Chapter Seven: Getting to Know Each Other Take Two

March 4th, 2027, 5:53 a.m.
Outside Sgt. Foles office, K47 Unit Training Facility, Atlantic Ocean

She knocked on the Sergeant’s door, hoping that she wouldn’t annoy him too much by being up before protocall. “Who the hell is there!,” she heard him shout from behind the door, “Don’t you know the protocall?” , Katia cleared her throat, “Um… It’s me Ka- I mean Agent Managan.” He sighed loudly and opened the door, “And you are here why?” Katia put her hand behind her head and said, “well I kind of found out some things with the evidence, it’s kind of urgent.” He looked around to make sure he hadn’t woken anyone, or at least caused anyone else to break protocall, “Come inside, quickly.”

“Okay,” he said sitting down at the round table, “tell me what you’ve got.” Katia opened the briefcase again and took out the book and the notes, “the notes were written by the publisher, Quill Weave wasn’t the one trying to tell us something. I had a really strange dream and well, it kinda gave me the hunch. So I looked through the book, taking the page numbers from the numerals, and the numbers for words on the page. It spelled out longitude and latitude points, somewhere off of the coast of Africa and Madagascar I think, and a code, 5283756.” Sgt. Foles scratched his chin, “Well Miss Managan, it seems we have ourselves a small lead, but this still isn’t enough information to find out the terrorists next move.” Katia looked at him, “that’s the thing, there has to be more information left for us, something that L39 found but never got out, something we have to finish.” He sat back and nodded, “My thoughts exactly, but training must come first. We can’t have you and your squad running around on a wild goose chase without any knowhow on what you’re doing.” She looked at him, puzzled, “My squad? You mean, I’ll be in control of all of this? I barely passed the first endurance test, you can’t expect me to succeed in a field I’ve never been in.” Sgt. Foles looked back at her, a strange light in his eyes, “I’m not expecting you to succeed in your first mission,” “Gee, thanks alot,” she replied, “You never let me finish,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “I don’t expect you to succeed without help, that is. Which is why we’ll be skipping the rest of endurance training, and you’ll start personal training with me. I’ll pick the best I’ve seen so far and that will be your squad, we will be starting very shortly. Now I have some personal business with some of our trainees to attend to, so I’m going to have to ask you to get ready. Wait for me in training room 836.” With that Sgt. Foles put on his hat and exited the room.

Kaita entered the training room, it was full of floor matts, punching bags, and other physical training equipment. She knew exactly what they were going to be doing today, and she wasn’t too excited about it. She had gotten on one of her many training outfits, they were all the same, and looked through her duffle bag and found some white electrical tape. She wrapped the tape around her hands and wrists, then squared up to a punching bag. “Might as well get in some training beforehand right?” Katia thought, she punched at the pag as hard as she could, and immediately regretted it. All of the knuckles in her right hand cracked loudly, and the shock absorbed into her wrist, leaving it throbbing. She clutched her hand in between her legs, the bright red bag barely moved an inch back and forth. She hadn’t broken her hand or anything, she just wasn’t expecting the bag not to move as much as it did. “Ow,” she said aloud, still clutching her hand, “should’ve checked the damn weight first, holy shit… what was it on this one?” She spun the punching bag around, looking for the weight tag, of course it was the eighty pound bag, “that’s just great isn’t it?” Katia thought sarcastically, “I’m probably going to be facing guys twice my size and I can’t even punch an eighty pound bag without hurting myself.” She looked around the room, the least weighted punching bag was fifty pounds, she walked over to it and decided to try this one. Katia punched this one with a little less force than last time, and it still hurt a bit but she moved it more this time. She decided to start trying out multiple combos she’d seen people pull off in movies, it definitely was harder than it looked. It also didn’t help she had no idea what she was doing, she moved back a bit and body checked the bag, sending it flying forward. Just then the door slid open and Sgt. Foles walked in with four others in company, Katia looked over and then back to the punching bag, “Oh sh-” The bag hit her full on putting her flat on her back.

“Um… Agent Managan,” Foles started, a little short of words, “sorry for interrupting, but I have gathered your squad.” Katia laid there, “Sorry Sir… just let me… catch my breath…” The others sort of stood around and whispered to each other about two things, they were under her command, and probably what just happened with the punching bag. Katia got up, she could feel the temperature in her face rise, even though they probably couldn’t see her blushing through her fur,it sure felt like it. “Um… yes I can see that Sir,” she responded shifting on her feet, Sgt. Foles cleared his throat, “Agent Managan I’d like you to meet your new squad members.” There was one khajiit, an elf, and two humans, the khajiit looked strangely familiar, but sadly she could be mistaking him for anyone else. “This,” Foles said pointing to the first human, “is Chase Coleman.” Katia nodded to him, and he nodded back, Foles continued down the line. “Amelia Ferguson, Kyle Enoch,” the elf must’ve been related to the doctor that put Katia into stasis. “And Shane Miller,” Sgt. Foles finished plainly, “and today you’ve might’ve guessed, we’ll be working on close combat, without weapons. After this training you shouldn’t need experience with close combat weapons to defend yourself from them. All that matters is that you are quick, strong, and precise toward your opponent, never the other way around. You must also learn how to take a hit without being too fazed, but after this you shouldn’t ever have to take a hit for any unjust reason. To demonstrate, Agent Managan, I would like you to try,” he tried to hide his smirk, “and hit me.”

Katia glanced at him, just now realizing the huge scale of his muscles, she was dead meat. She decided to at least try and fake him out, though it probably wouldn’t work, she went in from the right side then immediately stopped and swung with her left. Foles eyes darted from the fake to the left, he ended up moving to the right a bit then putting his arm up to block her punch. Katia got a small boost of confidence and swung toward his chest with her right now, he stuck out his other arm and blocked that as well. She then decided to try and use her legs too, and kicked toward his stomach after faking a punch at his head, this was her mistake. He grabbed her by the leg and pulled her forward, she slipped onto her back and he rested his foot on her chest area, she was pinned. Foles raised his eyebrows, “You still surprise me,” he said grinning at her and helping her up, “not a bad start for someone who's never done this before.” Katia took his hand and pulled herself upward, “Well, I did live in Las Angeles, so I had to take some precautions,” he stared at her, “I’m not so sure.” Katia rolled her eyes, “fine I kinda winged it a little, but what’s the harm in that, I surprised you didn’t I?” He laughed, “the only reason you surprised me was because I didn’t expect you to get that far, but winging it isn’t always no, but it isn’t always good either.” Katia smiled, “At least I know you have some sense of humor,” Foles cleared his throat, “All jokes aside, the first lesson will be on self defense, blocking, and dodging attacks. I expect you to learn quickly and consistently, we will be here until you can’t even lay a finger on each other. Lessons with me will usually be this way, you stay here until you pass, I don’t care if it takes two days or two hours. Afterall we now have a lead for our case and have to complete our mission as soon as possible. We will split into pairs, Managan will be with me. Square up!”

Katia squared up to Foles ready for anything to come at her, well almost anything, first he stuck high then low, she dogged the high and sidestepped the low. The only problem was that she sidestepped right into a palm strike to the chest, then he swept her legs. She was on her back again, “Don’t move so much, try to stay in one place if you can help it, only move if you absolutely have to. Or if you have the chance to disarm your opponent do so, now, try again.” He started again, different moves this time, he kicked and she rotated to the side, but kept her feet planted, “That’s it,” he said. They continued with this fight for a while, but it was going nowhere, “wait, stop!” He said addressing the whole group, “first of all Managan, you’re not making any moves on me, and second, nobody else is doing much to improve at all. I’ll have to bring in the AI, I’ll be just a minute.” He walked over to a small box on the wall and took out a small fabricator, he swiped at the plasma screen until the desired AI combat drone came up. He tapped the image once and selected a number, it immediately floated out of his hands and fabricated four human shaped drones with human features. They were completed within mere seconds, but Katia was confused, “Sir, why are there only four of them?” Suddenly Sgt. Foles looked grim, “Managan, I will continue to train with you personally,” She looked at him puzzled, “But why? I don’t have any higher value than the other do I?” He stared into her eyes, “No you do not, but you have the most important role, you are the captain. And the captain never lets his or her squad down in any way possible. The captain must be the fastest, the strongest, the most fearless, and the most determined. The captain will be the last one standing if it comes to that extreme of a position.” He looked away for a moment in silence, “Sir, were you in that position?” Foles looked at her, “In my time yes, yes I was,” He straitened, “But we have no time for stories, we must train, train harder than we’ve ever before. Now, take your drone, they are set to level ten, a basic level that will attack in any way, but also protect itself as the most experienced would. Now then, square up!”