Chapter I

<BODY BACKGROUND="rdsbg.jpg"> <H2><CENTER>Genesis</CENTER></H2><P><HR SIZE=5><P> <CENTER><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE HEIGHT=361 WIDTH=514 LOWSRC="cii-ext1-low.jpg" SRC="cii-ext1.jpg"></CENTER><P><HR SIZE=5><P> It all started on a cold, dark night in mid October, 1992. Four of the ten sober students on the Rensselaer campus -- John Doe, Record Breaker, CompuButcher and the Chairman -- were sitting in the computer room in one of the campus' drab dorms. Out of shear boredom, Record Breaker grabbed the computer room phone off the wall and stashed it under his jacket. After a brief stop in John Doe's dorm room, they were joined by The F**k and then proceeded to wander aimlessly around the campus, trying to find a creative way to dispose of the phone. One of them remembered the large open stairwell in the nine story CII building. The group found an open door to the maze-like CII basement. After twenty minutes of wandering, they located an elevator and traveled to the top floor. They climbed the final flight of stairs to the roof level then stood looking down the gray, slightly stained stairwell. After several minutes of discussion, John Doe, Record Breaker, CompuButcher and the Chairman turned to walk back down, the phone still in Record Breaker's hands. The F**k, silent during the other students' debate, finally spoke, telling Record Breaker, "Gimme' the damned phone!" The F**k grabbed the phone and threw it forcefully down the stairwell. Four seconds later, it landed with a crash on the cement floor nine stories below. The loud bang was immediately followed by ten feet running down the stairwell to the seventh floor, across the building to the back stairwell, down to the ground floor and out of the CII. The Rensselaer Drop Squad was born. <P><HR SIZE=5><P> <CENTER><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE HEIGHT=310 WIDTH=440 LOWSRC="cii-ext2-low.jpg" SRC="cii-ext2.jpg"></CENTER><P><HR SIZE=5><P> <A HREF=story02.html TARGET="story">Click here for the next chapter...</A>