Adam spent the next few hours in his room, browsing the internet and playing some games. He went out around 18:30 to eat again with his guide. Adam had the same meal again. He didn’t mind since it tasted good and was fairly healthy. After that, he locked himself in his room again. He wanted to catch up on his new favorite web novel ‘Twisting Wyvern’. It was about a powerful rat beast going on adventures with his human friend.

At around 20:45 Adam heard loud laughters, coming from just outside his room.

“What the?”

Adam slowly opened his door, and outside he saw Steven and the girl from before. They sat by a small table, playing cards.

“...”

“...”

“Hehe, sorry. Did we disturb you?” The one answering was Jane, she had a big smile on her face.

“What are you doing? Where did this table come from?” Adam was confused. Why they were sitting outside his room playing cards?

“Well, I or I mean we…” Steven was not sure how to explain, and luckily for him he didn’t need to because Jane cut him off.

“Haha, it’s my fault. I was bored, Steven was bored. One thing led to another and here we are, playing cards outside your room.”

“Didn’t you have that shooting competition?” Adam said, thinking something was not right here.

“Um, yeah. I kinda left early, I guess. I didn’t feel so good.” Jane said while twirling her hair.

“So you came here to play cards…” Adam sighed. He could now guess what was going on.

“...Yep.” Jane said while raising her cards to cover her face.

“Well, carry on then. But try to keep it down a little.” Adam closed the door.

The rest of the night went by quickly and Adam went to bed a few hours later.

He suddenly woke up by a loud noise and the fact that his bed shook slightly. He looked at the clock and noticed it was morning.

Earthquake? No, he was on a boat. That must be it. The boat started moving again.

The time was around 10, and he was hungry for breakfast.

Thirty minutes later he was ready and opened the door to see if Steven was there. Surprisingly he was.

“Hey, do you never sleep? Or did you sleep outside my room?”

“Haha, as if. The night shift is another person. I suggest you don’t leave your room during the night. They are not happy when people run around after 22. Anyway, breakfast?”

“Yep, let’s go.”

“So, how did things go last night?” Adam said with a smirk.

“Hmm, oh you mean the card game? Well, Jane played my shirt off, pretty much.”

“Oh, oh. I see.” Adam looked at Steven. His expression seemed to be normal. There was many ways to interpret that sentence but Adam decided to drop the conversation there. Either way, it wasn’t really his business.

They arrived at the mess hall, and this was the first time Adam had seen the breakfast menu.

It was quite comprehensive.

Adam ended up getting an egg, bowl of sour milk with muesli in, tree slices of the same bread as before with ham and cheese on and two packages of milk.

Steven got a bowl of oatmeal with some jam, seeds and nuts in, a fruit salad and a bottle of water.

As Adam was scanning the room for a suitable spot to sit down in, he noticed two other people wearing civilian clothes. They were quite easy to spot since they stood out in the midst of all the uniforms.

He remembered what Jane had said before. They were ‘taxiing’ a few other people besides him. He was curious about the reason they were here so he decided to head their way. As he approached they looked up, surprised to see another civilian.

“Hello, mind if I sit here?” Adam said politely.

The two looked at each other and nodded.

“Sure. Nice to see another ‘civvie’ around, as they call us.”

Next to them sat two others. Their guides, Adam assumed.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, where are you going?” Adam started with a basic question.

“No idea.” The reply was short.

“Guess we are going to the same place then. You know what we are going to do?”

“Nope.” Another quick and short reply.

“But you were hired for a reason right? I’m an electrician for example.”

“Ah, yes. I’m a programmer. I specialize in AI.” Said one of them. He looked like he was around fifty years old, with grey hair and glasses. “The name is Asmoz. Achim Asmoz.”

“And I work in biomedical engineering.” Said the other. She looked to be around forty, if Adam had to guess. She had short black hair. “My parents named me Cora.”

“Nice to meet you both, I’m Adam.”

“Well, we were just about to leave actually.” Adam noticed their plates were empty. “So, we will see you later.”

“Oh, okay.” Adam said, looking down on his food.

“Haha, don’t misunderstand. We traveled during the night so we are quite tired. We haven’t slept in a while.” Asmoz said, while adjusting his glasses.

“Ah, good night then. I arrived yesterday myself. Later Asmoz, and you too Cora.”

As the two left, their guides followed. Leaving only Steven and Adam by the table.

“So, Steven, how many others like me are there on the ship?”

“Don’t know. My job is to keep an eye on you, not to know everything that happens on the ship.”

“Hmm, fair enough.”

The meal continued in silence. Adam returned to his room and the time flew by.

Adam had another meal in the evening but as he was about to return to his room, Steven stopped him.

“We have reached our destination. Pack your stuff and get ready. You are leaving in one hour.”

“Wha- wait, leaving? In what?”

“Don’t worry. You will understand when you see it.”

Adam packed his stuff in less than five minutes, so he decided to take out his laptop again to pass the time.

Almost an hour had passed when someone knocked on the door.

“Hey, you ready?” Steven said, from the other side of the door.

“Yeah, coming.” Adam quickly packed down his laptop again. He opened the door and took one last look at his room, to see if he had forgot anything.

“Follow me.” Steven started walking.

The trip continued in silence, and it took a while for Adam to realize where he was going. The surface, or rather, the flightdeck.  

As he stepped through the last doorway into the fresh air, the sudden cold winds almost knocked him over. The temperature was alot lower than it had been yesterday.

“Brrrr… You could have warned me it was going to be freezing.” Adam complained loudly, while rubbing his arms.

After a few steps Adam suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“We are going to ride in that thing?” In front of Adam was the big Hercules transport plane. As he looked around he noticed the ship was completely surrounded by sea.

“Of course. How foolish of me to expect this ship to dock in a harbor.” Adam realized it made sense to use an aircraft, from an aircraft carrier.

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“Hurry up! The others are waiting.” Steven shouted.

They quickly ran over to the plane, taking cover from the the cold winds.

As they got inside, they noticed it was quite a number of people inside. Even the Captain was there.

“Ah, finally, the last one.” Captain Stone said. “Well, I will take my leave now.”

The Captain left and a few others left the plane and went back inside the ship.

“Huh, why was he even here?” Adam thought out loud.

Jane came forward and said.

“Well, you missed the briefing he had. I can tell you more about it after we lift off.”

“Jane, what are you doing here?” Steven said.

“Hmph, what? You don’t want to me come with you?”

“Eh, no. I just, only the guides were supposed to follow.”

“Well, the captain wanted to send someone else with the group. To keep an eye on you all. Now take a seat, we don’t have all day.”

Everyone took a seat and strapped in securely. The engines started, and they were soon in the air. As this was Adams first time flying in a plane he was quite surprised by the feeling one gets when you lift of the ground. He looked around and saw that many of the non military had pale faces and looked terrified.

Hah, what wussies. It wasn’t that bad, Adam thought.

The smooth ride continued for about an hour.

“Okay, listen up everyone. We are almost at the drop point. Gear up and get ready.”

Adam looked at Steven.

“What is Jane talking about?”

Steven only replied with a smile.

“Adam, listen up.” Jane walked over. “We are about to jump out. Steven will help you gear up. Get ready, we jump in ten.”

“Jump? What the?”

“Oh right, you missed the briefing. Well, there is no landing area where we are going so yeah… Steven will jump with you so don’t worry.”

“Steven, what is she talking about? Surely she can’t mean…” Adam realized why the others looked so terrified.

“I’m afraid you have no choice. Don’t worry, just close your eyes if it gets too much.”

Steven helped Adam with the gear. It was a full body suit, like something a diver would use, with goggles, gloves, boots and a helmet with voicecom built in. Then Steven equipped his own and connected the two together. Steven also had the main parachute backpack on him.

“Okay, here is the deal.” Jane explained. “I will jump last, incase something goes wrong, I might be able to catch you. But don’t worry, nothing will go wrong. This is special military gear designed for jumping out in cold weather. In fact, it’s designed especially for this place. However, thanks to the recent events, the military have no need for such things anymore. Which is why you are using it now.”

The hatch in the back of the plane opened up. The white snow covered ground could be seen from high above.

It was a total of fifteen people. Seven pairs of civilian plus guide and Jane.

“Okay, go go go! Trust your guide and try not to scream too much.”

“Nooooo!!!”

“Please, do we have to?”

“My heart, it can’t take this….”

Many complained, but in the end the pairs jumped out one at the time.

Adam and Steven was the last pair to jump.

“You ready?”

“Eh, no?”

“You said you wanted to fly in a jet plane. This is a good start.”

“I’m pretty sure I never said thaAAAAAAAAAAAt!!” Adam screamed as Steven started running and jumped out.

Jane as the last one to jump, went to the pilots to say good bye.

“Well, delivery completed. Good job. I’m jumping now.” Just as she was about to leave, the radio came alive with a sparking sound.

*Pssssh* “You may proceed with your landing sequence. Over.”

They all looked at each other in confusion.

“When did we get a landing area? Over.”

“It was finished yesterday. Over.”

“Oh, we already dropped our cargo… Over.”

“I see. Well are you coming down anyway? You can be the first plane to land. Over.”

The pilots smiled at that. The fame from being the first pilots to land here was not insignificant.

Jane however cared little for that. She wanted to jump, she was already dressed for it too.

“Well, see ya later guys. I’m jumping now. Land if you want. Maybe someone wants a lift at the base.”

Jane jumped out. She turned around in the air to see the plane turn towards the base and starting their descent.

Meanwhile Adam fell rapidly towards the ground. The wind pressure was extremely strong, cold and most importantly loud.

Steven hadn’t deployed the parachute yet.

“HEY, YOU OK!?” Steven shouted into the mic.

“WHA?! WHAT DID YOU SAY? OK? YES!” Adam shouted back.

“GOOD. I’M GOING TO PULL THE CHUTE IN THREE SECONDS. GET READY!”

“WHAT WAS WHAT?”

Suddenly, Adam recoiled upwards in the air. The parachute had deployed and after a hard stop, it now gave a slow controlled descent.

Everyone in the group landed safely.

The guides quickly detached themselves from the civilians, and they in turn immediately kneeled down to the ground.

Jane landed not longer after.

“Hey, what is that plane doing? Asmoz said. “Is that fucking landing?”

Immediately every civilian’s attention was on the plane.

“What the...”

“You got to be kidding me…”

“Why?”

“Everyone, calm down, I can explain.” Jane quickly started explaining. “After you all jumped, I went to say goodbye to the pilots and then suddenly from the radio they told us we had permission to land. Turns out it just finished yesterday. We had no idea. Honestly. But hey, now that it’s over it wasn’t that bad right? Aren’t you actually happy you managed to get through this challenge?”

“Yeah, skip the motivation talk bullcrap.”

“Hehe, anyway, let’s go inside. The suit may protect against the worst of the cold but it’s still uncomfortable to stand outside.”

Jane led the group towards a large bunker type building. A large five meter in diameter and one meter thick circular vault door opened to let them in. Inside was another large vault door, but this one was slightly different. It led underground.

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