Lakenheath
last update2022-02-28 00:06:00

Wherever the recruitment officer was taking me, it definitely wasn’t in London.

The jeep had broken the outskirts of the city at least a half hour ago, and now we were plugging through the winding roads of the countryside. 

“Where exactly are you taking me?” I asked, feeling the itch to activate my exo suit and simply get myself out of the situation before anything could go terribly wrong. 

“My sensors are not detecting any form of aggression from anyone in the vehicle,” The AI responded to my question mentally before the military man had even opened his mouth to reply. 

Was there anything the AI couldn’t actually do? How did you even detect aggression using sensors? Could the exo somehow read minds other than my own, or was it just able to get a read on hormones. 

“We’re taking you to a secret temporary staging location just outside of London,” Officer Blake said, “From there you’ll be introduced to your commanding officer and we will conduct a series of tests to gather your abilities. This will tell us how much of a help you will actually be in the fight for the cause.” 

“The cause?” I said, I hadn’t been aware that there was a supposed cause to rally behind. 

“Of course, the cause of protecting the people of this country from harm,” Blake replied, “both from the threat of those from above, and the threat of those with powers misusing them.” 

“Ah, I see,” I replied, settling into my seat so I could watch the countryside roll by out the window, “That’s a cause I think I can get behind.” 

We were both silent for the rest of the journey. 

As we drove I was content to look out of the window of the car. It helped to give some true scale to what had happened. 

The news reports had said that the ships had come down all over the planet, but actually seeing the smoking craters even out in the countryside as we drove helped to hammer that home. 

This was a moment of disaster for Earth, for the entire Human Race, and if nothing was done about it who knew how the world would end up over the coming weeks, months and years? 

The drive went on silently for just under an hour. 

In usual circumstances, I was sure it would have taken much longer, but the car was moving in excess of a hundred miles an hour the entire journey and the roads had been cleared ahead of us by some kind of police squad. 

Before long the countryside gave way to a village, and then past the village a large army base. 

This was our destination. 

The car drove through the main gates without any hassle and continued up across a runway, the far end of which had an airfield with at least ten fighter jets on standby. 

“Welcome to RAF Lakenheath,” Blake said, “This is the primary base of operations for our new unit, and where we’ll be conducting your power evaluation and training going forward.” 

“Training?” I asked as the car rolled to a stop. 

“Of course, you didn’t think we were just going to let you run wild like a vigilante all over the country, did you?” 

Blake stepped out of the car, leaving me with my own thoughts. 

Had I been expecting that?

I suppose I hadn’t really known what to expect. 

Joining the military had never really been one of my career plans, the idea of military training was one that had never even crossed my mind. 

I exited the car, grateful for the chance to stretch my legs after the hour-long drive. 

“You didn’t mention anything about training or power evaluation when we were back in London,” I remarked, jogging a few steps to catch up with Blake who had already begun to walk toward the main building of the complex. 

“Well, like I said, we weren’t just prepared to let you and others like you run around like vigilantes,” Blake reiterated, “That’s an easy way to get yourselves and others hurt. This way we can make sure you actually know what you’re doing.” 

I wasn’t sure if there was anything out there that could actually hurt me in my exo-suit armour. 

I’d manage to take out the two villains I’d encountered so far without much threat, and going by what the AI had said, these exo suits had been specifically designed to take on mutated life forms with incredible power sets. 

“That doesn’t mean that you should start getting all cocky about things, though,” The AI pointed out, “You’re strong but you’re not invincible. Some training, and some better understanding of what the other people your military have picked up to join their fight would serve you well.” 

If my AI was saying it then the chances were that Blake wasn’t wrong. 

Some training might not be a bad thing, anyway. So far my fighting style had pretty much just been to swing my fists until my enemies stopped swinging back. 

With some actual fighting ability backing that up, then I’d have a much easier time taking down my enemies. 

“What does this so-called power evaluation mean, then?” I asked, uncertain of how they were actually going to go about testing the efficiency of my power armour. 

“Well, we thought about that for quite a while,” he said, “In the end we figured the best way to test your strength would be to put you through the ringer a bit.” 

Blake opened the door to the building and held it open, ushering me through the door and inside. 

“Through the ringer?” I replied as we entered a corridor. 

“We figured the best way to rank your abilities and your strength would be to set you up against one another,” He explained, “That is to say, we’re going to hold a little bit of a tournament so that you can all prove yourselves.”

A… tournament?

My life was becoming more and more like an anime with every passing day. 

Continue to read this book for free
Scan the code to download the app

Latest Chapter

  • Presentation

    The interior of the military base was just as drab and boring as I had expected it to be, but that was fine because my mind was still reeling at the revelation that officer Blake had thrown at me."Sorry, did you just say you're arranging a tournament?" I asked, "What does that even mean?"The officer turned to look at me with a glint in his eye and a smirk playing across his lips."I'd rather not have to explain myself more than once, so let's go and meet up with the rest of the recruits first shall we?" He said, walking on again.I kept in step with him, mulling it over in my head.A tournament was unexpected, but honestly, it was a good way t

  • Lakenheath

    Wherever the recruitment officer was taking me, it definitely wasn’t in London.The jeep had broken the outskirts of the city at least a half hour ago, and now we were plugging through the winding roads of the countryside.“Where exactly are you taking me?” I asked, feeling the itch to activate my exo suit and simply get myself out of the situation before anything could go terribly wrong.“My sensors are not detecting any form of aggression from anyone in the vehicle,” The AI responded to my question mentally before the military man had even opened his mouth to reply.Was there anything the AI couldn’t actually do? How did you even detect aggression using sensors

  • Drafted

    “I’m sorry,” I said after a moment of consideration, “Did you basically just offer me a job?”“Yes, that’s the short and skinny of it,” The officer replied, “The fact of the matter is that the world is in tatters at the moment, and is declining at an absurdly rapid rate. Conventional means are not currently powerful enough to deal with the emergent threats and so we need to come up with new and innovative ways to deal with the problems that the new situation is presenting us with.”It made sense.From what I had seen of the city yesterday things really weren’t in a good way.For a start, there was the initial destruction that h

  • Recruitment

    I was woken by a heavy knocking at my door.I waited a few moments.There was no one that should have been knocking on that door.My mother was… not around anymore, and my sister wasn’t someone who would ever reach out to me. Not for any reason.The knocking happened again, louder this time, and much more urgent.Was there a chance that someone had followed me home after my escapades in my suit the day before?It was certainly a possibility.I hadn’t exactly been subtle when I’d

  • Jobless

    I collapsed into my armchair with a heavy sigh.It had been a long and arduous day. I’d done a lot of good, a lot of stopping mutated villains, a lot of helping people on the street.Honestly, even though the world was ending and there were certain things that I was definitely avoiding thinking about, I was pretty sure that the day had been one of the best days of my life so far.Maybe having a super powered mecha from outer space wasn’t the worst thing in the world after all. At least not now that the world was such a messed up place.It really was a messed up place, too.I’d learnt over the course of the day

  • A Hero For Fun

    The man who could fire the directional lasers seemed shocked by the fact I’d managed to take his friend down. It hadn’t been easy, but I’d still managed to do it with just a couple of hits. But it didn’t take him very long to regain his composure. The short mutated villain let out a barrage of lasers, one shooting from each of his fingers and thumbs. They streaked toward me, slower than the speed that light would usually travel, but fast enough that dodging all ten was going to be a bit of a nuisance. With a pulse of thrust from the boosters in my boots, I soared high into the air at the last minute. Two of the lasers

More Chapter
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on MegaNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
Scan code to read on App