Red vs. Blue: A Soldier's Strife
The Morals I Stand By
"You know…I actually have a girl back home" Church broke the tension and relayed the information to the others.
"Really? A wife or a girlfriend?" Tucker asked, intrigued that his usually cold leader had a soft spot for a woman.
"Nah, just a girlfriend; I was going to ask her to marry me but I got shipped out" Church responded calmly.
"A girl back home? Maybe I was a bit harsh with this guy…I guess I'm not used to how they do things around here…and technique or otherwise he is my commander so I guess I do need to show him respect…but knowing me, I'm just a loser for a good old soldier's romance story, just like Dad used to tell me" Caboose thought to himself, smiling as he did.
"Ah, sorry to hear about that; is she your dream girl?" Caboose asked, trying to be as friendly as possible.
"Her? Well she isn't exactly a princess" Church chuckled, the idea of his girl as a damsel in distressmaking him chuckle.
"Oh? What's she like then?" he asked.
"Why so interested? Don't you have a girl waiting for you?" Church asked, a swell of pride in his chest, having a girl seemed to certainly give him a boost in status.
"Sadly no, the army has been my mistress these past few years…but I do hope to get a girl one day. After serving my planet and finishing my duty" Caboose sighed to himself.
"I didn't know they made boy scouts like you anymore" Church sniggered. Caboose felt the heat of embarrassment cross his face.
"I was raised to live on the old morals of life: hard work, the love of friends and a woman that understands" he said proudly.
"Yeah…well, I was raised on the new morals of life: sleep, sex and a beer after the enemy wave is taken down" Church countered.
"You and I live on very different ends of the spectrum, Church" the soldier in dark blue said seriously.
"I live in reality, not the old American Dream" Church snorted.
"The American Dream?" Caboose remained quiet for a second or two, like he was restraining himself, before finally speaking again.
"The American Dream is what gave the soldiers hope when fighting in World War II. The American Dream is the cause that makes a man leave his family in order to serve for a better tomorrow. It was the American Dreams that made my father fight alongside the Master Chief in the Great War, where he sacrificed the ability to walk and sleep soundly at night! It's the American Dream that inspired me to join and hope to be one tenth of the man that he is today!" Caboose said passionately, words poetically coming from his heart.
"Yeah well, your Dad was an idiot for believing that" Church responded, his voice was dull, not affected by this counterpart's words.
"Don't disrespect my father…!" Caboose warned, temper flaring.
"Look, any idiot who joins for that reason clearly has something wrong with him. You join either because you have to, if you're broke, or you've got nothing left to lose. You join the army because you want to be a soldier, not some boy scout who wants to preach something from a history book" Church snapped back, his anger flaring also.
"And its because of people like you that the world doesn't strive for peace! Its not enough just to fight because someone ordered you to! Its something you have to believe in! You have to believe there's a justice behind it! Not because you were bored, or because you had no money! If you had a girl back home then you of all people would know what it means to be a soldier!" Caboose yelled back.
"Oh so now your bringing my girl into this! You want to try and insult her as well?" Church yelled, squaring up to the soldier in dark blue.
"I didn't say that, I'm just saying that if you had a girl back home that you loved, or you wanted to protect, then you would want to join just to make sure you had the chance of seeing her again!" Caboose growled, forgetting all friendship and losing himself in the anger of the moment.
"Why do you even care? You don't know me! You don't know this girl I like! Stop trying to preach to us about howto be a soldier, and just bea soldier! Oh, and for your information, my girl is as hard as nails! She is strong and determined and is capable of being a better soldier than anyone else!" Church yelled right into the face of his opponent.
"Good! I'm happy for you! Because that's the type of girl that I want-" Caboose stopped his words, seeing to where the argument was heading.
"…You know what…forget it, I'm going to…go guard the flag" he sighed before turning around and heading inside the base.
"Good! Stay there! Away from me!" Church yelled after him as he disappeared inside, he then turned to Tucker.
"Can you believe that jackass! Coming in all high and mighty just because he got a little extra training! Seriously, the only way I could be anymore annoyed was if he had called my girlfriend a slut!" Church rambled, but then noticed Tucker was standing still, not moving or saying a word.
"What's the matter with you?" he asked.
"I'm sorry man…but…that was…just so beautiful!" Tucker sniffed.
"About calling my girlfriend a slut? D you want me to break your teeth?" Church yelled, raising a fist.
"No….his whole speech about the American Dream thing…I got to say…that was really inspiring…something you want to hear before you really did go into battle…not like we got, the general saying good luck and giving us a coupon at Starbucks…" Tucker sniffed, fighting back a wave of emotion.
"…Well…when you put it that way…yeah…it does sound kinda nice…" Church grumbled, not wanting to believe his own words.
Inside the base, Caboose was standing at attention beside the Blue Army Flag, the picture of the black eagle in the centre waved slightly as a short breeze entered from the outside.
But the soldier wasn't interested in the scenery, he was more concerned with Church's words that laced to his mind like glue, and at the same time; he doubted his own. This was very unlike him, as all his life he had stood by his beliefs no matter what anyone else had said.
"Stop trying to preach to us about how to be a soldier, and just be a soldier? There is logic in his words…have I been just blindly repeating what my father has said all these years?" the thought deeply depressed him.
"Not the best start, all I want is to serve, and serve well…but here I am, wearing my heart on my sleeve! I shouldn't have given in so easily, I let my temper take control of my words! Well, that won't happen again; I'll make sure of it!" he thought confidently.
"All I need to do is get by with those two, and more importantly launch an assault on the Reds, or at least gather some information on them, no matter how moronic they are. I just wish I had one to interrogate" Caboose thought aloud.
"All right! The store!" a high-pitched voice made Caboose whirl around to see another soldier, in standard red armour.
"…Well, that was easy"