Signing up for the militia at the age of 19 was a hard thing to do. My parents didn't want me to do it, but I did it anyway. I always said I wanted to make my life worth doing something. Why waste my life being something like a farmer? I hated having to tell them the truth. They took it better than I expected. I mean, they were mad, yeah. But they realized I couldn't go back. So they told me to be safe, and try to come back with my life. I just wanted to die for The Frontier, they made it sound like I was gonna be a hero. But of course, I got way more than I bargained for.

Life as a grunt is horrible on the battlefield. You have a big ass, 20 feet tall, 20 to 40-ton robots running around, and mix in with pilots flying through the sky, stalkers, and specters, you got one hell of a scary time. Anything I've ever done will never match the adrenaline of running to the front lines with highly skilled pilots and robots. I'm surprised I made it this far without ending up with a bullet in my body, or even dead.

But that would change. That would change very soon. I remember it all like it was yesterday. One of our most skilled pilots, Captain Jack Cooper, saw potential. He told me he saw a grunt take out 4 specters by themselves. That made me feel good, even better than I felt after I took out the grunts.

I still remember it. It was the most I've felt alive after it. I was going through a 3 story building to find any snipers. I found some, a group of 4 specters. They each had a Longbow DMRs. I moved behind cover and sent out a message for backup. I heard Jack tell me he would be over. I held my R-201 in my hand. I heard them shoot the DMRs at our group below.

I couldn't wait for Jack, we couldn't face any more casualties, we had been suffering a horrible loss weeks before, and we were still recovering. I took off a frag, pulled the pin, and threw it in. I quickly moved into the door frame, aiming my R-201, and started shooting. I hit some of the specters, not enough to kill any of them. However, seemingly by luck, a bullet hit the grenade and blew it up. The frag blew up, throwing shrapnel into the robots. Two of them died, and I took my P2016 out of my holster.

The specters turned around and I started to unload my pistol into one of them. I knew it wouldn't kill them unless all of the bullets hit, which not all did. I ran to the one who I hadn't shot up, shoving it back and taking its Longbow. I aimed at the first one, putting 1 bullet into its head which seemed enough to kill it. I looked at the other one who had reached for its pistol. I put one bullet where its shoulder joint would be, and its arm fell off. I unloaded two bullets into the head, killing it as well.

Jack arrived, seen I had taken them out and told me good job. Afterward, he started to train me to be a pilot. It was really exciting when he first told me the news.