A young student walked through campus, a heavy looking backpack hanging from his shoulder and a wide smile portrayed on his face. Besides that, there wasn't much to mention about his appearance, he had a lean build and was a bit taller than average, but everything else about him screamed he was just one in the crowd.
It was the morning of the set day for the freshmen incursion and students from all over college gathered around the army representatives. Intuitively, they all got together with the people they knew, dividing the crowd into those who studied science and those who studied humanities, and then those who were aligned with the different career paths.
Near the front row, Tina Celes was surrounded by her female friends. She was really popular and everyone wanted to remain as close to her as possible, but a young man made way pushing past people until he was right besides her.
"Tina! Fancy meeting you here." Mark said as if they had just bumped into each other by coincidence.
"Mark, it's so nice to see you. Have you seen Uri?" Tina asked with a concerned look. She knew how much he struggled and, even though they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend anymore, she still wanted to pay for his ticket. The ticket fee was nothing but pocket money for her and she still needed Uriel to help her in her studies, but he was nowhere to be seen.
A young man with a buzz cut wearing a neat military uniform stood next to captain Silvermane, he looked at the students with a warm smile on his face, squinting his eyes. "This year's students are shit." The young man said in a low tone of voice, without even shifting his face.
"Sir, yes sir!" Captain Silvermane replied hastily. It was odd looking at a much older man being so respectful towards someone so young, but in the army that didn't matter at all and a captain was nothing against a colonel.
It could seem like a hypocrite thing to say something like that while smiling, but smiling was actually required of him. Although society counted on many of those students to get their traits, most of them wouldn't be able to acquire one and some of them may not even return. Incursions were actually a lot riskier than they let people know and a smile was a small price to pay to keep people from finding out the truth.
Humanity fought against the unknown creatures called cryptids for years in hopes of retaking their territory, with no success whatsoever.
Those creatures possessed a strange field of disruption that messed with human technology, unnatural strength and uncanny powers. All humans could do was wage war and take shelter within their city walls, losing more and more land in the process.
Citizens didn't know about this and the government intended for it to stay that way. How could they say they actually lost more than half of their territory? how could they say that they were actually scared to be facing extinction? that humanity was actually on its last foot?
No, they couldn't let the public now about the harsh truth. The propaganda machine fed them with lies to protect them, to keep things running.
"Brother!" Mark's face brightened up when he realized that the colonel in charge of the operation was his own brother, Ethan Jacobs.
"Ah, little brother, I was just talking about you." Ethan winked at captain Silvermane, hinting that he thought his own young brother was included in his remark. Captain Silvermane laughed heartily at the colonel's joke, not because he wanted to ingratiate with his superior, but because he too thought Mark was a shitty aspirant.
"Wow, you never mentioned your brother was a colonel in the army!" Tina was flabbergasted. Mark bragged about the smallest things and couldn't believe he wouldn't brag about the one impressive thing about himself.
What she didn't know, though, was that Mark didn't brag about his brother not because he was humble, but because his brother's achievements were much greater than his own and he was jealous of him.
While all of this took place Uriel was at the last row having a hard time trying to see what was going on in the podium in front of everyone. It didn't come as a surprise though, he was so used to sleeping late that he had a hard time waking up early in the mornings.
It was then, that the colonel's voice came out of the drones that were hovering around the crowd. "Good morning students, I am colonel Windfire and I'll be in charge of today's incursion." His words caused everyone to start murmuring. "I know, I know you're excited but keep in mind that this isn't a game. You could end up getting seriously injured. Now don't be scared, if you're not careless and follow my instructions nothing bad will happen." The group of about five hundred students in front of the colonel seemed to heave a sigh of relief at the same moment. They all felt reassured by his words that he accompanied with a confident smile.
After that, colonel Ethan started his propaganda speech which lasted for about half an hour in which Uriel's thoughts drifted away. Instead of watching the man speaking in front of everyone, he looked at the people around them. They all held their sight at the colonel in admiration, their look was that of people filled with dreams and wishful thinking and Uriel couldn't help but get engulfed in the joyful atmosphere.
Unfortunately for Uriel, he also missed important parts of the colonel's speech, such as the instructions he needed to follow or the safety measures he had to take.
When colonel Ethan fell silent after finishing his speech several soldiers aligned with the students and started rounding them up in groups of ten. Uriel took notice of this only a second too late as he was grouped along with nine other people he didn't know. Each group was comprised of ten students, two heavily armed corporals and a lieutenant and Uriel's group wasn't an exception.
The corporals collected the fees, the signed permission form from the college that stated that this students were allowed to participate and also handed each student a non disclosure agreement.
Before he could react he was already outside of the campus and into a strange armored vehicle with the engine already going. None of the students had the time to ponder about their situation or talk excitedly about their dreams and hopes as the vehicle set off at an incredible speed.
The road ahead of them had been previously cleared by the army leaving the streets completely at their disposal. It was both an incredible feat and the simplest trick, all they had to do was take control of the traffic lights.
"We are currently heading out of the city, as soon as we reach the POI you'll be required to step out of the vehicle carrying all your belongings, if you leave anything behind it stays behind."
The lieutenant, a woman in her late twenties commanded. Her cute face and gentle voice was heavily contrasted by her flashy uniform, her voice carried the authority that only a person accustomed to giving orders could possess.
"Uhm, excuse me miss." One of the students, a young man with brown hair and a worried expression on his face lifted his hand. "What's a POI?"
"It's short for point of interest, it's the way we refer to the places where the cryptids are located. But don't worry too much, this is a huge operation, with this amount of soldiers you have nothing to fear." The lieutenant replied in a chuckle.
Uriel always wondered why they never took younger people to acquire traits and now it made sense. Incursions were more dangerous than they let people know.
Trying to shake off the odd feeling he was getting, he glanced at the people that he was teamed up with. The girl in front of him had droopy eyes and a sleepy expression stuck in her face. Then, there was the guy who asked questions, he seemed to be more calm than before, but fear leaked out of his face. They both seemed to be polar opposites, the girl seemed to be completely unfazed while the guy next to her was on the verge of crying.
Since the vehicle was a bit cramped, he couldn't look directly at the others without being noticed. The situation was already awkward as it was and he didn't want to make it any worse, but he still took a small peek and noticed a huge brutish looking man who was obviously older than the rest.
For a second he thought that maybe he too was a soldier, but he was wearing casual clothes, making it evident that he was also a student.
Eventually, the vehicle came to a stop and the door in the back was open.
"Move out, now! now!" One of the corporals said as he pushed the students out of the vehicle like cattle.
"Don't touch me!" A young girl with heavy make up, painted nails and many piercings on her ears yelped as she was being pushed roughly.
"Hurry up kids, this ain't your fancy school." The lieutenant commanded. Her calm and gentle demeanor had shifted into a strict one. She didn't seem evil in the slightest, but now they could see that she was no pushover.
When the last student stepped out of the vehicle, it quickly turned and left them in the open.