"Nine, Cover off left. Seven, The right... Ready... Move" One of the troopers ordered moments before he kicked the door in. The team of three went straight to clearing their area's,

"Nine, Clear"

"Seven, Clear"

"Room Clear, Moving to the next" The trooper in charge announced as the group stacked up to the next door,

"Same as last, Nine the left, Seven the Right... Ready... Move", Again the trio moved and began clearing the room,

As nine began clearing the left he ran through the steps in his head,

"far left, Pan right, One fluid motion", reaching the end of the room he paused and took a breath, not noticing the figure stepping out of the shadow drenched corner behind him with his blaster at the ready.

"NINE, YOUR SIX" Seven called from across the room, dropping to one knee and firing. The ambushing figure was struck in the head and chest, which sent him to the ground with a thud. As Seven's focus changed from his area to Nines, he failed to see another attacker emerge from his left. But unlike the previous attacker, this one didn't waste anytime and immediately began firing. All of its shots found their mark on Seven, as they struck a loud siren blared and a voice came over the trio's comm's

"Simulation over,"

---------

Nine slammed his head against the wall before taking his helmet off,

"Jager you stupid son of a bitch, Thats the third time so far.... How the fuck did i get stuck with you..." The trooper in the middle of the room shouted as he threw his helmet at Jager.

"Sorry Lieutenant, Wont happen again..." Jager replied, giving the angered Lieutenant a quick salute as he stormed out of the room. Seven slowly got back onto his feet and took his helmet off and walked over to Jager

"Salright buddy, Evaluation isn't for another week...",

Jager looked up at Kyle Sandrosa's smirking face,

"Why the fuck are you so happy?... you got shot." Jager asked as he got back on his feet,

"Why?... Because if you mess up twice more i am not paying my bar tab. for the next year... thats why" Kyle replied giving Jager a slap on the back before adding,

"We cant all be good at this... why do you think they have R-tard Group?"

Jager paused and turned to kyle, "I am not getting thrown into R Group... I'll sooner desert".

Jager picked up the helmet that was thrown at him and headed out of the training room, handing his equiptment back to the quartermaster at the door. The two troopers left the training facility and headed back towards the barracks. As they got closer Kyle stopped,

"Shit, just forgot I had an appointment... Gotta run. Dont beat yourself up"

before Jager could say goodbye, Kyle had already disappeared,

"Where does he keep going." Jager wondered momentarily before he continued on his way.



===========

The next morning Jager and his group stood with B group, D group and R group outside another section of the training facility. A cool chill was in the air which was a welcome change to the heatwave that the training facility had endured for the past month. After what seemed like an hour, Lieutenant Drezel, B groups executive officer, appeared in the doorway to the facility and headed towards them, Followed by the EX-O's of D and R group.

"Alright, Gather around" Drezel called as he approached B group,

"Here's how this is going to work today... The Facility behind me is modeled after a small settler compound, It'll be used in training you in the tactics and maneuvers of associated with fireteams. Each on of you will be paired up with a member from each group, which will form a fire team of three. You've all sat through the lectures and watched the vid's about this... now we're putting you to the test, this will also count towards your evaluation next week, so don't fuck it up" he paused and began staring at Jager,

"When i call your name, Move to the ordinance window and group with your squad." and with that the Lieutenant began calling out names.

One by one B group, which was comprised of about thirty troopers, slowly diminished, as did the two other groups. Jager's name wasn't called till last, by then D group was empty but R group still had two troopers in it.

"Guess this is for yesterday, huh" Jager said as he walked past the Lieutenant,

"Guess this is for yesterday, huh Lieutenant" Drezel corrected

As Jager moved towards the ordinance window he watched his two other members of his newly formed fireteam walking, watching them he remember why they called it R-tard group. The group itself comprised of troopers who had failed basic, some had only failed once... others had failed more then that, or who's entry test scores only just passed, Hence why it was referred to as R-tard group.

Jager sat in the ready room, which was designed to look like the interior of a drop ship, getting suited up. The "Trip", as it was refereed to even though the occupants didn't actually move anywhere, was quiet. The troopers from R group were busy checking their equipment set.

Jager placed his helmet under the seat and took off the piece of Armour that covered the right arm. One of the other troopers was puzzled by this,

"Hey... uh.. Why arent you wearing your helmet?"

Jager paused, "Dont like it... slightly claustrophobic and i enjoy the fresh air"

The two troopers from R group began laughing, one managed to control himself long enough to reply

"So.. So when you get shot in the face and die, then you'll wish you had one on."

Again Jager paused, "Do you really think that plastic buckets gonna stop you from dieing?, Because if you do.. keep wearing it"

before the conversation could continue Lieutenant Drezel's voice came over the "Shuttles" intercom,

"Listen up... Your goal is to get to the other side of the settler's compound, you will need to use all that you've learnt from the lectures and basic to accomplish this... Good luck, You'll be landing in two minutes"


---------


A loud hiss came from the "Shuttles" doors. One of the troopers from R group quickly got to his feet and stood in front of it,

"Your about to see how the boys from R group do buisness..." he said confidently.

The shuttle doors opened and the confident trooper ran out, his weapon at the ready. The other trooper from R group glanced over at Jager, who was still sitting down, then jumped out after his comrade. The pair were taken by surprise at how quiet the compound was, but as they got a few feet away from the shuttle a sniper had caught the confident trooper in his sights. With a quick bang the trooper from R group took a shot to the head, even with his helmet still on it knocked him to the ground and out cold. On hearing this Jager exited the shuttle and got low. The other trooper from R group had panicked and dived behind a solid concrete barricade.

The snipers position was obvious, a guard tower stood on the corner of the compound. Jager slowly made his way along the wall, just out of the snipers line of sight, until he got close enough to throw a stun grenade in. A dull bang emanated from the tower as the grenade went off.

"Snipers down, is your friend okay?" Jager asked the trooper from R group over the Comm,

"ye.. yes, i am fine..." he replied, hearing this Jager radioed command,

"Command this is Echo-9, We've got an incapacitated trooper here, please advise, Over."

"R group i guess. Alright Echo-9 as long as two of your team remain in action you can complete the exercise, But you've got to drag your third member out, Over"

Jager swore under his breath, "Copy command, Echo-9 out."

Jager got to his feet and moved over to the Incapacitated trooper, the other trooper jumped from behind his cover and ran over.

"Your friend, you carry him" Jager ordered, the trooper paused and looked over at Jager,

"If that was you... wouldn't you be dead? he asked, causing Jager to crack a smile,

"No... there stun rounds, and if your not wearing a helmet they aren't allowed to shot you in the head" he said, recalling his conversation with one of the soldiers of Opfor group, who played the "bad guys" in these scenarios. The trooper began to remove his helmet, but Jager stopped him.

"They have been known to miss.... it's better if you keep it on" Jager said, "Uh.. before we move on... you got a name?" he asked

The trooper extended his hand, "Tiel". Jager stared at the hand until the trooper retracted it.

-------


The compound proved to be fairly routine, no patrols, just stationary targets. The pair had made it to within eyesight of the door before they were stopped by a heavy repeater and two snipers. The repeater and snipers werent the problem, it was the fact that neither Jager or Tiel could see him. Tiel placed the unconscious trooper against a wall as him and Jager began formulating a plan.

"This is really a three man job you know...." Jager said, trying to think

"How about we hit the repeater with a grenade, then catch hit the snipers one at a time?" Tiel Suggested, to which Jager only shook his head

"I cant see the other sniper, we could take out the repeater and the other sniper and walk right into a trap... I am not failing this."

The two stood stumped, until A brilliant idea hit Jager

"The first Sniper" he announced

Tiel looked puzzled, "yeah?"

"I head back to the first tower, grab his rifle, find and hit the snipers... then you hit the repeater..." Jager said enthusiastically,

Tiel nodded in agreement, With that Jager raced back to the first tower. There he immediately saw a problem, the ladder was exposed, the moment he began climbing he would most likely be shot. Seeing this he got on the Comm,

"Tiel... When i say, throw a smoke grenade at the Repeater's position."

"Why?" Tiel replied,

"Just do it.... Ready... Now"

Tiel Threw his grenade, missing the position by only a two feet, but causing the repeater's operator to fire wildly in the hopes that he would hit someone. The firing caught both the snipers attention, and as they were distracted Jager scaled the tower and grabbed the weapon off the awake ex-sniper, who gave him a salute.

Jager knew that the hidden sniper was either in the tower across diagonally opposite him, or was hidden on one of the rooftops. Carefully he peaked over the top and began scanning to check for any movement. Within seconds he had spotted the not so hidden sniper who was perched on one of the rooftops, With a quick shot he took care of him then the second sniper in the tower.

"Tiel... Snipers are down, Hit the repeater and lets get out of here" he announced over the comm

"beautiful, Give me a sec" Jager began climbing down the ladder, feeling very confident that he had passed. A loud bang echoed from the repeaters position,

"Tiel, Good job buddy, drag your friend to the exit and lets finish", But Tiel didn't reply. As Jager got to the bottom of the ladder the
the Drezel's voice came over the comm

"Congratulations Jager.... You failed", Jager paused...

"What?"

"There's a reason why they call it R group, Luth" Drezel continued.

"What happened?, did we miss a sniper or something?" Jager asked in confusion,

"No.. you got the snipers, but your friend's concussion grenade missed the slit and bounced off the wall, catching him in the blast and not the repeater" Drezel answered smugly.

A chill ran down Jagers spin, slowly he took of his helmet and ran a hand through his hair. As the situation full dawned on Jager, he throw his helmet against the ground and began swearing at the top of his lungs, After several minutes this the course medic came over the comm

"Echo-9, Can you please vacate the training area with your two teamates, we have to clean up."

-----------

Outside Jager headed back to his group were kyle was there to meet him,

"How did it go?"

Jager looked at Kyle for a moment, "I don't want to talk about it"

Kyle paused, then a smirk appeared on his face, "HA.. Once more and Drink are on you for the rest of the year."

Jager contemplated beating Kyle to death... but decided against it.

"You'll probably get a supplementary pass, After all... you lived didnt you" Kyle said reassuringly,

"well.. Anyway, don't beat yourself up on it.. you'll always have tomorrow to try again" he finished, giving Jager a  slap on the back.