Jegora strolled down the halls at a leisurely pace, not quite sure where he was going but unwilling to ask for direction. It had only been a few weeks since he had last roamed these halls, but it felt like a lifetime. Still, despite the changes he had been through in the past weeks, Jegora felt good to be back on Tadath, even if he was about to join up with a squad of complete strangers.

To Jegora’s surprise and disgruntlement, in his absence Iron Horse had been closed. As a result, Jegora now found himself on his way to meet with the squad leader of Jester Squad. He didn’t know anything about his new squad, or its members, but it was a recon squad, just as Iron Horse had been. While Jegora had particularly enjoyed his time in Iron Horse, he had high hopes that maybe Jester wouldn’t be all that different. It was something to look forward to, anyways.

A few minutes later Jegora finally managed to stumble across the Jester portion of the large barracks building. As the door slid open to reveal the main common/recreation area, Jegora expected to see some of his new squad mates. He saw no one, however, and suddenly got a very peculiar feeling. Crossing the common area he took off down another corridor that housed the bunk rooms. At the end of the corridor was the squad leader’s office. Jegora knocked once, and then waited somewhat impatiently outside the door. Getting no response he knocked again, to the same effect.

Letting out a frustrated sigh Jegora pushed the door open lightly. The inside of the office was much as he expected it to be, with the exception of one wall hosting a large holographic calendar display. Curiously examining the calendar, Jegora’s eyes roamed until he came across the current day’s date. What he saw made him groan.

Jester Squad (Recon)
1300 Hours, Simulation Exercise
Training Complex B7

Quickly leaving the office Jegora pulled out his datapad, checking to see if the Jester squad leader (Jegora couldn’t remember his name) had left him a note. It turned out that he had, and on it was Jegora’s room number and a note saying to meet the squad in the simulators if time allowed. Jegora quickly dumped his gear in the assigned room and left the Jester complex, trotting off in search of Training Complex B7. He had to stop for directions several times, his urgency overcoming his pride. When he finally made it to the complex he had mere minutes to spare. The rest of the squad was already ready to go, with the exception of one man who walked over to meet Jegora.

“Ah, you must be Gunnery Sergeant Jegora Fal. Just in time. I hope you’re ready to go, because this is going to be a fun one,” he said, his voice mild but hard. Jegora instantly got the impression that this was a man who disliked giving orders more than once.

“Yes sir,” Jegora responded as respectfully as he could, hoping to make a good impression. He then turned to a nearby tech and motioned him over.

As the tech went through the processes of getting Jegora ready for the simulator, Jegora inquired into the nature of the mission.

“As far as I know it’s a ‘trapped behind enemy lines’ scenario. Your squad, basic load outs, and hundreds of bad guys trying to find you in the swamps. Evasion is the name of the game,” the tech said while going over Jegora’s gear one more time. He sounded quite disinterested. HE didn’t have to get in the simulator, after all.

Jegora pondered the upcoming training mission. He had never been very good at hiding, or running away. And now he had to do it with a squad, and a group of complete strangers at that.

This was going to be good.

OOC:

Here’s the deal. This is completely non-formal, just something for us to do before the HSC, mainly because we have so many new members and our current story seems to have stagnated. That, and I’m bored. Right now I have the current scenario as an evasion exercise in a swamp somewhere. Feel free to add/change the specifics as you wish. No rules, other than just the basic load outs. Hope this sounds good to everyone.

As Jegora’s environment slowly faded in, so did his fellow troopers. Taking a moment to study his new squad mates, he was relatively pleased to see a few he recognized. First and foremost was his old squad leader, Giovanni Bryden. As he hadn’t taken the time to find out what had happened to the rest of Iron Horse Squad after its disbandment, Jegora was utterly surprised to find Gio present in this particular simulation. Still, it was a good surprise, and Jegora was pleased that he would get to work with Gio once more.

Gio wasn’t the only familiar face, though, just the most familiar. Another one of the troopers, a senior non-commissioned officer who went by the nickname “Sandwich Sam”, was also familiar. Jegora was sure he had seen him around once or twice on Tadath, and may have even undertaken some training exercises with him at one point in time. He didn’t know the man well, but he knew his reputation, and that was more than enough for Jegora to form a good opinion.

The Sullustan and the Zabrak Jegora didn’t know, and wasn’t sure about. Always slow to trust new faces, Jegora decided to hold off on forming an opinion about those two squad members until after they had served for some time together.

And then there was his squad leader, who Jegora had quickly discovered went by the callsign “Angel”. This man Jegora did know, if not very well, and he most certainly knew his new squad leader’s reputation. Determined to remain wary of Angel, Jegora was at the same time proud to serve under his command. If nothing else, Jegora knew, he was an extremely capable soldier, and an extremely skilled leader.

Last but not least was a young woman who looked incredibly familiar to Jegora, and yet he simply couldn’t identify her. Jegora had the sudden feeling that he should know, without a doubt, exactly whom this woman was, but no matter how hard he tried to remember he simply couldn’t place her. As Angel divided the squad up into two-man teams, Jegora was barely paying attention. He was entirely focused on the young woman standing mere yards away. As the squad began to disperse, Jegora suddenly had an urge to talk to the woman. He sloshed through the mud as quickly as he could, intent on catching her attention before the mission actually began.

He reached her, and tapped on her shoulder. As expected the young woman turned, and Jegora saw the light of recognition behind her eyes. His chest contracted painfully. Jegora’s initial reaction had been correct: he should exactly who this woman was. And yet he didn’t, and that thought caused him no small amount of pain.

As the young woman turned her shocking blue eyes upwards to meet his own, Jegora was suddenly at a loss for words. Everything he had planned to say, planned to ask, went out the window. He simply stood there, dumb and mute, unable to form the question he so desperately wanted to ask. It was only until Angel’s voice broke through his reverie that Jegora managed to turn his own eyes away from the woman’s.

“Jegora, on me. Aeos, better catch up with Jori,” the squad leader ordered, his voice leaving no room for argument. With a subtle sigh the woman, who Jegora could now identify as Aeos, turned and moved off to meet up with her partner. Standing there a moment longer, watching her retreating figure, Jegora was once again lost in thought.

“Gunnery Sergeant Fal, anytime now,” Angel’s voice barked again. Shaking his head and clearing his thoughts, Jegora hefted his Stormtrooper2 Carbine and made his way towards his new commander.

As he sloshed through the swamp towards his squad leader, one thought dominated Jegora’s mind.

Aeos.

OOC:

I made a mistake in my first post, and forgot to include Wicket into the teams. Ive edited my post and changed the form from triangle to square. Jager, I teamed you with Wicket.

Aeos cocked her head to the side, utterly confused at Jegora’s behavior. He seemed speechless and desperate when he looked at her. She turned away, beckoned by one of the corporals.
The young zabrak took a respective step away from Aeos as she neared him.  Her legs previously covered in white armor, resembled now nothing more than a murky green collection of smudges, dirt and slime.

“At ease Jori, call me Aeos,” Aeos muttered with a warming smile noticing the trooper stifling at her casual demeanor.

She couldn’t blame the soldier’s stiffness. It was quite uncommon for an officer and a mere corporal to be teamed together in a team. It was an oddity Aeos liked because it broke the bore of normality that the Army has become. Wicket grinned at her with his beady black eyes and nodded.

“Hello there Madam,” he spoke in what appeared to be a very controlled whispered. Aeos suspected that ‘Madam’ might Wicket’ own fond way of addressing her in the future.  She grinned back at the sullustan before he trudged over to Jegora.

Angel has begun to file forward with his team that composed of Jeg and Jag. Gradually Aeos and Jori took their place not too far behind on the right while Sam and Giovanni took the left while Jeg and Wicket took the behind.

The sim has been active now for a few minutes now, plenty of time for the enemy to analyze and strategize before the pounce. Aeos continued trudging, but as she took her next step the floor of mud and sludge gave, and she dropped in to the water. For a moment, Aeos struggled through gasps of sand and mud filtered through her mouth before a strong arm encircled her arm that managed by some miracle to remain above water. With a heave, straining against the vacuum now sucking at Aeos’ form, o did Jori manage to pull the woman out.

She recognized the faint traces of a grin on his face, and she could guess why. She was covered in mud and seemed to resemble nothing more than a primitive barbarian bent on starting a cult dedicated to mud.

She smiled faintly to Jori before glancing back at her hands.  She swore softly. She has already managed to lose her ranged weapon in that small adventure under the water. Right now, she was liability for the squad.

“Lets move”  she muttered slouching out of Jori grip who still kept her balanced. The Corporal nodded.

‘Sure,”

They quickly managed to catch up with Angel again.
The squad-leader seems to have sensed something, because he held up a hand. Quietly and instinctively, everyone lowered themselves to the water.
With a series of hand gestures Angel directed the squad to spread out, and take cover and anticipate. Up ahead Aeos managed to pick out the fine details of activity between all the dark flora that seemed to be nothing then one big mass of shadows. She shrugged off the shiver creeping up her spine and frowned. The mud on her face was drying, and now it was starting to form cracks.

Together, Aeos and Jori made it over to what could called the river bank, even though it was nothing more than a small streak of land that amassed a bit more shrubbery and a few more trees than that of the water. Gesturing to Jori, she suggested he climbed up the tree and kept his fire ready. She would be taking a dash to one of the bigger bushes just a few paces away from the tree and keep her pitiful DC-15 ready.

As Aeos settled, she tried scanning the area for her fellow Jester, but already they had done a splendid job at hiding themselves.
It was not a moment too late that Angel had spread them out. A small group of three soldiers were appearing slowly from the mass of shadows that were visible through the dense fog.

A scouting party, Aeos realized with relief. They didn’t seem to be aware yet of the Jester’s immediate presence, though they were definitely searching for it, judging by the intense manner in which they studied every shrub or shadow.

Hidden by the thick fat leaves of the bush she was hidden in, Aeos managed to get Jori’s attention. She placed a finger to her lips and pointed to his weapon and shook her head from side to side. He nodded. Aeos was pretty sure that Angel and the other teams would not fire in chance of risking at exposing their location.
The three soldiers were still trudging forward cautiously and right into the middle of Angel’s little square.  Wherever the teams were located, they have managed to keep sight of one another because suddenly all the men except Jori jumped to three soldier in the middle. Jori caught on quickly and he jumped down from his vantage point and sprinted over to scuffling group of flailing arms and legs. Aeos kept her distance, her fingers resting around the trigger of her pistol. The boys were well capable of taking care of themselves.

Angel’s fingers were curling around the neck of one soldier, a vein bulging through the exposed cleavage of where his glove got cut by a lost thorn. He pushed the head into the water, where it joined the company of two other heads who were being held down by Giovanni and Jegora while the rest trained their pistols on the backs should any surprise attacks occur.

A few minutes later, and Angel was searching through their clothes, ticking off each body for the squad to hide in the shrubbery where it will be consumed eventually by the beasts lurking about. Aeos made good use of the time to rinse her face with the murky water in which they were standing.

Angel cast a sideways glance at her.

“Not five minutes Fleur and you look like shit already,” he casually muttered while his eyes lingered on the area from which the enemies appeared earlier.

“Let’s keep moving,” he muttered sharply getting up from the rock on which he was sitting.

These last few weeks have been eventful, thats for sure.

First, Jester went from a nearly full squad of around 6 or 7 people, to four and then to three. But in the last few days, not only did Jester get five more trooper, most of them were seasoned veterans.

Finally, Jester is truly a great squad, at least in my own opinion.

Jori looked up and noticed the Aeos was a little ways away. He rushed ahead and caught up to her. It had been a few minutes since the scouts had appeared. Every once in a while he looked over at Aeos, making sure she hadn't moved farther away. All of the sudden, Angel stopped and every other group stopped as well. He looked closely at the brush ahead of them and then motioned for everyone to move off to the side which they did. A moment later, another scouting party came tromping through, talking quietly to themselves. They stopped in the middle of the imaginary square that Jester had created and Jori though this was going to be a repeat of what happened earlier, but before anyone could react, the scout recieved orders over a hidden comlink and continued walking, this time a bit faster than before.

Hmmm... that was weird.

OOC:

All I could do right now. I'm at school so I don't really have that much time to do a humongous post.

“Why is it every time I come back, the first mission is a simulation?” Sam thought to himself keeping a keen eye out for any and all movement as the team arose from the shallow depths of the swamp. The sloshing of eight pairs of legs did not gain the attention of the nearest patrol.

Sam had heard of his squad leader a number of times, and had, back in the days of the Dark Dragoon squad, worked with him. Everyone referred to him as “Angel,” but he was, in Sam’s book, really far from any connotation that comes with such a name. That being set in Sam’s mind did not change the fact that Angel was a skilled leader.

Sam began to let his thoughts about the rest of the squad wonder. He had worked with Giovanni back in the Dark Dragoons, as well as Aeos. It seemed like it was a Dark Dragoon reunion within Jester. Gio was one of those guys that Sam felt he could rely upon without doubt, although they had not worked together in a long while. Sam did feel rather odd that he was now on the ground with his former platoon commander.

Sam was snapped back to reality when he heard the voice that was not of a Jester squad member callout, “Hey! What are you doing down there?”

The now alert Zabrak whipped around to find a foe scout looking at him with a dumbfounded look. There was only a second of hesitation before Sam shot the neck. The blood sprayed in a magnificent fountain. Sam sloshed quickly to the fallen foe and dragged the corps down into the sludge of the swamp.

“Guys, we may need to move a bit faster. I may have just alerted people to our position,” Sam whispered to those nearest to him. Gio grinned at Sam resisting a laugh. Sam shrugged and got a few dagger glares from the rest of the squad.

While Aeos and Angel was making decisions about their next move and Jegora, Sam, and Giovanni stood off to the side talking, Jori and Jager were sitting next to a tree.

“So how do you like them?” Jori asked.

“Who?” Jager counter-asked, taking out a cigarette and lighting it.

“Them.” Jori answered, gesturing towards the group of three and Wicket, who was standing off to the side looking around.

“Oh. Uh… I don’t really know. I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never worked with them.” Jager replied.

Nodding, Jori turned his head to look at Aeos and Angel. They seemed to be coming to an agreement because both were nodding their heads. He jumped to his feet though, when they started walking back. Gathering around them, each member of Jester focused on Angel.

“Right before the global positioning system went down, I noticed a large structure east of here. That has to be where the jamming device is located and that is our next target. Lets move out.”

Jori, due to the fact that his reflexes tended to switch between excellent and horrible and this time they were bad, was the last one to drop to the ground and because of that, his head was nearly taken off by a low flying laser bolt. He immediately jumped up and ran when Angel’s voice echoed in his helmet.

“Into the trees. MOVE!”

Sidestepping a tree, he ran into one of their attackers. Swiftly, Jori head butted the guy and pressed the gun against his throat, swinging around the guy as he did so and pulling back. Eventually, the guy stopped wriggling and Jori threw him down. As he did, a laser bolt blasted the tree next to him, causing to him to duck and roll behind another tree. Checking his blaster, he leaned around the tree to take a shot when he noticed a familiar face in the form of Aeos. Shooting off a short wave, he turned and looked around. Spotting someone slowly walking towards him, he crouched down behind a tree and peeked around it. He could barely see through the fog so he would make sure that the figure was a friend or foe before taking any action. The figure got closer and closer and then all of the sudden, another figure popped out from behind a tree and tackled the first figure.

One of them has to be a friend, so I might need to help.

Rushing over, he jumped on the two of them. As soon as it started, it was over because they were in fact both friendlies, Jager and Wicket . They broke apart, realizing their mistake. After profusely apologizing to each other, they split up in search of their actual attackers. Jori had taken a few steps before he wobbled a bit.

Jeez thats hurts. My leg must of been hit in the pileup. That might cause some problems in the near future.

He regained his balance and continued on, but had to stop shortly afterward due to the fact that he had just heard something very unusual. Freezing, he strained his ears to catch another sound and was rewarded when a slight click sounded off to his left. He somersaulted forward and that is what saved him because a figure flew through the space he had just occupied moments before. Jori jumped to his feet just in time to block a thrust to the face with the butt of the figure's gun and pushed back, causing the figure to stumble back a few steps. Acting quickly before the figure recovered, Jori swung his foot up and connected with the figure's stomach. As the figure doubled up, Jori rushed forward and tackled the figure, driving it to the ground. Before he could finish up though, the figure lashed out and connected with Jori's chin, lifting him off the figure slightly and spinning him around. The figure kicked out and landed it on Jori's butt, pushing him forward into the ground. An instant after, the figure was on top of Jori and pushing his gun into Jori's throat in an attempt to strangle him. That didn't work though, because inch by inch, Jori managed to push the gun back to the figure. When it had nearly reached the figure's face, Jori twisted to the left while still holding on to the gun, wrenching the figure off of him and onto the ground. Jori rolled to the right and over his gun. Picking it up, he raised it and shot at the figure. A couple shots later and the job was done. Breathing hard, Jori reloaded and walked off.

Truth be told, Angel hated sims as much, or more, than anyone else. In the past, any squad he was in performed very poorly in them, as the illusion, while extremely realistic, lacked the inherent fear and tension that marks normal missions. Even now, he could tell some of his troops were not taking the sim very serious, and were very reluctant to be in it in the first place.

Still, with almost an entirely new squad, they needed to learn to work as a team: to read each others moods, learn their body language, and trust each other. Without trust in fellow squadmates, they would be as good as dead in any serious mission. Angel could tell with certainty, that the revamped Jester squad had a long way to go in that respect.

Still, Jester marched onward through the simulated muck and slime in perfect cover formation. Angel kept point, with Aeos and Jegora flanking him while Gio and Sam brought up the rear. Progress was slow, but steady. Checking his wrist chrono, he figured their sim session would end in a bit over an hour, and his mind wandered slightly at the thought of a hot shower and a cold beer.

He picked the wrong time to daydream.

An all-too familiar sound howled through the air. "Cover!" Angel hollered through his helmet's comlink, and the squad broke formation just as the mortar round landed to the right of the squad. The resulting explosion through mud, fungus, water and rotting wood into the air, creating a blinding veil of muck. Staying low in the water, Angel waited for the second volley.

A far off *thwump* signaled the release of a second mortar shell, but this one flew harmlessly away further to their right. A tug at his leg snapped the SL's attention around.

"They seem to be firing randomly." Aeos surmised, crawling up next to Angel. "They know we're out here, just not where."

Nodding in agreement, Angel motioned for the squad to move to the cover of a nearby tree. The Jester troops crawled through the swampy terrain the few meters to the tree, a few small groans escaping their lips as swamp water ran through their armor.

Once assembled, Angel spoke, "We should be about 2 clicks from the river, once there we should be able to float downstream and out of the engagement zone." Another *thwump* sounded in the distance, and Angel waited for the resulting explosion to resume his orders. "They know we're out here, so lets make this quick before they get lucky with another mortar. Jeg, take point on this one."

Shouldering his E-11, Angel signaled for them to move out.

Aeos fluffed the back of her muddied hair with one open hand, while the other hand played with the DC-15 with excited anticipation. A small gleam of white teeth was the only part of her face that seemed recognizable. Jegora silently took to her side as Angel took over, with slightly bent knees, and bowed backs; the squad was slowly but surely advancing through the jungle swamp while constantly sweeping their instincts across their immediate vicinity in attempts to spot enemy soldiers. Dusk has been long lost among the fog and thick flora, but only now did the night truly become alive as the strangest noises of all kinds cried out through the stifling darkness.

Aeos could vaguely make out the cries of a grey bat in between the deep-throated screeches of a barrel-chest ape. Crickets as big as fists sat propped on small little boulders, gurgling the sickening crunching noise of chirp chirp unfazed by the Jesters while the whole swamp itself seemed to heave with anonymous sighs. The curious glow of countless unidentified specimens ‘ eyes made up for the lack of stars above their heads, and the Jester subconsciously huddled together closer, for the first time perhaps experiencing a sense of fear for the unknown in the simulator.

They trudged on like this for another thirty of forty minutes like that. Aeos glanced around her worriedly. The false sense of security seemed to be growing.

“Don’t let your guards down boys,” she muttered, pushing her senses into a new state of alert.

It was another three minutes and exactly forty-six seconds before anything remotely interesting happened. Jegora seems to have tripped over something unexpected in the water. Yanking off his helmet in expiration, Jegora stooped down and plunged his hand into the water.

“What the frak…” Aeos heard him muttering slowly.

The rest of the squad out of sheer curiosity and minimal level of boredom gather around Jegora immediately to see what caused this reaction out of his mouth.

Wicket stared at the extra mud-slime covered helmet in Jegora’s hand with mild curiosity and perplexity.
“I don’t get it, Jeg, someone prolly just dropped it,”

“No,” muttered Giovanni, his eyes narrowing in suspicion as he seemed to recognize the same as what Jegora has.

“Wicket, see the markings on this helmet?” he muttered shoving the muddied helmet into the sullustan’s hand. Sure enough at the collar end of the helmet, were a number of small scratches and the faint remains of a scorch-mark. Jegora threw his own helmet at Wicket who caught it with his other hand. For a few seconds he glanced from one helmet to the other before gasping.

“They’re exactly the same!” Jager muttered. The squad glanced at the squad-command who had until now kept their distance a few feet apart, discussing in low whispers to eachother.

“Ae, Angel, what is this?” Sam inquired stepped forward, he pulled his helmet off.

“ A little exercise, Gio, Sam I’m sure you two might recognize it. Something we stole from Cyanus’s logbooks, Aeos has worked over the operators of this simulator to get it working. Wicket, what do you think this is?” Angel asked nodding towards the dwarf.

“Clones…this is the only explanation” he muttered.

“Quite right, an exact replica of our squad.  New simulator technology that manages to record our brainwaves and create exact replicas. In the old days, we only used to be able to reconstruct the physical aspects of a trooper, but now they are replicating the very core. Of course, there is only so much a replication can do before the original outwits him.  The bad news here is, this replica squad is better than us. “

“The computers running these clones are in constant sync with each other, which means the clones will act like one united force whereas we are nowhere close to accomplishing that,”

“Yet,” Angel muttered finishing Aeos’ sentence.  Aeos glanced at him with a grin.

“Bottom line is, Angel and I are hoping to show you guys what we want to achieve from this squad, what we expect from you guys. “

The rest of the squad stared at them and for a moment it was silent. But suddenly Gio let out a bark of a laugh, pulling off his helmet revealing a wide smirk.

“This should be fun,” he muttered with gleaming eyes.

OOC:

Rule: No killing clones. I encourage you to write about your ass getting whooped. This type of exercise might give us the chance to reflect on our character on from an outsider perspective. Use it. Try to think of how a squad in perfect sync acts. Have fun. Oh, there will be no enemy troopers currently. Ive done this writing exercise alot, its big fun^^

OOC:

I had this all written up and then realized Jori had posted. So, I tacked on a paragraph to the beginning. I hope it works. In any case...here it is.

Sam was the first to notice Jori trying to cross the river, and quickly turned and opened fire. Jegora and Gio were close behind, opening up on the pursuing clone with their Stormtrooper 2 carbines. The trooper, under the intense Jester fire, didn’t stand a chance. Jori made it back to the squad, and the Jesters continued on with their initial escape and evasion plan.

Jegora was suddenly very, very uncomfortable. He had faced many different adversaries in many different situations, and had always been confident in his own abilities. Either by the overestimation of his own skills or the underestimation of his enemy’s skills, Jegora had always felt that he could counter any obstacle. Now, however, he knew exactly how skilled his opponents were, and he knew exactly just how much trouble the real Jesters were in. He knew his own skills, and he was beginning to get an idea of his new squad mate’s skills, and he knew how deadly nine highly trained individuals working in perfect tandem could be. Aeos had said that the Jester clones would, indeed, be working in perfect tandem. The real Jesters weren’t.

No, things didn’t look very good. As the Jesters slowly advanced through the woods, this time led once again by Angel, while Aeos and Jeg flanked him and Gio took up the rear, they were on high alert. The threat of themselves didn’t sit well with any of the troopers, and it showed. They fidgeted, glanced around, and adjusted their grip on their weapons. All in all, they looked like fresh, green recruits wandering through a forest, lost and more than a little scared.

And they had a right to be scared. The woods were unfamiliar territory, and they had to assume the clones knew the area. More than that, though, the Jesters didn’t even know where they were going. They had to escape, but they didn’t know the terrain, and they didn’t even know the size of the opposing force. They didn’t know where the extraction point was, and they didn’t know what kind of predators hunted in this swamp. It was getting dark, and the squad was running out of time. If they got trapped in the dark, in these woods, there was a very good chance they wouldn’t ever come out again.

Jegora was in the process of taking a step when he got a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He paused, one foot still in the air, and suddenly had an urge to look up and to his right, at about his ten o’clock. He didn’t see anything, despite the ‘watched’ feeling he was having, and slowly set his foot back down. Aeos, only a meter or left of Jegora, noticed his discomfort.

The assistant squad leader turned, watching Jegora. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

Jegora never got the chance to answer. An incredible force hit him in the chest, knocking him to the ground, followed a few seconds later by the report of a rifle. Immediately the Jesters found cover, and someone managed to drag Jegora out of the line of fire, but it was no use. The simulated bullet had penetrated Jegora’s chest plate and had tore through his chest, its hollow point expanding, fragmenting, and ricocheting throughout his chest cavity. His heart was nicked, his lungs shredded, and the bullet exited only a few millimeters from his spinal column. He was already dead, he just didn’t know it.

There was no pain. The simulator was capable of it, but there was no pain. Jegora figured the wound was so terrible that his brain was in overload. His vision slowly faded to black, and then Jegora was floating in a void.

Suddenly, there was light. A technician was helping him out of the simulation capsule. Shaking his head clear, he grimaced. Jegora hated simulations, especially the sensation of ‘dying’. He quickly left the capsule room, intent on finding a monitor to watch the rest of the simulation.

On the way back to the briefing room, Jegora thought about what had happened. There had been a sniper attack of some sort, and Jegora had obviously been hit by a lethal shot. It made sense: he was the biggest target. Still, it pissed him off. He was still angry when he entered the briefing room, flipped on a monitor, and sat down to watch his squad complete the simulation, one way or another.

To say things were going bad for Jester was an understatement, things were going terribly. By Jager's count the score was two to one in the clones favor, and by the looks of things Jori was about to make that three. Firing a few bursts into the fog Jager began to process the situation,

The chance that they were surrounded was high, the chance that he would be killed in the next few minutes if not seconds was also high. The chances that five or six bewildered stormtroopers could emerge victorious against six well organised versions of themselves were low. So Jager did the one thing he figured would work, something he usually did when the odds were stacked so astronomically against him... he ran. Not in any particular direction, just away from his death. He ran until the sounds of Angel cursing him faded into white noise.

Sure the logic behind his move was faulty, now it was one on six in unfamiliar territory with limited visibility, but to Jager it made sense. Of course if they were surrounded then blindly running into the fog would lead him straight into the enemy, which it did.

A factor that didn't enter into Jager's poorly thought out plan was that somewhere out there was a hostile version of him one that thought the same, acted the same and applied the same logic to the situation. It took Jager a few minutes before he realized that he had walked straight into his own trap, a fact that hurt even more when a shot from behind sent him crashing to the ground. 

"SON OF A BITCH!" He cried as he clutched at his shoulder. It wasn't a fatal wound, but it hurt like it was. Ironically Jager knew that his clone wouldn't go for the kill shot, the chance to kill yourself up close and personal while throwing in some sort of witty comment was to great to pass up. The clone emerged from his position with a cocky smirk smeared across his face stupid smug face, a face Jager was greeted by each morning. Clone Jager took his time, savoring each step. With a fluid motion he threw his M82 to the side and unclipped his M3 from its thigh holster.  Jager went for his but a well placed shot blew it out of his hand.

Clone Jager now stood over Jager, still smirking, and slowly raised the revolver so it was level with his victims head. Jager had to think fast, something he was good at, but he had to do so without himself realizing what he was about to do.

"Listen, you wouldn't kill me. I'am you... uh, your me" he pleaded half-heartedly.

"You'd do the same thing in my position..." Clone Jager replied

Jager let out a sigh, "Alright... Alright, Just make it quick."

"Not a chance sunshine" His clone stated coldly as he pulled the hammer back on the revolver.

It was now or never. In a flash Jager threw a handful of dirt into the eye's of himself, following it up with a sharp kick tp the shins. Clone Jager recoiled as he attempted to recover from the surprise attack, firing wildly while cursing himself. Jager, who was still wounded, used the opportunity to crash tackle his clone. The two hit the ground with a thud, Jager quickly began walloping clone Jager with his wounded arm. Sure the pain was unbelievable, but wiping that smug look of his face was worth every second of it.

It took clone Jager a few hits before he regained the upper hand, letting out a battle cry as he shoved two fingers into Jager's shoulder wound. Jager rolled off himself and retreated slightly clone Jager did the same, both men not taking their eyes off the other. The two began circling slowly trying to anticipate the others moves which in turn stopped them from striking as each thought the other already knew what his counterpart was going to do.

"Your good, but I'am better" Jager stated

"We're the same person, but your wounded..." Clone Jager replied

"Dont you know, wounded animals are the most dangerous" Jager commented, smirking

"I didn't know Nerfs possessed the power to kill" Clone Jager retorted, replying with the same smirk.

The two continued circling for what felt like hours, then in a flash Jager side stepped then lunged at his clone drawing his knife in the process. Clone Jager didn't react in time, but still managed to dodge the knife as it cut his cheek. Jager however was thrown off balance and toppled to the ground. Again his clone had the upper hand until he saw it, the black handle lying half covered in dirt... it was clone Jagers M3. It only took his clone a few seconds to recover from the facial cut, plenty of time for Jager to pick up the revolver and get to his feet.

Clone Jagers stood motionless, staring down the barrel of his own revolver with himself at the trigger with a smirk on his face.

"Game over, motherfucker" Jager stated as he squeezed the trigger...

*Click*

The two paused as they tried to register what just happened. Jager gave the trigger a few more squeezes

*Click* *Click* *Click*

The two traded expressions, Jagers turning to one of subtle fear and his clones changing to a smirk. Again Jager thought fast, this time throwing the revolver at his clone, striking him in the shoulder. This was it, he thought, as he rushed himself in an attempt to land a fatal stab. Unfortunately his clone was still in better condition then he was and as he approached the clone side stepped and caught him in a headlock, ramming the knife into the base of Jager's skull. Almost immediately the body went limp. Clone Jager held the knife there for a few extra seconds then pulled it out, releasing his counterpart and letting him collapse on the ground, still twitching slightly. 

Its not often that you get a chance to kill yourself and clone Jager made a note to savor every moment, lighting up a cigarette as he wiped the blood off his knife. It was a good feeling, a feeling he knew the real Jager would of enjoyed just as much had he of emerged victorious. Taking a seat against a tree he drew a flask from one of his pouches and held it up as Jager's body flickered and disappeared.

"Told him I was better" he muttered as he took a long drink.

--

Jager awoke sputtering for breath and cursing himself at the exact same time.

"Hey, Hey, Calm down, Deep breaths" a technician stated as he held him in place and let him catch his breath. Slowly Jager began to calm down

"There, better?" the Tech asked

"Peachy... get me out of this thing"

Jager slowly climbed out of the capsule, he could still feel the knife in the back of his head. It didn't hurt, it just felt odd.

"Any feelings of pain or discomfort will pass in an hour or two... if they don't go see base medical" the Tech added, not looking up from whatever he was doing.

Jager stretched for a little while longer, "Now what?"

"Your CO's in the briefing room down the hall, he seemed pissed... and after that 'Abandon your squad mates thing' I wager he isn't going to be happy to see you" The Tech stated, looking over at Jager as he held back a smile.

"There a back way out of here, Service door? Window?"

"Service entrance is to the right as you walk out the door."

Jager gave the Tech a thankful nod, "If anyone asks, I went to base medical..."

With that Jager head out the service door and towards the base bar. If he was going to get busted on dereliction of duty, which was inevitable after abandoning your squad mates and fleeing, then he wasn't going to do it sober.

OOC:

You only get a chance to kill yourself once, I couldnt pass it up.