Together

Chapter 26 ★ Amy

My alarm starts blaring at its usual time of 0530.

"Get up," says Petra flatly before falling into her bed. She used to scream at us, because we always found it funny later, but she is getting more and more exhausted, just like we are. Her hours are worse; she has to be awake from 1200 hours to right when she wakes us up. They give her an entire day off once a week though. She mostly uses it for sleeping.

Today is the day I take my Deep Space Navigation test. We get the weekend off after this test, and we're all excited. I jog down to the gym for morning exercise. It's registered as a class, but its typically just free gym time.

★★★

I climb the rock wall and the rope, as well as do push ups, sit ups, pull ups and run a few laps. Everything Ender did to warm us up for a battle.

★★★

When​ I come into breakfast, Tom, Hot Soup, Bean and all of the other toon leaders are there as well. Including Petra, who looks especially unhappy about being conscious. Wolf left the gym before me, and I see her happily talking to Bean. Tom waves me over to their table, and I take a seat between Petra and Sam, who somehow got here before I did.

"Long time, no see Amykins," says Tom.

"Long time," I reply coolly. "And if you ever call me Amykins again, I'll strangle you using your optic nerves."

"Ohhhhhhhh," everyone choruses.

"Haven't heard you make a threat before, Amy," exclaims Hot Soup.

"She's finally beginning to take after her mentor," Petra chimes proudly, puffing up her chest.

"Don't be alarmed. I'm sorry. I would say I'm tired, but you lot have more of a claim to that word than I do," I sigh. Dink nods solemnly.

★★★

When we walk into the simulator there is a seating chart onscreen. Sam and Lou are at opposite ends of the room. I sit close to the command platform on the right hand side. Allie is in the front row and Wolf is in the middle of a row on the left side. We take our seats and watch the other recruits file in.

As soon as the last person takes their seat instructions pop up on our piloting screens. The test is to attack an enemy formation with only one fighter. Each person is taking the same test, but we can't work together. The enemy outnumbers me one thousand to one.

The battle takes place in an asteroid belt. I have a normal laser gun and a one charge particle separator. Small flashing lights appear at the corners of my screen. Formics.

There's a particularly large asteroid to my right. I glide over and land in a crater. My asteroid catapults through some Formics, killing several. They seem...... confused? They must not be able to find me. There are no particularly large ships. I have to take them out slowly.

My screen shows half of them clumped together and the other half patrolling the belt. My Little Doctor only has one charge. I can take out half of them and fend for myself with the others, or wait until they get closer....

Wait. I'm in an asteroid belt! Asteroids have matter! I quickly calculate the distance of the swarm and the nearest asteroid. Five meters. Close enough. I check the other formics. All are close enough to the asteroids. So many numbers...

There. The central asteroid. I gently lift off and fly slowly towards the asteroid. I duck and cling to other astroids to avoid being spotted. I reach firing range. A Formic saw me. Three Formics start towards me, but they don't make it far. I take aim at the asteroid and fire Doctor Device. A chain flashes, branching out to all surrounding asteroids. And Formics. I watch as a thousand Formics crumble to dust, along with the entire belt and my ship.

SIMULATION OVER.
STATUS: TO BE DETERMINED

I look around and see those to my left frantically fighting off hundreds of Formics with their laser guns. Some have silent tears as the words SIMULATION OVER flash across their screen followed by STATUS: FAIL.