“Clark, this decision that you made is terribly wrong,” Leo could not help but say again for the 5th time, during the short time that he walked back with his friend. “Do you think your parents will be happy if they see you from heaven diving head deep into trouble because of them? Killing yourself for vengeance is just childish, that’s old school man”. He emphasized again. “Forget it, bro, there’s nothing you can do, I already made up my mind. If they really wanted me not to do this, then they wouldn’t have died in the first place”. Clark replied, as he quickly gathered and prepared his things. After a lot of fruitless continuous persuasion, Leo finally relented as he glared at Clark. He glowered fiercely at his friend, before finally saying with a sigh. “You do not have my permission to die, get that into your head. Remember, I haven’t given you the wife I promised”. Clark’s face twitched noticeably on hearing this before involuntarily smiling, as he turned to glare back at his friend. “Who asked you for a wife? Get one for yourself first, hypocrite”. “You’re just 18, and you keep talking about wife and girlfriends. General Maks is over 60 years old but is still single, can’t you emulate him?” Clark asked in a joking tone, which made both Leo and Benny burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Unlike Leo, Benny didn’t say much, he did a good job in reining his emotions in. He just wished his friend Good luck. It was already over 8 minutes before Clark finally got ready after listening to the endless blabbering from his friends. “Goodbye guys, I hope I’ll see you sometime later. I’m off to protect the republic, see you in a few months”. He said shamelessly while maintaining a smile on his face, as he pressed the done button on his wristwatch. The space warped and he left his position immediately. His vision darkened suddenly for a moment, dulling his senses before he reappeared in a dimly illuminated chamber the next second. On arriving, he immediately felt someone staring at him, which prompted him to open his eyes and look to the right. He was confused to see Corporal Mark glaring at him like he just killed his father. “Hmmm, weird, what’s wrong with this guy? What happened?” As his thoughts already started drifting off to know what happened, he was stunned as the door of the chamber suddenly started opening in a slow but steady manner. “Cough…, cough, what the f**k?” He fell into a coughing fit involuntarily, while trying to avoid the Corporal’s glare awkwardly as he finally understood what happened. This guy probably rushed to prepare and finish under a minute, trying to impress the General with his speed and discipline. But it seems reality hit him hard, as he had to wait in this cold chamber for minutes since the both of them were expected to enter at the same time, so the door was locked to him. After trying hard to diffuse the awkward atmosphere by repeatedly apologizing while suppressing his laughter, Clark finally led the way as they walked forward after the door opened completely. “Wow,” he exclaimed in surprise as he entered a completely unexpected environment. He was caught off guard by the swift change in environment, so he could not hold his tongue. Despite clearly knowing that this was a warship, he felt like he just entered a fantasy mansion. Even Corporal Mark couldn’t hide his amazement under his default poker face, as his eyes twitched a little on seeing this. Despite how awed they were, they were both soldiers so they restrained themselves a little. They could not act like country bumpkins; they had a little something called reputation to uphold. Clark forcibly controlled himself to avoid disgrace, as he laid his eyes on a large number of soldiers and people of other occupations discussing. The large hall where they appeared was boisterous, as people frequently walked around, going about their businesses. The huge mansion-like hall was completely filled with people, the people stopped to look at them very briefly before they quickly became uninterested and continued their work. Beep!! It was at this point that their wristwatch finally flashed with a red light, indicating a notification message that showed them the direction to go to. Clark silently followed Corporal Mark as they walked towards the direction that their watch showed. As he followed, he finally had the time to secretly admire his surroundings while instructing his implant to take photos of the surroundings. “Man!!” He exclaimed inwardly, as he admired the splendidness of this heaven. “This is undoubtedly the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to”. His thoughts were mangled in awe and admiration. Blueish white light shone down from the top of the warship, cascading down like a rain of heavenly blessings, brightly illuminating the whole place and giving a beautiful but cold tone to the surroundings. All the soldiers and other workers were either talking casually or going into the chambers, at the corners of the large hall. Clark didn’t have the time to admire forever as his wristwatch suddenly beeped again. This time the watch directed both of them to a chamber’s door. The Corporal didn’t even think first, as he went to knock on the door directly with swift movements. He already returned to his default silent and sage-like behavior. On seeing so many people, he immediately knew that he was probably just one among the multitude to the General. He was not going to be noticed anytime soon, so he recovered his usual self. The door automatically opened, following his knocks. “Good morning squad 008, this squad will be completed today”. As soon as they both entered the chamber, an emotionless voice suddenly announced, as the sound spread throughout the whole room through the hidden voice amplifiers. Clark keenly recognized that this was probably the warship’s A. I speaking. The voice continued. “Welcome your new comrades, Sergeant Clark and Corporal Mark. Help them familiarize and integrate into the warship”. As soon as the voice of the A. I finished, Clark and Mark received a lot of data transferred directly to their implant. Clark stood petrified in one place like a statue after the sudden dumping of data, as he listened to understand the new information. His implant processed the information as fast as possible. A high-quality video was played in his head through his implant. He recognized the owner of the voice, General Bakash. “This is warship G-14 of the Spartan army. The Spartan army is recruiting 200 high-grade soldiers, for an important mission deep into the Mocan republic territory”. “According to estimates made by the government, there is an 80% chance that the Mocan republic will claim a small part of our territory during this invasion, which is unacceptable to the republic”. “You and 199 other lucky high-grade soldiers volunteered to participate in this mission”. “I call you lucky, because, I’m leading you all on a mission to assassinate high Mocan government officials and if possible, the Mocan president. This is an unprecedented move, that has never been done before since the beginning of both country’s existence”.“That is all that you need to know for now. As we move further into the territory of the Mocans, more details about the mission will be revealed to you”. Clark slightly expected this, but it still successfully shocked him to his very bone marrow. This mission was going to create a legend if it turned out successful. Unlike the Sparta republic, the Moca republic does not elect its president based on strength. The current president of the Moca republic is a successful businessman whose influence has spread towards all the neighboring countries. Despite him being a normal human being, the amount of protection that he has alone is top-notch in the whole Moca republic. The inclusion of his many personal military forces is just adding fuel to the already raging fire. In the Mocan Presidential government house, the President is impenetrable and unkillable. “If you have any immediate pending question, ask the warship’s A.I, G-14. Try to integrate with the other high-grade soldiers in your squad, teamwork would be indispensable for all the squads in this mission”. The video continued. “The inclusion of you 2 makes your squad a complete squad of 20 high-grade soldiers. Goodluck soldier, be alert and always be prepared for battle. From General Bakash”. Clark finally snapped out of his daze, only to find Corporal Mark glaring at him again. He cursed under his breath on seeing this. He coughed a few times, as he tried to ignore his Corporal this time while going forward to greet his new teammates. “2nd rank high-grade soldiers have really terrifying minds; their brain’s processing power is countless times faster than mine. He probably finished his video for a while,” Clark thought, he found it funny. “Good morning comrades”. He finally greeted with a smile, in a reserved and respectful manner. “Good morning”. Mark also greeted while maintaining his poker face. This was not the Python military division where he could ignore others without any repercussions. Since when the A. I first announced their arrival initially, the soldiers in the room already stopped their activities as they all curiously looked at their new squadmates. “You are both welcome, I am Captain Briggs, I’m the leader of this squad”. A bald-haired man, with a round face answered with a wide smile as he stood up. “This is our Captain”. Clark thought in amazement. The man’s bald head made his confident announcement look extremely funny.