• Published 23rd Apr 2013
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That Others May Live - CptBrony



Two USAF Pararescuemen must search through an unknown land to find their charge and make it back home alive.

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The Test

The Test

Duke and Frost had to wake up early the following day, right around 0330. Not just early by normal standards; they were up early by their standards. The sun wasn’t even close to rising over the horizon when they got out of bed and began their day. After some stretches and waking Amel to be translator, they grabbed the gear they would need and set out to the training room.

On the way there, Duke thought about how exactly he would start the training. Odds were that they wouldn’t have much time to actually train the stallions before they were sent out on another mission, so he had to be brief. Having never trained another soldier before, he wasn’t entirely sure what he should do. He knew that he should try to teach them some form of combat first aid, which could take a whole day, especially with the language barrier. Amel could help with that, but things would still be difficult.

The most important skill they would have to teach would be stealth, of course. The last thing they needed on these missions, and in any of their kinds of missions in general, was to be found by the enemy. Given how the stallions had attacked the town, something told Duke that stealth wasn’t their specialty.

He thought about the physical aspect of the training. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to put the stallions through the rigors of physical conditioning, so he would just have to make sure they could meet certain standards at the beginning; standards which, also unfortunately, would have to be adjusted for their equine anatomy.

“Frost,” he began, catching his partner’s attention. “Remember the PAST we had to get through to join Combat Rescue? What was basically our Physical Screening Test?”

“Yeah.” Frost replied tiredly. “Underwater swim, surface swim, running, chin-ups, push-ups, flutter kicks, and sit-ups. You gonna make them do all that?”

Duke considered it, but decided otherwise. “We can’t make them do the swim without a pool, and I don’t think they’ll be going in the water any time soon. So we’ll scratch that.”

He started thinking about how to adjust the run time for the stallions, unsure of how fast the stallions could go and for how long. He had never studied horses before, why would he? He had no idea how capable they were of that. Duke wasn’t sure how they would do flutter kicks either, but given how strange they were compared to normal horses with how they could manipulate their appendages, he figured he could find a way. Same with all of it, really.

“We’ll probably just have to make stuff up as we go.” Duke concluded. “I have a feeling that we’ll be doing that a lot from now on anyhow.” Frost chuckled at his prediction.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, one Pararescueman on either side of the mare who would serve as their translator for the time being. This time, though, as they walked through the halls, they did not receive any strange or hostile looks. The guards would either ignore them or just nod an acknowledgement as they passed. None seemed to acknowledge Amel, though there were no looks being directed her way. They must have been told that she was the translator for them now.

The guards in front of the throne room door stepped aside as the big door swung open to let the men and mare inside. They upped their pace as they entered, the men having to usher a tired Amel to move more quickly, and went straight through the room and into the tunnel behind the throne. At the end of the tunnel, they found themselves in the presence of several horses all wearing what could be mistaken as bathrobes.

They didn’t look up from their work, which was a large group of papers, as the men walked by. “Hey.” Frost said. One looked at him; he clearly wished he was asleep. “How much longer do you think it’ll be until you get that intel translated?”

It took the analyst a moment to figure out what he was being asked. He responded, “Few days.”

Frost nodded. “Alright.”

The group continued on into the hall to the training room. Once they were in the room, Duke looked around at the various pieces of equipment around. He saw a pull-up bar, weight bench, free weights, there was a half-mile track around the perimeter, wires and bridges strung up above them, and parts of the wall that were clearly meant for climbing. On the ground, there were strange markings all over, typically rectangular, and within them, there was a discolored patch of dirt. Duke figured that it was something that might come into play later. There was also a clock, looking out of place in the arena styled training ground.

He took a mental note of everything. “Well, if they have a weight bench, they can do push-ups. I guess I’ll just perform a basic Physical Screening Test to see if they can do it. If not, they get sent home. Not like it matters that much if they all fail.” He and Frost really didn’t need or want a team to work with. They were fine on their own.

Duke decided that he would do ta basic PST first, then, when they had weeded out the ones who couldn’t make the cut, there would be more basic conditioning using the equipment available. The PST would be simple; minimums of six minutes for a mile and a half run, eight pull-ups, forty sit-ups, and fifty push-ups. If too many made it through his adjusted test, Duke would make it a competitive system and select only the best ten who completed the PST. Too many was about fourteen.

While they waited, Frost started to do a run along the track around the perimeter. Duke decided that it would be a good idea to warm up, so he went to the pull-up bar and started doing those. While they did that, Amel just sat in the center of the room watching, her eyes mostly unfocused due to waking up so early. Ultimately, she fell asleep, sitting in the middle of the room.

Frost came off his run and Duke finished doing his pull-ups. Nice and warmed up, they went to the sleeping Amel and sat near her to talk about their plans.

“Alright Frost, we’ll make them do a PST, see who can do it.” He went over the basics of his plan, to which Frost simply nodded in agreement. “After that, we’ll spend today making sure they can keep up and do various different exercises, probably using the equipment we have around. Anyone who gets through today will start the actual training tomorrow or tonight.”

“Or tonight?”

Duke shrugged. “I don’t know, it’ll depend on how long we think we need. We might have to stay up late and get up early.” By their standards, of course.

Frost groaned. “Ugh.” He looked at Amel. “If only we could sleep whenever we needed to.”

Duke chuckled. “Might as well say, ‘If only we were civvies’.”

Frost chuckled as well, still looking at Amel. “It’s adorable, isn’t it?” he said. Duke looked confused. “I mean, it’s like seeing a kitten sleep or something. I honestly can’t even take them seriously. Especially if they all look this way at any point each day.”

Duke looked at Amel, then nodded. “I see exactly what you mean. And maybe we can use their lack of threatening appearance to our advantage.” He could very easily mess with their minds if he didn’t take them seriously. A great aspect of mental toughness and psychological training. “I bet we can even make this fun for us.”

“Heh, yeah. How much do you wanna bet that our trainers enjoyed tormenting us during training?”

The men continued talking until the stallions finally showed up at five before the hour. As soon as they were in, the men woke Amel and walked over to them and looked them over. They were all seemingly in good shape; they would have to be in order to be elite. Their discipline mostly seemed proper, though there were some wandering eyes. Some laid on Amel, some on Frost and Duke. It was only fair to cut them a tiny bit of slack of course; they were trading in their old commander for two temporary ones, after whom, they had no idea who would command them.

Duke shouted, “Attention!” The stallions didn’t know the word, but they clearly understood the gist of what it meant. All eyes went straight forward and all posture became rigid like a statue. Duke tapped Amel on the shoulder. “I’ll need you to translate.”

“Okay.”

Duke cleared his throat. “We’ll be starting you off with a physical screening test.” Amel translated each sentence before he began his next one. Her english was improving. “You will have to do a mile and a half run in six minutes or less... eight pull-ups on the bar... forty sit-ups... and fifty push-ups.” He let Amel take her time. “You’ll start with the run.” He let Amel translate, then shouted, “GO!!”

The stallions turned in unison and started sprinting down the track. Frost was keeping an eye on the clock while they stampeded like it was the Running of the Bulls, their hooves resounding through the arena room like thunder. There were several stallions who were distinctly better, already far ahead of the group and maintaining it very well. Amel seemed entranced by the running warriors.

Before Duke knew it, they were completing the mile and a half. “Time!” he yelled several times to Frost, who noted each one. In the order they completed the run, the stallions who finished filed on over to Frost and stated their name without being told so Frost could record it. That was good; they had the ability to figure out what to do.

Over the next half minute, the rest of them finished up, the last boasting a relatively unimpressive five minutes and forty seconds. But they all made it.

“Dammit.” Duke said. He should have reduced the time allotted. No matter. “Alright. Time for the next part.” Amel translated, and Duke walked over to the pull-up bar, followed by a large group of stallions. “Frost,” he said as he took a place on one side of the setup. Amel took the other. “Say the names in the order in which they finished.”

Frost began calling out names, and the stallions lined up accordingly. The first began his pull-ups; it actually surprised Duke when he only managed nine. He watched in silence as the rest of them filed in to do the next requirement A good ten of the thirty-five candidates dropped out on this one.

“Shameful.” Frost said casually. “Just shameful.”

They continued on over to a plain area where there was probably a sparring ring to do the pushups and situps. “Pushups.” Duke ordered. “Stop and drop!” The stallions only did so after Amel translated for the man. There was a large amount of grunting coming from the group, and most seemed to be struggling with the exercise. Frost looked at the clock.

“Thirty seconds!” Oh... Duke forgot to mention a time limit. Oh well.

The stallions seemed to realize what was going on, and some of them really started cranking out the pushups. Duke was sure to take a note of who sacrificed quality for quantity, one of the many being the number three stallion in the group.

“Time!”

“Stop!” Duke shouted, rushing forward in an effort to disturb them. They all fell to the floor, sweaty and exhausted. “Alright, Amel.” She ran forward. “Do you think any of them will lie?”

“No, sir. They value honor.”

“Very well. Take their numbers and give them to Frost.” Amel nodded and went over to the stallions to get the numbers.

While she did that, Duke walked over to Frost, who was chuckling about the apparent massive effort it was taking the stallions to do any of what was required of them. “Well, Frost. What are you thinking?”

He shook his head. “No idea boss. I know that this doesn’t define their ability to be special operators, but still. It’s funny to see all of them struggle with this.”

Duke nodded and looked back to the group. The stallions all lined up to give Amel their counts, but there was something odd about them. “Yo, Frost.” Frost looked curiously at his partner. “You see anything odd about them?” Frost looked in the direction of the group. “I can’t quite place it...”

Frost almost started to laugh. “They’re puffing out their chests when they walk up to her.” He snickered. “Watch. They’ll each correct their posture just before talking to her, and they’ll be all assertive.”

Duke watched, and sure enough, that was exactly what was happening. He couldn’t help but be intrigued about the behavior, and wonder as to why it was happening. Before, they would have turned a blind eye to her being mugged in the streets, but now they were all trying to be presentable. It was actually more than Duke or Frost had done in her presence. Even though they rescued her twice, Duke couldn’t help but feel like a dick when he saw other dicks being polite.

“You’re right.” he said. “I wonder why...”

Frost looked at his partner like really? and shook his head again. “Boss, how do you not see it?” Duke looked to him. “They all want her to like them because SHE just became all important and stuff. She’s the assistant to the humans who will be their commanders, so now, she has a special place. She just became a connection to us to them today, so they all want to connect themselves to us in some way.”

Duke looked back to the group. “I bet they want to connect to her in some way, too. You see the blush on that one?”

“I do, and I bet it’s not the only part of him with more blood in it than usual.”

Duke chuckled; he remembered his first crush pretty well, though it was probably different here. “How about his puffed up chest?”

“Mmm hmm. I bet that not all of that is his chest, though.”

“How much do you wanna bet that they’re rigid as statues when they talk to her?” By now, Amel was done with a little more than half of the stallions, the rest of whom were sitting off to the side to catch their breath.

“I bet their bones are like stone right now; they’re probably the only reason their legs haven’t given out trying to support them. Extra help and all.” Frost stated simply. “Though they should watch out, or there might be a chisel getting hammered into that stone. After all, their intended audience clearly isn’t interested in their artworks.” Amel was rolling her eyes as some of the stallions passed.

“Well, let’s hope that their dams hold up and they can restrain themselves.”

Frost chuckled as Duke began to head back to the group. “If their dams beak, I hope that the overflow happens in another room.” Duke smiled and shook his head as he left Frost at the clock.

Duke approached the exhausted group with a fast stride, and headed straight for Amel. “Amel, what were the lowest numbers?” he asked. If there were any lower than fifty, they were out.

“The lowest counts were thirty-nine, forty-one, forty-nine, forty-two, forty-five, and forty-seven.” Duke asked her who those six stallions were. “Right over there, sir.” Amel said.

Duke pointed at each of the six and told them, “You failed; it’s time to go.” When Amel translated, they all looked like they had been slapped across the face, but complied and left the room. That left nineteen, so there had to be at least four more dropouts in order to avoid a competitive system.

Duke dropped onto his back in front of the stallions to attract their attention. “Situps.” he ordered, demonstrating the exercise for them. Some looked horrified about the next test. “Ready, set...” Duke looked to Amel and Frost, both of whom nodded their preparation. “Start!”

The stallions flipped over and started doing their situps. It was clear from the very beginning that these guys were not used to doing this particular work; they all looked like fish out of water. There were a few who had the hang of it, but some of the others were downright embarrassing to watch. They would curl up like beetles every time, their legs even going inward like one. Others hopelessly flailed about on the ground, trying to stay on their backs. Frost openly laughed at the spectacle from his spot next to the clock.

“Time!” Frost shouted, bringing his laughter under control. The stallions all stopped what they were doing and let themselves fall to the floor, exhausted. They allowed themselves to sprawl out across the floor, like cats on their owners’ beds.

Duke looked to Amel, who replied to it with, “I will get them.” Duke nodded, but instead of just waiting, he decided to go stand next to her while she took numbers. He wouldn’t be surprised if some of them lied about this test, so he wanted to discourage them from doing so.

The ones who had clearly been the strongest contenders went up first. The highest number was forty-nine, pretty good, considering. A total of six were able to make the requirement; a few came pretty close, and the rest failed pretty badly. All but the six, and ultimately he decided the other three who almost made it, were dismissed. Duke couldn’t help but wonder if they would go back to Nedal. Or if he would even take them.

Duke was joined by Frost once the others stallions all left, and the two men looked over their new, smaller group with feigned indifference. The stallions all got back into a line, trying their best to stare straight ahead, awaiting orders. They all looked pretty tired, and smelled truly awful.

“Alright.” Duke shouted. “Now that the beginning is over, we’ll move onto the physical conditioning stage.”

When Amel translated, some of the stallions let out an audible groan, drawing a chuckle from Frost and Amel. Duke smiled; he could make this pretty fun if he tried. And dammit, if he wasn’t going to try.

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