Dearest Mother,   The first few days of basic training are behind me and I am still well. The transport and shuttle rides were fine with no trouble to report. Your fear of me suffering from Space Sickness as you do was unfounded. I find myself is such awe over the beauty of the vast open space. The complete darkness, yet it is filled with the bright radiance of the stars that seem to call to me. I now know what father saw out here and think I understand him a little better because of it. They say that training will be getting very intense shortly so I will not be able to write as often as I had hoped. But I will write when I can.                                                    With Love,                Your son Blaise Basic Training: The First Week   I am writing this beyond the time that would have been the end of the first week of training. When they said that we would have limited time to ourselves, they were not kidding. I am only now able to take time to write down my thoughts and view of the events that transpired during that first week of training. All of the days seem to be a jumble to me as I write this and I hope that when I look back upon this journal in my old age that I can make sense of it.   The first day I arrived at the Orbital platform that would be my home for the next two years, I was in complete awe over the size of the craft. The training facility was stationed on an orbital platform over a desolate world with mining operations being the only activity other than military ones. I was greeted by an even friendlier group of Sergeants than before. These would be our instructors for the next 13 weeks as we learned how to be Imperial Navy troops. After we were lined up and roll call was finished we were greeted by our CO and given the run down of what was expected of us during our ‘stay’ as he put it. We were broken up into Squadrons and even further into Flights. We were told that we would stay with our Flight and Squadron until the end of training. I was placed into Training Squadron Red and then into Alpha flight and given my barracks assignment. The first day was spent filling out paperwork and getting to know my Drill Instructors. After a few minutes I had already learned everything I needed to know of their character. These were hardcore sons o’ bitches that would break you into a million pieces in hopes that when they put you back together you would come out better. These men and women had fought hard on every major battle the Navy had ever been involved with from planetary invasions to boarding actions in zero-g. I had heard stories from my father about the Troopers that made up the Navy’s “ground” troops as they were, and had been in awe of them ever since.   The next few days were spent getting our gear and learning how to act like soldiers. We were taught how to salute, how to pack our lockers, and how to dress. All the while the Drill Instructors would be pushing us to our limits physically and mentally. Within those first 5 days, almost a quarter of the new recruits had dropped out. I vowed to myself that I would make it through no matter what. After learning the basics of how to act and dress, they began to work us physically to the breaking point from well before ‘dawn’ to well after ‘dark’. The most disconcerting part of that first week was not having a sunrise or sunset. With only the predetermined ‘dawn’ at 06:30 every morning and the ‘dusk’ at 18:30 each night to signal when each day was ending and the next beginning it was easy to loose track of time. And from what the DI’s tell us, week two is even better.

Basic Training: Week 13   Hell Week is over and I am alive. We have lost a few good people and even a few bad ones. The bad ones I do not miss, but the others did not deserve to go the way they did. It all started in the middle of the week. We were on a training exercise to simulate a boarding action of a small correllian freighter. This was our first exercise with live ammo and most of us were apprehensive about that fact. The search initially went as planned, but the DI’s sprung a surprise on us. Out of one of the storage creates came a combat droid lasers blasting away. Two of the team went down immediately. The remaining 6 of us opened fire, and I soon realized that the droids armor was too thick for our lasers. I quickly grabbed the nearest two and pulled them behind creates to act as cover. I saw another do the same on the other side. But Gurney just stood there, blasting away at the droid. I yelled to him to take cover, but he could not hear me or choose to ignore me. The droid targeted him immediately and let loose a fusillade of fire that enveloped Gurney. Without thinking I grabbed a thermal detonator off my harness and armed it. I yelled to the other team to open fire and distract the droid. They did so and it shifted its attention over to them. I remember taking a deep breath and telling myself to relax. (It’s funny now that I am putting my thoughts to words that in a life and death firefight, I took time to tell myself to relax). I jumped up and raced towards the droid, at the last second its sensors picked me up and turned its lasers towards me. I managed to duck and slide at the last second under the droid. As I did I stuck the thermal detonator into its torso joint. Out the other side I slid and proceeded to run like crazy as the droid tried in vane to turn it’s torso around to fire on me. Seconds later it exploded in a bright flash, showering the cargo bay with bits of metal and plastic. We quickly recovered from the deafening explosion and began first aid on our teammates. As a team we quickly treated the wounds and began carrying our comrades back to our ship. One would make it, the other would not. Dearest Mother,   I am so sorry that I have not been able to write to you sooner. These last few weeks have been very hectic with all that is required of me. I am now finished with Basic Training and looking forward to graduation. I deeply wished that you could be here, but family is not allowed. They did offer me special consideration because of Father, but I turned them down as I felt it was not fair to the other recruits. I hope you understand. I should here from Naval Command soon about whether I made it into Flight School or not. My hopes are high as I have excelled at my training and am graduating top in my class. I should be given leave after completing the next training stage and I will be able to come home and see you. Give my best to everyone.                     With Love, Your Son                     ************************************************************************ Vast Empire Naval High Command Rilke III RE: Graduation / Post Assignment 1:  Congratulations on your successful completion of Basic Training. You are now a valuable member of the Imperial Forces of the Vast Empire. You are now eligible for full compensation due your rank and duties along with required medical benefits. Your next of kin are now eligible for full payment of your life insurance benefits should anything happen to you while serving in the Vast Empire Navy. 2: Due to your performance throughout Basic Training, the High Command has seen fit to place you into the Imperial Pilot Training Program. 3: Report immediately to Shuttle Bay 16 for transport. **********************************************************************