Why They Fight

Why They Fight

S I X S I X E S by Adam J. Whitlatch

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The following pieces are based on Adam J. Whitlatch’s science fiction novel E.R.A. - Earth Realm Army, a story chronicling the early life of Alex Walker (and the guardians who fight beside him) as he prepares to face his enemy, Temüjin, in the coming Millennium War.



C O N T E N T S

I Alexander …… 7

II Moe …… 8

III Cherry …… 9

IV Lamont …… 10 V Mac & Chance …… 12

VI Samrai …… 14

About the Author …… 15



I Alexander Imagine that everything you ever knew about your life was a lie; nothing, not even your species was what you had been raised to believe. I was bred in a laboratory over five hundred light years away for a single purpose… War. But that isn't why I fight… I fight because this is my home, and we humans didn't start this war - a war waged between two rival alien regimes using humans as living chess pieces. We didn't ask for this - my parents… my girlfriend, Crystal… my classmates… me… you, but if it's a war they want, then it's a war I intend to give them. I personally stand between every man, woman, and child on this planet and certain global genocide. My name is Alex Walker, and this is why I fight.


II Moe Combat - it's all I know, programmed before birth to be the perfect soldier and assassin. I cannot enter any room without assessing its tactical advantages or disadvantages, analyzing the angles, noting the locations of the exits; I can't help it… it's what I'm programmed to do. But this isn't what drives me. Duty… honor… call it whatever you want; I call it "the right thing to do." I simply cannot stand idly by while innocent people are gunned down by the Horde's marching death machines, or kidnapped to cosmic eugenics laboratories to be made into guinea pigs for the Tobin's sick experiments. My name is Moe… this is why I fight.


III Cherry Have you ever felt completely and utterly alone? I have - that's how I felt the day my government abandoned me and left me to the perverted ambitions of the gray-skinned Tobin on that scorching planet orbiting Zeta Reticuli. I spent the next five years in agony, poked and prodded and probed until every inch of my body had been violated by alien fingers. I have been raped, in every possible sense of the word. But then I met Chance, and Mac, and Ian, and I was no longer alone, not simply some cosmic castaway… we became a family, and we vowed revenge for what the Tobin had done to us. My name is Dr. Cheryl Sadler, formerly of the United States Air Force, and this is why I fight.


IV Lamont You could say it's the medic in me, that unflinching desire to help people. True, I was programmed that way, but even a Replodian has a soul. I came to this planet expecting to serve some battle-hardened general only to find a lost, confused young boy screaming at the rain to silence the swarm of voices inside his head… I was one of those voices, one of three guardians charged with protecting and preparing him for that coming day when this war would finally begin. I've seen so much suffering during these past


three years, more than any man should have to look upon. Every day I thank God, or whatever force is out there presiding over this universe that I have no memory of my previous lives in the employ of the Replodians, because if my fears are correct… I may have caused more suffering than I can possibly imagine, enough that no amount of prayer or penance can wash away the blood staining my hands. I am Lamont… this is why I fight.


V Mac & Chance They say that old soldiers never die… well in our case that's certainly true; we first met on a battlefield near Sharpsburg, Maryland on September 17th in the Year of Our Lord 1862… you may have heard of it: The Battle of Antietam. I had already seen more than my fair share of battles… Culloden… Waterloo… Bunker Hill… but Chance Boudreaux was just a farm boy from Louisiana when I found him broken and bleeding that day, his Confederate grays stained with blood and mud. I remember his tears, his pleas of "Help


me" and "What is happening to me?" I could have run him through with my bayonet, but instead I offered him my hand, and Chance Boudreaux lived to fight another day - St. Mihiel… Omaha Beach… Saigon. We've heard the promise of "the war to end all wars" before, and every time we charge blindly forward, hoping that this time they might be right, but for Methuselans like us the fight is never over. My name is Robert MacNeil… and for my friend Chance Boudreaux and I, this is why we fight.


VI Samrai I build things - I'm an engineer - but if my mission in life is to create then why is it that all I seem to be able to do is destroy? Why does everything I touch crumble and turn to ash? I am the one responsible for the legions of metal death machines marching across the land. I alone am responsible for giving the greatest enemy humanity has ever known the power to plunder and destroy, to bring the world to its knees, and only I can turn the tide… I must make amends for what I've done, but do I do it for the mission, the children, or for my own selfish vengeance? Fuck it… sort it out later; right now I have work to do. My name is Sam… this is why I fight.


About the Author

Adam J. Whitlatch’s short fiction has appeared in Six Sentences, Volume 1, New Voices in Horror, Northern Haunts: 100 Terrifying New England Tales, and the upcoming anthologies Six Sentences, Volume 2 and Dead Science. He lives in southern Iowa with his wife, Jessica, and their two children.

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Why They Fight