Clot Logs Part 1

Chapter two, we will find out who Marrone truly is.

Chapter 2: Clot Logs

He nearly collapsed when he got out of his mech suit. Everything from the waste down felt like jello, nothing at basic training had prepared him for that fall. Even though he had his parachute he could have sworn he heard his knee pop. He rubbed his legs in an attempt to bring some life back into them, and signaled to Lil T. to get down. The miniature mech detached itself from the larger machine and scampered along the ground on its spindly legs. One of its bolts was bothering it, the legs jerked around awkwardly, it had probably come loose again during the descent despite him tightening it before departure.

He walked away from the mech as it curled up into its resting position, and ambled towards the buggy. They had probably had a great time in there, he though as he walked passed them getting out, all they had to do was sit for a few hours, not walk the whole way. He was slinging his bag over his shoulder just as Sergeant... Marrone gave the order for them to stand to line up. It had taken him such a long time to uncover his real name, and he never understood the need for the fake. He had noticed the resemblance immediately, and most likely the other had as well, but had dismissed it due to the fact that people often dismiss things simply on the basis of them being unlikely. Because he was a training facility he had been allowed access to both military and church terminals. While it wasn’t obvious, he had found the little tells of the exchange. Money being traded, accounts shifted, insurances redone, all culminating in the fact that a hero of Intergalactic Space had come out of retirement in order and joined the Holy Defense Force. He realized he had been day dreaming and focused on what the sergeant was saying.

“...want anyone doing anything stupid tonight with the Cephalic so no leave until tomorrow. You all get to go have fun with the bug men in the morning.” What?!, he stammered inwardly as he kept at attention. Having them go through camp was like dangling the prize in front of their faces than snatching it away at the last moment. Come to think of it there hadn’t been many people out there anyway, just the priests, and many of them had been packing up to head back to the shield town anyway.

“Sir,” He interrupted, for a moment Marrone goggled at him, but waited for him to continue. “It’s just that when we were coming it there didn’t seem to be anyone besides the Cephalic living there. Do all the human come back to base camp for the nights?” Marrone stroked the rough stubble clustered around his chin thoughtfully for a moment, and then spoke.

“Short answer, yes. No one lives in with them, and next to nobody even goes out with them after dark I figure, the priests are probably scared of them, and the soldier don’t have any reason to go. Most of the squad leads will probably keep their lackeys out in order to minimize trouble, so the only ones out there are those who sneak out.” Sneaking out wasn’t such a bad idea, now that he thought about it. Seeing them off the radar would allow him to know what they were really like and not just how they acted in front of the priests. “Oh and one more thing, if you interrupt me again I’ll make sure next time you’re in that suit you’ll have to use the little soldiers room at a very inconvenient time.”

“Yes, sir!” He saluted and starred back at his Sergeants steely gaze.

“Anyway we need to be settling in for the night. You all get your bags and put them into the barracks, we get the front third because we’re the highest number. Me and Jessley will go get us our rations for the next two days.” He began to walk away and looked back to see them all still standing there at attention. “Er... Dismissed.” Tony looked down the line to see that the only one to salute was Kishry. She may hate his guts, witch was often what she talked about in the off hours, but she had too much pride to not salute him just like she would any other officer.

He walked towards the entrance of the barracks as the others went to the buggies for their belongings. Inside was just as dreary as the outside, everything was made of pliable sheet metal shaped into a half cylinder. Each wall was lined with five beds. No windows was also kinda depressing, instead the light came from luminescent orbs attached at intervals along the ceiling. He threw his rucksack into the bed closest to the door and sat down on it, testing the fibers. It was probably just shaped organomesh as well, but it was damn comfortable none the less. The pillow was made of the same firm material, he lay against it and watched as the rest of them came in and began emptying their stuff.

He reached into his own sack and began to look through it. Not much in terms of personal affects, all his clothes were standard issue, save from a single set of street clothing and his engineering garb. The entire rest of the sack was occupied by tool and parts he had nicked from basic training. When a mech broke down they would rather buy a new one than pay to replace the old own, and that meant lots of scrap parts available. He had grabbed as many worn out tools as he could carry and even brought a portable plasma welder. Lil T. was just another way to smuggle parts out of the base, at first, but he had later become attached to the little guy and his quirky antics. The chip he had put in was defective. Instead of the single base urge to kill the rest of them had this one was simply bent on living its life in the most comfortable way possible. Everyone else had finished with their unpacking and were emptying out the room, he swung his legs off the bed, and despite the slight twinge of weakness still present strolled out of the room back to Marrone.

Author's Note

I was wondering if anyone would mind proofreading another work of mine.
http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/Zalecot/554125/
I am hoping to submit this to a literary magazine that has showed interest in my work. I have already exchanged E-mails with the head editor, and I would like to polish up my work in order to submit it.

Reviews

[Marie Harrison]

In the first sentence change waste to waist. Very good chapter. I enjoyed reading.

[Aggie Skeleton]

Change he's for some other adjative (I so spelled that wrong.) that I can't think of and I like that I laughed in it. I like your work, it's always great.

[Huggy Bear]

Fantastic piece here:)

[Daniel Gardner]

Good story only thing i would say is take out some of the "he's"

[Y.Badr El Din]

aww thats beautiful, your really talented, keep up da great work! (Y)

[Senseless whatever]

Good chapter. I like the overall tone of this story. The last paragraph 'Instead of the single base urge to kill the rest of them had this own was simply bent on living its life in the most comfortable way possible. ' Reads funny. But overall a really good write.