Chapter 11

Waking up early, Trace quickly discovered that there was an announcement from Captain Raymond.

"Every Tuesday and Thursday, we will have a team simulated battle! I'm disgraced by yesterday's mess! Dismissed."

After finishing food, Trace quickly discovered… he didn't know what to do with his free time. He could call home, but who would he call?

And then he remembered.

"The simulator had an option for single person combat, right?"

After experiencing how quickly things moved in that fight, Trace realized he needed some sort of experience.

Walking to the simulator room, Trace was quickly approved for sim pod use, and walked towards the pod. Looking toward the single person ranking board, he noticed someone named "Sam" on the first place spot.

"Sam huh? I'm gonna beat that guy, and show my squad and every other squad that I'm not worthless. But first, I need to actually have something to back up my words. So to the sim it is!"

Setting it for a random combat environment, he entered the pod and descended into virtual reality…

When he reopened his eyes, he was standing in some sort of military complex with concrete walls. In front of him was a window-like opening in the walk overlooking a courtyard.

Looking around, Trace noticed there was nothing in the room except for an older model of laser rifle. Picking it up and walking through the plain concrete doorway, he was met with what seemed like a maze of hallways, each looking exactly the same as the next.

Suddenly, a timer popped up in the top right of his HUD. It was set for one hour, and already counting down.

"Am I meant to explore this place and find the best place for a defense in that time?"

Picking a random hallway, Trace started jogging down it, mentally mapping it. Left, straight, left again, right…

Before he knew it, he was back where he started. Trace had left no hall unexplored, and had come to one deduction: there was no way in or out.

"If there's no way for them to get in, that means they'll likely choose to breach one of the walls. Only question is, which one?"

He immediately ruled out half of the hallways, as they weren't along the outermost areas. He ruled out the furthest hallways next, then the longer routes. That left him with only two probable breaching areas for them to come from. One straight ahead of the room where he started, and one to the left.

"Problem is, if they breach from the ceiling I'll be done for…"

Noticing he still had ten minutes remaining, Trace stripped the rifle down and cleaned it. It made no difference to the effect of the rifle, but it helped calm Trace's nerves. Building or disassembling had always had that effect on him.

When there was only 30 seconds remaining, Trace reassembled the rifle and leaned to look down the rifle sights, aiming down the middle hallway.

BOOOOM!

Suddenly, an explosion blew a hole in the wall open. As Trace squinted in an attempt to see through the smoke, he could vaguely make out metallic red colored marine suits pouring into the hallway…