Thunder Valley

Jean Kirstein

Fist clenched and teeth gritted, Jean waited with baited breath as the lazy river played its soft tune. He glanced at Reiner by his side, noting with growing anxiety that the bigger male was staring ahead with a face made of stone. He wondered just how much vitamins one person had to eat to reach the physical proportions of this bull by his side. Jean guessed that it was too much for him to bother.

"Hey bull- I mean Reiner, do you see anything?" The trainee shook his head, eyes narrowed as he tried to cut through the distance to spot the bait team.

"I don't see anything that's worth mentioning. But I can feel them coming, the birds haven't been flying anywhere near where they went." Reiner took deeper into the forest, Jean watched him go before turning to Thomas who was crouched atop a tree trunk.

"Damn, if I had my gear..." Thomas muttered. Jean knew how he felt, even if Jean didn't much care for his 3DMG skills for anything beyond joining the Military Police, it sure did feel safer with the contraption buckled onto his hips.

"Hey Thomas!" The blonde haired trainee looked down, shifting his stance so that one of his foot was resting against the tree as he prepared to jump down in a moments notice. "Can we check everyone's position a second time. We gotta make sure everyone is where they need to be!" Thomas glanced to his right, traces his eyes across the river bend before spotting what he was searching for. A brief glint of something reflecting the sun appeared in his vision and with ease he brought a piece of his musket up to cast his own glare.

Immediately several others appeared on the other end of the river and on his side Thomas could hear the several calls to say that they were in position too. Jean didn't need anymore than that and nodded in thanks to his friend. Thomas waved it away and returned to keeping watch.

Jean quickly returned to sentry duty with his musket gripped carefully in his hands. For a silent moment he wished he had grabbed one of those repeating muskets that the foreigners used. But they had been monopolised by the bait team, which consisted of Mikasa, Marco, Annie, Nac, Mina and that foreigner North, the only person not on the bait team and was given one of those metal rifles was Reiner. Jean was at least thankful that Eren was on the opposite end of the river, he didn't need to deal with that suicidal fool and can at least gnaw at his lip in agitation with silence as his company.

His mind was about to return to a peaceful blankness, where his thoughts were allowed to roam free without pause, but the sudden sound of weapons fire was quick to send his guard back up. "Ah damn." Thomas hissed, Jean was about to agree with him when a mass of green and olive burst out of the tree line a few dozen metres ahead of them. Jean sucked in a breath, an odd grimace on his face as he realised these men were a heck of a lot bigger than the foreigner that had tagged along with the group. Fortunately they kept their weapons trained in the forest, spewing rounds into the canopy and floor level as they skirted around the edges.

"They must be trying to flank the bait team." Reiner reasoned. They could be baking a cake for the king for all Jean cared, so long as they were out in the open it means that they were given a better chance to hit them. He forestalled a command to fire though when he realised that one of the marines was scrambling in every direction, he feared they may have caught on to the plan. It was only a moment later that a familiarly dressed khaki trainee dashed out of the tree line. Her wires barely missing the group of marines, Mikasa used the soles of her boots as a skate to glide against the ground before rounding about with the metal rifle in her hands. She clicked the weapon but it was obvious despite her strong frame that the recoil proved too difficult to handle. The red dummy rounds went in every possible direction, scoring only two of the marines and the rest returning fire.

Mikasa skillfully launched her 3DMG and zigzagged across the river bank far too fast for the marines to get a proper bead on her. Their rifles looked dazed as they jarred left and right, and Jean noticed how a group of trainee instructors were running out to join the marines. Jean was suddenly surprised when they started working together, the instructors used the marines shoulders as resting points for their muskets while the marines crouched and acted as a meat shield for them. He wondered how long they had to train to be able to reach such a level of cooperation before he realised a key fact, these people only met today. That meant most of their movements were on the fly and judging from the new positions and the expressions of everyone involved, it was mostly coined from stereotypes. That was good, that was meant that even though they were working together, they weren't moving to their greatest efficiency.

Jean signalled Thomas to shine his light on Mikasa and he did so without a moment's pause. The light reflected onto Mikasa and Jean saw her acknowledge it with a brief tilt of her head, her red scarf flowing behind her. She launched her 3DMG and it struck against the river bank and she raced across without a second look back. Unhooking her wire only when she was halfway through to look like she ran out of gas. Jean had to admit, Mikasa was a good actor.

The instructors pursued her and the increasing volume of gunfire showed that the members of the other bait team were dealing with their own problems. Jean pushed those thoughts aside without a second thought, he had his own ass to save right now. That's right, he was not going to end up with paint smeared across his face.

"Fire!" Jean shouted. Immediately musket fire from both sides rained down on the instructor's below and he had to give them credit, even with a dozen or more pellets heading for their face the instructors, both foreign and local, turned towards the new enemy without a shred of fear and fired off their own volley before they were knocked out. Jean had to duck his head as a dummy round slammed against a tree behind him, he clutched his raging heart when he heard the sounds of wood being chipped off and small pieces of the tree cascading against his back.

"Reiner!" He yelled. Loud, continuous barks echoed off the clearing and Reiner ended any stragglers with even swings from left to right, mimicking the foreigners movements. After the last fell there was sudden and abrupt weapons fire on the opposite bank and Jean realised that the remaining instructors must have caught on to the ruse and was trying to eliminate the trainees on the other end. "Shit! Thomas warn-!" Jean cursed when he looked up to see Thomas lying on the tree trunk, his head propped up against its bark to reveal a smear of paint on his face and chest.

"Crap!" Jean turned to Axel, who was beside Reiner reloading his weapon, and shouted as loud as he could. "Get everyone to flank the marines on the opposite bank!" Axel seemed surprised by the shout but training kicked in and he quickly relayed it to anyone nearby. The next few seconds were too frantic for Jean to keep track of. The trainees all rushed to form an arc through the river, their padded feet meeting water without pause, and then gunfire erupted through the forest and pinged most of them across the chest.

Jean dove into the water with his musket, watching as Reiner sprayed even more bullets into the treeline as the remaining trainees tried to force themselves back onto their feet. "No don't!" But it was already too late, several trainee instructors had positioned themselves high above the trees and rained down a fresh volley of red paint onto the trainees. They fell to the ground, eyes rolling to the back of their heads and Jean cursed this day for all eternity.

Quentin North

North trudged straight through the foliage without pause or preamble, keeping his rifle firing continuously into the fray without pause. The marines all dashed left to right, sliding across the ground and dropping into formations that North had never seen before. They danced with fire and pain with their instruments of music and North was barely able to keep up with the pace. "Mina!" North shouted.

The short girl was perched on a tree trunk above him, the MA5B in her hands a little bit too large for her petite fingers. She rounded out of cover and pressed the trigger. The bullets were staggered, her aim was shot to hell, and she nearly flopped over the edge because of the recoil. "What!" She yelled.

Her voice was shaking, he didn't blame her. Nac and Marco had been taken out of the fight and Annie was nowhere to be seen. Mikasa had went off to help the others at the river bank but they hadn't heard from her either. For all they knew they could be the only ones left. "You're no use up there get down here! I'll give you covering fire." Mina nodded her head after a few seconds of thought and North breathed out slowly, giving her enough time to prepare, before popping out with his rifle firing down range. She jumped down, curling into a roll when she reached the ground, and landed just behind North.

"We need to get out of here." Mina shouted. North agreed with her but right now they couldn't move unless they wanted to lose their head. North glanced at the marines and instructors on the other end- noted how they worked closely together- and pulled out a pistol he had acquired from a knocked out instructor. He passed it to her in exchange for her rifle and glanced back at the marines.

"They're still close together? Guess we're closer to the edge than we thought." He took out his shin guard, the dented one, and set it against the belly of one of the MA5B rifle. He ripped the band that kept his boots' laces tied together and wrapped it around the trigger. "When I say go, you run all hell back at the river bank alright?"

Mina nodded her head, getting ready to sprint forward as North set the trigger. He let go of the band and heard a loud clack as it constricted the trigger. Immediately the rifle began spewing out bullets and North quickly dug the butt of the rifle into the ground and dashed after Mina. The suppressing fire would only last a few seconds and then the marines would be chasing after him, so North made sure to keep his feet pounding the ground like a mad man on crack.

He stomped, his heart pumping with exertion and blood rushing all across his body. He glanced over his shoulder, now no longer hearing the bangs of his MA5B he left behind, and saw no one following. That would change very soon.

North could already hear the sounds of the river, he hoped that the remainder of their force was safe. However he found his hope mercilessly ripped away as he entered the clearing. All North needed to do was look down and he already spotted half of the entire force on the river bed knocked unconscious. He could hear the sounds of gunfire going off next to him but as far as North was concerned they were dead in the water. "No.." He grumbled, "Not yet." He grabbed Mina by the shoulders and said with as much force as he could muster, "Follow me we have to help the rest."

He lurched into the forest and followed the trail of red paint as he stumbled into a hail of gunfire. He instinctively pulled Mina into the cover of a few trees, unsure as to what exactly was going on as a trainee dropped down in front of him, riddled full of red paint. Mina gasped by his side and she clutched the tree trunk as more bullets slammed into their cover. "Crap," North muttered and glanced out into the open to see that most of the opposition were Trainee instructors but one or two marine instructors were dancing across the area.

"Do you see any of your friends?" North yelled and twisted out to fire a steady stream of bullets down range. Mina glanced at shouted something that he couldn't hear. A few trainees then appeared next to their cover.

"Eren, Mikasa, Armin! Is it just the three of you?" Mina asked as the said trainees crouched low.

"Jean and the other's fell in the river while Reiner managed to take out some of the marines before going down too," Armin reported. North felt respect brew inside him for the guy named Reiner. "There are about five others spread out on our side who are still conscious but even that number is dwindling."

"Damn." North twisted his feet and dropped to his knees, barely dodging a volley of bullets that were aiming to take his head off. The ground stained red before he was forced to retreat back to cover. A ceasefire echoed into the forest as North slowly forced himself back.

"There's no point in fighting now," North said after a moment, "We can't keep it up with the instructors with so few." North had thought that they would have been capable of stopping the instructors but it seems they were even sharper than he expected. Certainly they gave neither him nor his Waller comrades a moment of pause. "Can you use your 3DMG to carry yourselves out?" North asked. As far as he could see only one person didn't have a 3DMG so he guessed they could carry him.

"We can," Mikasa stated.

"Wait why?" Mina asked, her face was etched with anxiety, nervousness and...a hint of betrayal? North didn't ponder on these emotions when he heard a snap of a twig and rounded out of cover to open fire. The blaze of a firefight roared again as North became a man on his last peg of life trying to hold on.

"Leave!" Was North's one word order. Mina's eyes widened, it seems she had become fond of North to the point that she had considered him a comrade. Despite himself North filed that away as a victory but he couldn't allow the diminutive girl to try and stay, this was a ground war, built for men like him and even if they wanted to help they'd just get in the way. "I said leave!" North snarled and charged out of cover, effectively ending any retort. He heard the sounds of 3DMG going off and managed to duck behind a bush just as red bullets whizzed by.

He hugged the cover of a tree, glancing out to see seven instructors making their way towards him with two more joining from the west. He felt fear grip his heart, this was just a training exercise but North resolved in his heart that he never wanted to be in a firefight like this if he could help it. He was sure he was going to get white hair from all the battle stress.

He dislodged his magazine from his rifle and slammed a fresh clip in, pulling back the charging handle at the same time. The weapon whirled to life and North bounded out with his weapon raised like a man on a mission. The next few minutes were a blur of gunfire.

His father had taught him that gunfights wasn't always about being on the move. It was about who could throw the most bullets as accurately as possible. And so he did that. His movements were quick and short, buying enough time to press the trigger for half a second before he had to dodge again. He burst out of shrubbery and ran across the river bank more times than he could count. Pellets whizzed by his knee joints by seconds and his hand gripped the bark of trees like a lifeline everytime he found cover.

The instructors continued to push forward with their intent to riddle him full of red paint. They ran much faster than he did, kept their aim true more times than he, and flawlessly moved in formation to surround him. North, of course, had sought out to stop it. He would fire rounds into empty space, cutting off a flank before it could happen, and darted down the opposite way to confuse his chasers. His blood ran like a tsunami in his veins, flooding his muscles with every bit of energy they could muster as lactic acid and adrenaline forced his body onwards.

Sweat caked his body and his arms shook with overuse when one of the instructors had cornered him. He was a Waller and North had quickly eliminated the man's musket with a brutal pull and kick. He grabbed the Waller by his neck and raised him as a shield, the trigger discipline that all marines were taught saving North from a hail of gunfire. He pushed the instructor forward, fired a round, and dashed back into the shrubbery. Fifteen minutes in and only took out one person, North saw that as victory.

But that victory was short lived as a round impacted against the back of his knee. He fell to the ground, face digging into the dirt as he rolled onto his back. He tried to raise himself up but could only manage to roll behind a tree as more pellets bombarded his area.

"Damn!" North used his only remaining leg to push himself up against the tree as he grabbed his rifle. He pulled the priming handle back and popped hid clip out. There was only half a magazine left and that was his last one. A pellet had apparently bended around a tree because he felt his shoulder flare in pain with the impact of a pellet. He stifled a scream of pain as that was his unarmored shoulder, he was sure he was going to be sore the next day.

He felt grass being disturbed and pointed a rifle out to spray a small burst into the forest. He heard somebody grunting as something heavy hit the ground. "Two kills!" North cheered but it was short lived as another round smacked against his back. He bit down on his lower lip hard enough to crack it.

He smacked his head against the bark as he pulled his knee up to his chest and rested the body of his rifle on his raised knee. A marine appeared from the side, a few feet away ready to end him, but he pulled the trigger and down the man with four shots.

The next thing he knew he found his rifle shot out of his hand. He grimaced when it landed too far for him to reach and crashed his head against the tree. If only he had his pistol but he had given it too Mina. He thought about that and changed his mind, he was glad he did. She could make use of it and he would rather it be somewhere productive than with him. He had done a good job, he made some friends with the Wallers and he did all he could to keep them moving.

An instructor appeared before him, pulling his priming handle back and aiming his rifle at North. His thoughts drifted to Mina, he hoped she would meet Benito and get to the pelican, he was sure without a doubt that they had severely dwindled the instructors numbers and his friend would be more than a little capable of completing the mission. A click of the trigger later and he felt something slam against his forehead. The pain flared all throughout his body as he felt his body go limp.

Mina Carolina

She launched her 3DMG gear, trying her best to keep up with Mikasa as she cut through the air. They had traveled far enough from where they abandoned North that she couldn't hear the sounds of weapons fire. She felt her heart tighten, her mind cracking at the though of having abandoned a friend. She had talked to him, perhaps she had been the only one, but he was kind and polite. He proved his mettle on the battlefield as he fought to keep everyone safe.

She felt utter useless and afraid. She hated herself for even entertaining the emotion. Her entire squad, every single one of them, had been lost in a devastating defeat. They lost their leader Marco, the strong-willed Trainee Reiner and who knows where Annie is. It was just her, Mikasa, Eren and Armin. Four people of what had been thirty-five trainees.

"I'm almost out of gas!" Mikasa yelled at the front. Mina opened her mouth in dismay but set it straight so as to better guide herself onto the ground. Her landing was less than graceful as she was forced to stumble from her 3DMG giving out. Looking down onto it she realised that one of her wires had been disconnected, a small bit of red point smearing the sides of it.

Of course, she thought, they had to have been able to cut off her wire. She looked to Armin to see that he was on his knees tending to wound Eren had sustained fighting the marines and she winced when she noticed how the crook of his arm was deep blue. "It stings," Eren muttered.

Mikasa was hovering nearby giving Mina a nod when she entered their small circle. "Do you think the marines will follow us?" Mina asked. Armin shook his head and looped a bandage around Eren's arm.

"They're probably too busy policing everyone they knocked out. Even if they did chase us they would have stopped for the sake of everyone else who was unconscious." Mina nodded her head at Armin's logic. He always did have a better understanding of what was happening around them than even Mikasa.

"But we'll need to find Annie," Armin suddenly said, "She told me that she was going to find some help."

"So she abandoned us?" Mikasa accused quietly, her voice hard and unrelenting. Armin quickly shook his head, apologising when the action had pressed too much pressure on Eren's arm.

"I endorsed it so the fault isn't entirely on her own. I sent her towards the cliffs, where we suspected the rest of the foreigners were located. It was sometime before you appeared on the river bank and she had retreated from harassing the instructors. She might have reached there by now, I would imagine it is best to move now."

"What about me?" Eren asked. Armin frowned, looking down to his 3DMG and Mina noticed how he had half of his fuel tanks left.

"I'm not that good with my 3DMG and Mikasa the only that can carry Eren with his injuries." Armin glanced at Eren's leg. Mina hid a wince, the pellets made up of some unknown material was very painful to be hit by but it had some sort of numbing effect on where they landed. "I'm sorry to ask you this Mina, but you'll have to scout ahead with your 3DMG while us three move from below."

Mina bit her bottom lip before nodding her head and exchanging fuels with Armin. After she was done replacing all off her empty tanks she tossed a look over her shoulder to see that Eren was securely strapped behind Mikasa's back and Armin had hefted the extra swords onto a pack. She supposed they could come in handy. After a brief nod she shot up into the trees and flew across the distance ahead of her.

The four of them didn't stop to camp or rest. The valley, while large, wasn't big enough that more than a day's journey was needed to pass its length. So she estimated that they needed to go very far to reach the cliffs, but she wondered what good it would do. She had heard Marco say that there was no way to the center of the valley through the cliffs and they would still be forced to travel through the original pathway, which she shuddered to remember. Mina kept moving, stopping only to get a better read on her fuel supply as she kept verbal exchange with Armin on the ground.

She would rather not be ambushed again. The bait team had all been massacred when they failed to notice Nac had been eliminated and it had only been North's quick thinking that had kept Mina safe and Mikasa running back to the river bank, if not she was sure that they would have all been knocked unconscious.

She traveled a bit more and she had to shield her eyes from the suns glare as he slowly descended from that side. The trees were starting to grow thinner in numbers, alerting her that the forests was soon to end. She pulled back on the triggers of her 3DMG and twirled around a tree just enough to hang off it.

She landed with a thud, standing horizontal against the tree's body. She squinted her eyes and saw the sand just past the treeline, several jagged rock that looked like they belong in a hot arid desert creating a natural barrier that separated the cliffs from the forest. "We're here!" She shouted down.

Carefully Mina dislodged her wires and slid down the tree bark. Her boots provided the necessary friction that kept her from falling prematurely and she dropped into a roll in front of the group. "Is it clear?" Mikasa asked.

"As far as I can tell," Mina replied. They nodded and proceeded towards the cliffs. Armin gripped a musket in his hands and Mina kept her 3DMG primed and ready to spring forward in a moments notice. The surrounding was clear and open space, so she her 3DMG wouldn't of much use but she had a couple of maneuvers in mind that she could pull off.

But before she could blink she found a pellet impacting against the ground in front of her before a second round slapped one of her sword hilts, which was part of the gears controls, out of her hand. "Hold it!" Someone shouted and Mina could tell from the accented voice that it was a foreigner. She tensed, unsure if it was an instructor or not. "Trainee or instructor!" The unknown yelled.

Mina relaxed, surely an instructor wouldn't ask such a question. "Trainee!" Armin yelled. There was the sound of something shifting past a rock and Mina realised that was where the shot had come from. To her immediate surprise the first person she saw running down to greet them was Connie with Sasha following behind.

"Guys!" Connie yelled, a smile on his face which turned upside down when he saw their condition. "What happened? You guys look like you just got out of a war."

"That's because we did," Mina said tiredly as the day's fatigue caught up to her. Connie glanced at Sasha who seemed to gulp as she saw Eren's wounds. "Where is Bertholdt and Annie?"

"They're talking with the person in charge here. Some mute guy named Benito. The marines are pretty harmless, in fact they were actually really nice to us." Connie explained as he shouldered half of Eren's weight from Mikasa.

"They have meat!" Sasha said, "It's pretty dry but I was able to get it to taste better with some lizard I caught climbing up the cliff side." Mina felt her stomach grumble and gripped it tightly as she followed them towards their makeshift camp.

As they cleared the top of a rock hill, she saw two armored foreigners lying on their bellies with a longer version of their rifles in their grips. One nodded to her while the other continued to keep eyes on the treeline. "Mornin' ma'am! Sorry 'bout the surprise, thought yer folks were instructors trying to pull a fast one on us." One of the marines said. Mina found it difficult to understand the dialect he was using but nodded her head after a moment of thought to decode it. She noticed though how Sasha seemed to beam at the marines words.

"Oi, stop slowing them down. They're tired, can't you see?" The marine to his left yelled angrily.

"Just makin' conversation Joe, the 'ell you expect me to do? You got the fucking rifle and I ain't gonna sit 'round here and play with my di-"

"It's enough time he's stolen from you ma'am! Let my hillbilly friend here take no more." She heard the 'hillbilly' grumble as he smacked the other marines forehead and Mina flashed them an uncomfortable smile before following Connie and Sasha down the hill and into a small indentation in the ground where several dozen marines were taking positions with Annie and Bertholdt off to the side talking to two marines, one she noticed was talking with his hands.

"Morning ma'am!" "Good evening ma'am!" "The medic's over there if you need anything." Mina was slightly overwhelmed with how friendly the UNSC marines seemed to be treating them and she felt slightly ashamed when she remembered North's hostile greeting. She resolved to make it up to him when she had the chance.

As they took shelter underneath a rock outcropping that was obviously being used as a tent Connie chuckled as he set Eren down. "They're a bunch of polite oddballs, I admit. But they're really good guys. Three of them stood right in front of a bunch of pellets to shield me and Sasha from danger!" Connie replied.

"They're pretty alright," Sasha said after a moment, "But it's that mute guy that's amazing."

"Benito?" Mina asked, she had heard North mention that name a few times and how he was mute. Sasha nodded her head enthusiastically and pointed to where Annie was busy talking to the marine superiors.

"He can speak but he doesn't need to. You should see him when we were fighting the instructors. He held off dozens of them as he made one or two signs and the rest of the UNSC soldiers would move around so complex-like that you'd think they had an hour of planning before they came up with it," Sasha enthused. It was obvious she was awed by their abilities and Mina compared it to a hunter sharing skills with an equal. Sasha obviously felt some sort of kinship with them.

Their conversation ended however when the two marines with Annie and Bertholdt headed their way. They stopped a respectful distance away and one of them began signing. "This is Benito, I'm Gawain, it's a pleasure to meet you." The marine who identified himself as Gawain said. "Benito here is asking if you need to see a medic." He gestured to Eren as he said this.

"No I already feel better." Eren said as he forced himself to an upright position. Benito shared a look with Gawain that Mina couldn't read but shrugged it off as he looked back at them. He made a couple more signs before Gawain translated.

"We're sorry about the rude greeting, we meant no offence. However after losing several of our men to an ambush we felt it prudent to be more wary of future travelers," Gawain explained. Mina nodded her head in understanding. "Benito would also like to know where North is."

She gulped when she heard this and judging by Benito's hard expression, whoever Benito was to North. Mina could already tell he was very protective of him. "He stayed behind to give us a chance to escape. We were charging down the middle in an attempt to ambush the instructors at the river however the plan turn sour and we were unable to fend them off," Mina said. Armin clarified a few more details and Benito listened intently with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

"I cannot be helped then," Gawain translated, "However I can't help but question your plan to charge down the center." Gawain seemed thoughtful for a moment before nodding his head in agreement to his superior.

"There was no other way beyond the center," Mikasa said, looking a the two of them questioningly. Benito pinched the bridge of his nose but nonetheless flicked a few fingers to express his words.

"While the center is the only conventional way to the center there is another way." Mina looked confused and Connie decided to explain.

"We found a cave formation in the cliff side that heads somewhere nearby the foreigners flying thingy at the center of the valley. There are a couple of them scouting it out right now to make sure it's safe to cross."

Mina opened her mouth wide in shock and terror. Everyone that they had lost had been needlessly lost! The thought upset her, especially when the idea of meeting up with these men had entered their mind during planning. She felt sick, they had abandoned North to defend a route which was utterly useless and Jean, Marco, Nac, Reiner and Thomas had been severely injured for their sheer stupidity.

Before she could further well in her own thoughts she felt hands grip her shoulders and she looked up to see concern blue eyes stare at her. Benito slowly shook his head and poked his index finger against her head. Despite herself she felt her emotions calm as his message was clear, 'You couldn't have known.'

She felt even more ashamed of herself. Here the UNSC were, giving them comfort and shelter when North had only been met with suspicion and whispering. She bowed her head, not able to meet Benito's gaze.

Benito tilted his head quizzically and noticed how the one known as Eren was doing the same while Armin and Mikasa were quietly tending to their comrade, carefully shielding their eyes from him. Sasha and Connie looked worriedly at their friends but Benito shrugged as he turned to Gawain.

Prepare the men for departure, we had out in ten. Gawain nodded and ran off to do just that. Benito slightly wondered if North had been able to fulfill his mission of playing nice with the Wallers, he certainly thought so. He himself had had no problems with Connie and Sasha, in fact he wouldn't mind having them in his unit again. Granted they started using actual rifles instead of those muskets.

Somebody get me a drink, he grimaced when four bottles of water appeared in front of his face, pushing roughly against his lips. You idiots if you're going to suck up, do it right!

Staff Sergeant Daniel Hart

Hart sat silently as he stared at the map splayed out across the table. 'How antique,' he thought as he traced a finger across the surface. He bowed his head to Keith, the trainee instructor, as they rattled off with plans.

"I think we should place more pressure on those at the cliffs," Keith said, "But there is also the problem of dealing with the centre opposition."

"Is it just trainees?" Hart muttered but Keith shook his head.

"One of your marine recruits is there but even with his help I doubt they'll be able to walk out of there unscathed." Hart wiped his face tiredly, weariness showing on his face as he bent over the map. Just as soon as he did an aide ran into the room, his finger pressed against a COMM. transceiver in his ear.

"Staff Sergeant, the motion sensors in the cliffside caves have gone off. It seems the recruits have found it." Hart frowned before nodding his head in acknowledgement.

"Finally!" Hart muttered, a hint of disdain in his voice. The whole point of the exercise was to teach the UNSC and Wallers teamwork yes however as with many Hart's training, it came with an added lesson. This one was thinking outside the box as well as never excluding any factor out. On the battlefield, while it is best to filter out non-consequential information for more relevant ones, it is better to acknowledge them and factor them in when performing a plan. The ones who had needlessly bull rush the center hadn't thought a cave in the cliff side which could provide a shortcut or entertained the idea of linking up with the marines there.

Hart shook his head tsking as he did. "I think they failed this test. What punishment do you think they should undergo?" Hart asked as he sipped his coffee. Keith did the same and Hart noted how pleased the other man seemed with the rich taste.'

"Intensive physical training?" Keith suggested.

"Make it morning exercise with some added vigor." Keith smiled and the two men switched from battle plans to humanitarian torture training.

Originally Benito was to arrive and save North from being knocked out, however I changed it to this because I thought this was more believable plus I wanted to keep the alternate route idea, which has and will have an effect on the characters. Little stuff like this usually do.

I think it could be better but whatevs, I have quizzes everyday of the week now and I'm just way too fagged out to try and come up with anything better. Studies have been really eating at me and I'm unsure if I'll be able to update regularly. So pls, forgive me if it seems sub-par or if it takes a while before I return. I tried to make this one a little bit more longer to circumvent this though. 6 000 words is the longest I've ever written for a chapter in my entire time on fanfcition