Avon quickly reached the academy that morning. All the people participating in the raid were present and were wearing their respective armours. Avon too then went and confirmed his attendance and got his armour. His armour caught a bit of attention as it was a new design with a red-green circle on it, indicating that it was a prototype.
After wearing the armour he simply observed everyone present to see how many preferred strength and how many preferred agility. It looked like strenght preferred more.
Soon 5 aircrafts had landed and everyone was told to go in their respective aircraft based on their serial number. Avon looked at his number and went towards the last one.
Since he was inexperienced he was placed on the last aircraft with other candidates who would be going on their first raid.
All the aircrafts were black in color and were big enough to accommodate at least 100 people easily. Once everyone got into the crafts the hanger doors closed. Avon was waiting for the engine to start but nothing happened for a while so he decided to look out a small window that was there. To his surprise they were already up in the air and were moving vertically upwards at a great speed.
'The engines probably aren't combustion ones, also I didn't feel any inertia when we took off, this is a masterpiece!'
Avon saw the the clouds below diminish as they went higher and higher in the atmosphere. He could see the landmass get smaller and smaller. As he looked at the planet moving away from him he was reminded of its gigantic size. The planet was much bigger than Earth in size. Avon thought that to the naked the difference would not be obvious if the planets weren't side by side but when he looked at the planet below him, he just knew that the Earth he had seen while he was leaving was not the same in size as this.
They were in outer space now. The aircraft stopped it ascent and an announcement followed.
"We will be entering light speed now, please fasted your seatbelts. I repeat, we will be entering lightspeed now, please fasted your speed belts."
Avon quickly sat on the seat. For the first time he felt the inertia. It was not strong though. He looked around to see the reactions of other present but they were indifferent to all this. From the beginning they were not as nervous nor as interested in what was happening, as though they were used to all this. Another announcement was made,
"We have entered lightspeed and will be reaching out destination in seven minutes. I repeat, we have entered lightspeed and will be reaching out destination in seven minutes."
Everyone started getting out of their seats and Avon followed to. He quickly went to look out the window but all he could see was white streaks, continuous white streaks surrounding the aircraft like a tunnel. On Reveria's spaceship there were no windows and he couldn't look out. He had only seen the live footage of him moving away from Earth but not through a window.
His heart rate began going up, he was getting nervous now that the raid was really just a few minutes from happening. He could see the tension slowly rising on the others' faces too.
The minutes passed by quickly and they arrived at their destination. The aircraft slowed down with such smoothness that no inertia was felt at all. Then the vertical descent began and they had finally landed.
An announcement was made,
"We have reached out destination. The oxygen on this planet is thin so please put on your face armour. Thank you"
Avon looked at the control panel on his forearm and clicked on the face icon. The face armour had a glass crystal covering at the front and the remaining part of the face was covered by metal. The hanger doors opened and everyone walked out.
Outside the commanders were waiting. Without wasting much, orders were given out and everyone stood accordingly.
The planet really was all metal. He was standing on it every step he took made a *clink* sound. According to the instructions, they would walk for roughly 10 km and reach the entrance to the planet's core. Only the commanders would enter the core and do what they're supposed to. Others would look around and make reports of their observation, collect anything that seems interesting and keep a lookout for any survivors.
"Keep a calm head and record your observations, especially the ones on their first raid. No need to get nervous. Let's get going!"
The commanders spoke.
Still, Avon couldn't relax, his heart beating too quickly and he was nervous. The glass crystal showed him his high bpm and he just smiled a little. He decided to be highly alert and attentive so that he can do well in this raid.