The Amazon Empire has fought only two recent wars and was victorious in both. Ginnie Cardoso and Elsie Rhodes saw action in each campaign, so they are regularly infuriated to be expected to prove their aptitude in the absurdly named "Annual Examination (Combat Proficiency)". Do planetside bureaucrats not realise that terms such as "annual" have no meaning to those who travel the stars? It's not just the semantic angle that annoys StarTroopers Rhodes and Cardoso. They were right bang in the middle of both those wars, so what do they have to prove? Then there is the nature of the "Examination". It takes place on a structure that is meant to replicate a starship, but looks like no 'ship ever constructed. The "enemy" consists of robotic, airborne drones, designed to match the drab metallic interior of the combat range. Hasn't anyone ever told the bureaucrats that visual camouflage is extinct? A single glance at the StarTroopers' highly-coloured uniforms ought to confirm that today's interstellar warriors use sensors to locate their opponents, not line-of-sight. The girls are forbidden to vaporise the drones, so they don't. They carefully calibrate their weapons, instead, to fry the internals of the drones, without completely disintegrating them. The station-captain complains to the StarTroopers' Commodore, conceding that Elsie and Ginnie have passed the test, but recommending that they be dismissed the service, for destroying the drones. The Commodore makes a show of carpeting the pair, as usual, while unfailingly finding extenuating circumstances. StarTroopers Cardoso and Rhodes return to their interstellar duties and the "Annual Examination (Combat Proficiency)" is put back into its box for another planetary year.