OOC:

I believe I qualified for this before I left my squad previously. I'd like to use this as something of a reintroduction to the character.

If there was one thing lizards did particularly well, it was staying very, very still. Khalldryn was no exception, even with the heavy fletchette launcher held before him. The weapon was held in front of him vertically. His left hand took most of his weight holding the front grip, whilst his right hand steadied the weapon and the stock leaned gently against the side of his face.

The moment of silent tranquillity seemed to last for much longer than the reality of two seconds.

“Go! Go! Go!”

As soon as he heard the first “G” Khalldryn was moving. In one smooth motion he twisted around and brought the fletchette launcher to bear on the door next to him. He shifted his weight onto his back leg and squeezed the trigger.

Fletchette shards ripped through the inner edge of the door with ease. Khalldryn shifted his weight again and with one solid kick he smashed open the door. With his part complete for now he span away from the door. Two of the quickest members of the group darted through the doorway, blaster carbines already shouldered. 

Khalldryn followed after four people had already entered the room. He swung his gun back and forth as he entered the first room, but the targets had already been taken down. Nevertheless, they had all been trained to check all possible attack vectors when moving through a building. It only took one hidden soldiers to cause chaos.

The targets in this exercise were simple cardboard cut-outs, leaned against the walls. Much of the soldiers' training had involved battling droids, or each other. This was their first live fire exercise, and as such they were simply moving through the facility and taking out the painted silhouettes.

They were being monitored closely by the trainers, who followed along wearing bright orange vests. Each squad was being marked on their ability to coordinate as a team. Every new room had to be cleared out using a sequence of orders, carried out with metronomical precision.

The facility was the remains of an old accommodation building. Built to survive heavy ordnance, but now abandoned, the complex was perfect for urban combat training. Of course, there were other facilities to recreate the vastly different definitions of “urban” on different worlds.

Khalldryn moved through the next few rooms, so far he hadn't been required to fire a single shot in anger. He reached the front line shortly after, the group was apparently waiting for him. There was single hole in the ceiling that the soldiers were keeping weapons trained on.

“Vertical D-3,” came a whisper so quiet, that Khalldryn only heard it through the comm unit against his ear. With no outer ear to place it in, they had helpfully taped it to the side of his head before starting. The huge Barabel nodded to the squad leader and moved forwards, swinging his fletchette launcher onto his back.

He went down on one knee and cupped his hands together. One of the quick troopers who ran point placed a foot on his hands. Another pulled the pin from a grenade – that at least was not a live weapon.

The grenade was tossed up into the hole. A moment later there was a loud “pop” and a flash, showing that the dud flash bang had gone off. Khalldryn heaved the soldier up so that the top half of his body went through the hole. Khalldryn held his leg firmly as he twisted back and forth firing his blaster.

“Clear!” he shouted back down. With one easy motion Khalldryn hefted the soldier fully through the hole and into the room above. Quickly reaching back down and helping another soldier up. Khalldryn helped three more soldiers up as a now consistent melody of blaster fire rang out above them.

When the rest of the squad was up on the next floor, Khalldryn threw up his weapon and jumped up after them. He easily reached the next level and lifted his body up. He took his weapon back from a companion and followed the trail of destruction.

Again, for a short while Khalldryn was kept out of the action. He brought up the rear of the group as they moved from room to room. Grenades and well executed manoeuvres kept the trainers happy as  the first floor was completely cleared out.

At the foot of the next stairwell the squad regrouped and Khalldryn fulfilled his second major role: pack mule. Inwardly, he sighed as he passed around power packs to his more nimble companions. Perhaps I should have joined the Heavy Weapons Programme, he thought to himself. He appreciated becoming part of a well oiled machine. As each manoeuvre was executed with increasing precision there was a certain satisfaction to be gained. However, since Khalldryn had left his homeworld and his work as a negotiator he truly missed good conversation. He missed a conversation with layers of intrigue and attempt to get the better of his peers through intellect alone.

His fellow squad mates were of few words, and intellectuals they were not. Khalldryn could not help but feel somewhat unfulfilled in his role of “great big alien that carries lot of ammo and kicks down doors,”

“Door!” came a quiet call in his ear, waking him from his reverie.

...speaking of which, he thought to himself, waking from his reverie.

Khalldryn moved to the front of the group. He found the front runners pressed against either side of a doorway. As Khalldrn approached he make a quick assessment of the barrier's integrity.

“A-2,” he whispered into his comms. His squad changed positions accordingly.

Khalldryn accelerated as he approached the door. One massive clawed foot kicked the door off its hinges and the Barabel followed shortly after.

He launcher turned left and right and he fired twice. The two cardboard targets were disintegrated under the torrent of fletchette. That was the power of the heavy weapon, at short range it could rip through nearly any form of armour, and set to a wide spread injure a whole squad in one shot. It was next to useless over a distance of around 100m even when calibrated to the narrowest spread. Still, if there was a door Khalldryn couldn't kick down, a point blank cartridge of fletchette always did the trick.

Khalldryn followed the squad through the rest of the facility. In the next ten minutes he was responsible for dealing with three more doorways and shooting two more targets. He ended the exercise with the lowest kill count of the group, but that was expected of his role. That was what the once proud lizard was now, an insignificance cog in the great wheel of the Imperial war machine.