[b]Zero-Gravity Training Facility, Level-1B Ceres[/b]
Stars shown all around in the artificial sky, a distant Mars giving a reference point. Two spots of blackness were present: one was large, and was a brightly-lit hull of a small warship, possibly a future frigate. It was large, and while only a small part of it was actually real, the rest of it brought into being by the holographic projectors. Team B, set up as repair teams and their guards, were working on fake scrapes and blasts in the frigate's hull, possibly from some kind of space engagement with point-defense weapons on the ship. Chunks of debris, from small asteroids to sections of what could be the frigate, floated slowly in different directions. Debris was floating away from the frigate; asteroids and rocks floated in a single general direction, parallel to the fake frigate.

On the other side of the arena was a much smaller black spot. It was one of the shuttles that developed a problem: currently, they were updating Shuttle-1A with the newest versions, while the damaged Shuttle-1C was being used for the exercise. Heavily-armored soldiers, armed with a rifle that could fire either railgun rounds or a pulse laser, both of them replaced with either a paintball, or a digital laser, respectively, that would freeze armor upon contact, freezing either an arm or limb, or the entire suit, depending on where the shot hit. The lasers were, obviously, good for sniping when unaware, while the railgun was better for active combat, when there was less time to aim. 

Each of the 20 squad members floated slowly out of the bay of the shuttle, each of them using maneuvering jets, using highly compressed low-density gasses to create a transparent gas, to move slowly to pieces of debris and asteroid. From the outside, everything was silent, just as it would be in the vacuum. The heavy-clad soldiers, normally holding no hope of sneaking, could sneak as easily as anyone, provided that no one was using nightvision or scanning for targets. Even then, they'd just show up as random debris, or could be passed off as it. As the soldiers got closer, their communications channel was filled, discussing possible formations, attack sequences, or advantages. All were calling out micro-coordinates on cover, slowly mapping out the area as they explored. They couldn't scan; already, Ceres was developing technology to detect it, so doing so in this future exercise would mean them being detected in some form.

Two hours passed as the armor-clad soldiers passed the two miles across open space, from debris to asteroid to debris, slowly making their way towards the frigate.

As they all moved into position, one of the, of course, wary guards looked up and saw a star wink out, and then appear again. Switching to his night-vision, he saw nothing but a large asteroid slowly moving passed. Shrugging, he looked back down. There were two ways to win, after all: either take out the remaining team, or enter the frigate. Given the Team A's reputation, he figured they were going to sneak around and then slip through one of the holes they hadn't gotten to.

Then he decided just to be safe, looked up, and switched to infrared with a thought. For a moment, he thought his gear was malfunctioning, before being paralyzed, unable to call out a warning. As his magnetic boots abruptly lost power, he began to slowly float off the ship. Within a minute, his four charges were suddenly guardless, never having communicated or thought to communicate, or even look back, at their guard. 

He felt something gently bump into him, and then he felt himself swivel towards the ship again, as he watch 3 black shadows move towards the ship. As they came into the light, he realized the mistake he had made. It was drilled into their head, over and over again: never underestimate your opponent. Apparently Team A built a reputation of winning through sneakiness and avoiding combat so strong that rarely anyone ever bothered to even look up. And now, while two of Team A's soldiers stood watch and slowly moved from shadow to shadow on the hull, the third Team A walked up to one of the repair guys. They were nearly finished filling up the blast crater with a special sort of concrete foam, that would dissolve once sprayed with water, or when an electric current ran through it. 

The repair guy turned around, and looked right into the visor of a very dangerous-looking black visor. A moment later, after a cut-off strangled yelp, he slowly floated away. He was given a push by the Team A member, and he jumped to the shadows, lifting his feet, simultaneously deactivating his magnetic boots. He flew over the short distance, reactivated, and landed silently on the hull again, in a dark spot. The strangled yelp would no go unnoticed. After half a minute, the other three realized something must be wrong, since Arnold wasn't responding. They turned, and then turned again, and couldn't figure out where he went. They called and called through comms, wondering if he got bored and jumped off to the asteroids, but no response came. They called for their teammates, no response came. The looked up, and turned on infrared. All they saw was a small cloud of red blotches moving towards them. Panicking, they raised their sidearms and started firing their pulse lasers, striking the targets, but they were unmoved. 

Moments later, they came into the light, and the three repair guys realized to their horror that every single one of them were their own teammates. Moments afterwards, the three were frozen, and a crowd of soldiers appeared in front of them, standing up from their hiding places in the various dips in the shadows. They didn't need to hear them to feel their laughter.

----

Team B was feeling quite a bit better, now that Team A was being chewed out by the training officer. They had taken their time, and played with their prey; he congratulated them on their easy victory, using their opponents' belief against them. Then he turned towards Team B.

Team B was in a very bad mood for the rest of the day. 

((randompost))