The Making of a Marine:
As Told by; Private Recruit Mahony, Robert Patrick
“I signed up to join the Marine Corps because ever since I was a kid I’ve wanted to see the stars, other worlds and serve my Praetor, the second I turned 16 I was down at the recruiters office for the Royal Navy, ah unfortunately when I took the entrance exam to the academy the recruiter told me that there wasn’t a position open for me, in other words I didn’t have the grades for it.”
“I joined the Corps so that I could get into the fleet and see the galaxy, sure there was a war on but we were kicking their asses so bad it wasn’t even much of a risk anymore, and well joining the army was just not a good Idea as I didn’t want to spend my time on a troop ship, those things were ugly flying barracks, while a warship was graceful and powerful. Anyway when I got to the Marine Recruiter the woman at the gate definitely mad me want to join the Corps, she was about 23 by the looks of her, obviously a Brandenburg native by her hairstyle and a real beauty, the Corps should have put her on their posters if you ask me. She told me where to report and the next thing I knew I was on a shuttle to the Icara Marine Recruit Depot on Honshu Island-in other words the place where they shave your head tattoo your arm and send you to join the other bald, tattooed men and women you’ll spend the next 3 months with- I guess they figured “Marine Recruit Depot” sounded better.
There I was a raw recruit with one hundred and forty-nine others wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into, and right off the shuttle this “black hat” or Drill Instructor comes over and starts screaming at us, I didn’t even understand him until he started slapping folks on the back and forcing us into a line, another DI walked over and started taking our bags out of our hands and throwing them into a big pile at the back end of the shuttle- I was honestly afraid they were going to shoot someone- we were sent at a forced run to our new barracks: where the aforementioned head shaving and arm tattooing takes place, well my tattoo read “ME5923-521/5”, I’ve been told ME stands for “Marine Expendable” by the DI’s and I don’t know if that’s true or not but it sounds about right.
We were shaved after the tattoo and then all of us-men and women- were thrown into this big shower room and told to strip for disinfecting, I hadn’t seen a naked girl in person till then and I just stood there stunned for a minute until a DI came by and whacked me with his baton right across the back of my neck, well needless to say the shock of naked girls wore off quick as the stinging sensation spread in the back of my head.
The DI’s left the room quickly and suddenly we were being sprayed with this hot liquid that was obviously not water, some chemical used to totally disinfect the body, it had a greenish mist come off o the spray instead of that nice white mist that comes from water, that and it smelt like a mix between piss and lemons.
After our “shower” we were shuffled outside-still naked mind you- and formed up into a column, there was a girl to either side of me and both looked about my age, I tried to face front but man two girls naked and right next to me! Well the DI saw a few of the recruits-glad to say not just me, and not just guys- looking around at each other so he said and I quote “Oh so your busy admiring each other’s assess eh? Fine look at the person to your left and grab their ***!”.
Needless to say no one did at first-actually someone behind me did but he was slapped by the woman that he grabbed.
“I SAID GRAB THEIR *** YOU SORRY SACKS OF DOG [censored]!” the DI’s voice echoed across the little training yard we were all in, followed quickly by the sounds of flesh smacking against flesh as the recruits followed the order, I turned so red when I grabbed the girl next to me I could feel the blood rushing out of m face, I just kept focusing on other things so it wouldn’t rush *ahem* elsewhere shall we say?.
“NOW that you’ve got a feel for each other, let me say this, that sorry lump of flesh your holding in your hand belongs is YOURS!, her *** is yours your *** is hers an SO ON, as long as you are a unit! Do you pieces of dog meat understand me!?”
I had the feeling that the only good answer was yes so naturally I said it but even that wasn’t good enough that drill instructor finally let us remove our hands from our neighbors posterior but then came another dressing down, though at least we found out his name, he was Command Gunnery Sergeant Tyrel Jackson and he’d been in the Corps longer then most of us had even been alive.
After the second dressing down we finally got shuffled off-more accurate to say we got run off- to the Camp’s equipment distribution center where we got our uniforms and unloaded weapons, then we got to go eat some dinner, if you can call that pile of goo they plopped down on my tray food. Finally it was off to the Barracks where we got lights out and some peace and quiet.
The peace and quiet ended at 4:00am base time as the traditional bugle called reveille over the camp’s loud speakers, half a second later DI Jackson came storming into the barracks screaming fire and hell at us, whacking those guys that were a bit late out of bed with his “staff of office” we were rushed off to the showers for a one minute wash- real water this time, though it was cold as ice- and then to mess hall where we got fifteen minutes to eat more goo.
After that we went for a nice run where I got to here my first running cadence (audio file included)
http://www.grunt.com/downloads/Combat_Zone.mp3 to tell the truth I didn’t much like the sound of “Dying on a Combat Zone” but what can you do about it?
Then it was off to the rifle range where we got to hear Sergeant Jackson describe the marine darter rifle:
“Alright you sorry excuses for biomass this is a Marine Mk92 darter assault rifle, now those army boys might like their energy weapons but we marines know better don’t we?”
“Hooyah Sergeant”
“Mmmhm Damn right we do, you see what those army boys don’t realize is that their pretty little energy weapons do a nice amount of damage on the ground, but aboard a starship they’d punch a hole clean through the hull, and then where would we be, I tell you where we’d be floating in space. And I don’t know about you piles of puke but I don’t want to be floating around in space during a battle. Hooyah?”
‘Hooyah Sergeant!”
“This weapon was designed for use aboard ship, and during ship to ship actions, it has an effective killing range of 200 meters though I expect you all to be able to kill at 205 meters at least, a magazine of 45 7.75 millimeter explosive darts, and a retractable polycarbine stock. Any Questions?”
I knew better then to raise my hand but some poor sap always has to open their big mouth, and this time it was Recruit Daniels.
“Yes sir, if they are explosive darts how come they don’t pierce a starship hull?” he didn’t see the grin on Jackson’s face but the rest of us did, and it made us all cringe.
“Well Daniels that is a good question, anyone want to answer it?” no one spoke “You really are a bunch of maggots now aren’t you! Alright then Daniels I’ll tell you why an explosive dart won’t pierce a starship hull, and then I’ll ask you later today, if you don’t know the answer I’ll have you running laps around the armory for days you get me?”
“Hooyah Sergeant!”
Sergeant Jackson went into a
long speech about the materials that make up a ship’s hull and the explosive properties of a dart round and how they react to one another, not to mention a brief speech about speed and reaction mass that I didn’t understand at all.
After that Drill Sergeant Keeting took us for a six mile march where I got to hear a Marine Corps Marching cadence, that went something like this:
“When my Granny was 91, she did PT just for fun”
(squad repeated )
“Oh when my granny turned 92, she did PT better then you”
(Squad repeat)
“When my granny turned 93 she did PT better then me!”
(Squad repeat)
“When my Granny turned 94 she did PT even more!”
(Squad repeat)
“When my granny turned 95 she did PT just to stay alive!”
(Squad repeat)
“When my granny turned 97 she up and died and went to heaven”
(Squad repeat)
“She met Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates”
(Squad Repeat)
“Said Saint Peter hope I‘m not late”
(repeat)
“Saint Peter said with a big ol’ grin!”
(repeat)
“Get down granny and knock out ten!”
I remember later that day poor Daniels couldn’t answer Sergeant Jackson’s question, poor guy did 52 laps around the armory while the rest of us had to stand there and watch in parade formation, it took him twelve hours!
After that we got rushed to mess hall, ate and finally allowed to report to barracks for lights out, all accept Daniels who had to make a little trip to the base Doctor for exhaustion or something.
On the Second day our class was given it’s name “852” and presented the class patch, we were then taken on a “celebratory run” by Sgt. Jackson, before the rest of the day began.
Three months of hell and FINALLY I’m an Icaran Royal Marine, poor Daniels didn’t make it though, he washed out along with twelve others and sadly Lauren Bard and Leonard Crown were killed during training, Lauren by a grenade some idiot dropped during combat training (we recruits never found out who, though we suspected it was one of the “wash outs“ that the MP‘s dragged off) and Crown by a landslide during mountain training, the same landslide where Daniels broke his leg, he couldn’t take watching a buddy get killed and washed himself out.
To be honest I’m glad I didn’t see either event as I may have joined some of the folks that saw it on the wash out line, though at least they left with honor and dignity intact, unlike those wimps that just couldn’t take the training or those morons that screwed up seriously enough to be dragged off by the MP’s for disciplinary action (two were shot).
I got my assignment though, it was to the
HMS Yu Hing Pe all the way out on the Phong Frontier, me and a few others were being sent out to replace marines that were headed back home, I am looking forward to my service with pride and excitement and can’t wait for the transport to arrive tomorrow at 05:30 hours, which reminds me I better get some sleep, Private Mahony signing off.”
Re: A new Game story (From the begining)
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(My first name is Tyrel 
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