First Night Post NGE

“Good evening Lieutenant Lightcloud”, the Imperial officer started. “I’ve called you in tonight to discuss some changes we have in store for you”.
“Wonderful” I though, haven’t they made enough changes in the last few months to keep the higher ups occupied for the next several years?
“First” he went on, “I want you to empty out your back pack and lay it all down on the floor here so that we can decide what you can keep and what we will get rid of”.
“Huh?” I said,
“Empty your pack Lieutenant Lightcloud, that’s an order”.
I opened my pack and proceeded to empty the contents on the floor of his office. He strode from behind his desk, and walked over to the pile. He surveyed the contents, hands behind his back, making a slow circle around the pile, and looking down at the contents like I had just dumped the contents of a recycler on his floor. I mean I had a little bit of everything in my pack. Hides, bones, meat…ok so the meat wasn’t all that fresh, but hey! It was good quality, and I couldn’t see to toss it out.
I had camp kits, camo-kits and traps, some armor, both padded and ubese, a few different weapons, plus a lot of odds and ends I had picked up in my travels. He poked at all my things with the toe of his boot murmuring to himself as he surveyed what I had dumped on his carpet.
“Ok, first, we are going to lighten you up some by getting rid of all the Ranger related items you have here, then were going to go through all the rest and dispose of everything that will not be essential to your new assignment”.
“New assignment?”
“I’ll discuss that after we go through all this stuff,” he stated flatly.
After some time, I was left with pretty much the clothes on my back. I still had all my hide, meat, and weapons, but the colonel strongly suggested I find someone that would take it off my hands, soon, rather then later, as to what he had in mind for me, I would need to start traveling a lot lighter.
“Sir? I don’t know how you expect me to survive and complete my assigned missions, without my camps, camo-kits, and traps”.
“Lieutenant Lightcloud, for what we have in store for you, you wont need those antiquated items anymore. In fact we are going to issue you a whole new arsenal to deal with what you may encounter out on the missions we have in mind. It is for this reason that we went through all your items…you see…the Imperial Army is not longer in need of Rangers as such, but what we do have a need for is persons, such as yourself, that are experienced in the art of cover and concealment. Persons that do know how to utilize traps, just not the ones you were used to, but a whole new line, that can be used against personnel”.
I couldn’t believe what I had just heard! No more Rangers? New traps? What the Kark was going on?
“Lieutenant Lightcloud, what we plan on doing is assigning you to a very secretive and covert class of people in The Imperial Army. You will become one of these. You will be required to assess enemy troop strengths, gather information on sentient beings, go behind enemy lines in advance of other operatives to gather information, set up ambushes, and other duties we think you will be qualified to undertake”
I looked at this officer of the Imperial army as if he had suffered some sort of space decomp sickness. Covert? Secretive missions?
“What you are saying sir, is that I’m to become a spy?” I asked.
“Well I wouldn’t quite call it that”, he grinned, and I prefer to call it a covert operative for the Empire”. “But yes, essentially you will become a spy. I’m giving you this requisition to get the new items you will need for this new path”. He handed me a slip of paper and turned back to his desk.
Settling down in his chair he continued. “I know you will be of even greater assistance to the Empire then you ever were. Don’t worry about this stuff lying on the floor, I will have someone come and dispose of it properly. I want you to go now, and requisition the gear I have listed on the form I just gave you. In the next couple of weeks, you will be contacted and given instructions as to your assignments”.
“That is all I have for you at this time” he said dismissively.
I saluted, turned, and left his office.
Out in the hall I pulled out the requisition he had handed me and read through the list of items I was to pick up. Smoke grenades, poison traps, and high potency med-packs. This I thought was going to be interesting. At least I had a couple of weeks to get familiar with this new equipment before I was to be contacted.
I squared up my much lighter pack and headed off towards the supply wing of the building.
“I wonder where Lotuss is?” I thought as I rounded the first corridor.