Son of Justice Read Online Free

was leaving the washroom, his feet now clean, most of his unit—Benson included—passed him going in the opposite direction.
    * * *
    An hour later, the fifty-four men and women that remained in their training platoon stood silently in rank and file. The hot, Telgoran wind whipped viciously through their battered ranks, causing several of the soldiers to sway or stagger against the invisible assault. The hard-packed ground they occupied was kept clean by the wind, but rogue grains of sand and grit were regularly found by the invisible cyclone and cast angrily against an unprotected hand or face. Random yelps or flinches from his peers punctuated each occurrence, and gave notice that it was just a matter of time before another of the tiny missiles found a target. The anxious wait for the next surprising sting was worse than the sting itself, Eli thought, and he took a deep breath of hot air and forced his tense muscles to relax as best they could. This experience was temporary and wouldn’t last forever, he reminded himself. A sudden bite of pain to his left cheek reminded him that the experience, though temporary, had to be endured just the same.
    The two sister platoons in their training company stood to the left and right of Eli’s platoon. Neither of the other platoons held more than fifty recruits each, Eli noticed. The forced march that weeded out five of his platoon-mates had taken a much heavier toll on the other two units. A quick peek showed the boots of all but a few in the other platoons were still covered in dust and sand. Few of them had bothered to treat their feet during their short break. A whisper of concern tickled the back of Eli’s neck at the oversight. It also resurrected the still-lingering question of why the Minith sergeants didn’t look out for them? Weren’t they invested in the health and well-being of their charges? Along those same lines, he wondered what had kept him from looking after his peers. It wasn’t his job to look after everyone, but if he could help, why not? He had been training to be a soldier for years, he knew things that those around him obviously didn’t. It made no sense to keep that knowledge to himself. With an internal nod, he made a decision to step up and fill in the gaps where he could. Maybe their instructors couldn’t be bothered, but he had no such qualms.
    The assembled humans immediately snapped to attention as three Minith instructors exited the building to their front. The aliens were outfitted in the same dirty-copper colored uniform as Eli and his peers, but that’s where the resemblance ended. The giant warriors had greenish skin, stood in excess of eight feet, and weighed more than three hundred pounds. Their simian appearance was offset by large, batlike ears. Those ears were the reason they didn’t wear the black beret that the humans sported. It was safe to say, the Minith were intimidating and Eli had noted early on that the instructors leveraged their physical appearance to push, taunt, and torture their human charges.
    Each was a sergeant in the Alliance Defense Force and all had several years of military experience. At least one of them had seen battle against humans on Earth, Eli had learned a week earlier. His instructor, Sergeant Twigg, had dropped that nugget of information during a class on hand-to-hand combat. The way his eyes had searched the recruits surrounding him seemed full of menace, as if he was daring one of his human charges to make a comment or offer an affront to his honor. No one had accepted the unspoken challenge. It was likely the other two sergeants had similar battle experience.
    The three huddled in front of the assembled platoons and openly ignored the humans. Although Defense Force regulations required that all military personnel speak Earth Standard language whenever a second race was present, the three Minith sergeants set that rule aside in favor of their native tongue. It was apparent the Minith did not anticipate