They arrived at a rectangular tower-like structure, which was labelled ‘B-Grade Zarcona Institute Garment Storage’.
It was four stories in height, and was littered with individuals around it walking, now clad in exosuits of various colours.
“If you don’t have an exosuit with you, please go in there. If you have your own, you can just go and get them. You must be here within 10 minutes so do not waste time.” Mr Lennox commanded.
They could hear that he was attempting to emulate Sir Agramonte with his tone of voice, but it almost sounded forced. It was like he attempted to command a similar level of respect as him.
Cael and all the people of Carlo City possessed their own exosuits for them to utilise, and there didn’t seem to be any restriction on what they could utilise.
Many of the exosuits were the standard black colour, but Cael’s stuck out with its dark golden hue.
Cael and the students followed the official into an airbus, along with several other students as they rode toward the dazzling skyline a few kilometres from them. Moving at the near sonic speeds of this airbus, it didn’t take long at all for them to arrive at their destination.
They strolled through the streets, walking through the massive, futuristic buildings that surrounded them. Air vehicles rushed straight past them with immense speed, whilst remaining surprisingly quiet from not touching the ground.
With this official ahead of them and could feel a sense of fear exuding from any single person in their presence.
From the crowd of individuals here, they could discern which people were native. They had dark black hair, similar to Cael’s, but had golden-brown skin. Whenever they glanced upon Mr. Lennox, they were keen to look away and not pay much attention to him.
As they walked, there was a young native boy that was stood in the centre of the pavement. This child stood in the way of them, and looked in their direction, exhibiting a mixture of fear and curiosity.
“Move your child!” Mr. Lennox then commanded, glaring at the mother who was stood beside the kid.
She rushed over with fear, grabbing her kid and lifting him whilst moving out of his path.
“I apologise, officer.” She replied, with a broken and terrified tone of voice.
Mr. Lennox didn’t even give her another glance and scoffed before powering through the pavement.
“We’re nearly here. It’ll be another five minutes or so.” He stated, stood up firmly and walking forward powerfully.
They soon arrived at an oldish looking building. It was definitely far older than any sort of building that would be used for governmental purposes back in Carlo City or pretty much anywhere in mainland Soburg.
It stood at three stories, being of similar height to the buildings it was snugly level with. There were white pillars running up the walls, which were made of a red-orange brick.
“This is the base of operations we’ll be conducting ourselves from. When you have a duty with me, report to this building first and you will find me here.” Mr Lennox explained before entering.
As he entered, there was another colonial officer at the door that seemed to be talking to some other person at this entrance area. However, upon catching a glance at the incoming colonial officer, he stood up straight and emotion washed completely off his face.
Standing up firm and unmoving, he held a firm salute to the man that walked past him. Mr Lennox gave him a respectful nod before continuing on his path, and many others greeted the redhead in a similar fashion.
Judging from the unconditional respect he received, Cael could tell that he was of a high rank. They arrived at a spiralling staircase located at the backend of this building, and they stopped off at the first floor before arriving at what they assumed was the man’s office.
Inside such a building was some bookshelves, along with a large windowpane that opened up to the neighbouring skyline of Zarcona. The towers were so tall that you couldn’t even see them fully through this rather wide view.
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It would have to require somebody to poke their head through to see the tops of these towers, and that was if there weren’t clouds present to shield them.
The man dropped right into his chair, before revealing several holographic panels and a folder of paperwork.
“Now, this is what we’ll be working with during this time. You’re all going to be working in the neighbouring office with the other privates to weed your way through all this.”
The standing students approached him with curiosity, attempting to view these panels for themselves. Their eyes shot between these various floating documents, which highlighted the several forms of administration that they’d have to operate and sign off.
The colonial officers seemed to receive taxes from the inhabitants of the nation, which would head straight for the main territory of the Soburg Empire.
Upon perusing these pages and looking more closely, Cael felt surprised by the rates that he could see. These colonies simply had their resources usurped from them and sent straight to the main territory, for their benefit.
He couldn’t stop but look out to the glamourous view behind him. The towering structures and infrastructure of this place looked somewhat advanced but was far behind that of Carlo City.
When thinking of Oseron, the gap between the capital and this colony was even more apparent. Compared to the areas within the main territory, this place certainly looked like a backwater colony in its own ways.
Along with that, many of the manufacturing operations within colonies was state-owned. Within the large factories and depots of these factories, they would put the natives through strenuous work for extremely low wages.
These factories would usually produce items like luxury goods and technology ubiquitous in Soburg. Looking down to the redhead officer that sat to his right, his face showed nothing but indifference.
How could he cosign and condone this? How could anybody condone this?
The argument that they were advancing these territories always persisted. Many of these states would be doomed to become even more underdeveloped and primitive if the Soburg Empire were to leave them to their own resources.
Was this a good enough argument? Couldn’t they work as associates, willing to at least work in co-operation with these colonies, not as dominating forces?
“You won’t be doing any of this until 5. I’ll give you all an introduction to how you conduct yourselves with this administrative work but for now, I’ll explain to you how to patrol.” He explained.
Now showing panels of a different nature, he laboriously went through the protocol of patrolling and how they were to operate.
If they found a certain incident, they would be tasked with solving it, if possible. If not, they could refer to Mr. Lennox or other members of their patrol unit.
In addition to this, colonial officers would respond to certain emergency calls. Their patrol unit controlled a certain zone within Zarcona when on duty and they’d cover calls from that area.
It was nearing midday, and the group descended the spiral staircase of this building to arrive at the streets of Zarcona.
Upon reaching the tarmac streets, Mr. Lennox revealed a large blue panel showing an aerial map of the surrounding territory.
“Use your projectors to download this map. This is the route that we take. Don’t divert from it unless in the case of an emergency.” Mr Lennox furthered, as they began walking along this route.
The three of them were rather silent, since they weren’t exactly close. Blaine was the most reserved, not even giving glances to the fighters by his side.
Instead, they sent strong glances and gazes to the surrounding to try and identify any questionable people and events.
Just their presence was enough to make the natives that they could see tremble, while also get as far away from them as possible.
Mr. Lennox looked to relish his identity of power that he assumed in this patrol. He showed not even an iota of respect to these citizens and seemed to be abusing his authority.
Taking a left down the street, they could see a hooded man storming out of a corner shop, holding two white bags.
He stared at the incoming soldiers, and looked on with gazes of trepidation. Turning to his left, the storeowner rushed out of the glass entrance, trying to grab the man. However, he rushed away in a sprint, and could easily outrun the overweight man.
The apron that he wore also blocked his movements, and he soon turned to the people behind him.
“Get hm!” Mr. Lennox shouted, before jogging forward.
Cael advanced, along with his friends but Blaine seemed to be the keenest. Also being the fastest out the three, he left the other two in the dirt as he shot himself forward at high speed.
Speeding across the streets, the man that presumably had mana was still no match for him. With his exosuit powering himself even further, there was no way for this man to run away.
The gap between them closed in just a second, and Blaine grabbed the man, thrusting him into the ground.
“Stay down and don’t move!” He ordered with a bold, dark tone, before slamming the man into the floor once again.
The man groaned in reaction, struggling to try and free himself.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I just want to feed my kids! AAH!!” He shouted, struggling to try and get out from Blaine’s powerful grasp.
“Stay quiet, you goon!” Blaine ordered, slamming him into the ground once again.
With his teeth gritted, Cael could see the fury in his eyes. Cael just bit his lip upon witnessing this treatment; it was hard for him to just stay back and watch this happen. For what he’d done, Cael felt like the treatment was a little excessive, but Mr. Lennox seemed indifferent to his style of containing him.
His projector scanned the man’s face, and he was swiftly identified.
“Cristian Valerio. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.” Mr. Lennox called out, placing thick, metal handcuffs onto the man.