California stood off near the side of the group, arm folded as he listened to the Counsellor's and Director's instructions eagerly. Finally, the chance came to prove his strength and combat prowess within the Freelancer Program. Getting to smash up some tin cans sounded fun. As more and more of the details for the exercise were given, the wider and wider Arthur's grin got beneath his Soldier class helmet. Arthur looked around as he saw the other agents gear up after the instructions had ended. He turned to his weapons, which he gleefully picked up checking over his pride and joy, "The Answer" SAW variant. He had painted it himself, a skull with it's mouth open at the barrel, with the rest of it painted black with various slanderous terms and symbols. He did not give a fuck about censorship. It was then that his own AI made first contact with him.

"Hi!" An energetic female voice said.

"Yo!" Arthur replied in his head with equal amounts of enthusiasm. "You the AI thingy?"

"Yup! I'm combat ready, California!" 

"Good! I don't know your name though. But you already know mine." He replied curiously.

"Oh! Silly me! I'm Chi. If the Director decides, I will be your permanent AI."

"Neat, never had a permanent voice in my head........ arguably...." He commented.

Once everyone was ready, the exercise began and the combat robots were released. The guy who seemed to had experience gave a pep talk or something before engaging the enemies. He seemed to be in a spot, so California decided to assist Washington. He strafed to the other freelancer's direction, spraying his explosive rounds into the smoke and crowd of robots. 

"You're coming up on the agent, California! Another ally is providing sniper fire for the agent." Chi advised as she recognised that Arthur's focus was on attempting to empty his first clip of rounds. California acknowledged the callout, and gave a thumbs up to the apparently skilled sniper. Another robot dashed from the smoke, attempting to engage Arthur.

"Duck!" Chi called out in his head. Arthur complied, barely dodging a solid punch to the helmet. "Their head armour isn't as strong as the rest of them. Take it out!" 

"Right!" He said. California spun about 180 degrees, before extending his arm out to clothesline the metal can, decapitating the head right through the neck. 

"Keep attacking! Not down yet!"

Cali slammed the barrel of The Answer into the chest and completely buried the last five rounds of his drum magazine into the stomach of the robot. He shrugged away the scrap heap before looking at the other agent he originally set out to help, lifting him up by the shoulder. "You okay?"