Perfection by Vincent Smith
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Perfection Parts 1-4
Date: 25 October 2002, 12:32 am
Part One
My name is Gannon, and this is my tale. I am one of the five legendary heroes of the Torres Republic, one of the seven human republics still standing after the Great War. As I sit here writing this tale, I warn you, some of this is being seen through the eyes of men. Man is imperfect, he makes mistake. This tale is not whole fact but some is fictional, untrue, and made up. I am writing the tale of not only myself but also the people who saw me in my actions. Their tall tales have been neatly collaborated in this piece of work that you have taken time to sit and read. I promise you one thing, Perfection, the perfection at least that I achieved, is possible but at a price that some would not be able to bear.
That cost as I found was more than I had ever imagined...
For your understanding I must explain that status of our empire. The Human Empire was created after the Third War of Exile. The First Earth was destroyed by a collaboration of alien races that had become known as the Covenant. Using a pulse thermal weapon with advanced technology they pierced the Earth's core and completely destroyed it. Luckily about 89% of the entire Human race escaped the planet's destruction.
The Covenant thought that they had finally won and celebrated in rejoices over our obliteration. It wasn't over though, the Human spirit endured. Over the next three years, the Covenant were put aside because a new enemy had appeared: Ourselves. For three long years seven different factions of Earth warred against each other for control of the entire human race. These years of war became known as the Exile Wars.
Finally, after the third year of the war came and passed a former UNSC Admiral named Deacon Torres ended the war and united all of the factions under his single command. He set up the old governments, started up the UNSC again and began the process of rebuilding the army. To drive the human spirit he told tales of the Covenant, and it had the desired effect. The common enemy, the Covenant drove the Humans to a level of ferocity and intensity never before seen.
Twelve years after the destruction of First Earth, The Humans amassed an armada of every ship that had a weapon and every man that could carry and fire a gun. They arrived at the site of Earth and found the Covenant had left in their victory. They had thought that they would never receive their revenge and all hope was lost. Discontent drove the Humans back to their colonies and resumed normal life.
Fate had a strange way of giving hope back to the people. A single man, a genetically entwined cyborg, known as the Master Chief, appeared by the Human colonies by a wisp of pure luck. His battered armor had seen years of battle and war. His cracked visor showed his will to fight. In tale, he was said to have stumbled into the chamber of the leader of the UNSC council and then suddenly died on the very spot where he stood. In his hand was a disk.
This disk contained every location of Covenant forces that were still around. It named planets, stars, and moons that were under the Covenant control. The Master Chief was given a burial to rival that of kings. Every human in the entire race watched as he was buried with a UNSC Flag draped over his ebony coffin. Admiral Torres finally got the will to fight back into the people and they set out with a vengeance.
The utter destruction of the entire Covenant civilization followed. Every single location on the disk was searched out and annihilated of all Covenant presence. The Humans had finally hd there revenge as Admiral Torres himself flipped the switch that ignited a thermal weapon which was pointed at the Covenant home world. In perfection the victory was written down for all to see in one of the Legendary Books known as "Exile before Perfection"
For the next Ninety years the heroes of the Seven Republics of Human control fell to old age. The last was Admiral Torres who was buried along side the Master Chief. New leaders came and went. Life went on and in the year 145 AE I, Gannon Torres, Grandson of Admiral Deacon Torres was born.
The Empire had expanded to 21 planets, and had a population of over 30 billion people. The remnants of the Covenant forces have disappeared and have not been seen since 100 AE. The planet at the head of the Torres republic stands as the middle of the empire. We are the destination of people traveling from Second Earth. Torres is the Head of the military of the URSC, which stands for, United Republics Space Command. We are the Capital of the Empire.
You now have the understanding of History
You will now be told of perfection...
Part Two
The Year is 165 AE and is in the middle of summer on Planet Torres. I, Gannon stand in the middle of the capital plaza in the small city of Kugal on the Equator. The time is about 8:00 am. Midday. Planet Torres is smaller and spins faster than Earth did. It has about 1.8 g's of gravity and has only a 16-hour day. We have an orbit around our sun that is exactly twice that of Earth. To keep us from getting confused we have birthdays every half years.
This peaceful little town is the location of the URAC fortress known as the Hill because it is a labyrinth of natural catacombs that run deep into the hill. I am a Commanding Officer of thirty-five men and am well known though out the town. My Battalion is known as the Security Force because we take it upon ourselves to stop any uprisings or any mischief that happens inside the town. Today is a simple day nothing our of the ordinary. Little did I our the entire Solar System know that an enemy that wanted revenge was waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
My radio sounds off and I pick it up.
"Gannon here, whats up?" I say
"Sir, we have a sector four alert. Seems there is a small disagreement about a deal. They are so upset about it that they have guns out and are threatening each other. We need assistance the situation is delicate," said one of my top officers Jerry Herald.
"I will be right over Jerry," I said.
I took my time getting there. The towns people would not do anything over such a trifle of a cause because the punishment would be more than enough to scare them. When I arrived I took immediate notice of my surroundings, which had become a habit of mine so as not to get ambushed. The place was a small ally in between the North and South Division Sectors, it had three houses and was the home to the poorest famers of the town.
They were fighting amongst each other and all of them were toting guns with fingers on the trigger and clips is the stock. I walked calmly right up to them and right away I was looked upon as the moderator.
"Ah, Gannon, it seems we need your assistance to solve a disagreement between our group. That man, that pathetic disgrace of a man, stole my most precious belonging and says that it was his all along. I th----"
"Gentlemen, I am no moderator," I said as I pulled the weapons away from them and threw them over the house one by one. "You can solve this without the weapons and arms. Now, I don't want to have to hear about this again and you would not want me to comeback here."
"But, sir he,---" The same farmer continued but I had already walked away and I could hear their voices trail away as they started a brawl with each other.
"Hey I will get you for that you bastard..."
"No you won't I will kill you and rape your dead body..."
"Shut up I will kill you and take all of your possessions..."
"Now You done it, I am really mad..."
"Lets get him..."
These were just some of the obscenities that I heard as I walked off. It seems though that as I walked away from one problem I walk straight into another one which tends to be more difficult to solve.
My radio once again chimed in a call and I took it out of its holster in my side which took is place next to my pistol.
"Sir, another disturbance, this time it is more serious, a Code 7 Alert, wait-" [Shots in the Backround] -" Sir you had better come quick three men have been shit so far I have all Security Forces on alert 7."
"On my way. Order Jerry and his troops to come armed this time and to bring a med squad, and tell them on the double," I said as I closed my radio and put it away. I sprinted this time and I could see and hear Jerry and his troops coming down the ally way that I had just left. They had riot shields and assault rifles this time. I drew my pistol and loaded a clip and cocked it.
The seen was a disaster area. On the ground were three men that were still alive but were n terrible condition. One had been shot in the stomach while the others had less serious wounds to the legs and limbs. I looked to my right and I could see the town wall about ten yards away and to my left for my cover was a house. Down the street I could see Capital Square ad I could hear screams coming from behind the fountain and gardens.
I connected a head set to my radio and opened up all frequencies.
"OK Guys what is the situation?" I asked
"Ok here is the brief. Nine bandits from who-knows-where came in today with a plan of some kinda revenge scheme and these three were their targets. They are well armed and very dangerous," Said Tom Randle one of my First Unit Guardsmen.
"Alrighty, Jerry move in a secure a perimeter around the entire fountain with riot shields using the north and East entrances to cut off the Bandits. Tom and whatever guards are left, I want you to man the roofs so that they don't have anywhere to hide. LETS MOVE!" I shouted and Jerry moved into the correct and desired position within fifteen seconds cutting them off. Tom and the guards had cur off any route of escape and were using the roofs as cover for fire. I motioned for my team to enter out of the South side and we sprinted in, my pistol was out a in front. The first bandit came by and when he saw me coming he turned his gun. I opened fire while ducking behind a door for cover. I missed three times on all three shots.
"Get me status!" I yelled
"We have three guys one is moving toward your door sir, the other two are moving to Tom and the guards. WATH OUT, They have opened fire, every man return, do not go for the kill only wound them," Jerry yelled
I peeked around the corner and aimed at his leg and fired once. His scream could be heard and Jerry moved in for the arrest. Tom had opened fire from the West side roofs and once again the screams of men could be heard.
"REPORT!" I heard Jerry shout.
"Both down over here. Small injuries to legs..."
"Situation is secure, holster weapons and move in for arrests," I said
"Have three men in custody and moving them to Guard Station Four," Jerry said and I could see him moving with a man on a stretcher moving away from the scene.
"Good Job men, back to posts."
Part Three
The prisoners were not hurt, which as you will find out as you read on in this chapter proved to be an act of fate. The information that they divulged proved to be the first and one of the most important steps of the Perfection Chronicles. We had to drag their limb and unconscious bodies to the Guard Post, which took us underground. Under the town for its protection was built a series of catacombs that could give the town protection and that connected the guard towers to the fortress for a quick reinforcement or a quick evacuation. The catacombs held everything that a prison or heavily secured area would have. Prison cells, surgery emergency room, interrogation rooms, a barracks for the SF (Security Force) and even a small armory in case of bigger problems.
The prisoners were first treated while unconscious for their bullet wounds and were then taken to individual prison cells for rest while under guard.
I took this time to get back to my post on the streets as we tightened security around the fortress and town. After the attack the man in charge on security of the fortress was immediately notified and he alerted the entire garrison to the situation as if it were a war. In a sense of irony, little did we know that it would become a war.
"Sir, the prisoners are awake and we have established communication with them. They speak the language of the Republic of Fedanial," came to voice of Tom over my radio.
"Ok good I am on my way, make sure that I have a translator ready for me when I begin the interrogation and questioning," I replied with a sigh of relief.
As I arrived I walked straight to the questioning room. As I found out to my dismay the head of URSC Security had already gotten there first. It made me furious because he tended to not use common sense when dealing with his problems and had been reported and reprimanded many times by the URSC Council many times in the past for his blatant disregard for their prisoner rules.
The sound proof room held back the screams of loud voices and as I opened the door I was almost blown back by the loud voice that came from the head of Security's mouth of which I am with holding his name because of hatred.
"-YOU WILL ANSWER MY QUESTIONS OR WILL BE SHOT!!" he said as I entered. He turned to me and came upon a look of complete rage. "This is not your job Commander now you are dismissed."
"Sir, It is my obligation to question him personally. This crime happened in the town not the fortress so back off," I replied with a small hint of anger.
"NEVER GIVE ME ORDERS GANNON NOW YOU ARE DISMISSED OR I WILL HAVE YOUR COURTMASHALLED!!!" he said to me and I stared in shock he was serious but I remained calm and replied coolly and hit the nail on the head.
"Sir, must I remind you that you are once again, for the fifth time in your career breaking URSC policy on prisoners." He turned and looked at me and his face grew bright pink, "I will be forced to report this to HQ if you continue with this questioning."
"Very well Commander," he said very slowly, "Take over but I will remain in the room."
I sat down in the chair and I pulled out my pistol and I set it on the table. The prisoner cringed but as I lifted my hand off of the weapon and pushed it off the side of the table he gave a sigh of relief and said something in a strange language to my translator. My translator gave the reply:
"He said that he is grateful that you mean him no harm and because you have shown your mercy he is ready to cooperate fully with your questioning."
"Good let me get right down to the chase. I would like to know that following things: What was he doing, why was he doing it, and who does he take orders from?" I said and the translator spoke to him. The man gave a long and sorrowful reply which took him over twelve minutes to complete. The translator pieced it out to me and in its full form it looked like this:
I was sent out as a messenger from the militaristic group os criminals known as the Revenge Sect. This was a special mission and only the most devoted could do it because it involved to things.
I first must explain that while we are hateful of your government on the planet that we do not wish for it to fall into the fate of death and destruction.
The first objective was a murder job which involved killing members of a rival sect that we cannot name out a fear that you may be part of it unintentionally. We got the job finished with our blood and we knew from the moment when we opened fire that we would have no chance against you and the Security Force but that we would show that we are a fighting people.
The part was a message that I am supposed to deliver to the highest authority in the area because it contains the most grievous of messages, one that could decide the fate of our entire culture and civilization forever. This is the message in perfect memorization from the head of or group upon the discovery of a new and more powerful enemy:
I am sorry sir that I have had to kill many people in your land, but it seems that a single day in our time can change a man's life for eternity. We have discovered a threat which intensifies every day growing stronger and more powerful than the day before. It threatens our life more than any other thing in the history of time. I cannot begin to express my fear of this enemy which is about to become a common house hold name.
I was having some of my men search a asteroid field so that we could place a base of operations out side of the planets. They were supposed to have been gone for three months only searching the entire field. After 9 months we decided to go an look for our disappeared friends. We arrived with a small fleet of cargo ships and began the search. As we entered the field was ran into the patrols of a new race and we engaged them. Before long an entire armada of small one-man fighters were crawling though the asteroid filed and firing up our ass. We had managed to bring back only three ships one of them with me on it. Two days later twelve ships all of our type blasted out of slip space right next to our base camp. We searched the ship and found that out of six hundred men that had been sent out on the search only seven made it home.
On board the ships were the bodies of almost 400 men women and children. Their bodies were scarred and smelt strongly of plasma. Reaching into my schooling I remembered the only enemy in our entire history to have used plasma were the Covenant. To reaffirm this onboard were the bodies of six Covenant aliens. For classification, two grunts and four jackals. They had bullet wounds all over their skin, which told us that the humans had put up a fight. We blew up the ships to cosign to oblivion their horrid memory and then gave them a plaque of the moon of this planet to honor their loss.
I am hear to send you the message that our long lost enemies the Covenant are not dead but are alive and well. They have a large force and we must stop them together or apart for our own survival. Heed my message, please.
The room fell silent and I spoke first.
"Chief, you and I must both go before the URSC Council with this message, whether or not it is true we must at least notify them of a renewed Covenant presence. We must leave now," I said with a large sense or urgency. I had lost the calmness that I had a few minutes ago.
"I will prepare us a ship and I will notify them of our coming immediately. Pack your things Commander for we will be leaving," he said in reply.
I looked at the prisoner and he gave me a look of solid fear, everything went blak because at that moment I threw up...
Part Four
Thoughts raced through my head like water through a river. Every emotion that could be felt was felt. Sadness over the death of almost 600 colonists, rage over the Covenant brutality, guilt, that I couldn't help, hopelessness of our situation, then hopes over what we had to throw back.
I sat on a large black chair in my Security Uniform. I had left most of my supplies back at my room and all that I had was my weapon and a single 9 round clip that only had 5 rounds in it. I was very tired and the ship had been in slipstream for some time almost twelve minutes but we had been cruising for almost an hour before that. I had not slept in two days and small black circles were forming under my eyes.
I took the time to walk to the bridge of the ship and I was allowed to see out the main view panel. Second Earth was in view and the ship was getting approach vectors from the planet side ports. I over heard some of their talking...
"Sir, Liberty One has been given approach vectors we are next in line," One of the crewmen said
"Deacon Gate, this is tower seven, you call the ball," came a slow raspy voice over the radio.
"We have ball, gentlemen sound the approach alarm, and pilot be sure to avoid the hydrogen stream coming from the Liberty. All crewmen are to be top side and have our cargo ready for unloading," said the Captain
"This is tower your vectors are Sector 05789 86487 00003 port dock seven, you have the clearance to break atmosphere," once again came the voice over the radio
"Ok, sound general alarm for atmosphere breakage," The captain said and the crewmen activated the alarm system and green lights came on all over the ship.
I had never before been in a ship entering back into a planet's gravity so a prepared my self. The ship felt like it had nailed a wall and I was thrown back but everyone else who just happened to be slightly smarter than I was holding on to something and were prepared for such a blast. The ship then began to vibrate and shake very violently. I grabbed hold of the edge of a computer to get up. Then as if the ship was suddenly free of chains the shaking stopped and we were in the atmosphere.
It took the better part of fifteen minutes to dock the ship and finally the catwalks were put out and everyone exited the ship. An elevator connected to the service tower took us to the ground were a hover car with large URSC markings was there to greet us. We got it and the driver began the long trip to downtown.
The driver shook me awake and we were at the URSC Administration Head Quarters and Military Base. I got out of the car and was escorted in by a marine.
The inside was very impressive as I took my quick look around the building. The lobby contained a service desk towards the back of the approximately 120 square foot room. To the left and right were other direction desks and we passed a large fountain and small garden in the middle. Five elevators took passengers up to any floor of the 67-story building. As we stepped in the marine entered in the number of the floor on the very top.
"It is the conference room floor. The top four levels are for meetings and everything else is office space for the administration. On the 13th floor we have a small armory and on the floor above it we have a barracks for the marines," He told me. I took it that this place was a small fortress and remembered that it would have very high security for its top members.
I stepped out of the elevator and was in the middle of an intersection of hallways. At the intersection, where the hallways went left and right, I could see the sound proof glass of about 5 conference rooms. A large gathering of people was in one of the rooms at the end of the hall on the right and the marine showed me the door and opened it up. As I entered the entire room quieted down and I was pointed to a seat on the end of a large rectangular building that sat 30 people.
"Please sit, and let me introduce myself Gannon. I know that you are a leader of our security forces and are the grandson of the largest heroes of our recent history," A man sitting at the middle of the table told me.
"I would rather be known by my own reputation, sir, not by the reputation of my ancestors of which I have yet to live up to," I said coldly to make him regret saying that to me.
"Yes, well I... ummm..., well you should...well ummmm...," He said and I knew what he was feeling.
"We must continue with business, sir," I said
"Yes that would be good. We would like to know why we were dragged out of bed at this time of night to answer to a call that had better be some dynamite information," and I heard a mummer of slight agreement.
I stood up to make myself look more imposing and once again laid my pistol on the table before starting. I went into the details of the long story first, telling of the terrorist attack on our town and then took my time before getting to the interrogation of the prisoner. The story was explained with every single detail that we have known and the Commander of the Fortress told the same story but the council's stupidity proved to be one of the faults of the URSC.
"HAHAHAHA," He laughed so loud that even the guards outside turned to see what was going on. "You expect ME to believe THAT? Honestly should the words of a terrorist be thought of as truth? Your grandfather would have thought it was folly and would have done-----"
"Everything he could of to figure out if the problem was true. I knew my grandfather better than any one of you would have thought and I hate it when people think that because they stood next to him on the bridge of a ship that he would have taken this lightly. You are very thick headed if you do not believe me because my grandfather while he thought that it would have been bull shit would have gone down and figured out if his worst enemy was still trying to crawl its way back to the top of the food chain," I said I was pissed off and they knew it because the chairmen sat back down.
"Gannon, please settle down. The Covenant was utterly destroyed by your grandfather. There is no way in ten thousand years that they could have come back." he replied.
"Please explain to me then where the fuck did 600 colonists disappear to when they left Torres for the Geronimo Asteroid Belt?" I said and I thought that I had him pinned but his retardation of the mind continued
"I have no clue but we have no record that those 600 colonists even existed. Your data had no proof, bring us proof and we help you," he said.
At this point I was so pissed off and angry that I picked up my pistol and fired at the glass breaking it easily.
"So, you believe that you know what my grandfather would have done in this situation?" and he nodded his head at my question. "Well let me tell you something, you never ever met him because of one reason. You would have said the dumbest things to him that you would already be dead because he would have shot you." Now both the Commander and me and walked out of the room and were headed towards the elevator.
We stepped in and the first admirable thing that I had ever heard from the Commanders mouth was:
"Idiot..."
Perfection: Parts 5-7 "Training"
Date: 3 November 2002, 10:09 pm
Part 5 The elevator ride to the bottom was long. Too long because the entire trip to Second Earth was just a waste of time because all we did was talk to a group of mentally retarded old men that didn't know what to do with their brains. It was terrible and both the Commander and I felt terrible about it but then again we couldn't do anything. We were soldiers, soldiers always seem to be at the bottom of the food chain in the URSC and both of us could feel it right now. 'Damn it, what are we going to do now Commander?' I asked, after all he was my superior but he was the one that usually trusted me with all of the thinking because I ad a knack for it. 'I don't have much of an idea, Gannon. Those idiots don't know what is going on but I am sure that we can persuade their minds,' he replied. 'What do you have in mind?' I asked with a small grin. 'I was thinking taking this into our own hand. I thought that we could use your security force to go and find the Covenant in the Geronimo Asteroid Field. We would need to order all our own weapons for our ships and get your forces some real training and turn them into full time marines,' he said. By the tone of his voice he was very serious and as he finished talking the elevator bell rang and the doors opened. We both stepped out and entered the lobby of the Administration Building. We walked out of the lobby and our car was waiting. 'Hey, sir, I have an idea,' I said as we both got it. 'I know for a fact that you have full clearance to use the URSC armories anytime any where for what ever purpose. You may think that we have a massive supply of weapons in our own armory but all we have are Assault Rifles, a couple of crates of grenades, and a few crates of ammunition.' 'Ah, I see. The armory on Second Earth is far more armed then our tiny armory-' He started but I cut him off in the middle of his sentence. 'Exactly, they would have all of the necessary supplied we would need to turn my security force into a complete marine force with ships and fighters with a full arsenal of weapons.' 'Ok, I have it all planned out now, here is what we are going to do,' he said and I listened intently. The car pulled up to our ship and we exited but we talked on our way to the tower elevator. 'We create our own special forces team using our marines in the fortress to give your Security guys the training they need to prepare them for real warfare. As they train I will get us some air support using the transport ships that we already have and turn them into fighters. Our mechanics can do anything,' he started I was now very interested as I pressed the button for the elevator to go up.'What about supplies and guns?' I asked 'Your armory may be tiny for a security force but our armory for the fortress on Torres is even smaller and we wouldn't survive half an hour against a full force of a battle hardened Covenant army. I would then personally order a large amount of supplies saying that we ran low on weapons because of our training needs. They would send out a massive reinforcement supply group to help us out. Using this we would be able to order weapons for fighters and better and new weapons for personal,' He said The door to the cargo hold of the ship opened and we stepped in and took an elevator to the bridge. 'Captain we leave immediately, I want to be back at Torres in less then an hour or you don't get paid, NOW MOVE!' The captain made a rush and launch alarms sounded throughout the ship. The tower radioed in launch vectors and launch codes and I strapped myself into a seat this time. In a matter of three minutes after getting on the engines of the ship started up and we were moving. The Commander sat down next to me after we had cleared the atmosphere. 'Commander, when is the fastest you can get me those supplies?' I asked 'Three days, my marines will start training your men for the job right away. This needs to happen fast because we nee to be in and out of the Asteroid field before the URSC notices anything unusual. It has to be Perfect,' he said. I knew he was right because if it didn't happen exactly right we could both face a court marshal from the URSC. I fell asleep, my mind raced with fear of our task. The fate of thirty-five men rested on two men's shoulders. Two men who were about to lead thirty-five men into a battle they did not have to fight, into a place they were not forced to go, fight an enemy that was superior to them, stronger than they are, and then bring all of them back alive. It would have to be Perfect and so I decided that our unit's name was to be 'Perfection' Part 6 My dreams echoed in my mind for the next 45 minutes, on a side note, the pilots did get us there in an hour. To be exact it was 59 minutes and 14 seconds on the dot. I was shaken awake by a marine that was clearing out the ship. 'Sir, we are unloading, you were the straggler that the Commander was talking about right?' he asked as I got up from the comfortable position I had put myself in for the past hour. 'I sure hope I am the guy,' I said as I got up and the marine lead me to the docking bay where a shuttle was ready to take me back to town. The trip was short and smooth and I found the place running very smoothly under the command of my guardsman, Tom. The town was like a heaven, everything was in order, the streets were cleaned up, the houses were very tidy (on the outside at least) and it looked like it did as I left, maybe even better then before I had left. I had decided to take a nice long walk before resuming my job as the Commander of the Security Force and got a nice tour of the clean up work. I walked slowly into the barracks, taking my time, and I saw Tom barking orders to a couple of my men, who had seemed to have spilled their lunch all over the floor: 'What is wrong with you, clean this up on the double, the Commander is going to be back today and this place needs to be sparkling clean without a spot on the wall or floor!' Tom said as I walked through the door. 'Too late,' I said and he saluted along with the other two guys, 'As much as I like this place to be clean Tom I believe you have gone slightly over board. I think that you must be humble this time and clean the entire thing up yourself.' 'Yes, sir!' he replied, the other two guys walked off sniggering and laughing jeering at Tom because he had to end up doing to work. Tom got down quickly and picked up the mess, threw it away and came back at attention. 'Great work Tom, It seems that you might be doing more of this in the near, near future.' I told him. 'What do you mean?' he replied 'I mean that the URSC is fucked up and they didn't heed our word and it will, mark my words, it will be our undoing,' I said, 'The commandeer and I have decided to take the matter into our own hands against the orders of the URSC. The Commander is ordering a shit load of necessary supplies that will be needed to create a unit that is capable of taking on a Covenant army. Our job will be simply to give the URSC council proof that the Covenant do exist.' 'So what you are saying is that you are giving me the job of Commander of the Security Forces so that the URSC can't take the job away from you if you fuck up the mission?' he asked. 'Yeah, the Commander has already signed your promotion papers and has signed me over to the Marines as a Lt. Colonel. I am taking Jerry's men for the job because if I do screw up it will take the council a whole lot longer to figure out what happened then if we used full time marines because the town pays our SF guys and the Council pays the marines. They would be sending checks to dead guys.' I told him. He got real excited and he even was holding his breath and was turning red. He saluted and then shouted out a loud cheer as he left to chase down the idiots that were laughing at him. Jerry came around the corner and had a message for me: 'Sir, local phone for you. Coming from the fortress.' 'Ok Jerry I got it,' I said. I went to my office and picked up my phone I instantly got a dial tone. I switched lines to local 1 which was the line coming from the fortress and the Commander was on the other end. 'I got the supplies! I got them right under those idiots noses! The ship will be here within three days with exactly what we want. Here are your orders: I am having my drill sergeants come over there at 3:00 in the morning. Do not tell your men anything about what is going on. They are being commissioned unknowingly by the URSC to be a reconnaissance unit. Here are the other details: Unit Number: 67 Battalion of the 3rd Reconnaissance Division Name: Perfection Recon. Leader: Gannon Torres Profile: Used for scout missions for the Kanhill Fortress on Planet Torres. Enlistments:
1) Lt. Jerald Tilly
2) Lt. John Lassden
3) Srg. Terrance Kepton
4) Pvt. David Trent
5) Pvt. Fred Keaton
6) Pvt. Joe Smith
7) Pvt. Thomas Simon
8) Pvt. Adam Jusy
9) Pvt. Neal Peaton
10) Pvt. Samson Derail
11) Pvt. Zack Landon
12) Pvt. John Healton
13) Pvt. Michael Fredon
14) Pvt. Cameron Hester
15) Pvt. Sam Gready
16) Pvt. Justin Husher
17) Pvt. Jason Lashion
18) Pvt. Michael Punnion
19) Pvt. James Becker
20) Pvt. Deacon Niferr These men are all of your men plus 10 of my combat ready marines. Your men better be ready for the hardest three weeks of their entire lifetime,' he hung up and I didn't get a chance to say a single word. I myself would be getting the same training to show my men that even I have to do it and to give them support. I wasn't going to sleep at all because it was already midnight and I didn't see the point. Everybody had gone to bed except for Jerry. He came over to my office and sat down. 'What's up sir, something is wrong because you have a very, very worried look on your face?' He said 'I want you to go and sleep because tomorrow you will begin your training to become combat marines,' I could see his face turn red and he left and a thousand things must have sprung up instantly. He didn't ask questions because he knew that if he did I wouldn't answer. I sat and waiting for the Sergeants to arrive at 3:00. Part 7 The day did not start out anything what I had expected it to be... 'OUT OF BED, OUT OF BED, LETS MOVE IT!' 'ON MY COUNT YOU WILL HAVE EXACTLY 2.5 MINUTES TO GET IN PT CLOTHES AND BE IN FORMATION. LETS MOVE IT!' I nearly fell out of my chair that I had set up during the night so that I could see when they were coming in. 2 drill Sergeants walked in the moment I had dozed off, I did not expect that this was what they were going to o to get them ready. Either way I rushed to get my warm ups on and I sprinted as fast as I could from my office to the barracks and took my spot a head of formation. Both drill Sergeants walked up to me. 'Sir, we will be your grillers for today. I am Srg. William Blake. You can call me Tilly,' said the sergeant. 'I am Srg. Dominic Herald, you can call me Dom,' The other told me 'Well sergeants, I am going to be doing this with them too as a sign of leadership even though I have done some of this before I decided not to become a marine. I know what we are in for. Just let me give them a short speech so that they are not so damn confused,' I said and I turned around to face the men. 'Listen up, I am going to tell you right this instant that you are no longer the Security Force. In two weeks you will be full combat marines ready to do battle. I am going to tell you right now that we are going to be fighting so that means you had better get the most out of this training. You remember those old assault rifles that you had to use for practice, well you will also be getting weapons training with brand new weapons. You will become a functioning marines unit. We have a job to do, less than three months ago, 600 men women and children part of a colony settlement group were found slaughtered aboard their ships outside of the Geronimo asteroid field and it is our job to find out what happened to them. You will listen to these sergeants and you will do what ever they say without question. Sergeants, take over,' I said. I turned away immediately so that I would not have to suffer the looks on their faces. I took up the head of the group as we sprinted in formation outside to the training area. I had never been in such a rigorous workout in my entire life. Right away we were told to do as many push ups till we dropped to the ground with exhaustion. From there we were told to run five miles in formation but that we had to all go the same pace as the leader, unluckily for me, I was the leader and I went at a faster pace so as the push them beyond what they thought they could do.I thought that we might get a break after that but we were then told to get a partner and have one get on the ground and do as many sit ups till we dropped. Then we switched and the other person did it. Needless to say every single person was exhausted and gasping for air. A large supply of water from the town was sent out for us and we were allowed a nice long hour break before we were told that we had to do everything we had done that morning over again in less than an hours time. 'Tell me Pvt. What good it is to have a weapon when your dead because you were too tired to fire,' Tilly said 'Sir, No good, Sir' 'Damn straight its no good, no get running you fool,' Tilly screamed back It was dark by the time we dragged our exhausted bodies back from our first day of training at around 6:00. Every movement that I made with any of my limbs was another new sensation of pain. I was bruised up, sore, and down right tired. I got some good news that suddenly made all of my soreness go away when I got back. A ship with URSC marine markings came in though the atmosphere and landed soundly right next to town. I could see the Commander smiling at the Captain of the ship as crates of supplies were being hauled out by ship personal. I walked up to both of them and greeted them. 'Hello there, what do you have for me here, sir?' I asked 'These are our weapon supply ships,' The Captain of the ship said, 'I have three more coming down with other supplies for the fortress but these are specifically for you. Have yourself a dandy time with these brand new right off the assembly line state of the art guns.' 'Take a look, Colonel,' The commander said. I ripped open a crate top and I smiled. Inside were 20 brand new M94A1 Sub machine guns. They were relatively smaller than an ordinary assault rifle, not as powerful as an assault rifle but could fire twice as fast and hold twice as many bullets in a single clip, 120 to be exact. I was very excited and put the top back on that crate and walked over to the next one. Inside was the URSC standard issue assault rifle, which had just been modified from the original M26. They were sleek new assault rifles with a longer barrel made entirely of titanium and steel. They had a new standardized clip with a 5.68mm round at could hold up to 100 rounds. That wasn't the last crate that added a smile to my face. I walked up to a crate that was pointed out to me by the Commander. I flipped it open and new BA56 8 gauge shotguns were inside. 'You got us all of the newest stuff sir, why would you get us all of this new stuff?' I asked 'I thinks that if I didn't get you this stuff that you would have a much, much harder time of knocking down the Covenant. I give the best to the best, now you have to learn to use these. You guys are getting a day off from training tomorrow to learn all about these new guns,' The Commander replied I woke up the next day extremely excited about the day. I woke up early and as instructed put on full battle gear, which included: SCU Suit (Space Camouflage Unit)
Body Armor w/ Titanium inserts
Utility belt
Helmet w/ plasma view screen
Weapons Pack: Clips, Grenades, Holsters, Straps, etc. I looked in the mirror with a sense of pride. Needless to say I was also what some people would call, pumped up. I lowered the visor on my helmet and my status screen came up right away. The visor gave me the status of everyone else in my battle group and gave me the statistics of my ammunition supply in regards to every type of ammo that I had in my pack. It was thought oriented; whatever I thought in my head came up immediately. It was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. The sergeants came into my office and they too were in full combat readiness, but they had already chosen their weapons. Tilly had picked up the BA56 shotgun, and Dom had a M26 loaded and ready. 'Sir, are the men ready for the day?' Dom asked 'I have no clue, I was to busy marveling at all of this great stuff that I have on, real pretty, don't you think?' I asked They both laughed as they nodded. All three of us walked into the barracks and to our surprise all of the men had been assembled and ready to go. Jerry was at the head of the formation, he turned and faced my at attention: 'Sir, all men accounted for and cocked, blocked, and ready to rock, sir!' Jerry said 'Very well, at ease gentlemen,' I replied, 'Gentlemen, you might actually have fun today because today you will be firing live ammunition. We will do this every three days from now on in-between conditioning days until your training is over. Today you choose your weapon, and the weapon you choose today will be your weapon until you die. There is no going back from gun to gun. These weapons are state of the art, they are the best that anybody can offer you so that means that if one of these sergeants decides to take a look at your gun it better be spotless and working efficiently. Am I right, marines?' I said, very proud of our new title. 'Sir, yes, sir!'
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