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Rites of Passage: A Bridge Way to Far
Posted By: Elitehunter676<brent_winfield@yahoo.com>
Date: 16 February 2005, 9:55 PM
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After his heartwarming story and advice, Red went to sleep. Chang and I had a thousand more questions, but we didn't dare wake him again. I couldn't understand how he managed to sleep. The 'hut' was full of flies, the heat was sweltering, and every time a Warthog or tank passed, heavy clouds of dust poured into the tent like the receiving bag of a vacuum cleaner.
Chang leaned back on his cot, using his pack for a pillow. He pulled his writing paper out of his shirt pocket.
"Tell Valerie hi for me," I said.
"I'm writing my parents." I wasn't surprised. Chang seemed very close to his parents.
"How's it been going with you and Valerie?" I asked.
"She loves me, and I love her." He paused, and then shook his head dejectedly. "But her mothers another story. Mrs. Gallina is doing everything she can to stop our relationship."
I laughed softly; according to Chang Mrs. Gallina was some what of a racist. Also Chang was neither Italian nor Catholic. All in all, the odds were stacked heavily against Chang.
A heavy rain pelted the 'hut' all night and didn't stop until morning. I knew because I was too excited to sleep. The day started like all other days in the Corps, with a formation. The mud was drying fast. It was 6 A.M., and I was already grimy with sweat. We marched to the chow hall which turned out to be a large metal garage-like building, and got our first taste of planet side Marine Corps food. This turned out not only to be eatable, but good. But we didn't get to keep it long; shortly after chow the brass had us on a two mile force march around Darrisville. Needless to say, that many of the boots were heaving the contents of their stomachs onto the ground and one another. This process continued for two days, with sleep coming on faster and faster every night. Apparently bone tiredness out weighs excitement.
On the third day the entire group of boots was herded into a large plastic 'hut' surrounded by sandbag walls. The atmosphere was serious. Fifty to seventy-five of us crowded in, and no one spoke. I felt nervous. Ten rows of benches made plastic command 'hut' (At least that's what I assumed it was.) look like a chapel. A large blackboard surrounded by two large maps stood at the front, beside them was a large black pedestal; I assumed it was a holo-tank, for holographic projections. Someone yelled "Attention!" We jumped to our feet. I felt like I was in a movie, getting orders to bomb or attack some city. Liberty City instantly came to my mind. Maybe this was it; maybe we were finally being mobilized to Liberty.
A small man with prematurely gray hair and dark sunglasses strode into the plastic 'hut'. He hustled to a platform in front of the maps. He looked more like a stockbroker than a major in the Marine Corps, but his chest tag said it all. 'Major William C. Germont.'
"At ease." He picked up a pointer stick and began to talk.
"You are members of the Fifth Marines. The Fifth is now knee-deep in Operation Green Machine. The Fifth and certain other Marine divisions have been given the task of retaking Liberty City. It is estimated that there is roughly two divisions worth of Covenant troops inside Liberty and also roughly three battalions worth in the surrounding area. Now these numbers are subject to change, as more Covenant reinforcements arrive every day." He turned and using his pointer stick, circled the area around Liberty. "The smaller Covenant forces around Liberty have been attempting to ensnare the surrounding area in a strangle hold. They have been trying to cut off our supply lines and convoys for the past several weeks, now that is were you come in." He paused a moment letting everything he'd said sink in. "Now, I know you all have a lot of questions, but this is all you need to know: You are UNSC Marines, the finest fighting men in the history of the galaxy. We have never lost a war, this should make you proud. Now attention!"
The 'hut' full of sidewall haircuts snapped to attention. "Repeat after me: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death"-the chorus of youthful voices stuttered out the words like they had never heard them before-"I shall fear no evil." We repeated the second part more clearly: "For I am the meanest mother in the valley!" I loved it! I felt psyched enough to take on the whole Covenant army.
"Saddle up!"
My stomach jumped up to my throat. This was it, not a daydream. I was really going into battle. Half of me wanted to get into this war and get it over with. The other half wanted my mommy to wake me up for school before this dream got carried away.
Ten minutes later I found myself in the back of a Warthog troop carrier heading up the highway leading away from Darrisville. I didn't even remember getting in the hog. "Are you all right?" The voice was coming out of a fog. "James, are you okay?" It was Chang.
"Yeah. I'm fine, and call me Jamie." I'd never liked being called James, maybe it was because that was all my mother had ever called me, even though I had insisted on Jamie.
Red was sleeping near the rear of the Warthog. It was good to see him. I'd only known the guy for a couple of days, and I was hard-pressed to squeeze more than a sentence at a time out of him, but he radiated self-confidence, and some special quality in him, possibly his honesty, made me trust him immediately.
The ride down the highway was smooth going for a little while. But as we progressed large craters began to appear, pock marking the road. A few of the Marines in the hog commented, saying that they were from Covenant plasma artillery, while others said it was from Air Corps strikes against enemy troop movements. This made the ride suitably less comfortable.
The ride got even slower though, when two huge Scorpion M808B Main Battle Tanks appeared from somewhere to lead the convoy. A third Scorpion pulled in behind the convoy only moments later bringing up the rear. I couldn't help but stare at its massive 90mm high velocity cannon.
"That thing could knock out this whole convoy!" I said a bit more loudly than intended. Chang looked at me with a friendly look of disdain.
"Brilliant, Sherlock, did you figure that out all by yourself?"
I did sound a bit "Gee-whiz," but emotions I had never known were bouncing around from my brain to my stomach. My body tingled. I felt overwhelmed with expectation. I felt exhilaration like never before, then paranoia, then excited again. This is crazy, I had to keep telling myself. I have to control myself or I'm going to get killed for sure. I thought I heard missile artillery in the distance. A flight of Pelicans roared over the convoy at tree-top level. Now the sounds of war echoed more clearly. My hands were clammy. My mouth tasted like vinegar. A skinny Marine sitting close to Red knocked on his helmet. Red peered from underneath the helmet with one groggy eye. The other eye remained closed.
"Yeah?"
The skinny guy hesitated then blurted out, "What's it like?"
"It's a job."
"How bad is Liberty?" asked another Marine. "I heard we're taken heavy casualties."
Red pulled out a cigarette from his helmet liner then removed the safety strip and tapped the end to ignite it. He looked like a cigarette poster.
"If you want to keep anything dry you better put it in you helmet right now." The men started fumbling for their wallets. Chang and I had already done that. "Don't worry about Liberty, just don't go playing Rambo. I doubt we'll get deployed to Liberty anytime soon. Besides, I heard we're getting bridge duty.
"What's that?" I asked.
"We guard the bridges along the highway. You see." He gestured down the road. "This highway links up to the Hardale road, and the Hardale road is where the Fifth gets all it's supplies and reinforcements from. If the bridges fall on this highway, the highway falls. If this highway falls, Hardale falls, and if Hardale falls, Liberty falls."
"Is it bad? you know, bridge duty." blurted the skinny guy.
"It's skate duty. Slack city. You don't have march through the forest except for a few patrols, and sometimes you get beer or soda off the supply convoys going by. Take advantage of it, man. It won't last long. You'll know what war is soon enough."
The men moved in closer to Red, hoping for that one piece of advice that might keep them alive. Everyone started asking questions at once. He held up one hand to stop the onslaught.
"Now listen up. The smartest thing you can do is this: When you get to your squad, find a salt, somebody who's been here awhile. Ask him what you have to know, stick with him, and do what he says. Keep that MA5B clean, you don't want a dirty weapon at the moment of truth." I wanted to ask what the moment of truth was, but decided against it. "If you fall asleep on the line, you'll probably get killed and you'll deserve it."
Twenty questions later we pulled up to an old steel bridge that was painted black. It looked like an old suspension bridge for trains, but it was strictly for road traffic. It stretched across a wide forest river that was reddish black from decaying leaves that swirled near its surface and lay in piles on its bed. Rolls of barbed wire encircled the bridge, and thick, five-foot -high metal shield like bunkers guarded each end.
A corporal jumped out of a hog near ours and started shouting. "Welcome to Darren bridge! Second Platoon, get out! Move it! Move it! Hurry up, you're makin' a great target!" We lined up in formation in front of a destroyed Warthog, it's tires were gone, and its M41 chain gun had been removed. Twenty yards to the right of the tank stood a three-story sandbag with the barrel of a M247 30-caliber machine gun sticking out near the top.
Just to the left of the bridge and behind the three-story bunker sat five small white cement bunkers. Directly in front of us on the other side of the road was another long cement bunker riddled with plasma scorches. Thirty meters to the right of that building was a huge camouflaged parachute spread fully open and tied to three trees. Under the parachute, sheltered from the murderous sun, sat twelve Marines. Some were playing cards; others were sleeping.
As we stood in formation, an old gunnery sergeant approached us. His eyes passing over everyone as he studied the column of boots. Then he spotted Red. "Red, is that you? It's good to see you." He walked over to Red, turned his head, and spit out a shot of tobacco like a major leaguer. They shook hands. Red then spoke, "What are you guys doing back here?" he asked. The gunny frowned, "After you left, we got the living hell kicked out of us Red. To many casualties, so we were pulled out and replaced by elements of E and B companies. And we've been stuck here ever since." The gunny then lowered his voice to say something only Red was supposed to hear. I heard two words to many: "...got killed."
The butt of an M90 shotgun rested on the gunny's hip. He wore special bandoliers full of shotgun shells, and small leather pouches full of more shells on his cartridge belt. He looked like my grandpa coming back from a hunting trip. He even spit like Grandpa.
As Red and the gunny continued to talk, I suddenly became aware of a distant rumbling, like artillery fire. I could also hear, if I listened hard enough, the sporadic sputter of machine gun fire. Above all, I could defiantly hear the roar of Longsword engines. I looked around, trying to determine the location of the noise. Then my eyes caught something, above the trees to the north. My eyes must have passed over it a dozen times and just thought it to be clouds. Small tendrils of black smoke rose above the tree-tops to the north. I slowly craned my neck and rose onto my tip-toes to see above the trees a little more. As I did, the small tendrils became thick columns of jet black smoke, blocking out the sky for a long distance. I knew instantly what it was, Liberty City.
"Okay, follow me!" I snapped back to the bridge and out of my thoughts. Red followed the gunny to the front of the column, then we started a slow walk behind the gunny onto the bridge. I tried to crane my neck high enough to see the smoke again, but it was to far behind the trees now. In some way, as we walked onto the bridge, I felt like I was being cheated. There in Liberty, was were all the action was. And I was stuck here, on some lousy bridge. I felt like I was never going to see action, never get into the war. Boy was I in for a big surprise.
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