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Interview #1. James Masterson.

James Masterson walked calmly into the red room, looked around, and took a seat without being told. The interviewer raised a furry eyebrow and said, "You may be seated, Corporal ."
His reaction was to naturally, grin and say in a thick Brooklyn accent, "Thank's Cap. Now let's get started, you ask, I answer, I know how this works."
"Let's get started. What caused you to want to join the Corps? Was it pride? Honor? Generational? Or part of the draft?"
He snickered, like he had some kind of funny joke to hide. "Well first off, you'd have to be crazy to join the Corps. That or have some kinda death wish. Luckily, I got both."
The Captain growled under his breath and said in a terse tone, "Answer the question please." "Yeah, I got drafted, but my grandpa was a Soldier, my uncle was a sailor, and my dad was an airman. So I guess it just worked out."
"So you didn't want to join the Marines initially?"
"Nah, I would've done it eventually. It just happened a little sooner than I thought it would."
The Captain wrote some notes down on a clipboard, clicked his pen a few times, and tossed it aside in frustration. "I suppose I'll have to memorize the rest of your interview. So for now, let's move on to the next question. Why Recon?"
"Ah you know me Cap'n-"
"No, I don't know you. That's why we're doing this interview. Now don't interrupt me again, understand?"
"Yes sir. Now, as I was saying, I chose Recon because of the opportunities my CO offered me. As he said, "It's great Private. You get to travel the world, meet exotic new people, and then kill them!"
"Sounds like an, optimistic officer."
"Well, sometimes, mostly he was really dull, boring, and serious, but sometimes he would get sorta optimistic. Kinda like you! Boring!"
"Tell me about your first engagement with an enemy."
This sobered Masterson up. "Well, it was Yemen, 5 years ago. I was scouting out a route for the tanks to roll up safely to the enemy artillery emplacement. It went great, until Timmy stepped on a landmine. At first nothing happened, so we radioed or CASEVAC, but there really wasn't much left of Timmy to evacuate. CASEVAC arrived in about an hour, and that's when things really went south.
Snipers, machine gun emplacements, jeeps, and infantry, all showing up to make this our special day. The CO went down early on in the fight, so that placed Sergeant Aaron Davis in charge. Yeah, we know each other, it's a real love-hate relationship, 99% hate. I sorta tend to slack off a bit when he's around, you know, just to tick him off."
"This CO, was that the one who recruited you?"
"Nah, the guy who recruited me got in charge of me about a month or so before the Black Widow incident."
"I see," the Captain said. "So this first engagement, what happened?"
"Well, it didn't look like we were going to make it, until a group of Air Force MP's happened to patrol into the firefight. Ironically, the squad leader was 2nd Lieutenant Catherine McClain. She and I later met again when we got reassigned for Project Black Widow. They found us, and called air support. Some SF/A-42 came in and nuked the guys off the face of the earth. After that I went home for some well deserved R n' R. By home, I mean the barracks."
"Did you kill anyone? If so, was it your first?"
Masterson slowly nodded and said, "Yeah, a guy."
"A random guy?"
"Nope, he was the one who killed Timmy, I saw the mines on his pack. The way he paused at the crater like it was his work, I knew the scumbag did it. He had it coming. One bullet, right in the brain. After I shot out his kneecaps."
"What was your reaction to getting reassigned?"
"I dunno, all my buddies were dead, I knew some of the guys there, so I guess it was a fresh start."
"What did you first think when we found life on other planets?"
"You've got to be joking, I mean seriously, what crazy dude just says, "Hey guys, we found aliens!"
"But there were aliens."
"Yeah, real nasty suckers. "Bone Hunters," is what the other cyborg thingies called 'em."
"So you got back to earth, and you were detained. What was that like?"
"I'll tell ya, it was like being trapped in a box with no way out. Nasty."
"But you got out."
"Well yeah, a lot later!"
An explosion rocked the compound, the lights went out briefly, and then came back on.
"I'm afraid we'll have to wrap up the interview for now. We'll need you topside, let's go."
Masterson grinned and said, "Sir yes sir."