Echo 3: Trapped
Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I do not own GOW.
I'mmmm baaack... I am so sorry it's been so long I'm not even going to try and explain why I haven't been writing anything. So if you've read any of my other stories sorry it's been so long. I'll start back up with them later, i've had the idea for this story for a long time and wanted to write it out. Well on with the fic!!!
Set around the time line of GOW 2
"Audio log of Louis Cherolt, date is, August tenth, on my way to basic. I'm really nervous. My dad and Mark tell me that I'd better pay attention to the Drill Sergeant and not laugh at anything funny he say's or I'll be cleaning the stall's of every bathroom at basic with my tongue for the rest of my time there... Ugh, make's me shiver just thinking about it. There's three other guy's on the Raven with me; one of'em is a really tall guy with coal black hair, he seems really quiet and he just keep's staring out at the ocean. The other two are a pair of identical twins; they both seem kind of hyper. They both have stocks of high and tight blond hair and average builds. The only thing that's different about the two is a deep scar spreading across the bridge of one of there nose's. I can see Jacinto from here, god I can't wait to get on dry ground, I can never get used to flying. Well, end of log."
I put away my audio journal into my seabag and leaned into the seat. My bones ached from the constant jolting of the King Raven, the smell of the sea mixed with the exhaust from the Raven's engine making an interesting smell. Then one of the twins got out of his seat sat down next to me.
"Yo, I'm Daniel Barker, and this is my bro D.J." The scared nose blond smirked making a gesture to his brother when he said his name.
"Sup." D.J. said nodding his head in my direction. I nodded back at him.
"Hi I'm Louis, Louis Cherolt." I said shaking Daniels hand. His eyebrows went up slightly.
"Cherolt? Are you related to Counselor Cherolt?" I gulped. Despite the fact my father was a good Gear and a good man, now a member of the Counsel of Sovereigns he wasn't a very good politician. He was one, if not the only, one who opposed the Life Boat Assistants Act. He said that letting untrained, unethical, unrefined monkey stranded operate the complex and not to mention expensive equipment of the C.O.G was not a good idea.
"Umm, yeah, he's my dad." I said scratching the back of my light brown hair, also high and tight like the others on the Raven. Daniel glared at me and I could feel D.J.'s eye's on me as well.
"Well your daddy's the ass hole who thinks me and my bro are a bunch of dumb numnuts who can't piss without burning up half of our brain cell's." I glared at him slightly, I didn't like how he had handled the Life Boat thing but he was still my dad. Before the conversation turned to shit the Raven landed and the pilot stepped out of the cockpit.
"Alright boy's this is your drop, welcome to the ninth circle of hell." The pilot smirked as he grabbed his bag and hopped off the Raven. The twins grabbed their bag's and jumped off first followed by the tall guy, I straightened up, slung my seabag over my shoulder and braced up for the worst three months of my life or so my brother told me…
A man in a suit of the older Pendulum war issued armor (The armor Marcus and Hoffman have on?) and a tan Smokey hat on. He seemed to be in his late forties maybe early fifties. He seemed gruff, the kind of guy who gets mad easily, great, this should be fun.
"You fuck faced maggots are the four new recruits? A fuck! I guess they ran out of good men and gave me the shit garbage!" We all straightened up into a straight line standing at attention. I looked forward and kept my eye sight straight and tried to calm my self.
"I am Drill Sergeant Tyner and you ball-less fags will be Locust killing machines by the time I'm through with you, come hell or high water! Do you hear me?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" The four of us shouted in unison.
"Well at least the four of you low life maggots got some sense to address me right. Cause if you didn't you'd be cleaning every KR (King Raven helicopter.) unit at the Jacinto airfield, do you understand me?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" The four of us chorused again. A Raven flew over our head's, speeding out towards the ocean like a devil was chasing it. The sudden roar of the engine startled me and I jumped slightly, bad mistake.
"Did that scare you maggot?!" Tyner barked as he walked up to me. He stood at eye level with me. His dark brown eye's piercing my blue ones.
"Answer me you scum of Sera! Did that scare the little baby?! Cause if it did you'll piss your pant's your first time in combat, when the ugliest mother fuckers ever spawned come runin' at you screaming like the mindless sac's of shit they are, if that did scare you then we got a problem here don't we maggot?!" I kept my eye's forward trying not to look him in the eye for fear of further humiliation. Already a group of Gears were watching the spectacle ensuing on the air pad.
"Sir, yes, sir." I responded. He got up in my face and shouted, saliva spraying in my face.
"WHAT?! I can't hear ya numnut! Waddya say?!"
"Sir, yes, sir!" I shouted as loud as I could. Tyner backed up from me and turned around. I couldn't see his face but I could feel the anger coming off him.
"And just what the fuck do you Gears think you're doing?! Get back to your duties before I make all of you clean the top of the Centaur hanger during the next razor hail storm! Move, move, move!" Immediately the men ran off before he could threaten them with anymore hazardous chores. Tyner turned around sharply, staring all of us down.
"Now that the pleasantries are over it's time to give you useless Locust humpers your first assignments!" Tyner said pulling a clip board from one of his pockets.
"The Barker twins Daniel and D.J., you two will report to Staff Sergeant Miller to be placed into your unit and begin training. Nathan Ford, you will also report to Staff Sergeant Miller where you will begin training for a sniper position on a squad…" I glanced slightly over to the tall guy while Tyner thumbed through the rest of the papers.
"So that's his name…" I thought. My brother Mark told me good snipers were hard to come by and most had to earn the right to train as a sniper, so if this guy is already assigned as one he must be a good shot.
"Louis Cherolt, you will report to Doctor Harper at the Sickbay for training as a field medic, Doctor Harper will explain more upon your arrival. Do you all understand your orders?!" Tyner shouted.
"Sir, yes, sir!"
"Good, now pick up your shit and head on to your assignments. Dismissed!" Tyner finished as he turned around and headed for off toward a building. We all reached down and grabbed our sea bags and boarded a bus.
We arrived at the training field after about a half- hour drive. The field looked like it had been a very large parking lot for a shopping mall with ton's of make-shift shelter's lining the out side perimeter, tent's a barracks and other building's filled the area and the large shopping mall had been turned into the field H.Q. and the sleeping area for the Gears. I looked out my window and observed some of things going on, on the field. Groups of Gear's were doing push up's, target practice, hand to hand training, practice using the Lancer's chainsaw bayonet on dead Locust bodies, which was a gruesome sight and several other things.
The bus stopped and the driver opened the door. I stood up only to get pushed down as Daniel and D.J. walked past me. I glared at the back of their heads but thought starting something on my first day wasn't a good idea. The bus drove off as we entered the chain link gates to the field. The whole area smelt like, blood, sweat, gun powder, vomit, gasoline and the un-appetizing smell coming from the mess hall wasn't a welcome smell either. A young man in the a suit of AP (All Purpose.) armor wearing a black beret stepped in front of us with his hands behind his back.
"I am Staff Sergeant Miller and I will be overseeing your training from loser's to Gears while Drill Sergeant Tyner is busy, which will be for the next two months if you're lucky. From time to time the Sergeant will drop by for a 'review', if you will, and see if you're worth wasting our time on. You three…" He paused as he pointed at the twins and Nathan.
"Will report too Corporal Switch for where you'll be staying while you're with us these next three months. Private Johnston!" Another young man about his age dropped what he was doing and ran over to Miller.
"Yes, Staff Sergeant?!" He shouted as he saluted. Miller winced slightly at the volume of the Private.
"Take these guy's to Corporal Switch Private." Miller said attempting to regain the hearing in his left ear.
"Yes, Staff Sergeant! Follow me please!" The young Gear and the three recruits ran off with him.
"And you Cherolt will follow me to Sickbay, you lucky bastard…" Miller said the last part lightly as he walked off. I grabbed my bag and headed off after him wondering what he meant. We entered the large mall turned C.O.G(Coalition of Ordered Governments.) H.Q., the smell was sort of musty, with again the smell of blood and other such things…
The Sickbay looked like it had once been a fast food restaurant the only word I could read was 'Mc' the rest was illegible. I looked around the inside of the Sickbay as we walked through, most of the men on the bed's were asleep with only minor wound's like broken leg's or broken arms but some looked like they had seen combat and were recuperating. Those who weren't asleep were set up in bed reading or cleaning their Lancer. I followed Miller to a back room where an group of doctor's were performing a surgery.
My father had also been a field medic when he was a Gear and taught me some basic first aid but surgery was way beyond me.
"Alright…" I heard one of the doctor's say. "Sow up the incision and get him out in one of the beds, this Gear lives to fight another day…" The doctor turned around while removing the latex gloves from her hands. After she had removed her surgery mask I could see why Miller had called me 'a lucky bastard'. Doctor Harper was a young woman of about twenty seven. She had a slender frame, brown hair tied up in a bun, a pale complexion, brown eyes and a gorgeous heart shaped face with only a single white scar, horizontally under her left eye.
"Doc Harper…" Miller said as he approached the young lady. "I have your new trainee. He's ready when ever you are." He turned to me. "Report too the East field in the morning at 0700 hundred hours. Have fun." Miller finished as he turned around and headed out the door and slammed as he left, I turned around to see what was wrong but as I turned back I found myself staring down the barrel of Snub pistol. Doctor Harper glared at me as she pointed the gun at me
"Now before we begin…" She said venomously. "I am single and want to stay that way, so I'll answer all your questions right now… I will not go on a date with you, I will not sleep with you, I am not seeing anyone nor do I want to at the moment and no I'm not a lesbian. And if you so much as touch me in any way I don't like you'll be feeling a bullet right between your eye's do you understand me?!"
"Yes, ma'am." I said like whipped little puppy, putting my hands down as she lowered the gun. She holstered the pistol, handed me a very large and not mention weighty text book and turned on an X-Ray screen with many x-ray shot's of parts of the human body.
"Good, now let's begin…"
(One month later…)
"Audio log of Louis Cherolt, date is October twenty fifth. Basic's been hell. It's been nothing but day after day of constant humiliation, near torture, brutal exercises, and non-stop running. And I swear to god one of these day's Doctor Harper is gonna shove a scalpel in my throat. I don't know why she hates me so much, ah well.
I'm getting really good at this field medic stuff, the other day I preformed a surgery on a Gear who had been wounded during a live fire exercise, he got shot in the butt… hahahahah… I won't go into detail how we got it out but… pfftt… It's was so funny, He was all like 'Get it out, get it out! I got a damn bullet in my ass!' But anyway I've gotten into a lot better shape then when I came and my aim with the Lancer is getting better, I'm still no crack-shot though like Nathan and some of the other guys here, but practice makes perfect. Staff Sergeant Miller isn't hardly as bad as Tyner, god I hope one day I get to kill that man. He came into the sleeping quarters and made me do one hundred push up's while stepping on my head, just because he couldn't hear me when all thirty of us shouted at the same time 'Sir, yes, sir!" But anyway, Miller is really quiet most of the time, but if you so something stupid or something wrong when you know better, he'll cuss and swear so hard it'd make Tyner blush.
But anyway, tomorrow we'll be heading out on a mock patrol near downtown Illima. Some soldiers from Alpha squad will be leading the patrol and protecting us while we look around. They say it's not going to be dangerous and the likelihood that we run into Locust is very low. Staff Sergeant Miller said that we have enough training under our belts so that if we do run into Locust we should be ok… I hope he's right.
It's going to be three squads of four trainees and each team will be looking for certain things in the field. Drill Sergeant Tyner will be overseeing it, hurray... Well I'd better get to sleep before Miller catches me up like he did last week… (Shudder)… End of log"
"Rise and shine boy's it's time to get ready!!!" Drill Sergeant Tyner shouter as he entered the sleeping quarters number 6. Every man in the room jumped out of bed as fast as they could and stood beside their bed, each man giving a salute to the senior officer.
"Alright I need only need twelve of you for the exercise for today so if I don't call your name you all will get dressed and wait for Staff Sergeant Miller to come get you for training, understood?"
"Sir, yes, sir!"
"Good, now I need: Both the Barkers, Ford, and Cherolt you're on team one. Team two: Reed, Galasco, Gregson and Houseman. And team three will be… Lema, Bradshaw, Thompson and Mahn. You all will report to the barracks for your load out, armor and KR number, you've got thirty minuets now move!" We all ran out as fast as we could fearing what Tyner would do if we were late. After securing my armor, medic satchel and ammo case I grabbed my Lancer Assault Rifle and put on my helmet. The lights on my armor fired up as I walked out of the barracks and ran over to the King Raven near the 'Mall of Death' as most Gears liked to call it.
Daniel, D.J. and Nathan were already waiting inside the Raven when I boarded.
"Nice of you to join us Rolt…" D.J. smirked as sat in his seat. A Gear climbed out of the cock pit, after straightening out he stood in front of us.
"I am Lieutenant (spelt that right the first time, oh yeah…) Redmond. I and Alpha 9 are the ones in charge of the baby sitting operation today so no funny business, if we do get into a fire fight remember your training and no one, I repeat no one, tries to be the hero… We have enough dead one's how bought trying to live long enough to be an alive hero? Anyway you are Dog squad, aint pretty but you'll get used to it.
You're looking for three ammo crates in downtown Illima, after you've recovered one you will radio it in to Drill Sergeant Tyner so he can mark it down found. Any questions? D.J. raised his hand.
"What happens if we get attacked by Locust?"
"Radio for help, fight back, set tight and wait for reinforcements."
"Oh…" D.J. muttered as he shifted in his seat. The Raven's took off into the sky and head for Illima. Redmond sat down next and leaned his head back, within minuets you could hear him snoring over the roar of the Ravens blades and engine.
"Heavy sleeper, huh?" I muttered to my self as I likewise tried to do the same, but un-fortunately I couldn't. I sat there. Watching the landscape from above… I was seven… just old enough to remember what Sera used to belike… before the scorching from the Hammer of Dawn… before the nerve gas attacks… before the Locust… before we had to retreat to Jacinto and before the last finale words from the C.O.G when they unleashed their weapons of mass destruction.
"For those citizens who can't make it to Jacinto, the Coalition appreciates your sacrifice. Please forgive us, this is the only way." I was there right beside Chariman Prescot when he said those words. I snapped awake as Nathan grabbed me by the shoulder and shook me slightly.
"I'ts time to get off." He said quietly jumping of the Raven. I hadn't even realised I had fallen alseep. Alpha 9 and Redmond were all together standing in front of the three mock squads.
"You all have your orders. Carry it out and return to this spot when you've accomplished the mission, radio if you run into trouble. Now move!" The three squads ran off to find our objective. Each squad had a general idea where it was at but would have to look hard to find it. We walked through the street's of Illima, the clouds over head threatned rain. I looked over my sholuder at Nathan. He was supposed to be acting as squad leader on this mission, he didn't seem nervous at all. Which was a good thing, I'd probably be nervous as hell if I were him.
"Hey!" Daniel shouted from in front of us. We all raised our weapons and began scanning the area for any signs of Locust.
"I see one of the crates!" We all relaxed, but only slightly.
"You douche bag! You scared the shit out of us!" D.J. shouted back.
"Calm down guy's…" Nathan said as he approached the ammo crate.
"This is Dog squad to Field H.Q., do you copy?" Nathan said into his ear radio.
"This is H.Q. what do you have to report?" Tyner's voice rang over the radio set.
"We have secured and located the first crate, moving to second crate over." Nathan said calmly.
"Good work Ford. Your squad is the first to reach it's objective keep moving, H.Q. out." Nathan lowered his hand from the radio, grabbed his Long Shot sniper rifle from his magantized weapon holder on the back of his armor and headed off with the three of us following in a triangle pattern. It was another half an hour before we reached the second crate, so far it was pretty boring nothing to shoot at and news from the other squads.
"This is Dog squad, we have secured second crate, over."
"Good work, your squad is still ahead, keep up the good work and you might be headed for the rank Corporal when you finish basic, H.Q. out." A light rain had began to fall. I loved the smell of freshly fallen rain, just something about seemed so soothing…
"This is Roover squad does anyone copy?! We are under attack from a Locust scouting party or something! Galasco… he's dead! Were trapped in an older apartment building about sixty yards away from the center of town.. we need back up, I repeat, we need back, please… I don't wanna die here!!"
"Focus Reed, we're on our way!" Redmond shouted over the radio. We all looked at each other as if trying to get an answer on what we should do.
"We don't have time, any way we'll probably just get in the way!" Daneil said. The twins started to walk off but Nathan stepped in their way.
"No. They're fellow Gears, they need help and as squad leader I say we go help them, besides we have Cherolt. If any one else get's hurt he can save their life." I simply shook my head, talking didn't feel like a good thing to do at the moment.
"Alright let's head out Dog squad!" Nathan shouted as we ran down a street that lead to the center of town. The rain began to get heavier, poudles already beginning to form.
"This is Dog squad, we're enroute to Roover's position."
SOOOOO… How was it leave some feed back and I'll update when I can. And I'll try to update my other sotries when I can. Until next time…
PEACE OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!