Red vs. Blue: A Soldier's Strife

What Does It Mean To Be A Soldier?

Okay, here's a little bit about me:

I wanted to join the army since I was seven. I can thank my father for that. He was a proud man, had fought in two wars, and had come out with one leg missing and a lot of stories to tell. Never had a regret in his life, he'd often tell my mother. I think it was his way of justifying and reminding himself why he had fought and killed so many.

"Son, when you get a beautiful girl who says that she'll marry you if you come back alive…well, that's all the reason you need"

He'd often find himself telling me the same thing, and I'd never get bored. I wanted to go and find my dream girl, but not a princess or some maiden up on a perch like they describe in poetry. I wanted a woman who was hard as nails, who'd yell at me when I'd do something foolish. I wanted a woman who could fight and laugh and live like it was their last day.

Why? Because being able to call her mine whenever the odd intimate moments arose, would just make everything…perfert. Perfect as can be in a world like this.

Getting off the topic of women, my hobbies had always revolved around history. I always believed that the more you read about the past, the better equipped you are for the future.

I loved learning about the history of mankind, how we had real heroes who didn't need to wield a gun in order to earn the respect of a nation. I had so many role models (my Dad included) that I wanted to be like.

I wanted to be as smart as Einstein (I kind of failed on that part) so I learnt all I could when it came to Physics and Mathematics. I was in awe of people like Gandhi so I learnt all about religion of different faiths (I liked studying Sikhism particularly). Shakespeare blew my mind, I had a soft spot for learning and reciting poetry and even going as far as to try and learn the lines of some of his more famous plays (Macbeth along with Romeo and Juliet are my favourites).

People like Bruce Lee and other famous martial artists caught my eye, so I studied and trained as much as I could until I could knock a guy out with one punch, but also learnt the spiritual balance behind it, and how the fist should be used to bring peace instead of conflict (I studied Aikido for the better part of my teens). Even fictional characters like Sherlock Holmes drifted me to detective work, learning as much as I could about criminology and learning how to investigate a crime scene, which lead on to other practises such as how to interrogate and learn to tell when someone is lying by the movement of their body (I gave up on the criminology aspect, but interrogation came in very handy. Plus I still love reading Sherlock Holmes)

As you can imagine, all these things came in handy when I turned eighteen and joined the army straight away, leaving a broken-hearted mother and proud father behind me.

The army was and still is my life. I made friends, but not close enough so that they could still be considered my enemies. I leant everything there was to know about being a solder, how intercept radio broadcasts, how to be an incredible marksman and how to drive anything form a jeep to a tank. In my spare time I studied different languages. I could speak French, Spanish, and a little bit of Russian by the time I was twenty two.

A year later, I was witness to the Master Chief's conquest and victory over the Covenant, and was yet again, inspired to become an even better soldier. After all, you can always learn more.

Despite all of that, I was still a Private. The officers needed me, but they didn't want to show it. However, when the asked me to ship out to a remote area where conflict was highly likely; I agreed without hesitation.

So here I am, ready to be deployed to Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha. Hopefully all my years of skill will prove useful enough. I'm being sent over to the Blue Army, meant to take out a group known as the Red Army.

Most soldiers would see this as a way to get rid of a soldier, and normally I would agree with them. However, something about it just…called me. Maybe I had been reading too much fiction…but I just felt that I was needed.

I'm meant to meet with a man called Church, whose leading the group. I'm being shipped out within the hour along with a Smart-Tank to aid them in their struggle.

Maybe here I'll learn what it really means to be a soldier.

After all, it's a box canyon in the middle of nowhere, what could possible go wrong?