IE V: DEATHMATCH

The sparkling trail. The panicking driver. The blood. The stone. Everything rushed back yet again.

Rubbing her eyes, Eva feels the exhaustion taking hold of her. It didn't feel like a nightmare. It was just images that flickered in her mind. The stone and the streaming blood kept flashing, and now, Eva suffers the consequences. Again. She can barely hold her eyes open in the early morning. The rest of her squad are already getting up and the ceiling lights brighten in a flash. With a dull, tired feeling, Eva pushes herself off the mattress.

Eva sighs. Dank Ferrik. Who did I upset so much?

At breakfast, even with a tired mind, she can't keep thinking about it.

On the other side of the table sits Ashara, and looking in the corner of her eyes, Eva wonders what she's hiding. But she has no idea how to address it. She could ask her what her new free time rituals are, and why Ashara faked being sick while she was told she drove off on an arrowhead. But she doesn't want to ask. Sipping her cup of cardboard, Eva fears whatever she asks can unleash. In her heart, she knows Ashara has no ill intentions, but in her mind, she knows it isn't always true. It feels conflicting.

Eva sighs with frustration. It feels like her suspicions about Ashara and her constantly stripped night rest hold her hostage. The things that shouldn't be possible are putting her mind on overdrive. Dank Ferrik. What's happening with me?

Then, an officer walks past Eva's table with a holoprojector in his hand. The officer's presence brings her out of her thoughts and she looks up with intrigue. He wears the officer's signature tight, grey suit with a metal pin on the cap. The rest of the squad looks up at him too.

"Commander Verin?" he asks.

Roslin puts down her cup. "Yes sir?"

"A message from Academy Command," he says and puts the holoprojector on the table. "It contains your new training details and it will brief you about what you can expect from today."

"Thank you, sir," Roslin responds, and the officer walks away, giving out more projectors to other tables.

Intrigued, Eva glances at Ashara. New training details? That's interesting.

Ashara grasps the holoprojector and shoves it towards Roslin on the other end of the table. With intrigue, the squad remains silent as Roslin activates the holoprojector and puts it in the middle of the table for all of them to see.

The projector flashes blue and starts rendering the symbol of Academy Command, the same as the Galactic Empire.

"Dear cadets of the Night Force program," starts a male voice-over. "This message is forwarded to you to brief you about your renewed training details. Due to development in the Imperial war effort, the Army is offering a training course that involves trench- and ground warfare. You will train manoeuvres such as Flanking, Pincer, and the Echelon Formation to prepare you and your squad for the battlefields. This training will be done alongside Vaulent's Army Infantry Corps, Division 606."

That last line makes Eva feel a rush of surprise like a shock. Hearing her new training course makes her feel a little excited. Her pupils grow, interested in what this new training course will bring her.

"It is challenging, hard, but most important of all, rewarding. However, this Army training course is a highly experimental part of your training in an already experimental program. Hereby, the participation of your squad in the Army training is voluntary and not obligated. Commander, your new orders, should you choose to accept it, is to report at your ACY at the TAB before 10:00 this morning, and hand in this puck. Your ACY will then guide you through the rest of the process. Dear commander, the decision to go is yours. Good luck."

The symbol of Academy Command disappears and Eva's left without words. She leans forward and looks at Roslin, wondering what her call will be.

"So the decision is mine," Roslin starts, looking up at the squad. "What do we think? Stay home or move out?"

Peyton leans forward. "Move out. The manoeuvres sound astral. We've never had that before."

Ecklund nods with a hum. "Better that than The Well again."

Ashara nods. "Yeah. Field training sounds exhilarating and fun to me."

Roslin shrugs. "I'm sure it's not going to be that fun though. The infantries are doing one hell of a dirty and dangerous job. It's easy to get injured on the field and suffer from the cold."

Ashara chuckles. "Sounds challenging to me. I like it!"

Eva chuckles. "You just want cadets to suffer from dislocated arms and broken legs there, don't you?"

Ashara bursts into laughter. "It finally sounds like some proper challenge. I'm bored treating you all in the Medbay or the transporter for some burn wounds. Being the real fieldmedic sounds astral to me."

"Alright," says Roslin. "You're right about it being not-so-boring. Peyton, how many times did we go down The Well?"

"55 times," Peyton responds.

Roslin nods. "Time for something new and challenging then. Are we all done with breakfast?"

"Yes sir," they all say one after the other.

"VSRC006, let's move out then," says Roslin.

"Yes sir."

Eva stands up and follows her squad towards the barracks. Arriving there, she packs the little stuff she needs. When she joined the Academy, she didn't have much anymore to begin with anyway, so she's done quickly. As she puts a box with markers in her backpack, her eyes land on the stone. It's sitting on the nightstand. For a brief moment, her thoughts convince her to take it with her. As her hand swipes over the coarse surface of the stone, Eva then stops herself. The sparkling trail, the panicking driver, the blood - she's been having these images flashing past her in her sleep ever since she took hold of it. She might get liberated from her stripped nightrests if she keeps her distance from it, and so, Eva zips her backpack shut and leaves it on the nightstand. Besides, it's field training on an Army base. Not a great place to store an antique thing anyway. So, Eva leaves the stone behind. It's much safer here than with her, and her nightrests might be better off without it.

Within a minute, Eva follows her squad out of the barracks with a packed backpack and walks towards the Trooper Armament Bay. With the caffeine rushing through her veins, Eva feels excited. It's a sudden change in her training schedule, and it seems like Academy Command has thrown everything in a whole new direction. Trench- and ground warfare is so much different than what she's been training in The Well and the SimArena. Those training are more focused on urban operations, but on the battlefield, there are no buildings to raid or stable pavement to run over. It's going to be slicky, wet, cold, and muddy. That's a lot different, and Eva can't wait to see what they're up against in the mud.

At Trooper Armament Bay, Eva gets her E-10 blaster pushed into her hands by ACY-4. After that, the droid leads the squad through the corridors towards the hangar bay of the Academy. An ITT troop transporter is standing by with its engine already rumbling. Before she steps into the cabin though, ACY holds her arm and Eva turns around.

"Eva," says the droid. "Be careful."

Its female voice sounds monotone, but amidst her words, Eva can hear a hint of concern.

"I will, Acy," Eva assures. "You're staying?"

"Affirmative. I am ordered to stay behind."

Eva nods. "Okay then. Could you be on the lookout for me whenever Eline tries to call me?"

The droid nods. "Affirmative. I will forward all of her calls to you. Good luck."

Eva smiles. "Thanks, Acy."

And after that, Eva boards the ITT and leaves the Academy behind, on her way to a new adventure. Yawning, Eva hopes this will clear her mind of her distracting thoughts. Hopefully, the Army training will be so intense that her mind will not have a second to dwell on her suspicions about Ashara. Hopefully, it will be so exhausting that her mind will be too tired to even think about the stone and the blood of the Rebel. Hopefully, that is what she needs. Even with a tired mind, she remains excited about all of this. This is going to be so astral.

On the far outskirts of the Capital, far away from the paved streets, Eva stands in line. Around her stand many cadets, including her squad. Over 20 other cadets have signed themselves up for this new Army training. Everyone stands in perfect posture to make their first impression better than ever. Feet a meter apart, backs straight, chins up, and arms tightly crossed behind the back. Eva ensures her posture isn't off protocol and buries her boots into the mud. The empty field they're standing on is surrounded by tall trees of the forest. The sky is covered in clouds and Eva shivers from the freezingly cold air, and there's mud everywhere.

One of the Night Force directors steps forward. He wears a grey coat with his hands in his pockets. It's Kirbley, the main guy of the program. Next to him stands a person she doesn't recognise, but what she sees instantly is that the man is from the Infantry Corps. His armour is mud-grey, his helmet covers his head except for his face, and he has a respirator mask on his chest that he can put on his mouth. He also wears a cape to keep mud from gathering within the gaps of his armour. The man's body armour is rustic and by far not as shiny as Stormtrooper armour. This trooper is doing the real, dirty jobs no Stormtrooper would do.

Next to the unknown trooper stands some other soldiers wearing the same armour. Eva sees they're all waiting for something. Probably orders.

"Cadets, I thank you for your participation in this training course," Kirbley starts. "I imagine it's a daring leap from the clean and urban Academy training to this. So I applaud you for your bravery."

Eva notices Kirbley is careful. It's good that he is. She remembers from the briefing that her new training details are highly experimental.

"That is all I'm going to say," continues Kirbley, and he turns to the trooper standing next to him. "Lieutenant, they're all yours now."

The trooper nods. "Thank you, Doctor."

He steps forward. The mud splashes onto his boots and the man gazes at the cadets with stern eyes. Eva follows him with her eyes, and she can tell that he's seen a lot already. His cold eyes betray the experiences he has gone through. This is a real soldier and it makes her heart speed up.

"Kids, welcome to Malmstrom Training Ground, a field of mud that's not to be trifled with," he says. "I am Lieutenant Amitash of the 606th Division and I'll be your Taskmaster. Vaulent's Infantry Corps has assigned me to teach you the art of ground warfare. Normally, we train cadets into troopers from the age of 18 or higher depending on their failures. With that, I mean dropouts from the Stormtrooper program, the Navy, ISB, or any other branch of the military, for insubordination, incompetence, or anything else."

He stops in his tracks. "We fight in the most dangerous battles. 40% of all our casualties were failures whose Stormtrooper armour didn't fit. 50% of our dropouts couldn't face the horrors our battles bring. This is not to shame any of you - it's to warn you about the dangers the Infantry Corps faces on the battlefields every day."

Hearing the statistics makes a shiver run down her spine. 50% of the dropouts did so because of fear. It's clear that it won't be easy and she fears that it might even be more than she can handle.

"You are Academy cadets, trained in sleek and clean facilities with barely any armour. In my eyes, you're all spoiled kids."

He stops in his tracks next to her and smacks Eva on the shoulder. Her heart plummets in her chest.

"These pyjamas you're all wearing won't protect you from the cold and damp environment here."

Startled, Eva glances at Lieutenant Amitash with a hint of frustration combusting in her chest. The hell? Just smacking me to make a point?

Eva catches her composure and looks away from him in an instant to stare straight ahead. She puts her arms back behind her back and crosses them.

Amitash scoffs. "And I have to teach you kids to fight in the mud. Even your own director is standing there with his hands buried in his pockets because he's cold."

Eva smiles and tries to hold in her giggles. She shifts her eyes and sees Kirbley still has his hands buried in the pockets of his coat. Kirbley smiles and lets out a sigh.

"Shut it, please," Kirbley responds.

Amitash chuckles. "Back to business. Your Academy suits are useless in these environments. So, we've issued new armour sets that real Army troopers wear. It will shield you from the mud, the water, and the elements. We have your armour ready to be worn at Trooper Resources. We want you standing by with your new armour within ten minutes, and we're doing it in groups of three squads, one after the other. After you've strapped on your armour, you will dump your old uniform and your belongings on the flatbed, which will carry them to your new barracks. Is that understood?"

"Sir yes sir!" Eva chants with the rest.

And ten minutes later, Eva steps out of the Trooper Resources building of the camp with her new armour suit strapped on. Eva peers down and checks her armour sets. Above her tight, black body glove sits the battle armour for her chest, shoulders and upper arms. Below her knees sit two shin guards and on her waist she wears a tight utility belt from where her E-10 blaster hangs. In her hands, she holds her new helmet. It's made from tough durasteel. It shields her head from debris that might rain down. To protect her face, there's a goggle that can be pulled down to protect her eyes. There's a respirator mask too, sitting on her chest that filters out toxins in the air when it's pulled up to her mouth. This sudden change feels so much different. It feels like she's going to face a monster of a battle, and with all of this, Eva feels more confident about herself than if she had worn her Academy suit. For some reason, it makes her feel much better. Maybe it's because the armour looks tougher, but whatever it is, Eva digs it.

A flatbed on the back of a speeder truck is filled with backpacks and Eva throws hers onto the pile, and after that, the Army training immediately begins. There's no time to be wasted, and within a minute, Eva stands in a tight circle around him. Lieutenant Amitash glances around at the cadets, scanning them with his cold eyes.

"I'm not going to throw you into the Rancor's pit yet," he starts. "That will be tomorrow when we'll start training strategy. We'll start with a game of deathmatch. I want to see your marksmanship, agility, and everything else you should have already learned by now. Prove yourself that you can put up a fight and work together as a team. Not as a squad, but as a team because I'm going to split all of you up into two teams. Deathmatch is just deathmatch. Fight 'till the end and shoot everyone down of the opposing team."

Just deathmatch? I've been doing that all my career.

Eva feels like this will be just another day at the Academy. Nothing too extremely hard. Just a game of deathmatch.

Mere minutes later, the deathmatch rages and Eva blasts down one cadet of the opposing team. The cadet, a boy, is stunned and collapses with a scream. She follows Roslin ahead of her and jumps down into the trench, and with a pounding heart, Eva draws her blaster. Eva sees another soldier emerging into the trench and notices he's an enemy. The red bicep band tells it, and Eva hits him in the shoulder and then in the face and he collapses with a thud, splashing in the mud. He's gonna sleep all day with that stun round in his jaws.

She walks on through the trench with her blaster drawn. The sky fills with flashes from blasters and the wails of cadets getting hit. Luckily, they're all stun rounds. They're annoying, but the worst they can do is punch one into unconsciousness.

Eva glances over her shoulder. "Peyt, you're with me?"

"I'm on your back," Peyton responds, following her. "Roslin and Ashara are going in the opposite direction."

"Got it," Eva responds. "Perhaps we can box the others in."

"We can try," Peyton responds.

Suddenly, a shot from above hits Eva's chest and she screams. A shockwave ripples through her spine and Eva collapses to the ground with pain in her chest. She can barely hold the outburst of fire and she clenches her jaws.

"Dank Ferrik!" Peyton screams and fires.

Eva pushes herself up with shuddering lungs and she sees a cadet on top of the trench getting hit in the shoulder by Peyton. The cadet screams and falls into the trench, slamming his back into the metal floor plating.

Eva pushes herself up and Peyton gives her a hand. It still feels like her chest is on fire. Luckily, it isn't all too bad, and Eva manages to bite through the pain.

"Eva, I'm so sorry," Peyton stammers. "I wasn't covering your back. I was aiming at the trench, not above. I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine," Eva snaps, and she smirks. "Not your fault."

Peyton nods, and Eva clenches her blaster and walks on. This time, Eva also keeps watching whatever might look down from above. Eva realises this game of deathmatch is holding nasty secrets that can get her shot. She hadn't thought of trenches being a second layer of the battlefield. It makes this deathmatch a tricky, three-dimensional war, and Eva forgot completely about it. It's a little thing she didn't think of, and Eva realises she might have underestimated it. This game of deathmatch might not be just any game of deathmatch.

Eva looks at the screen of her wristlink. It shows how many of the opposing team are still standing: 18 remain. Blast it, where are they?

Eva turns around the corner in a trench, and further away, she stumbles upon a large mortar pit. There, Eva notices seven enemy cadets standing on the edge of it and firing. She raises her finger in the air, signalling to Peyton that they have to remain quiet, and they sneak in on them.

"Oh damn, that must've hurt," says one of them, chuckling.

The others chuckle too. They're far too distracted by the action going on on the surface.

On the other side of the mortar pit is another trench that goes further away, and there, Eva sees two other cadets with drawn blasters emerging into view. They wear blue biceps. They're on her team, and Eva signals with her finger to them that they have to be quiet. There are enemy troops. The cadets on the other side, two boys, nod, and sneak in on them. Together, Eva boxes them in, and as they come closer, she glances at the boys and nods. They nod back and Eva's finger crawls to the trigger and fires.

"Holy shit!" one boy shouts, turning around, but before he can comprehend what's happening, Eva and the rest mow them down from behind.

All seven collapse to the ground, stunned with over a dozen stun rounds. They won't be waking up in an hour, and Eva chuckles at their stupidity. They didn't even care to protect their backs.

The other boys walk towards her.

"Great job," one compliments, and he gives her a fistbump.

Eva smiles and glances at her wristlink. Seven are still remaining - no, six.

"There are still six to go," says Eva.

The boy leans in. "We've cleared the south half of the system. You did north?"

"Yeah," Eva nods. "We've cleared everything."

Peyton joins in and glances at her wristlink. "We should check the surface. Six-, five remain."

"Yeah, they should be easy to find, then," the boy responds.

Then it's over soon.

Eva and the others crawl out of the mortar pit. Her eyes are immediately drawn to a sea of blue bicep bands. Her team is swarming the battlefield. She notices they've lost almost half of their power, but the enemy's team is dwindling down quicker to the bottom. She looks at her wristlink again.

"Four now," says Eva.

She scans around, looking for the remaining enemies. Then, she catches a glimpse of movement behind a shrub. Eva raises her blaster and fires. The blaster bolt pierces the shrub and someone from behind it screams. It's a girl, collapsing on the ground with a red band.

"One down, three to go," Eva remarks.

One of the two boys walks on top of the mortar pit. His eyes seem to catch something and he raises his blaster and fires.

"Two now."

Eva gazes around, trying to find a glimpse of the remaining two. The air goes quiet as everyone of her team is trying to find the last man standing. Suddenly, Eva hears a screech on her left. That's one, and as Eva glances at her wristlink, she sees there's still one remaining.

"The last one!" Eva shouts.

Eva starts walking around with her blaster drawn with Peyton and the other boy next to her shoulders. She gasps for air as excitement rushes through her veins. It feels like her nerves are burning. They're on the edge of winning.

"Where the hell is he?" Peyton asks, sweeping her surroundings with her blaster.

Eva finds the wreckage of a tank, half buried in the mud with holes covering every bit of its hull. That's a good hiding spot, and suspecting an enemy to be behind it, Eva runs around it with her blaster raised, but she sees no one. No one was hiding behind it and she curses under her breath. Blast it. Where could he be?

Eva glances at the wreckage and she figures that a higher vantage point can help her find the last man standing. Eva puts her hand on the hull and climbs the wreckage. The metal hull squeaks under her boots as she scans the battlefield. Her eyes dart around. Trenches, boulders, shrubs, trees, but it's desolate. The blue bands scatter across the battlefront, trying to find the last man.

Suddenly, her eyes land on a pillbox and in the gun opening, Eva catches a glimpse of movement. It's a shadow, hiding in the pillbox for everyone. Eva chuckles as her gunsight lands on it. Gotcha.

Eva fires and the blaster shot shrieks through the gun opening and hits the shadow. A scream echoes out of the pillbox and Eva looks at her wristlink. Zero. She bursts into happiness.

"Got him!" Eva shouts.

She looks down and Peyton bursts and cheers. Eva slides down the wreckage and gives Peyton a high five.

"Great job!" Peyton compliments and she entangles her arms around Eva.

Eva smiles and embraces Peyton. "You think we made a good first impression?"

"Absolutely," Peyton responds, and she lets go of her embrace, "but-, we might've underestimated it a little."

They chuckle. So, there's a lot to learn and adapt to. Eva recognises this game of deathmatch has its secrets she learned about the hard way. But the game went well. They've won and that counts. However, it's not a game that sets the tone for the entire Army training. Eva knows that today is just a moment of peace before the violent storm strikes. Tomorrow, when they're going to learn real strategy, the feeling of triumph is surely going to change. No more easy victories. She might lose real hard here, and she hopes this victory won't make her underestimate the rest of her training. But the win of today makes the courage rush through her veins, and she's ready to take the rest.

As the late evening arrives, Eva sits with just her tank top and soft panties on her bed. The barracks feels much different than what she was used to. At the Academy, the mattresses were stiff but she slept fine on them. There was always heating except for the morning to wake them up in an instant. And it was all inside an enormous building. The outside elements were far outside. Now, Eva can hear the wind blowing outside. The barracks is just a steel barn on the fields, and the heating is done with an old gasburner. Roslin has set it to the maximum so at least it's warm inside, but it's by far not as luxurious as what she was used to. Surely, the gasburner is going to run out of fuel to burn. Even though it's all downgraded, it still feels like an adventure. It's fun.

As the lights go off and the barrack floods in darkness, Eva pulls the bedsheets closer to herself and closes her eyes.

Suddenly, Eva startles and wakes herself up in shock. She gets up and slams her head into the bed above her. A shock of pain ruptures in her head and Eva drops down onto her mattress, reaching for her forehead. It feels as if her skill is splitting open. As she rolls around, groaning in pain, Eva feels her tank top is wet. She puts her hand on her chest and it feels sweaty and cold. The sweat sticks to her hand and Eva feels her heart is racing like hell.

It happened again. She saw them. The images of the stone and the Rebel's blood streaming over the street rushed back. This time, it was worse. It rushed back with violence. Never did she wake herself up with shock rippling through her nerves and sweat all over her body. It was always just images that flashed by, but now, it was a nightmare. She is clueless about why. She thought that leaving that stone at the Academy would rest her mind. Apparently, it didn't work. Somehow, it has made it even worse.

Who the hell did I anger so much?

Something is going on. Something is taking her hostage. Eva can feel it, but she can't put her finger on it. What the hell is happening?