Iron angel (Book 1 of IA)

[11] My first mission

Silence, dead silence. Except for exhale of the exhaust and the grinding of the jeep motor in the background. Isa sat beside me in the driver's seat, and had been quieter than a corpse the whole trip. Everytime I tried to start a conversation, she would train her eyes on me like the muzzle of a gun. But after an hour of silence, I felt nearly qualified to enter the insane asylum. To prevent that from happening, I decided to take on the risk of death and spoke:

"Sir, you look very young. I was wondering how old are you?"

She shot me a glance, like a sniper looking through her scope, then returned her focus to the road.

"21 years, 9 months and 23 days. Is there a problem fresh meat?"

"Of course not sir!"

"Good. Now be quiet fresh meat."

"I have one more question sir..."

"...Fine. Just spit it out."

"I was just wondering how you joined up with the army...what inspired you to sir?"

Silence again. Except for the constant rhythmic tapping, which continued for several blocks. At some point when I felt qualified for the mental asylum again, she spoke:

"As Roshans, we begin our military training as soon as we can walk."

A pause.

"Those who are 'unfit' are separated. And those who succeeded their training move on."

"Move on to what?" I started at her, then quickly realizing my mistake, added: "Sir..."

"It depends. It is our duty to defend mother Rosha. The ones that are the most physically capable are to join the ranks of the 'Knights of Pale' division."

"I am guessing you are a member of the 'Knights of Pale' sir?"

Her eyes stared into me like daggers, for a moment I even forgot how to breathe. Only when she took her eyes of me was I reminded again how breathing was such a wondering thing.

"Do you have something you wish to say dead meat?"

"Nothing sir!"

I went mute after that. Seemingly satisfied with my silence, she continued:

"I joined the ranks of the 'Knights of Pale' for 3 years 9 months and 23 days. Throughout the time, we conducted over 134 missions, 78 of them involved military conflict, 18 of them involved a threat to national security, and one involved a close call to a global scale conflict."

I tried to hide my surprise, but my jaw wasn't doing a great job of it.

"When we are not on a mission, we underwent routine training. And those who failed to meet the demands are removed from the division immediately."

"My mission is to train you and turn you into something useful." She paused, looking straight ahead through the windshield. "Though I can now see now this is the hardest mission I have undertaken yet."

I felt a jab inside me, I really really felt it. Because all of it was true.

"There is a saying in Rosha: There are no heroes without Konderbach."

Before I could even figure out what that saying meant, the car came to a stop. Without speaking further, Isa climbed out of the car and I followed suit trailing behind her as she went to the back of the jeep. She opened the trunk, revealing a large sealed metal case. After a few clinks and adjust, she defeated the password then proceeded to opening the case. Inside were two weird looking guns; it had the body of a shotgun but the muzzle of sprinkler.