Training as a magical girl is one of the most intense things I've ever experienced. You come in and don't know anything, and then suddenly are thrown into the some of the most difficult things you'll ever have to master. A lot of girls lose themselves by the end of it.

-Flight Lieutenant Suzanne Lu, 2nd Squadron, 5th Aer Magi Wing, 2nd Army Group of the Rhine

You find out a lot of unexpected things about yourself and about others during training. The sweetest little things can turn into complete monsters in battle, and the biggest bullies can be the most devoted warriors at your side. Discount nothing, because it gets crazy quickly.

-Captain Esmerelda Lopez, 2nd Battalion, 10th Regiment, 5th Army Group of the Mekong

Emma fought for breath, running as fast as she could, then running faster because she couldn't stop.

The Squids had smashed through their lines, moving impossibly quickly. She had no idea what was happening , there was too much jamming, she could see the contrails of the evac dropships and knew that she had to run for it.

A crump, behind her, and then suddenly Emma was flying, spinning end over end over end until she was soaring over a cliff and gliding forward, arms somehow stabilizing her until she crashed to the ground by a riverbank. Dripping and sputtering, Emma pushed herself up out of the river and was met by the gaze of a Cephalopod Shock Trooper advancing forward, weapon raised.

A flicker of light, and suddenly Emma couldn't feel anything in her left arm. She looked down in shock and saw nothing but a charred stump, still smoldering. Snarling, she raised her right arm, then couldn't because it had been burnt away too.

And still, the Shock Trooper advanced forward, striding into the growing, rumbling water like it wasn't there, even as Emma had to strain with her remaining limbs to stay upright. Unable to keep her balance, Emma stumbled and fell backwards into the river, the icy cold water burning into the stumps of her arms.

In desperation, Emma summoned a windstorm, trying to push back the Shock Trooper. Inexorably, emotionlessly, it advanced, the windstorm doing nothing as it ignited a plasma cutter. With the hiss of servos, it stepped forward and planted a boot into Emma's chest, pressing her to the riverbed and submerging her head. Immediately, she began pulling oxygen out of the water magically, but this didn't matter as her throat was crushed a second later by the Shock Trooper's grip, pulling her up from the water at arms length.

Missing, now, both arms and without air, Emma could do nothing but watch as the Trooper tilted its head, intrigued by the blood trickling out of Emma's mouth from her shattered trachea. Then, as if bored, it lifted its plasma cutter and thrust it forward. The tip pierced her chest-

-and Emma awoke with a gasp , rolling out of bed into a crouch. Her TacComp suppressed her responses before she could summon her costume and weaponry, but it was still enough for Ayane to startle awake.

"Are you alright?" Ayane asked sleepily, after she figured out what was going on.

"I'm fine," said Emma with a groan, sitting down on the floor and leaning back against her bed. "Just the usual."

"Well, I guess the timing wasn't all that bad," said Ayane, checking her chronometer. "Looks like it's dinner time, then more sims."

"Of course there's more sims," sighed Emma, picking herself up from the ground wearily. "Goddess, I feel like I got exactly zero sleep."

"It's only been two days," said Ayane, pushing back her sheets and swinging her legs to the ground. "Are you sure you're alright? I thought the first nightmare was a fluke, but this has happened twice now."

"I'm fine, it's nothing a bit of magic won't solve," said Emma with a yawn, before revitalizing herself with a flicker of light. "Nn. I kinda want to go back to sleep…."

"Come on," said Ayane with a roll of her eyes, pulling Emma to her feet and pushing her towards the door. " You can nap in the sim later ."

"Agh!" Emma nearly tripped and had to do some fancy footwork to stay upright. "Hey, hey, don't push, I'm going!"

"Being lazy again, Emma?" asked a passing girl, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

"No, of course not Varsha," said Emma primly, adjusting her hoodie and shoving her hands into its pockets with mild indignation. "Ayane's just being pushy."

"I'm being punctual," retorted Ayane, shutting their door. "How're you Varsha? Did you sleep well?"

"Ah, well enough," said Varsha with a shrug, brushing her bangs out of her eyes as they began walking towards the dining hall. "You know I don't really sleep all that often anyway, but it was relaxing."

Emma shook her head in disbelief. "I just don't understand how you can do that."

"What, not be a bag of lazy bones?"

"Oh don't you start!" said Emma, pointing a finger at Varsha. "I get enough crap from my friend back home."

"Ah, fine, fine," said Varsha, backing off. "But still, you do sleep an awful lot."

"No, you're all just weird," said Emma, sticking her tongue out, to Ayane's amusement. "Anyway. How'd you do in the last sim? I got killed pretty quick, so I never really found out."

"I did alright," said Varsha. "Me and Rebecca managed to hold a position pretty effectively. But then we lost our air cover."

"Ah, sorry about that," said Ayane. "We weren't expecting that many drones to show up. At least you died quickly."

"Some consolation prize, " said Varsha with a snort. "Anyway, without Ayane and Company, we got overrun pretty quickly from there. I don't know where Rene went off to, but I don't remember her being around when the Shock Troopers hit."

Emma whistled. "Damn. It's a good thing they suppress the emotions on those memories , I'd hate to have that hanging over me."

Varsha nodded, grimacing. "From the looks of it, it was definitely extremely unpleasant. I-."

Varsha was interrupted by an excited Chinese girl draping herself onto Varsha's shoulders. "Heya Varsha, you going over the sim with the others?"

"Gah! Don't do that, Rebecca !" said Varsha, shooting an elbow at Rebecca's gut.

"Bah, you know you love it," said Rebecca with a grin, dodging the blow. "You're always so serious, Varsha."

"I'm not serious at all," grumbled Varsha, face tinted red as she turned to Emma and Ayane. "Help me out here, guys."

Emma was strongly tempted to leave Varsha to her fate, but a glance at Ayane told her to help the poor girl. "Nah, you're not that serious, Varsha," agreed Emma. "There are a lot worse in our cohort."

"Yeah, but she's still serious," said Rebecca, poking a finger slowly into Varsha's cheek. "We've got an entire three weeks of sim time left, don't worry so much."

"You don't worry enough," scoffed Varsha, pushing Rebecca's finger away.

"But we worked so well together, don't you have any faith that we'll pull through in the field?"

Emma rolled her eyes at the couple as they reached a large intersection. The group paused, and Ayane and Emma both looked around for Rene. Just about everyone who'd met Varsha and Rebecca was convinced they were going to end up getting married, if they both survived. It certainly was enough of a fairy-tale pairing, Emma granted, but even though she and Ayane had spent many an hour dissecting how relationships worked, Emma remained unconvinced.

"There she is," said Ayane, pointing and waving at Rene's form wending its way through the crowd. "Rene! Over here!"

"Yes, I see that," said Rene dryly, nodding at each of the girls in turn. "How did you all sleep?"

"I slept well, thank you," said Ayane with a smile as Emma yawned hugely. "Emma on the other hand…"

"I had another nightmare," said Emma, shrugging as Varsha and Rebecca sent brief greetings Rene's way before going back to bickering about something again. "Ayane's a little concerned."

"I would be too, but magic is an extraordinary thing, isn't it?" asked Rene with a shrug. "As they said back in the ballet studio: if it worked once, practice and make it work every time."

"Even if it just makes other things worse?" asked Ayane skeptically.

"That was the choreographer's job," said Rene airily. "As a ballerina, my job was only to express the meaning of the choreography. In any case, I hope the nightmares pass, Emma. Even if we don't need to sleep, good rest is important."

"Thanks, I appreciate that," said Emma with a smile. "Let's get going though, we're making a clot in the hallway."

The group of five moved on.

"So how did you end up last round?" asked Emma as they entered the dining hall. "It sounded like Varsha and Rebecca had a good run of it."

"Oh, it was nothing spectacular," said Rene. "After you got shot, I pulled the platoons back and held the line. I was too frightened to fight properly like Varsha and Rebecca, I suppose."

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with that," said Ayane. "I remember seeing your defense. It was well conducted. You should be proud."

"Thank you, Ayane," said Rene. "Still, it is too bad. I wish to make a more positive contribution."

"A well conducted defense is just as important as a good offense," said Emma. "We learned that during tactics lecture, don't you remember?"

"Yes, yes, it is simply me being neurotic," said Rene, waving off Emma and Ayane's reassurances. "Rest assured, I won't be having any self esteem issues any time soon."

"Alright then," said Emma, before changing the topic. "Have you guys talked to your family at all since we got here?"

"Yes, it was… tense," said Rene. "My parents don't really approve. But, such is life, yes?"

"My parents wish I hadn't contracted," said Ayane with a nod. "But now that I'm here, there's nothing they can do about it. It's just really depressing, talking to them."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, my mom is always like…"

Emma shoved her hands deeper into her hoodie pockets as they stood in line at the synthesizer, listening quietly to the other girls talk. It struck her, at times like these, how truly fortunate she was to have a sister like Anna. Granted, she and her parents were still rather estranged, but Anna was being hugely supportive. They'd only been at training for a week, but Emma had made sure to send off a video message once a day, summarizing what she'd done and redacting anything that her TacComp said was too classified to distribute. Anna's responses could only be done in voice, but included snippets from their parents and Ayumi. The messages were always encouraging, and always made it a little easier to nap during break periods, with the accumulated stresses of the day made less so by Anna's comforting words.

"Emma, you're up," said Rene, nudging Emma in the arm. Emma blinked and scooted over to place her order in the synthesizer.

"I wonder if they'll split us up a bit this time," said Emma later, pulling her hair up and laying back against the VR Chair. She'd taken off her hoodie before hand, laying it on the armrest. "Change up the team dynamic, see what happens."

"I doubt it," said Ayane, undoing her braid and letting her hair rearrange itself appropriately. "It's a bit early in the sims, after all."

"I guess, but it would still be interesting," said Emma, the I/O cables clicking into place on the back of her neck and her vision graying out. "See you on the flip side."

Quickly, the fuzzing of her vision turned into outright darkness. Emma braced herself as, with something of a jolt, she lost feeling in her limbs. A light haziness began to consume her consciousness like water gently spilling out from the edges of a bowl. Emma let the current sweep her away, getting lost in the fog of semi-consciousness. It was a little like swimming, actually, except everything was warm and dry instead of cold and wet. It was…

It was…

….

"Eh?" Emma blinked away her drowsiness and rubbed at her eyes, sitting up. "What's up?"

"It's your turn to take the watch," said Rene, prodding at Emma's leg with the scabbard of her rapier. "I need to get my men off the line."

"Oh, right, sorry," said Emma, levering herself to her feet and picking up her battlepack. Technically, Rene was a few minutes early, but Emma didn't begrudge her. "How's 1st Platoon doing? Did you take any casualties this rotation?"

"Not many, only two wounded," said Rene. "The line will hold as long as we keep getting supplies, but we need to keep morale up."

"Duly noted," said Emma, climbing up out of the foxhole she'd been napping in. It was just after dawn, with the sun of the Cognitus system barely peeking over the flat, barely rippling horizon of the Adraxi Plain. Emma's augmented eyes allowed her to see the long chain of defensive fortifications drawn up along a ridge in the middle of the plain, with the cephalopod force opposite and fifty kilometers distant. Well within range of artillery and mortar fire, it was nevertheless proving to be frustratingly difficult to break the enemy line.

"Any tunnel collapses?" asked Emma as Rene followed her out. "Any tunnel drones get past our nets?"

"One or two, but that was in 2nd Division's sector," said Rene. "Our sector's quiet, it seems, but you know what they say."

"If it's quiet, it's too quiet," said Emma grimly with a nod. "Come on, let's rotate 1st out before something happens."

The two girls stole quietly along below the ridge line, trying not to be exposed to a sniper or call down artillery for no reason. Emma's platoon was already geared up, making Emma feel slightly incompetent for not being awake long ago. She shook the feeling off, and continued checking up on her unit. Everyone seemed ready, or as ready as they could be in a entrenched defensive like this. The handover proceeded as planned, with each fireteam getting updated and in position without causing a bombardment or a sniper attack. 1st Platoon wished them luck and withdrew, leaving Emma and her men to a long, tense round on the line.

"So, Chief, how's it going?" asked Emma, taking a seat next to her warrant officer with a sigh.

"Oh, you know how it is, sir," said Chief, inclining his power-armored head at her in greeting. "A whole lotta nada."

"You been keeping up with that manga you like?" asked Emma.

"Yeah, I got to download the latest issue while we were off the line," said Chief.

"How is it? Good issue this round?"

"Yeah, it was pretty interesting. Not much action, but we-."

A thunderous explosion rocked the ground as both Emma and Chief dived to the bottom of their foxhole.

"Get into cover!" Emma shouted mentally to her platoon, diving herself for the small tunnel under the lip of the foxhole. "TacComp, sit rep!"

Emma's field of vision was immediately swarmed with requests for fire support as a huge wave of enemy forces began advancing across the fifty kilometer gap between the two sides.

"Goddess damn it," spat Emma, ducking instinctively as another massive explosion rocked the ridgeline. "We need to get out there. Chief?"

"I can coordinate the defense here," said Chief. "You do what you need to do, sir."

"Thanks," said Emma, clapping her warrant officer on his shoulder and readying herself. "See you around."

She launched herself forward, running down the ridge towards the company's vehicle hub. To her left and to her right, she could see bright blobs of color converging in the same direction she was running.

"Some break, eh Rene?" asked Emma as she slid to a halt in front of one of the many infantry fighting vehicles their battalion had available.

"For the love of the Goddess, I just came off the line," groused Rene, reaching a silk-gloved hand down and pulling Emma into the IFV. "Let's get this over with. We've got the right flank this time."

"Good, that means Varsha and Rebecca have center," said Emma, double checking her equipment as a squad of infantrymen clambered in. "We should be able to pin the squids against them."

"That's the hope," said Rene as a flight of Aer Magi streaked over head, drones staggered above and below for protection.

"Right then, everybody ready?" Emma asked. Everyone affirmed. "Let's go then."

With a lurch, the vehicle's oversized tires bit into the dirt and launched them forward, the IFV's turboshaft engine quickly accelerating them to one hundred kilometers and hour as they went flying over the ridge and landed heavily on the other side, dodging mortar and artillery as they went.

Emma climbed into the IFV's turret to peer through its scope, zooming in on the enemy formations as Rene made sure their accompanying infantrymen would work to complement their attack. All four had assault specializations, so it wasn't very difficult.

"They're doing the typical spearhead," Emma called down into the vehicle, sending the report back to regimental headquarters to update the line as she said it. "Leading edge is all tanks, we're going to need to jump early."

"Alright, you go from up top and I'll go from the side," said Rene, positioning herself by the IFV's gullwing doors.

"Got it," said Emma, opening the lock on the turret hatch and linking the scope's targeting to their TacComps. The IFV, computer controlled by an integrated virtual intelligence, was already beginning its opening salvo on targets of opportunity, sending a spray of 30mm rail accelerated rounds down range and forcing the formation to make small adjustments to avoid them. As the two sides closed at a combined rate of over two hundred kilometers an hour, the autocannon fire was just enough to make the next part feasible.

"Go!" shouted Emma, popping open her hatch and launching herself through the air towards an enemy tank. Below her, she caught sight of a white and crimson blur flying out of the door, sparks trailing behind her before a jet of flame streaked outwards and painted a tank red.

Emma's attack was a little less flashy. With a blip of light in one hand and a howling vortex sphere in the other, Emma dropped out of the sky at speed for her target. The sphere was launched almost immediately and exploded just ahead of the tank, sending the multi-dozen ton vehicle swerving vaguely but kicking a spray of dust. The blip of light turned into a long cavalry lance, which was quickly launched into the tank as it passed through the dust cloud.

Emma landed on the turret and jumped again, summoning her halberd this time as the tank ground to a halt behind her. Continuing her forward momentum, Emma aimed for the next tank in the formation. A small, white hot fireball punched into its turret as it turned to track Emma, and Emma finished it off by cleaving it open.

"Thanks, but I had it covered," said Emma telepathically, landing on the ground, and blasting a passing enemy IFV with a vortex sphere. The vehicle's hull was rent apart, spilling troops onto the ground as it careened into the ground and broke up.

"Sure you did," said Rene, a jet of flame heralding her destruction of another IFV. "Just like you had it covered the time with the hover troopers."

"That was entirely your fault," answered Emma, laying into the survivors with her halberd rapidly and efficiently. The squad was dead at her feet in seconds, just in time for her to summon a twenty foot long sarissa, plant the counterweight into the ground, and level the point into an IFV trying to run her over. "You were sleeping on the job."

"I got more torso shot through!" replied Rene indignantly. "You can't expect- oh shit."

Emma threw a sphere into the IFV and ran, heading straight for Rene's position, where streaks of UV light were visible on Emma's augmented vision.

"Shit, I got a can of Shock Troopers," said Rene, mental voice tight with stress as Emma watched her backpedal rapidly, dodging and weaving while fending off melee attacks with her rapier. "I need some help here, Emma."

"Already on it, gimme a light," answered Emma, gathering a pool of magic as she ran, jumping over an IFV as she did so and slamming a poleax into it as she passed.

"And.. now!" Rene shouted, pirouetting on the spot and forming a curtain of fire around her. Moments later, a swirling storm of wind encompassed the curtain and turned it into a flaming tornado, expanding outwards rapidly and consuming the Shock Troopers.

This was hardly enough to actually kill one of the heavily shielded and armored troops, but it was enough to disorient them and drop their shields to manageable levels. Emma's halberd bit into one from behind, cracking its shielding, before a magically-backed follow-up kick shattered it completely. Emma leaped out of the way, allowing Rene to shoot a fireball into the Trooper's torso and kill it.

The banter of earlier dropped completely as Emma landed beside Rene, halberd in hand as she provided the defense to Rene's offense. Point bursts of wind magic kicked up dense clouds of dirt that Cephalopod laser fire couldn't penetrate without losing too much energy, while her long pole arm allowed her to fend off any attempts to close to melee. Meanwhile, Rene continued sending out streams of flame that ate at shields until they failed and allowed her to incinerate the enemy.

"We need to keep pulling back," panted Emma as they slowly gave ground to the coordinated enemy fire. "It's a matter of time until these Troopers get bored and just have us blasted."

"No, our fireteam have us covered," said Rene.

Anti-tank missiles streaked in, low to the ground and unnoticed in the fog of war. Emma wrapped them in a maelstrom of wind as the missile detonated on the Shock Troopers, the velocity and magnitude of the strike blasting through the shielding and ripping apart armor plates.

"Merry Christmas, Lieutenants," called out the team leader over TeamCom.

"Thank you very much," said Emma as she and Rene hastily gulped in air and continued fighting, creating a pocket around them where enemy troops were veering around. The tanks were already in range of Varsha and Rebecca, who were putting their powers to terrifying effect, the first by blasting whole vehicles into oblivion and the other by turning them on each other in spectacular explosions.

"Hey, don't mention it," said the team leader. "Just- shit-"

A fireball blossomed along Varsha and Rebecca's position.

"Gooddess dammit," snarled the team leader. "Their air support is getting through!"

Emma clamped down on an urge to go back to help their friends. Rene's hand on her arm made it easier to refocus on the situation at hand.

"Fireteam Alfa, we're going to need some cover to recharge," said Emma, summoning another sarissa and spearing an IFV. Her TacComp informed her that her soul gem's charge was dipping below forty percent. "We're going to need it very soon, actually, can you make it to our position?"

"We can make it, give us twenty seconds," confirmed the team leader.

"Alright, Rene, we have twenty seconds to give these squids hell," said Emma, surveying the battlefield quickly. The right flank appeared to have held, with the other girls assigned to the flank performing as well, or better, as Emma and Rene. The center was being backed by masses of suppressive fire from the main line, and the cephalopod right flank, the left flank of the human positions, was b eing bombarded at leisure by Ayane's flight of Aer Magi and the artillery assigned to that sector.

"We could use some of their artillery," said Rene, nodding at the left flank as she readied herself for another burst of magic. "This is getting tiresome."

Emma glanced over at her friend. Rene was sweating, hands trembling as she fought to maintain her composure. A brief query to her TacComp told Emma that Rene's soul gem hovered at just above twenty six percent.

"One last burst, okay?" said Emma, clapping an encouraging hand on Rene's shoulder, before pulling together her own charge of magic. The enemy attack began to stall out, with IFVs coming to a halt and disgorging their troops to try and push the line up.

"Right," said Rene, gritting her teeth with a laugh. "I do all the heavy lifting in this relationship."

"I'll buy you a beer later," said Emma dryly. "Now!"

With a shout, both girls blasted their spells into the enemy troops, fire and wind swirling together into a white cone of destruction, incinerating and melting down anything without high density shielding. The firestorm dropped after a few seconds, leaving almost nothing behind except melted metal and charred corpses.

"And that's that," gasped Emma as their fireteam pulled up in the IFV.

"For now," replied Rene tiredly, holding a handful of grief cubes to her soul gem as she climbed into the IFV, Emma following behind her. "Merde, why can't the squids just let us rest properly before they attack?"

"No idea," said Emma, sinking to the floor of the IFV as it roared off, the enemy offensive effectively broken here. "Bloody hell, I want a teleporter."

"We can always dream," said Rene with a chuckle, before putting the spent grief cubes back into her battlepack. Her soul gem sparkled anew.

"A nap does sound good," said Emma, her own gem once again ready for battle. Her TacComp completed an update, and Emma read through it as she put her grief cubes away. "Good news. Judging from the sitrep, this offensive's stalled out pretty completely. The fireball we saw missed Varsha and Rebecca."

"That's good," said Rene with a sigh of relief. "Who was hit?"

"Some girls from 1st Battalion, I don't know them," said Emma, their IFV changing course back for their main line. "I hope the rest of the them are alright, that can't have been a good way to go."

"We'll find out later, for now, let's concentrate on our own friends," said Rene. "There's little enough time for that anyway."

(-)

Ayane was scrubbing out her soul gem when Rene and Emma got back to the line.

"How'd it go?" asked Emma, sitting down beside her. "You guys were pounding the left flank pretty hard today."

"Yeah, 2nd Battalion got the crap shelled out of them," said Ayane, shaking her head sadly. "I think they hit a clusterfuck of Shock Troopers, who ended up just calling in artillery. We had to reinforce, or the attack would have spilled into that side of the line."

Emma and Rene winced.

"How many have been lost?" asked Rene.

"At least one girl from every company," said Ayane, setting her grief cubes aside for later processing. "It's bad. They might temporarily reassign some of you to fill in the gaps."

"Yeah, that's.. that's depressing," said Emma. "We'll have to talk to them later, give them our condolences."

The three fell silent, reflecting on the deaths of their comrades. They didn't know them personally, but every mage lost was another member of their community gone.

"We should check on our men," said Emma eventually, standing up. "We'll see you around, Ayane."

"See you," said Ayane. Emma turned to go, but as she stepped forward, a blindingly white light blanked out her vision, before-

EMERGENCY TERMINATION

EXIT TO LOBBY

-Emma was blinking at a wood wall in a chair, utterly confused. A moment later, her brain recalibrated and she was confused for an entirely different reason.

"Ayane, what's going on?" she asked, standing up and looking to her left, where Ayane had just finished recalibrating. "Why did they kill the sim?"

"I have no idea," said Ayane, getting out of her chair beside Emma. "Looks like everyone's dropped out at the same time."

Emma nodded, the mental cacophony of telepathic chatter flying back and forth almost deafening. "Let's get out of here and figure out what's-."

With a gasp, Emma was sitting up in her VR chair, being lifted up by Samantha, who was shouting: "Grab your things and get outside! Go!"

Stumbling briefly from the captain's forceful shove, Emma quickly regained her balance and sprinted down the halls for her room, skidding around corners and dodging other trainees who were also running full tilt. Despite this, a glance out a window of the training facility made Emma skid to a halt.

There were transport shuttles lined up in the grass outside, girls already running to them and lining up to board. It was an absurd sight, one that only had happened in the sims so far, not in real life. Then Emma's TacComp shouted at her to get moving again, making her jerk and keep running, sliding into her room and beginning to pack her things.

"TacComp, what do I need and what do I leave?" she asked, pulling open the drawers.

"Leave everything except for your grief cubes and your weapon," said her TacComp. "Training Cohort 7A has been reassigned immediately to active service." "What?" asked Emma, coming completely to a stop as Ayane skidded through the door. "Repeat that."

"Training Cohort 7A has been reassigned immediately to active service," Emma's TacComp repeated dutifully.

"Ayane, is your TacComp-?"

"Being impossible? Yes," said Ayane with a grimace, shoving her grief cubes into a backpack and slinging her sidearm on around her waist. "This can't be right, we've only just started deep-dive simulations."

"Apologies, but this unit is incapable of being impossible," reassured Emma's TacComp as she pulled her sidearm on and checked that it was safed. "Please comply with orders as quickly as possible."

"I don't believe this," said Emma, dumping her grief cubes into a backpack and checking her soul gem for contamination. It was clean enough to worry about later. "What's going on?"

"We'll worry about the update later, let's get to our shuttle," said Ayane, pulling on her backpack. Emma nodded, and the two of them ran back out, through the hallways, and down to the lawn.

The shuttles were deafeningly loud, even more so than the anxious telepathic chatter. Emma and Ayane winced at the noise and followed their TacComp instructions to Shuttle 048, where they found Rene, Rebecca, and Varsha.

"Enjoying the concert?" asked Rene, shouting telepathically. Voice chat was utterly impossible, this close to the shuttles.

"Immensely," Emma replied, to the nervous laughter of the others. They filed in behind the other girls assigned to the same shuttle and buckled themselves in. Moments after everyone was seated and ready, the shuttle lifted off the ground with the thrum of anti-grav, then shuddered as the powerful turbofans roared and launched it for the horizon at speed.

The interior of the shuttle was silent. This was partly because technology allowed passengers to ride in silence and comfort, even when their transport was soon breaking the sound barrier thrice over. The other reason was because the girls had finally gotten to referencing their TacComp updates.

A massive cephalopod offensive had just smashed through the outer lines of resistance in the Nile Sector. The outer colonies were already lost, and the Military was reeling as it tried to reinforce the salient. There were massive casualties, there were not enough supplies, but, worst of all, there was no time. At the rate the cephalopods were progressing, they would be within blink drive range of Samsara in five days. It would take two for them to rendezvous at the mustering point with their assigned units, and another two for them to make it to Samsara.

Emma and Ayane sat quietly, neither saying a word as everyone around them digested this information. Two days of simulations corresponded to roughly two weeks of real world experience. The units that were being annihilated, right this second, had at least twice that. If older, wiser soldiers were falling like flies…

What would happen to them?