Basic Training - Part 2

Both pilots were jolted awake by the harsh buzzing of the intercom. After a moment fumbling around in the darkness of the still unfamiliar room, Deakka managed to hit the button to activate it.

Kruez's face appeared, a small smirk gracing his lips as he saw Deakka's bleary expression and state of undress. "Rise and shine, boys," he all but purred. "I want you both to report to the simulators in five minutes. Every second you're late is another day of scrubbing detail. Go!" he added, looking at his watch and then disconnecting the call.

"Fucking HELL!" Deakka swore, scrambling for his clothes.

The cursing was echoed by Yzak, who jumped from his bed and scrambled for his own clothes. "You weren't kidding when you said he was a sadist!" he growled, combing his fingers through his hair as they raced down the hallway towards the simulator room.

"He's pulled this stunt a couple times before," Deakka replied, groaning as his abused muscles protested the sudden workout. "Says it's practice for going into battle, because 'the enemy doesn't strike on a predictable schedule, or at your convenience'."

Yzak growled. "I had a drill sergent like that when I was in training," he said. "You get used to it eventually, I guess." They'd just arrived at the simulator room when a cramp locked up the boy's left calf. He gasped, swore loudly, and nearly fell, stopping to try to massage the muscle and try to release the tension.

"Wha... aw, shit!" Deakka checked himself and doubled back when he realized Yzak wasn't following him any more. He grabbed the other boy's arm and slung it over his shoulders, hauling him forward. "Rub it out AFTER we get there!" he said urgently. "I don't want to spend more days cleaning that hangar than we have to!"

Yzak swore again as he put weight on the foot, then allowed Deakka to help him along. "I thought we WERE here," he protested. "It fucking HURTS."

"We're not 'here' until he SAYS we're 'here'," Deakka growled under his breath, helping his teammate forward until they were standing - well, slouching - in front of Kruz. He saluted awkwardly, and Kruez clicked the button on the timer he was holding.

"Five minutes and four seconds," he said, almost smugly. "Not bad. What are you waiting for, an engraved invitation? Into the cockpits, the enemy squad has already destroyed half a dozen Jinn!"

Yzak groaned and knelt again, pressing hard on the muscle. He felt a nearly audible click as it released and he sighed with relief, getting to his feet and moving awkwardly towards the simulator. "Sorry, sir," he said, blushing hard.

Deakka had released him and was already climbing into the cockpit of 'his' simulator, built to resemble the MS he would be piloting - or rather, built to resemble what little data they currently HAD on said MS. He pulled his helmet on and flicked the switch that activated the simulator.

Kruez put them through their paces for the better part of four hours. By the time they were finished, Yzak's eyes were crossing and his stomach was growling loudly enough that he could hear it over the blasts of cannon fire. He'd been through hundreds, even thousands of training simulations, as well as flown a real Jinn, but Kruez's scenarios were nothing short of exhausting.

Finally the computer beeped to indicate they'd destroyed the last of the enemy units, and Deakka pulled his helmet off. His hair was plastered to his skull with sweat, and his hands were shaking with fatigue and leftover adrenalin.

"Who the hell programmed that one mobil armour?" he demanded. "Naturals can't fly that well!"

Kruez snorted. "These particular 'enemies' were developed from records of actual battles against the Earth Sphere forces. At least one Natural can and does fly that well - his name is Mwu La Fraga, and I've flown against him."

Yzak pulled off his own helmet and leaned back in the 'cockpit', wiping the sweat out of his eyes. "That's insane," he said. "Are you sure that guy is a natural? Maybe he's a traitor coordinator or something."

"No, I'm quite certain he's natural born," Kruez replied, in a tone of voice that said he wouldn't appreciate any further questions. "Now, if you want food, I suggest you get it now. Report to room B269 by oh-nine-hundred, which is..." he glanced at his watch, "twenty minutes from now. Dismissed!" He turned on his heel and strode out of the simulator room.

Yzak frowned after him, shrugging at Deakka. "I wonder what bug crawled up his butt," he said. "Twenty minutes isn't enough to shower AND eat, damnit!"

"I think the implication is that we get to choose between showering and eating." Deakka's stomach growled loudly, and he blushed, only faintly visible under his dark skin. "Disgusting as I feel right now, I'm still opting for eating. Knowing him, if we skip breakfast, we WON'T be given a chance to have lunch!"

Yzak nodded. "I can stand being sweaty for a while," he said. "It's not like we're not going to get disgusting after lunch. Let's just go eat." So saying, he set off in the direction of the cafeteria, having a pretty good idea of where it was after having been there the day before.

Deakka followed, trying to stretch out the sore muscles in his arms so they'd stop shaking so badly. "Christ, I feel like shit," he muttered under his breath. "Want to bet Kruez will make us do an endurance run or obstacle course or something after lunch?"

"Ugh..." Yzak said. "Is he trying to KILL me on my first day or something?" he cried. "I don't even want to think about what that muscle in my leg'll do if he tries to make us do an endurance run. I haven't had time to stretch it out since this morning!"

Deakka sighed. "No, he's trying to keep us alive. I've heard the stories from people who've been on the front... what he's putting us through is NOTHING compared to what we're looking at out there." He grimaced. "I still hate it, though."

"Yeah, I know," Yzak said grudgingly. "I'm sure this is nothing like being on the front...I'm just irritable because I'm hungry and tired, that's all."

Deakka snorted. "Hell, I've already been here for a week, imagine how I feel! Though he does seem to be coming down a little harder now that there's two of us." He groaned as they reached the cafeteria doors. "Gods, what's he going to be like when all five of us are here?"

"Don't even go there," Yzak grumbled. "Surely he won't have time to put us all through hell at the same time, so it'll get a little easier..." He sighed. "Yeah right..."

Deakka had to laugh at that. Glancing at the clock, he grabbed a couple of sandwiches from a tray and started gulping them down, not even bothering to sit. "Hurry up, it takes at least five minutes to get to B wing!"

Yzak nodded and began stuffing a sandwich into his mouth, barely pausing to chew before he swallowed. He was starving and rushed. The two boys garnered some odd looks from some of the other people around, though a few of them looked on with sympathy or pity. Yzak growled and ignored them, concentrating on getting enough food into his stomach to tide him over.

At six minutes to nine Deakka grabbed one last sandwich and bolted from the room, eating it on the run. "Let's go!" he called back over his shoulder.

Yzak took the half sandwich he was already eating and followed Deakka. "Coming!" he managed, his mouth full.

They ran through the corridors of the base, dodging other soldiers as they went. Deakka only barely bothered to return the salutes of higher-ranking officers - he didn't want to be late for this lesson.

They skidded to a halt in front of the right door with a full thirty seconds to spare. Deakka swallowed the last of his sandwhich, and walked calmly into the room.

Yzak had already finished his sandwich on the way and he walked with Deakka into the room, taking a deep breath to calm his breathing as they crossed the threshold.

What followed was one of the most exhausting, mind-breaking days either of them had ever experienced. The rest of the morning was crammed full of engineering, tactices, piloting and navigation classes. As predicted, they missed lunch when they were hauled out to another (thankfully much briefer) simulation, and then sent for physical training. NOT an endurance run, but rather several laps around the base pool, which was almost as bad.

By the time they staggered back to their room to change for dinner, Deakka was soaked with sweat and all but ready to collapse. "And we still have to scrub the hangar after all THIS?"

Yzak groaned, sinking down to the floor and stretching out there. "Just...give me a minute to rest..." he moaned. "Then I'll be OK."

Deakka peeled out of his uniform, uncaring that Yzak was right there, and grabbed a fresh one from his closet. He stood there holding it, wrinkling his nose. "Man, I'm disgusting. If I put this on, IT'S going to get disgusting. But I don't have time for a shower, unless I want to skip dinner!"

Yzak peered up at him. "Just put on the uniform," he suggested. "Dinner is more important than a shower right now, since we're going to get all messed up again." He pushed himself up and began peeling himself out of his own sweat-soaked uniform.

"This is true," Deakka agreed with a sigh, pulling the uniform trousers on. "If he keeps this pace up, he's going to kill us long before we get a chance to..." he stopped abruptly and looked around the room. "To, er, finish our mission," he ended lamely.

Yzak nodded, beginning to squirm into his own fresh uniform. It felt good to put clean clothes on, even considering how disgusting his skin was. "Yeah, I know...but like you said, he's not really trying to kill us, he's trying to keep us alive. Even if it might not feel like that right now..." he added with a sigh.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll appreciate it later. Right now I want to bitch about it," Deakka complained, his voice muffled as he pulled the red tunic over his head.

Yzak laughed. "Bitch all you like," he said. "I'll agree with every goddamn word you say, believe me." He threw the tunic on and stepped back into his boots, trying to walk and straighten his uniform at the same time.

Deakka covered a laugh at Yzak's awkward posture with a snort. "Right. C'mon, with our luck if we're late for dinner, he'll decide to make us skip it and go straight to the hangar."

Yzak straightened, looking about as immaculate as possible, given the lack of a shower. "Then we'd better not be late," he growled, moving towards the door.

Deakka ran his fingers through his hair, leaving it just as messy as before, and followed him out.

Dinner wasn't nearly as hurried as lunch was, and they made it to the hanger on time for their clean-up duty. Yzak sighed and then attacked the job with a vengence, seeming to pull new reserves of energy out of somewhere as he took out his frustration with the exhausting schedule on the gleaming ships' hulls.

Almost everything within easy reach had been cleaned the night before - one of them was going to have to climb up to the second level and sit on the support beams to clean. They played Jan-Ken-Pon, and Deakka lost.

Grumbling quietly under his breath, he climbed up and started scrubbing. In moments the water in his bucket was filthy, but he decided to make it last as long as possible - otherwise he'd be up and down the damn ladders every five seconds for a new bucket.

Yzak began scrubbing the lower levels, glancing up at Deakka with a superior smirk before bending down to scrub the deck.

"Smirk all you want... you'll be up here tomorrow with me," Deakka called back down at him sourly.

"Yeah, but at least I'm not up there today," Yzak said, still smirking.

"Bite me," Deakka called back. He dipped his scrub brush in the cleaner again, and grimaced when his hand and the brush came out coated in grease. "Ugh. Water change." He scrambled to his feet, and nearly lost his balance when his foot slipped in a puddle he'd left.

He managed to twist his body as he fell so he landed draped over the beam, all the wind knocked from his body as the hard metal impacted his stomach. He motion upset the bucket, which tumbled over the side of the beam..

"Shit!" he wheezed, lashing out with one foot. He managed to catch the handle with his foot, preventing the steel bucket from falling on Yzak's head - but not the disgusting, greasy water that had been inside it.

An explosion of swearing was Deakka's only warning before a scrub brush ricocheted off of the side of his head. "You asshole! You didn't need to do that!" Yzak cried, dripping wet and coated from head to toe in oil and grease.

Deakka winced and hauled himself back up onto the beam, snagging the bucket from off his foot. He tried to answer, but he still couldn't catch his breath. He settled for just shaking his head and wheezing quietly.

Yzak swore at him again, not realizing that Deakka was having trouble catching his breath. "You fucking well better get down here and help me clean up this water!" he cried, his face flushed with rage.

Deakka finally managed to get some air into his lungs, though his gasping was lost under the sound of Yzak's swearing. "Just... give me... a god damned minute!" he snapped back, still aching from the impact of the beam.

Yzak swore at him again, grabbing a mop and beginning to try to clean up the water. "I don't see why I should give you ANYTHING," he snarled.

"Fuck you," Deakka growled, finally able to get his voice back to full volume. He stood, more carefully this time, and made his way over to the ladder, clutching his chest. It hurt like a bitch.

"Oh, go fuck yourself," Yzak snarled, glaring down at the huge pool of water he was trying to tame. "You're the one who dumped a bucket of dirty water on me when I was just teasing you!"

Deakka climbed slowly down the ladder, wincing every time he had to raise his left arm. Finally he gave up and just climbed one handed. "I didn't do it on purpose, you ass!"

Yzak glared at him, then realized suddenly that the other boy was hurt. "What?" he asked.

Deakka jumped the last few feet, and winced. "I said, I didn't do it on purpose!" he defended himself. "I FELL, you ass. You almost had ME on your damn head!"

Yzak blinked at him. "Oh..." he said. "Are you OK?" he asked, colouring as he hastened over to Deakka.

"I think I cracked a rib," Deakka grunted, poking at his side. He cursed as he hit a particularly tender spot. "Or broke it. FUCK."

Yzak's eyes widened. "Fuck! I'll get a medic down here," he said, moving towards the intercom on the wall.

"For God's sake, Yzak, it's a fucking RIB," Deakka snapped, pain making him unusually short-tempered. "I can walk to the damn med wing."

Yzak stiffened, dropping his hand before it hit the intercom button. "Fine, go then," he said sulkily. "I'll finish mopping the goddamn floor."

For a moment Deakka seriously considered grabbing a mop and finishing the cleaning duty, just so Yzak wouldn't be able to accuse him of shirking or something stupid. But his rib twinged again and pinched at his lung when he started to reach for a mop, and he reconsidered.

"I'll be back as soon as they tape it up," he muttered instead, heading for the door. Inside he was struggling not to lose his temper, something he hated doing. What the fuck was Yzak's problem, anyway? Yeah, he'd gotten water dumped on him, but it wasn't like Deakka had done it on purpose!

"Don't come back," Yzak snapped, his eyes flashing. "You're HURT, Deakka. I'll finish, goddamnit!"

"I'll be FINE," Deakka snapped back, pausing in the doorway and scowling. "I'm not some god damned baby who needs to be coddled!" He spun on his heel and left before Yzak could reply.

As he made his way to the hospital wing, he cursed himself for losing his temper. Along the way he got several sidelong looks from people... between his sopping wet uniform and the uncharacteristic scowl etched onto his face, they apparently decided it would be best to just avoid him entirely. One young private even turned around and fled back the way he'd come when he nearly ran into Deakka coming around a corner.

Yzak mopped as quickly as he could. When the greasy water had been completely cleaned, he obtained permission to leave and headed back towards his room, still fuming at his own behaviour. He'd have to apologize to Deakka for being such an ass, if the other boy would even listen to an apology.

He found Deakka already in their room, lying shirtless on his bed with his arm flung over his eyes, presumably to block out the lights. His skin looked even darker than usual against the stark white of the bandages wound tightly around his torso, and he was still wearing both his pants and boots. His bed was a mess from the horrid condition of his uniform.

Yzak entered the room, eying his teammate. "What are you doing?" he asked, then winced.

There was no reply, and after a long moment Yzak realized that Deakka's breathing was too deep and even for him to be awake. It looked like he'd sat down for a moment, then fallen asleep without meaning to.

Yzak sighed softly, shaking his head. He ducked into the shower and washed off all the sweat, grease and grime from the day, then returned and regarded the sleeping Deakka thoughtfully. After a moment, he bent and began to remove the other boy's boots, moving on to his pants next.

Deakka didn't react to his boots being pulled off, but when Yzak went for his pants he shifted. A second later Yzak had a very sharp knife at his throat, and Deakka blinked bleary purple eyes at him from an inch away. "What the... Yzak?"

Yzak choked and held still. "Yeah, I was trying to get you out of those clothes, idiot," he said.

"Sorry," Deakka said, dropping the knife with a wince. "It's not a good idea to wake me by surprise..."

"It didn't look like a parade of elephants could wake you," Yzak said, shrugging. "I'm sorry I was such an asshole earlier," he added lamely. "I was more pissed at myself for not realizing you were hurt and that it was an accident before I went off."

"Don't worry about it," Deakka told him, shoving himself up off the bed. He looked at the mess left behind on his sheets, and made a face. "Fucking hell. I can't believe I fell asleep like that. I can't belive I was stupid enough to sit DOWN!"

Yzak eyed the bed. "Go get cleaned up, I'll think of something," he said, moving to gather up the spoiled sheets.

Deakka looked at him in surprise. "You don't have to do that," he said, though his tone was more grateful than anything.

"I know that!" Yzak said irritably, still too exhausted to modulate his tone. "Go, Deakka," he added, flapping a hand at him.

Deakka just sighed, then winced as that aggravated his rib. "I can't even take a fucking shower with these damn bandages on me," he muttered, heading for the bathroom. "At least they cleaned off my chest before they bandaged it."

"Take a bath, then! Or wash your hair in the sink and wipe off the rest of your body with a towel," Yzak called after him, shoving the sheets into the laundry. He eyed the remaining blankets and sighed, stumped.

"That's what I was planning!" Deakka called back through the now closed door. Yzak could hear water running, and the occasional grunt of pain from his teammate as Deakka twisted in odd configurations in order to wash himself without getting his bandages wet.

Yzak finally sighed and pulled the two mattresses onto the floor. He spread his sheet and blanket over both of them, wincing when he saw that they didn't quite stretch far enough. "I guess we'll just have to get cosy," he muttered, twitching the blanket this way and that in a vain attempt to get it to fit. "Tomorrow we can get fresh sheets from the laundry."

A spate of cursing from the bathroom preceded a rather noisy crash, followed by more cursing, this time accompanied by sputtering.

Yzak jumped to his feet and raced to the bathroom. "Deakka?!" he called, opening the unlocked door. "What happened?"

Deakka was lying on the floor looking somehow both dazed and pissed off at the same time. He managed to sit up as Yzak came in the door. "Slipped," he grunted, checking his ribs. Amazingly, he'd managed not to get the bandages wet.

"Well, that was stupid," Yzak said, not without affection. He leaned down and helped Deakka to his feet. "Dry off. I think I've figured out something that'll work, though you're probably going to kill me for it."

"Eh?" Deakka gingerly accepted the towel Yzak offerred him, wrapping one around his waist and using the other to dry his hair. "What's that?"

Yzak sighed. "You'll see in a minute. Can I leave you alone for two seconds without you hurting yourself again, or should I stay and watch?" he asked, raising a silver eyebrow and smirking at Deakka.

Deakka flushed, for once the colour bright enough to be clearly visible under his dark skin tone. "I'll be fine," he said, irritated with himself for being so awkward.

Yzak chuckled and withdrew from the room, closing the bathroom door and looking again at the bed he'd made in the middle of the floor. Sighing again, he crawled under the covers and waited for the explosion that he was sure would happen when Deakka emerged.

Deakka came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, and stopped short at the sight of the mattresses piled together. He stared for a moment, then rather than getting angry, he gave Yzak the most genuine smile the silver haired boy had yet seen from his teammate.

"Hey, thanks," Deakka said sincerely. "Christ, you didn't have to put yourself out because I was stupid enough to fall asleep on my bed covered in shit."

Yzak blinked at him. "It was the only thing I could come up with," he said, amazed that Deakka hadn't laughed or gotten upset over the idea of them sharing the bed.

Deakka nodded, and flipped off the lights. Dropping the towel down the laundry chute, he crawled gingerly onto the makeshift bed. He bit back a curse or two as his ribs protested him leaning down that much, but finally he was safely under the blankets.

He yawned hugely. "God. I hope Kruez doesn't pull another stunt tomorrow morning like he did today."

Yzak sighed. "Fuck..." he swore fervently. At Deakka's questioning noise, he shrugged. "The fact that you've said it GUARANTEES that he will!"

Deakka yawned again and rolled over a little closer to Yzak so he could get more blanket. "If he tries, I say we TP his MS," he suggested sleepily.

"Good idea..." Yzak said. Raising his voice, he addressed the room. "You hear that, sir? That's not an idle threat. Let us get some sleep!"

Deakka chuckled softly, the sound trailing off into something closer to a snore as he fell asleep once more.

Yzak closed his eyes and squirmed into a comfortable position, trying not to lie against Deakka and finding it hard to do that AND be covered by the blanket. Finally, his body took the choice away from him as he fell asleep, pressed against Deakka's back, his leg hanging out from under the covers.

Sure enough, around oh-dark-hundred, the intercom buzzer went off again. Deakka murmured something and buried his face deeper into Yzak's shoulder, which he was currently using as a pillow.

Yzak came awake a little more quickly. Disoriented for a moment, he groped for the intercom button, before realizing he was on the floor, and was being held down by Deakka. "Wake up!" he called, trying to extricate himself. "Deakka, wake the fuck UP!"

"Huhwha?" Deakka replied intelligently, struggling to get his eyes to open. He groaned as the rather large bruise across his chest made itself felt, and rolled off Yzak. "Whatthefuck izzat noise?" he muttered, still disoriented.

"Intercom," Yzak managed, scrambling for the button and hitting it at the same moment that he barked his shin on the bedframe. "Ah FUCK! I mean, y-yes sir?" he wheezed, clutching at his injured leg.

Kruez's expression was mostly hidden as always, but there was a quirk to his lips and his voice was amused when he spoke. "We're going to have to work on your protocols for greeting a superior officer, Jule," he commented. "Simulator. And as a concession to Elthman's injury, you get seven minutes." The screen blanked out.

Deakka had managed to get himself up and was groping around in his desk for the painkillers the doctors had given him.

Yzak swore again after disconnecting the intercom, hobbling to his closet for a fresh uniform. "You OK, Deakka?" he asked, struggling into his pants.

"I feel like a Jinn kicked me in the chest, but otherwise, yeah," he agreed after dry swallowing a couple of the pills. He grabbed one of his own uniforms, struggling to get the tunic on without aggravating his injury.

Yzak finished struggling into his uniform and turned without even asking for permission to help Deakka.

Deakka scowled, more at the fact that he needed the help than anything. "Thanks," he said when Yzak finally managed to get the damn thing settled properly on him. "Now let's get the hell out of here, before we end up with ANOTHER week scrubbing!"

Yzak nodded and grabbed Deakka's hand, hauling him out of the room and down the hallway.

Deakka hissed quietly under his breath, but trotted along willingly. He even managed to inject some humour in his voice when he asked, "What, am I a five year old who needs to be led around now?"

"This way when you fall behind, I'll know about it and be able to carry you or something," Yzak said teasingly. "So keep the fuck up."

Deakka laughed outright at that. "That'd be a hell of a sight, you carrying me into the room like a fucking bride..."

"Yeah, and it's not one anyone wants to see," Yzak growled. "And since you don't seem to be able to take a SHOWER without hurting yourself, I'm sticking with you from now on!"

Deakka's cheeks burned. "I SLIPPED, all right? YOU try washing yourself in that damn tiny cubicle without getting your chest wet!"

"Who slips in the shower?" Yzak said dismissively, though his eyes glittered with mirth. "Old ladies and little children, that's who."

Deakka used his free hand to punch the other boy on the arm. "Fuck you," he said in an almost affectionate tone.

Yzak laughed and hauled on Deakka's arm, steering him into the simulator room before finally letting go and coming to attention in front of Kruez.

They both saluted, and he clicked off his clock. "Thirty seconds to spare," he said. "I should've said six minutes. Go on, into the simulators!"

He proceded to run them through their paces, with a variation this time - they each had four Jinns to command, as well as their own MS. The Jinns responded to verbal commands just as if there were real pilots flying them.

About halfway through the fight, Deakka missed a fantastically easy shot with the large gun his MS was equipped with. He blinked a couple of times, then swore as he suddenly had to dodge an enemy he hadn't even seen.

"Where the FUCK did he come from?" he muttered under his breath. Then he glanced at his chronometer, and realized he'd actually lost about five seconds of the battle.

"Oh... shit," he exclaimed, this time loud enough for Yzak to hear him. "The painkillers... damn it, they're putting me to SLEEP!"

"WHAT?" Yzak exclaimed, nearly allowing one of his Jinns to get creamed as he was distracted. "Are you serious, Deakka?"

"No, I'm JOKING," Deakka snarled. He shook his head violently, trying to wake himself up, but his vision was drifting in and out of focus and there was nothing he could do about it. "Shit shit SHIT!"

"What are we going to do? Can we stop the simulation?" Yzak asked.

Deakka opened his mouth to ask Kruez that very thing, but the captain answered him before he got a word out. "You wouldn't be able to stop a real battle," his voice came over their comms. "Play it out."

"Fucking hell..." Deakka swore as he dodged an enemy suit, only to run into one of his own Jinn squad.

"DON'T FALL ASLEEP," Yzak cried as he concentrated on trying to get rid of the enemies he was facing, so that he could go help his friend. "Just stay alert, Deakka. You're a fucking coordinator, act like one!"

"Go to fucking hell!" Deakka snapped back, for once deliberately allowing his temper to get the better of him. The adrenalin surge caused by the anger helped him stay awake and at least marginally focused.

Good, if he's pissed, he's not asleep. "You first!" Yzak snarled. "I'm not the idiot who got into a simulator booth with meds that say 'Do not operate heavy machinery' on the fucking side of the bottle!"

"They don't say a God damned thing on the side of the bottle except 'take two at need'!" Deakka shouted back. He fired wildly at the enemy - even though his aim was horrid, he still managed to hit two of them, just through sheer volume of ammo.

"You're so full of shit it's coming out your ears!" Yzak yelled, blowing away another enemy suit. "I bet you didn't even READ the goddamn bottle!"

"I did so!" Deakka replied heatedly. He winced as two of his Jinn squad were vapourized by enemy fire, but managed to return the favour by destroying the MA that had blasted them.

Abruptly the simulator kicked forward, throwing him against the restraints hard enough to make his rib protest loudly. He bit back a scream of pain with effort - all that emerged was a little choking sound. There were klaxons going off in his ears - he'd been hit from behind, and half his vital systems were down.

"Fuck... Yzak, I'm going down!" he shouted over his comm. A screen to his right warned that there was a fire in his electrical system - in moments it would reach the power battery, and if this had been a real battle he'd have been LUCKY to be killed by the blast before he knew what was happening. "Pull your units and get the fuck out while you can!"

Yzak swore loudly. "No! Eject, Deakka! I'll get you!" he cried.

Christ, right, the eject, what the fuck is WRONG with me... Deakka stabbed the eject button, then pounded it when nothing happened. All he got for his efforts was another klaxon. "Fucking hell! The eject isn't working, the system has crashed!" He could hear his transmission breaking up, just as it would have were he actually in this situation. "Yzak, get OUT of here! Before the fucking thing blows up and takes you with it!"

Yzak swore, casting around for other options, but he had no choice. If he tried to rescue Deakka, the best he could do is pound ineffectually at the mobile armour until it exploded and took them both down. Still swearing, he pulled away, watching on his monitor for the explosion that heralded Deakka's 'death'.

The simulator jerked again, hard enough that Deakka did make a choked pained noise. Thankfully, his comm was gone, so the only one who heard it was Kruez, who was overseeing everything. A moment later everything went dark, leaving him in pitch darkness - his MS had 'exploded', and he was 'dead'.

Seconds later Yzak's screens faded out as well, once he was out of enemy firing range. The tops of both cockpits opened slowly as the simulators released them.

Kruez was standing in front of them, hands on his hips. "That was one of the more miserable performances I've ever witnessed," he said, his voice deeper than usual with disapproval. Deakka groaned and hung his head, too strung out to even get out of his harness.

Yzak moved immediately to help Deakka. "Sorry sir," he said fervently. "It'll never happen again, sir."

Deakka didn't have much choice but to let Yzak help him out. His ribs were screaming, and he was dizzy from a combination of adrenalin and drowsiness. Leaning on his teammate's shoulder, he managed to get out of the simulator.

"Elthman, do you have that medication on you?" Kruez demanded. Deakka nodded and fished the little bottle out of his pocket, tossing it to the captain. Well, attempting to toss it - if Kruez had been a natural, he'd never have been able to catch it.

The ice blue glass eyes of the mask studied the bottle for a moment, then the captain shook his head. "It doesn't say anything about side effects," he confirmed. "They didn't say anything to you when they gave this to you?"

Deakka shook his head. "No, sir. Just that I shouldn't take more than four in a day."

Yzak supported Deakka as well as he could, hoping that the fact that they hadn't been warned about the side effects could mitigate the punishment they'd get for the disgraceful performance.

Kruez nodded, closing his fist around the bottle and putting it in his pocket. "There were several things you should have done differently, given the situation. Elthman, you weren't suffering the effects when you got in, and couldn't have predicted them - although the fact that you were limited to such a small number of doses in a day should have warned you that there would be side effects," he added sternly.

"The moment you realized Elthman was having trouble concentrating, the command decisions came to rest on your shoulders, Jule," he continued, turning to Yzak. "You should have immediately considered a strategic retreat. Making him angry to keep him awake was a good choice, however. As was sacrificing yourself by ordering Jule away, Elthman."

Yzak coloured, realizing that a retreat would have 'ended the simulation', as he'd wanted to do. It just hadn't occured to him to stop until all of the enemies were dead, however.

"As punishment for that truly uninspiring performance, I want both of you to memorize the brand and chemical names of EVERY drug that is stocked by our medics," Kruez continued. "I expect you to know doses, duration, and most importantly, all possible side effects. As I know from personal experience," he added wryly, "medics are sometimes less than appropriately concerned about your ability to perform your duties in the case of a surprise attack by the enemy. You should always be aware of exactly what you're allowing them to put into your system, and especially anything you yourself are putting into your system."

He looked at them both, waiting for that to sink in, before adding, "That study will take the place of your cleaning for the next few days, until Elthman is healed enough to get back to it. At that time, I'll be testing you on what you've learned. Understand?"

Yzak nodded, feeling more relieved than anything else. This was boring punishment, deadly dull, but it was better than cleaning themselves into exhaustion every night. "Yes, sir," he said, managing a salute despite his groggy burden.

"Now, get him back to your room before he passes out," Kruez ordered, his mouth quirking in a smile that wasn't unkind. "You can both have the morning off, but I expect you to report for physical training this afternoon, Jule."

"Yes, sir," Yzak said, dragging Deakka out of the room and back to their cabin, swearing quietly under his breath. "You know, if people see us running this way and that, and unconcious and bruised up all the time, we're going to be the laughingstock of the whole damn colony," he muttered.

"Only until... we get our hands on... those new suits," Deakka replied, struggling to focus through the haze that was threatening to drag him into sleep. "Then we can kick their asses..."

"Yeah, yeah, shut up about the suits," Yzak hissed. "You're too drugged to know what you're saying!"

Deakka flushed, and shut his mouth, cursing to himself. "Sorry," he muttered, mortified.

"It's OK," Yzak said, opening their door and helping Deakka inside. He sighed when he saw that the mattresses were still in the middle of the floor, albiet with clean fresh sheets tucked neatly over them. "Get some sleep, Deakka. I'll be here...reading or something."

Deakka managed to strip out of his sweat-sodden uniform without help, and collapsed down onto the mattresses. He barely had enough presence of mind to pull a sheet over himself and mutter his thanks before passing out.

Yzak sighed and curled up on the other mattress, pulling out a book on mobile armour engineering and beginning to highlight passages.

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