Chapter 1: Training

[Fel]

Lieutenant Fel stepped of the shuttle at the Imperial Academy station he had been ordered to. Having read the briefing a dozen times, he felt relatively sure of what he'd come there to do.

"Lieutenant Fel, sir. Welcome, sir." The young ensign... Young ensign?! Fel realized that the officer standing before him seemed incredibly young, and yet he couldn't be more than a couple of years younger than Fel himself... Fel noted that he felt like he was getting old already.

"Sir?" The ensign interrupted Fel's thought.

"Yes, ensign, thank you." Fel replied tersely.

"If you'll follow me, sir, I'll show you your quarters. Also, I have a datapad for you with updated information." The ensign handed Fel a datapad, as promised.

Fel elected to read it as he walked, rather than put up with the young ensign's tripping over himself as though he'd never seen a lieutenant before. The datapad contained nothing special; just an overview of his quarters here at the station, and a schedule of the upcoming training exercises for this week.

Fel looked the list over.

"Dogfight" - an entirely easy simulation to get everyone familiar with their equipment. Fel realized this was primarily because some of the people in his squadron weren't pilots by nature.

"Nav Buoy" - A standard scenario that Fel had previously completed, some time ago.

"Rescue LC Muscat" - Unknown to Fel, but no doubt some sort of special mission, rather than your standard fly-around-and-kill everything sort.

"CounterStrike" was listed as some sort of command exercise. Fel wondered what a "command exercise" was.

And then the item that Fel dreaded. A section simply labelled "Ground Exercises."

Ground pounding wasn't his idea of a good time, and not only because he didn't relish the snickers of the Army Troopers watching a Navy Lieutenant struggle with what was, of course, their home turf.

Before long, the two officers had reached Fel's quarters, and the ensign took his leave of the lieutenant. Fel took a few minutes to unpack his things, synchronize his datapad with the local data terminal, and then chose to proceed to the mess hall. Dinner seemed like a good idea.

Scattered throughout the mess hall were groups of cadets, who rightly seemed even younger than the ensign who greeted Fel on his arrival. And tucked away in a dark corner were some actual commissioned officers. Fel surmised they comprised his staff.

"Fel!" Sapan's callout removed any doubt.

"Nice to see you here, gentlemen," Fel said, "... and lady," noticing Ensign Wistalin in the corner. "I suppose the best thing to do here is introduce myself, but I detest stupid icebreakers of all sorts. I'm Lieutenant Tiberius Fel, and they've put me in charge of all of you. I am certain you've all been selected due to your skills in various areas. I can't tell you much more than your briefing already has, but I can tell you that your skills will be put to the test."

After a short pause to be sure that he was finished, the officer sitting next to him introduced himself. "I'm Viru Terix, and I'm just glad to have escaped Toprawa."

The officers took turns as they went around the table. After Fel, and Terix: Gann, Yamaguchi, Yukostro, Sapan, Wistalin, Alexander, Renzen, Irinek, Anduin, and Arkada. Each had a few words to say, usually about their recent assignments.

The chatter continued thereafter for some hours, as people got to know each other. In piloting situations, lives depend on being able to trust your comrades in arms. Doubly so for covert missions.

Fel decided it was a good plan to wrap things up. "Well, get some sleep, everyone. Tomorrow we need to get flying."

"Eat, sleep and be merry, for tomorrow, we fly?" Asked Alexander.

Everyone groaned.

Renzen said: "Yeah, like we've never heard THAT one before..."

=====================

Mission Assignments:

TIE: ERS-1
XvT: ERS-20
XWA: ERS-173
GB: ERS-183
EaW: ERS-182

[RA Junon]

Officers,

Firstly, I would like to thank you for your dedication to the Empire thus far and for the sacrifices you will be forced to make during the course of this “project”. I cannot stress enough the importance of excelling in every aspect of this assignment – Grand Admiral Daemon demands perfection and I expect you to deliver it. This week’s training, as you should have noted, was quite rudimentary. This was done with the intention of allowing you to familiarize yourselves with your new colleagues as well as with the combat techniques that might be outside of your typical comfort zone. Although each member of this team was chosen because of specific proficiencies, success will depend on your ability to handle every situation imaginable, regardless of personnel available.

That being said, I am pleased to commend you on your successful completion of this past mission. I realize that adapting to a new group and honing your skills with new weapons, craft, and techniques can be daunting. However, as I mentioned before, this was not a very difficult exercise. Imperial Intelligence suggests that this could be one of the most challenging and dangerous missions in recent memory. In order to prepare you for this, training will become exponentially more difficult in the next few weeks. I suggest you prepare yourselves physically and mentally – this will not be easy.

-Rear Admiral Argas Junon
Imperial Navy Fleet Commander

[Jacob Jansen]

All scoring for chapter 1 is done. If you notice any errors, contact me ASAP.