- Wolverfrog
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- Fabled Legendary Member
“Do I look as if I give a damn? We're ODST, we have immunity”
I very much doubted that, but the look on the sergeant's face made it clear that he believed it.
“Okay Okay, just please, don't hurt me! There's a map in my front pocket!”
Then, just as Rook was looting the Sergeant for the map, another marine walked down the hallway, I cursed silently.
The marine drew out his gun, which was filled with wooden bullets I reminded myself, and pointed it at us.
“Well, Lookie what we've got here, a couple of ODST's, taken by surprise. I'm gonna enjoy this....”
Everyone was taking it very seriously, considering it was only a training exercise; I suspected there was a vendetta between us and the standard marines that I had yet to know about.
Cursing, Rook slowly drew out his Battle rifle, then threw the Sergeant into the newly arrived marine, and I did like wise with Higson.
Momentarily stunned, the marines dropped their Assault Rifles in shock, and that was when we started firing.
Soon, all three of them were lying on the ground, either unconscious or in agonising pain.
When stepping over them, Rook reached inside the Sergeant's pocket, and took out the map. And there it was, marked with a bright red X, the spot where the “detonation” would be.
“Would you seriously have cut into that marine Rook?” I asked
“'Course not! Just wanted to shake him up a bit, that's all.”
Shaking my head in exasperation, we moved on forward.
After about 10 minutes, we came close to the entrance to the room where the 'Bomb' would be placed.
“Hold up there newbie!” Rook warned me
Reaching inside his rucksack, he drew out a can of aerosol. Spraying the ground in front of us, it revealed a criss cross of 2 red laser beams, pointed at such an angle that it was impossible to jump over.
“Holy crap.....” I breathed.
“Farm-Boy, take of your helmet.”
I did without a seconds hesitation, and passed it over to Rook. Gently, the more experienced ODST sided my helmet into the path of lasers, and the mirrored visor reflected the beam in another direction, giving us a way to get past without setting off the alarm.
“Wow Rook, I'm impressed.” I remarked
“Little thing Switch taught me was that, Blade never was one for subtleties.”
So I had gathered in the time I had known him.
Warily, we gently lifted our feet over the now alone laser beam, and placed them on the other side. As of now, the map was only about 50 yards away, but we knew that the time slip ups occurred were usually right near the end.
I was slightly worried that we hadn't met up with Blade and Switch yet. I commented on this to Rook, who seemed to be in agreement.
“What if they've been captured?” I asked worriedly.
“Well, I guess they both get minimum rations for a few days.” Rook said, shrugging his shoulders.
I didn't think Blade would do that to himself, but then again, In all the time I had known him, he had never seemed a hypocrite.
We arrived at the room where we had to plant the steel bar, and we could see a electronic door inside, presumably, this would open when the sensor pad in the middle of the room read the volume, weight and material type of the 'bomb'. The sensor was advanced to stop us from simply standing on it and fooling it.
Rook took the honours, and removed the solid, worn out bar that had obviously been used many times before. Walking to the middle of the room, he bent down to place it in the grove. He should have been looking where he was walking.
I noticed the two red lights, pointing at each other, but before I could cry out a warning, Rook marched through them, setting off the trap.
A cloud of gas filled the room, and Rook collapsed immediately. I suspected I would do the same, and was pleasantly surprised when I didn't.
I remembered I had fastened the locks on my suit before the exercise, making it air tight.
I wondered why Rook hadn't done the same, then with a start, realised marines were probably rushing towards the room as we spoke.
Quickly, I gathered up the bomb, and gingerly lowered it down onto the sensor. After a few brief seconds, the red lights on the door turned green, and I went for it, not forgetting to drag Rook with me.
Finally, the exercise had been completed, and we actually passed it! Blade and Switch marched around the corner, rubbing arms, legs, and pretty much everywhere.
“Well done Farm-Boy, and uh, what happened to Rook?”
I sought for an excuse, but there was no way around it.
“He got careless at the last minute sir, knock-out gas got him.”
Blade smiled.
“Looks like he failed with me and Switch then, thank God for that, he would have never stopped gloating otherwise.”
Apparently, Switch and Blade got ambushed by some marines, and were hit in numerous places by wooden bullets of pain.
I felt a little bad about Rook being punished, as I also did with Switch, and even Blade too.
“Sir, I don't want to be treated differently from the rest of the squad, we failed as a team, punish me too.” I couldn't believe what I was saying, but it sounded pretty noble.
“Well, Okay then, that's another one of us on minimum rations!” Blade retorted.
I felt my heart drop down to my feet. I had hoped Blade would be impressed with my chivalry and let all of us off. Evidently not.
“We've got a lot more training to do tomorrow, so I want everyone up at the crack of dawn!” Blade shouted enthusiastic. He then looked down at Rook's sleeping form.
“Switch, go ask one of those marines how long the gas will last for! Rook ain't getting out of it that easily”.
Somehow I had a suspicion we'd still be training tomorrow even if we had all accomplished the objective before...
[Edited on 01.26.2009 12:35 AM PST]