User blog:Roinelll/God Eater Next - Volume 1 - Segment 01

=
======== G. E. N. - 1 - 01

=
========

The time is 2072 May 6th. Humanity is on the losing side of a war with the Aragami ever since they appeared 22 years ago. Though that did not mean they will give up, and were striving to live their lifes fully dedicated to survival as much as possibly was.

Paks or at least they called a city that once existed at this location, it was somewhere near the middle of a small Europian country before the Aragami came. Now they just refer to it as Pit, it was the very spot where once a so-called Nuclear Plant was producing precious energy, however now only remains of a big city stood.

In the Pit at the very center stood, what the residents nicknamed Hole and around the perimeter of the Pit, an Aragami Repelling Wall had been erected or ARW for short, though it wasn't perfect and needed constant maintenance. The area which streched between the ARW and Hole could house roughly a few thousand humans had been labeled by them as the Fissure. Although the living circumstances were quite often bad due to the Aragami threat, everyone tried their best to make sure the worst will not come.

The Hole itself was an old and remodelled nuclear shelter, which had been selected by Fenrir to raise one of it's branches in Central Europe. Currently it housed 47 members, out of which were only 9 God Eaters, the rest were officiers, scientists, mechanics and in rare cases in-training cadets.

Right now in the entrance of Hole a group of almost two dozen stood. They were the residents of Fissure, who had gathered into small groups and awaited someone to come out of the Fenrir Branch. Afterall, they had been informed that their service would be needed in the fights against the Aragami, and they were to oblige albeit with different goals and feelings. While this duty was not mandatory, it was still better than staying put and fear when the Aragami would came.

It was short after 1 PM, and almost 5 minutes passed since the crowd gathered when they heard a mechanical creaking and the entrace slowly opened. then a tall scientist emerged from it who apparently had seen better days. Much-much better days in fact, as he clearly showed signs of insomnia and some hesitation. Maybe he wasn't used to such a large number of people. Aside from the white lab coat he wore plain grey shirt and shorts, the hair was a short mess of light brown, and apparently he missed a few weeks of shaving also. In the hands he was holding a small stack of papers required for the procedure of registration.

"Uhm... So, those who are present were gathered due to--" After finally coming to a halt, he decided to take a glance around and counted those who came and made a mental note to himself. With a sigh, he scratched his head and started his speech.

"Send them home." A voice interrupted him from the entrance, where someone stood behind the open shutter. Clad in a black cloak, not revealing anything the figure didn't even glance at the gathering.

"But--" The scientist hesitated and turned his gaze a few times between the newcomer and the residents.

"I said send them home." The man raised his voice, which signaled that he was apparently someone higher in the chain of commands than the scientist here. And that fact seemingly nerved the poor guy out, not knowing how to respond to the situation.

"Who are you to decide that?!" One of the group stepped a few times forward, stopping at the front of the crowd. He had short spiky hair with crimson color, and worse similarly colored, unbuttoned shirt with a black trouser. He fixed the blue eyes on the one who would remove them from here.

"I would become the Instructor of you BRATS, but that will not happen! Now get moving and go home!" The man finally decided to exit Hole and while still hidden under the cloak stared down at the residents. Some of them even took a step backwards as something made them doubt why they were here.

"What makes you think that everyone present here is to be sent home? Isn't Fenrir on the lookout for God Eaters?" Spiky then laughed and argued back, not caring that if he really were to become their Instructior this would be out to be a bad start.

"A single God Eater match is extremely rare. Now tell me, what the hell does 20 stripling do here at the same time?" The answer what the shrouded figure gave made the gathering rather puzzled and they started to whisper and think that he might be right of sending them home. Afterall, this was a common knowledge that those who would be qualified are 1 or 2 in tens of thousands or more.

"Well, uhm... Sir, that is." The scientist tried to grab a hold of the situation as he feared where this conversation would lead to. A result of which the superiors wouldn't be happy with.

"We were told that we are potential God Eater matches, what's wrong with that?" Another of the residents now stepped forward. By the looks it was a female, sort-of a head shorted than the young man as she stopped on his right side. Her facial features were hidden by a hood and only her chin and mouth were visible underneath it. Aside from that she did wore a plain blue sleeveless shirt, with a white short and sandals revealing much of her skin.

"Ah... I see it now. 'Potential', huh?" Pressing the word potential he wondered aloud. The mans gaze shifted towards the scientist who gasped, this was definiatelly something he didn't want to reveal.

"That... Sir, is..." The worn out guy stuttered, not clearly not able to focus his thoughts.

"Oy, Chit. Tell me, do you know what is a God Eater?" With a sigh the Instructor turned back to the hooded girl and asked. Actually he would be fine if anyone here could answer the question, to some extent.

"Humans trained to wield Human-made Artificial Aragami Weapons, also known as a God Arc. However since even if the God Arc is artificial, it still counts as an Aragami and would Devour those who try to use it. There for an artificial Bias Factor is injected into the users, or so to say engineered Oracle Cells to stop the God Arc from devouring it's God Eater. And yes, I am aware that would make the God Eater also part Aragami." Not giving concern, She just had been disapproved by him and stared back at the cloacked man, giving a strange situation where both hoods were locked at each other an it sort of looked awkward.

"Okay, one of you actually knows some stuff. Chit, what's your name?" His opinion changed of her, and he was sure should se go trough the procedure a great God Eater could be born. That is... If she can complete it.

"Chit huh? Call me 'C' then." She laughed lightly and gave a response.

"C? ... Whatever if you want to go down that route, I don't mind. However what you said is the optimal outcome. Are you aware what is the other shoe?" The instructor didn't really care if God Eaters tended to refer to themselves with fake or code names. What really mattered how they could fight for survival. However, before that could happen they need to be able to fight and as it looked right now...

"Other shoe? I don't understand. Make that WE don't understand" C was aware he tried to guide them somewhere, but she wasn't sure now where.

"Oracle Cells." A short response was the reward for the question and nothing else.

"Look, Mr. Big Instructor. We know that what she said, all of us. What is your problem? Humanity is losing, Fenrir is desperate to recruit a lot of new God Eaters, since the older ones are uncapable of duty, and the young ones die easily. What is your problem?" Spiky burst in anger and directed it at the officier, while pointing at him.

"Tech. Tell me, is there a match amongst them?" Instead of a direct answer, the cloaked figure turned again towards the surprised scientist.

"Well, sir that--" His gaze didn't dare to meet and looked anywhere else where there was not a resident or the officier.

"IS THERE?!" The Instructor raised not only his voice, but the tech by it's collar who struggled in surprise.

"Not a direc--" As he was flailing he spoke the words before getting thrown away by the officier.

"There you have it, the lot of you GOES HOME. NOW!!" He turned away from the shaken tech, towards the group of perplexed audience and bellowed the command.

"But, Sir..." The scientist got to his feet, and once again tried to appeal to the higher up.

"So what if there is no match? Stop being flippant and tell us freaking already." Spiky got bored with this and demanded an answer.

"Oracle Cells. They devour anything that isn't similar to their Bias. God Eaters are rare because they are selected with a match towards an existing God Arc, and infused with the required Bias to ensure that nothing goes wrong, but not even that is perfect. In our case where no clear match is present, the inauguration has a high chance for rejecting the Oracle Cells and eventually that would mean..." C finally grasped what was the point of this topic. She did hear of others what could happen in such situation, and although most of the time they were mere rumors only. The fact that the Instructor was so strict finally made point. She shuddered imagining what could happen to anyone here present should such a thing happen.

"The Oracle Cells absorbing your body from the inside-out, slowly transforming you into an Aragami and subduing you to extreme torture. However, that process is usually prevented by destroying the infected victim, and devouring the still unformed core from the body." The one to finish her sentence was the man clad in black. The words weren't meaning much at first, but eventually sent chills down the spines of the residents present. They weren't informed of such a thing, nothing remotely. All they knew that once they become God Eaters, their life will become easier and should they have a family they will be taken care of. Sure that would have meant for them to battle with the Aragami non-stop and eventually probably die fighting, but that was what they agreed to.

"S-- SIR?! THAT--" The scientist freaked out and grabbed the officiers cloak and looked at him in a panic. Of course he had been panicked about this, since this was highly classified information.

"YOU'VE INTENDED TO MASSIVELY INFUSE A LARGE NUMBER OF POTENTIAL CANDIDATES AND HIDE THIS?! IF IT WERE A FREAKING REGULAR INAUGURATION I WOULD SKIP THIS PART GLADLY SINCE THE CHANCE FOR THAT OCCURING IS ONLY 0.0001%. BUT NOW TELL ME, WHAT ARE THEIR CHANCES?!" He once again lifted the pale tech off the ground who became limp. He did understand this, he also argued with the superiors that this was an insane act, but...

"S-- Sir?! That, I.." Torn between morality and duty he couldn't answer once again. Of course he didn't want such an outcome, but for survival it was a measure they had to take.

"Tell them, they will have to willingly make that choice." The Instructor finally placed him down  and made so he faced the residents. They looked at the frightened scientist, and awaited the answer that would most probably seal their doom.

"Even for the best, it is less than 12%." With hanging head, he finally replied in a quiet voice.

"Which means from the 20 guinea pigs only 1 or 2 would survive? That is if all of them are stupid enough to undergo such a risky procedure... Wonderful. Get the hell out of here, Tech." This was a gruesome truth that shocked them to the core. No wonder the black clad man had been angry, as the reason now was clear.

"Sir, I... Will have to report this to my higher ups." Once again he tried to make sure that the situation went long outside from his control and had to warn the Instructor, who just nodded in agreement. Kind of like a 'Bring them on' style of attitude. With that the scientist finally took his leave, looking like he aged years in mere minutes and even worse state of mind than he appeared.

"Will you be the one to end the misery of someone being rejected by the Oracle Cells?" C decided to break the awkward silence that fell upon them as the tech left.

"No. I am unable to wield the current God Arcs that would be capable to stopping the victim." He had to reveal this information, since he was actually one of the very first God Eaters. Although his Control Armlet had been sealed 15 long years ago, he still strived to help the newer generation. He had to seal it since, he wasn't compatible with the newer type of God Arcs, nor the Bias Factor required for them. Not to mention the first generation of weapons turned rather ineffective as the Aragami evolved into newer forms.

"Oy, Boss. What if we croak here? The Aragami are relentless and endless. No matter how much the God Eaters kill of thos beasts, they are still evolving, still getting more and more varied. Humanity has the shortest straw, so let's just go and do it, I say." Spiky shouted reassuringly and laughed heartily, in a way he had been right.

"Big mouth. I've warned everyone here, go home. Those who are suicidal enough to attempt the procedure should stay, however I'll be there to make sure, the suicide squad will get the injection even if I have to drag you there." With a final warning he turned looked over the group once again. Their odds were extremely low even in the best cases. And he did saw what could happen should a failure of compatibility arise. It was never pleasant.

"Well, if we have a 'C' here, why don't you call me 'Crimson' then? 'Big Mouth' isn't that attractive." The young man laughed heartily and shook his head.

"That means you have 2 definiate God Eaters present now, Instructor." C took a firm stance also and stared at the man also, who sighed in defeat.

"A best possibility of 12% from 20 can be easily 0... Mind you. Anyways, meet tomorrow here at 9 AM. Those that have the guts that is. In the mean time I'll survive another lecture from my superior." The Instuctor turned around and walked towards the shutter, and pressed the button to close.

"Boss, what's your name?!" Crimson shouted after him as the shutter started to creak and slowly close down.

"Jack is what I'm called." With that the entrance sealed itself and only the 20 residents were left.

--- End of Chapter 2015,06,10

==>> Next Segment