Military Training Facility

[John Hammond]

Hammond's men had not been idle. The men Hammond had left in charge had started making the preparations for rebuilding the Empire. After all, that was the reason they had been preserved for millenia.

Throughout the facility, hundreds of thousands of troopers trained endlessly, drilling until they became deadly machines of war. However... something was missing. Although they performed flawlessly on the training ground, these troopers were nearly useless on the battlefield.

After selecting 20,000 of the best soldiers from the training facility, Hammond's Drill Sargeant, whose orders were to train the military to an acceptable standard, set to work. These would be the first batch of Hammond's new elite corps...

[John Hammond]

After endless hours of training, at last, the core of the Empire's new Elite Core had been formed.

100,000 soldiers. 100,000 Elite Soldiers. Newly trained, brimming with loyalty and enthusiasm, they were ready. They had trained ceaselessly in perfected storming techniques, in overwhelmingly powerful blitzkrieg assaults, or long-term defensive maneouvres. They were ready to fight alone, in a squadron, alongside an AT-AT or as a support group.

The next batch would be faster in coming.

The Empire would rise again.

[John Hammond]

Finally, the Imperial Army had begun to resemble a real army. Although only 200,000 troopers had recieved elite training as of yet (this would soon become standard training, with 100,000 troopers already being handpicked to form a hardened core of true elite warriors), more would soon come. After a long, hard training, officers from Bastion were ready to travel to such huge military training centres as Carida to train what would become the backbone of the Imperial Army.

[John Hammond]

Hammond was alone in the enormous fighting dojo. He was sweating profusely, and his breathing was fast and harsh. It was the middle of the night, but he wasn't able to sleep. Too many nightmares. In front of him, an Imperial "challenge road", which the warriors had to traverse, and offered a series of obstacles.

Hammond finished off an enemy, then ran to the next course. He picked up an assault rifle, took aim, and fired three times, hitting four targets; all head-shots. Still holding the rifle, he moved forward as he became a target for drones, using the cover provided in the training room. He squatted down, took a deep breath, then came back out again, shooting at the drones and trying to avoid being shot. When he came out the other side, his arm was smoking, but apart from that, he was unscathed.

He ran the last mile, and found several blocks waiting for him, in front of a single gauntlet. He nodded, smiling at the thought of the good old days. He took the gauntlet, which was standard stormtrooper armour and stood still. He lifted his arm, and smashed through the first block. The blocks swiveled, and he smashed the second. Then a third. The fourth stopped Hammond's arm cold. He frowned, then raised his arm and tried again. Failure. For the last time, Hammond drew back his arm.
"Argh!" With a shout, he hit the block, and it flew into pieces, destroyed.

A medic ran into the room,
"Commander, are you alright?" He was holding a screening pad in his hands, and was already getting ready to diagnose the Imperial Leader.
Hammond smiled,
"I'm fine." He said, and he patted the medic in the shoulder. Really, these days, medics don't know a thing, he thought. And then everything went black.