Venna left her apartment and walked to the training area. It was a few blocks down from the housing and apartments and it felt good to stretch her legs after the long trip from the shipyard to Juno station and then to the Lunar base. The ambush at the shipyard was still fresh on her mind. In the moment, she had done what she needed to do to stay alive and keep her team alive. Now that they were back at lunar base to be debriefed, she had too much time on her hands to think. Venna’s mind began to spiral with thought of all the ways things had gone wrong and how things could have gone even worse. Shaking her head in an effort to shunt the thoughts from her mind, Venna decided to distract herself with different more mundane memories. No matter how hard she tried, her mind continued to replay the attack, floating through space outside her dead ship, pulling Titus’s limp body into the airlock, and the apprehension of hoping he would be alive.
Lost in thought, Venna missed the sound of footsteps tapping as four figures ran up behind her. As a hand grasped her shoulder, Venna shot out her leg and swept the figure to the ground. She crouched over the man with her knife inches from his terrified face. Realizing the man pinned to the ground was a trainee, Venna flicked her knife into the air caught the blade tip and gently slapped his smooth shaved cheek with the hilt. Thrusting out a hand, she helped him to his feet. Venna felt that she should probably apologize for the take-down, not to mention the knife, but she flicked the thought away and instead asked, “What do you want trainees?” All four stood at the position of attention, apprehension evident on their faces. With slightly less force, Venna repeated, “What do you want?”
“Ma’am we are sorry to surprise you, we thought you heard us approaching.” The youngest looking man uttered as his comrade who had been taken down stared past Venna as though she were transparent. “We are late to our training and tried to take a shortcut but got turned around and were hoping you could direct us.” He gulped with the last few words.
Not in the mood to deal with people, but also not in the mood to take things out on trainees, Venna suppressed a growl. She thought back to her first experience on Lunar base as a trainee. It had taken her a few weeks to truly be familiarized with the layout. The place was an intricate and confusing web of roads and checkpoints with various nondescript buildings behind invisible laser grid fences. “You’re going to the training center?” All four studiously nodded. With a sigh of resignation and a slight smile Venna motioned with a finger for them to follow. “Come with me. I’m headed there myself.”
Tentative smiles touched the corners of the four men’s mouths. With continued hesitation, they bunched up behind Venna in a chaotic single file line, each jostling to be last. When Venna looked over her shoulder at the ridiculous antics of these four men trying to follow her, but none wanting to be directly behind her, she finally broke down laughing. The four men stared on in confusion as Venna doubled over laughing with tears streaming down her face. On the verge of the situation becoming truly awkward, Venna finally got control of herself. “Whew! You guys don’t even know how badly I needed that laugh!”
As they continued to stare flatly at her, Venna corrected. “Maybe you did. But the image of all of you struggling to keep up and yet stay farthest away from me was too much.” The mere mention of their antics looked to threaten a resurgence of her laughter and she smacked her fist into her leg to control herself. Looking at their continued confusion Venna cleared the air. “Sorry about the take-down and being short with you all. Just have a bunch on my mind. I remember being a trainee and it can all feel overwhelming. The last thing you need is some crazy lady freaking you all out.” As they all began to visibly relax, Venna waved them over to walk next to her as they continued toward the training center.
One of the men who had not spoken yet kicked a stone down the walkway. “Ma’am, I recognize your shoulder patch. You are a Demon Stalker.” After a slight silent pause he continued. “Have you been to Juno Station? What’s it like? How is it different from here?” His rapid fire questions flowed around a gently smirking Venna like water in a stream.
Amused, Venna pondered his questions. The forward operating base, Juno Station, was the launching point for most of their operations. It was a much faster paced environment compared to Lunar base. Being a massive space station in the asteroid belt, Juno Station could hold ten teams and their support crews at one time and had a fleet of ships that ranged from simple fighters to tactical interstellar drop ships. Juno was where all the work took place. If a person was stationed there it meant that they had a mission coming up and they were going to see some action. Lunar base on the other hand, served the purpose of training, housing, and resting non-activated teams. All the intel was compiled here and any high value targets that were taken alive were incarcerated and interrogation here. Luna base’s goal was to remain unnoticed by the rest of the galaxy. The thing that really helped this place to become invisible to the rest of the galaxy was that it resided on a continent on the Lunar surface that was owned by a private party and set aside for conservation. That meant that it was outside of the control of any government. The other thing that helped to keep this place a secret was that it seldom had ships coming or going.
Finishing her thought’s, Venna filled the long silent void with her answer. “Yes I have been to Juno Station.” The three men seemed to lean in with every word she spoke. “And we have arrived at the training center. You had better head in and reconnect with your training unit before you get into more trouble than you already will be.” All three men startled at seeing the entrance to the training center before them and with slight nods of respect in her direction, they all sprinted off into the building.
Stolen story; please report.
Standing and staring at the entrance to the training center, Venna’s mind lingered on the entire interaction. She smirked at the eagerness of the trainees and was grateful of the diversion they had given her. Thinking about the diversion brought her mind back to the reason she had needed a diversion. With grim determination Venna made her way into the building and toward the virtual simulation chamber. With a practiced hand, she slipped into the Virtual Reality bodysuit, making minor adjustments to ensure the suit had her preferred fit.
A year or so before, she had first trained in the simulator in order become a Demon Stalker. Her first reaction to the suit had been that it felt a little immodest and left very little to the imagination. Her fears had been unfounded though because the suit was intended to be worn under regular gear and clothing in the simulator. It wasn’t until the simulator began, that the true purpose of the suit became very obvious. The suit reacted to stimuli from the virtual simulation. When you were shot or hit, the suit would deliver a corresponding and equivalent shock of pain. The suit would also prevent the use of limbs if they had been damaged. It could not kill a person, but Venna had learned very quickly the full range of the suit's abilities.
Now a veteran of the VR simulator, Venna stepped into the chamber. Everything was dark and only her silhouette was visible. Suddenly a tiny blue light began to expand and grow emanating from the far wall. In a matter of seconds a translucent blue figure stood in the center of the room.
"Venna Solis. What simulation can I run for you today? Maybe something different for once?" The AI inquired.
"No, I would like to run the same simulation."
"You have run this simulation 220 times in a row. As a computer, that is an insignificantly small number of simulations. But, to my understanding, the human psyche is not equipped to handle or even process all that information or repetition. Perhaps another simulation."
Looking straight at the blue figure in the center of the room, Venna's eyes took on a sharp focus. "No. You will run mission 2242-A."
"Very well. I swear, I will never truly understand humans." The AI's image began to dissipate and was quickly replaced with an immersive terrain and location simulation.
All of a sudden two other figures materialized beside Venna. Both had gear on and were armed with small machine guns.
Venna stared at both men seeming to take in every detail. Almost as if looking for a flaw in the simulated images. Both men looked exactly as she had remembered them though. Tom was lean and muscular with a scruff of facial hair starting to appear from the many days in the field. Fred, standing next to him, was built like a bulldog. Stocky and ferocious. His face sported the same messy scruff from being in the field.
"Venna, focus in." Tom, the taller of the two men barked.
Venna had been so focused on the two men she hadn't realized Tom, the team leader, had been talking.
Tom continued, "Fred and I will move through that ravine to the objective. Venna you will be on overwatch on that ridge over there. Once we have reached the objective adjust your position to cover our exfiltration. Remember this is a quick and silent operation. They should not know we are coming and hopefully they won't realize we were there until we are long gone."
Venna and Fred nodded. Venna stood there gripping her rifle with such force her knuckles were white.
Tom looked at the both of them, "Any final questions or comments?"
"I won't let you guys down this time… I promise…" whispered Venna.
"When have you ever let us down?"
"Yeah!" concurred Fred.
"Enough of this kind of talk. We have a mission to accomplish." With this Tom and Fred rushed into the entrance of the ravine.
Venna looked up the hill to the ridge where she was to set up her perch. She located the spot on the ridge and began sprinting up the hill. Once in position she aimed at the area just in front of Tom and Fred. Almost immediately the head of an enemy soldier came into focus as he approached the edge of the ravine. Venna immediately pulled the trigger. He was the easy one. The rest were so much harder. All this ran through her head as the lifeless body plunged into the ravine just in front of Tom and Fred.
Immediately Tom and Fred went on the defensive. "Venna can you see any more soldiers?"
"No, but I know there are more. You should definitely get out of the ravine though. You are sitting ducks."
Tom replied, "I don’t think we should. We may still have the element of surprise if that was just a lone scout. If we come out of the ravine we run the risk of being spotted and ruining the mission."
Every time… They always chose to stay in the ravine. No matter what she said. Venna snapped out of thought and quickly aimed down her sights. Tom and Fred took a few steps forward when the ravine erupted into action. Men who had been hiding along the top of the ravine jumped up and began firing down. Venna began expertly executing every single enemy soldier systematically. Many dropped to the ground before they had even fired a shot. Tom and Fred began retreating as Venna covered them. Venna continued firing at a rapid pace. Every squeeze of the trigger ended a life. Still it was not enough. The numbers were too great… they were always too great. Soon enough she was out of ammo in her sniper rifle. She tossed her weapon and snatched up her light machine gun and sprinted down the hill to where she had last seen Tom and Fred in the ravine. They will be alive… they will be alive… she rehearsed in her head. Venna rounded a tree to come face to face with an enemy soldier. Tom and Fred were lying lifeless before her in the ravine. And then, PAIN… SHOOTING PAIN…