Chapter 2094: Second Year Choices

The fourth and final day was the practical engineering portion. Each cadet was given a broken piece of equipment and a limited time to diagnose and repair it.

Some were given communication devices, others damaged sensor arrays or small power units. They were judged on how much of the fault they could identify and how much of it they could fix before their time ran out.

Jason finished his before anyone else in the room and spent the remaining time quietly reorganizing his tools.

Naysha finished soon after, with a calm, unhurried efficiency that made the instructors supervising the exam glance at one another. Ning did what was expected of him, and no more.

And then it was over.

It went by more quickly than any of them had expected. After months of preparation and weeks of anxious anticipation, four days seemed almost absurdly short.

When the cadets left the final exam hall, many of them looked as though they could not quite believe they were finished.

The results were posted a few days later.

Ning passed comfortably, though not too comfortably. He had been careful throughout every part of the exam to keep his results within reasonable limits, strong enough to justify his reputation but not so strong that anyone would begin to look at him more closely than they already did.

When he found his name on the list, it sat in a respectable position well within the upper portion of the batch, and he was satisfied with it.

Naysha passed near the very top.

She had done well in every part of the exam, but her combat evaluation and simulation assessment had been particularly strong, and her final result placed her among the best in the entire batch.

When she saw it, she stood in front of the results display for a long moment, her expression carefully composed. Ning could see the quiet satisfaction beneath it.

Jason passed as well.

His written results had been strong, and his practical engineering score had been the highest in the batch by a considerable margin.

Those results had carried him through, more than making up for his weak combat evaluation and his low simulation score.

When he found his name on the list, he let out a long breath that seemed to carry a year’s worth of worry with it, and Ning clapped him on the shoulder.

Then came field selection.

At the end of their first year, every cadet was required to choose the fields they would specialize in for the rest of their time at the academy.

The choice would shape everything that came after it, which lessons they would take, which instructors they would train under, and ultimately what kind of role they would fill once they graduated and joined the military.

Most cadets had been thinking about the decision for months. Some had known what they wanted since the day they arrived, while others agonized over it until the very last moment.

Ning had not given it much thought at all.

As it turned out, he did not need to.

The day before the selection forms were due, Lorna stopped him at the end of the morning’s lessons and asked him to come with her. They walked together to the administrative building, climbed the familiar stairs, and entered Sergeant General Greeves’s office, where Greeves was waiting behind his desk.

There was no one else in the room.

Greeves looked at Ning for a long moment before speaking.

"You’re submitting your field selection tomorrow," he said.

"Yes, sir."

"Have you decided what you’ll choose?"

Ning considered the question. "Not yet, sir."

Greeves nodded, as though he had expected that answer. He glanced toward Lorna, who stepped forward slightly.

"We’ll be direct with you, Ning," Lorna said. "You should go into Piloting."

She did not phrase it as a suggestion.

"Your simulation results this year have been exceptional. Your True Simulation score was the highest any cadet from this academy has ever achieved on a first attempt, and Instructor Varga at the facility has already contacted the Sergeant General twice to ask about you. You have a talent for piloting that I have not seen in any cadet I’ve ever taught, and it would be a waste for you to choose anything else."

Greeves nodded slightly. "If you choose Piloting, the academy will make sure you receive every opportunity available to you. More sessions in the True Simulation. Access to real machines, as soon as you’re ready for them. You would be on a faster path than any cadet in this academy."

He folded his hands on the desk.

"But it’s your choice. We can only tell you what we think."

Ning did not need long to decide.

Piloting had been the most interesting part of the academy since the day he arrived. Real Mechas were something he had been curious about since Crownus first described them to him, and the path Lorna and Greeves were describing led straight toward them.

"I’ll choose Piloting," he said.

Lorna’s expression relaxed slightly.

"And I’d like to add Battlefield Tactics as well," Ning added.

Greeves raised an eyebrow. "Tactics?"

"I enjoy thinking about how battles unfold," Ning said. "Knowing how to pilot a Mecha is one thing. Knowing where it should be, and why, is another."

Greeves looked at him for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "A reasonable combination. Few cadets choose it, but those who do tend to become very good pilots." He glanced at Lorna. "See that it’s arranged."

"Yes, sir."

Ning submitted his selection the following day.

So did everyone else, and when the cadets compared their choices that evening in the cafeteria, there were few surprises.

Jason chose Technology and Communication.

Nobody was surprised in the slightest. Jason’s results in engineering had been the best in the batch, his knowledge of old technology had saved a ship at the edge of the system, and he had spent nearly every free moment of the year bent over one machine or another.

When he announced his choice at the table, his new friends nodded as though it had been obvious all along.

Jason looked faintly embarrassed by their lack of surprise, but also quietly pleased.