Five years later

It's been five more years, five years of bonding with my family and five years of getting my ass kicked by dad as he trains me for boot camp, and now the day is here. I take a deep breath ready for what's to come. I'm packed and ready, about to take off and go to the station and wait for my ship. I walk over and hug mom and dad goodbye both choosing not to say anything and simply enjoy the moment, I then go Garrus chuckling as I see how big he is compared to his former size. "See you later Garrus make sure to take care of mom and dad." He nods and pulls me into a hug, "Don't worry Velius you know me, able to hold down any fort!" I give him another noogie at his cheeky response before grabbing my packed stuff, full of mostly clothes as I leave walk to the station and wait for the ship.

It has been about an hour now of which I've spent fiddling around with a small program on my omni-tool that I made to help train my hacking skill and overall skill with the technology of this world, makes me wonder why more isn't done with the omni tool in the games though I suppose that could be gameplay limits. My thoughts are interrupted by a loud whooshing as the ship arrives to take me and the other passengers to Palaven.

Palaven is an impressive planet I have to say though it's strange being on a different planet than Earth, but I didn't have long to think about it as I had to quickly get to the second ship that would take us across the planet and to the main base for training new recruits, though I'm more prepared than the others here I should still be ready for the differences that are going to come with being a turian recruit.

God, why did you send me here into another hell? It's only been an hour and they didn't even bother with paperwork first and processing they just sent us off and now we're doing the normal exercises and tests, I'm sure they're doing the boring stuff behind the scenes while we're out in the yard doing laps around the track just going around again and again, I just can't wait to get this over with.

Well I've come across my first roadblock that I wasn't prepared for, turian history. Sure, I learned some from the games, and the schools on the Citadel but the questions they're asking I never learned like who was the first Primarch of the Turian Hierarchy? How am I supposed to know that dammit!

It's been about a week now and I feel like the universe is treating me like a joke now. When you think of turian's you usually think stubborn and straight faced for most of them, however this one seems to think different. "Hey there Vel! Surprised to see you're relaxing; you usually seem like you're about to jump up and attack at any moment." His mandibles raise in just the right way that I can tell he's smirking like the ass he is. "Yeah of course I'm relaxed now, it's chow time and we have a moment to breath I'll take the chance to relax any day." He gives a bit of a chuckle which still sounds strange due to the metallic ring of turian voices. Oh yeah that reminds me, this clown here is Tibertus Ursiril and he's the self-proclaimed star of this platoon of recruits and an absolute pain to deal with for one reason and one reason only, he's completely arrogant! I can only be thankful that I've dealt with arrogant people, mainly officers in the marines. The thing that makes it worse is for some reason he feels the need to bother me, and I hate to say it but his arrogance isn't completely unfounded, he has some skill especially when it comes to close quarters.

Ten months later

It seems their testing us more on our discipline and ability to follow orders now as they are about to send us into a simulated environment against another platoon of recruits. I see our instructor start to assign squads and leaders so I simply listen to him and wait for my name to be listed. "Velius Vakarian! Go to Delta Squad! You'll also be leading it today!" I jerk in place as he says this having wanted to avoid leading anything and just take the orders so we could move on. I hear the instructor speak up again "Now then squad leaders meet up and draw up a plan for the battle! The match will start in an hour so use this time well!" I grumble a bit as I meet up with the other squad leaders, there's only three other squads, Alpha, Beta and Charlie. I take a deep breath as I listen to the other three only remembering their last names. Alpha has Victis, Beta has Genecus and Charlie has Macsis.

I hear Victis really attempt to take the lead here. "We should combine our squads and march them through the desert, it's better that we-" Macsis cuts him off, "Oh yes and make ourselves the easiest target around, you're proposing the most predicable approach." Victis continues, "Yes it's predictable but effective, if we march and spot the enemy, we can suppress them and pin them down long enough to storm the area capturing the base." Genecus cuts in, "What if we split the platoon and have one group storm the front while the other storms the back and create an enclosed trap." Finally, Macsis proposes his plan. "I like yours better Genecus but it still seems too aggressive, the whole point of the match is capturing the enemy base correct? So why not just fortify and hold down the area, prepare for the enemy and have them wear themselves out." Victis gets angry and raises his voice as he slams down on the table. "Vrack! Why would we do that, it's has more flaws than the one you pointed out in mine! In fact it has some of the same issues, so why do the same thing but defensive!" The entire time they discuss this I'm looking at the map which in real life will cover a relatively short distance only about two miles worth of land, I listen to what they propose and the three plans are solid ideas in the right situation, however I can't help but feel they're missing the final touch we need to make a solid plan. Just as I get an idea, "I know what to do, it combines the plans in a complex but simple way." I get their attention as I begin to speak. "We'll pull two small plans that will meet up for the finale, the biggest issue we have is the matter of open space and lack of cover making us easy targets. However, if we provide an illusion, we can scare them into making rash decisions." I speak for a bit longer about the plan before Victis puts some input in. "What if they don't fall for the illusion or worse retaliate before we're ready?" "We improvise and adapt, plans can only go so well, however given the conditions and area I have a good feeling that the illusion will work, especially with the conditions we'll set up beforehand." All three of them think about the plan for a moment before nodding, worried yet trusting the plan that sounds promising. "Now all that's left is to relay the message to our squads and prepare for the match. Let's not let our platoon down and let's show the other platoon who the soft plates are.

Turian Slang and Curses
(Vrack- Fuck as in to fuck off or fuck you)
(Soft Plates- Weak)