"Every Republican regardless of military speciality re-qualifies yearly on standard small arms, a strong army is a qualified army."
Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Every day would start with some kind of cleaning whether it was of Alex's boots or of the floors the First Sarge assigned to be mopped. It was a good motto to abide by, if you followed it you woulden't be some slob nobody. Maybe you could be an above average soldier god forbid you get jacked up for your hospital corners once again. Alex was at her bunk bed in her fatigues working away at her boots, using Pub-Polish (the standard republican boot polish) to shine up her black boots. What use was a polished boot if it didn't have a mirror reflection, of course these boots would be stored for ship use. Little to everyone's knowledge, there was a pair of combat boots for deployments but they have a inch of dust on them. It's been a while.
When the alarm rang, shit hit the deck everyone started to run frantically. If they missed this mother fucking briefing, they might aswell be spaced. Alex was one of the first ones there, albeit in a hurried state. Not everything could be timed perfectly or thought out right, sometimes you just went with what felt right. Leaving her boots back there wasen't a good feeling, nor wearing his secondary pair but it's like riding a bike for the first time. You do it well or you don't do at all, in the briefing the General Major some voice on a screen barked an inspirational speach to them. Probably from his manor on Terra, where he's been since he was a Colonel or something. He wasen't really inspirational, the TV ads had become mind numbing and this just felt like another one.
It would be later when Alex returned to the quarters (or coffins, depends on your view point) when she'd start to take in the other soldiers. Noticing most of them were Republican like them, but also noticing some Fed looking assholes. Elitist in nature, arrogant, colonist looking scum bags. Intiailly she mistook Graves as one of them but realized her mistake, thankfully she didn't say anything and continued to mill about with her equipment and especially her boots. Her uniform was crisp, her hair was within regulation and the only thing that showed on her was the fade on her tunic which was probably someone else's when it was issued. Hopefully the squad SL would be more engaging than that pre-recorded movie she'd just seen.