Once the others found the courage to make the jump, the squad advanced quickly along the ridge until they approached the hilltop they were supposed to take. Through a break in the trees, Rose studied the peak with her rifle scope, while Kayla looked over her shoulder. Behind them, the rest of their squad took cover as they waited for a plan.

Though she had ideas of her own, Kayla was happy to wait for Rose’s orders. As far as she was concerned, their rivalry was long dead, and even more importantly, the princess needed to start acting like a Ranger.

“What do you think?” Kayla asked.

“Well,” Rose said, “the obvious approach would be to follow the forest up along the ridgeline. Keep the cover of the trees until we get below the summit. It’s quite exposed at the top, so the defenders won’t have too much of an advantage.”

“Sounds good.” Kayla began to turn to the others, but hesitated. Rose still looked pensive.

“But the thing is,” Rose said, “that’s just too obvious, isn’t it?”

Kayla nodded. “Because it’s the right move.”

“But… won’t the cadre be expecting us to do that?”

Kayla inhaled slowly. “Yes. They are expecting us to demonstrate the basic tactics we’ve been taught.”

“But it could be a trick,” Rose protested. “They could have set up an ambush in the forest. What if they want us to think beyond the obvious? You said yourself they keep messing with us.”

“You are overthinking the problem,” Kayla said, and smiled politely. It would not be a good day if they all got shot again.

Rose raised her scope again. “Look, if we go below the ridge, we can approach the summit from the other side. There’s a rock formation there, and we’ll have much better cover from the top.”

Kayla closed her eyes and counted to three. She took a breath and raised her own scope to examine the path Rose was indicating.

“Well,” she said after a moment of contemplation, “we would leave the cover of the trees and be completely visible to everyone on the hill. Then, when we passed beneath that line of rocks, we would be shot to pieces by the machinegun that they have definitely placed to cover that approach.” Kayla pointed to the top of the slope.

“I don’t see anything.”

“No, but that’s the point. It’s the perfect defensive position, with excellent fields of fire down the hillside, and they want to know that we are smart enough to go around it.”

Rose pursed her lips. “I think that’s too simple. We should do what they don’t expect us to do.”

There was a rustle nearby, and Kayla’s head snapped around.

Thandi, had evidently been listening in to the conversation, and was low crawling over to join them. “Girls,” she said, “I have too many bruises already. Can we please not screw this one up?”

“Rose,” Kayla said carefully. “Remember the conversation we had about not trying to outsmart everyone all the time?”

“Do I need to remind you,” Rose said testily, “that I have been placed in charge of the squad for this exercise?”

Kayla began to grind her teeth. “I’m really trying to help you out here.”

“And I think that if we go through the forest, we will be ambushed,” Rose said.

“It will be a much weaker ambush, because we will have trees to hide behind.”

Rose glared at her. “Why is it that you still think you know everything? I have made a decision Kayla. Are you going to respect it?”

Kayla rubbed a bruise on the back of her neck. Her mind was gradually tuning itself to the wavelength of the training and the organization. She suspected that sometimes the human spirit did not respond to a rational argument, and would even fight any attempt to sacrifice the ego’s most cherished foundations. Only unforgettable pain could break down such strong psychological barriers.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Though she feared the humiliation and punishment they would certainly receive, she nodded her head. “I disagree, Rose. But I’m with you. Lead on.”

“My whole body is a bruise,” Thandi wailed, as they sat outside their tents in the training camp.

“You’ll heal,” Kayla said as she flicked at her nails with a knife.

Christie, back from her own successful exercise, had set up a coffee grinder, while the rest of them tried to meditate through the pain.

Rose’s squad had followed her plan. As they climbed the hill, traversing the exposed slope, a cadre’s machinegun opened up, easily bouncing wax bullets off their bodies. Once the agonizing hail subsided, the Rangers were stood up by the instructors and asked if they thought themselves to be out on a casual day’s hike? Had they all hit their heads on rocks during their approach, and become stunned with idiocy? In fact, the instructors insisted, they had obviously grown arrogant. Severe disciplinary action would be needed if they did not extract their craniums from their rectums and pay attention to the basic tactics the overworked and underpaid instructors had wasted much time to instill in them.

Now back at the large campsite they called Tent City, word was spreading about Rose’s latest disaster, and other girls were making jokes about her. Rose had hidden herself in her tent, and refused to come out.

“Ow dammit!” Kayla’s fingers slipped, and the blade drew blood. “That really hurt,” she complained, sucking the cut.

Christie passed a mug of hot coffee to Thandi. “Might we conclude,” she suggested, “that hacking off pieces of your body with a combat knife might not be a good idea?”

“Don’t be ridiculous—this thing can do everything,” Kayla retorted, proudly twirling the knife in her hand. A misjudged flick sent the blade spinning into a nearby bush with Kayla in hot pursuit, and she returned looking embarrassed. “I just have to get good with it.”

“You’re starting to remind me of a cat, you know,” Christie said.

“Because I’m cute and cuddly?”

“Because you couldn’t care less about anyone’s opinion, and when you get excited you tear up the furniture.”

“I have sharp claws too,” Kayla grinned, eyes gleaming as she stroked the knife’s edge.

Christie sipped on her coffee. “And I saw you passed out on a rock this morning. I will never understand how you can possibly sleep in such uncomfortable positions.”

“Total physical exhaustion helps.”

“It’s not a bad metaphor—comparing cats to soldiers, I mean,” Christie continued. “They play fight, train, or sleep. Or amuse themselves by breaking things.”

“You just described all predators,” Kayla said. “Full time killers work on their skills all day every day, or else they’d fail at hunting. The prey is working just as hard on staying alive. Whoever takes a day off loses.”

Christie nodded. “I suppose this is the point of Valkyrie, really. To quote Vegetius: ‘How worthy of admiration are these people particularly applying themselves to the study of an art, without which no other art can possibly exist.’”

Kayla gave her an unimpressed look. “You see, you had to read that in a book. Growing up on a farm, I just watched animals all day. I guess my meager country education made me just as smart as you after all.”

Christie raised an eyebrow. “A bold statement from a woman who just sliced her own finger open.”

Kayla chuckled. “Yeah, well, I have better shot groupings than you.”

“I feel like I fell out of a tree and hit every branch on the way down,” Thandi said as she nursed her hot drink. She looked around as if searching for sympathy.

Rose emerged from her tent, her face a picture of misery. “I’m really sorry.”

Thandi just shook her head.

Kayla waved dismissively. “Forget it. You won’t be making that mistake again.”

“I don’t understand why it keeps happening,” Rose said. She reached gratefully for the mug that Christie offered.

“You’ll get there eventually,” Kayla said.

Rose glared at her. “You’re certainly in your element. I suppose you think this should be easy for everyone?”

“Everyone screws up and gets shot, me included.”

“Well, it’s a bit more embarrassing when you’re the class loser.”

Kayla sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I don’t understand why you fixate on that—if you focused on following the lessons you wouldn’t be getting wound up in your head and making dumb mistakes.”

“Yes, I get it,” Rose said angrily. “I’m the useless idiot that can’t get anything right. Spare me the lecture, won’t you? I’ve had enough to deal with for one day.”

The girls fell into an awkward silence.

“Frankly, I find this phase to be such a bore,” Christie said.

“Because you also suck as a squad leader,” Kayla replied.

Christie shook her head. “But there is no knowledge, no preparation. It’s all so artificial.”

“You’re on to something there, Chris,” Thandi said, as she looked around suspiciously. “Like we’re in some kind of… training camp.”

“Yes, you may well mock me,” Christie said, “but I don’t feel stimulated. Hide behind a rock, shoot the enemy. We might as well be wearing furs and waving clubs about. Defeating the enemy is as much about observation—for months if need be. Get inside their heads, understand their assumptions and weaknesses. Learn their patterns and find the perfect countermove before the battle even starts.”

“Sometimes I think you just can’t wait to be the board master, moving us all around like chess pieces,” Thandi said.

Kayla nodded. “And that’s so unlike an Earther,” she said sarcastically.

“But of course, and when I have to sacrifice a pawn,” Christie turned and stared at Kayla, “rest assured I won’t hesitate.”

Kayla winked back at her. “Love you too Chris.”

“You’ve got to admit, you love shooting,” Thandi said, to general agreement. Everybody loved shooting. “It’s the smell,” she continued. “I need to get that in a perfume somehow—Lord, it’s intoxicating. Can you imagine? ‘Firepower pour femme’.”