Psionics (Please Keep Reading! Please Bookmark!)

In Amber's memory, the second-in-command at Yasin Base was one of the few outstanding soldiers on all of Robert IV.

In the original course of history, he had led Federation guerrillas in a campaign across the planet for more than half a year.

In the end, he had run out of ammunition and supplies and died in the Imperial Army's final sweep.

"Lieutenant Colonel Dallas, huh."

Muttering the familiar name, Amber entered his private quarters.

Compared with the shared dormitories at the Federation military academy,

the officers' quarters at Yasin Base were far more comfortable in every respect.

And they were worlds apart from the cramped long-haul hibernation pods aboard the destroyer.

As one of the most important military bases on Robert IV,

Yasin Base had been built to the highest standards in the Federal Army's specifications for tactical bases.

Its defensive facilities and supporting buildings alike had taken considerable time and money to construct.

Yet the officer corps had always been understaffed, leaving plenty of officers' apartments vacant despite those high construction standards.

As it happened, Amber didn't have to wait for an assignment.

As a Psychic Agent, he belonged directly to the Tactical Support Team under the Combat Intelligence Center.

That was why he had been assigned a private room here straightaway.

The room was over thirty square meters, with a combined bedroom and living area and a small bathroom tucked into one corner.

His two full cases of personal belongings sat neatly at the foot of the bed.

The luggage had arrived on the same ship, but it hadn't followed them through all those transfers.

Instead, as the destroyer passed over Yasin Base, the cases had been dropped from orbit onto open ground nearby.

In fact, for Federation military bases on other planets,

most supplies delivered through space completed the last leg of their journey this way.

Amber stepped forward and opened one of the cases.

Among a heap of electronic devices and plastisteel practice weapons lay a black sphere with a mirror-smooth surface.

At the sight of the familiar sphere, Amber willed an invisible energy within his body into motion.

As the energy surged, a faint blue glow spread through his eyes.

A flash of blue lightning leaped between his fingers and the black sphere.

The sphere slowly rose from the clutter and drifted toward Amber, finally stopping above his open palm, where it turned gently.

Before long, the black mirrored sphere stopped spinning. Something inside it projected a number 3 onto its surface.

"Level 3 Psionics?"

"A little low. But it does meet the minimum standard for a Psychic Agent."

Amber closed his eyes and felt the energy flowing through his body.

This was the first time he had truly felt Psionics in reality.

The way he activated it was just as baffling as it had been in the game, but no game could replicate the sensation of Psionics filling his entire body.

Psionics was a form of mental energy born from the mind.

Closely tied to the user's brain, it could be trained to affect the physical world.

High-level Psionics users could unleash psionic storms. In an emergency, they could even use Psionics to "charge" a warship.

And the telekinesis Amber had just used was the signature trick of a level 3 Psionics user.

On a scale of twelve levels, level 3 was only just beyond ordinary human ability.

But it still put him ahead of 99 percent of humanity in this world.

After all, compared with the elves of the Thousand-Star Empire, who had grown up playing with Psionics,

humanity's grasp of this "unscientific energy" was little better than an elementary schooler's.

Even the black sphere Amber was playing with was an imported psionic training and testing sphere from the Thousand-Star Empire, supplied specifically to the Federation's Psychic Agents.

Made from refined psionic ore, the sphere could measure a user's Psionics level and, through prolonged use and training, help stimulate their abilities.

So if you saw a man or woman playing with a ball at the Federation military academy, there was no need to be surprised.

They were almost certainly a Psychic Agent cadet in training.

After manipulating the black sphere with Psionics for a while, Amber had a rough idea of his own abilities.

This body was currently at level 3, but it was already on the verge of level 4.

Besides tricks like telekinesis, Amber could activate psionic vision to locate things through walls.

With specialized equipment, he could even become invisible to both optical and infrared detection.

This body had also undergone the basic physical enhancements for Psychic Agents at the Federation military academy.

The Fullerene Lattice and Myoma Myoprotein Complex had strengthened his skeleton and muscles respectively, giving him strength and speed far beyond normal human limits.

He had also undergone Reactive Neural Augmentation Surgery. Superconducting fibers had replaced his nerve dendrites, changing the bioelectric transmission between nerve cells into interference-resistant electrical transmission.

By a conservative estimate, his reflexes had improved by 300 percent.

Earlier, in the armored personnel carrier and at the hospital, Amber hadn't noticed the improvement in his abilities. Perhaps he had still been adjusting to this body.

But after activating Psionics, he had grown almost perfectly accustomed to it.

If another short circuit happened in the examination room,

Amber figured his current abilities would let him take off Margaret's high heel, admire it closely, and slip it back onto her foot before the lights came on, all without her noticing.

"Fuck. I get superhuman abilities, and all I can think about is doing pervy shit!"

Amber silently mocked his own perverted streak. Then he went to the bathroom to freshen up before heading to the dining hall.

After all, he was dining with Yasin Base's second-in-command. Better to arrive early.

For Psychic Agents, the full-face mask used for tactical reconnaissance and suppressing stray psionic energy was practically indispensable.

So much so that the other formations at graduation had dubbed the Psychic Agent formation the "Bald Heads."

In the end, though, Amber left the mask down. He would have to eat soon anyway.

After one last check of his appearance, Amber headed for the door to leave his quarters.

Just then, his wrist terminal chimed.

He raised his left hand. A message scrolled across the screen.

[Warrant Officer Amber, report to Major Mars's office immediately.]

Amber frowned at the message.

Major Mars was the director of the Combat Intelligence Center.

He was also Amber's immediate superior.

"Why call me in right at mealtime? Seriously."

After a moment's thought, Amber put the mask back on. Besides being transparent from the inside, it concealed his face and expression.

Because it suppressed stray psionic energy, ordinary officers had no authority to order Psychic Agents to remove it.

That was why Psychic Agents wore it when meeting their superiors.

Following the directions on his terminal, Amber soon found Major Mars's office.

The middle-aged officer wore a gloomy expression. When Amber entered, he tapped a finger lightly.

At once, Amber sensed additional protective panels and signal-blocking layers rising inside the office walls.

Generally, that only happened for secret meetings or conversations that couldn't be made public.

What's this about? Don't tell me there's some kind of shady initiation?

Amber's imagination ran wild.

But Major Mars's first words scattered those thoughts instantly.

"Warrant Officer Amber, what exactly did that Imperial Spy at the hospital say to you?"

Amber: "Huh?"