[Kuzco]: 212.War hero

A war hero   © Hugo Damas
Word count - 2490


Log entry, earth year 3272, January 12th:

Guess what…I’m a freaking war hero! I strived and I strive to be the best soldier of all times and I’ll be damned if I didn’t succeed. Me and my squad of 12 great men dropped from the sky right into the middle of the robot army, behind enemy lines. I’ve seen horrible terrible things but I still say I belong in war, humans belong on wars.
It was a thing of beauty what we did, we entered the compound unnoticed but not for long. Soon they were all over us, spider bots, cyborgs, minebots; smart junk after smart junk, they came after us. It was a great battle, it wasn’t hell, and it was pure heaven personified. Not ONE of us died, I lead them all through it with unquestionable honour, duty and courage. We delivered the nuclear bomb sized EMP weapon and ran to the extraction point. We had to carry Mariko wounded all the way out, I was afraid we’d have to leave her behind but I didn’t give in to that fear! That’s why I was the leader.
Tomorrow I’ll be receiving a medal that was made up just for me. For saving the whole human race from its demise, turning an impossible suicidal mission into an accomplished mission with NO CASUALTIES!
War is my playground…I am the game master.

Log entry, earth year 3272, January 22nd

You know…there are times where a person just has to be pissed off. Can you believe those damned Jinario’kos attacked us? On the day of my freaking ceremony, they attacked us! It’s really irritating. Everyone in the universe calls us war hungry barbarians and then wants to finish us off…with a war! For god’s sake people, the last war we voluntarily had was back on 2120! But you can’t just leave us alone for a few centuries can you???
It just pisses me off so much. I know I like a battlefield; I thank god everyday for putting me in this world with the ability to kill our enemies. But I’m 60 years old, and I fought in most major and minor battles in the machine war; I surely fought on all the important ones and was definitely an asset. But I’m tired of killing things, I wanted to settle in the big city, enjoy my war hero pay and fame to get laid and drink till I get too old to think right; which is obviously the time where I’d get married and have a bunch of kids. But noooo, I gotta get my ass dragged all the way to their system to lead a full front invasion on their home planet. *sighs* may god have mercy on their souls, cause we humans are WAY too tired of war to be benevolent. I want it over yesterday and I know my fellow humans want peace too. I will deliver them that peace.

Log entry, earth year 3272, February 1st

Note to self; sue the army for not using their funds correctly. I mean thousands of years developing science, billions and billions of currency and they can’t even keep the cargo ship steady in the middle of space! I mean there’s nothing out here, what’s with all the trembling?
Now’s midnight and we’re boarding the Jinario’kos’ main planet tomorrow; we’re going to land all over their continents and flood their planet with the bigger most spectacular invasion in the history of the galaxy. I decided to come here, turn this on and record my log entry due to my lack of sleep. I’m too excited to sleep! I can’t wait to go down there and show them what’s what. I’ll teach them to come to our home planet uninvited and unwanted and try to invade MY HOME right in the middle of my ceremony.
I got a lot of repressed anger that cannot wait to push the trigger.

Log entry, earth year, 3272, February 5th

…I was wrong. They did have a chance…and a very big one. Human race just had its teeth kicked back in. Once we went into the tunnels everything got weird, unrealistic, terrifying. They killed half our army down here in two days and nobody can even guess how. Me and my squad remained together through the whole thing.
I still remember when the shouts sounded off from our left flank unit. Their screaming uncontrollably messed with our spines; our backbone, once strong and bold, got weak and scared as the tunnels echoed everything out loud, from all directions.
I can still remember the smell…I can still smell the sweat and fear, the anticipation and dread and suddenly it hit us all like a black cloud. Lights out, every man for himself.
I…I think I killed men in that confusion. Maybe that’s the point… Some kind of psycho weapon that makes us go rampant and kill each other. I doubt it, I could recognize an alien agonizing scream anywhere so I know I shelled some bastards back there…but there’s no comparison to what they did to us.
I pulled us through though! I did it, everyone else is dead, but WE are alive. All of our armada defeated in 5 or 6 days but WE LIVE! Me, Ettore, Licrina, Mariko, Fabio, Jamie, T.J., Dikembe, Hannah, Mutombo and Joseph. Our last member died during the battle…it was luck that kept us alive; we were able to keep together and I found a tunnel heading left so we followed it to this dead end where we managed to close a door from inside. It seems as though we found some kind of…imperial chamber that has a lockdown system. We shot a lot of people on our way here; I just hope, really hope they weren’t ours. Plain luck, luck to have found the tunnel and luck to have found this chamber that locked down once we shot outside.
*sighs* why am I calling it luck? We’re doomed, this is their place, and they’ll get this open and finish us all off. The eradication of earth’s military forces ends with us.
……
Yeah, I’m recording a log since we came back from the machines thing (…) yeah sure. Why not? Here.
Yo yo yo! This is Dikembe speakin’ what’s up? In case anyone gets to hear this, know that Dikembe is now stuffing himself with food. Ima get fat or die tryin! Hahaahah, die tryin! Hahaaha, here T.J., say something to the future media or the aliens.

The only talking happening between me and the aliens is this. ‘BAM!’. That’s all I got to say to the aliens…or the media.

Hahaaah, a’ight a’ight. Mutombo ma’ brother, say something.

Herm…I wouldn’t like to be anywhere else in the world right now. I’m with my family, and I’ll be damned if I let any vacuum looking bastards hurt them…

That was our heavy weapons’ specialist. Anyone else? (…) Yeah Ettore, here.

La fortuna favorisce il grassetto, know what that means? Fortuna favors the bold. Remember that… nessuno, no one, is bolder than us!
That was our Italian sniper talking, gotta giv’em a shout out for his touching contribution. Yeah Mariko, here.

This is Mariko! I am the only one to be wounded on machine final battle. Today we lost Irvin…I also have saying, Japanese one. Nana korobi, ya oki. Literally means seven falls, eight getting up.

Damn right! Fall anytime you want but you sure as hell can’t forget to get back up! Yo Jamie, a word for your peeps.

“The gates of mercy shall be all shut up, And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart, In liberty of bloody hand shall range With conscience wide as hell.” Shakespeare Henry the V 3.3.9-13...

‘Nuff said right? Jaime here’s a lover of good ancient Shakespeare. Anybody here have anything to say that isn’t a quote? (…) Alright Hannah, take it away.

Yeah, to fight the machines is a lot different than to fight living beings. Our enemies now have souls, spirits, life in their eyes we cannot hesitate to end! We are outnumbered, out gunned and outmanoeuvred on a 100 to 1 margin…and do I fear? Does anyone notice any trembling, any fear, any doubt in my voice? NO. We will die. We’ll take at least 15 of ‘em for each one of us but we will die. So do you know why I don’t waver? Why I stand here without fear? Because I’m human! And I know what we’re all about. I know the Jinario’ko will invade earth but I know even more surely that the people there will give them hell. Pacifist or not, religious or not, suicidal or not, patriot or not; my brothers and sisters will pick up arms and hold them in the air to shout “YOU WILL NOT TAKE OUR HOME!” I have no doubt in my mind we will prevail! We were not delivered upon this world to fail, to be slaves or to be killed. We cannot perish, it’s an universal law I tell you. Humanity is here to stay and the universe would do well in accepting it. Here D man, I’m finis….

Oh HELL yeah Hannah! That was our medic everybody, I truly hope you appreciate her words because I do. Licrina, you’re our resident colonial tell us how you feel baby.

…on’t want too

Oh c’mon! Alright, think about what you’re gonna say baby. Joseph, you Russian bastard! Here, your turn.

Okay, herm…I used to think myself immortal. I am the oldest here and this was my last assignment…I gotta say though, I don’t share all your feelings. I do mourn and I do feel bad; I wanted to spend more time with my family and keep them safe…I would go anywhere and do anything to keep them safe; that was the reason I fought in the machine war to begin with. I… really don’t want to die, but I accept it. It pains me though that all I can do now is try and appreciate these last moments with you, my brothers in arms. I guess I want to say I respect you and if I was to die, this is still my first choice; for my race, next to my comrades. So I’ll do my best to appreciate my last moments alive, with you.

Alright guys…let’s let that sink in for a few seconds. (…) Here Fabio.

I just want to start by thanking Joseph for his words and excuse my accent. I think I have figure out their strategy. They use sound diffusing machine to spread the sound waves and make them irregular. That way, they confuse our ears and…sense(?!) of balance that, in the dark, produces panic. But now, what can a person add after such…comments? I guess I thank our leader; he is always looking out for us and is the best of the best. You are the only reason we still live; people I…I love you. I have never had a family but if I had had one, I still love you more than them.

Alright Fabio. Thanks man, right back at ‘ya. Licrina, it’s your turn baby. Licrina…here cap’n.

*sighs* she started crying. Poor Licrina, she saw her planet burn…the surface I mean. We passed by it on our way here, she’s been pretty sad since then besides she’s just a teenager, a young fearless warrior but young nonetheless. I’m surprised she didn’t break down before.
Well, anyways, back to subject. My log entry. This is my squad and it will be the greatest honour to die fighting, with them. I’m glad they noticed the log, it seems to have helped their mood, and things will be easier to handle now because of this little goodbye session.
Wel….. What? Where’s that sound coming from? WHAT? OH YEAH, SOUND WAVE SCATTERING, ALRIGHT; PICK UP YOUR WEAPONS (…….) translator device is working fine you bastard! (………) How many are you? (……..) only 143? YOU should be the ones surrendering then! (…)no (…..)no (……)you don’t scare us! (……) you can give us as much time to “think about it” as you want; we’ll still try to kill you all! (……..) YOU WANT SOME YOU ARROGANT DISCUSTING COWARDS? COME – AND GET SOME! (…)
Ah cripes, finally that damned echo is gone….oh! Left this darn thing on.



Log entry, earth year, 3272, February 5th

Today the war hero dies. Yesterday the aliens used a translating device to ask for our surrendering. They said they’d take care of us and I believe them, but living is not what this is about dammit. All my squad agreed, even Licrina. This is about showing them what we’re made of! This is about sending a message that although they won us over in THEIR tunnels, in THEIR planet with unknown technology, they will not win the war! Fabio believes they won’t just bomb us, he thinks they’ll try to take us out “honourably” and I think that’s the least they could do. Humpf, I’ll give him human weakling… I’ll show them exactly how weak we are. Those bastards…
But anger does not consume me today, at this time. As my deadline approaches I cannot but wonder if I could’ve lived my life any better. I’m proud of my life no doubt, but am I truly happy with it? It’s a thing to consider for a sec and then to forget as the door blows and they charge inside. We’re covering our ears and will manoeuvre solely on sight. That might increase their body count.
Hahahhaa, we haven’t got a chance. Every one of us knows it, but I know it better than them. They see in me a hero, immortal and always right and if I say we have a chance, we have a chance. I tell them we have a chance but there’s a problem.
I am no hero…I’m missing that inexorable faith in my destiny. I’m missing the courage, the boldness, the trust in myself and my compatriots, the lack of doubt and fear and regret. I see now the machines were easy. No creativity nor imagination but living beings are far worse. I don’t even know why I’m talking to this damned thing! Like if someone was ever going to hear this and give but a thought about us forgotten human warriors.

Log entry, earth year, 3272, February 5th

Ten minutes count down…wanted to leave a better “last” entry.
Dust to dust…ashes to ashes. I was born and now I’m going to die; my life was bread in sweat and effort and lived in blood, gore and battle but you know what? It suits me fine. It suits me just fine!
………
……
…
They just gave us ten seconds. There’s only one thing left to do. In humanity… there’s always someone left to raise a battle cry. 
HOORAH! Shout with me brothers in arms…

HOORAH!