5 A Glimpse of the Frontlines

In the Canteen,

A huge trailing line of hungry students was currently waiting to be served by the Mess lady. Some of the students were chatting with each other to pass their time while some of them were busy with their phones but there was one common thing amongst all of them. They all were final-grade students.

This was something which Andrey suddenly realized while he was savouring his soft and creamy bun.

The reason for the final grade students having a separate building complex including mess altogether started making sense to him more now. Earlier he used to think that the school was being quite wasteful with its resources by doing all of this but after hearing from Mr Thomson for the last three hours everything started making sense.

'Once you become aware of things it truly is difficult to not see them...' Andrey thought to himself and chugged in the complimentary orange juice.

He, Jacob and Jenny were among the few fortunate ones who arrived not too late to the canteen and hence were able to eat their lunch while the others were still waiting in the line which was moving at a snail's pace.

"From the looks of it, every final grader present here knows about the aliens and our history," Jenny said as she gave a cursory glance to everyone present in the canteen who were discussing the said topic fervently.

"That indeed seems to be the case," Jacob nodded as he gulped down another piece of the cream bun. 

Seeing how hungry he seemed Andrey passed his second bun to Jacob which he accepted with a grin and busied himself with finishing it.

"What's our next period?" Jacob asked after he successfully thumped the bun down his throat with the help of his fist and a few gulps of orange juice.

"I can't be sure for today, I don't think it's going to go according to our regular schedule," Andrey said as he finished his juice.

The three of them soon finished their meal and returned back to their classroom. On the way back Andrey caught a familiar figure sitting at one corner of the canteen with her friends, it was Lisa.

This reminded him of his meeting with her after school and he once again started feeling a bit anxious about it. Fortunately, the feeling didn't last for long and was gone by the time they reached their classroom.

When everyone in the classroom was finally settled and it was time for the class to start a hologram suddenly appeared on the teacher's platform. It was the figure of a white-haired man with a muscular build but the thing that distinguished him from the rest was his left eye which was replaced with a robotic one. It was a product of decades of advancement in human technology.

"Good afternoon students," The old man's hoarse voice echoed in the entire room and a synchronous reply soon followed.

"Good afternoon Principal Kreig!" 

The man was an enigma for all the students as no one had seen him in person. This gave rise to several rumours regarding the Principal's background and was another popular topic of discussion among the students.

All the schools of the Confederation were headed by this man solely. The number of schools within the Confederation was 1.2 million in number and to be the sole head of such a large string of schools was a painstaking job but this man was able to do it and hence gained the respect of all the students.

"My image is currently being broadcast to all the final-grade students in the Confederation. Today, all of you have been made aware of the 'truth' about our history. While some of you might be angry at the truth being kept hidden from you all till now the larger section of you would be able to understand our worries, we didn't want your generation to take in such a large burden from the beginning and wanted you to enjoy it the utmost right until now, the reason being...to give you a taste of the life which you would be fighting for not only for yourself but also for your future generations!" 

The principal paused for a few seconds and continued.

"Normally I don't make such appearances for the final grade students but since something major has happened in the front lines appropriate countermeasures must be taken. More than a hundred warriors from the Warrior Academy got caught in an intricate trap set up by our enemies and lost their lives. This is a major blow to our forces and is something we've never suffered in the last 5 decades."

The principal had a hint of melancholy on his face as he explained to everyone present how powerful the warriors produced by the Warrior Academy were. Each of them was granted officer ranks the moment they graduated from the Academy. 

"Now, the reason for my appearance is to announce a change in the pattern for selection in the Warrior Academy. The written exam stage which was used to screen a large quantity of cadets would not be held anymore but instead, a special aptitude test would be conducted in all the schools and to undertake this task special selectors from the Academy would be visiting all the academies during the next two months. This has been done to increase the intake of warriors due to the unfortunate causalities that we've faced..." The principal sighed and continued.

"Even though this is a special consideration I expect every student to perform his best for the future of the human race. Let the peaceful lives that you've lived so far serve as the source of light in the darkness which you're going to soon find yourself in. Make sure young ones, that you live up to the expectations that have been placed upon you because if you don't...the human race will perish." With that, the hologram of the principal disappeared as if it was never there leaving an eerie silence in the room.

The silence soon turned into chaos as most of the students started celebrating that their chances of being selected had increased tremendously because of the sudden concession made by the Confederation. 

There were only a few students whose faces had a hint of concern and Andrey was one of them.

"Hey, Andrey shouldn't you be happy that our chances have suddenly increased! Remember, Mr Thomson said that the written stage was the second most difficult stage to clear for students preceding only the Psychology Test? " Jacob asked in confusion as among the cheerful expressions of everyone present only Andrey's face was grim.

"If the Academy is making such concessions...doesn't that mean that the scene at the front line is quite grim..." Andrey was still in his thoughts and had forgotten to control his voice as a result half of the entire class heard him and the cheerful scene soon changed into that of gloomy realization.

As if knowing that this was the most appropriate moment the widows of the classroom were all shuttered down and the lights went out. This invited a series of gasps from the faint-hearted but it soon went away as the whiteboard of the classroom suddenly lighted up and a video started playing.

Everyone went back to their seats and focused their attention on the video that was being projected on the screen.

The video seemed to have been taken from a first-person perspective and the place looked like a red rocky terrain with a few plateaus not far away. 

Including the person whose view they were seeing, there were two more people and they were dressed in grey skin-tight suits with bluish strips which covered all their bodies except the head. The head was fitted with a helmet of the same pattern which had a dark blue visor on it.

The three of them were rushing towards what appeared to be a point of conflict. The closer the three reached the scene the wider the eyes of the students watching it through the screen became.

In front of the three of them was a sanguinary scene which made many students watching the video close their eyes in disgust or turn their heads away. 

Two bodies were lying in front of them.

While one body seemed to be in good shape with its hand mutilated and visor broken the other body was only left with its legs and lower torso intact.

The blood escaping from the wounds was slowly moving through the cracks in between the rocky land and filling up the already-formed pool of blood.

The person whose view was being shared slowly turned his head towards a particular direction.

It was a cave-like structure that seemed to be stretching deep into the ground. Just seeing the darkness of the cave made the students hold their breath in fear.

The person nodded towards his two other teammates and three of them immediately removed weirdly shaped pistols from their waist belts and cautiously moved towards the cave entrance.

Their task was to confirm the number of assailants and to kill them if they could, so retreating without fulfilling the bare minimum was out of the question.

First step...second step...third...the closer the three went towards the cave the more rapid the breathing of the students watching the scene became.

"kkrghgghhh"

The camera's microphone seemed to have caught onto a strange voice which was followed by a sudden movement in the dark cave which invited a rain of bullets from the three people.

"KKRGHHHHKKK!"

A much more intensified voice came out this time and along with it, a rope-like thing slammed out towards the person whose view was being shared.

The next moment the camera was showing a headless body that was lying on the ground a few centimeters away. The camera lens had become blurry with dust and blood by now and the view had become quite restricted but still, everyone was able to witness a shadow of a huge hunched figure around nine feet in height rushing out from the cave and grabbing one of the two people left with its claws as it chopped off half of his body with a screech.

"krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

The rope-like object seemed to be the creature's tail which treated the last person in the same manner as the first person as the person's headless body fell lifelessly on the ground.

The video soon became static and the projection was over. A faculty soon arrived to explain to them that the scenes were from a recent event that happened on the front lines. Two patrol teams were wiped out as that creature had secretly infiltrated their territory and caught them unprepared.

The breathing of all the students was quite intense at the moment and the whole classroom was silent. Even though they only saw a glimpse of the creature everyone couldn't help but notice a slight shiver in their hand due to the fright the scene had given them.

'Fuck...I'm scared," Andrey thought to himself as he looked at his hands which seemed to be shivering along with the rest of his body. He also realised that a cold sweat had developed on his back.

It took Andrey quite a while before he finally managed to stop his hand from shivering and not long after the school bell rang which marked the end of school.