Rise of the Collosi Hunter

Welcome, Torran, to Nova 9, Kira said as they entered the reinforced doors.

Torran walked in behind Kira while examining the area. Everywhere he looked, soldiers moved with focus. Specialists passed in reinforced suits. Combat staff barked orders near the data walls.

They both stepped into one of the many elevators.

The elevator doors parted with a smooth hiss, revealing a row of rooms, with different numbers ranging from 1-10.

This is the cadet dorm, with each room housing a squad of 5 cadets.

You will be assigned to the first squad, and also as the leader, she said as she handed a card to him.

This is the cadet ID. It is used for verification in the base, and also acts as a key to your dorm. As she said this, she retreated into the elevator, with a slight nod at Torran.

Torran collected the card and pressed it into a machine beside dorm 1.

The machine chimed as a green light scanned it.

The dorm was quiet when he entered.

Five bunks. Five wall-mounted screens. One shared gear locker. Everything was spotless. Every corner lined up perfectly.

The other four were already there.

One of them, a tall guy with short dreadlocks, sat on his bed adjusting his boots. Another, smaller but sharper-eyed, was syncing her rifle at the locker wall. The remaining two were in conversation, focused.

All of them looked like they knew what they were doing.

All of them were gifted.

And still, when Torran entered, everything paused.

That's him, the one with 37 percent

Highest recruit sync record breaker. Torran didn't say anything. He just dropped his bag on the last bunk and sat down. His katana rested across his lap.

The cadets stood on a raised platform inside one of Nova 9's internal combat domes. Sim walls lined the chamber, programmed to shift terrain and lighting. A voice filled the space through their suit comms.

E-Class Colossus bots incoming. 

E-class from the start, as expected of the 3rd strongest warden base, its training is on another level, Torran thought.

Three bots stepped onto the field.

Each was ten feet tall, red-lit cores exposed in the chest. Their limbs were thick and armour-plated, movements smooth and mechanical. They moved like soldiers, not beasts.

The cadets didn't freeze.

One of them, Jace, charged in first, spinning his dual blades into a low arc that cut across one bot's knee. Another cadet moved to flank.

Torran kept his steps calm.

The third bot turned toward him.

He stepped into its path and blocked the incoming strike. The katana vibrated slightly from the impact, but he absorbed it and countered.

He slashed across the torso, watched the core pulse, then drove the blade forward.

Clean hit.

The machine staggered, lost balance, and dropped.

The bots fell within sixty seconds.

Trial complete, the voice said. 

They returned to formation.

Difficulty increased, the voice said again.

10 F-class bots and 5 E-class bots.

F-Class bots stormed out first. Ten of them. Each one modelled after small Colossus variants, twelve feet tall, stone-like bodies, glowing red cores, and no facial features. They moved in a staggered formation, but fast. 

Riva fired first, a clean shot through the first bot's core exploded on impact. Torran moved fast, slipping low under a sweeping arm, slicing diagonally upward, his katana cut straight through. Jace blurred forward, leaping off one bot's knee, stabbing down with both blades, then backflipping as sparks sprayed into the air. Lian met a charging bot head-on, slamming his hammer into the floor, and a shockwave burst upward, flipping two bots off balance. Korr kept her fire constant, covering the squad's blind spots with calm bursts of core-infused rounds.

In less than forty seconds, eight bots dropped, shattered cores and twitching limbs vanishing into simulation static.

Five E-Class bots stepped out. Heavier. Taller, fifteen feet with layered plating, and reinforced cores that glowed brighter than the rest.

They didn't rush.

They moved like they were reading the cadets, measured, calculated, and deliberate.

Careful now, although they are like the E-class bots we faced previously, they look stronger, Lian muttered.

Riva fired, but the first E-Class raised its arm, deflecting the arrow with a flash of shielding.

The bots split into two flanks.

Torran and Korr peeled left, engaging the closest one. Torran dashed in first, forcing it to commit to a frontal strike. Korr lined up a charged shot while it turned, then blasted straight into the joint near the core. Torran took the opening and stabbed clean through.

One down.

To the right, Lian held the line, absorbing the pressure of two E-Class bots with wide swings and shock pulses that staggered their approach. Jace darted around him, using every opening to carve into weak spots.

One bot grabbed Jace mid-dash, nearly crushed him. But Riva landed a clean shot to the arm joint, forcing it to drop him. Jace recovered, slashed across the core casing, and Lian smashed it open.

Two more down.

The final two E-Class moved fast now. Torran met one head-on. The clash sent tremors through the floor. Sparks flew as katana met reinforced limbs. He ducked a brutal overhead strike, slid under the bot's guard, and cut twice across the lower core plates.

Shift now, Korr shouted, landing a precision shot to the exposed weak point.

The final bot came barreling through the centre, pushing past static and wreckage.

It leapt.

Lian stepped forward and slammed the ground.

Boom.

The shockwave threw the bot sideways, straight into Jace, who spun mid-air and drove both blades in.

The bot twitched, core exposed.

Torran finished it with a straight thrust, no wasted motion.

The bot's core cracked, pulsed once, and faded.

Trial complete.

The red lights dimmed.

Sweat ran down their necks under their suits. Breaths came heavier now.

This was only a simulation, but they were getting stronger.