A bewildered Sean stared at Phineas, both not saying a word.
After a long, awkward silence, Phineas broke it.
"Number 9," he said, "I'd suggest you go back to bed, what's going to happen next demands a clear mind."
Sean's brain has recovered now, able to process information. A while later a smirk came to his face, after figuring out what training requires to be done in space.
"Let me guess, Doctor. Is it the Mechas?" he asked.
Phineas grinned. "I didn't say anything."
Sean and Phineas maintained their grins, both knowing that the opposite party had understood what the other is trying to say.
"Docking at cargo point 5 granted, we wish you a pleasant day," said the AI receptionist.
The cabin came to a stop, and the door opened, they are greeted by Franz and Herbert, standing on the floor of the loading bay of Lunar Alpha, one of the cargo points for delivering supplies from Earth onto the Moon to be used on UNSSD's facilities and Earth's space colonies.
Herbert blew the emergency gathering whistle, and all of the cadets woke up, wanting to grab their gear, only to find themselves fastened in a cabin of a space elevator.
"Look around!" said Franz. "See where you guys are?"
The cadets looked around, still semi-asleep.
"Welcome to the Moon!" said Franz. "Today's training will be the first in a series of in-space operations training!"
"The first segment, centrifuge training! Anyone who cannot take it is eliminated!" roared Herbert.
The cadets murmured at each other, shocked.
"DO YOU'ALL HAVE AN ISSUE?" roared Franz.
"NO SIR!"
"THEN GET YOU'RE A**ES OUT OF THERE!" roared Franz. The cadets immediately unbuckled themselves and floated out from the cabin in the gravity-less environment, moving as if they are swimming.
Louis and Eddie, together with the Litas, moved ahead of the rest and soon exited the cabin, immediately falling to the floor due to the artificial gravity of the base, having forgotten to consider it in their haste.
Franz and Herbert aloofly moved out of the way, allowing them to fall, looking with contempt at the cadets who fell face flat onto the metal floor.
Louis crawled up, rubbing his face in pain, so did Eddie.
Phineas smacked himself in the face, exasperated. He immediately swam forward, adjusting his body to ensure that he will be able to catch his fall once he enters the base, moving to help the cadets up, only to be stopped by other instructors at the instruction of Franz. Franz and Herbert smiled at Phineas.
"Second Lieutenant Doctor, you are not needed here…yet…" smiled Herbert.
Phineas pushed up his spectacles and stepped away.
Sean and Albert used their subspecies affinity as Dracos and hovered down gracefully, walking forward. Karl then landed with a standard superhero landing next to them.
The instructors then led the cadets in a march, with the medic team following behind. This scene drew curious stares from onlookers:
A Colonel and a Major leading, dressed in FROG suit variants of the UNSSD space camouflage uniform, a digital camo pattern of grey and white pixels on a white background, which also doubles as an urban environment camouflage. Behind them are rows of people wearing shirts and shorts, then followed by medics, evident by their red cross shoulder patches on their space camouflage uniforms.
Louis peeked out of the windows of the base, looking in awe at the warships of UNSSD's Space Force taking off and docking in the adjacent military space station in the Moon's orbit: Gagarin Base, the home base of Starforce 1, the sector fleet of Sector 1, consisting of the space from Mercury to the Moon. Sector 1 is considered the "Royal Guard" of Earth.
"An Einstein," muttered Louis in awe at the 1km long dreadnought leaving the space port, embarking on a patrol. The Einstein-Class heavy battlecruiser is an older Bethorian model that the Republic of Bethoras has helped Earth to produce domestically as part of GOMCA's 156 scientific and industrial aid to Earth post WW3, this behemoth carried enough firepower to blast a planet the size of Mars into glass with its armament of heavy fusion cannon batteries. It is powered by a series of fusion reactors whose output is enough to power the whole of Southeast Asia for 2 years.
"Too bad there aren't Planck-Class space carriers and Qian-Class assault ships here now, these are the vessels we will be frequently deployed on in space," mused Sean.
"I think I will just admire the Einstein for now," replied Louis, his head fixated at the windows.
(30 minutes later)
The cadets are all now dressed in space camouflage uniforms, standing in front of 2 gigantic machines. Most of them still sleepy, same goes for the female cadets.
Sean is surprised to see Xiao Tian there.
"My name is Zhou Xiao Tian, nice to meet you all," he greeted. Excited murmurs resonated among the cadets; Xiao Tian's reputation really does precede him.
"As Tier 1 operators, you will also pilot UNSSD's Mechas as elite strike teams. Which is, an extremely fun job I assure you. After all, who doesn't want to get into a giant robot and beat the sh*t out of Eldritch abominations in space? Or tear apart a warship?" he grinned.
"Am I right?" he asked. The cadets nodded uniformly.
"But!" said Xiao Tian, walking around. "Before you can go and live out your cartoon fantasies, you need to be of the calibre. While you don't need to be at the levels of astronauts and your comrades in aviation, the standards aren't really that much lower!"
He pointed to the machines. "These are centrifuges, they will simulate gravity forces. Now, all of you here have the potential to take over 9Gs, but we need to ensure that you really can."
"Any volunteers?" he smiled. "I need one from the ladies and one from the gentlemen."
Clara immediately stepped out while the male cadets all remained hesitant.
She saluted Xiao Tian.
Xiao Tian then turned to the male cadets. "Good! I see number 9 has volunteered himself!"
"WHAT?" exclaimed a confused Sean who had been caught up in his thoughts trying to remember how to stay conscious, not realising that the cadets at the front row where he is standing at had all collectively taken a step back around him at Karl's suggestion, wanting to make a fool out of Sean.
Upon realising he had been sabotaged, Sean gave an exasperated sigh, walking forward with a forced smile to Xiao Tian and saluted him.
An hour later, Clara and Sean are fastened up in seat of the cabins of the centrifuges, wearing anti-G suits, with wires on them to monitor their biometrics. Both of them has a red button on their sides which they can use to alert the controllers if they cannot take it. The end goal is to ensure that they do not lose focus, pass out or puke at above 9Gs.
"Ready?" asked Xiao Tian.
"YES SIR!" replied Clara proudly.
"Yes sir!" replied Sean, apprehensive.
"Bio-metrics of number 100 all normal, number 9's shows a moderate panic," reported the controller in a heavy Indian accent.
"Hit it, Singh," ordered Franz. Staff Sergeant Gurdip Singh pressed the button. The rest of the cadets watched from an observing room next to the control rooms, while the medics prepared themselves at the entrance of the centrifuge room.
"2Gs!" yelled Singh.
The centrifuges started spinning quickly, in a display of bad humour, Xiao Tian started playing "Spin, Spin, Spin" from Spidey Amazing friends on the PA.
Clara started to feel dizzy, as if on a rollercoaster ride.
"Spin, spin, spin!" played the song.
"5Gs!"
Sean breathed, using the techniques which he had revised when the instructors taught them to the cadets in the hour before he and Clara strapped in.
"Let'em see you!"
Clara kept her relaxed smile, which can be seen through the glass shells of the cabins.
"7Gs!"
Sean and Clara tensed their muscles further, squeezing their leg muscles to try and get the blood back into their chests and heads to keep them conscious.
"Spin, spin, spin!"
Soon both Clara and Sean are making cartoonish expressions as they breathed, embarking on breathing manoeuvres to increase the strain in their chests, directly increasing blood pressure to keep them conscious.
They breathed through their chests, using semi-closed slow breathing.
"9Gs!"
"This is how you win, win, win!"
Sean feels that his chest is being pushed down firmly, as if his ribs are being crushed. His belly has already been squashed, and his face is flattened.
Clara held back her urge to scream.
"If you 2 cannot take it you can always press the button and give up!" yelled Xiao Tian.
Clara painfully locked her hands together, signalling her determination to stay on.
As for Sean, his brain is too focused on keeping himself conscious that he simply did not consider quitting.
"So, gather, we'll spin, spin, spin!"
The Gs further rose to more than 9Gs, adding on to the pain of Sean and Clara further.
After what seemed like ages, the centrifuge finally stopped.
"Stats," asked Xiao Tian.
"All normal," reported Singh.
"Good job," commended Xiao Tian.
The medic team and controllers then entered the room, helping Sean and Clara out. The rest of the cadets immediately swarmed up to them to ask how was their experience.
Obviously, Clara got the most of the attention while Sean is mostly left aside, with the exception of the rest of the "gang of 6" as Nanami and the instructors have started to call the new clique Sean had formed.