A Glorious War
I was walking to my classes, back when I used to go to school… Like most kids I barely remembered the first mars landing, my parents told me it was extraordinary. They also told me a lot of things, like how kids nowadays have it so easy… For example when we went for our first field trip to Low Earth Orbit. They told me that they dreamed of doing so when they were children, and that I took it for granted. They used to dream about the feeling of weightlessness, and seeing earth from above when they were children, they told me. I didn’t pay much attention. Anyways, school that day went the same way it has always went, we had history, algebra and the rest. However that day they went around and they put up these posters up around the classes. They were about joining the mars colonial fleet. We had learned this in history class, the fleet was set up by the United Nations in order to prevent violent bickering between the various colonies, Terminus, Tiangong Huoxing, Arcadia Base camp, and others. I didn’t pay much attention to it then, didn’t pay much attention to anything back then. Over the years, the School introduced new rules, and new habits… In history class we learned about the glory of the soldierly identity and in assemblies it was told to us that man finds only the true expression of his identity when he becomes a soldier. It was on my mind at times, and I doubted signing up at the UN office. After high school I bounced around from job to job, not finding anything that suited me. You weren’t allowed some of the cooler jobs if you hadn’t completed your service to the world… I frequented the bar then, to clear my mind and to avoid it all. There would always be this woman, drinking across from me, every day I went, the same woman was there, sometimes I would arrive before her, sometimes after but we would always end our day at the bar. She would always arrive tired, with bags under her eyes, she had jet black hair, very pale skin and dark, almost dead eyes, she always came to the bar looking like she was going to release all her frustrations like a nuclear bomb, but the alcohol seemed to prevent it. There was a certain charm to her, and I wondered if she was in the same boat as me… So one day, I asked her “What brings you here?”, she looked at me and replied “It’s none of your business”. She then took a sip of her drink, and paused, and then finally told me, “Why would you ask me such a dumb question?”, she continued “You know exactly why I’m here it’s the same as you, I haven’t done my service, so essentially I’m living human trash to society. And we are treated as such, Hell we can’t even fucking board a spaceplane without officers breathing down your neck.” She paused to take a sip of her drink and then continued “They treat us like fucking children, just because we don’t have any doubts about our identity as civilians, normal people” during the tirade a small glimmer of life entered her eyes, she continued “I hope that’s where you are too?” I nodded my head slowly and she smiled. Two years passed in a blur, we had met more frequently at the bar and then I proposed to her, and we got married. During this, the news was focusing on the great victories that the colonial fleet was making against a group of Martian terrorists, they were apparently responsible for the destruction of Space station VI, a military outpost in Low Martian orbit a year back. It was a brutal affair, they made the station spin it’s centrifuges up, until it tore itself apart.
I’m being bombarded with it. Everywhere I go, I see it. The glory of it, it’s the true expression of myself, I don’t know what to do. What will she think of it? Nothing good I suppose, I’m doing it anyway. I’m one of them, I am a soldier.
I enlisted to the mars colonial fleet yesterday, it was the most popular choice at the time, I haven’t told her yet. She won’t like it, but this is whats best for me.
I told her, it was one of the rare times I saw her cry, she looked at me, she was disappointed. I couldn’t bear to see her in that state, so I ran away… I stayed at the spaceport until my flight to Station 12.
The plane was made in a bright silver with the underside stamped with black tiles. It had a sleek and slender look, only perturbed by the large engines and intakes. We were a group of 36 people, all tired and with bags containing belongings. We were ordered into the plane, it was pretty plain, with chairs running down the fuselage and compartments for belongings, I placed my bag in the compartment and settled down. The launch was nothing special. We flew for around 10 minutes, braced for the sudden acceleration as the engines closed the intakes, and ascended to orbit, to weightlessness… By that time I had done this procedure a couple of times, Orbital travel was becoming more and more common for folks like me at the time. After some time in orbit we came to the station.
Entering the station we boarded the U.N.E.F Carnwennan and after a couple of hours we departed for Mars, the engines pressing us against our seats and after some time us returning to weightlessness, and being told to unbuckle and to proceed to the lower cabins in order for an “important appointment”… I came down to an automated counter on a TV, and I got handed a card with a number… 216… We were waiting in line for something, and finally my number came up on the screen… I entered in the room was grabbed by someone, I couldn’t tell and I feel asleep.
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[SYSTEM START]
UN MARS EXPEDITIONARY FORCE HUMAN ENHANCMENT PROTOCOL
Eye sensors… Operational
Auxiliary Muscle enhancers… Operational
Comms… Operational
Emergency Ox supply… Operational
Pressure Adaptation system… Operational
[DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE]
[SYSTEM BOOT]
I woke up, a light flashed in my eyes… I was in a bed I stood up and looked around me, I was in a room, what looked like a dorm… a uniform was hanging on the door, it was at that time I realized I was naked, someone undressed me and put me here, and across my body, were small geometric scars and what looked like steel poking through it. I put on my uniform and opened the door to a long hallway, which noticeably curved over its long distance. I decided to explore it in one direction, I walked past a bunch of doors similar to mine, but with different names, passed by a door marked “EXIT” and then looped back to the door marked with mine. I went back to the door marked EXIT and pushed it open. I came upon a large room, a large shooting range was on the left and on the right was various computer terminals and headsets. A man called me, I followed him, he brought me to the range, and gave me a rifle.
“H&K G6KA6, I want you to use it to shoot at that man” he said, pointing to the target. It had been the first time I’ve seen a gun before in real life, I had up to that point had only seen them in video games, and in the rare movie. I didn’t see any objections with it though, and I aimed at the target and squeezed the trigger. The gun went off with a loud crack, and thrashed like a wild animal in my arms. I squeezed another shot, then two, then three. I had been given the power to stop a man’s life cold, a godly, otherworldly power, that I didn’t understand the ramifications of at the time. I would follow these gods then.
I would train in the Carnwennan with others of my class until we encountered Mars, we strapped ourselves in out acceleration chairs and the engines lit to put us in orbit. After some time we docked with another ship the U.N.E.F Galehalt I soon discovered, seeing it from outside, in one of the windows of the Carnwennan that it was surrounded by docked ships of different types, some similar to the Carnwennan, some larger ones that looked like landers, and many small ones littered the center of the craft. We docked with the Galehalt and we entered the craft, I proceeded to my assigned quarters and waited, and waited, until something chimed and a voice called.
“You are to Report to main hall for briefing and deployment.” The voice said, and I did so. The main hall was a large room with boards, chairs, and officers everywhere, someone called my name so I went to him and sat down. There were perhaps 30 people there, around me, all with different faces but all with those same small metal scars and uniform as I had. He was a curious man, with a stature and a face that looked young and fresh, but his eyes, his eyes had seen many things, and were old and failing.
“You’re going to be deployed to extract intel that the United Martian Front has taken from us, from the city of Briseis in the region of Arabia Terra” He said
“The Intel, if you are to fail would compromise the location of this craft and the location of valuable assets. When you enter in mars atmosphere, The pressure adaptation systems will make your heart pump faster which may lead to discomfort for some, but look on the bright side, at least we can now send you out with only an oxygen mask instead of a full pressure suit like the early days… Gotta thank our Whiz kids for that.” He continued.
“Arabia Terra is a rocky region I’m sure you’re familiar with this but that will not matter unless the situation gets dire, you’re to enter directly into the city by punching open their observation roof and climbing inside the city through it’s top floors, down to floor -24. From there go to Sector 36, then Bravo squad will get the intel out. You will also be dropping in at night in order to maximize the element of surprise on these bastards.” He said.
To be sure he did speak more on the mission and included more details, but I’m choosing to remove a lot of them. When he was finished, he gave us our equipment: which was a suppressed G6A6 and a pistol, some magazines, a breathing device and Oxygen Tank, and body armor, he then directed us to our dropship, which we entered. We strapped ourselves in. Through a small window in the now closed door through which We entered, We saw the dropship detach and slowly drift in space until, it lit it’s engines, We were suddenly smacked down, and as soon as it came, it stopped. It was strange, We had never met before this, and yet We were expected to operate as one. Eventually the dropship hit the atmosphere, and We braced ourselves again, this time for a longer period of time, whilst the craft was shaking violently and outside, in the window, was a blue violet trail of light. After what was a minute, it stopped and We were in free fall, waiting, anticipating, barely seeing the pocket marked region of Arabia Terra, and this planet of war approaching us because of the night. Finally there was a kick, and then it stopped. Then the airlock doors opened, and We reached for our oxygen masks and fastened them around our head. We started breathing a little through them awkwardly and then We exited the craft one by one. The city was close by, it’s glass windows barely peeking above the craters. We found the airlock and cycled through it in groups of five. We entered the city, looking in all directions for movement, We took the stairs and descended to floor -26. We walked around turning our flashlights on intermittently to check which sector We were in. Suddenly, movement. I whipped around and fired, the dim flash of my rifle briefly illuminating her… I turned on my flashlight, and I saw her, she had a small nose and rosy cheeks, and she had the same brown hair that my wife had back home. I heard a baby crying, from inside the apartment from whence she came. I had killed a mother. I had allowed myself to defocus, to bumble about and join the Expeditionary force on a mere whim. Doing so, I pissed off my wife, and now I killed the wife of another. I came back to Galehalt, in a cold sweat, I don’t remember much about the mission, I remember that we succeeded, at least the 30 people I didn’t know did.
I thought it would stop, that It would end here, but I kept disappointing myself, whether it was against the Free Martian Federation or The Kingdoms of Tharsis. Innocents were dying, by my hands, and by others, but I still had to do my 3 years. Various different new and ugly ways to kill other men were created, One time they had sent in what they called a Waroid in before us… I walked in the city, we were a group of 36, and I looked around, blood and guts caked the walls, it was hard to distinguish between the different corpses they were so disfigured, eventually we arrived in the town square where we found the only survivor of this massacre, the Waroid. The Waroid looked like a human at first, with the same geometric scars I had on my arms, he had pale skin, stained with red blood, with lips that had a slight hint of blue in him and bright yellow eyes. He was standing at ease, unarmed, not moving, we couldn’t even see the slight bobbing of a normal man’s chest as he breathed with the Waroid. We ended up extracting with the Waroid in total silence. Finally the day came, the day I was gonna leave back for earth, I finally got to rest my head, I thought that it was over. The U.N.E.F Drian docked, I entered in and strapped in, a couple of hours later we departed for Earth, home, my wife.
Some time later, when we were a couple of hours from entering low earth orbit I was called to the doctors office, I thought this was strange as I never had too many medical issues, even with the implants, nevertheless I obliged. I was told that it was UN policy to remove the cyberware that was given to me and I quickly was tranquilized. I woke up mostly unchanged. The geometric scars were still there but without the metallic look they had before. We entered low earth orbit and I took the plane down to the surface. I took the taxi back to my home, where my wife was waiting at the foot of the door for me. I opened the door of the taxi, grabbed my belongings and looked at her, she had a complexion that showed not happiness, but fear and concern.
“Are you ok?” I said… She didn’t reply, Her face was pale, as if she had seen a ghost. I went into the bathroom to see how I looked and I discovered it… what my actions led to… my eyes blood shot, and four large gashes framed each of my eye, my eyebrows were gone, my skin was taught around my skull. My mouth was deformed into a long grin. I ran out, like a coward… I never saw her again.
“The United States of America has left the UN due to the loss of the Martian Campaign putting the Orion Colonization project in severe jeopardy” The TV said, I take a swig of whisky against the wall of the store, I had become a monster, I bumbled about from job to job never quite liking it… I attempted to Evade what I had done there, what I had seen… It started with beer, then turned to whisky, then finally cocaine. I looked at a stash of pills that I had gotten on the black market… I took them and I felt amazing but I started to have troubles with breathing, getting worse and worse with time…
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