Looking to the next exercise in a week's time, I was to take some of the older equipment and help the other engineers see how functional the detection equipment was. It would be something nice to know. We would also cause some controlled detonations to test the firepower the bombs had. The contest was a day away. Wigfrith finally told them what was going to happen. However, since he was in charge of his platoon, he got to hamper the project. I was briefed on it later in the day. He only allowed 8 soldiers to compete in each event. That meant only 16 soldiers were in the running to win a night with the Mocca units. Since certain soldiers were informed of this early on, all the soldiers that I was in contact with got their names on the list. Berthun and Burglem Naylor were in marksmen competition and Marc Prothello would be in the sparring tourney. I did not believe that they were likely to win. The other soldiers seemed more prepared for an impromptu competition. Other than Berthun and Burglem there was only 2 other Adamu on the list. Bebbe Hildeberg and Matilda were their names.
It was probably not going to be a good set of matches. They would be paired up together and compete directly. Then the winner would go on to face the other victors in the next round. Since there were only 8 people in each competition, that made for 3 rounds each. As it was not in Wigfrith's interest to make it a good showing, it was just first come, first served. Berthun and Burglem were going to be facing each other in the first round. That had to be rough on them. I would be with the other staff officers and could not interfere in any way. I wanted one of the soldiers I had met to win something. It would be nice to say that I could pick winners. However, that was likely not in the cards for me. While nice enough, I did not think they had what it took to defeat the others in the competitions. Okoths were much stronger and while Adamu were established, and therefore well connected and able to get a leg up on others in the society through training, the twins were fresh out of the boot camp and unproven. We all could spot these things and analyze them. Taking longer gave us more data results.
Matilda was apparently an orphan with no surname to speak of that decided to enlist as it was better than being homeless. Bebbe was an older woman that was trying to rise up the ranks but was constantly overlooked for her younger male peers. A win here would look good on her record. Having a comfort session would probably be a good reward in itself as well. Anketil Bonshoms, Gozelin Varley, Matchi Mayoh, Beatriz Hall, Odoline Pasquier and Maria Burcy were Okoths. They were ready for a fight and were all in the sparing competition. That brought it up to 7 people there. Matilda was also going to be sparring. Gowyr Bach, Gwyn Pryde, Mervyn Griff were all Najja guys that were keen on proving themselves. Not that it was only men that wanted to get in on it. Lilan Owens and Esyllt Hovey were female Najja also in the running for a night with one of the units. Rufus Porter was a rare Alkali soldier. They were largely peaceful. He was also going to be in the competition. From looking at all the soldiers in question, I thought that Matchi and Bebbe were the most likely to win in their events.
Now that it was nearly time for lights out, I was going to get into bed and deactivate for the night. 2 Adamu men from a sperate company were smirking and cornering an isolated D-cup bimbo Mocca unit and were trying to get her to follow them to their barracks. She shook her head and said she could not do so. The men were getting more aggressive in their attempts to convince her as time went on. Eventually, she said "I can't go with you right now, but soon we will get the okay to start giving comfort to soldiers that need it." Nicolas already had his instructions to activate me in the morning. From there, we can go on and activate all of the others together. I approached and told them that they had to leave. They looked at me and realized from the rank on my shoulder that I was not one to mess with. They quickly saluted me and left us alone. I looked at her and she blinked. I told her to go and deactivate for the night. She nodded and then went inside the barracks. I looked around to see if they were still lurking. I waited until lights out was called and checked we were all in before deactivating.
