Hello.
Fifth chapter of "getting prepared" and we are progressing nicely, still a lot of exposition but that's always needed when trying to tell a proper story. Theres not a lot more for me to say, although i wanted to apologize quickly, someone commented about how i have been messing up sometimes with the main characters name and just to be clear his name is "Fair" the name is both a reference to his white motif (fair white) but also with his job as a soldier. He doesn't always know who he is fighting, so he has to keep being Fair to everyone. Fair in who must die.
Thank you
Chapter 5
Ironwood's office was, quite frankly smaller than I had expected. While yes the man spent most of his time at his main office at the huntsman academy, I had still expected his other places to also… represent his value in terms of space.
The office was of a standard business-man's size, with a big wooden desk with a big leather chair near the back of the room, the wood was probably mahogany if I were to guess. Behind ironwoods chair was a window that took up the entire back wall. Just a quick look at it revealed a view that was almost to kill for. The room was all in all quite minimalistic in its design, only the necessary things for a meeting to take place.
As Ironwood sat in his chair behind the desk, he gestured for the both of us to take a seat on the two other chairs in the room. As we sat down the general started speaking.
"As I said before I'm glad you both could come on such short notice" Ironwood tells us. He began puling out some folders from a drawer and began to read up from them.
"Jasmine, also known as agent "shine", species, human. Taken in by the military as part of project "initiate", when trying to return you, your parents refused. Part of the intel division, you are specially trained in protecting your fellow soldiers. Having had two Atlesian records when it comes to using long ranged weapons, specifically with a sniper rifle, one of which records still stands to this day." Ironwood looked at Jas with a smile before continuing "No personal weapon as you just use what your division provides you. One of the only two surviving members of project "Initiate" to still in the intel divisions department" Ironwood finishes looking back up with slightly sorrowful eyes. The man defiantly knew the feeling I thought to myself. Ironwood quickly changed his focus to me and started reading again.
"Fair, also known as agent "Judgement" species, owl faunas. Taken into the military as another member of project "initiate". When trying to return you to your family, they had disappeared from Atlas, presumed to use the money given to leave the continent. Member of the intel division, you are specially trained in intel gathering… by any means necessary." Ironwood looked at me shortly after reading that part "Trained in hand to hand combat, you are usually equipped with standard military rifles and CCQ weapons such as knifes, poles etc."
Ironwood read the last bit of information in the reports "both 16 years old and with no traceable last names" the general finished before putting the folders back in his desk
"in other words. Perfect" Ironwood summarised. We both looked at him surprised. ´That's perfect?`
"Solomon and I have known each other for many years, so I knew I could count on him to pull through with my request" iron says, not exactly clarifying anything.
"I'm sorry sir, but I don't quiet understand what you mean" I ask the general.
"ah no need to worry about it, Il make sure to explain what I need" Ironwood simply replied, only raising more questions than answering. "but first I need both of you to understand that once I tell you about the mission I need you on, that there will be no going back. You will be required to go off the grid for however long it will take" ironwood tells us, a scarily serious look on his face "I will need your agreement before I brief you, so do you accept?"
Me and Jas quickly responds without pause. "yes sir!"
Ironwood softened his face before replying with a simple "good" He then proceeded to pull some new folders out of his desk.
"The perimeters of your assignment is as follows. You are to search, locate, and follow a specific individual" ironwood pauses shortly before continuing. "the only information we have regarding their whereabouts, are that they are somewhere in the southern regions of Sanus. You task is to go to the southern regions of vale and attempt to locate your target." Ironwood takes a second to see if we were understanding everything, once he had confirmed that we were following he continued "you are acting as an outsider, so you will not be able to get help from Atlas should you get in trouble with the locals, so stay away from unnecessary actions that might attract attention.
"Your target is a formidable fighter, but should they discover that you are trying to follow them, they will most likely see you as a foe. You will not get out without injury should they attack you. You are not allowed to make contact with them unless strictly necessary for their protection." Ironwood quickly explains to us.
"You will only be allowed to report via one person with this scroll" ironwood laid a scroll on the table and signaled for us to take it, I get up and reach over to grab it before looking at it shortly, it was a normal scroll except that it was smaller in size, probably only usable for messaging and calling.
Ironwood continues to talk "you will be reporting to my second in command, specialist Winter Schnee, she has been informed of the mission and you will have the opportunity to meet her before departing." Ironwood finishes. He seemed like he wanted us to have a second together It all.
I thought about what ironwood had explained to us. A locate and protect mission was not new to me, I had done a few of those kinds of missions before, but something felt a bit off about this one, why would the general go out of his way to warn us about their fighting capabilities and also if they can fight so well then why would they need our protection? The secrecy also confused me a bit, was the target not involved with Atlas since there would be no backup, and if so why would the general of the Atlisian army, personally ask for them to be protected. Maybe he knew the person? There were too many questions at face value, and I doubted I could get many answers from the man himself.
Fortunately Jas was ready with one of such questions.
"Wait so to be clear, we are all alone on this mission, no support at all. What happens if something goes wrong" Jasmine ask.
"While yes you will not be able to get help once you start, you will be equipped with most of the things that will help you complete your task" Ironwood answered. "and should you somehow get caught doing something a ´citizen` isn't allowed to, I will be able to pull some strings to get you out, but it will be considered as a mission fail, and you will be escorted back to Atlas were we will need to decide what to do with you" Ironwood tells us, not seeming to care about the sort of threat he just gave us.
Jasmine gulped, also understanding the underlying message in what ironwood told us.
"Excuse me sir, but just to be perfectly clear" I start wanting to make sure I understood it all.
"you want us on a locate and protect mission in the southern parts of Sanus, but our target is not allowed to know that we are following them." I look at Ironwood who nods his head to indicate that I was right so far, so I continue "Who exactly are we protecting them from? How long will we be survailling them, and lastly…" I look at ironwood "who are we protecting?"
Ironwood leans back in his chair upon my questions, he folds his hand in front of himself before answering.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you who may be after them, but It's too big a risk to not be on the safe side. At least that's what I tried telling him" ironwood says the last part with a distant look in his eyes before he continues. "as for how long, once you report you have properly located your target, you will be updated as for how long you will need to keep an eye on them." Once more looking at us he finishes by saying "as for who, I cannot tell you why they need you, but you should know their name to help your search" ironwood looks me personally in the eyes.
"Your target's name… is Amber."
Winter Schnee was a woman who liked routine, she liked knowing what was going to happen and when it would happen. She didn't like surprises or anything that would limit her information, but two children saying that they had been summoned by her superior, now that was unexpected. Not just the fact that they barely looked old enough to be accepted as trainees in the military, but that she hadn't heard anything about such a meeting. What could Ironwood possibly need those for, and why hadn't he told her that he would be leaving the academy for such a meeting.
These thoughts eventually gnawed at the back of the specialist head for too long, she hated it but the truth was that she was curios.
This feeling had lead her back to the elevator and taking it to the top floor where ironwoods office was located, she was sure that whatever he was talking about with the kids, it wasn't anything important enough that she couldn't pretend that she didn't know she was interrupting.
Arriving on the top floor, the former Schnee heiress walked towards the big doors leading into the general's office and knocked.
"Knock knock knock" I looked behind me at the door where the knocking was coming from. I hadn't known the general was expecting others, and with a quick look at his face, he seemed like he wasn't expecting anyone either.
Ironwood coughed into his hand before allowing whoever was outside to enter with a short "come in"
I was quite surprised to see that it was the same woman from the elevator who entered the office. The one who had called me and Jas "cadets" quite rudely.
"Oh Winter, I don't believe we had anything scheduled for today?" Ironwood asks/states to the women I know knew as Winter.
"Excuse my interruption sir, I had just heard that you arrived at the office, and I just wanted to report myself, in-case you needed any assistance" Winter looked over at were Jasmine and I sat.
"may I ask who these… people are" she finishes, still looking at us.
"It's actually good you came, Fair, Jasmine, this here is Winter, she is the one who you will be reporting to while out in the field" Ironwood explains to us, I raised my eyebrows at that. The woman who we met in the elevator were our superior on this mission, what a coincidence.
"Wait, these are who you're sending out to get the maiden?" `maiden?´ I thought to myself before focusing on the conversation again "Sir with all due respect don't you think we should send more… qualified people to handle this?" and there it was, despite us being asked by the general himself, this woman was questioning our capabilities on account of our young looks.
"Winter I can assure you that they have been chosen for good reason" ironwood answers, also understanding why this Winter would be hesitant. "while they may appear young, these two have served in the Atlas military for over a decade, I don't know if you remember project initiate, but they are some of the finest soldiers to come out of that program" Ironwood tells her.
"I… see" the specialist responds shortly.
"Now with that out of the way, I think you two should prepare yourselves, I have prepared a room for you to stay in a nearby hotel. You will be leaving already tomorrow, come back here at 08:00 where you will be transported to the small city of "Fyrot" where you will begin your search. travel between towns and see if you can get a lead on Amber's whereabout." Ironwood stood up from his chair and we followed.
He walked around his desk before looking at us fully "while I know a lot of this is confusing, you are doing a very important task, so from Atlas and from myself, thank you" Ironwood lead us out the doors before closing them behind us.
Jas and I look at each other "well holy shit" I say. Jas grins at me.
Stepping out of the building I take a deep breath. "I don't know about you, but I've never been so tired after only a meeting" I jokingly tell Jas who was stretching her arms.
"I know what you mean, want to get something to eat and then head over to that hotel?" she turns to me and ask.
"read my mind" I simply answer her.
We walked into the nearest restaurant we saw, we didn't know what place would be good so this was the best way for us to try something new.
We were still wearing Atlas military uniforms, which got more than a few stares from the people inside, but we were quickly seated and given a menu. We both sat in silence while choosing what we wanted to eat.
After a few minutes the waiter who had sat us down, came and took our orders. I had opted to go with a salad, while Jas had ordered some kind of fish. We chatted for most of the meals, mostly about the stuff we were looking forward to, and what could happen once we would be done, Jas had suggested we might get a promotion if the assignment truly was as important as general Ironwood had made it seem. I shot the idea down though, as nice as it would have been, we were promoted not too long ago and already held ranks far beyond our years.
After we were done eating, we waited for the waiter come with our check, I had told Jas that I would be paying, something she was not going to complain about. When the waiter came she simply put down the check before looking at us.
"sorry for the interruption, but the chef wanted me to thank you for your service" the young waiter told us, looking at our uniforms.
I hated it.
Jas realizing my discomfort quickly gave a "your welcome" and the waiter went away. Jasmine looked at me with worry, she knew how much hatred I had for those words.
"Thank you for your service"
I hadn't earned any thanks.
The rain was pouring down on us, but at this point I had stopped caring about anything. I was one of the only people left outside, most others had gone inside to escape the rain, but how could I complain, how could I possibly complain about the weather or getting cold or anything else. I should be where he is, I should be the one buried instead of him. I should be the one to have a grave. I'm the one who should have died.
But I didn't, I lived and he died and I'm supposed to be okay with that? I'm supposed to be glad that I survived. How could I ever live, knowing someone else took my place. Knowing that it wouldn't matter if I went up or down 'cause I could be on the wrong side of heaven or the righteous side of hell.
Where would I have deserved to go.
Who would I meet, friends? Family? Or maybe people I had sent ahead…
I was alone at his grave now, or almost, because I knew he was looking at me. But would he be happy or sad that I'm feeling this way.
I know it won't be long before I find out.
And done.
again thank you to the person who pointed out my misspelling of Fair's name, it has been fixed in the previous chapters. and also if no-one else counts i have too. theres a lot of stories with 100k+ words, but i'm still slightly proud of myself for writing these 10k words in about a week. i am still trying to make the chapters longer, but i'm also trying to balance length and how often i can release a chapter. it's important to stay relevant when your story is still new.
Thank you everyone for reading.
