I'll Make A Man Out Of You!

Back in the Hegemony, the military base that Princess Bang-gwi was stationed at was officially known as Dresden Base since it was located near Dresden in what was formerly Germany. Unofficially, this base became known as "The Meat Grinder" since all fresh recruits were first sent here before being distributed to other bases. The oldest soldier at the base was merely 25 while the youngest was 16. The Hegemony believed that 18 was old enough to voluntarily serve, but with your parent's or guardian's consent you could join at 16.

Military life was harsh and almost all of regular soldiers were commoners with most of the officers being nobility. The Hegemony may be a feudal government, but they were also not so dumb to admit that only nobility could lead others so occasionally commoners did become officers. The Marquis was actually the highest ranked commoner in the entire Hegemony Military, but very few knew how he earned this position. Regardless, due to the jealousy of nobles, Marquis Mehhnk would forever be relegated to this base and training rookies. This actually worked for him since he could relate to commoners more than nobles.

Princess Bang-gwi was very popular with most of the new recruits as they were younger and felt they could relate to her, of course a lot of them were merely interested in getting to know her just because of the possible fringe benefits of being friends with the Princess. At meal times, the Princess found herself surrounded by other young soldiers and pilots. Xiǎng Pigu had become her best friend at the base so a seat was always reserved for her.

The Princess was looking around for someone and finally saw whom she was looking for among the people around her. "Hey! Vinnie! Sit here!"

Vincent was honestly hard to miss as he was taller than the average person by a head. He walked over towards the Princess and sat down across from her in the seat that was opened up for him. "Princess, please call me Vincent, Vinnie sounds childish to me."

"Alright, then call me 'Ban'" the Princess said with a smile.

Vincent blushed a little, thought about it then said "Ok… B… Ba… Princess Ban." Unable to still call her Ban, he settled on Princess Ban.

"Closer… take your time Vinnie!"

Chuhan Jwi walked over carrying two lunch trays and placed one in front of the Princess while sitting down next to the Princess on the other side from Xiǎng Pigu. "Princess, here is your dinner."

"Jwi! You don't need to do that! I can get it myself!" the Princess said with an annoyed expression.

"I am aware of that Princess, but I was already getting mine so I figured I might as well get yours. Unsweetened tea, pinch of salt on your meat, meat cooked medium rare, and the bread not toasted of course."

Xiǎng Pigu was amazed that Chuhan Jwi knew exactly how the Princess liked her food and said "Wow, your bodyguard knows you very well Ban!"

"She's been with me since I was an infant, she is much more than a bodyguard to me. She is irreplaceable!" Princess Bang-gwi said affectionately while leaning her head on Chuhan Jwi's shoulder.

Chuhan Jwi smiled warmly and gave the Princess a gentle squeeze and said "Yes, we are more like family to each other, she is like a sister to me."

The Princess nodded her head in agreement and said "Yes! An older sister, a much older sister!"

Princess Bang-gwi missed Chuhan Jwi's eyebrow twitch at that last part when she heard her say "What was that last part, Princess?"

"I said a mu_" The Princess gagged and wasn't able to complete that sentence as Chuhan Jwi shoved the entire slice of bread into her mouth while saying "Yes, just like a sister indeed!"

__________

After several rounds of Capture the Flag, Gray was able to distract himself from his negative thoughts of earlier. Capture the Flag didn't reward as much as a standard team fight, but mechs wouldn't be destroyed or damaged, just disabled by the simulation once a certain amount of damage was taken. Gray really preferred these types of objective games over the standard death matches, but they were less popular in some games since they required teamwork over individual skill.

Even though the individual skill of the Steel Wolves wasn't as impressive as others, their teamwork and cooperation was significantly better than average, even approaching the levels demonstrated by the military despite the lack of intense training. Using their teamwork, they were able to win 8 out of their 10 matches before it became dark.

After the 10th match, Gray addressed his team and said "Guys, I need to go talk to Major Valen again, let's meet up later for dinner, no pajama party tonight."

"Alright, you do what you gotta do" Geoff said sympathetically.

Gray headed over to Major Valen's office again and found him behind his desk. Gray couldn't help but think he was the main character of some novel or something since Major Valen was conveniently where he needed him.

Gray knocked on the frame of the open door and waited for Major Valen to respond.

Looking up from his work, Major Valen said "Private… no… Corporal Wilhelm, congratulations on the promotion! What can I help you with this fine evening?"

Major Valen seemed to be in a very good mood, Gray was very tempted to ask about it, but he didn't feel it was appropriate to pry. "Sir, thank you, I wanted to see if you had time to talk about something that really bothered me, sir."

"I got some time before dinner if you can keep it fairly quick, I have plans tonight."

Gray thought maybe these plans were why he was in such a good mood and noticed that Major Valen didn't have a wedding ring or even tan line of having worn one so it could be a date. Gray wasn't a gossiper though so he just left it as it was. Gray poked his head out of Major Valen's office to make sure nobody was coming and said "Given the secret you told us this past weekend, I thought I could handle it… You know… killing… death… all of it."

"Boy, you must have a screw loose, if you weren't affected by that I would question your mental health, how everyone handles it is different."

"Heh, I get that, but I mean, it just hit me how I feel like they'll blame me for every death after I two teammates get gunned down in the simulation." Gray scratched his head as he wasn't exactly sure if he was getting his meaning across.

"I know you're looking for some sage advice, some words of wisdom from Big Daddy Valen here, but listen up, people are going to die, I'm not going to say some sentimental crap like 'Never forget any one soldier!' because that's a lot of names if you're in a large enough unit. Instead, never forget the ones important to you and honor the rest through your actions."

Major Valen opened a drawer on his desk and pulled out a box and placed it on his desk. He opened it up and Gray saw dozens of dog tags in it. Major Valen then said "This is the tag of every soldier that has ever died under my command. I can't remember all of their names, but I make damn sure to personally write their next of a kin a letter of grievance instead of letting the military do the standard manufactured letter, for the important ones I visit personally. How you honor them and who is important to you is up to you."

"That… that's surprisingly realistic… but I don't think I can order anyone to do something that might lead to their death."

"Don't forget that feeling then, once you do you can needlessly order troops to their deaths and start to look at it as a statistic instead of a tragedy."

"Ok, but how do I deal with that feeling?" Gray said anxiously as he was finally getting to the root of the problem.

"MAN UP WIMP! Your allies trust is earned and if you doubt yourself, they will doubt you as well!"

Gray remembered the dejected looks of his teammates after the 16 versus 16 match with GameGo Gamers and now realized that it wasn't due to his poor performance, but his unconfident leadership. "I think I get it, sir."

"You're smart, you'll figure it out, but because you're smart you also think too much. You're going to give wrong orders so stop worrying about failing, take responsibility for your mistakes like a real man. Now get outta here, I need to get back to my personal quarters!"

"Sir, thank you, I'll become as big a man as you, sir!"

"BAHAHAHAHA! You? As big a man as me? Son you've got a long way to go, I admire the enthusiasm boy! Get your ass outta here though, I need to get ready!"

Gray saluted Major Valen and left his office to go see what the rest of his team was doing before dinner.