Russel's mind starts going into a panic. "I did not expect this to happen! What is this insane pressure?!" He tries to move his left leg which is behind him right now. He feels his muscles burning through his stamina as it takes so much energy but he manages to take another step!
The Initiate looks at him and give a small smile. "Just one more step recruit you got this"
Russel tries his best but after 2 minutes he still needs one more step to shake her hand. In the meanwhile over half of the recruits have shaken her hand and are now waiting in the distance.
"You all have 1 more minute before you have failed." Hearing this Russel's eyes go wide. He cannot fail! His parents and brother would be so disappointed in him. Yes its a dangerous career in the IGA but its the noblest thing you can do. Although Russel does not care about that he does care about being able to use a Trigger!
When Russel was 12 years old Earth received an attack. A 1000 Trigor meteorites where launched at earth and started wreaking havoc everywhere. Russel was playing near in park with his friends and the meteor did not land far away from him! This was when he saw the monstrous Trigor for the first time...
It was 3 meters tall, had one big blue eye in the center of his head and had a massive Warhammer. Its teeth were jagged and gave it a creepy smile, its skin was red with some scales here and there and scars everywhere.
Russel almost pissed his pants back then. Luckily his dad managed to stop the Trigor before it could bring any harm and after that his dad retired to stay at home.
This is a core memory for Russel as he desperately wants the strength to not feel weak anymore.
Russel closes his eyes.
And takes the last step.
The Initiates eyes widen a little bit, but Russel does not notice it. He gives her a hand and keeps walking towards the others.
"Good job man! I know you could do it" Lex gives him a firm pad on the shoulder and shakes him a bit.
The Initiate looks at her hand as she grabs a self cleaning spray and sprays her hand clean from the little bit of blood what was on it. "To think he has the mental resilience to hurt himself to pass the test."
Russel had dig his own nails in his hand to give himself an adrenaline boost. He exhales as he remembers why he came here for and why he must succeed!
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They arrive in a classroom with 28 recruits left. Russel walks to a free seat in the middle. As soon as he sits down a floating desk appears with all the necessary supplies to make notes on a holographic tablet. Another recruit exclaims excitedly: "Wow this is the newest model that was released only a month ago!". Russel gets once again reminded that the IGA does abstain from getting the best of the best, even for something as lowly as a mere recruit.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Then someone walks in the room. "Alright Recruits, there is just one test left, the intelligence test". This time the Initiate from before is gone as now stands a female with her black hair in a bun. On her uniform it says: "Fusion Corporal Heicken".
"My name is Fusion Corporal Heicken. You may call me "Corporal" Or "Heicken". I will be given you the general knowledge lecture which we will test you on. This will be about Triggers, the state of the galaxy, the IGA, the Rainbow Faction and of course the Trigors.
Russel starts sitting more upright as he starts taking notes, next a lecture of 8 hours starts. During this lecture lots of recruits start feeling overwhelmed as they share some notes and thoughts. Corporal Heicken does not seem to mind and continues.
After 8 hours of painful notes taking and paying attention they are taken to private rooms. Russel arrives in the small but neat room. He walks over to the bed and lays down.
"Wow, what a day." 99% of the information that Corporal Heicken told him, he did not know. It seems his dad and brother really wanted him to not have any advantage and forge his own path.
He almost starts to curse them out in his head but changes his mind as he thinks this is more of a blessing.
Russel starts to review his notes.
The most interesting part Russel found where the Triggers. They are made from Arcanite. Which only can be found in nature on the planet Neptune, the homebase of the Trigors. Besides that they are found in mutated beasts all over the solar system and in floating pieces of Neptune in space. Those are the most valuable resource since they can be cultivated for a long time. The longer an Arcanite Stone has been cultivated the more power it can bestow.
There are 6 stages of someone who has a Trigger.
First up there is the Initiate stage. Those who have just bonded will be in this stage. The Trigger can manifest in any way. A dagger or handgun is the most common one. Since that is what most old movies were about and it remained engraved in human history. This weapon manifests in a physical form and in a tattoo form somewhere on the body. This cannot be controlled. It grants the human some passive abilities and they gain acces to the Trigger shield, a basic small shield which one can freely move around. This shield has a certain amount of energy. This energy replenishes by resting. If you have no more energy you cant use the active abilities of your Trigger. For example a common ability for the dagger is the Dash ability. This was also the one the Initiate showed earlier.
Next up is the Fusion state. A human gains acces to the Trigger State. It can only be described as a flow state where one does not have to manually hold the weapon. It can float, replace a body part, or do other stuff. This Trigger State does not last very long since it consumes a lot of stamina. Also one gains acces to more abilities and the weapon itself might change. The weapon can change at any time, it resonates with the soul of the user. The stronger the base form of the Trigger, the stronger the Trigger State.
Then there is the Evolution state. One can temporarily evolve their Trigger or a certain ability for a short time. Also the Trigger state lasts a lot longer than before.
The fourth stage is the Embody Stage. In this stage one can fuse with their weapon as a whole and gain immaculate control of all their abilities. It always lasts only 10 seconds and after this their power is only slightly above the Evolution Stage
Then comes the Arsenal Stage. This stage is quite special since you first need to have two Triggers and have both of them in the Embody Stage. Then you need to fuse your Triggers and thats when you reach the Arsenal Stage. Gaining acces to even more powerful abilities and diversity in strength.
The last stage is not a lot known about. It is called the Nuclear Stage. There are only 6 known Nuclear Stage beings. Three of them are Trigors and Three of them are part of the IGA. These walking calamities can destroy continents and can only be stopped by other Nuclear Stage Triggers.
