The physical exercise

After sleeping for a very long time, Alpha was awakened by the vibration of his badge which was flashing, indicating that there was an unread message on it, tapping the badge the blue screen that usually bears a message appeared with a message.

[Attention to all pilots, since all of you are done with your first missions and have received an adequate amount of sleep, report to training room zeta for physical exercise and evaluation. (1min ago)]

"Oh, there a time stamp, good to know." He said as he bathed, changed his uniform and went to training room zeta.Envision an interstellar training room as a cutting-edge facility designed to hone the skills of cosmic explorers and interstellar operatives. The room is expansive, with walls lined by adaptive holographic displays that can simulate diverse cosmic environments, from alien landscapes to zero-gravity scenarios.

Advanced robotic training partners, equipped with adaptive AI, engage pilots in intricate combat simulations or cosmic navigation challenges. The floor is a responsive surface that can replicate the feel of different planetary terrains, adjusting its texture and resistance to mimic the challenges of varied celestial bodies.

Cosmic technology interfaces seamlessly with the pilots, providing real-time feedback on their performance. Energy shields, simulated cosmic storms, and holographic enemies add layers of complexity to the training scenarios, ensuring that individuals are prepared for the unpredictable nature of interstellar exploration.

The interstellar training room becomes a dynamic playground where cosmic skills are honed, and adaptability is key. It's a space where the challenges of the cosmos are simulated, preparing cosmic explorers for the unknown with cutting-edge technology and immersive experiences. Such was training room zeta.

Stepping through the door to the training room he could see that he was the last person to arrive. He quickly went to join the lineup of pilots as a military instructor started to breif them on today's training exercise. "Ok so now that everyone is here, here is how training is going to be, you will all will be simulated into a random terrain together, no matter what terrain you land on, it will have been overrun by bugs, but don't disregard the terrain as it can help you in battle. Further breifing will be giving when you are transported." With that he left the room as the whole room began to transform into a random terrain. The terrain they were sent to was quite ordinary, they were sent to an area covered in thick vegetation, they enemies of the day? Giant man eating grasshoppers. The group were in the uncustomized version of their nanotech armour, not that alpha customized his anyway, and there were two different item attachments they noticed as well. "So now for the real breifing, every single pilot here has a Lazer pistol attachment on their suits with a battery that can allow for a total of 100 shots before drying out. In this exercise we are going to test your accuracy in a pressure driven environment, you'll see what I mean in a minute, also, just to motivate some of you, your suit will be updated with the pistol attachment when the training exercise is over, the bad news about that good news is, and I cannot stress enough how this was not my idea, but basically your Lazer pistol will be customized to only accept batteries that can handle how many shots you were able to land so for those unlucky enough to land only ten or twenty shots, you'll waste more resources upgrading your pistols energy capacitors. Then the second part of the test comes in, after you run out of battery power, the next course of action is to your sword attachments, the sword you get is a normal sword with no upgrades whatsoever and you are also, to kill as many bugs as you can with that. (for context, the sword is a big double bladed sword that can be customized in different colors but is currently silver.) Oh I forgot to mention but you get the sword after the exercise is over, no upgrades, Good luck." The military instructor said as he addressed the pilots as a holographic projection of himself. He soon disappeared as all around the pilots could see multiple giant grasshoppers moving around, they were not able to judge the speed of the bugs until one of them hopped towards the pilots, it was faster than the pilots could draw their pistols and it managed to tag out a person before she even pulled out her pistol. Another pilot drew her pistol faster than the rest after the bug landed and shot it, earning herself a free kill. The rest drew out their pistols as the bugs started jumping around from all directions, some were being shot in the air, some were shot before they could jump, some got shot after they landed, there were a lot of the bugs and soon pilots started running out of ammo and switching to pistols, due to how fast the creatures were moving not a single person landed all their shots, the highest amount of shots in this exercise was 90 and it was from the girl who fired first. Alpha had done well managing to land a total of sixty shots before running out of battery power and switching to his sword. That is where the problem came to be, evidently, the grasshoppers were faster, stronger and tougher than the human beings and the nanotech armour in this case was acting like a piece of clothing and not at all like armour as it was providing zero protection in terms of defense to the pilots. The second part of the exercise ended quickly as the best person in the group was a different girl who had been quick on her feet and had managed to kill 75 grasshoppers before dying in the simulation, alpha came in as the third best in class as the first two spots were taking by female and the spots all the way to tenth place that followed after were also female, that was overall.

As everyone in the simulation died, they were all brought back into the training room as it transformed back to normal. (The training room would transform into the terrain, at which point the people inside would be replaced by their avatars, when they die they return back to their bodies and act as invisible spectators until the whole thing is over.) "You did well you guys, get some rest, were meet back here in an hour to do more training. It might have seemed like minutes in there but you guys wasted hours here, good luck, see you in an hour." The instructor said.