~
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
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
~Opening
moves~
Taltia set
her army for a course to Waterloo
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
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 Command School
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 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
“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
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?
