There once lived a mighty warrior, a Marine, in fact, who had two friends, one was a seaman and the other was an airman. Now, the Marine was very brave and feared nothing, creature or man. The seaman was very intuitive, always knowing where to go and how to treat wounds. And the airman was very smart, knowing how to solve problems and being able to create wonderful devices that were handy in a pinch.
The three of them, although from different branches of services, were like the closest of brothers. Because of their abilities and teamwork, they never failed a mission; they were allowed to choose whatever mission they wanted to go on. One day, a senior officer took notice of their abilities and began to give them extra days of leave and extra bonuses to gain their favor. After having received multiple days of leave and multiple bonuses over the year, the three took notice of the senior officer's generosity and decided to approach him and give him thanks.
"Good morning sir! and thank you for your generosity," the airman said. "Yes, thank you sir, you're not like those other officers," said the seaman. The Marine, wary of approaching officers, simply agreed with the others and said, "thank you, sir." After all these things were said, the officer spoke up and said to the three, "You're welcome gents! I just have one favor to ask in return." The Marine whispered to his friends, "I knew it was too good to be true..."
The senior officer, knowing of the three's high mission success rate, asked them to accept a mission that required them to go behind enemy lines and bring back a high priority target. Reluctantly, the three accepted, partly because they wanted to continue receiving their benefits, and partly because this was a chance to truly outdo themselves. This would be their most difficult mission yet, but the Marine was not phased at all by the mission details, so the other two did their best to appear as he did. So the three packed and left that same day with no fear of failure and every reason to believe that they would succeed, as always.
The three easily made their way through enemy territory, without alerting a single enemy, and proceeded to retrieve the target. When the target regained consciousness, he said to the three, "we can't take the same way back! They'll have set traps for us!" "No problem," said the seaman, "I can find us any amount of ways to get out of here!" So the three, guided by the seaman managed to move safely through enemy territory for a while.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, appeared a great wall. The Marine, brave and fearless as he was, instantly began to start beating on the wall to break it down. Dumbfounded, the airman said, "hey Marine! you can't punch through that wall! I'll make something to help us get over the wall." Not in the least embarrassed for his actions, the Marine stood guard over the target while the airman built his device. Once it was built, the four of them scaled the wall and made it to the other side.
They continued to move through enemy territory undetected until they spotted an enemy battalion of soldiers. The seaman said, "I can guide us around them and we'll be home free." The airman said, "the smart thing to do is to cover and conceal ourselves and wait for them to pass." But before any decisions were made, the Marine charged down the hill shouting "do ya'll wanna live forever?! Follow me!" Being so brave and fearless, the Marine rushed into battle without thinking of the outrageous odds of success stacked against him. However, the enemy had never faced a Marine before in battle and he easily dispatched of the entire enemy battalion, with only his M16 and bayonet.
In awe and disbelief of what had just happened, the target decided to reveal to the three who he was. "I am a four star general and I want you three to work for me," he said. But the three were reluctant because they didn't want to lose their good benefits from working for the other officer. So, the general made them a deal. "Take me back, but when you do, immediately get discharged and then i'll reenlist you guys under my command." The three friends did exactly as they were told and once they were back in the services, they went on top secret missions for the general and got all the leave and bonuses they could ever want.
Author's Note: I got my inspiration for this story from Twenty-Two Goblins. In the original story, there's a king named Triple-Victory who decides to help a monk retrieve a corpse, but there's a goblin in the corpse who keeps telling the king riddles that he must answer in order to keep from getting his head split open. Eventually, the king is stumped by a Great Riddle, but the goblin admires the king for his unrelenting efforts to deliver him, so he tells the king of the monk's true intentions to use him as a sacrifice. So, the king takes the goblin's advice and kills the monk and ends up being granted great dominion over everything, worldly and magical alike. In my story, the "king" is played by the service members from the three branches, the "monk" is the senior officer, and the "goblin" is the general. As I was writing this, I couldn't help but give the best parts to the Marine, because why not? This story actually turned out vastly different from my original thoughts, but I like it nonetheless. I hope the outrageous happenings are enjoyable to read!
Bibliography:
Twenty-Two Goblins by Arthur Ryder
Image: Three service members in their alphas,
Wikimedia Commons
