Jason couldn't help but admire the diamond that sat upon the shoulder of his uniform. Despite officially receiving the rank of Lieutenant just over a week ago he still felt some pride when looking at his pristine overalls also displaying the threatening-looking insignia of the 17th SORu Blue Ravens, widely known as the most efficient of the Special Operations Recon units.

If they were the best of the SOR units, and SOR units were the best the USM had to offer...

That thought made Jason smile.

For over three months he had been training to become a member of the team. Fifty-two people entered, but only four made it into the unit. With Vladimir's help, he was placed into the Blue Ravens.

The war was still continuing strong. Intelligence believed that a breakthrough in the war was still another eight earth years away. They did not say to whom though.

This was making the people back home restless and as a result, President van der Meyde was being placed under considerable pressure. Every mistake in the war was now having the blame placed on him. Even within the last week, he had authorised the rescue of twelve hostages only for these hostages to be captured by an unknown pirate gang. A paid ransom later was not looked on too fondly by the people of the Human Confederate.

'Election season starts soon. Another pointless headache' Jason thought to himself.

Jason sat down in a cubicle and as the cubicle closed itself around him he took a deep breath. Straightening his uniform he sat as upright as possible.

As the words 'connecting' flashed across the screen, Jason had not felt so nervous throughout this whole war.

All he was doing was calling home.

It had been almost two years since he had last spoken to home, and those words were not a fond memory. Plus with his father's quiet dishonourable discharge a couple of months ago, he could not imagine the mood would be good to play the prodigal son.

He cleared his throat and looked directly ahead until the screen cleared and a middle-aged woman could be seen smiling around a kitchen area fiddling with a load of electronic equipment.

"Hello?" She responded before taking a quick glance. The quick glance became a long stare and a huge smile "Jason!"

Jason smiled, "Hi mother." He knew if she could jump through the screen to give him a huge hug she would have.

Instantly she stopped everything that she was doing, instructing a robot to continue her tasks. "It's been far too long, where have you been?"

There was a lot that he couldn't tell her, especially about the last three months of intensive special forces training or the initiation into the Blue Ravens which in itself was initially cold and difficult.

While discussing with his mother he remembered how he was instructed in his first few hours as an official member of the Blue Ravens to be outside in the glorious London weather in nothing but his underwear. Apart from it wasn't glorious, it was only twelve degrees centigrade and raining, made worse by the commanding officer bellowing instructions inside his office in full uniform.

His commanding officer, Colonel Furuk Wafi El-Hadji was an imposing and intimidating figure. His dark eyes showed no remorse or empathy, they were eyes of hate and strife, ones which did not like the sight of the former General Scharn's son. For every hour that Jason suffered, it seemed to give the Colonel much delight.

Jason, initially, wondered if this initiation was some sort of joke, but it wasn't until he was greeted by Major Elijah Turner a huge bulky dark-skinned man, a man who appeared far more intimidating than Colonel El-Hadji, that things appeared to change. He was extremely Intimidating until he opened his mouth and greeted Jason with a warm smile. Turner had instantly taken Jason under his wing after his five-hour initiation ordeal and a bond of friendship formed very quickly after. It didn't take long for Jason to start to understand the life and requirements of being in the special forces.

His conversation with his mother continued for as much as she could drag information about Jason's life he was willing and allowed to tell her.

"So do you have any friends?" She asked with a sweet smile.

Jason chuckled at the question. Friends was a very strange word to use for his relationship with the others in the Blue Ravens. Comrades, Brothers and Sisters maybe. But only a couple he would consider friends.

Turner was an obvious one, despite being his commanding officer the two of them just hit it off instantly, his other friend, though, had started off as a bit of a weird relationship.

One day, Jason was Instructed to perform hand to hand combat against one of the more accomplished members of the Blue Ravens despite not having the opportunity to meet the team properly. When he advanced into the combat arena he was greeted by a figure in the Blue Raven uniform. There was no way of knowing who this person was, especially as the smooth visorless helmet gave no indications.

He couldn't even greet this person as they sprang forward with a flurry of attacks. Bracing himself he raised his arms quickly in defence, blocking each attack before readjusting his stance so he could gain some distance between them.

By this time the rest of the Blue Ravens were watching. Hearing the conversations he could tell they were starting to bet on the fight, even the Colonel. The murmurs were very much not in Jason's favour, favouring the faceless combatant known as Donnelly.

Donnelly was an extremely accomplished martial arts expert with the next flurry of attacks coming quickly and precisely. One-shot getting through and stunning Jason long enough for Donnelly to grab him in a chokehold.

Struggling to breathe and gradually losing consciousness, Jason was starting to get frustrated and he wasn't going to let this fight end so quickly. He had to show them what he was capable of before this fight ended.

Pushing himself forward he managed to twist himself around before throwing Donnelly to the floor and grabbing hold of their arm-stretching it to the point of breaking.

He thought it was a great move until Donnelly managed to push themself up in the air, spinning and disengaging their arm and taking a few steps back to recover from the attack.

There were cheers from the crowd and Jason couldn't quite get his head around how Donnelly managed to escape the hold. Donnelly must have been stupidly flexible which meant Jason had to find another way to incapacitate them.

Bouncing on the spot it was now his time to take the fight to Donnelly. With unbelievable speed and accuracy, he pressed and pressed forward, occasionally breaking through the defence and landing blows on various parts of the body. Donnelly had successfully blocked most counterattacks but now seemed to be picking up their game, performing attacks that he had never encountered before.

This Donnelly was extremely good.

The fight had been going on for a good ten minutes and was now starting to become more of a slugging contest. Both of them were getting tired and it was now a matter of who was the fitter.

With the way Donnelly was avoiding attacks just a little bit better, Jason was guessing that Donnelly had just a little more endurance. Physically that is, not necessarily mentally.

Donnelly made a small mistake, going for an aggressive right hook which Jason had predicted. Locking Donnelly's arm between his left arm he proceeded to punch repeatedly in the liver with his other arm, however, there was no way to tell through the armour whether this was making an impact.

Grabbing Donnelly by the waist, he levered Donnelly into the air, grabbing ahold of Donnelly's arms and legs, but using their own arm as a way of cutting off oxygen from the brain.

With every ounce of strength he could muster, Jason had to keep Donnelly in this position, it was a hail mary. If this didn't work he wouldn't have the strength or energy to carry on.

He struggled and struggled and struggled to maintain the ascendancy and just as he was starting to find it difficult to maintain the grip, Donnelly tapped the side of his hand.

He let go and there was silence all around.

"Donnelly never loses!" Was the first comment as Donnelly gingerly moved off to the side struggling to get up from the bout.

Jason laid still trying to regain his breathing and the feeling within his arms, watching as Colonel El-Hadji slammed his fist on the table before storming away. Turner smiled and rubbed his gleaming bald head, it looked like he'd probably bet on Jason to win.

Just as each of his comrades started to disperse he saw an arm stretched out to him. Grabbing hold he was helped up to his feet by Donnelly.

Both of them were hunched overtired from the exhaustive battle. As Donnelly pressed a button to the side of the helmet it started to disappear.

The smooth pale skin of the twenty-something-year-old female left Jason aghast, and in between her long-drawn-out breathes her long soft oak coloured hair heaved up and down just past her shoulder blades. As her smiling mahogany-coloured eyes glanced at him, Jason just seemed initially lost in them.

"Lieutenant Jacqueline Donnelly, damn you fight good." She responded.

Jason just smiled like a schoolchild receiving some sweets for a job well done, until he realised that she was chuckling at his silly giddy look. He shook his head and placed out his hand to shake hers. "Jason, sorry, umm, Lieutenant Jason Scharn. You fight pretty well too, I don't think I've encountered anyone quite so impressive."

She laughed at his comments and walked away leaving him alone in the arena.

"Quite so impressive!" He said to himself. "Wow I sound like an idiot."

The memory of the initial meeting with Donnelly made him smile. Since that moment they had become sparring partners, each aiming to push themselves to their absolute physical and mental peak.

"Jason? Jason?"

Jason shook his head to the here and now once again looking at his mother's calm and relaxed face. "Yeah, sorry. I've made a couple of friends, nice people."

The conversation continued some more with Jason only telling his mother as much as he was allowed to tell her. In the scheme of things, that didn't amount to much.

The mood changed when he was finally passed over to his father.

Yulrian looked as solemn and stern as ever, however, stress was visible around his eyes and while those crystal blues looked directly at Jason, there was a sadness there he had not seen before.

"Father." Jason responded politely.

He initially didn't respond, but when Jason's subliminal frustrations started to make themselves obvious, Yulrian eventually spoke up.

"You look well."

Jason sighed frustrated by this superficial conversation that was waiting to take place. "I am." he frowned.

Yulrian coughed and looked down to the ground before turning back to him. "I still get my reports occasionally and um..." he coughed again after a brief silence. "I'm proud of what you've achieved."

Jason didn't know how to respond and just looked at him stunned.

Yulrian continued. "Vladimir has informed me of what is going on and your move to the Blue Ravens. You've achieved a lot within your short career but be careful. There's things going on within the USM and the confederate. There are some dangerous people out there and the fact that you are making small waves already will put a target on your back."

What is going on? Jason thought to himself.

"Dad. What happened?"

Yulrian barely moved despite the direct question. "I can't say much, your channel may be secure to the outside world but it's not to prying eyes and ears."

Jason frowned. He knew what Yulrian was talking about. The encryption on the communications was almost unbreakable but someone had to be in control of all the transmission links within the USM.

"What I can tell you is that some of the missions Vladimir and I oversaw were derailed from the inside, as a result either Vladimir or I had to go." Yulrian explained. "In order to find out who is involved it was best that Vladimir remained. While I'm better at tactical and strategic choices, this problem is political, something Vladimir is best suited for."

Jason nodded as he understood that some of the questions that plagued his mind about the war were simply the tip of the iceberg.

Yulrian smiled briefly. Something that Jason or anyone else for that matter rarely saw often.

With his blue piercing eyes Yulrian looked directly at Jason "besides, from an ethical and moral point of view, Vladimir is more likely to bend the limits of what is acceptable. Whoever is doing this isn't afraid to destroy anyone to get what they want. I know you have questions about a number of things going on but if you want to know, be prepared to go outside the comfort of the boundaries I installed in you."

Jason looked at him confused. "I don't get what you're saying." He replied.

Yulrian leant forward, his blue eyes looking paler than normal. "In order for you to survive and succeed where perhaps I haven't, be prepared to do whatever it takes to win, even if you feel it is morally ambiguous!"