[56AB]D|Pvt.Jones
03-07-2007, 09:16 PM
Chapter 1
I like the cold. Not sure why, just always have. I guess it’s the simplicity of it. There’s really nothing else that goes along with it. It’s just cold. It seems I’ve felt cold my entire life, but it’s never really bothered me. Not like some other people. They loathe it, despise it, and truly hate it. They focus themselves on hating the cold so much, they can’t even really see the big picture any more. They view the cold as unfair, unnatural. Like they’re being punished for something in the cruelest way possible.
For me, the cold is the perfect setting for where we are, what we’re doing, and what’s happening. It’s brutal, relentless, and devoid of any emotion or sympathy, just like the ‘new world’. Another Ice Age has dawned, and humans are fighting a civil war amongst themselves. One could say we are fighting this war for survival, but that’s only half the truth. The real story is the two factions. As different as they make themselves out to be, they really are exactly the same. The new European Union, with its holier-than-thou righteousness, and the Pan-Asian Coalition, with its brutal communist mentality, are bitter enemies right now, fighting over barren landscapes in hope of holding onto enough fertile ground to feed their mutual starving populations. But there’s more to it than that. They are also fighting to preserve their values, their way of life, their ideals and beliefs. No one ever speaks of it, but the winner of this war will determine the future of human society. There’s no denying simplicity of the equation. The losers will die. Not just the soldiers, all of them. When there’s no food, there’s no hope.
I fight because there’s no other job worth taking. At least, not for a man like me. I’ve never known anything other than the freezing wastelands of Europe. Growing up in refugee camps, always fleeing south when the ice got too close. When I went to bed as a child, the rhythmic pounding the Riesig battlewalkers made as they marched by would often lull me into a sense of temporary peace, and I would finally be able to sleep. The authorities always told us the military was there to ‘help’, but we knew the truth. They were there as insurance for the higher-ups. In case things got out of hand, they could call riot and thin out our numbers a bit. After all, in the grand scheme of things, that equals fewer mouths to feed.
They would learn to regret those types of decisions though. When the war finally broke out, the EU scrambled for more soldiers. Many of us were more than disillusioned with the EU by that point, and many refused to fight. A few extremists even managed to find their way to the PAC line and attempt to join up with them. Sadly, the PAC was even more paranoid than the EU, and the defectors were simply left to freeze at the PAC gates.
I chose to fight. Not for any higher cause than my own sanity. Waiting around for the inevitable has never been something I could handle. One way or another, I was determined to find a focus to my life, and constant battle seemed the easiest choice. Or at least, the most effective.
I remember the time before the war when Minsk was a breathtaking city. Skyscrapers, elegantly engineered, pierced the skyline like sculpted mountains. One thing I remember most is how clean the city was. It was as if the residents knew we were coming and decided to clean up the clutter for our arrival. It seems they even went as far as to move all their cars out of the way to allow our tanks a clear route through the streets. It was a very eerie and surreal scene. What should have been a bustling metropolis of commerce had been reduced to a massive ghost town, complete with empty playgrounds, whose swingsets still moved from the cold wind howling through the city.
We all knew what was going to happen. In a matter of days, or perhaps only a matter of hours, this place would be hell on earth. The religious folk talked of hell being full of fire and brimstone, but they were dead wrong. Hell is a place of ice and snow, and a cold so bitter it chills your soul.
To be continued...
I like the cold. Not sure why, just always have. I guess it’s the simplicity of it. There’s really nothing else that goes along with it. It’s just cold. It seems I’ve felt cold my entire life, but it’s never really bothered me. Not like some other people. They loathe it, despise it, and truly hate it. They focus themselves on hating the cold so much, they can’t even really see the big picture any more. They view the cold as unfair, unnatural. Like they’re being punished for something in the cruelest way possible.
For me, the cold is the perfect setting for where we are, what we’re doing, and what’s happening. It’s brutal, relentless, and devoid of any emotion or sympathy, just like the ‘new world’. Another Ice Age has dawned, and humans are fighting a civil war amongst themselves. One could say we are fighting this war for survival, but that’s only half the truth. The real story is the two factions. As different as they make themselves out to be, they really are exactly the same. The new European Union, with its holier-than-thou righteousness, and the Pan-Asian Coalition, with its brutal communist mentality, are bitter enemies right now, fighting over barren landscapes in hope of holding onto enough fertile ground to feed their mutual starving populations. But there’s more to it than that. They are also fighting to preserve their values, their way of life, their ideals and beliefs. No one ever speaks of it, but the winner of this war will determine the future of human society. There’s no denying simplicity of the equation. The losers will die. Not just the soldiers, all of them. When there’s no food, there’s no hope.
I fight because there’s no other job worth taking. At least, not for a man like me. I’ve never known anything other than the freezing wastelands of Europe. Growing up in refugee camps, always fleeing south when the ice got too close. When I went to bed as a child, the rhythmic pounding the Riesig battlewalkers made as they marched by would often lull me into a sense of temporary peace, and I would finally be able to sleep. The authorities always told us the military was there to ‘help’, but we knew the truth. They were there as insurance for the higher-ups. In case things got out of hand, they could call riot and thin out our numbers a bit. After all, in the grand scheme of things, that equals fewer mouths to feed.
They would learn to regret those types of decisions though. When the war finally broke out, the EU scrambled for more soldiers. Many of us were more than disillusioned with the EU by that point, and many refused to fight. A few extremists even managed to find their way to the PAC line and attempt to join up with them. Sadly, the PAC was even more paranoid than the EU, and the defectors were simply left to freeze at the PAC gates.
I chose to fight. Not for any higher cause than my own sanity. Waiting around for the inevitable has never been something I could handle. One way or another, I was determined to find a focus to my life, and constant battle seemed the easiest choice. Or at least, the most effective.
I remember the time before the war when Minsk was a breathtaking city. Skyscrapers, elegantly engineered, pierced the skyline like sculpted mountains. One thing I remember most is how clean the city was. It was as if the residents knew we were coming and decided to clean up the clutter for our arrival. It seems they even went as far as to move all their cars out of the way to allow our tanks a clear route through the streets. It was a very eerie and surreal scene. What should have been a bustling metropolis of commerce had been reduced to a massive ghost town, complete with empty playgrounds, whose swingsets still moved from the cold wind howling through the city.
We all knew what was going to happen. In a matter of days, or perhaps only a matter of hours, this place would be hell on earth. The religious folk talked of hell being full of fire and brimstone, but they were dead wrong. Hell is a place of ice and snow, and a cold so bitter it chills your soul.
To be continued...