Stand By Me [rskde & Stachura]

[Risky]

The world was on the edge of war.. years ago, Russia had launched an invasion into Ukraine that had caused turmoil in the EU, but nothing had come of it. With express permission to continue their journey towards rebuilding the Soviet Union, Russia set its sights towards Latvia and Estonia, which were quickly ceded to them to prevent any conflict from occurring. Unlike the Nazis in WWII, Russia decided to halt their territorial gains while they still could do so peacefully, but kept their armies on alert in case of any attack from any other country. Russia was quickly removed from the crosshair of Democracy when North Korea launched a missile that landed fifty miles off of the coast of Guam, causing a final warning to be issued to the regime to cease their nuclear program or there would be war. China stepped between the United States and North Korea once again, assuring their ally of old that the United States would be met with the full force of the Chinese military if they decided to invade Korea, causing the United States to temporarily back down.

All of this conflict had made the news.. The United States was preparing for war. It was time for the giant to return to the world stage, now truly united, men and women from all around the States began enlisting in the military to serve their country, those who were unable to do so managed to take jobs in factories that were being converted to create more weapons for the first superpower arms race to ever occur in the 21st century. China saw this as a threat and began to build their own stockpile of weapons. The EU forced the two countries into an accord, warning the two that if a nuclear weapon was fired from either side, there would be consequences. The U.S. would be alone in its war if it decided to declare it, unless China or North Korea elected to use their nuclear arsenal.

Fired up by the idea of serving his country, a civilian by the name of Ryan Hoffs decided to join the Marine Corps, making his way through bootcamp in the thirteen weeks that was required before attending Marine Combat Training and then receiving his job that he would be training for; Scout Sniper. He was a truly talented shooter, having shot the highest score in his platoon during his time in boot camp and having years of experience with hunting and other recreational shooting sports that had allowed his accuracy to grow to near perfection. With the new rank of Lance Corporal, he was shipped to Hawaii to begin his training as a Scout Sniper.

Ryan stands at 6'1 with the build of the stereotypical Marine, while built with some muscle mass he also sported a slim athletic frame that allowed him to be able to be strong while also endure long runs that he had performed in boot camp. His black hair is cut to the 'high and tight' style that the Marines used often, and his eyes were a hazel-brown, which completed his very handsome, clean shaven face. While handsome, he was very focused on his new career, he hadn't made time for any women and hadn't planned on making any for dating especially. He was in Hawaii to become a scout sniper, there was no other reason involved.

Walking off of the plane on the island of O'ahu to begin his training, he was greeted with a bus to take him to the school itself, which was connected to the center of the island where Scout Sniper candidates had access to the wilds of O'ahu. He was excited, but also nervous as scout sniper school had a very high percentage of failures and drop-outs, but he was determined to not let that stop him. He arrived on base and walked to the barrack that he had been assigned, a small room with two beds in it.. He knew that he would be assigned a spotter the moment his instructors assigned them to his barrack, as they would have to learn to live with one another. He began to unpack his things, placing his clothing in the drawer on his side of the room and laying out his own blanket and pillow that he had brought from home. With the remainder of his personal effects, he stowed them in the locker at the foot of his bed. He was dressed in Woodland MARPAT camo leggings with tan boots and a green t-shirt that simply read USMC across his large chest, his dog tags hang around his neck.

 

[Stachura]

From as early of an age that she could remember Amber Caulfield had taken an interest in things that were always deemed more of a "boys life" type of interests. She would rather be out hunting and stomping through the woods with her father and brothers than shopping or taking part in dance classes if they were even offered in her small town, so instead Amber found herself out and about taking part in everything she could that was different. Whereas other girls in her high school were interested in boys and the cheerleading tryouts and who was going to be playing football, Amber was doing other things away from school. She passed easily enough with straight A's, though many people didn't even know who the quiet, dark haired, dusky girl was in the small town her circle of friends was kept small for a reason.

Amber than felt it necessary that once she graduated high school, and not having the funds or necessary scholarships she felt to attend the school she really wanted to make a different name for herself. She marched into the local recruiting office to see what the various branches of the military had to offer, and signed herself up for the Marine Corps a week later. She completed her basic training, firing high in her class but not high enough to warrant anything special. Athletically she passed with flying colors and her quiet attentiveness set her apart as she learned the ins and outs of what the Marine Corps had to offer her, quickly rising to the rank of Lance Corporal and hoping to get promoted to the next coveted non-commisioned officer rank. And then she got an offer that could quite literally make history in the United States armed forces, a female in the snipers of any branch was unheard of and she jumped at the opportunity but it wasn't without scrutiny from the top brass that felt a female wouldn't be able to make it through the rigourous training regimen in Hawaii.

Amber arrived with a chip on her shoulder and the world to prove wrong, as she was showed to her room and the one she would be spotting for already there unpacking his things. She honestly expected no less from the Marine Corps as they would throw all they had at her to try and prove her wrong and force her into quitting, but if she stuck it out she felt she could make her own place in the ranks and really offer them something different than they were used to.

"Hey there, you must be my partner." She says mustering her confidence and stepping into the room. "I'm your spotter, Lance Corporal Caulfield." Stating as she motions to her name tape. "And I'll just get this out in the open now, I know its not a traditional setup but I guess we are in this together now. I'm not here to fail like I assume you aren't either or else you wouldn't be here in the first place." Amber starts, setting her duffel on the bed across from his. "So I think we should push one another and aim to complete this course top of the class, thats what I intend to do and I think we can learn from one another."

 

[Risky]

Ryan looks up from his bunk when he hears the sound of boots against the wooden floor of the barrack, his eyes moving downwards to adjust to the height of the female Marine standing in the doorway. His eyebrows raise in curiosity when she said that he must’ve been her partner. “And you must be my spotter.” He says before smiling at her next comment about traditional setups. It was certainly different from boot camp, considering that it was separated by gender and any slight glance towards someone of an opposite gender would have that recruit running drills in the sand pit until their drill instructor got tired of seeing them suffer. “It’s nice to meet you, Caufield.” He says while turning around now, his large arms crossed across his chest. “I’m Lance Corporal Hoff.” He says.

The large Marine turns back to his bunk to continue his unpacking, finishing and stowing his duffel bag into his trunk before looking back to her. “Well, I certainly don’t intend to fail.” He shrugs. “I shot top of my class back on Parris Island and that was with a smaller scope than the one we have here, but you’ll have to learn to read the wind and all of that.” His shoulders shrugged again. “I don’t have to be pushed to succeed, boot camp was meant to show us that we have more than we think we do, but if you need some motto, I’ll help you out.” He laughs, obviously a cocky guy.

“So, a female trying out for scout sniper doesn’t really happen that often, does it?” His eyebrows raise and his body leans against his bed as he waits for her response. He silently wonders to himself if she was one of those female marines that wanted to be treated like a male at all times, he personally didn’t see the point considering the biological differences between men and women. It was mental toughness that made a Marine, nobody in the Corps seemed to care how many pull-ups or pushups you could do once you were off of the Island.

 

[Stachura]

Ryan looks up from his bunk when he hears the sound of boots against the wooden floor of the barrack, his eyes moving downwards to adjust to the height of the female Marine standing in the doorway. His eyebrows raise in curiosity when she said that he must’ve been her partner. “And you must be my spotter.” He says before smiling at her next comment about traditional setups. It was certainly different from boot camp, considering that it was separated by gender and any slight glance towards someone of an opposite gender would have that recruit running drills in the sand pit until their drill instructor got tired of seeing them suffer. “It’s nice to meet you, Caufield.” He says while turning around now, his large arms crossed across his chest. “I’m Lance Corporal Hoff.” He says.

The large Marine turns back to his bunk to continue his unpacking, finishing and stowing his duffel bag into his trunk before looking back to her. “Well, I certainly don’t intend to fail.” He shrugs. “I shot top of my class back on Parris Island and that was with a smaller scope than the one we have here, but you’ll have to learn to read the wind and all of that.” His shoulders shrugged again. “I don’t have to be pushed to succeed, boot camp was meant to show us that we have more than we think we do, but if you need some motto, I’ll help you out.” He laughs, obviously a cocky guy.

“So, a female trying out for scout sniper doesn’t really happen that often, does it?” His eyebrows raise and his body leans against his bed as he waits for her response. He silently wonders to himself if she was one of those female marines that wanted to be treated like a male at all times, he personally didn’t see the point considering the biological differences between men and women. It was mental toughness that made a Marine, nobody in the Corps seemed to care how many pull-ups or pushups you could do once you were off of the Island.

Amber nods as she starts to put her own things away, she knew from other training events that being organized and ready in the barracks takes away that chunk of stress that she knew would dominate their lives in the coming weeks. Amber had gotten the majority of her clothes and equipment brought along put away and organized well enough, tucking the duffel bag away in a large dresser they provided, but it was the typical barracks room of the Marine Corps. "I don't intend to fail either, that much is for sure." Amber says right back to him.
"I can't say I shot at the top of my class, but I shot well enough and am smart enough at the calculations to warrant being here I guess." Amber adds, shrugging her shoulders as she leans against the metal post of the bed behind her. "Yeah, here i am. They offered and why wouldn't I take the chance? I'm good at hunting and hiding at least back home, and know I can pass this." Amber begins. "That and what we don't know they'll teach us here, so anything I can't do I'll learn how to soon enough." The words sound confident enough. "That an I am not here to be drug behind someone, I feel like we are going to have to work together if we are going to pass. I mean that's why we are all divided into teams." Amber states, "most though would think your team is the weakest one cause of me, so we already have something to prove."

 

[Risky]

He looks over at her and raises his eyebrows. "I don't think we'll be at a disadvantage.. Don't prove me wrong." He says while uncrossing his arms and looking to her with a neutral expression on his face. "Learn everything quick, I'll be studying so I'll be here if you need me.. Though your job will be different from mine, so I doubt that we'll be needing to study together.. But like I said, if you ever need any help I'll be right here." Ryan chuckles while leaning back against his bed.

Ryan sits down on his bed while taking off his boots and his socks. "Well, training starts tomorrow and I flew in from the East Coast.. So I'm gonna catch some sleep to try and adjust myself to the time zone and get that jet lag out of my system." He laughs. "I'll seeya in the morning, it's already getting dark outside." He explains while pointing to the window which was growing dark with the start of night.

 

[Stachura]

Amber nodded and followed suit, making sure to splash water on her face and brush her teeth well before heading back into the room. Sliding her boots off and tossing her old socks into the laundry bag hanging off her bunk she sat down on the old, scratchy wool blanket all barracks seemed to come with. Swinging her legs up Amber lies back and folds her hands behjind her head, letting her hair down, her hair tie around her wrist, closing her eyes she knew all the excitement and hard work would start the next day for the two of them.

It wasn't long before the sun set completely and she was nodding off, snoozing and breathing lightly as sleep overtook her. So far her team mate seemed like a nice enough guy, smart and wanting this as badly as she was.

 

[Risky]

Ryan gives her a nod when she goes to get her teeth brushed, he pulls off his shirt and leaves it hanging on the foot of his bed, leaving his legging camies on just so that it wouldn't be too awkward for his new roommate. He lays down in his bed and sighs quietly as he goes to sleep, the quiet noise of the air conditioners lulling him into a deep sleep.

Towards the middle of the night their door opens slowly, two enormous men walking inside and slamming a bag over both of their heads, whisking them out of the room with little to no issues, as they had much power. Ryan awkwardly grabs for his shirt, his vision black from the bag of his head, his fingers scraping the fabric of his shirt which he grabbed as he was taken from the room. It was about three in the morning, the crickets of O'ahu still sounding off their song. Both of them were shoved into a car and their hands were zip tied behind their backs to keep them from struggling.

A small click sounds, the sound of a gun's hammer being moved into position to fire. "Here that? Don't fucking move." A voice growls through the darkness. They drive for around ten minutes before the car stops, they are both removed from the vehicle and dragged them for another minute or so before shoving them down. The bags are ripped from their heads and their hands are untied, Ryan quickly puts on his shirt and blinks, recovering from total darkness.

In front of them stands a Marine instructor who is very tall, a clean shaven and strong face that looked like the face of a drill instructor. On his head he wears a Scout Sniper hat and on his body he wears MARPAT camies. "Welcome to Scout Sniper training, one of the first skills you all will need to learn is navigation and surviving in the world." He says, if they were to look around, they would notice that the other Scout Sniper candidates are around them, all in their respective teams. "So, your job is to make your way back to base before the sun rises to the Noon position. Anybody who doesn't make it back by twelve hundred hours will be cut from Scout Sniper training and will be sent to open contract." He says. "Get to it Marines!" He calls, maps and compasses are passed out to each team before they are all blindfolded again. "Keep those on until we leave, if I catch you then you're out!" He calls.

When they had left, Ryan takes off his blindfold and looks to Amber. "Let's get to it."

 

[Stachura]

Amber had been through a lot of training before but nothing quite like this. She would've struggled if she didn't know it to be part of the program, that isn't to say that Amber didn't struggle but it was soon evident there was no point. She and her team mate were shoved in the van, her hair long and untied as the bad slid over her head. She still wore her t-shirt and uniform pants with her loosely tied boots.

In moments like this Amber sat and wondered, "how many recruits had this bag been over, it sure smelled bad, was it vomit? Or just breathe." She thought to herself, nerves a little rattled but that was the purpose of what was happening. Kneeling next to Ryan as they were then exposed to the morning air again.

Amber follows suit, waiting for them to leave before she stands and ties her hair back into a ponytail tucking the blindfold into her pants pocket. "We didn't drive long, so we really aren't far." Amber whispers. "But I'm assuming this is evasive training too, I'm more than positive people are watching to catch us as well." Amber states. They didn't drive far, and the instructors were giving them nine hours to make it the distance back.

 

[Risky]

Ryan looks to her and nodded, there would most definitely be people out there hunting them down, perhaps even with weapons that fire blanks, or real bullets if they're crazy enough. "We should get moving, they probably took the longest route possible to drive us here so following the tire tracks wouldn't be the best plan." He observes. "So in my opinion we should try to get a general idea of where we are on this map, and observe landmarks as we go." He says while tracing his finger along the map.

He stands from his sitting position on the ground and offers her a hand up. "From the looks, we're right around here." He says. "So if we go south of our current position we'll come across a pond, and then we can shoot east and straight back to base." He shows her the path that he planned for them to take with his finger while he speaks. "If we go south for long enough and we don't come across a pond but another landmark, we'll shoot another bearing." He suggests.

 

[Stachura]

Amber nods while looking to him, and the other groups taking off into the forest already, everyone heading in different directions from the start point. "I'm sure they'll try to round us up and spook us." She states, peering through the trees search for anything helpful. "To bad there isn't any sort of higher ground. But we can find some landmarks and triangulate where we are off that, at least a rough idea." She says pointing to the direction that he spoke of.
"I think you're right and immediately south is our best bet." Amber agrees fully, standing and starting to move carefully in the direction he spoke of. "And once we get there we can cover our arms if we need, camouflage will keep us alive." Amber states

 

[Risky]

Ryan laughs when she said there wasn't any high ground. "There is high ground on O'ahu, all of the islands of Hawaii are volcanic so if we really wanted to get some high ground we could climb the volcano." He says with a chuckle. "Unfortunately I don't know much about O'ahu, so I'm not sure which direction the base is from the volcano, otherwise we'd be able to get there fairly quickly.." It also didn't help that their map was only a map of the large reservation that they were in.

"So do you wanna take it slow and stealthy or should we just start booking it?" He asks while staring down at his compass and starting to walk towards the south through the trees. "If our calculations are right, there should be a small lake about a kilometer from here, and if we find that then we are good to go." He says with a grin on his face, rolling up the map and slipping both the map and compass into his pocket.