Payne pulled the room assignments up on his tablet and glanced up at the cadets. "Listen up cadets, I'll read off room assignments and then you will go to supply and pick up one standard issue bedding set before dropping your stuff at your room in the year one wing on the south side of the academy grounds. You have 15 minutes to get that done and then form up outside the chow hall which is right next to your rooms. Once everyone is in formation I will take you in to eat."
The list was relatively short as there were only 30 people in this small group to begin with. They realized that they had all essentially picked their class and instructor by choosing which bus they loaded up on. They also realized that Payne wasn't a recruiter, he was a drill instructor and would be gracing them with his presence until they moved up into the next years courses.
As Arthur stood at attention and waited on his name to be called, he wondered if Payne was actually the drill instructors' name, or if that was the moniker he used because of the massive amount of pain they would be in later. "I guess I will find out" thought Arthur.
Arthur's name was finally called and to his surprise he found he would be sharing a room with Strong. The two cadets looked at each other, fell out of formation with their bags, and quickly made their way to supply to pick up their standard issue bedding set.
"We've got to pick up the pace" said Strong as they rushed to supply. Not only are we going to have to run to the dorms after this but if we don't make our beds before we leave, they will have the whole place turned inside out by the time we get back, and we barely have 12 minutes left to get it done."
"Let's run!" Said Arthur has he started running towards supply.
The two cadets made it to supply and walked up to the counter and requested their bedding sets.
"Thumb prints on the tablets please" said the young female cadet working the counter as she held the tablets up for them to "sign". "This is your signature verifying we can add this to your official imperial military records so we can charge you for them later"
"Of course" thought Arthur. Nothing in this world is ever free.
Arthur and Strong received their sets and quickly sprinted out of the building and into the the first year wing to room 1104. Strong quickly placed his hand on the pad outside his door while a camera took a retinal scan of his eyes.
"Welcome Cadet Strong" said a pleasant voice from the pad next to the door. The cadets opened the door and looked around at the room they would be in for at least the next year. There were two beds on either side of the room with 2 lockers right next to them against the walls. The lockers also had special locks that required 2 different scans to unlock so at least their stuff would be secure. Arthur didn't think for a minute that the drill instructors couldn't override them at will though.
"Let's get our stuff in the lockers and get our beds made" said Strong as he hastily unwrapped the bundle of the standard issue bedding set. Arthur looked around and saw a terminal next to the door that he quickly turned on. There looked to be a regulations menu at the bottom and once pulled up he could search for key words. Arthur quickly typed in "bed" and found the regulation pertaining to the proper way to make a bed. Once he glanced over it he helped Strong fix his and then they both went to work on Arthurs. They glanced at the terminal to get the time and saw they had 2 minutes left to get to formation outside the chow hall.
Arthur and Strong sprinted to the the chow hall and fell in just in time. Luckily, it seemed that everyone was already anxiously awaiting them as they were the last to show up.
"Attention ladies!' yelled Payne as he casually walked up to the front of the formation. "We are now about to eat, you have exactly 5 minutes to get in, get out, and meet me here in this exact spot. Lets go!"
The cadets broke off in an orderly fashion and filed in to get food. The chow hall was relatively large even though it appeared to almost be empty. Arthur bet that they rotated groups in and out for ease of access and to not waste any time they could use training instead. Arthur was handed a tray of what he could only describe as gruel, something not seen since his past life.
"If I don't eat this I will be half dead by lunch" thought Arthur, listening to his growling stomach. Arthur quickly started shoving it into his mouth so he could make the 5 minute deadline. After cleaning his tray, he took a huge gulp of water and stepped outside with Strong and fell back in to formation.
"Good job maggots!" said Payne as he looked up after the 5 minutes had elapsed to see everyone standing in formation. "Today we are doing the assessment so we can see which one of you will be destined to be nothing more than meat shields for our glorious empire. but first we have to work off that five star chow you just ate. Have to watch our figures!"
"Everyone in the front leaning rest, move!" yelled Payne.
The cadets looked around as some of them had no idea what the command meant, but seeing others down on the ground in the push up position, they quickly caught on.
"Down!" Yelled Payne
"Up!"
"Down!"
"Up!"
"Down!"
****
***
**
*
After fifty pushups, people started dropping from exhaustion. Being 24 hours of no sleep, it had finally caught up with them.
"Don't tell me you avoided that coat hanger for nine fucking months just to give up now cadets!" yelled Payne as he eyed the cadets collapsing from exhaustion. Two more sets were called and then the cadets were back in formation and Payne marched them towards the field the assessment would take place in.