Spaceship TFU Ares

"Mr. Vikas, I'm sure you understand. With your son's ability, you cannot protect him while staying on this planet."

Kevin frowned, "That might be so, but there is no way I'm letting him join the army with a bunch of alphas."

The captain patiently explained, "The platoon he will join is full of elites, and it's not only alphas. Many of the talented individuals are A-rank betas and omegas. I, myself, is a beta, and I also lead my own team."

Kevin was still reluctant, "Then, can't he go to your team?"

The captain sweated, "I must apologize. As much as I value a new talent like Mr. Vikas, our team does not have precedence over Division 0."

He saw Kevin was silent and he comforted again, "Your daughter is also in the same division, so there is no need to worry."

Kevin sighed and said, "Fine. Even if I said no, I'm sure the result is the same."

The Captain gave a crooked smile and stood up, "Since Mr. Vikas is on our spaceship, we'll be taking him to the imperial capital. We can not afford to stay here any longer."

---x---

When Ken woke up, he found he was in a small dreary room with grey metal walls.

He remembered he was going through an awakening and now woke up in this strange random place.

Ken looked down and also saw he was wearing a striped white and black outfit, almost like a cross between a prisoner's garb and pajamas.

Getting up from the bed, he walked to the transparent window and peered out. It was all darkness but stars could be seen in the distant background, making up a blanket of small sparkling dots.

He turned saw a set of black clothes and a protective collar on the armchair by the bedside. Ken changed into it and found it was a perfect fit. He was not going to put on a collar, which was an exclusive item to omegas.

After he was done, he walked to the door, which automatically slid open as he neared it.

It was an empty hall. He stepped out and saw that, until the end of the hallway there were nine other rooms.

Ken did not knock on any of them and continued down until he reached another sliding door. When it opened and as soon as he stepped out, he realized there were several other people also idling in the hallway.

Ken walked closer to one and greeted, "Hi! Excuse me-"

As he looked into the person's eyes, he didn't finish his words. Those were the eyes of a wolf, piercing and withholding.

'An alpha!'

He backed away and mumbled a 'sorry' while passing by a few others in the hallway.

'Alpha, alpha, alpha! They're everywhere!' He thought.

He walked until he saw an arch into another room. It was the cafeteria.

Looking in, he observed the obvious divide. The ones with a tall stature sitting to the right tables were alphas. There was one table to the far left of around ten people; judging that they wore a protective collar, they must be omegas. The strange part was there were a few who were obviously betas, but they also wore a protective collar.

It was common knowledge betas couldn't be marked, or rather, they could only be marked temporarily. Any markings would fade in one to two weeks.

It was something he would figure out later. For now, he had to ask someone about his current situation.

Naturally, he was not going to join a group of alphas to ask what the hell was going on.

He walked to the omega-beta table and tried to catch their attention, "Hi... Can I ask where I am at right now?"

The group all cast their gaze on him and a female omega with a pale complexion and bright pastel pink long hair chirped, "The newbie is awake."

"Newbie...?"

She said, "You must be hungry. Go grab a meal and join us. Then we can slowly talk about it."

Although Ken wanted to sort things out quickly, it didn't seem like the table was too excited to tell him. There was no other choice except for him to do as told.

Once he grabbed a meal and sat down with them, the pastel pink hair girl winked and introduced herself, "You might know me, Krisa Wrengle. You can call me Krisa."

Ken didn't know her, but he nodded and introduced himself, "Ken, Ken Vikas. So where am I right now?"

Krisa smiled and informed him, "You have been out cold for five days. We are currently on the Spaceship TFU Ares, which is also your home for the future."

Shocked, Ken exclaimed, "How can that be?! Isn't this the number one battleship under Division 0? Why am I here?"

Krisa scooped the last bit of her meal and slowly savored it. Another person, a male beta, took over and replied, "Looks like you haven't checked the news yet. It's all over the web that we have a new S-Rank wood-type awakened."

Unable to fully process their words, Ken pointed at himself to confirm, "You mean... me?"

The whole table nodded in sync and broke out into laughter.

"Ah! Look at the poor guy. He is so clueless!"

"Krisa, you shouldn't be laughing. Remember two years prior, you had the same look as him!"

Krisa denied, "No way! Maybe a bit, but I didn't look so innocent!"

Ken blushed at their laughter. He didn't know what he did wrong... Usually, there were only betas around him; he had thought omegas were supposed to be pretty, soft, and cute, like his brother.

Not that these omegas and betas weren't beautiful, but they weren't like how it was usually portrayed on TV. Except for the collar.

Ken lowered his head and focused on his meal.

When the group had finally finished laughing, Krisa saw that Ken was done with his meal and stood up, offering, "Let's take you to the leader and he can explain your role to you."

Ken tossed out his tray and quickly followed Krisa. Once it was only the two of them, Krisa turned and asked, "Why didn't you wear the protective collar?"

Ken replied as if it was obvious, "I am not an omega."

Krisa narrowed her eyes, then shrugged, "There are only Rank A and Rank S awakened on Ares. All of them, especially alphas and omegas, have a superior sense of smell compared to normal. Even if you are a beta and have a faint scent, you have to wear a collar to prevent situations where your scent could attract others."

Ken looked dubious, "My scent will not bring an alpha or omega to go into heat. Besides, what's a protective collar supposed to do besides preventing a marking when it happens? A beta can't be marked anyways."

Krista stopped when they reached a large metal door and gave him a mysterious smile, "You will know when it happens. This special collar reduces your scent. It's a suppressant, sort-of."

Ken shuddered at her ominous words.

Lowering her head to send a few messages through her ID-watch, she added, "By the way, our leader is a little crazy. Be careful not to step on his nerve. Though his position is the Captain of this spaceship, you have to call him Leader instead."

At her words, Ken nodded.

They both waited a few more minutes before the door automatically slid open and a male alpha walked out while looking at them.

A deep voice came from inside the room, "Come in."

Turning, Krista waved and said, "My job is done. Good luck."