The Captain

Daniel walked stood on the catwalk, observing all of the recruits. There were thirty of them on the firing line. Most were decent marksman, their grouping decent, and their targets were scorched in all of the right places. On paper, they were excellent. But combat was not paper.

"Halt Firing," Daniel told the woman beside him, Lieutenant Kem Zabani, a semi-seasons infantry leader. She was a dark-skinned woman, with a scar running down her left cheek and dark eyes that seemed to pierce one's soul, definitely someone you would not want to face on the battlefield.

Kem grabbed a radio and yelled "Halt Firing!" into it. Her voice echoed down the firing line and all the recruits stopped.

Daniel walked into the mass of troops and began to clap slowly. "Good job. All of you have hit your targets, great shots all of you," the troops looked a bit uneasy but some of them exchanged smiles. "First group up on the line."

Thirty troops went up to the line and got into their firing positions. Daniel smiled and walked down the line. He ignored some of the minor errors in their presentations. He asked for the rifle of one of the men and adjusted the firing setting.

"All of you! Adjust to stun. Lieutenant, get down here! Grab a rifle, stun as well!" When Kem got her rifle, and set it to stun Daniel did a walk through off all of the recruit's rifles and made sure that they were all on stun. Once satisfied he and Kem went out onto the range and stood there.

"Now! You will all try and hit your targets, the catch, I and the Lieutenant here will try and shoot you with our rifles. They are on stun so the worst you'll get is a bruise and if it hits you in the right spot, knocked out. Begin." There was so hesitance down the line, all of the troops unsure as to whether they should actually shoot, or if it was some sort of test. Daniel made sure that almost every exercise that they had performed was some sort of test. A test of detail, endurance, what they were willing to do. He had a few soldiers in his Company, but most were complete glory seeking idiots. They thought war was a game, that they would charge in and take out entire units by themselves. And Daniel knew the truth, most of those men and women would be dead before the wars end.

When the recruits didn't fire Daniel took it upon himself to shoot an unsuspecting trooper knocking him out cold. The others took the hint and quickly aimed their rifles down range shooting their targets. Daniel and Kem took the smallest amount of pleasure when their bolts would hit the shoulder of a recruit or when another would simply back off of the line if it became to hectic. It went on for a grueling fifteen minutes for the recruits. Daniel glanced back and saw that their shots were now off. Some didn't even hit the targets, and those that did were highly inaccurate, the grouping, or lack there off, horrible. It was exactly as he suspected.


Daniel walked into the medical wing, tuning out the sounds from the injured troopers he had put through the wringer. Out of the two-fifty, only a hundred could keep their composure under fire, not too bad, but still not the best statistic. Most of his men that were in medical were simply the crybabies that he needed to root out. Should only take a week or two, but he would do it.

He walked through the rooms and found the ICU ward where the more critical patients were kept. He crept into a room and removed his cover wringing it in his hands as he observed the body in the ICU.

"Hey cap. Or are you a general? To be honest I'm not sure you have a rank, you are after all, without a ship. I'm sure she's taking good care of it. Wherever she is. Things are going alright. Leia's been pushing me. Trying to get a company ready to take on Sullest. Not sure how that's going to work though, you need to talk to her when you get up. I, uhh. I don't have long. I got a meeting, war room. Planning out how Sullest is going to go. Hope you wake up soon Han."


"We need to mobilize our troops now! Our intelligence has informed us that two of the Star Destroyers are going to be departing for resupply. With only the Equalizer stationed over Sullest we need to push now!" A General that Daniel had never learned the name of shouted. There were nods from around the table as several other officers seemed to agree with him.

"We have six companies ready to be deployed."

"And slaughtered," Daniel muttered under his breath.

"Do you have something to say Captain?" a fellow captain asked. Daniel recognized him as Dax Olesa, an arrogant son of a bitch who had ties to the New Republic Senate, at least before they were all blown up by Starkiller Base.

"Our companies aren't ready. Or some of them aren't. We have the numbers to attack, but not to maintain the kind of pressure on the First Order to keep them out of the system. You want to take Sullest, then we need time. Use one of the companies to harass the Order and when the others are trained up, that's when we hit."

"And how long would that take?" General Organa asked.

"More than two months. At least half a year." Several officers scoffed and others actually contemplated his words. Daniel, while very skilled in combat, was often thought of as a wannabe Old Republic General. Sure, he had some tactical knowledge which was why he was given command, but overall, he a was little picture battle planner, not win the war battle planner.

"We'll give you four." Leia said stiffly.

"I'll take it." Like he had a choice.


"Drop ship rollin' on down the strip," Daniel sang as he led his company in a run.

"64 Marines on a one-way trip," his entire company sang back. They were deep in the forest of the unnamed planet that the Resistance had taken shelter, deep in the Lazarus Sector. The recruits were all breathing heavily as they reached their fifth mile, out of the twelve. Kem and several of the recruits that Daniel thought were more up to standard were tailing the column just in case anyone fell out.

"Mission top secret, destination unknown," Daniel called out.

"And we don't know if we're ever comin' home." One of the more meatier recruits threw up on the man in front of him.

"Stand up!"

"Hook up!"

"Shuffle to the door!"

"Jump on out and count to four."

"In case my main shouldn't open wide!"

"I pack a reserve 'chute by my side."

He had four months to whip the undisciplined recruits into fighting form. If he succeeded then the company would have a higher chance of survival. If not, then there would be more letters to write.


AN: Okay here we are! next chapter is called The Apprentice, give you two guesses on who that is. Let me know ehat you guys thought and I will see you next time! ~Pacco1