I turned my head backwards to hide the embarrassment. I saw a closed wall; it means that they must have shut down the window projector and its cameras. I am not stupid I know it might've been because of the Artelis star. Someone might burn their eyes because of the intense brightness.
But the real problem was that I had turned my head to a closed wall, I could almost see the smug face of Emma as well. Shit, why did it have to be like this? I sighed then turned my head again. Emma elbowed me in tease. Hoover looked at me with weird eyes. What is he trying to say with that look in his eyes.
I was busy figuring what Hoover meant with that look when the door of our compartment opened, and the ethereal beauty made her appearance. I am still in awe no matter how many times I look at her.
Clawford arrived in our compartment after one minute of the last announcement. She was wearing a formal attire with grey dress pants and black dress shirt with her shirt tucked in and sleeves rolled. There was a black long coat which she was wearing through her shoulders, her arms were not in the sleeves of it. She had a bright smile on her face, sensing my gaze she winked at me.
I had to put my hand on my heart to see if this was real or not, or was I alive or not? She came to stand in the middle of both benches, "All the defiant, you are to be aligned in one line and other normal ones will be in another.
Obeying her instructions Erick, Niall, me, Hoover, Ellie, Emma, Xaden and Autumn made a queue on one side where Emma and I were sitting and Andre, Tom, Lawren, Albert, Melora, the one who always sits with Andre, his pupil 'Brock' and two other girls whose names I forgot sat on the other bench.
Clawford started guiding us about the mission, "All you normal ones, let me tell you the real use of this tight suit once again!"
"Eh, once again?" After hearing her sentence, whispers of these sort could be heard. I was curious as well. Why didn't they brief this information to us before? Well, it was stupid of me to think that they literally just whispered that 'once again' it means that they know about this horrendous tight suit functions. It still is great if she will tell something useful about this nightmarish suit. I hope there is not a bulge on my suit down there, you know!
"Listen carefully, you all! I am telling you this again for your own safety. You, normal ones do not have any ace up your sleeve to protect yourself from horrible accidents like defiants have. This suit was created by utilizing the remains and fossils of divine deities. Does anyone have any question about anything till now?"
Clawford casted a glance at everyone with bringing her angelic smile on her face. When nobody asked anything, she continued, "Good! Now I will tell you its complete functions and features. Firstly, all the normal ones will get a sword and a rifle gun. Rifle gun will be loaded with bullets but make sure to use it wisely as you will get to reload it only once. You can carry only one ammo in your windbreaker." She clicked and bit her lower lip which was seducingly red. Oh, it is not good for me to witness such scene of wonder and beauty. It looks like she forgot something.
"And, yeah! Your sword will be given to you in just one minute, the staff is coming with your equipment and defiant's Holy arms."
"Can I ask how to properly use the sword? Even though I requested dearly that please don't give us swords, it looks like you just denied the request of a precious cadet of yours!"
"Hehe, calm down and relax Tom. Don't be so hopeless! The swords are given to you for your own safety!" Clawford gestured Tom to relax who seemed quite depressed after learning that swords are to be utilized in this mission.
"All the normal ones, you will be using your suit like you did in your previous mission. There is no flight feature in the suit for your rank yet, but the right use of your suit by using vital force will grant remarkable agility and will give you otherworldly strength for success. You will be given a small earpiece. We will give your team leader commands via this. Remember that only the leader will be talking to me during the mission. Leader can use crisis call to contact me directly only three times, otherwise we will give leader commands by ourselves if we find in it necessary. Othewise you are supposed to listen to your leader and obey his or her commands." She still tries to hide who they have chosen as leader.
Clawford put her hands in the pockets of her dress pant and put out eight earpieces from each pocket. She then gently walked to each one of us and handed it over. The earpiece was of black in colour which fit in my ear with some issue, obviously.
"After you have worn it, press on it."
Clawford instructed.
I pressed on it with my left hand's index finger because like everyone else I wore it on my left ear. The issue I was facing earlier was because I was trying to wear it on my right ear even though the design clearly indicates to wear it on left on ear. God, please give me some cognitive ability.
"What now?" Melora probed rudely.
Before Clawford could reply, four men or maybe women I don't know they were completely hidden in their white space suit type attire. They had brought a trolley with them which had our Holy arms and other equipment decorated on it. There was a small sign board at the front of the handle of the trolley. Our equipment was decorated on the flat wooden board which had small tyers on its four corners. They dragged the trolley in between benches and left the compartment.
Clawford pointed at the trolley with her chin, telling us to pick our own equipment. Now this really puts me in a dilemma or should I observe what other defiant is picking. Is that defiant picking only his Holy arm or there is something else we should pick as well.
All the cadets rose up from bench and approached the trolley slowly. I was observing Erick. He wore a belt with space for suspending the sword. Then he picked a sword which was not a Holy arm but was the generic sword use by the normal ones and hanged it on his belt. Copying him I was going to do the same, but I first picked my Devil's fault and placed it on my waist, same as me Hoover, Ellie and Emma also picked their Holy arms and placed them on their respective holders.
Then, because I am too stupid to understand things all the time, I picked a sword, which was for normal ones with my left hand and the belt for its suspension with my right hand. I was going to wear the belt around my waist when someone just grabbed the sword from me.
"Why are you holding this sword?" Brock cast a glance at me with his eyes scanning my body from top to bottom. He put a lot of force in that 'you' just now. I knew I have messed up. I was just going to make an excuse that it was because I saw something stuck on it or something like that when I heard the angelic voice that was like a fountain running in the fields of heaven.
"Seth, this time there are only enough swords and guns for everyone. There is no extra for anybody!" She sighed.
"Uhm, ... Yeah! I knew it, I was just thinking if I could wear this belt or not. It looked really good on them." I said whatever came to mind first.
"But why would you need another belt when you are already wearing one?"
"I will just cut it if you will grant me the permission."
"Don't cut it! You never know what you might have to face out there, so just let it be on the belt." Clawford said with a gentle smile on her face.
But before Clawford could say anything else, I interrupted, "But can I get another belt, one smaller in size, for my thighs, it will look good, don't you think?"
As expected, everybody ignored me, man, these people really have got zero sense of fashion.
"Ok! So now if you guys have completed your gear, I would like to tell you guys about your leader."
Clawford's started talking again and her hands clapped together in excitement.
After hearing Clawford's words, I heard Andre gulping. Is he really nervous? Does he really think he would be a good leader?
It might have been because he fears that they might make him the leader.
"So, as you all might've guessed already your leader for this mission is Emma Scott!" Che, I am not the leader? Well, I have already guessed that it would be Emma, so I am not that surprised.
After announcing who our leader will be for this mission Clawford turned her eyes toward Erick and her soft red lips slightly started to be separate from each other.
"This time, they are also appointing a sub leader, or you can say second lieutenant for each group!"
"Huh!" Everyone said in low surprised tone.
"And your vice leader will be Erick Cortland!"
Everybody shifted their head towards Erick who had his eyes closed and was just giving a nervous smile while scratching his cheek.
....
-We have landed on our destination. This is the smallest moon of Planet Aquegor, smallest of the three. Your superiors will observe, judge and will guide you from this Metagalactic Hawk. All of the divisions will be sent differently on different space pods specific for each division. You have already been guided about your mission and where all of you will be doing your duty. All cadets are required to come to the section 44 of this space craft; from there you can ride your space pod and officially can take off for the mission.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Now as we are just at edge of our mission start, I am feeling all kind of nervousness. I still had a lot to think about as why I was given the identity of Seth Locke? Why nobody else aside from our group was injured badly. Stuff like that.
Anyway, Clawford guided us to the section 44 where almost 135 space pods were present, I did not count the exact number but estimated, considering the number of divisions. Now that I look at it, they are all almost same in appearance.
They look exactly like an airplane but smaller in size, with same white colour but no windows except for the front mirror. They have same pegasus wings pattern on each side above their wings.
Our group walked through the space between the parked space pods following Clawford. She stopped at the other end of the vast space of section 44 area.
Our division number was the reason our space pod was at the end too.
"I was supposed to guide you only to this extent. Now remember all the things I told you and don't try to be over smart, be sure to follow the leader's and vice leader's order." Clawford turned backwards and said with a firm expression on her face.
The real thing that puts me in dilemma is that who is going to pilot this thing? I sure hope that Seth did not used to be the pilot of this space pod.
"You will follow the directions on the radar of this fish!" Clawford pointed at the space pod with her left thumb.
"Emma and Erick, you guys are majorly responsible for all of them so make sure they do not cause any trouble or not let anything happen to themselves because of their stupidity." She crossed her arms and looked at Emma and Erick simultaneously.
"Yes m-Captain!" Emma saluted.
"Good, I wish you all good and hope all of you return safe and sound. Your captain and trainer will be waiting for you.
"Aye, Captain!
.......
We all boarded the pod. There was one pilot seat in the front and behind it were 20 seats of brown colour, aligned vertically. I was able to get only the last seat along but luckily Hoover was on my right side. I immediately sat on the last hoping that I am not the pilot. Why don't these guys talk about this more? Like how is the travelling in pod feels like or who is the pilot of this thing? If I was the pilot of something like this, you bet I would be bragging about it all day.
"Hmmm, now that I am inside this pod my anxiety has just multiplied." Tom grabbed Niall shoulder and expressed his tension.
"Let me sit on my spot!" Niall freed himself from Tom's grip and sat on the pilot seat. Seeing this a smile of relief appeared on my face. Soon Niall started the engine of the space pod, and the pod started to roll on the floor with turning its body in the right direction. The pod was rolling straight wards when the floor in front of us started to divide in two and one side of the floor folding in upward direction while the other side which was close to us started going downwards. Vacuum of space was in front of us. Our pod fell into the space along with many others space pods behind us.
We could see the Aquegor planet from the pod.