SG Vol. 1 pt. 42

“Damn it, Shitger! You’re supposed to evade constantly when approaching Cutter-class and Flak-class!” I shout over the comms as the simulator returns to its resting position.

I was easily able to finish the simulation off after he fucked up and got himself killed, but I shouldn’t have had to, damn it. Not only is our score shit now because of that, but I’ve been reminded not to have any faith in any of these fucking brats.

Such an amateur fucking mistake.

“How you managed to fuck that up, I will never know,” I tell him.

“Sorry, sir. I screwed up,” Shitger apologizes.

“No shit you fucked up. Are you not taking these simulations seriously? It’s either you’re not taking them seriously or you’re a fucking dumbass who’s going to get yourself killed minutes after your first real mission!”

“I won’t let it happen next—”

“There wouldn’t be a next time if this was real. This is why I want you brats to treat every single fucking second like it’s life-or-death. I don’t give a shit whether you’re in real combat or a simulation. All that matters is that you’re surviving. You, Shitger, just fucked that up. Even Filly and Fly survived!”

I know I’m being harsh when taking into consideration the fact that he did an excellent job throughout the mission and only fucked up in the final minute of it, but still. This kind of shit needs to become second nature if they want to survive. There isn’t any time to think during real combat. You stop to think, you die. Your only option is to react. It should be his natural fucking reaction to evade obvious threats while approaching them.

But apparently not to Shitger.

“Do you have any fucking idea how basic of a mistake you made? My own daughter could have dodged that and she’s blind! Literally fucking blind! But she’s smart enough to actually evade! And not only did you fuck up from such a stupid mistake, but you were the leader. The leader fucked up. You’re the one who’s supposed to set an example, make sure everybody survives, and be the smartest out of everybody in the fucking mission. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Shitger answers.

I don’t know if I’m just not intimidating him enough or what, but I can see him on the screen sitting in his cockpit with a straight face. He doesn’t look like he’s going to laugh from being berated, he doesn’t look like he isn’t taking this seriously, and he doesn’t look depressed over his stupid fucking mistake.

He’s just sitting there listening to everything that I have to say.

Damn it, Shitger. I’m trying my best to be pissed off at him right now, but that’s fucking difficult when he’s actually listening to everything I have to say and seems like he’s realized his own failure.

That old, crazy woman who taught me was able to scream at us no matter how apologetic we were and regardless of how motivated we were to improve. I honestly have no idea how she was able to do that without feeling shitty from it. When I look at Shitger, I see somebody I feel I should be trying to motivate instead of tearing down.

But they want me to turn these brats into survivors like me, and she turned me into a survivor by being a massive fucking bitch to us.

Shitger did enough during the mission to earn praise even if that final mistake of his earned reprimanding.

“Thanks, sir,” Shitger says over the comms.

The fuck is he thanking me for? Is he actually a masochist? I know I’ve fucked with him before about that, but I have no idea what he’s thanking me for.

“I got too excited and was too confident. I won’t let it happen again,” Shitger continues. “Sorry, everybody. I won’t let any of you down again. I promise.”

He’s handling his failure way better than Valkyrie did.

This fucking punk named Shitger seriously has the most potential out of all of them.

“You did great,” Valkyrie tells him.

“I liked you leading,” Muscles says and Samurai nods.

“None of your orders were bad. You just got a bit too confident at the end,” Breeder says.

I should—

“No, I messed up. It doesn’t matter if I did any good during the mission if I still screwed up at the end. We need to be perfect. Anything less means we’ll die,” Shitger tells them. “Right, sir?”

Fucking punk.

“Right. That’s why I’m not going to let any of you off the hook. It’s not like the rest of you didn’t make any mistakes, either. We’ll be going over the footage back in class after you all get lunch. Make sure to fill yourselves up so you’re not distracted by hunger. If I catch any of you not paying attention for even half a second, all of you will be running laps. Do I make myself clear?”

“Sir, yes sir!” the cadets respond together.

With that, my annoying cadets march off together to hurry up and eat lunch, leaving me alone back here in the simulator room. Well, not completely alone.

“I’ll need the strategic footage as well as individual footage from each of them,” I tell the overseers. “Have somebody send them to my class.”

“Yes, sir,” one of the women says.

“Sorry,” the one who was doubting me earlier says.

“For what?” I ask.

“For not – for not taking your word. The way you piloted your unit was incredible, and your cadets… they were flying better than some veteran pilots I’ve seen footage from.”

“They’re still trash. I haven’t had enough time yet to turn them into real pilots.”

“But they already have the highest scores of all cadets currently enlisted after that simulation. The Asian girl – Samurai? She broke into the top three scores of all time for accuracy in the simulators.”

Wait, seriously?

“Hey, where am I on that list?”

I swear I used to be—

“You are in fourth place, sir,” she answers.

Seriously? Fucking Samurai, my own cadet, just broke my record?

“That boy showed great leadership potential as well, and all of the cadets showed incredible overall talent. Whatever you’re doing, you need to keep on doing it,” the overseer girl says.

I don’t care about that right now.

I was already pissed off since I could never pass up any of the bastards in the Fighting Aces, so I’m not going to let my own cadet knock me out of the leaderboards.

“I’m going back in,” I tell her.

I have a record to break again.

Fuck lunch.

…

And fuck Samurai.

Damn it. I chose one of the missions with the most demons and supplied ammo, and I tried staying to long range to snipe all of them whenever I could.

But…

I failed to take my third-place spot back.

There’s only one choice I have now if I want to feel better about losing it.

Samurai needs trained to improve her aim even more so that she can pass those bastards up at the top since I was never able to.

If I can’t beat Samurai, I’m going to develop her skills so that nobody can beat her.

It still counts as me beating those bastards if she does it thanks to my training.

I’m so annoyed.

And now my leg hurts from being shaken around inside of the simulator so much.

At least I should be able to train the brats even better now with all this frustration being built up inside of me. Besides, I’ve got to make sure to use it up before I go home so that Naomi doesn’t have to see any of it. There’s also the fact that I’ll snap if I have to deal with the frustration of this loss and whatever bullshit Kate decides to pull on me later.

I guess I should go ahead and get a quick lunch since I’m feeling pretty hungr—

“Ruff!”

What?

“Grrr…ruff!”

Why does it sound like a puppy is barking at me?

When I turn around to face the direction that the sound is coming from… yeah, there’s a fucking puppy just standing there barking at me while wagging its tail.

“How the fuck did you get here? Somebody sneak you into base or something?” I ask the puppy. It doesn’t give me an answer, obviously, but it does slowly walk up to me and sniff my boots.

The little thing looks like a boxer of some sort. Maybe a pit bull. Either one of those or a hybrid. It has a collar on but no owner in sight. Then again, the collar looks pretty fucked up as does its fur.

I crouch down and hold my hand out for it to sniff me before I try to pick it up and look at the tag on its collar.

His name is Chomper. I guess that’s fitting for his potential breeds given their reputations.

“You lost?” I ask him, holding him up in front of my face.

He licks my nose.

I guess I should check the tag again for a phone number or address.

Fortunately, there is a phone number.

Unfortunately, when I call it, I get notified that the number has been discontinued.

He couldn’t have been lost for too long given how young he looks. He’s not that dirty anyways, and unless the number is wrong…

“You got separated during the attack, didn’t you?” I ask him.

He doesn’t seem to understand what I’m asking since all he does is lick my face some more.

I remember, while watching the news, there were reports of strays on the loose after the attack and that everybody should exercise caution around any animals that they don’t recognize. Especially animals that are seemingly alone.

“Come on. I know somebody who can help you out.”

I know exactly who can help this puppy out. I’d try to find where he lives if I didn’t have a lunch to hurry and eat and then cadets to go back to.

And that somebody is Clover.

“Eh?” Clover asks, looking at me with confused eyes and a head tilted as much as the puppy’s.

“I found him on the way to the cafeteria,” I explain.

“A puppy? On the base? On… the way to the cafeteria?”

“Yeah.”

Some of the other nurses have gathered around to look at Chomper from behind Clover.

The little guy seems popular already.

“We – we can’t accept him,” Clover says.

“Why not?” I ask.

“Because this is a sanitary area! We can’t let him run around and—”

“Can’t you stick him in a large enough drawer or something until I come back for him?”

They all stop looking at Chomper to glare at me. Clover is the only one not looking like she’s about to slap me.

The fuck did I do?

“We still can’t accept him,” Clover says. “I wish we could, but we can’t… and please do not put him in any drawers.”

With Chomper in my arms still, I sighed and turned around to go to the only other person who I could trust to watch this puppy until the day was over.

“Lance… are you serious?” Zane asks, his elbows on his desk and his hands locked together in front of his mouth.

“Yeah. Just lock him in your office here.”

“What if he scratched the furniture or carpet? Or went to the bathroom?”

“Guys know how to hold it in.”

“Not puppies, Lance. Haven’t you ever – wait, have you ever had any pet?”

“I don’t think so. I can’t remember if I ever did. Why?”

Zane places his face against the palm of his head before standing up and saying, “I’m sorry, Lance, but I’m too busy to watch him right now and it would be a violation of several codes.”

“Every rule in the book has been broken between the two of us.”

“Yes, so let’s not make that list even longer. Besides, I have a meeting in ten minutes, and I don’t trust him to be alone in here.”

“Just put him in your suitcase and take him with you.”

…

“No.”

The situation is proving to be more difficult than I expected it to be.

There is only one other person who I cask ask without leaving the base.

“Ya serious? The poor thing would probably get killed if it stayed around here. I’m surprised he ain’t already dead if ya found him around here,” Tabitha says as she roughs up the top of the pup’s head with a greasy hand, making his fur even dirtier.

“Can’t you just put him inside of a cockpit for a few hours?”

“Do I need to worry about Naomi?”

“A human daughter is different than a puppy.”

“Do ya really want the inside of your unit to smell like dog piss? What if he pisses on the electronics?”

With that, all of my options are exhausted and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with this puppy.

So, I end up taking him back to my classroom, locking him in, and then leaving to go and get some lunch.

I’m going to have to eat while teaching the cadets. I’ll be damned if I have to put up with them on an empty stomach, plus the pup is probably hungry as well. He needs something to eat even more than I do. Probably.

The cadets are already back at the room and waiting outside of the door by the time I’m back with a tray of food and a machine-dispensed bottle of pop.

“Uhh, sir?” Shitger asks.

“What?” I ask back.

“There’s… a puppy in there.”

“Yeah. And?”

I walk past everybody looking in through the window in the door, open the door, and step inside to see…

Destruction.

Carnage.

Devastation.

Everywhere.

Books have been ripped up, chairs have somehow been knocked over, the carpet has been torn up, there’s a dark stain in one corner of the room, and the little beast runs right up to me to lick my boots as soon as he notices me.

Damn it. This is going to be annoying to clean later, but he’s just a puppy.

I’ll have Shitger clean for me.

“Shitger, get the cleaning supplies to clean up that piss. The rest of you, sit down at your desks if they’re still intact,” I tell the cadets.

They all look confused – shocked, and they keep on looking between the destruction and me.

“What?” I ask.

“You’re… you’re not that angry? Si-sir?” Filly asks.

“I’m too pissed off at you brats to be annoyed at a puppy doing puppy things. This puppy has an excuse. You maggots don’t. Now, sit down.”

I pick my chair, which has had its leather back and cushion torn open, up so that I can sit in it and cut up some of my chicken to drop for Chomper.

Everybody stares at me feeding Chomper. It’s fucking weird. Is me feeding a puppy really that damn surprising? Wouldn’t literally anybody do this for a puppy? Sure, a human daughter might be different from a puppy, but you still shouldn’t ever abuse either and each one should be treated with nothing less than love and respect. He’s just a damn puppy.

It’s like they expect me to be some sort of abusive asshole who kicks it away.

What’s even more annoying is that the girls start smiling every single time I give Chomper any attention despite me shouting at them and telling them about their mistakes during the simulation.

Even Shitger and Muscles are smiling now since Chomper is rolling around on his back at my feet.

Then Chomper goes to take a shit in the same corner of the room that he pissed in, so I look at Shitger.

He immediately gets up to go and clean it.

The rest of the day consists of more of the same.

Finally, with work over, I can go and see about taking this little guy back to home. There’s an address under the phone number on his tag, so I’m hoping that he just got lost during the attack. Maybe his owners had to go to a shelter, either weren’t allowed to bring him or forgot him, and left the door open while they were leaving.

The address isn’t too far from the base, either. The only annoying part about taking him to it is that I don’t have a leash for him, so I have to walk with my cane in my left hand while cradling him in my right arm.

It’s been a while since I’ve carried anybody this way. I remember having to carry Naomi around, cradled in one arm, while cleaning up around the house because of how clingy she was.

I wish she’d still act that clingy.

Finally, we reach the address on the tag.

Chomper whines when he sees it.

The address’s lot has a home, but it’s new enough that it’s not even done being built yet. Only the framework has been put up and there are various tools and materials sitting around.

If this house is under construction, that means it was recently destroyed. With how fast they get to rebuilding after attacks… yeah, it had to have been destroyed. It must have been one of the unlucky ones that had a pod crash into it. That would explain how he got out, too. This lucky little guy survived having a pod crash into his house, and now he’s found me.

“It’s alright,” I tell him, lifting him up higher so that I can place a kiss on the back of his head.

His whining calms down a bit.

Well, at this point… it’s either take him to a shelter where he’ll get murdered since we have enough strays and sheltered animals as is, try to find somebody who is willing to adopt him and take care of him, or… take care of him myself.

I’ve always wanted to get a dog for Naomi, but I haven’t been able to because I know I can’t trust Kate to take care of one if I ever have to leave again.

But he’s just a puppy and Naomi is older now. Maybe she’s old enough to help me take care of him.

“Want to meet the best daughter in the world?”