by Ivan Kal
“Am I really hard to talk to?” Adrian asked Iris. He was the only one of his classmates that had an Ai with his implant, and he wasn’t allowed to talk about it to anyone, only those older than 24 were supposed to have implants.
“I don’t have any difficulties talking to you, but then I grew up with you.” Iris said jokingly. “But, you can be a bit intimidating to other humans.” She added.
“Intimidating? What? I’m always keeping to myself. I’m the farthest thing to intimidating there is.” Adrian said.
He heard Iris sigh, over the years she had taken up many little habits and complexions that made her sound more human. “Have you ever watched a recording of your simulation battles?” Iris asked.
“No, why?” Adrian asked.
“You should, if you saw the way you are when you are in command it would be clear to you why they find you intimidating. When you are in command you shut off everything else, you don’t let anything interfere with your mission, no emotion. You look rather impressive, and cold.” Iris said.
Adrian thought back to the simulations, he knew that he could focus on the task at hand with exclusion of everything else, it was one of the things that made him good at learning. During the simulations he always tried to find the best possible path to accomplish his mission, he tried to emulate the way Laura looked when she was in command. He tried to mimic her presence.
“Well okay, I’m intimidating in the simulations, that doesn’t explain why they kept their distance from me.”
“Well… You do project this serious air around you, even when you are not in simulations.” Iris said.
“What? I don’t.” Adrian said.
“Sorry, but yes you do.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner then?” He demanded.
“You never asked.” Iris said. Adrian fumed at her, Iris had become very good at speaking and thinking like a human, but there were still moments when things just didn’t make logical sense to her, things that she just failed to notice. Adrian sighed, there was no point in being angry at her, and it was his fault. Adrian was so entranced in his conversation with Iris that he didn’t notice Bethany entering the room until she was standing just beside him. Startled he looked at her, she looked at Adrian and he could see several emotions pass over her face too quickly for him to discern them.
“I’m sorry for before.” She said and then quickly jumped up on the bed above him. Adrian was again struck stupid by the situation, Bethany had apologized to him, he had half convinced himself over past two years that she was a soulless bitch, and now she apologized. Adrian rubbed his eyes for the moment, and then he undressed and pulled the covers over himself.
“I guess that I will just need to try harder to make friends.” He said to Iris, who remained silent.
Chapter Fifteen
A loud noise interrupted Adrian’s sleep, he opened his eyes and stared into a pair of firm legs, as his eyes followed the legs upwards, they arrived at a shapely form wrapped in white underwear. A hand reached behind and adjusted one side of the underwear. Adrian’s admiring was interrupted by an angry voice booming.
“You aren’t dressed yet?! You have five minutes to get dressed and leave this room or I swear to all that I hold dear you will run the length of this base naked!” That brought Adrian back to reality, and he was immediately awake, he threw the covers off and stood up hitting his head on the upper bunk, he stood beside Bethany looking at the man that was yelling. Adrian had never before seen the man but he wore the army uniform with the rank insignia of a Squad Leader. Adrian and his roommates just stared at the man until he started yelling again.
“Didn’t you hear me last time?! I said get your asses dressed and out of this room! You have four minutes! Move! Move! Move!”
With that everyone started moving at once, Adrian started moving left at the same moment Bethany moved right and they collided, Adrian looked at her and saw that she was dressed only in a white Sport Bra and panties, he flushed red and murmured. “Sorry.” Bethany was looking at Adrian, and he realized that he was just in his boxers, he flushed even more, and turned, but he could swear he saw a tint of red on Bethany’s cheeks before turning, he went around the bed to his Locker and started dressing in Army uniform. He was done dressing in three minutes and he went outside quickly followed by the rest of his roommates, the man was waiting for them outside and instructed them to stand in a line in front of their room, Adrian ended up standing with Bethany on his left and Sakura on his right. The rest of their classmates were likewise exiting their rooms. After everyone left their rooms and formed a line Platoon Leader Martinez who was standing in the middle of the main room looked around and said. “Eight minutes, that is just pathetic. Imagine if you were on a ship that was attacked. It would have taken you eight minutes just to get out of beds, not to mention getting to your stations! In eight minutes you could have all been dead!” he said. Everyone remained silent while P.L. Martinez glared around the room.
“I see that we need to teach you a lot more than I previously thought. From now on you will have two minutes after the alarm to get up, dress and form a line in front of your rooms, and for every minute you go over that time limit you will run an additional lap around the base. Now since we gave you a five minute time limit, and you took eight, you will run thirteen laps around the base.” He nodded to one of the Squad Leaders that stood by one of the rooms, each room had one Squad Leader.
“Alright! You heard the P.L. everyone move!”
The other Squad Leaders then ushered their recruits out of their dorm, and into the hallway. Each of the ten Squad Leaders led a team of ten, divided by their rooms, as they jogged down the empty hallways of the base. Adrian had Iris measure the amount of ground they covered, as no one told them how long a lap around the base was. After they finished the first lap Iris informed him that they had crossed roughly six hundred meters, meaning that with thirteen laps they will cross about 7.8 km. Adrian knew that at the pace they set he could easily finish it. He knew that those that finished military school could do it easily. Olympus has a strict physical exercise programs mandatory for all of their citizens. But Adrian also knew that army was much harder, and if they started their morning with an 8 km run, then it will only get harder from here on out. Adrian had been training for years, both privately and as a part of his martial arts training, he knew that he was on par with at least the army personnel. After they finished their run, some 40 minutes later, they were allowed to go to breakfast. They were again divided by their rooms, ten tables with ten recruits each. Trainers had started calling them recruits, even though all of them were Cadets. After breakfast, they were ushered into a big classroom, where they were drilled about army protocols and dangers of operating in space. They were in classrooms until lunch at 15:00, after lunch they were taken to an obstacle course were they were evaluated. The score board showed the scores of all the recruits, and Adrian finished the obstacle course with the highest score, the rest of his team were spread out in the first twenty places, with Bethany at the third place. After the course, they were taken to class about weapons, they were given rifles and shown how to safely use them and care for them, after that they ran another 8 km around the base, then they were sent to dinner, and sleep. After reflecting on the day Adrian wondered why the training was so easy, and his team wondered the same. The next morning they formed in front of their rooms in three minutes, so they had to run eleven laps. After the first lap Adrian noticed that the Squad Leaders increased the lap’s length by going through different hallways. So they ended up running more than the previous day. After breakfast they were taken again to class, this time it lasted only two hours, and then they started physical training in earnest, they ran different obstacle courses which were all scored, they did pushups, crouches and chin-ups, everything they expected to do the first day. After lunch they went to weapons training, they were taught about all different kinds of ammunition, and which were less dangerous to use aboard a space station or a
ship. Afterwards they ran other obstacle courses in full gear. By the time dinner came most were exhausted. The next two months passed in a blur. They ran in the mornings, every few days the trainers increased their laps length, so they never ran less than the first day, even when they finally managed to form the lines in two minutes. The mornings they passed in purely physical and martial training. The afternoons were reserved for weapons trainings and team movements. After the first month they stopped running in full gear, after all they were fleet, not the army. But they would still have that knowledge if they ever needed it. The second month they spent by doing different scenarios were teams were put against each other and their performance scored. Scenarios varied from capture the flag, defending a “deck” from boarders before reinforcements arrived, infiltration, boarding actions, team hand combat, to speed courses. And Adrian had no choice but to reveal to his squad that he did have an implant, as most team communications were done through them. He got Laura’s permission to tell them that he had a new experimental implant, and that the reason he didn’t tell them before was because it was top secret, he also instructed them that they aren’t allowed to tell anyone about it, he didn’t mention Iris. The third month had them starting training in zero gravity. They were instructed how to move about without injuring themselves and others, how to operate weapons and fight in zero gravity. After a month of that, they were given more scenarios to participate in, these in zero gravity. By then Adrian had grown closer to his roommates, they had formed a bond and he now understood Sahib and his teammates bond. Though there was still some tension between Adrian and Bethany. They had become a sort of rivals, without really being close, they didn’t have the same friendship that they had with the rest of the team. The atmosphere between teams was competitive, with each team wanting to be on the top. The scores from individual scenarios were added to that of the team ones, to form a final score for the team. There were even scenarios were a few teams had to work together. When the fifth month of their training started, it brought a lot of changes to their training. They were informed that there would not be a final exam, instead teams would pass if they had attained a high enough score. The problem was that they were not told what the passing score was, so every team had to work hard in order to increase their score. Also their training stopped. The trainers were still available for advice, and were overseeing their overall progress, but they were left to manage their own training, and more importantly chose the scenarios they wanted to improve. Trainers told them that every month a new scenarios would be available, and some decided to focus on attaining the highest scores in those new scenarios, while others focused more on those they were already familiar with. By the end of the fifth month Adrian’s team hadn’t yet decided their path, and had focused on the individual challenges, but by the end of the month they had lost their first place on the board, and had started falling behind rapidly.
“We need to focus on team scenarios.” Helen said during one of their team meetings after dinner.
“We are doing just fine with the individual challenges, our team members are at the top of every individual scoreboard.” Marcus answered.
“It doesn’t matter if we don’t graduate, we are falling behind the others, and we are in fifth place now.” Sakura said.
“We just need to do better, it will add up.” Marcus retorted.
Helen sighed. “The individual challenges give less points than the team ones.” She said.
No one said anything for a moment, each sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, mulling things over in their heads, they all knew that they had to change tactics if they were to retake their place at the top.
“We suck as a team.” Paul said. No one said anything, they knew that he was right. Their teamwork lacked, they were able to get average scores in team challenges by relying on individual skills, the majority of their points came from individual challenges, at the time it was enough to give them the top spot, but when the others started improving their scores their team fell behind. The other teams had also each elected a team leader, while theirs hadn’t.
Again no one said anything. After a few minutes Noah finally spoke.
“We need a team leader, someone to direct us in team challenges.” He said.
“And how do we choose?” Alexander asked.
“We could vote.” Paul said hesitantly.
“Not going to happen.” Ana said. ”Face it, we would vote for ourselves.”
They all nodded, and then Adrian was struck with a thought.
“That was their plan.” He said.
“What?” Bethany asked.
“Think about it, the other teams are all balanced, while ours is full with people who have great individual talent and are leaders. We don’t work well when we need to listen to others.” Adrian answered.
The rest of them all looked surprised that they didn’t see it before.
“So what? They want us to fail?” Sakura said angrily.
“I don’t think so. I believe they want us to learn to work together, and maybe to learn how to follow.” Adrian said.
“So we got handicapped, and we are back at the start, we need to choose a leader amongst leaders.” Bethany said.
“Or not…” Adrian said a thought forming in his head.
“What are you thinking?” Bethany asked.
“Hm... I’m thinking that we were given a lot of freedom.” Adrian said.
“So?” Helen asked.
“So, the other teams, they choose leaders on their own, they weren’t told that they had to. The trainers only care about the scores, not how we get them.” Adrian paused.
“And that means what exactly.” Ana asked.
Adrian smiled as his idea finally fully formed. “We don’t choose one leader, we chose ten.” He said smiling.
The others looked at each other bewildered.
“Uh, Adrian, that is the problem we are having now.” Tania said.
“You misunderstood me. I don’t say we don’t change a thing, I say we literally choose ten leaders.”
“I’m not following.” Marcus said.
“I think that I am.” Bethany said a smile forming on her face.
Adrian turned to Bethany and asked. “In how many fields are scenarios divided?”
“Obstacle courses, combat actions, hand to hand, zero gravity and individual scenarios.” Bethany answered.
“So?” Marcus asked.
“We chose ten leaders, I get it now.” Sakura said.
Adrian smiled at her. “Yes, we divide the scenarios, ten leaders, each one of us gets to lead in the area he is the best in.” He said.
“That might work.” Tania asked.
“We would need to split our training time.” Sakura said, the rest of them eagerly joined in, their excitement rising. By the end of the hour they had split scenarios amongst themselves, Paul would lead during scenarios that included boarding actions. Helen would lead the obstacle courses in gravity, while Marcus would lead obstacle courses in zero gravity. Noah would lead them in their training for individual challenges, as he had the most top scores, while Sakura the station boarding courses. Alexander combat scenarios in zero g, Ana capture the flag courses, Tania hand to hand, and Adrian and Bethany would alternate in combat contests against other teams. They decided that rather than doing all scenarios at once, like the other teams were doing, they would focus on one area first and then moving on to the other, they divided their remaining time so that each team leader had enough time form strategies and so that they had time to get used to his leadership, they had also left some time close to the end of the twelfth month to come back and try to improve anything that they thought they could. They spent the next three days training, without entering in any scenarios. The trainers came by their training area, each team had their own training area assigned to them, and asked why they didn’t do any scenarios, and they just replied that they were training. On the fifth day of training Paul was finally confident enough in the
ir teamwork and his strategy to enter one of the boarding scenarios, by then they had fallen down to seventh place. For their first try they chose one that had them boarding a disabled pirate vessel, with the goal to gain control over the ship, they chose that one because the others tended to avoid it as no one had actually managed to take control of the ship. The ship was a three hundred meters long cruiser, with a crew count of over eighty, most of whom were armed.
Team 9 (named after their room number, since they didn’t decide on a name by the deadline the trainers chose the name for them) arrived at stations simulation center, and entered in the boarding scenario. After they were all “jacked in” they closed their eyes and suddenly they were on boarding shuttle, on their way to the pirate ship, they checked their weapons as they were taught to do, doing everything even though it was just a simulation, it felt real, and their trainers would evaluate their attempt and add or detract points accordingly.
“Alright, remember the plan, keep in constant contact, and let’s do this!” Paul said over the comms, they were all wearing light assault armor, completely sealed off. The only thing anyone could see was a black armor, and a dark gray visor on the helmet, the only way to discern who was who, was by pinging their implant signature. They were off course in constant contact by implants and their visors had a HUD that showed a name above each of their head. Implant connection was of course simulated by the central computer, they were in fact connected to the simulator by their implants and weren’t in direct contact with each other. That was also the reason Iris wasn’t in the simulation with Adrian, the computer was simulating the standard implant. Iris could have accessed the simulator through Adrian’s implant, but doing so would alert the staff of her presence, and that was still a secret. They suddenly heard a bang, and their shuttle shook as it was attached to the pirate vessels hull, they could hear the cutting mechanism opening their hull, and after a moment they saw a green light show above their heads, and a hissing noise that told them that the opening was pressurized. They stood up, and moved into a formation with Alexander in the lead and entered the ship. They had cut into the ship’s cargo bay, there was no one here, after they all entered, they slowly moved towards the elevator, which led to command deck. The simulation program was smart, it adapted to the players, and it never responded in the same manner, so the experiences that other teams had were of little use, except for one thing. They knew that the command deck was filled with pirates as other players decided to try and board closer to the command center, so they decided on a different tactic. All simulations had material that went with it, from mission objectives, to “rumors”, schematics and such. Paul had studied those schematics in great detail, and had come up with a plan that they all believed could work. There was some bickering about the execution until we were reminded by Helen that Paul was the leader for this scenario. After that they had quietly assented to his plan, not wanting to have to deal with others messing with the scenarios they will lead. The scenario had strict parameters, they couldn’t chose equipment that they carried, so their assets were limited. Each one of them had a standard N22 assault rifle, light assault armor equipped with a small oxygen tank that could provide up to three minutes of breading air, standard K17 side-arm pistol, not much kick but it was silent, a flash grenade, old tech but still effective for stunning hostiles, and a stun rod similar to that of the batons of Earths police, only these were shorter and could deliver enough shock to render the enemy unconscious for several hours. As they arrived at the elevator Sakura immediately opened its control panel and attached clamps on the main line that controlled that sent the commands to the elevator giving her access and control to the elevator systems. After a minute of hacking the panel through her datapad, she turned back to the rest of them.
