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Revellie, A Halo Fanthology -- Part III
Posted By: Reveille<hboff.anthology@gmail.com>>
Date: 1 May 2009, 12:37 am
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Editor’s Note:
This is the third installment of an anthology, titled “Reveille.” Several authors will contribute their accounts of the Covenant invasion of Earth, dating from October 24th, 2552 to the end of the ground war, and spanning the embattled globe. This installment details an attack on an Alaskan village, told through the written words of one Colonel Randall Farrior. I hope you enjoy reading this as I had writing it.
(ENS) Rabid_Gallagher
“Letters from Home”
24 April 2009
Dear Michelle;
I hate this place.
It reeks of death, despair, hatred, rage…it’s too filial of Satan to give me comfort out here in Alaska. I’m tired of this damn war and the young kids who scream for help with their body eviscerated on the snow, turning from a white to a blood red…it’s disheartening to fight this war in your own home.
I’m afraid for you now, Mich. If I can see human civilians cut down like flies with laughing Elites firing plasma weapons into crowds, then I can see Hell.
I don’t see light and hope anymore, Mich. All I see now is death. Ghastly, terminated souls that linger or die. I remember when you wrote that you feared your soul lost.
I think it left me today.
I saw the haunting faces of the despaired youth, whom I’ve seen carrying such weight in their faces, the weight that could be described as fun, love, all of the normal teenage and youthful stuff you and I had, Mich. They lost it in the village battles here in Alaska. All I see are ghosts. Haunting, dying plagues that rot the Earth with no purpose, but to try to continue their existence. What else could they do, Mich? This fucking war is killing the spirit of our race, Michelle. I know from your experiences as a Corpsman that you can vaccine people for once-deadly diseases, fix bones, clout blood with enemics.
But there’s no cure for a broken or lost soul, Mich.
Your writings about the people who had that; I did not understand you. I couldn’t believe that you not only saw people who were lost and in despair, but you claimed that you were losing your soul, and with that, your faith. I did not understand when you said that Lieutenant Riley, who is in my command presently, was gone and forward lost as a friend because of his lack of soul.
I understand now.
War is Hell, Mich. It’s fucking Hell.
Lieutenant Riley is fit for duty physically, but I’m still shocked that I cannot force myself to not send him on any more long-distance recon patrols. His entire squad has bloodlust, and the influx of recruits into his platoon dropped. He’s a friend we’ve lost, Michelle.
I tried to speak with him not as an officer, but as a friend.
He told me as a subordinate to keep my thoughts for a later time. A very friendly and polite way to tell me to screw myself.
Michelle, I see the change in him. And I fear for you. I know you’re strong; stronger than me, I readily admit. But please, do everything you can to come back home.
When I read your letters, even though you have a gift of making emotion palpable, I’m terrified of what you’re going through, with the death and the dying and the screams of the wounded. How do you shut that out, and still maintain the love for me that I have for you? It’s so hard…harder than anything I have done in my life, Mich.
Do you remember Alaska? I do. I remember the day I proposed to you when we were walking down that forest near Palmer, and we were holding hands with a grey sky, and the snow was fluffy and near the summer, so it was a warm day. I was wearing my JROTC officer’s uniform with my peacoat; you wore your dress and white coat. It was right after our prom. I remember that I proposed to you. Do you remember what I said?
“Be that the sun sets, the moon rises, and that humanity will extend to the stars, I know that my love for you Michelle will go on from this Earth to the center of the Galaxy, and beyond that as well, to the end of the Universe. I pledge the rest of my life to make you happy, Mich. Do you take my hand?” And you softly cried, smiling, hugging me as the snow fell on us.
When I think about that, Mich, I block out the nameless slaughter of the natives, the public tortures the Covenant perform in daylight, the civilian hunts they perform…As long as I think about that day and all of the special times we had, I’m safe. No Covenant Elite can take my soul from me.
I miss you, darling. I miss holding my baby girl in the moonlight. I miss your smile. I miss your smell. Goddamn it, love, I miss you so much.
Please write back.
Your Husband, forever;
Randy
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