Imperial Recruitment Office

[Alex_xr]

A grand building used to recruit Bastion's young into the Empire.

[Garren Farlis]

When Garren entered the recruitment office every pair of eyes present turned to look at him. It made him hesitate only for a second before continuing towards the reception's desk. He noted that for the most part everyone went back to their business but he also overheard several whispered remarks. They were talking about his green skin, 'funny tattoos', and how a Mirialan shouldn't be allowed in here. Even though most of the Empire was now tolerant of aliens there was still some racism, which Garren knew was everywhere, even among the Republic.

Once he reached the desk he smiled awkwardly at the receptionist. "I'd, uh, well see..." He was at a loss for words. This was the greatest moment of his life and he was about to throw it all away! He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them. He once again smiled but this time with more confidence. "I'd like to sign up for the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps."

[Alex_xr]

The Receptionist looked with disgust at the alien but said as politely as she could. " I bet you would, Fill out this form and then we'll see" she forcefully handed a a form for him to fill out asking for his name and desired position. " The lobby continued to stare at him. The place was filled with silence and stares. Not only had the alien nerve enough to try to join. He was here on Bastion.

[Garren Farlis]

His smile faltered just a bit as he saw the look in the receptionist's eyes and noted that while her tone of voice was friendly it was also strained. He took the papers, still smiling, and grabbed a pen from the desk. He found an empty seat next to another would be recruit and started to fill out the paperwork. Halfway through he turned to the other recruit and spoke under his breath. "Quite a bit of paperwork, huh?" The other person stared at him blankly and Garren decided it was best to just keep his mouth shut unless spoken to.

After getting through all the legal nonsense he got to the main part of the form; name and desired postion. Name was easy enough: Garren Farlis. The hard part was thinking about what he wanted to do. He knew he wanted to be a Stormtrooper but he'd never thought about what he wanted to do within the Corps. Did he want to be a field medic, sniper, or demolitions? As he mulled it over he realized he wanted to eventually lead his own squad. He put down squad leader in the blank then stood up and headed back towards the receptionist.

Garren sat the papers and pen on the desk and smiled brightly despite the atmosphere in the room. "Here you are ma'am."

[Alex_xr]

The woman snatches the papers out of his hand and hastily goes through them. Her thoughts are along the line of " darn he didn't mess up. guess I will have to pass him up" She tried really hard to keep a smile as she stamped the papers with several loud thuds and practically threw them back at Garren. " Go down the hall and to the left. There will be several computers. Pick one and begin the test when your down an attendant will be there to assist you. " The test was a mix of questions and virtual simulation of combat. trying to get a feel for each and every new recruit. " Well whats the hold up I said Go! " She said going back to her paperwork. Good riddens with that one.

[Garren Farlis]

Garren was glad to leave that particular area of the recruitment office and quickly made his way out of the room. He soon found himself in the room the receptionist had told him to go to and was in awe at the line of computers set up. A droid quietly showed him to his terminal and told him to begin whenever he was ready. This was it! After these questions and the VR simulation he'd finally be able to join the ranks of the Imperial Army. With his hand shaking he pushed the middle of the screen and a form appeared for him to fill out.

Name: Garren Farlis

Age: 19

Sex: Male

Species: Mirialan

Homeworld: Serenno

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Dark Brown

Height: 5'10"

Weight: 167 lbs

Desired Position & Branch: Squad Leader, Imperial Army

After putting in that information he pressed enter and a set of questions appeared.

What made you want to join the Imperial Army: I want to help protect the ones I love. Even though the current state of the galaxy may be a peaceful one there must always been those willing to sacrifice their own lives for the greater good.

How well do you work in a stressful environment: I worked as a waiter for a year in Saffia at a relatively large restaurant before saving up enough money to come to Bastion. During that time there were several stressful moments which I admit to not handling well. As time went on I became more confident in my abilities and social skills and was able to handle most stressful situations without much problem.

What makes you think you'd be a good leader: As a waiter I had to deal with a variety of different people and attitudes. With those skills I think I would be able to successfully deal with any people placed under me. I admit to never having had an actual leadership position before.

Do you know how to properly clean and handle a weapon: No

Do you know how to properly apply a bacta patch to a wound: Yes

You and your squad are under heavy fire and have been told to hold your position until reinforcements arrive in two hours. Two members of your squad are badly wounded and will not survive another hour without proper medical treatment. What are your orders: I would order our medic to treat the wounded as best as possible. Once that was done I'd handpick the four best soldiers from my squad to get the two wounded away from our current position while the rest of us provided cover fire. I'd then contact command and tell them I had two wounded who needed EVAC ASAP. After that we'd continue to hold the position as ordered.

That was the last of the questions and as he pressed enter the screen went black. Before he knew it the droid was standing next to him. "Please follow me, sir." Garren did as he was requested and followed the droid out of the room and down several hallways. They finally arrived in a dark room and the droid motioned him to sit down, once again Garren did as he was instructed and the droid left the room.

Several minutes passed before a human female wearing a nurses outfit came into the room holding a syringe with some type of medicine in it. "Arm please." Garren looked at her skeptically and offered an awkward smile. "What's this for?" She smiled back but it was devoid of all emotion. "It'll help calm your nerves and allow your brain to more easily believe that what's happening in the simulation is real." He offered the nurse his arm and turned his head away as she stuck the needle into his arm and injected him with the medicine. "Please undress and sit back down."

"Well, THIS isn't what I expected." He mumbled to himself as he stood up and undressed to just his underwear and sat back down. The nurse then used several restraints attached to the chair to hold Garren in place. As she disappeared from his view he started to ask what this was about when he heard a loud screeching sound. He looked up and realized that something was descending down upon him and soon he was inside of what he imagined looked like a cockpit. He couldn't see anything inside though as it was pitch black, he also couldn't feel around due to his arms being restrained.

Just as he was starting to get worried the nurse's voice boomed all around him, "Mr. Farlis please relax. The simulation will begin shortly." Garren did as he was requested and closed his eyes, as he sat there breathing in and out through his nose he heard a hissing sound and smelt something odd. Before he knew it he was losing consciousness and was lost to the world.

Someone was screaming, the world was shacking violently around him, he felt like he was about to throw up, and he was having a hard time breathing. That's when he felt a jolt of pain rise in the back of his head and he opened his eyes. He turned around and saw a man wearing Stormtrooper armor behind him with the butt of his rifle ready to smash into the back of his head again. "Looks like he's awake now Sarge." Garren turned to face who the Stormtrooper was referring to and saw another identical white-clad armored figure standing in front of him. A loud voice boomed in both his years. "TK-529 get your head out of your ass and get the hell off my ship!"He turned to his left and saw the ground beneath them passing by at a rapid pace. "TK-529 move your sorry ass now!" They wanted him to jump? "But the ship's going to fast!" He felt another sharp pain in his back and before he knew it he was stumbling towards the exit. He quickly outstretched his arms to prevent himself from falling out of the ship and turned to look back at the person known as Sarge, who's voice was now booming in his ears again. "Did you forget everything you learned in basic you miserable piece of trash?!? Tuck and role goddamn it! NOW GET OFF MY KRIFFING SHIP!" Garren wasn't sure what spurred him to jump, the threat of being pushed out by force or that Sarge might kill him here and now.

It was a short trip to the ground and once he hit his entire body ached with pain as he bounced along the sand. As he was tumbling along the ground it finally dawned on him that he too was wearing armor and that it was absorbing the majority of the punishment. At some point his helmet eventually came loose and he was able not only to see a lot better but also breathe. When he eventually came to a stop he lay in the sand starring up at the blazing sun and realized he was probably going to die here. After rolling onto his hands and knees, throwing up, and managing to push past the pain he was finally able to stand up. He glanced around him and decided the first thing he needed to do was find his helmet.

Garren had eventually given up looking and resigned himself to the fact that he was going to die. He sat atop a dune and stared off into the vast desert and his mind started to wander. How had he ended up here? The last thing he remembered was-

"Hey 529, what the hell are you doing?"

He turned around to see two Stormtroopers approaching him. One was carrying his helmet and the other held a blaster rifle. The one who'd called out to him tossed him the helmet and Garren reluctantly put it on. Everything became a lot darker and once again it was hard to breath, the only bonus was he could clearly hear the other two Stormtroopers.

"Damn man, you know how long we've been looking for you?" Garren shook his head dumbfounded as he stared between the two. That's when the other one threw his rifle towards him and spoke up, "I always knew you were a screw up but losing your rifle? That thing's your lifeblood, might as well just run screaming into the enemies ranks without it." He caught the weapon and stared at it too, he looked up at the both of them and started to speak, "I don't rem-"

He was caught off midsentence by an all too familiar voice, "TK-231 did you and 107 find 529?"

"Yes sir, looks like he hit his head on the way down but otherwise he's in good condition."

"Can he still fire that rifle?"

"Fingers are intact, sir."

"Then get your asses back here ASAP, they're about to make their move."

"Affirmative."

Without so much as a word the two Stormtroopers started walking away from him and Garren reluctantly followed.

Somewhere along the line as they were marching towards their objective Garren closed his eyes, trying to figure out what was going on. A loud explosion not too far off forced him open his eyes and when he did he was in a trench. He didn't have time to try and figure out how he got here because blaster bolts were flying all around him and explosions were going off in every direction. As he surveyed the area around him he saw several Stormtroopers dead or dying near him, those who were still alive were popping their heads out of cover every now and then to take pot shots at whoever was firing at them.

When he wondered why his hands weren't shaking, like the rest of his body, he realized he was holding his rifle with a death grip. That's when the Sarge's voice boomed once again in his ears, "529, pop your ass out of cover and return fire!" He glanced around to see where Sarge was but he couldn't distinguished one Stormtrooper from another. He looked down at his rifle then up at the blaster bolts soaring over head and started to cry. He couldn't do this. He didn't want to die.

"TK-529 pull yourself together! Is this how you want to be remember? As a sniveling little rat who died without even taking one shot!?! Pull the goddamned trigger!"

Garren moved without thinking popped up out of the trench, he squeezed down on the trigger and the recoil from the rifle sent him stumbling backwards. He fell back against the trench's back wall and slid down as blaster bolts narrowly missed where he'd been seconds before. His heart was beating faster now and the adrenalin was pumping into his body, what fear had been there slowly disappeared and was replaced by his will to live. He started to pop out of cover more frequently and take shots, getting use to the recoil of his rifle with every squeeze of the trigger.

Garren opened his eyes and stared up at the dimmed lights in the VR room. He checked to see if his arms were free and sighed with relief when he found out they were. He rubbed his face then checked his body for any bruises, surprisingly there were none. Everything had felt so real. He didn't have long to linger on it though as he heard the nurse speak from his left side. "Please remain seated. Someone will be with you shortly to evaluate you on your test scores and possibly send you through another simulation." He watched the nurse leave and closed his eyes, if that's what real combat was like he was starting to have some doubts about all this.

[Alex_xr]

The recruiter looked over the man's information. An Alien had beat most averages and the higher averages set in place for alliens. Thats right he thought aliens were given tougher margins to pass. He was shocked not many did this good. Not many aliens did this good. He then thought about what he should do. The higher ups would be furious if he gave him the rank he should get... He stamped Sirpar on the application and gathered it up and went into the room.

The recruiter was an average man. His hair slicked back slightly balding . The uniform of an Empire Army paper pusher on. He walked to the alien and spoke.
" Well I have looked through your results and they were shameful. Still you passed barely... I give it to the fact you lived through the VR unlike half the nitwits that come through that door. "

He paused and than tried to hold back to urge to break into slander.

" Your in if your still interested. You get to go train in Sirpar. "

The recruiter knew that anyone who was in empire space and paid attention had heard the rumors about Sirpar. It was a horrible place to train. The perfect place to show this alien what he deserved for applying.
"Then based on your performance, you will be moved on from there. "

"Any questions? If not than report to hanger 112 you will depart right away hope everything is tied up. "