They both finally settled down and the 5 am start was only 3 hours away by the time they both fell asleep. "MOVE MOVE MOVE! GET YOUR LAZY ASSES OUT OF BED! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME PRIVATE YOU ALREADY GOT A GIRL!" A sergeant was standing in the doorway of Andrei's new bedroom and both of them were startled awake. Then the man in the doorway checked his earpiece and stated "Rodger, I believe who you are trying to find is here." Letting go of his earpiece he then looked at the two "Mini I assume?" She acknowledged it red in the face.
They hurriedly got dressed and followed the sergeant. The three walked in silence as they headed to a small vehicle that was used on base. For quite the rude awakening the Sergeant hadn't made any other comments or spoken since. Andrei was wondering where the two of them were going then saw everyone from his list all standing outside of a structure with SPRU above the door.
"Why are you two always the last ones?" Sophia slightly complained out loud.
"Just to make you jealous!" Mini jabbed back at her.
"This is it, let's go get tougher!" Andrei said enthusiastically while everyone else did not share his enthusiasm.
The group entered the SPRU building and were directed to the basement level. This area was designated for training purposes and had equipment that none of them had ever seen before.
"For the next six weeks we will be honing in on your powers, your physical toughness, and your mental capacity." There had been a man standing in the middle of the training grounds who made this statement to the group.
"I am Master Chief Charles Hood, and it is my pleasure to bring as much pain and discomfort that a body can take to each of you. We will find out how quickly you really want to be in SPRU these next 10 days as you will not sleep, you will be pushed to the limit, you will eat when I say, you will do what I say when I say it, do you get me?"
The group of privates in unison "WE GET YOU SIR!" The master chief then proceeded to his left to a room that had a large monitor and on the inside the walls had a weird pattern to them. The master chief stood outside the entrance and continued instructions.
"This is a chamber that eliminates noise. You are to enter and last as long as you can. We will do this everyday till you either can last 10 minutes or the 6 weeks have ended and you have failed to make the bench mark." The master chief casually announced to the group.
"Next we have underwater simulation diving, this chamber can also increase the pressure as if you're diving to extreme depths." The master chief had given these intro speeches so many times it came off emotionless and robotic to the group.
"The third section will be aerial training. This chamber simulates diving out of aircraft, spaceships, bridges, you name it that you will have to get used to experiencing." The master chief barely stopped at this chamber and continued on.
The next chamber was a chair. Much smaller chamber as well which made them all stop and wonder what this meant. "This chamber is for shock resistance training. The chair will electrocute you at a slowly increased rate that you have to surpass a certain threshold to be SPRU!" He confidently stated to the group.
The last station was a g-force ring. The room was a circle with a large post in the middle that had a bar extending out to a small pod that held a chair. "This is gravitational force resistance training, try not to puke" the sergeant joked as he knew most would on their first attempt.
"So who wants to go first on each? Everyone will go into each day from this day forward so don't be shy." The sergeant was egging them on. Andrei stepped towards the g-force ring and got strapped in.
Edwin went into the electric chair, while Julia took on the aerial training, Mini went to the water and Sophia surprisingly went first into the silent chamber. The sergeant walked over to a circle on the floor and similar to the assembly hall he was lifted up in the air like a balcony. A monitor appeared in front of him that gave him controls over each station.
Lily and Airwrecka followed their friend to the first chamber and cheered her on. Henry and Goombi decided to watch Andrei. Poco and Loco were both worried about the water so they decided to go over to it and watch Mini.
The tests began and Andrei was not a fan of the feeling he was receiving from the g-force ring. The first run would only get to 6g's and was considered the bare minimum for SPRU. When the machine slowed down and he no longer felt like his body was imploding on itself he gave a thumbs up to his teammates with his warm smile.
Henry was next and he did not do as well as Andrei did post run. He not only puked in the pod, but then puked again on the floor. Sanitation bots were summoned in by Master Chief Hood from his console and eventually the bile was cleaned up.
Goombi got out of the pod and asked Master Chief Hood if he could go again. The sergeant gave a hearty laugh "all in good time young one" he casually stated after calming down from the laugh. Goombi frowned but also knew he had to do this everyday for the next 60 days, that thought put a smile back on his face as he headed to Chamber 1 as they agreed to go 1-5 once at 5 go back to one.
There was also a different pace to each chamber so the line started to form up around chamber 1 as it's up to the individual to stay as long as they can. There isn't a timer
Sophia was actually doing a great job in the silent chamber and had already surpassed the required time to train. Master Chief Hood then popped the door open and everyone could hear "Hey I wasn't done yet! I could go longer!"
"I am not one to doubt you young lady but day one I'm not going to lose one of you. If you stay another 30 seconds or longer, it increases the chance you could have lost your mind." The sergeant had a frown on his face while stating it to Sophia.
They continued going through each chamber. Andrei excelled at each which surprised no one, Poco and Loco were actually really good on all of them as well. Loco learned that he could control the water to give himself oxygen. To the point that he removed his diving gear and jumped back in to test it.
Edwin and Andrei took note of that skill and tried but were unsuccessful on day 1 at minimum. The aerial chamber, all of them agreed, was the most fun. The students would wear a helmet that would place an Augmented Reality in their view as if they just jumped out the back of a large transport spaceship and they were a few miles high off the ground.
Airwrecka who was a descendant of wind abilities somehow got skipped or her mother's genes had interfered but she was actually the first in her family to not be an element wind user. She was gifted with a speed ability that made her move faster than anyone in her family. She just couldn't produce wind like her family.
Through combat training she found that her speed ability also increased the more she made contact with an opponent. Even when they would block she would get faster from it. Only after 5 seconds of not making contact would then cause the stacking effect wear off.
She had scored the highest on the aerial challenge and her slender build helped her to navigate the course more efficiently and significantly faster than everyone else. Almost all of the family genes might have just skipped the element part but gave her natural instincts in the air.
Lily was a whole different type of power that most would never imagine to exist. She had the power of confusion. She could make you think you were looking at something that doesn't exist. The most seasoned veteran who never gets fooled by anything could still fall to her ability.
The ability would adapt to the individual's mind it was attacking so no matter what it would cause confusion. She had been learning how to time her attacks to be shortly after using her ability to confuse. This made her exceptionally difficult to attack.
Sophia's power was known as "Life's Breath". The rejuvenation ability she has both rejuvenated herself as well as those she channels to. Her power is considered the best support to always have, she literally was a walking Focaine Kit for those around her.
She also hadn't informed even her best friends but she learned that her powers increased after climaxing. If she had pent up energy that needed to be released the release would increase the size of the green flow of energy that comes from her when she heals someone. The longer between climax would make her channeling weaker.
They had all done their first day of chamber torture as they would refer to it going forward. Then proceeded to the cafeteria where Master Chief Hood sat them down at a specific table then walked back out of the cafeteria telling them he would return shortly.
They were discussing the events of the day when Master Chief Hood came back with five other individuals. They approached the table and Master Chief Hood made the introductions.
"Ladies and gents these are your new squad mates from other MA's that we felt were SPRU material. Jiks, Hook, Flen, Surany and finally Outalomnonum or O" Hood slapped O on the back and the large Sandarian grunted.
"Alright well I will leave you guys to get to know each other and then we move out in one hour to continue your training." Hood stated while walking away from the table.
Andrei stood up and took the initiative, sticking his hand out "Private Andrei, nice to you" O snorted and shoved Andrei out of his way as he went to grab some food.
"Don't mind him, all Sandarians are anti-social" Surany came up to him. "I'm Private Surany, nice to meet you Andrei." The rest followed suit and everyone shook hands meeting each other by the time O returned.
Andrei gave his back story hoping they would indulge the group with theirs, when no one said anything for a minute Mini flat out asked "So what's your story Jiks?"
Jiks is an Elryn female with long white hair and the brightest green eyes biology could possess . She had grown up on a travelers spaceship which were commonly called pirate ships. Travelers not associated with the GF were called Pirates and Jiks had that upbringing. Jiks' Elemental Nature ability was extremely advanced as she learned it from traveling to planets with lots of unique nature. Sleeping, poison, and other neural toxins were a part of all of her attacks.
Hook's power was Transmorphication, and he was really good at it. Just in the time talking to each other he had simulated each of them precisely. The change from Andrei to Mini seemed like it was physically impossible. He explained Hook was what he transformed into with his hands the first time and his given name was Mark.
Flen was also a Tantan and had four elements similar to Edwin. Having two Tantan's in his group was going to be really helpful, Andrei thought. He figured this meant he was going to start making two of his long swords going forward for both of his Tantan. Flen however had Element Wind which was white in his hair and did not possess Water like Edwin. Flen's hair is white and red, one eye green and one eye yellow. Both Edwin and Flen would grow closer as the days went on.
Surany was just a human who grew up on a small populated planet called "Dreed". The MA was small but her scores were high enough to grab SPRU's attention. Surany's power was known as "Hawk Eye" and she could see through other creatures' eyes. She also could tame a beast and so far had not found the right one to her liking.
Andrei was intrigued to hear about someone else who had Tame Beast but figured there would be plenty of time later to discuss things. The whole group was getting along and Andrei wasn't trying to pull off someone to the side currently.
O did not talk much, he simply stated he was one month old, he could smash anything with his bare hands, and he had a unique tail which most spikes on Sandarian tales looked to be bone, his was transparent except the ends had red tips that had a neurotoxin that could paralyze most living creatures. The red tips were only on the spikes at the end of his tail but hearing that Andrei had an idea.
"Does it hurt to extract the venom?" Andrei inquired about the Sandarian.
"Ha hurt? Nothing hurts me! I am Sandarian and I fear nothing!" O boosted his voice with confidence to the question. "But I can paralyze myself if it punctures my skin or I ingest it for some reason."
"I only ask because what if we could put that on our weapons?" Andrei asked basically no one as none of them were expert forgers, not even Henry knew. O responded with "I'm the first to have this so who knows!" While shrugging his massive shoulders.
"My question is who is the leader?" Flen casually asked as he really wasn't sure who was considered the leader. Edwin hadn't really spoken much yet and he had the 25 next to his name. Seeing himself being looked at by the new guys Edwin casually responded with "Andrei is our leader don't know why he is a 22"
Master Chief Hood came up to the table and saw that they were all getting along. A smile crept on his face knowing that this was half the battle for most squads. A 15 man team was the standard SPRU unit and it appeared they finally got a good group.
"We are moving onto the next training." They followed the sergeant to the next session which was also back down below the cafeteria. They continued passed the chambers of torture and were lead into a small room with 15 helmets on the wall each with the individuals name on it.. The sergeant stood at the door with a smile. "Good luck!"
With that the door closed and a disembodied male voice said "All helmet must be secure before proceeding". Taking the cue the squad moved to their helmet and put it on. Each helping the others out so they would get it on quickly.
"Assume formation" the male voice sounded out.
On the floor were 15 circles in the standard 5 10 formation of the 15 man squad tactics. Andrei worked quickly and assigned everyone to a circle. The front 5 were from left to right, Edwin, Julia, O, Andrei, and then Flen. In the back row he had Lily, Hook, Mini, Sophia, Airwrecka, Jiks, Henry, Goombi, Surany and finally Poco and Loco.
The helmets created the AR environment and they were placed on a planet that was a desert. The sun was shining bright and there were mountains in the distance but only a few rocks and small plants were in view. They moved forward for sometime till they came across what can only be described as an infestation of giant ants.
Andrei looked at the group and remembered he had a surprise for Mini. He then opened his inventory in his head and placed Mini's Mini Mech out on the ground. Everyone had their own reaction to what they just saw but the females all had the same response, "Aww it's so cute!".
Mini's smile enveloped her face and she quickly jumped into her own mini mech that she didn't even realize Andrei had grabbed before they left that morning. Andrei then touched Poco's dagger so he could have two, Julia's Scimitar, he duplicated his longsword for Edwin, told Flen to open his hand and created one for him. Flen's eyes shot out of his head as he felt the energy surging and he noticed what the sword was doing. "Beast mode is infinite elemental attacks just concentrate on using the sword instead of your body" Andrei gave a quick overview.
Andrei checked out what the others had and wasn't sure if duplicating them or not would be helpful so he waited to see them in action or do it at a different time.
Above their heads appeared a message "Clear out the infestation" And the group looked at each other like wow we are going to be here for a while. Before anyone could say anything O shouted "LET'S GO HAVE SOME FUN!" As he charged in faster than any of them expected from the large Sandarian.
He went crashing in smashing his tail into the first "ant" he came across splitting it into two. "Haha NEXT" O would yell as he would split one at a time with his tail. Andrei yelled "Charge" and the rest followed suit and got back into formation once they caught up with O.
The utter chaos that ensued was one to behold. Controlled chaos if you only watched Death Squad. Mini had shot off into the air as soon as she had her mech and started bombing the perimeter.
Goombi and Henry decided they would protect Sophia as she was the healer and they didn't have much fighting skills to speak of, but they made a nice blockade around her as she moved.
Andrei had pulled out a "Sledgehammer of Fire" that also frightened the ants. Julia's scimitars were two flames constantly flowing hitting one limb to the next, chopping off any part that came near. Fluffy and friends were given the command to attack any and all and the three were going to town on the ants.
Poco and Loco were twinning and had their combo going, the beasts hissed when getting hit from their weapons.
Flen was in love with his new sword. He had a move called "Wind Tunnel" that was a powerful close combat spell for the element wind. This attack was causing him to giggle as the ants were being pushed back so far they would splat when they landed. He started aiming higher and higher seeing how high he could get one to fly.
Jiks was displaying all her attacks as ants would just fall over sound asleep, then while asleep she would poison them to where they would never wake up. The bodies started to pile up around Jiks until Flen noticed and did a "Wind Tunnel" to the big pile and shoved it back several yards. He continued back to what he was doing now that they all had some breathing room.
Hook realizing he wasn't what everyone else was fighting he joined the Sophia blockade with Henry and Goombi. The ants had enough intelligence to figure out she was healing any wounds that would appear on anyone and they were all starting to focus on her.
A group of five ants then formed a line and charged directly at Sophia and friends. Andrei caught the unique formation out of the corner of his eye and realized where they were charging. He dashed forward to meet them in between.
He met the first one with a "Thunder Bolt" to the head and it died instantly. He moved on to the next who was about to take a bite into him with its pincer and Andrei activated his shield. He had timed it perfectly to open just inside of the pincer to then expand and snap off the pincer. The beast, while not dead, stopped attacking and backed up in severe pain having lost its pincers.
Then Andrei remembered he had another arm with a weapon on it and he lined up the last three and fired a "Wind Pellet" that pierced all three heads of the ants causing them to fall.
Mini then landed next to the squad to let them know that there is an ant twice the size of the others that is barely outside of a cave entrance and seems to be in charge. She dropped bombs on it but didn't connect as it saw them coming and evaded the attacks while the rest in that area were torched.
Andrei looked at the small mech with an idea but wasn't sure if it would work. "Hey, can you carry me to the boss ant?" He inquired while looking up and down the mech.
"Let's find out" she responded while taking off and grabbing his shoulders. They slowly ascended and soon the two of them were seen traveling towards where the big ant was located. Andrei could see the thousands that were still left and knew he had to finish this quickly. Holding his longsword in flight he started dropping "Meteor" after "Meteor" which appeared to kill 5-10 of them at a time.
They were getting close to the area the big ant was last spotted and Andrei could see the impact crater from Mini's bomb from earlier. It took him a minute but once he spotted the larger ant he knew that he had to defeat it no matter what if it was ever going to end.
"Let go!" Andrei looked up at Mini inside of her mech and gave her a warm smile. He wanted to try something out and at worse he would be slightly injured if not then he had a new way to drop from high places.
His body started to accelerate towards the group and the height was much more than Andrei was first expecting the free fall to take. He was concentrating on the ground he was going to land on and he thought "Barrier" right above the ground and parallel. Andrei's body smashed into the barrier and was slowed to where his feet landed on the ground as if he stepped off a high chair.
He had put his sword away for the fall and upon landing summoned two "Ice Axes" and started chopping apart the ants around his landing.
He had notifications left and right but was ignoring them as he was busy fighting off the endless hordes. Andrei kept at it and made his way toward the last place he saw the big ant.
Andrei threw the "Ice Axes" at the head of two more ants and then cancelled them after chopping off the heads. He went back to his slingshot and with "Lightning Pellets" he made quick work of all the ants. There were a few ants still coming from the area of the big ant but it was far less and Andrei's slingshot was making quick short work of all of them.
Upon reaching the big ant it let out a massive shriek and ran off into the cave. Andrei was about to pursue when he realized the ground was shaking and it was coming from behind. All the ants were now coming to defend the boss ant.
Edwin was then dropped off next to Andrei and they both unleashed their channeled attacks. Edwin went with fire and Andrei noticed it didn't look like a dragon's head at all, in fact it just had a generic shape being sent out 10 yards. Andrei was thinking about "Dragon's Breath" and his longsword would shoot out the massive fireball attack that then appeared to be moving through the neck of the dragon's head coming from "Fireblast" finally then firing out of the mouth of dragon and hitting an ant beast instantly killing it.
"WOAH WOAH WOAH hold the fire!" O could be heard shouting, Edwin and Andrei finally stopped their attacks and saw that they had cleared them out. The area was wild looking and the amount of carnage was immense. A lone ant beast tried to sneak up on Jiks who, as casual as they came, snapped her fingers and a vine shot out of the ground, piercing the head of the ant and killing it.
"Alright, let's go find the big one!" Lily had excitedly stated. They all nodded their heads and as a squad moved towards the entrance of the cave. They entered the cave and as they got further and further the light started to dwindle and everyone pulled their weapons out and activated their glow. Flen saw Edwin and Andrei hold their longswords up and out and he followed the same motion just at the back of the group. Edwin had taken the lead having the massive indestructible tower shield.
They felt a rumbling and all of them stopped to check their surroundings and everything was still. They traveled for 30 minutes winding down further and further into this cave system. They had no idea how far they had gone but kept moving forward figuring they had to kill the big ant for them to finish.
They had been going down for the last 30 minutes but then it leveled out and air seemed to have a weird smell. They heard clacking sounds and a couple of them shuddered from their last VR experience that wasn't VR. The beat was different than before and didn't sound as powerful. Then the ground started moving and a beast that resembled a worm shot out of the ground. The worm had arms that lacked elbows but the worm would spin and the arms were razor sharp. It had multiple rows of teeth in its mouth and then what looked like its eye was inside of the mouth.
Andrei was the first to react and swung his longsword at it. The beast simply went back into the ground as fast as he had shot up and the swing was missed. A slight vibration was felt and then it popped up next to Mini in her Mech Armor. She might have been the smallest out of the group but the mech she had was serious. She had already produced a sword that was strapped to the back, most would call it a dagger but for her it was a sword. She didn't hesitate and decapitated the worm in one swing.
Then they felt more vibrations and more of these worm beasts started popping up including at their feet trying to eat their legs. Everyone was on guard and the Sophia blockade tightened their circle to make sure one couldn't sprout between her and them. That is when O decided to do something they didn't know was possible. He stomped the ground with all his might and the vibration that was sent out caused all the worms to leap out of the ground looking stunned.
Everyone took advantage of this moment and swung at the closest worms they could see and quickly they had defeated all the worms. They gathered their breath and composure and continued on towards the big ant.
When they came to the end of the road what they expected to see was just one big ant left, what they didn't expect to see were thousands more and different shapes and sizes unlike on the surface it was all one type of ant beast. The final area was in another drop off that had a massive cavern with all the ant beasts scurrying around.
They saw how massive of a drop it was and Andrei jumped off. Before anyone could react "One at a time jump down at the same spot as I just did." Andrei yelled back up to them. Sophia trusted him and jumped, surprised to suddenly slow down and land on her feet she looked at Andrei a bit confused.
It was too dark to see the barrier he was putting down which caused them to slow down when breaking/entering the barrier, just like he had done a bit ago dropping from a decent height while Mini was giving him a lift to the boss ant.
The group made it down and upon Edwin landing last they all got back into formation and headed towards the colony of ant beasts. O this time stayed with the rest as he wasn't sure how many or strong the ant beasts were down here. They all moved with a level of caution as if someone might jump up and eat them, the worms were still fresh in their minds.
Out of nowhere Goombi shouted and disappeared. No one saw what happened and quickly Andrei raised his longsword and lit the air with "Fireblast" and the surrounding area was lit. They then spotted Goombi's dead body being dragged back to the colony. It was a different type of beast dragging Goombi.
This beast was the size of a large dog but only in size. There was no fur, no scales, just an oily looking skin. Its head looks more like an elephant but the trunk was covered in suction cups like an octopus. It also did not have large ears, it didn't appear to have any. The legs were thick like an elephant but the beast couldn't be more than 200 pounds.
That is when they noticed that there were others of that beast type lurking around them at a distance. Their eyes reflected nothing which gave off an eerie feeling. They had lost Goombi but it was VR so they knew he was just now standing waiting for them to finish.
None of them had seen what happened to Goombi and seeing that he was taken from behind the group formed into a standard circle defensive position and started moving forward on Edwin's lead.
The beasts that had attacked Goombi seemed to have multiplied or now just more have entered the hunt but it went from a dozen of them to probably close to 50. They kept encircling the group and started making a weird whistle that made everyone a little squeamish for some reason.
The group pushed forward towards the boss ant with not one of the beasts engaging yet till the boss ant screeched again and all the beasts leapt at once at the group. The group was ready for it and defended the onslaught of attacks.
The formation they were in plus the strengths of everyone made quick work of the 3:1 ratio of beast to squad members. The boss ant didn't have anywhere to retreat to and everyone started attacking at range. Not knowing the power behind the boss ant's legs or pincers they continued to attack at range.
Meteors dropping on boss ant, lightning strikes, blast of fire, daggers flying in, mech bullets unloading, deadly poisons, and finally a "Wind Tunnel" from Flen just knocked it on its backside. Most of the legs and all the pincers were destroyed on the boss ant and it was flailing on its back unable to do anything. Andrei dropped a meteor on it and it stopped moving.
All the other ant beasts scurried away from the group and they were standing wondering why the simulation was still running. That is when another screech was heard and an even larger ant beast came out with more legs, bigger pincers, and had three heads.
Andrei was wondering if he just killed the queen or if this was the queen but one thing is for sure, this beast was coming right for them. "Disperse" Andrei yelled as he realized this beast was charging right into the middle of them.
The three heads all shot out a corrosive acid that landed on the copied Scimitar of Julia's and melted it away. The ones that saw took that as a sign to make sure to avoid the spit at all costs. What none of them had seen was that the acid had hit Henry in the chest and killed him, his lifeless body was now under the giant ant.
The group attacked the legs and made sure to pay attention to the heads. They continued to battle the giant three headed ant when Andrei figured out the attack pattern of the heads. They would rotate and spit one at a time in order. The first head went to spit and Andrei put up a barrier in front of its face and spit stopped a yard away from the ant's face in the air then fell to the ground. Andrei waited for the second head to show its tell and then again put the barrier right in front of its face.
Now that they weren't having to pay close attention to flying spit they were able to hit the joints of the legs easier and soon the giant ant was down to three working legs. It had increased its spit attacks but Andrei with his longsword could do this all day with the beast.
Then Edwin with his morning star out swung down on the closest head to him and lightning sparked everywhere after the connection. His morning star's beast ability was a lightning based stun attack, a brief stun but still would be helpful in all circumstances. His power in the swing though had severed the head off the body.
The beast frantically tried to back up but did not have the mobility anymore as two more of the legs had been removed and now the one was about to be by O with his bare hands. The beast was dragged a few feet from O trying to pull off the last leg and then it finally gave out. Edwin swung down on the second head and the third head let out a weak screech.
Edwin finished the third head and they found themselves back in the VR room with Henry and Goombi standing by the door watching what they did.
"Two casualties is unacceptable to the Death Squad. Each of you need to improve if you want to make the 60 days. Andrei I hold you, you are responsible for both of their deaths. Do better next time!" Master Chief Hood criticized them.
"Oh by the way you're the first day 1 squad to ever kill both the boss ants. So congratulations are in order but know that if it was real life you would now be burying Henry and Goombi." Master Chief Hood informed the group.
Those two were a concern for Andrei from the beginning. He then expressed his concern with Master Chief Hood, "Honestly sir the two of them would never go with us in a real situation, I want them because one is a mech pilot like Mini and the other is going to be forging our gear to epic proportions. What I'm trying to say is that in a normal situation they would have left at the entrance, portal, at the ship whatever."
Master Chief Hood contemplated what Andrei just said and gave him a warm smile. "You're right! We do need to get them combat ready for war. War can bring the battle to anywhere. We are soldiers and are typically put in positions that are compromised."
"Having said that, you are right, and as a leader you would be the one to make that call. You were told everyone had to participate but in reality you wouldn't put them in that danger." Master Chief Hood calmly said to Andrei.
"Just for perspective, 15 cycles of service and not one has killed both boss ants in the first 10 days, secondly for the first victory to only lose two soldiers is also unheard of. I will have to consult the records but at minimum you accomplished something no other group has for 15 cycles."
15 minutes was all they got to relax, regroup, and then move onto the next assignment. They had only done half a day so far and most of them were starting to feel the exhaustion.
Next they entered a pool of water that had a current created so that they could swim in place. The current started at a low speed and would continue to increase until everyone had been knocked out. One would get knocked out if they touched the back wall the current was trying to move them into.
Partway through Loco decided to test out his water breathing bubble technique and it made it easier for him to keep going. He then produced it around Surany's head as she appeared to be getting winded. She was shocked at first but then realized the oxygen was pure and was clearing her mind. She didn't have the breath but she gave Loco a warm smile.
Loco then produced the "Bubble Breath" on each of his teammates and they all received a boost of energy from the pure oxygen intake. They continued on and the pace stopped increasing and was now just a will to endure as long as possible for each of them.
Finally it stopped and Master Chief Hood was heard over a speaker. "Congratulations, you are the first group to finish the full 90 minutes on their first day. Let me ask what was the bubble that appeared on your head Loco then you gave to the rest?"
"Sir I figured out I could create a bubble that would remove oxygen from the water to fill the bubble constantly. It allows me to go underwater indefinitely. The feeling I got I figured everyone else needed the boost so I gave them each one." Loco gave a clear and concise answer that no one could argue with.
They were then taken back to the VR room without being able to dry off. They were told to put on their helmets as soon as possible and that the next test would begin.
They proceeded into the new simulation all exhausted and struggling to keep it together. Andrei could feel how tired he was and he knew this was only going to get harder. They hadn't even finished one day yet, and everyone was already showing signs of slowing down.
This time nothing to fight, just obstacles to get past. The wall of fire they had experienced before was used to keep them going as they came across different obstacles. The tight rope bridge that they came across O lost his footing and fell to a watery grave.
They had to scale a cliff and that is where Flen, Henry, Goombi, Surany and Edwin all fell to their virtual deaths. As they came to from their VR deaths they noticed that O was outside of the room but on a treadmill running. Apparently even in death they have to run!
The VR obstacle course continued and the last area would only be described as obstacles on steroids. There was a wall to walk along that barely let them put their feet onto the walkway. Then randomly the wall shot out and pushed anyone who was there into the simulated lava. If cleared then a series of handles hanging from the ceiling and one had to swing one hand at a time.
That led to a log that was rolling clockwise, then would switch directions quickly and unexpectedly. Lastly, a treadmill going down while being uphill.
No one made it to the treadmill hill. Andrei made it to the log but the change of direction ¾ of the way through caused him to lose his balance and fall into the lava.
"Well you guys aren't invincible after all!" Master Chief Hood stated with a laugh. What none of them expected was to be led to the chambers of torture and then it dawned on them that day 1 was in the books.