Explosions dance through a sea of black. Voices scream out only to be silenced.

My alarm clock tears me from the nightmare I was caught in. I take a few seconds to breathe, staring out into the darkness of the room, the only light coming from my clock. Once I have settled a bit, I rise to my feet and quickly run through my regular routine of stretches and light exercise to try and chase away the shadows of sleep.

Once I finish, I head to the bathroom and quickly use the showers. Fortunately, it seems that despite the new environment, people are keeping to their usual schedules, as the bathrooms are, as usual, empty as I shower. Once I finish up, I quickly make my way through the ship’s halls. Running through my mental map, I make my way over to where the simulators are. Fortunately, it is around the same place as some of the other ships I have been trained to navigate, located in a sort of common space near the Mess Hall. The sims sit together along the western and eastern walls, their blocky bodies taking up quite a bit of the room. On the back of each pod is a view screen that allows observers, casual or otherwise, to share in the view of the cockpit.

Stepping over to the eastern wall, pull out my ID and insert it into a card reader. After a few seconds, my name and rank show up, and the sim doors open with a hiss. I crawl into the cramped faux cockpit, settling into the worn plastic of the seat before buckling up. As the door closes, I take a second to gaze over the controls. The screen flashes to life, and my focus rises from the controls to take a second to look over it.

The first thing I am greeted with is a visual of the Astral Gear that I will be piloting for the sim, and presumably my time here, the UCC-AG–06 Janissary. Looking over the visual for a second it looks fairly similar to our main training machine back at the academy, the UCC-AG-05 Ashigaru. Both machines are roughly the same height, standing a bit over 17 meters, though thanks to its armor, the Janissary stands a bit taller. The Janissary is also a bit stockier, its armor giving it a wider profile.

The main difference that catches my eye is the head of the Janissary. Compared to the Ashigaru’s relatively simple head, a structure almost reminiscent of a warrior with a simple helmet, the Janissary has a bit more going on. The most noticeable aspects being the two curved horns that stick out on the sides of its head and the venting cables attached to a radiator.

Turning away from the Janissary for a moment, I look over to the armaments. These I find to be much more familiar to me. Looking over the weapons for a second, I select my usual armaments: the 120mm Arashi Assault Rifle, the Tempête Bazooka, and the M2 CCW. With my weapons selected, I move over to setting the parameters for my training. Not exactly knowing what we’re going to be doing soon, I decide to stick to the drill that we usually ran through at the academy. I set the simulator to spawn in a single Martian flight, four Cockatrice interceptors, and a Hōō to lead the pack.

The sim controls fade away, and the monitors shift over to a simulated view of the void. Across from me on the battlefield, the simulated sensors display my enemy, already in motion. Taking a breath, I push the control forward and feel the sim shift a bit as I take off toward the enemy. As I fly, I draw my bazooka, taking careful aim at the lead craft. The distance between me and the fighters closes as we both charge toward each other, and I soon hear the targeting system’s low growl shift to a confirming hum. Locked on, I fire before quickly moving to load another rocket.

Unfortunately, the AI manages to evade my attack, splitting up as my rocket flies harmlessly through the formation. Seeing my failure, I quickly fire off another rocket, barely listening for the hum before switching to my gun. As I complete the swap, I am treated to a blinding flash from my sensors as my attack lands. When the void returns to its natural darkness, I am able to see that the Hōō now has a damaged wing, and the Cockatrice on its right wing has been taken out.

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However, the AI doesn’t make a second thought, instead continuing to barrel toward me. The remaining Cockatrices take the lead from their injured commander, firing a swarm of missiles. Seeing their opening salvo, I raise my shield and begin defensive maneuvers. I fly through the void, evading the missiles as best as I can to the urgent beeping of the alerts. Unfortunately, it isn’t good enough, and the cockpit shakes, and alarms buzz out warnings as simulated hits strike my legs. Fortunately, the Janissary’s armor is able to endure the attacks, and the simulation doesn’t end,

Fighting through the chaos of the beeps and buzzes, I train my gun on the Hōō and squeeze off a round of shells. As they tear through space, I raise my shield just in time to block a return missile from the Hōō. The impact rocks the simulated cockpit, but I do my best to stay focused, firing another round over at the Hōō before dodging another missile swarm from the Cockatrices. This time, the alarms continue their warning song as I weave through the salvo, but their beeps fade away as my thrusters manage to free me from the swarm. As I break free, my sensors alert me to an explosion, marking the end of the Hōō.

The biggest threat dealt with, I flip around to face my pursuers. I open fire into the lead Cockatrice before quickly raising my shield to block machine gunfire from its allies. As their shots harmlessly slam into my shield, my shots tear through into the machine, one shearing through a wing and the other two slamming into the main body. It keeps formation for a few brief seconds before it veers off and explodes, leaving only two Cockatrices left.

With their missile racks spent, the Cockatrices circle before they begin a strafing run. Hitting my thrusters as hard as I can, I jet to the side and fire. My shots go wide, but they are enough to cause one to veer off slightly. Taking advantage of the moment, I open fire on the other, managing to take off a wing, causing it to spiral through the void. Swapping focus once again, I raise my shield to try and block another round of machine gunfire, but my actions come too slow, and I am treated to the sound of alarms as their attacks land once more, though fortunately, most of the rounds are stopped by the armor.

As the Cockatrice jets past, I quickly squeeze off another round and chase after it. The shots land true, and the Cockatrice ends in a simulated explosion. I take no time to watch, instead flipping around to see the one-winged Cockatrice on a direct run toward me, its guns blazing. I raise my shield and return fire. My shield takes the fire for me this time, and my sensors alert me to the success of my own shots as it displays the exploding wreckage of the Cockatrice fly by me.

With the last Cockatrice down, the sim fades away and returns to the start-up screen. Looking over the results, I feel shocked to see that they are better than what I usually got in the academy. I feel a little smile start to form and get ready to set up another round before I hear a banging on the sim door. The infant smile dies as I quickly open the door to see Auclair-Stolz and Di’Lotta staring down at me.

“What are you doing in the center sim?” Auclair-Stolz asks, glaring down at me. “You remember that the center sim is for the squad leader, correct?”

“Yes, sir, but I figured the best way to reserve the necessary machines would be to take the center one. After all, if I just took one of the ones on the edge…”

“I don’t want to hear any excuses. Get out now.”

“Yes, sir,” I say, moving quickly to log off the sim and get out of the machine. As I exit the sim, Di’Lotta pushes me to the side, causing me to stumble a bit before catching my balance. Looking over, I see Auclair-Stolz glancing around the cockpit with critical eyes.

“Hmm, fortunately, you don’t seem to have gotten your sweat all over the machine, but it doesn’t hurt to make sure. Grab a wipe and clean up your mess. It’s bad enough to be forced to use this machine after you. I won’t have your filth on it when I do.”

Without argument, I turn and head over to a supply box for some wipes and quickly begin to wipe the seat down as thoroughly as I can. After wiping the cockpit down for a few minutes, I step aside so Auclair-Stolz can examine it.

“This appears adequate,” he scoffs before heading into the machine. “Toss those aside and hurry up. Your foolishness has already cost us valuable training time.”

“Yes, sir,” I reply before running to toss the wipes away and running back over to the sims. Catching sight of the sim to the right of closing, I head over to my designated sim on the left and head log myself in.