Ciara screamed as a Rock-hide Centipede burst from the ceiling and grabbed her before crawling away.
I grimaced as another one of my teammates bit the dust.
Since Round 2, our numbers were slowly dwindeling. First Gadri was to slow to escape a wave of enemies when we had to retreat down a tunnel. Next Antony lost his drones and then himself, We were finally on Round 5 and we just lost Ciara.
Universe hadn't upgraded her stamina to much so she was lagging behind both exhausted and mentally incapable at the moment.
I just turned the cornor when a Shadow Emperor Kong bashed me into the ground turning me into meat paste.
I woke up from the pod with a start and Universe exited after me.
Simulation Victory: V Company Squad 3. the computer announces and we met with our adversaries and I gasped in surprise.
"Thalia?" I exclaimed.
"Ah Beo, I was wondering when I would see you" Thalia said and her squaddies looked at me when one of them asked "He your boyfriend?"
Thalia laughed at the comment and explained. "No no, this is my kid brother, he's a softie and will often submit, so take care of him when he needs it"
I was thoroughly offended but I let it pass since it was my sister but apparently this was the wrong action to take.
"See, he doesn't even put up a resistance to what I just said" Thalia's nose flaring.
"You're my sister, I don't want to fight you" I argued.
"Oh who said it was fighting" she joked and with that she shook hands with my squadmates and with a "Nice practice run" she left.
"So you had such a strong hearted sister" Antony said "If she didn't say it I would never have guessed, you guys look and act to different"
"She dyed her hair and got Father's eyes" I said.
"That doesn't make a difference, now lets go get some ice cream, I'm buying" Antony grinned.
"I want Ice Cream" Gadri exclaimed.
"but the ice cream here is free, money is useless here" Universe said
"Ah don't spoil the mood, it is party time" Antony scoffed and Gadri and he practically dragged all of us, two per person to the.
The week rest time went by in a flash, we partied with Antony, Trained with Ciara, Researched with Universe, hang out doing what Gadri wanted to do, and Nima left us alone, isolating herself.
Finally the day of the second mission appeared.
"Alright, before you start this mission I will give you a debriefing. This is a war against the special ships of Negredeer. Simply it is a Space Battle. You are tasked with finding your space fighters and duke it out in space combat. You will get 100 points for being the first 20 squads to find their vehicles and an additional 10 points per ship you take out. Get going cadets" Officer Boris gave his speech and we screamed out the motto.
Rushing to my pod to waste no time for an easy 100 points I woke up to find myself in the common area of G company.
I looked over to find my squad and we started to rush over to the hanger.
After a bit of running Gadri piped up "Um guys, where is the hanger?"
This effectively stopped most of us in our tracks. Ciara and Universe on the other hand kept on running.
"I pass by it in my morning jobs" Ciara explained.
"I memorized a map of this entire complex, it is nearby" Universe said.
"I guess we follow them then" I shrugged and we all ran after them.
Sure enough we took a couple of turns and found ourselves in the hangar
For being the 37th squad to show up to the hangar, you have received a total of 100 points
"Sweet, thanks guys" Gadri grinned.
"I knew I could trust in Ciara" Antony said, suddenly hugging Ciara which made her yelp and kicking to get out of his grip.
"Thanks" Nima murmured.
We had previously taken a tutorial on how to fly planes and were expected to memorize them and now I sit in front of my controls wondering how to turn the engine on.
"Ah the sense of nostalgia is real to me, my home domain" Antony exclaimed in ecstasy.
"If this is your home domain than figure it out for us" Ciara exclaimed.
"What are you talking about the controls are easy" Nima retorted
"I don't understand any of this" Gadri said
I turned on my mic and spoke "As do I"
"The way to turn on the space fighter model : TX82- Oblivion requires you to open the thrusters, while slowly turning the node for fuel to engine combustion. This should get the engine running, now to fly out you must get a running start before you lift off. make sure not to crash into anything" Universe was explaining to us.
"Alright I get it, just push a couple of buttons and we fly" Gadri smirked.
"That is not completely right, but it works for me" Ciara agreed.
"No no, you got it wrong you are going to do something wrong" Antony said frantically when suddenly Gadri's TX82-Oblivion rolls off and crashed into the side of the ship.
"On second thought, no pressing random buttons" Ciara murmured.
"Thats a good girl" Antony complimented.
"Aye, I'm not a child anymore" Ciara retorted.
"I know you're not, but I want to praise you" Antony said.
"ma....maybe later" Ciara stuttered.
"IS THIS A LOVE COMEDY OR WHAT" Nima interrupted their moment and brought them back to their senses.
"Um well, lets get going guys" Antony was embarassed.
"Oh, yyeah lets go" Ciara was equally embarassed.
"You know, it's common for pairs to become partners in real life, family-wise" Universe stated.
"oh really?" Ciara murmured.
"Are you saying I will marry Nima?" Gadri asked.
"That is likely the case" Universe replied.
"No way. No fucking way, am I marrying a dork like Gadri" Nima retorted
"I said there was a chance, does not mean your going to marry him" Universe replied.
I finally got my plane to lift off, sure talking was fun but we all looked stupid for not taking flight yet.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Seeing me taking off the rest of the squad followed my example.
"What formation shall we take?" one of us asked and Universe replied "Since we are going for a space battle, make a W formation, that way if one of us is shot, we won't crash into each other and keep our field of vision wide"
We all knew that Universe was the smart one in our group and naturally followed her orders, shifting into a formation.
The first casualties came from our side, a group of planes were shot and they exploded in the emptiness of space. The Negredeern Forces coming out of their stealth to fight us.
"Watch out, Universe exclaims over the intercom and two Negredeern fighters uncloaked and fired their lasers.
We all swerved to avoid the lasers and all of us with the exception of Ciara got out uninjured.
Ciara and Antony returned fire and took them out.
"Yay my first points, I want more" Ciara was ecstatic.
"Don't get so excited, as time goes on you can get more and more points, I know that technology isn't your forte, which is really rare in this day and age" Antony smiled.
We continued to fly in formation, taking the appropriate actions, Ciara, Gadri and I took a lot of damage as we were not as tech oriented as the others.
"Special ships, care for yourself" Universe announced and we all went on guard.
Suddenly Nima screamed as a giant centipede uncloaked and crushed her ship. We all yelled out and tried to get away but Gadri was crushed.
Antony tried to fight it but he was knocked aside into a passing fighter jet.
"oh my god, what do I do, what do I do" Ciara was hyperventilating, her ships balance was becoming more and more unstable and the glass cockpit was fogging up.
"Ciara calm down, if you freak out now, think about what would happen in real life" I said over the com, and she just panicked even more.
I tried hard to reason with her, and suddenly everything around me exploded.
Waking in the pod I looked at my simulation info.
Status Report
Mission: Space Combat at Negreedeer
Enemies Slain: 15
Status: Failed/Died by Negredeern Centipede Cyborg
Points gained: 250
Survival rank: 421/624
Time surived: 00:52:17 (Hours:Minutes:Seconds)
I cursed myself, I shouldn't focus too much on my team mates, but they are what keeps me alive, I guess...."
Shaking my head I made my way to the common room to watch how Ciara and Universe is doing.
"Thanks for trying to help Ciara out, she finally got her head together" Antony smiled at me, giving me a fist to the shoulder.
"I tried, I tried" I sighed.
"But hey, she might actually survived this time around, though out of this squad she doesn't understand technology for her life" Antony whispered to me.
I just gave him a look. If she was the worst in sense of technology, then why is she one of the final two of our squad to still be alive, that makes no sense to me.
"I know what you're thinking, but since she hangs with me she finds out about technology, like I find out some stuff for when I excersize. The best route for her is Biology and Physical Education which means the medic field." Antony confided in me with this knowledge. He looked me in the eyes, his eyes giving a glint of happiness. He continued to speak.
"She knows important parts of the body, and has the speed and endurance to travel to desolate places. Now she is getting the knowledge to defend herself, To be honest I am proud of her."
"We all should be proud of her, we are like family" Gadri exclaimed, jumping into the conversation and giving us both surprise hugs from the back.
"They put us into teams to get along, guess we are family right?" Nima said and we all looked at her again.
"What is it now, I just said we could be family right?" Nima growled at us.
"That's the part that makes it so weird, you didn't want any of this and wanted to be alone, now you're here spouting about us being family." Antony teases her, a smile growing on his face.
"Shut up, you know what, just forget I said anything" Nima pouted and turned away, which makes Antony laugh. "Don't worry Nima, this tsun tsun act won't get into my heart in the slightest, though you might want to watch for Gadri, he is dumb enough to fall for it" Antony said.
"Get off my back or I'm going to kill you you fool" Nima roared then pounced at Antony.
"Jokes they're jokes" Antony gave a blazing smile and he ran off while laughing, Nima chasing after him with her combat knife out.
"Will they ever stop fighting?" Gadri asked me cautiously.
"Well, Antony is not fighting, Nima might just want to bash his skull in though" I replied.
"If she want skulls for bashing in, I would offer mine" Gadri said matter of factly, which gives him a weird stare from me.
"Is something the matter?" Gadri asked me.
"No no, nothing the matter, lets just observe Universe and Cia.... Universe died?" I was shocked by the fact. On the panel in front of me confirmed the truth. Out of G Company Squad 4, Universe's portrait was blacked out.
Now this was a story to find out, I got up and started to make my way to Universe, who just arrived.
"Tell me, what happened" I asked.