“Time’s up. Please turn off your devices,” Professor Vissur’s translator said.

  Nar groaned and turned off his touch screen, stashing away the little metal cylinder in his ring.

  “How did it go?” Gad asked him.

  “Okay, I think…” he said. “Ugh. I don’t like studying.”

  Gad shook her head in agreement.

  Sweat, bruises, pain and blood. These he could take and endure through by just gritting his teeth and motivating himself off of his meager daily improvements. But sitting down somewhere, staring at words, and trying to commit them to memory? Now that was torturous…

  Even if all the stuff he was studying was important, like elemental and affinity weakness, pros and cons of different physical damage types against certain creatures, weakness and strengths, the endless General Identifiable Anatomy of Beasts and Monsters, and so on, it was hard to just sit down and brute force the knowledge into his mind. It was like trying to fill up a leaking cup with water.

  I wish the System would just do it for me, Nar thought, not for the first or the last time, as he got up. Or at least that It gave me some [Memory] too…

  Still, he had gotten through. It was Fourth night, and he and Gad had just finished their Slaying theoretical exam. Earlier that day, during the morning, they had also gone through their first TSA exam together. And working his way through all the theoretical what if scenarios and all the “what would you do in this situation” questions, had left his brain nearly leaking out of his ears.

  3 hours for TSA. Then another 3 for Slaying… Why did they have to put both exams on the same day? He asked himself.

  They stepped outside the small room, warm and stale air leaking after them into the rust brown metal corridor, and Nar stretched with a wordless groan.

  “Can't believe we have one of these every month,” Gad said, in a rare display of complaining. “I don’t know how Kur does it.”

  Nar nodded. “Crystal… How many did he even have? Ten?”

  “Eleven,” Gad said.

  “That’s just insane.”

  “Every path has its struggles…” Gad said. “Food? I’m too hungry to go back to the room and wait for the others.”

  “Let’s do it,” Nar said, as his own stomach audibly begged for sustenance.

  They queued up with the other apprentices for the lift, and while Nar alternated between dreading his exam marks and wondering what was for dinner, the klaxon sounded above their heads.

  “Good evening, apprentices! I hope you enjoyed your very first week of exams aboard the Scimitar,” the captain’s voice said. “Next month will be the same!”

  “She enjoys our pain,” Gad said.

  “Now, as you all might have noticed, your schedules were free for tomorrow,” she said.

  Were? Nar thought. Shit… Is the second assessment tomorrow?

  No one had told them anything at all about their second assessment. Neither when it would occur, where, how or even what it was, and Nar had started to believe that it had been pushed back from its original plan of two weeks after the den fight.

  Confluence Prep? He thought, staring at the new single block that had appeared in his schedule for the following day. What in the Pile is a confluence?

  “As you will see from your schedules, tomorrow will be dedicated entirely to Confluence Prep,” the captain continued. “The confluence itself, which is obviously your second assessment, is going down on Sixth day morning, bright and early.”

  “It’s here…” Nar whispered.

  At his side, Gad only allowed herself a half smirk. “Like we always knew it would.”

  “This goes without saying, but, pay extreme attention during your Confluence Prep,” the captain warned them. “Confluences are chaos incarnate, and dying in one is extremely easy. If you thought the den was bad, wait until you see the confluence… All training and studying is stopping immediately, and I want everyone in bed by 10PM tonight, and tomorrow night. You’ll want to be well rested for this. Captain, out!”

  Nar sighed. Oh well… The higher the danger, the better the gains, I guess...

  *********

  The next day, after breakfast, Nar found himself seated back at the large auditorium where he had his two Nexus 101 lectures, as well as that single Aura 101 lecture delivered by the Master of Aura. Today however, there was a stern looking man on the podium. An alfin Ex-Climber from the looks of his ashen skin, pale, long blond hair and long ears.

  “Did you ever find out anything?” Nar asked Kur, who sat to his right.

  Their party leader had stayed up later while the rest of the party had obeyed the early bed order.

  “Nothing, and the touch-screen locked up at half ten,” the party leader said. “My guess is they blocked the knowledge from us.”

  “To keep the surprise,” Mul muttered from Kur’s other side. “Lovely, lovely, surprises they always have for us.”

  Kur grimaced but he nodded at the brawler's words.

  “We’ll know now,” he said with a sigh. “But I wish they’d give us time to prepare… What's the point in learning about all of those consumables, Slaying and what not if we can’t…”

  The lights dimmed above their heads, and Kur shut up to focus on the alfin below.

  “Morning, apprentices,” he said. “I’m Lieutenant Dov, of the Storm Glider corp, and I’m in charge of the promenades of the Scimitar.”

  Above his head, a diagram of the ship appeared on the big screen up on the wall, and it had several red lines drawn horizontally across its hull, atop of it, and below the ship itself as well.

  “These are the promenades,” he said, waving at the red lines. “They are open spaces built on the hull of the ship, from which delvers can fight against flying beasts, enemy ships and repel boarding parties.”

  “Enemy ships?” Kur whispered.

  From his other side, Jul elbowed Nar and leaned in close. “I think that’s what we saw from Betty! Remember? With the handrails?”

  Nar nodded. “I think you’re right!”

  “Usually, we don’t concern ourselves with enemy ships,” Lieutenant Dov said. “The Scimitar is a big and well-armed ship, and few are stupid enough to try anything. Beasts however…”

  The image on the wall changed, and cries and murmurs erupted across the seated apprentices.

  On the wall, there was now some kind of dark blue, winged beast with a long sinuous body. From its double jaws, it spewed a jet of bright blue flames onto a gathered fleet of thousands of ships, and within its sinuous body, it had not just one, but three massive ships entrapped in its enormous coiling length. The beast made the aetherships that surrounded it look tiny and puny in comparison.

  “This is a blue queen amphithere,” Lieutenant Dov told them. “It’s a behemoth-class beast, miles long in size.”

  “Did he just say miles?” Tuk gasped, from Jul’s side. “Crystal!”

  The image zoomed in and out, revealing thousands of other amphitheres, across a wide range of sizes and hues of blues, flying and fighting alongside their queen.

  “As you can see, the queen is also with her entire broodflight,” Lieutenant Dov explained. “That’s several hundred thousand beasts of various sizes, from her massive consorts, to her even bigger competing daughters, to all the warriors, hunters, hatchers and every other beast in the herd. Oh, and a herd is like a den, except it's mobile.”

  Isn’t that worse? Nar thought. The den of psaelis had been rough enough, but a moving, flying one like that? How in the Nexus were they supposed to even fight something of that scale? The ships alone looked tiny!

  “Of course, aetherships have guns,” Lieutenant Dov said. “But there’s only so many guns you can fit on a ship… While on the other hand, you can fit a lot more delvers into it.”

  The image changed to show a group of harrowed delvers fighting from one of those open spaces built into the hull of a ship, giant beasts darting by and spewing jets of blue flame against what seemed to be shields made of aether of many colors.

  No… Nar thought, shocked. You gotta be joking!

  “This is a promenade,” Lieutenant Dov said. “And that is how delvers fight from aboard an aethership.”

  “No way… No. Way,” Mul whispered. “Are you fucking serious?”

  Ignoring the mutters and whispers amongst his audience, the lieutenant proceeded to show them a series of images. All of them showed violent, desperate delvers fighting winged monstrosities from the exposed promenades of aetherships.

  “Guns and combat delvers. These two are responsible for the ship’s survival,” Lieutenant Dov said, flicking back to the initial image of the queen. “And when they fail…”

  The image changed into a video.

  “Look! She’s going to break!” someone shouted from the speakers in the room. And Nar watched, stunned to silence, as someone kept shouting from the video, their voice pitched high with hysteria and disbelief.

  The massive queen’s twin jets of blue flames incinerated whole ships in mere split-seconds, blasting through shields of aether. And with an ear-splitting screech, it broke apart one of the three enormous ships within its coils, in booming explosions of multi-colored aether. Her body continued to coil around the broken fragments, reducing them into smaller and smaller pieces, which fell down into the clouds beneath the battle, plunging into the unknown depths beneath them, and taking Crystal knew how many people down with them.

  My Crystal… Nar thought, his breath choked on his throat. How is something like that even fightable?

  “Luckily for us, you won’t find any beasts of this level until you are well into the Deep Zones,” the lieutenant said, stopping the video just as the beast queen shattered a second of the huge ships. “But these sorts of roaming herds are a common occurrence in the Outer Reaches as well, and where we’re going tomorrow, we’ll find not just one, but at least four herds.”

  The auditorium erupted in cries and panicked conversations.

  “Four?” Tuk said. “Did he just say four?”

  “But… How?” Jul whispered.

  “Quiet,” Lieutenant Dov said.

  His tone was no louder or more charged than before, but Nar found himself shutting his mouth closed.

  Presence again! He realized. When were they going to tell them more about that damned attribute!

  “The herds you’ll be facing tomorrow are nothing like these amphitheres,” the man continued, placing his hands behind his back, his posture firm in a relaxed, easy way. “They will be deadly, yes, but they are well within your capabilities and experience to handle. Allow me to explain…”

  Another diagram of the Scimitar appeared on the screen. On it, the three massive aether spheres that Nar had seen on the day of the den fight, were highlighted in red, as were several other different squares across the ship, at its top, bottom, back, front and sides.

  “An aethership has three types of engines,” the lieutenant explained. “The jump engines, which your Nexus 101 professor told you about, and which are located at the very core of the ship. The propulsion engines, which allow the ship to move in all directions, and lastly, the lift engines.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The three big spheres flashed in red.

  “These are the engines that keep the ship afloat, and they work by basically floating on top of ambient aether” the alfin said. “Now, ambient aether is basically aetheric emanations from the Source. They are invisible to the naked eye, but they are everywhere, even in this room. Even in your very lungs. They’re just in such small quantities that your auras instantly consume them as they enter your noses and mouths.”

  Nar frowned down at the bridge of his nose, while Jul passed a hand in the air, expecting to find something there or trigger a ripple of golden, pink shimmering rainbow.

  “Is it like the Pressure?” she wondered in a hushed tone.

  “Now, in the Labyrinth, ambient aether changes and takes form. It becomes tides and currents. It ebbs and flows, rises and falls. When the tide is too low to maintain lift, a ship needs to land on the floor of the Labyrinth, and be ready to defend itself from dens and herds until the tide rises again. We have plenty of sensors and good planning to avoid getting caught in a low tide, so don’t worry about it,” Lieutenant Dov explained. “But in the same way as tides, currents also grow strong or weaker, and when it becomes too strong, too wild, aether storms will form, and a confluence is a type of aether storm. One that is of high interest to any XP conscious aethership. Or should I say savvy, and willing to take risks.”

  A smile crept onto the man’s face.

  “I got a bad feeling about this…” Kur muttered.

  “The Scimitar is one such ship,” Dov said. “In a confluence, the ambient aether is so strong, we can open up our condensers and just fill up our aether banks for free! It saves us a lot of XP, apprentices. A lot. And that is XP that can then be better used on you.”

  Damn it! Is everything about experience in the damned Nexus? Nar thought.

  “Of course, beasts are also attracted to the feast of concentrated ambient aether, and that is why confluences are so dangerous. And so deadly,” he continued. “It’s a mad gamble to fly a confluence, but it's one the Scimitar does whenever the tanks are running low, and the tanks are running exceedingly low, apprentices.”

  “Crystal dammit,” Mul said, his tone muted. “Here we go again.”

  “And so, we’re flying the confluence tomorrow,” the lieutenant announced. “For as long as it takes for the tanks to refill. That said, four herds is a bit much, so the storm gliders will be fighting with and keeping an eye on you, to make sure nothing too bad happens.”

  Nar breathed in relief, and around him, he heard the collective sigh coming from about three hundred mouths. Lieutenant Dov, however, frowned up at them.

  “Did I say you didn’t have to worry?” he asked them. “Apprentices have died from previous confluences, and even with the crew looking out for you, a confluence is a clusterfuck of chaos. The wild aether takes out anything on the ship’s hull. The guns will be offline. The comms and the pilots’ senses will be offline. We’ll be flying blind and on manual, unable to communicate with anyone on the outside of the ship other than by shouting. We won’t even know the progress of the refilling until the Scimitar pulls out of the confluence!”

  Nar heard Jul and Tuk gulp at his side.

  “Shit can happen. Things can go wrong,” Lieutenant Dov continued. “Without sensors, we won’t know if other herds are heading our way. Without comms, we’ll be sitting targets for any other ship riding the confluence to attack us, and we won’t be able to tell anyone about it… Oh, yes! In the confluence, anything goes, and pirates can do anything they want under the cover of the storm.”

  “This just keeps getting better and better,” Mul whispered.

  “Of course, we won’t be the only ship flying the confluence, and that reduces the chances of attack, but it’s never zero, and with our guns offline, and a shipful of green apprentices, we might just become a tasty enough target to risk taking a bit off,” the man said. “So, treat this with the utmost respect. Even protected by the storm gliders, you will be fighting for your lives. The gains will, of course, be massive. If you can earn them.”

  Nar straightened in his seat. That was what he had needed to hear. The den gains had propelled him forward, upgrading his skills and earning him his [Sword Aura], and if he was to continue growing, and growing fast, he would need those kinds of heavy combat situations to achieve it.

  The screen flicked to a different image, and four pictures now occupied the wall, each containing a different beast.

  “First, we have the pullies,” the lieutenant said, and all the pictures except the top left one went grayscale. “They fly using those large membranes you see there to ride aether currents. They are vicious little fuckers, with sharp teeth under those tentacles, and the tentacles themselves are nothing to ignore… Once they latch onto you, not even your [Strength] might be enough to pull them off of you. Better you just kill them before trying to rip off your own arms and legs… Or face.”

  “Eugh…” Tuk said.

  “Usually, they leave us auramancers well alone. They feed off aether from the air and from prey, and we don’t have any aether. Our auras will kill them as they drain us, but a confluence’s ambient aether is wild and chaotic, and many smaller beasts go into a frenzy, feasting on and attacking anything in sight. And while your aura will kill them, a bunch of them will suck you dead… So, don’t let them latch onto you.”

  At Nar’s side, Kur was furiously taking notes now, and Nar felt grateful that someone was. That confluence nonsense was looking worse and worse by the minute.

  “Next, we have the raimels,” lieutenant Dov said, and the top right square turned colorful. “Now these? These are the downright pieces of shit.”

  Nar grimaced at the picture of a sinuous flying creature. It was a type of serpent, as he had learned to recognize from his Slaying classes, except this one was unusually covered in very fine, long strands of flowing green fur instead of scales. And at its back, dark green spines rose from the fur, glimmering in a rainbow like golden aether, similar to a ship’s wake.

  “As you might have guessed, they fly by anchoring their spines to ambient aether and currents,” the lieutenant explained. “Raimels are blindingly fast, and before you know it, they will have wrapped themselves up around you, and they will lift you up… And drop you. They eat by gorging on the shattered corpses of their prey, at the bottom of the Labyrinth.”

  Tuk made a strangled sound at that description.

  “Of course, you will be strapped in, but they will try to tear you away from the ropes. And failing that, they’ll just try to smash you against the ship’s hull, which is not a nice way to go, apprentices. So if you see anyone, anyone, be it from your party, other apprentices, crewmembers, anyone at all, getting snatched up or entangled with one of these green fuckers, your immediate priority, if possible and safe, is to to help them or to alert others about what’s happening. Do you understand? These things are the worst herd you will fight out there tomorrow, and the ones most likely to get anyone killed,” the lieutenant said, then he shook his head. “Insane to think that much of their bodies are used for cosmetics…”

  “Suddenly, the psaelis don’t look so bad…” Nar muttered, amidst the general murmurs in the auditorium.

  “We’re going to need to be very careful,” Kur said. “Especially you guys. We’re going to be relying a lot on your senses.”

  “In an aether storm?” Nar asked. “Will they even work?”

  Jul looked up at him with an alarmed expression.

  “[Aura Senses]...” she whispered.

  Nar nodded grimly. “If even the ship’s comms are down, and those run on aether...”

  “Let’s not panic just yet,” Kur told them. “Let’s see if he’s got anything to say about that… Even if [Aura Senses] won’t work, you still got the actual attributes. I don't think aether, wild or not, will interfere with that.”

  “Hmm…” Nar said, not fully convinced. “Let’s see.”

  “Next!” Lieutenant Dov said, drawing their attention back to the screen.

  A new beast became highlighted in color, and for a moment, Nar frowned in confusion as he tried to make sense of what he was staring at.

  “I know, cute, aren’t they?” the lieutenant asked.

  Cute’s one way to put it… Nar thought.

  The new beast looked like a little feather ball. It had big, blue eyes in its cute small face, and its feathers were a rich combination of browns, grays and shimmering blues. Its wings looked comically small for its large, puffy body, and a thin tail that was as long as the feathery creatures were tall, and with three prongs at its end, completed the look. Whatever it was, it didn’t exactly scream “danger!”

  “They’ve got a proper name somewhere,” the lieutenant continued. “But everyone just calls them zappers. They’re one of the most popular beasts in the OPC’s NPLLBICH, and that fucking mouthful just means the Offices of Ports and Customs, and the second one is the Nexus Permitted List for Live Beast Import for Companionship and Hobbyism. Most people just call it the Beast Manifest, though some like to call it exactly what you’re thinking.”

  “Think what?” Mul asked, from Nar’s left.

  “Don’t worry, it’s not a nice word,” Tuk whispered back at him.

  “I wanna know,” Mul whispered back.

  Tuk sighed and leaned in to whisper something in the brawler’s ears.

  “What the… Seriously?” he asked, in a shocked tone.

  “I want to know too!” Cen said.

  “No!” both Tuk and Mul whispered.

  “Quiet!” Kur hissed at them.

  “... alive?” someone was asking, above the hubbub that had spread. “Are you saying there are beasts in the Nexus?”

  What? Nar thought, confused. What in the Pile had he missed?

  “Of course there are,” the man said, nodding up at whoever had asked the question. “Livestock, zoos, shows, and most commonly, pets!”

  The room drew a blank at his words and he frowned. “Neither the System or Tsurmirel’s data pack gave you an explanation for any of those?”

  He sighed at the shaking heads.

  “Damn things are so hit and miss…” he muttered to himself. “Livestock you should know from your monsters and beasts class? They are beasts that are grown and cared for, for the purpose of resource extraction or food, while zoos are places filled with a crap ton of different beasts, but instead of eating or harvesting them, people pay to go there and look at them. The more dangerous and crazier looking the beasts are, the more the zoos can charge, and kids love going there. Adults too, it’s a fun outing, you know?”

  Nar’s eyebrows could raise any higher. People paid to go look at beasts? And kids loved to see them? Were those nasty psaelis included in that?

  “Now, shows are more or less the same as the zoos, but people perform alongside beasts, making them do tricks like… Oof! I don’t know? Sit down. Shake your hand. Roll over? That kind of thing.”

  “The Nexus is insane…” Mul whispered.

  “Insanely awesome!” Tuk added. “I can’t wait to see it!”

  “As for pets, they’re just beasts that people keep as companions,” the lieutenant explained. “Beasts aren’t smart, but some of them are highly loving, caring and affectionate, and some others can be trained to become so. The zappers are in the first category, and they are very popular pets and attractions, and kids love the absolute shit out of them. It’s one of the most common household beasts you will find in the Nexus.”

  “Whaaaaat?” Tuk whispered.

  “That’s crazy,” Jul said.

  “But… Isn’t it dangerous?” someone asked, voicing Nar’s own thoughts. How could you just keep a beast in your house?

  “Nah! They might zap if you hurt or annoy them, and that might startle a kid and make’em cry, but it won’t even leave a bruise,” Lieutenant Dov explained. “But you see that tail? Zappers in the wild will bunch up together, using those tails to anchor onto each other, and then they can generate enough electricity to blast you into tiny smoking bits.”

  “Of course…” Kur muttered.

  “It’s said that a big enough ball of them can blast through ships, but I've never heard of that actually happening…” the alfin continued, rubbing his chin with a thick, white gloved hand. “Anyways, these zappers are going to be jacked up on aether, so expect their lightning attacks to be properly damaging. And be on the lookout for knots of them! They’re all going to be in a frenzy too.”

  He waved over his screen and the last beast changed to color.

  “You can’t tell me that’s not dangerous…” Nar whispered.

  The last beast looked like some kind of tube-like creature, that was wider at his midriff. Its mouth was open, showing row after row of gleaming sharp teeth beneath a long, razor sharp looking, bladed nose. However, that was far from the beast’s worst feature…

  “Are those blades?” Jul whispered.

  Nar could only nod in stunned silence.

  … three, four, five, six, seven… And a big one on its tail… What in the Pile?

  “This is an ikuros,” the lieutenant explained. “They are blindingly fast, and they can shred through half a promenade just by swimming through it. Luckily for us, they are also extremely shy beasts, and even in a confluence, they tend to keep well away from ships, as the aether doesn’t drive them anywhere as insane as the other beasts. They should focus on the aether, and the pulleys and zappers, but… Stuff happens. If you do see one, make sure you tell everyone else around you before anyone loses their head! And no, that's not something a healer can fix.”

  “Lovely,” Kur whispered.

  “That should be it,” Lieutenant Dov said. “That’s as far as we can go from the reports, and as we approach the confluence, we’ll continue to monitor them for surprises. However, once we are inside, our sensors will be down, and anything can happen. Another ship might attack us, if they’re feeling suicidal, or more herds can join in for the party. So… Just be ready for anything.”

  Nar snorted.

  “Right? That’s pretty much what we have to do for anything it seems,” Kur said, sarcastically.

  “Now, onto the last bit before we move out,” Dov said.

  Move out? Nar asked. Move out where? Isn’t the confluence tomorrow?

  “You are all aware by now that aether and aura don’t mix,” the lieutenant said. A statement, not a question. “And tomorrow, you’re going to be surrounded by a lot of aether. The bad news is, it will probably hurt. A lot even.”

  Another diagram of the ship showed up, but this one depicted several dozens of black lines sticking a ways out from the ship.

  “These are aether rods,” the alfin told them. “They’ll be sucking aether into the ship, and they will be acting as a shield of sorts for you and the ship itself, keeping us safe from the worst of it. A few zaps here and there, and a few stings… It will hurt a lot, even through your armor, but you will be alright.”

  The man grimaced. “Ironically, as the rods concentrate aether at their tips, the aether can sometimes lash out…”

  The image changed into a video, and an angry buzzing filled the auditorium, with an undertone of raging winds and thunder.

  “And this can happen,” the lieutenant said.

  Arching rays of aether lightning lashed out from the tip of a golden blue rod in blinding flashes, and screams filled the auditorium.

  “It’s very rare that it gets that bad, as usually, they’re built properly enough that they shut down if there’s an overcharge. However, one or two of these don’t count as an overcharge… So, yeah. Keep your eyes peeled for the rod nearest to you as well. Also, they can snap and break off too, and in the wind, they can hit the promenades too…”

  My Crystal, Nar thought, his heart pounding and his ears buzzing from the screaming.

  “What happens if a lot of them break?” someone asked.

  “We’ll just pull out. No use in damaging the ship.”

  Kur groaned and rubbed at his eyes. “That’s your concern? This can’t be real…”

  Oh, but it is, Nar thought, having gone a little pale himself.

  Deadly beasts by the tens or even hundreds of thousands? A hostile environment? Possibility of being attacked by other ships, and all of this while standing outside the ship itself? It felt more like a Pressure induced nightmare than reality… But here they were.

  “What else…” Lieutenant Dov said. “There was something I was supposed to… Ah, yes! Because you’ll be surrounded by aether, all of your aura skills, active and passive, will only be about 30% as effective.”

  “30?” Kur shouted, alongside several other apprentices.

  “Yup, and sense skills will be hit even worse,” the lieutenant said, nodding. “But these beasts aren’t very strong though, and your attributes, plus whatever you can get from your auras, should be more than enough to get the job done. Should.”

  Nar exhaled and leaned back against his chair.

  “Our sense skills...” Jul whispered miserably, and Nar patted her knee with a grimace.

  His own [Senses of the Champion] had set him back with a new skill that was worse than his [Aura Senses 2] had been, even if only for the moment, as it was still a level 1 skill. But Jul’s [Aura Senses 2] gave her a slightly better 4-point boost to all her senses, and that was a loss that, collectively, was going to be felt…

  “We’ll be okay,” Kur said, sighing. “We’ll all be okay.”

  “We will,” Gad rumbled. “We always are.”

  “Relax,” Nar said, patting Kur’s knee in return, as he spotted the whites in his party leader’s eyes. “We’ve been through worse.”

  Kur shook his head. “If things keep going the way they are, we won’t be able to keep saying that for long. Delving is… Is something else.”

  “Hmm…” Gad said, nodding gravely. “And fighting on the promenade… Will the formation hold?”

  Kur blew a sigh and shrugged. “I don’t know… Maybe? Maybe not? We might need to hunker back against the hull. But then, what if the ranged need to be by the edge to shoot? Ugh! We’ll need to have a think…”

  “Alright!” the lieutenant called, clapping his hands. “That’s it for the theory bit of it. Make sure you review it and ask any questions you might have today or tomorrow, to your squad leader, before the confluence starts. Now, party leaders, you’ll get directions once you leave the room. Follow along and make sure you pay attention to what you’re about to learn. If you want to survive tomorrow, that is.”