-- Title -- Mars Storm

-- Author -- Crimson Masked Reaper

==--//

Year : 2045 A.D

Day/Month : 14th, January

Dear sister,

Battles raged on, once again this land is in turmoil and havoc. I don't know how many years I've been here, I've lost count, yet I can remember when I had left. I hope mother and father are well as of now, out of harms way and I hope they've been giving you a lot of attention. You'll need it while I'm gone, I bet. Commander Savage has given word that the rebels are becoming more restless by the hours, I just hope I don't have to kill anyone. Oh, but in war you -have- to defend yourself. Either you or them, is what I always say and it's a true statement. I've killed a bug while sitting here writing to you, that's one slash in my kills book. Sorry, I shouldn't be joking around at a time like this when this could be the only thing shipped back to you from this planet and I'd rather not have it filled with puns. There has been talk that there are spies around and I'm becoming restless as are the rebels, I don't know how long I've been sitting awake. Maybe I'm becoming paranoid and poised for action, or maybe it's just my sanity leaving me. Insomnia seems like the only reason for this, you know how I used to stay awake all night and just stare blankly at the white walls of my room. You thought I had lost my mind then, but no. The war keeps me awake 24 hours a day and I have had only two hours total of sleep this week. Well, I should be getting my hour of sleep in, sorry this isn't as long as the rest of the letters in this journal. Yet, I don't think it will be the shortest. Goodnight.

==--

Colonel Case closed her book and leaned back in her hammock. She sighed and glanced out the mesh window. "Tiresome....alone. My mind is slowly depleting at this time of war," she muttered to herself.

"You can't really say that, Case. You're just homesick, I was like that last year," Case's tentmate Martha said with a broad smile.

"How many years has it been since we were sent to Mars?"

"Nearly five now, gonna be six at the end of next week."

Case closed her eyes and they opened suddenly, like a spring was attached to her eyelids and wouldn't dare let her close her eyes. "I think I do have insomnia, Martha. I'm not at all homesick, my sister had just turned twelve yesterday and I couldn't be there for it."

Martha chuckled. "Tomorrow is my husband's birthday, Yet this is the fifth one I've missed. You left when your sister was only seven or six, didn't you?"

"Yes, I wish I hadn't though. I miss her the most."

Martha nodded and closed her eyes as she turned over onto her side. "Well, get some sleep. We head out tomorrow under Savage's orders," she yawned.

Case glanced out the window and watched as a young man walked over to a small fire where he rubbed his hands to get them warm. She slipped out of bed and exited the tent. "You can't get to sleep either?" She asked before she settled down across the fire.

The young man glanced up at her and then back to the fire. "No, it's not that. I slept earlier and now I'm wide awake. Why can't you sleep? Nervous?" He inquired.

"I wish it was that. No, I just can't sleep is all."

"I know how it is, believe me. I stayed awake for hours on end and then I realized something. Who would miss me if I died? Do I have anything to go back to when this war is over? What does it matter if I am wide awake and ready to battle when I could just be killed?"

Case shrugged. "Aren't you afraid of dying?" She asked.

"Nope, I'm not afraid of it. I don't really care if I live or die because I have nothing to go back to. What if we lose this war? We'll most likely be enslaved by those rebels or killed, so I'd better get my rest now so I can be wide awake when they torture me," he replied.

"Wouldn't you want to feel nothing?"

He looked at her again and reclined in the fold out chair he had sat in. "I want to feel it so I can realize that this war is a bunch of bullshit, just something to do until Earth is the most powerful planet in the Universe. Our planet is suffocating the others, they just retaliate because we are a bunch of assholes with supreme technology. Now we find out that Mars and who knows what other planet equals us and we want to stomp out the competition," he sneered.

"How can you say that about Earth?"

"I'm just stating the truth, you know it's true, Case."

Case leaned forward on her knees and stared into the fire. "Maybe it's true...maybe it's not. Who are we to decide for the whole Earth?" She asked in a mere whisper and looked at the young man," I never knew you thought this way, Savage."

Savage smiled and shrugged. "I'm just in this because the Earth thinks I'm some elite fighting force, I'm nothing more than a human being. I'm young, muscle bound and fast. That is all Earth looks for in it's fighters and it also looks for combat skill. I've had my hard knocks, sent to jail for twenty years for my actions and killing in cold blood. Now, surprisingly, I'm a commander of an army of human beings who have different purposes. You, what is your purpose here?" He asked.

"I don't know why I am, maybe I wanted to protect my family."

"You are married?"

"No no, I have a sister who I love to death. I don't really relate to my parents that well because their strict, iron grip images. Besides, being only eighteen I'm not looking to be married anytime soon."

Savage nodded and gazed into the fire. "Women think of me as a man who would most likely just have a one night stand with. I'm not at all bothered by those thoughts. Twenty four years old and a criminal record. Isn't it a turn on?"

Case smiled and looked at Savage. He was a handsome man. Broad shouldered, rugged look to him and a stern stare which seethed with order. His eyes were navy blue and his hair black, cut short and worn dry all the time. Unless he had trained, then it would be saturated with sweat and he didn't look at all twenty four. Case looked up to him as an older brother and also a wise older man with wisdom beyond that of her father's. "Women like men who are truthful and wholesome, maybe the criminal record scares them," Case replied.

Savage looked at Case. He had formed a thing for this 5'6, brunette and mysterious woman. Her hazel eyes didn't tell much about her, but he found that she had a lot to say despite being quiet at most formal meetings and he had formed a sort of crush. He also had found she was very bright and could carry on a conversation about anything for any amount of time. He respected and thought highly of her. "Oh well, they can just shove it up their asses," Savage muttered and spit into the fire.

Case smiled and stood up. "Well, I think I can sleep now. See you early in the morning, sir."

"Yeah."

She walked away and Savage looked up at the red sky. "Mars," he murmered and kicked sand over the fire.

====

to be continued....

so, how was it? Plz, no flames.