Two hours later, Kieran moved away from the bed, his body bursting with energy. Feeling refreshed, he was about to think through the happenings over the past few days when he heard a notification.
"All candidates are to follow to head to the venue for their briefing"
The voice was heard within the room, which implied the presence of hidden speakers in the room. His path popped up on his watch at the end of the announcement.
Before leaving the room, Kieran changed into the uniform which he had moved to the table before sleeping off earlier.
The uniform which turned out to be a ceremonial one was a sight to behold. The jacket was a rich scarlet red, offset by the pristine white of the shirt and trousers. Gold accents on the collars and cuffs added a touch of elegance, while polished buttons gleamed in the light. Every seam was perfectly tailored, the fabric crisp and unwrinkled.
Kieran had only seen clothes of this quality worn by Nobles and unfortunately, he had no attachment to material things and didn't care about the qualities of the uniform. He was even slightly annoyed as he looked at the set of ornamental attachments of the uniform, slowly feeling a new headache creeping in on him
'This is going to be a challenge' Kieran thought with a deep sigh.
The door of room '104' finally opened a few moments later and a stunning Kieran walked out with a bright expression which was a change from his usual frown and cautious look he had adopted since the death of his parents.
He was feeling accomplished after managing to put on the ornaments after a few tries which surprised him greatly. The beautiful outfit coupled with his bright expression gave birth to an extremely handsome Kieran, his obsidian black eyes and hair contrasting with the white colour of the uniform.
While Kieran was still reeling in the joy of his minor achievement, the door to room '204' opposite him opened up and a head full of red hair occupied his field of vision.
At the entrance of this newcomer, Kieran's joyful face reverted to its blank state not betraying any of his emotions.
The two parties stood there, like frozen statues inspecting each other, and without notice the girl turned and walked away, having lost interest in Kieran. Looking at the back of the girl which Kieran just realized was quite a beauty, Kieran didn't linger and followed the path given by his watch, which was in the same direction where the girl had vanished earlier.
Navigating through the tunnels with the aid of his watch, Kieran arrived in front of a hall further in the mountain with its doors open.
Inside, there were various people like him and the red-haired girl from earlier, he also saw people who seemed older than him by a margin all sporting different expressions but he noticed one thing, everyone there including himself were all in the red and white ceremonial uniform!
'We are all recruits!'
Most of the recruits were either on their feet or on a chair socializing with each other, creating a rather harmonious atmosphere, but Kieran noticed that majority of them had that 'Noble shine' as he preferred to call it, which showed that even here, the Nobles were of a greater number and seemed to have gathered together forming their 'packs'.
Despite the seemingly harmonious atmosphere, Kieran could still smell the scent of gun powder underneath, even among the nobles, they never fully trusted each other, just scheming like they usually do.
It was most intense at another corner of the room where a bunch of other recruits sat down and unlike the nobles, nobody interacted with each other, and they all maintained their decorum and while some seemed relaxed, some were tense, their eyes continuously moving from place to place as if preparing for an attack.
Seeing all of this, Kieran picked a spot at an isolated corner which blended with the shadows, and nobody seemed to be around there.
Taking a seat Kieran found the table to be occupied by two weird looking men and another girl who was around his age, from their interaction the girl also seemed to be a noble which came as a surprise to Kieran as he couldn't make out the usual arrogant look on her, she even gave off a kind aura.
The two guys on the other hand, although had tender expressions on their faces while interacting with the lady, couldn't hide the arrogant aura seeping from them.
After assessing the situation, Kieran looked away and ignored everything around him, directing his focus to check the features of his watch after its upgrade.
The doors opened and all the noise in the hall came to a halt resulting in dead-like silence, a man who looked to be in his late fifties, with his greying hair and the slight wrinkles at the sides of his eyes appeared at the door with a sharp and disciplined aura and walked in slowly with his back as straight as a spear. A scar ran from the edge of his mouth, vanishing into the back of his head showing his sacrifices to the military.
He was accompanied by a group of soldiers who immediately spread to each corner of the room, each of them moving with exceptional coordination. A few of them remained at the side of the man accompanying him to the podium.
"You can have your seats"
A voice filled with authority flowed out of his lips on getting to the stage and everyone subconsciously obeyed, each person occupying a seat.
"Good!", he said with satisfaction.
Snapping out of the trance he had unknowingly fallen into, Kieran found himself covered in cold sweat terrified at the experience. Looking around, most recruits had similar reactions.
"AHEM ------- YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!"
"Good evening, hope you're all well rested, my name is Ivan Noah the Head of this military camp which you've all enlisted in!"
"I know some of you didn't request to be sent here-"
He paused, taking a second to look at the faces of a few recruits, Kieran included – which indicated that he was aware of people like him.
The commander continued his speech,
"-but you found yourselves here and that means you're worth being here and if you still want to be transferred to a regular camp, you'll be given that opportunity after this is over. Just be aware of what you're about to lose!"
"By now you should have all gone through the rules and regulation of this camp along the other attached information, with that you should understand how to navigate your lives for the next two years"
"I am here personally as an elder to advise and remind you that although individual capability is good, teamwork is just as important. I know some of you have been doing things solo until now, but you're training to become soldiers not mercenaries and in the military teamwork is the most important factor!"
"I won't be giving you a sob story about humanity's past and how we prevailed, that's for your history classes," he added with a chuckle.
"I will tell you though, humanity stands where it is now due to the efforts, blood, sweat and tears of your ancestors who died in battle, they fought as one and prevailed!"
His formerly kind expression suddenly turned fierce and he said with a tone that didn't allow for disagreement
"Now, it's your turn to put your blood, tears and sweat on the line. It is your turn to serve humanity, do not disappoint the countless nameless soldiers who died before you doing the same."
The recruits could feel their blood rushing through their veins, a sense of pride welling up in their hearts at the achievements of their predecessors, but a few of them remained unphased at the passionate speech of the head.
Kieran was one of those who had no reaction to the head's speech, having come from the slums, he felt nothing from the speech of the commander. To him, the government was a bunch of corrupt people and he couldn't care less about their previous achievements.
After the Head rounded up his speech, he left the hall altogether, the soldiers stationed at the wall remaining in position.
A few moments after he left, some robots came in carrying an amount of food Kieran had never seen in his life. With the arrival of food, the oppressive atmosphere the commander left behind dispersed and the recruits resumed the atmosphere from earlier, once again interacting with each other.
Kieran, despite his cold demeanour, was never one to decline food, upon seeing so many new dishes to try, he immediately dug in and the noble lady who sat across him didn't seem to mind his eating habits as she took each bite with a natural grace and charm, not like he cared though.
After a successful feast, with his stomach full and bloated, Kieran decided that his business there was done and stood up to leave, ignoring the lady across from him who had been staring at him with curious eyes for a while now.
"Hello, my name is Sabrina, what's yours?", the lady who had been sitting silently suddenly spoke up.
Kieran who was about to leave paused, looking around before turning to face the noble
"You talking to me?" He asked casually in confirmation.
"How dare you talk to her gra-" the two guards reacted seeing his attitude but were interrupted by Sabrina.
"-Ignore them, I apologize for their rude behaviour. Yes, I'm talking to you"
"What's your name?" she asked once more
"Hmm? You have no reason to know"
Kieran said with the same look of disinterest before walking away at the furious gaze of her bodyguards.
Returning to his room with the aid of his watch, Kieran took a moment to reflect on everything that had happened in the past few days.
'It's only been a few days since mum and dad died, yet so much has happened'
Kieran thought, a slight anger rising in him at the thought of the death of his parents, his facial features deepening at his abnormal behaviour. He didn't have the time to dwell on his feelings, due to the myriad of events that happened after, but now he noticed how abnormal it was to feel nothing but anger at the news of his parent's death.
Pushing his rising anger, he decided to deal with it later. The commander had confirmed some of his doubts in his speech earlier, this wasn't a regular military camp and he had been sent without his consent. He suspected the detective to be responsible for that, this only led to more confusion as he didn't think he had anything special which could justify the detective's decision. The only thing that stood out in his physique and he didn't think that there weren't other people with equal or better physiques than his.
'So, what is it?'
Kieran knew there was something more, blurry scenes from the night he lost control flashing in his eyes. He knew something happened to him that day and ever since, he has felt the same.
"Sigh!"
Kieran sighed wearily, keeping all the unanswered questions away for now.
Focusing on his watch, he read through a document that was sent after he left the hall.
The document contained info about his class schedule. For the first stage of their stay, they were all to undergo general training which ranged from fitness and self-defence training to classes on the history of mankind and other regular classes, the brainwashing of the government turned out to be everywhere, even in the military.
After that, they would have to pick a specialization.
Getting to the end of the document, Kieran looked at the part of the document which confirmed one of his hypotheses,
"With this, we hope you find surviving in planet Kirshof not much of a challenge"
'Kirshof! That's the name of this planet'
"This is currently beyond me! I'll just take it as it comes", with that thought in mind, he laid on the bed staring above him
"This isn't any different from what I've always been doing, I just have to survive once more"