017 Beginner Training 3: Exercise Summary 1

Wait—third place in genre-based weekly rankings?

Everyone. Thank you.

"Yes, everyone, sit down."

After finishing the exercise, we’re prompted by Commander Shiina to move to our seats in the training room.

A massive black wall descends before us.

A virtual screen appears in the space ahead.

Looks like a measure to prevent the background from overlapping the VR footage on the virtual screen.

The footage on the virtual screen is from the simulated combat exercise space.

"Starting now, we’ll go over the overall summary of the exercise.

What you’re seeing here is a playback of the exercise.

The SF0’s official line is that we sell this footage for income.

In reality, it’s streamed on-demand on Earth—actual money comes in.

So, since it’s pocket money, try not to embarrass yourself."

The male team averts their eyes at Commander Shiina’s words.

We’ve been through hell in this drill, after all.

“Alright, let’s take a look at each one individually. First up—Ooi.”

Commander Shiina’s voice shifts the virtual screen’s view to Ooi’s avatar’s perspective.

“This avatar display has four modes.

Avatar in front of you, avatar’s viewpoint, ship in front of you, bridge viewpoint.

Default is avatar in front of you.

Set your preference once, and that’ll be the default from now on.”

Commander Shiina cycles through the display modes.

Pauses on “ship in front of you.”

“In this mode, identical ships are indistinguishable, so we assign personal colors to differentiate them.

For now, we’ve just assigned colors at random.”

(Didn’t know you could even display the ship like that.)

“Alright, let’s watch Ooi’s performance.”

As the drill began, the Ooi ship drew in the Forest and Kiry ships like a magnet.

After a moment, the Kiry ship suddenly shot away at high speed.

At this point, Commander Shiina paused the feed.

"Good initiative, wanting to coordinate with the other two right off the bat.

But immediately trying to play leader? That’s asking for trouble.

I’ve seen the comms, and it was… rough."

Apparently, the boys’ team had already split up in the early stages.

That’s why Kiry’s coordination failed.

Commander Shiina advanced the footage to where the Ooi ship concealed itself behind an asteroid.

"Positioning for coordination with Forest was acceptable."

Commander Shiina praised the Ooi, then advanced the video to the Forest assault scene.

The omnidirectional comms from Forest rang out, drawing laughter from everyone.

The Ooi ship waited for the right moment, then burst out from behind the rock—on the left.

"Here!"

The footage freezes.

"Left has a rock formation—so why the left shield? Why hold the shield on the left!"

The footage resumes.

Ayame’s ship charges forward from behind the rock formation, heading straight for the Ooi vessel.

The ship is almost entirely covered by its shield, firing beam cannons through gaps in the defense.

The Ooi ship frantically raises its left shield, but takes a hit on the starboard side.

Trying to block it, it pushes the shield forward—obstructing its own view.

Then, missiles approach from all directions. It performs random evasive maneuvers, intercepting with lasers—but one missile slips into a blind spot and hits directly. Sinking verdict.

GAME OVER appears on screen.

"The flaw was getting too caught up in the offensive, neglecting defense.

You could’ve held the shield on the right, or emerged from behind the rock in a defensive posture—instead, you failed to do so.

You thought you were exploiting the enemy’s panic… but ended up losing your head."

A result of getting too drunk on your own strategy."

Ooi-san hung his head under Commander Shiina’s stern words.

"But if, as originally planned, another ship had broken through from a different angle, we might’ve gotten a much better outcome. I’ll give you that."

Ooi-san seemed to perk up at those words.

"Keep going, Kirii."

Footage from after Kirii’s ship approached and then disengaged from Ooi’s.

Kirii’s ship circled the asteroid, perfectly slotting into the one with empty space only in the six forward directions—front, back, left, right, up, and down.

Then it just kept monitoring the front.

Looks like a full-on sniper type.

The monitoring feed continued until the timer ran out and ended.

"Got it. You’ve got a playstyle."

If Ooi and Forest had acted as bait, luring the enemy right into view, we might’ve had a shot.

But with this gear, long-range shooting? Not a chance.

"Maybe think a little more about teamwork."

(Or maybe I'm the lonelier one here.)

"Next, Forest."

Pause at the omnidirectional comms node.

"Everyone makes mistakes.

Even without omnidirectional comms, the radar already locked onto them—outcome’s the same.

But getting caught yelling into the void? That delayed the first shot by a beat. That was the death knell."

Resume playback. The three ships ahead execute a rapid turn, locking onto firing lines.

My missile and beam fire head toward the Forest vessel.

Forest evades the missile and dodges the beam—then takes a railgun hit from the Tanpopo ship, resulting in a navigation failure.

GAME OVER.

"Try this: imagine it was the other way around.

Salivating over prey? That’s amateur hour.

Your move got your own squadmates sunk.

Watch this mess again. Really look at it."

With that, Commander Shiina restarted the kill sequence in avatar display mode.

Poor thing—Forest’s avatar was stripped bare by a direct railgun hit, armor peeled off like old bark, half-naked and exposed.

The footage cuts out. Guess they spared us the full nudity.

(Shiina-sama, scary!…)

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