T he S.T.A.R Chronicles:

#1 - Desert Flame

…:::Opening File…C:/Files/S.T.A.R/Database/Mission Reports/Desert Flame…Initiating:::…

..::Academy journal of Wolfgang Prendion, entry 19/08/2105::..

  Wow! That’s all I can say, wow, I made it, I, Wolfgang (Wolf to my friends) Prendion, have reached Field level at the academy, I’ll get to go out into the field with a crack unit of S.T.A.R.* Marines on a mission. If I don’t arse this up then I’ll be able to progress to S.T.A.R. training and eventually become a Marine. I just hope my speciality isn’t scorned, I mean, Weapons Specialist doesn’t seem like a necessary unit in a crack team but I know how important that position is, I need to issue weapons dependant on the scenario and location, e.g. you don’t want to be hefting a long driver rifle down a narrow corridor do you? No. You need a weapons specialist to see the situation and issue the weapon that fits the situation, so you’d have a fast repeat auto-rifle instead of the long driver. Oops, I’m gonna waste all my allowed file space with my explanations, Got to go…Logged Off ..::Wolf_Journalacademyfile::..

*Special. Tactics. And. Reconnaissance.

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   Wolf Logged off of his journal when he noticed the clock on his screen, 14:54, six minutes until they announced the squad mach ups, and it would take him at least four minutes to get to the main hall from his dorm. He strapped on his Wrist PDA, threw on his jacket and raced out of the dorm, locking it as an afterthought. He thundered through the hallways and took the stairs four at a time. He arrived at the main hall with two minuets to spare and sought out his best friend, Brett Grengrada.

  “Wolf, over here, the mach-ups are going up” called a familiar voice from the crowd of students; it was Brett, communications officer in their student training squad.

   “Brett, yours will be up first, who you hoping to join?” asked Wolf

   “I’m hoping for Red Moon squad, they lost their comm officer to grey plague a little while back. You?”

   “Black Scythe squad, so how many chose Grey Reaper squad?”

   “Last count? Around 50” Said Brett

   “And do they realise that a squad is only 20 men?”

  Grey Reaper was the best Squad around, all veterans; they just kept running low on grunts every now and again. Black Scythe squad was Wolf’s choice, not a very famous squad but it did have a good record, he wanted to meet his hero, Veren Charnisle, Heavy munitions officer in black scythe squad, and maybe work with him. Looking up at the screen he saw that not many had been accepted to grey reaper, Brett got his post in Red Moon and Wolf’s name came up, he stared, he had done it, he had got into Black scythe.

   “Crack open the beer Brett, we got our posts!” Yelled Wolf, thumping Brett on the back

   “Yeah, now we just need to find out what our missions are, but I’ll have a beer all the same”

Wolf looked around, he could see a majority of happy faces, and the screen showed that all of those top of their classes, not him or Brett though, were to form a new S.T.A.R squad, the Bronze Triad Squad, there were also a lot of disappointed faces, most of them Grey Reaper candidates, then he heard a voice shout his name, a voice that he didn’t want to hear right now, Greg Melincar, the thickest person, in Wolf’s opinion, in the entire academy, him and his followers, the Blank Mind squad Wolf and his friends called them. Greg thought he was the best, megalomaniac and arrogant he just didn’t take no for an answer, top in only Auto-rifle training this bully haunted Wolf and his friends, and today would start bragging, Greg was one of the few who made it to Grey Reaper squad, cannon fodder.

   “Ey, Wolfgang, which famous squad did you get into then? Eh?” yelled Greg from the protective shield of his followers

   “First off Gregory, you will refer to me as Wolf, don’t use my full name, and I didn’t try to get into Grey Reaper if that’s what you mean, I’d rather I wasn’t cannon fodder” replied Wolf, tensing and mentally preparing in case Greg became violent again

   “What did ya say ya twerp? Cannon fodder? At least I got into a squad people know, not some pathetic two bit backup team” Shouted Greg, edging out of his protective shield, Wolf slightly lowered his centre of gravity and planted his feet wider apart

   ‘That struck a nerve’ thought Wolf “Black Scythe is an accomplished squad Greg, they may not be an endorsed Brand name but they do actually do the work, instead of having all their grunts and newbies stop to wave at the camera” retorted Wolf, everyone had seen that piece of footage, in the middle of a fire fight one of the new grunts of Grey Reaper turned to the camera and waved, he was probably going to say “Hi mum, I’m on TV” but got no further than ‘Mum’ when his face exploded due to a high powered round in the back of the head.

    “You startin’? ‘Cos I can knock you from the cradle to the grave mate, you think you’re ‘ard, come and ‘it me” Greg stepped towards Wolf and drew a long knife from its sheath

    “Now Greg, don’t do this, if you can remember that far back you’ll remember you started this” Wolf told Greg, grasping the handle of his own, hand forged knife.

    “Now yer insultin’ me? I’m gonna skin ya fer this” Greg lunged at Wolf, knife arm outstretched.

Wolf Drew his own blade, crouching and spreading his feet apart, he caught Greg’s first swipe with the flat of his own blade, as the customary ring of onlookers formed yelling “Fight! Fight! Fight!” like a pack of animals ready to pounce on the loser and tear him limb from limb. Greg slashed again and caught Wolf in the left shoulder, Wolf swung his knife round and scored a long line down Greg’s back, Greg yelled and swung round, scything the air where Wolf’s torso had been moments before, Wolf had flung himself backwards and onto the floor, springing up, Wolf took advantage of Greg’s overstepping and slashed him diagonally across the face, from cheek to forehead, then stabbed his blade into Greg’s leg, twisted then pulled back out, the hook on Wolf’s blade ripping through flesh and clothes effortlessly. Greg collapsed on the floor and Wolf called for a medic on his PDA, turned, sheathed his blade and walked off to the briefing rooms to find out what his mission with Black Reaper was.