Military Backlash

CW: Violence

Work In Progress

Introduction

You are a citizen of the country, Savinka, and just gotten out of college and looking to apply for the Military despite their reputation. It’s been something you’ve been interested in since you were a child. Meeting new species. The battles. The stories that your grandfather told you when he was still alive.

by TheDoctor292 on Playground AI

Story

You just applied for the job and waiting for the news in a couple days. Two days passes and you get an email and it says your were accepted. You are very excited and want to tell someone but you realize that everyone doesn’t like the military so you keep it a secret. If only your grandfather was alive. He would’ve been ecstatic. You see a link for orientation and you click it and read through the information. Training starts next week.
A week passes and you’re all packed up. You go to the location provided in the email and there are a decent amount of people when you arrive. It’s nice to see you’re not alone. What do you do?



Roll a dice

1-2

You find a place to sit down and wait until the jeeps arrive. You eventually hear the sounds of wheels hitting the gravel road and stand up. There are multiple gray jeeps approaching the location. You haul you and your possessions onto the back of one of the jeeps. Other people get in.

3-4

You decide to get to know some of your fellow soon to be soldiers while waiting for the jeeps. The people are nice and friendly. You eventually hear the sounds of wheels hitting the gravel road. Everyone falls silent and gathers their things before going onto the back of the jeeps.

by TheDoctor292 on Playground AI

The drive was a long one but the scenery was beautiful. The Dulmir mountains incredible formations and the Great Lake. You start to engage with the other people to help pass the time. The roads started to smooth out and you get a glimpse of what looks like a military base. The jeeps slowed to a halt and everyone picked up their stuff and got out. The sky was getting darker. The drivers of the jeeps got out and left except for one of them who guided you to the living quarters. The living quarters were filled with 8 bunk beds and a few lockers. “Orientation starts tomorrow. Have a nice night, recruits,” They said. You climb up the ladder on one of the bunk beds and put your luggage against the railing. You fall asleep on the mattress, excited for tomorrow.
It’s been about a year since you’ve joined the military and it’s nearing closer to the winter holidays. You’ve made friends with your fellow recruits and learned that the military isn’t as bad as everybody made it out to be. You didn’t know that the training period would be this long but you’re pushing through it. When there was a week before the holidays, the Chief in charge of your team announces that your team can go home next week. Everyone was excited for a break. The training was exhausting and having a full week off was going to be great.

As the week began to draw to a close the less training there was. Everyone left on the weekend and went back to their housing units. You pay for a hotel once you can check-in you put your stuff away and watch tv for a while before tuning in for the night. You spent the next couple hours seeing the area and getting a few things from stores. You run into an old friend in the street. They don’t notice you at first but you try to get their attention.

“Hey, Delvin. Delvin!” You say. They stop and turn to look at you.
“Orion?”
“Yes, it’s me.”
“Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in a year.”
“I found a job offering I really enjoyed in another country…right after college,” You respond.
“You did? That’s brilliant!” Your friend said.

You two talk and catch up but you never tell him where you really were since you didn’t want to risk losing a friend and it would be hard to explain everything.

Incident

You feel a buzzing in your pocket and grab your phone out of your pocket. You have a text from your mom and lots of missed texts and calls. Those were probably from when you were gone. You read the message she sent and said if you wanted to come to a gathering that was happening a few days later. You answer back saying you will come and tried to explain your absence without giving too much away. You turn off your phone and put it back in your pocket.
The day of the gathering arrives and you get ready and you walk to to your parents house which isn’t that far away. You see a bunch of cars in the street where your parents reside and realize it must be a bigger gathering than you thought. You go to the porch and enter the house. A crowd of people were already in the house. You recognize some of them. Aunts, Uncles, their children and some of your parent’s friends. As you walked through the crowd everyone turned to look at you. You help yourself to food laid on a small wooden table. An old man with graying hair walked towards you

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you,” He said.
“Hey, Vyn,” You say.
“How’s life been treating you?”
“Good. I finished school and got a job I enjoy. How’s your bakery?”
“He could ramble about that all day, my dear. A bit obsessed to be honest,” A woman said. There were a few giggles.
“It’s an interesting business. A fine mastery and like a puzzle, Anyah,” He said.
“If you say so, Vyn,” Anyah said.
”There’s a lot to talk about. Do you want to hear about the business side or the consumer side of things?”

He goes on to talk about everything going on and he looks like he could go on forever but your mother interrupts the flow and asks you if you want to help her with the preparations. You go help her set things up. You two engage in small conversation and get back to the gathering once you’re done.
You talk to other people and give yourself time alone. You are sat down in an armchair and letting your thoughts roam around your mind. It was nice getting away from the exhausting exercises and the Chief barking orders left, right and center but it didn’t feel right keeping this from everyone. You love this job and there’s no one here to hear you talk about it but you know that they wouldn’t like it if you revealed it and thinking of that hurt a little bit. You look out of the window and time seems to slip into nothing. You hear someone’s footsteps and you look away.

“It’s time for the feast,” A voice said.
“Coming.”

by TheDoctor292 on Playground AI

You enter the dining room and sit down on one of the chairs. The table is lined with food like roasted chicken, salad and your mom’s signature Seaple pie. Your mother and father are sat close by. Everyone gets settled in and the food gets passed around. There wasn’t as much chatter as before and you don’t engage much. The meal was great but you couldn’t help but notice something wasn’t right. Your mother had a hard stone face whenever she looked at you. Your father was quiet. Your first thought was your sudden absence. You tried engaging with them but they didn’t respond. You finally ask if there’s anything going on.

“You know what you did,” Your mother responded after a minute of silence.
“What? Is it about the sudden moving out of the country?” You say.
“Joining the military, that’s what,” She said like you did something absolutely horrible.

You almost drop the knife you are holding. You must’ve heard incorrectly or something since you thought you heard ‘joined the military’. You’ve never seen them before today and never told anyone. There was no way they could’ve found out and never gave them any reason to lead them to think that. You try to remain a neutral expression.

“What?” You say trying to remain calm.
“You heard me, boy. Anything you could’ve had a career in, you chose the military. The one organization that has ruined everything!” She responded angrily.
“You don’t have any proof,” You say.
“I heard it from one of your friends,” She said.

What friend? You haven’t spoken to them for a year and only met Delvin again a few days ago. If one of your fellow trainees ratted you out, then you’ll be extremely mad. Maybe she was just making it up but there’s no way she would make up something this extreme.

“Is there anything wrong with that?” You say completely forgetting the promise you made for yourself.
“Anything wrong with that? Yes, yes there is. They don’t have any regard for other people’s lives and show no mercy. They are the one’s that made the government put in those stupid and ridiculous rules that has taken lots of innocent lives!” She said with absolute fury.
“You’re biased. They aren’t that bad as everyone thinks they are. I’ve met great people.”
“That’s just a facade. Who taught you this madness?”
“It’s not madness. It’s the truth. Grandfather talked to me about it whenever we were alone.”
“He was always the crazy one. Corrupted your mind, he has!”
“He’s not crazy! He’s the only one who listened and understood. Stop painting the military as monsters. They aren’t all psychopaths.”

She responded with something that set you off.

Reason with her

“STOP?! Why can’t you just listen? They aren’t heartless or monsters. They don’t kill without reason. There’s always a reason. Every species does this. Look at the Sontarans. They love warfare and we don’t hate them. Give the military a chance. They aren’t like the Devil,” You yell in anger.
“He’s crazy.” People muttered to each other.
You realize that the chatter is gone but you don’t care. Other people chimes in in favor of your mother. You stand up and walk out of your parents house. They won’t see reason. No one will. Everyone hates the military and that really annoys you.

Leave to avoid any further trouble

You want to shout at her but thought there wasn’t any point so you get out of your seat and leave the gathering. You know this was coming but still felt anger towards her. If you even mention that you like the military, they will turn their backs at you and think you’re a lunatic. That’s always how it’s been for decades. It’s the unfortunate truth for someone like you and you hate that.

You arrive back at your hotel room and notice the time on the clock. It was later than you thought so you go to sleep trying to not think of what happened.

After the Holidays

The last days of the week passed by quickly. You head back to the military base with a feeling of excitement and a little bit of anger. The thought of thinking a fellow trainee gave you away was annoying but it’ll be nice to get them back for it in someway shape and form.
The Chief welcomes you back once you enter the training grounds. They got started with what you learned before the holidays to refresh yourself. You got spilt up into teams of three to practice for the next half of the training. You pay attention to how your teammates are looking at you and what they do throughout the practice. It went well and there were only minor injuries sustained. The Chief congratulates your team on your efforts and lets your team get off training early and your group chats with each other about what they did over the holidays.
A few days has passed and there doesn’t seem to be any difference between how people act towards you before and after the holidays. You forget about that after the Chief made the announcement that your group will be having your first assignment of going onto a real battlefield in the next couple days. Everyone talks amongst themselves with excitement. Someone asked if your group will be with the other groups. The Chief said that your group will work alone. It was a test to see how your group could handle everything they learned over the last year.
The next couple days your group trained harder and there was constant chatter about what the mission would entail. You can’t wait for the day to arrive. This was what you were waiting for. The day came and the Chief calls your group during the middle of the day and said the ships pilot was ready. Your group got up and talked quietly to each other. You got to the ship and marveled at the sight of hundreds of identical ships lined up. You enter and take a look around before having a seat on one of the benches. The Chief went up to the front and talked quietly to the pilot for a minute before sitting down.
The ship took off and everyone sat in silence. Someone (name) headed towards and sat besides you. It was a moment before they spoke.

“How was your holidays, Orion?”
“Good. Could’ve gone better though,” You say.
“Did you spend time with your family?”
“Yeah, I did. They had a gathering with extended family and friends. Our family is rather big so the feasts was rather huge/big. I haven’t seen most of them in a long time including my mother and father,” You reply
“That’s nice. My family didn’t do much. It was only a small dinner. My grandparents live very far away,” They said
“That sounds nice. Not as loud and crowded.”
“True.”
Silence fell and they rubbed their hands before speaking again.
“I might’ve ran into your mother during the first few days of the holidays.”
You slowly turn to look at them. “And?”
“She and I engaged in conversation and she might’ve asked what I do for a living.”
You somehow know where this is going and really hoped you were wrong. It would hurt if what you were thinking was right.
“I only mentioned that I worked with people who do stuff in other planets and stuff like that. Mentioned a couple people. Never said the military directly. I just think she assumed it to be that.”
“You what?! The military is the only organization that I know of that does stuff like that. They’re controversial. She hates me because of that!” You say
“They are?” He said.
“Yes. Everyone hates them. You learn it from a young age. How do you not know that?”
“My father’s in the military. He’s one of the Brigadiers. My mother was too. She retired once I was born to raise me when my father was gone doing stuff.”

He went over to another bench after the conversation was over. You remained silent for the rest of the way. One of your best friends did this but he didn’t know about (military thing) but it still didn’t make up for it. Keeping it a secret was better than having your entire family hate you.
You feel the ship descending and look out the window. The ship was heading towards a blue planet that was smaller than your homeworld. The rest of the group was either resting or talking quietly to each other.

“We are approaching the planet’s atmosphere. Repeat. We are approaching the planet’s atmosphere,” The pilot said over the radio.

by TheDoctor292 using AI

Some people wake up and others stop their conversations. The Chief sits up and grabs his weapon. You watch as the clouds turn to a view of buildings and land. Everyone else does the same thing. They gasped as they got a closer view of the buildings. They had beautiful architecture, tall, yellow and white buildings with arched roofs. The ship landed near a wooded area. The Chief got up and stood near the pilot area.

“This is your time to prove yourself to me. I bear no responsibility if you die. If you can’t live up to the task then I’ll help. Hopefully that doesn’t happen. Other than that you’re on your own. Do your best and good luck recruits,” They said.

Your group grabs their guns and the Chiefs goes in front. The ship hanger door opens and everyone walks out. You take a look around. There were a lot of trees and you seem to be away from any civilization. You walk through the woods and you reach civilization. The streets were empty but there were signs of recent activity. Your group stops.

“So, who’s gonna lead? We aren’t gonna go out on a whim. It’ll only create chaos,” Someone says.
“Remus. Out of everyone here, he’s one of the best,” Another said.
“Aye or nay?”
“Aye,” Everyone said.
“First thing we have to do. Find people. Then we can work things out,” Remus said. Everyone agreed.

Your group walks around for a decent length of time and comes across barely anyone. There came across 1 or 2 people every once in a while but never a large crowd. Those who you have seen looked scared when they noticed your group like they’ve seen other Cédai soldiers before. You couldn’t help but feel bad for them. No one should have to see something and feel afraid.
Your group continues to wander around the area and come across a large market area with a decent amount of people. Remus gives the signal to raise your guns. Your group approaches silently and slowly before opening fire on the market. The people got out of there and some died in the crossfire.

“Leave the others. They’ll get the message,” Remus said.
“Won’t they alert the military?” Someone said.
“They’re the Faurku , not that advanced last time I checked. We’ll be able to deal with their military easily,” Remus responded.
“Why would the Chief assign us to a weaker species? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Don’t know. This is our first time going onto a battlefield.”
“There’s not really any challenge if this is his idea of a chance to prove ourselves.”
“We’ll see once we encounter their military. Let’s head out,” Remus said.

After walking around for a bit your group comes across another crowd of people. There was something off about them though. They didn’t react when noticing you. They pulled out swords and bows which surprised your group.

“Leave the premises or we will open fire,” One said.
Remus responded back.
“Cédai soldiers. Leave the premises or we will open fire.”
“No, we won’t,” Remus said.

There was a barrage of arrows and people coming forward. You and everyone else on your group shoots at them. There were more people approaching and a few of you tried to take them out. There was lots of damage done to your and the enemy sides. The enemy left after you defeated most of their members. There were many wounds on everyone and it was harder than you expected. Your group heads back to the ship after a few more of these fights. Your group was exhausted. The Chief was waiting near the top of the ships’s hanger door. You all had a seat before he spoke.

“How was it, recruits?”
“Tougher than we thought,” Remus answered.
“Always expect the enemy to be tougher than you think they are so you won’t be taken off guard,” The Chief says.

The flight hope was silent. Most people rested including you. The sound of the ship descending woke you up. The ship landed and the hanger door opened. You grab your gun and follow the rest of your group out. Everyone headed for the living quarters.
A few months have passed between your first mission. You were in the cafeteria with your friends and had the urge to text your parents but you still felt mad against them. You do it anyways and grab your phone out of your pocket. You pause once you reach the messaging app for a minute before texting a message trying to say sorry and seeing if there’s anyway to make up for everything. You wait before putting it away. You join in the conversation before leaving and heading towards the training grounds. The rest of the day passes by and you feel your phone buzz during the night.
You check it out and there’s a message from your mother and father. ’You’re try to apologize months after the gathering? Are you trying to fool us? The best you could do is staying away from us. You’ve made your choice and there’s no turning back. You’re a disgrace. Do you even have any decency?’ ‘Don’t try to connect with us after that disastrous day. The military is a bunch of cruel, heartless monsters and you decide to join them after every other option available? Stay away from us.’

Go to bed without answering back

You turn off your phone with a mix of anger and sadness. They aren’t going to forgive you and that’s the reality of the situation. Why were you expecting them to? It’s pointless. You tune off for the night. Outcast Ending

Answer back

You text back and they respond in the same way. This goes on for a few minutes and their attitude seemed to have changed a bit in a strangely good way. Maybe there’s a chance to redeem yourself. You tune out for the night thinking about that. Maybe Another Chance Ending