Alexis immediantly went off to gather her equipment, all the while the rest of the squad complained under their breath.
Cervii narrowed his eyes as he heard complaining, "ALRIGHT, EVERY GATHER UP!" he yelled, he looked around and saw a large patch of mud from melted frost nearby, "LINE UP BY THAT PATCH OF MUD THIS INSTANT. Alexis! You're the squad leader, I want "guide" these whiners through a "battlefield". You are to get in front, and yell these three commands, "Machine gun fire", to which you will instantly hit the ground, "mine", and you will run back, and "shell" to get to any cover you see and hit the dirt any time I fire a blank. If any of you mess up, you will restart." He ordered
Alexis saluted as the rest of her squad seemed nervous yet lazy at the same time. Nearby, Ulrich decided to watch the training exercise go underway. He knew that the investment wasn't a waste of time, the Emperor also knew the same thing. What he wanted to know was if this squad knew the same.
After everyone got lined up, and even a small crowd gathered around, which had been Cervii's plan (Gloriian training utilized embarrassment in front of others to break down strong, lazy spirits), and, standing about 50 meters he loaded a special catridge into his rifle. Pointing it forward so that the squad could fully hear the sound, he pulled the trigger to mark start. He barely let them get 5 meters before pulling the trigger, to which Alexis yelled "machine gun!" Sadly, one didn't get down fast enough to Cervii's liking and soon, they were having to start over already. After nearly half an hour with nearly the entire camp other than the guards watching smugly as the troublesome squad got its butt handed to it by this new soldier, they finally made it all the way to Cervii without him telling them to restart. He then forced them to stand at attention in front of him, under the threat to make them do it all over again. "Pitiful! Just [censored] pitiful! It's as if you didn't even go through basic training! How you made it this far, I have no idea." he nearly snarled at them as they stood before him in extremely muddy fatigues, "Alright, you have one hour as before to get ready for a three day trip into the forest. Same rules apply, only you better appear in clean fatigues, oh, and bring a few pairs of extra, clean socks. Trust me."
"This is stupid. I understand we're soldiers b-" One of the squadmates said before Alexis slapped him in the face, hard. The rest of the crowd seemed to enjoy the reactions that she had just caused. "You better be damn grateful that you're in the service at all you lazy [censored]. Can't believe I have to hold the hand for each of you, makes me sick!" Alexis then stormed off as the rest of the crowd seemed to dissolve into laughter. "Some people actually want to be here, you know?" she called off in the distance, clearly angry. Ulrich was watching with clear interest. The young woman was clearly a patriot, but she was upset over her squadron's lack of ability for pretty much everything. He couldn't blame her, to be honest.
Cervii made a small "not bad" face, nodding slowly at Alexis' reaction before turning about and going to Ulrich, "Don't you worry, this forest exercize will have them coming back a more cohesive unit than ever. It's something all Magniitiums go through when they hit 15 and are assigned to their unit. Team building exercise." he explained before clearing his throat and handing Ulrich a map, "I've already plotted out a general path, if you would be so kind but to occasionally send out say...a unit or two to mock an Ixian ambush? I would like to make them feel like it's the real deal, without risking any lives of course. Make sure they bring paintballs or dummy grenades and the like."
Ulrich smiled at Cervii's idea. "Easier said then done..." he said before whistling for two men to come at his side, both of them arriving almost instantly. "Come with me..." Like that, Ulrich left Cervii alone as the rest of his newest trainees returned. Like usual, Alexis arrived first.
Cervii stood by the gate at attention, only breaking to check his watch as he waited for the squad to show up.
Alexis arrived as soon as she could, with everything about her uniform and equipment in perfect order. The others however, arrived about a minute and a half late...
Cervii looked at the late arrivals with a straight face, "Whelp, six days in the forest it is. Hope you brought everything you need." he said, "Alexis, you got rear to make sure no one runs off without permission, if they do, that's desertion, so you are to shoot them." he told her flatly, "And try to keep pace, I'm going to be maintaining a steady jog." he said before setting off.
"Right" Alexis said with a strong voice before looking at her squad. "You heard him, you are going to die for desertion. Don't even think about it. Now, let's move!" (Time-skip?)
The first three days were an absolute hell for the squadron, although Alexis showed enough persistence and discipline to outshine her squadron entirely. She was the outcast of the group, its only good solider. She followed orders without question with the discipline that Caudel tended to be famous for, although it didn't always apply. Along with being quite skilled with a gun, it was amazing why she wasn't in a more experienced unit. The rest of the squad members were utterly petrified however. The forest had dampened their spirits and their lazy souls were not happy about why they were doing this. To them, they were just walking through forest for now appaRent reason. Until...the first Ixian group ambushed them.
Cervii seemed to fade away into the forest just before the mock ambush happened. It barely lasted a minute, with the majority of the squad being "shot" with paintballs in the first outbreak of fighting, with Alexis the only one able to get shots off, even landing one on one of the "Ixians", her bullet turning out to be a paintball as well, before she herself was hit with the paintball. "Disgraceful!" Cervii yelled from a top of a tree, "Absolutely disgraceful! That's eight Caudelian soldiers dead for just one Ixian!" he quickly climbed down the tree with surprising ease and jumped down and landed next to the group, "Did you not hear the branch snap about 30 seconds before hand? The quietness of the birds as they approached? When you're fighting in enemy territory, you have to open your ears and listen to subtle things like that."
Alexis knew that she failed, but she had the tenacity and desire to always improve herself. The other however, didn't have that drive.
Cervii was about to yell more when he suddenly fell silent quietly ordering everyone else to not move. He listened intently on something, his ears facing the west, "That isn't right..." He muttered, "The front line is to the south..." He looked around at them, "Get up in the trees now. I mean, now. We got contacts on the way from the West." he ordered, "I really hope they're friendly before quickly climbing back up a tree.
The others were able to climb up into the trees, but not without difficulty. Alexis was different, she moved up the trees like she was a monkey. Soon enough, she was on the tree next to Cervii's while the others were huddled next to each other. How the hell they made it this far, they had no idea. Alexis didn't belong and she was supposed to be transferred within a month to a new unit if her current squadron didn't meet expectations.
Cervii kept his eyes scanning, never letting them settle anywhere too long. He signaled for everyone to remain absolutely silent and he noticed a small movement. Then he saw them. A small group of people, they were definitely tribals, but they weren't Ixian, and they most certainly were very well organized as they crept through the forest floor, only Cervii's eye being able to spot them as they headed southeast. For several tense moments, he watched them, moving methodically through the forest. The longer he scanned, the more he saw, a small troop here, another there. There was definitely going to be a lot in the area, and he may be the best trained of any of them, he knew better than trying to fight what could be thousands of enemy soldiers from the trees with what were essentially green troops. Looking at Alexis, he motioned for her to not make any move that would give away their position. He was however, more worried about the others of the unit, he couldnt see them through the pine leaves and he knew they probably were a lot closer and a lot more likely to make a fatal mistake.
Alexis remained still and calm, knowing that doing anything else would lead to her death. She was well-hidden amongst the pine-trees of the Southern Ixian continent. The others however, were no-better then civilians. They were lazy, unorganised and unreliable, and were terrified of what they seen on the ground. After a while, less and less troops appeared in the forest pathway, with a team of 12 appearing every few minutes. Soon enough, the time between these patrols grew far enough for Beta Green to escape.
Cervii ordered the squad back down to ground, "alright, forest vacation is over, we need to get back to base, now!" he ordered
