PLATOON BAY 40, BASIC COMBAT CENTER, RTC MORRE'AC, MIFAAL, BRENTAAL SYSTEM, 1850 HOURS LOCAL TIME
The march lasted 2 and a half hours long.
So when the platoon finally reached their bays at the Basic Combat Center, Kat was relieved.
All her gear weighed her down, her feet hurt, and all the straps of her pack and chest rig dug into her. Hard. Then she squared away all her gear. Finally, she took off her boots.
Her entire feet were red. Her heel had minor skin peels. She resisted the urge to pick away at it. Then she looked over at C'alee a couple of racks away. He was holding up well.. Then she looked at Aikern. His right foot was bleeding - he patted at it away with a clean cloth. He then tried to stow away his gear in his locker.
She was about to lie down in her rack…
Then the hurricane came.
It started with a "SERGEANTS ON DECK!" as they stood at attention in front of their racks. The drill instructors eyeballed everything - the recruits, the racks, the lockers. Then Sergeant Darrow yelled out.
"OPEN YOUR LOCKERS!"
The recruits hurriedly opened their lockers before they moved back to their original positions.
The drill instructors poured all the recruits' equipment and clothing out of their places while delivering remarks.
"WHY ISN'T YOUR LAUNDRY HOOK IN?"
"YOUR LOCKER ISN'T SQUARED AWAY RECRUIT!"
"MY BABY SON ROLLS HIS CLOTHES BETTER THAN YOU!"
Everyone's blood turned to ice when CSGT Ra'az found something.
"WELL, WELL? WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?"
The recruit 5 racks down from Kat, Recruit Jeruz, was found with a candy bar in his locker.
"Time to burn that sugar off, recruit! Alright, y'all! Time to make it rain!"
Kat didn't remember how many push-ups, burpees and jumping stars she made. Or how long. All she remembered was at the end of it, CSGT Ra'az made an order.
"CLEAN THIS GARBAGE UP! Full battle rattle, no pack, outside,15 minutes!"
The hot and sweaty recruits tried to clean up the clutter as fast as possible. Kat noticed that the window near her rack had droplets on them.
Where did that come from?
Then it hit her. The instructors have been smoking them so hard, their evaporated sweat had condensed on the windows.
Make it rain, indeed.
After each one finished their racks and lockers, they put on their battle gear and went outside.
As soon as the 15 minutes was over, they were ordered to run and follow the drill instructors.
They arrived at a parade ground. Then yet another order was given.
"10 laps! Go! Go!"
They all ran. Kat was already tired, but she found herself almost involuntarily moving her feet foward. The run was made tougher with the gear on.
The 10 minutes was over. She felt like passing out.
"Not enough! 5 more! Come on!"
Wait. Why am I here again?
She ran anyways.
When the 5 laps was over, the drill instructors asked them, "Had enough yet?" "AYE, SIR!" "Good! I hope in five hells you learned your lessons. Full gear with rifles, 0530 hours tomorrow," said Sergeant Kaj'fra.
The platoon was marched back to their squad bay. After they were dismissed, Kat checked the chrono again.
0150 hours. Kriffing hell.
She squared away her gear, showered, and fell asleep as soon as her body hit the rack.
0500 HOURS LOCAL TIME
Kat's body still ached. But she knew she had to push on. The platoon was out in formation by 0520 hours. To the Marines, the adage "if you're early, you're on time, if you're on time, you're late" applied to every facet in their life.
Then the instructors arrived, this time in their wood cammies, or their woodland-patterned camouflage combat utility uniforms, with chest rigs tightly snug on their torsos. The only difference is that they are wearing patrol caps opposed to the recruits' helmets. They all looked alike with a digital pattern of olive and sage greens, dark tan, coyote brown and sand-coloured uniform and equipment. The only thing that broke it was their fully tan rifles.
They warmed up and ran around the camp twice before arriving at a large building. They entered it to see a line of counters on one end. Next were rows of firing lanes with targets at the other end.
A shooting range.
A Wookiee, a Duros and a droid were waiting for them in the range and walked up to the recruits as soon as they went in. They formed a school circle around the trio.
"Good morning!" the droid translated for the Wookiee. "I'm Corporal Tyyhkhik, and I'll be your chief marksman instructor. This is a BT-27R," he explained as he unslung one from his back. He continued explaining about the weapons, its parts and mechanisms.
"I will ask - who here, among you, has shot a blaster before?" Four out of fourty raised their hands.
That's… less than I thought.
"Not a lot, then. So I want each and every one of you to listen carefully! This involves your life!" Kat tried to lean forward to hear.
"Most important - each and every weapon must be treated with respect! It's not a toy! Always treat your weapon like it's loaded! Too many accidents have happened with "unloaded" blasters. Keep your finger off the trigger until you intend to shoot. And please, I repeat, please point the barrel in a safe direction where it will cause the least damage! Not at your friends, not at yourself. Either point it towards a safe place, like a wall, up to the sky or down towards the deck! DO! YOU! UNDERSTAND!?"
"AYE-AYE, SIR!"
"Good. Let's begin. We will start by field-stripping the rifle down towards its individual components. Get your weapon kits out…"
They proceeded to field-strip all the components and clean their weapons before reassembling it.
He started to turn towards the range so the recruits saw him from the side.
"Now let's begin with shooting stances. Please line up towards the firing points and then turn back towards me," the recruits did so. "There are three main stances - standing, kneeling or crouching, and proning. First of all…"
The explanation was thorough. Kat learned a lot of things, like squaring off both shoulders towards the target, and tucking in her trigger arm into her sides. She recorded important points on paper with an ancient tool - a lead-pointed stylus. The Marines were big on using low tech, low cost equipment.
"Next up , is loading your power packs, or magazines. Get you cone funnels and one of your mags out," Kat reached into her chest rig and took one out.
"You will open the notch on top of the mag here, and put the funnel into here, and make sure it fits nicely before you pour. Next, you pour the liquified gas into the mag. All the mags we issue have a clear indicator, so watch it while you do it. When you're done, pull the funnel out and close the notch. Now you have a full mag,"
"And finally, there's loading your blaster. Get a full mag, and insert it into the magazine well as indicated here. Give it a solid but firm push, not too hard. You'll know it's inserted properly when you hear the magazine make the slightest of clicking sounds, indicating that' it's locked in place. In due time, you'll be able to know it by feel," as he loaded the mag. Kat swore that if he didn't say it, she wouldn't have noticed the click.
To release the mag, you'll have to grab the mag, and using your thumb on the magazine release here," as he indicated towards the front bottom trigger where it meets the magazine well, "and pull out the magazine while it's still pressing the release. Once it's unlocked, just pull the magazine further until it is released," and the magazine went free of the gun.
"Now go and take a bottle of the LG from the counters and pour for two of them. Then come back to your points," Kat picked out a bottle, and put the little cone funnel into the opened notch. Then she poured the LG into the mag while keeping an eye on the clear magazine's level indicator. Then she closed the notch, and repeated it. Finally, she inserted the mags into her chest rig and returned to her firing point.
A drill instructor came up behind her. Sergeant Paxe. "Go into a standing stance, reload, and make ready to fire," She went into the correct stance. Or so, she thought. Then Sergeant Paxe said, "Tuck in your arms into your sides properly, recruit. And bend your knees a bit to brace," She corrected herself. "Reload your mag again," She did so. "Reload slowly first! It's better to nail down the fundamental motions in a smooth and controlled manner. You will not have the luxury of screwing precious time in combat. You get it?!" "Aye sir!" "Start again…!"
She started reloading the magazine again, slowly. Pull out mag, raise, insert, tap mag bottom. Pull, raise, insert, tap. "Put your mag back into the pouch, then retry. Re-insert the mags back into the pouch after each reload," "Aye, sir," "Try again," she loaded the magazine into the blaster. And again. And again. "Go a little bit faster," She loaded it again. And again. And again. "Faster!" She loaded it… but hit the mag well incorrectly. "Back to the previous speed, 10 times. If you screw up you start at one again,"
Dammit.
She took a deep breath before starting. Then her hand moved towards the pouch and pulled out the mag. One… two… three… four… It hit the mag well. "Start over," Inhale…. One… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six… Her hand suddenly froze. Go..! Seven… Eight… Nine… Ten…! "Good job, Recruit Merrick! Let's go to the kneeling stance next. Reload."
She tried. "Alright. A bit faster, now - 5 times," One...two...three...four….five.
"You're getting the hang of this, Recruit Merrick. Go prone,"
She got on her stomach. Her chest rig was being pushed up into her torso. "You'll feel a bit uncomfortable - that's normal. Just power through. Oh, and flatten your feet on the ground, widen your legs. It helps with recoil management. Get ready to load...Go…!" She tried to access the mag, but she struggled.
"Just lift your left side a bit to get the mag,"
She tried, got the mag, and loaded it. "Good. Make sure it's one smooth motion from pouch to blaster. 10 times, go!"
She did all 10. "Good job recruit," he said before walking away.
As he walked away, Kat heard "... be Marines after all…"
PLATOON BAY 40, 0235 HOURS LOCAL TIME
It was her turn for firewatch tonight outside the platoon bay.
She was already tired from all the training.
Everyday it was usually reveille at 0500, PT at 0600, morning chow, more PT at 0800, firearms training at 1000, lunch, then classes all afternoon, dinner, then practical classes until 2200. Finally lights out at 2300. With the planet's 26-hour day, they get 8 hours of shut-eye.
But there's always surprises. Too often have they been woken up to either do some PT, or worse.
And there's always firewatch every night, no matter what.
Standing on guard and reporting to superiors for a three-hour shift is an easy job, but it's boring. Mind-numbingly boring.
All she could do is walk around and look out for anything unusual. It was eerily quiet, only broken by other platoon's firewatch guards getting "ambushed" by their instructors.
She hoped that she won't be one of them tonight.
And stare at anything and everything she saw. She stared out the transparisteel windows. Buildings, hills and forests. A guard was patrolling the streets below the block.
She turned her gaze back into the building. The floor was silent and empty. There were slight scratches on the duracrete buildings.
Then she saw it. A figure that might as well be a ghost.
She saw the patrol cap. She could feel her soul leaving her body. Her chest tightened.
She gulped, but continued to act usual anyways, and walked on her usual path towards the instructor. She didn't recognize the silhouette.
"Anything to report?"
"Recruit Merrick reports nothing unusual on her watch, sir!" she tried to say as quietly as possible.
"Carry on, recruit," the silhouette said before walking away.
She breathed the hugest sigh of relief as she went back to making her rounds.
Wait. I don't know who that was…
But she tried to not think of it. She went back to her duties until her shift ends.
She went into her bay, and went to the recruit next to here. Arrin Pells.
"Recruit Pells, wake up," and shook him lightly. "It's your firewatch turn," "Hmmmh… oh, yeah," Pells stirred, and reluctantly got up.
Kat removed her uniform jacket and belt, got into her bunk and tried to sleep…
...Who was that?
And she dozed off.
Author's note(s) and review replies
SandriasSaber : Thanks, I tried to make it decent at least, lol xD I haven't served, but based off of the books, anecdotes and videos I went through, I can guarantee it's much worse to actually experience it heh. More to come I hope!
