Simulation Training.

(I messed up. Fenrir is not a Lord Class Rapture, he is a Tyrant Class Rapture. A level above Lord. WHOOPS)

Once Kratos had his gear ready, he immediately took his squad to the Simulation Room. The room in question was one of the greatest inventions of the Central Government in alliance with the three great companies, Elyson, Missils, and Tetra. 

The room was used to train new Commanders and Nikkes, but it was known for being so intense some weaker-willed Commanders had died. To Kratos though, those were the weak who died to mere training. 

When he arrived at the Simulation Room and entered inside, they were met by Einkk. Einkk looked to be a green-haired elf girl, but in reality, she was an Artificial Intelligence given form like a Nikke. She was also Enikk's Sister the AI in charge of the Ark itself. 

However, the two had never met. She oversaw the Simulation Room and happened to be famous for being quite friendly with everyone she met. When she saw Kratos in full gear, her eyes seemed to glow. 

She jumped down from her floating circle thing and walked up to him. She walked around him checking out his gear in curiosity. Sin, Guilty, Quency, and Scathach were all stuck staring as she kept spinning around him. 

(Image)

"COOL! How does it work? And why are you wearing that armor? You are a man, right? I thought only Nikkes could fight, so why are you carrying that giant gun? How are you carrying a gun meant for a Nikke? Are you a male Nikke? No, The goddess Nike was female, you would be more like a Cratos wouldn't you?" 

Guilty turned to Kratos with a sigh. 

"And I thought Quency was annoying." 

Tick marks appeared on Quency's brow. 

"Excuse me?" 

Guilty blinked slowly and smiled. 

"I said what I said." 

Sin sighed and covered her right eye with her hand. 

"Commander give me patience with these two." 

As for Scathach she merely stayed out of that mess. Kratos reached up and removed his helmet. 

"Nice to meet you Einkk. I heard quite a bit of your personality and seems I heard right. To answer your question, I am not a Nikke, more like an experimental Cyborg. As for the Cratos part, my name is actually Kratos with a K, not C. And yes, I get the corollation." 

Einkk smiled. 

"I see. I take you want to use the Simulation Room?" 

He nodded. 

"Yes, I have two months to get my squad battle ready so I plan to use that time." 

"What kind of Simulation would you like to run?" 

"Rapture Hoard led by Lord Class Rapture." 

Einkk covered her mouth. 

"So soon? It's a simulation, but you will think it's real. You could die?" 

He just grinned. 

"It's fine, if we can't even deal with a simulation how are we supposed to deal with the real thing." 

She smiled. 

"True. Have you ever used the Simulation Room?" 

Kratos shook his head. 

"Sadly no, I kinda skipped this step and went straight to battle. I am here now though." 

Einkk was almost surprised. 

"Wow, no wonder you got busted up to be turned into a Cyborg. To explain it briefly, the simulation room will send your consciousness to a specific scenario to get you ready for combat. What you selected, the Rapture hoard led by Lord Class Rapture will take you to such a scenario. 

It's really scary." 

Kratos grinned. 

"I came face to face with a Tyrant class on the surface, though it did cause me those wounds. So, I want to start easy with the Lord. We can build up to Tyrrant in time. I got about three months of training, but I rather speed that to two." 

Einkk nodded. 

"Got it. Are you all ready?" 

Guilty, Sin, Quency, and Scathach all nodded. Kratos just put his helmet on which linked back with his eye and the systems of the suit. 

"Ready." 

Einkk smiled and a bright blue flash appeared in all of their visions. When they opened their eyes they were in a large open desert with many large rocks for cover. Kratos instantly barked some orders. 

"Alright, get in position. Guilty, you will be at my side. Quency, stay a bit back from us, but still close to the front. Sin, Scathach, be the back line. We have two months to be able to at the least deal with as many unexpected situations. Ready?" 

Guilty split her shotgun open and loaded it with the 6 shells it could hold.

"Ready Commander."

Quency flicked the safeties off her cuff SMGs with a big grin.

"Locked and loaded."

Sin and Scathach inserted the magazines of their Assult Rifles. Sin grinned as she missed this. 

"Ready." 

Scathach exhaled and nodded. 

"Ready here."

As for Kratos he reached to his waist and pulled out one of the power cells of his Hellgun. He inserted it into the gun on the side which caused the gun to begin to glow a bright red. 

Kratos looked into the distance and he could see the Rapture hoard moving toward them. On land and in the air and in the back was leader, a Laitance model. 

(Image here) 

Kratos kneeled down and took aim through the sight. He used a left stance using his superior left eye to see through the distance. 

"I have the largest range because of the nature of my weapon. We will need a sniper to complete the formation or we change your weapon Scathach. For now, I will suffice." 

Scathach and Sin used the scopes of their rifles and also began to fire. Hitting targets at this distance for pre-rapture weapons was pushing it, but now, this was barely a challenge. 

Already, his helmet and eye were doing the calculations he needed for this distance. He pulled the trigger of his weapon and a lance of bright red energy blasted into the distance. It was not the only one as Kratos held down the trigger and began to fire rapidly into the approaching hoard. 

He focused on the aerial units and even at this distance he could see every time, the Hellgun punched giant molten holes in the raptures. Guilty who was near him could feel the sheer heat and power of each blast. 

The gun under normal circumstances would have melted itself, but it was designed to deal with the stress of its output with ease. Sin and Scathach stopped shooting for a few seconds as they could see the damage the weapon was using. 

Kratos chastised them for it. 

"Don't stop shooting. That could cost you." 

Sin nodded. 

"Understood." 

Scathach kneeled down and did the same. 

"Won't happen again." 

"Good. This is a simulation, but treat it like a life-and-death battle. Guilty, gather up some of those giant rocks, and make us a defensive line. Quency, help her out." 

"On it." 

"Leave it to us." 

Guilty was the strongest of the 5 of them so she picked up the giant rocks and tossed them into a line. In the distance, the Raptures kept charging, but they began to return fire. Missles, lasers, and solid ammunition began to surge toward them. 

"Sin, deal with the heavy ordinance. Scathach, keep firing." 

Sin aimed up and began to shoot missiles out of the air which caused more to be destroyed. Scathach aimed her sight at the hoard and shot into the missile pack of a rapture in the middle of the formation causing explosions in the middle of the hoard. 

She continued to pick off such raptures to cause major damage to the hoard. Meanwhile, Sin was doing her job wonderfully as she shot out the approaching ordinance. When her rifle ran out of ammunition she was quick to reload. 

She did not drop the magazines and carefully placed them on her belt. In the meantime, Guilty had set up a large line of large rocks for cover. Quency punched holes in the rocks for them to shoot out of. The rocks would only be a stopper, but it was better than to be in the open. 

She turned to Kratos who was still dealing with the air units. 

"Raptures, three miles out. Continue with the fortification." 

Guilty let go of her shotgun and let it hang from the chain on her neck. She ran here and there picking up as many boulders as she could. That did not last long as Kratos stopped firing. 

"Battle stations." 

They all braced behind the boulders which Quency was kind enough to make firing ports. By now, the Raptures were closing in, but by then their air units were greatly reduced. Thanks to Scathach shooting the missile launcher units the hoard had gotten considerably smaller. 

Sin had been dealing with the Missiles that did get through meaning by the time the hoard was on them, it was reduced. Here at close range, Guilty specialized. She grinned and used one of the firing ports to slot her shotgun into. 

When stood up, she aimed her shotgun and began to rapidly fire her shotgun. She had 6 shots, but each of those shots carried the force of an Anti Material Rifle in a birdshot-type round. 

Each shot destroyed several raptures and she was extremely fast at reloading. She had 6 artillery-like shots and she made use of them. Here at close range, Kratos did not need to aim. 

"Guilty, with me. Over the wall. Sin, and Scathach, continue to clear out the air units. Quency, focus on the land ones." 

With his orders, he lept over the rock wall with Guilty following behind him. He smashed his fist on his chest plate causing a thin shield to form around him. He lowered his gun and began to fire from the hip in rapid-fire mode. 

Using his armor and shield combo, he did not avoid the Rapture's attacks. Using him as her shield Guilty quickly began to clear out chunks of the rapture hoard. Behind them, Sin, Scathach, and Quency were doing the same. 

However, Kratos knew his shield would not last long at this rate. In his helmet, the energy of his shield was dropping by the second. He grinned as unlike the first time, he could fight now. He was no longer hiding behind the Nikkes. He led the assault from the front as he should. 

'Even you shall fall Fernir.' 

Quency stood over the boulder wall and unloaded streams of bullets from her rapid-fire Cuff Guns. However, Kratos could see his shield had only 4% left.

"BEHIND COVER!" 

Both Guilty and he ran back to cover and lept to hide behind the boulder line. Scathach reached around her chest and ripped off a grenade from her grenade belt. She pulled the pin and tossed it over the wall in the middle of the raptures. 

When the grenade exploded, the shrapnel destroyed another chunk of the hoard. By this point, the hoard was thinned out and only the Lord and a few stragglers remain. 

"Guilty, rock rain. Scathach launches those grenades at the Lord. Quency, focus fire on the stragglers. Sin, shoot at the Laitance's guns." 

With that, he switched his gun from rapid fire to single-fire penetrator mode. He stood up and took aim at the Laitance. The large Rapture aimed its 4 guns at him, but Guilty picked up one of the boulders and chucked it at it. 

When the giant rock hit the rapture's leg, it caused it to buckle. At the same moment, Kratos began to advance as he aimed at the main body of the Rapture and fired. The lances of light were larger, but they smashed right into the machine. 

Meanwhile, Guilty continued to pick up the boulders and launch them when needed. Scathach ripped off her grenades and tossed them into the hoard while Quency cleared out the stragglers. 

As ordered, Sin fired at the guns causing them to malfunction and explode with her precise shots. In the end, Kratos grinned and pulled the trigger causing a lance of light to pierce through the Rapture head through. 

He exhaled and kept firing at the Rapture to not give it a chance at living. Meanwhile, his squad cleared out the rest of the hoard leaving piles of alien metal smoking. Kratos exhaled as the simulation ended then and there. 

When they were out Einkk was sitting on her floating hoop with an excited look on her face. 

"Wow! You guys passed on your first try. AWESOME!" 

He removed his helmet kinda mentally drained. While the Simulation was as accurate as possible, he knew it would not compare to the real thing. Who knew how the real Raptures would react so he could not get complacent? 

"Thanks. Now then, that brought some ideas to my head we need to go over as a squad. I will say we barely passed." 

Quency sighed. 

"Barely? I thought we did good." 

He removed his helmet and nodded. 

"We did, but we could do better. Never allow yourself to be complacent when your life is on the line. Real raptures are more savage and less predictable." 

Scathach thought about it as she had some ideas. 

"My rifle is good, but with Sin here, I think I need a second weapon. Maybe a rocket launcher or Grenade Launcher rather than a rifle." 

Guilty looked at her shotgun. 

"Need more Ammo." 

Sin hummed. 

"I could try to see if my little brainwash can work on raptures. If you trust me without the mask that is?" 

Kratos turned to Einkk. 

"Mind showing the replay of that simulation?" 

She nodded. 

"Comming right up." 

Now the borring stuff, learning from their first battle as a squad by looking for failures. A long and tedious thing, but helpful.