First Mission
"Before we leave, I have something that they wished to give you," Clara reached behind her coat, pulling out a ball-shaped drone with small thrusters.
Rather than a single red eye, the drone had two purple eyes.
"Aw, it looks pretty cute!" Ella commented. She tried placing her hand on the drone but was quickly smacked away by Clara.
"It's a surveillance drone, the scientists back in the labs wish to see your combat skills and for you to use this new ability since we have never seen it before,' Clara explained.
In a second, she turned on the drone and it began floating mid-air, but rather than thrusters, Jacob noticed a blue ring just beneath it.
"How is it floating?" He asked.
"Basic city I technology, we went past using thrusters." She briefly replied. After talking, she took something else out.
An earpiece with the letter I etched onto it.
"This one is for communication, it connects to your system," She said.
Once Jacob placed it on his ear, he snapped his fingers, and a new tab appeared next to his screen.
It showed his screen and the list of his teammates beneath it. Clara began handing more to the others before giving her next order.
"For now we will plan and prepare, then get a transport to bring us to the site. Let's go" They went through the hallway, passing guards of City I along the way along with some scientists who noticed Jacob and rushed up to see him, only to be pushed away by Clara.
The drone quietly followed behind Jacob, staring at him only.
'Is someone looking at me from that drone right now?' He asked himself.
—-
They arrived in a dimly lit room, filled with guards and heavily clothed individuals.
"Ah, Ms Clara. Right on schedule." An older man's voice spoke from the crowd.
They surrounded a large map of the area, planning and strategizing what to do next.
Clara walked off from the group to talk with the man, leaving the team to look around.
Dozens of whispers flew around the room as they recognized Jacob, some even hearing of what he did in the facility.
While waiting Rin stood next to Jacob, still holding onto the tablet. It held medical knowledge and history.
"I was hoping this would be a normal healing mission." He muttered, he noticed Jacob staring at him.
"They lied to me when they said this would be an easy first mission," He sighed.
"You really hate this huh?" Jacob asked, constantly hearing Rin's complaints about the situation.
"Not really, this is actually my first deployment as well. They said it would be easy," He glanced at his staff, visibly afraid of what would happen soon.
Clara continued to discuss planning and strategizing with the other officials who stood next to the large table.
"I never seen an actual battle before, we, for the most part, have been spared from damage and attacks, I only heard tales from higher-ranking healers who joined the war, I wish to be like them." He commented.
"Then you can be like them here," Jacob replied. Rin gave a hesitant nod at him before going silent again.
—---
Clara soon returned with her tablet in hand. She had an irritated expression on her face as if she came from an argument.
"They changed our objective, apparently the bomber is of less importance and they wish to see this new ability Jacob uses."
"Less importance!?" Jacob questioned in an angered tone.
"Calm down, we will find and kill him soon, for now, we will attack a nearby camp of soldiers who attacked some farmers." Jacob calmed down after hearing her explanation.
'Good enough, soldiers robbing farmers huh?' He suddenly recalled memories of when City G units used to assault his old home and fellow farmers to take their food, normally ending with a bloody fight.
Done with giving her orders, she motioned for the team to follow her out of the room.
—---
They reached the landing area, and a ship was ready to launch in front of them while the team prepared one last time for their new operation.
In the middle of it, Clara handed Jacob and the others a familiar bottle.
"These are one of the last energy bottles I managed to take before the attack, we may need to recover the machine." She explained before walking away and typing away on her tablet.
'This may come in handy soon' Jacob placed the bottle in his pocket and met up with Clara and the others.
On the ship, Jacob took another look at the facility and beam of light before the doors closed shut. Now all he needed to do was wait for them to reach the area.
He leaned on the wall of the ship, thinking of what he would do when he arrived.
'This thing should have answers when I arrive there, what does it even do?' He continued wondering, still confused by the answer the thing gave before it stopped talking.
Jacob rechecked his system, hoping the glitch would come back, but it was silent, and he simply stared at the two new stats.
While looking at them, he noticed something odd about the soul thirst.
[Soul thirst: 90/100]
'Wait it just went down?' Jacob looked at it again in disbelief.
The glitch remained silent, not appearing while Jacob continued looking in disbelief.
"Hey, why is it down?" Jacob asked. No response came. He sighed, annoyed, but also nervous with the the fact it just went down and he didn't know why.
'Is it some kind of hunger bar?' He wondered, he did recall some games with a bizarre mechanic similar to this. What does it mean by soul? Does it want Jacob to eat?
'Maybe when we reach our destination this thing would give an actual answer.' Jacob thought. He returned to leaning on the side of the ship with his scythe next to him.
Ella continued playing games on her phone while Zeph and Rin talked to each other.