Not just anybody, exactly. Rabin was not indiscriminate in his rage. But he definitely wanted to hurt Lieutenant Miles, and this Captain Hale, and especially the arrogant little bastard called Gabriel. Rabin wanted to show him that cheaters weren't going to be tolerated. Rabin wanted to teach him respect.

Hale led them out of the Engineering Bay, and several kids had trouble climbing out, because the "floor" outside was the outer surface of the bay, and therefore at a ninety-degree angle with what had been the floor back in the bay. The metal of the new "floor" extended only a few meters out from the edge of the hole that was the bay door, and then disappeared under the same craggy rock that made up most of the corridors in Command School.

Above, a flashing light display was visible as the Pilot AIT graduates -- of whom Rabin, by all rights, should have been one -- put on their show. Rabin stood on the metal surface outside the bay and watched them in their dance. To any of these other kids it probably looked graceful, but Rabin knew that those bastards in the pilots' chairs couldn't find their asses with both hands when it came to real battles. This choreographed crap was easy to pull off -- it was just memorization. But Rabin had been the best of them. He would have given those newbies a show that would have scared them away from flying forever.

Not now, though. They'd stolen it from him. Miles and Bryant and this son of a bitch Hale, they were all in on it. They wanted him to be a grunt. To hell with that. Rabin's place was in the cockpit. It was who he was. If they thought he was just going to bend over and take this, they were sorely mistaken.

Hale was leading, and Rabin moved to catch up. Oddly, the effect of the boots didn't stop at the end of the metal. The boots affixed themselves as easily to rock as they did to titanium. The rumors about the IF being able to control gravity were pretty far-fetched, for the most part, but it was a damn sure thing that Eros wasn't large enough to have the nearly Earth-like gravity found in its halls, and these boots they were all wearing definitely weren't using magnets. So maybe there was some fact behind the stories.

The jutting and uneven landscape opened into a little flattened clearing about fifty meters from the bay door. Rabin moved faster, to catch up with Gabriel, and made sure that he was stepping over into the boy's path when they started descending the little ridge that ringed the clearing, so that Gabriel tripped. With both this feet off the ground, the inertial force of Gabriel throwing his hands out to catch himself put him in a backward spin along the axis of his hips, but he'd only just started to move away from the surface of the asteroid when the girl that had answered how Gabriel did it, Solenis, caught hold of the boy's suit and pulled him back down. She shot a look toward Rabin, but it was a strange look, every bit as unreadable as the boy's expression had been in the bay, earlier. The boy's boots gripped the rocky surface below, and Gabriel said, "Watch your step."

Rabin sneered, and kept going.

"Careful!" Hale called, from near the center of the clearing. "Drift off into space and you'll be floating back to Earth. I hope you can hold your breath, because your oxygen supply is only good for twenty hours."

The students gathered in the clearing, and Hale split them into their cells, and started them at practicing basic movement and maneuvering procedures. Rabin worked like the rest. Until he had a plan, he was going to keep his head down.

Rabin was in the other cell group, and as they drilled Sol attempted to think of a way to solve this issue before it got any bigger. Rabin had been angry enough over a training exercise to effectively try to fucking kill Gabriel, and that wasn't even remotely comprehensible. Gabe had only followed orders. Rabin's response was not the action of a reasonable person, and that meant that there was probably little they could do to reason with him, and that meant that this probably wasn't going to end here. Riya had been more than enough. Rabin was just icing.

Even more distressing was Hale's complete lack of concern, or even interest. Sol had been aware of the administration's lax attitude towards interfering in student altercations, but attempted murder generally drew their attention. All Hale had done was make a snide suggestion about being more careful. There was no way he could have missed what Rabin had done. If Hale didn't care about something blatantly obvious like that, then anything Riya did was practically encouraged. She was now aware, without a doubt, that when it came to personal defense against their "classmates", they were entirely on their own.

This was not a good day.

She didn't know how much time had gone by when Hale finally ordered them back inside, but it was long enough for her tension to work its way into her worn muscles and set them on slow burn. She walked next to Gabe the entire way back, and Hale did not reprimand her; a few others in the line were almost wavering from exhaustion, and no one was really in step anyway. She kept herself between him and Rabin, though it seemed a pointless exercise. Rabin appeared to be through with them for the moment. Maybe it had been simple retribution. Maybe it had been enough just for Rabin to think he scared him.

Maybe.

Great, one of those types. They’re not making my job easy, are they?

After Hunter horribly embarrassed Rabin, they moved outside the Engineering Bay, onto the surface of the asteroid. Rabin was obviously pissed about the whole affair and proceeded to attempt to knock Hunter back to Earth. Luckily Rebecca had been there to catch him. Hale didn’t say much about the whole affair.

Minerva was not very pleased to see Rabin again. They had been in the same Hydra barracks for the past two years. The first day was the most he ever talked to her at one time. He was a bit like Riya, except he showed his anger too much. He always seemed mad, like life had dealt him a bad hand. And she had definitely noticed how angry he had been about not graduating. His plan was to be a pilot, she knew that much, but it looked fairly obvious that piloting was not in his future at Command School. And now Hunter just made a complete fool out of him in front of everyone. He was not going to let this one go easily. She would have to warn Hunter and Rebecca about him as soon as possible.

The surface of the asteroid was beautiful to see. She dreamed as a kid about walking in space, but never believed it would come true. They split up into cells and began some simple, but physically trying maneuvers. Minerva’s muscles were killing her and she was glad that the exercise was over. She walked in line back inside the Engineering Bay, noticing that many of the students were wavering in their steps from exhaustion. Riya was directly in front of Minerva, with Rebecca and Hunter a few people behind her. She wondered if she should tell them about Rabin now.

No, it can wait until we’re done. We’re back inside at least, Rabin can’t try throwing him to Earth anymore.

Minerva looked back to see if any emotion played on Rebecca and Hunter’s faces now. None what-so-ever. Not even exhaustion.

She really, really did not like having to work together. Especially with Gabriel and Solenis.

The pair and Thoth were finally dressed, as was the other opposing quad, and Hale opened the engineering bay doors. Solenis had been chosen as the cell leader, which would have made Riya even more disgruntled if she hadn't already decided that she'd find something unpleasant to do to the girl afterwards, just to make herself feel better. Maybe Kanchou could be persuaded to assist her. With this thought in mind, Riya narrowed her eyes, hoisted her weapon, and launched herself onto the Eros surface right behind her cellmates.

They moved quickly, reaching their start point with time to spare. Gabriel and Solenis were involved in watching the handheld nav comp, and Thoth was glancing around warily, unsure of their surroundings. Riya blinked a few times, reviewed mentally where the other team had been dispatched to, and glanced toward Solenis for confirmation as the navcomp sounded its alert.

She glanced down at the navcomp to verify one last time and then gave it to Gabriel. For this exercise they were in unfamiliar territory; most of their drilling had been done on the "south" side of the dome that defined the Engineering Bay. They had been given a general map, but it reflected the same sort of inconsistency one might expect from a hastily mapped region in enemy territory; there were a few small mistakes Sol had already noted, and she knew Gabe could find any other important ones far more quickly than she could.

Sol glanced at Minerva as Gabe made a quick study of the map. The girl performed, and Sol couldn't have asked anything else of her. She was a superior shot; she and Gabe would serve as snipers, if it came to that. She was dependable, and responded quickly and well when given instruction. Perhaps if she and Gabe had chosen to risk sleeping in their cell she might have grown to know her better. As it was, any free time they had they spent in the Room, and that had negated any further development of her acquaintance with Minerva beyond the strenous class environment.

Sol did not look at Riya.

The icy Japanese had said nothing when Hale had announced his squad leaders. She doubted Riya had expected to be nominated herself; had she been hoping Thoth would be called? It hardly mattered. Riya was the designated scout for this mission, and she was good at it. As long as she did her job Sol didn't care what she thought. She didn't like depending on the girl, and it was obvious Riya didn't like taking orders. After the test, she wouldn't have to anymore.

After the test, maybe they would get the audience with Bryant they'd been requesting for the past six months, and transfer out of Scorpion for good.

Gabe touched her arm and she looked down at the map he was indicating as he spoke. "This is the location of the other team." She didn't ask how he knew that. When it came to mental triangulation and measurement, Gabe was far more reliable than an intentionally defective map, and if the other two doubted his ability, neither said anything. "This is a ridge. It runs in a rough circle with a diameter of twenty two meters." She followed his gloved fingertip and nodded briefly, frowning a little. The ground within the ridge dipped sharply. Why would the Captain put the opposing team in a depression? They would have a little cover, but their observational capabilities would be severely diminished. Rabin would have to have a scout; perhaps they could -

His voice interrupted her thoughts as he continued. "The ground insde the perimeter of the ridge declines slightly, but far less than the map indicates. Call it two meters. It also fails to reflect that the surrounding territory is considerably lower than the level of the ground within the ridge." Sol looked sharply in the direction Rabin and his squad had gone, but could see nothing. Their starting point was near the center of a broad, shallow basin. On the map, they had a good sixty five meters to cover from the edge of the basin to the ridge, and Rabin and his squad had excellent cover and a healthy chance of picking them off as they did so.

"There is also," Gabe continued inexorably, the tiniest hint of sarcasm edging into his voice, probably undetectable by the other two, "very little cover between our position and theirs. The map indicates an outcropping of rocks approximately halfway across." The nearly non-existent irony in his tone communicated his opinion of how little shielding such an outcropping might offer them. Perfect.

Hale hadn't given Rabin and his lackeys a protected position. They'd gotten a fortress. A blind man with a few decent rocks could defend it. Rabin was a rude, arrogant bastard, but he was no green, and he was not, by any stretch of the imagination, blind. He could shoot at least as well as Thoth, probably as well as Gabriel, and he wasn't alone.

The timer on the computer sounded, indicating that the exercise had begun, and Sol straightened a little. She considered sending Riya out to scout the rocks, but found herself pausing, partly because she didn't want to have to depend on her, but also because that might very well be an easy way for Riya to get herself killed. Rabin was not stupid. If there was decent cover to be had, Rabin and his squad had had plenty of time to cover it with a sniper. After another brief moment of indecision, she activated her suit radio and spoke rapidly and clearly as she drew her flash gun from its holster. "Towards the edge of the basin. Stay down. Don't advance until I clear you."

They drew their weapons as well, and Sol met Gabe's eyes for a quarter-second before she turned away. They wanted out, and to get out, they had to win. Icing here wouldn't get them their ship. Rabin could drop to Marine. They had other plans.

Gabe began giving suggestions to Sol: "This is the location of the other team. This is a ridge. It runs in a rough circle with a diameter of twenty two meters. The ground inside the perimeter of the ridge declines slightly, but far less than the map indicates. Call it two meters. It also fails to reflect that the surrounding territory is considerably lower than the level of the ground within the ridge. There is also very little cover between our position and theirs. The map indicates an outcropping of rocks approximately halfway across."

Great. They had best damn cover on the rock. They could have snipers everywhere. They could…
The timer sounded. The exam had begun. "Towards the edge of the basin. Stay down. Don't advance until I clear you."

Minerva drew her weapon and began advancing to the edge, taking point with Gabe. She stayed behind and to his right. If he got shot that would mean…well, it would mean they were within shooting range of Rabin and his squad. Their best shot would be taken down, but the other three would know the position of the snipers.
They reached the edge of the basin and looked out at the rocks. Small. Tiny. Zero cover.

Great.

Minerva thought quickly. She was a good sniper. Not as good as Gabe, but still good. She might be able to pick someone off before they advanced any farther.
“Let me go ahead first. I’ll hide behind that slightly larger rock to the right. I won’t have much cover, but I might be able to pick off somebody before I get shot. Maybe two."

C was ready and waiting, and they had no reason whatsoever to stick their necks out now. This game had been rigged in their favor.

Why? It had become appallingly clear over the past six months that Captain Hale had an extremely low opinion of Gabe, and because of that he had taken every opportunity to stack the deck against Gabe -- and, in the process, Sol. But Gabe didn't get it. What reason did Hale have to single him out? What was the point? Gabe wanted to leave anyways. Why didn't Hale just drop him?

It didn't matter. The Marine AIT was no better. Perhaps even worse. Gabe wasn't going to let Hale beat him. This test wasn't Cells C versus D. This was Gabe versus Hale. And Gabe intended to win.

Just like on the first day, Hale was using Rabin as his paladin. Rabin hadn't known it the first day -- he'd thought the point had been to embarrass him. But Gabe knew better. The point had been to sow the seeds of resentment among the others. Rabin especially. So that here, now, Rabin's anger and hatred would fuel him, just as it had their first time out on the surface of Eros, just as it had in the bathroom later that day. Hale was puppetting Rabin, and Rabin had no idea.

So Gabe would win today the way he won in the Engineering Bay that day. The point of these exercises was to learn how to fight in real combat. People thought that meant that the way to play them was to behave as if it were all real. That was stupid. It was a game, and games all had bugs. The only smart way to play the game was to play it like a game, to analyze the rules and the system and then decide upon a course of action that would not work in real life.

Gabe knew that in any game that mattered, you won any way you could.

The rocks were miniscule, in terms of cover. There was no way they could possibly serve to be any use before one or all of them were taken down by Rabin's team inside the rock fortress. She should have expected it. Hale had gone above and beyond the call of duty to make things tough for her cell. Rabin and his lackeys almost always got the superior equipment, fewer mean little surprises calculated to simulate "realism", better position, more favorable conditions. Why should she have expected this to be any different? Hale wanted them to fail, and since they'd managed to make it this far, weighting the final against them was his last option. He could have just let them transfer out, but he was playing games. He didn't just want them out of his unit. He wanted them to ice.

Sol did not like being played with.

Minerva's suggestion reflected what she was sure was the general team spirit: hopeless frustration, bitter with the knowledge that they were all probably going to fail without being given an honest chance at success. Sol knew what Hale's response would have been. He would have laughed. When was violent military life required to give its participants an honest chance?

Berating Hale in her head wasn't helping her to come up with a plan of action. Minerva's somewhat half-hearted suggestion at probable suicide wasn't going to get them anywhere. Riya was looking at her with her familiar icy expression, and Minerva was waiting for a response, and she opened her mouth to say something, to dismiss Minerva's idea out of hand, when Gabe saved her and began to speak.

"She's the right idea, but they'll outlast us that way. Remember the Engineering Bay. We've got to shoot through the glass."

The Engineering Bay. That was another sore spot; because of what Hale had made Gabriel do the first day of class Rabin had focused on him to torture. After the fight in the showers he hadn't attempted overt physical combat again, but the entire semester Rabin had taken obvious special pleasure in beating them down, when the opportunity presented itself. It made each defeat that much more bitter, and each victory carried the unpleasant taste of wondering whether or not it would be the final straw, whether it would push Rabin to drop the other shoe. She knew better than to expect Hale to intervene if things got ugly. Hale was the personification of her worst experience with the administrators within the IF; cold, withdrawn, driven to beat his students down and to enjoy watching them injure each other with clinical interest. Sol wondered what valuable information they could have drawn from Gabe's death, had Rabin's initial attempt at throwing him off the asteroid been successful. Flight trajectory, perhaps.

She looked at Gabe for a long moment and then up, past the edge of the ridge where Rabin was waiting and up to the multitude of stars far more vast than any viewpoint could have offered from Earth. There was no atmosphere to interfere, and they glittered back at her with cold clarity. What was the point? Bryant wouldn't see them. They couldn't transfer out. They could ice, and drop to the Marine AIT and quit at graduation, or they could try to beat their way past Hale to graduation into the SOTF. Into Legion, the most dangerous and secretive military division there was. No stars.

Something passed between her eyes and the starfield, and she frowned. Dust, a weak cloud of it. They'd done a lot of moving out here, and someone had stirred up enough dust far enough to send it away from the surface. That brought back another memory of Rabin tripping Gabe, and she clenched her jaw. At least he couldn't do that this exercise. The gravity net would keep them close enough to the surface for easy retrieval - after the subject was "eliminated", of course.

The gravity net.

Sol looked back towards the ridge, something like a plan beginning to form as she studied Rabin's little fortress. They were probably going to lose, and that mean her entire squad would be eliminated. What if they could even the odds a bit by making a carefully calculated sacrifice? It worked for chess.

Glancing over her squad, she made a very quick and very unpleasant decision. One wouldn't be enough. She'd have to send at least two. Gabe was a better shot than Riya - and Riya she'd need afterwards to help her clean up. That meant that Gabe and Minerva were going to serve as the sacrifices. At least they'd have the kills. That would count in their favor. Gabe would see the intelligence of this maneuver immediately; he'd practically suggested it. Minerva had been intending to try for a kamikaze run anyway; she wouldn't complain about this.

Would Riya perform? Time would tell, and very quickly.

"We can't hit them from the rocks. They have too much cover and we have almost none. It's too far. That ridge is open at the top, though. If we can hit them from above they probably won't have a chance to get a shot off until after we've taken at least two of them. We'll have surprise and altitude, but there's no way to get back down." She paused a moment and then pressed on. She was the squad leader, and it was a good plan. It wouldn't have worked in a real situation, but this wasn't a real situation; in a real situation, they would have been better prepared and given the equipment necessary for this assault, and had there been any sort of brain matter in the commander's head they never would have been given the assignment in the first place.

"Minerva, Gabe, you're going to be our snipers. I want you both to jump way from the surface and take as many of Rabin's people out as you can before you hit the net. Riya and I will clean the rest up. With luck, the net will take you out and not whoever's left when you're done, and they won't get any points at all. If the suit radio still works, tell us how many you tagged, and then Riya and I will circle around and rout them while they're catching their breath." Minerva blinked and nodded. Gabe almost smiled. Riya said nothing.

She and Riya arranged themselves to the side of the launch area, and Gabe and Minerva stood fifteen feet apart, as close to the basin edge as they could without being seen. "If this works," Sol said quietly on the radio, "and we win, drinks are on me." Minerva gave a slightly nervous chuckle, and Sol relaxed a little. It's just a game.

Gabe deactivated his boots. He could push off from the surface easily enough with them turned on, but they would create an initial drag that would slow him down, and Gabe wanted to have full control over his speed. Eight years of Battle School had trained Gabe's body to glide through microgravity with the grace of a bird, and Gabe hadn't forgotten a thing in the two years since his arrival here at Command School. Gabe never forgot. Anything.

He crouched down a bit before deactivating his boots, so that he would not drift beyond the range of his legs. Floating there, listening as Minerva counted down to synchronize their launch, Gabe shut his eyes, and let his mind leave this place.

Someday it would no longer be like this. Someday, he and Sol would be free of the fighting, of the fear, of the IF and the Buggers and the threats lurking in shadows, waiting for them to let down their guard. They'd be free to live as they chose. There would be a house that would be their home. There would be jobs that were gloriously low-risk. There would be children that would look to them for everything, and never be left wanting. Someday.

Someday there would be stars. No matter what, someday there would be starts.

Minerva was down to three. Gabe turned his head, and mouthed three silent syllables to Sol.

Minerva's voice was in his earpiece. "One . . . now."

Gabe pushed off, not hard, but with a smooth outward stretch that looked more as if he were standing up from a sitting position than anything else. He rose up over the face of Eros, flash pistol trained on the rim of the enemy fortress.

The ones near the far rim appeared first. They were facing away, watching for an attack from behind. Gabe lined up his shot and fired, and one's suit went dark. Gabe saw the same happen to the other an instant later -- Minerva had hit her mark too.

Gabe felt the sudden stiffness in his suit that told him his left leg had been hit. His right soon followed. Almost directly above the enemy fortress, they were sitting ducks. The only question was whether it would be the grav field or the remaining two soldiers that would get them first. Gabe replayed the rise in his mind again, and decided that it had been Wells and Jackson that had been hit. From his altitude and angle he could see neither their faces nor stenciling, but they were both smaller than Lawrence and Rabin.

He used his arms to throw himself into a slow spin, and tried to stabilize himself as best he could once he was rotated about far enough to be able to see the basin below. No time to analyze; Gabe took aim and fired. One last suit went dark before his spin rotated the basin out of view again. He felt his gun arm freeze stiff.

He had rotated around once more, so that the terrain spread out below him like a map, when his other arm froze. He thought he'd been shot, but as he looked down, he could not see Rabin anywhere. The last man in C had abandoned his no-longer secure location. It was immediately after that he realized his spin had also stopped. He wasn't moving anymore.

Gravity was different also. Before, aside from a very vague sensation of up and down provided by the weak gravitational field of Eros, as well as the ingrained human sense that the ground should stay "down", there had really been no gravity at all. Like the battleroom back in Battle School. But this was different. Gabe could sense that there was gravity. However, as near as he could tell, he was the source. It felt as if his own gravity was holding him in place.

Interesting. Gabe wondered what else the IF could do with gravity, if they wanted to.

He tested his radio. As Hale had said, the field only disabled him; his limbs were frozen, but he could communicate.

"Three targets eliminated. Repeat, only three targets down. One member of Cell C unaccounted for. Do not have visual. Repeat, no visual. Searching."

Gabe knew, before he even looked at the frozen form that he'd hit moments before, that it would be Rabin that was left. There was no doubt in his mind whatsoever.

Sol stared at them, but neither moved, and she was about to give up hope of an accurate report without sending in Riya to scout when Gabe's voice crackled in over the suit radio, wonderfully clear and calm as only Gabe's voice could be.

"Three targets eliminated. Repeat, only three targets down. One member of Cell C unaccounted for. Do not have visual. Repeat, no visual. Searching."

Rabin. Somehow, Rabin had snuck away. Still, three of four! That was a vast improvement, albeit at the cost of two of their members. Sol risked a grin up at Gabe and Minerva and then looked over at Riya with new hope that worked to dispel some of her inherent dislike. All they had to do now was wait until -

"Located. Rabin is moving away from the plateau on the other side and circling towards the larger outcroppings of rock, moving west southwest from origin at six kilometers per hour. He is now entering the rocks. Visual contact lost."

Well, there it was. Sol looked at Riya more closely as Gabe's report outlined the situation and considered going herself, but that wouldn't be best for the team, as long as Riya performed to capacity. Riya was excellent at stalking people. Sol had excellent firsthand witness testimony to that.

If Riya failed, she could always follow.

"Riya, go pick him off. Gabe and Minerva will help you as they can with visual updates."

The girl looked at her a moment longer and then left, trotting quickly away across the landscape in a gentle arc that would end up near Rabin's hiding place, and Sol watched in anticipation.

Now this was Riya's type of combat.

According to Hunter's report, Rabin had secreted himself in a large outcropping of rocks; but that could be both an advantage and a disadvantage. He could only hide behind one rock, and look in one direction at a time. Riya ignored Solenis' commanding tone and began to walk away from Rabin's hiding spot, taking an arc around the area as she stayed under relatively small cover and scouted. Pincher movement. When he was busy looking in the direction that Solenis was still in, she could come from behind.

There was sudden noise, and Riya ducked, displeased as Gabriel's voice sounded in her headset. The suit was uncomfortable and distracting enough without him interrupting her concentration. Reaching behind her, she tugged the small wire that connected to the transmitter on the back of her suit, and the comlink cut out. Much better. She didn't need him annoying her.

Riya closed her eyes and imagined Rabin.

Silence. She couldn't hear his breathing, but didn't need to. He was gradually moving through the maze of boulders, obviously looking for any sign of a scout. The gun was in her hands before she opened her eyes again, and the dark midnight absorbed the surrounding light from the stars as Riya stood and walked calmly straight toward Rabin.

He wouldn't hear her approach, nor see it. Riya knew, from years of experience, how to remain silent and unseen. She was the shadows. She was the wind. She was a ghost who could not be found. And while he was looking the other way, she slipped behind a rock in his little fortress and waited.

He was circling, now, and nearly upon her. Crouched under a small underhang, she watched his boot almost touch hers. That made her smirk, and without a second thought, Riya rolled onto her back, right at his feet, and aimed straight into his face. He had time to look down at her in surprise before she pulled the trigger, and it was done. Dead Rabin.

A tiny shiver ran through her before she ignored it and got back to her feet. There was anger in his eyes, behind the shield of his helmet, and Riya leaned forward to press her faceshield against his. He might have backed away if he wasn't frozen, but she stayed there for a long moment, staring. She wanted him angry, because the plan that had been slowly forming in her mind was ready to bloom, and Shimon Rabin might not have known it, but he was going to be Riya's tool.

He could only stare straight ahead at the rock before him as Riya left his field of view, walking away quite casually. His comm was dead; his limbs were frozen stiff. He would have shouted at them all if he could have; he would have knocked that sneaky bitch of a commander into orbit, and her team along with her. He wanted vengeance. These lowly cheating cowards deserved pain, and Rabin wanted to administer just that.

The hate burned in him, coursed through his veins like fire and poured out of his mouth in snarls and shouts that no one but he -- and Hale -- could hear. He strained against the mechanical frame in his suit that held him still, muscles bunching together in exertion like those of an animal in the jaws of a hunter's trap.

Revenge. He wanted revenge.

Solenis. She had humiliated him today, she and her cheating bastard of a girlfriend, Gabriel. Minerva and Riya were soldiers -- Rabin would not harm them if they stayed out of his way. But Solenis and Gabriel had pushed him beyond human endurance. Now they would suffer.

It was almost half an hour before his suit comm reactivated, and by that time hsi shouts had died. Hale's voice was smooth, liquid, over the link. "Soldiers of Cell C, you are dismissed. The judges have determined that Cell D was the victor of this exercise. Individual scores will be calculated and announced this evening. Offhand, Jackson, you should start packing. Wells, Lawrence, your classroom scores are high enough that you may just barely make the cutoff. Final test and course scores at 20:00 hours. You have the rest of the day, as well as tomorrow, to yourselves. Good day."

Rabin's suit thawed, and he stood standing for a moment. His name hadn't been mentioned. That probably meant that his grades weren't in question. He had passed.

Rabin's rage didn't fade in the least. He would have his revenge. Perhaps not today; his continued enrollment meant that he had time to plan. He would be patient. He would make them pay.