Enlistment

And so, the next day arrived, Yasu was formed in the rows of other cadets with his uniform and with the accessories that was given to him, they weren’t from the same group but everyone got his white, neat uniforms, Yasu was yawning as he remembered the talk he had with Ren last night.

—TOMORROW?! —Ren shouted.

—You sure are loud…, yeah, the other collectors are going to arrive tom-

Ren hit the table with his hands as he got up

—Why didn’t you tell me?! Ah, man… —Ren put his hands on his head as he sat down.

—I just noticed back on the train, sorry.

—Huh… —Ren breathed out a sigh—. It’s fine, I just thought we could have more time together, it hasn't been that much since you leave the training fields.

—I know, I know, but I wanted to enlist as fast as I could. If I let it slide for a little bit I would have been too lazy to do it, even if it is something I want to do.

—Alright —Ren was touching his neck— I will go see you leave tomorrow, for now I think it’s time to rest.

—Oh, it’s already dark… alright, I will pass you the location in a moment.

Ren extended his fist to Yasu.

—Once you come back we are going to have a big banquet and finish that long series.

Yasu hit Ren’s fist with his own.

—It’s a promise, brother

Ren let out a sigh as he trying not to get his eyes closed.

“That Ren, he sure worries a lot”

Yasu took a look back and saw Ren in the seats from far away, Yasu smiled and looked in front, there was an old man, already with white hair giving a speech, Yasu moved his head to the sides until he heard something interesting.

—AND NOW, EVERY CADET SHOULD COME TO THE FRONT AND TAKE HIS WEAPON, THIS IS NOT ONLY YOUR WAY TO DEFEND YOURSELF BUT YOUR ONLY TRUE PARTNER IN BATTLE, EVERY CADET HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO CUSTOMIZE HIS OWN WEAPON AND WAS CHOSEN BY YOUR ABILITIES AN-

The old man kept talking as every cadet passed by, giving them a well-made wooden case. The turn for Yasu was after an hour, his case was a large one, almost the size of his body, just a little bit taller, he left the stage and went to form again.

—NOW THAT EVERYONE HAS HIS OWN WEAPON, PLEASE REPORT WITH THE CHIEF OF YOUR ASSOCIATION, HE WILL GIVE YOU MORE INFORMATION ABOUT WHAT TO DO NEXT, YOU ARE THE PRIDE OF THIS CITY, AND HE WILL DO A LOT AND WE WILL OWN YOU TONES OF GRATITUDE, FEEL PROUD OF WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE, DISMISS!

A loud “Yes!” was made by every single cadet, Yasu wave his hand looking at the seats, saying goodbye to Ren and then left the place, he walked to the trucks, looking at the one that had the emblem of the collectors between many other emblems, he found them, the back door was open, a large truck with the collectors emblem on the side, inside it had some light blue lights, Yasu took a seat and rest his case on the floor hitting a part of the truck’s sides behind him.

Inside the truck there were six more people, everyone was quiet, Yasu closed his eyes and waited to arrive with his chief in charge. A bit of time passed, and finally they reached the place that they needed to arrive, it was a small building, as if it was being consumed by the large buildings around it. The building had the name “The collectors” on top along with the emblem below.

Everyone got out of the car and went to the building, inside they were welcomed by a man in the same uniform as them.

—Follow me.

The man guided them to an elevator and selected a few plants below, when they arrived, their sight witnessed a lot of people talking by microphones, a lot of computers with tons of where there were a ton of people working on computers.

—Don’t stare for too long, the chief is waiting —the guy in uniform hurry them up.

They followed him to another room, where there was a young adult man talking with another worker.

—We need more rations, the only ones we have left are for the next squad —the young man was waving a few papers

—Yes, sir! —a worker put his hand on his forehead.

The worker left the room walking fast and then the man looked at us, he was wearing a helmet with goggles but with a lab suit instead of a uniform. The young move his head and watch the group, he smiled and did a little greeting putting his hand on his forehead

—You must be the new recruits, welcome aboard, my name is Morgan Kaminari. I’m the chief of The Collectors.

Kaminari was a young man with medium length black hair, he was wearing a long tight black shirt with his sleeves on his elbows, dark blue pants and a white belt, along with black boots.

—Let’s see… —Kaminari took a piece of paper and looked up and down—. Yeah, you must be the 342nd squad, a team of seven for what I see, that’s rare, I know that this might sound annoying, but I need you all to give small presentations about yourselves and the weapons you are going to use.

Everyone got silent and Kaminari scratch the side of his chin.

—Maybe you didn’t hear me right, I neeeed you aaall-

—Cut it out, Weren’t we supposed to work independently? —a young man took a step further —. Why do we have to deal with this annoying stuff?

—Alone? No, you must mishear your assignments young fellow, but you always go on teams, some of them with fewer people with every single mission on teams, you just take different ways to split up and since it’s dangerous.

—What dangers could it be below? Weren’t we just supposed to collect scrap? That’s why we are the collectors —the young man keeps talking.

—Oh, you signed up for that? —Kaminari giggles a bit—. Sorry but no, this work is not as easy, sure you can collect scrap, but what we do here is not seeing in the public eye nor your training unless you really see it, oh but we don’t keep these things secret from you.

—We are here to investigate the deeps, since they are many foes in there, we are supposed to defeat them and collect them as well, we are not called the collectors because we collect scrap, we are called the collectors because we collect special pieces that the others don’t want to deal with —a woman started talking interrupting the chief.

—Very good, it seems someone did his research. That's correct, we collected a lot of things such as scrap, enemy parts and exploring the depths, come on with me for a bit.

The chief walked outside the room and guided the group to the computers, he pointed out a monitor with a number, 2100.

—That is the number of the furthest room that we explore, we had no idea if we are near the end of the deeps or if we are not even at the middle of it, our work here is not as the vanguard or the attackers, they defend the fort and they try not leave any traces of them behind, us, we collect the parts to make progress in defeating them, to exit this shithole someday. Come on, back to the room.

The entire group came back to the initial room, the chief sat down on the desk and clapped one time.

—That’s the fastest I can explain, but you sure knew about all of this, sorry to disappoint you young fellow, were you expecting this to be an easy job?

—No —the young man smiled—. I did ask myself why the training was so hard. If we were just collecting scrap, I’m relieved that I could help at the same level as the other teams.

—Yeah, they often try to look down on us, tsk, tsk, if only they knew, anyway, I don’t want to pass by every single one of you and ask if you are going to take part in this or not, we are going to have a session meeting each other, so before we start. Do any of you have questions before we start?

None made a noise, everyone was at Kaminari with a serious expression.

—Oh, let me help you, maybe you all are shy, if it is that you want to resign, I’m sorry, you already signed a contract and you need to serve this institution for at least six years, whether you like or not, as you know, the IFED is a serious business, once you sign for, there’s no going back.

The ambience was tense, you couldn’t tell that this guy was the chief of the entire building, but ones he looked that way at the group, he detached authority