Exams Part 1

The day of the exams for the first years arrived. They were done in a large auditorium with the point total announced in front of everyone. The other years included if they wanted to watch. In fact the only part of the exam that couldn't be watched by anyone in the school was the written part, mostly because there was no way to make it embarrassing or entertaining.

"Coble Squad, step forward." His Squad stepped out of line and walked forward forming a line in front of a podium that was used to announce his name and stat point total.

"Sasha Erin, 58." The next person stepped forward as Sasha stepped back in line. "Ella Fillmore, 50. Jordan Hermes, 69." There was an applause and the announcer stopped for a moment. "Talor Paulor, 55. Peter Reece, 51. Carter Sanzo, 53. Jace Steel…" The announcer trailed off as he double and then triple checked the total. "110." The auditorium became dead silent before someone whistled and the announcer waved him off. "Verin Tako, 62. Astella Ulin, 69. Salem Wintry…" A few moments later as the announcer triple checked it again, this time it was more clear that it was protocol rather than a lack of confidence when a higher number popped up. "90."

That got whispers in the room. Fortunately with his hearing he could make them out.

"No way they bought their scores."

"Having one above 60 is already amazing. But having five must make them the best first years this school has had."

"I heard there were several first years that were keeping up with older students."

The rest of the ceremony saw none of the first year's held back. Much to the surprise of the older students, because there is usually one or two that are dismissed from duty or forced to repeat a year.

After the first part was done they ate a late breakfast. Afterwards they reported to their designated rooms for the written exam, the first one finished was the Ice Queen with Wintry immediately after. Steel was the third to finish leaving for lunch and prepare himself for the practical exam. He was just finishing lunch when he got a notification on his communication device.

[Report to Simulation Room for solo practical exam. -Col. Dakota]

Steel smiled, glad he got a solo exam as opposed to a group exam. He would go nuts if he had to work with others for the exam.

When he arrived at the door to the room he felt something was off and was proved correct when the door slid open. Inside were three people. The Colonel, a white haired General in full military uniform, and an armored infantryman in full black with a cape and hoodie. The symbol on the cape was of a skull with a cross behind it.

"Jump in the pod Trainee Steel. We can jump right into it. I will explain the situation as the scenario boots up." The Colonel stated.

"Yes Sir!" Steel crawled into the pod and felt the familiar feeling as his mind slid into the virtual realm.

"You were aboard your ship which was patrolling an unmapped region when it was suddenly shot down by a possible hostile and you crashed on an unknown planet. There is no stated objective, good luck." The Colonel's explanation threw Steel off for a moment before he decided not to think about it too much.

The simulation started up and he opened his eyes. He looked around assessing his current situation.

He was in what looked like the infantry bunks. The other nine members of his 'squad' were dead in various gruesome manners. Dead upon impact, he could tell because the room was on its side and most objects were displaced.

He was still in clothes that looked off duty. He pulled himself up and put on proper gear making certain to grab a knife, gun, and info pad connected to the ship's main system.

Before he even pulled up the map of the ship he masked the pads signal. He then pulled open the door of the room and peeked his head out. The hallway was vertical, this would be interesting. He checked the pad again and then nodded. Stashing the pad, knife and gun he climbed the wall. Eventually he reached the armory.

He opened the door and entered, carefully making sure not to disturb any ordinance that was lying around. Eventually he reached the infantry armor and opened the container. Before he did anything else he displayed footage of active surveillance cameras on the info pad.

As he was putting on the armor he noticed a group of survivors were gathering just outside the ship. Fortunately this world appeared to have breathable air and a jungle terrain. They seemed to be panicking about something.

Steel finished putting on the light infantry armor. He then started packing a bag with extra ammunition and explosives. He then grabbed a scrambling tarp, stashed the pistol and knife in the bag, grabbed another pistol with a silencer, along with a carbine marksman rifle with a silencer and scope. He then grabbed a knife fit for the armor he was wearing.

He then climbed out into the hallway and made his way out of the ship, making sure to check the pad every once in a while. Once he was at an exit he quietly moved to the forest edge. Listening for any movement as he made his way into the forest until he found a hill a mile away from the ship with an oddly shaped rock. Once he was there he made a large enough hole by the tree and placed the bag full of equipment inside while wrapped in the tarp. He then buried it in dirt and made his way back to the ship. Halfway to the ship there was unusual movement on the surveillance cameras.

The group of survivors were holding up their hands as what appeared to be floating armor and weaponry were holding them at gunpoint. Meaning it was a creature that could not be seen on cameras? There was no known creature with that natural ability.

He moved quietly as he arrived just within visual distance where they were being held. Looking through the scope he saw the creatures, they were hunched over and large things with chitin plates and a wide face. Yup, unknown at least to the public.

He watched for a few minutes hidden among foliage when a group exited the ship dragging a few more people. Seeing that they were taking prisoners he started looking into any messages and data received before the ship went down. The only thing he could find was a garbled message in a foreign language. He transferred it to his suit system so he could run a translation function.

He noticed the creatures started moving the people so he stashed the info pad in a tree and followed them at a distance trying to remain quiet. As he was following a lightning storm suddenly began with heavy rain and lightning that was colored green, there was probably something a little extra in the air.

Eventually they arrived at a facility, but it looked more like a military outpost. It had guards around the edge so he scouted the edge of the fence line looking for an opening. But it looked like there was a lack of surveillance cameras which made sense. But then how do they watch people? Then he saw it, something that looked like a radar tower rotating. Sonar? But it looked like it was contained to a certain radius. There were three of them throughout the facility and they were all connected with wires to a single station. Where it appeared to have a powersource directly connected to that.

There were a few ways he could do this, but only one he could think of that wouldn't raise suspicion. He looked and found what he was looking for: a grounding device so a lightning strike to the building and surrounding doesn't overload the system. It seemed rather thick but there was a tightening screw he could shoot out with the right shot.

He became laser focus as he accounted for wind speed, rain, and the planet's increased gravity. Then he fired and the bullet flew through the air but as it got closer he noticed a green energy gather on it until it landed. When a larger than normal lighting strike struck the building frying the generator and causing a cascade effect that had the entire grid shut down. He saw the sonar things slow and stop, he had to move quickly before they upped their manned security. Once he was past the fence he started moving along the roofs. As he was moving there was a sudden alert as the message from before had translated. He opted to ignore it for now as he listened in on what appeared to be a commanding officer, making sure to record the conversation.

Once he had it he tried running it through the language translator the suit just made of the message from the ship.

[Error unknown language.]

He clicked his tongue in annoyance. He then started running a new translation program, expanding the abilities of the suit. He then looked at the message from the ship.

[Beware ship entering warzone between the #%^$& and our fair Empire of $^&*% you will be treated as hostile if you interfere.]

That was a problem, after he figured out where they took the ship crew and hacked into their central system he would head back to the ship to fashion a beacon to alert his empire.

He continued watching the movement of patrols and noticed several of them were rolling a cart of covered containers to an area that led underground. A possible prisoner area? Most cultures used dungeons to store prisons which were typically underground. It was some psychological thing.

While he was watching, he noticed what looked like technicians rebooting their system so he moved over to what looked like a part of their communication system. A few minutes later when the entire building lit up his jerry rigged device that he constructed using electronics he had on him lit up as well. It showed a loading bar and then he saw the connection to his armor as the garble of their communication lit up.

He had a connection which was all he needed for right now. He would work his way further into their network later when he could set up more equipment. Making his way slowly to the edge of the military installation he jumped the wall and slowly made his way out into the jungle. Memorizing the base's location in case he loses the map he made earlier.