As the buzzer goes off, indicating the start of the day, Eva pulls off her sleeping suit and puts on her training suit, preparing for the training of today. The suit sits tightly around her body and it feels pressing. It makes her feel proud to wear the grey jeans and the white jacket with grey stripes on the chest. Being a cadet of the Imperial Academy is something she dreamed of for a long time, and now she's in the middle of it.
As she puts on her white jacket, she sees ACY-4 walking into the dorm, its leg joints softly squeaking.
''Girls, today is day two of the Junior Academy program,'' says the droid with its female voice, ''and it will be a training that heavily requires the state of your physical and motoric condition, so be prepared. Follow me to the training facility if you will.''
As the rest of the team slowly starts to follow ACY-4 out of the barracks, Eva quickly grabs her helmet and catches up with the rest. The helmet is white with a black visor that can slide away into the sides of the helmet with a single tap on the ear section.
''Eva,'' says Peyton as Eva catches up.
''Yeah?''
''Did you notice yesterday that the taskmaster called us a squad?'' Peyton asks.
''I did,'' replies Eva as she puts on her helmet. ''What's wrong with that?''
''A squad is a group of 6,'' Peyton replies, ''but we're with 5. Me, you, Ashara, Roslin, and Ecklund, that's 5.''
''Who would the 6th be?'' asks Eva.
Peyton shrugs. ''I was wondering that too. I looked in the data servers but I couldn't find anything on who the 6th member is.''
''Well, it's probably nothing anyways.''
''How though? Our barracks has a 6th bed, it's clear we're supposed to be a 6-members-team.''
''The other squad that trained with us yesterday also had 5 members, so it seems normal.''
Peyton slowly nods. ''I guess so.''
As they walk on, they end up at the same training hall they were in yesterday where they exercised the marching. Eva can still feel the feet in her shoes burn from marching for countless clicks until they got it right.
The squad of girls follow ACY-4 until they stop in front of the taskmaster in his signature grey officer suit. Behind him is a long obstacle course that consists of walls, hurdles, balance beams, ropes, tunnels, and monkey bars. Eva sees the same squad of yesterday standing next to them in formation too.
''Squads VSRC005 and 006, says the taskmaster. ''I hope you've gotten enough rest because, on the schedule of today, you'll exercise on an obstacle course of 1.5 clicks. If you're injured or sick, tell your team medic about it and she'll take further action.''
''Ready, Ashara?'' whispers Roslin, tilting her head to her.
Ashara nods. That's when Eva notices Ashara is wearing a backpack with the red medicine symbol imprinted on it. The team's medic is ready.
''At the end of the obstacle course, there is a short shooting range,'' points the taskmaster out, and Eva sees in the far distance the shooting range he is pointing at. ''In a time frame of 10 seconds, you have to hit 5 targets with the E-10 blasters you trained with yesterday. Once the 10 seconds are over and you've hit the 5 targets, you're done and you wait for the others to finish. Furthermore, there is an overall time frame of 10 minutes to complete the entire obstacle course and there is a scoring system. Finishing on time earns you 10 points, finishing earlier than 10 minutes is rewarded with extra points, and later than at least 1 minute is punished with points deducted.''
Peyton turns to Eva. ''They love the number 10,'' she whispers.
''Silence,'' says the taskmaster sternly.
''Sir yes sir,'' Peyton acknowledges.
Eva hears her voice trembling a bit.
''When I talk, you're quiet, understood?''
''Understood, sir.''
''Anyways, don't push yourselves too hard beyond your limits,'' advises the taskmaster. ''This obstacle course is merely a warm-up round for the next training exercise.''
He then turns his head to ACY-4. ''Time?''
''8:39,'' the droid replies.
The taskmaster then turns his head back to the cadets. ''At eight forty, you will have 10 minutes to complete the course. Prepare yourself until I give you the mark to proceed.''
For a moment, while they can, the cadets chat with each other while the taskmaster waits for the clock to hit 8:40. Eva stretches her legs and her arms to wake up her muscles a bit, but she can still feel the pain a bit in her arms from yesterday. As Peyton stretches her legs too, Eva notices that she has her datapad with her, magnetized to her belt on her waist and attached with a short cable.
''Shouldn't you put your datapad away?'' asks Eva.
Peyton tilts her head. ''I'm not going anywhere without it,'' she replies.
''Aren't you afraid of getting it damaged?''
''No. It's Peyton Digital Technologies, you know, the tech company that carries my name?'' says Peyton with a smile. ''This is their DTP-8. It's as strong as a beskar brick, so I'm not worried about damages.''
Eva nods. She wonders how Peyton has gotten to the point where she takes her datapad everywhere with her, but it's a trivial thought, so she dismissed it.
''Cadets,'' says the taskmaster. ''Ready, set, go.''
Eva then sprints away, following the rest of her group towards the first obstacle of the course. From a distance she sees the first batch of obstacles she has to overcome: five rows of hurdles to jump over, with each row higher, then a couple of boxes to climb over, and further away some higher, sloped walls. She sees that the obstacle course is wide enough for everyone to run through simultaneously.
As Eva runs on, a couple of meters behind Ashara in front of her, she jumps over the first couple of hurdles and she feels her heart pounding in her chest. She jumps over the next hurdle but she feels the tips of her shoes knocking it over. She almost trips over but she stabilizes herself quickly before she jumps over the next hurdle. Because she nearly fell, she lost a bit of her speed and lags behind the rest of her and the other squad.
As Eva runs on, her heart pounding in her chest, she arrives at the boxes. She sees how Ashara jumped over them, by slowing down, putting her hands on the box and swinging her legs sideways over it, and landing with her feet on the floor. Eva does the same and slows down, puts her hands on the cold box, swings her legs over it, and lands with her feet on the floor. She runs on does the same with the other boxes on her path, and she manages to catch a bit up with the rest of her squad.
As she swings her legs over the last box and lands on the floor with her feet, she runs towards the sloped walls. They are from grey metal, and there are some black, rubber lines on them to provide leverage. She feels her stability shift and she almost falls backwards, but she feels Peyton's cold hands pushing her on her back, and Eva manages to stabilize herself.
''Thanks,'' says Eva as she pants.
Peyton doesn't answer and goes on with the exercise.
''Shift your weight forward when climbing over them,'' advises Peyton. ''Run over them a bit crouched to make yourself lower.''
''Got it,'' replies Eva. ''Where did you learn that?''
''Physics class,'' replies Peyton as she gasps for air. ''I was one of the best.''
Peyton, saying she was one of the best in physics class, reminds Eva a bit of her own performance, and she remembers all the somewhat low grades she saw on her live report on the computers at school. She didn't care much about the grades however. As long as they were good enough for her to reach the next school year, Eva felt satisfied.
''I guess that Ashara was one of the best in medics class?'' Eva asks as they run up another sloped wall.
''Must be,'' Peyton replies as she jumps down the wall. ''I saw on the program that she's getting medical classes here too.''
It intrigues Eva that Ashara is following medical classes at the Academy. She didn't expect the Academy to provide such training to cadets of 13-year-old. Eva assumed they were given to true military personnel who have already completed the Academy, not rookies who just started their training.
Eva runs towards the next sloped wall and she does what Peyton advised her to do. She shifts her weight forward by approaching the wall with her posture leaning forward. As she runs over the wall, holding onto the rubber grips, she lowers herself a bit by bending her legs, and she feels it has become easier to overcome the wall. As she runs to the next wall, even more, sloped than the previous, she does the same.
Eva proceeds to run over staircases made of boxes, runs over wobbly bridges a couple of meters above the floor, and jumps over gaps between boxes, feeling her endurance drain as she tries to catch up with Ashara running in front of her. Nervously sweating, she runs over fixed bridges with boxes blocking the way, jumping over them. After she runs over the last fixed bridge, there is a gap of at least 5 meters between the nearest and the farthest platform and it can only be crossed by swinging with a rope. The rope is suspended between the platforms, so she has to jump to catch it.
Running towards the edge of the box, Eva jumps towards the rope, reaches out, and catches it. Holding tightly onto it, she swings over the gap, lets go of the rope, and lands on the other side. She feels her hands burning as she sees she has to cross several more gaps with a rope. She runs towards the ledge of the platform and jumps again and catches the rope with her hands. They burn and ache as she crosses the gap, nearing the other side, but the pain in her hands gets worse.
She feels her grip loosen and her hands slip away from the rope. Eva desperately tries to keep hanging on, but she loses all of her grip and falls down, hits her chin on the platform's ledge, falls a couple of meters to the floor and lands hard on her stomach. She feels her chin burn excruciatingly, and she flips herself slowly to put less pressure on her painful stomach.
Then she sees something that nails her to the floor. She suddenly sees Eline, her blond hair swaying down, and without her injuries. No bandage around her broken leg and head wounds, no mask on her face, and no heartbeat sensors on her chest. Eline looks worried, sympathising with her pain. Eva starts to gasp for air, trying to stand up as she sees her younger sister standing there a couple of meters away from her.
''Eva!''
She turns her head around and sees Peyton running towards her.
''Eva, are you OK?'' she asks worriedly as she lowers herself.
Eva looks at her and then turns her head back to Eline, but she sees she isn't there. She then gets confused. She saw Eline here, without her injuries, but now she's gone. Then she realises it wasn't Eline. It was her mind who tricked her. It was a hallucination her mind made up. It makes Eva feel sad that Eline is still in the hospital, but the apparition fills up her chest with hatred towards the Rebel Alliance, giving her the power she needs to go on despite the burning pain in her chin and stomach.
''Eva, do you need Ashara?'' asks Peyton as she reaches out with her hand.
''I'm fine,'' says Eva confidently as she takes Peyton's hand.
After she helps her up, Eva and Peyton run around the high boxes, skipping the rope part, and climb up the high box at the end of it, and together they run and climb through the rest of the obstacle course.
''You two took a long time.''
Roslin stands confused at the end of the obstacle course as Eva and Peyton put down their E-10s after firing at the 5 targets at the shooting range. Ecklund stands next to Roslin, her eyes twinkling in the light.
''You're both 3 minutes late,'' says Roslin, her jaws chewing on her gum.
''I fell off,'' replies Eva as she gasps for air, leaning with her hands on her knees. ''Peyton helped me get up.''
''Oh skorvit, are you hurt?'' asks Ashara.
''I fell on my chin and my stomach, but I'm fine,'' Eva replies. The pain in her stomach is gone, but she can still feel her chin burning from the hit on the platform's ledge.
''How many points are we getting,'' asks Peyton as she gasps for air.
''I'm not sure,'' replies Roslin, ''but less than the others I guess.''
It pains Eva to get fewer points than the others, but it's something she accepts. She's confident that soon she will make up for the loss.
''Cadets, form up,'' cries the taskmaster.
Instinctively, Eva forms up and gets in line with Peyton standing next to her, and the chatter disappears.
''The obstacle course was just a warm-up round for the next training subject that heavily requires the techniques you just encountered,'' says the taskmaster. ''For the next training, follow me.''
As the taskmaster starts walking, Eva and her squad follow him in tight formation.
''Ashara,'' whispers Eva as she tilts her head towards her. ''What did you mean with skorvit?''
Ashara giggles silently. ''Pantoran curse word,'' she replies.
Then the squad suddenly stops and Eva nearly bumps into Ashara, but she gets back into formation quickly.
''Cadets, if you feel the floor sink,'' says the taskmaster, ''don't panic, it's part of the training.''
The floor will sink, Eva wonders, and her mind immediately races with the thoughts of the training she heard on the broadcasts that played out on TV. She hears a whirring sound filling the room, and then she feels her floor vibrating. Then the floor starts to descend and goes down.
''What's this?'' asks Ashara confused.
''It's The Well,'' replies Eva excitedly. ''Now this is where the fun begins.''
''I'm not sure if I should find this funny,'' replies Ashara as she looks up. ''I'm getting dizzy from looking up.''
Eva looks up too and sees the floor keeps descending. The pit keeps getting lower, and the floor level is now dazzlingly far up. She then hears the whirring sound stop filling the pit and the floor stops descending further.
''Cadets, this is The Well,'' says the taskmaster loudly, looking over the edge of The Well towards the girls on the bottom. ''This is a specialised facility intended to emphasise reaching victory at all costs. Climb and jump onto moving platforms to reach the top. For this training too, a point system is active. Reach the top three to win, and everyone who loses has to do utility tasks for the Academy.''
''Utility tasks?'' asks Peyton, shifting her head to the others. ''Will we have to mop the Academy or something?''
Eva chuckles a bit. ''Something similar to that.''
''Well then,'' says Roslin. ''Let's make sure at least three of our squad get in the top three and afterwards, we'll help the remaining two.''
''Mopping for the Empire,'' says Ashara, smiling.
Eva giggles.
''Let's do it,'' says Roslin confidently, reaching out her hand for a group huddle.
Eva and the others reach out and put their hands on that of Roslin.
''For the Empire,'' says Roslin.
''For the Empire!'' chant the others.
As Eva retracts her hand, she feels the adrenaline kick in, pumping through her veins and getting her heart to pound in her chest, and she gathers enough confidence and courage to complete The Well and reach the top three.
Rectangular platforms start to come out of the walls and hover above the ground, moving at a continuous pace. They give the cadets hundreds of possible ways to get up to the top of The Well. Eva then sees this exercise as not just to learn reaching victory, but also how to be creative with the path to reach it.
There are many roads that lead to Coruscant. It takes practice for one to see, and sometimes when you don't see one, create a road for yourself.
As the taskmaster gives the sign to go, Eva immediately sees one platform low on the ground, runs towards it and climbs up, determined to reach the top three and win The Well.
''How are they doing?''
Kirbley approaches Captain Carter as he peers down into The Well.
''One squad is halfway in completing the loyalty evaluation, that's for sure,'' replies Carter as he turns his head to Kirbley.
''That's good to hear. How are they physically?'' asks Kirbley as he looks down into The Well, seeing the cadets jump from platform to platform.
''Their performance is excellent,'' replies Carter. ''We've had one light injury but that's it.''
''That's good news.''
''One of the few pieces of good news we've had so far,'' says Carter, shifting his head to him. ''Doc, have you read the security report of Vaulent Air Command?''
''Not yet.''
''It's alarming. In the weeks leading up to the air raid, there have been 6 sightings of X-Wings flying through our airspace.''
''What about after the raid?''
''2 sightings. One over the southern LNG plant and the one of yesterday night over the Luminex Power Station in the west.''
Carter grabs his datapad and shows Kirbley grainy images of X-Wings soaring high through the sky.
''Did the TIEs intercept them?'' asks Kirbley.
''Barely. The X-Wings fled into hyperspace before our TIEs could even see them. Doc, this is not just some Rebel activity, this is intel-gathering, exploration, espionage-, it's apparent they are preparing for more.''
Kirbley nods. ''You're right. We have to ramp up security. How are the upgrades on the Eagleclaw going?''
''Haven't heard a thing from Fondor. I don't expect to hear from them until the upgrades are done.''
The Eagleclaw, the flagship of the fleet with the same name, is one of the last remaining Star Destroyers of the Navy to be upgraded to the Imperial II-class, and it's nearly four years overdue.
''Until the Eagleclaw is ready for deployment, we should intensify air patrols. I'll see if I can get people of the secret service to intervene with our security.''
''Got it, I'll contact Vaulent Air Command soon.''
''Good. Let's get back to work, and don't forget to get back into character.''
Carter chuckles a bit and clears his throat. ''Get back to work civilian, you are on restricted property!''
Kirbley laughs as he's pushed away by Carter, and he gets back to work. Though the brotherly relationship they built up in the past 4 years makes him feel good, Kirbley's heart nervously pounds in his chest each time he thinks of what Carter just told him. The fact that Rebel activity hasn't stopped since the air raid on Vaulent Capital worries him. The Rebel Alliance might not be done yet with Vaulent 6. The air raid of a week ago might have heralded the Rebel war theatre on the moon, and each time he thinks of a possible, next attack, Kirbley feels his heart pound in his chest. The Rebel Alliance is not done yet.
And another thing he is still worried about is Night Force itself. The unknown risks are still there, and though seeing the cadets jump from platform to platform seemingly without a hitch, it doesn't make him feel any better. To keep Night Force safe, Kirbley knows he has to catch up with the errors and discover them before they show any complication to the project. There is still a lot of work to be done.