Hector was incredibly glad that he went to bed early the night before because waking up early at 5am-then a forty-five minute drive to Fort Striker when 6am hit went by so fast, he didn't even get the chance to sleep on the bus because everyone was being loud and talking about how awesome Basic would be-Hector was told by Cody that it was going to be hell and test every bit of his mental and physical limits but he knew Hector would survive it. That made Hector feel good honestly, that a few people believed in him-he knew others would if he'd told them but that was a stretch too. If it got out at school that he joined the military-he'd just be told he'd never survive there because of his scrawny figure and being weak but honestly-Hector wasn't in the slightest. All the work in the auto shop since he was fifteen years old really paid off for his legs, arms, chest, and stomach. Hector had a little muscle and was toned too but he wore baggy clothes so no one ever noticed it-that was fine with him. Hector wanted to call Gobber and tell him what he was doing but he didn't want to risk it getting out by accident-enough beers and Gobber was an open book.

Hector chuckled a bit thinking on it-maybe he'd call just so Gobber had his number? Even that didn't sound like a good idea because Gobber was a terrible liar and if his mother or father asked him if he'd heard from Hector then Gobber would hesitate, mumble, and try to change the subject. Gobber could keep a secret if he wasn't drinking, and not confronted about the situation. Hector couldn't risk it-not right now anyway, he knew the truth would come out eventually but he wanted it on his terms. They'd hit a little traffic on the drive making their arrival to Fort Striker around 7am instead of 6:45am like it'd been planned-Hector really wanted a coffee right about now as he sat up seeing them pull into the area. "Well here goes everything," he whispered to himself. The bus came to a stop-it gave a hiss before the doors opened and a man in black, gray, and green camouflage came on the bus looking around at them all.

"Off my bus, privates! Grab a bag from below and get to the main building ahead of you-doesn't matter which one ya grab either! Move it, hustle!" the man demanded as he turned to step off while the rest of the group got up quickly and scrambled off the bus without an argument. As soon as they hit the ground-a gray back was tossed their way which they had to catch and then rush off to the building ahead of them that other Drill Sergeants were yelling at them to hurry up and get too. Hector caught the bag tossed his way then ran once Tallon had a bag in his hands-they were taught at Reception Week not to go anywhere without their battle and bunk buddy-except maybe the bathroom and when ordered otherwise. There was no order saying he couldn't wait for his buddy so he did so-shockingly, he didn't get yelled at. Evan and Thaxter were right behind them since they'd been sitting together-once in they tried not to show the clear fatigue they felt although Hector was fine since knew how to breathe properly while running so he didn't get winded easily.

"LINE UP!" shouted a female instructor-Hector noticed quickly that they weren't the only bus that arrived at Fort Striker. There were at least five others and each bus held about twenty-four people, "Stay according to your bus! Don't mix yourselves up or we'll be here all day separating you!" it made sense why they did it this way, keep everyone organized for barrack assignments. If each bus held twenty-four and buses didn't leave until filled up then right now there were one hundred and forty-four civilians coming into Fort Striker right now.

"SILENCE," another yelled loudly-this time a male as the room fell quiet except for a few coughs and yawns-which got people yelled at for. "Now, this will be your home for the next nine to fourteen weeks-depends if you are leaving after Basic to do your AIT training at another base in the Archipelago. If you're staying here for AIT then you're here for fourteen weeks. This is your new Company; officially named the 82nd Nightwing Company of the 10th Berk Infantry Division. Once your reach your barrack-you'll get your Platoon and Squadron name," he said.

"Whatever bus you came here on-the letter of that bus is your new barrack. The barrack directly beside yours will be the squad that makes up your platoon. Barracks A and C will be Dragon Platoon. B and D will be Wolf Platoon. E and G are Bear Platoon-lastly is F and H to be known as Lion Platoon. You will meet with your assigned Drill Sergeant when you arrive at your barrack. In the meantime-start finding your bags-if you were smart you didn't just huck them all in one big pile when you got here-this is the first game we play. First squad to get all their bags to their rightful owners will get a cooked meal and dessert instead of an Styrofoam tray at tonight's dinner! You start...NOW!" the male commanded.

In a panic to not want to eat the shitty tray meal that they'd had while at Reception Battalion-everyone rushed to get their bags separated. Hector rolled his eyes seeing the people he'd be sharing a barrack with frantically tossing bags to find their own-this was ridiculous. Well the military was teamwork right? So they'd work as a team for this, "HEY!" Hector shouted at the twenty-four people in his group. "Tossing bags ain't gonna get nothing done so chill out and slow the hell down," Hector stated to them.

"Who put you in charge," one stated with a huff.

"I did. We're a squad-we work together to get things done, we don't act like pre-schoolers fighting to get outside for recess. You don't want a crappy dinner tray-maybe you listen to me? Tal, Evan, Thax-help me out here," Hector asked.

"He's right. Won't get nothing done this way, listen to him," Thax stated firmly.

"Fine-what's your suggestion then?" the male has his arms crossed over his chest now.

"Form a square: four by five. We'll call out the tag name-put your hand up and say mine-we'll toss it or pass it to ya," Hector ordered as he grabbed the first bag near him and checked the tag, "Cortez, Andrew!"

"Back here-middle third row!" Andrew replied with a hand up-Tallon had the others pass it back. This time, Hector grabbed two bags and checked them for names.

"Pearson, Fowler!" when the two answered, Evan and Thaxter got the bags to them. "Hicks, Warren, Reeves!" those bags were given to their owners next, "Thax, got yours right here man," Hector tossed it to him as he caught it.

"Thanks, Hector!" Thaxter smiled putting it behind him.

"Swanson, Manning, Hale!" Hector called while Tallon, Evan, and Thaxter continued to pass them out. "Davis, Knight, Greene!" he grabbed two more after passing them to his friends to hand out, "Ellis, Hughes, Grimborn V," Hector stated.

"That's me for the Grimborn V one. My brother and I are both here-his is Grimborn R," the male stated as Tallon got the bag to him.

"Freeman, Malone, Meyers!" Hector handed those off, "Tal and Ev, got yours right here," Hector tossed them theirs next then grabbed another two, "Briggs, Grimborn R, and Meyers!" he got those handed out as he saw one more which he knew was his. The group of them cheered and gave one another high fives at the victory-no one else was done yet because they were still just tearing through to find their own instead of working as a team.

"YEAH!" they laughed together.

"Not bad-haven't seen teamwork like that in a long time for bag recovery," said one of the Drill Sergeants with what was considered an approving nod to the group, "You boys won it-what's your name kid?" asked the male looking at Hector now.

"Hector Haddock the third, sir." he replied offering a salute.

"I'm interested to see how you do here, Haddock. To say for now, I'm impressed and that's hard to do on the first day. Good work-all of you," with that the male walked away to stand with the others. "The A barrack wins the first challenge-having done so by working together to get each bag to its rightful owner by using names instead of every man or woman for themselves. The A barrack will be enjoying a turkey dinner with broccoli, corn, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and for dessert-ice cream cake. You lot can go to your barrack now and get settled,"

"Sir, yes sir!" the guys replied together as they filed out following someone else who was leading them to their barrack. Hector already noticed a pattern about how the barracks were grouped up. One barrack was full of men while the other that made up the platoon was women so it'd even out since the barracks were not coed. Reaching the barracks it was easy to see why they were set up the way they were. They were across from one another. Barracks A, C, E, and G were in a line and across were B, D, F, and H. A being across from B and so on and so forth down the line. Reaching the door they were brought inside right away to see a man standing before them with his feet shoulder width apart and arms hands behind his back.

"Here are you new recruits, Svendson. Try not to scare them like ya did the last group," the male chuckled before walking away.

"No promises-we'll see who holds fear and who doesn't," the man said now. This man had dark brown hair and honey brown eyes, faded back of the head while the front was a little longer but cut clean and neat from what could be seen under the hat. The man stood at about six foot three inches in height-looking to weigh between two hundred thirty or so, most of which was likely to be muscle mass or whatever. "I will be your Drill Sergeant for the next nine weeks-and for some the next fourteen weeks. I am Sean Svendson but you will call me Drill Sergeant from now on. Not Drill Sergeant Sir, or Sir-just Drill Sergeant. Is that understood privates!?" the male asked firmly.

"Yes, Drill Sergeant!" the group of twenty-four replied to him.

"Good then. Next thing on the list-unpacking and getting your bunks set. You'll notice the bunks have a pillow, two sheets-fitted and basic, finally a blanket. Also beside each bunk is a closet with room for two sets of belongings. You picked your battle buddies at Reception-that follows here too. Grab your bunks and get unpacked-lot of shit to do today boys!" Sean commanded.

"Yes, Drill Sergeant!" the group said again as they formed up with their battle buddy then picked their bunks. Tallon, Hector, Evan, and Thaxter took two bunks side by side-then beside them ended up being the Grimborn brothers. They made their beds as they had at Reception Week-then got to work putting away their things from the bags and keeping it all organized so they knew what to grab and when. Total time for everyone only took ten minutes and thank Thor after lining up for inspection, they all passed without anyone being yelled at by their Drill Sergeant. After all this-it was only 8:30am. Hector and the others knew that the day was far from over but at least they got to enjoy a hot, cooked turkey dinner meal tonight.

(First Week)

The schedule in which they followed was memorized in this week-also most of this week was learning not to test the Drill Sergeant in regards to anything at all or risk being yelled at. They also learned that if their battle buddy failed-they would fail with them and both would be scolded. The Reception Week guys and girls weren't kidding when they said that the battle buddy was basically your new best friend and twin. Their schedule went as followed: 5am was wake up and first call, 5:30am was Personal Training, 6:30am was breakfast-then onto 7:30am for training where they'd stop at noon for lunch. After that it was back to training at 1pm until 5pm where they'd have dinner. Next at 6pm was Drill Sergeant time, following that at 8:30pm it was Personal Time, then finally it was lights out at 9:30pm. Fun day right?

The group learned pretty quickly to answer their DS in a loud voice, don't make him repeat himself or ask you to repeat yourself-also for the love of God, don't make eye contact or it'd land you some form of outrageous PT or Physical Training time. First phase of Basic Combat Training was titled the Green Phase-and it lasted a total of three weeks which is when they'd move on to the the Brown Phase-following that would be Silver Phase. Apparently there was actually ten weeks of Basic-the last being their BCT graduation. After that it was AIT phases only two though: Black and Red Phase-two weeks each. A final week after that put them at AIT graduation so in all actuality the OSUT lasted sixteen weeks total before they got assigned to their new stations to do their MOS or Military Occupational Specialty-the job they went to AIT to learn how to do.

Most of the first week was getting used to barrack inspections, the rules, first-aid, radio communications, map reading, and military law: most if not all of these were pretty easy for Hector to ace-he was good with that kind of stuff. Hector helped Viktor and Ryan-who originally had been know as Grimborn R and Grimborn V during the bag separation exercise. The brothers were only about two years apart in age-Ryan Grimborn was older, than his brother Viktor Grimborn was younger. The six of them were actually pretty good friends and all bunked together. Meaning Tallon and Hector, then the next set of beds was Ryan and Viktor, the last set after them Evan and Thaxter. Also during this phase they got well acquainted with military drill and ceremony-this had been pretty fun to do, learning how to march in formation, lineup, and other things that they'd use for their graduation during week ten.

Week two was mostly learning the Army Core Values, Soldier's Creed, and General Orders. That had been interesting to memorize-they had to repeat it back after a week of studying. Something that had else they started doing was learning about the M16-how to hold it, disassemble and reassemble it, load it, positions they could fire it. The tear gas chamber had been awful but necessary-they got to had to be in there for a good ten minutes with masks on-then they were actually subjected to it for a minute or so before being rushed out of the chamber-told to wave their arms and walk it off. Also they'd been asked to answer simple questions to make sure they didn't take in too much of it. Between weeks two and three-anyone who had a fear of heights quickly got over it because the recruits had to take on the Warrior Tower and the Confidence Course. Repelling from walls, monkey bars, rope ladders, balance, crawling, etc. One of the only other things they learned to do was the hand to hand combat and lesser things that had big meaning.

They had to do a Compass Course as well, mapping and what night for a full twenty-four hours in a day and night field exercise. Hector and Tallon actually led most of that one-they were really good at mapping and finding their bearings at night. The last few days of week three was a end of phase test to make sure the learned and remembered everything they were supposed to in that phase. They had to do demonstrations without instruction on EVERYTHING they learned in the first three weeks-plus another physical fitness test to make sure they were still in top peak form. Hector passed the Green Phase with flying colors-final score was a ninety-two for it. And his Physical Fitness test he passed with a total score of one hundred and fifty-which was the top score he could achieve for that test. Yes the first three weeks had been interesting for sure but they were told it would only be getting harder so don't get comfortable.

After dinner that night, then is was DS time-which was basically briefing them on their next two weeks, before finally reaching Personal Time-Hector had never been happier to be able to flop on his bed and lay down. "Gods, I've never been happier to lay down," Hector sighed out.

"Right, seriously..." Viktor agree from his top bunk and his brother Ryan was on the bottom one.

"So, still not gonna tell your family you're here?" Tallon asked while leaning against the metal frame of the bunk.

"Nope-there's no point, it'd be an argument or a demand to come home," Hector shrugged to him.

"Wait-your family don't know you're here?" Ryan asked now as Hector shook his head to him.

"They don't know I'm even in the military-just up and left four weeks ago for Reception Battalion, then here." Hector stated.

"You should call them, they are probably worried about you," Knight suggested-his first name was Marcus.

"What part of unnecessary argument didn't ya hear, Knight? I don't want them know where I am or what I'm doing," Hector sighed heavily closing his eyes.

"So don't tell them-just call to check in. Call private-use *69 and they won't know your number. Just let them know you're okay and safe-we'll keep quiet for ya," Hale-first name Luke- offered. Hector looked at his phone as he brought up the number for the house before closing his eyes and sighing-he put a *69 in front of the first three digits before pressing send and putting it on speakerphone because he knew as soon as they figured out it was him then they'd scream at him for taking off without a word-but not more than two rings in, he ended the call and put it down.

"No," he said before powering the phone off and putting it in his closet before laying back down on the bed with his arms behind his head and eyes closed, "Not gonna do it. They can worry all they want-I said I was unreachable before I left and that's how I'll stay for a while. I'm not gonna deal with my mother and sister crying, or my father demanding I come home or tell them where I am and what I'm doing," Hector said slowly. "Besides-it won't kill them to care for once," he mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Tallon asked curiously now.

"Eh, it's nothing. Forget what I said, Tal-I'm good. I just wanna focus on Basic and me," Hector offered a smile to him. "I'm sure they are busy anyway-if I say I'm okay then they can believe it. I never say something I don't mean," he added afterward.

"How could they be busy at this time of night?" Thaxter asked now.

"Well Mom is a veterinarian, brother and sister are likely to be doing homework, and Dad is probably neck high in paperwork or phone calls because of his job," Hector remarked lightly.

"How can his job be that demanding?" Viktor questioned.

"Because he's...the mayor of Berk?" their mouths dropped open now as Hector arched a brow at then, "You didn't know my Dad was the mayor of Berk?" they shook their heads in unison, "Seriously!?" he was shocked, how hadn't they known? Everyone knew who his father was! Well he thought that until tonight at least. "My Dad is Spencer Haddock-I'm Hector Haddock, how did you not figure it out?"

"Well, for one-you never talk about your family when we're on the subject," Tallon reminded as Hector was about to protest but realized he was right-he really didn't talk about his family or life before the military, "And two, because well ya don't really fit the lifestyle, Hec. I mean-son of the mayor of Berk, why join the military? You're friggen set for life,"

"That's exactly why I joined-I didn't want handouts. I like making my own living-I used to work for an auto shop before this-then one day I saw a recruiter at school and researched a bit. I decided I wanted more for my life and joining the army gave me that chance-so I took it." Hector explained-he wouldn't go into detail about the fact he was told he was a nothing and going nowhere, wasn't something you told friends you'd only just met. He didn't want sympathy from them for his shitty life-they thought he had it made when in truth, he had nothing before the military.

"Shit, go you, Haddock. Most of us are following one or both of our parents, or told to get off our lazy butts and do something with ourselves. You're one of the youngest guys here-taking the GED and bailin without a word?" Said Briggs, first name of Michael but called Mike or Briggs for short.

"We all joined for our own reasons-doesn't really matter though, we're here now and can't back out." Hector smiled as he relaxed and then yawned. "Alright, I'm beat and have a massive headache. Gonna turn in early tonight," he added.

"Go to the medic and get some painkillers-it's like 8:45pm, you can't knock out now!" Davis-first name of Ted- suggested.

"I grabbed one right before Personal Time started-that's why I said I'd catch up with ya so I can't take another until after lights out which isn't really allowed so I guess I'll sleep it off," Hector chuckled, he saw a shadow over him now as he cracked an eye open to see Tallon over him. "Uh...can I help you?"

"Well, couldn't help but notice that you're...kind'a pale right now," Tallon pointed out to him.

"And this is new to you? I've always been pale, Tallon. I'm not really a sun kind of guy," Hector closed his eyes again.

"Yeah-but like you're sweatin' and it's not even hot right now-it's like April and it's kind'a cold tonight, you good?" Thaxter asked him.

"I'm fine-just tired." Hector said as he untucked his blanket and crawled into bed comfortably as the others dispersed to let him sleep-it'd been a long day for them all given it was the end of green phase test. Hector knocked out pretty fast in the truth of it-DS Svendson came in to tell them it was almost lights out but saw most of them sitting on their beds reading and Haddock already asleep when it was 9:15pm.

"What's up with him?" Svendson asked curiously pointing to Hector's sleeping form in the bed.

"He said he was tired, Drill Sergeant so he went to sleep around 8:45pm." Thaxter answered respectfully.

"He was a little sluggish today-not bad just slower than usual. He complained of anything?" the DS asked now.

"Mentioned a headache-Furysen noticed him looking a little pale but Haddock said he wasn't much of a sun guy then I said he was sweating however, it wasn't hot at all. He said he was fine and went to sleep within ten minutes of laying down," Thaxter replied.

"He could be getting sick-few other barracks reported the same earlier," Svendson remarked.

"We'll keep an eye on him, Drill Sergeant and report if it gets worse. Looking for coughing, throwing up, shaking I assume?" Tallon offered.

"Yes. Lights out in fifteen minutes boys-tomorrow starts Brown Phase," Drill Sergeant Svendson informed.

"Yes, Drill Sergeant." they replied but quieter so not to wake up Hector, the DS left the barrack while the others prepared themselves for bed. They knew tomorrow would start the same as all the other days had-at 5am for first call then 5:30am for PT. At 9:30-the lights were out and the others laid there until they fell asleep, the remainder of the night was quiet but all keeping an ear out for Hector in case he got worse at all.