The next day.
“Oh my god what the heck happened here?”
Gasped one of the fifty Ares soldiers who had been sent the next day, responding to Aron’s order for them to come so that they could receive their training earlier than the rest of the soldiers who were scheduled to arrive by the next week.
And as the rest of the occupants disembarked from the messy boat, they noticed the massive new port which the soldiers knew didn’t exist before, since some of them in this batch had helped in transferring the first batch of the materials to the island when Aron was about to start the construction of the fusion reactor.
The port looked new and futuristic, and though empty, it still commanded respect since it was built differently than any other usual port, it was a hybrid port for both the civilian and military vessels to dock on it without needing any specialized modifications.
Faced with the size of the port the boat those soldiers were in felt out of place finding itself in a situation where you take off your shoes in a house where everyone enters with their on them.
When they got off the boat after it was docked on the dock specifically made for small boats, they met with a few fellow members of Ares who had been on the island throughout its construction, helping Aron in quite a few things and had the honor of witnessing the miracles happening everywhere on the island during the past few months.
“What happened here?” one of the newcomers asked their fellow who was welcoming them on the port.
“I will explain it on the way. We’re operating on a tight schedule,” said the welcoming companion and before he immediately started jogging prompting the newcomers to start jogging behind him as well.
“The longer I’m on this island, the more questions I have,” remarked one of the newcomers as they jogged behind their escort until he noticed the two-hundred meter long train waiting for them.
“GET IN!” the escort shouted and the train’s doors automatically opened as if waiting for them to get in.
One by one, the ARES members boarded the train, finding themselves inside a very luxurious train, which was a first-time experience for many of them.
Taking their seat, the door automatically closed followed by the train starting to move very smoothly, devoid of any friction, it was as if they were floating, which was also true since the train was electromagnetically propelled.
The journey took less than a minute and the soldiers’ eyes widened as they beheld the massive building and developed infrastructure in the vicinity of the city.
A few seconds later, the train finally came to a full stop a few meters away from a door made specifically for the entry to allow those arriving by the train so that they could access the building with it.
One by one, they got off and passed through the door, finding a waiting room on the other side, respectfully taking their seats as soon as possible and started waiting for the following instructions.
……
“Let’s start, shall we?” Aron said as he observed the feed of the soldiers sitting in the waiting room, all showing a military demeanor, quiet and serious expressions on their faces.
[Yes] Nova responded and immediately released a sleeping gas in the room, the gas was subtle enough that the soldiers only realized that something was wrong only when they started to faint.
The moment they fainted, the native Ares members, who had been inside the island since the beginning, entered the room with a fleet of autonomous vehicles. They then started gently placing the soldiers inside the vehicles before they started leaving and headed to the massive elevator in the building, heading to the lowest floor of the building.
Upon their arrival under the floor, the unconscious soldiers were moved to the furthest pods where another native Ares member awaited, supervising the machine.
The machine carefully lifted a soldier, raising him to the highest pod and then placed the soldier in the pod. And now that the soldier was inside the pod, the native Ares member near the machine put the soldier in a more comfortable position making sure that his whole body was in the pod before pressing the button, causing the pod to close before releasing a low hum as it released a golden light inside which started scanning and mapping every atom in the soldier inside the pod and rebuilding and analyzing his body, which was then immediately followed by the optimization of the pod to the specifications of the soldier present in it.
The same process was repeated for all the fifty soldiers who arrived here by the train and were now inside the pods.
Upon completing their placement into the pods, all the soldiers in the pods were simultaneously injected with a needle inside the pod which granted the pod access to their bodies. Using this needle as an access, a strange-looking liquid was injected into them, the amount varied for each soldier since they were being given the exact sufficient amount that was best suited for them.
The liquid immediately started reaching every part of the soldiers’ bodies, everywhere the blood could pass, the strange liquid also made its way, leaving a small part of itself along the way, including the brains of these soldiers.
At the moment, the liquid did nothing to their bodies, similar to the first time when Aron had assimilated with the system.
……
[Attention!] A voice commanded, reverberating inside a stadium as the group of fifty soldiers responded instinctively and arranged themselves into five lines, consisting of ten people each before they could even think of how the heck did they arrive there.
“Where the heck are we?” They wondered to themselves silently, still remaining in their attentive position since the last memory they have was about them waiting for a visit with their general “ARON” which indicated that whatever had happened to them had very likely something to do with him.
[I’m Athena and I will be responsible for your retraining. If you have any questions, ask them now,] Athena introduced herself, materializing in front of the soldier, scaring the shit out of them, however, they still managed to maintain their position.
Among the fifty men, eighteen of them raised their hands to ask their questions.
[Ask them at once and I will answer them] Athena said and following her orders, the latter asked her their questions at once.
“Where are we?” “How did we get here?” “Who are you?” “Can you introduce yourself?”
“” “” “” “” ” “