“Alright, now listen up. Each flight will be given a two-hundred-meter head start before the next flight starts the course. Stick together, if the flight behind you tags one of you, you and your whole flight get to come back to the beginning and start over. This course is seven thousand meters long, so you should enjoy the exercise. You will jump, crawl, or climb over each obstacle; do not go around them. A cadet sergeant will be at each obstacle to let you know the proper course over it!” Cadet Lt. Colonel Jefferson yelled.
“Your goal is to make it through the course with all of your flight mates. We don’t care how you do it, as long as each and every one of you goes over or through every obstacle. Delta Squadron, Flight One, you’re up!” Cadet Lt. Colonel Jefferson yelled. “Go! Echo Squadron, Flight One, you’re next! . . . Go! Foxtrot Squadron, Flight One, get ready!”
“I know this course,” Catie said. “I’ll lead the way and set us up for each obstacle. I’ll try to think of the best way over the big ones before we get to them. Just follow me. First jump coming up, just crawl over it. There’s a one-meter drop on the other side!”
“How do you know the course?” Plebe Howard asked.
“Don’t ask, but believe me, I know it.”
“Foxtrot Squadron, Flight One, go!”
Catie took off in front. She had run this course in her head so many times when she was designing it on the way back from Artemis that she couldn’t even begin to count them. But she definitely knew every inch.
The first jump was a starter jump, big and showy. The face was usually decorated with flowers during a competition, but today it was just a half meter step up, then another half meter of dirt slope before the top rail. As Catie approached the jump, she pulled her backpack off. It was filled with blocks so it would make a perfect step, she tossed it against the wall of the jump and used it to step up onto the dirt. Then she crawled to the top and hopped back to the ground. “Last one, bring my pack with you,” she shouted as she took off for the next jump. Howard grabbed Catie’s pack before he easily hopped up onto the dirt.
The second jump was a simple log placed at 1.2 meters height. Catie hit it, flipped her legs to the side, and did a barrel roll over it.
“Next jump is two down steps, then a jump. Someone, take position at each step and help the others make it down!” she yelled.
She waited for Howard to show up with her pack before taking off with him to catch up with the lead.
“Is this cheating, you know the course already?” Joanie asked.
“It’s in the library, anyone could have checked it out on their HUD on the march over,” Catie said. “All the jumps are detailed.”
“How do you know?”
“I checked,” Catie said before she sprinted ahead. She negotiated the two steps down with the help of one of her mates at each step, then crawled over the two-step logs as she took the lead again. She was setting a fifteen-minute per mile pace; with the workouts all last week, their slowest runner was holding at twelve for a five-K, so she figured they could handle this pace. She could always slow down if it was too much.
“Next is an uphill jump. Just take it like you did the log!” Catie yelled as she climbed the hill to the jump. After the jump, she paused to look at how they were doing relative to Golf Squadron. To her eye, their flight had increased the distance. “Good, we definitely don’t want to get tagged back to the start.” Catie thought.
Catie took off for the next jump. “This one’s a table. Everyone will need help to get over it. I’ll start. Howard, when you get there, take my place!”
When Catie reached the table, she knelt down on all fours. That allowed the Plebe behind her to step on her back, then step onto the table. She was thankful when Howard showed up to take her place. Being a stepping stool was harder than she had expected.
“Next jump is two corners. Take them at the edge where they’re narrower! Vault them!” Catie demonstrated, hitting the first jump one meter from the corner, flipping her legs over the side and rolling off the back side. She ran a curved line to the second, so it was lined up correctly and did the same thing. Each of her flight mates was able to see the person in front execute the move, so all they had to do was copy.
On the seventh jump, Catie tagged a member of Echo Squadron.
“Echo Squadron, Flight One, you’re too slow, head back to the beginning and try it again!” one of the Cadet NCOs who were posted along the course yelled.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Water coming up!” Catie yelled.
“Don’t get your rifle wet!” the Cadet NCO warned them.
“I think she’s actually telling us something!” Julie yelled.
“Julie, give me your rifle,” Catie ordered. “Walk ahead and show us a clear path.”
Julie handed her rifle to Catie and headed out. She immediately took a dunk as she tripped over an underwater hazard.
“They must have put stuff in the water,” Catie said.
“Obviously,” Julie said as she got back up. She shuffled her feet as she continued across the small pond. “How deep is this thing?”
“One meter at the center,” Catie said.
“Rifles overhead,” Howard yelled. “Catie, give me Julie’s rifle.”
“Something’s here!”
