Location - Pioneer
"Alright. I have already given you the last bit of information you need. Now settle down for your classes," Mr Avral commented as each student began to shuffle back to their seat.
Soon enough, an old looking male waltzed his way into the room and stood in front of the podium, while Mr Avral after glancing at his students, walked out of the room, passing the class over to the man.
Clearing his throat, the man introduced himself, eyes sharp as an eagle's scanning his students. "I am Dr Vin Kaul, and I am responsible for your Theoretical and Survival Knowledge classes. During the short duration you have to spend for training, I'll teach you some basic information, important ones which are available to you, and ones that will allow you to survive. You can look forward to this," He commented as he kept on walking as he talked.
"It has been brought to my attention that two of the top students for the Theory exams are in this class so this should make it a bit more interesting," he said and then, turning to face the board and tapping his hand on the digital screen, it lit up and on the screen, the word "Xions" were capitalised on it.
"We'll start with the Xions: how they fight, how they think, and what makes them dangerous. Learn that, and you'll have a higher chance of surviving. Learn their hierarchy, physicality and biology, characteristics and benefits, and you have become a step closer in learning how to get rid of them for good. These are the basic information that other former batches of recruits have collected and analysed and has been inherited by us, the future, so we could have more chances of survival against our enemies, or to defeat them too"
As Dr Vin talked, the whole classroom soon became tense. A girl pressed her thumb to the pad of her palm until the knuckle whitened as she listened to what her teacher had just said. Emotions of disgust and anger veiled the eyes of the students in the room.
'I didn't think we'd start with something as important as this at the first lesson but it is definitely an appreciated surprise. I'll use this to increase my chances of taking my revenge,' Kael thought as he also paid his rapt attention to whatever was going to be introduced during this lecture.
"To know something, you must start from the basics of it. This is a rule you need to have when you consume knowledge. Now, to start, who can tell us what they know about the origin of Xions and their purpose? Like, the first place in Theoretical Knowledge?" Dr Vin said as he faced Nieve, the silent girl, with short black wavy hair, framing her black coloured eyes which was further complimented by her auburn coloured skin. Her nails coloured, a deep shade of black and her mysterious aura quickly made her the attention of the class after she was called out by the teacher.
Standing up, Nieve faced the teacher who had called for her and responded to his question, "My knowledge on this information is incomplete, so I can't answer this question"
"Hmm…I didn't expect that. You may take your seat. Does anyone else want to answer the question? I'll throw the question back to you, number two" Dr Vin commented as he glanced at the rest of the students, while Nieve took her seat.
"Is that really the person who got the highest grade in Theoretical? Are you sure she didn't cheat?," a girl commented in a whisper voice to the rest of her group. "True. Did she cheat? I find it hard to believe that a commoner with no family or background can score that high in the theoretical exam!" another commented, glancing at Nieve, her tone carrying her unhidden mocking laced within.
Their voices, no matter how much they tried to reduce their tone, was as loud as a speaker to someone like Kael due to his now superhuman listening so he was sure that Nieve could definitely hear their conversation too but unlike the reaction he thought she would have, Nieve made a glance to the girls for some seconds and did nothing else. If she didn't glance at all, he would've wondered if she could hear them but he was more confused by the fact that even after hearing what they said, Nieve didn't make any move.
"Calm. Keep Calm, Nieve, 100,043, 100,049, 100,057,…" the girl in question murmured to herself as she continued to face forward, her eyes although not showing any reaction to her classmates. "Thank you, Sirette. Yes, as you have said, Xions are beings of destruction that originated from the Old World. They are also the cause of the destruction of the Old World and loss of humanity's hold on Earth. They are our nemesis who we have to be victorious against so we can once again reclaim our homes and return humanity to its original glory," Dr Vin accepted as he kept on walking through the class, while making his lecture.
"I know that this isn't a very important information for you, especially for the recruits who have a personal animosity towards the Xions but I think that rather than discarding a piece of knowledge as unneeded based on prejudice or emotions, you should become more openhearted to information as this could help you a lot in the future," Dr Vin commented as he tapped on the board as the screen changed like a presentation.
"Excuse me teacher, but I don't understand how learning about Xion's origin is going to help us win the upcoming war, isn't this pointless?" Meisha said as she questioned her teacher, although if someone was close enough, they could hear her mumbling 'I hate reading and theory!' beneath her breath, well it was a point that most of the students present in this room would agree on.
"A good question, Meisha. Let's take some scenarios for example. You are on a mission and you discover a group of Xions have been seen entering an Old World ruin. What do you think that if you didn't know about this information about their origin, what you would've done?" Dr Vin mentioned and as he laid down this scenario, most of the recruits began to understand where he was coming from.
The truth to his answer was no and it was an answer that most of the students had come to, with realization setting in their faces. Yes, in a mission that involved life and death and presented its own dangers, who would be interested in what some Xions are doing in the destroyed buildings of a past civilization?
"In another scenario, you find suspicious activities involving a ruin of an Old World or maybe a mural from the Old World, without this information, would you think of investigating it or bringing back the mural to Sanctuary?" another hypothetical scenario which led to the same answer.
"I'm sure that most of you already have your answer now and can understand where I am coming from. I should also tell you that these scenarios are actually not scenarios but events that happened to your seniors. The first scenario was able to allow us to discover the existence of a hierarchy of Xions we didn't know about before and the second allowed us to understand that there were other copies of Sanctuary around the world made by those from the Old World, although not as advanced as ours, it still had the capability to support humanity. As of now, we have identified and have begun to make contact with one, although it is still a very new connection and still in the stage of development due to the long distances between us," Dr Vin said as he recounted to his students.
As Dr Vin introduced this news to them, it caused a lot of chaos in the classroom, after all this was an information that had never been released to the public, so it was quite shocking to know about this information on the first day of the lesson. The students, although ruffled and excited, still followed the proper etiquette and raised their hands to signify they had questions they wished to be answered.
"Calm yourselves students. I know you have a lot of questions but no matter how I wish, I can't answer everyone, because some questions are locked due to your level where most of you don't have that access yet. To put it simply, some of the questions you may have could be linked to the classified files so it means I can't tell you and also as the time for this class is about to end, I can take at most two questions," Dr Vin said, calming his rowdy students.
Monnae with her raised hands was picked by Dr Vin to ask one of the questions. Standing up from her seat in the middle of Lark and Kael, she asked her question, her face filled with tension. "Why have you hidden such information from the public? If there's another base left somewhere in the world as big as Sanctuary, don't you think that telling people would boost morale?" Monnae stated her question
"For your question, Monnae, the reason information about it has been hidden is to shield it from possible spies, and despite being far away from us, they also have their own battle to face against the Xions. At first, Sanctuary thought that this was the last battalion humanity had against the Xion forces, but after learning this news, we have discovered that the other continents which were originally counted as a hazard zone still has humanity living and fighting there just like us but it also has a dark side to this otherwise joyous news…" Dr Vin said as he responded to Monnae's question, his tone dark and filled with regret.
"The Xions we were fighting all these years are not their full force. We've thrown everything at them, on every front, yet in some places the Xions still hold the advantage. Imagine a scenario in which this news spreads through Sanctuary and reaches the other smaller bases and through here as a whole, what do you think would happen?"
As Dr Vin spoke, realisation and despair clouded the faces of the recruits. Yes, if the rest of the base, the commoners get a nose of this information, it would cause unrest, panic and complete and utter chaos.
"Even Pioneers who serve as the forefront against humanity enemies are still humans too and they have families. If they hear this news, the morale of them too will also suffer a drastic blow too. That is why this information is only to be released to recruits in Class A as this is the always going to be the strongest force of humanity and with your Detel infusion rates and strong combat adaptability and a forged mindset, such an information will not cause you all to fall into despair and at the very least, the top 10 students and those with high Detel rates all have a goal they want to fight for,"
Monnae sat down as she held her head which was now throbbing as she processed the information Dr Vin had just told them. Through the class, some students had already begun to despair, some crying and some lost from life. Kael in his seat, clutched his fingers tightly as he processed this information he had just heard.
The Xions he had wanted to kill all this time were not their full force but just a part? All that joy and happiness after killing a Xion and every news he had heard of the exploits on how his seniors took down Noble classes began to wash away from him and so was his enthusiasm.
A bit away, Nieve, the silent girl, bowed her head, her face clouded and her short hair covering any emotion from being read from her eyes. Lark and Monnae were not any better as they both sat on their seats, contemplating and thinking of thoughts unknown.
Meisha seeing the tense state that the class was, decided to speak up, as the First Rank but not before glancing at Kira who closed her eyes and calmly sat on her chair, uninterrupted by what was happening beside her.
"What do you think, cold princess of the Kiomi clan?," Meisha commented, as she became interested in what she thought about this. "I don't care. If any Xion attacks me, all I have to do is kill them. It's that simple. Only those who are weak have such useless thoughts," she said shortly and then closed her eyes again, like the surface of a calm lake.
'She's so cold. I don't know between her and sis, who's going to win a competition,' Meisha thought as she stood up and addressed the class.
"Don't be scared. If any Xion comes, we just have to kill them, that is what we always had to do, there's nothing that changed in that mission," Meisha said out loudly in the class but unlike what she expected, all she got were the scornful looks of her classmates although it did have some effect on those like Monnae, Lark, Nieve and Nieve who were originally bowing their heads.
'Yes, she's right. What are you doing Kael? What you have to do hasn't changed despite this!' Kael said to himself, snapping out of his despair.
"That's easy for you to say, First Rank. You're strong and have a good Detel infusion rate. You can be basically called a genius and with the backing of your sister, you have reassurance that you'll be fine but we don't! We are just normal people who happened to have a bit higher Detel Infusion rate or better grades in Theoretical and Practical. We braved ourselves coming into this, it's not like we didn't, but what? The Frontlines are only just a part of their troops, not all? Do you understand how we feel? Of course not!" A recruit stood up, anger flaring in his eyes as he confronted Meisha, losing the respect that a lower or unranked recruit is expected to give to the First Rank.
Another recruit stood up, her eyes brimming with tears both shed and those waiting to be shed.
She commented with a choked voice, "My brother was a graduate of Pioneer, who died in the Frontlines. Do you know what I was told when his dead body was bought back? That he was a hero, that his life has helped to increase humanity's fighting chance and that his hope has created a chance for the rest of humanity. Do you know? This what made me apply for Pioneer, this will that just like my brother helped humanity and give us a fighting chance, I'll do the same too, to the best I can, but…but.." wiping the tears that ran through her face with the sleeves of her clothes, she continued, with a broken voice she struggled to release through her sadness and endless stream of sorrow.
"What should I do now? Was my brother's death in the end all for nothing?! Why?! This is..so unfair…What meaning is there fighting?!" the girl spoke, her voice laced with anger and pain, sadness and grief she still carried within but had just been repressing it all this while.
Yes it is true that such a story like hers has become all too common in this world and you could probably find ones much more distraught, but when you hear them in person from those affected by it, the changes it had on them and how it still affects them up till now, the weight hits hard, and well… this young recruit's grief did hit hard as her sadness echoed through the classroom.
"I…I'm not saying this because I have the Principal as my sister! I have always forged myself to be willing to die in battle for humanity and I never wished to diminish your fear. I'm sorry if that's how it came across but I wish to say this, we shall fight together and I'll never leave any of you behind," Meisha commented, her resolve shining through. She indeed was someone who could become a good leader but most humans can't resist a primal emotion like fear.
"So we should rush to the frontlines, placing our lives in you and the top recruit's hands? I despise your pride and confidence. So let's say ten different teams are being ambushed, how will you be able to save them all? What of an attack from a Noble Class or higher? Hope? Yes we can all hope and we have been hoping but there's a point where rationale overcomes any fragile hope one can build as a wall." Another recruit commented as he looked at Meisha not with anger but disdain.
"Haha. It seems you all are blinded to your shallow thinking. True, the situation we are in is not something favourable but you also seem to have forgotten something. We are not the only Sanctuary base now and there could be more outside there. I am sure that these bases don't have Detel version 9 but could still be using old prototypes but they were still able to hold out this long. This means that we have as many people who would be willing to do anything to take down the Xions, those with unused and untapped potential there. You should not frail around like headless chickens but instead, you should resolve yourselves so you can help them and then they can help you in turn. I'm not saying this to convince you. You could all leave for all I care. I don't like dealing with cowards who only complain and despair without trying to overcome, trying to go against the dangerous tides to find the beautiful shore hidden in it." Sirette said as she settled her hair calmly, her voice tearing through the tension and after that with a sharp outward projection of her will.
"This world is a cruel world, so why do you think it will be kind to us? All of us all have stories and dreams we are carrying. Do you think because we are in the top 5 or because of our status, we suddenly are no more human? We still carry our fear, our hope, our ideas, and our goals but what differentiates us is that we've learned to accept all the sorrow and the hardship that accompanies it and endure the pain, because we have beliefs which push us forward and drive us and goals we wish to see completed, with all our being," Sirette commented, her noble aura filling the whole room, her blunt words carrying through the room. She tapped her fingers on her desk unconsciously as she then began to speak again with effortless grace and majesty.
"When House Wain fell, I learned the hard truth: hopes and ceremonies don't stop a Lord-class when it decides to break a wall." Sirette commented quite coldly, much different from her original pragmatic tone. "No matter how well a wall may be, if it needs to fall, it shall fall. I understood that night as I saw the Xions break through and feast on those in the Sector, my Sector. My home." Her voice echoed with sorrows laced within.
"I could cry and grieve for as long as I could but it doesn't change what happened so I decided to make those who made me suffer, suffer two fold. That is my conviction. Do you all have yours? Conviction that you're willing to die with? If you don't then, you don't deserve to be here then" Sirette commented, her ginger hair flowing freely, a cold yet calculated smile appeared on her otherwise calm face.