He and Arnis surged head-on against the two squadrons of four mobile frames moving against them. As they thrust their machines forward, their machines blazing a blue flame from their backs, they quickly reloaded their kinetic rifles and blocked oncoming fire with their shields. Both of them fired their kinetic rifles, unloading the entire magazine filled with paint shells in wide bursts, and unleashed the missiles on their backpacks that they had both held in reverse during the combat simulation for a moment like this. The missiles zoomed forward, air-bursting within the squadrons that forced them to disperse to avoid being knocked out by the exploding paint payload within it.

  It scattered the two squadrons that moved against them. The dispersed squadrons moved around them as both his and Arnis's mobile frames pushed through directly ahead, zooming past their opposing foes.

  Then both he and Arnis broke apart, moving horizontally in a parallel arc away from one another as their opposing foes quickly reoriented and pursued them, thrusting hard to reverse their direction and follow after them.

  Aster carefully monitored the grouping of opposing mobile frames; a squadron followed both his and Arnis's machines. They sent hails of paint shells after them from their own kinetic rifles that he barely dodged, maneuvering his machine in sharp bursts of his backpack thrusters and slight adjustments of his verniers.

  Then, as if thinking the same thing, he and Arnis’s machines suddenly banked hard towards each other in an intersecting arc, both of them reloading their empty magazines of their kinetic rifles. Their opposing foes had been taken off guard. They had moved so suddenly that their foes had little time to react. Their enemies stumbled around in their reactions to their quick movements and hesitated in firing after them lest they hit their own allies.

  With pinpoint accuracy, he and Arnis fired directly at each other, unloading their magazines, hitting the enemies following them. Their enemies could do little except try to evade, as firing could cause friendly fire.

  Aster smiled in victory. He and Arnis and done this time and time again, together in their time in the academies. And they had practiced this particular move until they knew each other's movements like the back of their hand. Their enemies, on the other hand, didn't seem prepared. They reacted clumsily, and it showed. Even a moment’s distraction could spell defeat.

  In a mere moment, another 8 mobile frames had been taken off the field by him and Arnis. The colorfully painted machines sagged in the air, their limbs going limp and their heads bowing, their thrusters moving them off the field and towards the Rakaila.

  It was a bit too easy.

  Aster removed the empty magazine from his rifle, placing it on this DMF-09 mobile frame’s waist, a clank from the embedded magnet within the armor sticking it to his machine. He took another loaded magazine and slapped it into the massive rifle.

  Then, just as Arnis and he regrouped once again, two more dots appeared on his cockpit’s heads-up display, another pair of machines that came at them from their flanks.

  He and Arnis zoomed off, separating again by the flanking fire that poured from them from the two new machines. Unlike his other foes before, these machines moved steadily, confident and assured as the enemy machines' thrusters pushed them quickly towards them.

  Each of the new machines paired off against him and Arnis. And he didn’t have much time to see how Arnis was doing as the machine came right at him. His new enemy dodged every burst of paint shell he sent after him. And his enemy didn’t bother returning fire; they wanted to come at him straight on in close combat.

  They were good!

  Aster thrusted his machine back with all possible speed to put distance between them. He wanted to lure them in a bit more. His enemy took the bait, thinking he was retreating in disorder.

  Then Aster reversed course, putting his machine forward at max acceleration. If this new foe wanted to fight close in, he would oblige them. He put the kinetic rifle on the back of his machine, sticking it to his mobile frame’s back on its magnetic clamp, then charged straight in, shield first, as he withdrew a dummy saber from his machine’s waist. As he closed in, a harmless crimson light appeared from it, replacing a particle saber.

  He took his enemy off guard as his enemy quickly attempted to adjust course, throwing his kinetic rifle at him, which he knocked aside with a shield.

  They bashed their shields together as Aster slashed at his foe with his dummy saber, his foe moving his machine to dodge every thrust and swipe that Aster sent against him.

  Then his foe managed to get a kick with his machine’s leg past his shield into his machine’s torso.

  Aster was rocked back as his cockpit shook with the force.

  Before they could clash again, a flurry of paint rockets burst between the two, separating them.

  Aster scanned his cockpit's display. More friendly and enemy mobile frames began to appear as everflowng and evershifting battle adjusted itself in the designated practice area.

  Aster twisted himself over more of the oncoming airbursting missiles and rockets, tumbling his machine as he twisted it repeatedly in loops to avoid the incoming fire. He scanned his surroundings after and found his opposing foe long gone.

  The field set aside for their combat simulation took up half of the volume of Alsium Two. It extended to the roof of the cavernous ceiling of Alsium Two and ran for half of the length of the dozens of miles that Alsium Two spanned. Even underground, it felt as if they were on the surface of Gaia. Granted, lest one be reminded by accidentally crashing into the artificial sky of the domed ceiling. But even this space felt somewhat small as several hundred mobile frames clashed with one another. It was just barely enough as it was with the chaos around him.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  There were no rules aside from a time limit. Any side could work together against the other side however they wished, in singles, in pairs, in groups. It didn’t matter.

  Arnis quickly regrouped with him after his friend found him in another small lull in the simulated battlefield. The proto particle density simulated combat levels, but communication was possible, if hard. It tended to cause all sorts of weird effects. Some of which were still unknown.

  His friend’s machine came to a stop beside him as they covered each other’s blind spots. “Whew. These DMF-09 Arvans are great, eh Aster?” Arnis said over their comms. “Crazy fast and handles just as fast too.”

  The synthetic muscle fibers that were built into the machines were amazing, he had to admit. They simulated the flexibility of a living being.

  “Ya…’ Aster said.

  “Doesn’t this remind you of our academy days, Aster?” Arnis said. “We always did do pretty well in the academies' simulations, eh?” Arnis said. “And you look like you haven’t lost your touch.”

  Then another group came forward, utilizing one of the artificial clouds to creep up on them. Though they didn’t stay long. They were merely using the clouds as concealment to send harassing fire their way as they stayed at range.

  Aster unclamped his kinetic rifle from his machine’s back, reloaded it again with a fresh magazine, and sent return fire as he held his shield up to block any harassing fire he couldn’t dodge. His friend Arnis did the same, as they supported each other and sent criss-crossing fire. The enemies didn’t stay long and quickly departed.

  He didn’t follow.

  While he could go after more of the opposing team, he had already taken out numerous mobile frames on the opposing force. More than enough to score high marks in post-simulation combat review. There wasn’t much point to doing anything more. There were several dozen machines left. From what he could see in his cockpit, maybe 30 to 40 machines were left, depending on how good his machine's sensors were due to the Proto Particle interference.

  Judging from the way his remaining allies and the enemy team fought, they probably thought similarly. His relaxed and mobile frame followed suit.

  The cockpit of his DMF-09 Arvan blared a warning. A new unit. Coming down from above, hugging the curvature of the domed ceiling of Alsium Two. It used the artificial sun and light generated from it as concealment against those underneath it. It read as another DMF-09 Arvan. But its movements were far quicker and more agile than the other mobile frames of the same model.

  It’s fast!

  Then, a display window popped up to his side. It was a message from the Rakaila. It played. And Aster was sure it had been sent to all the other remaining mobile frames out on the field.

  “All remaining mobile frames,’ Captain Rakaila said. “Cease prior operations. Effective immediately, commence new combat simulation.” They all heard the audible sigh of Captain Rakaila as she ended the communication.

  New combat simulation?

  Then, his user interface flashed, and all the remaining mobile frames that were on the enemy team, represented by red triangle icons, turned blue along with the other blue triangles that represented his friendly allies. It was only the new unit that had appeared on the battlefield that remained as a red triangle. The other mobile frames around him milled and hovered about in confusion as the new enemy unit came down from the direction of the sun.

  As it appeared out of the sunlight, all could see that instead of the standard black and dark red color scheme, it was painted over in dark green and blue.

  As they were now on the same team, the comms between everyone remaining on the mock battlefield sprang to life as everyone realized who was coming at them.

  “It’s Captain August!” One person said.

  “It’s the Gallant Gale!” Another person said.

  Aster gripped the stick controls of his mobile frame together. The Gallant Gale August. Just like Captain Lelesia, who was known as the Smiling Scythe, so too was Captain August known as the Gallant Gale. He was another of ace of aces in the End War. Someone who had also been known as a hero of the battlefield and had been there from the start of the war to the very end, and had taken down countless foes.

  “What team is he on?” Another person said.

  “I’m on no one team but my own!” Captain August laughed as he spoke in the open comms to them all. “Captain Rakaila ice cream is mine, brats!”

  “That bastard! He wants all the ice cream to himself!” Another person said over the open comms. “Take him down!”

  “Get him! There’s no way he can take all of us!” Another person said over the open comms.

  Captain August only laughed in response over the open comms as a barrage of paint shells was fired in his direction. The veritable wall was thick enough that Aster wasn’t sure how August could weave in and out of the random pattern of kinetic rifle fire so effortlessly, as if he were taking a stroll through a puddle-filled park. He pushed through and got within their makeshift formation, skillfully bouncing from position to position, using his opponents as shields lest any continued fire risk friendly fire.

  Yet, when Captain August returned fire, he did so with single shots. Even as dozens of mobile frames scurried every which way, it was like shooting rubber ducks in a barrel for him. He predicted easily and accurately every movement of the mobile frames that panicked around him, sending rapid-fire single shots in a 360 field of fire even as his machine tumbled and spun to get them in their vulnerable spots behind the cover of their shields.

  Aster tried to follow the Captain’s machine only to find himself being pushed out of the way by Arnis, who had taken a paint shell meant for him. The paint shell had struck him dead on, knocking his mobile frame out of the combat simulation.

  “Arnis!” Aster replied.

  “Don’t worry about me,” Arnis said. “You’re the only one left in the match.”

  Aster scanned his cockpit’s display. He really was. The rest of his entire team had been taken out in almost the blink of an eye.

  “Get the Captain for the rest of us, okay!?” Arnis said as his machine left, following the others who had also been defeated.

  “You got it!” Aster said as he gripped the controls of his machine tightly. Captain August was off in the distance, busily reloading his own kinetic rifle with a fresh magazine.

  Aster narrowed his eyes as he thrusted his machine forward straight at Captain August.