Jetpack Training
Nightstalkers training mission 1
"You want me to what?" asked Stonefish incredulously.
"New squad," said Fury slowly, as if to a small child, "Nightstalkers, come on, Fish, you've been after this for years."
"Jetpacks?"
"The squad mission is 'mobile infantry', the whole idea I had behind the squad was from a beer advert they run on the local holo channels - reaches the places other beers can't?"
"Still, you know I've never been in one of those things."
"That's why we have an extensive suite of training simulations for you and your squad to run through."
Fury paused and played with the mound of datacards covering his desk. After a few minutes rummaging, he found the one he was looking for, and handed it over to Stonefish. As he leaned over the desk, the pile collapsed with a clatter sending carefully labelled datacards over the edge of the desk. Fury grunted.
"Thanks, I'll go look over this and get started," said Stonefish backing off from the glint in Fury's eye.
Walking down the corridor, Stonefish considered what was happening as he walked down the corridor, his reflection staring back up at him from the black glossy floor.
Lost in his thoughts, Stonefish almost walked straight into Raziel coming the other way. Just in time, he stepped aside as the Lieutenant pelted past, skidding to a stop as he noticed Stonefish.
"Hey, Fish! I just heard. Congratulations, man! You've deserved this for a long time!" he said with a grin spreading across his face.
"Thanks, Raz," replied Stonefish, "But I just found out I'm running a squad that uses jetpacks. Time to find the Fallen Angel in me again, I think."
Raziel said nothing, but started chuckling as he slapped the older man on the back and continued on his way.
--
Stonefish watched the information scroll up the screen on his flat-holo. Streams of green characters and outline diagrams showing him all the information he could need on his new equipment. As the data flowed past, barely impacting on his consciousness, Stonefish considered the effect it would have on his tactics. Being able to move in the third axis with a degree of freedom meant his unit would be most usefully deployed in urban, sub-urban, or industrial areas, with large numbers of buildings and other obstacles more easily passable by air.
It would also mean that he would have to train his troopers to think three-dimensionally, a feat not normally required of Army soldiers but par for the course as a pilot.
Finally, the physical strain of being lifted bodily into the air on a pair of small reaction thrusters and being unceremoniously dropped to the ground again would need a very harsh training regimen to withstand the punishment their legs would take.
The figures ceased their flow with a series of short beeps as the console awaited use input. Stonefish looked up to see a small demo reel from the training simulations that had been lined up for him. He was just about to push the button when Dez walked into the room.
"So, you're now in my platoon," Dez began, "Welcome. Just so you know, I'll be expecting your reports in by 0400 Saturday. If you can pass on to me any equipment or training requests ASAP, that would be great also."
"Okay then, I can do that," Stonefish responded, imagining the piles of datacards that would soon be building up on his desk, "I'm looking at training sims for jetpacks right now, with a view to starting probably tomorrow."
"Excellent, good to see you're off to a flying start there," Dez nodded thoughtfully and walked back out.
After closing the door, Stonefish sat back down at his console and tapped the play button on the demo reel. The simulation itself was a simple one. It was based in a large warehouse, run with gantries and walkways criss-crossing each other all the way up to the roof. A maze of walls and corridors crossed at all levels, making movement up and down a necessity. The goal of the simulation was to traverse the warehouse, retrieve a datacard from a terminal at the far end and return. The sting in the simulation was the randomized foes scattered across the warehouse, patrolling the walkways.
--
The briefing room was well lit for a change, and the five troopers from Nightstalkers squad sat in chairs facing Stonefish at the podium. Their faces looked too young to the eyes of their squad leader, though several had begun their training in earnest, garnering his respect.
"Okay squad," began Stonefish, flicking a button on the remote, "Here's the situation."
The screen behind him lit up with the panther logo that Stonefish had devised for the squad, blazoned beneath it was their motto in a lost language that Stonefish thought sounded good: in obscurum ferimus. If he had done his work right, that translated roughly as 'in darkness we strike'. With the click of a button, the screen flicked over to an image of their new jetpacks.
"This is possibly one of the craziest ideas I've seen in a while," continued Stonefish from the podium, "We get to use jetpacks in our missions."
The screen changed again as Stonefish pushed the advance button on his remote. This time to a cutaway shot of the interior of the warehouse from the simulation.
"This means we need to practice using jetpacks to move effectively and we need to learn to think and be aware in three dimensions. Some of you who may have had some flight experience before you signed up may be used to this idea, others may not be. Either way we are going to be running through this training simulation to see how we move together with the packs on."
Stonefish changed the screen over to show an image of their objective - a small terminal with a datacard obviously protruding out of it.
"We need to get from the start point, to this terminal which will be located at the far end of the warehouse, take the datacard and get back to the starting location."
Another click, and the screen showed an image of a New Republic trooper in standard armour, carrying a blaster carbine.
"The final thing is, we won't be alone in there. There will be random, but skilled opposition patrolling the walkways trying to stop us first from getting to our objective and then from returning with the datacard. Okay, gear up - standard mission equipment only. Be at the simulator room in one hour."
Stonefish dismissed his squad and went to his quarters for a quick sonic shower before the mission. He knew this would be hard for the squad, but that they could pull through and more.
--
One hour later, the squad sat in seats outside the simulator room waiting for Stonefish. As their squad leader walked up, the squad rose to its feet and came to attention.
"All right, enough of that crap already. We've got a job to do here, so let's get to it. The polishing and saluting is over for the day, it's time to get the beating stick out and make somebody hurt. Nightstalkers, let's roll."
With that, Stonefish lead his squad into the simulator which was already set for the warehouse scenario. They entered into a small room around halfway up the wall of the warehouse, directly ahead was blocked, as were the left and right. The room was open above, and half the floor was cut away below.
"Fire Team Alpha, with me, we're going up. Alesse, you take Bravo down. We'll try and hook up again at the half-way point. Keep in touch. We have radios for a reason, and it's not because they look cool."
With that, Stonefish hit the thrusters and jetted up on blue flame to the next gantry above, Ryo and Maxx followed quickly after. Almost as his feet touched the ground, Stonefish saw an NR trooper raising his carbine.
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SL/SGM Ramon Stonefish/3SQD/2PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/Tadath/VEA/VE
-=Nightstalkers=-
+ Advance Recon Commandos {ARC} +