Lion's Den

Chapter 1

When Private First Class Brian Achelon joined the UNSC Marine Corps, he never expected to be doing the mundane work that him and his platoon have been doing since the one month he's been with them. Police calls, formations, getting yelled at for no fucking reason, and other stupid shit that the recruiter never told him about, but he didn't complain and he always had a smile on his face. This helped him not to get hazed the shit out of by the Senior Lance Corporals or Corporals. He remembered the first day reporting to his unit and getting his barracks room number. It was June 12, 2524, a sunny Saturday so anyone who was on base was in civilian clothes and gave him cold, hard stares.

He walked to his room with his dress uniform on and his sea bag bulging with his things, he then knocked on the door. The guy who answered was a short, stocky guy with brown hair in the Marine Corps regulation haircut, a green shirt and jeans. He looked Brian up and down and asked, "Who the fuck are you?"

Brian was a little taken back but responded with pride, "Private First Class Brian Achelon, this is my new barracks room."

The man in the room smiled something mischievous and said, "Come on in man! Hey Kyle, the new guy's here!" The guy then stepped aside and motioned him in. Brian walked in and took off his cover and scanned the room; it had two bunk beds on each side, a TV on a desk behind the left racks, four wall lockers lined up behind the racks on the right, and a bathroom in the back.

The guy named Kyle stood up and scanned Brian over and nodded with a smirk on his face and said, "Big guy."

And big Brian was, he was a soft spoken, 18 years old, 6'4", 200 pounds, sizable guy. He grew up on Reach, hunting and fishing in the mountains with his father and sister. He had wanted to join the military since he was a kid and picked the Marines early on, he chose them because he knew that they were the greatest fighting force the UNSC had and he wanted to be part of it. He lived a happy and boring childhood and was looking forward to the next chapter of his life. He joined up right after high school and chose the infantry, was then sent 2,000 miles away to MCRD Reach for 3 months, then infantry training for 2 months, then to being assigned to one of the dozens of infantry battalions on Reach, specifically at Camp Kasal.

The guy who had opened the door for him closed it and showed him his rack, he put his sea bag on it, and asked them which locker was his. He then emptied his sea bag and started putting his things on either a hanger or the drawers below the hanger rack.

All this time, Kyle and the other guy were watching him.

He finished with his sea bag and then someone came pounding on their door. This time Kyle went up to get it, when he opened it a Second Lieutenant was standing there in his cammies. All three Marines came to attention and said simultaneously, "Good afternoon, sir."

He responded, "Good afternoon guys, stand easy." He looked right at Brian and asked, "You the new guy?"

"Yes, sir.'

"Cool, do you have your paperwork with you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Alright, come with me, by the way, I'm Second Lieutenant Griggs"

"Private First Class Achelon."

The lieutenant was tall, just shy of Brian's 6'4" frame, but had the body of a long distance runner, his uniform was immaculate and hair the perfect high and tight. He put off the air as a man with a mission, walking fast and talking fast.

They walked to the lieutenant's office in the company office and Brian sat down in one of the two chairs in front of the lieutenant's desk.

"So I see you have good things to say about yourself from boot to here," before Brian could respond he went on, "Expert Rifle Badge, decent PFT score, graduated top of your class at Infantry Training Battalion, and high remarks from your instructors there, don't look like a shitbag right off the bat."

Brian smiled but kept quiet.

"I'm going to put you in third squad under Corporal Wright and he'll figure out which fireteam he needs you in, now let's go find Staff Sergeant Martinez," and with that the lieutenant was off again.

They went right next door to Staff Sergeant Martinez's office and the lieutenant just walked right in. The Staff Sergeant was looking over paperwork, but when Griggs came in he popped to attention and rattled off the greeting of the day. Griggs replied and introduced Achelon, "Staff Sergeant, this is Private First Class Achelon, new member of the platoon."

Achelon and Martinez shook hands, Achelon said, "Nice to meet you Staff Sergeant."

"You too, welcome aboard," Martinez responded with a half smile.

After boring administrative stuff was done, it was about 1700 and the lieutenant released him for the rest of his liberty. He got a key for his room and headed straight there to change into civies and find something to do. When he walked to his room and was about to put his key in the door both doors of the rooms right next to his swung open and about nine guys came out and tackled him to the ground. Brian tried to resist but it was futile, he was outnumbered nine-to-one. He tried shouting for help but one of the guys clocked him in the face. He could taste blood in mouth. They then procceded to wrap his whole body in duct tape, his feet, hands, mouth, legs, and arms. The men were all whooping and hollering as they carried him down to ground level to a chair that was sitting in the grass in front of the barracks. They sat him down in the chair and wrapped him around the chair with more duct tape. Once they were finished one Marine raised his hand and everyone else shut up.

"I am Corporal Wright, your new squad leader," he said with a snarl. He was average height, medium build and had no hair, completely bald, he had a scar above his right eye and looked like a hard man, a combat experienced man. "Around here we do things a bit differently than the rest of the Corps, we have respect around here, especially when your a fuckin' boot like you," he looked Brian over then told one of the men to take the tape off his mouth. "What's your name, boot?"

"Private First Class Brian Achelon," he responded.

"No, your name is now boot, Achelon, dumbass, fucktard or jackass, depending how pissed we are," he pointed to the rest of the men, "these are the men of third squad, they have all earned my respect, they have been to combat and I would trust my life to each and every one of them," he paused, "but I wouldn't trust you to put your own fucking trousers on the right way, so because of that you are below the fucking totem pole, no better that horseshit and you will be treated like that until you prove to me you can handle this job. From now on we say jump, you say nothing but jump to the fucking moon. You will address all the Lance Corporals as Senior Lance Corporals because they fucking earned it, and above all, don't be a fucking retard, and you'll be fine," he said with a smirk.

The whole time this is going on Brian's a little rattled but not freaked out like they probably thought he would be. Wright saw this and walked right up to Brian, nose to nose and looked deep into his eyes, then backed away, "Now lets see how much you know about the infantry, swarm him guys!"

With that the whole squad took turns drilling him on his knowledge of the infantry, at the same time everyone else was screaming at him. This went on for an hour until he made a mistake on something and then shit got intense, everybody freaked out like it was the end of the world and threw him across grass with him still strapped the chair. He was now on his side with a bunch of crazed Marines swarming him, screaming, spitting in his face, kicking him in the stomach, and throwing him and the chair around again. This went on for another hour before the chair broke and they continued without it. After another 20 minutes they must have gotten bored so they brought him up to his room and tapped him upside down under the top bunk so he was dangling above his bunk by duct tape. As they left each one of them gave a good punch to stomach, laughing and calling him a "stupid boot." Then he was all alone with light and praying for morning to come early, then passed out from the pain.

Welcome to the Marine Corps Infantry Motherfucker.