Chapter 115 – Enlistment

Luon bolted out of the room in a rush as he woke up from his early morning stupor to the realization that he was late to check in for his job. However, as soon as he left his room, he was greeted by Arisa, Belle, and Janet who noticed his odd reaction. Janet couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you a little too edgy this morning? What’s up?”

Luon who was already late resigned to his fate as he explains the situation only to receive the chuckles and laughter from the girls in response.

“Don’t worry about being late Luon. You’re going to be fine if you’re with me. Come on, let’s go have some breakfast. Everyone else is already there by now, ” Belle said with confidence.

Luon couldn’t help but sigh as he didn’t know where her confidence came from. No matter how close her ties are in the military, there was no way that he wouldn’t be punished for being late.

The only consolation was at least he wasn’t going to be alone in the punishment.

The four of them made their way to the hotel’s restaurant area where they met up with Bendan, Gizmo, Kiri, Keyral and Janet’s idol companions. He didn’t see Tyron or Thomas there.

After ordering their meals and helping themselves with the table next to everyone the first topic of discussion was everyone’s plans for the future. Originally they were supposed to talk about it yesterday, that is until the alcohol drowned the conversation.

It was quite evident that Janet and her friends were going to the idol industry once school was over, so there wasn’t a need to address it. The surprising fact was that everyone else had also applied for the military.

“What about Tyron?” Luon asked seeing how he wasn’t there. As for Thomas he already knew that he’ll be working with Zekar after school was over.

“Tyron said that he’s going to be a bounty hunter. The pay isn’t entirely stable, but he said he enjoyed the thrill of the hunt. The other day he got Zekar to commision him a ship as well as an independent hunting license from the government,” said Gizmo.

Government Dogs, it was a named that criminals coined in for bounty hunters. At first, Bounty Hunters were a part of independent associations that took commissions from just about anyone, but after the assassination of several famous and civil figures under the guise of bounty hunting the government took action and abolished the trade many centuries ago. However, all this did was increase the amount of criminal activity due to the lack of jobs, so the government formed their own organization where all of the commissions was processed by several background checks to ensure fairness and righteousness at the same time.

Most of the jobs that bounty hunters do nowadays are hunting space pirates and Inzektors that cause harm to the Federation and Civilian ships in space. Thus bounty hunters were allowed to have their own vessels for deployment.

However, to obtain a hunting license, the bounty hunter has to undergo a series of mentality test procedures, background checks, and periodic reports. Even if a bounty hunter has yet to achieve anything for the past decade, the results still needed to be reported otherwise they would be classified as missing in action, and in space, this happens quite often.

Luon who understood the concept behind bounty hunters nodded to Tyron’s decision on becoming one. He was sad to know that he wasn’t able to assist in the development of Tyron’s personal spaceship, but that was because he was too occupied in designing his own as well as two more for his robots.

Gizmo gave Luon a shrug as he casually said, “Well, at least it would be us three again, but this time Luon ain’t the leader of us. Isn’t that right Belle?”

“That’s right, I managed to get the three of you under my squadron as well as Kiri,” Belle said.

“According to the information we have received our squad has a total of 7 people,” Kiri pointed out.

Luon mentally counted who was in their squad and found that they were missing two people, he looked at Arisa and Keyral as he asks, “Is Arisa and Keyral not in our squad?”

Arisa denies it as she said, “No, although it does sound fun my position is quite different than you guys.”

“The young miss isn’t in your squad. Instead, she was placed as a Fleet Commander Trainee for your squadron as well as a few others,” Keyral pointed out.

‘Fleet Commander?’ Luon found the position to be rather luxurious. Who would place a new recruit in such a high position? Did no one consider the consequences or object to the decision? Luon could see the influence of Arisa’s family coming into play. The only other thing that confused him the most was that since Arisa was a Fleet Commander or at least a trainee, then why was Belle just a regular squadron leader?

Luon looked at Belle who received his glance, she couldn’t help but raise her hands as she said, “Hey don’t look at me like that. My father arranged it, so I have to start from the bottom up.”

Kiri gave a light cough as she silently muttered, “If only Belle did better in the space command course…”

Although her voice was quiet, everyone on the table heard her words. Belle couldn’t help but blush in shame as she said, “Alright, enough! Let’s just finish up and go. We don’t have that much time to spare. I’m sure Janet and the others have a jam-packed schedule ahead of them.”

Janet looked at the time and said, “Ah! You’re right, we got to head off right now, or we’ll miss our first lesson.”

Janet and the other idols members stood up and bid everyone else farewell. With her going out first the rest of the members quickly finished their meal and ended their conversation with some random chatter.

As Luon exited the hotel with the others he began to search for the military base he was stationed at on his BMPU. As Luon was pressing away, his arm was pulled by Belle as she said, “Don’t worry about finding it, I know the way to get to the base. Let’s go!”

She gripped Luon’s hand and started dragging him away only to be stopped by Arisa who said, “Why are you holding him like that? You should let him go. There’s no need for you to drag him along, he has two feet for a reason.”

Belle stuck out her tongue as she said, “What I do with my vice-leader is what I want to do. If I want to lead him, then I’ll lead him, if I tell him to do something he’ll do it.”

“By that logic, since I’m the fleet commander I can also order you to do things. Which is why I’m ordering you to let him walk on his own,” Arisa said.

“Why, you don’t have to be jealous. We’re not even at the base yet so why do we want to listen to your orders,” Belle said as she continued to drag Luon along only to be stopped again by Arisa.

“Je-Jealous? I’m not jealous, I’m just stating a fact. Since we’re not at the base yet then, Luon doesn’t have to listen to your orders. Luon, tell her that you can walk on your own,” Arisa said as she looked at Luon for an answer. However, to her dismay, Luon’s response was different then from what she anticipated.

“Well I don’t care either way, but can we get moving? I’d rather not waste any more time lingering around here,” Luon said as he was still depressed about being late.

Taking the opportunity, Belle forcefully led Luon as she said, “Alright. You heard him, let’s go, go, go!”

Arisa started at the back of Belle, Luon, and Kiri who followed the two as they began to leave. Her shoulder was tapped by Keyral as she said, “Miss, mind your position. From this point on you aren’t like the rest of them. The responsibilities you shoulder isn’t something that they can understand.”

“I know Keyral, let’s just go,” Arisa gave a short sigh as she started to walk ahead. Keyral looked at Arisa’s back and silently followed along.

As everyone left the vicinity Gizmo looked at Bendan and asked, “What was all that about?”

“Don’t know, but shouldn’t we hurry up as well?” said Bendan.

“Ah, let’s go! I don’t want to be the only one late! Wait up guys I want to get out trouble as well!” Gizmo said as he started to run after everyone along with Bendan.

The military base where they were stationed at wasn’t far away, after a few transit stations the group arrived within an hour.

Arisa who checked in with the reception desk was easily allowed in along with Keyral. However, it wasn’t the same for Luon and the others. They were stopped at the door even with Belle being there for them. Luon gave a short sigh as he began to ponder about what’s going to happen next.

After a few minutes, Arisa and Keyral came back out, but they weren’t alone. A man stood in front of everyone and said, “How disappointing… for all of you to be late like this.”

Belle looked at the man and slowly uttered, “Dad…”

He looked at Belle and said, “Don’t call me by that name here. When you’re in the military base call me Supreme Commander. The only reason I’m here is to tell you, my daughter, that this place isn’t all fun and games. Every second you guys waste may cost the life of a fellow comrade in arms and the very fact that you were all late for an hour… we would have pointlessly wasted lives.”

As he was reprimanding them couldn’t help but retort, “But… Arisa was there too. How come she isn’t in trouble?”

“Unlike you fools, Arisa and Keyral already notified us ahead of time that they were going to be late. You all needed to report your status otherwise when something were to happen to you all, and we didn’t know about it, then we might take drastic measures for no apparent reason. By the way, Kiri also reported that she was going to be late yesterday night,” Belle’s father said.

Belle looked at Kiri who in response quickly turned her head away. She couldn’t help but say, “Traitor!”

Her dad coughed as he said, “Enough. I hope you understand the importance of being on time and reporting in. The military isn’t your playground. I hope that you adhere to the ground rules from this point on.”

He looked at Luon and the rest and said, “That goes for all of you. If you understand this, then give me a response.”

Luon, Bendan and Gizmo saluted and said: “Yes sir!”

Belle’s father nodded and looked over at Belle again and said, “Next time you’ll also respond the same way when I address you like this. I’ll let it slide for now. Understand?”

Belle gave him a short nodded. Seeing her response, he said, “Good, you there arrange them to their rooms to meet up with their instructor. Tell her they were late because of me and that they are all ready for training. She’ll understand what I mean by that.”

A woman walked out from behind the reception desk and responded positively to his remark. After saying what he needed to say he left along with Arisa and Keyral in tow.

“Please follow me. I’ll  guide you to your rooms in order to quickly settle down before meeting up with your instructor,” the woman said as she started guiding Luon and the others the outline of the base.

She quickly gazed over the core areas of the facility along the way and brought them to a building slightly further away from the main area.

“From this point on you will all be staying at this building. The room on this side is for the female members and the room on the other side is for the male members of your squadron. Your instructor will shortly come in a second, so I recommend setting down your supplies now. If you need anything else, please notify the front desk using the number on the wall over there,” the woman said as she pointed at the rules on how to use the facility before leaving everyone behind.

Luon, Gizmo, and Bendan settled down and placed their belongings and decided on their beds. They didn’t have individual rooms as the layout of the room was designed the same way that capsule hotels were done.

They couldn’t rest a single second when they heard someone yell, “Come out here you maggots! You already wasted a great portion of the day, so I expect some serious training from here on!”

Luon, Bendan and Gizmo’s looked at each other with the same expression. They all seemed to recall hearing this voice once before. Quickly they left their room and met up with Belle, Kiri and a very familiar face.

Their instructor for their military training was someone they knew.