The following week consisted of training and classes. For the classes, Steel and Wintry absorbed it like a sponge. While they both started learning Vexian Martial Arts, Steel learned both the strength and agility based techniques while Wintry only learned the agility based techniques from Chief Officer Jones. At the same time, Steel began to understand his talent better, it allowed him to see farther, hear and smell farther, taste specific things, and be able to tell the type of fabric from touching it. While useful, the learning curve on his enhanced senses was annoying. The sound of metal colliding especially hurt his ears.
At the moment he was finishing up his lunch when he got an alert on his wrist band. Which was the standard communication device that they were provided with as part of their starting kits. It was similar to those ancient watches he had seen on a few rare occasions. But it was instead a solid band that was form fitted around a person's wrist. With a small screen that had a digital clock that could be set to a local time core. As well as a communication function that allowed them to contact nearby devices, broadcast on a general channel, as well as send encrypted text messages to devices nearby. They also connected to the earpieces that soldiers generally had on hand.
The alert was regarding Coble Squad's next class, it was a VR drive simulation. They would be using the VR drive to train in combat. It would be a squad versus squad thing, apparently it would be Coble versus Trevor Squads. They would first learn about the infantry armor first before they got to the combat though. It would be taught by Colonel Dakota, who happened to be the head of this academy.
Steel hadn't heard much about him. But what he had heard was about his stellar reputation. Apparently he was instrumental in quelling a rebellion that was funded by a neighboring nation, Crystoph Federation. Making him a symbol of the Empire's stalwart stand against rebelling factions.
Less than ten minutes later he was climbing into one of the pods along with the rest of the squad. They were going into an independent lobby before being dropped in. So they can prepare and get familiar with the simulated armor. As the pod closed his mind seamlessly transferred to the virtual drive system. The pitch black transformed into a light blue hexagon overlay as he appeared in a rocky desert. Looking down at his hands he realized they were covered in armored gloves that were clunky and made moving difficult. Looking around his body he realized he was already in the infantry armor with a pistol at his hip.
"Welcome Coble and Trevor Squads, today I, Colonel Dakota, will be your instructor. We will start off with some basic shooting, after that we will drop you into the zone and you will fight the other squad." The Colonel's explanation seemed to give them the bare minimum.
It seemed he wasn't the only one to realize it either as he saw Wintry looking around, probably just as thrown off. But to be fair they were barely given any specific directions since arriving here, so it was probably some teaching method of theirs. For this time it was more than likely the instructor wanted to sort out the leaders from the grunts.
"Wintry-" Steel was interrupted by the sound of gunfire. Looking over he saw some of the others started shooting down a range.
"I know." She answered back before addressing the entire Squad. "Listen up Squad! While we are still getting the run of things we should sort our squad."
"Then I will lead the squad." One of the other students stated confidently from the firing line. Steel recognized him from the student files that he hacked from the academy servers. He is the son of some Baronet that is full of themselves, his father was currently under investigation for corruption. He might be a good leader but it was clear he was also just too confident at the moment.
"Okay then, Hermes. What are you going to start off by doing?" Wintry asked and waited a few minutes before she shook her head when he did not answer. "I guess you don't know." She pointed to the two separate shooting ranges. "Pick up any gun and get familiar with it at the ranges. Five to a range, when we get closer to the deployment time I will decide the temporary roles."
There was some chuckling as the squad moved to position and some grabbed weapons from the weapons rack that stood nearby. Wintry and Steel were the last two to grab weapons. He gave Wintry a moment while he looked at the five weapons that were left. There were two standard issue assault rifles. A marksman semi-automatic rifle. A pump shotgun and a laser assault rifle.
Wintry stepped forward and grabbed the marksman rifle. While Steel retrieved the pump shotgun along with both slugs and spread shot ammunition. He then stepped into the last spot and started shooting down targets with shotgun slugs.
Five minutes before the practice time ended, Wintry called everyone up. "Okay, listen up squad! Steel and Ulin will act as forward scouts relaying the enemies position and movement."
Steel moved to stand by Ulin, she was a skinner girl. He remembered reading that her family lived in a remote area so she hunted often. She gave a nod in acknowledgement.
"Sanzo, Erin, Fillmore, Reece, and Paulor will be our front line. Hermes will be our overwatch with his sniper rifle, with Tako being his spotter. Tako and Hermes should pass on any intel if the opponents change the movement. I will act as support for the frontline, adjusting tactics as we progress. Any questions?" Wintry asked, a single hand went up.
"How did you decide the roles?" Tako asked.
"Your weapons, but like I said these roles are temporary." She explained.
There was the sound of a bell ringing suddenly, "the Squads will now be moved to the battle zone. Be aware that time inside the zone will move faster so every day inside is an hour outside the simulation. So there is no rush."
A moment later they were dematerialized and rematerialized inside a bunker along with the others. He only looked around for a moment before he made a connection to their Squad's channel. He immediately set out leaving the bunker. Stepping outside he noticed it was a singular bunker up against a mountainside. With a jungle in front of him. He waited a moment as he looked around. When Ulin came out he nodded to her and moved northwest of their position while she moved northeast.
Steel moved quickly and quietly among the trees trying to avoid disturbing the leaves and branches as much as possible. A talent he picked up from being a spotter for one of the local gangs.
He moved quickly along the trees until there was a buzz in his ear piece. "Found an abandoned dropship, it looks like it has extra gear if we can get it." Ulin popped into the Squad channel.
"Good, get a look at the gear we will grab what we need." Wintry answered.
Steel frowned and was about to point something out when he heard movement. He hid among some vines, his brown and green armor blending in. He watched from around the tree as a group of three moved through the trees. They were moving away, but the way the map was set up he suspected they would run into something, so he quietly followed, double tapping his comm to make noise for the others to hopefully understand.
"This is annoying, why did we have to get scouting duty?" One of them asked.
"It is because you pissed off the Ice Queen. Everyone knows to not interrupt her when she is in her 'mode'." Another stated, they must be referring to the genius engineer in Trevor Squad. Steel heard she was smart but very finicky.
They continued to be bemused about their fate, not bothering to listen or stay quiet. While Ulin moved gear back to base and rigged the dropship with mines and a tripwire. As the three neared a cave entrance he stayed back and popped into the communication channel, "Ulin I have an eye on three but keep an eye out. There might be more and we don't want the enemy getting any of those resources. Wintry, the three I have been following just entered a cave."
"Good point and keep watching them, if you see a chance to remove them from the board, do so." Wintry answered.
"Understood, they are coming out now." Steel then watched as the cave trio walked out with two of them dragging a Komat Bear. Steel sucked in a breath of air, because these kids might not have realized what they did.
A Komat Bear is well known on the planet due to the fact it is an Apex predator. One of the more notable traits was that it had an exterior exoskeleton that could even block high end explosions. But the exoskeleton only grew when they reached an adult age. But the one they just dragged out only looked like a cub. He moved further back as the cave trio dragged their quarry back to camp. Not knowing the amount of hell they were bringing with them. He walked parallel making certain his scent would be distinguishable from the cave trio's scent.
"They just killed a Komat cub, I am following them to their base. But I am walking parallel and farther away." Steel gave an update as he snuck through the jungle.
"Understood, don't come back until you are certain the Komat won't follow you back. Ulin and Tako. I need an update."
"Ulin here, I set up more hidden explosives around the dropship. I will back off here in a minute."
"Tako here, Hermes and I are situated with a view of the enclosed valley. Only thing of note is that something large is moving away from our base towards Steel's area."
"Noted, you got that Steel?"
"Affirmative." Steel continued following them for half an hour before he heard an earthshaking roar. He suspects it was the Kamot Bear discovering the blood of its cub, meanwhile ahead of him was an entertaining sight as he saw the trio about to enter an open field where an infantry drop ship was landed. They looked around for a moment before continuing on while Steel moved further away to get into a better position for when the Kamot Bear inevitably arrives.