May, 13, 2552 Personal journal of 1st Lt Richard Crisp
Dropping from 3000 feet is one hell of a ride. The indisputable screech, once you hit low orbit, sounds so similar to that of the Moa bird. With that sound you know that in only a few short seconds you'll crash into the ground and hear that distinct sound of death and carnage all around you. It's funny to think that this could be my last jump into Hell. I could be dead in such a short time. Not getting the chance to tell my beloved Allice that I love her so. What a hell of a birthday present.
-Richard Crisp-
March, 11, 2550
Walking through the gates of camp Warsong, on my home planet Reach, is one of the most exhilarating moments that a marine could ever experience in his life. It's crazy I just about lost my breath when my foot hit the rough concrete that leads inward. I stopped suddenly and took a look around to get the full picture. Frank, my closest and oldest friend, grabbed my shoulder as he walked past me.
"Come on Richard if you don't move your ass than we'll be late for roll call."
"Alright, alright I'm movin."
We jogged over to the huge line of ODST hopefuls and stood in line waiting to see what our first day would be like. Once all of the trainees were in line and quiet a gruff looking major came over with a clipboard and started shouting names.
"Aman, Curtus!"
"Here!"
"Crashaw, Bentley!"
"Here!"
"Crisp, Richard!"
"Here!"
The Major went through more names that I didn't catch until he came to a tall boy who with completely black hair and green eyes he wasn't very impressive, but he did have certain features that the opposite sex could potentially find attractive.
"Weaver, Scott! Where on earth did you get the most common name of the human race, Scott!
"My mother gave me the name major! It was my grandpops!"
"You will NEVER address me as major you will always address as sir. And you will put sir before and after every fugging phrase that comes out of your whore dog mouth! Do you understand me!?"
"Yes!"
"I didn't hear you! You motherless whore!"
"Sir yes, sir!"
"Now that's better! Hall, Micheal!"
"Here!"
The Major went through a hell of a lot of names. Till he came to a pair of brothers, not looking anything a like except for their distinct dark brown almost black hair and the dark brown eyes.
"Placeres, Kane!"
"Here!"
"Placeres, Martinez!"
"Here!"
"Oh goody we have a set of brothers in this god forsaken battalion!"
"Sir Yes, sir!" They said in unison.
"I swear by the Holy Ghost and God himself that if either of you causes any sort of trouble dicking around in my company I'll personally shoot both of you in your small Cuban asses! Do you understand me?"
"Sir Yes, sir!"
It had been damn near two hours in that blazing sun not moving a single muscle. I was half asleep when a shot went into the air. The entire battalion jumped four feet in the air and their skins twice as high. I spun every which direction looking for the source of the gunshot. I finally caught eye of the smoking barrel of an SMG. It was in the hand of the major, who would've guessed? He yelled one word into the air and not a single man in the whole eight-hundred man group missed.
"RUN!"
We didn't jog or run for two more hours, we sprinted every which way fallowing each man in front, trying to pass so you could be further away from the crazy psychopath with the gun. If you fell behind, you had two choices: get shot in the ass and kicked out of the battalion or sprint faster. By the end of this hellish pace, at least fifteen miles per hour, there were only a total of 200 or so half dead guys left in the whole group. The major walk in front of us, not missing a stride or breathing heavy, and yelled.
"TENSHAN!"
Every last man snapped to the upright position and waited for the next horrifying event we'd have to face in this hell hole. The major turned toward us and said.
"Well, well, well. Not all of you SOBs are dead yet. Pity I was hoping I'd get out of four months of looking at your ugly ass faces. Now any one of sufficient rank step forward."
Only about 20 or so of the remaining boys stepped forward, including me seeing as I was a NCO, a Sergeant First Class to be exact, he then proceeded to separate each of us into 24 squads of eight, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox, George, How, Int, and Jig each squad was given their own barracks and a box of manuals for the SOEIV's (Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle), which is the vehicle in which and ODST rides to Hell in. I was in charge of Charlie Squad. I guess that meant I was supposed to lead my squad out of this hell hole at the top of the company.
"Ah hell you boys are doom, you'll never make it out of here." He chuckled at this "Report back to this exact position at 0400 on the dot. With Chapters 1 through 6 read and memorized. You have survived the first day which is a hell of a lot more than the sorry ass marines with holes in their asses! Dismissed!"
"Sir yes sir!"
We all waited till we lost sight of him and wait a few minutes more. I turned towards Frank and asked.
"So do you think it's safe to leave now?"
He shook his head, laughed and headed for the barracks. We entered are new home and took a look at our new brothers. I noticed a few boys from earlier. I walked up to the big burly guy who was as tall as he was wide, with brown hair and eyes. He was sitting on his bunk picking his teeth with a small pocket knife. I walked up to him and extended my hand.
"Hey there bud my names Richard and this is Frank."
He shook our hands in turn and said.
"Hey there my names Micheal I'm from the planet Harvest"
"Nice to meet you Micheal. How long you been in the corps?"
"I've been a marine for three years. What about you two?"
"Well we both enlisted at the same time on Reach I'd say about two years ago."
"No shit Reach is one hell of a place did you two grow up here?"
"Yep we've been almost brothers since the day we were born."
"No kidding. Hey I got to get bunk ready for inspection I'll bug you two later. Ight?"
"Okay, see you later."
Frank and I look for a set of bunks near each other when we heard a commotion and turned to see what was happening. We turned and looked to see the bigger brother, holding the younger one in a head lock and giving him a nogie. Honestly it was kind of funny. We walked up to them to introduce ourselves
.
"Hey there, my names Richard and this is Frank."
Still holding his brother in one arm he held out his hand to shake.
"Hey there my name is Kane and this is my little brother Martinez."
Martinez still in the headlock held out his hand laughingly.
"So where do you to hale from and how long you been in the corps?"
"Frank and I Came from the planet Reach as for being in the corps we joined about two years ago. What about you two"
"Well I've been in the corps for four years and this little shit has been tagging around for about a year. As for where we came from we were born on planet Harvest."
"Nice so what you guys arguing about?"
"This little shit wants the bottom bunk, but I get it."
We burst out laughing at what was such a stupid argument. We then left the brothers to settle their little dispute. We looked again for a couple of bunks. We turned and looked at two guys playing a game of poker before taps. We walked up to them asked how much it was to get in a round. We sat down and played a couple of rounds before I decided to ask the usual questions. The skinny one answered for them.
"Well my name is Curtus and this is Buck. Anyways we came from a small training camp on earth nothing to fancy."
We stayed and played while Curtus talked and talked about life and his girl back home. Boy this kid could talk. I don't think he shut up for at least an hour. Finally we bid ado and walked away. We saw a couple of bunks on top of each other so we headed that way. When we got to the bunks we threw our stuff on them. I had top naturally because I could move more easily than Frank. We looked over and saw a Bentley lying on his bunk reading a book. He was about 5' 10" and 186 pounds. He had brown hair and brown eyes. Just as I was about to ask his name and so forth when Taps went over the megaphones and the lights went out. We all crawled into our seabags and fell asleep to wait for the next day's horrors.
