Several days later, Hyperspace, Obscurus
Sometimes, even though one could do everything right and make many plans and have backup plans for the backup plans, not everything would go according to the very same plans that were made.
And sometimes, it hurt even more, just like now.
Even though Arcturus thought that he did, but it seemed that everything went to shit just after two days or so. In the end, being confined together for some time already, note to the line, it was just after three days that Jeniael and Zehal immediately started arguing over something utterly unimportant.
Fortunately, the spaceship was rather significant, so both of them spent most of their time without really seeing each other. Which was, in his opinion, rather good because it seemed that his hopes that they would be civil with each other were...
Naive, one could say.
It was indeed that way.
Neither of them could keep civil with each other for more than a few hours because their rivalry from childhood was too strong for them to overcome.
Not to mention, Jeniael was really prone to violence because every single dammed time when Zehal said something, especially when she was provoking her, the white-haired young woman immediately went for her sword and wanted to solve the problem with her fist.
Which wasn't really that surprising for her.
Arcturus tried to ignore it for most of the time because he realized that they would need to remain here on the starship locked together for several weeks. And that was just the journey to the Ziras IV., not counting the time they would spend on the planet itself and then another journey back to the Phoenix Prime.
Foruteanly, because they were using the standard primary hyperplanes of the Empire, the journey would take them around three weeks, which was better than his initial estimate of something between four to five weeks.
Still, he tried to keep the two of them apart for most of the time because, apparently, neither of them planned to play nice. What was considered a blessing was the fact that Jeniael decided to spend most of her time in the sparring room and train.
Not to mention, there was one new facility that was installed on the Obscurus aside from the traditional training room that Red Queen proposed creating on the spaceship and to which, Arcturus eagerly agreed.
The Holodeck.
Holographic Enviroment Simulator, or the Holodeck as it was more commonly referred to, was a rather fascinating piece of technology that Arcturus managed to get his hands on. Some of the blueprints for the Holodeck were freely available through the ExtraNet and Imperial NetSphere, and he managed to get through the points of the Imperial Phoenix Military Academy.
Red Queen then started putting it together and created a relatively advanced form of the Holodeck that was called the Matrix 1.0 Version.
Holodeck was form of Holotechnology which ran holographic programs, they were mainly used for the purpose of training and experiencing various simulations, though they were also used for things like entertainment, carrying out scientific experiments and other things.
A typical holodeck consisted of a room equipped with a Hologrid containing Omnidirectional Holographic Diodes, enabling holographic projections and holograms.
They were equipped with Hardlight Generators that allowed one to use Holographic Matters through the condensed Hardlight by manipulation of photons contained within the Force Fields and materializing light to materialize the projection of objects, people, and everything that one would need in the simulations.
Arcturus wanted one of those because they could be used as a form of very advanced training, and one could train in countless scenarios in them. Obviously, they were not used to train the Psionics or Psyker Abilities, but rather oriented towards the more mundane aspects of life.
Still, the usage was phenomenal, and in many aspects, it was superior to Virtual Reality.
Even though he had to admit that Virtual Reality was far more versatile, there was one huge downside to it. While one could experience virtually everything and anything through virtual reality, that only happened in the brain.
When they started the simulation, he noticed that Jeniael was even worse when it came to the guns than him. Even though he was not really a good shooter, with his enhanced reflexes and Neural Extranet Terminal Gene Implants, he was a very good marksman.
Obviously, it was far better than any non-augmented human could ever be, but obviously inferior to anyone who spent years mastering their craft, especially when it came to the Imperial Soldiers because the Neural Extranet Terminal Gene Implants were something that everyone had.
For the Imperial Soldiers who were not Professionals, they received specific augmentations to their neural pathways that allowed them to have superior reflexes, but such cases were rare to the mass production of the Gene Enhancement Serums for the Lower Grade Warriors.
Jenaiel was acting as the front fighter, while Arcturus was supporting her from behind by accurately shooting toward the weak spots on the Warrior Bugs.
Warrior Bugs are quadrupedal Arachnids, approximately two to three meters long, with coloring that camouflages them to specific terrains, which showcased their really high adaptability, even though they were just at the bottom of the Arachnid Hierarchy among the Swarm and were considered as most ordinary cannon fodder out there.
The rearmost pairs of legs were much longer than the two front legs, serving as the primary means of locomotion, with the forelegs being one-third shorter. Warrior Bugs were also very agile and fast, capable of climbing and burrowing through many surfaces.
They had powerful pincer-like mandibles capable of crushing rock, metal, and severing limbs as their primary means of attack. Their two upper forelegs, or "side mandibles", function like swords for both offense and defense.
Overall, every single part of the body was perfectly designed and engineered to be the perfect killing machine for the Swarm.
"Jen-Jen, on your rear, there are seven more incoming!"
Arcturus shot at her, as he took aim and fired several shots at the Warrior Bugs that were approaching them, perfectly hitting their nerve stem, which was their weak spot. He spent a lot of effort to learn everything he could about the most obvious weaknesses among the most common types of bugs.
He was rather surprised that, contrary to his initial expectations, these creatures didn't have many obvious weaknesses that could be easily exploited. This was another part of their species because once something a weakness appeared in one of their "models", if it could be called such, then the Queens would take notice of it.
And once the Queens took notice of it, they would just annihilate the weakness and evolve their bugs to a better version. Among the bugs, there were very, very, very few ones that had true sentience and were capable of self-thought.
Thus, not many of their bugs had some pretty strong weaknesses because once they appeared, they were quickly patched up in the next version of the bug. They were species that were constantly evolving and for their evolution, they were consuming and assimialting everything in their path.
Obviously, they were not Cosmos-scaled menace for no reason.
Jeniael noticed that the bugs were approaching them, as she didn't even have time to retort to Arcturus, who was constantly calling her Jen-Jen, much to her annoyance. What was even worse for the white-haired girl knight was the fact that even Zehal started calling her that, and that was bringing her to madness.
She immediately jumped at the bugs with a power sword in her hand as she slashed at the head of the Warrior Bug and stabbed her sword through its huge skull, destroying it in an instant.
Just as she was about to be attacked by another two that were near her, several shots of plasma went by and hit the two Warrior Bugs in their eyes as the Holo Bugs screeched in pain because this was an extremely realistic simulation, and another a few shots fired in immediate succession finished them off.
The Holoprograms on the Holodeck were extremely realistic, and right now, they were using no Safety Protocols, so theoretically speaking, one could be easily killed in a simulation like this.
The Hardlight was deadly... easily, so if there were no Safety Protocols in play.
Something that Arcturus didn't really want because that was lowering the experience and thrill of the battle.
And Jen-Jen agreed to it, too.
There were countless people who got themselves killed in the Holodecks during the training with no enabled Safety Protocols. Mostly, it stems from the overestimation of their own capabilities and power and then...
Boom, and they were killed.
Arcturus then turned his eyes to a small group of more Warrior Bugs crawling from the ruined parts of the city around him, and he was being ambushed by them. Which was rather clever from them, or in this case, from the Red Queen, as it was she who was running this simulation.