He moved to a nearby cliff edge and as he was sneaking up the cliff, climbing without equipment, he saw that there was already someone crouched on the cliff looking out over the hill. Steel must have moved in through his blind spot, or more likely when he was still setting up. It seemed he had dropped his bag but not set up any equipment.
He decided to wait as he listened from behind the sniper in his own hiding space. When he suddenly heard a yell coming from their camp, "You idiots!" He expected that, but he thought it would have been the Ice Queen and not one of the male students.
But even if said person, who knew about Kamot Bears, acted now it was already too late. Because the Kamot Bear was barreling through the jungle crushing trees in its wake of rage. He heard the sniper's communication device come alive with static and indecipherable words, he had his volume too low. Then the sniper adjusted position while a firing line and barricades were set up by the ship's landing door.
Just like the cave trio they all wore beige and blue armor which stuck out like a sore thumb in this terrain. But he understood why, it appeared that Trevor Squad started with heavier armaments. As he watched an engineer, presumably the Ice Queen, quickly set up a laser cannon emplacement.
But as quick as she was she wasn't quick enough as the bear burst out of the trees covered in external bone that looked as strong as metal. The sniper fired off a round which pinged off the armor while the rest of Trevor Squad laid into the bear with guns and laser fire.
Steel decided this was an optimal time and stealthily moved up behind the sniper. He pointed the shotgun loaded with a slug round to the back of the head and fired. His shot was drowned out by the other gunfire. But he saw the body slump and the bloody hole that appeared that indicated that the sniper was dead.
Steel crouched next to the body and moved the shotgun to the magnetic holder on his back. Then he picked up the sniper rifle and looked it over briefly. It was a high powered automatic rifle with five shots. Fortunately the last user only fired once so he had four shots left.
He looked through the scope just as he saw the laser cannon start firing. It appeared the Ice Queen had gotten it started and was now shooting at the bear. She was starting to injure the bear, but he couldn't have them winning this quickly.
So he aimed for the battery pack on the cannon and fired. A moment later the cannon exploded, throwing the Ice Queen back and injuring another person that was nearby.
Unfortunately he watched as the Ice Queen stood up, stunned but otherwise fine. So he aimed again and fired, this time they would notice him as their prized engineer's head snapped back with a bullet going through her helmet and body falling to the ground.
As the Kamot Bear shredded through its first prey one of the other members of Trevor Squad started shooting randomly in Steel's general direction. Steel decided to ignore the injured one and shot the one that was shooting blindly, hitting them in the head. Now he really caught their attention. As another person instructed a few of the others to shoot at him while the laser rifles focused on the Kamot Bear.
But he was already firing on his final target. Which surprisingly wasn't any of the squad members. It was an exposed fuel container near the ship. First there was a small explosion before an ear splitting fire and explosion engulfed the craft and sent the Trevor Squad flying into the forest and singed the bear's exposed fur.
"This is Steel, good news and bad news. Good news is that I killed three and destroyed their base. Bad news is I more than likely scared off the Kamot Bear with that." Steel explained as he tossed aside the sniper rifle and climbed down to the jungle. He then quickly moved along the forest making certain to check for a tail.
"Should we expect company?" Wintry asked, but he could hear giggling in the background.
"Affirmative, they lack both rations and any other resources. I am sure it won't be long before they charge us as a last ditch effort." Steel gave his assessment as he moved through the brush.
"Understood. Ulin, wait just outside the jungle perimeter. Show Steel inside to the base, the rest of you should be situated and waiting on their arrival. Which could be anywhere from today to a day from now. Tako alert me if you see them." Wintry ordered.
"Yes ma'am." Was the response over the radio.
"Just a heads up, they are wearing beige and blue armor. But by the time they get to our base it might be covered in mud." Steel pointed out breathlessly as he was constantly checking his back.
It was another thirty minutes before he came up on their base when he saw Ulin slip out of the shadow of a tree. She waved at him, indicating to follow. So he followed.
It appeared that she fully applied the concept of camouflage as her armor was caked in mud and had vines hanging off it. But he felt like that wasn't what she just did, it was more like she suddenly appeared. Must be related to her talent.
They maneuvered to the bunker through a presumably preset path. They moved past a trench that wasn't there before, it had three of his squad mates crouched inside of it. Peeking over as Ulin and Steel jumped over the trench and walked into the bunker.
Inside with her helmet off was Wintry as she was looking at a holographic map of this enclosed jungle valley. She glanced at them only for a moment before she turned the map to him, "helmet off, and mark the map with your finds."
Steel flipped the latches on the back of his helmet and removed it. He then set it down with one hand as he started altering the holographic map with the other. A few minutes later he was done and putting on his helmet.
"Where do you want me?" He asked and he pulled the shotgun from his back.
"The trench, they have heavy weaponry but I worry they don't have enough short range weapons. Just in case the Trevor Squad gets too close." Wintry explained.
Steel nodded before he walked out of the bunker and hopped into the trench catching his squad mates off guard. He nodded at them and started checking over his shotgun making certain it was loaded with spread shot ammunition.
Another twenty minutes passed before there was an explosion. This one came from a different area. But the plume of smoke was visible from their base. Then Steel could faintly hear the sound of follow-up explosions.
Using his hearing he listened to movement and eventually heard the distinct sound of movement getting closer. He waved at the others and readied his weapon. After glancing at each other they got ready as well.
"Movement along the jungle closing in towards our base. I see beige and blue armor through the jungle top." Tako announced over the comm.
"Understood. All units prepare for battle. They have at least three confirmed dead but they are more than likely exhausted and desperate. Expect them to do something reckless." The sound of movement could be heard on Wintry's comm.
Steel watched from the trench as the Trevor Squad stopped just at the forest line. There were four of them, then they moved forward like they were being stealthy when one of them stepped on a mine.
The explosion was gory and sent limbs and organs all over the field. There was only a single line over the comm, "Fire!"
Overhead from what he assumed was a hidden balcony four others opened fire. While he could also hear their sniper firing. While the other three in the trench started firing the mounted machine gun.
The last three went down quickly, with the first one getting gunned down by the Trench line. Taking so many shots that his limbs were blown off. The other two dropped to the ground immediately to take cover, but as one of them was diving his head was blown off before his body landed on another mine causing his body to explode. The third and final one was lucky but he was too stunned to do anything before the line of fire from the balcony laid into him, killing him quickly.
Steel whistled and held up a fist, the trench line held fire. The balcony line did as well a second later. They waited until the smoke from the explosions cleared before there was a sudden ding.
"The battle simulation has ended, we are pulling you out now." Colonel Dakota announced.
There was the sudden dematerialization of the world again before Steel watched his pod open again. The first thing he heard was a boisterous laughter. Once the pod was fully open he climbed out fully feeling the pain in his body from exerting himself in the simulation. The pod exerted force on his body to further strengthen the sense of being realistic, and helped in training. Of course it was limited to what the body could take and no more.
"Hahaha! I must say this must have been one of the more entertaining combat simulation exercises I have ever seen." The Colonel was dressed in woodland camo garb. In front of him in a single line was the Trevor Squad, looking all sorts of annoyed. While Steel moved to get in line with his squad.
"Now we get to do my favorite part of these exercises. Doing a breakdown of what went wrong and what went right. Then figuring out where you went wrong. Since Trevor Squad was such a disaster, I want to start with Coble Squad." The Colonel pulled up a holographic image and it was of the start of the match when Ulin and him came out of the bunker.
"Trainees Ulin and Steel instead of immediately heading out what should you have done?" The Colonel asked.
"We should have informed and orchestrated our scouting mission with our commanding officer before we left." Ulin spoke up and Steel agreed, an oversight due to mostly his excitement and being antsy when there was something to be done.
"Correct, the only reason you wouldn't is if you already had standing orders or were familiar enough with your superior that you could just hit the ground running. But you lot have only known each other for a week so that is most definitely not the case. Keep that in mind you two." The Colonel then started mulling over their team's mistakes for the next ten minutes.
When he eventually got around to the Trevor Squad he tore into them for over an hour, focusing especially on the cave trio since they led both the Kamot Bear and the opposing squad to their base of operations. The Ice Queen, who was actually a platinum blonde woman called Taylor Hielo, was mostly chastised for taking charge but not leading.
Then they were given an assignment to write up all their mistakes and what they should have done differently. Which is what they did for the remainder of the day until dinner came up. Afterwards they retired and that was the end of the day. The weekend was more of a study period with access to combat training, virtual reality training, exercising, and resources to be tutored.
By the time the next Monday had come around his recorded stats had grown.
[Name: Jace Steel
Age: 13
Compatibility Rating: D
Talent: Enhanced Perception
Temporary Growth Enhancement: Strength x3, Health x2, Intelligencex2
Strength: 8
Agility: 6
Speed: 8
Health: 8
Intelligence: 13 ]
It would more than likely continue to climb until he hit the first known barrier which just happened to be the twenty point mark for any stat. But he was determined to not limit himself to the usual benchmarks. Steel wasn't arrogant to think he was special, but he was confident enough to push himself as much as possible.
The next year passed quickly as he learned more and began working and adapting to his team better and working with them more easily until the first break was coming up. That is when Coble Squad ran into its first issue that would shake things up at the academy.