Perhaps none of them would admit it aloud for fear of ticking off Hanson, but it was awesome to be able to sit one on one with him during Drill Sergeant Time and listen to him explain things about military life. The six he had been friends with never imagined he would know as much as he did but yet, he was a high rank, and it was probably expected of him to know everything did. So far, they still didn't know much about him from the last years other than he joined the military after bonding with Toothless, his Night Fury. Also, that had a girlfriend and was the base leader at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Of course, they had many questions but felt he wouldn't talk about anything personal until it pertained to them being curiously about the lifestyle they just entered. Right now, they were about to listen to him speak of the ranks he jumped through in the last eight years. It wasn't a lot of detail, but at least he was talking and being calm like the Hanson they knew before the military.

So here they were, sitting on each other's beds while waiting for him to start. They knew all the ranks up until Sergeant Major when he took on a Titanwing Monstrous Nightmare even though there hadn't been stories behind the first three position jumps. Hanson was still standing, he checked the time before removing his outer uniform coat, and it left him in just a gray tee-shirt.

"Wow, Hanson. You aren't a twig anymore, are you?" Raelyn blinked a little.

Hanson shrugged to her, "Eight years can change a person," he replied, "Anyway, you wanted a rank stories so might as well get started," And just as he was about to start, his cell phone began vibrating on the bed beside him. Glancing towards the phone before he grabbed it they were able to see a contact ID showing a girl with short black hair and honey brown eyes blowing a kiss, probably to Hanson and winking. "Hello, Milady," he greeted and then pulled the phone away from his ear, he pressed a button on the screen.

"Hey, Soldier Boy. Did I catch you at a bad time?" came a female's voice.

"Caught me during DS time, beautiful. What's up?" Hanson asked her with a smile.

"Can you send me my spare laptop? My current one, um," the woman paused nervously.

"Caylee, what the hell did you do to your laptop? I just got you that for your birthday!" Hanson demanded.

"Laptops don't respond after being accidentally shot with a handgun," the woman, Caylee, responded. Hanson face-palmed hard and rubbed his eyes with his fingers.

"Although I'm afraid to know what happened, please enlighten me how your laptop accidentally got shot?" Hanson inquired.

"Well, you know that I don't like spiders a-and-" she began.

"One landed on your laptop, and your first instinct was to grab your sidearm and shoot it?!" Hanson exclaimed.

"It was colossal, Hanson!" Caylee whimpered a little. "It was a camel spider," she added quickly.

"I've told you a million times that camel spiders are harmless! And they aren't THAT big! All camel spiders do is just cruise around looking for shade, babe. So, what? It dropped in front of you, and you shot it and destroyed your laptop?" Hanson asked.

"Hey, just because you like to pick them up doesn't mean I do! Can you send my spare, please?" Caylee pleaded.

"I don't like picking them up; I just do it so the rest of the sissies in my platoon don't wake up the whole camp with their screaming. But fine, I'll get your spare tomorrow morning from my Dad's house and send it express mail to you. I swear to Thor you better not break this one," Hanson warned.

"Thank you, baby! You're the best. We're about to have a storm, and I won't be able to call your Dad, will you call him for me and send my love?" Caylee asked.

"You know I will. I gotta go for now. I love you," Hanson told her.

"Love you too!" Caylee replied back.

"And call me when that storm is over, so I know you're okay, you know it's the perfect time to be attacked by enemies so keep your guard up. Promise?" Hanson reminded quickly.

"Promise. Talk to you soon! Bye!" After that, the called ended, and Hanson muttered something to himself about needed to build a bulletproof laptop for his girlfriend. "Yes, my girlfriend is a spaz, but she's my kind of crazy," he mentioned seeing the others arch a confused brow at him. "So rank stories. We left off at Sergeant Major after Dragon Training; my next one was Second Lieutenant after the second tour of duty ended in 2011," he began.

"What happened to put you in officer ranks?" Dustin smiled.

"The platoon was running an ambush mission, but another trap was set up to get us. As soon as the previous platoon leader saw it, he had us abort the mission and run for cover. One of the newer platoon members tripped a motion sensor, and Lieutenant Morrison pushed the soldier out of the blast zone, he was killed instantly, and we were left stranded and couldn't call for extraction. Everyone was panicking so I stepped up and found us a way out. I used two fallen trees and three nets between the trees, tied in place. Then I rode on Toothless while four trained Monstrous Nightmares carried the net of soldiers back. The tour ended five months later, and I was promoted to Second Lieutenant for showing the leadership and getting my platoon to safety." Hanson explained.

"What was the next one?" Grant leaned forward anxiously.

"I want to say it happened on the third tour in January 2013, middle of it. I launched a large attack with the dragons in the platoon, and doing it while I had gotten shot in the side with sprained wrist and broken rib but still managed to get everyone back to base safely before passing out and then when I woke up and healed; they promoted me to Major." Hanson smiled.

"And then you made Lieutenant Colonel, right?" Heather asked happily.

"Gods, I hate thinking about the last tour because I almost didn't make it out alive of the mission that earned me my rank now. I had just turned twenty-two when the tour started and eight months into it, October 2016, everything went so horribly wrong. It was supposed to be a recon that turned ambush and taken captive for a while, maybe twelve hours. It was me and a few others, sitting in a cell and stripped of our weapons. I got a guards attention and got us out. We were just about home free when I got shot in chest pushing Vincent out of the way," Hanson looked away as he subconsciously seemed to bring a hand to his chest where the wound had been.

"What...happened?" Aubree asked with concern for him.

"Honestly, I don't remember much. I remember getting us out of the prison base, and then the pain from the shot. I hit the ground, and things started getting blurry, but I heard Toothless's roar, and he scared the enemies off while bringing an extraction team with him. The last thing I heard was Thatcher tell me to hold on and not to die on him. Next time I woke up, I was at a combat support hospital, and a doctor says I had been out for a week. It took me the remainder of the tour to heal, and then we came back here, and I was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel for escaping an enemy base and risking my life to save a comrade. And we've been here at Fort Riddari six months since." Hanson finished.

"Was the recovery hard?" Eli inquired.

"Yeah. I was stuck in a hospital for five weeks and then finished the rest on base. I was supposed to get discharged but they gave me a chance to prove I could still fight without limitations and I took it. They promoted me, and here I am," Hanson checked his watch now. "I think that's enough stories for one night, you can start your Personal Time early but keep it down because I'm still working right next door," he added.

"Sure thing, sir," they replied as Hanson got up and put his coat on again, then he left the barrack quietly once he had his phone in hand. After hearing an order to Vincent, Ricky, and Thatcher, they looked out the windows to see Hanson get on Toothless and take to the sky. It was weird; they wondered if they upset him by having him talk about his rank promotions. It seemed all of them had a form of hurt behind them, but he had agreed to tell them and now he probably just needed some time to think or get that spare laptop for his girlfriend. In either case, they were just happy to be able to sit down and relax after such a long day of training and now they still had nine weeks to go before graduating Basic.

(Nine Weeks Later)

By some grace of Odin, they had done it! Nine long, intense weeks of Basic Combat Training and they had all survived and would be graduating in two days! The ten of them couldn't have been happier when they finished the field training exercise during the last week of Basic, and they just finished the final rehearsal for their graduation day. On top of that, Family Day was tomorrow starting at 11 am so they were pleased to know their families were coming to see the big moment they graduated from Basic. It had been hard, Hanson pushed them to their limits physically and mentally and told them that he would see if they could handle it. The most difficult part of the training was probably the fitness test and marksmanship test for the guns.

Dustin, Aubree, Eli, and Grant made expert level. Heather, Franklin, and Sawyer got sharpshooter. Finally, Raelyn, Taylor, and Sylvia made marksman. With Hanson's help, they made their goals for physical training and passed that too. However, in the entire nine weeks, they never got the story out of him as to how he bonded with Toothless and made a choice to join the military when he was essentially fourteen years old. How did that even happen, the lowest age to enter was fifteen according to the law. It's one of the reasons they wanted to know so bad because, at fourteen, he never would have been allowed to join.

Currently, they were about to have a final run down of the next two days. Hanson had to rush off to do something, so they were able to relax a little in their class B uniforms which was just black pants, green shirt, black shoes and a beret. On the shirt was their name tag and shooter level pin. Finally, they heard a roar and looked up to see Toothless flying overhead then landing near them on the field.

"Colonel, there you are. Everything okay?" Ricky asked quickly.

"Yeah, an emergency with Hazel is all. I handled it," Hanson replied with a heavy sigh. Who the hell was Hazel? Was she a side chick for Hanson since Caylee was still deployed? No. Hanson wasn't that kind of guy, he wouldn't cheat and have a side girl. Then again, what did they know about him? For Thor's sake, he joined the military and vanished for eight years up until nine weeks ago when he got introduced by Thatcher as their Drill Sergeant. Honestly, they couldn't say they knew him very well at all with how things ended up. "Line them up," he ordered.

"Squad! Atten-shun!" Thatcher demanded as the ten soon to be graduates rose to their feet quickly and stood with feet together and hands at their sides. "Hand salute," he said next as the soldier saluted Hanson, "Parade rest," Thatcher finished as the soldier separated their feet to be shoulder width apart and hands secured firmly behind that backs. "Squad at the ready as requested," he added saluting Hanson and stepping back.

"As you know, tomorrow is a family day for you ten. Word has already been sent to them on a formal invitation to come up for the day until 1800 hours and see how far you've all come. On Sunday, you will graduate at 1500 hours starting in your ACU's and march from the edge of the forest to this field and stand at parade rest before the crowd. A welcome speech will be given, talking about how hard you worked to get where you are. You will then be dismissed to the barrack to change into your class B and return to the field at parade rest once more. At that time, individual achievements or promotions will be given. The finale is me announcing you all as basic combat training graduates. After that, your families will be allowed onto the field to congratulate you, and then you can take them to the barrack and show them around it, where your bunk was, introduce friends. It's your day, just remember the rules. Families will be leaving at 1900, and you will return to barracks for instructions about Advanced Training." Hanson announced to them.

"Yes sir!" the soldiers replied firmly.

"Also. I would like to take this chance to tell you all how proud I am of you for pushing yourselves and making it to graduation. These nine weeks are meant to test the soldier in training, push their limits, break barriers of fear, boost confidence, and more. You have all done extremely well, and I only expect more to come as you advance your skills in the next set of training. Excellent work, all of you. Now go on and enjoy some free time before dinner at 1700 hours. Dismissed!" Hanson smiled. They couldn't believe it; he was proud of them! It was such a good feeling to hear that come from him, that he was proud. The ten of them saluted him, and he returned it before they broke off and returned to the barrack to chance. All that was left to do was enjoy time with their families tomorrow, and then graduate the day after. They were one step closer to being full soldiers of the Archipelago in the Berkian Military.