Callsign: Cat (Ghost X READER/OC)

Ch 2: Let the games begin

It was a surprise to see Hound and Birdie with Kate Laswell, mostly due to the both of them avoiding higher up like they were the plague. Kate had two men with her. It wouldn't take a genius to piece together that they were likely apart of the new boy band Cat just joined, or perhaps she hadn't joined it yet until she met their standards. She could also be wrong and they be randoms here to support a soldier from another branch or fellow soldiers who ere just shipped in. However, she felt like they were here with Kate to watch how well she performs today, which if she performs poorly all of the supposed street-cred, as Birdie would say, would diminish and she would likely embarrass Kate, because no one in their right mind would choose someone who has a reputation for purposefully working poorly with a team. Despite how fun it would be to watch Kate be embarrassed, Kate has saved her ass too many times from being discharged due to her poor anger management. Cat couldn't help but watch Birdie and Hound from where she stood in the quad. The two men that were with Kate appeared to be friendly with them. The one with an odd choice in facial hair seemed the most animated and seemed to talk more than his companion, who was sitting and watching her. He nudged the facial hair guy when he noticed her staring at them.

The competition is supposed to begin soon and her team leader has already started the rehearsed pep-talk that she is supposed to be listening to, however, Cat was too busy observing the other teams. The teams were of the top ten soldiers from each branch on the respective coast, such as the teams here were the top ten soldiers on the west coast, with a minimum of one being female and two alternates. The majority of the challenges they would be facing today came from the Ranger Challenge, without a few courses. Traditionally there was marksmanship, weapons assembly, one-rope bridge, grenade assault course, Army Physical Fitness Test, hand-to-hand combat, and an obstacle course. The only changing variable was the obstacle course. Every couple years they would change some of the challenges as a way to get a variation of soldiers competing. They had an altered competition the previous year so it was doubtful that they would deviate from the traditional courses.

"Hey Cat, I didn't think you would actually join us! You never do things like this, unless you have too? Anyways, they want you as the front-runner for the events today. With you on the team finally, we may be able to take a win from the Army this year!" Her team captain shouted. Cat spared him a glance and it was none other than Stubbs, a man who is large and likes to be in charge.

"What makes you think I won't purposefully throw the events?"

"Because rumor has it that if you are purposefully bad they'll make you do medical rounds, which everyone knows is you hate" he laughed.

Cat was going to make a snide remark when the bell signalling the start of the competition was happening. She shut her mouth and gave her attention to the podium which was where the base commander, Commander Tristan V. Olivera, was waiting. He was waiting for the full attention of every person currently in the quad before he would start, which he would call to attention for the national anthem then he would go over the challenges for today, admitting that the grenade assault course would not be taking place this year due to the poor performance of the course in the previous years. He explained that while the quad was large, the obstacle course and one-rope bridge would take place in the outer fields of the base, with a select few observers. He also explained that the hand-to-hand combat was different, the soldiers would fight until the other team hand no one left to put in for combat. An opponent would be eliminated from knock-out or tap out. Which is why that challenge was last for the day. We were to go complete the two challenges in the outer fields before the challenges in the quad.

Cat let out a sigh once the base commander finished the opening, she was not looking forward to having to go into the fields to due to the obstacle course, which had been determined to be the O course. The O course was short yes, but was designed to be exhausting, and she hated the O Course. She was set to be first for her team, which meant she had to give them a decent head start if she didn't want to be accused of purposefully underperforming. The team leads were instructed where to go with their teams. Cat followed her team lead to the outer fields, dreading these couple of events, not because she couldn't do them, but she has to rely on her team on completing them in a timely manner.