TO’s small fighter craft cut through the swarm of enemies that had been attacking them. A shot came from behind, and they only just saw it in time to swerve out of the way and dodge the attack. The enemy missiles only just passed them and continued on to strike a different enemy ship.

To any watching, it looked very very lucky. In truth, TO had seen the enemy behind them, and had positioned themself in between their attacker, and the ship they wanted gone. Now they could take out the other enemy.

Target locked. Rear lasers engaged. Critical spot identified. Fire.

A single laser blast came from the canon on the rear of TO’s ship and hit and the enemy attacker - a small, oval ship that was a third the size of TO’s- was thrown off of its trajectory and spiraled off before exploding.

Another enemy down - Insurgents maybe? TO didn't know. It didn’t really matter; They weren’t given details like that when it came to space combat; they were given specs on enemy tactics and weaponry. They were given their objectives, and expected to carry them out.

Another enemy cut before TO. They fired their manual front lasers on instinct; five shots. Their aim hadn’t improved that much over their training, so when they weren’t using their targeting systems they instead allowed a volley of shots to rain over the enemy. It was messy, but effective in the end. The enemy burst into a cloud of metal and fire which TO’s ship raced through as they looked for their actual objective; the carrier ship. They could attack the smaller ships all they wanted, but it didn't matter if they didn’t get the carrier ship. The carrier ship was the main target, and it’s destruction was the win condition.

Something exploded overhead, and TO looked up in time to see another enemy craft burst into flames as an allied ship took position next to TO. Their radio buzzed to life.

“You didn’t see that one, did you?” DH’s voice said over the radio in simple Universal Common.

“Thanks for the assist.” TO said back as their ears perked up, “Have you seen the carrier?”

“Not yet. You’d think it’d be easy to see among all these smaller ships.”

“If it was just out in the open, we’d have seen it already.” TO said back, “They must have-“ they fell silent as a thought crossed their mind, and they turned their radio from the private line between themself and DH to the public line between themself and the forty-eight other synths working with them.

“Is there anywhere that the enemy seems to be avoiding? If their carrier has cloaking abilities then even if we didn’t see it, the enemy attackers would know where it is and avoid that area to keep from crashing into it. “

The hum of the silence over the radio was broken a few moments later by another synth- 56F45. “Yes, near me. I’ll send coordinates.”

The coordinates came in, popping up just to the side of TO’s vision on the visor they wore in the ship. The visor acted a lot like a helmet in terms of giving them information just outside of their vision, but it was much lighter.

TO turned, and headed to where 56F45 have directed them. DH followed alongside them. THey took out the few enemies that got in their way, but mostly ignored what they could. When they got to 56F45’s location, they could see the spot .If they hadn’t been looking for it, if they had been watching where the enemy was instead of where they weren’t then they would have missed the empty space that a handful of enemy ships seemed to orbit.

TO’s radar didn’t pick up anything, but they were certain that if the ship could hide itself in space then it could hide itself from radar. Without radar, TO’s automatic targeting was out.

Well, no matter. TO turned their ship towards the empty space and opened fire. Where they expected their shots to pass through the empty space, they instead hit something that couldn’t be seen. There was a flash, and a few pieces of metal came loose from something, revealing a strange metallic spot that seemed to float in space.

They all opened fired; TO, DH, 56F45, and the other synths around them that had either been in the area already or had followed 56F45’s coordinates. They aimed for the spot that TO’s first hit had revealed. Orders came out from their commander over the radio for the top ranked shooters to deal with the smaller enemies while everyone else focused their fire. DH left TO’s side and started chasing down the smaller fighters that were now swarming overhead while TO and the others continued the volley of strikes to the expanding gash in space.

After a few minutes, there was a flicker in the space before them. The enemy’s cloaking device fell and the entire enemy ship was revealed; an orb which from a distance might have been taken for a small moon or asteroid. It was bigger than TO had expected, but that didn't matter now. What mattered now was that with the cloaking device down the ship now showed on their radar.

With the ship on their radar, they could use the bigger weapons.

Target locked; Drill missile deployed.

TO’s ship only had two drill missile’s, but this seemed like the right time to use them both. They fired, spinning in the air towards the gash in the enemy’s carrier ship. It struck, but instead of exploding immediately it drilled it’s way into the ship, destroying anything it encountered. It would either keep going until it was stopped at which point it would explode, or it would drill out through the other side.

The other synths around TO had the same idea, and deployed their drill missiles as well. A swarm of large, metal spinning missiles hit the ship. The carrier shuddered and a portion on one side seemed to expand out like a bubble which burst in an orb of flames, sending metal scrap out into space.

Target Eliminated.

There was only a moment of peace, as they watched the debris float about in space before the feeling of disembodiment overcame TO. They were pulled from the simulation and brought back to their body in the simulation room.

Success. Good; TO had worried that maybe that ship was a distraction, or a larger Attack ship.

TO reached up and removed their helmet. The other synths around them were doing them same as they came out of the simulation; Some standing up and stretching, others simply sitting where they were and trying to keeping themself from being sick; artificial weightlessness and the sudden return to gravity tended to mess with one’s stomach, and nearly every synth had at one point or another, vomited after space combat training.

That’s why there were buckets near each seat.

“I wouldn’t have thought of that!” DH said from their seat next to TO, “looking for a place where the enemy wasn’t?”

“Well, I would have been taken out much earlier if you hadn’t been watching me and keeping enemies off of me.” TO said back, trying to keep their ears from twitching with too much joy, “It was a team effort.”

TO glanced at their chip to check the time, wondering if they’d be put into a new simulation, but they saw that they had a message.

A moment of hope that they squashed before they even opened it. When they saw a message they somehow hoped it was GiDi. It never was, and they had to stop thinking it might be as it made them sad every time. They opened it, and read from the screen that floated before them.

Placement assignment confirmed;

Location; Arkane

Partner; 70H67

Report to Overseer T after the second meal for briefing.

“We did it.” TO whispered softly. DH Came close to look at the message, then quickly checked their own chip and brought up their own message; it was almost the exact same as TO’s.

“”... We did.” DH said softly, almost in disbelief as they looked over their message, “We did it. We’re actually being assigned together!”

Even after their meeting with their Overseer only the day before, TO had doubted that they would actually be placed with DH. They figured that something would come up, or someone would say something. They worried that something would be changed. It seemed so hard to believe that after everything this one thing, this big thing, would work out.

They checked the message again just in case they had misread the message. 70H67 was indeed their partner.

“Those completed their scenario may leave for the second meal.” The new trainer said; Trainer 68. They weren’t as good as C12 had been, and didn’t seem to have personalized training for any synths. They also seemed wholly indifferent to how synths improved, and offered no feedback like C12 had. The only hint any of them got now as you how they needed to improve was from what the focus of their next scenario was.

Still, TO doubted that they’d have to do any more scenarios. Two more days. They’d probably have a day for the inoculations, and then they’d have to be trained, and there were briefings…

There was almost a sadness to the realization that this would be their last scenario. They didn’t want to do more, but they wished they had known before now.

“Hey… what’s wrong?” DH asked quietly. They reached over and started to help TO detach from the wires, setting their hand gently on TO’s shoulder as they did, “Are you ok?”

TO nodded, and let DH help them. “I’m good. I’ll explain later.” There wasn’t much to explain; it was just this odd sadness that overcame them.

It was fine. They were going on assignment with DH! That was a good thing!

… but why did they feel so scared?