GUNS AND GLOWSTICKS

The cadets gathered at the rifle range. All of them are now wearing UNSSD standard issue NFM LBS body armour vests, and in the standard issue full cut ballistic helmets, and holding on to a UNSSD standard issue HK-416A5 rifle with iron sights only. A UNSSD standard issue Glock 19 for special forces units are in their drop leg holsters.

Sean kept his head submerged in a pail of water, holding his breath. Louis similarly kept his head submerged in a pail next beside. He still needs to hold his breath as his face is submerged.

Sean could feel his heart rate rapidly rising as it tried pumping oxygen to his body in this airless environment, not helped by the instinctual fear of drowning adding on to his heart rate.

"Begin!" yelled Herbert. The 2 lifted their heads out of the pails, grabbing their guns and advanced, firing on the moving targets ahead. As they have no Exo-suits and optics they have to rely on their shooting skills only, since the Exo-suits' fire aim assist AI is unavailable.

Sean aimed down the iron sight of his HK416A5 rifle, quickly hitting the targets, ensuring absolute speed and relative accuracy. As for Louis, his rapid increase in heart rate made worse greatly affected his accuracy, struggling to even properly line up the sights on the targets.

Soon, both emptied the 30-round magazines of their main weapons, switching to their sidearms. Sean turned left, rapidly firing at the moving pistol targets while moving with his Glock 19 pistol, while Louis turned right and did the same with his Glock 19.

The 2 emptied their pistol magazines soon, stopping at the end of the range, keeping their guns after checking that they are empty and re-engaged the safety. Louis peeked at Sean's targets, impressed to see that most of his shots had landed on or near the bullseye. He then looked at his: all of his shots are at the outer edges of the targets, and a portion of them are empty, suggesting that he missed. He bowed his head in embarrassment, knowing that it is a barely passing grade.

The cadets behind all jeered softly at Louis. He kept his head bowed as he walked back, ignoring attempts by Sean to cheer him up.

Ariel and Carl then came up next.

"Begin!" yelled Herbert. The 2 rushed forward, Carl swiftly aiming down the iron sights, rapidly hitting his targets. Ariel aimed her rifle, hitting targets at a speed and precision that triumphs over Carl and on par with Sean's. The 2 soon switched to their pistols, Carl fired bullets on his targets rapidly. Ariel's pistol jammed for a brief moment, she quickly corrected the failure to eject the fired casing and proceeded with shooting.

Herbert nodded in approval at their grades when they are done. Louis looked at their self-congratulatory smiles, on one hand his is genuinely happy for them, on the other hand he feels too ashamed to face them for his horrible performance.

"Next!" ordered Reza…

(Night time)

Louis stared at the fragment of a map in his hand, in his mind he is asking the 3 ultimate questions of old philosophy. Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?

The task the cadets are presented now is one that is simple enough: they are to navigate their way back to the camp from a spot where they are dropped off, which is located roughly 30km away from the camp.

The catch? They need to navigate in the complete darkness, a red glowstick is the only source of lighting they have. To make things worse, all they are issued is a broken piece of a map which are randomised per person. They will have to rely on their own navigation skills to make it back to the camp from god knows where in South Africa. 

"Feel free to form groups!" said Jay. "You have 8 hours to get back to the camp, based on when you all set off. You have 10 minutes to prepare yourselves!" 

Sean looked at the broken piece of map in his hand, understanding the rationale of this test. It is to test the flexibility and thoughtfulness of the cadets, and their navigation capabilities. 

Sean studied the map carefully under the faint glow of his red glowstick. Just then, Carl approached him, his ghostly appearance making him almost invisible under the night. 

"You know, we should team up," said Carl. 

Sean threw an amused glance at him, wondering how can someone be so out of touch with reality 

"Bro, you pushed down a friend of mine barely a day ago and you think I will be cool to work with you?" 

But Sean remained cordial. "Why me?" he asked. 

Carl glanced around quickly before looking at Sean earnestly. "You are a veteran right?" 

Sean chuckled, "I don't know what you are talking about." 

"Oh don't lie," said Carl. "The way Instructor Maia came at you this morning? That was straight up personal, you must have had UNSSD SOC experience. And, not to brag but, you can see that I am the one who is closest to you in terms of skill and expertise. Don't you want to have good teammates? The best should be together with the best." 

And that is true. Despite only having be with him for a day, Sean could tell that Carl has the raw talent and the necessary soldier skills to enter a Tier 1 unit like the UNSSD SOC, perhaps even able to match the levels of Squad Artemis soldiers like himself. Yet, Sean does not just value skill, he values character more. Carl is not someone he can leave his back with, at least, not now. 

Sean gave Carl a thoughtful look, carefully folding his map fragment and slipping it into his pocket. "Look, Carl, even if I was a veteran—and I'm not confirming anything—this test isn't about finding the strongest or the most experienced cadet."

Carl tilted his head slightly, clearly confused. "Then what's it about?"

Sean smiled gently, waving the red glowstick slightly as if to emphasize the darkness around them. "It's about trust. It's about learning to rely on those who'll watch your back when things get tough—not necessarily the strongest or the smartest person here."

Carl's expression softened a bit, seeming to understand Sean's subtle point. "Alright, fine, but you could at least consider—"

"I appreciate the invitation," Sean interrupted kindly, "but my team's already set." He nodded subtly toward Louis, who was still struggling to piece with his map fragment under the dim glowstick. "They're counting on me."

Carl tilted his head slightly, eyebrows raised. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Sean smiled faintly, a softness behind his expression. "Trust is everything out here. Louis might not be the best shot, but he's someone I trust to have my back, no matter how tough things get. I can't say the same about you yet."

Carl looked momentarily stunned, but quickly masked it. "Alright, I get it," he replied evenly, a touch of disappointment in his voice. "Your choice."

Sean nodded respectfully, not intending to burn bridges. "Maybe next time, once things are a bit clearer between all of us."

Carl paused, sighed softly, then nodded slowly. "Yeah, alright. Good luck, Sean."

"Same to you," Sean replied sincerely, watching Carl walk off into the shadows before turning back toward Louis.

Louis was crouched, carefully studying his fragment of the map beneath the dim red glowstick. Sean approached him quietly, settling beside him.

"Figure anything out yet?" Sean asked softly.

Louis sighed, shaking his head slightly. "Barely. This piece barely shows anything useful. How about yours?"

Sean held up his map fragment. "Mine seems to have a partial landmark, a river bend of sorts. If we combine them, we might at least know our general direction."

Louis smiled, visibly relieved to have Sean beside him. "Glad you're here. Doing this alone would've been rough."

Sean nudged Louis playfully. "Hey, don't underestimate yourself. You've got sharper instincts than you think."

Louis chuckled softly. "Yeah, tell that to my targets this afternoon." 

"Forget that," Sean said gently but firmly. "We're here now. Let's figure this out."

"Exactly," chirped Ariel, having appeared next to them, her 4 red dragon horns sticking out in the dark night like small lanterns. 

"Aren't you gonna go with your new roommates?" asked Louis. 

Ariel sighed, telling them that she went to take a leak, and by the time she returned back to the starting point, Clara, Erika and Vera were nowhere to be found, having likely already set off. 

Sean suppressed a laugh.

The trio huddled closer, pooling their red glowsticks together, the faint light illuminating their faces as they pieced together their map fragments.

"Looks like we've got a rough direction due East," Ariel said decisively. "We might have just enough landmarks to navigate back."

Sean nodded. "Good. Let's move out. Quietly."

(An hour later) 

Sean is standing on a small boulder, aiming his compass around. He is carefully shielding his glowstick with his hand as he looked at the compass. , after all, this is a simulation of them in hostile territory, and good light discipline can save one's life in hostile territory. The compass is fastened to his body armour to ensure that he does not lose it. 

Behind him, Ariel has her hands on a set of self-made pacer beads she had made from beads tied to a string. This is a simple tool used to measure distances. It consists of 2 sections: the first section has 9 beads, each representing 100m. The next section, separated from the first, has 10 beads, each representing 1km.

To use the tool, Ariel had first counted her pace on a piece of flat ground that is 100m, remembering it and writing it down on a notebook. For every 100m she walked based on counting her pace, she will pull up 1 bead on the first section, then start counting from the beginning. Once 9 beads have been pulled up and she walks the next 100m, she will reset all 9 beads and pull up 1 bead in the second section. This is to record that she had walked for 1km, and then carry on with the process. Once she reached 10km, she will reset all of the beads and start afresh. 

This is where recording comes in handing, handled by Louis who is taking notes on his notebook with a wooden pencil, the advantage of which is that its erasable, lasts long and can be sharpened with a knife, making it perfect for such military applications. The map fragments are with him, all annotated with permanent markers. 

Ariel looked at her beads, they have walked around 4.6km by now. She reported this to Sean.

"Our speed is good, keep it up," he said, checking the compass again to make sure they are in the right way. He then picked himself up from the rock.

"We should be nearing a valley soon," said Louis, pointing to a section of Sean's map fragment. The first step of map reading is to find the main land features, which are summarised in the acronym HVRSD: hills, valleys, ridges, saddles and depressions. The segment of the map that Louis is pointing to that should be appearing in their way if their inference of where they are is right consists of a low side surrounded by 3 sides with high sides, the signs of a valley. 

Other than that, he needs to look out for the smaller details too, the DSC acronym, which stands for draws, spurs and cliffs. 

"Gotta watch out for those too," thought Louis, looking at the areas of the map containing these features, he spotted that there is a cliff nearby where they are. 

Just then, his glowstick went out, and it threw him into pitch black darkness. Louis calmly grabbed a second glowstick from his pouch, preparing to crack it. He did not stop walking, not noticing that he had detracted from the path Sean and Ariel are walking on, walking too far right. 

Suddenly, his feet hit the air. Shocked, he lurched forward, and soon finding his body plummeting downwards. 

"AHHH!" he screamed, catching Sean and Ariel's attention. The 2 rushed over, carefully to make sure that their glowsticks can light up the path ahead, stopping at the edge of a cliff. 

Louis has one hand on a thin branch, his other hand gripping tightly to the map fragments. Below him is an abyss that will for sure either hurt him very badly, or kill him should he fall. 

And the branch is slowly but surely cracking.