Transcendent Gene
Chapter 59: First Mission [1]

Chapter 59: First Mission [1]

Almost perfectly an hour after they set off, they reached that place.

It was only a set of coordinates, so there was nothing of note present.

Except, of course, the fleet of several aircraft that were awaiting them.

When they reached, Raymond walked up to the car to greet them. While Gio got out, Seb spoke a few words to the man.

By the time he was looking back at them, they were already nodding at each other.

’He really wants to maintain a distance.’

It seemed Seb was only entertaining enough conversation to not be rude. Once that much was done, he immediately turned to Gio and said his goodbyes.

"Behave while you’re away. A lot of people will suffer if you die early."

Gio nodded wryly.

"Yeah. I’ve personally felt her wrath, so I won’t do anything that forces you to deal with it."

"It’s a little too late for that..."

Seb gave him a dirty look before smiling.

"Well, I’ll leave you alone. As always, stay safe and have fun."

As Gio nodded once more, the car started moving towards the horizon.

His focus could be completely removed from everything else.

Gio looked at the fleet with some awe in his eyes.

’It’s bigger than it was last time.’

There were now eight omnicopters and six starjets surrounding the zephyr.

"They’re usually on standby, so don’t expect to see them often. They’re here now because we only just regrouped."

Raymond’s voice came from nearby, drawing his eyes away.

"Welcome to Blue Steel Squad. Don’t talk about the name. It was forced on me."

"If you say it like that, aren’t you forcing me to say something about it?"

"No. I’ve heard this before and it’s never been a good–"

"Hey, hey, Captain, the new kid has a point, you know? It really is just the way you talk that makes it so easy to make fun of you."

The conversation was interrupted by a man who wrapped his arm around Gio’s shoulders as he spoke. Looking up, Gio saw a tall person with straw-brown hair and skin a shade darker than his own.

He had a lankier build, but it wasn’t because he didn’t have any muscle. He approached without a single sound, so it was more than obvious that he was trained.

"Now isn’t the time, Jax. I’m trying to make a good first impression."

"This isn’t the first impression, though?"

"You stay out of this, Gio. It’s too early for you to be teaming up with them against me."

Raymond looked back to the man named Jax to argue, but he wasn’t going to let that happen.

"Anyway, newbie! Before the Captain can start yapping, allow me to introduce myself. The name’s Ajax. Just call me Jax, though. I’m basically this squad’s most important member, so be sure to treat me properly, alright?"

"Yeah, he’s not going to be doing that."

The arm around Gio’s shoulder was yanked away as its owner was dragged by the collar.

"Gio, if you go to the zephyr, you’ll meet the others. The only person who isn’t here right now is Amaya, but she should be back soon too. Go ahead and get comfortable with them while I have a little ’conversation’ with Jax here."

"Captain? Calm down? I was just trying to make a good impression on the new guy, right?"

"Right... anyway, we still have things to talk about, don’t we?"

’Raymond has a stronger grip than expected.’

Jax struggled to escape it, but he couldn’t do anything but sit there as he was dragged along.

’I guess I’ll give them space...?’

Gio moved towards the zephyr.

He certainly wasn’t expecting a lively environment. He saw how Raymond treated the squad members he’d met so far, so he knew it would be mostly casual, but to this level?

’Most Captains don’t let the instigators on their team open their mouths.’

But this one seemed to take it in stride.

The formation of the other aircraft made it hard to see the zephyr until one had moved past them. When Gio did so, he immediately saw familiar faces.

Natalia was there, along with Jason and Ulver. They sat around a grill while Jason cooked some meat alongside one other.

There were several other such scenes taking place as the various sub-squads serving the Blue Steel Squadron had lunch or conversed. Price, the man he’d met a few days ago, was among them as well.

He gave Gio a subtle nod when he noticed him. After returning it, Gio approached the group next to the zephyr.

There was one more person for him to meet, after all.

"Oh, Gio, you’re here!"

Jason noticed him first and ushered him over.

"You came at the perfect time. The food just got done."

Natalia gave him a small wave, while Ulver only slightly nodded to acknowledge his presence. The other woman looked at him with her head tilted curiously.

"The new kid is the one from back then? I thought the Captain gave up on him?" she asked.

"No, that was the last one. You’ve never met this one. Remember the name Gio for now," Natalia responded.

"Okay!"

The woman gave only a word of affirmation before completely removing herself from the conversation. Her eyes went to the plate of food in front of her and it seemed that her mind wouldn’t leave it until it was empty.

Gio looked at Natalia curiously, but she gave him a glance asking him not to bring it up yet. She only said that the woman’s name was Mirei.

’I guess I’ll find out later, but...’

He was certain he had met that woman before.

She had quite the striking appearance.

Firstly, her hair was blue. Unnatural hair colors became more prominent with Original Genes, as some Genes and Sequences were strong enough to influence even physical characteristics.

Some humans with transformation genes and other such abilities sometimes even carried over some of their transformed features.

If one was lucky, one could even see someone who’d perfectly become a demihuman.

As such, blue hair wasn’t an extremely crazy thing to focus on. Her skin was cream-colored and she had an appearance that almost perfectly juxtaposed its beauty with Natalia’s, but those features didn’t stand out nearly as much as her eyes.

Her eyes looked like crystal marbles refracting with the light of a thousand rainbows.

That was also definitely the effect of a trait.

’Is her memory affected by it as well?’

Whatever the case, if it was powerful enough to cause those kinds of appearance changes, it couldn’t be ordinary.

’No. There really isn’t anyone ordinary on this squad, is there?’

Just when the thought appeared in his mind, Raymond and Jax appeared in the corner of his eyes.

Raymond was walking with the same neutral expression that he always had while Jax was scratching his head with a wry smile.

There weren’t any wounds on his body, but there was a lot more dust on his clothes than there was before.

Regardless of what happened, the two of them acted like it was nothing and walked up to the grill.

"It seems everyone’s already been introduced," Raymond said with a smile, seeing all of them sitting together.

"Gio won’t be joining us on the ground any time soon, but you’ll need to get used to hearing him in your ears. We’ll leave for our first mission in an hour."

"A mission?" Jax echoed.

"I thought we were on break?"

"We were, but we need to make sure our new member is ready before we start doing anything real, right?"

Raymond’s smile widened slightly.

"We’ll do some training first. That way, he can get used to his role, and the rest of you can move your bodies a little. You only have a few days left before we have to move, so isn’t it better to spend the time loosening your muscles?"

Jason and Ulver sighed a little, Natalia and Mirei didn’t react at all, and Jax fell to the ground crying to the heavens.

Really, of those around the grill, there was only one who got excited at the prospect of working.

After all, it was still Gio’s first day.

He was still too innocent to dread walking through office doors in the morning.

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