Moments

I sit here with the platoon's most powerful weapon facing the track that leads to this area of the forest that we are harbouring in. With 500 rounds linked together in one extended chain loaded into my General Purpose Machine Gun, I sit quietly, listening to my section mate breathing deeply beside me. The nights are bitterly cold and sleep is a rare commodity, fatigue only builds up as we execute mission after mission, march after march, and chances to recuperate are hard to come by. I shift my attention momentarily from the empty road up ahead to my sleeping section mate next to me. He sleeps with his arms folded across his chest, clutching tightly his rifle, an object that could end someone's life with a simple squeeze of a trigger. He keeps on his Integrated Body Armour, a full water bag and water canteen along with other standard required items kept neatly in the various pouches on the best. With the map of the area slotted in his right thigh pocket, he wears in his knee and elbow guards, along with his combat gloves. Worn out combat boots and a full set of uniform tracked with dirt stains complete the look. He rests his head on his assault and his helmet is placed next to his left shoulder.

I look at him, and find it hard to remember that he is 19 years old. Yes, a 19 year old that never signed up for this, training with equipment he hopes never to use, practicing maneuvers he wishes to never employ, for a war he wants never to come.

Such, really, is the price for security. Such is the price that we pay for our country's continued prosperity. We trade in time, money, equipment, relationships for investors confidence by which we survive and thrive. Such is the system in place, such is the world we live in.

A fighting patrol just returned, and as they climb the hill past my position, we exchange a few words, smiles, jokes. The fatigue is obvious in their eyes and I can tell they are happy to be back to get a chance to rest. ~

Agent X 3rd Gen (part 3)

Continued
~

Later Caitlyn had been led to her room and was given a change of clothes to change into. She was relieved to see that it was in a similar fashion to what everyone around here was wearing. Mom and aunt Carolina had things that they needed to settle so they had left, but aunt Tristin volunteered to stay back to look over Caitlyn and familiarize her with the place.

 

After awhile Caitlyn came out of the washroom after a shower all changed, one hand holding the clothes she changed out of, the other hand holding her towel to her wet hair, and she was holding the belt and other accessories that came with the suit in her mouth.

 

“ughn ishin an ou elp a itter ere?” she dumped her old clothes on the ground and took the belt from out of her mouth. “Aunt Tristin? How do I wear all these stuff?”

 

Her aunt Tristin was sprawled on the bed reading an introductory brochure that had been provided in the room. She rolled over and stood up to cross the room to where Caitlyn was standing.

 

“Here, like this….and that goes there, and that one….” She helped Caitlyn with the clips and buttons and straps. “There, all done.”

 

Caitlyn wrinkled up her face as she complained how tight the whole thing felt.

 

“Well…it’s not exactly tight. I mean, it is supposed to fit your figure, but, oh. Go ahead and do a summersault.” Aunt Tristin replied.

 

Although she was confused, Caitlyn still did as she was told, and she was amazed that she barley felt the floor as she completed her summersault.

 

“Wow!” Caitlyn exclaimed, “I barely felt the floor, it is as if this suit even help me roll forward as well!”

 

“The suits that we wear around here are all made out of nano-fiber. It is incredibly light but really really strong. It can absorb a lot of force before tearing or splitting. It has a thin layer of spongy material to cushion us- that’s the part that you feel helps you in your roll. This suit also helps us retain our body heat in cold weather or wet weather.”

 

“Now that you are all suited up, let’s go for a walk around here and I’ll bring you out to eat a little something after that if you are hungry”

~

“So as my sister did say earlier, this is Goodwill Base. It is one of the many bases that the organizations of the intelligence sector have.”

 

“Intelligence? As in…really smart?” Caitlyn asked innocently.

 

“Not quite. Intelligence as in secret information, secret agents, and top secret missions. That kind”

 

“Ah, I see”

 

“Now continuing, there are three, you can call it, factions: [the] Agency, [the] Foundation, and [the] Brotherhood. So every agent belongs to one of these groups. Just to give you a few numbers so that you can see how big this is: [the] Brotherhood has around three thousand active agents and about two hundred bases and safe houses around the world. [the] Foundation has an estimate of three thousand five hundred agents and one hundred and fifty bases. [the] Agency is the largest of all of them with around five thousand agents and three hundred secret bases and safe houses.”

 

“Wow…that is a lot of people and houses.”

 

 “For the longest period of time all three of these factions did not like each other so they were always fighting against each other. Until recently, where a series of events happened and all three factions submitted to one leader. “

 

“That’s cool, that person sounds amazing! I would love to meet that guy.”

 

Tristin stopped walking and leaned over to whisper into Caitlyn’s ear: ”Caity dear, you do know that person that united the three factions is your mom right?”

 

WHAT? Caitlyn could not believe her ears. But then again, her mind went back to outside the airport the second she turned around and saw her mom in the agent suit. The awe and fear that she felt before she recognized the face and the voice came rushing back.

 

“Yes, yes…I could see that…” Caitlyn said slowly. Then it dawned on her. “That means… my mom is in charge of around ten thousand people and about six hundred houses?”

 

“Yep that’s right! But you don’t have to worry, you mom has people like us to help her!” Tristin said, beaming at her niece.

 

“So…how many houses are you in charge of, aunt Tristin?”

 

“erm….not a lot,” Tristin was caught off guard by the question. “You see, I don’t really like the houses a whole lot I just like to fight people.”

~

They continued their tour around Goodwill Base, the first of its kind, a base where member from all three factions were welcome, a sophisticated integrated system that allowed the start of co-coordinating all three faction’s co-operations. When they reached the end of the base, Tristin smiled at her adolescent niece and said:” well that is the end of the tour of the base. But the cool thing is, that is not the most exciting feature of Goodwill base. Goodwill Base is the site of a new venture that we are all so hyped for. What you saw back there was just the administration wing of this base. What is here beyond this door is the primary reason why this whole place was built”

 

She swung open the door and led Caitlyn through.

 

“Take a good look around. Caitlyn Reynolds, welcome to Command School.”

~~

Section 3- Command School

~~

 

Caitlyn just stared and gaped as she took in the sight: this wing of the base was multi-storied, with a large hall on the first floor that served both as the cafeteria and the general hang out place. At the far end of the hall was a long corridor that led to the indoor sports facilities and beyond that a door that led outside to the outdoor facilities. To the left of the cafeteria was a door to the different classrooms and lifts to the dorms and rooms upstairs.

 

The whole place was swarming with young people all similarly dressed with Caitlyn only there were in their three colors: Black for [the] Agency, White for [the] Foundation and Red for [the] Brotherhood. All the young people were mixing around and chatting with one another, eating together at the cafeteria, or just walking to where they wanted to go. Tristin pulled Caitlyn to the down the steps to one of the doors on the right side of the hall. Caitlyn’s eyes widened in excitement as she read off the sign:

 

“The Arena System.”

~

The Arena System at Goodwill base was much bigger than the on that Caitlyn had used back at the farm: the system here was nearly twice the size and had eight platforms. And there were three systems lined up side by side. The door that Tristin had led Caitlyn in by had a staircase that split off leading down to the three individual systems, but from the platform where they stood they could survey all three arena battles at once.

 

Her eyes were shining as Caitlyn took in the sight: multiple people doing a co-op, others facing off each other, and even people standing around watching and commenting on the matches.

 

Tristin walked down the stairs towards the system on the left as the battle there had just concluded. She looked over her shoulder and said:” So Caity…interested in having a game with someone other than your mom or your aunts?”

 

Caitlyn nodded happily and ran forward into one of the platforms just as the last person that had been defeated walked out. Just as she entered the codes to fire up her side of the system, the guy at the other platform called out: “Hey you! I always play my rounds with my girlfriend Taltia here. Would you want to get another person to play with you, or is it fine to take us both on?”

 

 

Tristin stepped forward to enter the other platform, but Caitlyn stopped her with a small smile.

 

Oh boy. Tristin thought to herself.

~

“So you’re Caitlyn…are you new around here?” the boy asked.

 

Caitlyn nodded silently with a smile. He continued:” then it’s nice to meet you. I’m Trevor, and this is my girlfriend Taltia. Is this your first time using the Arena System? We can provide you with some instructions or tips and go easy on you if you want.”

 

Giving a dark smile, Caitlyn gave a dark smile and tossed her hair. “Oh I think I can pick this game up as we go along…so which battle are we playing, and which side do you two want?”

 

Taltia exchange a look with Trevor, they both had sensed the underlying message. She narrowed her eyes and said quietly:” let’s take her down a peg.”

 

Trevor agreed with a dark smile and loaded the settings. Caitlyn looked down at the system that notified her of the battle choice.

 

The battle selected was The Battle of Waterloo and she was on the French side.

~

Caitlyn was not that surprised at the choice of battle. There were not many two-versus-one battles that most people played and Waterloo was probably the most common one. Strategically-wise this battle was rather even: the French having a slightly larger and well trained army but the English-Prussian Collation would have the superior numbers advantage when both of their armies combined.

 

Looking across some of the numbers as the system loaded, Caitlyn glanced at the stats.

 

French force: Caitlyn Reynolds

-48,000 infantry

-14,000 cavalry

-7,000 artillery with 250 guns

 

English force: Trevor Buckleman

-50,000 infantry

-11,000 cavalry

-6,000 artillery with 150 guns

 

Prussian force: Taltia Picklet

-48,000 infantry

 

 

-Battle Start!-

~Opening moves~

 

Taltia set her army for a course to Waterloo, and turned it over to auto-command. There was little for her to do now because it took a few rounds for her army to reach the battlefield. The main action now was to take place between her boyfriend and that new girl.

 

Trevor deployed his troops in a long line just behind the crest of the ridge following the Ohain road. Using the reverse slope, he concealed most of his forces from the enemies view. He also sent men to garrison and hold Hougoumont, Papelotte, and La Haye Sainte, thus securing his position and ensuring that the enemy could not flank his troops. Trevor had played the Waterloo battle over a dozen times with Taltia and this was their standard way to victory: Trevor would play safe but bold in holding his position and even attacking the French army (there were a few times he even won the game before Taltia had arrived) until Taltia arrives. Then they would work together and force the French back with greater numbers- A simple but effective strategy.

 

Caitlyn nibbled on her left thumb as she casually turned off the auto-command function and started keying in the commands she wanted. She immediately fired Ney and recalled Grouchy to the battlefield as her forces formed up to face the English. Grouchy’s 15,000 infantry would arrive at the battlefield in 2 rounds, well before Taltia’s Prussian troops, so that was a power card Caitlyn was going to use.

 

~Round 1~

 

Caitlyn moved first. She had her over half her artillery move into position and shell the around and behind Hougoumont while simultaneously ordering a general infantry advance on the enemy position at Hougoumont.

 

She was engaging the enemy force garrisoned there with a larger force and cutting off any chance of reinforcements or retreat with the artillery barrage.

 

Trevor saw that he was not particularly concerned; the auto-reinforcement setting would ensure that troops will be sent to Hougoumont if numbers there ever dropped low. Thinking he had Caitlyn’s attention all tied up, he tried playing his hand- advancing troops from the center and from the left to engage the French troops.

 

~Round 2~

 

Caitlyn almost laughed out loud. She had her troops hold their positions and allow the English to come out from their defensive positions. At her command, the 80 guns from the French Grande Batterie drew up and fired at the line of English coming up to support the first wave of attackers. Caitlyn was never one to use her artillery directly at the first wave, it was almost her trademark- firing at the second wave and relying on her infantry to stop the advance and force the enemy back across their dead comrades torn apart by the artillery fire. She always blamed the dark and sadistic side of her for this tactic, and as she thought of this now she allowed herself a small sardonic smile.

 

She let the battle rage on across almost the entire front as both infantry forces engaged each other. Caitlyn turned her attention back to calling individual artillery shots on the Hougoumont to prevent the auto-reinforcement setting from actually getting troops there.

 

Trevor frowned and bit his lip, nervously looking as the numbers at the Hougoumont kept on dropping. The reinforcements were not reaching the place and the fighting was fierce and intense there. All along the battle front the French were slowly pushing his infantry back. The English infantry’s morale dropped further as they were pushed into the remains of their fellow soldiers blown to bits by Caitlyn’s artillery fire in the middle.

 

He made his decision: A general retreat was ordered as the English infantry fell back to more defensible positions. Trevor took this time to assume control of the troops near the Hougoumont, he forced unit after unit to charge into the battleground to relieve the few remaining defenders that had held out for so long against a larger force. These bloody English were so darn good at being resilient… he laughed to himself.

 

Only a few troops got in to the Hougoumont to assist the defenders holding that position, the rest were blown to bits from accurate flaming death hailing from the sky . Trevor was contented, he knew if the French broke through that position his right flank would be next to indefensible and his entire army could be dislodged from their defensive positions at Waterloo.

 

~Round 3~

-Marshall Grouchy arrives on the battlefield: French army +15,000 infantry-

-Prussian infantry: 2 more rounds required before they can arrive-

 

 

Caitlyn ordered her infantry across the entire front to slowly advance and harass the retreating English troops as she moved half her artillery from their positions at Hougoumont towards the middle.

 

She was about to play her hand.

 

Trevor surveyed the entire battlefield. He had lost more men than he had planned, and 15,000 extra infantry was not a number to sniff at. He sighed slightly and moved a few of his reserve battalions up towards his defensive ridge as the second wave of infantry in the middle and the left stepped forward to assist the retreat of the forward force.

 

His defensive position was safe. For now.

 

Watching a fresh wave of enemy troops cross the ridge and march down to aid their comrades, Caitlyn personally took over the firing of the Grande Batterie. The other cannons had also been shifted over and now pinpoint barrage was raining down on the middle of the battle line.

 

The battalions defending La Haye Sainte in the middle were absolutely decimated by the cannon shots that fell out of the sky right into their midst, not even giving them chance to get to shelter.

 

Trevor quickly countered by having his own artillery fire forward at the line of advancing French infantry, halting its advance. He spaced out his forces that were under the artillery barrage to reduce his losses.

 

By now the English troops have made a successful retreat back to the ridge and Trevor shifted his reserves out of view, but keeping them on standby to reinforce any position that might seem to waver. He noticed that the enemy cannons has stopped firing and found that a little weird. Trevor muttered something under his breath and looked across the entire the battlefield, trying to figure out what that new girl’s next move is going to be.

 

There! The French I Corps under the command of General d’Erlon was advancing on the fortifications of Papelotte. Trevor had learnt from the previous skirmishes, he quickly deployed the troops he wanted, ensuring that they would get to Papelotte way before any artillery can cut them off. He also shifted his forces in La Haye Sainte so that they could fire upon the advancing force.

 

The next two turns would turn his defensive positions around. His ace cards were coming up.

 

The troops under d’Erlon engaged the English troops at on a wide front, slowing whittling down the number of defenders and pushing them back. Inch by inch the French infantry advanced, ascending the slope and pressing the English troops back.

 

Trevor allowed himself a smile as he stretched out his right arm and clenched his fist. “Send in the Cavalry.” He said, relishing the cliché.

 

 

~Round 4~

-1 more round till Prussian troops arrive-

 

This round has typically been called the Cavalry round as both sides would normally throw their cavalry at each other. It was Rounds 4 and 5 that allowed the Coalition side an average 78.3% win rate. The English would use their more powerful cavalry to drive back enemy troops to a safe distance, then hold out and prepare for the Round 5 simultaneous counter-attack with the Prussians. It was common knowledge that if the French did not breach the defensive positions of the English by the end of Round 3, it was really hard to be able to fight on two fronts and prevail.

 

Cracking his knuckles, Trevor looked across to the other platform where the new girl was in; he wondered what kind of thoughts might be going through her head. He was disturbed as he say Caitlyn just nonchalantly watch the English heavy cavalry crash into the French infantry and force them back.

 

“She has her plan,” Trevor mumbled to himself, “what on earth can it be?” his eyes scanned across the entire battlefield in vain as he racked his brains.

 

Caitlyn was bored. Cavalry round was turning out just like how every other cavalry round normally plays out.  “in three seconds another line of cavalry will stream out near La Haye Sainte and force back my general advance.” She said quietly to herself.

 

She straightened her back and pushed her fringe behind her ear- a signal for her next move.

 

French cavalry counter-charged the English cavalry near Papelotte as the infantry near La Haye Sainte formed into their defensive squares to counter the cavalry there.

 

The 15,000 infantry under Marshall Grouchy charged at Papelotte with a mighty yell, raising morale and spurring on the infantry there to assist their comrades in stopping the English cavalry charge and beating the horsemen back.

 

Quickly the English cavalry lost their momentum and had to leave the battlefield or be swamped by the counter attacking French force. Trevor swung his reserves over to his left flank to try and support them. But before any of the troops could move, Caitlyn destroyed them.

 

The sole reason why the French infantry advanced at all was to protect the artillery Caitlyn was moving forward. Now the English defensive ridge and its reserves that were stationed beyond it was within range.

 

Even though it was out of sight, Caitlyn knew exactly the coordinates to fire at. Trevor frantically tried to maneuver his reserves around, but it was like a human dropping rocks on groups of ants and watching them scramble around mindlessly in every direction.

 

By this time the fighting at Hougoumont died down, because Caitlyn saw no point fighting over a position that would not win her the battle. As she swung her left flank away from Hougoumont to turn her entire army to face the oncoming Prussians, Caitlyn deployed three of her hitherto-undefeated Imperial Guard battalions. She ordered them to storm the enemy at La Haye Sainte and break though the center of Trevor’s English army.

 

Trevor saw that he was being suffocated tactically: Hougoumont was never in any real danger of being overrun, it was just a sinkhole where troops, ammo, attention, and energy were being poured into. His defensive line on the ridge was unaffected, but all the reserve forces behind that were in utter chaos due to the artillery barrage that blew away their cohesion. La Haye Sainte was under attack by what were probably the three finest undefeated battalions in the French Imperial Guard. Papelotte was in desperate condition: after the English cavalry charge had been nullified and driven back, the entire French right flank had kept advancing and it was not slowing down at all.

 

La Haye Sainte fell. Papelotte fell as well. Trevor bowed his head, his army was broken, and there was no way he could rally a counter attack with Taltia now.

 

“its all up to you now Taltia.” He mumbled as he sank to his knees in the platform.

 

~Round 5~

-Prussian infantry arrives, Coalition army +48,000 troops-

 

Seeing Hougoumont was not contested and the entire French left wing swinging over to face the oncoming Prussians, Trevor drew all his forces out of Hougoumont and pushed is entire army toward his left. It was a last ditch effort on the part of the English. Fierce fighting reignited at Haye La Sainte and Papelotte as Trevor tried to brute force a path for the Taltia’s right wing to slot in and reinforce his battened army.

 

Taltia watched the movement of the English army and sent her right wing to attack Papelotte at the same time. It was a pincer movement- Trevor’s army-the anvil, her infantry- the hammer. Papelotte was only to be the first to crumble under the combined forces, then Haye La Sainte, then the entire French army.

 

Caitlyn purposefully waited for both English and Prussian forces to converge onto Papelotte. Noting the withdrawal of English troops from Hougoumont, she could more or less tell what Trevor’s and Taltia’s battle plan was. Sensing that this was the moment, Caitlyn played her hand.

 

She directed covering artillery fire to slow down the onrushing battalions of troops approaching Papelotte to allow the safe retreat of French troops stationed there. Caitlyn used the rest of her artillery to drive back the English troops that were moving over from Hougoumont to support the fierce fighting taking place in the middle of both French and English infantry lines. She sent 3 battalions of her riflemen to secure Hougoumont to prevent and English from falling back to that position, and half her cavalry to attack the disorientated, retreating English troops near the center.

 

The English Right Flank, consisting of 6 infantry battalions that moved from their defensive position of Hougoumont to support the center, were driven back by artillery fire, had their original position captured by enemy infantry, and routed by the swift cavalry.

 

Caitlyn had given up Papelotte and allowed the English and the Prussians to join up, but exchanged that with the destruction of the English right flank, and the Imperial Guard, with the help from the troops withdrawn from Papelotte, almost driving through the English now-frail center.

 

Worth.

 

~Round 6~

 

Taltia was furiously driving her Left Flank forward to try and catch the withdrawing French forces as her Right flank was practically absorbing the remnants of her boyfriend’s destroyed army. From high above, troops from both sides were forming a yin-yang formation- the Prussian left flank advancing on the French and the French left flank racing forward to pincer in the English who were falling back beyond the now-Prussian held Papelotte.

 

Caitlyn took the chance to lob an artillery barrage at the confused and panicking mass of troops as Taltia tried to organize the English back under into a cohesive unit.

 

The dust settled as both side took the time to reorganize instead of blindly throwing themselves at each other

 

Taltia’s heart sank as she surveyed the battlefield. She had no choice but to smile at the irony of the situation. The battle positions from Round 1 had been switched around: the French now occupied Hougoumont and Haye La Sainte and had their infantry strung out in a defensive line on the ridge. And although the Prussian/English coalition now held Papelotte, Taltia could not see anyway to hold that, or even win the battle.

 

Even though both sides had relatively the same amount of troops, (Taltia actually had more infantry) but the French now had the only cavalry units in the battle, and the size of their artillery grew as they turned the abandoned English cannons back to face the Prussian force.

 

Gritting her teeth in anger, Taltia could identify over five ways Caitlyn could destroy her army. Or Caitlyn could just sit back and let all the rounds time out and win by default.

 

This girl….this…Caitlyn…who was she? This Caitlyn…Reynolds? Reynolds? Isn’t tha-

 

~Round 7~

 

Taltia looked straight at the girl in the platform facing her. She was deep in thought, oblivious to the battle playing out beneath her. Reynolds…Reynolds…Reynolds… that was the only thing she could think about.

 

Suddenly she snapped out of her trance-like state. That new girl was looking back with her eyebrows raised, she was also pointing down to the battle simulation.

 

Taltia looked down and her eyes widened.

 

“OH SHI-…”

 

A couple of artillery shells just fell out of the sky and onto her command post that she just set up at the rear of the Prussian-English Coalition. A small unit of French troops came jumping out yelling and screaming, pouring bullet after bullet into the different commanders that survived the artillery shots.

 

When the French retreated away from the oncoming Prussian left flank, Caitlyn had ordered two cannons and a small unit of men to retreat away from the main force and into the forest to wait in ambush for the commanders of the Coalition.

 

~BATTLE OVER~

~FRENCH SIDE VICTORIOUS~

~WINNER: CAITLYN~

 

Caitlyn smiled to herself as she skipped all the after-battle stats and shut down her side of the Arena System. She stepped out of the platform and looked for her Aunt Tristin.

 

Aunt Tristin was not looking at her, she was looking at the other girl that hurried out of the platform on the other side and came over.

 

That girl,” whats-her-face-,” Caitlyn racked her brain for the name and muttered to herself, ”ah…Taltia, that’s it.” Had a weird look on her face as she reached.

 

“Are you really a Reynold? How are you a Reynold?” Taltia blurted out, eyes wide.

 

Caitlyn did not know how to respond, but fortunately Tristin stepped in and answered for her:” Well actually, it was a system error. The auto-correct nowadays, changing young Caitlyn Rachels to Caitlyn Reynolds.” She waved her hand aimlessly to add to the effect.

 

Taltia swung around and suddenly registered that it was Tristin Summers speaking to her. She quickly bowed her head and spoke, the noted of awe and fear evident in her voice:” I am so sorry Ms Summers, I spoke out of place. It was a mistake on my part, may I be dismissed.”

 

Tristin bit her lip and raised an eyebrow. “Well, this girl is new today and her instructor just asked me to bring her around the base a bit. Yes, you may be dismissed and No, there was no need for that apology.”

 

Caitlyn watched as Taltia turned around and hurried off with Aunt Tristin hollering after her:” you only need to show that reverence to my sister! Not me! Got it!?”

~

Later after the two of them had eaten dinner at the cafeteria, Caitlyn turned to Tristin and asked:” Aunt Tristin, why did you have to tell that Taltia girl that I was Caitlyn Rachels instead of Caitlyn Reynolds?”

 

“You have to understand,” Tristin took a long and hard look at her niece. “This is the intelligence sector where information is everything. Imagine the different situations that you could be put in if people knew that you were directly related to Jessie. It could be to your advantage, but it would very well mean you are disadvantaged in many many ways. The expectation that comes with that name is immense.”

 

Tristin ruffled Caitlyn’s long hair. “But that does not change the fact that you are still Caitlyn Reynolds. Feel free to revel that to who you want and who you trust when you feel the time is right.”

 

“Now go to sleep, you do not want to come in late and make a bad first impression on your first day at Command School.”

~

 

The reporting time for Command School was at 7:30 am, hence Caitlyn got up at 5:00 am. She spent one full hour taking a long morning shower, half an hour brushing her hair till it shone, and the last half an hour standing in front of the full length mirror next to the wardrobe arranging and straightening her uniform.

 

As she opened her door to head out, Caitlyn bit her lip and cast her eyes back for one last glance at the mirror, hoping that she looked alright.

 

“You look fine, dear.” A voice from the corridor came.

 

Caitlyn froze, and then noticed the person leaning against the wall just outside her door.

 

“Mom?” then, seeing her mother step out of the shadows, Caitlyn quickly closed the door and put her hands behind her back. She cast her eyes downward and shuffled her feet nervously. “Do I look alright?”

 

Jessie gently reached over and pushed a wisp of Caitlyn’s fringe back behind her ear. “There, now you look perfect.” Then, gesturing down the hallway, Jessie said: “let’s be going, shall we?”

~

 

As the two of them were walking down the hallway, Caitlyn glanced down at her right forearm. Her mom had just sent her something and Caitlyn activated the holo-screen to project the data packet she just received.

 

Jessie glanced over and explained:” that is your official profile in the database now. Aunt Carolina also concurred with the decision and thus you are listed as Caitlyn Rachels.”

 

They reached the end of the hallway and Jessie stopped to turn and look straight into Caitlyn’s eyes “never forget. You are a Reynolds now. It is up to you when and to whom you want to reveal this to. Know this: Information is Knowledge, and Knowledge is Power, thus, Information is Power. But one last thing here…”

 

Jessie gave Caitlyn a big and long hug, then smiled and said:” Well, it is Command School, but have fun. Go make new friends but the important thing is, go and learn. Learn not just from the instructors but also from your peers, learn not just what to do but also what not to do. Caitlyn, almost all of the people that you will meet there at Command School have one or more amazing talents. Many are geniuses, others are physically very talented. But despite all that you can…” Jessie tapped the side of her head and nodded meaningfully to Caitlyn.

 

Then, giving her a light kiss on the forehead, Jessie made a little shooing motion, indicating to Caitlyn it was time for her to continue on by herself.

 

~

 

Caitlyn walked down the stairs over to the mess hall in somewhat of a daze, her mom’s words still swirling in her head. She turned left to enter the row of rooms on the left side of the cafeteria, and then double checked the location where she was supposed to assemble.

 

East Wing, Room 1.

 

Yep, this checks out, Caitlyn thought to herself, taking in a deep breath to calm herself down. She squared her shoulders and tilted up her chin, wiping the nervous look on her face and replacing that with a confident smile.

 

Caitlyn hit the panel at the side and the doors slide open.

 

She stepped in.

 

~

 

“Hey! Its that new girl whats-her-name from yesterday’s Arena System!”

 

“Yeah! She really showed up that Senior lovey-dovey couple! Three cheers for whats-her-name!”

 

“Caitlyn! That’s it!”

 

The whole room erupted in a small cheer and Caitlyn had no choice but to smile at it all.

 

A couple of the older guys came over and immediately struck up convocation with Caitlyn “So Caitlyn eh? You know, we totally should go do some Arena System rounds together. Show us what you can do right?”

 

Embarrassed, Caitlyn did not know how to respond. Fortunately, an older girl came marching over.

 

“Back off Peter! Not cool man, go find some airhead in the civilian world to flirt with.” That girl literally physically shoved the Peter guy back.

 

“Come on Constance, we were just trying to make the new girl feel welcome! Honest!” Peter’s friend next to him tried to reason, but Constance was not taking any of it.

 

“Seriously Brandon, “trying to make the new girl feel welcome”? by creeping her out ? You can take your horse muck somewhere else.” Constance waved her hand in the air dismissively and spun Caitlyn around, heading her off to the “girl’s corner”

 

“you all right Cait? Those guys are just creeps, us C girls gotta stick together right?”

 

C girls? Whats that? Oh…Constance…Caitlyn…okay I get it. Caitlyn nodded after she thought it though, but Constance had continued on the say a whole bunch of other stuff that she could not even catch.

 

Caitlyn quickly stole a glance across the room, a quick count showed 28 people present, with one minute to go before the instructor would come and start the class. Then, a thought came to her: class…how are they going to start it, there are no tables or chairs here, all the people here barley know each other and all…

 

Oh wellz, why am I even thinking about this anywayz?

 

Just as the bell rang signaling that it was 7:30, the last two people just rushed though the doors and flung themselves on the floor as the instructor stepped in just behind them.

 

The instructor was a tall, well built, middle aged man. He wore the full fledge field Agent uniform, an on the left side his tag read: Cadet Instructor Agent Dawson.

 

Instructor Dawson eyed the two cadets that were still lying on the ground with a raised eyebrow, then he turned and addressed the rest of the room with a wide smile.

 

“Welcome cadets, I am to be your Instructor so you may address me as Instructor Dawson. As you can observe from this room, we people here are firm believers that actions will speak louder than words. So, if you would follow me, we are going out for our little get to know each other activity.”

~

 

“OHMYGOODNESSTHISISTHEBESTTHINGTHATHASHAPPENEDINMYLIFEEEeeeeee……” a cadet yelled as an agent leapt out of the helicopter with him strapped on at the front.

 

The “little get to know each other activity” turned out to be a 4 different helicopters flying out in different directions with agents parachuting each of the cadets into a different location in the forest far beyond the perimeter of Goodwill Base.

 

When it came to Caitlyn’s turn her heart was in her mouth and she could not even squeak out in fear. The sheer amount of terror was almost too much for Caitlyn as the agent pushed both of them off the helicopter and into free-fall.

 

Caitlyn almost screamed her head off. Behind her, the agent was laughing her head off.

 

“Caitlyn! Try to remember to breathe! You won’t get to do this very often so try and enjoy it!” the agent hollered over the wind.

 

Enjoy.falling.from.the.sky.

 

Right.

 

~

 

When they finally landed in the forest, Caitlyn spent a whole minute hugging a tree, then another full minute hugging the ground. Her heart was still thumping like crazy from the parachuting experience. 

 

The agent spent the time folding and storing the parachute, and when Caitlyn was more or less calmed down, she passed over a supply pack to the young 14-year old girl.

 

“Here, this supply pack lasts for about 2 days, so you might have to find and eat like one meal in the wild, or maybe you space out your meals properly. So I am going to give you a few directions how to get back and you better write these down.” She paused for awhile to give Caitlyn the chance to grab out a pen and a piece of paper.

 

“Okay, from where we are now, you head east until you come to a big stack of rocks—that’s landmark one. Then you should be able to hear the sound of the river nearby, go to it—landmark two. Once you are at the river, travel in the direction where the water flows until you can see a mountain on the horizon—landmark 3. That is the point where you need to cross the river, travel perpendicular to the river and you will reach the perimeter of Goodwill Base. Only two entrances will be open for you then, the north side gate and the south side gate. Note that only one team can enter though each gate.” She turned around and slung her own backpack on. “Well that’s all that I am going to say, so…good luck!”

 

Caitlyn opened her mouth to say something, but that agent forestalled her. “I know what you are going to ask. No, it will do you no good trying to follow me, my squad was already on our way out for a mission and Command Centre just asked us to drop you guys off.” The agent whipped out a pair of sunglasses out of thin air and put them on as she spun on her heel and raced off.

 

Another question popped into Caitlyn’s mind and she yelled out at the quickly disappearing figure:” Do all agents wear sunglasses like that?”

 

The answer floated back

 

“Only the cool ones get sunglasses…”

~

 

Caitlyn took a moment to compose herself and get her bearings. This was dumb, it was really dumb—the first thing Command School does to its new people is to throw them around 3 days away from the base to get them to come back. Where was the logic? Where was the training?

 

Then again, Instructor Dawson had mentioned—this was Command School, not agent 101 training center. She recalled what was said in the short briefing before they were all divided into the helicopters and flown out: the first thing about being in command is to be able to keep yourself alive, only then can you look to keeping those around you alive as well.

 

Caitlyn gritted her teeth. She was going to prove that she, an ordinary girl, had what it takes to go through this program even though she was up against all these supremely talented fellow cadets.

 

She checked her compass and started heading east, activating her holo-screen to read the data packet that was just sent out from Goodwill Base

 

It was the Groupings. The class of 30 cadets was going to be split into 3 groups, Team Agency, Team Foundation, and Team Brotherhood.

 

“Please, please, please let me be in Constance’s team,” Caitlyn muttered to herself as she hit the open message option, “and not in Peter’s or Brandon’s group. Please, please, please.”

 

“Team Foundation:

1)      Caitlyn Rachels -14 years old

2)      Jonathan Speed -16 years old

3)      Alexander Smirnov -15 years old

4)       Shereyle Robinson -19 years old

5)      Jeffery Peirce -18 years old

6)      David Capterville -19 years old

7)      Akame Yurisaki -17 years old

8)      Miriam Parker -17 years old

9)      Mark Walker -18 years old

10)  Nathan Dashner -16 years old

 

Caitlyn was happy, sad, and confused. On one hand, she was glad that she was neither on Peter’s nor Brandon’s Team, on the other hand, she did not get to be on Constance’s Team.

 

So then, who in the world were these people in her team?