Day Two of the simulation trials began with the taste of dirt.

  Riven hit the ground at three hundred miles an hour. There was a sickening crunch of impact, the scream of twisting metal, and the sudden, absolute blackness of a severed neural connection.

  Then, the world rebooted.

  Riven gasped, his real body convulsing in the pod while his mind snapped back to the starting line of the canyon. The jagged red rocks of the simulation loomed over him, baking in a sun that felt hot enough to blister skin. It didn’t feel like a game. It didn’t feel like a cockpit interface of the jet’s he had been used to. It felt like he was straddling four tons of muscle and scale, inhaling dry dust of the desert.

  “Again,” Phillean’s voice cracked like a whip from the sky. “And try to keep your dragon intact this time, Holt.”

  Riven gritted his teeth. He gripped the reins of the saddle, his knuckles white. And Astrix dove off the edge of the cliff into the obstacle course below. They soared toward the complex floating and moving rocks below.

  “Bank left!” Riven yelled, hauling his weight to the side, his mind screaming the command.

  I am banking! Astrix roared back in his mind.

  They were not banking. They were drifting.

  The canyon wall rushed toward them, a blur of granite and death. Riven tried to figure out how to steer Astrix best. His pilot training screamed that the vector was wrong, that the drag was too high. He tried to force the correction, pulling up hard on the reins to initiate a vertical climb to avoid the collision.

  Astrix fought him. She jerked beneath him, her muscles locking up as she tried to roll. The conflicting commands locked them in a fatal moment of hesitation.

  Why did you stop? Riven shouted in his head.

  I am trying to save us! Astrix yelled back.

  They slammed into the canyon wall.

  Riven felt his shoulder dislocate. He felt the crushing weight of the dragon slamming him into the stone, the air leaving his lungs in a wet wheeze.

  Then, the darkness hit again.

  Riven groaned as the pod reset, the phantom pain of his shattered arm lingering for a terrifying second before fading. He ripped his helmet off, gasping for cool air. The canopy hissed open.

  “That was... spectacular,” Phillean said. He was standing on the walkway above the pod, looking down with an expression of mild amusement. “In the same way a train wreck is spectacular. You two look like a drunk couple fighting over the steering wheel.”

  “She keeps locking up,” Riven wheezed, rubbing his neck where he could still feel the phantom snap of vertebrae. “I initiate the turn, and she freezes for a microsecond. It kills our momentum. By the time she listens, we have already hit the wall.”

  I did not freeze, Astrix’s voice came through the squad speakers, synthesized by the computer. Her tone was defensive, sharp. You pulled back as I was about to roll through a gap.

  “I braced for the turn!” Riven argued, glaring at the black sensor node.

  You braced for impact, Astrix corrected. I felt your fear. And because you were shouting that in my head, I hesitated and got us killed.

  “I was trying to get you bank out of the way to the lower left where there was a gap!”

  There was a rock that would have hit us a moment later if we had taken that path! Astrix snapped back.

  “Kids, please, you’re giving me a headache,” Phillean interrupted, leaning casually against the railing. “Holt, here is your problem. You are flying her like a fighter jet.”

  “I am flying her like a pilot,” Riven said, frustration bleeding into his voice. “It’s the only way I know how.”

  “Exactly,” Phillean nodded. “In a jet, if you pull the stick back, the nose goes up. The jet doesn’t have an opinion. Astrix does. When you tense up, when you do that little calculus equation in your head and clench your jaw, she’s feeling that tension. She interprets it as ‘Abort! Abort!’ You are screaming ‘stop’ with your body while screaming ‘go’ with your mind.”

  Phillean gestured to the empty air. “You’re confusing the poor girl. She thinks you’re having a seizure.”

  Riven slumped back in the seat. He looked at his hands. He was used to machines. Machines did what they were told. They didn’t second-guess him because he was nervous.

  “So what do I do?” Riven asked. “Just let go?”

  “Yes,” Phillean said simply. “You said you two have a privacy agreement, right? You keep your walls up?”

  Riven nodded. “Yes.”

  “Drop them,” Phillean ordered. “Suspend it. I know, I know, you don’t want her reading your diary or seeing your embarrassing childhood crushes. But right now, that wall is getting you killed. She needs to feel that your fear isn’t a warning to stop, but just... fear. And you need to feel her instincts so you stop trying to override them.”

  The canopy closed and Riven closed his eyes, ready for the next simulation. He appeared once more on Astrix’s back, on top of the canyon wall looking at the death trap in front of them.

  He felt Astrix reach her mind out towards him through the bond.

  Riven hesitated. The mental shield was his safety blanket. It was the only thing keeping his anxiety about the mission, his fear of messing this up, and his memories of the grey dust of home locked away.

  He exhaled, a long, shuddering breath. He lowered the mental shields he had constructed so carefully. He didn’t let her into his deep memories, but he opened the channel to his immediate senses. His fear, his focus, and the spike of adrenaline in his blood.

  I am listening, Astrix projected. It felt clearer this time. Closer. It wasn’t a voice in his head anymore; it was a thought that wasn’t his own, sitting right next to his conscious mind.

  “Go,” Riven thought.

  Astrix launched off the cliff.

  The acceleration hit him in the chest, pressing the air from his lungs. This time, there was no jerking of anti gravity. Riven didn’t pull back on the reins; he just visualized the path in his mind, or maybe it was Astrix. It was hard to tell who was thinking what.

  They rolled over a spire of rock, the G-force hitting them in perfect sync. Riven didn’t leaned into the gravity, his body moving with the dragon rather than against it.

  Riven spotted a turret emplacement on the ridge. It was a small, grey blotch against the red stone. Before he could even verbalize the target, before he could calculate the angle, Astrix tucked her wings and dove.

  She felt his intent. She saw what he saw.

  She aligned her body, turning herself into a stable platform in the middle of a three-hundred-mile-per-hour freefall. Riven squeezed the trigger of his lance in rifle mode.

  The turret exploded in a satisfying plume of fire and debris.

  They shot through the canyon exit, Astrix flaring her wings to catch the wind, rolling inverted into the open sky. It was smooth. It was silent. It was perfect.

  “Better,” Phillean’s voice crackled, cutting through the wind. “See? Nobody died. I knew you had it in you. But don’t get cocky. That was just simple flying, here is a rich environment with one fun caveat. No using your Lance," Phillean announced, his voice crackling with that faint edge of amusement he reserved for watching them suffer.

  The clear blue sky shattered, replaced instantly by a digital orange void.

  Hundreds of spherical drones materialized, humming with repulsor energy. They filled the air like a swarm of angry metal hornets. Some were drifting in lazy, hypnotic figure-eights, creating a shifting wall of obstacles. Others were glowing a menacing red, their sensors twitching as they locked onto Astrix.

  "Simple game, Holt," Phillean explained. "The orange ones are dumb; they run on a set path like trains on a track. Don't hit them. The red ones are Chasers; they want to turn you into a fireball. You have two minutes on the clock. Survive."

  Riven swallowed hard. The air in front of them looked less like a flight path and more like a meat grinder.

  "There's a gap opening at two o'clock," Riven shouted, his eyes darting between the shifting spheres. "It's closing fast, though. We need to brake and wait for the next cycle."

  We aren’t braking, Astrix projected, her thought rolling through his mind with casual confidence. There’s a way through this. Duck.

  "We won't fit!" Riven shouted. "Astrix, that gap is barely wider than your shoulders!"

  Then tuck your elbows, she retorted. And with those comforting words she accelerated.

  Riven gasped as Astrix rolled ninety degrees, slicing between two converging drones with millimeters to spare. The air felt forced from his lungs, but before Riven could object further, they were already through and twisting around the next obstacle.

  "You did that on purpose," Riven accused, his heart hammering against his ribs as he stared at the metal sphere whizzing past his ear. "You enjoy terrifying me."

  I saw the a gap clearly, Astrix replied, sounding unbothered. You were simply blinking too much to notice it. If you keep your eyes open, the world slows down.

  "My eyes are open! They're open so wide they're drying out!"

  Phillean voice over the comms. "Chasers are locking on. You're too slow, Holt."

  They were approaching a dense cluster of drones moving in a chaotic swirl. The red Chasers were weaving through the pattern, trying to cut off their escape angles. Riven looked for a line, but everything was blurring together into a wall of motion.

  "Alright, I can't see anything," Riven admitted, panic rising in his chest. "It's all moving too fast. I need a second to just breathe and find the rhythm."

  A second? Astrix asked. I can give you a second.

  "Just slow d—"

  Astrix flared her wings as she defied momentum coming to a stop. Their forward speed died near instantly, the sudden stop slamming Riven forward into his harness as the wind roared in protest. They hung suspended in the air for a heartbeat, gravity fighting to pull them down.

  "I meant tap the brakes, not throw us through the windshield!" Riven wheezed, forcing air back into his lungs.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  You asked for a moment to breathe, Astrix projected, sounding smug. It sounds like you are breathing. Enjoy it.

  The Chaser drones zoomed past them, their targeting computers expecting a constant speed. They overshot wildly into the empty air where Riven and Astrix should have been.

  Riven groaned as his body tried to recover, then Astrix folded her wings completely. They fell like a stone, dropping straight down through the center of a drone cluster beneath them. As they cleared the bottom of the grid, Astrix snapped her wings open. The sudden lift slammed Riven into the seat, his stomach doing a somersault.

  “Can we work together please” Riven groaned.

  "Time," Phillean called out. "Not bad. You didn't explode. Now, Phase Three. Let's see if you can hit something that hits back."

  The orange grid dissolved. The digital sky bruised into a stormy, violent purple. Thunder rumbled, not from clouds, but from the throats of the swarm.

  Screeeech.

  The sound tore through the air. A flock of Flyers. Leathery, four-winged horrors Ravagers broke through the cloud cover. They fell like a landslide of meat and talons, screeching for blood.

  They are everywhere, Astrix projected, her mind brushing against his with a sharp warning. I can sense where they are going to go. Some are going high, others low. They are going to try to box us in.

  "I see them," Riven said, gripping his Lance. He tried to track the leaders, but the swarm was too chaotic. "I can't get a good shot on them. At least none that would do damage, I need to get them separate."

  I can make that happen, Astrix thought, her mental voice tightening.

  She tucked her wings and entered a corkscrew dive. The wind roared, tearing at Riven’s armor. The world became a blur of purple sky and inky wings.

  "I still can't get a clear shot!" Riven shouted over the wind. "Your wings are blocking my periphery! I’m blind on the flanks!"

  I cannot fly without wings. Astrix’s mental voice said dryly

  "I have an idea!"

  He slammed his hand onto the release of his saddle harness that kept his feet and knees locked in place. The clamps hissed open.

  "Holt," Phillean’s voice cut in, “If you jump off your dragon. I resetting the simulation."

  Riven ignored him. He grabbed the front pommel of the saddle and hauled himself up so that he wasn't sitting anymore. He positioned one foot near the metal pommel and the other near the back of his saddle.

  Riven thanked the Resonance for this moment. He had always dreamed doing this.

  He was standing on the back of a dragon moving at three hundred miles an hour, held in place only by the magnetic locks in his boots and his own insanity.

  Riven! Astrix screamed in his mind. Sit down! You are putting far too much faith in those magnets!

  "Keep her steady!" Riven yelled back.

  From this height, he could see everything. He had a 360-degree view over the curve of Astrix’s wings. He felt like a turret on a battleship. A battleship with wings in this case.

  The Flyers saw the exposed pilot and screeched in triumph, diving in for the kill.

  Crack. Crack. Crack.

  Riven’s Lance flashed. He swiveled his hips, firing with a rhythm that matched his breath. One at the top of every breath, one at the bottom. A Flyer dived from the left; Riven dropped it. Two more came from the right; he spun and shattered their skulls before they could deploy their talons.

  They are diving from six o'clock! Astrix warned.

  Astrix banked left hard. Riven leaned with her, his boots grinding against the saddle plates, using the centrifugal force to keep his balance. He fired over his head at the Flyers now looking at him confused, picking off the chasers one by one.

  "He's surfing," Vex said over the comms, sounding delighted. "The crazy bastard is surfing his dragon."

  "It's effective," Phillean muttered, though he sounded like he was rubbing his temples. "Focus, Hammers. Clear the sky."

  The last Flyer tried a suicide run, aiming for Riven’s exposed head. Riven didn't flinch. He waited until he could see the yellow of its eyes, then pulled the trigger. The beast dissolved into code and mist.

  Riven dropped back into the seat, slamming the harness clamps shut. His heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs.

  You, Astrix projected, her voice heavy with adrenaline and humor, are very difficult to keep alive.

  "But the sky is clear," Riven panted.

  Thanks to me you troublesome human.

  "Simulation Complete," the computer chimed.

  "Holt," Phillean said. "If you ever do that in an atmosphere with turbulence, you will fall off and die. But... good shooting. Now, hop off for the day. Tomorrow we are going as a squad."

  “Simulation Starting,” The computer chimed.

  The dark surroundings instantly turned heavy, damp, and smelled of rotting vegetation. The light shifted to a sickly, bioluminescent blue. They were in a colossal subterranean cavern, a forest of giant, twisting fungal stalks rising into the dark above.

  "Full squad link established," Phillean announced.

  The air around Riven shimmered as the rest of the Hammers materialized. It was the full roster, seven riders and seven dragons, filling the cavern with the hum of power armor and the heavy breathing of beasts.

  "Alright Hammers. We are going through aiming to take down a solo queen in a Fungal Hive," Phillean briefed, his voice sharp. "Visibility is going be poor so rely on your dragon for sight. Spore density is high, which means no flames, I’m looking at you Raze. And the Queen will be dug in. She’s almost mature so expect high resistance."

  "I hate mushrooms," Vex grumbled over the comms. Raze snorted, a jet of flame licking at a nearby spore pod, causing it to burst.

  "Raze, what did I just say," Phillean ordered. "We are going to be drilling for the next few days. We kill the Queen, we pass. We die, we restart. Move out."

  They moved through the fungal forest, the dragons crushing the undergrowth. Ahead, the trees cleared into a massive central clearing.

  There she was.

  The Hive Queen was suspended in the center of the clearing, hanging from the ceiling by a thick, pulsating fleshy tether that looked like a grotesque umbilical cord. Below her, the ground was a writhing carpet of eggs.

  She was a nightmare of biology just like how Riven remembered her. However, this time her upper body was armored in iridescent purple chitin rather than purple. Two massive physical claws, serrated and dripping with venom, guarded her chest.

  Instead of two, the queen had four detached, massive scythe-limbs floated in the air around her. They drifted with an eerie, weightless grace, guided solely by her immense telekinetic power.

  "Alright, she has four psychic claws and two physical," Phillean called out. "Sylas, make sure none of her psychic power can incapacitate any dragons or Lancer."

  "On it," Sylas said calmly.

  Halo floated forward. The Radiant dragon flared with a golden light that erupted from it’s halo, washing over the clearing. The Queen looked up at the dragon, the four psychic claws trembling as her connection to them was contested.

  "I can't hold her forever!" Sylas yelled, " Pin her down!"

  "You heard the man!" Phillean roared. "Boom squad! Each of you take two limbs! Limit her movement!"

  The squad moved with synchronization.

  "I got the left side!" Brick shouted. Bastion charged, the living boulder of a dragon leaping into the air and slamming into two of the floating claws, pinning it to the ground with sheer mass.

  "Right side is mine!" Tora yelled. Havoc whipped his tail, his spiked club smashing a floating scythe out of the air before grappling it with his claws. The fourth slipped away and shot towards Halo.

  "Incoming!" Kaelo ordered. Viper, the serpentine dragon, uncoiled like a spring. He wrapped his long body around the third floating limb, constricting it and dragging it down.

  The four floating limbs were pinned. The Queen was screaming, thrashing against the combined weight of four dragons.

  "She's open!" Phillean shouted. "Strikers, target the tether! It takes ten solid hits to sever! Raze you are good to use fire, but only on the Queen’s main body!"

  As he shouted, he aimed his Lance and fired off several shot, but the Queen’s two main claws flickered and cut the rounds in half.

  Let’s move, Astrix projected.

  Riven didn't need to answer. Astrix launched, blurring into motion. Vex and Raze were right beside them.

  The Queen saw them coming. With her floating limbs pinned, she lashed out with her two physical claws. They were fast. Faster than anything that size had a right to be.

  "Break!" Vex yelled.

  Raze banked left, unleashing a torrent of fire that engulfed the Queen’s face. She recoiled, her chitin blistering.

  Phillean shots hit twice against the tether as the Queen was distracted.

  "Now, Riven!" Phillean yelled.

  Riven and Astrix dove opposite to Vex. They came in low, under the guard of the physical claws who were preoccupied to the opposite side with Vex. Riven leveled his Lance in rifle mode.

  Crack. Crack.

  Two shots hit the tether. Blue ichor sprayed.

  But the Queen wasn't done. She ignored the fire and swung a physical claw down, blocking the line of sight to the tether, slicing through a round from Phillean and shielding it from Riven’s sight. She was shielding it with her own body.

  "She's blocking the angle!" Riven shouted. "I can't hit the cord!"

  "I'm pouring fire on her, but she won't move!" Vex yelled, Raze bathing the Queen in another wave of heat.

  "Viper’s grip is slipping!" Kaelo strained over the comms. Viper was being thrashed around by the telekinetic limb. "Hurry up!"

  Riven looked at the chaotic melee. The heavy dragons were struggling to hold the floating arms. Halo’s halo was starting to flicker, Sylas barely conscious. Vex was keeping the Queen’s head busy with fire.

  The tether was behind the Queen’s physical arm. There was no line of sight from the air.

  Unless...

  As Astrix pulled up and flew behind, Riven looked at the gap between the Queen’s neck and her shoulder. It was tiny. A dragon couldn't fit.

  But a man could.

  "Astrix," Riven said, his voice calm. "You see what I see. We need to thread the needle."

  I don’t like it, Astrix warned immediately. We will get separated.

  "I know," Riven said. "But I trust you to catch me on the way down."

  Riven—

  "Let’s do it!"

  Astrix didn't argue further. She just flared her wings, arresting her dive right in front of the Queen’s face, amidst the fire and the screaming.

  Riven hit the release.

  He launched himself off the saddle. He flew through the air, passing inches from the Queen’s mandibles. He sailed through the narrow gap between her neck and her armored shoulder, tumbling into the space behind her guard.

  He was falling toward the egg sack, right next to the tether.

  He twisted in mid-air, gravity pulling him down.

  Crack. Crack. Crack.

  He poured fire into the tether at point-blank range.

  "Vex! Hit the cut!" Riven screamed into the comms.

  Vex didn't hesitate. She saw Riven fall past the Queen. She saw the open wound on the tether.

  "Raze! Fireball!"

  The red dragon roared and spat a concentrated sphere of plasma. It flew past the Queen, missing Riven by inches, and slammed into the weakened tether.

  BOOM.

  The explosion severed the cord and the massive fleshy tether whipped away spewing blue ichor like a broken fire hydrant. Riven watched it fall, gravity taking hold of him in the same moment.

  The Hive Mother landed silently on the resin floor, landing with a sound like cracking thunder. Relieved of her anchor, six massive, armored legs exploded from beneath her bulk, digging into the ground with terrifying speed.

  I have you, Astrix’s voice cut through panic, calm and absolute. A blue of matte black scales swept beneath him. Riven slammed into the saddle, the breath driven from his lungs with a wheeze. But before he could bounce off Astrix, his suit engaged with the saddle with a metallic clank, securing him to the dragon just as she pulled up from the dive, her wingtips brushed the eggs of the Ravagers below.

  “Bastion hold onto those claws. Havoc let go, Tora use your explosives. Target her legs.” Phillean roared. His own dragon, Noxin, began to move towards the now loose Queen.

  The Queen charged like a iridescent nightmare of purple and black, closing the distance to Bastion who held her claws. Noxin met her in the middle and pushed the bug back. But even he had to dodge the claw that was let go by Havoc that was now spinning like a buzzsaw towards him.

  “Havoc, blow up that motherf--” Tora yelled before the sound of the explosives flung by Havoc hitting the Queen drowned her out.

  BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

  The explosions staggered the Queen, forcing her to recoil. She hissed, the floating claw she had whipping around like a makeshift shield against the shrapnel.

  “Halo, keep that suppression up. Noxin, take down that flying claw.” Phillean yelled as he observed the battlefield atop his dragon. He wasn’t firing much, but he was keeping us organized. “Strikers, take out a limb.”

  Raze launched fire at the Queen’s face obscuring her vision. Astrix didn’t wait and immediately banked hard, diving into the melee. She spun between the buzzsaw claw and Noxin who was meters away.

  Astrix had perfectly positioned him so that he had a clean shot on the Queen’s exposed arms who were raking towards Raze. They were moving faster than he could see, but it shouldn’t couldn’t move.

  Crack. Crack. Crack.

  Riven poured three tungsten rounds into the joint.

  “Vex, stop!” Riven heard Phillean’s voice yell over the comms and he looked up to see Vex emerge from the flames diving towards the Queen’s face. She landed on it’s chest and placed her lance directly into the Queen’s open mouth and pulled the trigger.

  The Queen’s head jerked back. And Vex slid around the Queen’s head before she could regain her bearing to her back. She let her Lance aim towards the joint that Riven had hit and pulled the trigger. The shoulder disintegrated before the blow and the physical limb dropped to the ground.

  The fire disappeared as Raze flew around the back of the queen. The Queen began to turn but was hit by an explosive thrown by Havoc. Vex jumped and landed on Raze’s back moments before the Queens’ remaining claw hazily slashed through where she was.

  Riven poured a few more shots against the back of the Queen’s head as Noxin had grabbed the floating claw in his teeth. Noxin then charged the Queen who was focused on Raze and Vex.

  Phillean jumped off Noxin as he tackled the queen and pressed her into the ground. Her feet talons and claws scraped off the bottom of the Noxin fruitlessly as Phillean jumped off Noxin, Laance aimed downed.

  Philleans lance hit the Queen’s head and instead of being stopped, cleanly pierced through the Queen’s armor and into the ground below, sinking to the hilt.

  “Simulation complete,” the computer chimed.

  The fungal forest dissolved and the pod hissed open. Riven climed out, his legs shaking. The entire encounter had his entire focus throughout the entire time and he felt drained, even if he wasn’t physically there. He looked beside him to see Vex grinning at him, giving him a thumbs up. Brick nodded at it, before pounded fists with Tora who looked like she was coming down off a sugar high.

  Phillean climbed out of the center pod and stretched. “Good work today Hammers. Even with a new guy we still have good synergy. Proud of you for keeping up on your third day Riven. And Vex, just because Riven has been reckless, doesn’t mean you stupe to his level. The fire was a good mask, but it also obscured your vision. If the Queen had her claw ready, you would be dead.”

  “Gotcha, Sergeant.” Vex said, leaning side to side. “Be less reckless. I solemnly swear never to be reckless again.”

  “Don’t be a smartass.” Phillean countered. “Tora, great bomb placement. And Kaleo good cover for that stray claw for Halo, you did your job well.”

  They both gave him mock salutes.

  “Alright Hammers. Enough self congratulations. We are going to run these simulations for the next few days until you are doing them in your sleep.” Phillean looked at the squad, and Riven felt exhausted at his words. “The more we practice, the more we are prepared. We will continue this after the next jump, and the jump after we will work on some fun space tactics before we integrate the full platoon for the final jump.”

  Phillean turned toward the door. “Get cleaned up and grab some chow. We have two more squad sims after lunch.”

  “Get ready for the grind, rookie.” Vex whispered to him, as the squad began heading out of the sims lab. “It’s going to be fun.”