The next year passed quickly as he learned more and began working and adapting to his team better and working with them more easily until the first break was coming up. That is when Coble Squad ran into its first issue that would shake things up at the academy.
Steel was browsing through the data library. Looking up information about composite metals and chemical interactions that he could modify an infantry armor with. When WO Coble walked down the aisle.
He stopped behind Steel and put his hands on Steel's shoulders, which made Steel shudder. Coble breathed in his ear which was disturbing enough on its own, but what he whispered really threw him off.
"Steel. Exams are coming up. If you want any hope of graduating to the second year you will come to my room at 2000 hours, or you'll be repeating the year with me." Then Coble slunk away leaving while whistling, seemingly ecstatic.
Steel was more stunned that Coble threatened him like that. Which might make sense if Steel grew up like most people expected him to. A lone orphan with no support to get help or advice from might feel pressured and pushed into a corner.
But Steel was more akin to an animal. So being cornered into a situation would only make him angry and do something reckless. He stood there for a few minutes thinking about this new situation that Coble had put him in. At this point after almost an entire year of training his stats had skyrocketed, fortunately it was only recorded during the exams so Coble did not know that Steel had long since outstated him.
Steel quickly pulled up Coble's recorded info from when he was being investigated, up on his info pad double checking just to be sure.
Compatibility Rating: C
Talent: Disease Resistance
Steel chuckled slightly as he thought about what he should do. Regardless of how much stronger than Coble he might be, he should bring some assurance. Just in case Coble has an ace up his sleeve.
Steel then finished what he was reading and moved to another section to find books on paralytic poisons. He was already aware of some deadly poisons, but he wasn't as familiar with the non-lethal kind. So he had to brush up on the subject.
As he was standing there planning how he should pull off his plan when Wintry started walking towards him. She looked like she had a gloomy look on her face until she saw him then a look of confusion crossed her face.
"Wintry, how can I help you today?" Steel asked as he found a paralytic he liked for this job. So next was how to get his weapon of choice.
"Umm… actually I am fine. I just wanted to come check on you." She seemed to decide something in that minute of confusion. "How prepared are you for the upcoming exam?"
She was talking about the end of the year exam. There were three parts of the exam. The first was system reading where it only showed the point total to the public while the empire recorded all information and the breakdown. The second part was the knowledge portion, where they would be tested on all the basic knowledge they had to know by the end of the first year. The third and final part was the practical exam, which was tailored to each person and they would be completing an individual mission or in some cases in a group.
"As much as I can be. The Colonel had me run an additional solo drill after the last simulation. So he is probably trying to figure out how my practical test should go." Steel explained as he started running some numbers for what he needed for the fabricator.
The fabricator was a material conversion machine, meaning it converted raw or already refined materials into a refined object that was predesigned. They were common 'household' items in the way that the academy had ten that were unsupervised. But they were also military controlled due to the fact that weapons could be made from them. Steel had heard there were better versions of the machine out there that could use biological material but the empire's fabricator could most definitely not cycle through biomass of any kind.
There was one in the slums that some tried to recycle biomass through to hide a murder, that did not go over well. It was one of the few times where the law enforcement came in droves and carried off anyone involved.
"Hmm… good. In that case I am going to check on a few other members of our squad." She walked off a moment later, presumably to look for more members of their squad.
While Steel turned his attention to the math problem in front of him. But then again… if he sacrificed a bit of scrap metal like say… the metal trophy in Coble's room, then it would work out. Then that is what he will do, should be easy enough.
He looked at the clock and saw he had five hours until he was supposed to meet up with Coble. He had enough time to pull this off. He just had to hack a few private systems.
A few hours passed and he was knocking on the door to Coble's room. Coble opened the door and grinned maniacally.
"Come on in," Steel walked in and ignored the urge to immediately start beating the shit out of WO with the look he was giving Steel's backside. "Strip and lie on the bed, I will have my way with you in a moment."
Coble walked into his bathroom, presumably to 'freshen up' he heard that was a thing. Steel instead pulled out and put on the pair of armored infantry gloves he had prepared beforehand. He used the fabricator to turn some old shirts and other worn clothes along with a trophy he stole from Coble's room earlier all into a pair of green gloves with silver armor along the knuckles and on the back of the hand. Inside along the hands were the metal bracings as well.
Then he pulled out a syringe and readied himself by the bathroom door. When Coble's head peaked out the door the syringe was already in his neck, injecting him with a paralytic.
"Rarrgg!!! What the hell!" Coble collapsed onto the floor but could still talk.
"It's a special paralytic tailor made for torture. It stops any signals going from below the neck but you can still feel everything happening to your body and can still speak and move your head." Steel explained as he grabbed Coble by the hair and dragged him over to where his bed was.
"What do you think you are doing? You won't get away with anything!" Coble pointed out as he laid up against his bed while still on the floor.
"That is not necessarily true, for one the inquisitors are convinced you are a rapist to the point that they had bugs planted in your room. Don't worry though I put them on a loop before I came in here. Now I do have a few questions. For starters, have you forced yourself on any other students or members of my squad?" Steel asked while he crouched next to Coble.
"Go suck a dick you street rat- Aarrggh!" Coble screamed in pain as a quick punch of Steel's broke his nose.
"Okay then, I suppose I will have to start by beating the shit out of you first." Steel then grabbed Coble's arm with one hand and punched it with the other breaking it. Causing Coble to scream in pain. He then went through and broke all of his limbs in a similar manner causing bone to be visible from his broken limbs.
"Stop it hurts-" Coble started crying as Steel chuckled.
"Answer my question." Steel responded coldly.
"Noooo…. I haven't had a ch-chance." Coble was crying as he shook his head.
"Okay, that is good. I believe you. Now for the hard questions, what was the age of the youngest person you forced yourself onto?" Steel watched as for a moment he saw Coble calculate something in his head, he was not good at hiding it.
He then heard as Coble's heartbeat sped up, "twenty-one was the youngest." Steel sighed and grabbed Coble's hair with one hand and punched it with the other. Turning his head so he was punching out Coble's teeth.
After a few punches Coble's face was bloodied up and several of his teeth had fallen out. It was a miracle his jaw wasn't broken, "try again. This time be honest."
Coble was crying as he shook his head. Steel let him continue for a minute before he slapped Coble trying to get an answer. "Come on now, the sooner you answer the sooner we can be done."
"Sixteen, I-I-I-I prefer them younger-ahhh" Coble started balling his eyes out as Steel rolled his.
"I figured, okay. Now what are you going to tell the Inquisitors the next time you see them?" Steel asked.
That actually got a laugh out of Steel, "hahaha! Sure you can tell them that. But make certain you disclose what you did or else I will find you again and do something worse." Steel raised his hand to punch Coble when he heard Wintry.
[The Inquisitors are on the way to Coble's room. You should get out within the next minute if you don't want to get caught.] That voice was in his head. That is weird. Whatever, he will think about that later.
He quickly punched Coble in the head knocking him out. He then walked out of the room making his way back to his dorm room making certain he did not leave a blood trail and that all the cameras in the dorm were disabled.
When he entered he saw Wintry was waiting on his bed and he frowned. "I suppose this means we have to talk?"