[4] A quick tour of the place

7 2 0
                                    

"Here on the ground floor is where we mainly have our parts stored." Hakuya gestured as the cart hovered by the place. "The general specifically told us to only show you the -1 floor, as all the rest are still off limits."

About a minute or so hovering over the place, the cart began to come to a gradual slow as one of the walls before us slowly opened up sideways, revealing an spacious white elevator within. Once parked inside the elevator, the door began to close and there was about a descent for about 3 seconds, before the door opened again, revealing a clear glass tunnel stretching as far the eye could see.

"-1 floor is dedicated to terrestrial unmanned drones." Hakuya explained, as the cart began to move again at a steady pace. "Everything you see below us right now, is the finished product. But they are deactivated at the moment."

I looked down, and my eastern eyes couldn't help but widen to impossible lengths for a moment. From above they didn't look like much, but I knew damn well that they were about human adult height, and were numerous like the sands on a beach, except they were gray of course.

"Legion F-6. The latest of its kind. Currently the ILA produced 1 million of them a year, and are sold as a security force unit all across. It is expected in 2 more years, 90% of Kyo's police engage task force will be replaced by them."
Hakuya said with an eased tone.

"I see..." I narrowed my eyes.

It took about 3 minutes to drift past that section, and for the rest of the duration, all was silent, as Kuro made attempt to speak or comment what so ever. I guess she was just being classic Kuro now.

"Here we have Goliath T-1. The first and unique of its kind. Instead of running on wheels like classical tanks, it walks around on a 6 legged crawler. Giving mobility advantage in rough terrain." Hakuya commented again, and I looked down.

This time instead of star war drones, we got giant metal burgers with 6 metal legs. Yep, that's what it pretty much resembles, minus the 2 rocket launcher it carried on its side.

"Huh..." I made a sound. "How much do those cost?"

"Business secret~" Hakuya smiled innocently.

"Understandable." I let out a defeating sigh.

"Oh, the general's meeting is over. Let's speed up this now~" Hakuya said smoothly, as the cart began to speed up in sync of her voice.

It took about another 1 minute to reach the next elevator at the end of the tunnel. The cart began to slow down and the gates began to slowly open in sync. The whole descending process took about 10 seconds. And by the time it reopened again, we found ourselves a whole new different world.

Blue skies and sunny clouds, along with green grass and beautiful paved road leading up to a white mansion.

"Wait, wait, wait!" I burst out. "You said Rojin's meeting was held in -6 floor. Isn't this place like hundreds of meters below ground? How can there be any sunlight?"

"Oh that!" Hakuya covered with cheek with one hand in a smile. "That's the artificial lighting plate covering the whole room."

"I see..." I muttered, slightly impressed by how far the technology of man has gone.

The cart began to move forward, and came to a full halt at the door step of the mansion.

"This is as far as the cart can take us. Please follow me." Hakuya said as she got off and walked over to the pair of oak wood doors at the mansion. A brief moment later, the door opened inwards itself. Then without further words, she walked in, leaving us no choice but to follow.

Inside it was just kind of a regular things you would expect in a mansion, white and black checkered floor. Giant crystal chandelier and two spiral stair cases leading off into two wings. And there in the lobby stood a bunch of middle aged man dressed in various colors of military uniform. All except for one exception:

He appeared to be in his late twenties, tall lean build with a handsomely carved face. He had pierce blue eyes hidden behind his glasses and wore a blue uniform from head to toe. The young prodigy and the over achiever himself; Rojin.

"General." Hakuya saluted and smiled warmly.

"General Rojin." I saluted.

"En." Rojin replied, breaking away from his previous conversation. But he seemed to be...Looking straight past us, which made instinctively look behind as well.

Sure enough, Kuro's expression one of poker face and she made no gesture of attempt to salute. She just...Stared. Well, given their complicated past, I am just glad she's not going to do something rash and get us both nearly killed...again.

Sensing something wrong in the atmosphere, everyone's attention was suddenly on us, or more exactly on Kuro. This tense show down lasted for about 10 seconds, but it felt more like 20 years.

"The meeting is over, leave us, I have a private word with those 3." Rojin said with an icy authoritative voice.
There was some looks and mumbling, but in the end, all the officers just scuffled out of the door like a bunch of disappointed school kids. Once they are all gone, Rojin spoke up again:

"Now that the annoying ones are out of the way. It's time to get to the real business."

Q: What would you do in an awkward meeting?

The game changer (Book 3 of IA)Where stories live. Discover now