Chapter 12: Warm Welcome
A pitch-black reinforced dome, harder than steel, surrounded the Tomber base as the lockdown protocols were activated. At the same time, an emergency message was being sent to the Renegade higher-ups in the hold.
Kate was scared. No, she was terrified.
The lockdown procedure was something she had initiated in a panic. In the end, it would not help her, her colleagues, or the newbie knights who were stuck inside this base with her. It would only let the Renegades know something was wrong and possibly keep the rest of the planet safe. All of them here would still be dying today.
She had no delusions about killing a Reincarnator, so she didn't bother pulling out a weapon. Instead, she just watched him intently, making no sudden movements.
She remembered that some of them had deranged personalities, that made them act irrationally. She was hoping his one was the type to spare people who didn't resist.
The only thing that went through her mind was the massacre of Terytl-b that had happened a week ago. The news had shocked the entire star system and even the whole galaxy. Everyone was still mourning the countless lives lost on that day. She couldn't believe that another Reincarnator would attack them so soon.
The alarms around the base blared in tandem with the blinking red lights.
....
Arbus wasn't sure what to do. His new knight instructor had just put the entire base on lockdown and was currently having a panic attack in front of him.
He glanced around slightly, noticing that his fellow knight trainees weren't in the mood to explain the misunderstanding, despite already being informed about his situation at the station they were sent off from.
They had been just as frightened as Kate until the Administrative Renegade in charge told them he was simply a half-human
A few of them seemed curious, as to what he would do about this situation.
The others seemed like they were enjoying their new instructor's panic or hoping she would try to kill him. The minority that seemed like they were going to speak up were silently warned by one of the white Mornans, who seemed to have taken charge of the group.
'How cruel,' he thought to himself. He wondered why the instructor wasn't already aware of his arrival, given how much attention the Renegades usually paid to matters concerning him.
Arbus hesitated.
He wasn't sure if trying to clear up the misunderstanding would be the best course of action, given that the instructor's hand was edging closer to her weapon, despite her best attempts to keep it away. It naturally wouldn't kill him, but he could still feel pain.
...
"I think there's been a misunderstanding, instructor. I'm not a Reincarnator," Arbus said as calmly as possible.
His words only frightened Kate more.
'Is he one of those crazy Reincarnators that said the most obvious lies?' She thought, unsure about anything, but she didn't want to risk talking to him.
After a while, Kate got over her initial panic, and came to a realisation. The knights in training were not panicking. In fact, a few of them seemed to be trying their best to hold in their amusement.
A few others gazed at her with anticipation, as if wondering when she would attack.
"Kate, wait!" Just then, Dutch ran into the hangar holding a file.
Kate panicked.
"No, Dutch! Stay back! There's a Reincarnator here!" Kate shouted. She was scared that his sudden entrance would break the tense standoff.
"He's not a Reincarnator, he's a half-human Renegade. It was in the files sent over to us this morning," Dutch said, panting a bit, as he had run here as fast as he could when he realized why Kate had activated the station's lockdown procedures. Thankfully he had figured it out before Dutch had mobilised his team.
Kate blinked.
She found it hard to believe what she was hearing. A half-human who was also a Renegade?
She wasn't exactly sure what was done with most of the half-human children the Reincarnators sired every once in a while, but she was pretty sure they didn't become Renegades.
"Who the hell authorized something like that?!" she shouted, her previous fear turning into fury while overshadowing her embarrassment.
"...The Sentinel did," Dutch responded with a weary sigh.
Kate froze for a moment before gritting her teeth in frustration. She spent the next few minutes going through various security protocols on her device until she finally disabled the lockdown. The base returned to normal as the dome dissipated.
A commander was still on their way here, so she would have to explain the misunderstanding to them when they arrived.
She scanned the knights in front of her again, this time with disdain. "So, you were all informed of this information, and yet you decided it would be best to stand there like mutes and watch your instructor make a fool of herself?" She was embarrassed by her display, but also crossed with the new trainees. It seemed like she would have an easier time failing them after all.
Most of the knights in training were terrified now. They did not want to fail before they even had a chance to start. They looked towards two of the three white Mornans in the squad.
A tall white Mornan with short blonde hair and red eyes stepped forward to be the representative of the group.
"We apologize, instructor. We simply hesitated out of fear. After all, we weren't sure if you were right or not""
Kate's eyes narrowed.
"What are you talking about? You were already informed of his status and knew he was only a half-human," she retorted angrily.
"Yes, we were, but that could have easily been a lie. We've been taught that Reincarnators have extremely diverse and terrifying powers."
"We had no way of knowing if the station we came from was compromised, and secretly under his control or not," the white Mornan, Jet, said as he put on a worried expression.
"Throughout our journey here, most of us were simply terrified of that possibility. And then we arrived here, at the training base that should have knowledge of each trainees."
Kate frowned as she could see where he was going with this.
"Immediately after we stepped off the shuttle, you took notice of the half-human and immediately sent the facility into lockdown. This only further increased our suspicion, since you had no idea he was supposed to be here. The best thing we could do was wait for a Commander to arrive and see what was true and what wasn't," Jet concluded with a resigned sigh.
"After the Terytl-b tragedy, it's understandable that we would be on edge, isn't it, Instructor?"
Kate didn't have a rebuttal for that. When taking everything into account, he was completely right. This was all her fault in the first place. If she had verified the information about the trainees like her colleagues had done, she wouldn't have found herself in this predicament.
she simply didn't think she would be the one to welcome the new batch again.
She gritted her teeth, before sighing in frustration.
"You're right. I'm sorry for shifting the blame to all of you."
"Dutch, please take care of things here. I need to make a call," Kate said as she stormed out of the hangar.
Jet smiled slightly as he rejoined the group, casting a small glance at Arbus.
Arbus sighed as he realized how troublesome this training was going to be.