(The image file won't open for me, so this is also a screenshot of Bekah's tablet lol)
Miranda set her cup of tea down on the settled-steel desk in front of her. She hadn't spent so much time resting since she joined the academy. Studying was something of the past now, she knew the USMC handbook from front to back, and testing was the day after tomorrow. She lay down to rest on her issued cot, but couldn't find rest. The thoughts of her father, Commander Jacob Keys, as he was deployed to combat positions.
By 2300, humans had expanded and traveled to other systems capable of sustaining human life. But in 2552, a secret team of United Space Marine Corps reconnaissance team had discovered alien life on one of the colonized planets, known as Planet Reach, and that the aliens were extremely hostile.
Under government directive of Operation: Winter Contingency, planets were placed on military lockdown, entire planets were evacuated... or destroyed.
Total human population totaled 1.3 trillion in 2500, but it plummeted to 1 trillion after the war started.
Complying with her father's requests, Miranda Keys joined the USMC Academy of Romulus at the age of 24. So far she had gotten all A's in every class she attempted, although her mother's temper that Miranda had inherited showed through at the instructors more than once, and she was threatened with suspension twice and was once detained for a week.
Miranda finally managed to find rest around 32:30, (Not all planets have 24 hours) and, as always, was the first one awake. She was the first one in line for breakfast after the cafeteria was unlocked. She usually tried to gulp down her food as quickly as possible so she wouldn't have to live with the mockery and empty criticisms of the other freshmen. This early in the morning, it's only the seniors and a few instructors dining. She had finished the enhanced eggs and the stimulated bacon faster than what was recommended for proper digestion, but she didn't care. She emptied her tray when a voice came on the loudspeaker, "all freshmen are required to stay in the cafeteria until mission briefing."
She was the only freshman in the room, so the message must have obviously been for her, ordering her not to leave the premises until the gossipers and drama cadets have unloaded their daily due on her. The seniors bid her a glance of curiosity, but didn't wait for her response. The seniors didn't care for the newbies of the academy.
Like a floodgate, the freshmen and sophomores poured through the cafeteria entrance hall, laughing and making obnoxious idiots of themselves. Miranda left her place setting and relocated to the detention table. No one willingly sits at the unhonorable seat, so she was, like always, left alone in her solitude. "Just one more day until testing, just one more day of this place," she repeated to herself. She was so lost in thought that she hadn't noticed an intruder approaching behind her.
"May I join you?" the girl asked. She couldn't have been older than a sophomore.
The surprise to Miranda was easily concealed with years of practice in emotional indifference. "Do I have a choice?"
The absence of a "yes" or "no" caught the girl off guard. "Well, I guess not since there are no more seats available." She seated herself across from Miranda, "My name is Gina." Gina noticed Miranda had no breakfast tray, "aren't you going to eat anything?"
Miranda looked off emptily to the rest of the cafeteria, "I already did."
This caught Gina by surprise again, "then you must have been up very early!"
Miranda shrugged. Gina took the hint that her new friend wasn't very sociable, and returned to her breakfast.
A flash on the guests shoulder caught Miranda's attention. "You're a double-bar?" she asked, indicating the double bar patch on Gina's uniform, just under her USMC patch. That was noble rank for a mere freshman, that is, if she was a freshman.
"Yep!" Gina responded with pride. "I'll be a triple bar if I can pass this exercise with A's."
"What is the exercise today?"
"Simulated tactical naval maneuvers and combat."
Miranda tried to hide her excitement. Her favorite exercise! It was mostly attributed to her extremely competitive nature, but it also was her nasty habit of pulling off some radically unplanned stunt with her simulated ships, of which the instructors controlling the opposing ships have no clue how to respond to.
"I guess I've been assigned to your team," Gina said.
"Ever preformed a simulation before?" Miranda asked with almost too much pride.
"One or two," responded the decorated student with a hint of mischief.
"What's your rig's name?" Students were allowed to customize and create virtual ships used in training with academy credits given for good grades.
"'Gotherphine.' It's supposed to be the feminine name for Goliath, but I got carried away with the name."
"It sounds better than mine. Mine somehow got 'Dardusk.'"
Gina startled from her meal, "You command the Darkdusk?!"
"Yes?" Miranda asked questionably.
"You're number #3 on the class hall of fame for naval combat, and number #6 for ever recorded on campus!" Gina exclaimed.
Miranda wasn't surprised. To her, it was just another reason for the other classmates to hate her.
By 12:40 hours, the entire sophomore and freshman class were in the simulation halls, which were large dorms of the academy that contained smaller rooms with 4-6 sets of space ship controls and simulation panels.
"This will be a no-nonsense drill," the instructor announced, "you can make every angel in heaven dance on his head with your fancy tricks, but you will be graded according to how long you survive. A's go to the last team standing, B's for the second team, etc... If you are killed before you can make two three kills without climbing out of a D grade, then you will be given an F, and thereby, ineligible to take advancement classes tomorrow. There are four teams: Red, Blue, White, and Grey." He then proceeded to call names for each team. Gina and Miranda where assigned with three other students to the grey team. "Remember, this is team free-for-all. No alliances with other teams will be made. Keep your eyes peeled for Inceptors."
Inceptors were supervisors and instructors in separate rooms that could command many different ships at once, and they'd attack the students. Sometimes, in simple class fun, they'd fight each other just to let the students "see how it's done," but with this being our final examination exam, I doubt that was likely to happen.
A countdown was given, and the students were assigned to their rooms and seats. Gina took the simulation console next to Miranda, while the three others took seats on the other end of the room. "Miranda Keys is heading up this group. Good hunting!" an instructor explained.
"But sir, Gina here outranks me. How was I selected to lead this exercise?"
"I don't know. Those are the orders given. See to your team."
"Yes, sir." Five sessions in detention taught her not to argue with instructors.
"What are your orders, Keys?" one of the students asked. Miranda had expected them to mock and/or ignore her for the entire session. But with this having such a radical effect on their grade, they must have surrendered their egos to let Miranda lead them to victory. But Miranda wasn't a team player, she was the last one standing in nearly every simulation, but that's because she acted independently without worrying about teammates.
The timer was at 1:10 now until weapons free. At 1:00 the virtual ships would be released into the simulated combat zone. "Head bearing 0700-340, cresting the planet's horizon. Then create a 'V' formation over my Dardusk. Gina, you follow up with Gotherphine in an offset position in case were jumped by a gunship."
"Did you see who's here today?" Gina asked casually as the team started maneuvering their ships into their commanded position.
"No, who?"
"Commander Farley."
One of the students turned pale without looking up from his screen, while another simply asked, "who's Farley?"
The pale student chimed in immediately, "Commander Farley of the 231st special navy. He's a retired war hero. He commands a level 5 dreadnaught."
A shiver went down Miranda's spine, "there's no such thing as a level 5 dreadnaught, the highest they can be upgraded is level 2 with +5 carbon thread plating defense."
The student looked at his commander, "that's only for the students. He has a level 5 dreadnaught with 2 high-grade cruise turrets, 8 sinker guns, and 14 bombardment mortars. I can't even remember how many mini defense turrets he has. The thing looks like a giant pillar of metal with prickers sticking out of it."
Gina started powering up her shields, "they do that to make their ships look intimidating..."
"No, they're all guns. The academy administrators allowed him to hack the system and supply himself with unlimited ammunition."
"Well, there goes our A's!" another student responded.
"Not if we can help it." Miranda responded.
The battle started. The entire black night sky looked like a fireworks show gone wrong. Four students were eliminated in the first minute of combat. Blue team was in the lead with Red team close behind. Grey team simply stalked the horizon of the odd-colored planet they were fighting over, completely invisible to any prowlers due to the omitted light from the star behind the planet. They had three kills, but they were smaller ships from the new freshmen who didn't have a clue what they were doing in combat.
Grey team patiently waited in natural orbit with no trouble. But then, the inceptors arrived after White team was completely annihilated. The Blue and Red teams ceased their fighting to line up with the incoming wave of enemy ships. Hundreds upon hundreds of gunships were spawning in the space above the terrified students.
"Follow me!" Miranda commanded, applying her ships thrusters.
"You want to die in that bloodbath?!" one student exclaimed.
"No, we're going to create the bloodbath! When the students and teachers clash, they'll turn to face each other again. But the students will be trigger-happy and attack first, the teachers will form up and murder the attacking students. When the students see their teammates dropping like flies, they'll start to run away, but the teachers will chase them down and kill them."
"...and you know all this, how?"
Miranda powered up her guns. "It happens every time."
Gina followed close behind Miranda. "But how does that effect us? What's the plan?"
"When the students run away, and the teachers chase the students, we'll chase the teachers. Those measly gunships they're using are weak in the rear."
"Right on! We're with you, Keys!"
The plan was executed perfectly. Well, almost perfectly. Miranda hadn't considered that a gunship had small thruster rockets in it's wings to allow it to preform extremely tight maneuvers. Some of the teachers were able to preform a 180 degree turn in absolutely no space at all and preform a counterattack."
"Doggone it! They're everywhere like flies!"
"Keep firing!"
After about 3 minutes of intense combat, Red team had been destroyed, Blue team had two members left, and Grey team had suffered one casualty to a student accidentally crashing into a gunship.
"Have you looked at the casualty stats yet, Keys?" Gina asked.
"I haven't had time, why?" Miranda was so intently focused on the combat that she eliminated 3 gunships in the time she asked the question.
"Blue team is the last except for us, and half of the instructors have had their gunship fleets destroyed."
"Go us!" One student responded.
"You do realize what this means, right?"
"No, what?"
"Farley will be here any second."
The student went pale again. Miranda addressed this, "how is it you know so much about Farley's ship?"
"I engaged it last semester, when we had the half-year party. A couple guys and I sneaked into these simulation rooms and started screwing around with each other on the combat systems. Well, that happened to be the day Farley was upgrading his ship, and he entered it into the system to test it out. Instead of coming into the room to yell at us, he murdered us all through the simulation. He sunk us all and cost me 40 academy credits."
Gina started to go pale as well. There's no 'restart' button in these simulations. If you lose your ship, you have to preform community service and achieve good grades to work up enough credits to buy another one from the academy system.
Farley's voice boomed through the intercom system to the room, "why, welcome back, Jaden. Did you miss me?"
"Jaden, that's your name?"
"Yes, ma'am. And he's here."
A black silhouette encompassed the dark sky. With no define shape, only size. "Oh, so that's what a level 5 dreadnaught looks like."
The team, collectively, didn't get more than a couple dozen shots off at the monstrous ship, which hardly seemed to tickle it, before they were running for their lives all throughout space.
"Hey Keys, I think I have our saving grace!" Gina held up an EMP upgrade chip. An upgrade chip is earned through outstanding school performance on one occasion. You can insert and use the chip in battle simulations.
"You'll have to get under his ship to make it effective, but that's a good plan. Jaden, take Gina under the ship inbetween Farley's defense turrets. Distract any curious inceptor gunships. I'll head topside and see if I can disable some of his command panels." Keys instructed. Jaden didn't like being told to charge the most intimidating ship the academy had ever seen, but with upgrade tests tomorrow, he had everything to lose if he couldn't execute this one-and-only plan efficiently.
Miranda lost half her shields simply in transit to what was the cockpit of the dreadnaught. It was defended by 6 anti-air turrets. Miranda turned her engines in a diagonal formation, causing her ship to roll in a awkward position. The guns had a lock but couldn't fire fast enough to hit the ship critically. Miranda dropped a SHARP charge on the cockpit.
Through the laws of the simulation, Farley would now have to reboot his simulator to regain control of his ship. But the guns were still a major threat.
"Gina, are you ready?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Do it!"
The EMP charge caused all electricity in the rear half of his ship to go offline, including the turrets. But when Farley comes back online, he can still navigate to a position where Grey team would be defenseless.
"Jenson, take every SHARP charge you have and hit his engines!"
Jenson did as ordered, and dropped 5 of his six SHARP charges... but the sixth one was hit by an anti-air turret, and exploded his own ship. He cursed.
"Just you and me now, Keys." Gina replied, "Blue team is out of it."
"So we won?" Jenson asked, excited.
"Not yet we haven't." Miranda replied. This is her biggest moment, her grandest triumph... if she wins.
"I got it!" one of the eliminated Grey team announced, "the dreadnaught's power source is under the dock. If the shield is still down, then you can land a SHARP charge down the hatch and it'll down his ship."
"It'll be about as worthless as a bunch of floating metal." Jenson followed-up. "But the only problem is, you gotta streak under that defense door without being shot up, and then, land a precise shot down that landing hatch."
Gina's hull capacity was at 21% and Miranda sill had half a shield and full hull integrity. "Alright, Gina, you keep pounding that cockpit, see if you can get his system to reboot again."
"Roger that."
"Dive low, Keys," Jenson instructed, "he has EMP turrets that will kill you where you sit over his dock."
Miranda prepared for her great crusade. All the other instructors had left the simulation. No doubt they were in Observation, a room with a 20-foot high screen where eliminated players can watch the rest of the battle. Everyone was curious if the student could triumph over the master.
"I hit it!" Gina exclaimed giddily. "I hit his cockpit! His system is rebooting, hit him now!"
Miranda followed Jenson's order to the letter, she dove low, barely missing a few EMP shots.
Jenson watched closely, "fire exactly when I tell you to, not before, not after."
Miranda hit full thrusters, Jenson pointed out a small blue speck on her screen, "that's your target, fire in three, two, one, NOW!"
The simulation froze.
Every screen was redirected to a slow-motion cutscene of the SHARP charge falling precisely through the blue hole.
Then exploded.
Farley was defeated.
Grey team jumped for joy, and the screeches of excitement could be heard throughout the dorm.
The head instructor walked in with Commander Farley right behind him. "I have good news and bad news, Grey team," the instructor explained, "good news first: You successfully destroyed the most formidable ship we could create in the virtual world. Congratulations."
"What's the bad news?" Miranda asked.
"The bad news is we can't record it as a win for Grey team, because none of you survived the explosion of the Dreadnaught."
The silence that followed would make a pin drop sound deafening.
"Now wait a minute, Gina survived with 4% hull." Commander Farley corrected.
"So we won?" Miranda asked innocently.
"Yes, Grey team. You won."
