ALL NOVEL Arc 0 - Chapter 4 - Tutorial Level
Thea suddenly found herself standing in an empty, but seemingly infinite, grey space.
While no light sources were present in her immediate field of view, everything was bathed in a uniform and calming glow, easily lighting up the entire surroundings enough for anyone to see into the infinite vastness of the grey space itself.
Before she could fully take in her surroundings and get her bearings, a woman dressed in a form-fitting dark-blue suit materialised in front of her, breaking the grey-scale monotony as if she came from a different dimension entirely.
Her hair was black and bound into a neat ponytail, similar to Thea’s own, behind her back. The woman’s hazelnut coloured eyes were partially obscured by a modern pair of hololenses, as they focused on Thea.
With a cheerful and friendly-sounding voice, she immediately started her introduction, before Thea could even begin to recover from the shock of having a full-on human materialise out of nowhere.
“Welcome to the Deep-Dive Simulation #6,473, Lumiosia Citizen!
“My name is Selene and I’m an Auxiliary Staff Sergeant with the UHF.
“I will be guiding you through your first steps in this Deep-Dive Simulation, before you will be given the option to partake in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“I am here for your convenience. It is imperative to the UHF as a whole that you are able to perform to your utmost limit in the challenges ahead, to get an accurate read on who you are as a person, as well as what you are capable of. As such, if at any point during this tutorial you have questions, concerns or require a break, do not hesitate to speak up.”
With a slight bow, Selene waved her right hand and Thea’s entire surroundings changed.
Not only did the infinite grey expanse give way to a mountainous landscape view far in the distance, but even the air around Thea suddenly gained a freshness that she had never experienced before. It felt… alien ... to her, but not in a bad way.
The ground she was standing on slowly gave way to a field of grass, as her immediate surroundings also began to change into what looked like a high-end outdoor training course.
Wooden scaffoldings, metal pipes, nets, barrels and even a full-on shooting range appeared as if they had always existed in that space. No sound could be heard of them materialising, no blinding lights obscured their entrance, they simply came into being as if it was the most normal thing to happen.
Utterly stunned by the rapidfire influx of new impressions, sensations and thoughts, Thea had a lot of trouble to stand still. She felt a bout of vertigo as her brain tried to get a handle on all that had happened in the past thirty-or-so seconds.
Just as she was about to stumble however, she felt a strong arm wrap around her from the side. Startled by the sudden physical contact, Thea looked to the side and saw Selene holding her in a light embrace with one of her arms.
“My apologies, Miss,” she started, as she lightly bowed her head once again.
“It appears that all this sudden change can be a bit jarring to mid-worlders, such as yourself.
"I will be certain to report this to the higher ups, so that future Deep-Dive Simulations can be adjusted accordingly. Rest assured that we did not intend to cause any ill-effects.”
“...Ehh... It’s... It’s okay. Thank you, Ma’am,” Thea managed to squeeze out between bouts of deep breaths, still trying to calm her beating heart. Detaching herself from Selene’s arm, she quickly realised one important aspect of the Deep-Dive Simulation.
Selene was… no… felt real.
When Thea had tried out neural-link VRs before, there was always a level of disconnect between what the player character inside the game experienced and what the player behind the “screen” would feel. It simply took too much computational power and network bandwidth to fully simulate all five senses from start to finish.
This was different, however. Not only did the Deep-Dive Simulation simulate all five senses, but even her own body felt real. As if she had truly been transported to an entirely different universe or dimension.
From her typical unruly bang of hair, that never quite wanted to stay where Thea wanted it to be, down to the tips of her toes - she felt every individual part of her body exactly where and how it should be.
“Where… no… we’re inside the crystal cylinder now, right? How is this possible?” Thea queried the patiently waiting Selene next to her, as her eyes roamed across the vast swathes of the mountainous training course before her.
“You are correct in assuming that we are indeed inside of one of the ‘crystal cylinders’, as you like to call them. Their correct name would be ‘Deep-Dive Simulator Chamber’, while many UHF Marines simply refer to them as ‘Sim Tubes’.
"I, unfortunately, cannot disclose their technical name to you, although I can tell that you are quite eager to learn more about them as a whole. Maybe one day you will have the chance to interact with them on a more technical level, if you are able and willing to join the UHF in the future,” Selene explained with a gratified smile on her face.
Upon hearing Selene's declaration, Thea’s shoulders slumped slightly. She knew there was basically no shot for her to ever join the UHF, at least not while she was stuck on Lumiosia.
Mid-Worlds were simply too far out of the way of the UHF’s main recruiting grounds to realistically give her a chance, no matter how much she tried. This was something that Old Man James had explained to her many times before. Her only way to get into the UHF was to get to one of the inner or core worlds, but that required a vast fortune of imperial credits.
Maybe this challenge was her ticket off this planet and a step closer to the UHF’s recruitment centres…!
With renewed vigour from that errant, albeit painfully-hopeful thought, she faced Selene once again.
“I am ready now. Tell me what I need to do.”
Over the next thirty minutes, Thea underwent a basic tutorial in Deep-Dive Simulations under the guidance of Auxiliary Staff Sergeant Selene.
She learned how to move her body, jumping, running, climbing and all the typical movements any capable soldier should be able to perform without a hitch.
Thea noted that the tutorial seemed somewhat lax, as she crushed all the timed sections with ease and never seemed to really break a sweat throughout the entire course. She figured it had to do with the tutorial trying to go easy on newcomers, as it was likely everyone’s first time with Deep-Dive Simulations, but she didn’t question Selene on it unnecessarily. She wanted to get done with the boring part as fast as possible and get to the shooting range, after all!
Once Selene had finished noting down Thea’s final times for the training course, they moved to the shooting range.
“This will be the final part of our training course. I will teach you how to handle guns of most common UHF calibres, including standard Projectile, Laser, Gauss and Railgun types. Subsequently you will be given the remainder of our time together to try out as many weapons as you want, up until our 2-hour time limit is reached in this tutorial part,” Selene explained while opening different weapon racks, indicating specific groups of weapons to Thea as she listed their respective types.
Excitement rapidly rose in Thea’s chest and her typical savage grin started forming on her face, as Selene listed off the weapons she’d have a chance to get her hands on momentarily. She’d finally be able to shoot some stuff!
“You may call a stop to the free-shooting time whenever you please, to jump right into the prepared challenge. Please be advised that the challenge will feature active combat involving gunfire. It is recommended that you spend at least around half an hour with the weapon you find to prefer the most, in order to fully acclimate yourself with its characteristics before beginning the challenge.”
The first weapon that Thea got handed by Selene was a projectile-type standard-issue assault rifle. Its technical description was listed as the SI-AR303, commonly called the 'AR303' by the UHF Marines.
It was the staple gun for the run-of-the-mill UHF Marines without a particular specialisation, as it had proven to be reliable for many past centuries. The SI-AR303 was damn near indestructible through normal operations, came with a 38-round magazine of 303-calibre rounds, a 3D-holographic sight, as well as the option for a foregrip out of around half-a-dozen different ones by default.
The standard 303-calibre rounds that the AR303 fired had become the most commonly used ammunition type across the galaxy.
With an unbeatable ratio of cost and ease of production, firepower, penetrating ability and weight; they had quickly supplanted all previous ammunition types for the standard rifleman and made the AR303 the weapon of choice for the UHF.
As Thea stepped up to the first range of targets, she felt the comfortable weight and balance of the metal in her hands.
The specific weapon she had been handed was styled in the typical UHF matte-grey coat, coupled with a dim-crimson ‘UHF’ plastered on the right side facing away from her.
The SI-AR303 itself was around 80 cm long, with the barrel easily taking up more than half of it, at around 54 cm in length. Fully loaded it came to around 4 kg in total weight, lending the weapon to be carried around fairly easily across a whole day of jogging, when slung across the shoulder.
Selene had finished her instructions while Thea was admiring the pristine piece of weapon-technology in her hands and she was finally cleared to shoot.
Thea started off with some tap-firing single-shots at a couple of mid-range targets, to get a feel for the weapon's recoil, general kick and attitude. She noted immediately that, despite the calibre being vastly more deadly and powerful than the weapons she had shot with Old Man James before, the gun was far easier to control.
She wasn’t exactly sure whether this was due to her growing physique over the years, the weapon being of simply better quality and build or a combination of the two, but she paid it little mind. It did, however, increase her confidence as she accelerated her shooting into short bursts and snapped from target to target in a rapid fashion.
After clearing the first 16 targets with ease, she grabbed another magazine to reload. The 303 came with an easy-detach, which allowed her to quickly reload the gun on her first try in just under two seconds. She noted that this was exceptionally fast compared to what she remembered seeing in the arcade’s retro video games.
She quietly wondered if they had simply been modelled wrong in the games or if the UHF’s weaponry was simply that advanced, but chose not to pester Selene with such questions, instead opting to try her hand at aiming for the more distant targets.
While each set of targets had variation between them, such as the medium-distance ones being anywhere from around 400-600 metres away, the difference between each grouping was purposefully larger.
The long-distance targets that Thea had chosen were set up at around 900-1100 metres away. As she steadied her breath and focused on her chosen target, just as Old Man James had taught her countless times, Selene frowned.
Just as she was about to interject however, the loud sound of the gunshot echoed through the mountains, followed by a singular high-pitched metal ring about half a second later.
“Wooooh! Got’em!” she whooped triumphantly, as Selene stared at the target in the distance with a raised eyebrow. Quickly catching herself and reigning in the, in her own eyes, childish behaviour, Thea whipped around to the Sergeant.
“Ehh... I meant… This gun is great! Really fantastic craftsmanship, I have to admit,” Thea awkwardly tried to cover up her previous outburst.
“Mhm! There’s a reason it’s considered as the bread and butter of the UHF Marines. That was some impressive shooting, if I might add. I was about to offer you a magnification scope but you clearly don’t need it for these distances…” Selene’s voice trailed off.
“Ah… haha… I guess! I’ve always been pretty good and Old Man James taught me how to shoot before, so I guess I got pretty lucky with that shot,” the teenager abashedly deflected before turning towards the weapon rack. “May I?”
“But of course. I think we can immediately start the free shooting time for you, as you are clearly already accustomed to handling yourself around guns. If you do have any questions about anything in particular, always feel free to ask me.
"I will be by your side until the end of the 2-hour limit… Speaking of, you will have exactly 1 hour and 23 minutes left starting from now,” the Auxiliary Staff Sergeant informed her with a bow, taking a step back to make way for Thea to access the weapon rack nearby.
Over the next hour, Thea went into a figurative shooting frenzy, as she tried every single gun inside the well-stocked weapon rack.
She quickly realised that she preferred longer-barreled guns, as well as ones that provided a lot of power in a single shot. Her favourite type of weapon had to be the Gauss variants, as they provided extreme power with minimal recoil, while also featuring very sophisticated options to be fine-tuned by the user on the fly.
For the last 20-minutes of her free shooting time, she had narrowed down her selection for the challenge to three distinct guns.
One of them was a railgun-type sniper rifle, another a gauss-type designated marksman rifle and the last one a laser-type variant of the aforementioned. These had been her favourite weapons to shoot, as they all came with exceptional power, penetrating ability and accuracy.
While the railgun-type sniper rifle provided by far the largest punch, easily punching even through standard-issue tank armour, she felt that the DMRs provided her with more options overall, as they could even be used in closer-range engagements.
As she was uncertain what the challenge would entail, outside of live-combat, she could not risk choosing a one-dimensional weapon such as the railgun-type sniper rifle as her gun.
That left only the two variants of the same designated marksman rifle. The particular base-model was the X-23R “Mjollnir”, while the gauss and laser-types were designated as the X-23R-G and the X-23R-L respectively.
There were only a couple of distinctions between the two variants, but the differences they made were massive.
Firstly, both of them came in at roughly 133 cm total length and a barrel length of 81cm. Their weight differed slightly, as the X-23R-G weighed a couple hundred grams more than the X-23R-L due to the necessity to fit the gauss acceleration mechanism into the gun. Its total weight came in at 5.44 kg, while the X-23R-L came in at 5.12 kg.
Both weapons came standard with a variable-scope, allowing the user to adjust the magnification level anywhere from 1x-16x. They also came with a standard-issue bipod with a grav-lock mechanic, that made it possible to gravitationally lock the bipod to the surface it is standing on, removing the possibility for minor shakes to disrupt the gunner's aim.
Those were the features shared between the two variants, but the real meat of the issue on deciding between them came in with their respectively unique features.
The X-23R-G came with a standard-size 16-round magazine, which made up roughly 0.2 kg of the total weight of the gun. As it shot physical projectiles, it was able to penetrate pure-energy based shields with ease, but suffered from diminished penetrative abilities against solid fortifications compared to the laser variant.
Furthermore, the gauss-type allowed the user to shoot multiple shots in rapid succession, as there was virtually no recoil, when compared to conventional bullet-type guns, or heat buildup, when compared to laser-type guns, with gauss-type weapons. This would allow Thea to quickly dispatch a large squad of enemies, if needed.
The X-23R-L on the other hand had no magazine restriction, as all it truly cared about was heat generation. While it could massively benefit from energy cells, which acted similar to magazines for non-laser-type weapons, they were not required for the weapon to function.
This was a massive upside for a challenge of unknown length and location, as ammunition management became much easier when one had the luxury of “infinite” ammo at your disposal.
Additionally, the laser-type allowed the user to overcharge or undercharge each shot, to increase or decrease the power and heat generation of the gun respectively. As it also did not suffer from recoil, which most projectile-based weapons did, it could also be fired in rapid succession, albeit with a more limited availability than the gauss-type.
Thea truly loved shooting both variants of the gun and struggled with having to choose one over the other.
While she loved the power of the overcharged laser-type, she also found that the rapid-fire option of the gauss-type lended itself favourably to close-range engagements and even mobile combat, if she needed to switch cover and shoot while on the run.
Generally she had always favoured mobility and speed over power in her life so far, but that was mostly due to necessity, not by choice. As a woman born in an undercity, there were far too many dangerous situations that could not be resolved by her own fickle strength, no matter how much she tried.
With a weapon like the X-23R at her disposal however, she did not necessarily need to rely on her mobility and speed anymore.
This put her in a tough position.
She now had to make a choice between embracing something new, leaning into more raw power with the X-23R-L; or reinforcing her previous life experience and behaviour with the more mobile option of the X-23R-G.
After minutes of struggling with the choice, she finally made a decision.
With a determined look, she picked up the X-23R-L and headed towards the waiting Selene, who was watching her with a look of anticipation.
She chose it for one simple reason. She needed to get #1. She had promised Old Man James that she wouldn’t be complacent. That she’d push herself to the utmost and try her best.
If she truly wanted to push herself, she needed to embrace something new. She couldn’t simply rely on what she knew, but rather needed to incorporate new viewpoints into her very core, in order to be better prepared for all challenges, not just the ones she had faced in her life up until this point.
“I’m done. I’ll be going into the challenge with the X-23R-L,” Thea announced with conviction in her voice, presenting the weapon to the Staff Sergeant.
“Mhm. A solid choice,” she offered with a nod.
“You do have the makings of an excellent scout, I have to admit. I didn’t want to say this openly, but this whole mid-worlder operation was not exactly something I initially agreed to. But after seeing you, I’m starting to think that this might not be a waste of time after all…” she confessed with a slight smile.
“Well then! Don’t disappoint me now,” the Sergeant added, as she started walking towards the original location that Thea had arrived in, motioning the girl to follow her.
As they walked the couple hundred metre distance from the shooting range to the original arrival location, Thea saw the world around her slowly dissolve.
First, the mountains at the horizon started crumbling, followed by the forests in the distance evaporating into grey smoke. Then, the training-course itself started dissipating into infinitely small particles. The wooden scaffolding, the barrels and even the metal tubes and pipes simply ceased to exist, as if they had never existed in the first place.
Once again, Thea was enchanted by the sights. Being able to conjure such life-like and utterly realistic environments from nothing was something that simply should not be possible, according to her knowledge. It was clear to her now, that she truly did not know anything about the greater galaxy.
The realisation reminded her of Old Man James’ Golden Rule #2:
“Never presume to know everything about anything. There will always be things you do not know, no matter how much you know.”
She had never quite understood that rule up until now. But it finally clicked. She once more marvelled at the life experience he had been able to convey to her, through simple one or two sentence rules.
Before she could drift off into further thought however, Selene addressed her.
“Miss, if you’d please step into the circle on the ground.”
A dim-red circle had appeared next to Thea and she stepped inside, making sure not to touch any of the dim-red outline. She did not want to end up breaking anything, after all!
“You will now be loaded into the Deep-Dive Simulation. The mission objective will be displayed in your Heads-Up Display that we went over earlier during the tutorial training course. It should be listed in the top-right corner of your field of view, together with various additional mission-critical information, once you’re inside.
“The challenge will last up to a maximum of 10 hours, but may be completed or failed prematurely. In such cases, the challenge world will be terminated and you will automatically return to consciousness in your real body, which is still safely inside the Sim Tube.
“One last note: The entire world is part of the Deep-Dive Simulation. Any actions taken inside have absolutely no consequences on the real world.
“Severe injury, death or even psychological trauma will not affect your real body or mind, as it will all be filtered by the Sim Tube’s sophisticated security mechanisms. Rest assured that the systems have been tested millions of times and there have been zero confirmed instances of the transfer bringing over harmful influences to the real world.
“With that, you are fully primed and ready to go, Miss. Please verbally confirm your name, that you are taking this challenge of your own free will, are of sound mind and would like to start the simulation now, whenever you’re ready,” Selene finished with a warm smile, calmly and patiently waiting a couple metres away from Thea.
With a last glance towards the friendly Auxiliary Staff Sergeant, Thea took a deep breath and smiled as well. “I hope we’ll meet again, Sergeant Selene! Thank you for all you’ve done for me. I don’t know if this is really you or just a program, but whatever the case, thank you!”
Turning forwards, staring at nothing in particular, she stated with conviction in her voice:
“My name is Thea, I am of sound mind and am taking this UHF challenge of my own free will. I would like to start the simulation now.”
The second the last syllable left her mouth, Thea’s world turned to black once again…