Training: Part Two

Once everybody was ready to begin their war training, Flurry led them to the simulators and they got inside. After powering up, they took in a warning from Flurry before starting the simulation.

"This training will be harder than your previous sessions. It is likely that you will have more failed missions during this. I know this because it happened to me and anyone else who went through this training. I will be in a simulator myself to keep an eye on each of you."

Having acknowledged the heads-up, everyone started by learning how to properly open their wings.

"Lock S-Foils in attack position.", Flurry instructed after everyone had spotted the switch that opened and closed their wings.

As the wings opened in the simulation, all of the trainees watched an LCD that displayed their ship's orientation and status. They also saw an indication of their wings' position. When the wings were fully opened, the position on the LCD changed to indicate that the wings were in attack position. After everyone had opened their wings, they followed Flurry's ship to a target range where they had to shoot a certain number within a time limit. This would have been easy, but they had to watch for each other's laser blasts in order to avoid being shot down as they were flying. The flight portion of this was easy for Skye, just like the previous portion of the training, but the addition of weapons made this a lot trickier for her. Nevertheless, she caught on quickly and everyone finished the target shooting before the time ran out.

"Good work, everyone. Now it's time to focus on moving targets. In the next phase of this, you will be shooting at enemy ships. Also, this will be a team effort. So, you will be helping each other to avoid getting shot down.", Flurry explained as the screens flashed up the words: "Mission Complete".

When the next simulation started, they were already in space and their wings were open. This mission involved watching radar more frequently and communicating with each other. Once they had armed their weapons, they started getting enemy readings on their radar. They opened fire in a flash to take out the enemies, but this simulation was more intricate than they anticipated. The enemies were quick to avoid their attacks and they even shot back. Some of the enemy fighters snuck up and tried to shoot them down from behind. Minnie and Ryder were the first to notice this.

"Skye, watch out. You've got one on your tail.", Ryder called out.

"Mickey, I've got one chasing me.", Minnie called out.

"Copy that, Minnie. I'm coming to help you out.", Mickey replied.

Skye desperately tried to get away from the fighter that was behind her, but she was having little to no success. At one point, her shields were lowered to 50% before Ryder managed to alert Chase that Skye was in trouble. Chase rushed over and shot down the enemy. Mickey distracted the fighter who was pursuing Minnie, and then dropped a bomb to take it out. The first battle simulation was one of several that had to be completed before they were deemed ready, and it only took two days to complete. It took place in open space to make it easy, but the others would have obstacles that had to be dodged so no-one would crash.

These simulations took a whole week to complete without any flaws because many of the trainees ran into obstacles while evading the enemies or they'd be shot down before their shields were recharged. They also fell victim to each other's E M P's due to being too close. However, they learned from their mistakes and soon passed all of the simulations with flying colors.

"Congratulations everyone. You are now ready for battle in space. It is now time to train you for hand-in-hand combat.", said Flurry as everyone got out of their simulator chambers.