The Corrupt And Vain

Chapter 1: First Day A Ranger

Austin, Texas
12/5/16
Log Entry No.1

It's my first day on the job, nothing special at first, just received a kind welcome party from all the other Rangers in the department when I arrived, had my desk and new partner introduced to me. My new partner, Gideon Collins is a real charmer, the closest thing to a 'hello' I received from him was a stern look and a scoff. He didn't seem to be the reasoning type neither since ironically on my first day, Me, Ranger Collins, Ranger West and Ranger LeBeau intercepted a call about a group of thugs attempting to hold up a gas station on 1901 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.

Quite a mouthful to take in for a street name, we arrived on the scene just as the thugs were about to make their escape. Just before Ranger Collins parked us around the block to keep his Nova out of harms way. He took out an Ennio Morricone CD from the glove box and played it on the loudspeaker.

"Track 13-The Ecstacy Of Gold"

I could only assume that Ranger Collins is a fan of old spaghetti westerns, especially the ones with Clint Eastwood since this is Ennio Morricone's music playing.

As we approached the scene, out of the blue, Ranger Collins turned to me and said "Watch how we Rangers get the job done Rookie."
Quite unexpected for the first words he actually ever said to me but alas, I listened to what he said. I took cover behind a deputy police cruiser with my weapon drawn toward the gas station and simply just watched as Ranger Collins called out the suspects hiding inside the station.

"So! You Dillenger wannabes in there wanna do this the easy way or...."

Ranger Collins drew out his Colt 357. from his holster and locked back the hammer.

"....the hard way?...."

I can't lie, I was ducked down behind that cruiser mesmorized! That one Ranger could just stand out in the open and call out three heavily armed suspects like that! Ranger Collins must have balls of titanium alloy to do that. Hell! he wasn't even wearing any body armour!

I yelled out to Ranger Collins, demanding that he would take cover and get out of the line of fire. Without hesitation, he just went ahead and flipped me the bird. I mumbled "Crazy asshole..." under my breath, then, I was caught in a indecisive moment, deciding whether I should go up there with him, seeing how I was his new partner and all. Or, I stay in cover and listen to his request.

Within that moment of indecision, one of the gunmen burst out the gas station with a shotgun and started shooting at some of the Austin PD deputies to the left of the gas station. Ranger Collins drew his pistol toward the unsuspecting gunman and shot him three times in the chest after dropping to the ground to avoid getting shot at by the other gunmen shooting at us on the right side of the station.

From what it sounded like, the other gunmen inside the station were yelling at the gunman who had ran out to 'get his ass back inside'. Unfortunately for him, Ranger Collins tagged his ass before he even made a decent way of escape.

The other two gunmen started shooting out the windows of the gas station towards where me, Ranger West and Ranger LeBeau were ducked behind cover. Ranger Collins dove behind a gas pump for cover, lucky for him, the gunmen didn't notice him hiding back there reloading his gun. If they did, they would've lit him up by now and probably lit up the whole damn outer station like a damn furnace.

A brief moment of silence arose when the deputies and gunmen reloaded their weapons. One gunman remained inside the station shooting, most likely providing covering fire for the other gunman who ran out the store and ducked behind a white Chevrolet El Camino which I'm also guessing was the suspects escape vehicle.

The other deputies and myself began to return fire once again, mainly at the suspect inside the gas station. The deputies crouched back down behind their cruiser to reload again, that's when both suspects began to return fire at us and the other officers to our right. Unfortunately, the gunmen managed to hit two deputies on our side of the station, they survived having only suffered flesh wound injuries but in action, they were down.