They continued the rest of the exercise in silence; only the sharp bursts emitted from each round of fire punctured the air. In the end Samus established her place in the team, beating everyone by at least ten points.
"I almost had that last one, but my hands wouldn't stay straight." She complained, safeing her weapon and ejecting its power pack. "You fed me that caf deliberately."
Byran nodded, "A simple way to simulate mission stress and anxiety without actually trying to put holes in you." He looked over the results. "Not that it affected you that much, besides it's the fuel for us on missions, best you get used to its effects now."
"You're just too modest Sammy." Dack chimed in, "You know I could make the scores show I shot better than you, but who would believe it? Anyway, since we are still technically off duty for the rest of the day, I'm going to the mess for a pint. Too bad it's going on my tab."
"I'll join you, might as well stock up while we can." Zepp said and the two walked out of the firing range, the doors hissing open and close as they passed through.
"You did very well, I would trust you at my back any day," Byran said to Samus "I'm sure the rest of the team would agree too."
"Thanks, I really appreciate it. When do you think we'll be deployed?"
"Your guess is as good as mine, even the executive officer doesn't get to know plans in ahead. But it'll take a week to reach the Delphinus sector so we will be briefed in by then. Anyway commander Malkovich wants me to go help inspect our new equipment, and put together a full report." He sighed, "Enjoy the rest of the day, I'll see you at tomorrow morning's PT exercise" With a wave, the big major strolled out, not very eager to perform his next duty as master accountant.
Currently not having any duties herself, Samus queried the computer for a vacant training room and headed out in that direction. As state-of-the-art holo technology was, it still couldn't mimic the solidness of something real so robots were used for training. Being of a heavy build herself like the XO, Samus wanted to make sure she could not only shoot well, but that she could hold her own against enemies even unarmed.
The particular room Samus entered was of a rocky cave setting. Stalagmites poked up from the floor that was pitted with uneven dips and slopes. The low ceiling also had pointy stalactites just waiting for someone to swing their head into. Throw in low-level lighting and a horrible place to fight was made.
Perfect.
Samus sealed the door and activated the program for the highest difficulty level allowable and increased gravity to one point two standard. At the far end of the room, the pirate droid came to life. A fairly good imitation, the designers made it as close to the real thing, right down to the sharp claws at the end of its arms.
Anyone else would normally have worn a plasteel vest or some sort of protection, but it was more real to Samus to be dressed only in a light jumpsuit. Real pirates wouldn't wait around for me to get ready and make it a fair fight she thought darkly.
The pirate charged at her, sweeping one arm across that would have severed Samus' head from her neck. But that's only if she had just stood still. Samus dropped down and lashed out her right leg in a sweep that knocked it to the ground. She quickly hopped over the fallen droid and assumed a combat stance as it came back to its feet. This time she allowed the droid to close in, but shifted her body to avoid its slashes, letting those strikes hit nothing but air. Samus countered with a lightning punch to its thorax, then ducked to dodge another slash, and delivered an uppercut that rocked the pirate back a few steps. The pirate threw a kick which Samus easily blocked, but allowed its backhand to send her off balance and to the ground. She rolled hastily but was a hair too slow and the edge of the descending pirate claw grazed her shoulder. It easily sliced through the thin fabric and opened a cut that leaked blood as Samus regained her footing. The sudden pain angered her more as she ignored the wound and ducked behind a pillar that bore the brunt of the pirate's attack.
Slipping around another stalagmite she lured the pirate into attacking again, and this time its claw got jammed in the stone formation. Jumping up and grabbing a hold of a crevice in the roof, Samus swung over and behind the trapped pirate, and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick that snapped the arm free and sending the poor droid trailing sparks and wires into the cavern wall. It staggered back, clearly disoriented, to see Samus lower her good shoulder and charge into it with her ninety-kilogram mass in a devastating tackle. The droid smashed into the ground and did not move save a few lingering sparks.
Samus was breathing and sweating heavily by now and her shoulder still stung from the wound she received, but she felt certain elation from vanquishing another foe, even if it was a simulation. No physical pain could ever equal the pirate attack that destroyed her life as a child; it was Samus' goal to avenge that brutal and callous attack on that defenceless colony of innocents. It wasn't as if her foster parents had discouraged her against it either. She patched her shoulder up with the room's medkit and left for her quarters, first leaving a message for maintenance that the droid needed repairs, looking forward to a refreshing shower.