Only having the possibility of life Royce decided to change his plan a little bit for there to be a reincarnated generally somebody had to die. And since he would really prefer to meet the reincarnated and not be the reincarnated he picked up the necessary supplies. Supplies? Maybe potential hosts would be better. 12 of them All on the edge of death be it illness, injury, or suicide. And his facilities on the ship were capable of keeping them on that edge for quite some time. he compensated any family loved ones or authorities necessary. Even considering his plan was to leave two on that edge for 2 years and then switch them out everything was technically on the up and up.
And it's not like his intentions were without reason the Terran federation in an effort to disprove reincarnates didn't in-depth study and research going back hundreds of years. In turn proving themselves wrong they identified several points where it was likely a reincarnation occurred, And always under similar circumstances suicide fatal injury or horrific disease unless reborn. Meant to him. One of those 12 on the edge is about to be the new reincarnated.
A light beep on the VR monitor notifying him his sister completed in the top 5% and began the startup for level 6. touching the intercom button on the monitor "kid you do remember me saying that that is a survival test your ship starts wounded and so do you."
Beep "You said you got it on your first try and as much of a wussy as you are I definitely will" Beep
"The pain simulators are no joke Don't say I didn't warn you." Pausing for a second. "But if you do I'll take back what I was just thinking and I will definitely let you bring the ship into orbit but only if you do it on your first try." So leaning forward and tapping the approval button for the simulator level 6 he looked over and watched as the system initiated by sending an enemy projectile through her ship causing shrapnel to make a wound in her abdomen. Her physical body jolted as the simulated pain occurred. So he decided to watch and see how she'd do.
Only certain things happen like clockwork in these simulations in Fighter pilot level 6's case. immediately at start an enemy projectile pierces the cockpit and a piece of shrapnel pierces the stomach of the pilot causing near critical damage. The enemy that shoots you registers as killed by ally AI. You are then ordered to fight till your death or retreat and survive if your ship can make it. Some people lose consciousness in the simulation immediately and fail seeing as how she didn't this might be interesting. He smiled and clicked the audio.
Auto repairs go off and the atmosphere leak is stopped by 90%. With one hand on the controls and the other administering a med syringe to her wound. there was a very audible grunt and wince. Just glancing over you could see the sweat running down her face on her physical body.
pulling out a tube of patch gel and killing her thrusters for a moment in drift releasing the gel next to the hole in the cockpit The atmosphere leak pulling it right to where it's needed sealing the leak. re-engaging her thrusters and taking up defensive positions near allies she begins angling towards a command ship to attempt repairs. While assessing the ship status screen.
Hull : 80%
Control: 70%
Thrusters: 70%
Weapons: 50%
Tracking: 30%
Atmosphere: 98% at 1 hour 48 minutes
Power: 60%
DOCK FOR REPAIRS! (in flashing yellow)
"Almost completely fucked" said a young feminine voice from the screen speaker.
Royce could only smile as she really had no idea what she was actually in for.
Her tactics seemed to be working great up until the halfway point when the command ship took fatal damage and exploded.
Now angling towards the remaining two command ships continuing to evade enemy fighters. Having to fire by line of sight and keep track of a large scale battlefield mostly by sight. She was at a severe disadvantage. Enemies would be well within range before her tracking system picked them up.
But after several near misses and a couple of near not misses. She landed in the command ship hanger. immediately exiting the damaged ship and sprinting toward a ready unmanned fighter identical to the one she just exited. But it was at this time she caught one of the system reoccurrences when changing fighters there's an 80% chance the pilot will take another unexpected wound. A large blast then struck the ground behind her and sent her flying towards the fighter she was sprinting to and bouncing her off the cockpit canopy. With blood running down the side of her face and likely a broken rib she picked herself up and climbed into the fighter.
with what appeared to be practiced precision she fired up the ship and engaged the thrusters to full pulling away from the command ship just as it exploded luckily receiving no damage to her new fighter But still bouncing her around in the cockpit reminding her of all her injuries.
Having been piloting in the simulation for almost an hour it was at this point when the final reoccurrence of the simulation started as the testee would be targeted by several advanced AI.
The system would initiate the AI with two ships, then three, then four. Normally the three wouldn't come out until the first two were destroyed or until the last 10 minutes of the test and the four wouldn't come out until the last three were destroyed or during the last 8 minutes of the test. But that only starts after you've been fighting for an hour and 45 minutes wounded.
Royce found himself sitting on the edge of his seat and thinking that if she didn't manage to pass level 6 this time she definitely would when she repeated it.
But there's no time to speculate, She was already engaged with two AI. The ship she was in was supposed to be naturally faster than the enemies but the enemies weapons caused more damage while it appeared they were dog fighting the enemy ships kept getting closer and just as the AI tracking locked onto her vessel She released several decoy drones and two missiles with their engines disconnected and then manually detonated them as the enemy flew past destroying both vessels.
Knowing her options were limited She did this and immediately went to full speed hoping to catch up to a group of ally AI before the next set found her.
Still too far away to expect help from Ally AI. The next three appeared on her tracking. pulling her vessel hard and turning directly into One of the oncoming enemy AI. She began firing her blasters and several missiles while only using line of sight but still trying to gain a lock. Royce couldn't tell whether it was sheer luck or perfect timing but she achieved lock just as her blasters struck, and the enemy veered directly into an oncoming missile that hadn't locked. performing a high G-Force U-turn She attempted to repeat the same approach but at two oncoming enemies.
While firing her blasters and still trying to achieve a lock on one of the two approaching enemies she began releasing several small missiles without engaging their engines continually dodging the enemies fire. not getting a lock but managing only to get scraped a few times herself, She flew right between the two enemies and began detonating the missiles that were trailing behind her catching both of them. Already facing the right direction pushing your thrusters to maximum again hoping to get to the group of Ally AI before the enemy got to her.
hopes begin to sink as the dog fight ahead of her went from 10 fighters to 6 in the enemy's favor. Unless She could quickly even the odds She was currently flying towards disaster. achieving a long-range lock on and firing several missiles And before those missiles were even halfway toward their target going for another lock on the remaining three enemy AI water blasters run on rapid fire. in less than 30 seconds the odds were even in the distance but only for a moment, as four more enemy AI entered her HUD.
Still holding her course at maximum velocity She locked onto one of the two previous AI and fired missiles and immediately angle towards the remaining AI for advanced units on a intercept course and using her own tactics against the friendly AI trying to eliminate any assistance she might receive.
While the missiles failed to take down their target the blasters did not, unable to maneuver out of her path of fire she destroyed one of the AI and the two friendlies managed to take down the one that dodged the missiles but not without one of them catching fire from the four incoming advanced AI.
Three against four was a lot better odds even if one of her friends was limping. engaging maneuvers that would draw a fire from the already damaged friendly giving it a chance to continue firing while maneuvering into a more defensive position. The four AI flying in formation straight towards her firing their blasters attempting to achieve lock while she did the same barely avoiding their blaster fire. The outside two peeled away probably going to try to get behind them. Lock on was acknowledged and she immediately fired missiles.
That's when she discovered they weren't standard fighters the remaining fighter charging towards her didn't veer off instead it activated a wing blade ramming system. banking her fighter at the last minute but not realizing she wasn't the target the enemy AI plowed through the damaged friendly slicing the ship almost in half. Taking aim at one of the fighters that were attempting circle around both the advanced AI were firing at her. Advertising that they too had the blade wing system head on blaster attacks to the wings would do no damage when charging head to head a direct hit would be the only way to damage them.
After I head to head charge that seemed like it was occurring in slow motion. She just barely avoided collision with the enemies deadly wings. again with a precision that looked like it had been practiced for years she applied reverse thrusters back flipping her fighter and firing several blaster shots into the enemy thrusters. which was more than long enough for the enemy AI not being occupied by her ally to make a near direct hit causing her to lose tracking bringing her available power down to 50% and atmosphere to begin venting. at the same time while being chased by the advanced AI the remaining friendly lined up and practically charged her pulling out of the way at the last second she was able to unload blasters into the face of the second to last advanced AI enemy.
Knowing that the chances of passing this test had been dropped to Nill. Evasion became paramount but her fingers never left the trigger. The final advanced AI was forced to focus on evasion as well, as the remaining friendly AI focused its firepower on it too. despite the damage to her ship she managed to put three blaster shots directly into the AI cockpit.
She destroyed the final ship at 1 hour and 58 minutes and completed the 2 hour survival test.