The view outside was incredibly strange. Trees covered everything, as if they had set foot in a vast, enormous forest. They saw the wind caress the leaves of the trees, making them dance in perfect harmony, producing a light rustle accompanied by a touch of the cold winter air. But the suit had insulated their bodies from the planet’s external climate.
Keno said in a warning tone, "Don’t ever take off your helmets. We don’t know if the air is still contaminated or not from the effects of the nuclear weapons that the machines dropped on the countries of the world and our neighboring countries. Now it’s time to split up. Each team will have a leader who knows the mission well and will lead you to your objective and goal and to complete the required mission. The names of each group will appear on your screen. Let each group gather with its leader so we can start moving."
Yousef and Akira’s group name appeared. They read the names quickly and found that they were in the same group with Captain Keno. It was their good fortune that they had applied to join together, and perhaps that had helped them stay together. Akira signaled to Yousef, who was standing behind him, "Let’s go to the front and meet Keno."
"Alright, let’s go," Yousef replied sarcastically. "I’m lucky to be with you so you can’t lie to me about the number of robots you destroy. And now we’ll see who wins the grand prize. Don’t forget the bet, huh?"
"Of course I won’t forget. Don’t worry, I’ll have a whole year of free coffee."
Akira said it in a playful, mischievous tone. Yousef laughed. "We’ll see about that, my friend."
They headed to the front. They found the crowds dispersing to gather in their groups—some protesting that they wouldn’t be with their friends and acquaintances, and some moving here and there—until they had cut through the huge, tall trees, the sunlight filtering through their intertwined branches to illuminate the darkness. They stood before the captain, who was wearing a suit similar to theirs, but the difference was that the crystal on his chest was red, perhaps to distinguish him from the rest of the soldiers.
Some of the soldiers belonging to their group, which was called Group A, approached. There were fifty soldiers in total, with five war machines walking behind them, making a metallic, ringing sound in the ear with every step they took.
The soldiers stopped and lined up in two rows in front of Captain Keno. They stood in silence, waiting for his orders. He paced the area back and forth. "You are Group A, and I will be your leader. Unfortunately for you, your mission will be more dangerous than the others, because we will be going deep into the east. But don’t worry, I will protect you, and the super-suit will protect you. That’s why I have to explain some things first before we move."
He was silent for a moment to give the soldiers a chance to receive his words properly, then said, "In each of your suits, there are several features. I will mention them so that you are familiar with its secrets and learn how to use them. First, you are wearing a suit that features a bio-shield, which combines supercomputer technology, integrated and multiple weapon systems, and a bio-muscular armored shell, with energy shield technology that forms a plasma energy barrier around you that protects you from bullets, mitigates the shock of projectiles, and prevents radiation and fire from harming you, and some other things."
"So you are now immune to many dangers, which is fortunate for you," he said jokingly, and then continued, "The super-suit also provides you with a speed twice your normal speed, makes you jump twice your normal jump, and strengthens your hearing and vision through sensitive devices inside it that help you see from long distances and hear the finest sounds. Finally, you can give the suit voice commands to activate the features I mentioned. For example: Energy Shield!"
Keno raised his hands in a self-defense position and crossed his arms over his chest. A blue energy barrier appeared, surrounding his body from his head to his toes. He moved his hands away, and the shield gradually faded. The soldiers looked at Keno in awe and began to imitate him to activate their shields, which made them feel safe and amazed. They began to whisper among themselves about this wonderful feature.
"Haven’t you ever seen any science fiction movies before?" Keno said playfully. "And now, enough joking around. It’s time to get serious. Our mission is to go a few kilometers to the east until we reach a specific point that will be on the map, which you will see if you say ’map’."
Everyone began to say it. The map appeared on the right side of the screen in the helmet. They saw a red dot marked to the east, and glowing green dots standing far from it, which were them, and some other green dots moving toward the south, southeast, north, and northeast. Keno said, "As you can see, the moving green dots are our comrades who have split from us, the stationary dots are us, and the red dot is our target. It is, as you can see, twenty kilometers to the east. And as you can see, we don’t know the location of the machines! We don’t know where they are! And are they still there, or have they gone to other places? But there is a high probability that we will face them. You know very well what happened to the old reconnaissance teams."
One of the soldiers said with hesitation and fear, "Do you mean... that... we could be... attacked from any direction... without knowing where? We don’t know much about our enemies. They’re evolving every day to an extent that we are surrounded like animals in a cage in this dome. I am afraid sir". Thɪs chapter is updated by 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⟡𝘧𝙞𝙧𝙚⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵