Everyone stood at attention in the large briefing room. They were all divided into their squads, looking up at Bradford and Warren. “Alright everyone, listen up. Today you take your first practice test in preparation for your final exam. The test you’re about to take is going to be exactly the same as the one you’ll take in your final exam. I ain’t gonna sugarcoat this for you. It’s gonna be hard, and most of you are gonna fail, but that’s why we’re doing this so that you know what you need to work on so you’re ready. Now we’re gonna do this one squad at a time, so let’s get to it.”

After a few other squads went, Ascelmo and the rest of the squad were up. As Bradford predicted, all the other squads failed. They all geared up and stepped into the elevator to the simulation room. It was practically pitch black as the elevator rose, except for the faint lights in their helmets illuminating their faces and a few lights outside in the shaft that were gone as soon as they appeared. They started in a typical V formation, with Ascelmo at the front and everyone else on either side of him. He took a deep breath as the elevator started slowing down. The elevator stopped and it was dead silent. Then there was a buzzer, followed by a green light in the elevator. Then the doors started to slide open. The room that was once vast and open now seemed far more cramped. Certain parts of the floor jutted out to serve as cover. Other parts rose up several yards to serve as towers. Toward the end, there was a wide gap and at the very end of the room, there was a large building. Training bots armed with all kinds of weapons started rising from the floor and turned toward them, opening fire almost immediately.

Everyone dove for the nearest cover and hid behind it. The communicator in their helmets crackled to life. “Your objective is to clear the area of enemy presence and rescue the hostages.”

Ascelmo pressed the button on his helmet to start transmitting. “Solid copy, out.” He turned to the rest of the squad. “Alright, do we have any ideas?”

Aranail peeked over the cover and fired a few shots before vaulting over and going for the next available cover.

“Wait! Get back here, we need to hold our formation!” Ascelmo went after him.

Elenaire rolled her eyes. “Great, we’re off to a fantastic start.” She peeked over the wall, bringing up her shield in one hand, and shooting a few bolts of fire with the other.

Talen-Ra looked at Ascelmo and Aranail, then looked back at the rest. “I’m gonna go make sure they don’t get themselves killed.” He looked at Orokas. “Give me some cover.”

Orokas nodded and revved up his gun before jumping up behind the wall and spraying plasma bolts down the room.

Talen-Ra crouched down and moved around the wall, joining Ascelmo and Aranail behind the one they were behind.

One of the bots in the towers started opening fire on them with a mounted machine gun, one of the stray bolts of plasma hit Orokas in the shoulder, sending him back behind the wall.

Elenaire put up a shield protecting the three of them and looked over to the other three, looking for some kind of help. Aranail peeked out from behind the wall, switching his rifle into a sniper and aiming down the scope. He took a second and fired a well placed shot to the bot’s head. Elenaire put the shield down and the three of them advanced to the wall the other three were at. More bots started rising up from the floor, immediately shooting at them. Without notice, Aranail jetpacked upwards trying to hover for a few seconds and shoot at the bots. But before long, one of the bots managed to hit his jetpack, sending him spiraling out of control until he slammed into a wall, falling unconscious.

Orokas glanced from Aranil to the bots and then back. “I’m gonna go get him.” And before anyone could stop him, he ran out. But almost immediately after he left the cover, he got shot square in the chest, sending him to the ground. The bots started to close in on them, fanning out into a semicircle. Elenaire cast another shield around the four remaining cadets, but as the bots kept shooting at the shield, her strength started fading, before long the shield vanished and she collapsed.

Talen-Ra peeked over the wall, spraying a few shots at the bots before ducking back down. The three remaining cadets did their best to fend off bots, but there wasn’t much they could do since they were pinned down. But as they were fighting, a few bots starting moving around them, and before they could even react, all three cadets were sprayed down.

Ascelmo came to in a small room. Everyone else was with him, and already awake. His right shoulder blade hurt like crazy, he figured that must have been where he got shot. At the front of the room was a table with some chairs and a large screen on the front wall. Bradford and Warren were both standing at the front, next to the screen. Ascelmo stood up and joined the rest of the squad.

“That very may well be the most horrendous excuse for a practice test I’ve ever seen.” Bradford started. He pressed a button on a remote he was holding and the screen flashed to life. It started playing a bird's eye view recording of their test. “First of all, right off the bat, you-” He pointed at Aranail. “Broke formation, and as a result, put the rest of the squad at risk. Then you-” He pointed to Ascelmo. “Worsened the situation by following him. Then, when he went down, you-” He pointed to Orokas. “Went out, without assessing the danger, and got shot immediately.” Everyone just shuffled around awkwardly.”

Warren nodded. “It’s abundantly clear that you six don’t know how to function as a team. You need to realize that this isn’t a game, this is war. And war costs lives. You need to be able to work together. Otherwise, you’ll have no chance of passing this test.”

Bradford sighed. “Starting tomorrow, your training is about to get a lot more complicated. So if you can’t handle what you’re learning now, you’re gonna need to step it up if you have any hopes of graduating and becoming soldiers. So go and get to know each other better, you’ll need it. Dismissed.” Everyone stood at attention as the two commanders left, and they followed behind, going in the opposite direction toward their barracks.

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Ascelmo sighed as he sat down in his bunk bed, everyone else did the same. Talen-Ra shot a glare over at Aranail. “Y’know why that whole thing went wrong, right? It’s because you ran off.”

Aranail looked back at him with an equally powerful glare. “Have I done something to you? Because it seems like all you do is get on my case.”

Elenaire sighed. “Can we quit bickering, please? This is exactly what they wanted us to stop.”

Ascelmo glanced over to Cydum, expecting him to weigh in, but instead, he saw him looking at a picture with himself and two other Volkmir in it. He assumed they were his parents since they all shared the same dark brown fur. Ascelmo looked back over at Aranail. “She’s right, we need to work together as a team.”

Orokas looked at Aranail, unlike the rest of them, however, he didn’t seem mad. “Why do you feel the need to go off on your own?” There was a genuine tone in his voice.

Aranail sighed as he looked up at the ceiling. “I just… I do things better by myself when I don’t have people slowing me down.”

Elenaire looked over at him. “Well quite frankly, most of us are thinking the same thing, or at least I am. But we’ve just gotta suck it up for the greater good.”

“But what is the greater good? Whatever a bunch of rich people tell us?”

Talen-Ra slammed his hand against the wall. He looked like his scales were about to turn from green to red with pure rage. “The ‘greater good’ is getting rid of the Obsidian Coalition because if they’re left unchecked, this galaxy will fall to its knees.” He snapped

“Oh really? And what makes you so knowledgeable about what they’re capable of?” Aranail glared at him.

Talen-Ra looked like he was about to explode, but he sighed. “My home planet was invaded by Coalition, they took the whole planet within a week. My parents and I were taken to an internment camp, and I never wanna go through that experience again, I still have nightmares about it sometimes. I lived there for about seven months until the Void Regiment came and liberated the planet.”

Aranail was quiet for a minute before he sighed. “I’m sorry, I had no idea.”

Talen-Ra shook his head. “It’s fine. I’m just… touchy about it.”

Ascelmo looked at everyone. “Look, we’ve all had a long day, we should probably get some sleep. I’ll see you all in the morning.” He threw the sheets over himself and rested his head on the pillow, gently brushing his icy white hair out of his eyes for falling asleep.

Ascelmo yawned as he sat up in his bunk. After staying here for about three months, he went through his routine like clockwork. Wake up, get dressed, spend a few seconds fixing his hair, head down to the mess hall, brush teeth, go to training. It was nice for him to have a routine, it helped relieve some of the stress. As everyone started getting ready to head to training, Bradford’s voice came on the intercom, telling everyone to go to room 10-B for training. They followed the directions until they came into a large open room. Bradford was standing at the front of the room. Warren must’ve been working on something else.

“Alright everyone, today we’re going to be starting a new part of your training.” Bradford began. “In addition to fighting on the ground, you’ll also be fighting in the sky, as pilots.” There was some murmuring among the cadets, but it was quickly silenced by Bradford raising his arm up. “Now, I know this may seem like a lot to take in, along with your other training, but trust me, in a few months you’ll be the among the best soldiers in the Void Regiment. Now as you’ll notice, this room is filled with fighters, these are the ships you’ll be using, the X-32 Valkyrie. These fighters were all repurposed to be used as simulators. From now on, you’ll all be coming here every other day to practice flying in addition to your normal training when you’re not here. But before we get in the cockpit, you’ll need to learn about the ship itself.”

He brought up a hologram of the ship. It had a very aerodynamic design to it like it was meant to be fast and maneuverable, although that’s probably because it was. Bradford started pointing out parts of the ship as it spun around. “These are the engines, they’re made with the newest technology and can reach speeds up to 2000 miles per hour if you push it hard enough. They’ve also been outfitted with emergency pulse boosts in case you run out of fuel.” He spun the hologram around to face the front, he pointed at two small tubes about an inch in diameter on the bottom sides of the nose of the ship. “These are the main guns. It’s pretty simple, you press the trigger once, it fires once, you hold the trigger, it fires shots for as long as you hold it.” He spun the ship at a slight angle and pointed to the two tubes at the end of either wing. “These are the missiles. They have a targeting system that’ll lock onto anything as long as it’s electric or has a heat signature.”

He zoomed in on the hologram and it started showing the cockpit of the ship. “This joystick here controls your pitch and yaw, it also has your trigger for the main gun and the missiles. This stick over here moves back and forth, that controls your speed. And these pedals will roll the ship. Believe it or not, it’s actually a lot more straightforward than you think.” He looked out all the cadets and smiled. “So, who’s ready to get flying?”

The six cadets started making their way down the hallways back to the barracks. Ascelmo looked over at Aranail. “Where’d you learn to fly like that? That was incredible.”

Aranail shrugged. “I dunno, I mean, I used to make deliveries back home. But then again there’s a pretty big difference between flying a land speeder and a ship.” He shrugged again. “I guess I just have a knack for flying.”

Ascelmo could just barely hear Talen-Ra mutter something under his breath, probably a sarcastic remark if he had to guess. Luckily, Aranail must not have heard it because he didn’t seem to reply. Which Ascelmo was grateful for because he probably couldn’t handle another one of their arguments. The day had exhausted him, more than usual for some reason. All he could think about was getting to sleep. Which thankfully didn’t take long for him.

A man quickly made his way through the large, roomy hallway. He made slight, nervous adjustments to his uniform as he walked. He rounded the corner to see the large metal door he had walked through so many times. As he neared it, the two guards standing in front of it stopped him. “Halt!” One of them said

The man looked at the guard. “I have urgent news for King Vandran.” The two guards nodded to each other and stood aside, the large metal door split in half and groaned as the two halves pulled away. The man stepped into the large ornate throne room. At the end of the room, there was a throne on a slightly raised platform. And on it, sat a large orc. The man stopped a few feet in front of the throne and kneeled. “Your Highness, I have excellent news.” He smirked slightly as he looked down at the floor.

King Vandran looked at him, intrigued. “What is it?”

“We just received word that Emperor Altin has died.” The man said.

The king was quiet for a moment. “Was he killed?”

The man shook his head. “No Sire, he died of old age.”

The king smirked. “Excellent, that means his precious daughter is now on the throne. I believe we could use this to our advantage.”