Alden woke up very early on Monday morning. At 2:45am he was done showering and was rummaging through his belongings looking for his uniform. Soon enough, he pulled out his white singlet along with a purple button up shirt and a long brown trouser.
"That's a weird choice for a uniform." Alden stated aloud to himself just to fill the silent void.
"Oh that, it's only temporary, they're low on materials to create our uniforms so only the seniors have that, courtesy of our current government." Derrick explained
The place got filled by silence once more as Alden put on his uniform. He didn't have a mirror to check his looks so he just had his intuition to go on about his looks. As time slowly ran, Alden became increasingly anxious about what was to come today.
"Hey Derrick, if it's not too much trouble, I'd like you to escort me to the administration building, I'd like to confirm my departmental placement with the base command." Alden requested.
"Are you sure about that, you can just follow me to my sector. You said you were supposed to be assigned to the Research and Analysis department so there shouldn't really be a problem with that." Derrick stated a suspicious shift in his tone which Alden failed to notice.
"Nah, I think I'd like to be safe, you said that the students for your department were already chosen via the aptitude test and I don't want to cause any kind of trouble so I'll need to make sure." Alden responded.
Silence fell once again. The whole time only about three others from their room had woken up to prepare ahead of the others. At exactly 4:30am, a loud siren went of mimicking the sound of an emergency broadcast. The sudden, loud noise pollution woke up a majority of the students all at once. The seniors moved with practiced efficiency as if they'd experienced this countless times. They got up, prepared their stuff and hit the showers en masse, once they were done they returned, put on the actual base uniform and waited for permission from the captains to leave the base.
The juniors, most still disoriented by the rude awakening begun scrambling to follow the lead of their seniors. By 5:20am, almost everyone in the barracks was done and were just waiting for their seniors who'd were in turn waiting for the captains. At 5:30am, the captains gave the go ahead to leave the barracks for the compound and at 6:00am the barracks were locked, not to be opened until operations ended for the day.
Derrick had been leading Alden in circles trying to convince him to abandon the visit to administration idea in favor of following him back to his sector but I was no use, Alden had already made up his mind and he fully intended to stand firm with his decision.
At 6:30am, the sirens came back on with an announcement.
[All new recruits are to assemble in front of the dining hall for an important announcement.]
The siren said once before shutting off, there was no repeat but all the new students were expected to move with efficiency.
Derrick led Alden to the front of the dining hall where a very large number of other students were slowly gathering at. The foundation of the dining hall had been elevated to a higher level the the surrounding ground with stairs and doors at strategic locations to allow for ease of traffic. Standing in front of the main doors to the dining hall was an older woman. She had accumulated a bit of natural fat throughout her years but she was by no means fat, she wore glittering eyeliner and an abnoxiously colorful shirt with black skin tights reaching he ankles with her hair tied in a bun behind her. Beside her stood a man whose outfit was on point but still a farcry from a military attire. He was dressed from head to toe in full on black business attire which somehow complimented his black hair.
The man stepped forward straightening his tie as he shouted ou a command.
"All of you stand at attention, arrange yourselves according to barracks number, three lines to each barracks." He called out with a serious tone like he had some place better to be.
The students complied albeit in a slow, untrained manner wasting precious time. With every minute that passed, the man's face continued to twist with rage as he watch the horribly chaotic situation unfolding before him. After about 8 solid minutes of waiting, the students were finally done arranging themselves.
"That's was painful to watch." The woman said under her breath as the students settled down.
"Now listen, your assistant base commander has a few words she'd like to share with you. It is in your best interest to listen very well to what she has to say." The man stated sternly before stepping back for the woman to step forward.
The students begun to murmur among themselves as she began speaking.
"Now I know the kind of question going through your minds. The base commander is out on a very important mission with some of the head staff, this has thrown a significant wrench in our plans, as you know, you were supposed to officially be indoctrinated to the ways of the school today, but due to this sudden mission, we'd have to delay things for a while, operations around the base will continue as normal but you may occasionally miss some trails due to the staff vacuum." The assistant base commander explained.
For the next 30 minutes, she touched upon just about everything that the students should have already known but never went deep into those topics. Soon enough, the assembly was finished and the students were dismissed.
Alden quickly made his move, finding Derrick among the directionless mass of scattered students.
"This is my chance, right now we have the highest authority available due to the current situation standing just beyond the dining hall doors." Alden stated.
"Alden this seems a bit rash, just follow me and let's go to my sector, trust me the whole situation could very simply be resolved." Derrick urged.
"I can't, not when my confirmation is so close. Imagine things don't go as simply as you think, I don't want to complicate things for myself. Just shadow me, it will just be a quick confirmation."