Julion grinned and nodded, "Good to have you join. When we return to Ponyville, we'll get you resuited out in Commando loadout. Now, I was thinking, a good way to seem threatening to your enemy is to remain mysterious. An...unknown, if you will. I was thinking we should go by nicknames, our real names nobody knowing except us three. Mine...Mine will be the Soldier. Makes it sound like I'm not in charge, that I'm in the fight, and not stuck up in my command, thus will help win respect amongst any future rank and file, and Silver, as my first Commando, you're second in command, and Diamond, you're third. Beyond that, all promotions will be merit based. Anyways, what will your nicknames be? Think carefully, you'll have to go by them any time anypony is around."
Diamond held his hoof to his chin for a moment, pondering over the list of names that he could address himself. A moment later, he looked at Julion. "You can call me 'The Major'." Diamond replied, a slight smile on his face.
Julion nodded before looking at Silver, "And you?" the mare simply grinned and chuckled, "Everypony knows the point of the second in command is to do stuff the head of command can't, so call me Bloody Two, to drive home that point." Julion grinned in response, "Settled then! And these shall be the titles of our positions, like this DJ-Pon3 Silver has told me about." He took a breath closing his eyes before breathing out, "Ok, for the rest of our journey, call each other by these names, to get used to it. Not even our future soldiers will be any wiser; though they will be expected to make their own to mark their transition into a Commando. Now come on Bloody, Major, to the Republic! Our target recruiting geographic is young ones just about adults who are eager to find any possible way to explore."
(Yea sure) Julion and his comrades trotted into the small village of the Republic, a remote, homely place of a few dozen. After making themselves known, the three gathered a small crowd of attention around them, they may not have been interested, but it was something different from the boring routine of life that wasn't a raider or slaver raid. Julion started, chest out proud, "We are the Commandos, the resurrection of a long lost elite army by a descendant of the original founder. I am the Soldier, leader. These are my fellow commanders, Bloody Two and the Major. We are here to recruit any who wish to join us on a journey of adventure, excitement, upholding the right, wealth, and much much more! The Commandos will treat you kindly, and always offer something new everyday. If you earn what you feel you don't need, you'll even be allowed to send caps home to your family! It will give your entire family a sustainable source of income, and you won't have to worry about being brought to doing terrible things, only removing the filth of the wasteland and protecting those innocents of the land. If you wish to join us, please, step forward!" there was a several moments pause, making Julion partially worry that they were about to have made a fool of themselves before Bloody Two suddenly pipped up, "Oh come on, are you telling us you DONT want to kill raiders or slavers? That you DONT want to make a bunch of caps? That you DONT want to explore Equestria and beyond looking for the next big job?!" there was a small murmuring of agreement in the crowd, "Then come on! NOT joining is, if anything, encouraging raiders and slavers to continue to prey on the weak, to attack your town and other's like it! Just step on over!" There was discussion among the crowd before finally a few ponies stepped forward, and slowly, every one that was about of just adult age stepped forward, 10 in total. Bloody Two grinned widely at the sight, "Very good! Now, we'll give you the rest of the day to pack and say goodbye to your families, we'll meet you as evening comes right here unless all are ready before then!" The crowd murmured some more agreements before dispersing. Afterwords, Bloody turned to the Soldier, "From now on, let me do the recruiting. I would have hated having you as my therapist." "...Good point....Now, I could use a drink..."
Diamond appeared quite proud of the ten ponies that stepped out, both male and female. Once they left, Diamond needed to wash his dry mouth with water but would rather prefer any sort of alcohol. Lucky for him, The Republic had a sizable bar that was quite the hit in the town. From enjoying good times to drunken violence, the bar was surprisingly clean. He followed the Solider and Bloody 2 into the bar where they would drink until sundown.
After a time of making sure the three of them remained mostly sober, showing off his family's traditional resistance to alcohol's effects. The trio made their way out at sunset and gathered up the recruits, getting right to work. He and Bloody Two and the Major inspected each of the ten, making sure they were in good shape, then Julion had them snap to attention, forcing them to do push ups if they failed, the action causing a few of the townsfolk to gather around and watch with interest. By the time he was satisfied, it was late twilight time. With that, he and his other two commanders got the ten into a march, giving the simple order of, "Those who march out of pace will be punished as the commander who caught them feels."
The training was brutal for the newest recruits of the Commandos, several of them were already feeling the force of the intense training, one stallion giving into exhaustion as he collapsed and puked across the ground before managing to catch up with the others. These effects were normal for the recruits, one of them had reached a stage of total exhaustion at some point. It was late at night as The Major, whom was much more physically fit than the recruits then looked at the troops. "Alright. We're heading back to Ponyville, and I expect all of you to carry your belongings and keep up with the pace for the entire distance back. Anypony failing to keep up with the task will be punished, so I expect all of you to keep up."
The Soldier and Bloody 2 nodded at the Major's assumed role of trainer, it seemed the three had found their niche, Julion as the leader, Silver as the recruiter, and Diamond as the trainer. The two simply trotted off to the side as lookouts to protect the small group of recruits from incoming attacks.
By sunrise on the next day, the recruits made it back to the ruins of Ponyville completely exhausted. The saddlebags they carried weighed roughly half of their body weight, with additional weights placed inside of the bag alongside their belongings to intensify their training. Upon making it to the town center, as if on cue, they collapsed comically to the ground. Diamond just chuckled as he looked at the recruits. "Excellent work, I expected at least a few of you to wash out. But you didn't, which means that your determined to become Commandos, and because of that, I'm impressed. You have the rest of the morning off, so take a break and do whatever you need to do. Return back here at 2 o' clock, you have much more to learn." The Major announced. As the recruits left the group, Diamond turned back at Julion and Silver. "Now, what's next?"
"We obviously got to get them suited out in Commando gear, along with you. Then, we can put them to work by building their own training grounds...However, something Bloody told me peeked my interest, so don't have them do so quite yet. After we get this group trained, we can go for our first mission." And with that, Julion trotted off, strangely in the direction of the Everfree Forest
"Change of plans, ponies!" Diamond yelled out as he turned his head. "You're getting suited up in Commando gear, then you're going to be assisting us in building our training grounds. You can rest later."
Bloody took over the recruits from there, leading them and Diamond to the hidden, underground armory and equipped them in their preferred loadout choice of recon, battle, or heavy. She then showed them all what Julion showed her, how to fire the weapons, how to properly maintain the armor and weapons, using the HUD display, and so on and so forth. ******** The forest was extremely dark at night, foreboding and dangerous, only the low light vision mode of his visor allowed him to see. He final stopped trotting after a distance and placed a hoof on a tree, "She said the Everfree acted almost as if it was one living thing made of many different parts,..anything living must have a mind, even if it isn't physical..." He muttered, feeling the ground shake slightly under him. Closing his eyes, his red magic encased his horn, trailing down his body, and through his hoof into the tree just as vines of Killing Joke popped out of the ground and moved to touch him, but froze as Julion encountered the Everfree's collective conscious. Another magic layer around the horn and the wall began to crack, the Killing Joke faltered, and grunting with effort, he added a third layer of magic, giving him enough power to force his way into the Everfree. The resulting mind battle nearly killed Julion, but he won. He won, and would forever have control over the plants and mindless animals of the Everfree. The would mean he would have the best of defenses without having to worry about risking troops. (and that's why the Conmabdos lived in the Everfree with no trouble)
(Lets do 3 months, that's how long basic Commando training lasted pre-War. Though specialized training lasted another year. And lets say since Bloody was once in the Enclave, she's the one that lead the combat drills)
(Hm...you start with Diamond taking the recruits on a just a morning jog and Julion and Silver will find him)
(Okay doki loki) Diamond had led the recruits through their daily gallop in the morning, a twenty kilometer gallop around the Everfree in full gear and a ten kilogram weight restriction. Diamond, who wore heavy commando gear, kept up with the recruits at a brisk pace. He was quite proud of what they had accomplished so far, turning seemingly average wastelander's into incredibly proficient soldiers of fortune. He also seemed to enjoy his new armor, which fit him like a glove. The heavy black armor was very intimidating to normal wastelanders, and seemed to protect him far more than the most advanced power armor. Because of his stronger physical capabilities, the armor felt like it weighed less than what it actually was. Diamond did not have a personalized weapon other than a standard energy pistol due to helping the Commandos not to pick fights and focusing almost all of his time on the well being and success of his recruits. Once the Commandos grew large enough, he would have to be training dozens at a time, a role he seemed to enjoy. Noticing Julion and Silver nearby, he continued to keep up with his recruits at the head of the group.
Julion and Diamond trotted in front of the group a little bit away as not to be ran over, "ATTENTION!" Julion barked in order, leading to the rapid stop and the snapping of hooves together at Julion's order, drawing a small smile of approval from their commander, "I apologize for the interruption of your jog Major but I have important news. You all have officially passed Basic Readiness Training, meaning you all are official Commandos as members of Alpha Squad. Bloody 2, would you kindly take out their patches?" Bloody Two nodded, "My pleasure." She said smoothly before removing a simple wooden box from her saddlebag, opening it up to reveal 10 golden A's with a flattened diamond shape directly underneath, "As Alpha Squad members, you will be my personally lead squad, however, all of you are officially squad leaders who will be placed in command of lesser squads unless something is required of the best squad, that being you." He cleared his throat, "It is my honor to give you your squad emblem and rank patch." He said proudly, "Wear it proudly." With that, he floated the patches to each soldier, "Now, in better news, we have our first job. The town of Grecko has recently been having a little trouble with slaver and raider attacks. It seems as if the two have ganged up together in an attempt to overrun the town. Reports say as long as the Raiders allow the Slavers to capture as many as possible, they get to keep the town. If Grecko falls, then the raiders will have a massive death of territory they can control from Grecko. It would be a magnet for those who seek to destroy what little goodness is left in the Wasteland. We'll be outnumbered about 15 to one, and reinforcements to the enemy are likely, but I know each and every one of you is better than 30 of them. Major, I request you stay here and keep an eye on the base, Bloody will stay with you and occasionally go on recruitment missions. Understood?"
“Absolutely.” Major replied simply. “I’ll keep on watch, I wish for your success Solider.” Diamond then saluted before walking away from the group, heading back towards the base. From there, he would keep on watch with his Anti-Material Rifle if any potential hostile were to discover the base. He knew that no raider or Slaver would dare enter the Everfree, but he could never be unsure. He needed to replace his rifle with a brand new weapon that Mark Co made in the war, something with more punch. He always liked ‘Something Big’...
