The storm overhead seemed unending, as though the heavens had decided to smite the cursed survivors of the former technocratic regime. In ancient times, the rain symbolised the tears of god–signs of the celestial beings’ displeasure with their creations, who had corrupted their existence through nefarious means. The first inhabitants of Atlantea were taught by the Founder the importance of the wondrous cycles of nature. As times have progressed, at the peak of the North’s regime and into the present, the symbolic coming of the rain has lost its symbolic significance in the United Atlantea Federation’s soulless reality.

  For the young soldiers who would one day pledge their hearts toward the mighty cause of defending their homeland from the Drazen Empire, they enjoyed the rain–albeit differently–for it meant the scheduled training program ceased until the weather cleared up. However, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. After retiring from an excruciatingly tough day of tactical manoeuvres, the soldiers could not fathom a natural threat from their overused sensory receptors. They were sound asleep under a night sky in their shell scrapes, those earthly coffins they had dug for themselves deep within the earth as part of their Field Camp training until the earth beneath their bodies started to cave in slowly at first as the skies began to drizzle slowly…and then quickly, like a torrential tribute offered to the heavens.

  His senses honed by unfortunate circumstances and the genes passed down through generations of selective breeding ensured his mind remained on a constant level of vigilance despite drifting toward a dream-filled restful state.

  He suspected a storm brewing in the clouds when the sun seemed to have its dazzling ray obstructed by the cloud clover during the day. The smell of precipitation building up in the air was something he felt, too.

  “...That’s not good.”

  3.33 a.m.–an inauspicious time affiliated with the occult practitioners from his former kin when he looked at the watch he wore on his wrist, a relic found in his former home’s treasure room. The watch was a heirloom passed down from father to son, from first Atlantean to the next, a prized treasure he thought his father would hand down to him when he came of age.

  However, that thought remains a fantasy to this day.

  Looking at his watch, he counted the seconds needed to evacuate his batch to the nearest training shed. Kairos knew they had to execute it surgically while maintaining absolute silence.

  With precise movements of his chiselled jawline to ensure no one except for a lone recipient heard, Kairos gently tapped his batchmate on his right with a fallen tree stick.

  “John, wake up.”

  John was sound asleep, but when he felt a nudge on his shoulder, he instinctively woke up to see the ace of Batch 77, Kairos, standing atop his shell scrape, squinting his dazzling eyes. “...Uh…W-what’s up, Kairos?”

  “Wake up.”

  “You can’t sleep?”

  “Let’s wake everyone up. Save your questions for later.”

  John looked at Kairos bizarrely, but the curiosity faded away quickly as Kairos reached out his hand. After supporting John back to a vertical base, Kairos led the way forward with his hand gestures.

  “Roger that. Oh! By the way…”

  Upon hearing John calling out to him, Kairos halted and directed his eyes toward him. Without a hint of emotion, those eyes gave off a penetrating feeling of indifference. As though to symbolise the stark contrast between the ruler and the ruled, that gaze created a giant chasm widening the gap between them.

  “What’s the matter?”

  John marvelled at the beauty of his ace’s eyes in contrast with the untempered wilderness’s backdrop under the magnificent night sky.

  “I didn’t know your eyes could glow in the dark…”

  John thought Kairos’s eyes had a tinge of beauty when he first saw them. As time passed, these eyes seemed to carry a pedigree of nobility, a mark of Kairos’s brilliance.

  “Like a cat! Meow!” John mimicked a cat’s signature call that sounded like a half-ass attempt.

  “...Should I say thanks?” Kairos raised his eyebrows, his unwavering, monotonous tone conveying no emotions.

  “Well, whatever…just want you to know…”

  “You didn’t have to include that awful sound effect.”

  “Fine, then…as you wish…”

  Kairos began walking ahead when his heightened visual senses made out John’s final speech prompt upon his mouth’s complete closure.

  “Ok, see you in a bit.”

  Within a minute, they had gathered everyone. Finding their way back to the muster area wasn’t difficult, as Kairos had taught his batch how to leave markings when they chartered into unknown territories.

  “Yo, so what’s up, big man? I heard from John that you have a mega announcement.” Andre whispered, barely audible for his batchmates to hear, but was sufficient for his confidant to pick up.

  Kairos squeezed his fingers on his right hand together, forming a five-pronged circle and placing it on his head. His batchmates knew to huddle as close to the person making that action. He then pointed to the nearest training shed. “ Let’s head over to the shelter over there.”

  His batchmates gave him a thumbs up.

  “I knew it would rain eventually, judging from the precipitation I felt during the day. Before we embark on this mission, there’s a problem we need to address,” Kairos faced the giant jungle shrouded in darkness, with several dug-out shell scapes littered throughout, “If it rains, all these soldiers will start panicking; let’s just say we all know how it ends.”

  Kairos picked up the soft snorts cloaked by the leaves surrounding them despite his batchmates' inability to notice them.

  “The wild boars are ready to pounce.”

  His batchmates nodded in agreement, for they remembered the daily stampedes in the mess hall when the chowtime announcement played. As for the boars, they had hoped never to encounter one of them. They had heard stories of boars rampaging through field packs from their commander earlier in the day.

  “We reach the shelter before it rains. And if it doesn’t rain, we can inform Lieutenant Nicola at reveille that we thought it might. All clear?”

  “Yeah, sounds good to me,” Jasper responded, looking around to see if anyone else agreed.

  “Yup, ok.”

  “Aye, aye.”

  Kairos stepped forward to give one last reminder.

  “Alright then, it’s decided. Before we forget, there’s one more thing. Don’t forget our wives.”

  “Yes, we can’t go anywhere without her, huh?”

  “Of course, she would cost us our weekends if we let her get captured!.”

  “Alright, we have thirty seconds. Let’s meet back here once we collect her.”

  Kairos spoke once more, turning around to return to his shell scrape where his wife–the assault rifle– lay in wait. After reassembling with their rifles and gear worn, Batch 77 was ready to move out.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  “All ready?”

  “Aye, aye, let’s go!”

  *

  The sounds of rustling leaves and droplets falling from the heavens had a familiar chime. The once ticklish sound transformed into hydro cannons fired from above. The roar of nature that would come without the cover of modern infrastructure sheltering the youths became the death blow for the soldiers. He knew this experience certainly wouldn’t be his last. He knew he had lucked out several times when he returned to the jungles in his refuge, where it didn’t rain. But for these soldiers, this might be their first and last time depending on the vocation assigned. They still have somewhere to call home, somewhere to return to see the faces of their loved ones.

  Unlike him.

  Faces, something Kairos could no longer remember. He couldn’t remember his parents’ faces. Even their voices had faded into static. And their touch had become lost in the spiral of sensitivity deprivation since calling the wilderness his home. Everything became blurry since that day the massive gate slammed shut in his face, rupturing his eardrums and killing the innocence in his adolescent soul. He never found a need to form any connections apart from one exception—

  “My nephew, how have you been? I trust training has gone well for you.”

  He watched his uncle sit opposite him on the wooden bench with a fireplace in the backdrop in the vacation home within the Azure National Park, a beautiful lumber house crafted by great architectural visionaries commissioned by his former family. The flame created a tense atmosphere, as shining and dazzling as the sapphire-blue eyes, a trait possessed by the rulers of Atlantea shared between uncle and nephew.

  “Uncle, yes, it has been.”

  “How is the training thus far?”

  “Too easy.”

  Alexander chuckled a little and gave his nephew a nod of approval. “You sound exactly like your father.”

  “You should drop by Ravens Camp to see it for yourself.”

  “When time permits.”

  “Right, your schedule is rather packed.”

  “Let’s get to business, shall we?”

  Alexander placed his right hand out. Instinctively, a soldier from his entourage stood forward to place a dossier in his palm. He then opened it carefully, taking the contents from within out, a piece of parchment revealing itself to the natural flames illuminating the lumber house.

  “Thank you. You may take your leave.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Kairos looked on as the entourage saw themselves out to the entrance of the lumber house, closing the door behind them. Luckily, the soldiers in the entourage didn’t come from the family that disowned him. He loathed facing those hybrid bastards, the creations of uncontrolled lust who formed his family’s private security task force. The fact that bothered him was even as crossbreeds, they had their birthright acknowledged. And just thinking about it upset him.

  “What’s this?”

  He wondered if that parchment contained his missing vocational posting. On the day the recruits received their notice, he was the only one who did not receive it.

  “This is where you will spend the next phase of your military career, my nephew,” Alexander smiled briefly, “Your posting will be at the Atlantea Air Force Training Center.”

  Kairos's eyes brightened up upon hearing the news. He would finally reunite with his uncle outside the confines of civilisation within the Air Force.

  “A pleasure to be by your side.”

  “Yes, my nephew. You have performed well enough for the Air Force to handpick you to join us. Congratulations to you. You have done well. As they say, the work has just begun.” Alexander placed his head on his nephew, who began reading the appointment letter. “I believe in you.”

  “One question. Why is this part ‘to be determined’?” Kairos noticed the rank section had bright red ink, causing him to clarify the details.

  “This all boils down to your final performance in GMT,” Alexander looked into the eyes of his nephew, who he knew could easily surpass everyone in the military, “I’m sure you have heard about the impending Field Camp from your commanders?”

  “Yes, I have.”

  “The Field Camp is the site of the final assessment of soldiers who have shown exceptional bravery and their will to perform under pressure. And most importantly, they have shown exemplary leadership that could inspire their subordinates.”

  As Alexander placed his strong right hand on his nephew’s shoulder, the flames coincidentally illuminated his eyes intensely when his mouth parted to speak with intent.

  “I believe in you, my nephew. After all, you are my precious elder brother’s son.”

  “I’ll do my best.” Kairos met his uncle’s gaze, lowering it bashfully.

  “My nephew, I know you will do what’s right. For if you excel in the military, maybe one day…”

  Alexander stood up, spreading his arms to give his beloved nephew a familial hug from within his soul.

  “...The time will come when you will regain your birthright.”

  “When will you tell me what really happened during the New Atlantis Project?”

  The question caught Alexander by surprise as he was embracing his nephew.

  “If you can’t tell me now, then–”

  “Now’s not the time.”

  “Then when? There’s more to it than the public address of it, right?”

  Alexander rose from his seat and walked towards the door without saying anything.

  “You’re adamant on never unveiling the truth. I should have guessed.”

  “There are two versions of the truth. I’ve already told the official part of it. Unfortunately, the onus is not on me to unveil the other one.”

  “Quick, before anyone else wakes up!”

  The first people who felt the rain moved alone toward the training shed, where they saw a group of soldiers already seeking refuge. They abandoned their buddies to save themselves from the ensuing madness. Many did not think of the consequences of their actions, for they still had to face one another until the bitter end. One could only imagine the tension unfolding once this episode ends.

  “Oh, shit! It’s raining!”

  “Mud?! Why is there mud everywhere!”

  Then there was the second group, who hastily awakened the ones beside them. They realised it was better to move in a group in the cover of darkness. The noise generated as they gathered caused them to unleash the call of the wild, awakening the primal survivor instincts of those stunned by the torrential rain from above. Kairos could sense the hurried footsteps, where the chaos would begin. These soldiers cared not about trampling and stepping upon others to save their skin.

  Kairos finally opened his eyes, fixating on the darkness and observing the spiral of negativity from within the jungle. First, he heard screams. Then he heard shouting. Suddenly, there was a short moment of silence.

  “Rectify the issue, commanders!”

  “Y-yes, sir!”

  The commanders dashed forward, with torchlights and gortex jackets. Like clueless fools, the commanders displayed incompetency in improvising and leading the flock of sheep toward the promised land. If only the Drazen Empire knew how easy their invasion would be.

  As predicted, there were loud slurs from the angry soldiers directed at him and his batchmates.

  “Damn it, those cunts knew, right? Their commander must have given them a heads-up!”

  “These guys, damn cheaters!

  “I can’t believe it, not even a single drop of water on them! Assholes!”

  Kairos knew about the darkness in men’s hearts and played it off like it was nothing. The selfishness of humanity was something he had experienced before when his kin pointed their fingers at him as the symbol of everything that went wrong. How quickly they changed the tune they sang to alleviate themselves of all responsibilities and walked away scot-free. Even blood did not matter in the face of adversity.

  As quickly as the soldiers angrily hurled insults at Batch 77, it went away like a bad dream. The commanders had somehow restored order. Based on their respective batches, the soldiers sat together in a single file under the shelter, staying awake until the rain subsided. The atmosphere was tense, with soldiers grumpy from the abrupt disruption of their sleeping hours. They couldn’t find the will to fall back to sleep, as the smell of sweat mixed with the rainwater created a tense environment where conflicts would erupt instantaneously.

  The commanders constantly surveyed the soldiers in the shelter with hawk-like vigilance, suppressing their innate instinct to sleep. They no longer wanted to dedicate energy toward punishments and desperately wanted to catch a few minutes of snooze.

  “…You can’t leave me alone, right?”

  Kairos could feel a familiar, stalkerish pair of eyes plastered upon him. The same eyes belonged to that soldier he met in the library in a fateful encounter. The soldier had arrived at the library seeking a book he was reading, a coincidence he believed could have been the work of the heavens. The book had a link only to victims who suffered from the consequences of an expedition gone wrong. The same event that his father became the “fall guy” of.

  “A genius born in a rather unfortunate time.”

  He remembered the author’s name before entrusting the book to the librarian to hand it to that soldier. How could he not remember? For that man held the keys to his resurgence.

  And the chance to rewrite the greatest injustice of his existence.

  “I wonder…”

  He could not help but wonder about the works of that genius–the rumours of his research– if he could ever come to unravel and harness them.

  In his heart, Kairos thought there could be a chance to risk it all in a gamble.

  A small, minuscule sliver of hope.

  “...Do you have any relation to the Professor?”