Second Ability

Steel dodged to the side as his opponent punched air. He countered with a quick jab to the face in order to throw them off. Followed up by a cross and another punch aimed for the opponent's chin.

The punch connected and his opponent became disorientated. So he leaned in and began connecting punches to weak points and the man's joints. When he looked thoroughly out of it he went to finish it with a solid combo. But a loud whistle caused him to back up and look over to the referee.

"Steel wins the bout! Judges mark your points!" The referee and Steel looked over to the judges who were administering this part of the exam. There was a loud thud as Steel's opponent collapsed.

He watched as the judges made notes and quickly wrote on datapads. They then whispered to each other.

"He is the best but are we sure we should not send him straight into special forces training?"

"Yes, he needs experience and we have to be wary of spies from the Union."

"We could send him to the capital planet to undergo special training."

"He is from the slums, he does not even qualify to be near the capital planet, don't make such jokes."

Their whispering was unsurprising. Many of these final exams had judges in order to finalize plans and deployments. Usually they would matter, but Steel's fellow third year students were almost all specialized for various positions.

"This arguing does not matter. Just place your points and we can move onto the next student." Another Judge whispered before turning to the stage, "dismissed. Can we have the next student come up?"

As Steel walked out of the room he was meant with the Colonel handing him a towel. "Come on kid. I want to show you something" He then led the way until they arrived at the stairs and they climbed out onto the roof. Surprisingly he had never been up here.

He then looked up at what Colonel Dakota was looking at. It was a spacecraft, low enough in orbit to be visible from their location. "She is fresh off the rack. Meet my new command ship, VMSS Nightfall of Requiem."

"She is incredible sir." Which she was, he had never seen one in person. They were so rare that he had only heard of two others like it. While anything bigger than it was only a myth or stationary. "A Warship-Class, how many of those exist in our galaxy that we know about?"

"Five, humanity as whole has possession of three of them. With us having possession of the third one, which also has the most advanced systems while the other two are ancient in comparison. The Emperor has bestowed it upon me as well as a promotion to its commander." Dakota explained as they marveled at the beauty.

"But I had never heard of the designation VMSS before." He pointed out as he saw several ships going to and from the several different hangers on the sides. It was longer in a forward to back way then a side to side way. It had armor plating along some key parts of the ship. As well as areas where gun emplacements were located. Both heavy and light weapons emplacements.

"Because it is new it was announced a day ago when the command of the ship was handed to me. They have not even written the name on the side of the ship. It means Vexical Military SpaceShip, it is the first step that the emperor is making to separate the military, nobility, and political factions." He explained as he nodded.

"So what is your first posting going to be?"

"Actually I am delivering your graduating class to the Kitinol Offensive. Then I am leaving to do a publicity tour and to press rebel forces into hiding. A new tactic to keep forces opposing the military in balance." He spoke with sorry in his voice, like it was such a shame that it would not be immediately put to work as a warship.

"How big is your crew for a vessel that size?" Steel asked.

"The crew? Around three-thousand, but it only needs twenty people to function in worse case scenarios. But when she is at full-capacity, running as a mobile operations center for several divisions, roughly eight-thousand five hundred." Commander Dakota declared getting an appreciative whistle from Steel in response.

"Well in that case, Commander Dakota, will Hielo and I be able to work on our project while we are aboard?" He asked as he saw another ship warp just out of the planet's orbit.

"Yes… and no. You will be allowed to work on it until we get close to arrival at the offensive line. But then it will be sent off to somewhere else for safekeeping. But you do not have to worry too much, the military recognizes that you both are needed for the completion of the project. But they want you both focused on surviving for the first year before specialization occurs." Dakota explained before leading him back down, off the roof.

"Hmm… understandable. But you get to tell her." Steel decided as he thought about graduation that would occur in two days.

He walked down to his workshop, he would pack up his room tonight but for now he would finish and clean up anything in the workshop. He walked into the site of the mechanical dog, its skeleton was already complete along with its musculature still in the process of completion. Hielo and him had made some significant progress considering that they were making an artificial intelligence and a body from scratch.

On the other hand, he was struggling with the latest protocols for a new artificial intelligence, and as soon as he completed those it would be complete. Then it is teaching and learning, so it could develop without information being input.

As he thought about it he began packing up everything, even putting the incomplete dog in a container before moving on to his own private station. He had made significant progress on his hacking device, his standard model was just about complete.

It was a hand held small tablet with both wireless connection and touch connection. But it could only work on one system at a time. It was made of cheap plastics and the programming self-deletes upon being infiltrated or being copied. Making it a perfect one use product, meaning he would also be continuously making money if he played it right.

But on the other hand he made his own version, a device that he could easily modify and use to hack in times of emergency. A sort of skeleton key for anything that is not protected with military level encryptions.

As he completed putting away his equipment, Hielo walked in. She had a black eye and was frowning. But Steel chuckled already guessing she got that from the sparring match.

"Did Commander Dakota talk to you?" He asked as the last of his things were packed. But his private hacking device was stashed away in his pocket, he made it half of the size of any tablet so it could be hidden in his armor.

"Yes he did. I only get three days during the journey to the offensive to work on it. How long before you complete your part? I want it to start self learning by the time we have to leave it." She spoke with confidence as she began packing up her area.

"Understood, I will try to find a solution between now and our arrival at the offensive line." Steel answered before leaving, going to the gym to train. He had reached his body's limit for now but hopefully that would change. He should also be getting his second ability soon.

—-----------------

"We are here to celebrate the graduation of another group of exceptional soldiers!" Commander Dakota declared. As the commander spoke, Steel was lost in thought. Thinking about the changes he needed to make for his AI.

"The emperor knows no worry with another graduation ceremony, another year passing, it bolsters our numbers. Bringing more and more exceptional…" He had a sudden idea, a flurry of ideas to help programming the AI. But with it came a message and an immense headache.

[ALERT! BROKEN THROUGH 175 POINT MARK!]

[NEW ABILITY CREATED TO ASSIST NANO USER!]

[Ability: Assistant Program

Option 1: Can convert thoughts and ideas into a programming language without typing.

Option 2: Can easily read programming on a device by touching it.

Option 3: Can converse with artificial intelligence in their own language.]

For the remainder of the graduation ceremony he was running programs through his head to see which one would work. He was that way all the way to when he was packing up his room. He could tell it was probably off putting because of the look Wintry was giving him.

The only time he stopped was when he was carrying his duffle onto their transport craft. It was one squad per Osprey as he was climbing aboard he noticed that Warrant Officer Meyer was joining them. Ospreys were military troop transports, equipped with minimal weaponry and a focus on defense instead. They used propellant instead of props since they needed to go from the surface of a planet to an orbital ship and vice versa.

"Officer Meyer, what are you doing here?" Ulin asked, pulling Steel from his thoughts. He was curious as well but was too deep into his own thoughts.

"Being your warrant officer was only a temporary position, I have been transferred to the Nightfall of Requiem for a new position as a Squad Control Officer. Don't worry your first posting will be aboard a different ship, so the last time many of you will see me is during this voyage." She explained as she took a standing position near the pilot's door. She then slammed her fist against it once their entire squad was seated.

"So do you know what ship we are posted to?" Hermes asked as the rear door closed and the ship began taking off.

"No I do not. But that does remind me, Cadet Steel, the military are going to adopt your hacking devices. Payment will be made in full later, but for now you will have to do with a promotion at the end of your first-year probation period." She declared which caused a new question to emerge.

"How can we get promotions before the end of the probation period?" Wintry asked, causing Meyer to smile slyly.

"Simple, depending on your accumulated experience and senior officers recommendations you will get promoted and sorted."