1 Arrival

Late into the night at City B's aerospace command and control centre,

"What was that?!"

"What?"

"Gu, didn't you see that?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I thought I saw something..."

"Aish.... Such a workaholic! Your mind is playing tricks on you because you haven't rested well. Even if you fought with your wife, you shouldn't work for three continuous shifts old Jiang. If this continues, sister in law will surely divorce you. Go sleep for sometime, I'll cover for you."

"But... (sigh) you are probably right. And please, we didn't fight. It's just that my in laws have come over. I'm merely avoiding them. Wake me up in a couple of hours."

"Sure."

...

Under the cloak of darkness, a big spaceship landed in the wilderness near city B. Seven humanoid figures in spacesuits alighted from it.

"The cloaking device is working just fine except for that one little glitch due to atmospheric friction."

A figure spoke in a stern but calm and serene voice, "Though it won't make a difference, you should have been more careful Myrn, or the mission might've been compromised."

The man named Gic Myrn apologised, "Yes vice-leader Gno, I understand."

It was at this moment that the eighth figure walked out of the spaceship. The figure was tall and had a natural but strong aura of a leader. Anyone in presence could not help but offer their absolute servitude to the aura.

She spoke to a girl, "Pnec, what's our location?"

"Leader Yro, we are near the capital city of country C, one of the leading countries of planet Zexl026. Oh, by the way, the locals call the planet as Earth."

The leader turned to another person, "Myrn, collect the spaceship. Dva set up a camp here for tonight."

Gic Myrn and Nes Dva spoke together, "Yes, leader Yro!"

Gic Myrn then went towards the spaceship and brought forward his right forearm. He opened a panel-like structure on his suit and pressed a few buttons on it.

In the next instant, the massive spaceship contracted in size and took the form of a bead sized silver sphere.

Gic Myrn picked up the sphere and gave it to their leader, Yro Ren.

The girl named Nes Dva took out a similar sphere and placed it on the ground. She opened the small panel on the suit on her forearm and pressed a few buttons and the silver sphere on the ground transformed into a huge rectangular structure.

The structure was three storeys and looked like a large, shiny, pearl coloured box. It stood out quite thoroughly compared to the backdrop of the dark forest.

They entered the structure and Yro Ren instructed Gic Myrn to turn on the cloaking device.

The inside of the structure looked futuristic. It was very bright and everything was white in colour. The structure had nine rooms in total. Three rooms on each floor. One room for each person and an additional meeting room.

The structure had a different atmosphere than what was outside.

"Go to your assigned rooms and change out of your suits. We'll meet in the meeting room in 20 minutes."

"Yes, leader Yro."