29th March 2310 07:24 EST - After 10 months of intense training, Jason was eager to get onto the front lines before the war would finish without him.

Stupid thoughts really as reports said that the war was still raging on. It had only taken a mere week for Pluto and Charon Station to be liberated, but the resistance there was minimal. After all, as Vladimir had said, it was simply a ruse to keep USM focus away from Alpha Centauri.

The story at Alpha Centauri was vastly different. It was heavily contested in multiple locations around the system. Intelligence officers within the USM tasked with estimating the length of the war could simply not predict how long it would rage on or who would end victorious. It was a stalemate at present and no one truly knew the combined power of the Ceti's armed forces.

It was up to the media to randomly pluck out experts with no credentials to decide two years was a reasonable length of time.

For Jason, it didn't matter. He had been training extensively, making him feel sharper, stronger and fitter than he had ever felt before, and with new units being created to prepare for the war effort, it hadn't taken him long to place two stripes on his uniform.

Corporal Scharn, had a nice ring to it.

There was no doubt that he deserved the promotion among his peers. He had displayed impressive leadership and tactical skills on numerous occasions and when the 223rd Rifles Regiment was established, he was quickly chosen for the rank of Corporal.

Corporal Jason Scharn of the 223rd 'The Crazy Tigers' Rifle Regiment,

Only one more step was required before the regiment would be officially assigned to the front line, the final test in which only five percent of units passed.

The test was meant to be near impossible, however, those that show significant qualities within it would be watched closely and potentially considered for a Special Operations Recon Unit.

Jason beamed as the thought of him being considered for the Crimson Scimitars, the Golden Falcons or the Blue Ravens flitted through his mind. He would be in the best of the best of the USM.

Brought back to reality, there was also a small possibility that he could be sent home after this test, labelled not fit for duty. Realistically though, Jason was far more capable than his peers and with a war going on, it was unlikely that any would be turned away from active duty.

As before every exercise, Jason diligently polished his armour. He took such pride in doing so, despite having machines capable of doing it for him. There was something relaxing as he rubbed polish furiously in between the knocks and crannies of the flexible metallic fibres, but it also gave a level of perfection that a machine didn't seem to master.

In the corner of his eye, Aurora strutted around with a purpose and zeal that Jason had never seen in his friend before. As she tied up her silky blonde hair, there was a confidence in her that military life had coaxed from deep inside. Receiving the rank of Lance Corporal was exactly what she had deserved.

"I can always find you here," she claimed, smiling as soon as she recognised her friend.

He started vigorously gleaming a speck of dirt on his shoulder pads, likely picked up on their last exercise no doubt. It wasn't going to ruin his masterpiece. "Helps me relax," he replied.

"Jason Scharn, nervous? Surely not?" She mocked him.

"I said it helps me relax, not helps me calm my anxiety!" He chuckled.

Aurora sighed knowing that he was anxious, but not about the test. "Have you contacted your father?" She asked knowing that Jason hadn't spoken to him since he had signed up.

"No" his response was sharp and direct, clearly attempting to close the conversation before it could develop.

There was a slight frown from Aurora, but she was not going to be deterred by his abruptness. "You don't even have to speak long, just talk, about anything, the weather perhaps!"

Jason's frown became as vigorous as his polishing.

"Perhaps talk to him about how you can get another promotion!" Another voice echoed across the room. Corporal Joseph Westwood, another recruit that joined just before Jason and Aurora. Jason and Westwood had never seen eye to eye throughout their training. Confident in his own ability, he was left disgruntled when Jason was offered the first position as Corporal ahead of him. He then proceeded to complain that Jason was given the promotion because of his father, the great General Yulrian Scharn.

Westwood's dislike of Jason was confounded by his constant rebuffed advances toward Aurora. Westwood was not an unattractive man, his chiselled jaw and tall frame would certainly turn some heads, but not Aurora's, who would prefer to interact with her long time friend above any others.

"You're boring Westwood, get over yourself!" Jason responded frowning as he returned to his armour.

Westwood wiped his shaven head and stood upright glaring with his dusty brown eyes. "My team will ace this test today, you mark my words." he mocked.

Jason stopped his polishing as he turned to his compatriot. He looked at him long enough that the piercing stare of his cold blue eyes appeared to be looking directly into his soul. "Hardly anyone even completes this test, let alone aces it. You might want to reevaluate your expectations."

Despite his unwavering confidence, Jason was realistic about his chances of completing this test. It was designed to evaluate cadets on encountering impossible odds and checking their ability to deal with the stress of combat in such an environment.

Westwood rubbed his bald head and then smiled. "Getting scared are you?"

Jason screwed up his face at the clearly ill-conceived response. Westwood was nervous, and despite being a capable soldier, would struggle with this task.

Look, Westwood, " Jason calmly responded, "you don't ace this, it's not possible. You survive this, which most don't. I will survive this, and then we can discuss in length exactly how you handed your ass to the enemy so easily!"

Westwood's face screwed up in rage and it didn't take long for his tall intimidating figure to square up to his shorter rival. "I will succeed at this!" he growled, pointing his finger towards Jason's face.

Jason just shrugged off Westwood's petulance and continued to clean his armour. He did not need this distraction before this difficult challenge. "Goodbye Westwood, " he scoffed, "I need to prepare."

Frustrated by his lack of interaction, Westwood turned towards Aurora, smiling at her with his crooked lips. His display of masculinity did nothing to grab her attention.

That just seemed to irritate Westwood more as he stormed out of the room leaving Aurora and Jason to chuckle between themselves.

"You wind him up so much!" Aurora commented.

"I plan to win this today, and I'm not going to let him think that his mind games will work" replied Jason, frowning slightly.

Aurora turned to Jason slightly confused by his outburst. "The fact that you've reacted suggests his mind games are working."

Jason looked somewhat frustrated by the whole incident "I will prove that I've got to this position because of my ability not because of who my father is. Today I'm going to show them what I'm made of!"

29th March 2310 09:30 EST - The exercise was set in an urban environment with various buildings splashed around the virtual arena, however, it was bereft of civilians.

Jason and his team of thirteen soldiers had been dropped in a grass area towards the outside of the scenario. As per instructions, they set a perimeter around the drop zone, immediately evaluating their surroundings. Realising they were alone, Jason took to planning their approach.

The objective; was to trek to a facility deep in the city centre, plant explosives in the quickest time possible and return to the drop zone for extraction. Intelligence was sketchy at best. The defensive forces and capabilities within the city were unknown and to add additional pressure, Westwood's team would be performing the exact same mission at the exact same time.

There was a desperation in Jason to beat his counterpart, however, despite the desperation, wisdom far beyond his years took control of his thoughts. Rushing headfirst towards the objective would cause mistakes, and mistakes in an unknown environment were deadly for him and his team.

Until he could provide some sort of intelligence on the scenario, any assault on the city would be suicide.

"Pavylenko, get me a map." He ordered, spurring the other soldiers to burst into life.

Almost instantly, the young blonde Pavylenko was by his side and pressing buttons frantically on a small screen that briefly hovered over his wrist.

A plethora of activity hummed into life from Pavylenko's backpack as small mouse-sized drones spewed from its belly. As they ascended in various different directions, it would not be long before visibility of the surrounding area would become available.

A combination of information from his helmet and his wrist tool was starting to paint a picture of the surrounding area. That was until Pavylenko unconventionally swore aggressively. "Goddammit! The signals are being blocked. Most likely jammers are in place!"

Jason sighed. He had expected it to be the case otherwise the first part of the mission would have been all too easy.

"Show me what you've got, " Jason instructed.

With a few more taps of his wrist, a holographic projection of the surrounding area expanded from Pavylenko.

Instantly, the flashing of their position appeared on the map, encouraging Jason to swipe sideways to garner some information on the city.

Sweeping across the map towards his objective, before zooming at various stages of magnification, Jason let out an exasperated and frustrated sigh.

"What is it?" Aurora asked.

Turning towards Aurora, Jason replied, "Between here and our objective, there are far too many easily defensible positions. Without knowing what defenses they have, we could be walking into any type of ambush."

He continued to scroll around the map trying to formulate a plan in his mind. Eventually, he stopped at a tall building some three kilometres from their objective.

"There!" He pointed.

Aurora was confused. "What about there?"

As Jason pointed on the map, a line drew itself from the building to their location. As the line extended itself, the route was not a straightforward one.

"That building should give us ample coverage to recon the area. If we can set up camp there, we should be able to study their defences before planning an assault." Jason confided.

"That would take us hours! There's no way we would be quicker than Westwood." Responded Aurora.

"Speed is not essential for this mission, " Jason replied.

"But we are being timed!"

"Yes, we are. However, there's no time limit, just a timer. Westwood will rush headlong, blind towards the enemy. It will be his undoing. Our orders are to destroy the objective, and that's what I came here to do." Jason responded, a hint of frustration in his voice. "Prepare the team to move out, we leave in five.

29th March 2310 12:42 EST - For three hours, Jason and his team had traversed endlessly through the maze of the fake city. At every corner they prepared for ambushes, only to find more empty streets. Eventually, they reached their objective, a tall skyscraper overseeing the enemy structure.

As Jason gave the orders, his team instantly set up a perimeter around the building. Once it was established and confirmation of no enemy contact was received, Jason took the long flight up the building, with Aurora and Pavylenko in tow.

Reaching the top of the building was exceptionally hard work, but as the cool breeze of artificial air blew across the surface, the three soldiers took to crawling along the floor to reach the edge of the skyscraper.

Their bodies ached, and the crawl was arduous, but as they propped themselves up against a small wall on the edge of the building, satisfaction coursed through Jason's veins. The enemy hadn't spotted their approach.

As Pavylenko set up drones to view the surrounding area, the feed for the enemy structure had started to appear on their visors.

As Pavylenko manipulated the drones to gain a bird's-eye view of the surrounding area, an almost invisible sniper's nest was spotted a couple of kilometres from their position.

"Sniper's nest, coordinates two four dot seven five five seven by seven six dot five five two five." informed Pavylenko.

"Good spot, " Jason responded, "mark it on the map."

As Pavylenko continued to study the area, he placed various markers on the map, displaying all hostile forces in the area. Sniper's nests, gun turrets, machine gun emplacements, heavy troopers, weaponised mechs, the facility was an absolute fortress. Unless Jason had artillery, air support and some heavy mechanised support, a full-frontal assault would be suicide.

Despite the information Pavylenko had acquired, there was no way of knowing the forces within the facility. Heavy shielding made any reconnaissance by the drones a lost cause, Jason would have to make do with the information that he had.

The three soldiers crawled their way back down the building to return to the team below.

Gathering his forces together, Jason was eager to pass on the instructions to his team.

"Pavylenko, take the squad along the designated route, " he explained as the visible holographic map displayed a clear trail away from their position. "At fourteen hundred hours, engage the sniper's nest near your location. Suppressive fire, I'm more interested in making noise than clearing out the enemy.

Jason swung the map back around to the main objective.

"Aurora and I will use your distraction to sneak into the facility. Using the maintenance hatch to the west of the facility, we'll get in, plant the explosives, and get out." instructed Jason. "Once we depart, everyone maintain radio silence until I give the instructions at 1400. Ok?"

Jason studied each of his team as they nodded in accordance with his instructions.

"Remember, radio silence and at 1400 hours, unleash hell," he reiterated.

"Confirmed. Right all, let's move out." Pavylenko responded before turning to his team and encouraging their preparation.

Jason and Aurora watched as Pavylenko and his team made their way through the buildings of the generated city. Their lack of noise and skilful precision brought a sense of pride to Jason before he glanced over at the puzzled Aurora.

"You do realise that they will be slaughtered," Aurora commented.

Jason nodded "we are not expected to complete the task, so it doesn't matter." He replied callously.

Aurora frowned at his response, "And why always me? There are others who can do the job." She replied.

Jason smiled but remained vigilant for any unexpected patrols. "But none that I trust like you!" He responded.

Aurora blushed slightly by the response and once realising she was doing so, looked down at her rifle and examined its readings to desperately avoid any eye contact.

Jason smiled as he noticed her blush but remained focused on his task. "Let's move out, we need to reach that maintenance hatch before 14 hundred."

With that they glided their way between the buildings, hoping to make good time on their journey to the hatch.

29th March 2310 13:57 EST - Jason chewed through his ration bar as he awaited the assault from Pavylenko's squad. Savouring the nutrients and flavours that the ration was giving him, he studied Aurora as she observed enemy movements.

Studying the sentries, their patrol routes and weapon types had been an arduous task, but one that was needed. Despite an overwhelming force being stationed around the facility, traversing to the maintenance duct would be a relatively easy task.

It didn't, however, account for the forces inside the facility.

"Not interested in a bite?" Jason said, offering part of his rations bar over to Aurora.

"How are you not at least a little bit nervous?" Aurora asked, pushing the ration bar away with minimal movement.

Jason took another bite and smiled. "Because we're going to win!" He said with a touch of arrogance.

She shook her head in disbelief. Crawling back to Jason's position she looked at her heads up display (HUD) which gave the time. "They should be engaging any time now."

Jason gulped down the last remnants of the bar, before slipping his helmet back on. As various information flashed up upon his HUD, he knew it was time to prepare himself for the next part of his plan. As both he and Aurora picked up their rifles, they eased themselves into a position where they could move quickly and easily.

"Any time now." He said, feeling a tinge of excitement in anticipation of the expected engagement.

There was a deafening silence, seconds seemed to last for ages and the wait for 14 hundred hours seemed to take a lifetime.

Then...

The fizzing sound of battery packs expelling energy out of the rifles could be heard in the distance. As instructed Pavylenko had begun the attack on the Sniper's nest and it wasn't long before the quietened muffled sound of sniper rifles carefully took aim at the squad.

Jason's team were well drilled and an adequate fighting force. They would not make it easy for the enemy forces to overwhelm them.

As expected, the main facility's huge metallic doors burst open encouraging a swarm of soldiers to spew from its belly. The sheer size of the force would be too much for Pavylenko and his team and it would not take them long to be overrun.

Jason looked toward Aurora and gave the signal for her to follow his lead. Making their way to the maintenance duct required precision, agility and poise, but with the enemy force focused on Pavykenko, remaining hidden was a somewhat simple task.

It didn't take Aurora long to hack into the facility and as soon as they entered the cramped, claustrophobic walkway she dropped a short-ranged spider drone to view up ahead.

With rifle raised, Aurora took her steps carefully into the maintenance hatch, examining the feed from the spider drone at every opportunity. She stopped and raised her fist causing Jason, just a few steps behind, to also stop in his tracks.

Aurora raised two fingers, indicating two enemy combatants before clenching her fist and placing it to her side; both had shotguns. She finally pointed her finger to her eye encouraging Jason to take a look.

Without hesitation, Jason pressed a button on Aurora's shoulder guard to view the same images in his HUD as his compatriot was seeing. He gave out a small sigh as the two heavily armed guards wearing bulky armour stood at the only entrance into the facility.

Scenarios started running through Jason's mind. They would be slow and cumbersome, but the lack of space within the corridor would make agility a luxury they didn't need and closing the space down for hand to hand combat would be impossible with the shotguns not needing any sort of accuracy to get a clean hit.

Jason looked down at his grenades before scolding himself at the stupidity of the thought. The confined space would cause a painful backdraft and the noise would bring down the full force of the facility.

There was only one option available to them, using their standard assault rifles as a makeshift sniper rifle. One direct shot, straight at the throat, where the armour was weakest would not only guarantee a kill but would maintain silence.

Silently, Jason passed on the instructions with hand signals, and as Aurora acknowledged, they both slowly and carefully manoeuvred themselves into a position where their targets were visible.

The knowledge that the entire mission would fail if their shots were off by even an inch did cause Jason's heart to flutter sporadically, but the adrenaline coursing through his veins gave Jason a thrill like no other.

Both soldiers slowed their breathing, inhaling carefully and releasing a long exhale. Eventually, they took one long breath in.

They fired.

Direct hit.

Both guards were instantly dropped to the floor, incapacitated by the training scenario's life-like generators.

As both Jason and Aurora stood, continuing towards the entrance of the facility, they watched the eyes of the two downed guards glare at them frustrated by their now lack of involvement.

Entering the facility was calming. It was empty and devoid of life. As they weaved in and out of various corridors, they entered the room where the explosives were to be set.

As Aurora got straight to work, arming the explosives, Jason became uneasy at how things had progressed so far.

It was just all a bit too easy!

Before they knew it the loud clanging of soldier footsteps could be heard in the distance and rapidly getting closer. A lot of footsteps!

"Shit!" Jason knew they had been made. An alarm at the entrance to the room, or more likely, monitors on the soldiers would have alerted the facility of their presence. "Make it quick Aurora!" Jason instructed.

Aurora knew being quiet wasn't necessary anymore, haste was everything.

Before they could gain a hold of the situation, two small objects clattered into the room, rolling along the floor before coming to a standstill.

"EMP!" Jason shouted.

The two objects flashed before quickly disabling Jason and Aurora's visors making them briefly stumble in the dark. The Electromagnetic Pulse instantly deactivated anything electrical within the facility. Their visors, their weapon sights and most importantly, the remote detonators.

Jason threw his helmet to the side before looking through the now dysfunctional sight of his weapon. His frustration almost boiled over before he realised that the weapons they used still had mechanical and not electrical parts.

As the first soldier entered, Jason, aimed and fired, as the soldier fell to the floor, the next one entered before falling next to him, and then the next one and the next one. There were simply too many to have to deal with

"Aurora, detonate the explosives!" He shouted.

She too had taken off her helmet and was trying to hold back the enemy. "Are you out of your mind?" Aurora shouted as she was desperately trying to hold back the advancing forces.

"Do it, we must complete the mission!" He ordered.

Aurora looked at him blankly, amazed by his desire to sacrifice both of them to complete the mission. Her whole body screamed for her to argue for their lives, yet the soldier in her called to carry out orders.

Jumping out of cover, Aurora sprinted over to the first set of explosives. Just as she was about to interact with it, she felt a jolt in her back causing her entire body to convulse and push her unconventionally to the ground. If she could scream in anger, then she would have, but nonetheless, her battle was over.

Jason had to reach the last set of explosives. Sprinting across the room, he did not care about who or what he hit, his mind was solely on the explosives. Sliding across the floor, knowing that all around him, he was outnumbered, it was now or never.

He reached out desperately towards the explosives. He felt a jolt and slumped to the floor unable to move.