Janus Exploration Team 8

"Screech"

An army jeep pulled over in front of an army camp. Three officers got off the jeep. A man wearing a typical army uniform (green and dark patches) and an army cap. There were a few medals hanging on his chest. He was quite a sturdy man with a rough face. Behind him followed a man with a black coat and beside him was a woman in a white coat. As they entered the camp all the soldiers around stood straight and saluted before continuing what they were doing. The two men entered a larger tent and the woman entered a smaller tent beside the larger one.

As soon as she entered the tent two figures greeted her. Within a flash of a few seconds one of the figures rushed towards the woman and gave her a tight hug as his voice slowly sounded out, "Mom, I missed you".

She stroked the head of the little guy's head and said in a soft voice, "Mom missed you too". Then she pinched his cheeks and asked, "What troubles did you cause while we were away?".

The little guy looked at his mom with his pair of beautiful eyes and scratched his head as said softly "Not much, just a few apparatuses."

Not believing him she looked at the boy standing behind him and asked, "Alex?".

Alex was always scared of the women. She was Jayden's mom and a researcher of JET8(Janus Exploration Team 8). She specialized in pharmacy. And was in charge of studying various herbs and their properties in the research team of JET8. Though she was a civilian researcher contracted by the army, her husband that is, Jayden's dad, had a special status in the army, as he was an officer in the army as well as the head of the research in JET8. Thus Emma, Jayden's mom, always threatened to use Alex as a test subject if she was displeased and coincidentally it worked because he had heard rumors that once she was displeased with her husband and used him as a lab rat, after which he had to suffer diarrhea for a week.

Thus as soon as she looked at him, he stood straight and blurted out, "He destroyed one generator, almost burnt the temporary lab you provided him, stole ammunition from the armory, and went hunting twice."

After hearing this, Emma was not very shocked but still glared at Jayden. Finally, she looked at Alex and said, "Report to base, we have a new mission."

"Yes ma'am." shouted, then leaving the tent.

Emma then slowly examined Jayden's body and asked: "Have you hurt anywhere?".

"No."

"Good, I warned you not to perform experiments while we were away, didn't I?"

"But… I performed simulations multiple times and adjusted the parameters accordingly. I also accounted for the environmental factors as well as the heating of the apparatus. And since you were gone for more than a month. I was impatient. Sorry." said Jayden as he lowered his head.

"So was the test a success?"

"No."

"OK, send me all the data and observations, I'll ask your dad to look through them."

"OK"

"As for punishment, you'll be joining training with uncle Liam and Alex for the next month."

"Mom? "

"Why?"

"They…" Jayden wanted to say their training was cruel and heartless. Something not for humans. But he couldn't say anything because he was aware of his mistakes as well as he knew his mom did not ask anything about his hunting trips so she must be angry.

Then Emma passed a thick pile of paper to Jayden. When Jayden looked at them his eyes glowed. They were notes of Professor Qin, a leading researcher in geology, that he had asked his mom for before she had left.

"Go through them, in the next few weeks we'll be heading towards Cyrene."

"The mines near Cyrene? Extermination of the three-eyed wolves?"

"Yes, the top 30 JET teams will be participating in the initial exploration and setting up camp. After which the extermination teams will move in."

"When do we leave?"

"Within a few days. Now go busy yourself. I need to freshen up first"

The next few days JET8 camp was very busy packing up and reorganizing.

JET8 consisted of 100 arms men and 20 researchers. A total of 120 good men. JET8 had a good record of exploration. And their casualties were the lowest among all the other explanation teams. JET8's previous mission was to explore the forest Brocéliande. Brocéliande was a thousand miles away from the most outermost settlement. And JET8 camp was set almost at the innermost region of the forest. The journey to Cyrene would take over three weeks. So a lot of preparation had to be done. As for Jayden, he had to help as well as join the special training of Uncle Liam, captain of JET8 with Alex. After a week of preparation the team of JET8 set off from the forest of Brocéliande.