Game Changer: Day 7

Word Count: 42,228

Summary of Events:

Hawk was required to be present at the inspection of a unit returning from battling the Ozem on Tamah for their regular leave — not that he was sure why he was required to be there — and he discovered one of the unit members was a young woman who he would've been educated with and had even fought in a significant battle with recently, but didn't recognise at all, which bothered him; on top of that, on the information page about her was a note identifying who her mother was, which made Hawk check out his own information page . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

All of the data was known to him; his birthday, physical specs that showed him to be just 43.2 centimetres taller than Corporal Ognianov and 38.1 kilograms heavier, his age, his birthday, his CES*, all of his promotions — including the one to lieutenant almost nine months before — and all his notable achievements.

At the bottom of his page, however, there was no note suggesting the identity of his parents was known. Admittedly Hawk felt a little disappointed, not that he was altogether sure why. He’d never really cared about whether he’d had parents or not before; he’d had no time to, having just been desperately trying to survive at the Institution.

Hawk returned to Corporal Ognianov’s page, looking for more information, but there was none to be had on the general page, so he input the Special Access Code to see what else he might get.

As a lieutenant, Hawk technically wasn’t supposed to have the Special Access Code, it was restricted for generals and up — which was just the General Secretary — only, but when he’d surreptitiously espied a superior officer viewing a page that had more comprehensive information about a comrade Hawk knew well than Hawk had been able to find he’d started his pursuit of the means to unlock that further information and had eventually discovered the Special Access Code, which was changed every two months on a rotation through five-digit numbers.

After being locked out by the code change and forced to guess the new code a few times Hawk managed to find a way to get himself sent the notification all the others who had access to the code received telling him what the new code was, allowing him unobstructed access to the most comprehensive information on everyone and everything that was known to the Emim.

The page blinked and immediately Hawk saw the additional information; she had a different date of transfer than her birthday, which meant that she’d either been registered and handed over or found with identification when she was hardly a week beyond three years old.

So he should know her. He would’ve been nine when she arrived, and she would’ve been nine when he’d left. Why didn’t he know her?

*CES = Commission for Early Service

Pronunciation:

Ognianov: awgkneeahnawv