Sweeping duty (O'Rourke, Vy)

Brody was uncharacteristically uncertain about this exercise... after Dunham had been admitted to the clinic, Brody had spent the entire day afterwards with the recruit's doctor reworking the already-demanding training schedule he'd been given at the beginning of this assignment. With Dunham's lung capacity reduced as much as it was, the doctor had waived him from further water training, at least until he'd graduated and received treatment; with the wonders of Capitol medical advancements, there was promise he'd be returned back to his former glory. It still meant having to deal with the psychological effects of water on Dunham's mind, but Brody knew better than to admit to an Academy doctor that his patient had had a flashback and tried to kill him.

Today's exercise was normally reserved for very senior students that were only days away from their final exam; however it was less physically demanding than some of the less-senior exercises, and Dunham needed time to recover. Letting him lay in bed at medical would delay his graduation further than it had to, and Brody figured it best to ease him back into training to get to the Capitol hospital as quickly as possible.

They were going to work smarter, not harder.

Brody had arrived hours ago, walking through the grounds they were going to be using today; they had seemed much more ominous when he'd been a recruit. In retrospect, they weren't all that complicated or intimidating. Dunham showed up 15 minutes early, as Brody was training him to do ("In the military, 'on time' is 15 minutes early."), in uniform of the day and looking as pressed and spit-shined as he was expected. His face said he felt like hell, but with any luck that might change today.

"At ease."

He'd put out an offer to the other instructors to send recruits to join him on this particular excursion, since moving tactically often times required numbers. Very rarely did Peacekeepers go anywhere without at least a battle buddy; when raiding a building, fire teams and squads were commonplace. Only a few of them had taken him up on it; a female recruit was double-timing it towards them. She was the first one to have gotten the memo, evidently.

"Cadet Pryce, reporting for duty." Brody doesn't like the humor in her tone, but then again most recruits tended to look forward to this particular evolution. It would fly, but only once. Dunham would probably clue her in quickly, if that wasn't the case, that Brody had no tolerance for recruits that tried to get overly friendly with him.

"Stand by with Dunham. We're waiting on a few more."

Brody also didn't tolerate tardiness, but this was a case of it being due to the instructors, since the recruits would have no idea where to go or when to be there without being explicitly told. Sure enough, a few minutes later 2 recruits, a male and female, were double-timing it towards them. They were late.

"Cadet Yeltsin! Reporting for duty sir!" "Cadet Micah, reporting for duty sir!"

He rolled his eyes at their out-of-breath announcements. No use taking it out on them though; recruits were told what to do, when to do it and how to do it all day, every day, for months in a row. They weren't given any opportunity to take the initiative themselves.

"Fall in for your training brief."

Yeltsin and Micah fell into a small formation behind Pryce and Dunham; Brody called them loudly to attention, putting them then at parade rest. He normally took a serious but less-harsh tone when it was just him and Dunham, but the other 3 didn't know him or have him as their instructor; the stern, loud voice of a drill instructor turned back on, just like flipping a switch. Not singling Dunham out for special treatment would both make him connect more with his team, and minimize any attention being drawn to his medical condition.

"Today's exercise is going to be tactical movements and clearing buildings. I am Corporal O'Rourke, your instructor. As with all instructors, you will address me as 'sir'; all of you are far along enough in your training that I expect you know the consequences if you don't. Any questions?"

Well, this was off to a great goddamn start. Brody made a mental note to keep an eye on Cadet Pryce; rolling her eyes at him was bad enough, staring him straight in the face while she was being called on it was infuriating. While he didn't actually know the reasons why these 3 recruits had been sent to him for this training, it was becoming apparent that the lot of them each had something that was going to need kicking back into shape. Dunham with his chest, Yeltsin with speaking out of turn, Micah apparently having very little spine, and Pryce... with that attitude, it was a wonder she'd gotten this far through the Academy.

Brody ordered the recruits into the transport that would take them to the area that they'd be conducting the training; Dunham got in last, sharing a brief look. They hadn't really spoken since Brody had taken Dunham back to his barracks after being in the clinic, but the recruit knew why his instructor had been absent all of the previous day. To Dunham, that look could mean any number of things. To Brody, it was a reminder that he was still looking out for him. He was confident that the reworked plan he and the doctor had devised would work, but if Dunham started to have another episode, he'd shut the exercise down in a heartbeat. The doctor had assured him that the instructors he'd be partnered with in the training evolutions would know what to do... whatever that meant.

The ride to the arena --which, now, was really just a satellite of the Academy-- wasn't too far away; Brody didn't make much conversation with the transport driver, a female Sergeant that Brody had briefly met in training to become an instructor. She was tiny, barely clearing 5 feet in height, but made it clear from the get-go that she had no time for nonsense; in a strange way, she reminded Brody of his own mother. As they pulled up on the broken street, the rear doors popped open and the recruits quickly filed out back into a formation outside the transport. Brody and the Sergeant leisurely joined them; the Sergeant moved around the back of the truck to retrieve the heavily-used training gear for this specific exercise, leaving him to address the recruits.

"This is where we're going to be conducting your training. Sergeant Flint is going to be joining us as an instructor; you will, of course, address her as ma'am and show her the same respect you show your own instructors." He looked pointedly at Pryce and Yeltsin. "The first thing we're going to be covering are buddy rescue techniques."

Flint came back around the side, wearing her armor and helmet with the visor flipped up. Brody deferred instruction to her, taking his turn to don his armor. Capitol technology made body armor much lighter, more flexible and more effective than the body armor of yesteryear, but it still added noticeable weight when it was on. Brody only weighed in at around 160 by himself, throwing on a helmet and vest brought him nearly to 180. Between himself, Flint and the recruits, they all varied in size enough that there really wasn't a tidy way to pair them off into similar sizes. He overheard Flint explaining the superfluous stuff; why it was important to be able to carry your buddy out of danger, being physically and mentally fit to do so, etc. She sounded bored, which could only mean she couldn't give half a shit about this part of the instruction; there was always some stupid blurb they had to feed the recruits, just in case they were actually too stupid to understand why they shouldn't leave their wounded comrade behind.

"Corporal, may I borrow you for a demonstration?"

"Certainly."

He walked back around the transport to join the Sergeant, who moved to stand behind him; this was going to be fun.

"The first rescue carry you're going to learn is the seated drag. Corporal?"

Brody couldn't help himself but smirk a bit as he pretended to faint, falling backwards into the Sergeant's grip; good god, this woman was monstrously strong. He was a full foot taller, but she easily supported his weight and laid him on the ground like a casualty. Hopefully Dunham didn't freak out thinking he was actually unconscious.

"In an ideal situation, you would keep a casualty still and administer first aid until professional medical help arrives. These are designed to save your buddy's life when there are no other options. In the seated drag, you need to turn the victim onto their back; cross their arms over their chest, and work your arms under theirs." Flint instructed, demonstrating on Brody while he kept appropriately limp like an unconscious casualty. "Grip the casualty's arms to keep them crossed, and lift. Like so."

Flint hoisted Brody up, pulling him off the ground up to about his calves, dragging him back several paces to demonstrate.

"Thank you, Corporal."

Brody opened his eyes, getting his feet back under him and standing up. "We're going to be pairing you off for the rescue carries. This is a very physical training evolution; if I see anyone trying to cop a feel on their partner, I will roll you back to day one of this Academy, do I make myself clear?"

The chorus of 'yes sir's confirmed they heard. Flint looked at the lot of them, thinking about pairings.

"Dunham and Micah. Pryce and O'Rourke. Yeltsin, you're with me. Fall out to be fitted for armor and helmets at the back of the transport."

Brody looked at Micah; he was smaller than Dunham, and hopefully wouldn't be too much of a burden when he had to be the rescuer for the drag. Out of the corner of his eye, Brody's own partner looked far less than thrilled about the arrangements; if he'd asked, the Sergeant would probably mix them up, but this seemed like a good opportunity to train some self-discipline into this recruit.