What am I? I am but a soldier, meant to fight, to liberate, to conquer, to kill. To battle, plan, assassinate, achieve goals. And, finally, in the end, to win, no matter the cost or the obstacles set before me. because isn’t that what a soldier meant to do?
GY: 6675 AY: 275 EY: 2075
I centered the crosshairs in my scope on the chest of the guard, taking my time, the long barrel of the 50 caliber rifle patiently waiting to speak death for its target. The guard doesn’t notice the tiny red dot of the laser sight slide smoothly up him, stopping over his heart. Then, gently, I tugged the trigger once. The suppressed rifle made only a ‘pffffft!’ not disturbing the night air.
In a guard house half a mile away, a guard put his hand to his chest in surprise, then slouched in his chair.
I looked over the rifle, and then raised my left hand to my ear, gently depressing a small indent on a radio com there and speaking into the tiny mike. “Twenty here. Objective achieved. Move in.” I then moved my eye back to the scope, watching as a group of figures clad in solid black scaled the 8 foot wall next to the small guard post. “I estimate we have until the change of guard, when the body is found. We have a twenty minute window here, people, let’s not screw up.”
Once again, I was on the front lines. This was the alliance terraformed experimental world of Tarrakas. Only 3 years ago, it had been a dead ball of dirt, stone and iron, the only object orbiting a sol-class star. The planet had been given a year to develop and stabilize, then was colonized with a population of various kinds, people that didn’t really have anywhere else to go. The planet had been set with a leader to put the government in place and stabilize the planet economically.
However, discomfort and rivalries had spread among the peoples of this new world, until it broke out into all-out civil war, despite the protests and attempts at peace by the alliance-appointed leader. Finally, recognizing that they had no choice, the alliance had sent their military in to halt the fighting in any way possible, and had put me in charge of the detachment.
I had set a goal of capturing the leaders of the various movements. Without their leaders to order them to death or keep them together, the factions would be severely weakened, and we would be able to move in and incite peace. Tonight was the night that they were vulnerable, as they had all gathered in one place for a meeting of factions, probably to attempt to intimidate each other.
I folded the support tripod up into the bottom of my rifle, then stood up and slung it across my back with my other guns.
I moved at an alright pace, getting to the compound in a few minutes, to find that one of my men had dressed as the fallen guard and had disposed of the body. I nodded to him, then leaped up, grabbing the top of the wall, then flipping myself over the barbed wire to land softly among my men.
We moved like a living shadow of some giant creature, gently shifting shadows in shadows. We moved to a shorter inner wall, then set up grappling lines and scaled it. I went first, silently vaulting over the top and coming up behind a guard. I drew arbiter, my katana, then grabbed him, putting my hand over his mouth and slitting his throat. He shuddered, and then died in my hands. I lowered the body, then passed it to my team. Another soldier quickly undressed the guard then hid the body, taking the guard’s former post. The rest of them fanned out around the main building, their black weapons blending perfectly with the shadows. I climbed to the highest portion of the wall, then drew my sniper, unfolding the tripod legs and setting the rifle down, then lay down beside it, providing cover just in case. Something bothered me though. It took me a second, but then I realized. It had been far too easy. Just as if… my hand flew to the com unit in my ear and I quickly spoke into it. “it’s a trap! Pull out, pull out, pull out now!” the team made a break for the spot where we had climbed the wall.
Suddenly, the entire compound was lit up bright as day, and soldiers flooded through the steel double doors of the main building. I watched as my squad brought up their weapons and opened fire on the advancing tide, but too late. The enemy opened fire, too, decimating the ranks of my troops. Anyone that wasn’t mown down was taken prisoner and dragged into the building. A guard was left on the wounded.
I shot their commander in the head. The soldiers died completely shell-shocked in a hail of 9mm and .45 bullets, having been so confident that they had won but a few seconds before.
I stood over the bodies of the wounded, listening as astonished and despairing voices rang out from inside. The stealth attack that I had been carrying out and the soldiers that had been a part of it were only a distraction. We had purposefully leaked part of our plans to the intelligence agencies of the various factions. And it had worked. While the enemy was busy watching us and preparing to neutralize us, will Grey had been busy assassinating the entire group of faction leaders. Sadly, I looked at the pile of corpses and wished for better times.
A soldier only has one purpose; to fight and sacrifice everything that can and can’t be sacrificed to win, to gain advantage, to cheat and swindle the enemy, to survive, for one more day, the horror that is war. But, at the end of the day, we are not just soldiers, not just those that kill and fight, not just those that see so many comrades die to gain so little. We are also human, and always will be.