SWRC: Tales of the Clone Wars (Book 2.5)

Chapter 11 Animal Squad.

Tye was pretty sure he preferred it more when Kamino hadn't been so busy. When they had gone through and finished training almost five years prior, Tye could remember that it hadn't nearly been as busy or as loud as it presently was.

As he stood beside Neeran and the two bounty hunters he remembered from when he was training but had never actually bothered to remember their names, Tye felt that something about watching the coming training sessions with the newest batches of troopers was going to affect Orange Company 49.

Of the six teams to go through, Tye knew that only five of them passed the level of skill required to become members of the Grand Army of the Republic. The sixth however, reminded Tye of how the famed Domino Squad had started out.
"See," said the more aggressive of the two bounty hunters. "They aren't gonna pass the test. Just fail them now and stop wasting everyone's time."

Tye felt the anger rise in him as he recognised that the troops below were not much different from his own company. But Neeran stopped him from doing anything stupid.

"Only time will tell," said Neeran. "You said the same things about Domino Squad, am I right? And look where they went."
That had shut the man up and Tye turned and left the room wanting to speak to the broken down squad of troopers who were leaving the failed simulation.

After searching for them briefly, Tye finally came upon the broken down squad known as Animal Squad.

"If you hadn't run off like a maniac on your own Finch, we would have made it!" yelled one.
"Well I'm sorry Turf," replied Finch in a taunting voice. "That I was the only one of you idiots who noticed the goddamn sentry on the wall!"
"Hey, let's not forget Paws and Rat," said another. "You guys wasted like half a clip each on the same damn droid!"
"And you got hit in the face by a Super Battle droid Tramp," retorted the one named Paws.
"And you were the first to go down," added Rat.

"Having trouble with your training?" asked Tye to the arguing squad.
The entire squad jumped and whirled around to face the Captain that had approached them.

"Ahh, no sir," replied Turf. "No-No trouble at all."
"Don't bother lying to me kid," said Tye as he approached them. "I saw you all today from the Nest."
"You were in the Nest?" asked Finch. "How? Only the ARC troopers on graduation day are allowed in there."
"I would be an exception," said Tye. "While I am an ARC trooper, I'm also the Captain of a company stationed here at the moment."

"You mean, you're the leader of one of the companies that we could be accepted into?" asked Tramp.
"I would have been several years ago but there's already 144 in my company and I'm apparently not allowed to take in anymore."
Dejected looks appeared on the squads faces and Tye added, "Doesn't mean I'm not gonna try."

"Well it's not like we'd be accepted anyway," said Paws. "The way things are going at the moment, we may not even pass the final test."
"And who's fault would that be?" asked Turf, preparing to instigate another argument.

"The problem was," said Tye before the petty argument started. "You weren't fighting the droids."
"What do you mean?" asked Rat. "They were shooting at us and we shot back at them. That's usually how fighting works."
"I meant," said Tye. "While you were fighting the droids, you were also fighting each other."

None of the squad could deny what Tye had said. Almost none of them had really been working on as a team and it was obvious to Tye that was where their weakness lay.

"You were fighting five individual battles against the droids and you were all losing," explained Tye further. "But if you had looked past yourselves and your own problems and insecurities, you would have seen friends in need of help and you all could have worked together as a team."