Valette's idea of a good time was alcohol and heat-exhaustion fuelled blood sports. A week later and we'd spent every other day throwing ourselves into the ring and into training. Now, as dawn broke on the first day of the new term, all I could feel was a battering-induced numbness that stretched from the gaps of my toes, to the smile on my face. I sat with Valette, who managed to not get herself killed despite being irritating to live with. She was always just so damned chipper. I tell you, she really aint never heard of personal space because the girl is too damn clever to be ignorant of my discomfort. Still, we did get along, mostly thanks to her patience. That could get annoying, too, but that was on me. I never even knew that I was such a negative nancy until I was confronted by little miss sunshine. She was trying to make faces at Akron as he continued to groan on during the morning's orientation but she'd failed about as spectacularly as Akron had succeeded in ignoring her. The man was totally unfazed by it, continuing on about the Star-Trek test and the tournament that would determine our training deployment.

It did, however, faze a middle-aged woman standing near the door. She wore a Commander's badge and scowled at Valette like she was curb stomping her cat. I thought about warning the girl but the growing rage on the woman's face made me think it would be funny for Valette to put her foot in it.

The woman stepped forwards and coughed. Akron raised a brow and paused his speech, "Ah, Cadet's, this is Lieutenant Commander Kohli, veteran of Admiral Cole's last stand, and a well-known figure in the Navy. She will be joining us for this year's classes along with a number of special cases with special permission to enter the navy, did you have something to add, Commander?"

She paused to clear her throat and I noticed the room was more alert and spattered with a murmuring. Valette had also noticed her and gone eerily silent. I was just confused, and looked about. "Who's the old lady?" I asked, a little too loudly.

The old lady jerked her finger towards us, it wasn't bony, it was actually quite youthful, as was the rest of her, in all honesty. "Those two. Who are they and why do they lack the respect to recognise the authority of superior officers?"

I swallowed as the murmuring was cut dead in its tracks.

Akron sighed, "Cadet's Aurelian Van Graff and Valette Savatier, please stand." We rose to our feet and felt a hundred pairs of eyes boring down on us. If I hadn't felt like I was back in school before, I certainly did now. "Van Graff and Savatier are our other special cases. Miss Savatier was a gunner, part of the Super MAC crew on the Xanthium. Aged just nineteen, she and her team kept the Xanthium firing for a full year longer than any other orbital platform on Meridian, she has a kill count few of you will ever hope to match and spent the year's most Cadets spend learning basic respect and protocol putting holes through Capital Ships."

Kohli stepped up to Valette and eyed her with her wide brown eyes, they were a dark pit, filled with malice and dislike. "She's a child. Undisciplined and lucky. I'll have her." she said, looking at Akron, "and him?"

"Mister Van Graff was the pilot of the URF Revenge, the URF stole the Peony Sky, a Charon-Class frigate and used it to reinforce rebel groups across human space in breach of the Cole Protocol." Kohli's eyes widened, the whites of her eyes burned like white-fury and I knew she had all that heat bottled purely for me.

"Ah, the criminal. Admiral Harper mentioned you by name, Mister Van Graff"

Shit.

Now, upsetting authority was one thing I was used to and under normal circumstances, I actually enjoyed it. But all I want is to fly the biggest ships the UNSC can offer. To brave the big black of space and see the stars as my equal, as journeymen in the vast void of infinite space. And some crackpot has-been has it in for me. It wasn't good. Not, at all.

Akron tried to step in and cool things down, "Cadet Van Graff has served his time, and the top brass of the UNSC have deemed his ability, shown in the infamous "pursuit of the Peony Sky", to qualify him for this class. He is under extensive supervision from ONI and was to be assigned to a handler to ensure our friend here is as reformed as he and the military psychiatrists say he is."

"Assign him to me" she said, screwing up her nose. Her face darkened, her expression dead and now devoid of rage. I got the feeling that sudden move from rage to almost dead-pan indifference was something trained into her, and I also, perhaps naively, believe it wasn't because of me. She hated me, that much was very clear, but as I looked into the woman's eyes, I saw a lot more hidden behind them than irritation at an insubordinate ex-con. I saw regret, too.

That made me uncomfortable and I squirmed as Akron frowned, "you want both on your training crew?"

She nodded, her eyes never leaving mine, "I'll sort them out. Give me the rejects and lazy ones, too. I'll hammer them into something useful. Might even make proper sailors out of one or two." she spat, her eyes finally flitting about the room.

Akron nodded, clearly the man wasn't paid enough to argue with someone like Kohli. "All right, we'll sort the rosters out after I'm finished. As I was saying, these teams will be your training crews for the first month, you will be assessed extensively on your ability to live together, maintain the virtual ship, and on your combat sims and teamwork. At the end of the month, the teams will be assigned to a training vessel and see fleet action alongside the rest of the Navy, likely at Meridian. This will take up the majority of the second semester, so don't come last. Of the three crews in this cohort, the worst will be assigned to the supply corps, running retrieval ops from glassed systems and protecting convoys passing back to Reach and Sol. You do not want this posting if you want to succeed in the Navy, the job is difficult, boring, and you will be forced to do it with little hope of promotion, so stay alert and work hard. Dismissed!"

Several hours later I found myself sitting in in the virtual chair of a Halberd-Class destroyer with Valette and a few others from the class. Very quickly we were assigned our teams and I was pretty happy with the colourful group of Cadet's that surrounded me as I tried to play down my past while we waited for the first lesson to begin.

"Look, fellas," I said, throwing my hands up, "it weren't no thing, not really."

"Bull!" Drip said, looking me over, "we all saw the feeds, Ollie." Drip was a gangly thing with a nose the size of a grape and ears the size of melons, he was a good kid but he was too quick to open his mouth. He was spinning in the comms chair absently, running his finger along the controls, itching to play.

"He doesn't have to say if he wants to be boring" Mei, the Navigation specialist said, a sly grin playing at her lips, "the felon with a thing for humility." she pretended to make herself hurl, "puh-lease."

"Naw, it ain't like that, I just don't wanna get into trouble. They could lock me up for anything and I don't wanna go back where they're sending me."

"Yah, I hear you, brother" said Brettmann, a large man with big hairy arms, "gotta keep the man happy"

"But you can tell us stories, right?" Drip said, grinning at Valette. The pair shared an irritatingly similar energy.

"Oh, sure, and ONI can lock you up too for taking an interest" said Britney, the ship systems and maintenance officer.

"You're no fun, Brit." Drip said.

"ONI is no fun." said a voice behind them. Hannah Kohli stood before us, her hair tied up and her face hard, "Officer on deck!" We formed a line and snapped to attention in the virtual space and I resisted a look as Kohli began to circle us like carrion. "First of all, Cadet Savatier, you will be my XO for the foreseeable future. Maintain my bridge crew and keep them working well. I will hold you personally responsible for them."

"Yes ma'am" Valette replied, as seriously as she could possibly manage.

"At ease, Savatier. Brettmann, is it?" she asked, moving up the line.

"It is, yes, Ma'am."

"From Tribute, correct?"

"I am, yes, Ma'am."

"Lovely place, my parents honeymooned there."

She continued up the line, proving how well she'd read our files as she spoke with each of the cadets. Brettmann was to be in charge of the ships ground support systems such as on-ship surveillance and ship-to-surface artillery tasking. In simulations where we were piloting destroyers or heavy frigates, he might get a little bored, but I got the impression he was more clued in than he seemed. That seemed to be the norm among the UNSC recruits, regardless of their disposition. Drip got ripped into for an out of shape uniform. Kohli called him scruffy and the others tried not to laugh as he fumbled his awful apology. I didn't really care, "Drip" seemed to be the exception to the rule, he wasn't clued in, he was enthusiastic. Unfortunately, enthusiasm does not a good pilot make and this kid was going to need some serious work before I trusted him to work a telephone, let alone manage an interstellar communications array. For her part, Mei got off lightly. She had a look about her resting face that made her seem cheeky and insubordinate, Kohli mentioned an incident where an instructor had taken the natural asymmetry of her face as a challenge and pushed her to the point where she'd nearly dropped dead from physical exhaustion and mental bullying. I winced at that, not a fun place to be.

Then she came to Britney. "Cadet, who pissed in your cereal?"

"No one, Ma'am, I've been told I'm not a pleasant person to be around." She replied without a hint of irony.

"Disposition aside, why are you here, Cadet? Your scores are exemplary."

"So that the good instructors don't have to deal with me, I suppose." Britney replied, her brow furrowing. She looked a little angry. Like there was something irritating her. I made the mistake of thinking that the source of that irritation was Kohli. The smirk on my face was picked up faster than the clap on shore leave.

"Ah. The ex-con. The felon with a penchant for fame. Aurelian Teigen Van Graff." She said, circling me like a vulture. "Here on the strength of your skill alone." She half spat. "Typical of the Spooks to send us filth like you."

I frowned. I expected disdain but filth seemed a step beyond mere hatred. When I didn't bite, she continued on as though she'd said nothing more than stating a simple fact.

"Do you deserve to be here, Cadet?" She asked, curiously.

I know a lose-lose situation when I see one and I wasn't gonna give her the satisfaction of a win on her first day. "ONI seem to think so. As do the top brass and the judiciary." I said, diplomatically.

"Ah yes, ONI. Scum tends to congregate, don't you think, Cadet?"

"Are you asking for my opinion on ONI or on your assessment of my character, Ma'am?"

There was a knee-jerking silence as the other cadets shifted nervously in place. Kohli simply stood, looking up at my nose like she was trying to spot something out of place. Eventually she grinned as though she found what she was looking for and stepped away, I sighed with relief, as did the rest of our crew. Kohli sat in the virtual captain's chair and felt the digital leather under fingers, she closed her eyes briefly and sighed before reopening them, her brown eyes focused like hardened slag. She whipped her hand and ordered us to our stations and I sat beside her, taking control of the ship with a strange feeling of dissonance washing over me.

I think it was the virtual space messing with my brain, everything was familiar but still a little off. On the Revenge, the space was less formal, with posters and slogans on the walls, it was grimy as well, more raw. The UNSC, if the sim was to be believed, kept their ships in perfect order. The space was tidy and fresh, more mechanical and less lived-in. I suspect that this wasn't the bridge of a frigate, either because the space was bigger and the weapons station made Valette beam with joy.

"Welcome aboard the UNSC Song of the East." Kohli said from just beside me, she was the third ship of the Halberd-Class Destroyers and was involved in a number of actions towards the end of the insurrection. Today we will be running through a skirmish to ease us into the swing of things." She said, coolly, then to the A.I Magellan, "Magellan, run training program eighty-seven from my personal list, please."

The A.I. didn't speak but the glass of the bridge now showed an old colony that was familiar to me. Now, one thing you need to know about the URF is that they have a culture of hating the UNSC. They hate the UNSC because of events like this one. Anyone who was remotely connected to the insurrection knew of the massacre at Cygni-4 and I knew instantly that Kohli had picked this to make a point. I felt a little sick as I saw the UNSC fleet line up alongside us, two Frigates, that were equally infamous for what I was about to witness.

"This is the UNSC Frigate Fourth Winter, reporting in."

"Unwavering, ready and able, Captain."

Kohli met my eyes and grinned savagely. "Okay, maintain formation and begin standard patrol."

"Aye, Captain," I said. I knew what to do, years of outrunning the UNSC made predicting and adjusting to their patrols second nature. I plotted a course towards a refuelling depot above a gas giant and sent the flight plan to the Frigates via Drip who reported their acknowledgement and began to follow.

"Good. Easy burn to the port. I want eyes on the edge of the system, the Song of the East had prior warning of the rebel attack."

"Aye ma'am" Replied Mei and Drip, who began to adjust the comms relays and navigational tracking towards the edge of the system. For my part, I adjusted the thrust and frowned at the virtual feedback. It wasn't the same, there was no feeling of resistance or force or physics acting on anything at all. There was a rumble but it wasn't the same. I didn't feel like I was wrestling a city into position.

I pouted, then a red light flickered in the corner of my view, "Ma'am, slipspace rupture detected," Mei said, alerting the crew, then as the flashes on the screen in front of me died out, she continued, "I hope this isn't a shock to anyone but the drive signatures suggest that they're URF rebels.

Valette glanced at me, and I shrugged. Kohli likely saw the exchange so I was trying to show indifference. "Okay, all ships, accelerate to attack speed and form a line, Mei, get me all the data you can on fleet composition and position. Savatier, prime Archer pods A through J and charge the MAC, I want us ready to fire as soon as they come into range." Kohli said, calmly.

"Aye, Ma'am." Valette replied, her fingers dancing over the keys. I pushed on the throttle, increasing the burn as I watched the ships in our fleet form a line on my personal console. Within moments, Mei had gathered enough data to plot the enemy positions as well. The enemy jump was erratic and poorly executed, even for human ships. Their flagship was out of position and exposed.

"Target that Cruiser, Savatier."

"We should hail them-" Drip began.

"Stow it, Cadet. Savatier, can you hit it?"

"Yes Ma'am, relaying heading to the helmsman."

I saw a ping and adjusted the heading, the ship made minute adjustments, aiming the bow towards the stranded vessel.

"Heading locked, board is green" I said.

"Fire at will, two rounds."

The ship "fake"-rumbled as two MAC rounds loosed from the cannon, speeding off into the far distant void of space, light trailing behind them. I watched them, imaging them screaming through space before colliding with the cruiser, spearing the ship twice, gutting it through the spine and rear thrusters.

"Ma'am, they're returning fire, we have archer missile locks!"

"Fleet! Staggered formation, don't let anything get through. Cadet Fetch, divert power to point defence turrets. Brettmann, deploy the air wing, prep two longsword with Havok nukes."

"Yes, Ma'am."

I felt power leave the engines and dropped the ship behind and to the left of the Unwavering, whichwas behind and to the left of the Fourth Winter. The enemy had panicked and hadn't formed up when they fired, most ships unleashed most of their Archer missiles as well which meant although there were a lot of missiles heading our way, they came too thinly to get passed the PDTs, which cut them apart like buzzsaws.

"Boom!" Drip shouted, grinning, as one almost slipped the net.

"Fourth Winter is returning fire." Drip reported, Kohli nodded.

"Longswords away, Ma'am, fire mission 014-Alpha." He added, highlighting a large cluster of ships near the right flank of the enemy. It amounted to nearly half the number of enemy vessels. Fourth Winter's shots struck home, carving a swathe of orange light through the left flank. Kohli leaned forward.

"Unwavering, fire archers A through D, staggered fire, give our longswords some cover."

They affirmed the order and I watched Archer missiles streak through the black of space. The enemy fleet lit up a minute later, their PDTs carving the missiles apart with ease as the longsword used them as a distraction.

"Havok away" Brettmann reported. A tense few seconds passed before a white light shone, not just in the feed, but flashed through the glass window ahead of them, wiping out half the fleet.

"Incoming MAC rounds." Mei noted, "might wanna get out the way."

"Don't trouble yourself, though." Britney added, dryly.

"Evasive manoeuvres, break formation! Van Graff, hard to port!" Kohli shouted. She needn't have, I was already jerking the controls to the right, pulling hard on the thrusters, waiting until the last moment to use the emergency broadside thrusters to dodge latitudinally. I saw the white lines streaking towards us and the rest of the UNSC fleet did the orbital equivalent of dive for cover and even though it wasn't real, I held my breath.

Alarms buzzed and rumble tore through the controls. Again, it didn't feel like getting hit by a MAC gun but this time I was actually thankful.

"Fetch, damage report!"

"All systems nominal, the shot scraped the starboard side of the Unwavering and the debris took out a PDT but Van Graff pulled us through."

Kohli nodded at me firmly, her hatred half-forgotten in the moment, then faced the nearest screen and ordered the ships back into line.

"MAC ready to fire" Valette said, her voice sweet above the nose of the bridge.

"All ships fire at will, take out those two remaining cruisers and then the Frigates."

What followed was the systematic destruction of the rebel fleet, save for one vessel, which had turned and ran a while ago. It had been expertly piloted by my predecessor and should have escaped unharmed, but Kohli was out to make a point.

"Scan Grid point Seven Oh Four."

Valette frowned, "Ma'am, all targets have been destroyed, there shouldn't be anything left."

I began to program the console, I knew what was coming, I primed the emergency thrusters and waited for Mei.

"Hang on a moment, one target, leaving the system as we speak, it's out of Archer range but the MAC can still disable it"

"Do it."

Valette hammered out a firing solution and handed me the heading. Kohli grinned savagely as Mei frowned, "Drive signatures recognise the ship as… the Peony Sky, that's the URF Revenge!"

"Wait, we're killing Ollie?!" Drip exclaimed in amusement, his ears wiggling has he chuckled at the thought of it, this event took place before I was even born and I shook my head at Drip for managing to forget that. "I don't want to cause a paradox, Ma'am." He added, cheerfully.

"Can the chatter and obey my orders. Savatier, ready the MAC gun!" She smiled as I dutifully complied…

"Three. Two. One!"

… right up to the last moment, when I hit the emergency thrusts for the briefest of moments.

"Shot away" Valette said, her voice less gleeful than it had been.

"Tracking…" Mei said, her brow was a knot of concentration. The shot sailed past the ship as it jumped into slip space and left the system.

Kohli glared. "Miss Savatier did you miss on purpose?" She spat, glaring at me.

"No, Ma'am. "

"Cadet Van Graff, why did we miss?"

I paused for a moment and bit my lip, "I thought it best to remain historically accurate Ma'am."

"I didn't want that destroyed just for fun, Cadet. I wanted to know that you can follow orders."

Now it was my turn to growl. "There's another ship out there." I said, turning to Mei "prime the MAC and search this area for life pods." I said, keying the rough coordinates to an escape craft I knew to be lurking in the wreckage of the fleet. Sure enough, Mei found it and I point to it.

"That, Ma'am, is the ONI operative who gave away the fleets location. He survived the massacre. Shall we kill him for fun, as well?"

Kohli's eyes narrowed. "Target lock, and aim on that craft," she spoke quietly, and then when no one moved she shouted, "I said now!".

I swung the ship around and gave the greenlight, shaking my head at the charade. "In position" I said, waiting for her to call off the shot.

"Fire" She said, flatly. Testament to Valette, she hit that button without a second's thought, likely a carryover from her experience on the Xanthium. The MAC rumbled and loosed a shot, its light streaking through space as Kohli approached me. "When I give you an order, you carry it out. I will kill whoever I damn please as Captain of this ship from ONI scum to rebellious helmsman if I believe it's for the good of the mission. Is that clear?"

I nodded and as I swallowed hard, the MAC round passed through the pod, shattering it on the scanners.