[Vfw-times] Story: Logs of a Wanderer 2/6

[Jason]

The Dark Side
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Log Entry 0002
Begin Recording.

Now, where was I? Ah, yes.

It was shortly after my group was moved from the academy to Luna Base for
our military training that the scientists who created me learned that their
conclusions about my dislike of violence were as wrong as snow in 40°
Celsius weather in the middle of a dessert.

I guess I should tell you about Luna Base. It was originally constructed as
a research facility back during Earth's probationary period as a
Commonwealth member. Soon after, however, the CDF took over, as the base was
perfect for training soldiers. With variable gravity present in all parts of
the base, you could go from half a G to 3 G's with only a few steps. The
addition of holographic training facilities made it even more important, and
it soon became the main training facility for ALL the CDF's troopers.
Anyways, I'm getting a bit off track here.

It started with the combat training. Nobody, not even the instructors, could
lay a hand on me. Any match, even three on one, I was victorious. Unarmed,
basic armed (martial arts weapons), any type of combat that involved getting
near your opponent to hit them, nobody could defeat me. And that wasn't what
scared them the most. I seemed to become cold and particularly vicious when
fighting. Some of the Gen 4's who had come up to Luna Base with me remarked
that it was like seeing a different person wearing my body. Then came
training with firearms.
Yep, you guessed it. I beat everyone hands down. And the same coldness took
over me, others said. But, when you can take two heavy automatic weapons and
put thirty rounds from each into the same spot on a target at maximum range,
at the same time, oddities like what happened to me were overlooked. Big
mistake on their part.

I still didn't feel any different when this coldness took over. I'd even
arranged a signal with my training team so that they could alert me when it
happened, so that I might be able to notice what seemed different to me. The
only change I noticed was that I didn't feel anything when I hurt someone,
even accidentally, or scored a nearly impossible kill shot on the firing
range. Frankly, I was getting scared by then. And then, the incident that
changed everything.

It happened during a combat simulation. Luckily, the CDF uses holographic
technology to simulate enemy soldiers during these simulations, or the
outcome could've been much worse.

The combat sim was of a battle for a planet our side had recently liberated.
It had been a colony world of the Volgans, a species that looks like
anthromorphic foxes. They're one of the more peaceful races in the
Commonwealth, producing some of the best engineers and inventors this side
of the galactic core. Because of the lush jungle on the planet, and the
difficulties this terrain possessed, the entire battleground had been
scanned into the holographic databases, for use in training us green
recruits.

This run, I'd drawn the job of scouting the path, and pinpointing enemy
locations, something I was rather good at, if I do say so myself. So, there
I was, crawling through a jungle so realistic I forgot it was nothing more
than a hologram, scouting out a village in preparation for my squad to move
in an clear out the civilians believed to be still present. What I saw next
shocked me to the bone. An enemy soldier, one of the standard units the
"Masters" produced known as Grunts, was preparing to execute a group of
"civilians", all of them female or children. I just snapped.

Looking back, I still can't believe what I did. Moving faster than I ever
had before, I jumped out from under cover, racing forwards, and snapping off
two shots from my pulse rifle. One shot hit the enemy soldier in the leg,
and the other blew the gun right out of its hand. And then I was close
enough to grab it. All I remember after that was a red haze clouding my
vision, but the video of what happened chills me to the bone. I started with
a roundhouse kick, then grabbed the Grunt by the arms, and proceeded to rip
its arms right off. Yes, that's right, ripped its arms right out of its
body. Following that, I grabbed the Grunts head, and twisted, rotating it
360 degrees, and killing it. Then, and this is the worst part, I proceeded
to tear the remains of the Grunt into pieces.

As I regained my senses, I heard the sim commander calling for a halt, and
looked down to see myself covered in simulated gore. My squad was standing
at the outskirts of the "village", looking at me in horror. I didn't find
out what had happened until the debriefing that followed immediately after
we had exited the holodome. The video of my actions spoke for itself. Even
our commanding officer, a battle veteran, turned green at the sight of what
I did to that Grunt. And the worst part was, not only did I not remember
doing that, but I actually felt good at seeing me rip another life form to
shreds.
I did the only thing I could in that situation. I passed out.

End Recording.
Log Entry 0002 closed.