“Azmodius, please see me in my office. I have a job for you.”
“Be there in a minute”, he replied. Kelly had been his Quaestor for several months now and it was rare for her to call him in outside their regularly scheduled meetings.
“Azmodius, I need you to complete a training scenario with a few of our academy recruits. As former Taskmaster, you had the opportunity to see them when they first arrived and I thought it would be best that you give the assessment and run the scenario with them. We’ll be taking fifteen of them for the next batch of force user company while the rest will continue in basic training to be the best cannon fodder they can be.” Azmodius couldn’t help but snicker at her choice of words before nodding in agreement. As he made his way to the plateau he looked through his data pad at a few members Laren had highlighted.
The Aedile met his class atop the plateau the Pinnacle was built into. He recognized a few of their faces as they stood at attention with their helmets at their sides. As he paced back and forth in front of them, he made his selections. “Alright, Team Aurek with me and Team Besh take your positions atop that hill. Everyone set your weapons to stun, this is only a training exercise”, he ordered. The teams took their positions and awaited the signal to commence. A red flare shot through the air signaling that the teams had reached their starting positions. “Alright, once you see the green flare, I want an assessment of the team’s forces. You’ve been selected to fight with me because you’ve shown promise in your other training scenarios. Your performance here will be judged by myself and those who can’t keep up, will serve as a lesson to others. Those who can keep up, will be rewarded with special forces training and move on to bigger and better things, understood?” The team let out a loud “yes sir” as the green flare signaled the start. The troops put on their helmets and two started assessing the enemy’s forces. “The enemy has us outnumbered three to one and they are in possession of a cannon.” one yelled as their barricade was bombarded with stun shells. “Good. Here’s the plan. I want you three sharpshooters hanging back here to provide support. The rest will follow my lead. stay close and behind cover. I can deflect bolts, but I’ll want you all providing suppressive fire.”
Azmodius led the team up the hill with six men on either side. Four on each end took cover behind the small barriers and provide suppressing fire as the Aedile led them further up the hill. They responded well to their leader’s signals, waiting for him to reach the next barrier before moving forward. As they pressed onward, Azmodius took note of the sharpshooters skills. By the time they had reached the halfway point, roughly a quarter of team Besh’s forces were incapacitated. Another five were taken by the advancing team’s fire. Azmodius reached the top with ten of the advancing troops still conscious. The other two were lost when they disobeyed orders and tried to move past the Aedile and secure a closer position. Upon reaching the top, Azmodius engaged the enemy and took out ten of their men before taking a couple shots to his arm and leg. Feeling a little dizzy, he dropped his sabers and took out another five in hand to hand combat while his support fought off others. Finally, with five conscious opponents remaining, Team Aurek was victorious via surrender. Azmodius sent Team Besh off to report to their overseer and had the elite forces remain. He called the two insubordinates forward. They nervously attempted to justify their actions as wanting to impress the Aedile. Azmodius smiled and quickly thrust one clawed finger in each of their eyes. “Let this be a lesson to you all. We force users are not like you. We are Stronger, faster, better. We will kill more men than you can ever dream to in the blink of an eye and if you disobey us we will do the same to you.” Later Kelly asked her Aedile why two men never reported back to which he replied, "They weren't good enough for cannon fodder."