Mox entered the simulation room and saluted. This was supposed to be the last class before being certified the Technician spec. He learned quickly, but some concepts he found difficult to master and he just hoped that he managed to understand them properly. He did not want to retake the final exam.
“Private First Class Mox, reporting for duty!” Mox recited as he moved the fingers away from his forehead.
“Welcome. As you know this is your final exam. Don’t screw it up.” The examiner said as he gestured Mox towards the row of simchairs.
Mox quickly walked up to the simulator, sat down and prepared himself for the simulation. When the last trainee entered and strapped himself in, the examiner stood up and walked towards the centre of the room.
“So,” The examiner’s voice boomed “you’re all here because you managed to teach yourself enough or were listening in classes carefully enough to theoretically be able to perform your specialization without a hitch. But that’s about to change. Pass and you will earn the right to brag and the responsibility to perform. Fail and you’re risking being sent to the beginner’s classes.” The trainees exchanged nervous glances, but Mox just stared into the eyes of the examiner, waiting for the simulation to begin. He knew that he could not fail. The examiner walked up to the technician and whispered a few words to him. Mox closed his eyes and could feel the world change around him.
Suddenly he realised that he was standing, and that he had something heavier than a uniform on. Opening his eyes he saw a city, city that has seen a few good months of battle. The HUD on Mox’s helmet sparked to life and the information rolled before his eyes.
You’re taking part in the last battle for this city. The enemy is heavily fortified in the bunker to the left and the skyscraper in the front. You do not know what the enemy has prepared for you. Mission objective: Capture or destroy the bunker and the skyscraper. Rest of the information detailed the sectors of the city, and other details. Mox nodded and confirmed readiness. The moment that all participating troopers confirmed it, the simulation started spawning various objects, like other troopers or even stray animals. The group quickly joined up in the middle of the street.
“All right, we need to get closer to the skyscraper.” The trooper training in Tactics spoke out “It should be easier to take out, but might be harder to get to.”
“Maybe we could call for an armoured transport?” One of the other troopers proposed
“Look, we don’t know anything about what’s actually happening here-“ The Tactics was interrupted as a nearby explosion threw the troopers off their feet.
“Damnation…… Take cover!” Mox shouted as he got up and ran in a direction of the nearest cover. The group essentially split up across the street, hiding behind various car wrecks, in alleys and alike. “I say we get closer, via the buildings and call in an airstrike to takeout the skyscraper.”
“Good idea, maybe it’s not going to be so hard after all.”
The squad quickly regrouped in one of the buildings to the left of the road and surprisingly as they did a squadron of men has arrived. They wore Stormtrooper armour and ran across the street, trying to hide behind as much cover as they could without slowing down. “They’re simulated. Must be the assault squadron.” One of the trainees said as he moved across the building, trying to get to the back alley. Mox got closer to the man who was training in ballistics, trying not to lose sight of him once he recognised him. They moved quickly and efficiently, trying to cover as much land as possible, moving through back alleys, across balconies and over fences. Once or twice they had to use grenades to get through a wall as they did not dare to risk failure by going out on the street and getting shot by sniper fire. After a few minutes they got to the edge of the buildings on that street, and hence nearly in a throwing range to the skyscraper. It was one of the last ones standing in that district and while making for perfect sniper position and hence theoretically a good defense spot, it could also be destroyed by well-placed explosives. But as decided earlier on, and also because there was no Demolitions trainee in the squad, they were going to call a bombing strike.
“Alright, let me get the cords for you to transmit.” The Ballistic Engineer trainee said as he approached the window, Datapad in hand. Mox took out his Datapad, which was connected to his ComLink, and established connection with the officers in the navy.
“SimSquad Mox Tyn to SimNavy, over.” Mox pronounced the two sentences, trying to be as clear as possible. The names used were given to him during the first simulator session, SimSquad standing for the squad the Technician was in, his callsign identifying himself and the Tyn being used in the simulators as a password. SimNavy stood for the simulated navy, as the name suggested.
“SimNavy to SimSquad, over.” A voice responded. Mox knew that the ballistic man didn’t have the coordinates ready, but he was certain that they would be by the time the navy would ask for them.
“Requesting AirRun, over.” Mox once again tried to pronounce the words carefully. AirRun stood for a bomber strike, but did not specify anything else, whether it was supposed to be an actual run or a precise pinpoint bombing.
“Roger that SimSquad, please hold, over.”
Mox smiled, knowing that one of the objectives was about to be done. And as the simulated navy communicator came back, the Ballistic Engineer trainee came over to him, holding the Datapad with all the details that the navy could’ve needed.
“Requesting AirRun info, over.”
“AirRun info as follows: Single, Sector: Theta, FR: 54356’34234, EN: 54033’33850.” Mox recited the details off the Datapad, knowing what they meant as he’s seen a lot of them during classes: most Technicians worked with the Ballistic Engineers to bring down airstrikes or call for artillery. Single stood for a one precise bombing strike, Theta for the sector the target was in, FR stood for the squad while EN stood for the bombing location. “I repeat AirRun info: Single, Sector: Theta, FR: 54356’34234, EN: 54033’33850.”
“Roger that SimSquad, AirRun confirmed. Out.” The ComLink connection closed and now they had to wait.
After a few moments later a squadron of bombers came out of the sky and dropped their load on the target, which the Ballistic Engineer set at the base of the skyscraper. The building, being already war-torn as it was, broke apart almost instantaneously. All that was inside was lost and the objective was complete, hence allowing the trainee squad to focus on the second one.
“Alright, let’s go get that bunker. We might need another airstrike, but who knows.” The Tactics trainee exclaimed as he moved back the way they came.
Because they already cleared the bath of most of the obstacles the way back to the spawn location was easy. But the moment the point man came out into an alley, he pushed himself back in as a volley of blaster fire appeared behind him. The assumed SL gestured the squad to take cover. They had to wait for the enemy to arrive as they would quickly drop dead if they tried to take them out in the alley. But instead of the enemy immediately coming in, the imperials saw two grenades drop in through one of the ventilation slits. The troopers in that area tried to escape the area, but the blast came swiftly. Mox realised by the shriek in his helmet that one of them was an EMP grenade. As Mox forced the helmet off his head with one hand and took out his pistol. The rest of the Vast Empire troops, being introduced to the EMP grenades many times, whether in duty or during simulators, also took off their helmets and either took out their pistols – especially those that wore arm cybernetics – or retook possession of their rifles. The few that only took of their helmets were affected by the second grenade: a flash bang.
Instead of waiting for the group to recover the enemy trooper entered the room, being followed by two others. They were heavily armored, wearing custom armor that Mox could only understand because he himself had to recycle armor parts of his enemies. This group obviously was doing the same, except with much heavier and sturdier parts. The trooper wielded a handheld turret blaster, able to lay waste to the Vast Empire troopers. Immediately the room filled with colours, coming from various blasters. A few trainees were killed on the spot, while the others either fell, heavily wounded or kept shooting at the apparent weak points of the commando’s, Mox attempting to shoot their heads. Soon enough the overconfident group was dealt with, but the trainee group had received serious blow both to their numbers and the diversity of the tasks that it could perform. Most were heavily wounded, and the only Field Medic trainee tried to stabilise and bring them back to action. It quickly became apparent though that most of them already died and the others were unable to move due to the burned limbs. All of them quickly lied life less.
“Come on, they failed their exam, we can still pass ours.” Mox said as he got up, trying to reactive his arm. Luckily the arm quickly came to life and Mox was ready to get back to work. Picking up his helmet he thought of how strong the EMP grenade must’ve been, but the moment he put his helmet back on he dismissed those thoughts.
Unfortunately his long-distance ComLink was busted. Mox thought it would reactive, just like the blasters – having the best EMP insulation of all the equipment they had – cybernetics and their helmets but apparently the device how no such luck.
Can’t allow that in the RL ComLink… “Give me a moment” he called out as he crouched down and took the ComLink out of his helmet. He then took it apart and examined closely. Fortunately the mainframe – including the receiver and the transmitter had an insulator so not all was lost. If he was able to somehow insert this mainframe into a different, perhaps better insulated comlink he could make it work.
Wait a moment, I insulated my personal ComLink after the mission where we got blasted with an EMP bomb… maybe that one survived the grenade… He disconnected it from his belt and placed it next to the useless parts of the long-range ComLink.
Without further thinking Mox grabbed an E-11 that lied next to one of the dead VE troopers and took it apart. After carefully removing the power cell he placed next to the personal ComLink, picked that up and took it apart as well
If I manage to connect everything correctly, and the power cell isn’t going to fail, I should be able to connect this contraption with my helmet. Using a wire from the frame of the busted ComLink he carefully soldered all the elements together, being taught where the individual cables go during the classes. After he finished all he had left to do is to connect the modified ComLink back into the helmet and pray that it would work.
“Ok, guys, can you hear me?” Mox said after he put his helmet on.
“Loud and clear.” One of the trainees said
“Great, give me a sec.” Mox said and changed frequency to the navy. If he was able to connect to them, then he passed the test. “SimSquad Mox Tyn to SimNavy, over.”
“SimNavy to SimSquad, over.”
“Testing new long-range ComLink, SimNavy. How can you hear me?, over.”
“Loud and clear, over.”
Mox sighed with relief. Not only did the connection work, but he was able to make clear exchange of communication with someone as far as the orbit. “Thank you, SimNavy. Out.”
Mox picked up his rifle and signalled the group that he’s ready to go. But as he was about to move his vision went completely black. Suddenly Mox realised he had his eyes closed, he didn’t wear any armor and he was sitting down. The simulation was over.
“Well done. You’ve done enough to prove that you were able to perform what you’ve learned.” The examiner said as he approached Mox. “You will still be marked, and you may fail depending on how efficient you were and other things, but for now you’re free to go. Your entity in the simulator was replaced by a NPC so you don’t have to worry about the other troopers.”
“Dismissed.”
- OOC:
- WC: 2144
Sorry that it's that long
