Next day.
The dawn in Northern Darfur still carried a biting chill.
But the air of the training base had long been displaced by another kind of heat—the perspiration from over five thousand bodies pushing their limits.
The training ground was no longer flat sand but a miniature Hell transformed day and night by the engineer company.
The ruins and debris of the simulated town were even more realistic, with explosives buried within, ready to erupt with booming blasts and rising smoke to topple the trainees at any moment.
The interconnected tactical trenches were deepened and widened, filled with muddy sludge and sharp stones.
The layers of barbed wire were suffocatingly low, with strips of fabric coated in pungent paint hanging above, simulating infrared detection traps.
The intensity of the confrontation exercises surged dramatically.
