"You ever used full dive VR before?" The older heavy set male instructor asked.

"Some, sure." I said a bit nervously. I didn't want to tell them that my setup was cobbled together from 3 different older generational systems and barely counted as full dive.

"Mmmhmmm, well it will be similar to your prior experience but remember this is a mixed reality system. If you vomit or break your nose or something it's actually happening in real life." He said unconvinced.

"Ok" I said. I just wanted to get the test started.

"Alright look I'm not supposed to but I can flip on the interface and familiarization tutorial. I can't let you run through that separately from your test but it helps. It's not uncommon for a lot of hopefuls to use the first test as practice and the appeal test as the actual test." He said.

The instructor wasn't wrong and I did consider that but if my score was too low I wouldn't even get the option of an appeal.

"I should be ok… but thank you for the offer." I said quietly.

The instructor just shrugged and indicated to me to sit in the simulator cockpit. The seat was incredibly uncomfortable with almost no padding, the controls were all at awkward angles for my larger frame but I made it work. Last was the 5 point harness that clipped in the center. I had to extend all of the straps to the max and it still felt tight. Unfortunately this simulator setup seemed to be one size fits most which annoyed me.

I had a large and broad frame all of my teen years that I absolutely hated. If I had been interested in sports I had no doubt I would have been a good pick for football or basketball.

I heard the instructor grunt has he made some adjustments to something behind me. The mumbled something about a larger simulator.

"Alright kid helmets going on then I'm sealing you in. If you vomit in there then you're cleaning it up." The instructor said and placed a chunky and heavy helmet on my head. It actually hurt my neck it was so heavy no doubt from all the sensors and high density electronics shoved into it.

"Alright kid, lean your head back." He said and I did. I felt something click in the back of it and suddenly it was much easier to move. No doubt the control arm had just connected.

"Okay, I was a bit worried there." He mumbled but I tried my best to ignore it.

I was nervous… if I did too poorly on this test then I was stuck in this miserable life… well I always had one other option but I felt I didn't need that… yet.

I heard a loud and heavy click as the simulator hatch closed. It was suddenly very quiet and very dark in this isolated space. I could smell the sweat of the countless other hopefuls that permeated every centimeter of the simulator.

Then I was blinded by a quick flash of white light, as the simulator Initialized I was greeted by the boot up prompt for the simulator manufacturer.

DefSim Training Simulator 4.2

Distribution of Unlicensed System is Strictly Prohibited

I give a very quiet chuckle at that last part. Which was the main reason why I was so nervous. I had scrounged together a Simulator that was two generations older. Much of the control interfaces had improved but the test mission layout hadn't. In effect I was cheating by knowing what to expect in great detail beforehand. I had gone through hundreds of hours of simulator exercises and had a good idea of what kinds of curveballs to expect.

The simulator had me go through a basic mapping and syncing system that you could find on many older video games to calibrate a controller. It's just this one was also reading your mind while you did it…

Once completed I was required to enter in some personal information to be officially registered.

Name: Ethan Steele

CentGov ID: 58fdec6a

Email: [email protected]

I cringed at my name but chuckled at my email address. My great grandfather gave me that address in turn he had gotten it from his great grandmother. It was the single most valuable thing I owned as it was tied to a legacy ID and purchased back when you could still buy domain names.

Once I was registered my recording would be stored for all eternity and used as part of the analysis for my possible acceptance.

Test 1: Core defense

Objective: Defend Hyper space core from alien assault for 30 minutes. Or complete the secondary objective within the 10 minute window.

Secondary objective: Destroy enemy beach head within 10 minutes. Then destroy all remaining units.

Great… this was a long haul type mission and the one I was dreading to get first. It could be physically and mentally taxing to defend for the full time. The only good news is that I didn't need to complete the primary or secondary objectives just to last as long as possible. I would however receive bonus points if I did manage to complete either objective.

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It was like one of those tower defense games where you needed to build up towers and weapons to keep enemies from getting too close and attack the target.

I started immediately by building two basic turrets next to the point of interest in case anything snuck by. Everything I built or added to my Mech was going to cost resources, while in this simularter it would be simplified to Metal and Power. I knew in real life this could become far more complex.

The core had at least basic regenerative shields so it could take a few hits without worry. Next I walked forward to select a region and build a wall to help create a choke point. Or we'll I tried then I fell forward. The simulator was not 100% accurate but I still fell forward in the harness and seat. I then received a prompt.

Would you like to enable AI drive assistance?

That was odd, I don't remember ever hearing about or seeing anything related to an AI system that would assist. Then again my practice system was so cobbled together I had no hopes of getting everything working…

I selected to turn it on, I just hoped it wouldn’t hurt my score too badly. The Simulated mech I was driving corrected its orientation and was back on its feet in no time. It was still difficult to drive but I was getting the hang of it after a few minutes.

While I was flailing around trying to learn how to drive I finally selected the region and began to build a basic concrete barrier. I knew that bigger things could break through it but it would help the four turrets I had stationed at a choke point take some of the bots out.

The next part was the most risky move, based on my possibility illegal research attacking and neutralizing the spawn zone would likely have the best outcome if I could do it in time. My defenses would still be fighting new and ever growing spawns but based on the times I encountered they should last long enough. My mech was currently armed with the equivalent of a pea shooter and would take several shots to take down even the weakest enemies. I quickly figured out how to buy better weapons and an auto reload system. I would automatically use metal to reload the high power gatling gun and railgun I had equipped. Last was a directional shield generator that would help soak up some of the fire I was about to come under.

Would you like to enable AI assisted fire-control? This option is highly recommended with this loadout.

That prompt was a little more odd but if it was recommending it I wasn't going to say no. I just didn't expect this level of help at all and it was confusing.

Use of the AI assistant system will not cause a deduction of points in the final report. Please also be aware that not all are offered AI assistance and the disclosure of the AI assistance will be met with a failure.

Ok that was very weird but at this point I was already neck deep so I selected Yes to the AI assisted Fire-Control. This whole AI situation seemed really suspicious but at this point if I was being lied to then I would be done with all of this anyway. I then started to move forward to the location of enemy spawns.

Driving this thing was a lot easier as I continued to use it, I could also see about 100 meters away a group of small ish bots. Small in terms of the simulator mech size which was over 20 meters tall.

My railgun started to auto target and kill them off before they even had a chance to get into firing range. Still there must have been over 60 of them because they just kept coming. Then they started to fire at me, luckily the shield was taking the brunt of it. While a few shots still grazed me, the mech auto repair could handle it.

Then I got into the range of my gatling gun. The simulator even emulated the kick and vibration from the rotary cannon. It tore through the group in no time at all leaving chunks of digital robot everywhere. Unlike real life I was at least getting resources for each kill. Seeing as how I did not have any capacity to mine or setup infrastructure this had to be the way to offset usage. I went through yet another wave just like the first eliminating everything that got in my way as well.

At this point I was getting close to the ‘spawn’ area which looked to be a set of subterranean factories that would keep lifting more bots to the surface. I was starting to see a greater variety as well, some looked like they had bigger guns while others had missile launchers. I knew range was a big factor in what I was doing so I built a turret that would sniper for me and two smaller turrets that would take out closer range stuff. As it turned out I was able to give the guns a priority list to say target this thing or this type first. This spot became a fallback point and the sniper towers were just in range to hit the factories. But that was a lower priority target, I had no doubt the factories would require something bigger.

I checked my clock and I was 6 minutes into the simulation… that did not leave me a lot of time to kill all the factories. I switched the railgun I had equipped on my left shoulder for a heavy explosive delivery system. Once my equipment was changed I then started a dash over to the furthest spawn point. I still had to do quite a bit of ‘weed wacking’ to clear out the smaller units but I finally got to the point of dropping a heavy charge. The system shot out a large glowing disk that on impact detonated. It took 3 shots into the internal elevator system to count it as destroyed.

I checked my time again and had 3 minutes to kill the other two so I sprinted to the next one in line and started to wreak havoc. Unfortunately tougher and tougher units were starting to show up and even some anti-heavy artillery units that would disable my own explosives. It took me longer but I eventually killed it.

Checking time again I had 1 minute 30 seconds left. Fuck it I would need to spend all my current budget on new weapons to cut through the last line. 15 seconds later I was armed with 2 heavy gatling guns and that same heavy bomb thrower and heavy armor. I chewed through everything that was in my way all while watching my armor take hit after hit. I was getting chewed to pieces which changed this to a war of attrition. Once I had enough taken care of I lobbed explosive after explosive into the factory until it was dead. I switched back to focusing on the last of the bots around me until nothing was left and my readout was saying critical damage on over half of my systems.

I checked my status.

Test 1: Core defense

Objective: Defend Hyper space core from alien assault for 30 minutes. Or complete the secondary objective within the 10 minute window. (COMPLETE)

Secondary objective: Destroy enemy beach head within 10 minutes. Then destroy all remaining units. (COMPLETE)

“Fuck yes…” I said to myself, with that weird AI’s help I had completed the secondary object just in time.

Due to exceptional performance all other tests have been skipped. Please wait for the instructor to release the hatch and remove the interface helmet.

I wanted out of this undersized coffin at this point, I didn’t ever see myself as claustrophobic but nothing fit quite right in this thing and I could feel the simulator pod was sort of at an odd angle… why it didn't reset I had no idea. Then the lights went out just like how it started when I was originally put in. I couldn’t hear or see anything so I counted to five… Then I counted another five… Then I started to scream.