UTN Personal Log - Amelia Terranova - UTN Marine Recruit - Raxus Orbital Station
"Welp. Basic is done, thank God for that. Whole thing was an absolute shit show, and not for the reasons you'd think.
Say what you will about the government, they sure know how to run a recruitment drive. Last time I saw the Raxus boot camp, it was barely half the size it is now, and that's if I ignore the temporary structures that nearly double the whole place again. Then multiply this gain across all of the 5 or so permanent boot camps and you get a LOT of recruits signing up to 'do their part'.
Unfortunately, for every recruit who wants to do their duty in protecting the colonies, you get one lazy bum who thinks this is a free ticket to a job (its not), one scared kid who gets pushed into this by their parents who think this will 'toughen them up' (it won't), and one piece of shit who thinks that 'Navy personnel' is synonymous with 'can kill/extort/smuggle/be a massive xenophobe whenever they want' (it ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ISN'T). Luckily, most of them got weeded out within the first month or two, and it was bloody satisfying to see people get brigged because they think being in Basic gives you a free pass to grope civvies.
Anyways, the graduation ceremony is in a few days. Once that's over and done with, I'm getting shipped off to who knows where. Hopefully I'm not assigned to somewhere I can actually make a difference, and not to some crappy honour guard duty for VIPs who have a complete lack of knowledge on the difference between 'solid tactical decision' and 'idiotic suicide tactic'.
UTN Personal Log - Amelia Terranova - AECC Trainee - En route to Anvil Dark Training Facility
Wow. Yesterday did not go as planned. Like, at all.
So there I was, waiting for my assignment, praying my job wouldn't be to extract Very Impatient Pricks from situations they put themselves into, when this guy in a well-done uniform walks up to me and and starts asking me about my time in Basic. Now although we don't have the best counterintelligence measures (that award goes to basically every hivemind ever), somebody randomly walking up to you and asking about military shit is less 'complex infiltration technique' and more 'something both the spy and the target knows is a bad idea through sheer common sense'. Naturally, most of the questions were met with some degree of 'fuck off', until the man introduced himself.
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He was a fucking Envoy. One of the most prestigious races of the Congregation. And I'd just told him to go fuck themself (something they actually could do).
Lucky for me, they thought it was funny, and I'd apparently giveny a better response than most people they asked. Of the 50-something people that they talked with, literally half of them just spilled everything to try and impress them enough to get a date, or, as one of them put it, to "get some sweet xeno lovin'!".
I'm not sure what's worse; the fact that people would do that in the first place, or the fact that I instantly believed that when they told me.
Right, back to the point. Now that I knew I was talking the xeno equivalent of a four-star, I immediately started paying more attention. Most of the questions were simple stuff on my opinion of basic and the UTN, but the last one actually made me stop and think.
"Why do you fight?"
Once I gave my answer to that absolute curveball of a question, the Envoy said I should 'record it so future generations of soldiers may benefit from your wisdom', and offered me a place in THE All Environment Combat Corp. Literally the most prestigious special forces unit in all of known space (and one of the only multispecies ones). And I, a fresh and green recruit, was getting a ticket.
And now here I am, on a ship to who knows fucking where. Whatever they saw in me, it was enough to get fast tracked though practically my entire career as a marine in a matter of days. Most people would be fucking terrified, or denied the offer outright, but not me. If the Envoy thought I would be a good fit for this, then I'm going to live up to it.
Oh, almost forgot. I recorded my answer to their question. I'll just attach it here. Probably the most philosophical I've ever been, but standing in front of an commander that could probably wipe out all humanity if they felt like it can do that to a person.
[1 ATTACHMENT (AUDIO FILE). PLAY?]
"Why do I fight? That's tough. I want to help the UTC of course, but so does everybody else. I know some recruit who want to fight pirates, or run security for the colonies, or even be an intel analyst behind a desk somewhere. I've never really thought about it though. I'm not really predisposed towards any particular duty, I just want to do my duty, y'know? I think... I think that the reason I don't really care is that all of those jobs are essentially the same thing: protecting people. Protecting shippers from the pirates that would take their cargo and leave them to die. Guarding the colonists from animals that would slaughter them. Even analysts have their piece, they make protecting everybody in the field even easier. There are so many options for me, but at the end of the day? I just want to be the person who people can feel safe around, because the know I'll do my best to prevent anything that may come after them."