START Basic School
Ah, Camp Sunshine. Four of the most enjoyable, magical years a young STARTer will ever experience , a veritable smorgasboard of delights in preparation for a rewarding career of going through the universe and looking for things that can kill you. For those candidates who are not both physical and intellectual masochists, though, it may not be quite so much fun.
Basic School is four years of very, very hard work. It doesn't have the physical intensity of HEL or Recondo training, and it doesn't have the intellectual rigor of medical or graduate school, but it manages to combine challenges in all realms in a way that taxes nearly everyone to their limits. Students are generally expected to be able to absorb a full load of academic classes and manage a punishing schedule of field drills and classes meant to teach them the practical skills they will need to survive as active START troopers, as well as build their physical and mental endurance to the highest possible level. There are very few breaks, and very little mercy- for START troopers seldom encounter either in the field.
For all that, Basic School is not designed to wash people out- in fact, once six weeks or so have passed and START doctors can no longer erase your memory engrams, you're in START one way or the other for life. Class sizes are small, typically around 50 after weeding and never more than 70, so both academic and physical instructors are able to pay close attention to individual candidates and come up with programs to bring each of them to the required level. The training is harsh, but the instructors are mostly supportive- each candidate represents a large investment by the START Corps, and its up to them to see that investment pays off. Once the initial weeding period is over, 99% of Basic School students graduate. They might curse their instructors with every breath, but they make it through.
The Basic School is located on START's unofficial homeworld of Glengarry. Glengarry is sparsely populated and counting all of the outlying physical training areas the school controls an area roughly the size of Connecticut. The main campus takes up the majority of Marshall's Island in Glengarry's Equatorial Sea, and is the site of most academic training as well as basic physical conditioning and weapons training. The various field areas are scattered all over the planet, and provide candidates with chances to a) learn to operate in a variety of different environments and b) play with large weaponry without the chance of blowing anything valuable sky-high. START takes care to maintain a high instructor-student ratio, which isn't that hard to do given the sizable pool of retired troopers on Glengarry who want to keep boredom at bay and supplement their pensions. Teaching stints at Basic School are also common jobs for troopers who are either on extended medical leave or have been granted maternity/paternity leave to begin raising a family.
Basic School's four years are divided up as follows:
Year One: The first year of Basic School starts with six weeks of training known unofficially among STARTers as "The Crunch". The instructors put the new students under intense physical and mental strain, shocking them by revealing the truth about the galaxy even as they put them through intense physical and weapons drills with little sleep. They watch videos of what bones and bugs can do to them, view autopsy reports, fire rifles, run through obstacle courses and woods- and then wake up the next day and do it again. The idea is that by the time The Crunch ends, anyone without the physical and mental fortitude for Basic School is safely washed out and headed home with a shiny new mindwipe.
After The Crunch ends, it's time for a team-building exercise. Most organizations send people white water rafting or camping. START packs its new campers off for eight weeks of orbital drop school, teaching them to push off from a perfectly good spaceship, hit the atmosphere without burning up, freefall about 80,000 feet, and pull their parachute in time to keep from going splat. It's a must-have for active team members (are *you* going to send a shuttle down to an unexplored planet in this universe?), and it also forces the new students to rely on each other- a good portion of each class are ex-Peacekeeper drop troops, and play a big role in making sure their classmates learn without being barbecued.
The remainder of the first year is spent on what are called "Common Skills", things every STARTer should be at least minimally familiar with. Classes include basic weapon skills, computer operation, elementary training in how to run a spaceship, field trauma aid, AI psychology, land navigation and fieldcraft, survival, and an endless parade of classes on bones and bugs that have been encountered thus far as well as how to deal with them in a way that will probably not kill you. This reinforces mutual support within the class- nearly every candidate is going to have some subjects during first year that they're very familiar with, and some that are completely outside their realm of experience. They learn to trade knowledge and depend on each other to make it through.
Year Two: The second year of Basic School is referred to as "Own Specialty" training. All campers have acquired some significant professional development during kindergarten- now they learn how to apply that training in START. Doctors get advanced classes in trauma aid and infectious disease, as well as intensive training on various medical threats. Computer scientists are introduced to the latest in human and nonhuman information systems, and learn how to interact with bone systems while avoiding crashers and other unpleasant security systems. Scientists get an intensive education in the state of their field according to START. And combat specialists spend the whole year learning how swing, stab, shoot, and launch any weapon currently made by humankind, and some that weren't. Some of Year Two may take place off of Glengarry, as students travel to academic centers for research or to previously explored planets to conduct field experiments or examine bones related to their subject area.
Every year, START manages to finagle a few spots in the Peacekeeper's HEL course, and a few lucky campers get to spend the three months usually given off after first year and the first three of second year baking, freezing, and getting soaked in swamp water. It's good for you!
Year Three: This is known as the "Cross-Training" year, and consists of specialty training in a skill area other than the student's primary field. START teams are small and tend to take heavy casualties, so it's imperative that team members be ready to step into each others' shoes when need be. The needs of the Corps come first, but in practice campers often get a fairly free hand in choosing their cross-training field. After a year of intensive academic work, a surprising number of scientists choose to spend a year learning to shoot things and blow them up. Call it catharsis.
Year Four: This is where it all comes together, the "Teamwork" year. The campers are brought back from their specialty training and put together into teams, then run through a series of intensive drills and mock assignments intended to teach them to function as part of a cohesive START team. They learn to apply their specialty knowledge, to know when to depend on each other and when to step up alone, and to improvise and adapt to whatever circumstances they may encounter in the field.
At the end of Year Four, the newly minted troopers graduate, enjoy some well-earned leave, and then head off to their newly assigned teams as brand-new rookies. It's common for Basic School classmates to stay in touch after graduation, and when a jefe is looking to fill out his team with mission specialists a Basic School classmate is often the obvious choice. There is also an informal tradition of having a class reunion two or three years after graduation, at which point the troopers will have shed their status as "snowflakes" and will get together to swap stories, remember old times, and mourn classmates who have already passed on.