Chapter 1 - Lille

Chapter 1, Lille

Lille was sitting alone in her compartment, writing her daily log on her laptop and trying to defeat one of the tougher bosses of the new game she got—a quaint day after work. Then the games music and the occasional cursing was interrupted by a notification sound.

“A notification?”, Lille murmured to herself—intrigued—“from Commander Naumro?”

It was unusual to get a notification from the commander himself. It must be very important. And on a Saturday? Very weird.

“Let’s see…”, she said whilst beginning to read. “Officer Styng. Your squadron was selected to train one of this year’s new recruits. Her name is Ailla Blyn, and she is to be picked up from 7501 Caim Street at 0800 tomorrow. Inform the others to treat her according to code, unlike last time. Naumro.”

“Unlike last time…”, Lille said to herself while unwrapping a freshly arrived piece of burger that just passed through a slit in the door, “gonna remind Siay to abstain from intimate relations with recruits again. Well, this time they’re a girl, so I hope the problem is a bit less apparent”.

After taking a bite out of her burger, Lille put it aside and messaged Siay. “Heyo gurl, hav news from central for ya. Command gave us a new rec, despite your shenanigans he noted. Tell Cirth, i hav stuff to do here; kthxbye”

“What an exhausting thought, another new recruit.”, she said while taking another bite from her burger. “I wonder what Siay thinks about it”.

Lille closed her laptop and diverted her attention to the scenery. The train rolled past the picturesque landscape where towers of glass gently caressed the skies above them while a carpet of lush, green flora stretched in vast expanses beneath them. A peaceful and serene scenery.

“What a beautiful view…”, thought Lille while enjoying her burger.” It was hard to believe that all of this was a wasteland just 2 decades ago; destroyed by Number 145, an enormous monstrosity that plagued Brynay.

Her burger grew smaller, making it hard to eat without making a mess. Lille carefully navigated it into her mouth before wiping her hands with a paper towel and leaving her compartment for the toilet, to wash her hands.

After washing her hands, she looked up into the mirror and noticed how dirty her glasses were. “Hmm, this explains the headache…”

After washing her glasses, she rushed out, hoping she’d come back to her compartment-and more importantly her game-swiftly, but as soon as she left the bathroom, she bumped into somebody, knocking her glasses, which she put on haphazardly, to the floor. As she was kneeling down to pick them up, another hand picked them up before. “Sorry, Lille, I’ll clean them for you”, a middle deep female voice spoke. “Oh, Siay, thanks. I was just thinking of you. Did you get my message?”

“About the new one that gets thrust upon us? Yeah, I did…”, said Siay as she proceeded to meticulously clean Lille’s glasses. “You need to take more care of your glasses, superstar.” “Ye, I know, I know”, said Lille. “Why where you running out the bathroom?” “Ah you know why, the Teminor won’t defeat itself, will it?” “Always playing games…” “Ah, don’t start with that now, we both know you like to play your games too!”

Siay smiled, “true words Lille, true words”.

Siay was tall and slender, and Lille always found her shoulder long black hair and her deep blue eyes to be of a stunning beauty. Little did she know that that feeling was mutual. Lille was more on the smaller side, always hiding her emerald eyes behind her glasses.

“We should go to the panorama carriage and meet Cirth there, I’m sure he wants to hear about our little dilemma with the new recruit.”

She realized now what she tried to push out of her mind–her game has to wait. “What a nuisance…”, she mumbled. But complaining wouldn’t help, she knew that, although she’d never stop complaining in a situation like this, it was a Saturday, and she worked hard the last 2 weeks, investigating the unusually high concentration of Miras in one of the little villages outside Gremy. She even shot a few of them down after they attacked Cirth and Siay. Of course, they did most of the work this time, while Lille—who managed to beat one of the tougher bosses during the mission—was sitting in a little hotel room, sifting through the history of the village and tracking Miras movement for days and occasionally shooting a Miras that flew too close to population through her balcony. She knew that the tryst don’t just appear randomly, so information was the foundation in every successful hunt. And of course keeping the other hunters updated. They had ∇139 and ∇122 with them if they’d need them, but the use of such heavy weaponry was luckily not necessary (although at the end of the mission, Lille authorized herself to use ∇122 for some aerial cleanup, mostly to unwind from Siay and Cirths constant bickering about what happened with the last recruit they should train).

So Lille fetched her laptop and her luggage and embarking with Siay to journey to the panorama car. Waiting there was—and Lille could tell from afar from the strong scent of perfume and tobacco—sitting on a table with 3 free seats, sipping on his coffee, a man she knew since her time in the academy; Cirth.

Cirth was very slim but also very built. Not that he did that many sports in comparison to the others, he just won the genetic lottery. He had black hair and brown eyes and in Lille’s eyes wasn’t super attractive, although most people saw this differently; Lille extrapolated this from his body-count. And there he was, sucking on his Vale like there is no tomorrow whilst gazing into his coffee like he was about to divine our future from its crema.

Lille sneaked up on him and covered his eyes with her hands. “Guess who I am!” “Ah, what a mystery… From the feeling of your hands I can deduce you are a brown-haired nerd called Lille, and don’t get my wrong, your hands feel great on my face, please stick one of your fingers into my mouth”. He delivered that sentence with such emotional dryness, that Lille swiftly withdrew her hands and gently snapped her index finger against the back of his head. “Gross”, said Lille with a smile.

The three sat down, over them the pillars of glass rose up even taller, the fields of grass even lusher. Sky bridges where connecting the pillars in vast heights, expansive gardens on their roofs.

“Wanna stay at my place tonight?”, asked Lille, “We have a lot to do tomorrow.”

“Never against staying at yours, Superstar”, said Siay.

“Ahh, staying at Lille’s house, overnight! What bliss overcomes my elderly bones”, delivered Cirth in a wobbly, dry voice.

“You’re 29, Cirth”, said Siay.

Lille was happy that everyone agreed to stay at her home for the night. Not only because it would be a very boring evening otherwise, but also because she hates to stay alone after missions.

“Wanna play Warriors of the Khan at my place?”, asked Lille.

“I fancy In The Mist more, can’t we play that?”, said Cirth.

“In The Mist is great”, added Siay.

“In The Mist it is then”, said Lille with a big smile, “but I am the Game Master this time! I don’t want Siays gloom after today!”

“Isn’t gloom the point of In The Mist?”, asked Siay.

“Horror is! And mystery!”, answered Lille.

“Fine by me”, said Siay, while she was adding unhealthy amounts of sugar into her freshly arrived coffee.

“No objections”, stated Cirth, while looking at Siays coffee, judging.

“We got assigned a new recruit…”, said Siay, softly. “Oh no…”, answered Cirth swiftly, grasping his head, “another victim of Siay!”. “Heeey, i did nothing bad!”, Siay snapped back. “You basically made him your pet, Siay, don’t play innocent…”, Lille said while smirking. “This time, it’s a girl, so don’t worry. I’m sure we will get along just fine”, Siay smirked back.

“Command assigned her training as top priority… Very unusual.”, noted Lille.

“Ding ding ding”, Lille’s phone played a notification sound. “Oh no…”. Lille said while grabbing her phone from her pocket, “It’s from HQ again… We are to find housing for the recruit too… And take care of her? What in the world?”.