Star Wars: The Trooper Caught in the Storm

Part 2: Training

Benly stood in the changing room, waiting for Dan and Saffer to arrive. He was feeling a bit jumpy, each creak, click, bang, or screech caused him to flinch and sink deeper into the shadows cast by the dimly lit light barely illuminating the room.

Lining the walls were lockers, each having a lock securely keeping the contents within, safe. In the center of the room was a long bench that ran across almost the full length of the room. Through a doorway, lay the showers and bathroom area, complete with bathrooms and sinks.

The door creaked open loudly, the sound echoing through the mostly empty room. Benly, tried hard to see who had entered, but everything was too dark to tell. At this point he was kicking himself for not making up a codeword, or even a noise that would tell him whether this was someone he wanted to see, or if it was someone he needed to flee.

Benly tried to calm his heart, which was pounding so loudly in his ears, he feared it would give him away. The same went for his breathing as he tried to listen to any indication that this was Saffer, Dan or both.

"Stop breathing down my neck!" A voice hissed from the shadows near the doorway.

"I'm not, because you are so short that I couldn't even breath on your head!" another voice hissed back.

Benly relaxed as he recognized the voices of Saffer and Dan. "You two are at it already?" he stepped out of the shadows causing both cadets to flinch away. "If you two don't stop right now, I am calling this thing off." Part of him wished they would continue, so he would have a reason to pull out, but the other part of him wanted to help them.

Dan hit Saffer, and Saffer hit him back. Benly rolled his eyes and snapped, "Guys?"

"Sorry Benly," They mumbled in unison, the shadows being thrown across their faces hiding their expressions and thus, their true emotions.

It would help if they could do this in the light of day, or at least turn on the lights, but the risk was too great. Training in the dark wouldn't be too hard for hand-to-hand combat. He had another place in mind for the shooting practice, but it would be much harder to get there.

Setting the two guys up in a beginner's fighting stance might have been the hardest thing Benly had ever done in his life. Dan couldn't for whatever reason balance, his feet trying hard to correct the balance, stomping on Benly's foot many times before he was upright and shaky. Saffer was so focused on doing it better the Dan, that he wasn't focusing on Benly's instructions causing Benly to manual correct Saffer's technique. Close to forty-five minutes later, he had them both standing in stance 1 dreading trying to tackle the other "simple" fighting stances.

He sighed and muttered under his breath, "This better not be every night."

Saffer looked towards Benly and hissed, "What did you say?"

Benly stood straighter and looked towards Saffer. He could lie, but he didn't see the point, "I said, this better not be every night."

Dan got out of the stance that Benly had work forever on getting him into and snapped, "What is that supposed to mean! You think you are better than us, don't you?"

"Yes," He thought but said, "No. I just caught on easier, that doesn't make me better then you. And what I meant was, that you two better not do this-,"

Saffer moved as well and faced him, "-You don't believe that! We can see it in your movements! In the way you carry yourself!" His voice was rising and Benly started hushing them, "You think you're all that! But you are just like the rest of us!"

"Ya!" Dan agreed, "I am sure you are looking down from your mighty seat on us! Well, you know what mister tough guy! We are better than you!"

Their voices were far too loud and Benly looked around nervously, "Ok. You are better than me, fine! I don't care, but please, shut up or you are gonna get us all caught!" he hissed at the shadowed forms that were Saffer and Dan.

Benly never found out who had thrown that punch, but when the fist made contact with his face, he was thrown off balance and slammed into a locker. A loud resounding bang echoing through the room.

"Shoot!" Benly hissed pushing himself away from the cold metal. "Go, go, go!"