~Hunter's POV~

It turns out that Fort Riddari is in the city, from Berkton, the total travel time as about forty-five minutes. Boy, Dad was not kidding when he said that as soon as you step off the bus things happen quickly. Not more than five seconds after the bus parked, we had the drill sergeants screaming at us to get off the bus and move it to the building. I remembered what my Dad told me; just keep my mouth shut and do as I'm told, only speak when spoken too. If I had to take a guess, there were about two hundred people lined up in the central building. After lining up, it was endless loads of paperwork and waiting around like at MEPS. I was eternally grateful they had us line up according to age and our service job, so mine was sixteen and infantry. My group of people only had twenty to thirty people, so we filed through quickly.

It was everything Dad said it would be. Our bags we brought from home were taken to the barrack we would be in, we were lined up for shots, haircuts, and receiving all our uniforms and other gear. This took a few hours to complete and after that we were instructed to take everything out of our large bags so the officers could make sure we had everything we needed. Each day at Reception Battalion was something different and long to get through. Everyone had to adjust to getting yelled at, fast meal times, getting up at 5 am and being in bed by 9 pm. Wasn't hard for me, I was used to being up that early and in bed by 10:30-11 pm, so an earlier sleep time didn't bother me in the slightest.

Reception week was mainly to prepare us for Basic; it's also where we set up our military personnel files, paychecks, and all the legal aspects. It all lasted four days and the on that fourth day, we received our dog tags and told to make sure we had everything ready to leave on another bus for Fort Draco, or at least that's where I was going. My tags read;

HADDOCK, HUNTER
025/67/3814
AAF-A
O NEG
NEOPAGAN

Yep. My name, social, that I work for the army of the Acrhian Armed Forces, my blood type, and religion. All things to identify me if I should get wounded or die on the battlefield. I got maybe three minutes to call home and talk to Dad and let him know that reception was over and we were leaving for Fort Draco, he reminded me that he was proud of me and to check in the next time I could. I managed a text to Mom, Caitlyn, Audrey, and all my friends letting them know that I was okay and loving camp so far. I said I missed them and then powered off my phone to get on the bus again.

(Fort Draco)

Every recruit who arrived here nine weeks ago was here to be trained as a soldier. Maybe not everyone as infantry but we all came here for Basic. As the buses unloaded all the soldiers-to-be, we were separated into companies by age. Each group held recruits between the ages of sixteen to twenty-five. With all that done, there were four companies total containing ninety-six recruits per. If I did my math right, that meant there were three hundred and eighty-four people about to be trained in BCT. Once with a company, mine was named Plasma Fire with Major Harry Andersen as the commanding officer, we were taken to our barracks; ours was. Each group broke down into platoons that held twenty-four recruits each and then broke down again to squadrons of twelve each.

My platoon was under the command of Second Lieutenant Asher Holgerson with the adopted name of Alpha Hooligan Platoon. Our platoon was made up of four, twelve soldier squadrons. I was on Striker One with Sergeant First Class Richard Grimborn as the drill sergeant and fun turn of events that his younger brother, Staff Sergeant Victor Grimborn is the drill sergeant for Striker Two. There were four platoons that made up Plasma Fire company. Alpha Hooligan, Bravo Berserker, Charlie Conqueror, and Delta Nightmare platoons so there were eight squads between the four platoons. I thought it was cool; Asher told us we would only ever need to worry about was our platoon though. I guess if we got deployed at all, we would go as a company but remain in our platoons for barracks and what not.

So, reaching our barracks, the company split up into their platoons to take up the four barracks used they were only big enough to hold no more than twenty people each, and each platoon had twenty-four, so it worked out nicely. Alpha Hooligan used up barracks A-One and A-Two. The first thing we were instructed to do was pick a battle buddy. The requirements were to choose the same gender and someone who you could get along with for the remainder of training and drill weekends, this person was becoming your new best friend, and if one of you failed, both got punished.

I paired up with someone I had seen at MEPS, the bus station, and Reception Battalion who I talked to a little bit when we had the time. His name is Treyden Fury, sixteen like myself and joined to get away from his annoying family. I slept top bunk, and Treyden took the bottom, we were two of the first pairs to get our beds made and personal items put away. Next to us was another set of battle buddies; Theodore Vollan and Andrew Kingston. Theodore insisted we call him Theo because he hated using his full name, which was all right with us. Can you believe that all that happened on day one of being at Fort Draco? Yeah, crazy right?

Thankfully, we didn't start training until the next day. The rest of the first day there was spent getting a tour, learning how every day would go, and shockingly, getting to know one another. We sat in the grass going around the circle of Striker One to give names, age, and why we decided to join. I learned in that activity that Theo was seventeen with black hair-crew cut style and brown eyes; he joined because he wanted to help people. Andrew was sixteen, going on seventeen in August. Andrew had medium brown hair, almost entirely shaved with honey brown eyes and he joined because he was following in his father's footsteps like me.

Others in our squad were Conner Hayes; eighteen, Nikolas Manning; nineteen, Jay Michaels; seventeen, Zander Radco; sixteen-little younger than me. For the girls, there are Elizabeth Campbell; sixteen, Danielle Greenhalgh; eighteen, Amanda Christy; seventeen, and Amber Young; seventeen. A-One barrack held the males of Striker One and Two while A-Two barrack held the females of Striker One and Two, there was no cohabitation between genders when it came to sleeping arrangements. During dinner we had to sit according to platoon, I noticed that this is how they kept track of us. Clever way to do it too. So during dinner, we continued to talk about our lives and get to know one another since we would all be together from now on as infantrymen and women, might as well get to know the team.

The next nine weeks sucked. So Basic was divided into three phases. Black, Silver, and Red. AIT was Green and White, the two phases for the four weeks of Advanced Training we'd get in a week or so I was told. Black phase is mainly classroom training; learning history, laws, commands, protocol, marching, physical training every morning, and more. There was also an end of the phase test which was horrible and I was glad to be able to go to sleep that night after it was over. I passed though, so cool for that. Apparently, I have one of the highest times in physical training, and I've come to learn that I'm stronger than I thought I was. So Black phase lasted three weeks total, and then we moved to the next one.

Silver phase was two weeks of weapons training; learning the types, how to maintain, assemble, disassemble, load, aim, and fire. It was interesting, to say the least. We spent the better half of those fourteen days learning and practicing, the last two or so day was the end of phase test and our marksmanship qualifier. This meant we got tested on how good we could shoot and it was graded in three levels; Expert, Sharpshooter, Marksman. I made Expert because I'm fast and exceptionally accurate with several types of guns and grenades. Treyden, Theo, and Andrew also made Expert, and maybe four others did too, but the rest were between Sharpshooter and Marksman. Silver phase wasn't bad, just exhausting and loud. At that point in training, the month was July, and we only had three weeks left.

Now here we are in August and the end of three long weeks of working in different types of weather, mission scenarios, terrain changes, obstacle courses, and so much more. Our last exercise was two days in the woods under a war situation where the drill sergeants had a blast acting as enemies to try and take us down. The field training exercise is where I found out that it was our end of phase test and that I was a damn good leader, those were Major Holgerson's exact words. Why? He never told me why he thought that, but I suppose I should take the compliment and be proud of it? It might have had something to do with the fact that when we got pinned down with enemies closing in, I came up with a genius idea to split the platoon into four man or woman teams and break apart so the officers couldn't track us as a large group.

It had been an idea. I never expected it to work and give us the advantage to capture drill sergeants Richard and Victor as 'targets' and drag them out of the woods. We acted as if we were on an infiltration mission to capture targets when the original task was to just escape without being hit by a gun-fake mind you, they were red paintballs, and if you got hit, you had to treat it as if it were a real wound or radio for medevac. It was an exercise to see how we did without being instructed-us running a mission on our own and we did amazing I guess, that's why I figured Asher complimented.

Another thing of this past week was working on our graduation ceremony marching and making sure our uniforms were ready for the event. We would march out in ACU and beret for the first half for the service and then in our class B for the second half which was the family day. I had no idea that was a thing; it meant Dad could come to the base to see me graduate and then hang out for a bit. The problem was that fell on a Sunday when Dad would never be able to get away from the house without Mom and Caitlyn wondering where he was going. So this was my dilemma now because if I had to tell them, then I might as well tell them all. Wouldn't this be so much fun and I fully expected to be scolded and yet, I didn't care as much as I used to because there was nothing they could do to change it now.

So yeah, that's been my last nine weeks and said graduation was soon because today is Friday, so I better call Dad tonight and let him know. I wasn't sure if he already knew or not but I had access to my phone finally, and I'm sure he'd like a check in. Over the last nine weeks, we only got to use our phones to call home during Personal Time at the end of each phase, so that sucked. Right now, we were all sitting down dinner and thankful that too.

"Can you believe we're graduating tomorrow! Gods, these past nine weeks flew by!" Amber from Striker One squealed with delight.

"Speak for yourself, those two days in the woods sucked," Conner retorted with a huff.

"Hey, we survived didn't, we?" Jay mentioned.

"Only because Haddock came up with that plan to break off give them several targets instead of one big one, plus being smaller made it harder for them to find us," Theo reminded.

"Oh, come on guys. I didn't do anything special, when you're pinned down as a large group of enemies around you don't move in bulk, you get smaller and hide easier," I stated. My squad had been going on about what I did since Thursday when the training scenario ended. Even drill sergeants Richard and Victor had congratulated me on a job well done. I sighed heavily and closed my eyes; I honestly didn't have much of an appetite right now.

"You okay, Hunter?" I heard Treyden ask me.

"Yeah, I'm okay. A bit tired I suppose," I replied. Tomorrow would be our last graduation ceremony practice, and things apparently have changed from what we got told first. Saturday was the family day; we would march out in ACU and get introduced to the relatives or friends, then could spend the day with them until 8 pm. Sunday was now graduation day, where families would be allowed back. We would march out in our class B's, after that, we could spend a little more time with loved ones before others who weren't staying for infantry training which was the AIT portion, four more weeks of training and then we'd get our station assignments.

I didn't end up eating much through dinner, half my chicken and a few bites of potatoes and corn but then pushed the tray forward and put my head down on my arms. I had a lot on my mind; I'd be lying to say I wasn't nervous to call my father and have him invite Mom, Caitlyn, Audrey, Shane, and my friends to Fort Draco for family day and graduation. It would mean they learn that I wasn't doing AJROTC summer camp, that I joined the AAF-AI Army on active duty. When dinner was over at 7 pm, we were released back to our barracks to relax a little and make phone calls home to see who was coming tomorrow.

I pulled my phone out and stepped outside the barrack while pulling up Dad's contact then press the call button, I placed it to my ear and waited through the rings. After three, he answered with, "Hunter, so happy you called. How goes camp, your mother and sister would like to know?" This meant I was on speakerphone. Great.

"It's fine, Dad. Working hard as always, tired tonight so I might turn in early, but I thought I'd call and let you know that tomorrow is a family day and Sunday is graduation from the program. You don't have to come, just thought I'd let you know," I said calmly.

"We'll absolutely come, Hunter!" That was Caitlyn's happy voice, couldn't blame her I suppose. We hadn't seen one another in two months, and she wouldn't likely see me again until I was allowed to go back home until having to report to drill or however it was going to work. "What time is it at?"

"Officers urge families to arrive at 9 am for the reveal ceremony at 10 am, then you'll be allowed out of the stands to see me until 2000 hours, sorry, 8 pm," I replied dryly. "For graduation on Sunday, ceremony at 11 am then you can stay through until 7 pm."

"That sounds wonderful, son. I can't wait to see you again," Salvatore said with a joyous smile in his voice. "Are the stands labeled according to which group you're in, we want to get a good view," he inquired.

"Yeah, I'll text it to you in a bit, Dad. Oh, and you can invite Shane, Audrey, Fisher, Heather, Renee, and Travis too. I guess Eddie and Drew as well," I sighed.

"Your sister is messaging them now to ask. Are you all right, Hunter? You don't sound like yourself tonight," my mother asked.

"I'm all right, Mom. Little tired, it's been a busy week," Hunter replied with a yawn.

"Go get some sleep, son and we'll see ya tomorrow. Caitlyn got responses from Shane, Audrey, Fisher, and Heather. I'll have Audrey and Shane with me. I take it that when driving in, there will be parking attendants?" Sal wondered.

"Mmhm. Come to the main gate; there will be someone there to park the car for you and then just follow everyone else into the stands. You likely won't hear from me until tomorrow when you see me. Phones have to be off at 9 pm, so it's goodnight I guess?" I said.

"That's okay, Hunter. We're glad you're okay, and we'll see you tomorrow morning," Sal crooned. "I love you, son,"

"Love you too, Dad," I replied and hung up before Caitlyn or Mom could say anything. I sent a quick message to Audrey telling her I was exhausted and would see her tomorrow, that I loved her and wished her sweet dreams. After that, I send Dad a text with the information he had asked for: ~4 companies total. I'll be in Plasma Fire company, Alpha Hooligan platoon. We'll be center-left of podium. C ya 2marrow. -Hunter~ I powered down my phone, used the bathroom, changed into my sleepwear, then got on my bed and knocked out fifteen minutes later. I was going to tell them, rather show the truth. I extended the invitation; the rest was up to them.