After the group of Cannon 13 returned in line from the cafeteria, they were told to line up against the wall by the petty officer. A few individuals clearly weren't used to being ordered and had to be helped by the security officers with some "gentle" nudges from their unpowered batons.

"I hope you had a good breakfast, because we are going to be at this all day." Petty Officer Liam walked from end to end of the line looking at each of the individuals as he spoke. "Unless, of course, you recruits manage to work together and beat our target time before the end of the day."

He stood, looking at the line of individuals in front of him like he was waiting for a response. "Listen carefully, as I'm only going to go through this once. Our job is to get the shells from that room," he points to the wall with the door and hole, "along this track," he gestures to the track coming from the hole in the wall towards the cannon on the other side, "and finally into the cannon. "

Micca took it all in and he was a little confused on why it took twenty people in order to do such a thing. It looked like it should take about five instead.

"I don't know your names. You will earn the respect for me to learn them once you complete your training." The petty officer then pointed out people as he spoke. "You four, in the ammo room; you four, on the cannon; you four, on the chain; everyone else, watch carefully."

Micca and Vog were assigned to the cannon together while Verona was put in the ammo room. As Micca's group walked to the cannon, Vog made sure to bump shoulders with Micca.

The petty officer walked towards the ammo room and began instructing. "These are training rounds for us to practice with, but they are still almost as dangerous as the real thing. If they explode they will probably kill us all, so no dropping them. First, in the ammo room the shells will be slid off the rack and moved to the chain. Get to work!"

The four individuals in the ammo room, including Verona, went over to a shell in the racks made specifically for this purpose. One of the people started examining a restraint on the shell, locking it in place. Then they pulled a lever and opened the restraint. They started nervously looking at each other as they slid the shell out more and more until it started tipping. They had to heave in order to level it back out, as their legs buckled under the weight. Verona fell over as the weight surprised her, but she hurried back up to help the other three with the shell. Petty Officer Liam stood at a rest position watching them without a word out of his mouth.

They slowly started carrying it towards where the track for the chain starts at, within the ammo room. Their steps were short and slow as they managed with the weight of the shell shifting between the four of them. Eventually, they made it to the chain and the four stood on either side of the chain with the shell between them. They slowly started lowering the shell down towards the chain.

"Bend your legs, not your backs!" The petty officer shouted out his words almost as soon as they started.

The four with the shell, raised it back up and repositioned in order to start lowering it down while bending their legs instead. Sweat was building up on their foreheads as they were in the process. Finally, the shell made contact with two holders on the chain that held it in place as the bearers of the shell sighed with relief.

Stolen novel; please report.

The petty officer looked towards the four standing around the chain and threw down four black straps in front of them. "Those are straps to hook around the chain and will let you pull on it with better leverage. All of you grab one and take up a position. When you are all ready, start pulling."

Three of the group grabbed a strap and looped them around a link of the chain, then grabbed onto the loops on each end of the straps. They all seemed to have a different way of grabbing hold with one having a loop in each hand, another ready to pull both together, and another having the strap over their shoulder and ready to push forward against it. The other one of the four stood there with empty eyes looking at the strap on the floor. His lip was slightly quivering while nothing else on his body moved.

"C'mon, get a move on." Liam tried to encourage the guy in the softest voice any of them had heard him speak.

The man stood there still, no response and no movement. BAM!

Before anyone knew what happened a loud noise echoed inside as a small object flew towards the man and impacted him on the head. It fell on the floor after and appeared to be a leather bag of some sort. The man fell shortly after, knocked out from the impact. Standing by the door was one of the NSF officers with their shotgun raised and smoke floating out of it.

The other officer was already on the way to the man and quickly cuffed the limp man then dragged him, without any concern for potential injury, to the wall where the cuffs were bound to a loop in the wall. The man's arms were suspended up by where the cuffs were attached and his body hung from them with no sign of life except for shallow breathing.

The security officers took back their original positions by the door in the exact way they were earlier, as if nothing happened.

The petty officer spoke up as soon as they returned, "You three, get pulling. Whenever any one of you fails in their duty, the rest of you are going to suffer." He went forward and grabbed the strap off the floor with somewhat of a somber look as the others started pulling the chain and the shell began moving.

A minute later the shell was next to the cannon after a few changes to strap positions and a lot of pulling by the three individuals left on the chain.

"Okay, next up is loading the cannon. You four, pick up the shell and place it in the empty chamber with the pointed end towards outside, just like it is now."

Micca, Vog, and the other two people in their group went towards the shell and picked it up, bending their legs, then brought it to the empty cavity of the cannon. Micca was on the side of the shell by the cannon and as they got to the end Vog made sure to push the shell into Micca so he was caught between the shell and the cannon. Micca let out a grunt of pain, but shortly after shifted around the outside of the shell to be on the other side and help roll it into the empty cavity.

Liam looked at Vog first, "You, pull that cover closed and then down to lock it. The rest of you twist the knob on the end to the left until it clicks."

They all did as instructed and then the petty officer looked at Micca. "You, push that lever down at where the knob was originally."

Micca grabbed hold of the lever and pushed down. It was initially easy, but got harder the lower the lever went. As it was getting to a point where Micca didn't know if he could push it anymore, it finally clicked. Right when it clicked the knob they just turned flew back into its original position, then a boom resounded through the entire room. As the boom echoed, the cover Vog closed flew open and the shell came out, flying at Vog. It smacked into Vog and knocked him over, then fell on his leg.

Vog yelped in pain as this happened all within a second. Shortly after Petty Officer Liam looked around and announced, "This teaches two important lessons. One, stay clear of the cover when we are firing the cannon. Two, infighting is a waste of the Holy Emperor's resources and will not be tolerated, even if it is subtle."