Training Day

The trainer walked down the bare dirt strip, his eyes caged on an invisible post far in the distance. Each recruit stood at rigid attention, their bodies and eyes unmoving as the shakedown continued.

The trainer stopped and turned quickly to face the entire line of recruits, looking them over in a ritualized testing. He was a tall man with short black hair and had a solid build. He was dressed in a black, form-fitting shirt and dusty combat fatigues. The pants were bloused into black, broken-in combat boots. A single pistol was strapped to a thigh holster. His words were laced with contempt.

"Gentlemen and ladies, welcome to Hell. I am Captain Ushira Tazami."

None of the recruits responded. No words or expressions were passed. Only silence. The trainer continued unabated.

"On my command, you will drop to a prone position and return to a standing position, am I understood?"

"Yes Sir!" chanted the recruits in unison.

"Down!"

The entire line of recruits dropped to the ground and two dozen thumps sounded as each soldier dropped to the ground and scrambled back to rigid attention.

"This is not the Army. Down!"

More thumps, still in perfect unison, sounded.

"This is not the Navy. Down! This is not the Marine Corp or even the gorram Special Forces. Down!"

The trainer began to pace again, calling for the soldiers to drop periodically as he continued his introduction speech.

"You are here because you think you have what it takes to join Xi. Down! When you graduate from this camp, you will be the tips of the spears. Down! Down! Down! But until that point, you are feh wu. Down!"

The line of recruits continued to drop and return to attention almost in complete synchronization.

"From this moment you are no longer under AAF appearance regulations."

The trainer caught several signs of confusion in the recruits. He pointed to a single one. A tall, man with a thin, but muscular, build who was standing a bit too rigidly for his own good.

"You, your rank and name, now."

The recruit saluted immediately and kept his eyes trained forward while he barked a response, "Da Yeh, Second Lieutenant Arex Koltai!"

The trainer rolled his eyes and motioned for the soldier to meet him. Koltai walked forward in a straight line and turned in a perfect right angle to his right. He marched to Tazami's footsteps and halted, giving a sharp salute.

Tazami did not return Koltai's salute. Tazami drew his pistol and in one fluid motion brought it to Koltai's face and pulled the trigger. The lieutenant's face flashed in horror and he blinked as the click of the pistol's hammer striking an empty chamber rang out in the dead silence. The other recruits struggled to maintain their composure.

Tazami lowered the pistol and let the silence continue for several seconds. He finally spoke, nearly shouting in displeasure at Koltai.

"I just tried to fucking kill you, Koltai. Do you always respond to gunfire by standing at gorram attention? Do you think that your enemy is going to hesitate? If your little march back there doesn't give away your status as nien mohn that stupid buzz cut is going to give it away clear as a Browncoat in a Parliament session."

The trainer turned away from the nearly-trembling Koltai to face the line of recruits.

"That goes for all of you! Wake up, you kuh wu washouts, this ain't the military you joined. We don't act like dipshits with sticks wedged firmly in our asses."

Tazami turned back to Koltai and looked him over.

"You got balls, kid. Now you need to unlearn all the ri shao gou shi bing they drilled into you at Basic. Now get back in line."

Koltai nodded slowly and hesitated as he started a quick jog back to his position in line. The recruits were noticeably less rigid in their stances as Tazami looked them over.

"As I said before, gentlemen and ladies, welcome to Hell."