Chapter 7: Choose Your Own Place

            Life flowed back into Hannock’s body as he woke up back in the launch chamber. He saw everyone waking up as well, often coughing or shaking from the experience. They had just let themselves be shot to death, so, of course, they weren’t going to be feeling too good even though it didn’t actually happen. The experience of shock still affected them long after the ordeal. They saw X-Ray awaiting them outside of the pods. They released themselves and unlatched the pod doors. They walked out and convened around X-Ray, waiting for his response. Once they gathered together again and saw that they were all still alive, it eased their tension slightly. X-Ray looked at them and ordered to be at-ease. He opened his mouth to speak.

“Congratulations. You are all official soldiers of Black Team.”

“Thank you, Sir!” They all announced in unison

“As for that little trick you pulled,” X-Ray started, “I will admit. I was amused,” He looked at them with a slight grin.

“So…what now?” Asked one of the previously-known-as cadets.

“Now,” He turned around towards the corridors, “We meet your new teammates.”

They left the corridor. Even though this was only the start of their careers as soldiers, it still felt like a graduation of some sort. They had managed to pass all of X-Ray’s challenges and earned their place on the team. Everyone could hardly contain their excitement as they entered the commons area. Every soldier of Black Team was waiting there for them. As they walked in, everyone started cheering and clapping. This caused unbelievable feelings to well up in each of them. They hadn’t been treated as part of the team while they were still in Hell Week. Not only that, but these were the people that they looked up to, and they were cheering for them.

On the table in the center of the room, five glasses sat in a circle around it. They could guess what they were supposed to do. They all walked over to the table in the proudest possible strides they could muster. They circled around it until each one was lined up with a glass. They each picked up their glasses and toasted to their official induction to the team. They took down the entire drink in one gulp. Or, at least, they tried to. The drink happened to be pure tequila and the burn from the drink sent them into fake convulsions. They weren’t hurt, of course, but they were certainly surprised. This brought a large hoot from the crowd around them. They didn’t care, they had finally made it through a challenge that had taken them through Hell and back and they were proud of it.

This would be the last time they would all work together, however, and they knew this. Their skillsets would easily put them in different squads and cause them to be trained with different people. They weren’t worried; they would still see each other on the battlefield and be able to help each other when they could. After all, that was what the training was for; to make them strong soldiers who would put themselves in danger for the good of their brethren. They knew that Maxwell would likely be paired up with the sniper squads to train his accuracy and technique. Hannock would probably be put with one of the offensive squads after seeing his fighting style. The rest could only guess where they would go after that day.

X-Ray came over to the group as the initial surprise had died down into an average party. The past cadets were just shooting the breeze, something they hadn’t gotten to do much during Hell Week. X-Ray sat down on the couch they were sitting at and got their attention, quickly.

“I wanted to congratulate you five one more time,” He said

“Once again, we appreciate the thought, Sir,” Hannock responded.

“You can drop the ‘Sir’ for now. Something you can get used to in this team, when we’re not doing anything, I’m not a leader. That’s why you see some soldiers acting relaxed around me at times.”

“I see. Is that so you can get closer with your soldiers?” Asked Maxwell.

“More or less. It’s really just that I can’t do the whole ‘leader’ thing if it’s not necessary. I’d have to force it and that’s bothersome.”

“Ok. So, was there anything else you wanted to talk to us about?” Maxwell asked, again.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” X-Ray looked at all of them, “First off, I’ll be assigning you to your squads based on what I’ve seen throughout this week. Maxwell, you’ll be assigned to Eagle’s squad. I want him to train you.”

“Isn’t he the guy who only fights alone?”

“He was. However, I have ordered him to take you under his wing. He won’t like it, but he’ll have to deal with it. You two have very similar combat styles and I think his training would complement your strengths greatly.”

“I understand. Although, I think this is going to affect me a lot more then it will him.”

X-Ray laughed, “Don’t worry. He looks cold, and he is, but he won’t leave you to the wolves. He does prefer the idea of learning on the job, but if you show promise, he’ll take an interest in your training.”

“I’ll just prove myself to him then.”

“Good,” He turned to Hannock, “As for you, you’ll be training with me.”

“What?”

“Is that a problem?”

“Not what I’m saying. Does the leader of a team have time to train someone individually?”

“Of course. You’ll work in my squad and I’ll teach you on and off battle.”

“Understood,” Hannock said.

X-Ray gave each of the other soldiers their squad assignments, each one having some connection to their fighting styles. As he finished up, X-Ray stood up to leave, but Hannock stopped him.

“X-Ray, hold up.”

“What’s up?”

“I’ve been here doing your challenges for a week now, but I want to understand a few things that go on in the team itself.”

“Shoot,” X-Ray sat down again, waiting for the questions.

“Okay, first off, what’s with all of the different uniforms in our lockers? I’m guessing that the ones with black and another color mean that we pair up with other teams for battles?”

“Your guess would be correct. Yes, we pair up with teams every now and then for battles. The reason for that is so we can get a feel for working with people whom we don’t know too well and not end up with friendly casualties. It’s also to practice fighting with larger armies. As for the other uniforms, one has red, black, and blue. That one is for the gender battles. There isn’t any real significance to them, they’re more just to keep this place interesting. You also saw one with a tessellation, right?”

“Yes.”

“That one is for the RvR tournament. The most important one that we have.”

“We have tournaments?”

“Four of them,” He held up four of his fingers.

“No kidding? What are they for?”

“Well, the RvR stands for Regiment vs. Regiment. Very creative, I know. It pits all one hundred regiments of Project Shadow against each other in an elimination-style tournament. You get one fight and you’re done.”

“Hold on, that doesn’t make sense. You can’t have one hundred teams in a bracket-style tournament. You can only go either sixty-four or one-hundred-twenty-eight.”

“Under normal circumstances, yes. However, we need a way to have all of the teams to fight in the matches. So our fix for that is giving some teams a ‘bye’.”

“Like a bye week?”

“Exactly. The top twenty-eight teams of the previous year get to have a first round bye. Meaning they get to just skip ahead.”

“So how many rounds do you need to make it to the finals?”

“Six to make it, without the bye. Five if you have it, which we do.”

“How did we place last year?”

“We made it to the finals, but lost in the end. We have the second seed this year.”

“Cool, so what about the other uniforms?”

“The last one is for the Inter-branch Tournament. The biggest in size but not as important as RvR. This tournament is done by generating four random teams made up of regiments from every branch of the military in Project Shadow.”

“Actually there was something I was curious about in that too.”

“What?” X-Ray asked.

“At one point, I thought I saw that there were only three branches in Project Shadow. Aren’t there four military branches? Aside from the Coast Guard, I know that they rejected Project Shadow due to low necessity.”

“You are correct. Around here there are three branches total. The reason for that is the Marine Corps is actually a part of the Navy branch of Project Shadow. It was done this way so that the Navy would be able to practice strategy and actual close combat in case they were ever boarded or had to perform land operations, which is what the Marines do for them anyway.”

“I see. So what are the other tournaments? There aren’t any more special uniforms so I doubt they require any.”

“Right, again. The two other tournaments we have are the History Battles, which pick a different point in history every year for us to do battle in, just like the gender battles, these aren’t all that important, but they are fun to compete in. The other one is more special. It’s called the Golden Bullet Competition. Each regiment sends one soldier to compete in duels against the other regiments’ champions to win.”

“Wow, sounds intense. How do you choose your champion?”

“We hold our own little Golden Bullet Competition here. Each leader organizes a fight including all of their soldiers and the winning one faces the best soldier of each team and the winner of that goes on to be our Golden Bullet Representative.

“That’s pretty cool.”

“It is, though it’s not as long as the other tournaments since it’s only one versus one each time.”

“Makes sense.”

“Now, let me ask you a question.”

“Go ahead.”

“What made you want to pull that stunt during the simulation?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean why did you do it? Why did you choose to kill yourself rather than fight?”

“Didn’t you already say you were amused? Doesn’t that mean you understood why we did it?”

“I have my guesses, but I want to hear it from you.”

“Well, I’ll start with it was just my idea. I hadn’t actually told the others I was going to do it, but they followed me anyway.”

“Probably because they thought you had a plan, or they trust your judgement more than you think. I’m going to say the later, because they didn’t look too surprised when they saw you drop dead.”

“I guess so. The reason I made the decision in the end was because I wanted to do something even you wouldn’t expect.”

“I’ll admit I wouldn’t expect a soldier to kill himself during battle, but I understand what you mean. You could tell I had briefed them on your personal tactics and they knew how to counter whatever you would do.”

“Exactly, so I figured, ‘If I have to die to end this, then I’m gonna be the one who chooses to end it.’”

“I see…You’re an interesting man, Hannock. Continuing to surprise my forethoughts.”

“Really?” He smirked, “I thought you already had me figured out?”

“Every time you go into that simulator I’m seeing something new from you. And every time I have to relearn your crazy mindset.”

“Crazy, eh?”

“Maybe not crazy. Sentinel is the crazy one. Honestly all I can say for you right now is, interesting.”

“Not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult.”

“It’s neither for the time being. Play right and it will be a compliment. However, I have feeling you have more surprises in-store. Not just for me, but for the team to learn about as well.”

“I’ll look forward to figuring them out myself.”

“You’re a good soldier, Hannock. You don’t wait for others to pick your path for you, you put yourself in the position you want to be it. Those who choose their own place are often the best of the best out there,” He looked Hannock in the face, “Don’t change that statistic.”

“Understood,” Hannock put his hand to his forehead, “Sir.”