Instructor Han looked around the lecture hall for a brief moment, reading the faces of his students—or recruits, as the military preferred to call them. The new intakes were always young and naive. He sighed quietly. He had been teaching for eight years now, and to him, education was an indispensable aspect of the human race's survival. These kids needed to understand the true nature of the world they lived in.
Han knew that almost none of the recruits from the outside knew a single thing about the history of their birth. Only the children born inside the NHF (New Human Federation) received a proper education. For those born outside the Wall, life was just about scraping by day to day; they were simply the lucky few who had managed to pass the compatibility tests.
He cleared his throat, sweeping his gaze across the room one more time. Most of them seemed intrigued, others were trapped in absolute awe, and a few wore completely vacant, lost expressions.
One particular face caught his attention. It was a scrawny kid with white hair sitting in the very back row. Because the lecture hall was designed with tiered, descending seating, the instructor could easily see the students at the highest rows in the back, while the front seats were low to the stage. It wasn't to say there weren't other kids looking lost, but something about this specific boy drew Han's eye.
All the kids from the outskirts—even those hitting the maximum entry age of twenty-five—had to undergo basic literacy and numeracy courses. Since their educational foundation was practically non-existent, they were naturally slow learners. However, the military had developed a chemical solution to artificially boost the cognitive retention of the learners, rapidly improving their processing speed.
Time was a luxury they simply did not have.
Swiping to the next page on his tablet, Instructor Han continued his lecture.
"Five years after the global nuclear firestorm, the humans who had been spared inside the subterranean bunkers finally made their way back to the surface. What welcomed them was a harsh, invisible wave of radiation that immediately claimed the lives of the unprotected. But humanity was prepared. The survivors utilized specialized hazard suits and respirators attached to oxygen tanks."
Tapping his screen, Han displayed a historical photograph of an old-world radiation suit on the massive projector. To the modern citizens of the NHF, these primitive garments were almost completely extinct—nothing more than clumsy, ancient relics of a bygone era. Humanity had long since surpassed such crude technology.
"Led by the surviving military factions who had managed the underground bunkers, humanity began the grueling process of constructing a new society capable of enduring the toxic environment. But despite the sealed shelters, people still died of radiation sickness. And then, the most puzzling phenomenon began to occur. Scientists noticed substantial biological changes within the surviving population. An era of rapid evolution and genetic mutation had begun."
Han looked up from his tablet, making direct eye contact with the room.
"Before I explain the nature of this evolution and mutation, I must deviate to the discovery of the crashed alien mothership. Thankfully, the old-world governments knew that mankind would require the finest intellects to prevent total extinction. Scientists of immense potential had been securely rationed into the elite bunkers. Through the combined, tireless efforts of these brilliant minds, the advanced technology within the fallen mothership was successfully reverse-engineered and utilized by surviving humans within ten years of its discovery..."