Chapter 6: Incursion

Chapter 6: Incursion

A young student walked through campus, a heavy looking backpack hanging from his shoulder and a wide smile portrayed on his face. Besides that, there wasn't much to mention about his appearance, he had a lean build and was a bit taller than average, but everything else about him screamed he was just one in the crowd.

It was the morning of the set day for the freshmen incursion and students from all over college gathered around the army representatives. Intuitively, they all got together with the people they knew, dividing the crowd into those who studied science and those who studied humanities, and then those who were aligned with the different career paths.

Near the front row, Tina Celes was surrounded by her female friends. She was really popular and everyone wanted to remain as close to her as possible, but a young man made way pushing past people until he was right besides her.

"Tina! Fancy meeting you here." Mark said as if they had just bumped into each other by coincidence.

"Mark, it's so nice to see you. Have you seen Uri?" Tina asked with a concerned look. She knew how much he struggled and, even though they weren't boyfriend and girlfriend anymore, she still wanted to pay for his ticket. The ticket fee was nothing but pocket money for her and she still needed Uriel to help her in her studies, but he was nowhere to be seen.

A young man with a buzz cut wearing a neat military uniform stood next to captain Silvermane, he looked at the students with a warm smile on his face, squinting his eyes. "This year's students are shit." The young man said in a low tone of voice, without even shifting his face.

"Sir, yes sir!" Captain Silvermane replied hastily. It was odd looking at a much older man being so respectful towards someone so young, but in the army that didn't matter at all and a captain was nothing against a colonel.

It could seem like a hypocrite thing to say something like that while smiling, but smiling was actually required of him. Although society counted on many of those students to get their traits, most of them wouldn't be able to acquire one and some of them may not even return. Incursions were actually a lot riskier than they let people know and a smile was a small price to pay to keep people from finding out the truth.

Humanity fought against the unknown creatures called cryptids for years in hopes of retaking their territory, with no success whatsoever.

Those creatures possessed a strange field of disruption that messed with human technology, unnatural strength and uncanny powers. All humans could do was wage war and take shelter within their city walls, losing more and more land in the process.

Citizens didn't know about this and the government intended for it to stay that way. How could they say they actually lost more than half of their territory? how could they say that they were actually scared to be facing extinction? that humanity was actually on its last foot?

No, they couldn't let the public now about the harsh truth. The propaganda machine fed them with lies to protect them, to keep things running.

The lieutenant, a woman in her late twenties commanded. Her cute face and gentle voice was heavily contrasted by her flashy uniform, her voice carried the authority that only a person accustomed to giving orders could possess.

"Uhm, excuse me miss." One of the students, a young man with brown hair and a worried expression on his face lifted his hand. "What's a POI?"

"It's short for point of interest, it's the way we refer to the places where the cryptids are located. But don't worry too much, this is a huge operation, with this amount of soldiers you have nothing to fear." The lieutenant replied in a chuckle.

Uriel always wondered why they never took younger people to acquire traits and now it made sense. Incursions were more dangerous than they let people know.

Trying to shake off the odd feeling he was getting, he glanced at the people that he was teamed up with. The girl in front of him had droopy eyes and a sleepy expression stuck in her face. Then, there was the guy who asked questions, he seemed to be more calm than before, but fear leaked out of his face. They both seemed to be polar opposites, the girl seemed to be completely unfazed while the guy next to her was on the verge of crying.

Since the vehicle was a bit cramped, he couldn't look directly at the others without being noticed. The situation was already awkward as it was and he didn't want to make it any worse, but he still took a small peek and noticed a huge brutish looking man who was obviously older than the rest.

For a second he thought that maybe he too was a soldier, but he was wearing casual clothes, making it evident that he was also a student.

Eventually, the vehicle came to a stop and the door in the back was open.

"Move out, now! now!" One of the corporals said as he pushed the students out of the vehicle like cattle.

"Don't touch me!" A young girl with heavy make up, painted nails and many piercings on her ears yelped as she was being pushed roughly.

"Hurry up kids, this ain't your fancy school." The lieutenant commanded. Her calm and gentle demeanor had shifted into a strict one. She didn't seem evil in the slightest, but now they could see that she was no pushover.

When the last student stepped out of the vehicle, it quickly turned and left them in the open.