“FORWARD MATCH!!” Anderson yelled as the young cadets did their daily morning parade. He is the best cadet among this batch. Very good in leadership, marksmanship, and fighting abilities.
He is dark-skinned and slightly muscular, just like Clark. He stood out from the rest cadets, as he led them throughout the parade.
Sitting to the side with a batch of soldiers in Spartan military uniform behind him, is Captain Spoky, the leader of this military base leisurely watching the cadets.
He suddenly stood up, after they ended their parade, as he faced the cadets. “Good morning cadets”.
“Good morning captain,” they yelled in reply.
“I know a lot of you are excited because you will start your advanced tech training today. Let me give you a piece of advice cadets, don’t be too excited because your suffering begins today”.
“No time for pampering. Your training is two years early, so I expect you to all be two years more competent. After three months of rigorous training, I expect all of you to be officially soldiers of the Spartan republic, so act like one.”
“Your training today will not be the usual one,” he continued while keeping his stern face.
“The government provided standard guns and bullets for you all. So be prepared, because you will all be going to the forest. Your first training is to survive by yourself in the tropical forest for five days”.
“Do not expect to go there and sleep, because the government personally provided genetically modified predators, more dangerous than anything you’ve seen before”.
“Your implant may have boosted you in various ways, but so are the animals. Don’t be too hopeless though, because after these three months is over, the survivors from you three hundred will be given benefits you didn’t expect”.
“Good luck cadets, be dismissed for thirty minutes for preparation. Do not carry any accessory,” he reminded before they left.
“All you need will be provided by the military here. Your three months of suffering starts here,” he said, as a grin slowly morphed on his face.
…
“Oh, shit. Leonard I’m dead, we are going to the forest alone. They want to kill us; I swear, they want to kill us”. Clark blurted out, looking troubled as soon as they reached his room.
“Shit, stop it. Clark, stop behaving like a fly and let’s think of how to survive this man” his friend replied.
“What are we thinking of drunken hands, you can’t possibly think we are guaranteed to survive right?”
“I know Clark, no guarantee, but it is also not a sure way to death. Clark, I thought you were the fast and accurate guy, skilled in fighting and marksmanship. Just because of going to the forest, you want to soil your pants, chill man”. Leo said in a slightly provocative tone.
“Hey, I know. I am going to be the greatest soldier alive, helping my country ally with any of the big five, but I’m just being rational man. You understand what I mean”. Clark replied with a grin.
“Yes, I know Clark. Yes, you are the greatest. So, how are we going to go about this?” Leo finally asked the big question.
“I don’t know, what else? Go there, survive and save the country, that’s all. Or is there anything else?”. Clark asked, with a stop asking me stupid questions expression on his face.
“Ok Clark, be careful though, I want to eat before going, let’s go”. Leo ignored his friend’s expression, while calmly diverting the direction of their conversation.
“Ok Leo,” Clark calmly replied, as he also wanted to eat.
There was not much they could plan, so Leo [i.e short form of Leonard] quickly forgot about their little conversation, as they got ready to go. After eating, they both returned to the parade ground.
…
“Hey, he’s here man,” Clark nudged his friend.
“Leo, I said the Captain’s here. Keep quiet,” he raised his voice a little before his friend heard.
“Ok cadets, you’ll be divided into groups of ten,” Captain Spoky didn’t waste time as he directly started giving instructions.
“You’ll have to follow the sergeant your group is assigned to. Follow the sergeant leading you, to your designated helicopter. You will be dropped in segments, one by one. Good luck.”
Luckily, both friends were placed in the same group. Though temporarily, Clark still rejoiced as they had time to talk a little. “Leo, I saw you talking with Anderson, what was the talk about?” He suddenly asked as he leaned forward a little, to get closer to his friend.
“Oh, he is in the other group. Ahh!! Bro come closer, what I heard from Anderson was surprising,” Leo exclaimed, as he suddenly remembered something.
“Bro, Anderson told me the reason that our advanced tech training was brought forward. It’s because the Moca republic wants to invade our country earlier than expected, so the change of plans.”
“Shit, those blood-sucking Mocans. I hate them,” Clark blurted out in hatred. His overflowing hatred was not without basis, as he had a rather huge beef with the Mocan republic.
“Leo, if that’s true, then good. I will prove myself during this invasion and massacre those bloodsuckers. If that’s the reason, then I’m more eager to survive this training and trash those Mocans”.
“Me too Clark. I wish you luck bro,” Leo said, as he also understood his friend’s feelings.
“You too”.
[Thanks for reading this chapter, I really appreciate.]
The Moca republic is a country with middle-grade military power, directly opposite the Sparta republic in terms of territory comparison. They were neighbors in a sense, but that was just a title without any close sentiments attached to it this era.Due to invasion being a norm in this century, the Moca republic has always coveted the Sparta republic’s territory. The Moca republic is more advanced than the Sparta republic technologically, but not by much. This has served as a catalyst, for the Mocans aggression against the Spartans. Spartans are indoctrinated into the hatred between the two countries from birth, so there is hardly any good interaction between them.No business transactions are made. Instead, they trade blows through small skirmishes and a major invasion attempt from either side. But the Mocans are more enthusiastic about it, as they are slightly stronger.Clark, as a Sparta
Clark woke up feeling refreshed and revitalized. “Man, this is just like a VIP room, so comfortable,” he moaned with satisfaction.He looked at the tree leaves makeshift bed with a satisfied look, “I’ll miss this experience.” He stood up to observe his surroundings, the sun rays were shining as resplendently as ever. He suddenly started grinning, as he recalled that he was enjoying free vitamin D. “Oh what a free world,” he exclaimed feeling satisfied.He washed his face with water from a nearby pit, and also filled his water bottle. He looked at his shadow and determined the time to be around after seven in the morning. “I should eat before leaving,” he thought. After eating, he stored the remaining meat in a make-shift bag, hand-made by him from the tree leaves. Improvisatio
“This is going to be harder than I thought,” Clark soliloquized, as he walked through the jungle looking for a place to wash the blood off his body and clothes. He found a stream nearby, he subconsciously looked around searching for any threat, having found none he quickly rushed to wash himself up.“These four days remaining are surely going to be a pain in the ass,” he thought with resignation. He suddenly looked to the right, and to his surprise found a mango tree. His eyes brightened immediately, “thank God, at last something better to eat”. He brought out one of his daggers and conveniently climbed the tree with it, while still being alert.“My life is far more valuable than a mango tree, I can’t let my guard down because of food. That’s the behavior of fools and plants like Leo.” As he thought, he suddenly recalled that Leo was probably
Beep!! Beep!! Clark woke up to hear the familiar alarm ringtone of his phone. “It’s 6:00 am already. Man, I didn’t get enough sleep,” he grumbled as he quickly got up, brushed his teeth, and had his bath. Fifteen minutes later, he is ready in his new military cadet uniform which was provided yesterday. With his daggers and sword both also ready, he left his room feeling surprised as Leo always woke up before him.“What happened to this guy now?” he questioned himself again in a contemplative tone. “This piece of shit,” he cursed as he quickly went out, reaching the opposite room in less than 10 seconds. Bam! Bam! Bam! He banged his friend's door as he called out, “plant, what the hell are you still doing?”“Hey!! Clark, stop banging my door I woke up late. I&
Some minutes later, both friends were finally dropped in a mountainous region. As soon as they landed, Clark observed their surroundings as he slowly nodded in satisfaction.“I prefer this man. At least, I can see far and have more obstacles to take cover,” he told his friend, who was also observing the area.“Clark, I want us to come out on top, this competition. Let’s find a place to camp, as our defensive fortress before advancing”. Leo said in a soft tone, as he turned to look at his friend.Clark simply grunted in reply, as they quickly found a cliff with enough cover to keep them from the prying eyes of the exobeasts. They dropped their bags, prepared, and went outside to set up a defensive perimeter. Clark decided to naturally wield the sniper, as he was better than his friend in marksma
Leo woke up and glanced around, “where am I?” He asked while trying to stand up, which brought a wave of dizziness to him. This cleared up his brain a bit as he touched his head. He felt the itch from the cloth bandage, before recalling what happened.He sighed; “it’s already evening, I wonder where Clark went to". He soliloquized while glancing outside.During the construction of their make-shift residence, they both placed the rocks together to form something like a cave before all that happened- the exobeast encounter. He finally went outside to find his friend by a lump of fire-eating roasted meat. “Ah!! Bro, you’ve woken up, how’s your head?” Clark asked casually as he munched on his meat. “Clark...,
Leonard Bane woke up to see the golden sun rays shining down on him, from the corners of the cave. He admired the rays a bit as his eyes cleared before he looked at his shadow reflection.“Oh, it’s 8:00 am already. Why didn’t this piece of shit wake me up?” He cursed as he quickly got up, going outside the cave. There he saw Clark, diligent as always, doing push-ups.“Diligent my ass, this guy only did his push-ups daily to keep his 6 packs, to impress girls. F**k,” he couldn’t help but curse again, as the scene left a bad taste in his mouth.“Oh, Leo you’re already awake. "I thought you’ll sleep like a log of dead wood for the rest of the day. Good morning plant.” Clark finally greeted his friend properly after his regular exchange of insult greeting.“Clark, my head injury is healed, don’t try me. If you call me a plant again, I swear I'll skin you alive,” Leo retorted w
Due to it being stretched very thin, the makeshift rope snapped in 2 with just one laser beam.BOOM!!! His hard work was finally put to use, as the handmade spears quickly sprang up. It was just an imitation, so the spears didn’t have enough force to shoot off from the ground like the ones used by the Spartan army. But this was just the right force to inflict enough damage to the big cat. It seems like the panther sensed the danger, as it tried altering its jump trajectory but it was already too late. The spears ruthlessly impaled its exposed belly, it growled in rage and pain as its bowels and blood freely flowed out.Due to the force and momentum from the panther’s moving speed, the spears conveniently cut it from where it impaled on its belly to its leg as one of the spears got stuck in its leg bone.Still re