Welcome to the Nightingale Training Program!

Welcome to the Nightingale Training Program (NTP)!

Congratulations on successfully completing the Nightingale Entrance Exam! If you successfully complete the NTP, you will become the grace and glory of Gallia. We wish you success on your journey with us.

Introduction

Now that you are in the cadet barracks, you must abide by the same standards as the infantry and Hawks. You will be held to the cleanliness and preparedness standards outlined in the Gallian Military Procedures Manual.

Cadets can view their daily schedules, exam scores, and trail scores in the Nest portal, accessible via the secure military wristlet application.

The NTP is a two-year commitment, should you make it through the semi-annual examinations. Approximately every six months, an Examination will be held. Candidates who fail the Examination, should they survive, will be expelled from the program.

After the first year of the NTP, successful candidates will be sorted into one of three tracks:

• Surveillance
• Elimination
• Security

Candidates are sorted into tracks based on their marks and instructor recommendations. Candidates do not choose a track. Candidates who question their assignment will have their disobedience noted in their file. Candidates who resist will be expelled from the program.

Identification Implants

As a Nightingale cadet, if you do not already have an identification implant, you must receive one before your first day of training. As a benefit of being part of the NTP, an implant is complimentary.

The chip must be placed in the cadet’s right hand. Nonstandard implant locations are not allowed. If a cadet enters the program with a nonstandard implant location, they must have it removed and reimplanted in the appropriate place. The Cadet Medical Facility is equipped to provide all of these services.

Conduct

As a prospective Nightingale, you are expected to:

1. Follow your commander’s orders at all times, without question.
2. Represent Gallia’s greatness and honor in all of your behavior, while serving and in your personal time.
3. Relationships between cadets are prohibited.
4. Only use lethal force on fellow cadets during Examinations.
5. Adhere to the strict Confidentiality Policy provided in the attached Mandatory Nondisclosure Agreement.

Examinations and Field Missions

In order to mimic the spontaneous rigor of being a Nightingale in the field, no notice will be given before examinations and field missions. Cadets must be in peak physical shape and ready to handle unpredictable and dangerous situations.

NTP Risks

The Gallian military is not responsible for any damages, loss of limb, or loss of life incurred in the NTP.

The NTP does not offer life insurance policies on cadets. Cadets over the age of 18 and families of underaged cadets are not permitted to take out private life insurance policies. Should the family of a deceased cadet seek reparations through insurance policies, they will be countersued by the Gallian government for insurance fraud.

Nightingale Training Tracks

Provided you survive the first year of the NTP, the following list explains common obligations for successful cadets of each track.

Surveillance

• Gather information for the Gallian government
• Recruiting assets
• Interviewing sources
• Infiltrating organizations of interest
• Technical operations (bugging, decryption)
• Data analysis
• Drafting intelligence reports
• Spreading disinformation
• Other duties as assigned

Additional obligations, if a candidate is suited to a distant deployment, may also include:

• Language acquisition
• Advanced accent training
• Cultural immersion training

Elimination

• Collect detailed information on targets
• Conduct extensive surveillance on targets
• Occasionally collaborate with Surveillance Nightingale colleagues
• Advanced distance weapons training
• Advanced drone handling certification
• Targeted killings
• Extrajudicial execution
• Other duties as assigned

Security

• Provide comprehensive risk management to Gallian military VIPs
• Threat assessment
• Securing venues
• Route planning
• Constant protection through vigilance and rapid incident response
• Advanced concealed weapons training
• Other duties as assigned

Graduation and Expulsion

In every training cycle, only approximately 10% of Nightingale cadets successfully complete the NTP.

Expelled candidates are considered to be dishonorably discharged and forego any future claim to Gallian social support services, including healthcare.

We wish you the best of luck and thank you for your service.

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Author’s Note: If you’ve read this far, thank you for coming on this very strange journey with me! I’m working on a sci-fi-mance (think romantasy but more sci-fi leaning; I’m a stickler for this differentiation!) new adult novel. Gallia is the fictional country where most of the story takes place.

In this story, when my protagonist leaves home after an enemy bombing, she manages to get into the Nightingales after a bloody entrance exam.

This “Instructions Included” contest felt like a really fun way to dive into the worldbuilding of the Nightingales. I tried to make this interesting and make sense even without the novel's wider context. Thanks so much for reading!