Chapter 6: the megalodon

Beep!! Beep!! Clark woke up to hear the familiar alarm ringtone of his phone. “It’s 6:00 am already. Man, I didn’t get enough sleep,” he grumbled as he quickly got up, brushed his teeth, and had his bath.

Fifteen minutes later, he is ready in his new military cadet uniform which was provided yesterday. With his daggers and sword both also ready, he left his room feeling surprised as Leo always woke up before him.

“What happened to this guy now?” he questioned himself again in a contemplative tone. “This piece of shit,” he cursed as he quickly went out, reaching the opposite room in less than 10 seconds.

Bam! Bam! Bam! He banged his friend's door as he called out, “plant, what the hell are you still doing?”

“Hey!! Clark, stop banging my door I woke up late. I’m almost there, I’m coming,” Leo yelled in reply.

“I said it; when the sun, rises normal people respond fast to the stimulus by getting up. But you, a typical plant respond slowly. What a bad influence you are, be fast man,” he urged his friend with an impatient tone.

Thud! Thud! Thud! He finally heard the sound of Leo running. His friend quickly reached the door, opening it without wasting time. “Hey Clark,” Leo greeted.

“Good morning weed, let’s go before it’s late,” Clark greeted back naturally, as his expression morphed back to its normal outlook.

“Clark, who did you just call a weed?” Leo fired back, feigning anger as his expression darkened.

“Oh, it’s the guy behind you, not you bro”.

Leo turned around to look, seeing no one he bellowed "I'm going to kill you one day Clark”.

“Chill man, let’s go, remaining only ten minutes,” Clark said with a smile, ignoring his friend’s fuming face as they both left.

In the parade ground, all the cadets stood orderly as they silently waited for the arrival of their Captain. Captain Spoky finally came with his entourage of soldiers, as they all saluted.

“Good morning Captain,” they greeted.

“Good morning kids,” Captain Spoky replied with a smile planted on his face. “I hope you all enjoyed yourself because your second training will follow the regular routine”.

“Group yourself in batches of two, because you are all going to the Zeigra branch of the Spartan exobiologist forest reserve. I advise you to group with your best friend. You need it because it will save you, as you are both expected to watch each other’s backs”.

“Those without best friends here, I can only sympathize with you".

"All of you who survived the first training, will all receive ten marks out of the total 360 marks. I know you’ve all been informed that the best of this batch of cadets will receive the legendary stealth armor. Though it’s of the lowest quality, it is still more valuable than anything you currently have”.

“All you are required to do is to help your teammate, so you both can kill as many exobeasts as you can. I know you all know about exobeasts from your learning years. But cadets, a piece of advice”.

“These are completely different beasts entirely from the regular augmented ones. These are beasts that are heavily modified to move faster, bite harder, and also have high intelligence for a beast”.

“To you, they are stepping stones to your graduation. But don’t get complacent, because to them you are all just free food delivered to be devoured”.

“The total points for this training are 150 points, try to kill as much as you can".

"The government provided a pair of automatic rapid laser fire pistols to each cadet for this training, so you won’t have to worry about bullets. And they also provided one sniper rifle for each group of two, so you’ll have to decide among yourselves who is to get the sniper rifle”.

“You already know your sergeant, Sergeant Modric. He will be your escort to the forest reserve. The one thing you kids are lucky for is that the government provided the fighter warship, THE MEGALODON for this training”.

“I’m even envious of you guys this time. When I was your age, something like this was still just like stuff of legends to me”.

“Cherish your chance and luck, as even some veteran soldiers have not seen a ship like the Megalodon in their many years of service. Good luck kids, I hope I can still see your faces after a month’s time. Dismissed”.

The cadets walked orderly but excitedly to the clearing where the ship was docked. They had a dozen reasons to be excited, as the Megalodon is a warship at a very high level in Spartan technology. It is the best ship in the southern protectorate of the Spartan republic.

All the cadets here in south Sparta can recognize the shiny massive ship immediately on sight. Since they were small, they’ve heard the legends of the Megalodon. Of how it whipped the Moca republic military’s ass several times, during small- and large-scale battles.

It is a warship with near supersonic speed. It has heavy firepower with its installed war weapons and very resilient armor. The perfect word to summarize its description is just…, BADASSISM.

“Clark, the government is being very generous by providing us with this ship,” Leo commented as they walked.

“Yeah Leo, I’m so lucky to be a part of this batch of cadets. I can brag about this for the rest of my life man,” Clark said excitedly.

They quickly arrived under the airborne warship, as it lowered its strong steel ropes to the ground. They climbed each rope individually, as they quickly scaled up to the ship. The hatch opened, allowing them entry into the massive warship.

Sergeant Modric was already waiting for them inside, so they immediately saluted on seeing him. He nodded at them as he proceeded to bring them inside.

Inside the ship was very luxurious, painting the scenery in a very beautiful light. They looked around curiously, as the sergeant showed them to their seats.

Clark was enchanted completely by the beauty of the warship, even his sergeant’s next words became fleeting clouds to him as his eyes sparkled in admiration.

The Megalodon is a very massive warship. It has a disc shape, just like the fictional spaceships depicted in novels and fiction movies if viewed from outside. The inside was lit up completely with blue lights, illuminating everywhere with a bright glow.

The cadets finally sat down and belted up, as they continued admiring the warship’s interior.

After seating, the sergeant addressed them, “Cadets, be prepared. A group will drop down on each stop, and each individual group will be separated from the other groups”.

“The ship is being controlled by an A.I [artificial intelligence]. According to its estimates, 20 minutes later the first group will be dropped and the rest will be dropped subsequently at 5 minutes intervals”.

“I wish you good luck. Try your best and most of all, try not to get killed,” Sergeant Modric said without much emotion in his voice.

Clark clenched his fist in anticipation, as he still focused on his goal of being the best in this training.

[Thank you for reading this chapter I really appreciate it. Please if there is any problem with the translation quality or there is any wrong spelling or sentence, indicate I'll try to fix it immediately.]