Despite the Captain looking weirdly funny, the strength and power of this guy was the real deal. Clark’s mouth and heart were sealed completely when he learned that he was from the Spartan army. Unlike military divisions and organizations like the Python military division, the Spartan army refused to let most of its precious high-grade soldiers go for such a dangerous mission. The Spartan army brought only 20 soldiers, out of the needed 200 high-grade soldiers for the mission. That was already many, but compared to the army’s deep reserves, it was just a pinch of salt. Clark also learned some news about General Bakash. What shocked him, was that the 5 soldiers who always followed the General were all 3rd rank high-grade soldiers. The force committed to this mission was just outrageous. The Spartan army released another four 4th rank high-grade soldiers and ten 2nd rank high-grade soldiers for the mission. After learning all these, Clark finally knew the basic knowledge and structure about the attack composition for the mission.As time passed, he slowly integrated into the squad and developed some bonds with his squadmates. After getting to know themselves more, they engaged in leisure discussions to kill time. They were all high-grade soldiers, so no one particularly gave him a hard time, enabling his smooth integration without complications. From the discussions, he learned that this big room chamber was his squad’s room. He also learned that the hall he originally thought of as a mansion, was the warship’s gathering hall. He equally learned of a very agonizing and depressing truth. The Spartan republic released only 10 top-grade camouflage devices for this mission, which will all be used by the strongest soldiers who were participating in the mission. “No wonder I was told to prepare my weapons and equipment. I thought I was going to be provided with the Spartan army grade weapons and gadgets, what a rip-off.” Clark thought resentfully, he felt cheated. He also learned of 3 notable soldiers in his squad. The 3 were 2nd rank high-grade soldiers, but they behaved and talked like 5th rank high-grade soldiers. He already felt it weird about how they looked at all the other soldiers in the squad with disdain, until he learned that they were from the Spartan army. He finally understood, these were the conceited bunch. Soldiers who were privileged to become a part of the Spartan army, always felt superior to soldiers from other military organizations and divisions. The bald-haired Captain of the squad was just an exception. Unlike the rest, he always tried to build harmony between members of the squad, despite the disparity in strength and status. From the day that he entered the warship, Clark’s view and perception of the world completely changed as he started encountering technology that was far above his league normally. He felt like a curious child that just came out from his mother’s womb to meet the world. He kept on devouring new information every day like a raging black hole. The A.I of the warship, G-14, organized virtual training courses for his squad to build up their cooperation and synergy as a squad. It also organized specialized individual training courses, to help them improve. For this mission, every one of them needed to be at their optimum performance. Being among the lowest-ranked soldiers in his squad as well as the whole warship, Clark tried to act as modestly as possible. Every one of his moves was done cautiously. He chatted mostly with soldiers of the same rank as he was. After a statistical data compilation was done, his squad was surprisingly one of the best squads in the whole warship. They had a Captain, 4 Corporals, and 15 Sergeants, which was a luxurious line-up. They had only 5 female soldiers in the squad. One of them was a veteran Corporal from the Spartan army. After 2 days of continuous training and doing a lot of other miscellaneous things for preparation, they were finally ready. All the soldiers required for the mission were finally completed. As the warship finally started moving deeper to their destination, the General announced that they’ll enter Mocan territory in about a week. … Despite all the weird people around him, Clark tried his best to cope. He focused only on improving and sharpening his skills, by training diligently during this period. He knew what he signed up for. This mission was definitely not a vacation, every increase in strength mattered to him and could be what would ensure his survival.During his time in the Python military organization, he already mastered the first battle art that he bought. After that, he bought a new one for melee combat, -the frenzied maneuver. This battle art was among the more common ones, but its strength amplification was not to be underestimated. Unlike most soldiers, he planned to take both the ranged and melee martial route. He took his training seriously with a diligent attitude, repeatedly trying to break his training records. When he took this mission, he came with a mindset to kill, wreak havoc, and survive. He didn’t come here to die. He knew that surviving in this mission was not beans, but he was determined to do it. … After a week’s journey, the warship finally reached its destination. It docked in a forest in Madara State, which was a state in the Moca republic. The journey took so long because the higher-ups still had to finalize some ideas. Unlike the Spartan republic, the Mocan republic is divided into 30 states and the federal capital territory, being Freeborn. Freeborn is directly opposite Madara State, in terms of territory comparison. The warship could’ve landed in Freeborn directly, but the detection and scanning devices there would have probably discovered it. The best resources in the Mocan republic were completely concentrated in Freeborn, making it far more developed than the other states. So, infiltrating directly there was not ideal. They didn’t build any soldier camp on arriving; the enormous warship was the Spartan’s all-purpose camp. During the journey, after a week of preparation, training, and planning, the perfect strategy for the mission was finally fully developed. All the squads were presented with the blueprint for their different targets, no one squad knew the target of another squad. This was to prevent a complete leak of information, in the case of a soldier from one squad being captured. The mission was codenamed “The Spartan’s Rage”, after undergoing a lot of meticulous thought from the higher-ups. It symbolized the rage that keeps accumulating among Spartans, after the countless invasion attempts from the Mocan republic, reaping millions of lives every attempt. A few hours after they arrived, Clark’s squad was finally presented with their target information. They were assigned to take down the Governor of Madara state. It was a steep mountain to climb, assassinating a Governor was in no way beans. Despite this, the squad had what it took to do it if they planned and executed their plans well. This was the first time that such a large number of enemy high-grade soldiers were going this deep into the Moca republic, from the Spartan Republic and vice-versa. Despite the arrogance and scorn that they received from the soldiers from the Spartan army, they were still their superiors, so Clark and the other lesser soldiers learned to respect and ignore the frequent disdainful looks directed at them. The day of the assault was decided to be on Christmas day when the whole Mocan republic will be celebrating. Most of the countries in this part of the world inherited Christianity as the main religion after the great battle of supremacy, so most people celebrated Christmas. Clark’s squad’s mission for the first phase was to try infiltrating into the Mocan republic to blend in and get information. After more than a week of staying in the warship, he already made some new friends. Sergeant Sonia was one of the closest friends that he made during this mission. She was a tall girl of approximately the same height as he was. She had teasing blue eyes, a well-proportioned face, slightly chubby cheeks, a nice figure, and some nicer curves. Captain Briggs ordered them to not be in groups of more than 2 soldiers as the mission progresses, to avoid suspicion from the locals and the local military divisions. On his first time seeing her, his previously calm heartstrings were finally pulled from their static positions. It was a weird feeling, he felt that she was the perfect girl he had ever seen. Despite the excitement that always filled his heart on seeing her, he restrained himself from being silly. During his brief stay here, he already developed a crush on Sonia, but he never told her as he already decided not to get too engaged in female relationships before he became an accomplished soldier and was old enough. An 18 years old boy going 19 was too small to be thinking about relationships, he had more important priorities. Sonia didn’t feel this way though, she always talked of how close the both of them was that the other soldiers already saw Clark as her boyfriend, which was not true. During this mission of reconnaissance, she volunteered to be his partner. Clark didn’t object, as having a beautiful soldier by his side will surely make his infiltration attempts smoother and more successful. And most especially, she was a fairly strong and reliable soldier also.