Guest Poster - Padawan Erifia [Topic - Huh?]

I was shocked when I found out who was teaching me. It was the commander of this base. I had to impress him. If he would write good letters, than I would be able to be a good GAR soldier. I couldn’t get booted out of the GAR too.

Major-Commander Graft, I was to refer to him as Sir, or Major. He took me to a special range, and I was to shoot ten targets in twenty seconds. Two seconds for each target. Anything less then a head shot would be worthless.

I noticed their distance, and he said, “Go!” I took aim at the first, and then he started screaming and firing an archaic gun that made loud booms. And I fumbled on the first shot. He withdrew a long piece of leather and struck my hand.

I winced in pain, and went to rub my hand but he raised his hand to strike mine again. I didn’t do it, and I went back to the gun.

“Go!” I did it again and he kept making noise, and yelling and screaming, and fired. I missed five of them. He slapped my other hand with the leather. I winced again.

“Private Apoc!” He yelled, “You are failing!” I sucked it up. I aimed the gun.

“Go!” I fired all ten shots. I felt a gust of air, and I had hit all of them in the head. He took a small vial of bacta and rubbed it on one hand. “Again!” he screamed, and I quickly fired, hoping to the force I had hit them all. He applied Bacta to my other hand.

“Do you understand the stakes?!” He screamed at me, “Good! Then do it until seventeen hundred hours, and report for dinner. He sat down on a chair, and waited for me to fire again. I did, and did so without hesitation or pause as he screamed and yelled.

I hit them all and he used the balm on my other hand. We ended at seventeen hundred, and I ate my dinner; We did war games again. Then to bed.

The next day Major-Commander Graft made me begin to practice using the weaknesses of the weapon and making it into a strength. He had heard how I used reflection to ‘kill two people’ so he set up a series of mirrors. One of the mirrors would lead to the kill shot of the droid.

I had thirty seconds to find it. I looked, and I looked, and shot at the droid itself. He hit a button and slapped my hand, “Now, that’s blast shield. You’re down to fifteen seconds, think.

I looked, I had to be a good soldier, I had to be a good soldier, or else I would be a slave girl. I didn’t want to be a slave. I shot at the first mirror I had an inclination about. The beam bounced, from mirror to mirror until finally, I felt the soft soothing bacta on my hurt hand.

“Private Apoc! Do it again!” The mirrors all moved. There had to be a method other than luck. I looked closely, I saw very faintly the head of the droid, and I shot the mirror, and the beam bounced and struck the droid.

He hit the button and the mirrors moved, “Again, Private Apoc!” He continued my training through repetition for the rest of the day, and well past dinner. Well into the night. He then told me after the hours and hours of practicing, “Private Apoc; Tomorrow you’ll not have to run the mile or do the pushups; You are to report here at thirteen hundred hours.”

I went to bed, and I woke with the men, and I ran the mile, and did the pushups anyway. I had to show him I would make a good soldier. After I was done I reported to him. There was a forest holo-area.

“Private Apoc; Anything that is in there will hurt you. There will be no Bacta for you. You’re only item will be that gun. Your object is to survive.”

“Yessir, if it is your wish.” He nodded. I loaded my sniper rifle, and entered. It was a nighttime area. It looked to be one of the great forest worlds. I leaned against a tree. I didn’t understand what he wanted. So I decided the object would be to get through it.

As I walked, I heard sounds all about me, and I ran to the closest shadow, and hid. A patrol of droids walked by. What would I be doing fighting droids? Droids are programmed to help people.

How could one fight droids? I had read once that their CPU was contained in their heads. So a headshot would kill them like a normal human. I clicked my gun and they all turned, and unleashed a volley of beams towards me. One hit my shoulder and I dropped to the ground. My whole left side felt numb. I grit my teeth and picked up my gun, and fired, I had to do it without thinking, without aiming. I had no time for either.

In the end, they were all disabled, and there were thermal detonators on them. I picked them up and pocketed them as I rushed down the path. I activated one. I had ten seconds to get rid of it. I heard shots being fired. That’s what I was hoping for.

I threw it, and then ran the opposite way. When the detonator went off it was like a small nuclear explosion. My body began to react to these things awkwardly. It responded in the way it should have. It automatically took care of doing the thinking for me.

I was trained some with sabers, but I didn’t understand, why was my body reacting to these situations so? The explosion caused many droids to react to it, and they rolled towards it, once they had surrounded it, I threw another thermal into them.

They had to have some problem processing the danger because they looked at it, trying to analyze it. As they did it exploded taking them with it. The holo shut off.

“Thank you Padawan,” Major-Commander said, “When Gerith Gwin dropped you here, I was hesitant. He said you were a brilliant scholar and very logical, but I never imagined you’d become a good soldier. And in your absence from the temple the group known simply as the CIS has been raising in power with their Droid Armies. Today you just found a weakness we can use until these droids are reprogrammed. They don’t know how to respond to their own weapons being used against them. That will change soon, but… Still it’s a weakness.”

I was confused and taken back, “I’m a Private in the GAR. I’m not a Padawan anymore.”

“That’s what you master wanted you to think. So that way you would work your hardest. Which you did. He will be picking you up tonight.”

“But…”

“Well done Padawan. You’ve impressed me, and earned the respect of those soldiers. One day you’ll become a Jedi Knight, and you’ll earn the respect of your men, and they will follow you.”

“What are your final orders sir?”

“To say goodbye, collect your things, and keep anything that was given to you.”

“Yes sir!” I saluted. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay with the men who I learned to love. Who I respected.

If you’ll excuse me… I have to go say goodbye…

Hugs and Kisses,
Erifia Apoc