Chapter 28: Five Chess Pieces and a Bottle of Whiskey

"Alright ladies, that's good for now. Hold your fire."

Welrod looked around at her beleaguered echelon, each girl at their limit. They had been training for the past five hours, repeating the same monotonous defense drill. Lee's arms were shaking from holding her rifle at the ready for the entire duration of the exercise. WA2000 had her trigger finger in her mouth; trying desperately to nullify the pain of her sprained digit. Grizzly and Calico we're leaning on one another, their chests heaving from the intense CrossFit workout they underwent. Even Welrod herself was struggling to remain standing, her knees beginning to buckle.

The exhausted team shuffled over to a nearby bench to rest their minds and fill their stomachs. The brief feeling of a metal bench beneath Welrod felt like utter bliss. Grizzly, who had her head planted face down on the table let out a groan.

"Hey Calico, toss me a protein shake would ya?" The girl looked up and reached out towards the green haired girl, expecting a bottle of chocolate protein being delivered to her waiting hands, only to be disappointed by a large bag of enhancement pills.

"No real food remember? Commander Twat made sure of that." Calico grumbled as she reached into her own bag of pills and stuffed a handful down her gullet, shivering as the capsules hit her throat.

"Hey! The man's tactics may be… different, but he's still a commander. The man deserves our respect at the very least," Welrod said, not hiding the pain in her voice.

"Welrod's right, I'm sure he's just doing this to improve our skills. We have to trust Miss Helian's judgement." Lee looked at her leader reassuringly.

"Helian is too busy to notice the obvious. The guy sucks at his job, period. I am NOT eating those Lee." WA2000 shoved Lee-Enfield's outstretched hand away.

"I know they don't taste… well like anything really, but you need something to keep your strength up!" Lee was trying to find enough of an opening to force the pills into the pouting girl's mouth, like a mother trying to feed their disgruntled child vegetables.

"I said, I'm not going to eat them! Especially if they come from-"

"What are you androids doing? Your break ended exactly thirty-two seconds ago."

The echelon turned to the sound of the voice; standing before them was portly Commander Archibald, fuming mad. Behind him lurked his adjutant Clarence, dragging a cart filled with long gun cases.

"S-sir! We were just about to get back to training!" Welrod stood at attention and saluted, her echelon following the girl's lead. Grizzly slowly lowered her hand, causing the disgruntled commander to turn on her.

"Did I say you could be at ease android?" The man spat the words at the beleaguered girl, who tried to lift her exhausted arm.

"I apologize on her behalf Sir, our echelon has been working hard the past few hours." Welrod stepped between the two individuals, preparing to take the heat.

"Hmph, Welrod Mk II, I've read your file, your commander had nothing but praise for you. Praise I see that is unfounded, since you seem to be unable to retain discipline in your echelon."

Welrod ground her teeth. This man was impossible. Although, she did have a sense of comfort knowing Eric Blair thought highly of her skills.

"That however, is beside the point. For the next few hours, I will be honing your firearm skills. Clarence, if you'd please."

With a grin, the commander's adjutant opened up one of the crates, and removed a Lee-Enfield rifle. Archibald, delicately grabbing the weapon from Clarence's outstretched hands then turned to Grizzly, shoving the weapon into her arms. Surprised, the girl fumbled with the weapon, although she was able to recover before she dropped it completely.

"You androids will continue your defense drill session using the Lee-Enfield rifle." The man grabbed another rifle and stuffed it into the hands of Calico, who looked down at the wooden monstrosity in shock.

"It was a weapon used by the British Empire for hundreds of years, and it will be your new training partner." Welrod was the next to receive the commander's "gift," sinking a bit as the rifle was in dropped into her outstretched hands.

"I will be observing your progress, if I see an unsatisfactory display, punishment will be carried out."

"B-but Sir, we aren't trained to use this weapon!" Welrod sputtered.

"Then you will learn, like good soldiers." The Commander turned around and walked towards the observation platform, Clarence following closely behind, a smirk plastered over his face.

The echelon turned to Welrod, their faces pleading for a retort. Welrod's fists tightened, as she exhaled roughly. There are times to fight, and there are times to obey. For now, Welrod would follow her orders. She turned her back to the commander and slung her rifle over her shoulder.

"You heard him ladies. Let's get to work."

With a mixture of sighs, grunts, groans, and a "This is utter bullshit," from Grizzly, Echelon 3 continued their training. The task was simple: maneuver through rough terrain and reach the target, a mission they had performed flawlessly for the past few hours.

The Dolls soon realized how much of a detriment their new weapons would come to be. The handgun Dolls found the Lee-Enfield to be too bulky to carry around as they attempted to dodge their holographic hostiles. The first casualty was Grizzly, lodging the rifle in a rock as she vaulted over a fallen tree, causing her to trip and landed face first into the muddy floor below. A loud gasp of frustration emanated from the puddle. Welrod, attempting to squeeze herself between a ruined wall and a boulder, managed to clothesline herself with her rifle. Dazed, oil rushing from her nose, the girl struggled to her feet as she saw Calico attempting to fire her rifle, only to have the recoil throw the weapon out of her hands and into a shrub behind her, as she had not properly set the rifle to her shoulder, rather attempting hip firing. With a frustrated yell she grabbed the rifle and began beating up the target dummy with the stock end, her patience completely nullified. Welrod's attempt to fire yielded better results, however she missed her target by such a wide margin, the bullet impacted a tree four yards to the left of her mark. She tightened her grip on the rifle, attempting to squeeze through the wooden stock.

The rifle Dolls were not faring much better. WA2000 was struggling to pull the bolt back on the rifle, her lack of energy slowly catching up to her. Her face was pale; her limbs trembling from a lack of nutrients. Finally, she was able to pull the bolt back, only to get her thumb caught as she returned it to the initial position. WA2000 yelped in pain, and dropped the rifle. Lee-Enfield, the best by far, still failed to hit the bullseye, hitting the target six inches off the mark. Lee's hands trembled as she struggled to keep the rifle raised, as she had now been exercising for eight hours. The girl hung her head, dejected. Before she could refocus down the sight, a voice called out from the observation platform.

"I've seen enough!"

Echelon 3 froze. Grizzly slowly picked her head out of the mud, the darkened mass of dirt, sand, and water shrouding the fury her face expressed. Calico dropped the broken remains of her rifle while Welrod slung hers over her shoulder. Lee-Enfield had retrieved a bandage from her satchel, and was dressing WA2000's wound. The girl was a mess: physically and emotionally exhausted, very hungry, and beyond embarrassed.

Commander Archibald sauntered up to Echelon 3, his face showing a blank expression.

"My low expectations were somehow unsurpassed. You handgun androids are some of the clumsiest individuals I've ever seen. Does the enemy die of laughter? How do you almost incapacitate yourself Welrod Mk II?" The man turned to WA2000. "And you! Do you even know how to reload a weapon? Or does your teammate have to do everything for you, including dressing your own wounds. Speaking of your teammate…"

The man turned to Lee, his face full of disappointment. "Out of every android in this echelon, I expected you to at least impress me. You've trained your whole life with that weapon. And yet you failed to do the one thing you were made for. It's a shame you're a disgrace to your heritage."

"Now, all of you will report to your dormitory immediately. There you will remain until I see fit. Your handler will be there to greet you. Dismissed."

The exhausted and frustrated echelon shambled off back to their dormitory. Once out of earshot, Grizzly was the first to voice her opinions.

"Ya know, maybe, just maybe, if that jackass didn't force us to use weapons we have NEVER used before, we would have been fine!"

"Right?! Well, at least we can retire to our dorm and relax…. oh wait! That's right, they removed all of our furniture." Calico fumed.

With all the events going on, I completely forgot our dormitory situation. What do they expect us to do, sleep on the floor!?

"He thinks I'm worthless…" Lee-Enfield was looking down at her feet.

"Hey, keep your chin up Lee, you did fine! One missed shot out of the hundreds you took is expected!" Welrod attempted to lift the girl's spirits, but to no avail as Lee continued to hang her head dejected.

After a brief walk from the training center, the echelon returned to their dormitory. Upon opening it, they were greeted with the sight of a blindingly white room littered with cardboard boxes.

"Great, how could this get any worse?" Grizzly muttered.

Wait… where is our handler?

A soft groan emanated from the corner of the room. The echelon froze, drawing their weapons. Upon closer inspection, one of the cardboard boxes had a body sprawled over it. Welrod cautiously approached the mass and gave it a swift kick, her weapon drawn. With another groan, the body of a man rolled over to face his attacker, his eyes half open, in his left hand a bottle of whiskey.

"Now what are yew goin on abou'?" Slurred the inebriated soldier.

"Sir, who are you and what are you doing in our dormitory?" Welrod kept her weapon aimed at the man's chest.

The soldier struggled to his feet.

"Left… Leftenant J-James Buk-Buk-Bukowski, I'm your... 'andler." With that the man passed out and collapsed back onto the cardboard box, leaving the echelon terribly confused.