Chapter 10: Dinner and building tour
The members of squad one gritted their teeth as they made use of the telapod pad to go down to the dining hall designated for the use of the recruits, and cadets attending the academy. By the time they got to the dining hall it was jamb packed with every NEO in the Los Diablos Division that was not currently off somewhere on duty. The crowed dining hall would have been extremally difficult to navigate to their reserved table located at the front of the room, if the officers standing around did not clear a path once they noticed Zeph's black badge. The spectacle of seeing fully fledged NEO's scramble to get out of the way for a day zero cadet made it uncomfortably difficult for the senior instructor to hold in the chuckles that threatened to escape his lips. Having found his seat at the table, Zeph decided to make use of the time it would take for the remaining squads to arrive to read over the V-mail he got from Siael.
"" Open V-mail from Your-Little-Angel613.""
Zeph,
Let me start off by congratulating you on passing the assessment without dying during that run. I bet you are wondering why a system programed by an angel would offer you such a naughty bonus task. The Valkyrie Protocol did not add that little extra task. It is something that I added manually, as a way of saying sorry I pushed you in front a a bus. I also thought it would be a good way to get you over any fears that you might have about your actions being monitored by heaven. Yes you are being watched, and even more closely than a human normally would be, but unless you do something major, you basically have a get out of hell free card. There is also another factor for encouraging you to develop a relationship with those two, but that is not something you need to worry about for now. Anyway good luck getting through your first day of training. I have not looked into what you will be doing, but if the Valkyrie Protocol gave you a task for completing it, it is going to be difficult.
Siael
""Close""
"Welcome everyone, if I had thought this many of you would choose a free meal over your families, and the last game of the regular season of Doom Ball, I would have held this dinner in the larger main dining hall on the second floor. We all know why we are here so I will not give a speech at this time. I want to ask those without a table to make a path best that you can for the cooks, as they wish to serve the food directly, acting as both chef, and waiter for this occasion. I hope everyone finds the food to their liking, and you can thank one of the members of squad one for the inspiration for the main dish."
As the XO sat back down, all eyes turned towards the table of squad one, as they tried to figure out who among the eleven was the inspiration for the main dish. Most of them thought it had to be Laxana Carota, as it was so rare for a Lepus to join NE, and she got the second highest rank in the assessment as well. Add on the fact that she had pink fur, and it was such a low chance of occurring that he odds of getting struck by lightning while winning the grand prize of the LD lotto was higher. But the way one of the recruits reacted to the cook that brought them out their food, proved their idea was false.
"Good evening recruits, my name is..."
"Zimbo! I was told that you would be offered a job, but I never expected you to get hired, or accept the job so quickly."
"Zimbo was not given much choice, but I thank you Officer Demonbane. When Zimbo was closing up for the day to to look for what you called a lime, many many NEO came by food stand with the commissioner. They buy all the meat wraps Zimbo had left. Next thing Zimbo know, Zimbo has officers help Zimbo find lime. In Los Diablos lime is called Zower fruit, and is only use to make some fire water drink. Officers get Zimbo to make more meat wraps with the Zower fruit juice added. Now Zimbo have new good job with big pay thanks to one bite of it."
*munch, munch, munch*
"Demonbane if you have any other ideas about food, please share them with Zimbo or the other cooks when you have time. I guess I better give you all the instruction block before we find ourselves in a food coma. During the first section of your training you will be required to be in uniform at all times, even when leaving the building on your days off. If you wish to leave the building on said days off, you are required to first notify your instructor, me, and your squad leader. Because Cadet Demonbane may still be in training, you can notify Recruit Carota instead. You will also need to sign out with the reception desk, and be issued a emergency response radio. The radio is a backup way of contacting you if the Vlaras Global Positioning and Intergraded Information Neuro Network were to go down for some reason. If you are contacted via the network or radio you must immediately report back to HQ for assignment to the emergency response team. The odds of such are low, but it it something that could happen at any time. For the most part your training with be split into four types. Classes, physical, firearms, and practical, with the last one being focused on the practical application of what you learn in the other three areas of your training. Cadet Demonbane of course will have his training be slightly different, but I am not permitted to talk of those differences at this time. He is free to tell you his squad members about his training day during your daily meaning however. Beyond that you will be mostly restricted to this floor, and ES zero zero one unless the training scheduled dictates otherwise. This is not to punish you an any way. It is because this building has to be able to preform its primary function as a working Nephilim Enforcement Headquarters, and processing center. As you can imagen having several cycles of recruits, and cadets running all over the building might cause a few issues for the officers on duty. That is all I have for you in this little informal instruction block. I looks like we might have a few more minuets before the XO is ready to show you around the building, so can our Squad Supply Officer Sonya Kaineko, please acquire us some cans iced coffee from the automated food and beverage dispenser. That way we can at least have a tasty beverage to enjoy during the mostly dull walk around the building."
"On it."
Sonya ended up having just enough time to make the few trips needed to carry over the twelve drinks before Commissioner Vaughn stood up with a half eaten street taco in his hand.
"Okay recruits, it is time to walk off the dozen meat wraps, or street tacos as I come to find out they are called where the idea to serve them with a wedge of Zower fruit to squeezed over them comes from, you ate. As you have a hopefully clear understanding of where your room is located in regards to this dining hall, I think we can skip that part of the tour. Our first stop will be the classrooms that you will spend a large portion of your time at the academy in. The rooms that you took the assessment in are normally used as the daily briefing rooms for the officers assigned to work in the various departments, such as homicide, and crime scene investigation. So if you will all follow me at this time."
As they walked down the hall Commissioner Vaughn pointed out key locations such as telapods, restrooms, and the instructors lounge that was off limits to the recruits under normal circumstances. A brief stop was made at the main classroom were the recruits were shown that each squad had a assigned row of seats, and that a single occupant restroom was located in the back left corner of the room. Next to the main classroom were smaller ones that would be used to conduct classes on more specialized training once they reached the later stages of their training. While the far end of the floors main hall ended at the gym they would use for the physical training aspect of the academy. Commissioner Vaughn made sure to point out the two locker rooms located on the back side of the gym, before they moved on with the tour.
By the time they reached the second floor that housed the interrogation rooms, and temporary holding cells, squad one understood why senior instructor Westnight asked Sonya to get them iced coffee to drink. The so called building tour might as well been called a urban endurance course, even though it was all done in a single building. The final stop was a stairwell that connected the practice range to the floor used as the academy. They were thankful that the stairwell was located next to the barracks, and shower rooms. As soon as the XO said that they were dismissed most of the recruits made a beeline for their beds, or a toilet. While Zeph, Sonya, and Laxana had to walk to the closest telapod pad that was located back near the dining hall.
"After that so called tour, I need a tall glass of carrot juice and a long hot bath."
"Well we are right next to the dining hall, and I think that the vending machines located by the door had all sorts of drinks, even alcoholic ones in them. So we could always stop by and get you some carrot juice before we go back to our executive suite."
"Do I need to send you another V-mail?"
"No, I was not going to say anything, because I thought that you might want that to be something with just the two of us, but I am okay with it if you are."
"I am not a big fan of carrot juice, so I will be getting myself some fruit milk to enjoy in the bath. You two can get whatever you want to drink, but I do not recommend alcohol, because you remember what the senior instructor told us. Laxana, would you care to join us in the bath, the one in the master bedroom even has massage jets."
"If it is big enough for us all to fit comfortably, and Sonya is okay with me barging in on her alone time with you."
"I snuck a peak earlier, that bathtub is so big that he could invite the other females in our squad too, and still have room to be naughty. I do not mind if you join us, but I get him first."
"Fine, I guess that is what I get for not being more forceful when asking him to shower with me earlier. I know that you will probably not believe me but, I am a virgin so try to be gentle okay."