Chapter 15

Rod's POV

Shortly after being interrogated by Ben, Leary brought all of us together to discuss where we would be posted. All of us except Derk and Mark. Frankly I didn't care. Nothing he said to me was in any way nice. It was almost like I couldn't do anything right, but then again, he treated me better then Crip ever had.

"Okay, so basically we need to make somewhat of a perimeter around our base. You know, to make sure nothing can get in. So we have five missile turrets built surrounding the border of our base. We will both man each one. It appears that Derk has taken to guard the two main bunkers at the southern end," Leary said pointing out where they were.

"What's so important about missile turrets?" I asked.

"They can detect things that don't show up on radar, such as changelings and burrowed Zerg," Tenny responded, before anyone could let out a sarcastic remark.

"Wait I thought that was what that sensor building thing was for?" I said pointing to the tall tower. I had asked an SCV about what it did. They obviously didn't give me the full truth.

"No, the sensor tower identifies the presence of Zerg and pings their location on our locater," Leary replied, annoyed.

"But when the dumb critters burrow underground, they don't show up," Crip interrupted.

"Okay, Okay. It was just a question," I said.

"Huh, yeah, a dumb question," Crip growled.

"Alright!" Leary shouted. "That's enough. Let's focus on our objective."

"Pff, objective!? We have to stare at a screen and make sure that no Zerg signatures show up on it. Oh, so hard!" Crip rasped, sarcastically. "I could do that in my sleep!"

"Crip you're not helping," Tenny butted in. "Let's all just shut up and get posted!"

Crip huffed and marched away, followed by Leary muttering under his breath. I looked at Tenny. He rolled his eyes:

"I am going to go check on Derk. Would you go tell Mark to man a missile turret?" He asked, walking away.

"Yeah, sure Tenny," I replied, turning towards the Ghost Academy.

"Find one for yourself after. Just make sure no red dotted flashing exclamation marks appear on the monitor."

"Okay," I responded, and under my breath said, "At times it seems I am the only mature one."

Great, now I have to deal with Mark. I wonder what he's going to say to me. Ugh, I can see him now "What Rod? Need me to hold your hand? I can show you how to use the missile turret if you want?"… I don't want to do this. I walked into the vast building, my suit clanking against the metal flooring. The whole layout seemed to have a circular shape. I wondered around. The hallway went around in a circle fashion. It appeared that there was a large room in the center of the building with a door at the front. I approached this door with caution, hearing loud metallic sounds, with grinding gears in the room.

I opened it up to see huge claw shaped machines building what seemed to be a giant missile. I let in a deep gasp. There was a round opening at the top of the academy. This I guessed was where the warhead flew out of.

"And that my friend is a nuke," A voice came from behind. I jumped and twirled around. Mark stood in front of me, hands behind his back, amused at my astonishment. "What you see before you is twice the artillery that your military could ever muster. And built twenty times as fast."

"Heh," was all I could get out.

"And guess who gets to launch it?" Mark said, leaning in really close to my face. Mark then pointed to himself with a smirk on his face. "Me."

"Tenny says you're supposed to be on guard duty," I said, cutting right to the chase. "He wants each of us to man a turret."

"Yeah, yeah; and Tenny is the one in charge isn't he?" Mark said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"I'll go out and guard when I want to," Mark said turning away. "And as for you, I believe it is time to get in your missile turret."

Reluctantly I followed him out, turning and getting one more glimpse of the rocket. For some odd reason, I felt that I was finally adapting to The Orange Terran. Their sarcastic remarks haven't really been getting to me. I hope that if they see this then they will finally accept me and stop trying to beat me down. If I was going to have to put up with all this chaos then I wanted to do it without being made fun 24/7.

"Alright Rod, I'm going to go check out the northern end. You go make yourself useful," Mark said, pointing at me. "And don't do anything stupid."

"I think you need to worry about yourself," I replied, angrily. Mark laughed and continued walking away. I gripped my fists. I am really getting sick of him. Thinking back in high school, I remembered all the kids who would call me names and point at me. I took a step forward toward Mark, and then stopped myself. There has been enough fighting today. I knew it would be worthless. He would kick my butt and make fun of me later.

I turned around and made my way to the closest missile turret in view. It had six missiles coming out of a rotating frame. This frame sat on the mettle square support. As I approached the structure a metal door slid open. The inside was big enough for two chairs and a large desk in front of it. There were holographic screens surrounding the room. The monitors had aerial maps of the area. A couple of them showed larger portions of my planet.

Some of the screens displayed what looked like space ships flying around above the atmosphere. Several of these ships looked like the hammerhead Battlecruiser that was here previously. One or two medivacs were floating about as well. I turned my attention back to the map of the base. Seemingly I was to look for red blinking exclamation marks. Which were supposedly Zerg signatures.

My surroundings eventually bored me, so I sat down, watching an almost frozen monitor. I rested my elbows on the desk and sooner or later put my head on my hands. After sitting for what seemed like hours I lifted my head, trying to keep myself awake. Then all of a sudden, I noticed a button to my left that said "Automatic" on it. This perked my attention. How'd I not see that? Next to it was another control that said "Manual". I smiled and hit manual.

Unexpectedly things began to move. The metal desk separated producing two levers and a bunch of more buttons. The monitor in front of me changed from space to the sky. The sound of the turret rotating stopped. I smiled. Grabbing hold of the first lever I moved it to the side. The monitor corresponded and all the stars in the sky moved to the left.

I let out a quick excited yell. The lever on the right had a big red button sitting on top. I pushed the lever forward, making the turret point further upward. Too excited for my own good, I hit the red button. A missile launched itself out of its canister. The rocket appeared on the screen. It went a good distance and then exploded. It's like a video game!

I held my finger down on the control and watched two missiles launch, followed by two more.

"Ha, ha!" I shouted, turning the screen faster to the right and firing the missiles. It seemed that the turret would never run out of ammunition. While I was having my fun I was yet to realize how much attention I would receive. A loud siren came on outside, and I heard tons of yelling and screaming. I stopped what I was doing and froze.

"Aw crap," I said out loud. The door to my turret slid open. I was abruptly thrust around to look into the enraged eyes of Ben.

"What in the name of Xelnaga do you think you're doing?!" Ben roared. I stared in horror.

"I was just—"

"Do you think this is a game?!" He yelled grabbing my chest and pulling it forward. Two inches from my face, he yelled, "I could be fired for this!"

"Look, uh I'm really sorr—"

"Sorry?! You're sorry? Oh, just you wait! I'll show you what sorry feels like!" Ben yelled, raising his fist. I closed my eyes expecting the worst, when I felt Ben let go making me fall back in the seat. I opened my eyes and to my astonishment saw Ben laughing.

"You should have seen the look on your face!" He hooted, using the wall as a support. He continued to chuckle as he turned back to me. "No, but really, I am going to have to find some sort of punishment for you; ya know wasting ammo and all."

"Wait so, you're not… mad?" I asked, still baffled.

"Well, heh, not necessarily," Ben said, still snickering. He walked out of the missile turret, motioning for me to follow. "Anyways it appears that you are a danger to this camp and must be sent somewhere to rethink your actions. However I will consider the fact that you are in no way qualified to be on the field."

I gave him a blank look.

"So I shall send you and Nicky to the nearest military training base," Ben said turning back to me. Others began to gather. "That should be punishment enough. It's quite obvious that sending you to Ozuretole wasn't enough to eliminate your immaturity, now was it?"

"Hey, I'm mature!" I retaliated, pointing to myself.

"Oh please Rod, I'm certain that your friends can testify against you," Ben said, motioning toward Derk and Mark. "Now if you will please excuse me I have rather important business to attend to."

I glared at him as he walked away. I looked around to see what kind of attention I had gathered; Crip was hunched over a distance away, clearly still angry at Leary. Derk seemed to have come over, but was now walking back toward the bunkers. Most lost interest and left.

I continued to look around when I saw Jackson walking toward the barracks. I quickly ran over to him. I haven't spoken to Jackson all day.

"Hey Jackson!" I yelled catching up to turned around, chuckling.

"So now you come and talk to me. I thought you made some new friends," Jackson said. "Guess you don't need me anymore."

"What?!" I asked, slouching my shoulders. "I thought that we were—"

"I'm just kiddin' ya," Jackson said, slugging my shoulder.

"Oh, few," I said, relieved.

"Ya didn't really think that I would let out on ya, right?" Jackson asked.

"Uh, Jackson?"

"What is it, pal."

"Ben says I am to go to some military training," I said concerned. "Do you think he was serious?"

"I'm sure he was, now come with me before you get yourself into trouble," Jackson said, leading me away. "Wouldn't want Ben to think you were slackin' on your job."

"Heh, yeah, yeah, but—" I started.

"Look Rod, Training ain't that hard," Jackson replied. "You go; they inject you with a shot, have ya run around a bit, and then send ya into battle."

"Injection? What's that for?" I asked.

"Oh they'll explain it," He reassured. "It gives you basic knowledge of the battle field, and how to do your job. They don't want to waste years teachin' ya this stuff so some scientist invented a way to give ya the information."

"How does it work?" I asked, worried.

"Look Rod, I don't know much about this here science stuff. All I know is that they took specimens from the Zerg and incarnated it into a shot for Terrans." Jackson said, stopping and turning towards me. "The Zerg hatch out of their eggs already supplied with all the battle training they need. They are born demons. So scientists took samples from 'um."

"Oh. What happens if it turns into some virus?"

"Rod! I'm sure we have enough technology to take care of a small infection." Jackson said, taking me inside the Command Center.

"Why are we—?"

"I'm taking you to see Ben. I think we need to clear up some details." Jackson said walking up the spiral stair case.

"Ugh, I am so sick of seeing this guy right now, can we please just go back—"

"Hush Rod, when we go in, you let me do the talking. Don't you say a word," Jackson said, putting his large finger on my lips. He banged on the door. A voice came from inside.

"Come in."

We opened the door and walked in. Last time I was in here I was with Mr. Plank.

"Why, hello there Rod. You just can't get enough of me can you?" Ben said getting up from his large chair. Jackson chortled.

"Yes, yes. We were just here to talk about guard duty," Jackson responded.

"Why by all means take a seat," Ben said motioning us toward the many chairs that a lined the wall. We both did as we were told. "So, what about it?"

"It is quite simple actually, you mentioned Rod not being qualified to be on the field. Sense this is so, I believe he should be sent straight to the supply depots," Jackson said, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back into the seat. "Especially if he is to be sent to battle training tomorrow. He's going to need his energy."

"Aw, I understand, but unfortunately we need somebody to man the extra missile turret," Ben said, taking a seat for himself. "You know the Zerg, they take any chance they have to break through our defensive line. What if they were to sneak an overseer past our Battlecruisers? They could be dropping changelings left and right. If no one is manning the turrets, then we all die."

"And this is very understandable, I shall take his place for the rest of the night," Jackson said, patting his chest with his hand. "I've been on many guard duties and come to enjoy them."

"Huh, very well Jackson," Ben said. "But only, because Rod is not qualified. I want all my good men well rested. No matter how much they enjoy guard duty."

"Thank you Ben. We will be off," Jackson said, standing up. I followed him out the door.

"Well you two have a good evening. Enjoy it while it lasts. For who knows what could happen tomorrow, we all must be prepared for anything," Ben said, shutting the door behind us. We walked out of the Command Center.

"Alright Rod, you go get some rest. You're going to need it," Jackson said, strolling on toward the missile turret.

"Hey Jackson?" I said.

"Yeah Rod?"

"You didn't have to do that," I said, feeling guilty.

"Heh, no problem bro," Jackson responded. "You sleep well now ya hear."

"Okay," I said, jogging toward the supply depots. Man, I wish I could take that university right now. I lied down on top of my bed and closed my eyes. Tomorrow I am going to become part of the Orange Terran.

So I know there isn't a lot happening in this chapter, but hey, everyone has to get through the boring parts. Please continue to review...