"Don't wait for me."
That's what he told me. We weren't more than a few days apart as far as age went. Boon companions. That day I realized something.
Fighting in a war isn't what it's cracked up to be.
It had been said that we could've been joined at the hip. From the time me n' Kenth met we were fast friends. Best friends even. The streets of Haven City were our domain and we spent more time out causing trouble and getting into even more of it there than we ever spent at our homes in Sector V, middle class. Like any dynamic duo we had our motley crew. And there we were, just a dozen or so kids doing what we could in a post-coup Haven. Left the house at dawn, stopping by home to eat occasionally, and then coming back in at dusk. Yeah. Inseparable.
The Baron had come into power the year we both turned eight so I don't really remember much of the city's political situation when Damas was ruler. Praxis' Krimzon Guard swiftly became our idol. We kept stray recruitment posters we found on sidewalks, played soldier, enacted our own little wars. Little did we know that a real war was in the works. Or…as real as it could have been.
Sixteen came incredibly fast. By then, we were out of school and spinning in circles as to what to do with our lives. The rest of the gang were falling away in obscure civilian jobs. Me n' Kenth knew that being desk jockeys wouldn't suit us and we were at a loss. One day, I happened to pick up one of the old KG recruitment posters and immediately, I knew what we had to do.
We signed up that same day.
Before we knew it, we were thrown into basic training. Almost very literally at times. Those first days flew by like nothing. Then we were getting our graduation tattoos. That armor sure was sharp. Crimson's always been one of my favorite colors. Graduated at the top of our class we did. I got a little better marks than Kenth but that was nothing.
By then, the rumbles of war with the Metal Heads were full out conversations and a number of skirmishes had already broken out. It couldn't have been better timing. We were assigned to different posts on the outer wall. My first taste of combat without a co-pilot was …shocking, frightening almost. Made it out all right with a few scratches. So did Kenth, I came to find out. I was very thankful.
Time flew by again. Suddenly, there I was. A captain. My KG career was positively sterling and I'd heard rumors that my name was on the list for commander, along with some guy named Errol. I'd even become a little more than a friend with one of Guard friends, Ashelin. It seemed like things couldn't get any better.
Kenth was a lieutenant and it seemed like he was another victim of envy.
My success was nearly our friendship's ruin. We'd never had a falling out in the entire time we'd known each other. I hated that it had to be over something like me being a captain and him still a lieutenant. 'Course, it was about more than that but that gulf between our ranks and popularity apparently started it.
He spoke to me with a certain amount of chill after that. Later, they promoted me to KG Commander.
Gradually, as more time passed, whatever animosity was between us sort of went away. The peak of the Metal Head wars was just breaking and it was during this time that what I suppose was inevitable happened.
The outer wall of the city had all but been reduced to a shamble of its former glory due to the war. It was nearly obsolete and recently the inner wall had been upgraded and reinforced. All that was left to pull back from the outer posts, move back the shield, and prevent anymore Metal Heads from breaking into the city.
Seems we couldn't exactly get that last part right.
Earlier that week, we'd begun taking our men back in to the inner wall posts and evacuating what civilians still lived at the outer rim. The shield generator was nearly finished by then. Oddly, the Baron had ordered us to halt progress. It was unexplained. Even Ashelin didn't know what prompted it.
Another break in by the Metal heads occurred during the lull but this one was far more severe than any we'd faced before. I'd been out at the wall inspecting OP-1146, Kenth's post, when they broke through. Naturally, command was immediately handed over to me. As the fight began, news came over the communications that two other posts had been set upon as well. One of my underlings had exclaimed that the attack was almost organized. Indeed it did seem like they were attacking on purpose and not just for fun as they usually did. Our post and the other two were the only ones left to be withdrawn as there were still about two to three hundred civvies left to evacuate from the sprawling slums.
With them attacking now, it was putting us in a tight spot.
Thirty minutes into it, I began to realize trying to defend that post was worthless. I was on the point of issuing a fall back when Kenth pointed something out. There, shimmering over the city and inner wall was the shield. We'd been betrayed, left out here to die.
A lot of us did that.
Kenth was one of them. I remember it like it was yesterday. I'd just ordered what troops were left to fall back to the inner wall in spite of the shield. It was a more defensible position and the Metal Heads were starting to surround us. The other two posts had fallen a long time ago. We were making for the wall, taking back streets and running through abandoned buildings when we came upon a slum sector that was still populated. They were being set upon by Metal Heads. Unnoticed by them yet, the two dozen of us still left froze just out of sight. I was nearly literally torn between saving my men or entering a hopeless battle to help the civilians. A voice broke into my indecision.
"We're already dead men walking, Torn." It was Kenth. I looked over my shoulder at the group assembled. Their expressions told me enough.
It was a half-assed attempt that would shame any self-respecting commander but by then, we were all far from caring. Those Metal Heads never saw us coming. By then end, we'd managed to get out as many civilians as us. And there we were, hurtling again towards the inner wall, two dozen frightened people being pushed along ahead of us. But the Metal Heads were catching up. Dark eco projectiles were beginning to fly around our ears, some of them medium explosives that left craters in the ground. I couldn't tell through the chaos if there were any lost but I knew that there were those that didn't make it.
There was the wall, a hundred yards and closing. I could just see OP-0009 up ahead. That was when Kenth went down. A round of eco caught him in the back and in spite of the armor, I saw blood fly.
"Don't wait for me!" he had cried from the ground. I could see the pain on his face and somehow I knew that the wound was fatal. But some ragged hope and adrenaline enabled me to pick him up, throw him over my shoulder, and continue on. Didn't care if he'd be dead by the time we got to the wall. He was my best friend and there was no way in hell I'd let him face mutilation by those fierfeking Metal Heads. I came to find out that a lucky beast had managed to land a round in the back of my knee but I wouldn't know it until hours later. Adrenaline can do that to a soldier.
Kenth was dead before I even got to put him down.
Yeah. After that, something changed in me. Being a commander lost its luster all of a sudden. Whatever sense of humor I had was flat out gone, half due to the death of my closest friend and half due to that back-stabbing Baron.
No, fighting in that particular war wasn't glorious. It wasn't even a war. Just a scheme hocked up by Praxis and some over sized Metal Head. I'm not proud of it. I still wear the markings of a KG but I'm not the same man.
Withdrawing into the Underground was the best change of sides I'd ever done. The only change of sides I'd ever done. Now this was something worth fighting for.
Still.
Fighting in a war just ain't what it's cracked up to be.