16 Expedition Take-off

"How did it turn out this way?" Grumbled Linneia while biting on her last piece of vacuum-packed honey glazed dried fish unhappily. The crown princess was in her rarely seen bad mood. Her mood turned a shade darker when she fished in her sleeve to get a new unsealed pack of the popular savory delicacy only to find that there was none left. In her anger, she had finish up all of them without realization.

She was looking out of the side window of the top secret military high-speed bullet train unhappily. Their destination was the northernmost secret military outpost of the empire before they need to embark on an air-travel journey towards the extreme north. Although she was not happy, Linneia agreed in her heart that the flying car recently developed in their empire was still not as fast as the bullet train introduced by her ancestor centuries ago.

Rasha noticed Linneia's foul mood but shook her head slightly and sighed. Usually their princess was charismatic, very hardworking, with excellent interpersonal skills. She could mask her emotions well and placed forward priorities where it mattered most.

She realized since the princess was in contact with the immortal king, her mood had been quite low; she had not managed to hide her negative emotions as good as usual.

"I'm sure His Highness Roland knows what he was doing." Raksha try to coax Linneia awkwardly.

She was a straightforward, hard headed woman. She was not used to cajoling people gently. Everything was settled with a single strict order from her. That's why she chose the military rather than the politically drenched City-hall government officials.

However, this time it was the crown princess, not her subordinates. She could only treat her as she treated her pampered little niece.

Adjutant Solstis was sitting at her side, not commenting a single thing. He kept mum while raising an eyebrow slightly before resuming his stoic attitude. As the adjutant of Raksha, he only followed Raksha's order and nothing else.

Solstis pretended busy with the administration of the helpers joining their expedition in the other coaches by fiddling with his cerebral connector core seriously. They had brought along around thirty helpers consisted of exemplary researchers, soldiers and attendants in tow.

Linneia was reminiscing back at the time after the immortal king's grand public lecture when she had gotten an order from the immortal king to lead a long term expedition with General Raksha, Melati and little Frieda.

They were briefed on the route and coordinates of the illusive intact ruin left by a long-lost civilization that was mentioned before the Grand Lecture. It turned out that the immortal king was not going to lead them there as he had delegated the job to the crown princess.

The princess was fuming inside and leaked a little of her attitude as she tried to counter-negotiate her attendance; she really wanted to lead the Negative Particle Density Research Group. It was after all the groundbreaking research to date which will be used as the core to both other research groups.

The Interstellar Gate Research Group was more like an expedition group rather than a real research group to her. Who knows if the ancient artifact spoken by her ancestor was still there after all this time and whether they can utilize it or not.

Everybody was especially concerned when the immortal king finally divulged the exact coordinates of the ruin. It was so far away! In the Forbidden I-zone area to boot!

Nobody even step foot in that area. The area was charted out by her ancestor king himself a long time ago and yet to be explored by anyone due to its harsh conditions.

Immortal King Roland only needed to clear his throat sternly to remind Linneia that his words were final without uttering additional explanation. The sisters involved with the expedition were so scared, as General Raksha moved forward and touched Linneia's shoulder to rouse her from continuing this folly.

It was unwise to enrage an ancestor of the nation for selfish reasons.

The immortal king gave an approving glance towards Raksha as all of them retired from the ancestor's study.

Later that night, the four witches settled their prior engagements and get ready to board the first high speed military train early next morning.

"Princess Linneia, don't be upset." Little Frieda who sat opposite her hand out a red translucent strawberry-shaped lolipop with a concern look adorning her cute childish face. She heard sweet things could make an upset person calm down.

Beside her, Melati blinked a few times and gave a reassuring smile towards the princess. The gentle matured gaze made Linneia felt ashamed of herself.

Linneia took the lolipop from the little loli with a resigned look. "You win. Thanks, little Frieda." She extended her hand forward and rubbed little Frieda's head dotingly until she purred happily. She could never stay angry in front of this cute little babe.

It must be harder on little Frieda as compared to her. She was still so green but had to join the expedition too. She even took the initiative to sooth her with her favorite sweets.

Linneia reflected on herself at that moment.

She's too full of herself as of late. She needed to adjust her attitude to lead the expedition successfully. The survival of her countrymen or even the whole planet might hinge on the success of this expedition.

As she popped the lolipop into her mouth, she took out the Cerebral Connector's core from the back of her neck with her skeletal steel glove and placed it on the table in between her and the two witches in front of her.

Together, the group of six sitting facing each other viewed the routes charted out by the immortal king on the Linneia's cerebral connector's 3D map and discussed the minute details of their journey seriously. Everyone then took out their own core as Linneia swiped her own 3D map to merge with the other standard maps of the others. The action made all the maps refreshed with the new inputted information.

...

Beside Melati, Professor Rogers nodded his head approvingly as he received his updated 3D map.

The current Dean of the Neverwinter Royal College had long snow-white hair which was tied neatly into a low ponytail. He was not like his retired best friend, Professor Newton, who intently wanted to join the other two research groups. He was a man of adventure and had conquered many snowy mountains to find unique samples for research purposes.

This time, he joined this group as the head of the other researchers. Their main tasks were to counsel the witches in their research and help as much as they could. Even the immortal king had eagerly approved of him. Old experienced hands were crucial in a green team like this.

Although these ladies had some attitude, they did possess the quality of an exemplary citizen of the empire. Knowing their mistakes, they didn't shy away and corrected their ways immediately.

Professor Rogers was deeply moved as his gaze fall on his ex-studentsucking intently on her newly acquired lollipop while discussing with the others.

As a seasoned scientist, he understood the immortal king's arrangement well. It was clear as day that the ancestor of the empire wanted to groom the crown princess into a more matured, well-rounded future leader.

With the uncertain future in front of them, a strong leader with high intellect, strength and character was imperative. The Crown Princess was lacking just a little bit due to prolong peace and harmony in the empire. That was why she needed to be 'reforged' with a couple of tribulations to make her matured faster.

....

Two days later, they finally reached the furthest military outpost connected by the railroad, Lesterchild's Military Camp.

As the team disembarked from the train, they were given two hours rest at the base before directly ushered into the Vulture III, the most advanced aircraft equipped with the latest Vertical Take-Off & Landing (VTOL) technology. The Vulture was a medium capacity transportation aircraft specialized in speed and stability which made it the ideal flying vehicle for exploring naturally complicated regions.

Additional military personnel from the camp had joined their team resulting the headcount to reach 100 pax.

As the Vulture III was further restocked with fuel, rations and miscellaneous research items, the Interstellar Gate Research team joined the mission briefing meeting with the head of the military camp.

Seeing the participants of the expedition team consisted of snow-white haired grandfatherly old men, demure looking maidens and young girls, the camp leader became extremely worried but did not say anything as this was the decision of the top management. Furthermore, when he saw the crown princess and General Raksha, he knew who they were and didn't dare to offend them unnecessarily.

Linneia briefed the team on the objective of the expedition and her role as the expedition leader which made the newly joined military personnel gasped in surprised!

This was then followed by a location-specific briefing on the I-zone restricted area's hazards, personally delivered by the skeptical camp leader to make them understand the graveness of their intended destination. The expedition had been labeled as SS-ranked; the highest difficulty assessed by the higher ups so far. The face of everyone was turning blue when they heard on the anticipated dangers. However, their patriotic heart managed to overcome it. They believed that if the mission required the princess to personally lead it, it must be the utmost importance to their empire.

Thirty minutes later, Vulture III take off without any issues accompanied by the soldiers' salutations. They knew it carried the team who might as well save the people from the incoming peril not too far ahead. They knew that it might be the only chance for their salvation.

Once the aircraft disappear from the horizon, everyone started busying themselves. They too had heard the immortal king's lecture's recording and knew what they should do to contribute.

....