Chapter Thirteen:

Beta Quadrant, Sector 187, Pyillos, Archer, Sara Nubran Lunar Base

May 19, 7215

Brandon awoke still in the Training Pod. The now familiar pinching in his man parts and the probe up his ass was a dead giveaway, even if the black void around him told him nothing else. A minute after he began to move the pod detected his awoken status and played a recorded video.

Lord Knight Andrew Nubran’s creased uncaring face appeared in the front of Brandon.

“Well that is it for basic training you Rixxing Lot. Now its time for you to be assigned to units and the real work will begin. Knights you have been ranked in order of your performance and will be allowed to choose your teams in order of rank. No that is not fair. Yes that does mean the best Knight will get to choose the best team. Yes it does mean that you rixers that can’t deal will die.”

The cold man’s face showed a hint of a smile for a second as he let that hang in the air, “There are 20 units to be formed from you lot. Each Knight will have exactly 6 hours apiece to review the remaining Jocks and Available Titans. At the end of that time, if they have not made their full selection they will forfeit the right to choose a platoon and will be demoted to Sub-Knight. Any Jock not assigned to a unit in 5 days will be reassigned or executed. Depending on how I feel that day.”

Without a word, the screen went blank leaving Brandon in complete blackness again.

Nearly panicking Brandon gasped past the tube in his throat, “Oh fuck! How long was I out?”

The pod did not light up or respond. With growing concern, Brandon initiated the ejection procedure.

Still on wobbly legs, Brandon made it back to the White room in less than 10 minutes. Most of the room’s cells were up showing that the Jocks who stayed in them were already present. Returning to his cell Brandon waited the tense minute for the wall to form around him.

“Time.” He commanded.

A display appeared on the white wall.

May 19 7215: 14:18

Brandon stared at the glowing numbers as if they would give him answers. After the digits flipped over, he shook himself from his bafflement.

“Chair, desk, interface.” He commanded the room.

Thirty seconds later the furniture formed from the white flowing nanites. Sitting down he tapped on the interfaces display and growled.

Knight Rankings

Week 4.

Selection Begins: May 19 7215: 00:00

Eldritch Starslinger Highlander Pluto Solarice Marvel Cyclopes Boxxy Arimmel Captain DD Ice Queen Scarlett Gunslinger Goose Doorman B Goblin Misty Red Mist Kickass

Glancing over the listt the first thing he noticed was out of the 20 Platoon leaders, he was ranked third. The next thing he discovered was that the selection process started at zero hundred on the 19th. That meant it was already two hours into his selection period.

Not wasting time on dwelling over broken eggs, he set to the task of searching through the roster.

With a few flicks of the screen, Brandon pulled up the complete rankings in order of accumulated points. To his horror, nearly a quarter of the 80 Jocks had points marked in the negatives. That meant that during the ranked qualifying scenarios they failed to defend the city and the civilians. Or, perhaps they simply had bad Commanders who got them killed early on in the fights. Regardless, the future for these men and women did not look good.

Doing some quick math Brandon discovered there was 52 remaining Jocks in the roster and he had roughly 4 hours to choose his team. That gave him about 4 minutes to browse through each cadet’s report. Then he would have a couple extra minutes to finalize his team. Hunching over closer to the screen he set to work.

with about 10 minutes remaining in his alloted time, Brandon sighed and closed out the last roster and field report. The files were erringly extensive. Considering that these people had technically only been alive for a few weeks the data contained inside was immense. The reports not only had current records including video replays captured during the simulations, full skill read outs, stat allotments, and debt analysis, they even contained a brief summary of the Earth simulation the brain was exposed to. This brief overview gave a personality profile. Family history, a brief life recap, and highlighted key moments.

Brandon was unsure if he should laugh or cry when the last Jocks Earth simulation highlight listed him as graduating high school and being drafted into the armed forces. The date stamp on the record was less than a month before the end of the kid’s simulated life. Unsurprisingly he had a very limited set of skills and was doing very poorly in the training thus far. Trying not to dwell on the kid’s likely outcome, he started his selection process.

His first choice was going to be Fireball but one of the two previous Pack Leaders had apparently taken her. Instead he selected Natalia Osvlik aka Ghost. He had the fortune of getting her on both the first and sixth run of the simulation. Both times, she had handled herself exceptionally. Plus the Blondie woman was someone he knew even if just a little.

To fill out his third slot he selected Mama Pulrivi aka Buzzsaw. The man was a raciest ass but he could pilot a Titan like a madman. Brandon just hoped the man’s abrasive personality and disdain for anyone not darker than milk chocolate wouldn’t affect his overall battlefield performance; after all, you do not have to like someone to know they will watch your back when the shit goes sideways.

Brandon’s last selection was a gem that he had not had the pleasure of ever meeting in the simulations. Lorena Acosta aka Valkyrie was a Brazilian native before World War II made the nation mostly a glowing crater. She was skilled in Light Titan piloting, Ballistic weapons, and had even managed to earn her Aerospace pilot credentials during the training simulations.

Glancing up at the time Brandon saw he had 4 minutes left in his selection window. With one last quick scan through his team, he confirmed his selection. As his new team’s names vanished from the list of available Jocks, followed a second later by a notice stating his unit assignment; Brandon Sighed.

Leaning back into his chair, Brandon felt the overpowering wave of exhaustion hit him again. Then a new screen appeared upon the interface causing him to sit bolt upright.

“Titan Requisition For Charley Team” sat bold at the top of the screen. Below it was a list of currently available Titans. Attached to each machine was a surprisingly detailed status sheet. Each Titan had make, model, production date, and an annoying long detailed history of the Titan’s history.

Glancing at the time Brandon only had two minutes to make his selection. Fortunately, most of the Titans were the same general designs. First he organized the list by tonnage and then by Design, and finally by production date. Moving down the list, he groaned, out of the over 200 Titans listed only 5 were not Ultra-light chassis, and those 5 were all Executer. It seemed the Lord Knight did not want to give anything special to the Vat born Jocks. Looking at the options he had Brandon settled on the least beat up Executer, a brand new Fire Ant, a Squirrel that had just been purchased from out of system, and an Apache slated to be walking off the line in 12 hours. In all this gave his unit mostly new Titans, with the exception of the Executer, which he was going to claim. That beast had seen two previous Titan Jocks Both of whom were now listed as KIA, leaving Brandon with a pit of worry in his stomach.

Selection made he hit confirm and sent the request seconds before his turn ended. With baited breath, Brandon waited watching the clock.

3 minutes after the hour, Brandon got a notification approving the Titan assignments he requested. He glanced over the final assignment.

Charley Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Jock Trainning Battalion.

Pack Assignments.

Knight Brandon McDew “Highlander” – Executer PL-RN-189Q564SL

Jr Knight Natalia Osvlik “Ghost” – Squirrel UVS-008792438651

Jr Knight Mama Pulrivi “Buzzsaw” – Apache PL-AP-002B5879

Jr Knight Lorena Acosta “Valkyrie” – Fireant UNS003489751628

With a massive exhale, he let out the breath he had not realized he was holding. Leaning forward Brandon put his head on the desk in front of him. The cool faux metal of the nanite desk felt amazing on his pounding headache.

After a couple minuts of justt sitting there, Brandon sat up.

“Bed,” he ordered.

A mere two minutes later he had stripped and lay on his bed to get some much needed rest.