Free Recruit by Jonathan P. Brazee Page B

Marine Corps, the weapons were just slightly more advanced than smacking each other with padded sticks.  It didn’t matter what Ryck thought, though.  For the Drill Instructors, this was life and death.  Competition between squads, platoons, and companies was the very lifeblood of the DIs.  Each unit had to do better than the rest, and the DIs held their recruits’ victories over each other.  The pugil stick tournament was the first major competition within the company, and the all the DIs were anxious for an early victory.
    They’d been introduced to the sticks in the morning session.  There was actually some technique involved, but from what was the undercurrent being discussed, the actual bouts were more like two recruits simply trying to bash out each other’s brains.
    Now, after chow and after a class on first aid, which Ryck thought was appropriate just prior to the tourney, it was time to have at it.  It was First Squad against Second, Third against Fourth.  The final platoon winners would go up against the other platoon champ in a death match at the end of Phase 1. 
    Ryck figured he would be matched against Raj Simperson, the Third Squad leader, but the DIs chose No Initial as his first opponent.  Ryck’s first reaction was why me?   No Initial was huge, but then as he thought about it, Ryck figured this would be a way for him to shine.  Ryck already knew that No Initial didn’t have stamina and that he was slow.  All Ryck would have to do would be to dance around, darting in and out, landing what blows he could until the big guy from Craxion 4 tired.
    With his gear on and checked by Drill Instructor Lorenz, Ryck joined the rest of the squad around the huge sawdust-filled circle just to the east of the obstacle course.  The circle was only used for pugil stick training. A recruit would think this was sacred ground. Woe and behold any recruit who happened to try and walk across it.  That had happened to Hodges when he was told to go back to the start of the obstacle course back on T4, or “Training Day 4,” and what happened to him was something Ryck never wanted to see again.  He thought Hodges was going to DOR right there, but somehow, the guy had stuck through his “motivational training.”
    First Squad and Second were going at it.  Some bouts were quick, some took time.  Du Boc, a smaller recruit from Harmony, and Graeme Styles, a heavy-worlder from Rio Tinto, had an epic battle, with all the recruits and drill instructors cheering.  Du was quicker than the stockier Graeme, and he kept up a tremendous flurry of blows that the heavy-worlder absorbed as he tracked down his lighter opponent.  Heavy-worlder or not, though, Du was getting through, staggering Graeme twice.  Finally, as Du darted in for another shot, Graeme connected, almost sending Du down.  Somehow, Du stayed up as Graeme waded in.  Several blows hit Du from each side, yet he would just not give up.  His helmet was knocked askew, blinding him.  Graeme lunged forward to take advantage of it, but Du lashed out with a wild roundhouse swing, going yard .  Somehow, he connected against Graeme’s head, and the Rio Tinto recruit almost went down. 
    The rest of the recruits, even those in Third and Fourth Squads, were going crazy.  Just to his right, the Second Squad “coach,” Drill Instructor Mendez, was in full apoplectic fit mode, screaming as it looked that Du might pull it out.
    The recruits wore big, bulky gloves while fighting, and these gloves fit through the padding on the sticks to allow a combatant to get a firm grip.  It was considered a coward’s loss to drop a pugil stick, akin to a Spartan coming home without his shield, so the gloves and handhold made it easier to hang on, almost locking the hand in place.  This didn’t make the gloves very useful for anything else though, and when Du removed one hand to try and twist his helmet back so he could see again, he couldn’t get a good grasp on it.
    When