For once, Dranke held back as Kell led the rest of the crew out of the Raven. The crew walked out into the open hangar space and the main concourse, both of which were oxygenated for Humans. The Jexx had clearly done their homework. Dranke grudgingly acknowledged their attention to detail. The Jexx were separated by a clear glass division from the oxygenated air - their atmosphere was different. Seeing their true form was a shock. They looked like some kind of marine creature, but the fact that they were transparent made it impossible to clearly see their shape - it seemed to ebb and flow and they got glimpses of tentacles, but Dranke could not be sure. They were clearly at home in the liquid they were inhabiting.
Kell had clearly seen this all before as she spoke to them without breaking stride "Commander Yod, as promised, we are here for your training." She did the introductions. Yod spoke with this two attendant Jexx, but this time the rolling intonation was better. They had installed a translator "We are ready to begin training. Niket and his team will meet up with your team in four Earth hours, as they are out on simulations. A quadrant of the military station has been made Human-friendly, so you should be comfortable there. The trainers will use Human-like suits as enter your quadrant, but please do not leave your quadrant; the liquid here is poisonous to Humans.
Kell made a sign with her hands, clasping them together in front of her. The commander Yod and his two attendant Jexx made the same signal with their appendages. It was a sign the meeting was over. Kell grinned at Dranke "Lets go captain, no time to gawk." She showed them the way to their quarters.
Dranke had a million questions. He managed to get some time to grill Kell and she looked more than willing to answer him "How did we meet up with the Jexx?" Kell grinned "They were tracking the Hnnet, and saw that you were tracking them as well. It was only a question of connecting the dots."
"How did we not detect them?" "Their spacecraft has cloaking from all EM and gravitational waves. It can be detected, but not with ease." Fenie chimed in "Why are they at war with the Hnnet?" "Frankly the details are unclear, but they do not want to follow the Hnnet rules. Our Leader agrees, it should be based on vote." Dranke said "It could be fatal choosing sides without knowing enough. The Hennet is so advanced, it will be impossible to get their tech if we go to war with a far superior species." Kell grimaced "That's the argument that spacecommand made with the Leader. But we have not made any headway as yet. I guess he is looking at the shorter term rather than what the Hnnet promises." After a lot of back and forth, they retired for some rest and recuperation; neither was satisfied with the answers provided, but there was nothing which made them feel better. There was always the nagging feeling that there was something they were not being told.
The alarm buzzing got them to sudden wakefulness. Each of them were given an exosuit to wear, with built-in weapons and enhancements. Earth had something similar, but these were made to meld with the wearer. You couldn't feel where your skin ended and the suit began. A Jexx walked into the combat zone, his two attendent Jexx were kitted just like he was - similar suits to them, but clearly far more advanced. Their training began with simple motor function tests and then progressed rapidly to combat simulations. Everything was customized to human bodies. It was eerie. Niket walked in as they were taking a break. She came in and grinned at the sweating cadets "Hey there newbies. Good to see you bunch. We were starting to think it was just us here on this spinning wheel." Dranke shook hands with the darkmatter starcraft captain "Good to see you too. So what do you think of this setup?" Niket gave a furtive glance "All good, its been quite an experience." Her eyes did not smile as she completed her sentence. Warning bells were going off in Dranke's head. He held his tongue.
Fenie hugged Niket in greeting. They were from the same cadet pod. They reminisced animatedly as the rest of the crew went back to the simulators. The simulators showed very familiar Hnnet spacecraft, rippling in space. It was fascinating. Fenie was beginning to enjoy the simulations, purely from a point of academic interest. It surprised her a little, since she was not not the kind of person who would be itching for combat.
After three days at the simulator, the two crews were pitted against each other. It was a familiar game, which they had come to expect. Scenario after scenario was thrown at them - this time it was three fleets of Hnnet spacecraft. Both the crews were in darkmatter starcraft, but they had their own Hnnet fleet to control. Each of the darkmatter starcraft were modified by the Jexx. They had railguns and laserguns which belched the most horrifying death and destruction in the simulation. Vaxe's lasergun left a deep mark on an asteroid as she fired while on the move. It was all very realistic. Kell watched them closely, as she recognized how they were working together again. It reminded her of the motif which she had noticed while on the bridge of the Raven.
The virtual war began.
Pic courtesy: Born Ready Games - http://strikesuitzero.com/ [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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