Waking up the next day to the same routine, Johannes and Erwin get up and make their beds then stand at attention at the end of their beds just like yesterday. They get called outside, then march to the field at the same uncomfortable time in the morning. Erwin, Tahvo, and Johannes’ platoon gets into formation alongside the other platoons.
Just like the day before the officers and drill sergeants in the middle dividing line make them wait, standing at attention in formation for a long time. However, this time they go through the formation scanning each recruit, making notes on who failed yesterday’s tests and taking attendance of who remained.
After what seemed like an hour, a captain, The same officer who started yesterday arrives and turns the microphone on his tablet. The drill sergeants who were quietly talking amongst each other stopped and waited for the officer.
“Good morning!” The officer pauses expecting the recruits to say something in return, but he is met by silence. A drill sergeant notices this and yells “Good morning, Captain!” back at him.
The recruits then yell “Good morning, Captain!” with most of them not being in sync.
The captain chuckles, then says “Today we’re going to do land nav. I’ll make this short so that we can start before the sun rises. Your kind drill sergeants will brief you on the way so that we don’t waist more time, dismissed.”
Like yesterday the platoon separate and go their separate ways. After getting on the same dirt road as before, the coyote drill sergeant who Johannes assumed by now was their drill sergeant for the rest of their time on the island, started explaining their upcoming land nav while marching “I better not have to explain to anyone what a land nav is. There was a recruit in my last platoon who wanted me to explain, he wanted me to explain it again for him to see if there were any differences between the land navs in basic and here. I told him, if you want to be a trooper then you have to adapt. On the battlefield, there are no rules. No one is going to come and guide your hand and tell you exactly what to do whenever something new pops up. Why troopers are so feared by our enemies is because we thrive on chaos, chaos is our order.”
They coyote drill sergeant pauses for a second, catching up to the front of the formation and jogging backwards, then he starts explaining, “Once it starts, you will have five hours to find four out of five points. I don’t know where they are so don’t ask me. There are fifteen points and you will be given five random ones so that none of you have the same points. I’ve never lost any recruits in the forest so don’t ruin my record.”
They coyote continues to yap about different rules and unrelated topics until they reach the land nav depot. There, they were each given their gear including a pack, water, and an ismount.
Along with another platoon, Johannes’ platoon was addressed by a drill sergeant who ran the land nav depo, “Now that everyone has their gear we can start. Right now, my colleagues are programming your ismounts for land nav. They are all connected to your chip and we should see where you all are and how many points you’ve got at any time. You will be given five points, and five hours to get at least four of them.”
Johannes looks down at his Ismount, and sees point 3,4,8,10, and 13 highlighted on the map now displayed on the screen. Then he looks back up at the drill sergeant.
“Just like your previous land navs, you won’t be able to see your own or any other recruit’s location. This is to simulate being on a planet without the satellite infrastructure or some outage. You have to use the compass in the Ismount to navigate to the points. "The drill sergeant pauses, looking at the recruits to see if they understood.
“If there aren’t any questions...” the drill sergeant looks down at his own ismount, then back up “Then we can start” he says as he clicks a button on his ismount which plays a noise on all the recruits ismounts. A timer on the top of their screens starts counting down, as one by one the recruits fan out, each heading to their closest point.
Johannes made his way down the hill the depo sat atop and through the thickening brush. The sparse trees turned into dense woodland brush, he tried to look for a way around it, but decided it would take too much time, so he pushed through. In the still dark morning, Johannes struggled to notice the sharp thorned bushes, getting poked through his clothes and fur. He pushed on, covering his face from the whiplashing branches at head height threatening to hit him.
He broke through the brush into a clearing, where he spotted his first marker. He swiftly walked up to it and pressed its icon on his Ismount. The icon greyed out signaling that he successful got the point. He took a minute to orient himself for the next point, plotting his course to minimize the time. The rest of his points were in a straight-ish line, but were on the other side of the course. Weighing his options, he considered going around the brush, not particularly enjoying through them the first time, but in the interest of saving time he threw himself into the thorns again.
Arriving on the other side near where he went in, he made his way back up the hill to the depo. He crosses the road they came up on and down the slope beyond it. The brush on this side was lighter, so his progress was much faster. Making his way north, Johannes turned left when he reached a trail, and followed it for a few hundred meters until he had to turn off heading back north. After another hundred meters or so, he found his second marker hiding in a patch of dense overgrown trees. He touched the icon of the #4 beacon on his Ismount and it greyed out just like the previous one.
Turning west-northwest, Johannes started heading his way to his third beacon, #8. The sun had just started to rise, allowing Johannes to see slightly better, but the thick brush still obscured the new light. He was making good progress. As he was walking, he took the time to enjoy the loneliness. This was the first time since before the hyper-train to come to the island that he had been alone.
Getting two points in just an hour was good pace, he was glad that his father made him practice land nav on their family’s land with his brother before enlisting. He was grateful for that time he spent with Adal when he was on leave, before the war took him. Johannes gentle reminiscing turned into anger. Anger at the enemy for taking his brother, uncle, and so many more. His pace turned from a swift walk, into running. He ran into enough branches and trees to deter him from running any more.
Despite his anger, he realized that the war won’t be won or lost by the time he finishes he land nav by. He slows his pace back to a much more sustainable walk. He looks down at his Ismount and realizes that he might have over shot the marker. Not recognizing the land marks nor is the compass giving the readings he expected.
He turns around, retracing his steps, the anger coming back. He mentally kicks himself for getting caught up in dumb thoughts instead of focusing on the mission. Fortunately, he finds his third point, #8. It was at the bottom of a boulder, hidden by some brush. Johannes stops and gets his bearings, making sure he knows exactly where he is. He looks at the time remaining, two and a half hours left.
Once he is oriented, he then heads south for his fourth point, #10. He focuses up, not letting his head wander to think of other things. His pace changes from a brisk walk in denser brush, to a jog when in a clearing. As he climbs a small hill, he sees a now flooded swamp. Looking at his map, he sees no water labeled, just dry land. He looks at his time again, two hours. There’s no doubt that he will get one more point, but Johannes is determined to get all five.
Looking at the map, he sees that point #13 is south east, and if he heads around the flooded area, he will get there in about an hour, but will have to cross the swamp anyways to get the final one. Looking at point #10, which is just across the swamp just out of view. Weighing his options, he emphatically wades into the swamp heading to point #10. The water started at only ankle-height, but slowly got deeper and deeper. Eventually it got all the way up to his waist. Despite the mucky green water, he fought on, determined to get that point. Soo, Johannes found shallower ground, and the water level began receding. Just as the water reached ankle-height again, he found the marker, it too was buried in a foot or so of water.
Johannes tapped the icon of the marker on his Ismount and it greyed out. Wasting no time, he tuns east, and begins trudging through the water again. Once again, the water reaches his waist before quickly coming back down. In the distance, he can see a recruit skirting the edge of the swamp, making much quicker progress than he is. Johannes watches him as he climbs a small cliff, and makes his way east, no doubt to marker #13.
Finding himself at the same cliff, his soaked pants and uniform dripping on the ground, and weighing him down. He finds the same path he saw the other recruit take, a rocky slope in between two cliff faces.
His wet feet slip against the smooth stones, causing Johannes to be extra careful and slow. Pulling himself up, he crawls up to a flat spot, ensuring he is all the way up before standing up. When he does stand up, looks over at another tier of cliffs, and the marker at the bottom of them. Johannes looks at his time, there are less than ten minutes left. With no rush, he walks over to the marker and taps the icon on his ismount. When it greys out, he breaths a deep sigh of relief.
He starts making his way back to the depo, and when the timer is up, his Ismount beeps and through the speakers the drill sergeant who brief them speaks “Time is up! Make your way back now. Don’t bother going for another marker, they won’t work anyways.” Johannes confidently walks into the depo, his pants still wet, and sees maybe a dozen or so recruits already there. Not amongst them were Erwin or Tahvo, so he found a nice place to sit, and waited for them.
After thirty or so minutes Johannes sees Erwin walk over the ridge, and he stands up. “Johannes! You finished? Erwin says as soon as he sees him.
“Yeah, got all five.”
“Five? Damn, I got like four and a half, I was close to getting my fifth, but it was at the top of a cliff.”
“I think I got lucky with my points but.”
“Maybe not, you had one in that swamp?”
“Yeah, well I had to cross it twice if I wanted all five.”
“If I were you, I’d just get the four, there’s no way you could get me in that water, you saw it didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I was in it.”
“Soz, D’you know how many diseases are in that water? Not to mention the bugs and shit.
“It wasn’t that bad.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“The water was GREEN!”
‘That’s just moss or plants, doesn’t mean it’s diseased?”
“It’s going to be in your fur all day” Erwin says leaning in and down then sniffing the air “not to mention the smell. I thought it was just this place, but it’s definitely coming from you.”
“I don’t smell anything.”
“Your nose probably got used to it.” Johannes scoffs, turning away. By now recruits were trickling in, one by one. Johannes sits down on the ground, using the time to rest. Erwin walks over to him and sits down next to him. They catch their breath, knowing that after this was another test.
“Tahvo is still here, right?” Erwin asked out of the blue, catching Johannes off guard.
“Hm? Yeah, I saw him at the brief” Johannes replied.
Erwin takes a second to look around, “I don’t see him.”
“He probably was just getting his last point on the edge.”
“You think he got all five?”
“I don’t know, probably, he does have a bird’s eye view” Johannes cracks, making Erwin laugh, and Johannes joins him a second later.
“True, but he has to watch out for those high branches” Erwin says, nudging Johannes with his elbow.
“I got all five” Tahvo says all of a sudden stood behind the two of them. Johannes and Erwin turn and look up.
Johannes stands up, “Erwin only got four.”
“And you smell like a Taal” Erwin quips backs, “You only need four anyways.”
“That’s you?” Tahvo asks Johannes while covering his nose.
“He walked through that swamp to get a point” Erwin butts in.
Johannes rolls his eyes and shakes his head and retorts, “And I still got back here faster than you.”
“Attention!” someone yells, getting everyone including Erwin, Tahvo, and Johannes to stop whatever conversations they were having. “Surrender you Ismounts and gear, you’ll get going as soon as everyone returns!” the drill sergeant yells. All the recruits form an unorderly line and deposit the gear they got at the start of the land nav in piles on the ground.
“Delta Platoon, form on me”! The now familiar voice of the coyote drill sergeant yells. Johannes and the rest of his platoon head over and gather next to the coyote. The other platoon was called by their drill sergeant and likewise gathered on him.
“We’re missing what, like five privies?” the coyote asks the wolf drill sergeant holding a tablet, who was accompanying him.
“Yes, six” he responds.
“Have they got the points?”
“Two of them, the other four only got three”.
“Huh, what are the names?”
“Eadaion, Garinsohn, Howsohn, and Kesim.”
“So that leaves us with forty-one.”
“Right.”
As the last recruits come on and drop off their gear, Johannes’ platoon takes off heading deeper into the woods on the same dirt road. After marching in formation for a mile or so, they arrive at another depo similar to the last. The sun at this point was at its apex, blasting down it’s intense summer’s heat onto everyone.
“Fall out!” the coyote yells and his platoon relax, “We have to wait for sergeant Akselsohn’s platoon so rest while you can.” Johannes watched the depos workers, NCOs and lower enlisted, stack gear into piles. They put rucksacks with weights, visors, armor, bandoliers, and blasters in organized piles waiting the recruits.
Soon, sergeant Akselsohn’s platoon arrived, and like the land nav, they awaited a drill sergeant in charge of the depo to brief them. Johannes stood close to Erwin, trying to ensure that they’d get paired up in the upcoming run.
“Attention!” the drill sergeant yells, “Get your gear, once everyone has a ruck, and armor I'll give you more details.” Johannes and the rest of the recruits form a line and one by one get all their gear. Once they do they walk off to the open space they were at before and start to put it on.
Johannes first puts on the metal composite armor; he first puts on the chest piece then shoulder and leg pieces. Then he grabs the bandolier filled with weights to simulate a full load of ammunition and attaches it to the belt he was wearing. He adjusts the strap to make it fit snugly around his waist, then grabs the rucksack, again filled with simulated weight, and throws it on his back. He attaches the front straps together in front of him around his chest and waist. Now with the rucksack and other gear weighing him down he bends over and picks up the old visor. It was broken, but he didn’t need to use its functions in the upcoming ruck anyways. He looks over to his left and sees Erwin adjusting the straps on his rucksack, then taking off his cap to put his visor on.
“This is a run, not a ruck!” the drill sergeant satisfied that everyone had got their gear, “There is no time limit, but you will be timed.” He points to a trailhead at the edge of the clearing that they were in, “once you start your time will start.”
He walks over to the trailhead and begins speaking to another drill sergeant out of earshot of Johannes. Johannes looks over at Erwin, and the two head closer to the trailhead together.
“Buddy up! You need to have a partner and stay close to him. If you are spotted along the trail more than five meters apart, you will both fail. You will be judged mostly based on your effort, not time. Whether you are helping your buddy or not or being pushed along.”
Johannes and Erwin, eager to get this over with, work their way up to the trailhead. At the trail head, a drill sergeant scans the two in front of them, and they start running. Johannes and Erwin step forward and get scanned themselves. As soon as they do they take off.
The path was winding with lots of turns, but not many hills. Not much was said from either of them, both focusing on running and taking regular breaths. Much like the previous six-mile run, Erwin had to slow down to match Johannes’ pace, but this time Erwin let him focus on running and didn’t pester him. The weight of all the gear slowed them both down, mostly Johannes whose pace reduced to a slow jog near the end. Johannes was panting much more than Erwin; his tongue was hanging out the side of his mount. Erwin kept slightly ahead, trying to motivate Johannes to go faster.
When Johannes could see the finish line, he sped up, using the last bit of energy he was saving up to get the best time he could. Johannes held out his arm as he ran up to the sergeant holding the scanner. When he heard the beep, he threw off his visor and ruck sack, and sat down on it.
Erwin walked over to where the water tank was and got some water. After drinking some, he looks over at Johannes who was still breathing, almost hyperventilating. He stopped what he was doing and walked over there swiftly, “Stand up” he said grabbing Johannes and pulling him up.
Erwin dragged him over to the water tank, and grabbed one of the nozzles. He squeezed the handle and poured some water of Johannes head. Johannes’ breathing was starting to slow down.
“Drink” Erwin said putting the nozzle in front of Johannes muzzle. Johannes opened his mouth, still panting slightly. Erwin quickly squeezed the nozzle, shooting a short stream of water into his mouth. Johannes closed his mouth and quickly swallowed before going right back to panting.
“You going to be alright?” Erwin asks. Johannes continues to pant for a second before responding, “yeah ... just give me a second”
Johannes’ breathing eventually slows down while the rest of the recruits finish their runs. By the time Tahvo finishes, Johannes’ breathing is back to normal. After they finished their run, the recruits took off all their gear, but left it scattered.
The drill sergeants also being victims of the humid swamp heat, allowed the recruits to rest, not getting at them for throwing their gear down wherever. Instead, they walked around, telling groups of recruits recovering to put their gear in the correct bin at the small building to the side of the clearing.
When they were finished, and all the gear had been returned, the two platoons formed up, and marched back to base. There, they were treated to a few extra minutes in the air-conditioned mess hall. There was no talking in the mess hall, that was established in basic and yesterday. Everyone used this time to rest, especially knowing that today was not over. The drill sergeants got everyone up and out, then formed them up and marched them down the road of the base.
They arrive at a field with weight lifting equipment sprawled out across it. There were several stations for two different lifts. The drill sergeants separated the platoons, and Johannes’ platoon was lined up to the side of the left most station. There was a rubber mat laying across the ground with a bar laying in the center.
“Sit down!” the Coyote drill sergeant yells standing next to another drill sergeant sitting in a chair front of the station, “We only have the one bar today so this will take a while.”
The platoon sits down on the damp grass, some sitting cross legged, others leaning back on their arms. At the station across from them, the platoon that they came here with did the same after being told from their own drill sergeant.
The drill sergeant who was sitting in the chair stands up, walks over to the bar and turns to face Johannes’ platoon, “This is the deadlift station, we are quite busy right now, so this is probably going to take a couple hours. For some reason every platoon has to do the weight lifting test all at once, but I didn’t say that.” The drill sergeant walks over to the bar, positioning himself over the bar, “This one is simple, I'm sure y’all know what to do” he says bending over and grabbing the bar.
“You have to complete five reps, any more than that might give you some extra points” the drill sergeant brings his shoulders back, looks up and pushes with his legs, lifting the bar until he is stood all the way up. “You have to stand all the way up, back straight, then I’ll give you the signal and you can go down.” he drops the bar, and it bounces as he steps over it and sits down in the chair. “Alright first one, let's get this going.”
The recruit closest to the mat stands up, and walks over to the bar. A drill sergeant scans him, and then steps back. The wolf positions himself over the bar, and successfully completes five reps. He continues, doing four more before failing to get the tenth all the way up. When he is done, he drops the weight and walks over the opposite side of the mat and sits down.
One by one the recruits do the test, most passing without a problem. Others struggled, but did get all five reps completed, he recruit in front of Johannes amongst them. Johannes stands up when it is his turn and stands over the bar. He bends down and grabs the bar. Almost effortlessly he stands up, repeating the exercise fifteen times, before the drill sergeant sees that he is not slowing down and raises his hand, “Alright you’re done, good job.”
Irritated, Johannes walks away. He sits down away from the others who finished, and watches Erwin walk up to the bar. Erwin gets eleven reps before failing on his twelfth. Erwin walks over to Johannes and sits down. Johannes had his arms crossed, looking at the mat with an angry look on his face.
“Hey, they probably just want to get through everyone” Erwin says in a Wisper. Johannes growls, not looking at him.
When nearly everyone in his platoon had finished, those who had were collected by a drill sergeant and led to the next station. He sat them down behind another platoon who was just finishing their station. When the last man walked up to the mat, with a bench and bar across it, they stood up and sat down at the edge of it.
The drill sergeant sitting on the chair to the side of the bench stood up after the last man finished and wasted no time explaining the exercise, “Five reps, just like the deadlift, you can do more if you want. Let's get moving!” he says quickly, eager to get done with this responsibility.
One by one the recruits in Johannes’ platoon completed the exercise, laying down on the bench, lifting the bar off the rack, lowering it to their chest and pushing it off. When it was Johannes’ turn, much like the deadlift, he surpassed the five-rep requirement and quickly racked up the reps. He got to seventeen before struggling, this gave the excuse to the drill sergeant to stop him “Alright son, that’s enough.”
Johannes re-racks the weight and sits up. More satisfied with this life, Johannes sits down next to the recruits who also completed and waited for Erwin to finish. Johannes watched Erwin complete ten reps before his form slipped and was stopped. Erwin walked off and again sat down next to Johannes.
The Coyote drill sergeant who was in charge of their platoon walked over to Johannes and Erwin, and when they noticed they sat up straight.
“How many more do you think you could have got if he didn’t stop you” they coyote asked quietly to Johannes.
“two more with good form” Johannes replied, matching the coyotes quiet tone.
“I’ve seen him do more than that sir” Erwin butted in.
The coyote crossed his arms, and while watching his platoon do the test said, “are you the one who smells?”
“Sir?” Johannes, caught off guard asks.
“He went through the flooded swamp on the land nav sir” Erwin says.
“That’d explain it. Did it save you time?” the coyote asks.
“I got all five points sir” Johannes says astutely.
“Good, just make sure you get rid of that smell” the Coyote says as he walks away to stand closer to the mat.