ME: This one is dedicated to the victims of the recent Munich shooting. Hopefully laughter will prove to be good medicine in this troubled time. Never actually played a Killzone game in my life, I hope this is satisfactory, ladies and gentlemen.

Lucas Kellan was proud of the fact that he was the youngest cadet ever accepted into the Shadow Marshal Academy. The young Vektan knew that the three murderous Helghast soldiers who had gunned down his father in cold blood were seconds away from killing him and that he was only saved by the Director of the Vektan Security Agency, then Shadow Marshal Thomas Sinclair. Lucas knew he had been given an opportunity in spite of his father's death, and thus he strove hard to be the best he could be in training.

"Director Sinclair, sir?" he asked his surrogate father one day.

Sinclair nodded. "What is it, Lucas?"

Lucas took a deep breath as he gather his courage. "Sir," he said after a few seconds, "I think something's wrong with the historical texts."

There was a pregnant pause. "Excuse me, Cadet Kellan?" Sinclair replied. "This isn't some glorified Helghast brainwashing facility, the VSA doesn't make mistakes when it comes to history text files, especially not out of sloppiness."

The operative-in-training stood his ground. "I'm sorry, Director," said Lucas, "but I've read that the ISA used revolvers on Helghan during the Second Extrasolar War."

Sinclair winced. "Oh. You couldn't believe that revolvers were actually used by the invasion force, then, Lucas?"

"Affirmative, sir," Lucas stated. "I sincerely cannot believe what I got off the Academy's database, Director Sinclair. Why would the ISA used revolvers instead of pistols on Helghan? They were sent in to depose Autarch Scolar Visari and his regime, surely the time they were given to prepare for that would've allowed them to get sidearms practical for use on the battlefield."

"Well, some people during that time actually thought that the M-Four was a practical design, Lucas," said Sinclair. I like to call those idiots "politicians and bureaucrats," the former Shadow Marshal thought but did not say, not wanting his protege to be disciplined for repeating his sentiments in class. "Is that it, Cadet?"

"I'm afraid not, sir," said Lucas. "I also read about these improvised troop transports called Intruders." He paused. "...did ISA troops really use those things for transport?"

Sinclair sighed. "Those cargo transports were used as improvised infantry transports due to conventional ISA dropships at the time being too expensive and taking up too much aboard Navy cruisers," he said. "Did you also come across the Archer tanks?" Archers were more like the IFVs of when humanity was still confined to Earth than anything else...

"Affirmative, sir," Lucas said. "Additionally, I've seen photos of Sergeant Sevchenko and Sergeant Velasquez among others, who were accused by the government of New Helghan of orchestrating the Terracide but to this day remain unaccounted for, without helmets."

Sinclair nodded. Morons like those two couldn't have deliberately set Helghan ablaze if they were given a manual on how to do it, he thought. Sinclair had lost his helmet while operating behind enemy lines once, but at least he had been smart enough to go into the field wearing one. "Thankfully, Cadet Kellan," he said, "while our budget could be better, it is sufficient to provide us better equipment than before. We now have pistols for sidearms and proper dropships as well as proper armored vehicles. Hopefully you'll actually remember to wear a helmet and survive for it."

"Yes, sir," Lucas said. "The Helghast are going to regret spilling Vektan blood, including but not limited to my father's."

"Indeed, Lucas. Indeed."

ME: I originally was gonna include a segment featuring Saric and Maya, but I cut it since I couldn't figure out how to write it and wanted to get this posted.

Shadow Fall had nice elements of realism. Lucas wore a helmet (it helps that practically all of his cutscenes take place from his perspective, so little justification for Helmets are Hardly Heroic), Maya had a hood instead but at least wore armor plates, and Saric, besides the classic intimidating respirator and goggles, wore armor plating as well, making his outfit relatively practical even if he isn't remotely as active as everyone's favorite Shadow Marshal and half-breed woman (though given how he tortured Lucas, he clearly isn't above getting his hands dirty).

Does anyone else notice that Sinclair is arguably a dark Foil/Evil Counterpart to Rico? Both are racist Vektans who are prominent characters. Rico never got beyond being a special forces NCO and lets his emotions get the better of him, while Sinclair, in sharp contrast, is the VSA's Director and tends to be colder and more pragmatic. It's not entirely positive, however, since Rico does develop as a person (though he's still The Scrappy in the fandom, apparently), while Sinclair lost his cool when Lucas wanted them to stand down and wants to restart the war given the shit he spewed in his speech. Hopefully Maya destroyed Massar's magical bioweapon at some point, because for all we know Hera was full of BS when she said the weapon would be used just to negotiate from a position of strength. Come on, she was cooperating with Stahl and Sinclair told Lucas early on that the bioweapon was intended to be purely a deterrent, so what's stopping Hera from lying to Maya? It's not like they have a healthy mother-daughter relationship. Plus there's this bit from TV Tropes:

"Not So Different: Despite Echo's sentiments, she's not that different from Sinclair of the ISA. She talks about using the genocide weapon as a negotiating tool, just like Sinclair called it a deterrent. However, just like Sinclair seemed entirely willingly to actually use it, Visari was totally ready to let Stahl use the bioweapon to wipe out all the Vektans on Vekta, as shown by her attempts to evacuate Echo."

Thankfully, Maya may have been able to talk some sense into her mother, otherwise I doubt Saric would've been her Voice with an Internet Connection in the final level.