Chapter 30

as always another day another chapter be sure to read and drop a review if you want.

The next day went on as about as normal as it could. Well at least as it gets normal here at the pit. All I know is that when I was woken up, is that one it was late. I think it was close to midnight I think. For some reason I had little bit more energy than most of the Joe's. So, I volunteer myself to help out with either putting up some equipment or helping out other Joe's like Strike to get back to their respective dorms to get more rest.

All in all, it only took me about an hour to do this, mainly because my superiors wanted to make sure I got my rest too. I sort of shrugged it off myself, but I still made my way back to my dorm. I set aside my gear and took a nice warm ten-minute shower and got ready for bed.

Three hours later I woke up again at the sound of my alarm going off. As always, my routine just started off as normal. I started to get into my pt gear. The only difference was that Dusty was still fast asleep. So, I just nudged him to get him awake.

"Hey Dusty wake up its time for Pt." Dusty just started to bat my arm away, as he looked at me with a groggy face.

He tiredly said, "wha… what time is it?"

"It's almost 0500 Dusty we got to hurry before Beach tears us a new one."

"Wha…what you got to be kidding me kid, we just got back from a mission don't you remember."

"Yeah so."

"Well you do know that we are giving at least to a twenty-four to forty eight hour reprieve when we come back from missions."

"Oh, I must of forgotten about that."

"Yeah whatever kid, we all make mistakes."" Now if you don't mind I going to count sheep."

"Sorry if I bother you Dusty."

"It's ok just go back to sleep you don't have to worry about me or anyone else waking you up."

Two hours later Mark wakes up again. He looks over to his alarm clock letting him know that its 0700 now. He quietly gets out of his bed and heads over to the bath room to take a quick shower. He gets dress silently and walks out of his dorm as well. Since his room mate Dusty is still fast asleep.

I guess he forgot about having the few days off from coming back from a mission. So, to be sure about it, he did ask about it to one of Hawk's secretaries. They did reassure him that he'll get at least forty-eight hours for crew rest.

So, without a moments notice he made for the mess hall to get some breakfast. It was kind a weird to him when he was one of the very few who made it to breakfast time. None the less the kitchen crew did prepare the bare essentials. He ate his fill. Of course, once he was done he sat there thinking on what his next move should be.

He could listen to his radio while drinking some red stuff or he could go to the rec room to watch some day time television. But no, he thought of something much better and well needed. He decided to go and have talk with social services officer. Captain psy, as Mark referred to him.

He took a little bit of time walking to his office in no hurry. But deep feeling in his gut, was hoping that he was still available for today. So, hurried up with a slight pep to his step. Last time he was there, he ended up spending practically most of the day talking to the captain here. Hopefully he wouldn't have to take that much time in talking with him, but he still had a few things to get off of his chest.

So, Mark then knocked on the Captain's metal door. Oddly enough he actually did get a response, sense these doors are rather thick and require for you to hit really hard without hurting your hand. "Come in," was all he heard. So, he walked in then saluted to Captain Psyche Out.

"Good morning Captain, can I take a seat?"

"Good morning back to you Private Mark, of course you can take a seat." Mark quickly takes a seat about to open up, when instead Captain psy beat him to the punch. "Well you're up early private, I would've expected you to be sleeping in much like the others."

"Wait a minute sir, how do you know that I went on a mission?"

"Well private you do realize that I am an officer and a Joe, so trust me I know when we you guys go on special operations."

"So private how did it go for you then?"

"Uh…. well….um…. "Psyche Out sees a little bit of hesitation within Private Mark, so he does his best to ease him up.

"Hey Mark, I know you may feel a bit nervous when talking to me about certain feelings or things, but I assure you whatever you discuss with me will be completely confidential. "" Just between us ok?" Mark just nodded to the Captain with an unsure look on to his face.

So, Mark opened up with little bit shakiness in his voice." Well sir have you ever had the feeling that when you are doing your job out in the field, that maybe you might be getting into it a bit. "

"You mean like as if you are enjoying it?"

"Something like that sir."

"Hmm….., I would have to say no to that."" Do you feel this way sometimes Mark?"

"Well only once sir but I guess what I'm trying to get at sir, is that if you know anything that could turn it off."

"Turn it off," Psy said confusingly. "What do you mean by turning it off Private."

"Well sir I just want to know, if there is something I could do to maybe relax a bit after I get done with my job out in the field so that I don't get strung out by all the life that I have taken."

"I see, well I suppose there are some things you can do to help you relax and keep your mind in check." "But you shouldn't really talk about the way you do your job as taking lives."

"But that's what I do sir, I'm a scout sniper."" I went out there took away somebody's son, uncle, or father."

"Look private you may see yourself as an agent of death, but you did what you were trained for and with good measure."" You also saved someone's daughter, mother, brother, father, and child."" I know its hard for all of us to continue on with this sort of thing, and I know that fighting is the absolute last option that we all want." But you have to remember that sometimes your enemy will leave with no choice."

"But trust me on this private, its good that we can have talks like this. "" You should always know that my door will always be open, when ever you feel the need to talk. "" Because in the end keeping it bottled up inside is never a good idea."

"Yes sir," Mark said a bit softly.

"Now as for a way to help take the edge off and come to your senses, I do have something that may help, however the person that can help you with it is not available at the moment."

What is it that this person can help with me sir?"

"If you must know private, it will be certain forms of meditation."" This person that I can assign to you, is an excellent teacher and a patient one at that."" In the meantime, however I want you to practice these breathing exercises first. "" They can help you relax bit."

The captain then handed me a sheet of paper with some demonstrations on it, on these new breathing exercises. "Any questions private?"

"Yes sir, um who are you going to set me up with as a teacher?"

"I think the best teacher for you in meditation, would be Jinx I believe."

"Uh who is that sir?"

"Jinx is one of our resident ninja's we have her on base."

"Awe man you mean like those two-creepy salt and pepper ninja's I run into."

Psy laughs a bit. "That's a new one private, calling storm shadow and snake eyes salt and pepper. "" Trust me on this one Private, Jinx is a little bit different than those two."

"How so sir?"

"Well for one Jinx has more patience when teaching new comers, unlike storm shadow."" And I don't believe you know any basic sign langue in order to talk to Snake eyes."

"So, is there anything else I can help you then private?"

" Uh no sir that was about it."

"Well then private you have good couple of days off then, and if there anything else private again your always welcome here." Mark just nods his head as he stood up and started to salute to Captain psy, in which he promptly returned my salute.

As I waked out of his office, I could feel somewhat of a huge burden lifted up from me. I take a quick gander at my watch to see what time is it. Huh I guess we only talked for about a couple of hours since its now 11:00 hours. Hmm I guess if I hurry a bit I could make lunch and stay in there for at least a few more hours than I usually do, since I got the whole two days to myself.

When I finally made it to mess, I did notice that it was a little bit fuller than before. I guess some of the Joe's were starting to get awake to get some breakfast, which was really lunch. Though the smell of coffee did fill the air in the mess hall. I grab my tray and started to load up on some food. I mostly chose a few cheeseburger's and lots of tots.

As always, I sat down by some familiar faces mainly which consisted of Dusty, Strike, Tunnel Rat, and oddly enough Lady Jaye. Awe man just from the looks of them they all had that deep bagginess from their own eyes. All of them were nursing on some coffee and eating maybe some cold cereal. Of course, I greeted them all with a happy smile cheerfully saying, "good morning how are all of you doing?"

For the most part the responses were merely that of a few grunts, except for Strike. "Hey Mark you're up early and with full of pep."" I would expect you just to be just as tired as the rest of us."

"Well Strike, it's just that I got a pretty good nights rest on the plane and in my bunk."" Would you believe that I actually got up early to get ready for pt?"

"Yeah Dusty told me all about it."

"So, what's on the agenda for the rest of you?" They all looked at me with their tired eyes not showing much expression, but I could tell that they were some what annoyed by my question.

"If you really must know Mark, we pretty much just want to take it easy today," Lady Jaye said inspire.

"What do you mean?"" Like take it easy by watching some T.V., movies, or playing some board games," mark suggested.

"Nah, nothing like that Mark we just want to take really easy today."" Mostly on the relaxing side of things," Strike added.

"Oh, I get it you guys don't want me to cramp your style so I guess I'll be seeing you then. "They mostly didn't respond after what I said that to them, instead they all just continue to sip on their coffee an ate their mushy cold cereal.

Once I got done with my lunch I just made my way back to my dorm. I thought of the perfect way to stay busy at least for an hour or two. And that was to clean my weapons and kit. The only difference was that Low-Light did take my AS50 from me in order to clean it a bit properly for me. He basically told me that he had the only disinfectant kit for cleaning weapons that have used du rounds. But needless to say, I got to work on cleaning my ACR and M110, since I used them those the most on the last mission.

After I got done with all that I checked my watch once again. Shit its only 1400 hours, I thought I worked a lot longer than that when it came to cleaning my weapons, oh well. Dame now I got to figure out another way to kill some time. I thought about going to the machine shop to see if foster and philips needed any help with anything, but once I got there they told me that they everything is under control. I was a bit suspicious on the matter at hand, but from what they told me was basically that I and so many others were on mandatory crew rest from coming back on missions. So even if I wanted to, I couldn't really help them, not even Specialist Cover girl could do any work.

So, I started to walk on about in the motor pool area thinking on what I should do next. Of course, the easy thing to do would be to go and watch television. But instead I decided to get my sat radio, fill up on some red stuff, and listen and dance to some awesome edm or trance.

I wasted no time getting my radio out in the open, near the old area of where my first bunk was. It was a nice sunny day, a little bit on the hot side. But needless to say, I got my groove on with listening to some edm. Every time I listen to this type of music, I always feel free. Especially in my expressive dancing. Even though to some it looks chaotic and unorganized. I just did what I felt like doing, who gives a shit on what they saw or heard.

Meanwhile deep inside the pit, within the inner most levels within the debriefing room Hawk is going over the mission statistics and data over with some of the Joe's. Namely Duke, Low-Light, Scarlett, Cover girl. "Good job Joe's for a successful mission."" Not only did you all prevent Cobra from mounting an invasion to seize the Panama Canal, but we gather some important intel on them as well."" I would like to say that we struck a fatal blow to those snakes, but we all know the fight is far from over," as Hawk added with a confident tone.

"The good new is that we successfully got rid of Cobra within the central America region."" Intel has as suggested that they are not going to continue on with any other bases within south America either."" I think we may have driven them out completely."" So as it stands, is there anything you all wish to report Hawked asked."

Duke opened up first. "Well sir thank you for the congrats, but we couldn't have done this without everyone's support on the mission."" However, we do have some KiA's."

"I know Duke it was a tough mission, but I can rest assure knowing that you did your best to get everyone out safe and sound, Hawk insisted.

"I also have to give some congrats to Cover girl who helped us with some great covering fire from the Hiss tanks as well," Duke added.

"That brings me to another point here in your debriefing."" So the estimated armor strength was forty Hiss tanks is that correct Cover girl?" Cover girl was standing there doing her best to stay awake, but once the questioning was aimed toward her she got out of those sleepy desires.

"Uh yes sir we counted about forty tanks strong, my team took out about thirty of them before we got trapped in a well-hidden ditch that Cobra laid for us." "I'm sad to report that we did lost one wolverine tank and its driver to enemy fire."

"If your team only took out thirty of the forty, then how were the last ten dealt with?"

"Well sir as it stands Cobra is starting to give these Hiss tanks theirs not only more armaments, but they are adding more heavy steel plate armor as well."" Our own anti-tank rockets can't even penetrate it." "But I think Low-Light and Scarlett have a better answer for you on that sir," Cover girl added.

Hawk then focuses his attention to both Low-Light and Scarlett demanding an answer. Low-Light started first. "Well sir before we left the pit, I out fitted private Mark's AS50 with .50 caliber Du's sir." "Unfortunately, I was only able to secure about twenty rounds for him, but as you can see from the pictures here sir he only needed one."" Of course, with the exception of one tank in which he shot two rounds I guess to get a feel for it."" Scarlett here verified every tank that Private mark had taken out."

Then Scarlett opened up next to added her two cents on the matter at hand. "Yes, from what me and Cover girl could find is that, the kid took out the last ten tanks with only one shot."" Only from further inspection, we found out that he made a perfect shot into secondary fuel port of these Hiss tanks." "Which is why we only found that the ones, that the kid hit were nothing more than fiery infernos of blacken scrap metal."

Hawk takes a quick gander at the pictures. "I see, not only has private mark once again performs his duty rather admirably, he has also found a key weakness and may have saved a lot lives that day do you all agree?" Hawk got nothing more than a chorus of yes sirs. "Well then as it stands with all of you, do you feel that private mark has earned a spot at the table with the rest of you."

Duke answered first amongst his fellow Joes." I wouldn't have it any other way sir, if the kid or private mark was on my team."" To me he as earned his worth in my eyes."

"I see, what about you Cover girl do you share the same feelings that Duke has about Private Mark?"

"Well sir at first, I thought of him as nothing more than a huge burden on me."" But with a little bit of hard work and discipline on my part, I would say that he's done nothing more than impressed me at every level."" I would agree if you decided to make him apart of the team."

Hawk asked the same for Scarlett and Low-Light, and they too agreed with Hawk's assessment of Private Mark. "Well I'm glad you all feel that way about private Mark."" Oddly enough I do have to touch base with him today on another rather interesting request he has made. "" But for now, you all are dismissed." "Go ahead and rest us for next couple of days." Everyone saluted to Hawk, as he returned his salute towards them.

As for Hawk, he held in his hand the liberty request that Private Mark made about month ago before he went on the last mission. He read over it once again on every word and detail that he had requested. The only key major problem for him was destination that he had mention. It mentions Guam but he requests was in fact for the entire south pacific sea region. There are a lot of islands in that area, even though Guam is in the Mariana islands located north of the equator. It just didn't make any sense to him. so, he sends for one of his scribes to go and fetch private mark with some additional orders for him to shower first.

After all Haw was monitoring him on the many cameras. He had a rather amused look as he saw Mark dancing about topside near his old bunk. I guess so he could be away from prying eyes. Needless to say, he has worked up a good sweat dancing his ass off. So, a good shower would do him some good.

Twenty minutes pass, when Hawk heard a knock on his door. "Come in," is all he said sense he knew who was coming in.

"Sir private Mark reporting as order sir," as Mark stood at attention saluting to Hawk.

Hawk quickly saluted back saying," good afternoon private why don't you go ahead and take a seat."

I took a seat as order by Hawk. I sat here wondering what he wanted this time, I mean I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything wrong today. Much like before when I met with him, he always seems to be going over some kind of paper work. I would often question on whether or not if Hawk was a bonified soldier. But I knew better than to ask him a silly question like that. For one he's much taller than me and two he is built like a tank. So, for sure he was suited for this type work. So, I just sit here very quietly hoping that I wasn't in any kind of trouble.

Hawk opens up first just to get the pleasantries' out of the way." How are you doing today private?"

"Um I'm doing fine sir," mark said with a bit of nervousness.

"You ok private, you seem a bit nervous."

"Well it's just that I'm hoping I'm not in any kind of trouble or something."

" Why would you think that private?"

"I don't know sir, maybe its because I'm not taking it easy like everyone else."

" Well you got a point there private." It is rather odd that you're not as tired as the rest of your comrades when you came back in last night."" But I suppose its just that your young and full energy I suppose."" But to answer your question no you're not in any kind trouble."

"Well that's a relief sir."

"I just get down to business on this other matter. "" I asked you to come in here, because I wanted ask you about this peculiar liberty request you filled out."

"Liberty request," I said confusingly.

"Yes, a liberty requests you filled out, would you like to see it."

"Yes, sir I would." Hawk handed me the request form, I looked at it only to realize in the back of my head that I did in fact wrote this." Awe man I can't believe I forgot about this."

Yeah, I remember filing this thing out to go and see pop's in Guam. So, I handed the back the form to Hawk, and went over in my head on my cover story for going.

"Oh yeah I did fill this out, is there something wrong with-it sir?"

"Actually, no private, but I do want to ask a few questions regarding before I approve of it."

"Very well sir, what would want to know?

"First off private your asking to go to Guam, yet you want to have a pass to go to the south pacific."" You do realize that Guam is located in the Mariana islands north of the equator."

"Well about that sir, I asked to go to Guam because of the air force base there thinking that it would be easy for transport."" As for it being located to where you say it is, is news to me."" I guess should've done more research on it."

"So, you just want to go to Guam and nowhere else then private?"

"Well sir I would like to go all over the pacific, mainly in the south."

"Is there a reason why private?"

"Well sir I was reading up on some old war history, mainly world war II." "I was reading about the united states marines and their many exploits in the south pacific."" I guess what I'm getting at sir, is that I want to walk on the same beaches, islands, and atolls that they landed on."

"I see, that does sound rather interesting and adventurous private."" Well the only problem I see here private is the time you asked for, which happens to be three weeks. "" Normally I would give you two weeks but seeing how hard you've been working over the last few years, I think I could allow you to indulge a bit in your adventures."

"So, does this mean you'll approve on my liberty request sir?"

"I don't see why not you've earned it."" But as soon as you get back, I expect you get back to work and put in some more overtime."

"Uh yes sir I don't see a problem with that. "" But I only got a couple of questions sir."

"Very well private, what is it?"

"Well sir, when will I get go then?"

"Hmm its Tuesday so how does Friday sound?"

"Sounds great sir."" Oh, and how do I arrange travel sir?"

"I see this is your first time doing this private, so don't worry about the travel arrangements I'll help you out on that. "" But I'll set it up for that you'll be out of here by 10:00 hours on Friday how does that sound?"

"Sounds great sir thanks."

"Good then well you're dismissed, go on and have a pleasant couple of days and on Friday your vacation starts."