Icarius; East Outer Perimeter
Marine Corps. Platoon "Zweihänder"
0800 Hours
Training in the Corps. was always a rough experiment; it was called an experiment because the Sergeants liked to try new, cruel and unusual methods to help toughen up their marines. This time, they had their marines run around the track, carrying on their shoulders bamboo shafts with bags full of rocks at each end, all the while holding onto buckets full of water atop their heads. "...and if
any of you dumb bastards decides to get lazy or stupid and drop your bucket,
I will have your ass!" the Gunny had made it clear that he wasn't going to be lenient today.
The bases stationed around Icarius were well-fortified and protected: MAC installations lined the place, the base itself was built to withstand some heavy shit, be it natural disasters or otherwise. The yard in which they trained was a grand expanse of empty land, stretching for miles and miles. The clearing was made desolate by strategic bulldozing, tearing down several hundred miles of forest land for a military training installation.
The boys and girls of the Defense Force hung around the bases as well; mostly to operate the perimeter defenses such as the MACs. They had their own separate training grounds south and west of the base, whereas the marines trained to the north and east. Neither trained so far away from the base that they couldn't skip back to it in a timely manner should things go haywire as they tended to on Republic worlds, but it was far enough to give them sufficient space.
The marines were called in, finally, having completed a good day's worth of experimentation. "Get your ugly asses into the mess.
Move, move, move!" It didn't get any better than this slice of heaven.