Dorian stifled a yawn as he walked towards the train station through the cool morning air, regretting the fact he stayed up late making sure everything was packed. His body was tired and sluggish, screaming its desire to crawl back into bed and ignore all of his duties, his obligations. Dorian sighed as he approached the station, his mind flashing back to a few nights ago. I really hope what she said is just speculation on her part. Fighting them...is the last thing I would want to do.
Opening the door to the station, he could see a few people from both groups already waiting. The receptionist at the front desk smiled at Dorian as he made his way towards her. “Good morning! I assume you’re with the Westwich Military Academy correct?”
Dorian nodded. “I am. I’m with the first group going to Arstead.”
The receptionist quickly looked through some papers before looking back at Dorian. “Name?”
“Dorian. Dorian Scott.”
She nodded and wrote something down on the paper. She then grabbed a ticket, stamped it, and handed the ticket to him. “Here you go Mr. Scott. Good luck on your missions.”
Dorian grabbed his ticket, nodded his thanks, and walked over to the two people in his group who have already arrived. “You two sure got here early.”
Digby nodded. “Military command prefers its members to arrive at their departure sites earlier than the designated time. If we’re to make a good first impression, we should do more than the bare minimum and do what the military recommends.”
Farnell yawned. “Digby...I’m too tired to be lectured at so early in the morning.”
Dorian chuckled. “I concur...but Digby does make a good point that we need to do our best out durring our assignment, not just the bare minimum to pass.”
Digby nodded. “Exactly!”
At that moment, Amira and Olive both entered the station and talked with the receptionist. Dorian watched as they both interacted with the receptionist before they both said their goodbyes to each other, separating to their different groups. Digby cleared his throat as Olive arrived. “Welcome Olive. I trust you had a good night’s sleep.”
Olive briefly glanced at Digby before nodding. “I did.”
“Good...good. Now that we’re all here, I would like to nominate myself as the leader of the group for this assignment.”
Dorian and Farnell stared at Digby as he continued to speak. “It’s obvious that in order to maintain order throughout the assignment, we need to have a chain of command, and considering my military background, I believe I’m the most qualified for this position.”
Olive shook her head. “I believe we don’t need to have a leader. We’re only here to do some basic assignments, and the chain of command would be the ones assigning us the missions.”
Farnell nodded. “I agree. It would feel too weird having to address someone as a superior when in reality they’re on the same level as me.”
Digby was silent for a few moments before nodding. “I see...I apologize for bringing up the topic then.”
Dorian watched as Digby walked to a bench and sat down, obviously failing at hiding his disappointment.
Farnell whispered to Dorian. “Why is he so eager to be the ‘leader’ of our group?”
“As he said, his military background is the reason. A lot of military families are proud of their family history and believe that since they’re related to soldiers and generals of the past, they’re naturally more inclined to be better at military matters than the average soldier.”
“I see…”
The next twenty minutes was spent awkwardly silent until the train to Arstead made its way to the station, stopping and letting the passengers it already had off. After the group presented their tickets to the station guards, they boarded the train and watched as the world outside began to move.
Four hours after the train had taken off, and the whole ride being uncomfortably silent, the train arrived at the Arstead station. Dorian was the first off the train and stretched his legs. Olive, who was the second of the group to get off, looked around the station. “We were told that someone from the military would be our rendezvous...but I don’t see anyone.”
Dorian slowly scanned the sparse crowd around the train before he noticed a uniformed military officer approaching them. “Group One from Squad Nine?”
Dorian nodded. “We are.”
The man saluted the four of them. “My name is Colonel Jac Angevin. I’ve been ordered to be in charge of your field assignments for the weekend. I’ve arranged all of you a room at a nearby military instillation. Once we arrive you’ll be briefed as to what your assignment will be.”
Dorian and Digby by now had instinctively straightened up their posture and both nodded. Farnell and Olive had glanced at both Dorian and Digby and copied what they were doing. Jac turned around and motioned for them to follow. “Come. I have an armored vehicle outside waiting for transportation.”
The group followed Jac out of the station and, as they were told, a tan colored vehicle was parked outside with two armed soldiers standing outside, guarding the vehicle.
The two soldiers saluted Jac as he approached the vehicle. One of the guards then opened the door, revealing eight seats in the back, not including the two seats at the front of the vehicle. Digby was the first to enter the vehicle, followed by Farnell, Olive, and finally Dorian. The first guard entered behind Dorian as the second guard closed the door, soon reappearing on the passenger side of the vehicle as Jac sat in the driver’s seat.
Farnell was excitedly looking around the vehicle. Digby glanced at him, confused. “What are you doing?”
“This is the first time I’ve ever rode in a vehicle before. I’ve only ever taken either a train, horses, or walked to where I needed to go.”
Digby chuckled, leaning back in his seat. “Well you might want to get used to this as most likely you’ll be riding in vehicles like this for missions.”
Dorian smirked as he heard all of this, and looked out the small window on the left side of the vehcile. He watched as the vehicle slowly made its way down the crowded streets, though not crowded from cars, but from many farmers riding either horses, or guiding farm animals as they bring their produce to market. He noticed most people actively stopping and staring at the vehicle. Dorian turned to the soldier. “I take it the military doesn’t drive through the streets too often right?”
He nodded. “For the most part we keep all military personnel near the fort and leave the peacekeeping duties to the local law enforcement agencies. I’ve only ever ridden through town one other time than this, and received similar reactions from civilians.”
Dorian returned to looking out the window and noticed a large concentration of train tracks all converging on what looks like several large buildings. “That must be the commercial train station, correct?”
Before the guard could respond, Farnell had managed to force his way near the window. “Sure looks like it! The commercial train station has a separate railway system than the military railway and civilian railways. The reason being that civilians would slow down shipments, causing shortages and increased costs, meaning increased prices.”
Jac was listening to everything as he was driving before he interjected. “You must be Farnell, correct?”
“I am Sir.”
Jac chuckled. “I was told that you had a lot of knowledge about the general workings of Drengard from all the books you read. I have a nephew that’s similar to you who can’t get enough reading. He wants to be a professor someday.”
Farnell nervously chuckled. “Yeah...I can see why he would want to be one. Though teaching isn’t for me.”
Before the conversation could continue, Jac pointed towards the distance. “There it is, your base of operations for the next couple days: Fort Arstead.”
Everyone looked out of the front windshield and watched as a tall, metallic structure emerged from the distance. Dorian stared at the fort as it came closer and closer to them. So this is where she was stationed until recently…
Ten minutes later, the vehicle drove into a parking garage filled with similar vehicles. After parking the vehicle, Jac got out while the soldier riding with the group opened the door from the inside. Jac was standing in front of them by the time they had all exited the vehicle. “Welcome to Fort Arstead. Follow me and we’ll brief you on your tasks for the weekend.”325Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr9agquWfwo
