Chapter 15

The next morning was no different than the rest. The cadets woke up, did morning PT and continued on with their day at the training field. They learned the staggered column formation and when it was appropriate to use them and in the after noon they learned individual movement techniques such as High crawl, low crawl and the 3-5 second rush; movement techniques generally applied when under fire for the most part.

Arthur didn't get any quests but did receive the 19,000 EXP per training block for having 9 troops under his "command". It seemed like the system was pretty loose in regards to what command was. As long as orders were being followed, it was good enough for the system apparently.

With a total of 57,000/100,000 EXP, he would be leveling up in no time if the training continued like this. A few of the other cadets he'd overheard had leveled up and he was genuinely glad. If he could help these individuals get ahead of the class and be more successful just from his passive skill, he was all for it.

The next day was a little bit different in terms of training. They would be learning leadership principles since they joined as cadets and it was expected of them to graduate the academy as officers if they didn't wash out. Not everyone had the luxury of joining an academy. If you were a D rank and you knew it, it was better to enlist in the military and sign a contract. You'd be able to move through the ranks and get to the top of the non commissioned officer ranks if you went the enlistment route. Battle field promotions to officers were not unheard of, but in peacetime there were few opportunities for that.

The rest of the week the cadets went through leadership principles and regulations that an officer would need to know when leading a platoon. Most cadets graduated from the academy at a rank of second lieutenant and were assigned platoons under a more seasoned Captain or major depending on the element they were assigned to. Very few cadets would graduate with a rank of captain and those were almost all exclusively reserved for mecha pilots.

The mecha pilots were the elite. They could turn the tide of battle with just one unit even though they usually operated in small teams. Most mecha units consisted of a long range artillery mecha, two super durable mecha that wereof geared for close combat, and two more mechas that had short and long range rifle capabilities. This wasn't the rule of course. Many times a mecha unit would be double this for a total of 9-10 units depending on the mission assigned. Mechas were also able to switch out weapons systems depending on the mission. They wanted a machine that could be retrofitted with anything that could be found if they were dropped in the middle of a warzone and had no other choice than to pilfer enemy weapons. Every pilot was trained in all available weapons systems so they would never be ineffective on the battlefield if they had to improvise.

Once the week was over, Arthur and the rest of the cadets had gained another level. Arthur was level 7 now with a free stat point unassigned as of yet. He figured he would hold onto it in case he got a couple points in agility in the near future. The system must have thought his passive was too broken as his 10% chance to gain stat points for physical training might as well have been zero the whole week.

The next week the cadets would be introduced to hand to hand combat training. Movement techniques were great, but they would mean nothing if the cadets had no skills to defend themselves. Arthur was looking forward to this part of the training as he had already mastered the finer aspects of imperial karate and he wondered if there was anything he could really learn from a basic course.

The day of hand to hand combat training the cadets awoke with more excitement. After two weeks of hell, the physical training was becoming more of a check the block than anything. It wasn't particularly challenging now that they had leveled up once or twice and had gained more stat points. Arthur assumed the other cadets were gaining stat points as well, although probably not as many as himself.

When they arrived at PT that morning, of course SSG Payne had a new idea ready for them. "I got too complacent" thought Arthur. "Of course he knows the training is getting to easy for us"

Payne walked to the front of the formation and pointed over to a stack of long wooden poles. They looked like old telephone poles from Arthurs past life and that's when Arthur knew this new round of training was going to be brutal.

"Cadets, Private Brick has talked to me about how easy it is to run up Easy Hill now. We don't want you to breeze through this academy so we wanted to change things up going forward. You will break into groups of 10 and grab a pole. Then you will run up the hill with the pole between the the 10 of you. Fall out and grab your poles like your mothers grabbed onto mine last night" laughed Payne as he watched the cadets struggle to lift the 900 pound poles between them.

With Private Brick and the pole, the cadets would be running with an extra 120 pounds on the run today. Payne smiled at his ingenuity and promised himself he'd come up with a way to make these cadets even more miserable in the future. It wasn't about them hating him though, he wanted these cadets to be prepared for anything. It wouldn't always be comfortable. In a combat zone, anything could happen. The more strength and stamina he built up in these cadets now, the better off they would be in the real world.