Flashback
The hot sun beat down over the Middle Eastern desert. A local FOB had been packed with tents filled with soldiers ready to head out for their approved missions. Staff Sergeant Xavier Aldin sighed softly as he barged into The first Sergeant's tent with breakfast chow in hand. "Wakey wakey Darkness, you're needed at HQ!" he said with a chipper smile while he watched a hung over Derek Sonata slowly get out of bed. Xaldin for the last time, it's First Sergeant now. Keep the cringy callsigns saved for missions." He said with a grimace while quickly getting dressed and blousing his boots. Xaldin just laughed and shook his head, "No can do top, rank up to Command fuckin' Sergeant Major for all I care, you'll always be the deep voiced young punk who shams out of every day mission he can so he can drink all night... you're lucky you even made to Staff Sergeant, I don't even know how you got to be Top!" Teased Xaldin. Derek just rolled his eyes. "And I don't know how I got stuck with such a disrespectful NCO." he retorted, but Xaldin waved him off. That's because I am the one who always covered your shifts you ungrateful fucker! you made your rank in TEN years, bare bones it's usually it's fifteen minimum, and daily courses or not, you'd still be my rank without all the slack your team took for you." He said with a grin. There was a pause as Derek faced him. "You're right... Thank you Xaldin." He told him as he went off for his mission briefing.
Derek sighed tensely as he looked around the convoy. He didn't like how spread out his team was, nor did he like the multiple changes the Officers were making. This entire Operation is turning out to be a shit sandwich... I don't want my men to be the ones that take a bite.." He muttered in the back of his Humvee. First Lieutenant Smith just glared at him, "First Sergeant Sonata, you JUST got your rank! Don't go thinking we won't take it if you don't stop questioning authority!" He yelled. Derek glared at the lanky man and just looked out the window. Before he could finish his thought, an explosion went off in front of them and took out the front of their vehicle. "IED!" Called Derek as he helped Smith out of the truck before checking on his Driver. "Call up the report, I'm going to check on the other trucks. He told Smith before running to make sure the other trucks were okay. After a few minutes, Derek heard gunfire off in the distance. "We're too spread too thin! I told you! he yelled at Smith as they filled empty seats and scurried back to base.
The next week had Derek as anxious as ever. The multiple papers he had to sign were nothing, most of his men were gone out on missions, some of them even missing for a few days Xaldin being one of the only ones left. After a few more days had passed, Derek could no longer take it and joined a rescue team, almost throwing a fit that the equipment was the top priority. "I don't care about toys, I want my troops back," he told Smith to his face before heading out. After a few hours, Derek saw a junked Humvee and stopped the truck he was on. he took Xaldin with him and followed the tracks in the sand. what he saw chilled him to the bone, it was two soldiers from his company, a seven foot tall muscular man with brown hair and blue eyes, and a similarly built African American man with a scar on his right cheek. "TRUCK! GOLEM!" HE screamed as he checked their wounds. Both men just coughed and leaned up "Heya Darkness.... lovely weather huh?" Asked Truck while Derek bandaged them the best he could, not noticing Golem writing on something. Derek sighed and just got Truck in the Combat carry position while Xaldin got Golem. "Don't worry bout us, First Sergeant, there's still an ambush out there, get them cleaned out.... before they get more of us." Muttered Truck. Derek sighed "Don't worry about that boys, we gotta focus on patching you both up, then we can set up......" Derek stopped mid-sentence when he saw Truck's arms dangling, he looked back and saw Xaldin had stopped a few feet behind for the same reason. "Xaldin?" He asked slowly. "Yeah, Darkness?
"Our men died in our arms didn't they?"
"..... Yes Darkness..."
Derek breathed a hard sigh before loading the bodies in one of the trucks before looking at what Golem wrote, it was a map leading to a small outpost, likely where Truck and Golem were attacked. "Come on Xaldin, we got some assholes to waste." He muttered Xaldin grabbed his rifle and nodded "Roger that First Sergeant." He said calmly as they marched through the desert heat.
While some authors say character history is often boring and unnecessary, I disagree, especially in this case. It explains why Darkness and Xaldin are the way they are and why this shaped them into who they are today. It's interesting to see the buddy banter and exchanges between Xaldin and Darkness before the former went off the rails and you can see how well they got along.
ReplyDeleteI love the detailing of the atmosphere and it's so accurate to real life. I know Darkness isn't close to many, which also explains why he does this to protect himself emotionally. I don't think he knows how to deal with his emotions so he puts up these barriers and doesn't let many people see the real him.
It seems this affected Xaldin much more, though. He seems to have some memory lapses or he's in a state of shock at what transpired. Loading your dead comrades onto a truck is something that would shake most people. I love how Darkness wants to get revenge for his fallen men. I enjoyed this chapter and as I said, I am glad you're writing more.
It's nice to see you writing more again, dude! It was interesting to explore Darkness and Xaldin's backstory here! I love how you started this off with a mundane exchange between them with their banter and pet peeves. This makes them feel more like real people and makes what happens to them feel more gut-wrenching. You get the sense they've been friends for a long time and they're very close to each other for Xaldin to act like this towards a higher-ranking soldier. Even though Darkness ranks higher in the military, they still view each other as equals and I love that.
ReplyDeleteTheir world is so different to the world most people know. Most people cannot even fathom living in a state of constant flight and fight mode and their friends dying in their arms and loading their dead bodies into a truck. It's beyond comprehension. It seems Xaldin and Darkness struggled to comprehend and process what just happened, too, which is so realistic to what happens when you go through something so traumatic. It feels surreal and you don't quite digest it right away. Did that just happen? That's something that would change you forever and how could you return back to normal civilian life like before after enduring horrors like that?
I can see why they are the way they are now. I can see why Darkness turns to alcohol to numb the pain and drown out the emotions he doesn't know how to deal with and why he has these barriers up, keeping people out. He lost too many he was close to and can't bear that pain again. Xaldin seems to be in shut-down mode/freeze state. It's interesting to see how differnetly they both react to this. Darkness reacts in fight mode, wanting to get revenge, whereas Xaldin seems to go numb. You did an excellent job conveying the atmosphere here and taking us into the story here! I enjoyed reading this and look forward to more!