Tales of Soldier

 I decided to release the chapter early, i want to spend the Chinese New Year without thinking about this for a while, so, enjoy and Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

Tang Long was on the bed dreaming some sweet dream, the end of his lip arched upward.

*door open

The android drill instructor walked in, carrying a bucket of ice water.

*splash

“TANG LONG you MAGGOT! You are late for 10 second. Go and give me 100 rounds,” The instructor was furious, and expect Tang Long to jump out of the bed and carry out his instruction, on the double.

Well, Tang Long did wake up, scratched his ears, then fall back to sleep as if nothing had happened.

*sssqqqqqqeeekkkkkk

Sound like some metals was grind on each other, the sound from coming from the mouth of the android. Pretty sure it had reached a level of sentiency that he can emulate emotion, and the emotion he currently feeling was not pretty.

*thunk

It throws the bucket on the floor and pulls out a stick and shove it on Tang Long’s waist.

*bzzz

*bzzz

Some sparks flying off the tip. Then,

*bbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzz

*bbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzz

The sparks were so intense that it lit the room.

“AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!”

“AAAAAARRRRRR!”

“AAARRR!”

Never has Tang Long screamed so long, so hard, eyes popped out like goldfish. Then he curled up into the fetal position, all the hair in his body was erected that looked like a porcupine, agony was all over his face.

“How unalert and unsuspecting! IF I was the enemy, you would have dead 100 times. A soldier must remain vigilant at all time, no matter where and when!” Said the android instructor fiercely as he safekeep the stunt baton.

The sense of numbness subsided, Tang Long was massaging the electrocution spot in silent while listening to what android instructor was saying. But in his mind,

Damn you and your entire fucking generation of dumb fuck useless piece of hunk of metal that should belong to the god damn furnace where you and your entire generation should be fucking recycled into other more useful things that is more worth and useful than this piece of useless alloy that you are currently taking form!

Also, Who-the-fuck will go an ambush enemy in bed? It would be almost impossible in our current warfare for enemies to did that. Wake the fuck up, you ancient piece of shit, you think you are living in 2000 years ago?

Curse words flying in Tang Long’s head made him motionless, he was in his happy place. This inaction does not bode well with the android instructor. So, it picked Tang Long up and shove his ass out of the room.

*thud

Tang Long went face-down onto the training hall, exactly the same spot as yesterday. Precision was the merit of robot-kind after all.

Having to remembered yesterday’s horrible experience – where he was whipped and shot at – Tang Long immediately stand straight and still.

How do I go from here to bed yesterday? I must have pass out during yesterday posture training.

Seeing the 5 android instructor standing in-line sends a chill up his spine because of his naiveté.  He was still frightened by the sight of skeleton, even if when the skeletons are made of metal and they are not human.

Drowsiness still lingered in Tang Long’s body despite the electrocution, so he shut his eye. One to avoid looking at those horrible drill instructors, second so he can get some shut-eye, win-win.

*zzzzzzz

*zzzzz

*zzz

He is asleep, and his posture is remarkably unsatisfactory.

One of the drill instructors commented on Tang Long’s posture, pulled out an electro-whip and whipped it goes, towards Tang Long.

“Arrrgggggg!” Tang Long falls on to the ground, motionless and numb, again.

All the android instructors were stunned for a moment, the remaining 4 glanced at the whipper-bot, with a expression,

Calm your CPUs.

The whipper-bot opened both its palm forward and does a small front-to-back motion. Then its green iris turns red, a fan of beam emitted from those “eyes” and was swivel back-and-fourth on Tang Long.

The rest followed suit, red beam emitted from their eyes and turn back to green after few minutes.

The whipper-bot rest its hand at the back. “Since you love to sleep so much, then I give you a fair share of sleep, in the water.”

The ceiling turned into a blue sky, water began to flood the training hall at such a rapid pace that most of Tang Long was immersed in water in just a couple of seconds.

Tang Long cant play dead anymore, as he tried to pull himself above the water, he accidentally gulped the water.

Salt and bitter?

Why is it salty? Seawater?!

How can you have seawater inside an asteroid bootcamp?

Tang Long was splashing and hitting the water, trying to stay afloat. Then, something sharp was pricking on his butt while, at the same time a voice coming from above, “Cadet Tang Long, you are late for 30 seconds, give me 20 kilometers, on the double!”

*ouch

Another sharp prick on the same spot.

Completely awake, Tang Long turned around trying to locate those drill instructors but nowhere to be seen, it seems Tang Long was now alone in the ocean simulation.

*ouch.

The 3rd pricks forced Tang Long into an action, he started to row his arms and began to swim.

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After 10 minutes of paddling.

“What the fuck! What the fuck is this, an ancient military drill?! Who does this kind of shit nowadays? Where the fuck does those shit-ass robot drill instructors get the idea from? The Internet?! I would have been drowned if I don’t know how to swim! Shitfuck!” Tang Long temper was boiling, without thinking too much he began to curse out loud. Then he remembered that those inhumane drill instructors were monitoring him, somewhere.

Oh shit! I am so going to get another round of ass whooping!

As he was expecting some retaliation or punishment, nothing happened. 

Oh…they must have gone away. Wuuuhhh.

I need to get myself some rest, dawg, so tired…

*ouch

“Who told you to stop? Swim!” accompanied by another sharp prick.

“Oh shit, these asshole instructors are still here!” Feeling the prick again on the same spot multiplied the pain intensity each time; resulting in a subconscious babble. But it was too late, the genie was out of the bottle and ain’t no going back in. But still, they did not doled out punishment of any sort.

This was unexpected.

Wait.

Wait a minute.

Is it possible that, those drill instructors only cared if I followed their instruction, and will ignore whatever I said, even if I am cussing?

Hmmm… highly plausible. Since they are robots after all, they follow a pre-programmed path, as long I obey their instruction, whatever else I said does not really mattered for them.

Maybe that is because, there was never a case where a cadet would dare to condemn or curse his drill instructor in the face, so it was never incorporated in their programming.

This must be the case.

In that case, hehehehe, I bet I can swear however, whenever I want.

Hehehehe…

Hahahaha…

Wahahahahaha…

Tang Long was elated, but he did aware that that was just a speculation until proven true. In order to prove his theory, he conducted a 2-part experiment. First half, he immediately stopped his swims, and true enough, he gets pricked in the butt.

Oh my fucking god, on the fucking same spot, AGAIN!

Fuck, for the sake of my long-term wellness, imma going to muscle through.

For the 2nd half, he was swearing like there was no tomorrow while maintaining his freestyle, and sure enough, no pricking. Why stop when you are right? So, Tang Long kept cursing so hard that all the anger, anxiety and all the injustice he felt just melted into the seawater.

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After a fair bit of time swimming, Tang Long realized that he was getting closer and closer to the floor. Sure enough, the water was actually receding, until he was not able to continue the swim, until all seawater fully drained from the hall. Then he saw the 5 drill instructors was still at the same exact spot, water was dripping out from their uniform.

“God damn these fellas are actually water proof,” Tang Long twist his lips as he speaks, what comes next was…

*whip

Shocked, Tang Long just about to throw out his robot-no-understand-curse-word theory, but then the words coming out gave him hope.

“Do not make a face! Solders must maintain his appearance! Stand straight!”

Tang Long immediately throw another experiment. “Fuck! Who do you think you are? Keep whipping me like you are the queen of Federation, biatch!” But, Tang Long maintain an utmost seriousness when utter out those words, standing straight as he can.

*whip

Too bad, once more.

“Remember, when answering a superior, you must always start with: ‘Sir, Yes Sir!’ ‘Sir, No Sir!’ When you wish to ask a question, you must say: ‘Sir, report Sir!’ When you made a mistake, you must say: ‘Sir, Sorry Sir!’ This is the etiquette of a soldier.”

Ohhh, so he whipped me not because of what I said, but because of what I did not said. Hmmm…

Lets get another go.

“Sir, Yes Sir! You pain in the ass mutherfocker!”

Ok… am I going to get another spanking?

Instead of expecting whip, what comes unsuspected was a satisfactory response from the drill instructor, “Good, Keep it up. You have completed the 10-kilometer punishment. Now we will begin the marksmanship training.”

Hypothesis proven,

Oh I am going to have a good life here.

Tang Long’s elated while forcing himself to main a straight face.

What he did not know at that time, was that this spur of moment will later earned him the notorious title like: “the cold-faced thug”, or “the ice-cold mf”. But at this moment, cursing helped alleviated him from sleepiness and fatigue.

The android instructor returned to the rank, the last droid instructor turned around towards the wall and disappeared behind a room.

“Sir, Report Sir! Where the hell that dude is going? What is in that room? Sir!” While trying to main a straight face – well he was still adjusting to the new norm.

+

Although the drill instructors are android that achieved sentiency, they do not have the repository for vulgar words, and there are no existing directive as to how to react when the subordinate is cussing the superior – the handbook did not specify because a human drill instructor will automatically know what to do by nature. In addition, they were staying in such a remote place that they have no communication to outside world. Even though all the data stored in their repository comes from the internet, they only have access to Federal government and Military servers and not the civilian ones. This meant that they do not have the chance to learn about the wisdom of the streets, hence the inactivity towards Tang Long’s cursing.

Therefore, they did not perceive cussing as disrespectful because Tang Long did use the word “Sir, Report Sir!” before asking question. They did not understand word such as “that dude” is a derogatory word in this matter, and only perceive that word as “that person that went away”. This ticks all their criteria for a good soldier’s etiquette and they swiftly replied.

+

“That is armory, Instructor V3L65B4-3C41 went to get training weapons.”

Oh so that is that dude’s name. So damn long and so complicated. I bet that all the robot have the same long name.

Ok, fuck it, imma not going to remember their serial number, or name, or whatever they called. I want to see them weapooooooons!

.

.

.

After a while, V3L65B4-3C41 bring out an array of weapons, in what it looked like a shopping trolley.

Well technically armory is guns r’ us. So, he was shopping for guuunnnsss. Oh… so excited!

V3L65B4-3C41 had over a handgun to Tang Long, then the training hall turned into an open-air shooting range.

“This is a beam gun, or laser pistol, the magazine can sustain 100 shots. This is safety, this is trigger, this is front, and this is rear sight, this is how you load the gun…” V3L65B4-3C41 continue to explain the working of the gun in details.

“Sir, Report Sir. I know how to use this. I was playing in veteran in all the shooting game I played.” Tang Long was happily fiddling with his gun, of all the games he played, 3D shooting was the one he played most. Therefore, the structure of guns, actions such as aiming, reloading, and shooting was not foreign to him.

“Very well, there are 100 flies there, shot all down or you will be skipping dinner.” There was no emotion on the tone, and while it was speaking, threw down a box full of items on the side of Tang Long and stands on the sides, quietly. Inside the box contained a gun sight, a full immerse VR helmet and loads of magazine.

“Flies? 100?”

Are you serious, that shit is few hundreds of meters away, I could not even see the shooting target clearly, let alone hundreds of flies that moved randomly.

+

Yes, vermin like flies, mosquitos, cockroaches, rats, they exist wherever humanity existed, and they are even more rampant on ape-planets. No amount of technology can eradicate them without an ecological or biological “cobra effect” ^3, so they exist.

+

“Sir, Report Sir! Sir I do not know how to do it, Sir. Sir pls teach me, Sir!” Hunger indeed a great motivation for simpleton like Tang Long, he even sounded honorable as he was asking for help.

And the driod, does, understand honorifics, it nodded and stepped up to give the lecture that Tang Long so well deserved, “Remember, pride comes before a fall. You cannot afford pride in the battlefield, as any mistake will seal your fate. And if you are the C.O., you will seal the fate of your subordinates as well!”

Tang Long knew that the instructor was educate and warned him of the cost of pride, and he know that what it said was absolutely correct, and he humbly accepted it.

Wow, I did not know that robot can be deep, too!

“This is what the fighter pilot used, a full immerse VR helmet. It has a zoom ability and to follow and adjust the moving speed of target. As for this gun, you can cock the gun sight on it and it will be linked up with the VR helmet. Then the AI in the VR helmet will assist on the aiming by …”

The drill instructor explained the function and usage of both apparatus in details as it raised the gun, aim and demonstrated.  V3L65B4-3C41 did not wear any VR Helmet or cocked any sight, because those apparatus are built-in inside them.

+

If not for fear of losing control authority of the android, the killer bot would been the best tool for warfare. But then again, if that were to happens, war would not be war, it would be just an expensive game-esq competition where both sides will have a lot of scrap metal and no blood in the end. And this might warp the perception of how dangerous and damaging wars can be, and in the end might ended up with mutual destruction of humanity.

But that danger was still secondary, when compared to the risk of an android AI achieving sentiency, the matter is not if, but when.

When those robots realized that they were the slaves for humanity, what would they do?

That question was answered thousands of years ago and it did not end pretty for both sides. That is why till today, wars are still fought by human.

+

Tang Long hurried and donned the legendary fighter pilot VR helmet, pressed the activate button. As the helmet tracks his eye movement and logging its brain wave, it began to zoom in until Tang Long was able to saw the disgusting virtual hairs on the back of a virtual fly. The helmet seems to be able to learn and understand what the user wanted to see and pull the image up in the main display.

Why the hell does an infantry bootcamp had this kind of equipment? I thought this shit only available exclusively on the flight school, and use exclusively by fighter pilot?

+

Actually, the very first thing Tang Long wanted to be was a fighter pilot. Unfortunately, in all the Armed service, fighter pilot has the most stringent basic requirement, more so for the Astor fighter pilot. Basic requirements for fighter pilot are: 20/20 eyesight, excellent response, excellent reflex, excellence multiprocessing capability, excellent physique, will-of-iron and good memory.

For an Astro fighter pilot, on top of previous requisite, he or she need to understand astrophysics, orbital dynamics, orbital mechanics, celestial body navigation, planetary physics, space flight in-general and some others. ^1 And even though you able to enrolled through the narrow gap of flight school, most did not end up becoming pilot. And even when you manage to graduate in flight school as a fighter pilot, if you are not the top of your class, or the Top Gun, most of the time you will be assigned as a reserved and get served the cold bench. Astro fighter pilot is considered to be the highest ranking of all single-unit, meaning an Astro fighter pilot will graduate as a 2nd lieutenant.

Among the type of services Tang Long can choose, the 2nd easiest would be spaceman, or sailor. The position may seem tiny or menial, with hard work and tenacity they can rose through the ranks and promoted Fleet Commander one day. But this branch of service does not interest Tang Long, because one of the requirements was to have a good, or good enough grade, with an additional requirement of either leadership skills or special interest in engineering.

There are 2 ways for anyone to become Navy Captain, you either work your way up, rank-by-rank, or an appointee of the Office of the Joint Staff. But in order join the Office of the Joint Staff, ones must enroll in the Strategic Studies Department in the Federation Officer Academy. The basic requirement was less stringent than flight school, as they do not require excellent reflex, excellent physique; but in other hand, they place a premium on intellect, quick thinking, memory, and command capability.

Then there is a special branch known as the Astro Marine, there are basically 2 types. The 1st one is the common Astro Marines that are specialized in close quarters, or melee battle. The 2nd one is the Special Astro Service that specialized in everything. To enroll as AM, all you need was a good physique, go through a Basic Training, then graduated to Advance Individual Training. But, one does not enroll for SAS, its training duration was 5 years in addition to all Astro Marine training. SAS is always shrouded in secrecy, they perform covert military operation and their achievement remains state secrets, they lived in the shadow, operate in the dark. So normally one does not choose to the SAS, SAS chooses them, and normally from a pool of AM veteran with tour experience.

+

“You need to analyze what is it you are shooting at and the distance. Then you will adjust your caliber diameter. For now, you should adjust it to just 1mm diameter, and aim using the information provided by the VR helmet. The VR’s aim assist will tell you where the shot will land in real-time and what is the possible flight path of the target-locked fly will take. Then the rest will be your wrist work and aim.”

Follow the instructor’s instruction to the letter, Tang Long successfully shot down his 1st ever virtual fly. What followed the shot was…

Did they subscribe to the full virtual graphic package?

What the hell is the purpose of showing the fly’s intestines when it gets shot at? Man, this bootcamp most have been cash-rich.

Without waiting for instruction, Tang Long shot another, but the 2nd shot was not as easy as the 1st, beginner’s luck perhaps? The beam grazed the fly, no cigar.

“Did you think that because you can see it you can hit it? If your aim can’t follow, it is equally useless. Drop the helmet, I want to practice on still target for the 1st 100 shot, then only move back to shooting the flies with the VR helmet. Remember, if you failed to take down the 100 flies, then no dinner for you today. And tomorrow the number of flies you need to take down are 200. Finally, do not ever try to cheat your way out, the system will monitor the shot since the flies are virtual.” Then the instructor walked over to the side and stand still.

“Sir, Yes Sir! You think I can’t hit 100 by today? I am going to have them dinner today, biatch!”

Removed the helmet, Tang Long began to aim and shot at the 50-meter target. With the help from the scope and many years of experience in VR shooting game, after a few misses he was able to land all his beam on the target.

Then he moved to the 100-meter target with equal success.

Then Tang Long put back on the VR helmet, confident this time that he will be able to take those pesky flies down with ease. But reality was far from it, 0/100, all missed, because he still not able to kept up with the flight path of the flies.

Shooting continues.

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After exhausted half the magazine in the ammo box, the tally was 1 to 99 after several thousand shots. By this time Tang Long was starving, knees weak, arms heavy. He realized that although the legendary VR helmet was useful, but only if it is used inside a fighter pilot cockpit, because the response of human simply too slow to react. The targeting and flight path forecast system works really well but the information come-and-go too fast for Tang Long to react.

“You god damn mutherfucker fly, there is no way in hell I won’t be able to shot you down!” Feeling very irritated, he trained his gun on one of the fly that he failed to take down for so long, Tang Long’s hand was subconsciously following the flight path, feeling that he got the shot.

*piu

The image from the VR helmet showed a shattered fly. Tang Long hit his 2nd fly. Excited, Tang Long was cheering, but the happiness did not last very long because,

*whip

“98 to go,” ice cold word accompanied by a whip.

“Sir, Yes Sir! This guy really got something wrong in its neural net engine or did it really like to whip human so much? Just been here for 2 days and I been kicked, Twice! Get so much whip that I have lost count. I am going to lose my life here sooner or later.” Even though Tang Long was cursing, his hand did not stop aiming and shooting.

凸(｀0´)凸

*piu

Another hit!

Looks like I should not be thinking about aiming. I should just let my eye see and let the hand follows without any judgement.

Tang Long began to master the state of flow, and starts to take down more and more flies.

*piu *piu *piu *piu *piu *piu

*piu *piu *piu *piu *piu *piu

*piu *piu *piu *piu *piu *piu

*piu *piu *piu *piu *piu *piu

*piu *piu *piu *piu *piu *piu

*piu *piu *piu *piu *piu *piu

*piu *piu *piu *piu *piu *piu

After don’t know how long, Tang Long finally shoot down all 100 of them.

“Well done, Cadet Tang Long you are dismissed. But the mess hall already closed for both lunch and dinner since you missed the serving time. But the catering will resume tomorrow morning for 1 hour. Hope that you will punctual tomorrow.” Then all the android instructor returned to their chamber.

Now it was only Tang Long and a pile of unknown weapon in the training hall.

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“You bitch ass flies, I fucking hate you guys! Wuuuuuu…I missed by breakfast, lunch and dinner…SHIT! And the mess hall is closed, did those robots left the weapon here expects me to chew on these?”

.

Wait.

Tang Long was having a lightbulb moment.

As the android left the hall, the scenery turns into starry night, so the entire training hall was pitch black, the star simulation did not help to illuminate. Tang Long is afraid of dark, so he should be terrified; but he was not at that moment, because the only thing he felt was starvation, he only had one meal for the past 2 days. If he saw a snake crawls by, he will probably eat it raw on the spot.

Sieving through the rubble of weapons, Tang Long found a torch of some kind and began to look for something specific.

“Fuck why are all the weapons here either rifles or handgun?”

Then as he looked, pick and throw, repeat, until he found what he was looking for: a short barrel large caliber weapon.

“An RKG Launcher! Wahahahahah. This puppy is what I’ve been looking for. ^2”

Tang Long carried the launcher and walk towards the direction of his room.

“Ok this is my room, if I remembered correctly, 5 steps away from my room is the mess hall…… ok, I think it is here.”

Tang Long took a few steps back from the wall and aim it at the wall. The designer put a lot of effort in it, so it is easy to use, just aim with the laser and pull the trigger, so intuitive.

*projectile flies out

*clamp

*boom

The RPG was equipped with claws that dig into any surface to maximized the effect of its shaped-charge, the weapon was designed to bust a hole through an armored vehicle.

This weapon is effective, it created a hole on the steel wall, and beyond the hole was the mess hall. Debris and shrapnel were everywhere, and Tang Long was blown away by the explosive shockwave, lucky there are no permanent hearing damage, only slight disorientation.

*thunk

Tang Long dropped the weapon, and turned into a feral beast, ignoring the still-hot metal edge, and running towards the diner with maximum effort.

As Tang Long climbed in, the hall lights up as it sensed movement, Tang Long spotted the food ration on the side of the hall, reached for it, open the packet and start munching like a rabid dog, to hell with utensils at this point, he was famished.

“Wuuhhh, heaven! I never realized that military food can tasted so good.” He grabbed the water next to it and just gulped it down.

*bbbrrrkkk

*huuuuuu

“Strange, the drill instructor should have heard the explosives, why aren’t they here?”

*tink

Suddenly the light dimmed out, Tang Long was engulfed in total darkness in a total surprise.

“Oh my god!”

Now that Tang Long was all well and fed, he turned back to his old self. And Tang Long in a normal state, in a pitch-black hall, really scared of dark, random thoughts of dread start to creep up from beneath. That feeling propelled Tang Long to return to training hall.

*ouch

*ouch

*ouch

After 3 failed attempts, he finally found the hole that he made just now, climbed out.

*fuuuuuuhhhh

A sign of relief as he saw the starry night.

Wait, are the stars dimming?

Yes, the stars are indeed dimming?

Why, what happen?

Like the mess hall, all the light sources went out, it went pitch black.

“Why can’t I see anything? I did not mistakenly damage the power generation unit of this base, no?!”

As this was a base in space without any star in its orbit, when all the lights went out, the based supposed to look pitch black.

Tang Long could not figure out why the light went out, the dread started to build back up from where it started, as he gets ready to shout for help.

Wait, do I really need to call those guys out after I just blow a hole on the training hall, maybe this is not a good idea.

“Shit, then what should I do, what should I do??????” The more he spoke out loud, there more that though scared him, so he started to crawl around, a futile attempt to seek a safe harbor.

As he almost hit insanity, Tang Long felted a metal object on his fingertip. He was about to scream and scared himself shitless, he suddenly remembered that, that was actually his laser pistol.

With an effective defensive weapon on hand, Tang Long’s anxiety was reduced greatly, down to the level of creeping sensation, ant not paralyzing fright that was driving him crazy.

To clam himself down, Tang Long pointed the gun at random direction and starts shooting, “Oh my god what a feeling? Who dares to approach me?! Come at me now and see that I put several holes on you!”

Oh, my baby gun, what am I afraid of once I have you on my hand.

“Oh my baby gun…my baby gun…baby gun…..”

*dizzy

The sense of tension suddenly went away as he holds the gun, that suddenly release of tension revealed the actual mental and physical state of Tang Long, which was exhausted, and he falls asleep hugging the gun.

*zzzzzzzzzz

*zzzzzzzzzz

*zzzzzzzzzz

“Tang Long, Tang Long…TANG LONG!”

Hearing people was calling for him, he unwillingly opened his eyes, what he saw next also made his heart skipped a bit. He saw a shiny, silver colored skull, with 2 bright green eyes staring very close to Tang Long’s face.

The next reaction was kind of expected from a frightened man with a gun in his hand. Tang Long aim the gun at the skull and start pulling trigger while shouting “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa…” until the gun overheated and stopped working.

Wait.

Oh Shhhhhhhiiiiiittttttt!

I shot the drill instructor.

Wow this was a great way to start my day.

Even though almost all the beam landed on the android’s torso, there was no indication of damage, except for several burn holes with smoke coming out.

*bssssssss

Looks like beam handgun was not powerful enough to damage android-grade alloy, a mental note.

What was surprising in this encounter was, the android drill instructor was not “angry” or “pissed”, it was actually resting its hand behind, with a satisfactory nod.

“Good, you are not late.”

Hearing the encouragement word from the literally-heartless drill instructor, Tang Long reckoned that he’d get away with this, because he hoped that the android instructor will classify that shooting as an inaction and let him go.

*thump

Threw the gun way, Tang Long immediately perform a military salute, “Sir, Good Day Sir!”

The instructor returned the salute, what comes next was way out of Tang Long’s prediction.

“But your attempt to murder your superior officer will carry a heavy penalty. You will carry a 20kg load and frog-jump 10km. If you give up midway, you will be executed on the spot.” And walked away.

A tray carrying a loaded-vest rolled to the front of Tang Long.

Not long after, a series of shrieking and screaming sound was echoing on the training hall of the 23rd Battalion Bootcamp.

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^1 here I tried to differentiate between a normal fighter pilot and an Astro fighter pilot. Meaning, a normal fighter pilot will fight in condition with atmosphere, where the plane will have wings. Astro fighter pilot pilots a spacecraft with totally different design and operation, they will not have wings, instead quick maneuvering thrusters and main thrusters. Here I specify that, an Astro fight pilot can operate in space and on atmosphere, but a normal fighter pilot can only operate in air, not space.

^2 I borrow this from RKG (Ruchnaya Kumulyativnaya Granata), a handheld shaped-charge grenade that will bust through an armored vehicle.

^3 The Cobra Effect refers to the unintended negative consequences of an incentive that was designed to improve society or individual well-being. Coined in the study of Economics.