The fourth cycle was virtually the same as before. An hour run, followed by five hours of training, an hour for food, and three hours of sleep. The pattern and the habits were slowly being absorbed by all the cadets, Eva especially.
She had never had such a demanding schedule in her entire life.
In her old life, she woke up whenever she felt like it, and went to sleep when she got too tired to keep her eyes open. She ate, played, and lived to no-one's beat but her own. It was incredibly hedonistic, but ultimately damaging.
That lack of care or discipline made her soft, lazy, and apathetic. It didn't help that she didn't have anyone who uplifted her.
But this new life, these new experiences, new friends, this academy… They all helped her break out of that old mindset.
Wings are teams of pilots, Squadrons are groups of Wings, and Units are groups of Squadrons. Numbers vary.
When the sergeants roused the cadets on the ninth cycle of the week, they had especially merciless looks in their eyes. This was a special cycle. "Everyone up! Now, now, now!" yelled Sergeant Elyn. This startled everyone onto their feet. The sergeants' energetic cries were far more forceful than before. "Get into your flightsuits on the double!" yelled Sergeant Akim. Eva was taken aback, but quickly slipped out of her uniform and into her flightsuit. She then grabbed her flight helmet and held it to the side before she stood at attention. She didn't realize it, but she also wore a slight grin on her face. It had become a part of the flightsuit at some point, when she wasn't
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
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