3RD PLATOON BARRACKS,COMBAT OUTPOST BYHILL, ORHLEAN ARCHIPELAGO, FARRACKGE, QIILURA SYSTEM -

DAY 195, 21,410 YEARS AFTER THE FOUNDING, 0517 HOURS LOCAL TIME


Kat woke up feeling disoriented as she leaned her head on the side wall of her bunk. This was her first sleep after being set a new time shift, and it shows. She then woke up, put on her helmet and headed to the freshers, stumbling along the way. The freshers were about 10 meters away from their platoon's hooch, but ten meters is enough for anyone to get shot if they were unlucky, so she started dropping down to a crouch.

Kat pinched her nose as she went in. The freshers were barely clean - there weren't enough cleaning droids around and the plumbing, according to previous owners, were never properly cleared out. The smell was incredible… in a bad way.

Kat relieved herself and was crouching back to the hooch when she heard voices from inside. She pressed herself close to the ferrocrete walls and engaged her helmet's ear protectors on amplifier mode.

She recognised the voice. It was the First Sergeant. "Captain wants bodies for a working party. We need two from each squad. Come on…"

Kat, not wanting to expend any more energy, decided to move away. Her eyes wildly scanned for a hiding spot.

"The Army hooches! No one would think of finding a Marine there…"

She silently ran to one of their nearest buildings, found a spot and nestled herself in. She set a countdown on her chrono for 10 minutes.

If they were still there when she returns, she is screwed, anyways.

She relaxed as the seconds tick by.

When Kat sneaked back to her platoon's hooch, she was greeted by a cheeky chuckle by Argyll at the squad's quarters. "Smart 'cruising', Kat. You're well on your way to become a great specialist." grinned SPC Rhyss. "What? I was in the freshers," she pretended to not know.

"You are a bad, bad liar, Cathria Merrick," snickered Xand. "Yes, no one goes to the freshers that long… Unless you have 'business'. And I don't think you swing any way for that to be a possibility," observed Wolverton.

"Yeah, come on, I get it now! I'll go next time!" Kat relented as her face reddened.


COMBAT OUTPOST BYHILL, ORHLEAN ARCHIPELAGO, FARRACKGE, QIILURA SYSTEM

DAY 196, 21,410 YEARS AFTER THE FOUNDING, 0056 HOURS LOCAL TIME


Kat hammered in the spike for the barbed wire. Xand was beside her, carefully treading out the wire and making sure she does not accidentally slice anyone nearby. "Thank the stars Grand Sergeant Major swung by our dump-hole after the attack, huh?" remarked Xand, hands crossed. "A silver lining in a sea of darkness…" trailed off Kat sardonically.

The day after the devastating mortar attack that killed two and wounded seven, mostly of their 2nd Platoon, the Republic military had an inspection team that incidentally came over to their outpost. Among them was the enlisted leader of all forces in Farrackge, the Republic Army's Grand Sergeant Major Zharmn Chesky.

The story goes, according to those who were there, was that when the GSM got down from his vehicle and toured around, he was appalled by the conditions the servicemembers were living in.

The living quarters were clean enough (thanks to CPT Vlogel who would raise all of Corellia's nine hells if he found it insufficiently clean…even though he was Thyferran), but the open parts of the outpost were always littered with garbage (who had time to pick up trash in the middle of a war?), there was not enough water, the sewage clogged at least once a month, Fox Company's Weapons Platoon didn't have enough rooms for their equipment and heavy equipment.

Worst of all, the defenses were shoddy - there were multiple points where any charging enemy could approach and breach into the wire. There were not enough obstacles to funnel enemies into killing zones with - a massive security risk.

All the gruff GSM could manage after listening to Vlogel's concerns were. "I think you and your Marines are living a little rough, Captain…" as he ran his pointer finger over his facial hair. "Aye, we are. I hope you'll get to our.. important requests soon,"

Then 1LT Fletcher interrupted, "Grand Sergeant Major… I have also made some important calculations and find that we need a mail center to raise morale amongst the Marines…" "We're in the middle of combat operations… 'sir," he almost spat sardonically, ' I think communications from home can wait," "...Even a single mail terminal would do wonders for everyone's morale at this outpost, Grand Sergeant Major," Fletcher insisted.

Vlogel clammed his jaw, trying to hide his exasperation towards his executive officer. Trading words with someone of Chesky's position and authority in such a manner is considered unwise, even he was only an enlisted servicemember, compared to the commissioned officers of Vlogel and Fletcher.

The green Lasat stood silent, then finally spoke, "It is not my decision to grant everything or not. You are not the only unit fighting in this area of operations, or even in this city. However, I'll see to it that all your requests are heard by the right people." He snapped them both a sharp salute before he made an about face and left.


And that's how Fox Company found themselves building up defenses - rolling out concertina wire, placing anti-personnel mines and motion sensors, filling out sandbags to line the outer defence walls and towers, and building extra rooms for equipment from pre-fabricated walls.

All the while being supervised by their new Army combat engineer arrivals.

"Hey Marine! Wrong angle! The wire is supposed to be perpendicular! Perpendicular!" he yelled at 2nd Squad's LCPLs Wen and Kahu. The pair loudly sighed as they tried to correct it.

"Why aren't these Engineer fraecks down here doing the job they're actually trained to do?" huffed LCPL Lee Gavenairgd as he dug in a small hole nearby. "They're Army, Lee. They'd pass out the moment they do actual work," Marc Rhyss puffed a electro-cig as he stood watch nearby. He was stared extra hard at the occasional civilian that passed on the road. Some of them gave him death stares. Rhyss counted that on average,at least someone would yell and show obscenities to the Marines every hour… so far.

Kat finished hammering the spike in. She walked up towards Rhyss. "You seem to have it easy here…" Kat sarcastically remarked. "Right. Could be in our bunks chowing or sleeping… Instead we have to do this skug," "It's not like there's much to do…" Kat played devil's advocate.

"Don't you have that drum thing with you?" he quizzed, adjusting his rifle sling. "Yes, but even when I have the time, I can't bang on it. These things are loud, y'know? Don't want to disturb anybody," "Take up reading!" he enthusiastically suggested.

"What, like you and Lee?" "Yeah it doesn't take up much space… and most importantly doesn't annoy your roommates with noise!" Kat chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah…" "It's a great downtime activity to do on a deployment!" "Don't knock it until you have tried it, Kat!" yelled Lee as he was just finishing up his obstacle.

Kat contemplated... "It couldn't hurt to try, I guess… I already brought along my datapad with me, all I need is something to read. What do you have?"

"Hey! Marines! Are you done with your work? What's with the standing around?" yelled the Army engineer overwatching their sector.

Lee rolled his eyes as drove in the next stake for the rolled wire extra hard. "Blasted Army!"


BRIEFING ROOM ,COMBAT OUTPOST BYHILL, ORHLEAN ARCHIPELAGO, FARRACKGE, QIILURA SYSTEM -

DAY 197, 21,410 YEARS AFTER THE FOUNDING, 2101 HOURS LOCAL TIME

"Good night, Marines. I have good news and bad news for you all, after today's mission." greeted CPT Vlogel monotonically as he stood in front of the briefing room. "Oh no, what do we have now?" whined SGT Lovell quietly. "Do you have something to say, Sergeant Lovell?" Vlogel sharply replied, driving in the sting of his pre-deployment demotion. "... I can't wait to find out what new things we'll find out today, sir." Lovell covered his sarcasm enough to make sure he does not become a corporal.

"Good. Let's begin, then. First of all, will be the good news - with recent progress in our mission and newly acquired intel, we'll be ramping up our operational tempo," "That is considered good news?" thought Kat.

She felt conflicted - their deployment has been quite mundane with few exciting moments so far, with endless patrolling, waiting for an IED to explode or for someone to start taking shots at them, or questioning civilians, or standing guard at various guardposts and road checkpoints. Time passed by slowly, too slowly each day, as they stared out from their posts and vehicles to a dilapidated city and endless greens of the jungles of their area.

But for the optempo to be increased meant that they'll be more active, searching homes and businesses. The local civilians might not like that. She knew that a non-insignificant part of the citizens of Kdarsac already thought of them as illegal occupiers. That makes things more difficult. It also meant that they were in much greater danger than before.

Fox Company has suffered five dead and eighteen wounded so far only over the course of slightly over a month. For a company of over three hundred, that seems like trivial proportions to an outsider. For them, those are more than numbers - friends, comrades in arms who are either lost forever or had their lives permanently changed. To go on the offensive aggressively meant that the numbers could only go up from now on.

"We'll be conducting more search and destroy missions, making more arrests, clearing roads and buildings with the Army engineers, and trying to improve our standings with the locals at the same time," Vlogel continued. Kat huffed silently. It was hard enough to switch from nice, happy and cooperative with the civilians to aggressive and vigilant the moment a bullet or explosive impacted nearby.

"To make sure we… integrate and work better with the locals, we'll be trying out a new strategy. Each platoon will try out a minimum of day-shifts. 25-hours on, 25 hours off. Possibly 3-4 days on, 1 day off back at base, maximum. It doesn't work, we'll be going back to our usual," Vlogel's face slightly grimaced. "Memorize your nine-line procedures, because we'll be calling in cas-evac vicks. No more doubling back to base in case of casualties. Headquarters Platoon would be returning to FOB Apalis on Battalion's orders." Kat heard a hiss and some silent groans from the members of HQ Platoon, no doubt incensed by having to pack up and go back in such a short time.

"The rest will be on combat mission rotations. Your platoon leaders will be briefing you with more info at a later time. Dismissed."

Kat got out and started to head off towards the squad barracks when she was interrupted by a yell. "THRD PUH-TOON, CIRCLE AROUND!" grunted GYSGT Wojhiee. "LET'S GO!" his voice grew more distorted and louder, "MOVE!"

3rd Platoon trailed back to a spot beside the briefing room, now covered under camouflage netting. "I'll keep this short," 2LT Cavell clasped his hands together. "We'll be going out dismounted at 0700 hours tomorrow. Bring the necessary rations, hydration, ammunition and equipment. Platoon Sergeant Wojhiee here," he gestures to the Mirialan," will upload a recommended packing list into your issued infopads. Get what you need from logistics."

The Anaxsi platoon leader looked around at his Marines before continuing. "I will clear up the routes with CPT Vlogel tonight. Memorize your nine-line medical and interaction procedures. Get some good rest… We'll be on full throttle tomorrow. Dismissed,"

They all dispersed in various directions. Kat was joined by Xand and Munioa. "They expect us to be on that kind of optempo?" questioned Munioa. "That is a disaster waiting to happen," replied Xand, rubbing her finger on her forehead. "Well… you heard the Captain. Different situations, different tactics." Kat played devil's advocate.

"Oh, you're defending Erran now? Never thought I would see the day," Munioa lightly mocked Kat. "I still hate the pentaan, I'm just saying that the ups have a point… once every Tatooinean snowstorm."

"Yeah, what is the point?" asked Xand. "Of us going on longer missions?" asked Kat. "The mission comes first…" Kat noticed the slightest hint of scorn in her voice.

Kat thought to herself as the two continued talking as they approached the squad barracks.

Xand and Garra are right. What is the point? We know who we're fighting - The Imperii. Why are they fighting us? They want their system to join the Sith Empire. But why do they want that? I've been here for at least a month and it seems like at least one in every five beings didn't want us there.

So what's the kriffing point? What is even our mission here? Kill bad beings and protect the good ones. But who's who? The bad ones hide in plain sight and the good ones won't help us find the bad.

"So why is CPT Vlogel plopping us in the middle of a contested city for entire days for… hells know how long? A few days on, but a whole a day off. Sounds nice…at first. Stang, look at myself, going off again."

"...Erran can suck on a black melon!" scoffed Xand. "What are you on about?" questioned Kat. "Ah, The Fauwcon has returned from her all important adventure at… Force knows what," sassed Munioa.

"Remember Lieutenant Cavell's initiation ceremony?"

They all nodded.


1/F COMPANY PLATOON ROOM,FOX COMPANY MARINE CORPS BASE VALTO, NABOO

DAY 298, 21, 409 YEARS SINCE THE FOUNDING/3644 BBY, 1744 HOURS LOCAL TIME


Kat tried to snuggle herself as comfortably as possible in between the furniture in one corner of the platoon room. The rest of the 1st and 3rd Squads were also trying to hide themselves around the room. Their new platoon leader, 2LT Fionn Cavell, had arrived yesterday from the Republic Naval Academy on Anaxes. However, he wasn't considered to be the platoon CO in the eyes of the enlisted members of the platoon. That was about to change soon.

The room was eerily silent and dark, with one exception - a single ceiling light illuminating the center of the room. On the edge of the light, stood CSGT Ael Eizer, 1st Squad's leader, in dark-colored civilian clothes, with a mask covering his face, as did everyone else. The door opened, and the fresh lieutenant stepped in wearing casual civilian clothes, with brown curly hair, brown eyes, an aquiline nose and a fit but short frame. "Second Lieutenant Fionn Cavell?" Eizer asked, his voice hidden by a modulator. "Yes." he coolly replied. "You know why you are here?" "I do." "Then you will know that this is nothing personal." He whipped out a stun baton and struck the young platoon commander.

Cavell grunted as he dropped to all fours, trying hard not to show any sign off weakness towards his future subordinates. Eizer beckoned someone over. Kat recognized the gait as belonging to one of 1st Squad's riflers, SPC Witmile Segara. The Mirialan walked up next to Eizer, holding a small container with a spoon sticking out.

"You will take four spoonfuls to begin the initiation," ordered Eizer, clearly relishing in the fact that he was ordering an officer. Cavell hesitated for a moment, before he took a spoonful of the substance in the container, which is an intensely colored red powder. After the powder entered his mouth, his face began turning red from the extreme spice. Droplets of sweat start forming on his forehead, and his eyes began to moist.

But he refused to relent. Eizer signaled everyone in the room to come out, and they all stepped out into their pre-assigned positions. Kat stepped out and adjusted her mask, then pulled out a small, elastic hose a meter long.

Cavell stumbled into the "living" tunnel, as the melee onslaught began. The enlisted Marines began whipping him lightly with the elastic hose. They all enjoyed as they knew they wouldn't have a chance to do this to him any other time, Kat included. He grunted and winced, but never yelled or made any sound indicating he was in pain.

He rose and dropped as he made his way through the gauntlet of whips, and as he reached the end, CSGT Lovell stood at the end with a glass of disgusting colored liquid. Kat was told it was a mixture of Nabooean bitter-root and Rydonnian citran fruit juice, but she knew there could be worse things in there.

Fionn took the glass and drank it to get rid of the fiery spice in his mouth, but his face contorted from a short moment of relief to one of disgust, but he continued to drink it to completion all the same . He grunted and yelled with his mouth closed as he struggled to not vomit the revolting mixture that has formed in his stomach.

Lovell knelt down and grabbed his shoulder. "Welcome to the company, Lieutenant Fionn Cavell," he greeted him. He was greeted with a punch to the face. The squad leader laughed as he held his hand over the spot where his platoon leader's fist landed.

The incomplete ritual was spoiled when the door suddenly opened. In the doorway, stood Captain Erran Vlogel. He looked at the masked enlisted Marines, then at LT Cavell, nauseous and red-faced. "What is going on here?" he yelled. No one replied.

"Take off your masks now, all of you! I'm court-martialling every single Marine involved!" he threatened, pointing his finger towards everyone. A smoke grenade flew out towards the doorway and exploded. The Captain yelled incoherently as he tried to make his way though the room.

By the time everything cleared, all the enlisted Marines were gone.


"He's quite the spoilsport. I remember the 30-mile hike the next morning!" muttered Xand. "It's a damn Marine tradition, and it's not even harmful! We were well within the rules, dammit!" grumbled Munioa. "Thank the stars no one confessed up," "Didn't you feel like admitting to it, Kat?" asked Xand. "Well… I was a goody straight-lacer back then, but I'm not that stupid! I'm not getting me or anyone else court-martialled!" shot back Kat.

"Does CPT Vlogel even have any redeeming qualities?" questioned Munioa? "If you're asking me? I don't see any," Kat contemplated. "Look at our patrol schedules since we moved to the COP. He has no idea what he's doing. I hope we won't pay the price for his stupidity," "Can't wait for him to get promoted so he'd be out of the company." Xand resentfully said.

"You're going to have to wait for a long time for that to happen," Kat sighed.


ROUTE "TEKOITA", WEST KDARSAC - DAY 200, 1119 HOURS


The entire platoon was on edge. CPT Vlogel had tagged alongside them on this patrol, which meant he was stuck with them for at least 25 hours. They had patrolled one part of town, and were now on a short break. They had taken up residence at an abandoned school.

2nd and 3rd Squads were paired together on this particular patrol route, with 2nd Squad standing by in their vehicles.

Kat was taking a short post-lunch nap when she was rudely awakened by a harsh voice. "Are you trying to get us in trouble, Marine?" she looked over to CPT Vlogel chewing up 2nd Squad's grenadier, LCPL Iren Raiona. The green Twi'lek was standing at attention. "Didn't I tell you that non-regulation clothing isn't allowed outside the wire?"

She had always worn a customary headdress, even going so far as to get one to match her uniform. Kat noticed that she was about to say something, but held back. Then she sighed before replying, "Sir, this is allowed under regulations, and as you know," she increased her sarcasm sharply, "no orders could disallow the wearing of any cultural items as long as it has not been proven it doesn't interfere with mission effectiveness… sir."

The Captain gave her a death glare before lowering his face to hers, mere centimeters away. He lowered his voice in pitch and volume, but enough for Kat to hear. "I will deal with you back at the COP. Carry on…" he sharply snapped back straight up before quickly leaving the room they were in. The tension hanged in the air. Kat plopped back down.

"Bloody banthas! Can't believe my nap was ruined for this skag!"

Kat furiously tried to sleep, desperate to gain some energy before moving again.


MAYOR'S OFFICE, CENTRAL KDARSAC

DAY 200 - 1504 HOURS


"What can you promise me, Republic Marine?" asked Kdarsac's mayor. "Safety. Security. Getting rid of all these hostile factions," the captain promised as they stood in his office building. Kat tuned her eyes out the window, as the three (including one of the Army Civil Affairs lieutenants, Duoytche) tried to negotiate. The view was beautiful from above - forest trees lined the ground level streets, and geometric architecture of various shapes formed the buildings. The forests and hills filled the outsides of the city. Beyond it all, lay the seas that surrounded every island.

The mayor's office was ornate, with holodata archival shelves, a large expensive Farrackgean Dervorriian Wood table, Leryton bushes in colorful pots, and a royal green coat of paint covering the walls and ceiling. Mini cleaning droids roamed around, keeping the room perpetually clean.

"That's what the previous Republic troops said! How long are you going to do things in half-measures? Lives of my people are at stake!" he demanded. "Mayor Aelrickch, we have people that can help you. But you have to help us first," assured Vlogel.

"You know why the people here keep turning against you? Because with every new unit that comes through, we get promises - 'We'll fix things', 'We'll bring safety, freedom, prosperity,' but the attacks keep coming, beings keep dying, criminals and scum keep terrorizing my city, MY PEOPLE! They are still poor, reliant on your credits to just keep surviving!" He was angry and nearly in tears.

"Then tell us what we need to fix!" CPT Vlogel almost yelled. "Mayor, sir, we have the Army for fixing and building, and Marines for security and neutralizing enemies," 2LT Duoytche tried to defuse the situation.

"Dammit, these people are going in circles! One keeps making lofty promises, the other keeps making excuses. What the stang are we doing here?" Kat silently seethed.


AUTHOR'S NOTES

Sorry for the long time between updates I was sick AF...