Bio

It was a week after Alderaan. They didn’t want to tell us, but the rumor mill had already done its work. During the “official debriefing” the two Alderaanian troopers were taken out of the ranks, and remanded for “counseling”. I’ve never seen either of those men again. We all stood there, at attention when Ensign Larrick broke down. Two Stormtroopers had him by the arms and were taking him away almost instantly. We all watched that too. No one knew what to say.

After that, we were dismissed. I wandered down to the fore section view ports. I stared out at space. I thought about what had brought me to this moment. I thought about the Academy, and Roxcera. I can’t think of one without the other. I can see her auburn hair, unbound, spreading on her pillows with the lights of Imperial Center shining in the ports of her high rise apartment. It was so hard to reconcile this woman with the official, uniformed officer I had first met.

I was fresh from the Rim then. My clothes still smelled of the swamps and the growing things of L’iavan. All I could do was stare. L’iavek is a large city, but this was an entire world of city.
Amazing.

First came the tests. They were tough. I remember thinking I’d never make it. Somehow I managed to get through it. I was rated as an Officer Cadet. There was a red symbol stamped on my orders, and I was in. After that, the training was pretty easy. They yelled at us a lot.

We marched, got yelled at. We were issued our kit, and were yelled at. Blaster training, yelled at. Grenade and Explosives training, more yelling. One Cadet managed to blow himself and the instructor up with a Thermal Detonator. Lots of yelling after that, and we all got to repeat explosives training.

There are several different types of yelling in the Academy. Non-com yelling is the bad, but you can learn new curse words. Unless they do the quiet disappointment thing. That’s the worst.
Officer yelling becomes just noise after a while. They make a lot of noise, but don’t really say anything. I promised myself not to be an officer like that. I suppose I took to it well. Everyone seemed to be really pleased with my performance. I was a True Believer then, a real CompNor holo-boy. I have to laugh now.

When the few of us left finished Advanced Weapons and Infantry Training, we were moved. I still have no idea what System we were on. Then came Tactical, Command, Logistics, and Strategic Level Units. That was where we read a lot, were yelled at and sometimes hit with data-pads. We ran endless simulations. I would forget what day it was. They said it was six weeks long, but it felt much much longer. I learned a lot. I managed to finish second in my class of 300. I missed Roxcera and S’araya almost every night.

continued….