ShipCore

USD: 48 Days after arrival at Fort Glisson

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, Fort Glisson, Company S, 1st Cadre

Despite the threats from the instructors, the physical punishments and non-stop exhaustion was slowly ramped down over the course of the week. They were given a solid chunk of hours every night to sleep, and time spent in the classroom slowly eclipsed the time they spent doing drills outside.

Alex learned about the military’s unit structures, how ship deployments worked, the various different MOSs they would be eligible for after graduation, and lists of tons of different military things they needed to memorize from etiquette to how to file different forms of paperwork.

When they got their initial assignment orders, Alex was happy to see that, as per her deal with Thraker and Admiral Westlake, she had her OCS ATSC slot.

Rachel exploded when she saw. “Holy shit, you have OCS ATSC? That’s like the top 1% of all recruits!”

Alex smiled weakly, not wanted to reveal that maybe she’d purchased her slot. Tia looked over at them and frowned, letting her datapad show that she’d received the same grade.

“They slated you for Advanced Tactics Starship Command? I guess standards are falling.” Tia said.

There hadn’t really been any bullying since Alex had returned, but the comment seemed full of a hostility toward her that hadn’t existed before.

“They probably just thought having a stuck-up bitchy Tia by herself would ruin the atmosphere, so they needed to balance it with someone that wasn’t a bitch.” Rachel chimed in.

Tia tsked and then turned away and disappeared.

Alex shook her head. “I still don’t understand.”

“She’s just upset that there is someone that’s competing with her.” Rachel offered.

“I don’t know. It seems deeper than that.” Alex said.

The next day, Cadre S was lined up outside. Instructor Hills kept them waiting for longer than usual before arriving. He was flanked by two small drones hovering above him.

“Listen up recruits, today you will have adversarial training. You will be splitting up into two groups and competing for victory. You’ll need to work together and show that your group is the best. Winners will get first call to the mess for the next week. Losers will go last.”

Alex and the other recruits bristled. Eating first at the mess was a big deal. It was the difference between having time to eat and being forced to swallow an entire ration in a few minutes.

“Myers! Tia! Up front!”

Both of them moved forward, Alex sharing a wary glance with the other girl.

“You’ll be your platoon’s leader. You’ll take turns picking your squad members. We’ll flip a coin to see who picks first.”

Hills didn’t wait for them to acknowledge the plan and tossed the metal in the air. “Pick a side, Tia.”

“Heads.”

Hills caught the round metal disc and slapped it on the back of his hand.

“Tails. Myers, pick your first recruit.”

Alex looked out over the forty so members of the group. Rachel waved at her excitedly, but Alex rejected just picking her friend first. Tia already had the advantage, just by being in her own group, and Alex didn’t want to let down her team by stacking the odd against them.

It only took a few seconds for her to know there were only a few major players to choose from. It wasn’t likely that Tia would pick Rachel first, anyway.

“Tasha.” Alex said, making her first choice. The tall, cybernetically enhanced girl was the obvious choice. She was confident that with the two of them, they’d be able to take on Tia at least.

A hurt expression appeared on Rachel’s face and she lowered her waving hand as if Alex had smacked her.

“Hikari.” Tia said.

Alex had expected that Hikari was fast and would be useful for scouting or rushing a position, but she wasn’t quite the disruptor as Tia would be.

“Rachel.” Alex called next.

The rest of the picking went about normally, both Tia and Alex handpicking members based on perceived usefulness. The last half of the selection went very quickly, as all the recruits at that point were nearly at the same baseline.

The groups formed up into two groups of two lines that stood at attention in front of their new temporary platoon leaders.

Hills nodded as he watched. “Good. You’ll all be competing in a capture the flag mission. Both teams will receive three flags that you must place separately in different locations. You’ll all be given non-lethal rifles, but don’t make the mistake that being shot will be fun.”

Alex recognized the rifles immediately. They had been the ones that had been used on her by the Iron Horse kidnapper team.

The rest of the rules seemed straightforward enough. If you were stunned, you had to return to one of your team’s flags and touch it before you could return to the engagement. Winning meant collecting all three of the other team’s flags and returning them to your primary flag.

Riley went with Alex’s team while Hills followed Tia’s. They were given an hour to prepare defenses. Alex chose threw defendable locations in the forest while Tia picked several locations around the base.

Alex prepared foxholes and trenches in various locations for them to shoot from, while Tia’s team dragged boxes and other things to create several small makeshift forts while distributing her guards on the roofs of different buildings.

Drones whirled around the area, and Alex realized they were all being recorded for whatever reason.

When the round officially started, she already decided on how they’d play it out. Expecting Tia to punch straight for their central flag, Alex kept all her team on the defensive.

The crack of the stun rifles on the edge of the forest was the first sign that she had been right. Radios buzzed to life as her different teams reported contact all across their front. Alex had kept herself and Tasha back, and the other team was cutting through without resistance.

Rachel reported that she’d engaged with Hikari on the flanks, just as her first team returned to revive themselves.

Then Tia arrived.

Shock rifles blared their white energy bolts through the brush in multiple fusillades, all shots going wide as she dodged between trees. Tia’s squad mates continued to advance behind her, opening fire on the defense positions and doing their best to suppress the fire.

Alex felt a bit awed as she watched the silver-haired girl dance between shots while returning fire. Tia moved like she was an action hero, and the entire scene was choreographed for a movie scene. Both flanking defensive nests went down and then Tia vaulted over the final defensive embankment.

Tasha reached up from a hole as Tia neared the flag, grabbed a leg, and slammed the other girl into the ground. Alex stood up and rushed over to assist, firing back at several of Tia’s advancing teammates as she moved.

A violent melee ensued between the large cybernetic girl and Alex’s chief rival in the platoon. Tia freed herself after delivering a savage kick to Tasha’s face, then spun through the air to fire into the big girl’s chest, sending her to the ground just as Alex arrived.

Alex took aim at Tia’s back from nearly point blank range, not wanting to miss her chance. Just as she pulled the trigger, Tia spun to point her own rifle at Alex and returned fire.

Alex missed; Tia didn’t.

The energy bolt slammed into Alex’s chest, and both girls stood there for a second staring at each other with nothing happening.

Alex pulled her trigger again, this time shooting Tia directly in the face, sending the girl to the dirt. Tasha had managed to recover from her shock and moved to touch their flag to revive herself, along with several of the other defenders.

Reaching up to comm her other teams, Alex confirmed they’d held their positions from the attack.

Things were not looking good. They’d taken Tia down and stall the attack, but Alex thought that the next time, they’d be more careful. That left the only winning tactic to be trying to rush the defenses before Tia could revive herself.

The problem was, Tia’s team was probably still capable of stalling long enough for Tia to revive. Then they’d get taken out, and they’d be put in the same situation. Only without the defensive advantage, Tia would take their flag and they’d slowly get worn down.

“Alex, what are your orders?” Tasha asked.

Looking down at the other team’s leader, Alex came up with a tactic that left no room for them losing.

Alex looked coldly at Tia as she groaned and started to push herself up off the ground.

Alex shot her again in the back with the stun setting still at maximum power.

“Woah!”

“What!”

“Hey!”

A chorus of confused shouts from her teammates greeted her, but Alex shook her head and pointed to one of them.

“Shoot her every 45 seconds, sooner if she moves.”

“That’s…”

“Are you sure that’s not against the rules?” Tasha said.

“That’s my order. Now, forget Tia and let’s plan on how we’ll make our assault. I didn’t like the look of those sentries on the roofs…”

Without Tia, the other team did their best, but the result was never really in question. They slowly picked at Tia’s team and stole their flags one by one.

At some point Tia had almost broken out of her stun lock, but the tables had turned so much Alex simply put Rachel and an entire fire squad to stunning her repeatedly.

When the match finally ended, Tia got up off the ground and gave Alex a look of pure hatred. She started forward, clearly intent on a fistfight when Instructor Hill arrived and prevented it by calling them to attention.

They were all brought to the parade ground and Alex carried all six flags up to the front. “Blue team claims victory, Drill Sergeant!”

Tia smoldered with particular violence, and Instructor Hills nodded to her. “Do you have something to add, Recruit?”

“Blue team cheated, Drill Sergeant! Myers had her squad shoot me repeatedly to prevent me from returning to base!”

Instructor Hills looked to Alex. “Is this true, recruit?”

“Yes, Drill Sergant!”

“Why?”

“I did not think our team stood a chance of winning unless we removed her from the competition!”

There was silence on the field for a moment, before Hills finally nodded. “The rules didn’t specifically say that you had to permit someone on the other team to return to their base. I’ll allow your ‘capture’ of her to stand, but I don’t want to see this done again.”

Tia wasn’t finished, “Sir!”

Hills looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Something else, recruit?”

“I shot Myers first. Instead of touching the flag to revive, she stunned me. That’s an obvious violation of the rules and lead to me being ‘captured’ by the blue team!” Tia said.

Hills looked back to Alex and narrowed his eyes. “Is this true, recruit?”

Alex took a breath before answering. “Yes, Drill Sergeant! Recruit Tia shot me, but it had no effect, so I returned fire!”

“Bullshit, I hit you with maximum power!” Tia blurted out.

Hills didn’t address the other girl and focused on Alex. “Care to explain, Myers?”

Alex nodded, “The stun rifles don’t work on me. I was attacked with them before and figured out how to make a personal field that nullifies their effects.”

After returning from orbit, she had spent an entire day researching the stun rifles the kidnappers had used and figuring out how to counter them. It had eaten into her free time and sleep, but she had no desire to ever be kidnapped again like she had been on the station.

Hills picked up a rifle without warning and switched it to full auto and blasted Alex at point blank.

Alex gritted her teeth. Being shot multiple times in succession was not the same as taking a single hit to the chest. The energy rippled through her skin and made her feel nauseous, but the low level sonic field that she’d generated by making her nanites vibrate in a counter frequency absorbed almost all of it.

When she didn’t go down, Hills let out a confused, “Huh.”

“Anything else to add, Tia?” Hills asked.

“No, Drill Sergeant.”

“Alright, I’m granting the win to the blue team. We’ll adjust the rules for next time.”

Alex’s team broke out into cheers, and Hills let them celebrate for a few moments before sternly reminding them to maintain military bearing.

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