CH6 (528), Military (1)

After lunch on Grouday, 04.20.2184, I made my way to the military camp where I would be spending the next 6 months. The military phase officially began on Arcday, but I was told to arrive a day early so that the formalities could be dealt with. It would also allow me to directly start on Arcday without wasting any time.

The military camp I was assigned to was actually the northernmost one on the entire northeastern Kanto front/border. I was obviously not counting Rota in this, not only because it was on Kanto's northwestern border, but also because Rota was another human region and not part of what the alliance classified as the wilderness.

Anyway, back to the camp I was heading to, I had to first head to Cerulean City before traveling north in a nearly straight line for close to 300 km. My destination was a place that could be mistaken as a small settlement from afar but was actually the army camp.

Once I came closer, it became apparent that this was not a regular settlement. I think the fence, the watch towers, and the "dry" appearance, along with the people in uniform made that clear. As I came closer to the "gate" of the settlement, I noticed that my arrival had been detected and that I was being observed.

As I stepped up to the entrance, I was stopped by four soldiers that seemed to be on surveillance duty, and this was the first time in my current life that I actually got to see real firearms.

They were classified as restricted goods by the alliance since regular ones were pretty much only effective against civilians and most Tier 1 humans along with most stageless Pokemon. That being the case, meant that regular guns were simply harmful to humanity if spread, which is why they were restricted.

There were actually guns capable of hurting or even killing Pokemon, at least until a certain level/stage, but producing them was costly, with the cost increasing exponentially the "mightier" the firearm had to be, so they never became the mainstream way to deal with Pokemon. Especially since there were quite a few cases where they were close to useless when certain species or types were concerned.

Still, they had their use, which is why soldiers were trained in their use and equipped with them, or at least that was what I had managed to learn during my research on the practical year and the military part of it, as well as the military in general.

Though it seemed that I did not do a good enough job since the weapons the soldiers at the gate were carrying appeared much more imposing than the ones they were supposedly carrying from what I had gathered. Maybe it was because this was a border camp.

Anyway, one of the soldiers stepped up and asked why I came here. Well, he formulated it differently, but that was what he wanted to know, and I saw his eyes widen a bit in surprise when I told him that I was here for my practical year, though he showed no other indication that he was surprised.

I handed him the letter I received from the alliance to prove my claim, and he looked at it before asking me to wait while he verified it with his superior. Once he came back, he welcomed me to Camp 96 before he told me to wait at the side since someone was coming over to pick me up.

I spent around two minutes watching as the soldiers stoically stood watch before I saw someone approaching our position from the inside of the camp. The soldier did indeed turn out to be the one responsible for picking me up, and after clarifying his intention, he led me inside the camp.

Apparently, Steve, that was my guide's name, was responsible for guiding me to my bunk, showing me around, informing me of the rules and regulations, both written and traditional, and bringing me over to accept my uniform. In fact, even ensuring that my hair did not go against the guidelines seemed to be part of his job for the day.

Thankfully, I did not have to go through that one since I had already expected that to happen, so I made sure that my hair fit the standard. I did not want to risk any initiation haircuts since I did not want to risk the bowling ball look. That one might actually look good on some people, but I was not one of them.

Since I managed to avoid the military barber, Steve first brought me to pick up my uniform(s) and bedding. Afterward, he led me to one of the barracks and showed me the bunk bed I had been assigned. It seemed like the bunk beds here were single ones, so I, at least, did not have to worry about anyone crashing on top of me during the night.

Anyway, Steve then demonstrated to me the proper way to arrange my bed, and he emphasized the importance of making the bed exactly as he had demonstrated. He had me do the bed a few times until he was satisfied with my performance and stopped nitpicking at small details.

He then explained the proper behavior I had to show if a superior came over to the bunker for inspection. Steve told me that I had to move beside the foot of my bed which was the closest to the barracks entrance/exit and that I had to stand at attention. He demonstrated the posture I had to maintain, and he stressed that I had to keep up a neutral facade the whole time.

He then showed me the best way to lie, sit, and relax on my bed without ruining the neat bedding. Once he had me practice those positions and movements a few times, he handed me a book that contained the rules and regulations I had to follow, before he told me to go to the bathroom to change into my uniform.

Before we moved on to the next place, he told me that I could keep my phone on me for today, but that I would have to turn it off and either leave it in storage or inside the barrack starting tomorrow since I was only allowed to use my phone over the weekend.

Moreover, even that was limited to a few hours, mostly because I still had stuff to do even on Kyoday and Grouday. It was just that the part on the weekend was mostly theoretical stuff unless an emergency/necessary change happened.

That honestly took me a bit by surprise since I knew that the rules for phones were not as strict for others, including my friends during their practical year. When I mentioned that Steve stared at me for a moment before indifferently stating that those people did not go to a border camp as well, before adding that he expected me to simply answer with a "yes sir" the next time military orders were given.

Opinions and questions were only accepted if the superior has asked for them or if he/she gave permission to express them at the start or end of his/her address. Steve even employed a trick question by asking "Did you understand that recruit?", and I obviously answered with "Yes, sir!" since I spotted that it was not a real question, but a rhetorical one.

After we left the barracks, Steve brought me to the mess hall and shared the meal times with me. Breakfast was from 6:30 to 8 a.m., Lunch was from 12 to 1 p.m., and dinner was from 5 to 6 p.m. He also added that there was PT (physical training) before breakfast and that I was required to wear the provided exercise uniform for PT.

He added that he was hoping for my sake that I was used to waking up early and to exercising or I would like the next few months even less than I would be liking it anyway.

I was honestly not worried about any of the physical training they were doing here since I was extremely confident in my physical fitness. The most demanding exercises they did here were probably not as hard as the ones I did myself. Nonetheless, I kept quiet since there was no reason to show off. All that would do in this setting was to make a bad impression.

From the mess hall, we moved on to the practice field, where I would have to head to each morning for my PT, followed by the shooting range, where I would be taught how to wield and shoot firearms. He showed me the supply point and supply store, which were two different places by the way. The first one is where one picked up military-assigned supplies, while the second one was where one could buy stuff within the camp.

Afterward, we went to various drill fields, before heading to the building that had the classrooms for the theoretical lessons and hands-on lessons, including the room where I would be taught how to take apart a firearm to service it before assembling it again.

The next few stops were actually places I was not allowed to step into, and Steve brought me there so that I knew to avoid those areas in the future. Our last stop was the military clinic/infirmary and according to Steve the staff/clinic could handle most injuries as long as it was nothing too critical.

With that, the tour was over, and Steve led me back to the mess hall since it was already time for dinner. There were already some soldiers in there eating their dinner, and our arrival caught the curiosity of some of them. I heard some discussing how they were seeing me for the first one, which surprised them, since the last batch of new recruits came at the start of the year, close to 20 months ago.

Steve did not react at all and I simply smiled before following behind him as we took a tray and got in line. It did not take long until it was our turn, and I saw that the selection was actually pretty decent. There were a few kinds of greens (salads/raw vegetables) one could choose from along with an assortment of soups as well as vegetable and meat meals. Though, all of this food seemed to be of the regular kind.

According to Steve, the real nutrition and energy provider during meals were the energy bars we had to eat along with the food we chose. Everything else the mess hall provided was practically just for taste as well as enjoyment, and after tasting the bar I could understand why they did that. The energy bar had a pretty bland taste with a hint of banana, and from what my tongue told me there was a good reason for that.

To ensure that the energy bars truly covered all needs they put various berries and other stuff in there, which usually would have resulted in a pretty bad/unusual taste. The only reason it didn't was that they added more stuff to balance out the bad taste without compromising the nutritional/energy value of the bar. The mess hall offered 5 kinds of energy bars, apple, apricot, banana, orange, and strawberry.

Still, according to Steve, each one was just like my banana bar, with just a hint of the chosen flavor, so I understood why the military went with the current meal system. Maybe one could eat only this kind of energy bar for a month or two, or even six if one had to, but soldiers were ultimately humans too, so after that point, one would definitely get sick of it. Pairing the energy bars with regular meals allowed people to eat them without complaint.

Anyway, after dinner, Steve told me that I was free for the rest of the day/evening. He suggested that I use the time to get more familiar with the camp before reading through the rules and regulations book. He also reminded me to stay out of the forbidden areas, before adding that I better get enough sleep since I would need to be at the exercise field at 5:30 a.m.

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