When receiving the message from his captain jaxon froze a moment in shock. He took a deep breath to calm himself from shouting in excitement.
He finally had got the call.
He's been awaiting the last three years for this phone call that could possibly change his life!
Jaxon left his cubicle office pod quickly after receiving the report with a skip in his step.
'This was it!' Jaxon thought happily.
He hummed a small tone, bobbing his head, lost in his thoughts.
'Captain finally had approved my request to give me the next new variant mission!'
His colleagues gave looks of concern, confusion, and even horror.
'What in the world is happening?! Did our twin purple suns rise west?!'
Everyone shared looks.
They had never seen Officer Kingsley smile before nor hum—even when serving in the academy as cadets!
Was he dying of radiation poisoning and having a lucid dream reaction? It was the final stage after suffering unimaginable pain.
Debbie leaned over, whispering loudly to her coworker.
"Crap—now that explains his attitude all the time! He's always in pain!"
Gasp.
Everyone collectively breathed in tightly, their hearts clenching at how they had treated him or talked about him behind his back.
"Shit—now I feel bad. If I knew he was dying of radiation poisoning, I would have been a lot nicer and more understanding," cursed Di Yang Tan, slamming his fist into his palm.
"Mm."
Others agreed with him, also feeling bad for Jaxon. They would probably be the same—or even worse—than Jaxon.
"Same here, Kingsley is a true man! I don't think any of us men here can endure such pain and still come every day to work—arriving first and leaving last!" gushed Muhammad as he clapped Di Yang Tan's back.
"So true, bro! If you hadn't said something now, it would have slipped my mind. But didn't he also book the most overtime hours this cycle?" Nica questioned, pulling up the reports from the guild portal.
They all crowded around her, and all jaws dropped seeing the sheer hours of overtime worked.
"Damn, he really must be dying?!" Debbie practically merged with the holoputer projection screen.
Pulling her back to get a better look at Jaxon's profile was Officer Daji'sia.
"Let me see?! Whoa!—3,890 hours logged in this cycle alone?!"
"That's insane?!" others agreed, voicing their thoughts.
"Does the man even sleep?" Di Yang Tan shook his head at what an overachiever his colleague was but was hit in the arm.
"Ow! What's that for?!"
"It's obvious he can't sleep for being in constant pain! He'd be lucky if he can sleep at all! Duh!" Daji'sia gave him an "are you seriously that slow?" look.
"Oh… right… ha." Di Yang Tan rubbed his neck sheepishly.
Everyone laughed, shaking their heads. They all agreed to invite him to join them for drinks.
They all fabricated all these bizarre stories with highly creative imaginations.
No one realized there was nothing the matter with Jaxon, and he was definitely not dying of radiation poisoning.
But sadly, Jaxon couldn't defend himself. He was on cloud nine and could care less about the looks of his future subordinates.
If his colleagues had heard his thoughts, they would have spit blood.
'I can finally prove myself to get my ranking promotion!'
On the way, he met Yi Chen, a long-term mission partner he had known and worked with for five years.
For once, he smiled at Yi Chen, greeting him joyously with a nod.
Yi Chen was spooked, even looked behind him, pointing to himself as he didn't see anyone behind him.
'Me?' he mouthed.
'Yes, come walk with me.' Well, that was the motion Jaxon made, waving him over to walk together.
They both walked together in awkward but comfortable silence.
They briskly walked toward the captain's office door.
"Knock knock." Jaxon took the lead, knocking twice and waiting at attention to be called inside.
After a moment of silence, a voice called out.
"Come in, Officers Kingsley and Yi."
They opened the door and entered.
The captain was working on something while he gestured to the empty seats in the room.
"Please find a seat to sit in, gentlemen."
They took their seats and noticed they had an extra guest present.
It was Lieutenant Santiago, who was already seated comfortably.
When all were seated, they waited for the captain to speak.
Captain Rajia Guliusp glanced at them before returning to his holo-screen and hopping straight to the report.
"We received an unusual report from Scrapper Moon, Neo-Seoul City, from the higher-ups at the scrapyard main branch office."
Jaxon sat up straight in attention, having already been prepared to accept this mission.
'Here it comes—the day I've been waiting for!'
He sat at the edge of his seat in anticipation.
"The report doesn't have much information, but this is one of your areas of expertise, which is why I called you in here, Lieutenant Gonzalez."
His gaze stopped on Jaxon for a moment before looking fully at Santiago, who was staring into space.
He spoke a tad bit louder, catching Santiago's attention again.
"Hmm?" When Santiago looked back down from the stars, he continued his debrief.
"I know you were supposed to be on vacation, but this is top priority."
Santiago's jaw ticked in irritation.
"Am I really needed for this mission? I need to take care of business on the main world. This really can't wait?"
His knee shook in impatience.
Captain Rajia leaned back in his chair, rubbing his red eyes.
Sigh.
It was clear the captain was drowning in work and needed a good rest.
"Fast results are required. Main world tensions are rising, and the military, families, and side factions grow restless." Rajia couldn't stress enough to the lieutenant and officers.
"I need you to identify this new variable mutant-type gifter, bring him or her in for questioning and testing, and I must emphasize—non-lethal at all times. No more accidents, Lieutenant."
He stared Santiago down until the man met his gaze and nodded crisply.
"All right. Go pack up and set out immediately." He waved them out.
"Oh, Kingsley—stay behind please. The rest of you are dismissed." Captain Rajia leaned forward, placing his hand on the desk.
They saluted.
"Thank you, Captain," they said, leaving.
"Mhm. Safe travel, gentlemen," Captain Rajia replied.
Jaxon was left alone to chat with the captain.