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When Jones arrived at his quarters, aboard the serenity, he stashed his rifle carefully, like always. He had taken good care of every piece of equipment that the UNSC had given him. His parents taught him to...
"Each thing that is given to you is special, if it's a gun, use it for good, , if it's a voice, use it to speak out... "
How he missed his parents... he thought back to when he lost them, 20 years ago now, he was aboard the cruiser Achilles, and he was running around the corridors, playing tag with the crew. He loved it there. So many things to do, so many friends, so many memories. He learnt to walk in the bridge, in front of the captain, Riley, he was a great help when they were attacked by the covenant, and his parents were killed. Still, almost half of the marines were killed too, but they took his parents. That was un-excusable. As soon as he stopped crying, he went to Riley.
"Cap'n Riley, sir. I wondered if I could ask you something."
"Of course Jones, what is it?" he could still see the sorrow in his eyes; he was a great friend of his parents. After all, they were great people...
"Can you teach me how to fire a gun?" Riley was shocked.
"Why do you want to know how to do that, son?"
"I want to kill the covenant, sir. They killed my parents. I'm not gonna let them get away with it."
"Are you sure? Once you have killed you can never go back. Why don't you become a pilot instead?"
"Cap'n Riley, sir. You don't understand. I have to get revenge. Teach me to kill."
"Very well Thomas, but I'm not very happy about it. And bear in mind that the marines you will be training with are older than you, much older, they are already in their 20's, and you are still a boy."
"I know, but I'm going to be the best of the best, sir. I need lots of practice for that."
The next few years were the happiest he could remember, knowing that whatever he was learning, he would use, not like maths, or sciences, these were things you could use in everyday life, to survive. Day after day he spent in the rifle range, learning about every weapon that the Achilles owned. Learning the best angle, range, speed. The recoil effects, how to reload, what ammo each used, and above all, where the weak points in every covenant species were. It wasn't long before he was learning to drive. As if some un-natural force possessed him, pushing him on, ahead of his class. He reluctantly learned how to fly. But after all, he might need it someday. He was soon unimpressed by the standard weapons, and concentrated on the specialist ones. He wasn't strong enough for the rockets, but the sniper rifles were just about right. He focused on honing his skills for the next three years, waiting for minimum age for acceptance into the marines. He remembered that day clearly too, he stepped up to the podium, receiving his stars, he should have been sad, his parents weren't here to see his big day, yet he was filled with a righteous pride. Now he would get his revenge. Now they would pay.
He remembered the attack. Clear as day. The rumble, the siren, the panic, the fear. He wondered what everyone was frightened about, why they were all running. Then they came. A group of about ten, and they seemed to glow, but now he realised it was just the plasma charging, not some heavenly power. He scrambled to nearest room, away from the - things - and dashed behind the desk, he realised it was Riley's office. The captain aimed a pistol at him from the corner, behind some bookshelves, with the other hand un-sheathing his knife, then he lowered them.
"Thomas! Thank God it's you! Quickly, behind the door! And stay down!" Thomas didn't need telling twice.
The captain was amazing, within a few minutes, the 'covenant' had tried to get into the room, but they were met with a wall of lead. Riley was firing the pistol so fast you would have thought it was an assault rifle, and the knife, well, energy shields are fine, but when they are depleted, skin isn't much of an argument to a 12" piece of sharpened titanium.
There was a knock on the door, Jones started; he had been lost in his memories, again.
"Can I come in, Thomas?" it was Alice, one of his closest friends, not that any of them were any close.
"Yeah, sure." He replied, quietly. Doing things quietly was his trademark, he had to be quiet, he was a sniper, that's what they did. Stay quiet, scout out for the marines, take out some covies. But still, he was always the quiet one, ever since that day one the Achilles.
"Are you OK Thomas? You seem a bit sad. What's up?"
"Well, if you must know, it was 20 years ago to this day that I was orphaned." He said, reluctantly. He had never liked showing his feelings, but with Alice, well, he couldn't help it. She was a pilot, and a damn good one at that, but Thomas had never really gotten on well with anybody, apart from the captain, since then.
"Awww! Poor thing! Come here, give me a hug!" Thomas did as he was told, as always, he learnt it was more often than not the best thing.
"There there. Now, do you want anything? Coffee? Tea? Some food?"
"No, I'm fine, I just wish they were still here." He said, with his arms around her. She was a great help at times like this, he always felt better after a hug and a talk. Today, sadly, there was no time for either.
"Look, Alice, sorry but the captain wanted to see me as soon as I got onboard. I really should go."
"OK then, if you really must. You can always talk to me about anything yeah?"
"Yeah, thanks Alice. Bye."
"Bye."
He trudged slowly up to the bridge, past the armoury, the quarters, the hangars, the walls were the same everywhere, the same, grey, sheet metal that all UNSC ships were made out of, past the same, proximity activated doors that were everywhere, the overhead lights that never changed, never flickered. How he longed for planet action. The breeze across his skin, the sun along his arms, the grass, or sand, or mud beneath his feet. He had always been mildly claustrophobic, and never liked to be in the same place for too long, that's partly why he joined up, engineering and programming jobs sure paid better, but he hated the routine. Up in the morning, work all day, go to bed at night. At least in the marines he was free to move about, do what he thought was best once in a while, days were never the same, unless you made them.
He arrived at the entrance to the bridge, and the captain was waiting for him, he was standing in front of the main holo-panel, the ship's AI, Theed, was explaining something to him. He glanced around to see Jones standing there, with a perfect salute, not moving at all.
"At ease, soldier" Jones relaxed. "Now Jones, there's something the fleet has discovered. You remember your mother right?" of course he remembered, how could he forget, one of the highest ranking programmers in UNSC, she was a genius "well, fleet have recently found a program she was working on, it was highly classified, hidden in the archives from before the war, but it was outstanding."
Thomas remembered back to the days before the fatal incident, his mother hardly had any time for him near the end.
"She was working on a new type of AI, one that could do almost anything to a computer system, we only found it by accident, it was still half finished, but something had activated it, we though it was a virus at first. But now... now we realise how great your mother was. She named it, she named it TJ, after you. Its incredible Thomas, once our proggers had finished it, it optimised everything aboard this ship. We are now running at 100% efficiency. And he did it in less than 30 seconds, and believe me, we had a lot of inefficient systems aboard this ship."
That's it for now. More to come soon. Again, feedback is appreciated.
dave
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