User:Sando365

Part 1
0900 Hours, November 7 2531  UNSC Titania General Iron’s Private Quarters

Wes walked into the room with apprehension wondering why General Iron wished to see him. Standing stiffly to attention in front of the steel desk, littered with files he was rather shocked, since the creation of BWO nine years previously the General had become a legend, successfully deploying and leading troops both against Insurrectionists and the Covenant, even leading from the front line. Yet here, standing in this room Wes felt somehow under awed by his presence, Iron was still the gaunt figure he was renowned for being, yet he was also shorter than most stories said, he was in fact shorter than Wes and the fact that he was writing at his desk instead of issuing orders didn’t help.

“At ease soldier,” That was another fact left out, thought Wes, how quite and musical his voice was. “I have seen the reports on you Corporal Wes and I am astounded, on the training field you have a recorded target fatality ratio of 96% and in the field, out of eleven targets ten are dead and the other one only got away because a Drone flew in front of the target.” Looking up finally he said, “What we need are more soldiers like you who can handle a rifle effectively and not bungle a shot, as of now you are Sergeant Major Wes, your new duties entail training the more promising marines in the BWO program until they can equal your skill in the field. Any questions?”

“Sir, how many am I to train?”

“The sniper detail from each Strike Force.”

“But Sir that is more than forty people.”

“Get used to it, as a Sergeant Major you will be expected to look after more than just your own team, and look at it this way, the more you train now, the less you have to train later because fewer will have died.”

“Sir, thank you Sir”

“Dismissed”

1700 Hours, December 11 2531 Reach Training Facility

Wes mood was improving, in the brief month of starting a separate training program for those specialising with a sniper Wes had realised two things, one that if he failed this he would be demoted faster than he could blink, and most likely be removed from Strike Force Juno, the most prestigious squad in BWO. Second, there were few who had any significant skill in the program. Many were just those who could hit a higher proportion of targets than their squad mates but were nothing special. It was from these few that he had appointed two assistants Zach One and Casey James. Wes was intrigued by Zach’s surname but the only answer he had ever got was ‘One shot, one kill’ which he figured was appropriate as Zach had almost the same record as him. The hardest thing to teach was patience and how to actually fire properly. While these sounded simple they were relatively hard, using preset drones Wes had ascertained that most took the first available shot rather than waiting for a situation to arrive whereupon there could be no chance of failure. Most of the marines had laughed when he told them they were pulling the trigger wrong, both Zach and Casey had agreed that one should squeeze the trigger rather than pulling, while a squeeze keeps the arm rigid and with virtually no movement, pulling the trigger shifted the gun enough that at range the bullet would fly wild of the mark. The reason his mood was improving however was in front of him, one of the fastest learners; Nelson O’Neill. Wes considered this ironic that his best student shared the Christian name of his predecessor as the SF Juno sniper, Nelson Jones, who had been the greatest sniper of his time. O’Neill took onboard every piece of advice that was given by his three instructors and, as such had outshone most of his peers, much to the chagrin of those who had scoffed at Wes and Zach when they commented on how they could improve. Casey reckoned that in another month there would be enough trained snipers on a skill level high enough that would please old Ironskull and they could then relax somewhat.

1545 Hours, February 3 2532   Durban - Capital City - Planet Biko

One, two, one, two, Wes punctuated each count with a long relaxed breath in order to calm and slow his heart rate. The Elite was standing in the middle of a square littered with debris and human bodies and was surrounded by scores of Grunts and Jackals that emitted odd, high pitched yelps that coincided with the Elite punching the air with its equivalent with a fist. One, two, one... Wes stopped breathing all together and waited for fraction of a second in order to fire in between his heart beat. He was already moving back into the shadows and away from the window without bothering to check if he had hit, however after a couple of paces a cacophony of noise reached him from the square and Wes allowed a small smile to escape his lips, “One shot, one kill” he thought to himself. Hurrying down the stairs he was greeted with smiles from the rest of SF Juno. “Good job Wes,” commented Kaufman, Juno’s squad leader, “Without that Elite to lead them those Grunts will be too scared to move and will be stuck there until someone else arrives to give them orders, this gives us another few hours to complete the evacuation”.

Most thought it odd that Kaufman commanded the Strike Force yet was outranked by his sniper, however Wes was happy to let Kaufman take charge as he knew was a better leader and tactician than he could ever be. It was one thing to train people how to shoot; it was another to lead people in the middle of a real fire fight.

“Despite being leaderless the Grunts may spread out and make a token effort to find us, that means no fooling around and stay on full alert as we go to pickup, got that?”

“Yes Sir,” chorused the squad.

“Well what are you waiting for then? Let’s move you know the drill.”

Stealthily Strike Force Juno left the building and began the march back to the waiting Pelican.

0900 Hours, April 5 2532 Reach Training Facility

Walking onto the training field, Wes’ jaw dropped, there had to be more than a hundred people waiting there. Sidling over to Zach and Casey he stuttered “What the hell is this?”

With a grin Zach replied, “Well you see, I say it is down to my training talent, Casey however reckons that it was all of us, any way, all the snipers have been performing so well since we started this program that the ordinary squaddies thought they might come over and see if they could pick up any tips on how to shoot better.”

“But, we can’t train that many, there’s only three of us.”

“Appoint some more trainers then.” Said Casey, also grinning, “You brought this on yourself by being too good, so don’t complain as you can’t back out now.”

“I suppose I could give it a go.” Wes muttered as though the thought terrified him.

“Good man, knew we could count on you,” turning round Zach bellowed, “Right then you lot get over here and form a line and we’ll see if any of you can hold a weapon without looking like a pansy. Sergeant Major Wes here reckons you couldn’t shoot as well as his grandmother.”

“Was that really necessary Zach?” groaned Wes.

“Look at it this way Sir, I did you a favour, know they hate you so much they’ll want to prove you wrong.”

“Oh, thanks, how very kind of you, I’m glad I have such thoughtful friends.”

“Don’t mention it”