Chapter 4

Non Sum Dignus

"So you decided to join because God told you so?" Yamada asked. I saw her eyebrow rise and her voice was drenched with scepticism. I just grinned. I always smiled at the implications of those words. I mean come on who couldn't? God telling you to join the military to stop a collection of aliens who are hellbent on killing you because their gods said so. You can hear the universe laughing because of the irony.

So instead of going and turning this interview into a debate about God and what not. I just looked her dead in the eye and said, without emotion, tone, or any variation in my voice, a simple "Yup."

Mac gave off a loud cough trying to hide a laugh causing Yamada to shake her head. "So what happened next?" she asked. She then glared at Mac causing him to shrug. Ah love...

I smiled. "What happen next? Well lets just say the time before I became a badass mother who takes no crap from no one was filled with all sorts of fun..." I said as I trailed off.

Billings, New Montana

United Republic of North America

Earth. Sol system

June 6th. 2547

I turned to my Mom as she finished with the dishes from breakfast. "I'm heading out!" I called out to her. She however ignored me, grabbed her mug and walked to her room.

I shouldn't be too surprised, She's been ignoring me ever since I told her my decision to join the UNSC. Now don't get the wrong Idea. She supported me in my decision. It's just that she voiced her concerns, I voiced my rebutes. Sadly It quickly evolved into a shouting match about my safety and all that. That resulted in me losing my temper. Now usually that's not a big deal with other families. It's healthy for families for each other to get on each others nerves and yell to blow off steam and stress. Or at least with my family it was. But with my broad shoulders and six foot one build, toned by years of working on a farm where physical labor was a necessity, and unnaturally deep voice. I'm already intimidating. Add anger to that?

I'm scary when I get mad.

Now she won't talk to me about it, or anything really. I still haven't apologized so maybe that's the problem. But it's not my fault. The one thing about my mom is the fact that she is stubborn. And that's one thing that the Young family is known for. So naturally I refuse to apologize until she does. Hey don't judge me, I'm sure there's plenty of you you have had a mom issue. Or worse.

Due of the road block with my mom I haven't really told my brothers or dad about it because I'm sure they'll react the same way. My older brother has never been one to like the UNSC, but he was always the conspiracy nut so I can't really expect anything else. My dad however; he served in the Army during the Insurrection back before the war. He never felt as though the top brass took care of the boys on the ground. "Ships? they cost millions, but boots? They're cheap," he always said.

I turned away and and walked out of the house to my truck. The old twenty third century F-one fifty Aquila was at it's time the most reliable truck built. And due to the thousands I put into it once I found her in a junk sale. She is, in my opinion, better than the newest models that use too much fancy tech. But hey I was always an antique person.

As soon as I started I peeled out of our drive and unto the main road. I was going to visit the recruiters who had set up shop at the local mall a few years back. After half hour of driving through the old downtown area I spotted the building that housed the mall.

It was the center of my fair city and was located in the oldest part of Billings built nearly two centuries ago. The city center. There were technically two downtowns, Old and New. The old one, the one that was at the center of Billings itself, had the historic buildings and culture centers including the city council and UNSC/militia recruitment stations, while the New downtown, located a few miles west, housed the financial and economic buildings as well as the barracks for the three thousand military personnel located here.

Why three thousand? Could be the space/air port located on the Rims or that Billings was smack dab in the middle of the State of New Montana. Or it could be the hundreds of missile silos filled with enough ordnance to level the entirety of Chicago three times inside said New Montanas borders. But who knows?

As soon as I entered the parking garage below the multi-block building it became apparent to how crowded it was. Maybe I should have done this on a Monday instead of a Saturday. After driving around aimlessly for who knows how long I finally found a spot at the furthest place possible. Who would have thought that finding a parking place in the twenty sixth century would be this difficult? I mean it is the future, we have aliens, spaceships and of course alien spaceships. you'd think that someone along the lines would have solved that particular problem regarding transportation.

Another few minutes passed before I was inside the holy temple of capitalism. I was suddenly over took by a variety of smells. Ah, gotta love the smell of relatively cheap perfume mixed with the divine smell of foreign foods served at the food court. I walked through the twisting crowds trying to avoid bumping into anyone who wasn't paying attention to where they were going. Harder said then done, I swear people are always in a rush.

Finally after what seemed like forever wandering through the mass of shoppers and the occasional soldier on leave. I saw the four recruitment stations built next to the Game arcade which ironically was completely barren. Funny I bet that they thought that they could have recruited some dropout who was busy playing Dalo Seven. Except for the soldiers standing guard and working inside the stations were completely barren. luckily me, This made it faster for me to chose. Even though it would already be fast since I already decided on which branch I was going in. The Marines. As I said, my dad was in the Army corp of engineers. He had always complained that they didn't care for the boys in the army in the way they always got the hand-me-downs from the marines. So to remedy that? Join with the marines. Besides I don't think the Navy and Air Force would be suited for a guy with my build.

When I entered the man sitting at the desk looked up from his computer at me. He turned to his friend who was sleeping and punched him on the arm and pointed at me. They shared a smile before standing up and extending their hands for me to shake. They were both at the same table with another table was located to the right of me. Behind that was a closed door leading to I don't know where.

I took the hand closest to me. He gave me a innocent smile as he gave it a hard squeeze popping my knuckles. Ow, What the fuck? He let go holding back a laugh. His buddy next to him however laughed. I stopped myself from glaring at the two assholes.

"What can I do for you son?" The two marines instantly stood rigid. I turned around to see an older man wearing the same fatigues as the other two except he had a silver rectangle with a diamond in the center signifying he was a lieutenant. The way he stood demanded respect. And by the nasty looking scar running diagonally from his scalp to his chin he deserved it. I stood straighter to try to be respectable. I could tell the man however was not impressed by the way his hands stayed clasped behind his back.

"I'm looking to join in the marines sir," I said. I swallowed. I don't have a clue what I'm doing. He seemed to considered that as he gazed at me with eyes devoid of emotion.

He smiled and motioned me to take a seat. That made me stop for a second. My gaze followed his hand to one of the seats near the vacant desk. I guess it was his. I walked over to the desk as he sat behind it. "So you want to join the UNSC? Your the first one this week. Take a look through the pamphlets, See if anything catches your eye."

That was rather quick. I could have sworn he was going to bite my head off by the way he stared at me. I looked over to the pamphlets on display. Each one was flashy and designed to attract attention. There were several of them. One for the engineers, infantry, tankers, and of course any other group you can think of. But the one that caught my eye was black with four letters on the front. O.D.S.T. I picked it up and opened it. The inside was almost like the front. There was a single drop pod with a flaming skull entering the atmosphere. The caption under it read "Drop from heaven into hell." On the page next to it there were more images and statistics about the job and skill set needed. I was already hooked when I read drop from heaven. I let out a soft chuckle at my inside joke.

I turned back to the Lieutenant. He looked at pamphlet and smiled. Not one of those warm smiles. No it was an evil smile. One you would give to someone who just banged your wife. "You my boy are heading to Mars."

That's it. Just reading a pamphlet? Why have a recruiting office if there was no recruiting. Heck all he did was point and say go over there. He gave me an information card for me to put down my information. Afterwards he sent me off. It was faster to leave than it was trying to find the place. I needed to get home anyway. I had work to do, And a family to break the news to. But I knew one thing that would happen once I told them. My dad was going to be pissed because I didn't tell him before

Two months later.

August 4th 2547

One month. It took one month for my family to accept my decision. To their credit they took it fairly well when I told them of my choice. Well... besides the shouting and panic that they experienced because of my said choice's statistics in combat. It was hectic preparing for my departure for Mars and unknown to me at the time would be the last two months that I would be able to enjoy life without worry.

A few days ago I stepped on board my first space faring ship. Now a day after my twentieth birthday I found myself strapped in a pelican as it descended through the atmosphere Faster than I thought possible. I was close to a panic attack. But unlike the others inside the cargo hold of the pelican, I managed to keep myself calm until I felt the ship suddenly drop. But unlike the screams that my fellow passengers let out I let out a laugh. A fear induced laugh not a fun laugh mind you. All of us inside the dropship would be sent to other facilities once we found out where we were going. To top it off we were the last ones to be picked up because of some logistics error. Hence why the ship was going so fast to the ground.

When the ship came to a halt and the rear ramp opened. I stood up grabbed my things and stepped off the ship and unto the ground. Mars was the first planet I ever been on besides Earth. It was also the farthest away from my home I had ever been. It was unnerving. After all of us had left the pelican it lifted up and sped away to some unknown destination.

I looked around at my fellow recruits, every one of them were green in the face. Hell I was probably too. We were standing in the open of a landing field of a base, or I thought it was a base. I Couldn't see that far in front of me because t was dark. What I could see was a flag pole with a flag of the Army and the Marines I also saw several buildings around the perimeter. I could only guess which ones were which because like I said. it was dark.

As we looked around we saw a group of marines in their armor running through the base. Before any of us were able to shoot a question to them a man dressed in black flanked by two other marines stepped out from one of the buildings "Alright Fucktards follow me. Now."

We didn't hesitate to do so. Most of the guys that were with me would be going to different branches. Some the Army, some the Marines, As far as I could tell I was the only one who was going into the ODSTs. We walked for several minutes before coming to a stop at a hanger. Inside the well illuminated space were several Falcon transports, warthogs, and a table. The sergeant pointed to the table and told us to get signed in. After a quick wait behind the guys in front of me it was my turn. There were two people waiting on the other side of the table. One was a corporal wearing army fatigues the other was a woman in in a tight fitting flight suite.

"Name?" the Woman asked me.

"Grayson Young." I told her.

She found my name on the paper and wrote something before calling out next.

The soldier next to her pointed to a Falcon and told me to wait besides it. After waiting for the rest of them to get signed in, the woman that was taking names walked over and put on her helmet and told me to get in. Moments later we took off.

If flying in a pelican was difficult try flying in an Falcon. It was beyond terrifying. The cold Mars air hitting my face wasn't helping either. On top of everything I think the pilot had a grudge against me because every few miles she would turn sharply causing me to almost lose my bags.

Finally after flying for thirty minutes the pilot slowed the vehicle down and landed in a smaller version of the original base. By smaller I meant by the scale it was still really big. Once I lept from the transport I noticed several other transports all parked next to a large group of people standing in the middle of the bases training ground.

A group of technicians came up to me and took my bags from me and placed it inside a truck before it sped off. They said that I won't need them any time soon.

Instead of watching the truck drive away with my belongings I walked over the group of people and listen to the conversations of the people around me.

Not a minute later a cough interrupted the pointless murmurings of them. We all looked to the sound of the cough to find a very pretty woman eyeing us. There was another person standing next to her. But he stayed put where he was.

She was about five foot eight, just under almost all of us here except for the three other girls. She wore a jet black sweater with a flaming skull in the middle over her chest. It contoured to her form quite nicely. She had a pointed chin, and her cheeks were slightly round. Freckles dotted her nose and cheeks. But what stood out the most was her eyes. Those bright light green eyes were breathtaking. Everything about her made her seem friendly. Well except for the demonic grin she gave us, and the way her eyes looked like a predator about to kill its prey... Why do all of the women who join the military become scarry? I wonder how old she is.

"Alright ya' pathetic bags o' shit. I am staff sergeant Fulbright And this lovely facility of hell is Camp Kalte and while ya' are here, ya' are ma' bitches!" She sounded Scottish with that thick accent of hers. There was a cough from the man behind her. She looked over at him before turning back to us. "Forget that girls. This is Captain Patton Drilovsky. And while ya' are here ya' are his bitches. I however... I'm the one who's going to fuck ya' until ya' beg fer' mercy. Now there are three hundred of ya' here and I'm supposed to produce a platoon a year along with the other staff sergeants. Considering that most of ya' look like ya, just got off yer' mama's tit I bet that most of ya' dirtbags will be sent back to home cryin' like a whores bitch of a child. But those who of ya' who pass ma' lovely training, ya' will be the best warriors Humanity has ever seen." There were some murmurs through out the crowd. "Shut it! Now, tonight is the last night ya' have being civilians. So I'ed advise ya' to' get some shut eye before tomorrow. Now before I release ya' to go to yer' barracks, I have one thing I wanna tell ya'. Welcome to the 11th." She smiled and then shouted, "DISMISSED!"

With that we started our way to our new homes located to the west of the training grounds. It wasn't much. There were six barracks each looked the same as the next. The inside wasn't much either except for the generic carvings of dicks, skulls, skulls turned into dicks. You know, the works.

I chose one of the bunks closest to the doors. Another man came up besides me. He was slightly taller than me. Maybe Six foot five. Ok so he was a Lot taller. But hey he had chest that belonged to a lineman while I had one that belonged to a running back. So that has to count for something.

He looked at me before holding out his hand. "Name's Macintosh Ull." His voice was baritone, not as deep as mine but still pretty deep. He had a southern accent too. Good. that means I'm not the only one from Earth.

I took his hand and gave it a firm shake before letting go. "My name's Grayson Young. That's a thick accent. Where are you from?" I asked him.

"Ah'm from the C.C. how 'bout You?" He asked me.

So he was from the Confederate Coalition. Figured. I visited there once. Really neat place. Especially the Civil War museums. Both the first and second. "I'm from New Montana." I told him.

Before he had a chance to respond to me a bald wall of meat kicked open the doors and dragged an old beat up chair into the barracks. "Hair cutting time maggots," He shouted as he grabbed the closest person next to him. She happened to be on of the three girls in our ranks. In a few second all of her long brown hair was on the floor.

Damn he was fast. Within a few minutes all of us were shaved. It wasn't pleasant for me. My scalp was itchy and I could feel a few cut were the razor had cut into my skin.

The last man who had his hair cut to a few centimeters length before this put up a fuss when he was told to get into the chair. It ended with him twitching on the floor due to Mr. baldy's shock baton. The large man then shaved his head with more force than he had with us. As soon as he was done he exited in the same manner as he entered, off to the other barracks to wreak havoc.

I checked my watch. It was a quarter to one. Damn Going from Earth time frame to Mars was going to kick my ass. I just hope that tomorrow isn't that demanding.

I would regret thinking that later.

I noticed that the man who backtalked the barber try to get up only to fall back down. No one else went to help the stupid bastard up, but me being the good guy that I am couldn't just leave him there. I walked over to him and picked him by the arms. He gave me a thanks before wobbling back to his bunk.

That's when I realized that I didn't have anything to sleep in. Shit.

As I thought that. A truck stopped at the front of our barracks. I turned to the door as a group of men clad in black fatigues burst through and started tossing boxes on the floor. As fast as they came they left. I made my way over to the group of boxes as did everyone. The girl of our group shoved past everyone shouting out curses and insults with her box in her hands.

I looked through the pile and found mine. They misspelled Young, how do you get an E out of Young? I eyed the box before going back to my bed. Macintosh was already looking through the box with curious fascination. I lifted the box to reveal the contents. There were a number of items from black and grey shirts, black and grey cargo pants, regular combat boots, and a pair of dog tags. They were blank showing that I was a recruit and nothing more. One thing I noticed however, was that everything had the letters ODST in big bold fonts.

I looked over to Macintosh, he pulled out a metal container form under the bunk and began placing his gear inside. I looked under and saw another one and started to transfer everything into it. Well almost everything. There was another layer underneath a thin piece of plastic. in that included boxer briefs, black socks, and a pairs of shorts. One pair of shorts however were not like the others. It was made from another fabric with a matching shirt. I saw a label and gave it a read. These are your motherfucking ODST Jaimes! Treat them well! I snorted trying to suppress a laugh.

I heard a cat whistle behind me and turned to see the ass of the female section of our ranks. Immediately I felt the blood drain from my head and move to the other less... intelligent one. A Natural reaction that I have had multiple times rest assured. But Even though I have had my share of nude women it was something that you can never prepare for. Well, the mental aspect of it anyway. She obviously didn't have any qualms about getting dressed and undressed in front of fifty something men.

Maybe it had to do with her bunk partner. The monster of a man towered over all of us nearly hitting his head on the bussing light fixtures. She apparently forced him to take the top bunk as his legs over shot the edge of it by half of his calf. So I assumed she wasn't to be trifled with. Especially since she only came up to his waist.

I turned back around once she glanced my way. It didn't help my problem when she smirked at me. Hey, you try not staring at a naked person see how hard it is. The commotion turned down once she got into her motherfucking jaimes and got into her bunk. After the last one of us got settled in the lights were turned off.

As I laid in my bunk wrapped in an surprisingly comfy single sheet I couldn't he but think of my future and what it would hold. The 11th, Sounds like hell of a group.

Author's note:

Alright guys since I think I forgot to do this before All rights belong to 343 studios, and Casquis respectfully. ( You'll see them when they are there.*wink*)

Now as for the story. This part was a bitch to write. The slow chapters are difficult for me. Something about getting the right reason and place for me to join was really hard. But when I read The beginning of the Life over again I noticed that he also had trouble writing the start of it. So hopefully my writing will be like his in the sense that it will get better as it progresses and the characters become more complex. Aside from the actual writing I was scarce on time because of college and life. You know how it goes.

Now for clarification for the character Grayson T. Young. He is an avatar of myself or of what I like myself to look like. Just like with Frank was with Casquis. Grayson is in The LIFE during the last few chapters placed in as an OC by Casquis after I gave him the idea. So I hope to do Casquis proud with what I have planned for his story from his first drop on Prais IV till after Frank left him on the highway.

If you spot any errors in the story or anything that doesn't sit well with you. Feel free to Review and comment. As with The LIFE you will feed the story. The more input I get the more it will grow and become something great.

As always. Good hunting!