I punch Sergeant Spencer again, and again. His baton falls to the floor as he tires.
I don't let go until he's bloody, and unconscious. I spot Sergeant Mèndez running towards us calling to the other Sergeant. I take his baton.
Mèndez stops short, "Dylan step away from him!"
He did this to me! He caused me pain! I didn't start it!
I charge toward him then leap to land on him. I just starting punching him until he throws me to the floor.
I go for his arm to bite him. Sergeant drops the baton on the floor to use his other hand, but I kicked the baton away just in case. Sergeant won't hurt me again.
I pull at his hair to dig my nails into his skull.
'DIE!'
I aim for his chest, and stomach until he falls on the floor. Someone drags me off of him then backwards a couple feet.
I claw at my attacker, and bite into skin. I shove my attacker away only to realize that it's the other trainers. They must have heard the commotion.
Earlier
John shook me awake, and I sit up.
"Get ready, so we can head down to the barracks." He tells me. I fix my bed then follow them to the showers. John says Sergeant Mèndez will arrive to "motivate" the slackers.
I won't be one of them.
It's been two years since we first arrived here, and thankfully I've never been motivated because it's just like being with the Insurrection.
Don't be last. Listen. Be respectful.
It's a really easy code to follow. Of course there are other rules like we aren't allowed to be out of the dorm pass 2300.
There was this one instance where a girl ended up in a relationship, or whatever before the other cadets beat the crap out of her. They said she wasn't taking training serious.
I heard she lost her eye, and had to get a fake one.
I fold my clothes neatly on my bed then change into my PTs. They gave us a set of "civilian attire" except that it's a pair of shorts, and a shirt.
With UNSC logos.
Which makes no sense on how it would be civillan clothes.
My old pair of shoes had to be replaced as well.
Oh after that we had to wear uniforms, so they showed us how to pin our ranks to them. I am a Petty Officer Third Class.
Sergeant said that I am going to be promoted to Chief Petty Officer which is two ranks under John. He says that I am also going to be the commander of our group of cadets.
Basically a Platoon Leader.
Anyways we headed out to the barracks, and John had us form up to march there. I hate him to put it simply. We've never really seen eye to eye.
There was one time when we ran from Déjà's classroom to a small building called the playground. Run a course, ring a bell, the loser loses lunch. It's pretty simple.
Anyways we take off running the course, and we run through the tires then to the bars. The trick with running up the tires was to lift your legs a little higher.
The monkey bars was easy if you swing your legs, and move fast otherwise your hands would get tired.
The hardest part was the rope used to reach the bell because everyone was at each others throats to get it. My plan was to over power them.
I nodded towards Mathew as we started attacking some of the cadets who already reached the rope base. I gave a signal to Sophie who brought the others to help us.
"Ladies first" I tease, and she smacks me.
We fend off the older cadets while the girls climb up first. I ended up getting into a fist fight with John, so Sergeant Spencer interfered.
I take the distraction as a chance to get the rest of my cadets to the top, so we could ring the bell together.
Of course John's team was behind us. I gave him a nasty look, and grinned about it.
"2nd platoon wins. Grey team skips lunch." Mèndez says, and I can feel his eyes on me as we climb back down. I had John beat. This time we're the best.
Oddly enough the Sergeants didn't say anything about our fight. It wasn't really a fight to be honest, and I believe John would have beaten me.
Except I'm smarter than him.
"116, front, and center!"
I walk over to Mèndez, and stand at the position of attention. He looks pissed, but I don't get punished which is good for me.
"There are enough people in your platoon to divide them into two different teams. You're still a platoon, but we can split you up if needed be" he says.
I stare straight ahead while my blood boiling. They're splitting us up! After all the crap that my cadets have been through they want to split us up!
He did say if needed be though.
I hold my tongue. Sergeant won't split us up. I won't have any of that. Sergeant handed me a datapad.
"Team Kilo will consists of Sylvia, Anna, Tifany, Ian, and Destiny. Leaving Mathew, Kaleb, Sophie, Hailey, and Eddie as Tango. Spencer decided to leave you in Kilo."
I hand him back his datapad, and leave without being dismissed. I think that I've been on his bad side for a while now.
After of our usual PT session Mèndez makes us race back up to the barracks. Once inside I watch the otger Sergeant approach. Spencer tells us to form up again.
I hesitate to wait for the rest of my cadets until I hear the click of the baton. I sort of hop sideways to find our spot in the barracks. John's already called fall in.
"Fall in!"
Everyone is sluggish up until Spencer starts to count down because no one wants to do push-ups. Mèndez arrives last, and I notice there are new items.
One of them is a white box with a cross.
"Listen up. Instead of more Physical Training we're going to be learning about first-aid. What happens if you're in combat, and a teamate gets injured? Well that's what we're going to be learning."
One of the other drill Sergeants is laying on the floor now, and Spencer is holding a green cloth. Sergeant says he's going to show us how to tie a turnakit.
He starts off with checking for breathing, a pusle, and bleeding. He also gives a small lesson on CPR if the person isn't breathing.
During the lesson we did fall out to get a better view. Sometimes he did ask us questions to make sure we were listening.
With the turnakit we find two straight objects like sticks, wood, or if needed metal. Next you have to keep the limb still then wrap bandages above, or bellow the injury.
The sticks are used to keep the limb straight until it can be treated.
The next injuries we talked about are head, and neck. Spencer tells us the most important part is to keep the head straight for both injuries.
The wounded might become paralyzed if you don't they end up more injured.
After teaching us Sergeant paired us up, and we had to show him that we were paying attention. We would switch then another person would tie it.
After that Sergeant sent us to Déjá well except me.
"116, here. Now" Sergeant Spencer yells, and I fall out. I wonder what this is about. The other Sergeants leave with Mèndez.
"You owe some push-ups for the fight between Cadet Soren, and yourself. I don't care who started it, but push until I get back. They better be good ones."
Oh yeah. Soren, and I fought over a flag earlier. We were playing capture the flag, and we met. I'm not sure who got the point for the capture though.
The Sergeants had to break us up.
I get down to push. I can't remember my max push-ups. We did a competition once, and Mèndez would pick two random numbers.
If your number got picked then you would race them except the catch was how many you can do without stopping not who can do more.
Couldn't even rest for a few seconds.
I believe John actually won that one. Mathew beat Fred, and Kelly beat Sam. It was really interesting to watch them because they were on the same team.
"You can do more push-ups for not doing them until I came back!" Spencer shouts.
I roll my eyes.
"Seriously! I'm tired. I get caught taking a fucking break."
Spencer didn't like that comment, and adds thirty more.
I take a minute breather before continuing, but of course the drill Sergeant wasn't too happy with that either.
I raise my head when the sound of his boots click of the floor. I wait for it. I know he's going to strike me. I flinch, but out of the blue I dive for his legs in a tackle. Spencer starts to use the baton on my back, so I kick his feet.
If someone threatens you. Kill them.
Words pound in my head as I take the blows to my body. I force myself through his legs to aim for his back. I can't take this anymore.
No one will hit me again with a baton.
No one with hurt me anymore.
I scratch the back of his neck with my nails, and hold on as he tries to throw me off. I start punching him in his cheeks then close to his ears.
After a couple blows I end up on the floor with a fist to my chest. It knocks the wind out of me. I kick him in the face to get him away from me.
My head starts pounding from the pain in my nose.
"That is enough! Stand down cadet!"
Stand Down!
You broke my nose, and you want me to stand down!
If you hadn't threatened me then we wouldn't be in this situation!
I charge forward unexpectedly, and aim for his neck. I dodge the baton then headbutt his kneecap to send him buckling.
I put my knees on his back, so I can punch him some more.
I punch Sergeant Spencer aagain, and again. His baton falls to the floor as he tires.
I don't let go until he's bloody, and unconscious. I spot Sergeant Mèndez running towards us calling to the other Sergeant. I take his baton.
Mèndez stops short, "One-one-six step away from him!"
He did this to me! He caused me pain! I didn't start it!
I charge toward him then leap to land on him. I just starting punching him until he throws me to the floor.
I go for his arm to bite him. Sergeant drops the baton on the floor to use his other hand, but I kicked the baton away just in case. Sergeant won't hurt me again.
I pull at his hair to dig my nails into his skull.
DIE! I scratch his head, and face.
I aim for his chest, and stomach until he falls on the floor. Someone drags me off of him then backwards a couple feet.
I claw at my attacker, and bite into skin. I shove my attacker away only to realize that it's the other trainers. They must have heard the commotion.
They pull me off then my arms are twisted to hold me still. The two holding me basically drag me out of the barracks.
They take me up to the base, and put me into a cell. I sit on the floor then cross my legs. Not too long later they return, and bring me to the infirmary.
I went into surgery, and then I am given a few weeks to recover.
After that is something I call hell week. For the whole week it was intense PT. We still went to class, but then it was more PT. Sergeant said that to ensure it wouldn't happen again they punished all of the cadets.
The main reason that it was called hell week is because some of the older cadets harrassed me about it. I got pushed around.
I've begun to despise those around me. John I hated the most because he was too cocky in my opinion. I feel like I've mentioned this before, but I'm not sure when.
The main issue was that even my cadets were against me. That is the part that hit me the worst. I felt betrayed over John. I felt like I had lost their trust.
I didn't want to lead anymore.
That night I was upset enough to pull the ranks off of my uniform. I dumped it on the floor, and left it. I still haven't even hung it back up.
I just hung it over the bedpost. Since then it's hard not to feel cut off except a part of me believes John wants me like that.
Because if I'm alone then I'm not much of a threat.
I needed a way to regain my cadets. It was hard though. During the week I mostly kept to myself, and being close to people for a long time made it difficult.
Because at the end of the day I had a lot to say, but no one who would listen.
I decided that if John wanted to make me miserable then I'd do the same. That would be hitting him where he hurts: Winning.
We were in the barracks at the usual time, and ran PT. Today Mèndez said that we're taking a break from exercise.
"We're going go be taking a trip to a former smuggling route. It was used by Insurrectionists to hide information from the UNSC."
Sergeant went a little into detail about the route's past. He explained that the UNSC fenced in most of the land near the route for a training grounds.
"The objective this time is different because how you succeed in this mission depends on using the skills you have been taught here."
Sergeant continued to speak. He said that this mission is not about teamwork. It's about how well we do as an individual which I'm pretty sure means by ourselves.
This exercise is a free for all. The task is to avoid the trainers, and not get captured. Drill Sergeants vs. Cadets. Last cadet to be captured wins for their team, and for this event my platoon is split into our teams.
The only problem is that we outnumber them greatly. So, Sergeant Mèndez has asked a marine squad to assist them. They'll be using paintballs which he says can be pretty painful.
We get use our skills, and they get to advance their teamwork skills.
It might now seem fair, but the goal is to not get caught meaning there are endless ways to ensure that.
We'll get there by Albatross, but the trip will be about an hour because it's out in the woods.
Before we left however, some of the doctors came by, "Sergeant" greeted the head nurse. Mèndez doesn't say anything yet.
Instead he lines us up one by one in front of the bay doors, and doctors have a cart close to them. I stop in place. They're wearing gloves, and the one grabs a needle.
"Do you want to get into more trouble commander?" I hear someone whisper in my ear. I turn to see Eddie, but I linger for a moment.
He's a dark skinned kid. He is almost eight now.
"Unless you want to have a needle in your arm with whatever it could be. Robert Watts said the UNSC was bad remember?" I hiss fiercely.
Eddie shrugs, "We're sorry about not backing you brother during hell week" he says a little more soft. I snort then face back towards the front.
"If you want to be a lab rat then by all means I welcome you to it."
I hear the pounding of boots before turning to one of the trainers with her baton. I stare with hostility.
Want a repeat! Don't threaten me with that.
"Fall back in cadets" she orders keeping a distance for a minute, or so. I hold my ground wondering if I can intimidate the woman. She doesn't seem concerned.
Perhaps a more threatening approach
I step around Eddie to open the space between us. Out of the corner of my eye I see the other trainers gearing up for a fight.
I turn my head towards Mèndez for a split second as the female repeats herself. Ignoring the command I return my attention to her.
The trainer closes the distance between us while behind me the doctors continue with giving shots to the cadets.
To my surprise Eddie, Hailey, and Anna are standing with me. Guarding my back. Some of John's cadet watch too.
It kind of surprises me. Sometimes I kind of do pick favorites like Destiny, Mathew, and Kaleb. I really didn't expect them to help me.
Is it worth backing down? I don't see a point in taking on all of them at once. Better to do what I did last time, and wait for them to be alone.
As the medical people pick up the pace I remain stubborn, and to be honest I'm kind of bored. I jump when she yells at me. The woman loses her patience then sort of jumps forward to grab me.
However, instead of fighting her like I wanted to I panicked. It sort of turns into chaos because there are more than one trainers who pursue me.
I dash around the albatross then into the woods.
~°~
"Leave him!" I yell to the marines as cadet Dylan disappears into the woods. Cadets Hailey, Destiny, and Kaleb gave pursuit except I believe they're following his lead.
Loyalty. They're loyal to him.
"116 might be a stubborn, resourceful, and intelligent cadet, but he won't survive long. He's never lived out there. He'll come back when he's hungry" I tell them.
"Go ahead, and take them to the mission start. I'll remain behind for when he returns." I add to Alex. She nods silently.
"Good job by the way" I praise returning to my office. I send a report to the Colonel, and lay back in the chair to create a new agenda.
After this mission augmentations are to begin. 117, and the rest of the first group will be leaving to the UNSC Hopeful where Doctor Halsey will be waiting.
I personally despise that woman, but what she doesn't realize is that ONI knows about her causality percentage from the surgeries.
Once the augmentations begin a team of doctors will be searching for the problems. Their task is to eliminate them, or at least lessen them.
If this is successful then the UNSC wants to create more SPARTANs to fight the Covernant. Cheaper of course.
The mission lasted for about five hours; It came down to cadet Soren, and cadet Anna from team Kilo. Still no sign of the cadets. Personally I'm not worried, but the Colonel is up my ass about them.