The room was gigantic. For the moment the room was bathed in shadow with only a minute amount of light seeping in from the window of the small room we found ourselves in. And from said light, I could see a small outline of some of the objects that were placed in the room.
There were – what looked like – boxes and towers, but the identity of the objects were hard to make out.
The room we stood in could be easily defined as the light we basked in made its features prominent.
There was a large desk with numerous terminals each with camera footage of which I assumed were in the large room in front of us, given the fact that the footage was pitch black. Beside the terminals were microphones with multiple different buttons each numbered from 1 to 9 linking to specific channels that the speaker wanted to talk into.
This large desk stood in front of the large windows that acted as a portal to the large room that we were elevated in front of.
It appeared to be some sort of observation deck, similar to the ones in the vivarium and the botanical garden. But what were we observing here?
All of a sudden, my question had been somewhat answered once those sounds went off.
Click, click, click, click.
Section by section, the objects in the room began to make their presence known.
The room was loaded with all kinds of boxes with doors and windows, each with their roofs removed from them. There were also tall wooden towers at the far back of the large room that could now be easily defined from the overbearing light cast down on the room.
It was an assault course; I've had training in one of these before during my training for the police force, but nowhere near the scale and complexity of this. There were rooms dedicated to all sorts of scenarios. Honestly, what sort of scenario are we going to need this level of training for, are they training a special operations force or a private army? And just how much funding does MEI receive?
"Welcome to the Special Operations Training Centre."
Mrs Isamu's excited voice dragged me back into the present, her arms stretched out as she stood in front of one of the large windows overviewing the complex, embracing the joy she felt in this moment.
"This is where all our training will be conducted. Alongside this one, there are other smaller facilities for alternative training like swimming for example."
I was still so perplexed by the necessity of the facility in front us.
"Just how much training do we need for this job. What is it we are actually doing?"
She turned to me, I was stood behind her observing what could be seen around her silhouette from the window. She still had a shining grin stretched across her face. Cooped up in an office day-in-day-out, she must've missed the actual action on the field.
"Well numerous, it's for the future. If aliens were to come back, we need to make sure we are as prepared as possible. It also brings us to the next precaution. Aethesium. We don't know what that stuff does to people, in the event that people become infected, we need to be sure we ready to face them, we need make sure we're adequately armed against powered-up super soldiers through training and discipline."
"How do we know that's going to happen?"
I was a little sceptical, super soldiers?
"We don't. But until we fully understand this power, we need to be ready for anything. That aethesium entity. His power is beyond our capacity to understand right now, what if he goes awol? Or what if others start to arise who don't have his same intentions at heart?"
I was silenced before I began to ponder the situation before us.
It's quite the predicament we find ourselves in. Thousands of years have passed since civilisation started. And not once have we ever faced this drastic of a situation. No empire in the history of the world has ever had the capacity to threaten a whole species.
"Across the next couple of weeks, you'll be introduced to your squad and will conduct numerous training exercises as a group, you will get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses. In due time, you'll even find out what they like to eat for breakfast."
"Now come, I'll introduce you to Jen."
The room had the appearance of a long hallway with targets on the far side opposite us, on the wall leading up to the end, there was numbering denoting the length, in metres, of the distance of the room, along the way there were targets, placed in different distances. It was a firing range.
We were standing on the far side of the room, surrounded by aisles to stand and practice your aim.
"Follow me, Jen is in armoury."
Jen was definitely an interesting... character. That was the best way to describe her.
In fact, the way I would describe her would be using the words psychopath with a pretty smile.
In her fortress of solitude, surrounded by weapons aplenty. She was a figure who contrasted the very room we stood in.
In her own little booth, in a room that, behind the metal gate locking it away from us, looked similar to a small shop, only rather than selling things like snacks, drinks and other innocent items. The stock here was of a different yoke. The stock here were items capable of bringing death. In this armoury, a colourful character like Jen was not what came to mind as the typical enjoyer of this hobby.
Her bright pink hair juxtaposed the metallic blacks and greys that surrounded this room. Her hair was tied into two neat buns on either side of her head with silky black bows tying them in place. What did match the backdrop, however, was the silver piercings below her glossy lips.
"Maki-moo, who's this cutie patootie you've brought to my theatre of dreams."
She leaned herself over her desk to get up close to Mrs Isamu, of which she seemed to hold a warm affection for.
"This is our newest operative, Himiko Suzuki. I'm showing her around the place. I got her introduced to the research department, got her up to speed on aethesium and introduced her to Dr. Entenga, etc, etc."
Her faced moulded into wone of playful disappointment, as she drooped her posture slightly.
"You introduced him to that lunatic before me?"
Lunatic was ironic coming from a character like her.
"oh hold on I'll come over there so I can introduce myself to the noobie properly."
She flew herself round the corner to the exit of the booth, on the vacant desk she left was paperwork, with cute little scribbles around the edge of the paper, that's definitely not up to code.
As she whipped round the corner, I reached out to shake her hand as she looked foreign and based on how the others like Dr Entenga and Mr Oladeji greeted me I assumed she was the same.
However, she went straight through my hand and wrapped her arms around me. She then stepped away so she could introduce herself properly. I looked at Mrs Isamu, face full of confusion. She looked back with a giggle, like she knew this was crazy but was used to it by now.
"I'm Jenna, but you can call me Jen. I'm from over in Troisine, Marleille to be specific. This here is my haven, if you need any weapons, I'm your girlie x."
"Basically, Jen here is our arms expert, she provides us with arms for any operation we undergo, if you ever need to try out any weapon in particular, just talk to her and she'll get you sorted."
Mrs Isamu interjected, giving her own translation as Jen nodded along.
Suddenly, Mrs Isamu received a phone call, it was from the bureau, she stepped aside, letting the two of us get to know each other.
Jen instantly jumped at the opportunity for a chat.
"So Himiko, I love your name by the way – it's so cute – what is it you used to do before this?"
"I was from the Rengappon police force, working under Mrs Isamu, she was the superintendent at the precinct, what about you?"
"You worked with Maki, cool, Me? Oh, I was in a band, only jo-"
"What do you play?"
"You actually want to know?"
I nodded with a smile on my face. And gave her my answer to try and encourage a response.
"I play a bit of keyboard, I've never been in a band, but my parents gave me lessons when I was young, said it was good to give yourself an escape, helps keep you sane, my dad used to say."
She reacted with a sad smile but quickly overruled it with her bright tone she previously donned.
"Drums... I play the drums."
That personality switched was odd, but I felt like there was a connection between the two of us.
"It's nice to meet you Jen"
"You too Miko. Hehe. Maki and Miko-chan."
Within an instant, she went from uncharacteristically sad, straight back to her energetic self.
The somewhat wholesome moment was cut short when Makoto came crashing back into the room.
"You two, we need to get back to the bureau, the director has an announcement for the special operations department, Jen come with me I'll give you a ride. Himiko we'll get you accustomed later."
The three of us entered a large room, of which had the key characteristic of a long table, surrounded by office chairs. At the front, there was an electronic display, attached to a computer. Beside that computer, was the director, Tosin Oladeji, along with the head of research, Dr Josep Entenga. At the long table, sat multiple people, of which I haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet.
It seemed the two up front had an important announcement to make to us at the Spec Ops department.
"Isamu, Suzuki, Jen. It's good to see you again. Take a seat, we have some information we'd like to share with you."
Mr Oladeji gestured us to some seats at the table, it was a tight squeeze, the conference room was not quite built for this many bodies.
We placed ourselves amongst our peers and the Mr Entenga stepped up to make his announcement.
"Ladies and Gentlemen. So far it has become clear to us that aethesium tends to be a byproduct of the purple figure we have become accustomed to. It is present in every location that he has been spotted in."
Is this the announcement, we already know this, this can't be all we were called in for.
"We have research teams across these locations, each who – just like ours – have been researching the aethesium product that has been left from the locations the aethesium entity have been spotted at. These locations include: the outskirts of the Okopan capital, Angira. The attack here in Rengappon, and finally, the most recent attack on Groissaint, a couple weeks ago."
Grossaint... Apparently the attack there happened straight after the one here. But fortunately, no one was harmed as the aethesium entity managed to get there pretty quickly.
"The most recent location is what has caught our attention. As in that location, seems to house far more aethesium activity than over here in Rengappon and in Okopo."
Dr Entenga looked over at Mr Oladeji and nodded. Oladeji stepped forward in suit.
"We have come up with a theory. That the aethesium entity is a human being who has somehow, been given a very high dose of Aethesium. So much so that he emits it and can even transform his whole body into it. Therefore, if this were to be the case then hypothetically..."
"The entity should be someone living in the city of Groissaint. In the nation of Troisine."
"Therefore, in a few weeks time, we will temporarily shift our operations over to Groissaint. Hopefully, we will track down the identity of the aethesium user and get to the source of this power."