General Addiscombe sat in an old wooden room overlooking a pleasant garden. A gramophone played quietly in the corner, a disc now long-rotted but faintly recognizable. The door burst open and a middle-aged woman entered.
"Harold how could you let this happen?" she shouted, Addiscombe remained silent, sat with his back to the woman staring out the window at the sunset.
"You wouldn't have sent your own son would you, so why her?" she asked causing him to wince.
"She wanted to go. It was her duty to go." Harold Addiscombe replied
"But she’s my daughter, and now, and now she’s gone"
"Being your daughter you should know better than anyone you couldn't have stopped her. She was a fine soldier." Georgia's mother sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the desk defeated and began to sob.
"Grace, It was impolite of you to bring up my son, I would have sent him if he was able," Addiscombe added. "I am truly sorry for your loss however, we are at war and losses are to be expected." He said turning to face her. "The funeral is tomorrow."
Oxford Victorian Academy had been radically transformed since the cataclysm that ended The Great War. Most of the British Government had been lost in the aftermath causing the armed forces to assume control based at the academy. Since Alice Wilson found the power of the meteorite while her father was stationed at the Atlantis-01 base in 1912 the Victorian Division had become a core part of the British Armed Forces and now effectively led the post-cataclysm government. The once regal academy grounds had been clad in steel defences. Since Addiscombe took over 14 years ago as General he instituted the gardens to be replanted. Much of the remaining population of Britain had been collected to Oxford in an effort to save as many lives as possible. Some 900,000 people now lived in the city making it the largest population center on the island by far. Most of Britain's large cities had been destroyed at the end of the war, now overgrown and wild. [Paragraph to be maybe integrated into the story better]
The remains of Georgia's uneaten corpse lay on an operating table in a cold metal room deep under the academy. Daphne leaned over studying the once-human bones that had been mangled and fused to the monster's skeleton. "The bone marrow is black," she said to herself, alone in the room. A machine against the wall beeped three times. A malformed brain sat hooked up to a wire metal harness and a small monochrome screen began to play scenes from Georgia's childhood side-by-side visions of an alien world. Daphne turned a dial and the screen jittered with static. The screen crudely displayed Georgia looking at the monster from inside the Hengist's Furnace Room on the right and the monster looking back at her on the left. Daphne sighed seeing the last moments of Georgia's life. "It seems the two brains though merged still act distinctly from each other. So which one saw the centaur as a child?" Daphne asked herself.
"I've never had to eat one of us before," Mary said quietly
"Well don't think about it too much, better than her Manna going to waste anyway," Anne replied.
The two were in their dorm at the academy, Anne lay looking at the ceiling Mary sat on the edge of her bed fiddling with the scope on her rifle, the third bed in the room was empty. "I know why we did it but do you think it was right?" Mary asked
"Yes it was right, she would've done the same to us if we were stupid enough to die like that."
"But-"
"No, she was the one trying to show off and look what happened. We're better off without her" Anne now half shouting cutting off Mary's protest.
"Do you think it's alright that we ate them being fused like that"
"I feel fine. Don't tell me you feel sick."
"No, I feel fine too b-"
"Stop complaining then, move on."
Mary was only a year younger than Anne at fifteen and the two had only been paired with Georgia as teammates for a month before the fight against the centaur however, Mary often felt herself filling the role of a little sister. Anne was headstrong, Mary thought Anne was mean.
"Do you think we're going to get a new teammate?" Mary asked.
"Yeah, we've got to haven't we. I just hope they're not as unhelpful as Georgia or as useless as you." Anne mused
"HEY," Mary exclaimed, "I did my part in that fight you wouldn't have got in without me."
"I know, I know I'm only teasing. Gosh, you're such a baby sometimes." Anne smiled.
Four men carried a coffin toward Georgia's grave draped in the Union Flag. The priest read out the funeral rites and the crowd chanted "There will always be an England" after his final prayer. Anne fervently joined in with this salute Mary more unsure. There were some twenty girls in the audience all Victorians. Addiscombe wore a grim expression, Grace sobbed quietly, Mary looked away toward the horizon, and Anne stared intently at the coffin.
"I bet that coffin is empty," Anne said to Mary without breaking her gaze.
"This has been happening too much lately" Mary murmured in return
"All the new recruits have been useless," Anne said slowly still staring.
Two weeks later, A young girl with tousled ginger hair arrived at the Academy. She had applied to become a Victorian after her fourteenth birthday.
"Miss Cornwallis I presume?" The much taller woman asked her, she was wearing a long black dress with epaulettes, a belt that went across her waist and from her right shoulder down, a scarlet neckerchief and beret. Her neat wheat blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail and she wore a stern gaze.
"Y-yeah I'm Lucy Cornwallis, reporting for my first-day ma'am" Lucy stuttered in reply.
"Good, Welcome to The Academy. I am Captain Woods and I will be training you for the foreseeable future here."
"O-okay." Woods turned and began to stride toward to large double wooden doors in the carved limestone entryway that jutted out from large steel walls. The inner hallway was ornately designed with wooden panelling and crimson-painted walls with a green carpet running along it. Large wooden doors lined the walls with large portraits of young girls in khaki green uniforms pleated skirts with boots. Woods led Lucy further taking a left down into another corridor then they stopped in front of a metal door. She unfastened a set of keys from her waistband. A large bolt could be heard shifting as Woods unlocked the door and it slowly creaked open. The hallway past this door was now much more spartan than the ones she had just been in. Plain metal walls and grated floor. Eventually, they came to another door Woods stopped in front of. Lucy struggled to keep up with her pace on their journey and had to take twice as many steps. Woods knocked on the door.
"Coming" a voice came from inside and then it slowly opened revealing a woman with ashen hair and wearing a lab coat. "Lucy Cornwallis?"
Woods stepped back allowing Lucy to answer "Yes that's me"
"Good, you've finally arrived"
"I'm Doctor Yates please come in."
Lucy followed Yates into the room, there was an operating table and machines and screens lined the walls. Lucy and Woods entered the door closing loudly behind them.
"Now, Just to make sure you understand the consequences of this procedure? The Manna infusion will react with the natural estrogen production of your body giving you power however prolonged exposure to it may cause a lack of fertility in future. Do you still want to go through with it?"
Lucy nodded before saying "Yes I understand."
"Good, then we can begin," Yates said.
Captain Woods stood watching silently as Doctor Yates beckoned for Lucy to lie down on the cold metal table. Yates procured a small rocky sphere from a tray on the other side of the room and brought it over. Lifting it over Lucy with both hands she pulled it apart, purple liquid began to drip from the small sphere but as it fell solidified to a firm crystalline spike. It burst downward and impaled her in the chest. From her body other spikes began growing, some on her back pushed her upwards off the table. Woods stood arms folded watching. Lucy writhed as the growths shifted her around on the table never quite becoming static. She did not scream in pain but let out a series of gasps unable to comprehend what was happening to her. The spikes then all receded into her without leaving a trace.
"Lucy?" Doctor Yates questioned as the girl lay motionless on the table. Her eyes then opened and she put her hands flat to push herself upwards.
"Is that it?" she asked confused at the simplicity of the procedure she had endured not realizing the grotesque events that had just happened to her body.
"Yes, it's over."
Lucy was then taken by Woods back upstairs and led into a dorm room.
"Your teammates aren't here at the moment so I'll let you arrange your things and your uniform is there on the bed." Woods pointed at a pile of folded khaki clothes folded neatly on the made bed in the corner of the room.
"Okay, thank you ma'am," Lucy said looking back at Woods who smiled wordlessly and turned to leave. Lucy was alone. She unfolded the clothes out on the bed inspecting them. She had never felt such rough woollen material before. She undressed from the pale blue dress she arrived in and folded it, then put on the white undershirt and then the khaki pleated skirt followed by the rough jacket. Lucy sat down next to the hard boots that were by the bed. They were uncomfortable to put on the hard leather dug into the sides of her ankles as she wriggled her foot to get it in. She began to tie the laces when the door opened. startled Lucy looked up. A girl shorter than her with raven hair entered.
"Oh hello," Mary said looking at Lucy.
"What? Who is it?" Anne said behind her pushing through into the room. Lucy got up to salute.
"You don't need to do that with us" Anne laughed. "I'm Anne, let's keep introductions short there's no telling how long you'll survive," she said striding into the room barely looking at Lucy carelessly dropping her lance on the floor and throwing herself down to sit on her bed arms behind her.
"Sorry about her, nice to meet you I'm Mary."
Lucy wasn't sure how to properly react and almost went to bow. "Good to meet you both. I'm Lucy, I hope we can all excel together"
"Oh so stuffy. They'll break that out of you soon enough" Anne said. Mary smiled as she passed toward her own bed carefully lowering her rifle from her back and leaning it against the bed frame. Unsure what to do with herself she picked up her dress and went to hang it in the wardrobe.
"So how was the Manna infusion? Did you do any magic?" Anne asked from behind.
"No? I thought that came later?" Lucy replied.
"Well I guess it depends on aptitude, I almost set the room on fire during my procedure and Mary here flooded the bathroom during hers."
"Don't worry about it Lucy, I'm sure it'll come to you" Mary reassured.
"You'd better if we're going to be a team you've gotta pull your own weight," Anne added with a grin. Lucy felt a knot form in her stomach. She had always been a fast learner and hard worker but the thought of letting down her new teammates weighed heavily on her.
At three O'clock that day, the girls were to report to Captain Woods outside the school. Lucy felt under-equipped as the other two girls took their weapons with them. Anne trudged down the corridors at a similar pace to Woods earlier that day, the black bow in her blonde hair bobbing as Lucy and the shorter Mary tried to catch up.
"Good, you're on time" Woods said shortly "Today we need to test your compatibility as a team." The girls remained silent. "You haven't got a weapon yet Cornwallis so here use this" Woods handed Lucy the sword she was carrying in her left hand. Anne's eyes narrowed at Woods so callously handing her Georgia's old sword. Woods moved her hand behind her back and rummaged around in a small bag on her waistband and produced a bullet. She loaded the bullet into her pistol and it clicked. She rose her arm into the air and fired. Shortly after leaving the barrel, the bullet exploded from the cloud of smoke a dog-sized monster appeared in the air. It landed on the ground with a thud. Its deep green eyes looked around at the girls and it pulled its long pink tongue back into its mouth. Lucy had seen monsters before in the forests and fields surrounding Oxford, never had she seen one come from the barrel of a gun though. Anne ran round to the left of the creature and Mary jumped back and knelt holding her rifle in front of her. The monster threw out its long frog-like tongue grasping Lucy around the waist and pulling itself towards her. Stopping her advance Anne pushed her lance into the earth and twisted around it conserving her momentum. Mary fired a shot at the creature narrowly avoiding hitting Lucy, however huge red fans sprang from the monster's neck shielding it from the bullets. Anne leapt and pointed her lance downward, putting her foot on the cross-guard near the tip kicking downward. Piercing the skin blood fired from the wound. The monster cried in pain but did not let Lucy go.
"Lucy do something" Anne shouted at her but she was at a loss her arms were bound by her side unable to move. Lucy closed her eyes thinking, hoping deeply she could do something to help and not be a burden to the two girls. The tongue began to lift and contract into the monster's mouth. Anne slashed at the monster's back, bleeding profusely but it didn't seem to care. Her bullets were ineffective, Mary took a deep breath and stared at the monster soon the deep green eyes began to produce water. It was as though the monster was profoundly sad and could do nothing but weep. The tongue loosened its grip and the monster fell to the floor crying. Lucy slowly got up from the floor feeling sorry for herself. Anne watched in confusion at the monster crying. Lucy feeling deep sorrow for the monster put her hand on its scaled head and began to stroke slowly. After a few motions, the monster's skin began to turn a shade of gold emanating from its head. The creature stopped crying and instead began to lick Lucy's face. Mary stood up and gingerly crept forward. Anne in disbelief looked back at Captain Woods who was now looking down at the pair and smiling. Cautiously Mary knelt next to Lucy and stroked the monster too.
"I've never seen anything stop crying unless I tell it to," Mary said to Lucy smiling. "Forhans are always so ferocious now it's just like a dog. It's kind of cute isn't it?"
"Yeah, I suppose it is," Lucy said shocked at what had happened.
"Alright, what's going on here? We're supposed to be killing it guys?" Anne said sternly "Isn't that right, Woods?"
"I never said anything about defeating my monster. I have to say it was an inventive way of defusing the situation however, I was testing your compatibility and the three of you barely worked together at all. Mary you ran away from danger and Anne you went straight to kill it leaving your teammates undefended"
"Undefended? She has a weapon and manna. Sorry if I thought she could defend herself from one Forhan" Anne huffed in retaliation.
"If you were being considerate of your teammates you'd know she couldn't, please work on that in future. First I recommend all three of you work on your communication. Remember your teammates are like your sisters." Lucy didn't feel like she had won the encounter but Woods seemed happy with whatever she did. Woods cocked her pistol again and the monster evaporated. Mary and Lucy stood up and looked at each other.
"That'll be enough for now." Woods said as she set off back inside the academy.
"What was that Lucy? You made me look like an idiot. If you could do that to monsters why did it take you so long." Anne said, arms crossed to Lucy.
"I didn't know I could do that. How was I supposed to know it would instantly go for me? I only had the procedure today. I don't know how things work yet" Lucy protested defiantly.
"You better get better soon," Anne said, turning and following Woods back into the academy leaving the pair of them alone.
"I'm sure you'll get there, Lucy , keep trying," Mary said. "I think you impressed Woods too; she always liked monsters more than people."
"Thank you" Lucy replied as Mary turned away from her too leaving her alone in the front courtyard.