MARINE INFANTRY ACADEMY, OUTSIDE OF CAVEKC CITY, CORULAG, DAY 182, 3644 BBY/10 ATC, 0530 HOURS


Hurry up and wait.

Kat's new platoon has been waiting for half an hour, and there are still no instructors in sight. All of them have been there since before 0500 hours. Still they were not allowed to move out of formation, but since there's no higher ups nearby, they continued to talk in hushed tones, eyes glued to the front just in case someone was watching.

"Where are they?"

"Oh, so they couldn't be on time, but Pkaraa forbid if any one of us is a second late…"

"The instructors are too busy having their blasted breakfasts or something?"

The complaining continued until a terrifying voice boomed out, "PUH-TOON! TENNNNN… SHUUNNNN!" They all shut up and snapped to. Kat swore that every single muscle of every being in the platoon is tensed up to the stars.

A group of 5 instructors walked confidently in military gait before stopping in front of the 30-man platoon. "PUH-TOOON! AT… EASE!" They eased up. A tall and buff male human stepped ahead of the other instructors.

"Good morning, Platoon 11-Osk. My name is Command Sergeant Pafford Befler, and I will be your senior trainer. Me and my fellow trainers…." He nodded towards the other instructors and gave a hand gesture.

They stepped forward. "Sergeant Vherel'ghak'u, reporting," "Sergeant Cxaroz, reporting," "Sergeant Sceiwulz, reporting," then all four snapped to attention again.

"We will be your babysitters for the duration of these 16-weeks at the Infantry Academy, we will treat you like Marines! We won't treat you like you're still in bootcamp, but you also must act like Marines! If you fail to take this training seriously, not only are you endangering yourself in the future, you will also endanger your comrades and most importantly, the mission! Give it your best! Am I clear?"

"SIR! YES! SIR!"

His face suddenly went red, then he exploded. " DO NOT CALL ME SIR, CALL ME AND THE OTHERS BY OUR RANK! THIS IS NOT BOOTCAMP, YOU CLEAR?"

"YES, COMMAND SERGEANT!"

He immediately calmed down, but his face was still reddened. "Alright, Marines, to the armory, let's get your toys. Instructors…Lead The Way…! Right… FACE!" They all turned right. "Fo-WAAARRDDDD…. March!" They started marching their way through the camp, street lights illuminating the way - the sun hasn't come up yet. Slowly, she saw other platoons also marching towards the armory.

When they reached the armory, Kat was amazed. It was a five story-building, with a parade ground enough to fit an entire battalion. And sure enough it's as if the entire battalion was there - some were sprawled out among the grounds lying down or sitting, some were in front of the building, lining up for their combat gear.

"This is going to be a long one, isn't it?" Kat sighed to herself as she saw the instructors point to a location for them to wait. They all set down their personal gear and then sat down.

"Alright,5-Osk, listen up, Marines!" They all perked up their ears and heads up. It was SGT Vherel'ghark'u While we're waiting, I would like to brief you all a little bit on your training here. You will be told again later, but I'll still do it, just in case you can't keep it in your brainjars," His stood firmly as blue skin shone in the early morning sun.

"Is he a Chiss?" Kat thought.

"As CSGT Beffler has told you, this isn't bootcamp anymore. As combat arms Marines, your job will be tougher than anyone else's. Especially as you all are a part of an Infantry Training Platoon here. First part of your 16-weeks here, you'll be attending a series of lectures on more advanced combat tactics, maneuvers, medical skills, communication and other relevant general skills. Next up, you will be split up and taught your specific infantry specialisation duties. Finally, you will be taught on how to perform your specialised role in an infantry unit in a variety of real and simulated environments. This includes but isn't limited to forest, desert, urban, mountain and zero-gee environments, as well as starship boarding and starship defense. Any questions?"

"Sir? How long will this… lecture phase last?" someone asked.

"Ohhh, don't you worry, Marine… It's just three weeks! You'll get to stack some training droids soon enough," he deviously said with a smirk.

The entire platoon quietly giggled amongst themselves as the sergeant stride away.

Time would whizz by Kat like an Alderaanian bee. She tried to talk to everyone in the platoon -except Izzac, who still would talk to her. Too bad, since other than her designated roommates, she couldn't remember anything about anyone else.

Before she knew it, she was in front of an armory counter. She knew what to do - she slotted in her ID tags and a large, heavy pile of equipment came out. She shoved what she could into her duffle, tried to balance the rest on her hands and hurriedly went out -she'll arrange everything once she's back with the platoon.

"Goddammit. Why the blast is this so heavy?" she grunted as she went down the stairs.

When she finally found her platoon again, she collapsed on her knees while trying to not drop her gear onto the deck. The last thing she needed was an extra 50 push-ups in the morning.

She started to arrange her gear. She tried to refrain from sighing or cussing too much, even to herself.

"What did Lt. Mollejuu say to his troops in 'Killing Time' when they had to fight on that mud planet…?" She scrunched her face as she tried to remember. Oh… it's...

If you can't escape The Suck, you embrace The Suck.

She finally got her gear squared away, and shut the pack tight.


CLOSE QUARTERS TRANING COURSE "THE KILLHOUSE", MARINE INFANTRY ACADEMY 2401 HOURS

[WEEK OF TRAINING - 7]

"Merrick, the door!"

She stepped up to the wall to the left of the door, eyeing the controls.

Open/close switch.

They were now in the combined combat phase of infantry training, where Marines from different specialisations and platoons are mixed up to create the typical multi-role Marine squad. She recognised no one in hers. But it didn't matter much to her.

She moved as fast as possible to the right side, trying to avoid being in the doorway's fatal funnel for too long, and tried the switch. It didn't budge. She signalled to her squad leader(SL) . The SL beckoned the slicer to step up.

The infantry slicer job is to slice through systems and networks to open any electromechanically powered door and hack through computers. Most of them were tech wizard that could go through any standard software the galaxy uses - the smart brains of a squad.

He moved over to Kat's side, and took out a cable from his tactical glove. He plugged into an insert next to the switch, and tried to slice it via an interface in his helmet and tac-gloves. She looked at the slight glow from the interface, turned green due to her night vision equipment.

After half a minute, he signalled to the SL that he was done. The SL then ordered him to open the door on his signal, and then for the others to ready themselves.

He counted down. Once it hit the mark, the slicer opened the door, a rifleman threw in a flash grenade, then the point man went in- he saw a training droid behind a piece of cover, stopped, shot it twice, and continued on as the others went started pouring into the room.

Kat raised her rifle, making sure to be alert of everything - her barrel point, the location and order of her squadmates, the potential location of enemies, the layout of the room. Everything matters.

"Room clear!"

She eyeballed the room. On the right side, now in front of her, there's an unopened door. So was the door opposite from where they entered. "Squad, door on our left, stack…" They all hushly said "Copy," as they stacked up on both sides.

"Pwokg, slice it" "Copy,"

He tried to slice it, but "Sorry, SL, can't get through this encryption," "Well…" the SL sighed. "Merrick, you're up. Bang it open," "Copy,"

She moved cautiously towards the door.

She then tried to lightly tap it to see what possible materials and thickness of the door is so she could decide whether to use the door cutters, and if she couldn't, make quick calculations on how much and in what way to deploy the strip explosives to destroy the door. Too little - they couldn't breach it. Too much - they could risk all sorts of things - friendly fire, collateral damage,unnecessary damage to the building…

"SL? It's plasteel - not too thick… I can either use the cutter or the charges," "Blow it, Merrick. Let's disorient them inside,"

Kat positioned herself in front of the door,while trying to position so she could shield herself just in case the "enemy" fires through.

She made a quick mental calculation. "120 grams? I hope it's enough. If not, I'll just kick the damn door down," She put three charges - one on the top, and one on each side. She then beckoned everyone further from the door and loudly whispered "Fire in the hole!"

There was a controlled explosion to the front and rear -ensuring that the breachers on the side would not be harmed - and a loud bang. Kat heard a slight ring and every sound in her ear seems muffled, as it always did each time she set a breaching charge off. She readied herself to enter the room.

A squadmate threw a detonator inside. An explosion followed and he moved towards the doorway, He got up and moved. she soon followed. He stopped near the side of the doorway, and pointed his gun into the room, sweeping it as much as could to cover the doorway.

"Enemy, right side of room!" He fired off a burst of three shots before quickly entering. Kat followed, pointing her gun to the left to cover his blindspots.

Her heart jumped a little when she saw an enemy droid right on her left when she entered, but instinct and training took over and she fired off four times as fast she could. How did the droid manage to miss the pointman in front of her, she would never know.

The rest of the squad would enter and fan out into the room searching over, under and inside any furniture and nook and cranny for enemies. A cacophony of shots rang out for every one they found.

"Room clear!"

She relaxed a bit and looked around the room. Four enemy droids lay disabled around the room. Another was hiding in a locker. Another was under a couch.

"Alright, last room. Let's go," They doubled back to the other unsecured room. The SL nodded at the slicer. He acknowledged and started slicing.

"It's unlocked."

The pointman readied a detonator. As soon as the door opened, they went autopilot - the detonator was thrown in the room, and the pointman looked through the doorway. And he went down.

"Trooper down!" The Marine behind him dragged him away from the fatal funnel before taking his place. Kat tried to aim her rifle inside to find where the shot came from, avoiding to expose herself for too much or too long.

There was a mounted turret pointed at the doorway in the center back of the room.

"Turret inside, pointing at the doorway, center rear! He's dug in!" "Kat, detonator in, now!" "Copy!"

She threw the detonator as far back into the room as she could. There was a loud bang, and she quickly aimed inside. A single shot from the left flew past her exposed arms. She pulled back before leaning into where she thought the enemy was.

A droid was dug in behind some furniture near the front left side. She fired two shots into its head, and rushed into the room. The rest of her squad then entered after her.

They checked everywhere. Kat noticed a weird line on one of the walls, as gestured to her partner. She called the slicer to see if there's any hidden compartments.

He scanned the wall. There was electronic signature coming through. He sliced through it, and soon as it is open, Kat fired three shots into the droid hiding inside.

"Good job, Kat. Not many would have noticed that," said her squad leader. "Eh, I got lucky. My eyes were in the right place and time," "Look at you now, being all humble,"

"Alright, now… Get your 'casualty'' out," said the instructor that has been silently following them from the beginning. One of the Team Beta members, a Wookie, lifted the casualty into a firefighter's carry. they doubled back and exited the killhouse." Put your casualty down. Wait at the staging area. We'll be with you soon," The instructor turned and walked away.


OBSTACLE COURSE, VARIABLE GRAVITY SECTION, MARINE INFANTRY ACADEMY, 1130 HOURS

[WEEK OF TRAINING - 12]

Kat had to move very cautiously.

Her breacher platoon had their training at the Variable Gravity section that day. She didn't travel often, and she never had to spend time in zero-gee. So when the instructors ordered them to run the obstacle course, she shot forward and upward, only to be stopped when she randomly held her hand out onto a plastoid pole. She was somewhat lucky - some others shot straight into either the tall ceiling, walls or obstacles.

She took a breath and tried to get her bearings. An instructor yelled, "What the stang are you doing, Merrick, trying to get off-planet? Get down here and finish my obstacle course, now!"

She pushed herself down back towards the start of the course. She then propelled herself forward, with much less force. Kat felt like she was walking on clouds. The first obstacle was a set of hurdles. She slowly used her body to move around the obstacles.

All the instructors, meanwhile, were jeering and yelling at them. She didn't care.

If you do it right the first time, you won't have to do it a second time.

The second obstacle was a high-jump bar. She jumped up and used the lack of gravity to propel herself over it. She skip-ran towards the third - another set of higher and further placed hurdles. She tried and almost slipped on one, but she somehow made it through.

She continued to crawl under the barbed wire. A pair of autocannons were firing low, slightly above the fires. Kat made sure she didn't take a stun bolt to the face like she did back in boot camp.

She felt relieved when she reached the end of the wire and rose to run across another set of hurdles. A quartet of walls with increasing height awaited her next. She was never good enough with walls. She stopped for a second, taking a breather, before an instructor yelled, "Why are you stopping, Merrick? MOVE!"

She took a slight leap and let the lack of gravity do the rest - only to have her lower half slam into the first wall, while her upper half swung past the wall top. Kat hurriedly tried to correct herself and haphazardly grabbed the second wall. She propelled herself down the second, jumped onto the third, down again, and finally used the little energy she had to jump on the final wall. She jumped forward, allowing the lack of gravity to carry her forwards.

The final obstacle was a trio of pools dug into the ground separated by a section of dirt runways. Kat dropped herself into the brown water. She tried to ignore the stench of the water. She propelled herself out and ran for 10 meters before jumping into the water again. Her body is starting to feel cold, and the shivering made her even feel more tired.

By the time she reached the end of the obstacle course, she was fatigued. She fell as soon as she reached the finish line. She panted and shivered. An instructor came into her view.

"Something wrong, Marine?" "No sir, just a little bit tired," "Tired? TIRED? IN MY MARINE CORPS? There's no such word in our dictionary - looks like you need some extra motivation, Marine! Run the course AGAIN! DO IT RIGHT, DAMMIT!"

Kat sighed, reluctantly got up and started running towards the course's start line.

As she started off the course again, she heard CSGT Beffler yell,

"Better get things wrong now than in combat! Just do it!"

With those motivating words in mind, she shot herself forward, to try again and again.