The Scrap Tamer - Chapter 91

Chapter 91: Meeting The Senior Officer
The next morning came, but Reid had barely gotten any sleep.

He knew firsthand what a Codex was capable of—Evo had taken him from barely Iron rank to Gold in under a year.

The thought of a group obsessed with destruction wielding that kind of power was nothing short of terrifying.

Plus, there might be one other Codex somewhere out there and he had no idea where to start looking for it.

Sigh.

Reid let out a long sigh, thinking about all this gave him a headache so he decided to just take things one step at a time.

For now, he had to report to the officer barracks. He then proceeded to put on his cadet uniform and strapped the weights on himself.

At this point, he barely felt their presence even with their self adjustment feature.

He walked out of his room to find Lisa waiting by the door for him which surprised him, since he was sure not many had woken up at this hour.

“Good morning, Reid” she greeted.

Reid blinked at her, still shaking off the last remnants of sleep. “Morning,” he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. “You’re up early.”

“So are you.” She leaned against the wall, arms crossed.

Reid nodded, falling into step beside her as they walked through the dimly lit corridors of the tower.

The tower was quiet at this hour, save for the occasional murmurs of early risers.

As they exited the building, Lisa shot him a sideways glance. “You look like hell.”

“Didn’t sleep much,” Reid admitted.

“Is it about what happened yesterday?” Lisa asked.

Reid let out a tired sigh. “Yeah”

Lisa’s expression turned thoughtful as they walked. “Yeah… I’ve been thinking about that too. At first, I figured it was just some freak accident, but the more I replay it in my head, the less sense it makes.”

Reid remained silent as he contemplated telling her.

Lisa tilted her head. “You’re being weirdly quiet.”

“Remember the primal siege that happened in the city?” Reid started as he they stopped walking.

At this point, they had already descended the slope that led to the tower where they stayed.

Lisa furrowed her brows. “Yeah, hard to forget. The whole city was in chaos” she said.

“Yeah, that one” Reid answered.

He took a short pause before continuing “a certain group that called themselves The Cult was responsible for summoning the being that summoned all those primals.”

“A cult?” she narrowed her eyes “Why was nothing about a cult mentioned on the news or even by father who helped fight the being summoned?”

“That’s because your father might not know about the cult and the government decided to keep the involvement of the cult under wraps for some reason” Reid explained.

“I see, then how does the cult relate to the incident that happened yesterday?” She asked, although she already knew where he was going with this.

Reid sighed before saying “I think the cult was involved in the sudden summon of the abomination in our test.”

Lisa frowned, her arms crossing tighter. “You’re saying they somehow hacked into a military simulation? That shouldn’t even be possible.”

Reid nodded. “Exactly. The whole system is airtight, or at least it’s supposed to be. But that thing appearing? That was no glitch, that thing didn’t even seem like something that should exist.”

Lisa was silent for a moment before finally speaking. “So, what do we do?”

Reid glanced at her, surprised. “You believe me?”

She scoffed. “I trust you, dumbass. Besides, you’re right—this whole thing doesn’t add up.”

Reid’s surprise was evident, not at the fact that Lisa who mostly acted shy around him was being unusually blunt, but at how easily she accepted a theory even he wasn’t too sure of.

Lisa noticed his look and rolled her eyes. “Don’t give me that face. You’re not the only one with a brain, you know.”

Reid chuckled, shaking his head. “Fair enough.”

Lisa let out a slow breath, pressing her fingers against her temples as she processed everything he just said.

“Alright, so we know this cult is involved, but what now? If the government covered up their existence before, I doubt they’d be eager to listen to a couple of cadets, well officers now.” She asked.

“Yeah, which means if we want answers, we’ll have to find them ourselves,” He answered.

“So, where do we start?” She asked but Before Reid could answer, the sound of approaching footsteps drew their attention.

Reid turned his attention to the approaching trio—Clara, Ethan, and Marcus. Judging by the bags under their eyes, none of them had gotten much sleep either.

“Morning, guys,” Clara greeted, stretching her arms over her head.

“Morning,” Reid replied, noting the sluggishness in Ethan’s movements. “Rough night?”

Ethan groaned. “You have no idea. I tried running simulations to analyze what happened, to know why the AI would generate a primal above the specified rank and every result stated that it shouldn’t.”

“Unless some had caused it to generate that primal which I’m sure the military wouldn’t do since that was just meant to be a simple training session” Ethan completed.

Reid exchanged a look with Lisa. That all but confirmed their suspicions that the abomination was not a glitch of the system, it was deliberately placed there.

Silence fell over the group, each with a thought running through their minds.

“So, what now?” Marcus asked, “How do we figure out who was behind the tampering?”

“I have a group in mind,” Reid said, his voice firm. “The Cult.”

Clara’s brows furrowed. “A cult? What cult?”

Reid exhaled, knowing he was about to drop a lot on them. “They were responsible for the primal siege that nearly destroyed the city. They are a group of fanatics who think of primals as some kind of divine punishment humans should just silently accept.”

“And we haven’t heard of them because?” Clara asked again.

“Because the government is actively trying to cover up their involvement in any of the beast sieges” Reid answered “which means one of two things, either they are keeping it hidden not to spread panic or the cult has someone of a higher rank in the government.”

“Which means reporting our suspicion to the higher ups might just put us in danger” Lisa said.

“Exactly, That’s why we’ll have to search for proof on our own” Reid said “at least, until we have someone we can trust.”

“Easier said than done,” Marcus pointed out. “Where do we even begin looking for that kind of proof?”

Ethan snapped his fingers. “The logs. If someone tampered with the simulation, there has to be a record of it. Every system action leaves a trace, even if they tried to cover it up. If I can get access to the core logs of the training ground, I might be able to find out what happened.”

“Won’t that be risky?” Clara asked. “Won’t someone notice if you start poking around in the system?”

“Not if I’m careful,” Ethan said confidently. “I can mask my activity so it looks like a routine check. But I’ll need time.”

“Then you focus on that,” Reid said. “Lisa and I will try to gather more intel on the Cult itself—see if we can find any patterns in their past actions.”

“And what about us?” Marcus asked, motioning to himself and Clara.

“I need you two to keep an eye out for anything suspicious,” Reid said. “If the Cult is watching us, we need to know who they are and what they’re planning next.”

Clara nodded. “Got it. So, we’re basically spying on a bunch of lunatics who worship primals and might have government connections. No pressure.”

They stood in silence for a while before their watches suddenly beeped.

{Report to the officer’s barracks} was the message on it which reminded them where they were headed.

Reid glanced at the message on his watch and let out a quiet breath. “Looks like it’s time, let’s get going.”

______

The walk to the officer’s barracks didn’t take long and before they knew it, they were already facing commander Ajax.

“Good morning, Sir” they greeted in unison.

At ease,” commander Ajax said, his voice carrying the usual gruff authority. “As you already know, your promotion to officers was finalized yesterday. Today, you’ll be introduced to your senior officer, who will oversee your field training and assignments.”

He took a step back and gestured toward a figure standing beside him.

They hadn’t noticed him when they entered, until the commander pointed him out. He had a face they recognized all to well.

After all, they just faced him in the simulation less than 24 hours ago. Owen regarded them with his usual tired look.

“You might recognize officer Owen” Commander Ajax introduced “He’ll be your senior officer hence forth”.

Reid and his team exchanged glances, unsure how to react. Owen, the same man they had fought in the simulation—the one who had overwhelmed them with his nightmare domain—was their senior officer?

__________

Happy Vals day to you all..