By the six-hour mark, the cadets had started to feel exhaustion creep into their core. The sergeants had usually dismissed everyone and had them return to their bunk around this time.
But things were different, since they were in a practice sortie.
One of the cadets hailed the drill sergeants, his voice was dry and raspy. Though it wasn't just because of thirst, but also out of fear.
"Sir, ma'am," he said, "we cadets are pretty worn out and wish to request a break. Sir. Ma'am."
The two sergeants took a moment to think before denying the request.
"Cadets!" yelled Sergeant Akim. "You will perform your drills for one more hour. And then we will see if you deserve to rest."
Many
Enjoying the arc so far? The action's going to get turned up a notch, so please enjoy!
When they were awoken the next cycle, the sergeants skipped the run and allowed the cadets to get cleaned up and have a relatively slower start. They all had endured their lessons incredibly well, and so were afforded this little luxury. Afterwards, they jogged over to the sparring gymnasium, where they once again got into their duo wings and started to spar lightly. The atmosphere was rather relaxed, even though they were all still training diligently. The two sergeants had approached Eva and Chengli, and discussed the matter of their training. Since they were above the rest in terms of raw physicality and talent, they didn't have anything that could challenge them properly. That worried them, as they did not want them to leave less prepared than the others. Great s
Sergeant Elyn helped Eva up from the mat, who was still a bit unsteady on her feet. A part of her felt a little guilty at having to knock her down a notch. But her worries subsided when she saw Eva's grin. "Thanks, sergeant," she said. "I learned quite a lot these past few seconds." Her throat was still sore from Elyn's strike, so her words came out a little strained. But her tone was filled with eagerness. "Yeah?" said Elyn. "Like what?" Eva straightened up, and rubbed her bruises a little. "Don't fuck around in a fight." Elyn laughed heartily, and nodded. That was her number-one rule in any conflict. Don't mess around. Find th
All the cadets around them were wide-eyed. Four of the jealous cadets were pretty much done, their groans echoed all around. Not only that, it had only taken Eva a single strike to neutralize each of them… What a monster. Sergeants Elyn and Akim, too. And Chengli. All monsters. The jealous cadets were all then assigned to Eva's instruction, and then sent to the infirmary. They had gotten a lot of the steam out of their systems, and still had a chip on their shoulders, but they understood what Eva had said about bigger fish. They no doubt had a lot to think about, and now the promise of having to do Eva's repetitive drills presented them with the time to do it. Everyone went
At the other end of the base, two incredibly tired cadets sat in a very dark and spacious room a hundred meters below the surface. Next to them was a mecha that looked substantially different from the training mecha elsewhere in the base. Its lines were curved, and every extremity ended in dangerous edges, including its fingers. It looked as though it was wholly designed to punch through the heaviest of defenses. They looked menacing and dangerous. One of the cadets tapped on their datapad, which displayed the schematics and stats for the mecha next to them. He then opened up a console and started to hack into the mecha's operating system while his female partner stood watch. It didn't take him much time to rewrite what
Sergeants Elyn and Akim roused their cadets once more with fervor. This time, no-one grumbled or dragged their feet. Instead, their eyes were filled with steely determination. All of their hard work and training boiled down to this. Hell Week had finally arrived, and they were all ready to face it. They hopped into their flightsuits and obediently followed the sergeants to the mecha bunkers. The cadets didn't rush things, nor did they take it easy. Instead, they took an even pace, determined to preserve their stamina as best they could. When they arrived, they stood in formation as the sergeants briefed them on their mission. "Cadets," said Sergeant Akim. "You all know why you're here. We are to participate in Hell Week
Eva and Chengli willingly went on the reconnaissance run, and even brought three cadets each. They didn't mind all that much that they were doing this, it was just that there were others who were more proficient at it. Although they were relatively well-versed in stealth and recon, Sunflower had practical military experience, and that was too valuable a resource to let sit. So they invited her to join them as a force multiplier. She quickly joined the team with three cadets of her own and offered her expertise whenever she could. The more they understood about the situation, the better their decisions could be, simple as that. The first thing they did was kick up a cloud of dust around themselves. They wanted to get a nice, thick layer of it to help keep them camouflaged. Whether or not this was helpful against d
The squad leaders and their cadets rushed off to their hangars as the alarm sounded around them. Eva and Chengli's squad immediately got into their mecha, powered on, and readied up. They equipped their weapons and got into formation very rapidly. The two sergeants watched proudly as the cadets rushed to prep for their sortie. To them, it really wasn't all that long ago that they first saw them. They were soft and weak and could barely fly. Now they were ready to soar. "I want three wings," ordered Chengli. "Spears with Eva, rifles with me. The third wing: repair and resupply. Each unit in the repair wing needs a spear and a rifle protecting them." "Yessir!" replied the squad. This split up all the squads into three equa
Although everyone was on high alert, no other attacks happened after that. Everyone quickly regrouped and reorganized their defenses while Eva and Chengli's squadron stood down to repair and resupply. All the squad leaders headed into the command tent where Grizz and his lackeys were playing around with the holo-table. Their lackadaisical faces made it apparent that they didn't have a care in the world. Grizz watched the squad leaders as they came into the tent uninvited, and frowned deeply. One of the things he hated the most was to get interrupted while he was busy. His work was too important to set aside so casually! At least, that's what he loved to say. "What're all of you doing?" he asked. The squad leaders took th