A soldier's request

It was quiet. The war finally ended. Marco and Tarma defeated Donald Morden after a tiring fight. The area was full of dead soldiers. There, Marco was walking, filled with relief. While walking, there was something that caught his attention. A corpse in the ground, like many others, but this one had a sheet of paper on its hand. Marco took it, but then Tarma called him. "Hey, we gotta go. The helicopter is right there." Marco took the sheet of paper and followed Tarma Roving.

Today John and I received some orders. Apparently, there are some guys from the Regular Army that are making some problems. It's strange, we even took their SV-001s but they still fight. Anyways, when we arrived at the place where they sent us with another bunch of people, it was too late. The sight was horrible. Hundreds of our comrades, lying on the ground. "This is so fucked up" John said. I couldn't agree less."How could they...? Hey, they were two, right? Only two." "That's what they told us" I replied. A recruit was looking at the area. Suddenly, he fell on his knees, watching a dead body. "He is... He is... How? How? They were two fucking people. And now, Mark is dead…" "Mark?" "That's my best friend" he said, pointing at the burnt corpse. " I can't believe it. We even had a SV here. Why didn't anyone use it?" " That's because the game developers don' t allow us" "What did you say?" " Uh, nothing." "I am going to make those bastards pay for this" the recruit said. "Hey, who is he?" I asked John. "Oh, he's Gary. Poor guy. He and Mark were best buds before all of this started."

We left that place and went back to our base. At lunch, John told me that he had to go to a mission inmediately. "Yeah, it looks like those bastards are back. I was assigned to a tank!" "Finally. Hey, do you have your bazooka?" " I don't go anywhere without it, pal. I even carry it on the bed." "Yeah, I remember. When you shot by accident to the wall" John laughed. "Well, gotta go. Let' see if I can shoot those two down." "Don't die." " Don't worry. Morden himself will be there, in the Hairbuster Riberts" "Really?" "There's no way we can lose this time"

I spent some days talking to Gary. He was still shocked by his friend's death, but he was looking better every day. Three days later, the team that went to stop "The two Demons"(that's how we called them) came back. I only saw injured or dead soldiers. No one was able to stand up. Then, Gary saw John. He was badly injured, but he was alive. We went to the medic tent to see him. "You alright?" "Shut up." "So, what happened?" " They are monsters. They killed the most of us. I heard the was destroyed, but Morden is okay." "How can they…?" "Hey, they destroyed my tank, so what I do is take my bazooka and shoot. They jumped the missile." "Wha-?" "I know. It doesn't make sense. Well, at least I am alive. Now it seems Allen is gonna beat those guys up. A demon versus two monsters." Suddenly, someone from outside the tent called Gary. "So, did you send her the letter?" John asked me. "Yeah. But I think this war is going to be quite long." "You're gonna marry her, right?" "Well…" "Come on, you two are so in love that it makes me sick." "But this war has to end. Then, maybe. I want to marry her." "You're so lucky, dumbass." Gary entered the tent. " I will go with Allen to fight them." " Good luck. And don't use bazookas. They don't work." John said. Gary showed a smile. "I will be in a building, with a rifle. There, we are going to shoot them."

Days passed, and John slowly got better. Each time I went to the cafeteria, there were less soldiers. The team that went with Allen still didn't arrive and everybody was worried about it. Allen O'Neil was one of our bests soldiers. If he was defeated, then how could we stand a chance?

Then, the news came. Allen was defeated. This was shocking to our moral. And worse, only twelve soldiers came back from the failed misson. One of them told us the terrible death of Gary. "Everybody in that building died. I was lucky enough to escape before all began to fall apart."

After some time, I was called on a mission. This time we were going to take out the two huge tanks, Shoe and Karn. I told John I was going to leave. "Good luck out there. You will need it." " Apparently, we will throw some tanks at them. How's that?" John smiled. "Definitely better than bazookas." After a minute of silence, he spoke. "Hey, do you remember when we went to watch that war film at the theater?" "Yeah, the one made by this company… what was its name? AR Studios?" "AL Studios. That one. It's just… It looks so different to this war." "It fucking does." " Hey, try not to die, okay?" "I will try."

And it was so different from the films. I could see "The two Demons" face to face. They were unstoppable: man after man the and dead bodies all over the battlefield. Little could I do to stop them, less to kill them. However I did escape from that horrible battle. Maybe it was coward, but what could I do? One of them destroyed Shoe and the other Karn. How can I kill a man who can destroy that huge tank? Yes, I escaped. I started to walk until I saw a helicopter. The pilot was dead, but I knew how to use it. When I came back to the base, they told me that John had gone on a mission the day before. I was also informed that the SVs were all taken from us. The Regular Army had now all of them. When the survivors of the mission returned, I was prepared for the worst. And my fear became true. John was killed. Killed by those two demons that slaughtered everything on their path. Why don't they stop? Why do they keep fighting? Why? Why?

We received an alert some days later. The Regular Army was ready to attack us with all their SV-001s. We had to defend ourselves. Fortunately, Morden was going to be on his Hi-Do to support us. The plan was to lead the two soldiers to a bridge which would be destroyed. Then, they would fall to the sea. But the Regular Army was ready. They had a big ship with a machine gun to shoot down Morden. However, we sent planes to stop them, instead of putting Morden in danger. Now, they are here. I can see them. They are getting to the coast, with a Metal Slug. I am ready. I am loyal to Donald Morden. They just don't understand him, right? It's just that, isn't it? I will not escape this time. They killed everyone. If they win, John, Gary and Mark will have died for nothing. I will...

Why don't they stop? Why do they keep fighting? Why? Why do they kill? Heh, I think I understand now. They must be asking the same questions about us, don't they? I am about to die. There's no doubt about it. I can hear it. The shots. The aircraft Morden uses. I will not see her again. I just wanted this war to end. I don't know which side is the "good" and the "bad" anymore. Or maybe there are no "good" sides? We killed people, and they also did. Will they end this war? Or not? I don't know if anyone is reading this stupid sheet of paper, but if anyone is, please make something to end wars. They are the worst thing in this world. It's just a soldier's request.

"Anyways, what is that sheet of paper you are reading, Marco?" Tarma asked. "It's nothing." The next day, Marco came back to bury the dead soldier. He took off his helmet, put a stick on the ground, and left the helmet on the stick. He stood there for ten minutes, thinking about everything he had read. Then, he walked away slowly, swearing that he would never give up trying to fullfill the dead soldier's request…

Well, that's it. This is the first fanfic I have done, and I hope you could enjoy it. I want to thanks AR Studios for the support he has given me. And yes, this dead soldier is the one who's in the main screen in Metal Slug Defense!