Chapter 3

My alarm clock didn't go off this morning. Of all days. This perhaps the reason I was tucking in my shirt while racing to the docking port to leave the station. That's right, to become an ODST, I could use a change of pace, also, anything to leave the station, and hey, if the Cap'n says I'm good enough, I must be.

I stopped running and calmly walked into the docking bay, trying to calm my breathing so it didn't look like I had been running. I started looking for people I knew, good luck I don't have many friends here. Then, over at the far side of the room I saw Corporal Layne, wow, now THAT was a surprise.

I began walking over to him,

"Hey! Layne",

He turned.

"They picked you too"? He asked

"Yeah, good to know that were some of the best huh"

"Best soldier, or best bullet spon—"

He stopped talking as a man on the intercom began instructing us to enter the ship.

The doors clanked open and we started piling in. I was one of the first to get inside the ship. It was NOT the typical looking UNSC starship, there was very little lighting, the floors were metal grid instead of solid metal, and there were little compartments on the wall, the ODST inside the ship strapped us into the 'stand up' compartments. Then something rather unexpected happened.

A green bulb like thing attached to a metal bar began sliding out of the wall, it made contact with my temple, then another on the other side slid out and touched the other temple. They were barely touching me but I couldn't move at all, not just my head, but my whole body. Then I felt a shock, and everything went black.

"The doors are locked Nicole…"

"When do you think we can leave"?

"God only knows…hey, Jim is waking up,"

My eyes were blurry and sore.

"Where are we"?

"I don't know, its okay though, its definitely UNSC". Someone said.

I noticed I was in a room with Layne and Nicole, the only two people I had made contact with since the day before. I think it was the day before…

"How long have we been here"? I inquired.

"Not long, half an hour maybe, Regg woke up first". Nicole told me.

Regg? Who's Regg I thought, oh, it's only Layne and Nicole, Regg must be Corporal Layne's first name. Ha, Reginold, what a snobby name.

There was a hissing noise coming from the door. It slid open but no one was behind it.

"All ODST training units report to debriefing room" a voice over the intercom said.

We all started walking towards the door. Arrows on the wall instructed us where to go. Soon we were seeing a lot more Marines walking in the same direction, all wearing the same green jumpsuits as us, with ODSTR on the back. I'm assuming the R meant Recruit.

We came to a large room. It had many seats in it, a UNSC symbol on the wall on each side of a large screen, and control console in front of the screen, facing us.

Soon an ODST wearing some medals and with no helmet, and a slightly altered suit entered the room.

"Please be seated". He said into a microphone. A microphone I thought. Why is that necessary? Then I looked up, I swear to God there must have been 2000 marines seated above on balconies. Why didn't I see that when I came in here?

"Marines of the space stations, Acheron's Mercy, Gehenna's Wing, Eucharist, and Zarr. You have all volunteered to be apart in the UNSCs newest program. Welcome.

You are currently in ODST Training Installation 7447."

The man basically just rambled on like that for another half-hour. Mainly patriotic belting it seemed. I sort of stopped listening once I knew all that was relevant. I hope I didn't miss anything.

Eventually we were told that the people in our room with us would be our unit for the time we spent here. Then we were shuffled out to the 'yard'. It was basically a fancy firing range. On the walls were a kind of Rifle I had never seen before, with kick-ass looking pistols locked to them. They were pushed forward off the wall by their clamps and held out, loose, for us to take. We all collected our weapons and moved into the next room. A decently sized room, after about a minute a few ODST walked in. We stood at attention, we were instructed to do so during debriefing.

The ODST who seemed to be in charge, his voice came on over the intercom,

"Marines, each Unit of three will be assigned to the supervision of one Drill Sergeant."

This must be one of the reasons that he told us our training would basically kick our ass, well he used better words but you get the idea. It must be hard if they needed a different guy for each unit.

The helmet-less ODST walked up to Nicole, Regg, and I.

"I will be your Drill Sergeant until your training here is completed, come with me".