// MARCH 3RD 2025 The temperature drop was really noticeable, as the team of four rookies was sitting in the metal carcass of a tiltrotor. It was a very long flight, seven hours ago they boarded that vehicle in Casablanca and only now they were approaching their destination in the middle of nowhere. Teacher was the only one of the older members to accompany newbies on their first Rift closure and he was mostly silent, implying that they should get their sleep while they can, but now he finally stood up. He was short enough to easily walk in a pretty compact cabin, that was designed with speed in mind and not comfort. Looking out of the windows, nobody could see anything of note. It was just an eternal whiteness of the winter taiga somewhere in Siberia.
“Nope, can’t see it from here. That’s gud. Even perfect. For your final test, I mean.”
Teacher tried to sound cheery, but it didn’t sound that earnest because of his poker face. They learnt about this mission only yesterday, it was quite unexpected to the say the least. But as senpais said, this was normal. You never know when something goes down until it becomes a high priority, and in this line of work it was one the most general principles.
“Yo, guys, tomorrow you’ll go to Russia to close a Rift!”
“Way to spoil a soehrprise, idiot.”
“What? That was supposed to be a surprise?”
Sunday and Meteora were always trashtalking each other, but they were not on bad terms, that was just their way of showing that they are true friends. So, this verbal exchange wasn’t distracting rookies from a fact that they just received a call to a mission. In the middle of a training session. Orca, who was responsible for those in the absence of Teacher, scanned both Lotus with her black eyes from the shadow under the building’s wing and sighed, but she was completely ignored by an Irish.
“Yes, where is your sense of woender? Anyway, you guys will go to Be-chin…chin? We’ve joest got confirmation by Teach, dat there is a newly-opened Rift.”
“It’s
Bechencha.”
“Sure. You will fly at 3 am, so it’s 12 hours till you leave. The weather there is harsh and well, I would recommend to not wet your pants in the Rift.”
“Also, rest up, the broken schedule is hard to deal with and you kinda want to be in a good condition.”
Bechencha was in fact a name of a small village in Siberia, populated by around 700 people. So, it was definitely not a priority target for The Things and this new Rift was just a «fluctuation», as they were called. Those were appearing quite often and didn’t possess any global danger but were perfect for training against actual freaks from the other side. Thus, the training was over long before Orca planned it to end. She wasn’t in a position to do something, so she politely disappeared… If you can call disappearing a giant slowly crawling from shadow to a bright sunlight and gracefully walking towards main building, while trying to cover her eyes from offensive photons and shortly saying.
“Dismissed.”
Orca wasn’t very approachable, and she rarely spoken to the rookies directly for some reasons. Mostly she was busy with her own duties and while new generation was spending last couple of weeks in Casablanca, they were mostly training with Teacher. Until yesterday, when he was taken to Odysseus…
“So, what do you think?” CEO asked casually, while sipping his freshly made coffee.
“Well, they are decent, I guess,” Teacher was leaning on the table and was as always calm and neutral.
“I mean, are they ready?”
“No, they trained only for a month. I still don’t know how they’ll work as a team and they lack experience.”
“Sounds bad.”
“Wouldn’t say so.”
“Then, what do you think?”
While repeating a question, CEO made face practically screaming “Don’t you dare to repeat your answer”. Teacher red that quite good but still grinned as he was going to do just that and then continued.
“
Moira is great, but will need a little bit of guidance. She depends on her device a lot and it feels like she is one breakdown away from cutting that cat of hers open in hopes to understand everything. I’d say we need to open Hiroshima to her sooner rather than later. She will be very useful there and safe from her... potential chasers. Pretty sure Akane would love to have her around.”
CEO nodded in agreement and started to hustle through the papers on his table, trying to find the correct file.
“Then we have
Heathen. He is a weirdo and he can easily chat with Things. I kinda hate it, but as long as it works… can deal with it. Even casting that aside, dude is too extreme. Somehow got an old Companion out of nowhere, somehow has a girlfriend from the Rift and casually traverses the border between.”
“Aren’t you paranoid?”
“Well, I am scared of him and even more I am scared
for him. But he will fit greatly in Chernobyl, if we assign there a good therapist. And also check on him more often.”
“What about Hiroshima?”
“Akane.”
“Oh, yes, didn't think about it… And «Agent Green»?”
“Can’t comment on
Green that much. She works hard and has her head straight. Not that much of a highlight, but she is dependable. I hope she will figure herself out soon, than she'll be a leader material.”
“Is she like him?”
“A little bit. They work differently but I can see the similarities.”
“Has she asked?”
“Haven’t had much time. Pretty sure she will. Hope I won’t be a target.”
He looked to the side, where on the wall of this cabinet were placed old photos of Lotus. Every Generation had one taken after assembling, but this time it was so hectic, that they still didn’t appear at Odysseus at the same time. Teacher himself was on one of those photos and even smiling. He wasn’t even the gloomiest member: to the left of him was a guy with an emo-hairstyle hugging a dog and to the right — bold guy with a signature smirk and a small Chinese boy hanging from the top of the picture. Now only one of them was standing… Teacher coughed.
“Anyway,
Willpower… Well, haven’t actually talk to her that much. But she has somebody to fight for, so I wouldn’t expect any problems, unless there is something with her sister.”
CEO clapped his hands and lifted the paper from the table, giving it to the Teacher.
“Here. Fly there tomorrow and try to assess them.”
“I thought we don’t have to hurry.”
“We still don’t. But I just want them to be ready, so we need to check how will they deal with a Rift.”
Shaw finally emptied his mug and loudly placed it on the table, while trying to find another document with his left hand. Teacher watched him for a little but then turned his attention to a file describing a newly opened Rift.
Tiltrotor calmly lowered its height and finally touched the earth, couple of seconds later the door loudly cracked and moved, opening the way to a team. The cold wind didn’t bother waiting and instantly greeted the newcomers, reminding them that he is not very happy to see them. Teacher instantly walked towards a backpack and managed to get the power cord from inside of his clothes and handed the input inside.
“Manhattan, can you please chew on it?” the overcharging hamster inside finally awakened from his slumber and with a little sigh put that cord in his mouth. Instantly the vest started heating, and Nico gladly thanked his Companion: “Danke.”
“I doubt your phones would work in that temperature, and there is no signal, so I would recommend to leave one of your Companions behind to find a way back from the forest. As for the Rift… Let’s recall the closure procedures. Firstly you check the area for Murders. You don’t want them running around and causing mayhem. After you’ve dealt with them, you go inside. Don’t forget to start a timer and pay some attention to it. It’s your first, so… be faster. When you go through, there is a little island of stability around the Anchor. And quite often there is some kind of an Apex, so be ready to fight. But your priority is Anchor. Break it and get out or Rift will still spit you out. It’s painful. If there are still Things around, finish them and the mission is complete. Then Casablanca or R&D will deal with Damage control if requested but that’s for Rifts in… more civilized regions.”
He looked around just to prove a point of that place not being a part of civilization. The closest human being alive was 60 kilometers away and the only spectator was a sleepy owl on a branch of one of the trees. It was quite lazy not to fly away after hearing the sound of a tiltrotor. Jumping down from the vehicle, rookies were met by a one meter of snow. The untouched nature was not happy with such an unnatural intrusion.
“It’s not far. You should be able to go there by foot. But you will need to find your way back, so try to leave some kind of a trail or just give a signal, I’ll try to respond. Good Luck, I guess…”
Teacher waved his hand from the inside of a vehicle. Maybe it was even worse, considering the thermal conductivity of metal. Or maybe that was a silent plea for dealing with this task as soon as possible?..