"Alright, buckos. Listen up.", the Sergeant called out.

Every recruit's head snapped up suddenly at the Sergeant's words, with a few audible clicks from some of the more eager trainees. Talohn grinned. So eager to please.

The Sergeant noticed him smiling to himself.

"What's so funny, Private?"

"Nothing, sir." replied Talohn, still wearing the wide smile.

The Sergeant eyed him wearily, obviously aware of the young recruit's calmness. The other recruits looked at him with disdain, clearly thinking little of him beacuse of it.

"Anyway... you''re going to be having a test on Fire Support Tactics today. You'll be working with some basic methods and precedures that is essential to your, and everyone on your future squad's, survival. We've been working on this for a few weeks now, so you can't blame me if you fail. Follow me."

He strolled out of the room, followed by the recruits. Talohn was actually rather excited to be getting his first proper test since joining the Vast Empire, much to the contrary of his fellow recruits. He had been looking forward to this for days. As Talohn and the group of recruits walked through the Vast Empire's training complex on Tadath, Talohn noticed many different types of happenings. Officers in their uniforms strode down the hallways, undoubtedly in a rush to get to a meeting or another important event. Other groups of recruits in other training courses walked through, joting down notes rapidly as their instructor called out facts and tips. Squads came from the hanger bays, returning from successful missions, weapons in hand. Eventually, the Sergeant arrived outside the simulation room.

"Right, boys. Get inside there and show me what you can do. I'll be able to see you from here" He tapped the monitor beside him. "Your objective will be to break through the defences of the New Republic garrison and enter the bunker at the other end of the simulation area, which they will be guarding." He smiled at some of the less enthusiastic recruits. "Don't worry, it's just a simulation. And these rebels will not be as strong as real rebels. So before you think you're all high and mighty, know that, in real life, if you beat these rebels and didn't train anymore, the rebels in real life will beat you. And most likely kill you."

A few of the recruits paled. The Sergeant noticed their frightened expressions, to which he chuckled humorlessly.

"Yes. Kill you. I know I make it sound worse than it probably is, but I want to prepare you for what will, almost definitely, come. I know some of you may be a bit nervous, but there's nothing to be scared of. We've been working on this for weeks. Oh, and since you seemed so eager, you're in charge", said the Sergeant to Talohn, who just beamed at him.

"Certainly, sir"

"So." the Sergeant said. "Get going"

The recruits entered the simulation room, which seemed awful small for them to train in. Then, he heard a voice in his comm.

"Activate Simulation-FST1", the Sergeant's voice said.

Suddenly, the room vanished and he was outside in a lush forest. Tall, mighty trees reached into the sky, seeming to tickle the clouds with their soft, silken leaves. Small animals, predators and prey alike, scampered about the undergrowth, rustling leaves and bushes. The sky, a deep blue, scattered with a few clouds and a roasting sun, was a beauty to behold. Talohn wondered how this could possibly be a training simulation.

He was snapped from his reverie by the voice of a New Republic trooper.

"Over there!", the trooper yelled, pointing over to the group of recruits. The group of troopers surged forward, straight for the recruits. Most of the them just stood there stupidly, faces pale with fear, while most of the more sensible recruits immediately ducked for cover.

"Get behind cover!" Talohn yelled to the frightened recruits. "Get behind cover!"

The trainees, snapped out of their daze, dived for anything that would shield them from the blaster bolts coming from the New Republic troopers. The troopers, meanwhile, had stopped from their mad sprint and had taken cover of their own.

"Right." Talohn said over his comm to the other recruits. "When I say 'now', move forward. I'll keep them pinned down. But move fast. I won't be able to stop all of them."

The recruits nodded, a few of them more surely than others. Some of them were still scared from the initial attack.

"Alright..." Talohn whispered. "NOW!!"

Talohn stood up from his position behind a fallen tree and started firing bolt after bolt at the troopers. The other recruits sprinted ahead, staying behind as much cover as they could. A few of them were hit by the bolts. Those who did went instantly stiff, as though frozen. Most of them made it to a very large tree, providing cover for all of them.

"Alright, now you cover me!" Talohn yelled into his comm.

"Just a sec." a gruff voice said into the comm. "...NOW! MOVE!"

Talohn sprinted from cover, while a hail of bolts came flying in over from the tree. One of the bolts hit a trooper in the forehead as he peeked over from behind a log. Then, as his fellow recruits had to reload, bolts flew at him from the New Republic troopers. Talohn dived behind a nearby stone, with a bolt just clipping his right knee. His right leg went slightly stiff as the bolt connected, as if he had been shot. Just without the pain, he thought ruefully.

"Right.", the voice said through the comm. "MOVE!!"

A volley of bolts once again flew from the recruits, forcing the troopers to take cover again. Talohn ran from behind the stone, his leg slightly hampering his movement. It didn't stall him that much, but another shot like that would make him unable to move his right leg at all.

He reached the recruits, who were panting and leaning against the tree for support. There were a few exceptions, one of them including the trainee who had helped cover him.

"You alright?" the recruit asked in his rough, deep voice.

"Just a minor wound" Talohn replied. "Nothing big. Any casualties on your end?"

"Just the few who were too slow." He nodded over to the few recruits lying on the ground, their eyes darting back and forth fearfully, worried at finding themselves unable to move.

"We need to find that bunker" Talohn said.

The recruit nodded. "One of our more observant men spotted it." He pointed over his back with his thumb to a rather scrawny man.

"Yeah." the recruit replied nervously. "It's just over there." He pointed over to the left, where Talohn noticed a small, grey bunker, built into the side of a small hill.

"Well, that's not that far." he said. "If we just run over there before those troopers fin--"

He was interrupted as a bolt flew past his left ear.

"Frak."

Talohn thought of what to do, darting from behind cover to let off a few bolts at the troopers.

"Okay. You three" he pointed at three recruits." You stay here to cover our advance. The rest will sprint over to the bunker and cover your retrest from in there." The recruits nodded. "I'll stay with them."

Talohn waited until the troopers ceased firing to reload their blasters.

"NOW!!"

The majority of the recruits sprinted towards to bunker, bent over to dodge the bolts. Talohn and the other three recruits took cover at the ends of the tree, squeezing off bolt after bolt to keep the troopers pinned. One of the three recruits got shot after leaning out from behind the tree to fire at the troopers. He fell with a yell as his body went rigid.

"We're at the bunker.", a voice said over his comm. "This seems a bit too easy. I expected more resistance than this."

"You heard the Sarge.", Talohn said, leaning out to let off a few more bolts. "He said they weren't going to be as strong as real rebels."

"I suppose...." the recruit sighed. "Anyway, we gotcha covered. Get goin'"

"Right." Talohn said to the remaining two recruits. "On the count of three, get over to the bunker. One.... Two.... THREE!!"

The two recruits ran from their cover behind the tree, running as hard as they could to the bunker. Talohn stayed behind to fire a few more times at the troopers before following them. The recruits had reached the bunker, Talohn could see them panting and being clapped on the back by the other recruits. He heard shouts from the troopers and suddenly his body went as stiff as a board and he fell flat on his face into the dirt.

"Aaand... deactivate simulation." a voice said from his comm.

The forest vanished and he was back in the small room, lying on the ground, along with some other recruits. The recruit with the gruff voice came over to him and held out a hand, helping him to his feet.

"Right, boys." the Sergeant said as he strolled into the room. "Not bad, not bad. Overall, a very good performance. A bit reckless at the end from you though" he added to Talohn, smirking. "But, as I said, overall, a very good performance."

"You lot pass" he said, smiling to the cheers of the recruits.

"At? Get up. We've got training."

"Eh?"

"Heavy Weapons. C'mon, we were late last time."

Talohn heaved himself from his bed, wiping the sleep from his eyes wearily. He looked at Cyren. He was already dressed and ready and had a look of urgency in his eyes. That usually meant something was bad, like that time when he found out that someone had unintentionally switched Talohn's cigarettes with a form of deathstick. Talohn winced at the thought. That was a bad night.

"What time is it?" He asked.

"About five to seven." Cyren replied, without glancing at his watch.

"Oh, shit."

"Shit is right. Get moving!"

Talohn jumped out of bed, quickly putting on his gear for training. They had been late for the last training. And the past few trainings before that. They couldn't be late again, unless they wanted to get disciplinary action. And that was never good. The Sergeant was so pissed off with them already, he'd probably demote them both.

He grabbed his knife, stuffing it into his belt, put on his boots and sprinted out of the door with Cyren following close behind. He glanced at his watch as he ran through the corridors. 0659. Not good. The Sarge would take any excuse to punish them, and lateness would be perfect for him. Talohn ran through a few more corridors and burst through a door to find his class and someone standing before them who he didn't recognise. The man cast him an irritated look, doing the same to Cyren as he burst through the door seconds after Talohn.

"You're late." He said simply.

"Sorry, sir." Talohn panted. "Alarm... didn't go... off."

"Hmph. Well, never mind. But don't let it happen again."

They were both in shock. Lady Luck had a sense of humour, it seemed. They stood in line with the other troopers and stood to attention.

"My name is Sergeant Ryth. Your other instructor couldn't be here today, due to him retiring, so I will be taking over this class from now on. We will be starting Precision Marksmanship today. I hope you all know how to snipe."

Talohn smiled happily to that news. He had been sniping since he was able to hold a gun, his father made sure of that. He had gotten his first sniper at the age of 12. He knew how to snipe.

"Follow me." Sergeant Ryth said. He brought them to the firing range, where they had tried out E-WEBs a few lessons back. But this time, he brought them a little further, past the troopers firing pistols and rifles at the holotargets, past the deafening roaring of the E-WEBs as they tore through other targets, sending holographic limbs flying. He brought them to a quiet place where the targets were much further away.

"Now," He said. "Rifles are to my right, take one and get ready."

All the troopers rushed to the rifles eagerly, snatching them from their stands and rushing back to fire at the targets.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. We're not firing yet, ladies." The Sergeant called out. Barely contained groans of disappointment echoed from the troopers. Ryth grinned.

"Now. First of all you're going to need to know how to zero. zeroing is the process of adjusting the scope so that the bullet's points-of-impact is at the point-of-aim. Usually, rifles will be prepped and zeroed before going into the field, but in some cases, they will not be, either by neglect or for training. This is fairly simple, so I'll leave this part out for now. These rifles are already zeroed."

"When firing, you might find it useful to take a deep breath and hold your lungs empty while you line up your shot and fire, to steady yourself so you don't miss your target. If you want to go further, you can try and shoot between heartbeats to minimise barrel motion. That is optional though. This next piece of information is optional as well, but I would highly recommend it. Shoot with the ball of your finger to avoid jerking the gun sideways. And then, the most obvious bits. Shoot when prone, with the stock supported by a bipod or even a rucksack and the stock's cheek-piece against the cheek."

"You will also need to be able to judge distances, but we'll cover that in a later lesson. For now, keep in mind what I taught you and we'll start practising."

The troopers lined up by the edge of the range, going prone just as the new Sarge said. Talohn rested his rifle on the row of sandbags lining the range. He took a few deep breaths, calming himself and began to line up a shot. When he thought it was right, he pulled the trigger. The bullet screeched by the target's left ear.

Talohn cursed. The Sergeant's voice sounded from behind him. "What did I say? Ball of the finger. You knocked it sideways. And try lining up the shot while your lungs are empty."

"Yessir."

Talohn tried again, this time heeding Ryth's advice and taking one deep breath. He readied his finger on the trigger, caressing it just as he had done with his Verpine back home. He placed the ball of his finger on the trigger and emptied his lungs. He lined up a shot and fired. The bullet passed cleanly through the target's chest.

"Good." The new Sergeant said, satisfied. He continued to pace between troopers, giving them more advice and, when he had made sure that everyone had made a good shot, called out for the class to stop.

"Well done, ladies. Most of you are very good, and if not, you're definitely improving. And, since it's my first day here and I'm in a good mood, our lesson is over. The rest of the day is yours."

This announcement was met with cheers and whoops. The Sergeant grinned. So, he had made a good first impression. Good. But, boy, was he gonna whip them into shape tomorrow.

OOC:

Very nice, took my advice without even getting it first, I like that in a trooper Good detail in the rifle and how to use the scope. Well done. PASS