#miltiary

[kemetic-dreams]

Charles Leroy Thomas was born 17 April 1920 in Birmingham, Alabama. He grew up in Detroit and graduated from Cass Technical High School in 1938. Thomas then worked as a molder for the Ford Motor Company (Ford River Rogue factory) with his father, and was a student at Wayne State University studying mechanical engineering.

He was drafted, and entered the U.S. Army on January 20, 1942, at Fort Custer, Michigan. He completed Basic and Advanced Infantry Training at Camp Wolters and was assigned to the Infantry Replacement Training Center at Camp Wolters.

When the Army began forming tank destroyer units, Thomas was transferred to Camp Carson, Colorado and joined the segregated 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion, which had been activated on July 25, 1942. The soldiers were African, but most of the officers were white. Thomas quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant during unit training and was chosen to attend the Tank Destroyer Officer Candidate School (OCS) Class # 21 at Camp Hood, Texas when the battalion was transferred to Camp Bowie Texas on December 18, 1942.

Thomas was commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduation from OCS on March 11, 1943, and returned to Camp Bowie to assume command of Company C, 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion and prepared the unit for the move to Camp Hood that was completed on March 23, 1943.

On August 27, 1944, he deployed with the 614th to England, arriving on September 7. On October 8, the 614th was on Utah Beach in Normandy, France. The 614th led by Lieutenant Colonel Frank S. Pritchard, then would join General Patton's Third Army in Metz, France. The 614th saw its first combat on November 28. On December 5, the 614th was attached to 411th Infantry Regiment, and on December 6, the 614th was attached to the 103rd Infantry Division..

On December 14, 1944, 1st Lt. Thomas volunteered to lead 3rd Platoon, C Company, 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion in a task force named "Task Force Blackshear" to storm and capture the village of Climbach, a strategically important town which was five miles from the German border. The task force spearheaded by Thomas' M20 scout car (modified M8), consisted of a platoon of Sherman tanks from the 47th Armored Battalion, 14th Armored Division, a platoon of F Company (riding on tanks), 411th Infantry, 103rd Infantry Division, 3rd Platoon, C Company, 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion, rest of F Company, 411th Infantry, and a heavy weapons platoon. Approaching Climbach was uphill, Thomas' armored scout car was knocked out by enemy fire from the German 21st Panzer Division, and he was wounded.

Thomas helped his crew out of the vehicle, but as he left the car's protection, he was again wounded in the chest, legs and arms. Despite his wounds, Thomas directed the dispersal and emplacement of the anti-tank guns, which then returned fire and covered the attempt by the rest of the task force to outflank the defenders. He briefed the 3rd Platoon leader of C Company, a first lieutenant, on the general situation, and only when he was sure the situation was under control did he allow himself to be evacuated. 3rd Platoon, C Company continued to fight for four hours, losing two of its four guns and over half its men as casualties (3 dead, 17 wounded).

The "valorous conduct" of the platoon, "in the face of overwhelming odds enabled the task force to capture its objective", the village of Climbach, and forced the defenders to withdraw to the Siegfried Line. 3rd Platoon, C Company, 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion, was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation, the first black combat unit, and the first unit attached to the 103rd Division to be so honored. Its soldiers received four Silver Stars and nine Bronze Stars. Captain Thomas received the Distinguished Service Cross on February 20, 1945, and returned home a hero, though he played down his role – "I know I was sent out to locate and draw the enemy fire, but I didn't mean to draw that much." Thomas remained in the Army, and retired with the rank of major on August 10, 1947.

Thomas married in 1949, and his wife and he had two children. He went to work as a missile technician at Selfridge Air Force Base and later as a computer programmer for the Internal Revenue Service. He died of cancer on February 15, 1980. He was buried in Westlawn Cemetery in Wayne, Michigan.

In the early 1990s, it was determined that African soldiers had been denied consideration for the Medal of Honor (MOH) in World War II because of their race. In 1993, the U.S. Army had contracted Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, to research and determine if there was racial disparity in the review process for recipients of the MOH. The study commissioned by the U.S. Army, described systematic racial discrimination in the criteria for awarding decorations during World War II. After an exhaustive review of files, the study recommended in 1996 that ten African Americans who served in World War II be awarded the MOH. In October of that year, Congress passed legislation that would allow President Clinton to award the Medal of Honor to these former soldiers. Seven of the ten including Thomas were approved, and awarded the MOH (six had Distinguished Service Crosses revoked and upgraded to the MOH) on January 12, 1997. On January 13, 1997, President Clinton presented the MOH to the seven African Americans; Major Thomas and five others were posthumously presented the MOH. A niece of Thomas accepted his MOH during the ceremony. Vernon Baker was the only living recipient of the medal at the time.

Medal of Honor Citation stated the following:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty: Then Lieutenant Charles L. Thomas distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 14 December 1944. One platoon of Company C, 614th Tank Destroyer Battalion, was designated as the lead element in a task force formed to storm and capture the village of Climbach, France. Lieutenant Thomas, the Commanding Officer of Company C, realized, with the obscurity of information regarding the enemy and a complete lack of reconnaissance, the mission would be an extremely dangerous one. Fully cognizant of the danger, Lieutenant Thomas volunteered to command the selected platoon of his company and ride in the column's leading vehicle - a highly maneuverable, but equally vulnerable, M-20 scout car. Lieutenant Thomas knew that if there was a concentration of enemy armor in the village, as was believed, he would absorb the initial shock of the first enemy resistance. The task force left Preuschdorf, France, at 1023 hours, and proceeded to advance in column toward Chimbach. Lieutenant Thomas in his scout car stayed well in front of the column. At 1400 hours, upon reaching the high ground southeast of the village, Lieutenant Thomas experienced initial contact with the enemy. As his scout car advanced to an exposed position on the heights, he received intense direct fire from an enemy artillery, self-propelled guns, and small arms at a range of seven hundred yards. The first burst of hostile fire disabled the scout car and severely wounded Lieutenant Thomas. He immediately signaled the column to halt. Before leaving the wrecked vehicle, Lieutenant Thomas and the crew found themselves subjected to a veritable hail of enemy fire. Lieutenant Thomas received multiple gunshot wounds in his chest, legs, and left arm. In spite of the intense pain caused by his wounds, Lieutenant Thomas ordered and directed the dispersion and emplacement of his first two antitank guns. In a few minutes these guns were effectively returning the enemy fire. Realizing that it would be impossible for him to remain in command of the platoon because of his injuries, Lieutenant Thomas then signaled for the platoon commander to join him. Lieutenant Thomas then thoroughly oriented him as to the enemy gun positions, his ammunition status, and the general situation. Although fully cognizant of the probable drastic consequences of not receiving prompt medical attention, Lieutenant Thomas refused evacuation until he felt certain that his junior officer was in full control of the situation. Only then did Lieutenant Thomas allow his evacuation to the rear. Throughout the action, Lieutenant Thomas displayed magnificent personal courage and a complete disregard for his own safety. His extraordinary heroism spurred the soldiers of the platoon to a fierce determination to triumph, and resulted in a mass display of heroism by them. Lieutenant Thomas' intrepid actions throughout the operation reflect the highest traditions of the military service.

[medicinedreamer]

[endjfcar]

Almost of my arts of Choloe for past inactive years.

[redd956]

1700s-1800s Military Whump Prompt List

Getting stabbed by a bayonet

Medic bunching up tons of bandages/gauze against a heavily bleeding wound, ignoring the sounds of whumpee's agony

Whumpee falling off of their horse (and getting caught on the saddle, only to be dragged)

Getting shot but like musket style

Rickety vintage guns going off accidentally, and blowing a brand new hole in whumpee

Whumpee was so heavily focused on the dangers of guns that they completely forgot about the dangers of getting stabbed

Caretaker dipping a cloth in a bucket of water, in order to dab it against whumpee's overheating forehead, both ignoring the sound of battle in the distance

Caretaker having to hurry on a long traveling mission in order to get something that could hopefully save whumpee's life, only to be interrupted by the enemy

Getting whipped after being captured by the enemy

Stitches with no painkillers

Shellshock from canon fire

Whumpee managed to survive getting a non-fatal cut from a sword, but they failed to anticipate the poison that the blade was laced in

Caretaker having to haul whumpee over a horse to lead them back to safety

Deserter stowaways on a ship that gets lost at sea

Getting shot with a bullet that's been purposefully infected with diseases

Getting caught in dangerous wintery conditions. It all seemed possible to overcome, until the horses died

Ally and Enemy putting their differences aside to deal with a much more wealthier, trained, and populous third party

Whumpee fought tooth and nail for their win, only for a third party to come around and "mediate" the situation themselves

Having to get an amputation for much more minor injuries then what we would count for today

Having no clue where the hell you're heading, and what it's going to be like there

Gun blowing up in whumpee's face

Kicked by steel toed boots

Getting an arrow stuck in the shoulder

Having to dig a bullet out of a wound with nothing but a dagger on hand

[barbucomedie]

Cuirassier Sabre from the Kingdom of Prussia dated to 1732 on display at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna, Austria

Photographs taken by myself 2022

[fefeman]

why is balteus like that?

[pen-to-paper15]

i’m constantly stuck between wanting Copia and wanting to take his clothes

[companionwolf]

Finished the fronting group indicator kandi bracelets. Please ignore the blurry bracelet being upside down.

'Wolf these are widely different in size.' I am going to fix them...later. Eventually.

[harrykim]

uh but disregard op of that last post do not watch stargate lmao

[st-just]

Also my favorite character is Livewire. Like, pure incredible criminal masterminding technical skill (perfectly executed theft of bleeding edge miltiary tech, plants bombs across the city over the course of, like, a lazy afternoon) with just monumentally ??? decision making. Taking that experimental military tech and just, handing it out like candy to everyone who seemed like they'd try to do a felony with it. Because ACAB, I guess?

[endjfcar]

Almost all of my arts of Hartman for past inactive years.

[tyrantisterror]

Criticizing the police in a superhero story is kind of straightforward, examples exist, but what about the military in a kaiju story? Like, it's one thing to have the monster be immune to weapons but how do you avoid the usual cliches?

I would say most kaiju movies are pretty critical of the military - and so are a lot of Western giant monsters movies, to a lesser extent. The military is almost always impotent at best in a kaiju movie, rarely accomplishing anything more than stalling for time, and often end up making the situation worse. All the military's actions in the original Godzilla, for example, do nothing but make the monster more pissed off, until his final and most horrible rampage is directly provoked by the military's incredibly thorough and diverse attempt to kill him with every weapon they can think of. That is not a flattering portrayal of the military.

In fact, this trope is so common in the kaiju genre that it wasn't until decades after its inception that people tried to go against it - one of the directors of the 90's Godzilla movies talked about how G-Force in those movies was made because he always felt annoyed as a child that the military never accomplished much, and wanted to have them put up a better fight. Yet even then, MechaGodzilla, Moguera, and the various super xs never win - they come close, but Godzilla proves indomitable in the end.

Victories in kaiju movies overwhelmingly hinge on noncombatants and diplomacy - the happy ending comes from a scientist creating an ingenious invention, or fairies convincing their moth goddess to save our ass, or simply allowing Godzilla to swim off into the sunset when he's done defending his territory from the invasive monster of the week.

Some modern American kaiju pastiches find interesting ways to make the military useful while trying to stick to the themes baked into the genre's bones - Godzilla 2014 has a protagonist who, while in the military, specifically works as a bomb disposal expert, i.e. someone who keeps violence from escalating rather than perpetuate. Said character is drawn as a direct reflection of Godzilla himself in the same movie - heroes defined by their desire to stop a violent situation from exploding rather to destroy for the sake of destroying.

Pacific Rim explicitly focuses on a military organization of pilots in giant robots trying to fend off alien invaders using kaiju as weapons - but in the movie's greatest break from reality, said force is woefully underfunded, stripped to just a handful of robots and pilots. While the Jaegers of Pacific Rim have the trappings of some real world miltiary stuff, I think ultimately they don't resemble the military that much in execution, being more akin to, like, a remnant of an army turned into a guerilla resistance force, and really they make more sense when you take them as a metaphor for the few people actively fighting against climate change in our world (which the movie makes pretty clear is basically the theme, more or less - the aliens are specifically seeking our world out because we've fucked up the environment enough to make it favorable to them). And, ultimately, the Jaegers only manage to get their job done thanks to the help of two very brave scientists.

But, in all honestly, I feel no need to do away with the "cliche" of the impotent military in kaiju flicks. Fuck the military. Show them as incompetent, war-mongering, overfunded and undereffective assholes. Fuck 'em. They get their cocks sucked by every other genre with a budget, they can take a few beatings in the kaiju flicks.

[mayv-1]

*holding you at gunpoint* reiner braun understood why marcel manipulated the miltiary's decision to protect his brother once when marcel got eaten and then again from a completely different perspective when eren told him his mother was eaten by a titan when the armored and colossal titan attacked, and again when he saw marco being eaten and not knowing why, he understood why marcel lied when he shared food with paradis island demons and slept under the same roof as them and became a big brother figure to them, to marcel it might've been bc he didnt want his brother to die but to reiner it was all about having everything he believed in his whole life crushed beneath the feet of realizing that he caused suffering to the only people that called him family unconditionally, realizing that he's now a terrorist instead of humanity's savior without a single fleeting hope, without an end goal, without ever getting the life he did all that for.

[silverwingwashere]

The 1st Native Infantry Regiment was one of the main regular army units Spanish colonial authorities had at their disposal in the Philippine colony. Composed of native enlisted men and European officers and NCOs, these regiments were the colony's first line of defense against external and internal threats.

Among the campaigns the 1st Regiment would participate in were: the supression of the Cavite mutiny of 1872, the capture of Jolo in 1876, and the 1887 campaign against Datu Uto along the Rio Grande river.

Around 1888 and 1889, as part of the miltiary reforms at the time, the 1st Native Infantry Regiment would be renumbered and become the 68th "Legazpi" Infantry Regiment. Under this new title the regiment would participate in Governor-General Weyler's 1891 Mindanao campaign and fight against native rebels during the 1896 Philippine Revolution.

----------------------------------------

Depicted here is the standard native infantry uniform in the Philippines in 1862, which comprised of a salakot, as headgear, and a blue coat. The Spanish M1752 musket would have been the standard long-arm for the troops at the time.

[catreginae]

Ghosts of the Past: Goodbye

Warriors gets a chance to say goodbye and finally get some closure.

This is the first part! Please read it first or this will not make sense.

“They're corporeal enough to hurt him but we're not corporeal enough to do anything about his bleeding? This is bullshit!”

“I'm sure that Laine will come back with help.”

Warriors slowly opened his eyes to find two transparent figures looming over them. One of them was a woman with blue eyes surrounded by freckles and auburn hair that was pulled into a tight bun. The other was somebody with dark hair cut short with dark-brown eyes, and it took a second for Warriors to remember that they didn't identify with any gender... wait where did that come from? How did he know that? He blinked away the grogginess. He knew them.

“Hariette... and Jay... I'm so sorry.”

They were good soldiers. They survived the war with him, only to die in this forsaken field. He could see the injuries that did them in too. Hariette still had a giant gash in her neck and he supposed that being a ghost was the only reason why she could talk at all. Jay had a hole between their eyes from an arrow.

Jay smiled. “Welcome back to the world of the living, Captain,” they said with a playful salute. “But you don't have apologize for anything. Our deaths are not your fault.”

“But-”

Hariette frowned and made to smack him, only for her hand to phase right through him. He let out a hiss at the sudden chill that went through his body. She glared at her hand before opting to just cross her arms with an exaggerated pout.

“I think she agrees with me. Although I would rather have not died, I don't regret any of my choices in life. I'm glad I got to serve one more time too...”

“Yeah, what Jay said! We all knew the risks, Captain. We all knew what could happen. We could have backed out of the military after the war when we got the chance but we stayed because we wanted to keep protecting our kingdom. We were there because we wanted to be. I can't speak for everybody else, of course, but that's the way it is for us.”

Warrior closed his eyes, resisting the sting in his eyes. They shouldn't have to say those things, they should have survived. He should have been able to pull everybody through to the other side but he failed. He failed everybody. Even the ones who survived had a hard time staying in the miltiary, the battle forever haunting their memories.

“I'm-”

“Don't say anything. You're losing a lot of blood and we can't help you,” Jay said, putting one of their hands through his leg to emphasize their point. Warriors shivered in response. “Save your strength.”

“We won't forgive you if you join us tonight!”

“Keep your eyes open if you can though, so we know you're still here. Laine went up to find help.”

Opening his eyes took more effort than it should have. Warriors was well aware of that fact that his strength was starting to wane. He was dizzy, cold, and sore, from from well.

“WARS?”

He blinked. That wasn't from Jay or Hariette but he knew that voice regardless. It shouldn't be taking this long to remember something. It was a voice he knew heard just hours ago...

“Warriors!” Two figures joined his side. Ah, Wild and Twilight. “Dammit, he's pale,” Wild muttered, his hands instantly going to the wound on his leg. Twilight had a hand over his arm wound and Warriors hissed in pain at the new pressure. If they could see the ghosts, neither one of them mentioned them.

“Heading to the old campsite was a good idea, Jay. I found a couple of friends who were already looking for him.”

Another figure, this one with blonde hair tied into a braid that wrapped around her head. Her eyes were brown and kind and easy smile graced her face, despite the fact that there was a giant wound that stretched from her left shoulder down to her right hip. Laine. He could remember her being one of the mother hens of the group. Of course she would find the others.

“You're in good hands now,” Laine continued. “We should get going. If we're going to stay, we shouldn't burn ourselves out.”

“True, true,” Hariette mumbled, standing up. She saluted. “It was good to serve once again, Captain! Keep kicking monster butt for us, got it?”

She vanished. Jay was the next to stand, also offering a salute of their own as they began to fade. “It's been a pleasure. Don't grieve too much for us – just do your best for us.”

Instead of saluting, Laine bent down and unlike Jay or Hariette, he actually felt her hands as she placed her hands on both sides of his head, tucking his hair behind his ears. His eyes stung again as tears welled up in his eyes. “You're doing great, Link. We're all so proud of you.”

With that, Laine was gone. All of them were.

Suddenly, he was being lifted up and a bottle was placed at his lips. He drank the potion that felt way too thick and before he knew it, everything went dark again.

~+~

Warriors opened his eyes and immediately closed them once he found the sun directly overhead. He tried to turn so that he wasn't looking directly into the sun when he opened his eyes again, but more than one pair of hands stopped him and rolled him to the other side instead. Oh yeah. His arm. Even if the potion did close the wound, it would still be sore for a bit. Once comfortably situated on his side, he opened his eyes again. Wild was beside him.

“Where... are we?”

“Twi took you back to camp,” Wild said. “Can you sit up? Hyrule and Sky said you should drink some more potion if you can manage.”

He blinked as he processed his words. He rolled back on his back, planted his hands on the ground and tried to push himself up but the pain in his arm made it difficult to do so. It was only thanks to Wild supporting his back and taking some of the weight off of his arm that he managed to sit up. He muttered an apology as the cook was forced to bear more of his weight, letting him rest on his chest as he pried the cork off of the bottle to pass to Warriors. Thankfully, he had just enough strength left in his body to take bring the potion to his lips and drink the potion on his own.

It didn't taste like a red potion he was familiar with, and it made him feel drowsy as well but he suspected that more to do with the blood loss and exhaustion he already had. He sagged into Wild's arms and chest.

“It's alright, you can go back to sleep. You're safe now.”

He frowned but he couldn't fight how heavy his eyelids were...

~+~

Warriors woke up feeling a lot better than he did before. It was still bright out, so he hoped he was only asleep for a few hours. He was well enough to untangle himself from his blankets and join the others at the campfire where Wild was cooking lunch, so he was thankfully correct about the fact that he didn't sleep all day. He found a seat beside Sky, because he knew Sky was the one person who didn't care if anybody used his shoulder for extra support. Everybody greeted him, asking him how he was doing, but he could tell that they were hoping for more.

And he owed them more.

He didn't know if everybody saw Laine or if it was just Wild and Twilight. He did know they would have seen his sorry state when he was carried back to camp, though.

“About last night...” he started, wringing his hands.

“You don't have to say anything if you don't want to,” Sky mumbled.

Warriors elected to ignore him. “The field we were on last night before I took us here? It was the sight of a brutal battle. We won but the causalities were pretty devastating,” he started, avoiding the gaze from the others.

“Was this during the war?” Time asked. Warriors merely shook his head.

“No, it was afterwards. The fighting didn't stop just because the war did. There were many monsters still out there at the time, still are a lot of monsters, and they're opportunistic. The monsters in my era aren't necessarily smart but they know an opportunity to attack when they see one. The war wiped out our supplies and many of those who survived were too injured to continue to fight or left the military to go back to their day jobs. We were trying to assist with the reconstruction as well. We were stretching everything pretty thin. So when a large group of monsters attacked.... we weren't prepared.”

“So the memories were getting to you last night.” Wars didn't know who said that but he nodded along.

“I wasn't only the one either. I guess none of the soldiers who died that day really moved on. I saw them again last night as ghosts. Some of them blamed me for their deaths and attacked me, actually landed some hits too, but when I was starting to struggle, some of them came to my defense... I'm not sure where I would be without them.”

Warriors didn't consider it before, but there was a good chance he could have died that night if people like Jay, Hariette, and Laine hadn't shown up last night to defend him. He was tired and injured and for a while there, horribly outnumbered. The odds weren't in his favour, especially when he lost consciousness before the battle was even over.

Sky put a hand on his on his bicep and pulled him closer. “It's not your fault they died, Warriors. I hope you know that.”

He wasn't too sure about that. Logically, he knew there wasn't much more he could have done at the time, not with the fact that they didn't have much time to respond, they didn't have the supplies to respond, and without the number of soldiers he was used to. All around, the situation sucked for everybody. However, there was that little voice in his head that wondered if he could have done more. What if he had more soldiers doing patrols and scouting to find the monsters earlier? What if they had a different formation once they were one the field?

What if what what if what if what if what if what what if what if what if what if what if

Then he thought of what Hariette, Jay, and Laine said, and their words pushed the little voice in his head back a bit.

“Wars?”

“Sorry, I was just thinking.”

“If this place has bad memories for you, do you want us to leave?” Four asked. “You should probably rest up a bit more but if you can't rest here, we'd be happy to move.”

“The memories are unpleasant, that's true. Yet... I actually want to stay. Just for one more night.” He didn't need to look up to know that everybody was confused. His response was weird, even to him. A bunch of people made it clear that they didn't want him around, but for some reason, he felt like he still had some unfinished business, something he still had to do and he couldn't stand the idea of leaving without doing it. He needed something that felt like closure.

“If you're sure, that's what we'll do,” Time answered.

“Thank you,” he mumbled. He sat in silence, trying to figure out what would settle his heart.

~+~

Warriors still felt a little weak when he woke up the next day and forced himself through his morning routine. He washed his face, brushed and styled his hair, and frowned at the bags under his eyes. He had some lotion that made them look less like he got punched in the face but he knew the only thing that would really hide them was makeup, which he did not have on him at the moment. Warriors made a mental note to stock up.

Once he was dressed and mostly ready to go – ideally he would rest another day to be battle ready but he was at least fit for travel – he shoved a ribbon into his leather satchel and located Wild, who was sitting with Twilight as both of them looked down at the slate. Twilight was looking at it in suspicion, glaring at the slate like it insulted his mother.

“Wars!” Wild said with a grin as he looked up from his slate. “How are you feeling? You were still kind of out of it yesterday.”

“Well enough to travel, at least.”

“Good! We're glad you woke up early, there was something we wanted to ask now that it's just the three of us,” Twilight started. “When you took a long time to come back, Wild and I went to go search for you, and that's when we came across the ghost. We couldn't hear her but it was clear that she wanted us to follow her and well, it was a good thing we did. Who was she?”

Warriors looked at his feet for a moment. “That was Laine. She was one of the mother hens... she liked fussing over us after a rough battle or trying to send us to bed if she thought we weren't sleeping enough. You don't know how much you appreciate people like that until they're gone...” He rubbed at his face with his hand. “The other two were Jay and Hariette. They were in my platoon for the entire war, even when others decided to betray us, and they died in this field. Jay had a good head on their shoulders and they were one of the voices of reason. They were good at mentoring the new soldiers too because they were good at easing their anxieties. Hariette... she lived her life putting her all into everything. Whether she was happy or angry, she was never really quiet about it. She brought a lot of energy wherever she went.”

“It sounds like they were really good people,” Twilight said softly, taking a glance at his own feet. Warriors just let out a sigh and instead of trying to continue that conversation, he tried to circle back to why he wanted to talk to Wild in the first place.

“Wild, do you have an old sword or halberd you're not using and wouldn't miss?”

Wild simply responded by tapping on his slate a couple of times and producing a cracked but not yet broken sword. He quirked an eyebrow as he handed it over. Warriors thanked him and headed back down the hill and to the field where he had to fight for his life for the second time. He walked to the middle of the field and stabbed the sword into the earth, then tied the ribbon he stashed in his satchel earlier to the hilt. It was a simple marker but as far as spontaneous markers went, it served its purpose well enough. It was fitting for soldiers too, at least in his own personal opinion.

Warriors stepped back, taking in the sight of the small sword in a large field, the ribbon he tied on blowing gently in the cold breeze that welcomed him to the field the night the portal took them to the field. It seemed so small, but he knew that if the battle was recognized by historians at all, it would probably just be a footnote. It was only big to him and everybody who fought in that battle, whether they survived or not.

“I'm sorry so many of you died...” he started. “I'm sorry I couldn't help more people. I'm sorry more of you aren't here today. I was your captain, your deaths were my responsibility.”

He knew his words meant little to those who died, assuming any of them were actually listening to him at the moment. After all, he was the one who was still alive and that was more than he could say for any of them.

“But... I'm not ready to join you any time soon. I'm not sorry that I'm still alive. I intend to fight and protect Hyrule and all who live in it until my last breath. I'm not going to let your deaths be meaningless. I'm not asking for forgiveness... just the chance to keep fighting and try to do right by you guys.”

Suddenly, the cold wind from before was suddenly warm. The breeze that previously chilled him to the bones suddenly felt like a comforting campfire, the kind of campfire that he used to sit at with people like Hariette, Jay, and Laine. Warriors glanced at the sword again, blinking in confusion.

“Wars!”

He turned around and found Wind, waving his arms.

“It's time for breakfast, come on! Time says we can't leave until you eat!”

Warriors looked at the sword and the little ribbon tied to the hilt once more. He managed a small smile. “I'll be back one day, with something a little nicer. I won't forget any of you, I promise.”

“WARS!”

“Coming!” he called, running back towards the hill to rejoin Wind.

“What were you doing?” Wind asked.

“Just... saying goodbye for now,” Warriors said softly.

It's finally done! I don't like jumpy it is but… it is what it is. I hope everybody likes it.

[tarisilmarwen]

Like I imagine that in the atmosphere of the Imperial miltiary, there's a heavy emphasis on obeyign the orders of your superiors. Disobedience is a stigma paramount to treason, even if the orders are to fire upon a civilain population center because there are revolting elements within. Especially if it's an alien population.

Now, who are you and where do you come from in the Empire? Perhaps you are a one of many nobles and upper echelon society of the prestigous worlds of the galaxy, for whom the military is a career door. Perhaps you are from the rim worlds of the galaxy, and maanged to earn yourself or worm your way up - perhaps both - the Imperial hiearchy. And perhaps you are a military individual, from a line of career officiers, soldiers, and such. You might have even begun service before the Empire as formed, and can remember back to the days of the Republic.

Now, you get this order to fire on a civilian target. What do you do? Disobey? The officer next to you, your second in command, is more than happy to jump on you to secure their promotion. Or if you are the 2IC, then you're screwed anyways. Hell the men under your comand - some at least - fully intend to carry out the orders once you or your commander relay the instructions. You might not even see anything wrong - this is for the greater good of the galxy, to uphold law and order that the dissidents foolishly reject. Perhaps disobeying ordersis both political and literal suicide for your ambitions. Or you are just happy to get the chance to wipe alien scum off the face of the galaxy - or even rim world humans, those lesser born fools who should shut up and let their betters decide what is best for them.

But what if you don't have that iron clad conviction that the Empire is right, you don't have the ambition to become some grand admiral, you don't have the instilled belief of human supremacy. Then you either double down on the propaganda of the Empire and following orders. You break under the pressure act in an incompetent or timid manner.

Or you decide enough is enough, and either begin discretely supporting the dissidents. Or flat out join them, either on your own or with a group of like minded individuals.

That is the evil of the Empire military machine. One that either is willingly embraced, chews up and grinds down any semblance of dissidence in its members, or creates a ground for those within it to jump or crawl to the chance of escape or at least breaking off a cog when it catches their rebellion.

Exactly! Very well put.