Hopefull
"Hay kid you alright?"
I look up towards the source of the noise,it comes from a man to my right, a man with a tough, yet kind face. The grim expression of a man who has fought for the majority of his adult life etched onto his face, does not seem to lessen the kindness in his heart. This man , my Sargent, is not looking at me. One of the greenhorns doesn't look to good. It might be the rocking back and forth of the Pelican thats making him ill, but I know better.
"Hay Jefferson! Are you alright?" Sarg tries once again to get the man's attention.
Even though Jefferson is only a few feet away, at that moment in time, he was miles from us. Sarg decides to go over to him, using the over head hand rails to steady himself he arrives at the young man's side.
"Jefferson!" this time Sarg puts his arm on the privates shoulder. This sudden physical contact startles him, making him jump from his seat slightly. His response is very shaky.
"S-Sir. Sorry Sir."
"No need Private, I understand. Just wanted to make sure you where still with us thats all."He pats him on the shoulder now and decides to take the seat opposite him.
"Jesus Jefferson your not about to get sick are you. Or are you scared?" This new noise comes from the other greenhorn in our fireteam, Smith. He was looking at Jefferson with a smile on his face.
Before Sarg could scald the man, Murphy who was sitting next to him, the man I went though boot with and has saved my life too many times to count, punched Smith in the arm. Jefferson yelped both from pain and shock, Murphy never pulls his punches.
"What the hell did you so that for?" There is look of confusion and anger on his face as he turns to look his attacker in the eyes.
"Shut up you moron or I'll do it again." The venom of Murphy's remark caught Smith off guard as he just sat there for a moment. Before he could react I made my presence known.
"Can it you two. You keep it up and it'll be Sarg who rips you a new one." The two men look at me.
I've always found it hard to keep a straight face while giving out to Murphy. He knows this and seems to go out of his way to make my laugh.
"What am I doing Frost? We where just having a nice conversation. Weren't we Smith." Murphy's gaze now returns to Smith.
"What? You call hitting me a nice conversation?"
"Your still awake arnt you?"
"Murphy. Smith. If you two boys don't play nice I'm going to have separate you two."
"Owwww please don't Mister Frost. We was just playing."
And with that I started to laugh. In fact everyone laughed, even Jefferson managed a slight giggle.
"Damn it Frost." Sarg managed to say in between breaths, " shut up will you."
I raise my arms up to chest level, pointing at myself."Me? What did I do?"
"You started Murphy."
"No I didn't Smith did."
"What? Smith didn't start me Frost. You did."
"See Frost, even Murphy said you started it."
"What? Jesus, thanks Murph you sure do know how to stir things up don't you."
"All in a days work my friend. All in a days work."
While this may not seem that funny to any outsiders listening in, to us it was the funnest thing in the world. This type of nonsense is just what every soldier needs. Some good nonsense to lighten a grim mood. To let everyone forget, even for a split second, that they might die today. That they might be the unlucky bastard who the rest of the unit tell stories about and raise a glass too when the fighting briefly stops. And even though they didn't fully understand this yet, the greenhorns let the moment take them. And for however briefly, all their worries where forgotten. The past and the future forgotten. Only that one moment in time existed. And they relished it. Appreciation for these moments should be thought in boot camp. But it was impossible to teach, you could only live them.
"Frost."
"What now Sarg?"
"I want you to go check with the pilot. Find out how much longer till we touch down."
"Sure Thing Sarg."
I unbuckle my harness and stand up, using the overhead railings to steady myself, I make my way towards the cockpit. Suddenly Murphy's leg darts out from under him and strikes me on the edge of the foot. Good thing these boots I got on a thick, that kick was strong enough to make me lose my footing for a second, it would have hurt.
"Go get em tiger." I don't bother to look at him, I already know that theres a huge gin on his face.
"Piss off!" I say as I open the door to the cockpit. I can hear him laughing as the door closes behind me.
The inside of the pelican's cockpit has changed over the course of the war. It became bigger with an extra seat added behind and to the left of the pilot it contained detailed sensor readout's and sophisticated communication systems as well as all the other every day readouts you would expect to find on a aircraft. This was to allow the pilot to focus more on the flying of the craft rather then the pointless information which would be presented to distracted the pilot in a crises. The seat however was empty, and I thanked the person who thought of adding all of this while still keeping the originals ability to throw all the information at the pilot. I didn't worry about it all distracting our pilot though. She was, in my opinion, the best pilot that the USNC had at its disposal.
Lieutenant Samantha "Freefall" Keller, so nicknamed because of how she was able to land a damaged pelican though a atmosphere re-entry and Covanent AA with only maneuvering jets. And managed to get away with only a broken left arm and a fractured right wrist from holding the ship steady. The marines got away with a few bumps and bruises, and christened her Freefall. Its stuck ever since.
I sit down in the empty seat and make a mental note not to touch anything. I look out the view screen the horizon is full of what appear to be explosions in the distance. Now I know this is really happening. This really is not a drill. Funny how those words always makes me feel like it is just that, a drill. I always thought it was funny to hear them repeated over and over as I scrambled to get my gear and find my squad. A part of me always felt like some top brass wold pop up out of no where, big smile on his face, saying something like "Got Cha". Its just something about those five little words that made me think that it all was just a drill. Too bad those blue explosions off in the distance ruined my hopes. But then again this is war. I should have known better then to hope.
"Are you just going to sit there staring at the back of my head all day, or are you going to say something?" Keller's soft voice was very disarming, it snapped me back to reality, and betrayed her attitude and reputation.
"You know your going gray back there, don't you?"
"Of course I'm going gray. I've been sitting here waiting for you to speak. What where you going to do wait until I had a full head of gray hair before you spoke up?"
"You know I always wondered what you would look like completely gray."
"Well that something I plan on finding out myself someday."
"Don't we all."
It always amazed me how people can say things, without actually saying them. We both hope to live to see anther day.
Hope. There's that funny little word again.
"As much as I love these little chats about growing old Frost. What exactly do you want?"
"Oh, right. The Sarg wants an est..."
The entire cockpit is engulfed by a bright white light. Everything disappears in front of me replaced with white nothingness. At first I thought that I was dead. The myth about thelight being true, but then almost as suddenly as the light hit me, a deafening roar filled my ears. For a few seconds there was only the colour white and the ringing in my ears. Then slowly the image of the cockpit came back, the ringing of my ears subsiding. Then the image faded and revealed the reality of the cockpit once more, the ghost of the past still burned into my retina but now less imposing.
I look at Sam, at first the ghost image confuses me, it appeared as if she was moving and sitting still at the same time. As it fades I see her hands working franticly on the controls. It is now that I notice several red lights flashing on the dashboard in front on me. Why cant red be the good colour.
"Hay Sam!" My voice sounds muffled its being drowned out the ringing in my ears.
"Hay Sam!" I try again. My voice is clearer now, the ring in my ears fades.
"Hay Sam!" The ringing has finally stopped.
"What?" Even with everything that just happened, her voice is as soft as ever.
"There's a lot of flashing red lights over here."
"I know. I'm working on it. Just don't touch anything."
"Trust me. I wasn't planning on."
One by one the flashing red lights where replaced by the comforting green glow. Now I know why green is the good colour. Its so calming compared to the confusing red.
"What just happened there Sam?"
"We very nearly became dead. Thats what just happened."
"Ok, I gathered that much on my own. How where we almost dead?"
"Well my guess would be Covenant AA. We are after all flying towards one of there strongholds."
"Damn. Didn't intel say that this root was clear of Covenant AA?"
"Oh yea. Like this is the first time the ONI spooks have been wrong."
Just as I was about to respond, the door to the cockpit opened. Sarg came though it like a man with a mission.
"What the hell just happened there?"
"As I was just telling Frost here, ONI dropped the ball. Got AA in the region. I've dropped us down to try to avoid as much of it as possible but we wont be able to make it to the rally point unless we take it out. I've updated the brass, and you boys have just gotten new orders. ONI is diverting a spook ship to get up to date map information on this area. Eyes to the monitor boys."
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Well there you have it, the end to the first chapter. This is actually the first story i have a plan for. all the other's i've done where completly spur of the moment, and i think this is benifiting greatly from it. As always I hope you enjoyed it and i would love to hear what you thought about it. One thing about it thats kinda getting me is if the dialog flows the way it should if you know what i mean. I think its ok but then again i wrote it.
well thanking you in advance for your review's (and sarcasticly thanking you flamers..wankers)
TD