As the C101 Aircraft engine hummed in the background, Modoru was grateful for its loudness. Loud consistent noises always allowed him to concentrate better and for the upcoming mission it would be no different. Sitting up now, he looked out his window. Diviner's City. One of the last bastions on earth after the great meteor shower about 70 years ago. The meteor shower had plummeted through earth's atmosphere and wiped out near 80% of the population. Of the remaining cities on earth, people decided to band together into settlements called Bastion cities. Each city was governed by their own military and there are only 4 Bastion cities left on earth – Diviner's City being one of them. Most cities operated independently from one another but on occasion traded resources. That resource being none other than Xenophite.
Xenophite, aptly named so by the research team who discovered it, originated from the meterorites that had struck earth. Becoming the center of all technological-based designs for humanity, Xenophite very much saved humans living in bastion cities. All due to its unique properties, that an engineer had mistakenly discovered. After exposing the Xenophite to enough heat, he realized that the Xenophite exhibited the ability to teleport. The more heat given, the farther it would travel. This became the golden ticket for humanity allowing for instanteous travel to and from bastion cities as well as instant travel within cities. Using an engineering marvel called the Cascading Stream device or C.S device for short to bring people along the stream of teleporting Xenophite, it quickly became a much sought out device. However, the ensuing chaos it entailed became a security issue as crime in each city raised exponentially. This is why each military in the bastion cities restricted Xenophite access to solely to the military and public transit. C.S devices now are only in the hands of the military, having trained their troops in mostly hand to hand combat, non lethal force. This would be because C.S devices in combat would produce almost unfair advantages for the opposing party. Crime declined after a decade or so and Diviner's City became a shining beacon of a city.
As Modoru surveyed the teleporting air crafts outside he quickly looked away because he remembered his childhood. When Modoru was a teenager, he had quickly become caught up in crime as he was quite rebellious. After the C.S devices were made and had been distributed to the public, Modoru became quite the known thief. So much so that he was put in juvenile prison for 2 years. Those years in prison changed his life. After serving his sentence, Modoru had gone back to his family and to find a job. Being rejected by both avenues, he did not know where to turn to. Only after finding out the military was recruiting did Modoru have a chance at redemption. Resolving to change himself, he had become serious, focused, and during his military career he excelled as a hyper effective combatant. His background in stealing and experience in using the C.S device allowed him to learn military combat quickly and become quite the strategist. Having been promoted to an elite soldier, he knew he would be able to do some good. However, all this training in the military had come at the cost of estrangement from his family as they could not and would not believe his recent success came out of sheer hard work. This is why Modoru had focused all his efforts into the military, almost to a point of an unhealthy work/life balance.
Taking off his standard issue goggles now, he got up from his seat and walked to the back of the aircraft for a bathroom break. Staring at himself in the mirror, he washed his face briefly, combed his jet black hair and steeled himself. 'I am not that person anymore, I am different. Even if my family doesn't think so…' he thought. Exiting the bathroom now, he looked up and saw some of his fellow soldiers were talking near the launch bay.
"Hey Modoru, come over here, we have a joke for you," one of the soldiers said.
"Sorry sport, not in the mood. We also have a mission to concentrate on," Modoru said.
"Oh come on Modoruuuu!" one of the girls said.
"We're basically babysitting the archaeologist, that's it. No combat needed. Come join us," said another one of the guys.
"Sorry guys, maybe another time." Modoru said as he sat back down in his window seat. The other soldiers started walking away, but Modoru could hear them still.
"He probably wouldn't laugh anyway…." said one of them. As Modoru heard it he thought to himself, 'they're probably right.' As Modoru blocked other thoughts out, he focused on his C.S device. Having had so much time to master it, he quickly opened it up and did a check of its mechanisms. The Xenophite storage system was operating at 99% efficiency. As long as it didn't reach lower than 90% then the C.S device would still be able to register the Xenophite. The heating mechanism was working just fine as well. The only thing about C.S devices that he learned, that most new people would not know is that C.S devices only need to heat to 40% efficiency for the device to properly address the Xenophite. Anything higher was too much and would cause device failure. He closed its contents and doing a quick maintenance check, activated it and ported from his window seat to his aisle seat and back. 'perfect,' he thought. Just as he finished he noticed the archaeologist looking at him.
"Hey, that was pretty cool. You're using a C.S device aren't you?" said the archaeologist.
"Yes….but don't get any funny ideas. They're for military use only." Modoru said.
"I'm not a thief, just a simple archaeologist. Calm down there buddy," the archaeologist said. Modoru simply looked away and back to the window. The archaeologist, to his own credit decided to probe Modoru a bit more as he was getting quite bored. "My name's Nokosu, what's yours?" Modoru looked back at Nokosu, sighed and spoke up.
"I'm Modoru. 3rd squad elite soldier of Diviner's City military. Pleased to meet you Nokosu," said Modoru politely.
"You know I just wanted to say that your friends over there are kinda mean," Nokosu said as he pointed to the other soldiers near the launch bay. "I'm sure you would laugh at a good joke."
"I don't laugh at all much these days," Modoru confessed.
"Well don't worry…I'll crack a smile out of you yet," Nokosu joked. "We're working together all day, so expect a laugh or too."
"We'll see," Modoru said as he finally looked away and went back to his window. They were nearing now the landing site and there were no laughs to be had, for now. It was go time. The landing site itself was situated at ground level as it was an old mine. From the looks of the schematics of the place there was only one way in and one way out. The deposit of Xenophite there had made what was called a Xenophite chasm; a vertical chasm of Xenophite that goes down to about 300 feet below ground level. As the airship began its landing, Modoru got up and secured his C.S device to his waist. Now tightening up his jet black standard issue military armor, he hoped he wouldn't need it. As Nokosu got up, Modoru noticed he wasn't wearing any sort of protection. In fact he was wearing beige shorts and a blue hoodie. The only sort of protection he had was his straw hat, but that wouldn't do much against falling debris. Modoru resolved to ask his superiors next time to give civilians more protection as it would make their job as protection detail a lot easier. Nonetheless there was no time for it now, and Modoru walked up too Nokosu.
"Be careful of falling debris, and remember were not going into the vertical chasm. Just staying at the top."
"Sir yes sir!" Nokosu joked again as he straightened his straw hat. "I just need to collect a few samples and we're done."
"Ok, be quick about it too. There's no telling how unstable the mine is. There is only one way in or out, so if it collapses while we're inside we're going to need to teleport out. Which would be an unnecessary use of resources. Is that clear?" Modoru lectured.
"Crystal," said Nokosu. As the airship landed the entire squad of soldiers emptied out first then Nokosu last. The mine opening itself was extremely small, only allowing one of them to fit at a time. There was more open area outside the mine and small train tracks leading into the mine – suggesting that they were in an old subway area. Modoru took in his surroundings quickly and assessed the sitation.
"Ok guys, I think we might have to change the plan. The mine is too small for all of us to fit inside. I would recommend only of one us enter with Nokosu while the rest of us stay outside to secure the perimeter. I'll volunteer myself to go with Nokosu. Radio me if anything happens," explained Modoru.
"You got it, oh stoic one," said one of his fellow soldiers as they all went back to chatting away. As Modoru beckoned to Nokosu to follow, he went over his mental map of the mine just as they entered it. He would have to follow the train tracks for 40 meters, then make a left for 10 meters. He prayed nothing would happen but just in case turned on his C.S device to ready. As they walked Nokosu gave a concerned look to Modoru.
"You sure your ok? You seem abnormally good for letting them talk to you like that," asked Nokosu. Modoru registered his question but kept on walking not wanting to deter from the mission.
"Let's just say I have thick skin," said Modoru. "Why, what would you say?"
"I would talk back," Nokosu said. "Do you not have any pride in yourself?"
"I do, its just I've been through a lot more than just words. And they are just that, words." Modoru explained. "Thanks for checking in though."
"No problem," Nokosu said. "I mean it's the least I can do, your guarding me while I collect samples. Not that its particularly hard, I mean I don't even do the testing…"
"Don't you though? You're the archaeologist," asked Modoru
"I am. But not the lead. The lead directs everyone to do others tests. I am an underling," said Nokosu who was half joking.
"I wouldn't say that. You must have been proficient at your profession to have been put into the field," assured Modoru.
"It's true. I've studied Xenophite to death. It's thermal activation temperature, requisite amount to activate, etc…However that's all that's needed to become an archaeologist in Xenophite. I haven't done much else. To become a lead you need much more experience," Nokosu explained.
"Do you not want to further yourself? Become a lead archaeologist. It's always worthwhile to strive for more." Modoru lectured.
"I am happy where I am thank you. It's not that difficult of a job that I need to try any harder than I want too," Nokosu revealed.
"….I mean it only took me 1 year too rise to elite soldier ranks. That was with extreme discipline and hard work…" Modoru continued without even registering Nokosu's previous statement.
"…I'm fine thank you," Nokosu said slightly annoyed.
"If anything it reveals that you have no drive…."Modoru rambled on.
"Modoru!" Nokosu raised his voice.
"Yes?" Modoru said.
"Leave it be," said Nokosu who was clearly seething after that last comment. "You know let's concentrate on the mission." Sensing some friction, Modoru nodded and stopped speaking until they had reached the Xenophite chasm. As they approached the chasm, Modoru could not help notice how beautiful it was. The vertical chasm was encased in purple hardened Xenophite. The small lights of the mine illuminated the Xenophite's property to shine purple light, covering the whole area in ghostly purple.
"It's beautiful," Modoru said in passing.
"At least we can agree on that," Nokosu said. "Just give me 10 minutes and I can collect all the samples the lab needs."
"Ok," said Modoru who leaned on the mine wall and inspected his C.S device. As 5 minutes passed without them saying anything, Modoru started feeling bad about there last conversation. He knew he shouldn't have gone to far, but it was true. To say that your job wasn't hard enough to push yourself was telling of his mentality as a worker. Nonetheless Nokosu was a nice guy after that exchange with his other coworkers. As Modoru thought pensively to himself he noticed Nokosu was standing extremely close to the edge. "Hey! Nokosu don't go so far ou...." Modoru's statement was cut short as he saw Nokosu look back at him and lose his balance. At once Nokosu disappeared into the chasm and for an instant Modoru could not react – absolutely shocked. Then training kicking in, in a matter of seconds, he turned on his C.S device and mapped out his teleporting path to reach Nokosu as fast as possible. He resolved to port forward 5 paces, then up to the ceiling of the mine, push himself forward, and launch straight into the chasm. Porting forward now, he could hear Nokosu yelling help. Modoru yelled back. "DON'T WORRY I'M COMING!" As Modoru reached the ceiling he got a look at where Nokosu was. And it wasn't good. Already Nokosu had reached almost the entire depth of the 300 meter chasm and was about the crash into the bottom of it. In a split second decision, remembering something from his training, he turned on the heating mechanism of his C.S device to maximum. Knowing it might cause device failure, he had to take that gamble. The more Xenophite is heated, the farther it travels. Modoru needed to reach Nokosu in one port, otherwise he would be a goner. Centering himself now, Modoru did a quick prayer and launched himself down the chasm simultaneously turning on his C.S device to maximum. However something happened that he did not expect. A second before he ported to Nokosu, he could see the Xenophite in the chasm reacting and turning an even brighter purple. Modoru ignored it and focused on Nokosu. Finally porting himself, the entire chasm erupted in a flash of purple light and Modoru disappeared into nothingness…along with Nokosu.