The day the squad was supposed to leave for their mission, Moria called all the members and gathered them in front of a certain structure in the vicinity of the orphanage.

Moria walked toward an old looking building and opened a hidden panel on the door and uncovered an actual numeric pad behind it. He composed a code and pressed the confirmation b.u.t.ton, but a red panel lit up and buzzed for a second.

Moria froze and blinked, his whole squad looked at him with blank eyes. Moria faked a cough rubbed his temple a second then re-tried to compose the code. When the light turned green and the gate started opening in a mechanical way, Moria sighed in relief and entered the building when the doors were opened.

The whole squad followed him with a wry smile on their face. Behind the door, there was a dark room in which they could barely see anything. Arimane looked behind and saw that the walls were actually made of reinforced steel recovered by some light blue lines.

"That's Eion energy. Have you heard of it?" Before Arimane could ask, Tiria talked to him.

"Yeah, I know about it" Arimane answered. Eion energy was the latest human discovery. Twenty years ago, in an underground expedition, a group of miners found a strange mineral. Actually, they found two minerals at the same time. It was a white and a dark blue stone stuck to each other while releasing a cyan light in the line separating them.

When those stones were a.n.a.lyzed afterward, scientists first separated the two stones and then realized that, as a magnet would act, they were attracted to each other and at the same time were producing a strange light blue energy. When they tried to interact with that energy or store a bit of it, they would fail every time, it didn't work with chemical products, like batteries and acc.u.mulators.

They, of course, studied that energy as much as they could while also decomposing the elements in the two stones. It was only a year later that they finally found out how to collect that energy. They had tried many ways but the only one that worked was to put the two stones and in consequence, the energy, in the vacuum then trap a part of the energy inside an artificial electromagnetic field.

They would then electrify a container and redirect the energy inside. After that point, everything became easier for them. They became able to interact with the energy and do more tests with it. They tried many things but the most notable characteristic they found was the quant.i.ty of energy the Eion produced. Scientists concluded that this strange energy was the most useful in making explosions and detonations, but also things like thermal changes.

But that was already revolutionary, not only for the future wars and conflicts but also for the actual production of energy for the world. Particularly electricity. They worked hard and managed to duplicate the original stones, then created a small-scale device that could produce Eion energy over time before finally creating a system converting Eion in electricity.

In the end, the result they got was a battery capable of charging itself back without any external input since the stones could produce Eion indefinitely as long as the two stones were close enough to each other. Of course, all of the electricity could be dried out when you use it faster than it charges, but ultimately, this small system became a sufficient source of energy capable of alimenting, for example, a car, for twenty-four hours without falling short of electricity.

Of course, that energy was brought to the military and they created every kind of weapon with it. Bombs, guns, drones, and others.

When Arimane looked one more time at the blue lines on the walls of this place, he finally remembered one of the other uses of the Eion energy. If a conducting material is mixed with Eion stones and then injected with the Eion energy, the whole material will become at least two times tougher.

"As expected of you, I can't teach you anything" Tiria shrugged and said.

Arimane just shrugged "I just like reading books and it's Eion energy is something everyone should know about. Rather, why don't you tell me why this place is protected by such a material?"

"You should look here to get the answer for that" Moria heard his question and exclaimed. Arimane looked at him as he pressed on a red small b.u.t.ton on a panel fixed to the wall. When he pressed it, the room finally was illuminated and the place was now ready for everyone to observe it.

When Arimane saw what was in the middle of the room, which was actually really huge, his eyes widened. There were many rows of shelves in this room, not with books, but with many different types of firearms on it.

With just a wild guess, Arimane estimated that the number of guns in this place was around a hundred, and it was just a minimum.

"It's not our section, though" Moria looked at him and said. Arima frowned and looked at his instructor. The latter casually walked toward a trapdoor in the center of the room and one more time composed a code on a pad before opening it.

When he did that, this time, a light instantly illuminated the row of stairs below. Moria just descended the steps and so did the entire squad. Most of them had already been here so they were not perturbed. It was just Arima who was really lost and went down last.

When he took the last step of the staircase, he was already gaping at the scene in front of him. Shelves, closets, cases, boxes, briefcases, there were a lot of containers here, all filled with military equipment. Going from hundreds of weapons to thousands of gadgets.

Also, most of the guns here seemed to be all accompanied by a single magazine, filled with a cyan light. Arimane, of course, deduced that those weapons were Eion based. He, of course, understood the importance to have this place reinforced with Eion steel walls.

All the squad smiled at him and then spread around the room. They each went to specific guns and equipment and fiddled with it.

"Here you go, find a weapon you like and take it, don't forget to take some secondary equipment. The only thing I'll impose you is this" Moria talked to Arimane and went toward a big box in the corner of the room. He opened it and took out a one-meter long case and threw it to Arimane.

The latter caught it and instantly felt the weight before immediately putting it on the ground. He could actually carry it easily, but he was still hiding his peculiar strength "What is this?" He asked after looking at the case.

"Eion based Anti-matter rifle, E-032 SR, with one-use explosive Eion bullets" Moria answered to him slowly "Although it's even hurtful for me to say it, you're basically the best sharpshooter in the squad, particularly with a precision rifle. So, you take it, a sniper is always a soothing support. Pick the rest of your loadout now" He instructed and threw a small book at Arima.

"This is the instructions on the use of Eion weapons and their capacities. I'm sure you can adapt to it by just reading this" Moria said before going to find his own weapons.

Arima opened the small book and read the first page in just a few seconds, he then continued to read like this. His reading speed was so fast that people would call that inhuman. Arima finished the book in a minute then sighed "I see" He just said and started wandering in the place.

He skipped a lot of weapons and directly went to the handguns, he never liked a.s.sault rifles and he was already carrying a sniper with him. The first rule of an a.s.sa.s.sin is to always be the lightest possible.

He looked around for a minute then took a revolver magnum. He already had a sniper rifle with him, so he a.s.sumed he won't fire much with any other weapon, so he went for power and precision.

The bullets of a revolver, with Eion energy, were also special. You still had to put them in the cylinder, but when you shoot, it's not the bullet that will go but the Eion charge in it. After the cylinder turns, that bullet will then be recharged by an Eion system in the gun. Actually, the average Eion gun doesn't have bullets to shoot, it's just the Eion energy alone.

But when you have a bullet, you actually can gather more energy and fire with more power, the recharge is longer though. But for example, an Eion a.s.sault rifle don't have bullets, but rifles like the one Arimane just got, worked with bullets.

After that, he continued to observe the rest of the equipment and two minutes later he had two Eion grenades, night vision lentils, small binoculars, and a tactical knife. And lastly, a bulletproof coat.

With this, he was ready and came back at the entrance to wait for the rest of the squad. He was quick apparently since he was the first to finish picking his stuff. If the squad was here, they would most likely say to him that he should feel more thrill by going through so many weapons of high quality.

Arimane opened the SR case while waiting. He then looked at all the parts of the rifle. He quickly a.s.sembled it and, in the process, Tieria came back carrying a bag with her. She was a bit surprised when she spotted Arimane, she thought he would take more time to choose his equipment.

She put down her bag and sat down to wait too, she just observed Arimane as he steadily a.s.sembled the rifle.

In just a minute, Arima finished a.s.sembling it and admired it. It was a refined black rifle; the barrel was pretty large and the scope was a bit fancy. Arima detached it and looked through it, it had thermal and night vision along with movement detection.

He smirked as he looked through the scope. Tieria looked at him and tilted her head "You're enjoying it after all. I thought it was strange that you were not trembling with excitement like everyone else did when they came here the first time" She surprisingly talked to Arimane.

The latter was a bit caught off guard and awkwardly put back the scope in the case and then followed by disa.s.sembling the rifle "Of course I'm excited. I actually want to test this one immediately" He then answered to Tieria.

Tieria faintly smiled before checking the equipment she had in her bag. Meanwhile, Arimane put back the rifle inside the case and closed it again.

"By the way, your loadout is really light, what's your expertise?" Arimane asked Tieria in curiosity. The latter shrugged and showed him the contents of her bag. Knives, a coat, a small gun with silencer, binoculars and night vision lentils.

"I'm a spy and a scout. I don't really fight" She answered and closed her bag "And I'll most likely be your spotter if it's needed" She added and Arima nodded.

"Then I'll be happy to work with you. I never teamed up with you, right? Even in training" Arima then said and extended his hand.

Tieria widened her eyes a bit and then shook his hand before smiling "Sure, I'll work hard to not drag you down"

Arima wryly smiled "Come on, you're supposed to be the senior" He uttered and then a voice was heard behind him.

"If I could call myself your senior, it would be awesome" A lazy voice resounded in Arima's ears and he looked behind him. Jin was approaching while staring at him. He sighed and sat down beside Arima "You're not this squad's little genius for nothing" He said then lit up a cigarette.

Tieria nodded with an indifferent expression to approve his words. Arima was really put in an awkward situation. Anyone would appreciate being praised but it's kind of hard to answer when a person holds you in a too high regard.

The trio talked together for a bit while waiting for everyone to finish their preparations. It was only ten minutes later that Moria declared that they were leaving to the airport.