Valkren patted his kneepads, pulling himself up from his sitting position on the crate of simulation ammo. The colonel watched as members of the Silver Jedi and the Iron Empire poured through the room's door.
Fresh meat for the grinder, as his instructors used to say. First was Yuroic, he began to pick out his gear before asking Valk about using his lightsaber in the simulation. The young officer really preferred if the Jedi that entered the course left their own weapons out here, but realism was his goal here.
"I'd prefer you leave them here, but if you wish you may take them in with you. The point of this exercise is to put you in the shoes of the frontline grunt." Valkren would glance over to the six-man team of rangers that had just unsuccessfully finished the course. "Not everyone survives in war. Most warfighters' life expectancies drop significantly once rounds start flying. Casualties happen, it's something that just must be delt with during combat."
"If you take your saber with you, try to use the blasters as much as possible." He figured if they wished to use them, they could only be so much help due to the force-repelling lizard-like creatures he had placed on the course. Valkren folded his arms over his chest plate, before hearing a voice come from the observation deck. He shifted his gaze up, only to spot one of the Silver Jedi's best healers, Valae.
Colonel Calderon smirked, before raising his own voice so he could be heard by the Jedi that was looking over his course. "Miss Kitra, do we have the pleasure of seeing you run the gauntlet this fine morning?"
Then Jerit showed up, another young padawan with the silvers that Valkren knew quite well. Young, eager, always ready for action. In truth, Jerit reminded Valkren more of a enlisted soldier than a padawan. "Jerit, it's good to see you kid. No, unfortunately none of my men have been smart or tough enough to finish it off..Shame. Care to join the next wave? Just grab a blaster of your choice."
Who he saw arrive next was a pleasant surprise to the colonel, he did not know the man, but he knew members of the Iron Empire would show up to help test the course. "A member of the Iron Empire, I assume. Colonel Valkren Calderon, honor to meet you sir." Having IE members work along side the Jedi and the rangers within the course would only help the bond between all combatants even more.
Next were two men he was expecting to show up, two clone-war era clones. It was like a flashback to officer training school, before he got kicked out. The Katarn armor and the clone commander brought back memories of classes studying age-old battles and operations preformed by clone commando and infantry units. They embodied what Valkren was about, through how he fought and how he led.
"Marl, 212. Good to see you both, pick up some weaponry from what you see and prepare yourselves..You'll need it." Usually he'd expect new soldiers to stand at attention at first sight of their commanding officer, but both of them were new recruits, and from different times. He'd let this one slip by, simply because he wished to see what exactly they could do with this combat simulation. He'd find a reason to chew their asses out at a later date. He turned to see another new face in the rangers appear.
"Forsberg!" Valkren raised his voice to the Valkyri that was admiring one of the rotary cannons. "Now I love a rotary cannon as much as the next pipehitter' in the room, but save the brandishing of weapons for training simulation." Once again, he almost expected her to stand at attention when Sigrid entered the room. However Sigrid, like the clones, was from a different place, and he was pretty positive she didn't even know who he was. So he'd cut her some slack. Valkren couldn't remember how many times he had been scolded for ignoring the presence of a superior, it sucked.
Finally, another familiar jedi arrived. "Cambria, good to see you again. If you'd like to join the lot you can grab a blaster and jump in with these folks. If not, you can join Valae and myself on the observation deck..That's where we make all the fun happen." The young colonel grinned at this statement, looking back to those that were about to make their own attempt at the gauntlet. With this, Valkren turned and began to make his way up the stairs to the observation deck, before turning and raising his voice to the group.
"I'll broadcast the orders to ya'll come starting time. Once you're all armed, step through the double doors ahead and stand in the yellow box of the starting area and wait for the countdown. Pick your equipment wisely now, ladies and gents; however there is no medical equipment, so when you're hit twice with enemy rounds your armor will lock, and you will turn into a casualty! Besides the equipment you see, you can grab two thermal detonators each.." After this the colonel disappeared to where he had came from, taking his place along the railings and next to a command console. He accessed the console, his eyes shifting from the screen to the simulation at hand. Combatants clad in black armor began to solidify all across the field of battle, most holding repeating blasters and squad automatic weapons. Two soldiers were projected in each of the four towers, each toting squad automatic weapons of their own. Several dozen much 'weaker' combatants were thrown in the center of the course, used as cannon fodder to be placed in between his own people and the fortress at the end of gauntlet.
The yellow box in which they would start was a good distance away from the first section of cover, forcing the starting group to make a running start just to survive the first thirty seconds underneath a hail of gunfire. The colonel stood back, folding his arms over his chest plate once more, his eyes focused on the starting box, waiting for his own team to step into the gauntlet and prepare to start.
[member="Cambria Zadira"] | [member="Sigrid Forsberg"] | [member="RC 212"] | [member="Marl"] | [member="Krayzen Dratos"] | [member="Jerit Kolomor"] | [member="Valae Kitra"] | [member="Yuroic Xeraic"]