"Soldiers, attention!" Dovah, a second lieutenant from a regiment called Wolfpack demanded as every cadet stood up and saluted him.
"This is your final day of training! If you guys pass you will become a clone trooper! Fail, and you will have start your training from the very beginning! Understood cadets?" Dovah exclaimed as paced in front of the cadets.
"Understood Sir!" We shouted in unison.
"Alright cadets, for the final part of your training, we will enter a sim room and put you in a combat situation with droids. Simple and routine. You must work together with your brothers to complete this. If you complete it and destroy all the droids you pass. Understood?" Dovah questioned as he glared back to the cadets..
"Yes Sir" All the Cadets shouted.
"Meet at the sim room in twenty minutes. Get your gear ready and get your weapons from 99, understood?" Dovah boomed as he took one final look at us.
"Yes sir!" We yelled as we saluted Dovah as he left the room.
"Hey 3876, could you pass me the helmet?" Dex asked as he put a couple charges into his belt.
"Please call me Augustus, not 3876," I requested, "You know I hate numbers 7576."
"Well then start calling me by my name," 7576 retaliated.
"Which is?" I snickered as he grew more frustrated.
"You know I call myself Dex! Jeffy back me up here!" Dex shouted as he turned to Jeffy.
"Leave me out of this please," Jeffy sighed. "And 2190, would you wake up? Why are you always sleeping?"
"Why do you think we nicknamed him Zombie?" I deadpanned as Zombie crawled out of his bunk.
"Just toss me my weapon. I'm ready to go man," Zombie drug out as he slugged up.
"Well then let's get our weapons from 99 and get this over with. I want to be a trooper already!" I yelled in excitement.
We all headed to the sim room and along the way we were greeted by 99, who was carrying a load of weapons that was probably more than he, or anybody for that matter could handle.
"Hello boys, can't believe it's your last day of training. I remember when you guys were still being taught the 'Never Shoot a Brother' rule," He grinned with a hint of sadness in his voice.
"Oh you're always going on about that stuff 99," Zombie chuckled as he took a rifle from the pile that 99 was carrying. We all picked our weapons from him, dramatically helping his still large load.
"There's your weapons boys," 99 chuckled with more sadness in his voice, "Do good out there."
"Thanks 99. You know you're a true soldier. You've helped us get through some of our hardest times so for that, we thank you."
We lined up and saluted 99 with a tear starting to form in his eye.
"Alright guys, let's not let down the Republic. We gotta do this right." I said in a serious tone as we neared the sim room.
"Not to mention we have to make 99 proud!" Dex shouted.
Everyone nodded as we lined up outside the door to the sim room.
"Line up and get ready to enter!" Dovah boomed through an intercom.
I gritted my teeth as the door opened, and we stepped into a large, dark room. The door behind us locked and we all got ready in our battle stances. The lights of the room quickly lit up the room, blinding me for an instant, and we got moving.
We all moved up while pacing ourselves. We didn't want to push too quickly. It was fairly easy though, and we were all picking off droids. Suddenly my worst fears came too. More droids we appearing and we were starting to get swarmed. Everyone was starting to hesitate and crack under pressure, but I knew I had to step up to this challenge.
"Dex, get to cover and give Zombie, Jeffy and I suppressive fire! We're pushing up to the barricade!"
Dex nodded and popped out of cover. Zombie and I pushed to the right while Jeffy pushed from the left.
The plan worked flawlessly, until I noticed that Jeffy wasn't here yet. His leg was caught in an electro web and was doing his best to dodge the incoming fire. I started to get up to grab him, but Zombie pulled me back down.
"What are you doing?! You'll get annihilated out there!"
I grinned as I looked back to Zombie, "Isn't that what we we're born to do?!" I pushed him back and jumped out of cover as I dashed towards Jeffy. I could hear Zombie scowl over the comms and he stood up to give me covering fire.
I rushed over to Jeffy and shot out the electro web emitter. I quickly pulled him back to cover and handed him my DC-17. His rifle had been blasted far across the room so there was no way they'd ever get it back.
"What, couldn't get me a bigger gun?" Jeffy laughed as he grabbed the pistol.
Zombie was still shooting as we slid back into cover. "You know that was a stupid thing to do," He shouted as he punched Jeffy in the shoulder. "That's for makin' Augustus risk his skin for you!"
"All in a day's work," Jeffy snickered as he peeked over the barricade. "Only a few droids left. Dex push up here! We'll cover you!"
"Moving up!" Dex yelled as he dashed out from behind his barricade and the rest of us popped up to cover him. Dex slammed to the ground as a couple laser bolts whizzed by his head. "I really hate droids," Dex complained as he struggled back up.
"There's just a couple left! Push up guys!" I yelled as we all pushed towards the heavily guarded building in front of us.
We managed to take out a few more droids and take cover behind a wrecked speeder, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere General Grievous and a jedi appeared bringing a heated lightsaber duel with it. Zombie popped up and took aim at Grievous, but was pulled down by Dex.
"You want to hit the jedi?! Come on we've been over this a hundred times!"
Zombie scowled and popped back out of cover, taking a few shots at the remaining droids. We followed suit and managed to take out the last of the droids, just as the jedi defeated Grievous.
The room suddenly went dark with a single spotlight shining on a door, from which Dovah walked through clapping audibly. "Excellent teamwork you four. Augustus," I stuttered at the sound of my name, "Well done freeing Jeffy. I couldn't have done it better myself." I sighed in relief. "Congratulations, you four are now officially clone troopers of the Galactic Republic."
We all high fived each other, but Dovah grabbed me and pulled me aside. "I mean it Augustus, your leadership skills are incredible. The Republic Navy is looking for some new recruits and I'd fully recommend you for the job.
"The Republic Navy? It's been a dream of my to join them! Thank you sir!" I exclaimed shaking a bit, hardly able to hold my excitement.
Dovah replied "Well it's your chance to now. You and your squadmates are dismissed. Get some rest before you deploy tomorrow. You all deserve it."
I saluted and walked back to the others. We all lined up, and Shaak Ti appeared from the door that Dovah had came from. She gave a quick speech about the importance of our presence in the galaxy. We all saluted her and walked back to our bunks, feeling ever so satisfied.
"We're finally being deployed. I can't wait!" Dex yelled out.
"Where do you guys think we'll be stationed?" Zombie asked as we continued to walk.
"Wherever it is, I'm glad it's with you guys," Jeffy laughed as he raced ahead.
"What a cheesy line. Come on you've got better ones!" Zombie laughed as he chased after Jeffy.
"You guys are awesome," I chuckled as we entered our bunks. "Let's win this war, together."