An Empire's War
Copyright© 2012 by James Douglas
Chapter 16
Apprehension gripped Ninian's mind. Here at OTS, he was just another cadet. No rank, no privileges, no title. Six months of being a normal soldier. Now he was leaving for his new unit. IV Imperial, VII Legio, "E" Ct. XXXVII Exercitus Co. "Tigers", and he knew he might have problems. His Primo Centurions were all older than he was, other Nav. also were much older than he was. Would his men take orders from a "kid"? By law, they had to, but would they?
The last six months became a challenge for Ninian. He knew the basics of being a soldier, but being an officer is far beyond that. He had to know tactics on clearing a house, how to use terrain to his best advantage, how to combat stress in the field, and how to develop a team. Classes, field exercises, and constant evaluation from the Instructors continually stressed Ninian out.
The one stress reducer he had were e-mails from Aemila and his family. The e-mails from his family grounded him, kept reminding him why he was here. Aemila's e-mails calmed him. She told him that the Instructors did the same thing at the Imperial Military Academy. They wanted to see how you dealt with stress, if you could not handle it there, you could not handle a battlefield. She joked it should be easy for him; he's already been in combat.
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