I was back in the dimly lit simulation room. I grabbed the brain pad still attached to the back of my head and tugged it off.
“Welcome back!” Needle exclaimed. “Did you see my heroic sacrifice? It was something, huh.”
I rubbed my forehead. “Yeah, it sure was. Opened up that entire room.”
I looked over. Keshi, Needle, and Sil were standing up and stretching their limbs. Noah sat unmoving in his seat. He was still in the simulation, I guess.
Keshi walked over to me. “Damn. I can’t believe I didn’t look before I rounded that corner. It was a stupid mistake to make.”
I stood up too. “Hey, we were rushing to get out. It’s an honest mistake when you don’t know when the whole place is going to blow up.”
“Thanks, Saka.” Keshi said. He shook his head. “I should’ve been more aware, though.”
Sil pointed at the front of the room. Ceel still stood at the console, and on the wall behind her were several screens that displayed what was going on inside of the simulation.
“Look! Noah’s still fighting, somehow. I don’t know how he’s still alive!” Sil exclaimed.
She was right. On the screen, I saw a familiar sight, the hallway where we got pincered. Noah was hunkered down inside of a side room, and was still fighting for his life. Recruits around us were cheering for him enthusiastically. Everyone’s eyes were glued to the camera watching Noah.
We watched as Noah fired off a barrage of beams directly into the faces of several Haivu soldiers. Every shot hit its mark. Noah had the Haivu soldiers funneling into the small doorway of the room he was in, creating a chokepoint for the Haivu to hang themselves on. Only two Haivu soldiers could shoot him at a time, and he shot faster than they could.
Noah’s beam rifle overheated, so he quickly swapped to his holstered handgun. Casings flew out the ejection port as he laid down shot after shot. He counted his shots perfectly, so as soon as he knew he was out of ammo, Noah swapped back to his rifle and started firing again. It had cooled down, so Noah was free to keep shooting. However, the next time it overheated, he’d be in trouble. He didn’t have the time to reload the handgun.
The other screens on the wall showed what the other surviving recruits were doing. All of the hallways were still painted red by lights and flooded with the sounds of blaring alarms. The reactor going supercritical has caused the emergency notification systems in the entire warship to go off. I watched as ten recruits managed to find their way back to a transport ship and board it. The transport ship left immediately. There were still two more transport ships attached to the hull of the warship.
Noah’s last stand started to fade away. His shield was finally depleted, and his only protection was a flipped table he had to hide behind. He couldn’t even peek out to fire anymore. Noah blind fired his rifle like he did before, at the gang’s clubhouse, but all of his shots wildly missed. He couldn’t listen to footsteps to guide his shots because of the deafening sounds of the Haivu soldiers firing on his position.
Noah’s rifle finally overheated, so he was forced to stop firing. Noah shakily reloaded his handgun. He once again blind fired it, rounding the handgun around the table, but most of his shots missed. The ones that did happen to strike a Haivu soldier were simply stopped by the shields that protected them.
A caustic pod smacked against the barrel of the handgun, knocking it away from Noah’s hand. Noah’s string of curses were picked up by the camera’s microphone. The Haivu, sensing victory, began to rush Noah’s table. When the first one reached Noah’s position, he launched himself from behind cover and swung his overheated rifle, slugging the poor Haivu soldier in the head and knocking them down.
A barrage of projectiles were shot into Noah’s direction. Right before they made contact, a blinding light enveloped everything within the ship, making it impossible to see anything. A moment later, the screen went dark. The reactor had finally exploded.
Letters began to fill the screens on the wall. They said, “Galactic Union Victory.” We’d beaten the simulation. Cheers echoed throughout the simulation room. Next to me, in his seat, Noah started to stir. He yanked his brain pad cord, and stood up.
“Did the reactor blow?” Noah asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, looks like it did. It vaporized the entire warship, apparently.”
“Nice!” Noah said. “Which got me first? The bugs, or the reactor?”
“I think it was the reactor. The Haivu couldn’t manage to finish you off. You held on for a really long time, Noah.” Keshi walked over.
“Even if it was a simulation, I wanted to take out as many as I could.” Noah said, while scratching the back of his head.
Noah was so confident during the simulation, but now that it was over, he was back to his sheepish self.
Sil and Needle also walked over.
“We beat the Haivu in the simulation, but in a real battle, let’s not do any heroic sacrifices, yeah?” Sil said. “I really don’t want to die in some shitty Haivu ship in the middle of nowhere.”
“Speak for yourself!” Needle exclaimed. “The grenade strategy is totally viable when there’s no more options.”
“Uh huh.” Keshi said, raising an eyebrow. Or where his eyebrow would’ve been. Sabi didn’t have hair.
I turned my attention back to the screens at the front. They were now displaying statistics from the simulation, like a video game. Apparently, the ten recruits that I’d watched escape earlier were the only ones to extract safely. Noah, and a couple other groups, were unable to find their way back to the transport ships, and blew up along with the Haivu warship.
Highest number of kills didn’t actually go to Noah, surprisingly. Apparently, the groups that attacked the bridge saw higher enemy densities, and someone in that group accrued a large number of kills as a result. Noah was third, though. Which was still impressive. Noah’s rapid growth was astonishing, especially since I found Noah less than a month ago.
Ceel clapped her hands together.
“Good job, recruits. You fuckers actually managed to beat the simulation! Well done to the group that took out the reactor. Despite some… questionable strategies, you did a great job completing the objective. I paid attention to who the key players were, so if you’re one of them, expect a conversation with me later. It’s nothing bad, so don’t worry.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Otherwise, the other groups did fine, too. Some of you got mowed down trying to head to the bridge, but that’s common. Most of you decided to split into smaller groups to widen your search area, which was a good idea. That is what we usually do in our boarding operations. However, let me remind you of something. That was the easy difficulty. The Haivu are a lot harder to kill in real life. Don’t get overconfident. If you died in the simulation, you will die in a real battle. Don’t do that.”
Ceel turned to face the screens on the wall, and swept her eyes over the simulation statistics.
“Well, it’s apparent that a lot of you have experience in combat. You’re probably mercenaries or law enforcement or some such. But remember, you’re a soldier now. You’ll be fighting on a scale you’ve never seen before. We’re going to continue training for as long as we can until we’re ordered to deploy. Once that happens, you’re out in the real world again. This is a war, and the Haivu are merciless. Expect the worst in every situation. Alright, dismissed! Your next task is to find your way back to the mess hall and barracks. I have some business on the bridge. There will be no more training today, but starting tomorrow we will continue just as strong as today and yesterday. You’ve got the basics down, next is practice. Good luck, recruits.”
Her speech concluded, Ceel saluted us, and briskly strode out of the simulation room. I could’ve sworn she gave a passing glance to Noah.
“Hey, does anyone remember the way back?” Needle asked. “I don’t wanna be lost in a warship for the second time today.”
“I remember.” Noah said. “Let’s go to the mess hall. Even though we didn’t actually move around, running all over that warship in the sim made me hungry.”
My stomach growled. I had to agree. It had been several hours since we ate in the mess hall this morning. The pilot sim and the boarding sim both took a few hours each, and walking around the massive warship also took a while. Trying to get anywhere was basically like having a workout.
Our group of five walked out of the simulation room and into the hallway. I had no clue where to go. The warship was set up in grids, but every corridor basically looked the same. I was really thankful to have Noah’s perfect memory guide us back. Nothing was more frustrating than being lost and hungry at the same time.
We walked through the halls as Noah guided us down twists and turns. There was no way I would’ve been able to figure it out. I wonder what the other recruits were going to do. The warship was an unfathomable maze of identical hallways and uniform rooms.
Eventually, Noah walked us to the back end of the ship, where the elevators were located. We could take the elevator all the way down to the bottom level, and make our way back to the barracks. There were exits on higher levels, of course, since the warship had several boarding walkways attached to the ship that led out to the military base. However, the way we came was on ground level, so that’s where Noah was leading us.
We hopped inside the elevator, and the door started to slowly close.
“Wait wait wait!”
A panicked voice called out. They managed to jump into the elevator cab at the last second, door snapping shut behind their thick tail.
The source of the voice was an Aeon woman, dressed in the standard military uniform. A soldier, then. We’ve passed by many soldiers bustling about on the warship before, and the uniform she was wearing appeared to be the normal one, so she wasn’t an officer or anything.
The Aeon soldier gasped for air for a second, then straightened up and peered up at us. Like most Aeons, she was short.
“Oh, hey. You’re the new recruits, right? I’m Kui! Nice to meet you!”
We all introduced ourselves to the cheerful Aeon. Her upbeat energy was pretty infectious. Kui spoke quickly, and only ended her sentences when she ran out of breath. Then she’d take a deep breath, and do it again. She was kind of similar to Needle, except she gave off the vibe of an idiot instead of a jokester.
“Good luck with training!” Kui chirped. “It’ll be rough, but it’ll be worth it. Ceel’s a lot nicer than she looks!”
The elevator chimed and the door opened.
“That’s my stop! See you guys around!”
Kui charged out of the elevator and sprinted out, nearly colliding with a fellow soldier. She briskly apologized and continued her rampage through the ship. The last thing I saw as the elevator door closed was her backside, quickly getting farther and farther away.
“I love her energy!” Needle proclaimed. “She seemed a little scatterbrained, though.”
“Yeah,” Noah agreed, “I wonder what’s got her in such a hurry.”
“Dunno. If we see her again we should try asking. She seemed pretty nice.” I said.
Our elevator reached the bottom level of the ship, where all the cargo and the land vehicles were. Noah guided us out of the ship, and we were soon walking on the steel plated ground of the massive docking bay again. We made our way towards a staircase, and descended underground. There, we navigated more identical looking hallways until we found our way back at the mess hall again.
“You guys hungry?” Keshi asked. “I’m going to grab something before we head back to the barracks.”
“I’m starving!” Sil replied. “We skipped lunch because of those sims. I wish we had a set schedule so I’d know when we’re doing what.”
“Hopefully Ceel solidifies her training plan soon. The last two days were just her feeling us out. If I had to guess, we’ll be doing scheduled training soon.” I said.
We walked over to the food dispensers. I got a good old synthmeat steak to reward myself. Keshi got some unidentifiable soup. Sil got the same. Needle got a salad.
“I’m vegetarian.” Needle explained.
Noah got his nutrient paste, like last time. We made our way to an empty table and sat down. I was next to Noah, and the three former mercenaries sat across from us.
I dug into my steak. Noah sneaked the tube up the front of his helmet.
“Dude, you’re not going to take your helmet off while eating?” Needle said. “What are you hiding under there? You really ugly or something?”
Noah shrugged. “Helmet stays on. You’ll have to guess why.”
Sil bumped Needle’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t be so rude. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious. I can’t even tell what race or species you are.”
Keshi laughed. “You guys are so nosey.” He turned towards Noah. “If we guess it right, will you tell us?”
Noah shook his head. “No way. I’m taking this to my grave.”
Needle started guessing anyway. “Uh… you’re actually someone famous! You have an offensive face tattoo! Your face melted off in a freak suntanning accident! You’re actually two Haivus stuffed into one suit!”
We all laughed as Needle kept guessing nonsensical answers. It was amusing, but a little concerning that people were starting to think about why Noah kept his helmet on. It didn’t seem like anyone suspected Noah to be a human, though. They were already incredibly rare to begin with, and no humans were ever found in public. They were usually found in personal collections, or stashed in some trillionaire’s room somewhere. They weren’t in zoos, either. It was illegal to have primitive sapient creatures in them.
Keshi turned to face me. “Saka, do you know what Noah looks like?”
I locked eyes with Keshi. “Nope, never seen him out of his suit.” I lied. “If he hasn’t shown me, there’s no way in hell he’ll tell you.”
“Huh.” Keshi muttered. He stroked his chin. “It’s probably really personal, guys. You should knock it off.”
“Alright,” Sil said. “That’s enough, Needle.”
“Okay, fine. I’ll limit it to one guess per day. It won’t be fun if I get it right too early, after all.” Needle pouted.
“If you get it right one of these days,” Noah said, “I’m going to have to kill you.”
Keshi, Sil, and Needle erupted into laughter.
I hoped Noah was joking. He probably was. But sometimes, it was hard to tell. His delivery was deadpan.
We continued our dinner. The synthsteak was decent, I guess. It wasn’t as good as the restaurant I went to with Noah, of course. But it was good enough to eat. A little chewy, but my sharp fangs made quick work of them. Keshi and Sil claimed their mystery soup was really good, so maybe I’d get that next time. Needle attacked his salad in between hyperenergetic outbursts of conversation. He was really fun to talk to. Talkative enough to be entertaining, but not to the point where he was annoying. Noah once again complained about his nutrient paste. I would, too. It really was that nasty. Maybe he could sneak food out of the mess hall someday.
By the time we finished eating, the other recruits began to trickle into the mess hall. We were the first recruits to make it to the mess hall because of Noah’s perfect memory. The tired recruits made their way to the food dispensers, got their food, and sat down at their tables with strained groans. I overheard one of them complaining that Ceel didn’t even have the compassion to give out maps, or directions.
I was pretty sure Ceel didn’t assist with any of the navigation on the way back as a form of training, or as a test. As soldiers, we were supposed to know the layout of the warship. It was probably her way of dunking us in the deep end of the pool. Getting used to the layout of the ship with no training wheels was probably the fastest way to memorize it. Nobody wanted to walk around a ship the size of a city block for any longer than they should, so the incentive was built into the training.
We all finished eating (Needle was the last to finish, since he talked so much). We made our way back to the barracks. The three former mercenaries had chosen a different barracks room than us, so we said our goodbyes. We promised to stick together for training again, since we’d pretty much become friends over the course of today. They were reliable, skilled, and fun to be around, after all.
After putting away my suit in my locker, I made my way to the shower rooms. Noah headed there before me, since he couldn’t change out of his suit in public. I heard him humming from one of the stalls, overlapped by the sounds of running water.
I entered one of the shower stalls myself, and stripped away my tank top, skin tight shorts, and underwear. I stuffed them inside of a compartment on the wall, and pressed a button. The compartment closed, and began automatically washing my clothes. By the time I finished my shower, they would be cleaned, dried, and folded.
I grabbed the soap and started scrubbing my body down, top to bottom. I used my back arms to reach the parts of my back my front arms couldn’t reach. I made sure to thoroughly clean my tail, too. After that, I washed my hair, checked my claws (they weren’t too sharp yet), and dried off. I felt the exhaustion accrued from today’s exercises evaporate away.
I grabbed my freshly dried clothes from the cleaning compartment on the wall, and put them on. I stepped out of the shower and strode back to my barracks room, back to my cot. Noah was already at his cot, tapping away at his tablet.
“Hey, are you going to sleep?” I asked.
“Not yet,” Noah replied, “I’m going to fuck around on my tablet for a little first.”
“Alright,” I said. “Wake me up if anything happens. I’m going to sleep early tonight.”
“Mmmhmm.”
I tucked myself into the cot and wrapped my tail from under me and hugged it. With the extra warmth kept close to my chest, I fell asleep easily, despite the small murmurs of conversations that emitted from my fellow recruits in the barracks.