Dylan returned to his room after finishing his meal and then noticed on the monitor window that Claire had called several times.

  ‘We didn’t raise her well… she has her friends, but she is too attached to me,’ Dylan thought while scratching his head. ‘I should be happy that she treats me like family, but I don’t want her getting depressed or crying if I were to die…’

  Claire doesn’t remember her parents, so she doesn’t recall the pain of losing them. Dylan felt that pain since he had many memories with them even before he was three years old… Regardless, if he were to die, she would feel the same pain because they are like siblings. While that was a bit sweet, it was also more than a bit worrying.

  In any case, Dylan sent her a message saying that he was fine, and that he was going to sleep. It didn’t take long for that to happen… Time passed fast, and then Dylan woke up while hearing the alarm of the terminal in his room. He got used to waking up every single day at five in the morning, so it didn’t bother him. Still, his day started on a weird note when he received a message to show up in the briefing room in two hours. Only those who are selected to join the missions can enter the briefing room. The older soldiers stay on standby in the waiting room for soldiers.

  “I am sure this is unusual, but…” Dylan rubbed his chin thoughtfully and then just shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, I just have to follow the orders… it will be just a mining mission, after all.”

  Dylan sent a message to Claire saying that he would be busy all day. He couldn’t give details to recruits… while the soldiers could watch the mission unfold in the waiting room. If something goes wrong, a lot of people might have their spirits weakened and give up on joining their ranks.

  In any case, Dylan entered the bathroom and took a nice, warm, long bath to wake up completely. That was only possible because the whole ship had a massive water purificator so that the same water could be used after a few hours… people didn’t want to think about that, but even their pees were purified on a daily basis. That is one of the many hardships of living in a spaceship instead of on a real planet.

  The good side of being a soldier is the fact that their uniform was their battle suit, and the battle suit was in constant need of repairs and improvements, so it never stayed with them. So, Dylan headed toward the briefing room wearing black sweatpants, and a shirt, and some red sneakers. Most people would say that he looked like he was going to relax in the garden instead of the briefing room, but he didn’t care. He wanted to keep his cool while relaxing as much as possible.

  Dylan eventually reached the briefing room, and when the metallic door was opened, he saw a large round table with several people sitting around it. Out of the 51 soldiers, with Dylan included, half of them had been called for the mission. In the end, maybe it wasn’t surprising that he had been called.

  Regardless, Amanda and Sabrina were there as well, and Amanda looked pissed, and that was really rare. Since everyone was silent and they were about to leave on a mission in a long while.

  Dylan sat nearby Amanda in silence, and then two other people arrived shortly after before sitting down. Once that happened, a hologram showing a man wearing a long, dark coat that covered most of his body appeared. The man had short hair and gentle eyes, but it was impossible to tell their colors since it was just a hologram.

  “Hey, everyone, it has been a while. Did you miss me?” The man asked. “It is I, Felix, your favorite second in command.”

  Dylan looked around for a moment and confirmed that, just like him, no one looked very excited after hearing that guy talk. He looked way too happy considering that a serious mission was about to start… or maybe he was relaxed, since he knew that it wouldn’t be a big deal.

  “Geez, not even my old friends are happy to see me after so long… that is sad,” Felix said and then sighed before making the map of a city in ruins appear in his place. “Anyway, onto business. Your mission today is a standard mining mission. We found a planet suitable to get some resources for us, and we will split you all into four teams. The first will be the assault team… while this mission is on paper a mining mission, we detected some violent lifeforms in the areas that you are going, so the assault team will protect the perimeter and make sure to bring back the bodies of the lifeforms in order to mine for some knowledge. We identified that they have the ability to enhance their speed with mana, and we can add that ability to your battle suits.”

  The city that they were going to make Dylan recall a bit was the one they had always trained in the simulator. However, in the new one, they could see numerous craters and massive piles of rubble around the same craters. One didn’t have to be a genius to understand that the place had been completely destroyed in a war by super weapons or gigantic monsters.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  In any case, Felix made the image of the members of the assault team appear on the hologram, and their captain was a fifty years old tall and muscular man called Francis. He had shaved his head and had two long scars on his cheeks, but the people on his team looked relieved to be working with him.

  “We will also have the sabotage team that will walk around the city laying traps and helping the other teams in case more enemies than expected begin to show up,” Felix declared and then made the image of a lanky man wearing glasses show up, and his team showed up below his image, his name was Shon and as if tried to look smart, his fixed his glasses.

  “We also identified the location of a warehouse with a lot of metals in it so that we will have a transportation team as well,” Felix made the image of a group with a lot of huge guys showing up on the hologram. “Your job is to get a good amount of samples of the metals while identifying the ones that would be most useful to us and bring a large amount of it. A lot of fuel will be used by this team, so you should try really hard to bring the best resources. Lastly, there is the extraction team, which will work on draining the ether from that city. The place had a factory that apparently had that, but it was destroyed. Still, you can use the same spot to gather a lot of it. We will be counting on you… do your best, and the commander probably won’t complain too much in my ears later.”

  Amanda was the leader of the extraction team, and Dylan was also in it, just like Sabrina. Since ether was the resource that they needed the most, they also were the only team that had seven members, while the others would have six.

  “Any questions?” Felix asked and looked around. “Well, I will be talking with you all the whole time if mistakes happen or corrections need to be made so that it will be fine. While you all won’t be together during the whole time, your area of operations will be less than one kilometer. Anyway, do your best and work hard to return to one piece. Your contribution value will be determined by how hard you work, but also how efficient you can be without causing problems to others, so focus on that efficiency. You can go and grab your equipment now.”

  Everyone got up and then headed to the armory with the lockers that belonged to the soldiers in the next room. Since Dylan was a newbie, he would have just the starting set waiting for him, which would be a brand new battle suit for real combat, combat knives that had a sheath that could keep sharpening the blades as sharp as possible, and a simple pistol with ten bullets.

  To have any more than that, Dylan will have to contribute a lot on the missions in order to gain either. He could use that to strengthen his suit and himself or trade with the weapon development support team for upgrades in the battle suit or weapons. That was all for the sake of making people work harder and to increase the chances of survival of veterans.

  ‘I studied the files that Mom and Dad left behind. Perhaps with enough time, I can do some extra work to help with the development team. That also will help Claire, after all.’

  While he was heading for his locker, Dylan saw Francis’ locker that had an assault rifle with a red line on one side and a blue line on the other. The lines represented that he could use magic rounds made of ether. The red line would fire explosive bullets, and the blue one could fire freezing ones.

  Francis also had a huge broadsword that weighed over fifty kilograms… even if the blade didn’t cut the target, the sheer weight added with a slow swing could break some bones.

  In any case, when he opened his locker, Dylan frowned when he saw a long one-edged sword that was a bit curved, two shorter knives that were better than the usual combat knives and longer than well, and two pistols that could fire explosive and freezing rounds each.

  “You can’t use their battle suit, but it was decided that you could keep the gear of your parents,” Amanda explained when she passed nearby. “That was common in the past but became rare in the last few years since few people that died actually had children.”

  Dylan nodded while feeling a bit conflicted… his pride wanted to make him test his limits by starting from the bottom, but his pride wouldn’t help much if something happens and his life and other people’s lives were in danger. So, he grabbed the two magic pistols and the two knives. Dylan will have to train in the simulator to get used to the katana.

  In any case, Dylan equipped his battle suit, and it quickly covered his whole body, leaving only the head behind uncovered. After putting his knives on the sheathes on his waist and then the pistols on the sides of his legs, Dylan crossed the armory, and then the door of the launching room opened. There were several pods waiting for the groups, on the size of the trucks… they needed to be that big since they also needed firepower to come and go while leaving the stratosphere of the planets.

  “The trip toward the planet that we decided to call W1 will last for half an hour, your mission is supposed to last for six hours, and the way back will last for another one hour since the dreadnought won’t stop,” Felix’s voice echoed from the interior of the battle suits. “Please, protect the pod properly, otherwise you might not be able to return. You all also need to enter when the time comes since we can’t stop the Dreadnought from moving… a few moments of delay and you won’t have enough fuel to return.”

  That wasn’t the kind of information he should have withheld until now, so Dylan felt like sighing. Still, he had to focus on the mission and forget about that… Amanda tapped his back and signaled him to follow her.

  After five minutes, everyone was ready, but they waited ten more minutes in order to enter the optimal range of planet W1. Once that happened, everyone entered the pods. They began to turn, and then the room changed when the walls on the side began to open, and the vacuum took over the place for a short while… Dylan finally could see the planet that they were heading to… it was massive and red, it didn’t look that hospitable, but some people that could build cities lived there, so it shouldn’t be so bad.