You sure do talk a lot for someone who doesn't like to speak." I said softly to her. She blushed a little and her voice hushed. I started to grin but rose to my feet and walked over to my sister.

"Is this what he meant?" Diona asked in Siberan again so that the two wouldn't understand. She meant Nalantor.

"Yes," was my reply. "The other one can heal things. The little girl can talk with her mind and I think that's it."

"Did you show them anything?"

"Just a parlor trick father taught us a while back." She sighed and shook her head.

"I hope you didn't give anything away. You know how dangerous that can be."

"I didn't, Diona. Relax." Her dark eyes stared at me and I grinned. "How'd the recruits take to their new home?" I asked.

"They didn't like it."

"As expected. We didn't like it either."

"How old are they?"

"The younger one is 10. The elder looks about our age."

"Pathetic," said my sister. "She looks like she rolled out of Lanmara."

"She did. They both did. They come from there." My sister's eyes turned to them and I put my hand on her shoulder. "They're harmless, Diona."

"I don't trust Lanmarans." I sighed and pat her shoulder.

"I know this, sister. But there's nothing we can do. We must train them. Just keep them under more surveillance. It's better to be safe than sorry."

"I say we kill them. I'd rather be wrong than dead." I shook my head.

"A warriors philosophy all the way, sister. But we must keep them here and alive. Nalantor wants it so it shall be done." She sighed and walked over to her desk. "You deal with them," she said as she grabbed her gun. "I'm going to do rounds."

"Diona." I growled out as she started passed me. "This is our detail, not mine. You are going to stay here with me and we're going to do this together." She stared at me and turned around.

"Fine."

"What language is that?" Gandra asked.

"Siberan," said Diona. "We're from Saranta."

"I've never been there. Is it nice?"

"Your guess is as good as ours," said my sister.

"We haven't been there in years."

"Don't you miss your home?" Gandra asked.

"I miss the people in it," I said with a sad smile. "I'm sure my father wouldn't want us home anyway."

"He'd say we were laying down on the job if we ever came home before this war ended. Kantra," Diona said. "Why are you here?" She started to speak with her mind but my sister blocked her off. "I'm afraid you'll have to speak on this ship."

"She doesn't know Cirian. She doesn't know any language. She hasn't said a word since she was born and even then all she did was cry."

"Do you know if something is wrong with her? Shall I send for the doctor?" I asked as I indicated to the phone on my sister's desk.

"I don't think she likes doctors." Diona and Gandra said, making me nod.

"Then how about I go get a nurse and we'll get you some lollipops?" I asked Kantra. Her grey eyes stared at me with excitement and I held out my hand.

"Romar," said Diona in Siberan. "Why do these two look like us?" I glanced at the red haired girl and then at the silver haired girl.

"I'm not sure," I replied in Cirian. "But we'll have to find out huh? Get her to her room and I'll bring Kantra down there after we get lollipops." My sister nodded and stood, making Gandra stand as well.