The Vanguard Cadet Assessment was called the Threshold Test. The GDF briefing document Ray received described it in language designed to be honest without being discouraging, which was itself a kind of discouragement. It said: The Threshold Test is designed to assess a candidate's response to conditions that simulate combat engagement with Revenant threats at Stages 3 through 5. The test has a historic pass rate of 3.2%. Failure is not indicative of any personal deficiency.*
The phrase 'failure is not indicative of any personal deficiency' appeared three times in the document.
The testing chamber was underground a large subterranean space with shifting walls and environmental controls that could reconfigure the layout in under thirty seconds. There were seventeen candidates for this cohort. Ray didn't know any of them. He stood in line with them and looked at the chamber door and thought about nothing in particular.
The candidate next to him was introduced as Theo Bancroft seventeen years old, Black British, with his hands already moving over the surface of the door panel the way some people's hands moved over music. He had a backpack that clinked. He caught Ray looking at it.
"Custom grenades. Nothing prohibited. Probably."
"Probably."
"You're the one from Harlan's Gate. The Striker story."
"Yes."
"I've been thinking about the physics of your flare strategy. The photosensitivity response in Stage 4 tissue is caused by Aphelion energy reacting to high-intensity light the energy is drawn toward it and then oversaturated. If you'd had a second flare already loaded when the first one ignited, and fired the second one six seconds into the burn window"
"You'd double the disorientation time and potentially trigger a full retreat rather than a temporary withdrawal."
Theo stared at him.
"Yes. Exactly. I was going to say exactly that."
They looked at each other. Theo's hand was still unconsciously tapping against his backpack.
"My name's Theo."
"Ray."
"I think we're going to be good at this together."
The door opened before Ray could respond.
Fourteen of the seventeen candidates did not complete the Threshold Test.
Ray passed it. Theo passed it. A woman named Sable Nkosi, who moved through the simulation with such absolute economy of motion that Ray didn't notice her until the third scenario, passed it.
Everyone else made it as far as their personal limits allowed, and then the simulation ended their scenario. No one was hurt. That was the design not to injure candidates but to precisely identify the moment their decision-making compromised. Some were pulled at the first scenario. Some made it to the fourth. One candidate passed six of the seven scenarios before the seventh broke them.
Ray passed all seven.
He didn't know that at the time. He didn't know that no one had passed all seven in the same test cohort without a combat suit. He was just moving through the situations the way he'd moved through Harlan's Gate press to the wall, weight forward, breathe through your nose and the simulation was giving him problems that had solutions.
In the seventh scenario, the simulation introduced a Stage 5 Apex. It was a holographic projection, obviously, but the environmental feedback was real the terror-frequency that the simulation piped in through subsonic speakers at the frequency Apexes used was real enough that three of the monitoring technicians in the observation booth pressed back from their windows.
Ray stood still and looked at the Apex projection and waited.
The Apex charged.
Ray moved left at the last second, ducked, and let it carry through past him in a straight line, then ran the opposite direction. Not because he could outrun it he couldn't and knew it. Because in the simulation environment, he'd noticed the Stage 5's charge vector was fixed once committed, and the simulation's environmental reset protocol triggered the scenario success condition after twelve seconds of evasion.
He evaded for thirteen. Then the lights came on.
Lt. Mira Sol Kitagawa was waiting for him when he came out of the chamber. She had her arms crossed and an expression that Ray was starting to learn meant she was looking at data she didn't fully understand.
"You noticed the reset trigger."
"I noticed the timer on the observation panel. The angle is visible if you come out of scenario six facing north."
"No candidate has ever made it to scenario seven on a first attempt."
"I had a lot of practice."
"In Harlan's Gate. For three weeks. Against real Stage 1 through 4 Revenants. With no suit, no formal training, and a modified flare gun."
"Yes."
She looked at him. He looked back. Behind them, Theo was excitedly examining the testing chamber door panel and Sable was watching Theo examine it with professional patience.
"You're assigned to my training division. Report to Level 4, Section 9, 06:00 tomorrow."
"Yes, sir."
"In this division, you will call me Lieutenant Kitagawa or Lieutenant. Not sir."
"Yes, Lieutenant Kitagawa."
"Good."
She turned to walk away, then paused.
"For what it's worth Harlan's Gate is classified as a total-loss site. The GDF will not be attempting reclamation for at least three years. Whatever you did there, whatever it cost you it mattered. The people you got out are here because of you."
Ray said nothing. She walked away.
He stood in the corridor for a moment and breathed through his nose, long and even, the way his mother had shown him.
Then he went to find where Level 4, Section 9 was.