Hetnemen

(Dutch) The Taking

Hetnemen is a term of honour for the shared experience of those in the Speciale Veiligheidstroepen. They all experienced it. They all survived it. Each of their journeys may have been unique but their destination is the same - one team, one purpose.
Hetnemen is the last day of their journey. A special day of reflection - a mirror to be shattered and forever broken - for after today there is only forward, never back. Each graduate recites the highlights of their journey, every word meticulously captured in the great tome, before they are rewarded for decades of hard work with the first day of service as agents of Speciale Veiligheidstroepen.

Capture

For the children of Speciale Veiligheidstroepen, excellence is the only acceptable standard. Before they've even arrived at the secret training facility, judgment has already begun. Innocent children taken from their families at any time, from any place by lethal strangers are evaluated on their immediate, natural response despite being between 4 - 10 years old. Do they scream, cower, or cry? Do they fight, plot, or negotiate? Everything matters when it's life or death and, from this point onward, that is the only life they'll know.

Place

Upon arrival at the facility, a child is assigned to the one of the following barracks based on their captor's evaluation:

• Charm: The first barracks is for the talkers. Through flattery, intimidation, or negotiation these children tried to use words to obtain information or be released.
• Resist: The second barracks restrains the fighters. Biters, kickers, punchers, slappers, and scratchers, the method doesn't matter just the madness. That deep driving urge to survive, whatever secondary emotion it may manifest as, meant fight not flight for these kids.
• Obfuscate: The third barracks houses the hiders. A child in Obfuscate remained generally calm and quiet on their journey. Their natural talent lies with trying to break line of sight, staying still, and using the shadows.
• Wiles: The fourth barracks contains the brains. Most undeveloped brains don't realize they're smaller, less trained, armed and informed, and outnumbered than their kidnappers. The few bodies housed in Wiles did. Most try to slip their restraints to pick a lock, set a trap, or craft or steal a weapon.
• Naive: This last barracks houses the rest. Any child that fails to display a knack on their initial journey is plopped in this underdog garbage bin.

Train

Each barracks has their own intense routines to hone their natural talent while augmenting it will other general knowledge and skill. Every child quickly becomes a killing machine as from dawn to dusk they are drilled with physical fitness, weapons training, survival skills, and knowledge. Year after year they grown, broken, and regrown. As the rows of unmarked graves at the edge of the facility attest, not everyone can endure such strain.

• Charm: Training in Charm is heavily invested in soft skills and emotional intelligence. Interrogation techniques, how to avoid notice when in plain sight, and how to judge people with the fastest of secret glances are all examples of a Charm trainee. Functioning in both Intelligence and Counter-intelligence roles, their job is to see, hear, and learn everything they can about potential threats as fast and discreetly as possible.
• Resist: Those in Resist are given the most physical and weapons training, and prioritize strategic and tactical thinking in their course work. These recruits are the muscle of the program. They are bright brutes that have nine escape routes and fourteen ways to kill each person in every room they're in.
• Obfuscate: Every militant group needs assassins, scouts, and spies. This batch are nimble, flexible, quick, and silent. They're well-versed in small fast blades and hand-to-hand combat, and possess an immense knowledge on poisons and antidotes. If you can see them, you're already dead - you just don't know it yet. Few individuals can stay prone, still, and awake for 72 hours focused on their mission to watch for the arrival or departure of a target as well as those from Obfuscate.
• Wiles: Wiles all receive the same basic training as everyone else but they truly focus on knowledge. Wiles produces the tacticians and strategic thinkers, the logistics managers and the mission planners. For every successful operation and every threat pre-emptively dispatched, there is at least one Wiles mind behind it. They are also responsible for developing and outfitting the rest of the Speciale Veiligheidstroepen.
• Naive: For every puncher, there is a punching bag. The naive are the worst treated and least valued of all those in the program. Sometimes a skillset is revealed in time and a child from Naive will transfer to another barracks. There are three types that come from here: the hardest, meanest, and most insane bastards you'll ever meet, the general agent that is the equivalent of a lethal puppet, and the dead.

Reward

Upon "graduation", each recruit is given a new name (in Gnomish) and their official number. A copy of their shared experience is handed to them with the expectation of it be destroyed immediately - a sign to all present that their past is dead and gone. They have their place in the world now. They stand with the elite. They need no other story.

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