Jordan Outpost
It took about an hour for them to reach their destination.
It was gradual, but everyone eventually noticed that they were close to their destination. The road beca less bumpy and the vegetation started to recede and beco more open.
Soon after, they reached a clearing, and in the middle of that clearing was a structure.
"Oh, that’s Jordan Outpost." Ellie pointed out with so excitent and Osho’s eyes lit up.
To further their exploration of the wilderness, so outposts would be created outside a Citadel to allow for easier movent. To be clear, these outposts weren’t the sa as Haven class Citadels, they were significantly smaller and mostly acted as hubs for beast tars who frequently went into the wild. One could rest there, exchange for items, commission people, and so on.
Jordan Outpost was one of the more popular outposts of the Blossom Citadel, mostly because if you kept moving in that direction you’d eventually reach a chain of mountains called the Black Rock Chain which was made up of a special black ore that had nurous useful properties like energy conductivity, great tensile strength, and so on. The walls surrounding Blossom Citadel were largely made of this material and it was one of their main sources of trade and comrce.
The Outpost itself wasn’t massive, covering about 4 square miles. There were walls about 10 ters (39.370 feet) tall. They were lined with turrets and Beast Tars walked across them, surveying the surroundings.
There were also watchtowers at the corners, and Osho could see a flying beast soaring above the Outpost, most likely looking for anything that could be approaching from a distance.
Osho felt a surge of competitiveness from Gake at the sight of the beast and he chuckled while stroking the bird to appease it. Now that he thought about it, Gale seed to be the only flying beast in their batch, so he had never had the chance to compare his skills with others.
’Now isn’t the ti though.’ Osho thought.
The bus soon reached the gate, and unlike with the Citadel, they were let right in. As soon as they entered, the students got a look at what an Outpost was like in person for the first ti.
The first thing they noticed was the lack of tall buildings, which made sense. If a stray attack went over the walls, any tall building was at risk of getting shredded simply for being in the way. Beyond that, though, most of the buildings seed quite crude in their architecture. Looks-wise that is, they were built to be sturdy, but they weren’t particularly aesthetically appealing.
Even then, the place seed to have an odd rustic charm to it. Moreover, the buildings were set in such a way that would make any perfectionist happy. The architect seed quite fond of their symtry.
The roads weren’t tarred but instead were made up of concrete tiles, similar to what one would see in an ancient dieval civilization.
Besides the architecture, the people were also sothing. Most people walked around with their beasts on display, but it wasn’t because they were trying to show off. It was so that they wouldn’t be caught off-guard by anything, so their beasts were always at the ready.
As for the Tars, there was a general somber air to them. Most of them wore armor, so similar to the Synthetic Suits the students wore, others more advanced, others less. Many of these armors seed worn and beaten, a testant to all the hardships they must have endured.
So beast tars also had injuries, from small things like scars to more significant things like an entire lost limb, robotic prosthetics taking their place.
It was a far cry from the comfortable atmosphere of the Citadel, and it seed to settle over the students like a cloud.
Ellie felt a bit unnerved, but not too much. She’d been trained to handle sights like this already. Many of her classmates seed to pale at the sights, though, which wasn’t surprising. Seeing sothing on your phone or television never beats seeing it in person. The sll, the sights, it was a different ballga entirely.
Yet, when she looked at Osho, he seed... unperturbed.
He looked at everything with a strange calm that didn’t fit with his status as a student. It made sense for Mrs Jane and the soldiers, but as soone who has supposedly never left the Citadel before, he was oddly composed by everything they were seeing.
But she didn’t question it.
While she made jokes about it, she was quite certain in her guess that Osho’s background wasn’t so simple. However, he had never told her, and she wouldn’t force him to talk when he wasn’t ready.
As such, she simply noted the anomaly and continued to watch everything as the convoy drove past.
They received many stares, but there was no awe or wonder in the eyes of the people here, just a vague sense of curiosity, but a lot of it was indifference.
And maybe even pity.
Soon, the convoy reached a part of the Outpost that seed closed off. They stopped at a set of gates and the front bus seed to give the guard stationed there sothing before the gates were opened and the convoy drove in.
What t them was an open area filled with a lot of military tents. On one side, the tents were arranged neatly and weren’t particularly large, making it easy to assu that this was where people were ant to sleep.
On another side, there were fewer but larger tents, each seeming to serve a specific purpose.
The buses parked in one of the open areas and everyone started to disembark.
Once everyone was arranged neatly, Mrs Jane started to address them once more.
"This is where you will all be staying for the next five days. We will head out of the Outpost to complete certain exercises. These exercises will be 8 hours each." When she said that, she watched as everyone shifted slightly, an 8 hour Long exercise seed quite daunting, but she continued regardless.
"For now, you will all be assigned tents with a partner. In each tent, a set of equipnt is waiting for you. So listen up as I call your tent number and your partner." After that, she started listing the tent number and the partners.
She spoke quickly, so everyone listened to make sure they didn’t miss their na. But her voice was clear, so everyone caught their nas fairly easily.
To his relief, Osho had been assigned a tent with Ellie, he’d turn into a robot if it was with soone he didn’t know.
As soon as they got their number, the girl about dragged him to their tent, which was number 27.
"This should be fun." She said sounding giddy, and Osho just shrugged as he allowed himself to be pulled along.
They soon reached their tent, which was certainly different from any military tents Osho saw in his past life.
’Normal’ tents are usually made from things like Nylon or Polyester. But this tent seed to be made of a Synthetic material not unlike the one that made up his suit. So it was exceptionally durable.
Once they entered, he was pleasantly surprised to know that just like his suit, the inside was well-ventilated and cool. It also kept the sun out well.
It wasn’t too big, just enough for two people to use. The floors of the tent were padded, so even if one decided to lie on the ground directly, there wouldn’t be much discomfort.
On opposite sides of the tent were two bright green sleeping bags that, quite frankly, hurt to look at, and on top of them were a set of items.
There was a knife, a watch, sothing that looked like a whistle, a pouch, and a set of goggles.
"Wow, they’re seriously setting up the standard for the military." Ellie joked and conveniently moved to the left side of the tent to that sleeping bag.
She squatted to inspect her items and Osho’s gaze gravitated to her backside for a mont before he decided to focus on his things.
He picked up the knife first which was sheathed, and the sheath had a strap. He unsheathed it and saw the pale white blade inside that oddly enough, only reflected light on one side.
"Oh, these are bone alloy blades." He remarked and an affirming hum ca from Ellie. At so point, humans figured out how to make alloys using the incredibly durable bones of beasts and the special tals of the earth, and they were a popular choice when it ca to weapons due to their sturdiness and relative production simplicity.
Next was the watch. It was also a military grade item, and besides being sturdy, heat-resistant, and waterproof, it had a tracking and navigation function, a map function that had a general outline of the forest around them, a communication function, a vitals function, and a distress signal option.
"This watch is heavenly." Osho said with a deadpanned expression and Ellie cackled. She walked over to him and hugged him from behind, placing her head on his shoulder and watched as he fiddled with his watch.
Osho didn’t show any signs of surprise at the sudden affection.
"It’s pretty good right? Well, these aren’t even the more advanced versions of the watch. These are only 4th generation stuff." She explained before showing him her wrist. Unlike the one he was fiddling with, this watch seed sleeper, almost more fragile.
"This is a 5th generation one. It has like, double the features on that." She said with a sly smile and Osho turned to her with an indignant expression.
"Damn rich kids."
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