Tami's Prompts #2 Wings

Sometimes I wonder if peace is worth its weight in death. It’s a thought that came to mind during our last approach on Tae-Var. Forty-two trained flyers, down from our initial ninety. Less than half of the tightly knit air force I’ve been with for two decades now. Before each war they spoke of the danger of the people we battled, and during they promised quiet after, and peace.

They lied.

With the end of each war came the advent of a new enemy, a bigger, fiercer, darker evil we must destroy. That is the price of peace: my sons’ lives, my best friend’s blood and the futures of peoples we never took the time to know.

The last of us, all forty-two, rest on the edge of becoming men. Before, we were babes, not even boys, unwilling to think and act for ourselves. Floundering at the mercy of our commander-in-chief. Today that will change. Today it will end.

Somewhere below a trumpet called up into the sky and our squadron turned along with the forces below us. Back home back towards our capitol, back toward the commander-in-chief. Wings expanded, guns loaded, we made our move to finally be free.

Tami's Prompts #1 Birthmark

GAME OVER

He groaned, as he tried to focus on the flashing words at the front of his vision. His head ached from the last time and only now his right hand refused to lift to rub at the brown smudge and ease the pain away. It refused to move at all, felt cold when it should have felt wet. If he had a lower body still he did not know and he sucked air in through his throat, a series of short gurgling breaths that felt like cheating when untasted by his tongue. Casey’s stomach felt full and thick and the stench of iron made him gag.

GAME OVER

The words flashed again, mocking him, reminding him of his defeat. Casey closed his [1]zeyes and stopped forcing himself to breathe. He allowed himself to die.

START OVER (Y or N)?

Y

Light flashed and his body hummed. Nerves lit up and down his spine vibrating as the muscles remembered what it feels like to move. Casey sat up in his bed and threw back the covers. In front of his bathroom mirror he caught up with this new life. The smudge on his forehead had left him, a brutal reminder of what a head wound felt like from two lives before. Now a darker, more jagged more stained the skin of his throat. Casey shrugged and dressed. Still so much to do before he could advance and this time he knew he would make it.

DC-Backstory Piece (EoA Cowboys)

DC walked forward, holding his stare as she planted each foot heel to toe. Metal pressed into her forehead and she stopped, the muzzle of the revolver now filled her vision and the lingering stench of gunpowder muffled her senses. "I deserve this." She told him, "So I won't fight you. I know I deserve it. I've done horrible things, so many horrible things--some I remember through the eyes of another. It didn't feel like me, but it was. I cannot deny them, so I claim them." She forced each muscle to loosen, never lowering her eyes, "I became what they made me. A robot. A killer. The Heartless. Carnage. The Plague. Queen Death. I earned every name they gave me twice over or more. Not wholly by choice. I chose this life, not this path. I am what they made me. Exonerated of fear, mercy and free will. Just as I earned every ounce of self-loathing when I looked in the mirror. So did you. You are no different than I. They made you into a beast, just as they made me. So if you are going to shoot me, shoot me now. I deserve it. Just know that we are the same."

He watched her for a moment, then drew back his hand, "You can fight this demon, Deirdre, I cannot." He put the revolver to his temple and pulled the trigger. The world exploded. He exploded. Skin. Bone. Brain. Blood. He crumbled. She took a breath, swallowed. Recomposed. Then, steadier than before, DC reached up and wiped a mixture of blood, brain matter and bone from her face and turned away from the body on the floor.

As she turned she saw Raja in the corner, her daughter, still so small, looked back and forth between DC and the body again and again. Then, quietly, she asked, "Mommy, who was that?"

DC shrugged and kept walking past the girl, "Your father." She answered, and left the girl in the room with the body.

Avendeo (Tentative Welcome Speech P. 1)

A few words, if I may, about Avendeo. This is not your crack dealer's prison. Solitary confinement is not a punishment, it is a requirement. There is no such thing as protective custody or parole. We don't have 23hr lockdown because these shitbags never see the light of day. We house convicts. Don't let any of these guys fool you, they deserve to be here.
None of these guys are new to prison. They are old-timers, every last one of them and they sure as hell know they signed up for the long haul.
At Avendeo there are no suicide watches because we don't care if they live or die. The ACLU and ACA accreditation are meaningless here. If you worked at another prison before this get all of that out of your head. These guys don't have human rights, they don't officially exist. All that red tape and bull shit doesn't apply.
We believe in hand grenades over hand cuffs not hugs. Feelings, fears--all of that gets left outside the door. Your god gets left at the door. There is no room for religion in this place. Don't like it? Don't stay.
There has been a saying tossed around in our line of work for years now, "Abandon all hope, for your gods have abandoned you." We take that to heart here at Avendeo, and we add a little piece of our own: We are the gods now.
You are these convicts gods and you better control these shitbags lives because they will control you. Given the chance they will kill you, so kill them first.
Don't get all up in their emotions asking about their day and sneaking letters out to their mom. Their mom thinks that they are dead. It is better that way.
You are soldiers, not weak little civilians, it will do you well to remember that.