It has now been 6 months since the new Class VII was put together. It's pretty safe to say it has been a big success! All these kids, even though they are from drastically different walks of life, they've really come into their own.
I've been eagerly awaiting today. I will get to test the wits of my dear students. Thor's Military Academy's board of directors - no, all of Erebonia - is betting everything on them, so we have to make sure they'll have what it takes to save our world.
We're going to conduct a special class exercise. We left Trista yesterday, got off the train in Heimdallr, went shopping for the whole day to pick up the gear and other ressources we will need, then later that evening, hopped on the overnight train on our way to Roer.
Miss Irina Reinford, chairwoman of the Reinford Group, has arranged for us to use one of their old facilities as a training ground. Upon arriving at the location, after running down some stairs, we ended up in a small windowed corridor. Looking through the windows, we could see that it peered into an old abandoned Hangar. Wrecked war contraptions, containers and obsolete orbal gear were pushed against the walls, as though a bulldozer shoved everything that was in the room out of the way. We kept going down until we reached a large metal door. I turned the wheel and the door opened with a loud groan.
In the center of the hangar was a number of identical small buildings, about 10 arge long and 5 arge wide. According to our specifications, they should each contain a bed, a small toilet and other basic conveniences. There are some more buildings laying around; I can tell there is a small holding cell in the far back.
It's pretty early. I can tell the kids are feeling rather groggy. I can't blame them, I know sleeping on the night train can be tough on young soldiers. Better not waste any time.
I drop my giant rucksack to the ground and clear my voice.
“Alright, I want your attention everyone, I promise I'll make it quick.”
I can see all of their little tired eyes slowly peering in my direction.
“You've all become quite good friends with each other. You've also become very dependable in society. Ahh, you would all make very fine Bracers. But alas, I'm still acting as your lovely military instructor, not as a recruiter for the Roer branch of the Bracer Guild.”
I'm already losing their attention. I should really get to the point.
“For the next few days, we're going to see what you're really made of. You are all to camp here, you can use the containers over there as lodgings, but you are not to share a unit with anyone else, understood?”
The students nod at me, I can tell they're trying hard to pay attention. I reach for the bag I dropped and pull out from it some unusual-looking visors.
“Before you all go on with your day, you must all put these on, right now.”
I put the strange pieces of headgear back in the bag, then toss the bag towards my students. They gather around it and start putting on the visors, as instructed.
“Very good! Aw, you make me all fuzzy inside, being so obedient.”
I take a remote out of one of my pockets and push a couple buttons. Some students are freaked out, others are mildly shocked. Maybe I should have warned them that they would not be able to remove the visors anymore (teehee!). I push some more buttons to turn the devices on, now that they are locked onto their wearer's heads.
“Haha, sorry about that... But I think you'll find that these are pretty cool devices, you know! They're made with cutting-edge orbal technology, courtesy of the Epstein Foundation. Do you know what they do? I think you should take a good look at each other.”
As I say those words, I can see the students looking at each other, looking confused. It seems, however, that they understand what's going on.
“That's right! It makes everyone around you sound and look just like me, your dreamy instructor! <3 Isn't that cool?”
The only reaction I get is a few irritated groans coming my way. Before I have the time to figure out which ones had the audacity to voice their frustration, I continue.
“If you're either Fie, Crow, Emma, would you kindly pay attention?”
The students I called out shortly met my gaze. The others are looking around, still in apparent disbelief from watching all these “instructor Sara doppelgangers” around them.
“You will find an orbal radio terminal in each of your apartments. You can use it to communicate with one another. Your mission is to eliminate a specific target from the rest of the group. Now, I would be a bad instructor if I had you actually kill your classmates, so all you really have to do is to smash the switch at the back of their visor. It will
mostly safely render its wearer unconscious, and I'll personally remove them from the Hangar. If you have any questions, now is the time to voice them.”
All that can be heard is my voice echoing through the hangar. I continue.
“Now if Millium would step forward, I would appreciate it.”
Millium came forward. Of course, again, no one else is realizing this is actually Millium, they just see another instructor Sara clone. As Millium reaches me, I pull out the remote again and punch in a certain code. As soon as I do, I can see her visor changing modes.
“Millium is the only one who now knows your real identities. This exercise will not have any secret for her, but there's a catch: She is the target. Everyone else must do what they can to incapacitate Fie, Crow and Emma before they can take out Millium. And before you ask, no, this isn't going to be full-on warfare in here. We're going to proceed like what we've been doing in our field studies so far!”
I hear some of them release a sigh of relief, while others seem more disappointed.
“All of you will spend the coming days using your various areas of expertise within the ruleset I've put together – You'll find documentation on what you can and cannot do over the course of this exercise in your respective housings – to try and solve this situation out of wits, guts and trust. You will need to voice your opinions and listen to those of your fellow classmates in order to succeed.”
Before I go in greater details about the task at hand, I put my weight on my other hip, a habit I picked up from the Icy Maiden over the years.
“Every day, you will discuss and figure out whether or not to remove someone from the group. You will know what everyone is allowed to do, but you won't know who anyone is, at least not from how they appear directly. You do not need to know that in order to strategize, you can take it upon yourself to call for the right person to perform a certain action, and see if they listen to you. If you do decide on someone, your lovely instructor will dashingly swoop in and knock out the person of interest. This can only happen once per day, after which you will go back to your personal activities in your housings. Your goal is to incapacitate the three trying to take out Millium before they do just that. You will also be issued code names, of course.”
I take a deeper breath, and balance my weight back onto my other hip. I'm getting old!
“Some of you will be permitted to leave your housings at night to conduct some specific activities in order to complete this exercise. This is especially true for Fie, Crow and Emma, who not only can do the same thing, but they're also allowed to incapacitate one of you guys per night. I'll collect the bodies in the morning. I'd sleep with an eye open, if I were you... Not that it would change anything, since I picked these three due to their proficiency at covert operations. Anyway, remember, if Millium is taken out, you all fail this exercise. Well, the three responsible for this will win, but if you're all as good as you're supposed to be, they shouldn't be able to pull this off.”
I reach into my rucksack and pull out another bag full of bottles of hard liquor that produces that muffled glass clinking sound I’m all too familiar with.
“I think it's good enough for a briefing. Please make a line in front of me. I'll give each of you a piece of paper which corresponds to your housing and codenames – Oh, there is one more thing. I didn't intend to have Rean participate, but he insisted. He's gonna have an objective of his own, which will be to protect himself along with someone of his choosing. He doesn't really have to focus on the whole figuring-out-who-Millium-is thing as much as you guys need to, however, or at least not directly. Rean will do Rean, my lovelies, and he has his own demons to conquer in that respect. Alright now, one by one, come to me, then pick up your bags and head to your new home. I'll be watching from the control center above, and if I need to tell you guys anything, I'll just use the hangar's intercom. Naturally, I'm going to lock the door behind me, so no use trying to leave this area until the exercise is complete.”
I proceed to hand each of the students their respective papers, then I wish them a good time as they pick up their heavy rucksacks and drag themselves to their housings. I then turn back to the stairs, making sure to lock the big steel door behind me. I proceed to the upper floor where I set up camp right in front of the security console, having a great view of the whole hangar. I pour myself a drink and start taking notes pertaining to my observations. I start by assigning each of my students to their new IDs. I smile and ponder about how I, the Purple Lightning, turned into such a great military instructor!
“Alright guys, it's all up to you now. Prove to me that Prince Olivert is right to believe in you all.”