The last was Roland Royce. My old friend, who had been raised to be my brother’s retainer.
I hadn’t seen him in months. From Sera’s expression, she was equally surprised, but she rushed past the rest of us to give him a hug.
They’d been getting close at the beginning of the school year. Was there something going on there?
Eh, none of my business.
“Well, it seems like some of you are already acquainted, but let’s do introductions regardless.” Kathy clapped her hands together. “Let’s form a circle and say our names.”
We followed her instructions. The second-year student for their team introduced himself as Jordan Jaldin. He was apparently a Mender.
Kathy didn’t say the name of her attunement, and her mark wasn’t visible.
“Great!” Kathy beamed. “Now that we all know each other, on to the fun part. Your mission briefing!”
Literally no one else, including the other second-year student, seemed excited about this “fun” part.
“Okay, so! For this scenario, you’re going to be sent into a simulated version of the Unclaimed Lands. Your two teams will be working together to deliver a shipment of useful supplies to a ‘new settlement’, which consists of several other teams of students. The supplies you’ll be carrying are real, and they’re going to be useful things the other students will want, so don’t lose them or let them get broken!”
Kathy folded her hands together. “Naturally, that means that there will be other teams working to steal or destroy your stuff. You see, you’ll be moving through territory known to be inhabited by servants of the Tails of Orochi. You all know who they are?”
There were a series of uncertain noises from the group, but Patrick jumped right in. “They’re a cult that worships the children of the God Hydra. They’re not as common as Tyrant cultists, but they’ve got a lot of influence. There are nine tails of Orochi, and they’re—”
“That’s good enough!” Kathy waved a hand. “They’re a cult, and some of the other students are on their team. The Tails groups will be harassing the settler groups, including your own team. We have a map that should lead us to the settlement. If we get there in time — which we should, if you don’t mess this up — you’ll be given another assignment by one of the teachers there. Any questions?”
Marissa stood up from her chair, looking nervous. “Um, why’ve we got two teams ‘ere? This a tough one?”
“Good question! No! There’s a good reason for that, but you’ll probably figure it out when you read your individual assignments. Which you have. All of you. I’ll get those handed out in a few.”
“Individual assignments?” Roland asked.
“Oh, yeah, you should probably know the rules for those. Each of you has individual tasks you’ve been assigned in addition to the main task, which is delivering the goods. Those individual tasks are just as important for your score, maybe more so — it’ll say in your papers. This is important, though.
“You can’t show your individual tasks to anyone else. You can ask for help with them, but you are not allowed to show your papers to other students. And no leaving your papers around so people can find them, either — that’s cheating.”
Why wouldn’t we be able to show our assignments to someone?
Unless…
Oh.
Resh, this is not going to be good.
“Any more questions?”
Sera stood up. “Will you and Jordan be traveling with us?”
“Yup. But we won’t be helping you unless there’s a good reason. Some of your individual tasks may allow you to ask us for specific kinds of help — it’ll say in your papers if so.”
“One more question. Do you have any estimates on how long our particular assignments will last?”
Jordan stood up. “That depends on how long you last. My friend neglected to mention this, but you’ll each be wearing a sigil monitor on your shield sigils during this exercise. If your shield sigil is depleted, it will send us a signal and your location.” He raised a hand-held device that looked like a compass, but marked with several runes.
If that could locate something based on a signal from another item, I definitely wanted to study it later.
Jordan pocketed the item and continued his explanation. “If that happens, we’ll find you and make sure you’re safe, then signal the Soaring Wings to send someone to escort you back to safety. You’ll be done with the test. Needless to say, if this happens before you’ve finished your objective, you fail the test. If it happens after you’ve finished some things and not others…well, you’ll just have to see how you score.”
“Any more questions?”
I was thinking about some, but I decided to wait until after I’d read my assignment. If my suspicions were accurate, it was potentially advantageous for me to avoid asking questions that would give the entire group information.
Kathy retrieved a box containing several sealed envelopes. Each envelope was addressed to one of us. I accepted mine, then went and found a place to sit as far from everyone else as possible to open it.
Cadence, Corin
Platoon Designation: Serpent Epsilon
Primary Assignment: Delivery of goods to designated settlement. When you have reached the designated location, goods will be checked by your contact (see Student Supervisor for information on mission contact).
Secondary Assignment: Discover and eliminate Spider Infiltrator(s).
I had to take a deep breath before I could continue reading.
Resh. Yep, there it is.
I kept reading.
Your platoon and/or the platoon you have been paired with has been infiltrated by one or more members of Spider Division. Some, but not all, of your platoon members have been made aware of this.
The Spider Division member(s) will attempt to sabotage your primary mission, as well as the missions of other teams. For the purpose of this scenario, they are considered infiltrators working for the “Tails of Orochi” organization, who serve as the antagonists for your team during the exercise.
Even if you do not discover your primary mission being actively sabotaged, the Spider Division member(s) may be collecting information that can be passed to other Spider groups already at the settlement, or coordinating with other Tails of Orochi teams (e.g. providing them with location on your information and capabilities). As such, you should be alert at all times, and attempt to discover and eliminate these agents at your soonest opportunity.
You will be rewarded for each Spider you successfully eliminate. This includes Spider operatives in your own platoon(s), as well as Spider agents that you discover in other platoons if applicable.
You will be penalized if the Spider(s) that are associated with your platoon(s) successfully achieve their goals.
You will be penalized if any non-Spider members of your team are eliminated. This penalty will be doubled if they are eliminated directly by a Spider.
As a reminder, you may not show this paperwork to other members of your platoon. You may discuss it verbally, however, or attempt to prove your case through other means.