SG Vol. 1 pt. 21

The damn hurricane ended up never even hitting us.

Right as everybody was getting ready to hunker down for it, it shifted to the west and lost strength which resulted in it completely missing us.

I get that it’s better to be safe than sorry, but fuck if it’s not annoying. It also means people are going to be less likely to take it seriously the next time we’re at risk.

They better just fucking change to having a different alarm sound the next time around. I don’t need my Naomi getting scared because of some stupid storm warning.

The candy party still happened even though the hurricane never hit us.

Aside from that, a reoccurring pattern has developed with my cadets. Fewer show up every day.

On the third day, two more cadets failed to show up.

Another vanished on the fourth day.

Only nine were left by the fifth day, but another two broke and left before the day was over.

Now, a week since I’ve begun instructing these brats, only seven of them are left. I started with twenty, and now I’m down to seven.

Shitger, Valkyrie, Muscles, Samurai, and Filly are all still here and sitting at their desks doing the test I prepared for them on The Art of War. The other two have proven themselves to be at least not totally incompetent.

One of them has been given the nickname of “Breeder” for saying she wants to have a bunch of little brats of her own once the world is safe. She’s more mature looking than the rest of the girls and has a pretty sleepy look to her whenever I’m not making her run laps. She’s also got some of the fluffiest damn hair that I’ve ever seen. I was tempted to name her “Sheep” because of that. Of course, I could always go with “Sheep Breeder.”

But that’s too long.

Then there’s Worm.

On the fourth day, she collapsed while we were doing our run. I told her that she was done before I saw the fattest worm in my life crawling around next to her head. So, I told her that if she could eat the worm, then I’d let her stay.

She stayed. Now, since she apparently likes worms, I might as well call her one.

Nothing stands out about her. Short, black hair, doesn’t excel at anything, and is overall barely allowed to stay here. I feel like I’m always one tiny mistake away from kicking her out and sending her to some other instructor, but she hangs in there. She accepts any punishment I give her, clearly is trying her best, and knows how to not give up. Useful, but not really enough to make her a good enough pilot to not hold the others back.

We’ll see what happens with her.

Breeder is facing many of the same issues, but she hasn’t fucked up as much as Worm.

The two also seem to really stick close to each other. They hardly interact with the other five, instead staying with one another from what I’ve seen.

I’d even say that they are a little too close. I don’t think that they realize how they can look at each other sometimes. I guess Breeder plans on adopting all those brats she wants.

“If there are less than two wrong answers between all of you, I’ll get us simulator time scheduled for tomorrow,” I tell the cadets as they’re finishing up the tests.

Shitger looks up at me with annoyingly-excited eyes.

I would have been fine with Shitger not making it through this first week.

None of them are as broken as I was hoping they’d be. My old instructor had us fucking traumatized with PTSD by the end of our first week, but I’m pretty sure that the only one here who might be traumatized is Filly.

I’m really amazed that she’s still here. She’s even worse than Worm when it comes to overall ability, but she hasn’t fucked up a single time so far.

Fear is one hell of a motivator.

She even cut her hair so that her ponytail is shorter. I’m guessing that she did that so it’d be harder for me to try and grab onto whenever chasing them during our laps.

While she might be the most afraid, Worm and Breeder are probably tied for the second most afraid but are nowhere near afraid of mas as Filly, and then Shitger is the third most afraid. He’s barely afraid of me at this point, though. He just tries not to get punished so that I don’t make him do even more exercise in front of everybody.

Samurai, Valkyrie, and Muscles don’t seem even the slightest bit afraid of me. None of the exercises and punishments I give Muscles even affect him now that he’s gotten used to the increased work. Samurai gets tired out quickly, but it seems like feeling tired only makes her even more motivated to make it to the finish. Valkyrie is just… she’s another one who doesn’t excel at anything in particular, but she’s just good at everything. Probably better at close quarters combat the most which is surprising to me. She even managed to pin down Muscles yesterday when I had them coupled for our daily sparring.

Then again, if I was in Muscles’ position, I’d probably let her pin me, too.

Ah, damn it. I shouldn’t be thinking like that since things with Kate have actually been kind of okay these past few days. We only argued twice, and neither of those times got physical like she loves to get. Well, they did get physical, but in the good way.

The alarm on my table buzzes, signaling that it’s time for them to drop their pencils and wait for me to collect the tests.

They’re short tests since I have no fucking idea how to make a test in the first place, so it shouldn’t take long to grade them. All I asked for was a paragraph response to each of the questions I asked.

My old instructor made us write two paragraphs for five pages worth of questions. These brats are getting it far fucking easier than I ever got it.

That kind of pisses me off. I should punish them for something later.

“Stay seated and quiet until I’m done looking through these. If more than three answers are wrong, you won’t be getting lunch today,” I explain to them.

They listen and stay seated. Not a single peep leaves any of their mouths, either. They all just sit there with their heads forward and looking at me.

Twenty minutes later and I’m done.

“You know what? I’ll give you maggots some praise when you deserve it. Good job. Only one of you got an answer wrong, and – well, I wouldn’t even say it’s wrong. It’s just disagreeing with the book. So, Valkyrie, want to explain why you don’t agree with the greatest victory being one without battle?” I ask.

Valkyrie stands up and says, “Because, I understand what the original message is, but I believe that it is naïve. Whether our enemy is from the stars or across the ocean, the most effective and greatest victory comes with the complete extermination of the enemy. ‘Victory’ through any other means only serves to give them an opportunity to regroup, spread their propaganda and convince more to join them, and to work in the shadows against the ‘victors.’”

“And here I thought you were smart, Valkyrie. Instead, you’re a fucking dumbass. Exterminate the demons – sure. It’s not like they give a shit and have any interest in ever living peacefully. They’re just mindless fucking monsters who only want to kill us for who fucking knows why. But humans? Are you telling me that you believe the utter extermination of human combatants is the most effective way to win?”

She looks surprised by my answer, but that doesn’t stop her from saying, “Yes.”

“So much for detesting your heritage. What makes you better than them if you’re willing to exterminate any human being just for being on the opposing side? Fighting humans isn’t like fighting demons. Humans are different, have goals and fears, motivations, and don’t want to die. They generally just want to live peacefully and happily like most of us fucking want to. Demons, you crush like insignificant insects under your boot. Humans, you prepare yourself to kill them if you have to but try to find an alternative before throwing your life against theirs.”

“That empire cannot be reasoned with, sir. They would be invading us right now if—”

“Do you really think I don’t fucking know that, Valkyrie? It doesn’t matter. Kill them if they need to be killed, but you don’t just mercilessly kill every single last fucking one of them. Tell me, Valkyrie. If one of their pilots was surrendering to you, what would you do? If they were completely disarmed, injured, and incapable of fighting?”

“I would kill them.”

I… don’t even fucking know how to respond to this idiotic girl. She’s gone from being my favorite to the dumbest fucker in this room. I know we’re going to be fighting back and killing humans when the time comes, but I have no intention of murdering any combatants who surrender.

Valkyrie says, “If it means—”

“I don’t give a shit,” I cut her off. “I’m not going to punish the rest of you because of this idiot, so you can all go get your lunch now.”

“Wh-what about the simulations?” Shitger asks.

“You’re lucky you aced the test,” I answer.