A/N: Sorry for the VERY late update.
Chapter Four
Family Reunion
Sleep was never a comfortable thing for a Marine. Because for a Marine, especially this one, dreams contained all of that which a Marine forced into the back of their minds when awake.
Jason woke with a start as the Pelican carrying him and his fellow squad mates to an instillation that the higher-ups had named "Liberty", jolted from yet another glob of plasma being thrown at them
Looking around the Pelican cargo bay, he say his fellow Marines were also having a very difficult time in the sleep department of a humans needs. Having repositioning himself into a more comfortable position, he fell back to sleep.
"Hey, Jason. Wake up man, we're hereā¦"
Looking up, all Jason could see was the fuzzy outline of his spotters grinning face, which surprisingly was clean and dirt-free. Sitting up and shaking his head to clean his vision, Jason realized that they were no longer in the cramped Pelican's cargo bay, but in an improvised barracks.
"Why didn't you wake me when we arrived?" Jason demanded.
"Well, its not like I didn't try. Its more like I couldn't wake you up." Kelly replied.
Not bothering to know what Kelly meant by that, Jason got up and walked out of the building with Kelly following close behind. What he saw surprised him more than anything else.
They were in a valley, which was literally, filled with men and equipment.
"Where the hell did all of these guys come from?" Jason asked with a puzzled look on his face.
"Oh, this? Well, you see a lot more made it off of the Autumn then we knew." A voice from behind Jason replied.
Spinning around, Jason came face to face with another Marine who obviously knew more about what was going on then he did.
Upon inquiring more about the situation around him, Jason realized that not only had more marines made it off of the Autumn then he thought, but also that much of the heavy equipment from the Autumn's cargo bays had been salvaged.
With a renewed sense of hope, and without much more thought about the marine that supplied this information to him, he happily walked off in search of the mess hall.
Jason's walk to the mess hall, which would have been a pleasant one, was interrupted by that of his commanding officer.
"Corporal Santos, where have you been?" Demanded a very angry Second Lieutenant Wilson.
Looking around, Jason saw a red faced Wilson coming out of what looked like a briefing room. Turning on the spot he promptly saluted before noticing the two bars that were pinned to Wilson's collar.
"Well, congratulations on the promotion to captain, sir." Jason said with a grin on his face.
"Don't get too happy, Sergeant." Wilson replied.
Puzzled, Jason was about to inquire what he meant but was cut off. The mystery was solved when Wilson reached into his pocket and pulled out and a chevron.
"And you thought you could get away with being a corporal for this long." Wilson said with a smirk on his face.
Jason was going to argue, but was momentarily halted when he looked up at Wilson's face. What he had expected was a childish "April fools". But Wilson's expression was one of dead seriousness.
"What? Can't you officers find anyone else to give it too? I mean, there are plenty of other corporals out there that deserve this more than I do." Jason stammered.
"Can you name one? Listen kid, we are out here on a floating pile of shit that happens to be shaped like a ring. We're short on good NCOs that know what they are doing." Wilson replied in the most demanding tone that Jason had ever heard.
Unable to think of any other excuses, Jason simply held out his hand, took the chevron and walked away.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, not so fast. Seeing that you are a Sergeant now, you'll need to know who you will be leading." Wilson called after him.
Turning on one foot, Jason hoped he was just having a bad dream and was still on the pelican flying to god knows where.
"You'll take over 3rd Squad. Oh and, give this to Pvt. Kelly." Wilson said before hurrying away to another briefing.
Turning around, Jason realized that Kelly was no longer with him. Not wanting to let Kelly feel left out of the promotion loop. Jason went off in search of his spotter.
After over an hour of looking, Jason found Kelly in the place where they had been trying to get to from the start. The mess hall was crowded and Jason had to push and shove to get to Kelly.
Sitting down, he threw the "gift" into Kelly's lap. Picking it up, Kelly's face glowed.
"Awww, you shouldn't have." Kelly said in a childish voice.
"Yea well, I couldn't let you miss out of all the fun." Jason replied sarcastically.
"Well now, Sergeant Santos and Corporal Kelly. You know, that kind of rhymes." Kelly replied.
Never one to just sit around, Jason stood up and walked out of the mess hall closely followed by a still gloating Kelly. Before even walking 15 yards away from the mess hall and Jason could hear Captain Wilson's voice booming his name.
"Santos, get over here." Wilson commanded.
Jason had been hoping that Wilson hadn't spotted them. But then that would have been too nice of a thing for fate to do.
"Santos, grab your gear!" Wilson stated
"What do you mean sir, we just got here?" A very confused looking Kelly inquired.
"Obviously, you two don't know that with rank comes responsibility." Wilson snapped back.
Jason had been expecting this to come, mainly because it happened to every newly promoted Sergeant.
"Santos, take Kelly and grab your gear. You've got a patrol to lead." Wilson barked.
A/N: I know its short, but its just a "intro" chapter to the action.
