Chapter XII

The next big training test came a few days later. Ace, Jace, and I suited up and walked into the receiving area to go in. Naturally, this session was going to be heavily scrutinized. Our time, our efficiency and our teamwork: all critiqued. Ace and I had found our common ground, and we were actually starting to work better, despite my...reluctance...to work with others.

"You two ready?" I said, readying my rifle.

"Of course," Jace responded, "Are you?"

"Born ready, boys. Lock and load!" In unison, our DC-17s clicked with a beautiful harmony of war.

The doors opened, and we were overwhelmed with oncoming fire. I was the first to brave the hailfire of the barrage, scanning the simulated canyon for our objective. Jace and Ace followed closely behind as we scrambled behind cover.

"Sev! I think I see it!" Ace frantically motioned ahead.

"Mark it," I switched to my sniper rifle and aimed. The target was beautiful inside the sights, "I see it too. Jace, Cover fire. Ace: with me."

"Copy that!" Jace unloaded a clip on the closer hostiles, which allowed Ace and I to start moving. With the blaster bolts whizzing past our heads, we rushed towards the west edge of the simulated canyon.

"Move up when you get a chance!" I shouted as I barreled past oncoming enemy fire.

"Yes, sir!"

We needed higher ground. Heading through the center of the valley would have been suicide. That was obvious. The terrain might be simulated, but the elevation certainly was not. We threw ourselves behind a boulder that was on the incline as a repeating blaster blocked our path.

"Ace, think you can hit it from here with Anti-Armor, or do you think we need to get closer to detonate manually?"

"We need a better position to hit it with Anti-Armor," He switched to his sniper rifle and scanned it, "Fierfek! There's no shot." He quickly switched back to his blaster.

"Ace, I can give you cover fire if you can get into position to blow it sky high."

"With pleasure, sir." I could tell a hint of a smirk under his helmet. He got ready to run, and I gave him a three count.

"Three… Two… One… GO GO GO!" I got up from the cover and sought out targets and covered Ace. In the helmet comm, I could hear him breathing heavily from the sprint in the katarn armor that we wore.

"Jace, move up! Cover fire for Ace!"

"Roger that, moving up now!" Jace came barreling up toward me and landed in cover a few yards away.

"Sniper position there, cover fire," I ordered, "Ace, you doing okay over there?"

"Just dandy, Sir." I then heard an explosion as Ace immolated the enemy position. "Really kriffin' dandy."

"Move!" I barked as we reformed and charged ahead, the way to the objective relatively clear. He had stopped wasting time. "Ace: good work."

"I know."

"Always humble, aren't you?" Jace bantered in retort.

"I'm just speakin' the truth."

"Stay focused!" I demanded as we took cover closer to the objective. "Both of you!"

"Anti-armor won't tear through that armor," Jace diagnosed the ultimate objective.

"So someone's getting dirty?" I grunted.

"That's one of way putting it, sir."

I nodded as the blaster fire erupted around us. We had the high ground. Yet we needed to get someone down quickly, and get them out just as quickly. That was obviously problematic. Even though we would bypass most of the heavier defenses, we'd need to be ruthless with our cover, and we'd need to use snipers. Therein lied the problem. Ace was probably best suited for a solo excursion in an operation. Yet Jace, admittedly was a poor sniper. Furthermore, Jace was a better demolitions expert. In other words, there weren't any great options.

"Since you suggested it," I muttered as I set up my sniper, "Jace, you go."

"I'm honored," he sarcastically muttered as he rushed towards the edge of the canyon, setting up grappling equipment. Ace and I shuddered with every recoil of our rifles. In truth, it actually became a nice bit of target practice. He landed without issue and immediately began towards the objective, rifle constantly alight. It wasn't long before he reached the objective. A few foes attempted to stop him. They failed.

"Status!" I yelled.

"Almost done with the explosives… now!"

"Get clear!" I pulled out the detonator and pushed the button, the explosives shaking the simulator as Jace bolted for cover.

"Confirmed hit, target eliminated."

I smiled in my helmet, "Good job, boys. Primary target eliminated, onto our next objective. Let's get moving. Rv at this point, on the double." I made a point in our HUD and motioned for Ace to follow me and to stay low. We moved quickly, as we were still sure hostiles were active in the simulation. Jace quickly caught up with us as the terrain leveled and we moved to the exit as our Secondary Objective. I stopped short of it and let Ace and Jace get on first. I did a quick scan and followed them through. Just like that the simulation was over.

I took a deep breath, "You boys alright? Did either of you get hit?"

"We're alive," They answered with a collective nonchalance.

"Good work, boys. I think we did much better this time." I nodded. We were soon greeted by Jang'buir, Vau and Skirata.

Skirata had a small smile on his face, while Jang'buir and Vau were simply stoic. We stood at attention and waited for them to address us.

"RC-1707, RC-1838, RC-2213, take off your buckets." Jang'buir said. We complied and looked straight ahead.

"Congratulations, adike, You figured out how to work together as a team, a squad. Not only was this an improvement from earlier exercises, you beat your time. You made quick and precise decisions that ended in mission success. You passed your test, move out."

We right faced and marched off to the barracks to have some leisure time before we needed to do anything else. We stripped off our armor and laid in our bunks with only our body gloves. Just before I was about to close my eyes to sleep, I heard one of the others mutter something.

"Say again?" I said, rolling over and looking out from my bunk

"Nothing." Ace grunted. I couldn't quite tell if he was covering up for something else or if he really meant it; but at this point, I really didn't care if he was sarcastic or condescending or not. We were able to work together, lowered our time, and I think we finally got some good bonding in. I genuinely felt proud of them today, and that's just a small victory in this impending war.

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